May 15

Employee versus Contractor

Employee versus Contractor, do you know the difference?

 

As a small business owner, you may be more inclined to pay people as Vendors or independent contractors, avoid any payroll and simply send them a 1099 them at the end of the year. And while this makes everything easier for you, the business owner, the IRS might not agree that this is the correct way to pay some people.

The IRS takes all the information about your business into account when determining if your workers are independent contractors or employees. However, the three key factors are:

  • Behavioral Control: Does your company control where and how the worker performs the job?
  • Financial Control: Does your company control how the worker is paid and what materials he uses?
  • Relationship: Does the worker have benefits? Will he work beyond the completion of a specific task?

Employee classification is a confusing issue for many organizations.

 

May 14

Social Media: Twitter Promoted Accounts

How to promote your small business on Twitter…

You’re a small business: Whether you have a storefront, a web site, or you’re totally mobile, you

understand the value of connecting with your customers online.

That’s why you’re on Twitter….

You’re starting to find your voice, you’re tweeting about your business, and you’re building deeper

connections with your followers.

But what about all the people that haven’t heard about you yet and would probably love your business?

Introducing Promoted Products

There are two types of promoted products on Twitter for small businesses: Promoted Accounts and

Promoted Tweets

With Promoted Accounts, Twitter looks at your current followers and then searches for people with

similar interests.

When it finds a match, Twitter recommends you in the “who to follow” section.

You’ll gain new followers who can spread the word about your business.

With Promoted Tweets—Twitter constantly monitors your engagement and automatically promotes your

best Tweets.

That’s why Promoted Tweets and Accounts aren’t like traditional ads. You don’t write anything new.

Twitter simply puts your best Tweets in front of more of the right people at the right time.

You only pay when someone follows your account or engages with your Promoted Tweet.

You never pay for simply showing up on someone’s page.

You determine the limit of how much you want to spend per day and how much you want to spend per

new follower or engagement so there are never any surprises.

You can also decide where geographically you want your content to be promoted, which is a great way

to discover local connections.

You’ll be promoted both on the web and on mobile, so you can even reach potential customers on the

go.

Whether your business is dog walking, creme brulees, karate classes, or a fashion blog, Twitter can help

you reach the right people at the right time.

Promoted Products on Twitter… It’s a piece of cake

 

Twitter Promoted Accounts Video- source American Express

Website basics

How do you create a good looking website that engages your audience if you are not a graphic designer or software engineer?

Using a web design software of your choice, keep the following tips in mind:

 

Categorize your pages in a logical order for ease of navigation:

  • Add pages to tabs for your main topics.
  • Create a table of contents or site map if lots of pages.
  • Create one page with all of your resources even if you have the resources on different pages.
  • Use short, clear and precise words for your tabs and page links.

Be careful with the fonts you choose, keep it simple:

  • Choose one font style, one color and one font size for the body of your text.
  • Limit how many colors and font sizes you use for your headings.
  • Limit bold type and capitalization to headers only.

Rich media, photos and videos:

  • Aim to use a maximum of 2 photos per page, depending on what your site is about.
  • Resize your images so they are under 500K. Even smaller is better.
  • Save your images as .jpg.
  • Upload only one video to a page.
  • Keep videos under 50MB an even smaller for better uploading for viewers.
  • Create smaller chapters of one video with text descriptions.
  • Use the embed box to run large videos from an outside streaming server.

Keep Pages Short

  • Trim long pages and/or make another page with a link to more…
  • Be concise with headers and information with bullet points.
  • Use visuals instead of lots of text — a picture is worth a thousand words.