Tag Archives: CBS Review

5 Habits Every Entrepreneur Should Incorporate in Their Day

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What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? It looks different for each person. Some have different situations and circumstances than others that help boost their success. Even though success looks different for each entrepreneur, there are some everyday habits many share that can be helpful.

If you’re an entrepreneur working hard towards a goal, reviews for Corporate Business Solutions have five habits that every entrepreneur should incorporate in their day.

Getting Enough Sleep

One of the most overlooked habits to incorporate into your life that can significantly impact your day is getting enough sleep. Many entrepreneurs face having to hustle almost every hour of the day for them to be successful. That mentality doesn’t leave much room for a good night’s sleep.

If you want to be the most focused, productive, happy, and stress-free, getting seven to nine hours of sleep is essential. Continuously lacking sleep can actually make your day-to-day activities much harder, and it can lead to health issues down the road.

Incorporating Exercise

How do you approach fitness? Is it solely for looks, or does it go deeper? Many successful entrepreneurs make time to exercise daily (or at least a few times a week). They don’t necessarily exercise to look like a model. Instead, they exercise for the physical and mental benefits it provides them.

Research has proven that regular exercise can help mentally by lowering stress, boosting your focus and memory, and releasing endorphins that make you feel fantastic.

Staying Organized

Organization is a vital part of success. As your business grows, so too will your workload and responsibilities. If you’re not keeping yourself organized, everything you have to do in a day becomes overwhelming and stressful.

Staying organized helps keep you on top of the important tasks in your day. When you prioritize as part of your organizational skills, you’ll find that you can efficiently get more work done and realize when it’s time to hire help.

Be Thankful Everyday

Successful entrepreneurs know that the team behind them is what keeps driving their success further forward. That’s because you can only wear every hat in a company for so long before you have to hire employees.

Being thankful for your team, showing support and appreciation to them, and also being grateful for how far you’ve come will keep you in a positive mindset. Plus, when your team knows how much you appreciate them, they’ll be more likely to stay with you and be productive.

Learn to Slow Down

At first, it might seem like you have to be running at full speed every minute of the day to reach success. Although at the start of running a business, this is true to a point, it’s still important to slow down at times and relax.

Ensure that you’re incorporating time for friends, family, and yourself. Whether it’s first thing in the morning when having your coffee or designating the weekends for catching up with people, taking time to slow down and connect with what’s important to you is an essential part of success.

 

When you start looking at successful people’s habits, you’ll notice that not every one of them focuses on just work. Many are about incorporating time for yourself, taking care of your physical and mental wellbeing, and appreciating your surroundings.

5 Signs Your Business Might Go Under

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We often talk about ways to grow your business and help it become more successful. That’s because your goal is likely just that – to grow and be successful. The last thing you probably want to read about are ways your business is failing.

Part of running a successful business, though, is understanding the warning signs that could mean your business is about to go under. When you know them and can identify those red flags, you’ll be able to respond accordingly, rather than stressfully reacting.

So, as part of your business plan and check-ups, Corporate Business Solutions encourages you to look for the following five signs that might mean your business is on the verge of closing.

Inconsistent Positive Cash Flow

Likely one of the best ways to tell how your business is performing comes from your cash flow. It’s pretty easy to determine your success level if you’re constantly in the red (although this is only a snapshot of your true success).

Make it a habit to regularly follow up with your company’s finances. Do you see a downward trend forming? Are there outside influences beyond your control contributing to the trend? Are you on the verge of not having enough cash flow to pay your bills? If so, it’s time to go to the drawing board and see how you can increase your profits to save your business.

You’re Not As Invested

How do you feel about your business? Although being passionate about your company will only get you so far, if you don’t have that passion for motivating you, chances are your business will start to suffer.

Think about why you started your company. Does that reason give you the same boost of motivation and passion as it once did? Keep in mind if you’re not as passionate about your company anymore, it could be a sign to sell rather than letting it crumble.

You’re Not Keeping Up With the Trends

Part of being successful is innovation and moving forward. Those that get left behind ultimately close their doors eventually. That’s because trends and innovation help solve customer’s problems right now and down the road.

