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What's Your Toughest Marketing Challenge?
"Many of my clients have difficulties marketing their businesses, which is why they hire me to help them. What about you? What's your toughest marketing challenge? And more importantly, what are you doing to overcome it?"

How To Structure Personal Loans To Be Used For Startup Salaries?
"...in general you don't want to put money into an entity only to take it out again as salary for the owner. The round trip ticket price on that set of transactions is often the 15.3% payroll tax..."

What's Your Toughest Marketing Challenge?
"Many of my clients have difficulties marketing their businesses, which is why they hire me to help them. What about you? What's your toughest marketing challenge? And more importantly, what are you doing to overcome it?"

How To Structure Personal Loans To Be Used For Startup Salaries?
"...in general you don't want to put money into an entity only to take it out again as salary for the owner. The round trip ticket price on that set of transactions is often the 15.3% payroll tax..."

Dispelling the Common Myths about SBA Financing
smallbusinessbrief.com - The loan programs provided by the Small Business Administration (SBA) have been the victim of a number misconceptions that make them appear cumbersome and unattractive to all but the weakest business borrowers. This article will attempt to correct these misconceptions and portray the program as one that every commercial real estate broker selling owner-occupied properties should be familiar with.

Is Your Web Content Self-Centered?
smallbusinessbrief.com - Too many businesses, large and small, turn people off with self-absorbed websites. Does your web content merely brag about your company's "industry leading" products, features and services? If so, you might be boring your visitors and helping out your competition.

8 Tips to Increase Response in Email
smallbusinessbrief.com - Opt in email marketing is no different than normal direct marketing in that small simple changes will increase your response and success. These tips will help with both plain text and html email.

Amazon Launches Online Payment Service - for Developers
auctionbytes.com - Amazon.com announced its online payment service that was rumored to be coming soon, and it's a web service aimed at letting developers create applications that utilize the payment service.

Strategies: Determing the best legal form for your business
usatoday.com - When you've got so much other stuff to worry about, why even bother dealing with your "corporate form." After all, if you're going to be a consultant, a graphic designer, or an electrical contractor, why spend more money on legal or corporation fees?

Drawing the Blueprints for Your Business
powerhomebiz.com - According to the Rule of the Startups: Everything costs twice as much and takes twice as long as expected.

A Half Dozen Business Choices
clickz.com - Every company has to make choices when it comes to how it markets and sells and, in some cases, who it is and what it sells.

Green: Taking Care of Business, Ourselves and Planet
smallbiztrends.com - Green. Sustainability. Philanthropic. Environmental. Clean. Natural. Healthy. Organic. Conscious Capitalism. Ethical Consumerism. All these words define the movement of both consumers and companies to become socially responsible for their actions and their products or services. The very heart of a business is changing — making a profit and striving for a healthier planet with healthier people are now bundled together.

mPoria Case Study: Mobile Commerce Pioneers Profiting
ecommerce-guide.com - Among the newest players in the ever-expanding mobile commerce (m-commerce) market is Seattle-based mPoria. The three-year-old company launched its GoMobile! solution for merchants this spring with a focus on making it simple and cost-effective for e-tailers both small and large to cash in on the burgeoning mobile commerce sales potential.

Ten Ways To Torpedo Your Sales Pitch
forbes.com - A wise man once said: "Investors don't like you, or your company. They don't care about your products. They just need to know how they're going to make money--or they'll get fired if they don't." In this case, that man is Jimmy Treybig, partner at venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, and he speaks for his ilk.

Summertime Business Dilemmas
entrepreneur.com - When the kids are out of school, the parents sometimes become distracted employees.

Entrepreneurs to Vie for Funding
inc.com - Regional start-ups, established businesses, and other entrepreneurs will be gathering in Knoxville, Tenn., next month to compete for venture capital.

No Man's Land
businessweek.com - An upcoming book charts the danger zone a small company must cross to grow bigger. BusinessWeek's Stacy Perman interviews author Doug Tatum.

Increasing Traffic To Your Web Site
startupjournal.com - I developed an Internet company featuring U.S.-made products for children, but I really don't know how to reach the public who cares about "Made in America" products. I am lost in the maze that is Google.

