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One of the more positive economic indicators in the first quarter of 2010 has been that small business lending, particularly loans backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA), are on the rise. SBA loans are a solid option for entrepreneurs looking to fund start-up ventures or growth. But how do small business owners go about finding the right government-backed loan that meets their particular needs? What are your options and how do you apply? Below are five things you need to know about finding and applying for government loans for your small business Read More

There is no substitute for a good needs-analysis and a great diagnosis of your dream client’s problems. But doing so requires that you suspend filtering their experience through your own, that you not ignore their vision, that you understand the constraints and obstacles, and that you ask the hard questions Read More

The Pew Research Project has put the value of small business reputation management into numbers: 44% of online adults say they have searched online for information about someone whose services or advice they seek in a professional capacity, like a doctor, lawyer or plumber. Read More

A brand is after all just a name, so why so much fuss over branding? The simple reason to adopt branding is that it allows you to stand out in the crowd and helps your business/ product to make its presence felt. There are numerous ways of branding yourself and social media is one of them. Actually, in this case, five of them Read More

I’ve been on Twitter for about 7 months and on Facebook for about a year or so. What I’ve noticed is that there are an increasing number of people sharing information on both these sites. With the opening up of Facebook’s social graph and Twitter acquiring companies that makes third-party services for them, it seems like this trend is going nowhere but north. Read More

There are so many tactics to choose from it can be a trap to drop what you are currently doing and jump to another. Just think of this in terms of trying out different diets or exercise routines to get healthy. If you keep changing then you certainly will not get the results you want. The same goes for your marketing. 3 benefits of being consistent are.. Read More

It seems that credit unions and community banks, the kinds of institutions that usually loan to small businesses, are prevented from doing so as much as they would like because of a credit cap that limits the amount of lending permitted for them under law. Now credit unions are asking that the cap be lifted allowing them, and community banks, to approve more loans for small businesses. And guess who's objecting to the change! Read More

Thanks in part to the recession, businesses especially in the "lower-middle market" are handling their own financing with buyers when it comes time to sell. When a buyer can't get the loans they once did to cover purchase of a company from a bank often the business being purchased is providing the additional needed financing usually with longer involvement in the company after closing Read More

By now, many of you may have heard that BizSugar was honor last week with the Best Of Tech Award For Best Social Media App from the Northeast Ohio Software Association. I wonder if the community would join me in thanking our global team of moderators, great executive board and others who have been such a great help in making BizSugar the social media site it is today. Also thanks to our wonderful community members. You made it all possibl Read More

As I tried to reassure people that social media is merely a set of tools that allowed people to communicate, much like pen & paper & e-mail, one analogy used for social media that particularly struck me was that of the old corner shop Read More