If your company lags behind your competitors in innovation, it’s only a matter of time before you shut down. Keeping up with the trends is a way to stay ahead of the competition and keep customers coming to you rather than someone else.

Lack of Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is huge, especially on social media. When you can engage with your customers, they’re more likely to share what you’re posting and spread the word about your business. No customer engagement likely means no one is talking about you.

If you’re struggling to engage your customers, it’s time to revamp your marketing strategy. Something isn’t working anymore, and it’s time to bring in fresh ideas.

No One Wants to Work for You

Are you struggling to hire new employees or have a high turnover rate? It could be a red flag that the business isn’t functioning very well. Having to continually hire and train new employees is quite costly. Plus, it doesn’t look good from the outside.

If you’re noticing employees are frequently quitting, or you’re struggling to hire, take a look at what’s happening internally. What’s your management style like? Ask your current employees (or have an exit interview) to see what’s working or not working.

Paying attention to the warning signs of a failing business could help keep you afloat and thriving. Ignoring them will likely cost you considerably shortly.

4 Productivity Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know

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4 Productivity Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Productivity is a skill that we can constantly improve on. It’s a skill that can take your day from being overwhelming to one of the most efficient days you’ve had in a very long time. Simply put, productivity is one of the main pillars of your success.

How do you become more productive? Keep in mind that it’s not an overnight fix. It takes time, dedication, and practicing new habits and routines that fit your lifestyle. Once you find the perfect mix, though, you’ll see your productivity skyrocket and your life feel less stressful.

Ready to boost your productivity when trying to balance everyday life with your business? CBS-CBS.com has four tips that every entrepreneur (or anyone, really) should know.

Start Your Morning By Planning the Day

A popular trick that successful entrepreneurs often reveal is how they start their day. Waking up to what you’re doing while enjoying your morning coffee can set the mood for your day.

Include a moment to plan out the rest of your day as part of your morning routine. What are the top priority tasks that have to get done today? Organize those first within your working hours. You can then have another list handy with tasks that should get done at some point this week but aren’t a pressing matter today.

Love the List

Lists are an excellent way to stay organized. Have you tried managing your day without writing anything down? You’re relying on your memory to ensure you get everything done? Maybe this works right now. However, at some point, you’re going to forget important tasks and ultimately cause more stress in your life.

Create a few lists that you have readily available throughout the day. Start with your priority list – these are the tasks that you need to complete before anything else. You can then have a list of medium important tasks that you can schedule throughout your week. Basically, you can turn anything into a list.

Incorporate Breaks Into Your Day

Now, this may seem counterintuitive at first glance. The point of productivity is to get work done, not slack off. However, if you’re working every minute of the day without any breaks, you’re actually hurting your productivity levels.

Taking a break is like a quick recharge to your system. It allows you to relax your mind for a moment, stretch the body out, and even prevent stress from creeping in. Adding breaks does wonders for your mental health, which in return helps you become more productive through the rest of the day.

Remember Your Why

Many productivity tips out there often include technology and points above to help give you that boost. However, there are a few tricks that don’t require much from you besides taking a moment to think.

What is your why for what you’re doing? We all have it. From wanting to run a successful business to ensure you have enough family time at the end of the day, reflect on why you’re doing everything. When you remember that, it can give you that quick mental boost to get your work done.

Part of being productive focuses on your overall health. Include a balanced and healthy diet with enough sleep, and a quick workout will all contribute to your productivity levels.

Remember, it takes time to get in the groove and start noticing the benefits. Once you do, though, you’ll be more inclined to continue with those habits.

Conquer Your Mind: 3 Tips to Manage Self-Doubt as an Entrepreneur

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We all experience self-doubt at some point in our lives. For entrepreneurs, it can become even more prominent as you move forward with your business. Self-doubt can hinder your daily decision-making to even take your business down a path that would lead to success.

Along with self-doubt often comes impostor syndrome. If you’ve ever felt like you’re not fit for what you do, other people in your field are more competent than you are, or that you’re faking what people see, you likely are going through imposter syndrome. It’s an internal experience that ultimately makes you feel like a phony, even if you deserve to be where you are.

