La Soiree Reintroduces the “Independent Business” of Vaudeville

Not every small business owner might see juggling, acrobatics or scissor swallowing as your average product or service. But then not every small business owner is Amy Saunders, a.k.a.”Miss Behave” (pictured above). Saunders is one of the performers of La Soiree.

It’s a new look at a traditional American and British art form called Vaudeville here and in the U.K. Musical Hall. It’s currently showing at the Union Square Theatre in New York City.

But La Soiree is more than just a single theatrical event. As Miss Behave tells The Wall Street Journal, it is a gathering of performers. All of them work in their own small businesses and have for many years:

“We are all independent businesses, and we all have to create our own work, take our own work to where we’re going and run the whole little thing as an independent business. We all meet up along the way in different guises: Some in circuses, some in festivals, some in nightclubs.”

Vaudeville and Music Hall were a kind of short form entertainment that predated television and other more modern mediums. When first radio and then television began to displace them, Vaudeville performers did what all small businesses do in a changing market - they adapted.

They would eventually perform their unique brands of entertainment on cruise ships, as street performers, at magic conventions and so on.

Great businesses evolve over time. Markets may change, but the core value of the products and services they create remains. Don’t be afraid of change in your business, but instead, be open to new possibilities.

Image: Still Misbehaving

Federal Gas Tax Could Increase by 15 Cents, More Costs Possible

Increasing postal rates aren’t the only extra cost small businesses may have to worry about soon. A bill in the U.S. House would boost the federal gas tax by 15 cents over the next three years, if passed. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR-3), who proposed the increase, claims the added cost is necessary to replenish the Highway Trust Fund to maintain the nation’s roads and bridges.

To make matters worse, the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, has just released a report suggesting that current gas taxes and other fees are only sufficient to meet about half of current state and federal highway spending.

Joseph Henchman, Tax Foundation vice president of state projects and the author of the report, writes:

“In the last year, Virginia and Massachusetts raised a number of taxes for transportation purposes, a handful of states raised gasoline taxes, Oregon began testing a vehicle mileage tax pricing system, and other states proposed new or expanded toll roads.”

Henchman believes funding for road maintenance at the federal and state level should come from a mix of user fees including tolls, gas taxes, and other vehicle related fees.

While infrastructure is certainly important, more added costs come at the worst possible time for already squeezed small businesses dealing with  a challenging economy. Added fees and taxes hit small businesses in two ways.

First, they can increase shipping costs for B2B or B2C businesses by increasing the costs for the carriers they use (like UPS). These carriers in turn eventually increase costs to compensate.

Second, they can increase travel costs including regular long commutes if necessary for your business. (As an example, daily travel on a state toll road like the PA Turnpike in Southeastern Pennsylvania can run thousands of dollars per year. And that’s even with cost saving options like E-Z Pass for regular commuters. So any increase will be costly.)

Whether or not any of these cost increases become a reality this year or in the future, it’s a good idea to begin looking at how they affect your bottom line. And, of course, it’s time to look for any options to cut these costs by making changes in your business today.

Though not every option will work for every business, here are some ideas to explore:

First, if applicable in your business, consider introducing digital products like ebooks and other downloads as opposed to physical books, discs, etc. This might also be a good solution for your customers who may become less eager to buy as shipping costs increase. If you ship other kinds of products or merchandise that can’t be replaced with digital versions, examine your current shipping arrangements and start determining now whether there are any ways to cut costs.

Second, introduce more telecommuting in your business. This could include looking at working more from a home office where applicable and even meeting with clients or customers via Skype or Google Hangouts. It might also include a more mobile set-up for your staff or team. Again, this won’t work for every business, so you’ll need to look at your specific situation.

You should also consider contacting your U.S.  Representative to let him or her know how increases in transportation costs would affect your business.

Gas Tax Photo via Shutterstock

4 Tips to Turn Your Business Into a Talent Attractor

I’ve previously discussed keeping your employees happy with better benefits. So now that you’ve mastered loyalty through better benefits, you may be ready to kick it up a notch and attract new talent as well as keep your current talent.

Only an elite group of businesses earn the title “talent attractor.” What is a talent attractor you may ask? A talent attractor is a company that is best in class when it comes to benefits packaging and delivery. The human resources departments at these companies are more likely to believe that overall employee health is important to workforce productivity.

These folks know their workers’ needs and are able to communicate and market those benefits options effectively.

