Mastercard has introduced Biz360, a digital platform...

It's possible to scale sustainably even in uncertain times.

Redideo Studio, a San Diego-based creative agency, has launched a Free Ad Script Generator designed to help small businesses create professional-quality video advertising scripts with ease and efficiency. The tool uses a special formula to guide users through crafting scripts that capture attention, effectively communicate brand messages, and encourage viewer action, making it ideal for TikTok-style video ads and 30-second radio spots.

Social media presents a useful and viable tool for a business to build their brand and increase their visibility. In fact, it is getting to the point where you are probably going to be at a disadvantage if you do not have at least some form of an online presence through these mediums.

While online marketing spans a wide range of topics, social media has quickly become the primary vehicle through which businesses and their websites increase traffic, reach potential clients and develop their brand. When done right, it is quite possibly the single-most useful tool at the disposal of todays website admin and or small business owner.

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Unfortunately, the first step that most business owners take involves sitting at their PCs and plugging away at outdated or unsuitable software technologies; and they make little progress. How can you avoid such a fate?

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Small towns and cities seem to be gaining popularity as locations for startups, but a metropolis like New York or Los Angeles is still great place to own a small business. With a large population as your potential customer base, there are plenty of opportunities to make your entrepreneurial dreams come true. Here are seven small business ideas for big cities.

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Small business owners shouldn't have to do their taxes on their own. Tax solutions provide a do-it-yourself way to easily prepare and file taxes — without all the guesswork. If you don't have an accountant, or tax services are way out of your budget, there are several tax apps, software and other tools specifically created with small business tax needs in mind. Here are 10 tax solutions to get you started.

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Small Businesses have a desire to grow – grow their sales, customer numbers and enter new markets. However unless you have adequate resources and a clearly defined strategy, then growth can lead to the demise of your small business.

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A survey of business owners finds small businesses may remain small to avoid employee health coverage required by the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare.

Oklahoma City-based staffing firm Express Employment Professionals surveyed business owners, hiring managers and human resource professionals on the ACA and its impact on hiring decisions.

The survey found that 70 percent of survey respondents whose companies have 45 - 49 employees said they would try to remain under 50 employees. Businesses with 50 or fewer full-time employees do not face a penalty for not offering health coverage under Obamacare.

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Tradition has it that where big businesses are rooted, vibrant small business communities follow. It happened in Harrison, N.Y., when Mastercard and PepsiCo set up shop. It happened in Redmond, Wash. after Microsoft moved in. It is happening in Greenville, S.C., where BMW built an SUV manufacturing plant.

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Take a good look at that store on the corner. There is a 10 percent to 12 percent chance it will not be there next year, according to the Office of Advocacy for the Small Business Administration.

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President Obama told the Labor Department to come up with new overtime rules that would make more workers eligible for time and a half pay for their extra hours of work.

The rules are aimed at salaried workers who make more than $455 a week and are ineligible for overtime because they hold a manager or supervisor position.

Ty Spatta started his own painting business 20 years ago.  He enjoys being a small business owner, but gets frustrated when he hears the government wants to step in and make businesses pay employees more.

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The AFL-CIO is applauding the anticipated move, saying the proposal could help raise wages and create jobs. Business groups, however, say it would be a job killer.

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Just because you are small does not mean you have to act small. With a few smart adjustments and a solid NAS setup, you can give your company the capabilities of the big guys in a package that will not break the budget.

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Gaining customers. Producing a quality product. Finding new markets. These are the things that small business owners focus on when starting their latest venture. But while entrepreneurs are busy planning for the future, many fail to prepare for the worst.

Businesses large and small are loaded with risk. Liability is—or should be—a chief concern. Too many entrepreneurs, however, overlook the need to plan for and manage risk when launching their businesses.

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Owning your own company can be a dream from making your own hours and choosing your own staff, to even doing something you love. However, owning a small business can also be really exhausting, difficult, and time consuming. If you are still looking into self-employment, doing your research first will help. However, if you already own a small business, your next task might be determining how you can save time and money on that business. There are many easy ways for small business owners to save time, including choosing the appropriate staff, picking deadlines, and using programs that are designed to help business owners save time, like Zirtual assistant. Many of the tools that save time also save money, and Zirtual’s assistants are a great example of this. Read on to learn five ways you can save money for your small business, and hopefully, save some time too.

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After a winter most of us would like to forget, spring is here. But with the good, comes the bad it is time for a little spring cleaning, or to spruce up your small business technology. Considering how fast business is evolving, this is going to take more than the traditional broom and dustpan.

If you, like many small business owners, have been reluctant to invest in new business technology dues to the after-effects of the Great Recession, this is the time to finally get moving and create and implement digital priorities. Here are some tasks you need to put on your  spring cleaning checklist:

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Owners now say the administrative burdens of tax season pose a bigger burden than their actual tax bill.

