The gig economy seems here to stay. And look how it has transformed the workplace. In this week’s roundup, we look at The History and Future of the Gig Economy.
Moving on, we also look at some important reasons you should automate your social media marketing campaign, personalize email marketing and master the art of invoicing. And with the holiday shopping season less than 10 days away, applying these recommendations will help your small business during the busiest time of the year.
However, making everything work for your business requires strong management skills too. And this week’s roundup addresses some important management issues. It starts with how to manage the holiday stress in your business, which is very timely considering the time of year.
The other management articles include how to achieve balance by not getting burned out, how to prevent social engineering attacks and what solo owners should know about annual meetings — if they’ve incorporated their business.
See these and other articles in our Small Business Trends roundup this week.
Employment
The History and Future of the Gig Economy
Did you think the term gig economy was a modern concept? You’d be wrong. Yes, it refers to the growing number of freelancers and contract workers making up the workforce. But its origins stretch back much further.
Finance
Master the Art of Invoicing with These Considerations
If you’re a freelancer, invoice day is definitely a happy day. It’s basically like payday so long as your clients pay on time. It’s unfortunate, but many freelancers struggle with late payments from clients of even non-payment.
Management
What are Social Engineering Attacks and How Can You Prevent Them?
Do you know what a social engineering attack is? If you say you are not worried about it because you have a strong anti-virus/malware solution in place, it won’t help you at all. This video shows just how easy and scary social engineering attacks are. This is because social engineering exploits human behavior and not the vulnerabilities of your software or hardware.
How to Manage Holiday Stress in Your Business
For many businesses, the festive season turns out to be anything but merry. Holiday stress statistics show 54% of employees feel stressed leading up to the holidays. And the increased workload the Christmas season creates tops the causes of that stress. But check out this good news. Adopt these strategies. And help you and your team manage the stress of the holiday season.
What Solo Owners of Corporations Need to Know About Annual Meetings
When you hear about an annual shareholder meeting, what image comes to mind? A large meeting of power players at Amazon, Exxon or Apple? Or Jim, who runs a local landscaping business from his house? Many small business owners opt to incorporate (either by forming a C Corporation or S Corporation) to help protect their personal assets.
How to Go from Burnout to Balance
Burnout is something that every small business owner struggles with. It happens as they grow their company. I know that in the middle of my third start-up, I reached my breaking point. And I suffered exhaustion, depression and anxiety. Small business owners know that pushing too hard is bad for their health. But keep doing it as a way to increase their chances of success.
Marketing Tips
Reduce Customer Churn With These 5 Digital Marketing Agency Growth Hacks
Here’s the reality: most marketing agencies go nowhere. Even fewer achieve scale. So should you be leveraging growth hacks for your digital agency? The answer should be: Why wouldn’t you be trying to grow your digital agency? The number one excuse that holds Donkey agencies back from the wonderful world of Unicorn Agency Land is that they “don’t want to be a big agency.
Retail Trends
Personalized Email Marketing: 5 Ideas for Using It to Boost Your Retail Business
Email marketing remains highly effective for small businesses. But many brick-and-mortar retailers leave money on the table by not taking advantage of email’s personalization capabilities. Sure, you personalize names and subject lines when you send your emails. But that just scratches the surface of the possibilities this avenue offers.
Small Biz Spotlight
In the Spotlight: Brainz Power Uses Brilliant Strategy to Capture Brain Health Niche
For years, college campuses have been home to a growing epidemic affecting their brain health. Students turn to things like Adderall to focus and make it through their studies. But one USC student decided to do something about this growing epidemic a few years ago. Thus, Brainz Power was born.
Social Media
3 Reasons You Need to Automate Your Social Media Marketing Campaigns
According to research done by Digg, in one minute, there are about 1 million Facebook users logged in and 87,5000 people tweeting. There are also 3.8 million queries on Google, 347,222 people on Instagram, and about 188 million emails sent. These statistics show how hard it can get for your business to keep abreast of customers’ needs on social media.
Taxes
Wage Withholding Issues you MUST consider for 2020
As you begin to prepare for the coming year, factor in changes impacting withholding from employees’ wages. As a result, you likely need to change your procedures and make adjustments to your budget for 2020. Wage Withholding Changes in 2020 Revised Withholding Tables Due to cost of living adjustments to federal income tax brackets, withholding for all employees change in 2020.
Technology Trends
Use Emojis in your Business Communications? Than Check Out These!
The new emojis from Apple have been released as part of the iOS 13.2 update. And if in the past you felt you were not represented by an emoji, Apple has done its best to include everyone in this iteration. With 398 new emojis as well as updates to 255 previous versions, there is a total of 457 new emojis.
Image: Depositphotos.com