A while back we offered insight into the right kind of colors to use in your small business marketing. Do they really matter and, if so, what kind of guidance can help you choose the right mix for your small business. Today we pose a topic that will reverberate throughout the marketing and business community since it has to deal with the ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its affect...

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...

Most people think a press release is supposed to be about news that is happening at the moment because something is being announced (a new executive at the company, new product launch, how much money the company made). But did you know that a press release can also be used to tell a story that is considered more “evergreen” – an angle that reads almost like a feature story. In the PR Toolkit...

The following is a list of guidelines and rules that can be used to help entrepreneurs collect, develop and use customer testimonials in their small business marketing. It’s important to use testimonials the right way because it’s definitely frowned upon to use a testimonial in a misleading way. Ask for testimonials: Don’t be shy about asking for a good testimonial to be used in your...

Following is a Q&A with Ellen Cagnassola, the Soap Executive Officer (SEO) of SweetSoaps, a maker of custom soap products based in New Jersey. Ellen’s been on our radar for some time now (we’ve blogged about her in the past) and we found her on Twitter doing everything successful entrepreneurs do - make a good product, make good connections and make people aware of her. And just li...

The following is a guest column that offers advice on taxes for small business, courtesy of UnderstandingMarketing.com and QuickBooks expert Scott Gregory. For the most part this blog focuses on marketing and public relations topics that pertain to small businesses and entrepreneurs, but since it’s tax time we also want to offer a little advice to make tax season a little less stressful. TAX...