Tag: Growth

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best credit card processing services for most businesses are Square, Payment Depot, or Helcim.

A good credit card processor is crucial for any business selling products or services.

However, not all credit card processors are the same.

After all, a multi-million dollar ecommerce store and a neighborhood bookstore shouldn’t be using the same service.

That’s why I created this guide to help you choose the best credit card processing service for your business. My methodology will make it much easier for you to compare options.

The 9 Best Credit Card Processing Services

My top nine credit card processing services are:

For each processor, I’ll break down the pricing, benefits, drawbacks, and which types of businesses should consider the service.

Square

• Ability to get paid fast
• Fraud prevention
• Straightforward pricing
• Instant transfers

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Any business accepting in-person payments needs to take a closer look at Square.

Square ranked first on my list of the best POS systems, so the fact that they double as a payment processor is an added bonus.

With more than 2 million businesses use Square to process payments, they offers POS systems with built-in payment processing.

Square also processes payments online, on the go, through recurring invoices, and manually for orders taken over the phone. But with that said, the in-person POS processing is where Square really shines.

Another standout of Square is the ability to get paid fast.

While most processing companies usually take a couple of days for funds withdrawals, Square gets money in your bank account in the next business day. They also offer instant transfers for a…

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America has long boasted of embodying a melting pot of diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. More than ever, professionals are demanding to see this diversity at play in the workplace. So much so that Fortune Magazine recently announced a new metric in ranking its Fortune 500 list: diversity and inclusion. Today, diversity goes a lot further than taking a moral stance. Employees favor diverse organizations, and numerous studies reveal a positive correlation between varying viewpoints and innovation.

What Is Diversity Recruiting?

Diversity recruiting is an active process of seeking out talent from diverse backgrounds. This process involves creating an inclusive talent acquisition process, eliminating barriers preventing equal opportunity during the hiring process, and removing gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, and other biases unrelated to job performance from the recruiting process.

The Basics of Diversity Recruiting

One mistake organizations make when tackling diversity is thinking there is a single solution. While tools like diversity training, bonus programs, and company talks are useful, workplace diversity is an ongoing process. There are some basic principles behind every successful diversity recruiting strategy that are worth taking note of.

Diversity Policies Should Include All People

It’s easy to get hung up on one or two diversity metrics such as under-represented ethnicities and gender. While any progress towards a more inclusive workplace is better than none, such a strategy isn’t genuinely inclusive. The diversity hiring program should account for people of all races, life stages, ages, sexual orientations, educational background, work experience, and ability.

Diversity hiring is also just the first step in creating a more inclusive workplace. Promoting inclusion at every level across the organization should be part and parcel of your drive towards true diversity. It is easier to hire and retain talent when employees can see themselves represented in the…

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ZenBusiness is one of the most reputable and popular business formation services on the market today. If you’re starting an LLC or a corporation, they can handle all of the paperwork and filings for you.

The simplicity, fast filings, and excellent support provided by ZenBusiness are all top reasons why it’s so highly recommended. Plus, it’s affordable—even for small businesses.

Tens of thousands of businesses have been formed with ZenBusiness.

As a Public Benefit Corporation, ZenBusiness is committed to making sure small businesses are successful. Social impact is part of their business model and mission statement.

So is ZenBusiness right for you? What services do they offer? Is it a good value? We’ll answer all of these questions, and more, throughout our in-depth review of ZenBusiness.

Already convinced? Get started with ZenBusiness now.

ZenBusiness Business Formation Services

ZenBusiness has a wide range of services, but its offerings in the business formation category are definitely the most popular—more specifically, the LLC services, incorporation services, and registered agent services. We’ll break these down in greater detail below.

ZenBusiness LLC Services

Due to its liability protection, forming an LLC (limited liability company) is an appealing option for business owners who want to protect themselves from individual responsibility related lawsuits or debts incurred by the business.

Once an LLC is formed, the business becomes its own entity. So all of the legalities associated with the business are separate from the owner.

Of all the services offered by ZenBusiness, LLC formation is definitely the most popular.

Getting started is simple. Just navigate to the ZenBusiness website, select “LLC” from the dropdown menu on the homepage, and select your state.

Next, you’ll choose from one of three ZenBusiness packages. Let’s take a closer look at these plans…

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At one point in time, to be a successful salesperson all you needed to be was a people person. However, times have changed and that is no longer the case. The world of sales has become something much more complex.

