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If you are selling products online, then one of the biggest challenges you’ll face is not just getting visitors to your site, it’s how to get those visitors to complete a sale- especially if they have actually added items to their shopping cart.

According to the web research company, Baymard Institute, an average of 67.75% of all online shopping carts are abandoned before a sale is made. While that may seem like a pretty overwhelming statistic, the truth is there are many things that online store owners can do to improve conversions and ultimately increase sales. But, this takes some understanding of why people are abandoning ship in the first place.

That said, here are 4 easy ways you can really change the purchasing dynamic at your online store:

1. Make all costs associated with the purchase visible and clear from the beginning. Several studies point to the fact that the biggest reason people abandon their shopping carts is due to unanticipated or overly high expenses for things like shipping, taxes, and other fees. For this reason, it definitely pays to make all these expenses very clear to the potential buyer from the start.

Also, you should try to understand which of the the expenses are putting people off and why. Free shipping, for example, is a very common “service” that many online buyers are beginning to expect. Where this is not feasible, you may want to try some workarounds, such as offering free shipping once a certain purchasing threshold has been reached.

2. Look for ways to re-target shopping cart abondoners. Many online merchants don’t realize that 99% of first time visitors will not buy on the first visit. However, 75% of those people who abandon their carts are doing so with the intention to buy later on. Not only that, but 72% of those who abandoned their cart will buy within the first 12 to 24 hours. To capture the attention of these potential buyers, you can run a series of remarketing campaigns via Google Adwords. If you have their email addresses, then you could even run an email campaign encouraging them to return and complete the sale.

3. Emphasize the unique qualities and features of buying from your store. If you can’t compete on price for the products you sell, then make sure you emphasize any other perks or unique selling points, such as free return shipping and live support, that make buying from your store appealing. Not only should these features be prominently displayed on your site and marketing materials, but you should also make sure they are emphasized in your retargeting efforts.

4. Make it easy to complete the purchase. Many potential buyers are turned off by the “obstacles” that stand in the way of making a purchase. This includes things like: having to open an account to make the purchase, having extremely limited payment options, having to fill in many fields of information, and having poor site and shopping cart navigation.

In short, increasing shopping cart conversions is not rocket science. If you are selling quality products and your site is relatively easy-to-navigate and your prices are reasonable given the overall value that customers are receiving, then a few simple tweaks can really make all the difference to your conversions and the overall buying experience.

Square recently announced that it is giving it’s flat fee the ax, making many of its small business customers wonder if there are any cheaper alternatives. The company credited for challenging the mobile payments industry stated that it will be discontinuing a monthly $275 flat fee for businesses processing less than $250,000 in credit-based sales annually. These Square customers will now pay the same 2.75 percent swipe fee per transaction that larger customers pay.

So, are there any real options now that Square is not as attractive as it used to be? You bet! Below are three alternatives to Square that small business owners should consider:

PayPal Here. I know that PayPal may not be the most well liked company around-especially among small business owners. But, it’s mobile payments service, PayPal Here, definitely has some great features that make it an option to seriously consider. Like Square, PayPal has a free app and card reader that you can attach to your mobile device, and you can accept a full range of credit cards, such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. But with Paypal, you can also accept checks for electronic deposit as well as create and send electronic invoices. Fees start at 2.7% per transaction, which is actually a little cheaper than Square, while a manually entered transaction will cost you the same as Square, 3.5% plus $0.15 per transaction.

The money is instantly transferred to your Paypal account where you can either transfer it to your bank account (a process that could take a few days) or access it immediately via a PayPal merchant debit card.

Intuit GoPayment. Depending on the amount of transactions you generate per month as well as how often you manually need to key in information, Intuit’s GoPayment service may be a cheaper alternative to Square. There are two payment options. With the first one, there is no up-front fee, and the cost per transaction is 2.75 percent. For manual transactions, the cost is 3.75 percent with no 15 cent charge. So if you process less that $60 in manual transactions a month, then Intuit is the cheapest option. If you process over $1,300 a month, then Intuit’s second option would be the best deal. In this case, you pay $12.95 a month, which gets you a swipe rate of 1.75 percent. The biggest downside to Intuit GoPayment is that the money doesn’t reach your bank account for two to three days.

Spark Pay. Spark Pay is a relative newcomer to the mobile payments scene, but it’s definitely a something to consider since it offers the best deal in terms of pricing for many small merchants. Spark Pay, which is part of Capital One, charges 2.70 percent per swipe or 3.70 percent for keyed-in transactions with no monthly fee. Pay a $9.95 monthly fee and swiped transactions are 1.95 percent, while manual transactions are 2.95 percent. Reviews of the service, however, have been mixed, with many users complaining that their accounts were canceled and that the reader and app didn’t work properly. So, proceed on this one with caution.

