Business Barometer Survey Shows Q2 Weakness

Worse results in some categories, calmness in others

The results of the Capital One Small Business Barometer survey have been released, and they’re not altogether positive.  Between the first and second quarters of this year, some small business owners lost confidence in certain aspects of the economy and their companies.

Capital One said in a formal statement, “In the first quarter, 39 percent of small business owners surveyed said that economic conditions for their business were improving, but this number dropped to 32 percent in the second quarter of this year.”

Also, “Only 26 percent of small business owners surveyed say they plan to add employees to the payroll over the next six months, down 6 percentage points since last quarter but consistent with results throughout 2009.”

The news isn’t all bad, though, as other figures seem to be stabilizing.  Compared to one year ago, for example, fewer small businesses saw their finances worsen in the second quarter, and more small businesses saw their finances improve.  Plus, fewer small businesses expressed concerns about credit and financing.

We also have something a little bit positive to report insofar as the Dow hasn’t crashed today; it’s just down 0.11 percent at the moment.

Let’s hope those last few facts mean the second part of a double-dip recession isn’t in the cards.  Or that it’s at least on the mild side of things if it must occur.

Submit Articles For More Traffic

Need more, targeted, Website traffic? These days pay-per-click advertising has gotten prohibitively expensive. And competition for search engine rankings is tough.

While social networking can be a terrific way to drive traffic it requires a clear strategy and a whole lot of work. That’s why I love submitting articles to online databases (and social networking sites where possible!). It doesn’t take much time or cost a thing. And the people who read your articles and click through to your site have already decide they like what you have to say.

Plus, other people can republish your articles as long as they include your author attribution. That means more eyeballs on reading your work and more links back to your site. All good things for increasing Website traffic, both in terms of numbers and quality.

You can start with big, generalist sites like ezinearticles.com. But to find the best sites for you, Google “online article submission sites + your main topic”.

10th Anniversary Of Small Biz Lending Program Celebrated

$195 million to 468 firms for sake of 5,308 jobs

About ten years ago, a small business lending program called Banking on Business launched, and now, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh (abbreviated FHLBank) has taken stock of what it’s accomplished.  The biggest matter: at least 5,000 people who might otherwise be unemployed have jobs.

FHLBank explained in a statement that the initiative “has provided $195 million in financing to 468 businesses across Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia over the past ten years, creating or retaining 5,308 jobs.”

That’s an impressive accomplishment, since even if the counts were off by half, a whole lot of businesses and individuals received help.

The program has apparently accomplished enough to warrant a congressman’s appearance, too, as Pennsylvania’s Paul E. Kanjorski showed up at a small event.

Kanjorski said, “I am delighted to honor the community lenders who have helped many small businesses to get off the ground, grow, and succeed.  Since its inception, the Banking On Business initiative has, at no cost to taxpayers, created thousands of jobs in the region and assisted hundreds of small businesses to strengthen our local economy.”

Let’s hope many of the banking programs that are starting to get off the ground as we come out of the recession have similar effects.

Take Advantage of Advertising Right Now!

Low-cost opportunities for small businesses

Advertising is expensive, especially for small businesses. However, advertising is at one of its most affordable points right now, thanks to the economic downturn. Both advertising and media companies have been forced to reduce their prices, which have opened many doors for small businesses.

More SmallBusinessNewz Videos

For this reason, these companies are now more willing to work with smaller businesses. As pointed out in the above video, the best part is that small businesses pay less for services. Many of these services include advertising opportunities that most small businesses could only dream of in the past.

For instance, most small businesses do not have budgets for televisions spots. Due to price decreases, it is a possibility. Before the recession, a 30-second television spot could run as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fortunately today, this same ad could cost be as low as $500, according to TelevisionAdvertising.com.

Small businesses can also take advantage of billboards. This form of advertising is also seeing difficulty and has lowered its rates as well.

Fortunately, these low-cost opportunities exist online too. Advances in technology have helped businesses obtain more information regarding user demographics, habits, interests, and more. As a result, businesses can offer more customized ads, which helps them reach their target market.

Google AdWords and Facebook ad campaigns are both viable online opportunities. Each of these platforms allows users to set up their campaigns based on their budget. In addition, users can make adjustments on an as-needed basis.

Mobile advertising is another affordable area for small businesses. The Kelsey Group projects that the mobile advertising market will expand up to $3.1 billion dollars by 2013. With platforms such as Google’s AdMob and Apple’s iAd, it seems likely that this prediction will come true.

Lastly, social media provides many advertising opportunities for small businesses. Sites such as Twitter are giving some businesses better results than traditional platforms are. Foursquare and the newly introduced Facebook Places are also allow businesses reach their target through special discounts and giveaways. These location-based services have experiences tremendous growth over the last year.

So, it’s not so hopeless after all, is it? Can you think of any other areas of advertising that small businesses can take advantage of right now?

AdWords Small Business Corner Introduced

New subforum designed as place to share advice

Small business owners who would like a little help when it comes to AdWords have a new option in terms of places to go for advice.  Google’s created the AdWords Small Business Corner to act as an environment where individuals can get together and exchange tips.

Overwhelmed with the number of tools available?  Find yourself signing into AdWords every six minutes to little effect?  It’s these sorts of things (and more) that Google means for everyone to address with the new section of the AdWords Help Forum.

A post on the Inside AdWords Blog explained, “This new category is not about troubleshooting specific account issues, but rather about sharing and learning from the experiences of others.”

Sample topics then included “[c]hoosing the right tools to measure results,” “[h]ow to write great ads,” and “[f]inding the right frequency to sign in to AdWords.”

Assuming enough people weigh in (and that is a major hurdle with every new community) the Small Business Corner should prove quite useful.  Small business owners are in a pretty good position to understand other small business owners’ needs, after all.

And with regards to the community’s chattiness, we’ll note that topics are averaging about five replies each at the moment.