As an entrepreneur, you’re well aware that even a solid business plan and a great product won’t protect you completely from unexpected downturns. Markets change, your costs can rise — and suddenly, you’re struggling to meet your obligations. This is when you may start noticing sales pitches from companies that offer a quick and easy solution to your stress. Here’s … Read More
Why a Branded Email Domain is Critical for Your Small Business
Chances are, you probably have a Gmail account. Yourname@gmail.com, right? Now, this is all well and good—perfect for emailing your friends, connecting to your Facebook account and signing up for promotional offers. But, it’s not really the appropriate communications channel for small business inquiries. For starters, your email address makes more of an impression than you might imagine. For example, … Read More
Three Things Every Business Owner should Know about Digital Marketing
Much has been written about how small business can leverage digital tools and channels to communicate with customers and introduce the world to their brand. This short blog post isn’t meant to be a comprehensive study in digital, but can point out three critical items no business should ignore. Be Found Easily Content is King … Read More
5 Reasons Why Most Small Businesses Fail
The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that 20.6 percent of businesses fail by year two, 30.7 percent by year three, 38.1 percent by year four, and 43.7 percent by year five. Pride can often cause emotional decisions that can be detrimental to the company’s success. But it is more than just pride that causes a small business to fail. Entrepreneurs … Read More
How to Set Up Credit Card Payments for Your Small Business
While we don’t yet live in a cashless society, we are certainly on our way there. Credit cards heralded the beginning of the cashless revolution, with fast, secure and convenient digital payments following closely on their tails. For a small business looking to make money in store and online, the ability to accept credit card payments is essential. But how … Read More
Why You Shouldn’t Pay for ‘Debt Relief’
As an entrepreneur, you’re well aware that even a solid business plan and a great product won’t protect you completely from unexpected downturns. Markets change, your costs can rise — and suddenly, you’re struggling to meet your obligations. This is when you may start noticing sales pitches from companies that offer a quick and easy solution to your stress. Here’s … Read More
How to Make Current Employees Brand Advocates
A business’s best untapped resource for its brand is its own employees. They make up the faces that customers associate with a brand, whether negatively or positively. So, businesses should put their employees at the forefront of satisfaction efforts so they will want to become brand advocates. Build Brand Loyalty Building brand loyalty among employees isn’t an easy task and … Read More
Small Yet Responsible – Corporate Social Responsibility in Small Business
One of the ways you can demonstrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an established small business owner is to utilize a business loan in a way that benefits your community. For example, if you are in the food service business and receive funding for your restaurant, it is fine to share with your lender that you are using the loan … Read More
Closing the books on 2016
Many trends are poised to affect small businesses in 2017. We highlight a few in our year-end message.
Employee training enables growth, but is it a good investment for your capital advance?
Growing your small business is essential to the long-term health of your business, and many small business owners turn to capital advance as a way to unlock cash to fund that growth. In this post we ask, is employee training and development a good investment for your advance?