Google Small Business: National Small Business Week

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Let’s Make Work Better

Thursday, May 4, 2017

In 1998, Google was a small start-up being run out of a garage. As we’ve grown over the past nearly 20 years, we’ve experimented a lot with our workplace culture and management practices. A few years ago we started sharing what we’ve learned — what works and what doesn’t — on our re:Work website.

This National Small Business Week, we’ve compiled some of the re:Work guides that we think are most helpful for small business owners to help you do what you do even better:

Hiring. Small business owners report that finding and keeping qualified employees is one of the top ten issues keeping them awake at night.1 See how to make every step of the hiring process more effective:

Managers. We gathered insights from surveys, studies, and on-the-ground conversations with employees about what makes a great manager. Learn from what we found:

Teams. In the modern workplace, most productive work happens in teams. Google did a deep dive into workplace culture and structure to find out what improves a team’s performance. Check it out: Understand team effectiveness

Setting Goals. Research has shown that when businesses commit to a goal, everyone’s performance can improve. At Google we set and track “Objectives and Key Results” (OKRs). Learn more: Set goals with OKRs.

For even more ideas, keep up with re:Work’s weekly blog, where we’ll be sharing new content focused on the needs of small businesses. You can also get inspirational content delivered to you by signing up for our monthly newsletter.

Posted by the Google re:Work Team

1National Federation of Independent Businesses, NFIB Small Business Problems and Priorities, 2016.

This National Small Business Week, Build Your Online Skills with Lessons from the Pros

Monday, May 1, 2017

The web is helping small businesses grow. As the place where people turn to learn, discover, find, and buy things, it’s connecting customers to small businesses and small businesses to customers. Being online can have a big impact–in fact, businesses that are online grow 40 percent faster and are twice as likely to create new jobs than those that remain offline.1

We see the power of the web working for American small businesses. Millions of small businesses are found on Google Search and Maps every single day across the nation.

With a little bit of elbow grease and the help of technology, we believe every business can grow online. So together with our partners, we’re continuing our mission to help make that happen. Through our Get Your Business Online initiative, we’re bringing together free resources and tools to help you this National Small Business Week and beyond.

Learn from the pros through bite-sized lessons Build your online business and marketing skills with five-minute lessons from Primer, our free mobile app. To celebrate National Small Business Week, we’re happy to announce new lessons created by small business experts Anita Campbell, John Jantsch, Ramon Ray, and Rhonda Abrams. Each has created a special lesson from their decades of experience working with and coaching small businesses. We’re also excited to share new web-based lessons.

Get your business online Be where your customers are. Get your free listing on Google Search and Maps. Show pictures of your business, list your hours, and add your phone number so customers can just click to call you or get directions. Businesses with complete listings are considered twice as reputable.2 Use this handy tool to get started.

Make sure your website works on mobile Did you know that more than half of all Google searches happen on mobile phones? Mobile shoppers want quick results–53 percent say they’ll wait no more than three seconds before abandoning a site.3 How fast does your website load? Use the free Test My Site tool to see how well your site works on mobile. We’ll email you a personalized assessment with specific recommendations on how to make it better.

Want even more? During National Small Business Week (and throughout the year), Google and our partners are hosting in-person workshops to help you grow your business online. Find a workshop near you.

Small businesses are the heart of our communities. Thank you for making the places we call home, home.

Happy National Small Business Week. www.google.com/smallbusinessweek

Posted by Soo Young Kim, Head of Marketing, Get Your Business Online

1 BCG Report, The Connected World: The $4.2 Trillion Opportunity, March 2012.
2 Google/Oxera, The Benefits of Complete Business Listings, December 2014.
3 Google Data, Global, n=3,700 aggregated, anonymized Google Analytics data from a sample of mWeb sites opted into sharing benchmark data, March 2016. Think With Google.

Get Your Business Online with a Workshop Near You During National Small Business Week

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Next week is National Small Business Week, and our partners across the country are hosting free workshops in their communities. You’re invited to join us.

Through these workshops you can learn how to grow online and reach more customers. Be sure to check google.com/smallbusinessweek when the celebration begins on April 30 for more free resources and tools.

Find a local workshop.

Small Business

Let’s Make Work Better

This National Small Business Week, Build Your Online Skills with Lessons from the Pros

Get Your Business Online with a Workshop Near You During National Small Business Week

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