POV: 3 launch lessons learned

By Owen Mead-Robins, Oprius Software

Becky asked me if I would write an article about Oprius’ recent launch. I decided to concentrate on 3 of the biggest aspects of the launch.

Probably the biggest lesson learned revolved around a decision about our booth. We are serving the Network Marketing industry, and typically vendors are pretty low key. A folding table will be setup with a drop cloth, pamphlets on top, and a few samples for people to take; something you would find at a bake sale. So do we follow the crowd or risk looking a bit ostentatious? We decided to go for it and spent the money to get a proper trade show both made up with custom graphics, lights, and a podium showing off our great software. The result was that we stood far above the other vendors and had the biggest crowds of interested people. The three of us at the booth were smiling and really friendly, so all thoughts of being ostentatious quickly vanished. Going for the gusto on the booth was one of the best decisions we could have made.

The software was functionally complete (meaning it did everything we promised) a couple weeks before the launch. In those two weeks a huge amount of time was put into little graphic, usability, and other tweaks. Honestly it was a bit overwhelming. Everyone here wanted a really polished piece of work. I personally was working 14+ hour days through it, and for the last 32 hours didn’t even sleep to get everything done. Perhaps we didn’t plan well enough, or did something else wrong. Perhaps we did everything we could have and this is a heads up to someone launching a new product. Having an exceptionally supportive girlfriend was a huge blessing through that time. In reading Founders At Work (which I would very much recommend) it seems to be the norm. So if you are thinking about launching a product soon, be prepared for the crunch time.

Oprius is located in Victoria BC, Canada and the conference was in Newport CA, USA. We decide instead of flying that we would drive the 2,000km on a road trip. So we packed everything up and headed out. We saved a bunch of money on airfare and had a great trip. Driving hard we made up time to spend at the beach and explore LA a little bit. I am a firm believer that you need to enjoy your work, and this was a great way to act on that belief, and bond with some of the people I work with. Again, we didn’t do the typical approach and it paid off in a big way.

There was a lot more leading up to, and at the launch, but in keeping this article under a page I will leave it there. Thank you Becky for your encouraging words through all of this!

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Brag Basket is always open!

Once a week, I offer this post as a safe place to brag or promote yourself and your projects, because a little friendly recognition ROCKS!

Last week, co-author OkieJ bragged about attending a great conference, and Owen bragged about the full launch of Oprius. Thanks and congrats, OkieJ and Owen!

What ROCKED about this week? You can brag on your business, your community, or your self. You can even brag on other folks, if you want. It's fun, and you get a link back, not to mention applause from us.

You can leave a comment right now, or Twitter me.

The goal is to encourage you to review your week. Learned anything? Made any accomplishments you'd like to share? It doesn't have to be something HUGE; just something positive you feel like sharing. We'll happily applaud.

The Brag Basket has no deadline, so don't wait. Brag now! 206-222-2267

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Small biz tools

Friends on Twitter frequently share tools they have found. I'm sharing some of those that small business people might use.

richhand is setting up SeeEyE2EyE as teleprompter for videos. Inexpensive and works great. http://tinyurl.com/2hoqoj Thanks Cali

springnet Amplifier - Undependent™ Distribution: THE ELEVATOR PITCH Amplifier provides a direct distribution p.. http://amplifier.com/

teli Online mind mapping. Pretty cool. Wish they had software I could download and host myself. http://www.mindmeister.com/

springnet WebSlides - Converting bookmarks to slideshows: someone had to copy our idea http://slides.diigo.com/

zemote http://tinyurl.com/2jb67y Google: Search MediaFire for Free Videos, Music, Comics, and Archives

springnet Best Video Conferencing Solution For PCs And Macs: SightSpeed - Robin Good's Latest News: I have been p.. http://tinyurl.com/rcrcg

cc_chapman Chel set up one of these http://www.chipin.com/

springnet Twittercal — tweet your google calendar: http://Twittercal.com is a free service that connects your.. http://twittercal.com/

vaspers Very impressed with the speed, efficiency, usability of TechCrunch/Conduit custom toolbar. Vaspers Toolbar: http://Vaspers.OurToolbar.com

chrisbrogan Have you guys mindmapped with bubbl.us ? I just tried it and liked it: http://bubbl.us/

pacificIT Link: Cool bots for Twitter http://retweet.com/

chrisbrogan Staring at this for days: http://reactee.com/ (T-shirts with SMS codes)

vaspers Wayfaring is a map mashup builder for non-coders: http://www.wayfaring.com/

chrisbrogan Gmail and google reader users: install gears for offline use: http://gears.google.com

What great tools are you using in your small business? Share in the comments, or tell me on Twitter!

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Small Biz Startup TV

Networking with many new media folks, I realized that lots of people are starting businesses. Since helping people start a business is the full time job of my co-author "OkieJ" Jeanne Cole, we decided to present a live internet TV miniseries on small business startup issues.

