Small Business Advice

Big Advice for Small Business from Twitter’s Biz Stone

By Jon Gelberg - Oct 17, 2012 - 6 Comments

There are few businesses bigger than Twitter, but co-founder Biz Stone recently dished up some excellent advice for small business owners. While Twitter is now valued in the billions, it was still just a small “side project” as recently as 2006, and didn’t begin to take off until 2007. So … Read More

SMBs Eyeing Mobile, Content Marketing For Future

By Lisa Barone - Oct 17, 2012 - 4 Comments

Last week we told you Google had found mobile “critical” to your marketing efforts and that ignoring mobile made your customers feel like you were ignoring them! And it seems like small businesses owners are ready to heed that warning. A recent study issued by Pontiflex and Borrell Associates … Read More

GraphDive Analyzes Social Data to Help Businesses Deliver Relevant Content

By Annie Pilon - Oct 16, 2012 - Leave a Comment

Online businesses are constantly looking for new ways to make content more personal and relevant to users in their target market. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter hold so much data about their users, but all of this data can seem overwhelming and nearly impossible to translate into … Read More

Don’t Reward Bad Behavior – How To Address Challenging Team Members

By Jamillah Warner - Oct 16, 2012 - 2 Comments

What happens when a co-worker or team member speaks in an aggressive or passive aggressive manner that tends to take over or misdirect your meetings and your projects? If you sit there in silence, it’s a passive way of condoning their message. Of course, being silent doesn’t automatically … Read More

It’s Not a Conspiracy, Just Imprecise Jobs Data

By Scott Shane - Oct 8, 2012 - 11 Comments

Almost immediately after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Friday’s employment report, conservatives claimed a conspiracy to cook the books to help get President Obama reelected. How does the unemployment rate drop 0.3 percent, they asked, when GDP growth is miniscule and there’s … Read More

Small Business Failure Rates by Industry: The Real Numbers

By Scott Shane - Sep 24, 2012 - 27 Comments

“Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to start construction companies,” could be the first line of a country song about new small business failure rates. Five years after starting, the share of mining companies remaining alive is nearly 15 percentage points higher than the fraction of … Read More

Microsoft Introduces New Outlook

By Small Business Edito… - Aug 2, 2012 - 1 Comment

Email just got a whole new look with Microsoft's new Outlook. The company provides a fresh perspective on its popular email platform and the role of email in business communications. The e-mail application you use for business definitely makes a difference, especially in terms of usability. Here … Read More

Eliminate To Innovate

By Jamillah Warner - Aug 1, 2012 - 3 Comments

Several years back, while talking on the phone with a friend from college, I was also going though my pile of things-to-fix-up-and-reuse. When she asked what I was doing, I told her and her reply was certain and final enough to get my full attention: "Don’t keep broken things around … Read More

Spend Your Time Doing The Right Work

By Jamillah Warner - Jul 19, 2012 - 15 Comments

It’s not that answering the phone is wrong and creating a company outline is right. I mean, if you don’t answer the phone you can’t get new business. And it’s not that sales and marketing is the right work and customer service is the wrong work. It all impacts your bottom line. But … Read More

GoDaddy Acquires Financial Management Application Company Outright

By Annie Pilon - Jul 18, 2012 - 6 Comments

Web hosting provider GoDaddy has just announced its purchase of Outright, a cloud-based financial management application company. The acquisition brings together two companies that serve small businesses and entrepreneurs in different ways, and signals that GoDaddy may be looking to expand its … Read More

4 Ways To Fairly Use Other People’s Content

By Lisa Barone - Jun 26, 2012 - 9 Comments

Whether it’s for our blog, newsletter, social media updates or something else, we’re all a little obsessed with content right now. And who can blame us? The search engines have been clear that it’s through our content that customers will find us, trust us, and buy from us. So, just like … Read More

The Terms of Business: How to Negotiate a Partnership Agreement

By Prasad Thammineni - Jun 21, 2012 - 5 Comments

Finding a partner who wants to play ball with you seems like a difficult task, but when you take a look at the process, it’s negotiating the terms of a partnership agreement that requires true business savvy. Like Ben Hogan’s legendary golf swing, follow-through is the key, consistent element … Read More