Perfect Your Small Business Skills With Open Courseware

Perfect Your Small Business Skills With Open Courseware

While yes it is true that one doesn’t need a Masters of Business Administration degree in order to run and manage a successful small business, the leadership and business skills one learns pursuing an MBA can in fact help one launch their business to even further heights. Unfortunately not everyone has the time or the money to return to school in order to learn a new set of managerial and business skills. But thanks to open courseware, it might just be possible.

Open courseware is a term used to refer to free online classes offered by various prestigious institutions such as Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.…

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5 Ways To Be A Social Media Authority

Social media is an all – important avenue for all business types since business owners realize its worth. When it was a new trend, not many people thought that it was going to live up to its hype in the world of business but just look at how it evolved from connecting old friends to connecting business contacts.

5 Ways To Be A Social Media Authority

One could not count on their fingers how many gurus, specialists and trend setters there are in the world of social media. So what makes them believable? Why is it that more people take their word rather than anyone else’s? It’s because they have established themselves as the authority in their own niche.…

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Running A Business Is A Popularity Contest

Have you ever joined a pageant? If not, have you ever watched one? I’m sure you have. Apart from a contestant’s beauty and brains, people look for personality. A kind of joie de vivre which would entice the audience to vote for them and the judges to like them.

running a business is a popularity contest

Running a small business is a lot like joining a pageant, it is first and foremost a popularity contest if you will. The more people know about you, like what you do and what you offer, the higher likelihood that they would actually do business with you. That’s one of the reasons why social media is a great place to market your brand.…

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5 Tools For Testing Your Website For Mobile Compatibility

mobile website testing toolsOn my previous post, I had discussed about some tips on building a mobile business website. Inspired by a comment from Martin Lindeskog, I have decided to share with you, my dear readers, some tips on how to test whether your mobile viewers are getting optimum viewing capacity on their mobile browsers.

That said, I have scoured the net for a cornucopia of sites which can be useful to test mobile compatibility of your site.

Here are some mobile browser compatibility-testing sites:

1.   mobiReady This site is fairly easy to navigate and the best part is, it’s free.…

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Tips For Building A Mobile Business Website

tips for building mobile business websites

These days, it seems unlikely that there is still a small business owner who doesn’t use smartphones. Since the internet is more accessible now than everybody thought possible, mobility has taken on a whole new different meaning.

Our smartphones have become a bigger part of our lives than we’ve all imagined and it just makes sense then that websites are being rebuilt to be more mobile compatible. But really, how can a small business owner make their site mobile?

Inc.com published an article not too long ago on how to design and build a mobile website. Here are my take-aways:

  • Look for an online service that would enable your site to be available on a mobile version.
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Should Small Businesses Outsource SEO Or Take Care Of It In House?

The questions that plague small businesses seem to never change – only the subjects small business is asking these questions about. Unlike a corporation or large company, resources within a small business are often scarce.   As it is, you likely are doing the jobs 10 or more people would be in charge of in a larger company. SEO may sound like another truffle on your plate that you simply don’t have the stomach for.

“We have a great product, people will find us.”

This is a reaction you want to avoid. The most important aspect of SEO, or search engine optimization, any small business (or large for that matter) must realize is that it is not another “option” in how you market your business, it is a necessity born of a real and fast change in the way consumers search for various goods and services.…

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Tips for Better Email Deliverability

The cardinal rule of email deliverability is to never borrow, buy or rent an email list. Doing so could cause you to end up on a blacklist, permanently crippling your deliverability.

Tips for Better Email Deliverability

To boost the size of your email list, review every interaction point a customer has with your company, and consider implementing a program for each one. Possible options include:

  • Point-of-sale at a bricks-and-mortar retail location
  • Online
  • Phone or call center

For small businesses in particular, the fastest way to grow an email list is to offer a strong incentive to join. Consumers typically have a few concerns when deciding whether or not to join your list:

  • What’s in it for me?
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Is Your Small Business Ready to Go Global?

The National Export Initiative is an encouragement for small businesses to give aid in tapping into the global marketplace. Exporting is a great opportunity, however small business owners need further assistance before jumping into this with both feet. According to the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), the United States ranks third in the field of entrepreneurship. In the quest to grow your business, it is not surprising that you want to take it to the next level.

doing business on a global scale

Exporting your products and services to other countries denotes that your client base has grown to include the international market. This is growth for your business.…

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Realizing the Potential Of Online Video For Your Business

why businesses should use online videoAs an SMB CEO, you must take on multiple roles to ensure that your company has the greatest chances of success. One of the most important of these roles for building your business is marketing. As technology evolves and consumers spend more and more time on the Internet, you must utilize online tools in order to keep up with technology and compete with big businesses. Online video is one of the best marketing tools out there to attract consumers to your company.

Web video is not just for playback of traditional broadcast content or million dollar ad campaigns.   In fact, it is an important part of any marketing and commerce experience on the web.…

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Small Businesses and Digital Marketing in 2011

Marketing has come a long way from traditional tools used in print or magazine media. We are in an age where everybody who is anybody is interconnected and with a cursory view of your profile, it is pretty easy to know which market you would most likely be under.  As such, entrepreneurs have a greater chance of locating their target markets without leaving their desks.

digital marketing in 2011

In a recently conducted Zoomerang survey, most SMBs would either increase their digital marketing efforts or retain them in 2011. If small businesses are considered by many as the lifeblood of the economy, especially as far as job generation is concerned, then new customers are the holy grail.…

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