Small business owners are more vital to the country’s economy than they think. Cola Daily recently covered the second annual National Small Business Week Conference, this time held in Columbia, South Carolina. The conference stressed the importance of marketing and networking to boost revenue; two practices that aspiring entrepreneurs should follow if they want to be successful in the ever-changing, competitive world of business:

 “Small businesses have created 50 percent of the new jobs in the economy,” said Frank Knapp, president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve held this country together.”

 

Businesses represented a diverse cross-section of industries in the community from insurance, banking, food and beauty. There was also a heavy minority and female presence, representing the city’s push to increase their participation in the local business community.

In fact, the Small Business Administration says that 44 percent of private payrolls in the U.S. all come from companies with 500 employees or less. However, given that they don’t have the same resources as large corporations and multinationals, small businesses can’t launch successful marketing campaigns on their own. This is why Greenville, SC marketing companies, like Spark Local Marketing, primarily offer their expertise to small-time business owners to give them an edge. After all, even the biggest enterprises still encounter problems with their marketing and networking efforts; problems which small businesses may find insurmountable.

For example, it’s a common mistake for some businesses to launch a marketing campaign without first conducting extensive research on their industry. If their customers are mainly comprised of young adults and teens, perhaps the best way to reach out to them is to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. On the other hand, young kids and senior citizens, in general, aren’t as tech-savvy and they tend to prefer more traditional forms of media like posters, TV commercials, and radio plugs.

Some marketing problems can come from business owners simply making the wrong decisions. For instance, a marketing campaign can easily fall apart if the company doesn’t stick to its original marketing plan, perhaps due to lack of time, money, or interest. To help them stay focused, small businesses like yours can rely on an experienced ad agency in Greenville, SC to monitor their progress and deliver in-depth reports about the success of their campaigns. If poor reputation prevents a company from getting new leads, the ad agency can step in and provide reputation management services. It will not be a smart idea for business owners to take matters into their own hands and make uninformed decisions to boost their PR.

(Source: Small business owners learn social networking, branding at 2nd annual Small Business Week conference, Cola Daily, May 15, 2014)