We've all heard of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving shop-fest, the day when retailers get their books back in the black but have you heard of Small Business Saturday? Don't spend all your money on Black Friday, save some for Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday is a nationwide initiative in it's 3rd year to support small business. The idea is simple and has far reaching benefits. Spending money in your community, adds to city coffers, encourages job growth, and supports local public services like the library. All this just from doing something you love to do anyway...shop! Also, if you are a small business owner find out how you can take part by visiting the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.

Shop local, support small business, and in turn support the local economy. You don't have to drive out of San José to get your shopping needs met, the city has lots of great independently owned businesses and you can save money on gas too.

SCORE has a special program called the Veteran Fast Launch Initiative that offers veterans:

• FREE or significantly discounted resources for starting businesses, such as computer software and business services (provided by major corporate partners)
• Training in how to start and how to grow a successful/profitable business
• SCORE’s mentoring program where Fast Launch participants will be assigned a knowledgeable and highly experienced mentor to guide them every step of the way

Learn more about this program and get a coupon towards attending any one of SCORE's workshops for free by visiting http://vetsfastlaunch.org/

On Saturday, July 14th 2012 @ Santa Teresa Branch Library, from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Patti Glick from Hand to Hand Contact, will share the insights that have made her a successful networker and THE queen of follow-up. Patti will shed light on some of the most common mistakes made in networking and follow-up as well as share a simple system that can create customers for life and endless referrals.

On Thursday, July 19th 2012 at the Entrepreneur Center from 10:30am- 12:00pm, I will be talking about all the great and free resources available for small business. I will highlight some of our online business resources and how they can help you with your small business. I look forward to seeing you there!

Registration is encouraged.

I came across another good website for market research information, as some of you know this kind of information is hard to find, so I am happy to share a resource when I find one. Marketing Charts offers easy to read, um well, charts on varied topics. For instance, did you know more and more moms are using their mobile phones to shop? Why would that be interesting? Well, what if you have this new fabulous baby product that you'd like to sell. This information would tell me that I should probably look into either having a website optizmized for viewing on cell phones or maybe even an app.  I think even if you are not trying to sell anything, you will find interesting factoids on Marketing Charts to get a sense of what the trends are.

Reference USA is offering our customers free online training throughout April, May, and June. If you have never used Reference USA before or are an experienced user, you will find a training that will interest you. All you have to do is register online.

• Search Essentials: the 4 things you need to know to be successful using ReferenceUSA
• Start! Manage! Grow! How Businesses Use ReferenceUSA
• People Who Seek People
• How to use the Mapping and Radius Search Options
• Lowering your MPG* : High Octane Prospecting
• Uncovering the Hidden Job Market