CEOs Tap Political Leaders To Reduce The Federal Deficit |  |
- CEOs Tap Political Leaders To Reduce The Federal Deficit
- PlayAPI: Social Gaming that Promotes Products and Brands
- In-House Document Management: Cheaper and Easier Than You Think
- Now You Can Sell Products Via Instagram, With Chirpify
- Square Expands Reach, Heads to Canada
| CEOs Tap Political Leaders To Reduce The Federal Deficit Posted: 25 Oct 2012 01:00 PM PDT CEOs from some of the nation’s biggest corporations have called on political leaders in Washington to reduce the federal deficit by increasing tax-revenues and cutting spending. In a statement signed by more than 80 corporate leaders, the executives said that regardless of who wins control of Congress and the White House in November, the Federal government must include:
Heads of companies including AT&T, Bank of America, and Microsoft, among others, put their names to the “manifesto” that attests tax increases are inevitable — no matter which party wins on Election Day. The CEOs believe recommendations of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission offer an effective framework for a fiscal plan. Those proposals outlined several options, including cutting tax rates for people at all income levels, eliminating some popular tax deductions, and adding them back selectively, as needed. Among the signatures on the letter urging deficit reduction are: AT&T – Randall Stephenson, Chairman & CEO President Obama believes tax increases on high income earners are necessary and fair to reduce the deficit. Mitt Romney backs a tax overhaul that closes loopholes and spurs economic growth, but he is against raising taxes. The CEOs are calling for an overhaul of the tax code to reduce deductions and loopholes and thus generate more revenue than the current tax code. A balance approach is needed, and these CEOs are making a lot of sense. The deficit cannot be reduced without cutting spending and increasing tax revenues. Deficit reduction is not just a Washington political issue or something for the leaders of large corporations to worry about. Interest rates are historically low for borrowers seeking startup loans, infusions of working capital, and business lines of credit. However, the further the U.S. government gets into debt, the higher interest rates for small business borrowing will go. This will be a hindrance to business growth in the future. I agree with the CEOs, we need politicians in Washington to stop grandstanding and take rational and equitable steps to cut the deficit. Letter Photo via Shutterstock The post CEOs Tap Political Leaders To Reduce The Federal Deficit appeared first on Small Business Trends.      |
| PlayAPI: Social Gaming that Promotes Products and Brands Posted: 25 Oct 2012 11:00 AM PDT Many brands work hard to gain a following on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. But once you've gained the fans, how do you keep them engaged and interested in your brand? PlayAPI is a startup that aims to help businesses solve that very problem through its social gaming platform. The idea behind the service is that it will help brands create simple games for their social network, keeping them entertained while also helping them learn about new products, promotions, and other company updates. PlayAPI does this through a number of game templates, ranging from photo games to classics like Bingo and memory. Brands can even launch quizzes, voting brackets, or challenges for fans to take part in. So for example, a fashion retailer could create a bracket using a list of potential new products, and then let their fans and customers vote on their favorite items. This tactic allows the company to choose a new product line with items it already knows to be popular, all the while keeping fans engaged and actually interested in the brand and its products. Brands can cater these games and challenges to upcoming promotions or market initiatives, as well as their most valuable brand traits or products and the type of engagement from social media users that would best highlight these features. The service works with data from most major social networking platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Foursquare, as well as native applications and mobile endpoints. Social gaming as a whole has been gaining massive popularity, both through mobile apps and on social media sites like Facebook. So it only makes sense that brands would want to get in on the action, and make these games work for them. While some DIY tools for social gaming apps do exist, not many are geared specifically toward brands and promotions, especially those with compatibility on multiple platforms and pre-built templates for easier deployment. The service is part of ALLDAYEVERYDAY, an integrated marketing communications and entertainment company based in New York. The post PlayAPI: Social Gaming that Promotes Products and Brands appeared first on Small Business Trends.     |
| In-House Document Management: Cheaper and Easier Than You Think Posted: 25 Oct 2012 08:00 AM PDT
