Budgeting is important in regards to your finances. Even if you love to travel budgeting should be your first concern. You will have to budget your travel before actually going on a trip so that you can spend your vacation free of stress. You might not even want to deal with debts and go bankrupt after spending a gala time with your family or friends at a totally different and beautiful place. So, what you need to do is plan your vacations and then budget. Planning and budgeting in advance Plan where you want to travel and for how many…

It is almost strange in these days of wide spread smart phone adoption that we are talking about this because some days, it seems to me everyone is ‘mobile’. Yet, judging from the questions and comments we receive, I am proved wrong and so I’d like to share some thoughts on how I made gradual changes to my business so now, I no longer have to be in my office and at my desk all day long if I choose. Before going too far I must say that not all businesses or entrepreneurs require, want or can be mobile. If…

Wake up! It’s 2011 — If you’re a professional in any field, you need to be doing social media. If you aren’t connected, the world is completely blind to you. But there is an inherent problem with maintaining a professional social media presence, and it stems from social networking’s humble beginnings. Most people began doing social media as a personal hobby, connecting with friends, family, and having care-free fun on their networks of choice. Once you establish a new, separate professional account for yourself or your business, it’s an entirely new game. How should you differentiate between your two online…

If you are starting off a small business or are in need of finances to boost up your small business, then you would need to take the help of small business loans. A small business is a business that is restricted to only a few individuals. It is not even listed and does not need the amount of finance that would go into running a big business. In order to fulfill the finance needs of your small business you would need to take out loans. However, it is important for you to know that most investors would not like to…

Businesses don’t come with owner’s manuals, you have to write your own. As you might imagine, the unfamiliar challenges you face as a business owner are yours and yours alone to grapple with. While every business will face its own unique hurdles, there are several mistakes that seem to crop up for the majority of new executives. To avoid the most severe errors, please be on the look out for the following mistakes. Not Knowing Your Target Market A shocking number of businesses cannot articulate in a few sentences who their typical customer is. The common characteristics and personality types…

Lately I’ve been listening to so-called marketing experts touting the values of online marketing as opposed to offline marketing. In defence of their position, they describe traditional marketing channels as the old and tired channels. Using survey results, they boast the participation numbers of social media. One speaker, compared these numbers against the fact that most advertising money is still spent on traditional media, and this choice was proof that business just isn’t getting it. My opinion is that these experts are absolutely misguided in their stance that media channels should be one or the other. All or none. One…

Small businesses have enough on their plate at the moment simply making ends meet. As a result of the economic downturn and reduced consumer confidence there is just less and less money to go around. In these times of squeezing personal budgets and the resultant squeeze upon your business, you may not have considered the potential power of your business website to help address the problem. Your online presence Do you have a commercial website for your business? For those that do have a fully functional business website, does it attract visitors which subsequently turn into customers? The fact is…

Gift certificates are a great way to make more sales and increase customer loyalty for your business. The returns on investment can be great provided you focus on effective marketing strategies. First, let’s review what benefits a sensible gift certificate marketing strategy should bring you: Increase sales Gift certificates work. They help you make more sales by reaching new customers, and they will also increase your sales for other reasons: indeed, most customers will spend more than face value of the card (on average, 20 percent more). A minority (about 10 percent) will use only part of the certificate’s value,…

It takes a lot to run a successful business—hard work, dedication, patience, and vision, to name a few. But in order to keep your business healthy, you need to be in good shape yourself. Your health is just as important to your business as any of the tasks you perform each day—perhaps even more so. But in today’s business world, who has time to take care of their health? It’s easier to grab fast food than to prepare healthy meals, easier to sleep in than to exercise and easier to work late than to make time for relaxation. But a…

One of my clients is having new signage put in front of their manufacturing facility. They’ve had three sign contractors bid and present concepts as to how the brand image will be applied. I was amazed at how little effort was placed on maintaining the integrity of the logo. To make it fit they broke it apart and grouped them differently. When asked for my input I quickly told them that following our brand standards manual would set the contractors straight as to how the logo was to be used. These contractors broke all our rules. My client was being…