How to start a business today

If you know how to blog, podcast, share photos online, and basically use social media tools, you could start a business today.

Dress professionally.
Get a pad of paper and a pen.
Go to a business.
Ask questions.

This is where the magic happens. Ask them what they are doing to reach out and connect with customers. What are their problems? How are they communicating online? Can they update their own site? What are their goals? What is causing them the most pain right now?

The idea is to ask questions, important business questions, around what social media tools have the potential to do. If you are following Chris Brogan's series of Social Media Starter Moves for ..., then you can pick up additional business uses for these tools.

For more ideas about how to create these questions, read Communicate: Ask Better Questions.

I tested this approach myself. The target was small businesses. The product was an online workforce solution, just as mystifying as social media stuff, I promise. Asking questions turned out to be the single most effective way to help business people understand the benefits and commit to using our solution.

Questions naturally lead the conversation to the value you add by helping reach those goals. If you can help a small business person alleviate pain, they will do business with you.

Can you adapt this same model to other businesses?

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. This is a community project!

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Discussion question: getting follow up sales right

I downloaded a free ebook. A week later, the publisher followed up with a 50% off offer for a closely related (more advanced) print book, plus a free gift or two. Limited time offer and a money back guarantee. PS: Get FREE SHIPPING when you add a second book to your order!

I thought it was good follow-up selling. Other people might think it was too much.

What do you think?


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Apply the Simplified Marketing Plan to Online Tools

With 89,567* online tools for connecting, sharing, networking, etc., how do you ever prioritize and keep online socializing from taking over your work?
[*I made up that number, of course]

Our Friend Glenda Watson Hyatt set me to work on this topic, and explained what she meant via email:

My quandry is: I have all these tools - twitter, facebook, MyBlogLog, YouTube, flickr, ziki, Linkedln, stumble, digg and, of course, my two blogs - some of which I use way more than others. I would like to know how to integrate them effectively so that I am using them efficiently and maximizing benefits. How do I analyze which ones I should keep? Drop? Add?? How much time should I spend on each? Doing what? I mean could spend all day every
day using them, but that doesn't get my actual work done. Where do I draw
the line? And then how do other marketing strategies [ezines, article directories ] fit in?

Believe it or not, I have a plan. It's our Simplified Marketing Plan. Here's the outline:

1. Name and describe each market
2. Tell what methods you will use to reach them
3. Establish the cost in time and in money
4. Mesh this with your business plan

1. Know your markets.
If you haven't defined each of your markets, jump on that now. For a relatively simple consulting business, you might have several target customers. You might target small businesses for consulting, individuals for coaching, and larger corporations as sponsors for your blog or info products. Make sense?

For example, if Glenda offered disability issues awareness training and consulting, she might target medium size companies, their HR managers, and HR related organizations. (I'm making up this example about Glenda's business, so don't jump to any conclusions.) She'll need to find out where those people spend time online, and what services they need, want, and purchase.

You need to know about all those different customers so that you can develop the right compelling offer for each of them, in the next step.

2. Decide on methods.

Once you know your targets, you can develop a compelling offer to hook them. For example, when Susan Reynolds taught children's art classes, she developed an idea for a short drawing lesson for moms and kids together. It was a free sample, addressed the proper target (moms), and left a lasting impression. That's a compelling offer!

To get that offer in front of the right people, you need to use the right online tools. In step one, you should have learned where your targets are online. Then you use these online tools to share that offer when appropriate, and to position yourself as an expert.

Start with a list of the online presence tools you use right now. Ask customers which ones they have heard of, and which they use. Then expand out to some potential customers. Ask them the same things. Then visit other tools and see who is present. You goal is to come up with a list of online tools that have the potential to let you connect with customers, then build them into the plan.

Glenda might find that her targeted folks use the Society for Human Resources Management website, read a few specific blogs, participate on a few online forums, that most of them are on Facebook, and that a pocket of them are on Twitter. Given this short list, she can set goals and measures for herself on these specific tools. Yes, she can still play with other tools, use other networks for personal enjoyment, or just learn new things, but it doesn't count as part of working the plan.

I'm not suggesting you change how you act online; there is no need to be all sales and advertising all the time. Keep using these tools as a part of the community, not as an advertiser. Do let folks know what you offer; talk some about business, just so they'll know you are in business! In fact, I just solicited WP design quotes from Twitter, and I contacted one person directly because they announced they were in the business. It does pay to talk about yourself, in moderation.


3. Establish the cost in time.
Now we're getting somewhere! Of course, there isn't just one answer to this, so we'll have to make some guidelines and share some suggestions.

Your plan focuses on being sure to use the methods that reach potential customers, and to place your compelling offer in front of them.

