Canada: How to cash in on foreign product distribution
You’re a U.S. business looking to enter a new, international market. Determining where to start is the first decision to make. Consider Canada. Often affectionately called the 51st state, Canada makes for an easy transition for your product because it shares a number of common traits and habits with the U.S. Our economies are also very tightly linked thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement and Canada is the second largest importer of U.S. goods. Here are some things to think about when considering Canada as your first step into international markets.
Steven Page is a serial entrepreneur with 28 years experience in successful entrepreneurial ventures, 20 years specifically in the Natural Products/Nutraceutical industry. Mr. Page’s entrepreneurial career started when he was in University when ...
View Full ProfileAdvice for hiring an integrated facility services company
Many business owners and office managers are looking to consolidate when it comes to partners who provide facility services like commercial cleaning, HVAC work, landscaping services, etc. Instead of relying on multiple companies who handle one specific piece of the facility maintenance puzzle, these office decision makers are seeking out integrated facility services companies who can take care of it all. Here are the top dos and don’ts you should keep in mind as you seek out your first (or next) integrated facility services partner.
I’m the Regional Director for OpenWorks, a facility services franchising company focused on improving customers results by making their facilities cleaner, safer, and healthier. In this role I lead the company’s sales efforts, overseeing a team ...
View Full ProfileHow to effectively go about selling the family business
If you have decided to one day sell your company to a third party, there is a lot of ground to cover before you are sipping champagne at the closing. Any misstep along the road to a closing can derail a transaction thus destroying your ticket to financial security and often the business itself. Proper preparation for the transaction can remove many of the obstacles along the path to closing and save time. Remember, time is the ally of buyers, not sellers.
Kevin M. Short is the author of Sell Your Business For An Outrageous Price (Amacom, 2014), and the Managing Partner and CEO of Clayton Capital Partners, a St. Louis-based investment banking firm specializing in the sale and purchase of mid-size ...
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesProtect your company from patent litigation with IP insurance
The reality is intellectual property (IP) lawsuits are expensive and time consuming. More than ever, it is important that companies, regardless of size, recognize that there is an affordable and essential insurance solution available to help fund and manage the high cost of patent litigation.
Robert Fletcher is President and Chief Executive Officer and plays a direct role in creating new products and finding partner backing, as well as the more esoteric tasks of analyzing, evaluating, and selecting projects for Asset-backed intellect...
View Full ProfileHow to improve and create an efficient help desk
The number one key to help-desk success is your support technicians’ ability to handle human interactions. But that doesn’t mean that you, the manager, can just hire friendly people and relax your way to success. You still need to facilitate processes and report on key metrics to set up your team for success.
Read on for a little friendly advice for keeping your help desk in tip-top shape.
Luke Grimstrup, Product Manager for Citrix GoToAssist, is passionate about ensuring his users deliver the best quality of support to their customers and managing the services they provide effectively and efficiently using industry standard servi...
View Full ProfileImprove your businesses by speeding up payment to your suppliers
The relationship between enterprises and their many suppliers is an important one. For enterprises, finding the suppliers that are reliable, adaptable, and transparent can be time-consuming and frustrating, so nurturing those relationships is key.
Christian Lanng is CEO, Chairman and co-founder of Tradeshift, with the lead responsibility of shaping strategy and vision. After his first startup at the age of 19, Christian took a position in the Danish Government where he launched its ...
View Full ProfileEnsure your business gets off on the right foot for the New Year
Many businesses center their New Year planning around sales and growth objectives. However, human resource issues, particularly around maintaining compliance with the law, can create major hurdles to meeting those goals. Take special care not to neglect your HR department at the start of the year by attending to the following advice.
As the President of EverNext HR, Dean Watters encompasses over 20 years’ experience in business solutions, outsourcing and the insurance industry. Dean gained his extensive experience while working for various Fortune 500 companies such as ADP, ...
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesMinimize disruptions in your business by planning for a disaster
Once a disaster strikes, your business may never recover. Don’t let your business be a casualty of disaster. Advance preparation can reduce the risk for downtime.
According to the American Red Cross, approximately 40% of small businesses fail to re-open after a major disaster. Is your company prepared for the next fire, flood, or man-made catastrophe? If a disaster should strike tomorrow, where would your employees go? How would you access company data and keep your business running?
Dan Perrin is the Senior Director of Workplace Recovery at Regus, the world’s largest provider of flexible workspace. For more than seven years, Dan has helped businesses of all sizes plan, prepare and recover from unexpected events and natural ...
View Full ProfileGreat customer service helps your medical practice thrive
When it comes to keeping existing patients, finding new ones, and generally building a solid future for a medical business, customer service is actually a big part of the picture. While many doctors traditionally don’t pay much attention to this aspect of running a practice, more physicians are now waking up to the importance of treating customers right and presenting an appealing environment to patients. Here is some of the top advice for creating a customer service friendly environment that will retain existing patients while attracting new ones.
Sue (Sunni) Patterson started in the healthcare industry as a senior medical claims processor with a major insurance payer. Sunni is President of RMK Holdings Inc., a healthcare revenue cycle management services firm. Key specialization areas in...
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesHow to get the most from your local printer and print shop
Every day business people enter a print shop with an emergency or impossible deadline. They often expect miracles by the people behind the counter. However with a little more forethought and planning, potential stress and panic can be avoided. Follow these tips to a stress-free experience with a printer. Then you can focus on the meeting, presentation or proposal and not on whether you will show up with the quality materials you need.
