Women Rock the World: And Not Just on International Women’s Day! |  |
- Women Rock the World: And Not Just on International Women’s Day!
- Spring Clean Your Approach to Your Business
- Don’t Retreat: Surge Forward to Succeed
- The Number One Reason SMBs Go Social Is…
- Being Vocal about Going Local with Small Business
| Women Rock the World: And Not Just on International Women’s Day! Posted: 07 Mar 2012 02:30 PM PST In honor of International Women’s Day (@womensday) on March 8, 2012, we’d like to look at the women that are shaping the small business landscape and tip our hats to them (us!).
By the Numbers Running a business is no longer a man’s game. From 2002 to 2007, the number of women-owned businesses increased 20.1% in the US to 7.8 million. These women in 2007 employed 7.6 million people. California had the largest number of women owned businesses (1 million), followed by Texas (around 610,000). Women Rocking the Globe Lauren Fisher co-founded her Dublin based social media and PR firm, Simply Zesty, when she was just 23 in 2009 with Niall Harbison. The company grew from a small business operating out of a bedroom to a 22 employee team that handles clients like Vodafone and Sony. A short three years later, she and Harbison are selling the firm to UK’s UTV Media for an initial consideration of £1.7 million. Sarah Prevette (@SarahPrevette) is the founder of Canadian Sprouter, a resource for startup founders. She was on Inc. Magazine’s 2010 30 under 30 list for her work as an entrepreneur, and has been featured in media such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Wired Magazine. Laura Fitton (@Pistachio) is the founder of social media marketing company Oneforty. In 2011, her company was acquired by inbound marketing software company HubSpot. She also is co-author of Twitter for Dummies. Rhea Drysdale (@Rhea) and Lisa Barone (@LisaBarone) are co-founders of the Internet marketing company Outspoken Media. In addition to being experts in SEO and social media, both Drysdale and Barone write and speak on their industry for well-respected media. Over at MyPRGenie, Miranda Tan serves as CEO. The PR platform has been named 100 OnDemand Software Company, as well as other honors. Tan lends her years of expertise in PR and marketing to the company. These are just a few examples of the myriad of women in small business around the globe. There are many more who deserve to be recognized. Resources for Women A rising trend — especially in industries where women have been absent until recently — is the incubator for women. Women Innovate Mobile is one such startup accelerator and mentorship driven program geared toward the mobile industry. The 3 month program, which takes place in New York City, provides marketing and technical resources for female entrepreneurs, as well as $18,000 in funding. The NewME Accelerator supports not only women, but also ethnic minorities with its 12 week program. There are also support groups, like Women in Wireless, that provide support for specific industries. This increase in women based resources signifies that there’s only more good to come out of businesses run by women. Websites like Entrepreneur’s Women’s Center and SBA’s Women-Owned Business portal provide content and resources geared toward the specific needs of female business owners. Celebrate International Women’s Day International Women’s Day is about supporting and respecting women everywhere — in every corner of the globe, and in boardrooms and the home alike. The holiday is now celebrated in dozens of countries around the world, and with thousands of events. For more information, visit the International Women’s Day website. Rocker Concept Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Spring Clean Your Approach to Your Business Posted: 07 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PST It's tough to say for sure with the crazy weather many of us are experiencing, but one thing is certain: Even it doesn't feel like spring has arrived where you are, it does feel like spring is in the air. You can feel the sense of possibility and excitement that the new season brings, and you're itching for it to arrive. And that feeling extends to your business.
