**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

These days, employers more often than not are performing a search in one or more search engines for information on prospective candidates. In fact, according to one study, a good 81% of employers are doing so, so wouldn’t it make good sense for you to do the same prior to going into business with someone?

Here, we cite a few reasons why this is a very good idea!

Verifying Information Shared

You want to confirm that you can trust the individual with whom you will be doing business. Make sure that any educational, professional, and other claims that this person has made are true by performing a search on this information.

You will not only be entrusting your livelihood to this individual, but also your own reputation. If you find information that does not seem consistent with what you have been told, be sure to prod further with the person. Trust is everything in business.

Missing Information

You might find that the individual has conveniently left out important information about his/her past. Legal issues could be discovered online, as could complaints from previous employees or employers, or even customers. Sometimes what people omit from an interview can be incredibly important information to know, and you’ll want to be sure to ask any and all questions that you have if you are feeling misguided in any way.

Every potential business partner merits investigation, no matter how trustworthy they seem!

Cultural fit

You are going to be spending many, many waking hours with your new business partner. It is critically important that you can work together nicely. If you find online that the individual displays behavior that is inappropriate in forums or other media, or perhaps has complaints lodged against him or her from former employees or friends, it is well worth considering whether this is someone you want to shed blood, sweat, and tears with. Is that foxhole going to be lonely or uncomfortable?

Make sure your future business partner is a good cultural fit – you will go through a lot together!

At the end of the day, running a business with someone is all about being able to trust one another and work together under extremely stressful circumstances at times. You need to be sure you know what you are getting before you commit to something as major as starting a business together, so definitely do that online research before making any decisions.

About the Author:

Cara Aley is a freelance writer who covers a wide variety of topics from how to manage your online reputation to health and wellness to digital marketing strategies.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

With the recent boom in social media, touch screen technology is advancing to meet user’s networking needs and assist in marketing for businesses. Millions of people use popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis, creating an effective platform for businesses to communicate with their audience.

The growth of interactive kiosks is becoming evident in a wide range of sectors. With social media being used in conjunction with kiosks, businesses are given another level of marketing. For example, photo kiosks are becoming the new phenomenon in events and venues to invite users to be active in spreading brand awareness.

Groups of people interact with the touch screen kiosk, take photos and share them online via social media sites. The photos are then commented on, liked and shared across the web broadly spreading the brand’s image. Using an audience as a marketing tool is becoming a common strategy for businesses and the integration between social networking and technology presents the ideal solution.

Digital signage is utilising social media in large retail spaces to provide shoppers with a live stream of information, which can constantly be updated. Businesses and retailers can benefit from this as it provides an opportunity for advertising products and promotions. Publicly displaying a live feed from social networks can also provide opinions and comments from shoppers that can also work as user-generated marketing. Digital signage is also used to drive traffic into shopping centres.

Mobile devices are beginning to converge with interactive kiosks to reach greater online capabilities. This integration opens up opportunities to connect to social networks and encourage sharing online. In retail, wayfinding kiosks are coming together with tablets, iPads and Smartphones to allow users to access a digital map and link to a business’s Facebook page.

More than ever, businesses should be capitalising on touch screen systems and social media to boost marketing effectiveness, maximise online presence and raise their profile.

About the Author:

Rebecca Smith is a freelance key content writer for Protouch UK, commenting on news, developments and trends in the touch screen kiosk industry. Protouch specialise in kiosks and touch screens, touch screen kiosks, touch screen monitors and kiosk ticket machines.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

Hiring a live virtual receptionist service — one that will save you money and help grow your business — could be your best business move for the New Year.

For some businesses, an onsite receptionist and the costs that come with one just don’t make sense. And still, such businesses need the professional impression of a bright, cheerful receptionist as much as any other. This is precisely why virtual receptionist services came into existence. These services are designed specifically to free small businesses from the burden of hefty in-house receptionist costs so they can focus their energy and funds on growing their business, enriching their image and expanding their reach.

