However, November brings more opportunities to small business in America thanks to Small Business Saturday. Held on the 26th, this event aims to raise awareness for independent business, prompting people to “shop small.” The event has its own Facebook page, where users can show their support for small business and even “pledge to shop small” and share with their friends.
Users can also register on this page and receive $25 back for a purchase of more than $25 from a small business when using their American Express card.

Facebook users can log in and “like” the posted businesses. This gives merchants free and useful exposure, and a platform to advertise any special deals going on during November 26. In addition, the “Small Business Saturday” page offers free promotional materials for merchants, such as e-marketing materials, in-store signage, and even $100 worth of free Facebook ads targeted to your area.

This will be the second year that Small Business Saturday takes place.

It looks like Google has done it again. Their maps have neat features, like business searches with reviews included and street views. Now, the minds behind the web colossus have come up with a new feature that allows users to see the inside of a business.

With a 360 view of the restaurant/retailer/salon/etc, customers can avoid nasty surprises when they visit a new place. Do you prefer eating sitting down? This feature will allow you to check out the seating capability of a place (if there are any seats at all). Looking for a place with a modern look? Look no further. Whatever your preference, the new and improved Street View

This feature joins “Instant Previews,” with which you can preview a webpage on the results list by rolling your pointer over a set of arrows directly to the right. This set of tools make it easier for busy entrepreneurs to find the information that they need, from finding funding sources to scouting out the competition’s businesses.

Images courtesy of Google & sanchom

“My business may be small, but my story isn’t.” So says the tagline to Google’s “My Business Story” contest. It gives small business owners a chance to not only advertise their business, but also to explore their creative side.

Google partnered with American Express to urge entrepreneurs to shoot a video telling the story of how they started their businesses and how they are doing today. Using a digital camera, anyone can upload their clips to My Business Story’s YouTube channel (you might remember that Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006).

Don’t have experience with video, or are technologically challenged? No matter. Google offers straightforward tips as well as free graphic styles and music to help you put a touch of creativity in your video. Google recommends talking about your involvement with the community, customer service, and mention any innovative technique that you have applied to your business.

This is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to reach a larger number of people, or get the attention of younger, Internet-savvy audiences. There is also the prize for the winning video that includes an online ad campaign and a feature on YouTube’s home page.

	Session 9 (2001): This underrated movie follows an asbestos abatement crew cleaning up the abandoned Danvers Lunatic Asylum in Massachusetts. The tagline for the film is “fear is a place,” and with good reason. Creepy stuff starts happening when one a member of the crew discovers a set of tapes from therapy sessions with a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder (aka “split personality”). The woman had violently killed her family and was committed to the now-abandoned institution. The tapes capture all of her personalities, from innocent children to the murderous Simon (who appears on therapy session 9), and have a deep effect on Gordie, owner of Hazmat Inc. As strange things begin to happen (lights go out, a worker disappears, etc), Gordie behaves increasingly erratically, up until the big reveal at the end. You’re going to have to watch it. This film captures the real struggles of owning a business, from stress to personal sacrifices. And how bad it is to clean up old asylums.
	House of Wax (2005): This remake of the Vincent Price film infamously featured Paris Hilton in its cast. In fact, part of the marketing preceding the movie’s premiere said “see Paris Hilton die!” So, a group of friends gets stuck in a small town that doesn’t even show up on their GPS, and get killed one by one by the disturbed owner of the town’s House of Wax. This would sound like a pretty standard slasher formula if it weren’t for the killer’s penchant to turn his victims into wax sculptures. Dead or alive, this guy covers them up with hot wax to get the very life-like models that populate the town. As it turns out, the whole town and its quiet inhabitants are all made out of wax! So that’s why the town wasn’t showing up on the GPS. Besides all the killing, this film shows the importance of a business owner’s resourcefulness. Reuse, deduce, and recycle!
	Todd Browning’s Freaks (1932): Sideshows were a lot more common back in the day, and attracted all kinds of curious folks. “Freaks” depicts the lives of a group of sideshow performers (bearded lady, Siamese Twins, Koo Koo The Bird Girl, etc.) who all band together when one of their own gets duped by a beautiful but deceitful trapeze artist who only wants him for his money. Like Gilbert Gottfried said on Bravo’s “100 Scariest Movie Moments,” “where a sideshow freak gets so much money is anybody’s guess, but OK, he’s rich.” Hans is completely blinded by trapeze beauty Cleopatra, who is having an affair with Hercules the strongman. But she gets what’s coming to her when the other freaks catch wind that she is poisoning Hans in order to get the money and run away with Hercules. So they perform some carnival justice and mutilate Cleopatra, turning her into “the human duck,” complete with a disfigured face, tarred and feathered body, and melted extremities.
	Hostel (2005): This gory torture fest probably deterred a few of us from visiting Slovakia. Though a culturally rich country with many attractions, the three guys who go there following promises of hedonistic pleasure become a tourist attraction themselves. How? They are captured and sold to the highest bidder, taken to a warehouse-like building, where they will be tortured and killed for fun. The innovative aspect of the business “Elite Hunting” is that it has two operating parts: the hostel where victims are rounded up, and the building where customers dispose of their victims. Both are run without a hitch, and throughout the movie we can see different levels of employees at work: the body part cleaners, the hostel clerk who sells personal information, security teams, etc. The hostel’s marketing strategy relied on sexy women and promises of wild good times, two of the oldest tricks in the book.
	The Fly (1986): Seth Brundle is a genius who has invented a way to teleport people from one pod to another. Too bad that he doesn’t have the entrepreneurial spirit to file a patent and properly sell the idea. After conducting trials with baboons, Brundle (played by Jeff Goldblum) teleports himself without noticing that a fly is in the pod with him. From then on, things begin to go downhill, fast. The machine combines the DNA of the fly and the scientist, making him turn into a horrible creature that looks more like a decaying, fleshy crustacean than a fly. But he can climb walls and spew an acidic vomit that he uses melt his victims’ extremities. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Veronica (Geena Davis) documents the whole process and warns, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” See what happens when you have the ideas but lack entrepreneurial spirit?
	House of a 1000 Corpses (2003): Family business gets a bad rap again in Rob Zombie’s debut as a director. Captain Spaulding (played by Sid Haig) runs a fast food joint/Museum of Monsters and Madmen that doesn’t get a lot of customers. But of course a group of intrepid friends with a taste for spooky entertainment buy tickets for the rickety museum of horrors, and become intrigued by the local legend of “Dr. Satan.” Their search of Dr. Satan leads the 4 friends to the crazy home of the Firefly family. But that part is not as interesting to us, because Captain Spaulding’s museum is the creepiest small business ever. Dusty, dirty, and empty, it’s got signs outside advertising “fried chicken and gasoline.” Who could resist?