Did you make New Year's resolutions for your business way back in January? Well if you didn't live up to them, it's time to let it go. Stop beating yourself up about what you did or didn't achieve. Let's start with a fresh slate. With thoughts of new possibilities in mind, here are some ideas to spring-clean your business. Get your systems going. Do you waste a ton of time every day searching for emails or files or dealing with printer problems? In the long run, ignoring these problems is costing you more time than it would to fix them. Set aside one day (or part of a day) to do what you need to do to get organized—purging emails, defragging disk drives, deleting files. Then implement new systems to keep things running smoothly. TJ McCue posts tons of reviews that can help you pick the best tools for productivity and organization. Streamline sales. How fast does your company follow up on leads? If the answer isn't "instantly," you're losing sales. In today's 24/7 sales environment, customers can find competing businesses more easily than ever, and often, the decision of where they'll buy comes down to "what company gets back to me fastest?" There's no excuse for dawdling when you've got a lead—they're the lifeblood of your business. Get CRM tools and use them (there are many cloud solutions at reasonable prices). Set a policy to follow up on all leads within 30 minutes or an hour, hold salespeople accountable–and see how your sales improve. Energize your team. Retaining key people is more crucial than ever now. Several recent polls have shown that small businesses are getting ready to hire—which means your employees could be ready to jump ship if you don't keep them engaged. Get your staff excited about your company's upcoming year by coming up with creative teambuilding ideas. Hold a monthly out-of-office lunch, bowling tournament, happy hour, hike, beach bonfire, volunteer afternoon at a homeless shelter…you name it. Better yet, give your employees the reins and let them come up with ideas for things they'd like to do. Take a tablet. Tablet computers like the iPad are revolutionizing how people use computers. Rumor has it Apple is planning to make a big announcement about the iPad 3 today, March 7, so soon even more people will be getting on the bandwagon. Figure out how tablets will play into your business model. How could using tablets in your company help you do things better, cheaper, faster? (Could your salespeople use them in the field? Could your restaurant waitstaff use them to take orders?) How are your customers using tablets and how can you connect with them in this new medium? These are just four ways you can refresh your business outlook and get ready to spring forward as the economy recovers. What are you doing to spring clean your business?
From Small Business Trends |
| Don’t Retreat: Surge Forward to Succeed Posted: 07 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PST Who says you can't succeed NOW? The long-held belief that 50% of businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail within the first five years has changed according to more recent statistics published by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
According to this report, 7 out of 10 new employer establishments survive at least 2 years and half at least 5 years. The Small Business survival rate has improved from 50% of businesses failing in their first year to 7 out of 10 (58%) of new businesses surviving at least two years, and 50% at least 5 years. Looking at this, especially since 2008, makes it all the more positive and hopeful for people starting businesses and succeeding, regardless of external conditions. Scott Shane, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University and author of nine books on entrepreneurship says:
Additionally, the SBA lists other reasons businesses fail including being under capitalized, not having a bankable and marketable product or service, sales strategy and marketing plan. These reasons have always been why businesses fail, but today it makes them fail much faster. Too much competition and more sophisticated technology and business tools are necessary to succeed. I see way too many people who start businesses lose focus, give up and retreat way too early in their process. If I gave up every time I had moments of uncertainty or challenge, I would have been done 8 months into my 5 year business. I took those moments in stride and retreated to regroup then used them to surge forward. You can't succeed unless you:
Success in business is a process that meanders and unfolds - much like we evolve through our aging cycles. Are you really committed? If you don't believe in and love what you do then do something else. Are you relentlessly consistent? Build great habits, systems, procedures and practice. Personal Branding Lesson: Be More and Do More Always be refining, learning and adopting new approaches and ways to grow your brand and branding. Today, we all have to own our development, advancement and success. It's up to us to move our business in the direction we want it to go. Study and watch people who you admire and want to emulate. What are they doing? There are so many amazing businesses having great success today. Here are the 10 Biggest Entrepreneurs of 2011. Take some time to meet them and learn about these inspired people and how they didn’t retreat, but surged forward to succeed. Who says you can't succeed now? Probably you. So maybe its time to have an honest conversation with yourself? Warrior Concept Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| The Number One Reason SMBs Go Social Is… Posted: 07 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PST eMarketer commented on some new social data from Street Fight that identified the number one reason small business owners enter the waters of social media. Curious as to what it was? Are you? Any guesses? According to the data, the number one reason (49 percent) SMBs get involved in social media is to find new customers. Twenty-two percent were most concerned with their ability to target information to the right people, 16 percent were interested in bringing back repeat customers and 14 percent were hyper-focused on ROI. Really, though, what small business owners really want is new customers walking through their doors.
