I fail on almost a daily basis

I fail.

And I fail on almost a daily basis.

But at least I know I am trying to be a better person, what are you doing?

--David Snyder

Failure is brutally important to your future. If you spend all your time afraid of it, you'll never move forward.

I hope lots of people will read and follow David's 10 Rules for Not Being a Complete Douche Bag. (OK, the title is rude, but the post is excellent.)

Hat tip to Chris Brogan for pointing this one out on Twitter.

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Small town biz interview by Zane Safrit

Friend and co-author Zane Safrit interviewed me on his BlogTalk Radio show. We spent an hour and a half talking about small business, rural development, and living in small towns. Marketing expert Jay Ehert called in to share some of his views as well.

Listen to the whole hour and a half long interview, or download the MP3 and listen later.

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Be thankful in the Brag Basket

Each week, I open the Brag Basket. This week, we're opening early for Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for?

 

Obviously, it's designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

Brag Basket graphic by BJ Novack, KickAss Web Design.

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Five things you might not know about me

You know a lot about me, but friend/mentor/buddy/rockstar Chris Brogan has tagged me for the 5 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me meme. After putting it off for weeks, here are five new things you probably don't know about me.

1. My first business venture was washing cars in junior high school.

2. In a previous tight economic time, I went to work in the local laundry and dry cleaners for six months. I lost 15 pounds, learned a bunch, and gained a serious appreciation for my great-grandmother who worked in a laundry for many years.

3. One thing I wish I could do well is sing.

4. At conferences, people frequently ask me how I got into high tech from a small town. Seems to surprise them. Mom bought us a computer when I was 7 or 8, and I learned to program. I've been into high tech things ever since.

5. Because I live in a small town and have a cattle ranch, people think I must ride a horse and rodeo and listen to country music. Nope. I don't rodeo, I don't like country music, and my only horse is the Mustang in the garage.

As a bonus...
Chris is pitching the attention back to the person who tagged him, Dominick Evans. Chris recommends checking out Dominick’s blog and following him on Twitter.

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Break out of your search tab

How often do you break out of your search tab?

I have a search tab open watching "publishing" and another watching "books."
The books tab is full of book readers - 1000s of them...
The "publishing" tab is full of reports of the death of books and publishing and how no one reads books anymore.
Maybe more of us in the "publishing" tab should be listening to and talking with those in the "books" tab.
Chris Webb, Associate Publisher at Wiley and Sons, via Twitter

What are you doing to break out of your "search tab"? How do you get away from others in your industry so you can listen and talk with your customers?

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POV Plain View Winery

Having a winery is not a glamorous job! That's what Con Pekrul, owner of Plain View Winery, says.

Pekrul started making wines with his father as a hobby. Though it was based at his home with no traffic at all, it kept growing. He started to plan relocating. A building in nearby Lahoma, Oklahoma, (population about 675) came available. It was right on the highway, but quite expensive for Con and his father Hart.

"At the time we thought, can we afford this? Will this work?" Pekrul said. Their accountant said to try it, but she secretly gave them six months before they'd fail. Plain View Winery is now starting on its seventh year in that location.


Learning from Failures and Mistakes
Pekrul admits that they have made a lot of mistakes, a lot of messes to clean up. They have learned from it.

Pekrul had great success selling locally-produced pickles, until the maker decided not to sell to Pekrul anymore. So Con and his dad started creating their own pickle recipes, testing with customers until they were satisfied. Then they arranged with a custom food processing firm in Oklahoma to make the new Papa Hart's pickes. Next week, Pekrul is off to pick up his fourth load of 75 cases of pickles this year. He said the pickles have turned into one of their best success stories.

Community Involvement
Like many other small business leaders, Pekrul has become highly involved in his community.

He joined the Lions club to promote the community. Then he had to get involved in the larger community, so he ran for city council, and got promoted to mayor. He joined the state grape growers association, for industry networking. He's also a board member of the regional economic development group, the Northwest Oklahoma Alliance, for more networking.

