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The Internet has granted everybody a voice, and as such, the exposure social media grants can be a double-edged sword. While you get to share in all of your successes, anybody who feels wronged by your business will have a platform to voice their concerns as well. In some cases, this can be a healthy process for feedback. Sometimes people are just out to start a fuss. So how do you tell the difference, and what do you do if you find someone trying to rouse rabble on your social media pages?

An ESOP is also not an Employee Stock Option Plan. It is a defined contribution retirement plan established under section 401(a) rather than 401(k) and has two major differences. It must invest primarily in stock of the sponsoring company, and can borrow money to do so. The name is very misleading since the employees never own any of the company stock.

WPV affects 100% of all businesses in this country.” I said “Just because it doesn’t involve a firearm doesn’t mean that something isn’t WPV.”

Without the big budget of a public company, marketing can seem to be limited as far as how much you can do with a small budget if you are a small business owner. Sure, it can be challenging, but with today’s technology and huge variety of channels available for free, marketing can be conquered, effective and successful.

An ESOP is not a do-it-yourself endeavor. The creation is complicated. The ESOP must conform to the laws and regulations of both ERISA and the IRS, and is overseen and regulated by the Department of Labor. Dealing with one government agency is bad enough. Dealing with three of them is horrific.

Business owners spend their life growing the family business, but their wealth is locked up in their business and the owner isn’t able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. An ESOP will allow him to sell part or all of the company, providing liquidity and diversification of his wealth while still remaining in control of the company.

Some people will, and laugh, at me for saying what I’m about to write about in this post. But it is true that I parrot it every time there is a workplace violence (WPV) incident. And nobody really wants to listen. That is until I start naming the things that make this the most dangerous attitude.

We all know by now that social media is this Digital Age’s word-of-mouth. People like, follow, and retweet brands to show their support, endorsing their favorite brands on all social media platforms—although some feel more love than others. According to Forrester Research, Instagram is miles ahead when it comes to customer engagement

Dr. Darald Hanusa, with Midwest Center for Human Services in Madison, WI, specializes in treating victims and perpetrators of workplace violence. As part of his work, he is often asked to help businesses better understand how to deal with such issues. “When management isn’t really trained on how to identify what’s happening and escalation and how to diffuse it, that’s when…problems oftentimes erupt,” he said.

I’m sure you’ve read Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” sometime in your life. It’s one of those books that you should read every year. This video shows an nice illustration of Covey’s 7 Habits

Blogging has been around since the ’90s, however, in today’s digital world, blogging has become an integral part of a company’s marketing strategy.This infographic from SearhGroup.com.au illustrates the Benefits of Blogging.

Creating and sustaining a valuable business enterprise is a difficult task under the best of circumstances. Strategic planning is a key to facilitating superior performance and value creation, yet businesses tend to ignore strategic planning, often relying on seat-of-the-pants management and/or business folklore.