Power Home Biz
O.biz: Great Deals for Small Business Owners
In this tight economy, keeping costs down is important for your business to survive. From sourcing the products you sell to ensuring that shipping and fulfillment costs are kept to a minimum — all without sacrificing quality – you constantly need to find ways where and how you can reduce your costs and save. Learn about a new site where small business owners can get plenty of deals and savings.
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Best Time to Send Emails
Social media may be hot right now, but email marketing remains an effective medium for reaching out to customers, building relationships and generating sales. When doing email marketing, one of the most frequent question small business owners ask me is : “When is the best time to send emails?”
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Are Your Telephone Manners Turning Off Customers?
How you answer the telephone can make – or break – your business. The telephone is a powerful sales medium for your business. It is a great tool to generate more sales and keep existing customers. It can serve as the gateway for prospects to make a purchase or use your service. How are you answering your telephone?
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10 Risks of Affiliate Programs
An affiliate program is one of the most common ways you can use to earn money from your websites. It is a way of matching online retailers with other websites who can bring them the customers they need, in exchange for a commission. However, affiliate programs are not without risks. Here are 10 things that you need to consider and watch out for when using affiliate programs to monetize your website.
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Motivating With More Than Money
If you have employees, remember this old adage - people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Do you know the first names of each of your team member’s spouse partner or significant other? How about their children’s names? Now what about their pet’s name’s? These are the things that are critical to the success of any team regardless of the level or industry.
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Business Idea: Reaching the Divorce Market
There is business in divorce. It may sound tacky or insensitive, but a number of businesses are realizing that there is a huge market out there with regards to divorce. While divorces in the United States has been decreasing since its peak a few decades ago, the number of divorces is still quite substantial. Divorce is […]
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How to Improve Working Capital
Working capital, defined as current assets minus current liabilities, is important to any business. Working capital can you to expand your business, improve operations, pay short-term bills, and buy inventory. Inadequate working capital can be the kiss of death to your business, as you won't have the funds necessary to grow the business. Learn the steps you can use to improve your working capital.
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Achieving Your Targets: The Ladder of Commitment
Are you going to achieve your most important targets for the coming year? Your answer to that question can reveal a lot about where you are on what I call "the Ladder of Commitment ", and is generally highly predictive of how far you'll go in your pursuit of success.
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The Unpaid Consultant: Out-Sell Your Competitors
Over the last twenty-five years I have heard more than my share of bad ideas when it comes to effective selling. Here is the worst one that I have ever come across: “Don’t be an unpaid consultant”.
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Small Business Purchasing Survey Contest: Win a Lenovo Computer
Get another chance to win a Lenovo computer! Participate in a short survey about small business purchasing. The survey wants to answer the question: Do small business owners act like consumers in their choice of the online information resources that subsequently affect their purchasing decisions? Answer this 15 question survey and be one of the winners of this giveaway contest.
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Do You Have a Backup Plan for Your Home Business in Case of Emergency?
If a bus hits you today, will your business continue its normal operations while you recuperate? How will your business be affected if something more serious happen to you? Whether you are a small business owner, a mom and pop operation, or a one-man shop, you really need to have contingency or disaster plans in place. Here are some ideas to consider in the event that you are unable to continue working on your business.
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You Have To Hit It Out Of The Park
Especially if you are starting out, you need to find a way of doing everything necessary that clients can’t help but recommend you. Because what you did worked. Read the advice of best-selling author and speaker Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor, on how you can "hit it out of the park."
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Do You Ask for What You Want?
What is it that allows one person to ask and ask and ask for what he wants, while others stop themselves before even popping the very first question? Learn the simple secret at the heart of this session.
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Do You Have to Be Insane to Be an Entrepreneur?
OK, insane may be a bit strong, but considering the things an entrepreneur must face as they are going down the path of becoming a business owner makes you wonder if it doesn’t help to be a bit crazy to even consider working for yourself.
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Win a Lenovo Computer System!
WomenHomeBusiness is giving away a Lenovo ThinkCentre A63 tower computer and two ThinkVision L1951P LCD monitors!
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Risk Takers: What Makes an Entrepreneur Succeed?
Success in business is not easy to attain – but it is doable. As entrepreneurs who made it big have shown, there are a number of strategies that you can use to increase the chances for success of your business. To succeed, you need to overcome obstacles, take risks and learn from mistakes.
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Starting a Home Business: Why You Need to Check Area Rules
If you think you can simply start any home-based business without Uncle Sam’s approval, think again. Making the assumption that you can start a home-based business freely can be one of your worst mistakes. Learn how a Florida man got a cease-operations order from his city for his home-based pet sitting business, and what you can do to avoid his fate.
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How to Earn Advertising for Your Small Website or Blog
Advertising is one of the most common ways small online publishers use to earn money from their websites or blogs. If you are planning on earning from advertising for your website or blog, learn some of the factors you need to consider to maximize earning potential.
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Why Work Online: How to Start an Online Home Business
Whether you've been hit by the tough economic climate or simply looking for a way to supplement your income, starting an online home-based businesss is one of the best options for you. Learn the basics of starting an online business from home.
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The Doorbell is Dead: Managing Information Explosion
There’s a reason we call this the information age, and it’s not because we’re all so much smarter. It’s because we all have access to so much information, at our fingertips, all the time. Learn how you can cope with too much information.
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25 Tips to Startup Entrepreneurs
What do you need to succeed in business? Experts say that you need to have loads of persistence, passion, and hard work – and yes, luck. But there’s really no single winning formula that can guarantee the success of your business. You have just to do it, and do it right. Here are 25 tips on what a startup entrepreneur needs to do to increase chances for success.
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25 Ways Work at Home Parents Can Balance Work and Family Life (Part 2)
As work at home parents, our biggest challenge is finding the right balance between work and our families. Juggling the demands of our home-based businesses and raising our kids is tough, and many are finding it hard to juggle these two competing priorities. In this part 2, learn more strategies on how to juggle our businesses and raising kids at the same time.
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25 Ways Work at Home Parents Can Balance Work and Family Life
As work at home parents, our biggest challenge is finding the right balance between work and our families. Juggling the demands of our home-based businesses and raising our kids is tough, and many are finding it hard to juggle these two competing priorities. Learn 25 ways you can balance your home-based business with your family life.
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Trusting Your Gut: How to Succeed Using Your Instincts
Successful entrepreneurs share a common trait: they trust their guts. They have a talent for zeroing and identifying profitable opportunities. They are willing to break conventional wisdom and turn a deaf ear to expert advice, and simply go through what their instincts tell them.
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Recession-Proof Businesses and Jobs
The economy remains tight, as more bad economic news are coming from Europe. So if you are thinking of starting a business during these tough times, what are recession proof businesses whose demand will not come crashing down when the market comes falling? Here are some ideas.
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How to Market a New Local Business on a Shoestring Budget
If you have a new local business, what is the best way to get the word out and find customers, especially if you have shoestring budget? Learn some shoestring strategies to get the word out about your business without busting your bank account.
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What I Learned from a Successful Small Business Owner About Sales
Today, I stopped in a small business and made another small purchase with a very different customer service experience. I was greeted with a friendly “Hello” and smile from the owner right when I walked in and was told to ask if I needed any help. In the world of sales, make sure you are doing the simple little things, to have a huge impact.
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10 Common Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs
According to a new book, there are 10 common traits that bind successful entrepreneurs, and these traits are the keys to their success. Learn these traits, try to develop them, and apply them to your own business in order to succeed.
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Three Business Strategies for Small Business Entrepreneurs
Whether you're considering starting your own business — or looking for ways to expand an existing enterprise — there are three time-tested secret weapons you can use to help gain a sharp competitive edge. These weapons are three broad business strategies that can help you to create a new business or push your company to the next level of success.
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When a Potential Investor Says “No”
You may have a business idea that you’d think will shake the world. The problem is, you don’t have the money. And for the business to see the light of day, you need investors to provide you with funds you need. But you hear the dreaded word from the investor - “No.” Learn how to turn this rejection into an opportunity to to improve your next pitch.
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How to Earn Money from Writing
Another way to earn money from home is through writing. There are so many types of writing that you can pick and choose from to specialize in, from article writing to fiction writing to technical writing. Here are some ways you can earn from writing.
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Protecting Your Online Reputation: Smart Digital Self-Defense and Insurance against Damage
In the physical world, most people lock their doors, buy car insurance, and take other precautions to protect themselves from harm. In the digital world, most people leave their valuable online reputation wide open and vulnerable to computer errors, cruel pranksters, vicious rivals, and identity thieves. Learn how to protect your online reputation.
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How to Get Press Coverage for Your Business
One of the best shoestring marketing strategies is to get press mentions, yet not many small businesses go for it. Most think that the only way to do it is to hire a publicist, which they do not have the resources. Others simply find the idea of pitching their businesses to the media too daunting. Learn how to get press coverage for your small or home-based business.
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10 Critical Elements of Your Small Business Website
Your website is the face of your small business on the Web. It must be designed to maximize your desired results, whether it is sales of your products or services, or advertising income. Here are 10 critical elements your small business website need to have.
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Strategies to Overcome Adversity – Part 2
Even though there is talk that things are turning around, 2010 is going to be tough for many. Learn how 10 extraordinary people overcame great adversity in their personal or professional lives by applying winning strategies that guided them out of the darkness of near-defeat and into the light of success.
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Strategies to Overcome Adversity
Even though there is talk that things are turning around, 2010 is going to be tough for many. Learn how 10 extraordinary people overcame great adversity in their personal or professional lives by applying winning strategies that guided them out of the darkness of near-defeat and into the light of success.
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How to Rank Well in Google Maps
If your business hinges on people getting to your place of business – e.g. a daycare, hair salon, and restaurant – then it is important that you focus your online marketing to getting local traffic. Learn how to rank in the first page of Google Maps and increase your local traffic.
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How to Make Money from Wordpress
WordPress is the most popular blog platform on the Internet. With its wide adoption, there's a big opportunity for earning money with Wordpress. Here are ways you can make money from Wordpress.
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Creative Ways to Cut Monthly Business Costs
If you want to make the money and the month line up better, you may need to rethink some of your business assumptions - including what constitutes a must-have expense. Following are a few ideas that can help improve your overall cash flow.
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Bursting at the Seams: When Your Home Business has Outgrown Your Home Office
The good news: your business has grown by leaps and bounds. The bad news: your business has taken over your house and your house feels like it's bursting at the seams! If your home business has outgrown your home office, here are options to consider if you need additional space.
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Adding Advertising to Your Online Store
If you're looking for ways to increase the revenues of your online store, one way is to add advertising. Your earnings from advertising can add to your bottom line.
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How the Estate Tax Will Affect Your Small Business
The estate tax, also called inheritance tax or death tax, is a costly burden for small family-owned businesses. It is a tax that will not only affect children of the moneyed elite, but those who run successful businesses. Learn how estate taxes can potentially affect you.
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The New Breed of Mobile Food Trucks and Social Media
In the last few years, the mobile food industry has increased its momentum, especially in big urban areas such as New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. What sets this new breed of food trucks apart is how tech savvy they are, and their use of social media, in particular Facebook and Twitter.
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How Do Small Businesses Use Social Media for Business Information?
If you are trying to reach and market to small business owners, what is the best social media channel to use. How do small businesses use social media to look for business information?
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The Importance of Optimizing Your Website for the Search Engines
To reach your target audience on the Web, you need is to ensure that your website is optimized for the search engines. Search engines are a free source of targeted quality traffic, and understanding how they work should be a top priority for any marketer with a Web presence. You can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, but the search engines can give your site massive amounts of traffic for free.
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Hiring An Accountant: How to Protect Your Business From Embezzlement
News wires recently reported that famous romance novelist Danielle Steele was a victim of embezzlement by her own staff . Here are some things you need to do to protect your business and ensure that your accountant is not dipping his/her fingers into your bank account.
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Study Finds that Small Businesses Not Leveraging Online Presence
Small businesses are not fully leveraging available online tools for marketing and growing their businesses, according to a survey conducted by Citibank. Citibank surveyed 552 small businesses across the U.S. in March, and they found that: 37% haven’t used a website for marketing their businesses 84% haven’t used ecommerce to sell or market their products 62% are not […]
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What Inspired You to Start a Business?
The inspiration to start a business can come from a variety of sources. For most people, the idea to start their business comes after seeing a problem that they want to address. They then look for the root cause of the problem, and identify how the problem can be solved – which then serves as the basis of their business. Learn how some women entrepreneurs found the inspiration to start their businesses.
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Creating Your Website: Beware of Vendors Out to Rip You!
If you are planning on creating a website, do you have the technical knowhow to design and create a website? Do you know how to maintain and manage a website? Before you outsource, you need to be aware of the pitfalls of using someone else to develop and perhaps manage your website for you.
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Importance of Choosing the Right Location for Your Small Business
As a small business owner, the last thing you want is for your place of business to be called “scary” or “freaky,” as the wrong location can drive customers away. You’d want your target and existing customers to feel comfortable in your place of business and even come back repeatedly. Learn the factors you need to consider when choosing the right location for your business.
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What Do You Need to Know When Starting a Business?
Starting a business can be a daunting experience. There’s so much to do, so many things to know. And for many, the stakes are high that the pressure to do everything right is intense. Learn the things you need to know when starting a business.
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Starting a Business: Passion is Just the Start
Working on something you love helps make the whole process of starting and running a business so much easier. Work becomes less of a chore because you enjoy what you’re doing.
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Turning Something You Love into a Profitable At-Home Business
Turning something you love into a profitable business all starts with your idea of the best kind of life you want to live. Asked what makes a happy life, Sigmund Freud said, “To love and to work.” How great could life be then, if you combined what you love with what you did for work? You can turn your hobby into a pastime, or start a business from what you love to do best.
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How to Use Customer Ratings and Review
Customer reviews have become a must-have tool for many web sites, particularly online stores. Majority of shoppers nowadays look for customer-generated reviews – from 5-star ratings to the more elaborate questions and answers — to help guide their buying decisions. Learn how to use customer reviews for your online business.
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Benefits of Hiring Family Members for Your Business
What are the benefits of hiring family members, especially your kids, for your business? Learn the advantages of working with family members, especially your kids, in your small business.
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One Deal at a Time: Alternative Way of Selling on the Web
In addition to the private shopping club model, another alternative way of selling on the Web is the one deal at a time business model. Learn how one deal at a time sites work
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Coping with the Rise and Fall of Self Employment Income
As a freelancer or a self-employed business owner, one of the realities you will face is the fluctuation of income. Unlike employees with a fixed salary, it is hard to predict exactly how much you will earn from month to month. There are times when income is good and the money keeps pouring in, and times when income slows down to a trickle.
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Don’t Miss out on Free Facebook Marketing Opportunities (Part 2)
While most marketers and online businesses have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, some still aren’t putting the same effort into the tremendous free marketing opportunities available on Facebook. Learn the the two primary free marketing opportunities in Facenook and how you can use them to your greatest advantage as a small business owner.
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Don’t Miss out on Free Facebook Marketing Opportunities
While most marketers and online businesses have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, some still aren’t putting the same effort into the tremendous free marketing opportunities available on Facebook. Learn the the two primary free marketing opportunities in Facenook and how you can use them to your greatest advantage as a small business owner.
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How a Home Business Successfully Uses Social Media Marketing
I am doubly impressed when small or home-based businesses are able to successfully use these social media sites without investing huge amounts of money. Learn how CurbsideCupcakes.com effectively use social media to grow their home business.
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Private Shopping Clubs: A Different Way of Selling on the Web
While most online stores operate by opening their virtual doors to just about everyone, there is a niche segment of ecommerce retailing that thrives on exclusivity. Invite-only stores or private shopping clubs require a person to be approved as a member before they can shop the items offered by the store.
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Six Fundamentals of Success
Is there a formula for success? According to Stuart Levine, there are fundamental elements to attaining success. In his book “Six Fundamentals of Success: The Rules for Getting It Right For Yourself and Your Organization,” he explains that mastering these fundamentals will show you that success is something that you can achieve.
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Internet Fax Services: A Long Way from the ’80s Fax Machine
The way faxes are sent and received has changed significantly. While a fax machine was essentially the only choice back in the ‘80s, today more users are choosing an Internet fax service. Learn the benefits and advantages of using an Internet fax service.
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Buying a Franchise During a Recession
When times are tough, buying into a franchise may be a good option. While many businesses are suffering from the economic downturn, some franchises are performing well during these tough economic times. Here are some reasons why buying a franchise during a recession may be a good move.
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How to Earn Money from Blogging
If you are looking for a way to earn money from the Web and love to write, then consider starting and writing a blog. Learn the various ways you can earn money from your blog and through blogging.
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How Much Do You Make from Your Business?
You start a business with the hope of primarily making a living from the business. Whether you want to earn just enough money to cover your living expenses or money that will allow you to live a jet setting lifestyle, the business needs to earn money for you. But are you making money from your business?
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How Prepared Are You to Run a Business?
Are you prepared to run a business? This is the question that Linda J. Lord’s new book “The Pitch: Business Lessons Learned on the Soccer Field” explores. Your level of preparedness – mentally, intellectually and emotionally — can spell the difference between the success and failure of your business.
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What Keeps a Small Business Entrepreneur Awake At Night?
Being a small business owner is fun, challenging, but never easy. Whether you are just starting a business or already running one, there are a number of things that will push your stress limits and keep you awake at night. Here are some of the common concerns of small business owners:1. Financial stress. One of the […]
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10 Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs
How do you know whether you can be a successful entrepreneur? While there is no surefire formula for success, studies have shown that successful entrepreneurs share these ten characteristics. Watch the video to check if you possess any one of them.
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Before You Quit Your Day Job and Start a Business
Jumping from employee to entrepreneur is a big, big move. You will lose the security of a steady paycheck and you will now be responsible for all the decisions needed to steer the business to success. Watch the video for more tips on how to ease your transition and prepare yourself for your new life as an entrepreneur.
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Prepare Like an Olympian for the Challenges of the Business World
How does an Olympian prepare mentally for a once-in-a-lifetime event that can literally be over in seconds, but its results will last for the rest of his or her life? Surprisingly, in a very similar way as businessmen and women prepare for big projects. Learn the secrets of Olympic-caliber preparations from Olympic gold medalist Nikki Stone.
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How to Finance Your Small Business
It takes money to make money. The success of your small business will depend on whether you have adequate capital needed to start and run the business. However, it is not easy, especially if you do not have the money and resources. Or you do not know where to get the funds you need especially in these tough economic times. Watch the video to learn about how to finance your small business
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Promotional Postcards: Candy for Your Tradeshow Booth
If you've ever exhibited at a tradeshow, you know that one of the best ways to attract people to your booth is to load it with free stuff. Business cards, t-shirts, brochures, pens — the more you litter across your table, the more traffic you get to your booth. Learn how using promotional postcards can increase the success of your tradeshow campaign.
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12 Ways to Make Money with Photoshop
With the growing prominence of digital photos, the photo-editing software like Adobe Photoshop has grown in usage and popularity. Mastering the visual graphics realm of Photoshop can provide you with livable income and open career possibilities. Here are 12 ways you can earn through freelancing using your Adobe Photoshop skills
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Shifting from PC to Mac: 5 Tips for Small Business Owners
I have always been fascinated with Apple’s Mac computers, and the passion towards the brand of its users. But I’ve always been a PC user, and I’m the type who finds it hard to shift away from something I know. So I bought a top-of-the-line iMac computer with 27-inch screen intent on understanding what’s the big […]
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8 Ways to Reduce Your Risks When Starting a Business
Risks and entrepreneurship are like two peas in a pod: they go hand-in-hand together. The key is for the small business owner to anticipate the risks and understand what could possibly go wrong.
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How to Successfully Start a Small Business
You start a business with the hope of seeing it succeed. Whether your goal is for your business to become the next buzzword or to just earn enough to support your family, you put a lot of passion, time, money and resources to the business. Here are twelve factors that are important in creating and […]
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Work-Life Balance: Tips From Successful Small Business Entrepreneurs
When you start a business, the pressure of making the business work may compel you to work 24/7. You are hungry for new business and you feel the strong urge to prove that your business idea works. More importantly, you need to get the business start earning some money – and fast. As a result, may […]
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How to Manage Your Time Efficiently
Life for a business owner is hectic. You’ve only got 24 hours, yet you’ve got a thousand and one things to do. The only way you can be productive and get things done is to be efficient with the way you manage time. Here are strategies to manage your time:
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10 Tips on Choosing a Home Business
Choosing the right business is critical to the success of your entrepreneurial endeavor. It is the most important decision you will make as you start your business. Select a business that has no market demand, and you will quickly find your investment into the business disappearing faster than you can ask what’s happening. Or you may want to […]
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Lessons in Monetizing Your Website or Blog
PowerHomeBiz.com was recently featured in the blog of the search-targeted advertising network Chitika in the post entitled "Mega Unit gives 450% revenue increase to PowerHomeBiz.com". The post detailed how using one of Chitika's new (and big!) ad formats significantly increased our revenues. Aside from the Chitika experience, here are some lessons we’ve learned from earning through advertising in our 10 years on the Web:
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Are You Updating Your Service Contracts?
If you are running a business, contracts are an essential tool to understand the duties involved from each party. Contracts are needed to level expectations, state the deliverables, and specify each of the parties’ responsibilities. It is also a means to control your costs as the business owner. But whether you are using contracts for your service business, for your suppliers or advertisers, the key question remains: Do you update your contracts?
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How to Overcome Your Fear of Starting a Business (Video)
We’ve prepared a video version of the article “10 Ways to Overcome Fear When Starting a Business”. Overcoming your fear is one of the most difficult hurdles of starting a business. Starting a new business is such a leap of faith, that it can scare the wits out of you, more so when you are […]
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How to Choose a Home Business
You have made the decision to start a business from your home. But do you know what business to start? Making the decision as to what you need to do in starting a business is the hardest first step. There’s just too many options, too many choices to make. Should you go for what you love […]
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The No BS Guide to Getting on TV
Getting in TV is one of the best ways of generating publicity that increases your brand awareness, your credibility as an expert, get more clients, and increases sales. Yet, it is not easy if you don’t know how to craft a pitch that is tailored perfectly to meet the needs of the show. Many business owners make […]
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Branding and PR: Raise your Visibility in a Cluttered Marketplace
Have you always wondered how your competitors are getting write-ups and articles in newspapers, magazines and trade journals? You constantly submit articles and press releases but none of them have gotten published. You ask yourself why, only to find out the reasons can be resolved quickly. 1. Understand that newspapers, magazines and trade journalists are not […]
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How to Organize Your Home Office
Keeping and organizing our home office has always been a challenge for me. Even with a huge custom-made home office for my husband and myself, keeping clutter under control does not always come easy. In my case, magazines are the biggest culprits. I receive about 3-5 magazines per day (both free and paid subscriptions), and in […]
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10 Ways to Overcome Fear When Starting a Business
Overcoming your fear is one of the most difficult hurdles of starting a business. Starting a new business is such a leap of faith that it can scare the wits out of you; more so when you are leaving the comfort and security of a steady paycheck. There are a number factors that can bring fear […]
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Oz Was No Wizard at Customer Service
In The Wizard of Oz, the title character is beloved and revered by all the people in that magical land over the rainbow. Yet when you look at it from a small business/customer service perspective it’s really hard to understand why. In fact, the Great and Powerful Oz is probably one of the best examples of […]
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Closing a Business: What You Need to Do
Closing a business is part of the process of entrepreneurship. You may decide to close the business because you want to pursue other interests. Or you have found a buyer willing to pay a good price for the business. Or maybe you decided to close the business because it has failed to generate the income […]
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How to Start a Home Business: 10 Things You Need to Know
It’s New Year, and I hope that everyone is ready for all the thrills and challenges of starting and running a business in 2010 . For me, one of our strategies this year is to create multimedia repurposing of our content, from PowerPoint presentations to videos. Our first video product is the video version of the article “10 Things […]
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Using Twitter for Your Small Business
Following the post “20 Tips on How to Use Twitter for Your Small Business” I’ve prepared a PowerPoint presentation that expands and illustrates the tips I’ve made in the article. This presentation includes examples of how some users are setting up their Twitter IDs and names to increase their visibility on Twitter and more easily gain followers. Also […]
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Prepare Your Mind for New Challenges Ahead
Prepare your mind for new challenges ahead. You have already taken stock of where you are. You have thought about where you want to go. The next step is to ensure that you are in the right mindset for your entrepreneurial journey, and committing yourself to staying with it. Pat yourself in the back for everything […]
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Think of a Backup Plan for Your Business
Think of a Plan B. It is always smart to have a backup plan in place in the event that things do not work out as planned. It is great to be optimistic about things and hope that running the business will go as smoothly as possible. However, things don’t always work accordingly. The strategies […]
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Develop Your Goals and Strategies for Next Year
Develop your goals and strategies for next year. As a small business or home-based entrepreneur, it is easy to get so caught with the day-to-day running of the business that you fail to think about your ultimate objectives for the business. Who has time to sit down and think about what to do next year, […]
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Check Your Competition
Check out your competitors. You don’t operate in a vacuum. Hence, it is important that you take time to see what your competitors are up to. Big businesses have departments dedicated solely to understanding the competitive landscape. Just because you don’t have dedicated manpower to find out what others are doing doesn’t mean that you […]
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Make a List of Strategies that Worked
Make a list of what worked – and what did not work. As the business owner, you will find it exceedingly difficult to develop a future strategy for your business if you do not know how successful your current strategies are to date. Hence, it is essential that you look at how you perform this […]
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Assess Your Marketing Strategies
Marketing is a huge chunk of your daily efforts, both in time and in expense. It is important that you periodically monitor what worked for you in terms of bringing in the most sales, increasing awareness to your brand, and engaging with your customers. How do you market your business? Do you think you’ve used the […]
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Analyze Your Web Analytics
Whether you are operating a Web business, or just using the Web as an online brochure for your brick and mortar business, it is important to look at the numbers behind your web site. The Web has become an integral medium for any business today that it is important to understand how your web site […]
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Analyze the Financial Numbers of Your Business
The only way you can really know how well your business is doing is by knowing the bottom-line. This assumes, however, that you are able to do regular bookkeeping, generate financial statements based on your bookkeeping journals, and analyze those statements to really understand the financial condition of the business. Do you know your margin of […]
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Review your Customer Acquisition and Retention Strategies
Your business is only as good as the number and quality of customers you bring to it. Customers are the lifeblood of your business, and you need to always review how you are getting customers, and more importantly, how you are keeping them as customers. Some questions you need to think about: How well are you […]
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Assess How Your Home Business Contributed to Your Goals
As the year draws to a close, it is time to look back at what you achieved this year and assess the performance of your business. Knowing how well (or poorly) you did this year can help you improve for the coming years. I've written a series of articles entitled "Home Business End of the Year Review" providing a checklist of 10 things you need to do to review how your home business performed this year. This is the first part of the series
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Learning from Successful Small Business Women Entrepreneurs
One of the questions we normally ask women entrepreneurs we feature on Women Home Business is: What advice can you give other entrepreneurs? We have compiled some of the success tips, advice and lessons shared by this wonderful small business women entrepreneurs into a PowerPoint presentation. Check it out: Success Tips from Small Business Women Entrepreneurs View more […]
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Small Business Tips: How to Sell More on the Web
I’ve created a slide presentation based on the article How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site. With Christmas a few hours away and holiday shopping winding to a close, it is time to plan for next year’s holiday season. As you enjoy the festivities, […]
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The 12 Small Business Phone Tips ‘Til Christmas
Ah, the holidays. That wonderful time of year when families gather ‘round the fireplace to drink a little eggnog, trim the tree, and experience the joy of being together. For most of us, the holidays are also a very hectic time of year. Especially the 12 days leading up to Christmas. And that’s true even if […]
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20 Tips on How to Use Twitter for Your Small Business
It’s been a while since I posted “My Experiment with Twitter” . My number of followers has significantly grown during these past months: in May, I only had about 375 followers, and now I have 1,840. More than the numbers, however, Twitter has brought significant exposure to our home-based business. We got an offer to […]
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Are You Missing Out on a Profitable Opportunity?
To succeed in business, you need to be constantly on the lookout for opportunities that can help advance your business and improve your bottom line. Unfortunately, one of the common mistakes of small business entrepreneurs is the failure to recognize opportunities that their customers demand, or those that can help expand their target market. Many […]
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Price Discount Considerations
As small business owners, managers, and marketers one of the issues we must confront each holiday season is whether or not to give price discounts as part of your planned marketing programs. The uncertainty can seem enormous. How much should the discount be? When should you run it? In what situations should it apply? Will […]
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How to Run Your Home Business Lean – and Profitable
If there’s one lesson this economic downturn teaches us, it is the importance of running our business operations lean. Many small business entrepreneurs made the mistake of spending too much, too soon. They based their spending on the money that they thought will be coming in, not on the money that they actually have. While optimism […]
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Startups and Surety Bonds: Does Your Small Business Have to be Bonded?
One of the common questions of many small business owners — especially those running a service-oriented business such as plumbing, cleaning, landscaping — is whether they need to be bonded. Is insurance enough? Why do they need to get bonded? I've invited Kevin Kaiser, a small business compliance expert at nationwide bonding agency SuretyBonds.com to shed light on what is a surety bond, and why your small business needs to be bonded.
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15 Basic Steps to Starting an Online Store
Many people wants to start their own online stores, whether clothing, gift basket or toy stores on the Web. Using a clothing store as an example, here are some basic steps to creating your online storefront: 1. Define your business. The very first step is to always know what it is you want to do. This […]
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Greening Your Small and Home-Based Business
One of the women entrepreneurs I recently interviewed on WomenHomeBusiness.com is Jen Husted, owner and founder of JIH Designs. What sets her business apart is that JIH Designs positions itself as an “eco-conscious graphic design studio.” Why is going green becoming important? According to the GreenBiz State of Green Business 2009 , the annual buying power […]
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Sourcing and Manufacturing Your Products Abroad: How to Use Alibaba.com
As a small business owner, an important element to creating and sustaining a successful business is a constant and reliable source of quality products. The key question of course is where to find these suppliers and manufacturers. If you are open to finding manufacturers and suppliers from other countries, particularly China, check out Alibaba.com . Alibaba.com […]
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Get Listed on Google Maps and Increase Exposure of Your Small Business
Yellow Pages are so 1990s. Nowadays, if you are running a small business dependent on customers finding and coming to your physical store or office, then you need to get listed on Google Maps. Type in Google search terms that include business types and specific locations such as “landscaping Annapolis MD” or “hair salon in Chicago” and the […]
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Pitching the Media Correctly to Market Your Home Business
We understand the power of the media. Being mentioned on TV, newspaper or radio can significantly boost our reach and brand, even our sales. The key question, however, is: How do we do it? I'm sure many of you have spent hundreds in press release distribution hoping that your news item …
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Grandparents: How to Reach this Market for Your Business
Grandparents are a huge market to tap, whether you are directly targeting them for your seniors travel business or indirectly for your children's toys business. Estimates from different surveys show that there are anywhere from 30 to over 70 million of grandparents in the United States alone, and a sizeable portion …
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60 Time-Tested Marketing Offers
What type of offers from marketers do you respond to? For me, I love free bags from fashion magazines subscriptions, and free cosmetics from beauty brands. I also love free shipping and discount coupons I get from retailers. I also love the rewards program of retailers as well as all the …
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Where Do Small Business Owners Get Funding for their Businesses?
One of the biggest issues faced by many small businesses during the economic downturn is the tightening credit market. Finding capital financing for a small business remains a big challenge as banks tighten lending criteria and reduce their exposure to the small business sector. In fact, according to the National Small …
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Starting a Bakery: Success in the Niche Food Business
We often hear of small businesses deathly scared when big boys – particularly Wal-mart – come to town. And they have every reason to be: big businesses have deeper pockets, offer wider goods selection, and have tighter relationships with suppliers that allow them to give deep discounted prices. So it is …
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Learning from Successful Small Business Women Entrepreneurs
One of the questions we normally ask women entrepreneurs we feature on Women Home Business is: What advice can you give other entrepreneurs? Here are the tips and advice our featured entrepreneurs shared: Suzanne Meyer, Founder of the personal greeting service business The Welcome Committee Find your passion and be true to yourself. Anything …
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How Small Online Businesses Can Increase Conversion
In today's business climate whether you have recently started or whether you have been in business for a while, you are very likely to have a website. If you think about it carefully, it does not matter if you are selling a product or service, your aim is to increase …
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How Your Small Business Can Become the Leader of the Pack
Businesses are in fierce competition, and it’s a no-holds-barred fight out there. As a small business owner, you have two options: be just one of the entrepreneurs out there who operate within their comfort zones; or you can break from the perceived limitations of small businesses. You can choose to become …
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5 Ways to Test Your Business Idea Affordably
Before you pour your life's savings or a huge chunk of your time into your business, it is best to test first whether your business idea will work or not. Alas, market research is typically a tool for the deep-pocketed big businesses, and not for small businesses trying to stretch their …
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Know How to Manage Business Finances Well
An entrepreneur needs to know how to handle money and wealth in order to be successful. However, many women entrepreneurs are good in business, but not in handling money. In fact, there are some women small and home-based business entrepreneurs who are downright lousy at managing personal wealth and business …
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Improving Your Small Business: What You Can Learn from Dr. Laura
Below is a guest post from Kevin Baker of my1voice: We always hear about strong communication being a necessity in relationships to avoid a lovers’ quarrel, but what about when it comes to professional relationships? Many small business owners might not think those Dr. Laura Love type shows and columns have …
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How I Created an Effective Web Site for Under $100
Can you create a website for under $100? Of course you can! I did it, and so can you! Is it easy? Maybe yes, maybe no. A person knowledgeable of HTML and CSS can whip out a website very easily for a low price. For someone with little to no skills, …
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10 Reasons NOT to Start a Home Business Part Time
Starting a home business part time is one option many entrepreneurs take in starting a business. Part-timers work on their businesses after getting home from their day jobs or working only on weekends. While keeping full time jobs, many opt to start a home business on the side for a number …
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How to Get Six-Figure Income
Do you have what it takes to achieve financial success? Barbara Stanny in her book “Secrets of Six Figure Women” explores the strategies that financially successful women – from entrepreneurs to corporate executives to freelancers and part-timers — employ to reach their highest income potential. According to the author, here are the …
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Business Idea: Pink Taxi Service for Women
Entrepreneurs across the globe have recognized the business potential in offering secure transportation options for women. Women-only transportation companies are gaining ground in countries such as the United Kingdom, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, among others. Women are looking for a more secure and uneventful ride to their destinations, particularly taxis. There are …
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Home Business Challenges: Working from Home Is Not Easy
MSNBC has an interesting article on the challenges of working from home in a piece entitled "Barking dogs and other home office issues" . The article describes some of the issues when working on a home-based business, as follows: Kids may not easily adjust to the fact that their home-business owner …
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Business Idea: Pink Taxi Service for Women
Entrepreneurs across the globe have recognized the business potential in offering secure transportation options for women. Women-only transportation companies are gaining ground in countries such as the United Kingdom, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, among others.
Women are looking for a more secure and uneventful ride to their destinations, particularly taxis. There are many cases of women being harassed by male taxi drivers, and seeing women drivers give other women confidence that those kinds of harassments will not be experienced. Others just want to put comfort and safety first.
In the United Kingdom, Pink Ladies is a members-only club that offers transportation to women members in what else, but pink cars. Started around 2006, Pink Ladies has a 100% female driving squad, and offers transportation to party-goers safely once the bars have closed. Membership costs £10, and it includes services such as shopping discounts, bingo, travel service, and of course, the use of their pink cars as alternative form of transportation.
Moscow also has its version of "Pink Taxi" also launched sometime in 2006. The service caters to female Moscow citizens anxious about their safety and for Muslim women. Men are allowed in the taxis, provided that they are accompanied by women. The Moscow service has 10 pink cars Daewoo Matiz and Nexia, and the staff consists of 20 female drivers.
The idea has also reached the Middle East, and is a welcome solution to conservative Muslim women who wish to accommodate rules against traveling with unknown men.
In Beirut, Lebanon, a woman entrepreneur named Nawal Fakhri has launched an all pink taxi fleet for women with her Banet Taxi (or girl taxi in Arabic). Launched only this March with three cars and three drivers, demand is good that she now offers 24 hour service and hopes to have a fleet of 24 cars by summer. 
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Home Business Challenges: Working from Home Is Not Easy
MSNBC has an interesting article on the challenges of working from home in a piece entitled “Barking dogs and other home office issues" . The article describes some of the issues when working on a home-based business, as follows:
Kids may not easily adjust to the fact that their home-business owner parents are not available and cannot be disturbed.Interruption from kids — despite the closed door policy and "do not disturb sign" on the doorBudgeting the time to ensure that adequate time is spent with the kids.Guilty feelings for limiting interaction with older kids, even parents.The difficulty of saying "no" to distractionsWorry that customers might discover they work from home and think they're not professional enoughRisk of burdening professional relationships with personal issuesFeelings of isolation with no one to interact withLack of support staff to help with administrative things such as invoices or even IT support
As a home-based business owner, I'm sure that you have experienced any (or all) of the above. In the article I wrote years ago, “Challenges of Working at Home" and in the other articles in our Pitfalls in Starting a Home Business section, the point is to stress that working from home and starting or running a home business is NOT easy.
Many people underestimate the skill, discipline, perseverance and huge adjustments that need to be made when you decide to start a home business. They think it is so easy; so simple. Afterall, how hard is it to work in your pajamas?
When I started working from home, I would sit in the home office aimlessly surfing the Web or doing something other than working, only to realize that I've wasted half a day and accomplished nothing. There's no boss to tell me what to do and when to finish the work, so I've got to dig deep and find ways to help me be more productive.
Then my husband and I started to have kids, and boy oh boy, working from home became so much harder. I wrote the piece How to Survive Life as a Work at Home Mom about what helped me balance family life and the business. The recommendation in the MSNBC article of putting a "do not disturb" sign on the door is not something my 24-month old baby will understand or follow. When the door of our home office is closed, he will bang on the door until we open it and let him in.
Just accept that anyplace in life will have its challenges. The key is how you work around these difficulties and accomplish what you've set out to do. But next time someone thinks that working from home is easy, tell them the challenges that home-based business owners face!
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Marketing to the Super Niche
I am currently reading an excellent book ” World Famous: How to Give Your Business a Kick-Ass Brand Identity" by David Tyreman. A passage that struck me talks about the fallacy of being everything to everyone (which according to the author the big businesses do not even do):
For your business to join the ranks of World Famous brands, you must abandon your desire to sell to a broad, undefined market. Marketing to everyone is maketing to no one because your brand must resonate with consumers on an emotional level, and that can be achieved only through knowing your specific market very, very well.This is a common mistake of small and home-based business owners. Even big businesses do not have the unlimited budget to market to a broad group of people. You can't be everything to everybody — otherwise, you'll spread yourself too thinly and worse, may be doomed to failure. This is not about limiting your market potential, as some would argue against focusing on a niche market, but funneling your limited resources more effectively to reach out to those people who are inspired to do business with you.
Unlike big businesses, small businesses do not often have the resources to really undestand their customers. Big brands routinely undertake extensive surveys to determine the demographics and psychographics of their customers. As such, it is not as easy to find a small business owner who can really tell you who their markets are, such as in the case of Ralph Lauren for example:
Polo Ralph Lauren Demographics
Market: GlobalProfessionalsPeople of wealth and leisurePeople from affluent communitiesPeople with multiple residencesPeople who sail, ride horses, and participate in sports such as rugby and polo
Polo Ralph Lauren Psychographics
Wants: Prestige, glamour, luxury, privilegeValues: Quality, exclusivity, style, fine livingAspires to be: Respected, admired, wealthy and worldly, and sophisticated
So what can small businesses do to get a better understanding of who their target niche markets are? How can small businesses inspire their customers? The author of the book recommends that:
In choosing a demographic, Iurge you to think about the type of customers or
clients that you love to work with. When you enjoy working with your
marketplace, you can fully express your passion for your business, reaching out
to touch the hearts and minds of the people inyour superniche / market.
Read more about targeting to your niche market in our Niche Marketing and Branding Strategies section 
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Are You Measuring the Performance of Your Small Business?
I've invited an expert on measuring business performance, Bob Elliott, to write a post an article on how small or home-based businesses can measure their performances. Choosing the right performance measurement tool for your business can be a Herculean task. However with a little bit of research and effort we can utilize popular performance management tools to augment our business.
Bob is the CIO at Strategy2Act.com, a leading BalancedScorecard software developer. Bob takes part in software designer,bringing requirements of CEOs and business owners into the softwareand online solutions.
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Business is about measure and control. So what measurement tools should we use?
The ability to measure business excellence and its performance provides businesses with insight into the financial as well as non-financial ways to analyze their performance in an easily understandable manner. Helping in the process of value creation and creating a pathway for sustainable growth, dynamic measurement of business performance serves the ability to measure as well as control a business so as to steer it towards an optimum ‘grown pattern’. By measuring and controlling business performance one will be able to apply best business practices, execute inventive thought processes, and learn how to implement easily incorporable business management techniques for increased revenue.
Controlling a business is as important as initiating it. This is to say that one will be able to exercise efficient control over the business operations with the use of ‘ground breaking’ management techniques, inventive frameworks and managing tactical value guidelines for achieving excellence in business processes. Involving active decision making, one needs to go through various business management methods and requires an initiation of efficient business practices given below:
Optimizing business resources Motivating employees and business partners so as to manage intellectual assets Building a learning environment in the organization Incorporate change and motivate innovation Apart from the business practices that initiate efficient business management, given below are the measurement tools that are needed to measure the performance of a business:
This strategy has been utilized by a number of organizations for measuring and managing their performance by creating a complete view of the operations. There can be several aspects that can be represented with this scorecard to count the progress being made in different directions. Such is the strength of this management tool that about half of the Fortune 1000 companies have used it for betterment of their business processes.
2. Economic Value Added
This takes the volume of economic value added to the inputs as a measure used to gauge the performance. By taking various steps to increase the economic value, one can draw more and more customers towards them.
3. Activity-Based Costing
Activity based costing aims at improving the processes by making activity as the basis. In this, one bifurcates the activities that occur in the whole process and later aims to bring down the costs associated with those; thereby making the total amount of costs lower.
4. Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma
These are some of the Japanese concepts that have been developed for creating a perfect business environment. According to these, the managers should aim for minimizing errors to maximum extent and head towards an errorless field. Also, it states that quality should be taken as something to be infused by every person involved in developing the final product right from the initial entity. This is to say that every step has to be tested for the extent to which quality is added to the product. 
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7 Common Cash Flow Problems Faced by Small Businesses
Cash flow is an essential ingredient to the survival of your small business. It is the flow of money in and out of your small business, and the quantity as well as timing of that flow is critical to the continued operation of your business.
Cash helps your business purchase items it need to produce products and services for profit, thereby helping your business to generate more cash for its operation. If customers are slow to pay or your pricing structure does not adequately cover the cost of production, your business will not have enough cash to continue operation. Even if your business is turning in a profit, you can still be forced to close if your business runs out of cash!
Why do small businesses encounter cash flow problems? Here are seven major reasons that result to cash flow problems for businesses, which you need to look out for as a small businesses owner:
1. Problem collecting receivables. Money tied to receivables is just paper profit, and it is not useful to your business until you’ve actually collected and put the monies back into the business. The challenge will be collecting all those receivables, and collecting them on time.
2. Business is saddled with bad debts. If your attempts to collect on the receivables are futile – e.g. the other parties have filed for bankruptcy or the cost of pursuing the debt is more than what you will collect – the receivables then become bad debts. Bad debts are typically written off as an expense. But the more bad debts you have, the smaller the amount of cash that you can use for your business.
3. Weak sales. Your sales are the heart of your cash flow. The persistent lack of sales can affect how your cash coming in to your business and liquidity. It is important to analyze why sales are weak and what opportunities can be done to reverse the trend. There are a number of factors that may result in weak sales, such as product lineup, labor costs and even overcapacity.
4. Huge overhead costs. Another common cause of cash flow problem is when the business spends too much on overhead. Overhead costs include all costs of providing goods and services other than direct labor and direct material.
5. Weak gross margins. Cash flow problems result if prices are too low, direct costs are too high, or a combination of both problems.
6. Seasonality of sales. The seasonality of your sales significantly impacts the cash flow of your business. If you sell more in the winter season than other months, for example, then your sales during the winter must be big enough to carry your business through the lean times.
7. Too much cash tied in inventory for product-based businesses. Inventory greatly impacts cash flow, especially in small organizations where cash is more difficult to get hold of than in a large corporation. In a small business, inventory problems are signals that the nuts and bolts control of a company requires attention. A good businessman knows that too much inventory is as dangerous as not enough, since money tied up in inventory can severely hamper a small company’s cash flow.
For more information on avoiding cash flow mistakes for your small or home-based business, read our Cash Flow Management section 
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How to Get Your Home Business Off to a Good Start
Here are some tips to help make sure that your business is off to a good start
1. Make sure that your family is 100% solidly behind your decision to start a home-based business.
It is important to have your family's support when you start a home business. It may be that you will need to tighten your purse strings as you jumpstart the business, especially if you are leaving a job to launch the business and the family loses one steady income source. The family must believe in your vision for them to allow you to use the family's savings and assets for this business. Or it may be that you will need your spouse to continue employment to ensure that the family still has health insurance and benefits.
I also interviewed an entrepreneur who had to get her famly's approval because her business required huge quantities of supplies and inventories. Her business took over one of her children's bedroom and garage, in addition to another room for her home office. She said it came to the point where her business supplies even spilled over to the family room, and it was a case of boxes here, there and everywhere. Luckily, the business took off and after a year she was able to move the business to a Main Street store, clearing her house with all the supplies and inventories.
2. Make sure that this home business is what you really want to do.
Starting a home business is NOT easy. For your home business to succeed, you need to invest significant amounts oftime, effort and resources. So you better make sure that this is what you really want: that this business is something you'd like to be doing for the next five years, and that you really want to work from home.
Don’t get carried away with the initial rush of excitement of this new home business. Instead, try to think of how you will feel about doing this business in the long term. Is this a business that you think you will still love to do a year or two from now — even if your initial expectations are not met?
Also make sure that you can actually work from home. I talked to an entrepreneur who started a business with his best friend. They worked in their respective homes during their startup phase, and kept in touch during the day to compare notes or plan their next activities. Unfortunately for him, he learned that he did not like working from home solo the whole day. He craved for human interaction, and being cooped the whole day in his basement while working on the business drove him nuts. After six months, and seeing the business start to show growth potential, he convinced his partner to rent an office downtown instead.
3. Know what you are REALLY getting into.
This seems very basic, right? In reality, however, there are many entrepreneurs who decide to start a business, but have absolutely no clue what they are getting into.
Take for example the many Adsense publishers. With the popularity of Google's advertising program, many folks decided to launch online businesses by starting Web sites or blogs. They then applied to Google Adsense (or other ad programs) thinking that they will start seeing thousands of dollars per month, only to find that their sites could only earn pennies per month. So what went wrong? They went in and started their online businesses without really understanding what works best for Google Adsense. They made false assumptions with the program, and failed to take into account the responsiveness of their audience to ads, their topic, their topic, and placement of ads.
Read books about the specific business. Visit forums to find what others are saying or experiencing with the business you want to start. The Web has also made it very easy to research competitors and how the strategies they are using. Be a sponge willing to absorb anything and everything about your business. Remember, research is your best friend! 
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Insurance for Small and Home-Based Businesses
Starting a business is very risky. In addition to the possibility of failure, there are a lot of things that can go wrong and small business owners need to protect themselves and reduce these risks. Examples include:
Loss of property (building, office furnishings, computers, inventory, etc.) due to fire or theftLawsuits arising from defective products, an error in service Damage to your business vehicle resulting from theft, accidents, flooding and other eventsEmployees injured in the workplace Customers injured in the business premises
The State of Wisconsin’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance has put together a comprehensive guide on the types of insurance that small businesses and even home-based businesses need. While the guide focuses on Wisconsin laws, it’s still a great read if you want to know some of the insurance products your business might need.
Another great resource is the Insurance Information Institute’s Insuring Your Business: Small Business Owners' Guide to Insurance . It is another comprehensive guide that walks you through each of the insurance products your business may need – risk management, property insurance, business vehicles, workers compensation and life insurance for key employees. The best part of the Guide (other than it’s free to access on the Web) is that it discusses the insurance needs of specific types of business, from artisans to retail stores to manufacturers to ecommerce.
With regards to home-based businesses, the III Guide states that one of the common mistakes of home business owners is thinking that their homeowner’s policies could actually cover the insurance needs of their business. But a typical homeowner’s policy may not provide enough coverage as “the usual limit is $2,500 for your business equipment while at home and $250 when it’s off the premises.” That is certainly not enough if you’ve got a lot of equipment and inventory inside your home.
After reading these two guides, consult and insurance representative to find specific products that your business may need.
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Tips on How to Select the Right Collection Agency
Collecting receivables is an important step in ensuring a healthy cash flow for a business, and more so for a home-based business or solo entrepreneur. However, account receivables collection is a time-intensive process that most small businesses just don’t have the time, know-how and energy to pursue. Hence, many turn to third party collection agencies to collect the debts and amounts owed to them.
But how do you choose the right collection agency to work for you?
American Profit Recovery suggests making sure that the qualities are factors when deciding to retain a third-party collection agency:
Member of ACA International; The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals. Make sure the collection agency you are talking to is a member and that they subscribe to and follow their Code of Ethics. http://www.acainternational.org/. Personal Referrals: As with anyone looking for someone to do business with, always ask around. Talk with other business owners or members of your local Chamber of commerce to find an agency that others you know may have used. Educated Workforce: When interviewing the representative from a collection agency, ask them their philosophy of who they hire. Do they hire college educated people or do they just bring in anyone to fill a position? Different Approaches: Does the agency you are talking to have several methods of collecting on past due debt? The agency should offer a low cost flat-fee structure along with other proven methods. Record of Community Service: make sure the collection agency you are hiring has a record of community service. The agency should have a track record of giving back to the community in some way. Background Check: It is imperative that the agency you are dealing with and may be calling on your customers pursues background check as part of their normal hiring practices. Anything less is not acceptable.
AllBusiness.com also recommends that:
Choose members of the American Collectors Association or the Commercial Law League of America., as both associations require that their members adhere to a code of ethics and are familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Both associations also provide ongoing education for their members. Ask for proof of insurance. Most licensed collection agencies are required to carry bonds for their particular state and Errors and Omissions insurance, which protects both the agency and client for any errors made by the collection agency. Ask about the recovery rate of an agency. Ask for references to verify the percentage. Check to see how long it took the agency to collect and if they collected the whole debt or just a portion of what was owed
There’s also an article over at EzineArticles.com that discusses what to look for when hiring a collection agency and here are some of the recommended factors:
The best thing to do is to network within your community or within your profession to see who other creditors are using that they like. Ask, "Out of every $1,000 that you collect exactly what will I receive?" Asking the question that way eliminates the possibility of additional fees that you did not know was going to be included. Ask the agency for a list of references. Then call some of them to see if the agency is doing a good job for its existing clients. Ask for a 10-day demand letter service. With that service, the first thing the agency will do before it takes over your accounts is send your debtors a letter. The letter will say that your debtor has ten days to pay you before the collection agency gets involved. If your debtor pays you within the ten day time period the collection agency will not get involved and the agency will either charge you nothing or charge you a nominal amount to send out the letter. Ask the agency about what kind of regular reporting you can expect to receive from the agency. This way, you can get feedback from them on how the agency is progressing in collecting the debt. Ask the agency when you can expect to get paid. Will it be on a certain date every month, or is it inconsistent? Finally, with a new collection agency you have never worked with before, it's a good idea to give the agency a limited amount of time to work your accounts. Just say, "Let's try this on a trail basis and see how it goes." Two to three months is plenty of time to know if the agency is going to be able to do a good job for you. 
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How to Earn Money from Home
There are many opportunities for earning money from home – from buying into a turnkey business opportunity system, finding work at home employment, starting a home-based business, or even buying a home-based franchise. The key is to know what interests you, what you’d like to do, and what your resources can allow you to do.
Here are some opportunities for earning money from home:
Start a home-based franchise. There are a number of franchises that you can operate from your home, from business consulting to home-based pet services to home services. Home-based franchises typically have lower cost to entry compared to traditional franchises given the lower franchise fees. The fact that these franchises can be operated from home allows you to save on the overhead costs of running a storefront.
Turn your hobby into a revenue source . It's great to delve into an interesting hobby such as artwork, photography, or crafting paper jewelry. It's even more exciting (and financially rewarding) to turn your special talents and passion for your hobby into a successful home-based business . If you are an amateur photographer or simply someone who loves to dabble in photography, you may be able to earn money from your stock photography images. If you have created a blog or web site to talk about your hobby,consider turning the web site into an income generating vehicle by putting ads or affiliate programs . If you love to shoot videos, consider turning this hobby of video production into an income-generating opportunity
Turn your skills into an income-generating opportunity. The skills that you employ (or used to employ) in your day job can be used to help you earn money on the side. Whether you are doing web design , writing, desktop publishing , or computer repair , you can use these skills and work on the side, possibly on a part-time basis. However, be sure to read the policies of your employer particularly if you have a non-compete agreement (just make sure that you are not touching their clients and that you find your own customers).
Participate in market research. Market research pays, though not very much. You can get paid from participating in marketing research panels and studies, plus get the chance to know about upcoming products or services. The amount you earn will not get you rich, but the income may allow you to at least put some loose change in your pocket. You can sign up as a mystery shopper where you can pretend to be customer in order to evaluate customer service metrics of businesses such as restaurants or clothing shops. Or you can sign up with legitimate online paid survey companies (be careful of the scams out there) and be included in their consumer panels and be paid answering market surveys. . Another way is to participate in focus group discussions , where a small group of participants selected from a broader population is gathered and interviewed .
For more ideas on how to earn money from home, visit PowerHomeBiz.com Earn Money from Home
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Internet Marketing Lessons from eBoot Camp Book
eBook Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business" by Corey Perlman is an excellent primer on internet marketing and search engine optimization for beginners. The book covers all the essentials of Internet marketing, from the effective use of metatags to the right way of using the social networks to the steps needed to generate links to the site. It focuses on low-cost and easy-to-implement strategies that can increase search engine ranking and boost the traffic of a web site.
The strong point of the eBook Camp book, and what sets it apart from similar basics of Internet marketing books, is how it concretizes the must-learn lessons of the book. Every chapter has Tips for Success section that summarizes the important lessons that the reader should take away from the chapter.
Read the article Internet Marketing Lessons from eBoot Camp Book 
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15 Home Business Ideas that Thrive During Recession
Many people are fearful of starting a business during a recession. Times are tough, and people are curbing their spending, which makes the idea of starting a business in a downturn economy even more daunting.
However, for many families and individuals affected by the recession (whether they lost their homes or their jobs), finding more ways to make a living or supplement income streams is a crucial need right now. Even for those still employed, many are thinking of putting in place a backup plan in case they are laid off from their jobs. Then there are those who have recently graduated from college or about to graduate and are finding it to be quite a challenge to find a job.
As such, starting a home business is a viable option for many. Home-based businesses are great during recession because of little to no overhead costs.
Even during these tough economic times, there are great income opportunities for those who are willing to take the risk. After all, the right time to start a business is when you have a great idea where your product or service benefits customers, recession or not. The right business idea can help you beat the odds and succeed even in a recession.
Here are some types of home-based businesses that thrive during an economic downturns and present opportunities for home-based entrepreneurs:
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Choosing a Keyword-Rich Domain Name
Choosing the domain name is the first important decision you will make in creating the website.
There are actually two schools of thoughts in selecting the domain name for a website: the branding approach, and the keyword approach.
The branding approach is choosing a short, catchy and easy to remember domain names such as Twitter, Flickr, Google and eBay. The keyword approach is choosing a domain name that utilizes keywords for search engine purposes.
Benefits of Keyword-Driven Domain Names
The main SEO benefit of keyword-reflective domain name is in the inbound link, or how other sites will link to you. Keyword-rich domain names allow your keywords to be placed in the anchor text when people reference your site.
For example, WomenHomeBusiness.com – when other people link to the site, they use the text "womenhomebusiness" within their links (e.g. WomenHomeBusiness.com). This is called the “anchor text,” and anchor text of the inbound link is one of the most concise assessments another person can make about what your site/page is 'about'. Search engines then see WomenHomeBusiness.com as a site highly relevant to the term “Women Home Business” thus helping the site become #1 for that term.
Another benefit of having keywords in the domain name is to help boost the site’s CTR (click thru rate) in the search engine results. The URL with the keyword gets bolded in the search results, and this helps grab the attention of more searchers. Search engine users are becoming better at ignoring spam in search engine results, and are looking for important clues in your listing in the search engine results. Keywords in meta descriptions, titles and URLs get clicks.
Google does give keywords in the URL a certain amount of weight, but you don’t need it in order to rank (as evidenced by those who use the branded approach). MSN/Live Search and Yahoo place more emphasis on keywords in the domain name than Google. So if you are looking to target MSN/Live Search and Yahoo, having keywords in the domain name is the right first step.
Guidelines to Consider in Setting up a Keyword-Rich Domain Name
If we’re going with the keyword approach, here are some guidelines to consider:
Think of the main keyword you’d like to site to be found – and use that term. What is the site all about? A good domain name relates to your business name or core business. Choose generic domains that users are likely to remember and use, as these domains will carry more weight than others. Keep the domain name short and easy to remember. In many cases, type-in traffic is more valuable as opposed to a 20-letter keyword rich domain name. Say your prospective domain name out loud to listen to its sounds. See if your tongue gets twisted around any syllables. Whatever your domain name, it should stick in the mind. Think of how easy it is to say your domain name to people over the phone. If you have to constantly spell it for the other party to understand your name, then you’ve got a confusing domain name. Use excellent, descriptive, and truthful naming strategy when selecting the name of your web site, because the name reflects your value and the brand.
However, it is important to remember that the real key to front-page Google rankings lies not in keyword-rich domains, but in the quality and relevance of the website content. You can rank highly for any term you set your mind to, regardless of your domain. Short, catchy titles may help, but ultimately, you need to use your business sense to define your brand.
For more information, read the article “What’s in a Domain Name: How Your Domain Name Can Ensure Your Online Success" and “So What Makes a Good Domain Name?"
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Tips to Successfully Run a Home Business
Feeling a bit melancholic that all my favorite shows have ended their seasons (9 months till "Lost"!), I started to think about what I will do differently if I were to start my home business today.
My husband and I started PowerHomeBiz.com in 1999, and a decade on the Web has taught me a lot in terms of what to do (and what not to do) when running a home-based business. Here are some in my list:
Decide what you do best, and focus on it. For other things you can do marginally, consider hiring others to free up your time to do what you do best.
If you are concerned about the cost of outsourcing or hiring outside help, calculate how much time it will take you to do the task yourself (and the opportunity cost of foregoing things you should be doing), and see which option makes the most sense.
Little kids and a home-based business are very hard to mix. Either you decide to work only when the entire household is sleeping (that means no sleep for you!); or you hire a babysitter or nanny during the day to watch the kids while you work.
Sit down and make every effort to understand your business financials. Not only is the knowledge important come tax time, you can achieve your business goals faster if you know where you stand financially.
Understand your cost structure. You can only price your products well if you know what it costs to produce them.
You need to be very good in managing your time when running a home-based business. Otherwise, you'll often end up wondering where did time go when the day is over and you've accomplished nothing.
Don’t be ashamed to say that you run a home-based business. Other people might sneer at you for being "too small time", but they don't know that you earn 5x more than they do!
Create a dedicated space for working in your home, and it must be a place that is convenient to you and suitable for your work habits.
Even if you consider yourself the smartest cookie in the block, there is much to learn from other people. Participate in forums and even social network sites. Talk to other business owners and network.
Be out there and trumpet your business. Even home-based businesses can build its brand.
Do not ignore the social media. Participate in Twitter. Create a Facebook profile for your business. Submit content to StumbleUpon and Digg. But be sure to separate your business from your personal accounts.
Learn how to chill out and take a break from work. Discipline yourself to stop checking emails while eating dinner with your family. And do not put your laptop in your night stand so you can check emails at 2 a.m.
Relax and have fun. You are working from home so you can be free from the rigorous demands and timetable of a corporate environment. Take a break from work and enjoy life at home. Hurry up with work so you can live your life — talking a walk with your dog, having ice cream with your kid, or watching your boy play tball. 
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My Twitter Experiment: How to Use Twitter to Market a Business
Though I created my Twitter account back in January, I never used Twitter except to send one tweet a month (which is basically nothing in the Twitter world).
Recently, I started to look seriously at Twitter and how to use it to market PowerHomeBiz.com. Maybe it's all the hoopla surrounding Ashton Kutcher's millionth follower, or a friend using Twitter to promote his organization. But in the last couple of weeks, I've been actively tweeting — and now I'm hooked.
Sending about 3 tweets a day, I have thus far gotten about 375+ followers. I am happy with my numbers, though there are folks who were able to get thousands of followers in just one week. My target at the end of May is to have 500 followers.
Here are some things I've learned thus far in terms of using Twitter to market the business:
Twitter users are information junkies — and that means feeding them with quality information.Drop your links, but only sparingly. Twitters are easily turned off by what they perceive as spammers. Unless you talking about an excellent article from your site, resist the urge to tweet about your website again and again. That's the fastest way to lose followers.If people "unfollow" you, don't take it personally. Some will even come back to follow you again. Follow other users. Search for their names or by keywords ("home business" or "branding") then follow the users that interest you. If you follow them, there is a high likelihood that will follow you back — and increase your follower numbers.Twitter is a great mechanism to check what others are saying about your business. Create saved searches of your business name or products and track what others are tweeting about your site. Then thank them for tweeting about your business (or "retweet" in Twitter parlance)Use hash tags # of your post's topic. This will enable your posts to become visible when users search for those topics, thus increasing your visibility. Use tools such as Tweetdeck to organize your preferred columnsTrack the number of users who click on your link. The URL shortening service Bit.ly http://www.bitly.com/ allows you to track the number of clicks your shortened link gets, and even show the geolocation of those who clicked.
I am still learning how to use Twitter. But I am very happy with the results thus far. It is so much easier to get traffic from Twitter (compared to Digg for example). Referrals from Twitter have increased by more than 100%, and the audiences actually are more engaged. Plus, I get to see what types of info they like by tracking retweets and mentions of our websites.
I will write more tips on how to use Twitter based on my experiences with this fast growing social media site.
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7 Smart Things Successful Businesses are Doing to Ride Out the Recession
Jay Abraham, author of the upcoming book The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your Business From Stagnation to Stunning Growth In Tough Economic Times has written an excellent piece on how businesses can grow in this tough economic climate.
He offers 7 "smart things that successful businesses are doing in order not just to ride out the recession but to grow and thrive as never before:"
Break down your numbersHave a systematic, strategic process in place Produce not just incremental gains but exponential gains by recognizing how your business really makes money.Have clarity about all of the factors that affect your businessUnderstand your competitors' appeal, advantage, and differentiation in the marketKnow the alternative products and services that your prospects can buy in lieu of your products and servicesIncorporate growth thinking into everything you do
Read the complete article What Does it Mean to Get Your Business Unstuck?
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Can Your Business Make a Lot of Money?
When starting a business, our first thought is often: Can I make money with this business?
I previously wrote about how to evaluate a business idea in the article Evaluating Your Business Idea and Product . The article lists some helpful questions you need to ask yourself when thinking of what products or services to offer.
But how can you quickly tell if there’s a demand for your business idea? The first step is simple: OBSERVE.
Take time out and go to the mall, or a park where a lot of people congregate. And observe the whats and the hows of their activities.
In one mall visit for example, two things stood out for me. One, almost everyone has a cellphone (or smartphone) and many can be seen talking on the phone, texting or checking their emails. Two, there’s a lot of baby boomers and older people walking about, shopping or just hanging out in the mall. This observation tells me that there’s a huge mobile market, and that catering to baby boomers can assure business owners of a sizeable customer base.
Let’s use as an example a question asked by someone from Yahoo Answers. He asked if he can make a lot of money tinting windows, both of houses and cars.
I advised him to go out and observe. Walk around the neighborhood, or drive to nearby areas, and count how many windows of homes have been tinted. Or sit down in a bench by the busy street and count the number of cars that drive past with tinted windows.
In my walks around my neighborhood, for example, rare are the houses with tinted windows and those I’ve seen are for their sunrooms. This tells me either two things: there’s a big market for a window tinting business; or that there is no demand for such a service.
The second step is to ASK.
He needs to talk to the neighbors and ask them why their windows are not tinted. Have they ever considered tinting their windows? Do they know the benefits of tinting the windows? If the answer is because they think that tinting windows is not important or necessary, then he’ll have a hard time getting customers for his new business.
While it is good to hire a market research company and scientifically poll thousands of respondents, home business owners can do well by simply keeping their eyes and ears on their target market. 
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The Importance of Accessibility of Location to a Small Business
The owner of a company I recently featured in Learning from Big Boys in the blog post Lessons on Retailing: Demory's Christmas Memories contacted me through Facebook that after celebrating 10 years in business, he had to announce that the business is for sale.
Their Christmas business operated one store in Maryland. They have a web presence, but more of a very simple (even amateurish-looking) Web site that merely advertises the store. They do not use the Web as an additional sales channel.
After 10 years of doing good business in their Hagertown, Maryland location, fate gave them a low blow last year.
A one-lane bridge near the store was closed in August 2008 for repairs, detouring traffic. The bridge closure dramatically reduced the number of cars passing their road. With fewer cars, their sales plummeted. Even Quiznos in the same area complained in a news article that their sales were down 50% because of the bridge closure.
The business has fought the county on getting a temporary bridge put in to at least ensure the continuous flow of traffic. The state actually approved it but the County Commisioners voted it down.
And what could be worse than a Christmas store not being accessible in the months leading to the Christmas season?
The bridge reopened on Dec. 21, 2008 but by then the damage to the business has been done. Sales dropped and cashflow became so tight. They explored the option of moving the store to another location, but they were not able to secure financing. Unable to run the store any longer, the owners then decided to sell their well establised Christmas store.
I have not seen the financials of the business, so I am not really privy to what went down. But one area that they should have pursued was to use the Web to sell their products. They should have opened an ecommerce store that allow them to sell to a wider customer base. Given this day and age of shopping online, failure to tap the Web as a selling channel can be huge kiss of death. Even with the reduced foot traffic, they could have maintained their sales through their ecommerce store.
But now the business is for sale. It's sad that a once-successful business suddenly found itself with hardly any customers because their location became inaccessible.
What could they have done to save the store? 
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Marketing with Yahoo Answers: 10 Ways to Promote Your Business Using YA
I previously wrote about How to Use Yahoo Answers to Promote Your Business . The article was first written in 2007 when I just started to top the Business and Finance category, and 2 years later, I am still #1 in the Business and Finance category.
Why use Yahoo Answers? For PowerHomeBiz.com, Yahoo Answers has offered a number of benefits:
Free traffic - we always love free! Lots of traffic - with more than 21 million users in the US and 90 million outside, YA can potentially bring huge traffic (and free!)Responsiveness to ads - I'm a numbers person, and I love to slice and dice our web stats. One of my important finding is that traffic from YA has brought us a huge chunk of advertising income, and that alone is the main reason why I spend a lot of time on YA.
Marketing through Yahoo Answers is not easy. Unlike Twitter where you drop your link in 140 characters, you need to actually answer the question — and some of the questions can be detailed and even tedious. Plus, YA doesn't allow dropping links for the sake of merely dropping links.
So how can you use YA to promote your business?
1. Be relevant = Relevance is the key. You can only drop your links either in the source box or in the actual answer IF AND ONLY IF the link is actually relevant to the question.
My strategy is to drop PowerHomeBiz.com links only if I actually got the answer from any of our pages. For example, a question on what business should I start, I paraphrase the content of our article Choosing the Best Home Business to Start and then put the article in the source code. If anyone complains about spamming, I can easily argue that the source is where I actually got the answer.
2. Lose the signature file. See #1 tip. Sig file is the easiest way to be pinned for spamming, especially if your link has absolutely nothing to do with the question at hand, and you post the same link again and again in your answers. It's the quickest way for your account to be suspended (and yes, YA also kicks out people, though you can easily create a new account).
3. Put your website/s information in your Profile page. YA allows users to promote their businesses in their profile. Use this to your advantage.
4. Be visible. The more visible you are, the more chances people are (a) going to check out your profile page; and (b) going to click on your website links in your answers or in your source boxes.
5. Provide the best answer — ALWAYS. Think of YA as your opportunity to present to potential target market that you are the best with what you do, or at least knowledgeable of your sector. They are more likely to check you out if they like what they read from your answers.
One more benefit of giving the best answers is increased visibility as you will start climbing up the category or subcategory, if not the country-specific or global leaderboards. Those leaderboards are great marketing tools as they represent the best in that category (however "best" is defined — best cheater, best answerer, best strategist). BAs mean 10 points, so getting more BAs can help you go up the leaderboards much faster compared to the 2 points of just giving out answers.
6. Come to YA with a strategy. One common tactic, especially of those with incredibly high best answer percentage is to answer only questions with 0 response and then voting for their own answer, thereby guaranteeing that they get the Best Answers (not that I do this).
Voting for your answer is not a violation (though YA at one point banned people from voting for their own answer but was quickly overturned). And answering questions with 0 answers is not a violation, either. These strategies are commonly frowned upon, but they are not considered to be against the rules.
So what is my strategy? I have a 150-page document of all my answers in YA. So if someone asks about angel investors, I have a ready answer that I can paste. If someone asks about what is Adsense, I also have a ready answer for that. I even have 10 variations on "getting a grant" type of question — for Qs on grants for school, grants for non profits, grants for starting a business, even getting grants for felons. I can provide my answers fast, just slightly modifying the response based on the actual question. On lazy days, I simply search for questions — e.g. business plan — and then pasting my pre-prepared response. Some users don't like it, but hey, my response answers the questions and that's all that matters!
7. Vote for your own answers. As I previously said, YA allows you to vote for your own answer. If you think you answered the best, why will you allow someone who answered "Google it!" or "I don't know" win out over your well-thought out answer? It doesn't make sense. Give your answers a fighting chance by taking time to review all Qs in voting and vote for your own answer. Given that askers rarely come back and choose the BA, you stand a high chance of getting BAs for your answers.
8. Protect your account. Yes, there's a lot of trolls in YA and competitors who want to sabotage your account. If you don't protect yourself, you'll find yourself getting lots of Violation Notices. I even got a VN for spamming because I directed the user to the SBA.gov website!
I used to have my account open to the public so anyone and everyone can read and learn from my answers. After someone went over my responses and voting for No Best Answer (if NBA wins, the Q will be deleted) even if I and the other respondents gave on-target answers. So now, I protect my account by:
Keeping my account private.I don't accept fans — unless I know and trust them. I used to have 500+ fans, but I removed all of them.
9. Increase your reporting trust level. Part of #8, but deserves a thorough discussion. YA's community moderation system allows users to file an abuse report for any violations they see or perceive on the site — from spamming, solicitation, malicious codes, violence or threats, fraud, and others.
The more you report abuses correctly, the higher your reporting trust level and the faster you can delete content in YA. In less than 2 minutes sometimes, you'll have the instant gratification of seeing your reported content to be removed from YA (to prevent abuse, they allow only 5 instant deletions from that same user, then your reports go to Yahoo customer care or YA staffers). Go after the very obvious spammers — those who post their blogspot link with no other answer, the credit/loan solicitation — as the abuse reports are likely to stick and they are not likely to defend their answers.
Another benefit of reporting correctly — and increasing your trust level — is that it becomes harder for anyone to report your content and delete it immediately from YA. You need this protection so that others, with lower trust ranking than you, cannot remove your answers by themselves.
10. Read, and re-read the Community Guidelines. Follow the rules, and you will have more opportunities to market your business to YA users. Read the Suggestion Forum as well for some tips from oldtimers on how to navigate YA.
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Learn from Experts: Useful Webinars for the Week
I am a big fan of webinars, and attend as many as I can. It allows you to learn at the comfort of your own work place. If you are using online marketing techniques and monetizing your site through advertising, here are some must-attend webinars for the week:
Increase Customer Loyalty with Online Solutions = learn how online solutions can help you retain and grow customer relationships and improve your customer interactions.
Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM PDT 11:00 AM MDT
Fee: None (free)
Register at http://www.webex.com/web-seminars/view_event/665152015?PHPSESSID=bbd1a76bf5d93afa1a50c24c915b864e
21 Ways to Get Your Envelope Opened = direct marketing webinar featuring copywriting legend Alan Rosenspan and sponsored by IBSDirect
Date: Thursday, April 23, 2009
Time: 2 pm ET
Fee: $79
Register at http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=136163&s=1&k=6613AF37860FC531F66C5504F2C4087A&partnerref=001
Adsense Orientation Webinar = will walk you through the basics of your Adsense account, show you how to start displaying ads, and also answer your questions via chat
Date: Friday, April 24, 2009
Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
Fee: None, but limited to 500 participants
Register at https://googleonline.webex.com/googleonline/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=573101592 
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Marketing Your Business in a Down Economy
Experts say that cutting marketing in tough times is a bad idea. When the going gets tough, businesses must work harder to market their businesses. In fact, they advice that now is the time to pull out all the stops in marketing. After all, it's survival times.
While there is no magic number as to how much a business must spend for marketing efforts, here are some strategies to help your business attract and grow customers during the recession:
Set benchmarks for your marketing and make sure you can support the new customers that your marketing efforts will attract. Ensure quality first. While you don't have to wait for perfection, try your best to ensure that customers will love what you deliver. Otherwise, your marketing efforts will just be in vain.Understand how your previous and current customers are finding you. Keep wooing your current customers. Think of additional products or services that you can offer them. They already know your business, and it will be easier to convince them to buy more.Look back and use strategies that worked for you well in the past.Do a little investigation to see what strategies your competitors are using. You might be able to use some of those strategies as well. 
