Small Business Book Awards 2013: Become a Sponsor

Small Business Book Awards 2013: Become a Sponsor
Marketing Lessons From Shark Tank
Vision: An Inspiring, Practical Handbook for Creating Your Future

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 06:19 PM PST

Small Business Book Awards 2012 logo The Small Business Book Awards, presented by Small Business Trends, return January 29, 2013. This will be the 5th year to recognize and celebrate books written for entrepreneurs and small business owners, CEOs and their teams.

As I write this, the Small Business Book Awards website is currently being updated for 2013 (the 2012 logo is to the right). This year our traditional categories 0f awards will return for:

Marketing books
Social media books
Startup books
Management books
Tech books
Economics books

What’s New This Year

We’re excited to announce the following new categories will be added this year:

Self help books
Personal finance books
Leadership books /memoirs
All time favorite books (business books published in earlier years can be nominated regardless of year of publication in the all-time favorites category)
Book resources (this category is not books per se, but will include publishing technology, publishers, book coaches, publicists, book retailers, and other resources that support authors and the publishing industry)

Books are not limited to traditional print books. With the explosive growth in electronic books and ebooks, we welcome ebooks in all formats (including PDFs, Kindle, Nook, Adobe Digital, iBooks and Google books).

Nominating a book is free – nominations open January 29, 2013 for the 2013 Small Business Book Awards. Nominations are made directly on the Small Business Book Awards website.

Once books pass through the nomination process, the small business community will visit the Book Awards website to cast votes to decide the best. Last year nearly 100,000 votes were cast.

Sponsorship Opportunities

This is an excellent opportunity for brands to get in front of Small Business Trends’ targeted small business audience as sponsors. As a sponsor, you will get prime visibility throughout the Awards. The Awards attract not only authors, but book lovers, entrepreneurs who buy books to learn, and small business owners and CEOs looking to expand their own knowledge and educate their staffs for greater success.

A limited number of sponsorships are available. Sponsorship opportunities are reasonable and start at $2,000 and up.

For sponsorship information, please send an email to: advertise@smallbiztrends.com.

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Marketing Lessons From Shark Tank

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST

While you may not want to give up 5% equity in your company to be on Shark Tank, the ABC reality show, you can learn a thing or two by watching the ones who do.

For business owners who choose to dive into the Shark Tank and plan to walk away with a deal, they have to market at least two things to this cunning group of investors:

Undeniable passion and a focus on their business.
Preparation for the next level.

You may not be looking for investors, but you can market these same values to your prospective clients.

I Really Care About This Brand

Grounded passion is attractive. While website visitors (and journalists) don't want to know the 50 page version of your back story. They do want to know what your product or service can do for them (and in the journalist's case — what it can do for their audience).

Providing this information gives them a reason to care and to keep listening to the rest of the story. But after you succinctly tell your audience what's in it for them, share why you became interested in providing this type of product or service in the first place. Share your passion. Stories paint pictures in the mind. They give people something to hold on to and to share with others.

It makes the company seem human and adding the human touch to a highly effective product or service is perfect for attracting publicity. According to Al Reis and Laura Reis, the authors of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, in the early stages:

"Publicity grows brands."

I Have Plans for the Future of This Brand

Investors want to know your future plans because because they don't want to put their money into a company that won't last. For certain types of businesses your clients are the same way.

If you're selling a product that has to be replenished, then your prospects want to feel like the company will still be there. If you're selling a service, no small business owner wants a disappearing accountant, for example, or an on-again-off-again marketing advisor.

Marketing your future plans to your clients helps to promote the idea in their mind that you will be here. The start of a new year is the perfect time to do this. You can thank your current clients and shoppers. Then give them a short "State of Your Business Address" where you let people know what they can look forward to in the coming months.

Will you add people to your team or a new a product or service to the company? Maybe you have plans to update your current services, training courses or product.

Share that information and build a little more trust.

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Vision: An Inspiring, Practical Handbook for Creating Your Future

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 06:00 AM PST

I wrote this early, early on the Friday morning before Christmas. I hadn’t had that first cup of coffee yet and was about to read Vision: Your Pathway to Victory by Gordon D'Angelo. I received this book as a review copy with a handwritten note inside:

"All of Gordon's royalties are going to charity."

After reading that, the first thing I did was go to the author bio. I wanted to know a little more about the man who writes a book about Vision and who is donating his profits to charity. So here it is.

Gordon D'Angelo (@GordonDAngelo) looks like the kind of guy who accomplishes more in five minutes than the rest of us do in a week. It's a good thing they have a picture of him in the book because based on the bio, I would think we was much older given his list of accomplishments. Gordon was an original founder of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service and he's been a seven-time Broker-Dealer of the Year Award Winner.

These days, he's running NEXT Financial Group and NEXT Financial Holdings where he manages over 16 billion dollars in assets. So now you can see why he's written a book on vision and is donating the royalties to charity.

Can Gordon's Visioning Process Work for Me?

There was a time that I thought everything was about the process. I mean just do the process and you'll get the results. In many ways, this is exactly how it works. But there is another element that is also at play – human nature.

If it weren't for the human nature component of things, everyone who ate less and exercised more would be thin and fit. Everyone who had vision would create their vision – and this isn't always the case. We've all had experience with "the best laid plans" so let's see if D'Angelo's process is something you should consider in your planning this year.

Mindset is 90% of the Formula

In answering the question of whether this Visionary formula will work for you, you must first answer the question of whether you have the mental fortitude to hold on to a mindset of possibility. From the beginning of the book, it's clear the D'Angelo has a couple a natural propensity for creating goals and writing them down as well as a learned mindset that anything was possible (which he got from his friend John Hewitt with whom he founded Jackson Hewitt).

I use the word fortitude because that's what it takes to hang on to what YOU think is possible while everyone else tells you that it's not.

So Much Better Than I Expected

Can you blame me? At first I thought this was going to be another dry business process book full of war stories and case studies. It isn't that at all. This is an inspirational book. If visioning were a religious experience – then this is the book they would use to get it done.

D'Angelo is so eager to have you understand that it's only our own limitation on what's possible that holds us back. Getting that is just half of the mindset equation. It's just dreaming with no action plan. But writing down the goals, thinking the process through step by step, this is where the vision comes to life.

Here is a wonderful quote from the book that I think is at the center of this book:

“Vision = The definable intention from which preparation is formed.”

From this point on, D'Angleo guides you through the process and practice of setting your mindset to "all things are possible" and then defining the steps it takes to get there.

I know, you're going to say you've seen this before. I know, I've seen it before too – but not quite this way.

Do You Really Need to Read Another Book About Vision and Planning?

I don't know if you need to read another book about visioning or planning, I will say that you will want to read THIS book about vision and planning. It's like nothing you've ever seen in a practical business book.

If you like books about laws of attraction and have a more metaphysical interest, you will LOVE this book! If you aren't into what I call "woo-woo" business philosophy, you will appreciate the pragmatic and practical way this book is written.

It's really more like a handbook than a business book.

This is a book for every small business owner- especially at this time of the year with a new year starting out and everyone brimming with new possibilities. This is the perfect book for your whole management team or work team. It will inspire you and get you psyched for growth in the year ahead.

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