GIS Planning used this criteria to identify the best small cities (with populations between 20,000 and 200,000) for startups in each state. With that data in hand, BusinessWeek asked entrepreneurs in each city what people should know about starting a business there. Many said factors such as affordability, availability of talent, existence of a thriving business community, and quality of life helped them choose where to open shop. What emerged is a picture of 50 dynamic cities, each with its own draw for new businesses.

Over the years, I have noticed that most bad clients seem to fall into certain common patterns. In this post, I share those patterns with you. Keep in mind that none of these bad client types are specific to any one client that I’ve ever worked with. Rather, these examples are a generalization of the many different characteristics a bad client can take. Personally, I rarely ever have to deal with a bad client in my business, and I’ll explain how you too can avoid them later on in the article.

Outsourcing has received a bad rap in some circles because of its association with job losses that occur when corporations “export” jobs to countries with much lower labor costs than the U.S. But those of us who run small and home businesses have a different perspective on outsourcing. For us, outsourcing is the “secret sauce” that lets us pull together the resources to handle temporary work overloads, reduce fixed costs, speed products to market, simplify distribution, provide more or better service to our customers, and compete with our deeper-pocketed competitors.

It’s a shame that most of you will only meet Marcia through the printed or electronic page because her enthusiasm and energy are contagious. Being a multi-mistake-maker myself, the first thing I said to Marcia was “I bet you have a long line of small businesses who want to be in your column.” When Marcia told me that she literally had to beg companies to share their ‘Biggest Mistake’ I couldn’t believe it…

One common way to track ads is to code coupons so you know what publication or mailing they came from. For instance, if you’re running a 15%-off coupon in several local publications, change the ad slightly for each publication by including the initials of the publication or some other identifying information in very small print just inside the coupon dotted line. Be sure you or your employees collect the coupons; at the end of the promotion, tally them up to see which local publication produced the most new customers…

How do you break past this barrier of suspicion and launch the kinds of conversations that help you make that sale? Illig, also co-author of Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship, says that at FranklinCovey, they operate by the principal of “Intent counts more than technique,” meaning that your selling intent must be well aligned to serving the client versus serving you…

Wow. I’m humbled by the commentary from my first post. I hope I can maintain such passionate interest!
Businesses cannot exist without customers, so it’s sadly ironic that many, if not most, businesses, actually understand so little about them. As a company grows, a smaller and smaller percentage of the staff interacts with the customers. In fact, those folks on the “front line” (think call centers, service counters, retail stores) are typically among the lowest-paid and have the least authority.
Meanwhile, back at headquarters fundamental decisions are made with extremely limited information …

Q: Help! I own a small consultancy business. A new client e-mailed me a few days ago but the message ended up in my spam folder, as did her follow-up. Now she won’t return my calls. How can I get her back? — Aaron
A: You probably can’t.
The new client concluded, fairly or unfairly (but fairly, I think) that if things are going wrong already, at the start of your working relationship, it does not bode well for work down the road.
But I suggest that a bigger issue is at play, …

While the strategy can help lure hesitant customers, high costs run the risk of leaving some companies worse off
Faced with a deepening recession and evaporating sales, an increasing number of small businesses are resorting to a high-risk strategy: costly giveaways and promotions to lure the reluctant consumer.
If the strategies work, these companies could have a powerful weapon in their struggle to weather the economic storm. But if they don’t work, the more vulnerable businesses could find themselves in a bigger financial hole.
“Offering things for free is a very dangerous area …

You may be operating a one-person-business, but there are many resources and tools out there that aren’t just for the big guys anymore. Today we’re going to focus on the power behind press releases. Yes, that’s right; even small business’s can achieve phenomenal growth with the proper use of press releases.
Online marketing and PR expert, Barbara Rozgonyi, founder of CoryWestMedia.com and publisher of WiredPRworks.com is a wealth of information, brilliant ideas, and resources for small and large companies alike. I’ve asked Barbara a few questions about how a one-person-business can …