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With mobile and social commerce two of the fastest growing ways of getting your business in front of potential customers, add these elements into your marketing scheme and overall business model. A decision to not pursue a social media and mobile presence is a decision to not interact with consumers in a way that is becoming part of a shopper’s lifestyle. Continue Reading
Perhaps the best thing we've done at ShortStack is to have a great dialog with our users/customers. Once we launched the product with a basic architecture, we let the users steer a majority of our features. This led to more loyalty and customer evangelism. If they see that they are being heard, they become your best marketing tool. Continue Reading
The lack of financial transaction security can be a major roadblock to growing an e-commerce website, as a customer needs to feel that their purchases are secure and that their credit card information is protected. Having an SSL certificate on the website server, a visible trust mark such as the seal from VeriSign on the site, and making established fair information practices clear in your privacy policy are all necessary. Continue Reading
Maybe you're not ready or able to give your employees a raise or a large bonus this year, but you do want to reward their hard work. Results driven contests are a great way to get employees motivated, stir up a little friendly competition and reward you're top employees for achieving their goals. Make the contest fun, make it so that everyone has a fair shot at winning and create goals for each person participating. Continue Reading
Be ruthless with your lease negotiations. Don't settle for the first (or second, or third) offer when leasing space for your office. Commercial real estate is a buyers market right now in most markets, so make the most of it. Play hardball and if they aren't willing to budge, there are 10 other places that will. Your lease is a major expense (usually second to payroll) so take your time and get a deal. Continue Reading
E-commerce sites should provide visitors with a personalized experience, serving up only content that’s relevant and useful. If a customer is interested in a product on your site, displaying related items while they are browsing is helpful. This is an excellent way to establish reliability and trust with buyers and increase your chances at making a sale. Continue Reading
We tend to hire interns because we have a 'semester long interview' with them. If you need to hire a 'stranger', take your time and perform due diligence. Do a couple rounds of interviews. Have as many members of your staff involved as possible. Talk to references and previous employers. The more time you take here, the better off you will be. You'll end up with a lower turn over rate and someone who really fits into your team. Continue Reading
The online businesses that make their goods and services easy to find reap rewards in two ways: people purchase more and they experience greater overall satisfaction with the website. Design a good navigation pathway, present well-crafted product descriptions and photos, have clear call to action buttons (i.e. “buy now,” “order here”) and make it obvious to see new or sale items. These are just a few ways businesses can offer a more effortless browsing experience. Continue Reading
Get legal advice sooner than later. Having an attorney look over your business structure can save big $$$ in the long run. The cost of changing your business structure after you realize that an S-corp is not the best setup for you can be pretty big if you wait too long. Spend $1000 and have someone smart give you some advice. It's well worth it, and you'll feel like you have a nice security blanket after you leave the first meeting. Continue Reading
Summer internships are not only valuable for your company -- they offer an inside glimpse at the real world for an up and coming business professional and help them decide if they are on the right track. A good internship should be a two-way street where each party leaves feeling that they accomplished something, drove results and learned from the experience. A business owner should be prepared to spend time with their intern, mentor them and answer questions about their chosen career path. They should also set daily tasks that can be built upon, assign them a project that has a beginning and an end as well as hold an exit and entry interview for the intern so they can benchmark their growth. Continue Reading
It's not enough to just build a website; you need to make an effort to market and promote your website to new and existing customers. Search engine optimization (SEO) is necessary to help your site land on that first page of search results, ultimately increasing traffic and sales. Picking a great domain name like Cars.com, Shop.com, etc. certainly helps as well. Continue Reading
If you're a start-up or an early stage company looking to raise seed money from angel investors, recognize that you don't need to have all of the answers. Most seed investors are making a bet on the quality of the team and the size of the market opportunity. The best ones recognize that everything else can (and will) change -- including the nature of the business "idea." They also know from experience that a bet on a solid team with a marginal idea will out-perform a bet on a marginal team with an amazing idea almost every time. So first sell yourself, then sell your market opportunity and do your best to sell your idea. If they like the first two, the third isn't nearly as important as most people think. Continue Reading
If you ask an entrepreneur what has made them successful, a high percentage of them will say perseverance. The road to success is no easy task. The constant challenges can be tough to take but you learn and mature from your mistakes, which is one of the greatest learning tools around. Become an expert in your field. Research everything and anything that could possibly relate to your business. By doing so, you will become more inspired, creative and knowledgeable. Never wait for others to make you successful –- take charge and follow through. Persevere! Continue Reading
When setting up a brainstorming meeting, be sure to send out a reminder to participants with a clear indication of what the meeting objective is. Objectives are an expression of purpose or intent and are essential for any successful meeting outcome. Be clear and concise. Knowing the session objective ahead of time allows thoughts to begin to 'simmer' in their brains, resulting in participants bringing thoughts and ideas to the table right away versus starting from scratch. This one simple tip can change the entire dynamic of your meeting, making it more interesting and productive. Continue Reading
Your website may be secure today but six months from now it could have multiple openings for intrusions. Hackers get smarter every day, systems change and security scanners get more sophisticated. Even sites with a perception of high security can be compromised, so keep in mind that your business must be proactive in order to keep your site secure and customer data safe. Continue Reading
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