The market is filled with “un-sprouted” small-cap stocks; these are companies that have a market cap of less than $500M. These investments are risky, but they can also offer returns of up to 1000 percent if you invest in them smartly.

Many big time investors will overlook these small-cap investments because of their potential risk, but because of the huge return potential I really feel that they should be part of every investor’s portfolio. Small-cap stocks are from businesses with small market capitalization and if you invest wisely you can beat the big institution investors to the punch.

When looking at small-cap investments it is important to keep in mind that even the biggest brand name companies once started out small. Google started in a garage. This potential is what makes small-cap investing so great. You could be aligning yourself, and your money, with the next big thing. These smaller companies have more growth potential than the larger corporations do. They can change course, make corrections, and stay up with market trend easier than the big guys. They will also garner less attention, which means that you can get a bigger piece of the pie.

Yes, the growth potential is huge, but you don’t want to put all your financial eggs in this one potentially high risk basket. Small-cap investments shouldn’t represent anymore than 10 percent of your investment portfolio, at the most.

Since small-cap stocks are risky there are a few things you want to make sure you pay attention to along the way. It is easy to get caught up in the dream of potential, and you want to play it smart.

• Don’t Lose Your Cool – What I mean by this, is don’t let something that seems too good to be true lure you in with the potential of big time returns. Small-cap investing is just like any other investment. You need to do your research, make smart decisions, and know exactly what you are getting yourself into. Don’t invest more money than you can afford and check all the avenues you make a decision. This will help you insure that your investment choice is sound.

• Don’t Jump on the Bandwagon – Just because you know a friend of a friend who made a ton of cash from a small-cap investment, doesn’t mean that you need to get in on the deal. Someone else’s success might not mean success for you. Tread carefully.

• Don’t Make Assumptions – This actually goes along with the last point too. When it comes to small-cap investing, or any investing for that matter, you always have to do your due diligence. You need to check out the balance sheets of the company and make sure that you are making a wise decision. It might seem like a great opportunity on the surface, but you need to look further than just skin deep.

• Don’t Think it Will Be a Quick Turn Around – Small-cap investments aren’t going to hit the jackpot in a few months. In fact, you are looking at a couple of years for this investment to pay off. Keep that in mind as you research potential investments and start looking at the details.

• Don’t Go Too Out on the Fringe – The very edge of technology is already a risky investment, when you add the potential risk of a small business you might be biting off more than your portfolio can chew. Stick to businesses that aren’t on the very fringe of the market and you will have a more secure investment.

I personally believe that small-cap investments should be a part of everyone’s portfolio, no matter what circumstance someone is in. The potential lies in front of you and it’s up to you to be able to identify the opportunity and decrease your risks involved. I hope this has helped you understand how small-cap (or even penny stocks) can give you the return on investment you are looking for.

Readers: What is your take on small-cap investments? Do you believe they should be a part of your portfolio? If so, which stocks have you bought? Thank you for reading, hope you’ve enjoyed!

As your parents advance in age, there may come a time when your help is needed in assisting one or both of them in managing their finances. Poor health, difficulty getting around, and the death of a spouse are just some of the life-altering challenges that would make it difficult to keep finances in order. If your parents could use your help, it’s time to take all of the financial advice they passed on to you once upon a time and put it to good use. Not sure where to start? Gathered for you here are some tips and suggestions for helping your aging parents manage their money.

Come Up With a Plan

If your parents have asked you for help with their finances, the first thing you should do is sit down with them and come up with a money management plan together. If your parents are unable to ask for help and you know it’s needed, you might want to consider gathering other close family members together, siblings for example, to discuss your parents’ finances and design a plan that everyone feels comfortable with. Failure to communicate with your parents or other family members that are closely involved with them can cause hard feelings and arguments down the road, so try to avoid any negative scenarios with open and honest communication when it comes to money.

Gather and Organize Important Information

After you’ve come up with a game plan, gather together all of the information you’ll need to monitor your parents’ finances so that you’ll be able to make deposits, pay bills, and keep tabs on their accounts. You should have your parents’ social security numbers, account numbers to all checking, savings, and investment accounts, and a comprehensive list of your parents’ assets and debts. You will also need the contact information necessary for making payments and an idea of monthly expenses that need to be paid such as utilities, insurance premiums, groceries, and anything else your parents need budgeted in.

