It is hard to start a profitable business in a competitive landscape. No doubt, business starts with a primary goal of making profits. Getting these profits from the phase of no client to multiple clients is a period of learning, falling, getting through and finally managing to sustain.

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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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As your small business grows, it will eventually become too big to run out of your home. With steady clients coming in or an expanding workforce of people you have hired, you probably don't want to keep conducting business in your basement or at your kitchen table.

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Most small business owners today know that they need a website. But what many fail to realize is that their websites need to be more effective.

A website is meant to attract consumers to your business. But what do those consumers do once they land on your website? Maybe they give you a call or pop into your bricks-and-mortar location some time. And, sure, that’s all fine and dandy. But even better than that, your website itself can actually generate leads and sales for you with just a few simple tweaks.

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If you want to change your circumstances, you need to change the way you think. You have to stop believing that you are stuck in your situation and passively accepting that you’re incapable of doing anything about it.

Many people allow themselves to be caged by their fear and anxiety. For these people, an inner critic always seems to be whispering in their ears, keeping them from succeeding. The truth is, negative thinking will shackle you to a life that’s both mediocre and unfulfilling. If you want to stretch yourself to your fullest potential, you need to escape your self-imposed prison of negative thinking.

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Many people dream of owning a small business. Owning a company is ideal for people who are naturally creative, are visionaries, and want freedom from the daily toil of a corporate job. However, launching a small business is not solely about having enough capital or a great idea. A would-be entrepreneur should also have the courage to take risks, a great imagination to be innovative, and the self-discipline to sustain the work needed to attain set goals. Here are some important considerations to think about before launching a small business.

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Every year, more than 400,000 entrepreneurs launch small businesses in the United States, many driven by the desire for ownership and independence. Local mom-and-pop shops, online services, food trucks — the skys the limit.

But taking on a new business is a lot of work and risk. According to the Small Business Association, over 20% of new small businesses fail during the first year of operation.

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There are dozens of small things to keep in mind before calling yourself an entrepreneur: Have you found a good accountant? What's your niche? Who are you bringing onto your project?

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Statistics show that cybersecurity is a legitimate threat to small businesses, but small businesses don't always act on that knowledge. According to the 2018 Small Business Cybersecurity Report, 47% of small businesses experienced an attack in the past 12 months. Cybersecurity is a serious concern, yet the report shows only 52% of businesses have a cybersecurity strategy.

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Surprising new research from NYU and the Wharton School shows that entrepreneurs who start a business on their own are likelier to succeed than those who do so with one or more partners.

That's pretty much the opposite of what most aspiring founders would guess. After all, you can't be good at everything. You might be a marketing expert but not know how to manage cash flow. Or you might good at building great products but bad at setting prices for them. So you team up with someone who's strong in the areas where you're weak, and you start the business together.

This reasoning seems logical, and it is how most people--even experts--see entrepreneurship. In fact, it is such an ingrained belief that VCs and other investors routinely choose to fund companies founded by teams rather than those with a solo founder.

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Micro influencers are social media personalities with anywhere from 2,000-50,000 followers. The numbers vary depending on the source, but their importance is universal. They are a great cost efficient way to provide targeted advertising for small businesses with limited budgets

Here is what you need to know about how these people can benefit your small business.

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When running a small business, there are a lot of things to focus on. Making sales, finding new customers and motivating your employees are among them; however, keeping your business secure from cyberattacks might take precedent over of all of them.

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If you want to ensure new customers are able to find your business, then you need to know how to optimize your business for voice search, which is becoming one of the most popular ways of searching.

Voice search is not quite taking over the search world yet—but it is getting closer. Last year, more than half (58%) of consumers used voice search to find local business information, according to BrightLocal’s Voice Search for Local Business Study 2018. Almost half (46%) of voice search users searched for a local business daily; 28% used voice search to search for a local business about once a week.

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If you own or are employed by a small business—and are among the approximately 38 million people in the U.S. with no access to a retirement plan at work—you may be interested in a new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule set to take effect Sept. 30, 2019.

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Several customers owe you money, but you have no idea when those payments will arrive. Meanwhile, your vendors and contractors are contacting you daily to pay your own invoices. For small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs), this is an all-too-common cash-flow conundrum.

A recent Kabbage survey of 500 successful entrepreneurs showed cash-flow issues are front of mind for SMB owners. Of the respondents surveyed, 63 percent said they are regularly stressed or have anxiety due to cash-flow concerns. Yet, respondents have run successful companies for an average of 10.5 years.

