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FedEx launched its 11th annual Small Business Grant Contest on Jan. 31 , which will award $330,000 in grants and services to 10 U.S.-based small businesses. Here are three things to know about FedEx’s Small Business Grant Contest. When is the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest? The entry period for the contest began Jan. 31 and runs until Feb. 21. The 2022 contest attracted nearly 18,000 entrants. Over the past 10 years, more than 68,000 businesses have entered the contest and a total of more than $1.6 million in cash and prizes has been distributed to more than 111 businesses. How do I enter the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest? To be eligible, a participant has to be a U.S.-based, for-profit small business with one to 99 employees, been in operations selling a product or service for six months or more as of Jan. 31 and have a shipping and printing need. To enter, participants can visit smallbusinessgrant.fedex.com and enter their business information including a FedEx shipping account number, write a short profile about their business and upload up to four photos of their business or product, including their logo. Participants also can submit a short “elevator pitch” video […]

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LEGO’s existing education office in Back Bay, Boston. As Connecticut continues to lick its wounds following LEGO’s announced plans to relocate from its longtime U.S. headquarters in Enfield to Boston, there will be plenty of debate about what drove yet another major employer to flee the state. Not helping is the fact that just one week earlier, Campbell Soup Co. announced it was closing subsidiary Pepperidge Farm’s Norwalk headquarters as the processed food and snack maker consolidates operations in New Jersey. Some will blame Connecticut’s usual weaknesses — high costs of living and doing business and over-regulation. Greg Bordonaro While those remain significant challenges that policymakers should address, they apparently weren’t the driving factors behind LEGO’s decision to abandon its Enfield home of nearly 50 years and move 740 employees 100 miles northeast to Boston. In an announcement about the pending move — to be completed in 2026 — Skip Kodak, LEGO Group’s Americas president, described Boston as “one of the best cities in the world to attract and retain talent,” and that the city’s “world-class academic institutions, skilled workforce and great quality of life makes it an ideal location for our U.S. head office.” It’s the same message […]

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LadderUp launches for local retailers in Atlanta, Birmingham, Detroit, Houston and Washington, D.C. providing business owners with capital, e-commerce-focused technical assistance, and education from industry leaders BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Applications opened today for LadderUp, an innovative new accelerator program from retail technology company Shipt that will equip local retailers with tools needed to thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace. The program builds upon a set of commitments announced at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to expand access to food in underserved communities, particularly for those with mobility or transportation barriers. LadderUp will support local economies by helping local small businesses, especially ones owned by LGBTQ+ people and people of color, grow and compete by providing capital, e-commerce-focused technical assistance, and education from industry leaders to businesses around the country. In line with their commitment to level the economic playing field for Black and other underrepresented populations, Shipt aims to have at least 50% of the businesses in LadderUp to be LGBTQ+ and BIPOC-owned. "As a growing tech company that is putting food insecurity and equity at the forefront of its work, Shipt is proud to announce the launch of LadderUp," said Kamau […]

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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios Richmond has one of the highest rates of Black-owned businesses in the nation. What’s happening: Roughly 6.7% of businesses in the Richmond area are Black-owned, tying it with Atlanta for third-highest percentage of Black-owned businesses in the country, according to Lending Tree , which analyzed data from 2019. Fayetteville, North Carolina, comes in first with more than 11%, followed by D.C. Nationwide, the rate is 2% for companies that have employees, according to a 2022 Alliance for Entrepreneurial Equity study . Yes, but: Neither rate is proportional to the Black population, which is 13% nationwide and 28% in metro Richmond . Why it matters: 80% of Black-owned businesses fail within the first 18 months, per the Alliance , so we want to give them some attention in honor of Black History Month. What are your favorite Black-owned businesses in town? Let us know so we can feature some this month — and all year.

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Pierre Laboisse, Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, member of the Executive Management Team at ams OSRAM. getty Entrepreneurs are intimately familiar with all aspects of their business. They know where the revenue is coming from at all times, they understand the health of their business, they see the big picture and how it fits with their overall business strategy and they have deep insights to their customers . To best manage and lead, salespeople need to think of the company they work for the same way. They need to see it as their own business and know the details inside and out. When customers ask a question, you should be quick with an answer. Like an entrepreneur, you should be able to anticipate the changing needs of your customers and be able to discuss the crucial points quickly. This shows you care and are engaged in your customers’ success. Once you dive deep into all aspects of the business and make your customers’ success your top priority, you’re no longer simply selling products. You’re doing more. You’re solving problems. And when you do this—when you make decisions based on solving customer needs rather than selling a […]

