How can a small company make the most of LinkedIn?

The social network is an inescapable part of online life for working professionals. But much of the advice on how to leverage it is targeted at big names. Over and over, I see small businesses making mistakes on LinkedIn because they are patterning their strategies after approaches that work for larger companies with huge budgets, lots of brand awareness and extensive social-media systems.

With that in mind, here are tips on how small businesses can use LinkedIn.

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The 2015 tax season is here. Tax planning is a critical part of a small business owners financial plan. The majority of small business owners ignore tax planning; yet good tax advice is a very valuable for a successful business. There are many tax planning strategies available to small business owners. Below are a just a few:

Lowering your tax rate to reduce the amount of taxable income
Taking advantage of available tax credits
Controlling the effects of the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax)

I encourage business owners to work with a competent accountant or CPA on at least a quarterly basis to take full advantage of all the tax provisions that are available.

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Having a small online marketing team doesn’t mean your company can not scale content marketing initiatives. It means you must know what the best strategies are and have your team focus on a few they can do well.

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One of the most valuable possessions that you have is your reputation -- and it is important to guard it at all costs. Profits can be lost and regained, but rebuilding a damaged reputation -- that is far more difficult.

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In the wake of new rules and new attitudes, HR departments changed the talk about equality in pay, hiring, promotions and retention.

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More and more hiring managers no longer view longevity on a résumé as a positive attribute. Some believe it indicates the employee lacks diverse work experience; others that the employee is complacent, or is afraid of change. This could very well be the case, but to me (and I may be coming from an old school of thought), stability on a résumé is something that hiring managers should still value. It can demonstrate loyalty, dependability, expertise and commitment.

More specifically, here is how I evaluate longevity in a potential employee, in an attempt to see if it should be embraced, rather than dismissed.

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The internet is the perfect forum for small businesses to compete with big brands. Audience reach, social sharing and unlimited sales and marketing opportunities have leveled the playing field between big and small companies. Still, a surprising percentage of small businesses have remained on the sidelines. Either they do not have an online marketing strategy, or the one they are using is inadequate, and therefore unsuccessful. So why are some smaller companies not taking full advantage of this potent and indispensable marketing tool?

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Tech startups can help optimize retailers' in-store operations and customer experiences, enabling them to keep up with competition from e-commerce companies. This category includes hardware and software such as sensors that track foot traffic, interactive tablets that boost customer engagement, and mobile point-of-sale applications.

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Chances are, your business goes through a fair amount of paper. Even if you have tried to go paperless or cut back on printing hard copies of documents, you likely have some paper products that need to be disposed of.

But instead of just throwing away all of that paper, your business can recycle it. Recycling paper comes with many potential benefits and is relatively easy. Here are some tips for recycling paper in your small business.

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In other words, small business optimism is mostly a false front, not anything real about how he is expected to affect the economy. There was sort of a pent-up demand to rebound from the unwarranted fall in optimism during 2015, and when you combine that with a lot of support for Trump, you get a spike in reported optimism.

Why Are Small Business Owners So Happy?

Landing a coveted spot on Shark Tank is an entrepreneurs dream. They get the opportunity to pitch their business on national television in front of millions of viewers and several rich and prominent investors.

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According to the Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI), a nonprofit that supports the development of worker co-ops, employee-owned small businesses see an average of 4% to 5% higher productivity levels and more stability and potential for growth. In contrast to traditional businesses, worker co-ops see much lower rates of employee turnover and business closure.

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The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards, designed to ensure businesses which accept and process credit and debit card information, do so in a safe and secure environment.

No matter what industry you operate in or what size business you have, if you accept card payments and process, transmit and store cardholder data, you must host your data securely with a hosting provider that is PCI compliant.

The PCI security Standards Council was formed in 2006 by the five major credit card brands — American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Japanese Credit Bureau (JCB) and Discover. While each credit card brand has its own compliance programs, the PCI standards are the foundation for all of them.

