A news or magazine site lives on its front page.
How to Choose a WordPress Theme for a News or Magazine Site
A news or magazine site lives on its front page. Here is what a magazine WordPress theme has to handle before…
Blake Business Services
When and how to outsource your small-business back office.
Finding jeans makers is easy; choosing between the two or three who quote is not.
Hiring a Private Label Denim Jeans Manufacturer: Compare Quotes and Samples
Finding jeans makers is easy; choosing between the two or three who quote is not. Send one brief, rewrite the…
Digital Marketing
Ranking for your own business name proves your site exists, not that it competes.
Why Your Website Only Shows Up When People Search Your Business Name
Ranking for your own business name proves your site exists, not that it competes. Here is the mechanism behin…
Social Media
You don't need to daily or dance on camera to make social media pay.
Fewer Posts, More Customers: Social Media for the Owner With No Spare Time
You don't need to post daily or dance on camera to make social media pay. A working plan for small business o…
Web Presence
Three very different jobs get called 'we need a new website', and they cost different amounts and fix different problems.
Redesign, Refresh, or Rebuild? How to Decide What Your Website Actually Needs
Three very different jobs get called 'we need a new website', and they cost different amounts and fix differe…
Business Operations
A DMV event sits inside three jurisdictions and most vendors only work one well.
Booking Event Services Across VA, DC and MD: What Crossing State Lines Changes
A DMV event sits inside three jurisdictions and most vendors only work one well. What changes across the stat…
Business Operations
Guarding is bought on a phone call and judged at 2 am.
Hiring a Security Guard Company: What to Ask Before You Sign
Guarding is bought on a phone call and judged at 2am. The questions that separate a company that covers a no-…
Web Presence
Wedding photographers sell an invisible, once-only service to first-time buyers — the hardest website problem in local business.
What a Wedding Photographer's Website Has to Do — and What Any Local Service Business Can Copy
Wedding photographers sell an invisible, once-only service to first-time buyers — the hardest website problem…
Business Operations
Payroll pricing looks simple until you the line items.
What Payroll Services Cost a Small Business — and What's Actually Included
Payroll pricing looks simple until you read the line items. Here's how payroll services are priced, what 'ful…
Business Operations
Automation only pays off when you point it at the right work.
What to Automate First in a Small Business (and What to Leave Alone)
Automation only pays off when you point it at the right work. Here's how to decide what to automate in a smal…
Social Media
A practical guide for small businesses considering purchasing verified social media accounts — the use cases, the risks, what to check before buying, and how t…
Buying Verified Social Media Accounts: What Small Businesses Need to Know
A practical guide for small businesses considering purchasing verified social media accounts — the use cases,…
Digital Marketing
A calm playbook for a negative review: what to do in the first 24 hours, how to write a reply aimed at the next reader rather than the reviewer, when a platfor…
How to Handle a Bad Online Review Without Making It Worse
A calm playbook for a negative review: what to do in the first 24 hours, how to write a reply aimed at the ne…