Business Intelligence: Tips, Trends and Resources

By SBE Council at 23 August, 2022, 2:35 pm

Curated by Karen Kerrigan –

Retailing in a Recession (8 Tips to Stay Competitive), Shopify

“Recessions often create structural changes by accelerating emerging trends, introducing new business models, and exposing existing weaknesses…. With preparation and flexibility, a recession can be an opportunity to increase customer loyalty, boost productivity, and strengthen market position. Here are 8 ways retailers can stay competitive.”

5 Tips to Help Your Restaurant Weather a Recession, Restaurant Engine

“You can let your fear lead you to the dark kitchen of, ‘can’t get people to spend if they don’t have the money to spend with,’ or you can see it as an opportunity and get cooking.”

20 Local Marketing Strategies, Small Business Trends

“Local businesses may get 100% of their customers from within a few miles. You may have heard the phrase ‘main street business’ (or ‘high street business’ in some countries). This refers to the fact that small businesses depend literally on foot traffic or being seen on main thoroughfares. So even though a local business can find success marketing online, it takes strict geographical focus. Otherwise, you could end up wasting time and money to attract website visitors from across the country who have zero chance of ever visiting your shop or buying anything.”

What is Customer Happiness? 6 Strategies to Keep Customers Happy, Crowdspring

“Studies show that your customers can quickly stop buying from you after one bad experience.  So, the stakes are high, and businesses must do their best to please customers…This is challenging because people’s wants and needs are constantly changing.

How can you determine what people want so that you can influence their buying decisions? You can do this by measuring customer happiness.”

6 Information Surges Raise Huge Startup Opportunities, Startup Professionals

“You need to start now to understand the trends and specifics of the information tidal wave that is building up in front of us. Use the steps outlined here to stay ahead of it, and use its power to propel your startup into the future, ahead of your competition.”

Why Mark Zuckerberg is Talking so Much About Meta’s Whatsapp for Business, CNBC

“WhatsApp is already widely popular with U.S. consumers. Now Meta Platforms is turning more attention to building its small business base.

The Facebook parent company launched WhatsApp Business in 2018 with free, simple tools to help small businesses keep in touch with customers, offering a way for them to directly interact, search for products and indicate purchasing interest.

Soon the company will roll out a premium service to small businesses, and it’s doubling down on a newer advertising format called ‘click-to-message,’ which allows consumers to click on a company’s ad within Facebook or Instagram and directly start a conversation with that business on Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp.”

SCORE WEBINAR: How to Start a Business for Creative Types, Idea People, and Anyone with Passion

August 25, 2022 – 1:00 p.m. ET

Are you an artist, a writer, a professional cook, or maybe you’ve got a talent that can save people time and money? If you’re considering selling your creativity as a product, now is the time to take your talents to the business level.

In this webinar, creative business expert Robin Blakely will share how you can transform your professional dreams into a creative business.

Here is what you’ll learn:

● The importance of determining the focus of your business

● Understand the math that goes into cash flow, expenses, and profits

● How to build an air-tight business ‘Boat’ that will keep you afloat

● How to run your business while protecting your passion

To register for Free or to learn more, click here.

10 Tips On Self-Promotion to Solidify Your Leadership, Startup Professionals

“No one is impressed by braggadocio and a huge ego, or constantly taking credit for the accomplishments of others. On the other hand, don’t expect others to automatically recognize your talents, results, and contributions to the success of others around you. Your challenge is to fully promote your value in contexts like the following (in this article).”

MARKET TRENDS

Home Sweet (Accessible) Home, Small Business Currents

“This is a part of a broader phenomenon. Retail Dive says, ‘Retailers in recent years have increasingly developed products with greater accessibility. Target, Zappos, and Tommy Hilfiger have launched collections for adaptive apparel — a market expected to reach $54.8 billion in the U.S. by 2023, according to a 2019 Coresight Research report.’

Since there are still millions of baby boomers choosing to age in place, I think there’s a lot of room for growth targeting these consumers. What products and services can you bring to market to serve aging Americans?”

Blockchain Will Change Your Marketing Strategy. Here’s How, Entrepreneur

“Digital marketing as an industry is only starting to embrace the potential of this technology and create use cases. But while marketers may be behind their finance colleagues in adopting blockchain technology, marketing certainly stands to gain from blockchain applications.

The technology continues to develop at this stage, and new use cases, including several for digital marketing, are being discovered almost daily. Undoubtedly, blockchain technology and web 3.0 applications will improve how digital marketers handle data.”

Venmo Reaches Small Business Milestone, Small Business Trends

“One of the contributors to Venmo’s growth is its commerce payment service which grew by a whopping 250% in the second quarter alone. This includes Pay with Venmo and Business Profiles, its small business offering that recently reached a milestone of 1.5 million businesses since launching just over a year ago.

A study on Venmo customer behavior found that out of more than one thousand consumers who made an online purchase over 2 weeks, 19% were more likely to complete a purchase with Venmo over traditional payment methods.” Additional Venmo customer behavior data can be found here.

Karen Kerrigan is president & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Follow her on Twitter @KarenKerrigan for more tips, trends and resources.