Small Business Trends

7 Gmail Tips Every SMB Should Know

So many of us in the small business community rely on Gmail as our default email provider, and with good reason! We use Google because it comes at a price point we love (often free) and it integrates with other applications that we use on a daily basis – like ...

Stop Saying That! Lost For Words in Small Business

Communications are important in any small business. Here’s a crash course in how to become a great communicator you won’t want to miss.

Trimming your business language. Learning to communicate effectively, especially when it comes to business, can be ...

4 Sustainability Trends Among Retailers

Retailers face major challenges when it comes to sustainability. They source products made all over the world. They use lots of energy to keep stores well lit and comfortable.  They sells products that could one day end up in landfills.

But a new report from ...

Spending Too Much Time on Twitter

Many of us love engaging with our customers, industry folks and like-minded individuals on Twitter. Some of us also believe that time spent on Twitter translates to more awareness for our brand, and thus more customers. But how do we measure if it’s working? Or how much time is too ...

Google Makes Business Photos Self-Service

Back in May we told you about Google Business Photos, an effort by Google to pair small business owners up with professional photographers to take high-quality images of their business for their Google Places profile. At the time the program was only available in select cities so we encouraged SMBs ...

Great Tales of Entrepreneurship

The tales of great entrepreneurs are what inspire us. They let us know what is possible and press us toward what seems impossible. Here are some incredible stories of real life smaller and bigger businesses that grew from nothing. Enjoy!

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John Locke Shares His Strategies for Selling a Million Books on Amazon

In 2011 I wrote a few business book reviews based on a couple of Kindle purchases.  In addition to the business books, I picked up one of those  $.99 Kindle Singles written by John Locke about a savvy CIA assassin named Donovan Creed.  I got hooked on his engaging ...

Cash Flow, Complex Issues and Conversation: Back to Business

I heard this statement from a small business owner several years ago — “run your business lean and mean,” he said.  But the difference between talking about it and doing it, you know, making the tough decisions to remove the fluff, manage the details and strategically market your message – ...

A Timeless 5 Step Sales Philosophy From Mark Twain

There are and will always be steps in the sales process. They actually have changed very little since 1865, when Mark Twain created what might be one of the first sales training manuals “The Successful Sales Agent.”  He was not only an author but a very savvy businessman who understood ...