Another Review of Last Week's Small Business News

Baseball has started, March Madness has ended and spring has sprung here in MerchantCircle's hometown of Mountain View, California.  In case you were a bit distracted by ballgames and brilliant weather, here are a few interesting articles you might have missed...

-------------------



Stuck in Smallsville (Portfolio.com)



American women are launching new companies at 1.5 times the national rate, but most of these queen bees are not growing their companies beyond 100 employees or $1 million in revenues, a new survey from American Express finds.  (Read More)





Why You Need to Start Branding ASAP (Fox Business)



When starting a new business, brand establishment tends to take a back seat to hiring the right people, attracting customers and generating sales, but maybe it shouldn’t. (Read More)





Getting Money Into the Hands of Small Businesses (WSJ)



The recession's grip on small-business owners has loosened, but unemployment remains stubbornly high and access to credit is still tight. (Read More)





Fast-changing pace of local advertising (Media Life Magazine)



Online local advertising has resumed its hot pace after a short blip during the recession. In fact, according to a report from Borrell Associates, the local ad tracking firm, the internet is on pace to surpass newspapers as the No. 1 source of local advertising revenue by 2015. This is a landmark prediction, as newspapers have always been No. 1. (Read More)





APRIL FOOL'S: 10 Favorite Fake-Outs (Business Insider)



Scanning news feeds on April Fool's Day is a bit like traveling down Alice's rabbit hole.



It's hard to tell reality from wishful thinking, spiteful revenge, and random hallucinations of people who spend too much time looking at their computers. That said, once you sort the fact from the fancy, it's fun to look back at the best pranks of the day. (Read More)

A little Review of Last Week's Small Business News

Here's a few articles that you might have missed. Catch up quickly! It's already Monday... who knows what exciting small business news will make headlines this week! 



Burned by Daily-Deal Craze, Small Businesses Get Savvy (WSJ)



Many businesses felt burned after their early experiences with Groupon. Now the small retailers that form the base of its business have become savvier about working with Groupon and other social coupon companies. (Read more)





Made in USA Gives Small Business an Edge (Business Week)



As labor and shipping costs in Asia increase, small stateside apparel makers are able to flaunt their domestic addresses. (Read more)



San Francisco Yellow Pages Ban Heads to a Vote (WSJ Blog)



San Francisco’s Land Use Committee this week unanimously approved a proposal to ban unsolicited deliveries of the Yellow Pages, a move local small-business owners say will deny them an important outlet for advertising and marketing. (Read more)





Small Business Owners Still Don't Get Search Marketing (Media Post)



Search marketing -- an intent-driven approach driving the highest returns -- should come as an easy decision for small businesses, but many still don't understand the benefits and the pitfalls. (Read more)





Smaller Walmart stores: A threat to local businesses?



Walmart announced plans to introduce hundreds of new smaller stores. Should small business owners be worried? (Read more)

Hey Thanks!

We're happy to report that in a recent customer satisfaction survey, 89% of our merchants said they'd recommend MerchantCircle to other business owners. (Thank you!)



We love hearing that! And, it's only getting better….



The MerchantCircle team is crazy passionate about local business merchants and creating the very best user experience possible. We've been diggin' in to our site, looking for ways to improve and we've got some screen shots to share. Check out the mock-ups of the soon-to-be-released merchant profile pages. And leave some feedback for our design team. We'd love your input!



In our last Merchant Confidence Index Survey, we learned that about 50% of our merchants are using smart phones. So… we're building an iPhone app. MerchantCircle in the palm of your hand! (Sounds pretty good to us.) Want to weigh in on those designs? Check out our work so far in the MerchantCircle forums!



Our "Merchant Success First" motto continues to drive the products we build and the improvements we make. If you've got suggestions or idea, we want to hear from you! The forums are a great place to sound off while getting connected to other local business owners.



We very much believe in the power of small business and we love providing a platform that helps local merchants connect to local customers. Thank you for your confidence in us, and for all your thoughts, comments and ideas that help us make a better MerchantCircle for you!



Cheers!

Local Online Week-in-Review. (The news you might have missed!)

We know you always mean to read everything that pops into your Bloglines feed, your Twitter page, and your email inbox. But just in case your week got crazy, we've got you covered.

Bing Announces Live Deals - Available on Your Desktop and Phone (SearchEngineWatch)



What's always hot on the web? No matter where you are or how small a city it, what are users usually looking for? The answer is coupons.



Bing is entering the coupon market by aggregating other coupon listings from many different networks. With over 200,000 deals in 14,000 cities and town all over the United States, since Bing has partenered with Dealmap to provide deals from Groupon, Restraurant.com, and Living Social, they are able to provide a valuable service right out of the gate. (Read more)



Higher Gas Prices Have Impact on Small Businesses (USA Today)



When watching news about the turmoil in the Middle East, you probably weren't thinking, "How's this going to affect my small business?"