Add Your Name on Accounts

If you’re going to be helping your parents with their finances, it’s important that you have your name added to all of their accounts so that you can make executive decisions when or if they aren’t able to so themselves. Don’t just add your name to things like checking, savings, or investment accounts–add it to utility accounts, too. If your name isn’t on their accounts, you’ll most likely run into some big hassles if you ever need to make any changes or handle financial transactions.

Set Up Direct Deposit

Whenever possible, set up direct deposit for any income your parents receive. By doing so you’ll eliminate the need for them to go to the bank every time they need to deposit a check, and this can be especially helpful if they have a hard time getting around due to poor health or limited mobility. It will also save you from making frequent trips to the bank for them.

Utilize Online Banking and Bill-Pay Services

Many elderly people are computer savvy these days, but if your parents cringe at the thought of using a computer, teach them how to use it if they’re able or willing to learn. Once they see how easy it is to view accounts or pay bills online, they’ll wish you’d taught them sooner.

Find Ways to Help Them Save

The final years of your parents’ lives shouldn’t be spent worrying about money. If your parents are struggling for any reason to make ends meet, try and help them come up with some solutions that will ease some of the financial burdens they have weighing upon them. Maybe your mom or dad requires a lot of care due to an injury, poor health or a declining soundness of mind. Health care, whether it’s in-home or at a medical facility, is expensive–and before you know it, it can drain a bank account dry. If one of your parents requires care and simply can’t afford it, consider providing the care yourself if at all possible. When that’s not a viable option, ask other family members if they can step in–if you work together, you might be able to provide the care needed without hiring outside help. Other ways you can help your parents save include clipping coupons, making changes to the budget, and seeking assistance from outside resources that they are eligible to receive.

When it comes to helping your parents manage their money keep them involved as much as possible. Listen to their needs and concerns and above all else, be respectful. Helping them with their finances will give you the peace of mind that comes along with knowing your parents’ money is in good hands.

Guest post from Finley Crest. Finley writes about senior care for SeniorCare.net.

To stay successful in the business world you need to have an edge over your competition. And, you need to keep that edge, always. This means that you need to have a clear idea of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. Only when you have this information can you make better informed decisions on which directions to take your own business.

Identify Other’s Mistakes

A smart person learns from their mistakes, but a wise person learns from other’s mistakes. When you have a competitive edge in business it means that you have learned from other’s mistakes. Hopefully some of those others have been your competitors. There are a lot of ways to discover their mistakes and it does take work, but it is worth it in the long run.

Analyze The Market

Having an edge on your competition means that you need to analyze your target market and be smart with your business resources. This doesn’t mean that you have to play dirty, be unfair, or be cut-throat about business decisions, in fact, it is quite the contrary. Consumers don’t want to do business with a bully. If you are cut throat or play dirty with your competition you are more likely to lose customers than gain customers, but you also don’t want to pretend your competition doesn’t exist.

So, your first step is to find out who your competitors are.

The Competition

Your business competition is going to be the businesses that offer the same services that you do. Your competitors are going to be the businesses that focus on the same niche market, the same customers, and sell their products or services in the same price range as you do. When you have a clear idea of who these businesses are; it will help you to get a better idea of who you are and where your business stands in the marketplace.

When you have a good idea of who your competition is you can start to ask yourself these questions:

• What is it that my business has to offer that is different or better than my competition?

• What are my competitor’s strengths and weaknesses? How can I use these to my own business advantage?

• What are my own strengths and weaknesses? How can I use these to my own business advantage?

Market Research

In order to gain insight on the competition you need to do market research to see what your competitors are doing. Keep an eye on their websites; follow them on Facebook or Twitter. Watch what they do, watch how they work the market, and look at how you can do it better. Pay attention to how your competitors deal with customer services issues, as if you were one of their clients. You know, the things that make you choose one business over another. Get inside the head of your potential customers and see what would win you over to the business you are running as opposite to the competition.

Keep Up With Market Trends

Keep up with your market’s business trends. If a new product is coming out in your industry make sure you are the one to break the news to your social media outlets. Share information about industry changes, new business inventions, and potential fun promotions that are happening in your industry. This will not only show your customers that you are a smart business person, but that you care, and you are paying attention to the changes in your market.
There isn’t one simple way or one clear answer on how to keep that competitive edge over the competition, but there are many small and simple things you can do to thrive and be successful.

