More and more companies are beginning to come around to the idea of transparency. Transparency, in fact, is becoming an industry standard for lots of reasons, namely because it results in happy customers and happy shareholders. Transparency is all about being accountable, honest and open with everyone about the good (and the bad) things that happen in your business.

You might not think that postage is costing you that much, but even if you only do one or two mail campaigns a year, that can still result in thousands of dollars in stamps. Now that “forever” stamps are up to almost fifty cents apiece, a single mailer takes a significant chunk out of your budget with no guarantee of any sort of return.

The vast, vast majority of people who are going to purchase from you care about the return policy. While many of them won’t ever use it, a Harris Poll said that over 90% of customers do factor in the return policies before purchasing something. This is especially important if you are selling intangible things, such as services, or a product that isn’t sold in stores – if they can’t hold something, they still want to know if and how it can be sent back.

Setting and sticking to a budget is one of the hardest things on the planet, and it’s especially hard for a business. After all, you need things! You need employees, new office chairs, a new computer and some new software that will increase workflow! How are you supposed to stick to a budget?

The truth is, however, that it’s absolutely necessary to stick to a budget if you want to see your business succeed, and while a budget might feel restricting, it gives you the permission to spend where you need to and say no where you don’t. Try it out – if you don’t like it after six months, you can always go back to not having one.

You might not be able to afford a full-time IT guy, and in many cases, you don’t need one. That’s what MSPs – managed service providers – are all about, after all. However, just because they are more affordable than an IT guy doesn’t mean you just want to pick one and go with it.

The rise of social media to communicate with customers has been a fairly recent trend, so it makes sense if you aren’t sure how to maximize its potential. Getting people to interact and care about your company can be a hard problem to solve. However, no matter what size or what niche your company is in, you can encourage engagement, connection and improve the overall feel of your company on social media with just a few simple tips – starting today.

Now that you’ve decided it’s okay to enact a work-at-home policy, maybe you aren’t quite sure what should be included in it. That makes sense; the entire frontier of work-at-home was just pioneered, and it can be difficult to know exactly what you want or even what you need out of someone when they aren’t in the office.

When someone comes to your website, you don’t want them to stop at the front door. You’d like them to click around, explore, and consider your services. Ultimately, you want them to pay attention to your call to action and become a customer. That’s why knowing what to do with a potential customer that comes across your site is important, and it starts with these simple tips.

It’s a little known fact of the small business world: people buy from people, not from websites. Interesting concept, right? You could have the nicest website in the world with the most interesting design, content and feel. It could have valuable information, a great call to action, and an updated blog.

We all know colors, design, and content are key to a successful website that converts. Sometimes, though, something simple and small like a font is completely overlooked. The right font can make or break a user’s experience, and choosing the right one can be difficult, especially for someone who grew up in the age of newspaper (appealing fonts for print are much different than those for a website). It can be difficult to choose a perfect font that you both enjoy and think will be good for a potential client: here are a few tips to get you started.