One on One Interviews

We're looking back at 2022 on this final episode of Small Biz in :15 for the year. Check out the highlights from business experts who chatted with us in the first 7 months of our show. During that time, we learned about some amazing business tips, advice and how you can stay abreast of changing trends. We're positive that entrepreneurs and solopreneurs can take away some priceless business gems from the interviews and use them to elevate their small businesses in the year 2023 and beyond.

In this episode of Small Biz in :15, Executive Editor Shawn Hessinger talks with Jim Kukral and they discuss ways small business owners can better market their companies, brands, products and services to reach more people.

Are you looking for ways to create the perfect lead magnet to collect more clients and customers? In this episode, Annie P. Ruggles Founder of the Non-Sleazy Sales Academy (tongue firmly in cheek on that one) shares tips with us for creating a lead magnet that will help you attract more leads and close more deals. Don’t miss this inspirational overview of how to create a lead, magnet, prospects won't be able to resist, and what all it has to do with King Arthur and Merlin, for a fun twist.

Rieva Lesonsky joins host Shawn Hessinger of Small Business Trends to discuss the latest retail trends, including how to understand Millennial and Gen Z shopping habits.

James Clift discusses how to use artificial intelligence to build a small business website in this latest episode of Small Biz in :15.

On this latest episode of Small Biz in :15, host Shawn Hessinger talks with Monique Johnson to discuss the topic of hybrid events, those held both in-person and virtually, for small businesses.

A little over a year ago I spoke with Bryan Catanzaro of Nvidia about some of the interesting technology they were developing in the areas of graphical AI, voice synthesis and conversational/speech AI. Bryan shared a vision of the future of what things like machine learning and deep learning could do to impact the way we experience the world around us. And while some of the things like AI creating things like art and music and human sounding voices get a lot of attention, there are some more...

If you are interested in buying a franchise, you might be surprised to discover that ones like Dunkin', and McDonald's probably aren't the opportunities that potential franchise owners should be looking at. In this latest episode of Small Biz in :15, The Franchise King Joel Libava sits down with us in this episode to tell us about the latest franchise trends and what you should look for in a franchise opportunity.

Ecommerce expert John “ColderIce” Lawson and I recently transitioned our Watching Amazon show/podcast into Pass the Mic. The new name doesn’t mean we’ve grown tired of, well, watching Amazon, as we still plan to do plenty of that with all the things the company is into. But by rebranding it as PTM it allows us to broaden the topics and companies we can dive into, and of course TikTok is a great example of that. In fact, there have been a few recent reports of TikTok potentially following in...

If you need curated content for your business, you may think about doing it alone, especially if you're a good writer. However, this may not be the best course of action. Instead, it may be best to hire a professional copywriter. They can help you create compelling, engaging content that will help you attract more customers and grow your business. In today's Small Biz in: 15 video, David Leonhardt, President of THGM Writing Services, explains why hiring a copywriter is often a better idea...

Chris Hurn joins Shawn Hessinger to discuss how rising interest rates could affect small business loans now and in the future.

As the year has gone on I’ve been dipping my toes back into the industry conference scene more and more. And while I’m gearing up for my first trip to Vegas in three years for Oracle CloudWorld, Hurricane Ian kept me from getting there a couple of weeks ago for Oracle NetSuite’s SuiteWorld conference. SuiteWorld is a conference I’ve attended a number of times over the years, and with it being physically back I was looking forward to sitting down with company founder and Oracle EVP Evan...

In the latest edition of Small Biz in :15, we discuss the impact of higher gas prices on small businesses and how to deal with them.

This week marks the 31st year of celebrating Customer Service Week, an international celebration of the importance of customer service and of the people who serve and support customers on a daily basis. Many companies are participating in the spirit of the week’s salute to customer service workers with a look towards improving the service experience from both the customer and the employee perspective. Pegasystems, a leading customer engagement platform vendor, is hosting a free webinar on...

Are you in the repair business? If so, you'll want to check out this Small Biz in: 15 episode, where we discuss Right to Repair and how it impacts small businesses, especially when it comes to the electronics repair business. The U.S. House Committee on Small Business recently held a hearing on the right to repair and what it means for entrepreneurs. Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition, testified at the hearing and spent some time with us explaining...

The One-on-One series here at Small Business Trends was an idea I had that I shared with SBT publisher Anita Campbell, and she was gracious enough to allow me to give it a whirl. And the first conversation I had for the series was with Jon Ferrara, who is the cofounder of Goldmine (which he sold back near the turn of the century) and more recently the founder of Nimble. Well, that initial conversation took place twelve years ago this month, and to mark the occasion I recently caught up with...

Are you aware that Amazon offers last-mile services through delivery service partners? They do. And if you are thinking about a small business opportunity in this fascinating logistics niche, you'll want to check out this episode where Brent Leary, the Managing Partner at CRM Essentials, talks to Small Business Trends about his amazing visit to an Amazon delivery station in the Atlanta metro area and the important role small businesses play in Amazon's last mile.

This week I’m headed off to Dreamforce, Salesforce’s huge annual user conference, for the first time in three years. Before the pandemic shut everything down, 170,000 people attended Dreamforce in 2019. And while the conference took a few baby steps the last couple of years with very limited amounts of people attending the event in San Francisco, many more people experienced it virtually on Salesforce+, the streaming platform Salesforce created when all their physical events had to be...

Next week Salesforce’s big industry event, Dreamforce, is back in full force for the first time since the pandemic. It’s the 20th anniversary of the first Dreamforce, and they’re expecting about 150,000 folks to descend on San Francisco, which is not that far off from where it left off in 2019. As I get ready to head out west for Dreamforce, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Salesforce’s Chief Equality Officer Lori Castillo-Martinez. Salesforce has been a leader in the area of...

Vibhav Vankayala, Product Marketing, Zoho Corporation and Dilip Nagarjaran, product manager of Zoho CRM discuss some of the surprising things a small business owner can do with CRM software.