If you run a small business for a long time, you will probably need to navigate through a lot of major changes. Members of the online small business community are very familiar with these shifts. From getting started to deciding when to retire, here are some valuable insights for making big changes in your business.

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As of Jan. 1, there are higher minimum wages in a quarter of the states, and new federal overtime rules. The IRS has new W-4 forms owners will need to get used to. Plastic bags are on their way out at stores and other businesses in a growing number of places around the country. And California has new laws on freelancers and consumer privacy that can affect out-of-state companies.

A look at a handful of the 2020 changes in federal, state and local laws and regulations:

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The start of a new year provides the perfect opportunity for business owners to set new goals and find unique ways to improve their operations. There are plenty of different options for your 2020 resolutions, from shoring up your finances to organizing your online presence. Here are some suggestions and tips from members of the online small business community.

Grow Your Savings with Money New Mindset
If one of your resolutions for 2020 is to save more money for your business, you may need to shift your mindset. So how can you look at things a bit differently in the new year? Jamie T. Wiseman of Miss Millennia Magazine explores a handful of mindset shifts in this post.

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While cyberattacks facing large corporations and government entities may dominate headlines, small businesses are victim to the majority of cybersecurity breaches. In fact, nearly half of small businesses in the United States suffered a cyberattack in 2017, according to a recent study.

Cybersecurity attacks are constantly evolving to accommodate the latest technologies. Small businesses contend with several existing and emerging internet-related threats, including malware, ransomware, phishing and botnet infections.

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While small businesses make a huge impact when put together, individually they are often operating on small budgets. Which means small business owners need to be aware of every penny.

If you look at the worldwide cost of bad data, it is overwhelming. $3.1 trillion. If you operate a small business, you might just brush that huge number off. But the reality is, when studies put the cost of bad data at $100 per data record, it can add up quickly. Even if you only have 100 contacts—because 20% of your database is likely bad.

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The research shows that the majority of small businesses believe their revenue growth underperforms their peers. Specifically, 60% of respondents ranked their revenue growth below the 50th percentile of similarly sized companies. Yet, when comparing their actual cash flow and revenue data with the analysis drawn from the Kabbage Small Business Revenue Index, the information indicates that the vast majority of respondents have healthy revenue performance. The question is, why are these business owners feeling pessimistic about their company's performance, and how is it impacting their decision making?

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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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Small business sentiment is on the rise to kick off 2020, with confidence nearing all-time highs, according to data from CNBC and SurveyMonkey. The CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Confidence Index climbed two points in the first quarter, from 59 to 61, as concerns over trade policy impacts lessened, thanks to a trade deal with China and the signing of the USMCA. This is a sharp turnaround from the lows seen last summer as trade turmoil weighed on Main Street’s outlook.

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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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Small businesses drive the economy and create the lions share of jobs in the private sector economy. However, right now they are struggling mightily. Although it is recommended that companies have at least six months’ worth of revenue in the bank to weather economic disruptions such as the coronavirus, the reality is that most small companies don’t have enough cash to operate more than a couple of weeks.

For the service industry: restaurants, nail salons, haircutters, landscapers, athletic trainers, and others, the loss of weekly revenue is devastating for the owners and staff of small businesses. Most service workers live paycheck to paycheck and cannot go very long without being paid. We have already seen an enormous spike in unemployment claims, ending an era when the economy has basically been at full employment.

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There are no magic formulas or secret sales tips for boosting your sales metrics and performance. Sales are dependent on a myriad of factors lining up in your favor, and many of them are out of the numbers on your sales dashboard. The best you can do is do your best putting in the work.

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Expert advice on handling panicked customers, interrupted supply chains, webinars, Zoom meetings, hyper kids, and a work environment that changes by the hour.

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The customer acquisition process is a long journey. As any salesperson knows, there are many phases to this journey, and while the close might get all the glory, the most important part of the process may be all the way at the beginning: prospecting.

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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.

Understand the Challenges Your Customers Are Facing
Before you can market during any period, you need to be able to solve a problem for your customers. During a pandemic, the problem you are solving may change. So you have to be able to communicate that. Part of this is just understanding the current climate. It is probably safe to say that many small business customers are hurting financially. Some may also be in a hurry to receive specific types of items. By understanding your market and staying up-to-date on news in your industry, you should be well versed on the basic challenges that might impact your strategy or talking points. However, Perkin also recommends surveying customers however possible so you can quantify how many of them are struggling in specific areas. Once you know the problems your customers are facing, you can work backward to create your marketing communication strategy.

