Palo Alto Software moved from California to Eugene, Oregon in 1992 with two employees (founder Tim Berry and his wife Vange), and has grown into a successful business employing 45 people. But unfortunately, our state has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country. In discussions about what our company could do to help the local economy, CEO Sabrina Parsons came up with the idea of creating our own stimulus package for the state. From there, the Oregon Small Business Boost took off.
Tomorrow we’ll be giving away 15,000 copies of Business Plan Pro Premier to any Oregon resident who can make it to one of 80 giveaway locations throughout the state.
We’re giving away the software to Oregonians, says Berry, “So that they can develop their business plans, and we at Palo Alto Software can contribute to the economy in Oregon, which has been great to us for 17 years now. So this is really giving back.”
Palo Alto Software’s CEO, Sabrina Parsons, was interviewed by Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand this morning. During the podcast, they talked about online marketing, the difference between advertising and marketing, the link between social media and customer service, and lots more.
Make sure to check out the rest of Anna’s podcasts and articles. Lots of great stuff there!
Palo Alto Software was honored this month as one of Oregon’s 100 Best Companies to work for. Oregon Business Magazine runs the awards and sends out surveys for employees to fill out.
Thank you to both Oregon Business for running this survey, and thank you to all of our employees who diligently filled it out! We are recognized because all of our employees think this is a great place to work!
I am beyond thrilled to have the company recognized in this way.
There is nothing more important to me at Palo Alto Software than the team of people who make this company what it is. Without them we would be nowhere. Because our people are so critically important to our success we do our best to make sure that we provide the best working environment,with the best benefits we can possibly afford. Skimping on your people is just not smart. Before you know it you are also skimping on your customers. I truly believe that being a healthy profitable company goes hand in hand with providing a happy, healthy, productive work environment.
Succession planning is a big part of the long-term planning for millions of small businesses. Tim Berry has studied this and actually done it successfully, and he talks with Jim Blasingame about his advice based on his experience.
You can listen to the full show by clicking on the image below.
And be sure to check out the Small Business Advocate website! Jim and his amazing staff have a wealth of information contained on the website.
Brian Roger of MyVenturePad.com has interviewed Palo Alto Software’s Tim Berry on a topic he loves best. Business planning.
In this interview, Tim admits, “in truth, a great product, great marketing and a genius entrepreneur can achieve success without planning.” But for the mere mortals among us, he advises, “If you don’t enjoy planning – and I mean the real planning, not the fake planning – then maybe you should keep your day job.”
Palo Alto Software CEO, Sabrina Parsons will be one of the guests on Friday’s Business Insanity Talk Radio with host Barry Moltz tomorrow morning.
Barry Moltz has founded and run small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for more than 15 years. This is a business radio show where we talk about all the craziness of small business. It’s that craziness that actually makes it exciting, interesting and totally unpredictable.
Sabrina, Parsons, Columnist Penelope Trunk and Advanta Bank CIO. Ami Kassar will be on hand to talk Business Planning, Innovation and Your Career.
Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small business economy one referred business at a time. The goal for the week is to generate 1,000 referred leads to 1,000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars in new business. Small business is the lifeblood and job-creating engine of the economy and merits the positive attention so often lavished on corporate bailout stories.
The week long virtual event will also feature daily education programs focused on teaching small business owners and other marketers how to tap the power of referral marketing. Featured guest experts include Ivan Misner, founder of BNI and author Masters of Networking, Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and the Go-Giver, Bill Cates, author of Get More Referrals Now, Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing, Guy Kawasaki, author of Reality Check, Rich Sloan, author of StartUpNation, Anita Campbell, publisher of Small Business Trends, Scott Allen, author of the Virtual Handshake, John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing, Scott Ginsberg of Nametag TV, Michael Port, author of the Contrarian Effect and Book Yourself Solid, Susan Solovic Wilson, founder of SBTV.com and Pam Slim, author Escape from Cubicle Nation.
For more information and to participate or share your referral for the week, head over to http://www.makeareferralweek.com/
Please join me this coming Monday afternoon, February 9, on Build Your Business Radio with Barbara Weltman. Her show starts at 1 PM PST, 4 PM EST, and I’ll be joining her for the second half of the show, around 1:25 pm Pacific Time or so.
In the second installment of Palo Alto Software’s “Back to the Fundamentals” webinar series, we welcome John Jantsch as he presents “Simple Marketing Tactics that Pay off Big in a Slumping Market“.
John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of Duct Tape Marketing. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system and has been called the world’s most practical small business expert for consistently delivering real-world, proven small business marketing ideas and strategies.
John will bring his extensive knowledge and know-how to this new webinar, exclusively for Palo Alto Software.
Learn how to:
* attract all the clients your small business can handle
* work only with clients who value what you have to offer
* significantly increase what you charge for your services
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