Small Business with Steve Strauss

Steve is joined by the Linguistic Project Manager at Microsoft, Nicole Michel! Nicole is a wonderful source of valuable information on how to communicate effectively. There are lessons for everyone, on how communicating efficiently can increase the bottom line for your business.

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is all about marketing. More importantly, how to take advantage of every opportunity you have as a business, to maintain and grow your customer base. Steve turns to a company that knows exactly how to that. On this episode, you'll learn marketing secrets from MailChimp!

In our Ask An Expert (Almost) Live segment, Steve takes a question from Maggie. Maggie uses a marketing newsletter, which is a great way to stay engaged with your customers. The question is, how do you grow your email marketing list? Steve has four tips that he's used, that you can apply today.

Steve is then joined by the CEO and co-founder of MailChimp, Ben Chestnut! The story of MailChimp is a fascinating one. From their humble beginnings, to becoming the primary sponsor of the phenomenon of Serial. Once he was parodied on SNL, he knew they'd made it! Ben has some wonderful stories and incredible advice on how to grow your business.

Don't forget, you can submit your question for an "Ask An Expert Live" segment by sending an email to theselfemployed@yahoo.com.

Subscribe to the Small Business Success RSS Feed to get weekly podcasts automatically! Or, listen on iTunes!

We are celebrating Small Business Week in this episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft! Every year since 1963, the SBA has celebrated small business, entrepreneurs and the incredible impact they have in communities everywhere. Today we'll revisit some success stories from the past, that continue to hold valuable lessons for us today. Then, Microsoft will help you figure out how to turn the devices you use every day, into invaluable tools to take your business to the next level.

In our feature, Steve will recount the humble beginnings of some of the most successful businesses of our time. An important thing to remember is that every venture is a "small business" at some point! The stories of these entrepreneurs are truly inspiring.

In our interview, we'll cover some exciting new devices that are designed specifically to help out Small Businesses! Peter Han is VP for Partner Devices and Solutions at Microsoft and a Small Business veteran. He will cover some of the exciting devices Microsoft has available to help businesses become more effective and more efficient.

Don't forget, you can submit your question for an "Ask An Expert Live" segment by sending an email to theselfemployed@yahoo.com.

Subscribe to the Small Business Success RSS Feed to get weekly podcasts automatically! Or, listen on iTunes!

In this episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, we cover one of the most iconic brands in history. When a company's own name becomes eponymous with a product that others try to copy, you know it's a success. With a rich history and incredible progress, Xerox is now looking to change the way we do business, again. Today we'll give you some tips to use for your business and see if you can copy the innovation magic of Xerox!

In our feature today, Steve will go over the humble beginnings of Xerox. From a great idea from founder Chester Carlson in 1906, to being a Fortune 500 company, there were many lessons along the way. We all want to come up with the next big idea, or product and you may have it!

Steve is then joined by Steve Hoover and Dragana Pavlovic. Steve is the Chief Technology Officer of Xerox and Dragana is the Senior VP of Engineering. They will be sharing the exciting development of a new line of products called ConnectKey devices. Innovation has always been the key to success in the business world and Xerox wants to help take your success to the next level.

Don't forget, you can submit your question for an "Ask An Expert Live" segment by sending an email to theselfemployed@yahoo.com.

Subscribe to the Small Business Success RSS Feed to get weekly podcasts automatically! Or, listen on iTunes!

In this episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, we cover an issue that every one of us has dealt with at some point. Memory retention. How many times have you had trouble remembering something that you know you shouldn't have any problems with? It happens to all of us! Today we'll turn to one of the true experts in memory retention....Ken Jennings!

Before getting into some great tips on how to maintain knowledge, Steve has some advice on the best ways to learn. Starting off with an example from a legendary entrepreneur, Benjamin Franklin, you'll be walked a through a few ways to incorporate lifelong learning into your business.

Our star guest today, Ken Jennings, won Jeopardy 74 times in a row! Ken has teamed up with Bridge by Infrastructure to provide a free course to help you learn and retain knowledge. In the interview, Ken relays some great insight from his run on Jeopardy and some wonderful tips on how you can better yourself as an entrepreneur!