If Glenda's targeted customers are using Twitter, terrific! She's already there, so she can add that to her marketing plan. Maybe she doesn't currently visit the forums she discovered by talking to customers, so she'll pick the most promising one and add it to her plan. Glenda has her own blog to include in the plan, along with the selected blogs frequented by her targets. Other tools not in her plan are considered outside of work, or personal time activities.

How much time? Well, put more time in on those tools that produce the best results. If you get most of your blog traffic increases from Twittering, you'll want to develop the habit of carefully promoting posts on Twitter. For less productive tools, give your self less time with them. No need to go hang out at MyBlogLog, if you can learn to update it in just a few minutes.

4. Mesh it with your plan.
I recommend you integrate these tools into your daily plan. You do have some kind of daily plan, don't you? No? Well, I would recommend you Focus on Your Income Producing Activities, including your online marketing tools. If you don't do anything else, do this!

You

How do you manage your online time? How do you allocate your efforts among the myriad of tools available? I'd love to hear your experiences.

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. This is a community project!

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4 part series on Social Media from a Small Town

What could a small business in a small town gain from spending time on social media tools like blogs, Twitter, and FaceBook? And how can they get started? And is anyone doing this right now? Those are the questions around our 4 part series on social media for small town small businesses.

1. Social Networking and a Small Town Business - Why Bother? at Liz Strauss's Successful Blog explains four different ways you can benefit from these tools, besides just looking for customers. (honestly, she proposed the title and topic!)

2. Social Media Starter Moves for Small Town Small Business just fit right in with Chris Brogan's series of social media starter moves. So that will give you four different strategies and how to use them.

3. Four Small Town Game Changers profiles people who are using these tools right now to improve their business from small towns.

4. That Tall Dude is Changing Elgin, ND will give you a more in depth look, with a guest post by Shawn Kirsch.

Hmmmm.... maybe we need to pull those together into an easy to download e-book...


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How to convert freebies into paying clients

Every small service business gets them: people fishing for free help, or asking twenty questions so they can go off and do it on their own. If you don't have an established way to help them easily and convert them into paying clients, you are missing out on business and going crazy, I'll bet.

Cody Heitschmidt (@codyks) mentioned to me that he gets three or more calls a week from people wanting his free advice so they can do their own websites. What can he do to convert these people to potentially paying clients, without driving himself to distraction and bankruptcy with giving free help?

Educate them on your terms

The basic answer is to offer them the help they need, but in a way that respects your valuable time. Here are two ideas of how to educate people on your own terms.

Create a standard booklet you give to people that want to do it themselves. Invest a few hours in creating a simple how-to booklet, and recoup those hours you would normally spend trying to assist the freebie-seekers. You probably have all the info you need on your blog.

Why not do workshops? Charge a modest fee. Then Do-It-Yourself-ers can be encouraged to take the class. This lets you group up the learners, help them all a certain amount, get paid for it, and allow some of them to see that they really do want professional help. Then the next time you get hit up for more free advice, you can hand out a flyer for your workshop.

The goal is to give them some help, but do it in the least time-intensive way possible. And to make them as likely as possible to come back when they graduate to wanting professional help. The more you give away, the more you get, if you are smart about how you do it.

Cody already teaches classes, and he has plenty of clients. But we all need ways to give good customer service, even before the person becomes a paying customer.

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. This is a community project!

Get the whole series by subscribing to Small Biz Survival. New here? Take the Guided Tour.

The role of marketing

If you are doing wonderful, exciting things that will help other people, then you owe it to your potential customers to learn marketing and selling skills so you can connect more people to your benefits.

If you are learning marketing and selling skills because your only focus is on generating more money for you, well, then ...

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Two ways to build your small biz website yourself nearly for free

Not every small business can afford to hire someone to create or maintain a website. So let's go over some relatively easy do-it-yourself ways to build your site, kind of two by two. It just so happens that these are all free, or nearly so.

2 Free Website Builders

High up on the cool factor is Roxer. It's all click and drag, and easy to use. Very Web 2.0. They will let you use your own domain name, like allensretail.com.

Less "wow" but still very easy and polished is Google Pages. One neat feature is that it will automatically make a version of your pages optimized for mobile phone browsers. It will not let you use your own domain name.

To make up for that, I'll offer a bonus tool: Microsoft Office Live Small Business. One of our rural friends, Shady Hill Farm, uses this tool for their websites. A domain name is included for free your first year, but there is a small annual fee to renew it.

2 Blogging Tools

This is my favorite way to build your own do-it-yourself website!
A blog is just a special website made up of stories or articles, kind of like a newsletter. It also gives customers and readers a chance to comment on stories, building conversations. The two blog services I like are Blogger and WordPress. Both offer a platform for your own blog, and both will let you use your own domain name. The platform includes all the behind the scenes software that does the work. That lets you focus on writing stories, which works about like writing an email. Feeling brave? A blog can also include audio or video clips, not just text.

