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It’s easy to think because you have a small to medium-size business, cybercriminals will pass over attacking your company. The “not much to steal” mindset is common with small business owners in regards to cyber security, but it is also completely incorrect.

In reality, the U.S. Congressional Small Business Committee found that 71 percent of cyber-attacks happened at businesses with less than 100 employees. Even more concerning, the 2016 State of SMB CyberSecurity Report by Ponemon and @Keeperfound that 50 percent of SMBs have had a security breach in the past year.  But why are small businesses attacked more often than larger businesses? Read more……

While you hear the term more in relation to for-profit businesses, branding is an important element of success for nonprofit organizations too. Your brand is what people think about when they think of your nonprofit. This impacts your public image, your engagement, and your fundraising efforts. Brand management is the work you do to influence and shape the way your organization is perceived.

Nonprofits do have a different purpose than for-profits, but there are many brand strategies that apply to both sides. The following brand strategies can help you forge new relationships and strengthen the ones you already have. You may even be employing one or more already. Read more……

What comes to mind when you think of nonprofit strategy? Multi-day retreats? Long, dry, planning documents that are unfrequently read? SWOT analyses? Heady jargon?  These “pain points” sometimes discourage nonprofits from dedicating resources to strategic planning. Other organizations may undergo a strategic planning process, but fail to operationalize the plan.

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Most small businesses face competition from much larger players with big advertising budgets and recognizable brand names. Your company may offer unique goods or services, but it’s hard to get noticed when your rivals have a long track record, better locations and more money to spend.

Hard, however, does not mean impossible. You can get attention for your company without spending big bucks. By being smart, becoming a part of the community and spending your dollars wisely, you can get attention for your small business.  Read more……

Branding is essential for startups that want to compete and come out on top of their competitors. Yet even if you have the greatest product, a poor brand image could spell disaster for your sales.

Some of the biggest companies in the world have been involved in epic branding disasters. For example, in 1982, Colgate decided to get in on the frozen food trend and came out with their own line of frozen entrees called Colgate Kitchen Entrees. As a highly successful company, Colgate figured they would do well, but people didn’t want to buy food associated with toothpaste and the line failed. Luckily, Colgate was already established enough to bounce back from this branding mistake but your startup won’t necessarily fare the same. Read more……

Unless you are an accountant or a fan of working with numbers, bookkeeping is probably not your favourite task. But adopting some good habits early can help you avoid costly errors when it comes to record keeping.

You probably keep a lot of the financial details of your business in your head: which supplier you need to pay, which customers are outstanding, etc. It’s understandable to do it this way, you won’t need to learn a new software, there is no danger of a system crash that loses all your data, and you can tweak your budget as often as you need without sitting down at a desk.  However,  Read more……

Finance and accounting are topics that many small business owners dread, but a better understanding of them can help you spot what’s going well and what needs improvement in your business.  Learn these key principles and you’ll more effectively manage your business, despite the fear that comes with spreadsheets and pages full of numbers.  Read more……

Treats from her bakery Whisked, then based out of a Washington, D.C., incubator for food startups, sold so well in the first store that more stores started calling. Huntsberger’s products would eventually be sold in about 15 Whole Foods locations, and she had to move into a bigger space in order to meet the demand.  Then, last summer, Amazon (AMZN) took over. Read more……