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.

Direct download: 160_MicrosoftGrammar.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

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!

Direct download: 159_MailChimp.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

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!

Direct download: 158_Microsoft_PeterHan.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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!

Direct download: 157_Xerox.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

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!

Direct download: 156_KenJennings.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

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!

Direct download: 154_ProductivityPro.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

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!

Direct download: 154_NationalEntrepreneurshipWeekRecap.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

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.

Direct download: 153_MillennialsAndYourSmallBusiness.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 5:00pm PDT

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.

Direct download: 152_HowToCreateAGreatTeam.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 7:52am PDT

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!

Direct download: 151_Microsoft.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 12:58pm PDT