This is the footage from our first test. Now, it was really a test, and we fought through some technical issues to get there, but we ended up with some good info for anyone considering starting a small business.

Guests Phil Campbell and Nic Butler (Loud Mouth Man) talk about their experience starting a small business.

*Note: there is no audio for the first few minutes while we prove that this really was a test!*



Mondays, October 8 through October 29, at 10:30 am, we'll broadcast live at Operator11. Join us!

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Social media is your new network

In today's world, it's more not what you know, it's who you know. I realize that is not news. What is different? You can know know people from all over, and use that to benefit your small town small biz.

Here are some examples and ideas.

Rob at Business Pundit contemplated how modern business requires you to network to get ahead.

Jeff Pulver friendsourced to find a web designer. If you are not present online, you will miss friendsourcing opportunities.

Network on many levels. To stay up these days, you'll have to keep up with the new networking forms.

ChrisVanPatten shared a "Neat MySpace promotion: local photographer who does senior pictures gives free wallet pics if you add her as a friend and post a comment."

Anita Campbell, smallbiztrends, used Twitter to network for writers for her site, Small Business Trends: http://tinyurl.com/267x4r


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PR from Jeff Crilley

I met Jeff recently at a workshop and he was such a dynamic presenter that I signed up for his email news. While I am not a Britney fan at all, Jeff's PR lesson sure made sense to me.

Oops...She Did It Again!

The Britney Spears comeback on the MTV Awards was a disaster. She appeared lethargic and almost tripped a couple of times. It was just the latest stumble for a pop superstar whose star is falling faster than a meteor. But there is an important PR lesson here that we all can learn from---the danger of surrounding yourself with YES people.

I have to believe that every member of her staff and all the dancers in that routine saw the train wreck coming. They would have known in rehearsal that she was not ready for primetime. They should all be fired for allowing her to take the stage. My best guess is that everyone was too afraid to tell Britney the truth. I see this problem every day in the news business. Most of the stories that are pitched to the media simply are not news but the PR firms are too scared to tell the client that their baby is ugly. I think the job of the PR firm is to help make the baby pretty. Put lipstick on the kid!

The same is true of individuals, businesses and non-profits that are trying to get media attention. You should surround yourself with people who know the news business and who will be honest with you about your story ideas. Britney has clearly cut herself off from anyone who can show her a mirror. Think about all the horrible headlines that the world has seen from Spears in the last few months---bad parenting, in and out of rehab, chopping all her hair off. Believe me; I understand that she appears to be undergoing some kind of personal meltdown. I get it. But what I do not get is how so many people who care about her can allow it to happen.

According to Forbes, her fortune is worth 100-million dollars. I can see it all disappearing. Strictly from a financial standpoint someone has to have the courage to tell her the truth and Britney has to have the courage to listen. The PR takeaway? We all want to hear YES. But if we want to succeed in business, we have to have at least one person in our lives who will tell us when the emperor has no clothes.

Jeff Crilley is an Emmy winning TV reporter and author of Free Publicity, the first PR book ever written by a working journalist. He also speaks at no charge on the subject of media relations. For more info, visit www.jeffcrilley.com

Brag Basket Rocks!

Once a week, I offer this post as a safe place to brag or promote yourself and your projects, because a little friendly recognition ROCKS!

Last week, Marti bragged on getting the tag for her new car, and Glenda bragged on her husband's first short video! Thanks, Marti and Glenda!

What ROCKED about this week? You can brag on your business, your community, or your self. You can even brag on other folks, if you want. It's fun, and you get a link back, not to mention applause from us.

You can leave a comment right now, or Twitter me.

The goal is to encourage you to review your week. Learned anything? Made any accomplishments you'd like to share? It doesn't have to be something HUGE; just something positive you feel like sharing. We'll happily applaud.

The Brag Basket has no deadline, so don't wait. Brag now!

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Need an Employer Identification Number fast?

Check out this new service from the Internal Revenue Service.

And it is all online!

Idea: Be more than a coach, be a taxi

The latest business idea comes from a different source. Let me quote rather extensively from Robert Fulghum. Yes, Fulghum the author of All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. This is from his series of short Tango Chronicles.

At most large events, there are Tango Taxis.
Not for a cab ride home if you have had too much alcohol.
(Tango dancers don’t drink much, actually. A drunk is unwelcome.)
No, a Tango Taxi is a member of the community - experienced dancers - usually identified with a name tag - who will gladly dance with the less experienced to help them learn. As one explained to me,
“Sitting on the sidelines and wishing is not dancing.”
It is a passionate dance, but also a compassionate community.

