If you’re in business, particularly B2B, and only participate in one social media platform, LinkedIn is the place to be. Here’s why LinkedIn should play an integral role in your personal brand as well as your company brand. [Read more…]
Balancing Risk and Innovation for Market Success
Business owners tend to be conservative, particularly where innovation is concerned. Why should you encourage innovation with its inherent risks?
According to the National Center for the Middle Market, significant innovation in the form of new products, services or processes provides significantly greater rewards:
“… companies that invested in new knowledge in existing markets reported an average initial investment of $1.6 million with a return of $5.2 million in revenues and $2.7 million in profits for their last completed innovation project. Per dollar invested, that’s 100% more revenue and 125% more profit than companies received when they innovated more conservatively.”
Here are a few tips to help you capture those extra profits. [Read more…]
How To Fire A Relative From The Family Business
Few things are harder to manage in a family business than the need to part ways with an underperforming relative. However, for the business to thrive, you must address all poorly performing employees, including those you see at the Thanksgiving table.
Maybe your great aunt really needs to retire so you can upgrade the accounting system. Maybe your niece is an entitled, lazy jerk. Maybe your brother needs to fulfill his dream of starting a different kind of business.
Regardless of the circumstances, here are five don’ts to follow when it comes time to separate a family member from the family business. [Read more…]
5 Essential Tasks for Your Corporate Website
The company website, while far from a new-fangled thing, still gets treated by many business owners like an annoying brochure – not worth their attention and finished when launched. This could be one of the biggest marketing mistakes made by small-to-medium sized businesses.
A static, unprofessional website doesn’t work as hard for your company as it can and should, nor does it provide return on your investment.
To find out if your corporate website is working as hard as it should, ask yourself if your site performs these five essential tasks: [Read more…]
Business Owner Tech Tips for Productivity
Technology can offer the middle-market company some distinct competitive advantages. Particularly if growth has stalled or profits are down, technology can help business owners see how systems are really working, or not. After all, processes and procedures that worked when you were a $10 million company probably need to change as you grow into a $50 million or $250 million outfit.
By drilling down to the facts, executives can lead process improvement, eliminate waste or capture efficiency. Thoughtful re-engineering through technology can help your teams do more with less or work smarter. So how do you do that? [Read more…]