Global Resources

At Global Resources, we help businesses maintain positive cash flow, control costs & accelerate profitable growth.

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Hiring New Employees

Global Resources helps put small and medium – size businesses on the path to success.  As we begin 2017, we know many business owners are looking to hire new employees.

Here are the important factors to consider before you select and hire your candidate:

• Review the feedback information from the employees who served on your interview team. It’s impossible for 10-12 people to sit at the table to make the final decision, but their input deserves attention and review. Before a recent job offer, three interview team members gave the hiring manager the feedback that one of the candidates appeared to have a 9 to 5 mindset.

•If you have been able to obtain feedback from former supervisors of the potential employee, you have a goldmine to review. Yes, people change, but not that much, and not that quickly. So, performance feedback, and especially the positive response to the question, would you rehire this employee, should be a powerful factor in your decision to make a job offer.

•The time you spend with each candidate is an opportunity to assess the candidate’s potential to fit within your culture. Does this mean that you select the candidate you like the best? Not if you want to make the best job offer. What you seek when you consider cultural fit is the candidate who will succeed in your workplace. For example, you don’t want to select an employee who prefers to work alone for a job whose holder will only succeed by influencing a larger team.

•You do need to assess whether you are confident that the potential employee, with appropriate training and mentoring, can do the job. In answering this question, you also need to assess your candidate’s relevant experience.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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2017 Tax Tips

Global Resources helps put small and medium – size businesses on the path to success.  In fact, we utilize our expertise to access the information necessary for growth.   Through our affiliated companies, we can even navigate the way through all of your small business tax challenges.

All business professionals must also remember the importance of personal taxes.  Here are some suggestions to help get you ready for the upcoming tax season:

Maximize retirement plan contributions -If your employer offers a 401(k) or other type of deferred pension plan, make every effort to contribute the maximum amount allowable -- especially if your employer matches your contribution. Otherwise you are leaving money on the table that could benefit you in your retirement. Think of the employer match as an immediate 100 percent return on your money. Even if there is no match, all of the funds are tax-deferred and grow tax-free.

Adjust your withholding - Check your year-to-date withholding and consider changing the taxes withheld if you are expecting a large refund. This is especially important if you are claiming the earned income tax credit, or EITC or the additional child tax credit since the IRS is now required by law to hold all refunds on those returns until Feb. 15.

Get organized and reap a tax break - If one of your New Year's resolutions is to simplify and declutter your life, now is the time to get going. You can make money by donating all of those things you no longer need or want in your life. There are many charitable organizations that accept items other than cash such as clothing, books, electronics and other household items. The deduction is limited to the item's fair market value, and the items must be in good condition or better to be deductible. If the value of the noncash items is more than $500, then you must file Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions and fill it in with some details.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Business Tips for Construction Management

The consultants at Global Resources specialize in many industries, including construction.  Improving job site decision-making is critical to a successful construction project, so we emphasize the importance of giving site managers simple and reliable access to real-time data. Quality construction project management software can help facilitate information-sharing, and identify potential issues before they become real problems, reducing risk and increasing overall project profitability.

Here are tips for improving construction project management decision-making:

Evaluate Your Current Situation - Based on both your business goals and specific construction project objectives, take a look at your past performance and assess where you are today. Assessing your current situation and asking questions can give you a better perspective on where you need to be going forward.

Gain Real-time Access to Information - There is an inflection point in the construction industry that involves cloud technologies and what is referred to as “big data” – the massive amounts of information (text, audio, video, photography) that companies generate each day – that provide the keen insight construction managers need to make critical job site decisions. Cloud technology will help to quickly aggregate and analyze big data across multiple construction-related companies who opt into sharing information such as wage and materials pricing or productivity metrics.

Establish Key Performance Indicators - Based on your business goals, define key performance indicators (KPIs), such as RFI cycle time, and the time frame you should look at each metric.  How often you track a KPI depends on how often the data changes and how quickly you can make course corrections. Being diligent about your KPIs, and analyzing your performance over time, can improve decision-making on the job site.

