4 Reasons to Rethink Facebook Engagement

4 Reasons to Rethink Facebook Engagement
Do You Trust Your Employees to Work Remotely?
6 Dirty Franchise Opportunities for You
Young Entrepreneurs Infographic: 10 Entrepreneurs Under 30
How Venture Capital Deals Have Changed Since the Great Recession

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 02:00 AM PDT

An estimated 67 percent of American adults use Facebook today. That makes the social media giant on the surface the best channel for small business owners to connect with their clients, customers and partners.

But there are reasons to rethink Facebook engagement. Those reasons include signs some users are getting tired of the site.

The social network is completing a new redesign intended to reignite the spark with its audience. However, it could be too little too late.

Re-evaluating Facebook Engagement

Small business owners need to be concerned about “Facebook fatigue” too. It means that the audience they are trying to reach may be vacating the site, rendering marketers’ efforts fruitless.

Below are four reasons you may want to reconsider the value of your Facebook engagement:

1. Decline

Facebook remains the largest social network with users in the U.S. However, data indicates that may not always be the case. A study released last month by the Pew Research Center says 20 percent of online adults have quit the site. The study also shows only eight percent of online adults who don’t yet use Facebook have any intention of doing so in the future.

This suggests that not only has Facebook been loosing members, but that the site may have limited room for growth.

Meanwhile, competing social networks continue to expand their audiences. A separate survey shows Pinterest may soon overtake Twitter as the second leading social media site with American users after Facebook.

Small business owners must decide which social networks are the best investment of their time and utilize them in order reach their unique audiences.

2. Lack of Engagement

The Pew research study also revealed another concern with the popular social network. That problem involves Facebook engagement. The issue should definitely be of concern to any small business owner investing time or money in reaching followers on Facebook. The study found 61 percent of Facebook’s audience has voluntarily taken a break from the network for several weeks or more at one point.

In the official overview for the report, researchers Lee Rainie, Aaron Smith, and Maeve Duggan wrote:

The largest group (21%) said that their "Facebook vacation" was a result of being too busy with other demands or not having time to spend on the site. Others pointed toward a general lack of interest in the site itself (10% mentioned this in one way or another), an absence of compelling content (10%), excessive gossip or "drama" from their friends (9%), or concerns that they were spending too much time on the site and needed to take a break (8%).

This means that when you attempt to engage your audience on Facebook, you can never be sure how many of them may be active.

3. Noise

Bigger is not always better when it comes to small business marketing. In his post “Winning the Social Media Overwhelm Race,” small business consultant Jeff Korhan suggests Facebook, with its huge user base and high volume of messages, may dilute a business’s signal, making the site less useful when communicating to customers.

Many businesses are discovering that Facebook isn't working for them, so they are focusing their efforts on LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Google+…It's better to have a robust presence on Pinterest than a mediocre one across the board on the more "popular" networks.

4. Overload

Beyond the inability to reach customers with your message over the din, Korhan says another problem with diluting your marketing efforts on a large, popular site like Facebook is that the effort will deplete your resources and morale while giving you little return on your investment of time and money.

Instead, Korhan suggests never assuming that Facebook engagement or even social media in general is absolutely the right channel to reach customers.

Instead, carefully consider where you can invest your limited marketing resources for the most effective return.

Facebook Photo via Shutterstock

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Do You Trust Your Employees to Work Remotely?

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 02:00 PM PDT

working remotely Yahoo's Marissa Mayer unleashed a firestorm of commentary throughout the business world with her recent announcement that remote working was off the table for the tech company's staffers, who will now be expected to show up in the office every day.

The move goes against the grain at a time when everybody from the federal government to tech startups is embracing the flexibility and cost savings of working remotely.

As someone who initiated working remotly for my team back when I was an employee, I've got a lot of experience with what works – and what doesn't.

At bottom, the work-at-home issue all comes down to trust. In a recent Regus poll of more than 24,000 global workers, a whopping 88 percent say that managers need to be more accepting of flexible work arrangements, and 85 percent feel their bosses need to show more trust in remote employees.

Of course, Regus, which provides flexible workspaces, has a vested interest in the growth of remote work. But its survey points out a disconnect between how managers and employees view remote work. While managers are more likely (79 percent) to view employees who get to the office early and stay late as "hardworking," employees don't feel the same. Just 54 percent believe these individuals are hardworking.

If you've worked in an office for more than a day, you know there are just as many ways to goof off when you're at your desk as there are when you're at home. Face time doesn't equal productivity, and the focus and concentration boost from working remotely can allow people (at least some people) to get more done.

