Small businesses have to get by in any way they can. Today’s market is harsh and unforgiving towards businesses that often have to compete with international giants. To ensure that you have enough time and energy to win these battles, we have prepared a checklist of seven mistakes that you could slip up on, on your way towards the top!

As of 25th of May, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets out requirements for all entrepreneurs and self-employed persons targeting EU citizens.

The regulation aims to improve the personal data protection of EU citizens. Even though the control mechanisms are not yet clear, the expected fines are drastic: 4% of turnover, or up to 20 million euros.

What does GDPR establish? And what can small entrepreneurs do to make sure their business complies with GDPR? We prepared a brief summary for you.

If your company has offered goods and services up until this moment, 2018 is the year to make a change. Why? First of all, it happens more and more often that people look for solutions to their problems rather than searching for goods or services. Second, companies that are aware of the need to offer solutions, are getting better at it. It means that train has already left the station! If you don't want to stay on the waiting platform, get your sneakers on and start running to catch that train.

Owning a business - that's cool. Making a profit - great. Having the skills to make the maximum possible profit - excellent! To get to "Level: Excellence," you must learn how to use different tools - used in a comprehensive way, they are able take your business to "Cloud 9"! Setting up a website is no longer enough - in order to make more profit, you need a client audience, in addition - you must also understand it to be able to offer exactly what it needs. One of the most useful tools for that - Google Analytics. Read on and see what it's all about and why you need it!

At the moment, there are more than 40 million business pages on Facebook. Creating a page is absolutely free and there’s a wide range of possibilities to reach your target audience. Meanwhile, many companies keep on investing a lot of funds to create more and more modern websites. How can each of these channels be useful – read further in this article!

Author: Elīna Jurkāne – Content Marketing Team leader at digital marketing agency Infinitum 8 and Coach at Digital Journey.

This will be, most probably, the tastiest article about content that you’ll ever read – here I will compare texts to creamy desserts, savory Italian portions of pasta and warm French baguettes covered with melting butter. There’s only one goal – to help you understand what your target client would like to eat. Eat up and crave the same afterwards.

The idea to start your own business usually doesn’t fall from the sky. Typically it begins to swell and quietly urges in the background of your daily responsibilities while not giving the piece. It’s no wonder that our experienced minds begin to worry: “Hang on, slow down your horses my friend! Do you even understand what are you doing?” When starting your business all these doubts and internal struggles are natural. Probably you have heard the famous saying - the only obstacle to success is yourself. It really is true! For that reason, we have put together 8 golden tips in order for you to become immune to irrational fear and eliminate the danger posed by rational angst.

Your website is up and running. Congratulations! However, it has no use until people start visiting it. For your online efforts to work, you need to learn how to get traffic to your website. Website advertising or internet marketing is actually a lot more complicated than creating a website, but fear not, for it is no rocket science either.

Online marketing effort is what usually determines whether a page will receive thousands of visitors or whether it will remain an undiscovered island.

So what can you do to drive traffic to your website?

Web design depends largely on taste, and tastes differ. However, it’s important to keep in mind a website’s primary function – to represent a business and provide information rather than serve as a piece of art or a compilation of our favorite colors. What you think looks great is not always what actually works best for you and your business.

That doesn’t mean that a website should be tacky or ugly. Put simply, the design of a website shouldn’t make it difficult to understand the information on it.

So what are the best practices of web design?

You have a website which you’re actively advertising. How do you know if all the work you've put in has been worth it? How do you know what works and what doesn’t? You need website visitor statistics and analysis.

Website content formatting is key to ensuring any information is easy to read and doesn’t take long to understand.

If the content on a website is incorrectly formatted, it can become a nightmare for visitors and they can easily leave. For example, it's not uncommon for people to overestimate their artistic skill. As a result, they come up with ideas like placing red copy on a green background. And that looks ... hmm ... bright? Yes, but you can't read a thing.

To avoid silly mistakes, when you create your website, try to stick to the following guidelines:

So, you have a website but it can’t be found. The harsh truth is that 90% of users search for information on Google. If internet giant Google doesn’t like you, you’re destined to be unlucky online.

What can you do? How can you make Google like you and include you in search results?

Paid search engine advertising (also known as pay-per-click or PPC) is an internet marketing technique by which, in exchange for money, your website is given precedence over others in search results. You have to pay every time somebody clicks on your website, so you pay only for actual visitors. This opportunity is offered by Google and called Google AdWords. Similar programs are offered by other other search engines - Bing and Yandex.

Basically, if Google doesn't simply include you in its results, you can pay to appear at the top of the search results for your targeted keywords. Depending on your type of business and quality of the ad, this can be very fruitful but can also be a complete waste of money.

So, what and how?

When you create a website, one of the most important questions should be - what content should I include? Prior to building a website's information structure it's best to think about the type of information the website visitor will be looking for and what information we want to provide. There's not much point to a website on which you can't find what you're looking for.

So, what's the right way to do it? To avoid getting it wrong, you should follow these guidelines:

A domain name (read – website address) is one of the most important parts of a website but inappropriate domain names are more common than you might think. We’ve compiled a few tips on how to choose a domain name that works best for your website.