The best money to invest is money that you didn’t have to work very hard to earn. That’s why using money you created through passive income for investing is like investing free money.

Types of Income

There are two types of ways to make money, passive income and earned income. Earned income is the money that you work for. Earned income is the money that you get for going to your job every day. This is the money that pays your bills, puts a roof over your head, and keeps food on the table. Most people have their earned income allocated to specific things and living expenses, which can include investing or savings.

Passive income comes from sources that don’t require very much, if any work at all on your part. Most often people with passive income have real estate investments, popular websites they run, or several other side businesses where they make extra income that require little work on their part. With passive income streams the money works for you, instead of you working for the money. Since passive income took so little for you to earn it is easier to invest it and not worry about the outcome of your investment.

Investing Passive Income

When investing passive income, there is less pressure from the possibility of losing that money. This makes you freer to invest in ways that are slightly more risky, without really losing any sleep over it. Investing in riskier investments also means that you make more room for growth and potential returns. The money didn’t take a lot of work for you to earn, so you are less worried about losing it.

Overall the best way to bring money into your life is to have more and more of your income coming from passive income. After the initial investment of money or time, passive income should require very little work or upkeep on your part. With money earning itself and coming into your pocket you can put your energy towards doing the things you want to be doing and not have to be doing to earn money.

Passive Income

There are actually two forms of passive income, those that require an investment to get started and those that don’t. It’s a good idea to have passive income streams from both investments that require money and those that don’t.

One great way to work with passive income is to start with some of the money making opportunities that don’t require a financial investment and as the money starts to come in from those streams, you can put that money towards passive income streams that do require an initial investment. These streams will often bring you a higher return and using passive income to create more passive income is just being smart with your money.

Some of the ways to start passive income without an investment is to do things like write and sell an ebook, blog, or popular website. Take up a side sales job that earns residual income. Get involved with an ecommerce drop-ship retailing program. These types of businesses require no investment and are simple to create. You can also get a patent or trademark.

Once the money starts to come in from some of these simpler income streams you can take that money and invest in higher yielding passive income opportunities. These investment can include opportunities like purchasing real estate properties with the goal of renting them, investing in dividends from stocks, investing in bonds, CD’s or other cash equivalents, or you can expand you stock portfolio.

If you are part of Generation Y, you still have over thirty years until you are close to retirement age and if you have been paying attention, even a little bit, you will have heard that it is going to be harder for your generation than any other of the modern age.

The sad truth is that Generation Y’ers are going to get less help from the government and their employers than the generations of the past. This puts more of the retirement pressure on your shoulders. You have to invest smartly now in order to see the returns that will allow you to stop working as you get older.

Generation Y people will still need to have the IRA’s, 401k’s, CD’s and Money Market accounts for retirement, but at this point you need to put your focus, and your money, into riskier investments that have the potential to build your net worth faster. It’s even more important for Generation Y’ers to have a good balance of safe accounts and high risk accounts than ever before.

The retirement goal of a Generation Y’er should be between at least $1 to 2 million and this is shooting for a retirement age of 70. What that really means is a 25 year old will need to put away at least $7,000 annually with an 8 percent annual return. Does that feel a little daunting?

There are some things that you can, and should, be doing now to start getting you ready for that retirement down the road. It might seem far away, but the more you can do now to prepare, the easier it will be for you when the time does come.

• Employer Help – If you have the opportunity to have an employer sponsored retirement plan you should be taking advantage of it, and now. Every penny that your employer puts into your retirement account, is a penny that you don’t have to. With their help you can reach your retirement goals sooner.

• Get a Roth IRA – Most Generation Y’ers are in a lower income tax bracket. By putting money into a Roth IRA now, you are helping yourself with tax costs in the future. Every post-tax dollar you put into an IRA is tax money saved down the road when you start to withdrawal from that account.

• Deposit Accounts – These accounts are safe, which means that they don’t pay very high returns. Most deposit accounts interest rates are so low that they’re not really worth it. But every so often a bank will offer a special rate for a CD or Money Market account that makes it worthwhile. These are longer term investment opportunities that can help you to boost your savings along the way. You have to make sure to research the banks in your area and get the best rate you can find.