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Web accessibility may not be the first thing you think of when designing a website for your small business, but in the long run, few things could prove more important. Just like how a brick-and-mortar store must comply with ADA guidelines to ensure that all individuals can access their facilities regardless of whether they have a disability, business owners, as well as web design and digital agencies, must also ensure that those with disabilities have equal access to web content. Failure to make web accessibility a priority when designing your website could have significant long-term consequences.

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How does a leader manage to harness the talents of a group without letting things descend into chaos? How does a leader give firm direction without stifling creativity and individuality?

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High-profile entrepreneurs like Stitch Fixs Katrina Lake and The Riveter's Amy Stern Nelson are using Stories to answer questions about everything from managing cash flow to storing breast milk during business trips.

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By now, you have probably heard of 23andMe, the biotech juggernaut that is revolutionized the DNA-testing industry. Though the company has its fair share of critics, one thing is for sure: 23andMe has experienced tremendous growth, claiming more than 10 million worldwide customers as of this writing.  A lesser-known fact is how much its employees love working there. In fact, it was named among Glassdoors Best Places to Work for 2019.

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The daughter of two entrepreneurs who immigrated to the U.S. during the Iranian Revolution, Falon Fatemi became known as Google's youngest-ever hire at the age of 19. After leaving Google, she founded her own AI company, Node — and secured famed investor Mark Cuban as a backer. Node aims to use deep learning to analyze relationships between people and companies, then pinpoint how clients can leverage those relationships into sales, marketing and recruiting opportunities. In this episode of How Success Happens, Fatemi spoke with Entrepreneur about landing a job in big tech, AI and data policies and how to give a top-quality pitch.

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A new free analytics tool introduced on Sept. 10 by the Atlanta-based lending platform Kabbage analyzes the live data of more than 200,000 companies in an effort to give small business owners a way to assess how their businesses are performing in real time. It’s daring to meet the demands of the ever-changing world of small business.

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How do you hire, onboard, and retain a great team?

You start by viewing your company through the EQ lens to discover your organizational obstacles―the elephants standing in the way of your company's success.

Attend this webinar, How to Attract, Hire, and Retain Unicorn-Level Talent, as headhunter and executive coach Caroline Stokes delivers a blend of recruiting and emotional intelligence strategies essential to helping you identify and tackle your elephants and acquire and retain key hires―those unicorns―that will help your company stand out, stay resilient, and drive growth.

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- Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture.
- These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized.
- More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year.
- Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats.

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Small business pay checks are growing at a fast pace as job gains slow

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Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy and account for 99.7% of all employers.
Small businesses work with large enterprises as vendors, customers, competitors or partners.
Large businesses can learn from small business ingenuity, innovation, agile management, customer service, workplace culture and diversity.

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According to a new survey, the results of which were first published by Inc. on Tuesday, odds are good that you identify more with option A, even if option B is your reality. In a poll of 620 U.S. small-business owners, conducted by online lender and small-business cash-flow platform Kabbage, 60 percent of respondents believed their revenue growth underperformed that of their peers.

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A lot of small businesses appear to be doing just that though. In fact, the National Federation of Independent Businesses found that tax compliance costs are 67 percent higher for small businesses than larger ones.  They add up to $18-$19 billion per year across the U.S small business environment.

With the complexity of filing taxes quickly each year, many small business owners miss deductions that can help lower their tax burden.

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As you take the helm and begin guiding your business into the future, you would be well-advised to listen to suggestions from people who have already made the mistakes they can help you avoid. By the way, you are going to make mistakes. If you can accept that and learn from your mistakes, it will all amount to nothing more than an on-the-job education.

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Insiders say the ability to appeal to the emotional side of the SBO will become more important, as so-called Millennials – those born between the years 1980-2000 – are the fastest-growing segment of SBOs and may be more inclined to own a small business than members of older age groups. A study released in 2017 found, among other favorable statistics, that Millennials have more experience with small business and greater desire to start businesses than previous generations.

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Spring may be just around the corner, but for accountants and tax professionals, this is crunch time. Here are five ways you can help smooth out the filing process for your small business clients (and, consequently, yourself) this tax season.

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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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Facebook and Walmart had one thing in common, they both built a product people loved. But their journey was different. Understanding how and why building startups is different from small businesses will help you make wiser business decisions. Here are the most important differences you need to know.

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Millions of small business owners will be turning to the government, seeking help for an individual and nationwide cataclysm, the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

The government says it will begin disbursing loan money to company owners and freelancers Friday under the Paycheck Protection Program, part of the $2 trillion relief package signed into law last week. For many companies, it may be the quickest way to rebuild the lifeblood of any business: the cash flow that enables a company to pay its bills.

