17 Things Small Business Owners Need to Know

 

1—A Small Business Guide to LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the definitive social media platform for the professional community, says Headway Capital. But while 30 million companies have LinkedIn profiles, many small business owners continue to resist or delay signing up. Who needs another social media network, right? Especially one targeted for use during work hours!

Wrong. Headway Capital says LinkedIn is less a social media network than an all-round professional tool. It is best seen as an effective platform for promoting your business, learning about your industry, and connecting with your most relevant professional contemporaries.

Creating a small business profile on LinkedIn is not much more involved than making a profile on any other platform.

Check out Headway Capital’s infographic below—it’s a step-by-step guide for small businesses to establish and maintain a winning LinkedIn profile.

2—Get Instant, Hassle-Free International Returns to Shoppers and Retailers

Returnly, the post-purchase payments company that enables frictionless returns for online retailers and customers, just announced the availability of International Returns, a new solution which lets global shoppers quickly and easily return items online from anywhere in the world. Returnly localizes the international returns experience enabling retailers and brands to expand into new markets and build stronger relationships with global shoppers.

Global shoppers expect online shopping experiences that are transparent and easy to navigate—ones with the ability to track incoming shipments from pickup to delivery, and with simple and reliable returns. Returnly enables online retailers to meet their shoppers’ expectations by providing instant gratification and seamless returns that include localized tax, duty information, tracking, instant refunds and exchanges.

The returns process not only impacts the shopping experience of customers; it also influences the likelihood of future purchases. Pitney Bowes’ Global E-commerce Study shows that a complex returns process is one of the top five reasons for cart abandonment by global shoppers, behind cost of shipping and speed of delivery. Returns are also key to turning visitors into shoppers—a recent Baymard Institute study found that 11% of shoppers have abandoned at least one order in the past quarter solely due to an unsatisfactory returns policy. Yet offering an easy, localized return experience has remained a challenge to most U.S. and Canadian retailers.

“E-commerce has made it possible for retailers of any size to reach consumers in any country. Our international returns solution is designed to make online shopping easier than ever for today’s global consumer,” says Eduardo Vilar, founder and CEO of Returnly. “With a simple, fast and reliable returns process we’re giving consumers the confidence to buy while removing one of the biggest obstacles of global ecommerce growth for U.S. and Canadian online retailers ahead of the holiday season.”

Benefits for Shoppers and Retailers

  • Traditionally, returning an online purchase across borders has been a highly manual and complex process requiring shoppers to contact customer service for individual instructions to return their items. This is just the beginning of a time-consuming and frustrating process that often includes language barriers, additional customs forms, border restrictions, and unanticipated costs. Returnly’s solution makes international returns as seamless as domestic returns by offering:
  • Automated Cross-Border Returns:Retailers can now enable international shoppers to self-service cross-border returns that include shipping label generation, streamlined duties and tax drawback procedures, and returns tracking.
  • Localized Shopping Experience: Give international shoppers a localized experience with regional return centers or opt to automatically display your domestic return center in the local language and currency.
  • Instant Return Credit & Exchanges: Increase consumer purchasing power by offering an instant return credit or exchange to international shoppers even before shipping the original items back.

With Returnly International Returns, retailers can streamline international workflow processes, gaining a complete and comprehensive view into returns operations. This enables retailers to better anticipate return volume and unlock global shopper insights as to what’s being returned and why. Retailers can also drastically reduce the high costs of fielding customer support calls and manual processing for international returns.

International Returns is available now for all eligible Returnly customers. Go here for more information.

 

3—Fighting Global Cyberthreats

Chubb has enhanced its proprietary Chubb Cyber IndexSM with upgraded features that help identify a range of global cyberthreats based on a business’s industry and size. The new tool also offers cost analysis, insights on cyber insurance limits and deductibles, and an estimated incident costs calculator that helps organizations better understand how to protect themselves against current and emerging cyber threats.

