OwnerListens nabs $1.1M for its Yelp alternative, a virtual suggestion box

OwnerListens has raised over $1 million in funding for its suggestion box that lets customers anonymously communicate with store owners.

Small businesses, not huge companies, will lead the way for tablet growth

It's clear that tablets are making a huge impact in businesses, but who's taking advantage of them first?

How Intuit plans to help Main Street fight big business with ‘big data’

Intuit is turning vast volumes of data about small business finances into tools to help its customers save time and money.

Now is the time to build mobile apps, small business owners

Small businesses can't stand on the mobile sidelines anymore. With mobile shopping numbers increasing every day, it's time to start putting resources toward the small screen.

If you need to sell to small businesses, Bizness CRM is a less spendy solution

Have you ever built a product that small businesses would love, but you're not sure which clients are your best targets?

Verizon teams with Microsoft to offer Office 365 to businesses

Verizon Wireless is making a strong bid for small businesses today with the announcement that it’s offering Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud productivity suite.

Verizon made the announcement together with Microsoft at a small press gathering in New York City today. …

Intuit to buy SMB marketing software player Demandforce for $423.5M

Business-software giant Intuit has agreed to acquire small-business marketing software firm Demandforce for $423.5 million in cash, the companies announced today.

Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Quicken, will add Demandforce’s software-as-a-service offerings to its line up to make …

12 companies getting local right for small businesses

I've spent much of the last year talking about how the sites small businesses rely on to advertise and promote themselves -- think Yelp and Groupon -- are failing them. In fact, helping small businesses at the local level is extremely challenging for technology companies, for the following reasons:

How Amazon can be a friend to small businesses

I’ve been testing out the Kindle Fire tablet for the last several weeks. At $199, it’s a tremendous value. It’s no iPad — I just upgraded to the new iPad as well — but it provides a solid base-level tablet …

6Scan releases WordPress plugin that hacks your site on purpose (exclusive)

6Scan released a new plugin for WordPress today, aimed at giving small businesses the same level of cyber security that enterprises can afford.

“I think what SMBs [small to medium-sized businesses] want most of all is something that doesn’t take …

WePay serves the “unsophisticated” online seller

WePay, the company that makes it easy for Joe Schmo to charge people online, has officially helped over 25,000 customers, and is releasing other numbers today.

“When we first built this company, we said we’re going to make it really …

Scripted is a writer smorgasbord for those in need of community outreach, gets $700K

As a small business, it’s hard to keep up excited web content due to time costs, commitment to a full time community manager, and more. Writer marketplace Scripted, however, has a cheaper option and a seed round of $700,000 to …

Demo: OfferedLocal makes it easy to do local promotions

When popular location-base check-in service Foursquare first came along, small businesses had an easy way to use social and location-based marketing tactics to get new customers. But as local marketing options have multiplied, it’s getting more complex.

Boston-based OfferedLocal hopes …

Here’s how Facebook wants to school businesses

Facebook Tuesday retooled its Facebook for Businesses splash page with an emphasis on educating small businesses on using its site.

The new splash page features step-by-step online guides aimed at helping small businesses understand and use Facebook Pages, ads, sponsored …