Building a habit of helping in your town

My hometown of Alva, Oklahoma, is doing something that most any small town could benefit from: building a habit of helping in our people.

People make small donations, conveniently at all the local banks. Most of the banks have pledged matching funds. (Double cool.)

The group picks just three or four causes to support each year. This year, they did the local food bank, the summer youth sports and arts activities, the schools, and currently the senior citizens' nutrition center.

Want to build on this idea? Stop by the Bank It - a habit of helping website and gain ideas for your own project.

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You are not your target market Part 3

You are not your target market: You know too much.  

The same experience that makes you
valuable, makes you no longer
like your target market. 

You're pretty smart. You've been around your industry or subject area for several years, maybe longer. You have studied, learned, tried, failed, learned some more, succeeded, and learned some more. In short, you are no longer the same as your customers.

Now, this is good because you have something to teach them. Now, this is also bad, because you don't know what it's like to be a beginner anymore. You think you remember, but that is tempered by looking back through your own experiences. Your customers are at the other end of the experience. They are looking ahead, but can't see very far. It's not really possible for you to really understand that anymore, because you know too much.

So you have to listen, deeply, to the questions customers ask. You have to think, deeply, about the questions they aren't asking.

See also: 
You are not your target market Part 1: Quit hanging around with your own people. Go find the customers.

You are not your target market Part 2: What you like doesn't equate into what customers like.

You are not your target market: How to get more volunteer participation.

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Thanksgiving brings Baskets of Hope

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one Nov 25-27, 2011. Since this is U.S. Thanksgiving, why not share something you're thankful for?

Thanksgiving basket by Faith Goble

Don't hold back because of that word, "brag." When you hold back, you hide your good news and accomplishments that might inspire others. Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing.

What can you do in the Brag Basket?

• introduce yourself
• share some great news from this week
• congratulate a friend
• laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
• applaud for each other

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

This photo was tagged "Baskets of Hope," from a Thanksgiving dinner
hosted by a local food bank in  Indianapolis.
I made a small donation to my local food banks this week.
I hope you'll share a little of your own hope with others, too. 

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From scrap metal to skilled crafts

Zach Pontz is a writer. He takes words and builds stuff, like paragraphs and articles. Andrew David Watson is a film director. Carving stories from fragments of images."Skip" Brack runs some stores.

What they have in common is that Zach told Andrew about Skip, and now we can watch a powerful story about a guy who buys and sells used tools. A ton a week, maybe, according to Zach. A ton of used tools, the kind that my grandfather had in the barn-shaped garage on the Wisconsin land his dad homesteaded. The kind that ended up in my dad's toolbox, the one he made while he was building camp fifty years ago in Minnesota. The kind of tools, handled by both of them, hanging 10 feet from my keyboard, out in the garage.

Skip says that since he opened the Liberty Tool Company in 1976, maybe 20,000 people have come. That's a couple customers a day. But when you read Zach and when you listen to Skip, you discover that these aren't customers that visit. These are creators, these are people who need good tools at reasonable prices so they can build chairs and cupboards and tables. Which other people use to build relationships and homes and the future.

Zach and Andrew and Skip are just small business people doing their work. Like you.

(Can't see the video? Click through to Small Biz Survival.)

There's No Place Like Here: Liberty Tool from Etsy on Vimeo.

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Why art in small towns? (video)

Ken Kelsey, art instructor at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, explains why he's involved in the arts in Northwest Oklahoma.

If you don't see the video, click through to Small Biz Survival.



Ken refers to working with Kay Decker on local arts. You can see her interview here: Starting an art walk.


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Six Stop Signs on Creativity Road

Creative Marty Coleman aka @TheNapkinDad shared some suggestions for creativity at BlogWorld Expo. Because creativity is key to innovation and entrepreneurship, I want to pass them along.

The Napkin Dad Marty Coleman
prepares to talk at BlogWorld Expo. 

Why do we call him The Napkin Dad? While making his junior high and high school daughters' lunches, he drew on napkins with quotes and inspiration and fun for them. He's still drawing his art on napkins, now inspiring all of us.

