About Market Your Small Business

Market Your Small Business is a website dedicated to providing information and personal insight to help business owners market their businesses in the 21st century.

If you are a small business owner, you may or may not currently have a website. If not, I can help you get started by providing you with relevant information and suggestions based on personal experience and conversations with numerous small business owners about what has and has not worked for them.

As an IT professional for over ten years and a small business owner / web designer for eight years, I have designed many websites, tried numerous services and products and assisted many small business owners in their marketing efforts. I would like to share that knowledge with small business owners or those who may be considering branching out on their own. Historically when the economy is in a downward trend, entrepreneurship goes up. When jobs are lost and financial security is threatened, there is a sense that creating and controlling your own destiny may be the best and sometimes only option.

Although this website is called "Market Your Small Business," there is a definite emphasis on technology to promote your business. If you are not using the Internet to market your venture, you are certainly missing the opportunity for more growth, expanded markets and the use of some really cool technology. Outbound marketing efforts such as direct mail, email blasts and telemarketing are not only more expensive than Internet marketing but there tends to be a much lower return on investment.

The Internet is changing at a phenomenal pace. Ten years ago, no one was talking about Facebook or Twitter and now, that is all that we hear. Not only are individuals using these social networking tools to stay connected, but these tools and many others that I will highlight for you are becoming an integral part of how companies conduct their business. Once you start using one new application, five others spring up! More businesses are using company blogs as a way of engaging their employees and customers. Twitter "tweets" and Facebook updates are being fed into websites. RSS or Really Simple Syndication allows links to new website content to be propagated throughout the Internet in seconds. Email marketing is highly targeted and more sophisticated and adding to the growth of clientele...and the list goes on and on.

This site will also provide information on the tools to help you with your marketing efforts - software, hardware, social media marketing. All play an integral part and work together in creating a successful marketing campaign for your small business.

I will also share information about various types of software that may not be marketing related but could help you in in the overall management of your small business. There are many great productivity tools that can make your life so much easier. As a small business owner, you can be pulled in a million different directions and if there is an application that can relieve some of that burden, that can cause you less stress in the long run.

I have learned a tremendous amount over the last ten years in the information technology industry and I continue that learning process every day. I feel very humbled and grateful to be able to share this information with current and future small business owners. I speak with business owners everyday about their marketing opportunities and issues and try to help them based on my knowledge and experience. And it will be a wonderful experience learning even more from all of you who visit the site.

I welcome your questions, suggestions and insights regarding all issues related to marketing your small business. Please feel free to engage with our blog and forum and subscribe to the newsletter. I hope that this will not be your last visit but that Market Your Small Business will become a reliable and valuable resource that you will return to time and time again for ideas, inspiration, and information that will help you with your small business efforts.

Thank you.