We have all experienced a moment in our lives where our present self curses our past self for their procrastination. While a common habit for many, procrastination can have significant consequences that impact various aspects of life.

We live in a world full of diversity and choices. And nothing could be more true than in the world of finance; there are never-ending choices one can make towards their financial future. Ensuring diversification and allocation of your finances help to play crucial roles in helping you secure your financial future, not only for yourself but for your business.

If you were asked to determine the value of ONE of your clients, how would you proceed to do so? The truth of the matter is that the value of one client directly correlates to the value you place on the relationship between your clients and your business.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: an optimist and a realist walk into a bar. This may sound like the beginning of a joke, but it's actually a scenario that business owners often find themselves in.

Beyond the cultural and regional differences in our speech patterns, lies our intent. If you intend to pitch someone a sale in a conversation, that is exactly how you will be perceived. If you intend to help someone by filling a need, that is exactly how you will be perceived.

As a business owner, promoting yourself is a crucial component of success. Finding the right combination for your business will take a bit of trial and error, but there are a few global tactics that will produce results in any industry.

Opening ourselves up to another human, baring our soul and experiences, sharing our thoughts and opinions - practicing vulnerability is the art of breaking down your walls and sharing the layers of your core self.

As we welcome a new year, we once again become saturated in the element of “new”; new year’s resolutions, “new year, new you”, new material possessions, new fiscal year, and so on. Everywhere you turn, there’s someone else talking about how else we can grow, evolve, challenge ourselves…how we can change.

As a society, we have been conditioned to fear failure; to feel shame, regret, and remorse. Yet, without failure, we cannot grow. Failure challenges our current perspectives, as we have an unyielding drive to survive and thrive. We cannot simply roll over and accept the failure, but instead must learn how to overcome and push forward even stronger.

Do you find yourself forgetting variable tasks?

Have you missed out on million dollar ideas because you wrote them down and then forgot about them in the abyss?

Are your to-do lists so long that they’ve become unmanageable and inefficient?

You are not alone!!

Designing an online experience for your consumer base is a critical step for any business that is ready to provide global accessibility. Whether this accessibility is being provided through a website, app, or even a game interface, the experience you provide your end users will be the determining factor of your interface’s continued success.

At any given moment, you could be overlooking top talent and lifelong investments that are hiding in plain sight. Don’t miss out on these opportunities for your business. Ensure that the core values of your business are woven into the core of the business, and that you set the right people up for success with the right role for them. Your next all-star could already be hiding in plain sight.

Top performers and hidden talents are often overlooked for their consistency and alternative contributions. By weaving the core values of your business into the core of your business, you will illuminate and elevate the employees that operate with what’s best for the business at the forefront of every decision and action.

Are you a leader, or a boss? While most people in management roles these days will identify themselves as a leader, how much of that identity is true, and how much has been cultivated by the persona we are expected to embody?

By investing in your audience by interacting with their experiences, both positive and negative, they will in turn invest in you, your brand, and your business. Your business pages will provide you with the continued growth in accessibility and recognition your business needs to scale to the next level.

It can be incredibly tempting to scale your business by increasing your number of employees, opening a new location, onboarding a new product/service line, or even diversifying your products/services. While these strategies can be effective, they are also very time consuming and costly methods. There is a path of less resistance to explore first. Perhaps the most cost effective, and logical, next step would be to scale your business through accessibility. Taking your business from a local presence to a regional, national, or even global presence can be achieved by building a website for your business.

There are several reasons you may be considering a business acquisition; you prefer to acquire an existing business as opposed to starting your own, you wish to increase your market share, you’d like to tap an unassociated market, or even if you’d like to expand your business offerings. Regardless of your reasoning, the initial scope is the same; due diligence, due diligence, due diligence.

One of the most well-known “coming of age” milestones happens when we learn to drive for the first time. It is such an exciting and scary moment in life, and is chalk full of new information and motor skills to learn. Before we even start the car, we are educated on safety precautions; seat belt on, seat at an appropriate height and reach, hands at 10 & 2, and to check your mirrors. As with driving, running a business requires us to constantly check the mirrors.

The goal of any business in any sector is to be able to automate as many processes as possible in order to minimize overhead expenses. Prior to automation, your business must be able to provide consistency across all processes. And, in order to provide consistency, you must first establish your business standards. It all starts with developing and documenting your Standard Operating Procedures, or SOPs.

As we enter a new year, we cannot help but to already start looking forward; visualize a twelve month path laid out in front of you, and you’re standing on day one. Too often, we forget to start where we are, and instead jump out ahead of our present reality. Being proactive by looking ahead and planning is a wonderful behavior to practice regularly, so long as your vision starts where you are presently.

The health and viability of any business can be determined by its numbers; cash flow, assets, and audience. The financial standing of any business provides a clear pulse - a depiction of success or failure (existing or imminent) - for that business.

The goal when creating a marketing strategy is not to attract everyone, just more; more people to interact with your brand, more consumers, more advocates, more markets, more demographics, etc. This is an important piece to highlight, as your strategy can easily do more harm than good when you try to focus on too much at once.

Every entrepreneur dreams of creating an iconic brand; a business with global recognition that evokes pride, community, and trust. There are a number of factors that go into building an iconic brand, such as presenting a clear set of core values, narrating a well-crafted relatable brand story, as well as exceeding the expectations already set forth.

I have worked with countless business owners throughout my career, and some of my fondest moments are those in which a client says, “Wait, I can do that?”. These moments can vary in catalysts, but all stem from the client receiving permission or encouragement to do something completely opposite of what they view as the way it’s always been.

To some people, honoring a strong human component in business is considered “old school”. Why have a human customer service agent, when you can have a bot? Why send personalized messages, when you could just mass-market? Why call to wish someone a happy birthday, when you could just write “HBD” on their Facebook wall?

Supporting the inevitable changes your business will experience is embodied by change management. This is achieved through the methods and workflows in which your business documents and implements change, both internally and externally. Simply put, change management is the management of changes.

Operations is not necessarily client-facing, but the results of the work executed are absolutely client-facing. Because of this veil, many business owners put off establishing their operational foundation.

So what does it take to be a successful business owner? We aim to define this role by providing an industry-standard job description for the role of a Business Owner.

As a business owner, you have likely been exposed to some form of data analytics; website, social media, or search engine, to name a few. But have you taken the time to get to know what all of those numbers mean, and how they impact your business?

Entrepreneurs are the modern day explorers, navigating the needs and desires of our world. When you determine the purpose of your business, you set a course for your business journey.