Jeffrey D. Allred for The New York Times Jay Bean, founder of OrangeSoda.

In a small-business conversation we’ve just posted, Adriana Gardella asks Jay Bean, owner of a fast-growing Web marketing firm, what mistakes he sees small-business owners making in their marketing efforts. Mr. Bean, who has made his own mistakes as a small retailer, had this to say: “One is that, because one-third of mobile searches have local intent, a small business that doesn’t consider mobile will miss the boat. More generally, business owners spend more time building their businesses, and less on what they don’t understand, like Internet marketing. Small businesses think they can do it alone, but they can’t.”

Have you hired a Web marketing specialist? How did you pick one? What results did you get? Please tell us about your experience.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a6a15a5451e3952150f81289aaa1f5ce