Posts filed under 'small business'
Free Small Business Marketing Webinar
On Wednesday, August 26, Network Solutions® is hosting a FREE small business webinar on successfully marketing your business during the economic downturn. Due to the economy, many small businesses have lowered their marketing budget in an effort to cut down on expenses. The GrowSmartBusiness team recognizes that marketing, in any form, is crucial to driving business growth and sales. The “How Do You Effectively Market Your Small Business in a Downturn Economy?” webinar is designed to teach entrepreneurs and small biz owners how to find and utilize creative ways to successfully market their businesses, all while staying within a smaller budget. Featured speakers include:
- Jay Ehret, founder and Chief Steward of The Marketing Spot in Waco, Texas
- Susan Gunelius, President and CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications provider
- Jay Berkowitz, CEO of Ten Golden Rules, a business-to-business Internet marketing agency in Boca Raton, Florida
This event promises to be a great learning opportunity for all who attend–and it’s free! To register and learn more, visit http://growsmartbusiness.com/small-business-news/2009/08/free-webinar-how-do-you-effectively-market-your-small-business-in-a-downturn-economy/.
Add comment August 21, 2009
MSS Featured Articles: Holiday Season Preparation
Right now we have two articles featured at MySolutionSpot™ that are must-reads for all small business owners. Late summer is the perfect time to start thinking about the holiday season, and these articles offer great tips on preparing your business for the upcoming holiday rush.
In “Fresh Content in Now for More Holiday Shoppers Later,” we discuss how adding new content to your e-commerce site can increase the amount of traffic coming into your online store. By adding new content (like holiday shopping guides), or by changing your product descriptions so that they are different from your competitors, you can increase the chances of your online store showing up on search engine results. This is vital for the holiday season, when shoppers are looking for the best gifts and the best places to buy them.
In “Holiday Season 2009: Prepare Now, Profit Later,” Jill Rafalowski discusses some of the early steps you can take to ensure that your business is ready to capitalize on the holiday shopping season. Her advice includes expanding your social media presence; padding your company’s budget; brainstorming possible promotions; appealing to pre-shoppers; and a few more useful tips. By researching and preparing now, you can set yourself up for high profit later.
Do you have any other holiday preparation advice? Drop your comments below, or head over to the MySolutionSpot™ forums to discuss the 2009 holiday season.
Add comment August 13, 2009
MySolutionSpot™ Has a New Look
Like the changes we’ve made to the MySolutionSpot™ blog? Our new appearance reflects the changes that have recently been made to MySolutionSpot and the Network Solutions® storefront. We’ve changed our colors, updated our images, and cleaned up the layout of both websites. Head over to NetworkSolutions.com and MySolutionSpot.com, take a look at the changes we’ve made, and then let us know what you think!
MySolutionSpot is dedicated to providing small business owners with the tools they need to succeed; therefore, we want our community to be one that is enjoyable, resourceful, and easy to use. If you have any suggestions on how we can make our site even better, please send an email to support@mysolutionspot.com. We’d love to hear from you!
Add comment August 5, 2009
Make Money During Your Down Time
Today I found an article at MainStreet.com that can apply to both small business owners and their small businesses. In “4 Ways to Make Money on a Day Off,” Stacy Baker gives a few pointers on how to use your free time to bring in—or save—a little money. Her ideas are geared toward individuals, but I think they can apply to businesses as well.
Baker describes how one can turn their passions and hobbies into money-making ventures. Many small business owners have already done this—a lot of startups were the result of someone wanting to turn their hobby into a job. But your small business can also make a little extra money by catering to its customers’ passions. Classes or workshops are a great example of this. If you provide goods to a particular group, you can also offer them the chance to enjoy using these goods at your store. Cooking classes, wine tastings, scrapbooking workshops, and sport training sessions are just some of the activities your business can offer during its off time that can help bring in a little extra money and market your store.
Next, Baker suggests working within your network to gain valuable resources for your business. Try starting a relationship with another business owner in your community that will be advantageous to both of you. Find someone whose expertise or products you need, and who also can benefit from what you and your business offer. This type of relationship is very opportunistic from a marketing viewpoint, and you’ll also save money in the process.
Check out Baker’s full article at http://www.mainstreet.com/article/smart-spending/bargains/deals/4-ways-make-money-day.
1 comment July 16, 2009
Are You Using E-Commerce Yet?
