Business Discussions

Good Friday afternoon everyone! Thanks for joining me here on the Business Discussions board, where we cover a variety of interesting topics and advice. Today I wanted to share some key points I read in an article that was presented by Forbes. This specific article covered pointers on how to recalibrate your marketing plan. This information may be more helpful now for adjusting to recent changes, but can also be noted for future use, whenever you need it. Here are some tips for revamping current marketing strategies:AuditAn audit in this context refers to going over your existing goals and planned activities. I thought the mention of 30, 60, 90 day plans and beyond was great advice. Make detailed notes of where you'd like to see your business 30, 60, and 90 days into the future.ArticulateOnce you've nailed down your goals, you need to communicate with your followers, clients, and/or customers what types of changes they can expect to see. Let them know how your content or productio

Learn how to use social media marketing to continue growing your business. Join us for a YouTube Live Q&A on Thursday, April 16, 10:00am PT.   Do you run or work at a small business affected by COVID-19? Are you new to social media marketing? If you rely on face-to-face interactions with clients or customers, or just want to learn more about social media marketing, you may be wondering how to use the proper channels to grow and run your business virtually. This Q&A  from QuickBooks will help you reach your customers and grow your business — from the safety of your home.   Social media marketing expert, author, podcaster, and small business owner Ariel Hyatt will answer your questions and share tips on using social media to market your small business.   Comment below & tell us what you want to know.   You can watch it live, right here:      And if you are looking for more like this, make sure to check out our Ask the E

  Have you ever wondered if your employees are truly grasping what you're saying in a meeting? Let's be honest; we have all tuned out at some point despite our best intentions. Although we are going through times of uncertainty and using video conferencing more, your meetings can still be efficacious and high-energy. Here are a few thoughts I had about having productive sessions.   Encourage Open DiscussionEven though practicing or organizing the agenda for the meeting, this can cause you to be dominant and not leave room for input from the audience. Keep in mind that this forum is not only for you; it is for others. Getting all employees involved is essential because it can open up some issues or ideas that you can use to enhance your business more.   Having a Positive AttitudeAlthough you may not like the responsibility of hosting a meeting, you can portray that negative attitude. How would it look if you are trying to get your message across, such as achieving result

Happy Friday, Quickbooks Community! I hope everyone is doing well and being safe. Today, I'll like to discuss how Instagram can be used to promote your business. I discovered this article by UsChambers, and it gave me a different perspective on how we can take advantage of this app. They mention some ways how to communicate with your audiences, and I would like to share that with you.   Pause your Promotion.It would be best at this time to reevaluate what you would regularly post on your Instagram page. Instead of focusing on selling your products or services, showing some empathy about the situation shows the customer that you understand what they are experiencing.   Acknowledge the crisis.We all know about these times of uncertainty, so acting fake like everything is fine would weaken the connection with your audience. Acknowledging what is going on in your post shows strength because of your honesty, followers will see that your human and that you care.   Be fle

Hello Quickbook Community! How are you doing? Today, while trying to find a topic to discuss, I couldn't stray away from the idea of Inspiration. Inspiration, in a sense is what inspired or motivated you to start your small business. Personally, I had the opportunity to assist my father in running his commercial fishing business. Throughout this experience, it taught me a lot about what drives a person once they are passionate about what they want to achieve. I recently interviewed my father asking him what inspired him, and this is what he had to say:   1. FamilyHe expressed to me that this was his number one priority. He wanted to provide extra security for his family, and the way he saw to do that was by running his own business. Although there were some curveballs starting up, he continues what he loves and proves to be successful in the end.   2. The Opportunity Presented ItselfAlthough he did a lot of research, like learning more about the industry, the advantages

Hi my name is Chris and I just wanted to say thank you to Charlie, Hannibal, and Joey for their help today. The customer service I received today was top notch, A+ service. They were very friendly, informative, understanding, and they helped me through a situation that almost cost me a lot of money.I'm posting this so that hopefully I can help prevent others from falling for this scam or any other scam for that matter. I was almost got scammed from a potential customer who tried to get me with an "over payment scam".  Needless to say they're not going to be a customer of mine and I hope someone can put a stop to them so that they don't scam or try to scam anyone else.  Essentially they wanted to increase the invoice amount and have me transfer the difference to their "housekeeper". Soif someone asks you to transfer money to their "housekeeper" or anyone else for that matter, don't do it.Looking back it seemed to good to be true but when you're a small business owner you

In these changing environments, there are a lot of readjustments being made for businesses to save money. Nonetheless, there are ways to market your business on a tight budget. After discovering this article, I found it beneficial for small business owners to market their business in the best way possible strategically.     Although ChatAttack suggests a lot of ways, there are a few that stood out the most to me.   1. Make Sure Your Website Delivers Great ExperienceThere are always ways for improvement, especially when trying to make your website more appealing. Do the information you portray and the user-friendly ability improve the chances of new leads? This is a question that you should consider.   2. Build a Strong Social Media PresenceWe can all say that technology has advanced over the past decade. This has opened the market for advertising your business freely. By creating profiles on platforms such as Facebook Linkin and so on, your business can

