Week In Review: Small Business Saturday, Twitter Experiments and More

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• Week In Review: Small Business Saturday, Twitter Experiments and More
• Acer Introduces Two Ultrabooks Aimed At Business Users
• How Well Do You Know Your Online Shoppers?
• Former Paypal Managers Servicing Mid-Size Business Data Management Needs
• Want to Win at Sales? Just Be a Gopher!

Week In Review: Small Business Saturday, Twitter Experiments and More Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:00 PM PST It’s time again for our week in review. Here are the top stories important to your small business this week from the Small Business Trends editorial team. Holidays Small suppliers benefit from turkey shortage. Butterball, one of the nation’s largest producers, was short of big fresh birds this year. Not to worry though. Small farmers came to the rescue…and are smiling ear to ear. Parking free in 42 communities on Small Business Saturday. Free parking is intended to further encourage customers to shop at local small businesses. Check out the post for a full list of participating communities. Social Media Twitter experimented briefly with new messaging program. For about a month, Twitter gave users the option of letting followers direct message them — even if they weren’t following them back at the time. It doesn’t seem the feature has made the cut. LinkedIn rolls out Showcase Pages. They could be helpful if you happen to have a few niche products or services and need to target slightly different audiences with each. Here’s a basic overview. Business Basics Square eliminates flat rates. It’s a big blow to small businesses that use the pocket-sized credit card reader to avoid fees on a major credit card merchant account. The flat fee has been a major incentive for many small businesses to try the service. Italy’s oldest family business seeks foreign customers. For centuries, the Pontifical Marinelli Foundry has served mainly one large local client, the Vatican. But tough economic times have forced this local bell maker to look at increasing exports. Tech Acer introduces two ultrabooks. These devices are new to the U.S. market and are aimed directly at business users. They have plenty of featured but don’t expect a bargain price. Policy Raising the minimum wage. The Affordable Care Act raised many concerns — now seemingly confirmed — in the small business community. But another policy on the horizon may be easily as dangerous. And that danger may not be only to the businesses themselves. Scott Shane has more. Another Obamacare website delay. Yes, there’s another delay related to the Obamacare website. And this one affects small business with 50 employees or less. Small Business Trends CEO Anita Campbell has more. Reading Photo via Shutterstock The post Week In Review: Small Business Saturday, Twitter Experiments and More appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Acer Introduces Two Ultrabooks Aimed At Business Users Posted: 29 Nov 2013 01:30 PM PST Acer has introduced two ultrabooks for the first time in the U.S. market aimed specifically for business users on the go. But, don’t expect to get either of these devices at a bargain price. First, the Acer TravelMate P645 features: A 14-inch display with HD resolution. A lightweight thin design just 3.31 pounds and .81 inches thick. Longer battery life for up to 8 hours of enhanced productivity. Enhanced capabilities that let you review documents, compare spreadsheets and create multimedia with greater responsiveness and speed. Premium security features including Acer Recovery Management and ProShield Manager which let you protect your data. In a prepared announcement on the device’s release in the North American market, Michael O'Beirne, senior director of commercial product marketing at Acer America explained: “Business never ends for our customers, many of whom have global teams that run 24×7, so they need a notebook PC that will keep them at their most effective whether in the office or on the road.” A second device, the Acer TravelMate X313 (pictured above), can function either as an ultrabook or tablet, the company says. Here is a brief overview from Notebook Italia: This machine is designed to be even more lightweight and mobile, says Acer. The device’s specs say it is 1.74 pounds and .39 inches thick. Other features include: Cradle expansion enabling it to function as a desktop PC. An 11.6-inch display with touchscreen capability allowing it to function in tablet mode. A 6-hour battery life allowing it to be used by members of a mobile workforce. Versions of Acer’s Recovery Management and ProShield manager for data security, like on the TravelMate P645. A recent company announcement on this device says the company expects it to be used for Web browsing, checking email, scheduling appointments and more, all in a commercial business setting. Unlike, other low cost consumer devices which might also work for business applications, Acer is clearly targeting these two devices for business use. But since both start at a premium $949, they won’t likely appeal to all small business users. Image: Acer The post Acer Introduces Two Ultrabooks Aimed At Business Users appeared first on Small Business Trends.

