Despite the onslaught of social media, pay-per-click and other digital-marketing methods, email marketing is still one of the most popular – and effective – for small business. Here are six essentials that can help make your email-marketing campaign a success: more

Rhode Island lawmakers recently passed legislation designed to attract a broader range of investments in limited-liability companies with nonprofit missions. The measure creates a new corporate structure – the low-profit, limited-liability company, or “L3C” – with the policy goal of making Rhode Island the Silicon Valley of social ventures. more

Growing numbers of small and local businesses are discovering that a tweet can be a powerful tool for making your presence known among customers, prospects, your area and your industry. In particular, Twitter is great for helping amplify your marketing messages and grow your business. more

It may be the best-kept secret in home real estate: For a couple of hundred dollars, a potential buyer thinking about writing a contract on an existing house can ask for a formal energy audit along with the standard inspection clause. That audit, in turn, can save the buyer thousands of dollars in future operating costs, and pinpoint the specific features of the house that need correction to improve efficiency. It might also be a tipoff to a sobering reality: This house is an energy guzzler. Either the asking price comes down, the seller fixes the problems, or I walk. more

I am sick of the argument that cold calling still has a valuable place in selling. Someone PLEASE show me the value. more