Strategy

As a small or medium business owner, you are consistently asked to do more with less — less time, less budget and fewer hands on deck. Every decision can impact your bottom line and your bandwidth. One of the biggest choices you will face is building an in-house team or bringing in outside experts.

In-house teams give you closer collaboration and deep brand familiarity. However, outsourcing can offer flexibility, lower costs and quick access to specialized skills without a long-term commitment. Striking the right balance goes beyond cutting costs. It involves making wise decisions that help you grow without burning out.

White label and private label both let you place your name on a product you did not invent from scratch. The key distinction is control — white-label goods arrive fully baked, while private-label lines give you room to adjust the recipe, specs or story. Picking the right lane shapes your margins, timeline and customer loyalty, so it pays to weigh the trade-offs before you place that first purchase order. 

In today's digital landscape, it makes sense for you to transition your brick-and-mortar store to an e-commerce platform. Today's customers want convenient, flexible shopping experiences with around-the-clock access to goods and services.

Of course, taking advantage of a broader customer base, lower overhead costs and the ease of targeted advertising requires a careful, well-thought-out approach. Here are eight tips to help you launch your e-commerce business model.

Finding reliable suppliers keeps your B2B business running smoothly. It ensures you get quality products, competitive pricing and on-time deliveries. The right partner can help you scale efficiently and build a strong reputation, but sourcing qualified leads isn’t always easy. Without a strategic approach, you risk supply chain delays or partnerships that do more harm than good. Knowing where to look, how to evaluate leads and how to convert them into long-term partners keeps your company on track.

The gig economy has grown exponentially in recent years, revolutionizing how companies approach staffing and workforce management. Characterized by freelance and short-term contracts, this dynamic workforce model offers flexibility, cost-efficiency and access to specialized skills.

Understanding how to harness the gig economy can give businesses a competitive edge. Here are 10 strategies for effectively integrating gig workers into their operations.

Small-business owners and freelancers are often one-person operations or have limited staff. They may rely on a single big client for most of their revenue. Unfortunately, even long-term relationships can change on a dime, and you might lose your biggest customer.

In forums across the internet, entrepreneurs lament a sudden loss of their income. Their longtime client hires a new manager and they cut ties, someone goes out of business, a customer dies or they outsource to another country or even move operations in-house. 

Things may seem bleak, but there are ways to recover and thrive after losing your biggest customer.

Websites, social media and other digital channels have become the primary means of discovery and engagement. Since traditional branding has shifted to digital applications, maintaining a strong presence online is essential for building trust and credibility. 

Yet, if this presence requires you to rebrand, a strategy will need more planning than you might think. That is why there are several considerations to keep in mind when planning your digital-first rebranding strategy.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) can be a beneficial but challenging undertaking in any industry. Even after months of careful planning, businesses must monitor their M&A’s success to determine any necessary strategy changes in the future. That’s not always as easy as it seems, especially in the digital content industry.

Do you offer a product or service that would work well with monthly recurring billing? Subscription boxes and ongoing relationships both can be quite profitable for small businesses. However, there are some things you need to know before you take on this type of client relationship.

What Are the Types of Monthly Subscriptions?

Subscrybe recently reported the subscription economy will hit $274 billion this year, or increase by 23% between 2021 and 2022. If you’ve been thinking about jumping into this business model, now is the perfect time with so much growth.

The user onboarding process is considered one of the most important of their life cycle stages. It’s at the start of someone’s journey, but it establishes their entire relationship with the company and product. 

User onboarding is significant because it can impact the customer’s decision to keep the product or discontinue use. When done correctly, it will lead to success by demonstrating the product’s value. Done poorly, it leaves the customer disappointed.

Here’s why the user onboarding process is important — and effective strategies to help you set up your new customers for success.