Trying to overcome something like impostor syndrome and self-doubt takes time. It’s about building your confidence and letting yourself accept that you deserve to be the entrepreneur you are today. To help, Corporate Business Solutions has three tips to try.

Find the Root Cause

There are likely certain areas when your self-doubt is at an all-time high. If you can pinpoint when you feel this doubt the most, you can start to unravel the cause to find the solution. For example, if you’re presenting information on a particular topic but feel you’re not fit to do the job, ask yourself why? Is it because you don’t know the information, or is it because you’re nervous about speaking in front of people?

When you find the root cause of the self-doubt, you can then form your solution to overcome it. In our example above, it may be that you need to spend a bit more time reviewing the information or finding resources to help with public speaking. You may have all the skills you need; you just need a bit of confidence in yourself.

Build Your Confidence Up

Having confidence is vital when running a business. If you doubt yourself and every decision you make constantly, it starts to seep into the rest of your business. How do you expect to move your company forward if you are unsure about where you’re at right now?

Spend some time building up your confidence. Find a mentor to guide you in the business world, focus on your previous success and failures as a way to grow, and always have a plan. When you have a plan, you’re more organized and more likely to feel confident in what you’re doing.

Watch What You Say and to Who

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you told someone about upcoming plans, only for them to have a weird reaction? When that happens, you may feel that your plans aren’t a good idea and start to doubt your choices. No matter what the intentions were of the person you spoke to, if they have a poor reaction to what you say, it can affect what you do next and how you feel.

Instead of letting self-doubt take over from something like this, prevent this type of situation from happening in the first place. When it comes to your business, be picky about what you say and who you say it to. Of course, having a few people to bounce ideas off is good to have, but that doesn’t mean you tell everyone what your plans are.

Managing self-doubt as an entrepreneur is an ongoing process. No matter how many years you’ve been in the business, you’ll have moments where self-doubt takes over. It takes time and practice, but you can overcome it.

4 Business Strategies for Female Entrepreneurs

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There have been many strides forward in the business world for female entrepreneurs. In fact, four out of every ten businesses in the United States are owned by women. That number continues to grow as more and more opportunities present themselves for female entrepreneurs.

With that said, many female-led businesses still face unique challenges. Many challenges come down to having confidence in what they’re doing and being taken seriously in their field. In today’s world, though, there are various tips and suggestions available to help female entrepreneurs succeed in the business world.

Are you a female entrepreneur? Your Corporate Business Solutions consultants have four business strategies to help with your success.

Advocate for Yourself

Advocating for yourself can be one of the hardest things to do as an entrepreneur, especially for female business owners. As entrepreneurs soon find out, the business world is highly competitive and can be pretty intimidating.

Remember that you’re here for a reason, and you have the skills and knowledge to be successful in the business world. If you find yourself being overshadowed when you know you have the skills, speak up.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

With that said, it’s essential to know when it’s time to get help. Entrepreneurs just starting often have to wear all the hats in the business. However, you can only do that for so long until you have to build a team. The tricky part is knowing when’s the right time to start building that team.

Asking for help also comes in other forms too, like your home. When you’re trying to grow your business, it requires much of your time. Women are often still the primary caregiver at home while working, whether employed or the employer. If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to ask for help from your partner at home.

Always Be Learning

There’s never a downfall to continuing with your education and developing your skills. When you know more and have the education to back up what you do and say, you can open up new possibilities for you as an entrepreneur.

Always learning can also come from when mistakes. Every entrepreneur is going to make a mistake at some point. The difference, however, is what you do afterwards. Spend some time reflecting on what happened, what went wrong and how you can overcome the setback. It can help prevent the same mistake in the future, though make sure to not dwell for too long on the past.

Work Hard at Every Opportunity

Sometimes, when an opportunity presents itself, it may not be exactly what you hoped for. You could have planned for option A, only for option B to be what is the most feasible at this moment. No matter what route you take your business, work hard at it and work to the best of your ability. Even better opportunities can present themselves in ways you least expect it.

