Smarter Office Blog

Believe it or not, Spring is coming, so it's a great time for you and your team to refresh yourselves, think about your business approach, and clear out the cobwebs, either real or virtual. Here are a few tips to help you with your “spring cleaning" for your team and your small business.

Best Small Business Conventions for Grassroots Marketing

Why You Should Use Virtual Assistants to Reduce Costs

The Importance of Reevaluating Your Business Plan

Running a small business is hard, stressful work. The U.S. Census Bureau says that while about 400,000 new businesses are being created annually, some 470,000 are closing. So you've made it—congratulations!

Google has always been on the leading edge of the search business, but because the company has numerous search platforms that focus on “local search," and competition from sites like Yahoo, Yelp and Tripadvisor, getting attention for a small business could be challenging. Google's local search functions were also often branded with lots of different names and functions, so telling the difference between Google + , Google Places, Google Maps and Google Local could be dizzying.

Often, small businesses don't have the resources to expand into related verticals. However, a mutually beneficial partnership with another company can expand business for both—for example, a marketing agency outsourcing to a video production company. Other reasons to bring on a partner firm could have to do with skill gaps. Certain functions are essential to running a business and it may make more sense to outsource those services. You may have a terrific product but not enough expertise to efficiently manage sales channels or deliver your product. Sales and marketing is another expertise that is hotly debates by small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs alike. It doesn't matter how great your business is if no one knows about it, and no one is born with a natural ability to create a market—it's a skill that has to be practiced and honed over time. Even just making the money (collecting from customers, paying vendors and employees) may be an area where it's easier to partner with a full service company like Indinero that can more easily and accurately manage your back office.

Is your office environment quiet? Boring? Uninteresting? Humdrum? Is the environment so silent that you can hear a pin drop down the hall? If you office is downright dull, it might be difficult to keep employees motivated.

Fun and Engaging Ideas and Events for Employee Appreciation Day

Is Your Company Utilizing a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Policy?

Identifying Attainable Small Business Resolutions for 2015

Why Virtual Offices are Great Alternatives to Physical Office Space for Financial Advisors