• Stocks – As a Gen Y’er you have a ways to go until you hit retirement age, which means you can take higher risks with your stock investments. If you don’t want to deal with stocks yourself work with someone that can help you. Keep in mind that this is still a risky business, but since you have a longer time to recover from any economic downturns you also have the potential to earn big too.

Overall you need to determine how much money you need to have and at what age you want to retire. By creating an end goal you can more easily see how you are going to get there. You can find many retirement calculators online to help you crunch the numbers and help you get on your way to a comfortable retirement.

Do you know the difference between a bear and bull market? Before investing in a new stock it is imperative that you understand the differences between these two market trends, but that is just the beginning. Knowing how to read stock charts is crucial because they will show you when profits reach their peak and ultimately, when you should sell.

Determining where the market is, and where a specific stock is, isn’t always easy, which is why people make their living attempting to predict something that is rather unpredictable, like the stock market. Luckily there are some tricks to helping see what you need to be looking out for to help you make the smartest investment choices.

Bears and Bulls

The first thing you need to understand is, for the most part, you want to invest in stocks during a bear market. A bear market is when stocks are falling and selling is the focus. If you get in at one of these points, ideally you will want to ride that investment until the market turns bullish; which is when the market is trending upward. Spotting trends and taking advantage of them is what is going to separate you from the pack and bring you higher returns. If you wait too long you could miss opportunities.

Market Trends

There are actually three kinds of market trends that you need to watch out for. The first is an uptrend. This is when the stocks peaks, and even troughs, continue to move in an upward direction. The second is a downtrend. This is when the stock’s peaks are continually moving in a downward direction. Finally there is a sideways or horizontal trend, in which there is little movement up or down.

Trend Length

On top of the direction of a market trend you also need to look at the length of that trend. A long-term trend can be a trend that has lasted one year or up to five years. Obviously the longer the trend the more likely that trend will continue. An intermediate trend is a marketing direction that has lasted for several months; these trends are less stable and less secure. A short term trend is a market movement that has only happened over a month or less, obviously these are harder to trust.

When you can look at the trend over a specific time frame you will get a clear idea of what that stock is doing and where it is likely to be headed. It’s also important to remember that everything happens in cycles. The goal is to get in when the getting is good and miss out on any serious downturns in the cycle. This isn’t always easy to do or predict. Even if a stock has had a long-term uptrend, know that at some point that is going to change. There are no guarantees.

Losing and Changing

Another important thing to remember when looking at the trend is that 90 percent of traders lose. This is a hard fact to swallow, but in order to win, you have to lose. Losing not only helps you to become a better trader, but it offers you lessons and skills that you would have never earned had you always been on the upside of the trading game.

Adaption is the key. In order to stay up with the trends you have to be willing to make changes, mistakes, and move in a different direction. Trading is playing a serious game and it’s a game where the rules change and you can’t always tell who the winner is, but if you stick to it and are willing to change as it changes you can win, big time.

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you own, if you are not using social media as a way to market your business, you are missing out. Social media is a way to get noticed, get attention, and get the word out that your business is a force to be reckoned with. Of course, just like with any other marketing program or business strategy there are certain dos and don’ts that you want to take into consideration.

Don’t Post Something You Will Regret Later – Keep in mind that anything you post online is out there forever. Just because you delete something or take something down, doesn’t mean that someone else didn’t get evidence that you had it up in the first place. There are no take backs in the world of social media, remember that first and foremost and it will go a long way.

Don’t Worry About Experience – You don’t have to have training or a ton of experience with the internet and online marketing to get social media to work for you. Social media is not new, it is just another way to communicate, and with that in mind, many of the marketing strategies that you would use in other realms work exactly the same.

Do Build Relationships – The big difference between social media and other marketing systems is that social media is about relationships. People don’t become your fan on Facebook and then just ignore that connection. They want to learn about you and your business. They want to feel like they have a relationship with you. They want more than a promotional message from you every Friday. If you don’t treat social media like friendship and potential connections you will lose people’s interest and you will end up wasting your time.

Do Provide Content – If people feel that you are sharing something of value they are going to stick around to listen and what’s more, they are going to encourage other people to listen to you too. This means that you have to post real content, you need to provide helpful information, you need to offer special deals and discounts, and you need to have excellent customer services.