"Great leaders don't tell you what to do. They show you how it's done." -AnonymousGood Wednesday afternoon to you all. Unfortunately I don't have any April Fool's Day jokes but I hope you'll take a moment to share your input with me anyway! I wanted to ask, what does the word "leader" mean to you?The definition of leadership is "a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal." Likewise, the meaning of leader is "the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country." However, I think the definition can vary from person to person.I suppose I'll go first to answer the question. To me, a leader is someone who manages by their example. If the person in charge is in fact "practicing what they preach," I feel it encourages their followers (or employees) to do their very best. In other words, employees may strive to live up to the standard set by their leader. Leading by example includes actions that are encouraging to

Greetings Community members. I hope this week has treated you all well. I just wanted to drop by the Business Discussions space and share some info I recently learned. I have a feeling many of you have found yourself transitioning to the work at home life. With that, I thought it might be a good opportunity to share a few different methods of ways you can still meet up with your colleagues to get your work done as a team. Here are a few options offered in an article by Android Authority:     1. Microsoft TeamsMicrosoft recently replaced the popular Skype platform with Microsoft Teams. This resource combines video chatting and messaging into one. Teams offers the ability to schedule meetings and host up to 250 people, woah! Additionally, you can share your screen to give others a better look and record meetings so ones who aren't able to attend can catch up later. 2. Hangouts MeetsThis option is brought to you by Google. In Hangouts you can also host up to 250 employees, but

Hey Community friends! I hope you all are well. I wanted to step out of the box a little bit today and share a positive post that I hope will motivate you to do the same. Let's talk about what we love most about our jobs! After all, if you "do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." My official title is Digital Engagement Specialist and here are some reasons I enjoy doing what I do:Helping othersThis is probably the most satisfying part and definitely grants a sense of purpose. When I'm not working in the Business Discussion area of the Community, I spend time in the Q&A space to answer technical questions. I love receiving positive feedback from a customer I've spoken to. Assisting in this space is really important as many businesses rely heavily on QuickBooks to manage their businesses. Just a simple, "Thanks Morgan! That really helped." lets me know I've done my job.       Working with people from all over the countryAnother favorite aspect of mine

We need your Help And we need to help each other I times like this. https://www.gofundme.com/f/small-business-can-use-your-help?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&rcid=2b1c32e69aae4685a4affe00d9dd0358

Hi!  I'm new to posting to the QB Community, so not sure if I'm in the right place...I need some resources and I think some of you may be able to help.  I have a client who has a large amount of credit card debt and needs to engage some kind of debt counseling to help her consolidate or recommend a plan of action.  Do any of you know good debt counseling programs/companies?  Non-Profit programs are preferrable, but as long as it's reputable I'll appreciate any suggestion.  Thanks! 

                                                              1. Send Invoice            2. Receive Payment into       3. Bank Deposit "Undeposited funds”   After you’ve sent an Invoice and received the payment into your Undeposited Funds account, you need to deposit these payments into an account in QuickBooks (typically into your savings or checking account), just like you would when you visit the bank at the end of the workday. Remember, transactions in QuickBooks should reflect real life - if money is in the actual bank, this should be reflected in QuickBooks.   The Bank Deposit feature serves two functions. If payments are received into the Undeposited Funds account, you can group payments and deposit them as a single record into

I am very concerned of Intuit lack of forward measures to protect wholesale billing bookkeepers and accountants during a state declared quarantine. A run of Quickbooks Online clients are asking for a temporary suspension of billing since state have imposed strict normal business operational restrictions. This is a special case with small businesses not related to essential services. Intuit does not provide a temporary suspension function under the firm dashboard.  Currently, the only way to stop billing is to do a Transfer Whole Billing to Client operation. This action of course carries very adverse consequences to the firm because the client eventually will return to normal business operation under Intuit platform without a reinstatement to the firm billing line. If no concrete measures are taken to protect the firm interest, Intuit is grossly and unfairly will be taking  an unfair advantage from this national emergency.  In a short term, this opportunist

Discover a whole new way of doing business with our new QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise with Hosting. It offers protected anytime, anywhere, and on any device access to your data. Your team all works with the same information, at the same time - no matter where they are and no matter if they're using a Mac, PC, or tablet. Now, everyone can get more done.     Intuit Hosting Powered by Right Networks Who is Right Networks? QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Subscription With Hosting Pricing What does Intuit Hosting do?     New to hosting FAQs Can I have third party apps? To view a full list of third party apps, visit the Right Networks Application Directory   How long does onboarding take?   How many users can I have? Your Right Networks users need to match your QuickBooks user count.  Example; If you have a 5 User Enterprise Solution subscription, you can have up to 5 hosting users.   How do I add users to Right Networks?

It's finally Friday! I know we're all ready for the weekend but maybe you've just recently had a major "light bulb" moment for a brilliant business idea and it's time to get the ball rolling.     Today, I want to take a moment to share a few ways to brainstorm and protect your new idea. Here are a few tips that were recently published by Forbes:       1. Identify a niche. You may have already done this step, but identifying what the market needs is key. Spending time and effort on something you think consumers will love, only to find out otherwise can be pretty discouraging. You can avoid this by studying your best-selling products and checking your sales results compared to industry standards. From here you may be able to come up with an offshoot that no one else is selling.   2.  Do market research on your new business idea.Expand your initial market research by focusing on your new idea. Take a closer look at your customer base to see where y

Hello, everyone! I wanted to stop by today and talk a little about marketing. Specifically, differences between marketing for an online based store and a physical brick and mortar location. Since I'm not a business owner myself, I wanted to get an inside look from someone I know who has done both. I spoke with a family member [Kara S., Owner of Heart + Soul Boutique] who previously ran her business online and recently transitioned to an actual storefront. Here's what she had to say:   Brick and MortarA physical location for your business makes marketing easier, as it draws people in on its own. This can be as simple as people being out and about on any given day and just seeing your store and stopping by to check things out. Social media holds a major role when it comes to marketing and updating your customers as inventory circulates. This is a great way for your customers to stay engaged and interested. Without a website where they can purchase your product, they may be more apt

Hello All, I just discovered the Community, despite having been using Quickbooks for six months now. I am Brazilian, with a degree in Law in Brazil and a Certificate of Paralegal Studies in the USA, where I live since 2017. I work with legal translation in the areas of Intellectual Property and Immigration. I'm also a Notary Public in Florida. Anyone who wants to learn more about me, feel free to visit my website at www.scglawandlanguage.com. Have a great day, everyone! 

Good afternoon, Community! Today I want to talk about blogging. I know about blogging but at the same time, I didn’t really know what blogging was. Does that make sense? No? Ok, how ‘bout a definition. According to Wikipedia, a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries.   That leads me to ask – do you currently use a blog for your small business? I found that this practice is a great way to casually inform and interact with your clients and customers. Aside from positive engagement, there’s so much room for creativity in a space of your own. Some great ideas I came across for blog topics include:   Sharing the history of your business in a storytelling format. Sharing a customer success story. Discussing future plans. Creating a list of influential people to follow on Twitter. Answering FAQs. These kinds of discussions allow avenues to open up for personal interaction with y

Hey everybody, and happy Friday! We’re already in the third month of 2020 and daylight savings time is upon us. I’m sure you’ve got big plans for this year, and an extra hour during the day means there’s more time to work on those plans. I’m here today to share a few helpful tips I found that will help you stay on top of the game. Here we go:   Break down big projects into small tasks with staggered deadlines. Extended projects go hand-in-hand with a variety of deadlines and checkpoints. So you don’t get overwhelmed, it’s always a good practice to break each project down into manageable tasks. Additionally, making sure major deadlines don’t overlap is something to always keep in mind.   Prioritize tasks that depend on other people. As a business owner, you’re in charge of overseeing each project to completion. But, you also have a variety of other duties and you’re only one person. Don’t be afraid to divvy up responsibilities, and help yourself by allowing others to help you.

We are a small business in Charlotte NC.  We are wanting to hire a office assistant.  We have received a lot of resumes for the position but one thing that scares us is the job hopping.  No one stays at a job for more that 2-3 years.  Its a big investment to hire people that won't stay at a job longer even if the pay rate is good.What are your thoughts?

  There are a multitude of strategies out there that businesses use to try to boost sales. As a small business owner, I’m sure you’ve tried several. Does it ever feel like these may be quick fixes and aren’t really helping in the long run? Forbes recently published an article that offered four universal truths of successful business sales. Here’s what they had to say: Stop selling to your customers. Instead, start helping your customers.I’ll go ahead and say it, there are times when I really don’t want to hear a sales pitch. I just need some help. Promoting your product or service in a way that truly helps your customers rather than just selling, will ultimately bring about a more positive engagement. Given the amount of information available with today’s technology, when a potential customer reaches you, they’ve already made part of the buying decision. Now it’s your turn to let them know how you can help. Take advantage of technology to maximize your efforts.Paper and pencil r

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a lovely Wednesday so far. I thought I’d stop by and switch things up with today’s post. The other day I read about the importance of having a daily routine. Some of the points mentioned were that a routine:   Makes us more efficient Reduces our need to plan Creates structure in our lives Saves time Instills good habits   I don’t know about you, but I could certainly use an increase in each of those areas. My daily routine includes waking up, showering, getting dressed, and then, I can’t stress the importance of this enough – coffee. I usually work at home so after the coffee gets started, I get my computer up and running. I log into the Community and start browsing posts to see where I can help out. Around 11:00am, I take a quick break. During this time I usually make some brunch. Lunch time is around 1:00. I try to get outside and take a quick walk to get some air and refresh my brain to finish up the work day. After a few more ho

To build and maintain a successful business relationship, it's important that both parties are happy.  Share your experiences in the comments below.