FastUpFront Blog:

One of the positive outcomes of an economic slowdown is the innovation that can come out of it. As businesses big and small scramble to capture precious consumer turf, what has emerged is a bold, new attitude in business marketing. All the sluggish sales and depleted consumer confidence were no doubt the driving force behind [...]

Collective buying, or group buying, is a new trend that benefits businesses and consumers alike. Group buying websites, such as www.groupon.com, offer discounts on goods and services. Unlike traditional coupon sites, they encourage consumers to spread the buzz and bring in other customers by guaranteeing the bargains only if enough customers take advantage of the [...]

Smack in the middle of all the social networking hype that has been generated over the past few years there is Facebook- a site that lets users add people as “friends”, designate themselves as”fans”of other users, send messages, and update their personal profiles. With more than 400 million active users, many, including this blog, saw [...]

Generating publicity is a major part of any small business marketing campaign. But when tight budgets meet up with lack of know how, many excellent opportunities can go to waste. Small business owners looking to expand their marketing tactics on a shoe string may want to consider these options: 

Send out a press release. Expanding your [...]

The prolific growth of the Internet and Web2.0 has been a boon for market researchers in that it has simplified the process of collecting and generating quality market data.
To run a successful small business these days, conducting effective market research is a must. Market research is a dynamic process focused on understanding the relationship between [...]

I saw a recent post at womenonbusines about how important it is for small business owners to seek out public speaking opportunities- even if those opportunities are unpaid. I couldn’t agree more.
With all the emphasis these days on online social networking and hyper-connected, mobile technology, still nothing beats a face-to-face meeting. In the business world, [...]

In a previous post, I listed my picks for the top small business blogs. But as the economy continues to sputter along and the credit markets remain tight (especially for small businesses), I wanted to highlight those blogs that are specifically targeted to those small and home-based business owners committed to bootstrapping- those who seek [...]

According to recent research, retail sales have fallen over the last month even as the back-to-school shopping season gets into high gear, and industry forecasters claim that this does not bode well for the upcoming holiday season either.
 

(Image Credit)
So the looming question for retailers big and small continues to be how to maintain or even [...]

A few weeks ago, I posted this article offering a few tips on how small business owners can grow their businesses during the recession. As I noted in the post, even in this dismal economy some businesses are thriving.
But for the majority of smaller businesses the focus has become just trying to hunker down and [...]

I recently came across this article in the English Observer that put words to a new cultural and economic reality that is taking shape here in the U.S.:
…The era of individualistic consumption that swept aside the Great Society of the 1960s has come to an end. For three decades, American culture has celebrated the glories [...]