FastUpFront Small Business Blog

Business rewards cards are long time tools of the trade for credit card companies. Offering eye-catching rewards and money-saving opportunities is a tactic credit card companies use to lure small business owners into a new account. If you have good credit, you can be disciplined with your spending, and you make the effort to research [...]

While the human price is paramount and therefore cannot be measured, what impact does terrorism have on business, especially small businesses that may not have the resources available to large corporations to recover? Whenever there is a threat or attack gas prices increase, job security decreases (as businesses are forced to close or reservists are [...]

If you were thinking about getting a business charge card for your company, and you have good credit, then don’t miss out on this hot deal for the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card. For a limited-time only American Express is offering new Business Gold cardholders 50,000 Membership Rewards points when they spend $5,000 in 3 months. [...]

The term “entrepreneur” has evolved recently into this mushy catch-all phrase that can really mean several different things- especially in the Age of the Internet where many of the barriers to entry have come down in an unprecedented way. But while many people may be proudly claiming this title, very few can claim it successfully. [...]

After Google started changing the search game a couple of years back, there’s been a lot of discussion about blogging “authority.” Now, plenty of people throw around the term indiscriminately. But what does being an authority within a given blogging niche look like? And, how do you get there with your business blog? If you [...]

Have you spent a tremendous amount of time, effort, or money (or all of the above) trying to make Internet marketing work for your small business, but have nothing to show for it? Do you look at the web and scratch your head wondering what all the fuss is about? Do you have an “unsexy” [...]

Have you ever walked in to a store intending to buy one or two things and then walked out with five other items? Have you ever gotten home, looked at your purchases, and wondered what you were thinking? Chances are pretty high that you’ve fallen for some old retailing tricks that subtly encourage you to [...]

If you are thinking about starting a new business or you are already in those early growth stages, then you’ve probably heard about the importance of writing up a good business plan. While having this collection of research, projections, goals, and strategies is very important, what many small business experts and consultants fail to mention [...]

Effective inventory management is one of the keys to running a profitable business, and yet it amazes me how out of touch some business owners can be about the flow of products in and out of their companies. Inventory management is all about balance and flexibility. If you buy too much inventory, too often, then [...]

As you go about allocating your online marketing dollars, you may wonder at some point if you should be pouring money into a Google AdWords campaign, or trying your luck with Facebook advertising. Though Facebook gets a lot of negative press- especially among smaller businesses looking for ROI on their Facebook presence- there are plenty [...]