| Subject | Notes |
| Accounting (QuickBooks) | QuickBooks is a popular and powerful accounting package that supports a range of functions from billing to tax preparation, directly or through integration with other applications and vendors. |
| Business registration, filing | Different jurisdictions--federal, state--and have different requirements for doing business that need to be followed. |
| Utilities (electric, gas, etc.) | Essentials to any business. |
| Advertising: directory assistance | Traditional directory assistance volume is declining by 20% annually, while free-to-user advertising supported services, such as 1-800-FREE-411 and 1-800-GOOG-411 offer businesses new ways to reach consumers. |
| Advertising: Internet yellow pages | Internet yellow pages are, as the name suggests, the yellow pages online--their revenue has been growing rapidly but compete in a fragmented market against search engines. |
| Advertising: Mobile | Mobile search and browsing is exploding--comScore reports mobile search rose 51% from March 2008 through March 2009, and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) projects US mobile marketing expenditures to growth 26% in 2009 to $ 1,700 million--making mobile advertising an increasingly important way to reach consumers. |
| Advertising: Paid Search (AdWords, others) | Paid search--one of two primary means by which to reach consumers on the Internet--offers tremendous flexibility and control. |
| Advertising: print yellow pages | Print yellow pages revenues are declining at ~10% annually as advertisers migrate to other vehicles, though print yellow pages remain a multi-billion dollar annual business. |
| Advertising: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | Search engines--Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, etc., have created a $ 30 billion market; SEO, which relies on good web strategy and design, is one of two primary means by which businesses are able to participate in this huge opportunity. |
| Blogs | Blogs offer a vehicle by which businesses can reach and engage with their current and potential customers. |
| Communication: Data | Data communication--which means everything from text messages to Internet access--continues to grow at a healthy rate, fueling the new information age economy. |
| Communication: Fixed | Fixed communications, which refers to communications over copper, firber, or other cable, is the backbone of many communications systems and has significant advantages in some areas, though it is being eclipsed by mobile communications where mobile is more advantageous. |
| Communication: mobile | Mobile communications, in the form of mobile or cellular phones, are one of the most successful consumer products ever, with an estimated 270 million subscribers, which represents 88.8% of the 304 million US population. |
| Communication: Voice | In the beginning, voice was all that was communicated, but its share of communication is declining in the face of the growth of data communications. |
| Communication: Voice over IP (VoIP) (Skype, others) | VoIP is the transmission of voice communications over the Internet, made popular by Skype but also made possible by other providers, including cable and local telephone companies. |
| Computers | Computers are at the heart of the information revolution, delivering everything from voice to data, and from wireless to fixed. |
| Contact management | Contact management is the process of capturing, maintaining, and using information about customers, potential customers, and others of importance. |
| Economic stimulus opportunities | The American Recovery and Recovery Act (ARRA), known as the US stimulus plan, was designed to provided stimulus for businesses across the board. |
| Electronic Newsletters | Newsletters are a means by which businesses can educate others about capabilities. |
| Financing: Loans | There are a variety of financing packages available to businesses, ranging from commercial loans to loans supported by the US Small Business Administration (SBA). |
| Lessons from the meltdown | There are many lessons from the economic meltdown, including the value of diversification, the risks of leverage, and the importance of including a wide range of potential scenarios in any business forecast. |
| Mobile Health (mHealth) | mHealth is expected to experience huge growth as mobile technology is used to solve some of our nation's urgent health needs. |
| Personal Health Records (PHR) | Personal Health Records refer to a means by which individual health records can be captured electronically and made available securely as needed to serve patient's interests. |
| Press coverage and press releases. | "Earned media" is free media coverage, as opposed to paid media, or advertising. Coverage is earned by working with the media using tools, including press releases. |
| Smartphones (Apple iPhone and others) | Apple revolutionized the mobile Internet with the iPhone, the first mobile device with a true Internet-capable browser, and other manufacturers have joined the race and mobile phones are becoming an ever more important information device. |
| Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) | Social networks are arguably the newest and fastest growing "water coolers" and, because of that and because of the rich demographic information they contain, they are also one of the most sought after marketing targets. |
| Text messaging | No longer just a European phenomenon or a preoccupation of youth, US SMS message volume rocketed up to 110 billion in December 2008, up 129% compared to the year before, and approximately 410 messages per subscriber. |
| The Future | The trends are likely to continue--less fixed and more mobile, less paper and more digital, less general and more targeted. |
| Twitter | While there may be some value in knowing what our friends had for breakfast today, Twitter has greater value in communicating news, such as the plane in the Hudson River, and as headlines drawing consumers to more in-depth information. |
| Web sites | An increasingly powerful, important, and economical means to communicate and generate business. |