Intuit launches Love a Local Business sweepstakes

Your local business loves you. Don’t you think it’s time you start loving them back?

Supporting local businesses can have a significant impact on your community economically -- in fact, a September 2008 CivicWorks study of Western Michigan found that a mere 10% shift in consumer behavior towards local businesses would add around $137 million to the local economy and creates more than 1,600 new jobs.

In a nationwide effort to help support the growth of small businesses, Intuit announced the launch of its “Love a Local Business” sweepstakes. Fans of local small businesses can nominate their favorite hometown haunt, which will make them eligible for a drawing to win a $1,000 Intuit Growth Grant, which includes a $500 Visa gift card and $500 in Intuit business services, such as Intuit Websites and Web Listings.

In addition, each business that is nominated will appear on a custom Google Map displaying favorite businesses from across the country. To submit your favorite neighborhood shop, go to www.LoveALocalBusiness.com.

Intuit $25,000 Small Business Grant

You have til March 23 to tell your small business story - judged on three qualities: useful, funny and inspiring - in Intuit's "Share Your Story" and win up to $25,000 in a business grant.

Future of Small Business Report

The third segment of the "Intuit Future of Small Business Report" was released this week (originally due Q4 2007). Titled "The New Entrepreneurial Economy" this segment reveals trends helping small businesses thrive in the coming 10 years.

The report is sponsored by Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) and authored by the Institute for the Future. Like the first two segments of the report, it's a great read. This portion focuses on three issues beneficial to small business:

• Brain Meets Brawn to Create Opportunities for Small Business - The emergence of barbell-like economic structures [a few giant corporations on one end, a relatively small number of mid-sized firms in the middle, and a large group of small businesses balancing the other end] will drive new business collaborations, creating greater opportunity and profitability for small business.
• Barriers Down, Small Business Opportunities Up - Access to big business infrastructure will expand, making their sophisticated technologies available to small and personal businesses, at lower risk, with a variable cost structure.
• The Next Wave of Globalization Will be Driven by Small Business - Muted trade barriers, improved technology, and professional and social networks across borders will facilitate small business access to new markets.

If you recall, the first installment of the report revealed the changing face of small business. The second installment examined technology trends and their impact on small business formation and operation.

Cisco Launches Entrepreneur Contest

It's not local, but the Cisco I-Prize is a pretty cool contest for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Cisco wants to plug its collaboration technologies so they are inviting folks to post ideas and form global teams to create technology business ideas. The lure at the end of the contest is being hired by Cisco as founders of a new business unit with a signing bonus of $250,000 and an investment of up to $10 million over three years.

Here's the press release announcing the competition with links to all the details. To enter the contest: Register on the Cisco I-Prize Website. Post your idea and comment on other ideas posted by fellow entrepreneurs. Use the Human Network to refine your concept and form an idea team of all-stars that can take your idea to the next level. Registration ends Jan 15 - so if this is your cuppa tea, don't delay.

A reminder to those of you who aren't so techie - don't forget the Intuit contest for small businesses with its $50,000 prize. Deadline is December 15, 2007 and even if you don't win you get free software.

Ready to "Just Start" a Business? Think "Intuit"

Hey - All you who want to do business with small businesses. Take a page from Intuit.

Intuit takes its positioning with small businesses seriously, and they do it with style. Their report on the Future of Small Business is a must-read.

And today they announced the Intuit Just Start! campaign to help budding entrepreneurs. Part of the campaign is a free "small business" community that allows folks to promote their business and get listed on Web directories. But that's just the beginning.

To help the 72 percent of Americans who dream of starting a business, Intuit is giving away free copies of its popular QuickBooks® Simple Start software so entrepreneurs can easily establish the financial habits that will help them get their business successfully off the ground.

My favorite part of the campaign is the upbeat little pledge that urges folks to "Just Start Something New -- Turn an idea into a business, or take your own thing to the next level. Do what you love." All you have to do it enter your name, and write in your dream. It's your own little "kick-start."

AND, as part of the campaign, there is a contest from October 9 to December 15 with a grand prize of $40K in cash & $10K in expert resources. (Talk about burying the lead! But seriously, I think for most folks, the kick-start-a-dream is the killer app.)

Corporate self-serving? You bet it is! But what makes this "Real Marketing" (vs. "Get Real!" marketing) is that the customer gets real and solid value, both tanglible and intangible. I say "YEA" for Intuit. With all the companies fighting over the local advertising dollar, here's a company that's going to be a leader in the upcoming small business revolution.

The Future of Small Business

Intuit offers a fascinating look at the next decade of American business in the Intuit Future of Small Business Report, a three phase study authored by the Institute for the Future.

Phase one, released in January, focused on the dramatic changes in the face of small business, as seasoned baby boomers, kids fresh out of high school, mid-career women, "mompreneurs" and new immigrants come together to create the most diverse pool of entrepreneurs ever.

The disruptions that have beset workers -- economic, social and technological change — and an increased interest in flexible work schedules — will produce a more independent workforce seeking a better work-life balance.

Phase two of the report was released June 26, and finds that tomorrow's successful small business owners will be far more reliant on technology than their current counterparts. They'll be more connected in a mobile world, market to customers in ways only imagined today and blur the lines between the virtual and physical worlds as the hype surrounding today's technology becomes tomorrow's reality. The findings include three emerging technology trends that will revolutionize the very nature of running a small business:

• On My Time, On My Terms – In a connected world, small business management will increasingly be "on my time" and "on my terms" for owners.
• Global, Local, Virtual – The evolution of the Web will fuel small business formation, operations and innovation.
• From "Push" to "Pull" – The small business marketing approach will shift from "push" to "pull."

The very nature of local business, retail and service included, is dramatically shifting. Anyone in the field of marketing to, or for, a local business should read this report.