business growth Archives - Page 7 of 17

The Secret to More Online Sales? A Persuasive Product Page

What’s the most important part of your e-commerce site? Is it that eye-catching landing page that keeps customers browsing? Or is it the checkout page, which you’ve tweaked to provide the smoothest purchasing experience possible? Yeah, both of those are important, but if you’re focusing mostly on those two things, you’re missing out on a crucial component of the conversion process: your product pages. Your product page is the place where the majority of your customers make the decision to buy (or not!), and customers won’t even get as far as your checkout page if you don’t have a persuasive product page that’s optimized to convert.

In fact, consider this: the average product page conversion rate is a mere 7.91%. So if you want to get a leg up on the competition – and generate more sales and revenue – you might just need to do an overhaul of your product pages. So what should you be focusing on?

What’s the Big Deal About Product Pages?

First of all, why exactly is a product page so important? Well, we’re talking about ecommerce here, so your customers can’t physically hold or see your product, meaning the product page and all its components are all they have to go on. That means you might have the better product, but if another company has the better product page, you’re going to lose the sale.

Don’t just take our word for it: according to Salsify’s 2017 “Cracking the Consumer Code” report, 87% of shoppers say content on product pages is extremely or very important when making the decision to buy, and 98% of consumers say they decided not to purchase something because the product page seemed incomplete or incorrect. That should make you sit up, and rethink your product pages!

The Essential Components of a Product Page

If you’re worried that your product pages aren’t all they should be, you’re not alone – but you can turn it to your advantage. Baymard researchers found that, out of 60 top grossing ecommerce companies, only 18% had product detail pages that were deemed “good” or “acceptable” when they graded them for usability according to 95 different benchmarks. That means you can jump in and grab sales from your competitors if you really work on optimizing your product pages. So what makes a high-converting product page?

A good product page tells customers why your product is valuable, explains which needs it fulfills or problem it solves, and lists all the information a customer needs to make a buying decision. To do this, start by breaking down all the elements that you’ll need to include to make your product pages successful, including:

Product details that don’t simply describe the product, but give benefits and why customers should buy the product

Parts of the page that will urge customers to buy now, instead of shopping around

Components that will help customers choose exactly which product to buy and to overcome hesitancy

Elements that help customers understand how you will fix any problems that could come up post-purchase

So now let’s get more specific, and break down how you can include all of the above components to create some seriously converting product pages.

How to Craft the Perfect Product Page

Cramming in all of the above elements can seem impossible, especially since you don’t want cluttered product pages – but, trust us, it’s all about quality and not quantity, and there are ways to do all of the above that aren’t simply spelling it out in words. Try the following ways to improve your product pages:

black exclamation point in an orange circle — *Get straight to the point about your products with a brief paragraph, explaining their benefits.*

Get to the Point!

Before you can think about anything else, you need to craft the perfect product descriptions, and that means never burying the lead – or forcing your customers to dig around to find essential information. Use a descriptive title that includes keywords, and include a brief paragraph (1-4 sentences) explaining the benefits of your product, also including keywords, as well as an easily scannable bulleted list. According to Nielsen Norman Group, scannable and concise content has been shown to improve usability by 124%. You can certainly add some more rich detail further down the page, but the most important thing is to have “at a glance” information that doesn’t make customers wait to be intrigued.

Understand the Need for Speed

Speaking of not making customers wait, it’s incredibly important that you pay attention to the speed of your product pages – after all, why do customers shop online? Convenience and time saving, right? So that all goes out the window if your customers encounter sluggish product pages; in fact, you can lose 40% of shoppers if your product pages don’t load within 4 seconds.

To combat this, make sure you’re regularly testing your page speed, optimizing your content and images so they load fast, and clearing your cache regularly. Consider also using a tool like Google’s PageSpeeds Insights to help you analyze your product page load time.

Be a Product Picture Pro

illustration of a woman squatting down taking a picture with a camera — *Take compelling, high-quality, high-resolution picture to look more professional and get more traction on your site.*

It goes without saying that you need to include images of your product on your product page, but they’ve got to be the right images. For example, your feature image should ideally be an eye-level, mid to long shot, crisp, and clear image. Compelling, high-quality, high-resolution images will get you, on average, 94% more views than pages with dull, poor quality images. But you shouldn’t stop with just a pretty picture; go above and beyond by adding things like a zoom function and multiple product pictures at different angles to give a fuller visual breakdown of your product.

You should also add video to your product pages, if at all possible. According to Kissmetrics, site visitors are 64-85% more likely to buy your product after watching a video on your website. One real-world example: Stacks and Stacks found that shoppers who saw videos on its product pages were 144% more likely to add a product to their cart.