Here are my notes from his presentation:

Every one of us has our own creativity road. And we all have stop signs. It doesn't matter where they come from, you have to deal with them.

Stop sign 1. No moola. 
Money doesn't make you more creative or guarantee success.
Money is usually attracted. What are you doing to be more attractive?
It's not all about inner beauty. There is a reason we have an outer side.
Money is valuable, but so is time.

When you get down to it, what I'm about is love.
Go sign 1. Keep love at the center of your circle. 

Brag Basket is running behind schedule

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one Nov 18-20, 2011.

Oops, the Brag Basket was a bit
behind schedule this week.
(You can't rush quality.)
Photo by hbarrows.

Don't hold back because of that word, "brag." When you hold back, you hide your good news and accomplishments that might inspire others. Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing.

What can you do in the Brag Basket?

• introduce yourself
• share some great news from this week
• congratulate a friend
• laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
• applaud for each other

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.


New here? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Subscribe.

the Div: Building their own high-tech workforce

Many small towns and small cities have a terrible shortage of skilled workforce, especially in today's high-tech skills. The reasons why are complex: some places lack local training, some have high out-migration rates, some places just have no history of high tech work.

Lindsey and Cory Miller

A few Oklahomans decided to do something about the lack of high tech workforce in their area. I heard about it from Cory Miller. He and his partners in DigiMedia, Scott Day and Jay Chapman, founded the Div. They needed a better workforce and decided to build it themselves. Cory's wife Lindsey is the executive director. The partners are funding part themselves, raising funds from other sources, and planning to seek grant or government funding sometime. 

At the Div, their mission is:

• To foster and promote web tech innovation, creativity and community in Oklahoma
• To champion Oklahoma as a web tech hub
• To be a launching pad for projects and startups in the web tech industry in Oklahoma
• To help develop and train a strong, skilled and dynamic workforce for the web tech industry in Oklahoma

They're busy providing training courses online and offline, building awareness of the local tech scene, and generally changing the whole paradigm by jumping in and doing.

Edmond, Oklahoma, isn't a small town, exactly. It is a suburb in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. But it's an idea all of us can grab on to:

If you want a better workforce, get involved in building it. 

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How a small business can be huge

By Jon Swanson

On Wednesday night we picked up supper. On Wednesday night we got a call from the dishwasher installer.

The carryout was cold. The dishwasher was a week late.
I went to the website for the local restaurant (a four location local group). I went to the website for the national appliance chain.
I left a comment about the food, about this being the second time it's happened. I talked about being a repeat customer, about wanting them to know.
I left a comment about dishwasher being late, about our install order getting lost. I talked about the eleven appliances we've purchased over 25 years from this chain, about wanting them to know.
And I went to bed.

On Thursday morning, I got an email from the restaurant. It told me that I would hear from the manager of store we visited. It was copied to the manager, to the two owners of the chain, and to a couple other people I don't know.
At 1:30pm Thursday afternoon, I got a call from the restaurant manager. We talked. He made sure he understood the concern, didn't offer excuses, told me what his followup would be. He offered to make it right, but I wasn't looking for a free meal. I'd eaten the leftover pizza cold anyway. I just wanted to help a favorite eating place stay favorite.
I still haven't heard from the national appliance chain.

The place we spent $12 called within 24 hours.
The place we spent $300 (and several thousand dollars over the years) hasn't called yet.

And that's how a small business can be huge:
Follow up.

And if you are ever in Fort Wayne, we can go to Casa. Becky did.


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Starting an art walk (VIDEO)

Dr. Kay Decker tells about arts projects in Alva, Oklahoma. She explains how and why the First Friday Art Walk was started here.

Email and RSS subscribers may need to click through to Small Biz Survival to see the video.



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You are not your target market Part 2

You are not your target market:
What you like doesn't equate into what customers like.

I may not like country music, but I
enjoyed Rusty and Jim's performance. 

I don't like country music. I don't like pop up newsletter subscription boxes. I don't even like the idea of whipped cream flavored vodka. None of that should influence my marketing. What should? My customers.

What do my customers like? What music will appeal to them? Do they appreciate being offered a chance to subscribe to our newsletter? What flavored vodkas do they want to buy from my store? I can't answer for them. I need to let my customers answer.