And if that's the case, as a small business owner, what steps can you take to attract new customers to your business using social media? 1. Be Findable Know what social networks your customers are logged into when they visit your site and make sure that you've developed a presence there. If you don't know this right now, the post linked above can help you figure it out. There are also WordPress plugins that can help get the same information. And it's invaluable information! Identifying what networks your customers are logged into when they visit your site tells you what sites you need to be developing content for, where you need to have a presence, and which sites you should be using for promotion. Why guess when your users are already telling you? Part of being findable also means making sure to claim all of your business profiles on the various social networks and directories. It doesn't matter if you plan to get active on FourSquare, your customers may be looking for you there. You want them to find the right information. The same goes for Facebook, Google Places, etc. Anywhere a customer could use social media to find you, you want to not only be listed, but listed consistently. As we've said previously, Knowem is a good tool to help you manage this process. Work smarter, not harder. 2. Eavesdrop on Social Conversations Use Twitter Search to identify "anyone know" searches that your brand can benefit from. For example, I'll often use Twitter to look for a place to get dinner, to get my car checked out, to find a place to go for Happy Hour. By doing a search for your keywords and filtering it to a specific neighborhood, you can find me, in the moment, and give me an incentive to visit your business. That's huge. But don't just use Twitter! Take advantage of Google Alerts (free) or a service like Trackur (paid & free options) to monitor mentions of your brand or your industry and give yourself the opportunity to hop into relevant conversations via blogs, forums, and elsewhere. Go into LinkedIn Answers and search for people talking about your industry or topic there. People are having conversations about things related to your brand every day on various social media channels. Go find them and listen in. 3. Solicit Online Reviews As you may know by now, online reviews and social media go hand-in-hand. Potential customers are using social media channels to seek out review information about brands to use as an indicator for whether or not they want to do business with them. To increase your authority and social appeal, every small business must become active about encouraging customers to leave reviews about their experiences with the brand. How can you do this?
These are all very little things that can have a major impact on your brand's ability to use social media to find new leads. 4. Start Blogging Your customers are in social media soaking up content and brand interaction faster than any sponge that has come before them. So what are you giving them? Are you providing them with the content they need to deem your brand authoritative, helpful, and one they want to be associated with? Or are you standing on the sidelines, mute? If you're not blogging, start. If you need some inspiration, here are 20 content marketing ideas for 2012. You can do it. And your customers will thank you for it. What's your biggest reason for being in social media? Are you getting what you're after? From Small Business Trends |
| Being Vocal about Going Local with Small Business Posted: 07 Mar 2012 02:30 AM PST Local businesses have several appealing factors over the big guys: They pay local taxes, are visible in the community, have the advantage of knowing you personally, and often put forth initiatives that benefit the neighborhoods they’re in. This is why they’re so great! Acting like a local business as a strategy, even when you’re not, could give your business the advantage. Can this work? Going LocalLocal strategies return for business. While Sizzler USA Restaurants Inc. certainly isn’t what most would think of as a small business, the chain’s latest recovery plan takes a page from small business and local marketing. WSJ Online business is local too. With the focus on the World Wide Web and the global reach it gives many businesses, it’s sometimes tempting to think that we’re leaving the concept of local business behind. Think again! It may be that a global world makes local business work better. Chris Brogan More personal, more honest, more real. That’s what many people perceive as some of the innate characteristics of small business. Here are a few other natural advantages small businesses have over the rest. Duct Tape Marketing “Popuphood”. It’s local and it’s now. Pop-up stores are here today and gone tomorrow business ventures that many view with a jaundiced eye: how can they give back to a community when they’re here for a New York minute? But here’s one approach to the pop-up phenomenon that benefits its local area. New York Times Small Business LegislationLegislation boosts local investment. One state legislature is looking at nurturing local business growth in a very simple way, by enabling local investment. Check out this story on a state tax credit and tell us what you think. Bowling Green Daily News It’s about time for small business! The guys in Washington may finally be coming around to the fact that small businesses are large players in the economy, and are worth the investment. Here’s a look at some proposed legislation that may level the playing field for small business startups. Entrepreneur Showing Your SupportJoin the mob. “cash mob”, that is. This new phenomenon, a play on “flash mob”, coordinates impromptu gatherings of small business-conscious individuals, having them descend upon beloved local small business in a spending spree to show a frenzy of support. See what it’s all about. Would you like your business to be targeted by this mob? Bloomberg Businessweek Reaping Your SuccessTaking money out of your venture. You’ve invested not only sweat but also plenty of your own money into your business. Now, times are better and you’re ready to see some of it come back. (Not the sweat, just the money!) Here are some thoughts you may want to consider along the way. You’re the Boss Doing Your BestKeeping to your vision for the future. As entrepreneurs, we all have great ambitions, aspirations for greatness or “caviar dreams”. But how do we maintain those dreams for ourselves and our businesses while struggling with day-to-day budget concerns? Here’s some good advice. USA Today Creating better business performance. Creating a small business that is productive should be job one. The key to a performance-driven company is usually about nurturing on the part of an entrepreneur. What are your plans for creating a high performance business. Youngentrepreneur From Small Business Trends |
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