Finding and communicating with the right customer is a basic necessity for any small business.
This article discusses tips you can use to find ideal customers and improve your marketing communications strategy.
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On Saturday, November 10, RBG competed in the 7th Annual Chili Cook Off Benefiting The Exceptional Foundation of West Tennessee. 
Proceeds from the Chili Cook-Off are a significant source of funding for the programs at the Exceptional Foundation of West Tennessee. The Exceptional Foundation strives to meet the social, recreational, and continued educational needs of individuals of all ages that have intellectual disabilities.
RBG is proud to have been part of the event. Our team won Most Spirited! 
Although family businesses boost the economy and make up more than fifty percent of the nation's GDP, they struggle to survive past the second generation.
This article discusses a few ways family businesses can thrive through multiple generations.
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Cold-calling may seem out of date, but many small businesses rely on personal connections to get customers out of the cold calling stage and into prospective clients.
This short article discusses the trick to a more effective sales call.
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“Confidence comes from being prepared.” – John Wooden
 Are you on the job hunt? It can be a grueling process, particularly the interview stage. We’re sure you’ve heard it before, but confidence and preparation are key to pulling off the flawless interview. Below are six essential tips for acing a job interview. 
Family businesses can compete with other businesses who may have more capital, manpower, and resources that their disposal.
This article discusses the advantages family businesses have, and how family businesses can use these advantages to stay competitive.
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Is your staff spending too much time in meetings and not enough time working independently? If so, you’re not alone. Since 2008, the amount of time that firms spend in meetings has been increasing. It is now projected that organizations spend an average of 15 percent of company time in meetings. 
It could be that meetings have become more prevalent because of all the bells and whistles that new technology has brought to the conference table. These advances include slick presentations with video and talking heads as well as interactive face time with offsite staff and clients. It’s no wonder companies are investing in meeting technology. 
However, technology that was meant to make workers more productive has, in many cases, just placed them in meetings for longer periods. Perhaps it’s time to start using technology for more efficacious purposes. 
Enter: Meeting apps. Instead of inviting loads of people to a meeting to get up to speed, how about just invite the folks necessary and record the meeting for all those who just need to be aware of what’s going on. There are now phone apps that record a meeting and then transcribe the dialogue into meeting notes to be distributed after the fact. 
One such example is an AI-powered app called Tetra, introduced in 2017 and continually being updated with new improvements. The key feature of the app is to eliminate the need for anyone to take notes, which enables participants to stay focused on the content being discussed. The app not only records the phone call, but also transcribes the call into a text document using deep learning and natural language processing (NLP). 
A full transcription of the discussion is delivered within minutes after the call, complete with features that make it easy to search for specific terms in order to review exactly what was said. For example: 
How It Works
Tetra allocates a dedicated Tetra number to be used for all outgoing and incoming calls over Wi-Fi or 4G. Once each call is completed, the VoIP app generates notes a short time later. 
Price
In terms of cost, the app offers an initial trial of 60 free minutes in the first month. Thereafter, the user signs up for a specific plan based on projected time. 
Compliance
One common question regarding recorded phone calls is whether it is illegal. To legally comply with the issue, the Tetra app issues a default announcement to participants that the call is being recorded. The app offers the option for a user to disable this announcement as long as the plan subscriber agrees to ask for recording permission where necessary to stay compliant with local laws. 
Also, Tetra utilizes industry standard encryption and Amazon Web Servers (AWS) to store data that’s been collected. Note that the transcription function is generated automatically by artificial intelligence and no humans are involved, so all meeting content remains confidential. 
The meeting recording market is starting to expand. There are currently numerous apps, such as Zoom, clark.ai, Scopist and NoNotes, that record calls and save them to a cloud for easy retrieval. However, the transcription service is relatively new and adds a striking dimension to enhance productivity – allowing more employees to keep working outside of meetings.
The majority of the mainstream financial media steers investors to news stories that have little bearing on intermediate and long-term returns. The stories often have a short-term focus, centering on the problem of the day and how it will impact the stock market. Many experts, including the legendary investor Ray Dalio, believe the average investor would be better served by ignoring daily news headlines and focusing on metrics with insight into where we are in the economic cycle.
