The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Master Small Business Change and More

Our research leprechauns 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! Small business change is on the horizon and we are here to guide you through it.

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. Think Fast!

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about how fast thinking led to solutions. And those solutions, in turn, saved durable businesses. Entrepreneur says some on your feet thinking saved big companies like FedEx and GoDaddy. We love this article because it dovetails well with the small business change theme we’ve got going on.

Eek, They Did What?

We did find FedEx’s solution to a loss of funds to be kind of odd, not to mention something you probably can’t do any more, in the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley. But yes, the founder actually went to Las Vegas and gambled company money. He made $27,000.

Er, we don’t recommend that.

But we do recommend some other great ideas. GoDaddy in particular essentially just stayed the course. So the change didn’t come from within the company. Instead, for them, the change happened all around them.

Reinvention

We also loved what happened with Intuit. In 1985, the struggling company laid off workers. It could not pay salaries. So a number of people worked for free (we don’t really recommend this, either). But imagine how much and how thoroughly you would have to believe in a company to go without pay for half a year?

#9. Shine on, Chrome!

The next awesome tip is about adding the best Chrome extensions for marketing. Wistia says there are a number which can really help marketers. And – score! – a lot of them are free.

We were especially happy to see TubeBuddy on the list. This extension makes it possible to see analytics, tags, view counts, and the number of specific ‘best practices’ a video follows. Hence you might see your most recent explainer video has very few views. With TubeBuddy, you can also see at a glance if, for example, your tags are spelled wrong. Or maybe someone forgot to add the tags. Oops.

Put Yourself in Another’s Shoes

One extension which surprised us was the User-Agent Switcher. This allows you to check out just how your website (or just a page) looks on multiple devices. After all, you might have a desktop, your friend might have a laptop, and another friend might have a tablet. Then you’ve got an Android phone and your pal has an iPhone.

This is just a terrific thing to know, and we can’t stop saying good things about it!

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! Small business change is coming!

#8. You’ll Get by With a Little Help from Some Business Friends

Our following life-changing tip concerns 10 resources which any startup should know. The Self Employed says these resources can be the difference between success and failure. And they are certainly the difference between making things too hard for yourself and making things just a little bit easy.

One resource comes up in our tip #2 – Score! Score is a huge network of volunteer, expert mentors. Your father in law might know a few things about business, and he may even be a success. But to have another opinion cannot possibly hurt.

Design Matters

We were also happy to see a resource we LOVE on this list – Design Pickle. DP does a fantastic job, and they are so easy to work with. And, bonus, they get used to working with you. So you can get into a groove with someone who ‘gets’ you. Pretty cool, huh?

#7. Start Up Smart

For our next sensational tip, we looked at starting smart with tips for small business success. Noobpreneur says money matters are important. In fact, four of the five tips they offer are centered around funds. One of our favorite tips was to not commingle personal and business funds. And hey – we advise that, too. All. The. Time.

Separating personal and business funds is a great step to take to separate personal and business credit. Even if you are a sole proprietor and your business is a startup, you will still need to keep the funds separate.

This helps you build business credit, yes. And it also helps you to stick to your business budget.

And, most importantly, it keeps you out of Dutch with the Internal Revenue Service. Yeah, those guys.

#6. Strategy for the Win!

This tip is so cool, and it works! Effortless HR says HR strategies can support growth.

We especially loved the idea for assessing employees – and then supporting their development. And we also loved the idea of embracing innovation.

Some of this comes from a gap analysis. Essentially, the idea is to look at what’s missing. And not just for now, but also for the future. If the company is, say, going to expand outside the United States, then you may need people who speak another language.

Investing in new technology helps any company run faster. Investing in the development of people helps any company run better.

#5. Small Business Change Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

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

Are you ready for small business change?

Or does change scare you? Don’t fret. Change scares a lot of people. Entrepreneurs’ Organization says you may need to start with a hard sell to get others on board. And while their advice is mostly for larger organizations, we still think it’s valid.

What we also really loved was the concept that change and success will not necessarily speak for themselves. So of course this goes to the hard sell. But it also goes to using data points.

We Love Data

Okay, well, we are sometimes frustrated by it. Hence our relationship with data is more like ‘it’s complicated’. But that’s okay.

Ask your employees to get out and talk to customers. This way, they will see why changes are necessary.

You don’t need multi-million dollar research. Just talking to your customers should do the trick. And in particular for employees who just aren’t sure things have to change, this should help to convince them. After all, your company exists to please your customers. If they want change, then change is imperative.

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! Small business change is coming!

#4. Summertime, and the Sellin’ is Not Quite So Easy… ♫♪

Check out this spectacular tip, all about how to best prepare for the coming summer slowdown. Small Biz Trends says any number of businesses have a slump in sales and traffic during the summer months.

So they give a few ideas of what to do when your website is floating around the internet at the same time you would love to be floating in a swimming pool.

Big Projects!

Now, before you roll your eyes, hear us out. If sales are slow, then why not tackle something large? It can be cleaning up your older blog posts or even doing a security audit.

True Story Time

When your intrepid blog writer was a teenager, there was such a thing as punch cards. And summer jobs were often at a beach or behind a counter. But this job (at age 17 or 18) was for a temping agency. Lots of work was standard receptionist fare.

But there was one assignment which was a proxy shareholder fight. Your blog writer and about a half a dozen other temps were locked into a conference room to determine if a financial services company (the name is lost to the ages) was going to seat a new Board of Directors.

We probably shuffled through over a million punch cards, sorting them alphabetically by name and then by date sent. Envelopes with the cancelled stamps were kept so we could check in case it was too tough to tell which card had come in last. The card coming in last was the one we counted, so this was vital information.

This project also took several regular employees of the firm. These were people who acted as a form of HR for us, yes. But there were also people in the trenches, filing and sorting cards with us.

If it had not been the slow season, the project never could have gotten off the ground.

#3. Tell Us, What’s Your Instagram Story?

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can show you how to most effectively use Instagram stories. Manta says this collection of posts can be a perfect way to remind customers of sales and other special events.

Instagram stories are also good for tagging your most engaged followers and influencers. Get them in on what’s happening, so they can be a part of it.

We really loved the idea to ‘live ‘gram’ events. You can put everything together so it’s easy to find, without clogging your feed.

#2. It’s All About the Visuals

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on using visuals in your marketing. Score says there is some science to back up something we may intuitively know.

When we say a picture is worth a thousand words, it’s not just that images make things easier to explain. It’s also that an image makes it faster to explain a concept.

Furthermore, images help a concept to really stick in someone’s mind. The reader is far more likely to remember the concept. And they will remember it longer, too.

But what we really love (see what we did there?) is that images can evoke emotions. There is a huge difference in reaction if a blog’s featured image is a person behind bars versus a person playing with their dog. And by the way, there’s a place for both in marketing.

#1. Avoid the Stock Photo Blues

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on the use of images. In particular, stock photos. Copy Blogger says there are good and bad ways to use stock images.

No matter what, you MUST have permission to use a photo. Go to a reputable stock photo site (Adobe Images, Shutterstock, etc.) and get your pictures there. Do NOT get them from Google image search. And for the love of all that is business, please don’t just right-click stuff.

Photographers are artists and this is their livelihood. Right-clicking without permission is theft.

Stock Still Perfect Versus Candid

Now, of course the images in stock image sites are posed in some manner. But there is a huge difference between stylized people holding briefcases on their heads and a shot where business people are just happing around and talking.

You want the second kind.

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! Small business change is coming!