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Small businesses make the world go ‘round. This week we interviewed a small business owner locally here in the Chicagoland area. The home remodeling industry has been interesting lately, to say the least. With the commercial market taking a nose dive in new construction, the home market for renovations has increased dramatically. New construction for homes also declined, with more people opting to purchase existing properties versus invest in having something built. Residential contractors have been hit hard, just as most small businesses in this country. Read the full interview below to learn a bit about how this small business was effected, but also how they will recover. What is your company name? Grizzly Home Renovations It is owned by myself, Syed Ali and my partner, Diego Flores   How long have you been in business? Since 2013.   How did you start the business and what motivated you to do it? Started the business in Texas and was working for another company. Moved to Illinois

So what is the best website builder? New to website building? Or just researching new website builders? We have all heard of the main platforms like WordPress or Wix, but what about the others? Are there new website builders that exist and we just are unfamiliar with them? Drag and drop website builders are the most common, and easiest to use. Even for digital marketing agencies, they are preferred. WordPress can be difficult and complex, and often times professionals need to be brought in to build it correctly, often costing more than you anticipated and all you end up with is a bloated, slow website. I break down the top 10 website builders in 2021.    8. GoDaddy Website Builder Free Website Builder We are all familiar with GoDaddy, was the king ding-aling through the 90s for domains, and is still a heavy hitter with the majority of domain owners using them. Did you know they have a free website builder? A little hidden gem with GoDaddy is that you can build a free 1-page website wi

  Although the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, restrictions on businesses are beginning to loosen in many places. If things are calming down in your state, you need to be ready with both a reopening and marketing plan that will maximize your success. Here are some tips from Nationwide Automation to help you out. Healthy and Safety Need to Be Top Priorities What you want most right now is to get back to business as usual. Unfortunately, that may not be the safest or smartest move for small business owners. The health and safety of your staff, your customers, and, most importantly, yourself, should all take precedent over profits. This is why so many small businesses are choosing to work remotely as they reopen. You may hear the term “remote work” and immediately think of being disconnected from your employees and customers. But this simply doesn’t have to be the case! You can enhance your situation if you put a little more effort into communicating and promoting your company’s mission.

  What are the best ways to market your business in 2021? In the not so distant past, businesses would advertise in physical print like in newspapers, magazines, and mailers. While those media platforms are still somewhat alive, they are in no way the best option for business marketing. They are extremely expensive and are mostly cost prohibitive when it comes to being a feasible option for most small businesses.  While we would all love to have a giant billboard on the side of the expressway, the costs don’t justify the means in today’s digital world. Today, you can get one of those giant billboards, except the internet version. Being front and center on a search engine with the horsepower like Google, will virtually give you the same ROI, if not better. Plus, its measurable via all of the various analytics tools available today. Organic SEO What is organic SEO? Organic SEO refers to optimization of your website, or other digital properties, for the purpose of showing up on the first

 From the perspective of a local business owner -  Studio19 Salon in Schaumburg I had the opportunity to interview a local salon owner and discuss in-depth the impact of Coronavirus / Covid-19 on her business. Being in Illinois, the governor has mandated shut downs of specific businesses as well as limited occupancy levels, impeding customer volume, which in turn effects total revenue generated. Read my interview below to learn how these political shutdowns have affected local business owners, and their families. What is your company name?  Studio19 How long have you been in business?  Since March 2019 How did you start the business and what motivated you to do it? I grew out of my existing salon and also wanted to incorporate my continuing education company with it. I was doing mostly onsite education, hosting classes with 1 or 2 people at a time. I built up a large volume of clientele, and started to host larger and larger classes over time. I thought that offering the camaraderie of