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There is a strategy to maximizing all the benefits of Congress recent $2 trillion stimulus package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not just applying for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or tapping into your 401k. In fact, there are actually eight key pieces to the legislation that can assist business owners in one form or another.

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When it comes to turning business challenges into opportunities, small business owners are quick, nimble, and creative. With state governments around the country shuttering all non-essential businesses to combat COVID-19 still in full swing, this is truer than ever.

But, unlike years past, where such an unprecedented closure would have put many small businesses out of business permanently, today they’re turning to mobility and connectivity in large numbers to keep their doors open—if only virtually.

Email marketing continues to be one of the most powerful tools for growing your business. (Need proof? Check out stat #1 below.)

And although email marketing has been around for decades, it’s everchanging.

New email marketing tools — like AMP for Email — pop up all of the time. Marketers are taking innovative approaches to email marketing. And email marketing benchmarks change every year.

Want to see how your own email marketing strategy compares and what other businesses are doing to innovate?

Check out this ultimate list of email marketing statistics to find out how you stack up and see email marketing benchmarks to compare your results.

General email marketing statistics and usage
79% of small businesses say email marketing is important to their business strategy. [AWeber]

60% of small businesses say their email marketing strategy is effective or very effective. [AWeber]

64% of B2B marketers use a dedicated email marketing platform. [Content Marketing Institute]

40% of B2B marketers claim that email newsletters are the most important tactic in their content marketing strategy. [Content Marketing Institute]

43% of small businesses have 500 or less email subscribers. [AWeber]

42% of small businesses with over 500 subscribers have effective or very effective email marketing strategies. [AWeber]

46% of emails are opened on mobile devices. [Litmus]

61% of consumers prefer to be contacted by brands through email. [Statista]

On average, consumers spend 2.5 hours checking email on a typical weekday. [Adobe]

Make communication a priority
In response to the restrictions temporarily in place, companies large and small have made changes to the way they do business. Restaurants are offering curbside pickup. Many retailers have closed their brick-and-mortar stores but are ramping up e-commerce with free delivery and 24-hour customer support. Grocery stores have introduced new cleaning protocols and special senior shopping hours.

No matter your industry, be proactive in sharing this information with customers and keeping them updated. In this digital-first era, all types of businesses are much better equipped to reach customers, both existing and prospective. By using multiple platforms — posting on social media, sending mobile messages, and updating your website and directory listings such as Google My Business — your business has the ability to connect with customers quickly and easily.  

Be transparent
We are living through a period of uncertainty in which nearly every American is affected by this pandemic in some way. It’s important to acknowledge that publicly. Practicing sensitivity and transparency in light of our current economic climate is not only appropriate — it’s necessary. Soften the tone in your messaging and infuse empathy in recognition of what’s happening all around us.

Customers go through a journey before they commit to a purchase. As a small business owner, it is your duty to engage and interact with them until they do so. And when they do, you continue to nurture them so they become your brand’s advocates.

With content marketing, you can convert random online searchers to website visitors, make them a part of your tribe and drive more sales by consistently providing them with valuable information.

For small businesses, resources can be tight. Especially right now.
Limited budgets can present challenges for how businesses raise awareness, acquire customers, and generate revenue.

In fact, 39% of small business owners agree that a limited budget is a major roadblock in growing their businesses.

However, there are plenty of low-cost, high-yielding marketing hacks that can help you reach your customers.
Get featured in press by responding to journalists and podcasters
Personalize cold outreach campaigns
Correct Existing Mentions of Your Brand
Add videos to your landing page
Repurpose old blog content

The law of the jungle states, in evolutionary terms, that only the fittest survive. Before you can effectively brand an organization, you need to understand its clients/customers/donors/community and its competitors. In the marketing world, this is called a landscape analysis.

Often, companies — especially startups and nonprofits — will say they do not have competitors. Let me get this out right away: Everyone has competitors. Even nonprofits. If you think you do not have competitors, that means you don’t understand what a competitor is. A competitor is any person or organization taking business away from you.

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.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, consumer confidence has declined in all 50 states, according to ongoing research from Morning Consult. And we all know that consumer confidence is a critical component of economic growth. As businesses begin to reopen across America, they need to work hard to restore this critical sentiment. To that end, consumer confidence may well be the only marketing message that matters for some time to come.

As consumers weigh the pros and cons of carefully reemerging from quarantine, many marketers will need to make a point of reassuring them in their messaging. Here are four smart marketing approaches to consider as you seek to restore consumer confidence.

