Happy Anniversary! National Small Business Week 2013
Happy Golden Anniversary National Small Business Week! 50 years ago President Kennedy signed the first proclamation for Small Business Week and started national recognition of the important role that small business owners play in our country. Workshops, hands-on assistance, matchmaking and mentoring for small business owners will be held by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in cities across the country this week. If you don’t happen to be close to one of the cities, you can always catch the live stream at www.sba.gov/smallbusinessweek.
SBA events will be held:
- June 17 – Seattle, Wa.
- June 18 – Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas
- June 19 – St. Louis, Mo.
- June 20 – Pittsburgh, Pa.
- June 21 – Washington, D.C.
In addition to live events, the SBA will also be hosting Google+ Hangouts on other topics of interest including social media and online reputation management. Check out the details courtesy of Inc. magazine online.
Things are dramatically different today for small businesses than 50 years ago (can you imagine explaining Twitter to Alfred Hitchcock?), and change keeps happening faster. According to a survey from Constant Contact, here is what has changed for business owners in the past 5 years:
Local is important – Consumers are looking for and prefer to supporting businesses in their neighborhood. Being locally owned and operated is the primary reason more than half of survey respondents say customers support their business. That is up from 42 percent just five years ago.
Faster & Cheaper Marketing – 12 percent of small-business owners say that it’s easier to run their business today than five years ago, and of those nearly nine in 10 say it’s because of online marketing tools that offer increased efficiency and lower cost. Nine in 10 small-business owners are using social media marketing today, where only one in 10 was five years ago.
Automatic business-management services – More business owners are using automated services such as digital payroll and inventory services than five years ago.
How are you feeling this week as a small business owner? Optimistic, stressed, blessed? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.
Small-Business Owners: Working Harder, But Optimistic | Entrepreneur Magazine