A virtual receptionist service can make friendly, professional first impressions for your business while supporting your company’s bottom line. For only a fraction of what an onsite receptionists costs, remote receptionist services use state-of-the-art technologies to tailor call-handling to meet your individual needs. Not to be confused with old school answering services, virtual receptionists give your callers the sense that they are speaking with someone who is physically located in your workspace. Whether you want callers transferred directly, given a specific message or sent to voicemail, they will carefully treat each caller as though he or she were a client of their own.

Remote receptionists are professionally trained to handle each unique call with care, sincerity and personality. In the business world, relationships mean everything. And a great receptionist – virtual or onsite – can cultivate those business relationships.

Using the most advanced technologies available today, virtual receptionists can transfer a call to wherever you are, in or out of the office. And for those times when you’d rather not take calls, a variety of customized messaging options are available, ranging from voicemail to email to text. However you’d like your calls handled, virtual receptionists will make great first impressions and set your business apart!

About the Author:

This post was contributed by Kevin Gillam, the Director of Marketing at Ruby Receptionists, a leading live virtual receptionist service in Portland, Oregon.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

Every year search engine optimisation gets more difficult.

With Google constantly changing the rules of the game, it is becoming almost impossible to keep up. Especially if you’re a small business owner without the time and resources to keep your eye on the ball.

If you want to keep ahead of the game, we’ve compiled a number of easy SEO tips that small businesses can start using today.

[image via]

Title Tags and Meta Data

The first step to optimising your website for the search engines is to make sure your title tags and meta data is present and correct.

Meta data is the hidden information about the pages on your website that the search engines ‘crawl’. This tells Google what the page is about, what it includes, and the keywords you’re trying to target.

The same goes for your title tags. These are the SEO titles you give your pages, and are often what appears on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

In terms of SEO, make sure that the meta data and title tags on each page are unique. This will help improve your natural SEO, and where you rank.

Optimized Copy

2012 brought with it a number of changes to the way we write for the web. In times gone by, SEOs would ‘stuff’ their website copy with keywords in a big to climb higher in the SERPs. Today, Google is penalising websites with poor quality so things have got to change.

In order to keep on the right side of the search engine, keep your optimised copy natural.

This means only including you keyword sparingly and above all naturally. If it only fits into your headline, introduction and conclusion – keep it that way. You can read some great tips for online copywriting here.

WordPress Plugins

The best way to make sure your onsite SEO is professional and natural, is to use a WordPress plugin. We have already written about WordPress being a great blogging platform for small business owners, and in terms of SEO nothing beats it.

Plugins such as Yoast SEO help you include all the data you need.

This means you’ll never need to worry you’ve forgotten any elements, as the plugin lays it all out for you. There are a whole host of similar plugins available, such as All in One SEO, so it is worthwhile experimenting to find the one that works best for you.

Google+ for Business

Have you done any searches on Google recently?

You may have noticed an increase in the number of Google+ local listings, as well as profiles being pulled in. The search engine is now placing more emphasis on websites that have an active Google+ presence.

Setting up an account is free, quick and really easy.

It may not be the biggest social media platform at the moment, but it is certainly growing. In terms of SEO, you should really create a profile and investigate how useful it can be when it comes to boosting your rankings.

Local Directory Links

Backlinks are an integral part of any small business SEO strategy. However, they’re not always easy to obtain.

To get the most out of backlinks, you should get your website listed with a number of local directories. Not only can your customers now find you easily, but your SEO efforts will be boosted. As long as the directory is relevant – and the link doesn’t scream of spam – you will certainly get a return on this investment.

Most directories are free, but some will charge. It’s worth investigating which route is best for you, your business, and your SEO efforts.

As we’ve seen, there are some ways to make SEO easy for your small business.

By following these steps and keeping things natural, you should be able to give your 2013 campaign a great kick-start.