To stay on top of all that is happening in sales and to ensure that you have the knowledge you need to make your job more successful and smooth, you want to consider taking some sales courses. These are developed to teach everything from the basics for newbies to complex new potential sales techniques for seasoned pros.

We have scoured the internet for the sales courses being offered and narrowed down the list to the top seven sales courses.

The Top 7 Best Sales Courses

1. The Art of Sales – Best for most salespeople
2. Sales Training: Practical Sales Techniques – Best for basics
3. HubSpot’s Inbound Sales Course – Best for inbound salespeople
4. John Barrows’ Driving to Close 2.0 – Best for improving closes
5. Art Sobczak’s Smart Calling College – Best for sales calls
6. RAIN Selling: Foundations of Consultative Selling – Best for relationship sales
7. Asking Great Sales Questions – Best for guiding sales conversations

To learn more about these courses and see which ones may be a fit for you, read our in-depth reviews below.

#1 – The Art of Sales — Best for Most Salespeople

• Offered through Northwestern University
• Four courses in one
• Three-hour commitment per week
• Certificate available for a fee

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If you are looking for a sales course that covers a wide range of topics, then look no further. The Art of Sales is made up of four different courses…

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Worried that you weren’t naturally born with the skills necessary to become a good leader? If these skills aren’t inherent to you, you can learn the leadership skills necessary to help you reach new heights in your career.

And even if you feel you were born a natural leader, you may need some help honing those skills and ensuring you’re using your power in a way that benefits you, your employees, and your company.

One of the best ways to gain skills and put them to good use is by taking an online leadership course. Courses like this will help you to become an effective leader that can drive your company to success. There all kinds of leadership courses available, and we have researched to compile a list of the best leadership courses to help you become an all-star leader.

The Top 7 Best Leadership Courses

1. CCL Leadership Development Program – Best For Most Leaders
2. Strategic Leadership and Management – Best for New Managers
3. Mindfulness Practices – Best for Reducing Stress
4. Team Facilitation: The Core Skill of Great Team Leaders – Best for Managers with Teams
5. Nonprofit Ready Leadership Training – Best Free Classes
6. Leading Teams Remotely – Best for Remote Leaders
7. Agile Leadership Principles and Practices – Best for Modern Leaders

More in-depth reviews of the top 7 leadership courses are below. Read on to learn about who it benefits, how it benefits them, and potential drawbacks. This information will help you determine which courses are right for you.

#1 – CCL Leadership Development Program – Best for Most Leaders

• Oldest leadership program on the market
• Problem solving & stress management
• Great for mid-level/senior mgmt
• Over 50,000 graduates

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Many HR managers know the pressure that comes with unexpected attrition, leave of absence, or volatile hiring swings. The need to fill an open position urgently can quickly send the HR department into a tailspin. Often, the department has to divert resources to recruiting, neglecting other crucial core duties. A contract recruiter brings the experience and expertise needed to resolve hiring challenges quickly at a fraction of the cost of onboarding a permanent recruiter.

The Easy Parts of Hiring a Contract Recruiter

The good news is that you won’t have to struggle to find a good contract recruiter. Many seasoned professionals are choosing to go their own way for various reasons. Whether it’s building professional networks, freedom, or flexibility, the talent pool is jam-packed with highly competent and experienced contract recruiters.

Application tracking software such as JazzHR makes the collaborative process even easier. The software helps with the entire recruiting process, including candidate sourcing, offer letters, and automated onboarding.

JazzHR is the perfect tool if you’re bringing in a contractor. The software offers collaborative hiring features and doesn’t charge on a per-user payment plan. You get unlimited users on all its plans. The basic plan, Hero, costs just $39 per month. You can upgrade to the higher tiers to enjoy unlimited open jobs.

JazzHR offers a free 30-day trial if you’d like to try out the software before committing.

The Difficult Parts of Hiring a Contract Recruiter

The hardest part of this process may be deciding precisely what type of contract recruiter you need.

There are two types of contract recruiters. The line between a contract recruiter and a recruiting agency that specializes in contract hiring is often blurred.

A contract recruiter generally…

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You can grow your blog in two ways:

1. Get more traffic.
2. Do more with the traffic you have.

In my opinion, you should do both even though most people focus on the first option.

Those bloggers don’t realize they’re losing a large chunk of their traffic before it even has a chance to convert.

One of the best ways to see how well you’re using your traffic is to look at your bounce rate.

The average bounce rate across all industries is about 45%. Bounce rates just for blogs are usually higher as illustrated in the image above.

But that’s just the average. Some sites have bounce rates in the 20s, while others have bounce rates in the 80s.

