Smaller Box Blog

Link Love: The Most Valuable Small Biz Articles Posted This Week

Meredith — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:53:21 +0000

Happy Friday! Settle in for a long holiday weekend with these small biz and marketing reads from around the web: The Costs fo Starting a Clothing Brand – even if you don’t want to start a clothing brand, this post is great for thinking about all the costs involved with starting a product-based business. Reduce [...]

Doing What Your Best At (A.K.A How Not to Fail in Business)

Meredith — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:45:58 +0000

From time to time we get to chatting with our manufacturers and suppliers and we’ll hear “I really want to do what you guys do, start a label. Can you give me any tips on that?” or “I tried to start a label, it never worked out for me.” While I can understand the appeal [...]

3 Ways My SmartPhone Helps Run My Business

Meredith — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:52:00 +0000

Thank goodness for smart phones, I don’t know what we’d do without them. I think about work pretty much 24/7 and the only constant is my iPhone. Here’s how it helps me manage our business. 1. For bookkeeping I totally hate paper, it creates clutter and takes up space I don’t have to spare. Thus, [...]

Link Love: The Most Valuable Small Biz Articles Posted This Week

Meredith — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:17:03 +0000

Check out this week’s recommended reads from around the web: Why Etsy Users Should Have Their Own Websites 14 Best Practices for Handling Returns Are Your Online Customers Cheating on You? 23 Tools to Research Your Competition 35 Ways to Improve Sales 10 Photoshop Skills for Beginners

Link Love: The Most Valuable Small Biz Articles Posted This Week

Meredith — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:54:57 +0000

Happy Friday! Below are my favorite reads from around the small biz blogosphere this week: How to Use Competitors to Grow Your Business 63 Free or Almost-Free Ways to Market Your Business Common Call to Action Mistakes Interview with Sara Selepouchin of Girls Can Tell (A great collection of insights on doing wholesale)

Should You Quit Your Day Job?

Meredith — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:04:38 +0000

Steve over at MyWifeQuitHerJob recently posted about why he hasn’t quit his “day job”. He makes some interesting points, though I’ve made the opposite decision for myself. Are you thinking about leaving your day job? Here are some things to consider: 1. Do you really want to quit your day job? On the face of [...]

Link Love: The Most Valuable Small Biz Articles Posted This Week

Meredith — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:34:59 +0000

Want to see your products in TV and movies? This week only Lauren Aseff is spilling her secrets about how to get your products into TV and movies. The offer ends TODAY, so don’t miss out. Here are my favorite ecommerce, small business and marketing reads of the week: 5 Unique and Effective Email Offers [...]

(Mis)Truth in (Facebook) Advertising

Meredith — Thu, 03 May 2012 23:11:23 +0000

Did you know that you can only use a coupon for Facebook ads once? In the entire history of your account, if you’ve ever used a Facebook coupon you can NEVER use one EVER again. It’s in their fine print, where they hope you won’t notice it. Recently this email showed up in our company [...]

What You Can Do To Make Your Own Characters More Famous

Meredith — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:22:50 +0000

Yesterday I ranted about how much I hate to see anyone using unlicensed characters in their designs. I’d much rather see people creating their own characters. This can seem like a tall order though, how can you gain any traction with your own creations when there are so many established famous characters already out there? [...]

Stealing From the Big Guys is Still Stealing

Meredith — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:02:57 +0000

Imagine you are at a craft show and you see a really cool screen printed tote with a design you recognize on it. It’s a design you know belongs to someone else. Would you buy from that exhibitor? Would you call them out for being a thief? What if the designer is George Lucas or [...]