Dalio’s Start and Accomplishments
Born in Jackson Heights, Queens, Ray Dalio became hooked on investing at the age of 12, when he used $300 he saved from caddying and other jobs to invest in Northeast Airlines because of what he overheard on the golf course. Dalio later went on to graduate from Harvard Business School and trade commodity futures on Wall Street before starting his own investment management firm, Bridgewater Associates, in 1975. Today, Bridgewater is one of the largest hedge funds in the world, with more than $160 billion in assets under management. Dalio himself is personally estimated to be worth approximately $16 billion to $18 billion.
Investment Approach
Dalio employs an investment approach called “global macro,” which means large-scale investing based on broad systematic factors. He studies market history, looking for events and causations that were previously thought to be impossible. He uses this historical perspective to anticipate changes in currencies, commodity prices and inflation. He also is a strong believer in understanding the psychological factors that influence markets and company management.
Past Prognostications
Dalio is perhaps best known for foreseeing the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Back in 2006, Bridgewater Associates figured out that the total debt service in the United States was exceeding income and that as a consequence, economic de-leveraging was inevitable. Then in 2007, Dalio saw the housing boom coming to an end and met with the Secretary of the Treasury to warn him that the big banks were in danger of becoming insolvent. As a result, the fund made significant investments in Treasury bonds, gold and the Japanese yen. Finally, in the spring of 2008, his fund pulled out of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, a mere week before the latter failed.
What Does Dalio See Coming Now?
Recently, Dalio said he thought that the U.S. economy was in the seventh inning, and that now is the time to starting shifting to a more defensive position in the market. Why does he believe this? There are three main economic metrics that tie into this thesis.
The first is the NFIB Small Business Confidence index. Right now, small business confidence is at an all-time high. This suggests that small businesses are hiring, expanding and investing. These are all good things, but the fact that we are at an all-time high leads many to believe that we are also at the peak and the only place to go from here is down.
Two other metrics to consider are the ISM Manufacturing Index and the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index; they are at 14 -year and 18-year highs, respectively. These metrics suggest that manufacturing and consumer confidence are also near peaks and indicate nearing the top of another economic cycle.
Conclusion
The simple fact that these three measures are at or near all-time highs doesn’t mean that a recession is imminent. It does mean that the economy has a high probability of seeing growth slow before reversing. Essentially, Dalio is suggesting that we are not at the end of the cycle, but we are getting close. Unfortunately for investors, being too early is the same as being wrong – so there are no easy answers or we’d all be billionaires like him.
According to Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, sitting is the new smoking. In his study that spanned 15 years, it was determined that spending more than six hours a day on your behind contributes to unhealthy blood pressure, obesity, depression and some types of cancer. And that’s just for starters. Here are a few simple things you can do every day to combat these potentially life-threatening conditions. 
So, the next time you’re sitting at your desk and are in between tasks, give these tips a read. See if one of them applies and give it a try. One small tweak to your daily routine could make all the difference for your health and well-being.
Every year we experience new challenges in the world of computer hacking —as well as new solutions. Cyber hackers have become aggressive, so business owners must be more vigilant. Because clients are the source of your revenue, it is critically important to ensure their data never gets into the wrong hands. 
According to a recent survey conducted by the Better Business Bureau, more than half of small business owners reported they would no longer be profitable just one month following a data breach. 
According to Bill Fanelli, the chief security officer for the Council of Better Business Bureaus and co-author of the report, a primary vulnerability for small businesses is the carelessness of its employees. In fact, Fanelli observed that one of the most cost-effective prevention tools — employee education — is used by less than half of the companies surveyed. All it takes is for just one employee to click on a nefarious link or open an infected attachment for a cyber attacker to walk through an open door to your business. 
In many cases, business owners simply need to make employees aware of the types of behaviors that enable hackers to breach system security. To this end, the easiest prevention plan is to periodically conduct brief training sessions to reiterate the importance of: 
Firms should conduct a full assessment to protect their business from data breaches at least once a year. Also, it is recommended that business owners ensure all transactions are secured through solutions such as: 
One way to help protect your financial transactions is to consult with a small business banker for a review of your current transaction management services to ensure you’re doing all you can to protect your business and your customers. 
How to Develop a Cybersecurity Plan
Consider using this five-step approach to help prevent your firm from being vulnerable to a data breach: 
Cybersecurity might not be your area of expertise, but your customers rely on you to keep their data safe. It’s important to take precautions to minimize your risk from this ever-growing danger.
