Category: business

  • 3 Key Traits of Every Successful Salesperson

    Take a mental snapshot of your sales staff. Do only a few of its members consistently bring in high volumes of good margin sales? An old rule of thumb says that about 20% of salespeople will make 80% of sales; in other words, everyone’s not going to be a superstar. However, you can create performance…

  • Laptop Battery Safety is No Laughing Matter

    You’d be hard pressed to find a business today that doesn’t have laptop computers listed among its assets. Large companies have hundreds of them; midsize ones issue them to managers to facilitate mobility; and many small businesses rely on them as primary computing devices. Now, in and of itself, a laptop may seem harmless. But…

  • For Best Results, Start Your Strategic Planning Early

    Time flies when you’re having fun — and running a business. Although it’s probably too early to start chilling a bottle of bubbly for New Year’s Eve, it’s certainly not too early for business owners to start doing some strategic planning for next year. Here are some ways to get started. Begin with your financials…

  • How to Research a Business Customer’s Creditworthiness

    Extending credit to business customers can be an effective way to build goodwill and nurture long-term buyers. But if you extend customer credit, it also brings sizable financial risk to your business, as cash flow could grind to a halt if these customers don’t make their payments. Even worse, they could declare bankruptcy and bow…

  • Does Your Team Know the Profitability Game Plan?

    Autumn brings falling leaves and … the gridiron. Football teams — from high school to pro — are trying to put as many wins on the board as possible to make this season a special one. For business owners, sports can highlight important lessons about profitability. One in particular is that you and your coaches…

  • 4 Tough Questions to Ask about Your Sales Department

    Among the fastest ways for a business to fail is because of mismanagement or malfeasance by ownership. On the other hand, among the slowest ways is an ineffective or dysfunctional sales department. Companies suffering from this malady may maintain just enough sales to stay afloat for a while, but eventually they go under because they…

  • Some Business Owners Can’t Participate in Their Own Companies’ HRAs

    Many companies now offer Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) in conjunction with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs). HRAs offer some advantages over the perhaps better-known HDHP companion account, the Health Savings Account (HSA). If you’re considering adding an HRA, you might assume that, as a business owner, you can participate in the HRA. But this may not…

  • Putting Together the Succession Planning and Retirement Planning Puzzle

    Everyone needs to plan for retirement. But as a business owner, you face a distinctive challenge in that you must save for your golden years while also creating, updating and eventually executing a succession plan. This is no easy task, but you can put the puzzle pieces together by answering some fundamental questions: When do…

  • Is your accounting software living up to the hype?

    Accounting software typically sells itself as much more than simple spreadsheet or ledger. The products tend to pride themselves on being comprehensive accounting information systems — depending on the price point, of course. So, is your accounting software living up to the hype? If not, there are a couple of relatively simple steps you can…

  • The 1-2-3 of B2B marketing

    Does your business market its products or services to other companies? Or might it start doing so in the future? If so, it’s critical to recognize the key differences between marketing to the public — or even certain segments of the public — and business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Whereas wide-scale marketing campaigns generally need to be…