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25 Small Business Experts, Blogs and Influencers to Track in 2010
Introduction
There’s no disputing the big impact of small businesses. They account for 52 percent of all U.S. workers and some 19.6 million Americans work for companies employing fewer than 20 workers. But while it’s difficult to pinpoint today’s star small business players, there are a few stand-outs worth considering. Here’s a list of some top 25 small business experts, blogs and influencers.
Analysis
EXPERTS
Joseph A. Michelli: Speaker, author, and organizational consultant, Michelli is probably best known for his book, “The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary,” which achieved bestseller status on the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek magazine lists.
Kare Anderson: A former Wall Street Journal reporter and Emmy-winner, Anderson is the author of scores of books including “SmartPartnering” and “Getting What You Want: How to Reach Agreement and Resolve Conflict Every Time.” Her blog, Say It Better, offers small business owners practical advice on everything from communication skills to proofreading.
Dawn Rivers Baker: An award-winning small business journalist, Rivers Baker regularly reports on and analyzes small business policy and research as the publisher of the MicroEnterprise. She also publishes research at the Microbusiness Research Institute. Her blog can be read at The MicroEnterprise Journal Blog.
Ramon Ray: The founder and editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, Ray provides small businesses with up-to-the-minute insight and news on technology. He is also the founder of the Small Business Technology Summit and founder of Taste of Technology, an ongoing series of small business educational and networking events.
Anita Campbell: Founder and executive editor of of the popular website Small Business Trends, Campbell keeps her finger on the pulse of hot happenings in the small business market and technology trends. She is also the host of Small Business Trends Radio.
Jan Norman: A newspaper reporter and columnist, Norman has authored books rife with practical small business advice including “What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business” and “What No One Ever Tells You About Franchising.” Her coverage of small business has been honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration with its top national award for journalists.
The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship: This independent organization is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs advance their businesses. Its 1,000 members from universities, businesses and nonprofit organizations pool their expertise to foster entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors.\
David Monkman: President and CEO of the National Business Incubation Association, Monkman has worked for the United States Agency for International Development and the European Commission. Each year, the NBIA provides small business owners with information, education, advocacy and networking resources.
BLOGS
Entrepreneur Daily Dose: Entrepreneur magazine’s Daily Dose blog is a one-stop shop for business owners looking for fast and reader-friendly tips on topics including Facebook etiquette, employee healthcare and angel investors.
The Small Business Blog: WinWeb CEO Stefan Topfer offers bulleted and brief entries for a quick fix on subjects such as advertising, customer service and time management.
The Global Small Business Blog: This self-proclaimed “definitive blog for entrepreneurs and small businesses interested in going global” was formed for the purpose of helping entrepreneurs and small businesses expand their businesses internationally.
Small Business Trends: Not sure how to leverage Twitter? Wondering if you’re cut out to work from home? This blog can help by offering useful tips, as well as late-breaking news briefs.
Small Business Brief: A compilation of some of today’s most eye-catching news headlines – and links to full articles – to save small business owners the time and trouble of having to search for pertinent news items.
Inc.com: Inc magazine’s staff writers contribute well-researched and superbly written entries on everything from choosing an investor to bank reform legislation.
Business Insider: Sharp, topical and irreverent entries on topics that may not pertain to small businesses per se but that every entrepreneur should know and understand.
Small Biz Resource: An IT blog for small business owners looking for a deeper understanding of everything from industry analyst reports to server performance.
Flyte: For small businesses that can’t afford to hire a consulting company, Flyte, a Web design and Internet marketing company, delivers web marketing strategies in bite-size blog entries.
The Retail Email Blog: A daily guide to what’s going on in the world of retail email marketing, this blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers.
TechCrunch: Find out what’s happening daily in the start-up world with smartly packaged news items and business profiles.
INFLUENCERS
Dr. Ivan Misner: Founder and chairman of BNI (Business Network International), Misner perfected the art of business networking with his member-heavy organization. Known as ‘the father of modern networking,’ he is also a New York Times best-selling author.
U.S. Small Business Administration: This federal government agency is committed to helping, counseling and protecting the interests of small businesses. It lays claim to an extensive – and powerful – network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations.
National Small Business Association: This nonprofit membership organization represents sectors from retail to technology and helps advocate on behalf of its members before the Executive Branch, the Small Business Administration and Congress.
Guy Kawasaki: Managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, Kawasaki is a regular on the lecture circuit and is the author of nine books including “The Art of the Start” and “Selling the Dream.”
Henry Blodget: CEO and editor-in-chief of The Business Insider, Blodget is a former Wall Street analyst and is the host of Yahoo TechTicker, a Yahoo Finance video show viewed by several million people a month.
Jim Blasingame: President and founder of Small Business Network, Blasingame reaches audiences far and wide. He is the creator and host of The Small Business Advocate Show, a weekday radio talk show, and conducts over 1,000 live interviews annually with his Brain Trust, a community of small business experts.
