Sept. 11, 2017: This Week's Best Business-Building Articles

Sept. 11, 2017—To better assist shop owners with their production management, marketing tactics and leadership styles, Ratchet+Wrench has compiled a short list of essential business-building material from some of its favorite sources.

Exercise Your Ethical Muscles: Here Are 4 Keys to Being a Better Boss - Fortune

It’s getting harder for leaders to lead their teams through huge moments of change. That’s because they’re trying to do so in a world that is not just rapidly changing, but in one that has been dramatically reshaped. And the world has been reshaped faster than we’ve been able to reshape ourselves, our institutions, and our models of leadership.

Conquering the Close - EntreLeadership Podcast

Even if you’re offering up the most groundbreaking, one-in-a-million product, actually sealing the deal—the close—can be tricky. But best-selling author, sales leader and entrepreneur Anthony Iannarino insists it doesn’t have to be. In fact, in this episode, he explains that closing the deal can be the easiest part of the whole sales process. The key is approaching each transaction as a collaboration with and for your potential customer instead of as a self-serving proposition. This small shift in perspective may just mean big success for you. 

The modern marketer must be extremely agile. But while change spawns creativity, the goals of marketing remain constant. An employer hires a marketer to communicate the right message at various stages of the funnel, raise brand awareness and loyalty, drive traffic and customer engagement, and implement methods that lead to conversions and sales. Here are key trends in marketing to prepare for in the coming year.

Predicting Leadership Performance - Moneyweb

Research has come out saying that nearly half of leaders who are moving into new roles fail to meet their business objectives in the first 18 months of their tenure. This can have a ripple effect in terms of the leader’s underperformance—it can create risk and costs for an entire business. This does impact a lot of the objectives that a business may have in place. The key is learning how to predict leadership performance.

SEO: 10 Things Every Small Business Should Do - Business 2 Community

Organic results are getting pushed further down the page, leaving less space for the little guys. These are the challenges small business marketers face, but each of these challenges is also an opportunity to get ahead of your competitors. Here are ten things every small business should be doing with their SEO strategy.