Wouldn’t it be great if you could recite a sales pitch to a stranger and within minutes they become a paying customer? Unfortunately, selling is rarely so simple. As seasoned sales managers know well, courting potential customers takes time and effort. The good news is customer conversions can happen when you follow a proven and standardized sales process

For some small business owners, networking comes naturally. Maybe you started your business in part to expand your personal network, or maybe you just identify as a social butterfly. Other business owners fall firmly into a different camp—after all, a passion for your products or services doesn’t necessarily translate into a desire to spend social energy at conferences and cocktail hours.

In 1846, a group (or syndicate) of five New York City newspapers found covering the Mexican-American war too expensive and too slow to do individually. So they funded a private mail service to bring back dispatches from reporters in Texas, sharing both the content and the cost. Thus was born the Associated Press—and content syndication.

If you’re looking to start a new business, you may opt to form an LLC, or limited liability company, which is one of the more common options for a small company. In order to establish an LLC, you’ll need to file articles of organization. Articles of organization are foundational legal documents for establishing a business entity in the form of an LLC in any given state in the US.

Building your own website gets easier every year, but building an ecommerce store for your online business takes a bit more planning and effort. An ecommerce website should include features like a custom domain name, an intuitive user interface (UI), an appealing website design, a frictionless shopping cart and checkout flow, and search engine optimization.

You just started your ecommerce business and want to grow and get new customers. Spreading the word about your small business to a large audience, such as the approximately two billion people on Facebook every day, is a good place to start. On it, you can promote your company and Facebook’s services, and let potential customers know exactly where to find you.