Create a Sense of Urgency

Sometimes you’ve just got to throw a little psychology at your customers, and create a sense of urgency to close the sale. For example, you can use a countdown timer for sale prices or free shipping offers, or indicate with your language that quantities of your item are limited. Does this strategy work? According to Conversion XL, you can increase sales by as much as 332% by creating scarcity and a sense of urgency. Not bad.

On a related note, you can also add an intent-based, or exit-intent, pop-up to offer a last-minute discount (especially if it includes an email list sign-up push) to reduce cart abandonment.

Win Their Trust

If you’re trying to increase your conversion rate, you’ve got to help your customers make the decision to buy. Creating a sense of urgency is definitely one way to do this, but building trust is another very important one: if your customers have any doubts about your product or company, you can kiss that conversion goodbye. So what are some ways to build trust and convince your customers to click that “buy” button?

Include customer reviews – Products with customer reviews have a 10% higher conversion rate than those without, and studies show that 91% of 18 to 34-year-old consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Bonus: you can also use customer reviews as testimonials on your social media pages.

Add trust badges and SSL certificates – A recent survey showed that 61% of respondents had cancelled a purchase because trust badges were absent from the site. Customers seem to approve most of Norton, McAfee, and TRUSTe.

Have a clear return policy – A survey conducted by UPS in 2019 found that 73% of buyers become repeat buyers because of their experience with returns. Hassle-free returns and refunds increase the chances of customers returning to buy.

Answer Their Questions

Don’t ever leave your customers hanging! Always make sure you proactively answer their questions, so they’re less likely to hesitate and more likely to make the decision to buy. There are multiple ways to make sure you’re doing this:

Include FAQs right on your product page – Answering questions upfront in a visually pleasing, orderly way will ensure visitors don’t abandon the page simply due to confusion.
Use your images to give info – Include size charts or dimensions right in your product images so customers don’t have to navigate away from the page to find that info.
Have a live chat feature – In a survey conducted by Forrester, 44% of respondents said that having a live person answer their questions while they were in the middle of an online purchase was one of the most important features a website could offer. Not only that, but 51% of customers are more likely to purchase after using a live chat – and 29% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase with the option of live chat, even if they don’t use it.

Have a Clear Call-to-Action

Make sure your product page has a clear call-to-action (CTA) – in this case, a simple, sleek “add to cart,” “buy now,” “add to basket,” etc button. Whatever wording you choose, make sure the button stands out from the rest of your content, provides a simple instruction to your customer, and has a well thought out design that includes attention to basic color theory. green button with "add to cart" written next to a green cart

Does the design of your CTA really make a difference? Well, to give you a real-world example, when RIPT Apparel changed the color of its “add to cart” CTA and added a countdown timer next to the product, they saw 6.3% more conversions.

Stepping into the world of ecommerce means a lot of work crafting the perfect website, and you need to make sure you’re paying attention to all parts of your site, not just the landing page and checkout process. Remember that your product pages are vital to your business, and, while an unstructured or poorly presented page can break you, a well designed and well thought out one can give you a leg up on your competition and really make you! It’s a lot to think about, we know, but if you follow the above tips, start making even small, simple changes, and utilize A/B testing on your product pages, you’ll be watching your conversion rates rise in no time!

This Year, Resolve to Be a Content King or Queen

What are your thoughts on content as a way to market and grow your small business? Is it one of those “That would be nice to do, but I’ve got other things to worry about right now” kind of things? Or are you dabbling in content creation, but without a clear strategy? You could be making a mistake if you’re not engaging with content at all, or if you’re doing it haphazardly: after all, 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing and 77% of companies say they have a content marketing strategy, so if you’re not on the content wagon, odds are you’re going to get left behind. We get that there’s a lot on your plate, and creating content as well as a strategy to make it work for you can feel overwhelming, but there are some simple steps you can take to start developing your content marketing strategy right now!

What Is a Content Marketing Strategy and Why Do You Need One?

We want to emphasize again: content marketing and a strategy to go with it isn’t just a “nice to have” kind of thing: in the year 2022, it’s pretty much a necessity for success, and almost every business can benefit from it. Think about it this way: do your potential customers have problems or goals that you want your business to solve for them? Well, then you need a content marketing strategy! You can use blog posts and videos (instead of or in addition to paid advertising) to solve their problems for free. Not only will you gain their attention and their trust, but you will also be at the top of their minds when they’re ready to buy.