Now that it’s July, we’re in the 3rd quarter of the business year. So let’s talk about Q4! Now is the perfect time to start thinking about the holiday season. If you haven’t joined the ecommerce world yet, you need to read this article. In “Why Small Businesses Should Embrace E-Commerce,” Nisarat Sujatanond describes how an ecommerce website can help your business increase sales to both local and extended customers. In addition to widening your customer base, selling online can also help you gain valuable marketing insight. Thanks to web analytics, ecommerce merchants can get a grasp on who their customers are, what they’re looking for, and how they shop. Online stores can be easily marketed using this information, thanks to services like Twitter™, Facebook®, and PPC advertising.
To read Sujatanond’s full article, visit http://www.mysolutionspot.com/ecommerce-101/why-small-businesses-should-embrace-e-commerce-1602/.
1 comment July 8, 2009
Smart Hiring Advice for Small Business Owners
One of the common challenges for small business owners is hiring the right employees. Since the employee base of a small business is often very small, all team members need to be competent and knowledgeable. So how do you find the right people? At Entrepreneur.com, Burton Goldfield has some smart hiring tips in his article, “Find the Right Person in 6 Steps.” Goldfield notes a few things that I find especially relevant for small business owners:
- Don’t rush your decision. Hiring the wrong employee is more costly to your business than waiting for the perfect candidate.
- Clearly state the abilities you’re looking for. If your small business needs someone who can handle multiple roles, make that very apparent when composing the job description.
- Ask your trusted peers for recommendations and references. Those around you are very likely to know someone who is perfect for your business.
To read Goldfield’s full article, visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/humanresources/humanresourceburtongoldfield/article202432.html. For more advice on putting together a strong staff for your small business, visit MySolutionSpot™.
2 comments June 30, 2009
Reminder: Holiday Retail Webcast is Tomorrow
Tomorrow is the “Online Holiday Retail 2009: Tips, Tactics, and Timelines” webcast. This event, which starts at 1pm EDT, will help online retailers start planning their strategy for the 2009 holiday season. For more information and to register for this webcast, visit http://searchmarketingnow.com/webcasts/wc090625.
Add comment June 24, 2009
Take Our Startup Challenges Poll
At MySolutionSpot™, we know that starting a small business can be a long, difficult process. We’d like to know what your biggest startup challenge was. Did you have difficulty finding the time to work on your business plan, or was your biggest issue coming up with the money needed to open your small business? Head over to MySolutionSpot.com to take our new small business poll, “Hardest Small Business Startup Challenge,” and cast your vote.
Stay tuned for the results!
2 comments June 24, 2009
Health Tips for SMB Owners
Americans, in general, lead very busy, fast-paced lifestyles. This is especially true for SMB owners, who often have to take care of a family in addition to running their small business. People in the business world are more prone to stress and exhaustion, both of which can increase health risks like high blood pressure, obesity, illness, and so forth. Taking care of your health is just as crucial to your business’s success as marketing, customer service, and other business procedures are. The better your physical and mental health, the better decisions you’ll make for your business.
Over at GrowSmartBusiness.com, the blogging team recently posted some tips on maintaining both your physical and mental health while running a small business. There are also ideas on how to inspire your employees to invest in their health. Check out “Staying Healthy While Running a Small Business” for advice on how to keep you, your employees, and your business healthy. To view this blog post, visit http://growsmartbusiness.com/2009/06/staying-healthy-while-running-a-small-business/ .
1 comment June 18, 2009
Have You Set a Good Anchor?
While reading this article earlier today, I started reflecting on my own experience with “anchors” and their power of persuasion. In the short time I’ve owned my home (a little over a year), I’ve had a fence put up around my back yard and new windows installed throughout the house. For each project, I had multiple companies give me price estimates. I gave the same “this is what I want” spiel to each company, and each installer used the same measurements. Some of the companies used the same products—exact same windows, exact same fence parts—yet there was a huge difference between the highest estimate and the lowest. In the end, for both the windows and the fence, I decided to go with one of the companies in the middle of the pricing spectrum.
I bypassed the company that gave the highest estimate (for obvious reasons), and even though I wanted to save money, I skipped over the company with the lowest offer. Why? The anchor got to me. With the mid-priced estimates, I felt like I would be getting a better deal than if I went with the high-priced installers. Regarding the companies that offered lower prices, I was concerned that they wouldn’t do as good of a job as the others, or they wouldn’t be able to offer continued care should I need it. The mid-priced estimates proved to be the anchor by which I judged the rest of the estimates.
Mental anchors do exist, as Damon Gudaitis notes in the above article, and small businesses need to be aware of this. Check out Gudaitis’ article, and then take a look at your business: Are your prices too high, causing customers to feel as if they’d be paying too much? Or are they too low, giving your business a vibe of “low price, low quality”? By becoming aware of your anchor, you can readjust it so that it better reflects your business and the quality of its offerings.
4 comments June 17, 2009
