As a small business, it’s important to stay up-to-date with what is happening in your industry. It’s also key to always be learning so you can optimise the way you run your business.
The best small business blogs have a wealth of useful information that can help you both innovate and ensure that you meet the needs of your customers.
They are tailored to companies that are a similar size to the one you work in or run, so you can rest assured that the advice is relevant to your situation.
But everyone seems to be blogging these days so weeding out the bad and focusing on the good can be time-consuming.
That’s why we’ve put together a list of our picks for the best small business blogs that you should be reading to get ahead.
Small Business Trends
Small Business Trends provides practical advice to help your small business thrive, combined with industry analysis and thought leadership articles. The blog is broken down into six categories with relevant content in each: Marketing, Management, Technology, Finance, Advice, and Resources.
Some of the useful tips it provides include how to keep your social media content on brand, how to raise venture capital for your startup, and advice on creating a smart business.
The site also reviews books and technology from a small business perspective.
Big Ideas for Small Businesses
The Big Ideas for Small Businesses blog has won a plethora of accolades, so you don’t need to take our word for it about how great this blog is! The articles are written by Barbara Weltman who is an attorney and small business tax expert.
While there is a strong emphasis on tax and finance topics on the blog, it also covers subjects such as company driving and dating policies, developing leadership qualities, and health plans and related regulations.
Kabbage
Kabbage’s blog manages to present what can be complex ideas for small businesses in an easy-to-understand way.
The blog leans towards the finance and accounting side of running a business, discussing topics such as top tax and bookkeeping books for small business owners, low-cost marketing tips and strategies, and how the internet sales tax will affect online retail.
YoungUpstarts
YoungUpstarts is another small business blog that has won countless awards for its small business and entrepreneur-focused articles.
This blog has a section dedicated to starting your own business called “Advice for the Young at Heart”, but also combines this with articles aimed at more traditional small businesses across different industries.
Some useful recent articles include an in-depth guide on cybersecurity for small businesses, tips on how to get people to engage with your website, and how to take your marketing automation further with AI.
Small Biz Survival
In contrast to YoungUpstarts, the Small Biz Survival blog is geared towards small businesses in rural and small-town environments, rather than entrepreneurs and people starting up digital-first businesses.
The blog covers topics focused on the basics of running a small business in a small town such as tourism, marketing, and economic development. It also has articles and guides that target small businesses at different stages, which sit under the headers of Dreaming, Doing and Growing, and Leveling Up. The articles are also all written by small businesses that are operating in small towns and rural environments.
Evergreen Small Business
The Evergreen Small Business blog is run by two CPAs – Stephen L. Nelson and Elizabeth C. Nelson. Because of this, a lot of the content is focused on practical and tax and legal issues for small businesses. To complement the blog, Evergreen has a small business FAQ section, which delivers more long-form content on a range of burning business issues.
They also publish e-books, which are normally free to download, including Small Business Tax Deduction Secrets and Setting Low S Corporation Salaries.
Duct Tape Marketing
The Duct Tape Marketing blog is run by John Jantsch who brands himself as the “World’s Most Practical Small Business Expert”. This blog aims to provide simple, effective, and affordable marketing advice to small business owners.
Posts cover topics from how small businesses can compete in the online marketplace, how to marry content with the customer journey, and why storytelling can help your business’s bottom line.
BizSugar
The BizSugar blog curates content from its community of readers (the BizSugar Mastermind Community) that is aimed at the small business market. The type of content on the blog varies from articles to videos and webinars from industry experts.
Topics covered include using sustainability as a competitive advantage, promoting your crowdfunding campaign, and tips on how to be an influencer.
Fast Company for Small Businesses
Fast Company is a generally well-respected blog with innovative and interesting content, but did you know that they also have a section dedicated to small business issues?
These articles still focus on design, innovation, and technology, just like the main site, but they are all about issues that affect small businesses.
Content ranges from reports that talk about the best (and worst cities to run small businesses), to answers to the most common startup and small business questions, to trend pieces such as small business owners’ perspectives on the current political climate and how it affects them.
Startups.co.uk
Startups.co.uk provides online resources for anyone who wants to start a new business, grow an existing small business, or sell your business. It’s a business advice platform as well as a blog and aims to provide small business ideas, business inspiration, and free business advice, no matter what sector your business operates in.
Some of the site’s most interesting content includes:
- “How to start” guides, which provide information on some of the most popular start-up ideas
- Business ideas to start for under £10,000
- Information on social business ideas
These are our picks for the best small business blogs, but we’re keen to hear from you on this. What sites do you read to get tips on – and insight into – how to better run your small business? Let us know!