And that’s basically the end goal: to be their go-to, right? But you need a strategy to make sure that you’re there at the moment a prospect decides to buy, and that includes knowing:

Which keywords will get you more traffic
What voice to use in your content to resonate with your audience
When to bring your product into the content and how to create a killer call-to-action without sounding like all you’re doing is selling

And remember, content is an investment of your time and resources, so you want to make sure you’re doing it right – if you do so with a solid content marketing strategy, according to the Content Marketing Institute, you could end up generating three times more leads than you would with paid advertising.

So what should your actual content strategy look like? Write it down, and include the following:

An analysis of your customers and the types of information they’ll need as they look for solutions to their problems
A discussion of your business goals and the role your content will play in supporting those goals
An outline of your plans for building and distributing content with the resources you have available to you

Steps to Creating a Content Marketing Strategy

You know you need content, and a content marketing strategy to get it out there, and you know generally what you should include in your plan, so let’s look at some steps to get you there.

1. Establish your goals

We’ve been pretty clear that going the content route is important for a lot of businesses, but what do you actually want to get out of it for your business? Creating content for content’s sake should never be your goal; rather, you should get specific. Do you want to:

Create leads?
Build relationships?
Improve your customers’ experiences?
Increase traffic to your website?
Establish yourself as an authority in your field?

Once you’ve decided on your main goals, try to quantify them with specific targets.

2. Define your target audience – and the problems they need solved

picture of a website with a lines connecting it to multiple people underneath it — *For your content to be successful, you need to know what your audience likes and dislikes.*

You can’t be successful at content marketing unless you know your audience: you need to know their likes and dislikes, as well as what content will appeal to them. To do this, you should create a persona for your typical customer, perhaps by reviewing customer data, interviewing employees who interact with customers, sitting in on sales calls, or surveying customers. Include in your persona the standard demographics of age, gender, location, and income, and also think about their pastimes, concerns, and what motivates them – and what problems they need solved. Ideally, you should be connecting with your audience, reinforcing the solution you’re offering, and building credibility.

3. Now define your business! What makes you unique?

You know your customers pretty well by now – but how well do you know your own business? Really stop and think about what makes you stand out from your competitors – otherwise, you could just end up adding to the sea of content for content’s sake that’s already out there. So think about what will be your content’s “thing”? What can you do better? Can you:

Motivate and inspire?
Be useful in a new way?
Educate and entertain?

Need more help breaking down your message and differentiating yourself from your competitors? Try writing down all of your brand messages, then the brand messages of your top three competitors. Finally, cross off the overlapping messages, and you’ll be left with your unique messages – your “thing!”

And remember, when it comes to having your content stand out, you’ll also be competing with news, reference, and entertainment sites, so make sure you have a unique spin, and are effectively using keywords, so you can rank as highly as possible on search engines. Which brings up to…

4. Do your research on keywords

Once you’re clearer on who your audience is and what your goals are, you need to do some serious research into keywords, so you know what your audience is searching for online. You’ll need to look at what people are searching for on Google: start by examining what you think you should be using, then decide what you should actually be using based on the data.

For example, if you want to be at the top of the pack when it comes to “public relations” in your area, you’re going to have to be more specific in your keywords if you want to beat out all the ads and listicles that come up when you put those terms into Google. Or, if you’re selling “running gear,” be more specific in your keywords about what problems you can solve – for example, using the keywords “running shoes for people with bad knees.” There are free keyword search tools available, including Ubersuggest, that can help you start with a simple keyword and then find long-tail keywords to add on to more effectively target your audience.

5. Figure out the nuts and bolts of your strategy

There’s a lot of theoretical things to think about surrounding your content marketing strategy, but there’s also a whole bunch of practical stuff to start thinking about, namely: megaphone with mail, a camera, and other content pics around it

What types of content are most suited to your audience. Will they respond to white papers, blog posts, videos, infographics, etc?
What platforms will you post on? For example, if your audience is more suited to long-form videos, YouTube is a good choice; if your audience is younger, though, TikTok or Instagram would be better choices.
What methods will you use to promote your content?
Decide on a schedule for both publishing your content and promoting it, including on social media and through email marketing – consider using an online tool to keep all your scheduling in one place and under control. You’ll also need a well thought out calendar that includes who’s doing what and when.
Work out how you’ll use the resources available to you: for example, will you handle the content creation and scheduling yourself, will you have a team to take it on for you, or will you outsource it?

6. Create your content and set it loose on the world!

Now you’re ready to actually create your content! When creating, keep all of these things in mind:

Stay focused on your goals – not just to entertain, inform, educate, or establish yourself as an authority, but also to get your prospects to heed your call-to-action
Use keywords based on your research
Try to find original angles on your topics
Use a consistent voice and style that speaks to your target audience
Create some longer content, since content that is longer than 5,000 words often gets better search engine results
Link back to your other content
Use a mix of text and non-text content

7. Make sure you’re measuring

Content marketing is not a one-off thing, rather, it’s a work in progress. You’ll need to refine as you go, and as you learn more about your audience and what works and what doesn’t – and that means tracking and measuring. Remember, though, not to get sucked into looking at vanity metrics, and to measure the actions that your prospects are taking, and not just focus on your clicks and likes. Consider using these 4 content marketing metrics: person in a suit with analytics graph next to them

Consumption metrics – What did your audience do with the content?
Sharing metrics – How often are they sharing it?
Lead generation metrics – How many leads did you get from this content?
Sales metrics – Did you make any money on this piece of content?

It’s a brave new world of marketing out there, and there’s a good chance you need to be in the content marketing game – and that means you’ll need a solid strategy to get it right. It’ll take time, organization, and creativity to build your successful content marketing strategy, but if you follow the tips above, we know you can charge into the new year with a new outlook on attracting customers and growing your business!

End of the Year Stress? How You Can Wrap This Year Up Right for Your Business

Can you believe that 2021 is almost over? Nope, we can’t either. But, as the owner of a small business, you’re probably worried about more than just how quickly time seems to be passing at this time of year. As Q4 comes to a close, you’re probably thinking about – and maybe stressing over – whether your business performed as well as it could have over the past year, where you stand right now, and how you can set yourself up for growth in the new year. And while we can’t promise simple answers or solutions (wouldn’t it be great if the business world was simple?), what we can do is lay out a checklist that will help you find the balance between looking back over the last year and looking forward to the new – no stress necessary!

1. Take a Step Back – and Celebrate the Year’s Wins!

This first step might not seem like the most practical bit of advice on the list, but it is so necessary to actively stay engaged with and excited about your business, otherwise stress and doubt can really hamper your ability to move forward. The sad fact is that many entrepreneurs never feel truly successful, and many are plagued by stress. According to a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, 34% of entrepreneurs – 4 percentage points more than other workers – reported they were worried, and 45% of entrepreneurs said they were stressed, 3 percentage points more than other workers (and that was pre-pandemic!).

So, before you move on to the next steps on the list, take a moment (or more than that, ideally) to not just give yourself a little pat on the back, but actually list the successes of your business for the year, no matter how big or small. Then reward yourself with something that makes you feel good. If this step seems optional, and easy to skip, you might want to rethink things, or you could be facing some serious burnout in the new year.

2. Do Some Serious Analyzing

If you’re worried and stressed, take a breath and start asking questions to focus on what’s really important for the health of your business, and what it is that’s keeping you up at night. Are you not growing at a rate that’s appropriate for your business? Are your expenses outstripping your revenue? Are you acquiring fewer customers than you did last year?

Where do you go from the question-asking stage? Well, if you’re going to really understand what worked and what didn’t last year, and what needs to happen in the new year, you’re going to need to do some number crunching. Before you do that, though, figure out what’s really important to your business, and what you should be looking at. In other words, separate out the actionable metrics for your business from the vanity metrics, or the less meaningful things such as likes and subscribers.

So which metrics should be most important to your business? Well, you can look at some or all of the following, remembering it’s always better to calculate year-over-year growth rates for these metrics (instead of looking at just one period in time):

Revenue
Expenses
Number of customers
Average customer value (for the year)
Average length of time that you keep your customers
Lifetime value of a customer
Click-through/conversion rates on email newsletters
Conversion rate from lead to paying customer

Remember, these are meant to be actionable metrics, so learn from these numbers, and make a plan of action based on them to keep doing what you’re doing right, and change course where things are going wrong.

3. Get Some Outside Help

calculator next to some papers — *Consider hiring a financial advisor to help wit financial statements and taxes.*

Now is a great time to meet with a financial professional, like an accountant or bookkeeper, so you can get some help reviewing financial statements, and can ask all your tax-related questions (like about deductions, for example), You can also work out a timeline for your tax deadlines (you might want to pay taxes on a quarterly basis, for example).

In addition, if you’ve been thinking about getting some help for your business, now is the time to finally keep that resolution, especially if you’re starting to feel physically and emotionally burnt out. If you’re looking to hire full-time employees, now is a great time to get your ads and paperwork ready. Or, it might be less stressful for you to consider outsourcing as an alternative to hiring full-time employees – or doing everything yourself. You can outsource any number of tasks, including web security, payment processing, and even email management. You might think you can save money by trying to do everything yourself, but more often than not, you just end up saving neither time nor money, and you end up with a not-so-great result.

4. Get Social

Having a strong social media presence is so important for most businesses these days, but that does mean a lot of upkeep, or you could be doing more harm to your brand than good. If your social media accounts aren’t doing you any favors, revisit them now so you don’t have to stress about this aspect of your digital marketing next year. For example, head to your Twitter account and change that months-old tweet that’s pinned at the top of your handle, refresh your Facebook cover images, or actually start using your Pinterest account!

5. Take Stock, Literally

Worried about having too little or too much inventory left over from last year? Or, if you don’t sell physical products, are you worried about whether you’re focusing on offering the right services? Use this time to literally take stock (or evaluate what services were most popular), and do some ruthless paring down, so you can focus on what sells, and what is just taking up your time and money.

6. Set Some Goals for Next Year

Once you’ve done all of your analyzing of the past year, it’s time to look forward to next year. How should you do that? Start with the practical, if tedious, stuff, like:

Gather your tax documents to be on top of tax season, including bank statements and financial reports, proof of business expenses, mileage logs, and 1099 forms
Renew any licenses that need renewal
Revisit vendor agreements to see if any changes are necessary
Talk to your landlord about your lease, and see if you can do any renegotiating

After that, it’s time for some bigger-picture thinking: it’s time to set some goals for the next year. But that doesn’t mean creating a laundry list of tasks with no clear focus; rather, you should be focusing on setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals that put you on the road to growth. For example, making a SMART goal would mean that, instead of saying you’d like to grow your revenue by 20% next year, you might say, “By the end of next year, I want to hit $X in revenue from acquiring X more customers than we did this year, and upselling X% of existing basic customers to our more premium plan.”

So, take your actionable metrics from above, and choose the four most-impactful ones that you can emphasize in the coming months, one for each quarter. Then publicize these goals within your team and make plans to evaluate your progress on a monthly basis, to keep you on track.

We know it’s easy to put all of this important stuff off when you’re in the weeds of your business’ day-to-day operations, but analyzing where you’ve been and planning ahead for where you want to be going are vital for the success of your business. So instead of stressing at the end of the year, take a firm hold on the reins, get done what needs to be done, and celebrate making it through another year, so you can be energized for the year to come!

The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Charitable Giving

The year is coming to a close, and the holiday season is in full swing, so you might be thinking about two things: your business’ finances and the spirit of giving. And you know what? You can actually combine those two things: the end of the year is a great time to think about doing some charitable giving, which can have multiple positive effects on your business, financial and otherwise. Celebrating the holiday season or ringing in the new year with a gift to charity from your business is a great idea for many reasons, but before you jump right in, you need to know the guidelines and potential pitfalls.

Giving Back = Getting Back

Giving back is all about doing something good for others, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t expect some great benefits to your business if you donate to or volunteer for a charity. As long as you find causes that are important to you, as well as important to your customer base, you’ll find that you’ll not only feel good about your choice to give back, but you’ll also reap some of the following rewards:

Firmly establishing yourself as an important part of your community – Since you depend on your community to keep you afloat, it’s a good idea to be recognized as an important part of your community. What better way to do that than by supporting causes other community members believe in? Remember, you have to give customers reasons to choose you over big corporations, and that can include the personal touch you offer, as well as ways you make your local community a better place.

Building up a network – Charitable giving can also be a way to partner with other organizations and individuals all year round. You never know who you might meet and get on board with your business, and you can also request that nonprofits that you help out publicize your support.

Improving the image of your brand – Giving back will boost your brand image, because you’ll be demonstrating corporate responsibility.

Connecting with your customers – And a boosted brand image means customers will feel good about supporting your business, and will become more loyal to your brand.

Keeping your employees engaged and happy – Customers aren’t the only ones who will feel good about your business if you’re giving back. Your employees could get a morale boost from working for a company they believe in and that has a positive company culture, and it might help you with hiring in the future.

Tax benefits – More on this later!

How to Choose a Charity

It seems pretty clear that if your business has the means to do so, you should consider doing some charitable giving. But how do you go about choosing where to give your dollars, or spend your time? The following steps should help you to narrow down your options, and land on the right organization for you:

Look for charities that align with your brand –There are so many nonprofits out there, so where do you even start? Try narrowing your choices down to organizations that might have some sort of connection to your brand. For example, if you sell children’s products, consider pediatric charities, or if your brand is focused on natural products, consider organizations that do conservation work. You might also consider talking to your employees about what is important to them to get a different perspective.

Do your research – This might seem like an obvious step, but you don’t just have to research the type of charity you’re looking to partner with, you also have to do some pretty diligent research into the charities you’re considering. Just because an organization is well known, or seems to do something you believe in, doesn’t mean they’re well run. Start with a simple Google search to see if there has been any negative press on each organization, and then check out websites like GuideStar, Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance to get as much info as you can.

Talk to the organization – Don’t be shy about picking up the phone and asking to speak with the executive director or someone else in charge at the organization you’re interested in. They should be willing to talk openly with you, and you should also ask them whether they would allow you to use their branding in any of your PR, as well as whether you need their written acknowledgement to give a certain amount.

Check to see if the organization is a qualified charity – If you’re interested in getting some tax benefits from giving, you’ll have to take one more step when you’re checking out your chosen charity. You’ll have to make sure that the organization is a qualified charitable organization under the IRS, meaning it meets specific requirements as well as IRS criteria and is a 501(c)(3). Note that not all tax-exempt organizations are 501(c)(3) status, so to verify their status, use the IRS online search tool, or ask the charity to send you a copy of their IRS determination letter confirming their exempt status.

Tax Breaks for Charitable Giving Explained

We’ve mentioned possible tax breaks for charitable giving a few times now, so you might be wondering how your business can actually go about getting these benefits. Well, if you give before the end of the year, you might be able to deduct your donations on your taxes this year, if you meet certain requirements and follow these steps:

Make sure the charity is qualified – See above
Separate out all your charity work, and figure out what’s eligible to deduct – Not every type of giving is deductible. So, before you even think about how to go about deducting it, you have to separate out what you’ve given or done, and determine what is eligible. Generally, you will be able to deduct things like cash donations, sponsorship of local charity events, and in-kind contributions like inventory or equipment.

But the complicated thing is that each of these categories has its own criteria for what is eligible to be deducted. For example, if you volunteer for an organization, your mileage and travel expenses are deductible but your time spent volunteering is not. Or, let’s say you host fundraising events for an organization: you cannot deduct anything for the time spent working on these fundraisers, but you can deduct expenses related to hosting the fundraisers, like stationery for invitations and telephone costs.

One other thing to note is that you can generally deduct up to 50% of adjusted gross income. tax deductible stamped in red

Determine how to deduct your charitable giving, based on your business type – This is where things get even more technical: the way you deduct your charitable giving depends on the type of business you’re running. Let’s take a quick look at how it works for sole proprietorships, partnerships, S-Corporations, and C-Corporations:

Sole proprietorships – If you’re a sole proprietorship, and are filing your taxes using Schedule C of individual tax form 1040, your business does not make charitable contributions separately. Deduct them using Schedule A. It’s important to note that you must itemize in order to take the deductions.

Partnerships – If you’re a partnership and do not pay income taxes, when you make a charitable contribution, each partner takes a percentage share of the deduction on his or her personal tax return.

S-Corporations – This will work similar to a partnership, with each shareholder receiving a Schedule K-1 from the IRS that will show their charitable contributions, and which they can use on their tax returns.

C-Corporations – If you’re running a C-Corporation, your business is a completely separate entity from you, so your corporation can make charitable contributions and take deductions for those contributions.

Keep good records – If you want to deduct your charitable giving from your taxes, be prepared to do some good record keeping! Make sure you keep everything, like canceled checks, bank and credit card statements, and payroll deduction records, but most importantly, make sure you get a letter of acknowledgment from the organization that you’ve given to. In fact, the IRS requires proof of payment and an acknowledgment letter for donations of $250 or more, so you need to make sure that you ask for (and receive) a letter from every organization that you’ve given more than that amount to (note that this is only required for a single donation of $250, NOT for multiple donations that add up to $250).

Giving back to your community is a great thing in and of itself, but there’s nothing wrong with thinking about the benefits of charitable giving to your business. So as the year wraps up, think about what’s important to you, and where you can donate some of your hard-earned money to do some good, and you might end up with happy customers, happy employees, and a happy accountant when tax season rolls around!

Are Gender-Equality Practices the Real Path to Growth?

It won’t come as news to anyone that focusing on gender equality in the workplace is good for women. But what might not be as obvious is how beneficial gender-equity practices can be for businesses as a whole – and not just for company culture. In fact, numbers coming out of 2021 (and prior years) have proven that gender-equality practices are just as good for a business’ bottom line as they are for creating a positive work environment. In other words, having an inclusive, supportive workplace where everyone feels valued and heard might just be the way to drive growth.

The Numbers

According to Courtney Geduldig, executive vice president, public affairs at S&P Global, “I think one of the biggest misconceptions about gender equality is that it only benefits women, but the data shows that this is not true. Our data makes it clear that gender equality is the engine for the global workforce. Greater women participation in the workforce can make a greater impact on the economy.”