Responding When Your Company Is Criticized Online
nfib.com - Before blogs and online forums began proliferating the Web, a company could quietly take care of its product quality and customer-service problems. But today, everything from manufacturing snafus to controversial statements by executives is potential fodder for a debate in cyberspace. And not only on blogs and traditional forums. Critiques and praise about products and companies are multiplying on MySpace.com, Facebook.com and other social networking Web sites.

Blogging Baby Steps: How to Join the Conversation Without Starting Your Own
marketingprofs.com - Most bloggers want more than Warhol's prophesy, me included. We want our blogs, our ideas to be widely circulated and to infuse meaning into today's conversation. But there is a healthy respect and fear-factor surrounding the blogosphere.

Sell More by Making Your Service Tangible
businessknowhow.com - One of the things I learned about selling services, is you keep more customers if you find ways to make your intangible service more tangible.

WAHMs: Here's How to Hook Clients
businesstoolchest.com - An important step in creating your marketing plan is to determine HOW you will position your business, product or service in a way that will attract the clients you want to attract and that will make you stand out from your competitors.

Business Insurance – Insurances your business must have
bytestart.co.uk - Just like driving a car, you are required to have certain insurances to run your business (third party fire and theft), and it’s advisable to have others (full comprehensive).

Dynamite Branding
marketingprofs.com - If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a video worth? And how many more is it worth if it arrives in your inbox from your best friend?

Writers Block: Writers Resources To End Writers
smallbusinessbrief.com - Writers block is one of those mysterious ailments that is blamed for late assignments, missed deadlines, and failed dreams. Some people claim it is merely a myth while others find it plagues their writing.

6 Steps To A Successful Home Party
smallbusinessbrief.com - Everyday someone is coming up with a new way to market your direct sales business (which of course is great). Keeping your business interesting and fresh is important. However, don't forget the tactics that made direct sales companies (aka home party plans) popular.

PayPal Wants Shoppers to 'Pay Later,' May Offer New Service on eBay
auctionbytes.com - PayPal launched a new service for ecommerce websites called PayPal Pay Later that allows merchants to offer promotional financing to shoppers.

Seven Ways to Make Every Page a Home Page
clickz.com - With the growth of traffic sent from search, e-mail, RSS, widgets, social bookmarking, comparison shopping sites, and blogs, less site traffic comes directly through the home page. This means each page must act as an entry point and provide relevant information to visitors to drive them further into the site or offer ways to connect with you later.

Ten Ways To Torpedo Your Sales Pitch
forbes.com - There are myriad surefire ways to torpedo your pitch. One common killer: Focusing on the details rather than on the overall market and your company's prospects within it.

Staying One Step Ahead
entrepreneur.com - Despite plenty of product rivalry, these sandal companies have developed unique, thriving brands that stand out from the rest.

Taking Your New Product to Market
entrepreneur.com - Start small and create a timeline for taking your product to national distribution.

Learning From Past Tax Bills
inc.com - When preparing your taxes, the missed savings and lost opportunities of your last return can be your best guide.

How to Trash an Old Computer
businessweek.com - Disposing of a PC takes some legwork. Ensuring your hard drive is void of company info before it leaves your hands, though, is a snap.

Online ed providers teach everything from math to Mandarin
bizjournals.com - All around the nation public schools are challenged to deliver classes to homebound students, or to provide specific coursework that local teachers cannot deliver. At the same time, colleges and other institutions are geared up to provide just such learning online. Daily's company, Educere, aims to bring the two together.

Expanding an Identity To Kick-Start Growth
startupjournal.com - For almost two decades, brothers Jonny and Danny Levy clung to the notion that almonds were their bread and butter.

Hunting for Hotspots
smallbusinesscomputing.com - When you're out and about and you need Internet access, stumbling across an open, e.g., unsecured, Wi-Fi network can feel like finding $10 on the sidewalk. The truth is that unless you're standing in the middle of a cornfield, there's probably one or more open network nearby, but the challenge is in knowing exactly where to find them.

5 Ways to Increase Your Profits With Mailing Lists
smallbusinessbrief.com - Do you have a mailing list? When was the last time you had a look at how profitable the list is for you and made sure everything was up to date?

Free Promotion: Signature Advertising
smallbusinessbrief.com - Signature advertising has proven to be an excellent (free) advertising source for online marketers today.

