Business in General blog

“Entrepreneurship is 99% hustle and 1% good ideas.”
-Joe Fernandez, Founder of Klout.com

At some point in your life, you are going to come up with a good idea. A really good idea. One of those “Million Dollar” ideas.

From the moment you think of this really great idea, you’re going to obsess over it. Ponder it. Adjust it. Hone it. And as you do, you’ll get more and more excited about how it’s going to revolutionize how the world looks at everything. It’s going to make the invention of sliced bread a mere footnote in the history books of inventions.

You’re really, really jazzed about this idea!!

To you, this idea is priceless. Its value defies measurability. Someone, somewhere is going to pay you millions and millions for this idea.

You’re sure. You’re positive. It’s going to happen.

Here’s the problem. An idea, rarely, makes money. Joe from Klout.com has got the formula right. Your great idea is still great, but unless you put in the work required to make it a great business… it will always  be just a great idea.

And nothing more.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

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Tags: great ideas, hard work, Success
Posted under General Business Planning on July 30th, 2010 | No Comments »

A business model is a description of how your business intends to operate and make money. Sounds simple, right?

For most companies, the business model used to look like this: I buy X, add some value to it, and sell it as Y. If I sell it for more money than the cost of buying the raw materials and working my magic on it (which includes paying employees, operating my store, etc.), then I make a profit.

But innovative business models go beyond this simple formula to create customer loyalty, make value in unusual ways, and define new products or services that people didn’t know they needed. Think of the famous Gillette example – you pay once for the razor, but keep coming back for the razor blades. That was business model innovation. And it’s still an important part of business strategy.

Or, take newspapers: they make value for readers by creating or packaging information, and they make value for advertisers by serving up an audience of qualified prospects (the newspaper’s subscribers).

Today’s business model innovators are creating value through social media, and leveraging their expertise to turn themselves into product evangelists.

So what about you? How will you create value for your company and your customers?

Read more about optimizing your business model at Bplans.co.uk

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Tags: business model, business planning
Posted under Strategy on July 30th, 2010 | No Comments »

Blogs and bloggers come and go. But when you have the right combination of dedication, subject knowledge, and the writing chops to sit down and do it day after day, a blog emerges that stands the test of time.

Over at Planning Startups Stories today, Tim Berry published his 1,000th post on “business planning, starting and growing your business, and having a life in the meantime.” He started the blog in 2006, but doesn’t count that year since he only did a dozen posts. A dozen posts? That’s the sum total lifespan of so many blogs that I’m going to suggest that Tim count those in his history. Besides, without them today’s post wouldn’t be live until at least August 3.

If you have a blog or are interested in blogging, head over to Tim’s site today and read his 10 Blogging Tips. With a thousand posts there,  another thousand or so under his belt on his other blogs and as a guest blogger… the man knows what he’s talking about. You might learn a thing or two.

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Tags: blog posts, blogging, social media, Tim Berry
Posted under social media on July 21st, 2010 | No Comments »

Article by Carolyn Higgins

I constantly hear things like “most of my business comes from referrals”, “word of mouth is the only marketing I need”. But when I ask these business owners, “So, how’s business?” I hear, “slow”, “things are tough right now” or “I don’t have enough customers”. 

By far, word of mouth– or referral – marketing is the best kind of marketing there is.  But what I usually see is a passive approach to referral marketing as opposed to an “active” approach.  Most business owners have no real system in place to drive referrals on a consistent and regular basis; they just show up to their networking events and referral groups, cross their fingers, and hope someone will have a hot lead for them. This type of referral almost happens by chance, doesn’t it?  Yet, I constantly hear – “Word of mouth is all I need - 90% of my business comes that way ”.  But my question to them is this; is 90% of “not enough” enough?

What if you could be more proactive about referral marketing and actually put a system in place to improve the number, quality and consistency of referrals you get? What if you could have more control over when and how they come?

