Small businesses have always been challenged to attract and retain a loyal customer base. This challenge has been intensified a thousand times over because of the Coronavirus outbreak. Whatever their industry, business owners and CEOs will face a new landscape once...
As businesses start opening up again and some sort of normalcy hopefully emerges soon, business owners and CEOs might take this time to look at their existing contracts with vendors and landlords. This could be the right moment to engage in renegotiations that can...
Protections like a basic firewall and antivirus have become inadequate to protect your organisation from cyber criminals. They’ve figured out how to easily elude these defences. The news is filled with reports of breaches and financial loss. But there are many ways...
Don't underestimate the importance of organisational alignment in your business! Alignment is the side-by-side working relationship that makes great results a daily reality for both business owners and those who report to them directly. Learn how improving alignment...
Thanks to the Coronavirus, the world as we knew it seems forever changed. In business, the pandemic has created a lot of opportunities to innovate company models or to reinvent and pivot. While no one has a crystal ball on how companies will change this year and...
As the global pandemic reminds us, the only constant in business (and life) is change. Some business owners and CEOs are more open to this principle than others, but whatever your degree of acceptance or resistance, it’s clear that businesses must adapt to change—or...
In so-called ordinary times, many businesses experience the need to reinvent themselves to meet changing customer demands. Today, months into the COVID-19 outbreak, the “reinvention challenge” is more pressing than ever. Leaving aside the enormous hurdles presented by...
Never has the entire global economy come to a screeching halt. In past recessions or natural disasters, we have always been able to look to previous and similar events. Even if the latest recession or disaster was different or worse, we still had many examples to...
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 providing some...
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...
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...
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...
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. As the...
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 is offering a quick and...
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...
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 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 forward. The risk...
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...
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...
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...
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 done!...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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