Expert Financial Advice to Address Challenges, Seize Opportunities, & Manage Cash Flow in the COVID-19 Era
Almost instantly – virtually every business owner has found themselves deeply engaged with navigating the current volatile business environment. While this extremely dynamic environment presents most businesses with an array of challenges – it is also...
What to Say to Customers During a Period of Crisis
In what we fondly recall as “normal times,” there wasn’t much question about how to communicate with customers. Basic principles included reaching out to customers where they “live” online and avoiding technical or otherwise confusing jargon. In our present period of...
4 Marketing Trends for 2020 Every Business Owner Should Know
All signs indicate that technology with marketing applications will continue to evolve in 2020. Savvy business owners understand the need to keep pace with these changes, especially if they are marketing to customers who eagerly embrace new trends, such as augmented...
How to be a More Effective Crisis Leader
Business leaders have faced many challenges in recent years, from 9/11 to the Great Recession of 2008. But the challenges presented by the outbreak of COVID-19 represent a whole new level of difficulties involved in leading a business through tough times. Like...
6 Tips for Crisis Communication During the Era of Coronavirus
Control The Narrative. Protect Your Brand. Recent events have thrown the world and your business into chaos. While everyone is struggling to navigate the turbulence, you can’t afford to fly by the seat of your pants when it comes to your crisis communications....
Because it IS what you say, AND how you say it – Leadership Communication in the Face of Uncertainty
When unexpected crisis strikes, the first thought is “what are we going to do?” The second is usually, “what are we going to say?” In response to a barrage of questions regarding how to communicate in these uncertain times, A-Train Marketing...
How to Better Negotiate with Vendors (and Save Money)
Some business owners are born negotiators. They know how to persuade, cajole, seduce and otherwise convince vendors to accept the deal they want. But plenty of other CEOs and business leaders don’t have negotiating built into their DNA. The outcome of every...
Tactics for Strategic Cost-Cutting in Your Business
For many businesses, cost-cutting becomes necessary in times of sales slumps and reduced revenue. But strategic cost-cutting is a different matter altogether. This process, as Forbes contributor Rodger Howell notes, “helps ensure an organisation is ready for growth”...
Project Management for Small Business: Project Plan Risk Analysis
Project Management for Small Business X If there’s one thing that’s constant with all projects plans, it’s that none of them have more than 10 risks. In fact, many project plans start with the plan used in the last project, and carry existing risks...
Things You Need To Do To Plan For A Potential Recession
No one can predict where the economy is headed, but business owners and CEOs are smart to pay close attention to warning signs. Turbulence in the stock market and proposed massive layoffs certainly suggest a recession is possible. That’s why now is the best time to...
What an Operating Plan Is and Why You Absolutely Need One
Most companies spend valuable time and resources to create strategic plans, giving their best to outline a strategy that establishes a solid long-term vision. While having a strategic plan is necessary, a vast number of organisations often lack a critical strategy...
Business Best Practices: How to Control Business Growth
When you first decided to start your own company, you most likely did a lot of research using various outlets such as reading books on becoming an entrepreneur, taking a few classes about starting your own company, talking to other successful entrepreneurs, etc. Now...
Need to Focus on What’s Urgent in Your Business? Why it’s Time To Delegate
When you’re running a small business, time management can be a huge challenge. With so much to do every day, it can seem like your to-do list always grows and never shrinks. If only the answer could be to find an eighth day of the week to help you get everything...
Business Owners, It’s Time to Come Together
As a small business owner, you’ve likely experienced many setbacks along your journey to success. One setback I’m sure you weren’t expecting when planning your 2020 fiscal year was facing a global pandemic. Even for the most resilient businesses, there’s no doubt this...
Tips on Helping Your Employees Cope with Anxiety and Stress
By now, it’s clear we will be dealing with the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak for some time to come. The vast majority of “non-essential” Australian businesses have shut down, stranding thousands of employees in their homes—for their protection and...
How to Prepare to Pivot Your Business
The onslaught of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has sent businesses scrambling to find their footing in this new environment. These days, many small businesses are struggling simply to stay in operation, let alone hope to achieve a profitable quarter or see revenues jump as a...
How to Effectively Boost Working Capital for Small Businesses
How well do you understand the concept and significance of working capital? A surprising number of small business leaders aren’t necessarily conversant with the term, though they follow its principle every day of their working lives. But it’s important to have a... 6 Online Business Networking Tips & Best Practices
As a business owner, you probably feel like there’s always more you could be doing to expand your business. One of the best ways to open up new opportunities to do just that is by business networking. Of course, the time it takes to identify networking opportunities...
5 Awesome Ways to Motivate Your Remote Employees Today
Working offsite is no longer the revolutionary business idea it once was. These days, many businesses oversee a workforce that—at least to some degree—rarely or almost never actually sets foot in the office or workplace. These remote employees work from home or even...
Tips for Business Owners and Employees Working From Home
The Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak has changed virtually everything about the way business is conducted right now. For the vast majority of businesses across Australia, this means shutting workplaces and directing employees to work remotely from home. Of course,...
Warren Hardman – Xpert Office Furniture
“I have found myself impressed by the relaxed yet professional way Crystal uncovers the strengths, weaknesses and challenges each board member faces in their business. At each meeting every member will present a topic and Crystal leads the group in a structured...
5 Tips For Handling Digital Marketing As A Small Business
Digital marketing is vital for any company these days, of any shape and size. Marketing, as a field, has almost entirely shifted into the digital realm and the possibilities for how it can be used to your company’s advantage are almost endless. In particular, where...
End Workforce Silos and Build a Sense of Community
CEOs and business leaders understand that compartmentalising departments and tasks is not desirable, yet—paradoxically—silos still crop up in organisations and inflict damage on the bottom line. To counter this, it’s helpful to grasp specifically what the term “silo”...
How To Integrate Millennials Into Your Workplace
In looking at the year ahead, many of you might be looking at adding to your team whether through growth, retirements or maternity leaves. Regardless of the reason for hiring new staff, as I mentioned in my last blog about millennials, they are currently the largest...
Why You Should Care About Your Company’s Culture
Article by Phil Spensieri Even if you are not thinking about the subject on a regular basis, or at all, you are contributing every day to what is called “company culture”. But what does it mean to have a company culture, how can it enhance your business structure, and...