Friday, December 30, 2011

Small Business Ideas | 2012 Small Business Trends to Watch

Small Business Ideas

Smallbiz2012
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The next decade will bring unprecedented business transformation.  Whether it's the new global economy, technology, social media or the influence of emerging economies; one thing is clear…this is both an exciting and nerve-wracking time to be in business.  Read More…

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Small Business Ideas | Getting New Customers with "Case Studies"

Small Business Ideas

Casestudy
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Case Studies have the quality of showing “real-life” scenarios, rather than just a marketing pitch.  They can highlight real examples of how your company solved a customer’s problem.  They can also demonstrate to a potential prospect, how they can benefit from using your services and/or products.  Read More

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Small Business Ideas | Why Nations "Need" Entrepreneurs

Small Business Ideas

 

New firms produce the most net jobs and net wealth in any economy.  New firms in the U.S. create about 3 million jobs per year.  America and the world will, as long as human beings walk this planet, need:  Innovators, Inventors and Entrepreneurs!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Small Business Ideas | Getting the "Story" Right

Small Business Ideas

 

 

The single best indicator of whether a country is going to grow or not is the number of new firms that are created every year.  That is a very powerful statistic.  This is a compelling reason to start a business.  BUT, If you don't get the "Story" right...You'll get the "Solution" wrong!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Small Business Ideas | What is Business "Vision"?

Small Business Ideas

Vision

Having a "Vision" is solving a problem no one else sees.  Startups solve problems no one else sees.  Some great "Visions" are held down by the word "can't".  Startups make sure these problems see the light of day.  Read More...

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Small Business Ideas | Using a Hypothesis to Start a Business

Small Business Ideas

Lscycle

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The old days of building a product, creating financial targets, writing a business plan, rolling out your product and crossing your fingers it will succeed…are long gone.  The new business model calls for a hypothesis, then experimenting with a minimum viable product, testing, measuring and learning.  The goal is to pivot as many times as necessary until the right business model is found.  Only then, a company is rolled out.  Read more...

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Mobile Marketing | Not Making Progress In Local Seachings?

Mobile Marketing

Us-local-ad-spending
Offline vs. Online U.S. Add Spending

Don't panic.  As mobile search continues to increase your ranking on the local search engine results page will be less and less important. What will become more and more important is that your business actually shows up in these mobile applications...read more

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Small Business Ideas | Are We In A Tech Bubble?

Small Business Ideas

Techbubble

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The $8.9 billion Linked-in IPO valuation at the end of the first day of trading, signals a strong interest in the market for tech IPOs.  Silicon Valley startups are in a race to file S-1 documents for their companies to go public.  Read the complete article here

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Small Business Ideas | The rise of mobile

Small Business Ideas

Mcommerceconversion
By December 2010, mobile conversion rates were approximately 1.5%. By early summer 2011, most mobile devices were converting at over 2%. But check out the iPad, converting between 3.75% to 4% during the same time period!  And this is just the beginning.  According to Flurry, in the coming year, smart phone users are set to double to over 92 million.  Keep an eye on mobile commerce excessive growth...Read More

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

m-Commerce Sales in the U.S. Between 2010-2015

m-Commerce

Mobile_commerce

Image Source:  Barclay's Capital, "U.S. Internet, Internet Trends and Picks For the Year Ahead," Provided to eMarketer on 1/11/11

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Bootstrap | Elevator Pitch $5,000 Monthly Give Away Competition!

Bootstrap

Pitchu

 

This is fantastic. Those of you thinking of starting a business cannot miss this wonderful opportunity!

VenCorps, which is a crowd-sourced collaborative venture capitalist firm and the Kauffman Foundation, are currently running an online elevator pitch competition.  They will give away US$5,000 cash to the best video pitch every month. Contestants upload a two-minute elevator pitch video to YouTube and get feedback from VenCorps‘panel of judges and members of the startup community.

It gets even better. Monthly winners walk away with the cash without any catch – no equity is expected. The best-of-the-best will be invited to the VenCorps community for a chance at winning a further US$25,000 investment.

For details of the competition visit their Facebook Page

 


 

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Mobile Marketing | Mobile Advertising ROI

Mobile Marketing

Mobileadvertisingroi

eMarketer estimates that by the end of 2011, U.S. spending on mobile advertising will reach $1.1 billion.  That is an increase of 48% over 2010!
Read entire article here

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Local Marketing | Landing Page Optimization Terms

Local Marketing

Landingpage

Interesting article on how people describe Landing Page Optimization testing efforts:

  • A/B testing – 24%
  • Landing page testing – 19%
  • Testing – 18%
  • Conversion rate testing – 15%
  • Usability testing – 13%
  • Split testing – 6%
  • UX/UI testing – 2%

 Read the complete post here