Archive for May, 2010

What Is Internet Marketing?

The process of Internet Marketing revolves around marketing and promoting products and ideas over the internet. Internet Marketing Services are diverted towards helping the concerned product gain visibility and prominence over the web and are meant to enhance its equity. The services get deployed over various forums on the internet and are delegated towards attracting customers and manipulating the perspectives of search engines. Internet marketing services are basically a consortium of various online marketing maneuvers that are played over the web and applied to a website so that it goes beyond all boundaries and is able to make a very strong impact on search engines. This consortium has to be handled very intricately and all the various features involved in it get positioned quite strategically.

The first tool that is used in Internet Marketing Services is Pay Per Click, better known as PPC. PPC is basically paid advertising where the keywords get positioned in the form of a hyperlink and is done very excitingly so that when the user types in those keywords in the search engine, he is led directly to the ad and can click the ad and visit it. The ad is also known as Sponsored Link and appears next to natural results.

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Top 10 Reasons to Use Social Media for Business

Research published by analyst firm Access Markets International Partners shows that almost 70 percent of small and medium businesses actively use social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to promote their companies. But simply posting what your CEO had for lunch isn’t going to do much to help move your business forward. Smart companies are tactically using social media tools to increase their exposure to potential customers.
We’ve compiled ten of the most compelling reasons that you should consider using social media tools to promote your business.
1- Brand Recognition: Using social media allows your company to reach the highest number of potential customers possible. Getting your name out there is incredibly important – studies have suggested that customers need to hear a company’s name at least seven times before they will gain the trust and respect needed to become a customer.
2- Brand Monitoring: Having a social media presence allows you to better understand what current and potential customers are saying about your product or services. Through active social media monitoring, you have the opportunity to address negative comments and correct false or inaccurate information about your brand.
3- Be Forward-Thinking: Your target audience is becoming savvier when it comes to the using social media sites in their daily lives.

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FREE Small Business Resource Fair!

JAXSMALLBIZHELP.ORG

Come talk one-on-one to over 20 small business resource partners who can help you start or grow your small business!

Thursday, June 3, 2010
10:30 am to 1:30 pm
Beaver Street Enterprise Center
1225 W. Beaver St.
Jacksonville, FL

Just Show Up!

JAXSMALLBIZHELP.ORG represents government and non-profit organizations that assist small businesses with the resources they need to succeed. Our mission is to bring partners together to share information, to exchange ideas regarding small business issues and needs, to coordinate assistance activities, and to advocate on behalf of their small business members/clients.

Looking for financing for your business?

The Small Business Resource Network (SBRN) Presents: Bagels & Bankers

June 3, 2010
8:30 am to 10:30 am
Beaver Street Enterprise Center
1225 W. Beaver St.
$10 per person – includes bagels!

Looking for financing for your business? Need a loan? Ever wonder how SBA loan programs can help your business? Want to know more about the financing options in the stimulus package? Do you know what a factor is?

Learn all this and more at this event through networking with lenders and hearing a panel of experts in lending. Topics of discussion include: Alternative Financing, SBA loan programs, Traditional banking in a tough economy, and more.

For more information or to register: http://www.sbdc.unf.edu/ under “Special Events” or call 904.620.2476.

Florida Oil Spill:SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program Activated

SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program Activated


In response to the Deepwater BP Oil Spill, the SBA has authorized the activation of the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) program for the counties included in the attached SBA Press Release. The SBA is setting up an office in Pensacola at the SBDC at UWF Center located at 401 E Chase St, Ste 100 beginning on Tuesday, May 18. One of the Mobile Assistance Centers (MACs) will also be on site and could be deployed elsewhere if the need arises. The other MAC will continue with its previously scheduled events in Ocala, Indian River and Orlando over the next few weeks, but may be pulled if the situation calls for it. Paymon Shokoohi will be in contact with the FSBDCN Business Response & Recovery Team (BRRT), as there may be a need for additional CBAs to respond.

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Marketing Mistakes And How To Fix Them

If you’re like many business owners, you’re either doing the wrong marketing activities well, or doing the right marketing activities wrong. Now, how could that ever happen? It’s quite simple really, let me explain:

Firstly, in my business experience, I’ve noticed that most entrepreneurs and business owners have one thing in common. They spend most of their time working “in” their business, and very little time working “on” it. That is, they spend too much of their precious time performing operational tasks and far too little (if any) time planning how they want their business to perform.