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At Sage, we meet with small business owners regularly to get a complete picture of how their businesses run. We have had countless discussions about the tools these business owners use and why they chose them. These are businesses of all types, sizes and ages; but do you know what is common among them?

To some degree, they all use a mix of tools that are either the wrong fit or not connected with each other…or both. One conversation that comes to mind was with a consultant who was using desktop accounting software that she described as too much for her needs. This business owner used three separate applications to track time, organize tasks, and collect online payments, none of which were connected to each other. She struggled with sharing pertinent information with her business partner who was in another city. The result was frustration and wasted time as she tried to make it all work, and she is not alone.

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After years of courting the nations biggest advertisers, Facebook is going after the 99%.

That figure represents the long tail of advertisers; the plumbers and dentists, restaurants and political candidates, app developers and direct-response advertisers. These small and mid-sized businesses do not have Facebook account reps and are left to figure out Facebook advertising for themselves.

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But Pubsoft Director of Marketing Heather Wied says small businesses should not spread themselves thin trying to master every social network under the sun. Pubsoft, which helps businesses publish online content, integrates social networking to help customers spread the word about their businesses.

The best social network for you is dependent on your target market, says Wied.

To maximize your time on social media – without losing your mind – check out Wieds three best tips:

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If your business has only a few employees, you may think you are too small to offer a 401k plan. But even entrepreneurs have to retire someday, and there's no time like the present to start planning for the future.

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Learn why every small business needs a dashboard, and how it can transform your success.

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Small business owners know that rapidly changing technologies offer great potential for profit. But with countless technology offerings and few clear ways to weed out gems from the fads, it is easy to get overwhelmed.

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Keeping the books is one of the more challenging aspects of running a company. It is also one of the most important. Accounting errors can be damaging even fatal to businesses, but mistakes are surprisingly common. Here is how to avoid five of the most common accounting mistakes that plague small businesses.

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Want to continue building your skills and those of your team?  What about networking with colleagues, peers and potential customers?

Alright, we know you want to get involved and not stay stagnant.  So we have created this handpicked list of upcoming small business events online and also in the real world as well as relevant awards programs.  

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The Small Business Administration or SBA is celebrating its 50th Anniversary!

But there are some smart things that small business owners should consider doing now. Here’s my top 3 tips:

1.  Access Capital Now
2.  Engage Rather Than Employ
3.  Have a Lean Start-Up

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Small businesses need to consider their tech purchases just as carefully as enterprises do. A single doctor medical practice must comply with the same stringent patient-privacy regulations as the largest hospital. Run a two-person bakery or a small auto repair shop? In addition to tending to bread and brakes, you still need a solution for managing your finances and customer information, just like a major retail chain does. Moonlight as a club DJ? You need to know the best tech for storing your jams, and what service will help you quickly recover your data if your storage hardware gets hosed, just like a Fortune 500 company does.

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Smartphones have become vital for on-the-go entrepreneurs. Apps aimed at small business owners allow them to pay bills, update websites, market their companies, reach out to customers and keep in touch with employees from anywhere. Some owners say their smartphones makes it easier for them to build a side business while keeping a full-time job or step away from the company when needed.

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The successes and failures of others, can provide extremely valuable information to guide you on your path. So from my own experience and from the common stories I hear from being involved with over 4000 small business clients, I have compiled what I see as the five biggest mistakes people make when running a small businesses.

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Unlike the CEOs of major public companies, whose personal financial situation has little effect on their companies borrowing, if you are a small business owner, your personal credit is a major factor influencing your companys access to capital. The power of personal credit scores to predict small business loan repayment, the legal structure of many small businesses, and small business owners’ use of personal guarantees and personal borrowing to finance business operations, all link small business owners personal credit to their companies’ access to capital.

Many, if not most, lenders will look at your personal credit score if you are a small business owner seeking a loan for your company. A 2006 report written for the U.S. Small Business Administration found that 71 percent of banks used small business owner credit scores when underwriting small business loans.

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Like anything in life, being an entrepreneur has its ups and downs, it has good and bad points. I happen to think the good far outweighs the bad, but not a few people disagree or learn about the bad the hard way.

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Obtaining a small business loan is not as easy as you might think. Small business owners looking for capital to take their business to the next level can face issues with eligibility, and the process of both applying for and receiving a loan is lengthy and time-consuming.

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A recent report conducted by AT&T and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship  Council, a nonprofit group that promotes entrepreneurship and small business, small business owners have netted $67.5 billion a year from implementing smart phones and tablets in their day to day business activities.

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The House voted Thursday to make permanent a tax break allowing small businesses to write off up to $500,000 in new equipment purchases.

While the move adds to momentum for congressional efforts to extend a range of now-temporary tax breaks, it also sharpens a conflict between the House and Senate over whether to extend the breaks permanently or temporarily.

Thursdays vote was 272-144, with several dozen Democrats joining Republicans to support the measure.

