In-person interaction is most effective marketing method, survey says

Despite the plethora of digital marketing methods available—from email, to websites, to online advertising, to social media—the old-fashioned in-person interaction is still the marketing approach that most businesses consider to be the most effective.

The small business marketing and social media company Constant Contact polled more than 1,000 members of its Small Biz Council. Its findings, published yesterday, reflect the responses of 728 business owners—280 B2B (business-to-business) operations, and 448 B2C (business-to-consumer) companies.

From a list of nine marketing-communications-related small business worries, including securing funding, 70 percent of respondents named "how to attract new customers" as their top priority. Cash was their second greatest concern—45 percent of respondents admit to losing sleep to thinking about how to get more of it. (More than half of all respondents, however, said cash flow is no problem right now, and 63 percent of B2B companies are in that

Business results

We've slipped into August and are in the middle of the Olympics with the Election to come later in the year with everything that entails. Here at Yahoo! Small Business we are keeping a close eye on the candidates and what they say about small business, mostly at our election specific blog, SmallBiz Vote. We've got a post there this week about how bad this summer has been for job growth in the small business sector. We've also been covering achieving greatness, posted a roundup of election-related news, added a new occasional columnist who takes a fresh look at starting a business (no business cards!) and looked at tasks you can (and should) eliminate from your workday.

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

No Business Card

Wasting time is a disaster in business and business cards are an example of the distractions that keep you from success.

By Ramit Sethi.

I was working with a young woman, "Nicole," to help her grow her business. Even though she was working 10+ hours every day, she wasn't seeing the results in her bank account. "I'm doing all this work," Nicole told me, "and it just feels like I'm spinning my wheels. I just don't know if any of it is actually working."

The blunt truth: Many business people are wasting their time doing things they think they "should" do, which will never result in real results.

Today's message: Stop playing at business. Eliminate time-wasters. Focus on what drives real results.

Time-Waster #1: Social media

"Get on social media!"

"That's where the conversation is!"

This is the advice you hear from expert after expert.

Ironically, these experts recommend social media without ever explaining how it will lead to a business solution. "Get people to 'Like' your Facebook

NFIB Job Creation Plans ChartNews headlines are trumpeting the Labor Department's report this morning of a better-than-expected increase in hiring nationally in July, but the National Federation of Independent Business has issued a grim report on small employers and job growth based on its latest monthly random survey of 1,803 NFIB members.

U.S. employers overall added 163,000 jobs in July—the biggest monthly uptick in five months. But small businesses eliminated jobs for a second month in a row "at a time when growth is needed," NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg reported in a statement. The NFIB survey results indicated a net job loss per small firm over the past few months (seasonally adjusted) of .04. "Readings had been on the rise; from December to May they were zero or positive, suggesting that employment might be turning around. But June, and now July, have ended that possibility," Dunkelberg stated.

To be sure, nearly 80 percent of small business owners surveyed made no net change to employment in

Mitch Goldstone, CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com, won a $7.25 billion settlement against credit card companies in favor of merchants.

While politicians have been arguing over who's doing more for small business, one independent businessman with no campaign agenda has dedicated the last seven years of his life to pursuing a lawsuit advocating for merchants like himself. Mitch Goldstone, the CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com, became a small business hero last week when he won a $7.25 billion settlement—the largest private antitrust settlement in U.S. history—that promises to put large sums of money back into the pockets of millions of businesses that accept credit cards.

Goldstone, of Irvine, Calif., was the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit filed in 2005 that alleged that Visa and MasterCard illegally fixed interchange fees—the so-called swipe fees that U.S. merchants pay the card companies for the privilege of accepting consumers' credit payments.

Yahoo! Small Business Advisor spoke with Goldstone as he celebrated his legal victory last week.

Yahoo! SBA: This is a real David vs. Goliath story. How did it start?

More business owners are getting credit with personal cards

Small business issues continue to hold center stage in election season. Here's a roundup of current events and reports from around the web this week related to small business and politics, including new legislation that would support immigrant entrepreneurs, various explorations of the access-to-credit crisis, and a discussion of tax cuts and small business.

Supporting immigrant entrepreneurs

A Democrat and a Republican in the House have teamed up to introduce a bill that would offer green cards to foreign entrepreneurs who live in the U.S. and establish and invest a minimum of $125,000 in a business here that creates and sustains full-time employment for at least three U.S. workers over two years. The National Small Business Association blogged its support for the legislation, which it says would also modify the EB-5 visa program to attract additional foreign investment.

Fewer debt delinquencies

Small business lending in June hit its lowest point since October, but was up two percent

The Olympics officially start today - in fact they have already started. So it isn't surprising that even the business news is dominated by sports or that other issues are getting pushed to the back pages. But the Olympics can also be a big opportunity for small business and we ran a short article with some tips on how a small business can make the most of Olympic fever - and yes, it isn't too late to try some of them out. Take a look at Five tips for Olympics-related sales. Other stories we highlighted on Yahoo! Small Business Advisor included a couple of stories about the recent fuss around daily deals and coupons. We take a look at some of the affected businesses and suggest a list of ten tips for working with daily deals and coupons. Another po

Success

pular article from Yahoo! Small Business Advisor looked at one of the real secrets to success in life.

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,

Holiday Gift Guide[This article was originally published on Meylah]

Imagine if tens of thousands of people could see your products all at once. They can if you're featured in a magazine's holiday gift guide. While getting your products in magazines may seem difficult, I can tell you from first hand experience that it's actually very simple once you know how.

You might think the holidays are far way, but in fact now is the best time to get started. Here are 3 simple tips to get you on the right path!

First, make a list of story ideas. Magazines receive mountains of product pitches every day. Stand out from the crowd by sending a story, rather than a sales sheet. Tell the story of a problem your product solves or an event that involves you. Whatever your story, make sure it's catchy. Journalists and editors are busy people, but if you can hand them a fully formed story, they'll be interested.

Next, make a list of magazines. Make the most of your time by choosing only magazines that are suitable and have