The Small Business Summit is an annual event in New York for independent entrepreneurs across the nation. It’s a one day only extravaganza scheduled for March 8th that’s filled with tons of exciting opportunities. The day will be jam packed with presentations, tech demonstrations, marketing seminars, and great food. Lots of media representatives will be in attendance and the break sessions provide ample time for serious networking. This year’s growing list of sponsors includes Bing, Epson, Intuit, Deluxe for Business, and Marchex. The day’s agenda features plenty of knowledgeable speakers that represent big name companies, such as Christopher McCann of 1-800-Flowers.com, Jigsaw CEO Jim Fowler, and Smallbiztechnology.com editor Ramon Ray.

Best of all, there will be several awards for standout companies from a wide variety of industries. The summit is still accepting nominations for both categories. Arguably the most prestigious of the two, the Small Business Strategy Award honors a single trail blazer for succeeding in spite of difficult obstacles. In this economy, almost everyone is struggling to stay afloat; the award is reserved for someone that used their wits to develop and implement a plan that paid off in the end. The winner can come from any field, but he or she must be able to produce precise data to demonstrate a significant increase in profits and/or market share. The only other stipulation is that the winning entity’s revenues must not exceed $10 million per year. Individuals are free to nominate themselves or someone else. The deadline for submitting applications is February 1st, so get cracking!

Then there’s the Hot Technology award, which focuses on 10 companies that are offering game changing products. Winners will take part in an exclusive demonstration expedition in front of an audience of roughly 500 fellow entrepreneurs as well as journalists. Entrants are asked to do a bit of self-examination prior to completing the application process, though. Ask yourself how innovative your idea, product, or service truly is because the summit is not interested in run of the mill stuff. Take a look at last year’s winners list to determine whether or not you measure up to this elite group. The deadline for high tech all-star submissions is February 8th.

There’s plenty of time left to register for the general festivities. Super early bird entrance rates are no longer available, but pre-registering is still recommended to ensure entrance and reduced admission fees. The early bird price of $149 will be available until February 16th. Otherwise, regular admission tickets cost $199. Those unable to make a physical appearance are welcome to watch live streaming video for only $29. For additional information or registration, please visit the small business summit website here.

Are you going to the Small Business Summit? Planning on nominating someone for an award? Tell us all about it!

Email marketing has been a staple of small business internet advertising for several years. The current emphasis on social media shouldn’t detract from this effective tool, although it may have changed the game in important ways. Here’s a quick rundown of few ways to update your email marketing strategy for 2011.

#1) Consider Your Mobile Readers- Many people now access their email primarily via Smartphone. This is good in the sense that it means your customers are able to learn about exciting promotions almost instantaneously wherever they may be. At the same time, the mobile browsing experience is different from that of traditional computing. For instance, large images don’t load very quickly, even with 3g network coverage. Smartphone email works the best with small pictures or none at all. Single columns featuring black text against a white background is the optimal format for Smartphone viewing. That doesn’t mean you have to completely alter your campaigns; your emails can be Smartphone friendly with a few minor adjustments. Try to use smaller pictures and don’t plaster the page with logos, rich media, or too much text. If possible, provide a text-only version and make sure it’s readily available. Economize space by playing journalist. Fit the critical details in at the top of the message, then flesh out the finer points later. This way your mobile subscribers can get the pertinent facts without having to read the entire thing.

#2) Integrate Platforms- There’s no need to keep everything separate. Post a link to your Facebook page, Twitter account, etc. by your business logo in the email. In the same vein, let people subscribe to your email list from your social networking profiles. At the same time, you don’t want to risk being repetitive. No one wants to hear the same thing 4 or 5 times. Instead, assign the management of each account to a different employee and let the customers know who’s doing what. Set guidelines in terms of appropriate content, but give the staff a certain degree of freedom so as not to stifle their individual personalities. This means everything will be written in a unique voice and the customers will be able to get to know the workers better. If you don’t have enough employees to accomplish this, then get a second opinion on your own content. Ask your husband/wife, friends, or relatives to proofread the texts and point out monotonous phrasing. Find out what your customers enjoy reading and what they consider tedious.