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Can a Blog as Main Web Presence of a Business Be Taken Seriously?
A startup photographer wants to market his business on the Web. But he's got a limited budget, and would prefer to create a web presence as cheaply as possible (free even better). So he's looking at the option of creating an account with the free Blogger.com.
His main question is: Will potential clients take his business seriously if his main Web presence is just a blog?
Blogs have come a long way, and are now an accepted format on the Web. However, whether a blog is the right platform for selling his photography service is the big question mark.
I told him that the first step should be to determine the purpose of having a Web presence. He said he wanted to be on the Web to help him market his business, get leads for his business, and use the Web site as a showcase of his photography style and quality.
Blogs are good for narrative, opinion-driven and information-type web sites. However, I do believe that it cannot properly showcase a photography business.
As a photographer, an important decision factor for potential clients is the quality of work, and that is often achieved by having a clean, easy-to-access presentation of the pictures. What I imagine — and often see in photographers' websites — is a gallery style layout of picture thumbnails categorized by topic or style. This is something a properly designed website can easily do, allowing for quick navigation where users can click from one photo to the next easily.
Blogs may be cheap, but it is much more difficult to navigate. You can't do a gallery style with 20 pictures on the page. Instead, you'll have 1 photo per blog post, or 20 photos lined down. Blogs are good if you are narrating stories behind the photo, but not really to present a big portfolio.
Then of course, there's the issue of long domain names. I told him that if he will go with Blogger, make sure that he buys a domain name as he can use that domain to redirect his blog. Instead of thisismyblog.blogspot.com, which doesn't look as professional as he'd hope to be and hard to remember, he can publish his blog into that domain name without getting a web host through the custom domain feature.
Still feeling conflicted, I told him that his web site or blog will be the "face" of his business on the Web. He needs to think of his customers and what can make them patronize his services. He doesn't need to make it so high tech and pay $100,000 to develop his Web presence, but it needs to be easy to use and can properly showcase his work. For me, a Web site is more professional, better usability and allows for more functionality such as order forms and running of scripts for payment acceptance.
How about you: do you think he should go for just a blog or have a Web site? Let me know your thoughts. 
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Beware of "Google" Scams: Google Money Kit, Cash Kit, Quick Cash, etc.
Beware of business opportunity companies that uses the name of Google — e.g. Google Money Tree, Google Cash Kit, Google Quick Cash, or whatever the other names are. They are all running a scam using Google's name. And I must say that they are succeeding pretty well, convincing a lot of people with snapshots of checks supposedly earned from the "business opportunity."
The scammers are spinning the money making opportunities provided by Google's contextual advertising program, Adsense. Unlike Adsense which is free, the main difference of these scammers is that they charge shipping fees of either $1.98 - $3.88 for a CD that will supposedly provide you with a way to earn money from home. They will also ask for your bank information as you enroll in this "free trial."
Once you get suckered into the promise of easy money (they even have photos of checks received from Google typically around $5,000), you will then realize that you will be billed anywhere from $69.90 - $72.21 on a monthly basis if you do not call to cancel your "free membership." The fun part is that the CD contains nothing but information on how to sell on ebay, where to supposedly find drop shippers and suppliers etc.
Here’s the FINE PRINT from the Google Kit website:
By submitting this form I authorize Google ATM (DRI*GoogleATM) to immediately charge my credit card $1.95 USD for the setup of the Google ATM Home Business Kit. I hereby request that Google ATM (DRI*GoogleATM) activate my account and authorize them to advance funds as indicated. Monthly Service fees will commence seven days from the date of this purchase, and will be billed monthly thereafter. After the seven day trial you will be billed Sixty nine dollars and ninety cents USD monthly for the continued access to the Google Money Making System. No refunds will be given for failure to use the requested and provided services. It is very important to read the fine print. The above is at the very bottom of a very long page where the reader may be enticed with all the promises of income from the program, further bolstered by the various so-called "testimonials."
The worst part for me was their presentation of a "Google" check thereby giving potential suckers (err, buyers) the confidence that this is indeed a program by Google. But, in the fine print they admit that Google has NOTHING to do with this program — which begs the question: what's the point of showing a "Google" check other than to deceive the people and misrepresent the program as that of Google.
Google does not endorse or sponsor this site and is in no way affiliated with
this site The trademarks of Google, MSN, CNBC, USAToday, ABC, CNN and Yahoo! are the properties of their respective companies. These organizations do not specifically endorse or sponsor this site. The Google work job kit is free to
try for a limited amount of time only.
There are a number of variations to the scam, such as the blog supposedly by a Scott who was able to wipe out his debts by using the Google Cash Kit system, or the Earn Cash from Google or the Money Making Story with Google. I'm not sure how they actually work, but here's what Google in their official Adsense blog says
We’d like to take this opportunity to state that we're not affiliated with any third-parties that solicit payment to join the AdSense program or that sell CDs with money-back guarantee offers. AdSense is a free product offered to publishers by Google Inc., and there’s no cost or obligation involved. As a result, we recommend that prospective publishers exercise caution when presented with such offers
If you want to earn money from Google, the ONLY way is to apply to Google Adsense http://www.google.com/adsense . Read the fine print always with these "money making programs." Search the Web for complaints from other people — and actually listen to their complaints.
Remember that there are no scammers if there are no suckers. Don't be one. 
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Starting a Business in a Recession
Many people are scared of starting a business during a recession. Times are tough, and people are not spending — which makes the idea of starting a business in a downturn even more daunting.
But an economic downturn shouldn't stop you from pursuing your business endeavors. As they say, the right time to start business is when you have a great idea, recession or not. With the right business idea, where your product or service will benefit customers both in good and bad times, you can beat the odds and succeed even in an economic downturn.
The key is to look long and hard at your business idea to see if this is a business where a market truly exists. Afterall, with a recession comes the tightening of purse strings not just from customers but bankers and investors alike. That means starting the business lean, and well, possibly even with your own money.
Here are some types of businesses that thrive and stand a better chance of survival during economic downturns:
1. Must have products and services. Food is one business that remain strong during a recession. Afterall, people will still need to eat and drink no matter how bad the economy, though many will be cutting dining out and instead stay at home and cook!
And guess what, demand for cosmetics remain strong even when times are tough! Demand for cosmetics seem recession proof as women continue to indulge themselves by buying lipsticks and powders. Ask any woman on the street if they will forego wearing a lipstick and you might get dagger stares everywhere. There's even an economic indicator for it: the lipstick index
Other necessity businesses include automotive repair, healthcare, web sites for small businesses, education and learning products.
2. Sign of the Times-type businesses. These are businesses that are most needed during a recession, yet will still generate strong demand even when times get better. An example of this type of business is bargain hunting, helping people find deals, coupons and discounts. Whether good times or bad, people want to save and get the best deals, but more so when everything is tight.
3. Any business with minimal startup costs. Now is not the time to risk your family's life savings into a business you are not sure will work. Home-based businesses are great during recession because of little to no overhead costs. You can start a blog at no cost working from home monetized by advertising, which can allow you to earn decent income. If you're lucky and your blog or website catches on, you can earn spectacular income workin from the comforts of your home without the headache of an office or retail space lease.
4. Start a proven business. It is significantly riskier to start an unproven business from scratch as compared to starting a well known franchise. Franchises may sometimes feel that you are working for somebody else, but buying into a franchise allows you to start a business with a well established brand, fully developed operational systems, and with products or services that are proven winners.
Once you've decided what business to start, follow the tips shared by experts in the article Recession Strategies for Small and Home Businesses
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How to Earn from Your Videos
With the rapid growth of broadband, videos have become a vital part of the Web and watching videos on the Web have become much more commonplace. My 4-year old son, for example, is addicted to YouTube and watches videos of Bugatti and Ferrari cars.
But if you're at the other end of the spectrum and loves to produce videos about your dogs or hilarious kids, a number of options are now available to help you get cash for your creations. Here are ways you can earn from your videos:
1. Put advertising on your videos. The best example is the Youtube Partner Program http://www.youtube.com/partners = requires that you must own the copyright of your videos and that these videos generate thousands of impressions. Other similar ad-based programs are:
Revver http://revver.com/go/faq/#makingmoney1 = offers both CPM and CPC ads and splits the revenue 50/50 with the video content producerAtom.com (formerly AtomFilms) http://www.atom.com/creators/go_pro/ = payout to Pro Videos vary but could be $8 in revenue share for every 1,000 content plays. Focuses on funny and witty videos, and now allows video creators to have their work shown in Comedy Central TV show.BrightCove http://www.brightcove.com/products/advertising/ = inserts ads in the videos and provides syndication platform for video producers.
2. Be paid by number of views. Metacafe Producer Rewards program http://www.metacafe.com/producercentral/ is open to any creator of an original short video, and the payment system is simple and straightforward – $5 for every 1,000 views, starting at the 20,000 views mark.
3. Earn money by producing videos for others. TurnHere.com http://www.turnhere.com/ helps small local businesses produce professional looking videos for an average fee of $1,000 per video. If you don't think you can compete head-on with TurnHere.com, you can join them as a freelance video producer.
4. Sell your videos. Some of the sites that allow you to sell your videos are:
Apple's iTunes Music Store http://www.apple.com/itunes/contentproviders/ requires tha you apply and be approved as a content provider Behemoth http://www.behemoth.com/ which targets Christian family audiencesSteamyo http://www.streamyo.com/ allows video producers to set the price of their videos
5. Get paid for responding to requests for specific types of videos. Videos submitted to CurrentTV.com http://current.com/make.htm are broadcast on the their web site, as well as on cable and satellite channels. There are two options to earn. The first is to submit a "pod" or a 7-minute video on pre-announced topics such as the hottest trends on the street to voting outside of mainland to the juiciest hooking up stories. Payment is negotiated per pod basis, and your video may be broadcast on television. The second option is to submit a video ad as dictated by the sponsor, and you get paid if the video is shown on the Current website or on another television station.
6. Sell videos on a royalty basis. iStockPhoto.com , well known for their subscription model in selling photos, has branched out to videos. After passing a rigid test, you can submit videos and earn as much as 40% of the royalties paid. CreateSpace.com http://www.createspace.com/ allows your videos to be sold on Amazon.com and you can earn royalties on every sale you make.
7. Sell your video on demand. If you are a more established video content producer and independent filmmaker, FlickRocket.com http://www.flickrocket.com/ offers a direct online VOD/rental and download-to-own/burn service. Jaman http://www.jaman.com/ and GreenCine http://www.greencine.com/ offers a venue for independent filmmakers to sell their films.
For more detailed information, check out 8 Ways to Earn Money from Online Videos
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Selling to the SOHO Market
As a business owner, you might have experienced being contacted by other firms trying to sell their products and services to you. In my case, I get a lot of emails and phone calls from other businesses offering anywhere from their phone systems to computers to accounting services.
One thing that strikes me though is that many of these companies, particularly the big vendors, do not seem to know how to sell to the SOHO market. They think of me as a business, so they treat it as a business-to-business deal where I am treated like a corporate buyer.
The SOHO entrepreneur, especially the one-person business, is not something that can easily be classified as a business-to-business transaction nor as a business-to-consumer transaction. Small office/Home Office entrepreneurs are more of a hybrid, exhibiting characteristics of both types.
Take for example a vendor of a high-end computer system who contacted me. The sales person just rattled off the features of the product and emailed the specs.
If I am a corporate buyer of a Fortune 500 company, I may treat the process of buying the computer as just one of the to-dos for the day to be crossed off my list. The emotional investment to the process extends only as to whether the purchase will be good enough for the users of the machine and hopefully cement my value to the company as someone who knows how to choose products well.
But I am not a corporate buyer and I do not treat buying expensive machines as simply a task to be crossed of my to-do list. Unlike the corporate buyer who simply needs to write off a purchase order to send to Accounting, I will pay for this machine from my OWN pocket. I will be spending my own money to buy it. That in itself makes a huge difference for a corporate buyer and a SOHO buyer.
There is also a deeper emotional investment attached to the decision. This computer may be something I've always wanted, but could never afford when I was just starting. Now that the business is doing well, I can now afford to buy it. So this computer for me will be an affirmation that the business is a success that I can now afford to buy this expensive machine.
If you are selling to the SOHO market, think of us as a hybrid with both B2B and B2C characteristics. We're a business, but have the minds (and emotions) of consumers. 
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How to Grow a Food Business
A friend of mine sent me some food items from ImpromptuGourmet.com to try out, and I must say that I'm impressed. I never ordered meals over the Web before and I am surprised at the quality, speed of service, and yes, even taste.
This made me realized the vast potential of the Web for food product manufacturers.
If you have a food business (PowerHomeBiz.com has an article on Starting a Food Business), you need to seriously consider tapping the Web to sell your pies, cakes or chicken dishes online aside from your storefront for neighborhood groceries.
Start by doing research. There are now a lot of food vendors on the Web that you can use to research — from how they present their food items to how they price the items to show they ship the items and how they package the food items.
In particular, packaging the items for shipping will be a significant challenge.
The JiveTurkey.com http://www.thejiveturkey.com/ for example, first puts their turkeys in an oven bag for reheating. They then place the turkey in an insulated foam cooler before placing it in a leak-proof corrugate box. Products are shipped overnight, and reheating instructions are included inside the packaging.
New York-based LittlePieCompany.com http://www.littlepiecompany.com/ ships their scrumptious pies all over the United States by first putting the pies in a shrink wrap to maintain freshness. The pies are then placed in a 12×12x6 foam filled corrugated box with reheating or preparation instructions placed inside. The pie rests on two 8-ounce gel packs that stay frozen for as long as 48 hours (their slowest and cheapest shipping option is 2 days).
Hmmm ,,, writing about food makes me hungry :o) 
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Tips on How to Launch a Business During a Recession
Robert Tuchman, successful entrepreneur and author of the new book YOUNG GUNS: The Fearless Entrepreneur's Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own gives out eight steps on how to start a business that actually makes money, even in this tough economy:
1. Start with self-financing.
2. Borrow, but with caution.
3. Do business from home.
4. Don't delegate all the grunt work.
5. Know when to show a loss.
6. Invest in right software.
7. Stay on top of your numbers.
8. Hire inexperienced people with lots of passion.
Read the article How to Launch a Business During a Recession 
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Local Search Optimization Strategies
The Web may have no borders, but an increasing number of users are looking for products and services available in their local areas. Hence, it is important that you take time to ensure that local customers can find your business when they look at local resources.
Here are some tips on how to ensure that your business is visible in local search:
Make sure that your business is included in your local phone directories listing. Many local directories use content from any of these three content aggregators: InfoUSA, Acxiom and Amacai. Check and update your business listing on these companies.Submit your listings to local directories of search engines such as Yahoo Local Include your listing in map search such as Google Maps Local Business Center Update and check your listing in the top yellow pages and vertical directories. Use Local Search Guide to see listings of yellow pages and vertical directories Optimize your pages to rank high in your main keywords as well as in your local area. A well optimized title could include your business name, keyword and locationReach out to local bloggers who talk about your area and businesses in your area. Let them know about your business, and if possible, give them a sample of your products and services. Hopefully, they'll like it enough to write a positive review about your business.Find Web sites about your area (e.g. city guide and tourist information area). Check if there's a way to have your site listed, even featured in the site. Consider advertising as well. 
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How can Shipping Costs Affect Your Business?
Someone asked me an interesting question about the impact of shipping costs to the bottomline.
The asker has developed a product that is considerably better and resolves the problems of the main competitor's product. This new entrant will also offer more with the product in terms of features and size. The competitor's product is simplier and needs limited shipping space in terms of box size.
However, having a bigger and better product presents a challenge for this new entrepreneur: the product has to be shipped in a larger package. His main question: How will having a bigger box affect his shipping costs, and more importantly, the bottom line?
My suggestion was that he should start cranking his shipping costs numbers — get estimates on what the box will cost (especially if it is custom) and get quotes from shipping carriers as to how much the shipping will costs. The only way he can know how shipping will affect the bottomline is when he knows exactly the costs it will need to ship the product.
A high shipping cost can affect a business in several ways:
1 - increased costs in terms of shipping and handling that can eat up profits and tighten cashflow
2 - the high shipping costs translate to high shipping fees paid by customers, and some customers may opt for cheaper shipping (his competitor)
3 - leaves the entrepreneur little room to maneuver if there are shipping errors
Given this challenge, I told him that he needs to clearly establish the superiority and added value of his product. Most customers buy from a specific company because they like the product or the price. Since he knows that he is at a disadvantage with his higher shipping fees, he must be able to convince the customers that they will be getting a better product so they will not mind that they are paying higher shipping fees.
He also needs to be smart in terms of choosing a reliable fulfillment and delivery company. Shipping errors can lead to added costs, further constricting his cash flow. Worse, shipping errors — e.g. wrong address, undelivered products — can erode customer trust and even cause chargebacks.
What else should he do? Let me know your thoughts. 
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Government to Aid Small Businesses
I typically do not blog about politics or government. But like a growing number of people, I am outraged by the huge bonuses AIG will give its derivative traders — basically our tax dollars after getting significant chunks of the bailout monies. They should have just given all the AIG bailout money to small businesses!
I suppose to counter all the flak the Administration is getting for approving the AIG bailout, President Obama announced today that his government will help out small businesses mainly by easing the credit squeeze:
By buying up to $15 billion of securities that are linked to small-business loans.By increasing loan guarantees for small business to 90 percent of the loan value to encourage banks and other lenders to extend credit, By waiving the Small Business Administration's loan fees By requiring banks that received federal bailout money to report each month how much small-business lending they did.The IRS also announced that small businesses with deductions exceeding their income in 2008 could use a new net operating loss tax provision to get a refund of taxes paid in prior years
Being an eternal optimist, I hope that these measures — and more — will help usher in economic recovery for all of us. But I still think that the government should have given more money earlier to small businesses, instead of giving tax payers money to big companies who then sponsor expensive golf tournament sponsorships or pay millions of dollars in bonuses.
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How to Overcome Fear When Starting a Business - Especially During a Recession
Overcoming your fear is one of the most difficult hurdles of starting a business. Starting a new business is such a leap of faith that it can scare the wits out of you; more so when you are leaving the comfort and security of a salaried employee. Add to that the fact that we are in a recession, where starting a business can be so daunting with bad news left and right.
Donald Trump, in his article Confronting Your Fears advises that
An antidote to fear is as simple as problem solving. Whether you have investing, estate planning, or running a business on your mind, or all of those things, they can be broken down into units of thought and dealt with in an orderly manner. It's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle — you need to find the right place for each piece of the puzzle until the whole is apparent.
Robin Fisher-Roffer, author of the book The Fearless Fish Out of Water: How To Succeed When You're The Only One Like You, recommends 7-steps to overcome fear when starting a business:
Focus on what you do better than anyone else and put that out there to your customers and prospects. Use the strengths of what makes you different to make a difference with your customers. Build relationships so that you can anchor yourself in these rough seas. Stay true to your core values.Put Yourself Out on the LineHolding onto the essential you while updating your style, your website, your advertising
and your thinking is the fastest way to the top.Practice your ABCs—action, belief, and courage 
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How to Start a Computer Repair Business (PowerHomeBiz.com)
If you have a passion for working with computers and have the technical knowhow to make it work and trouble shoot problems, you may want to consider starting you own computer repair business.
With computers now an integral and commonplace equipment in both businesses and homes, computer repair is one of the fastest growing industries today. Add to that the fact that there are a lot of individuals and even businesses who don't have the skills, manpower, time or desire to repair or install upgrades in their own computers.
Some of the common services you may want to offer in your computer repair business include:
Spyware and malware removalVirus removal and cleanup Windows installationRecovering a unbootable computerSetting up of hardware and supportUpgrading and replacing broken hardware Repairing Macs (huge demand especially in the residential market)Networking, including printer sharingSetting up and troubleshooting software Training and consultingMost of those who start a computer repair business start tinkering with computers as a hobby, and find that fixing computers are a challenge that is worth taking. However, in starting this business, you need to consider three important factors:
willingness to dedicate time and effort to succeed in the businesscapital to jumpstart and run the businesstools to use for the business Just like any business, you need to define your target market and determine how to effectively reach them. Some possible target markets include:
Small business owners, who more often than not do not have a dedicated employee for computer repair needs. Most of small businesses also would rather outsource the repair and maintenance of their computers rather than spend too much time away from their core business to do the repairs needed.Home business owners and one person businesses whose computers are extremely essential to the operation of their businessRetired baby boomers are another important possible target market for this business. Most of the old folks will not drive to town to get their computer fixed. Plus, many of them are not willing or do not have the technical know-how to do even simple fixes or installs. Some ways to market the business and reach your target market include (for more marketing and advertising ideas, visit PowerHomeBiz.com Marketing and Promoting a Small Business section):
Direct mail campaign (e.g, check with your local county the list of new businesses)Flyers and postcards, including door hangersAdvertising in print media such as local papers, regional papers, national papers, business and trade magazineAdvertising in talk radio, including guesting spots talking about computersNetworking in organizations such as local chamber of commerce, board of trade, associations, community groups, etc.;Online presence including creating a presentation website and listing in local online directories and yellow pagesPR such as writing of press releases announcing your new businessEstablishing yourself as an expert by writing articles for a newspaper/magazine Participation, even sponsoring special community events Trade shows, association events, meetings, and free seminars.Part of the process involves knowing your competitors and understanding what will set your business apart from the competition. And you'll be up against the likes of Geek Squad and Geeks On Call Geek Squad, both of which have reasonably competent technicians and reasonable rates, backed by strong marketing campaigns. It might be useful to consider employment wit such companies first before venturing with your own computer repair business to understand and learn the demands of the business, the systems needed to run the business, get the know how as to who really needs the service and what types of services are most needed.
For additional information, read the following books:
Computer Repair Business Lessons Learned by Daniel Hand How to start and run your own computer repair business by Joe A. Wisinski Start Your Own Computer Business: Building a Successful PC Repair and Service Business by Supporting Customers and Managing Money by Morris Rosenthal and Reva RubensteinFor more business ideas, visit PowerHomeBiz.com Business Ideas for Your Small & Home Business http://www.powerhomebiz.com/BizIdeas/bizideas.htm
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This is a PowerHomeBiz.com blog post. If you are reading this in a website other than PowerHomeBiz.com, then this post was stolen or used without permission. Go to PowerHomeBiz.com http://www.powerhomebiz.com to read the original post 
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How to Reduce Your Risks When Starting a Business
Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks. As much as you want everything to go as smoothly as possible, there's really no "sure thing" in business and a million and one things could go wrong when starting a business. Plus of course, there's always the possibility of failure.
The key, however, is to manage and reduce your risks when you are starting a business. Many pitfalls can be avoided with careful planning, though there may be some unforseen circumstances where you need to display creative thinking, flexibility and yes, persistence.
Here are some ways to reduce your risks when starting a business:
Plan for the worst case scenario. You don't start a business thinking it will fail - you need all positive energy and positive thinking. Despite all optimism, however, thinking that there is a possibility of failure can keep you on your toes and force you to make better decisions. Always exercise good judgement. Avoid impulsive behavior and always analyze and examine your business decisions. Don't get carried away by your impulses. Use a check and balance system, particularly when making big decisions. Sound off your ideas with people you trust — e.g. your spouse, your mentors or even a trusted advisor — to give you a different perspective of what you plan to do. Find a mentor. The advice of someone who has experienced it all when it comes to starting a business is invaluable. Go to forums or attend face-to-face events and network. Use organizations that help you find mentors. Keep the focus on your strengths. Don't go grabbing every opportunity that comes you way, especially when they are out of your league. Especially in times of recession, focus on your core strengths. You'll stand a higher chance of success building on what you know. Run lean but creative. Don't spend your money for the sake of spending you money. If you can find ways to market your business at the least cost possible, try them. Market, market and market. Even before your business opens, set the stage for marketing. Having customers all waiting for you to open your business can significantly reduce your risks while allowing you to immediately generate needed cashflows. Consider getting the right type of insurance. When thinking of mitigating risks, the first thing that comes to mind is insurance. Insurance products — such as liability insurance, workers compensation, property insurance, etc. — can protect you against claims made by customers, employees, vendors and other people you deal with in your business. 
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Best Tools for Learning How to Start a Small Business
Someone asked me what is the best tool to learn how to start a small business. My answer is simple: It depends on what you think you need and what works for you.
1. For some people, they need to sit in a classroom and listen to the lectures of a teacher on how to start a small business. As such, they participate in any of these education opportunities:
Adult education programs offered by their counties (example is Fairfax County’s Adult and Community Education ProgramsAttend classes given by community colleges Entrepreneurship courses offered by Small Business Development Centers Private foundations such as Kauffman Foundation offers courses on entrepreneurship such as their FastTrac programs focusing on businesses and individuals hardest hit by the recession.
2. Others prefer a structured learning format, but at their own pace without being forced to sit in a class with strict schedules. Hence, they look for online resources for courses and classes that can flexible enough for their schedules. Examples include:
The Small Business Administration offers online courses on a variety of topics from business planning to managing financials to exporting Trump University also offers a number of online courses on various topics of business ownership such as business planning and finding startup financing
3. There are others who prefer to talk to small business owners or experts, and preferably, find someone willing to mentor them and guide them as they start their venture. Getting help from experienced mentors can be incredibly valuable, as they have the experience, know-how and understanding of what it really means to start a business.
The difficult part, of course, is finding the experienced and successful entrepreneur willing to guide and mentor. Start by networking with other entrepreneur in industry and trade associations, local business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, or even local chapters of business groups. Online networking sites such as LinkedIn can also be a way to find mentors for your business.
There are organizations which provide mentorship services, such as
Government Mentoring Programs such as SBDCs, which works with community colleges and local business development councils to offer mentoring programs http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html ; or the Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training http://www.sba.gov/womeninbusiness/wnet_roundtables.html Volunteer programs such as SCORE http://www.score.org/ which is composed of mostly retired executives and entrepreneurs Formal mentoring programs such as Athena Foundation http://www.athenafoundation.org/programs/globallinks.html , Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program http://www.helzbergmentoring.org/HEMP/ , or The Aspen Institute MicroMentor Program http://www.micromentor.org/ Professional organizations such as the National Women’s Business Council http://www.nwbc.gov/Mentoring/programs.html
4. Still, there are others who just want to educate themselves by reading books on how to start a business. Get a general guide on entrepreneurship and starting a business, as well as books specific to the business to be started (if available). Examples of good startup books are:
What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business: Real Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs If You're Clueless About Starting Your Own Business and Want to Know More Start Your Own Business : The Only Start-Up Book You'll Ever Need Steps to Small Business Start-Up : Everything You Need to Know to Turn Your Idea into a Successful Business
Another option, of course, is to use combination of the above and gain a more thorough understanding of how to start a business!
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Pricing Strategies During a Recession
In this recession, customers typically cut back on their spending. To entice these customers to spend and buy, one of the first adjustments you can make to survive these tough economic times is to adjust your pricing.
Adjusting your pricing, however, is not just a function of lowering your prices. You need to consider several factors, such as
the type of products or service you offertype of transaction your business generates (repeat purchase, one and done, or purchase with possibility of buying a different product)how a lower price could affect your brandwhether you can easily raise your prices up again when the economy recoversthe impact of narrower margins with lower priceshow you envision your business when the economy turns aroundhow your competitors respond to changes in your prices and whether the price cut will lead to a price war
Once you consider the above factors and really think that your pricing needs to change, there are several ways you can adjust your pricing:
Instead of cutting your prices, highlight the lower priced items in your offering and build marketing campaigns around it (e.g. feature lower priced items in your homepage). This can help you woo price-conscious customers and appeal to bargain hunters.Cut the prices of your lower-priced items, leaving the price of your higher-end items untouched.Offer limited discounts to select customers such as first time buyers to attract new customers.Limited duration specials to entice customers to buy and avail of the discounted prices before the offer expires (a common strategy of car dealers)Lower the price of items where you have some incentive arrangements with suppliers, e.g. rebates from manufacturers if you meet sales goalsVolume incentives, offering discounts to those who purchase certain amount (e.g. 20% discount for purchases $200 and above)If selling a service, bundle more features into the same price so customers get more and you add more value to your offering. You can also bundle complementary products together, even going to the extent of partnering with another company (a bed and breakfast business partnering with local adventure companies)Add extras to your service or product — for free! Give customers one time couponsLock your customers to longer t erm commitment, similar to what phone companies are doing where they throw in a phone for free or highly discounted if you sign a 2-year contract
Surviving this recession may sometimes mean comprising your position or taking in difficult decisions. The key is to carefully monitor how the pricing strategy you have adopted is affecting your bottomline, brand, customers perception and your position when the economy recovers.
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Overcoming Procrastination Or How I am Trying to Beat Procrastination
I'm a procrastinator. Hate to admit it, but I oftentimes put off things until the very last minute, and it drives my husband bonkers.
According to Tony Jeary, author of the book Strategic Acceleration: Succeed at the Speed of Life, in his article “Procrastination: THE Results Killer!" , there may be a touch of procrastination in your habits if you feel kinship to any of these statements:
“I can do it tomorrow." "I don't have everything I need, so I'll wait." "I can't do it perfectly, so I'll wait." "I don't have time right now." "Someone else can do it better."
For me, it's a combination of thinking that I can postpone things and do it later, and that I do not have the time right now (you know, with 2 toddlers and a baby plus a long list of to-do for the day). Plus, I have convinced myself that I do my best thinking when I am rushed and trying to beat the deadline. Of course, none of these excuses matters if at the end of the day I have accomplished so little and merely wasted my time.
This year, I strive to beat my bad habit of procrastinating. That's my New Year's resolution, and I intend to keep it. I finally followed Donald Wetmore's tips in Procrastination Pointers to plan the night before what I want to achieve the following day.
Then I used Gary Jennings' tips in his “Overcoming Procrastination (and How to Start and Complete Any Project in Five Easy Steps)" by making a list of the things that I have been postponing and making specific lists about these to-do tasks.
After using several paper and electronic planner systems such as Franklin Covey's, I finally decided that a blank journal with no lines works best for me (in college, I used sketchpads for my notebooks because I don't like to be encumbered with lines). I got myself a very nice blank journal and now uses it to write the things I need and should accomplish for the week. I have a section for my big projects, broken down into specific activities I need to do and their timeline.
Overcoming procrastination requires changing bad behaviors accumulated through the years. And like any bad behaviors, it takes time and the right tools to help you overcome it. But it feels mighty good to be able to do things more now.
Let me know your stories of how you are overcoming procrastination and improving your productivity in your business.
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Pros and Cons of Franchising
The former basketball superstar turned mega-entrepreneur Earvin "Magic" Johnson is a firm believer of franchising. In fact, he runs various franchises from Burger King to Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks — where the franchising option is closed to mere mortals but open to someone like Magic (Magic Johnson is its only partner, actually)
In his book "32 Ways to be a Champion in Business," Magic Johnson lists down the advantages and disadvantages of owning a franchise. His tips are a first hand look at how it is to buy into a franchise and what can you really expect when you become a franchisee
Advantages:
Your risk is reduced as you are buying into a proven system for operating the business and generating profits.Though there are substantial fees for buying in to an established major brand franchise such as McDonald's or Subway, a newer and smaller franchise operation might cost you less initially than doing your own independent startup.The business support system is built in (e.g. training, financing, money management).The psychological support system is in place … you plug into a network of business owners facing the same daily challenges and problems.The marketing support system is established.The brand is already built - you plug in to its customer base.You get a group rate - to reduce the costs of supplies, inventory, equipment and even medical, dental and eye care. It's easier to recruit good helpYour opportunities for growth are better - successful brand franchises generate steady cash flow and banks are more willing to provide loans
Disadvantages
It's their company = your name will not be on the door or the signs It's their product or service = you are selling a product or service that is created and controlled by the franchisor.It's their system = you will have to do things the way the franchisor wants them doneIt's not always cheaper = For a well established and successful brand, your startup costs might be considerably higherIf you have low credit rating, it can be tought to get financing for even a small home based franchiseYou may have to pay up front and annually, too.You may not get all you want from the corporate office You will have to learn to go along to get along = there may be times when you feel more like an employee of the franchisor than a co-ownerCannibalization (profit eaters) = franchisors sometimes get so eager to keep growing that they allow franchisees to locate so close to one another that they cut into one another's profitsSuccess is not guaranteed in a franchise or any other businessYou will still need a lawyer and an accountantIf things go bad for one franchisee in your group, it can hurt all the others
We are currently adding to our list of home-based franchises, so if you think that franchising is for you and you want one that you can run from your home, check out our Directory of Home-Based Franchises
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Strategies for Beating the Recession: Tips from the Experts
Times are tough and the economy is in a recession . However, the recession does not mean that opportunities have ceased to exist and that we will never come out of it. After all, people still buy things — maybe not in the freewheeling kind of spending we've seen before, but they are still spending. Businesses still operate and continue to produce their products and deliver services. The economy may have slowed down to a trickle, but it has not stopped.
We’ve compiled a list of tips and lessons from experts and authors on what small businesses can do to survive these tough economic times:
Read the article “Recession Strategies for Small and Home Businesses"
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Winning Strategies for a Small Business During a Recession
Monroe Porter in his article “Winning Strategies in a Challenging Economy” published in the Leaders in Landscape 2009 magazine gave a good list of strategies small businesses can adopt to survive this recession. While his advice focused on landscapers, I think we can learn a thing or two from his tips:
Be a leader Identify and strengthen your business shortcomings Get everyone on board Salespeople have to sell Protect your margins Focus on the core business Don’t wait too long to cut costs Don’t let anyone treat you like a bank Know which marketing tactics are most effective for your market If you do have to lay people off – again, be a leader
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Links for 2006-09-10 [del.icio.us]
CareData Launches Expert EMR with EHR Technology! This customized software supplies healthcare providers with an easy way to stay on top of patient care and follow-up needs. 10 Trends for Christmas Trends for greeting cards, paper and other Christmas products Internet Marketer Stephen Pierce Introduces Rush Hour Traffic Solutions Entrepreneur offers 12, bullet-proof, strategies for driving traffic to websites with online video series. [Link]
Links for 2006-09-09 [del.icio.us]
Business Plans Handbook Collection of free business plans Free Sample Business Plans & Business Planning Articles Links to various free sample business plans on the Web How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site Lots of tips on how to sell more on the web and increase conversion rate Resources for Marketing Your Blogs and RSS Feeds List of places where you can market your blog Free Venture Capital and Private Equity Directory Listings of venture capitalists Home Business: Start Your Home-Based Business & Work from Home with PowerHomeBiz.com Information on starting a small and home-based business PowerHomeBiz Small & Home Business Blog Tips, resources and information for the home based entrepreneur [Link]
Small Business Contests
If you want to win some cash prizes or awards (and gain recognition and some buzz), you may want to consider joining some contests targeted for small businesses.
Here are some of these contests:
Intuit Share Your Story = offers a grand prize of $25,000 Small Business Grant and $2,500 in Intuit Products and Services for sharing the best small business story (2,500 characters) and best business tip. Deadline of entry submission is March 23.
Dell/NFIB Small Business Excellence Award = submit a story of how your business has improved customer experience by using technology in innovative ways. Grand prize is $50,000 worth of Dell products and services. Deadline of submission is April 3, 2009.
Business.com What Works for Business = a monthly contest where you submit a description (no more than 350 words) of a challenge your business faced and how the issue was solved. Prize includes $100 in pay per click advertising at Business.com, your business featured on their What Works for Business website, newsletter and blog post.
Rice Business Plan Competition = submit the best business plan and win $350,000 worth of cash and in-kind prizes. Deadline of submission of intent to compete is February 13.
WinWeb Business 09 (UK) = win £10,000 by registering, sharing your business idea and writing about what you intend to do with the prize money. The competition ends October 1, 2009.
Make Mine a Million $ Business = Grand prize winner will receive $100,000 cash award and a year's worth of free advertising, marketing and media opportunities. This year long contest (end date is February 1, 2010) is about reaching target benchmarks for your business either $250,000, $500,000 or $1 million in revenues, and you will be judged based on business growth measures.
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How to Manage Your Accounts Receivables in a Recession
It is so hard to get a loan these days as banks are tightening their credits. And so should you! To help ensure that your business survives, you need to reassess the way you manage your accounts receivables.
We have posted an excellent article by Jennifer Stacey on how small businesses should manage their accounts receivables in a period of economic downturn. From the article
As we all know, a company's receivables count for approximately 40-50% of their actual assets. With the economy in chaos we need to revise the rules of the game. Or at least start the game over and play by the rules! Face it friends, businesses are sinking, and if you wish to stay afloat, you must safeguard your "life jacket". In this day, age, and market, our life jackets ARE our receivables.
Read “Small Business Receivables Management in a Recession – Rules of Engagement Have Changed"
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How to Advertise Your Business: The Case of Starting an Interior Decorating Business
Doing advertising is not a guarantee that you will reach your target audience. There's a right and wrong way to advertise a business.
Take this question raised today:
I’m trying to find ideas on ways I can advertise my interior decorating business. I made really cute fliers but I don't really get that many calls that I would like and I really love decorating this is my passion but its just like I'm stuck and if anyone have any great ideas on how I can get my business out there so people can at least start calling or something that would be great.Using the above example, there are many factors that could affect the success of your advertising efforts:
1 - The economy. The economy is bad right now. Given that most people are scaling down on their expenses, it is important to frame your advertising with the economic realities of the day. For example, highlight the value that they will be getting from your product or service. Or even the savings they can generate if they hire you.
Hiring an interior decorator in a bad economy may not be the most crucial on people's minds, Being a non-essential service, potential customers may be holding off their renovation projects that require hiring an interior decorator; scaling back on their projects; or even doing the projects themselves without hiring an interior decorator. This is a huge challenge that you need to consider when starting an interior decorating business and devising your advertising strategies.
2 - Understanding of your target market. The key is to first understand who are your target markets, and where and how they can be reached. Then you develop your advertising strategies based on your knowledge and understanding of your potential customers.
In the above example, who are likely to need an interior decorator? Different types of interior decorating services target different types of potential customers, and you need to understand the characteristics of each of your target market. This is particularly important if you are offering several types of interior decorating services, such as:
decorating homes or rooms for individuals, decorating office buildings, decorating retail stores, hotels, spasdecorating yachts, and cruise ships, contracting decorating work for furniture stores, hospitals, for home and apartment builders, staging for real estate sales. feng shui decorating, closet and organization design, home theatre decorating, indoor garden decorating “green” or environmentally friendly decorating
3- The location or advertising channel you are using. The main question is: Are you reaching your target market in the demographic area or even advertising channel you are using? Your advertising efforts are useless if you are not reaching your target audiences.
In the example above, it is important to ask whether the target market is present in the neighborhood where the fliers were distributed. An area where the median home price is $750,000 may be more likely to need an interior decorator compared to a neighborhood where median home price is $200,000.
4 - The manner of advertising. It is important to know how customers make the decision in selecting the vendor for your type of products or service. Do they decide mainly through word of mouth? Or do they respond via direct mail? F ind out how they decide when thinking of purchasing the type of service you are selling.
If your target market responds to glossy advertising in a local home magazine, then go for it instead of printing hundreds of fliers (and wasting your resources) no matter how fancy. Someone willing to spend $25,000+ on a project to decorate a room is not likely to entertain fliers inserted in their mailboxes or front door. Creating a portfolio of projects and initiating partnerships with real estate agents and contractors are more likely to create interest in an interior decorators' service.
At the end of the day, advertising is all about your return on investment
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Starting an Office Cleaning Business
Office cleaning is a competitive business and tougher to break into compared to home cleaning business.
To get contracts, potential clients may ask you to go through a bidding process wherein you will compete with more established and bigger businesses in your area. Otherwise, this is a business that will require you to network, network and network some more. Afterall, unlike a home cleaning business, you can't win clients simply by creating a flyer and inserting it in the front door of an office.
The key is to have a unique selling point. It is hard to market yourself as a general office cleaning business even if you claim to offer excellent quality and total reliability — as all of your competitors claim the same thing. Instead, find a niche that you can effectively do and market that as the unique selling point of your business. Come up with an edge, and market yourself based on that to differentiate yourself from your competitors
Examples of niches you can do include:
Disinfecting cleaning business - your focus is not just to clean but disinfect office surfaces as wellComputer cleaning business - given that most cleaning businesses don't even touch or go near computers (for liability issues), you can instead offer an onsite computer cleaning serviceIndoor plant cleaning business = covers maintaining plant care needs, putting fertilizers, even regularly rotating seasonal plants and flowers
Research the market to determine if there's any need for the niche you plan to pursue. You may even need to develop strategic alliances with general cleaning companies who can then recommend your business should their clients require the type of cleaning services you perform.
And of course, don't forget liability insurance as this is a must-have for this business. Your workers should exude professionalism and look neat and tidy at all times. Most importantly, you all need to have a passion for cleaning.
Some associations that may be able to provide you with assistance and more information include:
http://www.ascr.org/ — Association of Specialists in Cleaning & Restoration http://www.bscai.org/ – Building Service Contractors Association International http://www.issa.com/ — International Sanitary Supply Association
Books you can use are:
How To Start and Operate a Home-Based Janitorial Business by Carla Anderson Bud’s Instruction Manual: Learn More then the Basics about Janitorial, Floor Maintenance, Carpet Cleaning, Office Cleaning and More by Richard S. Takasch Cleaning Services Bid Estimation: A Resource Guide to Cleaning Services Bid Estimating, Work Loading, and Cost Accounting by Walter Fenix
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How to Launch a Successful New Business
George Rodriguez wrote an interesting article "How to Launch a Successful Startup" where he explored the factors that make a new startup business successful.
Starting a business has a lot of unknowns, especially during these hard economic times. As my mother would say, you never know if the moon and stars will all align in your favor.
When we hear stories of huge success stories — Web 2.0 sites such as Digg and Twitter, or even the free dating site PlentyofFish.com — we hope that our new businesses will enjoy the same level of success. Or at the very least earn enough money to support our needs. And the question is - how can we be like them?
According to the writer, here are the factors that can help your startup succeed:
Have a long-term visionHire the best people – and manage them wellKeep your focusInnovate; don’t duplicateKeep realistic expectationsHave a clear understanding of the market and your competitionRun your business leanGet the right partnersDevelop a culture of success in your organizationConduct regular business and market reviewLearn, and keep on learningPrepare for changes
Read the article “How to Launch a Successful Startup"
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What Entrepreneurs can Learn from President Obama's Communication Style
Suzanne Bates, author of the new book "Motivate Like a CEO: Communicate your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act!" has written a very timely article on what business leaders can learn from the communication style of President Obama:
What can leaders learn from Barack Obama's approach to communication? It really isn't about style. Every leader has to develop his or her own style, from interpersonal to platform skills. You find a way of communicating with people that is honest, effective, and authentic to you. The real takeaway from watching Mr. Obama begin his presidency is that in challenging times, leaders know that communication is everything. Sheperding your organization through the turmoil our economic meltdown requires you to put yourself at the center of the communication universe. You cannot view the communication "function" as such — something that "other people" manage and execute. You have to stand right there and make sure it happens — position yourself in the middle of the loop.
Read the full article “What Small Business Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Barack Obama's Communication Style"
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How a Small Business Entrepreneur can Take Advantage of the Recession
With the economy in doldrums, are you taking advantage of the opportunities this economic recession presents? Yes, even with all the layoffs and cost cuttings, there's some opportunities for the taking.
Some examples:
Purchase of vehicles for businesses — with the car industry reeling from the slump, there's a lot of deals waiting in the car dealerships. Now is the best time to upgrade your business vehicle, or buy the vehicle you need for your business. Cheaper tech gadgets — given the poor holiday season, sales are a plenty and prices of tech goodies have dropped significantly. And with Circuit City liquidating their stores, expect to find great deals on computers, software and other tech gadgets. Cheaper office supplies – now's the time to stock up on all office supplies and office equipment you may need. Hiring great employees — as other companies are issuing pink slips, you may be able to find the programmer or writer or assistant you've always needed. Find money making opportunities — as people react to the recession, now is the time to look closely at where demand lies. A building contractor affected by the mortgage meltdown may want to look at the green movemet in construction and discover a whole new niche (e.g. think alternative energy systems such as solar energy installations). Or as recession results to layoffs, more and more people will be looking for cheaper health care such as alternative medicines.
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Starting a Business and Finding Potential Customers
There's a question on Yahoo Answers from a man starting a web development business and he was asking how can he market his new business within his locality. So far, he's thinking of creating a flyer and giving the flyer door to door in his neighborhood. He was also thinking of inserting the flyers in cars in the malls.
There’s just so many wrong things with this shotgun approach, foremost of which is the assumption that everyone and anyone is a potential client. Nothing is farther from the truth: most of my neighbors, for example, are not thinking of creating a web presence and will never be interested in the services of a web development firm. Distributing flyers to these uninterested parties will be a waste of resources.
Whether you are starting a web design or a cleaning business, the first step is to determine exactly who will need the products or services you offer. Never make the assumption that the whole world is your target audience (wouldn't it be lovely, though).
Going back to the web development firm, if he wants to reach potential clients in his area then the first step is to research and segment his target market:
Businesses with existing websites that are well developed and excellent both in tems of design and functionalityBusinesses with existing websites but are poorly presented and executedBusinesses that do not have a website but should definitely have one businesses that do not have a website and may or may not benefit from a website
Doing the research can be time consuming, but understanding the needs of potential customers allow you to create a more effective sales presentation and approach. Marketing to each of them will be different: those with excellent looking websites may need a different type of service to those with a poor looking website. Take your time to research and selling could be easier
Another thing is the question of whether you'd really like to limit yourself to your geographic area. A cleaning business may have no choice but to work within their locality, but a web development firm can have a huge market around the world. Take a look at sites such as Guru.com or elance.com and try to find projects outside of your current geographic area. Demand is plenty, but the downside is that you will be competing with Indians and Russians who quote bargain basement prices.
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10 Ways to Market Your Event Planning Business
If you have an event planning business (or planning to start one), here are 10 ideas on how to market your business and get clients:
1. Hook up with big event planning companies. Some will give their overflow work to their subcontractors or they may even ask you to work with them on their projects. Good relationship with competitors can be beneficial
2. Find organizations in your area that conducts a lot of events and seminars, and offer to arrange it for them. Contact all the local clubs, sports clubs and churches and tell them about your service. For example, you can offer to plan an event for FREE, for your Chamber of Commerce, or any networking organizations to show your skills and talents.
3. Network, network and network. Get involved in local business organizations, examples: Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, Rotary Club, etc. Discuss your business with other business leaders to help ensure that you're on the top of their minds when they need an event planning organizer. On the Web, join professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com.
4. Contact every large business, restaurant and hotel in your area and tell them about your services. Cold call these businesses, doing research beforehand how the business handles events and who is in charge of contractors. Request for a meeting and meet them in person, rather than simply sending in a direct mail piece or brochure.
5. Attend all the wedding fairs and other trade show opportunities where you can appropriately participate.
6. Contact all the local radio stations and magazines and make friends with the editors and journalists. Explore opportunities where you can give advice on how to organize parties and events — from radio talk show guestings to writing articles for local newspapers.
7. Make it a point to ask referrals from your customers — don't just assume that they will refer you to their friends. Ask them to recommend you to anyone else they think could use your services
8. Create a website and make sure that it is listed in all local directories, on the web and off
9. Yellow page advertising - a significant portion of the population still looks at the yellow pages to find local service providers
10. Provide excellent service and customers are very likely to recomend you to other people. Word of mouth is an important marketing strategy for an event planning business, that you need to ensure that your clients can become ambassadors of your business. Ask your satisfied clients to post favorable reviews of your services in various local directories and sites such as AngiesList.com
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How to Sell During an Economic Downturn
During this time of economic recession, what is your sales strategy?
When times are tough, customers typically reduce spending. They cut back on their purchases, hold off buying, decrease their budgets, even look for alternative (cheaper) suppliers. And all these can wreak havoc on your business, as well.
Brent Holloway, co-author of the book Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology, recommends that now is the time to pump up your Sales 2.0 strategies. These covers the use of innovative sales strategies focusing on improving process and customer engagement, such as:
Selling more through video or web conferencing, saving on travel costs and increase selling time. Consider products and services, especially those of relatively small to average value, that can be sold profitably with a remote or low-touch sales model.Accurately capture key market information and metrics such as average sales cycle, average deal size and sales-cycle conversion rates. The information can help shape your sales strategy and better direct your resourcesExperiment and test: test a new sales message, pricing options, new technology, or even a new sales process
Tom Hopkins, in an article in Success Magazine , offers the following advice:
Get out of the "woe is me attitude" and instead focus on what's right with the world and your industry to come up with creative ideas for how you will continue to win business. Sit down and analyze what you're doing differently today from when you were at your peak performance. Contact your best accounts weekly during tough times to let them know you care.Take a lesson from the Energizer Bunny and just keep on going.
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Tax Tips for Home Business Entrepreneurs
It’s start of the year, and it's time to prepare your taxes for the past year. Bernard B. Kamoroff, C.P.A., author of the book “422 Tax Deductions for Businesses and Self Employed Individuals" (8th edition) offers a number of tips to help you save on your taxes:
Tax Tip 1. Your business expenses are deductible even if you paid them from your non-business bank account, personal credit card, or cash. Take a few minutes and go through all of your expenses for the year. If the expenses were for your business, deduct them. (Does not apply to corporations).
Tax Tip #2. Be careful when labeling expenses “entertainment.” Business expenses such as advertising and promotion are 100% deductible, but entertainment is only 50% deductible. Don’t call an expense “entertainment” unless it really is.
Tax Tip #3. Hire your kids and save a bundle in taxes. You can pay your children under the age of 18 as much as $5,700 a year, write off the wages as a 100% tax deductible payroll expense, and the children owe no federal income or Social Security tax on the income earned.
Tax Tip #4. You cannot deduct charitable donations as a business deduction (unless you are a corporation). If, however, you purchase an advertisement in a charitable organization’s directory or event program, the cost of the ad is fully deductible.
Tax Tip #5. Manufacturers, and some construction, engineering, and architecture firms, software developers, and video producers, are eligible for a 6% “manufacturer’s deduction” for income earned from domestic production. This “bonus” deduction is in addition to the deductions already allowed for manufacturing expenses.
Tax Tip #6. You can go back to school, to take courses that further your education in your current business or that help you operate your business, such as bookkeeping and computer skills, and get a business tax deduction for the cost of tuition, books, fees, and even travel.
Tax Tip #7. Clothing you wear to work is not usually deductible unless the clothing is a uniform or otherwise not suitable for street wear. But if you buy shirts, jackets, hats or other clothing with you business name or logo, the cost is fully deductible.
Tax Tip #8. In most cases, the cost of your inventory (goods for sale) cannot be written off until sold. But if you have damaged inventory, inventory that is out of date or out of fashion or otherwise unsalable, you can write off the cost of that inventory immediately.
For more tax tips, read the article “Seven Tax Tips for Home Businesses"
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New Year's Resolutions for Home Business Entrepreneur
Hope everyone is having a great holiday season, even if the economy is sagging and business owners like you and me are feeling the pinch.
It’s almost end of the year, and it's time again to draw up our New Year's resolutions for our businesses. Preparing resolutions for the next year is my sort of strategic planning session where I go through the exercise of thinking what happened this year, and what needs to be improved or tried differently next year.
George Rodriguez wrote a good list of tips for a better New Year in the article “8 Tips for a Successful New Year:"
Assess the past yearLook at everything with a fresh new perspective. Set your goals.Create your calendar of activities.Do the work! Pump up your networking. Try to learn something new this year.Keep your momentum going.
In addition to George's list, my main goal for next year is to work doubly hard to market our websites and increase traffic. It is important during times of recession to pump up your marketing efforts. Also this year, I will engage more in social marketing and understand how to use the best social networking sites to reach our target audience.
For more inspiration on how to plan your business for 2009, read the article “Top New Year Resolutions You can Make for Your Business" by Jan B. King that New York Times mentioned in a piece today.
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Christmas Shopping
I've just started on my Christmas shopping and now hoping that the gifts I bought online would arrive by December 24. It's a nail biting experience, with all the shipping unknowns (package got lost!)
Since I've got 3 kids, I buy mostly toys and learning tools. One thing that surprised me is the wide discrepancy of prices of the same item from one online store to the next, that it would be downright foolish not do any price comparison shopping.
For example, Vtech's Kidi Art Studio costs $59.99 at ToysrUs.com , $59.96 at Walmart.com , but only $47.99 at Amazon.com . But Amazon is not always the cheapest, especially if a third party seller is offering the item. Amazon sells the Tonka Bounce Back Racer for $59.99 but ToysRUs in their Biggest Toy Book Ever lists the item as costing only $24.99. That's more than half!!!
I’m just amazed at how significant the price difference of the same items on the Web. Unless you are looking for something unique offered only by 1 or 2 online sellers, it is imperative to do some sort of price comparison.
Like anything about running a business, price can be an important factor for customers — unless you differentiate yourself from the others where the customer will still buy from you even if you cost twice as much as the other seller.
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Business Ideas for Tough Economic Times
Given that we are in the middle of a recession, if you were to start a business, what would it be? Where do see the opportunity?
That’s a very interesting question to ponder, especially for entrepreneurs willing to capitalize on opportunities available.
I’ve seen a number of responses, blog posts, opinions on the types of businesses that could work in difficult times. Some of these include:
Provision of Financial advice. In times of confusion and fear — shrinking retirement funds, increasing debt, downhill investments, etc — there's a huge number of people who need guidance on the steps they need to take. Small business owners are looking for advice on how to deal with unexpected financial constraints. Families and individuals may be looking for advice on how to manage their finances given their new budget reality. Investors, particularly retirees, need help in protecting their nest eggs and finding any opportunities in a down market.
Eldercare. One reality we all face is that whether the economy is going up or down, we are all going to go old. Services such as adult daycare facilities are still going to be needed. However, if you are targeting the baby boomers market, most of which relies only their retirement funds (that may be shrinking) as their main source of income, this may be the group that will be tightening their belts even more. So niche travel for the active boomers may be hard hit during tough economic times.
Auto Repair and Maintenance. People tend to forego buying new cars when money becomes hard to come by and cheap credit is not as easy to get. Instead, they're more likely to keep their cars, which entails maintenance. As such, there is a big opportunity for this business when the market goes down. Let me know if you have any other ideas of the types of businesses that could work during a recession. Love to hear your thoughts!
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8 Factors to Get Customers to Recommend Your Store
The loyalty marketing consultant and magazine publisher Colloquy has created a Retail Loyalty Index to answer a key question: To which retailers do consumers profess their deepest loyalty, and why. The Index is based on a survey of 3,000 U.S. consumers in six demographic segments: Affluent household heads, Young Adults, Seniors, Women, Hispanics and a General Population control group.
One of the findings of the survey is that "Intent to Recommend" is the behavior retail shoppers associate most with brand loyalty. The survey dug deeper as to what a retail store can do to ensure that its shoppers recommend them to family and friends, and the top 8 factors are:
Store environmentQuality productValue for moneyKnowledgeable staffStore layoutProduct selectionFrequest sales/DealsConvenient location
Interesting to see that while location is considered an important factor in the success of a retail store, it is the quality of the store environment that will make customers actually want to recommend a store.
So for store owners out there, I suppose now is the time to start scrubbing those floors!
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Home Business Weekend Ideas During a Recession
Someone asked for advice on what part-time home business can he do now when the economy is in a recession. He is looking for a business that he can do from home on weekends. He has already tried getting a stall in the market, and offering DJ services — which both failed miserably.
When the economy gets tough, most people cut back on spending, especially for non-essentials and luxury items. So with the market stall business, the success of his weekend business depended on what he was trying to sell. Market stalls are not necessarily a bad idea as there will be plenty who are on the lookout for inexpensive gifts. But if he selling items that are priced way more than customers are willing to pay, or participate in flea markets with limited customer-base, then his venture may indeed be less than successful.
As for the DJ business, when the money is tight, partying is one luxury good that people stop doing. Even companies are cutting back on Christmas parties — and that means less demand for DJ services.
If you are thinking of starting a business during an economic downturn, ask yourself the following questions:
What do you like to do?What can you do?How much money can you spend for this business?Are you willing to learn?Do some research as to what people still buy and use during times of recession. Food, for example, is definitely one — no matter how much the economy is tanking, people will still eat and people will still buy food (they may not buy that Chanel shades or that Hermes scarf, but they will still have to buy bread or rice)
Are there opportunities you can take advantage of at this time? For example, as money gets tighter and cheap credit becomes tougher to get, people will have to spend money on maintaining/fixing the cars they already own rather than buying new ones. An auto repair business. while not part-time, may have some potential. You can opt to go with an automobile franchise, or find a troubled shop with potential to buy at a bargain price.
Make a list of what you can do and what you want to do. If food, can you bake? Can you cook something that you can sell during weekends? Can you write? Then create a blog where you earn via advertising, or sell your writings services. There are a lot of choices. It all depends on what you want to do
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New Service to Monetize Your Website
If you're thinking of earning from your expertise — whether presenting yourself as a consultant or as an expert in your field — there's a new web tool that will allow you to earn money from your blog or website.
SpeaktoMe Expert Services http://www.speak-tome.com/ offers a widget that makes giving expert paid advice to clients easier. The widget, which you put into your blog or website, allows you to be connected to your client over a regular phone line while paying you by the minute. Your clients can sign in, add funds and click on the "speak to me" link. The service is free to you, but SpeakToMe takes a total of 20% of the revenues you generate from your clients (you get 80%).
I have not personally tried the widget, nor have I signed up for the program (I prefer email than phone consulting). I was contacted by the company founder to let me know of this new tool. If you are intrigued as I am, check out the program and maybe try it and see how much earnings it can give you.
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Starting a Laundromat Business
If you are thinking of starting a laudromat business, here are important factors to consider:
1. Location = Location is key to the success of a laundry mat business. Location is all about proximity to the target demographic market and placement in an area that is convenient, with lots of parking, and affordable rent (you don't want to price yourself out of the market because your lease is too high). Most users of Laundromats will not drive 10 miles to go wash their clothes. The ideal location is typically in a nice small shopping center of a poor to lower-middle class neighborhood. Choose one with nearby apartment complexes.
2. Presence of Target Market. You want to be very near, if not really close, to your target market — poor to lower-middle class who are more likely to not have washers/driers installed in their homes.
Do a research of the area, including median incomes, facilities/utilities offered by apartment complexes in the area, and whether the population is growing or shrinking. Check also the upward mobility of the area – e.g. a low-income area being rehabilitated may turn into a high-end area full of upscale condominiums and townhouses in the next 5 years, which will not need a Laundromat and thus spell the end for your business.
It may be helpful to talk to your target market and ask them about their usage and preferences for laundry mat services.
How often do they have to wash load-wise per visit? What do they look for in such a service? How often do they use a laundry mat? Are they satisfied with their current laundry mats, and why?
3. Presence of Competitors. If possible, try to find a place where yours is the sole laundromat in this neighborhood and surrounded by residences, that there is no potential for a competitor.
4. Setting Your Laundromat Ahead of Competitors. It is important to set your Laundromat apart from other competitors in the neighborhood. One way is to offer wider variety of services and focusing on convenience. Those services include folding and potentially pick-up/delivery service, as well as online reservation and membership for pick-up and delivery.
5. Environment: Your Laundromat should be squeaky clean and orderly, with space for customers to help manage their loads. It is important to provide an environment conducive to giving clean, friendly, and professional service.
6. Reputation: A reputation resulting from friendly, professional service, clean environment and reliable machines will encourage customers to return. The best method of advertising a Laundromat business is through word-of-mouth, with neighbors telling other neighbors of their favorite laundry places. You may want to boost your word of mouth strength with an incentive program for referrals. Those customers who refer someone else to the store will be rewarded with two free washes, and the referee will receive an introductory gift of a free wash.
In a previous post I did - “Starting a Coin Laundry Business" — I have included some geat resources for starting a Laundromat business. Also check out The Laundry Capitalist blog which is about starting and owning a laundry mat business.
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Explore More Payment Options for Your Buyers
Much ado has been made about the comeback of layaway programs. KMart is even advertising heavily their layaway program, which allows customers to pay the item over an 8-week period
During these tough economic times, take the cue from big retailers and explore more payment (even credit) alternatives for your customers. The goal is to entice customers to spend — and spend more — from your store or website, and the key is to make it easy for them to pay for the items.
Some payment options to consider include
credit card payments from leading brand Visa, MasterCard, American Express and DiscoverPaypal Google CheckoutOnline banking options such as eBillMeDeferred billing such as Bill Me Later private label gift cards easy monthly payment options such as the payment scheme offered by Ice.com
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Top Ten Ways to Bring Holiday Joy to Your Small Business
According to the recent news item from Intuit that we posted in our Small Business News section, with the current state of the economy, many small businesses are struggling to get paid for the products and services they provide. In fact, on average small business owners lose close to $1,500 in overdue or no payments a month, as found by the recent Intuit Billing Manager “Get Paid” Survey.
In response to the survey, Mike McDerment, CEO of the online invoicing service FreshBooks , identified 10 tips to help small businesses address their receivables problem and allow small businesses to enjoy the holidays.
Bill Clients Early: This will make sure you are paid in time for the holidays, and also that your clients will be satisfied with the great services they are receiving. Make Billing So Simple That an Elf Could Do it: If you make bill paying difficult, you are guaranteed to lose money. Try to provide debtors with easy, convenient options to submit payment. Add a Holiday Greeting Message: Get your customers into the holiday spirit with a joyful greeting message during the holiday season – it will put a smile on their face and make them appreciate your service more. Take Advantage of the Moment: During the planning stages of a project, most people are excited and tend to be more flexible. Use this opportunity to request a partial payment. Use Online Recurring Invoices: Spending hours on tedious paperwork takes time away from enjoying the holidays with friends and family. Don’t turn into the Grinch; use online recurring invoicing services and invest your time elsewhere. Automatic Late Payment Reminders: Alleviate holiday stress by establishing a system that will inform you and your clients of late accounts. Remember: the sooner that you are aware of a delinquency; the sooner you will receive payment. Keep Employee Morale Up: Everyone enjoys being happy around the holidays. Keeping employees happy will also keep them efficient, and efficient employees will bring in greater revenue for a business. By keeping your employees worry-free, they will become a valuable asset. Schedule activities, company outings, anything that keeps the “job family” performing. Your Customers are Your Best Friends: What is the holiday season without close friends to share the joy. Treat customers as you would treat your best friends. For example, small gestures such as sending holiday packages during the year let your customers know that you care for them, and are truly grateful for their business. More importantly, the kind gestures prove that you can be trusted upon independent of economic trends. Make a Good Impression: Embrace the holiday joy and make sure you demonstrate a positive and lasting first impression. Whether you provide a product or a service, caring for your customers with proper support is crucial. Providing good customer service demonstrates that you are a professional and you will take care of business and customers respectfully. Review Company Year-End Spending: Keep funds in order. Keep only what you need but guarantee that bills like the office lease, employee salary, & other overhead costs are met first. This should be done every 6 months to maximize growth. Furthermore, keeping up with current marketing trends will help your business better evaluate what needs to be spent on and what would be a waste of funds.
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Ebay Sellers: IRS Wants You to Declare Your Income
In an effort to narrow the tax gap, IRS has been going after eBay and other auction sites for years. The IRS estimates that unpaid taxes from individuals, as opposed to big corporations, account for more than 70% of the tax gap.
And within that group, the self-employed are considered the biggest offenders comprising roughly one-third of the tax gap, many of whom use eBay and online auctions. The IRS suspects that many eBay and online auction sellers have not been declaring their incomes properly. eBay also has been dodging government requests to report their sellers income, and IRS sure wants their money (Read Frivolous Arguments to Avoid When Filing a Return or Tax Refund )
But that is now about to change.
This year as part of the housing rescue package signed by President Bush, IRS will require PayPal and other processors of online payments to report annual gross receipts to the IRS for all but the smallest online merchants (the wonders of bill lobbying — how does this relate to housing rescue???). The new law requires credit card companies and third party payment processing such as Paypal to report to the IRS payments made to small businesses and other self-employed workers. That would allow the IRS to compare the self-employed workers' tax returns with the payments and determine whether they're underreporting their income.
The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 expressly says that:
SEC. 6050W. RETURNS RELATING TO PAYMENTS MADE IN SETTLEMENT OF PAYMENT CARD AND THIRD PARTY NETWORK TRANSACTIONS.
(a) In General- Each payment settlement entity shall make a return for each calendar year setting forth–
(1) the name, address, and TIN of each participating payee to whom one or more payments in settlement of reportable payment transactions are made, and
(2) the gross amount of the reportable payment transactions with respect to each such participating payee.With eBay almost requiring the use of Paypal to their sellers, there's no escaping the claws of the IRS. Sellers now have no choice but to report their eBay income (or at least those processed through Paypal) in their tax returns next year.
For those who have not been declaring their online auction income, you use Schedule C Profit and Loss. The good part is that by reporting your income, you can also deduct your expenses resulting from your business activity, such as home office use, packaging and shipping supplies, eBay and Paypal fees, among others.
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How to Rank Well in Google
If you are looking to improve your rankings in Google or reach the top 10 (if not the #1 spot) in Google, I highly recommend downloading Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide which Google released on Nov 12 through their official blog
The guide has all the information you need to do well in Google as they basically lay out:
how to make use of your description metatag how to improve the structure of your URLs how to make your site easy to navigate how to write anchor text how to use heading tags properly how to optimize the use of your images how to make effective use of your robots.txt file how to promote your website
And of course, creating QUALITY CONTENT for your site
This document is created by Google, and the tips on how to rank well comes straight from the horse's mouth. It can help ordinary web site owners understand how their site can get to the top in Google, not to mention that it helps remove the half truths and myths on how to do well in Google.
The information is basic search engine optimization (but don't we often stumble on the most basic of things?), but what I like about it the paper is their Good Practices section. The paper cites examples on what Google considers are good practices for promoting your website, and this is important.
Download Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF format) . For added information, read the Q&A in the October 08 chatfest of Google with webmasters around the world.
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Delays When Starting a Business
Someone asked an interesting question: "Is it normal to run into delays with a new business BEFORE you even get started?"
The asker has been focused on her new business and has been working hard to get everything in order. Alas, things are not working out as planned and she has experienced delays and other challenges. Now she wants to know if delays are normal, and whether she is not trying hard enough.
Business experts typically say that when starting a business, you need to research thoroughly and know what to expect. You need to understand potential problems and risks accompanying each step — and then make plans to minimize if not totally eliminate those risks.
Unfortunately, many small and home based entrepreneurs, especially first time entrepreneurs, don't usually go through a systematic and informed process in starting a business. Most are driven by passion or just the idea of starting a business, and then run away with it. They do not evaluate the risks of each step. Heck, they are not even aware of the risks they are about to face.
As a result, problems crop up and throws them a curveball. The asker, for example, had trouble finding the right programmer to develop the website she envisions at the price she can afford. Another thought that she can get a credit line with wholesalers and manufacturers, only to find that she is required to pay upfront given the newness of the business and the account. Or another startup entrepreneur who thought that finding customers for the business is a breeze, only to find that it is tough to even get a single client. And so on and so forth.
It would really be nice to be a psychic and see what challenges starting a business will bring. Alas, not many have a gift to see the future or at least have the wherewithal to analyze potential risks.
But more importantly, the lady who asked must learn from her mistakes. The mark of successful entrepreneurs is their ability to bounce back from adversities. Understand what went wrong, and find out how she can improve on what she did. Take for example the hiring of programmers — should she have done a better job in investigating the claims of the programmers' capabilities; should she have thought more about the project to have a clearer goals and objectives; should she have been clearer on the deliverables and the time frames, etc.
Remember, businesses both big and small experience curveballs and delays, though what separates the great businesses from failed businesses is the speed with which they realize and correct their mistakes.
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Start Up Capital: Can You Afford to Start Your Business?
Oftentimes, passion and commitment to a business idea is not enough to successfully start a business. You need the resources to see that vision into a thriving business.
Alas, a lot of home business entrepreneurs find it hard to raise the capital they need to jumpstart their businesses and realize their entrepreneurial dreams. They just don't have the money to start their businesses.
I’ve talked to some would-be entrepreneurs whose planned businesses are too grandiose for their pockets. For example, there's this retiree who wants to start a sit down restaurant when his budget cannot even afford a kiosk in the mall. Or a woman who wants to start a clothing line but has no capital whatsoever.
As I said, it's great to have a strong passion for a business idea. But it is important to match the dream with how much money you actually have or can raise for the business.
When starting a business, therefore, you need to:
know your startup costsestimate the working capital you needcalculate the money you need to open and run the businessMake a list of all items you will need to start this business. Research as much as you can — to the smallest cost expense if possible — all the expense items you will need. Startup costs could include
rental or lease fees, if applicable beginning inventorycapital expenditures such as vehicle, furniture and equipmentpublic utilitiesremodeling or building workoffice supplieslicenses and permitsadvertising and marketingother startup expenses
For your working capital, you will need to know the monthly cash requirements of your business particularly employees salaries, among ohers
Palo Alto has a startup costs calculator that you can use to estimate the startup costs you need
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High-End Undergarments: A Business Suitable for Bad Economies
Many entrepreneurs are asking, "What businesses are good to start when the economy is bad?"
This rationale given by supermodel Elle MacPherson in an interview with Daily Express in launching her high-end line of undergarments Elle MacPherson Intimates really cracked me up:
“For every down-at-heel hedge fund manager who has had to ditch his mistress due to financial hardship there’s always another waiting to step in … And in these hard times you find that when a woman can’t afford a dress in the luxury echelons, she may opt instead to part with ($32) on underwear that makes her feel good.” Makes sense, doesn't it?
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Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0 Advertising
Social media marketing is an area that I am very interested in. It took me awhile to get into the game, and now I am enjoying connecting with people in Facebook and LinkedIn. But I am still learning the ropes as to how to use these Web 2.0 websites to market a business and connect with customers.
That’s why I was happy to discover the book "Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World" by Tracy Tuten. The book is an overview of how social media and virtual worlds works, and how these sites can be used to engage users to a brand and to market the business.
At cursory glance, the book offers a theoretical and technical guide to social media marketing (as opposed to a practical how-to guide) with chapter titles such as "Socialcentricity and the Emergence of Social Media Marketing." Ugghh … too technical for my morning brain. But after several days of hesitation, I grabbed the book and much to my surprise, enjoyed it.
The author separated the various types of social media — social networks such as MySpace and Facebook, virtual worlds such as Second Life and MTV's Virtual Worlds, youth oriented virtual worlds such as Webkidz and Club Penguin, social news media and bookmarking sites, consumer-generated advertising, consumer product reviews and alternate reality games. According to Ms. Tuten, Web 2.o communities allow for a number of promotional possibilities:
Build brand awarenessMaximize cross- and within-media integrationResearch consumer behaviourDevelop ideas for new marketing strategiesDrive traffic to corporate websitesIncrease site stickiness, extending the brand message's exposure timeGarner publicity from news coverage of social media tacticsImprove search engine rankings (due to organic links)Build awareness of the brandEnhance the brand's reputation and imageEncourage message internalizationIncrease product salesAccomplish marketing goals with efficiencyEngage customers in a brand experienceRecognizing that each social media websites have unique characteristics, the author then discussed the opportunities for marketers to build brand engagement for each site. What I liked best though are the concrete examples she gave of companies who have successfully used (as well as those who have failed) these social media platforms to advertise and market their businesses. For example, IBM invited 300,000 people to participate in a product brainstorming session in Second Life.
If you are thinking of embarking on social media marketing, the author provided a number of questions to guide you:
Does the culture of social media fit your brand's positioning or fit with how your brand wishes to be perceived? Do you know where online your customers and prospects are? There are many social media communities. A brand must be able to locate its target audience in the social media landscape. Are the relevant communities open and welcoming to brand participation? What opportunities exist within each community for brand promotion? Do you have the resources of time and money to commut to the campaign? Do you have a hook, a conversation starter, a point of engagement - something that will inspire interaction with your brand? Are you willing to take risks?
Read the following articles from Ms. Tuten and excerpt of her book to learn more about social marketing
“Lessons Learned from Second Life" “Shedding Light on Dark Marketing and Alternative Reality Games (ARG)" Friendvertising: Advertising and Brand Building With Social Networks
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Business Legal Structure and Tax Implications
One of the important questions when starting a business is finding the right legal structure for that business — and understanding the tax implications of that legal structure. Here is one question from one of our readers sent via our Consult Your Guides service:
Q. I have three small business operating as corporations and my objective is to find the best protection (limit liability) and gain tax advantage. My question, firstly is whether I can open up a parent holding company, a LLC, (can a holding company be an LLC?) which will then own the three corporations.
Secondly, should I open that parent LLC and make each of the three corporations LLCs also or do I really need to have a parent LLC or can I just convert the three corporations into three LLCs without opening a new umberella parent LLC.
Thirdly, one of the three corporations can convert into an LLC and own the other two. Again, the other two can remain as corporations or become LLCs. I own all three companies and I intend to be the boss in whatever direction I choose to go into with the structure change. Please advise … Salman, Florida
Read the response of our incorporation expert Chrissie Mould “Objective: Limiting Liability and Gain Tax Advantage For Corporations" . You can also check out other questions on business legal structure, tax, licenses and other regulatory requirements.
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Article Marketing and How it Impacts Search Engine Rankings
I attended today a 2-hour Google Webmaster Event ("Tricks and Treats") hosted by several Google employees and attended by 400+ webmasters around the world. After the presentations, participants can ask questions for Google employees to answer.
Being in the business of information publishing, one question caught my eye — that of article marketing and its impact on Google rankings. One of the common ways to inexpensively market a web site is through article marketing, which entails writing and submitting articles to article directory sites. The goal is to have as many websites use the article thereby building your reputation and getting more links to your site.