1. Reframe social distancing.
2. Acknowledge the struggle.
3. Build consumer trust.
4. Emphasize safety.

Social distancing. Telemedicine. Self-quarantine. These are all words that at the start of 2020 weren't part of our vocabulary, but several months into the new decade we are all hearing and using them daily. There is no denying that the coronavirus outbreak has dramatically changed just about every facet of just about every person’s life around the world.

From a business perspective, the stock market saw its largest one day loss and largest one day gain in history. The U.S. saw the largest job-loss report ever. We are in uncharted waters, and how long we will remain in them remains uncertain. However, there is one thing that we all know, and that is that this outbreak will change the lives of everyone for years or decades to come. Nearly 20 years after 9-11, enhanced airport security, no-fly lists and counterterrorism efforts are still the norm. The same will be true of the COVID-19 aftermath. Is your business ready for the five largest macro trends we are about to see?

1. The rise of enhanced websites and digital tools
2. Cybersecurity concerns take center stage
3. An increase in virtual meetings
4. Increased control in expenses
5. Even more remote employees

The opportunities to answer questions for potential publication can come from various sources. Help a Reporter, known as HARO, matches journalists with sources for their stories. Quora allows users to answer any question posed by their community. And professional membership organizations offer business leaders the opportunity to share their insights in industry publications.

The opportunities to add your own insights are out there. But why would you, as a business owner, devote your time to answering these questions? What are the benefits?

Here are five ways that answering questions online can help promote your business.

Connections
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Brand
Website traffic
PR opportunities

A small, overlooked federal agency is shouldering a massive relief effort for the nation's small businesses and their workers left reeling by the novel coronavirus. The U.S. Small Business Administration has committed to auditing every sizable emergency loan it approves, yet nearly two months since the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program was launched, the agency has yet to make public the recipients of taxpayer aid.

Small businesses are a cornerstone of the American economy, contributing $6 trillion in economic output and employing 85 million Americans. Unfortunately, small businesses are also heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with one in five closed either temporarily or permanently. With social distancing restrictions in place, small-business owners more than ever count on technology to reach consumers, market their products, and grow their business. Tech has been a critical lifeline for small businesses and consumers alike during the COVID-19 crisis.

Examining the use of digital platforms as a whole in the United States before the pandemic, the national small business survey finds that the use of digital platforms by small enterprises is ubiquitous:

84% of small enterprises are using at least one major digital platform to provide information to customers;
80% are using at least one major platform to show products and services, as well as to advertise;
79% are using digital tools to communicate with customers and suppliers; and
75% are using tech platforms for sales.

Now, during the pandemic, everything from the way consumers find and purchase products and services to the way small businesses market and ship their wares is enabled by technologies. As a McKinsey study found, the most effective way for small businesses to meet new hygiene and safety expectations is to design effective contactless experiences through adopting new technologies. For example, restaurants and retailers that have turned to digital capabilities and investments in technology fared far better since the pandemic began. In an SBE Council survey, around 76% of small businesses say that cloud services have been critical to the survival and operation of their business during COVID-19.

How people usually do elevator pitches
Among those who put thought into their elevator pitches, there tends to be two basic formulas:

Formula A: Introduce oneself and the name of the company, then describe the product or service in the context of the customer or industry’s pain point. Then, at the end, make the ask.

Formula B: Identify the pain point before introducing oneself and the name of the company. Then describe the product or service, followed by the ask.

While I am adamant that the only hard and fast rule of communication is that there are no hard and fast rules, I favor Formula B. People are most likely to embrace a solution when it is provided within the context of a problem they care about solving. By starting with a pain point, the entrepreneur is speaking to what an uninformed audience cares about right away thus making sure that the first thing their audience hears has intrinsic value to them. This helps the audience become immediately invested in solving the problem, which helps the entrepreneur to build some momentum.

One of the most important organizations that has always helped small businesses is SCORE with its 300 chapters and over 10,000 volunteers. They are there to offer help when entrepreneurs want it. Now during the pandemic, their free assistance is needed more than ever.

SCORE has established a special Resilience Hub to let small business owners connect with a mentor and help them navigate to specific COVID resources, discounts, grants, training materials and guides for industries. This site includes how to access a network where people can learn from each other.

Remote work was already on the rise before Covid-19 forced many employees to transition to working from home. Today, as many organizations continue to operate remotely due to the pandemic, how can business leaders address the array of security challenges their companies face?

Network security should be top of mind for businesses of all sizes across a variety of industries. While the list of companies experiencing major security breaches in recent years includes some well-known enterprises, addressing security threats is an especially hefty challenge for small businesses—particularly if those businesses lack the resources to implement strong controls and educate staff.