February 16th, 2010
Your Business Is Worthless if It Depends on You
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
ShareYour Business Is Worthless if It Depends on YouThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Marketing podcast with John Warrillow (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes
The title of this post might sound like fighting words for some, I mean, you work and sweat and pour your life into [...]
Posted in Small Business, Strategy
February 16th, 2010
HootSuite has been around for some time, unfortunately I’ve only been using it for several months, and am hooked. It makes it so easy to integrate multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Facebook pages. You can even use HootSuite to update your chosen social accounts using content from an RSS feed (like your blog). Today [...]
Posted in Business Networking, Small Business, Small Business Tools
February 16th, 2010
We make marketing blunders when we don’t know who it is we’re marketing toward or when we try to treat all of our customers the same way. The truth is that our customers are not the same. They don’t take to marketing the same way, they don’t want the same things and they’re not equal in what they mean to our business. By segmenting customers into different “buckets” or personas it allows us to create a more targeted experience, while alsoRead More
From Small Business Trends
SMB Owners: Are You Segmenting Customers?
Posted in Business Development, Small Business
February 15th, 2010
When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was announced back in February 2009, the SBA received $730 million of federal stimulus funding from the program. Loan demand soon gobbled up that funding, and in December, the SBA received an additional $125 million (I blogged about that extension on Small Business Trends last month).
SBA Administrator Karen Mills told BizJournals.com that the SBA was able to immediately get that money distributed to small businesses. However, the extension runs out at the end of February.Read More
From Small Business Trends
What’s Happening with SBA Lending – and Do Small-Business Owners Care?
Posted in Small Business, Small Business Finance, Small Business Loans
February 15th, 2010
Although the incorporated share of self-employment declined slightly last year, the trend over the past two decades has been towards increased incorporation.
With all due credit to Steve King, who looked at this topic about a year ago in his blog, I’m offering my own take on it today.
In the figure below, I’ve plotted the incorporated share of self-employment since 1989 using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Since 1989, the share of non-agricultural self-employment that is incorporatedRead More
From Small Business Trends
More of the Self Employed Incorporate
Posted in Small Business
February 14th, 2010
Small businesses are no longer cutting edge by calling themselves “green.” Big corporations like Wal-Mart and Nike down to the corner café are cultivating a greener image as consumer demand for environmentally responsible products and operations quickly goes mainstream.
What this means: Businesses genuinely trying to limit their environmental toll must now work harder to authenticate their green practices and convince consumers they’re for real – not just throwing around green lingo.
The next phase of green business evolution will focus onRead More
From Small Business Trends
Five Green Business Trends For 2010
Posted in Small Business