Giving back to the community by participating in charity events and areas of community service can help business growth and marketability. Charities expose businesses to potential customers, partners and investors, raising their worth in the eyes of the public. They also qualify for tax benefits. All in all, performing a good deed can be a smart business move.

During my consulting career, I have met with thousands of entrepreneurs. As a professor in the USC entrepreneurial department, I teach students how to determine if their concept is feasible. As a business advisor at the Small Business Develop Center, I work with entrepreneurs who are in the start-up phase. In my consulting practice, I help established businesses manage growth or prepare financial documents for banks and potential investors.

Does your business have its own app or do you rely on your website and internet searches?

While having a website was the single most important thing a business could do to increase its online presence a few years ago, now having an app is just as important.

Here is a look at an article showing 4 ways to make money with apps for your business.

Here’s a basic question all entrepreneurs must answer: Why should customers choose your product over your competitor’s? Your concrete answer to this question is crucial, especially in today’s fast-paced business world. If you can’t immediately, convincingly explain your unique selling proposition, then most likely:

A 2012 tracking poll by Office Depot found that 61 percent of small businesses were adopting green business practices, with 70 percent of the remainder saying they would do so by 2014. Some companies go green because it helps their bottom lines, while others want the peripheral benefits of more eco-friendly policies.

Good for the Environment, Good for Morale

Researchers at the University of Louisville and Florida International University found that psychological workplace climate had a significant impact on employees' personal accomplishments and engagement. In other words happy, healthy employees are more productive. This leads to higher profits and retention of good people.

In business, making money is simply not enough; businesses of all sizes must be profitable. In the dentistry industry, these profits must provide a steady income and excess income for reinvestment, future family needs and retirement. Therefore, it is critical to determine that strategies required to create sufficient profits that meet those needs and provide the best return on investment.

There are eight effective tips that dentists can use to generate more business including:

The visual appeal of your business is, simply put, how it looks. This doesn’t take into account the quality of your products or services, or the levels of customer service you display, or anything beyond the visual aesthetic. Let’s go over some tips that can help you to improve the visual appeal of your business, because it’s a really important element that many small businesses don’t really take into consideration. We’ll go over some tips to improve the online visual appeal, and then the offline visual appeal. Online visual appeal deals with your digital presence such as a website and social media. Offline, obviously, deals with the visual appeal in the “real world” (although online and offline work very closely hand-in-hand.)

The main purpose of a floor mat is to prevent people from tracking dirt into your business facility, which can help reduce cleaning time substantially.

However, a floor mat can also be an effective marketing tool if it is customized with your company name and logo.

Here is a look at how small businesses can use custom floor mats as part of their marketing strategies….

Anyone who plans on opening a new business no matter how big or how small it might be will want to proceed carefully. Your dream might be to have your own business, but that dream can quickly dissolve into a nightmare if you don't consider these six things. 

1. Watch How You Spend Your Time

While you're taking care of marketing, hiring employees and everything else you need to do to keep your business open, it's a good idea to take out at least 20 minutes every day to read about what's going on in your field or industry. By the end of the year you'll more than likely know more than 75 percent of other individuals in your field. 

Who says women can't negotiate? Believe it or not, they can be just as good as men during a business negotiation. Women are not persistent and aggressive when bargaining for something; they don't like to intimidate and overawe opponents, because their approach towards success is different. A calm, patient attitude can be a lot more powerful than a bullying approach whose sole purpose is to make an opponent snap. Here are 4 amazing secrets of negotiations for strong, independent business women.