New York SBDC Research Network

Advice on managing social media content from hootsuite.com: Creating a plan, a template, or a calendar simply means that you make all the necessary information available to all the relevant stakeholders in one place. It takes in all your channels and resources and organizes them in a way that makes it easy to access information you need when you need it. What is a social media content calendar? A social media content calendar should organize the way you curate and create content, and help develop your editorial strategy. A social media calendar cuts extra time out of your content marketing strategy and helps you allocate your resources wisely, to help ensure your brand consistently publishes high-quality, well-written, high-performing content pieces. Read more at hootsuite

From Kickstarter: Kickstarter Inc is no more. We’re now Kickstarter PBC — a Public Benefit Corporation. We’re thrilled to share this news, and we’d love to take a minute to tell you exactly what it means. Until recently, the idea of a for-profit company pursuing social good at the expense of shareholder value had no clear protection under U.S. corporate law, and certainly no mandate. Companies that believe there are more important goals than maximizing shareholder value have been at odds with the expectation that for-profit companies must exist ultimately for profit above all. Benefit Corporations are different. Benefit Corporations are for-profit companies that are obligated to consider the impact of their decisions on society, not only shareholders. Radically, positive impact on society becomes part of a Benefit Corporation’s legally defined goals. Kickstarter is excited to join a growing list of forward-thinking organizations — like Patagonia and This American Life — that hav

What’s my target market? What should it be? How would I know? Here’s a list of five things that will help you figure it out. 1. Don’t try to please everybody Strategy is focus. Say you’re running a restaurant; which of these three options is easier? Pleasing customers 40 to 75 years old, wealthy, much more concerned with healthy eating than cheap eating, appreciating seafood and poultry, liking a quiet atmosphere. Pleasing customers 15 to 30 years old, with limited budgets, who like a loud place with low prices and fast food. Pleasing everybody. Read more at bplans

New Census Web Tool Helps Business Owners Make Data Driven Decisions  The U.S. Census Bureau released  Census Business Builder: Small Business Edition , a new Web tool that allows business owners and entrepreneurs to easily navigate and use key demographic and economic data to help guide their research into opening a new business or adding to an existing one. The Census Business Builder was developed with user-centered design at its core and incorporated feedback from customers and stakeholders, including small business owners, trade associations and other government agencies. The tool combines data from the American Community Survey, the economic census, County Business Patterns and other economic surveys to provide a complete business profile of an area. Business statistics include the number of establishments, employment, payroll and sales. American Community Survey statistics include population characteristics, economic characteristics and housing characteristics.

Now that you’ve solved your cash flow problems, it’s time to figure out how exactly you want to approach growing your business. Unfortunately, since the needs and strengths of every organization are different, there isn’t really a cookie-cutter approach you can take to ensure your business will expand effectively. As such, it’s important that you do your due diligence prior to investing your capital. After all, you don’t want to find yourself overwhelmed with cash flow problems right after you’ve solved them. 1. Expand to new locations Whether you’re running a retail shop, a medical practice, a restaurant, or even a business-to-business tech company, you may be able to generate higher profits by expanding your organization to new physical (or even digital) locations. But, it’s important to remember that you can’t expect to simply open a second location, sit back, and watch your bank account get fatter. Believe it or not, the success of one location doesn’t really have any bearing o

As someone that has started several small businesses over the years and advised many small business owners, one challenging area for a lot of people is the idea that you need to set a strategy. Business owners need a strategy that will enable them to understand the value that they bring to the market, and to ultimately target an audience of buyers that will need and buy their products and services. Setting your strategy Like most challenges we face as business owners, the challenge of strategy comes down to one of focus. Not so much focus on achieving activities or doing so many things, but focus when it comes to understanding the key drivers that will propel your business forward. Read more at bplans

Get expert pitch advice from an entrepreneur who raised close to $1 million. Caroline Cummings shares her  pitch secrets, techniques, and tools in this free eBook, “How to Pitch and Get Funded.” What you will learn: The purpose of the pitch The importance of mentors and advisers How to deliver an elevator pitch How to deliver a video pitch How to deliver a one-page pitch Read more at Bplans