Small Business Owners Get Starring Role At Republican Convention |  |
- Small Business Owners Get Starring Role At Republican Convention
- Pinterest: Why You Need These 6 Add-on Tools
- How To Mentally Recover From Professional Disasters
- 12 Ways to Test Non Technical Ideas With Existing Clients
- How to Use Google+ Hangouts For Business
- New York Times Sells About.com for $300 Million
| Small Business Owners Get Starring Role At Republican Convention Posted: 29 Aug 2012 02:00 AM PDT To a degree that surprised us, small business owners were front and center at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Tuesday night. As we reported last week, the phrase “yes we did build it” has become a small-business rallying cry. Some business owners have been waging protests following President Barack Obama’s comments last month on the campaign trail suggesting that the government, not entrepreneurs, had built their businesses. The President quickly jumped in to do damage control by claiming his remarks were taken out of context, but by then the phrase had taken on a life of its own. The convention built on the business owners’ sentiment with the theme “We Built It.”
Here are some of the “small business” highlights:
Interestingly, taxation wasn’t the main issue brought up by the business owners. Instead, regulatory burdens, fiscal responsibility, governmental obstacles and the struggles of starting a business were more often mentioned.
There were a few lighter moments, too. While a news commentator was speaking from the convention floor, a woman business owner behind him held up a small whiteboard on which she had written an impromptu ad for her business: "PatrioticJewelry.com I built this, Mr. Pres!" The coverage of the major television networks and cable news channels tended to underplay the small-business focus. They often cut to commercials or commentators when business owners spoke. C-SPAN has comprehensive video coverage, in case you want to catch more of the small business sentiment. From Small Business Trends |
| Pinterest: Why You Need These 6 Add-on Tools Posted: 28 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT Pinterest can be a valuable social tool to help brands build their network and increase traffic to their websites. That’s especially true for businesses that have something visual to share such as ecommerce businesses, design businesses or businesses that use photos, videos and infographics. But just using the site itself might not garner the best possible results. It has an elegantly simple interface – but it is barebones when it comes to features. It doesn’t notify you with alerts. It doesn’t have analytics. It doesn’t let you schedule your activity. That is why you need add-on tools. We’ve chosen 6 “pinteresting” tools you may not be aware of that can make your business more successful on Pinterest, and help you understand its impact on your brand.
Here are our picks of six online tools have sprouted up recently that can help businesses get the most out of Pinterest: PinGraphy – This tool allows users to schedule pins so they go up on the site at specific times. Businesses that use Pinterest to drive traffic to their sites might find that their customers are more likely to click over at certain times. Particularly for business owners that might reserve pinning for the late night hours, this type of tool could definitely help your pins be seen by more pinners or prospective customers. PinAlerts – This Web service sends alerts via email when someone pins something from your website. Businesses can add their sites to the PinAlerts list and then see which users are visiting their site and when, along with what type of content they find interesting enough to pin. Here are 5 ways to use PinAlerts. Octopin – This analytics tool gives insights into the effectiveness of Pinterest marketing campaigns. Users can measure clicks from particular pins, re-pins, popular pins, and even demographics data about their followers, as well as manage campaigns, contests, comment conversations and more. Lexity – This tool can give online retailers an idea about what products are reaching the most people on Pinterest. The report contains information about a site's most pinned products, along with the competitive landscape and pinners who most influence your network and those who share the content from your site. Pinerly – This is an all-inclusive Pinterest dashboard that allows users to manage their posts, optimize content through posting times and descriptions, and measure how Pinterest content is received by your followers. Pinerly aims to maximize the effectiveness a brand's pins while minimizing the number of sites and accounts needed. ViralHeat – This social media monitoring and analytics tool recently announced integration with Pinterest. Though the service is paid, it can monitor pins by keyword, find influencers, and and provide relevant statistics and analytics information that brands might find useful. From Small Business Trends |
| How To Mentally Recover From Professional Disasters Posted: 28 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT Have you ever made plans, just to have the weather, or some other situation, turn your best ideas inside out? While spending the day with my aunt, we had plans — including the farmers market and a nice long walk in the park, after all the sun had been shining for hours. But things change.
