Forums Search

ArticleSales Prospecting 101

Sales Prospecting 101

##What is sales prospecting? First things first: what exactly is sales prospecting?

Simply put, sales prospecting is the process of going out and finding customers for your business. You might be saying to yourself, “Now wait a minute – isn’t that what marketing is for?” Well, yes and no.

Most marketing methods, like email blasts or social media advertising, are like fishing: you put your bait out on the line, and you wait for interested folks to come to you.

Sales prospecting, on the other hand? “Prospectors are hunters,” says Ryan O’Donnell. “They don’t wait for the magic to happen; they charge right into it to get a quick yes or no.”

Sales prospecting is particularly important during the early days. You’re the new kid on the block. No on...



ArticleSBA Small Business Startup Loans: A Comprehensive Guide

SBA Small Business Startup Loans: A Comprehensive Guide

There’s one major question that nearly everyone faces when starting a small business or startup: Where are we going to get the money? One option is a small business loan.

In general, a small business loan is any loan that exists to help a small business or startup with little to no business history. While there are a range of financing options for small businesses and startups, let’s take a look specifically at SBA small business loans.


What is a
SBA small business Startup loan?

A SBA small business loan is a loan that is backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Founded in 1953, the SBA is a federal government program that provides support to small business owners in the form of mentorship, workshops, counseling, and small busine...



ArticleHow to File For A Tax Extension

How to File For A Tax Extension

Filing for a federal tax extension is relatively straightforward, and it can benefit you as a taxpayer.

While an extension won’t get you out of paying your taxes by the regular tax deadline, it will give you more time to ensure you’ve taken advantage of the right tax deductions before you file your tax return (the paperwork) with the IRS.

Here are the steps you need to take to file for an extension of time to file your federal tax return.

1. Tax Extension Deadlines and Forms

Tax extension applications must be submitted on or before the regular due date of your business’s tax return.

To file for the extension, download the form that corresponds to your business type.

If your business is a partnership, multi-member LLC, or S corporation, You...



ArticleProcess vs. Progress: How to Have Each in Healthy Amounts

Process vs. Progress: How to Have Each in Healthy Amounts

Even dietitians know it’s healthy to have a beer or a donut once in a while. Without wiggle room, a strict diet can harm health in other ways, like creating stress or limiting social interaction.

Until a client prescribed otherwise, our company struggled to take a break from something that was supposed to keep us strong: our process. This client loved our work, but he felt that we’d become too married to our own way of doing things.

A look back at our client data showed that we had, indeed, taken our healthy habits too far. We did our best work when we eliminated VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), empathized with our clients as well as their users, and pushed toward consistent shipping.

So we broke our mol...



Article7 Best Apps For Business Growth

7 Best Apps For Business Growth

Starting your own business is not a simple task. As a busy entrepreneur, it’s essential to be able to focus on your business anywhere. Today, mobile technology greatly helps you connect with clients, increase productivity, and sell on the go.

Here are seven of the best apps for business growth!


App #1. Slack

Slack is a neat app to increase work productivity that allows you to communicate quickly with your colleagues.

You can share links, pictures, and files either one-on-one or with multiple people at the same time through different channels.

The app is available as a web app as well as in the iOS and Google Play App store.

App #2: LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great social media site for professional networking. It’s a convenient way to keep i...



ArticleThe Startups.co Guide : Get The Most From Your Calendar (Part 5/6)

The Startups.co Guide : Get The Most From Your Calendar (Part 5/6)

CHAPTER FIVE: Prep Beautifully

In This Chapter:

-How and why you should auto-confirm every meeting
-Adding smart metadata to each calendar invite
-Our example of a contact dossier


There are only two things cooler than walking into a meeting being perfectly prepared.

  1. Moonwalking into a meeting to the song Billie Jean—perfectly prepared
  2. The first edition of “Godzilla – King of Monsters”, in mint condition

Short of those two things—seriously—nothing is cooler.

So now that you’re ready to be cool, let’s show you how to prep beautifully for meetings.

Auto Confirm Every Meeting

They say the worst meeting is the one where you’re the only attendee. We’ve all had this happen, it’s not just you. The first step of prepping for meetings is to ...



ArticleThe Dos and Don’ts of Great Customer Service

The Dos and Don’ts of Great Customer Service

When you’re starting a new company, customer service is everything. Startups make or break based on their earliest customers and if you can’t get those early adopters to stick around as you’re muddling through the inevitable mistakes that happen in an early-stage startup, you’re going to end up in the huge pile of startups that fail. Additionally, traction is one of the most important factors that VCs examine when they’re deciding whether or not to give a company money. Bad customer support equals lost customers, which means crappy traction.

But good customer support? That can make all the difference.

“At HappyFox, we once won a deal with a Fortune 50 company based purely on the quick response time they received,” HappyFox founder Shalin Ja...





ArticleComprehensive On-Page SEO Audit Checklist

Comprehensive On-Page SEO Audit Checklist

Getting ready to audit your site’s SEO? Congratulations! You’re about to embark towards improving your overall SEO footprint while also finding every single potential wart that your website may have.

The bad news is every site will have things wrong with it – yours included. The good news is that each new issue that you find represents an opportunity to improve. As an SEO, the point of auditing your site is to find areas to squeeze more juice out of.

In my previous article entitled, SEO for Beginners, I outlined how there are both things occurring on page, as well as off page, that can impact your site’s SEO performance. Foundational to a good SEO strategy to the point of almost being a prerequisite is technical and content optimizati...



Copyright © 2025 Startups.com LLC. All rights reserved.