I am told that in Buenos Aires Tango Taxis are available for Tourist Tango wannabes like me. Essentially, they are instructors who will take you out on an evening to a milonga, dance with you at your level, and help you advance a little in your skills. You pay a teacher’s fee, buy the food and drink, and that’s all. Woe be unto you if you think this is a cover for an escort service.
It simply means going out of the dance studio into the real world with a teacher. Because Tango is more than a dance. It is a way of life.

What a concept. How utterly sane!

Imagine the possibilities.
A Ballet Taxi. An Art Museum Taxi. A Jazz Taxi. A Baseball Taxi.
The list is unlimited. A Horse Racing Taxi. A Singing Taxi.
I know. There are personal trainers, and computer trainers, and music teachers. But this Tango Taxi thing is different. Not in your home or office, not in a studio, but out in the world, making you feel at home in it. Not about a dimension of life, but in it.

More than wanting to employ a Tango Taxi, I want to be one.

“Whatever happened to Fulghum?”
“He’s a Taxi now.”

And that's the new business idea. Take your own specialty, and be more than a coach. Take others out in the real world to experience it. In small towns, we take our way of life for granted. Cowboys, fishermen, traditional musicians, crafters, farmers, and more all have a valuable way of life. Taking guests out in the world, helping them enjoy the deeper dimensions of the experience, must be enormously satisfying work.

This is the type of experience we had on in Africa, on safari with Vaughan Fulton's Classic Safaris. These opportunities are truly global.

Are you a "taxi" in this sense? I'd love to hear about it!

By the way, Fulgham's latest book of essays, What On Earth Have I Done?, is being released today, Sept. 18, by St. Martin’s Press.
Photo credit: Free Tango Lessons, ZachKlein, Flickr.

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Brag Basket fun!

Once a week, I offer this post as a safe place to brag or promote yourself and your projects, because we all deserve some friendly recognition.

Last week, MacPhilly bragged about talking with VC's and staring on his dream. Glenda was excited to move up in the Blog for a Year competition (vote early, vote often!), and she bragged on her husband's podcast, Enabling Abilities. Jon mused about the terrific network of people on Twitter and around. Thanks, Jon, Glenda, and MacPhilly!

What will you brag about this week? You can brag on your business, your community, or your self. You can even brag on other folks, if you want. It's fun, and you get a link back, not to mention applause from us.

You can leave a comment right now, or Twitter me.

The goal is to encourage you to review your week. Learned anything? Made any accomplishments you'd like to share? It doesn't have to be something HUGE; just something positive you feel like sharing. We'll happily applaud.

The Brag Basket has no deadline, so don't wait. Brag now!


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Common small business mistakes - Setting business hours

Common mistakes can kill your small business, but most of them can be easily corrected or avoided.

Today's bad example: inconsistent business hours.
A local restaurant is open, I think, Saturday at 5 pm, Sunday at 11 am for lunch only, and Monday sometime. In fact, they are only newly re-opened from a previous failure. They had screwy hours then, too. Each week, they'd run an ad with the new business hours.

Another local retail store has posted hours, a bit inconsistent, but at least they are posted. The problem is that they don't consistently follow their posting. They are frequently not open at a posted time.

How are customers supposed to adapt to this? In fact, they don't. Customers just go elsewhere.

How do you correct the mistake of inconsistent hours? Here are some tips for setting your business hours:

1. Think about when your target customers want you to be open. Ask them.
   
2. Set an incredibly easy to understand schedule.
   
3. Publicize your business hours in all the media you use.
   
4. Be open when you say you will. Open on time, and don't close early.
   

I know, emergencies will occur, but do your best!

Together, we are going to try to help each other out of these most common, deadly mistakes. You can use real world examples, real small businesses. Write it up, take a picture, or shoot a short video. Take care not to embarrass the offenders! Key point: include suggestions on how to do it right!

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Quick business plans

Most of us agree we need a business plan, but of course, most of us don't have one. So this week, I took my own advice, and started on my own simplified business plan.

Here are four tips to help you move to start your own plan.

1. Simplify - I've given you an outline
   
2. Reuse - copy and paste info you create for the bank, tax filings, or existing lists
   
3. Start on the easy part, the part that interests you
   
4. Take advantage of variety - print it out, reshuffle, make visual parts, tell stories. Use your best skills.
   

This was kicked off by a post from Zane Safrit, referring back to Tim Berry. And Zane's link to an interview of Tim by Guy Kawasaki. And before that, it was kicked by an audio conference from the Business and Professional Women/USA.

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Today is Positive Thinking Day

Change your thoughts, and you change your world.

Don't believe me? Think that's too much, to optimistic, or too unrealistic? It's not. It's Positive Thinking Day.

You can't change anything else, so you might as well start to work on you.

You can't change the economy. We see signs right now that tough economic times may be coming soon. Tim Berry, Palo Alto Software, calls them Economic Dark Clouds, in a post at Small Business Trends. Berry's ultimate conclusion: those storm clouds don't matter as much as your own small business decisions.