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Leaders of movements--entrepreneurial businesses included--incite followers to believe in a vision, in one another, and in themselves. To amass the power of many, they address the needs and dreams of individuals.

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For most of us, that means establishing a nest egg in the form of an IRA, 401(k), or both. But a large number of small-business owners have a different sort of backup plan for covering the bills in retirement: their businesses.

An estimated 42% of small-business owners say that their businesses will serve as their personal pensions, so to speak, according to data from New York Life. But that's a dangerous proposition in several regards.

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Despite recent stock market turmoil, everywhere you looked this year someone was heralding the strength of the economy, which grew at 3.5 percent in the third quarter. However, not all economic growth favors small businesses, and some even detracts from it. The Inc. Entrepreneurship Index, which measures the quarterly health of the U.S. startup economy, currently sits at 83 out of 100 for the third quarter of 2018. This is down two points from the second quarter and a full nine points from the first quarter of 2017, when our Index peaked. Our indicator sees one factor in particular still dragging like an anchor on the startup economy: job growth.

Even though overall economic conditions have been largely favorable, small businesses have hit a growth ceiling as larger companies--bolstered by generally strong market conditions, favorable tax policies, support from local governments, and easing federal regulations--have been gobbling up talent. This is why, for the past year, the Index has shown a startup economy that is strong but slowing.

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I am pleased to bring you my top five tricks for disconnecting – and at least temporarily escaping the job stress.

1. Make the business case.

Taking time to recharge is not just good for your mental and physical health -- it is the smart thing to do for your business. Studies have shown that increased stress leads to reduced productivity, while decreased stress levels lead to increased productivity.

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Owners of small businesses should consider hiring their children.

A young person whos claimed as a dependent on their parents return can still have $12,000 of wages in 2019 and pay no income tax. The Standard Deduction offsets the wages.

The parents probably provided more than 50 percent of the basic support of the child (housing, food, clothing, medical and transportation expenses). The parents can still claim the exemption for the child, but dependent exemptions are no longer done (allowed). If the child is younger than age 17, the parents do get a Child Tax Credit of $2,000. That credit directly offsets income tax of the parents.

If the business is a sole owner business, a single member LLC or a partnership owned only by the childs parents, there are no payroll taxes for the child or the employer to pay on the wages.

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People have a lot of opinions when it comes to debt and borrowing. At one extreme, some believe that all debt should be avoided and there’s no room for argument on the subject. Others perhaps borrow a little too freely, taking out new financing with little thought about whether doing so will be a benefit or a hindrance in the long term.

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Ask entrepreneurs to name their biggest challenge, and you’ll hear plenty of answers: decision-making, prioritizing, staying positive, maintaining momentum. The list goes on. As you may already know, starting and running a business is not for the faint of heart. Now ask those same entrepreneurs whether they have a framework for managing these challenges, and they might have a tougher time answering.

But what if I told you that there is a school of philosophy dating back to ancient Greece that can help you handle all of these obstacles on a daily basis and, as a bonus, may even enrich your quality of life?

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In our hyperconnected digital world, trade shows can be seen as a bit of a relic, an outmoded business building tool that entrepreneurs shouldn’t waste their time on. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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As the Covid-19 outbreak wreaks havoc on the retail industry, some are asking a curious question, namely: will companies boost their spending on branding in the aftermath the crisis?

What I find strange about this question is the assumption that branding is something you turn on and off, like a light switch; that it is somehow a conscious decision or undertaking that brands embark on as necessary or when it best serves them. I suspect this is because we’ve long confused the concepts of branding and advertising. They are not the same.

Advertising is what a brand says about itself to consumers. Advertising is a conscious effort on the part of a brand to promote itself, its products and its services. Advertising can be bought and sold. Advertising is transactional.

