Take a DIY Approach to Market Research With Samplify |  |
- Take a DIY Approach to Market Research With Samplify
- Women Entrepreneurs: Alive and Well, Thank You Very Much!
- Top Franchise Trends for 2013
- Cyber Liability Insurance: Protect Your Business Online
- Netflix CEO Faces Investigation Over Facebook Post
| Take a DIY Approach to Market Research With Samplify Posted: 13 Dec 2012 01:00 PM PST Market research is an important part of launching new products and maintaining customer satisfaction, but it can be tricky for small businesses that don't have in-house researchers or the resources to work with large firms. But as with many things, technology has opened up new possibilities for small businesses. Samplify, a SaaS product of media research company Peanut Labs, recently launched with the goal of making market research easier and more efficient. The service allows companies to take more of a DIY approach to their sampling and research products, saving time and resources while still having control over the process from start to finish. Instead of the more traditional process, which can require a lot of consulting back and forth before actually launching a project, Samplify's DIY platform allows users to create surveys and other sampling projects and launch them to a pool of respondents in minutes. The photo above shows how users can narrow down the respondent pool by different factors such as location. Samplify offers more than 100 different targeting attributes, and you can even set up custom pre-screeners if you only want your sample to go to a very particular group of consumers or business professionals. For small businesses, this type of tool can help test new product viability with a particular target market, determine fair pricing structures, manage surveys, and more. And instead of working on setting up a research project for days, you can launch a sample test to a group of respondents in just minutes. Samplify has access to tens of millions of consumers and business professionals. And once the project has been launched, you can view real-time reporting as responses come in. Peanut Labs is a social monetization company that offers market research surveys and different types of global payments for publishers. The company was originally founded in 2007 and the team of 25 is based in San Francisco. The post Take a DIY Approach to Market Research With Samplify appeared first on Small Business Trends.      |
| Women Entrepreneurs: Alive and Well, Thank You Very Much! Posted: 13 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST I am often faced with whining articles about the lack of women entrepreneurs in our industry. Well, my response has always been to show examples of what is really happening. Let me introduce you to three interesting women in diverse industries from educational technology to online music. Melanie Kusmik: Cubert's Cube
Years of experience in software development and product management at companies like Quantum, 3Com, Nortel Networks has helped Melanie learn to transform a concept into a business. As a fun and social online writing environment, Cubert’s Cube is an absorbing, social online writing program designed to creatively engage young students in all aspects of the writing process. The idea of creating such a platform came while Kusmik was volunteering in her son's kindergarten class. She noticed the kids would become more engaged if someone collaborated on their story idea and allowed them to draw pictures. At the same time, she realized the students' interest in technology. Kusmik brainstormed her ideas with a second grade teacher and came up with the first design of the website in 2010. They developed a prototype and introduced it to 250 second and third grade students and 10 teachers. Kusmik is currently offering a pilot program to validate the product across different teaching and learning environments:
School district-wide licenses will be available in the spring of 2013. TAM for Cubert's Cube is estimated at $45.2M, supposing a 12.5% adoption rate of elementary school teachers and homeschool parents in the United States, where there are 88,000 elementary schools with an average of 30 classrooms in the United States. With the subscription model, Kusmik is expecting an annual recurring revenue stream on a per teacher/single class or per school basis, and often 3 to 4 times more when school districts purchase a multi-year subscription. Writing portfolio and journal books could make up a second revenue stream for the company. Historically speaking, engaging K-12 teachers to adopt new technologies has been challenging, but Melanie is determined and passionate about it. She sees reluctant writers starting to find writing fun. They get to work with friends collaboratively and use features like drawing, inserting pictures, etc. And more and more tech-savvy teachers and parents are tech-savvy, willing to adopt educational technology to help their students learn better and more interactively. Zoe Peden: Insane Logic
