SmallBusinessNewz

Facing the Giants in Your Industry

There has always been a rivalry between large businesses and small businesses. Large businesses seem to have all the breaks with big budgets, lots of staff and resources, and many other seeming advantages. Although it's not exactly fun to be the one with a smaller budget and fewer resources, it doesn't mean that you don't have any advantages.

4 FREE Ways to Gather Marketing Intelligence

Market research firms can be very helpful to businesses since they offer information regarding customers' priorities, motivations, decision-making patterns, and even their budgets. However, these firms are often expensive for small businesses.

6 Tips for Determining Your Pricing Structure

Even if you have the best product or service in the world, if your price is wrong, it could really hurt your business. If your price is too high, you won't get business; and if your price is too low, you won't make any profit. So, what is a business to do?

Lessons Learned from Watching American Idol

I’ll admit it…Over the last few years I’ve gotten pretty hooked on American Idol. While some consider it nothing more than a guilty pleasure or time-suck, if you look at it from an entrepreneur’s perspective there’s quite a lot to be learned. That’s because Idol isn’t just a singing competition. They’re looking for a great singer who is unique, likable, marketable, and gives people something they want more of. In other words, they’re looking for a singer who is going to sell hundreds of thousands of albums.

U.S. Trade Rep Assigned To Help Small Businesses

Small businesses now officially have one more friend in a high place.  Today, the United States Trade Representative created and filled a position called "Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Small Business, Market Access and Industrial Competitiveness."

Give Customers A Unique Selling Proposition

Want people to buy from your small business instead of your competition? Give them a good reason with a killer USP (Unique Selling Proposition)! In “Reality in Advertising”, Rosser Reeves (inventor of the term USP) explains the three things any USP must have in order to be effective: 1) Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: “Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”

What You Can Learn from Amazon to Increase Holiday Sales

There is a reason Amazon is widely known as one of the biggest retailers online (if not the biggest). The company knows what it's doing. Amazon has appeared in headlines recently for a number of reasons, and a fair amount of them are related to different things the company has been doing to increase its sales as the holiday season approaches. While as a small business, you don't likely have the clout that Amazon does, they do employ strategies that you can learn from in order to potentially increase your own sales. 1. Mobile Payments

How Well Do You Know Your Competition?

It really is true that in order to be successful in your business, you have to know your competition very well. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses will make your business stronger.

Competitor Doesn't Have to Mean Enemy

Though it may be tempting at times, it is probably in your best interest as a small business owner or representative, not to criticize the efforts of you competitors. This is a topic recently explored by Loic Le Meur on his blog, and in the following video.

Business Plan Part 6: Competitive Analysis

Before you write the Competitive Analysis portion of your Business Plan, you must  first conduct a thorough investigation of your competition. Your research must persuade the readers (AKA potential investors) that your business offerings will benefit consumers in a way that your competitors can't or won't.