Top Question in Our Business Community: Are You Afraid of Publicity? |  |
- Top Question in Our Business Community: Are You Afraid of Publicity?
- WhatsApp Messaging Service Reaches 400 Million Active Users
- 7 Essential Productivity Tips – and The Tools to Achieve Them
- 10 Small Business Management Books to Read This Year
| Top Question in Our Business Community: Are You Afraid of Publicity? Posted: 05 Jan 2014 05:15 PM PST
It’s time again for another community news and information roundup. We’ve gathered contributions from across our small business community and from the contributors and blogs we’ve been following the most this week. We hope you find it helpful. Don’t Be Afraid of Publicity Market Witchcraft Copywriter Patrysha Korchinski observes that one problem many small businesses may face when marketing is an actual fear of publicity. If you fear the notoriety publicity will give you, remember that marketing is about trying to stand out. It may be time to rethink your priorities. Read more. Main Streets Programs Promote Small Business Salem Main Streets Does your community have a Main Streets program. These programs can create promotional events and help market the small businesses in your community in many ways. Read about Salem, Mass.’s unique program and its efforts to promote small business in the community. Connecting with Customers Milwaukee Community Journal You’ve heard it all before. Start a blog for your business. Start a Facebook page. Start working at developing word of mouth. These aren’t just motions to go through. They are absolutely necessary to build a connection with your customers, reports C. Daniel Baker. Business Relationships are Key WomenPartner.org Another thing we hear often is about the importance of relationships in business. What we mention less often perhaps is that for entrepreneurs like Bonnie-Ross Parker, CEO and founder of Xperience Connections, helping foster those relationships can be a business in itself. What Really Makes Your Brand Great? The Hashbrown Graphics guy Jacob Hershberger starts out discussing the pros and cons of the new logo for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and then ends with a fascinating question. It gets to the heart of how logos really work. The question looks at what really goes into building an effective brand? Mobile Will Change Your Marketing Think Tank Mobile Marketing Mobile marketing is changing the business landscape. Fortunately, an increasing amount of data tells us what’s going on out there. Here’s an infographic with 12 statistics you absolutely need to be aware of, according to the folks at Think Tank. Don’t Be a Master of Distraction Zero Geek Speak! You’ve heard of hands free technology to make communicating while driving easier and (in theory) safer. Yeah, well, not everyone is convinced. Communications specialist William Brown has another take. Why Are Customers Afraid of Your Online Store? Jeremy Said Let’s face it. If customers don’t trust your online store, they are not going to buy from you. Business trainer Jeremy Smith has some insights about what might create lack of trust in your website. Create a Community to Deliver Business Help BizSugar Blog Suppose you run a business consulting service, but you find some clients aren’t able to pay. Perhaps it’s time to switch from a fee-based service. Build a community instead and charge for membership. Devan Perine shares the strategy behind EnMast. If you’d like to help us make these roundups even better, email us at sbtips@gmail.com with suggestions about news, information or blog posts you think we should include. Or submit your content to BizSugar. It’s a place we go to discover new voices and find authentic small business content. Business news on tablet photo via Shutterstock The post Top Question in Our Business Community: Are You Afraid of Publicity? appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| WhatsApp Messaging Service Reaches 400 Million Active Users Posted: 05 Jan 2014 01:30 PM PST
If you need an inexpensive way to keep in touch with partners, clients or anyone else in your professional life, consider this. One of the largest (and cheapest) messaging services in the world may be an option. One messaging app, SnapChat, experiences a set-back with hackers posting names and phone numbers of 4.6 million users. But another, WhatsApp, claims to have reached a dizzying milestone: 400 million users a month. In a recent post on the official WhatsApp blog, co-founder and CEO Jan Koum explained what he believes is the reason for the app’s success.
