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Blog · DevelopmentHow fast should a business website load?A business website should show its main content within 2.5 seconds, respond to taps within 200 milliseconds and keep the layout from jumping, which are Google's published Core Web Vitals targets. Faster is better for leads: Portent found B2B pages loading in 1 second converted about 3 times better than pages loading in 5 seconds.Nov 3, 20266 min readBlog · MarketingCan you have a Google Business Profile without a storefront?Yes. Google lets a business that travels to its customers, such as a mobile detailer, house cleaner or plumber working from home, have a Business Profile without a storefront: you hide your address and list the areas you serve instead. What does not qualify is a business that never meets customers in person, or one that uses a virtual office, PO box or rented mailbox as its address.Nov 2, 20265 min readEducation · OperationsWeekly team meeting agenda for a service business: a step-by-step guideA good weekly team meeting agenda for a service business has five fixed blocks: last week's numbers, wins and customer feedback, problems to solve, this week's schedule and capacity, and a recap of decisions with owners. Keep it to 30 to 45 minutes, send the numbers before the meeting and end with every action written down next to a name and a date.Nov 2, 20269 min readResearch · MarketingAuto repair and body shops in South Carolina by countySouth Carolina had 1,860 auto repair shops, body shops and car washes with paid employees in 2023, according to Census County Business Patterns, including 1,067 general repair shops and 475 body and paint shops. That is 3.39 per 10,000 residents, about 17 percent below the U.S. rate of 4.09, and unlike most professional services the shops are spread roughly in line with population.Oct 29, 20268 min readEducation · MarketingGoogle Ads for service businesses: a setup guideGoogle Ads for service businesses works best as Search campaigns organized by service, targeted to the area you actually serve, with tightly themed keywords, a solid negative keyword list and conversion tracking for calls, forms and bookings in place before launch. Set a daily budget you can sustain, send each ad group to a matching service page, and review the search terms report every week to cut waste.Oct 29, 202611 min readBlog · MarketingIs SEO still worth it now that people use AI search?Yes, SEO is still worth it for service businesses. Google says its standard SEO best practices apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no extra requirements, and AI assistants build their answers from crawlable pages, reviews and business profiles. What changed is that simple questions now get fewer clicks, so the value has shifted toward being the business those answers name.Oct 29, 20266 min readResearch · ConsultingHow long do South Carolina businesses survive?The small business survival rate in South Carolina is close to the national rate: for new private establishments opened in 2015 through 2019, about 79% were still operating after one year, 61% after three years and 50% after five years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics Business Employment Dynamics data. Nationally, the five-year figure for the same cohorts averaged 51%.Oct 28, 20268 min readResearch · CommunicationsReceptionist salary in South Carolina: what front-office staff earn and costThe median receptionist in South Carolina earned $17.07 an hour in May 2025, about $35,500 a year full time, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. Medical secretaries earned a median $19.31, legal secretaries $25.41 and customer service representatives $18.69. With benefits, which are 31.3 percent of compensation for office and administrative support workers, a median full-time receptionist costs an employer about $51,700 a year.Oct 28, 20268 min readResearch · ConsultingColumbia and the Midlands: business and population figuresThe seven-county Midlands region around Columbia had 909,396 residents in 2024 and 12,729 service businesses with employees in 2023, according to Census Bureau data. That is 14.0 service establishments per 1,000 residents, in line with the state. Richland and Lexington counties hold 88% of the region's service businesses, and Lexington and Kershaw are growing fastest.Oct 27, 20269 min readReports · ConsultingSouth Carolina small business statistics 2026: a compiled outlookSouth Carolina small business statistics for 2026 describe a growing, small-firm economy. The SBA counts 530,402 small businesses in the state, 99.4% of all businesses, employing 42.9% of private-sector workers. SC payrolls grew 2.3% in the year to September 2026, led by leisure and hospitality and health care, and unemployment stood at 4.0%, below the national 4.2%.Oct 27, 20268 min readBlog · PlatformBooking online versus calling: what customers preferCustomers are split, and most want both options: surveys show a large share prefer to book online, while a similar share still prefer to call, especially for changes and complex questions. Age, the type of service and the time of day all shift the preference, so businesses that offer only one channel lose some customers to the other.Oct 26, 20264 min readBlog · MarketingGoogle Business Profile for service-area businesses: what to fill in and what to leave outA service-area business, one that goes to its customers instead of receiving them at an address, should hide its street address on Google and list up to 20 specific cities or ZIP codes within about two hours of driving from its base. It should fill in its real business name, the fewest accurate categories, its services, hours, phone, website and photos, and leave out keywords in the name, states or countries as service areas, and anything that redirects people elsewhere.Oct 26, 20267 min read
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