We're looking back at 2022 on this final episode of Small Biz in :15 for the year. 

Check out the highlights from business experts who chatted with us in the first 7 months of our show. 

During that time, we learned about some amazing business tips, advice and how you can stay abreast of changing trends. 

We're positive that entrepreneurs and solopreneurs can take away some priceless business gems from the interviews and use them to elevate their small businesses in the year 2023 and beyond.

Small Biz In 15 - Year in Review 2022

In this episode of Small Biz in :15, Executive Editor Shawn Hessinger talks with Jim Kukral and they discuss ways small business owners can better market their companies, brands, products and services to reach more people.

What is Marketing? Answers for Small Business Owners

Are you looking for ways to create the perfect lead magnet to collect more clients and customers? 

In this episode, Annie P. Ruggles Founder of the Non-Sleazy Sales Academy (tongue firmly in cheek on that one) shares tips with us for creating a lead magnet that will help you attract more leads and close more deals. 

Don’t miss this inspirational overview of how to create a lead, magnet, prospects won't be able to resist, and what all it has to do with King Arthur and Merlin, for a fun twist.

Annie P. Ruggles on Creating the Perfect Lead Magnet for Your Small Business

Rieva Lesonsky joins host Shawn Hessinger of Small Business Trends to discuss the latest retail trends, including how to understand Millennial and Gen Z shopping habits.

Rieva Lesonsky on Understanding Millennials and Gen Z

James Clift discusses how to use artificial intelligence to build a small business website in this latest episode of Small Biz in :15.

Using AI to Business a Small Business Website

On this latest episode of Small Biz in :15, host Shawn Hessinger talks with Monique Johnson to discuss the topic of hybrid events, those held both in-person and virtually, for small businesses.

What is a Hybrid Event?

A little over a year ago I spoke with Bryan Catanzaro of Nvidia about some of the interesting technology they were developing in the areas of graphical AI, voice synthesis and conversational/speech AI.  Bryan shared a vision of the future of what things like machine learning and deep learning could do to impact the way we experience the world around us.  And while some of the things like AI creating things like art and music and human sounding voices get a lot of attention, there are some more practical examples of AI already being used to help create better customer experiences when we need help with a product or service.

With a year going by I was curious to hear how things are progressing in these areas, and I was fortunate to speak via LinkedIn Live with Erik Pounds, Sr. Director of Enterprise Computing and Data Science at Nvidia, around the direction things like conversational and speech AI have moved in since l last spoke with Bryan.

Erik Pounds of Nvidia: Algorithms haven’t understood context of conversations. That is possible now

If you are interested in buying a franchise, you might be surprised to discover that ones like Dunkin', and McDonald's probably aren't the opportunities that potential franchise owners should be looking at. 

In this latest episode of Small Biz in :15, The Franchise King Joel Libava sits down with us in this episode to tell us about the latest franchise trends and what you should look for in a franchise opportunity.

Looking for the Perfect Franchise Opportunity

Ecommerce expert John “ColderIce” Lawson and I recently transitioned our Watching Amazon show/podcast into Pass the Mic.  The new name doesn’t mean we’ve grown tired of, well, watching Amazon, as we still plan to do plenty of that with all the things the company is into.  But by rebranding it as PTM it allows us to broaden the topics and companies we can dive into, and of course TikTok is a great example of that.

In fact, there have been a few recent reports of TikTok potentially following in Amazon’s footsteps by building out their own fulfillment centers and capabilities in order to support the growing digital commerce of creators using their video platform.   And though there haven’t been any formal announcements that this is happening, it got us to thinking if TikTok could really pull this off.  And if they did what would be the potential impact for creators and small retailers trying to reach the billion-plus monthly visitors to the platform.  Or why would TikTok fare better than Shopify who tried to build their fulfillment capabilities only to fail fast.

John and I went round and round on this one, as the thought of the fastest growing video platform taking on such a huge infrastructure project is intriguing. And we probably came away with more questions than answers.

John Lawson of PTM – Fulfillment by TikTok Would be a Positive for Creators Looking to Sell Merch

If you need curated content for your business, you may think about doing it alone, especially if you're a good writer. However, this may not be the best course of action. Instead, it may be best to hire a professional copywriter. They can help you create compelling, engaging content that will help you attract more customers and grow your business. 

In today's Small Biz in: 15 video, David Leonhardt, President of THGM Writing Services, explains why hiring a copywriter is often a better idea than trying to go it alone. Other highlights of the video include the benefits of hiring a copywriter, how to hire a copywriter and how to convey your message to them once you do.

David Leonhardt on How to Hire a Copywriter

Chris Hurn joins Shawn Hessinger to discuss how rising interest rates could affect small business loans now and in the future.

Small Business Loan Interest Rates Affected by Fed Changes

As the year has gone on I’ve been dipping my toes back into the industry conference scene more and more.  And while I’m gearing up for my first trip to Vegas in three years for Oracle CloudWorld, Hurricane Ian kept me from getting there a couple of weeks ago for Oracle NetSuite’s SuiteWorld conference.  SuiteWorld is a conference I’ve attended a number of times over the years, and with it being physically back I was looking forward to sitting down with company founder and Oracle EVP Evan Goldberg face-to-face for a conversation, instead of virtually for the past two years.  But I was appreciative that even during this year’s event, Evan made time for another virtual conversation on LinkedIn Live, as I was really curious about his perspective on the current economic uncertainties of the economy – and what it means for the 32,000 small and midsize enterprises using his company’s platform to run their businesses on.