#3) Track Your Campaigns- Planning is always beneficial when it comes to small business marketing. Timing emails to correspond to holidays, seasons, etc. lures in customers as do exclusive sales and special offers. Still, it’s nearly impossible to measure your ROI without sophisticated software. Take advantage of tagging capabilities for both links and images. Once you’ve identified a lucrative model, analyze what made it so enticing to your customers.

Do you have any other tips for email marketing campaigns? Share them with our community of independent companies!

We’ve written a lot about taking advantage of the marketing potential that social media affords. Not only are most of these platforms cost free, they are also relatively easy to use. The web is filled with social media success stories as well as advertising tips, and small business owners are slowly embracing this unique resource. Some are going a step further by using social media to recruit tech savvy new employees. This strategy may not work for everyone, but it certainly opens up interesting opportunities and increases the likelihood of finding forward thinking individuals. While there’s been tons of talk with respect to these matters, there’s fairly little hard data to support the generalizations.

That’s why the fine folks over at Postling conducted an extensive survey of their users to discover what local entrepreneurs are really doing on the web. Here’s a graphic representation of their findings:

They discovered that the top seven social media sites for small business owners are, respectively, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, Flickr, Tumblr, and Blogger. However, this information is only half of the story. When it comes to regular activity, roughly 50% of the customer interaction takes place on Twitter with 47% happening on Facebook. That’s a combined total of 97%! This isn’t very surprising because these two sites are more open by design. LinkedIn is a place to establish professional connections, not answer customer questions, post photos, or showcase your sense of humor. WordPress and Blogger both permit comments on posts, unless the administrator disables this feature. Nevertheless, the content expectations for blogs are very different from those of Twitter and Facebook. Chances are consumers know that communicating through a blog comment isn’t going to bring instant results whereas Twitter replies usually arrive within a few hours.

The stats also illustrate the growing divide between Twitter and Facebook. Note that of the subjects who have Facebook accounts, 31% of them have multiple profiles, yet their patrons are gravitating towards Twitter instead. Perhaps this is a testament to a decline in Facebook’s popularity, but it’s likely a reflection of Twitter’s business-friendly policies as well. Facebook essentially segregates companies by distinguishing them from non-commercial users; Twitter treats everyone equally, which eliminates unnecessary barriers.

Of course, these results are based on a fairly small sample population. They may not accurately depict the patterns of entrepreneurs off Postling. Or do they? Do you find that these numbers describe your personal social media experience? Put in your 2 cents!

When most entrepreneurs decide that they want to start their own companies, the last thing on their minds is the legal issues entailed. While the start up process varies by state and municipality, there are hosts of confusing and ongoing business matters that require a certain degree of legal expertise regardless of the specific location. Even those that have degrees in fields such as business law will eventually encounter something that they are unfamiliar with, especially when it comes to procedural practices.

The best way to deal with these instances is to hire a skilled attorney, but that might be beyond your financial resources. Working with a lawyer on a regular basis costs thousands of dollars; brief meetings alone may run upwards of $250 per hour. Some attorneys charge their clients the entire hourly rate for a mere 15 minute conversation.

Regular access to a legal professional may be out of reach, but conscientious small business owners are welcome to attend the Entrepreneur’s Law School at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. The all day event takes place on Saturday, January 29th, 2011, from 9am to 4pm on campus at the university student union. The meeting is sponsored in part by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) and Key Bank, so prospective attendees can rest assured that it will be a reputable conference. The day will consist of numerous hour long information sessions conducted by qualified attorneys that specialize in small business concerns as well as distinguished faculty members. A wide variety of topics that pertain to small business ownership will be covered, including hiring/firing policies, health care, worker’s compensation, contracts, intellectual property rights, immigration, and financing, among other things. There will also be a special lunch featuring key note speaker state senator and president of First National Bank of the Gulf Coast, Garret S. Richter. In addition to the symposium, there will be a training seminar for certification to sit on a Board of Directors. Obviously, the facts presented will be of the most use to Florida residents, but entrepreneurs from other states are welcome, too.

There are several admission options for those interested in making an appearance. For $75, you can choose to participate in either the morning or the afternoon festivities. This fee applies to those attending the morning training session, although these individuals will not be charged should they decide to stick around for the rest of the day. Otherwise, an all day pass is $95. A few lucky folks will be able to get in for half price through the scholarship program; contact Dr. Beth Hagan for further details. Prices are going to be higher at the door, so be sure to register as soon as possible. To access the registration form, click here.