Peden spent nine years working in the education and academic publishing industry in product development and editorial. In 2007, she started as a senior manager at The Makaton Charity, a UK-based charity that owns a proven language program consisting of sign language and symbols that aid language acquisition and development. It is primarily used for children and adults with learning disabilities but can also be used for unimpaired pre-school children. Peden partnered with her friend and technical co-founder Andrew Jackman to release Insane Logic's flagship product MyChoicePad, targeting schools and the speech and language therapy markets. As a result of a recent seed investment, the company is starting to build out its very small team. Currently, the company has 1,100 paying customers spending an average of £120, with 5,000 customers on the free version of the app. About 40% of all downloads have taken place in the last three months. The company is now getting the word out about how MyChoicePad can help language development and provide access to alternative communication for the 1 in 10 children in the U.K. who enter school with speech, language and communication needs. Peden has also recently extended the brand to a more mainstream audience with the release of a three game series of apps for building effective language development through using sign language, symbols and pictures, called MyChoicePad Memory. They are aimed at the parental market, specifically for parents with children under five years old. Cookie Marenco: Blue Coast Records
In 1987, she joined Windham Hill Records as a producer where she learned how a record label operates, legal issues of music, relationship development, the intricacies/ problems of music distribution and branding. In 1997, Cookie became the chief engineer for Liquid Audio, one of the first online music download companies. She launched Blue Coast Records in 2007 as a cutting-edge music company pioneering super-resolution audio creation and innovative distribution methods. Blue Coast Records was the first to release DSD (Direct Stream Digital, Sony's newest digital format) audio, which was delivered to end-users through the internet. Since then, Cookie has created several revenue streams and launched many branded products. All her activities revolve around the strong belief:
At times, she has gone against the trends, but it's her commitment towards quality that has made her successful. Prior to Blue Coast, she co-developed a recording technique for surround sound, calling it Extended Sound Environment (ESE). When the rest of the world was turning to home digital recording and low-end mp3, Marenco returned to analog tape and DSD for recordings because the quality was so much better. High-end sound equipment manufacturers were the first to adopt the technology. To sell the expensive gear, Marenco and her partner needed music that was recorded faithfully to the real sound so that it would show off what their products could do. Several manufacturers approached them to create co-branded products and their first sales were to audiophile manufacturers. Marenco was bootstrapping even back then. To retain control over the product, she turned down many investors. She also continued with the studio operations to support Blue Coast Records. She decided to stick to quality audio and continued to sell the discs for $40. That was the best decision she made because demand for her products has increased with time. She started Downloads NOW! as a platform for distributing files of any size. Within six months, manufacturers responded to customers' request and started building converters so that DSD files could be played on home sound systems. As word spread of the new hardware, software support and more recorded music became available. There are more than 150 titles available at Downloads NOW!, with 19,000 users downloading DSD audio in a year. The company is experiencing annual growth of 84%. They are negotiating with Symphony Orchestras, a nationally known major label, to release their content with Downloads NOW! In 2012 Blue Coast Records has already achieved 50% of the revenue required to cover the total operational costs and is very close to the tipping point. These entrepreneurs prove the adage that a good idea coupled with persistence and focus on quality pays off in the end. Gender is irrelevant. The post Women Entrepreneurs: Alive and Well, Thank You Very Much! appeared first on Small Business Trends.     |
| Posted: 13 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST 2013 could turn out to be a terrific year to enter the world of franchise business ownership. If you're thinking about exploring the idea of being your own boss, three things are in your favor if you decide to move forward. 1: Commercial Space Availability A lot of businesses have had to close their doors during the last couple of years, so there's an abundance of decent space available in most areas of the country. With a franchisors help, you should be able to find a great location to set up shop. 2: They're Dealing Franchise company executives have had to get rather creative to entice would-be franchise owners to sign on as franchisees. Most of the time, this "creativity" comes in the form of a franchise fee discount. But, here's the thing: a discounted franchisee fee should by no means be the reason for buying a particular franchise. But, if you're seriously interested in a particular franchise and it just so happens to be one that's offering a "deal," you could come out a winner. Just make sure that you've done great research. 