What do both small business owners as well as large business owners have at their disposal?

Well if these organizations have been in business any length of time they better have made a few clients happy. Many small businesses overlook the fact that they have “Raving Fans” to spread the good word about their company. Many small business owners put a tremendous amount of time, energy and money on all kinds of ads in local publications or networking groups. These are all necessary to a point but the easiest way to expand a business is to let your “Loyal Followers”, or as Ken Blanchard puts it, “Raving Fans”, act as your best sales reps...

On February 5^th, millions of Americans will tune in to watch the Super Bowl. In fact, a new survey by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association found that 173 million people will watch the game Sunday, the most in the survey’s eight-year history and up from an estimated 171 million last year...

We talked last week about Burger King offering delivery service to have an edge on the competition, now the latest in fast food evolution is the addition of breakfast to Taco Bell’s menu.  With McDonald’s, Burger King and now Wendy’s offering breakfast it was really only a matter of time before Taco Bell hopped on the bandwagon... 

One Long Island local scored big this January when Chevrolet announced it will air 26 year old LI native Zachary Borst’s ad titled “Chevy Happy Grad”.   Beating out 400 other scripts and 198 films by independent film makers as part of the Route 66 Super Bowl ad contest, Borst’s ad will air to the tune of 110 million TV viewers during the Super Bowl.  In addition to having his ad on television during the Super Bowl, he’s also receiving a $25,000 grand prize...

As the US struggles to accelerate a sluggish recovery, a deeper look needs to be taken at the reasons for the slow recovery.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal government’s official source of employment statistics, in October 2011, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Americans 25 years and older who had at least a bachelor’s degree was 4.4 percent. For those who graduated high school, the unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in October 2011.  However, for those without a high school degree the rate is 10.6 percent, and for those aged 25 and over, the unemployment rate was 13.8 percent.   These are staggering numbers.   How are we supposed to compete on a global scale when we have almost a quarter of high school students dropping out each year, or in other terms, over 340,000 students a year? In fact, the Education Database recently reported that high school dropouts are not eligible for 90% of the jobs in our economy and we have 40 million high school dropouts in the US today...

The days of walking out of your house, getting into the car and driving to the nearest fast food joint are over.  If you haven’t heard by now, Burger King is giving its customers a more convenient way of eating: they now deliver.  For Burger King, this isn’t new; the home of the whopper has actually been testing out their delivery service internally for years. Countries like, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil and Colombia have taken advantage of this service so it’s only fair that America gets to experience this as well. What does this service cost you?  A $2 fee will be charged and order must be a minimum of $8 to $10 dollars in specific restaurants in Washington D.C. where the service is available...

For those of you using Google today, you may notice that the logo has been blacked out. When you hover over the logo, a message appears: “Tell Congress: Don’t censor the web!”  If you head over to Wikipedia.com the page comes up as usual, but enter a search term and you’ll get a message from Wiki, “Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge. For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.” You can click the link that Wikipedia offers to learn more about why the site has been blacked out... 

According to The Labor Department, initial claims for first-time jobless benefits rose 24,000 to 399,000 on Thursday, the highest in six weeks. The four week average, a better indicator of labor market trends, rose 7,750 to 381,750 from a revised 374,000. However, growth is expected to slow during the first three months of this year and help for the economy may still be necessary despite recent data that suggested the recovery was changing in the right direction...

On the fourth day of business, it’s time to ask if your job candidate has been naughty or nice this year.   Yes, it’s social media time. 

By John Jantsch

Small business owners are an odd lot. I can say this without judgment because I am one.

Cracking the small business code is something that routinely perplexes large organizations. I see it every day, and I’ve been asked numerous times to consult on that very puzzle.

The thing is, however, a lot of small businesses want to sell to other small businesses too. Many times I find that they miss the subtleties of attracting small business even though they need look no further than their own buying habits for keys to the sale...