Business

Our daily blend of the latest news, trends and tips for the small business community.

What’s going ‘on’:

Ohio entrepreneur wins SBA’s top award: The Small Business Administration on Monday awarded its 2012 Small Business Person of the Year award to Victoria Tifft, president and chief executive of ClinicalRM, an Ohio-based medical research company. After contracting Malaria 20 years ago in Togo, Tifft launched her firm to help develop medicines and devices to fight such diseases.

Small business owners indifferent toward crowdfunding:Small business owners are none too excited about a new law that will allow them to raise money by soliciting investors online, according to a new survey conducted by Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp and Pepperdine University. Only 3 percent of owners said the new law increases the likelihood of companies raising money through crowdfunding.

White House opposes upping small firms’ share of contracts: The White House has come out against a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (approved last week by the House) that would increase the share of government work expected to go to small businesses every year. In a statement, the administration said it was a “laudable but overly ambitious” goal.

Keep an eye ‘on’:

Facebook stock sinking:Facebook’s stock tumbled well below its $38 IPO price in the company’s second day of trading as a public company on Monday, reinforcing concern that its initial offering was priced too high. Morgan Stanley, which handled the offering, reportedly stepped in to prop up the stock immediately following the debut on Friday.

NSBW events winding down: National Small Business Week concludes on Tuesday in Washington with full day of events including sessions on federal contracting and social media. Hosted by the Small Business Administration, the celebration is meant to highlight small business accomplishments across the country.

Helpful advice ‘on:

How to prepare for the JOBS Act (OSB)

How to hire and delegate well (Yahoo)

How to partner with big firms (Entrepreneur)

How to avoid investor pitch mistakes (Forbes)

Victoria Tifft fromOhio was named the National Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration Monday at an event headlined by Small Business Administrator Karen Mills.

Our daily blend of the latest news, trends and tips for the small business community.

What’s going ‘on’:

NSBW kicks off: Sunday marked the start of National Small Business Week, a three-day conference in Washington focusing on small business accomplishments, including disaster recovery, procurement and entrepreneurial success. On Monday, the Small Business Administration will formally recognize state and national small business award winners at a luncheon downtown.

U.S. contractors threatened by direct foreign aid: American contractors risk losing business under a plan to double the share of international aid awards given to overseas entrepreneurs and governments. The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded $2.12 billion of its foreign assistance budget to the overseas groups last fiscal year, compared with $1.94 billion a year earlier.

G-8 shifts away from austerity: The G-8 leaders opened the door this past weekend to more government spending in the euro region as way to revive the continent’s struggling economy, a stark change of pace from the austerity measures that have been widely supported in recent months. Specifically, the leaders he leaders present said they would promote investment in education and infrastructure.

Keep an eye ‘on’:

Employee driving habits coming back to bite firms: Lawsuits stemming from automobile accidents caused by distracted driving (texting, phone calls) have become all too common, and now the lawyers who bring them are increasingly targeting the wealthy companies who employed the drivers, reports Ashley Halsey III.

Helpful advice ‘on’:

How your firm can use social media tagging (OSB)

How clustering can boost business (Entrepreneur)

How to find afforable market research (Open Forum)

How bosses can plan for retirement (Fox Business)

On Small Business has a new feature in which young entrepreneurs will answer common questions about small business owners’ social media needs. The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of young entrepreneurs.

Q: How do you use location-based networks for your business?

Jun Loayza, co-founder and CMO of RewardMe in Mountain View, Calif.:

Foursquare is a great way for customers to tell their friends that they were at your store or restaurant. It only takes a few steps to get your business started on Foursquare. After you claim your business, create a special. The best types of specials are small, frequent rewards that a customer can redeem for frequent visits. To influence behavior and increase average order value, create rewards that encourage customers to bring a friend (i.e. buy one, get one free deals).

You can also create a Mayor reward. The Mayor is the Foursquare user that checks into your location most often. To reward your best customer, create a special reward that encourages him to bring a group of friends, (i.e. offer a free sampler platter for the Mayor and his/her friends).

Promote your Foursquare presence at your location by telling your customers that you use Foursquare and posting what reward the Mayor gets. If you can get Foursquare users to compete against each other to become Mayor, then you’ll enjoy an increase in foot traffic.

Shama Kabani, CEO of The Marketing Zen Group in Dallas:

Foursquare and other location-based sites allow users to check in at specific locations and connect with friends as they do, sharing useful tips and seeing what their friends are doing. For businesses, it represents a great opportunity to build loyalty and retain customers. Businesses can reward regular users with points and badges as incentives for check-ins. Location-based social sites obviously work particularly well for businesses with physical locations, like retail stores and restaurants. If you have a retail location, you want to start by claiming ownership of the venue.

If you don’t have a physical location, you can still create a page. What can pages do? Pages can have followers — users see your activity on their home pages. Pages can have a giant, customizable banner across the top of the page (great branding). All you need to create a page is a Twitter account. Unlike venues, which are created immediately, pages can take up to about two weeks to be implemented. While the History Channel may not be an actual venue, it is doing a good job at building an online community on Foursquare.

Lauren Fairbanks, partner at Stunt & Gimmick’s in New York:

Since we’re a data-driven content marketing firm, there’s not much benefit in having people check into our offices. Instead, we use location-based networks like Yelp and Foursquare to help our clients understand their customers better and find key online influencers.

By finding venues that cater to a company’s ideal client, you can find individual influencers to reach out to and begin a conversation about a specific brand. We also use location-based networking when our clients throw events, using check-in lists to reach back out to potential customers and to help make our online marketing efforts that much more effective.

The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good).

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On Small Business has a new feature in which young entrepreneurs will answer common questions about small business owners’ social media needs. The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of young entrepreneurs.

Q: What are some strategies in order to help a video “go viral”?