The numbers don’t lie: being gender inclusive is not just a good idea in theory. Just check out the following statistics, the most recent being from 2021, which goes to show that this is something we’re still working on, and something that is very relevant to this moment, especially as women in the workforce are suffering the consequences of the pandemic more than men.

In 2021, 73% of businesses that employ gender-equality practices reported increased profitability and productivity.
According to McKinsey & Company, businesses with low rates of both gender and racial diversity are 29% more likely to make less money.
If U.S. companies hired and promoted women at the same rate as countries like Norway, the economy could grow by 8%, according to S&P Global.
In the last 20 years, the revenue of women-owned U.S. companies has increased by 103%, according to American Express.
A 2011 Catalyst study found that companies with the most women board directors outperformed those with the least on return on sales (ROS) by 16% and return on invested capital (ROIC) by 26%.
Research shows that inclusive teams make better business decisions up to 87% of the time, and that teams with less diversity are more likely to make poor choices for their companies.

All of these numbers, and numbers from many other studies, prove that being equitable in the workplace is good for everyone. Why? Well, beyond the simple reason that getting everyone involved in the economy is beneficial to the economy, individual workplaces that are equitable might be so profitable for reasons like the following:

Varied viewpoints and communication skills

A more holistic analysis of the issues a company faces

A more positive work environment, which can stimulate productivity

Reduced cost of turnover

A better reputation as a business, which helps you attract higher-quality employees

What Does Gender Equality Look Like in the Workplace?

So if gender equity is the goal, before we even talk about how to get there, we need to think about what it actually looks like in the workplace. We should be working toward the following: silhouette of a woman on one side of a scale and man on the other side balanced.

Equal pay – Pay should never be based on someone’s gender (or any other characteristic, like race, religion, age, sexual orientation, etc).

Equal treatment – Businesses need to be careful about excluding members of teams from more informal decision-making settings (like social events that only men are attending, for example), or about having different expectations of roles (like expecting a female employee to make coffee, for example).

Equal representation on leadership teams, boards, etc – Too many businesses suffer from having “broken rungs” on their ladder, meaning women get stuck in lower-level positions and are prevented from advancing.

Equal access to training and career-advancing opportunities – There should never be an assumption that women will eventually leave their positions, and so should not be groomed for advancement.

Benefits focused on the needs of employees – People with families need flexibility in the workplace to keep them productive, so businesses should consider offering work-from-home options, flexible schedules, and/or PTO in place of traditional “vacation time.” Remember, too, that the availability of paid child care plays a big part in allowing parents to remain in the labor force. Every year from 2016 to 2018, more than 2 million parents of children aged 5 and younger had to quit a job, not take a job, or change their job because of child care challenges, with most of the people affected being women – and things have only gotten worse since 2020. Consider this: American businesses lose an estimated $12.7 billion annually because of their employees’ child care challenges, and the cost of lost earnings, productivity, and revenue nationally due to child care issues is estimated at $57 billion annually.

How Can We Work Towards Greater Gender Equality?

The above is what we should be working towards, but what steps can you take to get there?

Look at your recruitment practices

The first step to creating an equitable workplace is recruiting like you’re committed to an equitable workplace! That means trying things like:

Reviewing your job advertisements to make sure they encourage everyone to apply
Setting recruitment goals
Widening your pool of applicants, and running campaigns in places that might attract both men and women, especially if you are looking for applicants in more stereotypically “male” careers like tech
Making sure applicants are assessed purely on their skills, including “soft skills”

Look at your workplace environment

Hiring more women is a great start, but simply adding women and stirring is not enough. You need to look at how your workplace deals with gender issues, both in abstract and more concrete ways. Think about doing the following:

Address the issue – If gender dynamics and issues surrounding equality feel like the elephant in the room, look that elephant right in the eye and let your employees know that you are more than open to addressing the issue and creating a plan. Make your employees feel heard and validated, and you’ll build trust.
Redesign your workspace – Try to eliminate gender divisions at your workplace.

Commit to equality – Offer the same rewards – whether it’s pay or otherwise – for the same work, regardless of gender.

Consider your workers’ needs – Listening and raising awareness are important, but even more important is giving all workers what they need, including paid family leave, paid time off for childcare, flexible work arrangements, etc.

