If you’re a small business owner without the resources to hire a large full-time team, you can still meet your business needs through freelancing or turning to independent business professionals. This can be an economical way to accomplish your goals without having to cover the cost of full-time employees. 

5 Professionals Every Small Business Needs

Even if your budget is strapped, a successful business requires the services of the following types of professionals. These professionals do things that you don’t need to (or shouldn’t be doing on your own). They’ve spent years learning their trade and can help you avoid that costly learning curve or even costlier mistakes.

If you are ready to hire one of these people but you’re not sure where to find one, your chamber of commerce can help.… Read the rest

Does your town host a Wine Walk, Holiday Stroll, First Friday, or other downtown event where they close off streets and encourage people to get out and support business? If so, you may know that those events often bring the crowds but also bring “tire kickers,” people who are just out for a stroll, not really interested in what you sell. They’re just going into each business, poking around, and usually leaving empty handed.

The hard part of that is that you likely brought in full staff to ensure you had enough coverage only to deal with a lot of “lookers.”

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are a few suggestions on how to transform your looky-loos into looky heres.… Read the rest

If you’re a woman who owns a business and you’d like to apply for federal contracts, getting officially certified as a woman-owned business is essential. The federal government’s goal is to award at least 5% of its contracts to women-owned small businesses each year. While the certification process may seem daunting, it’s not that difficult if you know the basic application rules and materials needed. 

Two Kinds of Certifications

There are two types of women-owned certifications, Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and Women-owned Small Business (WOSB). WBE is a designation that many private sector businesses and organizations, and some state and local governments use. To be given this designation, you must apply through one of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) third-party certification partners. … Read the rest

Whether your team works from home or in an office, whether you are a business of one or one hundred and one, taking care and making time for wellness is becoming increasingly important. Stress levels because of what’s going on in the world around us are increasing. You may not even be aware of the outside stress someone is under. 

Making sure you create an atmosphere where wellness is stressed and made a priority is critical to successful performance. Stressed out employees make more mistakes and have difficulty making good decisions. 

5 Wellness Ideas for Your Business

Host a Walking Zoom

If your team is working from home, encourage them to get outdoors for your next meeting. Ideally, they could walk and get some exercise with you but if not, encourage them to take the meeting outside (or if weather doesn’t agree, encourage them to try a new spot away from their desk).… Read the rest

March is Women’s History Month when the world celebrates the many contributions of women everywhere. If you’re not sure how to celebrate, we have some ideas for you and your business. 

For the ideas in this article, think across multiple mediums to add content on your blog, in videos, reels, podcast episode, audio quotes, social media posts, etc. The same content can be repurposed in different formats to ensure everyone can find their favorite way to enjoy it.

20 Ways to Celebrate

Here are a few ways you can show your support for women:

1. If you’re a woman-owned business, tell your story and the challenges you overcame to open your doors. 
2. Share a story about a woman who inspires/inspired you.
3. Tag women who inspire you in pictures on social media (but make sure you know them personally).