September 10th, 2010 by admin

According to a recently released survey, small businesses in the United States are now more optimistic than they have been in the last 2 years. Though small business owners expressed optimism about the economic outlook, they were reluctant to expand staffs and boost capital spending.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said 7 out of the 10 index components rose as per its survey but capital expenditure and job creation plans barely gained and were the same as those during the recession.

From Foxsmallbusinesscenter.com:

NFIB chief economist William Dunkelberg said the biggest concern of small business owners is weak sales and until that turns around, they will not be inclined to hire new staff or invest in new equipment.

The NFIB survey of 823 businesses through the end of May showed that more small businesses are experiencing weakening sales than are enjoying sales improvement. Widespread price cutting was also reported, it said. May was the 18th consecutive month in which more business owners reported cutting average selling prices than raising them.

“The Fed is right, the likelihood of inflation breaking out in the near term is low, but the picture is changing and could change quickly,” the NFIB report concluded.

Small businesses account for about half of gross domestic product and many analysts do not see U.S. employment picking up much until small firms begin hiring.

The survey also disclosed that more small business owners expect market conditions to improve in the coming six months.

Tags: capital spending, economic outlook, job creation, small business, small businesses

June 2nd, 2010 by admin

Two of the most successful Small Business Administration (SBA) programs are about to run short of money again in midst of the federal government’s National Small Business Week.

It was announced by the SBA on Wednesday that it is opening up Recovery Loan Queue for the fourth time.

From money.cnn.com:

President Obama and many in Congress say they want the loan incentives extended for at least the rest of this fiscal year, which runs through September. But the two chambers of Congress haven’t yet agreed on legislation to do that. Result: A series of emergency bills that so far have kept the funds flowing, but only after several brief expirations.

“The stopping-and-starting is problematic,” said SBA spokesman Jonathan Swain. “It is a complicating factor for our lenders and our borrowers.”

When the funding pool starts to go dry, lenders scramble. Seacoast Commerce Bank, a community bank in Chula Vista, Calif., had pushed five SBA-backed loans through by midday Wednesday.

“It certainly puts a lot of strain on the whole process,” said David Bartram, an executive vice president in the bank’s SBA division.

Another extension is supported by members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate but it is not clear whether the legislation could make it before the Memorial Day break.

Tags: Administration, SBA, small business

April 19th, 2010 by admin

If you are entrusted with the responsibility of promoting products and services of an online business and want to make use of a free and still highly effective marketing tool, blogging is all you need to know about. Read on!

In today’s cutthroat business environment, it is important for an online business to effectively plan and implement marketing tools such as blogging, search engine optimization, and email marketing to name a few. It is important to note here that blogging must be given equal attention as any other tools such as search engine optimization as the number of site visitors interested in blogging is on a rampant high and this is one fact that cannot be ignored by a profit-motivated business.

One of the biggest advantages with blogs is that site managers can do as much changes on a blog as on the site itself. Moreover, blogs are taken as “personalized and reliable” set of statement from the business by the potential customers. These benefits are more for a small business as online marketing benefits are available for one and all, without any discrimination. This means that a small business is able to get as much value from online marketing investment as a big business.

By following these small tips and making use of blogging as an effective marketing tool, you can easily reap benefits of online marketing without putting any burden on the limited marketing budget of your business.

Tags: blogging, Blogs, email marketing, marketing tool, marketing tools, online marketing benefits, Search Engine Optimization, small business

April 16th, 2010 by admin

If you have been running a small business without much profits and think that this is the end of road for you, this blog on marketing tips for small business owners would give advice that will not only put right on the business map but helps you stay ahead in the competition race in no time. Read on!

Recent marketing reports have revealed that a huge majority of small business owners were unable or reluctant to explore the benefits of online marketing even though they would have brought endless benefits for them at no additional costs. This is because some owners of offline businesses still consider exploring the world of online marketing as a risk when it is no risk and all profit. In the quest to avoid online presence, they lose innumerable business opportunities that could have put them on top of the competition chart.

Let us read how a small business can reap and optimize benefits of online marketing with its limited marketing infrastructure.

A business striving for success in this cutthroat business environment needs to first of all create and maintain an effective, regularly updated professional online presence. This means that it must have a professionally designed web site that is maintained over a period of time with unique content to help potential customers make informed decisions.

