Posts Tagged ‘smallbiz’

Small Business Branding: What You Can Learn From The World’s Best Brands

Ross | May 22nd, 2013

  The 2013 Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report was just released. The report offers important lessons for startups and small business. Apple is once again listed as the most valuable global brand, with Google, IBM, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola rounding out the top five. We’ve previously written about important lessons small businesses and [...]

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This Is Why Social Media Doesn’t Work For Your Business

Ross | May 21st, 2013

If you have invested considerable time and resources on social media marketing over the past year and feel frustrated, you are not alone. About 61% of small businesses don’t see any return on investment on their social-media activities … Yet, almost 50% say they’ve increased their time spent on social media, and only 7% have [...]

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Small Business and Social Marketing: Time for an Audit?

Mike | May 20th, 2013

Marketing is simple: spend $100 advertising your product or service and earn back $110 for your efforts. This has long been the underlying challenge for businesses large and small:  how do you acquire new customers, convince them to buy more of whatever it is you are selling, get them to tell other’s about your offering, [...]

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Small Business and Startups: Prepare For the Worst

Mike | May 13th, 2013

Disaster strikes. Extreme weather events, fires, data storage failures, illness or even the death of a key team member can occur at any time and when something happens, will your small business be prepared? According to ReadWrite, 74% of small businesses do not have a disaster plan and 84% don’t even carry insurance against natural [...]

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The Business Plan. Redux.

Mike | May 6th, 2013

It has been some time since I last discussed business plans in these blog pages and I thought it might be time for an update. When Ross and I were developing the idea for crowdSPRING we wrote an extensive business plan – over 80 pages of detailed description, research, tables, charts, models, and projections. The [...]

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How Customer Service Impacts The Success Of Your Business

Ross | May 2nd, 2013

What your customers and potential customers say publicly about your company’s products and services matters a great deal. In a few minutes, we’ll give you three good tips on how you can improve your customers’ experience when they deal with your customer service team. But first, let’s take a quick look at why you should [...]

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Small Business Marketing Guide: Types of Traditional and Online Marketing

Ross | May 1st, 2013

Many small business owners and young entrepreneurs are intimidated by marketing. There’s a good reason for this: marketing is expensive, can be time-consuming, and can be a waste of time. But marketing, when planned and executed correctly, can also lead to more sales and revenue. Whether you plan and execute traditional and online marketing strategies [...]

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10 Things Entrepreneurs Can Learn From High School Seniors

Mike | April 22nd, 2013

I have written before about things entrepreneurs can learn from people who come from various walks of life. From athletes we can learn the value focus and training, from comics we learn about of risk-taking, from chefs we learn how to stay creativity under great stress, and from musicians we learn the importance of working [...]

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Small Business and Startups: Cultivate Trust and Nurture Loyalty

Mike | April 15th, 2013

Trust is a key for driver for your customers. Do they trust you to produce a great product? Do they trust you to deliver a reliable service? Do they trust you with their money and their time? Establishing trust with your customers takes time and consistency, but it also takes data and transparency. Companies rely [...]

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