This is what I use for my liquor store's website. It provides all the basic contact info, plus I can update it with new product announcements, articles about wines, and drink recipes. You probably already teach customers about your product every day, so you could easily add that info to a blog and share it with your new potential customers.

2 Social Networks Ready to Go

Remember Yahoo! Groups and a dozen other similar group sites? Here are two new ways to do something similar for your fans and community, but in a more business like way.

Ning lets you build a complete social network, with profiles, forums, and everything else. Check out the Small Town group, part of The Society for Word of Mouth at Ning, for an example.

Google Sites are designed for group work online, and offer a bit more collaboration, though a bit less social.

2 Business Site Profiles

If you fill in your business information, your user profile on services like JumpUp or LinkedIn can serve as a website. They are designed for business, so these profiles give you room to include your contact information such as phone and email, details about your line of business, even hours or directions. You want customers to find your profile, so also check the privacy settings to make your profile public. Don't worry about people mis-using your email or phone number. The truth is that it rarely happens. If you feel more comfortable, use a secondary phone number and email address.

2 Important Tips

1. Get your own domain. Go to any registrar, and you'll probably pay less than $15 a year for your own domain name, like beckymccray.com. (Sometimes, it's way less than $15.) Then forward that domain name to the page you've created. The way you do this varies with each provider, and a few website tools (like FreeWebs) charge a fee for allowing you to use that domain name.

Two registrars: GoDaddy (which I use) and Network Solutions (which has agreed to sponsor one of our publications).

2. Be find-able. To make sure that customers searching for you can find you, you need to make sure search engines can find your page. Two techniques: keywords and links. Include the right keywords in all of your online presence. Your keywords are your name, your business name, your line of work or brands you carry, and your hometown or service area. Think of the words a customer would be thinking right before they search for a business or solution like yours. Then find other local websites to link to you, and link back to them. Submit your site to a few online directories for your industry for some additional links.

To Summarize

This was all a very basic two by two approach to free web presence tools. I tried to keep it basic, because that's my point. Keep it Simple.

Plenty more examples, techniques, and ideas can apply to creating your online presence. I'd love it if you would share your stories and links in the comments.

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. This is a community project!

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Resource: Sparkplugging and a rebranding story

Our friend Wendy Piersall is now CEO of Sparkplugging :: Thinking Big in the New Work at Home Generation. Sparkplugging is a complete rebranding of eMoms at Home. The new brand makes it clear that her site and network of blogs are focused on entrepreneurial content.

Wendy's eMoms at Home started as her personal blog, and over the past year, developed into an independent business including a blog network. As her business changed over time, she realized that the eMoms brand was holding her back.

At SXSW, Wendy and I both stayed with Sheila Scarborough. When we found time to talk, I was surprised by how much eMoms at Home was about entrepreneurship. Hey, we're all about entrepreneurship, but I didn't realize that she was, also. And I'm not the only one too myopic to see past the name. Time and again, Wendy found herself explaining how the name didn't say it all about eMoms.

Wendy got brave, and launched a complete rebranding of her business. Darren Rowse outlined more of the story of how that worked in this interview at ProBlogger.

What entrepreneurial resources can you find at Sparkplugging? An expanding network of blogs in small business and lifestyle channels. New blogs are launching each week at the same time as the rebranding. Articles at Sparkplugging cover the full range of small business, work at home, entrepreneurial, and work life balance issues.

Congratulations, Wendy, on the tough business decisions you've been through in the past month. Here's to continued future success, with brand new spark.

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Draw the line between free and paid

Many newly independent small business people make the mistake of giving away too much of their services for free. Many seasoned professionals run into the same issue, like Drew McLellan giving away the milk.

I was at lunch with a peer and friend the other day, telling her a story about how a mutual acquaintance had called me out of the blue to ask for some marketing counsel, which of course I gave her. My lunch companion said, "I hope you charged her." Gulp.

Andy Sernovitz suggests you give away more. In the comment section under Drew's article, he said:

Give it away big time. Blog it, share it, speak, write, whatever.

You ideas are your selling tools. Give enough away and real clients will pay for even more.

I give away 100 books/month ($25 each), blog everything, speak for free. And the more I do, the more work I get.

We want to share our knowledge freely. That's why we blog, answer questions, talk to others, and do everything we can to share. But we also need to make a living. On the other hand, the more we give away, the more we indirectly market our services. But how do we ever make any money if we never figure out how to charge for our work?

How do we know where to draw the line between giving away free ideas, and signing up more paid clients?

