Posts Tagged ‘new york times’

Thanks New York Times for Covering the KikScore Blog!

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

I can not tell you how valuable Google Alerts are for your business or startup.  I was getting ready to go back to work after New Years and I received my regular email for my Google Alerts for “KikScore.” Now I get a lot of emails for the various mentions of “KikScore” across the internet, but I had to do a double take when I saw that we were referenced wholly unsolicited in the New York Times’ You’re the Boss, The Art of Running a Small Business blog.  If you have not read this small business focused blog, its a must read.  The blog offers a very unique insiders view of being a small business owner and includes excellent guidance. One of its contributors is Gene Marks who writes Dashboard and is a nationally recognized small business expert, speaker and small business owner (check out his Quicker, Better, Wiser service).  We owe Gene a special thanks for covering us in his This Week in Business post.  Now if only my hometown once a week delivered newspaper, the Stow Sentry would just cover KikScore!

The lesson learned for us from this coverage are at least three-fold:

1) Focus on Good Content – Keep trying to push out good, valuable content on a topic (for us its small business, startups, entrepreneurship all mixed with pop culture and humor) through various channels including your blog, Twitter, Facebook and sites like BizSugar and you will get noticed by being helpful to the community;

2) Value of Google Alerts – If you have not already done so, every small business and startup should set up Google Alerts for at least your company name, your management team members, your product names and industry relevant terms.  You may even want to set up alerts for your competitors too just so you can keep a watch on them.

3) Say Thanks – It is a small gesture, but once you get covered take a moment to say thank you and acknowledge the writer that covered your business.  This is our thank you to the New York Times and Gene Marks!

Let us know your thoughts on what you have done, when your business was covered by a major media outlet.

Photo Attribution: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid at laughingsquid.com.

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Posts Tagged ‘new york times’

Small Business Funding: Tarp Banks, Goldman Sachs or Powerball?

Friday, December 4th, 2009

We’ve posted earlier about funding a start-up, talking about whether to get venture or angel investment, or self fund.  So, if you go the self-funding route, small business owners face a question of dipping into their savings or seeking a small business loan.  But is that really a choice for small business owners?

A recent article examined small business lending by the banks that are the Top 22 TARP recipients — which just so happen to be the largest lenders to small businesses.  According to CNN, though TARP was intended to provide liquidity to small businesses as well as large, it’s just not happening.  The top TARP recipients have trimmed back lending to small business by over $8B.  Though the new administration required $15B be set aside for small business lending, that money has gone untouched.

So if a small business can’t get a loan, what about a charitable fund for small business?  Doesn’t exist, right?  Well, maybe not.  For 10,000 businesses, there is a chance for a cool $50k gift card…thanks to Goldman Sachs.  Goldman, with the encouragement Warren Buffet, has created a $500M fund to benefit 10,000 small businesses — providing access much needed liquidity.  Some media outlets are a bit cynical about Goldman’s motivations, but really what does it matter?  Goldman paid back its TARP funds and really didn’t have to create the small business fund. 

If your business can’t get a loan, and doesn’t luck out with the Goldman Sachs free money give-away, there is also the Powerball — with a 1:195M chance to win.  Or, you could do what KikScore is planning — a lemonade stand offering $100k organic lemonade.  It only takes one customer.

Let us know if your business has had any good or bad experience in obtaining a small business loan/credit line.

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