For many new business owners, press releases are viewed as sales pieces to be distributed to members of the media. Most think a well-written press release will generate an influx of phone calls from reporters and producers desperate to cover company news. Unfortunately, since few announcements address issues of important national interest such as a cure to cancer or a new energy source, this rarel...

It’s time to start wrapping up 2009 as we enter the new year of 2010, so let’s take a look at some of the top business books of 2009. What were some of the more popular books? Fortunately, Small Business Trends put together an expert panel to help select the top books of 2009. Here are a few of the panel’s favorites: You Are What You Choose: Authors Scott de Marchi and James T. H...

I often come across entrepreneurs and small business owners who say that they see the importance of using social media in building their businesses, but they feel overwhelmed with the time commitment involved.  They often think that it takes hours of time to maintain their profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter etc…but it can be done as little as 10 minutes a day with a few small busin...

The following column is an UnderstandingMarketing.com guest post offering branding tips for small business. When people think branding, they often just think it’s a logo or business card. Or they think of the opposite extreme like Apple or Virgin and assume they will never have the budgets to “brand effectively.” While dazzling branding is more than just pretty pictures, it also is somethin...

One headache constantly facing small business owners is the ability to motivate employees and get the most out of them. Often times many entrepreneurs feel the need to have a degree in psychology in knowing which buttons to push in order to balance the fine line between being a cheerleader and pushing the envelope - potentially losing the employee to feel they’ve been pushed too hard. Join t...

Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean your public relations strategy has to be limited.  It just means that it has to be incredibly focused with specific goals in mind. As a small business owner, you need to focus your PR around thought leadership as this is where you can have the most impact. What does this mean in terms of actionable steps for a small business owner? 1. Carve ou...