SmallBusinessNewz

Small Businesses Still Waiting to Hire

In the Small Business Opinion Poll from EMPLOYERS, small business decision-makers indicate that it will require over 12 months for their businesses to return to pre-recession levels, in terms of annual sales. In addition, 41% say it will be more than 10 months before they start hiring.

FPB Chief Exec Warns Of Double-Dip Recession

According to the Forum of Private Business's chief executive (and, perhaps, common sense) small business owners shouldn't start giving away caviar samples and coating everything in gold just because the recession technically ended.  Indeed, Phil Orford warned that we could head back into recession territory.

Many Small business Owners Think Worst of Recession Yet To Come

MerchantCircle, a social network for local business owners, has shared some results from its first Mechant Confidence Index survey of over 12,000 business owners. The firm found that only 23% of merchants believe the worst of the recession is behind us, although only 5.7% expect their businesses to fail.

Recession Not Affecting Business Mobile Service Use

According to ABI Research, the recession has had little impact on businesses' use of mobile data services. Worldwide mobile data services revenues are expected to increase 17% in 2010, they say."Company consolidations have forced the remaining workforce to become even more efficient," says practice director Dan Shey. "Mobile data services offer the most options for tailoring services to the needs and work practices of workers in order to increase productivity and business efficiency."

Frugality Will Remain In Tact Past Recession

The good news is that the global economic crisis appears to be reaching a turnaround. Nielsen says that with hopes for a full economic recovery accelerating in 26 out of 28 major global markets, consumers around the world might be expected to return to previous spending habits.

Bringing Back Relationship Marketing

As defined by the Business Dictionary, relationship marketing is, "Promotional and selling activities aimed at developing and managing trusting and long-term relationships with larger customers. Customer profile, buying patterns, and history of contacts is maintained in a sales database, and a service representative (also called account executive) is assigned to one or more major customers to fulfill their needs and maintain the relationship." Sounds like a pretty good marketing technique, huh? Why does it seem to have essentially gone out of style?

Marketing to the Carefree

If you're a regular reader of SmallBusinessNewz, you've probably read a few recent posts based on another post from Google about marketing during the recession. In that original post, Google's Yael Davidowitz looked at four different segments and listed some tactics for marketing to each of them. So far, we've looked at marketing to:

Is it Time to Take Risks?

Despite the economic downturn, there appears to be a new openness too risk-taking among small business owners. This is according to Intuit, makers of Quicken. "While small businesses are still concerned about finding and keeping customers, obtaining credit and retaining employees and their benefits, there’s a shift happening," says small business author and expert Gene Marks. "Now more than ever owners are tapping their entrepreneurial spirit by getting more creative and taking chances."

Lack of Advertising Reflects Poorly On Your Business

Over 48% of U.S. adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business must be struggling according to research from Ad-ology.

The Coupon Craze Continues

Whether they’re clipping them or printing them, consumers are hot for coupons right now in their quest to keep financially afloat in a choppy economy.