In short, before you pick any of these services, make sure you read the fine print, since there are slight differences among each service that can end up costing you a lot of money, such as how the service treats rewards cards. You can also see a side-by-side comparison of each of the major mobile payments platforms would perform for your particular business with this handy tool over at cardfellow.com.

Over the past few weeks, Congressional Democrats with support from the White House, having been pushing a bill to gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10/hour from the current $7.25 and index it to the Consumer Price Index. Though most analysts agree that the bill has little chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, there has nevertheless been much debate over the consequences of raising the Federal minimum wage- especially among smaller businesses where the increase in employment costs can have the greatest impact.

What is interesting, however, is that there a lot of misconceptions floating around about the Federal minimum wage that, when considered, dramatically change the whole picture.

For starters, here are three facts about the minimum wage that you may not know about:

1. Almost half of the states in the U.S. have their own minimum wage rates that are in many cases significantly higher than the current Federal minimum wage. Nineteen states (plus D.C.) have set their own, higher minimums, ranging from $7.35 in Missouri to $9.19 in Washington State. (Some cities and counties have gone even higher — San Francisco’s minimum wage, for example, is set to rise 19 cents to$10.74 next month.) Those states collectively include 45% of the nation’s working-age (16 and over), meaning the federal demographic data don’t capture a significant share of the nation’s lowest-paid workers.

2. According to the Pew Research Center, when the Federal minimum wage is adjusted for inflation, it actually was the highest in 1968.  Minimum wage earners received the equivalent of $8.56 (in 2012 dollars) in 1968. Since the minimum wage was last increased in 2009, to the current $7.25/hour federal minimum has lost about 5.8% of its purchasing power due to inflation.

3. The most common worker to earn minimum wage is… a young, white woman working part-time. According to an earlier report by the Pew Research Center, most of the nation’s minimum wage workers are young: 50.6% are between the ages 16 to 24. They are also mostly white (78%), mostly women (half of the total minimum wage earners are white women), and a total of 64% are part-time workers.

In short, a raise in the Federal minimum wage may not be as dramatic as some critics are claiming since many states already have their own increases in place. It would also make sense given the current rate of inflation. Finally, the groups most affected may not be what most people are picturing. As more people are educated about the realities of minimum wage, it could dramatically change the nature of the debate.

Anyone who is experienced with Internet marketing knows that with the right approach running a Google AdWords campaign can be an excellent way to drive traffic to a website. But, many advertisers make the mistake of thinking that Google will do all the work for them; they also underestimate the level of ad blindness that Internet users have these days. You see, Google Adwords is not as effective as it used to be.

So, how can you avoid the common mistakes and maximize your Adwords campaigns? Here are 7 key points to keep in mind:

Choose and manage your keywords wisely. This is where a lot of advertisers get off track, and there are several things to consider. First, make sure your keywords are targeted to users who are in a place to conduct the desired action you are looking for, whether you are looking for people ready to buy a product or service you sell, or they are looking for the information you are offering and will sign up with their email addresses to get it. You should also pay attention to negative keywords. AdWords lets advertisers choose those keywords they do not want their ads showing up for. When choosing the keywords you want make sure you also consider broad match, phrase match, or exact match keywords. For example, if you run a small business selling handmade soaps, you probably aren’t interested in showing up for searched like “laundry bar soap” or any soap-related queries that don’t directly relate to what you sell. Finally, make sure the ad copy ad copy matches the keyword you are targeting. The more the text matches the keyword, the more likely people will click on it.

Write ad text that is compelling. Bland or boring ad copy simply won’t do it these days. But this doesn’t mean it has to be sensational, either. Work on crafting simple, relevant, calls-to-action, that are closely connected to the keywords being targeted as well as the desired action you want users to make.

Measure and track conversions. One of the keys to success in online marketing is staying on top of your campaign’s effectiveness. This includes things like reach, click-throughs, and conversions. You need to be constantly collecting data, analyzing it, and using that information to determine where you are making mistakes as well as what you are doing right so you can direct your resources to the strategies that are paying off.

Think about the landing page. Another big mistake that advertisers make with AdWords is not directing customers to a well-crafted and tested product or category page. Instead, they direct anyone who clicks on a ad to their main homepage. This is especially important if you are directing people to an ecommerce site with many products and categories.

Don’t overlook the power of remarketing. If you are already getting a significant amount of targeted traffic to your site, then remarketing is definitely something you should be looking into. Remarketing lets you tag the users who visit your site and then gives you the ability to show relevant follow-up adds as they visit other sites, the goal being to get those people to re-visit your site.