3: Interest Rates Small business loan rates (as of this writing) are generally in the 3-5% range. The caveat: with approved credit. That means that you have to qualify, which may not be so easy. (See below) But, if you do qualify, that's really cheap money for a franchise business startup, and interest rates will eventually go back up. Check out SBA.gov for up to date small business loan information. With those three things in mind, let's take a look at the top franchise trends for 2013: Financing I was really hoping that things would be better by now for would-be franchise business owners. And, as much as I hate repeating the same things over and over again, when it comes to the state of small business start-up lending, this is one drum that I must continue beating. Now, one would think that with small business loans backed by the Small Business Administration reaching record levels ($30.5 billion – 61,689) it would be easier for potential franchise owners to borrow money. But, it's not. To combat the continued lack of significant lending to franchises, a few franchisors have decided to take matters in their own hands. It sure beats waiting for the major banks to loosen their underwriting requirements up. Forbes.com offers some great examples of franchisors getting into the finance game. For 2013, look for more franchisors to start aggressively looking outside of the more traditional lending sources for small business loan capital. Frozen Treats We love our ice cream. And unless you've been avoiding retail plazas for the past couple of years, we obviously like our frozen yogurt, too. But why? For one, yogurt is considered to be a healthy dessert. Well, kind of. Read what The Food Network thinks. Secondly, there are around 25 different franchisors currently offering frozen yogurt franchises. That fact alone has made some of us in the franchise industry wonder how long the frozen yogurt craze is going to last. Restaurant industry analysts are wondering the same thing. On the other hand, I'd be willing to wager that the franchise development teams at Menchie's, Red Mango, Yogurtini, and Yogen Fruz aren't thinking about a slowdown in frozen yogurt franchising at all. As a matter of fact, they're probably working extra hours just to keep up with all the inquiries they've been getting from prospective franchise owners. I expect interest in becoming the owner of a frozen yogurt franchise to remain strong. At the same time, there won't be too many new frozen yogurt franchise concepts entering this increasingly crowded market. Disaster Cleanup One of the biggest news events in 2012 was Superstorm Sandy, and the historic impact it had on cities and towns in the Northeast. Cleanup efforts will go on for months in areas hit hardest by this huge storm. And, some scientists are predicting that powerful storms like Sandy will become more commonplace in the months and years to come. This could be a great time to get into the disaster cleanup and restoration business. And, please don't suggest that I'm encouraging you to go into business to take advantage of the pain and misery that's experienced by others when large-scale disasters happen. Here's an old sales axiom that may help you understand where I'm coming from:
In other words, if you're going to invest your hard-earned money in a franchise business, any type of business for that matter, look to the ones that provide products and services that are actually needed. Here's a partial list of franchises that focus on cleanup and restoration: Franchises in this segment are starting to get noticed more, and if we continue to get episodes of extreme weather in the next year, they'll really be on the radar screens of franchise buyers. Education When the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act was signed into law in 2001, tutoring franchise operators quickly filled out the necessary state paperwork required to be approved as vendors. That's because part of the NCLB act included government funds for after school tutoring from approved vendors. And having money coming in from the government was a pretty nice alternative to the original tutoring model which required, (and still does) payment from parents for the services. Currently, though, there's an ongoing debate about NCLB, and the funding that it receives. It could end up that funding for after-school tutoring programs will decrease. If that happens, the tutoring industry could take a pretty big hit. Except that I actually don't think that the tutoring industry, especially the franchise segment of tutoring, will be impacted all that much if a lot of the government funding disappears. Here's why: A lot of kids struggle with the science and math of today. Whether or not government funding is available doesn't change the absolute need for tutoring services to exist. One has nothing to do with the other. That's why tutoring franchises like Tutor Doctor continue to grow rapidly. Some of the other tutoring franchises include: For 2013, more tutoring franchises will start taking advantage of readily available online learning technology. Franchisees will start offering their customers online tutoring as an option, and at a lower price point than traditional face-to-face tutoring. Technology Services Today's small business owners are embracing technology-and its power, like never before. They know that it's almost impossible to remain competitive these days without it. But, busy business owners don't always