There are roughly 10,000 BP gas stations in the United States and nearly all of them are independently owned. What does this mean? It means if you drive by a BP gas station because you’ve decided the oil spill has had an adverse affect on your gas-buying decision, you are really only hurting a small business owner by driving to a different gas station. The Wall Street Journal had an interest...

We’ve been getting lots of feedback on small businesses planning marketing campaigns and promotions surrounding the World Cup this month. The soccer tournament is expected to rival that of the Super Bowl, which is annually among the most watched television sports events in the world. The World Cup will span several cities in South Africa during four weeks of play. For a small business owner...

The U.S. Postal Service is again in the news debating whether to drop deliveries on Saturday in a cost-cutting measure. If approved it would bring the number of days of mail service down to five, meaning bad news for the direct marketing industry (and for the millions of dogs that playfully guard the house). It would also mean fewer of the familiar big blue mail boxes lining strip malls and street...

As with many of the stories we tell on this blog, some of the greatest entrepreneurial ventures start out as a result of people no longer working in their initial field (needing a fresh start), or unemployed professionals with an idea. Today’s featured entrepreneur is, let’s say, totally chill in Southern California and freezing out the competition by capitalizing on small business social medi...

You’ve heard it before: social networking sites are useful tools for finding and connecting with new clients. But what are the best ways to do that? How can you use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to find new clients? In this blog post I’m going to let you in on a few secrets and give you a guide to getting started on these social networking sites. LinkedIn Linkedin is a powerful networking too...

Small business owners and entrepreneurs view marketing and PR differently than at the beginning of 2009. Is it safe to say a year from now small business will have again made significant strides in the kind of marketing they’re doing for the companies? After all, two years ago it was a little strange to think a small business owner would be so focused on social media. But look at all the ent...