In his new book, The Referral Engine, John Jantsch gives 5 great reasons to take the time to build a systematic approach to referral marketing:

1. People love to give referrals – People love to help other people and they like to appear smart and in the “in”. If someone can offer a tip to a friend, family member or colleague about a great product, service or business, it makes them feel (and look) good. So, don’t be shy about asking for referrals,   you’re actually doing them a favor!
2. Greater ROI (Return on Investment) – Good referral marketing isn’t usually free. There are costs associated with joining networking groups, printed materials and maybe incentives. But compared to some of the other forms of marketing (print, radio, television, etc.) the potential for return –when done correctly – can be huge.
3. More Qualified Prospects and Customers – When you “train” your referral sources, i.e.: meticulously describe to them your best customer, the quality of prospects and customers you get will be better.
4. Built-In Credibility and Trust – People like to work with people and companies they trust. It’s hard to trust someone you’ve never met face to face. But it’s easy to trust a friend, family member or colleague- so if someone who has already gained the trust of the prospect refers you; you’ve already achieved a level of credibility and trust.
5. Fewer Issues Regarding Price- your referral source did the selling for you! They already told the prospect how great you are and the value you deliver so you don’t have to compete on price.

Would you like a free preview of John Jantsch’s new bestselling book, The Referral Engine? Click here to download a free chapter.

Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

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Tags: Carolyn Higgins, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Marketing
Posted under Business Education, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Strategy on July 21st, 2010 | 1 Comment »

I’m not sure what I would do on Friday afternoons if not for TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). For years now, they’ve been introducing me to new ideas, problems, artists and an all around fascination with the world around me.

Audrey Watters at ReadWriteWeb (ReadWriteStart) has gathered 10 staff favorites that apply to startups.

And its a great list! 10 Inspiring TED Talks for Startups

I think if I’d been asked, I would have included one more from Rory Sutherland:

Enjoy!

‘Chelle Parmele

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Tags: TED video
Posted under General Business Information, Success on July 16th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Darshaun McAway is a young man with big ideas. He was in his early 20s when he made a choice that takes many people decades more to make, and he’s been building a successful business based on that choice for the last six years.

“I was extremely tired of working for other people, and having them make this large profit off of me. And me being nowhere near happy with the work I was doing,” remembers Darshaun.

So he decided to pave his own way and start a company, Darshaun.com. He now makes his living as an author, poet, voice-over artist and motivational speaker. He started his own publishing company, Dmac Poetry House, to publish his poetry, and is currently working on a series of self-help books called “The City of Heartbreak.” It’s quite a change for somebody who had previously worked as a truck driver, baker, and forklift operator. But it wasn’t such a difficult shift, he says. “Starting a business isn’t hard. It’s believing that you can do it — now that’s the hard part.”

Based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Darshaun.com employs four people, and has an unusual business model. “What makes my business unique is that everything is controlled, viewed, and even shipped from my mobile device. Whereas before, everything in the original business plan was a brick and mortar location and [there was] lots of on-hand shipping.”

Darshaun wrote that business plan using Business Plan Pro. “I used Business Plan Pro to get the foundation and education to properly seal the deal with the bank,” he says. And it worked — he got $15,000 in loans and investment and was able to fund his business.

“Business Plan Pro made it easier by guiding me step by step, giving me the luxury of working at my own pace, and teaching me to stay focused on the plan.” One thing the process taught him was the importance of the Executive Summary. “[It] has to really impress whomever you’re trying to do business with,” he comments. And like most entrepreneurs, he notes that getting the financial projections right was the hardest part of doing the business plan.

Being the man in charge isn’t always easy, either. “When it comes to running the business, the difficult part is, if you slack, the company slacks, and of course you get nowhere. All the pressure is on you,” Darshaun says.

But he clearly finds the pressure is worth it. “The most exciting part of being an entrepreneur is seeing your vision come to life and living what many people think is a dream. If I’m dreaming, then don’t wake me up.”

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Tags: customer spotlight, success story, testimonial
Posted under Small Business, Success, entrepreneurship on July 14th, 2010 | 4 Comments »

There are plenty of pundits out there claiming that planning your business is a waste of the time you could be using to actually run your business. Of course, we know several reasons why that falsehood is, well, false.

But why does it persist? Is it possible that resistance to business planning is part of a larger cultural attitude that it’s dangerous and humiliating to have to admit you were wrong?

Listening to BP CEO Tony Hayward dodge and duck during last week’s congressional inquiry into the explosion of the Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, I was struck all over again by our stunning, culture-wide inability to face up to ignorance, failure, and mistakes.