How Well Do You Know Your Online Shoppers? Posted: 29 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PST If you ask eCommerce merchants how much they know about their customers, how well they know online shoppers, you may get a general reply. Many may only be able to describe their customers based on demographics of gender, age and level of income. So do they really understand why, when, where and how their customers make their purchases? The buying process is getting more complicated. People have hundreds of online places to purchase products that meet their needs. They may shop online, from home, from the grocery store or their Android phones, iPhone or Smartphones. So how can a consumer be best understood? Besides knowing their demographics, you can also benefit from other personal data such as: Interests/hobbies Daily activities Political affiliation All of this information can be inferred through personal interaction. Acquiring this data is harder to achieve but there are databases that will allow you to target individuals based on the above mentioned criteria. These details aid in promoting the products that interest them easily. What Do Customers Need to Know? It is important that your customer know the ins and outs of a product: What do the products look like? How do they function? What sizes and colors are available? How much does it cost? Does it carry a discount? Is there a warranty? What is the procedure to purchase the product? Online shoppers are gradually demanding more from retailers. They want more information at the start of the online experience, more options during checkout and delivery and more channels for interrelating with their favorite retailers. Free shipping, social and mobile access and simple return processes are evaluated among the most imperative needs for today's online shoppers. Customers look into different sources such as blogs, articles and websites to check for product details. So make sure that you understand how to answer these questions in an effective manner to meet your customer's queries. Use the three C’s: Choice Channels Convenience Retailers can actually win shoppers over by providing a positive and consistent Omni channel experience. From social media platforms to mobile apps , today's consumer expect and value services that work together across the whole shopping continuum from pre-purchase to post-purchase. How Do Customers Learn About Products? Today, product research is done in living rooms, offices, hospitals, coffee shops – anywhere and everywhere. Most importantly, products are compared among different websites and product reviews from other consumers. Retailers need to understand the customer's research strategies. Multiple factors can influence their research process: Research can be conducted by looking at the product's picture or reading the description. Checking other brands and alternative products. An event can trigger interest in the product. Product reviews given by others. Discounts and sales. Instinctive buying. Remember, the most crucial psychology behind their product research is that customers often make a purchase decision only after evaluating the products' real value. They narrow their selection and then shop for price. Where Do Customers Inquire About Products? It has been found that approximately 86% of consumers go online to research products. However, the majority of consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated at multi-channel shopping. Therefore, retailers need to better align their business operating models with consumer expectations and sophistication. Globally, research shows that 20% make their purchase direct online, 3% make their purchases via social networks and the remaining balance from other sources such as television shopping networks, mobile, Web , laptop, smartphones, Xboxes and physical stores. They also read trade publications, Facebook posts, check comparison shopping engines and their network of friends on Twitter. Is it possible for every eCommerce merchant to be in all of these places? In many cases, it may not be practical. So the best thing to do is to identify where your customers are going to seek information while they move through their purchasing cycle. And then ensure that you are seen and present in those places and that your messages and content are mobile-friendly. Shopping Photo via Shutterstock The post How Well Do You Know Your Online Shoppers? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Former Paypal Managers Servicing Mid-Size Business Data Management Needs Posted: 29 Nov 2013 08:00 AM PST The advent of cloud computing has enabled many small businesses to take off. However, as small businesses grow, their data management needs multiply. While there are many open-source DevOps tools that small businesses could use for data management, such tools are often found inefficient while handling larger datasets. This gap in the existing DevOps tools is what led former DevOps Manager at Paypal, Kenneth Jiang, and former Product Manager at Paypal, Gülin Yilmaz, to set up OpsViz. Kenneth, who has more than 17 years experience in back-end systems engineering is the venture's CTO. While Gülin, an MS in engineering from Stanford Univesity and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, is the CEO. Gulin has diverse experience – in product management at Paypal and through her successful entrepreneurial ventures, CoachMe and Awardly. Gülin firmly believes that for a product to be successful, it should be validated by the end users. It was but natural that she discussed OpsViz's initial product idea with hundreds of potential customers before launching it. These discussions led to the discovery of a larger need for automation in data infrastructure management. Mid-size companies were saddled with not just the problem of inefficient opensource DevOps tools but also inefficient processes to monitor data management operations. On the other hand, traditional