Small Business News: Tips For Your Next Venture


There are probably as many tips and helpful hints out there for starting your next small business venture as there are ventures to start and the truth is there are no simple, foolproof formulas. We’ve assembled some of the more helpful basics here, however, collected from across the Web in recent days and weeks to get you started. Best of luck!

Trends

Embrace social media. You’ve no doubt heard the buzz. Social media is not just a fad. It is quite simply the cheapest simplest way to connect with your customers on a global or local level today. The question is not, why should your business be using social media, but why not. You’re the Boss.

Forget about Groupon? Many tools create a potential for attracting new customers, but not all may be good for your small business. Offering merchandise and services at too low a cost may not help you long run and some offers may bring in more orders than expected at deep discount leading headaches. Many merchants have found success with Groupon and similar services but some experts say they aren’t right for everyone. Bloomberg Businessweek

Bookshelf

What guitar playing can teach you about small business startup. Pierre DeBois reviews Guitar Lessons: A Life’s Journey Turning Passion Into Business by Bob Taylor, founder of Taylor Guitars. Taylor turned his passion for the instrument into a globally recognized brand and is on a mission to teach other entrepreneurs to do the same. Small Business Trends

How to enchant your customers.  Ivana Taylor wraps this review of Guy Kawasaki’s book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions around an interview with the author for a discussion on how to make your customers fall in love with you. Small Business Trends

Motivation

How to tell whether you’re excited. Specifically we’re talking about a business idea here. Creating a business means you have a sustainable idea that can keep you motivated even during the tough times. Here are nine plus sure signs (some via a brief video) that you are on the right track. TimoKiander.com

Self-development

The importance of blood, sweat and tears. Small Business Trendseditor and CEO Anita Campbell explains the importance of perseverance in building a small business as one of the most important tips for entrepreneurs. Anita started her online publishing business in 2003 with a Blogger account and grew it slowly to become one of the most influential sites of its kind. Check out the interview. Rise to the Top

See what entrepreneurial traits you possess. Starting a new venture can be a great time to revisit your basic strengths and weaknesses making improvements where possible. Here Martin Zwilling has assembled a number of what he believes to be shared traits of many entrepreneurs. Don’t worry if you don’t possess all of these. Just use them as a starting point on your entrepreneurial endeavors. Startup Professionals Musings

Sales

Creating resources for your team. Building a business that can grow requires more than just creating a sales team. It also requires a set of resources (like a clearly defined sales process) that will help support them. Understanding the tools your sales force needs will help you build a sales process with predictable sales and revenue and a means for improvement over time. WealthNet

Issues

Understanding the swipe fee issue. If you’re already involved with a small business, you may have already taken a side of the contentious swipe fee issue where banks and big retailers have lined up on one side and many small businesses on the other. But both sides have clear motivations and which is right? Boomberg Businessweek

Is a swipe fee cap really best? Small businesses seem firmly behind purposed federal regulation of swipe card fees, but is this really what is better for business or only what’s best for some businesses. Small Business Trends CEO and editor Anita Campbell gave this analysis a few months ago of the true issue at stake. Small Business Trends

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  1. I just found this blog while wandering around the internet. Have I been living under a rock or what?? ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. Kudos to you, Anita and team, for creating such an outstanding resource. Wish I had discovered this 10 years ago as a rookie!

  2. Thank you so much for this! One of my fave things to do is to browse and click through rounded up links in a post. I know it takes a lot of effort to sift through the bulk of content on the net, so this is really much appreciated.