If you’re undecided about starting a small business because you’re worried about the U.S. economy, I have good news. Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the world’s leading source of commercial information and business insight, published a Small Business Health Index that estimates 208,000 new jobs were added to U.S. payrolls in April 2014; mostly in retail and manufacturing. It shows stabilization in the latest reporting period, which indicates small business sector strengthening. Their U.S. Economic Health Tracker is a monthly report that provides unique, leading insight on jobs, small business, and key business indicators. Check it out.
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s take advantage of the stability and generate growth and revenue by using this week’s awesome small business tips, strategies and advice.
Starting a Business:
- Trying to figure out how best to start your business? This expert interview with Nancy Chorpenning, an entrepreneur with 30 years executive management experience, will teach you how to create a business plan and target goals to ensure your success.
Employees:
- My father use to say, “Every workplace has at least one difficult person.” That may be true, but an employee who is so disruptive that co-workers repeatedly complain can kill productivity and morale. Terminating an employee is never easy. You need to carefully document exactly why you fired the troublemaker. Here’s how to fire an employee and avoid a lawsuit.
Content Marketing:
- Do you have a nonprofit that’s struggling to get donations? Driving donations has always been a challenge of nonprofits, no matter their purpose or industry. New technology has given nonprofits more ability than ever before in creating effective, responsive content marketing strategies. Here are 5 specific content marketing strategies nonprofits can use to improve their donation results.
- Content marketing is more than producing content; it’s an evolving campaign to reach, communicate, and engage with your target audience. It sounds easy enough, but content marketing can be a headache for small businesses in that it’s time consuming and requires wordsmith skills that some business owners simply don’t have. Take a look at 22 ways to ramp up your content marketing. If you just don’t have the time or writing ability, research and find reputable content marketing experts who can produce content for your site.
Email Marketing:
- Did you know that you can create customer loyalty using email marketing? Group customers into categories on your email marketing list. The categories should represent the subjects that the customers are most interested in. You wouldn’t walk up to a group interested in baseball and start talking about flower arranging, but when you send a mass email to a broad group of people on your list – your are doing just that. Jupiter Research found that relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. Read how to create email marketing campaigns that provide value, engagement and conversion every time.
Social Media:
- Facebook officially launched its new Business Manager tool after testing it with companies. The tool is one interface for managing ad accounts, pages, payment methods, apps and permissions. It will show you the pages, ad accounts, and apps linked to your brand as well as external partners, such as agencies with access to your pages and more. It’s set to roll out within the next few weeks. Is it a tool for your business?
Ecommerce:
- A recent MIT study says that 80 percent of store shoppers check prices online and one-third access price information on their mobile devices while inside stores. It’s essential that your business keep up with the evolving ecommerce trends. In today’s shopping arena, businesses need to treat consumers like the multi-channel shoppers that they are. Check out 5 tips for improving your ecommerce revenues.
Technology:
- Did you know that small businesses could save at least 62 percent of their energy costs by switching to a cloud computing system for invoicing?
- If you need video conferencing but can’t afford a paid service, Skype offers free group video calling on Mac, Windows, and Xbox One.
I’ll continue to hunt through every Internet nook and cranny for the best business tips, tricks and advice. See you next week!