About the Author:

Superdream is a leading digital agency, specialising in SEO and online marketing. To see how their expertise can help boost your business in 2013, check out their website.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

Many businesses get to a point in their growth process where they want to continue expanding, but just don’t yet have the revenue to hire excess staff. But, you’re at the point where having a few more staff members would definitely increase your revenue, so you may feel like you’re stuck in a catch-22.

You can’t grow without more staff, but yet you can’t afford to hire more staff to produce the growth you need.

So what can you do when you find yourself in this exact situation?

Fortunately you do have options. Let’s go over what a few of these may potentially be.

Maximize Your Existing Employee Skill Set

One thing that you may want to consider as you go about your growth period while trying to keep expenses down is to maximize your existing employee skill set.

Train your employees to take on new tasks you need them to or focus on making the more efficient. If you can get one employee carrying out tasks that would normally take two employees to do, you can make room for the extra tasks you need to get done.

Go Virtual

Going virtual is also a hot new method of decreasing expenses while still growing rapidly. You can hire for administration or secretarial assistance online, getting workers from all around the world. Often wages will be lower in their living location, so you can hire them for less than you would a local employee.

Virtual call answering services are also a good way of freeing up some of the time you spend.

Consider Interns

Finally, also consider hiring interns to get the extra work done. These individuals often trade their time for experience so it works out perfectly for both people involved.

You’ll get the extra help you need and they learn the roles they need to do for whatever educational program they are pursuing.

As an added benefit, after they are finished with their internship, you may just be able to hire them on as an employee and they will already be fully trained.

Consider Part-Time Employees

While you may not be able to hire someone full-time, consider hiring an employee part-time. You’ll have reduced costs in doing so but still get the extra help where you need it most.

Think about what is most important for you to maximize in order to get the growth happening that you need and place these employees in that area.

Hire People On Contract Or Freelance Basis

Take a look at your budget, could you consider hiring on a contract or freelance basis? This works great because you don’t have to pay additional costs often associated with having an employee, but can still get help when you need it.

And since these employees only work on a project to project basis, you can easily pick them up when you need them.

So there it is, the primary methods to consider that will help you grow your business without having to spend additional capital that you simply don’t have. Don’t let money stand in the way of your growth.

About the Author:

Joanne writes for www.alldaypa.com – a telephone answering service, helping to take stress off of peoples hands with the help of virtual offices and assistants. She has been researching many ways businesses can grow when budgets are low.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

No one goes into a marriage thinking they might divorce one day, but it eventually happens to about 50% of couples. Even though divorce is hard on everyone, it is more complicated for the divorcing couple who are business owners. A business is an asset that is subject to being divided, just like any other asset. Even if the couple worked together in the business, they will almost certainly not want to remain business partners post-divorce.† This means that the value of the business will need to be determined and somehow divided.

Below are some key principles that could impact help avoid some of the headaches of divorcing with a business.

Have a Premarital Agreement

While some people consider premarital agreements to show a lack of commitment, they sure are handy when you are going through a divorce.† This is nowhere more true than in the area of business ownership.† If you have a signed prenuptial agreement† that addresses your business, you could avoid a lot of problems. Of course, if you don’t already have one when you begin to have marital problems, it is a bit too late to be of any help.

Who Will Keep the Business?

Sometimes it is obvious to everyone who is the more indespensible player in the business, but not always.† Occasionally both parties are very involved with running the business and it must be determined who will stay and who will go.

What is the Value of the Business?

Once that determination is made the next step is to determine the value of the business.† Valuation of a business is an extremely inexact science.† In more complicated cases involving more valuable businesses the parties may each hire their own business valuation expert witness to testify in court as to their opinion on the businessís fair market value.

How Will the Spouse Leaving the Business Be Paid?