Can you think of any other movies featuring creepy businesses? Tell us in the “comments” section below. Happy Halloween!

Pictures courtesy of Imdb.com.

Yes, small business can be scary, and for reasons other than the recession! If you are unconvinced, take a look at these evil businesses (and their creepy owners):

	Psycho (1960): At the Bates Motel, guests check in but don’t check out. One of the most recognizable scenes in cinema takes place at this desolated place, in which Janet Leigh’s character gets stabbed in the shower to a screechy soundtrack. The motel is an extension of killer Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins), offering all kinds of nooks and crannies and peeping holes to serve the purposes of its owner. This is probably as dysfunctional as a family business can get with an imaginary overbearing mother in charge and her son as manager. But as Norman says, “we all go a little mad sometimes.”
	The Mangler (1995): How can a Laundromat be scary? By having a people-eating folding machine, that’s how! The Blue Ribbon Laundry Service employs a folding machine that becomes possessed by a demon after some blood is accidentally spilled on it. Workers start being gobbled up by said machine in what seem to be freak work-related accidents. The laundromat’s owner, played by Robert Englund (of Freddy Krueger fame), is a very dedicated businessman and decides to side with his machine, finding people to feed to it. As much as he is a dedicated merchant, he’s also a bad boss, sacrificing his own workers. Could it be an analogy for the fear of machines taking over people’s jobs? We don’t know, but “The Mangler” offers plenty of gory fun for employers and employees alike.
	The Dentist (1996): Cheated dentist goes berserk in this campy thriller. When Dr. Alan Feinstone (Corbin Bernsen) finds out that his wife is fooling around with the pool boy, his sanity goes out the window. Too bad for his poor patients, who end up being victims of Dr. Feinstone’s hallucinations. He imagines all of his patients’ teeth to be brown and rotting, so of course he has to over-drill them or straight up pull them out. Sarah, a patient who needs to have her braces removed, promises to brush her teeth 3 times a day and never eat candy, so Dr. Feinstone lets her go. He takes his job seriously.
	The Funhouse (1981): This film offers a bizarre look into the inner workings of a traveling carnival. Four hapless teenagers decide that it would be a riot to get off their carts in the middle of the Funhouse ride and spend the night there. What they don’t know is that it will be their last night alive! Funhouses can be (and often are) creepy places, but add a sideshow freak killer and you get one heck of an experience. The carnival owner’s son, wearing a Frankenstein mask to conceal his shocking birth defects, discovers the teens shacking up in the attraction and begins to hunt them down. “The Funhouse” also gives viewers a glimpse of worker/employee relations, portraying almost every “don’t” in the book (i.e. blatant nepotism, sexual harassment, poor workplace hygiene).
	Needful Things (1993): Residents of Castle Rock, Maine, go to the new shop in town to find just the thing they want. Too bad that the shop is run by… the Devil! And of course, he knows what you want. Don’t have money? No problem, all you have to do is make Mr. Leland Gaunt (aka The Devil) a random favor. Soon, these “favors” turn everyone against each other, resulting in massive carnage. Like a sequence in which two women hack each other into pieces to the tune of “Ave Maria.”

There are plenty more scary businesses out there, so keep an eye on the blog for the next installment of “The Scariest Businesses in Film.”

