America's Best Companies Small Business Blog - Small Business Articles, Tips and Information

Small Business Blog

Kim Fenolio

Small Biz Tip: Low Cost Marketing Strategies

Small Business tips about low cost marketing strategies.

Tags: small business, tips, marketing

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/16/2008 | Comments (5)

Kim Fenolio

Small Biz Tip: Steps to Develop a Marketing Plan

Small Business tips about steps to developing a marketing plan.

Tags: small business, marketing

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/15/2008 | Comments (0)

Kim Fenolio

Small Biz Tip: Creating the Innovative Environment

Small Business tips about creating an innovative environment.

Tags: small business, tips, environment

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/12/2008 | Comments (0)

Charles M Cooper

419 Nigeria Scam with a New Twist

The usual something-for-nothing Nigeria Scam has now taken on the cloak of respectability by using the name of the agency designed to stop them, kind of like the Mob posing as FBI agents. Sneaky.

Tags: small business, 419, nigeria scam, icpc, nigeria, anti-fraud unit

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/12/2008 | Comments (2)

Kim Fenolio

Small Biz Tip: Wants from a Leader

Small Business tips about learning what your employees want from you as a leader.

Tags: small business, tips, leadership

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/11/2008 | Comments (0)

Charles M Cooper

Don’t be a Scareware Victim

We have all gotten the pop-up window that says we have a serious malware or performance issue. There are also the emails that appear, with offers of computer system scans and repairs. Have you ever asked yourself, how do they know there is a problem with my machine? The senders of these little doom-sayings do not know a thing about your system, they don’t have to. Offers like these tend to be scams.

Tags: small business, scareware, fraud, scam, malware, anti-virus

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/11/2008 | Comments (0)

Kim Fenolio

Small Biz Tip: Being an Empowering Leader

Small Business tips about being that empowering leader.

Tags: small business, tips, leadership

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/10/2008 | Comments (0)

Kim Fenolio

Small Biz Tip: Effective Leadership

Small Business tips about being an Effective Leader.

Tags: business tips, leadership, twitter

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/10/2008 | Comments (0)

Charles M Cooper

SBA Loan Default: Any Suggestions?

Sometimes bad things do happen to good people. Here we have a couple who cosigned on an SBA loan so the wife’s sister could open a restaurant. The sister came down with a terrible illness, the business failed, now here they are responsible for the loan and the bank is eyeing their home. Folks, we are looking for suggestions on this one.

Tags: small business, economy, sba, loan, default, cosigner

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/9/2008 | Comments (21)

Kim Fenolio

Small Biz Tip: Refreshing Leadership

Small Business tips about refreshing and renewing yourself as a leader.

Tags: tips, leadership

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/9/2008 | Comments (0)

Charles M Cooper

The Chicago Sit-In: The Shape of Things to Come?

The workers at Republic Windows and Doors were suddenly fired last week, and they are protesting by sitting in at their former employer. They want the severance and vacation pay their contract entitles them to, but the company says Bank of America, which pulled Republic’s credit line, is calling the financial shots and refusing to pay. The bank denies all responsibility. Who should pay the workers?

Tags: small business, economy, republic windows and doors, bank of america, union contracts, protest, sit-in

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/8/2008 | Comments (1)

Charles M Cooper

$350 Billion in the Hole and Record Unemployment: Time for Something Different

When we were being sold on bailing out the financial sector, we were told that it was necessary to save jobs, homes, investments, businesses. Well, the first half of the initial $700 billion has been spent, stocks have been trending down and the unemployment rate is higher now than it has been in decades. Now a congressman from Texas has a radical idea: Take the other $350 billion and use it to finance a two-month tax holiday for all Americans. Now that’s what I call progressive!

Tags: small business, taxes, tax holiday, congress, reid, pelosi, gohmert, bailout, paulson, bernanke

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/5/2008 | Comments (1)

Charles M Cooper

Milwaukee Neighborhoods Support Local Business with Local Money

The residents of Milwaukee’s Riverwest and East Side neighborhoods met on Wednesday to discuss a novel but not unheard-of approach to supporting local businesses—local money. The question is, would you participate? Do you think it will help?

Tags: local money, local business, small business, milwaukee, great depression

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/5/2008 | Comments (1)

Charles M Cooper

Workman’s Comp: Fighting Liability

When your employee is injured or killed on the job, is that an automatic workman’s comp claim? That is the question that will soon go before the courts in California as the mother of a woman killed on the job fights for benefits for her young grandson, but is the case as cut-and-dried as it seems?

Tags: small business, workmen’s comp, talley, death benefits, liability

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/4/2008 | Comments (1)

Charles M Cooper

Snow, Parking and Small Business in the City

You can build a wonderful little business but what happens if your municipality makes it harder for customers to reach your business by raising parking meter prices or cutting down on snow removal? If Chicago's Mayor, Richard Daley, has his way, we are about to find out.

Tags: small business, chicago, mayor richard daley, parking, parking meter rates, snow, snow removal

Read Full Story »

Posted: 12/3/2008 | Comments (1)