Develop An Understanding of Health Care Reform

With 2014 just around the corner, employees will have selected which benefits they need for next year but may still be confused about their coverage.

According to our recent research, approximately 40 percent of Talent Attractor companies say they understand health care reform legislation extremely or very well (compared to 27 percent of all U.S. companies). Make sure you’re well-versed in the law’s nuances so that you can answer your employees’ questions.

When it comes to reform Q&As, if you would be more comfortable directing your workers to outside sources for health care reform, be prepared to provide suggestions such as the U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Kaiser on Health Care Reform.

Link Benefits to Profitability

More than 70 percent of talent attractors strongly or very strongly agree that offering a robust benefits package plays a role in their company’s profitability, versus only 28 percent of all other companies. You can make decisions about how to improve benefits and what to offer based on quantitative data that you gather.

For example, survey employees on what types of insurance they would like to receive. You can do informal interviews, or field paper or online surveys to gauge your workers wants and needs. However, don’t forget to take the two steps that follow surveys:

• Act on feedback
• Measure results

You will only upset your workforces if you ask them what they’d like to see and don’t make changes accordingly. Similarly, you need to track the success of your investments. Companies often compare workman’s compensation claims, sick-days, absenteeism and attrition rates.

Use this information to see how you compare to companies with best-in-class benefits programs and HR best practices.

Provide Robust Benefits

Benefits obviously include insurance, but a robust offering extends them to also include more qualitative perks that pay off in spades, such as wellness programs, Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) and flextime.

Communicate Early and Often

Improving benefits communications can have critical business results for smaller-sized companies. Talent Attractors are nearly 1.5 times more likely to communicate about benefits throughout the year compared to all U.S. companies. This communication happens between 3 and 10 times per year. Ten times per year might be a bit overwhelming if you’re only communicating about benefits once per year right now, but don’t be discouraged. Start with small steps.

For example:

• Communicate about benefits 3+ times each year: Mark it on your calendar and plan to actively communicate about your company’s benefits, workforce health and wellness offerings. Think about doing it once per quarter and increase each year as you and your workforce become more comfortable and familiar with benefits.
• Tailor your communications and resources: Benefits are not one size fits all, so tailor accordingly. You know as well as I do that an individual close to retirement will need different information about 401(k) plans than a recent college graduate.
• Discuss total compensation: When discussing benefits options, position them as a part of the overall compensation package. I recently wrote a blog post about the importance of the quantitative value of more qualitative benefits, which falls into the idea of “total compensation.”

Leverage what you’ve got and don’t sell yourself short.

Attract Talent Photo via Shutterstock

LinkedIn turns to courts to track down clone & probe fake accounts

January 09, 2014

Business social network LinkedIn has filed a `John Doe' lawsuit against an unknown group of advanced hackers who are setting up clone accounts designed to harvest credentials from legitimate users of the service.

The clone accounts mirror legitimate users and attempt to 'connect' to the contacts of those users, in order to extract large volumes of behavioural information and business-relevant data.

As with fake Twitter accounts, which are designed to be sold to users of the microblogging service, the clone LinkedIn accounts and their profiles appear to be set-up using automated software. 

“The Doe Defendents used Amazon EC2 to create virtual machines to run automated bots to scrape data from LinkedIn's website,” reads the complaint. “As a result of Doe Defendents' use of Amazon EC2, LinkedIn expects to be able to identify the Doe Defendants by serving third-party discovery on AWS.”

According to LinkedIn, which has more than 250 million users worldwide, the clone-and-probe accounts started being created by the thousand last spring and were then observed harvesting large volumes of data down from the service's servers.

SCMagazineUK.com notes that the Northern Californian court filing of Monday is the first real admission by LinkedIn that it uses monitoring technology to look for signs of unusual online.

Monitoring technology avoided

What is intriguing about the clone-and-probe account hackers is that, as well as using automated software to create and harvest information from the LinkedIn servers, they also appear to have been aware of the monitoring technology and reportedly only harvested information to levels just below the thresholds that would have triggered an investigation.

According to the court filing "since May 2013, unknown persons and/or entities employing various automated software programs - often referred to as bots - have registered thousands of fake LinkedIn member accounts and extracted and copied data from many member profile pages."

"This practice - known as data scraping - is explicitly barred in LinkedIn's user agreement," adds the filing.

