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If you spend, or plan to spend, substantial dollars on Web services or software support for your startup, you'll want to read this post. I'm going to show you how, with my 8 Steps to Running Your Business Off Low-Cost Web-Apps, it is possible to run a substantial company on software services and infrastructure that are either entirely free, or ava Read More

Market research has the power to make or break any business idea you have. Luckily, the U.S. Census Bureau tracks just about every useful detail about our cities. Whereas it would normally be a major headache to sift through all of the data, I use a site that cuts down my research time to just a few minutes. Enter ZipSkinny.com, still in beta, w Read More

Forget Microsoft Office and Excel. Your next powerful business tool could be Facebook. Andy McAfee, a Harvard Business School professor and an expert on Web 2.0 technologies and their applications in business, argues that social networking software brings certain types of people together in a much more efficient (and potentially cheaper) way than Read More

It's every company's nightmare: a competitor enters your market with a similar product priced at a fraction of what you currently charge. You need a strategy for beating the low-ballers. So what's the best way to proceed? Read More

For centuries, the world's greatest teachers and leaders have used fables, allegories and other types of stories to successfully communicate with people and motivate them to take action. So have some of the top-performing direct mail packages, including those from The Wall Street Journal, Time-Life, Rodale Inc., Covenant House, Greenpeace, Nightin Read More

Most small business operators who shy away from online marketing fear they can't afford it, says a Opus Research survey in which 25 percent of respondents said online advertising would break their budget. Additionally, 20 percent said they believe Internet marketing is too complex, and 15 percent said they don't think they have the manpower to h Read More

Carol Bory launches BizQ.mobi, the first mobile etiquette site designed for mobile handsets for instant access to business etiquette information anytime. Read More

While the majority of the country seems to be behind the Democratic Party as the political campaigns gain steam, it seems that small business is pretty content with the Republican Party and believes it's the party for small business. According to a new survey from SurePayroll, which polled 450 small business owners, most small biz owners are pull Read More

Wow! This is the kind of customer service that they'll be mentioning in business books for years. You never know what can happen when you add a little human kindness to your "customer policies." Kudos to Zappos! Read More

When talking with so many companies of all sizes and types about marketing with social media, many are keen on the idea, but don't have a clear idea of the best way to incorporate tactics like social bookmarking into their content promotions. Anyone can throw up links to Digg, Del.icio.us and Facebook, but does it actually do anything? Read More