Learn How to Communicate with New Customers
In fact, you may need to pivot all or part of your business strategy in order to stay afloat during the pandemic. For example, Marran pointed out a UPS client that previously sold pet costumes, but has recently shifted into manufacturing face masks and PPE. This is likely to be a temporary change. But they still need to shift their marketing and communication strategy toward hospitals and B2B customers, rather than focusing on the consumers they normally serve.

Search engine optimization is an effective tool to build awareness and increase sales. If you’re thinking about using search engine optimization (SEO) to grow your business, then the latest offering from Web.com will excite you.
The Company recently announced the launch of an innovative SEO marketing solution, Simple SEO, to help businesses improve their search engine rankings.

It goes without saying that people search online before buying any product or availing any service. According to the search engine giant, Google, 83% of shoppers used online search before visiting a physical store.

So, being found on search results when potential customers type relevant phrases can improve awareness for your business, increasing sales eventually. And implementing the right search engine optimization techniques can boost the visibility for your business on search results.

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.

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

Small businesses could soon see a rollback of several universally loathed measures attached to the original Paycheck Protection Program, the $669 billion loan and grant initiative aimed at helping small businesses keep employees on the payroll.

When the House convenes next Wednesday, it is expected to vote on the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act, a standalone bill that would, among other things, lengthen the time businesses may spend the funds from their PPP loans. The bill would also eliminate the requirement that 75 percent of a loan's proceeds must be spent on employee pay and benefits. The measure was originally proposed on May 15 in the House by representatives Dean Phillips (D., Minn.) and Chip Roy (R., Texas).  

In the current environment, cybersecurity is essential for businesses of all sizes. Many small or medium-sized businesses find themselves without adequate cybersecurity, either as a result of believing that they don’t need it or simply overlooking it among the many demands that come with running a business.

1. Use protection against ransomware
2. Invest in employee security training
3. Adopt multifactor authentication
4. Use a Security Information and Event Management system
5. Implement effective systems for protecting and monitoring data
6. Have a plan for mobile device security

A price strategy is every bit as important as what you have got to sell. After all, they dictate what you will charge for the goods and services you have on the market. In the end, getting these pricing strategies right is a bit of a balancing act. You will need to find that sweet spot between market demand and maximum profits.

1. Competition Based Pricing Strategy
If you are selling things that are similar, this is the pricing strategy your small business should be looking at. Here’s how competitive pricing works. First off, this works best for products rather than services. It works when the price for those products has reached a balancing point between your business and others.

This pricing strategy starts out using the going market rate to set a price.

2. Value-Based Pricing
Basically this is pricing based on what customers are willing to pay.

There are several steps to this pricing model. You need to do a bit of detective work here to find a competitive product. Next, you will need to list all the ways your product is different. Stress the financial value on these differences. This is a reasonable way to defend your pricing strategy.

The coronavirus pandemic has placed tremendous stress on the American economy. More than 55 million Americans have filed for unemployment, and more than 100,000 small businesses have been permanently shuttered, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Though the news seems dire, these changing times could present an opportunity if you are a hopeful entrepreneur.

Whether you have been planning to start a business for years, you have been laid off and are looking for new opportunities or you are moving your existing business in a new direction, now might be the time to figure out how to start a business.

Ankur Jains investment firm, Kairos, is funding training sessions and job placement for 10,000 workers.

There are three types of CRMs that work with Gmail. Some - like Zoho , Sugar, Insightly and GoldMine - have their own, built-in email clients that can connect to Gmails server to send and receive messages. Others - such as Salesforce - will just quickly integrate with Gmail right out of the box via a plug-in and then synchronize messages back and forth. And then there are a few – like Copper and Streak - that work right inside of Gmail.

Entrepreneurs have seized the opportunity to start new companies in a wide variety of industries during the Covid-19 pandemic. While not all of these ventures will be successful, businesses that help alleviate some of the new challenges created by the pandemic are poised for long-term growth. Here are three industries that hold promising opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses.

1. Contactless Tech
2. Telehealth
3. Education Tech

The end of the year is a critical time for businesses especially for small businesses that are looking to make the most out of holiday shopping. 23ABC spoke with two business consultants on how small businesses can adapt to make the most out of this final stretch of 2020.

Starting with investing in your community.
Their second piece of advice is to build an honest and transparent relationship with your customers and business neighbors.
As times have slowed down, they are encouraging business owners to take a good look at who their ideal client is and reshape their marketing for them.
Lastly, being collaborative and creative.

1. A question that delves into past experiences within working cultures and extrapolates where future environments may/may not align. For example: Creating the right culture is important for our company. Can you share details on a time you were in a toxic work environment, and how did management handle the situation? Describe when you were in a wonderful work environment and what management did correctly.

2. Deciphering how the candidates prefer to be managed as a key to ensuring management-style alignment. For example: Taking guidance from leaders is a critical part of any working arrangement. Describe how you like to be managed and how would you describe the ideal leader for your personality style?

