You could be pardoned for not finding caterpillars particularly appealing. They’re ungainly, unshapely and sometimes downright hideous. However we also know from science class that many caterpillars will enter a cocoon and emerge as beautiful butterflies. It’s not hard to see how the analogy applies to a business coming out of a restructuring. Like the caterpillar, your business didn’t look particularly attractive. Otherwise you wouldn’t have gone through the painful process of reworking it from the ground up. You have emerged from your metaphorical cocoon and it’s time to spread your wings and show the world who you are now.

It doesn’t matter if you run an Etsy shop out of your garage or a multinational corporation. Social media needs to be present in your 2020 marketing strategy. Keeping abreast of the latest trends and changes in social media will help you build an effective strategy to ensure success in the New Year and beyond.  Here are five points to consider:

Every business requires the services of a graphic designer at some point or another. But for small to medium-sized businesses, it doesn’t make financial sense to have someone on the payroll full-time. Luckily, in this digital age, it’s possible to hire freelance graphic designers for one-time projects from the comfort of your home or office. Here are five websites where you can get quality graphic design work done cheap:

The world can be a tough place to make a living, as naturalist Charles Darwin aptly observed. The environment is always changing, and when it does species are faced with two very stark choices: adapt or perish. Of course, the same is true with businesses. A successful business will change with the times to remain relevant, while an unsuccessful one will eventually be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Almost 16 years after its launch, Facebook is still the largest social media network, with 2.32 billion monthly active users. Due to its reach across the globe, the social platform is a marketing powerhouse. However, due to the constant changes made to the Facebook algorithm, organic reach is becoming harder and harder to earn, which is why it is important to consider the other marketing options available, like paid ads.

The good news is, once you get the hang of it, Facebook ads are easy to create and generally inexpensive. In fact, some advertisers who use Facebook ads have seen their cost of new customer acquisition decline by as much as 73 percent.

Hiring a business or marketing coach could be the smartest decision you’ve ever made. A coach can make you work harder and progress faster than you ever would on your own. With all their experience, a business or marketing coach will push you outside your comfort zone where you’ll find yourself moving forward by leaps and bounds instead of baby steps.

Sound good? You’ll need to check your ego and take these 5 critical actions to make the progress you want, progress that you hired the business coach to help you make.

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Change isn’t easy. After all, we’ve already got a lot invested in the status quo. Large scale change in a business means disrupting the very foundation we’ve relied upon. It means tough choices that will affect not just us, but our vendors, employees, stockholders, not to mention their families. It involves extensive, often emotionally laden discussions on what’s going well, what’s not going so well and what’s the best path forward. However to remain competitive a business must be nimble, and that means change whether we like it or not.

When it comes to making positive changes in our lives, we’re often more likely to come up with reasons they can’t be done, rather than how to make them happen. But many times the only thing that's stopping us is ourselves. Try small changes and give them a chance. You might be surprised how easy they can insinuate themselves into your life and make things better.

How long have you lived in your house? Did you just move in or have you spent many comfortable years under the same roof? If you’ve lived in the same place for a while you probably have noticed how your stuff seems to accumulate. That shelf full of knick-knacks fills up and there hasn’t been room in the garage for the car in some time. When we’re on the move, we often have to make choices about what to take and what to leave behind. Yes, we have some great memories with that trusty sofa, but there isn’t room in the moving van.

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The holidays are over, and you may have over-indulged. May have??!!! Who can resist Grandma's apple pie? It's no wonder you may notice a little post-holiday bloating and weight gain.

But we've got you covered with these ideas to get your workout back on track!

With the craziness of the holiday season in full swing, you may not have given much thought to your business model. But now that Christmas and New Years’ are in the rear view mirror it might be time to take another look. In our upcoming series on business models, we’ll examine some basic questions about these valuable tools, including whether it’s time to give them a fresh coat of paint or remodel them entirely.

After a long string of holidays, starting with Labor Day and culminating in New Years’ Eve, 2020 is finally here. You might be forgiven for wondering where all the flying cars and outer space colonies got to. The year 2020 won’t turn out like many prognosticators thought, but it’s still a new year with plenty of wonderful possibilities. While you won’t be preparing to buy that flying car any time soon, there are some other preparations you can make for the coming year.