Oct

29

How Small Business Friendly is Your Organization?

October 29, 2007 | 2 Comments

Uh-oh. It could be bad news for small businesses in the lumber business that hire immigrants or aliens.  They have to deal with two of the least responsive agencies in the U.S. Federal government for small businesses: the U.S. Forest Service and Immigrations.
The National Ombudsman Report (PDF) just came out for 2006. The National Ombudsman, Nicholas […]

Oct

22

Call it a Small Business, No a Mid-Sized Business, No a Large Corporation

October 22, 2007 | 8 Comments

The need for clear and consistent terminology to define “what is a small business?” has been obvious for a while now. Let’s go over some of the existing definitions.
The U.S. Small Business Administration adheres to its definition of under 500 employees.  That is, except in the case of about a zillion exceptions for various industries (so many that the SBA needs a 42-page PDF […]

Oct

18

Stop Selling and Instead Partner with Small Businesses

October 18, 2007 | 5 Comments

Are you finding it a challenge to reach niche markets?  Too costly to go after on your own? 
Has innovation inside your organization stalled or become stale?
Perhaps it’s time to do what companies like Google and Proctor & Gamble are doing: partner.  A growing trend is that of large companies partnering with small businesses to their mutual […]

Oct

3

Constant Contact Goes Public!

October 3, 2007 | 3 Comments

It just goes to show:  there is money in the small business market.
Constant Contact, the email marketing services company that made its bones selling to small businesses, went public on the NASDAQ yesterday.  Today was its first trading day. 
Here is the announcement (sent via the Constant Contact email marketing software, of course):
We have some exciting […]