Small Business Tips and Advice

While there are many benefits to using social media, having a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, and/or a Google+ account and regularly posting to them does not guarantee your small business social media success -- that is, more customers and sales. You want to know the real secret to Facebook ... (more...)

These 11 inexpensive yet highly effective marketing tools are the perfect way for your small business to ring in the New Year -- and ring up increase sales. [To learn more about each marketing tool, read my latest article, "Small Business Holiday Wish List: 11 Marketing Tools and Services" on ... (more...)

Banner ads and print ads can be expensive. And they are not necessarily the best way to advertise your small or mid-size business. So to find how to get the greatest return on your advertising dollar, I asked small business owners to share their tips. Following are the top 10 ... (more...)

There are dozens of web-based tools and services that claim to drive online traffic to local retail and service businesses. But some of them, such as daily sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, actually wind up costing businesses money -- and don't deliver sustained traffic. So how does a small retail or ... (more...)

Received this press release and had to share -- cause what small business owner wouldn't want a free marketing makeover (valued at $50,000)? Contest begins today, people! Be sure to enter. And good luck! Here are the details: San Diego, July 13, ... (more...)

Mobile apps seem to be all the rage right now. And many of them (think Angry Birds) appear to be tremendously successful. But can small businesses actually make money or get enough return on investment (ROI) to make investing in a mobile or Facebook app profitable? To find out, I ... (more...)

As of January 2011, 65.8 million Americans had a smartphone -- an 8 percent increase over the previous three months, according to comScore. More significantly, those smartphone users are shopping via their mobile devices – some 48 percent of them, according to a recent comScore mobile commerce survey. And that’s ... (more...)

As many home bakers and sellers of food products have found out, you have to be one tough cookie to be successful at selling food online. Not only do you need a good ecommerce site, you need ... (more...)

This blog post, on the importance of small business owners taking an active role in company videos, was written by Bettina Hein, the founder and CEO of Pixability. *   *   * For many small business owners, getting in front of a video camera (even a little Flip) can be scary. Sure, ... (more...)

More and more businesses of all sizes are using social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter and Foursquare, as a way to better engage customers and increase sales. However, just having a Facebook page or a Twitter account is no guarantee of success. So ... (more...)