Small Biz Flash

FEATURE Chances are, few of the commercial depositors had checked into these banks’ health before doing business with them. But even if they had, the Wall Street Journal reports that SVB’s trouble wasn’t reflected in credit ratings. What can you as a small business owner or manager do to protect your assets, especially if you must keep high amounts of operating capital? One option is to spread your funds across multiple banks so your accounts do not exceed $250,000 at any one...

FEATURE Remember the caveats from last week regarding ChatGPT, including it isn’t 100% correct all the time. And don’t depend on it to dispense legal and professional advice. ChatGPT can help you write a business plan. You can refine ChatGPT’s original output by giving it follow-up commands or asking follow-up questions. ChatGPT can compose scripts for videos, draft procedure documents, and just about anything else you can imagine. But you always need to review them for accuracy and...

FEATURE ChatGPT is a conversational AI chatbot. Open AI is the developer of ChatGPT and is now offering access to the general public. ChatGPT can help you write content for your small business, such as blog posts. But, you can’t just copy and paste. It will need some refining. Plus, Google can detect AI-generated content. ChatGPT must still be fact-checked. You can also generate a title for your blog post using ChatGPT, and a tweet to promote the blog as well. Don’t use ChatGPT to...

FEATURE YouTube ads can accelerate the process of building up your audience on the platform, and give your brand more exposure. One of the great things about YouTube advertising is that you can target viewers based on the keywords they are searching for on YouTube, but also on Google (which owns YouTube). There are numerous other ways to refine your target audience, to get very specific. Among video ads, there are three main types. First, skippable in-stream ads are those you can pass...

FEATURE Your YouTube strategy has to be sustainable, so you don’t quit after a few weeks or months. Dig into old blog articles or speeches you’ve given that could be updated and turned into short videos. YouTube’s algorithm rewards videos that hold the attention of the viewer. Once you have the video produced and on your YouTube channel, share it across all your communication channels. You don’t need a super slick, highly polished video to get your message out. Create playlists around...

FEATURE Resources: Wyzowl Video Marketing Statistics 2023 https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/ What is the Ideal Length of Videos on YouTube? https://www.tubics.com/blog/how-to-master-on-long-form-video-content ---------- NEWS ROUNDUP 1 A poll by the invoicing platform Skynova found that 91% of small companies are currently labor hoarding. https://www.skynova.com/blog/small-business-and-labor-hoarding 2 The federal government could do a better job of interacting...

Today’s guest is Damon Zick, owner of Life Brand Academy: Damon’s email: damon@damonzick.com Damon’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damonzick/ Life Brand Academy’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@lifebrandacademy ---------- NEWS ROUNDUP 1 The number of new jobs created soared to 517,000 in January. https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/jobs-report-shows-massive-hiring-in-january-what-the-experts-are-saying January one-month annualized hourly earnings growth for...

Join us at Illuminate 2023 on Tuesday, February 7. FREE admission! Details and registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/illuminate-feb-7th-2023-tickets-519912471197 ---------- Today’s guest is Jonathan Bill, owner of SBS Accounting & Advisors: Jonathan’s email: jbill@sbsaccountants.com Jonathan’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbsaccounting/ SBS Accounting & Advisors: https://sbsaccountants.com/ ---------- NEWS ROUNDUP 1 Small business owners are more upbeat now than...

Join us at Illuminate 2023 on Tuesday, February 7. FREE admission! Details and registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/illuminate-feb-7th-2023-tickets-519912471197 ---------- Today’s guest is Jonathan Bill, owner of SBS Accounting & Advisors: Jonathan’s email: jbill@sbsaccountants.com Jonathan’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbsaccounting/ SBS Accounting & Advisors: https://sbsaccountants.com/ ---------- NEWS ROUNDUP 1 The producer price index, a wholesale measure of...

NEWS ROUNDUP 1 The rate of inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, cooled in December to 6.5% compared with a year earlier. https://apnews.com/article/december-2022-inflation-report-72bb938a443ab0500bd72d23f62214ad In a recent poll of economists by the Wall Street Journal, experts put the likelihood of a recession at 61% in the coming...