comprehensive enterprise solutions were quite expensive and disruptive to the client environment. The Solution OpsViz therefore focused on developing affordable solutions for these challenges. With its flexible back-end and connectors to commonly used open-source tools, OpsViz 'snaps in' the architecture of its customers to 'collect and clean' the infrastructure data and analyze it. By providing SaaS information management, OpsViz serves as a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) for customer systems. By enabling automation of cumbersome and routine tasks, OpsViz can eliminate unnecessary time and energy spent by IT operations teams of mid-sized businesses. It also helps IT teams analyze historical data and determine patterns to eliminate outages. OpsViz also provides a robust and usable mobile platform that enables system admin and operations managers to have an accurate picture of the data infrastructure systems at any time and from any place. The initial focus for OpsViz is the underserved mid-market companies that typically have 100-5,000 physical servers. As a result of the validation of the product and business by the end user segment, OpsViz can draw upon a confident customer base. Since their launch in early 2013, OpsViz has one paying customer, Wikia. Ten other companies have expressed interest in becoming beta customers. It is also in early negotiations with a Fortune 100 company. OpsViz's next plans to scale up by integrating with successful open-source tools such as Puppet and Chef and differentiate with its superior user experience. It positions itself against monitoring tools like Nagios by providing complete and accurate information. OpsViz is set to bootstrap till it reaches the $1 million revenue mark. It currently reaches out to potential customers through direct sales using tools like Alexa rankings, LinkedIn, and data.com. The company has recently hired an engineer and also works with some part-time UX experts. OpsViz plans to enter the enterprise market once it has gained a strong foothold in the mid-market. It intends to differentiate itself by providing an affordable and extensible platform for smart data center operations. Its long-term vision is to provide collective intelligence and best practices on infrastructure management by applying data analytics to infrastructure operations. The post Former Paypal Managers Servicing Mid-Size Business Data Management Needs appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Want to Win at Sales? Just Be a Gopher! Posted: 29 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST One of the things that drives me nuts most in the business world is this glut of acronyms. Okay, some make sense. But there’s an awful lot of blatantly manufactured acronyms out there (I’m looking at you, self-help business books) that just make me insane. I see a lot of stuff like, ”To win at sales you need to be a G.O.P.H.E.R.!” G – Go get ‘em! O – Only give your best! P – Partner with people who can help! H – Help people who need it! E – Early to bed, early to rise… R – Ready to succeed?! GO! So animals are not your thing? How about C.O.F.F.E.E.: C – Come to work! O – Offer your expertise! F – Free yourself from negative thoughts! F – Focus on the task at hand! E – Examine your goals! E – Everything is awesome! Be positive! Honestly, I could do this all day. Thankfully, we cartoonists get to poke fun at this sort of thing, both as a profession and a form of therapy. Okay, now who’s ready to get some COFFEE for their GOPHER? The post Want to Win at Sales? Just Be a Gopher! appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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Do You Believe Customers are an Asset or a Cost Center?

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• Do You Believe Customers are an Asset or a Cost Center?
• 5 Things that Make Your WordPress Site Run Slow and How to Fix Them
• How Video Helped Dropbox Get 75,000 Subscribers in 24 Hours
• 4 Trade Show Tactics For Small Business Success

Do You Believe Customers are an Asset or a Cost Center? Posted: 28 Nov 2013 04:00 PM PST We’re going to explore one example closely by looking at how Zane’s Cycles grows – because they know and respect the lifetime value of their customers. With only one retail location, Zane's Cycles of Connecticut is one of the three largest bike shops in the United States. They sell $15 million each year in bicycles, and bike supplies, with a relationship grounded in customer trust. For example, on any given day you might see a $6,000 bike go out the door for a test drive without any one of Zane's folks asking to collect the customer's identification or any type of collateral. "Do you want my license?" is often asked by the customer. The response is always, "Nope, just have a good ride." Zane's makes this decision because they want potential customers to know that in this world there's a store that trusts them, and it's Zane's. Made as a decision to embrace customers, this decision also sends a strong message to Zane's staff. Owner Chris Zane says: “This is not about protecting ourselves. We're in the people business, not the thing business. This decision helps our staff understand and act on that key difference." It gives customers confidence and a lasting impression that they have found a place where they'll want to do business. Each Customer's Lifetime Value is $12,500 Zane's won't risk that. Zane's Cycles decided to act on its belief that the majority of customers do what's right. Chris Zane says: “We calculate the lifetime value of every customer at $12,500. Why start out that customer relationship by questioning their integrity? We choose to believe our customers." New Zane's employees often suggest that they protect the business by taking customers' keys or wallets when they test drive a bicycle. Chris Zane firmly says "no" to this suggestion. This is when employees and customers realize Zane's is a service