Small business voters care less about taxes than jobs

George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management says its latest survey of small business owners, conducted with Thumbtack.com, was designed to provide the media, policymakers, and the public at large with a better understanding of what small businesses value in the 2012 Presidential election. In addition to the stunning revelation that more small business owners would reelect President Obama than would vote for Governor Romney, here are some other stats from their recent Small Business Political Sentiment Survey of more than 6,000 small business owners.

The economy/jobs was far and away the top election priority cited by respondents who identified themselves as Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. From a list of 12 polling-booth priorities including "Beating Obama" and "Beating Romney," far more respondents (40 percent) chose "economy/jobs" than any other issue. A distant second concern was "ethics/honesty/corruption in government," the top priority of 13

Surprising small biz election survey results!

Believe it or not, more small business owners say President Obama is a better supporter of small business than Governor Romney, according to results of a Small Business Political Sentiment Survey being widely reported this week.

The survey contradicts the findings of a Yahoo! Small Business Advisor survey, as well as another recent poll of small business owners.

Yahoo's survey, conducted in June and July, asked 250 respondents which candidate would be best for supporting small business issues. Responses mirrored the survey's election forecast: 47 percent said Romney's positions are best for small business, 36 percent preferred Obama's.

And a Manta poll of more than 1,900 small business owners in August revealed that a significant majority—61 percent—said they plan to vote for Governor Romney on November 6.

George Washington University reports, however, that based on its July-August online survey of 6,164 small business users of Thumbtack.com, 47 percent of small business owners will

holidaysalesYes, it is only September, but to be honest this article is already running late. If you sell anything online and especially if you run an online store then you should already be thinking about the Holiday season — gift sales gear up from November 1^st onward. To be really successful you have to be ready to support those sales with changes to your website, to your email marketing, to your social media, and most importantly with your staffing, shipping, fulfillment, and support services. And that does mean starting NOW.

Holiday Dates to Know

The top online shopping days throughout the holiday season are as follows:

1. Thanksgiving Day itself (Nov 22^nd this year)
2. Black Friday (Nov. 23^rd this year. Not as big for online as for offline retail)
3. Cyber Monday (Nov. 26^th this year)
4. Green Monday (apparently eBay's peak shopping day and thus assumed to be a retail peak for everyone — bit of a moving target this but I'd plump for Dec. 10^th)
5. Free Shipping Day (no — I didn't know this was a big one

businessreadingSummer is over and we are back to business full time. Nobody taking holiday breaks. No excuses. It's time to generate some more business. And it's also time to turn to the forthcoming election and what it may have in store for small business. The current economic uncertainty isn't helping. But the SBA is looking for input from entrepreneurs on innovation so maybe that will help. We've also got some advice about building a personal brand, spotting a lie when dealing with someone and some tips for managing employees using mobile devices.

If you haven't taken the plunge yet, hopefully some of these articles give you the impetus to start your own business — and if you do, we have tools to help. Besides our domain name, web hosting and ecommerce products, we also have just added an innovative marketing dashboard that you can try for free even if you don't use our other products.

Here are some of the other good small business articles we have been reading this week.

88 Free small business

SBA symposium will ask, What drives innovation?

Ever wish you could tell U.S. Small Business Administration officials directly how they could support innovation? Here's your chance.

SBA's Office of Advocacy is seeking input from small business owners and entrepreneurs in advance of a symposium it will present in Seattle next week. The event, Small Business and Government: Maximizing Entrepreneurship, Driving Innovation, hosted in partnership with the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, the Seattle Center Foundation, GeekWire.com, and K&L Gates, will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 19, from 8:30 am — 5:00 pm PST.

SBA is asking entrepreneurs to join an online chat to propose questions and ideas about how best to drive innovation that will help direct conversations that will take place among SBA officials, leading entrepreneurs and innovators, and investors during the event. The public is also invited to participate in the live-streamed symposium via tweet, chat, or with comments and questions directed to the panelists and speakers.

The

source: NSBA 2012 Midyear Economic Report

"The constant barrage of negative campaigning and near-complete failure of Washington to govern is having a broad, negative effect on America's small businesses," according to National Small Business Association President and CEO Todd McCracken. NSBA today released its mid-year economic report, which reveals that, since the organization's December 2011 year-end report, the number of small-business owners who anticipate a recessionary economy has jumped from 14 percent to 34 percent and the number who anticipate economic expansion in the coming 12 months has dropped from 20 percent to 11 percent.

Still, more than half of respondents (55 percent) expect a flat economy in the coming year and the same ratio says their businesses are already growing or will see growth opportunities in the coming year.

Economic uncertainty was cited by 68 percent of small business owners surveyed as the most significant challenge to the future growth and survival of their business. Other significant

Aren't we all tired of the same old career advice?

I'm talking about advice written by people who haven't gotten a job in 30 years. If they haven't interviewed in this job market, how can they help you find a job you love?

You can spot these so-called "experts' because they slap on phrases like "social media" onto the same old tips that have been passed around for 50 years.

It's even worse for women, where career advice is almost unreadable. With phrases like "You go, girl" and thousands of references to shoes and "climbing the ladder," I found myself wondering: Are women really this dumb? The answer is no. But the advice is.

Don't believe me? Check out these 5 winners of the "Worst Career Advice Ever" award:

1. The #1 thing you need for a job search is…

Yes! If you've been looking for your Dream Job, the first thing you need is NOT a strong network, or a process to identify your targets, or a way to narrow down the infinite universe of job options available to you. No, you don't

Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding

Whether you're a lawyer, a landscaper, or a lactation consultant, if you're in business for yourself Dan Schawbel says you should be using personal branding to attract business opportunities.

Schawbel is the 28-year-old managing partner of Millennial Branding who has, by practicing his own advice, become a bestselling author, syndicated columnist, and nationally sought-after speaker on digital marketing. His target audience is his own Generation Y peers, but his followers, including 127,000 on Twitter, transcend generations. His hero and inspiration is Tom Peters, whose management book In Search of Excellence was published before Schawbel was born.

Peters himself has said that Schawbel "has taken personal branding to a dimension a million miles beyond where I was." Schawbel credits the technologies that have become available since Peters' heyday. Social networking platforms make it affordable for individuals to leverage the same strategies marketers have used for decades to build