Female entrepreneurs continue to make strides in the business world. It’s not always easy, but being a business owner can be an enriching experience.

Website Makeover: 5 Tips to Revamp Your Website

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From time to time, you may want to give your website a facelift. Why? Because a poorly designed and unattractive website can actually hurt your business.

Potential customers are more inclined to leave your website and go somewhere else if your website is slow to load, poorly designed, and has no contact information. Every website needs many crucial elements, and a well-planned layout that is aesthetically pleasing is one of them.

Take a look at your current website and see how it makes you feel. If you’re not proud of it or happy with how it looks, we have five tips from CBS-CBS.com on how to revamp your website.

Set a Goal

Why do you want to redesign your website? If you’re unsure of that answer, you should determine that before you begin.

There are various reasons why a company revamps its website. It could be to speed up the loading time, a change in branding, or it’s been a decade, and it looks outdated. Having a reason or a goal for your redesign will help keep you on track, and it will also tell you what to spend the most time on to engage your customers (i.e. Reducing photo sizes to improve load times).

Document Your Current Website

First, you want to ensure you have your current website documented if you need to go back to the original site. Having a website record allows you to reference back to check important information (like pricing and product descriptions). Also, it’s not a bad idea to keep track of your website’s progression over the years. It’s a great way to compare and see how far you’ve come in website development.

Be Consistent With Your Brand

Every company has a brand. Within that brand are specific colors that represent the logo and the company. It’s essential that you use the same branding across every page on your website.

Consistency comes in many aspects of your redesign, including font used, what’s bolded or italicized, and the photos. Keep things similar across all pages.

Follow the Less is More Rule

Have you ever loaded a website that bombards you with popups, paragraphs of information, and pictures everywhere? It’s distracting, annoying, and not very pleasing to the eye. Most users would likely leave.

With a website, you need to go straight to the point. Cut out any fluff (you’re not writing a novel). Our attention span to websites continues to shorten, which means you only have a handful of seconds to hook the reader into staying on your website.

Have a Call to Action

Make your website as easy as possible for the user to maneuver through. Don’t send them on a wild journey just to find the vital information they need. Instead, tell them where you want them to go next in the form of a call to action.

A call to action can be a statement to “click here,” “signup now,” or “join our email list today.” The purpose is to tell the user what you want them to do next. Using a call to action is a simple tactic to help guide the user to your end goal (increased exposure, more signups, higher sales).

Enjoy redesigning your website. When you have fun with the process, it’ll show through with the overall results. Remember, a website is crucial to your business’s success. Ensure it gets the time it deserves.

The World of Clickbait: What It Is and Why You Should Use Caution

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You’ve likely come across them before – you see a headline that sounds epic, only to quickly realize the article has nothing to do with the title. You just went to a clickbait article.

Clickbait articles aren’t anything new, and there are many mixed feelings about them, yet you still can find virtually everything. In videos, paid advertisements, and blog posts, you likely can’t browse the internet without coming across something that is clickbait.

If you’re curious about what clickbait is and even thinking about using it yourself, hold that thought. First, let’s understand what we’re talking about. Then, your Corporate Business Solutions consultants have a few caution points to consider.

What is Clickbait?

Clickbait is something with a sensationalized headline (whether it be a Facebook ad, YouTube video, or a blog post). The purpose is to have a title that draws on your emotions, which, ultimately, connects to your curiosity and makes you want to know more.

The sensationalized headline usually uses words like “you won’t believe this,” “OMG, she did what,” or “this one simple trick will change your life.” It’s easy to see why people would want to click on articles with titles like that – they promise something dramatic and amazing.

However, the problem lies when you actually click the title and go to the media. Once there, you quickly realize that the video or article doesn’t live up to the exaggerated headline. Not only that, but the quality and accuracy of the content are usually questionable.

Why Use Caution With Clickbait

Now, there’s a difference between a more dramatic title that catches the reader’s attention and blatantly using a sensationalized headline that provides no relevance to the content. The goal of posting content is to get users to click on the headline and spend time absorbing what you provide.