business, not a product business. And it sets the tone for how they interact with people. It frees them to do the right thing. Trust Is Reciprocated: Zane's Loses Only Five Bikes a Year Customers feel trusted by Zane's and that trust is returned to Zane's. Of the 4,000 bikes they sell each year, only about 5 are stolen during test drives. For Zane's it's just not worth having the whole attitude of the company change because of the attitudes of five dishonest people. Zane's believes customers are good. That attitude frees Zane's to grow. They have achieved an average annual growth rate of 23 percent since opening in 1981. Why not take a page from Zane's, and take a hard look at your policies? Change or eliminate any that exist to "protect" you from your customers and ask yourself: Do you know the value of your customers? Does everyone in your company? Does how you value customers guide decision making? Are you investing in customers or managing costs? How would you rate your intent and ability to understand the value of customers and invest in them? Do your decisions on how you value customers earn you "beloved" status today? Take a hard look at your policies. What one thing can you change or eliminate that "nickels and dimes" your customers, especially your best customers? Image: Zane’s Cycles The post Do You Believe Customers are an Asset or a Cost Center? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

5 Things that Make Your WordPress Site Run Slow and How to Fix Them Posted: 28 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PST A slow loading website can hurt your small business by turning away visitors who expect fast load times and smooth online experiences, and harming your reputation. If your site runs slow and you’re running WordPress, there are plenty of things that could be slowing you down. Below are five common reasons for sluggish performance on WordPress platforms, and how you can fix them. If Your WordPress Site Runs Slow. . . You're Running Too Many Plugins The problem With thousands of shiny plugins out there promising to do amazing things for your website, it's easy to get caught up and catch plugin fever. Soon, you've got plugins controlling every function and feature on your site—you might even have plugins for your plugins. This is a problem for a couple of reasons. First, the more plugins you have, the more work your website has to do while it's loading. And second, not all plugins are created equally—poor or outdated plugins can slow down site performance drastically. The Fix Evaluate your current plugins to figure out which ones you actually need. Get rid of multiple plugins that perform the same functions, plugins that you're no longer using, and those that were created more than 5 years ago and have never been updated. Surprisingly, you can check the performance of your plugins with…another plugin. The P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) shows you how each plugin impacts your WordPress site load time, so you can adjust accordingly. Your Homepage Has it All – And Then Some The Problem In most cases, the homepage is the first one your visitors see. So you might have designed it to show off everything you can, in order to impress new visitors. Widgets are cool, right? But the more widgets and content you have on the front page, the longer your site takes to load. The Fix Keep in mind that a clean design is just as impressive. Don't stick sharing widgets everywhere on your homepage (save them for the end of your blog posts, where they'll have the most impact). Pare down and remove any unnecessary widgets or plugins. You can also speed up load times using the WordPress options to show excerpts instead of full posts, and limit the number of posts per page—5 to 7 is a good number. Your Stunning Images Take Up Too Much Space The Problem The higher the size and quality of an image, the longer it takes to load. If you have amazing graphics and an image or two (or more) with every blog post, your loading time will be slower. The Fix There are a few ways to address the image issue. One is with Lazy Load—a process that loads only the images appearing "above the fold," or on the part of the site a visitor is actually viewing. You can do this automatically with the jQuery Image Lazy Load plugin. Another is with an image optimizer program like Yahoo!'s Smush.it. You can use the tool right from the site to compact images (without losing quality)—or you can install the WP Smush.It plugin to have it done automatically when you add images to your site. You're Using a "Free" Third-Party WordPress Theme The Problem Free is the best price for anything, and you may have searched for a free WordPress theme to avoid using the same themes that everyone else has. However, like free movie sites and music downloads, there's an excellent chance that "free" theme comes with a price tag in the form of spyware or viruses, which do more than slow down your site. The Fix Unless you have a really good reason to completely trust the developer of a free theme, only use themes from the official WordPress theme repository. If you want something different, consider investing less than $100 in a premium theme. Your Host Isn't the Most The Problem If you're running the WordPress.org platform, you need a Web host for your site. There are free Web hosting providers, and incredibly cheap hosts. Of course, you're interested in saving money—so you might have gone with the lowest possible price tag. But a poor Web host can hurt more than your load times. The Fix If your Web hosting solution is free or dirt-cheap, consider upgrading to a well known host, which usually runs between $4 and $8 per month. Here's what to think about when choosing a web hosting company. Are you satisfied with how fast your WordPress site loads? Slow Website Photo via Shutterstock The post 5 Things that Make Your WordPress Site Run Slow and How to Fix Them appeared first on Small Business Trends.

