What are some of the most useful small business trends and how can you capitalize on them? Some of these trends have been happening for while and others are just beginning to become known. The great thing about these trends is that if you understand them and are willing to adapt, you can get up ahead of the curve and meet or exceed revenue and expense projections.

Marketing is becoming increasingly easier for small businesses to execute on, because of the ever-growing use of the Internet and the proliferation of tools. Let’s say for example, Google’s powerful search engine. If you understand how to use Google’s local listings service, which is called Google Places, you can dominate your category for a local area. For example, if you are pizza parlor and you know how to create a local listing by adding reviews, videos, and the correct keywords, you can have a listing that is easily found by many customers in your local and nearby cities. This tool is so powerful that it’s becoming the search of choice for people, outperforming the Yellow Pages and the newspaper.

Another great marketing tool includes the ever increasing pool of online PR services, which are both free and paid. By creating and distributing your own press releases online, you can reach a much larger audience than just your local region. In addition you will reach an audience of patrons who trust press releases over generic search results.

Other small business trends include the use of millions of different types of services now available on the Internet. They help companies reduce their expenses in a myriad of ways. For example, one great service for saving you time and money is one based on the concept of “virtual telephone service.” What does this mean? A virtual telephone service generally means a voice over Internet protocol or “VOIP” system. A virtual phone service allows you to make and receive phone calls, as well as use all of the other telephone services that you are used to such as: voice mail, call forwarding, and three way calling. These services cost a mere fraction of what they used to cost during the monopoly days of the old AT&T.

Small businesses are also getting smaller. What do I mean by that? The overwhelming majority of small businesses are sole proprietorships, which means that they are single individuals who are running the business. This has all become possible because of the availability, flexibility, and increasingly cheap technology. With this technology you can virtually run a business that touches a city, state, country or even the globe without leaving your home.

There are plenty more small business trends that can be harnessed. But the key to success is not just following the trends but utilizing them to your advantage.

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Some of the best small business marketing strategies are those that have been utilized for years. They include the standard practices, such as: networking with business associates, joining your local Chamber of Commerce, guerrilla marketing, advertising and cold calling. Increasingly, though, small businesses are using new techniques and methodologies that leverage the Internet. Consider that there are over 34,000 searches per second on Google. Consumers search for everything including research information, how to source and buy products and much more. It’s been estimated that fully 20% of these searches are for a local type listing, e.g. finding a business in a local region, county, or city.

By utilizing widely available Internet tools and services small business owners can market to new and existing customers in ways not available in the past. Traditionally, products were marketed through newspaper ads and classifieds, yellow pages and even radio spot and TV commercials. Generally these marketing mediums are called “offline” marketing. Tracking offline marketing campaigns were difficult and often downright impossible. There was really no “direct” way of measuring success, except through surveys and inserting ad response codes. One of the problems is that people forget ad response codes and surveys do have a high percentage of related errors.

New Internet / online small business marketing strategies incorporate such concepts as social networks, online PR and the newly renamed Google Places. Let’s dissect these strategies to see how they fit within any small business’ overall marketing campaigns.

Google Places is essentially a local listing within your demographic area, whether it is a county, city or borough. With Google places, small businesses can list their company utilizing words that people type into Google search when looking for a service or product. For example, when someone searches for a “tailor” in Manhattan, New York, Google would serve up a list of tailors in that area. These listings appear even before the traditional top 10 organic listings that Google services us. It’s imperative to understand how to utilize Google Places in order to maximize your potential customers.

Online social networking complements offline networking with business associates. Think of online social networking as joining your local Chamber of Commerce or socializing at the office water cooler. Through online social networks, such as Facebook, Linkedin, and MySpace, small businesses can reach out to many more potential customers than they could ever have achieved through using offline networking avenues alone. Learning how to navigate these online social networks is critical to reaching new customers, as well as maintaining existing ones.

