Archive for December, 2009

It’s the time of year when small business owners are thinking about New Year’s resolutions. To make the task a little easier, Chicago small business incubator Gaebler Ventures has created an automatic Small Business New Year’s Resolution Generator.

To use Gaebler’s free New Year’s resolution generator, visit the web page and you’ll automatically get five New Year’s resolutions to consider.

Refreshing the page gives you another five suggested small business New Year’s resolutions. You can do this again and again. Small business owners are likely to find a few good suggestions in the mix to help them with their resolutions for 2010.

If you’re thinking about what to do differently in 2010, this tool can help to get your creative juices flowing.

Everywhere you look these days companies of all sizes are involved with a variety of charitable events and outreach. Be it a food or toy drive for a local homeless shelter or fundraising efforts for a charitable organization, companies want to get their name out there and build goodwill with their customers and community as a whole. Read more…

Editor’s note: Below is the second of a two-part article by contributor Caprice DeLorm focused on ways in which you can expand what you offer to clients without directly expanding your business. The first part, which can be found here , covered different options for expanding what you can offer to clients.

As discussed in the first part of the article, there are several ways in which you can offer additional solutions to potential clients without adding new services and skills directly to your business portfolio. You can expand through referral-based networking, a project team, or through a consortium. Read more…

Over the past few weeks it seems like every retailer has been hammering home messaging implying that we are in the season of giving. While it can sometimes be tired, the notion of giving is something that we should all consider while doing business. Think about it, receiving a gift often invokes happiness, as does giving one. So why not apply this to your business? Read more…

The following guest post is brought to us by the Internet Marketing Center.

Web 2.0… it’s a term we’ve all heard, but it’s still a source of great confusion.

Is it just another buzz phrase that might have something to do with MySpace or Faceboook? Or is it really a whole lot more? Read more…

Over the past few months one of the hottest topics in the news has been on health care reform. While news outlets put their spin on the subject in terms of individuals, they often leave out what it means to the small business owner. This video is from the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, who goes over some of the common questions and concerns that have been sent to the White House.

Vistaprint recently conducted a survey of small businesses to get some insight into what kind of things they were focusing on from a marketing perspective and what they might be willing to try in 2010.  The company also wanted to find out where small businesses went to get marketing knowledge, and what some of the perceived barriers were to trying new marketing methods like social media.  Done in conjunction with Hawk Partners the survey  looked at 300 various employers, including businesses with a sole proprietor, businesses with 2-10 employees, and over 10 employees for a true sampling of small business behavior.

Some of the key findings included: Read more…