Do Take it Seriously - When creating a social media strategy you need to treat it like you would any other marketing campaign. But there are a few fun things that you can do to pack a punch and get some attention. Here are a handful of things that you can do to bring attention to your social media and bring in new business:

• Host a Content or Game – Create a contest around your brand or business. For example have your customers submit pictures of themselves using your product. Let your customers vote on their favorite pictures on your website and offer the winner a grand prize. This will not only excite your loyal customers, but the will intrigue potential customers to see what you’re up to.

• Have a Giveaway – This idea is similar to a contest, but with less set up and processing. Have people sign up for a free drawing and randomly pick a winner. Make sure to give enough notice so you can advertise the drawing and the closer you get to the big draw date, the more you talk about it on your social media platforms.

• Do Good – If you have a niche market of younger clientele or people who are into the green movement, use that to build your social media platform. Find a cause that you believe in and work with your customers to raise money or awareness for that cause. This shows your customers and potential customers that you care beyond making money for your own pocket.

If you have been investing in an IRA, a 401k, retirement annuities, or a college savings plan than you most likely already know about the tax breaks that you can get for these investments. But are you aware of the tax breaks that are possible for other investments?

When it comes to tax time it is important that you are taking advantage of all the itemized deductions that you can. Remember, we all have a silent partner when it comes to our taxable investments. That partner is Uncle Sam and no matter what you do he is going to take some of your investment income and capital gains. The good news is that you don’t have to give him everything you’ve earned and there are many special tax breaks Uncle Sam offers too.

Make sure you are getting all of the tax breaks that you can qualify for.

First things first; talk to your tax professional. Not only is there a lot to keep track of when it comes to tax time, but the laws, rules, and regulations change every year. Your tax professional’s job is to stay on top of those rules and help prevent you from making any tax mistakes.

Although they need to know what your options are, you should have a good idea of what tax breaks are possible to get you started.

• Investment Related Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions – Basically this means itemized deductions. There are many of these deductions that you are probably already taking that have nothing to do with investments. These deductions can be for things like tax preparation costs, union dues, job hunting expenses, and so on. But there are also many investment related expenses that you can add to this list. These are costs like:

-Fees for investment advice or publications
-IRA custodial fees
-Safe deposit box rental, if you use the box to store investment related documents
-Charges for automatic investment services
-Costs to replace lost certificates

• Investment Interest Expenses – If you have borrowed money to purchase investments you can write off those expenses. Yes, this means that you can write off the loan money and the interest. This is a specialized deduction and not everyone will qualify for it.

• Capital Losses – If you are paying high capital gains you can use capital losses to offset. In order to qualify for this offset your capital losses have to exceed your capital gains for the year. If this is the case you can also use this to offset any ordinary income you have as well. The good news is that you can carry forward these offset gains into future years.

• Full Time Investor – If you work as an investor full time, or if the majority of your personal income is from investing, you could deduct work space, computer equipment, and even your internet connection. You have to spend time working on your investments every day in order for this to count.

Again, with any of these potential tax saving tips it’s important that you talk to your tax professional first. Better to check before hand than have to deal with a painful and lengthy audit down the road. You might also want to consider consulting with an investment accountant, they will have the skinny on all of the most plausible and necessary deductions that a tax professional from one of the box stores might not be aware of.

These are just of the few more obvious deduction possibilities. There are many, many more. Keep on top of the best deductions for your income and you will insure that the person who gets to keep the most of your hard earned money is you.

Everyone is looking to make a little extra money and if you can create some multiple incomes coming your way you are doing yourself a favor. Thanks to the internet there are literally hundreds of crazy ways to earn a little dough. Many of these require little to no effort on your part. Granted some of these ideas are a onetime only shot, but maybe you can use that brilliantly wacky idea to come up with your own weird way to earn some big time cash!

• MillionDollarHomePage – Heard of it? Basically this one guy came up with the idea to sell his homepage for $1 per pixel. It gained so much publicity that he ended up making a million dollars. So maybe $1 a pixel has already been used, but setting up a site for others to advertise on could be a way to make some money online without any work.

• MyLikes.com – If you have a Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube account you can be using MyLikes to earn money, just by sharing stuff you like. This website connects advertisers with the people who use their products. All you have to do is post what you like from their choice of advertisers on your Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube feeds and for every click you get to that advertisement you get paid. It’s really that simple. The more followers you have the higher your chances of earning, but don’t post too many ads per day, otherwise this will lower your ranks because it will make you look like a spammer.

