1. Listen to your gut. Take a break from relying solely on facts and figures to make business decisions. Trusting your intuition is just as valid as any report or estimate, writes OPEN Forum's Julie Bawden Davis. To tap into that oft-ignored wealth of knowledge, step out of your routine and create some time for journaling, meditation and other mind-expanding activities. (From "How Intuition Can Take Your Business to the Next Level," by Julie Bawden-Davis)
2. Think before you speak. Words are powerful, so make sure you consider what you're saying to your employees before you call them into your office. Pulling rank and comparing their work to other employees can be demoralizing, and affect their ability to get work done. (From "The 9 Most Demoralizing Things You Can Say to Employees ," by Bruna Martinuzzi)
3. Outsource what you can for your business. Business owners who have to be involved in every little part of their business are doing more harm than good, notes professional photographer and small-business owner Laura Novak Mayer. "Never do work you can outsource for $10 to $12 per hour; make sure you are always doing the $80- to $100- an-hour jobs," she told OPEN Forum. "If your average billable hour is $100 and you are doing work that you could be paying someone $15 an hour, you are losing $85 an hour in revenue." (From "How to Outsource Your Biggest Business Headaches," by Brian Moran)
4. Put your profits first. Most business owners subtract every expense from their revenue and count what little remains as their profit. Big mistake, writes mall-business expert Mike Michalowicz. Instead, use his "Profit First" accounting method: "Start with revenue," he writes, "and before you pay yourself, before you pay a single bill, you allocate a percentage of that revenue to your profit. Once the profit’s accounted for, you pay your salary, then you take care of your expenses." (From "The Type of Accounting That's Hurting Your Business," by Mike Michalowicz)
5. Surprise your audience. President Barack Obama appeared on comedian Zach Galifianakis web series "Between Two Ferns" to promote the Affordable Care Act among millennials. On top of being hilarious, the viral video showcased an important feature of great social media: being unexpected. The President's surprise appearance helped it stand out from the rest of the online noise, and increased visits to Healthcare.gov by 40 percent. (From "3 Things Business Leaders Can Learn From Obama's Funny or Die Video," by Kelly Spors)
6. Get a business-grade virtual assistant. This will help with tip #3. Today's highly talented virtual assistant pool can do more than basic clerical work for you; they can do lead generation, web design and offer paralegal support. (From "'The New Breed of Virtual Assistant Can Help With Just About Anything," by Julie Bawden-Davis)
7. Find your tax documents. But if you can't find your important documents, no worries. "There are ways to replace almost any document you may need to file," writes OPEN's Mark Henricks. Prior tax returns can be requested from the IRS, and missing 1099s can be replaced by the client who paid you. (From "What to Do If You've Lost Important Tax Documents," by Mark Henricks)
8. Simplify your process. Streamlining your business can be extremely helpful to your bottom line. Some experts recommend using apps to help your business go lean. "The smartest businesses will integrate them with their websites, thereby turning a company's website into a business hub," Gabriel Mays, founder of Just Add Content, told OPEN. "This works by using customer actions performed on the website to trigger actions in the apps," which goes a long way in reducing administrative costs and saving everyone time. (From "Going Lean: 5 Steps to Streamline Your Business," by James O'Brien)
9. Differentiate yourself in the market. A recent study found that the dreaded practice of showrooming, customers checking out products in brick-and-mortar stores only to purchase online, isn't as damaging to small-business owners after all. Which means independent retailers should put more effort in "building strong customer loyalty and cultivating a unique product mix that can’t be easily replicated online," writes OPEN's Kelly Spors. (From "Showrooming: Not So Bad After All?," by Kelly Spors)
10. Stay organized. Can you believe that 102 million apps were downloaded in 2013? The wealth of apps to help small-business owners manage all the ins and outs of their day can be overwhelming, but curating a list of heavy hitting, go-to apps can make life more manageable. (From "The Only Five Apps Small Business Owners Need for a More Productive 2014," by Amber Mac)
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