Don't forget, you can submit your question for an "Ask An Expert Live" segment by sending an email to theselfemployed@yahoo.com.

Subscribe to the Small Business Success RSS Feed to get weekly podcasts automatically! Or, listen on iTunes!

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is all about how to maintain productivity. As the line blurs between home and the office, it becomes hard to figure out when to take time off and when to put in those extra hours. There is a balance somewhere between procrastination and working yourself sick and today Steve will provide some guidance to help you manage it.

In Ask An Expert (almost) Live, Steve takes a question from (someone) who has a problem maintaining momentum once summer arrives. It's something we can all relate to; How do we fight procrastination? Steve has some great tips on how to win the battle!

The guest this week is Laura Stack! Laura is a Speaker Hall of Fame inductee and known world-wide as the Productivity Pro. She has great advice for any Entrepreneur, no matter what level you're at! From learning how to set boundaries like turning off email reminders, to maximizing the time you do spend working, to hiring someone to help you out, you will not want to miss her interview. Laura also has some great tips on behalf of a  Fellowes Brands survey. 

Don't forget, you can submit your question for an "Ask An Expert Live" segment by sending an email to theselfemployed@yahoo.com.

Subscribe to the Small Business Success RSS Feed to get weekly podcasts automatically! Or, listen on iTunes!

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is a recap of National Entrepreneurship Week. There was one question that was asked all week; What is the secret ingredient that makes someone a great entrepreneur? Steve tells you what he thinks it is and outlines a great path for you to achieve your goals.

Our guest for today is Melanie Gass, Senior Partner/Channel Marketing Manager at Microsoft. Steve caught up with Melanie at the Creative Live Studio in Seattle to discuss National Entrepreneurship Week origins and the goal of creating a community with a wide variety of companies. Celebrating and supporting entrepreneurs has become a focus at Microsoft and they've done a great job of it. From Office 365, to Skype for Business, you'll receive some extremely valuable information on how to improve your company!

Don't forget, you can submit your question for an "Ask An Expert Live" segment by sending an email to theselfemployed@yahoo.com.

Subscribe to the Small Business Success RSS Feed to get weekly podcasts automatically! Or, listen on iTunes!

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is about Millennials and your small business. Millennials are now demographically the largest generation and great number of them are also small business owners. How can you attract them to your business, for both sales and as employees? Steve went to the source and came away with some amazing tips that you can use to energize your business.

Our guest interview this week is with Emerson Spartz! Emerson is an amazing millennial entrepreneur, whose websites receive more than 45 million monthly users.  He is the creator of OMG Facts and Dose.com and his unique story and advice is incredibly inspiring.

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is about how to create a great team for your small business. Fostering creativity and an environment of cooperation can be a challenge for businesses of any size. We have some great suggestions, using a new tool from Microsoft, called Teams. When you have a staff of employees who have fun together, it almost always tends to translate into more money for you.

Teams is a new remote virtual tool for Microsoft Office 365 that allows employees to interact and collaborate from anywhere. Barbie Stafford is Director of Product Marketing for Microsoft Teams and joins Steve to discuss all of the amazing ways you can use this product to foster an incredible work environment in your business.

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is about the future of your Small Business. Microsoft is known for their innovative solutions to many issues that face small business Owners. Steve recently visited the Microsoft campus and came away with some fantastic advice and tips on the changing nature of work and trends that you can incorporate into your business!

Steve's guest this week is David Smith, the Worldwide Vice President of Small Business for Microsoft. Technology has enabled all small business to appear "large" and David shares some of the fantastic tools they are working on to help entrepreneurs of any level. You don't want to miss this!

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is about the concept of Intrapreneurship. It's using that entrepreneurial skill that all we have and turning it inward to your own organization. Discovering new ways to streamline your processes, developing new product lines and inventing original concepts are all possibilities, when you allow yourself and your employees to utilize their entrepreneurial spirit. Steve gives a great example in An Ask Expert (Almost Live), with 3M and the amazing things they have created from within!

In the interview, Steve caught up with Andy Taylor at the EY Strategic Growth Forum and EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Andy is the Executive Chairman of Enterprise Holdings. With Enterprise, Alamo and National car rental services under one umbrella, he has a lot of advice on how to foster the entrepreneur spirit, in your employees.

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is all about learning that we can't do it all by ourselves. As determined as we are, as Entrepreneurs, we have to remember to take advantage of the resources available to us. In the Ask An Expert (Almost) Live segment, Steve talks about those worries that we have and why it's not beneficial to take on too much. There is some wonderful advice and the best part is that you'll learn that getting the help you need doesn't cost, it pays!

In this week's interview, Steve is joined by Rob Biederman and Patrick Petitti! Rob and Patrick are the co-founders of Catalant (formerly known as Hourly Nerd). Their company builds technology that enables the world’s best companies to work with top experts for on-demand needs. They give a fantastic interview explaining how their company got started and how they can help you grow yours.

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is about learning the secrets of Social Media Marketing from the Masters! In the Ask An Expert (Almost) Live segment, Steve tackles a question about Facebook Live. This new tool can be extremely valuable to entrepreneurs, if used correctly. Steve relays some fantastic advice and tips he received from his friend Joel Comm, on how you can take advantage of it.

Then, Steve brings on an incredible guest, in Brian O'Grady. Brian is the former Search Engine Marketing Manager for President Obama's re-election campaign in 2012! He is now a Principal at Clarify Agency and his 14+ years of experience has lead to an amazing insight into how to adequately use SEM. In addition to a great "behind-the-scenes" look at Presidential Campaigns, his interview is also a must listen for any Small Business Owner.

Steve interviews his friend and Professor of Entrepreneurship, Colin Jones. Colin is a faculty member at University of Tasmania and the two caught up at the World Entrepreneurship Forum. Colin has some great lessons about Branding and Entrepreneurship in general, that can definitely be applied to your small business!

Steve starts off with a new edition of Ask An Expert (Almost) Live with some tips about how to go about marketing to millennials. We then are joined by the always exuberant Grant Cardone! Grant the world's top sales trainer, New York Times bestselling author, global speaker and all-around great guy. In the interview he shares tales from his vast experience and invigorates you with his incredible energy. You can pre-order Grant's new book Be Obsessed or Be Average right now, by clicking here. He is donating the proceeds to charity!

This episode of Small Business with Steve Strauss powered by Microsoft, is all about young entrepreneurs. We all catch the entrepreneurship-spirit at different times in life, but it's fascinating to learn how others got their start. The best thing about being in this field is that we all get to learn from each other!

Steve starts the show off with some amazing origin stories of a number of businesses you know very well. From Google to FedEx to WordPress, you'll learn all about the unique situations and circumstances that led to some of the most successful companies of all time.

The guests on today's show actually started their business out of their dorm room! Erika Welsh and Keeley Tillotson launched an extremely successful Kickstarter campaign for their product, Wild Squirrel Nut Butter. They even appeared on Shark Tank! We find out all about how they launched their business from the ground up.

Steve's interview this week is with Deb Calvert. Deb was named a Top 50 Sales Influencer in 2014 and 2015 and is the author of the bestselling book Discover Questions® Get You Connected. She also is the President and Founder of People First Productivity Solutions. Deb shares her intensive research and experience, to let you know how how to be come a Sales Superstar!

Steve speaks with an entrepreneur of the truest form. Chirs Guillebeau is an inspiration, having visited "every country on Earth" in the last 10 years! He has spoken to people all over the world that have done remarkable things, in unconventional ways. He is also the author of many books, including The $100 Startup.

Steve gives us the secret to creating good content and interviews Alan Levy, the CEO and co-founder of BlogTalkRadio.

In this episode we learn about the great advantages of Skype Meetings, to enhance performance for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs. Plus, Steve interviews Author and Small Business Expert, Mike Glauser about this book Main Street Entrepreneurs.