If you've nailed the job application and are preparing for the interview, there are some simple steps you can take to maximize your chances of getting the job offer -- and leapfrog over people who have many years more experience than you do.

I learned how interviews worked while I was interviewing for college scholarships. I secured interview after interview, but I kept losing -- until I finally videotaped myself and realized I never smiled! I was speaking in a monotone, and finally saw how I may have been qualified, but my body language was making me look like a boring, unfriendly candidate.

Once I cracked the code, I changed my presentation and starting closing interview after interview, netting me enough scholarship money to pay my way through my undergraduate and graduate degrees at Stanford.

I refined my techniques to land job offers at Google, Intuit, and a multi-billion-dollar financial firm, then I tested them with thousands of students to help them find a job they loved.

Here

Groupon has taken some heat this year from small businesses who felt they lost money offering Groupon discounts to customers. A new program offering entrepreneurs free online education in marketing, customer acquisition, and customer retention might enhance the daily deals company's image.

Groupon announced that it has teamed up with SCORE, the nonprofit volunteer corps of small business mentors that is funded by the Small Business Administration.

The organizations have introduced a "pragmatic toolkit" for small businesses in any industry, with extra resources for two sectors that are big Groupon users: bars and restaurants and healthy and beauty businesses. The Groupon Customer Acquisition & Retention Toolkit, available on SCORE's website offers tips on attracting customers, employing online marketing, taking advantage of new marketing tactics, making the best of daily deals, using social media to win customers, and building better customer relationships. SCORE and Groupon will also

Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator Marie Johns reminds shoppers in an op-ed for the Washington Post today not to spend all their holiday gift dollars at the big box stores on Black Friday or online shopping on Cyber Monday. In between them is the American Express-inspired Small Business Saturday, November 24. Is your business doing what it can to take advantage of the opportunity to get new customers in the door this weekend?

With free tools and materials available for download, it's not too late. Here are some ways you can still get in on the event:

• If your business accepts American Express, you qualify to download free customized in-store signage, online banners, and templates for social media or email from American Express Shop Small.
• Even if you don't accept American Express, a Shop Small poster and other free marketing materials are available for download here.
• Waste no time writing your own Tweets or Facebook posts to promote Small Business Saturday to your

turkeysGiven the short work week - for anyone NOT involved in retail - and the LONG work week for anyone who IS involved in retail, we are running a shortened version of our weekly roundup. First up is a reiteration of the importance and value of Small Business Saturday - for both retailers and shoppers. It's also worth pointing back to a couple of articles you may have missed last Friday: one about the fiscal cliff and the startling lack of agreement about how it will affect small businesses and the other taking a look at the new crowdfunding rules for small business.

Outside the confines of Yahoo! Small Business there were a couple of interesting pieces of news. First of all, Twitter has decided to offer the first 10,000 qualified small business to apply a $100 in free advertising on Twitter. So apply now... The second is a neat sales webinar taking place December 13th at 11AM with six experts talking about the best sales tools for 2013.

If you haven't taken the plunge yet, hopefully some

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I'm re-running a post from last week below to let you know why Small Business Saturday is so important (and to let you see that nifty infographic again). But I thought I'd add a quick list of why you should shop local.

1. Suport your community - your friends and neighbors who own local businesses

2. Get great deals

3. Free $25 courtesy of American Express.

4. Support your local economy - dollars spent at small local businesses stay in the local economy. Dollars spent at big box retailers do not.

5. Get outside and walk around your town - good for your health both mental and emotional.

6. Make new friends - while you are out and about why not make a point of getting to know a new person in your town - even if you've lived there for 50 years there's always someone new to meet.

Small Business Saturday is a great opportunity for small businesses to get some additional business in the peak holiday shopping period. It is basically a special day that American Express picked to provide a

We are rapidly heading toward Thanksgiving and the busiest time of the year for retailers. In particular, this is the time to take advantage of Small Business Saturday. It's also time to take stock of finances in preparation for the end of the year. Taking a completely different tack, we also looked at export issues for small businesses. Despite the seriousness of these topics, there's always time for a lighter point of view and with the release of the new Bond film, what better time to review maverick leadership styles? And our most popular article this week was about some commonalities between people who have been remarkably successful.

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.

Some

It is just about time for small business owners to tear themselves away from the final end of year sales push (and holiday madness) to take a couple of hours to get their financial ducks in a row for year end financials and taxes. In addition for online businesses there are a few new wrinkles that just popped up - in particular the IRS is cracking down on 1099's in general and the 1099-K for online income reporting in particular. The word is that the IRS is sending 20,000 letters out this week about 1099-Ks. If you get one, don't panic immediately - it may just be a general inquiry about what you are doing with them - but take the time to understand and respond. If you don't get a letter, not to worry but do remember that 1099-K income has to be included as income - no matter how small it is.

Here are some current article on year end financials and tax.

Is your part time business legal?

Non-filers beware - who's that knocking at your door?

IRS to enforce 1099 compliance

Counting down

SBS_Launch_Infographic_-_FINALsmallSmall Business Saturday is a great opportunity for small businesses to get some additional business in the peak holiday shopping period. It is basically a special day that American Express picked to provide a focal point for encouraging consumers to go and shop at local small businesses. But despite the clear marketing tie-in it is more than that - it's an opportunity for people to really back their own community in a difficult economic time and to also give something back to the community they live in. It's easy to dismiss this kind of thing as 'touch-feely' marketing designed to make people feel good but not really of any value. But it is much more than that. It has been shown that spending a dollar at a locally-owned small business keeps that dollar locally and recirculates it whereas spending the same dollar at a 'big box' or multinational takes most of the value of that dollar out of the local community. In addition it is acknowledged that small businesses are the heartblood of