Another key issue (sometimes the biggest issue) is how the owner spouse will pay for the buy out of the non-owner spouse’s interest.† In a perfect scenario there would be other assets in the estate that could be used to offset that interest.† For example, if the business was worth a million dollars and the couple also had a brokerage account worth a million dollars then one spouse could take the business and the other could take the brokerage account.

Usually it is not this simple though.† The most common ways to address the buy-out terms include offset from other assets, promissory notes (either secured or unsecured), and alimony provisions.

About the Author

Scott Morgan is a board certified family law attorney for the Morgan Law Firm, a Houston Divorce Lawyer firm.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

The gap between small business and big business marketing is closing as the world gets smaller and smaller each day. Just a few years ago a small business had no means to reach the type of audience as a big business. Now the smallest business in the world can find a global market in no time flat. Using these three marketing skills, you can develop skills that will lead to great things for your business.

[image via]

Learn Adaptability

Going with the flow has always been a major part of marketing, and it always will be. However, in 2013 and beyond, adaptability will be more crucial than ever. We live in a constantly changing world, one with a ton more opportunities than your marketing ancestors had to contend with. Just keeping up with the new technology can be a headache.

Your audience is in a constant state of flux, and they’ve always got something else going on in their lives. They’re buying new phones and tablets, they’re trying out new areas of town, and they’re trying out new things because a friend from high school recommended it on Facebook. If you’re not taking advantage of all these things you’re missing out on potential sales.

Coca-Cola started out going door-to-door selling the drink to shops and anyone else who wanted it. It worked in the 1800s, sure, but sticking to that plan didn’t make them a worldwide brand. Changing with the times did.

Learn how to make videos, even if it’s just with your built in web cam. Get on Pinterest and Instagram. Learn the right way to run a Facebook sweepstakes while staying on the right side of the law. All of these things are marketing skills unique to the here and now. Time to adapt!

Storytelling

The age of the faceless business is coming to an end (if it hasn’t already). If you don’t have at least some web presence then many consumers get suspicious. Furthermore, if that web presence doesn’t include something about the company’s story, it can also further ostracize customers.

Don’t take this the wrong way – if you don’t have a good product or solid business practices you’ll be called on it, no matter how good your story is. But if you’ve worked hard on starting up your company – saving pennies and learning your trade over the years – people want to know about it. They love hearing success stories and yours is interesting, Don’t go off the deep end with it – make it short, snappy, and fun to read. No matter how great your story is nobody wants to read a novel before they buy your wares.

Figure Out Why People Need What You’re Selling

A long time ago I worked for a company that sold entertainment items – books, movies, music, etc. My manager Dave told me the greatness of the store was “we don’t sell anything here anybody actually needs.” Unfortunately, they went out of business a few years later.

I liked Dave but he was dead wrong on this approach. Sure, in a Pavlov’s Hierarchy of Needs-sense nobody needed the latest Backstreet Boys single. In a different sense, though, they absolutely did. There are many stories of people rushing into the store looking for a song they just heard on the radio they “have to have, right now.” Sounds like need to me!

Don’t think of the items you sell as “want vs. need.” Assume your customers need everything you’re selling. It may not be food or water, but they need it nonetheless. You just have to figure out why so you can remind them of that fact every so often.

About the Author

This guest post is brought to you by WePay, the easiest way to accept payments online. Sign up today for a free account!

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

Attempting to meet the needs of your customers through a one-size-fits-all model can only achieve so much. However, developing one that recognizes the unique differences that exists with your customers at different stages of the customer lifecycle will yield better results. In other words, the following stages of:

1. Acquisition
2. Service
3. Growth and
4. Retention

Is what makes up the entire customer lifecycle. And, each stage has its own needs, attitudes, as well as behaviors that must be taken care of.

The 4 Stages of Customer Lifecycle

Acquisition

At the stage of acquisition the goal should be to determine who the ideal customer of a business is. You see this simple act is important as it helps set a focus for marketing efforts. With the added benefits of saving costs as well as increasing acquisition investment return. Also, there is the need to segment these ideal customers into particular groups making use of predictive segmentation in order to serve them better.

