As a small business owner myself, I understand the worries of small business owners and entrepreneurs during times like these.  The most important thing to remember is to not panic.  You can make it through business rough patches with the same attitude you use to get through each day: build your brand, provide excellent service to your clients, and always keep your focus. Best tips for small bu...

10 Marketing Predictions For 2010: What do you think will be the focus of marketing in 2010? got any predictions? David Siteman Garland, one of today’s great 2.0 marketers, offers his take in a new blog post that sheds some light on predictions based on interviews he’s conducted with other leading social marketing and business visionaries. It’s a pretty good take on what we can ...

Focus on Customer Excellence, Sustainability, and Quality and mean it! Over the last decade retailers like Wal-Mart have evaporated margins, chased away U.S. manufacturing and brainwashed the consumer to believe that cheap is good regardless of quality or service. The good news is the tide is changing.  As we enter 2010 consumers will start backing away from volume and focus more on quality and o...

Many startups realize the significance good customer service can mean for the success of a small business - or even a large operation. When done right, customer service can grease the wheels of any marketing and loyalty program. That’s exactly what Joan Lamonica did when she opened up a retail store recently. She’s the fashion designer and owner of Sara Mique and she quickly realized h...

Things happen. In fact, sometimes things go wrong in a very bad way and in a hurry. All around us today we see examples of people and companies that flat out mess up and everyone knows they messed up. Examples include several of the large banks that scammed people out of money through the housing mortgage fiasco. If you’re a baseball fan you see examples of this in the steroid allegations, w...

During this recession, the most important thing you must do is protect your existing customers. Small business has plenty of obstacles to deal with, such as staying on good terms with your bank, finding new customers, having to cut staff (but hopefully not) and, of course, healthcare issues. But your existing customers are yours. You must protect them at all cost, if necessary. That’s why cu...