MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 21, 2009-- Capital One Small Business this week hosted Connections, a one-hour video webinar providing small business owners with real, actionable tips to help them survive and thrive in today’s economy. On the heels of National Small Business Week in Washington, D.C., the Connections webinar featured expertise from Capital One Small Business, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other partnering organizations. This in-depth discussion and Q&A session was video streamed live and viewed by many small businesses from around the country, representing a variety of industries.

The Connections webinar, moderated by Mary Kane, Director of Special Projects for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, featured Todd Kennedy, Managing Vice President of Capital One Small Business; Adam Schultz, CEO of Bold Interactive and web marketing consultant for the BBB; and Richard Oyen, Director of HR and Talent Development for SumTotal Systems.

“We recognize that while small businesses are grappling with financial and credit concerns, they’re also dealing with numerous other challenges ranging from maintaining employee morale to effectively marketing their business in a crowded market,” said Todd Kennedy, Managing Vice President of Capital One Small Business. “The webinar panelists effectively addressed a wide spectrum of small business related concerns, offering real value and support for small business owners that need it the most.”

The panelists provided small business owners with essential tips and best practices designed to help them maintain and grow their business in a down market, including:

Making Yourself an Attractive Loan Candidate

• Ensure your personal and business credit history reports are in strong shape by paying bills on time every time, proactively managing your use of credit, and checking your credit report on an annual basis.
• Develop a solid business plan that clearly outlines how you’ll repay the loan and the collateral you’ll use to personally guarantee repayment of the loan.

Promoting Positive Employee Engagement

• Align goals by making sure employees know the goals and objectives of the organization and ensuring everyone is working on the right things.
• Make employees more valuable to the organization by enabling them to expand their skill set, which adds to their personal talent inventory and can prove beneficial in their career plan.

Ensuring Online Marketing Success

• Build a great website to support customers that anticipates what visitors want, leverages your user’s language, makes information easy to find and develops good calls to action.
• Measure everything on the website by using traffic analysis tools like Google Analytics and take advantage of click data for better lead generation and conversation.

“On a daily basis, I witness first-hand the immense challenges that U.S. small businesses are facing,” said Mary Kane. “The Connections webinar has helped arm small business owners throughout the country with valuable knowledge needed to weather the storm and persevere.”

To view an archived version of the Capital One Connections webinar in its entirety, including the Q&A period, and the full list of small business tips, visit: http://budurl.com/55av.

About Capital One

Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., collectively had $121 billion in deposits and $150 billion in managed loans outstanding as of March 31, 2009. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients. Capital One, N.A. and Chevy Chase Bank, F.S.B. have approximately 1,000 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 100 index.

Capital One offers a range of products to meet small business needs, including small business credit cards, business money market accounts and payroll services. As the one of the largest issuers of small business Visa credit cards, Capital One provides specialized support designed to make it easier for small business customers to manage their finances so that they can focus on what's important to them. Capital One small business products are available via direct mail, capitalone.com, phone (800-926-1000) and fax.

Source: Capital One Financial Corporation

Capital One Financial Corporation
Steve Schooff 972.295.1676
stephen.schooff@capitalone.com