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What Small Businesses Should Know about the EMV Fraud Liability Shift on Oct. 1, 2015

October 5, 2015
By Mary Hughes

credit-card-with-chipThe U.S. is the last developed country to migrate from magnetic-stripe (“mag-stripe”) cards to EMV¹ or chip cards.  This migration will affect credit, debit and prepaid cards issued by U.S. financial institutions.

The biggest benefit of chip card technology is the potential reduction in card fraud due to counterfeit and lost and stolen cards for card-present transactions (where the card is physically present at the point-of-sale).  Chip card transactions offer enhanced functionality in card authentication, cardholder verification, and transaction authorization, thus providing better security than magnetic-stripe cards.  A chip card has an embedded microprocessor chip (it looks like a small, metallic square on the front of the card) that stores information securely and performs cryptographic processing during the payment transaction.

When a financial institution issues a chip card, the chip is encoded with security credentials that are extremely difficult to counterfeit.  Plus, chip cards create dynamic data that are unique for each transaction and cannot be used again.  Because of these security features, countries that have implemented chip cards have seen a reduction in card-present fraud rates.  (more…)

Snowboarding Innovation

September 30, 2015
gilson-boards-PASuccess Story: Pennsylvania

“The Bucknell SBDC has been an invaluable resource. The folks there have rallied behind our effort, welcoming us to the community and guiding us with sound advice.” – Nick Gilson, Founder/CEO

Impact of working with the Pennsylvania SBDC: Excited to get their boards on the market, the Gilson Boards team came to the Bucknell University Small Business Development Center (SBDC) where they received guidance in business planning and capital formation. Building on that relationship, Gilson Boards tapped into the center’s Engineering Development Services, where they collaborated with students and faculty from Bucknell’s College of Engineering in research and product development. (more…)

Avoid These Common Mistakes That Get Your Email Marked As Spam

September 28, 2015
By Anissa Starnes, Director, National Organizations for Constant Contact

You work hard to build trust with your customer base and you value your relationships with your customers. Even so, you may be struggling with your emails being reported as spam along with so many other businesses. It’s frustrating when you spend time cultivating the right message for your audience, send your email, and are met with a handful of spam complaints in response. How can this be avoided?

The trouble is that many email users decide that your email is unwanted and automatically click to “report as spam.” Email spam reports are a matter of opinion, and laziness to unsubscribe causes many businesses to receive spam complaints. This makes it difficult to figure out what you’re doing wrong.

Although there is no guaranteed way to completely avoid spam reports, there are certainly actions that can be taken to lower your spam reports. Here are some bad email marketing practices to quit now and improve your spam reports:  (more…)

Doing Things the Right Way – Air Force Veterans Build a Business

September 25, 2015
Montana - Electric City CoffeeSuccess Story: Montana

“The one thing that came out of our work with the Great Falls SBDC was our logo branding. We never even considered branding. Now, we’re renting cars and buying billboards with a simple, highly recognizable indication of who we are.” – Thad Reiste, co-owner of Electric City Coffee

After retiring from the Air Force, Thad and Heidi chose to return to Great Falls, Montana, go to work for an existing business, learn from the ground up and then buy it. They purchased The Daily Grind (recipes and equipment), relocated it, rebranded and made their shop more than just a coffee shop. They created a food experience. (more…)

Tips for Running Your Small Business

September 23, 2015
By Michael Willee

Tips-for-Running-Your-Small-BusinessAs a small business, you have to approach things differently than larger companies in your field. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be a disadvantage. While big businesses have considerable resources to draw from for projects, they can also be the victim of an entrenched mindset that can prevent new and innovative thinking. Here are some ways that small businesses can succeed at winning an unfair game.

Be efficient. While other organizations may have millions of dollars to throw around, startups and small businesses don’t have that luxury. But a lack of money doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of results. The most successful small businesses are the ones that make the best use of the money they do have to achieve the greatest return on their dollar. That doesn’t necessarily mean slashing expenditures across the board; sometimes, it’s better to pay a bit more for a superior product. But smart entrepreneurs are able to recognize areas where there’s value to be had in undervalued assets.

Use metrics to your advantage. Bigger companies can afford to take success at face value, but small businesses should want to know where that success comes from. Who is your target audience? What type of advertising is most successful, and in which medium? (more…)