05/09/2013
Have you ever hit a brick wall with blog content or expanding your audience reach? Marketers tend to spend a lot of time on ranking for general keywords, and as time passes by they realize that is what everyone else is doing, including the competition! Placing an emphasis on long tail keywords might be your solution. These keyword phrases are the foundation of what your website is built on and helps search engines understand the purpose of your content.

complete article

05/07/2013
Businesses are flocking to Twitter, but many lack an understanding of the medium and do not know what to tweet. Here are a some tips for businesses that are on Twitter and interested in using the medium to build their brand:

What to Tweet?

05/06/2013
Branding is much more complex than one might first imagine. It can even be considered both an art and a science. The objective of effective branding is to evoke in consumers a certain emotion when they see a name brand or an image associated with that brand. To establish consistently the desired implicit associations in consumers regarding one's brand, one must take control of the shaping of their brand's reputation and go about branding mindfully. To execute this, consider these tips for successful branding.

Branding

05/01/2013
Many online purchases could soon be more expensive, if a long-debated Internet sales tax law advances through Congress.

The law would allow 45 states and the District of Columbia to demand that online retailers collect sales tax on purchases. Estimates are that consumers would be spending between $12 billion to $23 billion more a year due to the increased tax collection.

Here is what you need to know about the current law on online purchase and what would happen under the legislation:

complete article

04/30/2013
Small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms in this country. They pay nearly half of the U.S. private sector payroll and have created two out of every three net new jobs over the past couple decades.

Put simply, small businesses are our economy. Given that it is still recovering, the economy needs all the help it can get to make it over the proverbial hump and flourish. Small businesses will play a key part in that journey.

complete article

04/29/2013
Idealistic, hard-working, creative, community-minded entrepreneurs are the Bostonians of the business world -- friendly and happy, no-nonsense and strong.

Boston strong.

complete article

04/25/2013

Why Reading is Important Cartoon

04/24/2013
As working during retirement years has become commonplace, so has the desire among older Americans to strike out on their own and start a business for themselves.

complete article

04/23/2013
The growth potential of businesses varies widely. For example, some businesses that charge their customers hourly fees stay small because there are only so many hours in a day you can work. The revenue growth of other businesses is not limited by the time the owner puts in. Nearly exponential growth is possible with some ventures. The size of the market, trends in consumer tastes and needs, and your own skills and interests will guide you toward market niches with big potential.

complete article

04/23/2013
Sixty-eight percent of business owners surveyed last month by the advocacy group Small Business Majority said too many companies gain an unfair advantage by hiring immigrants who aren't eligible to work in the U.S. In 2008, the Pew Research Hispanic Center estimated that 8.3 million people were working in the U.S. without permission. Current estimates put the total number of people in the U.S. without permission at about 11 million.

complete article

04/19/2013

Technical Diagnosis Cartoon

04/18/2013
As mobile usage grows exponentially, small businesses should optimize their website content to make it more digestible on mobile platforms. By 2015 more U.S. consumers will access the Internet through mobile devices than through desktop PCs, says the International Data Corporation

complete article

04/17/2013
There are 28 million small businesses in the United States, and they do quite a lot to fuel the American dream. As drivers of the U.S. economy, small businesses give opportunities to people with entrepreneurial spirits and the will to work hard. They are the basis of what the U.S. is founded upon, and continue to push the economy even in tight times. They produce 50 percent of the non-farm gross domestic product in the U.S. in addition to being important in other ways.

complete article

04/16/2013
Many employees dream of someday being an employer rather than an employee. There is a lot to be said for being self-employed, but it is not always as perfect and wonderful as it may seem. In addition to benefits, there are also some distinct downsides of being self-employed.

Pros and Cons to Being Self Employed

04/15/2013
The real joy of many of these new portable pieces of technology is that they reflect both sides of the business travel balance by increasing productivity, while, generally, being pretty fun to tote along.

These are five business travel gadgets that will keep you and your staff productive in the air, at a conference and even from the hotel room.

complete article

04/12/2013
US Small Business Owners To Delay Hiring

- Three out of four to hold off hiring during next six months

- Cautious optimism revealed in aftermath of U.S. government actions

- PNC forecasts moderate growth will persist in 2013

U.S. small and mid-sized business owners plan to delay hiring new employees or seek new loans amid cautious optimism about the economy, according to the latest findings of the PNC Economic Outlook survey.

complete article

04/10/2013

I Work on the Internet Cartoon

04/09/2013
Micromanagement. It may seem like a little thing that is isolated to a few managers, or staff in your company, but the effects of micromanagement could have a huge long- and short-term negative impact on your ability to be effective as a manager, and your ability to achieve or exceed your company's goals. Take a second to think about these questions:

    Do you tell your employees what to do?
    Do you oversee all aspects of their projects?
    Do you direct rather than empower?
    Do spend more time on day-to-day tasks vs the growth of your company?

complete article

04/08/2013
You have worked hard to position your company for growth, so that when the economy improves, your bottom line keeps pace. Shoving insurance to the bottom of your to-do list threatens all that hard work.

complete article

04/05/2013
Having a staff on payroll can seem very commonplace as well as essential to running a small business, but many owners get in trouble with Uncle Sam because they do not understand the complexity of payroll tax law.

complete article

04/04/2013
Sixty-nine percent of employees report wasting at least a half hour of time per workday. Another 21 percent report wasting at least some time each week. The other valiant, hard working 10 percent who report that they never waste time?

complete article

04/03/2013
Facebook still may be the king when it comes to social media marketing for small businesses, but other social networking sites are making significant gains among small businesses owners and entrepreneurs, new research has found.