Alas, the article marketing strategy has started to show its cracks. Here is the question raised by a participant in the Google Moderator site for the Tricks and Treats event and answered by Google's head of web spam team Matt Cutts:
QUESTION:
“Until recently (the last six months or so) a high ranking was achievable by submitting articles to article directories (providing they were 40%-60% unique), it no longer seems to be the case. Have links from article sites been de-valued at all?" ANSWER By Matt Cutts:
In my experience, not every article directory site is high-quality. Sometimes you see a ton of articles copied all over the place, and it's hard to even find original content on the site. The user experience for a lot of those article directory sites can be pretty bad too. So you'd see users landing on those sorts of pages have a bad experience. If you're thinking of boosting your reputation and getting to be well-known, I might not start as the very first thing with an article directory. Sometimes it's nice to get to be known a little better before jumping in and submitting a ton of articles as the first thing.
If you must do article marketing, be sure that the directory you will submit your articles are high quality. Submit only to those directories that are selective and reviews the submissions before inclusion in the directory. Avoid article directories that accepts articles from anyone on any topic imaginable.
Google has become smart about article marketing. As the guy who posted the question inferred, article submission may not give you any boost in terms of pagerank and rankings, thereby just wasting your time.
You can read other important search engine lessons — from Googlers themselves — in the Google Moderator page of the Tricks and Treats event
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Selling on QVC Home Shopping Network
If you want instant — and HUGE — exposure for your product, check out home shopping networks such as QVC. If you've got the right product, QVC can be an excellent distribution channel.
QVC has been instrumental in the success of many products. Footless hosiery Spanx first appeared in QVC in May 2001 and sold 8,000 pairs in under eight minutes. Necklace extender Shooks sold $37,128 worth of products in less than five minutes, while the illuminated fragrance jar of Potpourri Glo sold $39,018 worth of products. And the list goes on and on.
But selling on QVC has its advantages and disadvantages that you should consider. While the network offers an incredible opportunity to new entrepreneurs, potential participants should also understand that they’ll assume some risk should their product be chosen.
Advantages
Television allows for three dimensional demonstrations of your product. Through your story and live presentation, you can convince the customers of the benefits your product can offer.Response can be instantaneous. If your product resonates with the audience, home shopping networks can allow you to move thousands of units of your products in a few minutes. Huge distribution potential. As amazing as that is for an unknown merchant hawking an unknown product, the feat is repeated over and over again during the show. Ability to reach wide geographic targeting of audience. Venue allows for feedback from buyers. The company encourages feedback from its customers and so remains aware of what they want.
Disadvantages
Getting in on the show is tough. On average QVC receives 20,000 applications a year, only 4 percent of those landed on the show. Huge inventory requirements. You will be required to have enough inventory in stock prior to your appearance in the show. But you will be paid only if and when QVC sells your product.Rigorous quality tests. Your products must pass QVC quality standards. Depending how much you want your product to be on QVC, you must be willing to change the packaging or even the use of your products as you've envisioned it to be in order to be acceptable to QVC audienceQVC can remove your items. QVC's success stems from listening to their customers. As such, they take no chances with their products and will quickly remove any item that gets complaints totaling more than one percent of units shipped.
If you think QVC is right for you, visit their QVC Product Search website to learn about the process of pitching your products to QVC
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Starting a Business: Pursue Your Passion
One way to start your business is to find your passions, and build on the things you are passionate about to create a successful business.
Diane Dreher, author of the book "Your Personal Renaissance: Twelve Steps to Finding Your Life's True Calling" defines passion as the "collection of innate talents that drive them." But can passion be the key to the success of a business?
Starting a business that revolves around that passion ensures that you will enjoy what you will be doing. And this is very important. Starting a business is hard and requires persistence, hard work, time and commitment — and feeling passionate about what you do in your business can help sustain you even during bad times. As others have said — Do what you love and money will follow.
However, it is important to ask the following questions when starting a business:
Can your passion be a profitable business? Do you have unrealistic expectations about your passion?Are you making sound business decisions, or are your passions taking you too far?Can you create new passions instead?
Passion can be a good starting point. BUT — passion should be combined with clear opportunities and need in the marketplace. You can't start a business based on your passions when there's no demand for it. You need to listen to the marketplace and find how your passions can address the needs of your potential customers.
And if your passions really do not work that well in business, you can learn new passions.
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How to Sell to a Big Company
Selling your products or services to a big company can be a huge boost for your small or home-based business. Imagine Wal-Mart carrying your product or Carlson Group hiring you to train their employees. That would be a great accomplishment!
However, it is not easy, especially if you are just a new company without a wide portfolio of customers or a strong brand. Plus, competition is often tough as everyone wants to get that big account. You will be up against other businesses — both big and small.
The article “How to Sell to a Big Company: Small Business Guide to Offering Products or Services to Big Businesses" offers tips on how to get that large business by helping you understand what a big business typically looks for when considering your small business to become their supplier or partner. Here's what big businesses consider:
Your credibility as well as that of your founding team (if any)Quality of your presentationReadiness for business and hard workStrength of your offerCostFlexibility Company's relationship with existing suppliersWillingness to offer free trialRead the full article
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Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web
Success on the Web starts with the quality of your content. It is your content that engages the visitors, and turns these visitors to buyers for ecommerce sites. Your site's traffic depends on how well you write your content, and how well you understand what search engines look for in a site content.
One common mistake I see from small business entrepreneurs, particularly the newbies, is that they are always on the lookout for shortcuts to get huge traffic. They look for programs or banner exchange schemes that can give them 100,000 visitors quickly. Many even turn to the dark side and spam the search engines, thinking that they can trick Google and other search engines. They overlook the simpliest secret to success on the Web — content.
If you want your website or blog to succeed, grab a copy of Jon Wuebben's new book "Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web." This is the best book I've read on the topic of writing on the Web in a way that search engines love (afterall, what's the point of writing on the Web when your website is nowhere to be found?). The author provides an excellent guide on how to present your product and teaches you how to use the right keywords in your site copy, among other important tips.
I interviewed Jon Wuebben (JW) on the importance of writing copy that search engines love and compel visitors to buy, and here are his tips:
How important is writing optimized, compelling and keyword-rich copy on the Web, particularly for small businesses?
JW: It’s critically important because it can help your site move up to page 1 in the search engines for your keyword phrases, which in turn gets people to click on your site, which means more leads and more sales. It’s that simple. And it’s the most affordable marketing option you have. It will pay dividends for years to come.
What are the top 5 tips to remember when writing content for the Web?
Use keywordsUse a call to actionWrite lots of different things – web pages, blog posts, press releases, articles and moreWrite about benefitsWrite often! How can writing well on the Web enable small businesses to compete with the big boys?
JW: The web doesn’t discriminate between large and small companies. Your site can rank above a Fortune 100 brand simply by writing compelling, keyword rich content – it happens all the time. That means you have a fair shake at the business. And that never could have happened before the web. Plus, many people like to give business to young, growing companies. So, positioning yourself well can be huge.
What are the most common mistakes in SEO copywriting?
JW: Most businesses don’t understand how important their “meta” tags are in the code of their web pages. This is an important place for keyword content. There are two tags that are critically important> the title tag and description tag.
The title tag is what appears at the very top of your browser window and should be a string of 2 -3 keyword phrases or a “headline” that incorporates an important keyword phrase. Its also what appears first in the search engine results pages when people search for you, hence the “headline” concept – you want to them to click on your title tag so they will come to your site and find out more about you.
The description meta tag explains what the page is about and is also a place where you want to use those same keyword phrases that were in the Title tag.
Also – and here’s a biggie - Every page should have unique title and description tags. This is probably the biggest offense that websites make, I see it all the time.
What other lessons can you share to small businesses regarding copywriting Web content?
JW: Look for a good niche and start a blog. It’s the single best thing you can do right now to maximize your online presence through the power of words.
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How Can a Small Business Provide Excellent Customer Service
In this economically challenging times, excellent customer service becomes even more important for home-based and small businesses. Excellent customer service can help you retain the customers you need to keep your business afloat, or with a lot of good luck and great strategy, even thriving.
But how do you know if you are providing the kind of service your customer wants and needs?
I interviewed Kathy Doering, President of market research agency Ann Michaels & Associates, Ltd. http://www.ishopforyou.com/ , on the importance of customer service to a company. Kathy is well entrenched in the business of customer service as her company offers various market research services such as mystery shopping, phone and web based surveys, social media monitoring, among other services.
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
How important is customer service to the success of a business?
Kathy: Customer service is the lifeline of any business. Business owners spend large amounts of time and money to win new customers but yet they don’t do much to insure that the customer is well taken care of once they arrive. Making sure your new customers turn into loyal customer is critical to a company’s success. Loyal customers create “word of mouth” advertising which is the best form of marketing a company can do.
How can a small business leverage customer service to compete effectively?
Kathy: Small Business owners should consider offering their loyal customers something to thank them for their patronage. Little touches go a long way and they don’t have to be expensive. Sending a personal email alerting a loyal customer of a sale before the general public learns of it is a great way to personalize service. Give customers the Disney experience whenever you can. Gather ideas from your employees. Since they deal with your customers on a day to day basis, they may have some create ideas to share as well.
Read the full interview “Excellent Customer Service: A Must for Small Businesses"
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10 Things Small Businesses Can Do During a Financial Crisis
If you have invested in stocks, chances are like me, you'd be having a heart attack when looking at your portfolio. My cure is simple: just don't look at it right now. When things go down, it always go up — maybe not next month, but next year or so. Hopefully.
Congress has just rejected the $700 billion financial bailout package and the stock market plunged 777 points, the worst sell off since 9/11 attacks. WashingtonPost.com has a breakdown of the final bailout bill while the Heritage Foundation has a good initial review of the bailout agreement. It's a scary world out there, moreso for those who have been hit hard by this housing and financial crisis. President Bush's address to the nation regarding the bailout package was the first time I listened to him in a very long time without switching the TV to home makeover shows on HGTV instead.
As a small business owner, what are you supposed to do during this time of financial crisis? Here are some thoughts:
Hold on tight. Breathe. Keep calm and be positive. And if I may repeat my point above: while things look bleak today, things will be better tomorrow.
More importantly, hold on to your cash. With banks tumbling one after the other, credits are tightening everywhere. To get any type of credit, you need more equity, assets, collateral and downpayment. Keep a close eye on your cashflow and preserve your cash. As the failed giant companies have shown, liquidity is important and if you run out of cash, then you'd be in big trouble. For example, if you have the option to lease, lease instead of buying. You need to have cash now.
Improve your balance sheet. Decrease your receivables and go aggressively to collect on those non-payers. Assess your inventory and plan how to turn them into cash if you cannot sell them. If you will need financing, consider alternative sources of financing instead of commercial credit.
Reduce your fixed costs. Now is the time to review your expenses and cut on unnecessary spending. Find deals everywhere — barter, negotiate, ask for a discount and don't pay for the full price. Run as lean as you can.
Keep a close eye on opportunities for this market. In a depression, it's an entirely different world, but it doesn't mean that there are no opportunities out there.
Take note how this downturn is affecting your customers — and determine what can you provide them. You may have some products that you can repackage or market differently to suit the current market conditions.
Review your business model. Is the market for your existing products shrinking? Or are there products that may be needed when the market starts to rebound? Revisit your business plan (if any) and take this time to reassess the direction of your business.
Market, market and market your business. Now is the time to pump up the marketing. Use guerrila marketing techniques to save on your resources and grow at a fraction of the cost. Find ways you can advertise your business without going bankrupt yourself. Find cobranding partners. And yes, market to your existing customers by giving top quality service so they can spread the word about your business.
Develop multiple streams of revenue. Like stock portfolios, diversification can help you weather downturns in the economy. Determine if there are opportunities to earn from referrals, advertising, product sales, leads for traditional follow-up, and information. If you have a retail store, think of what else can you sell in your store that customers would want.
Start preparing for the turnaround. Keep an eye for the future. Things will be better, and when it does, you need to think how you can take advantage of the better economic environment. You need to be prepared NOW when the market is still in the doldrums; instead of thinking how to take advantage of the opportunities when the market is already starting to recover (you'd be left behind).
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Entrepreneurship and Work-Life Balance
I've been reading the book "How We Lead Matters: Reflection on a Life of Leadership" by Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and former CEO of Carlson. Carlson is one of the largest family owned businesses today and includes a wide variety of travel and entertainment businesses such as Radisson, Country Inns & Suites, Regent, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant chain.
The book is a collection of stories, thoughts and reflections of Ms. Nelson. Forbes magazine has regularly named Marilyn Carlson Nelson one of “The World’s Most Powerful Women It is not the this-is-why-I-am-great book, but rather, the book is a collection of stories and reflections in life of Ms. Carlson.
One of the topics Ms. Nelson talked about in the book is work-life balance. Whether you are a solo home-based entrepreneur or Chairman of a billion dollar conglomerate, balancing family life and work will always be a constant struggle. There will always be an email to send, a paper to write, a customer to call, and a decision to make. It can be tough juggling work, career and family, more so if you have little kids.
I agree with what Ms. Nelson had to say about achieving work/life balance. She admits that she's not particularly successful at balance, but she is conscious of the choices she is making and rationalized it over time
As Ms. Nelson wrote,
The fact is that home life isn't balanced … life itself is almost always unbalanced. But you try to keep your priorities. The trick is to make sure you have some ability to know when you and your family are seriously out of balance and be willing to adjust.
Sometimes we say we want balance but we don't want to pay for it. A man who
worked for Carlson very successfully for several years turned down a promotion because it required travel which would have meant that he would have to give up
coaching his kid's team. Now, that's a realistic approach to balance.
Life is long, and in the end, you may be able to have it all … just not all on the same day.
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How to Position Your Online Retail Business When the Economy is Down
I was just listening to the late night news, and they reported that the upcoming Holloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons may not be merry holiday seasons for retailers. As the financial markets crisis deepen, there are fears that people will not spend as much this year for gifts, holiday preparations and other items (worse, they may not have anything to spend at all).
So how do you position your online retail store to ride out this tide of bad news and emerge with strong sales during the holiday season? It's a tough ordeal but here are some suggestions:
Emphasize the convenience and savings in gas, time and money for shopping in your online store instead of driving to the mall. There are no lines, no parking hassles, no parking fees, and no crowd. Plus, no waiting for the store to open because your ecommerce store is open 24/7. Use this pitch in your email campaigns and in the copy of your website Depending on what you sell, present yourself as a one stop shop where customers can get most (if not all) of the gifts for their list. If you have not done so, invest in technology that will allow your online store to include gift recommendations and guides as well as gift finders. Consider free shipping — with conditions. You may choose to give free shipping only to those who spend a certain amount (e.g. $75 worth of items) or to your email subscribers or to your best customers (assuming of course you are tracking who your best customers are) Give free gift cards or discounted offers on the next purchase. In lieu of free shipping, you can offer a discount for repeat purchases within a certain timeframe. Since the customer has bought gifts for the people in their list, why not entice them with discounts so they can buy gifts for themselves instead? Promote gift cards. Gift cards have become the gift of choice of many gift givers. It is so convenient, and ensures that the recipients will actually love their gifts. Review your sales copy. Make sure you clarify your store's value proposition. The last thing you'd want is for the customer to check out your product — and then buy it from another store. Put yourself in the shoes of the customers and ask, "Why should I buy from you?"
And if you haven't done so already, start marketing your holiday sales now.
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Randy Pausch’s Lecture on Time Management
Randy Pausch, author of the best seller The Last Lecture, gave a very inspiring lecture at the University of Virginia on time management. A computer science professor, there are definitely more famous time management gurus than him. But what makes this lecture special is the fact that this is a man dying of cancer, yet he is talking about time management.
Randy broke into the scene, so to speak, when he was asked to participate in the last lecture series at the Carnegie Mellon University. His last lecture was called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Unlike other lecturers who was asked to pretend that the lecture is their last, Randy knew that he was living on borrowed time. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and given only 3-6 months of "good health". His lecture was turned into a book.
Randy died on July 25, 2008. Be inspired and learn from this special man. Watch the
Time Management lecture video
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10 Critical Elements to a Successful Google Adwords Campaign
Search engine marketing company MoreVisibility.com has released an informative white paper on how to achieve your desired return on investment using Google Adwords.
If you are using Google Adwords, or would like to have some ideas on how to do pay per click marketing without busting your budgets, here are their 10 tips:
Keep your campaigns and ad groups tightly themed, as this will allow you tailor your ad copy more accurately. Also, this could also help Google determine the context of your groups, particularly if you have opted in the Content Network.Use analytics and conversion tracking tools, including the tools offered by Google. These tools can help you optimize your ads and make bidding decisions.Test, test and test. You can only know if you are employing the best strategy if you compare it with something else. Google Website Optimizer tool , for example, helps you test the effectiveness of your landing pages.Monitor and improve your quality score. The quality score can impact your visibility and ad costs in Google. Have a good mix of short and long tail terms in your campaign. The more generic or broad keywords are more costly and tend to generate less qualified visitors. Use the Keyword Research Tool.Use the campaign options Adwords offer such as Geographic Targeting. Break your keywords or ad groups into separate campaigns if you are going to target some specific areas vis-a-vis your country or world.Use Day Parting/Ad Scheduler option if you offer users the option of calling you but you are not available 24/7. Also consider this option if you have an idea regarding traffic patterns of your site.Consider using staggered budget delivery if you are running timed promotions or offline marketing efforts so your ads achieve the maximum exposure when you need it most. However, be careful when using this option.Consider Google options beyond traditional Adwords, including TV, print, mobile, radio, display and video ads. Also consider placement targeting. Also, consider Google Ad Planner http://www.google.com/adplanner to allow you to research the sites associated with your target audience.Analyze competitive sites and user behavior with Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends . The Trends for Website feature allow you to view and export data on how popular your site is compared with your competitors.
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Book Review: How to Succeed in Business Using LinkeIn
I was excited to get the book "How to Succeed in Business Using LinkedIn" by Eric Butow and Kathleen Taylor. I think I am one of the few remaining business people who do not have a LinkedIn profile as yet, and I was hoping this book would give me the reason why I should use it and how I should use it to further my business goals.
But I was turned off by its technical formatting ala books such as "Microsoft Powerpoint Step by Step." The book focuses too much on explaining each and every button and feature of LinkedIn — from discussing the elements of the LinkedIn homepage to inviting contacts to connect to how to search for possible contacts. It feels like the Customer Service section of LinkedIn in book format. If you want a step by step guide to using LinkedIn, this is the book for you.
For example, the book lays out the various account options of LinkedIn including the paid ones. But it fails to tell me which plan is suitable given my possible objectives for joining. Or even why I should pay for the upgraded account and not just use the free option. Instead, the book tells me that
“If you're unsure which plan suits your needs, click the Help and FAQ link in the Company area at the bottom of the LinkedIn homepage."Then the authors write:
“If you have a promotional code, which acts as a coupon for a discount on LinkedIn services, type the code in the Add a Promotional Code box."
Duh. I don't need to buy a book to know that.
My frustration stems from my expectations given the title "How to Succeed in Busines Using LinkedIn" and then the book turns out to focus more on "How to Use LinkedIn" with very few sections devoted to the "How to Succeed in Business" part.
There are great tips — but they are few and far between and buried in the explanations on how each button or link works in LinkedIn. I like the examples of how to write a compelling message to contact another member and how to decline invitations to connect. I wish there are more of these tips so the book can live up to its title.
In fact, I find the press materials sent to me by the publisher better than book in explaining why I should have LinkedIn profile. Here's what the publisher sent me:
How Your Small Business Can Succeed Using LinkedIn
1. Set your company apart. Keep a detailed company profile to present a clear vision of your company to the world.
2. Showcase your expertise. Answer questions in your subject area and encourage your employees to do so also. Prospective clients will love to see who is the thought leader in your area and when your answers are highly rated, they know who to call for the next job.
3. Keep your connections strong. Utilize your new, current, and past connections. LinkedIn was designed to network, so utilize those connections to find new clients, search for new talent, and get business in unexpected ways.
4. Stay on top of the latest in your industry. What better way to keep a pulse on the ideas and trends in your industry than in a discussion group? Learn about events and conferences, leads and prospects, new products and services, and other information to keep you ahead of the curve.
5. Find great service providers. Utilize LinkedIn's service providers page to find people who come highly recommended from people you respect.
6. Discover new talent. Comb through your network to find great new talent or utilize the Jobs page to recruit new people to your organizations.If the book was only organized based on the above, I think it will live up to its title well. As it is, the book is a more of a technical guide to using LinkedIn and not a guide to help you succeed in business using LinkedIn.
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Hurray for September!
I am so relieved that it is finally September.
While I love summer — daily swim in the pool with the kids and all that sun — I am just excited to see my favorite TV shows come back with their new seasons.
TV viewing during summer is torture. After the season of "So You Think You Can Dance" ended, I felt there's nothing to watch on TV anymore. I had to switch back to my default channel — HGTV –where I can just let the TV drone in the background and all I need to do is to glance at the decorated space at the show's ending.
This Monday, I was so pumped up to watch the new season of the campy Gossip Girl. For some reason, I am hooked on this show. Maybe it's the Dynasty vibe (how I loved Joan Collin's Alexis Carrington character!) or the drama of the rich and beautiful. That's why I am also looking forward to the new season of Dirty, Sexy Money.
Then of course, there's the sci-fi shows. I can't wait to see Heroes , as well as my ultra-favorite, the perplexing Lost. Also the dramas - Grey's Anatomy, Eli Stone, among others. I am also looking forward to see some new shows such as Fringe, Robinson's Crusoe and the Christian Slater action drama.
Just like me, entrepreneurs need to relax as well. So what's your guilty pleasure?
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How to Protect a Trade Secret
Trade secrets are anything that is not known in the industry or not revealed in public that can give your business a competitive advantage. Some of the most famous trade secrets include the formula for Coke and the recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Trade secrets are commonly not patented because doing so will force you to reveal the trade secret in your patent application. If your busines has a trade secret, the main question is how do you protect it?
Leonard DuBoff in his book "The Law (In Plain English) for Small Business" gives several ways you can protect your trade secret:
1. Physical security = restrict access to the area where your trade secret is used. Employee access should be on a need to know basis and carefully review the credentials of workers who deals with processes that require knowing and handling the trade secret. Don't give automatic free access to workers, and be very careful in terms of data handling and storage (e.g. you don't want a laptop that contains your trade secret to get lost).
2. Employee access = establish procedures to control employee access to the documents. Clearly label all documents, pictures or sketches containing trade secrets
3. Fragmenting information = Prevent employees to knowing all parts of your trade secret. Fragment the information where one person handles one part and another person handles another part. That way, a single person cannot hurt you.
4. Confidentiality agreements = Always have employees sign non disclosure and confidentiality agreements. Get the help of a lawyer to draw up confidentiality agreements, including outsiders who need to know the trade secret (e.g. a person thinking of engaging in a licensing agreement with you to further develop your trade secrets).
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Keeping Tab on Taxes
IRS has introduced a new email newsletter called IRS's e-News for Small Businesses designed to inform small businesses and self employed individuals about taxes.
If you want to know about tax news and tax law changes pertaining to small businesses, this newsletter is a must-read. You can also get tax tips to ensure compliance with IRS rules. I'm sure most of us would rather not be at the opposite end of a table during an IRS audit.
The newsletter will be sent out every other Wednesday. Click here for a sample newsletter. Read about this new newsletter and subscribe at the IRS website.
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Should You Offer Additional Services?
Whether you are a lawn care contractor or a resume writer, one of the pressing questions you will be faced is whether you need to offer more services than what you currently provide.
Offering additional services has its advantages and disadvantages.
Add-on services can increase your revenue stream and add to your bottomline. By widening the services you offer, you may be able to attract a wider customer base and upsell to them more profitable services. A resume service can add coaching services or interview training, helping those looking for a job package themselves well and beyond their resumes.
Diversifying will also help your business during slow periods. Lawn care business, for example, is seasonal in some states that you need to adjust the types of services that you offer based on the seasons. So when demand for mowing services start to significantly slow down in the winter, you can offer holiday decorating or landscape lighting design during those lean months.
Adding more services also gives you a leg up on your competitors. It allows you to market your business as full service offering customers one-stop comprehensive services. They want to simplify their lives by dealing with, as few vendors are they can.
However, adding a new service has its drawbacks.
If you are offering a service that poses new risks — e.g. a lawncare business now offering tree services will have workers get up the air — expect your insurance and workman’s compensation to increase.
There will also be investments in equipment, additional skilled workers, training and technical know how. You need to consider how much resource you are willing to commit. Decide whether the new services you are thinking of offering are a one time or occasional deal, or whether these are repeat business — and whether you have the resources to commit. You don't want to spread yourself too thin trying to do your main business while coping with the demand for the new services.
And of course, despite your investments in the add-on services, they may not click well with your target audiences that your new equipment or new skills remain sadly unutilized.
Study your proposed new services first. Look at what the competition is doing, and see if adding them to your list of services offered can prove beneficial to you.
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How to Get PR for Your Business — Without a Publicity PR Company
If you've been wanting to get as much press as you can for your business without busting your bank by hiring a public relations firm, read Jason Calacanis of Silicon Alley Insider's 10 tips on how to get PR for your startup. His tips, though, are not for the faint of heart or the introverts (well, if you are seeking PR, chances are that you are not the shy type).
One of his amusing anecdotes is when he climbed down the stadium during a Knicks game in order to hand a copy of his Silicon Alley Magazine to John F. Kennedy Jr. That's chutzpah at its best! Though I don't think I would do that personally, his passion, confidence and belief in his business is worth emulating.
Your job is to transfer the enthusiasm you feel for your brand to everyone you meet.
His tips are:
1. Be the brand = you must be in love with your company, and proud to show it off to anyone and everyone. Wear tshirts with your company name. Talk to people about your business - all the time.
2. Be everywhere = go out and network, all the time. Attend industry events. Meet people in your industry. Of course, with your company name always visible in your person whether stickers in your laptop or wearing a company tshirt.
3. Always pick up the check = They say that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And apparently, the same holds true when the best way to network is to pay for dinners. As Jason said, "In the real world break bread, don't trade contact information."
4. Be a human being = Understand that journalists and bloggers hate being pitched to. A better strategy is to develop relationships with the media organically and slowly.
5. How to bond with a journalist = If you want a journalist to take interest in you, take interest in them. Read their stories. Know what they write about. Even pronounce their name properly!
6. How a CEO should e-mail a journalist = Create direct, personal and honest relationships with journalists.
It’s a very long piece, but well worth the time you'd spend reading it. Read the full article.
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How to Become a Sales Superstar
Voss Graham of Lawn and Landscape Magazine wrote a great article on how to become a sales superstar. To become a sales superstar, you need to master 10 critical decision making areas that create sales success, as follows:
1. Sales superstars are always learning - learning in-depth about their customers; reading about selling, business trends and industry trends; and even attending training and development sessions. To become a sales superstar, you need to constantly sharpen your skills.
2. Business acumen - you must speak in terms that are important to customers, not just about product features and benefits
3. Preparedness = Do customer research before meeting customers. Get more information about your customers and be more knowledgeable than your competitors.
4. Industry knowledge = Knowing the industry is a requirement. This allows you to anticipate trends in your industry and help you guide your customers to better business decisions.
5. Questioning skills = Many sales people make the mistake of talking too much and boasting what they think they know, which turns off customers. To become a sales superstar, learn how to ask the right questions — questions to educate or guide the customer, uncover their biases, and learn what benefits or solutions would address the needs of the customer.
6. Listening = you need to actively listen to the customer. Focus on what the customer is really saying.
7. Think like an owner = Learn how to connect all the dots, taking time to think about customer satisfaction after the sale and what it takes to ensure success.
8. Creative problem solving = The key word is "creative," which involves looking at the customer's situation and thinking about different ways of solving the problem.
9. Practice, practice, practice = Work on your skills using role plays, application exercises, even video a customer simulation. Using video in the practice sessions is the fastest way to gain immediate improvement.
10. Self confidence = confidence is the key to having the winner's edge.
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10 Reasons Why Online Retail Entrepreneurs Succeed — and Fail
The book "How to Start a Home-Based Online Retail Business" by Jeremy Shepherd is one of my favorite startup guide for starting an ecommerce business. The author writes from the perspective of someone who will run the business from a small office tucked in the kitchen with the inventory located in a spare room or basement.
The author lists a good list of 10 reasons whu online retail merchants will make it big:
Good product nicheGood web site designExcellent customer serviceGood market researchCompetitive pricesInnovative MarketingEstablished word-of-mouth buzzGood product sourcingGood business and financial planningThey never lose their entrepreneurial spirit
He also puts out a top 10 list of mistakes made by online entrepreneurs
Lack of product researchNot finding a product nicheLack of familiarity with online retailPoor web site designLack of financial planningPoor customer serviceIgnorance of online legal issuesLack of competitive edgeLack of commitmentLack of passion
One thing that I will add to the list of common mistakes of online entrepreneurs is the failure to understand the site's metrics. Big companies often pore through their data trying to understand how customers purchase through the site and make the necessary adjustments.
Small business owners, on the other hand, commonly fly through the seat of their pants praying their Hail Marys that customers come to the site and buy. But they don't have the knowhow, interest or time to carefully analyze at what point of the buying process they start losing their customers, or why their customers are abandoning the shopping carts at a high rate.
Small online entrepreneurs may not have the deep pockets to use the latest technologies in their website but there are tools such as Google Analytics that can give them a perspective of how visitors are using their site and what kind of visitors convert into buyers.
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The Challenges of Work at Home Moms
I previously wrote about how the challenges of work at home moms in the post How to Survive Life as a Work at Home Mom . But it is a topic very close to my heart as a work at home mom myself, and one that I like to revisit again and again.
I interviewed for Women Home Business Nicole Simons, founder of Fortunuts.com, maker of custom made walnuts with a dash of whimsy with its fortune sayings. Nicole gave a very real and grounded response to my question of how she is balancing the demands of a successful business, family and other interests that I'm sure many could relate:
It’s called breathing deeply! As a mom of two toddlers I have to really break things up into bite size pieces. That has taken some getting used to and still is a struggle to this day. When September hits – my life goes into overdrive and everything is “NUTS”! We really do most of our business in 4th qtr since we are such a great unique gift item. I have learned to organize myself better and to try to take on only what I can handle. In all honesty, I am not a great role model on balancing to take care of myself! I have to be forced to go and get a mani/pedi and do things for me. Having 2 little boys has been very challenging- and I am usually putting their needs first (as most moms do). It’s my friends and family that remind me how much people love our product and that is always a nice injection of motivation! Also I do know as women we tend to be superheroes and it’s key to step away and replenish self to step back into the arena and be not only a better mom, but a smarter and focused business owner.
What Nicole said, I think, is common among work at home moms running their own businesses. I've met one or two women who are able to perfectly balance domestic family life with business, bringing the kids to extra curricular activities to cooking meals while getting all business related tasks done for the day and still having the time to get their nails done! But they are a rare breed. I remember meeting a freelance marketing consultant and we got into comparing dark circles under our eyes - a result of working late into the night!
Watch out for the full interview with Nicole at WomenHomeBusiness.com!
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Increasing Your Product Mix: How to Decide
Someone asked a question during lunch today: "Do you have any ideas what else should I sell?"
This young lady just started an online store selling hair extensions and bags, and she has been thinking of expanding her product line. But she has no idea what else she could offer on her new website. She was expecting me to give her ideas of specific products that she could sell.
In the discussion, some suggested that she offer hair accessories. Another person suggested she offer makeup. While another said she should offer yoga products such as mats and yoga outfits. And the suggestions kept getting weirder and weirder, with one saying she should offer men's shaving products!
I told her that the best approach to answering her question is by asking the following questions:
Who is your market and what else do they need? What other products are your competitors offering? What are the gaps in the marketplace — the products her customers want but are not currently being offered by her competitors? What products can she produce or source from her suppliers? I think this young lady captures the flawed decision making process of many small business owners. She, like many others, make the mistake of looking elsewhere for answers without first trying to understand their market and their business.
The key in making the decision to add to the product mix is to think of your target market and determine what else do they need. Talk to some of your best customers. Analyze your search box to see what visitors are trying to find in your site, paying close attention to those products you don' have.
Just don't go around asking your friends what you should sell (unless of course they represent your target audience)
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Starting a Business and the Fear of Failure
One of the most common reasons why many would be entrepreneurs hesitate to start a business is the fear of failure.
“What if the business fails?"
It’s a scary thought, especially if you've given up a lot in order to jumpstart the business. The key is to prepare and have a plan of action.
The first step is to identify what's the worst thing that can happen if the business fail. This is not being too negative, or even fatalistic (as Ayn Rand said in The Fountainhead, "You don't start out by giving up" or something to that effect). Thinking through the worst thing could help you get a feel for the risks involved, and whether you can handle the risks if and when it happens.
Some of the worst things that could happen include:
Losing all your savingsInability to pay off loans and losing your collateral (your house!)Losing a year of your lifeLearning that your dream business is not going to workBroken relationships due to failed business partnerships or investmentsDisappointing yourself, your family and friendsTo help mitigate the risks, you can:
Work on jumpstarting the business while still employed. You can start the business on a part time basis (or work part time while spending most of your time starting the business). So even if the business fails, you still have your job to sustain you.
Get the support of your spouse. Your spouse can work and provide the steady paycheck (and even health insurance) while you focus on building the business.
Get the support of your family. If the business fails and you run out of money, you can go back and live with your parents. It may be a tough choice, but living with parents is a sure way to have a roof over your head if the failed business wiped out your savings.
Choose a business with lower risks, especially if your resources are limited. If you have poor credit and no savings, don't start a business producing organic cleaning products that will require millons in production and marketing in order to compete in the marketplace. Start a business that you think you can handle, even if it means foregoing your dream business at the moment until you've built enough capital for yourself.
Have a fall back position. If the business don't work out as planned, think of alternative courses of action for you. You can go back to the corporate world. You can go to school. Or you can try again, but this time avoiding the mistakes you made in your first try.
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Common Myths of Starting a Business
Many want to start a business, but find that actually starting one is not easy. Some are scared of venturing on their own, while others doubt whether they have the ability to run a business.
A new book entitled "What's Stopping You? Shatter the 9 Most Common Myths Keeping You from Starting Your Own Business" by Bruce Barringer and B. Duane Ireland explores the various reasons that prevent people from starting their own businesses, then provides a reality check to address these myths.
According to the authors, here are the common myths of starting a business:
It takes an extraordinary person to start a business.Starting a business involves lots of risks.It takes a lot of money to start a business.It takes a great deal of business experience to start a successful business.The best business ideas are already takenNo one can compete against Wal-Mart and the other big box retailers.It's almost impossible for a new business to get noticed.The Internet isn't what it was all hyped up to be.It's easy to start a business, but it's difficult and stressful to grow one.
The authors did a great job capturing the fear and anxiety many would-be entrepreneurs feel that make them stop in their tracks. I agree completely with their list. When you're starting a business — especially if you quit your job and everything is on the line — it is hard to avoid self-doubts or just plain feeling scared.
Are there any other you'd like to the above list?
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Buy an Established Website vs. Start a New Website from Scratch
An interesting question was posed by a Yahoo Answers user – which is a better path to getting into internet marketing: buy a small, established website that has a monthly cash flow or start from scratch and learn-as-you-go?
In my view, the established site has the advantage of being already set up. The site has been in existence so there must be some content, and that means lesser work for you. (Of course, whether you will keep the content depends on the quality as well as your goals for the site so you may still need to scrap the whole content and replace it.). Check out Archives.org for a cursory check of the history of the site and its contents.
The main benefit, however, is the aging of the domain name, the number of links the site already got, some established traffic, and possibly a steady revenue stream. Instead of waiting for a year for solid income to come in, you can have income on your day 1 after purchasing the site. Plus, the site may already be ranking well in many (or at least some) of its keywords.
The problem with the established site is that you don't really know what the previous owners did, and whether the site got penalties from the search engines. The worst thing you can do is buy an established site, and then find out the site has been slapped with penalties with Google ad other search engines and even delisted from their databases. Or you can't monetize the site because it has been kicked out of Google Adsense and other ad programs (once kicked out, you can't reapply).
With a new site, you have the full control of what you do with it and you'll be responsible for charting its growth. No penalties, nothing. BUT — most new sites land in the sandbox so it takes time for it to be visible in the search engines (sometimes as long as 6 months to 1 year). That means you'll work overtime to get traffic to the site, even spend more in terms of PPC for lack of organic traffic.
Buying an established site vs. creating your own site has its pros and cons. But if there's an opportunity to buy a clean, good site with a reasonable price, then it has a lot of advantages. Choose unique sites that have been around for at least a year. Avoid the dime-a-dozen copy cat junk template sites for sale that uses the same content as hundreds of similar sites for sale. Check their present customer base, liabilities if any, average sales of last six month, profit and loss account if possible and overall judge the profit making ability of that site.
And don't ever believe the hype. If a seller is claiming the site is earning $10,000 a month or so, why is the selling offering the site only for $200? Verify the information yourself(even screenshots of their accounts such as Google Adsense revenues as those screenshots can easily be faked). Request the login information and verify the information yourself, even the traffic (check the log files or access their web traffic software).
Like any other business purchase, investigate and do due diligence carefully when buying a website
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9 Killer Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Business
What are the common fatal mistakes when starting a business?
According to Ed Hess and Charles Goetz, authors of the book "So, You Want to Start a Business? 8 Steps to Take Before Making the Leap," you need to avoid the following mistakes if you want your business to survive and have a chance at success:
Choosing a bad business opportunityPursuing the wrong customers. Trying to sell the unsalable.Selling for the wrong price. Overestimating the number of and the speed of customer purchases.Mismanaging the business. Failing to hire the right people.Losing good employees. Being unable to accommodate growth.
Read the book excerpt “Small Business DOA: Nine Killer Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Business"
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Selling on QVC Home Shopping Network
If you want instant — and HUGE — exposure for your product, check out home shopping networks such as QVC. If you've got the right product, QVC can be an excellent distribution channel.
QVC has been instrumental in the success of many products. Footless hosiery Spanx first appeared in QVC in May 2001 and sold 8,000 pairs in under eight minutes. Necklace extender Shooks sold $37,128 worth of products in less than five minutes, while the illuminated fragrance jar of Potpourri Glo sold $39,018 worth of products. And the list goes on and on.
But selling on QVC has its advantages and disadvantages that you should consider. While the network offers an incredible opportunity to new entrepreneurs, potential participants should also understand that they’ll assume some risk should their product be chosen.
Advantages
Television allows for three dimensional demonstrations of your product. Through your story and live presentation, you can convince the customers of the benefits your product can offer.Response can be instantaneous. If your product resonates with the audience, home shopping networks can allow you to move thousands of units of your products in a few minutes. Huge distribution potential. As amazing as that is for an unknown merchant hawking an unknown product, the feat is repeated over and over again during the show. Ability to reach wide geographic targeting of audience. Venue allows for feedback from buyers. The company encourages feedback from its customers and so remains aware of what they want.
Disadvantages
Getting in on the show is tough. On average QVC receives 20,000 applications a year, only 4 percent of those landed on the show. Huge inventory requirements. You will be required to have enough inventory in stock prior to your appearance in the show. But you will be paid only if and when QVC sells your product.Rigorous quality tests. Your products must pass QVC quality standards. Depending how much you want your product to be on QVC, you must be willing to change the packaging or even the use of your products as you've envisioned it to be in order to be acceptable to QVC audienceQVC can remove your items. QVC's success stems from listening to their customers. As such, they take no chances with their products and will quickly remove any item that gets complaints totaling more than one percent of units shipped.
If you think QVC is right for you, visit their QVC Product Search website to learn about the process of pitching your products to QVC
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Starting a Business: Pursue Your Passion
One way to start your business is to find your passions, and build on the things you are passionate about to create a successful business.
Diane Dreher, author of the book "Your Personal Renaissance: Twelve Steps to Finding Your Life's True Calling" defines passion as the "collection of innate talents that drive them." But can passion be the key to the success of a business?
Starting a business that revolves around that passion ensures that you will enjoy what you will be doing. And this is very important. Starting a business is hard and requires persistence, hard work, time and commitment — and feeling passionate about what you do in your business can help sustain you even during bad times. As others have said — Do what you love and money will follow.
However, it is important to ask the following questions when starting a business:
Can your passion be a profitable business? Do you have unrealistic expectations about your passion?Are you making sound business decisions, or are your passions taking you too far?Can you create new passions instead?
Passion can be a good starting point. BUT — passion should be combined with clear opportunities and need in the marketplace. You can't start a business based on your passions when there's no demand for it. You need to listen to the marketplace and find how your passions can address the needs of your potential customers.
And if your passions really do not work that well in business, you can learn new passions.
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How to Sell to a Big Company
Selling your products or services to a big company can be a huge boost for your small or home-based business. Imagine Wal-Mart carrying your product or Carlson Group hiring you to train their employees. That would be a great accomplishment!
However, it is not easy, especially if you are just a new company without a wide portfolio of customers or a strong brand. Plus, competition is often tough as everyone wants to get that big account. You will be up against other businesses — both big and small.
The article “How to Sell to a Big Company: Small Business Guide to Offering Products or Services to Big Businesses" offers tips on how to get that large business by helping you understand what a big business typically looks for when considering your small business to become their supplier or partner. Here's what big businesses consider:
Your credibility as well as that of your founding team (if any)Quality of your presentationReadiness for business and hard workStrength of your offerCostFlexibility Company's relationship with existing suppliersWillingness to offer free trialRead the full article
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Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web
Success on the Web starts with the quality of your content. It is your content that engages the visitors, and turns these visitors to buyers for ecommerce sites. Your site's traffic depends on how well you write your content, and how well you understand what search engines look for in a site content.
One common mistake I see from small business entrepreneurs, particularly the newbies, is that they are always on the lookout for shortcuts to get huge traffic. They look for programs or banner exchange schemes that can give them 100,000 visitors quickly. Many even turn to the dark side and spam the search engines, thinking that they can trick Google and other search engines. They overlook the simpliest secret to success on the Web — content.
If you want your website or blog to succeed, grab a copy of Jon Wuebben's new book "Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web." This is the best book I've read on the topic of writing on the Web in a way that search engines love (afterall, what's the point of writing on the Web when your website is nowhere to be found?). The author provides an excellent guide on how to present your product and teaches you how to use the right keywords in your site copy, among other important tips.
I interviewed Jon Wuebben (JW) on the importance of writing copy that search engines love and compel visitors to buy, and here are his tips:
How important is writing optimized, compelling and keyword-rich copy on the Web, particularly for small businesses?
JW: It’s critically important because it can help your site move up to page 1 in the search engines for your keyword phrases, which in turn gets people to click on your site, which means more leads and more sales. It’s that simple. And it’s the most affordable marketing option you have. It will pay dividends for years to come.
What are the top 5 tips to remember when writing content for the Web?
Use keywordsUse a call to actionWrite lots of different things – web pages, blog posts, press releases, articles and moreWrite about benefitsWrite often! How can writing well on the Web enable small businesses to compete with the big boys?
JW: The web doesn’t discriminate between large and small companies. Your site can rank above a Fortune 100 brand simply by writing compelling, keyword rich content – it happens all the time. That means you have a fair shake at the business. And that never could have happened before the web. Plus, many people like to give business to young, growing companies. So, positioning yourself well can be huge.
What are the most common mistakes in SEO copywriting?
JW: Most businesses don’t understand how important their “meta” tags are in the code of their web pages. This is an important place for keyword content. There are two tags that are critically important> the title tag and description tag.
The title tag is what appears at the very top of your browser window and should be a string of 2 -3 keyword phrases or a “headline” that incorporates an important keyword phrase. Its also what appears first in the search engine results pages when people search for you, hence the “headline” concept – you want to them to click on your title tag so they will come to your site and find out more about you.
The description meta tag explains what the page is about and is also a place where you want to use those same keyword phrases that were in the Title tag.
Also – and here’s a biggie - Every page should have unique title and description tags. This is probably the biggest offense that websites make, I see it all the time.
What other lessons can you share to small businesses regarding copywriting Web content?
JW: Look for a good niche and start a blog. It’s the single best thing you can do right now to maximize your online presence through the power of words.
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How Can a Small Business Provide Excellent Customer Service
In this economically challenging times, excellent customer service becomes even more important for home-based and small businesses. Excellent customer service can help you retain the customers you need to keep your business afloat, or with a lot of good luck and great strategy, even thriving.
But how do you know if you are providing the kind of service your customer wants and needs?
I interviewed Kathy Doering, President of market research agency Ann Michaels & Associates, Ltd. http://www.ishopforyou.com/ , on the importance of customer service to a company. Kathy is well entrenched in the business of customer service as her company offers various market research services such as mystery shopping, phone and web based surveys, social media monitoring, among other services.
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
How important is customer service to the success of a business?
Kathy: Customer service is the lifeline of any business. Business owners spend large amounts of time and money to win new customers but yet they don’t do much to insure that the customer is well taken care of once they arrive. Making sure your new customers turn into loyal customer is critical to a company’s success. Loyal customers create “word of mouth” advertising which is the best form of marketing a company can do.
How can a small business leverage customer service to compete effectively?
Kathy: Small Business owners should consider offering their loyal customers something to thank them for their patronage. Little touches go a long way and they don’t have to be expensive. Sending a personal email alerting a loyal customer of a sale before the general public learns of it is a great way to personalize service. Give customers the Disney experience whenever you can. Gather ideas from your employees. Since they deal with your customers on a day to day basis, they may have some create ideas to share as well.
Read the full interview “Excellent Customer Service: A Must for Small Businesses"
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10 Things Small Businesses Can Do During a Financial Crisis
If you have invested in stocks, chances are like me, you'd be having a heart attack when looking at your portfolio. My cure is simple: just don't look at it right now. When things go down, it always go up — maybe not next month, but next year or so. Hopefully.
Congress has just rejected the $700 billion financial bailout package and the stock market plunged 777 points, the worst sell off since 9/11 attacks. WashingtonPost.com has a breakdown of the final bailout bill while the Heritage Foundation has a good initial review of the bailout agreement. It's a scary world out there, moreso for those who have been hit hard by this housing and financial crisis. President Bush's address to the nation regarding the bailout package was the first time I listened to him in a very long time without switching the TV to home makeover shows on HGTV instead.
As a small business owner, what are you supposed to do during this time of financial crisis? Here are some thoughts:
Hold on tight. Breathe. Keep calm and be positive. And if I may repeat my point above: while things look bleak today, things will be better tomorrow.
More importantly, hold on to your cash. With banks tumbling one after the other, credits are tightening everywhere. To get any type of credit, you need more equity, assets, collateral and downpayment. Keep a close eye on your cashflow and preserve your cash. As the failed giant companies have shown, liquidity is important and if you run out of cash, then you'd be in big trouble. For example, if you have the option to lease, lease instead of buying. You need to have cash now.
Improve your balance sheet. Decrease your receivables and go aggressively to collect on those non-payers. Assess your inventory and plan how to turn them into cash if you cannot sell them. If you will need financing, consider alternative sources of financing instead of commercial credit.
Reduce your fixed costs. Now is the time to review your expenses and cut on unnecessary spending. Find deals everywhere — barter, negotiate, ask for a discount and don't pay for the full price. Run as lean as you can.
Keep a close eye on opportunities for this market. In a depression, it's an entirely different world, but it doesn't mean that there are no opportunities out there.
Take note how this downturn is affecting your customers — and determine what can you provide them. You may have some products that you can repackage or market differently to suit the current market conditions.
Review your business model. Is the market for your existing products shrinking? Or are there products that may be needed when the market starts to rebound? Revisit your business plan (if any) and take this time to reassess the direction of your business.
Market, market and market your business. Now is the time to pump up the marketing. Use guerrila marketing techniques to save on your resources and grow at a fraction of the cost. Find ways you can advertise your business without going bankrupt yourself. Find cobranding partners. And yes, market to your existing customers by giving top quality service so they can spread the word about your business.
Develop multiple streams of revenue. Like stock portfolios, diversification can help you weather downturns in the economy. Determine if there are opportunities to earn from referrals, advertising, product sales, leads for traditional follow-up, and information. If you have a retail store, think of what else can you sell in your store that customers would want.
Start preparing for the turnaround. Keep an eye for the future. Things will be better, and when it does, you need to think how you can take advantage of the better economic environment. You need to be prepared NOW when the market is still in the doldrums; instead of thinking how to take advantage of the opportunities when the market is already starting to recover (you'd be left behind).
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Entrepreneurship and Work-Life Balance
I've been reading the book "How We Lead Matters: Reflection on a Life of Leadership" by Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and former CEO of Carlson. Carlson is one of the largest family owned businesses today and includes a wide variety of travel and entertainment businesses such as Radisson, Country Inns & Suites, Regent, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant chain.
The book is a collection of stories, thoughts and reflections of Ms. Nelson. Forbes magazine has regularly named Marilyn Carlson Nelson one of “The World’s Most Powerful Women It is not the this-is-why-I-am-great book, but rather, the book is a collection of stories and reflections in life of Ms. Carlson.
One of the topics Ms. Nelson talked about in the book is work-life balance. Whether you are a solo home-based entrepreneur or Chairman of a billion dollar conglomerate, balancing family life and work will always be a constant struggle. There will always be an email to send, a paper to write, a customer to call, and a decision to make. It can be tough juggling work, career and family, more so if you have little kids.
I agree with what Ms. Nelson had to say about achieving work/life balance. She admits that she's not particularly successful at balance, but she is conscious of the choices she is making and rationalized it over time
As Ms. Nelson wrote,
The fact is that home life isn't balanced … life itself is almost always unbalanced. But you try to keep your priorities. The trick is to make sure you have some ability to know when you and your family are seriously out of balance and be willing to adjust.
Sometimes we say we want balance but we don't want to pay for it. A man who
worked for Carlson very successfully for several years turned down a promotion because it required travel which would have meant that he would have to give up
coaching his kid's team. Now, that's a realistic approach to balance.
Life is long, and in the end, you may be able to have it all … just not all on the same day.
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How to Position Your Online Retail Business When the Economy is Down
I was just listening to the late night news, and they reported that the upcoming Holloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons may not be merry holiday seasons for retailers. As the financial markets crisis deepen, there are fears that people will not spend as much this year for gifts, holiday preparations and other items (worse, they may not have anything to spend at all).
So how do you position your online retail store to ride out this tide of bad news and emerge with strong sales during the holiday season? It's a tough ordeal but here are some suggestions:
Emphasize the convenience and savings in gas, time and money for shopping in your online store instead of driving to the mall. There are no lines, no parking hassles, no parking fees, and no crowd. Plus, no waiting for the store to open because your ecommerce store is open 24/7. Use this pitch in your email campaigns and in the copy of your website Depending on what you sell, present yourself as a one stop shop where customers can get most (if not all) of the gifts for their list. If you have not done so, invest in technology that will allow your online store to include gift recommendations and guides as well as gift finders. Consider free shipping — with conditions. You may choose to give free shipping only to those who spend a certain amount (e.g. $75 worth of items) or to your email subscribers or to your best customers (assuming of course you are tracking who your best customers are) Give free gift cards or discounted offers on the next purchase. In lieu of free shipping, you can offer a discount for repeat purchases within a certain timeframe. Since the customer has bought gifts for the people in their list, why not entice them with discounts so they can buy gifts for themselves instead? Promote gift cards. Gift cards have become the gift of choice of many gift givers. It is so convenient, and ensures that the recipients will actually love their gifts. Review your sales copy. Make sure you clarify your store's value proposition. The last thing you'd want is for the customer to check out your product — and then buy it from another store. Put yourself in the shoes of the customers and ask, "Why should I buy from you?"
And if you haven't done so already, start marketing your holiday sales now.
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Randy Pausch’s Lecture on Time Management
Randy Pausch, author of the best seller The Last Lecture, gave a very inspiring lecture at the University of Virginia on time management. A computer science professor, there are definitely more famous time management gurus than him. But what makes this lecture special is the fact that this is a man dying of cancer, yet he is talking about time management.
Randy broke into the scene, so to speak, when he was asked to participate in the last lecture series at the Carnegie Mellon University. His last lecture was called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Unlike other lecturers who was asked to pretend that the lecture is their last, Randy knew that he was living on borrowed time. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and given only 3-6 months of "good health". His lecture was turned into a book.
Randy died on July 25, 2008. Be inspired and learn from this special man. Watch the
Time Management lecture video
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10 Critical Elements to a Successful Google Adwords Campaign
Search engine marketing company MoreVisibility.com has released an informative white paper on how to achieve your desired return on investment using Google Adwords.
If you are using Google Adwords, or would like to have some ideas on how to do pay per click marketing without busting your budgets, here are their 10 tips:
Keep your campaigns and ad groups tightly themed, as this will allow you tailor your ad copy more accurately. Also, this could also help Google determine the context of your groups, particularly if you have opted in the Content Network.Use analytics and conversion tracking tools, including the tools offered by Google. These tools can help you optimize your ads and make bidding decisions.Test, test and test. You can only know if you are employing the best strategy if you compare it with something else. Google Website Optimizer tool , for example, helps you test the effectiveness of your landing pages.Monitor and improve your quality score. The quality score can impact your visibility and ad costs in Google. Have a good mix of short and long tail terms in your campaign. The more generic or broad keywords are more costly and tend to generate less qualified visitors. Use the Keyword Research Tool.Use the campaign options Adwords offer such as Geographic Targeting. Break your keywords or ad groups into separate campaigns if you are going to target some specific areas vis-a-vis your country or world.Use Day Parting/Ad Scheduler option if you offer users the option of calling you but you are not available 24/7. Also consider this option if you have an idea regarding traffic patterns of your site.Consider using staggered budget delivery if you are running timed promotions or offline marketing efforts so your ads achieve the maximum exposure when you need it most. However, be careful when using this option.Consider Google options beyond traditional Adwords, including TV, print, mobile, radio, display and video ads. Also consider placement targeting. Also, consider Google Ad Planner http://www.google.com/adplanner to allow you to research the sites associated with your target audience.Analyze competitive sites and user behavior with Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends . The Trends for Website feature allow you to view and export data on how popular your site is compared with your competitors.
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Book Review: How to Succeed in Business Using LinkeIn
I was excited to get the book "How to Succeed in Business Using LinkedIn" by Eric Butow and Kathleen Taylor. I think I am one of the few remaining business people who do not have a LinkedIn profile as yet, and I was hoping this book would give me the reason why I should use it and how I should use it to further my business goals.
But I was turned off by its technical formatting ala books such as "Microsoft Powerpoint Step by Step." The book focuses too much on explaining each and every button and feature of LinkedIn — from discussing the elements of the LinkedIn homepage to inviting contacts to connect to how to search for possible contacts. It feels like the Customer Service section of LinkedIn in book format. If you want a step by step guide to using LinkedIn, this is the book for you.
For example, the book lays out the various account options of LinkedIn including the paid ones. But it fails to tell me which plan is suitable given my possible objectives for joining. Or even why I should pay for the upgraded account and not just use the free option. Instead, the book tells me that
“If you're unsure which plan suits your needs, click the Help and FAQ link in the Company area at the bottom of the LinkedIn homepage."Then the authors write:
“If you have a promotional code, which acts as a coupon for a discount on LinkedIn services, type the code in the Add a Promotional Code box."
Duh. I don't need to buy a book to know that.
My frustration stems from my expectations given the title "How to Succeed in Busines Using LinkedIn" and then the book turns out to focus more on "How to Use LinkedIn" with very few sections devoted to the "How to Succeed in Business" part.
There are great tips — but they are few and far between and buried in the explanations on how each button or link works in LinkedIn. I like the examples of how to write a compelling message to contact another member and how to decline invitations to connect. I wish there are more of these tips so the book can live up to its title.
In fact, I find the press materials sent to me by the publisher better than book in explaining why I should have LinkedIn profile. Here's what the publisher sent me:
How Your Small Business Can Succeed Using LinkedIn
1. Set your company apart. Keep a detailed company profile to present a clear vision of your company to the world.
2. Showcase your expertise. Answer questions in your subject area and encourage your employees to do so also. Prospective clients will love to see who is the thought leader in your area and when your answers are highly rated, they know who to call for the next job.
3. Keep your connections strong. Utilize your new, current, and past connections. LinkedIn was designed to network, so utilize those connections to find new clients, search for new talent, and get business in unexpected ways.
4. Stay on top of the latest in your industry. What better way to keep a pulse on the ideas and trends in your industry than in a discussion group? Learn about events and conferences, leads and prospects, new products and services, and other information to keep you ahead of the curve.
5. Find great service providers. Utilize LinkedIn's service providers page to find people who come highly recommended from people you respect.
6. Discover new talent. Comb through your network to find great new talent or utilize the Jobs page to recruit new people to your organizations.If the book was only organized based on the above, I think it will live up to its title well. As it is, the book is a more of a technical guide to using LinkedIn and not a guide to help you succeed in business using LinkedIn.
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Hurray for September!
I am so relieved that it is finally September.
While I love summer — daily swim in the pool with the kids and all that sun — I am just excited to see my favorite TV shows come back with their new seasons.
TV viewing during summer is torture. After the season of "So You Think You Can Dance" ended, I felt there's nothing to watch on TV anymore. I had to switch back to my default channel — HGTV –where I can just let the TV drone in the background and all I need to do is to glance at the decorated space at the show's ending.
This Monday, I was so pumped up to watch the new season of the campy Gossip Girl. For some reason, I am hooked on this show. Maybe it's the Dynasty vibe (how I loved Joan Collin's Alexis Carrington character!) or the drama of the rich and beautiful. That's why I am also looking forward to the new season of Dirty, Sexy Money.
Then of course, there's the sci-fi shows. I can't wait to see Heroes , as well as my ultra-favorite, the perplexing Lost. Also the dramas - Grey's Anatomy, Eli Stone, among others. I am also looking forward to see some new shows such as Fringe, Robinson's Crusoe and the Christian Slater action drama.
Just like me, entrepreneurs need to relax as well. So what's your guilty pleasure?
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How to Protect a Trade Secret
Trade secrets are anything that is not known in the industry or not revealed in public that can give your business a competitive advantage. Some of the most famous trade secrets include the formula for Coke and the recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Trade secrets are commonly not patented because doing so will force you to reveal the trade secret in your patent application. If your busines has a trade secret, the main question is how do you protect it?
Leonard DuBoff in his book "The Law (In Plain English) for Small Business" gives several ways you can protect your trade secret:
1. Physical security = restrict access to the area where your trade secret is used. Employee access should be on a need to know basis and carefully review the credentials of workers who deals with processes that require knowing and handling the trade secret. Don't give automatic free access to workers, and be very careful in terms of data handling and storage (e.g. you don't want a laptop that contains your trade secret to get lost).
2. Employee access = establish procedures to control employee access to the documents. Clearly label all documents, pictures or sketches containing trade secrets
3. Fragmenting information = Prevent employees to knowing all parts of your trade secret. Fragment the information where one person handles one part and another person handles another part. That way, a single person cannot hurt you.
4. Confidentiality agreements = Always have employees sign non disclosure and confidentiality agreements. Get the help of a lawyer to draw up confidentiality agreements, including outsiders who need to know the trade secret (e.g. a person thinking of engaging in a licensing agreement with you to further develop your trade secrets).
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Keeping Tab on Taxes
IRS has introduced a new email newsletter called IRS's e-News for Small Businesses designed to inform small businesses and self employed individuals about taxes.
If you want to know about tax news and tax law changes pertaining to small businesses, this newsletter is a must-read. You can also get tax tips to ensure compliance with IRS rules. I'm sure most of us would rather not be at the opposite end of a table during an IRS audit.
The newsletter will be sent out every other Wednesday. Click here for a sample newsletter. Read about this new newsletter and subscribe at the IRS website.
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Should You Offer Additional Services?
Whether you are a lawn care contractor or a resume writer, one of the pressing questions you will be faced is whether you need to offer more services than what you currently provide.
Offering additional services has its advantages and disadvantages.
Add-on services can increase your revenue stream and add to your bottomline. By widening the services you offer, you may be able to attract a wider customer base and upsell to them more profitable services. A resume service can add coaching services or interview training, helping those looking for a job package themselves well and beyond their resumes.
Diversifying will also help your business during slow periods. Lawn care business, for example, is seasonal in some states that you need to adjust the types of services that you offer based on the seasons. So when demand for mowing services start to significantly slow down in the winter, you can offer holiday decorating or landscape lighting design during those lean months.
Adding more services also gives you a leg up on your competitors. It allows you to market your business as full service offering customers one-stop comprehensive services. They want to simplify their lives by dealing with, as few vendors are they can.
However, adding a new service has its drawbacks.
If you are offering a service that poses new risks — e.g. a lawncare business now offering tree services will have workers get up the air — expect your insurance and workman’s compensation to increase.
There will also be investments in equipment, additional skilled workers, training and technical know how. You need to consider how much resource you are willing to commit. Decide whether the new services you are thinking of offering are a one time or occasional deal, or whether these are repeat business — and whether you have the resources to commit. You don't want to spread yourself too thin trying to do your main business while coping with the demand for the new services.
And of course, despite your investments in the add-on services, they may not click well with your target audiences that your new equipment or new skills remain sadly unutilized.
Study your proposed new services first. Look at what the competition is doing, and see if adding them to your list of services offered can prove beneficial to you.
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How to Get PR for Your Business — Without a Publicity PR Company
If you've been wanting to get as much press as you can for your business without busting your bank by hiring a public relations firm, read Jason Calacanis of Silicon Alley Insider's 10 tips on how to get PR for your startup. His tips, though, are not for the faint of heart or the introverts (well, if you are seeking PR, chances are that you are not the shy type).
One of his amusing anecdotes is when he climbed down the stadium during a Knicks game in order to hand a copy of his Silicon Alley Magazine to John F. Kennedy Jr. That's chutzpah at its best! Though I don't think I would do that personally, his passion, confidence and belief in his business is worth emulating.
Your job is to transfer the enthusiasm you feel for your brand to everyone you meet.
His tips are:
1. Be the brand = you must be in love with your company, and proud to show it off to anyone and everyone. Wear tshirts with your company name. Talk to people about your business - all the time.
2. Be everywhere = go out and network, all the time. Attend industry events. Meet people in your industry. Of course, with your company name always visible in your person whether stickers in your laptop or wearing a company tshirt.
3. Always pick up the check = They say that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And apparently, the same holds true when the best way to network is to pay for dinners. As Jason said, "In the real world break bread, don't trade contact information."
4. Be a human being = Understand that journalists and bloggers hate being pitched to. A better strategy is to develop relationships with the media organically and slowly.
5. How to bond with a journalist = If you want a journalist to take interest in you, take interest in them. Read their stories. Know what they write about. Even pronounce their name properly!
6. How a CEO should e-mail a journalist = Create direct, personal and honest relationships with journalists.
It’s a very long piece, but well worth the time you'd spend reading it. Read the full article.
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How to Become a Sales Superstar
Voss Graham of Lawn and Landscape Magazine wrote a great article on how to become a sales superstar. To become a sales superstar, you need to master 10 critical decision making areas that create sales success, as follows:
1. Sales superstars are always learning - learning in-depth about their customers; reading about selling, business trends and industry trends; and even attending training and development sessions. To become a sales superstar, you need to constantly sharpen your skills.
2. Business acumen - you must speak in terms that are important to customers, not just about product features and benefits
3. Preparedness = Do customer research before meeting customers. Get more information about your customers and be more knowledgeable than your competitors.
4. Industry knowledge = Knowing the industry is a requirement. This allows you to anticipate trends in your industry and help you guide your customers to better business decisions.
5. Questioning skills = Many sales people make the mistake of talking too much and boasting what they think they know, which turns off customers. To become a sales superstar, learn how to ask the right questions — questions to educate or guide the customer, uncover their biases, and learn what benefits or solutions would address the needs of the customer.
6. Listening = you need to actively listen to the customer. Focus on what the customer is really saying.
7. Think like an owner = Learn how to connect all the dots, taking time to think about customer satisfaction after the sale and what it takes to ensure success.
8. Creative problem solving = The key word is "creative," which involves looking at the customer's situation and thinking about different ways of solving the problem.
9. Practice, practice, practice = Work on your skills using role plays, application exercises, even video a customer simulation. Using video in the practice sessions is the fastest way to gain immediate improvement.
10. Self confidence = confidence is the key to having the winner's edge.
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10 Reasons Why Online Retail Entrepreneurs Succeed — and Fail
The book "How to Start a Home-Based Online Retail Business" by Jeremy Shepherd is one of my favorite startup guide for starting an ecommerce business. The author writes from the perspective of someone who will run the business from a small office tucked in the kitchen with the inventory located in a spare room or basement.
The author lists a good list of 10 reasons whu online retail merchants will make it big:
Good product nicheGood web site designExcellent customer serviceGood market researchCompetitive pricesInnovative MarketingEstablished word-of-mouth buzzGood product sourcingGood business and financial planningThey never lose their entrepreneurial spirit
He also puts out a top 10 list of mistakes made by online entrepreneurs
Lack of product researchNot finding a product nicheLack of familiarity with online retailPoor web site designLack of financial planningPoor customer serviceIgnorance of online legal issuesLack of competitive edgeLack of commitmentLack of passion
One thing that I will add to the list of common mistakes of online entrepreneurs is the failure to understand the site's metrics. Big companies often pore through their data trying to understand how customers purchase through the site and make the necessary adjustments.
Small business owners, on the other hand, commonly fly through the seat of their pants praying their Hail Marys that customers come to the site and buy. But they don't have the knowhow, interest or time to carefully analyze at what point of the buying process they start losing their customers, or why their customers are abandoning the shopping carts at a high rate.
Small online entrepreneurs may not have the deep pockets to use the latest technologies in their website but there are tools such as Google Analytics that can give them a perspective of how visitors are using their site and what kind of visitors convert into buyers.
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The Challenges of Work at Home Moms
I previously wrote about how the challenges of work at home moms in the post How to Survive Life as a Work at Home Mom . But it is a topic very close to my heart as a work at home mom myself, and one that I like to revisit again and again.
I interviewed for Women Home Business Nicole Simons, founder of Fortunuts.com, maker of custom made walnuts with a dash of whimsy with its fortune sayings. Nicole gave a very real and grounded response to my question of how she is balancing the demands of a successful business, family and other interests that I'm sure many could relate:
It’s called breathing deeply! As a mom of two toddlers I have to really break things up into bite size pieces. That has taken some getting used to and still is a struggle to this day. When September hits – my life goes into overdrive and everything is “NUTS”! We really do most of our business in 4th qtr since we are such a great unique gift item. I have learned to organize myself better and to try to take on only what I can handle. In all honesty, I am not a great role model on balancing to take care of myself! I have to be forced to go and get a mani/pedi and do things for me. Having 2 little boys has been very challenging- and I am usually putting their needs first (as most moms do). It’s my friends and family that remind me how much people love our product and that is always a nice injection of motivation! Also I do know as women we tend to be superheroes and it’s key to step away and replenish self to step back into the arena and be not only a better mom, but a smarter and focused business owner.
What Nicole said, I think, is common among work at home moms running their own businesses. I've met one or two women who are able to perfectly balance domestic family life with business, bringing the kids to extra curricular activities to cooking meals while getting all business related tasks done for the day and still having the time to get their nails done! But they are a rare breed. I remember meeting a freelance marketing consultant and we got into comparing dark circles under our eyes - a result of working late into the night!
Watch out for the full interview with Nicole at WomenHomeBusiness.com!
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Increasing Your Product Mix: How to Decide
Someone asked a question during lunch today: "Do you have any ideas what else should I sell?"
This young lady just started an online store selling hair extensions and bags, and she has been thinking of expanding her product line. But she has no idea what else she could offer on her new website. She was expecting me to give her ideas of specific products that she could sell.
In the discussion, some suggested that she offer hair accessories. Another person suggested she offer makeup. While another said she should offer yoga products such as mats and yoga outfits. And the suggestions kept getting weirder and weirder, with one saying she should offer men's shaving products!
I told her that the best approach to answering her question is by asking the following questions:
Who is your market and what else do they need? What other products are your competitors offering? What are the gaps in the marketplace — the products her customers want but are not currently being offered by her competitors? What products can she produce or source from her suppliers? I think this young lady captures the flawed decision making process of many small business owners. She, like many others, make the mistake of looking elsewhere for answers without first trying to understand their market and their business.
The key in making the decision to add to the product mix is to think of your target market and determine what else do they need. Talk to some of your best customers. Analyze your search box to see what visitors are trying to find in your site, paying close attention to those products you don' have.
Just don't go around asking your friends what you should sell (unless of course they represent your target audience)
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Starting a Business and the Fear of Failure
One of the most common reasons why many would be entrepreneurs hesitate to start a business is the fear of failure.
“What if the business fails?"
It’s a scary thought, especially if you've given up a lot in order to jumpstart the business. The key is to prepare and have a plan of action.
The first step is to identify what's the worst thing that can happen if the business fail. This is not being too negative, or even fatalistic (as Ayn Rand said in The Fountainhead, "You don't start out by giving up" or something to that effect). Thinking through the worst thing could help you get a feel for the risks involved, and whether you can handle the risks if and when it happens.
Some of the worst things that could happen include:
Losing all your savingsInability to pay off loans and losing your collateral (your house!)Losing a year of your lifeLearning that your dream business is not going to workBroken relationships due to failed business partnerships or investmentsDisappointing yourself, your family and friendsTo help mitigate the risks, you can:
Work on jumpstarting the business while still employed. You can start the business on a part time basis (or work part time while spending most of your time starting the business). So even if the business fails, you still have your job to sustain you.
Get the support of your spouse. Your spouse can work and provide the steady paycheck (and even health insurance) while you focus on building the business.
Get the support of your family. If the business fails and you run out of money, you can go back and live with your parents. It may be a tough choice, but living with parents is a sure way to have a roof over your head if the failed business wiped out your savings.
Choose a business with lower risks, especially if your resources are limited. If you have poor credit and no savings, don't start a business producing organic cleaning products that will require millons in production and marketing in order to compete in the marketplace. Start a business that you think you can handle, even if it means foregoing your dream business at the moment until you've built enough capital for yourself.
Have a fall back position. If the business don't work out as planned, think of alternative courses of action for you. You can go back to the corporate world. You can go to school. Or you can try again, but this time avoiding the mistakes you made in your first try.
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Common Myths of Starting a Business
Many want to start a business, but find that actually starting one is not easy. Some are scared of venturing on their own, while others doubt whether they have the ability to run a business.
A new book entitled "What's Stopping You? Shatter the 9 Most Common Myths Keeping You from Starting Your Own Business" by Bruce Barringer and B. Duane Ireland explores the various reasons that prevent people from starting their own businesses, then provides a reality check to address these myths.
According to the authors, here are the common myths of starting a business:
It takes an extraordinary person to start a business.Starting a business involves lots of risks.It takes a lot of money to start a business.It takes a great deal of business experience to start a successful business.The best business ideas are already takenNo one can compete against Wal-Mart and the other big box retailers.It's almost impossible for a new business to get noticed.The Internet isn't what it was all hyped up to be.It's easy to start a business, but it's difficult and stressful to grow one.
The authors did a great job capturing the fear and anxiety many would-be entrepreneurs feel that make them stop in their tracks. I agree completely with their list. When you're starting a business — especially if you quit your job and everything is on the line — it is hard to avoid self-doubts or just plain feeling scared.
Are there any other you'd like to the above list?
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Buy an Established Website vs. Start a New Website from Scratch
An interesting question was posed by a Yahoo Answers user – which is a better path to getting into internet marketing: buy a small, established website that has a monthly cash flow or start from scratch and learn-as-you-go?
In my view, the established site has the advantage of being already set up. The site has been in existence so there must be some content, and that means lesser work for you. (Of course, whether you will keep the content depends on the quality as well as your goals for the site so you may still need to scrap the whole content and replace it.). Check out Archives.org for a cursory check of the history of the site and its contents.
The main benefit, however, is the aging of the domain name, the number of links the site already got, some established traffic, and possibly a steady revenue stream. Instead of waiting for a year for solid income to come in, you can have income on your day 1 after purchasing the site. Plus, the site may already be ranking well in many (or at least some) of its keywords.
The problem with the established site is that you don't really know what the previous owners did, and whether the site got penalties from the search engines. The worst thing you can do is buy an established site, and then find out the site has been slapped with penalties with Google ad other search engines and even delisted from their databases. Or you can't monetize the site because it has been kicked out of Google Adsense and other ad programs (once kicked out, you can't reapply).
With a new site, you have the full control of what you do with it and you'll be responsible for charting its growth. No penalties, nothing. BUT — most new sites land in the sandbox so it takes time for it to be visible in the search engines (sometimes as long as 6 months to 1 year). That means you'll work overtime to get traffic to the site, even spend more in terms of PPC for lack of organic traffic.
Buying an established site vs. creating your own site has its pros and cons. But if there's an opportunity to buy a clean, good site with a reasonable price, then it has a lot of advantages. Choose unique sites that have been around for at least a year. Avoid the dime-a-dozen copy cat junk template sites for sale that uses the same content as hundreds of similar sites for sale. Check their present customer base, liabilities if any, average sales of last six month, profit and loss account if possible and overall judge the profit making ability of that site.
And don't ever believe the hype. If a seller is claiming the site is earning $10,000 a month or so, why is the selling offering the site only for $200? Verify the information yourself(even screenshots of their accounts such as Google Adsense revenues as those screenshots can easily be faked). Request the login information and verify the information yourself, even the traffic (check the log files or access their web traffic software).
Like any other business purchase, investigate and do due diligence carefully when buying a website
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Data and Statistics on Small Businesses
Here are some interesting statistics on small and home-based businesses:
Home-based businesses constitute 53% of all small businesses.99.7% of firms that have employees are small businesses.Small businesses employ over half of the more than 145 million American workers.Source: Testimony of The Honorable Thomas M. Sullivan, Chief Counsel for Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration, before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on July 30, 2008 http://www.sba.gov/advo/laws/test08_0730.html
Some other great sources of statistical factoids on small businesses are:
SBA Frequently Asked Questions http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdfSmall Business Lending in the US http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/lending.htmlNational Small Business Association Survey of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses http://www.nsba.biz/docs/surveynewfinal.pdfSurvey of Business Owners http://www.census.gov/csd/sbo/
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Article Marketing and How it Impacts Search Engine Rankings
I attended today a 2-hour Google Webmaster Event ("Tricks and Treats") hosted by several Google employees and attended by 400+ webmasters around the world. After the presentations, participants can ask questions for Google employees to answer.