As a result, they cannot see the forest for the trees. They just keep on doing what may have worked well once. Quite often, because they deal with so many day-to-day hassles, they just keep doing what does not create another hassle. They rarely stop to question whether what they’re doing its working well now, let alone whether they could do any better.

Secondly, the brutal reality is that most business owners have never had any marketing training!!

If you want to do your marketing “right”, you have to start with a plan. That way you’ll avoid the 1st mistake – no marketing plan.

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Starting a nonprofit?


The Small Business Development Center will offer a workshop by Kevin Monahan titled “Starting A Successful Nonprofit” from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, May 21, in the University Center.


The process of transforming your idea into an operating organization can be complicated. This workshop will provide the information you need to start a nonprofit organization in Northeast Florida, including the pros and cons of starting a nonprofit organization and available opportunities. The cost is $50 per person. For more information contact Marice Hague at mailto:[email protected] or ext. 2476, or visit the SBDC Web site at http://www.sbdc.unf.edu.

Target Marketing: What It Is About

Your target market comprise of people who are actually interested in your product or service. These are the people who have expressed interested in what you are offering in your marketing collaterals such as your poster printing, brochures or catalogs. The challenge now when marketing your business is in finding these people who would want what you are selling and would definitely buy what you are offering in your print posters for example.

Therefore, having the correct target marketing strategy will help you save a lot with your time, effort and resources. With the right target marketing, you will be able to hit more, and with repetition.

Here are ways you can refine your target marketing.

Provide your market with a different and unique product from the ones already out there.

What items are commonly found in households? After checking your own stack in your home, take a closer look and see what factors made you pick a particular brand. Is it the packaging? Is it the price? What makes your choose one toothpaste from another? Why do you go for one cola brand? What is it about these brands that made you choose them over the others?

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SBDC program a national success

We are proud to report that new research shows the Small Business Development Center/SBDC program generates more revenue — as a result of economic growth — than it costs the government to fund the program. SBDC clients generated $2.72 in federal tax revenues for every $1 the federal government spent. SBDC clients also started 12,000 new businesses, created 58,000 new jobs, and obtained $3 billion in financing

The 1000 nationwide centers provided free or affordable business consulting and training to one million small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in 2008. Source: SBDC Update, April 2010, www.asbdc-us.org

Administaff survey: small business confidence returns

More than 39 percent of small business owners expect an economic turnaround in 2010, while 44 percent think a rebound will occur in 2011 and 17 percent are unsure, according to the most recent Business Confidence Survey released today by Administaff, a leading provider of human resources services for small and medium-sized businesses.

In addition, 72 percent of owners and managers of small and medium-sized businesses said that they are either meeting or exceeding their 2010 performance plans compared to 58 percent in the last survey, while the remaining 28 percent reported that they are doing worse than expected.

-71% of small business owners see the economy as the most important issue going forward.

Michigan credit unions and SBDC partner to help small business.

In cooperation with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Centers (MI-SBTDC), more than 30 Michigan credit unions have committed an initial $43 million for small business loans that will benefit more than 2,000 new businesses – and more are expected to join throughout the year.

The program will help train entrepreneurs and small business owners while connecting them with local credit unions to apply for the necessary capital to start or grow their business according to an article published by Freepress.com.

What a great idea. We certainly should be looking at replicating this model in Florida. The Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Centers (MI-SBTDC) are part of the same national SBDC network as ourselves.

Michigan certainly has had a credit crunch and according to the programs website, loans will be made in the $10,000 to $25,000 range. That may not sound like much to some people but to many of our clients, it would mean keeping their doors open or buying new inventory or even hiring a part time employee.

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Warren Brown from CakeLove and food network’s Sugar Rush coming to UNF!






















May 13, 2010
UNF University Center
Jacksonville, FL

This annual luncheon event includes the presentation of the prestigious U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Week and Top Lender awards. The luncheon will be topped off with the amazing story of keynote speaker Warren Brown.

Warren Brown is the owner of the Washington, DC-based CakeLove and the host of the Food Network’s Sugar Rush. Taking an unconventional career path, Warren Brown left his job as an attorney for the federal government to pursue his dream and began CakeLove. By 2006, he was named the Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration, and Washington Post readers have twice selected CakeLove as the DC area’s best bakery. He is the author of the cookbook, CakeLove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch.

Tables of 8 or individual seating are available. For more information call 904.620.2428. $35

Questions? Call 904.620.2476 or [email protected]