Our resident social media expert and blogger extraordinaire Ray Sidney-Smith discusses the importance of having a cohesive marketing campaign for the holiday season. For nearly the last decade, here in the United States, the biggest shopping day of the year has been the day after Thanksgiving. We all know it as Black Friday. However, for the savvy business owner especially… Read more »

This week’s post was written by Ray Sidney-Smith of W3Consulting, social media consultant and facilitator of the monthly Roundtable for the Alexandria SBDC. If you had all the time in the world, would you ever get much done? The British naval historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson would say unequivocally that you would not. After all, you… Read more »

This week, as we celebrate Alexandria Honors Veterans Week, the City publicly recognizes the value that veterans bring to our community at large. Here at the Alexandria Small Business Development Center, we recognize that veteran entrepreneurs enhance our business community as well. This recognition is part of what led to the formation of the Alexandria Veterans… Read more »

In an ideal world — one where small businesses have unlimited time and money — entrepreneurs would employ a bevy of experts to advise them in a variety of areas. In reality, most small businesses make do with limited resources and usually lack the capacity to engage consultants. There are, however, opportunities for business owners… Read more »

In the second of our two part series, we provide tips on website development after you have selected a firm to work with. 1. Don’t skimp on the strategy phase of your website redesign. A good website firm will have a defined process for determining what you want and need from your new website. This… Read more »

The process of developing a new website can seem overwhelming to many small business owners. There are so many variables, and most small business owners are not website development experts. During the redesign of the SBDC website in early 2014, our staff learned several valuable lessons that we wanted to share with our clients. In… Read more »

Many small business owners talk with their accountant (or try to find one) only at tax time.  Those who do, however, are missing the opportunity to develop a real relationship with one of the most important business advisors that you will have.  Accountants have a large range of expertise that will be crucial to you… Read more »

Manufacturing Day (using the hashtag #mfgday on Twitter) will be celebrated across the country next week. October 3 is a day for highlighting the importance of manufacturing to the economy, showcasing the diversity of modern manufacturing technology and promoting the rewarding and skilled jobs in the field. Manufacturing includes much more than the heavy industry… Read more »

Our friends at the Hampton Roads Retail Academy have six smart ways to choose from to spend $1,000 on your store: Get a Google Business View 360 Tour of your store. What it is: A stitched together collection of high-resolution photos becomes a 360-degree interactive virtual tour of your store. The photo shoot takes just a… Read more »

As a small business, it can be difficult to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the regional or national economy. Many business owners know that these issues are important to their businesses, but it can be time consuming to sift through all of the information and news to distill the important… Read more »