“Since first launching in 2018, this award-winning tool has given users access to real-time data on current and historical cyberthreats. By integrating Chubb’s global capabilities and these new robust risk analysis features, we are now able to offer entities a view into the tangible ramifications of a digital attack,” says Michael Tanenbaum, Executive Vice President, Head of Chubb Cyber North America. “With these feature enhancements, the Chubb Cyber Index provides an industry leading digital resource that enables users to pinpoint their individual exposures and provides them with the resources and tools to better protect their organizations.”

The newly enhanced Chubb Cyber IndexSM now provides additional insight into costs that go beyond potential loss, such as cost of incident response support services, that are designed to help organizations get back to productivity quickly. Since 2009, forensics have been the top driver of cyber claims cost (31%), with an average paid incident response cost of $173,193; forensics also was the top driver of cyber claims costs for the last five years, making up 42.6% of total claims costs. The average paid incident response costs for forensics within that same timeframe was $172,094.

Small businesses are particularly at risk off cyberthreats:

  • In 2018, 56% of cyber incidents affecting small businesses resulted from external actors on a global basis.
  • In 2018, throughout the world, 46% of cyber incidents affecting small businesses resulted from either social attacks (phishing) or human error
  • Globally, in 2018, cyber incidents affecting small businesses most often target company data servers (45%) and human beings (33%).

In addition, the new user-friendly interface of the Chubb Cyber IndexSM, which is accessible via desktop and mobile device, now offers a quantifiable and detailed means for quickly identifying the cyber risks a business may face. Users can now access resources centered on industry and size-specific incident response costs, insights on cyber insurance limits and deductibles, international data, and a library of whitepapers, videos, and other research materials specific to the size and industry in which a company operates.

With more than two decades of claims data and experience, Chubb’s resources help to provide a holistic analysis of cyber trends and behaviors that are used to help inform clients from a range of industries about their potential exposures, the root of various threats, and how they can impact businesses. For example, human error has been the cause of 22% of all cyber incidents reported to Chubb across all industries and revenue sizes on a global basis since 2009. However, in the last complete year (2018), and on a global basis, social-related risks, such as phishing, have taken the lead at 27%. In addition, since 2009, on a global basis, 54% of all cyber incidents reported to Chubb have been caused by an external force with which the organization did not have a relationship.

The Chubb Cyber IndexSM is free to use. For more information on Chubb’s cyber products and services, contact your local Chubb agent or broker.

 

4—Creating a Digital Marketing Team

Internet usage is at an all-time high. Last year there were 3.9 billion global  internet users. Today there’s been a dramatic shift in buying behavior, with consumers opting to shop online rather than physical stores. This means significant changes to how marketers need to operate.

If you want your business and its products/services to get the attention they need, you’ve got to go digital. With digital marketing, channels like search, social media, email, and websites can be used to connect to a specific audience at their convenience.

In order to do this you need a need a top-notch digital marketing team. Check out the infographic below from Spiralytics to see how to assemble yours.

5—Top 10 College Towns to Start a Business 

Lafayette, IN, Columbia, MO, and East Lansing, MI are the US’s top three college towns for starting a business, according to a new study from TollFreeForwarding.

Drawing on existing data, the research combined six factors tailored to the needs of those launching a startup and used them to analyze 50 American college towns.

Here’s the top 10:

  1. Lafayette, IN
  2. Columbia, MO
  3. East Lansing, MI
  4. Ames, IA
  5. Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA
  6. Bozeman, MT
  7. Gainesville, FL
  8. Athens, GA
  9. Tacoma, WA
  10. Fargo, ND

The study used a list of college towns compiled by bestcollegereviews.org. Each town was ranked based on six factors vital to starting a new business:

  • Percentage of opportunity entrepreneurs
  • Percentage of startups that survive the first year
  • Average rental price of office space
  • Business tax rate score
  • Future job growth
  • Cost of living

Lafayette, IN, home to students at Purdue University, came out on top after scoring highly  office rental space (1st at $16 per square foot per year), the cost of living (2nd with a score of 83.5), and the business tax rate (7th with a score of 10).