Put Processes in Place - Once you’ve identified what you want to monitor, make sure your processes can deliver your data. For example, if you don’t currently update your estimates with change orders, you can add that to your workflow to get a truer picture of your estimate-to-actual cost variance. This will improve your job profitability over time.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Buying Your Boss a Holiday Gift

Global Resources helps business professionals navigate the evolving world of business. With a target market including businesses which have a minimum of 10 employees and $1 million in revenue, we specialize in small and medium – size businesses.

During the holiday season, employees thankful for their jobs may want to show their appreciation at the office by giving a gift to the boss. But adding a manager to your list may not be the best career move, and it could end up costing you more than you want to spend.

Employees who purchase a gift for their boss might feel pressured to spend more than they want. There’s also a risk of accidentally buying an inappropriate gift, which could create an uncomfortable atmosphere at the office. In addition, some managers may not want to spread holiday cheer towards their employees but feel obligated to reciprocate. And others are just uneasy when an underling buys them a present, especially when it comes from a worker who’s not a good performer or could be on a future layoff list.

When you’re gift-giving in your place of work, the gesture may be perceived as insincere if you expect something in return, or the gift isn’t as a result of a good relationship that you have with your manager. However, gift-giving can be a great, fun experience in the office.  Just be sure you don’t have ulterior motives when adding your employer to your holiday list. When shopping for the gift, spend extra time making sure any work place gift giving is office appropriate!

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Understanding Grants in the Small Business Industry

Global Resources LLC helps the owners of small and medium – size businesses access the information that is often necessary to grow and thrive. In business today, financing a business may be a huge concern.  However, there are a variety of options when it comes to financing your small business. Our consultants can help you explore your opportunities, including utilizing grants.

Surprising to many, the federal government does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business. Government grants are funded by your tax dollars and therefore require very stringent compliance and reporting measures to ensure the money is well spent.  As you can imagine, grants are not given away indiscriminately.

Grants from the federal government are only available to non-commercial organizations, such as non-profits and educational institutions in areas such as, medicine, education, scientific research and technology development. The federal government also provides grants to state and local governments to assist them with economic development.

Some business grants are available through state and local programs, non-profit organizations and other groups. For example, some states provide grants for expanding child care centers; creating energy efficient technology; and developing marketing campaigns for tourism. These grants are not necessarily free money, and usually require the recipient to match funds or combine the grant with other forms of financing such as a loan. The amount of the grant money available varies with each business and each grantor.

If you are not one of these specialized businesses, both federal and state government agencies provide financial assistance programs that help small business owners obtain low-interest loans and venture capital financing from commercial lenders.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources, call us at 855-338-0266.

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5 Cybersecurity Tips for Small Business Owners

Global Resources LLC helps the owners of small and medium – size businesses access the information that is often necessary to grow and thrive. In modern-day business, cybersecurity is a huge concern for all businesses.

Here are important tips to help maintain security in your workplace:

Protect against viruses, spyware and other malicious code- Make sure each of your business’s computers are equipped with antivirus software and antispyware and update regularly. Such software is readily available online from a variety of vendors. All software vendors regularly provide patches and updates to their products to correct security problems and improve functionality. Configure all software to install updates automatically.

Secure your networks - Safeguard your Internet connection by using a firewall and encrypting information.  If you have a Wi-Fi network, make sure it is secure and hidden. To hide your Wi-Fi network, set up your wireless access point or router so it does not broadcast the network name, known as the Service Set Identifier (SSID). Also, password protect access to the router.

Establish security practices and policies to protect sensitive information - Establish policies on how employees should handle and protect personally identifiable information and other sensitive data.  Clearly outline the consequences of violating your business’s cybersecurity policies.

Educate employees about cyberthreats and hold them accountable - Educate your employees about online threats and how to protect your business’s data, including safe use of social networking sites.  Depending on the nature of your business, employees might be introducing competitors to sensitive details about your firm’s internal business. Employees should be informed about how to post online in a way that does not reveal any trade secrets to the public or competing businesses.  Hold employees accountable to the business’s Internet security policies and procedures.