Liz Strauss has it figured out, and you do, too, even if you don't know it yet. Liz created A Personal Model for Business Life.

What I realized is that in my personal life I already draw lines around circles of who I can do things for. Bet you do something like it too.

So here’s how I extended my personal groups into business groups. Now I know who gets how much for free.

1. Some people are casual friends and acquaintances. When they come to town or when I go to theirs, I make an effort to meet with them. I’ll point these folks to where they can find the information they need.
   
   
2. Some people are friends. When they come to town or I go to theirs I do my best to meet with them. I’ll help these folks when I can, especially when it’s something I can do easily.
   
   
3. Some people are close friends. When they come to town or I go to theirs, I make time for them. These people will get my help and my time unless pressing projects must be a priority.
   
   
4. Some people are lifelong friends and family. When they have a need I’ll fly to them anywhere on the planet. They’re most likely to get my help and my time for free. We value each other deeply.

Now that I see I already have a working system, it’s easy to decide who gets how much for free. When people I hardly know ask me to do their homework now, I simply say, “I can tell you where you’ll find what you need.” If they push for me to help them, I say, “If you’d like me to do that for you, we’ll need a more formal arrangement to cover my time. I charge $XXX/hour for that sort of work.”

I can’t believe the difference it’s made. How silly of me that I didn’t make this connection before. I wouldn’t fly around the world for just anyone. So what made me think I should give everyone my work for free?

So simple. So straightforward. It incorporates a couple of special factors.

1. You don't have to turn into "that guy" who charges for every phone call, every second.
2. You get to be a giver. You can write, speak, blog, share, talk, and give away your ideas, without ever reducing the value of your paid services.

Workable?

[Special thanks to Liz Strauss for giving special permission to quote such a huge chunk of her article.]

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. This is a community project!

Get the whole series by subscribing to Small Biz Survival. New here? Take the Guided Tour.

Common Small Biz Mistakes - Losing your logo

When you have a logo or design created, ask for and keep a high resolution copy of the original artwork.

That's the advice from small town sign maker Wayne LaMunyon. He says it's the number one complaint of sign and banner makers everywhere. Small business owners get a logo or a business card with a design, then later they want a banner or a big sign. Way too often, they didn't keep a copy of the original artwork, and Wayne has to rebuild the logo from their tiny business card copy. For a fee, of course.

So, do yourself and your sign maker a favor. Keep several high resolution copies of your logo or design, digital or hard copy.

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Hook customers with your compelling offer

Our Friend Susan Reynolds has a terrific story of a marketing success you can learn from. It's so good, I'm including it in our Small Biz 100, so you can develop your compelling offer that gets you more of the right customers.

A Fish Story
First the fish story. Susan taught children's art lessons, starting with five students. She grew that into a hundred students without spending a dime on advertising. She did it by developing a compelling offer.

She started by figuring out who made the decisions on her product, aka Moms. She needed something that would make them take action by calling Susan, sending a check, or enrolling their kids.

Then she looked for something that would have some lasting value, something that would hang around. So she created a 30 minute demo that students and parents both participated in, free, "How to Draw a Fish."

Kids had fun; parents had fun; kids helped parents draw better fishes; fishes went home to go up on the refrigerator door; better more elaborate fish got drawn at home; and fish got talked about at soccer practice, baseball practice, ballet practice. Fish were a good thing.

Now, how to convert those leads into paying customers? She sent each kid home with two registration forms and a 10% discount for their first series of lessons. Another discount for early sign ups, and maybe more importantly, another discount for referrals. Wisely, she also kept the first paid series short, just 6 weeks, to keep commitments easy for customers.

Your compelling offer

I can't summarize any better than Susan did:

What's the magic combination of something that is of value to your audience, stays with them as a reminder, and doesn't deplete your supply of valuable commodities: time, money, effort.

You also have new tools Susan couldn't use in 1985. Through your blog, your social networks, memes, and more, you have terrific ways to spread your ideas.

How to Make Your Own

Make it compelling:

• Valuable
  
• Stays with them
  
• Starts discussions
  
• Fun
  
• Low cost or free to you and the customer
  

Make the follow up offer even better:

• Include a discount
• Keep the paid commitment short
• Hook it together with the freebie
  

More examples
1. My liquor store has pretty strict rules to follow. But we still do occasional tasting events. We can't give out discount coupons, but we do always give free tasting notes and wine lists, and our advice is always free. Anything featured at a tasting is displayed on the counter and on our blog, for easy follow up.

2. Chris Van Patten builds websites in WordPress, and wants to reach more small businesses. He could offer a free 30 minute coaching session on monitoring your online presence with Google Alerts to small businesses in his local area or region. Add a good follow up or referral offer for inexpensive web design, and there's a compelling offer.

