How Running a Small Business Has Changed: Recap

Link to Small Business News, Tips, Advice - Small Business Trends

How Running a Small Business Has Changed: Recap
Introducing The First Professional Social Network: Muxi
Small Business Leaders: How Social Should You Be?
The Politics and Economics of Taxing Small Business Owners
Social Media Pioneer Digg Sold For Much Less Than Original Value

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 02:30 PM PDT

Last week on July 9, we brought together oodles of small biz people (together with BlackBerry and SmallBiztechnology.com) for an online chat on Twitter, netting almost 1,000 tweets and retweets before, during and after the chat using the chat hashtag of #BBSMBchat.

We’ve put together this recap in case you missed it, with some key answers to 8 questions asked during the chat. The questions and a small number of selected answers are below.

chit chat twitter bird

1. How are the challenges of starting a new business now different than they were ten years ago?

“Information moves so fast and the net makes us all more dependent and connected to each other.” ~ @ramonray
“Startup funding is tighter.” ~ @karenlinder
“You can run a business virtually now – no need for high overhead.” ~ @aMaryica
“Easier to get into business because of the information available. With competition & the current economy harder to stay in business.” ~ @HowardLewinter
“Global competition for some markets.” ~ @m4bmarketing

2. Who are some of the people and organizations that provide good advice to help your small business that you follow on Twitter?

“@NFIB, @Entrepreneur, @INCmag @smallbiztrends @openforum and many more.” ~ @gflorence77
“SEOchat has been helpful. Also @justincutroni @avinash @TAanderud @TJMcCue” ~ @ZimanaAnalytics
“Surround yourself with smart people. Look at @DIYMarketers & @strategystew and @smallbiztrends.” ~ @HowardLewinter
”I like @LisaBarone – neat tweets – and I pick up much from the @AllAnalytics @Digital_Draw communities.” ~ @ZimanaAnalytics
“Another great #smallbiz mind is @HowardLewinter. I consider him to be an excellent and needed resource for my company!” ~ @brianmoran

3. What influences small businesses the most today? Was it the same ten years ago?

“I think customers have more influence on #SMBs thanks to social media.” ~ @Ileane
“SMBs are influenced by global markets more today than in the past because we are more aware due to the Internet.” ~ @BasicBlogTips
“Customers have the POWER so leverage it – don’t fight it. http://t.co/57NImPHi” ~ @ramonray
“SMBs just have so much more information. About their markets, their customers, their competitors.” ~ @robert_brady

4. How has social media evolved the small business space?

“Social media makes the world smaller, more accessible and at the same time easy to reach many.” ~ @DeborahShane
“#Smallbiz always had an advantage – connectability Social media let’s us stretch that connection past the in-store experience.” ~ @KyleBellingar
“Social media allows you to connect instantly with your customers and food trucks are a great example of putting it to work.” ~ @gflorence77
“Social media so widely accepted, even fantastic for localized ad campaigns, so easy to spread the word fast!” ~ @TheAndrewWatson

5. What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is about to start their own small business?

“Bootstrap it!” ~ @DIYMarketers
“Focus on sales and revenue.” ~ @TJMcCue
“I would tell people to always expect delays and overruns in the beginning. Budget for that!” ~ @TheAndrewWatson
“Never assume you know it all. You never will.” ~ @eggmarketing
“No matter how good the idea, if your start-up runs out of cash, your idea remains just an IDEA. #cashflow” ~ @umaInvests
“Patience is still a virtue. Love and kindness are precious. Plan, act, monitor, change; and don’t sweat the money.” ~ @dynamicnet
“Keep your business focused. Lack of focus sinks so many businesses. Avoid going in 100 directions.” ~ @rajmalikdc

6. Is it harder or easier to keep up with emerging trends in small business than it was ten years ago and why?

“It is SO HARD to keep up with trends in #smallbiz – the barriers to entry are so low.” ~ @ramonray
“Big challenge for small biz is sustainability with media and messaging. People lose interest in it. Hard to stay motivated.” ~ @DeborahShane
“Easier as long as you know which trends are important for your biz.” ~ @m4bmarketing
“Employee turnover happens much quicker so it’s harder to keep trained staff on board.” ~ @BasicBlogTips
“Easier to learn about technology trends due to an abundance of news resources, but harder to know which ones to implement.” ~ @PhilipNowak
“It’s easier to keep up on the trends but keeping up on all of social media is time consuming.” ~ ?@NuThreadz

7. How has the Internet changed the way you stay updated about small business and your industry? What sources do you get news from?

“It changes everyone. New thinking. Better time management. Connected to biz world. @WSJ @Marketwatch @smallbiztrends.” ~ @HowardLewinter
“Mobile devices enable us to get important news and info in REAL TIME.” ~ @ramonray
“70% of my daily news comes from the Internet.” ~ @karenlinder
“Internet + mobile = speed, viral, immediate, real time, NOW! That’s what we want and expect! Twitter is stronger than ever now!” ~ @DeborahShane
“My business is the Internet and small business. I have to research many tech and business avenues to stay on top of it all.” ~ @KyleBellingar

8. Who do you consider to be a small business legend? Alternatively, do you know of any emerging and promising fresh faces?

“I think Michael Gerber and eMyth are legends for sure.” ~ @ramonray
“@JimBlasingame is a living legend with the small business advocate.” ~ @Lyceum
“Richard Branson is a small business legend. Over 400 businesses in the Virgin empire! http://t.co/xx4bQrxP.” ~ @PhilipNowak
“I know so many SMB legends, but one is @TimBerry, the father of business plan software.” ~ @smallbiztrends
“Inc Mag’s @NormBrodsky = small biz legend.” ~ @rajmalikdc
“I really like Rob Walling and his stuff for entrepreneurs.” ~ @TJMcCue

Thank you to all who participated, and if you didn’t get a chance to drop in, please join us for a future chat! It’s fun and informative, and you make friends and raise your social profile in the process.

For another recap of the chat, see the post on the BlackBerry blog.

Many thanks to BlackBerry (@BlackBerry4Biz) for hosting this chat along with guest of honor, Ramon Ray (@RamonRay), Editor and Technology Evangelist at SmallBizTechnology, and yours truly, Anita Campbell (@Smallbiztrends). Please note that this is not a full transcript but a selection of representative tweets. Tweets have had hashtags and other repetitive information removed for ease of reading.

BlackBerry is also the title sponsor for the Small Business Influencer Awards. Voting commenced on July 16th, 2012.

Tweet Bird Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

How Running a Small Business Has Changed: Recap

Introducing The First Professional Social Network: Muxi

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT

The business community already has options when it comes to social networking, but is there a need for a social networking platform that is strictly for professionals?

muxi

Muxi, a new mobile social media platform, aims to be "the first professional social network." Unlike LinkedIn, Muxi's founders claim that the app is a more social place for professional types to connect and network with one another, rather than just a place to post resumes like many do on LinkedIn.

Is there a place for a more social social network for professionals?

Small business owners and entrepreneurs could use a service like Muxi to make connections with other professionals who might help to further their business ventures, and to share ideas with others in similar professional situations. It can be used to find new employees or partners, ask questions, and share experiences.

Muxi's features include "fraternities," groups where users can network with others who share similar business goals or work in similar fields. This idea stems from professional fraternities that were used centuries ago. But with Muxi, business owners and other professionals can use this concept to network with others from the convenience of their mobile phones. Muxi also gives users the option to share their posts on other sites like Facebook and Twitter.

However, some critics may argue that professionals already have plenty of places to network online and on their smartphones. From Facebook groups to Twitter chats and even LinkedIn's group feature, many professional types and business owners are far from strangers to social networking.

Muxi may have its own niche and provide some useful features, but will enough business owners actually sign up so that the app will be useful for networking purposes?

Currently, Muxi is an invite-only app, but prospective users can request an invite from the site itself. In addition to its mobile app, Muxi has plans to launch iPad, Chrome, and desktop apps in the near future.

From Small Business Trends

Introducing The First Professional Social Network: Muxi

Small Business Leaders: How Social Should You Be?

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Social media can be an effective tool when used to help establish and promote a brand, as well as enable interactions with a company. The question that businesses must answer is: who should act as the communiqué for a company?

While higher-ups within a company might be tempted to delegate all corporate social media interactions to other staffers, a recent BRANDFog 2012 CEO, Social Media & Leadership Survey determined that 82% of respondents were more likely to trust a business whose top leadership communicated openly via social channels.

Of course, before a company turns anyone loose on social media, there needs to be a corporate strategy and set of best practices in place. It does very little good to simply prop a business leader in front of a Twitter profile and tell him to go at it.

George Colony, of Forrester Research, believes that business leaders (he mentions CEOs directly but this applies to any business leader) should engage in social interactions if they meet the following criteria:

1. The CEO has something valuable and specific to say.

Note that there are two details here: valuable AND specific.

Posts, tweets, whatever, must be unique. This does not mean that the content has to be entirely original. In fact, sharing others' statuses and retweeting others' tweets is effective and useful. Rather, it is important to bring a unique perspective to the table, and to make sure that the message will be of direct benefit to readers.

It also means that sweeping statements are not nearly as valuable as detailed, specific advice. It does little good for an investment professional to say, "Be sure to choose the best companies in which to invest your hard earned dollars."

That much is obvious. However, stating "Industries X, Y, and Z have shown appreciable growth for the past three quarters and, based on statistics, looks like solid investments," will demonstrate expertise and be valuable for readers that want information on that topic.

2. The CEO is prepared to navigate thorny and unique restrictions.

Obviously, business leaders are in a unique position since they represent a business at the highest level. Therefore, it is important to exercise a modicum of caution and be prepared for unforeseen circumstances when communicating directly with the public through social channels.

While specific issues are too varied to address, the best piece of advice I can give is to avoid getting mired in any sort of argument on a public social channel. There are always going to be disgruntled customers or individuals who simply have too much time on their hands, and they will enjoy attempting to incite a public reaction from a business leader. If someone is blatantly trying to cause trouble, it is best to just ignore them. If they have a legitimate customer service complaint, then forward it to the appropriate staffer and send them a private message letting them know you are working to resolve the issue.

3. There is an audience who will, over time, tune in to the CEO's social message.

Out of all of Colony's criteria, this is the most difficult to recognize and apply immediately. Therefore, it is best to define goals when entering the social realm, and attempt to follow them to the letter. What is the specific reason that you, as a business leader, wish to use a social channel? Whatever it is, find a way to track it so you have actionable metrics that can be viewed in relation to the overall time spent using social media. And no matter if it's the CEO or the intern or social media, corporate branding and voice should be adhered to so that the interactions don't take on the personality of the individual instead of the company.

Despite the hype, and the numerous benefits social media can have for a company, one size does not fit all and it may not always make sense to have top executives on social media. As always, if a strategy does not meet its goals, it is important to modify or pivot to something new.

Ultimately, having a top executive act as the face of corporate social media efforts has the potential increase trust and lend validity to social efforts, resulting in direct benefits for a business.

Ceo Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Leaders: How Social Should You Be?

The Politics and Economics of Taxing Small Business Owners

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT

President Obama wants to raise taxes on households making more than $250,000 per year by letting President Bush's tax cuts on upper income earners expire. Mitt Romney opposes this move, saying that raising taxes on the wealthy would hurt job creation.

tax squeeze

Because both candidates want to appeal to small business owners, each is careful to argue that his approach is better for them.

The president is focused on how many small business owners will be affected by his tax increase, which is relatively few. The Office of Tax Analysis at the U.S. Treasury crunched the numbers for 2007, the most recent year that data are available, and reported that only 4 percent of small business owners would be subject to a tax increase if the Bush tax cuts expired.

But the Republicans aren't arguing that raising taxes on households earning more than $250,000 will adversely affect a lot of small business owners. They know the performance of small businesses is skewed, with a few companies accounting for most small business profits.

They claim that raising taxes on households earning over $250,000 a year will adversely affect a lot of employment. The small number of highly profitable small businesses, they claim, account for most of the hiring done by small companies. Therefore, letting the Bush tax cuts expire will mean higher taxes on the people who provide jobs to a lot of Americans.

Finding an estimate from a reputable source on the fraction of employment provided by those small business owners isn't easy. Most data on small business income isn't linked to data on small business employment. But the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), a representative sample of a cross section of American households, does.