Small business marketing strategies should also include online PR. Small businesses are used to guerrilla type marketing. Think of online PR as another way of getting your message across to your market through free and cheap publicity. Generally there is a section in newspapers and magazines for announcements, such as a staff promotion, a new product, education and things like new partnerships. By issuing an online press release, you can reach thousands of viewers without alienating them through a “sales” pitch. Press releases are generally viewed positively and “trustworthy” by consumers.

Incorporating these new marketing strategies will help small business owners maintain their market position, as well as grab new markets. This is especially true during this period of transition as offline marketing reach through print, radio and TV declines and gives way to online marketing through the Internet and mobile devices.

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One of the miracles of modern technology is being able to receive faxes via email. It was indeed a wonder when the fax machine was first invented. The ability to send documents back and forth at the push of a button was something made out of science fiction and Star Trek. But, every day, businesses in every industry rely on sending documents back and forth via the fax machine. These businesses include real estate companies, law offices, and even your local restaurant that receives and processes faxed in lunch requests. Imagine the savings in both time and money.

As technology progressed so did the fax machine and its limitless possibilities. I was recently reminded of the reason why faxing to a dedicated fax machine is virtually a thing of the past when I was asked to send some documents to an “old school” attorney recently. The first thing he told me was to “wait … don’t send anything until I can switch on my fax machine.” Of course, being the polite person that I am, I said “sure.” He called me back in about 5 minutes to tell me that the machine was on and to proceed with the fax transmission. On my end, I pressed the send button on my computer and waited patiently for him to call me back to inform me that he’d received my fax. 10 minutes … 20 minutes … 1 hour. Finally, 2 hours later he called me back and said that he had to use the “fax machine” to take a call. In other words, the fax was on the same line as his phone number. Over the course of 5 days, we played this game of fax tag.

Let’s fast forward to the 21st century. On my end, I’ve been able to send and receive faxes by email for years. But, then again, I’m a technology geek, so I tend to adopt technology early. Mind you, though, sending and receiving faxes by email is not rocket science stuff. If you can turn on a computer, open your email and attach a file, you can send a fax via email. Those are literally the steps you take to do this 21st century task. And, the receiver of the fax has no idea that the fax was not sent via a regular fax machine. Conversely, receiving a fax to your email is just as easy. The fax is sent by the sender to your “fax number”, which essentially turns it into an email attachment. If you can read an email and open an attachment, you’ve just figured out how to get a fax by email.

What are some of the benefits of a solution like this? Let’s see let me count the ways. Firstly, I’m a big proponent of everything virtual … virtual phones … virtual office … virtual assistant, and yes, virtual faxes. One of the biggest benefits of getting your fax via email is saving on the massive amounts of paper faxes generate. Virtual faxing is good for your pocket book and good for our planet. In other words, print only what you need. Another great benefit is the ability to be anywhere on the planet. You can literally be on the beaches of Hawaii and receive your faxes. Isn’t that a lovely thought? Finally, and this is by no means an exhaustive list, you don’t have to hang up on the person you’re talking to in order to send or receive a fax … keep on talking!

What are the downsides to receiving faxes via email? For one thing, there is a monthly fee associated with it. But, the costs are minimal, some as low as 7 bucks a month. What about signatures? I’ve scanned my signature into my computer. So, I simply cut and paste my signature onto a fax document and voila, I’m done. I hate paper and love the freedom to be anywhere I want to be, unshackled by a physical device. Now, isn’t that worth the prices of a couple of What are the downsides to receiving faxes via email? For one thing, there is a monthly fee associated with it. But, the costs are minimal, some as low as 7 bucks a month. What about signatures? I’ve scanned my signature into my computer. So, I simply cut and paste my signature onto a fax document and voila, I’m done. I hate paper and love the freedom to be anywhere I want to be, unshackled by a physical device. Now, isn’t that worth the prices of a couple of Starbucks Frappachinos a month?

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