This Week in Small Business: Steer clear of these management and marketing potholes!

news you can use

Among this week’s collection of excellent curated content are articles that will help you steer clear of some costly marketing and management mistakes. You won’t be able to say that you hadn’t been warned!

Leadership, management and productivity

If yours is a retail small business, the seven growth tips here will come in very handy for planning and management. And be sure to avoid these potholes that will lose retail customers.

Saying you’re sorry is never easy. Customer experience guru Jeanne Bliss makes it a bit easier.

Adam Toporek says that it’s possible to keep the customer but lose the customer’s business…or at least the most profitable part of the customer’s business.

Are you considering a small business payroll service? These five tips will help you get off to a smooth start.

It may sound gross – dogfooding – but you should get an appetite for it if you really want to know what’s going on in your small business.

Marketing and sales

A great blog post needs a great beginning. The six steps outlined here will help a lot.

Here’s what to consider before creating your next small business digital marketing strategy.

Remember: Marketing is only the start of the selling process.

If you don’t think you’re getting the most marketing punch out of Instagram, here’s how it’s done.

Are you taking advantage of the fact that consumers look at their phones 150 times a day?

Browse this list of 10 mistakes social media marketers are making on Twitter and be sure you aren’t guilty of any…at least going forward!

Should your website be optimized for human eyes or search engines? This article on The Daily Egg sorts it out.

Is the era of free social media marketing about to come to an end?

Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation

Attention stay-at-home moms! Here’s how you can run a successful blog.

Need to make a pitch to an angel or other venture capitalist? Check out these tips from some women who have proven track records of success.

Politics, government and the economy

A bipartisan bill to improve small business access to government contacts is moving through Congress. Here are the highlights.