It is easy for business owners to see and want those great new things that surround us. Yet those shiny new things may not be what the business owner needs at that moment or maybe ever. Shiny new things cost money and may take more time. Owners must decide if those are things that he…
I recently did a post for another blog, Power of Business. In it I discussed the fact that marketing is much more than making a sale. Marketing should happen early, be often and continuous. You must understand who your potential customer is, what motivates them, and be prepared to use all of the marketing tools available. …
I recently received the Ice Bucket Challenge (which I accepted). If you haven’t heard about this challenge, the idea is to either have a bucket of ice water over your head or donate money to the ALS Association. This challenge has went viral. You probably have even heard about it or participated in it. Today over…
Most small-business owners are not excited about handling the financial recordkeeping for the business, which should come as no surprise. Instead, business owners often put it off until later and, quite often, the “later” means tax time. Not keeping good financial records can result in a multitude of problems. At best, you may not maximize…
“Big data” and “mining big data” are terms that are appearing in business magazines and journals at lot these days. Yet small-business owners often are not sure if and how big data fits into their business. Nor do they know where to get it and how to analyze it, even if they would have it….
If you look back through various writings, these two terms, entrepreneur and small business owner, were once considered the same thing. Yet today business schools and economic/community developers often view them differently. More often the focus is on entrepreneurial development with fewer programs having “small business” in the title. Yet one often wonders are they…
As a business owner, you probably have heard that customers will forget about your business unless you keep your name in front of them. And this thought is partially true. The need to stay visible is an important part of marketing Today, however, with social marketing, “more” is taken to new heights. Everyone is focused…
Guest post by Cathy Lloyd, The Village In the summer of 2007, I had an idea to help the state of retail on the square in downtown Washington, Iowa. Since Wal-Mart came to town in the ‘70s, there had been a steady decline in the number of retail businesses in the downtown area. I hoped…
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