Slack is a relatively new collaboration tool that is designed to cut down on emails among team members and boost productivity.  It provides messaging by topic or channel so that threads of communication can be streamlined and accessed easily. Slack is a searchable messaging portal that allows document sharing from a team member’s computer or integrated apps such as Google Drive, DropBox and more.  Slack has 300,000 paid accounts and 1.1 million active users per…

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Periscope is one of social media’s newest darlings.  It enables cell phone users (iPhone and Android) to capture and steam live video from their phone.  Periscope was acquired by Twitter in February 2015, and it launched in March.  As of August 12, 2015, Periscope announced they had 10 million users watching 40 years of video per day.   Here are a couple of tips to get you started using Periscope: Getting Started If you don’t already…

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A 2014 Global Fraud Study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) estimates that the average business loses five percent of their revenues to fraud.  The global total of fraud losses is $3.7 trillion.  The median fraud case goes 18 months before detection and results in a $145,000 loss.  How can you avoid being a fraud victim? The first step is to become more aware of the conditions that make fraud possible.  The…

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Providing great service can make a huge difference in a small business. For companies like Zappos, Nordstrom, and Southwest Airlines, customer service is a differentiator from their competitors. Done right, good customer service can bring lots of referrals that lead to increased revenue. Here are five tips to improve service to your customers. 1- “Welcome Home” Greeting Consider your business as your home and your customers as invited guests. No matter how they come to…

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If you want 2016 to be better than 2015, you have to do something differently in 2016 than you did in 2015. It’s a simple but profound realization. Change brings the opportunity to make things better; it can be scary yet exciting at the same time. Ask yourself what you are going to do differently to have your best year ever. Here are some questions and exercises to consider: Clarify Your Vision What does the…

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