Ascentium Capital Blog

As Benjamin Franklin once said, "nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes" and people have always worked very hard to delay one and reduce the other. Thankfully for small business owners there is a tax incentive that could have a significant impact and reduce their tax burden – Section 179. Section 179 enables small business owners to accelerate deductions on eligible equipment and assets they purchase for their business. (Read More...)

Rebranding is not only a time to refresh your company's look but also its position as a brand. It is after all called reBranding. This is a time to reflect on how you stand apart from your competition and how you want to be known by your industry. It is also a time to realign your message internally. The following approach made BevSource's rebranding efforts run smoothly and successfully. (Read More...)

In Surveys to Improve Your Customer Experience (Part 1) we covered the importance of incorporating surveys into your sales and service processes in order to gain valuable feedback and improve customer satisfaction. Now, let's talk about the mechanics. How do you pull off a killer survey that not only generates response, but the right response? (Read More...)

For small to medium sized businesses, keeping your fingers on the pulse of the business is vitally important. This is especially true in this age of social networking where recommendations or negative comments can spread virally. The secret is in understanding customer sentiment and working toward continual customer satisfaction improvement. A customer survey is an effective way to get feedback that you can analyze and use to improve the customer experience. (Read More...)

In today’s high-tech world, small to medium size businesses (SMBs) are often facing the same challenges and opportunities as large enterprise-level companies, but without the same budget. So how do SMBs stay competitive in this environment? One of the major advancements that levels the playing field has been the rise of cloud computing and how it has facilitated the adoption of new technologies. (Read More...)

The hotel industry has been transforming, through tremendous in-room and on-property technology upgrades, to keep up with today's tech savvy consumer's requirements and expectations. That simple hotel room of our collective past with a television, phone, alarm clock and mini-fridge is becoming far more sophisticated and now kids might not rate the hotel on its pool, but rather the download speeds of the Wi-Fi. (Read More...)

When you are busy building a small to medium sized business (SMB), it's sometimes hard to see the forest through the trees. Your life can become a 24/7 never-ending cycle of work, billing, marketing, strategizing, and more work. Every now and then an idea or opportunity comes along and you need to take a look at your bank account and make a decision: Can or should I invest in this? How can I make it work? Should I just wait? Or can I take out a small business loan to accelerate my business? (Read More...)

What would you think of a 14-hour light bulb? Probably not much, but that was the length of time Thomas Edison's bulb lasted – which in 1879 equaled the duration of burning 30 candles. Today, lights are something you might not think much about – you flip on the lights when opening your business, and the last one out shuts them off. Some office buildings even leave "night lights" on; a certain level of lighting that is less than during work hours but doesn't plunge your business into total darkness. But did you know that energy used by lights alone can be 20-50% of your electric bill? Upgrading your business to light emitting diode (LED) lights can be a powerful savings tool that you shouldn't over look. (Read More...)