That inability is particularly evident up in the power stratosphere, where admissions of error are made rarer by (among other things) threats of litigation, fear of the wrath of voters or shareholders, and a value system that generally prioritizes certainty and ego over curiosity and humility. But this problem is hardly limited to our political, military, economic and corporate leaders. On the contrary: our society as a whole has completely neglected to master the art of acknowledging our mistakes. In fact, we haven’t even mastered the basic skill of saying “I was wrong.”

– Kathryn Schulz, the author of Being Wrong

As expert planners know, all business plans are wrong. By the time you get around to the third or fourth month of sales, you can see where your initial assumptions were way off base. If you take the time to plan your business, you are setting yourself up to be proven wrong again and again, especially if you do it the right way, with regular review and analysis.

The paradox is that if you avoid planning to avoid being wrong, you’re also reducing your chances of success.

Fortunately, Schulz offers some tips for improving our comfort levels with admitting we were wrong. Try using these at your next plan review meeting:

Change “blame” to “accountability”
From Schulz’ article:

When the VA learned that the major reason clinicians didn’t report errors wasn’t fear of legal action but a feeling of humiliation, they circulated a definition of “blameworthy” harm to a patient that limited such cases to those involving assault, the use of illegal substances, or intentionally attempting obviously dangerous procedures.  The result? Error reporting shot up 30-fold.

The point of a regular plan review isn’t to point fingers, but to adjust course so that you can act, and not just react. Offer incentives for employees to analyze their own plan vs. actual results, figure out what assumptions were wrong, and how to adjust the aspects of the plan within their control to better take advantage of reality. As Schulz points out in another piece, “You cannot in good faith insist that people acknowledge their mistakes if you intend to shower them with moral outrage when they do so.”

Part of encouraging a culture of accountability is taking care of people who cry wolf:

In fairy tales, crying wolf is a bad thing. In management, dealing with employees in a company, it’s a good thing. Crying wolf means sounding false alarms. Saying something isn’t working. The messaging is wrong, production is faulty, customers are getting the wrong idea, the parking lot is icy, or whatever. And I’ve learned, in some 30 years managing people, that you should treasure the employees who care enough to sound the alarms.

Don’t take yourself so seriously
Schulz offers examples of humorous ways people have found to ease the comfort of being wrong, from a woman who uses the phrase, “I hate it when you’re right,” to the college friends who stop and clap when one of them admits to being wrong. Poking fun at ourselves is a really great way to ease the sting of admitting a mistake.

Maybe your business needs a whiteboard with a title that says, “things we were wrong about this week.” Or a planning meeting where you let people run wild with best-possible-scenarios, like finding out that the rubber widgets you make also cure cancer and taste like candy. Be creative. Have fun. Be wrong.

Finally, if fear of being wrong is keeping you from planning your business, take heart: even the big guys make simple mistakes, sometimes.

Sara Prentice Manela
Editor

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Tags: business planning
Posted under General Business Planning on July 1st, 2010 | No Comments »

I’m a big believer in systems.  I hate the idea of “reinventing the wheel” every time something needs to get done.  It’s a waste of time, money and resources – all of which are usually in short supply in small business.  Small business owners are great at systems when it comes to shipping it, fixing it, billing it, hiring or the day-to-day operation of the business.  Where they fall short is having a system for marketing their business.

Photo by Balaji.B

For one reason or another, small business owners believe they can be successful without a marketing system.  Well, I’m here to tell you it won’t happen and here’s why.  A system keeps you focused and gets you results and a good marketing system generates qualified leads on a consistent basis.  Without a marketing system, business owners fall prey to the age old “promotion of the week” or promotional panic as we like to refer to it.  You know what I mean.  It’s the latest and greatest idea you saw at a recent tradeshow or that “thing” that a friend told you about over coffee that you just gotta try.

Why a marketing system?  A marketing system will help you turn suspects into prospects and prospects into clients and clients into raving fans.  People do business with people they know, like and trust and in today’s busy world, it takes more than 10 ‘touches’ to get someone to know like and trust you.  What are you doing to get people to know, like and trust you?  With a system in place, it can be working even when you’re not.

Back in university, I did Business 101 (seriously, that’s what it was called) and the first thing that we were taught was the four key functions of business (today there are five if you include information technology).  You have finance, operations, human resources and marketing.  All of them key to any business’ success.  Building a business with only three of the keys is like building a house on sand.  It’ll stand for a short while but eventually it is coming down.

So you decide!  Do you want your business built on sand or on a solid foundation?  If you chose a solid foundation, you might want to start building your marketing system because it’s probably the only one that you are missing.

Brenda Mahoney is a successful marketing coach with a passion for helping others succeed, personally and professionally. Working in the corporate world as well as being a business owner and marketing consultant for many years, Brenda has a strong track record for success. She’s worked with businesses in many different industries and loves what she does.
http://www.criticaledgemarketing.com/

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Tags: Brenda Mahoney, Duct Tape Marketing Coach
Posted under Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Small Business, Success on June 30th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Clate Mask is CEO of one of the Inc 500’s fastest-growing companies, Infusionsoft.com. Ask him about how to build a successful business, and he’ll say, “There are three, and only three, factors that really have an iron grip on the profits of any marketing effort. The smartest marketing minds on the planet have boiled these factors down to this simple, but incredibly powerful, formula: The Right Message… To The Right Market… At The Right Time!”

The problem is, most businesses send out a message that’s only relevant to the company owner—that is, to people who are not in the market for their product or service, at a time when they are probably not interested in buying!

We often hear people say “I meant to get around to doing some marketing, but I just didn’t have time, so we just put something out there.” Or, worse, “I got a great deal on this program but I didn’t realize 90 percent of it went to people who don’t buy what I sell.”

Many small business owners spend money on “image” advertising, with no direct response offers included at all. There is no “next step” called for, and thus, no way to measure the effectiveness of the ad. Advertising just your brand is great if you’ve got a million-dollar budget like Nike or Coke, but it’s marketing suicide for the rest of us!

The objective of your marketing efforts is to generate leads—finding people you can follow-up with. When you convey the right message, to the right market, at the right time, you get leads. Social marketing tools in particular, can really help you do this inexpensively and effectively.

Here’s how: You want to attract people who are interested in what you’ve got to sell so you create a dozen powerful, benefit-filled headlines offering to provide free reports or “how-to” documents (or even a dozen different titles for the same document), e.g. “Free report—What you should know before hiring a contractor.” Or, “Get the facts: Learn how to work with a contractor before you renovate.” Offer them on Twitter.com and see which headline generates the most response. Expand the program by posting the same short message on your company’s Facebook.com “fan page” and your LinkedIn.com profile (you have these, right?). Use the same approach to learn what generates the most interest in a free webinar (that you could offer).

Create a series of three-minute videos introducing yourself and offering something—a free guide, a seminar etc. (this will take you about five minutes each using the camera on your computer and an on-line helper like JiveSystems.com). See which one gets the most response and build on that knowledge.

Marketing today is all about getting people to come to you . Stop just talking about your company, and start conversing with your customers and prospects. Offer them content they value—use some easy (and fun) tools and a little bit of learning how to test and track, you’ll soon see results.

Ken Burgin and Elizabeth Walker are the Marketing Masters (www.MarketingMasters.ca), a full-service marketing and advertising partnership that helps build busy businesses. Send your ideas on How to Thrive in Times Like These to liz@marketingmasters.ca or ken@marketingmasters.ca, or call 1-866-908-5720.

web: http://www.marketing,masters.ca
blog: http://thebuzzwithkenandliz.blogspot.com/

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Tags: Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Elizabeth Walker, Ken Burgin, news
Posted under Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Marketing, Success on June 28th, 2010 | No Comments »

Article by Carolyn Higgins

Pick up a newspaper, magazine or advertising circular and look at the ads. What do you see?  A whole bunch of the same thing: a list of services; a company name; a tagline; a pretty graphic; and maybe an offer.

Most businesses think of advertising in one of two ways: 1) Put your company name in front of enough people enough times so they’ll remember you when it’s time to buy. … or 2) Put an “amazing” offer out there and people will be compelled to respond (whether they’ve made the decision to buy or not).

The first scenario is called ”top of mind” advertising and unless you have a multi-million dollar marketing budget it’s very difficult to buy top of mind brand awareness. In the second example advertising sales people want their advertisers to see results (because results sell more advertising), so  they recommend you put an offer  in your ad:  Get 10% off service, $5.00 of a product, buy one get one free, etc.  And sure, that works - sometimes.

