October, 2018

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The Anatomy of the Perfect Small Business Instagram Profile (Infographic)

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No matter what your business is, it’s likely that you’ve considered implementing a social media strategy. Whether your company is B2B or B2C, it’s essential to consider connecting with your customers in the digital space — especially when you consider that there are 2.77 billion social media users around the world. Once you know you need a strategy, where do you start?

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10 important questions to ask when choosing a Direct Debit provider

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Are you using Direct Debit as a fast, efficient, low-cost method to collect regular fees, subscriptions or one-off payments from your customers? Or considering adding Direct Debit to your payments mix?

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10 Businesses to Start Now to Be Rich in a Decade

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Starting a business is always a gamble. Even if you have lots of money to work with and a product or service that will benefit consumers, it’s hard to say whether your business will take off. It’s even harder to predict how things will look a year from now, let alone 10 years into the future. A lot can happen in a decade, and most businesses don’t even make it that far.

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The Top 3 Small Business Financial Challenges—and How to Alleviate Them

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Small businesses face a number of daily obstacles, but financial ones can be the most complicated. Understanding how to prepare for and handle these challenges can be critical to the success or failure of a small business. What are some of the most common small business financial challenges and how can they be alleviated? This article will walk through the top three small business financial challenges, offering tips to overcome them.

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How to Find and Pick a Business Attorney in 5 Steps

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How to Find and Pick a Business Attorney in 5 Steps. Determine why you need a business attorney. Source attorneys through your network or legal directories. Compare attorneys by asking the right questions. Work out a fee arrangement that fits your budget. Know when it’s okay to skip the lawyer. If you run a small business, one of your biggest fears is probably getting sued.

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Buy Sell Agreement: What Is It and Do You Need One for Your Business?

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In all of the business planning you’ve done, you might not have thought about how to hand over your stake in the business when you retire or move on. Or, in a worst-case scenario, what happens to the finances when selling your business in the event that you’re incapacitated or die. Hard stuff to think about, but it’s better to have a plan for selling your business in these cases—known as a buy sell agreement—than be left unprepared.

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How to Start a Construction Company

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There’s never been a better time to learn how to start a construction company. The construction industry is booming—non-residential construction is on track to grow by 4% in 2019 , which could open the door for new construction firms to help meet demand. If you want to start your own construction company, now might be a perfect time: interest rates are still relatively low and banks are more willing to dole out business loans than they have been in recent years.

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EAP: What Is an Employee Assistance Program?

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What Is an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)? An employee assistance program is a workplace benefit that helps employees through mental health problems, family issues, substance abuse, and other personal or work-related problems. Businesses typically contract with an EAP provider for the services. Licensed counselors provide confidential services at no cost to employees up to plan limits.

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Articles of Incorporation: Everything You Need to Know to File Them

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What Are Articles of Incorporation? Articles of incorporation, also known as certificate of incorporation or corporate charter, are a legal document that you file with your state’s business filing agency to establish a C-corporation or S-corporation. The document contains basic business information, such as company address and number of shares. Once approved by the state, the articles of incorporation legally establish your corporation.

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The Best Credit Card Readers for Small Businesses

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As you start your search for a credit card reader for your small business, you’ll begin to realize how many subcategories of different kinds of credit card readers there are. Whether you’re searching specifically for a credit card reader for iPhone, for Android, or simply a credit card reader app, you’ll likely have to sift through lots of options before you find the exact type you want.

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What Is a General Ledger? (And Why Your Business Needs One)

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At first glance, a general ledger might not seem like the most interesting or riveting topic to dive deep into, but the fact is that knowing the ins and outs of how general ledgers work is absolutely essential for small business owners. . Staying on top of your financials when running a business is paramount, and a general ledger can help you do just that.

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Changing the Name of Your Business? 5 Things to Know About the Process

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There are plenty of circumstances where it may become necessary to change the name of your business. Maybe your brand has shifted to offer products and services that don’t necessarily reflect the company’s name anymore. Your name could be a bit generic, allowing it to easily get confused with the names of other competing businesses. Or, it might be time to hit refresh on the company altogether and changing its name is part of that process.

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The Best State-by-State Guide to Business Licenses and Permits

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How to Get a Business License. The steps to getting a business license will very much depend on what state you base your small business in and the nature of your business. Different states in the U.S. will require different types of business licenses based on your industry. Generally speaking, we recommend you research the online business license guides your state provides for instructions on how to get a business license.

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Home Office Deductions: How to Claim for Maximum Impact

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What Is a Home Office Deduction? Business owners who regularly operate their businesses in their home can deduct some of their expenses and save money on their taxes , granted they keep careful records and meet the IRS’s requirements. If you use part of your home exclusively and regularly for your business, keep reading for our guide on how to claim home office deductions.

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How to Start a Cleaning Business in 7 Steps

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Many individuals looking to start a new business or earn extra income turn to cleaning businesses due to the promise of low overhead, absence of many typical operating costs, and reliable demand. Cleaning services tend to have lower up-front costs than other ventures, and this is one of the few businesses you can start operating quickly with little capital, provided you’re willing to work hard for modest profit and gradual gains.

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The Entrepreneur Salary: How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

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How Much do Entrepreneurs Make? Unlike the typical 9-5, an entrepreneur salary can come in many forms. The IRS requires different types of owner compensation based on how the business is structured. Generally, there are two main ways that entrepreneurs pay themselves: through a salary method (like a typical payment structure) or an owner’s draw method (where the owner draws from the company’s profits).