Being in the business of information publishing, one question caught my eye — that of article marketing and its impact on Google rankings. One of the common ways to inexpensively market a web site is through article marketing, which entails writing and submitting articles to article directory sites. The goal is to have as many websites use the article thereby building your reputation and getting more links to your site.
Alas, the article marketing strategy has started to show its cracks. Here is the question raised by a participant in the Google Moderator site for the Tricks and Treats event and answered by Google's head of web spam team Matt Cutts:
QUESTION:
“Until recently (the last six months or so) a high ranking was achievable by submitting articles to article directories (providing they were 40%-60% unique), it no longer seems to be the case. Have links from article sites been de-valued at all?" ANSWER By Matt Cutts:
In my experience, not every article directory site is high-quality. Sometimes you see a ton of articles copied all over the place, and it's hard to even find original content on the site. The user experience for a lot of those article directory sites can be pretty bad too. So you'd see users landing on those sorts of pages have a bad experience. If you're thinking of boosting your reputation and getting to be well-known, I might not start as the very first thing with an article directory. Sometimes it's nice to get to be known a little better before jumping in and submitting a ton of articles as the first thing.
If you must do article marketing, be sure that the directory you will submit your articles are high quality. Submit only to those directories that are selective and reviews the submissions before inclusion in the directory. Avoid article directories that accepts articles from anyone on any topic imaginable.
Google has become smart about article marketing. As the guy who posted the question inferred, article submission may not give you any boost in terms of pagerank and rankings, thereby just wasting your time.
You can read other important search engine lessons — from Googlers themselves — in the Google Moderator page of the Tricks and Treats event
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Selling on QVC Home Shopping Network
If you want instant — and HUGE — exposure for your product, check out home shopping networks such as QVC. If you've got the right product, QVC can be an excellent distribution channel.
QVC has been instrumental in the success of many products. Footless hosiery Spanx first appeared in QVC in May 2001 and sold 8,000 pairs in under eight minutes. Necklace extender Shooks sold $37,128 worth of products in less than five minutes, while the illuminated fragrance jar of Potpourri Glo sold $39,018 worth of products. And the list goes on and on.
But selling on QVC has its advantages and disadvantages that you should consider. While the network offers an incredible opportunity to new entrepreneurs, potential participants should also understand that they’ll assume some risk should their product be chosen.
Advantages
Television allows for three dimensional demonstrations of your product. Through your story and live presentation, you can convince the customers of the benefits your product can offer.Response can be instantaneous. If your product resonates with the audience, home shopping networks can allow you to move thousands of units of your products in a few minutes. Huge distribution potential. As amazing as that is for an unknown merchant hawking an unknown product, the feat is repeated over and over again during the show. Ability to reach wide geographic targeting of audience. Venue allows for feedback from buyers. The company encourages feedback from its customers and so remains aware of what they want.
Disadvantages
Getting in on the show is tough. On average QVC receives 20,000 applications a year, only 4 percent of those landed on the show. Huge inventory requirements. You will be required to have enough inventory in stock prior to your appearance in the show. But you will be paid only if and when QVC sells your product.Rigorous quality tests. Your products must pass QVC quality standards. Depending how much you want your product to be on QVC, you must be willing to change the packaging or even the use of your products as you've envisioned it to be in order to be acceptable to QVC audienceQVC can remove your items. QVC's success stems from listening to their customers. As such, they take no chances with their products and will quickly remove any item that gets complaints totaling more than one percent of units shipped.
If you think QVC is right for you, visit their QVC Product Search website to learn about the process of pitching your products to QVC
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Starting a Business: Pursue Your Passion
One way to start your business is to find your passions, and build on the things you are passionate about to create a successful business.
Diane Dreher, author of the book "Your Personal Renaissance: Twelve Steps to Finding Your Life's True Calling" defines passion as the "collection of innate talents that drive them." But can passion be the key to the success of a business?
Starting a business that revolves around that passion ensures that you will enjoy what you will be doing. And this is very important. Starting a business is hard and requires persistence, hard work, time and commitment — and feeling passionate about what you do in your business can help sustain you even during bad times. As others have said — Do what you love and money will follow.
However, it is important to ask the following questions when starting a business:
Can your passion be a profitable business? Do you have unrealistic expectations about your passion?Are you making sound business decisions, or are your passions taking you too far?Can you create new passions instead?
Passion can be a good starting point. BUT — passion should be combined with clear opportunities and need in the marketplace. You can't start a business based on your passions when there's no demand for it. You need to listen to the marketplace and find how your passions can address the needs of your potential customers.
And if your passions really do not work that well in business, you can learn new passions.
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How to Sell to a Big Company
Selling your products or services to a big company can be a huge boost for your small or home-based business. Imagine Wal-Mart carrying your product or Carlson Group hiring you to train their employees. That would be a great accomplishment!
However, it is not easy, especially if you are just a new company without a wide portfolio of customers or a strong brand. Plus, competition is often tough as everyone wants to get that big account. You will be up against other businesses — both big and small.
The article “How to Sell to a Big Company: Small Business Guide to Offering Products or Services to Big Businesses" offers tips on how to get that large business by helping you understand what a big business typically looks for when considering your small business to become their supplier or partner. Here's what big businesses consider:
Your credibility as well as that of your founding team (if any)Quality of your presentationReadiness for business and hard workStrength of your offerCostFlexibility Company's relationship with existing suppliersWillingness to offer free trialRead the full article
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Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web
Success on the Web starts with the quality of your content. It is your content that engages the visitors, and turns these visitors to buyers for ecommerce sites. Your site's traffic depends on how well you write your content, and how well you understand what search engines look for in a site content.
One common mistake I see from small business entrepreneurs, particularly the newbies, is that they are always on the lookout for shortcuts to get huge traffic. They look for programs or banner exchange schemes that can give them 100,000 visitors quickly. Many even turn to the dark side and spam the search engines, thinking that they can trick Google and other search engines. They overlook the simpliest secret to success on the Web — content.
If you want your website or blog to succeed, grab a copy of Jon Wuebben's new book "Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web." This is the best book I've read on the topic of writing on the Web in a way that search engines love (afterall, what's the point of writing on the Web when your website is nowhere to be found?). The author provides an excellent guide on how to present your product and teaches you how to use the right keywords in your site copy, among other important tips.
I interviewed Jon Wuebben (JW) on the importance of writing copy that search engines love and compel visitors to buy, and here are his tips:
How important is writing optimized, compelling and keyword-rich copy on the Web, particularly for small businesses?
JW: It’s critically important because it can help your site move up to page 1 in the search engines for your keyword phrases, which in turn gets people to click on your site, which means more leads and more sales. It’s that simple. And it’s the most affordable marketing option you have. It will pay dividends for years to come.
What are the top 5 tips to remember when writing content for the Web?
Use keywordsUse a call to actionWrite lots of different things – web pages, blog posts, press releases, articles and moreWrite about benefitsWrite often! How can writing well on the Web enable small businesses to compete with the big boys?
JW: The web doesn’t discriminate between large and small companies. Your site can rank above a Fortune 100 brand simply by writing compelling, keyword rich content – it happens all the time. That means you have a fair shake at the business. And that never could have happened before the web. Plus, many people like to give business to young, growing companies. So, positioning yourself well can be huge.
What are the most common mistakes in SEO copywriting?
JW: Most businesses don’t understand how important their “meta” tags are in the code of their web pages. This is an important place for keyword content. There are two tags that are critically important> the title tag and description tag.
The title tag is what appears at the very top of your browser window and should be a string of 2 -3 keyword phrases or a “headline” that incorporates an important keyword phrase. Its also what appears first in the search engine results pages when people search for you, hence the “headline” concept – you want to them to click on your title tag so they will come to your site and find out more about you.
The description meta tag explains what the page is about and is also a place where you want to use those same keyword phrases that were in the Title tag.
Also – and here’s a biggie - Every page should have unique title and description tags. This is probably the biggest offense that websites make, I see it all the time.
What other lessons can you share to small businesses regarding copywriting Web content?
JW: Look for a good niche and start a blog. It’s the single best thing you can do right now to maximize your online presence through the power of words.
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How Can a Small Business Provide Excellent Customer Service
In this economically challenging times, excellent customer service becomes even more important for home-based and small businesses. Excellent customer service can help you retain the customers you need to keep your business afloat, or with a lot of good luck and great strategy, even thriving.
But how do you know if you are providing the kind of service your customer wants and needs?
I interviewed Kathy Doering, President of market research agency Ann Michaels & Associates, Ltd. http://www.ishopforyou.com/ , on the importance of customer service to a company. Kathy is well entrenched in the business of customer service as her company offers various market research services such as mystery shopping, phone and web based surveys, social media monitoring, among other services.
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
How important is customer service to the success of a business?
Kathy: Customer service is the lifeline of any business. Business owners spend large amounts of time and money to win new customers but yet they don’t do much to insure that the customer is well taken care of once they arrive. Making sure your new customers turn into loyal customer is critical to a company’s success. Loyal customers create “word of mouth” advertising which is the best form of marketing a company can do.
How can a small business leverage customer service to compete effectively?
Kathy: Small Business owners should consider offering their loyal customers something to thank them for their patronage. Little touches go a long way and they don’t have to be expensive. Sending a personal email alerting a loyal customer of a sale before the general public learns of it is a great way to personalize service. Give customers the Disney experience whenever you can. Gather ideas from your employees. Since they deal with your customers on a day to day basis, they may have some create ideas to share as well.
Read the full interview “Excellent Customer Service: A Must for Small Businesses"
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10 Things Small Businesses Can Do During a Financial Crisis
If you have invested in stocks, chances are like me, you'd be having a heart attack when looking at your portfolio. My cure is simple: just don't look at it right now. When things go down, it always go up — maybe not next month, but next year or so. Hopefully.
Congress has just rejected the $700 billion financial bailout package and the stock market plunged 777 points, the worst sell off since 9/11 attacks. WashingtonPost.com has a breakdown of the final bailout bill while the Heritage Foundation has a good initial review of the bailout agreement. It's a scary world out there, moreso for those who have been hit hard by this housing and financial crisis. President Bush's address to the nation regarding the bailout package was the first time I listened to him in a very long time without switching the TV to home makeover shows on HGTV instead.
As a small business owner, what are you supposed to do during this time of financial crisis? Here are some thoughts:
Hold on tight. Breathe. Keep calm and be positive. And if I may repeat my point above: while things look bleak today, things will be better tomorrow.
More importantly, hold on to your cash. With banks tumbling one after the other, credits are tightening everywhere. To get any type of credit, you need more equity, assets, collateral and downpayment. Keep a close eye on your cashflow and preserve your cash. As the failed giant companies have shown, liquidity is important and if you run out of cash, then you'd be in big trouble. For example, if you have the option to lease, lease instead of buying. You need to have cash now.
Improve your balance sheet. Decrease your receivables and go aggressively to collect on those non-payers. Assess your inventory and plan how to turn them into cash if you cannot sell them. If you will need financing, consider alternative sources of financing instead of commercial credit.
Reduce your fixed costs. Now is the time to review your expenses and cut on unnecessary spending. Find deals everywhere — barter, negotiate, ask for a discount and don't pay for the full price. Run as lean as you can.
Keep a close eye on opportunities for this market. In a depression, it's an entirely different world, but it doesn't mean that there are no opportunities out there.
Take note how this downturn is affecting your customers — and determine what can you provide them. You may have some products that you can repackage or market differently to suit the current market conditions.
Review your business model. Is the market for your existing products shrinking? Or are there products that may be needed when the market starts to rebound? Revisit your business plan (if any) and take this time to reassess the direction of your business.
Market, market and market your business. Now is the time to pump up the marketing. Use guerrila marketing techniques to save on your resources and grow at a fraction of the cost. Find ways you can advertise your business without going bankrupt yourself. Find cobranding partners. And yes, market to your existing customers by giving top quality service so they can spread the word about your business.
Develop multiple streams of revenue. Like stock portfolios, diversification can help you weather downturns in the economy. Determine if there are opportunities to earn from referrals, advertising, product sales, leads for traditional follow-up, and information. If you have a retail store, think of what else can you sell in your store that customers would want.
Start preparing for the turnaround. Keep an eye for the future. Things will be better, and when it does, you need to think how you can take advantage of the better economic environment. You need to be prepared NOW when the market is still in the doldrums; instead of thinking how to take advantage of the opportunities when the market is already starting to recover (you'd be left behind).
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Entrepreneurship and Work-Life Balance
I've been reading the book "How We Lead Matters: Reflection on a Life of Leadership" by Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and former CEO of Carlson. Carlson is one of the largest family owned businesses today and includes a wide variety of travel and entertainment businesses such as Radisson, Country Inns & Suites, Regent, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant chain.
The book is a collection of stories, thoughts and reflections of Ms. Nelson. Forbes magazine has regularly named Marilyn Carlson Nelson one of “The World’s Most Powerful Women It is not the this-is-why-I-am-great book, but rather, the book is a collection of stories and reflections in life of Ms. Carlson.
One of the topics Ms. Nelson talked about in the book is work-life balance. Whether you are a solo home-based entrepreneur or Chairman of a billion dollar conglomerate, balancing family life and work will always be a constant struggle. There will always be an email to send, a paper to write, a customer to call, and a decision to make. It can be tough juggling work, career and family, more so if you have little kids.
I agree with what Ms. Nelson had to say about achieving work/life balance. She admits that she's not particularly successful at balance, but she is conscious of the choices she is making and rationalized it over time
As Ms. Nelson wrote,
The fact is that home life isn't balanced … life itself is almost always unbalanced. But you try to keep your priorities. The trick is to make sure you have some ability to know when you and your family are seriously out of balance and be willing to adjust.
Sometimes we say we want balance but we don't want to pay for it. A man who
worked for Carlson very successfully for several years turned down a promotion because it required travel which would have meant that he would have to give up
coaching his kid's team. Now, that's a realistic approach to balance.
Life is long, and in the end, you may be able to have it all … just not all on the same day.
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Randy Pausch’s Lecture on Time Management
Randy Pausch, author of the best seller The Last Lecture, gave a very inspiring lecture at the University of Virginia on time management. A computer science professor, there are definitely more famous time management gurus than him. But what makes this lecture special is the fact that this is a man dying of cancer, yet he is talking about time management.
Randy broke into the scene, so to speak, when he was asked to participate in the last lecture series at the Carnegie Mellon University. His last lecture was called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Unlike other lecturers who was asked to pretend that the lecture is their last, Randy knew that he was living on borrowed time. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and given only 3-6 months of "good health". His lecture was turned into a book.
Randy died on July 25, 2008. Be inspired and learn from this special man. Watch the
Time Management lecture video
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10 Critical Elements to a Successful Google Adwords Campaign
Search engine marketing company MoreVisibility.com has released an informative white paper on how to achieve your desired return on investment using Google Adwords.
If you are using Google Adwords, or would like to have some ideas on how to do pay per click marketing without busting your budgets, here are their 10 tips:
Keep your campaigns and ad groups tightly themed, as this will allow you tailor your ad copy more accurately. Also, this could also help Google determine the context of your groups, particularly if you have opted in the Content Network.Use analytics and conversion tracking tools, including the tools offered by Google. These tools can help you optimize your ads and make bidding decisions.Test, test and test. You can only know if you are employing the best strategy if you compare it with something else. Google Website Optimizer tool , for example, helps you test the effectiveness of your landing pages.Monitor and improve your quality score. The quality score can impact your visibility and ad costs in Google. Have a good mix of short and long tail terms in your campaign. The more generic or broad keywords are more costly and tend to generate less qualified visitors. Use the Keyword Research Tool.Use the campaign options Adwords offer such as Geographic Targeting. Break your keywords or ad groups into separate campaigns if you are going to target some specific areas vis-a-vis your country or world.Use Day Parting/Ad Scheduler option if you offer users the option of calling you but you are not available 24/7. Also consider this option if you have an idea regarding traffic patterns of your site.Consider using staggered budget delivery if you are running timed promotions or offline marketing efforts so your ads achieve the maximum exposure when you need it most. However, be careful when using this option.Consider Google options beyond traditional Adwords, including TV, print, mobile, radio, display and video ads. Also consider placement targeting. Also, consider Google Ad Planner http://www.google.com/adplanner to allow you to research the sites associated with your target audience.Analyze competitive sites and user behavior with Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends . The Trends for Website feature allow you to view and export data on how popular your site is compared with your competitors.
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Book Review: How to Succeed in Business Using LinkeIn
I was excited to get the book "How to Succeed in Business Using LinkedIn" by Eric Butow and Kathleen Taylor. I think I am one of the few remaining business people who do not have a LinkedIn profile as yet, and I was hoping this book would give me the reason why I should use it and how I should use it to further my business goals.
But I was turned off by its technical formatting ala books such as "Microsoft Powerpoint Step by Step." The book focuses too much on explaining each and every button and feature of LinkedIn — from discussing the elements of the LinkedIn homepage to inviting contacts to connect to how to search for possible contacts. It feels like the Customer Service section of LinkedIn in book format. If you want a step by step guide to using LinkedIn, this is the book for you.
For example, the book lays out the various account options of LinkedIn including the paid ones. But it fails to tell me which plan is suitable given my possible objectives for joining. Or even why I should pay for the upgraded account and not just use the free option. Instead, the book tells me that
“If you're unsure which plan suits your needs, click the Help and FAQ link in the Company area at the bottom of the LinkedIn homepage."Then the authors write:
“If you have a promotional code, which acts as a coupon for a discount on LinkedIn services, type the code in the Add a Promotional Code box."
Duh. I don't need to buy a book to know that.
My frustration stems from my expectations given the title "How to Succeed in Busines Using LinkedIn" and then the book turns out to focus more on "How to Use LinkedIn" with very few sections devoted to the "How to Succeed in Business" part.
There are great tips — but they are few and far between and buried in the explanations on how each button or link works in LinkedIn. I like the examples of how to write a compelling message to contact another member and how to decline invitations to connect. I wish there are more of these tips so the book can live up to its title.
In fact, I find the press materials sent to me by the publisher better than book in explaining why I should have LinkedIn profile. Here's what the publisher sent me:
How Your Small Business Can Succeed Using LinkedIn
1. Set your company apart. Keep a detailed company profile to present a clear vision of your company to the world.
2. Showcase your expertise. Answer questions in your subject area and encourage your employees to do so also. Prospective clients will love to see who is the thought leader in your area and when your answers are highly rated, they know who to call for the next job.
3. Keep your connections strong. Utilize your new, current, and past connections. LinkedIn was designed to network, so utilize those connections to find new clients, search for new talent, and get business in unexpected ways.
4. Stay on top of the latest in your industry. What better way to keep a pulse on the ideas and trends in your industry than in a discussion group? Learn about events and conferences, leads and prospects, new products and services, and other information to keep you ahead of the curve.
5. Find great service providers. Utilize LinkedIn's service providers page to find people who come highly recommended from people you respect.
6. Discover new talent. Comb through your network to find great new talent or utilize the Jobs page to recruit new people to your organizations.If the book was only organized based on the above, I think it will live up to its title well. As it is, the book is a more of a technical guide to using LinkedIn and not a guide to help you succeed in business using LinkedIn.
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Hurray for September!
I am so relieved that it is finally September.
While I love summer — daily swim in the pool with the kids and all that sun — I am just excited to see my favorite TV shows come back with their new seasons.
TV viewing during summer is torture. After the season of "So You Think You Can Dance" ended, I felt there's nothing to watch on TV anymore. I had to switch back to my default channel — HGTV –where I can just let the TV drone in the background and all I need to do is to glance at the decorated space at the show's ending.
This Monday, I was so pumped up to watch the new season of the campy Gossip Girl. For some reason, I am hooked on this show. Maybe it's the Dynasty vibe (how I loved Joan Collin's Alexis Carrington character!) or the drama of the rich and beautiful. That's why I am also looking forward to the new season of Dirty, Sexy Money.
Then of course, there's the sci-fi shows. I can't wait to see Heroes , as well as my ultra-favorite, the perplexing Lost. Also the dramas - Grey's Anatomy, Eli Stone, among others. I am also looking forward to see some new shows such as Fringe, Robinson's Crusoe and the Christian Slater action drama.
Just like me, entrepreneurs need to relax as well. So what's your guilty pleasure?
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How to Protect a Trade Secret
Trade secrets are anything that is not known in the industry or not revealed in public that can give your business a competitive advantage. Some of the most famous trade secrets include the formula for Coke and the recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Trade secrets are commonly not patented because doing so will force you to reveal the trade secret in your patent application. If your busines has a trade secret, the main question is how do you protect it?
Leonard DuBoff in his book "The Law (In Plain English) for Small Business" gives several ways you can protect your trade secret:
1. Physical security = restrict access to the area where your trade secret is used. Employee access should be on a need to know basis and carefully review the credentials of workers who deals with processes that require knowing and handling the trade secret. Don't give automatic free access to workers, and be very careful in terms of data handling and storage (e.g. you don't want a laptop that contains your trade secret to get lost).
2. Employee access = establish procedures to control employee access to the documents. Clearly label all documents, pictures or sketches containing trade secrets
3. Fragmenting information = Prevent employees to knowing all parts of your trade secret. Fragment the information where one person handles one part and another person handles another part. That way, a single person cannot hurt you.
4. Confidentiality agreements = Always have employees sign non disclosure and confidentiality agreements. Get the help of a lawyer to draw up confidentiality agreements, including outsiders who need to know the trade secret (e.g. a person thinking of engaging in a licensing agreement with you to further develop your trade secrets).
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Keeping Tab on Taxes
IRS has introduced a new email newsletter called IRS's e-News for Small Businesses designed to inform small businesses and self employed individuals about taxes.
If you want to know about tax news and tax law changes pertaining to small businesses, this newsletter is a must-read. You can also get tax tips to ensure compliance with IRS rules. I'm sure most of us would rather not be at the opposite end of a table during an IRS audit.
The newsletter will be sent out every other Wednesday. Click here for a sample newsletter. Read about this new newsletter and subscribe at the IRS website.
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Should You Offer Additional Services?
Whether you are a lawn care contractor or a resume writer, one of the pressing questions you will be faced is whether you need to offer more services than what you currently provide.
Offering additional services has its advantages and disadvantages.
Add-on services can increase your revenue stream and add to your bottomline. By widening the services you offer, you may be able to attract a wider customer base and upsell to them more profitable services. A resume service can add coaching services or interview training, helping those looking for a job package themselves well and beyond their resumes.
Diversifying will also help your business during slow periods. Lawn care business, for example, is seasonal in some states that you need to adjust the types of services that you offer based on the seasons. So when demand for mowing services start to significantly slow down in the winter, you can offer holiday decorating or landscape lighting design during those lean months.
Adding more services also gives you a leg up on your competitors. It allows you to market your business as full service offering customers one-stop comprehensive services. They want to simplify their lives by dealing with, as few vendors are they can.
However, adding a new service has its drawbacks.
If you are offering a service that poses new risks — e.g. a lawncare business now offering tree services will have workers get up the air — expect your insurance and workman’s compensation to increase.
There will also be investments in equipment, additional skilled workers, training and technical know how. You need to consider how much resource you are willing to commit. Decide whether the new services you are thinking of offering are a one time or occasional deal, or whether these are repeat business — and whether you have the resources to commit. You don't want to spread yourself too thin trying to do your main business while coping with the demand for the new services.
And of course, despite your investments in the add-on services, they may not click well with your target audiences that your new equipment or new skills remain sadly unutilized.
Study your proposed new services first. Look at what the competition is doing, and see if adding them to your list of services offered can prove beneficial to you.
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How to Get PR for Your Business — Without a Publicity PR Company
If you've been wanting to get as much press as you can for your business without busting your bank by hiring a public relations firm, read Jason Calacanis of Silicon Alley Insider's 10 tips on how to get PR for your startup. His tips, though, are not for the faint of heart or the introverts (well, if you are seeking PR, chances are that you are not the shy type).
One of his amusing anecdotes is when he climbed down the stadium during a Knicks game in order to hand a copy of his Silicon Alley Magazine to John F. Kennedy Jr. That's chutzpah at its best! Though I don't think I would do that personally, his passion, confidence and belief in his business is worth emulating.
Your job is to transfer the enthusiasm you feel for your brand to everyone you meet.
His tips are:
1. Be the brand = you must be in love with your company, and proud to show it off to anyone and everyone. Wear tshirts with your company name. Talk to people about your business - all the time.
2. Be everywhere = go out and network, all the time. Attend industry events. Meet people in your industry. Of course, with your company name always visible in your person whether stickers in your laptop or wearing a company tshirt.
3. Always pick up the check = They say that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And apparently, the same holds true when the best way to network is to pay for dinners. As Jason said, "In the real world break bread, don't trade contact information."
4. Be a human being = Understand that journalists and bloggers hate being pitched to. A better strategy is to develop relationships with the media organically and slowly.
5. How to bond with a journalist = If you want a journalist to take interest in you, take interest in them. Read their stories. Know what they write about. Even pronounce their name properly!
6. How a CEO should e-mail a journalist = Create direct, personal and honest relationships with journalists.
It’s a very long piece, but well worth the time you'd spend reading it. Read the full article.
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How to Become a Sales Superstar
Voss Graham of Lawn and Landscape Magazine wrote a great article on how to become a sales superstar. To become a sales superstar, you need to master 10 critical decision making areas that create sales success, as follows:
1. Sales superstars are always learning - learning in-depth about their customers; reading about selling, business trends and industry trends; and even attending training and development sessions. To become a sales superstar, you need to constantly sharpen your skills.
2. Business acumen - you must speak in terms that are important to customers, not just about product features and benefits
3. Preparedness = Do customer research before meeting customers. Get more information about your customers and be more knowledgeable than your competitors.
4. Industry knowledge = Knowing the industry is a requirement. This allows you to anticipate trends in your industry and help you guide your customers to better business decisions.
5. Questioning skills = Many sales people make the mistake of talking too much and boasting what they think they know, which turns off customers. To become a sales superstar, learn how to ask the right questions — questions to educate or guide the customer, uncover their biases, and learn what benefits or solutions would address the needs of the customer.
6. Listening = you need to actively listen to the customer. Focus on what the customer is really saying.
7. Think like an owner = Learn how to connect all the dots, taking time to think about customer satisfaction after the sale and what it takes to ensure success.
8. Creative problem solving = The key word is "creative," which involves looking at the customer's situation and thinking about different ways of solving the problem.
9. Practice, practice, practice = Work on your skills using role plays, application exercises, even video a customer simulation. Using video in the practice sessions is the fastest way to gain immediate improvement.
10. Self confidence = confidence is the key to having the winner's edge.
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10 Reasons Why Online Retail Entrepreneurs Succeed — and Fail
The book "How to Start a Home-Based Online Retail Business" by Jeremy Shepherd is one of my favorite startup guide for starting an ecommerce business. The author writes from the perspective of someone who will run the business from a small office tucked in the kitchen with the inventory located in a spare room or basement.
The author lists a good list of 10 reasons whu online retail merchants will make it big:
Good product nicheGood web site designExcellent customer serviceGood market researchCompetitive pricesInnovative MarketingEstablished word-of-mouth buzzGood product sourcingGood business and financial planningThey never lose their entrepreneurial spirit
He also puts out a top 10 list of mistakes made by online entrepreneurs
Lack of product researchNot finding a product nicheLack of familiarity with online retailPoor web site designLack of financial planningPoor customer serviceIgnorance of online legal issuesLack of competitive edgeLack of commitmentLack of passion
One thing that I will add to the list of common mistakes of online entrepreneurs is the failure to understand the site's metrics. Big companies often pore through their data trying to understand how customers purchase through the site and make the necessary adjustments.
Small business owners, on the other hand, commonly fly through the seat of their pants praying their Hail Marys that customers come to the site and buy. But they don't have the knowhow, interest or time to carefully analyze at what point of the buying process they start losing their customers, or why their customers are abandoning the shopping carts at a high rate.
Small online entrepreneurs may not have the deep pockets to use the latest technologies in their website but there are tools such as Google Analytics that can give them a perspective of how visitors are using their site and what kind of visitors convert into buyers.
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The Challenges of Work at Home Moms
I previously wrote about how the challenges of work at home moms in the post How to Survive Life as a Work at Home Mom . But it is a topic very close to my heart as a work at home mom myself, and one that I like to revisit again and again.
I interviewed for Women Home Business Nicole Simons, founder of Fortunuts.com, maker of custom made walnuts with a dash of whimsy with its fortune sayings. Nicole gave a very real and grounded response to my question of how she is balancing the demands of a successful business, family and other interests that I'm sure many could relate:
It’s called breathing deeply! As a mom of two toddlers I have to really break things up into bite size pieces. That has taken some getting used to and still is a struggle to this day. When September hits – my life goes into overdrive and everything is “NUTS”! We really do most of our business in 4th qtr since we are such a great unique gift item. I have learned to organize myself better and to try to take on only what I can handle. In all honesty, I am not a great role model on balancing to take care of myself! I have to be forced to go and get a mani/pedi and do things for me. Having 2 little boys has been very challenging- and I am usually putting their needs first (as most moms do). It’s my friends and family that remind me how much people love our product and that is always a nice injection of motivation! Also I do know as women we tend to be superheroes and it’s key to step away and replenish self to step back into the arena and be not only a better mom, but a smarter and focused business owner.
What Nicole said, I think, is common among work at home moms running their own businesses. I've met one or two women who are able to perfectly balance domestic family life with business, bringing the kids to extra curricular activities to cooking meals while getting all business related tasks done for the day and still having the time to get their nails done! But they are a rare breed. I remember meeting a freelance marketing consultant and we got into comparing dark circles under our eyes - a result of working late into the night!
Watch out for the full interview with Nicole at WomenHomeBusiness.com!
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Increasing Your Product Mix: How to Decide
Someone asked a question during lunch today: "Do you have any ideas what else should I sell?"
This young lady just started an online store selling hair extensions and bags, and she has been thinking of expanding her product line. But she has no idea what else she could offer on her new website. She was expecting me to give her ideas of specific products that she could sell.
In the discussion, some suggested that she offer hair accessories. Another person suggested she offer makeup. While another said she should offer yoga products such as mats and yoga outfits. And the suggestions kept getting weirder and weirder, with one saying she should offer men's shaving products!
I told her that the best approach to answering her question is by asking the following questions:
Who is your market and what else do they need? What other products are your competitors offering? What are the gaps in the marketplace — the products her customers want but are not currently being offered by her competitors? What products can she produce or source from her suppliers? I think this young lady captures the flawed decision making process of many small business owners. She, like many others, make the mistake of looking elsewhere for answers without first trying to understand their market and their business.
The key in making the decision to add to the product mix is to think of your target market and determine what else do they need. Talk to some of your best customers. Analyze your search box to see what visitors are trying to find in your site, paying close attention to those products you don' have.
Just don't go around asking your friends what you should sell (unless of course they represent your target audience)
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Starting a Business and the Fear of Failure
One of the most common reasons why many would be entrepreneurs hesitate to start a business is the fear of failure.
“What if the business fails?"
It’s a scary thought, especially if you've given up a lot in order to jumpstart the business. The key is to prepare and have a plan of action.
The first step is to identify what's the worst thing that can happen if the business fail. This is not being too negative, or even fatalistic (as Ayn Rand said in The Fountainhead, "You don't start out by giving up" or something to that effect). Thinking through the worst thing could help you get a feel for the risks involved, and whether you can handle the risks if and when it happens.
Some of the worst things that could happen include:
Losing all your savingsInability to pay off loans and losing your collateral (your house!)Losing a year of your lifeLearning that your dream business is not going to workBroken relationships due to failed business partnerships or investmentsDisappointing yourself, your family and friendsTo help mitigate the risks, you can:
Work on jumpstarting the business while still employed. You can start the business on a part time basis (or work part time while spending most of your time starting the business). So even if the business fails, you still have your job to sustain you.
Get the support of your spouse. Your spouse can work and provide the steady paycheck (and even health insurance) while you focus on building the business.
Get the support of your family. If the business fails and you run out of money, you can go back and live with your parents. It may be a tough choice, but living with parents is a sure way to have a roof over your head if the failed business wiped out your savings.
Choose a business with lower risks, especially if your resources are limited. If you have poor credit and no savings, don't start a business producing organic cleaning products that will require millons in production and marketing in order to compete in the marketplace. Start a business that you think you can handle, even if it means foregoing your dream business at the moment until you've built enough capital for yourself.
Have a fall back position. If the business don't work out as planned, think of alternative courses of action for you. You can go back to the corporate world. You can go to school. Or you can try again, but this time avoiding the mistakes you made in your first try.
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Common Myths of Starting a Business
Many want to start a business, but find that actually starting one is not easy. Some are scared of venturing on their own, while others doubt whether they have the ability to run a business.
A new book entitled "What's Stopping You? Shatter the 9 Most Common Myths Keeping You from Starting Your Own Business" by Bruce Barringer and B. Duane Ireland explores the various reasons that prevent people from starting their own businesses, then provides a reality check to address these myths.
According to the authors, here are the common myths of starting a business:
It takes an extraordinary person to start a business.Starting a business involves lots of risks.It takes a lot of money to start a business.It takes a great deal of business experience to start a successful business.The best business ideas are already takenNo one can compete against Wal-Mart and the other big box retailers.It's almost impossible for a new business to get noticed.The Internet isn't what it was all hyped up to be.It's easy to start a business, but it's difficult and stressful to grow one.
The authors did a great job capturing the fear and anxiety many would-be entrepreneurs feel that make them stop in their tracks. I agree completely with their list. When you're starting a business — especially if you quit your job and everything is on the line — it is hard to avoid self-doubts or just plain feeling scared.
Are there any other you'd like to the above list?
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Buy an Established Website vs. Start a New Website from Scratch
An interesting question was posed by a Yahoo Answers user – which is a better path to getting into internet marketing: buy a small, established website that has a monthly cash flow or start from scratch and learn-as-you-go?
In my view, the established site has the advantage of being already set up. The site has been in existence so there must be some content, and that means lesser work for you. (Of course, whether you will keep the content depends on the quality as well as your goals for the site so you may still need to scrap the whole content and replace it.). Check out Archives.org for a cursory check of the history of the site and its contents.
The main benefit, however, is the aging of the domain name, the number of links the site already got, some established traffic, and possibly a steady revenue stream. Instead of waiting for a year for solid income to come in, you can have income on your day 1 after purchasing the site. Plus, the site may already be ranking well in many (or at least some) of its keywords.
The problem with the established site is that you don't really know what the previous owners did, and whether the site got penalties from the search engines. The worst thing you can do is buy an established site, and then find out the site has been slapped with penalties with Google ad other search engines and even delisted from their databases. Or you can't monetize the site because it has been kicked out of Google Adsense and other ad programs (once kicked out, you can't reapply).
With a new site, you have the full control of what you do with it and you'll be responsible for charting its growth. No penalties, nothing. BUT — most new sites land in the sandbox so it takes time for it to be visible in the search engines (sometimes as long as 6 months to 1 year). That means you'll work overtime to get traffic to the site, even spend more in terms of PPC for lack of organic traffic.
Buying an established site vs. creating your own site has its pros and cons. But if there's an opportunity to buy a clean, good site with a reasonable price, then it has a lot of advantages. Choose unique sites that have been around for at least a year. Avoid the dime-a-dozen copy cat junk template sites for sale that uses the same content as hundreds of similar sites for sale. Check their present customer base, liabilities if any, average sales of last six month, profit and loss account if possible and overall judge the profit making ability of that site.
And don't ever believe the hype. If a seller is claiming the site is earning $10,000 a month or so, why is the selling offering the site only for $200? Verify the information yourself(even screenshots of their accounts such as Google Adsense revenues as those screenshots can easily be faked). Request the login information and verify the information yourself, even the traffic (check the log files or access their web traffic software).
Like any other business purchase, investigate and do due diligence carefully when buying a website
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Data and Statistics on Small Businesses
Here are some interesting statistics on small and home-based businesses:
Home-based businesses constitute 53% of all small businesses.99.7% of firms that have employees are small businesses.Small businesses employ over half of the more than 145 million American workers.Source: Testimony of The Honorable Thomas M. Sullivan, Chief Counsel for Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration, before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on July 30, 2008 http://www.sba.gov/advo/laws/test08_0730.html
Some other great sources of statistical factoids on small businesses are:
SBA Frequently Asked Questions http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdfSmall Business Lending in the US http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/lending.htmlNational Small Business Association Survey of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses http://www.nsba.biz/docs/surveynewfinal.pdfSurvey of Business Owners http://www.census.gov/csd/sbo/
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10 Profitable Home Business Niche Ideas
I've written a new article based on various entrepreneur success stories that I've featured on this blog, as well as in the Entrepeneur Success Stories blog.
The article lists some of the 10 unique yet profitable niche business ideas, often from entrepreneurs working from home. Focusing on a niche has been an important strategy for small business entrepreneurs. Instead of being everything to everybody, many small business entrepreneurs choose to offer something different to a small segment of consumers that have unmet preferences.
From dog goggles to gourmet pretzels to home improvement referrals, the key to success is to provide something unique that is not easily duplicated and serves a market need. The success stories featured in the article prove that the most successful businesses are those that are able to spot opportunities — even in the seemingly ordinary things in our every day life.
Kim and Scott Holstein had the idea of offering uniquely flavored soft pretzels as the gourmet alternative to the plain salted pretzel commonly found in groceries and supermarkets. Veronica Dilullo and her husband invented goggles for dogs (or Doggles) when they noticed that their own dog Midnight would always be squinting and seemed really sensitive to the bright light. Some of these entrepreneurs created or invented unique products that their market wants, while some simply took an existing product and enhanced it or added more value to it.
Read the article “10 Profitable Home Business Niche Ideas"
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Women Entrepreneurs: Call for Stories for a New Book
To all those women entrepreneurs who may want to have their stories published in a book …
Real Solutions Press LLC is accepting story submissions for The Smartest Thing I Ever Did…®as a Woman in Business, one of over a dozen titles in this new book series. The contributors of each published story will receive a byline as well as a 100-word bio to tell the world about who they are, what they do, and how to contact them. It translates into very valuable exposure for any businesswoman. Featured Contributor and Co-Author opportunities also are available.
Worthy, national charities are being sought to associate with each title in the series. These charities will be helping to market the books to their large national membership base and will be receiving a donation based on sales.
Stories and charity suggestions may be submitted in two ways: privately on our company website, www.RealSolutionsPress.com , or on our newly-launched blog site, www.TheSmartestThingIEverDid.com . Posting on the blog allows for a link back to the contributor’s site, which can prove valuable for search engine rankings.
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10 Tips to Marketing Your Service Business
Whether you run a lawncare or tutoring or cleaning business, here are some ideas on how to get customers for your service business:
1. Many service businesses advertise in local ad magazines and coupon services such as ValPak. Study your competitors' ads particularly their offers and come-ons for first time customers. Offer free services that would help you land their account such as free lawn analysis for lawncare businesses or free consultation for an interior design business. The key is to entice the customers to try your service for the first time.
2. Place ads in your local newspaper. Understand the cycle of your business. For a landscaping business, it is best to advertise in late February to mid-March as households get ready for the spring. For a tutorial business, it is best to advertise at the tail end of summer when parents are starting to think of school. Make sure that you write effective ads that speak directly to your client.
3. Use referral marketing. Many service businesses thrive on referrals, so make sure that you talk to your existing customers and ask them if there's anyone that may benefit your service. Your existing clients can be your biggest help in spreading the word about your business. However, give them a little encouragement and make the act of referring your services to others worthwhile for them. Consider offering your existing customers a discount off their monthly service fee for every account that they refer to you.
4. Send or drop off well-written postcards, flyers or doorknob hanger outlining your services to homes in your target area. Give a bonus or promotional offer to prospective clients for responding to your flyer, such as 15% discount for your first lawn mowing or 10% discount for trying your cleaning service.
5. Do direct mail. In addition of going door to door handing out your promotional materials, you can use direct marketing to reach your target audience. Direct marketing is a very effective way of reaching potential customers for your lawncare business. You can either create brochures that provide details about your company or a postcard that highlights what your business is all about.
6. Network with your competitors in your area. Yes they are your competitors, but sometimes they will have requests for their services that they can no longer do - and they may instead give those accounts to you.
7. Put on a professional image. Your appearance is important! As much as possible, present yourself in a clean and tidy manner, and depending on your business, look as professional as you can when talking to your potential clients.
8. Maximize the advertising opportunity of your vehicle. Your truck or car is one of your most effective — and cheapest — advertising tool you can ever have. It's your walking billboard. Be careful though if you live in an area with strict homeowner's association that disallows business vehicles by the residents parked in the neighborhood.
9. Use the Web to market your business. A website is one of the most important marketing tools you can have. Your site will serve as your online brochure, allowing you to sell your services 24×7. But unlike a brochure, you can easily change or update information contained in your website. Your website can also give your customers 24-hour access to you via email.
10. Use the Web to advertise your business. With or without a website, use the Web to get the word out about your business. You can advertise in classified ad sites such as Craigslist, Kijiji.com or Google Base. Ensure that your business is listed in Online Yellow pages such as Whitepages.com and YellowPages.com. If there are directories or websites about local businesses, make sure that your site is listed in there.
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Profitable Niche Opportunities in Social Networking Sites (MySpace)
Social networking sites are all the rage today. According to web measurement firm Hitwise , MySpace.com alone received 72.73 percent of the market share of U.S. visits in May 2008 among a custom category of 58 of the leading social networking websites commands 73.82% of all social networking traffic (as of May 2008).
With the enormous traffic these social networking sites receive, there is a huge opportunity for other online businesses to develop business models that revolve around these massive social networking sites.
One entrepreneur who saw this opportunity is Ashley Qualls. Ashley founded WhateverLife.com in 2004 at the age of 14 when friends and others clamored for custom MySpace layouts. WhateverLife.com was created to showcase the graphics, pictures, backgrounds, layouts, and skins she has developed for MySpace, which are all free for the taking.
Ashley does not create the best graphics in the world – but she creates the graphics that speaks to her target audience. As a teenager herself, her success stems from her unique understanding of her core audience – young teenage girls.
And boy, what a large audience this is. FastCompany magazine reports that her site gets 7 million individuals and 60 million page views a month. Given the massive amount of traffic, WhateverLife.com reportedly earns more than $70K a month from advertising, such as popups and Adsense ads.
Not bad for a kid who simply wanted to create cool graphics for her MySpace page.
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Domain Naming Service: A Profitable Niche Business Idea
I was talking to a client today of his plans to start a new website. His site concept is complete, and he is now in the process of creating the content. But he is stumped with a critical element: what domain to give his new website.
Finding the right name for your website can be a difficult process. It is often hard to think of snappy domain names or domain names that perfectly capture the essence of your business – that are still available. It seems that all the good ones have been taken, or under the belt of one of these domainers with thousands of domains in their portfolio.
Some business owners, and even ordinary users who want to have a Web presence, struggle to think of what domains to use for their websites. The process of naming the site can be long and hard, whatever approach you use – whether to combine key concepts of your site or use keywords describing your site.
This is a niche that Dmitry Davydov successfully ventured with PickyDomains.com http://www.pickydomains.com/. Making brainstorming for new domains easier, clients who want a domain name deposit $50 and writes specifications about the desired domain. PickyDomain.com’s team of domain name contributors will come up with a list of names. If the client doesn’t like the suggestions, the client gets the 50 bucks back. Seemingly risk free!
The site can also be a revenue source for those who love to come up with domain names. You can apply to be a domain name contributor for PickyDomains.com. If your domain name is selected, you get half of the fee or $25 paid to your Paypal account. [However, be aware of the risks — clients can say they do not like your domain, yet go out and register it for themselves!]
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How to Start a Personal Shopping Business
If you love shopping, has discriminating taste and loves dealing with people, you may consider starting a personal shopping business. As a personal shopper, you will make purchases for other people or provide advice while the client shop.
The personal shopping service has grown through the years mainly because people simply don't have time to shop for themselves anymore. There are those who don't like the hassle of going to the mall. Others may have a list of things to buy but don't have the time to squeeze in a trip to the shopping center or even the supermarket. There are also those who simply can't decide what top should go with a great pair of pants. And, of course, there are some who just don't like to shop, and those who don't even want to think of what presents to buy.
A personal shopper is not limited to shopping for clothes and fashion accessories. Many personal shoppers shop for home furnishings, as well as Christmas presents (or other holiday and special occasion) presents. Others are hired to buy the perfect gifts for companies to give to their important clients.
One good thing with a personal shopping business is that you can start immediately. No special experience or education required. So how do you get started as a personal shopper?
Get experience by working as a personal shopper for big department stores, boutiques, small designer houses, and then go freelanceBefriend stylists — they can be a good source of referralsNetwork with busy executives to buy gifts for their employees or family Prepare gift bags for special events such as awards shows and conferences to showcase your discriminating choicesFind elderly people who may need help in going around stores for them to buy gifts and other personal needs.
To earn money from this business, there are two common ways to charge your clients. One is through an hourly rate, especially if you are involved with a lot of consultation with the clients. The other way is to charge a certain percentage of the items purchased.
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5 Steps to Creating a Great Life with Your Small Business
I came across the book by Louis Barajas entitled "Small Business Big Life," which takes a more philosophical and psychological approach to teaching how to start a business that I find interesting.
The book doesn't discuss how to select the right business, or how to patent an idea or how to write a business plan. Rather, it delves into your reasons for starting a business — and that is to have a fuller life. He tries to put the process of starting a business into perspective. As the author writes at the start of the book:
“The true purpose of a business should be to give you not just more money but more life."To succeed in your entrepreneurial venture, the author emphasizes the need for planning, designing and calculating — just like building a house. And like a house, it needs to have a strong foundation or what he calls the "four cornerstones of personal greatness": truth, responsibility, awareness and courage.
The core of the book is the author's Five Steps to Build a Small Business, Big Life":
Step 1: Your Life Blueprint - consider the emotional ROI for starting a business. You may have the most successful business, but true success does not mean that you hate what you're doing, your business goes against your core values, and it takes you away from what's really important in your life.
Step 2: Your Vision - The author describes this step as: "Your business should be a way for you to better express your full potential as a human being, a member of a family, and a contributor to the world." Your business should utilize your unique abilities and gifts to the fullest, and doing so will allow you to create a compelling vision for your business.
Step 3: Your Business Blueprint - More than a business plan, a business blueprint is "an accurate description of exactly what is required to run your business on a day-to-day basis." It is basically ensuring that all functions of your business are planned and executed well. The business blueprint shows you what to do.
Step 4: Your Business Systems - Business systems are systems that help make your business blueprint automatic. It helps you come up with ways that allow you to do all functions of your business with less effort. Systems can include your process for thinking and strategizing about your business, ensuring compliance with rules and regulations, as well as internal operations systems from accounting to technology to marketing.
Step 5: Your Team - Whether you are a solo entrepreneur or employ several people, your team includes everyone that you interact with in your business. These include your customers, suppliers, employees (if any), and outside professionals such as bankers, lawyers, and so on.
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How to Rank Well in Yahoo
If you want to know how to rank well in Yahoo, read this very insightful interview with Priyank Garg, director of product management for Yahoo! Search Technology (YST).
Here are some tips from the interview:
The quality of the experience of the users is the most important consideration.Quality is much more important than quantity when it comes to links. Anchor texts are importantGiven the concern about buying links, Yahoo apparently does not automatically discount paid links if their algorithm shows that those links add to the user experience. Use Yahoo Site Explorer to gain some insights on the workings of Yahoo searchRead the complete interview
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How to Position Your Online Retail Business When the Economy is Down
I was just listening to the late night news, and they reported that the upcoming Holloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons may not be merry holiday seasons for retailers. As the financial markets crisis deepen, there are fears that people will not spend as much this year for gifts, holiday preparations and other items (worse, they may not have anything to spend at all).
So how do you position your online retail store to ride out this tide of bad news and emerge with strong sales during the holiday season? It's a tough ordeal but here are some suggestions:
Emphasize the convenience and savings in gas, time and money for shopping in your online store instead of driving to the mall. There are no lines, no parking hassles, no parking fees, and no crowd. Plus, no waiting for the store to open because your ecommerce store is open 24/7. Use this pitch in your email campaigns and in the copy of your website Depending on what you sell, present yourself as a one stop shop where customers can get most (if not all) of the gifts for their list. If you have not done so, invest in technology that will allow your online store to include gift recommendations and guides as well as gift finders. Consider free shipping — with conditions. You may choose to give free shipping only to those who spend a certain amount (e.g. $75 worth of items) or to your email subscribers or to your best customers (assuming of course you are tracking who your best customers are) Give free gift cards or discounted offers on the next purchase. In lieu of free shipping, you can offer a discount for repeat purchases within a certain timeframe. Since the customer has bought gifts for the people in their list, why not entice them with discounts so they can buy gifts for themselves instead? Promote gift cards. Gift cards have become the gift of choice of many gift givers. It is so convenient, and ensures that the recipients will actually love their gifts. Review your sales copy. Make sure you clarify your store's value proposition. The last thing you'd want is for the customer to check out your product — and then buy it from another store. Put yourself in the shoes of the customers and ask, "Why should I buy from you?"
And if you haven't done so already, start marketing your holiday sales now.
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Randy Pausch’s Lecture on Time Management
Randy Pausch, author of the best seller The Last Lecture, gave a very inspiring lecture at the University of Virginia on time management. A computer science professor, there are definitely more famous time management gurus than him. But what makes this lecture special is the fact that this is a man dying of cancer, yet he is talking about time management.
Randy broke into the scene, so to speak, when he was asked to participate in the last lecture series at the Carnegie Mellon University. His last lecture was called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Unlike other lecturers who was asked to pretend that the lecture is their last, Randy knew that he was living on borrowed time. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and given only 3-6 months of "good health". His lecture was turned into a book.
Randy died on July 25, 2008. Be inspired and learn from this special man. Watch the
Time Management lecture video
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10 Critical Elements to a Successful Google Adwords Campaign
Search engine marketing company MoreVisibility.com has released an informative white paper on how to achieve your desired return on investment using Google Adwords.
If you are using Google Adwords, or would like to have some ideas on how to do pay per click marketing without busting your budgets, here are their 10 tips:
Keep your campaigns and ad groups tightly themed, as this will allow you tailor your ad copy more accurately. Also, this could also help Google determine the context of your groups, particularly if you have opted in the Content Network.Use analytics and conversion tracking tools, including the tools offered by Google. These tools can help you optimize your ads and make bidding decisions.Test, test and test. You can only know if you are employing the best strategy if you compare it with something else. Google Website Optimizer tool , for example, helps you test the effectiveness of your landing pages.Monitor and improve your quality score. The quality score can impact your visibility and ad costs in Google. Have a good mix of short and long tail terms in your campaign. The more generic or broad keywords are more costly and tend to generate less qualified visitors. Use the Keyword Research Tool.Use the campaign options Adwords offer such as Geographic Targeting. Break your keywords or ad groups into separate campaigns if you are going to target some specific areas vis-a-vis your country or world.Use Day Parting/Ad Scheduler option if you offer users the option of calling you but you are not available 24/7. Also consider this option if you have an idea regarding traffic patterns of your site.Consider using staggered budget delivery if you are running timed promotions or offline marketing efforts so your ads achieve the maximum exposure when you need it most. However, be careful when using this option.Consider Google options beyond traditional Adwords, including TV, print, mobile, radio, display and video ads. Also consider placement targeting. Also, consider Google Ad Planner http://www.google.com/adplanner to allow you to research the sites associated with your target audience.Analyze competitive sites and user behavior with Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends . The Trends for Website feature allow you to view and export data on how popular your site is compared with your competitors.
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Book Review: How to Succeed in Business Using LinkeIn
I was excited to get the book "How to Succeed in Business Using LinkedIn" by Eric Butow and Kathleen Taylor. I think I am one of the few remaining business people who do not have a LinkedIn profile as yet, and I was hoping this book would give me the reason why I should use it and how I should use it to further my business goals.
But I was turned off by its technical formatting ala books such as "Microsoft Powerpoint Step by Step." The book focuses too much on explaining each and every button and feature of LinkedIn — from discussing the elements of the LinkedIn homepage to inviting contacts to connect to how to search for possible contacts. It feels like the Customer Service section of LinkedIn in book format. If you want a step by step guide to using LinkedIn, this is the book for you.
For example, the book lays out the various account options of LinkedIn including the paid ones. But it fails to tell me which plan is suitable given my possible objectives for joining. Or even why I should pay for the upgraded account and not just use the free option. Instead, the book tells me that
“If you're unsure which plan suits your needs, click the Help and FAQ link in the Company area at the bottom of the LinkedIn homepage."Then the authors write:
“If you have a promotional code, which acts as a coupon for a discount on LinkedIn services, type the code in the Add a Promotional Code box."
Duh. I don't need to buy a book to know that.
My frustration stems from my expectations given the title "How to Succeed in Busines Using LinkedIn" and then the book turns out to focus more on "How to Use LinkedIn" with very few sections devoted to the "How to Succeed in Business" part.
There are great tips — but they are few and far between and buried in the explanations on how each button or link works in LinkedIn. I like the examples of how to write a compelling message to contact another member and how to decline invitations to connect. I wish there are more of these tips so the book can live up to its title.
In fact, I find the press materials sent to me by the publisher better than book in explaining why I should have LinkedIn profile. Here's what the publisher sent me:
How Your Small Business Can Succeed Using LinkedIn
1. Set your company apart. Keep a detailed company profile to present a clear vision of your company to the world.
2. Showcase your expertise. Answer questions in your subject area and encourage your employees to do so also. Prospective clients will love to see who is the thought leader in your area and when your answers are highly rated, they know who to call for the next job.
3. Keep your connections strong. Utilize your new, current, and past connections. LinkedIn was designed to network, so utilize those connections to find new clients, search for new talent, and get business in unexpected ways.
4. Stay on top of the latest in your industry. What better way to keep a pulse on the ideas and trends in your industry than in a discussion group? Learn about events and conferences, leads and prospects, new products and services, and other information to keep you ahead of the curve.
5. Find great service providers. Utilize LinkedIn's service providers page to find people who come highly recommended from people you respect.
6. Discover new talent. Comb through your network to find great new talent or utilize the Jobs page to recruit new people to your organizations.If the book was only organized based on the above, I think it will live up to its title well. As it is, the book is a more of a technical guide to using LinkedIn and not a guide to help you succeed in business using LinkedIn.
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Hurray for September!
I am so relieved that it is finally September.
While I love summer — daily swim in the pool with the kids and all that sun — I am just excited to see my favorite TV shows come back with their new seasons.
TV viewing during summer is torture. After the season of "So You Think You Can Dance" ended, I felt there's nothing to watch on TV anymore. I had to switch back to my default channel — HGTV –where I can just let the TV drone in the background and all I need to do is to glance at the decorated space at the show's ending.
This Monday, I was so pumped up to watch the new season of the campy Gossip Girl. For some reason, I am hooked on this show. Maybe it's the Dynasty vibe (how I loved Joan Collin's Alexis Carrington character!) or the drama of the rich and beautiful. That's why I am also looking forward to the new season of Dirty, Sexy Money.
Then of course, there's the sci-fi shows. I can't wait to see Heroes , as well as my ultra-favorite, the perplexing Lost. Also the dramas - Grey's Anatomy, Eli Stone, among others. I am also looking forward to see some new shows such as Fringe, Robinson's Crusoe and the Christian Slater action drama.
Just like me, entrepreneurs need to relax as well. So what's your guilty pleasure?
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How to Protect a Trade Secret
Trade secrets are anything that is not known in the industry or not revealed in public that can give your business a competitive advantage. Some of the most famous trade secrets include the formula for Coke and the recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Trade secrets are commonly not patented because doing so will force you to reveal the trade secret in your patent application. If your busines has a trade secret, the main question is how do you protect it?
Leonard DuBoff in his book "The Law (In Plain English) for Small Business" gives several ways you can protect your trade secret:
1. Physical security = restrict access to the area where your trade secret is used. Employee access should be on a need to know basis and carefully review the credentials of workers who deals with processes that require knowing and handling the trade secret. Don't give automatic free access to workers, and be very careful in terms of data handling and storage (e.g. you don't want a laptop that contains your trade secret to get lost).
2. Employee access = establish procedures to control employee access to the documents. Clearly label all documents, pictures or sketches containing trade secrets
3. Fragmenting information = Prevent employees to knowing all parts of your trade secret. Fragment the information where one person handles one part and another person handles another part. That way, a single person cannot hurt you.
4. Confidentiality agreements = Always have employees sign non disclosure and confidentiality agreements. Get the help of a lawyer to draw up confidentiality agreements, including outsiders who need to know the trade secret (e.g. a person thinking of engaging in a licensing agreement with you to further develop your trade secrets).
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Keeping Tab on Taxes
IRS has introduced a new email newsletter called IRS's e-News for Small Businesses designed to inform small businesses and self employed individuals about taxes.
If you want to know about tax news and tax law changes pertaining to small businesses, this newsletter is a must-read. You can also get tax tips to ensure compliance with IRS rules. I'm sure most of us would rather not be at the opposite end of a table during an IRS audit.
The newsletter will be sent out every other Wednesday. Click here for a sample newsletter. Read about this new newsletter and subscribe at the IRS website.
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Should You Offer Additional Services?
Whether you are a lawn care contractor or a resume writer, one of the pressing questions you will be faced is whether you need to offer more services than what you currently provide.
Offering additional services has its advantages and disadvantages.
Add-on services can increase your revenue stream and add to your bottomline. By widening the services you offer, you may be able to attract a wider customer base and upsell to them more profitable services. A resume service can add coaching services or interview training, helping those looking for a job package themselves well and beyond their resumes.
Diversifying will also help your business during slow periods. Lawn care business, for example, is seasonal in some states that you need to adjust the types of services that you offer based on the seasons. So when demand for mowing services start to significantly slow down in the winter, you can offer holiday decorating or landscape lighting design during those lean months.
Adding more services also gives you a leg up on your competitors. It allows you to market your business as full service offering customers one-stop comprehensive services. They want to simplify their lives by dealing with, as few vendors are they can.
However, adding a new service has its drawbacks.
If you are offering a service that poses new risks — e.g. a lawncare business now offering tree services will have workers get up the air — expect your insurance and workman’s compensation to increase.
There will also be investments in equipment, additional skilled workers, training and technical know how. You need to consider how much resource you are willing to commit. Decide whether the new services you are thinking of offering are a one time or occasional deal, or whether these are repeat business — and whether you have the resources to commit. You don't want to spread yourself too thin trying to do your main business while coping with the demand for the new services.
And of course, despite your investments in the add-on services, they may not click well with your target audiences that your new equipment or new skills remain sadly unutilized.
Study your proposed new services first. Look at what the competition is doing, and see if adding them to your list of services offered can prove beneficial to you.
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How to Get PR for Your Business — Without a Publicity PR Company
If you've been wanting to get as much press as you can for your business without busting your bank by hiring a public relations firm, read Jason Calacanis of Silicon Alley Insider's 10 tips on how to get PR for your startup. His tips, though, are not for the faint of heart or the introverts (well, if you are seeking PR, chances are that you are not the shy type).
One of his amusing anecdotes is when he climbed down the stadium during a Knicks game in order to hand a copy of his Silicon Alley Magazine to John F. Kennedy Jr. That's chutzpah at its best! Though I don't think I would do that personally, his passion, confidence and belief in his business is worth emulating.
Your job is to transfer the enthusiasm you feel for your brand to everyone you meet.
His tips are:
1. Be the brand = you must be in love with your company, and proud to show it off to anyone and everyone. Wear tshirts with your company name. Talk to people about your business - all the time.
2. Be everywhere = go out and network, all the time. Attend industry events. Meet people in your industry. Of course, with your company name always visible in your person whether stickers in your laptop or wearing a company tshirt.
3. Always pick up the check = They say that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And apparently, the same holds true when the best way to network is to pay for dinners. As Jason said, "In the real world break bread, don't trade contact information."
4. Be a human being = Understand that journalists and bloggers hate being pitched to. A better strategy is to develop relationships with the media organically and slowly.
5. How to bond with a journalist = If you want a journalist to take interest in you, take interest in them. Read their stories. Know what they write about. Even pronounce their name properly!
6. How a CEO should e-mail a journalist = Create direct, personal and honest relationships with journalists.
It’s a very long piece, but well worth the time you'd spend reading it. Read the full article.
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How to Become a Sales Superstar
Voss Graham of Lawn and Landscape Magazine wrote a great article on how to become a sales superstar. To become a sales superstar, you need to master 10 critical decision making areas that create sales success, as follows:
1. Sales superstars are always learning - learning in-depth about their customers; reading about selling, business trends and industry trends; and even attending training and development sessions. To become a sales superstar, you need to constantly sharpen your skills.
2. Business acumen - you must speak in terms that are important to customers, not just about product features and benefits
3. Preparedness = Do customer research before meeting customers. Get more information about your customers and be more knowledgeable than your competitors.
4. Industry knowledge = Knowing the industry is a requirement. This allows you to anticipate trends in your industry and help you guide your customers to better business decisions.
5. Questioning skills = Many sales people make the mistake of talking too much and boasting what they think they know, which turns off customers. To become a sales superstar, learn how to ask the right questions — questions to educate or guide the customer, uncover their biases, and learn what benefits or solutions would address the needs of the customer.
6. Listening = you need to actively listen to the customer. Focus on what the customer is really saying.
7. Think like an owner = Learn how to connect all the dots, taking time to think about customer satisfaction after the sale and what it takes to ensure success.
8. Creative problem solving = The key word is "creative," which involves looking at the customer's situation and thinking about different ways of solving the problem.
9. Practice, practice, practice = Work on your skills using role plays, application exercises, even video a customer simulation. Using video in the practice sessions is the fastest way to gain immediate improvement.
10. Self confidence = confidence is the key to having the winner's edge.
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10 Reasons Why Online Retail Entrepreneurs Succeed — and Fail
The book "How to Start a Home-Based Online Retail Business" by Jeremy Shepherd is one of my favorite startup guide for starting an ecommerce business. The author writes from the perspective of someone who will run the business from a small office tucked in the kitchen with the inventory located in a spare room or basement.
The author lists a good list of 10 reasons whu online retail merchants will make it big:
Good product nicheGood web site designExcellent customer serviceGood market researchCompetitive pricesInnovative MarketingEstablished word-of-mouth buzzGood product sourcingGood business and financial planningThey never lose their entrepreneurial spirit
He also puts out a top 10 list of mistakes made by online entrepreneurs
Lack of product researchNot finding a product nicheLack of familiarity with online retailPoor web site designLack of financial planningPoor customer serviceIgnorance of online legal issuesLack of competitive edgeLack of commitmentLack of passion
One thing that I will add to the list of common mistakes of online entrepreneurs is the failure to understand the site's metrics. Big companies often pore through their data trying to understand how customers purchase through the site and make the necessary adjustments.
Small business owners, on the other hand, commonly fly through the seat of their pants praying their Hail Marys that customers come to the site and buy. But they don't have the knowhow, interest or time to carefully analyze at what point of the buying process they start losing their customers, or why their customers are abandoning the shopping carts at a high rate.
Small online entrepreneurs may not have the deep pockets to use the latest technologies in their website but there are tools such as Google Analytics that can give them a perspective of how visitors are using their site and what kind of visitors convert into buyers.
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The Challenges of Work at Home Moms
I previously wrote about how the challenges of work at home moms in the post How to Survive Life as a Work at Home Mom . But it is a topic very close to my heart as a work at home mom myself, and one that I like to revisit again and again.
I interviewed for Women Home Business Nicole Simons, founder of Fortunuts.com, maker of custom made walnuts with a dash of whimsy with its fortune sayings. Nicole gave a very real and grounded response to my question of how she is balancing the demands of a successful business, family and other interests that I'm sure many could relate:
It’s called breathing deeply! As a mom of two toddlers I have to really break things up into bite size pieces. That has taken some getting used to and still is a struggle to this day. When September hits – my life goes into overdrive and everything is “NUTS”! We really do most of our business in 4th qtr since we are such a great unique gift item. I have learned to organize myself better and to try to take on only what I can handle. In all honesty, I am not a great role model on balancing to take care of myself! I have to be forced to go and get a mani/pedi and do things for me. Having 2 little boys has been very challenging- and I am usually putting their needs first (as most moms do). It’s my friends and family that remind me how much people love our product and that is always a nice injection of motivation! Also I do know as women we tend to be superheroes and it’s key to step away and replenish self to step back into the arena and be not only a better mom, but a smarter and focused business owner.
What Nicole said, I think, is common among work at home moms running their own businesses. I've met one or two women who are able to perfectly balance domestic family life with business, bringing the kids to extra curricular activities to cooking meals while getting all business related tasks done for the day and still having the time to get their nails done! But they are a rare breed. I remember meeting a freelance marketing consultant and we got into comparing dark circles under our eyes - a result of working late into the night!
Watch out for the full interview with Nicole at WomenHomeBusiness.com!
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Increasing Your Product Mix: How to Decide
Someone asked a question during lunch today: "Do you have any ideas what else should I sell?"
This young lady just started an online store selling hair extensions and bags, and she has been thinking of expanding her product line. But she has no idea what else she could offer on her new website. She was expecting me to give her ideas of specific products that she could sell.
In the discussion, some suggested that she offer hair accessories. Another person suggested she offer makeup. While another said she should offer yoga products such as mats and yoga outfits. And the suggestions kept getting weirder and weirder, with one saying she should offer men's shaving products!
I told her that the best approach to answering her question is by asking the following questions:
Who is your market and what else do they need? What other products are your competitors offering? What are the gaps in the marketplace — the products her customers want but are not currently being offered by her competitors? What products can she produce or source from her suppliers? I think this young lady captures the flawed decision making process of many small business owners. She, like many others, make the mistake of looking elsewhere for answers without first trying to understand their market and their business.
The key in making the decision to add to the product mix is to think of your target market and determine what else do they need. Talk to some of your best customers. Analyze your search box to see what visitors are trying to find in your site, paying close attention to those products you don' have.
Just don't go around asking your friends what you should sell (unless of course they represent your target audience)
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Starting a Business and the Fear of Failure
One of the most common reasons why many would be entrepreneurs hesitate to start a business is the fear of failure.
“What if the business fails?"
It’s a scary thought, especially if you've given up a lot in order to jumpstart the business. The key is to prepare and have a plan of action.
The first step is to identify what's the worst thing that can happen if the business fail. This is not being too negative, or even fatalistic (as Ayn Rand said in The Fountainhead, "You don't start out by giving up" or something to that effect). Thinking through the worst thing could help you get a feel for the risks involved, and whether you can handle the risks if and when it happens.
Some of the worst things that could happen include:
Losing all your savingsInability to pay off loans and losing your collateral (your house!)Losing a year of your lifeLearning that your dream business is not going to workBroken relationships due to failed business partnerships or investmentsDisappointing yourself, your family and friendsTo help mitigate the risks, you can:
Work on jumpstarting the business while still employed. You can start the business on a part time basis (or work part time while spending most of your time starting the business). So even if the business fails, you still have your job to sustain you.
Get the support of your spouse. Your spouse can work and provide the steady paycheck (and even health insurance) while you focus on building the business.
Get the support of your family. If the business fails and you run out of money, you can go back and live with your parents. It may be a tough choice, but living with parents is a sure way to have a roof over your head if the failed business wiped out your savings.
Choose a business with lower risks, especially if your resources are limited. If you have poor credit and no savings, don't start a business producing organic cleaning products that will require millons in production and marketing in order to compete in the marketplace. Start a business that you think you can handle, even if it means foregoing your dream business at the moment until you've built enough capital for yourself.
Have a fall back position. If the business don't work out as planned, think of alternative courses of action for you. You can go back to the corporate world. You can go to school. Or you can try again, but this time avoiding the mistakes you made in your first try.
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Common Myths of Starting a Business
Many want to start a business, but find that actually starting one is not easy. Some are scared of venturing on their own, while others doubt whether they have the ability to run a business.
A new book entitled "What's Stopping You? Shatter the 9 Most Common Myths Keeping You from Starting Your Own Business" by Bruce Barringer and B. Duane Ireland explores the various reasons that prevent people from starting their own businesses, then provides a reality check to address these myths.
According to the authors, here are the common myths of starting a business:
It takes an extraordinary person to start a business.Starting a business involves lots of risks.It takes a lot of money to start a business.It takes a great deal of business experience to start a successful business.The best business ideas are already takenNo one can compete against Wal-Mart and the other big box retailers.It's almost impossible for a new business to get noticed.The Internet isn't what it was all hyped up to be.It's easy to start a business, but it's difficult and stressful to grow one.
The authors did a great job capturing the fear and anxiety many would-be entrepreneurs feel that make them stop in their tracks. I agree completely with their list. When you're starting a business — especially if you quit your job and everything is on the line — it is hard to avoid self-doubts or just plain feeling scared.
Are there any other you'd like to the above list?
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Buy an Established Website vs. Start a New Website from Scratch
An interesting question was posed by a Yahoo Answers user – which is a better path to getting into internet marketing: buy a small, established website that has a monthly cash flow or start from scratch and learn-as-you-go?
In my view, the established site has the advantage of being already set up. The site has been in existence so there must be some content, and that means lesser work for you. (Of course, whether you will keep the content depends on the quality as well as your goals for the site so you may still need to scrap the whole content and replace it.). Check out Archives.org for a cursory check of the history of the site and its contents.
The main benefit, however, is the aging of the domain name, the number of links the site already got, some established traffic, and possibly a steady revenue stream. Instead of waiting for a year for solid income to come in, you can have income on your day 1 after purchasing the site. Plus, the site may already be ranking well in many (or at least some) of its keywords.
The problem with the established site is that you don't really know what the previous owners did, and whether the site got penalties from the search engines. The worst thing you can do is buy an established site, and then find out the site has been slapped with penalties with Google ad other search engines and even delisted from their databases. Or you can't monetize the site because it has been kicked out of Google Adsense and other ad programs (once kicked out, you can't reapply).
With a new site, you have the full control of what you do with it and you'll be responsible for charting its growth. No penalties, nothing. BUT — most new sites land in the sandbox so it takes time for it to be visible in the search engines (sometimes as long as 6 months to 1 year). That means you'll work overtime to get traffic to the site, even spend more in terms of PPC for lack of organic traffic.
Buying an established site vs. creating your own site has its pros and cons. But if there's an opportunity to buy a clean, good site with a reasonable price, then it has a lot of advantages. Choose unique sites that have been around for at least a year. Avoid the dime-a-dozen copy cat junk template sites for sale that uses the same content as hundreds of similar sites for sale. Check their present customer base, liabilities if any, average sales of last six month, profit and loss account if possible and overall judge the profit making ability of that site.
And don't ever believe the hype. If a seller is claiming the site is earning $10,000 a month or so, why is the selling offering the site only for $200? Verify the information yourself(even screenshots of their accounts such as Google Adsense revenues as those screenshots can easily be faked). Request the login information and verify the information yourself, even the traffic (check the log files or access their web traffic software).
Like any other business purchase, investigate and do due diligence carefully when buying a website
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Data and Statistics on Small Businesses
Here are some interesting statistics on small and home-based businesses:
Home-based businesses constitute 53% of all small businesses.99.7% of firms that have employees are small businesses.Small businesses employ over half of the more than 145 million American workers.Source: Testimony of The Honorable Thomas M. Sullivan, Chief Counsel for Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration, before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on July 30, 2008 http://www.sba.gov/advo/laws/test08_0730.html
Some other great sources of statistical factoids on small businesses are:
SBA Frequently Asked Questions http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdfSmall Business Lending in the US http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/lending.htmlNational Small Business Association Survey of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses http://www.nsba.biz/docs/surveynewfinal.pdfSurvey of Business Owners http://www.census.gov/csd/sbo/
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10 Profitable Home Business Niche Ideas
I've written a new article based on various entrepreneur success stories that I've featured on this blog, as well as in the Entrepeneur Success Stories blog.
The article lists some of the 10 unique yet profitable niche business ideas, often from entrepreneurs working from home. Focusing on a niche has been an important strategy for small business entrepreneurs. Instead of being everything to everybody, many small business entrepreneurs choose to offer something different to a small segment of consumers that have unmet preferences.
From dog goggles to gourmet pretzels to home improvement referrals, the key to success is to provide something unique that is not easily duplicated and serves a market need. The success stories featured in the article prove that the most successful businesses are those that are able to spot opportunities — even in the seemingly ordinary things in our every day life.
Kim and Scott Holstein had the idea of offering uniquely flavored soft pretzels as the gourmet alternative to the plain salted pretzel commonly found in groceries and supermarkets. Veronica Dilullo and her husband invented goggles for dogs (or Doggles) when they noticed that their own dog Midnight would always be squinting and seemed really sensitive to the bright light. Some of these entrepreneurs created or invented unique products that their market wants, while some simply took an existing product and enhanced it or added more value to it.
Read the article “10 Profitable Home Business Niche Ideas"
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Women Entrepreneurs: Call for Stories for a New Book
To all those women entrepreneurs who may want to have their stories published in a book …
Real Solutions Press LLC is accepting story submissions for The Smartest Thing I Ever Did…®as a Woman in Business, one of over a dozen titles in this new book series. The contributors of each published story will receive a byline as well as a 100-word bio to tell the world about who they are, what they do, and how to contact them. It translates into very valuable exposure for any businesswoman. Featured Contributor and Co-Author opportunities also are available.
Worthy, national charities are being sought to associate with each title in the series. These charities will be helping to market the books to their large national membership base and will be receiving a donation based on sales.
