The GrowSmartBiz conference is taking place on Tuesday 29th September at the Renaissance Hotel Washington DC and the tickets are selling fast.

The GrowSmartBiz conference s a premier one-day event featuring renowned small business leaders and well-known industry experts, including keynote speaker Chris Anderson and Sen. Mark Warner.

We also have some great news for folks who are far away and cannot make it in person. You can watch the conference live and most sessions will also be online for viewing on demand later. We will be using LiveStream for this service

How to watch the webcast live :

1) Go to http://livestream.com/networksolutions

2) Refer to the Agenda /Schedule for timings http://cli.gs/smartbizagenda

3) Chat in the LiveStream chat room  or watch the Twitterstream at : http://twubs.com/growsmartbiz/

There may be last minute changes in timings and schedule but we are working hard to give the best value to our guests with a knowledge and resource packed agenda. Of course we would love to see you onsite to have the opportunity to network with the Speakers and attendees and also every attendee gets a copy of Chris Anderson’s book “FREE’ for free There will be plenty of networking time and all attendees will receive a bag of useful business resources including a free domain name from Network Solutions, Free Business Planning Software from Palo Alto Software, a copy of Chris Anderson’s book, and actionable tips that business owners can begin working on for tangible results.

Pre event tweetup: http://cli.gs/rNp22d
Agenda: http://cli.gs/smartbizagenda
Live webcast of the Conference: http://livestream.com/networksolutions
Twitter Stream: http://twubs.com/growsmartbiz/

Thank you LiveStream for your support in enabling  the GrowSmartBiz Conference to reach a wider audience.
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Recently, Julia Dalton, Senior Product Manager was interviewed by Practical eCommerce to discuss the NSCommerce offering.

From their web site:

“There was a time, in the 1990s, when the only place to buy a domain name was at Network Solutions. That storied company has since had its up and downs, but no one disputes the pioneering nature of its products. Recently, Network Solutions redesigned and repositioned its website and its product offerings. This includes its newly-named shopping cart, nsCommerceSpace. Julia Dalton is senior product manager – ecommerce services, with Network Solutions, and she joins Practical eCommerce’s Kerry Murdock.”

You can listen to the podcast here.

Small businesses face many challenges regardless of the economic climate, but how can you know if you rate well against your peers?

Recently, we launched a new member of the Network Solutions community called Grow Smart Business. The primary component of the site is the Small Business Success Index. This Small Business Index is a partnership between Network Solutions and the Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The Small Businesses Success Index was designed to measure how successful small businesses believe they are in six key areas of business that include:

- Capital Access
- Marketing and Innovation
- Human Capital
- Customer Service
- IT Deployment and Compliance

The benchmark survey, which gathered data used to create the Small Business Success Index, was conducted in December 2008 and January 2009; a total of 1,000 small business owners were interviewed by phone.

Interesting Survey Findings

From those 1000 small business owners, the initial results showed some interesting things. The Small Business Success Index found the following things:
Small businesses are succeeding despite the economic downturn.

- 69% of small businesses made a profit in 2008
- 7% of small businesses report that they broke even
-The majority (69%) of those who showed a profit in 2008 said it was equal to or better than the previous year
- 6% of small businesses are positive about their future

Being Successful is About Understanding How You Rate
With surveys you can take and be rated against a baseline of 1000 verified small business provides a means to understand and measure the factors that lead to success with your small business. By allowing any small business to compare itself to its peers by taking the survey and receiving a quantitative analysis in return you can immediately see where any remedial action is required to more effectively compete and succeed.

Take the Survey and See How You Rate
We would love to hear from you and if you haven’t yet, take a look at Grow Smart Business when you get a moment. Take the survey and see how you rate against your peers.