There are a few problems with only using clickbait. The first is building trust with your viewers. If every time they click on your content, and it doesn’t live up to what you advertised, you’ll have issues creating that trust with your viewers. Ultimately, they’ll stop going to your content, which will hurt your business.

Another issue is with SEO (search engine optimization). Search engines consider the quality of your content with where you show up in search results. Clickbait content that is low quality will get punished by the search engine, which will put you lower in the search results.

Continuing with search engines, if they notice viewers spend only moments on your content before leaving for something else, they also mark that as less valuable in the search results. Basically, the more clickbait you use that doesn’t provide much value, the more you’re hurting your overall website (and business).

Now, that isn’t to say you should never use clickbait. When used correctly and sparingly, it can actually benefit your website by generating organic traffic.

When using clickbait, though, err on the side of caution. If you’re using sensationalized words to draw the reader in, ensure that the content and quality lives up to the expectation. A well-planned and phrased headline can use “clickbait” words that draw the viewer in. It’s up to you, though, to ensure you’re providing something that makes them want to stay.

Happy Workers, Successful Business: 4 Tips to Motivate Your Employees

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What makes a business successful? There isn’t just a straightforward answer. It requires dedication, leadership, cooperation, creativity, determination, and so much more.

For a company to grow successfully, though, you can narrow down the traits to something more specific – your team.

You can only do so much as the owner until you reach the moment when employees are necessary to keep moving forward. Without them, you’re left drowning in tasks with no time to grow your business.

It’s more than just having employees, however. They also need to be happy and enjoy coming to work for them to stay and be productive. To help ensure they stay, reviews for Corporate Business Solutions have four tips to motivate your employees.

Be Nice, Honest and Respectful to Employees

First, one of the best ways to keep the peace in the office is how you interact with your employees. Bad management is one of the top reasons why employees quit their jobs.

Put yourself in the shoes as an employee (or, you’ve likely already experienced it). If you have a boss that undermines your work, is rude, closed off, and difficult to communicate with, how would that make you feel? Likely, frustrated and wanting to leave fairly quickly.

As the boss, be a positive influence in the office to help keep employees happy and ready to work.

Provide Room for Growth

If you want employees to stick with you long term and motivate them to achieve greatness, you need to provide them opportunities to grow. Change their mindset that they’re merely working at a job to the possibility of it being a long-term career.

Part of growth opportunities comes with creating positions within the company, so employees have somewhere to strive for. Next, you also need to provide training opportunities. Even if employees don’t want to move into a different position, offering chances to further their skills shows them that you care about their development and want them to stick around.

Give Them Encouragement and Feedback

Work satisfaction comes in various forms, including feedback you provide as the boss. When you’re told you’re doing an excellent job at something, you likely feel pretty good about yourself and want to continue performing well. Positive feedback and encouragement is contagious and can do wonders for motivation and happiness.

Feedback shouldn’t just be all positive, though. There is such a thing as constructive criticism too. Again, it’s about showing that you care about their performance on many levels and want them to achieve in their position.

Listen to Your Employees

One of the best ways to improve office happiness and motivation is to seek out what your employees want and need from you. You can do this in many ways, but a good idea is to have an open door that employees feel comfortable walking through. If you show them that you value their opinion, they’ll be more likely to express what they need from you to help them be their best at work.

Keep your employees motivated and happy with simple things. Although offering rewards and pay raises are excellent, it doesn’t always have to be monetary. Being available to talk, offering support, and encouraging your employees to succeed can go a long way.

How to Start A Business From Home

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With all the changes we went through in 2020, you may be wondering how you can make a business work that can withstand a global shutdown. Many home-based businesses were still able to operate in some capacity (with some not affected at all).

Home-based businesses are an excellent way to make an additional income or use it as your career option altogether. You may be interested in working from home for many reasons, so why not get one started?

Reviews for Corporate Business Solutions has five tips to help get your home-based business started and on the path to success.

Make a Note of Your Talents

Before beginning, it’s a good idea to jot down you’re talents. What are you good at?

