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Upcoming SBM Events

St. Louis Business Expo

04/08/15 | 11AM - 5PM | St. Charles Convention Center

The Expo is the largest business-to-business conference in Missouri, where 2,000-3,000 professionals come to learn, network and grow their business. The day includes an opening workshop, a full day’s worth of seminars and workshops, an awards luncheon, more than 100 exhibitors and a networking happy hour. For a booth at the event, contact Pat Coates at 314.569.0076, ext. 109 or email her at pat@sbmon.com. For more information on the expo, seminars and booth pricing, click here. Cost is FREE to attend. Click here to register.

Top 100 People To Know Award Luncheon

04/08/15 | 11AM - 1PM | St. Charles Convention Center | Presented by Northwestern Mutual

Succeeding in business is a lot about who you know. A group of judges selected the Top 100 St. Louisans to Know to Succeed in Business. Small Business Monthly brings these outstanding individuals to this one event to mingle and share their stories and ideas with other business owners. Cost: $50, Tables of 10 are $500. Call 314.569.0076, or click here to order your tickets online.

Leaders In Technology Awards

05/06/2015 | 5:30PM - 7:30PM | Sheraton Clayton Plaza Hotel | Presented by Northwestern Mutual

The Leaders in Technology Awards will honor technology innovators, who are actively working to develop new technology, and technology implementors, who are using existing technology to enhance service offerings. Presented by Northwestern Mutual. Sponsor: Winning Technologies. Cost: $35. Call 314.569.0076

Family Business Awards

06/24/2015 | 7:30AM - 9:00AM | Hilton Frontenac Hotel | Presented by Northwestern Mutual

Each year SBM profiles the area’s top family-owned businesses. We bring these top family-owned firms together and honor them at this breakfast event. Presented by Northwestern Mutual. Event Sponsors: Winning Technologies, CMA Business Consulting Services, Lopata, Flegel and Company. Cost: $35. Call 314.569.0076

Future 50 Awards

08/19/15 | 11AM - 1PM | Hilton Frontenac Hotel (presented by Northwestern Mutual)

Celebrating the top companies in St. Louis and the companies to watch in the future. We bring the winners together, as well as previous year alumni, for a lunch celebration. Presented by Northwestern Mutual. Sponsors: Evans & Dixon, Accupay APS Payroll Service, Lopata, Flegel and Company, Winning Technologies. Cost: $50, Tables of 10 are $500. Call 314.569.0076.

Fall St. Louis Business Expo

10/20/15 | 11AM - 5PM | St. Charles Convention Center

Recent Articles

Improving Open Rates

Follow These Guidelines To Improve Your Email Open Rates

Tom Ruwitch

Our clients frequently ask us how they can improve their email marketing open rates. Most raise the issue by asking for help with subject lines. Write a better subject line and more people will open the emails, they reason. No doubt, subject lines matter, but there are many other factors that affect open rates that also deserve marketers’ attention. Here are a few:
Deliver quality content. If you deliver informative, interesting, entertaining content in your emails, your subscribers will want to open them. Send boring, irrelevant emails and your open rates will decrease.

Employee Training

The Costs And Benefits Of Employee Training

Bill Collier

Here are two things I know about employee training: Just about every business owner wants to do it, and few small businesses follow through and do it well. Recently I was helping a client build their budget. They’d never had a “Training” expense line item, and they decided to add one and set aside some money for that purpose. I did some quick math and asked the management team, “Would you be willing to budget one one-thousandth of annual sales for training?” Their annual sales for their 15-employee company is roughly $5 million, so that would make the training budget about $5,000.
The team unanimously gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up to that proposal.
Then I suggested we determine how that might look.

Piercing The Corporate Veil (Again)

Even A Company's Bankruptcy Couldn't Protect Owners From Personal Liability

David P. Weiss

Facts always make the case, and in a particular case across the state in Kansas City, the facts, when applied to the law, found the owners of a construction company liable to a building owner not only for the full contract amount but also for punitive damages. The question is: What can I do to avoid the same outcome when the case involves suing corporation owners and piercing the corporate veil?