Writer, speaker and consultant Shel Horowitz is passionate about the environment and he wants businesses to know that implementing sustainable practices doesn’t mean sacrificing profits.

On his website, he throws out names like Wal-Mart, Ben & Jerry’s and Marcal as businesses that have found tremendous success because of their green initiatives.

The author of “Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet” offers advice to business owners about going green and marketing their green initiatives to both green and non-green customers alike. Read the full entry

0 Comments

If you own a small business, chances are you have never worked harder in your life. When you’re busy establishing yourself and getting those first clients or customers, marketing can seem like an overwhelming challenge. Older strategies like direct mail and telemarketing still exist, but today’s business world includes e-commerce, blogging, and social networking. Where does a business owner start when there are so many promising opportunities for marketing?

One place to start is by defining your goals. How much do you want to expand your customer base this year? How will you know in six months’ time if you’re on the path to achieving that goal? If you keep your goals in mind, you can keep from spreading yourself too thin among all the marketing options and you can better choose which marketing options will work best for you. Read the full entry

3 Comments

I was talking with an SEO client the other day that wanted to know why we bothered tracking organic visitor data and SERP rank for their branded keywords as part of their monthly SEO reports. Surely they would always rank #1 for their brand and product related keywords, right? How can SEO possibly help them do better for their own company name?

This is actually a conversation I’ve had with many prospects and clients. Yes, the main focus of SEO is to drive non-branded traffic to your site, introducing your brand to people that had never before heard of your company. But there are plenty of opportunities to improve branded search with SEO. Read the full entry

0 Comments

Innovation is not an easy concept to pin down. However, it can be roughly defined as the creation of better ways of doing things that are useful to individuals, businesses, governments, and society as a whole.

Where invention is creation of a brand new product, technology, or method, innovation is more about improving existing products and methods to make them better. The line between the two is not always clear, as innovation sometimes makes use of a new invention, and inventions are often sparked by innovation.

When you think of the sheer technological power available to the average consumer today, it’s no wonder that innovation is what drives new and better business technology. The smart phone you hold in your hand has more computing power than the machines that put a man on the moon. Think how simple processes like making banking transactions have changed in only the past couple of years.

Business.com recently spoke with Braden Kelley — thought leader, blogger, and co-founder of www.innovationexcellence.com — about how businesses and individuals can influence innovation and become leaders in their field. Read the full entry

0 Comments

Nothing kills the dream of a would-be entrepreneur quite like the inability to fund that great idea.

But despite a struggling economy, there are still plenty of opportunities for business owners who are willing to work toward their own success. The Small Business Administration had a record year in FY2011, supporting more than $30 billion in small business lending, and financial institutions (mostly community banks) have increased their small business lending by $3.5 billion.

Finding financial backers for your venture takes a bit more work then just saying, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a (insert super cool idea for a business/product/venture here)?” to a group of wealthy guys in suits.

Getting someone to buy in your great idea requires market research, business acumen, energy and the ability to think outside of the box. We rounded up four business loan success stories that illustrate how passion for an idea — combined with innovative thinking and some elbow grease — can get results. Read the full entry

2 Comments

Temporary employment in America is a fairly new phenomenon, outside of seasonal and agricultural work. In 1956, there were only about 20,000 temporary workers in the U.S. However, since June 2009, the temp sector has been the fastest-growing sector in the U.S. labor market.

The fact that employers are skittish about adding permanent jobs with benefits shows that the economic recovery is still sluggish as of mid-2012. Additionally, companies appear to be slowly drifting away from the permanent workforce and toward having a workforce at any given time that’s 80 to 90% permanent,with the other 10 to 20% accounted for by temporary workers. Read the full entry

0 Comments

A successful business is one that not only makes an initial sale, but one that keeps customers returning over and over. Making a sale is only the beginning of the business-customer relationship. The end goal of any small business is to bring in repeat business. This means fostering a presumed long-term customer relationship from the first call or meeting.

While advertising is an important part of any small business budget, the best way to get new business is through customer referrals. This is a particularly important aspect of a small business owner’s strategy because one good referral can open the door to several more client opportunities. Read the full entry

2 Comments

For a small business to be successful, it’s critical to start by setting clear goals in the business plan, and continuously striving to meet those goals and to set new ones. Otherwise, business owners risk stagnating, or, worse yet, failing.

For advice on how to set goals for your small business, we turned to Diane Helbig of Seize This Day Coaching.  Diane has more than 20 years of experience in business and sales that she parlayed into a business coaching practice in 2006. Since then, she’s built a name for herself as a leadership development coach and consultant, author, speaker, radio show host, and workshop facilitator. Read the full entry

0 Comments

What Exactly Is CRM?

Many people associate Customer Relationship Management with software, but it is actually more comprehensive than that. CRM is a strategy designed to increase profits by retaining existing customers, attracting new ones, and bringing former customers back into the fold.

The goal is to create a holistic view of each customer so that customer-facing employees (like those in sales, marketing, and customer support) can make smart decisions about things like targeted marketing, cross-selling, and up-selling. Read the full entry

1 Comment

Video surveillance offers a number of benefits to the everyday business owner.  Not only do they protect against outside break-ins and burglaries, but they also play a critical role in sustaining your business and making it a safer place to work.  Simply put, purchasing a few reliable surveillance cameras for your business security can yield a high return on investment. Read the full entry

0 Comments