Constantly clamoring to grab the attention of prospective customers, small businesses are competing with a lot of noise. Consumers are cutting through clutter by fast-forwarding television shows, subscribing to ad-free digital radio, installing ad-blockers to browse their favorite websites sans-ads and customizing what’s in their social media feeds. To avoid getting…
The CLIMB Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is one of 19 in the state of Oregon, offering growth and development opportunities for small business owners throughout the PCC district. Whether you have owned a business for years or you are thinking about starting a new business, the Portland Community College – CLIMB Center is here to help. CLIMB means continuous…
Most businesses do not qualify for government grants. money, money, money image by easaab from Fotolia.com If you look hard enough, and sometimes get lucky, you might find free money to help start your business — a grant. You should not, however, bank on getting one, because grants are extremely hard to find. Despite what some people say, the federal government does…
Consider this: you are planning to start a small business or currently operating one and you decide or have been told that you need to do some marketing research. The first thing that comes to mind is how you do this, and the second is probably a fear that it will cost a lot of money. Traditional marketing research done by large companies can be a very expensive proposition…
Every so often, I ll come across an entrepreneur that insists on word-of-mouth advertising, exclusively. I think every small business owner would prefer this free means of promotion – that is, if this way of marketing was good enough to retire on. But, it’s not. After a bit of probing, I usually discover that those who swear by word-of-mouth (pun intended), are those…
Bank on Buffalo thinks it s found an underserved niche in the local market and is ready to test its premise. The new division of Pennsylvania-based CNB Bank is preparing to open three branches in Western New York, aiming to attract small and mid-sized businesses as customers as its foundation. They can be mom-and-pop operations generating a couple hundred thousand…
