LinkedIn is a great tool for your career, particularly if you own your own business as through your network you can establish yourself as an expert in your field and extend your reach and exposure. But shock horror, you actually need to be active on the platform to get the most from it.  And it’s a platform where size does matter.  Remember, the more first-degree connections you have, the more second- and third-degree connections you have, making you literally one connection away from millions of people.

Being small doesn’t mean going unnoticed.  Think about David and Goliath.  Smaller in size, David strategically used his slingshot to attack Goliath’s weak spot.  And, just as in business, small businesses need to maximise their strategic strengths to enable their business to appear larger than it actually is while still celebrating their competitive advantage over their larger counterparts.

Each year we set ourselves five goals to help keep us focused on business and personal growth.  We got together in December and worked through the five most important things we want for Connect Plus in 2017 and to keep us accountable here they go!

The New Year sees many of us many goals we aim to complete by the end of the year, and 2016 saw the girls at Connect Plus Plus make some lofty goals.  So how did we go?

There is no stopping it now, Christmas is coming and with it the opportunity to make 2016 your best yet by rolling out a Christmas campaign based on the feeling of Christmas rather than yet another discount-driven promotion or having your customers shop elsewhere. We've pulled together a few of our favourite things, Christmas Blog style, to help you through the Christmas planning for your business. No time to delay!

Last week we headed off to the Taking Care of Business Roadshow which has been travelling the country over the past month.  If you weren't able to get along here are some of the tips which we picked up. Thanks to Craig Foss, Minister for Small Business, the Government has rolled out a series of initiatives to help the small business owners in New Zealand.  It's great to see the Government start focusing on small business, after all, 97% of businesses in New Zealand are classified as SME. Here's what we learnt.