Fast forward 95 years. The world has changed, but a few things haven't. One thing that hasn't changed is the need to manage documents and records in your business. In fact, records management has become an even bigger concern in our modern world. For example, litigation is a fact of life in business today. Litigation concerns have upped the ante when it comes to record retention – having a solid policy for retaining and destroying records and being able to accurately retrieve them if required, is important. And that's just one example. Yet too many businesses either don't have a good document management solution and as a result experience uncertainty due to poorly organized records — or they are outsourcing because of a faulty perception it's a big headache to deal with records in-house. And that's regrettable. Why? Because managing records through an in-house solution is doable and has advantages – it's not hard, it can save money, it's convenient, it's more secure, and it gets you organized. Managing records in-house is well within the capability of small and medium sized businesses. Fellowes, a company recognized for its commitment to innovation in the workplace, recently surveyed decision-makers at small and medium sized businesses with 1 – 1,000 employees. That survey shows the advantages of managing records in-house, as follows: 1) Save money – 52% of those who use an in-house document management system say it has saved them money / cut expenses. Not only that, 16% of those say an in-house document management system has had a "strongly positive impact" on operational expenses. In fact, cost is a key driver for switching to an in-house solution. Almost 65% of those switching to an in-house document management solution say that costs of off-site document storage, shredding, binding and laminating were a factor in their decision. To get a quick snapshot of your company's potential savings, try the Fellowes Savings Analyzer at savingsanalyzer.fellowes.com. 2) No more unexpected and hidden costs– One of the issues faced by businesses using off-site document storage and retrieval are unexpected fees than can drive up the overall cost of off-site records management. On top of basic storage and retrieval fees, there are extra charges for fuel surcharges, odd-size boxes, re-boxing, rush retrieval, rush delivery, third party delivery, storage minimums, handling charges, program fees, archival destruction/shredding, detailed billing, and photocopying charges. An in-house solution can minimize or eliminate all of these costs. This chart shows the negative impact of so many fees: Click to see larger chart image 3) Retrieval times are faster – Time is money in business. Only 14% said that their off-site document management vendor retrieved documents the same day as requested. Almost a third say it takes three days or more to retrieve records – sometimes more than a week! With an in-house solution, speed is within your control. 4) Efficiency and convenience improve – According to the survey, 74% say that going to off-site document management has had no impact or a negative impact on efficiency. Fellowes created the Savings Analyzer to calculate your savings potential. It takes as little as 60 seconds to run the calculator – try it and see.
The post In-House Document Management: Cheaper and Easier Than You Think appeared first on Small Business Trends.     |
| Now You Can Sell Products Via Instagram, With Chirpify Posted: 25 Oct 2012 05:00 AM PDT The world of selling and getting paid is rapidly evolving — and I mean rapidly. It’s not some pie-in-the-sky future vision. It is possible — today — for small businesses to sell and receive payments via social media. New services are making that possible. Chirpify, the platform that allows users to buy and sell directly from their Twitter stream, has now launched a version for Instagram. This means that social media users can now bypass the process of visiting virtual storefronts, adding items to their cart, and filling out credit card forms by making in-stream purchases on the Facebook owned photo service. And voila — small businesses sell products via Instagram. Here’s how it works. Users can search Instagram for items tagged #instasale, then enter "buy" in the comments and an instant transaction will take place via PayPal. Businesses that want to sell items on Instagram need to first sign up for Chirpify's service and connect it with their PayPal account and Instagram. Small businesses can create listings from their Chirpify dashboard and then post them to Instagram. Or they can post directly to the Instagram app and then Chirpify will automatically create a listing. Oh, and what about record keeping? Transaction records are important for small businesses. No worries – Chirpify offers detailed receipts to both sellers and buyers. (And of course, you always have your PayPal transaction data.) This expansion into Instagram commerce may not be the last for Chirpify. With more and more emphasis being placed on social media for online retailers each day, and hundreds of millions of the public using social media, it makes sense for retailers to embrace services that cut out the middle step of linking to a traditional online storefront. The easier you make it for people to buy from you, without jumping through hoops, the more likely they are to buy. In addition, since Instagram is a photo-based service rather than text based like Twitter, it can be easier for companies to show off their products. With Twitter, customers have to click links or expand tweets to see photos of the product for sale. With Instagram, the product is already shown right there in front of potential customers. As SiliconFlorist.com writes:
