Common small business mistakes have become a regular series here. Here’s the example of the day: Feel bad after suggesting that daughter buy shoes in downtown Oakville rather than at a chain. Now store won’t accept return. @DonnaPapacosta, via Twitter Ouch! You want to gain more business; you want to beat the big chains. In…
Now is a great time to be growing your business. Really! Most other businesses, big and small, are still hiding. That means it’s time for contrarians like you and me to move ahead. I talked about this at the Oklahoma Entrepreneurs Conference, so I’m glad that My Venture Pad contracted me to help promote SAP’s…
People trust other people, much more than they trust you. That means your potential customers trust the semi-anonymous reviews written on online review sites more than all that great text on your own website. Do you regularly monitor what is said about you on TripAdvisor, VirtualTourist or Igougo? How about mainstream booking sites like Hotels.com,…
Con Pekrul knows how to keep it simple. He owns the Plain View Winery, in Lahoma, Oklahoma. Let’s look around the back room. All the equipment is simple. Barrels and buckets, second hand tables, a used refrigerator. Here’s Con’s father Hart, filling bottles by hand. An automatic bottler would be too expensive, Con said. And…
It’s Friday, and that means the Brag Basket is open for the weekend. Plus, it’s Jon Swanson’s birthday. If you know him, you might go take a look at his birthday post. When you come back, share your projects and accomplishments. You can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even…
Nate is a web designer. Allie is getting married. I’m helping an organization with their web presence. Trista arranges flowers. All these stories are linked. And all of them tell something about small business. 1. Nate Reussercame to tell me (and the staff of the organization) about passwords and their website. In the course of…
New ideas are changing rural tourism. Now it is possible to reach more people, more places than you could ever have afforded to before. But it’s also more complex, with more complicated choices, and a faster pace of change. Recognizing that tourism is a huge segment of rural small business, we want to put a…
Want to start a blog for your small business, but not sure what to write about? The best posts are like personal notes to your customer. Here’s a starter list of topics to get you going. How our business was founded Just yesterday, a customer asked… Meet one of our employees Meet one of our…
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