Instead of allowing any kind of advertising, WhatsApp charges a small fee: It’s actually free the first year and then $.99 every year after that. This still makes WhatsAppp more affordable than most other instant messaging services. The app is available for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry. Take a look at this report from CCTV America about the app’s sweeping popularity. (And also take note of a reported $1 billion offer from Google to buy the service a few months ago. It’s an offer WhatsApp apparently rejected.) The service could also be considered a form of social media, since users can share text messages, photos, video or audio with their entire list of contacts. (This is roughly similar to sharing content with followers or friends on Twitter or Facebook.) However, like SnapChat and other similar messaging apps, it is also much easier (in theory) to share messages only with individual or a select few contacts. WhatsApp is also among the messaging apps which some experts say may be siphoning off younger users from social sites like Facebook. In fact, about 78 percent of teenagers and young people now prefer messaging apps to social media when communicating with their friends, The Guardian reports. This may be an important trend if your company is targeting younger customers. Image: WhatsApp.com The post WhatsApp Messaging Service Reaches 400 Million Active Users appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 7 Essential Productivity Tips – and The Tools to Achieve Them Posted: 05 Jan 2014 10:30 AM PST
If you do a lot of work with information, and use a computer, then you may suffer from information overload and not even know where to start. Let us make it easy on you. Here are 7 simple productivity tips and suggestions for tools to help you achieve them: 1. Create A Place To Take NotesFirst, you need a place to take and keep notes. The key thing is to get your brain uncluttered. You’ll have more space left over for problem solving, if you don’t have to clutter your mind with remembering lots of details — or worrying that you might forget something. You’ll be better able to focus on the task at hand. Do one thing at a time. There are several options for taking notes including Evernote, Zoho Notebook, and Google Keep. Ideally, when you get a thought or are inspired by something, you should get in the habit of using your phone to capture screen shots or record your voice and post it to one of these cloud-based notebooks. I use Evernote extensively — especially the audio recording option when I cannot type a note. There is a fee-based transcription app that you can get if you do a lot of recording. Voice2Note, Quicktate, and the Mobile Assistant are three that I have seen.
[Image: Remember the Milk] 2. Make A Shorter To-Do ListIt may seem counterintuitive, but making a shorter to-do list can help you get more done. I have even heard of a number of experts advocating "To Don't" lists where you avoid getting sucked into things that don't make you productive at all. A long to-do list is anything more than 5 items per day. When you have a long to-do list, you can get lost in everything you have to do and overwhelmed. You spend more time thinking about which item you will tick off next or worrying about all the work you have to do, instead of actually working. Once you have five items, stop. It also helps to list your to-do items in order of importance to further reduce thought time throughout the day. Some good to-do list tools are Toodledo, Teuxdeux, and a fun favorite: Remember The Milk. Who doesn’t love the cow peeking out at you to keep you on task! 3. Learn to Type FasterYes, you should learn better typing skills to be more productive. This may seem a silly tip, but hear me out. I frequently see business owners and executives who type with two fingers. Not very efficient — or fast! Everyone who works on a computer (and today that includes most knowledge workers) should take a typing class to improve their speed. Being able to type quickly and effectively type without looking at the keyboard is very important and allows you to edit while you go. Check out Keybr.com if you don't want to invest in software or typing classes to do better. It features a neat — and free — typing speed test, as well as advice on how to improve your typing skills. By practicing over and over using Keybr.com, you will gradually improve.