Another advantage of Chirpify: businesses can start to gain valuable social data about real customers. To date, social media data has mostly been separate from transactional eCommerce data — or you have to go to special lengths to try to marry up the two. With Chirpify, the data is right there. Setting up a Basic seller account with Chirpify is free. However, your business will be charged 5% per transaction anytime you get paid. Buyers get charged nothing. There is also an enterprise version that includes advanced features like coupon codes and promotions, giveaways, branded storefronts, advanced reporting, umbrella accounts and more. You have to request a quote for the Enterprise version. We encourage Chirpify to develop a more transparent pricing model in the future for the Enterprise version. Chirpify can also be used by nonprofits and similar organizations to fund-raise or collect donations, or by individuals to send money to one another. Chirpify, a graduate of business accelerator Upstart Labs, first launched its Twitter service in early 2012 under the leadership of CEO Chris Teso. Chirpify uses the APIs of Twitter and Instagram (owned by Facebook) for its service, but isn't officially endorsed by either site. The post Now You Can Sell Products Via Instagram, With Chirpify appeared first on Small Business Trends.     |
| Square Expands Reach, Heads to Canada Posted: 25 Oct 2012 02:30 AM PDT Square, the new method of accepting credit cards anywhere, is empowering small businesses, particularly merchants in the U.S. Recently, the company took its first step toward making its service available to businesses outside the country. Square is one of many tools making it easier for small businesses to sell their products and services to consumers. In this roundup, we’ll also take a look at other ways your business can market and sell. A New Way to PayThe next logical step. Square, with an estimated 2,000 businesses already using its services to take credit card payments from customers, for a total of $8 billion in annual transactions, is already a success in the U.S. Due to its close proximity and because its primarily English-speaking population presents no language barrier issues, Canada seemed the next logical place to test the mobile card reading/processing system. TechCrunch It’s all in the cards. The Square team obviously hopes its simple and versatile service will be as big a hit with Canadian merchants as it has been in the U.S. The free mobile card reader attaches to the earphone jack of any iPhone, iPad, or Android device. The app allows any business to accept credit card payments securely and charges a low rate of just 2.75 percent per swipe. Square Tips For Better SalesSome stiff competition. A new payment system for retailers comes at just the right time, when merchants of all sizes including mom and pops face increasing competition. Here are some other new technologies that do things like collect information from past customer behavior, competitors, and other sources to help small businesses make better decisions on how to handle marketing and sales in the future. Buyer Zone Out of sync. Ideally, marketing and sales efforts at any company should be aligned, maintains Act-On Vice President of Sales, North America, Chris Hardeman,. If your marketing and sales aren’t in sync, you are likely loosing potential revenue and spending unnecessary resources that don’t result in sales. Marketing Action Blog How to relate. A big part of marketing and generating more sales today has to do with building better relationships with customers. Although relationship building is often talked about in social media, it is just as important in almost any kind of business. Here’s a clever post on what your pets can teach you about connecting with customers. AWeber Communications A loyal friend. Customer loyalty programs are another great way of improving sales and of bringing those same customers back for more. Blogger James Stewardson shares these simple ideas for improving your customer loyalty program, thus improving your sales. From loyalty cards to finding other creative ways of making customers feel special, here are some ideas to start you thinking. UPrinting When things go wrong. As important as how you treat customers when times are good, is how you handle relationships when things go wrong. Be sure to react appropriately when your company has made a mistake. The way you respond to errors, especially big ones important to your customers, determines the level of trust they will have for your brand in the future. Step By Step Marketing The post Square Expands Reach, Heads to Canada appeared first on Small Business Trends.     |
Back in 1917, the first Bankers Box® turned office recordkeeping on its head. As the name suggests it was designed for bankers to manage bank records. Soon, however, it was adopted by businesses of all kinds to organize and archive records.
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