Is your sales force an army of one (namely you)? If that's the case, here are 10 tips to make sure you do the job right. Read more.
11. 10 Tips for Giving an Important Speech
Those preparing for this kind of talk have heard "practice, practice, practice" and "less is more," but there are still speakers who make audience members fight to stay awake. With that in mind, experienced presenters offer these key steps for rallying a large, influential audience of peers around a central idea. Read more.
12. Tips for Great Negotiating
Think confidence, machismo, and stamina are the keys to winning a negotiation? Then your bargaining skills need a reboot. Over the past decade, a growing field of literature on the subject has come to the conclusion that checking your ego at the boardroom door is a must. Compromise and kindness are the new rules of negotiation. How does this gentler approach work? We compiled a short list of pointers to get you started. Read more.
13. How to Design a Great About Us Page
It's one of the most important elements on a company's website and also one of the most undervalued: the ubiquitous "About Us" page—that section on your site that has been collecting virtual dust because you haven't bothered to read it since, well, you first wrote it. You may not be paying it much attention, but visitors to your site are. And considering that your About Us page is where the world clicks to first learn about your company and the services you offer, it deserves a little more consideration and a lot more respect. Read more.
14. Common Sales Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Everyone makes mistakes, but missteps in the selling process can have especially serious consequences. Not only do they deprive your business of revenue, but they can erode confidence among members of your staff as well as potential customers. The following mistakes are particularly common among start-ups, but even the most seasoned entrepreneurs can fall victim to them. Here's how to identify and avoid them. Read more.
15. How to Choose the Right Colors for Your Brand
The aesthetic of your product and its labeling can have a huge impact on sales. If you're handing your own branding, here's how to pick the right colors. Read more.
16. How to Write a Great Marketing Plan
Experts know that careful planning is integral to marketing success. Here's your guide to crafting a thorough marketing plan - and learning more about your customers along the way. Read more.
17. 10 Tips for Making Employees Love Their Office
You take your staff on kayaking trips. You order pizza for meetings. But who cares about the occasional extras if your workers aren't delighted to be in their workspace day-in and day-out? We reviewed the best in office amenities and policies recently covered in Inc. and on Inc.com for the highlights of companies making their offices into places their employees love coming to in the morning. Read more.
18. 25 Ways to Jump-start Your Business
Looking for ways to make your company more productive, your team more creative, and your operations more efficient? If so, then check out these 25 strategies, which range from thoughts on leadership to advice on how to motivate employees to ways of reducing IT costs. Each of these ideas has been tested by other small businesses and yielded a significant pay-off. Here's hoping they work just as well at your business. Read more.
19. How to Cold Call a Big Customer
Does the thought of ringing a Fortune 500 firm and asking an influential executive for some face time give you goose bumps? There's good cause to be anxious. Large corporations are cautious, hierarchical, and difficult to penetrate. On the other hand, such firms have extensive resources, and, if you sell them effectively, can become some of your most lucrative customers. So, how do you ask sales prospects—in this case highly visible companies—to pony up? Here are some tips on how to pitch to the big guys. Read more.
20. How to Make Money on iPhone Apps
How many times has a friend showed you her favorite new iPhone app, and you lamented: Why didn't I think of that? With total downloads from Apple's iTunes app store topping three billion, and monthly sales upwards of $200 million, the marketplace for apps is booming. If you're a designer or programmer, how can you afford not to be creating apps? Well, it's not quite that simple. Apple says it receives between 8,500 and 10,000 application submissions every week. That's a mighty lot of competition, even for experienced game and media designers. Here's how to stay ahead of it. Read more.
