Julie Knudson

The days of organizing your small business with a big desk calendar are fading away. From event scheduling to automated reminders and notifications, online scheduling software helps small business owners accomplish more by letting them focus on their core business. We look at what you need to know to find the best online scheduling software […]

As a small business owner, are you still fumbling with social media, trying to figure out how to use it to its fullest potential? You aren’t the only one—developing a mastery over social media has flummoxed many a small business owner. In his new book, Social Media Promotion for Small Business and Entrepreneurs, Bobby Owsinski, […]

Leaked passwords, hacked websites, and stolen data. It seems there’s no end to cyber dangers today. And, while you may not want to believe it, small businesses make especially tempting targets. Fortunately, you can access protection strategies that aren’t just for big companies anymore. Endpoint security solutions let small and midsize operators protect themselves without […]

We’re living in the information age, but sometimes small businesses find it difficult to store all their information in a way that’s easy to find when they need it. Fortunately, that’s the exact conundrum today’s intranet solutions aim to fix. What is an Intranet? A good intranet acts as a hub for a business, giving […]

The Internet is full of content—blogs, tweets, videos—some useful, others not so much. As small business owners work to make their mark online, they come face-to-face with the need to create content that engages customers and boosts revenue. In his new book, The Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing for Small Businesses, author Matt Mansfield, president […]

Digital gift cards are quickly gaining ground as consumers discover they’re an easy alternative to traditional plastic cards. Where conventional gift cards have limited flexibility and distribution potential, the digital variety can be offered in many denominations, delivered directly through social networks, and paid for by one person or several people (handy for group gifting). […]

It’s nearly impossible to run a small business today without participating in social media, even if it’s with great reluctance. However, the push to have a presence on every social media network drives some small business owners to spread themselves too thin. “The two biggest social media challenges I hear from small businesses are finding […]

Today’s small businesses increasingly need the kind of computer network power historically reserved for their much larger brethren. But SMBs don’t always have network administrators and help desk experts on staff—the kind of people that run all that complex technology. That’s where Cisco’s new 10 Gigabit Managed Switch, part of the company’s Small Business Series, […]

For small and midsized businesses, knowing where your money comes from is only half the battle. It’s also crucial to know that you’re spending money in the places most likely to produce a good return on your investment. And that’s especially true when it comes to your small business marketing dollars. In talking with small […]

The business world has passionately embraced mobile devices to the point where laptops and smartphones have become our main business communication tools. And so it should come as no surprise that, as society becomes increasingly mobile, and as video conferencing also becomes more ubiquitous, we expect even more from our mobile devices. If you’re interested […]

A smartphone may be small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but the effect it’s having on ecommerce is anything but tiny. Just in sheer volume, mobile devices—and the consumers who use them—are fundamentally changing how businesses approach shopping. “For a lot of companies, mobile traffic is starting to take the lion’s […]

It’s become something of an accepted mantra, this idea that everything “social” has a soft (or nonexistent) return on investment (ROI). But in his book, Kick Ass Social Commerce for E-preneurs: It’s Not About Likes—It’s About Sales, John Lawson, CEO of Atlanta-based ColderICE Media dispels that notion and instead replaces it with the hard truth. […]