« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »
July 22, 2006
Small Business Marketing Help For Home Businesses
Small business consultant Marketing Hawks announces launch of its new website, www.marketingworkouts.com to help small and home business owners learn to market as well as big companies. This internet based marketing web site supplies business owners a suite of tools to effectively market their companies.
Lincoln, NE (PRWEB) July 21, 2006 -- Marketing Workouts is a web marketing site designed to help small business owners become better marketers. The site offers a set of seven self-guided workouts specifically built for small business and home-based business.
Craig Lutz-Priefert, President, states: "The future of America in a globally competitive world relies on the increasing success of small business and home business. These are the companies that continue to innovate; these are the firms that our country counts on to produce new ideas and a steady source of revenue for the people willing to risk their time and effort in building them. Big companies used to hold all the marketing power: they could simply outspend little companies with mass media ads on TV and newspapers. Well, internet marketing and web marketing is quickly changing and the balance of marketing power is swinging back to the small businesses that built America."
MarketingWorkouts has recently launched on the ClickBank affiliate network, a premier web destination for internet marketing and affiliate marketing via safe downloading of electronic documents.
The company draws on several sources to build its marketing message. Well known authors on marketing such as Malcolm Gladwell and Al Ries influence the Workouts, but so do business authors with unique insights such as Laurence Vincent and Scott Bedbury on brand, Emanuel Rosen on buzz marketing and Harry Beckwith on marketing for service businesses.
The Marketingworkouts examine the three essential elements of a company’s marketing strategy: People, Brand, and Package. Using a special free downloadable tool called a SelfScore; the small business owner first examines their business marketing, determines where they are weakest, and then utilizes the marketingworkouts tools to focus on practical and affordable methods to outmaneuver the competition.
Continues Lutz-Priefert: "There are a hundred books aimed at home business or small business on how to get rich marketing on the internet, but our suite of marketing tools is uniquely engineered for the owner that needs a practical way to distinguish their company from their competition. There are thousands of traditional home-based and small businesses whose needs are being ignored in the internet ‘gold rush’ and we want to change that. Your average small business owner doesn’t have time to read a dozen books on marketing, let alone develop a comprehensive marketing philosophy. The small business owner is already close to her customer, Marketing Workouts supplies the owner the tools to market just as well as the big corporations."
Marketing Workouts is owned by Marketing Hawks, a Lincoln, Nebraska marketing consulting firm which also publishes the popular entrepreneurial webjournal, Journey Today.
Posted by David at 7:34 AM
July 13, 2006
US Grants And Low-interest Loans For Women Business Owners
If you're looking for a government grant to start your own business the advice being given is generally wrong. Why?
Because government grants are normally available to not for profit organizations.
There are dubious web sites offering to sell you tips on applying for government grants. Let's set the record straight, Government and foundation grants are almost always limited to nonprofit organizations.
While there are some government grants available to small companies, these companies are normally doing scientific research but not for conventional businesses.
If you're looking for a government grant to start your business then stop!
Instead you should look at alternatives such and small business loan that's underwritten by the government or approaching friends and relatives.
If you are in any doubt about government grant check this government grant article that deals with the topic from a real life example.
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 6:26 PM
July 11, 2006
Your Langing Page Is About To Fry
Google is about to update its algorithym to weed out landing pages that are used as devices to target Adwords traffic at low cost per click to higher paying keyword web sites that are providing poor value for web users. A small quantity of Adwords advertisers will see an increase in their cost per click as a result.
If you're a small business entrepreneur who will be affected by Google Landing Page shakeout you need to take action. Best action is to change your strategy away from "Google Arbitrage" to providing good content sites.
Posted by David at 9:37 PM
Small Business Loans
I came across the article today about small business loans and it got me thinking about how small business loans are administered in the USA and the UK.
Frankly there's no comparison. I can see why there's such a big gulf between entrepreneurialism linked to innovation between the USA and the UK.
The article concentrates on SBA (Small Business Administration) loans to women-owned firms, particularly to metro Milwaukee women-owned businesses.
Apparently loans to metro Milwaukee women-owned businesses are down compared to the previous year and the SBA is concerned. So concerned about not meeting their targets the SBA are investigating the reasons.
Compare this to the UK where grants are available instead and where it's difficult for start up businesses to get startup grants. Also in the UK, the SBS (Small Business Service) wouldn’t investigate why any small business community, or any small business for that matter is not getting grant funding. It is simply not mandated to look after the interest of small businesses in this way.
I could go on about the gulf between small business financing and how inadequate the UK system is compared to the USA. Instead, you can read the article on small business loan yourself.
David
Championing Small Business.
Posted by David at 10:52 AM
July 8, 2006
Small Businesses and eBay Express
Small businesses can now sell their products direct customers without placing them on ebay trading platform.
by using eBay's new "eBay Express" service, small businesses without an online presence can set up an eBay express store and sell to customers, just like any other "virtual high street" at set or fixed prices.
eBay Express is aimed at helping small businesses compete with larger online and offline stores.
Unlike the current main eBay UK site, the Express version is intended to be a "virtual store" with goods sold at
a fixed price, rather than via traditional auctions. In return, companies using the service will have to meet a
variety of service levels, such as guaranteed delivery times and standard refund and return policies.
Although many small business retailers may already have an online presence, eBay points out that the new service will help smaller stores access millions of potential customers, where many small companies find it hard to drive customers to their own websites.
eBay Express has already been rolled out in the US. Unlike the main eBay auction sites, customers can buy multipile items from multiple sellers and pay once for everything, including shipping.
There is no doubt that the new system offers a simple alternative to eBay, cutting out the need to bid and wait for items. For small business owners, this could also be an opportunity to access a large customer base without the need to pay expensive online marketing costs.
Time will tell if eBay express will become as popular as eBay's main auction sites. It's difficult to say whether
it will because the fun of eBay is being able to bid on products and get them at bargain prices, and people just
love getting bargains. Nevertheless, eBay Express does offer small businesses another marketing channel to sell their products with the eBay brand as their online vehicle.
Posted by David at 6:50 AM