Evan Goldberg of Oracle NetSuite: Fast growing orgs always optimistic, focused on growth even now

In the latest edition of Small Biz in :15, we discuss the impact of higher gas prices on small businesses and how to deal with them.

Small Businesses Dealing with Higher Gas Prices

This week marks the 31st year of celebrating Customer Service Week, an international celebration of the importance of customer service and of the people who serve and support customers on a daily basis.  

Many companies are participating in the spirit of the week’s salute to customer service workers with a look towards improving the service experience from both the customer and the employee perspective.  Pegasystems, a leading customer engagement platform vendor, is hosting a free webinar on the trends driving the future of customer service, with the results of a survey on the same topic coming later in the week.

Fortuné Alexander, Senior Director, Product Marketing for Customer Service and Sales Automation at Pega, recently shared a few of the upcoming findings from the report in a recent LinkedIn Live conversation, and talks about why the future of service isn’t about replacing humans, but humans leveraging AI and automation for better service experiences, and to be more human with each other when the need arises.

Fortune Alexander of Pega – 70% of customer service leaders optimizing for Gen Z and millennials

Are you in the repair business? If so, you'll want to check out this Small Biz in: 15 episode, where we discuss Right to Repair and how it impacts small businesses, especially when it comes to the electronics repair business. 

The U.S. House Committee on Small Business recently held a hearing on the right to repair and what it means for entrepreneurs. Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition, testified at the hearing and spent some time with us explaining the right to repair and its impact on small businesses.

Other highlights include explaining the right to resell (if you can't fix it, you can't sell it), how people in the repair business need to be very aware of what they can't do under copyright law and more.

Gay Gordon-Byrne on the Right to Repair and Its Impact on Small Business

The One-on-One series here at Small Business Trends was an idea I had that I shared with SBT publisher Anita Campbell, and she was gracious enough to allow me to give it a whirl.  And the first conversation I had for the series was with Jon Ferrara, who is the cofounder of Goldmine (which he sold back near the turn of the century) and more recently the founder of Nimble.  Well, that initial conversation took place twelve years ago this month, and to mark the occasion I recently caught up with The Right Reverend (my nickname for Jon) for a LinkedIn Live conversation (as part of a back-to-back show with TechCrunch enterprise reporter Ron Miller) to talk about the state of CRM, and why he’s still as passionate today about the industry he co-founded back in 1989 as he was back then.

Jon Ferrara of Nimble: 1% of 225 million orgs use CRM. Why? You work for it not other way around

Are you aware that Amazon offers last-mile services through delivery service partners? They do. And if you are thinking about a small business opportunity in this fascinating logistics niche, you'll want to check out this episode where Brent Leary, the Managing Partner at CRM Essentials, talks to Small Business Trends about his amazing visit to an Amazon delivery station in the Atlanta metro area and the important role small businesses play in Amazon's last mile.

Amazon Last Mile Delivery

This week I’m headed off to Dreamforce, Salesforce’s huge annual user conference, for the first time in three years.  Before the pandemic shut everything down, 170,000 people attended Dreamforce in 2019.  And while the conference took a few baby steps the last couple of years with very limited amounts of people attending the event in San Francisco, many more people experienced it virtually on Salesforce+, the streaming platform Salesforce created when all their physical events had to be canceled.  But this week the conference is back with a significant number of folks expected to attend.  And even though estimates are floating around of at least 30,000 people will be at the physical event, there may be four times that number if not more who will attend virtually.

My CRM Playaz co-host Paul Greenberg and I had the opportunity to speak with Colin Fleming, Salesforce EVP of Global Brand Marketing, who is leading the Salesforce+ effort.  We spoke with him two days after the streaming service was announced last year, and we wanted to hear what role Salesforce+ was going to play in this year’s Dreamforce now that it’s opening back up with a big attendance number expected.  Colin also shares how the last year of Salesforce+ has led to a transformational change in how he sees events being designed, as well as the impact these changes will have of traditional B2B marketing initiatives.

Colin Fleming of Salesforce: Salesforce+ will make Dreamforce a transformational experience

Next week Salesforce’s big industry event, Dreamforce, is back in full force for the first time since the pandemic.  It’s the 20th anniversary of the first Dreamforce, and they’re expecting about 150,000 folks to descend on San Francisco, which is not that far off from where it left off in 2019.  

As I get ready to head out west for Dreamforce, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Salesforce’s Chief Equality Officer Lori Castillo-Martinez.  Salesforce has been a leader in the area of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI), taking up a number of initiatives sparked by the George Floyd murder.  Over the past two years I spoke with then- Salesforce Chief Procurement Officer Craig Cuffie on a few occasions (in 2020 and 2021) to discuss the company’s efforts to increase the participation of underrepresented minorities in employment, leadership, supplier participation and venture capital investment.  And Lori joined me to discuss the company’s continuing efforts in this area, and to share why she feels the future of work is not only being transformed by virtual technologies, but also by integrating DEI deeper into the core of how the business operates – and how it measures success.

Lori Castillo Martinez from Salesforce - Future of Work Opportunity to Integrate DEI Into Business

Vibhav Vankayala, Product Marketing, Zoho Corporation and Dilip Nagarjaran, product manager of Zoho CRM discuss some of the surprising things a small business owner can do with CRM software.

One on One Interviews

One on One Interviews

Get Started

Download the App