Starting your own business puts a lot of pressure on you for many reasons. Your first business choices will define your company’s success for a long time, and naturally, some of the first monumental choices you make concern who you hire and who you don’t. Have you started to sweat yet?

Boring meetings can zap productivity, waste time and drain employee energy— and they're all too common. If you regularly hold stakeholder meetings with the five most senior employees and they run one to two hours, these meetings are costing in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. And if everyone is bored, they're probably not generating the return on investment you really need from a long, costly meeting, suggests Forbes.

Would you agree with the above statement? It's true! Video marketing is on the rise and it is time to jump on the bandwagon. Video marketing can yield viral results -- when it is done right. Fortunately, social apps make it easy for marketers and business owners to take advantage of this powerful marketing tactic. More specifically, there are two major video social apps that are making a name for themselves: Vine and Instagram. Both apps are free to use, making video creation easy AND accessible for all professionals.

In the day-to-day clamor to provide quality services to clients, many professional services firms aren’t the most sophisticated marketers. They spend a little money, make a few sales calls, maybe sponsor a golf tournament. And somehow, a few prospects find them. But wouldn’t it be nice to know exactly how, and why, that selection happens? To discover how consumers find professional services, my marketing firm Hinge conducted a study of 822 buyers. And we uncovered some interesting findings.

Many small businesses skip the background check process when hiring new employees.

But not taking this important step can cause you major headaches -- and even leave you open to liability.

Here are a few reasons you should consider implementing background checks on all new hires, and how to go about it:

What is your company's online reputation? This is one of the most critical questions that any small business owner could ever answer, and yet it's one that leaves many of the most zealous entrepreneurs dumbfounded.

Perhaps a few words of explanation are in order. A company's online reputation is essentially its online footprint -- the sum of information that is found by consumers when they seek out the company via Google, Bing, online review sites, and social media platforms. If you Google the name of your company right now and find only positive online assets -- your company website and Facebook page, for example, as well as positive, five-star reviews -- then you have a good, healthy online image. If, however, your search reveals complaints or bad reviews, then you have a negative, and potentially ruinous, online reputation.

Are you just out of bankruptcy and looking to start up a new business?

Just because you've had past troubles doesn't mean you are unable to start a business if you know what lies ahead.

Here are some things to know when you go to setup a company after you've declared bankruptcy.

Making the decision to sell your small business may be an emotional and frustrating time.

The process can also be complicated, and according to nonprofit association for entrepreneurs SCORE, it can take between six months to two years to sell a business. All of this can add up to some serious stress.

Six months from today, ObamaCare goes into effect. For many businesses, this will mean an increase in insurance costs. From health care agency Newtek, here are 4 ways businesses can limit these increases.

Reason #1:  Carriers are no longer able to charge sicker patients more money for health insurance, and charge younger and healthier employees less money for their premiums, due to the removal of pre-existing condition exclusions.

Being the boss is hard enough – you’ve got to manage people, accounts, business relationships, and money. But perhaps the worst thing about leading a team is the expectation of building bonds with your employees. How much socializing with your employees is too much?