{"id":13779,"date":"2017-05-02T04:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocksdigital.com\/?p=13779"},"modified":"2025-06-24T09:27:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T14:27:42","slug":"small-business-week-tips-discount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocksdigital.com\/small-business-week-tips-discount\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate Small Business With Tips, a Story and a Discount"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RocksThinking about small businesses<\/a> for a second, have you ever thought about the fact that every big business started small? That\u2019s right. Almost every successful big business out there today started with one or two people.<\/p>\n

Celebrate Small Business Week with Rocks Digital!<\/h2>\n

The Small Business Administration<\/a> (SBA) estimates that over 600K new businesses start each year in the US.<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m an Apple fan-girl let\u2019s look quickly at Apple. It was started in the garage of Steve Jobs\u2019 parents. It was started with little to no money and a dream. Today? Well, Apple\u2019s September 2016 quarterly revenue was $46.9 billion, and Apple sold its billionth iOS device way back in November of 2014.<\/p>\n

Apple did not grow into the business it is today by thinking small. Steve Jobs and the others thought big! They had big goals, big dreams, and worked hard day and night to achieve them.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at my own entrepreneurial journey for a quick second \u2013 I\u2019m co-founder and publisher of Rocks Digital. As I hope you know, Rocks Digital is a content site that publishes 3 to 5 days a week and is host to the Rocks Digital Marketing Conference, one of the largest digital marketing conferences in Texas. But this success didn\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n

Rocks Digital was founded in 2012 by yours truly as DFW Rocks Social Media, a one-day event created to celebrate Social Media Day. I was fortunate and found immediate success with the first event. The venue held 110 people \u2013\u00a0and 110 people were there! Each year the event grew to be bigger and better. It shifted from a one-day event to a two-day conference. In 2014, DFW Rocks Social Media was merged with the Local Social and rebranded as Rocks Digital.<\/p>\n

We immediately launched the content site and have been publishing successfully ever since. By the way, in 2017 we are coming up on the 6th year for the Rocks Digital Marketing Conference, and it all started with a dream and lots of work. Believe me when I say lots of work \u2013\u00a0I spend countless hours for months on end planning the conference, and that doesn\u2019t count the time the team spends helping pull everything together.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the point to this story? Neither Apple nor Rocks Digital grew to be what they are today by thinking and acting small! You must set big goals and have big dreams to achieve success.<\/p>\n

6 Small Business Strategies You Need to Make It Big<\/h3>\n

1. Passion and Mission<\/span><\/p>\n

All business success is driven by passion and inspiration. It usually starts with a problem that you see needs to be solved. The problem is important enough that it inspires you to solve it. If or when you can\u2019t find a solution, your passion is ignited and you are now on a mission to solve it<\/a>. If the solution is so good that others want to use it, that is where it can shift into a business idea.<\/p>\n

2. Foundation<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you decide you are ready to turn this passion into a business, you need to set up a solid foundation<\/a>. This includes many details:<\/p>\n