The sunshine gave way to a heavy rain and we chose to spend those 60 minutes sitting outside the farmer's market under their cover — people watching and snacking on our groceries. The interesting thing is almost 50 shoppers had the same idea. It's funny how rain slows things down, changes things up. In business, rainy days can come in the form of loosing long term clients or contracts, loosing key team members, facing drastic industry shifts or seriously altered spending of your core client base. It doesn't feel good. But the rainy days — the challenges — are a part of the small business package. How do you handle the problems? I read years ago, I can't quite remember where I heard it, that you should never call a problem a problem. You should call it a challenge instead. The point was to quit looking at the situation as something that was unwelcomed and to begin to see it as something that you could solve, that you and your team could find your way around, to see it as something to make you better. So for the next year and a half I wouldn't allow my team to use the word problem. Until one of them said:
And I said:
Whether you call it a problem, puzzle, challenge, issue, concern or crack in your department, it's solvable. The goal is to create a solution based mindset inside each team member. You want them looking for answers — and not just you. Since your team will have a tendency to reflect your behavior and your leadership style, then make sure that you are solution oriented too. There Are At Least 3 Kinds Of Leaders 1.) The ones who wait for the issue to pass. They don't think it will be a real problem for too long and will right itself soon enough. 2.) The ones who dive in head first. They are not afraid of much and tend to grab the bull by the horn. 3.) The ones who see the bull coming months and years in advance and choose to make the change ahead of time. They still have to deal with the rain, but they're prepared. You may have been all three at different points in your career. There are some situations that do "fix themselves," but not many. There are some situations that "show up so fast" you don't have time to react ahead of time, but not all. And there are some situations, more than you want to admit, that you can prepare for. But before you start barking out orders to your team, let's look at one core area of concern and two personal steps to take first. What's your mindset? Your thoughts determine your experience regardless of the situation. Mental disaster recovery has a lot to do with the mindset you have before you face the problem. So here are two steps to make right now. 1.) Expect the Best, Plan for the Worst When things are going good, you're not trying to be neurotic, constantly panicking about what can go wrong tomorrow. You're enjoying the season, but also looking for the holes in your business. It's easier to plug them on dry land than in the middle of the lake. Make disaster planning an ongoing part of your business. Store up resources for rainy days, that includes supplies and service contractors. Remember, you want options because it gives you sure legs on shaky ground. 2.) Study the Mistakes of Others Find the people in and out of your industry that you respect and admire. Study how they recovered from failures. When success comes to others we tend to act like it was an easy, overnight process, but very few worthwhile things are overnight successes. Consistent and focused effort always comes before a lasting breakthrough. Train your mind to notice the process. When you realize that you are not the only one who has to go through some valleys to get to the top of something, you'll begin to use the momentum of your life as well as other people's stories to keep yourself going. Rain always comes, and we often act surprised, depressed or irritated. But if you train for this (get mentally and physically prepared ahead of time), then you can pull out your weather shoes, raincoat, umbrella and walk through it. Not easy, but necessary. Navigating Disaster Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| 12 Ways to Test Non Technical Ideas With Existing Clients Posted: 28 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT When entrepreneurs come up with a new product idea, they sometimes become like parents: their baby is the most beautiful and talented baby in the world, no matter what that child looks like or what he/she can actually do. That new product idea is absolutely golden, and no one can say otherwise.
