Ideas and tips abound for small business owners today, but remember there are dangers too. We’ve included a brief overview that will help you be on the lookout for fraud, a growing problem for small businesses today, according to sources. Meanwhile there are some truly inspiring tips and ideas to get your next venture rolling. Please share the resources below with a friend.
News
Neutralizing the risk of e-commerce credit card fraud. Small business owners running successful e-commerce Websites know the benefits of the business model. Customers know the pluses of shopping online too. Unfortunately, credit card fraudsters have also discovered “opportunities” in the world of e-commerce. Make protecting your e-commerce site a part of your business model, or fraudsters may make your site a part of theirs. Virtuosi Media
More on protecting your business from fraud. The reality is that small businesses continue to be a target for such behavior. In fact, according to a recent report, small business owners suffered an estimated $8 billion in fraud related losses in 2010. Don’t let your small business become one of the statistics. Learn more about the dangers of fraud to your company today. Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Strategy
How to turn your artistic talent into a small business. Sprayground is much more than just an entrepreneurial venture. For Co-Founder and Creative Director David Ben-David, it’s a work of art…literally! Learn more about this effort to turn art into small business. Do you have an artistic talent that could translate to a business start-up? Entrepreneurship Interviews
How expert knowledge will help your small business thrive. What’s the difference between your most successful competitors and your small business? Do they have some secret that gives them the edge? Well, maybe not just one. Expert knowledge can make a huge difference in marketing your products or services or even in deciding on the right niche to fit your own particular talents. Leveraging that knowledge can be the difference between success and failure. Here’s why. Site Prebuilder
Marketing
Marketing with your mobile phone. Some experts claim that the emerging field of cell phone or mobile marketing is largely generational with younger consumers being far more likely to respond to text and similar mobile campaigns than their older counterparts. But mobile like other technology may defy these generational divides. What is your experience with mobile marketing campaigns and what, if any, success have you seen? Grow Smart Biz
Could narrower social sites lead to super niche marketing/networking? What if your Facebook account was limited to just 50 friends? While many debates rage over the best size of your social network, newer social media sites seem to be aiming at the extreme low end of the range. As with most tech trends, the question for small business owners may be, what could these narrower social media platforms mean when marketing and networking to an increasingly niche audience in the future? Yahoo! Finance
Self-development
Spam as an effective marketing technique? When choosing the best approach to deal with customers, clients and prospects, cutting corners may lead to short-term rewards. But long-term your chances of a lasting relationship really have to do with the choices you make. If the only question is whether unethical or just plain annoying or sleazy approaches “work”, well, they do. But it’s their cost in the long run not their short-term effectiveness that should raise any small business’s concern. Partners in Excellence
How the world of work and your business are changing. Planning for the future with your small business may require understanding where business and work are really headed. Inspired by a similar post by Chris Brogan, Frank Bradley gives his impressions of what the future may hold for all of us and for the future of our ventures too. Workplace Prosperity
Trends
Crowdsourcing your business design. It’s a trend that contiues to have traction but could it lend better results at a lower price too? Design is one of many services you may need as a small business owner, and getting the best results at the lowest cost is important in everything you do to keep competitive and keep overhead down. How can crowdsourcing deliver for you? Buzz
Why some outsourcing may never be the same again. Does your small business outsource services, particularly services like call centers or other activities that involve sharing of sensitive private information overseas? Well, if those services are outsourced to India or China in particular you may have a surprise coming. Changing laws in both countries may soon make such outsourcing much more challenging, but is this a problem or an opportunity for small businesses seeking to provide similar services elsewhere? Inc.com