Branding, on the other hand, is a very different thing. Branding is what others think and say about you. And it’s informed by a wide range of inputs, far beyond what a brand says about itself. More critical is what a brand actually does or doesn’t do. Branding reflects the sum total of every organisational action, set against the backdrop of culture, all of which reveals the true character of a company. Branding cannot be bought or sold. Branding is transformational.

Seventeen-year-old Avi Schiffmann is an entrepreneur. But he is a different kind of entrepreneur. He’s not in it for the profits, fame and continued growth opportunities. At least, not right now.

Schiffmann, a high school teenager who lives in Washington State, has attracted worldwide attention through his amazing Survival Rate Calculator website, which tracks critical information related to the coronavirus outbreak. Since launching the site during the early stages of the pandemic, Schiffmann's web crawlers have been configured to pull in, parse and process real time data from the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and other governmental websites and convert that data to show infections, deaths, recoveries and rates of change for all countries around the world. The site breaks down infections on user-friendly maps, provides health information and also attempts to calculate a survival rate of someone who contracts COVID-19, based on user-submitted health data of age, gender and other health factors.

Is the site popular? You bet. According to a profile of Schiffmann on Business Insider, the site attracts about 30 million visitors a day and 700 million total so far.

Unless Congress extends FFCRA past its December 31 deadline or increases the number of weeks past 12, many parents have used up this time anyway. You can not run your business without employees, and employees will find it very difficult to work without schools. And if they extend FFCRA leave, it may help your employees, but your business needs people to run.

Here is something good that has come out of the pandemic. Because people have had fewer buying opportunities, the countrys personal savings rate is the highest it’s been in 30 years. Retail sales have continued to grow and consumer confidence is at a six-month high.

But the biggest impact on the sales of smaller retailers has been online. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, online sales have increased more than 44% compared with the previous year and, as more shutdowns, quarantines and other disruptions potentially loom, many expect this trend to continue. Small retailers in this area know this, and many have been investing heavily in e-commerce to succeed this holiday season.

Pivoting has become one of those hot topics in mainstream business media. When an economic crisis arises, countless think pieces are written about how to pivot your business to respond to the external environment. But pivoting is a huge gamble, requiring deep resources and the ability to fail with minimal consequences (hence why the term is often associated with venture-backed startups). And, one must ask oneself if there’s even a solid reason to pivot.

As a small business owner, while you might feel pressure to look anywhere and everywhere to increase your top line, resist the urge to pivot. Instead, focus on your mission.  

Define your mission
In the college admissions space, disruption is something we are used to. While high-profile recruiting scandals and a renewed focus on racial inequities have dominated headlines recently, a larger cultural shift was quietly occurring.

After the pandemic knocked the wind out of our economy, recovery plans focused mainly on saving existing small businesses rather than breathing life into new ones. Yet entrepreneurship is critical to emerging from the Covid-induced recession. Startups drive almost all net new-job creation. They contribute disproportionately to innovation, breaking new ground while also spurring midsize and large companies to follow suit. And perhaps most important in the current climate, startups are well-positioned to respond to drastic changes in consumer and business behavior, recognizing and acting on opportunities born of adversity.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, student debt reduces the amount of cash avail­able for startups and affects their credit score, making business loans tough to secure. It also renders more daunting the prospect of failure, which increases risk aversion.

Millions of businesses across the country are struggling, yet many are not taking the latest version of government aid: a second round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. This is not happening because businesses are better off than they were last year; it is because the PPP still contains structural blockers that are stopping businesses from obtaining the aid they urgently need.

A recent survey by the Federal Reserve Bank found that 30% of U.S. small businesses — totaling 9 million — fear they will not make it through 2021 without more government assistance. And yet, many are not applying for aid. The Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that seven weeks after round two of PPP began, nearly half the funds remain, and only 31% of 2020 PPP loans have been forgiven to date.

Jeremy Lightsmith recently asked on twitter:

"Why are teams important? I'm looking for an inspired answer."

