The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Spark Business Joy and More Today

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! You can spark business joy!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Rock-Solid Yet Still Flexible? Sign Us Up!

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about creating financial stability for your company.  Small Biz Trends says a business financial stability should actually center around its financial flexibility.

Flexible Flyers

Being financially flexible means being able to turn on a dime. Such companies can take care of limited-time opportunities because they don’t have a slew of red tape to wade through. They can change as they need to, and without as much friction or resistance as is the case in other companies.

It also means more focus and less volatility. So the financially flexible business is a bit like a willow tree. It’s stable and rooted in reality. But it can also bend in the wind and change with the times.

Getting to a Flexible Nirvana

The article is fabulous and we highly recommend reading it in its entirety. Here are some takeaways we got from it. Perhaps our favorite tip was the one about budgeting. In particular, the idea is to not let expenses creep up on you. So here’s a fer-instance.

A Story, if You Will

So let’s say your business puts out a beautiful brunch spread every Friday morning. It’s just a nice thing you do for your employees. And let’s say you’ve only got maybe twenty employees. You pay for a dozen bagels, a dozen doughnuts, a plain and a fancy cream cheese, and hefty containers of decaf, regular, and flavored regular coffee. Let’s say you throw in a dozen oatmeal packets for people who are watching their calories.

Hey, you’re a pretty awesome boss.

On week one, just to throw out a number, let’s say it runs you $200. At times, there might be specials on doughnuts, bringing the price down temporarily. Or maybe on occasion you get the bagels at the end of the day on Thursday. Maybe the selection isn’t as good, but they’re half-price.

But there are other weeks where the price of coffee goes up, or the standard fancy cream cheese is out of stock, so you buy the more expensive fancy cream cheese.

One week, the spread costs $220. In another, it’s $190. If you get through a year and your overall costs run to within 10% (in either direction) of $10,400, then you’re doing great. The $10,400 figure = $200 x 52 weeks.

But you should still keep track if the total cost is more like $12,000. Or if the costs from weeks 40 – 44 go from $200 to $205 to $220 to $225 to $260. Pay attention to what is happening with your budget and you’ll increase financial flexibility in your business.

#9. Lasso Your Goals and Bring them to the Corral

The next awesome tip is about turning elusive goals into accomplishments. Copy Blogger says there are a number of steps which anyone can take to turn pie in the sky goals into doable projects.

Our favorite was #3, which is all about how to handle a ton of ideas. Idea overload, and the fear of starting, can both be daunting. And they both – fer realz – are problems which authors deal with all the time.

So here’s how to handle a slew of ideas from an actual, honest-to-goodness author, your intrepid blog writer.

Handling Ideas Like a Writer

So, you’ve got 50 different ways to create a new widget and no idea where to start. Or, you have an idea of which idea is best, but you don’t know how to start. Not to worry.

In writing, the elusive ‘right way’ to start is far, far less important than going ahead and starting anyway. Authors having trouble getting going will often start with either back story or a prologue, or a chapter or two ahead. This gets the engine humming. Once the process is kicked off, just ride that wave for a while.

When do you handle the beginning? Later. And maybe even at the end. You may find you never needed the prologue, or all of your backstory works better in Chapter 17. That’s awesome.

Same with your project. Getting started means starting with imperfection. So, just like a writer, do another important thing – edit and polish.

As for a ton of ideas, make yourself a parking lot for them. If you like tactile things, then write them down on papers and stick them in a jar. Or toss them into a folder you keep in the cloud so you can access it from anywhere. You don’t have to do everything today.

And you don’t have to be perfect out of the gate unless you’re a rodeo writer or a brain surgeon.

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Spark business joy now!

#8. Banish Startup Uncertainty

Our following life-changing tip concerns making it easier to believe in your startup – and yourself. Addicted to Success notes there is a ton of structure in regular jobs. Schedules are often packed. But when you’re starting up – and in particular when you’re the Lone Ranger – life can get awfully unstructured, awfully fast.

This is why the article recommends creating a routine, and sticking with it. After all, having a dependable routine just might make you more dependable. And it’s what you want to show your prospects, that you can do what you claim you can.

Hey, it can’t hurt.

#7. Gonna Buy Five Copies for My Mother

For our next sensational tip, we looked at some great tips for designing a magazine to promote your business. Melinda Emerson (Succeed as Your Own Boss) breaks it down thusly.

It’s All About the Visuals

While we are all about writing here, we were so happy to see most of these seven tips were centered on visual design. Because, we will bare our collective soul here and say (please don’t tell anyone) – your intrepid blog writer really stinks at design.

It’s, quite literally, not pretty.

So the first tip, to nail the cover, is a truly vital one. We all claim to not judge books (or magazines, or people) by their covers. Yet we do so. All. The. Time.

The ideas to maintain a consistent look and not overdo are also great.  Infographics are another fine idea although we would caution – they can have varying levels of quality.

Another truly vital tip is one which some businesses might be tempted to overlook – get a dependable professional printer and stick with them. You want your content to look good, right? Then don’t leave it to chance and, unless your business quite literally is printing, leave the printing to the professionals. Your time is valuable. Don’t waste it trying to learn a new skill on the fly. And don’t waste your content on a magazine which doesn’t look good.

Do it well, or don’t do it at all.

#6. Keep ‘Em Happy

This tip is so on point, and it works! It’s all about customer retention. As Quick Sprout says, it’s all about making the use of your product or service habitual. So if you own a nail salon, you want your clients to feel they need to come on over once a week for a manicure, and maybe once a month for a full mani-pedi.

