Traveling Through a Bookstore - Lunchtime Walks

I'm using my lunchtime walks more frequently now as opportunities to have discussions with small business owners.  It's amazing how much information we can bounce off of each other about running a business and managing a site in just a few minutes.

Today I met Dan Webb, of Dan Webb - Books, a bookstore near downtown Oakland.  We chatted about the mysteries of driving traffic to websites.  Something that seems to be working out for him to attract a few site visitors is when he posts new books for sale on his site.  He mentioned that some titles do better than others when they're picked up by the search engines.

The title that grabbed me today in his brick and mortar "site" was The Vegetarian Table: Japan, by Victoria Wise.

Thanks for the book and the chat, Dan!

Flexible Planning for Your Small Business

Lee Zalben, owner of Peanut Butter & Co. in Greenwich Village dishes out some kernels of small business wisdom over at OPEN Forum, in a video segment called "Small Business Rules: The Peanut Butter & Co. Rule." He urges small business owners to build "enough flexibility into your plans to be able to move quickly and to be nimble."

As I build my own business I try to keep in mind that, as in most endeavors, it's a learning exercise. This helps me to adjust quickly and welcome fresh ideas to improve my services and products to customers. How can you be more flexible in planning for your own shop?

Your Customers Are On Yelp. Are You? - Social Media Minute

Yelp.com is one of the top 50 sites in the United States, according to Alexa.com traffic stats.  Chances are good that your small business is reviewed on Yelp. And, much of the time, the reviews on Yelp can have a great deal of unbiased truth to them.  Have you spent 5 minutes there to see what your customers are saying about your business? You'll learn a lot be searching for reviews about your business. Spend a little time to make sure that your business info is accurate: store hours, address, contact info, web address, etc.  Maybe you'll find out that some customers would really like to see a better vegetarian selection on the menu of your cafe, or that the teeth cleaning is great, but the magazine selection leaves much to be desired at your dentist office.

Here are some reviews for one of my current favorite lunch spots in Oakland, CA: Brown Couch Cafe

Working on blog posts. Contact Jesse with article ideas. Select guest posts welcomed!

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