From the latest projections on the growth of mobile to a new product from Web design platform Wix, there are lots of things happening that can impact your small business today. The Small Business Trends editorial team has you covered with the latest. Have a look.
Web
60 Percent of Online Traffic Now Comes From Mobile. If your business depends upon online traffic, you should know. More than half of digital traffic online now comes from mobile devices and through mobile apps. A comScore report says smartphones and tablets combined now account for 6o percent of all online traffic up from 50 percent a year ago.
Wix Introduces Beautiful ShoutOut Newsletters. Wix, the freemium website building platform, announced its new ShoutOut feature today, a way to send out “beautiful newsletters” and updates about your business. The service is used to create and design email campaigns with a few clicks from the Wix dashboard using email lists compiled using the Wix platform.
Forget About Amazon, Get Yourself a Google Product Ad. Many businesses including brick and mortar companies have worried in recent years that Amazon is stealing their retail business. This is because Amazon offers many products available in small shops and retail stores and even on some eCommerce sites and does it at a cheaper price.
Bing Gives Twitter Results Including Hashtags and Handles. Twitter results have been showing up on Bing for some time. But now the search engine is adding tools that will refine that search. And that could be good news, if people happen to be looking for your Twitter handle on Bing.
Hardware
Microsoft Cuts Prices on Surface Pro 2 Tablets. Microsoft is cutting the prices on its Surface Pro 2 devices just before the arrival of Surface Pro 3. The new device, the third iteration of Microsoft’s tablet/PC hybrid can be ordered now but is expected to ship in August.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Makes Great Business Accessory. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 4 has a lot of features that should suit small business owners but it won’t be a replacement for your laptop. For small business owners on the go more often than not, this tablet is definitely suited for keeping in touch with clients. And it’s more than capable of accessing and editing business files stored in your cloud.
Other Tech Tends
Nimble CRM Says LinkedIn Lock Out is a Minor Stumbling Block. Companies building customer relationship management and human resources software based on LinkedIn’s API are upset. Last year, the professional networking giant said it was limiting companies allowed to build hiring, marketing or sales off its API to a few development partners.
Yahoo Shuts Down Voices, Bid for Low Cost Content Fails. Yahoo has announced plans to shut down its Voices site effective July 30 and its Contributor network effective the end of August. Originally bought by Yahoo for $100 million as Associated Content in 2012, the Voices site, and the Contributor Network which supplied it with writers, were sources of low cost content, what some would call a “content farm.”
Investment & Financing
TrustLeaf Helps You Structure “Family and Friends” Loans for Your Startup. You may have heard that borrowing money from family and friends to start a business is a bad idea. Still, the fact of the matter is that many entrepreneurs have gotten their start this way leading to the founding of many well-known brands. For example, entrepreneur Jim Casey started the business that today is UPS way back in 1907 with a family loan of just $100.
Small Business Loans Reach Post-Recession High. It isn’t quite the golden days of pre-recession financing. But small business lending has reached a post-recession high. That’s the unvarnished optimistic conclusion of the June 2014 Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index. The index is a monthly analysis of 1000 loan applications on Biz2Credit.com.
Legal & Security
Court Reverses $338,000 Award for User Generated Content. Imagine if your small business was successfully sued for something a visitor posted in your website’s comment section. Well, that’s pretty close to what happened to a website called TheDirty.com, a site which allows its readers to anonymously upload content of a somewhat…uh, salacious nature.
Your Uncharged Phone Might Not be Allowed on Some Flights. If you travel for business regularly, especially overseas, beware. The Transportation Security Administration may be preventing phones — or other mobile devices like tablets or laptops — from being taken on fights if they can’t be powered up during inspection.
Entrepreneurship & Startups
Entrepreneur Creates Unique Service: Moving Zoo Animals. The next time you're driving down the highway, you could be right next to a rhino and not even realize it. Entrepreneurs like Chris Danhauer make a living transporting zoo animals to other locations for breeding, conservation, or educational purposes. It's an unconventional business, to be sure. But someone has to be responsible for moving giraffes and gorillas.
How a Meetup Group Led a Mompreneur to Launch a Business . Jill Salzman was already a mom and an entrepreneur before she launched The Founding Moms' Exchange in 2009. The mother of two was juggling multiple businesses, including a music management firm and a children's accessory line. And she wanted a way to connect with other mom entrepreneurs. So she used the website Meetup.
Entrepreneur Creates Winery on the Third Floor of a Warehouse. Starting a winery requires acres of land in the hills of Napa Valley. . .or so you may think. Entrepreneur Lysanne Tusar doesn't need excessive land or proximity to wine country to run her winery. In fact, she makes her wine on the third floor of a warehouse building in the middle of Hong Kong.
Sales Basics
Sales is About Process and People Not Data Management. Today's savvy, tech-driven customers have taken complete control of how they select products and services they end up buying. In most cases, they have made their decision before they talk to the vendor they choose. Which means many sales people are being shut out of the decision making process altogether.
William Bruce, Business Broker, Takes Lumpy with the Lean. William Bruce started his career as a business broker 28 years ago when his first sale was a Hallmark Card and Gift Shop in Mobile, Alabama. He’s never looked back. Since then, he’s brokered literally hundreds of sales from ice cream stands to large manufacturing plants. Here’s a bit more of his story.
Employment
The 20 Most Fun Self-Employed Jobs. What are the best jobs in the world? We’re not just talking here about the best paying or the most rewarding. We’re talking about the most fun as well. Fortunately, in a world where almost any information imaginable can be easily crowdsourced, there’s at least a popular consensus.
Reading News Photo via Shutterstock
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