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These days the single greatest challenge facing every small business owner is the economic recession. The simple fact is small businesses have been hit hardest by the recession. According to The Small Business Economy: A Report to the President produced by the U.S. Small Business Administration, “more than half of the 763,000 jobs lost in the first two quarters of 2008 were lost in small firms.”

This has made finding ways to spend money more efficiently and effectively paramount for a small business to remain successful. While most people will continue to talk about the damaging effects the recession has had on their business, a savvy business owner will recognize the recession as an opportunity to grow their business.

In the past 60 years America has been through nine recessions and recovered from every one. While it may sound strange to think of the recession as an opportunity, if the right investments are made you can easily increase your profits and outpace your competition.

That’s because during a recession most small business owners cut back on spending and especially on advertising. Yet, numerous studies have shown that this is a mistake. In a joint study done by Oregon State University and Western Oregon University dated April 19, 2009 they found that:

“Firms that are able to increase advertising during recessions are likely to have stronger future earnings.” The researchers studied data from five recessionary periods since 1971, sampling data from more than 3,000 firms listed on the public stock exchange.

Another study done by MarketSense compared 101 household name brands that increased ad spending during the recessionary period 1989-1991. For those who cut spending on advertising, it took 2 years after the end of the recession to regain their original position. By that time, aggressive competitors had almost tripled their market share, while less than 30% of those who cut advertising ever regained their market share in the following expansion period.

The question becomes how should a small business owner invest their advertising dollars? Many small business owners will turn to traditional forms of advertising such as: television, radio, newspaper or the Yellow Pages. The fact is however, that these forms of advertising are cost prohibitive and simply not as effective as they once were.

Reaching an audience through traditional forms of media is harder today then ever before. According to Arbitron only 1 out 3 three Americans read a daily newspaper, Ohio-based BIGresearch found that just 1 in 20 people actually watch television commercials. Bill Gates stated: “The Yellow Pages are going to be used less and less… These things always take time, but Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to zero — near zero — over the next five years.” As for radio, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) advertisers must buy deep (multiple stations and formats) to accumulate audience reach of over 50%, offsetting the cost effectiveness of radio if the target is a large, broad group of consumers.

Traditional forms of advertising are also cost prohibitive for a small business owner looking to reach the widest audience with a limited budget. Advertising in a regional or local newspaper for a 3 x 5

Considering the fact that complete advertising industry is affected by our economy in one way or another last year. Everyone would imagine that U.S. Small Business Internet Marketing spend will face most challenging time. On the contrary Small Business Advertisers are still very optimistic and the SMB Online Spend is expected to hit more than at least US$ 8 billion in 2010.

The total US Interactive marketing Spend in the year 2010 is expected to reach around US$ 30 billion, which is 13% of all ad spend and shows 13% year to year growth also.

According to a study about 69 percent of small business advertisers expected that their spending on online advertising for 2010 would be equal to or greater than last year. Among their criteria for selecting advertising opportunities are rates, proximity of the ad vehicle to business prospects, and repeating what they have done in the past. Around 50 percent of small business owners believe online advertising is effective -- a number considerably higher than the rank they gave direct mail (32 percent), yellow pages (28 percent), and newspapers (27 percent).

The study also recommends that by 2013, the spending habits of SMBs are likely to be very different than today, when their interactive buys consist mainly of paid search (accounting for 85% of online advertising). In five years, 68% of their spending will be on paid search and video. For the time being the survey suggested, email marketing continues to be the most popular online channel among small businesses, ahead of online search, display advertising and social media marketing.

In 2010, many small businesses plan to spend the same or more on the following online activities:

57% on email programs to current clients. 57% developing a company website. 55% on email programs to potential clients.

Credits: 2adproshop | Graphic Design Services for Small Business

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Every business is created with the intention of making money and filling a demand that exists in the marketplace it serves. As more individuals make a move to the privately owned companies an increase in small business competition has become noticeable. In addition to the increased creation of these businesses the internet has empowered all of these small businesses with the opportunity to compete in the global market.

