Engage Small

🎉 WOW, what a year! 🎉 After kicking off this spring, the Engage Small team has been blown away by all we’ve read, wrote, created and shared with our fellow entrepreneurs this year, including:

🔹 5 video interviews with local entrepreneurs ℅ our annual Engagement Week
🔹 6 experts sharing valuable tips via the Engage Small blog
🔹 22 new blog posts since the launch of engagesmall.com in April
🔹 25 Greater Cleveland small businesses featured via our monthly Instagram series
🔹 Countless tips on how to thrive as a small business owner in 2021!

We thank you for continuing to support our initiative to lift small up businesses near and far. Here’s to engaging small in 2022!

Have too much time on your hands this week? May we suggest visiting the Engage Small blog! 💻 Recent topics include:

🔸 3 Tips to Get Into Writing Mode for Your Business Blog
🔸 5 Great Gifts for Small Business Owners
🔸 Are Websites Useful in Every Industry?
🔸 How Do I Hire Freelancers?
🔸 Top 5 Most Asked Questions as a Designer

Read them all today! ➡️ https://engagesmall.com/blog/

Q4 spending is expected to reach more than $1 trillion (yes, with a T!) in the United States alone this year, which is enough to motivate any small business owner to work towards getting the piece of that holiday shopping pie! 🥧

Are you heading into the last portion of this quarter ready to increase your small business’ sales?

🔸 Have you drafted social media posts for the next two weeks?
🔸 Did you set up email campaigns with those last minute promos?
🔸 Is your staffing calendar confirmed?
🔸 Do you have some down time for yourself scheduled?!

The last may be the hardest to do, but the one that will mean the most to you by the time December 31st arrives!

It’s that time again‼️ Today we bring you another edition of the Engage Small CLE Small Business Round Up!!

Once a month, the Engage Small team shares small businesses from around Northeast Ohio that we think you should know about. Today, we are excited to present:

🔹 Blended Ohio in Canton, Hartville, Toledo and Strongsville
🔹 Lake Erie Design Co. all over Cleveland
🔹 Purple Brown Farm Store in Peninsula
🔹 Shore Society in Ohio City
🔹 Sweet Brie Co. all over Cleveland

Follow them all here on Facebook and make sure to tell us about your favorite small business in the comments! ⤵️

Some small business owners think websites are unimportant. Are they right? Are they wrong? 🤷🏻

Stanley Igboanugo, Engage Small’s resident SEO and inbound marketing specialist, dives into the topic (and his opinion!) in his latest post on the blog.

Read it now: https://engagesmall.com/are-websites-useful-in-every-industry-part-3-of-a-3-part-series/

📅 Small Business Saturday is this weekend! 📅 Do you remember when this shopping holiday started?

A. 2008
B. 2009
C. 2010
D. 2011

Leave your best guess in the comments of this post ⤵️ We’ll share the answer via our Facebook Stories tomorrow - stay tuned!

Need some ideas on what to get the small business owner in your life? 🎁 We put together a list of 5️⃣ great gifts to give to entrepreneurs this holiday season and shared it on the Engage Small blog! ⤵️

READ MORE: https://engagesmall.com/5-great-gifts-for-small-business-owners/

5 Great Gifts for Small Business Owners - Engage Small Have a small business owner on your shopping list this holiday season? The Engage Small team has some wonderful suggestions on what to get them - items they really can use and not just shove into a closet or drawer to never be seen again!!

Are there cheap ways to get a website? 🤷🏽‍♂️ Stanley Igboanugo, our resident SEO and inbound marketing specialist, answers that question - and shares his horrible experience designing his small business’ site 😬 - on the blog.

Read part 2️⃣ of Stanley’s 3️⃣ part series - “Does Your Small Business Need A Website in 2022?” - now:

https://engagesmall.com/are-there-cheap-ways-to-get-a-website-part-2-of-a-3-part-series/

Today, we are excited to bring you another installment of the Engage Small CLE Small Business Round Up!

In case you have missed it: once a month, the Engage Small team shares a handful of small businesses around Northeast Ohio that we love and support. Today, we recognize:

🔹 Annie’s Signature Sweets, all around Cleveland
🔹 CLE Urban Winery in Cleveland Heights
🔹 Lake Erie Pet Food Co. in Ohio City
🔹 Little Spark Refill Shop in Rocky River and Chagrin Falls
🔹 Room Service in Shaker Heights

We encourage you to follow all of them here on Facebook and ask you to tell us about your favorite small business in the comments of this post! ⤵️

In this day and age of social media, mobile apps and ol’ fashioned brick and mortar locations, we hear one question quite often: does a small business really need a website in 2021? 🤔

Stanley Igboanugo, our resident SEO and inbound marketing specialist, has a detailed answer to that question - so detailed, it’s divided into three parts. 😮

You can read Part 1 now here: https://engagesmall.com/does-your-small-business-need-a-website-in-2022-part-1-of-3/

While the happenings of 2020 forced some businesses to close, last year also brought an influx of new business applications with approximately 4.3 million business applications filed in 2020. That’s up 24% from the previous year and 51% higher than the previous decade’s average! 🤩

It’s just one of the many reasons why it’s so important to - more small business owners are depending on you in 2021!

Every small business owner knows how to work smarter, not harder - and utilizing mobile apps is one of the best ways to work efficiently, especially when it includes team members.

One of our favorites is Backblaze, a cloud storage and backup app. Other great collaboration apps include:

🔸 G Suite: Cloud storage & apps
🔸 Google Remote desktop & remote desktop manager
🔸 Dropbox: Cloud storage & file sync
🔸 Box: Cloud storage & file sync

We share why we love it, what could be better and who is it good for at engagesmall.com/apps