The list of small business announcements coming out of National Small Business Week just keeps on coming. We’ve covered many products, tips, services and other small business news items thus far in our special collection of small business posts. If you missed them, please check the first and second editions of our Small Business Week announcements.
Let’s kick off our final roundup of Small Business Week announcements with two contests of interest to the crowdfunding community:
NASE crowdfunding with Fundable. The National Association for the Self-Employed and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council have teamed up with crowdfunding platform Fundable. The idea is to hold a contest the organizers claim will teach startups and existing small businesses more effective fundraising skills. Participants will use the Fundable platform to create their fundraising pages. Winners will be announced after Labor Day and will receive the money they’ve raised.
Crowdfunding community announces competition. Crowdfunding incubator ProHatch announces its first #GET_HATCHED crowdfunding competition. The incubator is now accepting project applications. Projects must be fully built and submitted for competition by July 29. A prize package includes $5,000 and mentoring. Learn more here.
Health care and immigration reform not big issues. At least, that’s according to RocketLawyer’s Small Business Index. It says only 10% considered health care reform a top priority issue, and only 50% were aware of insurance exchanges. Just 3% call immigration reform a top priority for the country. Such issues, however, tend to impact businesses differently, depending on their size. The survey covered small business users of RocketLawyer’s services, which may skew toward fairly small businesses.
Small businesses are seeing the value in Facebook. The social media giant took the opportunity during National Small Business Week to share some stats about small business use of its advertising. In a small business roundtable called “Bringing Main Street to Madison Avenue,” Facebook announced one million advertisers on its platform. Facebook says these numbers largely reflect small businesses using the platform to grow.
IT managers say network disruptions can take you out. Or your business, that is. In fact, 97 percent of IT managers say network disruptions had a detrimental effect on business last year. An eWeek Infographic looks at how virtualized systems have changed how business is done.
Document Sign Off Service Launched. ApproveForMe is a Web-based tool. Businesses use it to create, track and manage document sign-offs from internal team members and external clients. The service was officially launched this week.
Small Business Person of the Year. The Small Business Administration announced the Small Business Person of the Year in the United States for 2013. It’s John L. Stonecipher, CEO of Guidance Aviation, a high altitude flight school in Prescott, Arizona, established in 1998. Runners up include: Noah Leask, CEO of Ishpi Information Technologies, Inc. of Mount Pleasant, S.C., and Kari Block, Founder/CEO, Earth Kind, Inc. of Bismarck, N.D. Congratulations!
Mobile: How does Your Business Compare? According to a survey of global small businesses by Podio, a Citrix Systems company, 68% of employees in small businesses use their own personal devices for work — whether or not the company has a formal policy on it. And 76% of small business employees say they spend up to 10 hours a week in meetings. Let’s hope they’re productive!
Cash or check, please. According to a Small Business Week infographic by WePay, 72% of small businesses prefer to accept payment by cash or check. Now that’s interesting — cash is easy to understand, but NSF checks can be a costly pain to deal with. Even more to the point, the majority of customers prefer to shop at places where multiple forms of payment, including credit cards, are accepted.
Image credit: Citrix infographic
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