Tips for Press Coverage
smallbusinessbrief.com - Here are some tips to enhance the exposure and quality of your press releases.

Are You Having Sales Conversations From Your Head?
smallbusinessbrief.com - Are you having sales conversations from your head? If you are, chances are that you are struggling with selling your services. Get out of your head and speak from your heart and watch how much easier your sales flow.

Employee perks are nice but make sure it's what they want
usatoday.com - Rewarding folks for a job well done or offering to buy dinner for late working employees is nice to do. However, your employees might have a better appreciation for the kind of compensation that benefits their lifestyles.

How to Ruin Deliverability in 10 Easy Steps
clickz.com - Here's my top 10 list of sure-fire ways to ruin a sender's deliverability.

Fee Free: Three New eBay Management Packages
ecommerce-guide.com - EBay offers sellers multiple tools to monitor and manage their eBay ventures, and while some free services can be found through "My eBay," it comes as no surprise, really, that many of the optional solutions for sellers, such as Selling Manager, come with an eBay subscription fee.

Linksys Connects with Small Business
smallbusinesscomputing.com - While it may not qualify as a household name, Linksys is definitely associated with casual home networking rather than the buttoned-down world of business computing. But now the company includes a dedicated focus on small business with its Linksys Connected Office, a program designed to make it easier and more affordable to buy, build and manage networks.

eBay Places Ads on Seller Item Pages
auctionbytes.com - There's been a long-standing tension between eBay and its sellers over advertising on the site.

Return Path upgrades deliverability tool to include real-time reputation analytics
btobonline.com - Return Path’s Sender Score unit, an e-mail deliverability service provider, last week introduced an upgraded version of its Sender Score Monitor deliverability tool.

Affordable Solutions For Internet Marketing
sitepronews.com - Do you have a website that is getting very little or no traffic at all? Well, there are ways that you can change that even on a small marketing budget. We will review each of the strategies you can use to promote your website, and then we will try to assimilate them into a single, uniform strategy that is both highly effective and affordable.

Create Your Own Value-Added Services
workz.com-You can offer your customers a wide variety of value-added services to improve their shopping experience. You will want to evaluate each potential value-added service and consider how attractive it will be for your customers. Here are three ways to think about value-added services you can offer on your site.

Beefing Up Your Web Site Content
nfib.com - On the Web, content is king--or it should be. If you want people to visit, stick around and come back to your small business' Web site, give them substance.

Build A Cash Pool For Your Home-Based Business By Following 7 Simple Rules
businessknowhow.com -One of the biggest mistakes made by new home business owners is allowing clients and customers to buy now and pay later. In other words, extending credit.

Your Greatest Asset
smallbusinessbrief.com - Your greatest asset is your own customer list. These people have already purchased something from you in the past. If you've delivered as satisfactory product, they are very likely to buy from you again.

A Beginner's Guide To the Online Shopping Cart
smallbusinessbrief.com - Want to launch a successful ecommerce business? Having an easy-to-use, reliable shopping cart is a necessity. But what many first-time business owners don't understand is that a shopping cart is only one part of the process. In order to upload a working site that makes money, you'll need a shopping cart and much more! Don't panic. I'll gladly take you through what's required to create a basic ecommerce site.

Social Commerce: Trend or Fad?
ecommerce-guide.com - "The use of traditional resources such as retailer Web sites continues to dominate shoppers' behavior," according to the JupiterResearch report. "While social and community sites and content offer some value, they are only driving a small portion of online shoppers (12 percent) to buy more than planned."

Zoho for SOHO
smallbusinesscomputing.com - We're writing this introduction to the Zoho suite of online, browser-based office productivity tools using, appropriately enough, Zoho Writer, the word processor module. Hey, it works; and quite well, actually. Zoho Writer even boasts some nifty features you don't find in more advanced word processors.

Hiring and Retaining Good Employees... It's Tough!
inc.com - You need rock stars, not Milli Vanilli! Here are a few things you can do to ensure your hiring and retention efforts attract and keep genuinely great employees.

Vendors: Web Design Horrors
businessweek.com - Be sure you get the site you bargained for.

Uncovering the Secrets of Business Branding
morebusiness.com - Although the name of your business and your logo on your business card and letterhead are part of branding, it is much more than that. Your brand is your business’ identity. A potent brand identity is a statement that says what it is that your business does, how you go about doing it, and who you are, along with establishing your significance and credibility to your customers.