Stories and charity suggestions may be submitted in two ways: privately on our company website, www.RealSolutionsPress.com , or on our newly-launched blog site, www.TheSmartestThingIEverDid.com . Posting on the blog allows for a link back to the contributor’s site, which can prove valuable for search engine rankings.
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10 Tips to Marketing Your Service Business
Whether you run a lawncare or tutoring or cleaning business, here are some ideas on how to get customers for your service business:
1. Many service businesses advertise in local ad magazines and coupon services such as ValPak. Study your competitors' ads particularly their offers and come-ons for first time customers. Offer free services that would help you land their account such as free lawn analysis for lawncare businesses or free consultation for an interior design business. The key is to entice the customers to try your service for the first time.
2. Place ads in your local newspaper. Understand the cycle of your business. For a landscaping business, it is best to advertise in late February to mid-March as households get ready for the spring. For a tutorial business, it is best to advertise at the tail end of summer when parents are starting to think of school. Make sure that you write effective ads that speak directly to your client.
3. Use referral marketing. Many service businesses thrive on referrals, so make sure that you talk to your existing customers and ask them if there's anyone that may benefit your service. Your existing clients can be your biggest help in spreading the word about your business. However, give them a little encouragement and make the act of referring your services to others worthwhile for them. Consider offering your existing customers a discount off their monthly service fee for every account that they refer to you.
4. Send or drop off well-written postcards, flyers or doorknob hanger outlining your services to homes in your target area. Give a bonus or promotional offer to prospective clients for responding to your flyer, such as 15% discount for your first lawn mowing or 10% discount for trying your cleaning service.
5. Do direct mail. In addition of going door to door handing out your promotional materials, you can use direct marketing to reach your target audience. Direct marketing is a very effective way of reaching potential customers for your lawncare business. You can either create brochures that provide details about your company or a postcard that highlights what your business is all about.
6. Network with your competitors in your area. Yes they are your competitors, but sometimes they will have requests for their services that they can no longer do - and they may instead give those accounts to you.
7. Put on a professional image. Your appearance is important! As much as possible, present yourself in a clean and tidy manner, and depending on your business, look as professional as you can when talking to your potential clients.
8. Maximize the advertising opportunity of your vehicle. Your truck or car is one of your most effective — and cheapest — advertising tool you can ever have. It's your walking billboard. Be careful though if you live in an area with strict homeowner's association that disallows business vehicles by the residents parked in the neighborhood.
9. Use the Web to market your business. A website is one of the most important marketing tools you can have. Your site will serve as your online brochure, allowing you to sell your services 24×7. But unlike a brochure, you can easily change or update information contained in your website. Your website can also give your customers 24-hour access to you via email.
10. Use the Web to advertise your business. With or without a website, use the Web to get the word out about your business. You can advertise in classified ad sites such as Craigslist, Kijiji.com or Google Base. Ensure that your business is listed in Online Yellow pages such as Whitepages.com and YellowPages.com. If there are directories or websites about local businesses, make sure that your site is listed in there.
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Profitable Niche Opportunities in Social Networking Sites (MySpace)
Social networking sites are all the rage today. According to web measurement firm Hitwise , MySpace.com alone received 72.73 percent of the market share of U.S. visits in May 2008 among a custom category of 58 of the leading social networking websites commands 73.82% of all social networking traffic (as of May 2008).
With the enormous traffic these social networking sites receive, there is a huge opportunity for other online businesses to develop business models that revolve around these massive social networking sites.
One entrepreneur who saw this opportunity is Ashley Qualls. Ashley founded WhateverLife.com in 2004 at the age of 14 when friends and others clamored for custom MySpace layouts. WhateverLife.com was created to showcase the graphics, pictures, backgrounds, layouts, and skins she has developed for MySpace, which are all free for the taking.
Ashley does not create the best graphics in the world – but she creates the graphics that speaks to her target audience. As a teenager herself, her success stems from her unique understanding of her core audience – young teenage girls.
And boy, what a large audience this is. FastCompany magazine reports that her site gets 7 million individuals and 60 million page views a month. Given the massive amount of traffic, WhateverLife.com reportedly earns more than $70K a month from advertising, such as popups and Adsense ads.
Not bad for a kid who simply wanted to create cool graphics for her MySpace page.
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Domain Naming Service: A Profitable Niche Business Idea
I was talking to a client today of his plans to start a new website. His site concept is complete, and he is now in the process of creating the content. But he is stumped with a critical element: what domain to give his new website.
Finding the right name for your website can be a difficult process. It is often hard to think of snappy domain names or domain names that perfectly capture the essence of your business – that are still available. It seems that all the good ones have been taken, or under the belt of one of these domainers with thousands of domains in their portfolio.
Some business owners, and even ordinary users who want to have a Web presence, struggle to think of what domains to use for their websites. The process of naming the site can be long and hard, whatever approach you use – whether to combine key concepts of your site or use keywords describing your site.
This is a niche that Dmitry Davydov successfully ventured with PickyDomains.com http://www.pickydomains.com/. Making brainstorming for new domains easier, clients who want a domain name deposit $50 and writes specifications about the desired domain. PickyDomain.com’s team of domain name contributors will come up with a list of names. If the client doesn’t like the suggestions, the client gets the 50 bucks back. Seemingly risk free!
The site can also be a revenue source for those who love to come up with domain names. You can apply to be a domain name contributor for PickyDomains.com. If your domain name is selected, you get half of the fee or $25 paid to your Paypal account. [However, be aware of the risks — clients can say they do not like your domain, yet go out and register it for themselves!]
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How to Start a Personal Shopping Business
If you love shopping, has discriminating taste and loves dealing with people, you may consider starting a personal shopping business. As a personal shopper, you will make purchases for other people or provide advice while the client shop.
The personal shopping service has grown through the years mainly because people simply don't have time to shop for themselves anymore. There are those who don't like the hassle of going to the mall. Others may have a list of things to buy but don't have the time to squeeze in a trip to the shopping center or even the supermarket. There are also those who simply can't decide what top should go with a great pair of pants. And, of course, there are some who just don't like to shop, and those who don't even want to think of what presents to buy.
A personal shopper is not limited to shopping for clothes and fashion accessories. Many personal shoppers shop for home furnishings, as well as Christmas presents (or other holiday and special occasion) presents. Others are hired to buy the perfect gifts for companies to give to their important clients.
One good thing with a personal shopping business is that you can start immediately. No special experience or education required. So how do you get started as a personal shopper?
Get experience by working as a personal shopper for big department stores, boutiques, small designer houses, and then go freelanceBefriend stylists — they can be a good source of referralsNetwork with busy executives to buy gifts for their employees or family Prepare gift bags for special events such as awards shows and conferences to showcase your discriminating choicesFind elderly people who may need help in going around stores for them to buy gifts and other personal needs.
To earn money from this business, there are two common ways to charge your clients. One is through an hourly rate, especially if you are involved with a lot of consultation with the clients. The other way is to charge a certain percentage of the items purchased.
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5 Steps to Creating a Great Life with Your Small Business
I came across the book by Louis Barajas entitled "Small Business Big Life," which takes a more philosophical and psychological approach to teaching how to start a business that I find interesting.
The book doesn't discuss how to select the right business, or how to patent an idea or how to write a business plan. Rather, it delves into your reasons for starting a business — and that is to have a fuller life. He tries to put the process of starting a business into perspective. As the author writes at the start of the book:
“The true purpose of a business should be to give you not just more money but more life."To succeed in your entrepreneurial venture, the author emphasizes the need for planning, designing and calculating — just like building a house. And like a house, it needs to have a strong foundation or what he calls the "four cornerstones of personal greatness": truth, responsibility, awareness and courage.
The core of the book is the author's Five Steps to Build a Small Business, Big Life":
Step 1: Your Life Blueprint - consider the emotional ROI for starting a business. You may have the most successful business, but true success does not mean that you hate what you're doing, your business goes against your core values, and it takes you away from what's really important in your life.
Step 2: Your Vision - The author describes this step as: "Your business should be a way for you to better express your full potential as a human being, a member of a family, and a contributor to the world." Your business should utilize your unique abilities and gifts to the fullest, and doing so will allow you to create a compelling vision for your business.
Step 3: Your Business Blueprint - More than a business plan, a business blueprint is "an accurate description of exactly what is required to run your business on a day-to-day basis." It is basically ensuring that all functions of your business are planned and executed well. The business blueprint shows you what to do.
Step 4: Your Business Systems - Business systems are systems that help make your business blueprint automatic. It helps you come up with ways that allow you to do all functions of your business with less effort. Systems can include your process for thinking and strategizing about your business, ensuring compliance with rules and regulations, as well as internal operations systems from accounting to technology to marketing.
Step 5: Your Team - Whether you are a solo entrepreneur or employ several people, your team includes everyone that you interact with in your business. These include your customers, suppliers, employees (if any), and outside professionals such as bankers, lawyers, and so on.
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How to Rank Well in Yahoo
If you want to know how to rank well in Yahoo, read this very insightful interview with Priyank Garg, director of product management for Yahoo! Search Technology (YST).
Here are some tips from the interview:
The quality of the experience of the users is the most important consideration.Quality is much more important than quantity when it comes to links. Anchor texts are importantGiven the concern about buying links, Yahoo apparently does not automatically discount paid links if their algorithm shows that those links add to the user experience. Use Yahoo Site Explorer to gain some insights on the workings of Yahoo searchRead the complete interview
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10 Management Lessons for Home Based Entrepreneurs
Many small and home-based entrepreneurs start out small, oftentimes working alone in their businesses. Eventually, their businesses begin to expand that hiring employees become imperative.
Then they find that steering their businesses to success is different from managing other people. Managing employees is an entirely different ballgame, and some successful business owners spectacularly fail in this regard!
Ryan Allis CEO of iContact and author of Zero to One Million offers 10 tips on how to effectively manage employees. Read the article “10 Management Lessons."
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Choosing the Best Location for Your Business
Someone emailed me today and asked the question:
Where would you chose to open a high end retail store? In a: (a) high income, low population area; or (b) low to mid income, high population?
My response was: I'll open the high end retail store where my target market lives. And since this is a high end store, then the ideal location would be the high income, albeit low population area.
Assume that you will open a Tiffany & Co. store., which sells high-end jewelry, diamond jewelry, engagement rings, and relatively affordable silver jewelry (if you consider $400 sterling silver necklace cheap). One effective strategy of this store is to focus on higher end jewelry, with the price of their gemstone jewelry averaging at around $3,400.
If you open this store in a low income area, who would buy the $21,125 Tiffany Swing double drop diamond necklace? Instead the bulk of the sales will be the $170-$400 silver jewelries, or what is called "aspirational sale" from products with "accessible price points." Aspirational customers are those who cannot afford the $2000 Tiffany diamond earrings, but will stretch their budget enough to be able to buy the $200 Tiffany silver earrings — in order to say that they own a real, genuine Tiffany. So the strategy of focusing on higher end jewelry goes pfft.
The choice of location really depends on where your target audience can easily be reached. An internet cafe would do well around college campuses or even tourist destinations, but will not work for a small rural farming town with so very little customers. Or a ski sporting supplies store will work well in ski resort towns and destinations, but not work on the beach.
Know your target audience, find out how best to reach them, determine how they can be reached, find out the stimulus they need to purchase your type of products, and then choose the location where this market can be reached easily.
Do you agree?
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When the Going Gets Tough
The stock market fell today to its lowest level in nearly two years. Many investors scrambled to sell after a spate of bad news.
It’s the same sense of panic and dread if your business is failing and you are running out of money. You are getting deeper in debt. You can't even afford to buy needed supplies, pay your rent for an office or mortgage for your home. Bills are starting to stockpile and creditors are starting to knock on your door. Employees, if any, are starting to panic and leave you. Worse, your bank just called that they are putting a hold on your savings/checking account (your last money!) until you pay your business loans. It's a free fall, with each day you seemingly worse off than before.
So what do you do?
I’ve never been personally in this situation, but I have talked to some entrepreneurs who've been in the same exact predicament. With one step away from declaring bankruptcy and closing the business, finding a loan (or new loan) to ease the financial pressures will be very tough. Here are their recommendations:
1. Understand why you are having this problem. If your bucket is leaking and has holes all over, you can't stop the leaking by simply plugging in every hole. You need to replace the bucket!
2. Get help in terms of grappling with the situation and finding the right strategies to do. Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to help you see the real picture — flaws and all. You can consult your mentor, or even a close friend. Who knows, you may have an acquaintance who have been a CFO and willing to help struggling entrepreneurs like you! Or check with free resources in your community such as the Small Business Development Center or similar mentorship programs.
3. Bite the bullet, no matter how painful. The solution can be anything — revamp your marketing, restructure your loans, rethink your product, or even fire your husband as your general manager! Whatever it is, it will bound to hurt
Any ideas?
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Maximizing Your Price in a Soft Economy
Establishing maximum value for your price is never easy. In today's volatile economy, it's even more of a challenge. For most companies, costs are increasing, yet the ability to pass them along to the customer is fraught with numerous roadblocks. The customer's response to a price increase is rarely positive, with the usual line of objections that go along with it. In addition, there are the concerns that a competitor's price may undercut yours or that the customer may choose to go down a different path instead of buying from you at all. As big as these issues are, they pale in comparison to the number one roadblock to maximizing your price point: the confidence of the salesperson.
The main reason why companies do not capitalize on their potential revenue is because their salespeople do not have the confidence to ask for and receive the highest price point. If a salesperson is secure in what they are selling and in knowing how the customer will benefit from their products/services, then they will be confident in asking for and getting the desired price point. The problem is that many times the salesperson lacks confidence in at least one of these areas, resulting in their inability to make their sales quota.
Read full article
Maximizing Your Price in a Soft Economy
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Common Mistakes in Starting a Business
I’ve previously written about the common mistakes of startup entrepreneurs in the article Top 10 Home Business Mistakes. However, it is also interesting to see what other authors and experts consider as the most common mistakes small owners make:
Maria De Lourdes Sobrino, Founder and CEO of Lulu's Dessert Corporation and the author of Thriving Latina Entrepreneurs in America considers the following as the most common mistakes made by Latinas:
Lack of focus Inadequate financing Ignoring a problem Not delegating Inconsistency with product or service quality Not understanding your competitors Unwillingness to work hard
CNNMoney.com considers the following as 5 deadly mistakes when starting a business
Too little cashThinking smallSkimping on techUnderestimating the importance of salesLosing focus
Microsoft Small Business Center lists 7 biggest mistakes of business startups
Driving a fire engine without a route.Selling way too cheapStarting a business just for the thrill of it. Clueless about marketingBeing a pal instead of a bossBlowing through your capital. Overlooking your loved ones.
Different lists, but basically the same ideas. Let me know if you have any favorite lists of small business startup mistakes.
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Hiring Sales Representatives to Market Your Business
One way to increase sales is to build a sales force for your business using independent sales representatives. An independent sales representative or manufacturer's representative sells the products of several different companies.
Before you go out and find a sales rep for your business, here are some steps to consider when hiring sales representatives to market your products or services:
Analyze if you can afford to hire a sales representative now. The first question you need to be asking is whether you have the budget to hire a sales representative now. Determine the sales process. What is the sales process of your business? How will order and fulfillment be done? A sales representative selling through home parties will require different process if you are using a drop shipper or if sales is done mainly through cold calling on the telephone. Think about the best way to present and sell your products. You will be providing the sales reps with detailed instructions on how to sell your products. Should the products be sold in a party setting? Should it be sold on a one-on-one basis? Then prepare your sales manuals and detailed instructions. Decide on the compensation structure for your sales representatives. You can use a combination of salary and commissions or salary plus bonus. Commissions usually are based on the amount of sales, whereas bonuses may depend on individual performance, on the performance of all sales workers in the group or district, or on the company’s performance. An attractive compensation package can attract the right type of sales representatives your company. Find the right sales representatives. The right representatives can make or break your company. You need to start thinking about your hiring process – what types of candidates you need to look for, what skill sets they need to possess, and where you can find them. Your sales reps must have good skills in prospecting, presenting and closing the sales. They should be motivated and hungry to sell more and more of your products. As for the contract, here's a sample sales representative contract that you can use for your business. Be ready to train the sales representatives. You cannot just tell your sales reps to go out and start selling. You need to help them run through the sales process detailing how best to sell your products. A sales process defines the steps necessary to successfully close a sale, from cold calling to closing, and of course, the customer retention strategy that follows a sale. Give them the spiels they need; it is important that your sales reps are informed and knowledgeable about your products. Find the right candidates for your sales positions. Do not settle for mediocre sales representatives. Ask for referrals from friends, family and acquaintances, particularly those who have had similar selling experiences. Advertise in appropriate publications and websites, such as Craigslist and other local publications. Create a sales tracking and performance monitoring system. Use technology to help you track the performance of your sales representatives. Check out Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to help you understand the effectiveness of your sales representatives, as well as help the sales representatives become more efficient. Examples of CRM for small businesses are Salesforce.com http://www.salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Make your long-term plans. If having sales representative is the best option for you, you need to start thinking of the long terms plans for your business. How many sales representatives do you want? Will you need a sales manager? What geographical areas do you want to be covered? How will you expand to other geographical areas?
To find sales representatives, here are some resources that you may want to check out:
Association of Independent Manufactures Bureau of Wholesale Sales Representatives United Association Manufacturers' Reps.
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When Payment Never Comes: Options for a Small Business Owner
We are in business to provide customers with our products or service — and get paid in return. But what if the customer does not pay? How should we collect on the payment? What are our options.
According to the book "The Law (in Plain English) for Small Business," we basically have three options:
1. Do Nothing. If the amount is small enough, collecting the payment may be too much of a hassle compared to the amount to be collected. Of course, not collecting on the payment means you also need to stop dealing and servicing the customer.
2. Hire a collection agency. Collection agencies will cost you, but they will do the work of running after the deadbeat customer. Some will charge you a commission (as high as 50%) based on the recovered amount. Others will charge you a fixed fee, while some agencies will charge you an upfront fee in exchange for lower percentage of the collected amount. Be careful though that the collection agency follows the federal and state rules and procedures for collecting payments; otherwise, you can get in trouble for their misdeeds.
3. Sue the non-paying customer. If the amount to be collected is large and the customer failed to respond from previous efforts to collect the money including formal demand for payment, then you can file a lawsuit against the customer. You can file a case in a small claims court or in a conventional court.
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eBay Selling Tips: How to Achieve Higher Detailed Seller Ratings
I've been selling on eBay for years, though mostly on-and-off in the last couple of years. eBay has mostly been my "sideline" allowing me to indulge in my twin passions of collecting (and selling) vintage postcards and pearl necklaces.
However, much as I love the extra income I get from eBay, it's extremely hard for me to find the time to prepare my listings and handle the sales process. Plus, I never really fully recovered from the closure of my favorite eBay auction management software Timbercreek's Sold!.
Last spring, eBay made a number of changes, including detailed seller ratings. Achieving higher ratings mean benefits such as greater visibility in search results, membership to the PowerSeller program, and eligibility for PowerSeller discounts on final value fees.
An eBay rep contacted me this weekend to discuss tips on how to improve my seller ratings, and here are the tips she gave me:
Let your buyers know that you are accessible. Mention your preferred contact method in your item description and state how quickly buyers can expect a response. Let them know that you are reachable if, for any reason, they are not satisfied with the transaction. Be available to answer questions before and after the listing closes.If you sell internationally, you can use Skype to help facilitate communication with international buyers with free member-to-member calls. If you get certain questions about the items you sell often, such as questions about your return policy, you may want to create Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). You can create custom questions for your buyers to see when they click the "Ask seller a question" link. Also consider setting up a self-service knowledge base to automate the process of answering buyers' questions. When buyers make inquiries via the "Ask seller a question" form, they will be redirected to the self-service knowledge base, where they'll be able to find answers to their questions. Alternately, some knowledge base services automatically respond with an appropriate answer when buyers ask questions. It's important to keep the communication going even after listings end. We suggest that you notify buyers when items have shipped. Letting buyers know that items have shipped will avoid a situation where they leave you low ratings prematurely.You may also want to include a note with shipped items that restates your sales policies for added clarity. This also serves as a good reminder to buyers about your policies.Once payments have cleared, don't forget to leave Positive Feedback for your buyers. Leaving positive Feedback first will help you initiate good relationships. Remind your buyers to give you high ratings if they are satisfied with the transaction.Finally, treat your buyers with courtesy and consideration. At times you may have to deal with difficult buyers who seem impossible to please, but it's always a good policy to be patient and communicate in a professional manner.
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Starting a Website: Build a Broad Authority or Niche Site?
Someone posted a very interesting question in Yahoo Answers: when you start a website, should you build a broad authority site, or a smaller niche site? The asker wants to know the impact of the size of the website in terms of search engine optimization as well as potential revenues.
Personally, I would go for a broad authority site, as it has the best potential for huge traffic as well as higher revenues. But there are a number of pros and cons for each approach, and here are some of them:
BUILD AN UMBRELLA SITE
Pros:
can grow to become an authority site, which means great search engine rankings for a wide variety of keywordscan be a one-stop destination of target audience where everything they need is on one siteif you lose some keywords, the site still has hundreds of other keywordshuge traffic potentialfaster to get links as other sites are more likely to link to this big sitedepending on the business model, a broad authority site would be easier to monetize and can give potentially higher revenuesCons:
requires more resources to create, develop, and growwhen you get hit with a search engine penalty, your entire business falls
NICHE SITE
Pros:
easier to create, develop as it has a smaller scopeallows you to dominate a segment, especially if the field is hard to crack with lots of authority sitesCons:
limited traffichard to grow and get trafficto earn more, you need to have more of these smaller sites
For years, we've followed the broad authority website approach, and it works great for our business model (advertising). It is easier to attract advertisers to the site, and even using third party ad programs such as Adsense yields extremely good results because it is harder to be smartpriced, it has more diverse keywords, and traffic is better.
BUT — we got hit by a Google penalty 3 year ago, and lost 80% of Google traffic. That hurt big time, so we are adding other smaller niche sites to at least provide some backups for the main site. So while it is good to have a broad authority site, never put all your eggs in one basket!
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What Should be the Topic of Your Website?
I meet a lot of folks who want to start their own websites, but are stumped with the very basic question: "What should be the topic of my website?"
The topic and focus of your website is a result of a number of factors:
What is your objective for creating the website? A website for personal expression is vastly different from a website created to change the way people do things. A website where you are happy to communicate to others your thoughts is different from a website where you aim to earn a million dollars (or more). A website where you share your knowledge is different from a website where you want to see people connect to each other. Your focus and goal will dictate the topic of your website.
What are your interests? After defining your objectives, you can use your interests as a way to narrow and select the topic for your site. If you want to earn money on the Web and you have an interest in pets, you can start an online pet accessory store or advertising-based pet care information site. If you want to attract a huge number of users and you love networking, then you can create the next-generation social networking website.
What are your skills and resources? The level of complexity of your website will depend on your skills as well as the size of your pocket. If you want a social networking site that can earn millions for you, yet you have no tech skills to program and design the website, and you've got no money to hire programmers and designers, then your website will remain just a pipe dream. If you can't do it yourself, you need to have creativity to find the resources to enlist the help of experts to create and design your website.
What is your business model? If your goal with your website is to earn money, then the topic needs to lend itself to earning money for you. If you plan to monetize your website via contextual advertising such as Google Adsense, then you need to choose a high paying topic that attracts users that are responsive to ads.
You can gain more insights on how to decide on the topic of your website from the article “7 Steps to Successful Web Site Development"
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How to Select the Right Business Partner
In some instances, a business you want to start can only be achieved if you partner with someone else.
It can be because you need more capital to augment your resources, or you need someone with capital while you provide the knowhow and skillset. Sometimes, the right partner can round up all the necessary elements needed for the business to succeed (e.g. you're good in programming but needs someone who does marketing well).
Then of course, the question is: how do you select the right business partner?
Some start out as friends and decide to work on the business together — bringing either stellar results or disaster that even breaks up the friendship. Others come in when they are in a relationship, such as a husband-wife partnerships. Still there are some that enter into a partnership because one heard what the other plans to do and wants to get into the action.
They say that two heads are better than one — but only if those two heads are right for each other (otherwise, it will be a nightmare to work with the wrong partner). The worst thing you can do is to enter into a partnership without any preparations, only the best of intentions and eagerness to start the business with a partner.
Here are some factors to consider when choosing a business partner:
Start the partnership right by having the legal documentation prepared, including what happens when one partner wants out. The legal documentation including buy-sell agreement, partnership agreements or even incorporation agreements should clearly spell out your roles and responsibilities, address the question of what happens when one or both wants to pursue other opportunities or even leave the partnership. You can also set the parameters on critical decisions such as bringing in a third partner or raising financing for the business. Choose someone whose work habits and attitudes complement with yours. In fact, experts advice that you actually ask your potential partner for a resume including references — and call those references. It may be awkward considering you'd want to start the partnership on the right foot, and the potential partner may see this as a sign that you do not trust him/her. But would you rather know that this person cannot work well with anyone BEFORE you start the partnership, or only after you've started and you constantly clash with the person? Discuss the exit strategies — at the start. Before you start, sit down with your partner and discuss how you want to get out of the business. Are you looking to leave the business in 5 years? Do you want to transfer ownership or sell the business to another person? Or are you looking to find venture capitalists and help bring the business to a successful IPO? Agree to disagree. At some point, there will be disagreements — from simple decisions such as office decor to big decisions such as acquisition deals. You need to learn how to deal with the disagreements at the onset. You can agree to proceed forward only if you both agree, or discuss mechanisms on how to resolve disagreements. Find a partner who can push you yet provide the perfect balance for you. It is better to have a partner with that provides complementary skills, instead of someone who mirrors you and have your same skillsets as you. Find someone who shares your strategic vision to avoid conflict down the road. Since you will be working with this person closely almost every day, find someone who you'd actually enjoy having around.
Also check out the article “The Seven Cs : Partnership Danger Signs" for more information on how to choose the right partner for you.
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What Makes an Effective Email Subject Line?
Online Marketing Daily has a very interesting article on the best length of email subject lines.
According to the article, Alchemy Worx examined 250 million messages sent out for the last 2 years and found that
“open rates climb when the subject lines are in the 50-character range or 80-character range. But, perhaps counterintuitively, they fall in the middle when the length is 60 or 70."
The best open rates are those with 50-character subject line touting a "powerful" offer (30% off Spring Getaway flights to Florida on Delta) or those with a longer 80-character-plus line description (Find out Secrets to Spice up your Barbecue this weekend and all Summer Long and enter to win a New Weber Grill.)
If you use email marketing, it may be a good exercise to try to replicate the results of this study. You may not have sent 250 million emails (!), but look at the open rates of your emails and analyze he characteristics of the subject line of your emails with the best open rates:
what were the topics of the emails with the best open rates?how many characters were the subject line?what day of the week were the emails sent?what time were the emails sent?any other common factors that emails with the best open rates share?
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Importance of Managing Customer Expectations
I've been participating in an interesting discussion in Yahoo Answers of what YA is really all about. Some members are saying that YA should be about the knowledge base, and as such strive first and foremost for the accuracy of the answers given. Others, on the other hand, are saying that YA is all about the user community, sharing knowledge and having fun.
This led me to ask the following questions:
Do your customers really know what your business is all about? Or do they have a different idea or perception about your business? And if so, are they frustrated because you are not delivering what they think you should deliver? From the YA debate, those who think YA should be an accurate knowledge database are frustrated and unhappy with the direction of YA. And unhappy customers leave. Worse, they can tell their network of friends that they are unhappy with the business and why. So instead of losing just 1 customer, you lost 20.
The key is to manage customer expectations, more so if you are a service provider. Expectations , unfortunately, are a scary thing — they can change and shift any minute depending on the customer's interaction and experience with you.
1. The first step is to understand what your customers really want.
How to do this, of course, is the challenge for small businesses. Big businesses with millions to spare can conduct extensive market research conducted by professional market research companies. A one person business with a startup capital of $5,000 cannot be expected to hire a marketing firm to help create personas of the customers.
Even with a small budget, you can conduct your own survey. One way is to use services such as SurveyMonkey.com where for $19.99 pe month you can run a survey from your website or send the survey to your email list. Even ad agencies such as BurstMedia helps their publishers capture demographic and customer satisfaction information.
You can also encourage and setup a feedback mechanism with your customers. Those feedbacks could be your window as to how customers perceive you.
2. Focus on educating the customers.
Be open about what you are. Tell your customers what you really are about, in your face-to-face interaction with them, or even in your web site. Customers want to know you; they want the human face behind the company.
If you've got additional tips on how to manage customer expectations, I'd love to hear them. Please email them to me.
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How to Provide Excellent Service
According to Bob Livingston, author of the book "How Do You Do … What Do You Do," excellent service is
“… all about finding ways to make the other person you are serving feel good about your product or service, your company and themselves because they feel good about dealing with you."He offers what he calls a roadmap on how to provide "service excellence." Read about his approach in the article “Service Excellence: How Do You Do … What Do You Do"
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The Secret to Perfect Search Engine Marketing
Mark Simon wrote a very interesting piece on how to handle paid search in the article “The Secret to Perfect SEM? It's in the Mail".
According to Simon, you can have a good paid search campaign if you understand the similarities between search marketing and direct mail:
Importance of targeting: A successful direct mail campaign starts with the right targeting, the right lists, and the right data. Targeting is likewise crucial to search marketing, from reaching searchers based on geography or market area, day of the week, and other variables. The pull of envelopes and letters: For direct mail to work, the recipient must be enticed enough with the envelope and open the letter. In search marketing, the ad copy replaces the envelope and the landing page is the letter. The landing page must contain the right incentive, whether it is price, selection, convenience, or quality.
Read the full article “The Secret to Perfect SEM? It's in the Mail".
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Using Social Media: PowerHomeBiz.com in Facebook
PowerHomeBiz.com has finally created its page on the social networking site Facebook today. It will be fun to connect to home business entrepreneurs and those who are thinking of starting their own businesses.
Initially, the PowerHomeBiz.com page will feature feeds from this blog, our recent articles and hopefully contribution from fans and other users. Later, we will offer free downloads to courses and ebooks we've developed.
I was inspired to create my own profile, as well as that of PowerHomeBiz.com's page on Facebook from an article I read on eM+C magazine. The article was an interview with Chad Ciesil of the marketing firm WhittmanHart Interactive on tips for entering the social media space, and here are the tips given:
Basic rule: Listen to your consumers and let them be your guide.Define your consumer; don't create an experience that will please everyoneNarrow your focus based on who are your heavy users and influencersUnderstand how your consumers live and peruse social mediaBecome a valued participant in your consumer's social media experienceEngage in the dialogue to positively influence consumer perceptions of your brandFaciliate conversation with your consumers in a relaxed and friendly mannerBe friendly, be fun, be interesting, be uniqueLearn how to identify your brand enthusiasts and pull them further into your brandExperiment, explore and navigateThat's a long list of things to remember, but I hope our Facebook interaction will be a blast! So I hope that you visit the page and connect to me as well as to the PowerHomeBiz.com page in Facebook.
Please visit the PowerHomeBiz.com page and my Facebook profile page at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1203388202 . See you there!
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The Importance of Analyzing Your Web Statistics
I'm a big web analytics person. In fact, most of the work I do for others is to analyze web analytics and help them understand what it means for their businesses.
Web analytics is a powerful tool that can help you slice and dice numbers to understand your customers: what they want, what they don't want, who are bringing you traffic, who are bringing you the best source of traffic, etc. I've worked with softwares such as the insanely expensive HBX (now Omniture), WebTrends, Urchin before it was purchased by Google, and the best free stats of all — Google Analytics.
Traffic analysis goes beyond looking at visits, uniques and pageviews. Your objective is to be able to provide a website that addresses the needs of your target audience, and in by ensuring a positive user experience, they will reward you with their loyalty to your site.
The first step is to clarify your goals. Afterall, without goals, how would you know how to get to where you want to go. These conversion goal can be sales, newsletter sign up, advertising purchase, ebook download, etc.
So what information can web analytics give you?
Who are referring traffic to you? The traffic referrals data can help shape your marketing plan. Is Yahoo bringing you so little traffic; and if so, how can you optimize your site for Yahoo? Are social bookmarking sites such as Stumbleupon or Digg bringing you a lot of visitors; then is it worth your time to focus on them? How about your PPC campaigns?Going deeper to the referral numbers, what is the quality of visitors your traffic referrers are giving you? Look at the bounce rates. Are Yahoo Answers visitors staying longer in your site, perusing more pages and have a low bounce rate (percent of visitors who only visit one page of your site and leave immediately)? Are you getting a lot of Stumbleupon visitors, yet bounce rate is a high 90% which means that 9 out 10 leave your site immediately? Who among your traffic sources are bringing you the sales? Set a conversion goal, if your web analytics allow for it (if not, then change to a software that offers this functionality such as Google Analytics). Look at where these visitors who buy or subscribe to your newsletter come from.Of those who buy from you or perform your conversion goals, what else differentiates them aside from where they come from? What pages did they go first? Are there particular pages that act as bottlenecks?What content do visitors like? If you are running an information based site, what type of content do your visitors read the most? The create more of those pages. Or market the pages they are not going to at this point and give them more exposure in your pages as well as in your marketing activities. If you are earning via Adsense, for example, analyze which pages bring you the most revenues, and build more of those pages as well.If you are running pay per click or banner advertising, which creative actually brings you your goal?If you have an email newsletter, what types of subject lines get the most open rates, most clicks, and most forwarding to friends?There is so much more to learn about web analytics. You can read more about using web analytics to improve your site in our Web Metrics and Site Performance Analysis
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The Art of Saying "Thank You"
Everyone loves to feel appreciated and valued. It's human nature. We love to hear how important we are to other people, how much they value our friendship, and how much they want and need our company. And most of all, we love to hear the words "Thank you."
As a business owner, do you say "Thank you" to your customers? Do you tell them how much you appreciate their patronage and loyalty?
Me, I'm a sucker for thank yous. I love to receive thank you notes, or even thank you emails. And I am particularly appreciative of businesses who say "thank you" to me because I purchased from them.
But how do you say "thank you" to your customers?
Let’s take a look at this thank you email I got from Art.com for having purchased some art work from them:
This "thank you" note has two elements:
the warm and fuzzy note of appreciation for the purchasean offer to purchase moreThe offer is actually very important. In this case, it was free shipping. Considering that sending a framed picture can be expensive, the free shipping really helps lower the cost. Of course, I took the offer and ordered again :o)
Don’t send a message without making an offer. It's your opportunity to connect with your customers, and you will be wasting that opportunity if you do not ask them to come back and purchase more from you. The offer can be a discount, a free gift, free shipping, or anything! The key is: never forget to include an offer.
As our mama taught us, saying "thank you" is not only polite, but also a smart business thing to do. Next time someone makes a purchase from you, be nice and say "thank you" to them.
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43 Website Features of Top Online Retailers
Ever wonder what sets big businesses apart from small businesses? Of course they have the resources, and with it they can get the best talents and top-of-the-line technology to outsell othe retailers and develop features that can only turn a small business green with envy.
Take a look for example at online businesses. Beyond their sleek and professional design, leading online retailers use a number of features and functionalities that sets them apart. Some of these features are something small businesses can adopt, while others are certainly beyond the reach of small online retailers:
360-degree viewAdvanced searchAffiliate programAuctionBlogsCatalog quick orderColor swatchingCoupons/rebatesCustomer reviewsDaily/seasonal specialsDynamic imagingEmail a friendEnlarged product viewFrequent buyer programFrequently asked questionsGadgetsGuided navigationInteractive catalogInteractive kiosksKeyword searchMappingMobile commerceMouseoverOnline circularOnline gift certificatesOutlet centerPre-ordersProduct comparisonsProduct customizationsProduct ratingsProduct recommendationsProduct wikisRegistrySite personalizationSocial networkingStore locatorSyndicated contentTop sellersVideocastsWhat's newWidgets Wish ListsZoom
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Top Products Sold on the Internet
I just got my copy of the Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide Report (2008) http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/ and the report has a lot of interesting data on selling online.
Using 2007 data, the top product categories in terms of sales and the top 2 ecommerce merchants for that category are:
Mass Merchant/Department Store = $29.309 billion [Amazon.com; Sears.com]Computers/Electronics = $23.337 billion [Dell; HP Home and Home Office Store]Office supplies = $13.970 billion [Staples; Office Depot]Apparel/Accessories = $12.359 billion [Victoria’s Secret; LL Bean]Books/Music/Video = $4.142 billion [Netflix; Blockbuster]Housewares/Home furnishings = $3.891 billion [Williams Sonoma; Crate and Barrel]Specialty/Non apparel = $3.416 billion [Musician’s Frend Inc.; Oriental Trading]Health/Beauty = $2.453 billion [Quixtar; Avon]Food/Drug = $2.372 billion [Drugstore.com; Peapod]Sporting Goods = $1.535 billipn [Cabela’s Inc; Recreational Equipment]Hardware/Home Improvement = $1.366 [Home Depot; Lowe's]Flowers/Gifts = $1.350 billion [1-800-Flowers.com; FTD Group]Toys/Hobbies = $1.123 billion [Toys R'Us; American Girl]Jewelry = $1.051 billion [Blue Nile; Bidz.com]
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60 Time-Tested Marketing Offers
What type of offers from marketers do you respond to?
For me, I love free bags from fashion magazines subscriptions, and free cosmetics from beauty brands. I also love free shipping and discount coupons I get from retailers. I also love the rewards program of retailers as well as all the discounts I can get. Basically, I love anything that can save me money.
As a marketer, there are a wide number of offers that you can offer your customers to increase response, average amount per sale, and increase transactions. Whether free stuff, rebates, free shipping or guarantees, here are some of these time tested marketing offers:
Freebies or bonus products = buy the product and get other products for free; such as ebook sellers offering 10 bonuses in addition to the ebookFree gift card = typically subject to purchase of x amount of items. Example is Free trial = allowing the consumer to test, try and use the product for free. Cosmetic companies do this by giving away smaller (trial) sizes of their productsFree subscriptionFree downloads = software companies allow users to download and use the software for x number of times/days before the trial period expires and a paid version must be purchasedComplementary in-home consultation = offered by service businesses wherein the business will offer the first visit/consultation for free.Free cost estimates = normally given by service companies such as contractors, they will come to the customer for free, assess the site and the work needed to be done, and give the customer a free quotation or estimateFree gift with purchaseFree needs survey Free disposal - for products being replaced such as appliancesFree/Instant rebatesNo payments/no interest for x number of months = for businesses that provide financing optionsChoice of Free giftStepped Free giftsSamplesFree shipping = offered by online or catalog/mail order companies whereby shipping is offered to the customer for freeFree shipping after $X amount of purchase = free shipping only after the desired minimum order amount is reachesd ($25 free super shipping of Amazon, or Gap.com's free shipping for orders $100 for Gap cardmembers)Gift shipment optionsRush shipping serviceUpgrade shippingDiscounts for Bundled purchase = practiced by Amazon.com, this retailer ofers a small discount for purchasing the recommended item instead of simply the original item the customer wantsFree keeper giftSweepstakes and contestsMoney-back guarantee = to show the marketer's confidence that the customer will love their products, this is a simple guaratee wherein a refund will be made if the customer is not satisfied with a product or service.Long term guaranteeDouble your money back guaranteeRelationship discount = discounts given to existing customers in order to entice them to order againPrice matchingNegative option = favored by mail order book clubs, this is the practice in which goods or services are provided automatically, and the customer has the option of paying for the item or service or decline it before billingPositive OptionReservation optionQuantity discount = price reduction given to large purchases Limited time offers = designed to create urgency to the consumers to buy, marketers offer special discounts or freebies thrown in but only for a small window of opportunityRefer-a-member or member-get-memberPrice increase announcementPrice matchingIntroductory PriceLast chanceEarly bird discountTrade in offerEnrollment PeriodPrepublication OfferCharter membershipPayment with orderBill me laterInstallmentsLay away planCumulative IncentivesDeluxe versionShop till ForbidAnnual Membership FeeLifetime Membership FeeLoad upsYes/NoYes/MaybeDollars OffLimited EditionBounce backLoyalty offers: lower prices for repeat or multiple purchase/visits/usage of serviceThemed promotions such as special hotel packages inclusive of golf or free sports gear package for sport court installation
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Green Marketing for Small Businesses
Green marketing is the new "in" thing.
Celebrities like Cameron Diaz and Leonardo di Caprio prefer to drive hybrid cars. HGTV channel is giving away a "green" home. Ikea has done away with the free plastic bags. Crate and Barrel is marketing ecofriendly furnitures. Name it — from baby clothes to appliances to home furnishings to food — "green" is the main thing.
According to Good and Green http://www.goodandgreen.biz/, which sponsors the Green Marketing Conference, an increasing number of consumers are embracing green marketing:
In the US, the Green Marketplace is conservatively pegged at $250 million - and growing! Over 66% of Americans believe "Doing well by doing good is a savvy business strategy."Over the past five years the sales of organic and all natural products have increased 18% to 25% year over year. 30% of American consumers are willing to pay up to a 20% premium on clean, green products over non-sustainable alternatives … and that number grows each year. So how can small businesses ride this growing crest of green marketing?
According to Jacqueline Ottman, author of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation , there are five rules for green marketing :
Customers should know and care about the environmental issues your products address Make customers feel empowered that they can help address the environmental issues when they buy your productsEnsure credibility and legitimacy of your claims by being transparent Reassure the buyer that your products work, in addition to being environmentally friendlyGiven that environmentally-friendly products are often priced at a premium, consider whether your price range is something customers are still willing to pay
Business.gov offers additional resources and information on how to start an eco-friendly business.
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Basics of Factoring
If you are trying to raise cash for your existing business, one way is through factoring or accounts receivable financing. With factoring, a business can receive immediate cash for its accounts receivable. This option works best if you cannot get secured commercial debt or if you are not willing to give up shares of your company.
If this is a financing option you'd like to consider for your business, read the article “Basics of Factoring: What Every Business Owner Needs to Know About Factoring." The article discusses when a business is right for factoring, how factoring works, pros and cons of this financing strategy, and how factoring compares to other financing options.
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AddThis: Helping Your Content Go Viral
We have tested several widgets at PowerHomeBiz.com to make it easy for users to share our content, and tap Web 2.0 sites to increase our traffic. And the tool we love the most — and using more extensively is AddThis http://www.addthis.com/
AddThis is a simple widget that you put into your site or blog, and visitors can bookmark, share or email your content. If you're looking at a way to get your content into MySpace, Digg, Stumbleupon and other Web 2.0 sites, AddThis is a tool that can help you
What we liked about AddThis is its ease of use. Setting an account is very easy, and grabbing the widget is a breeze. You don't have to be a techie to actually understand how it works, and grab the code to be put to your site.
The reports are also done almost in real time, and you can find out the URL of your content that has been shared by a user, and what service did the user shared it to.
But of course, it's not without its kinks:
You can't know and track the URLs that have been emailed by users. You also won't know the email addresses of the sender and the recipient that some email share-to-a-friend scripts can show you.There's tendency to show false positives, and therefore inflated reports (just hope that it's not 100% inflated reports). A user can click on share to Stumbleupon, but for some reason, the user failed to login to his Stumbleupon account thereby failing to share the content in Stumbleupon. But AddThis will already read the fact that the buttom was clickd on as a success and report that the URL was shared in StumbleuponSharing blog posts can be a bit screwy. Sometimes the URL will not be reported in your account and instead will show this data:post.title/. This is also the URL automatically posted into the user form, so unless the user removed this message and replaced it with the actual URL then it becomes a worthless share
But even with the above kinks, AddThis is a great tool for sharing your site and helping it go viral
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Grandparents: How to Reach this Market for Your Business
Grandparents are a huge market to tap, whether you are directly targeting them for your seniors travel business or indirectly for your children's toys business.
Estimates from different surveys show that there are anywhere from 30 to over 70 million of grandparents in the United States alone, and a sizeable portion of these grandparents take care of their grandkids for various reasons. The National Mail Order Association has collected a great deal of data on grandparents
According to GRAND magazine , the demographic characteristics of grandparents are:
average age of first time grandparents is 47over 70 million grandparents4,000 baby boomers become grandparents every dayover 75% of the 50+ market are grandparents77% of the nation's wealth and 50% discretionary spending come from this groupannual spending on grandchildren alone top $70 billion
Given the above numbers, grandparents are a great market for children's products. They buy cribs, baby clothes, strollers, and other baby items as gifts to their grandkids. Others buy these items for the use of their grandkids when they visit the grandparents' homes, so the parents don't have to carry all these things. There are also others who buy baby items because the babies and kids live with the grandparents.
According to The Grandparent Study 2002 Report from AARP , the top reasons grandparents spend money on their children are birthday gifts (97%), holiday gifts such as Christmas, Hanukah, or Kwanzaa (96%), because they enjoy buying things for grandchildren (93%) and to entertain or have fun with their grandchildren (90%).
Aside from spending for their grandchildren, grandparents also spend on cars, vacation homes, travel, insurance products, financial products, and others. They are also concerned with their health and ensuring quality lifestyles — and that means they are a good market for organic foods, vitamins, exercise equipment.
To reach this huge market, here are suggestions from the experts:
Target Magazine (July 2007) says that grandparents do not want to be told how to be a good grandparent as they have already raised families. They respond to messages "about enriching their relationships with their grandchildren."According to Focalyst in their study “Meet the Grandparents", grandparents are plugged and are online. About 60% of grandparents surveyed cited the Internet as their top source for information and advice, and they are emailing their friends and families at least three to five times a week. Marketing to this group should be done online.Many of the buying decisions are done by women, so it is a good idea to target grandmothers in your campaigns.
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How to Start a Bookstore Business
The book selling business is a very competitive business. The intense competition from online giant Amazon.com plus the big bookstore chains such as Barnes and Noble and Borders has put huge pressures on profit margin and made it difficult for independent booksellers to thrive.
But if you have been dreaming of starting a bookstore, I suggest you start by getting a copy of the book FabJob Guide to Become a Bookstore Owner and other books on the topic. These books are comprehensive and will guide you to some critical decision making needed when starting a bookstore
Then make sure you attend the Book Expo America, which will be held in LA this year on May 29 - June 1 http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/ — this is the PERFECT place to meet publishers big and small, and start setting up accounts with these publishing houses. I've attended several of these in recent years, and it is one big event where both big publishers to independent publishers gather. It is a must-attend for every bookseller.
Also be sure to check out the resources provided by the following organizations:
American Booksellers Association http://www.bookweb.org/index.htmlBook Industry Study Group http://www.bisg.org/Bowker's Bookwire (for book industry statistics and news) http://www.bookwire.com/
One important aspect of starting a bookstore is developing relationships with book wholesalers and distributors. Determine the major and minor book suppliers that you want to purchase from. Then inquire how you can become a customer, and if you need to go through a credit approval process. They will give you their catalogs from which you can order your inventory. The largest book wholesalers are Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor, but if you want to specialize in children's books, contact the Children’s Book Council .
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How to Improve Sales Technique: Learn from God
I've had for quite some time a copy of the book “God is a Salesman: Learn from the Master" by Mark Stevens, but I never had the interest to read it. Maybe it's my strict Catholic upbringing that I don't want God to be portrayed as a salesman, or maybe it's because of the cheesy intro "Through the deep thought, spirituality, and philosophy that form the basic tenets of my life." Okaaay!
But after the initial trepidation, I found that it is actually a useful book. Cheesy, but nonetheless, insightful and useful. You just have to make sure that you don't consider religious significance and focus on the business implications. This is, afterall, not a book trying to prove the existence of God.
As the author writes:
According to the book, here are some of the things we can learn from God:
God treats us all as family: "We must view selling as a way of building and maintaining faith in one another …. When practiced by The Master's standards, sales is the connection that fuses an enterprise to people, helps to shape the company's offerings to meet customers' evolving needs, and nurtures its growth over time."God shares His vision: "God never sells a product or a service. God holds out an ideal, a standard to achieve, and most important, something to achieve. Great salespeople learn from this and emulate it." God makes guarantees: "When you sell something to someone, you can be unequivocal about what that product or service will deliver. And this has exceptional power."
It seems hard to think that we can be anywhere like God even in selling. But the tips the author gives are sound and practical. There's actually no new selling tips that other books on sales haven't mentioned before, except, for associating the sales tips to God.
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Cost Effective Online Marketing Methods
One of the interesting data in the Shop.org/Forrester Research's report “State of Online Retailing 2007" is the most cost effective online marketing method.
Per the study, the amount of dollars online spent by an online retailer to get an order based on various methods are as follows:
Email (to customer list) = $6.53Affiliate program = $17.47Paid search = $26.75Banner ads = $71.89
Yet the average retailer (I surmise, average LARGE retailer) only spends about 10% of their marketing budgets or $311,196 on email, compared to $1.8 million spending on banners.
Check your own marketing effectiveness, and how much you spend to get one order from that marketing method — and allocate more resources on the most cost effective method for you
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Avoiding the Common Excuses of Startup Entrepreneurs
Starting a business can be scary, exciting and daunting at the same time. That's why it's not uncommon to find those thinking of starting a business frozen in fear and making excuses:
“Is this business really going to work?" That's why you need to do research first before starting the business. It is important to check if there is a demand for this business and that people will actually want to pay to get it. And more importantly, you need to know when to stop if after several attempts you find that it is not really going to work.
“Do I really have a million dollar idea?" You need to believe in your product or service. Because if you yourself can't believe in the huge potential of your business, you will not be able to successfully pitch your business to investors, potential backers, and even customers.
“I don't have the money!" There are entrepreneurs who had nothing, but persisted and found ways to jumpstart their businesses and ended up succeeding. You can live paycheck to paycheck now, but if you believe in your business idea and not afraid to ask others for help, you might be able to make it.
“I don't know what to do!" You didn't know how to drive before, but you learned. You didn't know how to use your smartphone before, but you learned. As long as you are willing to learn and know how to rise from your mistakes, you can do it.
“I don't have the time." If you want to do something, you can find the time. You can always create the time for the things you want to do. If starting this business is important to you, then you need to make the time to do it.
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How to Use Web 2.0 to Get More Traffic for Your Website
YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Digg, Wikipedia are but some of the collaboration-focused websites that have changed the Internet. Called Web 2.0, these sites include social networking, social bookmarking, social tagging, wikis, among others.
The question now is: how can you tap these Web 2.0 websites to boost traffic of your site and increase your reach? Here are six suggestions:
1. Make a list of Web 2.0 sites you want to tap. Depending on the type of content you have, prioritize sites that you think would work well for your content. Use Seth Godin's Web 2.0 Traffic Watch List http://www.statsaholic.com/sethgodin to determine which sites may be able to give you a bang for your buck.
If you have videos, for example, YouTube and similar video sharing sites will work best. If you like to engage in community building, make a profile in MySpace or Facebook.
2. Know what you can get from the site. It is important to clarify your expectations right from the beginning. You may post your site URL in Yahoo Answers in the hope that you get a pagerank boost, but YA places a rel=nofollow tag on URLs so there's no gain in terms of linking. But if you provide great responses and relevant URLs, active participation in YA can give a huge traffic boost to your website.
Or Stumbleupon, where the value lies not from the SEO standpoint but from the huge number of Stumblers who happen to stumble upon your site and like it, and spread your site to others.
3. Understand the type of content suitable for the particular Web 2.0 site. Web 2.0 sites are not equally; and as such, each one has a different criteria. Check first if your content is suitable for that website. For example, Wikipedia favors more research, academic and non-profit websites compared to commercial ad-heavy websites.
4. Study the type of content that works well for that Web 2.0 site. Before creating your MySpace profile, check out other profiles especially in your sector. Be sure to read the program policies to know what you can do, and what you cannot do (e.g. can you hard sell your business on the site?). Or look at Digg.com and analyze which content gets "digged" the most compared to others.
5. Create content worthy to be talked about and linked. I am a firm believer that everything starts with content. Even if you spend 10 hours a day submitting your content to these Web 2.0 sites but if your content is crap, no one will bother to link or visit your submissions or profiles created. Create content that is very informative, unique or witty, so that others will want to link to you freely and share your content in social bookmarking or social community websites. In Digg, for example, countdown types of articles (top 30 list, top 10 tips, etc) works very well.
6. Make your website easy to share. Use tools that will make it easy to share your content and post it in Web 2.0 sites. My personal favorites are:
AddThis http://www.addthis.com = very easy to customize, and gives you almost real time statistics on what pages on your site have been shared and where the contents have been postedClearspring http://www.clearspring.com/ = a little harder to customize but their widget gives a nice look, though the stats are a little delayed
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Video Contest for Small Businesses
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is sponsoring a video contest for small businesses where you create a 30-second clip that answers the question “Why does small business work for America ?” and submit the video to NFIB.
Videos will be reviewed and entries will be posted on the NFIB YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/NFIBContest where viewers can rate them. A panel of judges will use those ratings to select semifinalists and an overall winner, who will receive a $5,000 cash award and a trip for two to Washington, D.C., including a stay at the Grand Hyatt Hotel for the 2008 National Small Business Summit June 8 – 11.
Entries will be accepted up to May 15. If interested, you can read the details of the “Small Business Works for America ” contest at http://www.nfib.com/object/IO_36708.html
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How to Engage Online Customers
You often hear of the advice that you need to "engage your customers." Engaged customers are more loyal, and more likely to recommend you to others.
But how exactly do you "engage the customer," especially online where you don't get a chance to personally talk to the customer and present your products unlike traditional retailing?
Get out of the mentality that all you need to sell is to write the features and descriptions of your products. You need to communicate to them why your brand is different from your competitors.Understand your customers by knowing what is important to them, the language they use to communicate , their lifestyle, and what they respond to.Show what the customers can buy, and explain why they should buy them.Use testimonials, stories and photos of customers who have used your products.Offer additional content in your website that will provide context to the use of your products (e.g. recipes that can be cooked using your kitchen utensil products)
I discussed in LearningfromBigBoys.com one of the best examples of the use of experiential marketing on the Web today, that by the outdoor clothing company Patagonia.com.
For more information and tips on how to engage the customer, read the article “Building Customer Engagement."
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Work at Home: Reshipping/Repackaging Middleman Scams
One of the rising work at home scams nowadays is what is called "repackaging or reshipping scams."
The modus operandi works like this: you may receive an unsolicited email or see a post on Craigslist or a job board telling you that you can get paid for acting as a middleman where your job is to accept goods and send them to a given address. Or you will sell items they will supply on eBay and will accept payment for them. These criminals are often based in the former Soviet bloc countries, with many coming from Russia.
Sounds easy right? More so when you hear that you can get paid around $20-$40 for every package processed and sent!
Alas, many are finding that these are but scams. Worse, there have been reports that some people get jailed for it. MSNBC.com reports that a man was nearly jailed for this "job" because he was accepting goods apparently purchased with stolen credit cards.
In one case, a woman was sued for selling a Russian antique jewelry box on eBay because the item never arrived after the buyer sent her several thousands of dollars for the winning bid. The middleman said that she wired the money to her Russian bosses after receiving word that the item will be sent as soon as the money is received. But no antique jewelry box came, and the Russian who hired her through a job board posting disappeared. Unfortunately for the middleman, the buyer went after her. She accepted the job because she was in desperate need of cash, and was not expecting that the "job" will end up in court.
Read the warning issued by the United States Postal Service about this reshipping scam
Remember the cardinal rule: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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How Do You Survive Starting a Business?
Starting a business is tough. More so when things are heading south and not enough income is coming in that you have to dip into your personal resources to get by.
The worst part, of course, is when your personal resources are almost depleted and you see nothing in the horizon that could change the situation. And you've got a family to support, bills to pay, and the creditors are already starting to call! Qué barbaridad!
Before you end up in this situation, you need to take a good hard look at what is wrong with your business. Look at your operations, and write down the reasons why you are not getting the revenues you need.
At this point, don't be afraid to ask for help. Financial help of course is always welcome — and needed. But you may want to find assistance in helping you understand what is going wrong with the business, and advice you on strategies you can use to turn it around. This is when a mentor comes in.
A knowledgeable mentor — someone who has been in business and experienced ups and downs — can give you an objective assessment of what ails your business. Sometimes it is hard for you to see clearly the complete picture, and need a fresh pair of knowledgeable eyes to see the problems — and more importantly, recommend how you can improve your business situation:
Is there really no market for your product/service?Is there a way to restructure your debt? What are the problems in your cashflow?What are the loopholes in your marketing strategy and what strategies are not giving you the results you need?Is there something you can improve with regards to your price points?How can you improve your distribution?What are the bottlenecks in your product mix?What expense items can you cut without further jeopardizing your revenue position?These are but some of the questions that you need to ask to help you understand the causes of your business' poor performance.
Go to your local SBDC Small Business Development Center http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html and ask for a free consultation. They can give you mentors or consultants who can guide you. Some SBDCs will require you to attend a free seminar first, while others will just ask you to send an email detailing the type of help you need before the SBDC can schedule you for a free consultation with one of their consultants.
Another way is to find another business owner you trust, and who is willing to spend the time with you to analyze your business. If you are part of a local business organization such as the Chamber of Commerce, there might be someone you can talk to who can help you understand the problem and give you some suggestions.
But more importantly, you need to accept first and foremost that something is wrong with the business (I know some who stubbornly cling to their systems and processes — even when things are going so bad). Only by accepting that you need to change something can the positive change really come.
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Reasons for Becoming an Entrepreneur
Why did you become an entrepreneur? Or if you are just planning to become one, why be an entrepreneur?
Is it because:
You love the idea of succeeding based on your own terms?You love the game and challenge of entrepreneurship?You want to become rich?You want to become financially secure?You know you can change the world with your business?You like to be financially secure?You enjoy giving back to the community?You feel you can do and gain so much more on your own outside the confines of employment?Or is it because you have no other option at this point but try to make it on your own?
Whatever reasons you have for becoming an entrepreneur, I'd love to hear it!
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How to Build a Profitable Blogging Business
Scott Fox in his new book "Internet Riches: The Simple Money-Making Secrets of Online Millionaires" gave one of the best (yet succinct) explanations on how to turn your blog into a profitable business:
By targeting a market of desirable consumers with timely and concise information that is hard to find elsewhere, it's possible to build a blog publishing business with no employees and minimal overhead, using ost effective marketing and dministrative software services and the Internet to freely distribute your commentaryThe secret has always been simple: great content that offers value to its customers.
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How to Find International Manufacturers
If you have a product you want manufactured, going overseas may allow you to save on costs. However, the main question is: how do you find international manufacturers?
One of the most popular destinations for those looking for international manufacturers and suppliers from China is Alibaba.com. The site can connect you to any Chinese manufacturer for whatever products you want to produce. Be careful though with "phantom" suppliers who will simply take your money and run without sending you the goods you ordered (and there are plenty of these horror stories).
To protect yourself against these scammers, look for suppliers and manufacturers that participate in Alibaba’s TrustPass program . Chinese suppliers and manufacturers pay to be part of this program, where they are verified by a third party service to give buyers like you the confidence to deal with the company.
Alibaba also has a Gold Supplier program . This is again another paid program where suppliers and manufacturers need to be verified, and Gold Suppliers are given TrustPass accreditation as well.
Still, entrusting the manufacturing of your product to a company half the world away without ever meeting takes a lot of faith in the inate goodness of man. So savvy inventors and businesses prefer finding manufacturers by attending international trade shows and actually talking to the representatives of the company.
If you are looking for international sourcing trade shows, check out GlobalSources.com which offers a good list of upcoming international trade shows and sourcing fairs around the globe. You can also check out their Verified Suppliers for various product categories. Other trade show listings include TSNN.com.
Another way is to use a sourcing agent. While hiring a sourcing agent makes it more expensive compared to dealing directly with the manufacturer, the agent can help you with the whole process. They will find the right manufacturers for you, and some can even help you with advice on how to set-up letters of credit, shipping concerns such as customs, duties, and brokerage.
Do a search on the Web for sourcing agents for your products. Or call your local Small Business Development Center for recommendations. Your state' Department of Commerce can also help you and may have some recommendations for you. Check out the Trade Information Center as well.
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Qualities Angel Investors are Looking for in a Business
Angel investors are an important source of capital, whether you need startup capital or second stage financing for more established businesses. High net worth individuals, angel investors typically invest in high growth fields.
Compared to a venture capitalist, an angel investor generally want less control of your company and a even a slower return on investment. They have a more patient exit strategy and often driven by factors other than the bottom line (e.g. foster economic growth in the community). But don't think though that they are some kind of a saint who is willing to give away money to see you succeed. They'll give money because they want to make more money — from you!
So what do these angel investors look for in a business? Here are some qualities angel investors are looking for when making a decision whether to invest or not in a particular business:
High growth company: your business is likely to grow by 30-40% annuallyRevenue increases: evidence that your business can deliver continued growth over time, to provide a return on investment. Strong leadership and managementHas an exit strategy: your company is likely to be bought or soldReady to go to market: you have a product prototype that you can show to the angel investor (not just a product in your head), even initial partnerships and deals
As to where to find angel investors, read the article Find an Angel Investor for Your Small Business
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20 Questions to Ask When Selling a Business
I previously wrote about Questions to Ask When Selling a Business and a developed it into a more comprehensive article, this time with 20 questions. I started by asking "Why are you selling your business"" to "Have you identified the right buyers for your business?" to "What will the letter of intent and terms of sale specify?" and other important questions.
Read about 20 Questions to Ask When Selling a Business
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Where to Find Suppliers for Your Business
PWhether you are thinking of starting a retail or online store (or even for eBay trading), one of the critical steps is to find suppliers for your business. If you want to sell, you need to find out where you can get the items you want at a price that would allow you to earn profit.
Here are some places where you can find suppliers:
1. Trade shows. Trade shows are where manufacturers and suppliers gather looking for you — the potential buyer. As such, the best source of finding suppliers for your business is through attending trade shows.
First determine the products you want to sell in your store, and find tradeshows and exhibits for that product line. Start with the biggest tradeshow in the industry. If you want to sell shoes, for example, the best show to attend is the World Shoe Association's Global Footwear and Accessories Marketplace http://www.wsashow.com/. For fabric sourcing, be sure to attend Sourcing at Magic participated by manufacturers, fabric and textile mills, trim & component, textile/print design studios and supply chain service providers.
To find the must-see tradeshows, check out industry directories and sites as they will often have a list of the most important tradeshows. Or you can check out at trade show directories such as TSNN.com. Note though that some tradeshows are open to the public, but there are shows that are open only to verified members of the industry. When you register, some shows require proof such as business registration, business cards, invoices demonstrating your purchase history; or if the business is yet to be started, a letter of intent from a lawyer or bank indicating your intention to start a business in the industry.
2. Trade Magazines. Suppliers and manufacturers typically advertise in magazines focusing on their industries. For example, manufacturers of scrapbook products from albums to stickers to scrapbooking tools advertise in magazines such as Creating Keepsakes or Simple Scrapbooks magazine.
Some trade magazines even publish an annual buyer's guide directory. Greetings etc., the magazine of the Greeting Card Association publishes a Buyer’s Guide where you can find anywhere from manufacturer reps to distributors to manufacturers of various industry related products.
3. Online Wholesaler Resources. You can check out online wholesaler directories such as GoWholesale.com – though watch out for scams and fake sites as there are many out there. Also check out the print magazine WebWholesaler , which is the magazine for online wholesale resources and features legitimate wholesaler resources (check out the ads, too, which are all wholesalers).
You can get more ideas on how to find suppliers for your business from my previous post “How to Find Suppliers for Your Business"
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Mom Entrepreneurs: 10 Rules for Doing Business
Kim Levine , the inventor of Wuvits or those little bags that provide soothing penetrating moist heat, has written a compelling account of how she started her business and all the ups and downs she experienced.
Her book "Mommy Millionaire: How I Turned My Kitchen Table Idea into a Million Dollars and How You Can Too!" is a very good read if you want to be learn what it is really like to turn a business into a success. I like the book because it is not self-serving and not one of those "I-am-great-hear-me-roar" ode to self. Instead, you'll read about her desperation when she made a fatal mistake that led to near-bankruptcy to her efforts to revive her business, even driving 5 hours to stores selling her products so she can do an in-store demonstration in the hopes of increasing sales.
In one of the sections, she wrote about her 10 rules for doing business, and these are:
Don’t apologize for being a mom.When dealing with someone in business, always ask yourself, "What's in it for them?"Pay your attorney for advice only. Most of the paperwork you can do yourself (including setting up your corporation, registering your trademarks, and even writing your own patent).Find a mentor. Having someone who's "been there and done that" can really help you get through tough times and understand it's part of the territory.Remember that nobody ever got rich by spending money, and understand what overcapitalization is and how to avoid it.Have a story. Everybody loves a good story.Create a pitch and cold-call! Nothing has been more effective for me than cold calling major accounts.Realize that everything happens for a reason. Accept challenge, conquer it, and learn from it.Learn the "$20,000 Rule": what it really takes to fund even the smallest business start-up.Believe in yourself!
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Copying Word for Word
One of my very pet peeves is seeing another site or blog copying my work word for word and claiming it as their own. Blogs especially are notorious for recyling other people's work without giving any attribution to the original writer. Lack of creativity and knowledge, lack of grey matter between the ears, lazyness or simply not knowing what to post that day — whatever the reason, it is copyright infringement and it is not kosher.
Just today, I emailed a blogger who copied the post I did way back in July 2007 entitled “The Value of Media Mentions" without giving proper attribution to me and simply claimed it as his own. Problem for him, I specifically mentioned PowerHomeBiz.com in the post so his (mis)deed was easy to track (if you haven't signed up for Google Alert of your website name or your own name, do it now).
[SPEAKING OF MEDIA MENTIONS, PowerHomeBiz.com was mentioned in an April 1, 2008 New York Times article entitled For Entrepreneurs, It’s All About Time . NY Times also mentioned our site last October 2, 2007 ]
In terms of copyright infringement, the winner for me will always be this business consultant from Atlanta because the situation was simply so bizarre. She submitted to us for possible publication an article with her name in the byline. When I saw the article submission, I thought it most odd that the article seemed so familiar. Then I remembered that it was familiar because it was my own article! She 'fessed up, but explained that she hired a writer to write articles for her site, and that was one of the output of the hired writer. I filed a DMCA complaint with her web host, and her host gave her 24 hours to remove the content. She removed the content, and said that it was her worst mistake ever.
Be vigilant of who and how your content is being used, especially if you are in the information business.
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How to Sell to a Retailer
Selling to a customer is not the same as selling to a retailer or store owner. If you want your products sold in other stores, you need to remember that buyers/retailers/store owners are not primarily interested in your product; rather, they want the profit that your product can bring.
Here are some things to consider when dealing with retailers:
Know your demographics: who will your products appeal to and who would buy your products. If there is a match between your market and retailer, or if your product has a wide appeal, then you stand a greater chance of making the sale. What are the key features of your product: how does your product work; what makes it stand out from the competitors; what need or want does your product address. Help the retailer understand how to sell your product. Check your price points: what are the prices of comparable products; if your price is higher than competitors, why and what additional value does your product offer Show the retailer how to sell your product: how do you plan to merchandise your product; how will its packaging stand out from the other products on the shelves; how much space does your product require on the shelf
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Earning Online By Not Doing Anything
Someone asked if it is possible to earn online through advertising by simply creating a website and then not really doing anything after that.
Don’t we all want that — to earn on autopilot without doing anything at all?
One of the first mistakes is thinking that you can create a website, leave it and not do anything yet continue to earn from advertising. I know of sites "abandoned" by their owners that continue to earn good advertising income, but these are sites where some great work was done early on (i.e. get optimized for the search engines and links developed).
I think it is possible if you have a page or a few pages of REALLY COMPELLING content that have legs — meaning without any work in terms of adding new content or promoting the page, you can still get constant stream of traffic and people are responding to the ads. This is possible if you have a viral website that attracts visitors like magnet who then share it to others. But that is not easy to pull off.
With millions of websites out there, your first work is to make people find your site. You cannot assume that you simply create a website, forget about it and people will find it — that's not how the Web works. Without traffic, you won't have visitors to view or click on the ads — which means no income
When you create a site, you need to think of two major things:
content creationtraffic generationIf you don't want work in terms of content (meaning you don't write the articles or you don't hire writers), then do something like MySpace or Digg or Craigslist where it is the users who actually generate the content. But even then, there's a lot of work involved in terms of cleaning up the content and keeping the community in check and ensuring that the right technology can support the activities of the site.
If you want to earn online income, then you need to work on it. Maybe not "working hard" but more by "working smart."
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Balancing Home Business and Family
I previously wrote about the how to survive life as a work at home mom , which got a great comment from a reader.
Today, an article at Lousiana's ShreveportTimes.com focused on the same topic as well, with some additional tips on how to balance home business and family:
Prepare a realistic schedule — and stick to it.Write down your priorities for each day.Keep work and family commitments separateKnow your boundariesChoose the right kind of home business, as not every business can be managed well from your home if you have a family
You can read more tips on this topic from our Your Home Business and Family section
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How Are You Coping with the Economic Downturn?
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is the non profit economic think tank who has the distinction of making the official announcement that we are in a recession. While Martin Feldstein's group is yet to announce that we are in a recession, signs seem to be pointing that we are in a very bad downturn, if not a recession.
The stock market is going crazy; the gas prices is through the roof; foreclosures are sprouting like mushrooms; consumers are holding off spending, and so on.
The question is: are you and your business prepared for a recession?
Read some tips on how to survive a downturn . Ride out the tough times with these strategies. Recession or no recession, you can also avoid catastrophe in your business and break the chain of mistakes to prevent business disaster . Also learn some proactive measures to bullet-proof your business.
On a personal level, if you are concerned with your retirement savings, be sure to protect your nest egg.
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Event: Smart & Simple Strategies for Startup Success
Microsoft Office Live is organizing an event for women entrepreneurs entitled Vision to Venture: Smart & Simple Strategies for Startup Success . This event will be held in the following cities:
St. Louis = April 2 San Diego = April 15Miami = April 22Austin = April 24 Seattle = May 9
If you live anywhere near these areas, you may want to check this out. Registration is free anyway. If you cannot join in person, you can register for the free, on-demand Webcast - available in May.
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Choosing the Right Product Lines
When you open a store, whether brick and mortar or online, you start by thinking your store's concept. What is your store going to be? What image do you want to convey? What type of consumer do you want to reach? Then you move on to what products will you sell to convey the concept and image you have in mind.
Or at least that's how it is supposed to be.
I came across someone who wanted to open an online store selling military coins and eco-friendly stuff for babies and adults.
My first reaction was "Whaaaaat?" Military coins and eco-friendly items do not match at all — they have two different markets, where a buyer of military coins may not even give a hoot about buying eco-friendly items. They are just so different from one another where it doesn't make sense to combine the two together.
It’s one thing to launch a store where you offer anything and everything for one group of audience (e.g. store for women where you offer shoes, clothes, accessories, makeup, etc); or you are everything and anything for everyone like Amazon.com. But to offer two mismatched product lines with no common elements together is just courting for disaster.
When choosing the product lines to sell, the rule of thumb is simple: does it make sense to the customer?
If it makes sense to the customer, then you've won half the battle. The last thing you want is for a customer to go into your store, especially online, and get confused as to what you are really all about. You want products that your target market is interested in, so you won't have to work twice as hard and spend twice as much to reach two different clientele.
Take pregnancy mom clothes and baby clothes and baby accessories — those two work well together. Your client — the pregnant mom — is highly likely to be interested in baby stuffs. So with one customer, you have a higher chance of getting more per sales from that one single person
If you sell eco friendly stuff for babies and adults, extend your product line to eco friendly and baby friendly home furnishings. Or even eco-friendly home cleaning products. You want to get more from each customer that goes into your store to help maximize your marketing expenses. A customer who wants eco friendly items for themselves and their babies is more likely to be interested in eco friendly items for the homes. If a person can buy 5 items from your store instead of just 1, then so much the better!
If you want to sell two mismatched items, it is better to create separate stores for them, and not shove them together in one store in an effort to save on domain name registration, hosting or other online store operating expenses.
Otherwise, you'll end up confusing the customer: what is your store really about? Why would I buy from you when I don't know what you are really selling? And you dont want that. This is basically the essence of branding, where you convey to your customers who you are and what you are about.
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Starting an Auction Web Site
eBay's huge success can inspire others to replicate its business model and start their own auction site.
Alas, it is hard to follow eBay's model where anything and everything can be traded on their site (within their guidelines, of course). Even Yahoo Auction, with all their marketing might and technology, can't even hold a candle to eBay. None of the big auction sites - from Ubid to Overstock Auctions — can really claim to have anywhere near the customer base of eBay.
If you are thinking of starting an auction website, the key to success is FOCUS. Do not go head-on with the giant that is eBay — if you want your auction site to survive. I've seen some small entrepreneurs start an auction site, attracting very few sellers and buyers their sites look almost pityful. You'll stand a better chance of succeeding if you focus on a particular niche.
Look at the wine arena for example. You have Winebid.com, CellarExchange.com, and other auction sites that are doing pretty well.
Think of a sector or a particular audience. For example, Playle.com is a small auction site for vintage postcard collectors.
Then find a good auction software that you can configure and customize to add features you'd like in your auction community. It is best if you yourself is a techie, or can have someone on board who knows how to troubleshoot and configure the software.
Unless you can make the software yourself, expect startup capital to be around $10,000 or more. You'll need robust and scalable hosting, one that can handle 100 to 100,000 users on the fly without crashing — and those don't come cheap (dedicated servers start at $99 per month and up).
There are very successful niche auction sites out there. Study how they are done, and copy the aspects that worked well for them.
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Getting Sick is Not an Option for Solo Entrepreneurs
I have just been released from the hospital for an emergency surgery last Wednesday. Everything went well, and I am now back home recuperating.
But I have not been able to post anything in my blogs, which brings me to the question: If you are hospitalized or get sick, do you have a back up plan for your business? Or will your business take a sick day as well?