Now newly acquired customers will need to be brought “on board.” That means they will need to be acquainted with a firm’s sales, support processes, service, and any other touch point that brings them in contact with your company. And, such information should be provided to them or made readily available on request. However, besides this putting in place a New Customer Welcome Survey should help determine behavioral and attitudinal drivers that brought them your way in the first place. Thus, revealing what is required to gain trust from new customers.

Service

High-level customer service will often generate high-level of customer attraction that will lead to higher retentions, which will result in greater profits. Conversely, too poor level of customer service will usually lead to poor levels of customers being attracted, which in turn will negatively impact a company’s bottom-line. This has been proven over and over again by several surveys held in the past. In one consumer survey Accenture reported that 46% of the US consumers surveyed indicated they had stopped having anything to do with a business due to poor customer service.

This obviously shows the importance of good quality customer service to keeping new as well as old customers. So this means that delivering value when it comes to service from the customer’s point of view is critical to a business’s success. Take note service from the customer’s standpoint not that of a company. If most of your customers believe your service is poor, then that is what it is. Correct this, and see your business blossom.

Grow

The development of a growing, as well as profitable customer-base is definitely required for success in business in today’s highly competitive plus economically difficult market environment. To achieve this, a business must be ready to attract plus keep profitable new clients, while maximizing revenue as well as profitability from already existing customers.

Okay ways that this can be achieved include preventing customer churn (both the exit of customers and the reduced patronage by existing ones), identifying and fulfilling customer needs according to segments, et al.

Retain

Retain represents the fourth and final stage in customer lifestyle cycle. Now by succeeding in the previous three stages a company should be well-endowed with loyal plus profitable customers. And, this leaves them with another challenge: how to retain them. Now although the ability of a company to attract plus keep new clients is known to be related to its service and product offerings.

Nevertheless, there are other factors, which do have an equally strong influence too. One has to do with the way existing clients are serviced, while the other is regarding the marketplace reputation created by the concerned company.

About the Author:

This post is contributed by Jason Phillips. He is a businessperson who loves to blog and for his field. He has a great knowledge about customer lifecycle and customer relations.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

The tech business is rapidly changing, from app companies spun off by the handful every day in Silicon Valley, to programming done round the clock in Asia and elsewhere, the landscape is incredibly fluid and new developments are felt almost instantaneously around the world.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of emerging younger tech leaders — some known, some perhaps not as well-known — who are impacting the tech landscape today. These younger entrepreneurs and executives are not only adapting to the relentless change of the tech world, but driving it, whether that means developing innovative new methods for logging into business bank accounts (as we saw from Google recently) or leading older companies into new markets. The selections include a cross section of companies, from new start-ups like Box to old giants like Microsoft. The selections also reflect today’s globalized climate, with three continents represented.

Tareq Hijazi, Country Manager for Oman and Bahrain, Microsoft

It was only within the past year that Hijazi was named Microsoft’s Country Manager for all of Oman and Bahrain. Hijazi is perhaps the perfect person to undertake the task of overseeing sales and marketing across all of Microsoft’s customer segments in this emerging part of the world, which is quickly rising to challenge more established neighbours like Dubai in the UAE. Hijazi, while still relatively young, is already a seasoned veteran on the international tech scene, with fifteen years of experience working in Information Technology across the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, from Lebanon to Malta.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 2001 as a Technology Specialist, Hijazi worked as an IT and Computer Aided Design (CAD) consultant with a number of international organizations, including the United Nations. Prior to his consultancy work, he was employed by a leading Middle Eastern architecture engineering firm. Recently Hijazi served as judge for Startup Weekend Bahrain, a competition for tech entrepreneurs. This flexibility, fluidity and varied experience across the region mirrors the career paths of other young workers in the industry, who may find his path inspiring; it also puts him in an excellent position to lead Microsoft’s operations in the region and bring some new ideas to the role.

