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These five things can dramatically increase your company's valuation, says venture capitalist Jason Trevisan When I was learning to drive I swerved.

What you think is an elevator pitch will actually alienate customers. Instead, have a conversation that creates a real sales opportunity. If you're like most entrepreneurs, you think an "elevator pitch" is a one- to three-minute sales pitch that you could presumably give during a very long elevator ride

In some rare cases it may become necessary to fire a customer that disrespects your team. In those cases, show your team that you have their backs

If you can't get past the excuses, your deal is doomed. Make sure you've got these 5 elements in place. If you've ever tried to sell anything, you've heard one of these comments—either from your own prospects or via your sales people: "It's not in the budget right now" "I have to speak with the owner" "It's not our No.

Make sure your new hires are not only computer literate, but tech-savvy.

The value of customer relationships runs much deeper than a good product or service. Often we receive many great questions and comments from the readers of our Inc.com column

Make sure every interaction you have with your customers inspires a positive emotion.

How many are you putting your customers though? I'm sure you, like me, have spent too much time in customer service hell as a consumer. With apologies to Dante, it’s at least nine circles: The never-ending voice mail phone tree The requirement to repeat your name, account number, etc., ad infinitum Hold, hold, hold The ominous sound, mid-conversation, of the dial tone The disappearing clerk The line that's always 20 people deep The agent who doesn’t understand your question The “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the authority to do that” response The clerk who's busy texting someone who's clearly more important than you I'm sure there are more

As a business owner, if you can tap into the passion of your workforce the same way that Wikipedia taps into its army of unpaid volunteers, you can accomplish things that no amount of money can buy. Have you ever stopped to consider how remarkable Wikipedia is? The online encyclopedia represents arguably the greatest collection of knowledge and information ever assembled--and the overwhelming majority of the work in creating and maintaining it has been done by unpaid volunteers .

Does the press love your business as much as you do? Here are five ways to grab the media's attention--no PR expertise required.

Cause marketing seems so simple... until it's not.

Top salespeople use these simple rules to keep their customers buying from them--even in the face of steep competition. Customer loyalty is the key to profitability

Desktop software is sold "by the seat." But a "by the hour" pricing structure offered by cloud-based apps means smaller businesses can put everyone on customer support--even, if necessary, the CEO. Customers are increasingly expecting to get help from companies through social media, like Twitter and Facebook, in addition to traditional channels like phone, email, and web. That's why Salesforce is launching a new application, called Desk.com, aimed at small and medium sized businesses (SMBs).

Which customers should you be rolling out the red carpet for? Follow these three steps to identify the customers and prospects worth nurturing

Sure, everything seems rosy now. But when you and your co-founder no longer see eye-to-eye, you'll be glad you did the paperwork early on