If you're a retailer who sells online, and you'd like to give your sales a free, end-of-season boost, you might want to join in on the second annual Free Shipping Day.  

Created last December on a whim by Luke Knowles of free-shipping coupon site FreeShipping.org, Free Shipping Day was designed to help retailers on the last day when virtual shops can guarantee delivery before Christmas. Apparently, online shopping starts to decline around Dec. 12, as customers get nervous about whether packages will arrive, and Knowles thought this might help keep the online sales going. read more...

If you're hoping to connect with venture capital firms to pitch your company story, a new contest may help--but you'll need to be ready to catch a plane to Seattle.

This year at Northwest Entrepreneur Network's signature networking event, Entrepreneur University, six lucky companies will get to make their pitch before a media panel and conference attendees. How do you qualify? A Twitter contest. read more...

I'm always fascinated by companies that present potentially disruptive new ways of communicating that could transform how we reach out to customers and find clients. This week, I've collected three interesting startups that are combining existing communication forms to create new modes for reaching out. They may not all be quite ready to use yet, but consider these concepts brain food to expand your idea of what is possible.

The U.S. Postal Service may want to watch out for Zumbox--it's providing a way for companies (and everybody, ultimately) to send formatted PDF mail direct to customers' computers, saving the postage stamps. The company's technology enables them to create a computer inbox--or Zumbox--for every street address in America. So companies don't need to know customers' e-mail addresses--with a street address (and the customer's permission) the company can electronically deliver their mail. Besides saving on postage, this will also allow companies to send interactive, multimedia mail with clickable links, videos, you name it. read more...

Have you had a hard time finding just the right workers for your business? Now may be your chance to grow the workforce you want.

The Chicago Tribune recently reported that a local company, Extended Care Clinical, sees the current high unemployment rate as a golden opportunity--to reach out to the unemployed and retrain them to fill their nursing slots. Despite the downturn, qualified nurses remain in short supply, so they're offering to pay for nursing school for candidates willing to retrain to join their company as nurses.

This article got me thinking about how many other small businesses might benefit from the current large pool of available workers. For instance, could you save money by taking someone with good skills, but lacking the exact background you'd normally want, and hire them in at a lower salary, ramping them up with on-the-job training? That's a great opportunity for the worker to move up the career ladder, while you get a more-affordable, highly trained employee. read more...

Social media isn't just the massive sites that are discussed endlessly--Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. In some industries, powerful industry-specific sites--known as industry verticals--are being created to help industry players connect with each other and with customers.

An example is LocalDirt.com, a new portal that connects farmers with customers nearby. The site debuted at the Fall 2009 DEMO technology conference in San Diego last week, pitching its concept to conference producers along with 70 other tech firms. Local Dirt won a DEMOgod award, given out at the event to exceptional companies, and was also picked by innovation and venture-capital newsmag VentureBeat as one of the 10 best companies at DEMO. read more...

Feeling shorthanded these days? Wondering if your business is truly meeting your customers' needs? If you answered yes to either of those questions, have you asked all your customers to help you?

Increasingly, companies big and small are doing just that. It's called crowdsourcing--enlisting the help of a large group of people to do company work or shape the company agenda, rather than delegating tasks to an employee or two, or perhaps an ad agency.

The growth of social media has enabled crowdsourcing, making it easy for companies to connect with huge mobs of customers. A couple of the key benefits: saving money and making customers feel more connected to your company.

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Small-business owners are feeling cheerier these days. The National Federation of Independent Business's monthly member survey saw business owners' optimism about the future rise a couple of points in August, a change the organization described as a meaningful uptick.

Similarly, American Express OPEN's Small Business Monitor survey saw a big jump in optimism. Back in March, 45 percent of respondents were optimistic about their near-term prospects--in September, that had risen to 55 percent. The OPEN study showed one troubling trend, though--a widening gap between the optimists and those who appear to be circling the drain. read more...

New resources keep popping up on this wonderful internet of ours, and occasionally, I'm going to take the time on my Wednesday blog posts to share some.

This week, I've got three great resources for business owners--two will help you learn how to be successful, and one's about improving your e-mail communications.

First off, the Small Business Administration has hit YouTube with a series of helpful videos. Their Delivering Success series covers all the business basics, including financing, marketing, hiring, and planning. There's also videos on doing a "business reality check," as well as top success tips. If you've been wanting some basic business advice, you're out of excuses--here's some help that's free and as easy as watching TV. read more...

If you're a business owner who sells to other businesses, a new study commissioned by Google of small-to-medium business owners' search habits should be eye-opening. To sum up: For many, the Web isn't a place to look for information, it's the only place.

Google's director of business-to-business and local markets, Sam Sebastian, shared some of the findings with me this morning. The study of more than 400 American purchase decisionmakers at SMBs conducted in March by Slack Barshinger asked business owners about their Internet habits. Among the findings: 93 percent of respondents said they use the Web to find work-related information, compared with 76 percent using trade publications and 69 percent using newspapers. More than half are online at least weekly, trying to solve a specific business problem. Twenty percent of SMBs use the Internet daily to try to resolve issues. read more...

The judges on the venture capital-inspired reality TV show "Shark Tank" had their say on the Daily Dose. Now what about the entrepreneurs?

Kwame Kuadey is CEO and founder of GiftCardRescue.com, an online marketplace where people can buy and trade unused gift cards. We asked him how he escaped the tank in episode four with a cool $200,000 from Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec, in exchange for a combined 50 percent stake in his company. His original request: $150,000 for a 30 percent stake. read more...