Professional Photographers Save 15 Percent With New PMA Member Benefit
from PMA
ImageSpan and PMA have teamed up to offer you discounts on LicenseStream Products! PMA Members are eligible to receive a discount on LicenseStream Creator, LicenseStream Creator Pro, and LicenseStream Storage Upgrades. Please contact PMA Member Services at business_resources@pmai.org, (800) 762-9287 or (517) 788-8371 for discount codes. More

Value-for-Money Strategies for Recessionary Times
from The Harvard Business Review
No one needs convincing that the economic situation we’re facing today is almost unprecedented. Yet much of the advice that executives have received is remarkably similar to what they heard during the recession in 2000. Particularly in Western enterprises, the preferred antidotes seem to be standard ones: Evaluate your risks, develop contingency plans, focus on your core, reduce costs, expect the unexpected, and so on. The unspoken objective appears to be to survive or, at most, to maintain market share. Like many orthodoxies, however, this will not serve companies well today. More

8 Tips for Managing Staff Through Hard Times
from Inc.
Among the tips showcased in this slideshow: When the economy sours, many entrepreneurs turn to board members and industry veterans for help. Which is fine. But Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, the tax software company, says it also makes sense to spend time among the most junior members of your staff. "Expect your contributions to be led by your youngest employees," he says. "Seek them out. Make them your mentors. Get them into a room and ask them to lead in creating ways for your company and customers to benefit. Then, help them act on some of the ideas that emerge. Consider setting up your own in-house ‘science fairs’ so employees can showcase their thinking." More

A Better Way to Keep the Books
from Forbes
Business owners have enough to worry about without having to be accountants, too. Enter Kevin Reeth and Ben Curren, founders of Outright, a software-as-a-service outfit that aims to improve on the Excel-and-shoebox approach to bookkeeping. Now in public beta testing, Outright is a relatively new SaaS player. Its online application manages back-office accounting functions, from income and expenses to tax deductions. Both Reeth and Curren spent years with Intuit, working with Quicken and QuickBooks, where they saw firsthand how small-business owners struggle with bookkeeping. Those insights inspired them to launch GoBootstrap.com, recently re-branded Outright. Next month, the company plans to roll out premium tiers of service features for a fee while still offering the core functionality for free. More

The Stimulus’ Key Small Business Tax Provisions
from BusinessWeek
The stimulus bill signed into law by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17, formally known as the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, provides $288 billion in tax relief to individuals and companies. But how much of that will benefit small business owners—and how? You can read the 407-page law posted online, but we wonder how many members of Congress managed that. Instead, columnist Karen E. Klein has made things a bit easier by highlighting the law's most important tax provisions applying specifically to small firms. More

Customer Service Overhaul
from DMS Retail
We all seem to know how important customer service is-if we are going to be successful in retail. Then why do we keep getting lousy service wherever we go? Before things get even worse, here are the commandments you need to put in place and make sure they are ingrained into everyone's mind. More

Retailing in a Recession
from Ezine
Keep in mind is that, while overall spending does contract in a downturn, what does more damage to most retailers is failing to connect with the change in consumer spending patterns. The emotional shift in consumer's minds from ambition to self-preservation makes people buy differently, but they still buy. More

Work-Life Balance in Retail
from Monster
Working long and hard is standard procedure for many retail professionals. This is especially true for those who run their own store or are making their way up the corporate ladder. But is work all there is? Not according to the happiest retail pros. These men and women have been able to have their retail cake, eat it and wash it down with fine champagne. So how does a retailer balance a career with a personal life? Here are some key strategies. More