The Talkroute Blog

There are many positives that come along with running your own business. You can make your own schedule. You make all the decisions about how to spend your revenue. On the flip side, making all the decisions all the time can feel overwhelming and stressful. It’s important to develop the tools to handle stress and anxiety as a business owner. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that 70% of adults encounter stress or anxiety every day. Most of these adults say the stress interferes with their lives. Similarly, most business owners would likely report that stress has a negative impact. The problem with being afflicted with burnout when you’re a business owner is that you can’t exactly stop and smell the flowers for a while, and then come back when you’re refreshed and re-centered. The business isn’t going to slow down for you, and neither is the workload. …

Teleworking became one of the most common ways that businesses have dealt with the current coronavirus pandemic. Before COVID-19, about 18% of the workforce worked remotely full-time. In May of 2020, during the height of the lockdown orders, about 35% of employees worked from home. As local & state governments began easing restrictions, businesses started bringing employees back to the offices to get things back up and running again. Well over a year later, close to 25% of workers still telework. So is it a viable long-term solution or simply a short-term answer for dealing with the pandemic? To answer this question, we need to take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking for small businesses. Why Continue Teleworking After the Pandemic?     Teleworking provides a way to keep employees safe but it comes with limitations. Some businesses have struggled to replace in-person communications with remote …

More than a year after the start of the pandemic, millions of people are still teleworking. Remote work offers a variety of advantages. It allows people to avoid close contact. It also tends to boost productivity. Unfortunately, telework also comes with a few challenges, including burnout. Depending on the type of job, working from home can provide more freedom. You may get to set your hours or enjoy a little more schedule flexibility. This is great for some people, but it tends to blur the lines between work and home life. When you struggle to separate work from your personal life, anxiety and stress creep in. In April, about 45% of US workers reported feeling “burnt out.” By July, close to 69% of employees were experiencing symptoms of burnout while working from home. So, how can you maintain a work/life balance when the two are intertwined? Here are seven of …

Right after starting a new small business, funds can be tight. Payroll, office space, taxes, and production can eat into capital. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to have a capital investment. If you are like many entrepreneurs, you’re not worried about investors; you’re bootstrapping your business on a shoe string. There’s no way you have $100,000 lying around to conduct a direct mail campaign (and that’s what it often costs, by the way). Newspaper ads, telemarketing, billboards, and television commercials can also run six figures each. And what’s worse is that newspapers, landlines, and traditional TV are all being replaced by websites, cell phones, and streaming video. Even low-cost awareness-building activities can eat up between $15,000 and $75,000 of your annual budget. For a small business, that’s a lot of money. In this context, marketing or advertising can get short shrift. So what’s a small business owner to do? …

Social media platforms are among the best sources for lead generation and brand awareness. Yet, businesses and entrepreneurs often overlook the value of using them for customer service. Connecting with customers through their preferred communication methods tends to result in greater satisfaction. Most consumers are already using social media to reach out to companies so it’s a no brainer that you should be as well! One study found that about half of all social media users have used these platforms to contact businesses. Whether you are already active & knowledgeable with social media, or you have no idea whatsoever how to navigate it, this article will break down the key things you need to know. So let’s find out how to leverage the power of social media to gain and retain more customers.. Why Use Social Media for Customer Service? Many businesses use email, phone, and online chat to communicate …

  Although getting return customers isn’t rocket science, there is definitely more to it than hanging a sign on the door that says, “Please Come Again!”. We all wish it was obviously that easy, but there are plenty of things you can do to make sure customers happily come back to your business. Here are 11 effective ways to earn repeat business and keep your customers coming back.   1. Earn Repeat Business with a Habit Forming Product   Having an “addictive” product doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be something that people physically crave, or something upon which they are emotionally dependent, like Instagram or Twitter.   It may just be something that is so much fun, that they can’t go a day without it. Maybe you are an online service provider with a user interface that is really simple and fun to use, or maybe your packaging …