The filing mirrors similar actions by Facebook in recent years to stop third-party companies from harvesting data from its systems, although a number of open-source applications have been developed to make the actual process relatively easy.

The most intriguing aspect of the lawsuit is that - as with Facebook's previous actions in this domain - the case does not seek to directly unmask the hackers. The lawsuit does, however, allow investigators to research third-party computer systems that have themselves been hacked and co-opted into the scheme to automatically create clone-and-probe LinkedIn accounts, as well as warn off potential future attacks on its servers using a similar automated approach.

Although declining press comment on the case, LinkedIn says that the clone-and-probe fake account scheme violates the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Comprehensive Computer Access and Fraud Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Challenges ahead

Digital forensics specialist Professor Peter Sommer, who is also a Visiting Professor at Leicester's de Montfort University, said that could prove an interesting but also challenging case.

"In the first instance LinkedIn will have to demonstrate a solid link between the fake profiles and the real people behind them - not that trivial in these days of dynamic IP addresses and the ease with which innocent folk's poorly secured PCs can be taken over so that an exploit appears to come from them rather than the scammer," he told SCMagazineUK.com.

"Secondly, LinkedIn will have to show what the scammers actually did - and the best evidence is likely to be on the scammers' own equipment. LinkedIn will have to arrange to seize this, another non-trivial exercise," he added.

Professor Sommer went on to say that matters would be easier if they are able to get the authorities to run and a criminal investigation, rather than keeping it as a purely civil matter.

"In any event, as one of millions who has a LinkedIn profile, I will be watching with unusual interest."

Mike Small, an ISACA Security Advisory Group member and analyst with Kuppinger Cole, said that the hackers likely used cloud computing facilities to launch the attacks, and said that such services are cheap to set up, easy to use and potentially very powerful.

"Usually they only need a credit card to get access. They are likely to be as attractive to hackers and cyber criminals as they are to legitimate users," he said, adding that cloud services have extensive controls in place to prevent their use for illegitimate or illegal purposes.

The cloud service contracts normally specifically forbid this activity, he noted, adding that cybercriminals would need to find a way to cloak their identity when using a public cloud service in this way.

“This incident illustrates the difficulties faced in a world where the law and law enforcement is geographically organised but criminal activities using the Internet cut across these boundaries."

Advanced spam: new opportunities for hackers

January 09, 2014

"There is no silver bullet for spam"

There is no silver bullet for solving the rising spam problem says AppRiver security analyst Troy Gill, commenting to SCMagazineUK.com on his firm's just-published annual review of spam.

Users are increasingly receiving messages on mobile devices, making it clear that companies need an effective security policy - and the means to enforce that policy across their entire IT real estate - including employee plus BYOD mobile devices, says Gill.

"Many firms have no security policies in place, (and) it has become something of a free-for-all in defending mobile devices," he said, adding to the manpower required to defend all aspects of a company's network resource.

"We've also seen malware that actively seeks to discover what device you are accessing data on, and adapt its attack strategy accordingly," he told SCMagazineUK.com.

Coupled with social engineering attack vectors, this creates a complex situation, hence no silver bullet solves all the problems of advanced spam and malware.

AppRiver's annual analysis [INSERT BELOW URL] reveals that its filters identified and quarantined 128 percent more spam messages during 2013 than the year before - some 28.3 billion. Whilst spam is irritating, the report notes that it is messages containing malicious attachments that can prove exceptionally damaging and AppRiver's statistics confirm this is still a popular infection vector - having quarantined just over 479 million such messages during the year.

www.appriver.com/resources/global_security_report/global_security_report_EOY2013.aspx

The security vendor has also seen a significant upward trend of malware delivered via malicious links.

AppRiver's report concludes that, as the attack surface within organisations continues to broaden through the widespread use of multiple operating systems, so will the attackers' methods and vectors.

"While these types of attacks have traditionally only targeted PC users, we are now seeing the emergence of cross-platform threats," says the report.

"We expect these to only increase in the future as cybercriminals have shown their adaptability, with no signs of relenting any time soon," the analysis adds.

Commenting on the report, Rob Bamforth, a Principal Analyst with business and security research house Quocirca, said that the spam - as well as rising in volume - is also diversifying and becoming more advanced in nature.

"Because more and more people are using more and more online services, we expect to receive emails from the service providers about these facilities. And whilst people have become wise to the fact that they will not receive requests for information from their bank, they will get the types of emails that hackers send, seeking information from their online service providers," he said.

