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| Peace
on Earth
As
we prepare for a new year, our thanks go out to you,
our loyal Small Business Trends readers. Your support
has been terrific. Since starting out more than a
year ago, the site and this e-zine have grown greatly
in popularity, due to you. We look forward to continuing
the dialogue in 2005. Peace.
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| Blog
University
January
26-27, 2005 in Napa, California, USA
The
New Communications
Forum is an exciting event for anyone considering
a corporate blog, wanting to maximize an existing
blog, or wanting to know more about wikis and RSS
newsfeeds. I will be speaking on a panel at this event
about blogs and branding. See you there?
Special
discounts for groups of two or more. Email
for details. |
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| Recent
Popular Articles
Best
Entrepreneurship Books of 2004 - 5 recommended
books for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Free
the Grapes - A movement is afoot to overturn the
U.S. laws prohibiting the interstate shipment of wine.
These laws hurt small businesses.
Weak
Dollar Hits European Small Businesses Hard - The
weak dollar from the European perspective.
Does
the Weak Dollar Help US Small Businesses? - The
weak dollar from the U.S. perspective. |
|
| Get
Your Lo*vin' at Home
Small business expert
Andy Birol
talked to us by phone recently on a variety of issues,
including the realities of outsourcing for small business,
why elections don't make a difference to small business,
and why small business owners and entrepreneurs need
to rely on themselves instead of industry groups.
Read
the interview. |
|
| Just
Say No
Should U.S. taxpayer
money be used as a source of high-risk venture capital?
That's what is happening today with the federally-funded
SBIC program. Generally the Small Business Administration
has done untold good, but this SBA program is off
the mark. And we
are not alone in criticizing it. |
|
| Secrets
of Business Blogging
I will be moderating
a NEOSA
panel discussion on January 19, 2005, in Cleveland,
Ohio, USA.
The panelists will be sharing secrets about successful ROI
from business blogging, including advertising on blogs,
repurposing blog content for newsletters, using blogs
to get high search engine rankings, and using blogs
for business networking.
Featured bloggers: George
Nemeth, Eric
Olsen, Barbara
Payne, Steve
Rucinski -- with a network map of the Northeast
Ohio blogosphere provided by Valdis
Krebs. |
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| Letters to the Editor
Competing Against Wal-Mart
A
reader emails -- "How does a small
business compete against Wal-Mart in this day and
age?"
Our
answer -- I can think of 3 tried-and-true
ways to beat the big box retailers:
(1)
Better service - Wal-Mart competes on price
and you can't hope to beat their prices. So beat them
on something other than price. One area they can't
match a small company on is personalized service.
(2)
Go narrow and deep - Specialize in a niche.
Provide a much larger selection than Wal-Mart in your
niche. I know some niche retailers who walk the aisles
of Wal-Mart to see what it does NOT carry, and then
stock those items.
(3)
Make shopping an experience - This means
providing gourmet coffee for your customers, or bringing
in experts or mimes for a day and making shopping
like a party -- anything to make shopping with you
a memorable experience.
I
get this question at least once a month in one form
or another. I've
written a short piece here about the subject.
Good luck. |
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December
2004
Newsletter |
Small
Business Trends... keeping tabs on what's
happening and what's hot in the global small business
market.
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| By
the Numbers
$2.5
Billion is how big the Chinese translation
industry will become by 2005, fueled largely by global
trade
17%
is the rate of growth in women-owned businesses, nearly
twice the rate of all businesses
4.8%
is the expected growth in IT spending by SMBs in the
US in 2005
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Who
Reads Small Business Trends?
Small
business owners, any company selling to small businesses,
marketing and PR professionals, analysts, entrepreneurs,
journalists, and anyone wanting to discover the "next
big thing" in the small and midsize business market.
................................
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| Quote
Us!
Go
ahead, we like it, as long as you credit us and link
back to us.
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