Lazy. Entitled. Narcissistic. Unreliable. Delusional. Shallow. These are just a few of the terms that have been used over and over and over again to describe the millennial generation. This demographic cohort, widely accepted as people born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s, has been studied and discussed since the term “millennial” was first coined in 1989 by authors Neil Howe and William Strauss. But the surge of research, articles and reports about millennials over the last decade — mostly published by Gen Xers and baby boomers — all seem to draw a lot of the same conclusions: Individuals of this generation are immature, selfish and don’t want to work as hard as their parents and grandparents did. Read More……
Just about every business has some means of tracking its own performance — sales numbers, social media engagement, marketing leads, etc. It’s the best way to see how you’re actually doing compared to where you should or want to be. The same goes for your employees. A formal performance management program helps managers and their employees see eye-to-eye on expectations, goals and career progress, and how those things align with the company’s vision. Performance management begins with an aligned set of objectives against which each employee can be measured. It also emphasizes learning and development for a higher level of workplace performance. Each employee should be motivated to improve his or her skills, competencies, development and delivery of results. Read More…...
One of the most significant changes under tax reform is the tax treatment of businesses. Unlike changes to the individual tax scheme, which are temporary and somewhat piecemeal, the changes to the business tax scheme are permanent and fairly comprehensive. It would be impossible to address all of the changes so I’m focusing on what I’ve been asked about most: how the new rules will affect pass-through entities and small businesses. Corporate tax rates, like individual tax rates, are progressive. For 2017, corporate rates range from 15% to 39% (except for personal service corporations which are taxed at 35%) while individual tax rates range from 10% to 39.6%. While the brackets vary, the rates for individuals and corporations are pretty closely aligned. Read more……
A provision in the new tax law allows sole proprietors — along with owners of partnerships or other pass-through entities — to deduct 20 percent of their revenue from their taxable income. The new tax law is likely to accelerate a hotly disputed trend in the U.S. economy by rewarding workers who sever formal relationships with their employers and become contractors. Management consultants soon may strike out on their own, and stockbrokers may hang out their own shingle. Read more……
An effective sales strategy should be a priority of every business driven by a culture of sales. Put bluntly, the right sales practices will help a company achieve its goals and thrive. The trick is knowing what the best sales practices are and then applying them to your day-to-day business operations. Fortunately help is at hand with the following 20 sales best practices that will help your company reach its goals. Read more……
Running and scaling a business will always be challenging. But having a solid foundation of smoothly operating practices underlying your company can make it much easier. To find out how successful entrepreneurs were building their operations, we asked 13 founders from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question: ” As a business owner, what do you feel is most important when it comes to building solid small business operation?” Here’s what YEC community members had to say: Read more……
Here’s what YEC community members had to say:
Could your business recover from an abrupt loss of $256,000? Because that’s how much a single cybersecurity hack could cost a small business, according to a recent analysis in Tech Republic. We’re barely halfway through 2017 and already this year has seen a huge spike in major cybersecurity attacks. Ransomware infections attacked the US pharmaceutical company Merck and the Danish shipping company Maersk. There have been viral, state-sponsored ransomware leaks of US spy agencies and a ransomware attack that crippled NHS hospitals and emergency rooms in the UK. Enigma Software, the makers of the SpyHunter anti-malware program, found there were more than 1.5 million infections detected in the first half of 2017, and the number could be even higher in the second half of the year. Major hacks, ransomware and phishing are all on the rise. Yet many small business owners continue to mistakenly believe their company won’t be a target. Read more……
Online threats are on everyone’s minds after this week’s breach at OneLogin. The identity and access management company with over 2,000 enterprise clients was hacked, and the fallout isn’t over. During the security breach, private information about users, apps, and various keys may have been obtained by the still unknown hackers. All we currently know is what OneLogin has announced on their company blog: data may have been collected and the hacker or hackers may have figured out a way to decrypt data. If you’re not sure what all this means you’re not alone, many entrepreneurs don’t realize that small businesses are just as at risk for cyberattacks as larger companies, but they are. Read more……
Marketing has always been a shifting and evolving landscape and increasingly technology is leading the way when it comes to reaching consumers. It’s important to stay ahead of the trends and take advantage of new marketing opportunities as they emerge. As we look forward to 2018, here are some emerging marketing trends to consider putting into action. Read more……
Out of all the benefits of working in the cloud, one of the biggest, increased productivity, is also one of the hardest to quantify. A large part of that is because both the time and money saved can be more easily measured while productivity is a trickier metric to pin down. That said, there are some very real ways that the cloud can boost employee productivity and, if you’re mulling over whether to move your small business into the cloud or not, the points listed below might just tip the scale to the “yes migrate” side. Read more……