E-Mail: Online Marketing's Overlooked Stepchild
clickz.com - Before SEO, before PPC, SEM, before interstitials, dayparting, and road blocks, there was email. But lately, I've felt email has taken a backseat to search engines, banners, and other types of online marketing. Case in point...

Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
smallbusinessbrief.com - Why do so many businesses lack respect for online customers?

How to Avoid Eating Your Words: 10 Essentials for Networking at Tradeshows and Events
smallbusinessbrief.com - Every moment at a tradeshow is important. This includes, of course, all of the time you're on the show floor. Add to that the time you're not actively exhibiting but are on or near the floor -- visiting other exhibits, grabbing a bite to eat, or en route to your hotel room. You only have a limited amount of time to represent your organization to the gathered attendees, so you want to make the most of every minute.

Email Marketing for Online Sellers: Finding a List-Host
auctionbytes.com - If you have been selling online for a few years, you've built up an extremely valuable asset - your customer list. This audience has already been vetted by you and has a keen interest in the products that you sell. Why not keep them up-to-date on new items in your store or web site?

A Job That Follows You Wherever You May Roam
startupjournal.com - As the relocation season peaks this summer, more transferees' spouses are avoiding their traditional fate -- unemployment or underemployment -- by building virtual businesses that can move right along with them. Experts on so-called trailing spouses say these entrepreneurs are multiplying fast, ranging from accountants and Web site designers to administrative "virtual assistants." Their stories show what it takes to build a business that is portable, but also financially and psychologically rewarding.

Knowing the Do's and Don'ts in Buying a Franchise
powerhomebiz.com - If the idea of starting a business of your own from scratch is scary, you may consider buying an existing franchise from a company that has already established a track record of success and will teach you how to use their proven methods. Here are some tips in buying a franchise.

Ad Exchanges Are the Future
clickz.com - Advertising is one of the last significant business markets that remains opaque, manual, archaically complex, and requires a large relatively skilled set of humans to perform each transaction. It's a market ripe to embrace technology for automation, liquidity of inventory, pricing transparency, and simplification of business process.

7 Things to Include in Your Business Plan
morebusiness.com - A good business plan accomplishes three key tasks. One, it focuses on the projected goals. Next, once the goals are down on paper, it compels the entrepreneur to come to some hard decisions about the feasibility of the venture. And finally, it can work like a sales document, aiming to draw the attention of potential investors by highlighting the features of the business. Here are 7 things to include for your business plan to be effective.

What Keeps You Awake At Night, Entrepreneurs?
smallbiztrends.com - These are the burning issues I am hearing recently that are keeping entrepreneurs awake at night.

Social Commerce: Trend or Fad?
ecommerce-guide.com - This July, JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, released its latest US Retail Consumer Survey. What the researchers discovered after surveying approximately 2,000 online shoppers was that a majority (53 percent) went directly to retailer and manufacturer sites to research and purchase products, rather than using shopping comparison sites or social and/or community networking sites.

Guidelines for Implementing Software-as-a-Service
smallbusinesscomputing.com - While more small businesses are taking to the software-as-a-service model, experts warn that offloading your applications does not mean offloading responsibility. “It’s important to understand that even if you go with a hosted service, you still have to manage the quality of that application,” says Irwin Lazar, analyst with Nemertes Research.

No time for a pet? How about sharing one?
msnbc.msn.com - Start-up company lets busy people enjoy dogs on part-time basis.

The Single Greatest Marketing Tool
forbes.com - Any entrepreneur can run a snazzy advertising campaign, if he or she is willing to pay for it. The trick is to get that kind of exposure without breaking the bank.

How Do I Build Customer Rapport?
entrepreneur.com - The answer is in asking the right opening and closing questions.

The Entrepreneurial Generation
inc.com - New technologies, a proliferation of resources, and a disenchantment with the corporate world are making Generation Y the most entrepreneurial in history. From magazine publishing to delivering fresh-baked cookies, the rising business stars named to our annual 30 Under 30 list are transforming existing industries and blazing trails with new ones.

Relationship Rules for Salespeople
businessweek.comTo improve your relationships with both customers and family members, maintain a balance by sticking to one set of standards.