Friday 24 February 2012

Small Businesses can beat the big guys with good service service skills

I'm positive that with good customer service skills, small businesses can beat out the big players. Generally speaking, which is always dangerous, as small business owners we are normally closer to what's happening on the shop floor than the owners or CEO's of large companies. Hence, we should know how our employees are interacting with customers and act quickly to fill in gaps by training in good customer service skills. We should also be providing clear polices and procedures of how to deal

it's with good customer service that small business can beat the big players

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Content Marketing for Small Business - What is that?

When I first read the article,which is extracted below, I thought What, what on earth is this now? Content Marketing for small business what? My head was spinning ( luckily it didn't come off). Now I'm more of a numbers person, so all this words stuff is hard for me to take in. I had to, again, consult trusty wikipedia :-
Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential

what is content marketing for small business

Content Marketing Strategy example for Retail

[caption id="attachment_616" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="A Content Marketing Strategy for Retail"][/caption]

When I wrote on content marketing previously I knew it was something that I had to look into on a deeper level for my children's footwear store. Andy Stack of You Tube offers this advice "it's important for retailers to develop a content marketing strategy and not necessarily an advertising strategy, and sponsor content that matters to your community and spend money

A content marketing for small businesses

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Small Business growth from the use of Social Media

We hear everyday of how we can get small business growth from the use of social

[caption id="attachment_610" align="alignright" width="128" caption="you can get small business growth from social media"][/caption]

media, and most of us consider it free to use. Jeremy Morgan, senior vice president of marketing and consumer insights of Smashburger says "The common misconception about social media is that it's free, Facebook and Twitter are free, but for small-business owners in

small business growth from the use of social media

Saturday 18 February 2012

Small Business Growth Tips - Exporting, huge investment required

Small business growth tips are something most, but not every, small business owner is

[caption id="attachment_130" align="alignright" width="128" caption="Small Business Exporting Tips"][/caption]

searching for. An article I have just read on the American Express Open Forum talks about exporting as a way of growing businesses. Now, I have great admiration for the American Express Open Forum ( note that the articles presented by the forum are the writers own opinions and not those

small business growth tips

Friday 17 February 2012

Small Business Growth and the Economic Crisis- is growth a magic pill for the economy

Now this has been worrying me for a while it's been one of those niggling thoughts at the


[caption id="attachment_553" align="alignright" width="200" caption="small business growth no magic answer for economic recovery"][/caption]
back of my mind. All this talk from politicians about small business growth and the economic crisis and how growth is the lynch pin of economic recovery. It seams to be global... this is how we are going to get the economy moving... Then I came across this

small business growth and the economic crisis read more...

Small Business Growth Problems

You hear, or read so much about small business being the backbone of the economy,

[caption id="attachment_548" align="alignleft" width="128" caption="Small Business growth can mean problems"][/caption]

about economic recovery by small business growth. What you don't hear about are small business growth problems and why some small business choose not to grow. An article I read recently dealt with a few of the reasons. While written for the American market I'm sure those of us in business

small business growth problems... read more..

Thursday 16 February 2012

Small Business Help - Couples working together in business

Running a small business is stressful, so couples working together in business must


[caption id="attachment_537" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Randy Rubin and Craig Rubin source: Crypton"][/caption]
be doubly stressful, or maybe 4 times. And yet there are well over a million couples working together in business in the USA. So how do they make it work? Here are some great tips from Randy and Craig Rubin, owners of Crypton a textile company, on business and work balance for

Couples working together in business tips

Wednesday 15 February 2012

How do you use Social Media in Small Business

I was quite happy with my social media efforts for my kids shoe shop until I came across an article by James Debono which has got me thinking. Do I use social media in small business correctly and if not what should I be doing.

Here's an extract from his blog


[caption id="attachment_524" align="alignright" width="150" caption="is this a marketing site or a social site?"][/caption]

Social media for small business should be more social and less about marketing. Those businesses that

how do you use social media in small business

Monday 13 February 2012

Is there such a thing as work life balance in small business?

Do you think that having work life balance in small business is achievable? And what


[caption id="attachment_512" align="alignright" width="200" caption="is there such a thing as work life balance in small business"][/caption]
about in the start up phase when there is even more pressure to work 24/7. Is it necessary to sacrifice family relationships in the name of business?
I was aware, when starting my own small business, of the challenges and time effort required due to my parents

Read more ...

Sunday 12 February 2012

The importance of logo in business

My bricks and mortar business is changing, it has too. I'm moving from solely children's shoes and adding a sprinkling of women's'. Why I'm doing that is another post. But now I'm worried about the importance of logo in business. Is my cutesy shoe lace logo going to distract from the image that I hope to portray in the future. Do I have to change it?

[caption id="attachment_503" align="aligncenter" width="746" caption="Do I need to change my logo?"][/caption]

 

This is a huge

Read more ...

Saturday 11 February 2012

Do customer service expectations continually escalate

I've been sitting here reading yet another article on customer service and thinking yeah,yeah, same old, same old, yadda, yadda, yadda ***. Then is suddenly hit me, there is an expectation gap between customers and businesses. Not only that but customer service expectations continually escalate, they are expecting more and more.
Customer service expectation gap
I learnt a little about 'the audit expectation gap' when studying Audit for my Accountancy qualification, this goes quite away back

customer service expectations....

Thursday 9 February 2012

Small Business Help Marketing Tips

When I started to read the article below, the word innovation turned me off, I didn't associate the headline that was given with small business help marketing tips. It's funny that a single word can do that, sometimes it all depends on your definition of the word and how it has been used to and by you in the past. In the English language so many words can mean the same thing & also one word can have various meanings. So when I discovered that Steve Strauss was referring to innovating

Read more ...