Fwd: 5 ways to improve sales without breaking the bank

For your added knowledge and skills. Focus on the sales

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From: SmartBrief on Small Business <smallbusiness@smartbrief.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Subject: 5 ways to improve sales without breaking the bank

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February 10, 2012 CONNECT WITH SMARTBRIEF Share | Sign up | Archive | Advertise Problem. Solved.  Survival and growth tips for micro-businesses If you're running a micro-business -- an enterprise with no more than five employees and $250,000 in sales -- it's important to fit your operation to your ideal lifestyle, according to Dal LaMagna, author of a recent business book. Consider factors such as when and where you want to work. Also, be careful with your money and be sure to maintain written agreements with your clients. Startup Professionals Musings blog (2/9)      Organizational Privacy Architecture and Assessment This checklist for Ecommerce, Web Development and Design, and Direct Marketing professionals enables you to gauge your organization's privacy compliance and best practice levels. Thousands of companies leave the intricacies of privacy management to TRUSTe, the 13-year-old leader in online privacy. Gain an overview of the program today. Marketing  Take advantage of the benefits of marketing your business on LinkedIn LinkedIn isn't always the most thrilling social network, but it can be useful for small businesses, Lisa Barone writes. To get started, create or claim a page for your company, and fill out the profile information. You can attract followers to your page by sharing relevant content, networking with other companies in your field and taking part in discussion groups on the site, she writes. Small Business Trends (2/8)      5 ways to improve sales without breaking the bank Boosting your company's sales doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, writes Suzanne Paling. A number of tactics -- including complimenting your salespeople, changing your approach to meetings and creating lists of the top accounts -- can all help to drive sales, she writes. Entrepreneur.com (2/8)      See how Cardmembers use American Express OPEN Cards to help run their business: "The Plum Card helps me keep my edge by offering me different options to manage my cash flow." - Dale Laszig, DSL Direct, LLC With The Plum Card from American Express OPEN: •Get 1.5% discount when you pay in full within 10 days of your bill's due date •OR take up to 2 months to pay your balance without interest when you pay 10% of your balance by the date on your statement LEARN MORE & APPLY Management  How to get more done by meeting less Unnecessary meetings can drag down the productivity of your company, Carol Tice writes. Limit the length of your meetings and make sure the agendas are narrowly focused. Also look for ways to avoid meetings altogether such as by sending out memos that impart necessary information, she advises. Entrepreneur.com/The Daily Dose blog (2/8)      Why you should trust your employees to work a flexible schedule Think twice before laying out a rigid schedule for your employees, Margaret Heffernan writes. "[O]nce you have rules, you have to enforce them -- and there's no more tedious task in life." Heffernan explains how she and her business have succeeded by giving employees more scheduling flexibility. Inc.com/Serial CEO (2/6)      Money  5 tips for easing the pain of tax season Keeping your financial records in order throughout the year can save you money and make tax season less of a hassle, said Elizabeth Milito of the National Federation of Independent Business. "Come tax time, you don't want to be dumping loose papers and receipts on your CPA's desk and saying, 'Have at it,'" she said. Among her other tax tips are to familiarize yourself with available deductions and to be aware of behaviors that could lead to audits. Fox Business Small Business Center (2/8)      Don't miss out on these often-overlooked tax deductions Many Americans pay more than they have to on their taxes because they don't take full advantage of available deductions and credits. To avoid overpaying, you should be aware of small-business deductions such as those for companies that pay for health care or have acquired assets. BPlans.com/Up and Running Blog (2/7)      Tips & Tools  8 signs your blog's got spam Blogs, especially popular ones, often have to deal with "comment spam" -- comments designed to drive traffic to another website. To weed out these messages, remove comments that are off-topic or that contain unrelated links, Angela West writes. Using a comment spam blocker such as Akismet or CommentLuv Premium can also help. PC World Business Center/BizFeed blog (2/8)      How to conserve battery power and keep your mobile devices going strong Tweaking the settings on your mobile devices can help to preserve battery life, Jonathan Blum writes. Limiting your use of location-based applications and turning off automatic e-mail retrieval help to keep your devices running longer. Also consider using car chargers and portable power sources, he recommends. Entrepreneur.com (2/9)      Featured Content  Small Business Week in Review OPEN Forum Editors Would You Fire Someone for Pumping Breast Milk? Courtney Rubin How Do New Lead Laws Affect Your Bottom Line? Mark Di Vincenzo Would You Give Your Employees All Your Money? Alexandra Levit Just for Fun  U.K. students cause police scare while shooting a zombie movie Police were called in a United Kingdom town after people saw someone carrying what appeared to be a gun. Officers cordoned off part of the town before discovering that college students were making a zombie movie and the gun was just a toy. "Strong words of advice were given to the group of students," a police spokesman said. The Telegraph (London) (2/9)      SmartQuote  The basic fact is that while workers are in meetings, they are not accomplishing their work." --Carol Tice, CEO and janitor of TiceWrites, writing at Entrepreneur.com      SmartBrief delivers need-to-know news in over 100 targeted email newsletters to over 3 million readers. All our industry briefings are FREE and open to everyone—sign up today! Accounting Advertising Automotive Aviation & Aerospace Biotechnology Business Chemicals Construction & Real Estate Consumer Packaged Goods Distribution Education Energy Finance Food Service Health Care Insurance Legal Manufacturing Media & Entertainment Nonprofit Retail Technology Telecommunications Travel & Hospitality This SmartBrief was created for profjorge.entrep@gmail.com John Jantsch, Editor at Large John Jantsch is author of "Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide" and "The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself." John is a marketing and digital technology coach and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small-business marketing system. Subscriber Tools SIGNUP SEND FEEDBACK E-MAIL THIS BRIEF Today's Brief - Permalink | Update account information | Change e-mail address | Unsubscribe | Print friendly format | Web version | Privacy policy Advertise Sales Director:  Tom O'Brien (212) 450-1679 Download Media Kit SmartBrief Community: Most Clicked Facebook Twitter Publish your Press Release LinkedIn Get this RSS Feed Search Archive About Download a SmartBrief Mobile app today Recent SmartBrief on Small Business Issues: Thursday, February 09, 2012 Wednesday, February 08, 2012 Tuesday, February 07, 2012 Monday, February 06, 2012 Friday, February 03, 2012 Lead Editor:  Brooke Howell Editor at Large: John Jantsch       Mailing Address: SmartBrief, Inc.®, 555 11th ST NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004 © 1999-2012 SmartBrief, Inc.® Legal Information

 

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