I don't know about inspired, but here's my thoughts on the topic:

First, I believe teams (true teams, mind you, not simply groups of individuals under single managers) are capable of delivering better results than individuals - this is the economic (and in a business sense the only) justification for teams. If they can't outperform, they probably shouldn't exist.

Much of my thinking on why they can outperform has been deeply influenced by the book: "The Wisdom of Teams" and I won't rehash it here except to say that I believe the key is in the notion of "complimentary skills" - teams are more efficient because rather than having to staff a group of super-humans (you know the kind that typical HR review material seems to want to turn us all into) you can look for how one person's personality and skills work to reinforce and amplify the others.

And that brings me to my most compelling belief of all: It's in our nature. We are social creatures, we need to connect with others, to bond with them, to feel we are working together. Rather than spend our time lamenting our "shortcomings" and worrying about our individual performance (and rewards), forming solid teams means using all of our actual skills as they are to compliment our peers and deliver more than any of us can alone.

People simply work better with a group of people who complete them, whom they feel a deep connection to, whom they trust whom they admire and feel respected by. When you have that, people stop thinking about what's wrong with them, and start thinking about how they can help each other to succeed. And when you have all of that, you have a force to be reckoned with.

Is this easy to accomplish? No - and you need to accomplish all of that (respect, complimentary skills, trust, common goals, acceptance of each other as we are, etc) to achieve a true team. But I am convinced that the payoff for everyone - from the employer to the individuals involved is so worth it, that I won't willingly work any other way - and I reject any "best practices" or conventional wisdom that interferes with achieving that sense of team in the groups I work with.

On the surface there's nothing really special about DateInt.com more commonly referred to as Date International, however it can't be denied that their in-person meet-ups verify their claims of legitimacy. DateInt reviewed

Philosophers ask questions.

Artists interpret questions.

Theologians ignore questions.

Scientists and engineers answer questions.

Geeks do some or all the above.

Everybody else is just a spectator.

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Why is the BBC getting involved in blogging? It's a question that was raised in a session I was running the other day. Followed by the comment: 'Blogging is for amateurs, and provides an easy way for them to put...

The Ezine Acts Blog has complete insights to show you why building is more beneficial than blogging. A blog is just a personal diary, while a website is about the interests of other people.

Think of cyber insurance as disaster insurance. Hopefully you'll never need it, but it may save your company.

We perceive computers slowing down over time for many reasons. The first is deceptively simple.

by: MesotheliomaFirms.comThere are many attorneys around today, some of who specialize in particular areas of law and others that deal with a wide range of legal issues. When it comes to a sensitive and often complicated area such as mesothelioma litigation, it is always advisable to go through a specialist mesothelioma attorney with experience and contacts within this field. Having an

As many of you may know, we've started an article directory
at Military Transition Tips. The previous post shows our
published press release requesting articles to be read
by people transitioning out of the military and for
military veterans.

There are so many benefits to submitting artictle to
an article directory. Submitting an article to an
article directory allows for the author to have
free viral advertising. The key is to submit
your articles to as many article directories that
you possibly can. (Key point to upcoming military and
veteran business owners).

Most article directories are not niche specific such
as ours. When you submit articles to our article directory,
it's specifically for people leaving the military or who are
experiencing a military transition.

If you have a business (even if you're a military
person or veteran) you'll benefit tremendously by
submitting articles to our directory.

Many of the benefits are listed in the below article.
Keep in mind, articles submitted to our Military
Transition Tips Directory are subject to be
posted on this blog. Please keep this in mind.
We will advertise free for you if the article can
relate to a military person, veteran, or their
families.

The below article is one of the many articles in our
Military Transition Tips Article Directory. See the below
article, Benefits Of Article Marketing for article marketing:

Benefits Of Article Marketing

In the real world, advertising is synonymous with more
expenses for the business enterprise. TV spots, print ads,
promotional campaigns… companies will have to spend just
to get their business message to as many people as possible.
Thankfully, online ventures are not beholden to such a rule.
The World Wide Web provides so many channels wherein
marketing campaigns can be launched without having to type
in your credit card details. Amazing, isn’t it?