As Pekrul expanded into more Oklahoma-made products to cater to travellers, he's become a promoter of other small businesses in small towns. Take the Italian style ice cream parlor in Waukomis, or the Seattle style coffee house in another tiny town. Pekrul says we're all in this together.

Con Pekrul was a speaker at the Entrepreneurship Day at Alva, Oklahoma, November 20. POV is our ongoing series sharing the Point Of View of entrepreneurs from all over. 

Photo by Becky McCray.

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POV Rural Waste Solutions

"It can be done. It can be done with limited means. It can be done from a humble background," Tommy Hudson said. "I am just a guy that had an idea and put a plan together and sought the right advice and enough advice to convince myself really that it could be done."

Hudson started Rural Waste Solutions, LLC, in tiny Hardtner, Kansas (population about 200). They rent roll-off dumpsters to customers across a 60 mile radius. Waste is hauled to a nearby landfill.

"I call myself a glorified trash man, but I'm proud when I pull up and see my trucks sittin there." Hudson said. "There's nothing glamorous about what we're doing. But there's a need."

Preparation Matters
He found help through the OSBDC (Small Business Development Center). He printed off the business plan outline, and started filling it in. It was kind of overwhelming, but he just started typing. His counselor asked him questions he hadn't thought of and helped him work up realistic financials.

All that preparation helped him through the startup process. It has meant he hasn't hit a lot of surprises, and it also means that people have been very willing to help him and work with him. In fact, when he went to the first bank, a small local bank in Kiowa, Kansas, they said that was one of the best plans they'd ever seen. They told him that people come in really unprepared, just with an idea and a scrap of paper.

"That's not the world we live in these days," Hudson said. "You've got to put a plan together, and you've got to be prepared."

Small Town Realities
It was a step out to set up a business in Hardtner, Kansas. There's not a lot of economic development going on in that community, Hudson said. Remember, the population is fewer than 200 people.

"In a rural area, you've got to get creative, and you've about got to get more than one iron in the fire," Husdon said. "You've got to diversify."

"I had some sales experience, had some good people skills, but I'm learning what it takes to be a manager," Hudson said. "I knew what cash flow was, but I didn't know what it was from a business standpoint."

Especially in a small town, growing too fast can kill a company, he said.

"At times, I could have used 10 more containers," Hudson said. But it wasn't a good business decision to expand that fast. He didn't want to, but he had to tell some people no.

"We're only six months into this," Hudson said. "I know for a fact that we've got a lot of trials and tribulations ahead."

Tommy Hudson was a speaker at the Entrepreneurship Day at Alva, Oklahoma, November 20. POV is our ongoing series sharing the Point Of View of entrepreneurs from all over. 

Photo by Becky McCray.

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Brag Basket Number 125

Each Friday, I open the Brag Basket. This is the 125th Brag Basket. Woohoo!

 

Obviously, it's designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Last week, we had three terrific folks: 

• Roguepuppet bragged on her hubbie
• Mark completed a triathalon for a good cause 
• Thursday made the finals for the blogging scholarship
  

Hooray! (A triathalon? Holy cow!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

Brag Basket graphic by BJ Novack, KickAss Web Design.

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Update on small town bank solvency

How are small town banks doing now? Yesterday, Sheila Ferrell, VP Cashier of Farmers Exchange Bank, gave me an update on small town banks. She has been with Farmers for 24 years. It's a terrific little bank in Cherokee, Oklahoma, (population approx. 1600), with a few branches in surrounding towns.

Ferrell stressed that Farmers is not doing the same types of loans as those big banks that are in the news. They do more farm and business loans. But doesn't that leave them vulnerable to the economy, as it begins to affect the small town businesses? Not yet, and she doesn't think it will.

"Our loan base is not going to cause a problem," Ferrell said. "We've got the money to lend."


Lack of population and the usual small town problems are the bigger driver than the larger economy. One of the driving tourist attractions for the area, the Great Salt Plains Crystal Digging Area, has been closed. That's much more important to the town of Cherokee than the national economic situation.