4. Use a Tickler File so You Meet DeadlinesCreate a tickler file for your projects. A tickler file traditionally contains 43 divisions – one for each of the 31 days of a month (labeled 1 – 31), and 12 for the months of the year. (Never mind that some months have fewer days!) You take your projects and put a written reminder about them in the file according to when they are due. For the current month, a project goes into the number files for whatever day it is due. When a project or deliverable is due in other months, it goes in one of the month files. Each day, you pull out the contents of the folder marked for that day’s date and work on the stuff in it. Then once the next month rolls around, you transfer that month’s reminders into the days, and repeat. Now, you could take a pile of 43 manilla folders and manually label each one. But it’s easier to keep everything organized neatly if you use a folder created for that purpose. Here are some physical examples of tickler folders on Amazon (one is pictured above). You could do this digitally in Microsoft Excel, too. Here are instructions for creating tickler due dates in Excel. 5. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel – Find An App InsteadUse the right apps to get the job done. Yes, you could create your own spreadsheet that tracks expenses and receipts, but why spend all that effort and time when there are plenty of options out there to save you that setup time? For instance, Shoeboxed comes to mind as a good app for receipts. Or perhaps a hardware based app like Neat Receipts is more to your liking. Either way, start with a system that makes your business more productive. After all, this is about being productive and effective — so use every advantage you can. You don’t get extra points for reinventing the wheel! On the contrary — if you are reinventing the wheel you’ll be working harder, but not smarter. So which tasks should you find apps for? Start by identifying the tasks you and your team hate to do, or the repetitive ones that take several hours each week or month. Those are candidates for an app to make your business more productive — so that you can accomplish more in less time and with less expense. Don’t forget to check out our best small business apps lists here at Small Business Trends for more — everything from presentation tools to mobile apps. 6. Use Keyboard Shortcuts, Browser Tools and “Hacks”After you practice and get faster at typing, teach yourself some keyboard shortcuts. A quick and easy way to improve the speed of the work you do is to use Windows shortcuts or Apple shortcuts on the keyboard. I use all sorts of shortcuts, plus I leverage browser tools if they can help. Also, look for or figure out “hacks” (i.e., little tricks and techniques) that work right from the browser address bar. I did that with this popular hack: Post A Tweet Directly From Google Chrome. There are so many useful hacks that it can boost your productivity just to learn a few.
[Image: Pocket] 7. Create a Place to Store InspirationUse tools to store inspirations for later. When you come across an article that sounds interesting but is not related to the current research you are doing, you can store it for reading later. Pocket (my current favorite tool) lets you save items for later, offline reading, and also serves as a killer web bookmarking app. The only downside of Pocket is you can’t really add much besides tags. An alternative is Instapaper. Once you have finished reading your bookmarked articles using one of these tools, you can archive or check them off. Both apps will integrate with your iPhone, browser, and other productivity tools. You keep one master account and can mark pages across all your devices (same with Evernote and other collaborative tools). * * * * What are your secrets for staying profitable and productive? Share your productivity tips in the comments below, please. Productivity photo via Shutterstock The post 7 Essential Productivity Tips – and The Tools to Achieve Them appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 10 Small Business Management Books to Read This Year Posted: 05 Jan 2014 07:15 AM PST
Successful management for small business owners is about identifying the right things to do, building a team, and then pulling them together to accomplish those things. When done well, the whole enterprise and your life appear to be running smoothly and effortlessly. When done poorly, or not at all, you find yourself in a never ending whirlwind of unfinished projects and missed opportunities, feeling like there's too much to do and not enough time. This collection of small business management books will help you to focus, leverage and manage all of the tasks, teams and personalities that are a part of your business and your life. We’ve included the publication date and the Twitter handles of each author, too: Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellenceby Daniel Goleman (@DanielGolemanEI) (October, 2013)
Psychologist, journalist and author of “Emotional Intelligence” Daniel Goleman is giving small business owners more brain food with “Focus.” This book is all about "attention" in all its many forms and how building your attention-ability will drive excellence. Goleman says that the ability to focus is much like a muscle. And in a world filled with distractions, this is a skill worth developing. Focus is filled with case studies and science that is not only intriguing, but informative and entertaining. The 80/20 Manager: The Secret to Working Less and Achieving Moreby Richard Koch (@RichardKoch8020) (October, 2013)
With so many shiny new objects vying for our attention, this book aims to give you new strategies to leverage the old 80/20 rule, or Pareto principle. The Pareto principle says that 80% of the effects (or benefits or results) come from 20% of the causes (or actions). And Koch applies it to management. If you already know you want to simplify, but don't know where to begin, “The 80/20 Manager” has some ideas for you. In fact, it has ten ways or strategies that you can use to help you leverage your time and resources. You don't have to do them all, just pick the ones that will work best for your situation. Play at Work: How Games Inspire Breakthrough Thinkingby Adam L. Penenberg (@Penenberg) (October 2013)
