Articles
How A Breast Cancer Survivor Built her Business to Fill a Gap in the Market
Building a Business: Helping Breast Cancer Survivors One Bra at a Time An interview with OnDeck customer Dana Donofree, owner of Ana Ono Intimates Ana Ono, a lingerie line designed specifically for breast cancer survivors, is the brainchild of Dana Donofree of Philadelphia, PA. “As a breast cancer survivor and a fashion designer, my purpose…
How Hiring From Inside Your Friend Circle Can Help or Hinder Your Business
Want to Hire a Friend or Thinking of Hiring Relatives? Here are the Pros and Cons to consider. If you find yourself apprehensive about hiring a friend or family member, you’re not alone. It’s common to worry about mixing your personal and professional lives because boundaries can easily become muddled. Before you enter into a…
Actionable Tips for Restaurant Social Media Marketing
Is Your Restaurant Social Media Marketing Ready? When done correctly, the power of social media marketing can help take your restaurant business to the next level and expand your customer base. By understanding critical areas of social media marketing, a restaurant can maximize their efforts in increasing its online presence and business revenue. In addition to…
Have an Online Business? Don’t Forget Your Brick and Mortar Customers
3 Ways to Build Your Online Business with Your Local Community Being engaged with others within your local community can fuel your small businesses. As a small business owner, your local community might even be the first rung on your customer base ladder. While it may only represent a part of your actual clientele, especially if your…
3 Ways to Motivate Employees and Earn Their Loyalty
The backbone of any great business is its employees. Employees that are motivated are often more productive, happier, and can be one of your business’s greatest assets, while unmotivated employees can sometimes work against your business. One of the easiest ways to motivate your employees is to create an environment that they want to come…
Small Business Success: Vortic Watch Company
Tips for Making Smart Inventory & Equipment Purchases: An Interview with RT Custer, Co-Founder of Vortic Watch Company Let me introduce you to the owner and co-founder of Vortic Watch Company, RT Custer. Vortic Watch Company is a high-end wristwatch engineering and manufacturing company based in Fort Collins, Colorado. RT and his partner, Tyler Wolfe, started…
How to Hire the Right Employees to Grow Your Small Business
Hiring an employee is exciting. But it’s also one of the biggest risks a small business owner will take as they grow their business. You must put your faith in someone who has no emotional ties to your business. This person will need to take your vision and execute it in areas you no longer have the…
How to Become Your Own Profit Expert
Putting Your Best Foot Forward: Finding (or Rather, Becoming) Your Profit Expert As a business owner, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I knew my business, I knew how to get things done, and I knew how to sell my services, but I wasn’t an accountant and, at the time, didn’t recognize the incredible…
How to Avoid Rookie Mistakes with Your Company’s Finances
To continue April’s thread of topics around improving financial literacy, I had the pleasure of speaking with Levi King, Co-founder & CEO of Nav, (a site that helps business owners manage their business credit and get streamlined access to financing) earlier this week. As a small business advocate, I’m always talking with successful entrepreneurs on…
3 Ways Technology Can Help You as a Small Business Owner
As a small business owner, you probably find yourself working upwards of 60 hours a week. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance might seem impossible. But there are many tools to help lighten your workload and ease the stresses that come with growing a successful business. Technology is just one of the many resources at your…
5 Ways to Re-Energize and Push Your Business Forward
Stagnation comes in two forms; business and personal. For most people these two considerations are completely separate, but for a business owner these two issues often go hand-in-hand. The challenge is how can you avoid burning out and keep your business growth moving in the right direction. Continuing our deep dive into topics covered in…
6 Cost Effective Small Business Marketing Ideas
As a small business owner, you can’t afford not to invest in some form of marketing. But considering there are nearly as many ways to promote yourself as there are people, how do you know which small business marketing methods will pay off in real ROI and which ones will waste your resources? Not every…
How to Market Your Brand Without Spending a Dime
Whether we realize it or not, one of the first things we notice about the brands we love is their marketing. Brands can set themselves apart from competitors by investing in marketing strategies that reflect who they are and what they stand for as a business. While your brand represents what you value, your marketing…
13 Articles That Will Improve Your Financial Literacy
April is Financial Literacy Month, (woot!) and I’m excited for the opportunity to help boost your business financial acumen, so keep a lookout on our blog all month long for specific articles on financial literacy. To kick off Financial Literacy Month, I want to take a look back at our blog’s most worthwhile financial articles you may have missed.…
Small Business Success – EF5 Tornado Shelters
Recently we had the pleasure of speaking with and learning about OnDeck customers, Emilie and Rory Golden, owners of EF5 Tornado Shelters. Emilie and Rory Golden were your average corporate employees until five years ago when they recognized a business opportunity, took a leap of faith, quit their jobs, and founded EF5 Tornado Shelters. Since…