Owning a small business often means wearing every possible hat available, from marketer to sales clerk and inventory manager to HR professional. Learn from the experiences of the small business owners who are NFIB members as well as the best experts for each industry. Below you will find small business tips for everything from taxes and regulation to promotion and networking.
Business 101: Companies have customers who provide money in exchange for goods or services. So far, so good. But these two parties provide much more to each other. Customers can provide valuable feedback about what they like and don’t like. And companies can provide—and should provide—satisfactory answers and responses to that feedback. But are companies doing all they can, both in...
A decade ago, if you told friends you bought your lunch out of the back of a truck, they might have been skeptical—or concerned. But now popular food trucks feature delicious and affordable food from well-known chefs countrywide. Plus, they’re a great way for small businesses and startups to spread the word about their culinary concept. At what point should a food...
If you’re like many people, when you’re out and about and in need of a store or restaurant, you pull out your smartphone to search. According to Jason Trout, vice president of marketing for mobile commerce platform ShoppinPal, these local searches are more than twice as likely to lead to same-day purchases as nonlocal searches. Customers are using location-based apps to...
The Small Business Owner: Ximena Beltran Quan Kiu is founding partner of recently launched C1 Revolution, a Chicago-based PR and social media consultancy. The Book: Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson Why I Read It: I was working at Walgreens as a risk analyst on the social media side last fall. My fiancé’s roommate is an analyst for J.P. Morgan. We follow each other...
It’s the middle of winter. As a business owner, you know it’s prudent to keep the heat on—yet not too high. But wouldn’t it be nice for rooms to start warming up when you got in the car en route to an office that was warm by the time you got there? The Internet of Things is unlocking that potential along...
There’s a whole psychology to using color in marketing or branding a company. The choice of color—on stationery, business cards, location branding and ads—is often the first tier of communications a brand has with a customer or prospect. “It’s your opening shot with people, and you better get it right,” says Nader Ashway, principal and creative director at Moddern Marketing, a...
In the age of wearable tech, a partnership between a Harvard dropout and a venture capitalist has a wearable solution to the drawbacks of normal caffeine consumption: Just spray the stuff right on the skin. In theory, this eliminates coffee’s stained teeth and nausea and mitigates the added sugar or cold-medicine-like flavor associated with energy drinks. With four to six sprays, Sprayable...
Sponsored by Insight.lyJustin Woo had a challenge. His new business, HelperMonkeys, which provides discount coupon incentives for businesses, was growing quickly and amassing a long, disorganized list of customers and prospects. Salespeople were going from business to business selling HelperMonkeys’ service. Some businesses were very interested, others were so-so about it and still others were yet to be convinced. Notes piled up....
Business owners constantly hear about the importance of managing their company’s online reputation. Why all the fuss? A Harvard Business School study showed that a mere one-star increase in a restaurant’s Yelp ratings translated into a 5 to 9 percent increase in revenue—proving that online reviews can make a major impact on your business. But what if your Yelp reviews are...
As a former counterintelligence agent with the FBI, LaRae Quy spent 24 years exposing foreign spies and persuading them to work for the U.S. government—a career that demanded she never waver in dangerous and unpredictable situations. Today, Quy, a resident of Mill Valley, California, helps clients improve their mental strength to rise above the challenges that come their way. “I...
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