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+ Growing a business may take time, but there are a few things you can do to scale your company more quickly. + Calculating the growth rates of various metrics and then comparing them to one another gives you a more complete picture of your business’s trajectory. + While there is no way to guarantee success, implementing these tips can put your business in the best position to succeed and grow. + This article is for entrepreneurs who want to measure their business’s growth while continuing the success of their company as it scales. When you first launch your business, your main goal is to establish your brand and start growing. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen overnight. Growth is an ongoing process that requires hard work, patience and dedication. There’s no special step or secret way to surpass other businesses in the industry or achieve immediate success. There are, however, proven ways to reach growth milestones that can catapult a business to success. We asked sma...

Are you confident that your business can weather a coming recession? Small business owners saw their revenue grow by a staggering 87% in 2022, but profits have dipped by 4%. The reason? Inflation forced businesses to raise spending to cover their operating costs and rise above the competition. CONSTELLATION BRANDS, INC. The good news is that your marketing plan can help you gain traction in an uncertain economy. Here's how to manage your marketing budget during an economic downturn. Set specific marketing goals Start by revisiting your overall business strategy. What goals are you trying to achieve through your marketing campaigns? These goals can help you decide what sort of marketing methods you wish to focus on and can also be used to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Many business leaders emphasize the need to set "SMART" goals. These goals are: • Specific • Measurable • Attainable • Realistic • Timely For example, a good goal ...

Upskilling DevOps is a Key to Building a Resilient Organization Businesses without effective strategies to upskill DevOps will find it challenging to ingrain resilience in their organizations. With the entire globe embracing innovation-first culture, there is a significant amount of evolution in the business landscape. Recent developments in cloud computing, virtual reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) are helping enterprises to revolutionize their workflows. Many enterprises are finding it challenging to leverage these technologies to get a competitive advantage in the new business paradigm. CIOs should consider developing a resilient DevOps team to ensure the organizations’ security, efficiency, and scalability. Today customers expect a quicker and simpler application deployment and development process, improved stability, and product quality. To suffice and exceed this customer demand, enterprises need to invest in upskilling their DevOps te...

The Big Tech companies—such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon—are frequent subjects of headlining news stories, both for reasons they’re proud of and for occasional blunders. All this attention on these industry giants isn’t just valuable (or embarrassing) press attention for them—it’s also an ongoing, practical learning experience for smaller companies. Keeping on top of and learning from the high-profile “lessons” Big Tech provides on topics ranging from the user experience to data protection can be a boon for smaller tech companies navigating a highly competitive industry. Below, 14 members of Forbes Technology Council share both clear and less obvious lessons every tech company can learn from Big Tech. Members of Forbes Technology Council share valuable lessons smaller tech companies should learn from Big Tech’s example.  1. Constantly Measure Customer Impact Most startups work in an ad hoc way, in which features are developed based on intuition. Converse...

The pandemic has changed a lot of things, including the way many of us think about work. People are leaving their jobs in droves, but where are they going? And can you go there too? If you have a side hustle--a hobby or gig you do outside the hours of your full-time job--maybe it’s time to think about turning that into your primary source of revenue. Here’s what you can learn from people who’ve turned their side hustle into a small business. Do What You Love A side hustle is often a way to engage your passion for something that’s different from your “day job.” According to The Hiscox Side Hustle to Small Business™ study, most side hustlers started their side gig to follow a passion, and a majority did so in a different industry from the one they last worked in.  Kat Carney of Swell & Stone always wanted to be a photographer, but it was only a side hustle for several  years. When she decided to make it her full-time job, she began shooting traditional weddings bu...

Fruit trees are always a great addition to your garden. As well as looking pretty and making your garden smell great, they also provide quicker and cheaper fruit options than supermarkets and are probably healthier too, as who knows what pesticides are used in store bought produce. In order to successfully grow your own fruit trees at home, there are a few easy steps that you need to follow when planting it, according to garden experts, and some specific care that the tree needs in order to grow healthy and bear fruit. So how do you plant a fruit tree and how are you supposed to care for it? How To Plant a Fruit Tree Before you decide which tree you want to plant, it may be worth researching what trees thrive the most in your area, as different kinds of trees need different climates. Once you know what tree you want and what trees are suitable to plant in your area, you can then start getting your tools ready to dig. According to Christina Brown, owner of Christina Brown G...