know what the best tools are for their individual needs. And, they can't keep up with every new and improved technology that comes down the pike. That's where franchise businesses like Teamlogic IT and CMIT Solutions come into play. Franchisees have the opportunity to offer some of the latest products and services that are designed to help businesses run more efficiently-and safely. But, businesses can't run at capacity unless their technology is working. Sometimes, things break. Computer Troubleshooters is just one of several franchises that provides repair services for computers and other types of technology located at work-or at home. Others include: Franchises in this sector will add numerous mobile technology products and services for their franchisees to offer their customers in 2013. That's because today's small business owners need to reach and sell to their clients and customers where they are these days – on their smartphones and tablets. Thousands of different franchise opportunities are available today, with new concepts rolling out all the time. The trick is to choose one that makes sense for you…which allows you to utilize your best skills. Once you've done that, make sure that you have several conversations with current and former franchisees of the concept you're looking into as part of your due diligence. Then, run the numbers, but don't forget to include what I call, "set aside money." You'll need to have enough money set aside to take care of your living expenses for several months, while your new business gets up and running. Finally, continue to do what you're doing right now – getting educated about franchise industry trends and learning how to go about purchasing a franchise. Who knows? Maybe 2013 will be the year that you take control of your career, and become an owner. The post Top Franchise Trends for 2013 appeared first on Small Business Trends.     |
| Cyber Liability Insurance: Protect Your Business Online Posted: 13 Dec 2012 05:00 AM PST Love it or Hate it, the Internet is here to stay (and you probably don’t question that fact since you’re reading this article online). With each moment, the Internet becomes deeper ingrained in both our personal and professional lives. Though technology and the Internet has helped to make our lives more productive, increased communication and access to information, it has at the same time created new dangers and pitfalls we must be cognizant of. Small Business Now the Focus of Cyber AttacksTwenty-first century businesses are under constant threat of cyber attack from individuals and organizations looking to steal and profit off the information stored on their computers. Though all business industries are susceptible to a cyber liability loss, for the purposes of this article, we will focus on the risk concerns for professional trades such as lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, dentists, doctors, etc. The professional trades listed above, (not an inclusive list, there are many others), are extremely vulnerable to a data security or privacy lawsuit because of the confidential and personal information stored in their computer databases. Professional service businesses are also seen as easy targets. American Express understands that hackers want the valuable personal and financial data stored on their computer mainframes… so American Express protects itself with both preventative systems and insurance coverage. The average main-street law firm or accounting agency sees themselves as too small to be targeted. WRONG! These smaller organizations are seen as “easy pickins.” Hackers have turned their malicious gaze upon the small business. According to Symantec, in first quarter of 2012, 36 percent of all targeted attacks (58 per day) during the last six months were directed at businesses with 250 or fewer employees. That figure was 18 percent at the end of Dec. 2011. That is DOUBLE the attacks in one quarter… Scary. Cyber Liability InsuranceToday’s cyber liability insurance policy (there have been many iterations over the 10 year life of cyber liability), includes network liability as well as the following first party coverages:
In an article by the Insurance Journal on cyber liability outlines further where exposures come from: including outsourced service providers for Web hosting, credit card processing, call centers, document storage, and data warehousing. Covered Events Include:
If you feel your business is exposed to this type of loss (which it most likely is) I must caution you, cyber liability in insurance terms is very young. Each insurance carrier’s policy forms will not be the same. There will be huge different coverage and exclusions from carrier to carrier. Talk with your insurance professional in depth to make sure you understand what you are purchasing. This is NOT a homeowners policy, this is an advanced business policy that demands discussion. Hacker Photo via Shutterstock The post Cyber Liability Insurance: Protect Your Business Online appeared first on Small Business Trends.     |
