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The latest news and information for entrepreneurs from across the web universe, brought to you by the Report on Small Business team. Follow us on Twitter @GlobeSmallBiz.
Give your page a makeover with these simple but effective tips
With the new year approaching and the new Katy Perry-inspired LinkedIn profile pages rolling out, it may be time to give yours a bit of a makeover, especially as more and more recruiters turn to the social network for job candidates.
The good news is that optimizing up your page doesn't have to take very long. In fact, these five steps, brought to you by Inc.com, shouldn't take you longer than five minutes. Here's there list:
1. Upload a photo : a head shot is best where you look polished and professional. Save the Saturday night selfies for Facebook.
2. Customize your professional headline: the words you choose are indexed in search engines, so choose your words wisely. You might want to steer clear of these cliché terms (i.e. 'creative' and 'highly organized').
3. Enrich your summary with relevant keywords: you have 2,000 characters so be deliberate with your selections.
4. Add skills and seek out endorsements.
5. Create a LinkedIn vanity URL. Since LinkedIn is replacing your business card anyway, you may want to have a customized, simple and relevant URL that are easy to remember!
It's the most wonderful (and busy) time of the year
Today is the busiest day of the year in both the U.S. and Canada for submitting expense reports, according to Concur, a provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions.
Canadian employees will submit over 10,000 expense claims on Dec. 19 – nearly 200 per cent more than the daily average volume and a more than 50 per cent than the last busiest expense day, which was Dec. 20, 2012.
What can already time-strapped small businesses do to cope before year end? Here are some tips to help the accounting and finance teams ensure expenses are filed on time and accounted for:
- Send out company-wide reminder e-mails to submit expenses on time.
- Ensure the expense report is complete by including required receipts and adhering to policies.
- Leverage mobile technology to capture digital images of receipts and submit expense reports.
- Provide training on the expense reporting process.
Toronto startup scores partnership with Facebook
Toronto-born Chango announced the launch of Programmatic FBX Advertising. It's a new advertising solution that brings large-scale search intent data to the Facebook Exchange.
FBX offers access to six billion search events captured each month in real-time so that advertisers can target individuals on Facebook based on the searches they've done minutes before on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, according to TechVibes.
The company experienced 500 per cent annual growth over the past two years and now has offices in New York, London, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
EVENTS AND KEY DATES
Canadian Startup Awards open for nominations
Hosted by Techvibes and presented by KPMG, the awards are meant to be an annual celebration of startups and technology. And it's up to you to nominate (and then vote for) the most deserving startups, founders, and investors across six categories. Click here to find out how to vote.
TiEQuest is now accepting applications
Applications are now being accepted for TiEQuest 2013 and registration will be open until January 31st, 2013. There is a $100 entry fee for a venture to participate in the competition, which also entitles the contestant to FREE one regular membership(Cost $100) for a period of one year in TiE Toronto. The top teams receive substantial prizes in cash as well as professional services. The total value of all prizes exceed $150,000.
The Franchise Show
The Franchise Show, which runs from January 19 to 20, 2013 in Montreal, is designed to help you discover quality franchise investments that could be your answer to business ownership success. For more details, click here.
EDITOR'S PICKS FROM REPORT ON SMALL BUSINESS
Looking for women in bikinis in dinghies? They've got 'em
Fast-growing marketing agency takes product pitches to new territory
FROM THE ROSB ARCHIVES
Don't quit yet – avoid job burnout with these tips Managers should watch for signs and if necessary re-evaluate workloads and deadlines
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