Many established businesses are starting to struggle as more businesses jump into the competitive markets of the small business. Businesses are now looking for the most up to date methods to prevent their business from becoming the next market failure. Small business coaching is an answer that over 58 percent of small and medium companies are utilizing.

When a person starts a small business, overtime many issues are disregarded as a result of the daily stresses associated with managing their business. In a tornado of present expenses hardly being met by the proceeds from the sale of merchandise or services, the big picture is often missing. In addition to financial woes many business owners have to deal with the drama of a company staff or of the various customers who have their own issues. This reduction of the big picture plan can result in a slowing of productivity as a response to focusing on the small issues that hold little power in the ultimate goals of a new company. Small business coaching can help to refocus an owner back towards their overall business goals and assist in managing the small issues that have drug an owner away from the big business picture.

When you enlist the services of a small business coach they have a list of items they will view as essential in completing for your company. The primary objective on that list is to establish a clear direction you desire your company to travel. They will assess this by first speaking to the business owner to achieve an understanding of what the business owner intended on creating when starting their own business. When a clear image is created the small business coach will make an assessment of the current condition of your business. Business coaches do this in an effort to see how far your business has strayed from the original plan the owner created. Once this assessment is complete the small business coach will design various plans on how to return a business onto its desired track and how to excel on this track in the future. The small business coach represents an outside view of a situation that a business owner may be too deep in to see the various aspects of their business situation.

By evaluating the viewpoints of the business coaches evaluation, a business owner can then get a vision of their business that they may not have recognized before. The small business coach offers new perspectives on an old idea and ultimately helps a business advance so that they do not share the same fate of those who fell before them.

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I am sure your quest for small business grants has come to an end as you read this article. Yes, gtwo are those days when we have to search endlessly for small business grants information or other such information like business forms, loan for small business, business consultant internet marketing small or even business finance funding loan small. Even without articles such as this, with the Internet all you have to do is log on and use any of the search engines to find the small business grants information you need.

Small business finance acts as a stepping stone for the small businesses, to explore innovative and holistic approach of business to increase their profits. With small business finance borrower can minimize the difficulty of funds that the borrower comes across during the business.

Small business loans are advanced to businessmen running small business or those who want to start their own venture. Small business finance is available in both forms, secured and unsecured small business finance. If you don't want to risk your property you can avail unsecured small business finance, but if you want to avail loan at low interest rate secured business finance is the best option for you. Small business finance open to albeit good credit borrower or bad credit borrower. Anyone suffering from arrears, defaults, CCJ, IVA, bankruptcy etc. can also avail the benefits of small business finance.

Keeping in view the larger interests of the nation, SBS wants more people having the desire, skills and opportunity to start a successful business. It also aspires to help everyone with the ambition to grow a business in getting the needed help and support. Building the capability for small business growth and improving access to finance for small businesses are among the strategies on which SBS is working.

If this article still doesn't answer your specific small business grants quest, then don't forget that you can conduct more search on any of the major search engines like Search.Yahoo dot com to get specific small business grants information.

One way to get a health insurance plan for a small business at a lower premium is to join up with other small business owners. Small business owners can band together to increase their buying power, allowing them to get their health insurance plans at a lower cost than they would if they applied on their own.

There are many different and sometimes confusing aspects of any online business but if your interests are of those of a small online business, then you are in the right place. This article will hopefully provide you with enough information about keeping your small online business afloat that you will feel more confident in knowing that you must be doing everything right within your small online business, otherwise you would already be looking for a different career field, instead of reading up on different materials that have to do with a small online business.

Moreover, there is so much of importance attached to first impressions in networking and sales that it's unthinkable to have a generic business card. The business card should be designed in such a manner that it would reflect strongly about your personality, the organization you represent, the products you deal with and the kind of service you can offer. For example, a business card made out of recycled material emphasizes the fact that you are an environment conscious person. It would immediately create a favorable impression of you and the esteem with which you are held will definitely go up.

It might interest you to know that lots of folks searching for small business grants also got information related to other small business marketing course, small business loan bad credit, and even marketing consultancy here with ease.

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