This Week in Small Business: The importance of positive engagement and your small business culture

news you can use

The importance of how you engage people is highlighted in this week’s collection of curated content from around the Internet; we should probably credit Dale Carnegie with these fundamental principles that extend even into the virtual world today.

Leadership, management, and productivity

In this interview I explain why you need to develop a mission statement that will inform your vision and shape behavior as you pilot your business through the next five years.

Where are you with outsourcing? This article outlines the benefits and gives you hourly freelance rates from around the world.

It’s not merely “customer service” today, successful companies are focused on the customer experience. And to help even more, here are five tips for driving valuable customer experiences via your company culture.

Marketing and sales

The timeless lessons of Dale Carnegie apply today, even in the way you engage people on your website.

You know about the importance of video to your small business marketing, but are you applying what you know to every platform?

A powerful blog positions you as an authority and brings in new customers. Here are 17 tips to help you create that powerful blog.

Anthea Kelsick, strategy director at bluemarlin, explains why your marketing needs to promote the product, not the promise.

You need to be diligent, but if you are, Snapchat 2.0 opens up new marketing opportunities.

Politics, government and the economy

Federal regulations are taking a toll on small business and if you want to get a feel for how bad the situation is, check out this article by Clyde Wayne Crews.

Last week’s employment numbers were dismal. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised given Fed policy, which is holding down business formation, says Jeffrey Dorfman.