Lucky for me, I have several dependable folks helping out with PowerHomeBiz.com and our other sites. But solo entrepreneurs may not have such luck. Imagine if you're a web designer who has committed to a client the completion of their project at a certain date, only to find that you cannot do it because you're in the hospital. Or if you are running an ecommerce store and orders are pouring in, but you can't do anything with fulfillment as you are too sick to do so. Unfortunately, for many of us, no work means no pay.
We don't want to think about getting sick or hospitalized, but it is important to create a back up plan for your business, especially if you are working solo and your family depends on you. Here are some things to consider:
Run as many processes of your business on auto-pilot as much as possible. An information site or blog earning from Adsense can survive days without getting new content or being updated — and yet income can still come in. But if you sell advertising or products or services and new orders are coming in, you must at least have an autoresponder telling customers that their order has been received and will be processed within the next two business days (or whatever duration you are comfortable with). That way, your customer can be assured that you have received the order and hopefully processing it. Invest in technology. Buy a laptop to allow you work wherever and whenever you need to work — even in hospitals. More importantly, get a wireless broadband Internet access to allow you to be online anywhere. Verizon Wireless Internet costs about $49 per month — and in the case of my hospitalization, this service is a definite life saver. These are business expenses so you can deduct these items from your tax bill. Or at least get a smartphone like Blackberry or Palm Treo with Internet and email access so you know what is happening to your business. Get a helper. Or at least someone you can rely on who can help things running in your business while you are unable to do so. It can be as simple as your wife or husband calling your clients that you may be a little delayed in fulfilling your obligations to them because you are sick. Or a back up person who can work on your projects for you until you get better (properly compensated, of course). Or even your family members to help pack and ship the items ordered by customers. Eat right and be healthy. Of course, the best advice is to make sure you avoid being sick by taking care of yourself. Find ways to release stress from your business. Relax and sleep right.
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10 Most (and Least) Profitable Businesses to Start
Forbes.com has made a list of the 10 Most Profitable Businesses to start, which are:
No. 1: Accounting Services = Average Pretax Margin: 25%No. 2: Legal Services = Average Pretax Margin: 21. 6%No. 3: Dental Services = Average Pretax Margin: 20.9%No. 4: Specialized Design Services = Average Pretax Margin: 17.6%No. 5: "Other" Health Practitioners (e.g. Chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists, physical therapists, speech therapists and mental health professionals) = Average Pretax Margin: 17.5%No. 6: Outpatient Care Centers = Average Pretax Margin: 16.9%No. 7: Insurance Brokers = Average Pretax Margin: 15.9%No. 8: Physicians' Offices = Average Pretax Margin: 15.8%No. 9: Medical And Diagnostic Labs = Average Pretax Margin: 15.3%No. 10: Depository Credit Intermediation = Average Pretax Margin: 13.6%
What jumps at me from this list is that majority are professional services that mostly require specialized training and education, such as accounting, tax, law, design and medical-related firms. The irony is that medicine related careers are the highest paid careers, and now they're also the most profitable. So if you're a doctor, you can't go wrong whether you are employed by a hospital or running your own practice — you'll still be very profitable.
The writer explains that the reasons these businesses top the list in terms of profitability are: constant demand and relatively low overhead.
As for the least profitable businesses, this is their top 10:
No. 1: Community Care Facilities = Average Pretax Margin: -7.2%No. 2: "Other Support" Services (e.g. organizing trade shows) = Average Pretax Margin: -2.6% No. 3: Beverage Manufacturing = Average Pretax Margin: -2.2% No. 4: Real Estate Related Services = Average Pretax Profit: -2.1% No. 5: Bakeries And Tortilla Manufacturing = Average Pretax Profit: -0.9%No. 6: Amusement and Recreation Services = Average Pretax Profit:% -0.9 No. 7: Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing = Average Pretax Profit:% -0.7No. 8: Specialty Retailers = Average Pretax Profit: -0.5% No. 9: Beer, Wine And Liquor Retailers = Average Pretax Profit: -0.18%No. 10: Travelers' Accommodations = Average Pretax Profit: 0.26%
The reasons given are interesting — from small retailers lacking the muscle of big retailers to squeeze profit margins from their suppliers to restrictive alcohol sale regulations to continuous capital improvement needs in the case of hotels and travelers' accomodations.
If you're thinking of starting a business, the list is worthwhile to consider.
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Can an Entrepreneur Succeed When Focusing on Various Ventures at the Same Time?
Is it wise for an entrepreneur to start several new businesses at the same time?
Someone asked if it is possible to start several ventures simultaneously — in this person's case, two consulting businesses, an Internet project, and a construction company — at the same time.
I do run several businesses, but never started them at the same time. I suppose one can do it, but it depends on various factors, such as:
Your work ethic Your level of productivityYour capacity to multi-taskYour resourcesYour knowledge in these businesses
There are people who can do it — and succeed, but many fail. The question is: can you do it?
You need to ask yourself:
Do you have money to hire someone and delegate some of the tasks that needs to be done to work on these projects?Do you have responsibilities outside of these four projects?Do you have a family who may want a portion of your time, as working on 4 different projects at once may mean you need 25 hour workdays?How focused are you?How well do you manage your time?How much are you willing to sacrifice to get these projects off the ground?
It all depends on your willingness to commit and work hard at it. But working on all is EXTREMELY HARD. If you don't have laser like focus and operates on clockwork, or have a family who also wants your time and attention, then it will be hard to start these new businesses at the same time.
In my opinion, it is better to stagger your various projects and focus on one. This way, you can make sure that the first project has started well and is now running smoothly BEFORE moving to another project.
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How to Survive Life as a Work at Home Mom
Having a home-based business is a great way for moms to earn money while staying at home. However, the reality is easier said than done. A home-based working mom must be adept in the tricky balancing act of caring for the kids, ensuring the house is in order, and running the business.
I have 3 kids, ranging in age from 7 months to 5 years old — all needing attention and care of their mom. It is hard to write when my baby wants to be carried, or the older siblings want to play. Harder still to conduct a decent phone conversation when my 3 and 5 year old boys start screaming at each other. Not to mention taking care of the seemingly endless laundry, and other million and one things that needs to be done in the house.
Here are what worked for me to retain my sanity (and actually work) as a home-based working mom:
Scrunitize your schedule — and stick to them. The best time for me to work are when my older two boys go to school. My 3-year old who is in pre-school, gets off from school at 11:45 while the eldest at kindergarten goes home at 3 pm. So the window of opportunity for me to work are the 2.5 hours I have after dropping them off to school and picking up my second son from school. That's when I make important calls when the household is quiet. When the two older boys are home, I make sure I have time for them so any work is put aside for later. Be prepared to work after everyone has gone off to bed. Thankfully for me, my household is asleep by 8 pm so I have ample time to work in the evenings. I work from 8:30 pm to midnight, while watching my favorite prime time shows. I know of other work at home moms who work from midnight to 3 pm, which I can never do as my brain cells are non-functional at that time. Get a babysitter. I survived without a nanny with the first 2 boys. But when my youngest was born, I found it extremely hard to take care of a baby and 2 toddler boys and manage the needs of the household. It was just too much. My nanny comes to our house from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to take care of the baby. And she is such a godsend! I've always read tips about finding someone to take care of the kids so you can work properly, and now I realized how having someone to help you with the kids can allow you to do some work. Give your kids space in the office. We created our home office to allow the adults to work at the same time with the kids. The two boys have their own computers in the office, as well as their own table and chairs for their coloring and drawing works. The baby has a bouncer and playpen in the office. This set-up allows us to work together as a family, with the each kid busy with their own activities. Get the support of your spouse. This is incredibly important and cannot be underestimated. Your spouse's support can mean the two of you sharing household responsibilities to allow you to do work for your business. Take yourself seriously. You are a mom — and a business owner. Life can be tough (it always is) but you are living a rich life that allows you to take care of your family while pursuing interests and passions as well as contributing to your family's finances. Give yourself a pat in the back sometimes. You deserve it.
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How to Earn Money from Your Blog
Blogs have become very popular nowadays. With its more casual and laid back approach, it seems that a lot of people have something to say and start a blog. Even the homeless man who took up residence in a sidewalk near Union Station in Washington DC has a blog!
The next question of course is, how can you make money from your blog?
If you look at some of the top blogs and the advertising rates they charge, you'd drool with envy. Well, they're the top and get lots of media play and significant traffic.
One of my favorites, Duct Tape Marketing, which receives 160,000 pageviews per month, charges $36 per CPM for leaderboards and skyscraper, while medium rectangle costs $40 per CPM. Assuming that the inventory for medium rectangle is sold out at $40 per CPM, then the blog stands to earn $6,400 for one ad format alone (umm … ok, that's not much, but still, that's only for 1 ad format).
Another favorite, TechCrunch, receives about 5,360,000 pageviews per month. Their medium rectangle is also priced at $40 per CPM, so assuming that this is sold out every month, the blog earns $214,400 for one ad format alone! Add to that the earnings from their full banner ($12 CPM), wide skyscraper ($36) and leaderboard ($36). Now, that's some serious dough!
If you want to earn even a fraction of what TechCrunch and other top blogs are earning, read the article “How to Make Money from Blogs"
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Questions to Ask to Understand Customers of a Business
Whether you are thinking of starting a new business, buying an existing business or a franchise, it is important to understand the customer base of the business. The most successful businesses are those who know and deeply understand their customers; afterall, the goal of every business is to get and keep customers.
Here are some questions to ask to help you understand the customers of the business:
Does the business cater to individual customers or businesses? Or is it the government?If individuals, do you know the demographics of the target market?If businesses, how big are these companies? Are they micro, small, medium or Fortune 500 type of businesses?How do the customers decide to buy this type of product/service? If the customers are the government or businesses, what is the purchasing process in the organization?Is the business heavily dependent on one or few customers? Are the customers in a growing market, or is the market shrinking?Are there possible changes or shift in the industry that could affect their purchase from the business?
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Hiring Family and Friends in Your Small Business
When you have a small business, should you hire your family or friends? Here are some pros and cons to consider:
Pros:
You know them; and they know you so the getting-to-know learning curve is non existentYou trust themYou know what they can do and their area of expertiseThey know how important this business is to youThey know how you work (whether you are intense, easy going or high strung)They know how to deal with you and they can offer you the work complement you need (e.g. your father may be a great accountant and you need the expertise while you are great with marketing)You may be able to get the labor and expertise at a lower rate Cons:
They know you and may not take you seriously when you ask them to do the work Relationships can be affected if you are not satisfied with their performance or they are not happy with how you are treating themIt's harder to ask them to do something because you might be shy to ask them to do an errand and you will do the work insteadThey might not be prepared to deal with a different you — not as the friend or family member they know but as the bossDifficulty in adjusting to this new relationship and dynamics
It really depends on the extent of work and your relationship with them. In my opinion, though, generally, hire your friends and family IF AND ONLY IF the two of you knows when to separate the family/friend relationship from the boss/employee relationship. And that you both understand what you expect from each other, and know that it will not always be easy.
It also helps if you know that the family member or friend you are hiring can be a positive contribution to your business (e.g. if you know your friend is extremely flighty and unreliable, you are better off hiring someone more dependable and knowledgeable).
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Newspaper Interview on Business.gov's License Search
My comments on the post I wrote on “Business License Search Engine" was featured in an article today in the Long Island Business News.
The article “SBA site leans on links, search engine" discussed this new search feature at Business.gov where users can find out the business license regulations of counties and states.
More interestingly, I got an email today from the SBA’s Business Gateway Initiative, which developed this new search feature, inviting me to share my insights with them. Of course, I look forward to working with the folks at SBA.
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Trait of a Successful Entrepreneur: Knowing When to Listen and Get Help
I just wrote in the Learning from Big Boys blog that one of the characteristics of PepsiCo's CEO Indra Nooyi is that she is not afraid to get help when she needs it. When named as the CEO, she went straight to her competitor for the job and ask him to stay and help her run the company. And this is the CEO of one of the top companies in the world!
So I find it a little disconcerting to see a small business entrepreneurs pretending to be know-it- alls who do not need any kind of help.
Take for example the case of these two brothers — the older brother owns a successful online publishing business, while the younger brother operates a traditional printing press company. The younger brother always had a persistent cash flow problem, brought in large part by his policy of not requiring upfront fees from his customers (he only collects once the order is completed — which is an awesomely bad policy).
To ease the cashflow problems of his printing press, the younger brother asked his older brother for a line of credit. For several years now, the older brother has loaned the younger brother with cash for operating expenses in the printing press, and the younger brother repays the loan in a year's time (with interest, of course), only to request for a new loan immediately after.
In one of their recent get-togethers, the older brother advised his younger brother that he needs to change his policy of not requiring a deposit when accepting printing press orders. Not only is this policy causing cashflow problems, but creates tremendous drain on company resources when the customer backs out and won't even pay — after the order has been completed.
The reaction of the younger brother? "Don't lecture me about what I need to do. I have operated this printing press for the last 20 years and I know what to do." Quip the older brother sarcastically: "That's why you always ask me for money — because you know what to do and you've been doing it so well to the point that you always have no money." The younger brother left.
I’m sure the younger brother in this story is not the only stubborn, hard-headed and incredibly myopic business owner out there. There are many who have the mentality of "it's my way or the highway" whether they are right or wrong. And it's unfortunate that they are unwilling to listen, as listening to the advice, wisdom and experiences of others can help provide them with better perspective and suggestions on how to improve their business
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Business License Search Engine
The government website Business.gov http://www.business.gov/ has created a new search capability that will allow you to search for the business license needed to start a business at the state and county/city level.
This new search feature is very much needed. A lot of small and home-based entrepreneurs know that they have to fulfill some regulatory requirements, but they simply do not know where to begin, what do they need and who to contact. Having this type of information can ease the new entrepreneur's confusion of what to do, and avoid costly mistakes for failure to get the necessary licenses and permits. The granularity of the data at Business.gov — from the state level to the city/county level — is what I find the most helpful as it can allow a person to know the legal and regulatory requirements from the state level as well as the county level.
At PowerHomeBiz.com, we get a lot of questions on what are the requirements of the state if they want to start a business — e.g. What do I need to starting a catering business in Los Angeles, California; or Do I need a license to operate an online store in New Mexico? — questions that can be answered with this new search capability. As a response to these types of questions, we created our State by State Guide to Starting a Business .
Now, if only they promote this search capability more intensively and let people know that it exists, then this new search capability of Business.gov would be a tremendous source of valuable information to new entrepreneurs.
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Resources to Help Sell Your Business
If you are planning to sell your business, one of the key questions you'll ask is: "How do I find buyers?"
One way is to use the Internet and list your business in sites that brings business buyers and sellers together. Watch out, though, as many sites are sketchy at best. The most effective and reputable sites are:
BizBuySell.com http://www.bizbuysell.com/ = This site has the biggest traffic in this area, and cost of listing your business for sale ranges from $59.95 per month to $99.95 per month. Businesses for sale also appear in Wall Street Journal's online edition, ensuring more targeted buyers for businesses.BizQuest.com http://www.bizquest.com/ = Listings per month costs slightly lower at $54.95 - $74.95 per month. This site has partnered with Entrepreneur.com so listings are generate more visibility.
However, if doing it yourself is not something you'd want to do, you can enlist the help of business brokers and other intermediaries. You can find brokers at:
Business Brokers Association http://www.ibba.org/ = This is a non profit organization of business brokers. Their site allows you to search for business brokers by stateAlliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors http://www.amaaonline.org = represents buyers and sellers of businesses from "$5 to $150 million in transaction value." Their services include due diligence, buyer/seller representation, business valuation, tax planning, legal, and financial advisory.You can also opt to enlist the help of business broker franchises such as VR Business Brokers http://www.vrbusinessbrokers.com
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Business Idea: Website Analysis and Reviews
Website owners are always faced with challenges, such as:
Why can't I get traffic to my site?Why are my sales so poor?Why are my sales poor when I have lots of traffic coming to my site?Why are my advertising revenue so low?
If you have extensive knowledge about how the Web works, savvy about online marketing, and loves to analyze web metrics, you can earn money by reviewing other web sites. Think of yourself more as a consultant who is willing to look at the website as a whole and analyze why it is working or why it is not. This type of service goes beyond SEO or internet marketing, but offers a comprehensive view of the website performance and troubleshoot problems
One example of such service is SambayReviews.com, where for $95, they will review your site design, usability and marketing effectiveness. Their review outline can give you an idea of how a site review can be done.
You can also choose to simply include website review as one of the services offered by your existing business. Ediwriter.com, for example, is a professional copywriting firm with site review as one of their services.
However, it is important to note that there are forums, Q&A sites or blogs that offer website reviews for FREE. In Yahoo Answers, for example, one of the common questions in the search engine optimization section is to review the asker's website. Hence, for your paid service to succeed, you need to provide an in-depth analysis, not just cosmetic reviews that they can get from YA or other forums.
To make your PAID website review successful, here are my suggestions:
Focus on usability analysis.from navigation architecture to credibility and flow of the siteAnalysis of web metrics such as funnel analysis to show how a person goes from one page to the goal of the site (e.g. purchase page or advertising order)Search engine optimization analysis focusing on on-page factors and link analysisConversion analysis to help the site owner finetune elements of the site to improve sales and turn visitors to buyersIf you will give any of the above, then you can definitely charge for your review.
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How Great is Your Product?
Ryan Allis, CEO of the marketing and online communications firm iContact Corp., in his book "Zero to One Million: How I Built a Company to 1 Million in Sales … And How You Can Do" has a great section on what makes a product great.
According to Allis, the perfect product has the following attributes:
It fulfills a need or wantIt has either niche market appeal or mass market appealIt has at least a 2:1 markup ratio; 5:1 or higher is optimalIt has a high perceived valueIt must be replenished or repurchased by the consumer oftenIt is easily up sold and cross-soldIt has a related backend product
So how do you know if your product is great? To find out, you need to assess your product against two factors: inherent qualities of the product and the state of the marketplace.
Inherent Qualities of a Product
Is the product of high quality? Is the product effective? How valuable are the benefits the product gives to the consumer? Does the product increase pleasure, increase utility, or reduce pain? Must the product be reordered? Can the product be developed easily?
The State of the Marketplace
Can it be obtained or produced for a low cost so as to support a high margin? What is the current demand for the product? How many other competitors are selling the same or a similar product? How many serious competitors are there? What are the sales figures of these competitors? What are the product's substitutes? Are there any factors that might increase or decrease sales of substitutes? How hard will it be to differentiate the product from competing products?
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The Best and Inexpensive Way to Get Top Search Engine Rankings
One question frequently asked by many small and home-based online entrepreneurs is: how will I get my website to rank well in the search engines — without spending a fortune?
Many make the mistake of thinking that there's a magic software to get to the top of the search engine rankings. Or that there's an easy trick that can be used. Well, many resort to trickeries but search engines have become so smart and savvy that they catch up to these tricks — and banish the offending websites from their databases.
The best and most inexpensive way is to have the BEST and MOST RELEVANT content for the search term you want.
It’s all about content. With good content:
Users will visit your site more; even spread the word about your awesome siteOther sites will link to you without you asking them to link to you, and having more links will boost your search engine rankingUsers clicking on your page in the search results will stay longer in your site because they find your content relevant to the keywords you searched, and that tells the search engines that your site is indeed relevant to the keyword and will rank you higher
Look at those sites currently ranking for the search terms you want. Analyze the following:
Look at how they wrote the title of their site (metatag title)Look at their other metatags particularly description metatags Determine what content they have on their site and how they present their contentGo to Yahoo Siteexplorer and do a search to determine how many sites are linking to top ranking sites, and what these sites areNow ask yourself: how can I do better than these sites currently ranking for the terms I want? What type of content will set me apart from the other top sites? What metatags should I use for my site? How can I get the sites linking to them to notice my site?
Getting top rankings in the search engine is a continuous work. You continue to work on your content; continue to build links; continue to get the word out there about your site. Your competitors are not resting, so should you.
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Questions to Ask When Selling a Business
Nothing is forever; even your business. There may come a time when you want out, and one way is to sell the business.
Selling a business is not easy, and you need a lot of preparation and even assistance. When thinking of selling a business, here are some questions to ask yourself:
Why are you selling your business? Is selling the best option for you?Is it the right time to sell, considering the state of the economy and the industry?What type of business are you selling? What are the unique characteristics of this business that may come into play when selling?Who can help you with the process of selling your business? Do you have a lawyer, financial advisor, etc?Should you use a business broker?What type of advice do you need to establish your selling strategy?Where and how can you find the best qualified buyers?How do you put a value on your business?Can your financial statements withstand the scrutiny of buyers?What will the terms of sale specify?Are you willing to finance any part of the deal?How are you going to handle the sales proceeds?Do you want to be involved with the business after the sale, perhaps in a consultant or full-time manager capacity?
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Young Entrepreneurs: Promoting Entrepreneurship in Universities
I envy the young would-be entrepreneurs in the universities today. A growing number of schools and universities are offering classes, mentorships and valuable support to students with entrepreneurial dreams.
First there's the business plan competition, where students' business plans are critiqued and judged and the best ones receive valuable startup capital ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. There are even stories of situations where students presenting in the business plan competition got funding for their fledging business ideas because some venture capitalists or investors heard about the business plan and want in on the action (case in point: how Jenny Lefcourt started WeddingChannel.com ).
Some schools with business plan competitions include:
UC Berkeley http://bplan.berkeley.edu/Rice University http://alliance.rice.edu/alliance/RBPC.aspPepperdine University http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/students/bplan/Johns Hopkins University http://www.jhu.edu/bpc/University of Texas at Austin http://www.mootcorp.org/University of Washington http://bschool.washington.edu/cie/bpc/University of San Francisco http://www.usfca.edu/sobam/nvc/bpc/index.html
Aside from business plan competitions, there's incubation assistance that some universities provide.
Belmont University , for example, runs a business hatchery program for students called Practicing Student Entrepreneur Program. Under this program, students can get access to an office space complete with desks, phones, fax machines, copier, etc. Students also get the chance to interact and get advice for seasoned entrepreneurs in the university.
The University of Central Florida offers a technology incubation program which offers mentorship and advice-giving in all aspects of business development, access to office space and office equipment, networking opportunities, marketing and PR support, among others.
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New Year offers one of the oldest incubation programs wholly owned by a learning institution.
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5 Steps to Optimizing Your Website
One asker at Yahoo Answers raised the question of why her website was not getting any traffic. The site has been live for several months, but it is nowhere to be found in the search engines. Being a newbie who knows nothing about designing and creating a web site, she spent her meager resources to hire a web designer to create her website.
And of course, she expected orders to start coming in once the site became live. Alas, that was not the case. Worse, the site was not even getting any traffic.
I looked at her site, which focuses on her consultancy business, and it was very pretty. Problem was, everything was in graphics and no text. The whole site was in .jpg — both the text and the graphics! The only text of the site can be found in her navigation bar. No wonder she's not getting any traffic — there's nothing for search engines to chew on.
The sad part is that she's not the only one. I've seen several websites of small business owners done by web designers that simply focused on looks, and did not consider how search engines will see the site. As a result, they wasted precious resources as their websites cannot get top rankings for their keywords.
Aside from firing those web designers, here are some basic tips to optimize your website:
Select the keywords or key phrases yout think would best to optimize your site for, and then analyze your competition.Make sure that those keywords are present on the pages you want to rank for those keywordsCreate good quality content — ranking in the search engines is all about contentStart finding quality links to your siteContinue building your site's reputation through quality content and links
Read full article “5 Tips to Optimizing Your Website"
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Getting Your New Business Funded
We have a new article that provides tips on how you can increase the chances of getting financing for your business. Getting capital for any new business is always a difficult challenge, more so if you have no adequate credit history or your credit is poor.
Written by the author of the new book Zero to One Million, Ryan Allis, CEO of iContact, offers some very practical suggestions on what you need to do in order to secure financing your business — e.g. how choosing the right legal entity can increase your chances of getting approved for funding requests; or how getting SBA guarantees can increase your chances of getting a bank loan
Read the article “Getting Your New Business Funded"
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Public Relation (PR) Tools for Your Business
When you think of public relations, the first thing that comes to mind is a press release. A press release is, and will always remain to be an important tool for reaching the media and getting the word out about your business.
But there are other ways to tap the media, and here are some strategies you can use for your business:
Bullet articles = readers and editors love articles with numbered tips — e.g. 10 Ways to Save on Taxes; 6 Steps to Losing 10 Pounds; or 81 Tips to Market Your Business on the Web. Editors love this type of article because they can easily be used, especially if a space needs to be filled up quick. However, the articles should really be useful and not a veiled advertisement about your business.
Market Studies = one type of press release that never fails to get a lot of usage from the media are results of quantitative or qualitative surveys. Editors as well as bloggers (myself included) love publishing survey results because of the unique perspective and information they provide. Think of your market and what would others find interesting. Then come up with a possible survey. You can enlist the help of market research professionals or use do-it-yourself tools such as SurveyMonkey.com.
Talk radio = Radio shows are always searching for interesting guests. If you have an expertise that you can share, and you can speak well (no long pauses or aaahhhs punctuating every sentence), radio shows can be a great tool to reach a wide variety of audiences. For detailed tips on how to use talk radio, read the article “Using Talk Radio To Market Your Small and Home-Based Business"
Article Reprints = If you or your business has been previously featured in a print publication, make sure you get reprints of that article. Not only can you use it to include in your press kits, but you can send those reprints to editors of other publications to see if they would be interested to feature your products or service, or about your success.
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Learning from Big Boys
PowerHomeBiz.com has a new blog called "Learning from Big Boys" at http://www.learningfrombigboys.com/ .
This new blog focuses on what small and home-based entrepreneurs can learn from big businesses — both the great things that make them successful, as well as the mistakes that make them stumble (yes, they make lots of mistakes, too!). Big businesses may need 100,000 employees to run their business, but the process that a 1-person business owner goes through remains the same: determine the needs of the market, provide the product or service that market needs, and reach that market (albeit using simplier operations and processes).
There are so many things we can learn from how other companies operate their businesses– from finding opportunities in the marketplace, using innovative strategies to tap online users, developing products or raising capital for their businesses. This new blog will distill those lessons.
Please check out our new blog Learning from Big Boys. Comments and suggestions for topics are most welcome.
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How to Market a Graphic Design Business
One of my closest friends is a freelance graphic artist. She specializes in designing book covers, and has designed the covers of several publications. But right now, she is branching out to web design given the myriad opportunities of the Web.
Seeing her navigate the difficulties of self employment gave me some perspective that I am able to share with a subscriber who asked how she can find clients for a graphic design startup. Sheryl used our Consult Your Guides free service to post her question on how she can market and promote her new graphic design business in Atlanta.
Read the tips I gave on how to market a graphic design business and let me know any other strategies that have worked for others
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Lessons on Paid Search Marketing
With more websites competing for eyeballs and sales, paid search has become a critical marketing strategy for online businesses.
Whether your ad budget is $100 or $10,000 per month, here are useful lessons in paid search marketing from ChannelAdvisor's “Top 12 Paid Search New Years Resolutions"
Spend as much money as it takes to yield your desired Return on Ad Spend or Cost per Acquisition (an advice that may be better suited to deeper pocketed big businesses rather an a home-based operation)Manage more keywords on MSN and Yahoo Search MarketingExtensively test variations of ad creativeTarget specific campaigns and ad groupsApply successful generalizations: knowing which keywords sell which products and when to bid is crucialTarget international marketsLeverage the lessons of 2007Know your search seasonalityImplement landing page improvementsMonitor affiliatesKnow what your competition is doingConsider outsourcing
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Home-Based Franchises
If you want to start a business that has proven to be viable and less risky, then franchising is the route for you.
But don't think that all franchises are as expensive as your local McDonald's. In fact, there is a growing segment of franchises that can be operated from home. These home-based franchises combine the convenience of working from home with the added benefit of low startup costs.
To check out what franchises can be operated from home, PowerHomeBiz has prepared a Directory of Home-Based Franchises categorized by the following sectors:
Automotive Home-Based Franchises Business and Professional Home-Based Franchises Child Related Home-Based Franchises Cleaning and Maintenance Home-Based Franchises Computer and Tech Home-Based Franchises Educational Home-Based Franchises Food and Restaurant Home-Based Franchises Healthcare Home-Based Franchises Home Services Home-Based Franchises Pet Home-Based Franchises Service Home-Based Franchises
Or if a home-based franchise is not your cup of tea, you can search for other franchise opportunities in our Directory of Franchises for the Small & Home Based Entrepreneurs
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How the Big Boys Do It: Web Site Features for Online Retailing
Internet Retailer magazine made a list of the top tools used by the Top 500 retailers on the Web. It's an interesting look at how the top guns of online retailing are doing it, and can give the small online retailers on the features they need to consider for their websites (if they are not yet doing them).
These features are as follows, ranked according to the number of top 500 retailers that are using them:
keyword searchdaily/seasonal specialsenlarged product viewwhat's newaffiliate programadvanced searchonline gift certificatesrich mediaoutlet centeremail a friendcoupons/rebatestop sellerssite personalizationalternative paymentsstore locatorwish listcustomer reviewscatalog quick ordermappingproduct customization
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Unleashing Your Entrepreneurial Spirit
I love this quote from Brian Kurth, author of the book "Test Drive Your Dream Job" as it rings true for many of us:
“It’s romantic to think the heavens will offer up a sign letting you know when the time is right to unleash your entrepreneurial spirit and start your dream business. Unfortunately, reality often doesn’t work that way. Launching a business is risky, and those risks can easily overwhelm your senses and weaken your confidence. The fear of failure pervades your psyche, and when the safety and security of your family is on the line, happiness seems like a selfish luxury you can’t afford to indulge."
I’m sure many of us have experienced these feelings. It's one thing to say "Follow your dreams" and launch the business you've always wanted — and another thing to actually face the reality of needing to provide food on the table for your family. Not many of us have the luxury of simply waking up one day and deciding to start a business.
To successfully launch a business, you need to plan, to know what you are going to do and expect, and know where to look for help when things get challenging or simply overwhelming.
Kurth’s article “Unleash Your Entrepreneurial Spirit" offers some tips on what you need to do when you start your business.
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Word of Mouth & Client Referrals: Top Sources of New Customers
The folks at SalesConx.com sent me the results of the survey they conducted last year. They surveyed 700 small business owners to see how entrepreneurs look at client relationships, to determine the lead generation strategies and how to grow the business using the Internet’s networking features.
Some of the findings of their survey are:
Referral and word of mouth account for nearly 50% of all new business for surveyed small business owners, however, only 9% are using online lead generation.While Facebook has 50 million users and LinkedIn has 14 million users, only 11% of survey respondents noted that they belong to either of these communities. 79% of the participants belong to no social or professional network.While 22% of respondents note that they are adding 1 to 3 new clients annually, it is surprising that 11% of small business owners are adding more than 100 new clients per year. This statistic indicates that while lead generation and new client acquisition is NOT a priority of almost one third of small business owners, it is very much a factor for approximately 20% of small business owners who add at least 50 new clients annually.
The main finding of the survey is that “most small business owners rely on new business to drive revenue, but shy away from trying new marketing tactics." I'm not surprised about the finding as I see it all the time. Many small business owners are reticient in shaking up their marketing strategies, even if they see that the strategy is not working as well.
You can read the study's press release with summary of the findings at SalesConx.com
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Doing Business with the Government
I few years ago, I chatted with a Maryland entrepreneur after he won the Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year award. He runs a highly successful translation business whose main clientele is the government. He provides translation services to the Department of State and Department of Defense, among others.
But he struggled during the early days of his business. According to him, it was not easy to get a single contract from the government. He went door to door in the offices of the State Dept talking to every possible official he could talk to about his services. He had to exhaust all his contacts and referrals to be able to get his foot in the door. But once he got in, things became easier.
The government is a huge market, and many small businesses focus on this market. However, navigating the bureaucracy is not easy. There's the problem of finding the right party to contact regarding your proposal. There's the set rules that governs the process of how government issues contracts.
A new book entitled "Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government" by Jeswald W. Salacuse aims to provide anyone dealing with the government the knowledge, skills, understanding and practical advice on how to get favorable response from the government. The book doesn't focus solely on businesses, but to anyone who is dealing with the government — from those applying for a building permit for the local zoning board to trying to sell software to the Department of Defense.
According to the author, the 7 secrets for negotiating with government are these following principles:
Governments DO negotiate with private parties about anything.Governments are NOT all-powerful in their dealing with private parties.Governments are NOT united monoliths in those dealings.Governments DO NOT seek only to advance the public interest in their negotiations.Governments ARE susceptible to influence techniques by private parties.Governments DO accept third party interventions in their negotiation with individuals.Government decisions, once made, ARE open to renegotiation
The article “How Small Businesses can Successfully Do Business with the Government" lists some of the tips from the book.
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Rachel Ray: Finding the Needs of Your Target Market
In my last post, I raised the question of how do you determine the needs of your target market.
In the November 2007 issue of Business 2.0, they featured four "One Man Brands" — or entrepreneurs who have become business icons whose names have become huge brands. One of those featured is Rachel Ray, the only female cook in the Food Network that my husband loves to watch.
What strike me in the article was the description of how Rachel Ray started her cooking empire. From the Business 2.0 article :
As an eager young buyer for gourmet market Cowan & Lobel in Albany, N.Y., Rachael Ray spent hours spying on customers, looking for tipoffs to new trends. One odd pattern she noticed again and again: Many well-to-do shoppers would
bypass the produce section and head straight for the prepared-foods counter. That gave her an idea: Why not run a cooking class for harried consumers, showing them how to make gourmet meals in 30 minutes flat? And her observation proved to be a gold mine. There indeed is a huge market of people looking for quick recipes. Of course, Rachel Ray wouldn't be a success without hard work, lots of perseverance and good lucks, but the key to all her success is stumbling upon this cooking niche on which she built her business.
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How Do You Determine the Needs of Your Target Market?
When determining what business to start, the rule is to find out what the market needs and wants, and then address those needs in that kind of business. But how exactly do you find out what your target market wants?
Let’s use as an example one of the questions asked at Yahoo Answers — "What business can you start that caters to the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)?"
OFW is the term used for Philippine citizens who work overseas on contractual basis. Examples include nurses, maids, caregivers, construction workers, crews in cruise ships or shipping vessels, etc. Labor is one of the top exports of the Philippines, and in 2006 government estimates showed that there were 1.5 million OFWs.
OFWs are hailed in the Philippines because of the tremendous contribution they give to the country's economy. Remittances or money sent by these OFWs back to their families in the Philippines amounted to $12.77 billion in 2006. Given the strong family values in the Philippines, it is common to find overseas Filipino workers sending half (or even more) of their income back to the Philippines — and that foreign currency inflow has significantly helped the Philippine economy.
If this is the target market, what do they need? Often OFWs need:
A way to send remittances to their relatives and family back in the Philippines easier and less expensive.An inexpensive and safe way to send boxes of goodies (called "balikbayan" boxes)An inexpensive way to contact their families in the Philippines (e.g. inexpensive phone cards, free texting services, etc)A service that will allow them to communicate with their families — think videoconferencing service for example
But the above are markets where most businesses catering to OFWs go, which means the market is a little crowded and very competitive. Western Union, for example, is a popular service used to send remittances. Philippine banks with overseas operation also offer remittance services. Even the country's biggest media companies such as the ABS-CBN have gotten into the remittance game.
So if you are planning to reach this market, it is important to think of other services needed but not currently addressed, or niched areas that the big companies haven't bothered to get into. Examples may include:
Address the need of OFWs in finding trustworthy recruitment agencies. OFWs typically use recruiters to help them find jobs abroad and facilitate the processing of their employment (e.g. visas, health exams, etc). Given the number of scams and fraudulent recruitment companies, many OFWs find themselves tricked into giving substantial placement fees but no overseas jobs. A review site listing rating the reputation of recruitment agencies and other OFWs enumerating their experiences with a particular agency would be extremely beneficial.A directory of OFWs working in one country. One of the questions of OFWs before leaving for their work abroad is: "Who do I know who is already in Dubai/Hongkong/Taiwan, etc?" Creating a website that lists who are in New Zealand or Saudi Arabia may be useful.Social networking site for Filipino workers in a particular country such as Hongkong. It is natural to find fellow countrymen in other countries, and Filipinos are no exception. Hence you have Filipino maids in Hongkong gathering in parks on Sundays during their dayoffs. Even in the US, you go to an area such as Bangor, Maine for example and ask around if there are other Filipinos in the area. Think of a more adult and mature Friendster, this time for OFWs
Look at your target market. The only way you can determine what they need is by getting to know them. Look at how they live their lives, and make a list of what they need. Then think of a way to address those needs.
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End of the Year Checklist
It's the end of the year again. After all the eating, shopping, and merrymaking of the holidays, take time to sit down and review your business. It is important to assess how your business did during the year.
Here are some checklists for your end of the year review:
Do your financials. If you are like some home business owners who don't do their financials on a regular basis (or worse, do the financials only once a year for tax time) now is the time to start doing your profit and loss statements, etc. Get a clear picture of how well you did with your business by determining your actual income and expenses for the year Analyze your financials — where is your revenue coming from, what are your biggest cost items, who are your biggest customers. Make a list of what worked — and what did not work — for you this year. Look closely at your products and see which ones are doing well, or which ones you've seen decline this year. How about your suppliers? Or your processes? If you have a website, what type of product or content does your visitor want? Review your marketing. What strategies brought the most customers? What is the most cost effective strategies? Are there ways you can cut down the costs yet get the same — or even better — results? Know your customers. Now is the time to get a clear idea of who your customers are. Some businesses have a clearer view of who their customers are, while some do not. For example, a landscape business owner knows that home owners in his area are his target market; but a blogger may not exactly know who reads his blog and why. If you are the latter type of business owner, devise some ways you can get a better picture of who your customers are. Review your website. Sit down and think what content or products you need to offer next year. Go through your website statistics and study the data, including traffic levels, what pages are perused the most, where your traffic is coming from, etc. Check to see if there are any pages you need to overhaul or misspellings you need to correct. Make a list of what you need to do next year. After your review, start thinking of what strategies and approaches you need to do next year to take your business to the next level.
Read the complete end of the year home business checklist
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How Easy is it to Create a Successful Site?
A lot of people are lured on the prospects of making money on the Internet. They have heard or read about how others are making thousands per month, even more, just by having a website.
Until they actually start and find that it is not actually easy.
Success on the Web depends on a lot of factors:
- Do you already have a business model — e.g. do you know what to do? The first thing is to identify what you really want to do, and determine how you think you can compete in that space.
- Research about what people want that are not being addressed by existing sites. Unless you are starting a totally new concept, chances are high that competition in your space already exists. How are you going to compete with them and what new things are you going to bring that they are currently not giving?
- Look at the technologies needed. Determine and evaluate the technological requirements, and assess how you will provide it. Do you know how to program? What does the business needs to have to actually run? How do you maintain it? If you have the resources, it would be easy to just hire programmers to help you create the site. But if you don't have the know how and the resources, then it will be very hard to see your plans into fruition.
- Think of scalability. If you are anticipating a popular site, you can't use free web hosting. Even if you start with a shared hosting, think of how you can be able to accomodate thousands of visitors coming in daily. You need to think of that from the get go.
How easy is it to create a successful website? It can be easy if
you know what you want; you have an idea of what you need; (c) you've got the knowhow to make it happen.
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What Changes Are You Planning for Next Year?
It's the end of the year again, and it's time to take stock of how our business performed this year and to take stock of what we did (and did not do). Then of course comes the exciting part — making plans for next year.
The problem sometimes with being small or home based entrepreneur (moreso if you are a one-person business) is this tendency to forget to stop and review how the business is going. Who has time to think of what was done when there's a million and one things that needs to be done — yesterday???
But stopping for a while to look at where you've been is important. Did you reach your target revenue goal? Did your plans work out this year? Are you marketing better? Are you enjoying what you're doing?
Last year, we made recommendations for New Year's Resolutions for home business entrepreneurs . If there's any you can add, do let me know.
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How to Hire an Accountant for Your Business
The tax folks at J.K. Lasser sent us a press release today that provides tips on what a small business needs to look for when hiring an accountant. It is not easy to find an accountant that you can trust, much less really look out for your interests.
According to J.K Lasser, the following are the questions you need to ask prospective accountants:
How are you going to help my business grow? Ask for an outline in writing. Are you a tax planner or a tax preparer? You will want to meet with your accountant once a year for both strategic and tax planning. What benchmarks will you help me set for my business, so that I can track my projects? An accountant specializing in small business finances should be able to help you set month-by-month goals to chart your progress. How tech savvy is the accountant? Are you going to have to print out your accounts to hard copy or can you simply transfer everything electronically? What kind of software are you going to have to buy? What overall services can the accountant provide besides business advice, like estate planning, gift planning, legal referrals, etc.? How do you calculate your fees? In a time-based fee structure, make sure to find out the hourly rate, as well as all fees for expense reimbursement.
Read the Questions to Ask a Tax Accountant
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Research on Strongest Online Marketing Tactic
MarketingSherpa has a new report entitled "Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008" and one of the interesting data of the study is how the various online marketing strategies compare with regards to giving the best return on investment
According to the report, the strongest tactics and give the most ROI are:
House email marketing = 25% (strongest tactic) and 39% (good ROI)Search engine optimization = 18% and 36%Paid search marketing = 16% and 35%Public relations = 12% and 28%Direct mail = 12% and 27%Online banner advertising = 3% and 16%Print advertising = 4% and 13%
You can read an excerpt of this report at MarketingSherpa
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Increase Ad Revenues by Making Web Metrics Public
I stumbled across PowerHomeBiz.com's profile in the new online measurement site Quantcast.com
According to Quantcast, our site "reaches approximately 70,581 U.S. monthly uniques. The site attracts a more affluent, younger, slightly female slanted audience."
The demographic information certainly caught my attention. You have sites such as Alexa.com or Ranking.com that provides so-called traffic ranking based on the number of folks who downloaded their toolbar. They provide a glimpse of a site's traffic but no demographic information on the site's visitors.
This site has an interesting goal: by making web data public, smaller sites can broker better ad deals. Quantcast wants you to use their site to attract more advertisers by giving advertisers a fully transparent, detailed view of the audience they stand to reach. For a advertising-based site such as PowerHomeBiz.com, that is certainly an exciting proposition.
If you want more accurate data, you need to participate in their Quantified Publisher Program where you will put a code in your homepage so they can get better data about your site. The catch is that whatever data you will see is also what the public will see. Kind of scary, isn't it? I'm not sure I want the public to get a more accurate reading of our traffic and demographics.
But I looked at some of those who have signed up for their Quantified Publisher Program, I'm pleasantly surprised to see some top sites such as Wordpress.com, Gawker.com, Fox.com, Accuweather.com and others.
I guess I'll sleep on it though and think about whether I'd like PowerHomeBiz.com's traffic and demographic information out there for the world to see.
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Selling Online: Lessons from the Top Home Furnishing Stores
My all-time favorite home furnishing store, Bombay Company, discontinued its web operations after the company filed for bankruptcy in October. I guess my purchases cannot keep the company afloat :o) Too bad, as I am a big fan of their cherry-colored furniture and stylish home decor items.
But there are still a wide variety of home furnishing stores out there. And Internet Retailer magazine has a very interesting article identifying the elements that work for these stores and make them stand out from the rest.
LillianVernon.com = adds features to make the shopping experience better for customers such as reminder service, product suggestions, customer reviews and a tool that allows customers to see how a name would look on a personalized product. Crate & Barrel = to make their Web and store operations more seamless, added photos of individual stores in their store locator section, information on store promotions and made maps more interactive. Oneida.com = uses technology to help customers identify the right products such as their Virtual Table Setting tool and Pattern Identifier RestorationHardware.com = added an interactive catalog that allows shoppers to flip through the pages, apply virtual sticky notes and include comments about items on the pages
All the above features are seemingly must-haves if you want to improve customer experience and your bottomline. Of course, implementing any or all of them will depend on your technical and financial resources — and with small businesses, that is always a big IF unfortunately.
You can read the full article at Internet Retailer
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21 Common Mistakes of Home Business Startups
What's the biggest mistake you did when you were just starting the business? The ideal situation, of course, is to go through the process of starting a business without a single misstep. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. We sometimes trip; or even stumble; or worse, fall flat on our faces.
Discounting complete ineptitude and bad luck, here are some of the common mistakes home business entrepreneurs commit when starting a business:
Having no idea where and how to get startedLack of innovative business idea, often mere imitation and not coming from some unresolved problems or unfilled needs Becoming too fixated with the business idea, even if it proves to be unworkableChoosing a very small unprofitable nicheNot focusing on the userEasily believing and buying the hype of those "I make $25,000 a month" programsStarting and staying as a one-person business, trying to do everything and failingNot having a clear idea of who the target market isLaunching too slow maybe due to excessive perfectionism, lack of understanding of the problem, or working on too many thingsLaunching too fast such as launching a site that is not yet readyRaising too little moneyBurning through the money without tangible resultsHaving too much money and not knowing what to do with itFailure to manage investors Fighting with other founders or business partnersNot wanting to do the dirty work Hiring the wrong peopleNot marketing the business wellFailure to take care of customers or clientsLosing control of distributionPutting a half-hearted effort
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Options for Financing Your Business
Our newsletter this week features articles providing alternative sources of financing a small or home-based business. We all know that a business needs money to survive, but finding that money is sometimes very challenging, especially if you have no money, has poor credit, and very poor connections.
Read this week's PowerHomeBiz Home Business Alerts . You can subscribe by entering your email in our newsletter subscription box at the homepage.
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Where Do Small Business Owners Get Funding for their Businesses?
The National Small Business Association did a survey and found that the most commonly used sources of financing for small businesses are:
Credit cards - 44%Earnings of the business - 43%Bank loan - 29%Private loan (friends or family) - 22%Vendor credit - 18%Leasing - 7%Small Business Administration loan - 6%Private placement of debt - 4%Selling/pledging of accounts receivables - 3%Private placement of stock - 1%
Credit cards may be an expensive source of funds, but well, it is the most accessible and easiest to get. Especially for those with poor credit who don't stand a chance getting approved for a bank loan. It is not uncommon to find small business owners to be in credit card debt up to their eyeballs (love that term!). Credit cards may not be the wisest route to financing a business, but surely beats reading rejection letters from banks.
I have exoerienced first hand how it is to labor day and night crafting what I thought to be a great business plan, only to be rejected by the bank for not having any collateral. I was one of those who mistakenly believed that banks are willing to give you money if you have an outstanding business idea, even though you don't have any equity investment or collateral. That experience proved to me that you need money in order to make money. So just like many other entrepreneurs, I had to use my plastics to fund the business.
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How to Improve Effectiveness of Your Email Campaigns
A home based entrepreneur who sells candles on the Web complained about the poor performance of his email campaigns. He finds it hard to get the response he wants from his email campaigns sent to his existing customers and newsletter signups, which suffers from low open rates to low clickthrough rates.
My suggestions to him are:
First, make sure that your list is indeed 100% opt in — without trickery. When you ask people to sign up for the newsletter, make sure that they actually not sign up and not have the newsletter signup box checked by default. By having the newsletter signup checked as a default, many people fail to realize that they have been signed up and agreed to receive the newsletter.Don't buy email lists. With the ever growing spam complaints, you want to make sure that people actually want to receive your mailings.Clean up your list. Look at your mailing list, and segment your current subscribers. Remove those that have not opened your emails for the last year (or some other timeline). If they have not opened your emails in the last year, chances are they are not going to open it again. Remove from your list those who have blocked you, or bounced emails, or emails no longer exist. It may cut your list by half, but you will be left with the more responsive half. As part of segmenting your list, send different sets of emails to those who have just purchased from you, as against those who have purchased from you 5 months ago. Then of course make your offers more compelling. Look at your past emails and their open rates. What types actually got the best open rate? Then tweak the best performing ones some more
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Whitepapers on Doing Business Online
If you are selling or doing business online, you may want to check out the following white papers from different vendors/companies:
Post-Holiday Paid Search Strategies MarkMonitor Brandjacking Index Online Businesses Discover Direct Response TV The Effect of DRTV on Search Engine Marketing The Evolution of Landing Pages 2008 ePayment Management Guide
Some of the above will require registration, while some are direct links to the white papers. Skip through the promotional blah-blah, and you will find some gems from these papers. Be prepared though to get some phone calls from these vendors (umm .. "I just downloaded your white paper, and has no interest in your business whatsoever.")
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40 Best Business Tips for Home-Based Entrepreneurs
We all love great tips on how to increase our incomes, be more productive and generally make our lives easier. So how about 40 such tips?
We’ve compiled tips, strategies and tactics from various magazines and books on different topics affecting the home based entrepreneurs. From choosing a home business to raising capital from angel investors to protecting your business idea, the article “40 Best Business Tips for Home-Based Entrepreneurs" provides some of the best business tips that can possibly help your business.
Of course, this compilation is by no means complete, and there are hundreds if not thousands of great tips out there for business owners. If you know of other great tips, do let me know. Perhaps, we'll turn the “40 Best Business Tips for Home-Based Entrepreneurs" into 100 tips!
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How to Get Financing from Angel Investors
One way to finance your business is to find wealthy individuals who can provide the funding you need. Often called "angel investors" these are private investors who may also be entrepreneurs.
Guy Kawasaki writes in his book "The Art of the Start" that raising money from angel investors require s a different approach because their goals are different from those of professional investors. He gave the following advice:
Don’t underestimate them. They may care less about financial returns than professional investors, but this doesn’t mean they are suckers. Understand their motivation. Where professional investors want to make money and maybe pay back society, many angel investors want to pay back society and maybe make money. Enable them to live vicariously. A side benefit that many angels seek is a chance to relive their youth or a romantic past. Make your story comprehensible to a spouse. The “investment committee” of an angel is his or her spouse. Be a nice person. Whereas a professional might invest in a jerk because “money is money,” an angel won’t. Sign up people they know or have heard of. Angel investing is often about socializing as much as profiting.
As to where to find angel investors, you can start in your community — your lawyer, accountant or even the wealthy retiree living in the McMansion next door might be interested in investing in your business. Or go to angel investors network, which I list in the article Find an Angel Investor for Your Small Business
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How to Build Your Brand
Many small and home-based business owners consider branding to be an exclusive domain of big companies. It is something that Coke, Nike, Apple, Disney and other companies with big marketing budgets engage in.
And this is often a big mistake. Many small businesses unfortunately fail to reap the benefits of having developed a strong brand — or the process of establishing an emotional connection between the business and the customer.
Jeffrey Gitomer, in his book "The Little Red Book of Selling" has identified several ways a business can build a brand, even for 1-person businesses, and these are:
Create demand for your product or service indirectly (through means other than direct advertising)Get the business community to have confidence in your business. Earn a reputation for quality performance so good that it’s talked about.Establish yourself as an expert. Why just be in the field, when you can be perceived on top of it?Register your name.com. Go to some name registration site and register your name as fast as you can.Dedicate time to make it happen. Or it won’t happen. If you want to make a lasting mark, it must be preceded with a master planGet others to help you. List the people you think can help you or help you connect – and ask for their support. (The easiest way to get support? Give it first – without keeping score.Stay in front of the people you want to do business with. By combining your outreaches, you can create a steady flow of images to your target market. It takes between five and ten images to create awareness great enough to make a buying decisionBecome a resource. It’s much more powerful than someone perceiving you as a salesman or entrepreneur.Persistence and consistency are the secrets. If you’re good, have patience. Your phone will ring.Ignore idiots and zealots. There are a lot of jealous people and naysayers in the world.Become known as a person of action. The result of these actions will be a person who is known for getting things done – a leader.
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What Consumers Want in their Online Shopping Experience
Sterling Commerce and Deloitte Consulting collaborated on a very interesting survey entitled "What Consumers Want in their Online Shopping Experience?" that looks at consumers attitudes and preferences when shopping online.
The findings of the paper are as follows:
Shoppers have three major areas of dissatisfaction: lack of information availability, out of stock items, and lack of assistance/poor customer serviceIn terms of importance, consumers rank online notifications higher than product rating and review featuresTracking an order is a necessityOut of stock sale items decreases consumers' willingness to shop with that retailer
If you are selling on the Web, this free paper (requires registration to download) is a must-read
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What is the Most Important Step for Small Business Success?
Someone asked me recently, "If there is a single step in starting a business that could guarantee success, what could it be?"
This is a tough question to answer. It's like asking for a magic bullet for attaining business success when none exists. Success in business sometimes feels like it depends on whether the stars align perfectly in the sky or if Lady Luck smiles at your efforts and reward you for your work.
Luck aside, I feel that the most important step is detailed preparation. Rare are those who can wake up one day and decide to start a business they know nothing about and then succeed. For most people, having an extensive knowledge of the product or service is critical. You don't succeed in a lawncare business if you don't know anything about grasses. Or become the best search engine optimization firm out there when you know nothing about search engines and how to rank well.
By having deep knowledge of the business you are going in, you are able to understand what your customers need and want, address these needs and wants, and offer them products that will be of value to them.
Detailed preparation also entails going through the business planning. No, you don't have to write the business plan if you are not going to apply for a loan or finding an investor. But the business plan process can help you understand your business and prepare you for what you need to expect when you start the business. The process can help you understand your value proposition, identify your target market, find ways to best reach them, know the financial requirements of the business, among other critical information.
So what is the most important step for you in starting a business?
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Online Marketing Beyond Traditional Search
MoreVisibility.com has an interesting paper that summarizes options for marketing on the Web other than the traditional search, and these are:
Contextual advertising = using pay per click at search engines partner sites (e.g. Google Adsense publishers) which are driven by theme or relevancy to keywords Second tier search engines = pay per click at the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) is getting expensive, so check out other search engines such as Ask, Miva, FindWhat, Looksmart, etc. While the traffic may be of lower quality and conversions tend to be lower, the price difference makes these second tier search engines worth trying Local search = local clicks tend to be better in terms of conversions and leads Vertical search = search engines that focuses on specific types of businesses such as Business.com, Move.com or WebMD.com Affiliate marketing = promote your online business by signing up affiliates and rewarding them for the desired action achieved (sales, leads, signups, etc); the downside though is that it requires more resources in terms of management of the affiliate program Display advertising = the use of banner and interactive ads combines well with paid search advertising Broadband advertising = try video ads, which can be seen before a user can watch the video of their choice Rich media = allows for a more interactive experience with the user (just hope that it doesn't border into intrusiveness) Email marketing = should revolve around a specific call to action
There’s nothing new to the list, but it can remind us of other options to use to reach our target audiences. Read the full paper
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12 Characteristics of the Ideal Business Opportunity
According to the book The Maui Millionaires for Business, below are the 12 characteristics you should look for when choosing your business :
Something you are passionate about = the starting point of any ideal business is passion Specific market niche = find a niche where your business can be top dog; do not become jack of all trades Low start-up cost = having a low startup cost means you can use your money to start the business and bootstrap your business growth Low fixed costs = the higher the fixed costs, the more you have to sell before you can break even on your costs Deep funnel = work to build real connection with your clients and take them deeper into your business funnel Recurring sales to your clients = the easiest sale you'll ever make is to an existing happy customer Collect money before you fulfill your product or service = don't make the mistake of not having enough cash to operate Power of pre-eminence = there are 2 ways to make your mark in the market: by being the best or being the cheapest No perceived competition = have a clear, distinct position in the marketplace that jumps to your clients' and prospective clients' minds Maximize the unique talents of you and your team = spend more time doing what you love and you will become more effective in your role in your business Scalability = a business that can grow fast Create intellectual property = the business consistently generates valuable intellectual property that you can sell or license
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How Important is College Education to Entrepreneurial Success?
How important is college education to entrepreneurial success? How much does educational background and knowledge contribute to success as a business owner? Do you have to enroll in an Ivy League school to be successful in business?
Colleges and universities offer solid education, social network and access to resources to complement your studies. They take pride in helping ensure their graduates land top jobs, and much of the focus seems to be grooming young people for the corporate world and climbing the proverbial corporate ladder.
BusinessWeek had an article (”Who Needs the Ivies?") that looked at the correlation of education and entrepreneurial success. One of the studies the article mentioned was that of Jim Duggan, a senior technology industry analyst. The article states that Duggan's findings was
“… Attendance at top-tier schools might even be inversely correlated with
entrepreneurial success. These schools often focus on producing the next generation of research scientists and academics—not entrepreneurs. He believes that the elitism and confidence these schools nurture may work well in large corporations, but not in tech startups."
Personally, I think deciding to be an entrepreneur instead of a corporate worker is an individual's choice, though enhanced by the environment including schools. A risk averse person will still find solace in the steady paycheck of a job, even after attending one or two entrepreneurial classes.
Family and how entrepreneurship is viewed by the parents is a better gauge of whether a person will want to start and grow their own ventures rather than be employed by someone else. Children who see their parents enjoying the challenge, excitement and disappointments of starting a business are more likely to become entrepreneurs themselves.
But my hats off to the rare breed of entrepreneurs, who made it really big without college education. For these individuals, college education is not a prerequisite for attaining success. Here are some people from Forbes' list of the richest in the world who never completed their college education:
Sheldon Anderson dropped out of City College in New York City to become court reporter. Lawrence Ellison is a drop out at the University of Illinois Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard Kirk Kerkorian is an 8th grade dropout Michael Dell dropped out from University of Texas Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College Roman Abramovich is also a college drop out Amancio Ortega is also a self made man and dropped out of high school Li Ka-shing is also a high school drop out Their stories can inspire you and give you confidence that you don't really need a degree to succeed in life — as long as you are willing to work hard to make your business a success.
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Most Effective Web Tools for Online Selling
Catalog Success magazine has an interesting article on the web tools and features that can bring the most returns for your ecommerce website.
According to the article "Maximize Your Web Tools" by Larry Kavanagh, here are the tools that your website must have in order to sell more (however, the article fails to mention vendors for these tools):
1. Customer rate and review feature increases product conversion 42 percent:
Visitors to pages with highly rated products (between 4-5 stars) are 42 percent more likely to buy the product; while visitors to low rated products are only half as likely to buyDrive traffic to highly rated products by featuring them in your emails, placing them on the homepage and using them as landing pages for paid search.
2. Wish list helps you acquire new customers inexpensively
Allows you to cross sell more effectively to help customers add more items to their wish list easilyIf the wish list tool allows customers to email and share their wish list to friends, it could be a way to entice new customers into the site.It also increases sale as friends and family of customers who created wish lists can now find the task of gift buying easier
3. Guest checkout which makes the shopping experience faster and better by giving shoppers the option of buying without creating accounts
By allowing people to buy without asking them first to create accounts, you can boost sales by as much as 24%
4. Triggered emails result to 3-10x the response rate of bulk emails
There are tools that integrate browsing behavior of the user on the site with emailing that proves to be significant revenue generatorThe downside is that these tools have premier prices, which may be out of reach by small online sellers
5. Personalized recommendations
Use your shopper's past history to populate parts of your homepage with items the shopper may be interested in
6. Making full use of AJAX
AJAX can make customers' shopping easier through quick orders
The above are tools that bigger businesses employ in their online stores to increase sales and improve conversion. Alas, many of these tools may be beyond the budget of small online ecommerce owners. But nonetheless, if you can afford to splurge on a web app for your store, consider the above tools.
Read the full article at Catalog Success magazine
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Money vs. Control: What Do Entrepreneurs Want
What is your goal as an entrepreneur? Do you want to get rich, even if that means getting investors on board? Or do you want control, meaning you grow your business by yourself albeit slowly as long as you control the business? Or do you want a little of both?
This is a dilemma often faced by business owners. I know of entrepreneurs who welcome investors, even actively seek them, because they have grand plans for their business and know that they can only grow the business faster if they get outside help. There are also people who prefer their businesses to be small as long as they remain "masters of the ship."
Harvard professor Noam Wasserman explores this question in his papers, the most notable of which is “Rich vs. King: The Entrepreneur's Dilemma" . Wasserman recognizes that entrepreneurs are motivated by the profit potential in starting a business, but the profit motive often runs counter to other motives particularly the issue of control.
According to Wasserman's research, this dilemma typically happens when the business reaches the point where external resources may be needed to help push it to the new level. Getting outside funding from investors will help the entrepreneur build a more valuable business. Alas, the infusion of capital from investors is never free: often, the entrepreneur has to give up control in the company to get the funds.
The paper is relatively easy to chew (there's no regression or any mathematical formula). If you have nothing better to do this weekend, check out the paper. Also visit Wasserman's blog for updates on his study http://founderresearch.blogspot.com/
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10 Biggest Business Blunders
The authors of the book The Maui Millionaires, David Finkel and Diane Kennedy, continue their exploration for amassing wealth in their new book "The Maui Millionaires for Business. The publishers sent me an excerpt of the book, which focused on how entrepreneurs and business-people can successfully solve wealth challenges.
According to the book, here are the top 10 biggest blunders committed by entrepreneurs and freelancers:
Taking Your Eye Off of Your Cash Flow Improper Management of Accounts Receivable Over ExpansionToo Much Time Setting Up Instead of Getting Business Selling by the Hour Giving Your Expertise Away in a Way that Has No Perceived Value Requiring Payment Before You Give any Value Ignoring Window Shoppers in Favor of Customers Hiring "Warm Bodies" Failure to Fulfill Sales Promises
For strategies on how to solve the above blunders, read the book excerpt of The Maui Millionaires for Business
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Startup Grant for New Entrepreneurs: Intuit Contest
If you are thinking of starting a business and looking for startup funds, you may want to try your luck in the ""Just Start" campaign of Intuit, makers of the accounting software Quickbooks. The grand prize is $50,000 in cash
Here’s the description of the contest from the Intuit website www.IWillJustStart.com
Intuit Just Start Contest … is a skill contest in which participants can submit ideas on how they would resign from their job and what dreams they have for starting their own company for a chance to win the Grand Prize of $50,000 in cash and consulting services ($40,000 in cash & $10,000 in consulting and service fees) or one of two First Prizes of $5,000 cash. Entry to the Contest is free. The Contest begins 12:00:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on October 9, 2007 and ends 11:59:59 p.m. PT on December 15, 2007In order to join, you must either submit a 2-minute video or a 250-words essay answering these questions:
What’s your idea for starting your own company? What you will resign from? What you would do with the winning to pursue starting a business? OR if you have already started your own company, please describe your experiences getting started in your entry and also answer the question, What did you resign from? You may also be interested in downloading their free accounting software QuickBooks Simple Start 2008 at http://www.simplestart.com/.
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Is There a Demand for Your Product?
One of the cardinal rules of starting a business is to first determine whether there exists a market for your product. Then you can determine how big the market is, and if it is worth all the investment that you will put into the business.
I came across this article on MIT’s Technology Review where a UK based company is about to launch a chewing gum that is easy to wash off any surface.
I could just imagine how much the company spent for the research to develop this product, considering that the article stated that gum manufacturer Wrigley has tried to develop a biodegradable chewing gum to the tune of $10 million on research alone!
Upon reading the article, the first thing that popped into my mind was: Will buyers of chewing gum really care and buy this product? It seems to me that this is a product that looks good in concept, but may not be what users want. Afterall, throwing the gum on the street or sticking it to just about anywhere is part of the charm of the chewing gum (not that I do it myself as I don't buy chewing gums) — its users simply do not care that they stick it anywhere after using it.
What bothers me is the company's reasoning that millions of dollars are spent by the city government to clean up chewing gums that end up in the subway trains and stations. Well and good — but how can the savings of the local government resulting from this new product translate to sales for the company? It's not as if for every $1 the local government saves due to this product, 50 cents are given back to the company. There seems to be a big disconnect between the usefulness of the product and what the consumers want from this product.
Are those workers cleaning up the trains and stations the target market of this company? Are people who chew gum really thinking about the expense and labor needed to clean off the gums they left on the subway and stuck under the chairs of the train (apparently not, since they left the gums in places other than the trash cans)? How many chewing gum buyers actually think about the pollution that their gums cause?
I don't know how this product will be accepted by the market, and whether it will work. Maybe if the company embark on an education campaign to inform chewing gum buyers of the hazards of chewing gum (which means millions of dollars more in advertising and marketing spend).
But there are a lot of seemingly good products that failed because the market simply did not need it. And if you don't have millions of dollars to spend to change the behavior of consumers, then you have a significant obstacle in your way.
Sometimes, as business owners, we need to step back away from the business to get an objective view of our products. And yes, talk, talk and talk to your customers about what they want — and give that to them.
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Is Your Product Ready for the Primetime?
With a newborn in the household, I get to watch a lot of late-night infomercials and shopping channels. I have since developed a fascination for these types of shows and the products featured, particularly after reading an article that QVC’s base target sales rate is in the range of $6,000 per minute!
If you have a new product or want to reach the largest possible audience, TV is an extremely good medium, with infomercials delivering an effective cost-effective advertising. Both infomercials and shopping shows can significantly increase sales of your product, build brand names, and are the best way to introduce new products to the market.
But before you start contacting the producers of these shows, you need to ask yourself these questions:
Does your product show well on TV? Does your product address a need or solve a problem?Have you thought how you will demonstrate your product to show its usefulness to the audience?Does your product appeal to a mass audience?Are your products ready for shipping?Are your scripts ready?For infomercials, are the mechanisms such as call center in place to accept the orders?Do you have testimonials to further convince viewers that your product delivers what it promises?
Showing your products on TV is hard work, and takes an enormous amount of time and preparation. But the results can be well worth it — if you have the right products to show
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How to Create Effective Calls to Action in Your Website
A "call to action" is defined as an activity requested of a consumer. It could be purchasing a product, requesting for information, completing a survey, or subscribing to an online newsletter. Call to action is your signal for communicating to visitors or users what you expect them to do.
An effective call to action can increase your conversion rates, whether that means sales, leads or however you define the end-goal. Examples of call to action include:
“Order today before supply runs out!""Click here to subscribe!" "Sign up now and get your free gift!""Join our affiliate program." "Add to your shopping cart."
But how do you craft an effective call to action? Here are some strategies for improving your call to action:
Instill a sense of urgency. The sooner you can make them respond, the better. Otherwise they can forget or be distracted by other matters.Consider using exclamation marks — just don't use them excessively where every sentence ends with an exclamation mark.Be specific about what you want the visitors to do. "Click here" or anything as vague as this phrase just won't do.Pump it up: there are no rules that "call to action" signals need only be 1 sentence. Explain why the person has to do what you want them to do in a paragraph or even more.If you are using buttons or graphics, make it stand out in terms of its design and colors. Make it stand out from the page.If you are not using buttons, highlight the text by using colors, underlines, even arrows to make the call to action distinguishable and attention-calling.Don't put your call to action for the last, especially if the visitor will scroll down just to see it. Put the call to action above the fold.D0 a test to see which phrase, manner of presentation, and location within the site works the best.
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Loyalty Marketing: Strategies that Work
Loyalty marketing is defined as "the effort to identify, maintain, and increase the yield from best customers through long-term, interactive, value-added relationships." It is basically the creation of programs that aim to recognize and reward customers based on their value to the company.
For big businesses, loyalty marketing is an integral part of their marketing programs. But not for small businesses. Many small businesses, while recognizing the benefits of having a loyalty program, are typically overwhelmed by the effort of identifying customers and tracking loyalty programs. They also lack the prerequisite ability to slice and dice the customer purchasing history; and many do not even have databases of their customers. More importantly, they lack the capability to implement loyalty programs
But if you are thinking of launching a loyalty program for your business, loyalty marketing firm Colloquy has an important study entitled "The Difference Engine A Comparison of Loyalty Marketing Perceptions Among Specific U.S. Consumer Segments" that looked at the response rates to various loyalty programs among the general population and specific customer groups.
According to the study, the following are the average response rates of the general population to various loyalty programs
Cash back = 54.7%Points for free travel = 39.1%Points for in-store redemption = 32.6%Certificates = 28.2%Points for web/catalog redemption = 25.2%
Discounts = 47.9%Upgrades = 20.8%Members only information = 19.7%Members only access = 13.7%
You can read the study by first registering at Colloquy
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Trends of the Future: Understand the Opportunities that Lie Ahead
Whether you are thinking of a new product to introduce or to find market opportunities for your products, it is important to study social and business trends. New social trends transform how goods are built and sold. Business opportunities grow out of the changes in the social order.
I just got a copy of the book “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes" by Mark Penn and it is proving to be a very compelling read. The book identifies relatively small patterns of behavior in our culture, which the author calls "microtrends" — trends that have great influence on business, politics, and our personal lives.
Some of the trends identified in the book include:
Stay-at-home workers
Stay at home workers — whether running their own businesses or working for companies — need a way to build community in a collaborative kind of way. There is also a market for teaching people how to run and participate in tele-enabled meetings.As more people work from home, opportunities arise in ensuring home office safety, comfort and design.For stay-at-homers, there is a need for better health insurance system and retirement savings than the current employer-based one.
Neglected Dads
More and more dads are actively raising their kids, but unlike the Soccer Mom, are ignored by marketers. Potential for Daddy-and-me relationships are untapped — e.g. more dads changing diapers, spending time with kids, buying gifts for the kids, and contributing more to household chores. Marketers remain focused on the Moms.
Other Trends
People are retiring but continuing to work. Teens are turning to knitting. Geeks are becoming the most sociable people around. Women are driving technology. Dads are older than ever and spending more time with their kids than in the past.
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Press Mention
This is totally not my style, but I suppose one can be excused for bragging once in a while :o)
PowerHomeBiz.com is mentioned in a New York Times article published today, October 2, entitled ” Getting Paid, One Way or Another" written by Paul Brown. It feels good to be noticed — flashing ads and all — by the big boys occasionally.
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How to Estimate the Potential Advertising Revenues of Your Website
When starting a new website, it is good to have an idea of the potential income you can get from the website (well, if you're going to invite investors you actually need financial projections when writing a business plan).
But how can you estimate how much income you can get, especially for an advertising-based website? What kind of income can you get from the site that will allow you to make a living off your website?
It’s not easy to determine potential income, but here are the variables you need to consider:
What is the traffic potential of your site given its topic?What are your goals for the site: are you thinking of turning your website into a 800-lb. gorilla or just one of the small sites in your niche?What kind of revenue model are you planning to use — purely cost per impression (CPM), or purely cost per click (CPC), purely pay for action (CPA) or a combination of all three?What ad types are you going to offer — e.g. image ads, text link, newsletter advertising, etc?What kind of ad formats are you going to sell particularly for image ads — banner ads, leaderboard, skyscrapers, rectangle boxes, etc?What is the average CPM being charged by your competitors?What marketing strategies are you planning to implement, and how aggressive these are, to get traffic to the site?Are you going to use third party providers such as banner or contextual advertising networks (e.g Google Adsense) or will you sell all advertising yourself? Or are you going to use a combination of both?
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Questions to Ask When Buying a Business
One way to start a business is by buying an existing one. Your local baker may be thinking of retirement and want to sell his business; or you've heard about a business being sold that you think presents a very good opportunity.
However, before you get your checkbook and buy that business, it is important to determine if that business is worth buying. Like buying cars, you don't want to put your hard-earned money into a lemon. Here are some questions you need to ask:
What is the legal structure of the business (is it a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation)? Are you dealing with the right person? If the business is a 1-person business, and you are dealing with that person, then you're on the right path. If you are dealing with multiple owners or corporation, is the person you are dealing with authorized to sell the business and deal with you? You don't want a situation where you have spent time and resources evaluating the deal when the real owners do not want to sell. What are the reasons for selling? The owner/s may or may not be honest with you so you may need to do your own investigation. If the reasons for selling have more to do with the owner wanting a change of pace because they are tired, old or just want a totally different lifestyle, then you have little to be concerned about. But if the reasons have anything to do with diminishing demand for the business, significant threats to the business (e.g. Wal-mart is moving to the neighborhood), or the business is starting to fail, then you need to be aware of all these pitfalls. Get expert advice from accountants and lawyers, and research the business inside and out. How is the business doing? Check the books of the business to learn whether it is profitable or not. If you need help, seek the expert opinion of a financial manager or accountant to help you interpret the numbers. Note though that the owner/s may not grant you access to the tax and financial information of the business unless they have reason to believe that you are serious with the purchase. If this is a brick and mortar business, how is the location? Location is everything — you don't want a beauty salon to be located in an industrial area with hardly any foot traffic. Assess the location of the business, and whether you think the location is optimal. Check the lease as you don't want the surprise of being evicted from the property the moment you takeover the business. If it is a web business, check the domain name and when it is up for renewal. Are the assets up to par? The last thing you want is to buy a business whose equipment are falling apart and in dire need to upgrade. Ascertain that the business follows all the requirements of the city/county particularly in terms of building codes. How are the employees? If the business has employees, it is important to tread carefully in this regard. Are they expecting the sale of the business? How are the employees in terms of productivity? More importantly, how do they view the sale? It is important to ensure that you get the employees' cooperation early on. How is the competition? What is the market share of the business? Who are its competitors and how are they doing? And how is the business doing relative to its competitors? Are the competitors thriving while this business is struggling? Who are the suppliers and what is the business' relationship with the suppliers? Are the suppliers reliable? Are their prices competitive or are there any better vendors for the business? You also want to make sure that the current suppliers will actually do business with you. What else will you inherit with the business? Are there contracts you need to honor? Returns you need to be aware of? Or problems that you should know?
If you are planning to buy a business, be prepared to negotiate. And get as much professional help as you can from accountants, lawyers and other experts. For more information, read the article Steps in Buying and Negotiating a Business Purchase
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Effectiveness of Search Engines on Ecommerce
MarketLive released a report on how online retailers can maximize search engine effectiveness in terms of bringing traffic, conversion, customer loyalty, engagement and other critical variables. Called the MarketLive Performance Index, the report provides very interesting data on the effectiveness of search engine results.