One hundred percent women-owned and operated by Karen Fraielli and Valerie Chanoux, Minuteman Press Providence-Warwick specializes in business printing, document management technology, consumer print production, and the latest advances in print ...
View Full ProfileAdvice for businesses on leasing or buying commercial real estate
A good rule of thumb in business is that a deal isn’t always a deal. This is especially true with commercial real estate, an area where business owners may only have limited knowledge or experience.
Remember, that rent is only part of the financial commitment you make when leasing a property. There are a multitude of other variables, as well as standard market practices and items that are specific to a geographic area, that will affect your bottom line cost when leasing.
If you are looking for a new commercial space on your own, here are some dos and don’ts.
Lynn Drake's status is well known in the industry: She's the commercial realtor focused on maintaining "true north" for her corporate clients. It's a reputation built on 20-plus years of commercial real estate experience and expertise in corpora...
View Full ProfileThings to consider if thinking about selling the family business
Deciding whether to transfer a business to family members or sell to an outside third party isn’t easy. Owners must rigorously evaluate family relationships, industry forecasts, their own strengths and weaknesses and the abilities and desire of their key managers. If they do not, any one of these factors can destroy the best-laid transfer plans. Advisors skilled in planning successful exits can help owners look objectively at their families, companies and selves and chart a course to a successful exit.
Kevin M. Short is the author of Sell Your Business For An Outrageous Price (Amacom, 2014), and the Managing Partner and CEO of Clayton Capital Partners, a St. Louis-based investment banking firm specializing in the sale and purchase of mid-size ...
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesHow and why businesses should prepare a disaster recovery plan
There are many facets of contingency planning but the two main focal points are business continuity and disaster recovery. Sometimes these terms are used synonymously, however there is a clear distinction between the two. Business continuity planning focuses on your business functions and the processes that run your business, where as disaster recovery planning focuses on the technology that supports the business. Disaster recovery planning includes items such as data backups, critical applications, servers, infrastructure, and networks.
Deseré Cardona, is CARMA's founder and Chief Executive Officer. Deseré is a Master Business Continuity Planner (MBCP) and a veteran in the industry with over twenty years' experience. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies such as JP Morgan ...
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesUse an omnichannel solution for all your customer interactions
Omnichannel started out as a marketing phrase and has evolved into an ecommerce term that describes the increasing importance of using digital tools for an improved and consistent shopping experience. The “channel” part of the term refers to any point of customer interaction: the web-store, mobile site or app, in-store app, POS, etc.
Before joining Upshot Commerce, Vlad was the Mobile Product lead at Demandware, Omni-Channel product manager at Micros and co-founder at Pingwyn. Vlad has a Babson MBA....
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesE-commerce retailers: comply with online sales tax requirements
Automating the sales tax processes within your online store will be critical to e-commerce success. Whether you sell $200,000 worth of product in one year or in one hour, the sales tax should be a top consideration. There are over 11,000 tax jurisdictions in the US alone and many states like Texas, Florida and California have started to require out-of-state online merchants to collect sales tax.
Before joining Upshot Commerce, Vlad was the Mobile Product lead at Demandware, Omni-Channel product manager at Micros and co-founder at Pingwyn. Vlad has a Babson MBA....
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesUse special events to raise money for your non-profit organization
If you are involved with a nonprofit organization, whether as a paid employee or volunteer, you understand the challenges of generating enough revenue to keep your organization afloat in tough economic times. Unfortunately, many sources of income like community grants, large corporate gifts and through umbrella organizations like United Way, are no longer as reliable as they used to be. And that’s why creating profitable special events is so important.
Karen Shughart has worked as a non-profit professional and community volunteer for almost 30 years and has chaired special events that have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for her community. She has also worked as a journalist, writer, e...
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesHow to send email that meets HIPAA compliance standards
Today’s medical businesses are bound by the many restrictions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA. This law applies not only to information sent by medical providers and insurance companies, but also by third party business associates. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule effective earlier in 2013, strengthens a number of existing provisions to further protect the privacy and security of sensitive healthcare related information.
Sue (Sunni) Patterson started in the healthcare industry as a senior medical claims processor with a major insurance payer. Sunni is President of RMK Holdings Inc., a healthcare revenue cycle management services firm. Key specialization areas in...
View Full ProfileRecent ArticlesRight credit card merchant provider will improve your bottom line
You’ve done everything to get your business setup and now it’s time to figure out how to get paid. Finding the right merchant services provider for your POS needs is crucial to your company's bottom line. But where do you start, and how do you know you’re making the right choices?
Jennifer Glass is the CEO at Credit Cards, NJ, a growing independent sales organization in the merchant services industry. She is also the Co-founder of The Local Business Market, a company that provides local marketing and advertising needs. Ms...
View Full ProfileBusiness owners should buy business property insurance
Business owners are wise to include business property insurance in any business insurance policy. As with most insurance coverages, a business owner needs to ensure there are no gaps in coverage, and property insurance is an important component to ensure complete protection of the business. The following expert advice will help the business owner in obtaining the right property insurance.
David has been in the insurance industry for almost 15 years. David has spent the last 7 years at Encharter Insurance doing everything from operations to service, sales, and marketing for both personal and commercial lines. Encharter Insurance...
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