But before you start negotiating payment terms with manufacturers or purchasing long-term ad spots nationwide, get a second opinion. Get a third, get a thousand. In fact, ask those who have validated your successful business plans already once before — your existing clients. We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation only nonprofit organization comprised of the country's most promising young entrepreneurs, the following question to find out their advice for collecting feedback on offline business ideas:
Here's what YEC community members had to say: 1. Be Open About It “We treat our clients as partners throughout the process — whenever we try new strategies to help our internal operations or try to build something for them that we haven’t done before, we are always upfront. It seemed like we always defaulted to good, old-fashioned whiteboard sessions. However, when we tried a new program, we would tell our clients that it was new and needed feedback on it.” ~ Abby Ross, Blueye Creative 2. Throw a Shopping Party “We’re always considering new releases, including both expansions of our current line and possibly introducing new product categories. The beauty of “existing clients” is that if you have done well, they are your advocates. We have tried surveys, phone calls and Facebook voting contests, but without fail, the best and most immediate feedback we get is from a real-life shopping party.” ~ Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches 3. Find and Mobilize Superfans “We’ve found that simply asking our audience/subscribers if they’re interested in trying out something new can yield a killer group of passionate brand ambassadors. They’ll understand if things are broken, unfinished, and imperfect — and care even more, because they’ve had a deeper opportunity to make a difference.” ~ Derek Flanzraich, Greatist 4. Slap It on Craigslist “If you have a product that can be enjoyed by many — as opposed to a targeted audience — try putting it on Craigslist. It’s free, and if your immediate community shows an interest in it, then that gives you a great gauge of how the rest of the world may like it.” ~ Angela Pan, Angela B. Pan Photography 5. Use the Crowdfunding Test “We meet entrepreneurs looking to test out their product every day at Fundable. Crowdfunding gives them a fantastic gauge for interest in their product by allowing them to pre-sell a product and get to know their audience. It's the perfect first ecosystem for a startup, helping them decide to change their strategies or move full-speed ahead into production.” ~ Eric Corl, Fundable LLC 6. Test Ideas on Google AdWords “Google AdWords can get product and service ideas in front of your target demographic quickly and inexpensively. You can test one idea or set up different pages to measure the performance of various concepts or marketing schemes. Once up and running, Google Analytics provides accurate data for you to observe and share with potential investors, if you need to make a very convincing pitch.” ~ Christopher Kelly, NYC Conference Centers 7. Pool Feedback via Social Media “One way we solicit ideas is to simply ask our readers what they would like to see on our website. We’re active on social media, and we often ask for suggestions during our weekly TweetChats.” ~ Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance 8. Camp Out in the Coffee Shop “When I’ve got a new product idea, I’ll build a minimal demo (think wireframes for a website) and then head to the coffee shop. I’ll offer to buy a cup for a few people who don’t seem to be in a hurry, provided they spend a few mintes looking at my demo. It’s a fast way to get some external perspectives from people with no obligation to be nice to me.” ~ Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting 9. Put On Proactive Sales “Advertise your potential product in advance to your current customer base and ask for presales. If the customers don’t bite, then it may not be a fit. Remember, even if they say they like the product, ask them to buy it. If they have their credit card in hand and are ready to buy, then you may have a winner on your hands. “ ~ Nick Reese, Elite Health Blends 10. Create a Partial Product “If I have a new product or idea, I only create the first five percent of it. If it’s a course on leveraging YouTube in your business, I create two chapters, and include some of the most useful tips for getting set up. Give that away to a current customer base, along with an outline for the full product. Follow up a week later and ask if they’d be interested in seeing the full version.” ~ Sean Ogle, Location 180, LLC 11. Mock Up a Customized Demo “We love to mock up a prototype-like demo to create a realistic and custom experience. Keynote can be a great tool for creating an interactive-like product demo, and you can easily change out the template design to customize for multiple clients with the same functionality.” ~ Lauren Perkins, Perks Consulting 12. Just Ask Mom “Ask your mother, or someone else’s mother. If it is simple enough for your mother to understand and enjoy, chances are that is is simple enough for most people to understand. Or try asking a child. Can this child understand it? Can they explain it to someone? If your idea is simple enough that a child can explain it, chances are that your clients will understand it also.” ~ Louis Lautman, Supreme Outsourcing Feedback Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| How to Use Google+ Hangouts For Business Posted: 28 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT When Google+ launched last summer one of its most interesting features was Google+ Hangouts, especially if you were a business owner. By utilizing Google+ Hangouts SMBs could stream live broadcasts directly from their Web site, YouTube channel or Google+ profile with just a few clicks and no additional software. Even better, they could save their Hangouts and post them on their site. If you were someone who wanted to experiment with webinars or live video, this was a great, no-cost way to do it.