NEWS ROUNDUP 1 The December jobs report was released late last week, showing continued strength in the labor market. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf Small business owners still plan to add workers in 2023. https://www.nfib.com/content/press-release/economy/nfib-jobs-report-hiring-plans-weaken-in-december-as-labor-shortages-challenge-small-businesses/ The rate of hourly wage growth at small businesses continued to decline to 4.95% year-over-year in...

FEATURE Get More Customers Through Referrals – Surviving the Economic Downturn – Tactic #5 https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-and-mobile-advertising-grows/ https://news.constantcontact.com/press-release-customer-engagement-major-focus-small-business-technology-according-constant-contact-t ---------- NEWS ROUNDUP 1 Retail sales in November fell short of expectations, down 0.6% from the previous...

NEWS ROUNDUP 1 The producer price index, a measure of wholesale inflation, rose 7.4% in November from a year earlier. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm The consumer price index also eased last month, to a year-over-year increase of 7.1%. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm 2 Nearly half of small business owners – 47% – described current conditions as middle of the road for their companies. A majority, 58% said they expect changes in government regulations to...

FEATURE – Health Insurance Options for a Small Business Today’s guest is Monica Watson, owner and president of Hene Watson Advisors: Monica’s email: monica@henewatson.com Monica’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-watson-6582a413 Suggested resource: Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator https://www.kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/ ---------- NEWS ROUNDUP 1 The November jobs report was not as good as the headlines seem. The household survey show a loss of...

NEWS ROUNDUP 1 Durable goods orders were up sharply in October, by 1%, far surpassing analysts’ expectations. https://www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/adv/pdf/durgd.pdf First time jobless claims jumped by 17,000 last week, and are now at a three-month high. https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf 2 The Small Business Administration is proposing a rule to allow more financing companies such to offer SBA-backed 7(a)...

NEWS ROUNDUP 1 Retail sales surged last month 1.3%, exceeding forecasters’ expectations. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/retail-sales A new report out by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows an increase in total household debt in 3Q22 of 2.2% to an all-time high of $16.5 trillion. https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/research/2022/20221115 2 The National Small Business Association is filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Corporate...

NEWS ROUNDUP 1 * The rate of inflation (Consumer Price Index) last month was lower than expected. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm * Inflation at the wholesale level also eased in October. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm * The University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment fell in November. http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/ 2 The Small Business Optimism Index dropped 0.8 points in October to 91.3, the 10th consecutive month the index has been below the...

FEATURE – Advance Your Employees’ Engagement – Part 2 of 2 Today’s guests are Mac and Kim Cantrell, owners of 2 Impact: Mac’s email: mac@2impactlife.com Kim’s email: kim@2impactlife.com Mac’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maccantrell/ Kim’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrcantrell/ 2Impact: https://www.2impactlife.com/ Suggested resources: U.S. Employee Engagement Drops for First Year in a...

FEATURE – Advance Your Employees’ Engagement – Part 1 of 2 Today’s guests are Mac and Kim Cantrell, owners of 2 Impact: Mac’s email: mac@2impactlife.com Kim’s email: kim@2impactlife.com Mac’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maccantrell/ Kim’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrcantrell/ 2Impact: https://www.2impactlife.com/ Suggested resources: U.S. Employee Engagement Drops for First Year in a...

FEATURE – 3 Types of Software Your Small Business Needs Today’s guest is Peter Pin, owner of Sharpin Systems: Peter’s email: peter@gosharpin.com Peter’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergpin/ Sharpin Systems: https://www.gosharpin.com/ Suggested resources: CRMs: Active Campaign https://ActiveCampaign.referralrock.com/l/183RIP9E5SS/ Go High Level https://www.gohighlevel.com/main-page?fp_ref=sharpin Freshsales https://www.freshworks.com/crm/sales/ Task...