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Our best Accounting Basics articles

Accounting and finance is one of those topics no one likes to deal with. Except us. We like to talk about it because we (Maesz and I) do it, and we teach it. We've written a series of articles on accounting and bookkeeping, and here are some of our better items.

• Do you get accounting?
• The easiest accounting system  
• Top 3 Year-end Accounting Tasks  
• Simplified Small Biz Accounting and Record Keeping  
• Simplified accounting for side businesses and micro enterprises

While you're reading up, don't miss:

• The "What qualifies as deductible?" list in Checklists for starting your first business
• Tips for tracking details in QuickBooks if you are a QB user
• The link to Gina  in How to organize your business accounting records
• And Maesz' post direct from the IRS on How to keep good tax records 

One parting piece of advice:
Don't ignore the bookkeeping just because you don't like to do it. 
That's all too common, and all too deadly.

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Videos from OpenBeta OKC featuring TwitPic Founder

OpenBeta is where ideas meet opportunity. It's the event in OKC that brought together a wide range of techies, social media folks, and entrepreneurs in one place for networking, demos and talks.

Videos from all the talks are now available, at OpenBeta.
The headliner is the keynote from TwitPic Founder Noah Everett. Betcha didn't know he's from Oklahoma! I told you that you can live where you want, and still be successful!
All the other talks are there, too, including:

• Foamish social beer rating service
• Innovative nonprofit Bike Against Hunger
• Former Alva resident (!) Justin Boeckman from Element Fusion
• Ryan Hoegg who's working on a portable credibility idea
• The Oklahoma City Coworking Technology Cooperative (the idea most likely to generate new startups, in my opinion) presented by Derrick Parkhurst
• Me with delegating tips
• Vance Lucas from Invoice More (which actually helps you to invoice less often for recurring billing)
• Jim Rogers from Oklahoma's innovation agency i2E
  

Go see all the talks at the OpenBeta site. (My talk is also archived at our Small Biz Survival Podcast site.)

OpenBeta2 is scheduled for February 26th, 2009, so all you Okie techies, geeks, programmers, social media types, and entrepreneurs, mark your calendars. Is it worth it to attend? I found it worth driving 5 hours (roundtrip) to attend. I made new connections, met a possible new sponsor, and generally got involved in a very entrepreneurial community.

The amazing Derrick Parkhurst of ThirtySixthSpan is the driving force behind this event. Watch him, because he is headed places!

Photo from OpenBeta, used under Creative Commons License.

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The Cheap Small Biz Software Guide

I'm cheap. I bought a new laptop for business, but I balk at paying $400 or more extra for software, for a laptop that cost $700. What should I download to install on my new small business laptop? Here are my top picks for no cost programs that are actually useful for the majority of small biz people.

Download-able software

Recognizing that many small towns or rural areas have dial-up internet service only or have unreliable connections, we'll start with software you can install on your computer and use without an internet connection.

First download: Firefox browser.
For most people, Internet Explorer is the only browser they know. But it is vulnerable to all sorts of security issues, and is not easily customizable. I recommend Firefox. It's free. You can add on tools like Ad Block Plus (and never look at those annoying flashing ad banners again).It also makes it super easy to subscribe to story feeds from your favorite sites.

Second download: OpenOffice.
You'll need basic word processing and spreadsheet programs and the ability to open and save files from others. OpenOffice gives you that at no cost. It opens and saves files in Microsoft Office compatible formats. It also exports in PDF.

Third download: FoxIt PDF Reader. 
Adobe makes a free PDF reader, Acrobat. But it seems to take forever to load. I like the FoxIt PDF reader, because it is small and quick.

Fourth download: Comodo Anti-virus and Firewall
Don't overlook security. Comodo makes a decent no-cost firewall and anti-virus package.

Online applications

Have a great internet connection? Take advantage of it to use online tools.

First signup: Gmail. 
Hands down the best online email application is Gmail. Big storage, good spam filtering, and
the ability to use your current email addresses. You can find instructions at Gmail to use your existing address. 