Images courtesy of imdb.com

Think of awards/mentions/endorsements/grants as badges of honor. These are worthy of being displayed in a highly visible place, whether that is on a webpage, promotional materials (such as flyers), front window, etc. It should be noted that adding a certification or award (from the Better Business Bureau, for example) is especially helpful for websites. Nowadays, many people turn to the internet for research and shopping. Show potential customers that your site is secure and that your company is legitimate.

A word of advice though, is to always be truthful and not provide any untrue or unsubstantiated claims. An organization called “Grant Connect” was banned from marketing by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for claiming to have the government’s support and the ability to offer grants. They even went so far as to post pictures of President Obama on their website to fool visitors.

Anyone with access to a computer and a connection to the Internet can build a website, so it is important for legitimate business to make sure that they have permission to use badges or pictures of awards received or any affiliations. The safest bet for business owners is to contact representatives of every name you mention, in order to secure written permission (email is best for this purpose).

Someone may challenge your claim at any point in time, much like The Donald did with GOP candidate Mitt Romney. Trump called his rival a “small business guy,” even though Romney owns Domino’s Pizza and helped start the Staples office supply stores.

Image courtesy of perpetualplum.

Get Motivated is a series of lectures taking place in different cities, featuring first-rate speakers like former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, comedian Bill Cosby, General Colin Powell, and famed quarterback Joe Montana, to name a few. Former First Lady Laura Bush will make a special appearance as a speaker at the Staples Center event.

The event is coming to the Los Angeles area on October 31 and will take place at different venues:

• Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA.
• Satellite-Citizens Business Bank Arena, Ontario, CA.
• Satellite-The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA.
• Citizens Business Bank Arena, Ontario, CA. (Nov 1st)

The seminar costs only $1.95/person to attend, and $9.95 for a whole office. These low prices allow business owners to include their employees in an exercise that not only gives them knowledge, but can also work as a team-building experience.

Topics covered at Get Motivated range from forming successful alliances to telephone skills. The seminar offers a wide spectrum of subjects, all of them covered by top experts in each area. Entrepreneurs and employees can learn about facing challenges, drawing a successful business plan, committing and having passion for your enterprise, or techniques for public speaking.

This seminar offers the chance of a lifetime to hear from people who have the knowledge and experience to help our education.

Are you or your business on Google Plus? Add us to your circle or just stop by our page to say hi. We will be updating our profile with new posts, pictures, and links about small business! And don’t forget to check out our Twitter, Tumblr, and our Facebook page “I am a Business Owner.”

He built Apple from the ground up, starting out the company’s operations out of a garage with co-founder Steve Wozniak in Los Altos, CA. They soon built “the first mass marketed personal computer,” which had a video interface, colors, and thousands of applications. The company launched its first MacIntosh computer soon after, and provided the base on which almost every operating system (OS) is based.

After a few power struggles and changes in management, Jobs turned the already successful company into the icon that it is today. Not only did he have the tech skills to develop an exemplary portable computer, but he had the practical spirit and eye for aesthetics to revolutionize the world of portable audio.

The Washington Post put up a poll to determine which Apple product was most people’s first. With 34%, the iPod is the clear leader. Clean designs and good product quality (who hasn’t dropped an iPod on a hard floor and sighed with relief when the artifact was intact?) have remained a staple from the first generation of iPods to the latest.

And just so we needed more proof that Steve Jobs was a genius entrepreneur, I will remind you that he also made Pixar. The animation studio that brought us gems like “Toy Story” and “Up” was once a struggling company, bought for less than $10 million. Jobs turned it into one of the most successful animation studios, creating films that have received both critical praise and audiences’ support.

Steve Jobs was a natural-born entrepreneur who left us with more than just a few lessons in marketing, entrepreneurship, design, and work ethic.

Image courtesy of Apple.com

And when something is successful, it doesn’t take long for copies to pop up all over the place. This was the case with Amazon and Facebook. Both companies have been branching out into different areas: Amazon with Kindle and Facebook with games and corporate pages.

In fact, couponing seems to be a source of profit, since Amazon.com has jumped on the bandwagon. And Amazon rarely misses the mark when it comes to new products and/or services. I recently received an email that looked very similar to those from Groupon (to which I’m subscribed) but was surprised to see it came from “Amazon Local.” I had never heard of that division of Amazon, and the similarity (even in design) to Groupon was pretty obvious.

On the other hand, Facebook Deals seems to be going bigger. According to their official blog, Deals is now available in Germany, Canada, Italy, Spain, France, and the UK. Deals is also combined with another Facebook service called “Places” and shows users local businesses and deals. No word yet on how it has worked for merchants, but the ease with which

So far, Groupon has received the most criticism from merchants. From shoddy customer service to deals that provide very little profit, most business owners prefer to use other sites or none at all. These sites take a portion of the profit made from the special deal, so it could be taken more as clever advertising than actually signing up to make more money from the deal. These coupon sites work as a way to get customers to go to a certain business. Keeping them is up to the merchant.

Image courtesy of Lomo-Cam