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Rhonda Abrams, Travel Series Blog: Must Have Apps

September 17, 2014

Rhonda’s 21 Must-Have Apps for Small Business Travel

Rhonda teamed up with Marriott and Visa to create the Small Business Smart Travel Guide, on which this blog post is based.

Traveling for your small business is crucial for growth. But it can also be stressful.

As the owner of a publishing company and as a public speaker, I’m out there every month meeting with clients and distributors or attending industry events, such as the America’s SBDC Conference. Fortunately, technology makes it easy for me to prepare for meetings, work efficiently while I’m away, and manage my business on the road.

These 21 apps have helped me be a Smart Small Business Traveler.  (more…)

Success Story: Indiana

September 16, 2014

Linda and Barry Mitchell are the owners of Trinity Dry Cleaners (website) (Facebook page) located in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Trinity Dry Cleaners is an eco-friendly dry cleaning business, and they are constantly looking for ways to help customers reduce their carbon footprint.  Linda and Barry feel it’s their mission to play a part in converting an industry that has been historically toxic to humans and hazardous to the planet to an environmentally responsible and sustainable alternative.

Before becoming entrepreneurs, the owners both held executive level jobs in a multi- national distribution company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Linda and Barry considered opening their own business for several years prior to launching Trinity Dry Cleaners. They examined a number of different business opportunities but felt they could make the biggest impact in the dry cleaning industry, as most plants still use Perchloroethylene, which is a toxic and environmentally hazardous solvent.  They knew they wanted to take dry cleaning in a new direction, and chose to use GreenEarth solvent, which is non-toxic and non-hazardous.  Trinity Dry Cleaners is proud to be the only GreenEarth affiliate in Southeastern Indiana, and also services markets in Northern Kentucky and Southwestern Ohio.  (more…)

Rhonda Abrams, Travel Series Blog: High Return on Travel Plan

September 10, 2014

Your High Return-on-Travel Plan

Rhonda teamed up with Marriott and Visa to create the Small Business Smart Travel Guide, on which this blog post is based. 

Travel is an investment—of your money and your time. Like any other business investment, you want to get the highest return for the money you spend. Fortunately, with just a little bit of planning, you can significantly increase the positive impact business travel can have on your bottom line.

Change your mindset, grow your business

One obstacle that keeps business owners from traveling is the belief that they must be on-premise to run their businesses. Can you entrust team members with more of the daily operations so you can focus more on business development? Can you adopt cloud solutions and apps that allow you to be a more effective mobile manager?  (more…)

Technology, please: Using online productivity tools to do better in business

September 9, 2014

With a friend, I built kitchens and bathrooms. That was fun, and almost a hobby rather than a business — though not intentionally so. We would wait for money to come in, spend many unhealthy hours with a phone seemingly stuck to the side of our heads, and pay multiple visits to customers before jobs to plan, discuss and change plans again.

If only I knew then what I know now.

It wasn’t that we didn’t know about technology — hey, we had mobile phones and used email! And as fast as technology moves, even that short time ago there were tools that would have made our lives so much easier. But we did things the hard way.

We would sketch designs until we ran out of paper, rather than use any of the many free online planning tools widely available. We’d trip over duplicate emails because we weren’t synced up. (I replied to the email; he replied to the same email. How professional is that? Not so much, I agree.) We chased payments. On foot, sometimes.

So would I do it again? Absolutely. But I’d do it so much better.

Knowing what I now know about all the amazing productivity tools available to small business owners (from GoDaddy and other companies), I’d work smarter — using technology to save time and money (not to mention the environment), communicate more effectively, and get paid faster. Here’s how.  (more…)

Four ways to make employees your greatest asset

September 8, 2014
By Cindy Bates –

Your employees have the potential to be the greatest asset to your business. Developing loyal, skilled employees with a passion for the business doesn’t happen on its own and requires a concerted effort. Here are four ways you can start investing in what could be your business’ greatest asset:

1. Create champions. Identify areas of the business that employees are passionate about, like marketing or customer service, and let employees “champion” that part of the business. Have them take responsibility for developing ways to improve their respective areas, and empower champions by providing opportunities to work together across teams. Make sure champions set quantifiable goals – that way you can track success.

2. Get flexible.If the nature of your business allows it, consider allowing employees to work remotely. Research shows that when workers have more flexibility, they’re happier, better able to perform and more likely to stay at a job for longer periods. Job satisfaction is also improved by eliminating the anxiety caused by traffic and daily commutes. This could be a regular occurrence, such as “Work from Home Fridays,” or something that’s permitted on an as-needed basis. Leverage a tool like Office 365 so employees can maintain productivity and collaboration from anywhere.  (more…)