In second place, Columbia, MO, excelled on its rate of startups that survive the first year (1st with 85.32%) and the price of office rental space (8th at $20 per square foot per year).

Rounding out the top three is East Lansing, MI, whose best-performing factors were the startup survival rate (8th with 81.47%) and the business tax rate (10th with a score of 13).

Iowa was the best-performing state with three placings in the top 20 towns, ahead of North Dakota and Minnesota which both have two.

Jason O’Brien COO of TollFreeForwarding.com says, “Our research sought to provide budding new entrepreneurs with data on how suited their college town is as the base of their new business. The lure of the big city is often too much for the business leaders of tomorrow, but our study shows that there are more than a handful of smaller college towns that are perfectly suited to building a strong business presence.”

There’s more information on the top 20 cities on the TollFreeForwarding blog.

 

6—State of Remote Work

Remote work is increasingly popular, according to an annual study conducted by Owl Labs and Global Workplace Analytics, with 34% of respondents saying they’d take a pay cut of nearly 5% to have a remote work offering, and 71% agreeing to choose one employer over another should they be able to work remotely.

Some key highlights of the 2019 State of Remote Work report include:

  • 51% of on-site workers want to work remotely in the future
  • 83% agreed the ability to work remotely would make them happier
  • 61% of remote workers would expect a pay increase if they were no longer allowed to work remotely

You can get a copy of the full report here.

 

7—New Banking Service for Small Business Owners

BlueVine just launched a new banking service designed specifically to help small business owners better manage their finances and cash flow—the reason why 82% of small businesses fail. BlueVine Business Banking will provide intuitive and budget-friendly online banking services that help SMBs manage everyday finances (e.g. depositing checks, making payments) ,  grow their businesses (e.g. 1.00% interest checking)  and rid them of the struggle to find a solution that lies between consumer and corporate banking that many traditional banks currently offer.

This offering was inspired by the desire to provide a holistic financial experience for SMBs and has future features that directly address the banking pain points SMBs face today, including:

  • Zero account fees: No minimum deposit/balance fees, monthly or service fees, in-network ATM fees or non-sufficient fund fees
  • Reinvest: 1.00% back on balances over $1000 – the nation’s highest yield on a business checking account
  • Instant Funding (in product pipeline): Instant access to BlueVine working capital lines (Term Loan, Flex Credit) through the online portal once approved (ACH deposits take up to 2 days)
  • Reporting & Forecasting (in product pipeline): Project future cash flow, pinpoint anomalies, and receive money management recommendations
  • Fast & convenient digital experiences: Open an account in 60 seconds, check balances and activity, transfer funds, make payments, and access funds in real-time via an online dashboard; deposit checks via the BlueVine Business Banking App
  • Free ATM access: Access cash at 38,000 MoneyPass ATMs through the BlueVine Business Debit Mastercard

BlueVine Business Banking will be available in early 2020.

 

8—Millennials Lack Business Insurance

Millennials who are pursuing entrepreneurship, take more personal liability risks than any other generation. According to a recent study conducted by Liberty Mutual Insurance, one of the largest small business insurers, only 12% of millennials who own their own businesses have business insurance, even though they are known for being the biggest worriers when it comes to their small business.

Millennial small business owners are unaware of what insurance is needed when it comes to their small business, putting them, and in some cases their employees, at risk. Many worry about the financial commitment (35%) compared to boomers (29%), leading them to skimp on basic protection needed.

Tyler Asher, president, Independent Agent Distribution at Liberty Mutual Insurance, says,
“Not having the proper insurance could be catastrophic for a small business.”

Key survey findings

Popularity of side hustles is growing. According to the data, 38% of millennials are pursuing entrepreneurship with side hustles in addition to a full-time job compared to Gen Xers (26%) and boomers (11%).

