Aah, those were the days when you had to carry around those city pamphlets with the maps to know where everything is, and finding your local tailor or whatnot was such a beast because you had to open it all up. All those folded squares! Utter madness.
Tablet technology, the new frontier: these are the voyages of the starship Amazon, it’s (however many) -year mission to explore strange new worlds in cyberspace, to seek out new accounts and new digital devices, to boldly go where no computer has gone before!
Let’s go through some necessary, yet obvious, information here: for one thing, a blog.
What? That’s it. Two words? A blog. Well, that’s not information here, right? That’s just a fragment with no real purpose. What the heck is going on with this blog? Are we reading it? Writing it? Playing catch with it?
If you’re a small business person, chances are you’ve dealt with currency. And if you’re dealing with currencies from different countries, you need a fast and easy way to convert it. You can keep the day’s Wall Street Journal around with you or turn to an app for small business. We’re talking about the Oanda Currency Converter, tailor made for those who handle cash in other countries’ denominations.
My good readers, I’ll leave this one up to you to decide if this is a genuine reach-out to the small business owners of America, or just a PR attempt as they continue to, well, do whatever Goldman Sachs does. Which traditionally, has had very little to do with small business.
Check out their website for small business owners.
Great PR, or a great appreciation of small business owners?
I would like to ask the questions though – did Goldman ever have to ask the small business administration for a loan or worry about making payroll? Hmmmm. No disrespect to a great financial institution, but this one I’m not so sure I get.
Interesting though!
The latest resource for small business owners that want to get a leg up on social media is here.. it’s called UpHype, and they’re a marketplace for those who offer small businesses their marketing services. Because most of the services are bundled as $8, $16 or $24, it’s very affordable for even the smallest business.
After having spent a couple of hundred dollars buying various services, the most popular service packs seem to be – Continue reading
In a deal highlighted by the Wall Street Journal today, a small sports equipment manufacturer in Pennsylvania has signed the first endorsement deal with Michael Vick since the controversial sports superstar was released from prison.
Is this the face of your small business?
Which begs the question – was this a brilliant move by a small business taking a big chance with a small marketing budget, or a flash-in-the-pan PR move that will eventually dilute their brand?
The initial evidence – a 1000% jump in online sales – would indicate that the move has paid off. But the owner does state there’s a chance that large sporting goods chains may refuse to resell their merchandise on store shelves in fear of a public backlash.
What would you do?
Is this a sign of things to come?
The buzz in Palo Alto is that Facebook is already testing their payments system that will compete with Paypal. While Paypal today dominates the small business market for payments made electronically, Facebook hopes to overtake the industry by allowing payments from its users to merchants – and from merchants to users!
Other than cheaper rates (which won’t affect small business owners greatly) Facebook is perfectly poised to dominate this market, and here’s why –
I’ll get straight to the point – it’s Google. Or Yahoo. Or Bing.
There are a variety of companies like Hoovers or D&B who have been selling leads for decades, and even folks like SalesGenie and JigSaw let small business owners “cherry pick” lists to buy at small volumes. But do they work?
Maybe it’s time to take a step back and define what “does it work” means. Continue reading
It may seem counter intuitive, but recessions are perhaps the best time to think about starting a new business. Maybe you have been downsized out of a great job, or maybe just stuck in place for years without a raise. You probably want to get right back to doing what you were doing before the punch bowl got taken away in 2008.
The problem is, recessions are often a time where old models of business get taken to the woodshed, possibly never to return. During these times, there is tremendous opportunity to reinvent business methods and even whole industries. Down and out incumbents are vulnerable to nimble startups with a better solution.
If you’ve been thinking about striking out on your own, now is probably the best time to do so. Maybe you’ve been deeply entrenched in an industry and know where the inefficiencies lie. Think about changes happening in your industry and create your own opportunity.
Larry Summers in The Social Network
In a memorable scene in “The Social Network“, Harvard President Larry Summers advises the Winklevoss twins, “Harvard undergraduates believe that inventing a job is better than finding a job, so I’ll suggest again that the two of you come up with a new new project.”
With modern cloud based tools for small businesses, it’s never been easier to start a business. Setting up a web site, phone system, payroll, accounting, and even paying taxes, is all possible with the click of a mouse. No more expensive equipment or software to buy, set up and maintain. Just focus on your unique value to the world and make it happen!
Here are the top 5 apps we feel every small business should start with –