| Netflix CEO Faces Investigation Over Facebook Post Posted: 13 Dec 2012 02:30 AM PST As a business owner, everything you do is under scrutiny. This includes what you say in the world of social media as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is finding out the hard way. But other things, like the kind of content you decide to put on your Website, the validity of your claims about products or services, even the feedback left by your customers on review sites and how you react to that feedback, are important too. The way you communicate with your customers and the public is changing. Improving the way you talk about your company and how you react to what others say about you may be one of the biggest challenges you face as an entrepreneur. Be sure you get it right. MiscommunicationToo much information. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings may be in hot water over a post on his Facebook page back in June when he announced the news that customers of the streaming video provider have watched more than one billion hours of content on the service, a significant milestone. The problem, according federal authorities, has to do with whether Facebook was an appropriate channel over which to release information that should have been more formally shared with investors. There are so many ways to have a conversation about your business. Be sure you use discretion. Reuters Wrong choice of words. Matthew Inman, creator of the edgy Website The Oatmeal, is used to upsetting readers from time to time with his taboo subject matter and crude drawings. In fact, Inman’s bad boy style has become an important part of his brand and something that brings fans back to his site again and again. Inman is also running a business with an online shop that sells books, gifts, and other products featuring his humor, artwork, and writing. So, it’s interesting to see what happens when the bad boy brand and his business interests collide, as they did again recently when some of his readers seemed to feel he’d crossed the line. (This post includes some language not appropriate for viewing at work.) The Oatmeal Things We Said TodayTruth in advertising. Small business owners know all about the importance of creativity when marketing products and services. Remember, however, that there are regulations, here in the U.S. and in many countries, governing claims you make about what your products and services can do. Make sure you are familiar with the rules in your country, and if your business is located in the U.S., be sure to review the relevant regulations including the Federal Truth-in-Advertising Laws. Avoid action by the Federal Trade Commission or your state government by making sure claims you make when communicating with customers conform to the rules. SBA.gov Review your options. Communication between your company and the public isn’t a one way street. Feedback comes in many forms, including comments on review sites like Yelp and Trustpilot. These sites can intimidate some businesses at first, says blogger Anthony Karibian. However, if you are providing great products and services there is no need to worry. Review sites can be great for marketing your business with testimony from customers who’ve become your biggest fans. bOnline Blog Freedom of SpeechLearn to take criticism. By contrast, reacting badly or inappropriately to customer feedback can hurt your brand, even when you’re sure you’re in the right. Take, for example, the instance of a building contractor that sued a woman for leaving a negative review the company claimed was defamation. A court agreed and awarded damages, writes marketer Nick Stamoulis, but the company lost in the court of public opinion. Users left angry comments on the review site, infuriated over the company’s treatment of a customer. Brick Marketing Blog The invisible brand. When starting your business, bad press may be the least of your problems. For many business owners, the real challenge is trying to get people just to pay attention. You may think that a simple DIY marketing approach is all you need. The truth is that it may be harder than you think, writes Alex Hinojosa, a public relations expert. He tells the story of a father who hired an agency to assist his recently published daughter promote her book as a holiday gift. Business owners know the importance of good publicity. It’s imperative to your success. EMSI Learn a new language. The best way to learn how to communicate with your customers is to look at the way the public relations industry has changed, says Gini Dietrich, founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based PR firm. Rather than a message sent from you to your customers, business communications has become a conversation. It’s time to figure out how to join in the dialogue. It’s time to learn a new language. Wood Street Inc. The post Netflix CEO Faces Investigation Over Facebook Post appeared first on Small Business Trends.     |
Any teacher will tell you how hard it to teach elementary school kids to write. Because these students vary in cognitive and motor skill development, writing can be frustrating for many to learn such important skills. Entrepreneur, Melanie Kusmik, hopes to solve that problem by teaching kids to write through social web technology.
Kids with learning disabilities have been found to respond well to various types of education technology. Zoe Peden created 
Cookie Marenco knows the music industry inside out. Starting as a fourteen-year-old piano teacher, she bootstrapped her recording studio in 1982 with a partner and received Grammy nominations and two Gold Records.
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