Require employees to use strong passwords and to change them often - Consider implementing multifactor authentication that requires additional information beyond a password to gain entry. Check with your vendors that handle sensitive data, especially financial institutions, to see if they offer multifactor authentication for your account.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Accounting Tips for Small Business Owners

Global Resources is a full-service business development group and general management consulting firm focused on small and medium-size privately-held companies in North America. We help business owners access the information that is often critical for growth.  If you’re a small business owner, accounting may become a challenge.  In this case, we have some simple tips that may help you be more successful:

Keep it simple starting out. The simplest form of entity for running your first business is called a sole proprietorship. This form of ownership requires NO special communication or filings to the Internal Revenue Service until you start paying employees.

As a sole proprietor, you are the owner/entity which might require an occupational license if your county or municipality mandates one. As the owner, you are also liable to remit all state or city tax collections on retail or wholesale sales your business collects. Service businesses and most cross state sales are exempt from state tax collections.

Over 90% of small businesses fail or change ownership within the first five years. Plan your business to thrive but if it fails under a sole proprietor you simply stop doing business. No communication or special forms with the IRS, no additional taxes to get your investment returned and no high accounting fees to close out your entity. Simply file a final Schedule C with your next personal return.

Know that a “write off” doesn’t mean that expense is free; it only means you can save paying some taxes on that income if you spend it for certain purposes.

After you pass the five year hurdle, then you can talk with a CPA about another entity type that might save you taxes. Again a simple bookkeeping entry transfers all of the business assets from the sole proprietorship into the new entity without any tax penalties. Then quit your day job to celebrate your new livelihood.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Small Business Tips for Organizing Employees

The business consultants at Global Resources have the expertise to help small and medium – size businesses successfully organize employees.  We know firsthand that behind each successful company stands a flexible team that can efficiently turn a vision into a growing business.

If you are a small business owner in need of some employee reorganization, the tips below will help you organize your team for success:

Empower Employees to Make Decisions - Too often, decisions move up the management chain to people who have the least amount of knowledge to make the best decision. Big decisions shouldn’t always be made by management. If you have a smart team, you should empower each person to make decisions that apply to their own groups and roles. In addition to speeding up decisions and helping shape current team members into future managers, this will also instill a sense of ownership throughout your entire team.

Strategize Planning That Focuses on Solutions - You should be strategically thinking about what problems to solve, and then build in revenue projections, profits or other forecasts. If you build a great product that solves a big problem, you can then do what is necessary to make the numbers work within budgeted forecasts to produce the product, bring it to market and make it commercially viable over the long run.

Embrace Self Interest - In the end, people will always do what’s in their self-interest; rather than fight it, help your employees align their own self-interest with organizational-interests. Allow your team-members to move into new groups and to align themselves with their own self-interests within the company, and reward managers for moving great people out of their groups when they see a better fit.

Don’t Let Customers Dictate the Solution - When you organize around your market, hence your customer, you’ll be in a better position to see their pain points. Let your customers dictate the problem, but never the solution. Customers sometimes see problems that you don’t because you’re oftentimes too ingrained in the product. When it comes to the solution, however, there’s nobody better than your own team to find the best answer.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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6 Tips for Small Business Owners

At Global Resources, we utilize our expertise, education and experience to help small and medium – size businesses grow in today’s competitive market. We realize that owning and managing a business is hard work, so we have tips that you can incorporate into your business practices to aid in your success:

Always make sure there is and will be enough cash in the bank. The most common business-failure mode is running out of cash. If you anticipate a cash flow or liquidity problem approaching, fix it now.  

You can’t terminate bad employees fast enough. Just ensure they’re the problem, not you.

Take care of your best employees. This goes for every company, big and small. The cost of losing a star employee is enormous, yet business leaders rarely take the time to ensure their top performers are properly motivated, challenged and compensated.

Learn to say "yes" and "no" a lot. The two most important words business owners and founders have at their disposal are “yes” and “no.” This also means being decisive. The most important reason to focus – to be clear on what your company does – is to be clear on all the things it doesn’t do.

Listen to your customers.  Prioritize your customers as they are your biggest asset. Their feedback and input are amongst the most critical information you will ever learn and their repeat business is the easiest business to get.