But now that a year has gone by, how have businesses used these Hangouts? How can we all use them to increase engagement with our customers and to build our brands? Below are a few suggestions. 1. Office Meetings Meetings are the bane of many people's existence. They're often mindless, unproductive, and, if you're not careful, can eat up an entire afternoon's productivity. And that's why at least one company has decided to use Google+ to change that. In an article for Entrepreneur.com, Lisa Girard tells how InQuicker, a health-care IT company, began using Google Hangouts to revamp their in-office meetings. By allowing their 10-person team to use Google+ to share the screen, InQuicker found that the less formal meeting were both more productive and happier. It helped them to stop looking at meetings as a "speed bump" and let everyone stay focused on the task at hand – doing the actual work. 2. Brainstorming Sessions We all have those moments when two (or three or four) heads would be better than one. In your company's lifecycle this may include when it's time to think up your next product, to decide what conferences you want to attend, to create your content marketing calendar for the month, or to dream up local events for your community. By holding virtual brainstorming sessions it allows everyone to get together and pitch ideas in a rich, collaborative environment. You can invite staff members to participate, other business owners, customers, or prominent people in your neighborhood. By giving everyone the floor directly from where they're sitting, you bring in more opinions than you could if had to squeeze everyone into your meeting room. 3. Record Webinars/Tutorials Webinars are hot right now. They're hot because they allow business owners to share expert-level information with their audience from wherever they are. No longer do we need to travel to meet with our audience; now we can do it from the comfort of our home office. If you've ever thought about starting your own webinar series or providing video tutorials to go along with services/products on your Web site, Google+ Hangouts allow you to do this for free. There's no software to master and nothing to download. You simply start a Hangout+, name it, and you're on your way. And because Google will record and upload your Hangout+ to YouTube for you, you don't even have to worry about recording software. Pretty awesome. 4. Subject-based Question & Answer Webinars are great, but sometimes all customers really want to do is ask you a question. Why not hold a monthly Question & Answer Hangout where you invite your customers to sign on, chat, and bring their questions? If you're a financial planner maybe you want to hold themed Hangouts to invite people to bring their questions on certain topics. One week your Hangout could be about the different kinds of IRAs available and the pros/cons of each. Next week you can answer questions about the best stocks to invest in based on age/risk tolerance. Having themed Question & Answer Hangouts can also help you to segment and bucket your customers for targeting later. 5. Offer Consulting Hours Remember when you were in college and your professor held Office Hours so students could get individual help? Why not offer the same feature as a consultant? Maybe that means customized coaching services or it replaces daily emails and calls with a weekly 20 minutes video chat between your team and your client's? Set yourself apart from other vendors by offering virtual coaching through the help of Google+. 6. Behind the Scenes Interviews As a consumer I love learning more about the people or businesses I'm already interacting with. And Google+ Hangouts gives us another way to invite people backstage into our business. For example, maybe you're a neighborhood café that prides itself on supporting the local community. You sell artwork from local artists and you host an open mic night for neighborhood bands to come in and show off their talent. As a way of promoting those events and getting more people into your café, why not host a Hangout where you interview the artists or musician? Or maybe interview your employees or your customers to introduce them to your audience? Or have a weekly chat where you preview what's coming down the line for your business? We like getting a more intimate look at that people we should to allow in our circles. Use Hangouts to do that. 7. Host a Class Hangouts give you the ability to hold a live broadcast and invite as many people as you want to attend. You can hold your own online class without having to worry about fitting everyone into a single room or providing food for 50 people when only 10 people show up. Now that Google has removed the overhead involved with creating a class or workshop, why not start one? Maybe it's a writing class where everyone shows up with a short piece to read and others critique it. Or it's a cooking class where you show off how to make your famous firehouse chili. Or it's a Web design workshop where people come and you do live site audits for them. The possibilities for ways to engage and provide value to your customers are endless. 