Entries by Guest Blogger

2021 will be the first year of remote working being the international standard: not just an option for many professionals, but actually the default option. Even the fastest-possible vaccine rollout with optimal results won’t change that. For years to come, companies will be reluctant to return to traditional office life for fear of it once again falling apart.

2020 has been a disastrous year in general, and the business world has certainly suffered major losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic: lockdown protocols (though entirely warranted) saw many businesses close their offices and mothball their operations due to their inability to cope. But things haven’t been so bleak for everyone. Some companies have continued to grow, being able and willing to roll with the unusual circumstances, and are currently thriving.

Perhaps you’re in that fortunate position. While others struggled to adapt to remote working and shifts in supply and demand, you weathered the storm and remained on an upward trajectory — and due to that success, your team is still growing. Most likely it’s expanding even faster now that there are so many more talented professionals looking for work.

Blog written by Guest Blogger, Eskinder Assefa

One of the toughest challenges CEOs face is finding effective ways to align teams and keep them aligned as their company grows. High-growth companies must have teams that are continuously aligned and work cohesively on what matters most.

Misalignment is Practically the Norm

When Rebecca Homkes, strategy expert and teaching fellow at London Business School, and MIT Sloan School senior lecturer Don Sull set out to study how strategy plays out in more than 400 companies, they got a surprise. The research team started off by asking more than 11,000 senior managers what was supposed to be an easy question: What are your company’s top three to five priorities?

This blog was written by guest blogger, Jonathan Herps

Guest Post by Sara Estes, Content Marketing Manager at Pendo

Blog written by Guest Blogger, Eskinder Assefa

Our guest blogger today is Howard Cox, CPA, CMA, CIA. Launching his career with a Big Four firm in 1983, Howard established his own practice just four years later—and, in late 2001, merged his independent CPA firm into Somerset CPAs and Advisors' operations. Currently, Howard focuses on general Business Advisory, Mergers and Acquisitions and PPACA Compliance engagements, and also conducts informative presentations for clients, as well as outside events.

The quality of business performance is dependent on the quality of management decisions. The quality of management decisions is dependent on the quality of management information.

Strategy is about focus. Customers are a key element of effective strategies. Optimal allocation of finite resources towards appropriate customer focus can only come from customer knowledge. Therefore, having a deep analytical understanding of relative customer profitability is a critical prerequisite to annual or quarterly strategic thinking.

Written by Guest Blogger James Daily

Some teams are highly successful; others are abject failures; some are just mediocre. And there has been a lot of research done on the differences.

Written by Graham Couling of www.braindropsmarketing.com 
Graham Couling is a marketing manager and consultant that specializes in current small business marketing strategies that are practical and effective.

When I was in business school, the “4 P’s of Marketing” were repeatedly jammed into my head, day after day. Many courses, ranging from economics to organizational behavior, had reference to the “4 P’s of Marketing.” If you are not familiar with the 4 P’s, they are product, price, placement and promotion. Essentially, all aspects of any organization need to consider these important fundamentals when operating their business.

Written by Guest Bloggers Ryan Whitley, CFP^® and Brian Swilling, Financial Advisors at Navipath Partners and sponsors of the 2018 Rhythm Systems' Breakthrough Conference  

Written by Meredith Wood, Editor-in-Chief of Fundera

As the CEO, you’ve either started and cultivated your own company, or worked hard to climb the ranks. Maybe you’re not the CEO, but another chief-level executive. Regardless, you’re held partly accountable for the success of the company. Looking back, can you distinguish a single action that led you to this position?

It’s possible that you took the traditional route: graduated high school, attended college, received an undergraduate degree, landed a full-time job, and even pursued another degree or two. Maybe you drew inspiration from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, deciding that dropping out of school was the only way to pursue your passion. You might even have a degree from a prestigious Ivy League university.

Written by the Blue Ocean Team

As a middle market firm, don’t fall into the trap of going up against the biggest established players in your industry. Instead, you should be focusing on creating new markets.

Plenty of successful middle market companies grow fast without going head to head with the competition at all. To take your middle market company to the next level, learn to shift from competing to creating, and grow your business by offering unprecedented value to your buyers. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne show you precisely how to achieve this in their recent New York Times bestseller Blue Ocean Shift. Here we provide a quick snapshot to get you started.

Our guest blogger today is Howard Cox, CPA, CMA, CIA. Launching his career with a Big Four firm in 1983, Howard established his own practice just four years later—and, in late 2001, merged his independent CPA firm into Somerset CPAs and Advisors' operations. Currently, Howard focuses on general Business Advisory, Mergers and Acquisitions and PPACA Compliance engagements, and also conducts informative presentations for clients, as well as outside events.

Position Scorecards help maximize the return on investment from your players by creating a culture of discipline and accountability. You can further increase engagement by ensuring that your compensation system aligns your players’ best interests with overall team goals. This is accomplished through integrating Position Scorecard results into an overall performance based incentive compensation system.

Written by sales process expert, Marylou Tyler. Marylou is currently launching her newest book, titled Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your Sales B2B Pipeline.

There’s no feeling in the world quite like it.

