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Another National Small Business Week comes to a close but not without another mention of it here in our weekly small business news roundup. In case you missed it, National Small Business Week started as it has since the 1960s, with a Presidential Proclamation. And this year was no different as President Donald Trump spirited…

I’ve been to Vegas so many times already this year I’m thinking about going for a DJ residency at The Palazzo.  Maybe Wayne Newton can put in a good word for me. But I digress. The Impact of Voice Technology One of those trips to Vegas was for Adobe Digital Summit, where I had an…

How much do you really know about National Small Business Week?  If you’re like most people, you hear about it once a year.  And it certainly is a “feel good” event for small business owners, and their employees, customers and suppliers.  But do you know the history and how it got started? Take our trivia…

As a small business owner buying insurance is not a simple proposition. Because standard property insurance doesn’t cover the different predicaments businesses face. This means you have to navigate the murky and convoluted waters of what is and has to be covered in your particular location. The launch of Progressive’s BusinessQuote Explorer (BQX) looks to…

The GDP for the first quarter of 2019 was impressive, delivering an annualized rate growth of 3.2%. To go along with that great number, in April the U.S. economy added 275,000 jobs. This has driven the unemployment rate down to 3.6%, the lowest in 50 years (December, 1969). For its part, the small business segment…

Many salaried workers dream of independence. This applies especially to young millennials. And for good reasons. The freedom to work from anywhere in the world, choose your own working hours, handpick projects that match your interests, and charge a fair price you actually deserve, trumps any corporate job in the eyes of many. If you…

The CRM company Nimble has announced a better way for business departments to stay in sync. What’s interesting is it works with popular systems like Office 365 and Dynamics 365. That way, everyone gets the same information across departments. Small Business Trends asked Jon Ferrara, Nimble CEO, to explain. He wrote how sharing information with…

McDonald’s entered a partnership Wednesday with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) to fill its need for morning workers and expand diversity. The fast-food chain aims to attract older Americans who can fill employment gaps at the company. AARP is “the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to…

Small businesses in rural areas sometimes struggle with sales in a way their urban competitors do not. But these businesses possess a secret weapon called online selling. And this weapon enables them to make sales not only across the country but around the world. Amazon provides one of the best websites small businesses can use…

Product descriptions, when written well, prove incredibly powerful. They improve organic search rankings for ecommerce sites. And ultimately help sell more products. You’ll find proof of the importance of great product descriptions. Just check the marketing statistics of Overstock.com. The internet retailer witnessed an 84% increase in organic traffic following a campaign to optimize its…

Marketing remains essential for small businesses. It allows them to compete with others. But it also allows them to sell products and services. And it enables them to become profitable and grow. But the ways to market your small business seem endless. So how do you know which marketing tactics will be right for you?…

Personal Brand vs Corporate Brand — this is the ONE question I’m asked the most in my travels around the United States (and the world!). Almost every event I speak at people ask me this question. Here’s the deal. We know that larger businesses have corporate brands. Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Microsoft! For the most part when…

President Donald Trump has announced the start of National Small Business Week (NSBW). The week honors entrepreneurs who drive the U.S. economy. And it runs from May 5 to 11. Public and private organizations come together to celebrate for the event. And they also support the American entrepreneurial spirit. The small business segment makes up…

Does your small business give employees bonuses? Almost three-fourths of companies do, according to PayScale’s 2018 Compensation Best Practices Report. Giving bonuses (also called “variable pay”) allows companies to reward top performers without increasing their fixed costs for salaries. Top-performing businesses are more likely to offer bonuses than the average business (79% vs. 70%), PayScale…

Some federal tax breaks depend on being small. Small, in this case, means the number of employees you have. If your business grows, you may think about adding employees. But consider the impact this will have on your access to certain small business tax breaks. Credit for Starting a Retirement Plan This amounts to a…

According to the SBA, of the 30 million businesses in the U.S., only 64% of small businesses have a website. This should not be a shocking statistic since there are so many owners that don’t know where to start and for many, it’s still is too hard or too expensive for them. But this is…

The small business community feels their local and U.S. economy are strong. This according to the annual Small Business Pulse Survey from SunTrust. But only 49% of the respondents in the survey said they have a clearly stated plan for business growth. Considering the strong economic sentiment small businesses expressed, not having a growth plan…

As new content delivery methods become available and catch audience attention, small businesses need to pivot and adapt. Instagram Stories is one option that has been gaining a good amount of attention. To find out more about what kinds of approaches work, we asked entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following: “What is the…

What Began as a U.S. Trend is Now a Global Norm On social media, opinions dominate. What began as a U.S. trend is now a global norm. When marketers are nimble on social, they can turn opinions-at-scale into valuable data, but it’s no magic bullet. Good tools are required, and even then, insights gleaned from…

  According to Gartner, 89% of businesses are competing mostly on the basis of customer experience. And if you don’t listen to what your customers are saying, they are probably having a bad experience. Applied Marketing Science (AMS) is providing a training workshop to teach you how to listen to your customers. Titled “Listening to…

Businesses try a lot of advanced techniques to market and grow. But at the end of the day, most of your success comes from making as many sales as possible. To improve your bottom line and bring in as many customers as possible, check out these sales tips from members of the online small business…

The internet provides almost endless ways to start businesses of all shapes and sizes and make money. Most Profitable Niches Start using the World Wide Web for financial gain. And take a look at the following 20 most profitable online niche markets. They’ll help you determine which online sector would be best for you. Self-Improvement…