• SkillShare.com – Have a skill that others would want to learn? If so, SkillShare.com might just be the right platform for you. On this website you can post classes, workshops, or trainings that you are willing to offer and people who want to learn can find you.

• GetAround.com – Do you work from home or have an extra car? Do you have a car that you don’t use very much? Do you live in a city where having a car isn’t totally necessary? GetAround.com is a person to person car rental website. People who own cars post their rental information online and people who are looking to rent a car for a few hours or a couple of days can find deal much lower than the rental car companies can offer.

• Fiverr.com – This might be too good to be true, but on this website you can list anything that you are willing to do for five bucks. This site has people offering to write personalized poems, draw pictures, do promotional videos, create voice overs, or even propose to your girlfriend; all for five dollars. If you have a simple skill that you are willing to sell for $5 check out this site.

• I Do, Now I Don’t – On this website people can sell their un-used engagement rings for the marriage that didn’t end up happening. Although you might not have a ring to sell personally, this website was created by a guy who got the ring back after the engagement ended and created a lucrative website from it. He used his creative skills to make money and so could you.

• Paid Surveys – You’ve probably heard of this before and maybe you even thought it was a scam, but think again. There are several honest survey sites that will pay you for every survey that you take.

• Become A Model – If there is an art school or community college near where you live you might consider modeling for an art class. Yes, this is a crazy way to make money, but it is easy and all you have to do is sit there. Okay, so sometimes you might have to be naked, but who cares! It’s for the art.

These are great ways to earn extra money in your spare time. Nonetheless, if you are seeking to create a more solid income stream it is wise to find a way in which it can aid you to become financially smarter. Depending on your goals, you attempt to make money by finding a job that will help you to be a better business person. Or maybe real estate is a great way to learn and earn money at the same time!

Creating a winning brand for your business isn’t going to happen overnight. Brand recognition takes time and dedication to develop. You have to be willing to do the work and stay impeccable with your business practices.

Obviously, the first, and most important, step is to come up with a unique brand name and a creative logo. Take your time through this process. Find something easy to remember, unique, and something that will cause curiosity. That is just the first step and what you do from there is really going to determine how successful your brand can be.
When creating buzz around your business brand name in the market you need to follow the fundamental guidelines of social media marketing and you need to have a clear understanding of what your consumers are going to want from your business.

Here are the first six steps for creating a winning brand name that will bring you more business:

1. Get your name out there. – In order to get your brand name recognized you have to spend some money. You are going to need both traditional media and social media coverage. Invest in commercials, direct marketing, promotions, and whatever you can afford as far as traditional marketing is concerned. Less expensive and almost more effective is social media marketing. Use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social sites to get your name out to as many people as possible. There are lots of ways to do social media right and wrong. Make sure that you know the best ways to get attention online.

2. Know your niche. – In order to get brand recognition you need to know your customers and your competitors. What do your potential customers like about your competition? What angle of the market is being ignored? What can make your brand stronger than your competitor’s brand? Ways to discover this information include using surveys, focus groups, and consumer research. You need to determine how you are going to meet your customers needs better than any of your competitors.

3. Create an image. – Yes, in business image is everything and even the smallest business can be helped with a good image. Branding isn’t just for huge companies, but for any business that wants to make a difference. Be honest and look at what your business can actually deliver to your customers. Don’t over promise, doing that will only lead to bad customer service, which is always bad for a brand name. Most importantly be likeable. You want people to see your brand name and have positive thoughts about your company.

4. Use it any way you can. – Your brand, business name, and logo, should be melded into every single part of your business. Everything you do is a reflection of that brand, so make sure that your business is being represented as you would want it to be.

5. Be consistent, but innovative. – This might sound like a contradiction, but your customers will want to feel like they can depend on you and in order to do that you need to stay consistent, but you don’t want to get stale in the process. You have to work to find the happy medium of staying consistent for your long term clients, but also keep things new and innovate for your potential new clients.

6. Make it personal. – People are more likely to use a brand that they have a personal connection to. Find ways to make your brand personal. When using social media, work to keep personal connections with people. By making it personal you will create more brand loyalty and this will build your customer base.

Readers: What are some of the brand name businesses that you can think of? What do they do well? What could they improve on? Let’s hear you voice in the comments below!