Matt Dunlap is Chief Operating Officer at Rise Brands , a leading brand-strategy firm based in Columbus, Ohio. getty During Covid-19 lockdowns, businesses everywhere found themselves on life support. Our company, once a fast-growing brand-strategy company, was one of them. In 2020, as shutdown orders spread far and wide, Rise Brands saw its sales plummet from $1 million a week to $0 . Headcount cratered, too, dropping from 550 employees to 25 in mere days. It was a hellish time for many small to mid-sized enterprises. Those that survived the pandemic were fortunate, even if they were also impaired. Now, even as life returns to something resembling normal, all companies must endure a new and daunting set of circumstances: a pending recession, rapid workforce turnover and waning consumer confidence. There’s no instruction booklet for this “ next normal ,” but businesses looking for an edge can borrow a page from our company. In 2022, our sales and staffing returned to (and now exceed) pre-pandemic levels. Getting back to growth took hard work. Fortunately, the company was able to lean on one distinct advantage: its background in branding. As the firm’s chief operating officer, I’ve found that many of the […]

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Founder of three-time "SEO Agency of the Year" finalist LSEO.com . Serial Entrepreneur. Best-Selling Author (over 100,000 books sold). getty In many ways, search engines are the great equalizers when it comes to business growth, brand awareness and audience reach. Web crawlers used by Google, Bing and their ilk don’t care how big or small your company is; in fact, in some cases, these companies actually place greater emphasis on boosting local small and medium-sized businesses rather than national enterprise businesses. The things that matter to search engines most are the same things that matter to consumers: How clearly and comprehensively can you answer a searcher’s query? How authoritative are you on a subject? Have other searchers found your information useful, or have they left your page quickly, never to return? Everybody wants to be No. 1 online. That means getting your webpages onto the first page of search results and, if possible, into that coveted top spot. For enterprise businesses, typically the best way to do that is to work closely with an SEO agency. But how do you determine which SEO agency is right for you? Know Your Goals What exactly do you need an SEO agency […]

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getty Artificial intelligence is here and it’s likely to become more prominent in the business world. The problem is most entrepreneurs don’t know how to identify what AI technologies their businesses need or how to effectively implement them for better revenue growth. Let’s face it: With the current rate of technological advancement, AI is quickly becoming a necessary tool for businesses to remain competitive and stay ahead of the curve in their respective industries. So, let’s get down to it. How Do You Identify What AI Technologies Your Business Needs? Take a moment to self-reflect. Not an hour, just a moment. During this self-reflection, think about this question. What do you want your business to help you achieve? A leader like you doesn’t simply want a successful business. That’s not your only goal. For the short term, that’s phenomenal; but long-term, I know you want something more. You want the same thing all entrepreneurs desire: freedom. Of course, this comes in a different flavor for everyone and presents itself in different ways. That doesn’t change the fact that you want to be able to do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whoever you want while still making unlimited […]

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The founders of Darlyng & Co. share how they built a successful line of parenting essentials with help from Amazon Lending. Getting a small business loan isn’t always easy. At least, that’s what Darlyng & Co . co-founder and CEO Tara Darnley says. She and her co-founder, Carl Darnley, have some advice for new business owners—and a success story. Read more They launched their first product in 2014, a popular infant teething mitten called the Yummy Mitt that was inspired by their daughter. Tara Darnley said that despite “skyrocketing” business growth, she ran into road blocks and hurdles when she approached traditional banks to pitch the product. Most lenders weren’t set up to support a small business like Darlyng & Co., and she needed to find an alternate source of funding to keep up with growing demand. Eventually, she found Amazon Lending, which focuses on a business’ sales performance over its credit history. Four years later, the business has continued to grow in both sales and number of products—and Darnley expects that growth to increase as they plan to go global. Darlyng & Co.’s success came from a combination of winning products, a focus on customers, and using available […]

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Colorado lawmakers passed the “Combating Business Identity Theft Act” taking a tougher stand against this fraud by organizing a system between the Secretary of State and Attorney General to track and investigate complaints. COLORADO SPRINGS — Here in Colorado the Secretary of State and Attorney General’s Office are teaming up to take a tougher stance against business identity theft going on in our state. A new state law has set requirements in place to track complaints, providing extra protection for consumers and small business owners. When somebody registers a business with the State of Colorado using someone else’s address, personal information, or modifies existing information for a business without permission, it’s business identity theft. It’s happening often enough in Colorado that lawmakers recently passed a bill signed into law by the governor establishing a complaint process to help investigate this fraud that can ruin someone’s credit and even shut down a business. ”So essentially taking the identity of that business and molding it into something else that is fraudulent,” said Adah Rodriguez of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado when asked to define the problem. She says small businesses in the Pikes Peak Region are often targeted by […]

