Are You Open to New Ideas?

If you ask most senior executives if they are open to new ideas and approaches, they would say, "Of course!" But is that really true? Unfortunately, we found that not to be totally accurate. In fact, we found that openness to new ideas and thinking varied widely. Using our CliC innovation tool data which measures the trait Openness, we found there is a statistically significant, reverse correlation between size of company and willingness to actively engage to find new ideas. Thus, the bigger the company, the less chance executives enjoyed hearing about unique ideas and the less action they took to learn about new subjects. The implications are big for delivering innovative products and services.

3 Ways to Make Online Sales More Enticing

Most retail businesses tend to hold sales around the same time -- Black Friday, President’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day -- the list goes on. But it's hard to stand out in a crowded marketplace and be heard, especially in e-commerce, where your competitors are just one click away.

The key to success in any business is gaining attention in your market. Here are three sale-strategies to help you stand out from your competitors:

5 Ways to Build Momentum For Your Business Idea

Entrepreneurship is en vogue. You cannot walk more than a few blocks in a major city without stumbling upon a startup accelerator. But while startups are central to this new economic age, making it as an entrepreneur is still tough. It means building the right momentum to get your business idea off the ground.

Here are five steps to give you a framework for building the momentum needed to successfully chart your own course:

Entrepreneurs Who Turned Hobbies into Million-Dollar Businesses

Kim Lavine started making microwavable pillows as gifts for her kids’ teachers in 2001, assembling them at her kitchen table in Grand Haven, Mich., using a corn kernel filling. Around the same time, her husband lost his job, prompting her to consider turning her pastime into a source of income.

She went from selling pillows out of her truck to setting up mall kiosks and incorporating her company, Green Daisy, in 2002. Within two years, Lavine’s Wuvit pillow was in national chains, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s and Bed Bath & Beyond, and by 2006, it generated more than $1 million in sales.

10 Top Crowdfunding Websites

In her book Cash From the Crowd, Sally Outlaw, founder and CEO of crowdfunding website peerbackers, reveals the secrets of funding your business with help from colleagues, peers, family, friends and even perfect strangers through a crowdfunding campaign. In this edited excerpt, the author offers details on some crowdfunding platforms that offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to generate funds for their new venture.

Protecting Your Brand with Trademarks

Keep your brand's integrity intact by getting a trademark for your business' logo, name, tag line and more.

Establishing a strong brand is pivotal to business success. Protecting that brand is equally important. Yet many small businesses overlook an important first step in securing their brand: trademarks.

Why Mixing Business With Pleasure Is Your Recipe For Success

Have you wondered why we're told not to mix business with pleasure? Or worse, why so many have come to accept this as the social norm?

For me, being an entrepreneur has always been about freedom. Not just the freedom from, but freedom to -- the freedom to pursue what I love and spend my time the way I want. Mixing business with pleasure is precisely the mentality behind my startup, Foursum Golf.

5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your PR Agency

So you've decided to engage a PR agency, a solid first step in any company's marketing efforts.
A truly successful strategy requires your active participation. Here are five tips to help you make sure you're getting the most out of your firm:

1. Keep them in the loop. Communication is essential in any successful, ongoing relationship. This might seem obvious, but many companies have a habit of bringing in a new agency for an extensive "data dump" at the beginning, but ongoing communication takes a nosedive as things get busy internally. Once you bring agency staffers into the loop, be sure to keep them there. Treat them as part of the team, not like external vendors.

The Single Most Important Trait for Any Successful Entrepreneur

From the late Steve Jobs to Twitter's Jack Dorsey, certain entrepreneurs seem to spring from the womb predisposed to success. Not only are they exceptionally smart, but they also have a dogged belief in their own abilities and a similar unrelenting passion for achieving their vision.

Put simply, they don't do things like "regular" people. Case in point: Los Altos, Calif.-based Aaron Levie, the 28-year-old co-founder of online data-storage company Box, now valued at more than $1 billion. As a student at the University of Southern California, Levie shunned the typical college social scene. "If people were going out on Saturday night, I preferred to be on my computer and working on the next internet idea," he says. "I just recognized that I was a bit different than everyone else."

What Self-Service Business Intelligence Is and How to Use It

Q: How does self-service business intelligence make me smarter?

A: With a name like self-service business intelligence, you'd be forgiven for thinking this concerns DIY corporate espionage. But the term describes analytics, in a powerful form that doesn't involve hassling your IT, accounting or sales staffs to pull the information for you.

What Is the Real Survival Rate of Franchised Businesses?

Imagine you're thinking of leaving your job to open a business and decide to do a little research into franchising. A Google search may lead to an evenly balanced sermon on the pros and cons of franchise ownership. Or you may land on this gem from About.com: "Some studies show that franchises have a success rate of approximately 90 percent as compared to only about 15 percent for businesses that are started from the ground up. The increased probability of success usually far outweighs any initial franchise fee and nominal royalties that are paid monthly."

Most experienced franchisees would laugh themselves hoarse after reading that statement. But what about a novice entrepreneur who is considering going it alone? That's the type of thing that might get their heart set on franchising.

4 Tools That Take the Pain Out of Managing Payroll

Employees love payday but, for the small-business owner, managing payroll can be a chore. Taxes, benefits, overtime, vacation days -- even if you only have a few employees the process can take hours.

Need a short cut? Here are four tools and apps that can help make payday a breeze:

The 3 Scariest Things About Owning a Franchise

Owning a franchise is not for the faint of heart. The idea of being your own boss plus the upfront costs and extra obligations to a corporate business, can be downright frightening.

With Halloween around the corner, it's the ideal time to talk about some of the scary realities that come with owning a franchise. Before jumping into the business, make sure you are aware of these three hard truths:

How To Shop For A Bank #Enterpreneur

Choosing a bank for your business involves more than opening a new account at your personal bank or picking the branch office nearest your company. You need to understand what services you require and how much they cost. Ideally you’ll find a banker who will take the time to walk you through how to solve a problem, so you can go back to running your business. Still, some business owners may spend more time shopping for a $300 laser printer than they would shopping for a bank.

Here are a few issues to keep in mind when you look for a banker: