Twitter Chat: Is Your Brand Helping Or Hurting Your Business? |  |
- Twitter Chat: Is Your Brand Helping Or Hurting Your Business?
- It’s Funny What a Little Spark of Creativity Can Do
- Win Old Sales with This Simple Technique
- 6 Ways Small Business Owners Can Use Slideshare
- The Latest in Small Business Financing Options
| Twitter Chat: Is Your Brand Helping Or Hurting Your Business? Posted: 08 May 2012 08:23 PM PDT Save the date and join us next Tuesday, May 15, 2012 for a Twitter chat that’s all about branding. And before joining us, ask yourself: “Is my brand helping or hurting my small business?” If this question only has you asking more questions, without answers, then you will certainly want to join us for this chat as I will be discussing common branding mistakes and providing tips to fix them. $100 Gift Card as Giveaway As part of the chat, Small Business Trends will be doing a giveaway of a $100 gift card. The gift card will be good for services at a FedEx Office store near you. To be entered into the giveaway here's what you need to do. Just tweet out the following, filling in the blank with what a statement about the value of a professional logo. At the end of the chat we’ll randomly choose from among the best responses received: Q: A professional looking logo … Example answers: - A professional looking logo gives customers confidence in your company’s professionalism. #FedExOffice - A professional looking logo says your company cares what customers think. #FedExOffice Your answer needs to be no longer than 140 characters, and must include the hashtag: #FedExOffice This Twitter chat is part of the FedEx Office® ”FedEx Office Our Office Is Your Office Tweet Chat Series.” The discussion will be moderated on the @FedExOffice Twitter handle and the chat will take place under the #FedExOffice hashtag. Submit your questions in advance of the Twitter chat to the @FedExOffice Twitter handle, either via direct message or in a tweet, using the #FedExOffice hashtag. And we will be there to answer them! Be sure to join us: TOPIC: Is Your Brand Helping Or Hurting Your Small Business? DATE: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 TIME: 1:00 pm ET (New York time) WHERE: Twitter.com, of course! Simply follow the hashtag #FedExOffice. Be sure to follow me, @smallbiztrends as well and if you're new to Twitter chats, check out Lisa Barone's "How to Participate in a Twitter Chat." Disclosure: FedEx Office compensated me to participate as a small business expert during the FedEx Office Our Office Is Your Office Tweet Chat program and write this post. FedEx Office also provided the $100 gift card. The ideas in this blog post are mine and not ideas or advice from FedEx Office. From Small Business Trends |
| It’s Funny What a Little Spark of Creativity Can Do Posted: 08 May 2012 11:30 AM PDT Leadership sets the company's direction and atmosphere, and if you fail to establish an environment that encourages creativity, then you get what you get — the status quo. Even in a hectic and fast pace setting your attitude toward innovation and creativity can still make room for your staff to toss some fresh ideas your way. But everything starts with the conversation that you have with yourself.
Do you give yourself room to think and operate outside the box?Do you socialize with creative others in your industry? Being around your contemporaries can awaken a competitive and creative spirit in you. Directing that energy, just may inspire a new idea. If your life revolves around going to work and coming home and going to work and coming home, then you're breathing the same old stale air. Stop. Go for a dream walk. Go help your mentor do something. Reinstate date night with your mate. Hang out with your kids — they'll love you more for caring about what they care about, plus inspiration may find you on the way home. Children have inspired all kinds brilliant and profitable business ideas including Jibbitz — the little inserts that kids use to decorate their crocs. Do you have wild and mad brainstorming sessions with your self?If you don't give yourself room to be creative, then it's hard to pass on what you don't have. Pull out that big over sized pad and start writing down your ideas. I don't care how wild it is, put it on the board, you can filter later. For right now, just let it flow. As Anita Campbell, Founder of Small Business Trends, states in “Are Your Employees Scared To Innovate?“:
And how you spend your time can play a big roll in your creative process. John Mariotti gives some key advice in “When Your Career Is Over, But Your Life Isn't.” In reference to retirement John says:
It holds true for anyone trying to shake up their status quo. Do new and interesting things centered around "what you like to do…or would like to learn." Make room for change and creativity in your own life and it will show up in your business. The by product of a creative environment is an inspired team that represents you well, even when they're off the clock. In “Small Business In America: 10 Years After 9/11“ Susan L. Reid highlights the idea that being active and visible within the community creates stability. While that's true and great for the city, that visibility is also good marketing. This is more than staging events (which is important), it's real and abiding relationships within your community around causes that matter to you, your neighbors and your business — for that to happen your team has to get involved. It's funny what a little spark can do. Inspire yourself. Inspire your team. Let your team inspire each other (and you). Become active. Become visible. It's a natural return on investing in a creative environment on the clock.
From Small Business Trends |
| Win Old Sales with This Simple Technique Posted: 08 May 2012 08:30 AM PDT Selling can be frustrating. You spend hours practically chained to your desk researching potential clients and finding out the right angle to approach them. You try to make the initial contact and if you're lucky, you meet some of them in person and you sell.
But, in spite of all that, nothing may happen. You may make no sales and hear nothing back from your prospects. You fear that there's something wrong with your product, service, brand or prices. Or perhaps that it's something that you have said during the presentation. Out of shame, or desperation you move on to another prospect and start the process all over. The thing is, your sale might not be lost. Most sales don't happen during the first presentation. You need more than just a meeting to make the sale. This happens for a number of reasons:
Think of large corporations. No decision there is made without forming a committee, a number of meetings and getting a number of signatures. This might be the case with your prospect too.
And in that case there isn't much you can do. However, until you know for sure, you should assume it's one of the other 4 points above. In other words, until said otherwise, you still have a chance to win the sale; you just have to work for it a bit more. And, I have the best tool for you to do so. A Follow Up It may seem that a follow up is one of the most guarded secrets in sales. I certainly have noticed many sales experts deliberately omitting this part, or reduce it to a simple phone call two weeks after the meeting. There is, however much more to a follow up than this. On many occasions, you win new business through a good follow up strategy. Before we go any further though, let me specify what I understand as a follow up. By no means is it calling the prospect to check if they have received your promotional literature or had a chance to think about your offer. A properly conducted follow up is a means to keep in touch with prospects that haven't bought from you yet. Most importantly, you do it with the prospects absolute permission. How to Successfully Follow Up with Prospects The secret to a good follow up is getting the prospect to agree to it. Naturally, you don't need a permission to contact your potential client again, however, I can guarantee you that you won't make a great impression by doing so. Instead, get your prospects permission to stay in touch. You can do it by simply ending your sales call, if it hasn't progressed to discussing an actual project, by asking if you could: 1. Call the prospect in 2-3 weeks time (or whatever time period is appropriate in your market) to see if they would like to discuss the project then. You can repeat this request every time you ring them if there is no progress in a sale. 2. Add the prospect to your mailing list. State the benefits of being a part of it. If you offer great value, I can assure you that most prospects will have no problem with that. 3. Send them a revised proposal after a certain amount of time. This is by far the weakest form of a follow up, however it still can work for you. Just remember to arrange with your prospect that you will check if they had a chance to act on it. 4. Another great way to ask for a follow up, especially if you are not comfortable asking the prospect in person, is to email them after the meeting. Use this opportunity to thank them for their time (which you should do anyway) and end your email with a follow up suggestion. Any of the above is usually enough to keep in touch with the prospect with their permission. And all that is left to do is to simply act on that. If your prospect has agreed that you would get in touch in a couple of weeks time, ring them then. Remind them who you are and ask if they had a chance to think about your proposal, or if they would like to meet again to discuss the project further. Do not prolong the call. If the prospect tells you that they didn't have time to consider your offer, thank them and ask if you could follow up in a couple of weeks again. If you added the prospect to your mailing list, simply continue sending your newsletters. There is nothing else you can do here except for providing insanely useful advice regularly. I can guarantee you that if you send them quality information in your newsletters, when the time comes they will get in touch with you. Quite often, you lose a sale because you simply give up. By persisting and using follow up to stay in front of the prospect all the time you increase your chances of making that sale after all.
From Small Business Trends |
| 6 Ways Small Business Owners Can Use Slideshare Posted: 08 May 2012 06:00 AM PDT Did you hear the big news? It was announced last week that LinkedIn plans to buy SlideShare for a reported $118.8 million. Crazy, right? Eh, maybe not so crazy if you ask LinkedIn's Chief Executive Jeff Weiner. He did a pretty good job explaining exactly why LinkedIn would be interested in a service like SlideShare.
He noted:
Hmm, make sense, right? It definitely does. It makes sense why LinkedIn would be interested in purchasing SlideShare and it makes sense why you, as a small business owner, should be interested in SlideShare, as well. If you're not aware of all that SlideShare has to offer, below are 6 ways to take advantage. 1. Repurpose Content Assets As small business owners, we're in the business of producing content. There are blog posts, articles, PDFs, whitepapers, case studies, presentations, marketing brochures, and other items that have been long locked in the vault. Instead of letting those old PowerPoint presentations collect dust on your hard drive, upload them to SlideShare. Repurpose blog posts or newsletter articles and turn them into presentations to be uploaded. Take cumbersome PDFs and make them more accessible and embeddable. By repurposing this content, not only do you get to take advantage of content assets already in your arsenal, but you get the extra benefit of making them portable. Once you've uploaded them to SlideShare, you can easily share and embed them elsewhere. You can embed that presentation on your Web site, on your blog, on your LinkedIn profile, on your Facebook page, etc. You've already spent the brain power creating this content – why use it only once? 2. Build Thought Leadership & Brand Awareness Small business owners wear a lot of hats. Yes, we're business owners but we're also consultants, authors, and speakers. We make a living off building up our name and expertise in the industry we work in. And there are few better ways to do that than through strategic content. That's where SlideShare comes into play. SlideShare gives SMBs another outlet to create a dialogue with their peers by continually sharing expert-level content. Only here not only do you share the content itself, you simultaneously share that you spoke at a nationally-recognized event. Or you gave the keynote at a professional conference in your area. Sure, this helps pass around your talk and the content you shared, but it also brands you as a professional speaker/consultant and someone that other people seek out. This is a powerful way to set yourself apart in your industry, over time leading to increased search visibility, new clients, additional marketing opportunities, and more. 3. Boost Your Social Presence On LinkedIn & Facebook In the battle of the social networks, we're all looking for ways to stand out to our followers and brand our expertise. Integrating SlideShare into these profiles is a great way to do that. Use SlideShare on your LinkedIn page to display presentations, PDFs, and videos to add life and credibility to an interactive resume. To do this, find the SlideShare Presentations application in the LinkedIn app directory and add the application to your page.
Once you do, you'll be able to see your SlideShare presentations appear on your LinkedIn profile. More importantly, so will everyone else. To use SlideShare on your Facebook page, search for the SlideShare app, click to Sync SlideShare.net Account and follow the same procedure.
Making your presentations, white papers, and PDFs accessible to people researching you on social channels is a good way to show off your authority, build interest in what you're doing, and brand yourself as someone who is capable of speaking intelligently on a topic. The say it's easier to get a job when you already have one. The same could be said for getting clients and speaking engagements. 4. Find Presentations On Any Topic Looking for a social media policy framework to mimick? Not a problem. Want to learn the rules of corporate blogging? Sure thing. Want to know how to create a great pitch? SlideShare has you covered! SlideShare's active community base has turned the site into a huge resources for business owners or marketers looking for information or presentations on virtually any topic – whether it's business-related or not. Being able to tap into that archive can be incredibly useful for a SMB. It can help you master new topics areas, alert you to new resources, find agencies to reach out to, or even give you inspiration for presentations you're working on or for new article ideas (just make sure to give credit!). Use SlideShare like any other content repository on the Web. 5. Create Webinars Want to create a webinar series but don't want to deal with any of that fancy technology? You don't have to. You can do it directly in SlideShare. To create your webinar, first upload your slides like you would any other PowerPoint presentation. Then, go back to edit your file and select the Create SlideCast option. From here you're able to upload an MP3 of yourself talking and sync it with your slides. It's really that easy.
Once your slides and audio are synced, you can promote the webinar via your Web site and social channels to drive people to it. 6. Hold Virtual Meetings Long before there were Google+ hangouts, there were SlideShare Zipcasts. A Zipcast is a browser-based Web conferencing system that is built directly into SlideShare. If you have a SlideShare account, you already have a public meeting room at http://www.slideshare.net/username/meeting that you can use to hold internal meetings, launch new products, announce new employees, use for remote presentations, hold training seminars, customer service, etc. To schedule a Zipcast, simply select the Zipcast option from your top menu bar.
Once you do, you'll be able to title your Zipcast, attach it to a SlideShare presentation, and then make it public or private. While all SlideShare members can host public Zipcasts, only PRO members can hold private ones. PRO members also get additional functionality like ad removal and audio conferencing. SlideShare is far more than just an opportunity to host your old presentations. For SMBs it offers the chance to repurpose old content, build brand awareness, increase your social footprint, and to host interactive webinars. If you haven't been taking advantage of everything SlideShare has to offer…LinkedIn just gave you 118 million reminders to do so! From Small Business Trends |
| The Latest in Small Business Financing Options Posted: 08 May 2012 02:30 AM PDT Starting a business requires financing. Today there may be as many funding sources as ever, yet finding the money needed to start or even expand a business can be tricky. Our roundup of news and tips should help all entrepreneurs navigate the complicated world of small business financing and end up with a better understanding of what their businesses need. Enjoy! Funding BasicsFinding the right financing for your business. Not every kind of financing may be right for your small business. In fact, when it comes to funding of small businesses, one size definitely does not fit all. With changing times, it’s important to look for new opportunities. Small Business Trends Lending caps are unfair to small business. If you’re an entrepreneur, don’t expect to raise money for your startup or expansion through traditional means. This post suggests new lending caps are stacked against the little guy. Newsmax Financing OptionsWhat investment and horse racing have in common. If you’ve never before heard the expression “betting on the jockey, not the horse,” you may want to check out a post about what is potentially another very important source of small business funding. Startup Professionals Musings Four ways to fund your business without banks. As we’ve already mentioned, bank loans aren’t the only choice for funding a small business startup. Many options exist, but all require a good business strategy to make them effective. Just Retweet Reaching out to family and friends. They’re an important source of emotional support and security, but in many cases they can also provide financial support. This support has become a common source of startup funds for many businesses. The Frugal Entrepreneur Thinking about crowdsourcing? Here’s an infographic explaining what it is (excerpt below). SalesChase.com
More Financing PossibilitiesFunding your home business (Infographic). Do you run a home business? Another useful graphic with data drawn from a variety of sources gives us a look at funding for a kind of business some may consider low budget. Yes, home-based businesses need funding too. SalesChase.com Bootstrapping provides another funding option. Small businesses have long been utilizing another form of startup funding, one without need for bank lending or investors. Consider the bootstrapping option when starting your small business and reduce your overhead. Chicago Tribune Yet More Funding SourcesFinancing for business export debated. There’s a kind of business financing that’s rarely been talked about … until recently. And, yes, it involves small businesses as well. Financing for business export, large and small, is critical, experts say, but it has recently become embroiled in debate. Bloomberg Businessweek This SBA loan program needs to be fixed, some say. It’s called the “504″ program and it helps businesses acquire commercial property. But problems during the economic downturn required taxpayer subsidies, prompting criticism. Here’s one suggestion for an overhaul. Huffington Post Credit unions offer another option. Small businesses are turning to this funding source as the U.S. Senate debates a plan that would make these lenders more competitive with other institutions. Crain’s New York Business From Small Business Trends |
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