Conclusion
Consider this list of 25 experts, blogs and influencers a reference point as you start-up and build your small business. Please feel free to leave feedback about your personal favorites in the comment section below.
Events
- Social Media and Content Marketing For Business Q&A Feb 14 @ 11 am PT
- #TNLive Radio: Workforce Marketing & Recruitment Feb 14 @ 4 pm PT
- The Rise of Pinterest in B2B Feb 15 @ 11 am PT
- ERP – Priming Your Business to Deliver Value From Strategy to Operations Feb 15 @ 1 pm PT
- How Not to Coach Your Salespeople Feb 16 @ 1 pm PT
Related Activity
13 Comments
Cindy - Thanks for putting together a great list of experts for people to follow.
Having been involved in the SMB market for over 20 years, I thought I'd give you some additional small business experts: Rieva Lesonsky, Barbara Weltman, Karen Kerrigan, Andrew Sherman, Norm Brodsky, Bo Burlingham, SCORE (Ken Yancey & Devon Jopp), Beth Goldstein, Tim Berry, Jerry Silberman, Sam Richter, Dileep Rao, Martin Regalia, Joe Knight, Chad Moutray and Ray Keating--in addition to the people you have listed above.
These people are some of the smartest people I know in the SMB market (I'm sure that I've mistakenly left people off my list).
Thanks again.
In addition to Focus, of course, I follow Anita Campbell and @smallbiztrends on Twitter religiously.
Michael, thank you SO MUCH for including me in your list -- and also including my site, Small Business Trends. And thanks for following me on Twitter, too.
And now you've made me want to explore more about Focus.com, too. :-)
- Anita
Thank you so much for including Small Business Brief on your list! It's an honor to be included.
WOW! What an extreme honor to be recognized with such incredible colleagues. I will forever be in your debt. Joseph Michelli
I already regulary follow Jim Blasingame and Anita Campbell for consistent, high quality content. But, I see there are a number of others I need to start following ASAP. Thanks for this great list.
Wow! What an honor to be included in such a collection of quality people and organizations. Proud to say many of the individuals on the list have been members of my Brain Trust for years. Thanks for the warm fuzzy - you've made my mother very happy. - Jim
Thank you very much for including me in this illustrious list of small business advisers & bloggers - I am very grateful.
VB, Stefan
“When you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day ...
when you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life”
Dear Focus,
Like millions of legal immigrants, my grandparents came to America for the freedoms and opportunities this exceptional country has to offer. They worked 15 hour days to give their children a better life than they had. My father, in the spirit of Horatio Alger, worked his way from rags to riches. By building his own business, he not only created a job for himself and his own employees, he helped to create and sustain jobs for the employees of all his suppliers.
Today, we all agree that small business is the engine that creates jobs and grows our economy, however most Americans have no idea how to get a product to the marketplace. Over the years, schools have taught most Americans how to be corporate employees. It’s time to go back to the basics and teach Americans how to start and build a business of their own.
After starting from scratch, we spent 25 years, selling over 20 million of our own diversified products ... and, we spent another 25 years teaching our proven methods to over 2 million Americans. Most of our students experienced great success, and were able to employ many others. In the past few years, we made our methods even more user friendly, affordable, and accessable, by digitizing all our instructional materials. We are offering a free video presentation at www.cossman.com, which shows Americans how they can start and build their own full-time, or part-time business, with little or no money, even if they have never been in business before.
We sincerely believe that our program could help get Americans back to work, create jobs, and stimulate our economy. Any mention of our program on your behalf would be greatly appreciated. For more information about us and our program, please visit our website at: www.cossman.com
With Kind Regards,
Howard Cossman
Cossman International Marketing
Cindy,
I am deeply honored by your inclusion of my blog Say it Better as I, too, am a fan of many of the sites you listed.
For those running a small business my other blogs may also be helpful:
http://www.movingfrommetowe.com
http://howwepartner.com/
http://www.sunidesigns.com
Great post, I often feel like many of the tasks
I do online are like grunt work, and like you I agree
it was not the way I wanted to run an online business,
I wanted everything more easy and automated.
The 2 out 3 rule sounds good to me, I will be implementing that now,
I was never sure what ratio to use for mailings.
I have tried, failed and gave up, but now I am back to try again,
with a new passion so hopefully I can find the way that works for me this time,
thanks for this post, it really helped me
it is an honor to be included on this impressive list. For small business owners my blogs How We Partner and Moving From Me to We may be as helpful as the one listed - Say it Better
And, Cindy, thank you! Because of your list five writers for different trade journals have called to interview me - so you have a following here at Focus!
Missing from this list is the Big Daddy of them all, Michael Gerber, author of the perennial best-seller "The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What To Do About It". Don't start a business without reading this book as INC Magazine advised.
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