A quick, sharp tug and you know it’s on. In an instant, you’re mentally transported back hundreds, perhaps thousands of years... back to a time when your very survival rested upon whether you caught that fish on the end of your line.

Over time, I’ve discovered my Predictable Prospecting™ methodology has much in common with the ancient art of fishing.

Written by Peter L. Wyro, M.B.A. of www.justcherry.co
Peter is the CEO of Cherry, an ROI-Ready Inbound Marketing Agency. For nearly 20 years, he has helped transform businesses into highly-valued assets. His expertise is marketing strategy and new product development.

One of the biggest challenges that marketers face is justifying their investments. How much should your business spend to acquire a new customer? If you spend too much, you’ll eventually go out of business. If you don’t invest enough, you might be missing opportunities to grow – much to the delight of your better-informed competitors. The stakes associated navigating this dilemma are pretty high. Forecasting future cashflows by calculating customer lifetime value is an essential practice in figuring out how to invest in your ideal customer.

Written by special guest blogger, Jess Thompson of Bannerconnect 
Jess is communications manager at Bannerconnect, Europe's leading data and advertising technology company delivering optimal digital experiences. Jess crafts content that aims to educate and inspire around Bannerconnect's mission to innovate digital media by translating industry jargon into plain english.

“Our company has undergone more change and transformation in the past year than we have in our 10 years of existing. In 2014, we were acquired by WPP, the world’s largest media company. This gave rise to a huge surge in growth; we tripled in size within a year with no sign of slowing. We’ve always been a small and agile front-runner in our rapidly changing industry of digital media, but we couldn’t keep running the company as if we were 30 people.” The challenges described by Rutger Tuit, director of operations at Bannerconnect, include welcoming waves of new employees, increasing our global footprint and integrating with a media giant.

Written by Christian Brim of wp.myemployeesolution.com
Helping Small Business Eliminate Employee Headaches. Over 20+ years of hands on experience.

The most common complaints I hear about accountants/CPA's are "my accountant messed up my taxes" or "my accountant won't return my calls." So you're fed up, ready to make a change, and now you want to know, how do I fire my accountant?

Written by Robert Gerace of www.everystoreperfect.com 

The world of start-ups has permanently changed the way businesses work, and perhaps their most important legacy is that of company culture. The CEO of AirBnB has gone as far as suggesting that company culture will be AirBnB's most important legacy, as it alters and changes everything else that goes on within a business. So, how does your company culture stack up? Do you believe a shake-up is in order?

Written by Mark Fleming of www.academyofbusinesstraining.com Mark Fleming Is Executive Director of the Academy of Business Training in Cincinnati, OH. Fleming has an extensive business career that spans over 40 years. He is an expert in business and supply chain management.

I was recently asked to comment on the issue of unhappy customers who never seem to be satisfied. I want to share my comments and those of some of the people participating.

Written by Carl Hartman of www.drmwebgroup.com
Mobile Website Designer, Online Marketing Solutions Consultant.

In this brief article, I will explain how to get your business mobile ready and why it is so important for you to do so.

Written by Doug Davidoff of blog.imaginellc.com Doug Davidoff is the founder and CEO of Imagine Business Development. His focus is in enabling small and mid-market companies to create sustainable, scalable growth.

Joe Maddon, the manager of the Chicago Cubs, is fond of saying “Our goal on a day-to-day basis is not to win games. Rather it’s on executing our game plan and process.” Maddon believes that bad things happen when the focus is on the result (which you have limited control over), rather than on executing effectively.

We'd like to introduce you to our guest blogger, Mike Montague of No Soliciting Club. Mike is the founder of the No Soliciting Club where he empowers his clients to achieve higher levels of success through innovative training courses in sales, marketing, and business development for companies and individuals.

Most businesses these days seem to take a sales or marketing approach to business development instead of a sales and marketing approach.

We would like to introduce you to our guest blogger, Kenneth Marks of www.highrockpartners.com. Kenneth is an entrepreneur and subject matter expert in mergers, acquisitions and financing of emerging growth and middle market companies. He is the founder and Managing Partner of High Rock Partners, Inc.

This is a reprint from my interview with Divestopedia.

Historically, at a high level, we know that the M&A market runs in cycles. Understanding the broad market as to where we are in the overall M&A cycle is step one. But, that’s not always the best indicator. That’s only one element of understanding when it’s right to sell.

This guest blog was written by Ralph Simmons of www.ninjapartners.com.

Almost every entrepreneur or business owner quickly discovers the same thing in their first year of business: there is way too much to do and way too little time to do it.

The behind-the-scenes administrative tasks that come with running a business are difficult to anticipate and you could find yourself wasting hours and hours a day trying to stay on top of them. Not only does this radically limit the growth of your company, but it’s also going to lead to entrepreneurial burnout.

We would like to introduce to you our guest blogger, Aaron Houghton. Aaron is a co-founder and CEO at BoostSuite.com, the collaborative marketing platform for small businesses. Aaron has over 15 years experience building and selling marketing products to small businesses around the globe.

It doesn't matter if you're a small business or a large corporation. Every marketer has a desire, nay, a NEED, to connect with your target audience on a deep and personal level. If you listen to what your target audience is asking for, you can use social media marketing to point them in the right direction, usually to your website or blog.