Every entrepreneur eventually encounters a difficult customer. Whether it’s someone who demands the impossible, complains about every detail, has unrealistic expectations, or all that stuff, and pays late. Dealing with challenging customers is simply part of doing business. The good news is that difficult customers don’t have to become difficult situations. The key is learning […]
AI, Sourcing, and Social Commerce: 8 Small Business Lessons from Alibaba.com CoCreate 2026
By: Leyanis Diaz, SmallBizLady Team Disclosure: I attended Alibaba.com CoCreate 2026 as part of a hosted press trip. All opinions and takeaways shared here are my own. Artificial intelligence is no longer something small business owners can afford to watch from the sidelines. That was one of my biggest takeaways from attending Alibaba.com’s CoCreate 2026 […]
How Do I Grow a Business Someone Else Built?
Buying an existing service business can be one of the fastest paths to entrepreneurship. Instead of starting from scratch, you inherit customers, revenue, employees, systems, and a proven market position. Whether you purchased an accounting firm, marketing agency, consulting practice, insurance agency, HVAC company, cleaning service, home health business, or an existing franchise, you have […]
How to Drive Inbound Leads and Turn Them Into Revenue
For many small businesses, inbound leads are among the most valuable sources of potential sales. When someone picks up the phone or goes to your website to contact your business, they are usually much closer to making a buying decision than someone casually browsing online. They already recognize they have a problem and are actively […]
How to Get Your Business Ready for the Holiday Shopping Season
The holiday shopping season can be the most profitable time of year for small businesses, but only if you are prepared. Customers are ready to spend, companies are purchasing year-end gifts, and people are actively searching for products and services that make their lives easier. However, increased demand also brings more competition, tighter deadlines, inventory […]
Thinking About Selling Your Business Someday? Here’s What You Need to Do Years Before the Deal
Most business owners spend years building a company and only months preparing to sell it. Unfortunately, that’s backwards. Steven Covey said it best, ‘Begin with the End in Mind.’ The most successful business exits are not created during negotiations. They are created years before a buyer ever appears. The difference between a good exit and […]
Sales Slow? You Might Have an Offer Problem
When sales slow down, most entrepreneurs immediately assume they have a marketing problem. They convince themselves they need more leads, more social media followers, more website traffic, more networking opportunities, or a bigger advertising budget. As a result, they spend time and money trying to attract more prospects into their sales funnel. But before you […]
How to Use Reddit to Market Your Small Business
Reddit is one of the most misunderstood marketing platforms on the internet. Most small business owners know about Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube, but Reddit is often overlooked because it does not work like traditional social media. You cannot simply show up, post a sales pitch, drop a link to your website, and expect […]
Half the Year Is Gone: 7 Questions Every Business Owner Should Ask Right Now
Can you believe we’re already halfway through the year? Back in January, you set ambitious goals, created revenue targets, mapped out growth strategies, and planned product launches and promised yourself that this would be the year you would finally break through to the next level. Now it’s July. The question is not what you planned […]
Should You Start a Business Right Now?
For many aspiring entrepreneurs, the answer is No. No one should build something from scratch right now. Over the next 5 years, with so many baby boomers retiring, there’s a lot of business inventory available. Buying an existing business or investing in a franchise is often the faster, more reliable route to cash flow, financial […]
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