Small Business Tips and Advice

Working from home has many advantages, including a very short commute (which not only saves time but gas) and flexible hours. But it's not right for everyone. To decide if working at or from home is right for you, first ask yourself these three questions: 1) Am I okay being by ... (more...)

Turning away work -- saying no to a project or firing a client -- is never easy, especially in tough economic times like these when many small businesses are struggling to stay afloat. But sometimes it is necessary, for both your business and your sanity. If you do not have the ... (more...)

Ah, Valentine's Day, a time of hearts and flowers, chocolate and jewelry and opportunity. Even if your  business isn't in the business of selling chocolate or jewelry or flowers, if you aren't capitalizing on Valentine's Day, you could find your heart broken and your e-commerce site or website ... (more...)

According to new research from Guidance, an e-commerce solution provider based in California, people like the websites they regularly visit to provide them with some sort of social interaction, whether it's customer testimonials, consumer-generated content like product reviews, live chat, or a message board where they can chat or ... (more...)

Don't think it matters if you wear a suit or nice outfit to a business meeting, networking event, conference, or trade show? Maybe if you're Steve Jobs it doesn't. But for the rest of us, how you present yourself, from your attitude to your attire, makes a huge impression on ... (more...)

Words -- choosing and using the right words to convey an idea, sell a product, or promote a concept -- are very important to me as a writer and marketing communications pro. But they should be important to every business owner, no matter the size of your business or marketing ... (more...)

I always love to read or hear about personal success stories, particularly when they involve women who followed their passions. Over Thanksgiving break, during a trip to Chicago, I met one such woman, Valerie Beck, and got to experience her business, Chicago Chocolate Tours, first hand and speak with ... (more...)

Over dinner during a bike trip this summer, our tour guide mentioned that his "real" job was helping his mother run the family business, a small publishing company aimed at parents who home-schooled their children. As we talked some more, the young man mentioned that while the company sold books ... (more...)

In July, my editor at Ecommerce-Guide.com asked me to look into a two-year-old company called iShopUSA, which claimed to take the hassle out of international e-commerce that is, selling stuff to customers outside the United States for companies of all sizes doing business online. With more people ... (more...)

I recently reconnected with a high school classmate who, it turned out, also runs a small marketing/communications business. Business had been good, she said, but recently she found something new that really excited her (she was even writing a book about it in her spare time!) and was now rethinking ... (more...)