Right now we’re experiencing a bit of a contraction in the tech ecosystem, as many companies announce layoffs and venture capitalists slow down their investing. In my opinion this is just a natural, appropriate reaction to a lack of strong business fundamentals among some companies and not a precursor to a major collapse of some sort....

In every office, break rooms serve as a gathering place for employees to get away from their work for a few minutes. Whether they’re getting coffee or eating lunch, workers eventually begin to see the break room as a retreat, especially if the room has been specifically designed to be warm and inviting. For employers,...

Customer service is one of those things that you just can’t ignore if you’re aiming for success and longevity for your startup. Customer service in general is important to your company, because it is often the only contact a customer has with your business. Since that first contact is so critical, you want to make...

At some point in every career, a professional will see someone escorted from the building with a box full of belongings. It may be a coworker or a stranger from another department, but whoever it is, it can be difficult to watch. It serves as a reminder that anyone can be fired unexpectedly. What happens...

If repeat business is your goal, good customer service is essential. According to a recent survey, one bad customer service call will send most customers away permanently. Since repeat customers bring in more money than new customers on average, it’s important that businesses find ways to nurture their existing buyers and this includes the customer...

I don’t think that I’ve met anyone who actually enjoys a performance review. I know that I never have been a big fan. Unfortunately, performance reviews are necessary to determine if your career is headed up or down. You get to see how productive you’ve been, where you’ve best contributed to the business, and where...

Startups are forgoing exorbitant engineering salaries for the more reasonably priced but equal-quality work of an outsourced IT staff. Silicon Valley is largely considered the global leader in technology, with firms in the area competing for the highly-skilled developers and engineers located there. According to a new report though, U.S.-born engineers are leaving quicker than...

So, here we are in the middle of what I call “CES season.” The massive Consumer Electronics Show is the first big Las Vegas convention of the year, and the place where all the big brands unveil their new products or services (or their tweaks to the same old products/services). Much of this whole pre-CES period is essentially a debate about whether...

Seasoned entrepreneurs and bloggers might find this advice to be the most obvious thing in the world, but to those who are new at the big, bad world of entrepreneurship, blogging, specifically what the blog should be about, can be intimidating and full of unknowns. Too many times, readers will come across business blogs that ramble,...

Candy bars, cereal, social networking platforms, and shoes. What do these products have in common? They carry brand names people crave. Snickers, Frosted Flakes, Facebook, and Nike are extremely popular brands, but they, like any other brand, can be discarded if suitable substitutes exist. Companies should consider that thought when managing consumer expectations and working to maintain brand loyalty....