Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is all the rage among brands today. “Giving back” and “doing good” have become the mantras of many companieshoping to appeal to the modern generation of consumers, who are increasingly concerned about global and social issues. But the motivation behind many companies’ CSR efforts actually provides the very reason that they shouldn’t take on socially responsible initiatives.
You are probably willing to work with any and every client who comes your way when you are just starting out in business. However, not every client is a good one. The emotional, physical, and mental drain caused by a bad client relationship can keep you from enjoying your job and negatively impact the work you do for other clients. At times, the best way to grow your business is to let go of those clients who are holding you back.
How do you know when it’s time to move on? Here are six warning signs for clients who bring more trouble than they are worth:
GM has earned a stunning $22.6 billion since the dark days of the financial crisis, when the automaker was bailed out by the U.S. government. Taxpayers didn’t fare nearly as well. They’d lost $10.6 billion by the time the U.S. Treasury department closed the books on the $49.5 billion bailout in December.GM, which filed for bankruptcy five years ago this Sunday, has repaid everything it was obligated to pay Treasury. Taxpayers came up short because the U.S. decided to buy GM stock to keep the automaker alive instead of giving it a loan and saddling it with more debt.Although GM has been very profitable since 2009, its stock price never rose to a level that let Treasury to recoup that investment.
Web conferences or webinars are a great way to attract new customers, engage with existing ones, or provide training and insights to employees or clients. Making your Web conference engaging can be more challenging than it sounds, however.
The key, experts say, is making the most of your interactions and personalizing the webinar experience. Here are 10 suggestions for making the most of your Web conferences.
An elevator pitch is a concise, carefully planned, and well-practiced description of your business that you could pitch to someone you meet in an “elevator.” Small business owners and managers should have an elevator pitch prepared to sell their products and services at any opportunity. A good elevator pitch should quickly grab the interest of the person you are talking to in the first couple of sentences. It should be short and show your passion and enthusiasm for what you are pitching. Typically, it should end by asking for an appointment or referral.
Follow these six tips to develop a strong, successful elevator pitch to attract customers wherever you might meet them:
You know the feeling. You’re on a bus or sitting outside a coffee shop or walking down the street, reading and responding to email after email on your smartphone, and then you reach the point where your smartphone just doesn’t cut it. “I’ll deal with this when I get back to a real computer,” you tell yourself.
Javier Soltero wants to fix that. “There’s a category of email you simply don’t deal with on your phone,” says the 39-year-old engineer and serial entrepreneur, and with his new company, Acompli, a startup based in San Francisco, he aims to close this hole in your mobile life. The company offers a new kind of mobile email app designed to “get you closer to the actions and information you need.”
In recent months global Internet retail behemoth Amazon.com has green-lit six new original TV shows, announced an online streaming deal with HBO and tested same-day grocery delivery on the West Coast.
Up next? Possibly a smartphone. And, if billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos has his way, packages dropped off by unmanned drone.
In May 2013, the Trades Union Congress revealed that 13% more people in the United Kingdom were working from home than was the case five years previously. In the United States, the Telework Research Network revealed in February 2013 that one in five American workers were based at home for at least one day per week, and forecast a 63% increase in home working over the next five years. But is it a good idea to let staff work from home?
Reasons why home working may be good
Increased productivity
Many people who have worked from home have reported that they get a lot more done than if they were at work. At home, there are no distractions from work-related phone calls and interruptions from colleagues. At home, people can also control the heating or ventilation to their satisfaction.
Instagram ads, just six months old and limited to a select group of 15 brands, are already showing promising results, according to exclusive data given to Adweek by the social photo-sharing site. Internal performance figures on ad partners Taco Bell, Ben & Jerry’s and Hollister provide a peek under the hood of how this platform will fare when it goes wide in late spring. More ads are on the way, thanks to Instagram’s $40 million megadeal with Omnicom.
RekIn October 2013 Indonesian bank CIMB Niaga launched its Rekening Ponsel (‘Mobile Phone Account’) service. Via the service, bank customers can use their mobile number to pay at major merchants across Indonesia: users give their phone number to the merchant and enter a confirmation PIN on their phone. Customers can also use their phone number at any CIMB Niaga ATM to withdraw cash, and use Rekening Ponsel to pay utility bills and transfer money to peers who do not have bank accounts.
