Every business has competitors of one sort or another, and in many industries, it’s crucial to know what your competition is offering their customers. The good news is you can often find out what your competition is up to, and…
How to Make Accountability Work
Almost every successful business owner craves accountability. We’re wired to respond to crises and to help others, sometimes before we help ourselves. Entrepreneurs are excellent in running their day-to-day businesses, but some need more accountability to meet internal deadlines and…
Should You Incorporate Your Business?
As a business owner, you have dozens of decisions to make at any one time. One of the most important decisions to make is choosing what type of entity your business will be. While you already made this decision when…
Should You Get Cybercrime Insurance?
The short answer to this question is YES! Incidents of cybercrime have been problematic for a long time, but have soared exponentially since the start of the pandemic. If the reputation of your firm depends in part on your maintaining…
ESG and Small Businesses
Pick up just about any public company’s most recent annual report, and you’ll find a section on ESG. ESG stands for Environment, Social, and Governance, and the trend of not only considering, but also measuring a company’s sustainability performance on…
How a Loan Affects Your Financial Statements
Getting your business loan can be an exciting step in the growth of your business. Recording your loan properly in your accounting system usually requires special handling by your accountant. Your loan statement will provide the information you need to…
How to Write a Refund Policy
A refund policy defines the processes and rules for when customers want their money back and want to return the products or services they purchased from you. It’s often required by your credit card or shopping cart company as part…
How to Keep Your Customers Coming Back
Measuring and encouraging customer retention is important for businesses in many industries. There are a couple of great measures to see how you are doing in this area. We’ll explain those and provide some tactical tips in this article. Measuring…
Why Are You in Business? Crafting Your Mission, Vision, and Values Statements
Most large businesses have developed mission, vision, and values statements to help guide them and inform stakeholders about the company’s strategic direction. Going through this strategic exercise is a wonderful idea for even the smallest business as well. A company’s…
Online Payment Systems: They Are Not All the Same
Collecting money from customers is a key function in any business, and the more automated this process is, the better. The payment function varies by type of business, but more and more, there are online options available for collecting money…