No matter how large or small your business, crisis can come calling in the middle of the night and last a long time. For small business owner Tracy Weise, co-founder and president of Weise Communications and manager of public relations for the Medical Center of Aurora, Colorado, last year’s
Entrepreneurs launching a new business today are wise to consider the options and opportunities provided by the world of social media. A 2012 Manta survey of 600 small business leaders showed 90 percent adopting an active role in social media, with 74 percent viewing it as important as...
Being a small business owner and entrepreneur you likely have a positive outlook and a “can do,” attitude; a trait that has probably served you well in turning your business concept into an actual business venture. But it is critical to the success of your business to know when those...
Exporting is a big deal for many small businesses. Did you know? 95 percent of the world's consumers live outside of the United States--70% of the world’s purchasing power--so if a U.S. business is only selling domestically, it is reaching just a small share of potential customers. Exporting enables companies to...
Small business owners typically do not have large budgets (or time) to conduct extensive competitive research. However, there are several easy, inexpensive, effective, and legal ways to “spy” on your competitors. Here are ten: If a competitor has a physical location, visit it in order to experience their product, service, and/or shopping...
I will admit it – I was an initial skeptic. “Economic gardening” sounded like a scheme to mass-produce tomatoes in your backyard. To begin with, it wasn’t local. How could out-of-town consultants offer value to my local businesses, I wondered, especially when its emphasis on supporting “homegrown” ventures reminded me...
In U.S.SourceLink's Battle of the Brands, many matchups were between large corporations steeped in tradition and small homemade startups. A lot of the time, these smaller businesses would beat out the larger companies for votes. Why? Two words: customer engagement. There is a disclaimer here: Many of the larger companies...
IASourceLink.com surpasses 10,000 unique visitors April 3, 2013 (Des Moines, IA) - Five months after going live, IASourceLink has surpassed the 10,000 unique visitor milestone. Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds joined small business leaders, the Iowa Economic Development Authority and UNI’s MyEntre.net officials to launch IASourceLink.com. The website is...
The Governor’s Iowa Environmental Excellence Awards recognize private businesses, organizations and citizens for their efforts to protect Iowa’s water, land and air. For more than ten years, this awards program has served as the premier environmental honors in Iowa, recognizing overall environmental excellence in addition to several project-specific...
The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article describing various social media tools, and their success rates as described by poll respondents. Many times small business owners feel pressured into diving into the web world, and particularly, into social media marketing. The question is, where to begin when your time is...