  • Small Businesses are going unprotected. 54% of millennials worry about their businesses, compared to 44% of Gen Xers and 34% of boomers. But, 54% of millennials who have a side hustle do not have insurance protection outside of their standard homeowners or renter’s policy.
  • Why the lack of protection? Millennials say a lack of knowledge is the driving factor for insurance gaps—40% of millennials say additional insurance coverages never occurred to them compared to 34% of Gen Xers and 27% of boomers.

Many millennials who have side hustles do not know where to start when it comes to insurance. Choosing the right insurance to cover your small business can seem at times to be overwhelming as Small Business coverage spans from a Business Owner’s Policy, Commercial Auto, Commercial Property, Workers Compensation, General Liability, Professional Liability, to Cyber Liability.

Here are some tips from Liberty Mutual:

  1. Proper coverage is key:Independent agents can help small business owners navigate the process by working with them on choosing the best coverage that suits their needs. With the help of an independent agent, you can customize your coverage to be sure you are properly covered. It’s even possible to add coverage to your existing homeowner’s policy.
  2. Be aware of the threat to data security:More than ever, small businesses rely on computers and mobile technology to continue working. Such risks are not just to the small business itself but to customers, vendors, or other parties that might be harmed in attack. It is important to protect your business—no matter how big or small—to consider these risks and insure them properly.
  3. Professional services are vulnerable too: Small businesses are vulnerable any time customers believe that the services they’ve received were in error or services did not meet their expectations. Miscellaneous Professional Liability insurance can help mitigate these liability costs and even help pay for your defense in the event of disputes.
  4. Be protected for the unexpected:It is important to consider all the costs that go into a small business, especially when disaster strikes. In addition to insurance that can help cover property damage, Business Interruption and Equipment Breakdown can reimburse for lost profits until your business is up and running again.

 

Cool Tools

 

9—New Thunderbolt Docks

Belkin, the Connected Things division within the newly merged Belkin International and Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT) entity, recently debuted its Thunderbolt 3™ Pro Dock and the Thunderbolt 3™ Plus Dock in the U.S.

Both of the Belkin Thunderbolt 3™ docks come to market at a time where corporate offices and coworking spaces are embracing the idea of “desk hoteling.” These unassigned, operating-system agnostic desks are based on the premise that employees should be able to work wherever and whenever they want without having their productivity interrupted.
Both are compatible with USB-C and Thunderbolt 3™ devices, but the Pro Dock offers more ports than the Plus and is intended for a more demanding work environment.

“IT professionals are always searching for helpful tools to keep in the office. With evolving workplace office trends, such as coworking venues and offices with distributed teams, having flexible and affordable solutions is a priority. Each of these Belkin Thunderbolt 3™ Docks is a perfect solution for anyone in IT to have on hand,” says John Roepke, Director of Product Management, Belkin.

Thunderbolt 3™ Pro Dock

  • Works well in corporate offices and co-working spaces and other “hotel desks”
  • Multiple ports – 4 USB-A 3.0, 1 USB-A 3.1, 2 Thunderbolt 3™ ports, USB-C 3.1 port, Gigabit Ethernet, Display Port, Audio In/Out, 85W Upstream Charging – for all-in-one connectivity to Thunderbolt 3 device
  • Compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems
  • Supports two 4K displays at 60Hz or one 8K display at 30Hz
  • SD card reader

MSRP: $299.99

Thunderbolt 3™ Plus Dock

  • Works well in corporate offices and co-working spaces and other “hotel desks”
  • Multiple ports – 3 USB-A 3.1 ports, 1 Thunderbolt 3™ port,  2 USB-C 3.1 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 2 Display Ports, Audio In/Out, 60W Upstream Charging – for all-in-one connectivity to Thunderbolt 3 device
  • Compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems
  • Supports two 4K displays at 60Hz or one 8K display at 30Hz

MSRP: $249.99

business

10—Savings on Dell Products

With the holidays right around the corner, shoppers are looking for the best-of-the-best tech to gift—even to themselves. Dell offers the scoop on some of their best savings:

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Easy to throw into a carry-on for personal or business travel, the XPS 13 2-in-1 is one of Dell’s most versatile laptops that blends an exceptional user experience and stunning design in our smallest size. The 2-in-1 is available with Intel’s new 10th Gen Core™ processors, letting you easily juggle all your favorite apps while working from your family couch over the holidays.