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All else being equal, would-be entrepreneurs should consider moving to Idaho, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, and fleeing California, Illinois, and Rhode Island. The first four states received A+ grades for small-business friendliness in a study published this week by local services startup Thumbtack and the Kauffman Foundation. The last three states got Fs.

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What is a small business?

It is getting harder and harder to tell. Last week, the SBA adjusted its size standards that determine if a company is a small business. The definition varies by industry and is derived by annual revenue or by number of employees.

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Two recent news clips caught my attention. One involved a company trying to avoid the IRS. The other involved the IRS trying to avoid trouble. Taken together, I can see how a small business owner might cynically ask if a small business has a fighting chance as far as taxes.

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Under the new guidelines, for instance, a travel agency with annual revenues of $20.5 million qualifies as a small business, and so does a family clothing store that brings in $38.5 million a year. In some industries, a business is still considered small if it employs as many as 1,500 people. Companies classified as small businesses can compete for government contracts, and can access SBA loans, which are often cheaper than private alternatives.

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• Embrace Perspective: No matter how much you love your company, there will be days when balancing the books creates anxiety. Remind yourself what fueled you to launch your business.

• Find Balance: Sometimes it might seem impossible to relax, but devoting even 60 minutes weekly to non-business related activities will help you recharge.

• Become Resourceful: Find ways to save money, time and energy. Try multitasking, such as purchasing business supplies while waiting for a prescription to be filled or patronizing retailers with special early shopping hours for business owners. Consider streamlining home expenses by eliminating cable or cooking more at home.

• Make Changes: Stay motivated by experimenting with new methods and tools. Attending trainings or online webinars about your industry can help re-ignite your creativity and even lead to business growth.

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Many of us dream of starting a small business. Whether it s the romantic ideal of being your own boss, or the desire to build something from nothing, having a dream is different than actualizing it. Often, it is the fear of failure or the daunting amount of work that keeps us from being bold enough to launch that next brilliant startup.

START SMALL

An effective way to build confidence and remove the fear of failure is to break down the basics of starting a small business into smaller tasks. By completing these tasks one at a time, you may soon find you’re well on your way to laying a solid foundation for your bold, lean startup to thrive.

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Here are some tips to discuss with your tax pro to improve your tax situation and hopefully keep working capital in your bank account rather than in Uncle Sams pocket:

Start a retirement plan. If you are finally a few bucks ahead and don’t have a retirement fund, now is the time to start one. Here is the bonus: it is deductible!

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Have a killer business idea? A killer business plan can help you turn it into a successful business. Creating a well-crafted business plan is no easy task, however. You will need to not only flesh out your idea, but also have a deep understanding of the different aspects of running a business — before you even start one. Figuring out how to do this correctly is hard enough, but there are several tools available to make this arduous task a little bit easier for would-be entrepreneurs.

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Facebook. Pinterest. Google+. Instagram. Twitter. LinkedIn. YouTube. So many social networks, and so little time!

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Small-business owners often are so busy working that they do not take time to plan for their retirements.

But that is clearly a mistake, financial advisers say.

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We usually learn more from our work for smaller clients and that’s counterintuitive, is not it? When I was very young, I thought that knowledge and business experience flowed downhill from the lofty heights of executive boardrooms to home offices. I have since learned that just as often, the knowledge flow is uphill from the small to the huge. I should have known that, anyway.

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Small business owners can get pretty personal. At least, they are influenced by personal relationships more than anything else, according to a new report by the National Association of Women Business Owners ( and credit card company Ink from Chase.

In fact, at 89 percent, a vast majority of small business owners said that their personal relationships have an impact on the way they run their business, and 67 percent said their peers influence them. Fifty-three percent reported that other small business owners influence them as well.

So what influences small business owners the least? Surprisingly, mentorship — only 51 percent of business owners admitted to being influenced by mentors in their field.

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Here are five lessons we learned from this unique and experienced group of successful small business owners:

1. Start With a Clear Purpose

All the entrepreneurs articulated a clear and powerful purpose for starting their business — and none mentioned money as a major driver. Rather, they started their companies to do what they love, solve a problem, provide awesome service, live in a more desirable location, create jobs and give back to their community.

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Running your own business is no easy task, and your to-do-list is guaranteed to never end. This said, you should not use this as an excuse to take short cuts when it comes to having online visibility. Beginning with your website, its vital to position yourself online with a strong, professional destination that gives customers the impression you mean business and the motivation to want to engage more with your business. With this in mind, consider these five reasons why having a strong website is important.

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An Entrepreneur is an individual who starts and runs a business with limited resources and planning, taking account of all the risks and rewards of his or her business venture. The business idea is usually a new innovation, product or service, rather than an existing business model.

Such entrepreneurial ventures target high-returns, with high level of uncertainty. The entrepreneur is willing to put his or her financial security and career at stake to take risks on an idea, spending time as well as capital on an uncertain venture.

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