Investing Your Tax Refund into Your Small Business

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Austin Ries

The April 15th deadline for filing your taxes has come and gone and you survived (hopefully). More importantly, if you’re expecting a tax refund, you’ve probably already starting thinking about ways to spend the money — especially considering the average refund is almost $3,000.

There is, of course, the responsible route. You could put your refund in a savings account in case of an emergency, pay off high-interest personal credit card debt or even invest in the stock market.

On the other hand, you could also have some fun with the extra cash. Maybe it’s finally starting that home improvement project, taking a much-needed vacation or even splurging on something you’ve had your eye on for quite some time like a new car. In fact, according to a recent poll by Travel Leaders Group, 43 percent of people plan on spending their tax refund on traveling while another study by eBay found that 33 percent of Americans will spend their refund on a new vehicle.…

Poll: What’s the ratio of support reps to sales reps in your business?

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Prashanth V K

Businesses come in various shapes and sizes. Some can generate a lot of new business with a small sales team, but will need a much bigger customer happiness team to support customers. Other businesses might need a large sales to scale new business quickly and can do with a small team for customer support.

Either way, an interesting metric to look at is the ratio of support reps to sales reps in any business. It allows a bird’s eye look at whether a business is sales-intensive or service-intensive. So, that’s the question we’re asking on our poll this week: What’s the ratio of support reps to sales reps in your business?

One support rep for many sales reps

Typically, this is for businesses where sales is driven by a lot of human interactions and post-sales support is only for a small set of issues. For example, businesses that sell simple-but-indispensable products can thrive on this model.…

Results: Facebook is the most used platform for community

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Prashanth V K

In a bid to understand how businesses build communities, we had asked a question last week on our poll. We were eager to see what platforms were preferred by businesses to build a community. At the same time, we also wanted to see how much the idea of a building a community had permeated.

As it turns out, Facebook was voted as the most popular platform for building a community. About 23% of all respondents had chosen Facebook as their preference (or one of their preferences). This is fairly straightforward. Facebook has a really large user base and has a simple user experience. It takes very little time to start a community and grow it via Facebook.

LinkedIn comes a close second, with about 20% of respondents choosing the professional networking platform. As a more serious alternative, LinkedIn has several business communities that attract significant participation from members.…

5 Tips to Make Online Meetings Run Smoothly

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Sarah

This is a guest post by Michael Essany of Null Media.

With the increasing use of online business applications and remote working habits, the modern workplace can often reap more benefit from timely online conferences rather than face-to-face on-site interactions. And not surprisingly, continued technological development and corporate cost-cutting pressures around the world will keep fueling the rampant growth of virtual meetings in the years to come.

“In these tough economic times,” offers Brent Arslaner in BusinessWeek, “advancing technologies are making virtual events not only a less expensive replacement for physical meetings but also a superior one. Why do we have meetings and events? 1) to exchange information; and 2) to network. Virtual meeting and event technology can facilitate these two objectives easily.”

Fortunately for employers and employees alike, the advantages of conducting a meeting online can be as pronounced as they are plentiful.…

Dashboard Spotlight: US Economic Data Analysis

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Anand Narayanan

We have analyzed many interesting public data sets in the past. And we plan to continue doing so.

With the budget sequestration just a few weeks old, and economic concerns running high in the minds of people, we have attempted to plot selected economic indicators with aspects of everyday life. The goal is to try and see if any interesting connections and insights can be unearthed.…

Employees Want to Feel More Appreciated at Work

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Austin Ries

How often have you heard someone say, “I just feel so lucky to have a job,” over the past five years? How often have you said it?

You’re not alone. Ignoring other ambitions in exchange for job security is a common feeling across the nation in the aftermath of a recession where the unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent in the fall of 2009 and is currently still at 7.7 percent.

And despite statistics from December 2012 reporting a 15 percent increase in time spent at a job for employees age 25 and older since the year 2000, experts are now saying recent improvements in the economy could free people to quit their jobs and pursue other employment opportunities.

This new trend could cause a number of problems for employers who are caught off guard by employees leaving for greener pastures. Especially for those who haven’t focused on keeping employees happy and excited to come to work on a daily basis.…

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