If your business operates on an invoicing system, you might be familiar with late payments and perhaps even nonpayment. There are many reasons why customers don’t pay invoices on time (or at all), from lost bills to unexpected additional expenses that customers realize they cannot afford. Many small business owners struggle with how to best ask for overdue payment without being rude. However, regardless of the circumstances, an unpaid invoice hurts your business. You need to act if you want to keep your cash flow healthy; being candid with customers and having some backup strategies at the ready is key.
Category: Tools and Information
Why It’s Vital to Understand the Difference Between Goals and Objectives | Life Hack
I’m sure you’ve heard many people talking about goals and objectives as if they’re the same thing. You may even believe this yourself.
However, if you want to unleash your productivity and take your accomplishments to a whole new level, then you’ll need to understand the clear differences between goals and objectives.
When you think of them as one thing, you’ll find yourself struggling to achieve your aims and dreams. But once you understand their differences — and their synergies — you’ll put yourself firmly on the road to success.
Gen Z hasn’t completely lost trust in their Elders. Hollywood is another story | Fast Company
Say “OK boomer” to “OK boomer.”
Members of Gen Z trust their elders more than the police, the government, and even, yes, Hollywood.
A lot more than Hollywood, actually.
Morning Consult surveyed people ages 13-23 in April, May, and June and found that this demographic is losing faith in all major institutions in the United States. In June, 28% of Gen Z found older generations to be trustworthy versus, say, 13% in police and 10% in the U.S. government. Only 4% said the same of Hollywood.
Here’s a breakdown, based on how many of them said they trust various components of our society “a lot”:
How To Improve Your Odds Of Getting Student Loan Forgiveness | Forbes
Forgiveness programs for federal student loans always seem to be well-intentioned, but the way they’re rolled out can leave a lot to be desired. When you take a closer look at Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), for example, you’ll find a program with rules so complicated many applicants don’t really understand them.
This has led to a situation where hardly anyone who applies is approved, and where many people spend years thinking they’re working toward loan forgiveness only to find they had the wrong loans or the wrong job all along.
5 Steps to Building a Great Management Team: A Guide for Startups | AllBusiness.com
The key to any successful business is the person who runs it, and up until now, this person may have been exclusively you. But as your company grows, you may have found it more and more difficult to manage all aspects of the business yourself. You’ve also probably found that you’re better at some roles than others.
To move your company forward, you are going to need a team of managers with the right combination of skills. A winning management team can effectively plan for the future, as well as effectively deal with any challenges or opportunities that may come up. You want a team who understands and cares about your customers, and also knows how to make a profit. If you’re looking either to set up or develop a management team, then read on for some guidance.
11 Things Every Good Employee Referral Program Needs | Small Business Trends
An employee referral program is a win-win for you and your team. Referral candidates tend to be well-qualified, since they’re pre-vetted by staff members you know and trust, and hiring referrals shows you value your employees’ input.
Small Business Employee Referral Program
To help you build a great referral program, we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council the following question:
“What’s one key aspect of a successful employee referral program?” Here’s what YEC community members had to say:
Backup Power Options for Small Businesses | business.com
It’s important to develop a disaster plan for your business that accounts for the scenario of a power failure.
- Power failures pose a serious financial risk to small businesses, interrupting your operations and income if you don’t have a backup plan.
- Onsite power backup options include uninterrupted power supplies and generators.
- Price and capabilities determine the best generator for your business. Portable, stationary, propane and natural gas versions are all available for commercial use.
Power failures are one of the most common risks to small businesses. You don’t need to live in the path of a hurricane or in an earthquake zone to be at risk of this particular disaster. Widespread power grid failures can occur almost anywhere. While manufacturers and retailers can experience substantial losses of perishable inventory, service-oriented businesses can be impacted by the loss of computer and phone service.
5 Benefits of Having A Toll-Free Number for Your StartUp | The Startup Magazine
Despite of the numerous advanced technologies, there are still some things that remain as a constant in the business industry. One of these, is your toll-free number. Regardless of your business size, as in this case, you’re still starting up, there are so many benefits that you can gain from having one.
First, it begins with improving your reputation and credibility, as it makes your business look more professional. Accordingly, it also increases the excellence factor of your customer service. These are only a few, and other advantages are discussed briefly as follows:
It Improves Your Customer Satisfaction
On the business’s operational side, one cannot deny that you’re going to encounter problems, one way or another, with your customers. At any given time of day, these clients will need to contact you to have their issues resolved.
Americans May Be Ready to Spend–but Some Businesses Aren’t Ready to Sell | Inc.com
The coronavirus pandemic has hit hard. More than 100,000 Americans have died. Businesses nationwide shuttered, and more than 44 million people have filed for unemployment insurance since mid-March. The stock market wobbles. However, as the economy reopens, and many Americans benefit from federal assistance, businesses across the country may be in line for a healthy dose of increased consumer spending.
“If jobs are coming back relatively quickly,” which the May jobs report indicates, spending should pick up, says Scott R. Baker, an associate professor of finance at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Baker recently co-authored a study for the National Bureau of Economic Research, which found that consumers had curtailed spending since March, while incomes remained largely untouched. Baker suspects that consumers largely pushed off purchases because of financial concerns or because the businesses they’d typically patronize weren’t open.
How to Clean Up Your Old Posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram | WIRED
AS SOCIAL MEDIA platforms have evolved, they’ve become more and more about the moment—what you’re doing now, rather than what you were doing five years ago. While looking back through photos and posts can be heart-warming and provide a buzz of nostalgia, it can also be painful and embarrassing.
If your social media life spans more than a few years then you might not want friends, family, or prospective employers looking back on the sort of person that you used to be. Here we’ll show you how you can scrub your timelines on the three biggest social platforms, using both built-in tools and third-party add-ons.
Dispatches From The Front 