In short, you want your customers to become the barfly Norm from the old Cheers sitcom. The guy who they practically named a barstool after, who comes around every night – that guy.

Our favorite tip was perhaps a counterintuitive one – exit interviews. Therefore, if customers are leaving, ask why. Wisely, this is not something you can stretch out. Make it short and sweet – as in no more than two questions about why you’re losing a customer. You might just get some actionable insights.

#5. You, Too, Can Spark Business Joy

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot!

But what the heck does ‘spark business joy’ mean, anyway?

So, you’ve heard of Marie Kondo, right? You know, the anti-clutter lady. Small Biz Trends has another great article which made our top ten. And it’s all about bringing new focus and clarity to your business.

It’s Spring, and an Entrepreneur’s Thoughts Turn to Getting Organized

Perhaps our favorite part of this article is all about thoughtful organization. It makes a boatload of sense to us, to get things in order in a way which works best for you and your business.

To further illustrate the point, let us delve deep into your intrepid blog owner’s closet. A place where there are no skeletons (well, not many), but there are clothes from any number of eras. It’s what happens when your weight has yo-yoed over the years.

It can be hard to part with the smallest sizes. They can represent not only aspirations but also youth. Yet they quite literally do not fit. Getting back to those sizes will take a while. So there are really two choices: either keep the old stuff and smash it in with the current clothes which fit, or toss it and get back to it later.

And it’s becoming clearer all the time – aside from a few special pieces (the comfy, broken-in bomber jacket, for example), it’s time to hand the smaller clothes over to someone else to enjoy.

Your Business Closet

Well, not really the closet and not really storage. As the article points out, it could be anything or anyone you’re hanging onto who/which doesn’t work anymore. Now, of course it’s important to note, there is a cost in letting employees go and then rehiring and training. But if an employee is truly no longer working out, why keep them hanging on?

At the very least, give them an opportunity to train and change their direction. Because many people will surprise you. But if that doesn’t work out, and they no longer spark business joy? Then you’ve done your part. They – and you – will likely be better off after a parting of the ways.

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Spark business joy now!

And here in the 2nd half of this post, we’re going to shift gears and talk about sales.

#4. Stay on Target, Stay on Target!

Check out this spectacular tip, all about using a sales meeting agenda to close more deals. HubSpot leads the way by putting together a killer agenda which pretty much any sales person should find useful.

Our favorite part was all about giving time for pauses. Seriously – breaks in the action. Why?

Because otherwise it just looks like a whole lot of hard sell. And this is because it is. So build in some time for your prospect to actually think about what they’re committing to. After all, your product or service is awesome, right? So you don’t have to relentlessly pressure your prospects.

Letting your prospects come around to deciding to do business with you is a great way to build a lasting relationship. The last thing you want is for your customers to feel like they were roped into buying.

#3. Persuasion Station

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can strengthen your copywriting skills. Lead Fuze says there are any number of writing tips and tricks which can help you to convert leads. And that’s why we’re all here, amirite?

Furthermore, we strongly encourage you to check out a lot of the articles linked to in this article. Why? Because the support for the Lead Fuze article is chockful of even more glorious tips for better writing for sales and blogging.

We really loved tip #9, ‘Say No to “Anything and Everything”’. So, what does this mean? It means answering the most basic questions in your writing. For example, Neil Patel points out a ton of bad examples of writing for the web.

Or, what your intrepid blog writer calls – the paradigm test.

The Paradigm Test

What’s the paradigm test? It’s very simple. Any web page, presentation, meeting, or conversation which includes the word ‘paradigm’ is running off the rails and in the next county, never to be found again. There’s one exception for the phrase ‘paradigm shift’, but even then, it shouldn’t be used more than once.

Why is this word such a clear marker for meandering discussions, copy which never gets to the point, and presentations which make you snooze? Because there are, in general, so many better ways of saying what you’re trying to say.

In general, the 2nd and 3rd definitions of the word are in use. For the 2nd definition, the word ‘model’ works better. So does ‘example’. And for the 3rd definition, the phrase ‘way of thinking’ and the word ‘methodology’ (or even ‘method’) gets the point across without looking pretentious or feeling overbearing.

So give your writing paradigm (wink) a sock in the jaw and start writing clearer prose. We can practically guarantee it’ll be more compelling.

#2. Follow You, Follow Me, Follow Up

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on writing follow up emails for sales. Opt in Monster notes you can improve customer experience and increase sales. And all for some pretty easy to create emails. Sa-weet!

Our favorite was the welcome email. It’s a terrific way to reach out to subscription customers who you might not be able to email too often (at least, not without looking like a pest). And coupling the welcome email with basic get-started instructions is genius! Most importantly, it sets the tone for the relationship. You don’t just have your hand out, looking for money. You’re actually, you know, helping the customer.

What a wild concept.

#1. … And Playing the Part of the Sales Person: You!

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on role playing in sales training. Sales Hacker says it’s a wonderful way to get ready for any sales eventuality. And we’ve got to say we agree.

We really liked the idea of the role reversal. If your sales team seems out of touch, what happens when they are the prospects? Everyone gets sales calls and emails, and we don’t respond positively to all or even most of them. So, what gets your sales people to accept a pitch directed at them? What makes them open up their wallets? Their answers may surprise you – and they should get your sales team thinking about how to replicate such successes and reduce the number of failures.

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Spark business joy now!