BizSugar.com › User › Jed › Voted

In this post, I'll offer 10 suggestions for how small businesses can supercharge their marketing efforts by leveraging social media. For each suggestion, I will discuss a basic strategy — for those who simply want to get their toes wet, as well as an advanced strategy — for those who want to spend a bit more time and go a bit deeper in their socia Read More

It may be easy to forget in an age of blogging and social media, but e-mail remains an effective way to market online and to grow a small business or startup franchise with limited resources. Gail Goodman makes some suggestions in this article from Entrepreneur.com posted in the Microsoft Small Business Center. Gail points to the key aspects of gr Read More

Though opportunities exist for outsourcing many functions in small to medium sized businesses to China, especially manufacturing, care must still be taken n exploring these options. In an article for Small Business Review, writer Gary M. Stern suggests careful investigation to avoid unscrupulous suppliers and careful research to be sure your busin Read More

I wasn't sure what to talk about at Startup School, so I decided to ask the founders of the startups we'd funded. So I sent all the founders an email asking what surprised them about starting a startup. I got over 100 other responses listing the surprises they encountered. There were very clear patterns in the responses; it was remarkable how of Read More

If you're not getting the response you think you should be getting, look at the offer first. The strategic process in old-fashioned Direct Marketing is matching up the right list with the right offer— segmenting the list into micro-segments (or “splits”), and tailoring specialized offers to make the offer more relevant. Read More

Even the most seasoned executives make blunders in the sales process that are easily fixed. Before you lose more business, Jim Lewis, CEO of Princeton Sales Partners and author of Five Deadly Sins CEOs Make in Sales, recommends that you keep in mind these five selling sins. Read More

one of the big problems about using social media is the time it takes (the time it takes away from your real business). Here are some tips that can help you be more productive with your social media time. Read More

Customer service is one of the most important elements of marketing and the steps you take to keep your customers informed when problems occur can strengthen or harm the relationship. Read More

If you're feeling the pinch of reduced cash flow and overwhelming choices in the marketing of your business, it can be easy to overlook the simple things you can do to improve your positions. One of those simple things is taking some time to think about your marketing mindset. I am not referring to positive thinking, though that does have its plac Read More

We've all heard the horror stories of difficult clients. Anyone offering client services has been there. Here are six common “bad client” archetypes that can impede your success. After the definition of each client type, I've listed some possible tactics you can use to tame those wild beasts in your client roster. Read More