But take a look at the gas pump, and you'll see. (Read more)



Small Businesses Ramp Up Jobs (CNNMoney)



Small businesses have ramped up their hiring in recent months, fueled by a recovering economy and more optimistic business owners.



That's a far cry from little more than a year ago, when the sector was losing thousands upon thousands of jobs each month. (Read More)

Local Online Week-in-Review. (The news you might have missed!)

We know you always mean to read everything that pops into your Bloglines feed, your Twitter page, and your email inbox. But just in case your week got crazy, we've got you covered.



Obama having dinner with Zuck? Navigating the new Facbook Pages. New data about local business...

Are you caught up?



Here's a quick snapshot of the news that made headlines this week in the local landscape.



___________________________________________





Obama’s Dinner in the Valley (NYT)



Whether Zynga is really worth $10 billion seems not to have been the main topic of dinner conservation when President Obama met with technology executives on Thursday night.

“The president specifically discussed his proposals to invest in research and development and expand incentives for companies to grow and hire, along with his goal of doubling exports over five years to support millions of American jobs,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said in a statement to Bloomberg News. Read More.



How Google Can Beat Facebook: No, Its Not on the Web (GigaOm)



A few years ago, Jeff Jarvis, a good friend of mine, published a book called What Would Google Do? When he wrote that book, Google had an aura of invincibility. Fast forward to today: Thanks to Facebook, it doesn’t seem so invincible. The new social web has passed it by. So, the question today is: What should Google do? Read More.





Social Media Marketing Up 40% Among Local Businesses (InformationWeek)



Local businesses are turning to inexpensive social media to promote their products and services, but the few that have experimented with group discount offerings from online sites are unlikely to repeat the experience, a new report from MerchantCircle found. Read More.



5 ways the new Facebook Pages can benefit your business (TNW)



Last week brought a whole new set of Facebook page changes which we covered in some depth but there is another angle that we’ve been thinking about that didn’t occur to us at first and that is business networking. Read More.

Q1 2011 Merchant Circle MCI Survey Results

Below are the results of our quarterly Merchant Confidence Index (MCI) survey for Q1 of 2011. The Index is designed to track trends in small business sentiment over time.



This fifth Merchant Confidence Index survey was fielded online, between January 22nd and February 3rd, 2011, and sent to a random sample of MerchantCircle's member base of over 1.6 million local business owners. There were 8,456 total responses from local business owners across the United States.



Expectations for the future



How do you expect your sales revenues to change over the next three months?

State of the U.S. economy



How would you rate today’s economy compared to the past twelve months?

Hiring expectations



How do you expect your company’s headcount to change over the next three months?

Marketing expenditures



How do you expect your marketing/advertising expenditures to change over the next three months?

Merchant Confidence Index Calculation

Adoption of specific online marketing services

Are you promoting your business with the following websites/services?

Marketing budget



What is your annual ad/marketing budget?

Most effective marketing channels



Select the top THREE most effective marketing or advertising methods your business uses or has used.

Expectations for length of recession



To what extent do you agree with the following statement? “The worst effects of the recession are behind us?

Respondent Profiles



How many people does your business employ?

Which single business category best describes your business?

Local Online Week-in-Review. (The news you might have missed!)

We know you always mean to read everything that pops into your Bloglines feed, your Twitter page, and your email inbox. But just in case your week got crazy, we've got you covered.



Groupon's dicey Superbowl ad dominated the post-game conversation, and not everyone agrees that it was a misstep. What's your take on their risky approach?



Here's a quick snapshot of the news that made headlines this week in the local landscape.



___________________________________________



Groupon's Superbowl Ad Quickly Draws Backlash (WSJ)



"It’s not clear yet whether Groupon sought controversy for its Super Bowl commercial to gain publicity, but either way the venture capital-backed daily deal site sure got it. Immediately after one of its three commercials ran during Fox’s second-half coverage of Super Bowl XLV, hundreds of people took to Twitter to air their displeasure with the ad." Read more.



Groupon Win? Why They Knew Exactly What They Were Doing With The “Tibet” Ad (Social Times)



"With the ads, we have seen the best and worst that social media has to offer. At its peak, the online realm fosters debate, promotes curiosity, and gets people thinking outside their comfort zone. The Groupon videos are being talked about on Facebook and Twitter, embedded on blogs and forwarded through email, as well they should." Read more.



Google Gets Heavy-Handed In Local Search (Small Biz Trends)



"It’s been hard not to notice the very calculated steps that Google has been taking over the past few months as it’s geared up its local and mobile properties, slowing trying to push everyone else out of its way. Well, unless you haven’t been watching. If not, here’s what you missed." Read more.



Google Local Search Strategy Needs Marketing Muscle (eWeek GoogleWatch)



"While Google has a veritable gold mine of mobile, local and social technology, what it lacks is the marketing oomph to make others aware of it." Read more.