Just 22 days ago, on the 8th of June, the minds over
at Mashable.com decided we needed Social Media Day, a special day on the
Gregorian calendar celebrating social dialogue and the tools and platforms
enabling the “revolution” (Mashable’s word, not mine). And they decided that
day would be today. While I’m all for raising awareness of social media, [...]
Archives for June, 2010
What’s Missing From ‘Social Media Day’
Summer Interns: Are Small Businesses Flirting with Disaster?
Unpaid summer internships can be a rite of passage for many college students. But for the companies who offer them, unpaid summer internships could start them on a trip down the labor law rabbit hole.
Unpaid internships used to be all about “the experience” – an opportunity for young students to break into a new field, [...]
It’s Time for Your Small Business Half-Year Checkup
Where does the time go? Half of 2010 has bitten the dust. Time to take a look at your business goals and review your progress.
Have you achieved half of your smaller goals? Are you halfway to achieving your big goals? If not, maybe it’s time to regroup and revise your business plan to get real [...]
Book Review: The Winner’s Brain
The Winner’s Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success by Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske (with Liz Neporent) intrigued me because it brings up the nature vs. nurture argument. Are some people’s brains hard-wired a certain way or, if not, can they be molded or changed? According to the authors, it’s the [...]
U.S. Mail Delivery on Saturday — Important, or Irrelevant?
Would your business be affected if the U.S. Postal Service ceased delivering mail on Saturdays? Congress heard testimony about this proposal last week, and business owners were split on whether the end of weekend delivery would pose a problem.
Amazon.com executives testified that dropping Saturday delivery would be a problem [...]
Watch Out for SBA Loan Scammers
When it’s tough to get a bank loan, scammers pop out of the woodwork with offers to “help.” Recently, the Small Business Administration warned business owners about a spike in complaints they’ve received about SBA loan fraud. A particular target is apparently the SBA Express loan, which offers loans up to $350,000.
Here’s what to watch [...]
Wednesday Web Resources: Tools for Going Local Online
It seems like everyone’s chasing the grail of how to use the Web to reach a local audience. Luckily, tools for reaching people in your town while they’re surfing the ‘Net have improved, and more are coming.
For starters, if you haven’t yet gotten your business onto that little map that comes up at the top [...]
Turn Your Business into a Referral Machine — a Talk with Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch
Would you like to get thousands of customers for your business on autopilot while you sleep? No, I’m not hawking some Internet lead-finding scam…and it turns out you don’t need one of those goofy tools to ramp up your referrals, either.
Recently, I spoke with marketing guru John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame about his [...]
Should You Pay to Pitch?
As every entrepreneur knows, the toughest part of selling your deal isn’t making the pitch. It’s getting in the door to meet with investors in the first place.
So it makes sense that, over the years, an entire industry has sprung up to connect cash-hungry start-ups and early-stage ventures with angel investors and venture capitalists who [...]
Want Swipe-Fee Relief? Now’s the Time to Make it Happen
If you’re a merchant tired of high debit- and credit-card fees, now’s your chance to make a difference. The financial-reform bill slowly wending its way through Congress is coming into the home stretch, and swipe-fee reform has made it through to the version now being reconciled by a joint Senate-House committee.
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