Blog Posts by Owen Linderholm

October is National Women's Small Business Month. Plus five other small business reads for October 1st, 2012.

• Four tips to get local TV coverage for your small business.
• Small business retirement plan resources from the IRS.
• What business expenses can you claim for your small business?
• Is your small business in a cash crunch?
• 20 entrepreneurs share tips on increasing sales

October's here - Fall is supposed to be starting but in many places, Summer is still hanging on strongly. However, that doesn't mean small business owners can afford to act like we are still in the Summer doldrums. Without further ado: Five small business reads for October 1st, 2012.

• 100 Small business founders honored at the White House for their entrepreneurial success.
• Seven credit card blunders that could hurt any small business.
• How to apply to be in Entrepreneur's Independent Merchant Gift Guide.
• The best business success factor is value.
• Ten documentaries for entrepreneurs.

Bayeux Tapestry Detail

Nine hundred and forty seven years ago - almost a full thousand years - William the Conqueror became the last person to successfully invade England. That take no prisoners attitude is reflected in one of our stories this week - 'when to get all bossy pants.' And speaking of conquering, we also looked at holiday shopping trends - which look to be up overall and up even more online and by mobile. Time to go out and conquer the fourth quarter! We also covered what the 18 small business tax cuts being discussed in this election really mean as well as the SBA's new, more relaxed, definitions of small business in various industries.

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

turnovernewleafFor the typical retail small business there is only one thing to think about at this time of year - preparing for the holiday season. But for everyone else there is still the election at the back of everyone's mind. And then there are the usual management concerns, managing your website if you are an online business and for the entrepreneur, the usual startup concerns. The issues are serious for all small businesses - even for celebrities. All of these topics were covered in Yahoo! Small Business Advisor this week. You really should be reading it regularly. If you'd like to see our blog articles regularly, subscribe to our blog rss feed here: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/adisor/rss. You can also follow us on twitter and facebook to get regular updates about good articles.

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

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

In the past year there has been a boom in celebrity Moms bringing something else into the world other than their children – new businesses. Maybe there’s a catching entrepreneurial bug in Hollywood. Whatever reason, a host of celebrity Moms have indeed started their own businesses. Here are some of the leading ladies in the Mom business startup category.

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba would probably be the favorite if there were to be an award winner in this category. The Honest Company sells eco-friendly products of all kinds, but the star product is eco-friendly diapers. You can also get beauty, cleaning and bath and body products from them. Alba is said to have been pushed to start the company by finding her daughter in her crib with beads from her diaper all over her face. Alba partnered with Christopher Gavigan in order to “help moms and to give all children a better, safer start.” The Honest Company raised $27 million in venture capital in March 2012 from General Catalyst, Institutional