Learn two words: meritocracy and nepotism. The first is how you run an organization – by recognizing, rewarding, and compensating based solely on ability and achievement. The second is how you don’t run an organization – by playing favorites and being biased.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Small Business Tips for Black Friday

At Global Resources, we utilize our experience to help small and medium – size businesses grow and thrive in today’s competitive marketplace. We know that many business owners- both small and large - aspire to capitalize on Black Friday. If you’re hoping to expand sales on this day, we have general tips that may lead you to success:

1. Offer extended support and service. Small businesses often flourish when they offer personalized attention. Besides a great deal, customers also like to feel valued. By adding extended support and a no-hassle refund policy, customers are more-likely to make a purchase and become loyal to your brand.

2. Promote gift card purchases. Statistics have shown that shoppers often have gift cards on their holiday shopping lists. By promoting your gift cards, you can add to your revenue stream and acquire new customers.

3. Promote special deals for special customers. Send a coupon for an exclusive discount or deal on Black Friday to those in your email database.

4. Invest in social media ads. Many Americans are off work during Thanksgiving weekend, which means many potential customers are surfing the web and looking for great deals. Take the opportunity to grab their attention by placing ads on Facebook and Google.

5. Use hashtags. If you use Twitter for promotional purposes, remember to include hashtags in your tweets. #Blackfriday and your city (#Chicago) and state (#Illinois) are helpful in driving potential customers to your store.

6. Hit the streets. Most-likely there will be thousands of people standing in line for hours outside of a big-box store in your area (such as Best Buy and Target.) Consider using direct marketing with a stack of coupons, if you are not in competition with the other retailer. You will need to get their permission before you engage in this direct marketing strategy on their property.  However, if you are offering a benefit to those who are standing in line which the retailer would see as a benefit to their own customers, you will have a better chance of getting management’s approval. Consider offering a special discount for the retailer’s own employees for giving you permission to pass out flyers to those waiting in line for early morning Black Friday deals.  By doing this you create a benefit for the retailer and create a win-win situation for all involved.  

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Tips to Grow Your Business During the Holiday Season

Global Resources is a full-service business development group and general management consulting firm that specializes in small business growth.

We understand that the holiday season can bring great opportunity for businesses to land new clients and strengthen relationships with existing customers. To help you do this, below are general tips to assist you in growing your business during the end of year flow:

Recognize Valuable Customers - Many businesses find that sending thank-you gifts to current clients adds a personal touch. There are numerous approaches you can take with your gifts, so choose one that expresses your individual style.

Host an Open House - During the holiday season, many businesses host open houses and invite customers to attend. Don't limit your gathering to current clients, though. Open the invitation to your local social media followers and other businesses located nearby.

Attend Networking Events - You'll likely receive a few holiday party invitations during the month, which can be great networking opportunities. Review each invite carefully and choose those that stand to expose you to new clients or potential partnerships.

Create a Fun Holiday Video - Your holiday greetings will likely only be seen by your own clients unless they're unique enough to be shared. Instead, consider creating a fun, humorous video that celebrates the season in your own unique way.

Offer Discounts - Nothing gets more shares than a great discount. Offer New Year discounts to your existing clients and invite them to share with their own followers. For extra incentive to share, you can even give additional discounts to those who refer someone.

Send an End-of-Year Update- December offers a built-in opportunity to contact each of your clients with a well-designed newsletter that recaps your year. You can celebrate all of your company's achievements and share your upcoming goals for the upcoming year.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Additional Career Planning Options

Global Resources is a practical resource for business sustainability and growth. Our immense education and experience allows us to assist you in reaching goals and growing your small to medium – size business.

For young people who are in the midst of planning for their careers, there are small business opportunities in both business and professional services that should be considered when deciding on a lifelong vocation:

Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping and Payroll Services-No matter how the economy is doing, everyone needs accountants. Also, this industry tends to have low overhead and repeat clients.

Management of Companies and Enterprises- This industry is made up of small, privately-owned corporations of bank holding companies and other types of holding companies where both degrees in business and finance will provide the necessary foundation.

