It might be counterintuitive, but price is often not a significant factor to your very best customers. Creating value around your brand and providing great customer service actually tend to be more influential on whether or not people remain customers or decide to go elsewhere.

Creating a positive customer experience can yield more positive results for your business than simply adjusting prices, because the customers you value most will be the ones to stick around for the long term. One study found that 87% of customers felt that brands need to put more effort into their customer experience, showing that it’s an area that businesses can improve upon before they start slashing prices.

Yarnia is Portland’s only DIY yarn store. It’s tucked away underneath some plaza stairs on SE Division and 41st in Portland. When you walk inside you’re surrounded by brilliant colors of coned yarn stacked to the ceiling. There is a cozy nook with comfy chairs just yearning to be sat in to knit something. And there is a modern, antique looking machine that fills the room with a humming sound as it makes custom yarn.

Maintaining a level of quality is imperative of business, no matter your product, service, focus, or industry. On the surface, how quality affects your bottom line seems obvious. It's also what could make or break your reputation with consumers as well as your reputation with other businesses, and could, in fact, make or break your business' ability to thrive in the market at all.

Walking into Bombshells Salon, you are immediately swept away by the class and elegance of the little converted house turned boutique salon in downtown Beaverton. April Orme and DaLynne McIntyre are good friends and hair stylists who had dreamed of opening up their own salon for years. In fact, they had their business name registered for two years before they decided to jump in. Finally, on March 1, 2010 they opened up their checking account, found a place on Craigslist, and six weeks later opened for business. They called in every favor from family, friends, and clients, and worked around the clock to make it happen – all without any outside money.

While running a business, you've likely come to understand the importance of having a functioning, informative, and easily found website. Of course, just having a website isn't enough — you need to be using it to reach your sales goals and to bring in more customers.

As with most things in business, integration is key. Despite the fact that 95% of retailers agree that digital and physical consumer experiences must be interconnected for one seamless experience across multiple channels, many stores still act like online and in-store activities are separate. Consumers already expect this intuitive level of convergence. Some aspects of this convergence may sit outside your reach for now (i.e., a new POS system that offers real time understanding of in-store and online purchases and stock inventory), but in this article, we're going to focus on in-store and online. 

As my colleague and I waited for Farhad Ghafarzade, the owner and founder of Green Drop Garage, I knew I wasn’t in an ordinary mechanic shop. A disco ball dangles from the ceiling, a pink feather boa drapes over a hook, bicycles hang up on the wall, and a whiteboard has a drawing of a car engine and its components. With friendly staff and comfy couches, it’s a place you wouldn’t mind hanging out in for an oil change. From its atmosphere to its commitment to green practices to even its owner’s journey, Green Drop Garage is different.

First impressions are everything. An inviting and well maintained store can help drive traffic and encourage sales. In this post we’ll look at six tips you can use to create a welcoming retail environment for your shoppers.

Utilize the tips below to make your retail store an inviting consumer utopia. Are you ready to take your retail business to the next level? Check out PCC SBDC's Retail Business Builders program to launch (or re-launch) your retail business with confidence. 

In terms of modern risk management in the U.S., it of course existed before the financial crisis in 2008, but many of us have gained a whole new perspective on insuring against risk when the crisis hit. Now that the economy is getting back on its feet, some professionals, especially small business owners, are starting to wonder if it's still worth the investment. This article is meant to answer that question and help you make the right decision on whether risk management training can benefit your company.

Three hours southwest of Portland, along a scenic stretch of the Oregon coast, stands Heceta Head lighthouse. This classic lighthouse offers a spectacular view, towering two hundred feet above the ocean. It’s also a functioning lighthouse, able to project a beam of light more than twenty miles out to sea.  But after more than a century of exposure to the punishing rain and wind, the lighthouse was closed for repairs in 2011. That’s when Amy McAuley, the owner and sole employee of Oculus Fine Carpentry, became part of a small army of subcontractors hired to help restore the lighthouse to its original condition.

The PCC CLIMB Center is a proud sponsor of Portland Radio Project's Biz503 show - the new Portland-centric startup and small business talk show on PRP.fm.