reputation

By Paul M. Rand

Think about the last time you got a new client or customer.

There's an overwhelming likelihood that your new business came from someone recommending you. In fact, 92 percent of all consumers report that a "recommendation from people I know" is the biggest influence on their purchase behavior, according to a recently released study from Nielsen research. This percentage is well ahead of TV ads (47%), newspaper ads (46%) and even radio ads (42%).
While recommendations have always been important, social media has fundamentally shifted the marketing dynamic. Today, consumers can share their positive — and negative -- word of mouth recommendations with hundreds, thousands and even millions of other people.

Overwhelming Choices

Every day, there is a new social media tool, process or platform being announced. And Google, Facebook, Groupon and a host of social media marketing platforms and providers are promising a never-ending stream of new business by marketing through their

By Barry Moltz

For most of the last century, consumers believed what a company said in its advertisements. A business might hire an advertising agency on Madison Avenue (ala "Mad Men") to come up with a slick slogan delivered by a celebrity in order to influence what the customer would buy.

The Internet has allowed society to move from this one way medium to a more conversational one. It is not surprising that 97% of customers review products online before buying. But, what may be a surprise is the exact information they are researching. Consumers are not only looking at the latest features, prices and availability. They want to know what other consumers are saying about the product and the company. Today, these reviews have a higher level of credibility than any company directed advertising and most directly influence what the consumer eventually buys. Ninety-two percent of consumers say they trust "earned media" (word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family) above all

Clean air standards are good for business, survey says

A majority of small business owners in six U.S. states support EPA standards and believe they're conducive to job creation and economic growth. That's according to results of a survey of 600 small business owners in Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia commissioned by the Small Business Majority, an advocacy group focused on policies that create jobs and maximize business opportunities and cost savings for small businesses.

Although more than half of survey respondents said their businesses would be impacted by EPA oversight of greenhouse gas emissions, more than three-quarters agreed that EPA should determine limits on new power plants' emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, and 56 percent support EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, even if it would bring increased utility prices. More than 80 percent surveyed support new EPA requirements to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxics from power plants.

"Across all industries and at

Stacey Shiring, Owner, Creative Invites and EventsIn 2009, less than a year into her first job out of college, Stacey Shiring was laid off. Then her sister, three months pregnant, was downsized out of her job as a designer at the Los Angeles Times. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. Shiring and her sister paired their graphic design skills to start a customized wedding stationery business that they called Bridal Divas Ink.

Since then, Shiring's sister dove full-time into motherhood, and Shiring bought her out of the business. In the second half of 2011 she began making sales—75 bridal customers between July and December, the off-season for weddings.

Today, the company, which makes a name change next week to Creative Invites & Events, has two full-time and two part-time employees, a retail location in Cincinnati's Reading Bridal District, a headquarters office reserved in the Hyde Park neighborhood's American Small Business Center, and a first-of-its-kind interactive stationery design website set to launch in

JOBS Act Makes it OK to Tap Social Networks for Business LoansBecause most reporting on the JOBS Act has focused on how the new law will make it easier for "small" companies to sell equity and go public, truly small businesses might think there's nothing in the legislation for them. Stock and IPOs? Not on the radar of most Main Street businesses.

But a pioneering company called SoMoLend is leveraging an underreported aspect of the JOBS Act to help very small businesses raise money through debt financing. SoMoLend will help entrepreneurs to crowdfund small loans from people they know. Bakeries, bike shops, florists, hardware stores, and lawncare services are the kinds of businesses that stand to benefit.

Many entrepreneurs get their start with cash from friends and family. But until now, Securities and Exchange Commission rules kept them from advertising to solicit investors. The JOBS Act makes it legal to seek loans from, say, 500 of your Facebook friends or Twitter followers, and to pay them back with interest.

Cincinnati-based Candace Klein, a

By Mike Periu

Latinos have a reputation for being socially oriented beings. We like parties, spending time with friends and maintaining tight bonds with our extended families. This offline tradition has found the perfect online home in social media applications and smart mobile devices with Internet access. As a community, Latinos are the undisputed champions of what the industry calls "engagement".  This means that we tend to use heavily the social services and features that inexpensive broadband and powerful mobile devices facilitate to connect with others.

Mike Silagadze sells his technology to college students instead of schoolsMike Silagadze was a graduate student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario when he started a company, Top Hat Monocle, in his living room three years ago. His business idea, based on his experience as an undergraduate in engineering, was to help professors better engage with students by leveraging the technology every one of them brought to class. Silagadze built an application to enable students to ask questions, respond to surveys, take pop quizzes, play with computer simulations, and interact with each other and a teaching assistant using their mobile devices.

His product development completed, Silagadze began selling the Top Hat Monocle service in September 2010. After overcoming some early obstacles, today the company has 24 employees in offices in Toronto and San Francisco. More than 60,000 student customers at 80 universities worldwide pay $20 per semester to subscribe to the service. Top Hat Monocle has generated $1.2 million in revenues during the current schoolyear and is

Are you eligible for the healthcare tax credit?If you're among the small business owners who will be spending your weekend with your tax accountant, there's still time to cash in on a credit you might be eligible for, courtesy of the Affordable Care Act.

According to John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of the Small Business Majority, more than half of small business owners are unaware of a tax credit provided by healthcare reform legislation to small businesses that provide health insurance to employees. Those who are aware of it saved thousands of dollars on their 2010 tax returns, and expect to save as much this year. "Currently, businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees who pay at least 50 percent of total premiums are eligible for a credit of up to 35 percent of their premium contribution," Arensmeyer said, adding that in 2014, the benefit will jump to 50 percent contributions.

Contrary to the argument that healthcare reform is costing small businesses more, Arensmeyer says employers like Nan Warshaw and Ron Nelsen are