3. Laura Allen helps people build 15 Second Pitches. She offers a free online tool to walk you through the 4 step process. Hooking people into being paying clients is tougher. So she might start offering a short affordable follow up course, like "Now, Polish Your Pitch," to catch more of those folks. By hooking her existing online training as an immediate follow-up, she might get better results!

You
What's your compelling offer? Share it!
Stuck for a great offer? Tell us about it, and we'll brainstorm in the comments.

This article is part of the Small Biz 100, a series of 100 practical hands-on posts for small business people and solo entrepreneurs, whether in a small town, the big city, or in between. If you have questions you'd like us to address in this series, leave a comment or send us an email at becky@smallbizsurvival.com. This is a community project!

Get the whole series by subscribing to Small Biz Survival. New here? Take the Guided Tour.

POV: Grant Griffiths is a recovering attorney

Another great connection via Twitter! Grant D. Griffiths lives about 4 hours away from me, so that qualifies as practically neighbors around here. When he emailed me, I promptly asked him for a guest post sharing his story. Enjoy.

Clay Center
by bmcguirk

Needless to say, I was excited to come across Becky's blog, Small Biz Survival. And as she mentioned, we are practically neighbors. I first heard about Small Biz Survival on twitter and was immediately hooked.

Like Becky, I live and work in a small rural community. I, my wife and two of our children live in Clay Center, Kansas. Clay Center is a community of approximately 5000 people.

Since January 2005, I have been operating my family law practice from my home office which is located in a large room in our basement. I have utilized technology to its fullest and have no in house employees. In fact, I have taken advantage of my technology so my virtual assistant and I communicate via the Internet. We almost never see each other in person and exchange all of the work she does via email. I dictate on a digital voice recorder and email her the recorded files. She in turn transcribes what I have given her and she returns the finished documents to be via email.

I have marketed my family law practice for over three years now by using one marketing tool and that is a blog. The Kansas Family Law Blog has been my only marketing tool and what is great about using a blog to market, it has placed me on the same level or even above those firms who work in the "big city" and who use the Yellow Pages. By using Internet based marketing, no longer are those of us who live and work in the rural areas tied to just working and making our living there. Blogging enabled me to expand my practice to a state wide practice. I handled cases both in my own rural area and in the metro areas of Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita, Kansas.

Technology, whether sitting on your desk or that which is available on the Internet, has removed the barriers of living in a rural community. I am not new to blogging as I have been doing so now for over three years. One of my blogs that has actually brought me the most attention is Home Office Lawyer. Because of the traffic and readers I have been able to attract with Home Office Lawyer, I have given webinars to groups of individuals from all over the country. Once again using the web to connect with clients and prospective clients from all over the country.

Small Biz Survival is another example of the reach you can achieve using the Internet. And the reach someone from a rural community can accomplish. Like myself, Becky's readers are not all from her rural community. Becky, myself and others have a readership that extends from all over our home states, the United States and I would venture to guess, the world. It is important for those who read this blog and live and work in a small rural community to consider this in their own business. The worse thing someone from a rural community can do is to limit themselves to thinking they are tied only to their locale; and not marketing to the entire world. If you live and have your business in a rural community, and if you want to expand your market to either your state, your country or the entire world, you have to change your mindset and expand your thinking.

Last September we launched a blog called Home Office Warrior. Seeing that my readership on the Home Office Lawyer was expanding to include not only lawyers, but others who worked from a home office, we saw a need for a blog such as Home Office Warrior (HOW). HOW is what we call an "Internet Magazine for the Home Office Entrepreneur." And what is most amazing is we are getting readers and subscribers from all over the world. Once again, illustrating the power of the web in gaining a readership from all over the world.

In the next few weeks, I will be what I am calling a "recovering attorney." And having a mindset that does not lock me into only focusing on my rural community or even only my own state has enabled me to do this. Because I have a love for blogging and because I have spent the last three years educating people about blogging, I have opened my own blog design and consulting business, G2 Web Media. And I won't be tied to only Kansas. In fact we already have clients from all over the U.S.

So, even a country boy from the middle of Kansas can have a business that draws clients from all over the country.

Thanks Becky for allowing me to share a little bit about my own story.

Be a social media mirror

What do you do with interactive tools like blogs, video, all that web 2.0 stuff, to build relationships, to reach customers?

First, it's not about you. Let's start with the message I previously shared from Hugh MacLeod, small town global microbrand, who writes and draws at Gaping Void:

Marketing is moving away from our message (i.e. Come Fly the Friendly Skies) to being about you. (i.e. You're cool. Here's some wine.)
"They are not your community.... I didn't really think of the people drinking the wine as 'the Stormhoek Community.' They were just cool people having fun with the wine."