Bamforth echoed Gill's comments that we - as users - are now accessing our Internet services on a wider variety of devices, and in doing so this opens the door to new spamming and malware opportunities for the cybercriminals.

"There are also many online services that users must use," he said, adding that online filing for the UK tax authority, HMRC, gives users greater exposure to spam attack vectors than ever before.

Mot people are well aware of the security problem cause by spammers, but even the most sophisticated online user can still be caught out, usually because of the high levels of plausibility and sophistication that the latest messages employ.

Adobe under investigation by Ireland\'s data regulator

January 09, 2014

Potential EU fine could cost up to €100 million (£82.7 million).

Following a number of complaints, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) - the equivalent of the ICO in the UK - has begun an investigation into the massive Adobe data breach in which hackers stole around 38 million customer records from the company's server.

According to the DPC, an investigation has been ongoing since last October, when the company's Irish operation first notified the regulator of its problems.

"This office immediately launched an investigation into the matter, which is still ongoing," said the DPC's press statement.

Despite initially claiming that the data breach only affected 2.9 million users, that figure was later revised to 38 million by Adobe following investigations by security researcher Brian Krebs, who revealed that the database included email addresses, passwords and password hints. Krebs added that the reported source code leaked had widened to include Adobe's Photoshop software.

The data breach figure was as high as 100 million customer records in some quarters. When looking into the case, Krebs found that the AnonNews.org portal posted a huge (3.8GB) file, called `users.tar.gz', which appeared to include more than 150 million users' name and hashed password pairs apparently taken from Adobe. The file also appeared to show that Adobe users had also been compromised.

Although Adobe's Dublin operation is only a smaller part of a global operation with 9,200 employees, the Irish data regulator has said previously that it treats companies with Irish operations as the effective data controller for all companies outside of North America.

Remarking on the case, Quocirca IT security analyst Bob Tarzey said that Adobe will face a heavy fine if found guilty of negligence by the Irish DPC.

"As a member of the European Union, the EU data protection legislation will eventually apply and this exposes Adobe to a fine of up to five percent of turnover.” He also added that the case is still subject to Irish data protection regulation.

Commenting on the fact that the Irish regulator treats companies with local country operations as a data controller for other regions, he said he does not see why another country could not take action against Adobe for leaking its citizens' data. 

"It will depend on any investigation proving that Adobe was somehow negligent. If the breach was due to circumstances beyond its control there may be no case the answer. Furthermore, when the breach occurred, Adobe claimed the sensitive data involved was encrypted, so if this proves to be correct, then again, good practice may mean it has no case to answer," he noted.

Kevin Bailey, a former IDC analyst now working for data security vendor Clearswift, told SCMagazineUK.com that organisations like Adobe need to be more pro-active in communicating breaches for critical information.

“The response from the Irish DPO will become the rule rather than an exception when (and if) the new European Data Protection Regulations is passed in May. A €250,000 fine today could result in up to a five percent fine of worldwide revenues for the persistent lack of security for this personally identifiable information,” he said.

“Organisations need to promote greater security-aware practices internally, to help employees and customers realise their risks, whilst changing their personal and business working practices in light of the inadequate protection afforded by some software providers,” concludes Bailey.

Airbnb Reaches 10 Million Stays, Builds “Sharing” Economy

Airbnb, the company specializing in helping people rent out their apartments and spare rooms online, has reached 10 million stays. The news is big enough for those who rent out places in over 34,000 cities and 192 countries using the website. (Airbnb calls them “hosts.”)

But the company’s mammoth success can also teach an important lesson to the smallest entrepreneur: Don’t just build a business, build an economy.

What eBay once did for the reselling community, Airbnb has done for those who need to make a little extra money by renting their home, apartment or other space out by the night.

But the company’s growth has not come without cost.

Airbnb “Hosts” Face Hassles in NYC

In cities like New York, Airbnb “hosts” have faced legal hassles due to strict rental codes which bar anyone from renting in the city for less than 30 days (unless they are staying in the dwelling as well.)

Surprisingly (or not) Bloomberg Businessweek, owned by former New York City Mayor and usually business friendly Michael Bloomberg, has even taken the company to task.

The publication has dismissed Airbnb’s claims that it attracted 416,000 visitors to the city between August 2012 and July 2013. That’s only 1 percent of the total number of people who visited New York over the same period, Bloomberg BusinessWeek points out.