Second: Google Docs and Google Calendar.
These came free with your Gmail account. With Google Docs you can do basic word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. The bonus is you can access them from anywhere, share with clients and publish them publicly. The Google Calendar is easy and functional, and it also makes sharing easy.

Third: Google Gears. 
Gears means you can use your Google Docs even when you can't connect to the internet.And more websites are adopting this same technology to let you use websites offline. That's a major benefit if you have unreliable internet.

Next: Skype.
Once you try Skype to make phone calls for free, you'll be asking everyone, "what's your Skype name?" rather than "what's your phone number?"

Rebuttals? Additions?

I know you tech-savvy blog readers have some must-have items of your own. But I have a special challenge to you: Think about the perspective of the average small business person who isn't geeky. What software and services will they find useful day to day? Those are the ones I'm looking for, and I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments.

Photo: My old laptop.

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The untitled Brag Basket

Each Friday, I open the Brag Basket. Obviously, it's designed as a fun place for you to brag on your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Last week, we had a fun group: 

• MacPhilly bragged on Jane "Cybergal" 
• Patrick of Stop Doing Nothing dropped in, after we met at OpenBetaOKC
• Manx203 shared his pride in TechBurgh's growth
• --Deb of Punctuality Rules enthused about our democracy
• Mousewords applauded all the Twitter friends who are participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
• Bob of Pixels and Code told how he is bringing in others for support in his project
  

All very cool.Congrats to everyone!

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

Brag Basket graphic by BJ Novack, KickAss Web Design.

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The best thing you can do for your business

Today, the number one best thing you can do for your business is to spend time focusing on improving your business.

You have unprecedented resources and support available to you, no matter where you are, to help you build and improve your business, to survive any economic conditions.

• You can read advice from innumerable business experts, including those in your own field, without leaving your computer.
• You can connect personally with mentors, consultants, and many other types of support online.
• You can get resource articles, guides, and ebooks on any small business issue.

What's keeping you from using these tools to improve your business? Time, focus, attention. All scarce resources.

What is the solution? Dedicate a set time each week, 1 hour minimum. Make it an absolute commitment. Spend that time finding, reading, learning, and implementing.

At first, you assignment is:

• Figure out what areas need improvement.
  
• Set goals.
• Decide how you can measure progress.
• Find people who can help.
  

Once you are going, and have made the habit, focus on:

• Review your performance for the past week. How did you do? What can you improve? How are you progressing toward goals? Check your measurements.
  
• Learn about one of your improvement areas. Read blogs, read ebooks; read, read, read!
• Check in with one of your mentors.
  

Do this every Friday. Start tomorrow. And if you happen to have something good to share, drop it in the Brag Basket.



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Success has come because of failures

Looking back at my life, though, I believe my success has come because of my failures - not despite them. I’ve got a pretty colorful history and made many bad decisions, but it wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I stopped concentrating and trying to improve what I was bad at and started to figure out what I was great at. I began surrounding myself with folks who judged me for and helped me fine-tune my skills rather than criticize my weaknesses.

Douglas Karr, The Marketing Technology Blog, Sharing My Failures (and Successes?)

We regularly talk about success and failure because they are both realities of entrepreneurship. Thanks to Phil Gerbyshak for finding and sharing this example. If you find great quotes or stories of failure, we'd love to hear them. 

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Small town talk

When you succeed, they will say...

"Well, look at who his granddad is. They all have money. He had everything handed to him."

"She had nothing to do with it. My cousin does all the real work there."

"Must be nice to have all that money without doing anything for it."

When you fail, they will say...

"Yeah, she was doing it all wrong. She should never have been in business."

"That was a stupid idea for this town."

"I told him it wouldn't work."

"I could have done that better."

No matter what you do, they will talk about you. And sometimes it will hurt.

I don't have an answer. I just want you to know it's inevitable.

Photo by Becky McCray.