Let’s Analyze the “Compelling Offer” Approach:

Does putting an amazing offer in front of people influence them to buy even if they don’t have an immediate or compelling want or need? Does an amazing offer force someone to buy if they don’t have a budget? No, it doesn’t.  So your ad gets completely ignored and you don’t get any response. (Ok to be fair – best case scenario – someone may clip it, stick it to the fridge where it will hang for a month or two before it ends up in a drawer or in the trash).

How an Ad Gets Seen….or Not.

Consider this scenario:   I’m looking at an ad in the free local magazine that comes in the mail every month; it’s an ad for a $75 carpet, tile or grout cleaning.  Well, my tile and grout happen to be pretty clean- well clean enough for me right now. So I’m not interested in spending $75 to get it cleaned, even if it is a great deal. I ignore the ad and move on.

Now let’s think about this… I am a tile owner. At some point in my life I may need tile cleaning services. However, did I notice the name of the business offering the deal? NO. Do I know how they are different from every other steam cleaning company out there? NO. Has this ad given me a reason to remember them when I am ready to get my tile and grout clean? NO. Has this ad engaged me in any way? NO.

Old School Advertising Doesn’t Work!

And what’s the traditional reaction when advertising doesn’t work?    Ask any advertising rep and they’ll tell you - you need to advertise MORE (i.e.: spend MORE money), so that when your prospect is ready to buy  they will see or remember your ad and call you. But how much are you willing to spend to make a sale?

So let’s say you spend $175 / month on the ad and it takes me 6 months to decide I need to clean my tile. Let’s say I happen to choose you because I remembered seeing your ad in the magazine for the past six months and because your offer is better than the other guy who is doing it for $100. You’ve just paid $1050 to get my $75 sale. Sure, you may up-sell me, I may become a regular customer and my life time value may be in the thousands – but those are big “ifs”. Think about that:  you are spending hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars hoping to reach a prospect at exactly the right time in their buying process. Doesn’t that seem like a pretty large gamble to you? No wonder businesses think advertising doesn’t work!

A New Way to Advertise.

What if, instead of advertising with the hope of making your phone ring off the hook and breaking sales records immediately, you take a different approach! What if you try something Duct Tape Marketing calls the “2 Step Approach to Advertising”?   What if, instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on print ads trying to find that needle in a haystack – that rare person who is ready to buy what you are offering the second they see your ad – you find potential prospects and get their permission to market to them on a more consistent basis and with more targeted offers while spending less money?

Here’s How 2 Step Advertising Works:

Create an ad offering a free report:  “5 Easy Things You Can do to Keep Your Tile and Grout Clean”. Or better yet, “How to Remove Tile and Grout Stains Yourself”. OK,  I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking this is crazy and it’s going to cost you business –right?  Well, you’re wrong. It won’t cost you business; in fact this approach will accomplish three things. It will:

1. Get people to your website where they can learn more about you.
2. Attract people who actually own tile and who will give you permission to market to them on a regular basis.
3. Prove that you care more about helping people than making a sale (prospects love that).

The goal of marketing is to get people who have a need to KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST you so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you. Offering helpful and useful information helps build your KNOW, LIKE and TRUST factors and yes, increases sales.

The goal of 2 Step Advertising is to get prospects to your site and get their permission to engage them by collecting their email addresses. Once you have their permission you can email surveys, newsletters, tips and offers geared specifically to their needs on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for about a penny an email.

Think about how powerful that is: You get to communicate with a prospect who has given you permission to market to them for one tiny penny! That’s HUGE!

Your New Advertising Strategy

How many more responses do you think you can get when you stop selling in your advertising and start offering helpful information? People hate to be sold. And that’s what traditional advertising is all about. What if you can get 10 new people on your email list from each ad? What if 1 of those people eventually buys from you at full price – or close to it? What is the cost of that one customer compared to the one you got by practicing traditional advertising?  I guarantee that if you implement this approach as part of your marketing strategy you will get results and begin to see your business grow.

Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

You should follow us on twitter here

Tags: advertising, Carolyn Higgins, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, news
Posted under Duct Tape Marketing Coach, General, Marketing, PR and Advertising, Strategy on June 24th, 2010 | 4 Comments »