Small Business Blog

A report by Econsultancy and Online Marketing Summit attempts to understand how companies are quantifying the value of social media. Admittedly, we did not buy the report, but we did read the 24-page “free sample.” Two statistics jump out:

• 61 percent of companies have tinkered with social media, without jumping in, full board, to a social media strategy
• 13 percent of companies are not doing anything at all

Do these numbers imply that the social media landscape is less competitive than, say, your local phone book or local search results? To answer that question, we’d have to know similar usage data on those other forms of media. One thing’s for sure, the popularity of social media is growing. Facebook traffic, for example, is exploding to the point where this site is the second most popular on the Web. And this means social media is poised to get more competitive over time.

Understanding this, do you think there’s a closing window of opportunity for your small business to secure a position in social media before Twitter, Facebook and others become bogged down with endless clutter, the way search engine results are currently? Could be. Remember when businesses first started launching Web sites? Those who got in early swooped up the domain names and ushered in fundamental changes to entire industries (travel and banking sectors come to mind). It was a lot easier to establish first-page ranking when you weren’t competing with the whole world, right? Those who came on to the Web scene later in the game have struggled to build and maintain visibility under generic key phrases. Could the same thing happen with social media (or has it already)? (continue reading…)

When you establish a service business, you generally start out by taking whatever work you can get. That can mean working for less than you’re worth, or accepting projects that are excessively risky–such as those for clients who won’t sign a contract or who refuse to give you a deposit for the work. If you must choose between sitting in your office idle or working under less-than-desirable conditions, the latter option sometimes has more upside.

But there will come a time when you have to stop taking those projects. And it will be hard to do. The entrepreneurial spirit often drives us to take on everything and anything, for fear that all work will dry up tomorrow. Resist that urge. The future of your business depends on it. (continue reading…)

The Internet may be a land of opportunity for entrepreneurs, but most newbies still need a map to help them find their way to success. The best “map” comes in the form of real-world instruction that entrepreneurs can easily implement, and then refine according to their own objectives.

If you’ve tried to find this type of instruction, you’ve likely found yourself wondering how to tell the difference between scams and legitimate opportunities. Believe it or not, there’s an easy answer to that question, and it lies in your expectations. No business system you buy or invest in will make money for you. At the end of the day, you still have to do the work, solve the problems, make the adjustments and persevere through challenges.

Said another way, the service providers that offer to help you make money online are educators, not miracle workers. You still have to be the student and put the lessons into practice.

Take the Maverick Coaching Plan as an example. (continue reading…)

This week, WebProNews published an article that poses this startling question: does your business really need a website? If you’ve recently put money into your online presence or even thought about putting money into your online presence (and who hasn’t??), this question might catch you off guard. You might find yourself thinking, wait, do I? What am I really getting from my site anyway?

Don’t start second-guessing every web decision you’ve ever made. Because yes, you do need an online presence.

Phew. Glad we resolved that. The real question is, what kind of web presence will best support your business growth? You may not need the conventional brochure site that was the first choice just five years ago. You may find it easier to meet your online objectives with a simple blog, message board or a Facebook page.

The key, of course, is to know what your objectives are. What do you want your Web presence to do for you, specifically? The generic answer is that you want it to make you more money, but how? Do you want the opportunity to engage new and existing customers when they’re not in your store? Do you want to widen the breadth of your reach? Do you want your site to brand you as an expert in your field? Only after you can identify specific objectives are you ready to develop and implement an effective web strategy.

The aforementioned article discusses different strategies available to small businesses and also why it still pays to have a site. Get the full article here.

This is the fourth article in our series about working with freelancers.

Sometimes, things just don’t work out the way you expect. Even if you interview a dozen freelance candidates, check references, and pour over work samples, you can still end up with a professional who isn’t compatible with you or with the project objectives. You should, of course, be taking steps to protect yourself from these situations: test out freelancers on smaller projects first, and obtain the contractual right to pay the freelancer for work completed and part ways, even if the contract is not 100% complete. These steps are important, because you really don’t know an individual’s working habits until after the project begins.

At that point, you can and should start watching for these freelancer red flags: (continue reading…)

Back in the 1980s, a series of television commercials in the U.S. created fame for the personal injury law sector. Maybe you remember those commercials; the tagline was something like, “Larry Parker got me $2.1 million.”

Larry Parker and others like him are known as personal injury lawyers. If you’ve been hurt in an accident, these are the people who represent you. The types of accidents these lawyers handle include car accidents, grocery store falls, dog attacks, etc.

Personal injury lawyers in the U.S. are paid on a contingent fee basis, meaning the client owes nothing until the case is won. In the U.K., this fee arrangement is called No win no fee. Companies like U.K.-based Accidentconsult.com make it very easy for injured parties to start a claim: they can submit their information online, call the help line or talk to a live chat operator.

There are two reasons you need to know all this. (continue reading…)

I was browsing the small business questions on Yahoo! Answers recently and came across a question about starting an online store. The individual asked what steps were necessary for starting an e-commerce business. Here’s my answer:

Assuming you are starting completely from scratch:

1. Decide what product you want to sell and to whom
2. Learn as much as you can about your target customer: what motivates him/her to buy, where he/she likes to hang out, etc.
3. Find a source for your product
4. Estimate your costs to buy the product
5. Start researching marketing/promotional efforts that would allow you to reach your target customer and tell them about your products
6. Estimate the costs to run your business and allocate a big chunk to marketing
7. Find a trusty web developer/designer and copywriter
8. Define your brand image and create an appropriate logo and tag line
9. Get your site up and start promoting it

What do you think — did I miss anything?

See the original conversation here.

The American Bankers Association (ABA) recently published a white paper entitled, “Assessing Your Banking Relationship: Seven Key Questions.” The article is the fifth in a series of white papers intended to help small businesses obtain bank loans.

In the article, author Robert Seiwert poses seven true/false statements to help you evaluate the quality of your relationship with your bank. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine whether your bank will continue to “be there” for you, in terms of providing financing when you need it, giving you competitive pricing on financial products and services, and offering you guidance and support as you set out to achieve your business goals.

The premise of the article is interesting enough: one means of protecting your bank funding is to woo your banker, in the figurative sense. Your banker wants you to be a stable and committed business partner, and it’s up to you to prove that you fit that mold. If you aren’t making the desired impression, you will see your banker become distant and non-responsive — like a bored spouse who’s wondering if there are other, more exciting fish in the sea. (continue reading…)