You let your customers answer by asking them directly, by measuring the changes in their responses when you change something, by split testing two different things against each other, by ordering the vodka and measuring sales.

Stop pretending your customers are the same as you.


You are not your target market:
Let your customers be themselves. 

(See also You are not your target market Part 1.)

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The 11-11-11 Brag Basket

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one 11-11-11 to 11-13-11.

11 photo by imago

Don't hold back because of that word, "brag." When you hold back, you hide your good news and accomplishments that might inspire others. Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing.

What can you do in the Brag Basket?

• introduce yourself
• share some great news from this week
• congratulate a friend
• laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
• applaud for each other

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.


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What search terms lead people to your site

Melanie Grace Guthrey asked,

You speak a lot about finding the terms people search online in relation to our town/business. Is there a particular way or site you recommend for doing this research?

It's a great question. How can we know what words and phrases people search that lead them to our site? The answer is in your website statistics or analytics package. Each time a visitor puts a keyword into a search engine, the search engine passes that keyword along to the page they click on. And your statistics package records it.

Know Yourself to Boost Tourism

At the Nebraska Travel Conference, Shannon Gray of North Star Ideas presented a session on how towns and communities can better know themselves in order to better market themselves to tourists. It involves some work and some research to do properly, but it does not have to cost a lot of money. Here are some of her suggestions and ideas.

Alan Weinkrantz and Jeff Pulver touring
downtown Bartlesville, Oklahoma. 

How big of a gap is there between what you think you are, and what your potential visitors think you are?

Spend a day doing visitor intercepts. Ask people what brought them there, what they think so far. Don't take more than 5 minutes of visitors' time.

A perception study means asking, "What did you think before? What do you think now?" This is qualitative research, seeking qualities.

You are not your target market Part 1

You are not your target market. This simple sentence is powerful.

It is my best advice for recruiting volunteers. And on the plane ride home from BlogWorld, it inspired three more stories. Here's the first one:

Quit hanging around with your own people. Go find the customers.

Are you hanging around with peers,
or customers? 

I see many business owners or freelancers talking to their peers online and not talking to their target market.

For example, I hear photographers saying they are hanging around online photography forums. Unless other photographers are your target market, that's not marketing. (It might be research or networking, but those are different goals.)

Think about (better yet, track) where you spend your time online. Are you talking mostly with peers? Do you spend your time talking with others who do the same thing? That time does not count as marketing. Redirect your marketing time to listening to and interacting with your target market.

How do you find your target market online? You ask them. Sounds simple, but few businesses actually do it.

Another way to find your target market online is to use a tool like Gist.com. Gather up email addresses for a small sample of your target. Go to Gist and look at their public profiles. That will give you a quick feel for your target.

Next week in part 2, we'll look at why what you like doesn't matter as much as what customers like.

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You're in charge of the Brag Basket this week

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one November 4-6, 2011. I'm on the road, so it's up to you to spread the word and cheer for each other!

Autumn apple basket by Jaanus Silla

Don't hold back because of that word, "brag." When you hold back, you hide your good news and accomplishments that might inspire others. Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing.

What can you do in the Brag Basket?

• introduce yourself
• share some great news from this week
• congratulate a friend
• laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
• applaud for each other

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. We all cheer, and everyone feels great. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.


New here? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Subscribe.

How to use mobile coupons in tourism

Mobile is the future of marketing, but no one is talking about the specifics. What do you do? How does it work?

Tourism Currents co-founder Sheila
Scarborough sharing mobile secrets
with Texas tourism pros. 

One thing that is here now, and works especially well for tourism-based businesses, is mobile coupons. A business can send just the coupons a potential visitor requests, and only during the time they'll be visiting. Perfect! Except, how do you do that?

Well, we've rounded up Sandra Sims, an expert in mobile and marketing, to tell us how. She's leading a webinar for Tourism Currents. It's not free, but it is inexpensive. And we'll record it, so you can watch anytime.

Ready to make a smart move into the future? Join us for Mobile Coupons in Tourism.

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1 secret to small town economic development

Laura Girty has worked in economic development for more than ten years. What has she learned?

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