Given all the time you invest in recruiting and hiring the perfect employee, it may feel like the hard part is over once the perfect employee has showed up for his first day on the job. But nothing could be further from the truth. Your perfect employee’s first few days on the job are the days that you should be willing to invest your time and effort anew. After all, to keep the perfect employee, you need to make sure he feels that your business is the perfect environment for him and that he adds value to your company. Here are eight keys to keeping the perfect employee once you’ve hired him.

Balance the Work. One of the most difficult aspects of adding an employee to your team is the fact that work needs to be redistributed. Those training the new employee won’t be able to keep up with their workloads, and that can cause hard feelings and resentment. Make sure you’ve…

When you’re on the edge of burnout, or you’re not sure if you’re leading your business in the right direction, sometimes it helps to think of your business in terms of analogies. Hopefully, as a business owner, you make time to care for your physical health, and maybe you even go to a gym every once in awhile. Here are three reasons, taken straight from the gym, to treat your business like a workout.

Small Adjustments Make a Big Difference. If you’re like many people, you started out trying to teach yourself how to use the gym equipment. Later on, you may have enlisted the help of a personal trainer to give you even more details about how to use the machines most efficiently and effectively. Even just a small adjustment in arm or leg position could result in making you use an entirely different set of muscles altogether. Just a few inches can make a huge difference! And if you had never learned to use the equipment properly, then you would have…

Big corporations have huge budgets. They spend more on marketing in one month than you do on your whole business for an entire year. They have experts and specialists doing all of their branding. So how can you possibly compete? Start by remembering that your small business has some significant advantages over major corporations.

Finances. Let’s face it, the internet has really leveled the internet marketing playing field. There’s not much a huge corporation can do on the internet that you can’t do. You can both optimize your websites, you can both host your website on a web-based content management system, you can both post relevant and high-quality articles to your blog, you can both use social networking sites to connect to potential customers, and you can both optimize your landing pages to ensure more leads. All of those activities are critical to…

If you’re a small business owner, you need to check out the Small Business Administration website. You may have been reticent to visit as the SBA has not always been perceived as the most helpful or efficient agency out there. But they do, in fact, have some really helpful tools for small business owners that you should see. They’re not only for businesses just starting out, but also for businesses that are well-established. Here are 5 tools to help you.

Starting Your Business. This is a helpful section that provides great tips for individuals who are interested in starting their own businesses. The first piece of advice in this section is to find a mentor who can guide you through the many steps involved in starting a small business. SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a great mentoring group that is loosely affiliated with the…

As a small business owner, you know how difficult it can be to determine appropriate prices for your goods and services. Ask too much and you’ll turn customers off to your business. Ask too little and you’ll be shortchanging yourself. The key to pricing all lies within the psychology of the consumer. Here are 8 strategies for playing into consumer psychology and coming out on top of the pricing game.

Promoting Satisfaction. If you haven’t done this yourself then you probably at least know someone who has…joining a gym that offers a one-time fee, going for the first few months, and then quitting only a few months after joining, even after paying for a full year! When consumers pay for a service regularly, say once a month, they perceive that service as having more value than a service they pay for only once. And when they perceive that it has value, they will continue to use it. Keep your…

Let’s face it, there are very few things more attractive than being your own boss. In fact, thousands of entrepreneurs start their own businesses each year. They don’t have some magic formula for success, however. They simply make the conscious decision to turn that business idea into a reality. What about you? Are you ready to take the first steps towards being your own boss? If you’re like most first-time entrepreneurs, your primary concern is probably money…or lack thereof. But even if you don’t have the funds ready right now, there are still some steps you can take toward starting your own business.

Journal. Jot down any and every idea you have about your business, whether it seems huge and significant or minor and meaningless. Carry your journal with you everywhere you go…in the car, to the store, to your current job. Not only can you keep track of the great ideas you’ve already though of, but…

If your products and services are available to consumers online, then there are some very clear ways to take advantage of the latest internet business trends. Take note of these 5 latest trends and let them work for you.

Fall in Love With Google. Even consumers looking for local companies with whom to do business search online first. In fact, eMarketer reports that 6 of 10 people looking for local businesses began their search online. This means that you need to learn how to optimize your website so that your business will get top Google rankings. If you need to learn more about search engine optimization, contact an internet marketing expert or SEO professional. The bottom line is that if you’re not taking advantage of the business that Google can bring you, you’re simply not realizing your full potential.

Another thing to consider is that if a potential customer is already interested in your company, he or she will likely search for your company on Google. Thus your website may be one of the first impressions a potential customer gets of your business. This means that you need…

If you’re a business owner, you know that one of the most difficult aspects of your job is finding and retaining good employees. After all, your business is only going to be successful if you have high-quality people working for you. Here are 9 keys to motivating your employees.

Make the Job Meaningful. Your employees won’t be satisfied unless they feel that the work they’re doing is meaningful. They need to feel like they add value to the company. Not only does the…

If you’re a small business owner, you’re all too aware of the current economic crisis and how it’s affecting small businesses all over the country. The most profound effect of the economic crisis is in the availability of credit. The news is grim, but it doesn’t have to paralyze your business.

Here are 5 ways to deal with the credit crisis and its effect on your small business.

Diversify Your Borrowing. Big banks have really gotten themselves into a quandary with messy mortgages, but local banks have primarily remained outside of the mortgage disaster. Try visiting community banks to find out what they have to offer you. Many local banks are highly interested in lending to companies that keep money within the community. Peer-to-peer borrowing is another option that you might consider, and is attractive to private lenders for the same reason that community banks are interested in lending to businesses who will keep…

You would’ve had to have been living under a rock not to notice the beauty and the pageantry of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This particular Olympics was more widely covered by the media than any of the past Olympic Games, and there was plenty of scandal to boot. But what does that have to do with you, you ask? The Games offer a great model to small business owners and are full of examples that you can put to work right away.

Discipline. None of those Olympians could have done what they did without disciplined training regimens. They woke up each morning and recommitted themselves to doing whatever it took to make themselves better athletes.

Consistency. Olympians stand out from other athletes by virtue of…