According to the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor, a semi-annual survey, small business owners are still planning on taking summer vacations in 2009.  Surprisingly, the numbers haven’t taken as big of a dip downward as I would have expected.  While 59% said yes they would take a vacation in 2008, 56% of owners surveyed [...]

Last week Small Business Trends LLC announced that it has acquired BizSugar, an online content sharing website.  If you’ve never visited BizSugar.com before, I’d like to give you a brief introduction. BizSugar enables small businesses to share news items, blog posts, videos, podcasts or other content of benefit to fellow small business owners and entrepeneurs.  [...]

Buying an existing business is a good option because it saves the buyer from hard work establishing a new business and promoting it. Buying an operating business is always considered a way of less risk because it brings a lot of current customers with itself. So if you are planning to buy a business because [...]

Many people may disagree but I still think every business should have business cards.  Business cards connect you with customers and serve as a good reminder of your business.  With a good design, you can make a positive first impression and a possible long term connection.  To keep your business card from being sent straight [...]

For the small business owner, these tough economic times are forcing them to take pause. Are they doing everything they can to reach existing and new customers? Perhaps they think they can’t afford to do more. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are many broad-reaching (and free) marketing tools currently available such as [...]

Skype has recently announced their Skype For Business competition. We’re looking for businesses like yours to share their experiences with us at Skype. We’re looking for creativity and originality – companies which use Skype in innovative ways around the world to save time, save money or stay ahead, and preferably a combination of the three. [...]

One of the most difficult aspects of working from home is discipline.  Success hinges on sticking to your goals and completing tasks.  A lack of discipline can result in a downward spiral that can eventually lead to a complete failure.  So how do you stay on track?  How can you make sure that you set [...]

There are a lot of practical ideas to help any start-up market their new business on a limited budget.  To get you started, OnStartups.com has put together 21 Tactical Tips From The Trenches. As it turns out, there are a lot of tactical steps that individually don’t do much, but in aggregate start laying the [...]

Are you looking for ways to minimize increases in long-term staffing commitments, yet want to position yourself for growth once the economy recovers? Outsourcing is a great way to create flexibility while meeting current demands in the organization, particularly in small and mid-sized businesses. (Throughout the remainder of the article I’ll refer to small and [...]

There are a number of tools available to anyone looking to introduce their brand to the online world.  Businesses are looking to gain exposure and position themselves one step ahead of the competition.  Ivana Taylor introduces us to 6 Simple Ways To Give Your Brand Online Presence. Taking your brand online isn’t a choice any [...]