Topping the News: Kayne Sues over Coinye, Curved Phones Are Coming

Topping the News: Kayne Sues over Coinye, Curved Phones Are Coming
The Value of a Twitter Follower, In an Animated Presentation
Solutions to Dealing with Difficult Clients
14-Year-Old Entrepreneur Founds Pillow Startup, Becomes Chief Cuteness Officer
Do You Mind If I Undermine Your Authority?

Posted: 17 Jan 2014 04:15 PM PST

News TabletEDIT

Here’s the top business news this week from our Small Business Trends editorial team.

Entrepreneurship

Kayne West files infringement suit against virtual currency developers. The singer, wrapper and songwriter has become an icon. So it should have come as no surprise to a group of developers this week when West filed suit to protect his name.

Animal pillows are the products for this 14-year-old’s startup. Sydney Lowe goes to school in the Silicon Valley. So it’s probably no surprise that entrepreneurship is part of her curriculum. But not every teenager launches their own ecommerce business.

Tech

Curved smartphones finally head to the U.S. Learn more about what’s behind this tech trend. Hint: Durability is certainly one thing. The question is whether you need and can justify the cost of one of these.

The world’s first Ultra HD laptops are here. And who knows? One of them could be perfect for your business. Of course, it will have to be a graphic or video intense business to justify the capabilities packed into this hardware.

Web

Web.com and MasterCard have a new product for online businesses. You can add the Take-A-Payment tool to your website and start processing payments from credit cards immediately. And all of it is powered through a MasterCard service called Simplify Commerce.

Vimeo builds faster, more mobile, more social player. One of YouTube’s many competitors is video site Vimeo. Though using Vimeo for business isn’t free, there are some new features that may make it an attractive option.

Yes, 60 percent of your traffic is bots. A report from Incapsula sheds new light on who (or what) is really visiting your website. So what does this mean to you as a website owner?

Yahoo unveils news digest, digital magazines. The Web portal is still trying to reinvent itself. But will these new products resonate with an audience? Online business owners who create branded news content know the challenges involved.

Social Media

The value of a Twitter follower. You’ve got them, of course. And sometimes you may even be a bit competitive when it comes to getting more. We’re talking about Twitter followers. And, in this post Small Business Trends publisher Anita Campbell reviews data showing what they can do for your business.

Vine is still growing. The video app has been overshadowed by Instagram of late. In fact, some say the photo sharing app’s attempt to steal Vine’s thunder by adding a video feature was the beginning of the end. But rumors of Vine’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

Facebook will shut down (some) sponsored stories. Time will tell what a notice published in Facebook’s development section recently will mean for the future of one of site’s more controversial advertising products. Chances are, if you’ve used sponsored stories you’ll see some big changes in the program soon.

Policy

Obama nominates new Small Business Administration chief. Maria Contreras-Sweet has been tapped to be the next Administrator of the Small Business Administration. Her claim to fame is founding a community bank in California.

Update: New postage rates now available. We told you last week postage rates would go up Jan. 26. The new rates are now posted on the USPS website. We’ve added a link on our original story to let you have a look.

News tablet photo via Shutterstock

The post Topping the News: Kayne Sues over Coinye, Curved Phones Are Coming appeared first on Small Business Trends.

The Value of a Twitter Follower, In an Animated Presentation

Posted: 17 Jan 2014 01:30 PM PST

Have you ever wondered about the value of a Twitter follower? Or perhaps you know a colleague or have a manager who still needs to be convinced of the value of Twitter.

If so, take a look at this animated presentation from Twitter. It’s called “The Value of a Twitter Follower.”

It illustrates how one person who checks out your business via Twitter, eventually may lead to new sales. One follower can lead to new followers through retweeting and interacting. And those followers and their word of mouth activity eventually lead to website / store traffic, sign-ups and sales. The real-world follower progression is described this way:

Follower = word of mouth
Follower = reach
Follower = traffic
Follower = sign-ups
Follower = sales

And start all over again.

Realistic Sales Scenario, via Word of Mouth

One of the best things about this presentation is that it is realistic.

(1) It doesn’t try to give you an exact dollar amount per follower. That’s almost impossible given the vastly different businesses out there.

(2) While it’s possible that someone may discover your Twitter feed and instantly buy something that first time (yes, it does happen occasionally) — usually it’s not a straight one-shot path. The real-world path to a sale from Twitter tends to be more nuanced. It may involve word of mouth spreading from one person to another. It may involve a series of several activities that eventually lead to a sale.

In the animation, you see the scenario of Joe the surfer who gets a smoothie with friends and discovers a new surf store next door to the smoothie shop. He immediately checks out the surf store’s Twitter feed on his smartphone. He begins following the surf store’s Twitter account. He then sees great new deals and passes those on to his friends. He gets help solving a surf board problem, and he also signs up for the company’s newsletter. Later on he sees a good deal on a surf suit and buys it from the store. It ends with him tweeting a photo wearing his new surfing suit.

By being active on Twitter, the surf-store business picks up new followers, word of mouth, newsletter sign-ups and eventually sales. If you have ever heard of the phrase “the kind of advertising money can’t buy,” then that surely applies here.

You don’t need millions of followers to get more business. The example involves 17 new followers — a realistic number for most small businesses.

The animated presentation is backed up by data from a small business survey conducted for Twitter. We covered some of the data here: 72% of Twitter followers are more likely to make a future purchase.

The presentation is the brainchild of the official Twitter Small Biz (@TwitterSmallBiz) channel. You can find the animated Twitter presentation here.

