The hottest trends are out for 2013 and they offer important insights into how small business may best tap into consumer behaviors. Four years of a down-turned economy appears to be turning upward, says Business on Main’s Rieva Lesonsky, with the economy beginning to grow, confidence increasing among consumers and small business owners, and solid holiday shopping a sure sign of a surge for start-ups. One major movement is that of “Made in Continue Reading …

The SOBO (State of the Business Owner) report for 2013 has just been released, lending new insight into the general mindset of small and midsized business owners. This report has been commissioned for the second time in two years by EMyth, a 35-year-old business coaching firm, and is aimed specifically at gaining insights into the challenges business owners are facing on a daily basis, and how they are seeking to overcome these issues. Findings Continue Reading …

No one will ever mistake the aged hull of a city on the shores of Lake Erie for the gleam of the new glass and steel buildings that freckle Silicon Valley. But according to John Yang of NBC News, a wave of new start-ups powered by entrepreneurs who have returned to their childhood roots, and some who never left, is providing Detroit a kernel of Silicon Valley's optimistic vision of the possible. Symbolic of the renewed spark of entrepreneurial Continue Reading …

New research from Dell and Intel finds that small business owners are refocusing on growth, after years of struggling to survive the economic collapse.  In a survey of 941 U.S. companies with one to 99 employees, Dell and Intel found that nearly half of small businesses have plans for growth in the near future.  About 38 percent of small businesses are focused on long-term growth. Among the results of the research are a strong indication Continue Reading …

Based on the responses to surveys conducted by the Constant Contact Small Biz Council, better than 95 percent of small business owners said they are using mobile technology and social media outlets for marketing purposes. In contrast, less than twenty percent indicated that they use location-based marketing services and strategies. Mobile marketing is becoming the dominant strategy when it comes to marketing as sixty-six percent of the Continue Reading …

A former regional vice president at UnitedHealth Networks, Jill Foucré, took a cooking class and it changed her life. "I kept thinking about what a happy place it was and how I could have a place like it," Foucré says. A corporate reorganization eliminated her job a few years later. She opted to turn down a new position and walked away with a nice severance package. "That gave me the chance to try my own business," she says. Foucré promised Continue Reading …

A law is currently before Congress called the Marketplace Fairness Act that would effectively establish an Internet sales tax that would require online retailers and small businesses to start collecting sales tax upfront. In addition, these companies would be forced to differentiate between the different tax rates of various states and send those payments to local governments across the country. The law would apply to those online sellers that Continue Reading …

Business can make for strange bedfellows, but a bad economy can also make for familiar partners. And in increasing numbers, familial partners. With younger and older members of the workforce facing unemployment and poor job prospects, more and more parents are teaming up with their children and turning to franchise ownership for income. The New York Times reports that the economic downturn that has hit both young and older segments of the Continue Reading …

Google has recently made significant investments in alternative lending businesses, one with explicit plans to offer small business loans by the end of the year.  On May 2, it was announced that Google was providing the majority of a $125 million investment in peer-to-peer lending website Lending Club.  This announcement came a day after Google Venture (Google's venture capital fund) expressed plans to invest $17 million in alternative lender Continue Reading …

According to the most recent quarterly index report co-sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom, more than eighty percent of entrepreneurs who launched their business within the last year are highly confident in that their enterprise will be successful and profitable. While the survey may have indicated that those responding may have some reservations about the nation’s overall economic health, the rising confidence in their own Continue Reading …