Love, Growth and Agriculture: Small Business Reading for February 15th, 2013

Love and Growth

The big news for small business would seem to be the proposed increase in the minimum wage – at least that's what politicians would like us all to think. The reality is that while this is an issue it still isn't the key issue. Much bigger issues for the typical small business are the burden of complying with regulations and the problem that has been the real key for the past three years or so – getting more customers. And for any individual small business the big problem is the current problem – whatever that might be. But it IS time to think about the possibility of growth, so Chris Myers' advice about growing carefully and not growing broke is timely. And Patricia Lotich wrote about what a bad hire can cost you – so if you are lucky enough to be growing fast enough to be doing some hiring, remember to make the hiring decision carefully.

It's also a good time to think about making use of cloud technology even if you are a small business. There are starting to be some real benefits with solutions from companies like Box, Dropbox, Microsoft, Google, and yes, Yahoo.

It was also Valentine's Day – and we had some sobering advice about mixing love and business. It can work well for some – and badly for others.

Finally, for the large number of small business owners known as our nation's farmers, there's a very significant case being heard by the US Supreme court.

If you haven't taken the plunge yet, hopefully some of these articles give you the impetus to start your own business — and if you do, we have tools to help. Besides our domain name, web hosting and ecommerce products, we also have just added an innovative marketing dashboard that you can try for free even if you don't use our other products.

Some other great small business articles from around the web this week.

The importance of storytelling in small business sales.

Lean versus Mean – an interesting discussion of the issues around providing health insurance as a small business employer.

5 ways to increase your revenue.

Ineffective ways to manage your receivables. (In other words – do the opposite…)

7 Traits of a great business blog.

Building a million dollar business.

Have a great week, watch the bottom line and let us know in the comments if any of this was especially useful or if you have any advice you'd like to share. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!