Regus also found that younger employees have made flexible work more mainstream, which should serve as a warning that if your business plans to be around for more than the next five or 10 years – you'd better meet the younger generation halfway as to how they want to work.

If you've still got a nagging feeling that letting employees work at home means paying them to watch Cartoon Network in their jammies all day, how can you get over it?

Here are some trust building tactics that worked for me when it came to working remotely.

Trust Building Tactics: Working Remotely

Make Them Earn It

I always let my team know that working remotely is a privilege, not a right. While everyone had the same right to try working from home, not everyone earned the privilege to keep doing it. Employees needed to show results. Set goals, quotas or whatever measurements work for your business, and make sure staffers are meeting them.

Set Limits

I'm not saying your whole team has to go virtual and begin working remotely. You set the rules, so if you want to limit work-at-home to Tuesdays or every other Friday, go ahead and do it. That way, you know everyone will be in the office on certain days, making it easier to plan meetings and events.

Test it out

Working remotely may not be a fit in your business, so set a trial period to see how it works out. I'm guessing your team will be highly motivated to prove it can work, so you may see huge spurts in productivity.

Communicate Expectations

Do you want all remote employees checking in via Google Hangouts for a 10-minute morning meeting? How quickly do you expect them to answer their phones or IMs? How detailed do they have to be in letting you know where they are at any given moment (do they need to IM you when they head to the restroom)? Set control levels that make you comfortable.

Listen to Your Team

When people are out of the office, it's more important than ever for you to be plugged in. Pay attention to the buzz among your employees. If some people feel the program isn't working out, ask why – then deal with the problem. Perceived unfairness can poison your business's morale.

It's my experience that slackers will be slackers whether they're in the office or not. Hard workers will do their best no matter whether they're on the couch at home or perched at an Aeron chair in your office.

Show your team a little trust, and they'll pay you back in spades.

A Laptop and A Woman Photo via Shutterstock

The post Do You Trust Your Employees to Work Remotely? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

6 Dirty Franchise Opportunities for You

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 11:00 AM PDT

I’m going to share information on the dirtiest, slimiest, and most disgusting types of franchise opportunities around.

Ready?

When I first starting in the segment of franchising that I'm currently in, I thought that the type of franchise always determined the actual role of the franchise owner.

For example, when I first learned about Molly Maids, I figured that the franchisees were doing the actual house cleaning.

After all, why else would someone buy a residential cleaning franchise if they weren't going to clean?

6 Dirty Franchise Opportunities

Maid Brigade

Meet Margie. Margie Toombs doesn't do the cleaning … and she never wanted to.

When I first discussed the Maid Brigade with Margie, the franchise that she's been the proud owner of for the past several years, she didn't get all dreamy-eyed with the prospect of owning a residential cleaning franchise-a really dirty business. That's probably because her last position was that of an executive; she was the former head of quality advancement at the Timken Company, a global industrial technology leader.

But, it wasn't that Margie was opposed to getting her hands dirty that led to her lack of excitement at the prospect of owning a cleaning franchise. It's just that her visual of the business (everyone's visual, actually) included scrubbing toilets in stranger's homes and other assorted downright dirty duties.

When I told her that her role as the franchisee of a residential cleaning franchise would actually be a combination of management, HR, business development and customer service, her interest increased.

She didn't know what she didn't know.

Get Enough Information

Don't assume.

If you're going to make the move from employee to employer and with it, the inherent risk that comes along with starting a business of your own, make a commitment (right now) to get enough information about the opportunities you're thinking of checking out.

Sometimes the information you need can't be found in a brochure. That means that you'll have to take the next step, and make actual contact with the franchisor. . .actually have a conversation. That way, you'll be able to learn all about the franchise concept you're interested in, including what your role would be as a franchisee. Then you can decide right then and there if you should continue pursuing the franchise. Or not.

More Dirt

I thought that this would be a good time to mention some other franchises that handle dirt.

And, while you're looking over the franchise opportunities that I've listed below, I want you to think about something. I want you to think about how you want to be portrayed as a business owner. Read that sentence again.

Let's look at a few franchises that clean-up:

Steamatic

Steamatic Total Cleaning and Restoration is a 500 unit franchise system that has a footprint in 24 different countries. Franchisees offer carpet cleaning, duct cleaning and restoration services for residential and commercial property. This company has been franchising since 1967.

AdvantaClean

This cleaning franchise offers light environmental services, from 120 or so offices around the US. But, they offer something else, too; a track record with US government agencies. AdvantaClean franchisees have provided environmental, indoor air quality (IAQ), and water damage mitigation services to numerous federal agencies and because of their experience, they have ongoing relationships with municipal, county, and state entities, too.