Pay attention to what the competition is doing. Another mistake a lot of advertisers make is not paying attention to the ads their competitors are using. You need to know who is competing with you, what keywords they are using and how, what the ad copy is like, and how they have set up their landing pages. In order to get some of this information, you should check out a site called iSpionage, which will give a lot of useful information about the way your competitors are carrying out their Adwords campaigns.

Have reasonable expectations. As I mentioned at the start of this post, an Adwords campaign will only be successful with an investment of a significant amount of time, effort, and money. You have to do your research, test things out, and have a big enough ad budget to tweak things until you get it right.

Running a successful Adwords campaign is a process, but if you are willing to dedicate enough effort and resources into this process, chances are pretty good you’ll come out winning.

Marketing a business today takes so much more time and effort than it used to. Your target audience is being bombarded with messages both online and off, and as technology becomes a bigger part of the marketing equation, the rules just keep changing.

Content marketing in particular has become an enigma to many small business owners who are still trying to figure out how to set up their websites and use social media properly. Yet content marketing, done well, can really help you to build brand awareness and create an online audience of current and potential customers. Doing content marketing properly, though takes a great deal of time, effort, and skill.

For this reason, many small business owners choose to outsource some or all of their content creation and marketing. But for a significant amount of these business owners, their efforts don’t work out. The truth is outsourcing your content marketing is not so easy to apply effectively nor does it make sense in all situations.

If you are thinking of outsourcing your content marketing, here are some important points to keep in mind:

Make sure you understand what content marketing can accomplish. Even if you will not be creating the content yourself, you still need to have an understanding of what effective content marketing allows you to do across different mediums and platforms.

You need to be actively involved in the process. You also need to be actively directing and analyzing the content marketing process from beginning to end if you want it to be effective. Don’t be tempted to just leave it to your outsourcing providers. It’s the biggest mistake you can make! Don’t forget that the content you promote as how you promote it will directly reflect on your business.

Choose your hired content marketers wisely. It’s very easy for a company to claim they they are content marketing experts; it’s much harder to prove it. Therefore, you really need to exercise your full due diligence before deciding on a company. Get a list of previous customers and make it a point to contact them. Request to see a sample of a documented content marketing strategy they have developed and implemented. Also, pay attention to any promises or claims they are making. Content marketing is a long-term strategy, and specific results may be hard to guarantee- especially over the short-term.

In short, outsourcing your content marketing can help your business get its name out there while freeing up your time. But you have to approach it correctly or else it can get out of hand taking your business’ brand and money with it.

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Requiring employees to bring their own mobile devices has the potential to save your small business a significant amount of money, as the cost of purchasing and managing the devices is greatly minimized and employee productivity soars. But, your savings can be significantly compromised if your don’t implement a thought-out, comprehensive BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program

A recent study by Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group, reported that big corporations can save over three thousand dollars per employee each year with a BYOD program that gives employees the ability do their jobs from their personal devices. Much of these savings can be attributed to the fact that companies no longer have to foot the bill for new devices and data plans.

Many employees also prefer to use their own devices instead of having to carry around two sets of equipment- one set for business use, and another for personal use. This fact alone can lead to greater productivity.

But a BYOD program is not without its cons, and in many cases, these cost of these drawbacks, which include things like implementing new security measures, network improvements and support, can far outweigh the benefits.

So what does this all mean for your small business? The reality is that the cost of BYOD will vary significantly from one business to the next, and a lot will depend on the real behavior of your employees. What information will they need to access, and from which devices, and how much more will they work when all barriers have been removed? You also have to consider the real cost to purchase the devices and data plans versus the added costs necessary to maintain a BYOD infrastructure and the all-important security system.

If you choose to implement a BYOD policy, make sure you spend time figuring out how you will pay for services, for example, who’s going to pay for the voice and data plans? There are a couple of ways you can handle cost-sharing, but it’s important to pick one that will be agreeable to your employees. You will also need to create acceptable use and security policies that include a detailed rundown of the consequences of violation.

In short, if you are considering implementing a BYOD program in your small business, you definitely want to spend some time going over all the pros and cons. If there are more pros than cons, then go for it, but do it responsibly. If the cons are coming out ahead, then a BYOD program just doesn’t pay no matter how happy it may make your employees.

For the past ten years or so, as cloud-based devices and platforms have become more ubiquitous, and a growing population of working age people have become accustomed to working on the go, there’s has been a very noticeable shift away from traditional workplace attitudes and setups.