3. Understanding motivations and expectations for long-term engagement. For example: We believe in long-term retention, and so we are cautious on the type of candidate we onboard. If you were going to commit to helping build this company long-term, what would it take for you to be happy and motivated?

4. Perspectives on their self-awareness of personal growth objectives and needs. For example: We all have challenges we are working to overcome. If you had to assess your challenges, where would be areas that you would focus to develop and look for support to improve?


5. Communication competence and tolerance for different interaction styles. For example: We all have different communication and coordination styles. What is the method you most effectively consolidate new information to inform your work, and what is your preferred communication style to align with your leadership and stakeholders?

While major corporations furloughing workers and declaring bankruptcy tends to get the biggest headlines, our culture's dramatic shift to working from home is the true breakout business story from this pandemic. The transition has certainly had its share of ups and downs, but rapidly growing acceptance indicates this is a trend that is almost certainly going to shape the future of work.

The transition began before 2020
While Covid-19 restrictions caused an abrupt shift, working from home was already accelerating. Research from FlexJobs found that the number of people in the United States who worked from home grew by an astounding 159 percent between 2005 and 2017.

Much of this growth can be attributed to freelancing. Upworks Freelancing in America 2019 survey found that the number of Americans who did freelance work grew from 53 million to 57 million between 2014 and 2019. Younger generations were especially likely to participate, with 40 percent of millennials and 53 percent of Generation Z contributing to the gig economy.

During a crisis or emergency situation it is important that a cell phone has battery life. Many people only think of plugging a charger into the wall. But what happens when the power is out for an extended period of time during a crisis?

Replacement Cell Phone Battery
Some cell phones have the option of replacing the battery. There are both options for original manufacturer replacement batteries as well as batteries manufactured by third parties. If your phone is critical consider carrying a charged backup/replacement battery for your cell phone.

Tube Battery Cell Phone Charger
A number of manufacturers have created all-in-one portable charger, that is essentially a "tube" battery chargers. The chargers will charge cell phones or other wireless devices provided that you have the appropriate cables and connections. Tube battery chargers are compact and light weight, making them quite portable, and a great backup power option.

Alternate Power Sources for Cell Phones

The former vice president won the top job, but undoing Trumps discordant legacy will not be easy.

Many of the elements of Trumps biggest legislative achievement--the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017--are set to expire in the next few years. To name two: the research and development tax credit, which in 2022 requires businesses to amortize expenses over five years rather than doing so immediately, as is the current case. And full expensing for short-term business investments will begin phasing out in 2023.

1. Organize your business documents
2. Have a scalable technology plan ready
3. Plan to spend money to earn money
4. Prepare to outsource tasks
5. Create a blueprint for business continuity
6. Develop a strategy for balancing work and life
7. Build your team

Finding and keeping the best talent has never been easy. It became the top concern for HR professionals this past year, with more than two-thirds reporting struggles with their recruitment and retention efforts. While the reasons for those struggles run the gamut, they often relate to attracting qualified candidates (49%), retaining star employees (49%) and issues with the talent-culture fit (42%).

For small and midsize businesses (SMBs), any difficulties with finding talented hires end up wasting precious resources. Worse yet, the cost of a bad hire is equal to 30% of the hires first-year salary – without factoring in the potential losses in revenue and time associated with onboarding the wrong person for a job.

A business owner who spent nearly $46 million over the years on Facebook ads said he got booted from the platform without warning.

Jordan Nabigon, the CEO of the Ottawa, Ontario, content-curation site Shared, said Facebook deleted his companys main Facebook page without warning in October, and without providing an explanation. He shared a Medium post detailing his experience, which has received more than 400 claps from readers.

Nabigon spent $45,870,181 on Facebook advertising between 2006 and 2020 for Shared and his other company Freebies, according to expense reports reviewed by Business Insider. Shared employees three people full-time and 12 contract writers, Nabigon said.

Facebook increased its use of artificial intelligence to oversee advertising and other content during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Nabigon is among hundreds of business owners who said they suffered from Facebook's crackdown on ad policies.

The pandemic is accelerating existing trends.

Covid-19 has initiated some trends and altered the direction of others, but its most enduring impact will be as an accelerant. Take any trend--social, business, or personal--and fast-forward 10 years. Even if your company isn't living in the year 2030 yet, the pandemic has spurred changes in consumer behavior and markets. This is clear in the rapid increase in online shopping, in the shift toward remote delivery of health care, and in the spectacular increase in valuation among the biggest tech firms.

The more disruptive the crisis, the greater the opportunities--and the risks.