If 4 out of 5 visitors leave your site immediately, there’s a problem—likely multiple problems.

Compare that to a 20% bounce rate (1 in 5 visitors leaving without interacting). This lower bounce rate means that you would only need a quarter of the traffic of the other site to get the same engagement results.

There are many ways to improve your bounce rate, but in this article, I want to show you an underutilized way of reducing your website’s bounce rate and increasing all aspects of engagement.

The main problem is that you need visitors to take action to reduce your bounce rate. But people are notoriously passive on the Internet.

The 1% rule states that only 1% of forum users will actually post on a forum, while the rest will passively lurk:

We see the same kind of behavior on blogs, where typically about one visitor out of 100 will comment (depends on subject and article).

In fact,…

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How hard could it be to write a blog post? If a teenager can do it, you can too, right?

Well, writing a blog post isn’t hard at all, but writing a great blog post is very difficult. Below are 22 actionable tips on how to write a blog post that will help make your content stand out from the crowd.

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Blog On Your Passion

Blogging can be a chore, unless you are passionate about the topic. So, first and foremost, pick a topic you are passionate about.

Don’t just pick a topic that you “think” you are passionate about. Pick one that you definitely know you’ll love. It has to be a topic that you love so much that you want to constantly learn more about it.

Break With Your Old Ways

Do you remember writing term papers in high school or college? If you don’t, lucky you! If you do, writing blog posts is going to be a difficult task for you. You have to ignore all the things your professors taught you about writing.

You aren’t here to write a term paper—you are here to create a conversation!

If my blog posts sounded as if I was talking at you instead of to you, wouldn’t you get bored and irritated with me? Make sure you do the same: talk to your readers—not at them.

Know What You Want To Write About

Before you start writing the first word, you have to know what the last word is going to be. I don’t mean this in a literal sense, but you have to know how you are going to…

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In the past, I’ve told you to keep an eye out for the top marketing trends. But now I want to take that one step further and narrow that focus specifically to mobile trends.

As a business owner, you need to keep your finger on the pulse of modern marketing trends to be successful.

This guide is beneficial for marketers, app developers, and anyone else who wants to improve their business.

While I’m not saying you need to apply these trends to your own marketing, it’s important you’re aware of the new technology that’s available and surrounding you. Who knows, maybe you’ll decide to change your strategy based on this information.

I used research from previous years as well as some recent technological developments to come up with this list.

These are the top 14 mobile trends dominating the year so far. I expect these to continue trending upward.

1. Artificial intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence has penetrated our mobile world.

We’re getting one step closer to mobile devices morphing into robots and taking over the planet. Obviously, I’m kidding.

While that day has yet to come, we are seeing advancements in mobile AI. You may be familiar with some of these:

• Alexa
• Siri
• Cortana
• Google Assistant

All of these are examples of AI that may even be installed on your mobile devices right now. In addition to these popular forms of AI, mobile apps are now using software such as voice recognition to encourage hands-free use and ultimately optimize the customer experience.

AI software is used to help developers and marketers learn more about the user.

Businesses are trying to get more revenue by using this information to create relevant advertisements that target specific audiences.

2. Location-based technology

Your smartphones and tablets…

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Are you needing a simple project management tool but don’t know where to start? There are tons of tools out there that promise to help you tackle your projects, whether they’re big or small. The problem is too many choices often lead to analysis paralysis. To help with your project management quest, I’ve compiled a list of some of the best project management tools you can use that’ll enable you to crush your project goals and work quickly. Buckle in, grab your coffee, and get ready to look through the ins and outs of some of the best tools on the market.

The Top 5 Best Simple Project Management Software

1. Monday.com – Best for simple customization
2. Trello – Best for simple workflows
3. Smartsheet – Best for Gantt chart projects
4. Basecamp – Best for remote project management
5. Asana – Best for project goal setting

Now, let’s see how each of these tools measure up and what they have to offer.

#1 – Monday.com — Best For Simple Customization

• Drag-and-drop task management
• Intuitive, color-coded dashboard
• Customizable templates included
• Three plans under $20/month

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Monday.com straddles between being simple and being customizable to the needs of your team. Its intuitive color-coded dashboard lets your team easily drag and drop tasks and assignments.

Planning, tracking, and delivering each project is made easy with visual templates that make use of automations and work views to ensure you’re never missing a beat.

Project delivery becomes easy with customizable workflows and project trackers. That’s not all. Monday.com also equips you with templates you can customize to the uniqueness of your project, whether…

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