Long-time Friend Mark Harbeke, of Winning Workplaces, built on that with a very smart comment:

Great insight. I think the theme of transitioning from "us" to "you" is valid across industries and locations. We've seen that among (I hesitate to say "our") constituents, leaders of really innovative small firms: they want communications from us that do more to share their news and growth stories with each other. In essence, we become a mirror for them. And as long as the technology is in place and works the same way for everyone, that's not too tall of an order. It's something we're working on on both the e-mail and web front.

They want communications from us that do more to share their ... stories with each other. In essence, we become a mirror for them.

Use social media tools and interaction to become a mirror. Enable people, a community, to share stories with each other.


When I write for small business, I want to share more stories from small business people!
When I write for my store, I want to start mirroring customers' stories.
I can imagine my university alumni association, being a mirror to alums.
If you offer editing services, share ideas and stories from and to writers.
If you run a cattle sale barn, share successful ideas between ranchers.


How do (or can) you use social media tools to be a mirror to a community?


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Best small business post ever

Jon Swanson, formerly the Entrepreneurial Chicken, is writing about small business again. He helped again this year with a training event for a small retail cooperative.

What I heard today made me more optimistic about the presentations in any time in the past 6 years of doing this.

Today, one of the groups said, “We want to be the information source for ___”. Another group said, “we could take laptops with __ software out to the customers and design right on the spot.” Another person said, “We won’t do television advertising, but we can take pictures of our customers working and put them on our website.” Another group spent the bulk of their time talking about the people side of the solution, the staffing changes that would need to be part of the solution for the company in the case study.

Here were mostly department managers from comparatively small business saying that what can make them successful is moving out of the product business into the information and relationship business. They aren’t selling hammers and nails, they are selling houses and homes and lives.

I did my best to encourage them, within the confines of my role. I wanted to say, “YES!!!” In taking on big, you can try to undercut their margins which will fail. You can try to duplicate their advertising budget, which will fail. You can try to out program them, which will fail. Or you can try to outlove them. (I know, it’s business, but at the core of relationship marketing must be relationship, which, at some level, has to be about love.) And the big boxes, whatever their industry: food, church, hardware, furniture, departments, are not fundamentally about outloving anyone.

For the rest of the story about art and crayons and Small is the New Big, visit Jon at Levite Chronicles.

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Self Replicating Awesomeness - The Marketing of No Marketing

Self Replicating Awesomeness - The Marketing of No Marketing was an odd title for a panel, but it was an interesting discussion. Here are the thoughts of six amazing marketers talking about a different way of marketing.

"When we talk about marketing, we mean bad marketing, because good marketing you don't notice."
Parmet

"Either you understand that you don't exist without said customers, or you don't and it's in your DNA. No blog or bling or swag will change that."
Schultz

"The more I give away, the more I get."
Hunt

"They are not your community."
"I didn't really think of the people drinking the wine as 'the Stormhoek Community.' They were just cool people having fun with the wine."
MacLeod

Larger companies are starting to listen to customers who complain. Why aren't you also listening to the ones who love you? Talk and listen, especially as a small company, so that it is ingrained as you grow.
Schultz

What Doc Searls called the "Because Effect." We are giving it away because that's helping us make more somewhere else.
Heuer

Marketing is moving away from our message (i.e. Come Fly the Friendly Skies) to being about you. (i.e. You're cool. Here's some wine.)
MacLeod

Follow up and tell the stories of the people you interact with. The people who received Stormhoek Wine were asked to send back pics of their wine parties. Those pics were shared on Flickr.
Schultz

If your product is too expensive or tough to give away demos or samples, then think of creating social objects that are cool/relevant/free and give them away.
MacLeod

The iProspect CEO Frederick Markini said, "The brands with the best storytellers win."
Heuer

Nothing replaces listening.
Schultz

Read Heuer's own summary at The Golden Rules of Marketing.


Panel Participants:

• Chris Heuer Partner, The Conversation Group
  
• Tara Hunt Co-Founder, Citizen Agency
  
• Jeremiah Owyang Forrester
  
• Deborah Schultz Founder/Chief Catalyst, deborahschultz.com
  
• David Parmet Owner, Marketing Begins At Home LLC
  
• Hugh MacLeod Grand Pooh-Bah, gapingvoid.com

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Promote your business in a new way

Reader Laura Fisher "Mitten" from Michigan offered a terrific idea for promoting your works anywhere you go.

This is a bit specialized, but my husband is a filmmaker and he puts clips of his work (his 'showreel') on his PSP (this would work with iPhone/iPod/Zune, too, I think). He'll stuff it in his pocket when he goes out somewhere he's likely to meet people and can just show people his work right there in hand. (The PSP's screen is gorgeous!)

