Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have struggled to survive.  But for some, the pandemic has provided an opportunity to thrive.    Garden Connections is one of those businesses. “COVID-19 was a game-changer for us,” says Fred Hann, owner...

When you’re a business owner, your best lessons often come from two places:  failure or wise words from leaders who have been there. There are going to be unavoidable ups and downs in every career, but taking advice from leaders who have already learned some lessons...

How active should a CEO be in directing and/or promoting marketing efforts within his or her organisation? Larger companies generally have a chief marketing officer at the helm to strategise and oversee marketing campaigns, inbound and outbound marketing, content...

This is a high-level summary of our key findings from the February 2017 Small Business Pulse Survey. This survey concentrated on What It Means to Be A Leader in 2017. Hundreds of entrepreneurs were surveyed to measure their outlook for the year ahead and to find out...

Just how well do your sales and marketing teams interact? Can you point to tangible achievements as a result of close sales/marketing collaboration? Or is the situation more akin to military platoons advancing with little or no contact with one another? In fact, many...

Are you ready to make your content more effective when it comes to real conversion data? Don't worry, content ROI is certainly out there – and we have the tactics you need to tap into it. Calls to Action This step is very, very obvious, but we need to mention it...

Owning your own business can be a time-consuming undertaking. And despite many of us wishing for more hours in the day, time is finite. Everything we choose to spend time on comes at the expense of something else we will not have time to do.   To aid in the constant...

While every business owner has their own story about how they got started in business, if there’s one thing we all share in common, it’s that we hope our business succeeds. When many of us began our entrepreneurial journey, we dreamt big and had a vision of where we...

If you’ve never thought of your finance and accounting departments as profit centres, you are not alone. In my experience, most companies do not do a great job of planning for how their accounting functions will support their profitability instead of operating simply...

As Winston Churchill said, “All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.” Being a leader comes with a lot of responsibilities and pressures. Not only are you accountable for your business’s success, but you also have to maintain a positive work...

Content marketing continues to serve as a key marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. Those businesses that make a commitment to provide informative and useful content build a stronger bond with their target audiences, leading to greater sales and enhanced...

It’s a safe bet that most of your customers are active on social media. Therefore, it stands to reason that your marketing efforts should include reaching out to existing and prospective customers on various social media platforms. But this form of marketing differs...

Fewer customers, fewer sales, decreased revenue streams. These conditions are familiar to virtually all CEOs and small business owners during this time of crisis. While some might argue that engagement in marketing activities during a slowdown is unwise, plenty of...

Keeping cash flow viable is a challenge for small businesses in the best of times. And we can all likely agree, this is not the best of times. With customer demand down and businesses of all kinds currently treading water, it’s more important than ever to pay close...

If the last few months have shown us anything, it’s that even the most successful businesses can have trouble surviving in times of uncertainty.  No matter how much time we invest in planning, there will always be situations beyond our control as we have seen with the...

The U.S. is going through some challenging times right now, but a growing awareness of the value of diversity in business may prove to be of long-lasting value for us all. Though the future is certainly unpredictable, workplace diversity “inches closer to becoming a...

“Diversity” and “inclusiveness” are terms we frequently encounter today, both in the press and throughout the business world. People have become more conscious of obstacles faced by some individuals in terms of advancing their careers, or even getting their voices...

With the strains of rolling shutdowns across the country, many businesses are finding their profits diminished or uncertain. Many leaders are relying on tried and true revenue-generating strategies like up-selling existing clients, branching out to new markets, or...

Businesses face some challenges as they prepare to re-open and greet new and returning customers. These challenges affect both online businesses and those with a retail, brick-and-mortar presence. In these unprecedented times, “people will go to physical stores for...

“Accountability” is another word for ownership—the attitude that “when an employee says that they will do something, they follow through with it and get it done” (of course, the same attitude applies to business owners and managers across the board). When a company’s...

The trend towards recruiting and hiring remote workers was already in place prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. It now appears that most businesses will likely seek some form of remote workforce in the weeks and months to follow. But the hiring process for...

For most, if not all, business owners COVID-19 has proven to be their biggest challenge yet. During the last couple of months, I’ve witnessed, firsthand, the resilience of many business owners determined to make it through these unprecedented times.  As your business...

It comes as no surprise to CEOs and business owners that recruitment of top-flight job candidates will continue to be a priority in the new year. The job market has steadily tightened over recent times, making it far more challenging than ever before for companies to...

As businesses around the world have gone virtual, digital tools have helped keep most aspects of our work life functioning. Many businesses are reporting increases in productivity, with activities like phone calls, email, and customer relationship management...

Accountability in the workplace means that all employees should be responsible and aware of their actions, performance, decisions and behaviour. It is also something which is linked to increasing commitment at work and boosting employee morale, which then leads to...

What will the post-coronavirus business world look like? Regardless, one thing is fairly certain—to survive, businesses will have to do more with less, particularly when it comes to business expenses. Numerous cost-saving approaches exist. A business can undertake a...

As businesses slowly begin to reopen, there is likely to be a fresh demand for new hires. But rather than go through traditional employee recruitment practices, many businesses now seek to expand the range of diversity within their workforces. While some companies...