Belle Oberbrunner Great Ideas for your Small Business: Do Good for Your Community One of the easiest ways to draw attention to your business is to do something good for your community. Small business owners across the country are coming up with terrific ways to contribute and make a positive impression at the same time. You don’t … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Use Coupons to Attract Customers On a balmy spring evening, i took myself out to the local movie theater. Standing outside the door was a young man in a Häagen-Dazs apron. He was passing out coupons offering a “double feature”—a free scoop of ice cream when you bought one … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Give to Charity Even if you can’t write a big check, as a business owner you can raise your community pro- file by making personal contributions of goods or services to your favorite charities. In addition to benefiting others, your contribution might also help your business when it comes … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Market to the Gay Consumer About ten years ago, cush honda of san Diego became one of the first automobile dealerships to aggressively pursue the gay and lesbian community. “The first year we participated in the San Diego Gay Pride Parade was a little difficult,” admitted Frank Lechner, spokesman … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Create an Active Database If you look at the piles of business cards on your desk and just see a mess—look again. What you’re really looking at is potential income. No matter how small your business may be, you should be creating and updating a database. With simple software, … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Set Up a Dealer Network Consumers are accustomed to buying cars, tires, and computers through authorized dealers – and other businesses can benefit from a similar sales model. David Usher, who died in a kayaking accident in March 1997, was a brilliant entrepreneur. A former paper salesman, he began … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Market to Callers on Hold “We put over 100 customers on hold every day,” said Elie Wade, president of Mortgage Makers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Wade turned that annoying waiting time into a marketing opportunity by signing up for a service that produces the messages callers hear while on … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Take Advantage of Co-op Advertising Do you ever wonder how local merchants get their name and address in the corner of glossy ads for a car, computer, or watch? They do it through what’s called “co-op advertising,” and this form of cost-sharing has given small business owners a marketing … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Look Big in Cyberspace One of the best things about the web is that even though you may operate a very small business, you can look huge and prosperous online. To do this, you should invest in a website that’s professionally designed, with tools that allow customers and clients … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Strike a Deal with a Giant Until 1997, anyone wanting sandra Nunnerley’s elegant, custom-designed furniture for their home or office had to have deep pockets as well as good taste. Long accustomed to serving the upscale market, with a single chair tagged at up to $10,000, Nunnerley said she … Read more