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5 Ways to Figure out If You Need to Patent Your Invention or Treat It as a Trade Secret

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Patent law and trade secrets law can both offer helpful protections for your business’s intellectual property assets, and can often work in tandem if your patented process or invention involves proprietary know-how. Both strategies provide different types of protections, along with different benefits and drawbacks. . As a small business owner, when it comes to protecting a product-based invention, you likely need to decide whether to patent it or to pursue trade secret protection.

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BBB Rating: How to Get an A+ Rating from the Better Business Bureau

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How to Keep an A+ Rating With the Better Business Bureau. Stay compliant. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) doesn’t give you points for being compliant, they take away points if you aren’t compliant. Reduce the number of your complaints. Complaint volume is the biggest factor in a BBB rating, so prioritize customer service to reduce the amount of complaints you get.

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Small Business for Sale: How to Find One If You’re Ready to Buy

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So you want to be an entrepreneur and you’re looking for a small business for sale. Maybe you love the idea of being your own boss and growing a successful business, but one roadblock is keeping you from moving forward: You’re having trouble coming up with an actual business idea to execute on. Some entrepreneurs are lucky enough to stumble across a million-dollar idea and start a business.

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Credit Card Processing Fees: The Lowdown on Every Provider

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Any small business owner who accepts credit cards should understand how credit card processing fees work. Credit card processing typically costs businesses between 1.7% and 3.5% per transaction. At the end of the day, that means that if a customer spends $100 at your store, you’ll only end up with between $96.50 and $98.30. When you add up credit card processing fees over time, they can really eat into your bottom line.

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Do I Need an LLC For This? How to Pick What’s Best For Your Business

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If you’re starting a business or are already a small business owner, you may be wondering which type of business structure will help you achieve success. You have likely had to adapt to changes as your business has grown and are ready to take the next steps. With so many different kinds of business entities out there with different benefits, it can be hard to determine if you need an LLC.

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The Ultimate List of Credit Card Processing Companies for Small Business

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Deciding to become a credit card merchant is a huge step for a small business. Whether you decide to take on credit card processing capabilities from the get-go, or you gradually build your way up to it, it’s certainly a valuable step toward preparing your business for major growth. This exciting moment will come with a weighty question, though—which credit card processing companies are worthy of processing your business’s transactions?

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Customer Lifetime Value: How to Calculate It and Why It Matters for Small Business Owners

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You know that your company’s viability depends on your customers returning again and again. If everyone just purchased your product or service once, not only would you be spending every moment of your waking life chasing down new consumers but you’d also be churning through your cash reserves spending on customer acquisition. This is why customer lifetime value matters so much.

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Merchant Services 101: Everything You Need to Know

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What Are Merchant Services? Merchant services are essentially any services your business uses to accept and process payments from your customers. Historically speaking, the merchant services definition only encompassed the services required to accept credit cards. However, as payment technology has evolved, so too have business practices and customer preferences.

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IRS Form SS-4: What It Is and How to Find Yours

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What Is Your Form SS-4? Form SS-4, or “Application for Employer Identification Number,” is the IRS form that businesses use to apply for an employer identification number (EIN). You may need to provide your business lender with your Form SS-4 notice. That way, they can verify your EIN when they evaluate your loan application. Applying for a small business loan can be overwhelming, but there are a few things you can do in advance to make the business loan application process go smoothly.

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What Is a Point of Sale System? Here’s Your Ultimate Guide

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The world of small business finance is abundant with confusing acronyms. One of the most frequent, acronym-based questions that come up for small business owners is “What is a POS?”. POS stands for point of sale. But beyond a simple POS definition, a POS system meaning can encompass a lot. You’re in the right place to learn all you need to know about point of sale systems , because we’ve created this ultimate guide to understanding this financial concept.

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What Is Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio?

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How Do You Calculate the Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio? The accounts receivable turnover is a ratio that is used to calculate just how effective a company is at extending credits and collecting debts. It can be calculated by dividing net credit sales by average accounts receivable and is typically calculated on an annual basis. Accounts receivable turnover sounds like one of those complex accounting concepts that can make your head spin, but understanding and using the concept to improve yo

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Professional Employer Organization: Everything You Need to Know

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What Is a PEO? Professional employer organizations, or PEOs, work with small and midsized businesses to provide human resources support, payroll, benefits, and other administrative services. Partnering with a PEO could help improve your business’s productivity and profitability while allowing you to focus on growing your business. PEOs provide services to over 175,000 small and mid-sized businesses , according to statistics from the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NA

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The Definitive Intuit QuickBooks GoPayment Review for 2018

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What Is Intuit QuickBooks GoPayment? The Intuit QuickBooks GoPayment app is the mobile payment processing app by QuickBooks. Through Intuit GoPayment, business owners can process keyed-in, camera-scanned, magstripe, chip, and contactless payments, depending on which GoPayment card reader they opt for. If you use QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, TurboTax, and/or Mint to manage your business’s finances, then QuickBooks GoPayment will easily sync with your pre-existing accounts.

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How to Find the Perfect Mentor in 8 Easy Steps

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When finding a mentor for your small business, it can be hard to determine who will best fit your needs. Whether you want to launch your startup or take your company to the next level, it’s helpful to remember that you don’t need to find someone who will solve all your problems and answer every question you have. Many professionals have multiple mentors over their careers as their needs and goals change.