Look at your professional development strategies

Again, you need to deal with some concrete problems if you’re going to promote gender equality in your workplace; that includes making sure everyone has ways to advance or find the opportunities that are right for them. To do this, you can:

Offer training to all employees who join your team
Invest in individual development
Create a mentoring program aimed at promoting women’s advancement
Change to a less linear career structure

The problem of gender inequality is not going to just go away on its own, and it doesn’t come down to just one individual workplace – it’s a systemic issue. But fortunately we are beginning to see businesses come on board with making changes, and those changes are making a big difference in not only the lives of women workers, but also in the health of the businesses that are making these changes. We still have a long way to go, though, and you can be a part of the solution – you’ll be doing the right thing and you’ll be supporting the growth of your business!

Can Failure Help You Succeed?

What’s the opposite of success? If your immediate reaction was to say “failure,” we suggest that you shift your thinking. It might sound cliché, but we would argue that the opposite of success is never actually taking a chance and risking failure. And as for failure itself? Well, while we’re not saying that it’s something you should shoot for, it doesn’t always have to mean the end of anything. It might just be a temporary setback, a jumping off point, or even, if you look at it in the right way, a way to push yourself toward success. Hey, even Albert Einstein once said, “Failure is success in progress” – and he flunked out of high school!

So consider this: what do Milton Hershey, Walt Disney, and Bill Gates have in common? Well, besides being synonymous with success in our minds today, all three of them started at least one business that failed spectacularly before they became successful. In the end, what mattered for them wasn’t that they had failures, but how they reacted to and learned from them. So what can you learn from YOUR setbacks on your path to success?

Your Failures Are Great Learning Opportunities

clock with the words "time to learn" on it — *Every time you fail. you gain a little more experience and knowledge as to what works and what doesn’t.*

Whether you’re the impulsive type or the most meticulous planner around when it comes to your business decisions, there are always going to be unforeseen outcomes of your actions and choices. Once you’ve made a few attempts to reach your goals (again, the important thing here is getting out there and trying!), you’ll not only have gained a little more experience and knowledge, but you’ll also have a concrete, visual representation of what works – and what doesn’t.

So, while you should do all the proper planning that you can, think about it this way: you could see the visible evidence of your failures as embarrassing, but why? Why not see them as a necessary part of finding a solution that works?

Failure Gives You Time to Reassess

Here’s a question to ponder: are successes always the best things for you and your business? Sure, success feels good, and might bring short-term benefits, but successes that are easy can leave a lot of room for failure, because they can make you feel that nothing could ever go wrong.

Not only that, but if you’ve picked a path and set yourself on cruise control without taking time to look around and assess that path, then these successes could put blinders on you in another way. Chasing successes that aren’t right for you or your business – and just automatically moving towards that vision of success – could mean that you’re not looking around and taking time to reassess and readjust. Experiencing a failure or two could be a sign that it’s time to look around and make sure you’re where you need and want to be, and a great time (and excuse) to move in a new direction that’s right for you.

Opening Up About Your Failures Can Be Powerful

To go back to the idea of failure being somehow embarrassing, we would urge you not to just sweep your failures under the rug and move on, simply because you’re worried about how others will see you and your failed endeavors. Remember this: everyone fails at some point (see above: Walt Disney, Milton Hershey, Bill Gates, etc, etc), and that means you’ve got a potentially unlimited pool of insight to tap into if you open up about what didn’t work for you. Have the courage to talk about your failures with the business leaders around you who have been there, done that, and you could end up with some seriously helpful new perspectives.

person sitting down and another person standing up pointing towards a screen with graphs on it — *Talking with other business leaders about your failures can teach them lessons.*

Not only that, but by opening up about your failures, you allow others to learn lessons from you! After all, there’s no failure that isn’t a valuable lesson to someone, somewhere.

Facing Your Fear of Failure Can Move You Forward

Have you ever shied away from doing something that you wanted to do because you knew you couldn’t immediately be highly successful at it? That fear of failure can limit what you think you’re capable of, and can lead you to quit before you even try. But you can’t expect to sit down at a piano for the first time and be Mozart; you’ve got to learn your scales and bang out some sour notes for a long time first.

So why hold yourself to an impossibly high standard of success when it comes to your business? If you continue to do so, you’ll never set yourself up for the small wins that lead to bigger, more satisfying wins, or for reaching the smaller goals that will get you one step closer to your larger goal.

Fear of failure can also inhibit your decision making, even causing you to avoid making the tough decisions altogether – which will only end in missed opportunities, not better outcomes. Let go of the fear, and flex your decision-making muscles so you can become more practiced at making confident decisions, then build on the good ones and learn from the not-so-good ones.

Hey, we get it: failing doesn’t feel good. But sometimes failure teaches you things that success just can’t, and if you react to it in the right way, and seize the opportunities it gives you, it can make you more resilient, creative, motivated, and focused. And remember: failure can be scary and disheartening, but it doesn’t have to be, and it is always better than regret.