Once the online presence is created and maintained, it should be promoted at channels of the Internet such as directories, search engines, and classified advertisements so that potential customers can be made aware of the presence and this can be a mutually-benefiting presence for both the involved parties. By following these small yet highly rewarding tips, an online business can easily put itself on the league of successful businesses in no time.

We hope that these marketing tips for small business owners like you have helped you to a significant extent.

Tags: benefits of online marketing, marketing tips, marketing tips for small business owners, Online Marketing, Online Presence, professional online presence, professionally designed web site, small business

March 2nd, 2010 by admin

If you have just been suggested or motivated to opt for online marketing for your small business, this piece of information would surely be of an interest to you. Read on!

Before we find out if online marketing is rewarding for small businesses or not, let us have a close look at some statistics.

• More than 72 percent of world’s potential customers are on the web and find product vendors or service providers for handling their requirements on the web itself.
• A recent survey has projected that online shopping is estimated at a staggering $300 billion by the year-end 2010.
• An eminent search engine report has disclosed that over 3 trillion web pages were explored by worldwide visitors in 2009 and the number is expected to double up in 2010.
• Small businesses have been the greatest beneficiaries of online marketing and 94 percent of small businesses (online) were able to beat last year’s recession and even register thumping sales scores.
• Online marketing has become cheaper in 2009 and 2010 than what it was in the last five years.

If you have a close look at all these statistics, you will easily find that online marketing has become cheaper and beneficial for small businesses in the last few years. Moreover, small online businesses were better positioned to avoid or stay unaffected by market fluctuations. Considering all these circumstances, it can be easily identified that it is all about gains and nothing about losses when small businesses and online marketing “join hands” together.

Tags: Online Marketing, Online Shopping, small business, small businesses

February 10th, 2010 by admin

What’s attracting potential customers today? The options before a small business may be many but one proven strategy is making use of keywords in an effective manner to market the business online.

For free or organic search, the task begins with finding out the keywords, which are used by potential and preferred customers on search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo! In case of PPC (pay per click) also, the task begins with figuring out the rewarding keywords that are used by potential customers. In short, it all begins with keywords. The related tasks may appear in the first place but if they were so easy, all businesses would have been successful. But, that had not been the case.

A business can make use of technique such as targeted search marketing. Targeted Search Marketing is a time-consuming process and a business eager to get engaged in it needs to always look at the moving target. Since search is competitive in the true sense, businesses often get pushed off the organic or paid pages.

In order to reap benefits of targeted search marketing and ensure that success comes at an increasingly fast speed for a business, a business can avail services of an expert such as an Internet Marketing Agency or Consultant. Such agencies or consultants are proven experts in the field of drilling into search engine algorithms and analytics. They can help your business to grow and reap benefits of effective and affordable marketing in the true sense.

In a nutshell, it can be said that when a small business engages itself into targeted search marketing, it relieves itself from all marketing concerns to stay ahead of the competition and competitor tactics.

Tags: Internet Marketing agency, pay per click, search engine algorithms, search engines, small business, targeted search marketing

November 16th, 2009 by admin

Online marketing can be easily classified as marketing on the Internet. This kind of marketing is not only easy but effective to the truest sense. It not only allows the small businesses to promote their products and services in an effective manner but also helps them compete with the bigger names in the market. In addition to that, online marketing allows them to go global without putting a burden on their limited budgetary resources. If that was not all, it also helps in reducing marketing costs to a considerable extent and allows the business to allocate the saved resources to other critical business processes and sub-processes.

In addition to all these benefits, online marketing allows a small business to stay accessible to its customers at all possible times and from any geographical location. This results in generation of more qualified leads and improved sales.

In short, online marketing allows a brick-and-mortar business to transform itself into a big business, which is more than capable enough to create a distinctive niche and sustain its operations without any troubles.

So if you are a small business owner and aiming to put your business on the world of global businesses, online marketing is an effective yet economical marketing tool in your business marketing quiver. You just “need to pick and aim the right arrows out of your quiver at the right time”. That’s it!