Here are some of the data from the report:
Search marketing drives 28% of visitor traffic on retailer sites, on average, and as much as 36% for some retailers. Search engine marketing significantly contributes to a retailer’s sales, with traffic coming fom Google generating nearly 14% of an e-retailer’s revenue, through Yahoo, 3.25%, and through MSN, 1.87%. Among the top 3 search engines, MSN provides a greater percent of return (9.48%) and loyal customers (5.11%). Relative to percent of overall traffic, Google brings in 7.85% return customers and 3.69% loyal customers; while Yahoo provides 8.58% return customers and 4.46% loyal customers. The study recommends considering MSN in search marketing as keywords competition is less strenous. I suspect though that a return customer (defined in the study as having made 2-3 purchases) and loyal customers (4+ purchases) would not use the search engines but directly go to the merchant's website. Comparing natural and paid search, natural search results bring in more traffic and revenues to an ecommerce site. Paid search, however, delivers higher conversion rates with 16% more visitors who clicked on paid search converting to buyers. The study found conversion rate from paid search to be 2.93% compared to natural search's 2.52%
The study offers so much more data and information that can help you plan your search marketing strategies. Download the study from MarketLive
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The Secret of Sending Press Releases
ChiefMarketer.com has a very interesting article that summarizes the essential elements of an effective press release. I've read a lot of articles on how to make your press release stand out and get noticed, but this article does a good job in outlining the strategies to ensure better pickup of your press releases:
Set an objective - who do you want to read your release?Make your story relevant and real - how is your business revolutionizing the industry and what sets you apart from your competitors?Sell your company - what makes your organization unique?Drop names - they can give added credibility to your releasePunch up the headline - the headline is what sellsProvide hard numbers - stats grab attentionCater to reporters - give them all the information they need and make it easy for them to write about your businessRemember the basics
You can read the article at ChiefMarketer.com
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Links for 2006-09-10 [del.icio.us]
CareData Launches Expert EMR with EHR Technology! This customized software supplies healthcare providers with an easy way to stay on top of patient care and follow-up needs. 10 Trends for Christmas Trends for greeting cards, paper and other Christmas products Internet Marketer Stephen Pierce Introduces Rush Hour Traffic Solutions Entrepreneur offers 12, bullet-proof, strategies for driving traffic to websites with online video series. [Link]
Links for 2006-09-09 [del.icio.us]
Business Plans Handbook Collection of free business plans Free Sample Business Plans & Business Planning Articles Links to various free sample business plans on the Web How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site Lots of tips on how to sell more on the web and increase conversion rate Resources for Marketing Your Blogs and RSS Feeds List of places where you can market your blog Free Venture Capital and Private Equity Directory Listings of venture capitalists Home Business: Start Your Home-Based Business & Work from Home with PowerHomeBiz.com Information on starting a small and home-based business PowerHomeBiz Small & Home Business Blog Tips, resources and information for the home based entrepreneur [Link]
How to Find Investors for Your Business
I was reading the CONDÉ NAST PORTFOLIO magazine and one story caught my attention.
It was an article about an up-and-coming British cellist named Jamie Walton who wanted to get his hands on a $1.7 million, 300-year-old Guarneri cello. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford the cello with his $50,000 a year salary. So what he did was to find investors willing to give him money, and then pooled their money together to raise the funds to buy the cello. He could either buy off the investors later, or if he chooses not to, the investors could agree to sell the cello in the open market.
The article lists the investors who gave Walton the capital he needs. I find the list very instructive in terms of who you need to approach first if you are looking for an investor for your own business. Walton's investors include:
A fellow student of his cello teacher An anonymous investor who heard about his story in a magazine — showcasing the power of media in bringing you to the attention of would-be investorsA person he met at a concertA person he had lunch at a music festivalA fanIntroduced by a father in law A colleagueHis studentsProfessional investors
The main lesson for me of the article is that sometimes you don't have to go far to find investors. If you have a good product or service, people around you may be willing to fund your venture. In fact, some of these folks close to you will not primarily consider the prospects of your business; rather, they are giving you money because they believe in YOU.
One smart approach he used was to enlist the help of an investment banker as it gave gravitas to his offering. By having a plan in place on how the investors can get their money back, he showed these investors that he is serious and that he wants to give them assurance that they will have a way to recoup their investment.
Then there's the power of networking. Walton found investors from among those he had lunch with, met at a concert, and upon introduction of friends. You just never know how the people you meet at networking events and meetings can help you!
Note also the power of media. He's got a great backstory, and he used that to his advantage. Media wrote about him, which allowed him to reach possible investors who are interested to support him. In fact, this is a fairly common way of getting into the radar screen of investors who may not give you the time of day if you approach them directly. Being written about by the media tells these investors that there's something special and different about you and your product; hence they are willing to get in the game with you.
You can read the article at the Portfolio.com
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How to Make the Jump from Employee To Business Owner
I've posted a new article at PowerHomeBiz.com on how to make the transition from being an employee to a business owner successful and pain-free.
If you've been an employee all your life, the move to becoming an entrepreneur can be very daunting, even scary. You will lose the steady paycheck. You will make your own decisions and steer your own business. And unlike being an employee where you can be physically present but mentally absent (and still get paid for just showing up to work), as an entrepreneur you will have to work. If you don't work, you may not earn anything!
I’ve listed some tips on how to make the transition easier and listed the concerns and issues you need to deal with before making the jump. Read the article How to Make the Jump from Employee To Business Owner: Checklist for Starting a Business
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The Perils of Shared Web Hosting
For a new website, shared hosting is the most logical way to start. It is inexpensive, provides just enough (or even more) bandwidth, disk space and other requirements.
However, it is not without perils. If your site has been enjoying tremendous growth or you expect your site to take off quickly, you need to ask your web host a number of important questions:
How many web sites are hosted in the same server where your site is hosted?How old is the server and what are its capabilities (if you're unlucky, your site may be hosted in an old, slower server which in turn can affect the performance of your website)?If you are running databases (such as Mysql), how many databases are being hosted in the server where your database resides? If the load of the server seems to be too much — e.g. your database often cannot connect to the server — what is the likelihood that your website or database can be moved to a better and less prone to hiccups server?If you stay with the web host for several years, what is the likelihood of moving your website to newer and faster server?And for you — how many complaints can you handle before saying "enough is enough" and start finding a new web host?
If you are running a web business, the choice of the web host is very critical. If your website is down, your business goes kaput as well. Or your website may load very, very slow — with visitors hitting the back button because they simply don't have the patience or time to wait for your site to load up.
It is important that you research thoroughly your web host — and carefully monitor their performance. A webhost whose performance was excellent a couple of years ago may deteriorate next year. Occasionally check web hosting review sites to read about complaints by other people against your web host so you will know what to watch out for.
Your web host can make - or break - your online business. Learn to ask the right questions and watch for telltale signs of decreased performance to ensure that you get your money's worth.
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How Shipping Options Can Improve Online Sales
According to a USPS study “Increase Sales with Online Buyers" one of the effective ways that can boost your online sales is by offering customers shipping choices. About 60% of consumers and 72% of business owners want to choose their delivery company when making an online purchase.
The 2-page paper, however, did not elaborate on what it means by "shipping choices." Reading it, my first thought was whether choices mean offering customers with a choice to select USPS, UPS, Fedex or some other shipping companies. I've never seen such an offering — same price point but different shipping companies. Most online businesses including the giants such as Amazon.com offer shipping choices in terms of bundling, and shipping times, with the fastest option being the most expensive. I know I've received packages from Amazon using their Free Super Saver shipping option from UPS, USPS and Fedex — without me knowing (or choosing) which carrier they will use.
The study also found that 43% of online shoppers abandon their purchase at checkout, and the main reason cited is the high shipping costs. Even me, I abandon the shopping cart when I get a sticker shock in terms of shipping.
The study has some important findings — just skip through the self serving "USPS is the best" section.
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How to Become a Celebrity Assistant
There are personal assistants, and then there are celebrity personal assistants. Have you ever wondered what it is like to work for the likes of Reese Witherspoon, John Travolta or, ugh, Britney Spears?
How to become an assistant of celebrities is a common question asked in the Entertainment section of Yahoo Answers. I guess a lot of people are enticed with the prospect of hobnobbing with famous people. Me, I'd love to see them in person but definitely not as an assistant, especially given the 24/7-always-on-call-job as an assistant.
But if this is something that you'd like to get into, there are three ways for finding employment as a celebrity assistant:
Know someone who knows someone - yes, the power of referral is alive and well in HollywoodBecome a member and search the job board of theAssociation of Celebrity Assistants http://www.celebrityassistants.org/Use employment agencies in the LA area.
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Finding Legitimate Mystery Shopping Jobs
Many folks are interested in the idea of shopping-while-making money through mystery shopping jobs. Unfortunately, many find themselves scammed after paying websites that supposedly offer mystery shopping assignments but turn out to be rip offs.
While there are indeed a lot of scams in terms of mystery shopping jobs, mystery shopping is a legitimate market research tool used by big companies to evaluate the quality of their services. Hence, mystery shopping is real and many people are earning money from it.
If you are interested in learning about honest-to-goodness paying assignments in mystery shopping, I suggest you go to the National Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) http://www.mysteryshop.org/ , an organization of mystery shopping companies. This is the organization that you can TRUST in this field
Check out their listing of shopping assignments by country and by state from member companies. Companies are accepted as members of the association only if they have been in existence for two years and they can submit proof of business existence. Make a list of these companies and check out their requirements to be a mystery shopper.
The MSPA North America has a job board listing available mystery shoppers position. Click here for the job board
If in doubt, double-check the company with the local Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/ , usually under the Service Intelligence category. Find out if any complaints have been lodged with the mystery shopping company, before agreeing to do work for them.
You may want to read more from our article “Mystery Shopping—Is It Real?"
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Improve Your Retail Store's Performance: Understanding Retail Consumers
If you have a store whether online or in Main Street, I highly recommend that you read Accenture's study entitled “Retail and CGS Innovation Survey: US Results." The study provides data on how consumers are using the Web to make purchase, what are the factors that pushes a consumer to buy from a store, what retailers must do to retain customers, among others.
Some of the findings of the study include:
The key criteria for deciding where to shop are: price (85%), product selection (69%), and store proximity (57%)The keys to providing the best in-store experience are: store organization (61%), variety (59%), cleanliness (58%), customer service (57%), and friendly staff (55%).Many consumers check the Internet before going to the store: 49% will call ahead or check online to see if the item is in stock before going to the store; 69% will research the product features on the Internet before going to the store for their purchaseMajority of the customers (69%) prefer to purchase items in a store than online, except electronics where the preferred method of purchase is online
You can download the report at the Accenture website
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10 Mistakes to Avoid in Paid Search Marketing
If you are advertising through pay per click in the search engines, I found a very useful guide on the how to improve the results of your search engine marketing. This paper from the Internet Advertising Bureau entitled “Turning 10 Paid Search Mistakes into Pure Profit" is a must-read for every marketer working to reach customers via search engine marketing.
What I like most about the paper is that it clearly identifies the problem, discusses why this is a mistake, and suggests ways to remedy the mistake and increase effectiveness of the campaign. Here are the top 10 mistakes to avoid:
Not developing 3, 4 and 5 word phrase keywordsWriting ad copy that doesn't qualify prospects (e.g. too broad ad copy)Sending searchers to non relevant landing pages that doesn't match the search listingPoorly designed and focused landing pagesSet it and forget it - too much reliance on bid management technologyAllowing affiliates to bid on trademarksBidding to the top position mentalityNot analyzing what competitors are doing in searchNot understanding the differences in the search enginesNot looking out for, and watching out, for click fraud
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How to Negotiate Effectively
The ability to know how to negotiate — and negotiate well — is an important element of entrepreneurial success. You negotiate with vendors, with customers, with your bank or investor — practically everyone you will work with in your business. Negotiating is an integral process in business as your needs and goals differ with the other party, oftentimes in direct conflict with the other, and you both want to find mutually acceptable solution to the issue at hand.
Negotiating is a complex process, and how you do it depends on your skill, attitude and style. Some are great at negotiating, and enjoys the challenge of trying to win or push their agenda. Other people need a little, or even a lot, of help in the art of negotiating. They don't relish the perceived conflict inherent in negotations, particularly bad feelings, anger, or even the prospect of losing. Some simply do not know how to negotiate.
If you want to improve your negotiating skills, I highly recommend reading the book “Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond" by Deepal Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman (Bantam Books, 336 pages).
The book is an excellent read and shows you how to successfully handle yourself in various types of negotiations — from effective haggling strategies to eliciting information from reticient negotiators to defending yourself. The authors even put in the questions you need to ask or how you need to phrase what you need to say. There are also lots of real world examples that helps illustrate the negotiation strategies that the authors presented.
As an example, the authors list 7 strategies as alternatives to lying (they advise never ever to lie during the negotiation process, as the cost is oftentimes not worth it):
Incorporate reputation and relationship costs - do not negotiate in bad faith Prepare to answer difficult questions - people lie when they don't know how to respond so anticipate the questions that will be asked, no matter how difficult Try not to negotiate or respond to questions while under time pressure - answer the question only after you've had the opportunity to think more carefully about your response Refuse to answer certain questions - you do not need to answer all the questions the other party asks Offer to answer a different question - be upfront with your inability or unwillingness to answer the question, but provide a compromise by providing information to a related concern Change reality to make the truth more bearable Eliminate constaraints that tempt you to lie
The book will be available on Sept 25, and if you want to achieve outstanding success in negotiations, this is one book you shouldn't miss.
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10 Online Advertising Trends that Should be Ignored
Advertising Age writer Mark Simon wrote a funny, sarcastic and brutally honest look at some of the trends in online content and advertising today. In the article entitled “Ditch the Lunatic Web Content Crazes - Beyond the Hype: The 10 Most Asinine Trends Online and Why You Should Ignore Them" he listed 10 "harebrained" trends that are most likely to fail:
Virtual reality such as Second Life (I wrote about Second Life previously, though for the life of me, I really can't make my avatar go past the Orientation stage - LOL)Phony recommendation industry such as pay per post and astroturfing which the writer described as "phony grass-roots marketing using blogs"Smart ads which works best in theory but not in practiceNeglect of search engine marketing (this pertains to the marketing officers of big ad agencies who focus on multimillion-dollar TV and print campaigns)Audio-reliant video pre-roll spots when most viewers mute and ignore the ads while waiting for the video they want to seeHuman powered search engines — a concept the writer describes as "ill conceived"Knee-jerk Algorithmic Media Buying referring to Google's forays into non-search media and companies buying into itDangers of behavioral targetingTwitter and microblogging which the writer describes as "mindless stream of ephemera" and should not be considered a viable advertising platformIntrusive mobile marketing
Read the article and judge for yourself whether the 10 trends he listed are indeed worthless and should go away.
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How to Get Quality Links to Your Site
Links as we all know are very important on the Web. Search engines particularly Google look not only at the number of sites linking to you but also take into consideration the quality of links. Plus, search engines are now looking for natural linking patterns, and sites that show contrary are penalized.
Short of sending the link-to-me-or-else-email, how do you get QUALITY links to your site? Here are some techniques , while they are no means exhaustive can give you a good start in your link building strategy:
1. Build quality content — that is first and foremost the best way you can build quality links to your website. If your content adds value and unique, people will link to your site without you even asking for it.
Look at your competition amd see what they're doing right/wrong. Analyze their site and find out what areas are they the weakest and not providing — then come up with something that they don't have. That will create the buzz about your website — and buzz on the web means links to your website
2. Use linkbait — when developing content, think of content that will actually entice people to link to you. You may have compiled a list of resources, developed interactive flash games, or written a blog that is witty and funny, or created videos that are laugh-out loud. Add something exciting in your website that will compel others to link to you. Initiate the power of viral marketing for your site through linkbaits.
3. Give away an ebook, tutorial or software, with the requirement that others can use it and offer it on their site as additional resource but has to link back to your site.
4. Be a Google News provider. Whether you accept and publish press releases or provides content that Google News accepts, having your content in Google News exposes your site to blogs and websites looking for content.
5. Write articles. A growing number of article submission directories and sites now use the rel=nofollow tag so make it a stipulation that your article can only be used if live links are placed in your resource page
6. Press releases = regularly issue press releases but target those submission sites that can get you into Google News and Yahoo News, among others. Many websites are looking for news items, and press releases are an important source.
7. Make sure your site is listed in key directories, such as DMOZ. However, note that not all directories are created equal, and some particularly those specific ones have shady backlinks with their pages shown in the search engines as supplemental results.
There are many other techniques. Avoid those strategies that seem too spammy (e.g. going through forums and blogs and mindlessly posting your link) and concentrate on "natural forms" of linking. If you are in this in the long haul, the key is to simply develop quality content — and the links will come to you.
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What Attracts Investors to Finance a Business
Investors are not attracted to every business there is. One of the common mistakes I see from new entrepreneurs is that they think their business can easily attract investors.
In fact, some types of businesses are not "sexy enough" to get these moneyed-types to pony up for the business. Unless the investor is your Aunt Matilda or your best friend — who are basically investing in YOU and will support you whatever business you start — it is mighty hard (if not totally impossible) to get venture capitalists or angel investors interested in a daycare business.
So what attracts these investors' interest? If you are talking of multi-million types of investments, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Investors look for businesses that can provide that extra value, if not totally revolutionize how things are done. There's a breed of investors who look for hard-to-replicate technologies, and fund those. If successful, those are the types of businesses that can give them the best return for their monies — which of course is what the investors want.
Intellifit , a business launched by Albert Charpentier, uses body-scanning machines to help retailers sell clothing. Because of the novelty and technology behind it, the business got funding from an angel group called Robin Hood Ventures. The maverick Mark Cuban invested in Brondell, which manufactures Japanese-style toilet seats that wash and dry your derriere.
The key is to be creative in addressing a need or a problem, and you stand a greater chance of getting investors' attention. Be original.
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Importance of Traffic in Earning Advertising Revenues
There's an interesting question asked on Yahoo Answers on whether there exists a tool or chart to tell how much a site will earn from advertising given its traffic levels.
There’s none that I know of — and with good reason. While traffic is one of the factors that can help a website earn from advertising, it is NOT the only factor. In some cases, traffic is not even the most important determinant of advertising income
Take for example the contextual advertising program Google Adsense. One website with 10,000 visitors a day can earn $50 a month while another with the same level of traffic may earn $5,000. There is no way to predict how much a site can earn from advertising
Another example is the exclusive social networking site that caters to the uber-rich
aSmallWorld.net. Per the NY Times , the site has only 150,000 members yet advertising clients typically spend anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 per month. I know of many websites whose traffic exceeds 150K but can't even earn $1,000 a month!
Here are the factors determining income from advertising:
Type of advertising program — Banner ads earning via cost per impression will definitely benefit from huge traffic, while contextual advertising depends on factors other than traffic Type of visitors the site attracts — a site that attracts venture capitalists and CEOs can charge more for advertising than a site on online games that gets 1000x more traffic. Even with a much smaller audience, the first site can earn more from advertising than the second site that gets more traffic Suitability of the types of ads to the website — some sites simply lend better to a particular types of advertising. A forum that attracts high traffic may benefit better from a CPM-type of advertising campaign, while it can see very poor returns from CPC type of advertising. Same with news or gaming sites where the visitors are typically not interested in the ads — hence don't click on them. Responsiveness of users to ads — Advertisers want ROI, and they will advertise again and again to sites that give them the best return on their investment. And that means spending money where they get the best returns, typically where the audience is more responsive to ads. Implementation of the ads — sites running cost per click (CPC) and cost per action (CPA) ads will earn more if they optimize their website much better and if they know how to place the ads in such a way to get the best response from visitors Branding of the site — a site with smaller traffic but gets frequent media mentions and enjoys a stronger brand can charge more for their advertising than a site that gets better traffic numbers. Traffic is a factor in how much you earn from advertising — but it is not the only factor for determining how much you will earn. Of course, with more traffic, you stand a better chance of earning more revenues especially if you have the other factors working for you as well.
The best approach is to explore which type of advertising works best with your site. It is also important that you diversify your advertising revenues by using various types of advertising formats without distracting from the real content of your site (you don't want your site to be nothing but one big advertising billboard).
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Six Essentials for Networking
Networking is one of those activities that I do not really look forward to doing, but I know I have to do because of the many benefits it can bring to a business.
According to Christine Comaford-Lynch, author of the book "Rules for Renegades," networking is actually FUN. She wrote: "Networking is about creating an extended family. It’s about developing connections, caring about people, increasing the size of your “tribe.”
She gave six networking essentials:
1. Practice “Palm Up” Networking. When you network, are you giving, or grasping? Palm up networking embodies the spirit of service, of giving and wanting nothing in return. When you network “palm down” you’re grasping for personal gain. Palm up = heart-oriented interaction. Palm down = greedy grasping. Which attitude results in building relationships, providing value, and ultimately bestows benefits on both parties? You guessed it. The universe has a perfect accounting system. Give to others, it’ll all come back to you in time.
2. Do Daily Appreciation. Appreciate at least one person daily. Sometimes I do this via e-mail so I can be thorough. And often, to my delight, the recipient will tell me that they are saving the message for when they need a pick-me-up. You can also express appreciation over the phone or in person. Simply tell someone how much you appreciate who they are, what they do, whatever about them moves you. They’ll be flattered and you’ll feel great.
3. Equalize Yourself with Others. I believe we all have one unit of worth, no more, no less. No one can add to it, no one can take it away. We’re all equal. Just because someone is powerful, rich, famous doesn’t mean they are better than you. Practice equalizing yourself with others—this will enable you to more comfortably interact with others, and to reach out to people of all walks of life.
4. Rolodex Dip. This is a fun practice when you want to connect with someone but aren’t sure who. Flip through your contact database and pick a name. Then think of all the things you like about them. Now call them up to see how they are doing. They’ll be surprised and delighted.
5. Pick a “Sensei of the Day”: Each day I pick a sensei, a teacher. This is someone who has taught me a lesson or reminded me of something important in life. Your sensei can be a person, a pet, a plant, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is to acknowledge that there is much to learn and you are being offered valuable lessons constantly.
6. Do the Drive-By Schmooze. Parties, conventions, groups of all sorts are great opportunities to network, but sometimes you’ll be tired, not in the mood, or have too many events in one evening (like during holiday season!). This is when you’ll want to use the Drive-By Schmooze. Here’s how:
Timebox your networking. Decide that in 30 minutes you’ll do a check-in to determine if you need to stay any longer. Set your goal. Determine the number of new connections you want to establish. Remember, your goal is meaningful connections, not simply contacts. Let your intuition guide you. OK, this may sound flaky, but it works! Stand near the door, in a corner, out of the way. Stop your thoughts. Internally ask to be guided to the people you need to connect with. Then start walking. You’ll be amazed at who you meet. Connect. You’ll always resonate with someone at an event. When you do, ask questions about them, such as: How did you get started in your field? What’s your ideal customer? We all love to talk about ourselves, and these questions will not only help you form a connection with this person, but will also tell you how to help them. Offer help and follow through. If you can provide help, jot down ideas on the back of their business card, commit to follow up, and then do it. If you’ve had a fruitful conversation and want to take it further, offer to meet for lunch or coffee. People say life is 90% about showing up. Nonsense! Life is 90% about following through!
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Elements of Effective Customer Service on the Web
As a business owner, it is important is to keep customers happy. Give customers what they want, and your business will thrive. As such, having a plan on how to actually provide great customer service is a must.
If you are selling online, here are the elements of an effective customer service plan:
Contact Us section that either provides a form to allow for easy contact or email address for contacting you — and you actually respond to itCustomer service contact telephone number (better yet, a 1-800 number) located in your homepage, or even in all your pages. If you can offer live chat capabilities, so much the better. List of hours when customers can contact you Inventory status notification - don't put that the item is available when the customer has to wait 2 months to get the item because it is out of stockQuick and easy checkout processPrivacy policyClear returns policyFast shipment of items, possibly between 3-to-5 business daysNotification of status of shipment of the items via email
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Starting a Dog Bakery Business
Hotel queen Leona Helmsley, who recently passed away, was said to have left her beloved Maltese dog a mind boggling $12 million dollars (!!!). While not many people would have the resources to bequeath their dogs with such a huge amount of money, industry data shows that spending on pets from food to clothing to grooming have increased significantly in the last decade.
According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association , Americans are spending $40.8 billion a year for their furry friends, a huge part of which goes to food. Hence, it is not a surprise that one pet-oriented business enjoying increased demand is the dog bakery.
Pet owners today want to reward their pets in human terms, and what better way to do it than through human-quality food and treats. They are willing to spend top dollar for food products for their pets.
When starting a dog bakery business, it is important to understand that the demand for this business is not spurred by the need to provide food for beloved pooches. Instead, it is all about becoming a better "pet parent." Your business concept and marketing strategy should focus on the fact that pet food is marketed with the pet owner (not the pet) in mind.
Here are some tips to starting your dog bakery business:
Before starting this business, research about your target market and the demographics. Get information on the dog population of the area, as well as the number of dog-owners in the community who will be your main clientele. This business will thrive more in urban areas, and in the more affluent neighborhoods.Find out if there's a dominance of some particular dog breeds in your community. If there is a specific, common breed, then you may be able to focus on that as your niche specialty.Determine competition in your community, and find out their strengths and weaknesses. If you can, investigate what people like — and don't like — about these existing dog bakeries.Find a niche — e.g. all natural dog food products — and position yourself as a leading provider of these items.Create a chic, dog friendly store where customers can browse your products with their canine companions.
Of course, to succeed in this business, you must have a love for dogs as well as talent and skills in cooking and baking.
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Advertising Your Business in Print Magazines
If you are looking to advertise your business in print magazines, here are some things you need to consider:
Choose the magazine that your target market reads. Make a list of magazines in your niche. Home Business Magazine is not the best magazine to advertise if you are trying to reach fashion-conscious women. Check of the magazine is audited. There are numbers — and then there are claims. In print publishing, it is important to look at third party circulation audit, which verifies independently the circulation of a magazine. Ask for those figures. It is so easy to say a magazine has x number of circulation, but in reality has half of that number. Be careful in reviewing the claims of non-audited publications. Determine how the magazine is read. If you will advertise, you'd want readers of the magazine to at least see your ad. So it is important to ask how readers are using the magazine, and whether the magazine is read from "cover to cover." Content matters - and so you need to know whether the magazine has ample content that can engage the readers.
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Do It Yourself SEO
Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on how a website can improve its visibility in the search engines. The article describes the specific steps used by Bankrate.com, which any small business can easily adapt to our own websites.
The suggestions include:
Focus each page on one themeKnow what you want visitors to doStudy your traffic data for trendsMake your site easy to navigateUse free tools from search enginesRead the full Wall Street Journal article “Raising Your Profile: Beyond the Basics"
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Using Viral Marketing for Your Business: Lessons from Jockey.com
Online videos are all the rage nowadays; and businesses are jumping into the bandwagon.
According to the research of Nielsen Company, an estimated 81 million people who access the Internet over broadband in the U.S. watch broadband video at home or at work — and growing fast. Hence, more and more businesses are harnessing the power of videos to create buzz for their products and attract a whole new demographic, mostly the younger set.
One example of how a business uses online videos is Jockey's new site StopSquirming.com
http://stopsquirming.com/ . The site is a tongue-in-cheek approach that focuses on one of the most common problems of mankind — uncomfortable underwear. It is also the platform for introducing their new product: squirm-proof underwear.
This new website is an excellent illustration of how a business can tap the power of online videos and how to use the Web 2.0 approach of interactivity by allowing users to upload videos and vote for what they think is the best.
The things I like about this approach used by Jockey are:
With this new site, Jockey is addressing a common problem their target market faces When introducing a new product, it must first and foremost address a need; and then decide how to attract potential customers.It allows them to attract a new and younger video-watching audience for their brand. The site is a great viral marketing tool: the topic alone and the videos can be something that younger folks would love to talk about and share with their friends.The site provides a branding opportunity for Jockey as their brand name can be found all over the siteSite encourages shopping at Jockey.com as a prominent link at the top navigation area urges visitors to shop at Jockey.comThe site is fun — not only the videos but the "Grundy Grievance" service that allows users to send underwear problem alerts to their friends
While we may not be able to implement something as finely packaged as this Jockey website, the ideas behind the site are definitely worth looking into. We need to first and foremost look at the needs of our customers — find a problem that they have, and then offer a solution to address these needs. Jockey succeeds in taking a fresh spin to introducing a new product, and adopting an approach that is sure to be a great hit with their younger target audience.
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Book Review: Rules for the Renegade
I've just received a copy of the book ” Rules for Renegade: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career and Revel in Your Individuality" by Christine Comaford-Lynch. The author has worked as a model, then turned her life 180 degrees and became a monk (!); then later shifted to become a multi-millionaire entrepreneur — definitely not the career steps of most ordinary folks. The book is a distillation of insights and tips of this author who have always defied convention and pushed the limits of being a "renegade."
The book talks extensively on the ingredients of a successful business ownership; but it is not your typical "how to start a business" book that outlines the differences of various legal structures, or the steps on how to write a business plan. Even the language and tone is more informal and definitely less rigid than other small business books. Instead, the book takes on a more grounded approach and focuses on what works best not only for your business but for you as a person including:
When is a loan-based approach to financing most advantageous to your business and what types of loan will work best for your situation.Why you should make your business "compelling" and how to turn your business into a compelling proposition; one of which is by asking yourself whether "your product or service has the kind of sex appeal that will make everyone in your target market want it."Offers fresh approach to networking such as "rolodex dip" which entails flipping through your rolodex, selecting a name that "makes you smile" and then calling that person just to see how he or she is
If you want step-by-step information on how to start a business, this is not the book for you and you'd be frustrated with sections on "how to make a difference in the world" or "how to become a great leader." But if you want to be fired up and revved up as an entrepreneur, Comaford-Lynch's "Rules for the Renegade" is a compelling read.
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Starting a Part-time Business with a Permanent Job
There are many folks working in full time jobs who dream of starting their own businesses. However, they sometimes find it very hard to squeeze in their already hectic schedules the activities involved in a business startup. They are already tired after a long, hard day at work. Many also are stumped with the roller coaster income that self employment brings and the idea of losing their source of fixed income.
But if you really want to start a business, albeit a part time one, while still working as an employee, here are some steps to take:
First, make the commitment to yourself that you want to start your own business while working full time — and embrace all the sacrifices that go along with it Carefully manage your time - make a lists of tasks you can do for your business every day. It can be as simple as answering clients emails or as extensive as writing proposals Set realistic expectations for the day - if you work in a rotating work shift, what tasks can you do for your business in your spare time (or at the end of the day?). On weekdays when you work, how many hours can you dedicate for your business? How many hours can you dedicate on weekends? Starting a business, especially when working full time, is not going to be a picnic in the park. You will make sacrifices, including giving up your leisure time to be able to work on the business. It is best to choose a business that you can enjoy so the sacrifices you make will not feel like work, but as part of having fun
For additional tips read the article “Balancing a Part Time Business with a Full Time Job"
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How to Find Suppliers for Your Business
If you are starting a retail business, whether online or off, one of the first things you need to know is where to get the merchandise you will sell. And that means getting in contact with possible suppliers for your business.
If for example you want to start a craft and greeting card store, here are places where you can find the suppliers you need for your new business:
Check out the products you want to sell and contact the manufacturers. Establish a wholesale account with them though be prepared to purchase in their required quantities Attend craft tradeshows. You will meet the manufacturers and suppliers in the industry and will allow you to start networking and establish relationships. Go to sites such as http://www.tsnn.com to find out trade shows in the industry that are upcoming Subscribe to trade publications. These magazines always have ads from manufacturers and suppliers in the industry. Often, they will have an annual buyers guide that lists all the manufacturers and suppliers in the industry. This guide contains very valuable information for anyone who wish to be involved in the industry. Join trade organizations. For the greeting card industry, for example, you can join the Greeting Card Association http://www.greetingcard.org/ - they will have suppliers list for the industry as well as other resources that you need Contact sales agents. They will help you in touch with manufacturers and wholesalers in the industry. You can check with retailers and ask them for recommendations of agents. Or check the industry association for information on sales agents working your area. Visit the Manufacturers Agents Sales Association http://www.manaonline.org/ for listings of sales agents in your industry Use the web. Thomas Register http://www.thomasnet.com/ which is the most comprehensive resource for finding information on suppliers of industrial products and services in North America. Or use your favorite search engine to find companies in your industry.
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Using eBay to Test Your New Product
eBay is a great marketplace that attracts hordes of buyers and sellers. But is it the right marketplace for testing new products?
From my experience with eBay, it is not the best marketplace for new products.
First, the market that eBay attracts is looking for low prices, particularly for commonplace items such as children's clothing, women's handbags or outdoor power equipment. Buyers go to eBay because they think they can find deals and huge discounts. They want the lowest possible price for the quality they want.
Second, people come to eBay to look for unique items such as antiques and collectibles. They search for unique items that they collect and other hard-to-find items that they know they can't find in their local Wal-mart or Main street store.
Whether it is a unique or commonplace item, a common factor between these two types of items is the familiarity of the buyer. The buyer goes to eBay looking for these products; they know these products and are aware that the products exist. A buyer shops at eBay looking for Gucci shoes whether used or brand new; or looking for 1910 real photo postcard of Russian royalties. They know what they are looking for; what they want.
Price and uniqueness are two main factors ebay buyers are looking for. If you will introduce a new product or idea on eBay, it will be extremely hard to sell unless you advertise it extensively or use keywords that people are familiar with. For one, people are not familiar with it, after all your product is new. So NO ONE will be searching for it. No pageviews mean little chance of getting your items sold. Or if ever the someone stumbles upon it and the item gets sold, you will not get the buyer bidding frenzy that results in top price; rather, you may get only 1 bid at your starting price.
Some do it, but they have to list and relist, again and again, until their products become familiar to eBay users. Or you will introduce a new product ONLY after you have gained a coterie of loyal buyers who checks out the items you sell on a regular basis. Introducing a new product could work if you have got the history of selling for eBay users to trust you and your products. Plus, you've got hundreds or thousands of positive user feedback.
It is not easy to use eBay as a launching pad for new products — unless you are willing to spend money advertising your new product and increasing awareness for it.
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Tips for Starting and Marketing a Lawncare Business
I've previously written about how to start a lawncare business , but here are some additional tips to starting and marketing this type of business:
Direct marketing is a very effective way of reaching potential customers for your lawncare business. You can either create brochures that provide details about your company or a postcard that highlights what your business is all about. Whatever format you decide in your direct mail campaign, it is important that your ads must be written in a way that speak directly to your potential clients. Emphasize the reasons why you are better than other lawn-care companies. List down the benefits the customers will get when they hire you. Carefully think what your headline will be: remember, your headline can make or break your direct mail campaign and it will spell the difference between sending brochures that are kept or postcards that are thrown immediately to the trash without being read.
Put on a professional image. Your appearance is important!! As much as possible, present yourself in a clean and tidy manner — even wearing a collared shirt or better yet, your company's uniform — when talking to your potential clients. Professionalism also means doing an outstanding job, arriving on time, and keeping your word to your clients, and doing what you say you are going to do. These are the qualities that will set yourself apart from other lawncare companies. One of my pet peeves is having a lawncare company telling me that they will come tomorrow but only to show up 2 days later after you've made 10 follow-up calls to them.
Maximize the advertising opportunity of your vehicle. Your truck is one of your most effective — and cheapest — advertising tool you can ever have. It's your walking billboard. However, avoid the common mistake of putting every single information about your business in the ad. Doing so clutters the whole ad and makes it very hard to read. Remember, the ad in your car — which can either be stickers or magnet — will be read by people on the street as you drive by, other cars driving alongside your truck or behind you — and that means that people will only have a few seconds to get your information. Focus on a single information that you think people will find easy to remember — either your business name or website — and use the biggest font for that information.
Use referral marketing. Your existing clients can be your biggest help in spreading the word about your business. However, give them a little encouragement and make the act of referring your services to others worthwhile for them. Consider offering your existing customers a discount off their monthly service fee for every account that they refer to you.
Go beyond just mowing. To maximize revenue opportunities in this business, it is important that you offer a wider array of services. In fact, mowing provides the lowest profit margin and is only used as a chance to upsell the customer base to other more profitable services. Plus, lawncare business is seasonal in some states that you need to adjust the types of services that you offer based on the seasons. Some of the more profitable businesses you can offer include: insect-disease control; lawn and bed weed control; planting annuals; and landscaping.
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How to Succeed as an Online Publisher
Someone gave this advice over at Webmasterworld's Adsense forum, which I think is so true and needs to be taken to heart by every small business online publisher:
The trick to being a successful publisher site is to keep your costs as low as possible without sacrificing quality to get the best ROI.
Seems like a no-brainer, right? Profits = Revenue > Costs
However, I have seen many small online publishers who spend too much not thinking whether their spending will actually result in revenues. They think that they need to advertise, advertise and advertise — and then hope that in the end they can reap the profits.
In fact, there are many Google Adsense publishers who actually played the game of full blast spending with Adwords and hoped to recoup the investment with their Adsense income. They hoped that by spending to get traffic, they will be rewarded with high Adsense income. For some it worked, but for many others, it did not and they ended up with huge advertising expenses that they were not able to recoup.
This approach is ok with deep-pocketed online publishers backed by venture capitalists as they have money to spend like there is no tomorrow. But if you have limited resources, you can't continue spending if your spending is not bringing in the profits you need to survive. You'll crash and burn easily!
Here are some points to consider when publishing a content website:
When advertising, set your objectives clearly as to what you want to get from your ad spendingTrack the return on your investment carefully, and immediately do remedial actions if the ad is not bringing in the results you expected. You may need to change your creative or ad text, your landing page may need to be tightened, your keywords may need to be finetuned, etc.Always be on the lookout for cost effective ways to get the word out about your website. Be masters of shoestring marketing strategies.Understand that there are no shortcuts to success: your success will come directly from the quality of your content
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The Value of Media Mentions
In today's highly competitive environment, you need to employ as many marketing arsenals as possible to increase awareness to your business and get the word out about your products and services. One of the best ways is to get mentions from the media.
Getting mentioned in a newspaper, TV or radio can benefit your business in a number of ways:
Branding - the fact that a respected publication mentioned your business gives it credibility
Prestige - getting mentioned by the media particularly the top guns like Wall Street Journal or CNN is certainly prestigious
Marketing tool - some even go to the extent of ordering reprints of the media mention to showcase to existing and prospective customers that a major media outfit mentioned them; while others include the link to the media web site in their PR pages on their website
So how do you get mentioned in the media? Some of the strategies to get your business in the radar of these media organizations include:
Hiring a PR firm to help pitch your expertise to media outlets
Sending press releases
Contacting editors and letting them know how your ideas can help the articles and stories they are working on
Creating great content in your website
PowerHomeBiz.com mainly relies on the quality of its content to get the attention of media. Most recently, some of the mentions we received include
Forbes.com “Differentiate or Die" article
Long Island Business News
Essence Magazine “Make Your Day Pay Off" article
One main caveat though: media mentions hardly give you live links. So if you think that being mentioned in Forbes.com can result in huge traffic, unfortunately, they did not give a live link back to PowerHomeBiz.com. So traffic wise, you can't expect a huge upsurge in traffic as these organizations are very stingy in giving hyperlinks. Though if they give you a link, such as a Wall Street Journal article that previously featured PowerHomeBiz.com, the traffic can be amazing.
So if you are looking at traffic building, you're better off working with bloggers than the media as bloggers tend to give live links — hence traffic — to sites that they mention in their blogs. But if you want prestige, bragging rights and credibility, strive to get mentioned in a major or local media organization. Better yet, do both!
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Challenges Small Businesses Face When Starting an Online Business
I was contacted today by a journalist who is doing a feature article on the founders of an online dating website for wine lovers. He wants to know the challenges faced by small business owners when starting an online business.
I have worked with many online entrepreneurs, including those who advertise on our website. In my opinion, the most difficult aspects of starting an online business for small entrepreneurs are:
No clear idea of how to start a business on the Web. To have a business online, you need to have a web presence — which is a website. However, many small and home-based entrepreneurs do not know how to create, much less manage, a website. As a result, they become severely constrained in terms of how to present their businesses on the Web. They go to free web hosting sites, which may be good for their budget, but not for presenting a professional image on the Web. Others create websites that do a poor job of showcasing the products or services they offer. We even had an advertiser who is an internet marketing consultant (!) with an poorly designed website — his above the fold contains nothing except a header graphic with no logo, a picture of a man with absolutely no content, and to read what the website is about you have to scroll down to see any text.
No clear idea of what business to start. Everyone wants to earn money: and the more earnings, the better. However, many do not know how to actually earn money on the Web. They hear of a business opportunity, and buy into it only to find that they can't make the kind of dough they were promised initially. Or they may have heard about earning through advertising, but they do not know how to write compelling content. Worse, many thinks the Web can give them "quick money" only to find that succeeding online takes a lot of work and effort.
Underestimating the difficulties of getting traffic - Many small entrepreneurs think that all they need to do is to put up a website (or a blog) and visitors will come to them automatically; only to learn that getting traffic is not as easy as first thought. Their site has to compete with more established and authority sites in their field, which typically dominates the organic search engine results. As a result, they feel compelled to spend hundreds, if not thousands per month, doing pay per click marketing in the search engines.
Failure to understand how to convert visitors to buyers. Many small online entrepreneurs think that all they need is to open up a storefront on the Web and they can rake in huge sales immediately — only to generate only a couple of sales in 6 months. They complain that the $10,000 loan they took out for their website and inventory has already been depleted, and yet they haven't been able to break even at the very least. Turning visitors to buyers is different from just getting traffic. To do so, it is important to look at every element on the website and see if it conveys trust and entices buyers to purchase.
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Taking a Little Mommy Break
I will be taking a couple of weeks maternity break as I take care of my newborn.
Best of luck to all your entrepreneurial ventures!
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3 Basic Questions You Need to Ask When Starting a Business
I had a very interesting discussion today with a "retired" entrepreneur who had started several successful ventures in his hometown. We were discussing the topic of starting a business; in particular, how can a person know that this is the right business to start and succeed with it.
According to him, he only ask himself three questions:
1. Is this a business that I can do? He basically looks at whether he has the resources, skills, knowhow and right support to start the business. If he feels that the business is way over his head (and budget), he takes a step backwards and looks again why he is attracted to the business in the first place and what he can do to make it easier for him to start the business.
2. Do I understand how to grow and run this business? He never starts a business that he has not researched. Before embarking on the business, he reads whatever he can about the business from books, magazines or other sources of information he can get his hands on (even talking to current business owners).
3. If the business fails, how will it affect me and my family? As a family man with 3 kids, he always looks at the risks involved and the odds of his success. While he doesn't believe in playing it safe, he also does not want to go blindly into something and lose everything his family has.
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Pay Per Call: Leveraging the Search Engines to Reach the Local Market
If you think pay per click advertising is too expensive and not giving you the results you need, you may want to try pay per call instead. Pay per call is a type of online advertising that appeals to many small businesses — especially those without websites — because it combines the power of search marketing and the one-on-one interaction of a phone conversation.
Pay per call is geared towards Internet users who go online to search for vendors and suppliers, but would rather talk to someone rather than email to discuss concerns such as pricing, product availability, and get a feel for the vendor. Think of a mom looking for a daycare for her child who go online to check for daycares in the area — and found your ad — and then dials your number to talk to you. Allowing you to interact with a potential customer via a phone call makes it easy for you to discuss your business and get that sale.
How does pay per call works?
As the advertiser, you will select your keywords, choose the appropriate categories and select whether you want your ad shown nationally, regionally or locally. Like the traditional PPC campaign, your landing page must capture the user and entice them to make a call to you! When you write your ad, it has to include your business name, short blurb describing your business and a trackable toll free number. This toll free number will then be redirected to your own phone number.
Unlike PPC, you will be charged only when someone calls you, and not when that person clicks on the ad. So it is more of a pay per action type of advertising where the action in this case is for the person to call you.
The downside, however, is that pay per call bid prices are typically higher than pay per click. Instead of paying cents per click, pay per call can cost anywhere from $2 to $30 (or more) depending on the position of the ad and the chosen category.
If you are interested in looking at the pay per call online advertising option, here are some companies that offer this type of advertising:
Ingenio http://paypercall.ingenio.com/default.aspx Superpages.comeStara http://www.estara.com/Voicestar http://www.voicestar.com/Google (limited testing) http://www.google.com/help/faq_clicktocall.htmlFlyingSpider.com http://flyingspider.com/Thinking Voice http://www.thinkingvoice.com/Upaypercall http://upaypercall.com/ZiffLeads http://ziffleads.com/
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How to Get Your Product in the TV Shopping Channels
TV shopping channels such as QVC has become a highly effective way for small business owners to sell products. Even if you are an unknown seller offering an unknown product, getting a slot in QVC can assure you of huge sales numbers. Imagine this: in less than 5 minutes, you can sell more than a thousand units of your product (or even more!). Where else can you find that retailing wunderkind?
If your product can get into QVC, it is like hitting the jackpot — or at least the start of something big for your business. As such, competition can be very tough as every inventor or new marketer wants to be shown in the network. So how can you get your product featured on QVC?
1. Start by going to their website http://www.qvcproductsearch.com/ and study the section on how to become a QVC vendor. Check out the conferences they offer, which can really help you prepare your product for the primetime. If you feel you are ready, submit your application online or attend a QVC product search
2. Watch the QVC shows and familiarize yourself with the types of products being offered, how they are presented, how these products are packaged, the price points, etc. Develop an understanding of what sells on QVC
3. Understand the process of QVC. It takes months sometimes to hear a reply from QVC regarding your application. Once you get invited for an interview, expect that it will be like auditioning your product where you have to "sell" the idea why your product will work well in QVC to the producers. I've heard of some sellers who thought the invitation was just a formality and that they were already "in" only to find a couple of thousand other inventors and marketers lined up waiting for their turn to present the products.
I will be writing a more detailed article on this topic so watch out for it!
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The Changing Face of Entrepreneurship
The Intuit Future of Small Business Report authored by the Institute for the Future has come up with an interesting study on the changing faces of entrepreneurship. According to the study, gone are the stereotypes of long ago when people associate entrepreneurship with middle of the age folks.
The study sees three trends affecting small business formation in the coming future:
1. Entrepreneurs will become more diverse in terms of age, origin and gender:
- those nearing retirement (and looking for a way to sustain income, pursue their interests, or just keep busy and involved) as well as those who are entering the workforce will become the most entrepreneurial ever.
- women limited by their corporate career path will choose to go to entrepreneurship
- immigrant entrepreneurs will drive a new wave of globalization
2. One person businesses with no employees (or personal business) will rise with the growth of the number of freelancers, contract business, social entrepreneurs and accidental entrpreneurs
3. Rapid growth of university-level entrepreneurial training
You can read the full study at Intuit
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Getting Certified as a Woman Owned Business
If you are a woman business owner, you might want to consider getting certified as a woman owned business. The certification, which confirms that your business is 51% owned by a woman, will give your business a boost when you engage in government contracting process, including bidding on state government contracts, and even some local corporate contracts.
You don't have to pay to get information on how to become certified as a woman owned business. Contact the following organizations regarding the procedures and benefits of being certified as a woman-owned business (however, some agencies such as WBENC which is one organization that provides national certification charges $300 for application).
Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
1120 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 950 Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 872-5515 Fax: (202) 872-5505
http://www.wbenc.org
National Association of Women Business Owners Corp.
1411 K Street, NW, Suite 1300 Washington, DC 20005-3407
Phone: (202) 347-8686 Fax: (202) 347-4130
http://www.nawbo.org
There are also women's business ownership representatives in Small Business Administration (SBA) district offices. To locate the nearest WBOR, call the SBA Answer Desk at 1-800-827-5722. Or check this PDF file for a state by state listing of WBOIR
Another good organization to contact is SBA's Online Women’s Business Center at http://www.onlinewbc.gov
Note though that getting certified as a woman-owned business can take anywhere from 4-6 months and will require tons of paperwork (even interviews and site visits!) to ascertain that your business indeed is a woman-owned business. The application is cumbersome, and some of the items you need to present include: financial statements prepared by an accountant, copies of all equipment rental and purchase agreements, copies of all real estate leases, copy of bank signature authorization card, and payroll for the prior month (including compensation for owners and officers).
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How to Build Your Elevator Pitch
Can you describe your business in 3 minutes or less? Imagine a situation where you meet a potential investor on the elevator, and you have only 3 floors to go. During that short elevator ride, you need to be able to win over the potential investor.
Called an "elevator pitch," it is a quick and concise way to communicate who you are, what you do, and why you do it better. It is a way to present your business and win people over in just a short period of time.
The new book "The IT Factor: Be the One People Like, Listen to, and Remember" by Mark Wiskup (Amacom: June 26, 2007) offers four tips on how to perfect your elevator pitch:
1. Describe your business using non-jargon terms. Work hard to speak plainl;y and without jargon in the first sentence, and you will have them listening to you. If you rely on jargon to describe your business, no one will take notice of you — you'll be just another guy in the industry.
2. Focus on your customers. Now that you've told the listener what your business is, immediately move on to how you serve your customers. Describe specifically what you do for your clients in plain and distinct language. Avoid vague, self-congratulatory maxims that sound familiar and safe — these phrases are meaningless.
3. Focus on overcoming challenges your clients are facing. Here's where you can really shine. Launch into a single, highly specific issue or problem with which you helped a single customer. Nobody riding in the elevator with you wants to know everything your company does! By sharing a single interesting story, you can give them something to remember you by.
4. Focus on a happy customer ending. Make sure your story has a happy ending for the customer. When you describe a single problem that your product or service resolved for a client, you are telling your listener that you are worth the investment others make in you. It gives you instant credibility.
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Article Roundup: Marketing Your Business
Here are some very informative articles I've read this week on various aspects of marketing your business:
The Secret of Sending Press Releases How Can Online Communities Yield Product Sales Results? Putting the URL back in Google indexes Three factors determine your online success
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How to Prepare Yourself from Being Employed to Business Owner
If you are tired of being an employee and want to start your own business, here are some steps to help you transition:
1. Start by thinking and deciding what you really want to do, whether you want the comfort of a regular paycheck or the risk but excitement of entrepreneurship. And then pursue it.
2. Decide what business you want to do. There are different approaches:
start a business based on what you are doing in your career (if you work as a web designer with a company, you decide to embark on a web design business on your own)start a business that highlights your interests such as pursuing hobbies and turning it into a businessstart a business where you see good opportunities, even if totally different from your career or something that you have never pursued before
3. Start researching about the business. Whether you will actually prepare a business plan or not, think of the following
how does this business actually workswhat is the demand for this businesswho are the customers of this businesswhat are needed to start and successfully run this businesswhat are the cost elements of this businesshow much do you need to start this businesswhat do you need to acquire to start and run this business in terms of skills and knowledge
4. Start looking at the resources needed for your business
knowing how much this business entails, do you have the funds for this businessif not, where will you get itwhat are your chances for getting this money (e.g. if you are going to apply for a bank loan, do you have some equity of your own as well as collateral and do you have good credit?)do you know any investor to help you fund the business, or even how to look for investorsif you cannot raise the funds, what are your alternatives and back up plan (e.g. are you going to downscale the business, or will you postpone starting it)
5. Decide on how you want to pursue the business. Will you
quit your job immediately and start working on the business?will you continue your job while starting on the business during weekends and your spare time?will you reduce your work hours at your job in order to devote more time to jumpstarting the business?will you hire someone to help you do initial legwork for the business?6. Involve your family in your decision making
if you quit your job, do you have insurance or are you prepared to buy self employment insurance for yourself and your familydo you have saved money that can tide yourself and your family for at least 6 months1 year in the event that the business will not yield the income you expectedif you need additional manpower, can you rely on your family members to help you
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Resources on Starting a Greeting Card Business
There is a lot of interest in starting a greeting card business, whether designing the cards, writing quotes, or publishing greeting cards. At PowerHomeBiz.com, we receive several questions on how to start a greeting card business every week.
There are two resources that I highly recommend for those who wish to start a greeting card business:
Greeting Card Association which is the trade organization of the greeting card and stationary publishers. They have a very informative artist guidelines as well as writers guidelines. They also sell publications, including listings of sales representatives and distributors in the industry – which is a critical resource for all those who want to start this type of business. The website also lists a directory of greeting card publishers that those who wish to create greeting cards can contact
Greetings Etc. magazine is the trade publication of the Greeting Card Association. This magazine is the bible of the industry players in the greeting card business. The magazine contains information on the trends of the industry, tips to marketing your business, artistic and creative tips for creating cards, and many more. They also publish an annual Buyers Guide, which is a must-have of every greeting card business owners.
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Ten Ways to Get Started on Your Own Home Business
I updated and expanded an old article I wrote on the various ways to start a home business.
The article looks at how an ordinary person can start an entrepreneurial venture — a cash-strapped would-be entrepreneur, a corporate employee looking to be their own boss, and someone willing to go on a slow-but-sure route to success. The reality is that many home business entrepreneurs will never find investors to help jumpstart their business. So if they do decide to start a business, the business will have to conform around the present condition of their lives.
Starting a busines is never easy; but it is also not that impossible. Read the article Ten Ways to Get Started on Your Own Home Business
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What Makes a Good Service Business Web Site?
The Web has become a very important marketing and commercial tool in recent years. Though there are still many small business owners whose businesses are offline — e.g. landscape designer, house cleaners, etc. — that still need convincing with regards to having a presence on the Web. Since their businesses do not involve the Internet, they don't see the point of spending resources creating their own websites.
They couldn't be more wrong. The Web can help boost the ability of businesses, even those operating offline, to reach their target customers.
If you are a service business owner and looking to create a presence on the Web, the first step is to clarify what you want your website to do and who your customers are. Will your website act as a brochure that's easily available to people on the Web? Will it serve as your way to communicate with your customers?
Here are things you need to consider to create a good service business website:
1. Your web site needs to contain all the information about your business
what services do you providewhy should they go to you instead of your competitors: give a list of BENEFITS you can provide to the customerwho are youwhere are you locatedwhat is your pricing or if you choose not to post your pricing, how can the visitor get information on your pricing2. Your website must be able to elicit the trust of your visitors
clear way to contact you preferably with a toll free phone numberyour picture or that of your staff so visitors will know that you are a real persontestimonials from previous clients3. Provide an easy way to order your services
think of the best way you can best provide services, considering that most of your services may be localfor existing clients, how can they use the website to contact you?4. Your website must be functioning optimally
good and simple web designfast loading timewell optimized for the search engineseasy to navigate
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The Makings of a Viral Video
With YouTube all the rage these days, you can't help but be impressed and a little bit jealous of videos designed to promote products getting watched by over 1 million people. Marketers talk of the "viral" success of these videos. That's free advertising that cannot be ignored!
But how exactly do you create a "viral" video to market a product?
Well, apparently through clever strategizing and hard work, according to Josh Warner, president of The Feed Company who has been responsible for the video hits Ray-Ban's "Catch" (in which sunglasses are tossed at a man who catches them on his face) and General Motors' "Robot". And here I was thinking that it was all luck :o)
Read how Warner pushes his clients' videos to viral marketing success.
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Thinking of a Freebie Giveaway? Consider a Guidebook
Half of the year is almost over, and it is that time again to think of giveaways and freebies for your customers, subscribers and visitors. Instead of giving them a tshirt, keychain or pens (again), why don't you prepare a short guidebook or booklet that offers tips? This is the advice of Jonathan Kranz in his brief article in the newest edition of Direct Magazine.
According to Kranz, a "reader-friendly 14-to-24-page booklets offering advice and recommendations — can turn the freebie into another channel for your company's integrated marketing effort."
For this to work and you to come up with a booklet that will be appreciated by your customers, you need to:
Come up with ideas of what to write. One great content would be to list down your recent customer success stories — if you are a search engine specialist, think of clients who saw significant improvement in their traffic after using your services. List why these clients became a success. Use the power of numbers. For some reason, people respond to numbers — e.g. "10 Secrets to Success;" "30 Tips to Improving Your Web Site Traffic"Make your content look interesting. Don't write an essay. Break your ideas into digestible pieces, with customer testimonials thrown in between. Conclude with a strong call to action. Ever notice that those white papers companies often publish are merely a less subtle form of advertisement? Well, this booklet has the same goal — to provide information to customers while at the same time reminding them of what you can do to help them.
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Resource for Inventors: How to Avoid Invention Scams
The United Inventors Association , a non-profit formed in 1990 to educate new inventors, has a great section on Red Flag Warnings that new inventors must heed to avoid being scammed. I've heard of so many horror stories of inventors taken for a ride, some even losing significant amounts of money and even their creation, because of these scam artists.
UIA has articles on:
Must readings for novice inventors How does the invention scam work Articles on invention promotion company
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How to Get Your Products to the Market: Dealing with Buyers
Whether you are an inventor or a clothing designer, you need an outlet for your products whether it is the retail store across the street or Bloomingdale's. Of course, the bigger the store, the greater the chances for success.
But the problem is: how do you get your products into the shelves of these retailers? You basically have two options: get the know the CORRECT buyer for each store you want your products to be sold; or hire a distributor or manufacturer's representative to do the pitching job for you. A sales rep is often the easiest route because they already know the buyers of these big stores, they have an established relationship with the buyers, and they know the type of information and paperwork the buyers require.
If you are going to do it yourself, here are some tips:
1. Know the retailer. Before even talking to the store buyers, research the store and why they will benefit from having your products on their shelves (it's a two way thing: you win when they win). Check if your target audience for the product shops in that store. Find out if the retailer is selling products similar to yours; if if they do, what are the advantages of your products over the current offerings.
2. Understand that buyers of big companies and mass retailers are often hesitant and wary in dealing with new suppliers with unproven track records. They don't know you and your products, and whether you will be a good fit for the store. In fact, most buyers prefer to deal with sales reps.
3. Anticipate the concerns and questions of the buyer. You need to do your homework well before your meeting with the buyer, and this includes having proof that your products are ready for the primetime. Buyers will want to know:
that the product is finished, including packagingwho else will be selling the productwhether you have to resources to supply their storewhether you can meet the demand for your product if it sells wellwhether you have adequate product liability insurancewhether your product comply with safety, legal, labor and other regulations (imagine the horror of the buyer if he/she approves your products and it turns out your products are produced in a sweat shop!)
4. Use tradeshows. One of the easiest and best ways to attract the attention of buyers is through tradeshows. Make every effort to participate and showcase your products in the best and biggest tradeshows in your industry. Buyers prowl these tradeshows looking for new and interesting products — and they just might see yours!
I will write more on this topic and give you more tips!
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Internet Marketing Glossary of Terms
OneUpWeb.com has published two guides that provide a comprehensive glossary of terms to two aspects of internet marketing — search engine optimization and social marketing. They compiled and defined all the terms used, and the reports can be very illuminating if you want to learn more about these internet marketing components.
The two reports are:
SEO Survival Guide (26 pages) Social Media Survival Guide (14 pages)
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How to Use Videos to Boost Your Ecommerce Sales
There's no doubt that online videos are growing in popularity, led by the video sharing site YouTube. The key question for website owners and marketers, particularly those selling online, is: how do we use videos to boost sales of our website?
I suggest you read our newest article “How to Use Video and Rich Media to Drive Online Sales and Loyalty" for ideas on how online videos can be used to improve conversion and sales. The article also discusses how other sites, mostly the big boys, use these videos on their websites. The article also provides some tips on how you can leverage YouTube to market your products.
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Money Saving Tip: Sell or Upgrade Your Office Equipment
If you need to dispose some of your office equipment items and don't want the hassle of selling these items in Craigslist.com or eBay.com, check out NextWorth.com http://www.nextworth.com .
NextWorth.com accepts various items such as Ipods (they're actually very big on Ipod and focuses mostly on this item), cameras, laptops, computer, networking equipment, PDAs and blackberrys, audio and video equipment even art items. The site has an online calculator that can help you assess the value of your items. You can use the calculator, or contact them directly. Once your items are approved, the company will send you a prepaid box to send your items and NextWorth.com will send you the check in about 2 weeks.
If you are in the market for second hand equipment, NextWorth.com sells the items they bought from others so you may want to check that out as well.
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How to Earn from Your E-Newsletters
Newsletters are a popular and profitable way of increasing your advertising revenues. Aside from your main website, newsletters offer advertisers a different opportunity of reaching your target audience.
To create a profitable newsletter, you need to think through three important elements:
What is the editorial content of your newsletter?Who is your target audience and what is your target circulation?Who are your potential advertisers?
The first step is to think of your audience — who they are, what do they need, and how you can engage them. You need to think of what type of content they would most want to receive from you and the frequency they will receive it. It is also important to think how your newsletter will be different from your print or online publication: will the newsletter have an all-original content that will not be found in your website; or will it merely announce the latest on your website?
If you want to utilize your newsletters as an advertising source, you goal is to have an engaged readership as these are the people who are more likely to be more interested in the products featured in your newsletter and click on the ads.
The next step is to think of what advertisers would want and what type of information you can give to convince them that your newsletter is the right advertising vehicle for them. Typically, advertisers will want to see the following metrics initially:
Reach - how many subscribers are receiving your newsletter?Demographics - who are these subscribers and whether you have any profile of them?Response - what is your deliverability, open and click through rates?
After buying an ad space with you, advertisers will now turn their focus on conversion rates and how the leads gathered from your newsletter are developing for them.
Turning your newsletter into a cash cow is not a simple task — it requires a lot of thought and planning. But a newsletter that delivers what the subscribers want and what the advertisers want is a winning combination that can lead to a healthier bottom line.
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Borrowing Startup Capital from the Bank: What to Ask Your Banker
If you are thinking of getting a business loan from a bank, it is always best to request for an appointment with the loan officer or bank manager and ask about their criteria for giving loans. The more informed you are of what they want and what they are looking for in a loan application, you can boost your chances in getting that much needed loan.
Here are some questions you need to ask your banker:
What do you need to see and what do you want me to give you to increase my chances of getting the loan? What are the most important factors I need to show to qualify for the business loan?
What have been your experiences in lending to this industry? Is this an industry you consider to be too high risk? Many conservative banks still look at home business (more so if home business online) to be too high risk that they will not lend to this sector — which means your chances are already very slim.
What types of collateral do you want me to provide? What assets do I need to show? What if I don't have any collateral?
What do you want to see in my business plan? How detailed do you want me to be in the business plan? (some bankers will just read the executive summary)
What are your loan products and can you provide and compare their features? Which loan product would be best suited for my situation?
Ask this if you have no management experience or experience in running a restaurant before — How important is having prior experience in the industry? Would it help if I bring into my management team more experienced people than myself to help me run the business?
I suggest you read the articles Twelve Tips for Getting Your Bank Loan Approved and Thinking of Getting a Bank Loan? Do Your Homework First! to help improve your chances in getting that business loan from the bank
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How to Succeed in Network Marketing
We have never really focused on network marketing here at PowerHomeBiz. But according to the Direct Selling Association, 54 million entrepreneurs worldwide are involved in network marketing, otherwise known as direct selling and multi-level marketing. In the US alone, about 175,000 people start a network marketing business every week.
If you are involved in network marketing or thinking of going to this route, I suggest you get a copy of the newly released book “Be a Network Marketing Superstar" by Mary Christensen. It is is full of tips on how you can succeed in this increasingly competitive space.
According to the author, there are six core skills you need to be a network marketing superstar:
1. Scheduling. Your planner is key to your business — you need to see it full of bookings and appointments. Otherwise, your business is in jeopardy.
2. Selling. Of course in this business, your income will depend on how much product you and your recruits sell.
3. Recruiting. This is a critical skill you need to master, as you cannot succeed until you learn to promote your business effectively and recruit the right people.
4. Building Relationships. This is just about the 80-20 principle that says that 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers. It is hard to find new customers so you need to make sure that you can maximize the revenues from your customers.
5. Mentoring. Your success depends on the success of people you recruit - and that means you need to give your recruits quality support and training they need.
6. Managing. As your business grows, you need to learn to juggle several things at once and make various decisions. You need to have the right management skills to succeed in network marketing
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Earning Money While Using Premium Content
I wrote about Mochila as one of the places where you can earn money through syndication of your articles
Mochila has another product that allows you to use content from their member publishers such as Associated Press, Woman's Day, American Profile, among others — and then earn money from it. The product is called AdMatch, and you can select the type of content you want from their list of premium publishers that you can put in your website. Mochila will serve ads on that page, the revenue of which will be divided between you (the republisher of the content) and Mochila.
The product is like publishing RSS feeds from news and other sources on your website, except that you're getting compensated for putting the content in your site. So as a site owner, you get the benefit of using quality content, as well as earning from that content.
Read about Mochila’s AdMatch program and start adding to your online revenue sources.
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How Small Businesses Can Succeed in the Catalog Business
Catalog Success Magazine has an interesting post on how a small business can play with the big boys — and win — in the catalog business. Here are some of their tips:
The key to success is “unique product, unique product, unique product.” Protect your unique products via copyrights, trademarks and patents.Develop efficient operations, even considering outsourcing if you cannot efficiently handle manufacturing in-houseTest at least one thing — lists, covers, even trim size — on every mailing.Set high goals and act like a big guy, to become one. Start by assembling a talented, competitive team that shares your values and work ethics, then put the team first and owner’s profits second by sharing the rewards through promotions and great benefits. Avoid me-too products and make sure you understand your products’ benefitsAlso avoid excessive backordersDo not skimp on customer service. Stick to a narrow niche that lets you target a core of loyal customers with unique products.
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How to Start an Online Magazine — and Earn Revenues from the Site
If you are going to start an online newsletter, you can choose these business models:
1. Subscription based model = you charge a membership fee whether monthly or annual to read and subscibe to the newsletter. Be sure to have really compelling and unique content that others will not be able to get for free with your newsletter.
What others do is to give a free sample or teaser of the content — e.g. the first 2 paragraphs of an article — and to read more or access more content, the visitor has to subscribe and pay.
There are several shopping cart systems that allow for memberships like this wherein you will automatically flagged when a membership payment is due and to ensure that the subscriber is not giving away the password/username to others
2. Advertising based model = this basically means your entire content is free for all. Advertising can either be
cost per 1000 impressions or CPM wherein you are paid for every 1000 visitor that sees the ad cost per click or CPC where you get paid everytime someone clicks on the adcost per action or CPA where you get paid everytime a predetermined action happens (e.g. sale, qualified lead, etc) There are several ways you can earn money from advertising:
a. Join an advertising network. Advertising networks are organizations that aggregate Web sites that offer advertising space, and sell banner ads (and other advertising options) across them. Traffic requirement is often a minimum of 5,000 monthly impressions, although many do not accept sites hosted by free page services.
Burst Media http://www.burstmedia.comFastclick (ValueClick). http://www.fastclick.comAdvertising.com. http://www.advertising.comTribal Fusion http://www.tribalfusion.com b. Participate in contextual advertising networks. Contextual advertising are text ads delivered based on the content of the web page using an automated system.
Google Adsense https://www.google.com/adsense/Yahoo! Publishing Network (currently in beta and available to US publishers only) http://publisher.yahoo.com/ Intellixt http://vibrantmedia.com/site/web_01a5.htm Quigo Adsonar http://www.quigo.com/adsonarexchange.htm IndustryBrains http://www.industrybrains.com Commission Junction Evolution http://www.cj.comKanoodle Brightads http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.htmlClicksor http://www.clicksor.com/affiliate_programs.php Contextweb http://www.contextweb.com/ Bidclix http://www.bidclix.com/ Bidvertiser http://www.bidvertiser.com/ c. Sell advertising for your site directly. This is admittedly a more difficult route for a small business site wanting to earn advertising revenues. But hey, as they say: "no pain, no gain!"
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How to Start a Consignment Store Business
The Washington DC area has a very thriving second hand or consignment market. With plenty of foreign service personnel living in the area, shopping in the consignment stores can yield one-of-a-kind pieces from various parts of the world. It's always a thrill to find great and unique pieces of items from consignment stores that you won't find in the department stores.
So how do you join the fray and start your own consignment store? I've found several resources on the Web that can help you start your own consignment business:
The WEBworks Consignment Store "How To" Manual Getting Started in Resale Thrift Store Safety Checklist (can help you decide on what products to accept in your resale store) How Do I Start A Consignment Shop? Rags to Riches (a success story of a woman who started a consignment store)Also check the website of the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops http://www.narts.org/ as they have publications catering specifically to those who are thinking of entering this business as well as those already running their own resale stores
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How to Build Profitable Events for Your Business
Big publishers such as Ziff Davis, American Business Media and others have been conducting events such as trade shows and seminars as an additional revenue stream for their businesses. In fact, Publishing Executive Magazine reports that trade shows have overtaken business-to-business media's print revenue in 2006, accounting for 36% of the industry's revenues.
Many small businesses are following suit and are also conducting seminars, conferences or trainings, and finding these events to be a profitable source of revenues.
So how do you build profitable events for your business. Publishing Executive Magazine in its May 2007 issue offers a number of tips from developing content, pricing, picking the location and more:
Be prepared to struggle financially and logistically at the start - to reduce risk, carefully gauge customer interest and plan accordinglyTo maximize attendance, focus on irresistable content and speakers as having these two elements are the best way to draw audiences. Avoid turning your seminar into one big product pitch as that can turn off audiences.The education benefit is your best bet to lure audiences to the eventStrike a balance in pricing: too high a price can scare off potential attendees while too low a price could suggest a lackluster event and result in poor return on investment. Price can be anywhere from $50 for a small 1-day event to as much as $2,000 for a 3-day event.Sponsorships could be key and where the big dollars will come from. The price the sponsors pay will depend on the level of interaction they want with the audiences - from extensive exposure such as speaking opportunities, access to the audience database and information, to more limited participation such as tabletop displays.Expect Murphy's Law: when something you think will go wrong, they will go wrong — from hotel reservations to location to getting pitted against a bigger event to disappearing speakers. Be prepared for any eventuality and always have a backup plan.Location matters - consider where your audience typically are (e.g. you won't schedule a seminar attended by government employees in Las Vegas when most of them lives in Washington DC). Make the location easy and accessible to attendees.
When thinking of running an event, your number one goal should be fulfilling the needs of your customers.
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Earning Money from Focus Group Discussions
If you want to earn a little extra cash, you can try joining focus group discussions where you can earn anywhere from $20 to $200 per session.
Sounds too good to be true? Focus groups are real — they exist and are not a scam. I used to work for a market research company early on in my career, and I can vouch that focus groups are real, and that participants are often given cash to compensate for the time and effort they spend participating in a focus group discussion.
What is a focus group? Focus group is a qualitative marketing research technique where a small group of participants selected from a broader population is gathered and interviewed. A trained facilitator leads the discussions and the goal is to solicit for opinions and emotional responses about a particular subject.
The question of course is: how do you find opportunities to participate in focus groups?
One way is to contact market research companies in your area, and ask that you be included in their database of potential focus group respondents. You can use the yellow pages to get listings of market research companies in your area. An easier way is to check market research directories such as Greenbook.org http://www.greenbook.org/ which has a searcheable database of focus group facilities per state ; or click on their link on Focus Groups - Recruiting.
Another way is to use sites such as FindFocusGroups.com http://www.findfocusgroups.com/ — a site started by Danny DiGiovanni who got hooked on focus groups but found it hard to search for similar opportunities. He searches the web for focus groups opportunities, from Craigslist ads to sites such as FocusGroup.com, and puts them together in his site.
Participating in focus groups is not something that will make you rich, but enough to give you some extra cash in your wallet. It is also very educational in terms of knowing upcoming products, or even learning what others think of a topic you are interested in. Plus, they often give free food :o)
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How to Earn from Stock Photography
If you are an amateur photographer or simply someone who loves to dabble in photography, you may be able to earn money from your images. The business of stock photography has grown significantly on the Web, which in turn has allowed photography enthusiasts to find a marketplace for their images.
If you have good images, you can easily earn anywhere from $300 to $1,000 a month. Here are some places where you can sell your photos and earn money from them:
Shutterstock = one of the most, if not the most popular micro stock photography sites on the Web today. Some photographers earn about $600 a month from this site alone. The site pays you $0.25 per download of your images, as well as referrals both in terms of other photographers and photo buyers. Alamy = as a contributor, you get 65% of the sale of your photos while you retain copyright and editorial control over your images Photoshelter = this site has over 25,000 buyers including magazines, advertising agencies and other high profile types of organizations. They will host your images, the number of which will depend on your subscription plan which ranges from free to $49.99 per month, and they take 10% of every sale you make. StockXpert = offers you 50% for each download of your photographs, but they screen the images first to ensure the quality of the photographs offered in the site Fotolia = a UK website, this site provides commission to photographers of up to 80% though the average is about 52% of the total sale price. You can choose to sell your images on an exclusive or non exclusive basis. iStockPhoto = royalty structure is 20% if non-exclusive and 40% if exclusive.
Other sites that you need to check include:
Acestock http://www.acestock.com/Corbis http://www.corbis.com/Dreamstime http://www.dreamstime.com/BigStockPhoto http://www.bigstockphoto.com/Fotolibra http://www.fotolibra.com/Photostockplus http://www.photostockplus.com/index.php
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Importance of Getting the #1 Spot in the Search Engines
A question was asked in Yahoo Answers if anyone knows of statistics that will show what percentage of users click on the top result, what percent clicks the second, and so on. I remember a paper I read a few years ago that actually looked at the behavior of search engine users and gave some data on this precise question.
The paper was written by Dr. Bernard Jansen and Amanda Spink of Pennslyvania State University entitled “An Analysis of Web Documents Retrieved and Viewed.” It was presented at the 4th International Conference on Internet Computing, Las Vegas, Nevada in June 2003. It looked at the behavior of search engine users, including how many clicks on the #1 ranked site for the keyword, #2, and so on.
Their analysis showed that it really pays to be #1 for the keyword (or at least in the first page of the search engine results) as there is a "sharp decrease in the number of viewings between the first and second, and the second and third pages of results…" As for how many clicks on each search engine results rank, their findings showed:
Web Documents Viewed Per Query
Rank = percentage who clicks
# 1 = 54.3 %2 = 18.9 %3 = 9.4 %4 = 5.5 %5 = 3.3 %6 = 2.2 %7 = 1.5 %8 = 1.0 %9 = 0.8 %10 = 0.6 %> 10 = 2.5 %The above stats only reinforce the importance of getting in the first page of the search engines for your keywords, and the tremendous advantage of getting the #1. If you have been in a situation where your page was previously #1 and then slowly slips down, you can really see the impact on your traffic as you move down the search engine results ranking. It is one big ouch!
