Independent Thinking Blog
Independent Thinking Blog
SBA’s Johns on “3 Cs,” New Loans for Entrepreneurs
At Friday's GrowSmartBiz* conference, SBA Deputy Administrator Marie Johns talked about her agency's "3Cs" and highlighted new legislative help for small business owners. Talking about the 3Cs, Johns said that the Small Business Administration focuses on: Contracting...
The Business Value of Asking Smart Questions
I'm a big fan of data-driven decision making. And data means data collection--which means asking smart questions of your employees, prospects, customers, and other key stakeholders. Ask the right questions and you get useful information that you can put into action to...
Can You Keep a Secret?
Can you keep a secret, or are you indiscriminately telling all? Whether you're a full-time workshifter or you just take the occasional business call while watching your son's t-ball game or standing in line waiting for a latte, you need to be mindful of not sharing...
What is True “Social Media Integration”?
According to Jeremiah Owyang, true social media integration doesn't exist. In a fascinating keynote speech at the MarketingProfs B2B Conference last week, Owyang walked through an 8-step roadmap for integrating social media and your (corporate) Web site. The aim is to...
What’s Your Biggest Marketing Challenge?
I was just looking over a short report on business-to-business marketing put out by MarketingProfs and Forrester Research. According to What Works in B2B Marketing 2010, the top three challenges facing marketers are lead generation, increasing product/service...