Real Estate Agents and Brokers - While the real-estate market is largely dependent on the health of the economy, real-estate brokers and agents have low operating costs and all you need to get started is an agent or brokerage license.

Automotive Equipment Rental and Leasing - With the on-demand economy on the rise, people may be leasing and renting more cars using on-demand services such as Zipcar -- along with more traditional rental services.  Currently, Ford Motor Company and Uber are working together on a fleet of driver-less Fusions to perfect the technology needed for driverless cars of the future. Some are predicting that the advent of driverless cars may be viable within 5-8 years.  This will change the auto landscape and create new opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Legal Services – Most people know that lawyers aren’t cheap. Law, like accounting, generally has low operating costs as well as repeat clients. However, this business category includes not only lawyers, but notaries, settlement officers (who deal in the transaction of securities) and title search agents in real estate.

Physicians and Dentists – Physicians and dentists benefit from recurring patients, and while startup costs can be expensive, these  profession have the advantage of handling several patients at a time, plus many pay through insurance plans.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Tips for Business Growth

Global Resources has the expertise to help entrepreneurs launch small businesses. Starting a business is a huge commitment that can reap many long-term rewards. If you’re looking to become a business owner, we can help put you on the path to success.

To make sustained growth more likely, small businesses need a smart, strategic plan. Whether a company is in its infancy or has been around for years, there are a few things every savvy small-business owner needs to keep in mind.

Identify your audience - Invest in market research—which you can either hire consultants to do or informally conduct yourself—to best identify who your customers are, then compare that data with who you would like your customers to be. From there, you can make an informed decision about where and how to reach them and launch a marketing initiative with a better chance of yielding a return on your investment.

Hire an accountant –If you're not qualified to keep your company's books yourself (and you should have an accounting background to do so if you expect any significant growth), you need to understand at least the very basics of accounting so that you can make a good hire of someone more adept to take on that work.

Provide a positive corporate culture – To keep your employees and to attract new hires, business owners should cultivate a solid office culture. As a small business owner, you can create a welcoming, friendly, fun and productive environment that people want to be part of.

Plan conservatively - Do everything you can to avoid being surprised when you don't reach financial goals. Set realistic expectations, and have a clear plan on how to get there. Undershooting your revenue estimates will help ensure that your plans, which are based on how much money your business makes, won't derail the company. If you aim high and fall short of reaching your expected margins, it can be disastrous to your firm.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Advancing Small Business Cost Control

The team at Global Resources LLC offers individual solutions, developed onsite, for small to medium-size businesses.  We help small and medium-size businesses maintain positive cash flow, control costs and accelerate profitable growth, allowing entrepreneurs and managers to make the most of their work and their lives.  As your trusted business partner, we utilize our experience to help you outline a path to achieve success.

Our team offers advanced expertise in accounting systems, information systems and organizing your business, which often leads to improving your cost control.

Cost control in a small business typically includes:

investigative procedures to detect variance of actual costs from budgeted costs

diagnostic procedures to ascertain the cause(s) of variance

corrective procedures to affect realignment between actual and budgeted costs

The objective of cost control is to manage the delivery of the project within the approved budget. Regular cost reporting will facilitate, at all times, the best possible estimate of:

Established project cost to the current date

Anticipated final cost of the work project

Future cash flow predictions

In addition to the cost control objectives above, cost reporting may include assessments of:

Ongoing risks to costs

Costs in the use of the completed facility

Potential savings

Monitoring expenditure to any particular date does not exert any control over future expenditure and, therefore, the final cost of the project. Effective cost control is achieved when the whole of the project team adopts the correct attitude to cost.

To learn more about how we can help you and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business pros at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Why Blogging is Important to a Small Business

Global Resources helps business owners strategize techniques that are helpful in growing their business, including the popular technique of blogging. Considered a marketing tactic, blogging is a long-term, on-going strategy that supplements and grounds other marketing campaigns over the life of a small business. It takes time to develop a reputation as an authority in your area of expertise and even longer to develop the loyal following that triggers purchasing.