The publication concedes that Airbnb guests may spend more time in the city than the average hotel guest and spend on average $1,300 in the local economy. But it also complains that Airbnb hosts who may rent their apartments to strangers as many as 48 days out of the year are creating a hardship for their neighbors.

Airbnb has been successful in mobilizing its community of users for support. For example, in December the company posted a YouTube video. In it, local hosts invited incoming mayor Bill de Blasio and his relatives to stay with them when visiting the city for his inauguration.

Building the Sharing Economy

In a post on Airbnb’s official blog in October, Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky insisted most of the company’s critics simply didn’t understand. He explained:

“In New York, our 15,000 hosts are regular people from all five boroughs. Eighty-seven percent of them rent the homes in which they live. On average, they are at the median income level and more than half of them depend on Airbnb to help them stay in their home.”

Chesky describes this group and those like them as part of the “sharing” economy, one in which everyone can participate. Chesky and Airbnb Co-Founder Joe Gebbia don’t just foster this community. At one time, they were part of it, he says.

The two came up with the idea for Airbnb while roommates in San Fransisco after they blew up some inflatable air mattresses and rented out space on their floor to make the rent.

Hopefully your business won’t skirt the law or encourage others to do so. But Airbnb’s success is also an example of how to go beyond serving a customer base. Find an economy to serve or build one yourself.

Image: Airbnb

How to Make Your Local Business Stand Out From the Crowd

Do you own a business that relies on a local customer base, such as a brick-and-mortar retail store, nail or hair salon or restaurant? The busy holiday shopping (and eating) season no doubt kept you hopping, but now that the holidays are over (and people see their credit cards bills), business will undoubtedly slow down.

To help keep your business thriving in 2014, making it stand out from the competition is critical.

Local Business Marketing Strategy Steps

Assess the Competition

You can’t stand out from your local competitors if you don’t know what they’re doing. You may not be able to visit these establishments yourself without raising suspicion, but have trusted sources such as your friends or family members “mystery shop” to check them out in person. What stands out about the competition? Is it the cool atmosphere, the amazing service or the friendly owner?

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, you should check out the competitors’ advertising and marketing. How are they promoting their brands? What social media channels are they on and what kind of content do they post? How do customers engage with them on social media? What’s the vibe of their websites - fun, informational, practical? How easy is it to use their sites, both on your desktop, laptop and mobile devices?

Assess the Market

Where does your target market overlap with your competition’s, and where does it differ? Is there a subset or new niche in the market your competitor isn’t serving, but you could be? Perhaps you have a baby products boutique but your competitor a few blocks away has cornered the local market for upscale moms, and you’re struggling to get those customers.

Instead, how about if you targeted young, hipster moms or same-sex parents? Use market research such as Census information to figure out if there are enough people in a niche to make it worth your while.

Plan Your Attack

Once you’ve got your reconnaissance info and your market research, sit down with your team and figure out what your competitors’ strong and weak points are.

If you decide it’s not worth trying to beat them in the areas where they’re strong (either because they’re too far ahead of you or too well established), how can you take advantage of their weaknesses?

Team Up

Getting involved in your local community’s organizations is a great way to make your business stand out. For instance, by sponsoring a Little League team, a sporting goods store gets built-in business from the players’ parents, who will not only shop there but also recommend it to their networks.

On a slightly bigger level, being involved in a charitable organization can not only encourage others involved to shop with you, but also raise awareness of your business as being a participant in the community. You can form alliances with other small businesses in the community. There is strength in numbers. Alignable is a new company that helps you do just that.

Think Big AND Small

Standing out from the competition may not require shifting your entire marketing strategy. Often, it’s the little things that count.

For instance, I live near a popular retail area with a lot of dog owners who like to walk their dogs in the downtown shopping area and even bring them into stores or restaurants. Some stores and restaurants put bowls of water and dog biscuits outside their doors for the dogs; others don’t. Guess which ones are more popular?