This is the reason why Internet marketing has blossomed to
what it is today. It is very accessible to many people, as steep
financial investments are more of the exceptions rather than
the general rule. Indeed, there are many avenues on the
Internet that would allow a business with an online presence
to advertise its offerings.

One of these amazing avenues, and quite possibly, the most
cost-efficient and powerful of them all, is article marketing.

By its very label alone, you would immediately get the idea
that it has something to do with writing articles. This is correct.
You see, by writing articles about the subject matter relevant
to our business, and by distributing the same to the many
channels in the World Wide Web, we will be able to reach so
many people and each of them would regard us as experts
in the field.

Still confused as to how article marketing works? Here is a
step-by-step guide that would teach you the ins and outs of
this fantastic marketing strategy:

Write a premium, highly informative 300 to 1,200 word
article about the subject of your business. If your business,
for example, is concerned with dog care, you could write an
article about proper dog grooming.

Include a resource box at the end of your article. Your
resource box is a concise summary of who you are, what
you’re about, and could also have a link to your website.

Submit your article to the many article directories that
can be found on the web.

Every time a person gets to read your article as displayed
in the article directories, the link to your website would be
exposed and there is a higher likelihood of gaining more
unique visitors for your web pages. These article directories
are seen by millions of people each and every day, as they
are easily indexed by the search engines.

The philosophy behind article marketing is a tactic popularly
referred to as back linking. Since getting indexed in the search
engines is quite a difficult chore, and often, the results would
take months before they could bear fruit, a lot of Internet
marketers have resorted to back links to get a piece of the
search engine pie.

Back links are links to your website which you manage to
display in other sites that have a high Page Rank (PR) in
the search engines. It’s almost tantamount to piggybacking
your way to instant online prominence.

There are so many benefits that can be derived from article
marketing. Do consider the following:

If you could write your own article, it’s a free marketing vehicle.

If you can’t write your own article, or if you simply don’t have
the time to prepare a piece, you could always hire a ghostwriter
to write one for you. The going rate for a standard 500 word
article is 3 to 10 dollars.

Including your link in the resource box would make it visible to
the many people who would get to read your article. This could
potentially equate to an equal amount of new traffic for your site.

There is always a chance that your article would get picked up
by an electronic newsletter, called an eZine, and this would expose
your link to new audiences which could also result in new traffic for
your web pages.

There is also a chance that your article would get picked up by a
printed publication, and the readership of the same would get to
know the products or services which your business offers.

By writing a highly informative piece, you’ll be able to brand
yourself as an expert in the field in the eyes of your readers.
They’ll get to trust you with their needs, whenever they would
arise. This is pre-selling at its finest!

With all that is going for article marketing, there should be no
questions as to why it is heralded as one of the most potent
marketing strategies today. Try it out and elevate your advertising
campaign to the next level, all without spending a single cent at that.





About the author:
================================
By David Zohar http://www.articlebar.com

David Zohar is the owner of http://www.ArticleBar.com
which is is a free directory of articles from expert authors
on a wide range of topics. We invite authors to submit
original articles to our growing database.
================================

Military Transition Tips Contents

Source: www.militarytransitiontips.com

Johnetta Matthews
Military Transition Coach
Veterans In Motion
Military Transition Tips Article Directory
Owner

Assessing the reliability and credibility of treadmill review sites before you invest in a treadmill for your home or office.

About gluten, symptoms of gluten intolerance and how eating gluten free food can be essential for a healthy lifestyle.

HIIT your best exercise workout choice outdoors or at the gym for losing weight.

For a well proportioned and strong body, it is equally as important to do leg strength training exercises.

Healthy lifestyle tips to help you save money and improve your finances.

Overlooked reasons why you may not be losing the weight that you want to lose.

The value behind engaging in competition for your mental and physical well-being.

An exercise bike is one of the best equipment machines to have in a home gym.