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The Strategic Sweet Spot

By Lisa Van Allen, PhD, ACC

There is no more critical time than now for small businesses to discover their “strategic sweet spot”. Business owners put a considerable amount of time into evaluating the market, selecting a niche, and developing a personal or company brand. These are essential to business success. But the work is not finished until careful analysis has been done to find what products and services your customers need or want that no one else is offering.

Market and competitive analysis is usually done as part of a business planning or strategic planning process. Business owners need to know who else is doing work or selling products similar to theirs. Sometimes the competition is obvious. In health care, it is easy to identify the number of hospitals in a given area. However, deeper analysis must be done to find the smaller clinics and private offices offering services that compete with those done in a hospital or medical center. In the automotive industry, there is also overlap between auto repair shops,“big box” stores, tire stores, and shops offering specialized services (i.e. transmission repair). Knowing your competition is vital as you select services, establish pricing, develop marketing plans, and later consider expansion. It is vital to develop a strong network to keep abreast of what is happening in your market. You can learn much by maintaining friendships within your industry, listening to new employees or potential recruits, and talking to vendors. All this information should be written down for comparative analysis to create a picture of what is happening in your market.

Knowing your customer is equally important. Customer surveys and frequent personal contact will give you opportunity to learn what customers think about your services. Ask your customers how well they like your work or product with the view of learning and improving, and they will share ideas you may have missed. Use caution in asking customers about your competition –you don’t want to remind them of the things they favored there –but you can ask your customer to help you grow and improve. The most important question to ask is, “What products or services do you need or want?” Ask your customer for a wish list or to imagine a perfect world. They might ask for something impossible, but that dream might just spark an idea for an innovative product or service that no one else is offering. You have now discovered a strategic sweet spot. You are in a position to offer something no one else is offering. You will make your current customers very happy, and they will tell their friends.

Think outside of the box when looking for a strategic sweet spot. Your competition and customers vary in different contexts. If you start by looking at a market location or certain demographic, then you might shift to looking at specific niches within your industry (i.e. technology used in your field, automated processes, customer service innovations). Your strategic sweet spot may be something you are already offering or might be a new product or service yet to be developed. Either way, a strategic sweet spot gives you a competitive edge that will strengthen and expand your bottom line.

Photo provided by Lisa Van Allen

Lisa Van Allen, PhD, ACC is the Conscious Business Coach who helps small business owners and entrepreneurs blend Purpose and Passion with Profit.

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Small business mistakes can cost you

Common mistakes can kill your small business. That's why we have an ongoing series of examples: so we can learn together.

Today's example is from the recent panic buying driving up prices in the firearms industry, post-election. One small business quickly raised prices on their website. Unfortunately, they forgot to update the list price. The end result: Your Savings turned into a big negative number. Oops!

What is the lesson? Well, I would say to avoid price gouging during panics. And to approach price increases in a considered manner. Just a thought.

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What else you can put in the Brag Basket

Each Friday, I open the Brag Basket. Obviously, it's designed as a fun place for you to brag on your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Last week, we had a bunch of fun Halloween brags:

• Ryan of Neighborsville bragged on their beta launch.
• Trevor of PokerPlasm was proud of the Twitter Poker Tour. 
• Laura of HG Marketing cheered for the Phillies! 
• Troy gave a shout out to Jeff Wilson. 
• Connie of Every Dot Connects gave a pat on the back to Jackie and Ben for SWOMFest. 
• Jon of Levite Chronicles (and here) Tweeted about the AOC2 book and authors. 
• Eric of Get Geek Strong shared his pride in StopForwarding.us. (Hey! I met Eric at OpenBeta! Woohoo!)
  
• Lee (A Geeky Momma!) bragged on the K12Online Conference.
  

Huzzah! Congrats to everyone.

NOTE: I'll be away from the keyboard most of Friday, but I will respond when I get back. In the meantime, cheer for each other.

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

Brag Basket graphic by BJ Novack, KickAss Web Design.

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Small Business is Driving, Now

You, us, we small business people are the drivers now. It’s important to remember that as we tool around our community.

It’s not to swagger with false confidence as BMOC's did in the past. No. The point is to understand...we're driving this economy moving forward.