Tags: business marketing, marketing costs, marketing on the Internet, Online Marketing, small business, small business owner

November 10th, 2009 by admin

Every business in today’s competitive market needs a presence and an online presence can do wonders for your business prospects. As per a recently conducted eminent survey, it was revealed that a large population of the World Wide Web users surf the Internet to find details about the small businesses.

The reasons may be many, such as to find details about the providers of basic services, i.e., electricians or plumbers etc. or to find contact details of professional service providers such as accountants or Attorney/Law firms. The reason may also include an attempt to get details about entities such s hotels, insurance agencies, landscaping, Spa and even food joints/restaurants. Now, do you think that a small business that doesn’t have an online presence could have been in the list of prospective service providers searched by the Internet users if it didn’t had a website of its own? The reply is indeed “No” from your side. This is because a website is as essential in today’s business world as a sharp business mind.

If you have no presence on the Internet, your reach will be smaller than others who have a presence, when it comes to convincing your prospective customers about products and services. With a website, you can communicate complete information about your line of business, products and services, price and discounts (if any) to your prospective (as well as existing) customers in no time. The attained results, after having a website, will be enough for you to think why the website hosting plans were not undertaken previously. After all, reaching its customers is all what every business thinks of and your small business is no exception.

Tags: attorney, business, effective online presence, hotel, insurance agency, law firm, Online Presence, plumbing business, presence on the Internet, products and services, restaurant, small business, website, World Wide Web

October 20th, 2009 by admin

If you are a small business owner, you cannot ignore the two proverbs, “If you build it, they will come” and “First impression is the last impression”. These proverbs also hold good for an offline business that is on a transition spree to be an online business.

To ensure that automation of tasks and online presence are organized in a better manner, the services of an Internet Marketing agency can prove to be highly beneficial.

An Internet Marketing agency can help a small business to create, develop and maintain online presence. It can take care of all website aspects such as website creation, web hosting, web development and maintenance apart from creating a distinctive online presence. It can even help an offline business to go online by creating a website that is user-friendly, easy-to-navigate and serves the intended purposes of both the website owner and targeted customers.

Let us now find how online presence works wonders for a business.

Online presence works for 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. This clearly means that a business can respond to the needs, orders, re-orders, suggestions and feedback of its existing and potential customers. Along with these benefits, online presence can help a business to build a corporate image and stay ahead in competition. A website not only creates demand and awareness about the business and its offered products & services but also acts as a business sales representative that works without any breaks or payments.

Thus, it can be concluded that the untold art of creating and maintaining online presence gets better with an Internet Marketing Agency at a small business’s side.

Tags: Internet Marketing agency, online business, Online Presence, small business, web development, web hosting, website creation

September 23rd, 2009 by admin

No matter how small your business is or what your line of business is, you need to reach your prospective customers. Options are numerous and you need to find the best blend of effectiveness and affordability. Probably, the first thing that comes to your mind is related to getting online presence for your business.

Let us evaluate why online presence, in the form of a website, is critical even for a small business.

A business website, with basic details and contact information, is an amicable source of guidance and information for all those who want to get information about a business and its offered products & services.

Many businesses have been able to create a niche for themselves by having online presence and they have been no exceptions. Simply because they put their “Online Presence” on even the most traditional advertising forms – on their business cards, magazines, newspapers and even on the phone directories. Mass (online and offline) publicity was the reason why they were able to take giant leaps forward. The basic justification of online presence is to present one’s business as a professional unit in the truest sense.

Every prospective customer identifies a business with its website these days and a poor business website is enough to create the first “unfriendly” impression. It will not be wrong to say that the modern-day customers want businesses that can serve their needs to have at least a good website just as a working phone number is almost seen as a sign of presence in bygone days.

Along with that, a website is beneficial as it helps in conveying more information than any other traditional form of print media. It is very easy for a business to inform its prospective customers, in good measure, about itself, its products and services, business hours, rules and regulations, contact information and latest updates through a website.

A customer who spends some time in reviewing website of a business does show an inclination for that business, which means that a step has already been taken by him in the process of making a purchase. At such a juncture, a business would be in a more favorable position to close the deal by reaching out and convincing him. That’s akin to striking the iron while it’s hot. Isn’t that good? Sure, it is.

Get a website now and see prospective customers reaching you, rather than you reaching to them at all the times!

Tags: business website, Online Presence, small business, website