Blog

Tips from the United States Patent and Trademark Office This week’s blog post was written by Craig Morris, Managing Attorney for Trademark Outreach at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A trademark is an essential part of a brand, helping to distinguish a business’s unique products and services from what another business offers. It can… Read more »

One of the critical predictors of the success of a new venture – whether it’s a totally new business, a new product or service line, or approaching a new market – is the quality and extent of forethought and planning. At the Alexandria Small Business Development Center, we are strong proponents of thorough business planning…. Read more »

This post was written by Patricia Frame of Strategies for Human Resources, our guest author for our solopreneur blog series. Most of us know that referrals are a wonderful source of business. And we hope for them. But do you have an active program to help you get referrals? Even a brief online search yields… Read more »

Whether you are opening a new business in the City of Alexandria or expanding the physical location of an existing business, it is important to be aware of the City’s build-out requirements.  The permitting process may be easier and smoother if you choose architects and contractors who are have done work in the City of… Read more »

This post was written by Paul Williams, marketing expert and founder of Idea Sandbox and the do-it-yourself local store marketing website LSMGuide. When you think of a destination, what comes to mind? Probably a vacation spot. A place worth going out of the way to get to. A place worth planning to go. A place… 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. The famed Pareto Principle, named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto for his studies of wealthy landowners, can be summed up as, 20% of your efforts produces 80% of your results. And… Read more »

Solopreneurs, consultants, coaches, artists, independent contractors, freelancers – whatever you call them, the single person business is thriving. Over 8% of the workforce in 2013 were solopreneurs, and rapid growth is occurring. Half of all existing businesses with employees also started out as one-person businesses and 15% of all current one-person businesses expect to add… Read more »

Alexandria’s Winter Restaurant Week is getting ready to kick off. From January 23 – February 1, 2015, restaurants will be offering dinner for two for $35 or a three-course dinner for $35. This year, for the first time, several restaurants are also offering lunch specials, too. As consumers, it’s clear why we all love restaurant week… Read more »

On January 13, Maurisa Potts presented a workshop on Marketing Trends for 2015. This workshop focused on the top marketing trends that small businesses need to be aware of and gave ideas on what to do to take advantage of these trends. While some of the trends were familiar to many small business owners, such… Read more »

We’re all used to the practice of making resolutions at the start of the year about things that we wish to do in our personal lives, whether it is losing a few extra pounds, finishing a degree or obtaining additional training or education, working out on a regular basis, or spending more quality time with family… Read more »