When going into business, working on a path that uses your talents can help in many ways. For one, you’re more likely to enjoy the job if it’s something you’re good at, and it will show you if you’re suited for running a business.

Brainstorm Business Ideas

Next, spend some time brainstorming ideas that you could turn into a business. Start with ideas that use your talents already listed. Next, move onto any hobbies you have that you could sell as a product or service. Many home-based businesses begin from someone’s hobby.

Create a Business Plan Draft

Once you have an idea, you’ll need to ensure you can turn it into a business. Do that by starting your first draft of your business plan. Your business plan is something you’ll refer back to as your business grows and use it for any financing you may need.

When writing your business plan, start with a summary of what your company would look like. How would you operate and make a profit? What would your target audience look like and the competition in your field? As the business grows, you can start to include growth goals to move forward.

Do a Test Run

So, you have a plan in place and ready to open the doors. However, it’s a good idea to do a test run of your business with friends and family. Ask for their honest opinion about your plan, if they think the public would like it and if it’s something you can make a living from.

If you get positive feedback from that test run, you can then take your business idea into the public world as a beta. Beta is when you’re testing what your business sells to the public to get honest feedback. You can do this by creating a social media account and asking for a select amount of people to do a test run on what you’re offering. Provide them with a discount to entice customers.

Legalize Your Business

After you’ve gone through everything above and feel confident that you have a solid business idea, it’s time to legalize your business. That means applying for a business name, creating tax accounts, and getting any required licenses.

Upon legalizing your business, you can then create your website and social media accounts to promote your new home business.

Starting a home business has its challenges but can very rewarding when it takes off. Stay dedicated, work hard, and enjoy the journey of starting a home-based business.

5 Tips for Setting Your 2021 Business Goals

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Do you set goals for yourself and your business? If not, it’s something to consider, as goals are an excellent way to keep yourself motivated for bettering yourself and your company.

There are many benefits to setting goals in a business. To start, it can help you stay organized and prioritize what’s most important for growing your business. You’ve likely been in the overwhelming position of determining where and how you need to grow your business, only to not do anything about it. Setting goals is one way to battle feeling overwhelmed and allow you to progress forward.

Are you ready to grow your business this year? Use the following five tips from Corporate Business Solutions to help you set smart goals that will lead you to success.

Determine What You Want to Accomplish

Before setting an actual goal, you need to distinguish what you want to accomplish this year for your business. It could be focusing on growing your clientele, increasing your income, or even starting a new branch in your company. Whatever it may be, make a list of the things you want to accomplish with your business, as you can use this list to start setting goals.

Be Realistic

It’s important to stay realistic when setting goals. Trying to take on too many things or setting unrealistic timeframes are quick ways to set yourself, and your company, up for failure and disappointment.

You’ve created your list of things you want to accomplish. The next step is to prioritize what is most important for this year. Remember, you can’t do everything at one time.

Be Specific

For goals to work, they need to be specific. If your plan in 2021 is to grow your customer base, that’s a good starting point for creating a goal. However, it’s quite vague still and doesn’t give you much to work with.

When setting goals, be specific in the details. Using the customer growth example, you could break it down and say you want to grow your active customer base by 12 clients by the end of 2021. Stating a number with an end date can help you create a plan that enables you to achieve this goal.

Create a Plan

Once you have your general goal in mind (and it’s a good practice to start writing them down), you can then create your action plan. Think of your plan as mini-goals that are the stepping stones to achieve your end goal.

For our customer growth example, you could start your plan by adding one new client each month. Then, you’ll want to explain how you’ll do that. What ideas do you have that will allow you to add a new client each month? Write out your steps as part of your business plan.

Make a Commitment

Setting goals and making your plan is only part of the process. You need to commit to what you come up with. Otherwise, you won’t achieve your goals.

Make a commitment with yourself, your employees, or your customers (depending on your goals). Track your results as you progress and reward yourself for each milestone you hit, as this will help keep you motivated.

Ready to take your business to the next level this year? Use the above five tips to help you set realistic goals that you’ll be able to achieve.