Businesses are increasingly looking for ways to work smarter and more innovatively, relying on a new generation of workers who have literally grown up with the digital age. These people are more accustomed to flexible, collaborative work environments that often involve working outside of the office. This means more co-working spaces instead of the traditional office and cubicle set up. It means work schedules that incorporate a significant amount of flextime, and it often means allowing employees to work outside of the office. Finally, there is much more collaboration and the sharing of knowledge among employees of different departments and different functions. So, cross-training is becoming more and more prevalent

These trends aren’t something that small businesses should just push away since they can have a significant impact on worker productivity and job satisfaction, as well as the ability to attract competent employees and keep them from leaving the company.

Here is a more detailed rundown of the benefits of incorporating these trends into the way your business operates:

Attracting qualified workers. Surprisingly, approximately 30% of small businesses have job openings that they can’t fill because they can’t find qualified workers. How can this be? The truth is, these workers do exist, they are just not ready to compromise on their career development and their work attitudes to even apply for a position at company that doesn’t respect the new workplace reality. Small businesses need to recognize that maximum flexibility and mobility have to be essential parts of the workplace, or else younger workers will look elsewhere.

Increase productivity. It has been well documented that flextime improves both employee job satisfaction and productivity. It also is more in line with the lifestyle embraced by today’s workers. This means, it will not only help you get better outputs from your employees, but they’ll also be more likely to stick around as mentioned above.

Increase innovation. Creating a workspace that encourages collaboration and flexibility can actually help fuel innovation. At a time when ideas and intellectual capital are at a premium, this is no small thing. If your business involves constantly changing consumer trends, technologies, and services, then creating a collaborative works space just makes sense.

In short, the rules of work are already changing. The question is, are you positioning your business in accordance with them? In many cases, those that ignore these trends may find their businesses have fallen far behind, and it may not be so easy to catch up at that point.

There are many, many online learning opportunities for entrepreneurs. But, just sifting through all the possibilities could give even the most determined entrepreneur a massive headache.

So, instead of 100 places online to learn about starting a business, here are three free resources that I’ve stumbled upon over the past couple of weeks, that offer an encompassing, quality educational experience for new business owners.

The key to online learning in general is getting the right foundations in place at the beginning. Once you know the fundamentals, it will be much easier to pin point those areas where you need further development. These three resources will get you started in the right direction.

1. How to Build a Startup by Steve Blank. If you are just starting up a business for the first time, then head on over to Udacity, and go through this amazing free course. Steve Blank does a great job explaining all the elements of a successful business start-up It’s really one of the best resources around to help you understand the principles and relationships behind customer discovery, the business model canvas, and lean principles in building your start-up

2. The Engagement Toolbox at Firepole Marketing. Firepole Marketing has been around for a few years, but they just revamped their website. Now subscribers can access all FPM’s free tools and resources, including several valuable ebooks, a great video course, and reports, in one central “tool box.” Some of the reports are written for specific business models and industries, like bloggers, artists, and consultants. So you can download information relevant to your business.

3. The HP LIFE e-Learning program. This program by Hewllet Packard actually got it’s start about six years ago and has been evolving and expanding ever since. It offers a self-paced, interactive set of courses in practical IT and business skills to help new entrepreneurs create, establish, and grow successful businesses. The are four main modules that include: finance, marketing, operations, and communication. One of the program’s highlights is a series of poignant, real-life examples of entrepreneurs who overcame various challenges to run successful businesses.

Independent contractors, freelancers, consultants and micropreneurs have become an increasingly significant part of the workforce, and based on the findings of the Third Annual Independent Workforce Report from MBO Partners, it’s a trend that doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon.

Why The Independent Work Force is Growing

Before I get to the findings of that report, I think it’s important to understand some of the reasons behind this trend, because it’s really the result of several factors:

Advances in technology enable and enhance remote working. Over the past 5 years in particular, there has been a renaissance in mobile technology and cloud computing tools and services. User interfaces across devices and platforms are becoming more streamlined, more intuitive, and more interconnected with relevant outside tools and networks. What this means is that there has been a major enhancement to the creation, exchange, and consumption of both data and media. This allows independent workers to produce quality results without being tied to a particular location.

Attitude shift regarding employment among employees. Job mobility is gaining in importance– especially among millennials. Many workers today are comfortable changing jobs every few years to advance their careers, and are using the skills they’ve gotten in an employment or intern situation to start up their own businesses.

Economic conditions are making job stability less likely. Going hand in hand with the above trend, over the past six years many big employers have been slashing benefits on things like healthcare, and retirement plans as well as cutting hours. Even though economic pundits have been calling these past few years a “recovery,” albeit a sluggish one, the fact is jobs in general have become less stable and often less attractive benefit-wise to employees. Given this, many workers may see running their own businesses as a more attractive alternative.