360Clean

According to the executives at 360Clean, the most important attributes of clean cannot be seen – these are germs and infections that live in every public facility all across America. Franchisees use hospital-grade disinfectants to increase the odds of a germ-free environment. As an added bonus, franchisees can offer landscape management services to help beautify the exteriors of the office buildings and other commercial facilities that they are contracted with.

Superior Wash

Homes and businesses aren't the only things that get dirty. Superior Wash franchisees and their teams clean 47,000 fleet vehicles a week. And, since a lot of the companies they provide vehicle cleaning services too are large ones, the franchisor fronts the receivables to the franchisees, so they do not have to wait months to get paid. In addition, Superior Wash franchisees receive initial sales support from headquarters; a salesperson is assigned to the territory to help generate customers.

Bio-One Inc.

They bill themselves as "The first and only crime and trauma scene clean-up franchise." Someone has to do it, and franchisees of Bio-One Inc. get called to do meth lab clean-up, tear gas decontamination and other assorted crime-scene disinfection. This is a very specialized field, and franchisees and their technicians receive highly-specialized training; very sophisticated equipment and chemicals are used to remove every trace of crimes and accidents that take place over the county, every single day.

Remember I asked you about how you want to be portrayed as an owner?

Did you think about it?

I’ve just shown you a few franchise business opportunities that provide needed services to both the residential and commercial markets. What do you think of them? Can you see yourself owning one of them? Would you be comfortable owning a cleaning business? Or, do you need to own something cleaner…classier-something that presents a different image?

Cleaning Photo via Shutterstock

Maid Photo via Shutterstock

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Young Entrepreneurs Infographic: 10 Entrepreneurs Under 30

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 08:00 AM PDT

Entrepreneurs are a special breed. They bring innovative solutions to complex problems. While each and every entrepreneur is impressive just by virtue of being an entrepreneur, what is equally impressive is when they are extremely young entrepreneurs. Whoever said that age always needs to accompany wisdom or success?

In this young entrepreneurs infographic published by Masters in Marketing Degree Guide, meet ten impressive young entrepreneurs. All are under 30 years old. Each has a thriving business. All employ others. For example, Spotify founder Daniel Ek is responsible for 500 employees worldwide. Jeremy Johnson, founder of 2tor, is responsible for 400 employees.

Creating a successful company to make millions before your face gets wrinkled and your hairline starts to recede, is what these young entrepreneurs are all about.

[Click here for full size version]

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How Venture Capital Deals Have Changed Since the Great Recession

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 05:00 AM PDT

Here's a bit of bad news for entrepreneurs seeking to finance high potential startups. Venture capitalists are doing fewer deals and investing less money than they did before the financial crisis and the Great Recession. According to data from Price Waterhouse Coopers and the National Venture Capital Association, the number of venture capital deals shrank from 4,211 in 2007 to 3,698 in 2012.

The amount that venture capitalists put into companies is also down substantially. Measured in inflation-adjusted terms, in 2012 venture capitalists only invested 75 percent of the amount they did in 2007.

Deals are also smaller than they were before the Great Recession. In real dollar terms, the average deal size declined from $8.4 million in 2007 to $7.2 million in 2012.

For entrepreneurs looking for a first time investment, the numbers are also discouraging. In 2012, VC's made 1,163 "first sequence" deals, down from 1,418 in 2007, a decline of 18 percent.

The amount invested dropped even more. In inflation-adjusted terms, VC's put a whopping 52 percent less into first time deals in 2012 than in 2007.

Source: Created from data from Price Waterhouse Coopers/National Venture Capital Association

The average deal also has been shrinking since the Great Recession, as the figure above shows. In inflation-adjusted terms, the average 2012 first investment was only 59 percent the size of the average 2007 initial investment.

The shrinkage in "first sequence" deals has occurred across all investment stages, with the decline in the inflation-adjusted amount invested heaviest in the seed and expansion stages. For number of deals, the decline was present for all stages, except for the early stage.

First sequence deals have become more focused at the early stage. In 2012, early stage deals accounting for 51 percent of all first sequence venture capital funding, up from 38 percent in 2007. The number of early stage deals increased from 42 to 65 percent of the total.

However, the shift in the investment stage wasn’t towards younger companies. Both in terms of the amount invested and the number of deals, the growth in early stage financing came at the expense of declines in both seed stage deals and expansion stage deals (the stages before and after the early stage.)

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Tuesday, March 19, 2013