Local Business Marketing Tips

To get you started, below are a few local business marketing tips for simple ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Create a proprietary drink or menu item at your bar or restaurant.
• Add outdoor seating to your bar or restaurant if no one else in the area offers it.
• Open extra early or stay open extra late to capture customers who aren’t served by your competitors’ hours.
• Have a weekly trivia contest or game night at your bar or restaurant.
• Provide cushy seating for bored spouses or boyfriends at your women’s clothing boutique.
• Set up a children’s area in your store with toys and games to keep kids occupied while parents shop. This doesn’t have to be limited to kid-related businesses. One hardware store I know in a high foot-traffic area gets lots of walk-ins from parents of toddlers simply by having a Thomas the Tank Engine train set on the sidewalk outside.
• Put art from local artists on the walls of your store or restaurant. You can even sell the art and take a commission from the artists.
• Use crazy, creative window displays to attract attention so that everyone is eager to see what that month’s display will be.

By now, you get the idea - be different, be creative. Strive to provide things that your competitors do not.

So how do you plan to make your business stand out in the new year?

Local Marketing Photo via Shutterstock

How to Make Your Local Business Stand Out From the Crowd

Do you own a business that relies on a local customer base, such as a brick-and-mortar retail store, nail or hair salon or restaurant? The busy holiday shopping (and eating) season no doubt kept you hopping, but now that the holidays are over (and people see their credit cards bills), business will undoubtedly slow down.

To help keep your business thriving in 2014, making it stand out from the competition is critical.

Local Business Marketing Strategy Steps

Assess the Competition

You can’t stand out from your local competitors if you don’t know what they’re doing. You may not be able to visit these establishments yourself without raising suspicion, but have trusted sources such as your friends or family members “mystery shop” to check them out in person. What stands out about the competition? Is it the cool atmosphere, the amazing service or the friendly owner?

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, you should check out the competitors’ advertising and marketing. How are they promoting their brands? What social media channels are they on and what kind of content do they post? How do customers engage with them on social media? What’s the vibe of their websites - fun, informational, practical? How easy is it to use their sites, both on your desktop, laptop and mobile devices?

Assess the Market

Where does your target market overlap with your competition’s, and where does it differ? Is there a subset or new niche in the market your competitor isn’t serving, but you could be? Perhaps you have a baby products boutique but your competitor a few blocks away has cornered the local market for upscale moms, and you’re struggling to get those customers.

Instead, how about if you targeted young, hipster moms or same-sex parents? Use market research such as Census information to figure out if there are enough people in a niche to make it worth your while.

Plan Your Attack

Once you’ve got your reconnaissance info and your market research, sit down with your team and figure out what your competitors’ strong and weak points are.

If you decide it’s not worth trying to beat them in the areas where they’re strong (either because they’re too far ahead of you or too well established), how can you take advantage of their weaknesses?

Team Up

Getting involved in your local community’s organizations is a great way to make your business stand out. For instance, by sponsoring a Little League team, a sporting goods store gets built-in business from the players’ parents, who will not only shop there but also recommend it to their networks.

On a slightly bigger level, being involved in a charitable organization can not only encourage others involved to shop with you, but also raise awareness of your business as being a participant in the community. You can form alliances with other small businesses in the community. There is strength in numbers. Alignable is a new company that helps you do just that.

Think Big AND Small

Standing out from the competition may not require shifting your entire marketing strategy. Often, it’s the little things that count.

For instance, I live near a popular retail area with a lot of dog owners who like to walk their dogs in the downtown shopping area and even bring them into stores or restaurants. Some stores and restaurants put bowls of water and dog biscuits outside their doors for the dogs; others don’t. Guess which ones are more popular?

Local Business Marketing Tips

To get you started, below are a few local business marketing tips for simple ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Create a proprietary drink or menu item at your bar or restaurant.
• Add outdoor seating to your bar or restaurant if no one else in the area offers it.
• Open extra early or stay open extra late to capture customers who aren’t served by your competitors’ hours.
• Have a weekly trivia contest or game night at your bar or restaurant.
• Provide cushy seating for bored spouses or boyfriends at your women’s clothing boutique.
• Set up a children’s area in your store with toys and games to keep kids occupied while parents shop. This doesn’t have to be limited to kid-related businesses. One hardware store I know in a high foot-traffic area gets lots of walk-ins from parents of toddlers simply by having a Thomas the Tank Engine train set on the sidewalk outside.
• Put art from local artists on the walls of your store or restaurant. You can even sell the art and take a commission from the artists.
• Use crazy, creative window displays to attract attention so that everyone is eager to see what that month’s display will be.

By now, you get the idea - be different, be creative. Strive to provide things that your competitors do not.

So how do you plan to make your business stand out in the new year?

Local Marketing Photo via Shutterstock