Small businesses fill their stockings with new PCs
You've bought the turkey, winter clothes are out and it's official: The holiday season is in full swing. It's a time when many start thinking about holiday gifts and many small businesses consider how they'll hit those end-of-year goals and start the new year out ahead of schedule.
Social media helping small businesses stretch their ad dollars
The 6th annual Staples National Small Business Survey found that seven out of 10 small-business owners are optimistic about the future. Further, 52 percent of small-business owners revealed they would look to grow their business through advertising and direct marketing if they had a larger marketing budget.
Master's degrees help educators navigate changing roles
Education is the second largest industry in the United States, and nearly everyone is impacted by its professionals in some way. Unfortunately, budget cuts have forced many states to cut faculty size and increase classroom size in K-12 schools. These changes have put educators under increased pressure to meet new demands while also staying abreast of evolving industry trends and regulations.
Simple ways small businesses can protect their data from disaster
Small or large, domestic or international, modern businesses run (or fail) on data. If you're a small-business owner, data - from customer email addresses to your bank account numbers - is vital to your company's success. Protecting data is as important as generating sales.
As the current global market continues to create uncertainty for jobs across almost every industry, self-employment has become a growing trend, with more than 10 percent of workers being self-employed according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. After all, if you're your own boss, what better job security could there be?
How to pursue your passion through a career change
Whether you are pursuing a life-long passion or looking to reinvent yourself, it is never too late to pursue a new career. Here are some tips on changing careers and making the most of this transitional period.
Ways to keep small business registers ringing during the holidays
The holiday shopping season is the time of the year that service and retail businesses big and small look forward to all year. In fact, National Retail Federation research shows that the last two months of the year can account for between 25 and 40 percent of all annual sales. For small businesses especially, the holiday season is often a crucial make-or-break opportunity to earn the revenue required to sustain the business the following year.
Are business credit cards rewarding for small businesses?
Considering how much money your small business pumps into your local economy, the taxes you pay and your company's role as part of the engine that drives the national economy, you probably think someone should be giving you some kind of reward. A rewards program from a business credit card can be a great way to get something back for all the money you spend running your business.
Many people doubt search-engine optimization, or "SEO" for short. Some have a bad impression of it from watching the TV show "The Good Wife" or reading about the "dirty tricks" of a certain department store in The New York Times. They say it's nothing more than "black- hat" tactics that can get you in trouble with Google. These people want to cut back their marketing spending in a slow and uncertain economy. Some of this thinking may even be correct.
Keeping the season fun and festive at work can take on a lot of different forms. Staples.com recently surveyed close to 400 people through social media to find out what was going in their office this holiday season. Here's what people found to be the most important to them this year.