You can find a copy of the paper at their university website
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Kiva: Lending to the World's Poor
The Internet is really reshaping lending as we know it. I just learned of a fantastic site that allows investors to lend to entrepreneurs from poor countries, where $325 can mean the fulfillment of a life long dream to start a business and hopefully alleviate one's family from poverty. The site is called Kiva http://www.kiva.org
Kiva works with microfinance organizations in third world countries such as Honduras, Tanzania, Azerbaijan, Samoa, Tajikistan and others. You as an investor can look at the profiles of these entrepreneurs needing financial support — such as Lucia of Tanzania who needs $1,000 to purchase a deep freezer for her fish selling business to Adil of Ajerbaijan who needs $750 to buy a milk cow for her animal breeding business. The stories are varied, the businesses are different , but all are looking for mini-Bill Gates who can give them as low as $25 in loan.
As an investor, you can choose to give as little as the minimum loan investment of $25 or the total amount requested. You can lend them the money through your credit card or Paypal. But you will not be lending the money directly to the investor, but through the microfinance organization that are working with these entrepreneurs in their countries. Have no fear: the money will still be given to the entrepreneur 100%; it's just that the conduit of funds have to pass through the microfinance organization.
You will be paid back in about 6-18 months. As the investor, you will not be paid any interest to your money, but Kiva and the microfinance organization typically charges the entrepreneur some interest rates (no wonder there are reports that many microfinance organizations are becoming very profitable).
If you are looking for an opportunity to do your part in making the world a better place, consider extending your philantrophy to the entrepreneurs of poor countries. And if you are living in one of these poor areas, check if there are microfinance organizations that can help get your story in Kiva.org so you may be able to tap lenders from around the world.
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Earning Money from Your Articles
I often read of internet marketers extolling the virtues of article marketing — how it is a great way to market a website, get more backlinks, more traffic, and establish the writer as an expert in the field. However, I've seen very few people talk of how a small online business actually make money from their content through syndication.
In the early 90s with the dotcom boom, content syndication seemed easier to do, even if you have a small online presence. In the pre-Adsense era, you don't have to be a Reuters or Associated Press to earn money through syndication. Companies such as iSyndicate (bought out by YellowBrix) and ScreamingMedia (bought out by Dow Jones' MarketWatch) accepted even small content providers — and getting accepted and syndicated by these agencies assures you of earning a few thousands a month.
Instead of giving away your content for free in websites such as EzineArticles.com, check first if you can generate revenues from them. Today, here are some companies that can help you earn more money from your content:
Mochila = free to join and you will set the price for your content. Mochila gets 30% of the selling price while the publisher gets 70%. Uclick = syndicates works of cartoonists, puzzle constructors/developers and gamers iCopyright = one of the leading reprint solutions today allowing publishers to earn by selling reprints of their content. Publishers pay a percentage (about 10%) of the closed sale done through iCopyright technology Associated Content = pay range is about $3 to $20 and accepts both exclusive (never been published before content) or non-exclusive (previously published). YellowBrix = top tier content providers; hard for small businesses to get accepted as a provider Suite 101 = they recently relaunched the site and now accepts freelance writer for a revenue sharing proposition. Writers earn a percentage of the income earned from Google Adsense ads served on the article pages. The downside is that they want to be first place where you publish the article, and wants the article to be exclusive to Suite 101 for 1 year - after which you can republish in other places including your website (a significant downside if you have your own blog and website)
If you know of other places that can help in syndicating and monetizing content, please let me know.
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Making Sure You Get Paid
One of the common problems of many small and home-based businesses is ensuring that they get paid for the products provided or services rendered.
I’ve seen this first hand with the lawnmowing/tree services company that we hired for our home. No, the problem is not with us :o) but in the way they try to win new business for their company.
Having worked on our property several times, our neighbor saw them and asked them to cut the branches of the trees in their property. The business owner, Vicente, immediately summoned his men to work next on our neighbor's yard. Given that the lawn mowing/tree cutting business is highly dependent on word of mouth and referrals, Vicente was really hoping that he would be able to get new accounts in our neighborhood (we were their first clients in our area). So they willingly cut some of the tree branches, worked on the lawn and planted grass seeds — apparently, on the work-now-pay-later scheme.
Two weeks later, Vicente told us that he hasn't been paid yet by our neighbor. Everytime he knocks on the door — even with the presence of several cars in the driveway indicating someone's home — no one opens the door for him. He visited several times, and always the same thing — he can't collect because he cannot get anyone to open the door for him.
So how do you avoid this problem?
In Vicente's case, he needs to stop working on a new account pronto without any written contract and a downpayment. In our case, he worked on our property immediately when my husband first saw him driving in our neighborhood in his business truck — without pay! Same thing with what he did with our neighbor. He asked for payment from us only in his third visit (and we did pay him!). Lucky if all his customers are like us who will pay when asked to pay — but if he's got more deadbeat customers, then it could spell real trouble to his small-scale operation.
As a small business owner, you need to realize that completing a job and collecting on the payment for a job or product can be two different things. Significant amounts of receivables can lead to cashflow problems, which can spell the end of a business in some cases. There's also the hassle of going through the process of collecting (especially in Vicente's case where he had to drive to the customers' homes to collect). Other suggestions to ensure you get paid and improve cashflow include:
Always have a standard payment form with you, especially if you are not expecting a sale. In Vicente's case, when the neighbor talked to him wanting his services, he should have with him in his truck a payment form detailing the services he will provide and the amount the neighbor needs to pay. It is always better to have something in writing than just plain verbal agreement (some folks conveniently have amnesia when the collector comes!). Send an invoice on the same day. If you closed the sale today and the goods are already on their way, or even if you did part of the services required, do not let the day pass by without sending your client the invoice. Make your invoice clear and easy to understand. Make sure that your invoice does not contain any terms unclear to the customer. If the customer wants certain information on their invoice to make it easy for them to understand what is expected of them, accomodate their request. Offer a discount for paying ahead of time. If your standard payment terms is 50% down and 50% after the service has been done, offer to lower your price anywhere from 10-20% if the customer agrees to pay 100%. Or if they preorder your services for the next month or so. Make sure you cash checks immediately. It took Vicente more than a week to cash the check we gave him!
For more ideas on how to make sure you get paid, read our articles How to Manage Cash Flow Effectively and Making Sure You Get Paid
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How to Build a Successful Information Website
I know a lot of people who are lured into creating an information website, whether a blog or a website itself. They've heard stories of people making good money just by serving ads or offering other people's products.
True, there's a lot of money that can be made by simply putting up content on the Web. However, with billions of sites out there and lots of information on every imaginable topic, the question is always how will your site rise above the noise?
Here are my tips to a Yahoo Answer user when she asked this same question:
1. What sector do you want to focus on? "Information website" is a very broad term, and it could be anywhere from information on how to manage your personal finances to breeding animals to online marketing. The first step is to determine what sector you want to focus on and what unique perspective you can offer in that sector.
2. How will you monetize your website? How do you want to earn from the site? Will you earn from advertising? Will you offer a paid subscription content? Will you be syndicating the content?
3. How will you create the content? Will you write the content yourself? Will you pay writers or buy articles? Will you just use those articles in free article submission sites such as Ezinearticles.com that thousands of other sites are already using? Or will you let your visitors create the content for you?
If you want an information website, start with the basics first and think of what type of unique information you can offer — or if you want to do information that thousands of other websites are already doing, what is the unique angle you are going to explore? If your site has no value, it will just languish as one of the billions of sites with hardly any visitors and no income
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How to De-Risk Your Business when a Competitor Arrives
In my post yesterday on how you can survive the arrival of a tough competitor, the book "The Upside: The 7 Strategies for Turning Big Threats into Growth Breakthroughs" by Adrian Slywotzky offers some questions you need to ask to help you fend off this competitor:
1. Do you have an early warning system to help you find out if a competitor is coming in to your space? You can gather information from your own customers, suppliers, employees (if any), distribution people.
2. If the competitor is already operating in your space, have you taken the time to analyze your own operations with that of the competitor? What are the advantages of this competitor?
3. How can you now differentiate your business from that of the competitor? What assets do you have — whether tangible such as products or intangible such as customer loyalty — that this competitor would find hard to match?
4. The most difficult question is how can you change your business to outcompete this competitor?
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How Small Businesses can Survive in a World of Giant Retailers
One of the greatest fears of many small business owners is the arrival of Wal-Mart in their areas. In fact, in many areas, communities are even protesting the arrival of this giant chain to demonstrate support to the communities' mom and pop stores whose existence may be threatened or jeopardized.
We have previously written about ways small businesses can compete with the big boys
Small Business Survival in the Midst of Giants 10 Ways Small Businesses Can Compete With the Big Boys You’re Small — Use It to Your Advantage! Competing with the Retail Giants
The new book "The Upside: The 7 Strategies for Turning Big Threats into Growth Breakthroughs" by Adrian Slywotzky looks at the various threats affecting businesses (big and small). We've published an article of the author based on the book entitled “How Precarious is My Business Model?" that talks of the seven risks that every business needs to anticipate.
In one chapter, the author discussed how businesses are competing against Wal-Mart. He specifically discussed the strategies employed by Target that have enabled it to thrive in a world dominated by Wal-Mart. Well, Target may not be a small business, but the strategies it employs to compete with Wal-Mart can serve as important lessons for small businesses. These strategies are:
Play a different game: define a different customer base, product mix, brand image, and business model from that of the competitorStreamline the system: minimize fixed cost and maximize efficiences to reduce financial riskPursue non-overlap: look constantly for ways to differentiate your product and service offerings fron those of the competitorGet stylish on a budget: partner with high fashion brands that are temporarily available at reasonable pricesBuild buzz to get customer attention out of proportion to your company's scaleUse technology and rigorous employee training to hone unbeatable service
The only way another business, particularly a small business, can fight Wal-Mart or other big competitors is making sure that it creates its own area of non-overlap. Find its niche, focus on that area and really serve that segment well. Invent a different game.
If you think you are facing a seemingly unbeatable competition, the author advices to simply take a look at how others in your situation are doing what you think is impossible — thriving against the heavyweight.
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Marketing to Tweens
I have a four-year old son, and even at this early age, he already understands the joys of shopping. When we go to the mall or a store, he insists that he buy something (he doesn't always win, but he definitely tries). He feels that he is entitled to buy anything he wants and I can imagine that this growing consumerism will only grow worse as he gets older.
And marketers know this. Marketers are trying to reach younger kids, getting them hooked early to their products and brands. USA Today had an interesting piece on how marketers are reaching out to the tweens market, particularly girls. Tweens, or those kids age 7-14, have significant influence on what their parents buy and by themselves already have spending power.
PRWeek magazine listed five facts on the tween market:
WonderGroup reports that kid influence on items bought for them is in the 80-90% range, with the highest influence on DVDs and music.According to Alloy Media and Marketing, tweens independently spend $30 billion, and they influence an additional $600 billion of family spending.Of the 26 million tweens in 2009, iGilliotResearch forecasts that 4 milion will be using their own cellphones, according to a previous Businessweek articleYankelovich Youth Monitor reports that 72% of 6-to-8 year olds and 56% of 9-to-11 year olds ask their parents to buy thing they seee in TV commercialsAccording to McNeal and Kids Youth Marketing Consultants, children are able to recognize brands from the age of about 18 months.
If you are looking for a growing and increasingly significant market, consider the tweens market. Parents will resist, but children's persistence can be amazing at times.
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Making a Leap of Faith and Starting a Business
I've met a lot of folks who have long thought of starting a business, yet never had the opportunity nor the time to actually start it. Some just talks and talks about wanting to start a business yet never could find the time to squeeze it in their current lives. Others seem content to put their dreams in the backburner of their lives.
My colleague Lyve gave several tips on how to make that giant leap and just start the business. Read her article “Making The Leap Of Faith And Starting A Business"
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A Peak into the Marketing of a New Product
I am a chocolate addict, and I need to eat chocolates every day. I eat not one or two, but three or more bars (not just small pieces) every day. The only times I lay off chocolates are the couple of weeks before my glucose tests during my pregnancies.
So of course, when one of my favorite chocolate brands launches a new product, I am all ears. Godiva has recently launched a new product called Godiva Chocoiste
http://www.godiva.com/chocoiste and lessons can be learned on how they launch this new product and work towards branding it.
The first step into launching a new product is first defining what this new product will be and how it will be different from all the existing products in the market today. Ask the question: why will people want and buy this new product?
With this new Godiva chocolates, the product concept is "Decadence Goes Mobile" and the product's tagline is:
“A tantalizing new assortment of supreme chocolate pleasures, absolutely sinful enough to satisfy anytime … Instant gratification will never be the same."The idea behind this new chocolate product is that Chocoiste is a casual, portable, chocolate treat that you can indulge while you're on the go. For me, it's the perfect chocolate to take while I am walking to the subway or during a bus ride. I actually go to the Godiva store just to buy a bar that I can sneak in when no one's looking in the subway (you're not supposed to eat in the Washington DC subway system). So I am a perfect target market of this new product!
To increase awareness and market the new product, Godiva is undertaking a combination of merchandising PR, in-store promotions, web site promotions and sampling initiatives (or what they call experiential marketing). Specifically, the company embarked on the following strategies:
Hired a double decker bus in New York from April 16 to 20 to act as Godiva Chocoiste Convoy that takes passengers from the Godiva store at the World Financial Center to Times Square, all the while handing out the chocolates to the passengersSent samplings and VIP pass for the convoy to media (talk about sweetening the media!)Hired people to give out samples of the chocolate at the Central Park in NYCreated a chocolate personality quiz in a new website http://www.areyouachocoiste.com/ after which the user can redeem a free gift certificate for free chocolates (alas, redeemable only in NY/NJ area)
To measure the success of the campaign, Godiva plans to monitor PR and media/broadcast coverage of the convoy as well as the product itself. They will look at NY sales, website hits of their specifically designed website, and click throughs from the Godiva.com homepage to the new product section.
Not many small businesses can spend money to hire a double decker bus to act as convoy for target market and the media. However, product sampling is something that small businesses can employ. Maybe not send 5,000 samples to media and people in the park, but on a much smaller and intimate scale. It can help the small businesses get the needed feedback from its target audience. Sending some product samples to the media (and even bloggers) can be a very effective tool to market the new product as well.
But starting with the right product concept and how this concept can be packaged into a tagline that will resonate with the target market is very important. This will shape the copy that will be placed on your website. Website marketing is something that small businesses can do. But I urge you to study how Godiva is handling their online campaigns:
Having a special site created to engage the target audience through the clever use of a survey — the visitor gets a free sample, and the company gets more information about their target audiencePutting a button of this new product on the homepage of their main Godiva.com websiteUsing lush photography to showcase the productsProviding option to see larger image of the productCross selling of the products with their Other Options Available in each product presentation page
Like Godiva, it is important to have measures of success to determine how the new product is faring in the market, how people are reacting to it, and what is the most effective way of reaching the target audience.
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The Perils of Cheating
A Yahoo Answers user has been emailing me for weeks asking about the contextual advertising program Google Adsense. We run Adsense here at PowerHomeBiz.com and it's an advertising program that has worked really, really well for us.
After several back and forth of emails where I explained to him how the program works and offered him tips on how he could earn more from the program, he finally said that he's been clicking on his own ads. Not just once or accidentally, but every day. In fact, he even goes to various cyber cafes in his city just to click on his own ads. He's got a new website — a site that at first glance has no value added and created merely to earn from Adsense. No wonder he complains that his site does not get any traffic.
I patiently explained to him that he needs to stop as Google will eventually catch his cheating ways. He persisted, even arguing that he goes to several cyber cafes, not just one per day, so the IP address changes.
This morning, he emailed me saying that Google kicked him out of Adsense because of invalid clicks, and that I was right all along. I couldn't pass up the chance to say "I told you so."
I can understand how the prospect of earning money simply by clicking on own ads can push a publisher to the "dark side" and click on their ads themselves. There's the lure of easy money. Or merely to check whether the program can indeed earn money for the publisher. Just monitoring the types of questions in Yahoo Answers regarding Adsense shows that many are clicking on their own ads.
However, be prepared for payback time. In Adsense case, the dreaded "you've been booted" from the program email. The main responsibility of advertising programs is to their cash cow — the advertiser. And they need to protect the integrity of their program, part of which is to ensure that publishers are not generating invalid clicks for the purpose of inflating their earnings.
I told this Yahoo Answers user to forget about Adsense, and simply apply to other programs. But always to remember the lesson from Adsense — that he can get kicked out if he cheats again.
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Surviving the Zoning Laws
One of the perils of running a home-based business is running afoul of the zoning laws. Worse, the zoning officials can force you to close down your business. Sounds unreal? It may be so, but there have been many instances when home businesses have been forced to shut down because they were found to be in violation of zoning restrictions.
Zoning laws are designed to preserve a neighborhood's residential character and thereby maintain property values. Some zoning regulations are stricter than others. In some areas, home businesses
Could operate only on a part-time basis. Are limited in terms of the floor space designated to the business (in some areas, home businesses cannot take up no more than 250 square feet in a house) Have limits on the amount of car and truck trafficProhibits outside signs; or if allowed, sizes and placement of signs are carefully monitoredHave restrictions on the number of employeesHave restrictions on the allowed number of customers per hourand many more
Cheltenham Township in Pennsylvannia has a detailed list of what can a home business do and what it cannot, and as you can see from their zoning laws – it is very detailed (and yes, restrictive.)
So what can you do to make sure that you don't run afoul of the zoning laws?
When registering your business, take time to ask about the zoning restrictions for home businesses so you can be aware of what you can, and cannot do.If you are thinking of buying a house into a community and you are already running a home business, be sure to check the zoning restrictions before you close on the property. Neighbors can be powerful allies — or enemies. They can report you to the zoning board and complain about the traffic or the comings and goings of people in your house (can you imagine if they complain that you are a drug dealer because of the constant stream of people and they do not know that you are a consultant working from home?) Get their support early on; even be open to them as to what you can do. If you have a lot of pickups and deliveries, consider having an alternative location such as private mailbox service.
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Business Idea: Starting a Personal Chef Business
If you like spending time in the kitchen and cooking for other people, you may want to consider starting a personal chef business.
Personal chefs prepare personalized meals typically in the homes of their clients, then package it and prepare detailed instructions for reheating. Cheaper than private chefs, they are in high demand in urban areas by families who wish to spend more time together, young professional couples or singles who enjoy eating tasty meals without the hassles of cooking.
To succeed in this business, you need to have the following skills:
superb culinary skillstime management skillsgreat in budgetingsuperior customer skills
Here are some great resources on how to get started as a personal chef:
American Personal & Private Chef Association http://www.personalchef.com/United States Personal Chef Association http://www.uspca.com/Personal Chefs Network http://www.personalchefsnetwork.com/Hire a Chef http://www.hireachef.com/
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Tips on Negotiating from a Successful Real Estate Entrepreneur
I just got the book "The Peebles Principles", a first person account of R. Donahue Peebles — head of a real estate development company The Peebles Corporation who made his fortune from scratch. He made his mark in Washington DC area, but his crowning achievement was the establishment of the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza, which became the first African American-owned resort in the U.S.
Peebles’ book is surprisingly very informative with lots of tips on how could one start wheeling and dealing in the real estate world. Peebles may not be as well known as Donald Trump, but his book has a breath of freshness and believability that Trump's books often lack.
Some of Peebles tips on negotiations and running a business include:
Don’t quit even if it seems like the end, endurance in key.Don't be intimidated by better established rivals.Never stop looking for a way to win.Don't get sloppy at the end; the last five yards are more important than the first.If you cut deals with questionable parties, always make sure the documentation is thorough.In addition to thinking about how much money you can make from a given transacion, carefully consider your financial exposure. Be aware that this may exceed the intermediate cash you've put on the line.Maintain political relationships even when you don't need them. They may prove to be good insurance in critical situations.When it comes to closing deals, delay is the enemy of the entrepreneur — unless you use it to stretch out your financial obligations.
I have written about the principles that Peebles live by based on his own experiences, and you can read it over at WomenHomeBusiness.com
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Impact of Getting Top 10 Rankings in Google
We all know the importance of getting top 10 rankings in Google for our most important keywords. But what exactly can being in the top 10 give your site?
Oneupweb.com has an interesting white paper that quantifies the impact of getting a top 10 ranking in Google. According to their study, getting on the top 10 increases your traffic and conversion. Their research shows that:
The month prior to listing in the top 10 of Google, their test site showed that it averaged 14 unique visitors per search termThe first month the site appeared in the 1-10 search result of Google on the first page boosted its unique visitors to 46 visitors per search termAfter the second month of appearing on the first page, average visitors per keyword increased to 86Read the study of Oneupweb.com
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The Mistake of Setting Unrealistic Expectations
I just watched the DVD of the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith. Will Smith's character signed a dealership agreement with a bone density scanner machine company to become the exclusive distributor in the San Francisco area. He had such great expectations about the business, which unfortunately turned out to be unrealistic. Doctors found his machines to be expensive and an "unnecessary luxury."
Like Smith's character in the movie, one of the common mistakes made by startup entrepreneurs is setting unrealistic expectations about the business.
When we start our businesses, we are often so full of optimism that things will go out really, really well. Whether joining an MLM network, or starting an online business, or starting a retail store, we dream that cash will start rolling in. We think that things will work out as we have planned — which is all good, of course, as we need to be optimistic about the prospects of the business.
Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't work out as we hope it to be. We open an online store, only to find 6 months down the road that we have not received any sales — despite spending and spending on pay per click advertising or printing tons of flyers. Or we join a network marketing program only to find that selling the products or recruiting new members is very hard to do.
How did it all go wrong? It may be a combination of naivete, or unrealistic expectations.
I remember the first time I did a business plan. When it came to the financials, my projections were off the charts! I felt confident that things will work out just as I had planned that right from the get-go, I projected that the business will earn, and continue earning month after month. Of course, it did not happen.
When I talk to other new entrepreneurs, I find that I am not alone, and it's a common mistake committed by too-eager prospective business owners. Here are some steps to avoid this problem:
1. Research and understand the business thoroughly. Read about the business from books. Search forums where other business owners congregate.
2. Talk to others already doing the business. You will find that some entrepreneurs are willing to share their experiences and knowledge. Use resources such as Yahoo Answers or forums to ask about other people's experiences.
3. Find a mentor. Go to your nearest Small Business Development Center or SCORE offices and check if you can find someone in the same industry who may be willing to work with you and help you. Or join your local business organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce.
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How to Start and Succeed in a Freelancing Career
I recently posted about the Common Mistakes to Avoid When Freelancing , and I got a number of interesting feedback with people sharing their own mistakes while freelancing.
So now I'd like to look at the flipside and offer tips on how you can succeed as a freelancer by starting your freelancing career on the right foot:
1. You must have the right reasons for wanting to be a freelancer. Everything starts with the motive: why do you want to be a freelancer? How do you see the life of having no job security or benefits? If despite all the possible negatives you still feel the excitement of being a freelancer, then you're off to the right track.
2. Determine if you have the personality and temperament to be a freelancer. To succeed as a freelancer, you need to have the right personality traits and skills. You need to have great people skills as you'll be working from one company to another. You need to have good marketable skills and creativity in promoting your services. You should have energy and determination to grow your freelancing services into a profitable business operation. Attention to detail is also a must as there is only one who will watch out for you, and that is you.
3. Research, research and research. Like any startup business, you need to learn about your target market and your competitive environment. Who will need your services? What types of clients or companies will hire you? Are there enough of these companies in your locality? Or are you going to solicit assignments from other areas through the Web?
4. Use the power of networking. Presenting yourself cold to a company who's never heard or worked with you before is not easy. In freelancing, "who you know" is a very important asset. You stand a better chance in winning the contract or assignment if you know someone from the inside (maybe from a previous assignment or work environment) who can vouch for your skills and reliability. Knowing the right people can also be your source of tips for upcoming assignments. The power of referral is incredibly important in the field of freelancing, and you can achieve this if you network.
5. Plan your freelancing career. Freelancing is just like starting a business: you need to have a roadmap to help chart your course to success. Think of it as similar to the process of writing a business plan. At the onset, consider whether you will embark on freelancing head-on and quit your job; or start slow and start freelancing while working part-time. Think of where you want to be in a year. The key is to determine whether you have the resources to tide yourself while you are still getting your groove in freelancing, or whether you can immediately find clients.
6. Hone your marketing skills. Don't you wish that assignments and new contracts will conveniently fall on your lap without you lifting a single finger? Alas, that is mostly pipe dream. For majority of freelancers, you need to market yourself to potential clients. And marketing is never easy. You need to find the companies who are looking for the services you provide and learn about them as much as you can — what is their contract hiring process, who is the decision maker, what are they looking for, etc. Be prepared to do a lot of cold calling and reponding to requests for proposals. Spend time knowing a contact in the organization, even inviting them for lunch. Use the web to market your services by creating a website. Create brochures, flyers and lots of business cards. Attend seminars, conferences and other events where your target market congregates and get to know key people. Personal networking is an important marketing arsenal for freelancers.
7. Improve your likability factor. In business, they say that it is easier to keep existing clients than finding new clients. And that is so true in freelancing. Being likeable can go a long way in making sure that clients love you and will want to continuously work with you. Give your best customer service and you will succeed in freelancing. And that means delivering high quality outputs, delivering them on time and on budget. Make sure that you have a smooth working relationship with the client by being congenial and a good communicator. I've seen talented freelancers whose clients cannot wait to get rid of them because they are just too difficult, combative and just being a pain in the neck.
8. Be a smart businessperson. In as much as you want to think that your client will keep you forever, alas that is not always the case. Have the foresight to prepare for the eventuality. Get a sense when clients are starting to think that they no longer need your services — the worst you can do is to assume that all's well in the world only to be handed a termination later that day. It takes about 2 to as much as 6 months to find new clients. Without sacrificing the quality of your work, spend at least an hour a day marketing your services.
I would really appreciate it if you have any suggestions or additions to my tips :o)
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A Lesson in Finding a Profitable New Target Market: Case of Western Union
I was leafing through my old issues of Business 2.0 magazine and I came across a 2004 article on Western Union and how it has successfully reinvented itself by going after a new market: the foreign born workers.
Western Union was at one time the monopoly national communications company, especially in the 19th century up until 1930s. During the heyday of telegrams, Western Union was the mammoth company of its times.
But as modernization ensued, the company struggled and even went into bankruptcy in the 1990s. By then, they have refocused their business to moving cash from one part of the country to the other, done through credit cards, ATMs and other forms of electronic payment. Alas, even this business failed to push Western Union back into black. The company sent its last telegram on January 2006.
Until Western Union decided to change its target market. Charles Fote of First Data Corp which acquired Western Union (then spun it off to shareholders in 2006) saw a great opportunity for Western Union: become the chief money-mover for foreign-born workers, one of the fastest growing segments of the country.
The number of immigrants in the US is rising dramatically, and while "cashless society" is the mantra of Americans used to carrying plastic all the time, cash still reigns supreme to many immigrants. And immigrants often send money back home (in cash) to their country to support the parents, families and children they've left behind. Thus, they need services that could facilitate this transfer of money. Being an immigrant myself, I know this for a fact (though I don't use Western Union because of the fees :o).
The good news for Western Union is that this market has long been ignored by most banks and businesses. And the results showed that they were right. Way back in 2003, the company earned $3 billion in fees on cash transfers and the market continued to grow as the company posted transaction growth in the international business of about 23% in the Q4 of 2006. Western Union had became a trusted household name among foreigners.
So what lesson can this give us small businesses? If you want room to grow, look for a market or a niche that is largely untapped by the industry and your competitors. Western Union found that among the foreign born workers. It may be an offbeat market, or even an unglamorous market, but see its growth potential. If the market seems to be getting bigger and stronger, then capitalize on that market. Be different, and serve that market really well and your business can find its way on the road to success.
You can find the complete article on Western Union at Business 2.0 archives
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How to Use YouTube to Market Your Business
Online Media Daily has an interesting article on how to use YouTube (which the article describes as the "Holy Grail" nowadays) to market your business. The article lists some strategies:
Always go entertainment over brand. Make it feel low budget. The higher quality the less the video tends to spread. Find something that's already accepted and back your brand into it. Make it feel chaotic. Keep it loose. Be brave.For smaller brands, engage the audiences by answering the comments made on your video
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The Challenge of Getting Traffic to Your Website
Getting traffic for established sites is hard; and the challenge becomes infinitely tougher for new websites.
One of the commonly used way to generate traffic nowadays is to use pay per click advertising in the search engines. Unfortunately, pay per click advertising is not only costly, but rife with fraud as well. According to investigative search firm Click Forensics , the industry average click fraud rate was 14.8% for the first three months of 2007!
That’s a pretty high rate, especially for a small and home-based business. Imagine if you've got only $1,000 to spend a month on pay per click, and you get hit by click fraud at this average rate, then it means that $148 of your budget goes down the drain. Sure the search engine companies are working to combat click fraud; unfortunately the fraudsters are always a step ahead of them. You may want to read Google's case study of a botnet they faced last year and how they were able to catch it in the paper “Anatomy of Clickbot.A"
Many search engine marketing companies are starting to say that pay per click is becoming a waste of resources, and enough of a reason for small businesses to consider other ways to get traffic.
In my opinion, getting good rankings in the organic listing of search engines is still the best way to get traffic. Sure, there's the ups and downs of search engine rankings where one day you're at the top and then the next you're gone, but its zero-to-low cost is still the strategy to beat.
You may also consider the low-cost traffic building strategies I outlined in the article “Free Ways to Promote an Online Business."
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Tips on Advertising Your Business
We recently had an issue with an advertiser regarding the creative for their text link. He wanted to use the phrase "Cool links" for their text ad. We told him that our audiences are not likely to respond to that text ad, but he insisted. True enough, his ad hardly got any clickthrough at all — our audiences are typically looking for ways to make money, and they are not looking for "cool links."
When you advertise, whether you are using a banner, text ad or print campaign, you have to remember that your creative must meet 3 important checks:
It must meet the readers or visitors needsIt must generate a responseIt must have an immediate impact
The ad in the example I gave failed the first check in that our readers are not looking for "cool links" which is too vague and too sketchy (how do you define cool links — it can be pictures of Angelina Jolie for one person or a funny video in YouTube for another person). Hence, the ad failed to generate a response and had no immediate impact.
The real success of an advertising campaign is based on action, so carefully craft your creative to generate the most response from your target audiences.
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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Freelancing
I know a lot of folks who are into freelancing — web designers, graphic artists, writers and others. They are all self employed who enjoy being their own boss and the freedom associated with being a freelancer. The flipside, though, is that I'm also privy to the mistakes they often make in managing their freelancing careers.
If you want to freelance, here are common mistakes to avoid:
Over-reliance on one client. When you find a great company to work for that pays well, often you stop looking for other clients. Afterall, you already have a great account so why bother embarking on marketing and bidding again? Alas, this attitude is very risky. Freelancing is a volatile occupation; and even with a contract, companies can let go of freelancers. A company downsizing for example would first fire their freelancers compared to their employees. It is always best not to put all your eggs in one basket, and get a variety of clients.
Failing to Account for the Ups and Downs of Self Employment. When you are freelancing, you need to be prepared for the roller coaster ride of self employment: some months you may have several clients, and some months you may find it hard winning any accounts. That is simply the nature of freelancing. You need to prepare for the lean times and make sure that you have income buffer to ride out those difficult times.
Forgetting the business side of being self employed. You may focus too much on the technical side of your occupation ensuring that you deliver high quality products that your clients expect. However, don't forget the management aspects of being a freelancer, and that involves billing, collection, record keeping, tax paying, even marketing your services to other clients. Dedicate a certain percentage during the day to administrative and marketing tasks, or hire professionals to help you manage these tasks.
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Targeting the Real Estate Agents Market for Your Small Business
The April 2007 issue of Target Marketing magazine has a great article on how to reach the real estate agent market. Realtors are real estate professionals who are members of the National Association of Realtors.
According to the article, the real estate agents comprise a "large market that purchases a wide variety of products and servIces and influences other prospective customers on a daily basis." Having just bought a house, I can attest to this statement — as I have come to rely on my real estate agent for her recommendation from vendors to interior decorators to painters.
What are the factors that make the real estate agents a ripe market for businesses?
According to the list management and brokerage firm Mal Dunn Associates, there are more than 1.3 million realtors in the USThey are typically independent professionals and manages their own business and as such, buy products and services for themselves, their businesses and even their clientsThey are in a position to recommend products and services to clients who are in a buying moodThey typically run their businesses from their homes, and their home offices often have all the necessary equipment and supplies particularly Internet connectionsAccording to the National Association of Realtors, the median income for realtors in 2004 and 2005 was $49,300
If you are a business that sells specifically to the real estate market, then the real estate agents are a key part of your target audience. However, even if you sell anywhere, you can also target this huge market. So what do realtors buy and how to reach them?
Real estate agents are constantly on the move, so mobile products such as cell phones and PDAs are their necessitiesThey also buy computers, office furnitures and office suppliesThey are in contact with buyers and sellers looking for products and services such as appliances, furniture, decor, and other home improvement products
If the real estate market interests you, I suggest you read the complete article at Target Marketing
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4 Step Process to Problem Solving
I just received a copy of the book “ Ignited: Managers! Light Up Your Company and Career for More Power More Purpose and More Success “ by Vince Thompson, and it is full of great tips on how to run and manage an organization.
While the book's orientation is geared towards the corporate employee, business owners have a great deal to learn from it. We've published an excerpt from the book where the author talked of the difficulties and realities of time management in the article “The Problem with Time Management"
One of the sections I like is that of problem solving. As a business owner, you will constantly be faced with problems, and the author recommends the following four-step process:
1. Define the problem = Start with a thorough information gathering process by speaking to all people involved. If your biggest customer complains that your product is starting to fail, for example, talk to the customer to learn exactly where the problem lies. Using the information you get, analyze your product to see what ways you can rectify the problem and improve your product
2. Explore the costs of failure = In connection with the problem, what exactly will failure mean? List down what this problem would really mean for your business, including financial costs, how this affects your relationship with customers as well as any partnerships. Using the example above, if your biggest customer pulls out their account, will your business survive? How will it affect your cash flow and revenues? Understanding the impact of a problem and knowing the worst case scenario can push you to act on it fast.
3. Explore the benefits of success = From viewing the negative, now see the flip side: what will happen if you successfully resolve the problem? Will your biggest customer keep their account with you? Will you be able to expand your product line if this issue is resolved? The author explains that
“Success is why we work, but without an examination and vision of success our work has less meaning. This is especially crucial during tough times."
4. Outline the solution = List the specific steps that need to be taken to solve the problem. This is the most important step in the problem solving process, and don't be afraid if you think you need help to determine the best course of action.
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5 Trends in Online Retailing Small Businesses Should Consider
If you are selling online, here are trends you need to look out for:
1. Using videos to generate online sales = The increasing use of broadband has significantly expanded the use of videos and rich media. The key now is to think how to use these formats to increase sales in your website. Video sites such as YouTube attract gargantuan traffic and could be used to increase brand awareness, and ultimately drive sales. One way videos can be used to boost sales is through the creation of product demonstrations. Marketing Sherpa has written a great article on how to create online videos for your products.
2. Using social networks to boost sales = Social networking sites such as MySpace generate tremendous traffic, including your very own target audience. Study how the big and other innovative small businesses are creating personal profiles in MySpace and similar sites and using these to drive traffic and sales to their websites.
3. Using product reviews to create more loyal customers = Amazon has made product reviews an important tool of online selling, and big sites such as Overstock.com and others are using the same technique. In a study published by Foresee Results in January 2007, they found that "shoppers on sites with customer product reviews were 5% more likely to buy online, 5% more likely to buy from the retailer the next holiday season, and 4% more likely to purchase from the retailer the next time they are in the market for similar merchandise."
4. Increasing importance of multichannel marketing = This is an area where the big boys can sufficiently harness to further their brand and reach. Customers can order at CircuitCity.com and pick up the items from the nearest Circuit City store. Customers can buy from Gap.com and return the items in their nearest Gap stores. The key is integration of the different sales mediums. There are a lot of small businesses that operate catalogs and online stores or physical and online stores — and they need to enhance the synergies between these mediums.
5. Growing mobile commerce. Using cellphones to buy items online may still be in its infancy in the United States, but it is happening elsewhere such as Japan. While there may still be a lot of technical hurdles to overcome, tapping the phones and turning them into a sales machine is something that small businesses need to look into, and how to get in on the game.
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Importance of Good Bookkeeping
The tax deadline is almost upon us and I hope that most of you have completed, if not submitted your tax documents.
In talking to other entrepreneurs, tax time is either made easy or unbearable by quality of their bookkeeping. Some have it great with their accountants who do everything for them. However, many more do their accounting and tax work by themselves — and some are pretty diligent about it and do it regularly; while others do it only before April 15 rushing to find all their receipts and listing their expenses and income. I know of many home-based entrepreneurs who don't even know how much they make in a month except what they see in their bank account!
If you will do it yourself, you need to have a system that you will work most for you.
It can be as simple as using a software such as Quicken or Quickbooks. Or it could be as easy as an Excel spreadsheet. You can also use a paper system such as any of the bookkeeping books sold in your favorite office supplies store.
Someone recently gave me a copy of the Tax Minimiser system. which is a paper based daily planner system designed specifically for keeping track of your business expenses and income. I haven't used it yet, but it seems that it is a simple enough system that even non-accountants can understand. I am hopeless with accounting and I don't even want to understand how Quickbooks work, so I am looking forward to checking out this paper based system.
Bookkeeping is one of the necessary constants in doing business — whether you hate or love it, you have to do it.
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Getting to Know You
When creating a website, one of the very first things you need to decide is what will you put in your About Us page. Should you present a more personal approach where you tell visitors who you are and how you started the business? Or should you present a more corporate facade that sounds so businesslike and professional, without revealing anything about yourself?
I don't think there's a right or wrong approach.
The more personal approach of presenting the life story of the business founder or a detailed description of how the business came about can be a great human interest story. More so if you really have an interesting story to tell, or your business has already achieved some sort of success. In fact, I've interviewed several folks and written about them both here at PowerHomeBiz.com and at WomenHomeBusiness.com because I was fascinated by their story in their About Us page. However, I'm turned off by those people who praise themselves to the highest heavens in their About Us page (e.g. "I did this, I did that, I am so great hear me roar")
On the other hand, the more businesslike approach that tells the readers what the business is all about and what the business stands for can also be a good choice for some. While not presenting a single figure visitors can identify with (typically the founder), the prospective customers and readers get a feel for the business and what it represents. This approach is also good if you want to project a bigger image for your business hiding the fact that this is a one-person business (not that there's anything wrong with that, but some find it easier to get more business if they project a bigger size).
The key to remember is that customers or visitors want to have an idea of who they are dealing with. Whether you write a brief entry or a kilometric story, your visitors want to know that they are dealing with real people who are not out to dupe or scam them. By sharing even a little of yourself and what the business is all about, you are able to bring in the needed trust from your visitors.
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The Second Life Phenomenon
One of the fastest growing online communities nowadays is the virtual world of Second Life http://www.secondlife.com . It is a 3D world where you can literally live a second life (hence the name), where you create an avatar, adopt a new name, develop your own personality, and even embark on an entrepreneurial journey!
Many big companies are already setting up shop and presence in Second Life. IBM has already acquired 24 Second Life "islands" while Toyota, Dell, Reuters, Starwood Hotels, American Apparel, General Motors and several others also have their presence in this virtual world.
But the biggest news coming from Second Life is the success story of Anche Chung (a German whose real name is Ailin Graef). Graef is the first Second Life entrepreneur who have made more than $1 million virtual real-estate dealings. Imagine that — more than a million for something virtual (it's not even real land!)
In Second Life, the members (or avatars) can buy and sell items using Linden dollars (named after the founder). Linden dollars are easily traded for U.S. dollars at an official currency site. Plus, players retain the copyright for their in-game creations. So if you design clothes in Second Life, you have the copyright for all your creations.
Sounds crazy? Maybe. But people are drawn to this virtual world in droves. The site even has a list of possible businesses that you can start, which include:
Party and wedding planner Pet manufacturer Tattooist Automotive manufacturer Fashion designer Custom avatar designer Jewelry maker Architect XML coder Freelance scripter Game developer Tour guide Real estate speculator Publicist
Check it out. Me, I can't even make my avatar walk straight let alone get out of the orientation island. It will take me a while to be able to start any of the businesses, or even earn a Linden dollar. But it looks like fun
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Free Educational Stuff for Home Business Entrepreneurs
Just want to share with you folks invites that arrived in my inbox that are worth looking into:
Free subscription (digital version) to the Small Business Technology Magazine Free Webinar: China Logistics = for those of you who wish to expand to China or wish to tap the Chinese market). This webinar, to be held on April 17, will focus on the current market outlook, government regulations and opportunities for U.S. companies in two key areas relating to the China marketplace Free Webinar: Is There a Doctor in the House? How to Breathe New Life Into Your Under-Performing Customer Acquisition Programs = topics to be covered include tips on how to run a quick damage assessment on why a campaign is under-performing; how to change your offer strategy, among other things. This one's on May 10 at 2 p.m. EST and sponsored by Target Marketing
Enjoy!
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Is Your Business Successful? Replicate It!
This is an interesting problem to have: what if your business is such a success that you need new territories to explore and replicate the business in another geographical location?
One option is to franchise your business. By franchising, you get to widen the reach of your business without you shouldering the expenses for it.
However, to be able to succeed in franchising you must first be able to show that
Your business has a track record of success over timeYou must prove that you have a proven concept that worksYou must have a business that offers something unique You must make sure that your business is replicable and can be taught to othersYour business must be profitable
The last point is very important. Afterall, if you franchise your business, you will require your franchisee to pay you royalty fees anywhere from 15 to 20 percent. For a franchisee to be able to pay you the royalty fees — and actually earn over and beyond the fees — your business should provide returns more than those percentages. Otherwise, no one will buy your franchise and your existing franchisees will be very unhappy.
It is important that you prepare a plan on expansion and how you are going to go about it. If franchising is the option you decide, you need to have proper legal documentation, which means franchise contract, an offering circular and state registrations.
The process of franchising will pose different challenges and many small businesses get the help of franchising consultants to help them do this. You need to find a good franchise lawyer to help draw up your plans. Also network with franchise organizations such as International Franchise Associations
If you don't want to franchise, you have the option of doing everything yourself. The pro of course is that you have total control over everything. The con is that you will need to invest time and resources to get everything going in another location, plus you will need to hire employees (manager to staff) to do everything for you.
Another option would be to find a strategic partner who will carry out your business for you in the new location. The partner do the work for you and you give the partner a commission.
Let me know of other expansion options that have worked for you.
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Is There a Right Personality for Entrepreneurship?
Someone asked a question today on whether there are personality types that are not suited for entrepreneurship. Immediately, one can rattle off some characteristics that may not suit an ideal entrepreneur and these are:
Those who are better off following directions, instead of creating their directionsThose who are too risk averse and loves/needs the security of a salaried lifeThose who have problems seeing through to what they startedThose who have no long term vision of what they want to accomplishThose who cannot handle the pressure of trying to make it on their ownDoes not persevere and immediately gets discouragedLack of drive to accumulate wealth and earn more than working for othersLack of specialized business ability or skills that can be translated into a successful business
However, I am curious as to what empirical studies have noted. There's a new study by the Florida International University that looked at 830 entrepreneurs over four years to see which characteristics result in failure or success of the business. They looked at 130 different independent variables such as education, prior exposure to entrepreneurship, social outlook, among others and most of them don't seem to make a difference! MiamiHerald.com has a story on the study (unfortunately, I can't find any link to the study from the FIU website)
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Marketing Strategies to Compete with the Big Boys
Many small business owners are faced with the problem of competing against the big boys of their industries.
It’s not easy going against the Goliaths; mainly because you can never outspend them in terms of marketing. These big boys have deep pockets that they can use to launch comprehensive branding campaigns dominating various mediums — from TV, radio to Internet. They can also hire the best ad agencies and public relation firms to help them reach and keep their target customers.
So what can you do? Since you don't have their marketing budgets, you need to market smarter and this means:
Accept that traditional marketing routes may not be for you — e.g. you don't have the resources to hire an ad agency or even buy a TV spot. Think outside the box and be more creative.Start with a product or service that is better than your competitor as quality will be your main selling pointCarefully target the customers for your products or services, reach out to them by educating them first — they may have heard of your competitor but not you, so you need to inform them that you have a much better product or serviceFocus on marketing approaches that would allow you to interact better with your customers, especially those that your competitors will never do
Your competitors can package an inferior product into something glossy — and with their massive budgets, they can actually make people believe that they are the standards of the industry. Without those resources, all you have is the quality of your product or service.
For other ideas on how to beat the big businesses in your industry, read the article “10 Ways Small Businesses Can Compete With the Big Boys"
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Importance of Email in Driving Customers to Your Business
Forrester Research has released a report this month entitled "Email Marketing Comes Of Age" on how email still remains an important tool for driving targeted traffic to your web business. Alas, this 6-page report is not free and costs $279 (such as high price for a mere 6-page report!)
I checked around other sites that may have had access to the report and Internet Retailer and DMNews.com among others wrote about some of the findings of the study, to wit:
E-mail has reached almost universal penetration: 97% of consumers and 94% of marketers use itAverage click-through rate for an e-mail campaign is about 5%, which is about the same as in 2003 More than 50% of those who read the marketing emails are likely to purchase the items on impulse.29 percent of all online consumers buy impulsively immediately following an offer, rather than waiting.Those who buy products advertised in e-mail spend 138% more than typical non-readers 47% of consumers who think e-mail is a great way to find out about new products or promotions are willing to pay a premium for products that save them time and hasslesWomen are more likely to forward emails to friends Younger shoppers ages 18 to 34 represent one-third of all consumers who maintain a discrete e-mail address for promotions.
While email may have lost its sheen, but it still remains a powerful tool in marketing your bsuiness online.
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Business Idea: How to Start a Lawncare Business
Spring is here again! Now is the time for replanting, preparing and beautifying the lawn, and doing outdoor gardening. But many people simply do not have the time, the inclination or knowledge to take care of their lawns that they turn to professional lawncare specialists to help them.
If you love grass and lawns, lawncare services is a perfect business for you.
What does a lawcare services do? You can offer mowing services and weed control, lawn care analysis, tree and bush trimming, putting in fertilizers, tree and shrub care. Some offer services to control fire ants and maintenance of the soil's Ph levels, among other services.
The lawncare business is one business that you can start slow and even do on a part time basis. The best thing about it is the flexibility it offers — after all, for the most part, you will dictate the schedule of the lawn care for your clients. You can work as much or as little as you want. And when you land a customer, you can service that customer even for life!
It is also a business that you can start even on a low budget especially if you are starting out. You don't have to buy top notch equipment at the start. Basic equipment that you may already have will do, and then buy more equipment as you grow your business. At your startup phase, you only need a mower and weed-eater, or make it the riding mower if you expect to service big yards. You can also hire helpers as you start getting more accounts to service.
To get started on this business, the first thing to do is to research everything there is to know about lawncare. Go to your library and check out books on lawncare. Go to your local Home Depot or other tool stores and ask about the best tools and equipment for the job. If you know of any lawncare specialists in your area, talk to them and ask them about the business (some will not entertain you especially if they see you as competitors while others will be more willing to talk).
How do you get customers for your lawncare business? Here are some ways:
Offer free services that would help you land their account such as free lawn analysis, or free tree and shrub analysis. Others offer discounted first lawn applications. The key is to entice the customers to use your service.Always ask for referrals. This business thrives on referrals, so make sure that you talk to your existing customers and ask them if there's anyone that may benefit your service. Sweeten the deal by offering your customers a discount if they refer you to somebody else.Send/Drop off postcards outlining your services to homes with lawns in your area.Network with other lawncare services in your area. Yes they are your competitors, but sometimes they will have requests for their services that they can no longer do - and they may instead give those accounts to you.Dress neatly! Customers don't want slobs to take care of their lawns. Always give your best appearance, even in the most casual of clothes. Look professional. If you can order polo shirts with your company's name and logo, that would even be better.
So what do you need in this business:
Check with your local county for the licenses (if any) and other regulatory requirements you need to operate this type of business in your areaCheck with insurance - it helps if you are licensed and bondedA system for scheduling and rescheduling jobs, which should also include arranging for fertilizer treatments and other big jobs
Here are some resources and books to help you learn more about the lawncare business:
Start Your Own Lawn Care Business (Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up) by Eileen Sandlin How to Make Big Money Mowing Small Lawns by Robert A. Welcome The Lawn Bible: How to Keep It Green, Groomed, and Growing Every Season of the Year by David R. Mellor
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Competing with User Generated Content in the Search Engines
Ever notice that user generated contents such as Wikipedia are now dominating most of the organic search results?
I don't mind seeing Wikipedia results if I need some encyclopedic information on such topics as Martin Luther King or something technical as the Index of Economic Freedom. But chandeliers? Or ovens? Or carpets?
I have just moved houses (hence the spotty posting last week for which I apologize) and I am currently shopping for many home decor items. I go to Google and see that Wikipedia is ranked #3 for carpets, #2 for chandelier, and #1 for oven!!! When searching for chandelier, I am not interested in learning about the history of chandeliers, but I want to buy one. Wikipedia is giving me useless stuff (ok, it's not the fault of Wikipedia but the search engines that give it top rankings for every term on the planet).
Don’t get me wrong, I like Wikipedia. But I am not too happy of the way it is dominating the search engines, even for searches I feel that it should not. Wikipedia gets millions of links and the sheer number of sites linking to it gives the signal (however false) that it is indeed an authority site, hence should be ranked high.
So what can small and home business owners do to beat this giant of a resource? How can your organic search efforts pay off when Wikipedia is there ready to bump you out of the first page?
Increase your pay per click advertising - if you can't be seen in the organic search results, then a way to be visible on the first page of the search engine results is to increase your search marketing. It's an additional expense, but hey, you can deduct it as a business expense next year from your taxes!
Get your pages on Wikipedia - if you can't fight them, join them! Try to find a way to integrate your pages in relevant areas of Wikipedia. There is always a section called External Links where you can put your link, although it is best if you can integrate your link into the main content. Be warned though: Wikipedia editors are quick to remove what they think as commercial links. But if you can hang on to your link in Wikipedia, you can reap the rewards of higher traffic.
Work on your links - ok, you may not be able to approximate Wikipedia's link structure, but you can still improve your rankings if you continue to get links from quality and authority sites in your niche
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New Book on Promoting Your Business via Talk Radio
I just received a copy of Francine Silverman's book "Talk Radio for Authors: Getting Interviews Across the US and Canada." I previously interviewed Francine on how a small business entrepreneur can market their business through talk radio shows http://www.powerhomebiz.com/022007/talk-radio-marketing.htm so I was looking forward to getting a copy of the book.
The book is light on tips on how to land radio interviews or how to prepare for a radio interview. But it offers a comprehensive listing of radio shows all over the country, both big and small markets, categorized by industries. In fact, the book provides the much-needed information on the contact person for each radio show, the theme of the radio show and the expertise the show is looking for in a guest.
Under the section of Business, Careers and Marketing, here are summarized versions of a few of Francine's listings:
Business of Success with Alan Rothman http://www.businessofsuccess.com = guests are typically CEOs, Preisdents, entrepreneurs (about 50-75%) Career Talk with Maggie Mistal http://www.maggiemistal.com = guests are experts in a career-related or work related fields or have a particular perspective on careers that are new and different The Entrepreneur Home Based Business Show with Paul and Sarah Edwards http://www.wsradio.com = self employment and working from home topics Growing Your Business Show with Fred Hueston and Lyna Farkas on All Talk Radio http://www.alltalkradio.net = specialties of guests include small business, entrepreneurs and home based businesses.
If you're interested in using talk radio shows to generate publicity for your business, I strongly suggest you check out Francine Silverman's new book.
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Surviving the Pricing War
The April 2007 issue of the magazine Fast Company has a very interesting article illustrating the high price of engaging in a pricing war.
Ebrahim Currim & Sons http://www.stagumbrellas.com/ of India has been manufacturing high quality umbrellas since 1860 through their popular brand Stag Umbrellas. They are a leading umbrella manufacturer in India known for the quality of their products.
Towards the end of the 20th century, however, India was deluged with cheap imported umbrellas from China. Prices of umbrellas plummeted. To remain competitive, Ebrahim Currim & Sons decided to join the fray and slash their prices, and to do so, they sacrified the quality of their products.
Instead of their hoped-for improvement in sales because of the lower prices, the company's decision to scrimp on the quality of their umbrellas backfired. For the first time since 1940s, they lost money. The company realized that sacrificing quality to lower the price turned away their customers. They turned away from their main selling point — which was quality.
The company reversed their strategy and abandoned the pricing competition. Instead they focused on innovation, expanding their products from traditional black umbrellas to funky and cool designs. In addition, they decided to jump in on the branding bandwagon and created umbrellas for companies who would pay to have their logos on the umbrellas. They even produced umbrellas with built in flashlights as well as prerecorded tunes.
Along with these premium features of course came premium prices. Even their classic black umbrellas are now priced 15% higher than the imports from China. But the company's return to quality pushed them back into profitability, and business has never been so good.
Businesses change their strategies in order to survive, and some of these strategies work while others fail. The experience of this Indian umbrella maker should serve as an inspiration to all of you trying to figure out how to compete in the pricing wars your competitors are waging. Remember: the lowest price does not always win.
Read Fast Company's blog post on this company
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Basic Steps to Starting an Online Store
Many people wants to start their own online stores, whether clothing, gift basket or toy stores on the Web. Using a clothing store as an example, here are some basic steps to creating your online storefront:
1. Define your business - The very first step is to always know what it is you want to do. This includes knowing what type of clothing business and what market will you tap (online clothing shop for plus sized women, for casual men, for babies, etc)
2. Research your market - Understand your target customer as well as know your competitors — who they are, what are they doing and how are they presenting their store, how are they marketing, are your target market buying online and from where
3. Arrange your startup capital. If you think your idea can work, then it is time to start the ball rolling. If you need to apply for a loan, prepare a business plan. If you have savings or will ask loan from your family and friends, a business plan is optional but it can help you think through the business. There are no grants for starting an online store to sell clothing
4. Line up suppliers - where will you get your merchandise. You may not be able to arrange an account at this stage without a sellers permit, but at least find out who are they. Attend clothing tradeshows so you can meet manufacturers and other industry players personally http://www.apparelsearch.com/trade_show.htm
5. Start the legal and regulatory processes - Register your business and your assumed name (doing business as), get a sellers permit from your state, find out reporting schedules for tax purposes, decide on the legal structure of your business (e.g. sole proprietorship, LLC, S corp, C corp, etc). Go to your county.
Note that some trade shows will only allow you to attend if you can prove that you are indeed part of the industry - which means you have business registration to show to them
6. Start working on your website.
Get your domain nameDecide on a web hostFind a designer/web programmer to create your site, if neededCompare and decide on the shopping cart systemDecide on your payment gatewayFind a photographer to take pictures of your clothes, if neededHire a copywriter to write your sales and website copy including the description of your merchandise, if needed 7. Apply for a merchant account in order to accept credit card payments
8. Plan your marketing strategy.
How to market via search engines and whether you need to hire someone to optimize your website and do pay per click advertisingDecide whether you need to hire a PR person to help you raise publicity for your business
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Sell — After Closing the Deal
I was leafing through my old copies of business magazines and came across a great article from Direct Marketing magazine on selling after you close the deal. Small businesses often make the mistake of ignoring or failing to communicate enough to customers after their purchase, and doing so reduces the chance to promote to your own customer base.
The article then raised 4 accepted facts in after-purchase marketing:
For an average company, 80% of its new business comes from existing customers.You are likely to get strong referrals from your customers within 3 months of their last transaction.A new customer tends to buy from you again in the next 3-6onths.It costs 5x as much to sell to a new customer as compared to an existing customer to buy again from you.
Whether you are selling online or not, it is important to specifically ask your existing customers for referrals. If you are marketing on the Web, sending a pass-along-to-a-friend offer may even prove fruitful.
Spend time reaching out to your customer base - they already know you; they've bought from you so it takes less effort to convince them to buy again from you. Remember that a sizeable portion of your profit comes to those who are already your customer.
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Where to Find Sales Representatives
If you are looking for people to represent you and help sell your products (other than the affiliate program on the Web), try going to various manufacturers' representatives association. There are a number of sales reps organizations representing various industries, and your best bet is to contact these associations for referrals. Here are some of them:
Agricultural & Industrial Manufacturers Representatives Association (AIMRA) http://www.aimrareps.org/ = for agricultural and light industry and OEM manufacturers Association of Independent Manufacturers Representatives (AIM/R) http://www.aimr.net/ = for plumbing, heating, cooling & piping products. Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (Manufacturers Rep Division) (AAIA) http://www.aftermarket.org/ = for vehicle aftermarket products and parts. Broker Management Council (BMC) http://www.bmcsales.com/ = institutional foodservice industry Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) http://www.era.org/ = for electronics products. The Foodservice Group, Inc. (FSG) http://www.fsgroup.com/ = independent food service brokers selling to the restaurant, deli and food service distributors. Health Industry Representatives Association (HIRA) http://www.hira.org/ = healthcare products except pharmaceuticals
For other groups, check out the Manufacturers’ Representatives Educational Research Foundation and their list of members
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Researching Your New Service Business
Researching and knowing the target market for your business is an important first step when starting a business. Unfortunately, it is a step that many businesses, not just the small and home based businesses, fail to do.
I’ve met many business owners who are at a loss as to why they are not earning as much as they expected, only to find that they are unclear as to who their real customers are. I've also worked with this company that was surprised when their perceived target audience did not want their product, only to find a very responsive audience in a market they never considered before.
So how do you research your market? Consider the following:
Clearly identify who will use your service. Make a list of those who you think will need your service. The target market should be measurable, and reacheable. For example, if you are thinking of starting a computer repair business, identify how big the market in your area by checking demographic information and other data from your Chamber of Commerce or Bureau of Census' American FactFinder database.
Verify if they will need your service. It is important to find out what your target market really needs, and whether you can provide it to them. Determine the real features and benefits of your service. Then interview or casually ask people who belongs to your target market. Ask them why or why not they will use your service.
Get a clear handle of what price customers would be willing to pay for your service. This can be tough for a new entrepreneur as there is always the risk that you will overprice yourself out of the market, or terribly underprice yourself. The internet has made it easy to investigate what your competitors are charging. I know others who even go to the extent of calling up competitors pretending to be potential customers in order to check their pricing. However you do it, it is important to have some pricing benchmarks to consider.
Find out the sales potential of your business. Going back to the computer repair business, check out how customers in your market actually find and use your type of service. Do they use services such as Geeks on Call whereby the computer technician actually goes to the customer's home or business? How many prefer to go to a shop and leave their computers for the technician to repair? These are the types of information you need to determine whether the business is growing or not.
Learn from your competitors. Carefully study how your competitors in your area are handling their businesses - from the way they treat customers to the quality of their service. Even better if you can talk to a customer of your competitor to find out what they like and what they don't like from their current service provider. You may be able to pick up ideas on how to ensure that your new business is a notch ahead compared to your competitors.
If you have any other ideas, please feel free to contact me.
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Tips for Ecommerce Merchants: Do's and Don'ts In Online Couponing
I am a coupon freak (at least online). While I never collect coupons going to the grocery, I always search the Web first if there are any coupons available before I start my online shopping. I also sign up for offers with my favorite stores so I get their latest deals and coupons.
If you are selling on the Web, online coupons are a must to attract and retain customers. MultiChannel Merchant has an interesting article on “Ten Tips for Online Couponing" written by the founder of CouponCabin.com. His tips include:
Create coupons that appeal to a wide audience and are simple to apply.Avoid complicated coupon codes.Higher discounts lead to better conversion rates.Coupons offering a flat rate discount in dollars, such as $10 off a purchase of $50 or more, are very popular.Create a minimum spending requirement (e.g. $10 if you spend $200)Free shipping coupons do wellOffer greater discounts to first time customers since they often have larger ordersMake your coupons user friendly or just one click of the userMark your coupon code boxes in your checkout clearly so customers can see them immediatelyLink the coupons to specific landing or category pages.
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Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life
The new book The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon joins a long list of books that provides a road map to achieve success.
What sets the book apart and makes it interesting is its use of a business fable approach. The main character, George, is experiencing troubles in his personal and business life. To make matters worse, his car broke down. He was forced to commute and ride the bus. And the characters he met in the bus from the driver to other passengers showed him the techniques to cultivate positive energy he needs to steer his life to success.
The author calls his techniques "The Energy Bus Action Plan" and these are:
Create your vision: develop a vision for where you want your bus to go Fuel your vision with purpose: associate your vision with bigger and larger purpose Write down your vision/purpose statement Focus on your vision: even visualize your vision Zoom focus: write the action steps you need to achieve your vision Get on the bus: identify who else can help you implement your action plans Fuel the ride with positive energy and enthusiasm: cultivate a culture of positive energy Post a sign that says "No energy vampires allowed": take out of the bus those who creates negative energy around you Navigate adversity and potholes: there will be challenges and you need to be prepared to overcome them Love your passengers: as you drive towards your vision and purpose, bring out the best in your employees and partners Have fun and enjoy the ride: every journey should be fun
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How to Market in a World of User-Generated Content
I have always been fascinated on how to position your business amidst the user-generated content business models that have grown in popularity in recent years. iMedia Connection has an article called “Smart Marketing in a Wiki World" that explores how businesses could behave in this wiki world of user content, while skating the fine line of "influencing the message and creating propaganda."
Here are the suggestions:
Build trust by being transparent, and disclosure is the key.If you invite user generated content, be sure to publish it even if the talk is critical to your business.Understand what the community thinks of your businessIf you don't think you can handle what users are saying about your business, it is better to sit on the sidelines than participate in user communities only to become a target of blogs
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Why Businesses Fail
The Fayetteville Observer has an interesting article called “Why Venture Businesses Fail" . While the article goes off in various directions and does not really address the question of why venture businesses fail, it raises some very interesting points, as follows:
Some businesses fail at their peak because they stop learning and fail to account challenges from global competition.Others fail because they have vague definition of their target customers and fail to account that If you fail, you can always start a new business. As Sir Winston Churchill said, “Success is moving from one venture failure to another one without losing enthusiasm.”
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Business Idea: Starting an Errand or Concierge Business
People running on tight schedules are the norm nowadays. There's just so many important things to do and places to go to, that running errands slide down the priority ladder. Even kids nowadays are overscheduled and have so much activities. Welcome to life in the 21st century.
With this context, a new business has grown significantly in the last decade — the errand or concierge business. More people are now willing to pay somebody else to do the time consuming tasks of running errands instead of diverting their precious hours to these tasks. If you think you will enjoy picking up dry cleaning, walking the dog, getting the shoes repaired, hand delivering documents, doing the grocery or even picking up kids, then this business is right for you.
Running an errand business is a perfect home business for those who wants to work at home, but not tied at home. It is a business where there is no routine, and each day typically brings in different tasks and challenges. Note, however, that this business will only work if you are in a place where people live hectic and busy lives, especially urban areas.
Here are resources on where to find information on how to start an errand business:
iVillage’s What's the First Step to Starting an Errand Service? Errand Services Portal How to Start an Errand Business in Your Spare Time! Errand Runners in Demand To get more in-depth information on how to start an errand business, I suggest you check out the following books:
How to Start and Operate an Errand Service by Rob Spina Start Your Own Personal Concierge Service by Entrepreneur Press The Concierge Manual: A Step by Step Guide on How to Start Your Own Concierge and/or Errand Service by Katherine Giovanni Ultimate Service: The Complete Handbook to the World of the Concierge by Holly Stiel and Delta Collins
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The Art of Selling Yourself
Harry Beckwith, author of one of my favorite business books “What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business," has a new book entitled You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself . The book is all about selling YOU — the most important product of all.
The book is all about improving yourself, whether you are presenting to clients or trying to make a good impression to employers. It offers a number of ideas to help propel you to the next step to achieve success. Some ideas are common knowledge and have been preached since time immemorial, but are still worth repeating (just because our moms lectured us about something doesn't mean that we actually follow it :o).
Business owners can definitely benefit from reading the book — the book's approach is to first focus on a story whether it is about the real life experiences of a person such as the actor Jim Carrey and then distills business lessons from it. The author then summarizes the main learnings from the story shared into a one-sentence nugget of wisdom.
Take for example the section on Thinking Outside the Box. He used the story of singer Paul Simon who have written songs that have become instant classics. He flourished inside his box particularly in the 60s, and then he didn't. His box failed him. He solved it by not changing his thinking but by growing his box. He went to Africa and got inspired with that continent's sound and music. What resulted was the Grammy winning album Graceland.
The main lesson from Simon's story? Grow a bigger box. Simon didn't think outside his box, but he grew his box by studying different cultures and bringing in new things.
Other important lessons from the book from its chapter on communicating include:
The real first rule of communicating: Make yourself clearer, and people will think you are an expert.Simplify. Simplify gives people certainty and certainty they can deal with.Watch your white space. Silence talks (in reference to talking and the importance of pauses; in visuals and the importance of white space)You have a brand. Make sure yours is honest.If you worry "Is my idea professional?," it probably isn't.Touting your credentials: Be careful in complimenting yourself.In terms of telling a story: Put the audience, not you, in the hero's shoes.Check out the book You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself
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Maximize Results of Your Email Campaigns
Target Marketing magazine has an interesting article entitled “Four E-mail Opportunities You Could Be Missing" that you should read if you are using emails to market your business and connect with your customers. According to the article, many marketers are making mistakes in the implementation that results in poor performance from email campaigns:
Missed opportunity #1: Make sure your message is visible to recipients.
The rule is simple - make sure the recipient can see your email. Outlook for example blocks images, so be sure that even if the images are blocked, a user can still get your message
Missed opportunity #2: Send a welcome message
One of the most common of marketers is the failure to send a welcome message when the customer or visitor first signs up to receive emails. This is a missed opportunity to drive home the benefits of agreeing to receive your emails.
Missed opportunity #3: Segment your e-mails.
Avoid acting like Big Brother who knows every move of the customer (e.g. whether they simply opened the email but did not click), but do send a reinforcement email making a stronger case of your offer.
Missed opportunity #4: Work with the right deliverability metrics.
Investigate the metrics given by your email provider, and check whether the numbers make sense or how false positives are counted. You need to work with good measurement statistics to accuratelt determine the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
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Top 10 Turn-Offs About Networking
Networking is not my forte; in fact, I am more comfortable at times just being the wallflower. That's why I am looking forward to reading the new book “Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-How for Business and Career Success" by Anne Barker and Lynne Waymon.
From the book, the authors made a list of the top 10 expressions people use when they are talking about networking that can make you cringe:
Schmoozing = this word makes networking seem so slimy and insincere. Networking is about teaching your contacts to believe in your character and competence so they want to work with you, send business your way or hire you 30 Second Commercial = while you want to "sell yourself" you don't want to appear as too much of a hard sell Pick Your Brains = this expression makes the authors think of vultures coming in for the kill; and wish that people would instead say "I'd like to get your thoughts about something."Work a Room = this phrase sounds as if you intend to work people over and take all you can. Instead, focus on listening and showing others what they can count on you for and what kinds of opportunities to send your way. Information Interview = You can make networking a way of life — at professional meetings, backyard barbeques and all kinds of professional and social venues. Tricks of the Trade = there should be no "tricks when you network; only upfront, clear offers to be helpful to each other Favor Bank = give without strings, without expectations of getting — that's the way to create a network that works Power Lunch = this term sounds too much as if you value people just for their positions Business Card Exchange = your goal is to build real connections, not "cardboard connections"Important People = give your whole attention to the person you are with. Anyone can turn out to be a valuable contact!
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Shotgun vs Rifle Approach to Marketing Your Home Business
One of the long standing arguments in business is whether to use the shotgun or rifle approach in marketing.
Shotgun approach typically involves reaching as many people as you can, such as mass marketing through TV, Cable and radio. On the Web, it means doing a lot of advertising from banners to text ads in as many websites as you can, even using high traffic portals such as Yahoo, in order to get enough eyeballs that will hopefully turn into sales.
On the other hand, rifle marketing involves targeting your audience more closely. Instead of mass advertising, you identify the publications that attract the demographics that are likely to be interested in your products. You do direct mail where you can better pinpoint your market.
Both approaches have their benefits. However, in my opinion, rifle marketing is better suited for resource-challenged small and home-based businesses. Carefully targeting your market is a better use of your limited resources so you get more bang for your buck. Small businesses cannot always afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing expenses that yield no immediate results.
Take for example a web design business.
You can definitely stand in the middle of the mall (or in the parking lot) and hand out flyers and coupons. The problem is that out of 500 flyers you've printed, how many of the recipients of these flyers are actually looking for a web designer? Chances are you may have wasted your money making all those flyers if majority of them, if not all of them, end up in the trash.
You need to adopt a rifle approach so you can target precisely those who are most likely to be interested in getting your services. To do this, you first need to identify who your target audiences are, and then and only then should you start figuring out how to market to them. For example:
TARGET AUDIENCE: Small and home-based business owners
Marketing approaches:
Get a list of small businesses in your locality and then contact them through direct mail or call themPut up a website and get your site visible to sites that attract small and home-based business owners. You can write articles on how important it is to have a good website, how you can create a great website, how sales is dependent on having a website that works. Network, network and network. Attend chamber of commerce meetings, or even Meetup.com's small business owners and home business owners groups — these places are filled with your target market. Get to know them, introduce yourself to them and let them know that you are available to create their websites. Do the same exercise for other target audiences you have in mind.
The goal is to find the best approach that will help you stretch your marketing dollars while maximizing the results of your marketing campaign.
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Will Your Business Fly? Getting Dynamic Feedback
The folks at WillItFly.com alerted me of the new wireless functionality of their website where you can afind out instantly if you’re up tothe latest standard for important business tasks. I've never visited the site before so I checked it out.
The site does a good job in letting an entrepreneur understand the thought process that should go through in various aspects of running a business — from finding a business to knowing how to launch a viral marketing campaign. A user is presented with a list (ok, make that a LOOOONG list) of questions that needs to be answered. Some questions I find thought-provoking, while some questions don't really contribute much in helping a user understand the process involved.
I was however disappointed in what you can get when you answer all those questions (they need to have a button that will allow you to check YES or NO to all). After answering most questions in the section on finding a business with YES with a few NOs, I was looking forward to what I will see when I click the button "Click for Dynamic Feedback: WILL IT FLY?" All I got was
Congratulations! You're good to go…
No educational briefs needed. Your answers indicate you are well prepared.
After spending 5 minutes reading and answering the questions, I was expecting that I would find some advice, tips or even recommended articles at the end of it all. Apparently, the site recommends some educational readings only when you answer most of the questions "NO."
But nonetheless, the site seems to be a good resource particularly if you are just thinking on embarking on starting a business. Check out the site WillItFly.com
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What to Watch Out For When Seeking Investors
Many home-based businesses often start very small, but some end up growing big enough to be attractive to private investors.
If you are thinking of looking for investors to infuse the much-needed capital your business needs, you may first want to read Inc. Magazine's article "8 Private Equity Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them" (March 2007 issue, pp. 111-115). The article warns that it is important to remember that "not all investors care about your interests — and some will do whatever it takes to close the deal." Here are the common pitfalls you need to watch out for:
You move too fast — it can be very easy to be ecstatic with multimillion dollar offers of private equity investors, but it is important to take time to think through and research the proposed deal. You don't know what you want – give a lot of though to what you want, and whether the deal being offered to you fits your idea of getting investors on board. Some will want a single big investor, while others want smaller investments from more investors. You’re not ready to cede control – determine how much control you will be giving up by accepting the offer of investors You’re not ready for due diligence – getting investors on board often involves due diligence, a process that can take months and distract you from what you really need to focus on which is running the business You skimp on advisers — select the best lawyers or investment advisors you can find to help you assess the deal, and be sure to be on top of the whole process You don't acknowledge your weaknesses — put your best foot forward, but be honest about the weaknesses and challenges faced by your business You don't do your homework — research your investors by talking to other business owners they've worked with and ask them to clarify their expectations with your business You ignore the importance of chemistry — there are people you work better than others, and it is important to determine if these investors you are bringing on board are the types of people you can work easily with
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Using Online Customer Reviews for Your Business
Catalog Success magazine offers interesting tips on how your ecommerce business can use customer testimonials and reviews, which if used properly can be powerful conversion tools:
Given that the hardest part is starting out, encourage customers to leave reviews by promoting them through contests until they become self perpetuating. Feature your customer reviews in your promotions, such as email campaigns and other promotional activitiesBuild a separate domain for customer reviews and take advantage of double exposure by linking it to your product pagesAllow customer in their reviews to include and post picturesDon't censor negative reviews as it can help you improve the products Use customer reviews across channels
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How to Improve Effectiveness of Your Press Releases
Simply sending a press release will seldom, if at all, give you any press. Sure, you can use press releases to increase your link (if the press release distribution service you use actually give you a live link), but just using a distribution service is not a guarantee that it will be talked about by the media.
If you want more bang for your buck in terms of getting more results from your press releases, it is important to do your research. You need to make a targeted pitch. Media such as newspaper editors receive a lot of press releases per day, so you need to make sure that yours stand out among the rest.
For starters, be sure that your release format actually conforms to the standard press release format. Then make a list of publications that might be interested in your news release and your product. Include local publications as well. Contact the right editor/s and send your release to that person. One great resource that can help you in your research is Bacon’s Newspaper and Magazine Directory – check if the book is available in your local library.
Our section on publicity and public relations offer several articles on how to improve the effectiveness of your press releases
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