Volunteers Drive SCORE’s Mission of Shaping Small Business Success
While small business success can be the result of many different actions and decisions, at SCORE, we think one thing is essential: volunteers. In April, we celebrate National Volunteer Month to recognize the dedication of volunteers in all varieties of service, whatever their reason for participating. We celebrate our SCORE volunteers all year long. Every single SCORE mentor is a volunteer! More than 10,000 volunteers with 300 SCORE chapters across the United States work one-on-one with local and aspiring business owners either in-person, through email or via video chat. In fiscal year 2016, SCORE volunteers donated 2.17 million hours to mentoring clients, planning and teaching workshops, and running...
Business Entrepreneurs Networking
Business Entrepreneurs Networking was wonderful and inspiring. During the events , we have special guests covering a special topic. Our speaker for the night was Mariana Cortez, who showed people how they can impact a business deal or a personal relationship with the message "behind" their words. She discussed 10 communication tools that will work for your business and personal conversations so you get results and "miracles". Body language, tone of voice, confidence and attitude are all important components in successful communication. In every meeting, there are new entrepreneurs who come to network with other business owners. Some may have similar backgrounds and interest, while others may not. Everyone has different...
A Few Favorite Things Inspired This Couple’s Encore Business
Gidgette Moshier was looking for a new project as she neared the end of her teaching career. She and her husband, Ken, both had a business background; Gidgette’s parents had owned two businesses, and the couple started an auto-repair shop in Phoenix they later handed down to their son. The couple decided to draw on their love for traveling and tea, as well as their small business backgrounds, to open the English Garden Tea Room. “After investigating all that went into it, we decided that we would have to expand our concept in order to be a viable business,” Gidgette remembers. “That’s where SCORE came in.” New industry?...
5 Interesting Ways to Make Your Real Estate Website Stand Out
Our digital world requires every real estate professional to not just have a website, but a great website that stands out from the millions of other realtors and personal sellers that you’re competing against. Even for realtors who only work within a small region, a high-quality website is the best way to stand out. However, this isn’t just about looks—keeping your website current and writing detailed listings descriptions, for example, are also important, ensuring that potential clients can access all the important information. Those refusing to acknowledge the industry-wide shift to digital risk getting left behind, and you don’t want to be one of those people. Here are...
How to Boost Your Sales With Social Video
Online video is becoming increasingly influential on customers’ purchasing behavior. In particular, social video—video that’s shared on social media—is growing in popularity and power. Consider these stats from a survey reported by MediaPost: 46 percent of social video viewers have bought something after watching a branded video on social media, while one-third have considered doing so. After watching a social video, respondents say they “like” it 47 percent of the time, share it 37 percent of the time, and click through to get more details about the business 33 percent of the time. 67 percent of respondents watch more video on social networks than they did...
Your Business Deserves Spring Cleaning, Too
When spring blooms outside, you might think of cleaning your home or preparing your garden beds. But what about your small business? Doesn’t it deserve a thorough spring cleaning, too? You or your staff may follow a checklist to keep your business looking great day in and day out. But just like your home deserves a deep cleaning after a long winter, so does your business! Look at your business with fresh eyes this spring, and get to work tidying up one or more of the following: 1. Old documents Why are you holding on to so much old paper? In this digital age, it’s much easier to keep business...
Business Entrepreneurs Networking
Business Entrepreneurs Networking Event was a full house. In every meeting, there are new entrepreneurs who come to network with other business owners. During our events , we have a special guest covering a special topic. Our speaker for the night was Mark McComb, who talked about how to Invest in your future. He is the owner of Structure Solutions which help clients achieve their goals and create profitability by aligning technology, processes and resources. During our events, we offer a prize to one lucky entrepreneur. The prize of the event was for a one day of office use at Office In America Co. facility. If you would like to know more about...
How to Scale a Business
So you’ve made the decision to grow your business – congratulations! Now get ready for the next challenge: how to scale your business for growth. Even if you manage to sell like crazy, you’ll soon have another problem: you have to be able to deliver to all those new customers. Scalability is about capacity and capability. Does your business have the capacity to grow? Will your business systems, infrastructure and team be able to accommodate growth? If growth causes your company to stumble because of confusion, orders falling through the cracks, insufficient staff, miscommunication, not enough manufacturing or delivery capacity –you’re going to have unhappy customers. The...
Getting the Best Results from Email Marketing
What best practices should small business owners follow when it comes to email marketing? SendGrid’s second annual Global Email Benchmark Report offers some insights. The report analyzed data from nearly 50 billion emails from over 100,000 different senders in 25 industries to help companies assess the effectiveness of their email marketing strategies. Here’s what they found: Send rates are down. The average email send rate declined from 9.8 sends per month last year to 8.1. Open rates are up. During the same time period, open rates increased from 27.3 percent to 30.6 percent. Click rates are essentially the same. Click rates dropped slightly, from 2.8 percent to 2.5...
Is Your Business Ready to Go International?
Is Your Business Ready to Go International? Think big corporations lead the way in exporting products around the world? You might be surprised to learn that 97 percent of US exporters are small businesses, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Our new infographic, Small Business, Big Trade, highlights the importance of exporting for the success of many small companies. Although fewer than one percent of America’s 30 million companies export, small businesses are gaining revenue share among them. In 2002, only 27 percent of revenue from US exports went to small businesses. Just 12 years later, that rate had risen to 33 percent in 2014, the Census Bureau...