We explore four clear-cut SMB marketing strategies you should try, including local, inbound, influencer, and performance marketing. Match the right strategies to your business needs. Let’s get one thing straight before we start: Marketing is an investment. There is no investment without risk, no guaranteed results, no magical solution, that will make your business grow and generate profits without effort. There are, however, increasingly efficient marketing channels that can be addressed without a large in-house team, and without adding costly intermediaries into the equation. What you need is a clear strategy, the right tools to automate your operations, and the capability to measure the outcome of your investment. Small business marketing has a shorter horizon for generating results; business owners must be more selective in their adoption of marketing channels. Whereas large corporations are addressing all the stages of the user journey, the SMB segment of businesse...

Whether big or small, all businesses go through change. In an unpredictable marketplace, the ability to adapt separates success stories from cautionary tales. In defining how businesses adapt to change, Eric Ries ("The Lean Startup") coined a concept that he named "pivoting." According to Ries, and many experts agree, every business reaches a point where it must make a choice to pivot, persist, or just pull the plug! When you choose to pivot, you position yourself to take advantage of market trends and respond to customer feedback. Yet, despite the benefits of pivoting, it can be tough to know when you need to take your dream business in a new direction. Read on to discover the tell-tale signs that it's time to take a fresh approach in your business operations. Competition is too stiff No industry is immune to competition, and if you feel that you are struggling against stronger rivals, maybe it's time you pivot. When you started your business...

Nicky Garcea, Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer of Cappfinity. getty Before the pandemic, it was business as usual: Everyone was tucked into their cubicles, being as productive as possible, and perhaps waiting for the next great opportunity to move ahead. Covid-19 changed that, possibly forever. Now companies need to rethink the kinds of talent they want or need to attract, and define talent slightly differently than they were accustomed to doing. Even here at Cappfinity, we’re asking that candidates describe their strengths, soft or durable skills in greater detail, rather than focus on a history of their past experience. What does this changing hiring landscape look like?  In the customer service arena, soft skills might include traits like empathy, patience and delivering stellar advice. If those skills were developed in a restaurant setting, but the candidate is applying to work in a call center, in the past they may have been considered a poor candidate. Now...

The past year has undoubtedly demanded pivots and change in more ways than anyone could have imagined. Businesses were catapulted into endurance mode with a singular focus: survival.  As new survival methods (and messaging) became the norm, entrepreneurs fell into a pattern of using their message to bridge the gap from unprecedented to post-pandemic. The rise of the small business, competition and an oversaturation of information make for a crowded space that calls for differentiation. In the face of a re-emerging world, it’s long overdue for business owners to approach marketing their businesses in new and inventive ways by focusing on conscious consumerism, intentional inquiry and the human experience — all without the overwhelm of what others are doing. Small business is surging, and assumptions are driving struggle  As entrepreneurship sees a surge since the pandemic, growing 24% from 2019 to 2020 worldwide, spaces have gotten more saturated. Competitio...

In an ever-changing business landscape, scaling operations in a healthy way is a primary goal (and challenge) for many small businesses. Especially in a post-pandemic world, entrepreneurs must keep current on the latest technology and utilize best practices to attract and retain customers. If you’re looking to scale your small business, here are four expert tips on how to do so sustainably from a recent CO— Roadmap to Rebuilding panel. Leverage Technology and Know Your Audience to Expand Your Reach Michelle Aragon, vice president of brand marketing and strategy at Spectrum Reach, encouraged business owners to leverage technology to stand out from their competitors. “As technology advances, consumption shifts,” Aragon explained. “Customers have new places to access content … [so] businesses need to think about new ways to connect with audiences.” Beyond using technology, Aragon recommended that entrepreneurs first get an understanding of their audience, and then work on...