You can’t start or grow your business without funding. Unfortunately, applying for and getting a business loan isn’t a fast or stress-free experience.
Applying for a loan is one of the most crucial steps for a small business owner. To give yourself the best chance of getting approved, follow these tips for negotiating and ultimately getting a business loan.
1. Do your homework and go to the right banks.
The 80 20 Rule or Pareto Principle, named after the nineteenth-century Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who discovered that approximately 80% of Italian land in 1896 was owned by 20% of the population, has become a common axiom in business and life.
The principle was highlighted in 1992 by a United Nations Development Program report that showed that roughly 80% of the world’s wealth was in the hands of 20% of the population.[1] Businesses have reported that 80% of their sales come from 20% of their customers and, Microsoft discovered that if they fix the top 20%, most reported bugs they eliminate 80% of the problems in their software.
It seems the Pareto Principle is all around us.
Texting is now as much of a business communication tool as the phone and email. And just like those, you must follow the same etiquette for the people you are communicating with. The problem is, users, think it is different, and the same rules don’t apply.
A new report from Carphonewarehouse proves this very point. In the survey, 73% of the respondents feel it is OK to text clients after business hours. This is driven by the casual nature of texting, which makes people wrongly assume they can chat whenever they want. While it may be OK in your personal life, it can have unintended consequences in business.
The report says, “Once you’ve got your boss/colleague/client/customer’s number in your phone, you’re only one bad text away from potentially railroading your entire career.”
Adding, “So, where’s the line when it comes to texting in business?”
Would you do business with your own company? If you searched for your company by its brand name and added the word “reviews” at the end, would you be happy with what people are saying?
Competition is fierce in today’s digital age, with nearly every business claiming the best products and services and touting fantastic customer service. How then do people decide which company they’re going to do business with?
Yes, it’s true that word-of-mouth marketing has always been important to business success, but today, online reviews serve as potent extensions of this phenomenon. In the mobile, digital era, we’re more connected than ever.
When people are looking for something – whether it’s a product, a service, a company or a place to visit – they turn to online reviews to help them decide where to spend their money. And studies show that people trust online reviews as much as they do recommendations from personal friends. What’s perhaps more shocking is that only 54% trust the information they find on company websites.
IT MAY BE known as the “everything store,” but there are some things, in fact, that Amazon does not sell. 
The ecommerce giant maintains a list of restricted product categories that ranges from weapons such as firearms, to booze and tobacco products, to pets, to kite strings for the niche sport of kite fighting. And as you get ready to celebrate the Fourth of July, you should also know that list includes fireworks.
When thinking of Estonia, it might come to your mind that it’s close to Russia, has a medieval capital city that is also a UNESCO world heritage or that it is one of the least densely populated countries in Europe. But the small Baltic country has much more to offer than that. In fact, it is often referred to as the world’s first digital nation and has become dependent on the internet. Estonians have evolved into a digital community that does their taxes without leaving the house, votes for an election through an app and looks at their health record online. The government has made 90 percent of all its services available on the internet and they can be accessed simply with an ID-card and a personal password.
Most people who regularly use YouTube would probably admit that the site’s recommendation engine is a little wonky. For every time it shows you something you might genuinely want to see, it brings you something random at best and reprehensible at worst.
While it might take years for YouTube to fix all of its problems, it’s making one change to hopefully make the site better for its users. YouTube outlined a handful of new features that are coming soon to its website and mobile apps on the YouTube blog on Wednesday, including the ability to never see recommendations from specific channels.
Ah, summer. Soft breeze in your hair, grass between your toes, nasty calluses on your feet from going barefoot…
Don’t fear those calluses, though. New research has revealed that foot calluses — thickened skin that forms naturally when one walks barefoot — have evolved to protect the feet and provide for comfortable walking in perhaps ways that shoes can’t match.
Unlike shoes, foot calluses offer protection without compromising sensitivity or gait, according to a study published today (June 26) online in the journal Nature. Shoes, in contrast, reduce sensitivity in the foot and alter the way that the impact forces transfer from the foot to joints higher up the leg.
Wonder why you’re not getting great job applicants? You might want to take a closer look at how you write your job descriptions.
As the unemployment rate falls and the battle for talent heats up, job listings are becoming much more competitive.
For every great job description, there are many more that simply list keywords related to job duties, tasks, qualifications and experience requirements. While it’s easy to write job descriptions that are simply lists of keywords, these descriptions are hard for applicants to read and understand. They also attract job seekers who are mass-applying to jobs – and who might not be a good fit for your organization.
Dispatches From The Front 