Posted on July - 24 - 2011
No, its not a typo. I am referring to death caused by social media and not whether social media died already or not. We all know that social media is alive and well, in fact it is on another tab on my browser. People from all walks of life spanning different continents are socially active for various reasons.
Business owners, PR managers and marketing gurus have wisely used social media as a platform to increase visibility, readership, their fan base and even sales. Interacting with like-minded people are just a click and several keyboard strokes away. However this interaction, if taken the wrong way, may lead to ruin and it might even cause the demise of your business.
If you arent that familiar with the many shapes and forms of social media, chances are you havent been in the business long enough.
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Posted on July - 21 - 2011
A young e-commerce company has a lot of issues to deal with from product sourcing to pricing, marketing, payment processing, and order fulfilment. Handling all of these areas in-house is certainly possible for a small business, but as a company grows it starts to make sense to outsource certain areas especially contract packing and internet fulfilment services.
Many big companies handle their own order processing with a special division for internet fulfilment services. They are able to do this because the economies of scale kick in once a company reaches a certain size. For smaller companies, however, it doesnt make sense to have to worry about packing, warehousing, and all the other expenses associated with order fulfilment. Paying a contract packing company to handle all this for you can be cheaper.
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Posted on July - 20 - 2011
Ideally wed all love to start our small businesses with unlimited funds but thats a very unrealistic dream. Suddenly you wake up and realize that you have a very tiny budget to get your business off of the ground. Then you start scurrying around trying to make the most of your small start-up budget.
If this scenario sounds like something you may be experiencing right now, then youre in luck. Ive got just the right podcast interview for you to listen to. Its a 30 minute conversation between Brent Leary and Bobbye Brooks & Tonilee Adamson, Co-Founders of Media 4 Women Enterprises.
Bobbye Brooks & Tonilee Adamson are entrepreneurs with a desire to help people learn how to start and grow a successful business – particularly women. Media
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Posted on July - 12 - 2011
Being a CEO of any business is not a walk in the park. Leadership is more than just sitting behind a desk all day, preparing action plans for employee misdemeanors and clocking out at 6. Tenured employees may know all about business operations but tenure is just one of the factors to be considered for a managerial position.
While it takes time to make any one person a leader, there are some born with the qualities inherent in being an effective business leader. Aside from leadership styles, it is the leadership qualities of a CEO, a manager, a supervisor even, which sets a mediocre operation apart from a thriving, successful business.
Lets take a look at some of the lessons we can learn from the CEOs of corporate giants who created their own mold of greatness instead of trying to fit into traditional methods in the business industry.
Lesson #1: Practice Prudence
Warren Buffet has received several honors and awards from the public.
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Posted on July - 09 - 2011
For years Ive been looking for a free way to transcribe my voice memos to text. I dont get my best ideas in the showerrather I get them while listening to audiobooks while mowing the lawn or driving in the car.
There are a number of programs, services and apps that offer voice to text transcriptions, but none of them were exactly what I was looking for.
Leaving messages for my future self on my company voicemail works, but I have to wait for the outbound message to play and theres no transcription service. QuickVoice for the iPhone has transcription service, but only on messages less than :30.
Then I found out that Google Voice offers free transcription service (among many other features.) I visited and got my free phone number. (Sadly, nothing was available in the 207 area code.) The whole process took about 2 minutes.
I then added my new number to my speed dial and called myself, leaving a message.
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