Happy New Year, 2010 Small Business Predictions

I know you retailers should be having a good one this time of year (I know people we helped have ).

• Mobile smart devices will expand with more users doing more searches for a local product or service.
• You will have to focus more on internet trends and getting your business noticed online. E-commerce is growing every day.
• The retail front will get more competitive on both fronts.
• The recession will continue, you will have to come up with ways to retain and attract your customers.
• Taxes will still remain to be a pain, do some more homework or consult a specialist.
• You will have to try and capture more customers away from big box retailers, research and innovation is required here.
• You’ll probably want a Mac, but the affordable Windows 7 PC might be more convenient for you at this time still.
• Employee training and protocol is important for your customers.

Additional links: Entrepreneur, Small Business Computing, EzineArticles

In the mean time enjoy, have fun, and don’t drink and drive. See you in the new year.

Online Holiday Shopping Already Up 4% From Last Year

*Corresponding days based on corresponding shopping days (November 2 thru December 14, 2008)

comScore has reported that online holiday shopping this season is up 4% from last year and approaching $21 billion in sales. if one thing is for certain, there’s no stopping the strength of online promotion and advertising even during this economic climate. It may take some time and resilience, but will pay off as time goes on as these numbers show.

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/12/Recent_Week_of_Online_Holiday_Shopping_Boasts_Record_4.7_Billion_in_Spending_as_November-December_Total_Approaches_21_Billion

101 Uses for your Phonebook

Yucky phone book

Hey I actually found an article on msn that might actually be useful! They’ve posted 101 things you can do with that dreaded big thick yellow book with fine print of phone numbers in it….

* Keep one in the garage, tearing out pages to soak up oil or other unpleasant spills.
* Use them for flower pressing.
* Tear out pages to start fires in wood-stoves.
* Make a booster seat with directories and duct tape.
* Create papier mache or decoupage projects.
* Soak up pet urine for free instead of using paper towels.
* Mulch vegetable gardens.

I am sure you folks got a few you would like to share

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/blog/page.aspx?post=1412813

While We’re At It … Here are the ‘Worst’ States to Start a Biz

I just posted the best cities to start a business in, here are the ‘worst’ states to start accrding to BusinessInsider.com. Wonder if there is a conflict …

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-worst-states-for-entrepreneurs-2009-12#15-west-virginia-1

Mind you, we don’t believe that there is such a thing as a ‘worst’ state to start a business. But you have to take into consideration the local economy when planning, how you fit in, and how to adapt. We feel if you are willing to ride it out, you might just prosper more in the long run.

Best Cities to Relocate or Expand Your Business

CNN’s got a nifty small biz site with articles, videos, and lists (yes we love lists too).  One recent list published is cities worth considering launching a new business. Factors like crime, recession, foreclosure, income, education, population are taken into consideration…

You may view the full list here.

Happy Holidays

Of course you’ve read all my previous posts to help your business get ahead and I will be adding more in the future.

Take Care All…

Facebook SMS

Logged into Facebook today and what did I see, I way to post messages to your  profile and friends.  I haven’t set up yet, will keep you posted on updates.  A new way to keep in touch with customers maybe?

Watch Your Reviews, You Might Get Sued

Face it, you are busy enough. You don’t need to worry about comments or reviews you may have posted about another business coming back to bite you in the rear.  Well it seems it’s bitten a few people.  Recently Courtney Love gave a rant on Twitter about a designer she didn’t want to pay, or wasn’t happy with her service, or she paid too much, whatever … well she wasn’t happy, so she tweeted about it and the designer is now suing her.

Not so long ago, a chiropractor sued a customer for giving him a bad review on the popular local business site Yelp.  I think it’s a bit crazy that if we express a public opinion, we can get sued for it, but it’s happening.

Imagine tweeting about your crappy landlord, and your moldy apartment, and the landlord sues you! Yup, you guessed it, it’s happening.  Mind you, the courts consider a lot a similar cases to be frivolous, and throws them out, but quite a few are actually making their way in.  Fortunately there’s a site that allows you to stand out, and not worry about jealous people trying to harm your business, let them try for them self I say.

Can you find what you are looking for behind your counter?

I'm sure my stapler is here somewhere.

Can’t find that receipt paper roll and there are ten customers in line?  I know, I know.  You don’t have time to reorganize your behind the counter storage area in your business.  But, let’s say you get 10 minutes in the day to do it, you just might be able to find that stapler, tape, or hammer (that is suppose to be in your toolbox) faster, which means you can serve your customers faster if you have to look for it last minute.

I’m not saying I’m the tidiest person in the world either. As I’m typing this I got a stack of forms and receipts on my desk that I haven’t gotten to sorting yet, and would really give me more space. They also say that organization has a mental affect on you.

Let’s brainstorm on some ideas.  I’m sure there are trays and small organizers that we could buy from a handy store or even a kitchen supply store.  Try designating areas for types of things you store, e.g: stationary, tools, first-aide kit, etc…

These small things can help us save time when we work.

Hardcore Recession Fans

If you constantly need to be updated about what’s going on with the Recession (are we in it, are we not in it) you can check out this link

Recession causing more speeding tickets so states can make cash back …

Microsoft’s SharePoint doing well during the recession to save companies money.

Or you can check out the NY Times recession blog with their latest headlines ‘Wages: A Comparison With Past Recessions’, ‘Who’s Hurting the Most?’, and ‘Still Getting Better, but Slowly’.

Here’s a list of countries that are least affected by the recession. Make sure to check out the latest country on that list, South America