Results for public relations: 479

Smart PR can deliver huge bang for your marketing buck--if you know what to look for. The value of good PR is easy to see: Positive news stories help companies retain clients and attract new ones. Delivering that value, though, and at the right price, is hard--and getting harder.

In past columns I have written about the opportunities created by our current economic climate. Regardless of where you fit on the spectrum of pessimist and optimist, you have to agree that business will never be the same as it was in the past. Too much has changed, and nothing more so than the awareness that entrepreneurs cannot take the future of their business or their current customers for granted.

Are you worried that an $80 cable bill that you forgot to pay five years ago will haunt you forever? Well there's no need to worry since 2009's release of FICO08. In 2009, FICO08, the latest version of the FICO scoring system hundreds of lenders use to verify your credit rating, included this adjustment that could boost your score if you're a responsible credit user.

Obama's new small-bank financing strategy may help, but entrepreneurs aren't holding their breath.

Ten cities where people hit retirement age and just keep on trucking.

Some small business owners are so focused on attracting new customers they forget to take care of the ones they already have. And neglected customers will certainly be ripe for the picking by the competition. Bob Green, president of The Verdi Group, an advertising agency in Rochester, N.Y., offers some easy and inexpensive ways to make sure your regulars keep coming back--and get some more along the way:

Word-of-mouth marketing is a sure-fire way to generate new business. A single referral can start a chain reaction of new business as positive word spreads. It's no wonder networking groups pay off handsomely in referral business and that membership in a good networking group can be worth a considerable amount of money; especially if you calculate the time you spend each month and the value of that time.

Proposed system to regulate firms too big to fail features council that looks remarkably similar to existing advisory group.

Until Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd synchronize efforts, don't expect much to get done.

Can you imagine bringing together two different businesses for a single advertisement? Say Bud Light and GEICO create a Super Bowl ad together, or a local clothing retailer and a delicatessen join up to co-invest in a Yellow Pages ad. It's a strange idea, but it's not so unusual in a world in which marketing is more about adding value to customers鈥� lives. Many businesses are discovering a way to drive efficiency, sales and happier customers by joining with other businesses around their common interests.