Biz News

In a year when many small businesses are struggling, making sales is the shortest path to getting back on track. While most would agree that you have to spend money to make money, many businesses don’t have the option to spend large sums of money at this time.

Instead of stressing about coming up with the funds for a big year-end ad campaign, think outside of the box. Difficult times call for creative solutions, and the right ones can offer big returns without big investments.

Communicate More Efficiently

Before you can get potential customers to sign on, you need to know what they’re thinking. Learning how prospects interact with your business will help you make more effective sales pitches. It may sound difficult, but an easy way to start is by implementing email tracking software.

Email tracking allows you to see who exactly is opening and interacting with your

I have talked about problem solving every day for years and years, working with teams and individuals find solutions that improve their businesses. I like to think I have empathy and value the needs of the people and organizations I work with, taking time to appreciate their experiences, feelings and concerns. Working with people is how we unlock the nuggets that will lead to innovation and solutions to grow the business for years to come. I feel your pain.

The Pain of Problem Solving and Change

As is the norm in all small businesses, recently, I had cause to make changes and improvements within my business. If I am honest, it was a problematic, unsettling and emotional experience. I did all the right things, acknowledged and committed to the need for change, engaged experts for help and welcomed their suggestions rather than responding, ‘yes but.’

Despite all of my great

Every business—large, small, or micro—struggles, at least occasionally, with the challenge of getting paid on time. While larger businesses can easily survive a few late payments, for small businesses, even one late payment can be the difference between ordering new inventory and having empty shelves.

Six Tips to Get Paid Faster

1. Use a professional design

Appearances count in all aspects of running a business, including your invoices. If your invoices look sloppy and unprofessional, clients won’t take you seriously. Your invoices could quickly end up on the bottom of the pile. With today’s technology, there’s no excuse for this. Look for a clean design with a place for your logo and pertinent information.

2. Use familiar language

What is the first thing clients look for when they receive an invoice? They want to know what they’re being invoiced for. If it’s at all unclear, you can be sure the

Prices can make or break a business, and deciding what to charge for a particular good or service can depend on a lot of variables. Finding the “sweet spot” for your pricing takes a bit of market research and a lot of trial and error, especially for new entrepreneurs. Sometimes your approach to pricing structure can even change over time, evolving to account for further information you may learn in your journey as a business owner. That’s why we asked 12 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

“What’s one consideration you make when deciding on the pricing structure (and actual price) for your product or service, and how has it changed from when you just started out?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say.

1. Per-Unit Costs

“When I started out, I’d take a look at my competition and ballpark my pricing structure from there. Nowadays, I

Many small business owners need a practical problem-solving tips they can apply to the issues created by COVID-19, and to facilitate business growth, in general. The bad news is, many employees don’t have the required core problem-solving or innovation skills. The numbers, in the Hays New Era of Work Report 2020, only 38% of employers currently have access to the right skills to enable them to meet the objectives, 15% are seeing a shortage.

Solution: Recruit

If the skills are missing internally, why not just recruit? Good question, given the current economic climate, budgets may not allow for this. But if they did, problem-solving skills are also missing on the outside as well.

Lack of problem solving is a big problem. Ask Google. As it happens, thousands of people do, common Google searches are:

• How can I improve my problem-solving skills?
• Problem-solving techniques
• How to improve business performance?
• How

Growth predictions of industries around the world have taken a step back due to the dire COVID-19 pandemic; the printing industry was not spared. According to the Printing United Alliance Survey of the Printing Industries of the USA alone, the first quarter of 2020 observed a contraction of 4.9%. The contraction of the printing industry in the second quarter was around 25%.

These contractions were observed because businesses around the country were shut down; there is also a significant reduction in the promotional events as outdoor promotions and events have come to a hold. Apart from that, enterprises and corporations around the world have adopted remote working strategies. Because of that, there has been an encouragement in the paperless communications.

But the world is adapting to the new normal and so is the printing industry. To pick up pace and come out of the contraction in the second innings