In addition, our most beloved and awarded product, the new XPS 13, is beautifully designed and perfect for those binge watchers or busy mobile pros on the go. The XPS 13 features Dell CinemaColor and Dolby Vision, and an optional 4K Ultra HD InfinityEdge display, for incredible brightness, contrast, and color to bring those classic holiday films to life. With excellent battery life and the new Killer™ AX1650 (2×2) built on Intel Wi-Fi 6 Chipset, you’ll be equipped to experience seamless streaming and browsing while in flight or on the road to your holiday destination.

You can take advantage of Black Friday savings on the XPS 13 starting at just $799.99. Plus, browse more great deals on 2-in-1s and PCs at Dell.com/blackfriday.

The new Alienware m15 and m17 are thin and light gaming laptops built with the new sleek, industrial Legend design. Engineered for gamers who prioritize mobility without compromise, these laptops are supercharged with Intel’s 9th Gen Core processors and up to NVIDIA’s RTX 20 series GPUs. Between top performance options like 240Hz and high-quality OLED displays, gamers will be tied to their device even when the turkey is ready. The two-color options—Lunar Light and Dark Side of the Moon—allow gamers to choose what suits their style.

Don’t miss Black Friday savings on the Alienware m15 and Alienware m17 starting at just $1,399.99. Browse additional gaming deals and accessories, such as the Dell 24 Gaming Monitor doorbuster for $99.99, available at Dell.com/blackfriday.

More savings: Check out devices such as the Latitude 3500 laptop ($689), Dell Precision 3540 workstation ($709), Dell 32 Monitor D3218HN ($149.99) and PowerEdge T140 Tower Server ($499), all designed to improve productivity for today’s busy small business professional. Visit Dell.com/sbblackfriday for more details and offers.

Full schedule of Dell’s holiday deals

  • Nov. 1 – Nov. 17: Visit www.Dell.com/blackfriday and www.Dell.com/sbblackfriday to get select Black Friday offers, available for a limited time only.
  • Nov. 18 – Nov. 30: Shop Black Friday deals via www.Dell.com/blackfriday and www.Dell.com/sbblackfriday.
  • Nov. 18 – Nov. 19: Dell Financial Services customers have first access to Dell’s Black Friday personal PC doorbusters; apply now at www.dell.com/dpa.
  • Nov. 28 (10 a.m. then 2 p.m. – 12 midnight ET) – Nov. 29 (8 a.m. – 10 p.m. ET) – Black Friday hourly doorbusters available via www.Dell.com/blackfridayand www.Dell.com/sbblackfriday.
  • Dec. 1 – Dec. 8: Cyber Monday deals with hourly doorbusters on Dec. 2 (8 a.m. – 10 p.m. ET) via www.Dell.com/cybermonday andwww.Dell.com/sbcybermonday.

Perks for Dell customers

You can register now to join Dell Rewards  and get early access to Black Friday doorbusters starting November 20, as well as free expedited delivery on almost everything. You will also receive 3% back in rewards with a $500 purchase in a 12-month period or up to 6% back in rewards when they finance  through November 27.

To help customers get the most out of their technology, Dell offers a complete suite of leading edge support options including Premium Support Plus, a comprehensive and convenient PC support service.

And through Dell Reconnect, an e-waste recycling partnership with Goodwill® Industries, you can drop off your old tech, of any brand and in any condition, at more than 2,000 Goodwill locations across the U.S. for free.

 

11—Adobe Extends Digital Experience Product Portfolio to Serve SMBs

In order to grow and compete, SMB and mid-market brands are increasingly looking for enterprise-grade capabilities that fit their unique needs—agility, scalability, flexibility and value—to maintain and future proof their success.

