Inspirational quotes can provide sage advice, be powerful motivators, and have the ability to help us persevere through difficult times. Whether you’re in the beginning stages or creating a startup, working through a difficult project or assignment, or simply need some inspiration, these quotes can help encourage you to keep working and moving forward towards your goal.

1.  “Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.” — Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine

2. “Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.” — Jeffrey Zeldman, A List Apart Publisher

3. “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” — Sam Walton, founder of Wal Mart

4. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” —Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway CEO

5. “Everyone is your best friend when you are successful. Make sure that the people that you surround yourself with are also the people that you are not afraid of failing with.” — Paula Abdul, entertainer

6. “If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” — B. C. Forbes, Forbes founder

7. “An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” — Jack Welch, CEO of GE

8. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company founder

9. “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” — Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

10. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”  — John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States

11. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple

12. “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”  — Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder

13. “Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” — Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder

14. “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” —Donald Trump, President of The Trump Organization

15. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney, co-founder of Walt Disney Productions

Most of us live fast-paced and busy lives both inside and outside the workplace. Because of this, it is not unusual for some to undergo periods of stress, anxiety, or depression. During these times, it is important to create a supportive environment in the workplace in order to help our coworkers recover faster.

Whether it’s stress from work or a personal issue, these issues can impact productivity and job performance. However, many are unsure about how they can provide support in the workplace. The following tips can help you create a supportive workplace environment.

Start a conversation
Often, the hardest part of supporting someone is talking to them. Most people worry about saying the wrong thing or offending their coworker, opting instead to stay silent. The following are positive ways you can support a colleague during a stressful time.

-          Let them know you’ve noticed a change in their behavior or performance
-          Suggest they see a doctor or other health care professional
-          Offer to help find information or make an appointment
-          Refer them to programs or resources provided by your company
-          Follow up with them about their experience or progress

Make accommodations
Dealing with a stressful experience often negatively impacts workplace performance. Because of this, it may be necessary to make temporary accommodations to help keep someone in the workplace. The following are ways to make accommodations in the workplace.

-          Temporarily reassign projects or bring in another employee for help
-          Reduce the number of obligations they have
-          Extend deadlines or timelines for assignments
-          If possible, grant additional leave for appointments or other obligations

Look after yourself
When helping an employee or coworker through a difficult time, it is natural to take on a portion of their stress. Because of this, it is important to make sure you are taking care of yourself.

-          Find a way to de-stress or debrief after difficult or painful conversations
-          Talk to a trusted friend or family member for support
-          Communicate with the rest of your team about absences or accommodations
-          Ask for help from managers, human resources, or other company leaders or departments

Providing support in the workplace can be as easy as asking someone “Are you okay?”  By talking, making accommodations, and taking care of yourself you can help support employees or coworkers through difficult or stressful periods in their lives.

While traditional marketing works well for established companies, many marketing strategies are not designed for new businesses. Instead, startups need innovative marketing ideas to help get their name recognized and their sales going. 

The right marketing can get your business started and set it up for long-term success. These unique marketing ideas for startups are ways to kick start your company and get your business going.

1.       Encourage customer involvement
A loyal customer base can help spread your brand to those who may not normally see your product. Encourage consumers to share your product on various social media sites using hashtags or handles. Likewise, creating a contest in which users submit photos or posts on social media is an excellent way to generate posts, tweets, likes, and shares for your business.

2.       Build name recognition
One of the biggest challenges faced by startups is brand recognition. Get your name out there by giving out bumper sticks or t-shirts to employees or as freebies at events. Likewise, murals, paintings, and chalk on the street can all be used to create name recognition.

3.       Engage on social media
Social media is one of the least expensive – and most effective – forms of marketing. It also gives brands a unique opportunity to engage their customers one-on-one. Interacting with consumers like this can help build a loyal base one customer at a time.

4.       Identify your target customers
As a startup, you may not have the resources to advertise to the entire market at once. Instead, identify two to three groups of target customers and focus marketing efforts in these areas. Facebook, for example, started for students at specific universities before expanding; now, everyone from middle school students to their grandparents uses the social media service.   