Overall, 80 percent of small business owners say they are using some form of social media marketing.

Those business owners have shown a preference for certain social platforms for marketing. Eighty-two percent of small business owners say Facebook is the most effective social media platform for their business, up from 75 percent in May 2012.

However, LinkedIn and Twitter saw the biggest perceived gains in effectiveness among small business owners. Twenty-nine percent of small business owners say LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform for their organization, up from 10 percent in May 2012.

04/02/2013
Having customers who are also Facebook fans are more valuable to retailers than those shoppers who are not as social media savvy, new research finds.

A study by researchers at the University at Buffalo, Texas A&M University and Aalto University in Finland revealed proof that customers who engage with a business through social media contribute more to the bottom line than those who don't.

complete article

04/01/2013
Customers are irrational about prices. How can you make the most of their weirdness? This roundup of pricing rules of thumb based on research can help.

Pricing is notoriously hard. Simply asking your customers what they would pay sounds sensible, but often does not work. People frequently don't know what things are worth, and their stated preferences frequently do not match their real-world actions. But simply taking your best guess and slapping a price tag on something usually means you are leaving money on the table.

complete article

03/29/2013
There are a number of things that you can do to monitor your online brand, as well as monitoring the brand of a competitor. Being aware of what is said, and when it is being said, will allow you to react in a timely fashion. It is often a companies reaction to negative media that leaves the biggest impression. In order to turn a negative into a positive, you must first be aware that a conversation is taking place. Fortunately, there are a number of free tools that can assist companies with brand monitoring...

Free Tools to Monitor Your Brand

03/28/2013
Small business may be the most popular institution in America. According to a 2012 poll conducted on behalf of the Public Affairs Council, 88 percent of Americans view small business favorably. In fact, 68 percent of us would rather pay more to do business with a small business than a big one. Could Americas love of small business help broker a deal between Republicans and Democrats in Congress?

complete article

03/27/2013
Although every audience is different, there are a few very general guidelines to help you start to consider what social-media networks to use for your small business. Here are the Big Five along with some business characteristics I typically look for to determine where and if we should spending time and resources:

complete article

03/26/2013
According to research by Pew Internet, 55% of U.S. adult cell phone owners use their mobile phones to access the internet, nearly double the rate from three years ago. This means that more than half of your prospective customers may interact with your business while they’re on the go. Mobile users are also becoming more engaged: a study by digital ad management company Marin Software revealed that its clients saw Google paid-search clicks on mobile devices rise from 14.2% to 23.4% over the course of 2012.

complete article

03/25/2013
The simple act of writing down your idea and outlining how the business will operate can be helpful to ensure that you communicate your vision and that everyone is on the same page.

It also helps you benchmark and check your progress as the company grows.

complete article

03/21/2013
Many small businesses in America are lean operations where people wear many hats and have little room for error. And unfortunately, that frequently means small businesses are on their own when tax time comes around.

Things are especially difficult for new business owners who don't have the experience pushing paperwork to the Internal Revenue Service, and often don't know which tax breaks they may be eligible for.

complete article

03/19/2013
Businesses are using mobile in many ways, including: mobile websites, apps, loyalty programs and contests, mobile coupons, text messaging campaigns, location-based marketing e.g. Foursquare, QR codes two-dimensional bar codes that can be read by a mobile device, surveys, appointment scheduling and mobile commerce.
Developing a mobile strategy does not mean having to adopt all of these.

complete article

03/18/2013

It Works for Divorce!

03/15/2013
Creating an interesting and colorful color palette can be a chore, even for the most experienced designers. We have compiled a list of color design tools that can be very useful for web artisans...

Design Tools

03/14/2013
A few months ago, I was invited to speak with a reporter working on an article for an international magazine on this very topic.  The reporter asked me, What should business people think about taking with them on business trips that they might not normally think about? As I began forming the list, I found myself adding more and more things that are vital to ensure a successful business trip.

And here are some of the less obvious things you don’t want to forget when heading out of town on business.

complete article

03/13/2013
It is safe to say the men and women on Forbes list of billionaires know how to run a company straight into profits.

But that does not mean that the road to success has always been smooth; in many cases, it took some of the lists entrepreneurs years of serious struggle to achieve success, says Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur and professor of entrepreneurship at Stanford University.

What can you learn from the world’s wealthiest players and their paths to success?

complete article