To help Adobe recently announced its product portfolio for mid-market and SMB businesses as well as the creation of a new organization within the Digital Experience business to support the unique needs of those companies. Adobe’s product portfolio for mid-market and SMB businesses includes:

  • Magento Commerce: Magento Commerce is an industry-leading commerce solution that gives SMBs the agility and scalability to go to market in highly differentiated ways. The new integration of Adobe Stock with Magento Commerce will give SMB merchants with an Adobe Stock subscription quick and easy access to Adobe Stock’s more than 130 million assets, including images, templates, 3D assets, 8 million stock videos and 750,000 premium collection images.
  • Marketo Engage: Marketo Engage, part of Adobe Marketing Cloud, enables marketers to target and nurture individual leads or accounts at scale and measure business impact across all customer touchpoints. Marketo Engage, the solution of choice for B2B marketing professionals, recently announced updates to ABM Essentials that help B2B companies of all sizes get started with their account-based marketing (ABM) strategies and deliver consistent, continuous and compelling experiences to the right audiences every time. Additionally, Marketo Engage offers access to more than 65,000 marketers globally in its Marketing Nation community where members are encouraged to share best practices with other marketers to help build and formalize marketing strategies.
  • Adobe Analytics Foundation: Adobe Analytics empowers many industry disrupting brands to build and improve the customer experience with deep data insights. For mid-market segments on Magento Commerce and Marketo Engage, Adobe is making available Adobe Analytics Foundation which brings enterprise-grade data analytics to growing brands. Customers can implement the offering at a level appropriate for the size of their business and scale up as their operation expands over time. Advanced features out-of-the box—from segmentation to fallout analysis—and Photoshop-inspired analysis tools mean both faster time-to-value and an ability to let anyone in an organization access data to drive decision-making, regardless of technical expertise.
  • Adobe Sign for Small Business: Adobe Document Cloud provides the most comprehensive tools for digitizing document workflows for the majority of the Fortune 100. New Adobe Sign for small business delivers e-signature capabilities that are powerful enough for the enterprise, but tailored to the needs of small business users. When combined with other market-leading document technologies, including Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Scan, Adobe Sign for small business helps companies digitize legacy work practices that rely on signatures, like customer onboarding, contracts and approvals, payments and invoices and much more. Learn more about Adobe Sign for small business here.

Creative Cloud for Teams: With Creative Cloud for teams, brands can easily deploy Adobe apps that are best suited for their business needs. Simple license management, robust data security, technical support and training resources empower companies to work efficiently and make the most of their software investment. Creative Cloud Libraries allows various teams to share assets and folders securely while helping them maintain version control, stay on top of changes and collaborate. The Creative Cloud desktop application organizes the user’s Adobe tools in a more personalized way, showing which apps have been installed, which have updates and also help with discovery of new Adobe apps. In the future, Adobe Spark customers will be able to manage multiple brands and gain access to their Creative Cloud Libraries so that they can publish on-brand content to social media quickly and easily.

 

12—Making e-Commerce WordPress Easier Than Ever

GoDaddy Inc. and WooCommerce, the most popular and powerful e-commerce engine available for WordPress, have teamed up. With this integration, GoDaddy further supports its WordPress users by providing the best tools for building their online presence. The integration reduces the typical four-step set-up process into one easy step so GoDaddy WordPress users can set up a fully functioning eCommerce site in no time.

The new WooCommerce plan tier dramatically simplifies the onboarding process for e-commerce WordPress sites by combining hosting services, WordPress, WooCommerce, and integrated feature extensions into an automated one-step setup solution. This synchronized process reduces the number of setup screens by 70% compared to other options.

“In one easy step, our WordPress users can immediately get their online stores up and running in the most efficient and quickest way possible,” says Patrick Pulvermüller, SVP & GM of Global Hosting at GoDaddy.

“At Automattic, our goal is to democratize publishing and commerce on the open web,” says Matt Mullenweg, the cofounder of WordPress and founder and CEO of WooCommerce parent Automattic.

