Established by the U.S. Small Business Administration, October marks National Women’s Small Business Month and while the glass ceiling might still be prevalent, women are steadily coming toward the forefront of small business ownership.

In 2013, President Obama raised minimum wage to $9/hour, as previous wages were so low that families were unable to afford living costs. Today, states are raising wages even higher, with California being the first state to adopt the legislation that will gradually raise minimum wage to $15/hour. This increase is a positive one for workers, but what does this mean for small business owners like you? Well, it could mean that jobs might need to be cut if employers are expected to pay higher rates. We could also see an increase in prices (up to 4.3%) as well, as employers will need to make more money to pay a higher wage.

As an architect, contractor or engineer, you’re expected to be an expert in your field who delivers quality work. However, your educational pursuits and years of on-the-job experience working for someone else probably didn’t prepare you to own and operate your small business. You are a pro in CAD software, but a novice when it comes to accounting programs.

The truth is running a business is never as easy as costs versus profits. To help your small business grow, you’ll need to brush up your small business management knowledge.

The Holidays are such an important time of year for small businesses. For many, especially in retail, the Holidays may make or break the entire financial year. Craft fairs and holiday markets have become popular among both consumers and small businesses during this time. But are businesses doing all they can to maximize their retail sales from holiday markets?

Owning your own retail business can be an exciting, albeit challenging, undertaking. When you look around at some of the larger brands you can see how shifts in consumer behavior and brand loyalty has changed the success and trajectory of a once rather predictable industry. For instance, Wal-Mart announced earlier this year that they would close 269 locations in 2016, accounting for roughly three percent of their stores.

It’s a reality for most business owners, but no matter how successful you think you are, there’s always more to learn. Whether it’s marketing, sales, operations, or finance, you can’t know everything and there’s always gaps to fill. But how do you know when it’s time to invest in additional training and education? Will it be worth your time? And what areas should you be focused on?

Here we’ll discuss the importance of business education and what questions you need to ask yourself to determine if it’s time for you to invest in additional training.

There’s probably no better way to get customers interested in your food product than giving them a live demo. They not only get to look, taste, and smell your product, but they get to experience your brand and the story behind everything.

With that being said, when you do demo your food product at a live event, you want to make sure it’s a memorable experience for consumers. Not only do you need to showcase your product in an effective manner, but you need to get creative in order to stand out in the eyes of potential customers.

With all the buzz around digital marketing and e-commerce, it might be tempting to think that brick and mortar stores are going the way of the dinosaur. But you’d actually be wrong. As a matter of fact, 94 percent of all retail sales in America are still generated by brick and mortar stores.

But before opening a brick and mortar store, you need to have all of your bases covered as a small business owner. There are a lot of moving parts to getting your physical storefront up and running, and with that comes a lot of opportunities for things to go sideways.

Digital marketing can be a dizzying arena when it comes to the amount of tools, systems and platforms available to businesses. The moment you think you’ve seen one platform that can literally “do it all,” two or three others spring up with more functionality or the same feature set at a cheaper price.

Keeping up with the latest in digital marketing tools might seem like an impossible task, especially for small businesses. How exactly is one to supposed to find the best digital marketing platforms for small businesses?