George Haynes of Montana State University, who has conducted much research on small business using the SCF, took a look at the employment of small business owning households for me. In the 2007 SCF, his analysis showed that small business owning families earning more than $250,000 per year employ 93 percent of the people working in small businesses.

The message from these different data sources is clear: Letting the Bush tax cuts on households earning more than $250,000 per year won't affect very many small business owners – just the ones who employ the vast majority of people working in small companies.

Tax Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

The Politics and Economics of Taxing Small Business Owners

Social Media Pioneer Digg Sold For Much Less Than Original Value

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 02:30 AM PDT

In a surprise move for the entire online business community, social bookmarking site Digg was sold last week ~~for the unimpressive sum of $500,000~~. (Edited to add: The Wall Street Journal originally reported it as selling for just $500,000, although later reports pegged that number considerably higher when you factor in the patents that Digg owned and the engineering team. One report says it was split three ways for a total of roughly $16 Million. Whichever way you slice it, that number is much less than the $45 Million the site had been valued at years earlier. And the value of the site itself, i.e., the part that went to Betaworks, was pretty low. )

Some insist the sale was a final step in what has been a steady decline for the social media pioneer. Whatever the ultimate cause, there is a belief in the online entrepreneur community that Digg’s downward slide may be a cautionary tale about what happens when you don’t pay enough attention to your customers and community.

Digging In

A new beginning. Though for many the sale of a social bookmarking site of Digg’s calibre to New York-based incubator Betaworks for a fraction of what the site might have once been valued seems like a disaster. But on the company blog late last week, Digg CEO Matt Williams insisted the purchase was “a way to take Digg back to its startup roots.” Many businesses from time to time must reevaluate where they stand with their customers, but hopefully this can be done before the company is up for sale. Digg Blog

One of the great Internet brands. Although it may have been acquired for less than the funds it originally raised, Digg’s value is considerable according to Betaworks. Loved by millions, Digg’s reputation as a great brand known for pioneering the concept of community-driven news that has since become a major part of the Internet’s ecosystem, remains an asset. But no matter how valuable the brand, a connection to a site’s community is what’s really important. Betaworks

Paradise Lost

The slippery slope. Just as there’s no such thing as overnight success, the decline of a business is also a gradual process. Businesses do not generally fail because of one poor decision, but as a result of a series of poor decisions made over time. Those observing Digg’s decline point to a number of missteps that may have led to the brand’s difficulties after it established itself as a leader in community news. It’s important to consider how each of your decisions will affect your business long-term. Gigaom

For what it’s worth. Determining a realistic value for your business is an important skill. Entrepreneurs must understand how much their business is worth, not just to them, but to others. Effectively valuing your business has to do with understanding what your product, service, or company really provides to others. For example, in the case of social bookmarking sites like Digg, it can be argued that a network or site is worth exactly as much as its community. The Atlantic

Reaping the benefits. Even unsuccessful companies can be a benefit to other entrepreneurs in terms of the legacy and resources they leave behind. Two other companies, LinkedIn and The Washington Post, have benefited tremendously from last week’s sale of Digg to Betaworks. While LinkedIn has acquired a number of patents from the social bookmarking site, The Washington Post’s Web development arm acquired most the Digg team. TechCrunch

In Conclusion

Their own worst enemy. Business owners look instinctively to competitors when trying to figure out how to make the necessary business model tweaks for long-term survival. But, as Digg’s difficulty shows, sometimes companies need to look no further than themselves for the source of their problems. Atrocious redesigns, sponsored links, and a failure to cultivate its community all lead to Digg’s decline. Knowing what keeps your customers coming back is important and can keep you from making similar mistakes. Forbes

Filling the void. Digg’s departure from the scene or, at the very least, its considerable decline, may create opportunities for other Internet entrepreneurs. Some are already asking who will fill the void left by Digg. Certainly, Digg’s greatest competitor, Reddit, has gained much from Digg’s fall, but social media networks like Facebook and Twitter are also catching up with Google search as two of the chief ways people find news on the Web. Other tools to fill the space left by Digg remain to be seen. The Wall Street Journal

From Small Business Trends

Social Media Pioneer Digg Sold For Much Less Than Original Value