8. Make Announcements Taylor Swift recently hosted a Google+ Hangout to announce her new album. During the live chat, Taylor answered fan questions from around the world, let them know what they could expect from her album, and debuted its first single. When her single was released on iTunes later that night it went straight to number one, faster than any other song in history. Have a big announcement – whether it's a new hire, a new product, an upcoming launch – now Google has given you the chance to host your own Town Hall event, free of charge. There are tons of ways for small business owners to use Google+ Hangouts to connect with their audience and build excitement. If you haven't already, you may want to check out the Google Live Events calendar to help spur some of your own ideas. You can also add your own events to the calendar to increase your reach. Have you considered using Google+ Hangouts in your marketing strategy? Image credit: ivicans / 123RF Stock Photo From Small Business Trends |
| New York Times Sells About.com for $300 Million Posted: 28 Aug 2012 02:30 AM PDT Buying or selling a business is a huge decision for those on either side of the transaction. Whether your company is the size of The New York Times or a small mom and pop, be sure you weigh the pros and cons carefully before moving forward. As the iconic About.com changes hands for a substantial sum, here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your next big acquisition or sale. Big DealSold to the highest bidder. IAC, a conglomerate owning a variety of online properties including Ask.com, bought About.com, with an Alexa rank of 37 in the US and 80 worldwide for traffic, from The New York Times Company for around $300 million this week, beating out an offer from Answers.com of $270 million in debt and equity. The sale was for less than the $410 million the newspaper company paid for the site back in 2005. TechCrunch The biggest sale of your life. For most owners, the sale of a business will be the biggest of their lives. With so much riding on the outcome, it’s critical to get the process right. So it’s surprising that when the time finally comes, so many owners miss the opportunity to maximize the value they get from that business and the chances the sale will go successfully. The Guardian Taking yourself out of the equation. If you want your business to be more valuable to an acquirer, the first step is to make sure it can operate and grow without you. For many entrepreneurs, this is a challenge not just because of the passion they have for their business. It’s also because many business leaders have allowed themselves to become indispensable to their company’s day to day operations. Inc.com Virtual ValuePleased to meet you, Alexa. When selling your Web business, one important factor to consider is your Alexa ranking. Though there are some issues with how Alexa calculates a Website’s ranking, the value can be important for a variety of reasons. Here are some tips for raising your ranking as a strategy to increase the value of your site. The Frugal Entrepreneur Flipping your site on Flippa. Flippa, the Website best known as a place to buy and sell other Websites, has developed a tool to help provide valuations based on earnings, search rankings, and other factors. But some aren’t so sure the tool can be trusted. Here, Hesham Zebida gives his review of the new Flippa beta and a few more Website valuation tools out there. Famous Bloggers Buyer BewareSizing up your opportunities. The greatest challenge in buying a business is determining whether it is worth the price you will pay. To figure this out, it’s necessary to exercise due diligence and look beneath the surface. Here are some suggestions from an example in which a potential buyer is determining whether purchasing a fitness business is worth the investment. Chron.com Going for broke. One step to consider when trying to buy a business is to hire a broker to give you a hand in your search. The right broker can find you a business in your particular niche, help you secure financing, and assist you in a number of other ways when it comes to acquiring the business that is right for you. Noobpreneur From Small Business Trends |
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"Expect the Best, Plan for the Worst". I always take this in my mind whenever I play online casino. I should always plan for every step and also expect for the worst. There's nothing if I will look or my luck.
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