Business Resource: Webcafe

While looking for brochure paper online at Office Depot, I ran across a great resource for business owners. It's called WebCafe. Currently on hiatus until September, the archives are still available for use. The site offers free web-based seminars, covering a variety of topics relevant to business owners. The 40-minute session, presented  by business experts, includes an interactive question and answer section.

You can check out the archives here.

Civic Marketing

I consider myself pretty civic-minded. Since I don't have a lot of discretionary funds to dole out to worthy causes, I instead have given countless hours of my time. As a business owner you should align yourself with a complimentary worthy cause. In the process you not only help others in the community but you can garner publicity for your business.

There are many worthy causes to choose from. The problem might be how to pick just one. In their book, Off-the Wall Marketing Ideas, Nancy Michaels and Debbi Karpowicz have a great section on creating a civic marketing plan. When deciding what type of organization to align your business with, again, think complimentary. Here are a few suggestions from the book:

• Family-oriented businesses can support youth sports or literacy campaigns.
• Food-oriented businesses can support food banks or shelters.
• Businesses that appeal to women, like beauty parlors, can support shelters or spousal abuse programs.
• Pet stores or other animal-themed businesses can support animal shelters and rescue organizations.
• An accounting firm can volunteer to offer free tax return assistance.
• Clothing stores can support agencies like Goodwill and the Salvation Army.

And so on. No matter what type of business you run, there is a worthy cause you can support.

SBA Offers APP for Small Businesses

If you are starting a new business or need help with an existing business, the SBA has a app for that. The app allows you to find an advisor near you and allows you to get free one-on-one help startin or growing your business. You can download the app here.

Free E-book- Creating a Small Business Website Your Customers Can Trust

Here's free downloadable e-book on creating small business websites. Topics covered include behavior behavior, how to create a website your customers will trust and more. Get it here.

 

Business Resource: Talkbiznow.com

Talkbiznow is both a networking site and productivity solution for small businesses. Members can choose from an array of services including networking, collaboration and business promotion. It takes just a few minutes to sign up and best of all the service is free.

You can blog from the site, create voice conferences or a contact list You can even send a nudge! A nudge is simply a gentle reminder you send to a contact. It might be a reminder about an email, conference call or meeting. You can even create your own store and start selling your goods and services. I literally signed up as I was typing this blog (talk about multi-tasking!). So head over and check it out for yourself.

Bye-bye now, I'm going to do some more poking around!

Tax Help for Small Businesses

Have you filed your taxes yet? April is fast approaching. If you haven't filed because you're confused about the tax credits available to small businesses as it relates to the Affordable Health Care Act, The SBA has put out a memo that explains it all. You can read the full memo here.

Free Software for Digital Photo Editing

Free. Nothing gets me more excited than this one simple, four-letter word. Okay, maybe two words-  free and useful. Enter Paint. net , a Windows-based imaging software program that has been compared to powerful and expensive programs like Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. You can check out all the features and download your own copy to try out for yourself. Just click here to get started.