SmallBusinessNewz

Are Your Employees Really Qualified?

I visited my favorite electronics store for citing as an example of what not to do with your sales staff, again the other day, and this time a whole new issue came up with regards to their employees. Incompetence.

Real Life Business Lessons from Labor Day Weekend

My wife and I went shopping for a new bed over the holiday weekend, which just happens to be a big time for furniture sales. We went to a couple different furniture stores, both of which had friendly and helpful salespeople. In fact they were both so friendly, it really brought to mind my recent article about befriending customers as I watched them reach out and do just that. Good Sales Practices

Washington Tax Laws Affect Small Businesses

The growth of Internet sales is causing some interesting tax issues for small business owners and casual sellers. My bookkeeper has spent hours on the phone with the IRS trying to figure the best way to handle the new Washington State tax regulations that went into effect July 1, 2008. You see, the system for local retail sales tax in the State of Washington has gone from an origin-based system to a destination-based system. Basically, how you tax goods now depends on where the product is shipped to, not on where the product comes from.

5 Ways To Turn Off Customers (for Brick and Mortars)

Here's a quick list of ways to keep customers away from your store, and probably dig your business's grave. 1. Bad Location

CBI Has Low Sales Hopes For August

First things first: these stats come from the UK and apply to the UK, so your relief or dismay should be tailored accordingly.  Also, the CBI represents businesses of all sizes and stripes.  Now, the facts: the CBI claims sales weren't so good in July, and August isn't looking great, either.

What Would Sudden Exposure Get You

Yesterday I introduced the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing (Destination SEM) which emphasized that SEO isn't about "getting" top rankings. Getting rankings leaves open the implication that you're achieving a result that you don't necessarily deserve. Destination SEM focuses on building a website that is truly exceptional in meeting your audience's needs and actually earns top search engine positions.

Customers Leaving Your Site Too Early?

You can't close a sale through your website if you can't keep the customer there. The Bounce RatesCaroline Melberg at Small Business Mavericks asks a good question: "Is your bounce rate too high?"She talks about seeing what pages on your site have the highest amount of bounces and fixing what is wrong with them to keep visitors around. They're Not Getting Away That Easily

Revenue and the Sales Cycle

Traditionally companies have talked about and analyzed the 'Sales Cycle'. The problem is that the sales cycle looks at only a portion of the complete revenue process. This presents two main problems:

How is Your Website at Sales?

I just finished reading Jason Lee miller’s terrific post on WebProNews “24 Ways to Get and Keep a Customer”.

Don't Spread Your Business Too Thin

I was reading an article today called "Combining Existing Business Concepts" at Small Business Compendium. The topic of the article is pretty clear from the title. They cite YouTube who combined TV and the Internet. They also cite Google who has branched out from being simply a search engine to providing all kinds of services like maps, blogs, and all of their wonderful tools (not to mention buying YouTube).