Invoice financing is a type of business funding wherein the business sells its outstanding invoices or account receivables (A/R) to financing companies to get an immediate cash flow boost. The financing company takes over the invoices, and sometimes be in charge of collecting customer payments (as in invoice factoring).

Invoice financing is a popular financing option for businesses that have to wait 30,60, or 90 days to get their clients payments.

Staying tuned in to the pulse of your industry is key to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Public groups, online forums and the like are among the most valuable resources for gathering and contributing industry information. But if someone is looking for in-depth insight into their business niche, locating the right groups where this discussion occurs is the first step. T

For some of the smallest businesses that applied for forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, waiting just a few days or weeks would’ve gotten them thousands of dollars more.

But they had no way of knowing what was coming.

The Biden administration in late February announced a slew of changes to the loan program, which offered forgivable loans in return for keeping employees on a company’s payroll, after it reopened in January with $284 billion in funding. Those amendments included an adjusted loan formula that would mean larger amounts for sole proprietors as well as expanded eligibility for small business owners with certain criminal records, were delinquent on student loan debt or were non-citizens.

The Small Business Administration has extended deferment periods for all of l its disaster loans made either in 2020 or 2021, the agency announced on Monday.

The extended deferment includes the SBAs Economic Injury Disaster Loan – or EIDL – program, which many businesses that did not qualify for Paycheck Protection Program loans or other funding used to bridge the losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

All SBA disaster loans made in 2020 will have the first payment due date extended from 12-months to 24-months from the date of the note, the agency said. Disaster loans made in 2021 will have a first payment due date extended from 12-months to 18-months from the date of the note.

Every business was considered small at some point in its history. Some go big, but some stay small and do quite well. The size of a business in common measurements (revenue, employees, locations) is less relevant than the size of your customer base and the corresponding loyalty of customers.

Title: Is Dissociation a Form of Psychosis?
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 5/3/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/3/2022 12:00:00 AM

Compulsive purchases are so often wrong that I nearly put this one back on the shelf. I'm glad I didn't....

Since Playgirl editor-in-chief, Michele Zipp, has outed herself as a Republican, can a Conservative Men of the Blogosphere special...

...I'd just like to note three things: The new site is pretty much done. The CSS needs adjusting to make...

I just filmed a little unboxing-and-enthusing video. It's for the 25th Anniversary editions of Little, Big or, The Fairies' Parliament, by John Crowley. Illustrated (or rather, with Art by) Peter Milton. 

Thirteen years ago, I put on a Victorian Suit and a false beard and I read Dickens' prompt copy of A Christmas Carol at New York Public Library. It was a wonderful, sold out performance, introduced by Molly Oldfield, who told us all about Dickens's reading routine.

I looked a bit like this.

And the book looked a bit like this.

The reading of A Christmas Carol has become the most popular of the NYPL's audio downloads, and they repost it regularly. Here's the one from 2019:
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2019/12/19/listen-neil-gaiman-reads-christmas-carol

For years people have been asking if I was ever going to do it again. This year, back while the writers of the WGA were on strike, my assistant Rachael asked if I'd do it, and if I did, could she document it? I said yes, and it's becoming a thing.

It's going to be a Christmas Extravaganza, with carol singers and suchlike, signed books for sale and all sorts of goodies planned. I'm hoping we can get Molly Oldfield over to New York to introduce it once again.

When I was a boy, I saw Welsh actor Emlyn Williams being Charles Dickens on stage, a one man show I've never forgotten.

Here's the town Hall page for the 18th: https://thetownhall.org/event/neil-gaiman-performs-a-christmas-carol-12-18

Here's the page for the 19th: https://thetownhall.org/event/neil-gaiman-performs-a-christmas-carol-12-19

The ticket presale starts on Thursday Nov 2nd at 12 pm, and regular tickets go on sale on Friday at 10:00 am.

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 25, 2024 ) The global dietary supplements market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4%, increasing from $167.5 billion in 2023 to $239.4 billion by 2028. Key factors driving this growth include the rising elderly population, a shift from traditional...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 25, 2024 ) The global wheat protein market is expected to expand from $2.5 billion in 2023 to $3.2 billion by 2028, achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9%. This growth is driven by the rising popularity of meat-free diets, increasing obesity rates leading to...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 28, 2024 ) The Application Modernization Services Market is estimated at USD 19.82 billion in 2024 to USD 39.62 billion by 2029 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.8%, according to new research report by MarketsandMarkets™ Browse in-depth TOC on “Application...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 30, 2024 ) The report "Biocides Market by Type (Non-oxidizing Biocides, Oxidizing Biocides), Application (Water Treatment, Industrial & Institutional Cleaning and Home Care, Paints & Coatings, Wood Preservatives), and Region - Global Forecast to 2029 " The global Biocides...