How can your small town business take on the bigger competitors? Whether you’re facing the big boxes, the big city shopping, or the online big boys, you can try these four ways to beat them back. Tell your human story. Your business came from somewhere, was founded by someone, touches real people. When you tell…
My friend Chaz French just emailed me from the road: I’m at a take out falafel place that apparently does delivery but nowhere in here can we find a menu to take and they didn’t come up in a web search for delivery in the area. If you aren’t sharing your critical information with your…
DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, likes big challenges. They don’t want to touch projects that are merely hard, or just really difficult. They only want to take on those that are so hard, so seemingly impossible, that no one else could solve them, no one else would ever invest in them. Challenges that…
Every week, I open a new Basket. I call it the Brag Basket, but it’s not really about bragging. It’s about sharing. I started this so you can introduce yourself, share some good news about yourself, or congratulate a friend. Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer,…
Are business cards dead? Every so often, the “business cards are dead” meme goes around. High tech business people are more likely to exchange Twitter addresses than business cards. (@beckymccray, by the way.) Some people use cards that just say “Google me” or only have their name. The implication is that you can find them…
A small business related announcement from the Internal Revenue Service: The Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE) division of the IRS will begin conducting its annual telephone survey of taxpayers starting January 18, 2010 and running through mid-April, 2010. This survey is targeted to small business and self-employed taxpayers who file certain income tax forms, including: 1120, 1120S,…
When I visited Peru, one highlight was watching a rehearsal parade. It was the day before the Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun, in Cusco, Peru. The main festival draws a crowd of thousands and thousands. But this was the day before. The local bands and performing troops held a rehearsal. The crowd was…
To get ready for an upcoming presentation, I came up with a list of things about social media that scare small town governments, or roadblocks that keep them from participating in social networks. I think there are lots of similarities to small businesses. We don’t know what to do. We don’t want to lose control…
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