5.       Outsmart – not outspend
While you may not be able to outspend your competition, being a startup gives you the ability to outsmart them. Most large companies are set in their ways and major changes are rarely undertaken. As a startup, you can morph and adapt your business model, product, or marketing to outsmart your competition.

Marketing a startup can be difficult, but it also gives you the unique opportunity to be both flexible and creative. By using these unique marketing ideas, you can help get your startup off the ground and on the road to being successful!

Effective sales presentations can make or break your business. These tips can help you create meaningful content for better sales presentations.

1. Avoid giving too much information – or too little

Many people believe that a sales presentation is like a lecture: packed with information, instructive, and informative. Others believe that they should be more like keynote speeches: lighthearted, entertaining, and full of jokes and stories. Neither of these methods, however, create a good sales presentation. Instead, find a way to combine both methods, providing your audience with enough information that they understand what you’re selling, but enough jokes to keep it entertaining.

1. Follow a basic presentation structure

No matter what kind of sales presentation you are giving, it should follow the same basic structure: introduction, body, conclusion, and call to action. The introduction provides an overview of what you will be talking about. The body should include the most important content you want to convey along with supporting data. The conclusion is a summary of what you discussed, while the call to action provides the next step.

1. Use supporting data

Having a compelling and engaging presentation is important, but few customers are wowed by arguments alone. Instead, provide the data to back up your claims. For example, instead of making a general statement about increasing sales, state that you can increase sales in their company by 30% in 3 years.

1. Don’t hold the questions

Oftentimes, presenters ask clients to hold the questions until the end of the presentation. However, many people may forget a specific question once you’ve moved on to more information. Instead, if you notice that someone has a question – whether it is a verbal or non-verbal cue – stop the presentation to answer it. What the prospective client has to say is more important than keeping the presentation moving.

1. Answer the three why’s

Potential customers commonly ask three why questions:
- Why should we work with you?
- Why should we choose your company?
- Why should we buy now?

By finding ways to answer these questions in your sales presentation, you can construct an argument that increases your likelihood of closing the sale.

Digital marketing was once considered a small component of overall marketing campaigns. However, as more and more of our lives take place online, digital marketing has started to become the primary advertising medium for many companies.

Like some many things online, digital marketing relies heavily on what is currently popular. Below are some of the top trends in digital marketing.

- Think outside the Google box

While Google is still the overwhelming favorite, more and more consumers are looking for alternatives. Small, up and coming search engines like Duck Duck Go, are growing in popularity; although Google is still the most popular and most used search engine, marketers should stop solely relying on Search Engine Optimization and start engaging in more forms of direct marketing.

- Mobile matters

Mobile devices now account for the majority of internet usage in the United States. Likewise, with emerging devices such as Smart TV’s, watches, and wristbands, more people than ever are turning away from their PC’s. Because of this, marketers should make mobile searches, optimizations, and conversions their top priority.

- Brands as publishers

Because social media offers unprecedented connections between companies and consumers, even the smallest startup can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Vine to connect with their customers. Likewise, more and more corporations are creating and publishing their own apps and mobile games, further pushing the boundaries of brands as publishers.

- More individual marketing

Another way that mobile devices are changing the landscape of marketing is through geolocation. Using this tool, companies are able to provide specific information through push notifications, to their consumers, based on where they are. This, in turn, provides customers with timely and relevant information.

- Marketing and sales convergence

The one-to-one mindset of sales and the one-to-many mindset of marketing are beginning to converge in meaningful ways. Now more than ever, both sales and marketing are using the same techniques of real-time engagement and content creation. This may even lead to companies merging their marketing and sales divisions into one new, digitally focused department.

Many companies view the trends in digital marketing as too fickle to be a legitimate part of a marketing plan. However, incorporating these trends into your marketing strategy can help your business grow and connect with customers in the digital age.