All posts in Micro Business Roundup

This week’s Micro Business Roundup features tips for successful out-of-the-box thinking, how to win customers for life, why posture might be the key to your success, and more.

How to Pave the Way for Innovative Thinking — How can (or do) you encourage on-the-job innovative thinking? Here are a few tips from Open Forum.

3 Ways to Win Customers for Life — Developing customer loyalty is important for businesses both big and small. This piece from Inc. illustrates three methods to cultivate lifelong brand loyalty. One of our favorite bits of advice focuses on investing in people, and what they care about.  “The fact is that businesses don’t really have relationships; people do. If you want people to be loyal, you have to take an interest in who they are and what they care about.”

What We Talk About When We Talk About Recession — This article opens by asking a question: “Do feelings trump facts for small business owners?” The answer? Maybe. According to a survey by U.S. Bank, years after the recession ended, 71 percent of small business owners still indicate that they believe the U.S. is in the midst of one. So what does this mean? And why the disconnect? This article explores those questions and more.

3 Postures to Boost Productivity Now — Ever catch yourself slouching at your desk? Us, too. This article from Entrepreneur, however, suggests that a few simple posture changes can actually help give your brain — and your productivity — a confidence boost.

The Rise Of The Micro-Entrepreneurship Economy —This interesting read takes a look at an emerging segment of the economy: micro-entrepreneurship. According to the article, the movement itself isn’t necessarily new, but it does have a novel element that makes it stand out. “The media has named the growing trend toward micro-entrepreneurship ‘the Rise of the Creative Class,’ ‘the Gig Life,’ or ‘the freelance economy.’ All of those refer to the nearly 4.1 million workers (that’s 14 out of every 100 workers) who were self-employed this past year, according to the Office for National Statistics, and millions of others currently supplement their income with freelance work,” it reads. “While the trend has been spotted before, there’s one stark difference between micro-entrepreneurs today and the ‘Free Agent Nation’ citizens of the late ’90s: technology.” So, tell us: Are you part of this trend?