Small business alternatives to layoffs
Companies large and small are searching for ways to cut costs and many are slashing jobs at all levels. A survey released in July of this year by PayCycle, a Palo Alto, California-based online payroll service, reports that almost half – a staggering 47%-- of small businesses are reducing their payrolls in a variety of ways. Here are some alternatives to laying off your loyal team.

Women, are you being paid less? Learn to speak up.
Times have changed, but we have a long way to go to truly reach pay equity. Unfortunately, according to a survey recently released by CareerBuilder, roughly one third (34%) of women believe they are being paid less than their male counterparts. 

How can a small business on a limited budget go green?
Of course there are costs associated with going “green”, as recycled products are often more expensive than their counterparts.  Here are some steps a small business on a limited budget can take to go green.

Keeping politics out of the workplace
A political discussion is a wonderful thing—with friends. But it has no place in the office.  Do your employees know where to draw the line?

Benefits of hiring a point of sale system
Buying a point-of-sale (POS) system may seem like an unnecessary expense, but if you look closer, you’ll find obvious rewards. In this blog, I list a few of the benefits you’ll reap just by selecting the right point of sale system for your retail business.

Hiring seasonal help
The search for seasonal staff is already in full swing. Here are a few ways to fill your staffing quota this holiday season...

Hefty penalties: charging employees for being overweight
Alabama wants to charge employees for bad health habits, and is going to start penalizing obese people come 2010. It doesn’t make any sense, no matter how you look at it. 

Navigating creative transitions
I attended a conference targeted toward creative professionals, who were divided into three tracks—print, interactive, and video.  Creative professionals have an increasingly holistic attitude toward media these days and even print, which is not the hippest medium in the world, is still respected and looked at "as needed.” What medium/media is/are needed for a given marketing campaign to attract a sizable audience fitting the desired demographics?

Choosing a printer for 1:1 application: Part 1
In these posts, we’ve talked a lot about the variety of digital production methods and how they can be used to transform your marketing through today’s powerful just-in-time, personalized, and customized print applications. But how do you choose a printer to produce them?

Direct marketing vs database marketing: what you don't know could hurt you
The evolution from direct marketing to database marketing started happening back in the late 1990s and evolved based on customer demand.  Meeting that need is the difference between growing your company from a small business to the $50 million mark.  Dell built their reputation on it.  Do you understand the difference?

When you're having trouble delegating
There is more to delegating than handing over the tasks you'd rather not do yourself.  It's a combination of giving specific tasks to your team that have a goal, as well as encouraging then to learn new skills, reach beyond what they think they have the knowledge to complete, and staying ahead of what's happening in their job space.  But how do you delegate appropriately?

What are your features and benefits?
One of the hardest part about your marketing verbiage and web site content is making these two work for you. What's the difference?

What does it take to be a great sales manager?
Over the past several months I have been asked by numerous people “What does it take to be a great sales manager?” It is detailing a basic understanding of the concept of sales management...

How could we have reached an agreement and still have opposite views?
It is my experience that if every time you are close to reaching a settlement between opposing family members, those agreements disintegrate time and time again.  There were too many conditions put upon acceptance. A family is all about unconditional love. A business is all about what have you done for me lately?  So what do you do?

How can you achieve the win/win when your family is at war?
You’re standing at the precipice of resolution – a hair’s breathe away from putting all of the conflict you have endured behind you and creating a new vision of the future: a family reunited and commitment to succession for the family business. And then, everyone gets cold feet, backs away from the table and digs their heels in to their original postures. What happened? Why? Whose fault is it?

Are business assets splitting your family apart?
My family has been battling with each other for the last several years as to how to manage and share assets related to our family business. Issues have now escalated where legal action has been initiated. Is there any way we can avoid this and find a peaceful solution?