And while that's specifically for film, I would think anyone who does visual work - design, web design, whatever - could put together a little slideshow that could be shown on an iPod or Zune or PSP or whatever. A 'showreel' for designers!

So if you can take a picture or a short video clip that depicts your work, that's how you can carry it with you. What a terrific way to connect your online promotions to people who aren't online!

Need ideas for videos? We have a few small business video ideas for you.

[Photo by Josh Bancroft on Flickr, of a Dell X50V and Sony PSP showing mobile video playing possibilities.]

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Internet marketing for small town businesses

Editor's Note: April Groves mentioned on Twitter that she was working on an article about internet marketing in small towns. Although she wrote about Bryan County Georgia, her thoughts could apply in any small town. She was kind enough to grant us permission to reprint that article here.

Internet Marketing in Bryan County

By April Groves

I had the wonderful experience of attending the 2^nd annual BlogSavannah UnConference on Friday. I had the opportunity to run into a few other folks from Richmond Hill. They have businesses, and they are on the web. This got me to thinking – do businesses in Bryan County need a web presence to compete effectively in today’s commercial market?

Let’s consider this for a moment. A quick internet search shows that the major agencies in the county have websites. You can find tons of information on emergency services, education and government. You can pay property taxes, and the City of Richmond Hill has a new online water bill payment system. This tells me that our community does look for information and will do business online.

Another quick internet search also reveals that many local industries have a web presence. Health and Wellness, Real Estate, Non-Profits, Financial Institutions, Attorneys and a host of other businesses have a web address. Through folks that I know, I can also tell you there are some businesses that function entirely online. There is no brick and mortar structure – only a web address. This tells me that if you are in business and not online, your competition probably is.

I go one last time to the internet search. Not everybody is there. In fact, a few very successful businesses have not gone the way of internet marketing. This tears me into two directions. Either they are missing an opportunity for business growth or they really would not benefit from online exposure. I can’t help but believe it is the former and not the latter.

Recent statistics show that roughly 20% of media consumption comes from online activity. I am a bit surprised the number is that low. There is a major industry in town that has 80% of its prospective client base looking online before they ever step into an office or pick up a phone. We are in an age of email and eBay. Ask around to find out how much of last month’s Christmas shopping happened online. Find out where people go to order their favorite coffee, barbeque sauce or shoes. Are you surprised to learn that “Google” is a verb and not just a website? Do you know what a “Google” is? How about a “blog,” “PayPal,” or “Amazon”? While this terminology may or may not be your everyday vernacular, you can bet a large segment of the purchasing public knows just what I am talking about.

Why online? I can’t speak for everybody, but I can speak for a lot. Online offers an “in your pajamas at midnight” opportunity to search, shop, compare and buy – and then wait for the “on your doorstep” delivery which can be as fast as overnight in many cases. No gas, no carts, no lines – just a mouse and a credit card. Some are going there to make purchases, while others are going to investigate establishments they are planning to do business with. Shopping on the internet has become easier and safer, and more consumers are going there.

During the holidays we talked about “buying local.” It is an idea I believe in with a deep passion. However, I am like most folks with a busy schedule, kids to coordinate and not a lot of time to leisurely peruse through a shop or check out local service providers during normal working hours. I spend a good deal of time online with a cup of coffee early in the morning searching for consumer information so I can either buy it online or run a quick errand to pick it up. Can I find your business there?

Granted, I am only one voice. I would love to hear what you think about it.

April
www.aprilgroves.com

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Promoting your media to the offline world

Chris Brogan wrote a great post about promoting your media to the online world. That made me think about increasing your audience by reaching out to new people.

Jon Swanson and I decided to collaborate on a follow up, how to promote your online 2.0 media to the offline 0.0 world.

Here are my suggestions:

• Talk about it. Tell people what you are working on. Ask for their opinion.
• Invite offline friends and experts to co-author or contribute.
• Mention your media project in your regular printed materials.
• Print business cards specifically for your blog or podcast. (credit: Vaspers)
• Put it in your bio and resume.
• Teach a class on how to create new media.
• Reprint your writings in offline venues: newspapers, newsletters, journals.

And here are Jon's ideas:

• On your regular business card include the data for your Flickr and blog and LinkedIn and...
• Talk about it all the time.
• Use online friends as references for 0.0 jobs.
• Collect your posts and print as a book.*
• Email your posts from reader to people who only check email.
• Have low expectations so you are more subtle.
• Talk about online friends as real friends.
• Get family members involved.

*In fact, compilations of all kinds of media would make great handouts. Booklets, audios, workbooks, PDFs, etc.

