Business podcasts offer busy entrepreneurs an easy, time-friendly way to expand their business knowledge. We look at four of our favorite business podcasts.
Look online and you’ll find tons of articles extolling the number and variety of business books that every small business entrepreneur MUST READ. But seriously, how easy is it to carve out time from building your business to read? Don’t worry: business podcasts to the rescue!
Business podcasts offer an easier way to dive into the pressing entrepreneurial issues you face every day. Business resources may abound in other formats, but the podcast revolution offers busy entrepreneurs specific advantages. If you spend a lot of time commuting, for example, then podcasts are a no brainer. They fill car time in a way that visual content can’t.
Simply download the latest episode of your favorite business podcast to your mobile device or audio player and listen as the experts dissect the topics that matter most to you. Plus, after a full day of staring at laptop and tablet screens, it’s nice to take give your eyes a break. Fire up a podcast and let your ears do the work for a while.
You can choose from literally dozens of business podcasts, but here we list four of our favorites—each one focused on small business issues and opportunities.
SCORE is a nonprofit organization that connects entrepreneurs with experienced business people from a variety of industries. The mentors working in the SCORE network offer advice and assistance to small business owners through numerous venues. You can even plug your zip code into the SCORE website to find experts and events near you.
The ongoing SCORE Small Business Success podcast series features the organization’s many mentors weighing in on a range of topics. The SCORE podcast has featured experts covering financial tips and strategies, worker turnover, employee wellness, document management, and analyzing website performance. The site adds new episodes regularly, and the easy to navigate archive gives business owners access to a treasure trove of useful information.
You can access the Small Business Success podcasts through either iTunes or SoundCloud. Want a written version of what you hear? No problem; SCORE provides transcripts for many of the episodes, which you can download directly from the SCORE website.
Dave Kirby, a successful and experienced businessman in his own right, now helps other entrepreneurs navigate the ins and outs of running a business. His 1 Simple Thing website features all types of content targeted at setting small business owners on the path to success.
In addition to Kirby’s blog and resource pages, he also offers an engaging podcast series, which currently stands at 512 episodes (all available in the archives). Some of the episodes focus on technology, such as making the most of Gmail extensions or streamlining your digital life. Other episodes examine ways to overcome the operational challenges that can get in the way of progress: time management, setting up efficient workspaces, and building good business relationships, just to name a few.
You can subscribe to Kirby’s 1 Simple Thing podcasts through either iTunes or Stitcher.
Jim Blasingame, a columnist and author as well as the founder and president of the Small Business Network, Inc., gives entrepreneurs all sorts of helpful resources on his Small Business Advocate website. Business owners looking for timely information can also turn to the
Small Business Advocate radio show.
Blasingame chats with business experts—referred to as his Brain Trust—about a huge range of challenges faced by small business owners and operators. Topics include strategies for gaining market share, online marketing tips, and ways to tackle many of the common human resource management challenges that business owners grapple with every day. Some of the podcasts also address hot technology issues such as cybersecurity and the Internet of Things.
And there’s no lack of content; the show’s deep archive goes back to 2001. You can play or download these podcasts directly from the Small Business Advocate’s website, or you can subscribe to them through iTunes.
Known for its broad educational content focused on all things marketing, the team at MarketingProfs offers small business owners actionable information on boosting marketing efforts, insight into best practices and tips, the latest in thought leadership, and connections to training opportunities. It’s also a resource for conferences, webinars, and other events aimed at people who want a better understanding of marketing.
With the knowledge of the MarketingProfs team behind it, the Marketing Smarts Podcast gives entrepreneurs access to a wide variety of experts speaking about the subjects they know best. Topics run the gamut, from the secrets of launching and running a successful blog and how visual images can help build your brand, to backend issues, such as how to gather and analyze marketing data to improve results.
Subscribe to the Marketing Smarts Podcast through either iTunes or RSS.
Julie Knudson is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in technology magazines including BizTech, Processor, and For The Record. She has covered technology issues for publications in other industries, from food service to insurance, and she also writes a recurring column in Integrated Systems Contractor magazine.
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