The independent worker lifestyle is being glamourized. Ever since the The 4-Hour Workweek began to enter the public conversation, it has become a defacto icon of the ideal work-life balance. This has been supported by the fact that tremendous media attention is being placed on a rolling roster of young, suddenly rich entrepreneurs who seem to have this elusive carefree lifestyle. The ironic thing is that in the majority of cases, it takes a significant amount of time and hard work to get a new micro business to profitability, and that fact is not getting the amount of attention it should. Driven by these ideals and by ideas that often sport low barriers to entry, it’s little wonder why more people are staking it out an independent workers.

The Current State of Independent Workers

Now, on to the study… Here are some interesting highlights about the state of the independent workforce today:

Independent workers are satisfied with their career choice.

“Independent workers’ satisfaction remains strong, with 64% reporting that they are highly satisfied with their work style… The vast majority plans to continue as independent workers, with 77% saying they will either continue as solopreneurs (63%) or build a larger business (14%).”

The rise of the independent worker represents a structural economic shift.

“The 2013 MBO Partners Independent Workforce Index, a measure created to track growth of the sector, rose yet again: up 2.7% over 2012 and 8.2% over the base year 2011.”

40% of adult Americans are either currently working or have worked on their own.

“Almost one third of adult Americans currently not working as independent have done so during their work lives and about 8% of Americans do so today. Many of the former independents indicate an interest in returning to independent work…”

Independents are positively and increasingly effecting the US economy.

“Close to $1.2 trillion in total income was generated by independents in 2013, up 20% from 2012. They also spent over $150 billion on non-payroll/contractor expenses. Independents earn income both globally and locally: $43 billion came from overseas while a robust $700 billion came from their metro areas. Nearly 10 million households receive at least half of their income from independents.”

Independents employ other independent workers.

“Although the vast majority of independent workers are solopreneurs and don’t have traditional employees, they don’t work alone. Over the past year, 26% of independent workers spent a total of $96 billion hiring the equivalent of 2.3 million full-time workers via contract hiring.”

One in seven independents plan on building their businesses.

“Close to 2.5 million independent workers plan to launch larger businesses.”

Independent workers come from all walks of life.

“For the 3rd consecutive year, the 2013 MBO Partners State of Independence study shows that independents represent all ages, professions, educational levels and geography.”

As the Internet, mobile technology, and media continue to evolve at lighting speed, it has created a lot of confusion about what it takes to effectively market a business these days, and as time goes on, more and more questions just keep surfacing.

What social media platforms should you use and how? Should you opt for free traffic generation or paid online advertisements? Should your business use mobile marketing? What keywords should you aim for? Should you even worry about keywords? In-bound marketing or out-bound marketing? Self-promotion or paid promotion? On and on…

One common question among small business owners is whether differences exist between B2B and B2C marketing. Looking into the matter, however, reveals a pretty straight-forward answer. Though the basic principles of marketing may be similar, the paths to conversion for a B2C sale versus a B2B one are often very different.

In a B2C sale, you are communicating directly with the potential buyer, so the steps of the sales cycle are typically concentrated into a relatively short time frame. Because you are usually only convincing one person, instead of having to deal with multiple people, committees, or other levels of business bureaucracy, as in a B2B transaction, you can move through the process much quicker.

With B2C sales, you need to be focused on and fully understand your ideal customer profile, and work on making all of your communications and marketing specific to that persona. The goal would be to get potential leads to engage in a series of actions that will lead them through a carefully crafted sales funnel. An example of this in action would be writing a guest post on a site that many of your potential customers read, making a desirable and valuable free offer in exchange for readers’ email addresses, continuing to provide valuable content via email, and eventually sending a sales pitch or affiliate offer. This whole process from start to finish could take a few days or even a few weeks.

With almost all B2B products and services, however, there is a long sales cycle that can take a month, to several months, to even a few years. Plus, the bigger the business being pitched, the more people you may need to deal with and the more hoops you may need to jump through, as mentioned above.

Successful B2B marketing often requires doing a significant amount of research on the industry and the companies being targeted and being ready to field any questions that business owners and their management may have. Referrals also play a much more significant role then they do in a B2C transaction. Finally, you need to research the most effective ways to reach the purchasing decision makers within a given business. These people may not hang out in an approachable way in the same places that a consumer would. This can include online communities such as LinkedIn or off-line events, such as trade shows and conferences.

In short, though there are some similarities between B2C and B2B sales, knowing the differences between them as well as how to approach each kind of buyer can help to make you marketing efforts more appropriate, more targeted, and ultimately, more successful.