Have you heard the word "gamification" yet? Even if you haven't heard the word, you have certainly experienced it. Gamification is the idea of using play to accomplish work tasks. If you're a member of a frequent shopper program, that is a form of gamification. Adam Penenberg, investigative journalist and author of “Viral Loop,” explores the power of using play to accomplish work tasks in his latest book. Penenberg shares stories, case studies and features a variety of businesses explaining how they use game inspired strategies. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Lifeby Scott Adams (@Dilbert_Daily) (October 2013)
Dilbert fans rejoice! Scott Adams, the cartoonist who pokes fun at the workplace and managers, is lending his unique perspective on the world of work to this book. If you secretly resent all those "made it big" books about people who seem to succeed in life while you fail and flail around — this is the book for you. Adams shares all of his downfalls and failures (which are many and kind of funny) and explores his unlikely success. It turns out that Adams had a long list of small business failures before making it big. A great read for when you're feeling down and out but still kind of hopeful. The Gen Y Handbook: Applying Relationship Leadership to Engage Millennialsby Diane Spiegel (@Diane_E_Spiegel) (Apr 2, 2013)
Did you know that there are now four generations working together in many businesses? With that many different viewpoints on life, you are going to need a communications manual and this is it. Any manager of a multi-generational workforce will want to use this book as a reference. Inside you'll find helpful tips on how to manage and motivate Gen Ys (also known as Millennials). Some people object to making generalities about an entire generation. But look at it this way: the goal is not to stereotype millions of people just based on the year when born. Instead, it’s to understand the cultural forces that shape the way many of them think and act. And that’s important information to know, as a manager. Bankable Leadership : Happy People, Bottom-Line Results, and the Power to Deliver Bothby Tasha Eurich (@tashaeurich) (Oct 1, 2013)
Today's work environment increasingly uses teams, and motivated teams are key. Whether you're in a multinational organization or solo-preneur with a virtual team, you've probably struggled with the balance of getting results from your team, while maintaining a fun and enjoyable work environment. Bankable Leadership contains a variety of tools that include online assessments and case studies. These will help you take a no-fear approach to leading your team. Whether you’re a new manager or a seasoned one, these tools can make a difference in a small business. You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Doneby Liane Davey (@LianeDavey) (Sep 23, 2013)
We talk about the rugged individualism of entrepreneurship, but the truth is that not much gets done these days that doesn't involve working with or being part of a team. Even if you are a solo entrepreneur, chances are you hire some independent contractors and service providers. So what is it that makes some teams stellar performers and others implode or explode and die? This book by Liane Davey gives you the updated building blocks of running and being part of a high-performing work team. You'll learn how to start your projects with positive assumptions and get practical advice on the most effective language to use to move your team forward. Remote: Office Not Requiredby Jason Fried (@jasonfried) and David Heinemeier Hansson (@DHH), (Oct 31, 2013)
What started as a "radical" concept of flex time and working from home is quickly turning into the norm. Fried and Hansson (trend setting thinkers and founders of software firm 37 Signals) set out to show the many benefits of moving work to the worker instead of the worker to the office. While this isn't an option for many businesses, it might be a profit boosting strategy for your business. Their research shows that 60% of working moms would love this option and that there are many benefits including the ability to work across and service a variety of time zones. Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Dayby Todd Henry (@ToddHenry), (Sep 26, 2013)
If you spend your days in a flurry of activity, yet go to bed feeling like you wasted your day, this is the book for you. Todd Henry helps you take on the mindset and the urgency to make each day and each minute matter. Henry explores what it means to "Die Empty" — it DOESN'T mean working yourself to death or following every whim. The book is a deep exploration of finding the unique contribution that only YOU can bring to the world and then leveraging every minute to see it through. Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talentby Nolan Bushnell, and Gene Stone, (Jul 16, 2013)
You may not know the name Nolan Bushnell, but you know Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, two of the companies he founded. This is the ideal book for small business owners looking to get the best from themselves and to recognize and nurture great talent inside their organizations. It’s one of the best small business management books about recruiting, hiring and growing a team. The book contains a checklist of best practices that you can use to either hire great employees or build a great team. * * * * * And if you are looking for more small business management books, see our earlier list from 2011. Good management advice is timeless. Now, go out there and create a great team and a great company! Management books photo via Shutterstock The post 10 Small Business Management Books to Read This Year appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment