November is National Entrepreneurship Month!

President Obama declared that November is National Entrepreneurship Month. The U.S. Small Business Administration, is leveraging this declaration to entrepreneurship in a number of ways.

• The SBA launched the Student Startup Plan to help more college graduates learn how to lower their loan payments in order to get the “breathing room” they need to start a business.
• The SBA will host a Young Entrepreneurs Series (YES) to help more young people come together, exchange ideas, and get on a path toward building a viable business. We will start YES with young veterans in San Diego (Nov. 7) followed by young entrepreneurs from rural areas in Ames, Iowa (Nov. 9).
• The SBA is kicking off the “Apps for Entrepreneurs Challenge,” which starts this Saturday and runs through Nov. 20. It has $20,000 in prizes for the best mobile apps that help America’s entrepreneurs tap into federal programs to help them grow a business and create jobs.

The entire Administration has been highly focused on making sure entrepreneurs have the tools they need. After all, small businesses create about two of every three new jobs each year.

Your Customers Drive the Conversation!

Provide your customers and prospects with the right information, in the right context, at the right time. Often quoted data from Bain & Company states that if your customers are happy, they tend to be loyal. And if they’re loyal they not only buy more, they refer other customers. Bain & Company also found that, for many companies, an increase of 5% in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%.