Image: Twitter

The post The Value of a Twitter Follower, In an Animated Presentation appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Solutions to Dealing with Difficult Clients

Posted: 17 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST

dealing with difficult clients

When you work in a B2B services industry, you have long client relationships. I have clients I’ve worked with for years and those are the ones I love. Then there are those, well, that require a bit more patience. Dealing with difficult clients is challenging, however, I’m fortunate that I rarely have this type of customer. But when I do, I try to deal with them in the appropriate manner.

Below I’ve identified the most common types of difficult clients and how to deal with each. See which ones sound familiar to you.

Dealing With Difficult Clients

1. The Ultra-Hands-On Client

You know the one: They call the second they send you an email to make sure you got it. They follow up before the deadline on a project to make sure it’s on track.

In the office, they’re known as the Micro-manager. But since you’re a consultant, it’s a bit weird that they try to get so involved. After all, they’re paying you to do what you do best, right?

The Solution

My advice here is to establish boundaries.

I’ve had an ultra-hands-on client call me on the weekend – yes, the weekend. I firmly let them know I’d be available at 8 AM on Monday to discuss the non-urgent marketing emergency they felt they were having. You can also give yourself some breathing room on deadlines so you can meet them before the client has a chance to check up on you.

If you tell them you’ll complete a project on Friday and you know they’ll call on Thursday, finish it on Wednesday to avoid them breathing down your neck. But be subtle about it – or else they’ll start calling you on Tuesday.

2. The Untrusting Client

This is the one who isn’t quite sure you’re able to handle the task or understand their company as well as they do.

They’re right to be a bit territorial. But it’s your job to reassure them that you’re skilled in what you do, and get them to let go of their firm grip on things.

The Solution

A lot of times, it’s about control in this situation. And you can’t fight someone’s will to be in control (just ask my husband).

To that end, include your client in the process. Ask for feedback and get their opinion — unless you start to get the sense that they think you’re doing so because you’re unsure of yourself. In that case, show extreme confidence in what you do. If it’s early in your relationship, point them to other clients that can give you a shining recommendation.

3. The “I Can Do It Better Myself” Client

If your client wasn’t so busy running their business, they’d be writing, designing and/or programming whatever you do.

They took a survey course in that field in college 10 years ago, so they know what they’re doing. (But do they really??) So they try to impart their opinion on everything you do. It’s getting in the way of you actually getting quality work done, and sometimes their opinions…how can we say – aren’t shared by the general public.

The Solution

Make them feel like you’re there to lighten their load. Stress the importance of them focusing on what they do best (run their company) while you do the silly, boring work they hired you to do.

When to Fire a Client

You can try all these strategies to try to make an ornery client easier to deal with, but sometimes it’s not worth the stress. In that case, it might be wiser to fire the client. If any of these situations below are coming up regularly, consider letting the client go:

Projects are taking longer than they should due to constant client involvement.
You have to revise work frequently and you aren’t getting paid for it.
The scope of projects gets bigger but the client is unwilling to pay for more work.
You don’t have time to focus properly on your other clients.

The better you can find successful ways when dealing with difficult clients you may have, the more streamlined your work will be. It’s a matter of determining the best strategy to handle each client.

Frustrated Photo via Shutterstock

The post Solutions to Dealing with Difficult Clients appeared first on Small Business Trends.

14-Year-Old Entrepreneur Founds Pillow Startup, Becomes Chief Cuteness Officer

Posted: 17 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

poketti

Fourteen-year-old Sydney Lowe got her brilliant idea for cute pillow designs while taking an entrepreneurial class at her middle school. With the help of her parents, she raised $20,000 on Kickstarter to launch her business. It’s become a family affair. Her mom became the CEO and, as the chief designer of the adorable animal pillows, she took on the title of Chief Cuteness Officer.

It’s not surprising. She goes to school in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley and its thriving startup scene. Lowe attends The Girls’ Middle School, in Palo Alto. In seventh grade, she took a class that required her to work with a team to create a product. Eventually the students were required to pitch the idea to a panel of Venture Capital investors.

Her group wanted to do an animal theme and one member of the group had some sewing skills. So Lowe suggested pillows designed to look like cute animals.

It didn’t take long for Lowe to realize she had a viable business idea. The pillows, which are marketed under the name “Poketti, Plushies with a Pocket,” have four adorable designs: Sydney the Penguin, Toni the Bunny, Baxter the Puppy and Roxi the Kitty. The pillows are functional, with pockets in the back.

The family also brought in expert Dennis Kupperman of RB Toy Design Inc. to help them navigate the perilous seas of the toy making business.

In a recent article at The Huffington Post, Lowe writes:

“Working with Dennis has been a huge learning experience, not only for me, but for my mom as well. We had no idea how many little details there were to set up a toy business: trademarks, copyrights, websites, barcodes, patterns, fabric selection, regulations, and even safety testing!”

But nothing could deter them. The business now has an online store up and running carrying its adorable merchandise.

The lesson learned? You’re never too young to be an entrepreneur – the key is determination.

The post 14-Year-Old Entrepreneur Founds Pillow Startup, Becomes Chief Cuteness Officer appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Do You Mind If I Undermine Your Authority?

Posted: 17 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST

undermine authority cartoon

Sometimes, you don’t need a clever turn of phrase to make a cartoon. Sometimes, you don’t need to find a connection among seemingly unassociated ideas. Sometimes, you don’t need to set up a pun, or turn something upside down, or draw a really funny exaggerated pose.

Sometimes, all it takes is pointing out something we’ve all experienced – acknowledging it plainly and simply.

The post Do You Mind If I Undermine Your Authority? appeared first on Small Business Trends.