You can't change your small town. Unless you move. And even then, people are still people, no matter whether it's Waynoka, Oklahoma, or Kamanjab, Namibia.

The closest you can come to changing the people you interact with, is to change yourself.

You can't change job, your business or your finances until you change.

You can't change anything else, so you might as well start to work on you.

The official affirmation for Positive Thinking Day is I choose to create a great day!

So why don't you? Choose to create a great day! Just for today. And then, just for one more day. And then, just one more, and one more and one more, until it is your habit.


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Brag Basket goes multi-media

Once a week, I offer this post as a safe place to brag or promote yourself and your projects, because we all deserve some friendly recognition.

Last week, we had brags in all forms! Phil Gerbyshak called in a brag about Positive Thinking Day. I used the comments to brag on our friend Laura Allen for her interview on ABC about the 15 Second Pitch. Jon Swanson used Twitter to send his brags on his August blogging project and his family. Our new friend Tatsuya Nakagawa called in his first brag, for finishing the new book Overcoming Inventoritis.

What will you brag about this week? You can brag on your business, your community, or your self. You can even brag on other folks, if you want. It's fun, and you get a link back, not to mention applause from us.

You can leave a comment right now, or Twitter me.

The goal is to encourage you to review your week. Learned anything? Made any accomplishments you'd like to share? It doesn't have to be something HUGE; just something positive you feel like sharing. We'll happily applaud.

The Brag Basket has no deadline, so don't wait. Brag now!


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Rule No. 1 of Customer Service

"Rule No. 1: Use your own good judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules."

--Bruce, Jim and John Nordstrom, co-presidents of Nordstrom department store, in the employee handbook

Quoted at Customers Are Always

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Entrepreneuers, improve your credit

Improving your personal credit history can help your small business borrow at better rates, secure a better merchant account deal, or negotiate a better lease.

So how's your credit? If you are like most people, either you don't know or you only know it's not good. Time for some resources to improve your personal credit.

TransUnion's Credit Learning Center includes five terrific pop-up worksheets:

• Improving your credit
• Fighting identity theft
• Building a credit history
• Reducing your debts
• Creating a spending plan

The Credit Resolutions article gives you 10 actions to improve your finances overall.

The information there is solid, and the advertising is absolutely minimal.

Thanks, Jeanne, for the link.

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Tool: GotVMail phone system

Rural small businesses may become big fans of GotVMail. It acts as your phone system or switchboard, handling calls as they come in and routing them to your cell, home, or office.

When a customer calls your business, GotVMail answers the call with a recorded message, giving options like extensions. The customer can choose "Sales" or "Jon" or "Billing" depending on how you set it up. GotVMail puts the caller on hold (you pick the music), and transfers the call to your cell, your partner's home, or the accountant's office that does your billing. Do you see how a small town small biz could consider this an awesome tool?

The system is hosted on GotVMail's equipment. You just sign up. Plans start at $9.95 per month, and are based on minutes. On the upside, you get a US toll free number as part of your plan.

While I haven't tried the system personally, a few things make me feel positive about it.

• They offer a 30 money back guarantee.
• Excellent testimonials are posted all over their site.
  
• Erik Arvidson offered to let me try it out.
  

All of those show confidence in the product.

The standard features are included in all price packages, with a few special features offered a la carte. You don't have to buy the big package just to get an important feature.

This sounds like a terrifically useful tool for entrepreneurs. Thanks to Erik for letting me know about it.


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Broadband changed my life!

OK, broadband maybe didn't change my life overnight, but I could not do my work effectively with out it! So I was all over this email from Joy Howell.

My name is Joy and I am the director of a new public awareness campaign called "Broadband Changed My Life." Being a blogger who is active in rural issues, I am sure you can appreciate our mission – to encourage broadband deployment and adoption in the United States and to raise awareness of the benefits of advanced broadband in today's world. I blog about the topic frequently at the Alliance for Public Technology blog.

I think Small Biz Survival readers will be very interested in participating in a contest we are running. The Broadband Changed My Life Contest is an opportunity for folks to share their personal stories about how high speed internet access has improved their life and thereby earn a chance to win up to $1000.

Deadline for entries is October 1, 2007, so hop by the Broadband Changed My Life Contest quickly!

I know I don't have to lecture you to support the mission to speed the deployment of broadband in the US. Rural small businesses already get it.


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Carnival of Small Business

The Carnival of Small Business and Startups #4 is now up at

http://www.logodesignworks.com/businesstips/carnival-of-small-business-and-startups-4

It's full of terrific articles, including

1. A Motivation Secret of Top Performing Managers by Dr. Robert Karlsberg and Dr. Jane Adler.
2. The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires by Susan Velez.

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