Here’s why: On average, small business generates 60% of new jobs created in this country. Year-in, year-out. Boom or bust economy. Inflationary, deflationary, growth or recession, bear or bull market. 60% of all new jobs are created by small businesses.

But wait, we’re not in an average economy today. ( Some of you are thinking “You’re right, Sherlock. Thanks for reminding us.”) There’s no denial now that we’re in a recession. Maybe we’ve been in one since...Q1. And maybe it will continue for another quarter or two.

It doesn’t really matter.
Recessions are great for small business. According to Bob Graboyes, Senior Health Advisor at National Federation of Independent Business, and economics professor at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University, 100% of new jobs are created by small business in a recession. We discussed this in our conversation on health care and small business. You can listen here.

That’s right. 100% of new jobs are created by small business in a recession. And where are we right now? A recession.

(The logic’s fairly obvious to support this data. Recessions are an economy’s way of cleaning itself of excesses in behaviors or industries. And large corporations have built themselves to exploit these excesses. They suffer the most in a recession. Or their employees, do, as their companies first dump the products, then their business models and then the infrastructure and employees who built it.)

Back to the point: YOU...we, are the drivers now. You, we, have moved from the backseat to the driver’s seat.

Hyperbole and generalized statistics aside, here’s the standard competitive advantages of small business during a recession:

• Unburdened by legacy infrastructure. You’re not burdened with technology that’s now out of date. ( You may not have much of an infrastructure at all. And until now you thought that was a handicap. Turns out it was a smart decision on your part.)
• Unburdened by uninteresting, outdated, products.
• Simple, efficient decision-making. It’s just you or you and 2-3 others.
• Personal connection with your employees and your customers.
• Your products are unique. That stems in part from your personal connection with customers and employees. And it shows you were smart and you knew better than to chase sales against a corporate giant in a commoditized industry.

Their engagement and loyalty is far stronger.
Now, here’s more reasons.

• Innovation. It’s possible in a small company, nearly impossible in a big company. A small company has space to grow, people who want to grow, and a need to grow. Both candidates for president offered ideas on spurring innovation. Who knows what the future holds for manifesting these ideas? My point is that at the national level, the need for innovation is being heard and being spoken.
  
• Investment. See above point.
• Infrastructure -Yours. You're one step ahead. Unlike corporate giants, you have no now outdated equipment, and the issue of what to do with it, blocking your view. You’re ready to bring on the new technology for this next new step.
• Infrastructure - Our country's. We've heard promises of a renewed investment in our nation's infrastructure is imminent. Here's where increased innovation meets the road. New sources of energy, safer energy, will be created. And new businesses will be needed to bring these solutions to market.
  
• Prices are at their lowest. Equipment deals are plentiful in this soft economy. I recently bought a laptop and desktop workstation and both with 100 times the memory, 10 times the processing power, 10 times the ram, etc for what I paid 3 years ago for a laptop only. They’re smaller, lighter, brighter with more applications and thingies to help me move faster. And if I’d waited a few more months, I could have saved even more.
• Business Applications: More, cheaper, faster. There are more applications, cheaper applications, faster applications that make your business more efficient than those now dinosaur corporate giants.

Here are a few places to find them:

* SmallBiz Survival. Right here in River City, ok, Alva, Oklahoma is a site where you’ll find new applications and new ways to use them.
* Small Business Trends. Anita Campbell's site where she and other experts in small business trends share tips and resources. (Disclaimer: I guest post there.)
* Lifehack. Solutions to life's challenges, including running your own business, are offered daily. Most are free, or very inexpensive if you don't mind learning.
* MySolutionSpot. Great community site with lots of user-generated tips and resources. (Disclaimer: I guest post there.)
* JumpUp

I’d concentrate on the first 3. There are many, many, excellent experts sharing their expertise and tips and advice...free. (My content accounts for less than 1% on these sites).

Remember: Our time is precious. Find the sites that offer tips, resources you can put to use...immediately, from people who've put them to use.