What other ideas do you have for reaching new people?


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An effective internet presence for your small business

Ted Demopoulos is a frequent speaker at conferences, conventions, and other business events, author of What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere, and coauthor of Blogging for Business. He's also a friend of mine, and he contributed to The Great Big Small Business Show podcast. Since then, we've been talking about doing an interview, but never quite connecting, until now! I cornered him, via email, to talk about his new project, Effective Internet Presence.

Ted, I've written a bit about having an active online presence, but you have a major project starting. What can small biz owners learn from it that will help their business?

People are more and more commonly going to the Internet for information, whether they are looking for a local dry cleaner, a bottle of wine from their birthyear anywhere that will ship to them, or checking out their sister’s new boy friend. Obviously this trend is continuing to pick up speed as well.

I’ve even been known to google businesses in the same building as myself in order to call them, rather than walking the 20-30 feet to their office.

If you are a small business, whether local, national, or international, you had better be easy to find online. Most small businesses need the three following -- at a minimum.

1) A Web site. Simple, non-fancy, even one page Web site works fine for many businesses.

2) The ability to easily and quickly modify your Web site yourself. Even if someone else designed and built it, which is normal, you need to be able to change it yourself to do things as simple as changing the hours you’re open or upload the specials of the week. You cannot depend on someone else and their availability for thing like this.

3) Googleability. You need to show up appropriately in the search engines, which is relatively simple if you’ve designed a good Web site and/or use some kind of search engine pay per click advertising.

For a local business, this means show up on geographic searches, for example “Ford Dealer, Memphis TN” or “Dentist, Hampton New Hampshire.” This is not hard.

A business should also keep up with any reviews and comments about themselves online. You should know what others are saying about you.

What types of small local businesses can benefit from blogging and other internet presence tools?

I can’t think of any businesses that wouldn’t benefit, although I’m sure there must be some. Maybe businesses that don’t want new customers or ONLY operate on the basis of referrals? Even “illegal” businesses are online and benefiting from it; I don’t find any hitmen, but certainly prostitution and other illegal businesses are online.

Is there a way for a small business to tell if they will have enough content to blog successfully?

I think the right question is whether an individual has enough excitement about their business to generate content, not what the business is. A friend of mine is an accountant. Not just an ordinary accountant, but one that (in my opinion) works in the most mundane and ordinary areas of accounting possible. But when she speaks about accounting, there is such passion and fire, that I get excited even though the underlying topic is hideously boring to me. She would make a great blogger due to her passion!

How have you used blogging and your overall internet presence to promote your own services?

Potential clients both find me and hire me online, and when it’s a decision between me and other consultants or speakers, my rather vast online presence is a definite edge. There is no question it positions me as a credible expert, and can do the same for you.

Of course you need to back that up with real experience and expertise as well!

Tell us about your small town connections. How are you managing to maintain an nationwide business from a small town?

Although I grew up in a small town, I’ll admit I love the excitement of big cities. They are like zoos; great places to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I’m home now, and since it’s winter and the leaves are off the trees I can sort of see one neighbor’s house through the woods, and I love that!

With the Internet and modern connectivity, I can work and live almost anywhere in the planet. Although I do fly a few times a year to speak at conferences and other events and visit clients, the majority of my work can be done from anywhere.

If I lived in a city I might travel less and spend more nights at home. For example if I lived in Las Vegas or New York I could probably earn a great living speaking and consulting only locally, but I chose to live in a very rural area and travel maybe once every month or so. It’s great to have choices, and an Effective Internet Presence allows that!

I asked Ted if he had a picture of him in a small town setting to post. He sent this one, and said, "Well, at least I AM outside in this picture :)"

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Common Small Biz Mistakes - Awful web presence

Common mistakes can kill your small business, but most of them can be easily corrected or avoided. Here are two more Twitter friends with examples of mistakes:

phillymac Only one? How about 2. Bad customer service. Awful web presence.

zemote Get suckered by a SEO/SEM person.

We just talked about bad customer service, so let's focus on web presence, including Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Solutions

1. Seek professional help with web presence. If you must do your site yourself, at minimum pay for some feedback from a professional.
2. Include your contact info prominently on every single page. Include a phone number and an email address.
   
3. Don't get "suckered." Ask for and check references. Don't go overboard with Search Engine Optimization, fancy design, or flashy animation.
   
4. Keep it simple! Use the same design elements and branding you use on your business cards, signs, brochures, etc.
   
5. Don't remain stuck with a permanently unchanging design. Customers would like to know that you are still in business and that you are not stuck in a time warp to a 1995 GeoCities design. (And I just found another small town small biz example of that this week, though I don't want to embarrass anyone by name.)
   

Your Assignment
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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