It’s been a tough 2020— so much so that many of us are wondering when things will ever get back to normal. Is there even a normal now? In this series, we’ll take a look at what comes next. 

To kick things off, we’ll start with a happy topic. Vacation! It used to be that even if you weren’t going anywhere, chances are you’d have a friend or coworker that was. They’d come back with a nice tan and some great pictures to show off and be the envy of everyone— at least until the next person came back with tales of an even better vacation. Of course, things are a little different now. On the plus side, with the coronavirus having ravaged the travel industry, many hotels and airlines are offering some great deals to drum up interest. On the downside, some of the attractions you were hoping to see may have limited hours or be closed altogether. 

Full disclosure: We are not attorneys or experts in the law and this is not legal advice. Please consult your attorney and do your own due diligence if you have questions or issues.

The affairs of the rest of the world used to seem distant. What was happening in your hometown was far more important, and unless there was a war or an earthquake or maybe a plague of locusts in some far-flung corner of the globe, most people probably didn’t pay much attention. Those days are long gone. Markets are more connected than ever before, which is why in the last of our series on Understanding the Law, we’ll look at how the European Union’s adoption of their new GDPR standards may affect you. 

Have you ever searched for something online and then checked your Facebook page, only to be bombarded with ads for that same item you were searching? That practice is known as retargeting, and it’s an effective way to increase ROI on ad campaigns and boost your revenue!

Full disclosure: We are not attorneys or experts in the law and this is not legal advice. Please consult your attorney and do your own due diligence if you have questions or issues.

You’ve got a killer product and a great team to support that product. It doesn’t do you any good to keep it to yourself. Everyone will love what you have to offer. You just need to get the word out, and after doing some marketing research you’ve decided an aggressive email campaign seems tailor-made for what you want to accomplish.

After losing the final major battle of the Revolutionary War, surrendering British soldiers played a tune called ‘The World Turned Upside Down.’ Their world did seem to have taken a crazy turn. A group of ragtag rebels had defeated the world’s foremost military power. With all the changes we’ve experienced in the last few months, it’s not surprising that more than a few small business owners may be feeling like those beleaguered soldiers. That isn’t the case. While some things may very well be different, it doesn’t mean that marketing rules don’t still work. 

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By now you probably seen more masks than at any point since Halloween. You’ve seen practical masks, homemade masks and scarves and bandanas converted into masks. Some of them are brilliantly designed, a tribute to the creativity and resourcefulness of their wearers. Others look like they were cobbled together out of leftover pieces from Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory. Whatever their construction, they’re all intended for the same purpose: to keep someone from getting infected and to prevent their passing on that infection to others.

While male entrepreneurs may have some advantages other their female counterparts, it doesn’t mean that success is assured. To start a successful business, you have to come up with a great idea; that’s Entrepreneurship 101, right?  As you might guess, it’s often easier said than done. What do you do if you can’t come up with something original?  What if someone else already had the great idea you wish YOU had?  One way is to make that great idea better. 

Being an entrepreneur means you have to adapt. In Dan Hermann’s case it meant taking an existing idea out for a new spin. Hermann and his friend Sean McGrail helped turn paint night, or Paint Nite, into a national phenomenon. They weren’t the first to come up with organized painting and drinking parties. Far from it. But instead of using the franchise models that others used, they instead licensed artists. For a cut of the ticket price, artists would book the venues, create the pictures and oversee the events. By 2015 Paint Nite was operating in 115 cities around the world. 

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Full disclosure: We are not attorneys or experts in the law and this is not legal advice. Please consult your attorney and do your own due diligence if you have questions or issues.

It’s all about the data. Customers have to trust that the personal data they provide you by punching in their card number on your website or swiping their card at your register will be kept safely and securely. Without that assurance, sales in the digital age aren’t really possible. Sure, you want to make transactions easy, but you also want to make them secure. Customers have enough to worry about without fretting about their identities being stolen or their credit cards being hacked. It is your job to help minimize their risk.

Full disclosure: We are not attorneys or experts in the law and this is not legal advice. Please consult your attorney and do your own due diligence if you have questions or issues.

Texts have become an indispensable part of our daily life. Why call the love of your life at work when all you want them to do is pick up a gallon of milk on their way home? Texts are quick and easy, and often a perfect way to communicate short, simple message to each other during our busy lives. They’re less obnoxious than a traditional advertisement and far less obtrusive than a phone call. What could be better for a marketing campaign, right?

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There’s a printed mask available to the general public that says: “if you can read this, then you’re too close.” Even in these turbulent times, the quip is worth a smile. According to many health experts, social distancing (i.e. staying more than six feet from someone) is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. However, we know it’s not always possible. Sooner or later we’re going to have to squeeze by someone in a crowded shopping aisle, stand uncomfortably close to them in a subway or perhaps reluctantly share a cab on our way to a can’t-miss meeting. While these interactions may potentially put us at risk if we’re not careful, they are by nature transitory. The cab ride is brief, the trip on the subway is but a small fraction of our day and it only takes a few seconds to slip by someone in a store. But what do you do if your entire livelihood depends on close interaction with your customers? Telecommuting may work for an account manager, but it doesn’t help if you’re a hair stylist. Working closely with your customers doesn’t mean you have to throw caution to the wind, however.

The advent of the novel coronavirus caught many people by surprise. Faced with an epidemic, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in a century, smart businesses adapted their methods to take advantage of the technology available to them. What was already a growing trend towards working from home, quickly accelerated. Today’s technology easily allows for virtual meetings and collaboration from multiple people scattered across the country and the globe.

We all know the importance of hygiene in personal interactions. Since you want to put your best foot forward in any professional situation, hygiene is even more important when you’re running a business. You want to be neat, clean and presentable, and your surroundings such as your office should also reflect a professional image. It goes without saying that hygiene just makes good business sense. 

In this age of the coronavirus, there’s another, more fundamental, reason for good hygiene. You don’t want to get sick, and you don’t want your customers getting sick. Good hygiene may not completely prevent coronavirus, but it can go a long way to making sure both you and your customers are safe.