How to Prepare Your Business for 2014|businessnewsdaily.com

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4 Ways to Prepare Your Business for 2014

Key things you should do to prepare your business for the future.

With the year starting to wind down, it is important that business owners are prepared for any dangers and risks that may lie ahead.

Judy Coblentz, chief underwriting officer at small business insurance provider Travelers Small Commercial, said this is the perfect time for business owners to evaluate their business to ensure they are properly prepared for any unforeseen circumstances that could arise in 2014.

“As you cross over calendar years, whether you do it in your personal life or whether you do it in your business life, I think most people view the end of the year as time to take stock,” Coblentz told BusinessNewsDaily.

With that in mind, she says there are four things business owners should be doing to ensure they are properly protected in 2014 from any risks they may encounter in the new year, including:

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8 Steps to Having Wildly Productive Mornings | Entrepreneur.com

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You’ll wake up for about 25,000 mornings in your adult life, give or take a few.Once I realized this, I started thinking about how I could develop a better morning routine. I still have a lot to learn, but here are some strategies that you can use to get the most out of your 25,000 mornings.Here are eight strategies that I’ve found to be most effective for getting the most out of my morning:

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A Simple Guide to Taking Better Holiday Party Photos | Wired.com

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It’s holiday party season. Chill the eggnog, steal a bottle of bourbon from the accounting department’s file cabinet, and get ready for some awkward dancing. Sure, some parties will hire a professional photographer, and maybe even dress up the IT guy as Santa Claus for some photos. But the real party photos will be the ones you take. Here are a few tips to make sure those photos actually look good enough to get you all the Instagram likes you deserve.

Lighting

If it can be helped, get a photo with lights pointing at your subject. If a bright light is behind your subject, the camera will try to expose to that light and your subject will be end up being under-exposed. If you’re having a day party lame, get between the windows and your subjects. The natural light will be better than your office lighting.

Speaking of office lighting, beware of overhead fluorescent lights.

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Why GM Is Betting On Mary Barra | Fast Company

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She’s lived and breathed GM most of her life.  She’s worked there since age 18.  “I was on the line…all day long,” the now first female CEO of a major american automobile company recently told “Fast Company” Editor-at-large Jon Gertner over tea.  Here’s a look into how Barra will lead GM.

If I were more of a betting man, I’d wager that Mary Barra is a very clever poker player.

How would I know?

A few weeks ago, Barra–the newly appointed General Motors CEO–came through New York City on business and met me for coffee one afternoon in Greenwich Village. (Actually, Barra ordered tea.) If she had any inkling at the time that a big promotion was coming down the road, and that she’d be named the first female chief executive of a major American automobile company, there was no telling.

Instead, the conversation veered from talk about GM’s big cars (the new Cadillac) to its spunky smaller models (such as the Chevrolet Sonic). We took detours into the company’s view on the future of the Chevy Volt (still very positive) and spent a few minutes circling around whether GM perceives a market in tiny, low-impact, city transportation vehicles (entirely plausible).

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How to Find the Best Cloud Services Partner|businessnewsdaily.com

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While the first wave of cloud integration was driven by businesses’ needs to reduce costs and increase efficiency, the next wave will focus on leveraging cloud services to expand company offerings and improve competitive positions.

Todd Benjamin, vice president of hosted services at Hostway Corp., said this is especially true for companies that provide technical services to businesses. He said a growing number of IT firms are now looking for partners with cloud delivery expertise so that they can deliver cloud services as resellers.

“Companies that provide IT services to businesses rightly want to focus on their core competencies to succeed in a highly competitive economy,” Benjamin said. “They are looking for cloud experts as partners to round out their portfolio of offerings.”

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Business Referrals — You’re Doing It Wrong! | AllBusiness

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Would you like to get more new customers without spending a dime? Business referrals are a great way to increase your business’s customer base while developing long-term business relationships that will have a positive impact on your bottom line.

In this episode of “The Little Big Show,” small business expert Denise O’Berry shares three simple steps you must take to get better business referrals today.

How to Get Better Business Referrals in Three Easy Steps

See Video.