With this integration, WordPress users can quickly establish their e-commerce sites with pre-populated, customizable design themes. GoDaddy’s WordPress users receive free access to top WooCommerce premium extensions, valued at over $1,500. GoDaddy also gives users peace of mind when it comes to site and payment security by providing free auto-managed SSL, eliminating the need for regular site recertification and re-keying.

To learn more visit here

 

13—New Analytics Platform Offers Enterprise-Level Solution to SMBs

Human Capital Management (HCM) company Paycor recently announced Paycor Analytics, powered by Visier, a globally recognized leader in people analytics and planning. Paycor Analytics provides Human Resources (HR) leaders with high-impact, easily consumable real-time data insights for more informed reporting on the organization’s workforce. By transforming complex data into trends, predictions and powerful benchmarking, Paycor Analytics enables HR leaders to easily observe patterns, pinpoint problem areas and take actions that will directly impact the organization.

Increasingly, HR leaders are being asked to guide business decisions around recruitment, labor costs, turnover and more. Yet, according to Paycor’s “Finance’s Guide to the HR Center of Excellence,” 66% of CFOs say their HR departments have an “average or worse than average” impact on the organization’s bottom line. The HR department is sitting on a goldmine of data, but it often lacks the support, resources and budget needed to make sense of workforce data.

Paycor Analytics enables HR departments to transform complex workforce data into simple and digestible visualizations to gain insight into their organizations. In addition, this tool enables HR leaders to informatively answer important workforce questions from stakeholders, including workforce costs and how they’re changing, the risk of critical talent resignations and suggested retention strategies, how to reach diversity goals and many more.

 

Quick Clicks

 

14—Want to Sell Your Business?

PwC’s Private Company Services (PCS) just released an Exit Strategies Report offering best practices for private companies looking to sell their businesses in a market with over $1 trillion in ‘dry powder’ capital.

The report shows, while offers for private companies are becoming more plentiful, potential buyers such as private equity firms are becoming extremely sophisticated in how they approach purchasing. This means private business leaders must prepare themselves to be attractive in a sale situation, such as by:

  • Seeing their business through the eyes of the potential buyer and understanding the buyer’s motivation and priorities.
  • Identifying the value drivers that make your business unique, considering finances as well as people, products and potential.

 

15—Employees and Social Media

The Interview Guys note that employees are self-censoring on social media:

  • 1 in 3 employees know someone whose employer fired them based on their actions on social media—2 in 5 employees say their company is strict on their social media usage outside of work
  • 10% of employees say they’re required to disclose their social media profiles as part of the hiring process and 1 in 3 people believe all companies should screen job applicant’s online accounts
  • Roughly 3 in 10 employees accepted a friend invite from coworkers to “keep the peace” and 3 in 4 employees are friends with coworkers on Snapchat, one of the most personal social media platforms
  • The topics employees avoid posting about most because coworkers can see them are their political feelings (36%), drinking or drug use (34.%), and anti-company statements (32%)

 

16—Coping with Hard Work

The Delphi Health Group says as employees today work harder, they’re playing harder as well.

  • 72% of employees go out when feeling overworked—and 20% go out at least once a week because of it
  • Nearly half of senior-level and executive employees report recreational drug use (2X more likely than associate-level)
  • 83% of overworked employees turn to alcohol to cope—62% are more likely to binge drink

 

17—Most Hated Online

Who are the most annoying people online? WhoisHostingThis reports that The Internet’s Most Hated include:

  • Coworkers: 1 in 5 employees admit to blocking their coworkers on social media because of controversial posts
  • MLM: 42% of people find multi-level marketers annoying. More than 3 in 10 go the extra mile to unfollow such pages
  • The most toxic platforms? 28% of internet users discontinue Facebook to escape the negativity, while 32% deactivate Twitter and 42% leave Snapchat

Business man stock photo by El Nariz/Shutterstock

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