New York SBDC Research Network

From Inc The speed at which Pokemon Go has spread is unprecedented. Less than a week after launch, this augmented reality mobile exploration game has been installed on twice as many phones as Tinder, it has double the engagement of Snapchat, and it is eclipsing Twitter in its percentage of daily active users. People are spending so much time journeying around looking for Pokemon that getting sore legs from playing for hours on end has practically become its own meme. Smart businesses have caught on too. As Pokemon Go users traverse their towns in search of Pokemon, local stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and other businesses are capitalizing on this massive opportunity, driving huge amounts of foot traffic and conversions both with simple in-app purchases and creative marketing campaigns. To start turning the ambulating gamers around you into your new best customers, all you need is to know how to play the game.

From Zadar Storage Preventing a cyber attack should be one of, if not the main goal of your IT department. Your press releases need to focus on things like your outstanding awards, exciting new product lines, and the addition of stellar new industry talent to your roster. You don’t want to be issuing press releases trying to explain how you leaked 1,500 customer identities or allowed other sensitive data to be exposed to the deep recesses of the Dark Web (like the much feared and dreaded Panama Papers) — or worse, published on the searchable Internet at large (Sony and Ashley Madison ring any bells?). These kinds of press releases don’t start in your PR department, they begin at the IT drawing board. Security is no longer something businesses can afford to pile on to their existing IT infrastructures like icing on a cupcake. Security has to be included in the batter and baked into the IT infrastructure at the storage, application, and network levels. Only then is it ready to face ...

Daughter for Hire LLC, run by Kathleen Rutishauser and Denise Flihan, provides companion care services to senior citizens in Oneida, Madison and Herkimer counties. The company provides the types of services that allow senior citizens to remain living in their own homes, rather than move prematurely to a nursing home facility, including meal preparation, grocery shopping, assistance with medical appointments, medication reminders, laundry, housekeeping, companionship and advocacy. The company has evolved from a sole proprietor, home-based company into a partnership with an office in Clinton, and revenues that grew by more than 300% from 2013 to 2015. Kathleen and Denise project continued growth of 50% in 2016, which is well beyond the norm of 6% in the personal care industry. Their success is due to the fact that they present themselves as a more professional, polished and compassionate group of caregivers than their competitors. The SBDC has worked with them f...

From the New York Daily News The formula for business success is simple but not easy. At the core, once you have your product or service figured out, your marketing plan should be a natural progression. In fact, we would challenge the thinking that your business plan and marketing plan are one in the same to a certain extent. Some small businesses may say, "I don't really need any marketing right now, we are doing alright." While, you can't argue with a business that has a stable customer base, you have to consider the philosophy that extending the opportunity beyond the first transaction is where the lifetime value of your customer is increased. More sales equals more profits. After all, marketing is what you do to create awareness for your product or service, and that awareness should be continuous.

From Bplans.com You think an allowance will help kids learn about how to manage their money? Try being a business owner. Understanding both personal and professional finances is one of the most important life lessons to learn—the earlier the better. By having a good grasp on spending, saving, budgets, and margins, you show you’re knowledgeable and responsible with money. Nothing’s cuter than a tween (with the assistance of her father) handing you a contract and telling you that she will clean and service a machine every month if you give her rent-free space to place it. Truly understanding what you’re selling displays confidence and credibility, as does truly believing in it. Comprehending the ins and outs of your product and business shines through when speaking with customers and clients.

From NECTjobs , which offers a FREE "collection of resources and introductory articles will help guide you on your journey in recruiting new employees for your business." Depending on job market conditions, a single job posting could receive hundreds of applicants. That’s both good and bad. It’s good because the higher the number of applicants, the wider the prospective talent pool becomes. It’s bad because a higher number of applicants means more clutter. A large selection of candidates increases your chances of finding the best fit for your business. With so many candidates, you can stack up their resumes against one another and find the best of the lot. This scenario has significant advantages over a job posting with only a handful of applicants to choose from. Receiving a large number of candidates requires more effort on your side. Hundreds of job applications necessitates a lot of sorting to find top talent – After all, golden candidates may be buried at the botto...

From Bplans . Often, a business plan introduces a new technology that requires some explaining. On one hand, as a reader of business plans for investors, I see way too many business plans that ask a reader to wade neck-deep through technology to get to the business. That’s a great way make your reader run in the other direction! It’s a business plan, not a term paper or thesis. Establish technology as a differentiator, when it is. Tell me about it in relation to its importance to the business. Don’t force me to understand it when I don’t need to. On the other hand, as a writer, manager, and user of business plans as tools for steering a business, I believe you should discuss your technology in the plan for any business. Even if technology isn’t the driving force of your business or your main differentiator, these days, almost all businesses have to manage technology as part of branding, marketing, and communications. To the extent that technology matters, I want to see it in the...