Here are some reasons why small businesses are blogging:

Drive traffic to your website: Your blog gives you the opportunity to create relevant content for your customers. Use this as a marketing tactic to drive traffic back to your website. Post links  - with relevant visuals - of your blog articles to your social sites. Give your social followers a reason to click through to your website.

Increase your SEO: Blogs increase your SEO. Fresh content is still a key to beating out your competitors in the search engine results page.  Keywords and topics on your website are a significant way in which Google (and other search engines) find your site for these searched word, so use keywords in your articles.

Establish your brand as an industry leader: Well written articles demonstrate your company as an industry leader. By posting topics which resonate with your market and show your knowledge, you are marketing your skills for your business, service or product too.  You are also building trust with your readers. The more you can show that you are well-versed in your field, the more likely your consumer will trust you to supply what they need.

Develop positive customer relationships: Blogs provide another source to deepen the connection with your customer. By connecting directly on your website, your clients are able to get to know your business or product from the comfort of your online home base.

To learn more and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Productivity in the Workplace

Productivity is a huge factor for workplace growth. Between employee attrition and lost productivity, companies lose $350 billion every year. Facing that kind of loss, it’s no wonder companies both large and small look for ways to mitigate employee flight and increase worker efficiency.

The experts at Global Resources solve the intricate and unique challenges you are experiencing in the evolving marketplace.  While there are best practices that are applicable to all organizations, we understand that no two businesses are identical. We help small and medium-size businesses make changes based on big data. Data analysis reveals surprising insights about what does—and doesn’t—improve worker performance.

If you are a business owner or leader concerned about productivity, here is some data you may be interested in:

Worker Reliability: Employee attrition is costly; only 50 percent of hourly workers stay on the job for one year or longer.

Telecommuting Employees: Work-at-home employees stay at on the job 20 percent longer than employees with the shortest amount of time at a job. However, those work-at-home employees produce 1.6 percent less than their office-bound colleagues.

Rule Breakers: Do you prefer to hire employees who toe the line? The data says that employees who identify as rule-followers actually break the rules 67 percent more often than those who don’t make that claim.

Better Browsers: Workers who use Chrome or Firefox—instead of Internet Explorer—stay at their jobs longer, miss 15 percent fewer work days, and deliver higher customer satisfaction.

Social Employees Do It Better: Job performance is higher among employees who use three to four social networks compared to those who are less involved with social networks.

To learn more and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.

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Integrating Live Chat Software

The experts at Global Resources help small and medium-size businesses maintain positive cash flow, control costs and accelerate profitable growth, allowing entrepreneurs and managers to make the most of their work and their lives.

In the recent years, we have assisted many clients with integrating live chat software into their business.  Although there are various programs now available, many are made especially for large corporations.  Global Resources LLC can help you find the best program for your small to medium-size business.

If you’re looking to add live chat software, here are three options that are great for small to medium-size businesses

My LiveChat - My LiveChat offers a free live chat with many beneficial features. My LiveChat offers real-time visitor monitoring to help personalize chat sessions and makes live chats more efficient by letting agents hold multiple chat sessions at a time, send pre-written responses to frequently asked questions, keep chat histories and send email transcripts. My LiveChat is also customizable to your brand, allowing you to upload your logo to appear on instant messages and customize greetings and other automated messages.

Olark -  Olark's Targeted Chat feature lets representatives control how many chats are received and select which customers to chat with, for instance, to prioritize cart abandonment prevention or to boost sales. The software also provides key information reps need, such as which page a customer is viewing, their browsing history on the website and how long they have been on the website. With this information, chat representatives are fully equipped to provide excellent service and close sales. Olark starts at $15 a month.

LiveEngage by LivePerson  - The LiveEngage live chat software lets customers contact you on both your website and their mobile phones using an app (iOS and Android) or via mobile Web. The product is also scalable, so you can choose different plans and services as your business's needs grow. Features include the ability to resume conversations — for instance, if their Internet connection drops and the chat ends — and view real-time progress to see if issues have been resolved. Customers can also leave feedback, rate the representative they chatted with and score their satisfaction at the end of each chat session. LiveEngage plans start at $49 per month.

To learn more and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.