4 Steps to Drive Forward...Quickly

1). Go where they ain't. Go where your competitors aren't. They're stuck, for now. You're not. Get moving
2). Go where they are. Go where the innovations and their investments are taking place. Find a place for yourself there by offering your solutions.
3). Invest in your employees. Now's the time to invest even more in your company's greatest asset: your employees. (Warning: self-promotion. I blogged 16 ways you can invest in your employees...and it won't cost you a dime.)
4). Start making some mistakes. You'll get to your goals faster the faster you make some mistakes.

Sure. We’re a small business. We're new to this idea we're in the driver's seat.

No problem.

Remember. We’re small, nimble, quick to decide, comfortable making mistakes and learning, realizing our mistakes won't cost us much. And our successes will bring much to our companies and communities.

We’ll be the first ones out of this recession.

But remember, the country doesn't come out of this recession until we do. We're the driver for this economy, now. Our friends and family are depending on us.

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About the Author: Zane Safrit's passion is small business and the operationsí excellence required to deliver a product that creates word-of-mouth, customer referrals and instills pride in those whose passion created it. He previously served as CEO of a small telecom service provider in rural Iowa. Zane's blog can be found at Zane Safrit. His radio show can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/zane-safrit.

Alva Entrepreneurship Event

Alva, Oklahoma, is my home town, and we have a group of partners supporting entrepreneurship. During the Global Entrepreneurship Week, the partners are sponsoring Entrepreneurship from Passions to Profit: Building your Business, and our own Glenna Mae is a featured speaker. (Go, Mom!)

At this event, the focus is on "how to build and encourage an entrepreneurial spirit in yourself and your community."

So, if you are in the area, join us on Thursday, November 20, 2008, at the Northwestern Oklahoma State University Student Center Ballroom

Who are the partners I mentioned? They are calling the group Oklahoma Partners in Progress:

• Rural Enterprises, Inc.
• Northwestern Oklahoma State University
• Woods County Economic Development Committee
• Alva Area Chamber of Commerce
• Oklahoma Department of Commerce
• Northwest Technology Center
• Northwest Oklahoma Alliance

For more information, please contact Yolanda Creswell:

• 580-327-8606
• yfcreswell@nwosu.edu

Photo by Becky McCray.

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Holiday hiring tips

Temporary holiday help is critical in small business. You cannot afford a bad hire, even in the short term!

Kay Bell asked my opinion on a holiday hiring for an article for NFIB. She also collected some great tips from workforce development specialist Jacquelyn P. Robinson.

The tips break down into six areas:

• Start looking now
• Hire as if it were permanent
• Look for jolly workers
• Train, and do so creatively
• Keep everyone happy
  
• Go beyond the holidays

You can read all the tips in Six Holiday Hiring Tips.

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Thinking differently about common tools

I'm from a big town. 300,000 people live within 14 miles of me. It's almost the smallest town I've lived in.

When I look at a placemat like this, I think "small town."

It's an advertising medium designed for people without access to or budgets for large media. It's an advertising medium designed for diners and cafes and pizza joints rather than steakhouses and chains. It's an advertising medium with instant gratification for local businesses. ("Hey, I just saw your name on the placemat.")

I saw this placemat last week in my big town. It was in a diner, yes. And it got me thinking.

What if you used a placemat to drive traffic to your business's website?

Here are three examples:

• A placemat that has a web address on it and suggests that people visit for an ebook.
• Buying the bottom right corner of the placemat and leaving it mostly white, saying "This drawing space sponsored by..." might put your web address in someone's pocket.
• An ad for your blog (rather than for your business) which offers information about your industry.

We are constantly trying to figure out how to get people to our sites. Maybe using the lowest tech version of advertising can build a bridge to everyone who is hungry.

At least for the next three months at Liberty Diner.

Photo by Jon Swanson, used by permission.

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Jon Swanson is your customer, presenting every day perspectives in a new way. He was a regular contributor to the Great Big Small Business Show podcast, as the Entrepreneurial Chicken. Jon also writes at Levite Chronicles.