Small Business Trends

Small Business News: We Need You

Small Business NewsJuly 29, 2010By Small Business News

We need you, small business owners and entrepreneurs. To start new businesses and create new jobs. To drag us out of this long recession and into new prosperity with new ideas and new vision. In fact, there are some things we all could do to help so that small business can do what they do best, create value and new opportunities. It’s up to you small business leaders. Here are some ideas we hope will get you started.

Entrepreneurship

16 steps to better entrepreneurship. It’s no secret that renewed entrepreneurism in the U.S. could be the key to a lasting economic recovery with startup of thousands of new small businesses eventually creating potentially millions of new jobs. But what is the key for putting this new small business renaissance in motion? In this special report, Adam Bluestein and Amy Barrett advance 16 suggestions to radically revitalize American entrepreneurship and begin a whole new growth spurt for small businesses and the economy. Inc.com

80 plus ideas for better small business employees. There are probably as many ways to improve employee performance as there are employees…or maybe as there are small business owners. If you could use some suggestions, here’s a bit of crowd sourcing in which Carol drew on her exhaustive network. You’ll doubtless find some contradicting advice but hopefully some that will fit your particular need. Let us know if one of these suggestions works for your small business. Carol Roth

Operations

On loosing key employees in your business. Developing great employees for your small business involves allowing them to creaste their own branding that contribute to your own. This, of course, involves some risk. What happens when they leave you for someone else taking their brand with you? Lisa Barone has these thoughts. Outspoken Media

Learning from success and from failure. There can’t be a better example for modern entrepreneurs than Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. But despite the truly fabulous successes he has experienced, the fact is Branson says he has learned as much, if not more from his fabulous failures. Think Virgin Cola and the Australian-based Virgin credit card. What can you learn from your own small business failures that can point you in the direction of success? Open Forum Innovation

Strategy

Innovation isn’t always about being first. There’s a difference between waiting until everyone else has done something and holding off until you have the information you need to make an intelligent decision about your business. There’s also a difference between following a key group of customers in a new direction and changing course abruptly because of a trend that may or may not pan out. Don’t resist change in your business but make intelligent decisions that make sense for you and your customers. More on striking that balance is in Seth’s cool post. Seth Godin’s Blog

Tools

Facebook apps for small to medium sized businesses. Polls, SEO tools, fan page promotion and more, these are not just the latest Facebook apps for the kids. Instead, you can use them to manage the Facebook presence for your small to medium sized business. As FB and other social media sites become more and more important for small business, look for more tools to be introduced with the hopes of making ever greater use of marketing through your social media presence. Small Business Trends

Marketing

Are SMB’s still an uncracked market for your small business? The conventional wisdom is that small to medium sized businesses may be the best market for…well, other small to medium sized businesses. But is this true for your small B2B business and should you stay with this focus instead of trying to land contracts with some of the giants out there? Ben Yoskovitz has some thoughts about why SMB’s remain good markets for small businesses entering the market but bring certain challenges as well. The Instigator Blog

Want to network like a super star online or off? If so, don’t miss Sarah Shaw’s podcast interview with Nancy Fox of The Business Fox discussing secrets of networking and attracting the ideal client. You can also get some free information on networking for your next business event simply by dropping Nancy an e-mail. But first listen to the podcast and learn why opportunities to network should not be treated as uncomfortable situations but rather as great opportunities to connect with future partners and customers. The Entreprenette Gazette

Finance

Bank of America to announce $10 million in small business funding. Could your small business get a piece of $10 million in grant funding Bank of America plans to make available to agencies that regularly provide loans to small businesses? The bank says the grants should allow non-profit lenders to provide $100 million in low cost microloans for the small business sector in an effort to start a “ripple effect” of loaning for small businesses after criticisms that lending institutions are not doing enough. But with huge federal spending and tax increases on the way, will small businesses chance even the smallest added debt without a return to healthier consumer spending? WSJ

Small business lending bill blocked to mixed response. While supporters of the bill say it provides $30 billion in federal funding that could leverage $300 billion in small business lending, critics argue it is just another bureaucratic bailout which will encourage unhealthy risks and further increase government spending, something bad for business as the recession lingers on. Bloomberg BusinessWeek

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About Small Business Trends

Send us news Tips! sbtips@gmail.com

CEO & Editor in Chief

Anita Campbell

Operations Manager

Staci Wood

Editors

Research: Dr. Scott Shane

Books: Ivana Taylor

Community Promotions: Joel Libava

Green biz: Kelly Spors

Legislative: Rieva Lesonsky

Product Reviews: TJ McCue

Social Media: Lisa Barone

 

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