How Video Helped Dropbox Get 75,000 Subscribers in 24 Hours Posted: 28 Nov 2013 08:00 AM PST With $257.2 million in funding and a $4-billion valuation in 2011, Dropbox's Drew Houston had one of the hottest startups in the game. How did he get there? According to Houston: "There were a couple of important inflection points." The first occurred after Dropbox released a demo video that captured Y Combinator's attention and helped Dropbox secure an invitation to the exclusive startup program. Milestone two occurred when Dropbox released another video on Digg a year later during its private beta launch. In that video, Houston says his team layered "easter eggs… aimed at the Digg audience" into the otherwise mainstream presentation. The creativity worked. Within 24-hours they "had 75,000 people signup for the wait-list." They were expecting 15,000, max. Clearly, those creative videos were instrumental in Dropbox's success. If you look at the research associated with online video you'll understand why they decided to do a couple. According to Comscore, people who view a Web video are 64% more likely to purchase than those who don't. If the video is kick-ass, that number is probably even higher. Another bit of research (PDF) says that 59% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, and 80% are watching more online video today than they were a year ago. The trend is clear. Yet, amazingly, most websites still have no video. And, the ones that do often have video that's not up to professional standards. In "2 Types of Video to Build Your Business," I share a couple types of Web video that companies, like Dropbox, are using. They are: 1) Animated, explainer videos. 2) High-concept, creative web commercials. Depending on your business or product, one might be a better fit than the other. Most importantly, if you don't have professional quality video content on your site to help tell your message or product benefit, now is a good time to think about getting some. Video Photo via Shutterstock The post How Video Helped Dropbox Get 75,000 Subscribers in 24 Hours appeared first on Small Business Trends.

4 Trade Show Tactics For Small Business Success Posted: 28 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST Trade shows aren’t the least expensive way to market your small business, but they are one of the most powerful if leveraged correctly. Trade shows allow you to reach and speak to people who you might never get the opportunity to do business with otherwise. Planning ahead using a few simple trade show tactics is the key to a successful trade show marketing appearance. Create A Clear Goal for the Trade Show Some small businesses make the mistake of assuming that simply appearing at the trade show is enough to spark interest in their products and a desire to do business with the company. However, every time you attend a trade show you need a clear goal in mind for what you hope to accomplish. Examples of clearly defined goals include: To gauge customer response to a new product or service. To promote brand recognition. To drive traffic to your website. To build new leads. To educate consumers about new product or services. Once the goal is clearly defined, you can craft a booth, presentation and literature to achieve this goal. Create A Powerful Image for Your Booth and Presentation Never underestimate the “wow” factor at a trade show. You only have about 30 seconds to capture your audience’s attention, so make those first few seconds count. Tools for introducing the “wow” factor into your trade show appearance include: A colorful, well-designed booth. Knowledgeable booth staff who can easily engage people in conversation. Working models of your unique product or service. Audio and/or video to capture attention across a busy venue. Literature and/or product samples for potential customers to take home and remember you by. Build ways to garner attention at the event, as well as stick in attendees’ minds afterwards. Part of this is color coordinating your booth artwork with the literature or samples you hand out, so the attendee recognizes your logo and name later on. Promote Your Appearance at the Trade Show Well Ahead of Time Radio ads, TV ads, billboards, and social media are all excellent ways to get the word out ahead of the trade show that you’ll be there. But don’t just promote your appearance, give people a good reasons to come to the trade show and make the effort to stop by your booth. Offer prizes, hold contests, give social media users a booth check-in option, and offer special presentations throughout the event via your social media outposts. People are more likely to come if there’s a reward involved. Choose A Heavy Traffic Event Over A Small Niche Trade Show Some small businesses think that a small niche trade show is better for them to get noticed than a huge, more generalized show, such as a home and garden event or ladies’ show. However, those larger events get much more traffic, which means more exposure for you than you could generate at a small event with fewer attendants. Even if you attend an event where most people are outside your niche, you never know how meeting, greeting, and networking can pay off in the long run. If small businesses plan and use smart strategies and trade show tactics to design the booth, produce quality literature and up the ante with audio or video, they can measure up to the big guys and come out on top. Trade Show Display Photo via Shutterstock The post 4 Trade Show Tactics For Small Business Success appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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