The one thing that every Smart Hustler knows is that learning is the key to growing a business. Our Smart Business articles are designed to provide the best information in every aspect of business – marketing, finance, social media and more.

Four Ways To Ensure Social and Search Changes Never Affect Your Content Marketing.

Today I got my copy of Gary Vaynerchuk's latest book "Crushing It". It reminded me of the desperate journey of so many to "be like Gary" or some other digital celebrity. Sure Gary, Seth Godin and other digital celebrities have zillions of followers, deservedly. They've been hard at work providing great content, amazing value,...

Making Sales From Twitter: Social Selling

Are you using Twitter to generate leads for your business? Many business owners and marketers overlook the power of Twitter as a social selling platform. By leveraging the internal search engine and other third-party tools, you can double or triple the number of high-quality, targeted leads you get. As with most things, you need to start...

mother ship marketing

How Small Businesses Can Better Compete with Big Businesses

As 2018 gets underway, retailers across the country have one thing on their mind: sales. Small business optimism has been on an upward swing with the majority of small business owners citing increased sales and improved business conditions throughout 2017, according to the latest Capital One Small Business Growth Index. And with 60 percent...

Wicked Good Cupcakes Steady Is Their Key To Success

Scaling a business isn’t easy. But the founders of Wicked Good Cupcakes were able to do it fairly successfully, thanks to a little help from Shark Tank and some good old fashioned business savvy. Founders Tracey Noonan and Dani Vilagie recently spoke with Small Business Trends as part of our exclusive Smart Hustle Report. During the conversation,...

Selling Automotive Parts on eBay Is a Global Business

Turning a local business into a global business doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds. Ecommerce platforms like eBay have actually made that transition fairly seamless for entrepreneurs like Nicolaus Wolfrum. Wolfrum runs an eBay store for his dad’s business, Jim’s Automotive Machine Shop in Greeley, Colorado. At first, Wolfrum simply worked at the shop during breaks...

The Importance of Selling to Your Existing Customers – Interview with Salesforce Exec

Once your business makes a sale, your job is far from over. If you want to establish long-term success, you have to continue selling to those customers over and over again. Small Business Trends spoke with Jamie Domenici, global Vice President of Customer Adoption and marketing for Salesforce at the recent Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. Part of...

3 Digital Marketing Tools to Personalize Your Customer Engagement

Experienced marketers know that customer engagement is crucial to achieving marketing success. In fact, in a recent marketing survey, 58% of marketers said that increasing customer engagement was their number one goal. However, the problem is that 44% of those same marketers also described increasing customer engagement as their number one challenge. So, what can you do...

Customer experience

How To Know Your Value in ALL Situations

In my 7 years as a Marketing Consultant, I have observed that there is a distinct difference between Price and Value!   Price is how much something cost. Value, on the other hand, can be objective and subjective depending on the individual or circumstance, like the adjectives Good and Great! Let me explain. Value sometimes...

How to be Successful with the Retail Landscape Shifts: Advice from Robert D'Loren

How to be Successful with the Retail Landscape Shifts: Advice from Robert D’Loren

Even if you’re not familiar with the name Bob D'Loren, you likely are familiar with the companies his brand management and media company Xcel Brands represents. Isaac Mizrahi, Halston, Judith Ripka… these are major brands with major clout in the retail space. So, what’s D’Loren’s secret? How has he helped these popular players in the...

How to Use the 80/20 Rule to Boost Sales in Your Small Business

Share More and More. The Best Way for Content Marketing Success.

In today’s hyper-connected, technological world, having a social media presence is pretty much a must for small businesses. In fact, a recent survey found that 76 percent of small companies use social media…and since you’re reading this article, chances are that you are one of them! But while you’re creating your business Facebook page, setting...