Best of Small Business This Week Nicci Troiani It’s Friday which means we have our “Best of Small Business” this week for you. Here are some great articles we have found to share with our readers this week. 1. Avoid these Four Email Marketing Mistakes by Kelly Gregorio Email marketing is a great way for small business to directly communicate with prospects as well as customers. Avoid these four mistakes to stay on top of your game! http://www.successful-blog.com/1/avoid-these-four-email-marketing-mistakes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+successful-blog%2FWuQV+%28Liz+Strauss+at+Successful+Blog%29 2. SEO Primer for Startups by Bryan Janeczko SEO can be an intimidating topic for small business owners. Janeczko does a great job of pointing out a few things that anyone can do to rank a little higher in a search without spending a ton of money or time on search engine optimization. http://blog.score.org/2013/bryan-janeczko/seo-primer-for-startups/ 3. How to Reduce Your Cycle Times by Doug and Polly One thing that a lot of small businesses struggle with is identifying current processes and how to improve them. This article has some great, simple suggestions including documenting the process, eliminating unnecessary steps, reducing wait time, processing in parallel and automating to save time. http://www.dougandpolly.com/managing-operations/564-how-to-reduce-your-cycle-times 4. 3 Business Safety Tips for Summertime by Donna Fuscaldo Not a lot of business owners think about, or realize that summertime can bring additional risks to small businesses. Fuscaldo lists here some risks to consider. http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/entrepreneurs/2013/06/21/3-business-safety-tips-for-summertime/