Aaron Levie, Co-Founder & CEO, Box

Levie is one of the biggest names in cloud computing. The 27-year-old whiz kid, originally from Seattle, began his meteoric rise when he dropped out of his California university to found Box, a cloud-based file-sharing and content-management service for companies. Levie was blessed early on with angel funding from tech guru and wealthy venture capitalist, Mark Cuban in 2005; since then, Box has won multiple awards, including an Emerging Tech award and a WebWare 100 Award, amongst others.

What one online business magazine initially called a ‘ho-hum’ file-sharing idea has now, the magazine acknowledges, emerged into the next big thing in business collaboration, with Levie launching a program to get developers to write apps for Box, potentially turning the file-sharing software into its own ‘ecosystem’. Some are now asking if Box will soon offer an IPO.

Paul Joyce, Founder & CEO, Geckoboard

London-based Paul Joyce’s brainchild Geckoboard has been featured in the Observer and by tech websites around the Internet; it is now a publicly traded commodity, available after a 30-day free trial for anywhere between $9 to $19 (US) per screen, per month, available for the iPad, Smartphones and just about any other mobile device. But what is it?

Joyce has called it ‘Chartbeat for everything else’, but in plainer terms, it’s a real-time stats board for businesses, one that allows decision-makers to monitor their company’s vital signs in real time from a single dashboard. This includes real-time Web analytics and sales figures, and it supports existing services, allowing you to fuse together information streams from project-management software like Basecamp, Web analytics programs like Chartbeat, social media from Twitter and email marketing information from services like MailChimp.

About the Author:

Julie Cheung has a keen interest in personal finance and investment. She can be found regularly contributing her thoughts on various blogs and also on Twitter at @juliecheung.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.

What Small Business Consultants Do

To begin with, small business consultants know and comprehend your business. Normally, its the business owner who knows everything about his or her business. Because of this reason, business consultants take their time to learn from the owner of the business and key employees what the business entails.

A business consultant can only begin helping you when he or she completely understands your business. They identify opportunities which have not been discovered by the business owner and problems that affect the business. They bring an open mind, fresh experience and fresh eyes to your business as opposed people who have been running the business for some time.

After business consultants have identified the opportunities and problems of a business, they then analyze the information that they have gathered to enable them provide solutions for your business and strategize for your business to be successful in future. This will maximize your profits and minimize your expenditure.

Hiring a Business Consultant

Regardless of the type of business you are having, hiring a business consultant is the best thing you can do if by any chance your business is being affected by fast growing competition and a slow economy. As much as the economy today is bleak, it shows signs of growth. You should not only seek consultancy services your business is failing, but also if it is doing well. This will help in accelerating the rate at which your business is growing. To stop other businesses from making profits from your clients, here are some reasons why you should hire a small business consultant.

The Hiring Process

To begin with, when you hire a business consultant, you will be hiring an experienced expert in a variety of business aspects. This is of great importance since it will bring your business a new perspective. This will be in terms of obtaining finance, operation analysis, management consulting, strategic planning etc. As you can see, a business consultant can turn a failing business round in to a profitable one which will be able to dominate the market.

A business consultant will also help you in getting ahead of the competition. The consultant can assist your business gain edge over the competition making it be outstanding from the rest. Consultancy services will help you assess how the current market is, research about the competition and lastly to strategically placing your business ahead of the others. This will help your business grow since you will be connecting with many clients, suppliers as well as networks efficiently.

Another reason for hiring a business consultant is that he or she can increase profits by conversion of sales. You can get advice on how to convert the leads to will get into confirmed sales.

Lastly, every business requires expansion and growth and a business consultant will give your business the exposure it requires. For example, a consultant may help create a site that is not only good looking but also ranked high in search engines.

About the Author:

Kerry Blake is contributor to several forums and blogs. Currently writing for Compass Concepts – business consultants from Brisbane.