CUSTOMERS DRIVING THEIR BUSINESS FORWARD

You have a new idea for a company and are in the process of getting it underway. Before you launch your business, though, one of the most important things you can do is conduct a competitive analysis. A competitive analysis lets you see what companies that might similar to yours are doing and how successful …

Whether you plan on taking your company public or want to sell it to another owner or business, you need to know how much your business is worth. Several factors can affect your company’s valuation. Some factors can be within your business’s control while others are largely dependent on market conditions around you. Take a …

When it launched in April 2020, demand for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans was high. After less than two weeks, the $349 billion initially allotted to the program was gone. The high demand led to an increase in the funding available, and later, a second draw period, during which companies that had received funds initially …

The CARES Act, passed in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, offered several forms of relief to businesses that might have been negatively affected by shutdowns and other pandemic-related limitations. One of the relief programs was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which offered small businesses loans to help them maintain their payroll through shutdowns. …

A few decades ago, many businesses didn’t need to think about cybersecurity or how to protect their data from hackers or other bad actors. There wasn’t the internet as it’s known today and many files were stored in a physical, rather than digital, format. Nowadays, even the smallest of businesses most likely uses a network …

Owning a business can be tough, but that doesn’t keep people from doing it year after year. As the New York Times reports, even in “good times,” one out of five businesses don’t make it past the first year. In a particularly challenging time, when unemployment is high and people are supposedly tightening their belts, is …

What does a company need to do to thrive and grow? You might think that increasing the size of its customer base, selling more of its products or services, and introducing new products are all keys to increasing profits. While it’s true that creating value is a crucial way for a company to set itself …

Whether they take place over Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or any of the other video conferencing platforms out there, video calls make remote meetings and conferences possible. They can also be more draining, physically and emotionally, than in-person meetings. As more and more people shifted to remote work as a result of the pandemic, …

The news that two vaccines against COVID-19 were approved for emergency use in the U.S. at the end of 2020 was welcomed by many. Although the initial rollout of the vaccines was slow, production and availability of each, as well as potential new vaccines, is expected to increase by spring of this year. The vaccines …

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in March 2020. The goal of the loan program was to provide much-needed funds to businesses, allowing them to keep their team employed and providing financial support for other business operations. The loans were guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business …

Around 20% of all small businesses in the U.S. are family-owned businesses, according to the Small Business Administration. A family-owned business is one that is operated by at least two members of the same family and one where the family has the majority of ownership control of the company. Just as things can get a …

As the owner of a business, you might already know all too well the expense involved in adding new members to your team. You might also be familiar with the cost of bringing on the wrong hire. Some estimate that bringing on a bad hire can cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. When money …