It shouldn’t be hard work for your customers to complain. They are helping you to improve, so make it easy for them to get a message to you. Contributor Jon Swanson. Contributor Jon Swanson worked hard to complain constructively to two companies. He heard back from one, but not the other. He finally wrote about…
Choosing a website name or URL for a small business is important, and most of the advice out there is written for big city businesses. For small towns, there are two basic tactics. If you have lots of local competitionBig city businesses often compete over domain names that include the city and the product, like…
You probably get calls every week, pleading for free help. “Can I pick your brain?” “I just made a Facebook page for my business. I’d love to get your feedback!” “Let me buy you coffee and ask you about this.” Free coffee or lunch isn’t the same as a business. Photo by Jon Swanson. With…
I love talking to my friend Paul Chaney because he really gets both small business and small towns. He wrote a great book on the basics of social media for small business called The Digital Handshake. When I heard he had a new book coming out, this one on F-commerce, I invited him to tell…
At a recent event, a fellow small-town resident asked me, “Isn’t small towns dying just part of a natural progression?” I said no. Here’s why. We’ll always need small towns. Small towns combine natural resourcesand supporting businesses. 1. Our security depends on small towns. Our nation needs a secure food supply, reliable production of natural…
Since our book Small Town Rules was released by Que Publishing this spring, Barry Moltz and I have been sharing lots of videos, interviews, and guest posts all over the web on the ideas in it. Because I’m so close to this subject, I forget that you haven’t seen much of it here. I finally realized…
Gmail users, head to this article: Using Gmail’s Tabbed Inbox wisely. Outlook users and others, read on… I manage email a bit differently than many people. I keep my inbox clear, and most of my email automatically sorts itself into easy-to-process groups. That means I spend less time on email every single day. How filters…
Every business, no matter how small your town is, has to compete with someone. What advantage will you play up to your customers? Red’s, a barbecue place in my hometown, is promoting its location. See, 14 miles away in another tiny town is a terrific barbecue place. So Red’s is basically saying, “don’t make the…
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