Many people do not want to talk about their business competition, especially when it is in front of their prospects and customers.

Did you notice this during the presidential election? Sometimes the talking  heads and surrogates could not utter the name Clinton or Trump, but instead would say “our opponent” as if uttering the name gave credit to the other person somehow.

But many believe it is a good thing to talk about the competition. For sure competition makes us better, sharper, edgier…ignore the competition at your own peril.

The marketing guru Seth Godin recently blogged on the topic and he comes down on the side of inclusion.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/11/plenty-of-room-on-the-island.html

Internet and mobile hacking is in the news a lot these days. But it is not just high profile email hacks that are of concern, crooks are out to get your personal and financial data.  So when it comes to your mobile phone data security, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Check out these tips from the SBA on suggestions for keeping your phone more secure.

https://www.sba.gov/blogs/10-ways-keep-your-mobile-devices-and-data-them-more-secure

Going into business for yourself? It seems like there will be lots of advantages: no more boss to manage, no more office politics to navigate. On the other hand there are a lot of risks and disadvantages —  uncertainty and variations in income, lack of resources, and total responsibility — to name a few.

In this SBA article, franchise advisor Joel Libava gets to some of the top advantages and disadvantages of being your own boss. https://www.sba.gov/blogs/pros-and-cons-being-boss

In today’s social media driven business world, it is no longer the brands or businesses that are first that win. Being an innovator is very important too but those that are the best in class quickly come out on top.

Look at the search engine market for instance. Google was not the first search engine but it left the others in the dust. Why? The creators of Google set out to make the world’s best possible search engine and they clearly succeeded as users left Yahoo, AOL, Excite and many other search engines behind. Google did not run large advertising campaigns in the early 2000s as it took dominant market share in internet search and became one of the planet’s most valuable companies.

Nope, first is no longer one of the 22 immutable laws of marketing. Best is better than first.

In fact the US federal government could be your largest potential customer and, by law, must do business with small businesses.  There is no shortage of red tape to get there but the rewards, and revenue, your small business can garner may be worth the effort.

Read more from the SBA to get the basic info and see if it makes sense to call Uncle Sam your client.

https://www.sba.gov/blogs/does-your-small-business-qualify