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President & CEO of BBB National Programs , a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering a more accountable, trustworthy marketplace. getty While business, according to the new Edelman Trust Barometer , continues to gain trust around the world, those operating in the cryptocurrency industry are facing some stiff trust headwinds. Crypto is not just suffering due to the alleged malfeasance of Sam Bankman-Fried , but also due to the array of issues that the industry has brought upon itself in the past two years, particularly in the realm of social media . While many associate the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with regulating cryptocurrency in the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has an important role in enforcing consumer protection laws, requiring that all advertising be truthful and accurate and that influencers and spokespeople are transparent about when they are compensated for things like reviews or endorsements. According to December 2022 reporting from Bloomberg and others, the FTC is probing several crypto firms over allegations their advertisements were deceptive or misleading. For example, cryptocurrency exchange FTX is charged with investors making false advertising claims. And in November, the National Advertising Division of my organization, BBB National Programs, brought a case […]

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Rabiul Islam is a seasoned cybersecurity specialist. He is also the founder, CEO and managing director of TechForing Ltd . getty The world of cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and businesses must do their best to stay up to date with the latest and best practices to protect their data. One such approach is the concept of zero trust, which involves a multilayered, holistic approach to ensure complete security. In this article, you’ll get an overview of what zero trust is, the benefits of zero trust, the challenges and elements of zero trust and how to develop and implement a zero-trust approach to your business. The Definition Of Zero Trust Zero trust is a modern strategic cybersecurity approach that secures an organization’s data by continuously validating every single stage of digital interactions. It doesn’t matter who’s trying to gain access to critical information, zero trust states that all implicit trust must be eliminated and all users must verify their identity in every single stage of a digital interaction. Zero trust treats all the incoming connections as untrusted and potentially hostile. If an organization adopts a zero-trust approach, it needs to integrate security into every layer of that organization’s IT infrastructure […]

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getty It’s essential for the success and expansion of a company to choose the most appropriate business model. This model will effectively lay the groundwork for a company’s overall strategy as well as its day-to-day operations. It will prove crucial to determining the course for how a firm generates, delivers and retains value for its customers. Yet with so many options to pick from, it may can be difficult to identify which business model works best for your startup. Here are six strategies I recommend to help leaders choose the appropriate business model for their own company. 1. Determine the value your solution provides to the market segment you are targeting. Identifying the benefits your solution has for your customer and audience is the first step. Knowing your target market’s wants, goals and pain areas is essential, as is familiarity with the alternatives in the market. Using this data, you can zero in on a business model that is a good fit for the intended clientele as well as the services you want to provide. The model’s scalability, profitability and the resources needed for launch and maintenance are just a few other crucial considerations. The best business strategy will […]

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Mahesh Bellie is a Fractional CMO and Business Storytelling coach whose work lies at the intersection of Technology, Consulting & Marketing. getty Relentless communication is one of the key traits exhibited by leaders in highly innovative organizations. These leaders provide clarity, purpose and direction to employees to bring valuable ideas to life. When leadership communication is at its best, so is innovation, as Alex Goryachev, former Head of Global Innovation Programs and Strategy at Cisco and one of the foremost speakers on innovation, argues . However, while most leaders comprehend this need, the communication needs of the employees—often the originators of ideas—have tended to take a back seat. In my work, I have seen far too many good ideas face rejection because of employees’ lack of articulation skills. The negative effects of this situation cannot be understated. With inadequate information, leaders neither pursue the ideas nor provide logical reasons to reject them. Employees perceive the exercise as eyewash and feel demotivated, and the negative spiral that ensues effectively halts any attempt to bring about a culture of innovation. What organizations need is a robust yet flexible communication framework to ensure that good ideas are not lost in translation. The […]

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Karla Dennis, EA, MST & CEO of The Award Winning Tax Accounting Firm, Karla Dennis and Associates Inc. —Specializing In Tax Planning. getty One of the most difficult things for service industry businesses is to figure out how to price their services. By “a service,” I mean when you are physically doing something for someone. How do you price that? Here are three common pricing models for service businesses and some factors to consider when pricing your business services. Hourly Pricing Model When you are pricing your services, it’s so important for you to understand the mindset of the person you’re doing business with. By this, I mean that depending on what type of business you have, most of your customers likely have a job. They may be paid hourly, so they may be thinking that you should price your services hourly. However, keep in mind that if you are pricing your services hourly, you’re exchanging time for dollars. There are only so many hours in the day, so you are automatically putting a ceiling on how much money you can make. The hourly pricing model could do well, however, for businesses that are just starting and do not […]

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