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getty By now you would think death by PowerPoint was a forgotten phenomenon, but you would be wrong. Remarkably, business people continue to waste their audience’s time with boring, redundant and uninteresting presentations, filled with bullet points, charts and graphs, and information that is not important to the listener. In my work with business teams, especially sales teams, it amazes me that so many are so dysfunctional in the way they tell their story. I believe we (the business community at large) are still less-than-compelling presenters for four primary reasons. I will share them with you here. 1. Laziness Rather than take the time to be prepared to carry the conversation and know the subject matter adequately, it is much easier to simply put it on the slides. Have several bullet points per slide, and now you can simply look at the information and talk from there. This places the emphasis on the slides and not on you, with the result being your audience is reading the slides and not listening to you. It also hinders any conversational approach, which is what people tend to prefer. Almost all charts and graphs are confusing, and the sight of a spreadsheet […]

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Most financial examiners, information security analysts and computer programmers weren’t making $100,000 in the Charlotte metro before the pandemic. But they are now. Those are three of the nine occupations for which median annual salaries reached six figures between 2019 and 2021, according to a new analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by The Business Journals. The gains come as salaries have soared since the economy recovery ramped up after the initial shockwaves of the pandemic, with a tight labor market and elevated turnover rates fueling significant raises and bonuses. Locally, financial examiners — which, as described by the BLS, ensure compliance with laws that govern institutions handling monetary transactions — have seen some of the biggest pay jumps among the area’s new six-figure jobs. That occupation’s median annual salary soared 60.1% from $63,570 in 2019 to $101,760 in 2021. The slideshow below provides a look at the nine occupations in the Charlotte metro that are new to the six-figure salary club and their 2019 and 2021 salaries. These nine Charlotte-area occupations saw median annual salaries reach six figures between 2019 and 2021, according to a new analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by The Business Journals. […]

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Experienced business professionals are not hesitant to take on mentees of a different gender, but … [+] getty Experienced business professionals are not hesitant to take on mentees of a different gender, but are reluctant to meet with these mentees outside of normal business hours and locations, according to a recent study forthcoming at Accounting Horizons. In an article titled “Accounting Profession Mentoring in the #MeToo Era” researchers performed an experiment with 95 experienced accounting professionals. The professionals, both males and females, were introduced via a cover letter and resume to a fictitious prospective mentee from their firm that was either of their same gender or of a different gender. The study then asked the professionals how likely they would be to accept the request from the junior colleague, as well as their willingness to meet with the potential mentee at various the times and locations. The article is authored by Emily Etgen, Tom Downen, and Lorraine Lee, all from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The study describes how, in accounting and many other business settings, the majority of the senior professionals that can serve as mentors are male. The researchers then raise the concern that these potential […]

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CMO + Partner at LeadJig , transforming the way financial professionals identify, target, and deploy marketing. getty Today, having a website for your business isn’t enough. To truly see a return on your investment, it’s important to optimize your site for conversions. Here are five tips to help you do just that: 1. ‘Above The Fold’ Content Optimization “Above the fold” is a term that describes the portion of a website that is visible without scrolling. This content needs to catch the reader’s attention for them to stay on your website. This will directly impact your engagement and bounce rate. If your “above the fold” content is lackluster, users will be less interested in seeing what other information exists on your website. Optimize your “above the fold” content with a compelling image, then add a solid call to action (CTA) that encompasses the focal point of the page. The goal is to capture attention and engage the user to proceed through to the rest of the website. 2. Test And Measure (A/B Testing) Conversion rate optimization is an ongoing process. Continually test different elements of your website, such as headlines, CTA placement and layout to see what works best. […]

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getty Organizational leaders are being tested like never before. From the global pandemic to business model disruption and talent shortages, every day seems bring new challenges. In many cases, survival has been the name of the game. But one of the big leadership questions going forward is "How can I continue to fight fires today while lighting the touchpaper for future investment and innovation?" To reposition and prepare for the longer-term world of work evolutions, leaders should consider two important factors. The Major Areas Of Change To Focus On Looking ahead for the year, organizational leaders are taking stock of what they’ve learned from a time of constant, urgent change and unexpected external developments. They’re also wondering how they can ride the next curve of demand. What are the major areas of underlying change that future-focused leaders can track, interpret and use as a driver of innovation and competitive advantage? Societal changes mean the expectations and needs of customers and employees are evolving. Being ahead of the game will drive business resilience and growth, as well as ensure employers can be proactive in addressing skills and workforce challenges. Winning the retention and attraction game will always be important, but […]

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