Getting UNSTUCK

Do you ever find yourself feeling like you’re business isn’t moving anywhere?

You love what you are doing, you are passionate about your products / services and you know that you have all that it takes to be a huge success.

And, here you are frustrated because nothing seems to be happening and you’re not making any money.

Your bills continue to flow in and pile up, and you know you will have a major problem unless something happens really soon.

One of the most important things we learn about is to be clear on your ‘why’. Crystal clear. Your ‘why’ is your purpose for all that you are doing. It is the profound difference you are making in your life, your family’s life, or someone else’s. When you think about it, you feel a glow & warmth, a surge of energy unlike anything else.

Your Why is what your whole journey is all about.

And, it is the single most important thing to stay connected to when you have a period that isn’t quite as productive as you want it to be.

If you have a family vacation planned to an exciting place, you all feel the buzz & eagerness to get there and start having fun. When you take off in your car, all you can think about is getting to your destination and what it’s going to feel like to get there.

You have your route planned, your car is fresh, serviced & full of gas, you have all the supplies you need and the weather is great.

And, suddenly, you realize you’re not moving anywhere! The motor is running, the car is in ‘Drive’ and you’re pushing on the gas – you’re still not moving.

You realize that you have hit a mud hole and your wheels are just spinning.

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Make a Referral – jump start the economy

Palo Alto Software is pledging to make a referral to a business we want to help as part of a national campaign to make 1000 referrals March 9-13.

What a great small business stimulus plan – won’t you join us?

http://www.makeareferralweek.com/pledge

Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small business economy one referred business at a time. The goal for the week is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars in new business. Small business is the lifeblood and job-creating engine of the economy and merits the positive attention so often saved for corporate bailout stories.

The week long event also features a killer list of referral experts providing valuable marketing advice.

Small Business Owners: How Bad is the Credit Crunch?

Please, if you own a business, take this simple (only 8 questions) survey on the impact the credit crunch is having on your business. It’s asking you whether you’ve applied for a loan, was it approved, would you have applied if it weren’t for the economic crash, and so on.  I’d like to know, and of course I’ll share the results. Please click here to take the survey.

Thanks,

Tim Berry
President and Founder
Palo Alto Software

SBA – National Small Business Week 2009

Save the date!

The SBA website announced the date for annual National Small Business Week 2009: May 18-22

The three day event will be full of awards, networking opportunities and different forums covering subjects from “Growing your Small Business: Lending, Government Procurement and International Trade” to “Hot Topics Effecting Small Businesses”

There will be more information as the date approaches. Registration to attend will be available “soon”.

National Small Business Week 2009 Website

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

Is your website working?

Are My Sites Up? is a relatively new free web-based service that helps you keep track of up time for your websites.

The service will send you a SMS alert if your website goes down to help you respond faster and get your business back on line as soon as possible. Vital if you depend on online sales. Every minute your online business is down is money lost.

After being featured on Lifehacker and Webware, Are My SitesUp? have temporarily closed down new signups, but with a service as useful as this, they should be on your “watch” list. You can subscribe to their blog which will alert everyone when the service is open for signups again.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

Entrepreneurial opportunity

It’s heartening to be able to pass on a success story. On Monday, 22 December KVAL TV in Eugene reported on the success of Sweet Skins, a minority women owned eco-clothing company which sews and sells women’s clothing made from organic fibers, and eco-fleece (made from recycled 2-liter soda bottles) wraps and hoodies.

The KVAL story, Down economy may open doors for entrepreneurs, also notes Lane MicroBusiness, a non-profit microenterprise development organization, which “holds free classes and grants loans to give micro-enterprise companies a chance to make it.”

I’m glad to see that small businesses are prospering, and that there are still organizations out there supporting local entrepreneurs. Thanks to KVAL News for reporting on this encouraging success.

Steve Lange
Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software

Podcast: The Value of PR for Startups

I love podcasts. I can load them into my iPod and listen to them in the car when I’m going to and from work or even doing lunch. There are a few that I listen to on a regular basis and a few that I listen to only occasionally.

Last week the podcast “For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report” had a live panel discussion on the value of PR for startup businesses.

From Neville Hobson’s website: The live call-in episode on BlogTalk Radio. Panel discussion addressed the value public relations professionals bring to startups. The topic was a response to several posts dismissing PR’s worth, suggesting startup CEOs can handle their own public relations (the post by Jason Calacanis served as the focal point of the discussion).

Panelists included Rob Lane, CEO, Overlay TV; Katie Paine, president, K.D. Paine & Partners; Todd Defren, partner, Shift Communications; Sherrilynne Starkie, from Strive Public Relations; and Michael O’Connor Clarke, from ThornleyFallis Public Relations.

I found this to be a fascinating episode to listen to and helpful for companies who are wondering if they should continue their public relations contracts.

While the focus for this podcast was to encourage companies/startups to continue to work with PR professionals, there is quite a lot of information for the business owners who believes they can go it alone in the PR world, not only in this podcast but in several of the same focused articles and podcasts.

There are certainly contacts and opportunities that you as a business owner won’t have, not being a PR professional, but when times are tough, every bit counts. And if you can get by for a few months by complimenting your toned down traditional PR and marketing efforts with doing a portion of it yourself, then that can have some potentially business strengthening results.

Also check out the podcasts from Vocus.com.  I’ve really enjoyed their recent series of episodes.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Where they stand. Q & A with the Presidential candidates.

Entrepreneur.com submitted questions from various readers, small business people and entrepreneurs all over the country to the Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates, Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama.

They’ve published the answers from the two Senators. (Entrepreneur.com does disclose that “Sen. Obama’s campaign responded, but Sen. McCain’s campaign did not. In order to keep a balanced perspective, our editors provided McCain’s responses based on information gathered from a variety of public domain sources.“)

Read all the questions and the responses at the Entrepreneur.com website: Ask the Candidates

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

The Bush administration vs Small Business

I read a rather disturbing article on Huffington Post yesterday:  Bush Dismantles Economic Programs for Small Business as Economy Continues Downward Spiral. If you don’t think that’s alarming enough, wait to you read what it actually said.

During his two terms, President Bush has systematically dismantled each and every program established under the Small Business Act to assist American small businesses, especially those firms owned by women, minorities and veterans.

You can read the full article on the huffingtonpost.com website.

“I understand small business growth. I was one.”
George W. Bush

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Shut up, you stupid customer

Ok. Maybe the title is a little bit harsh, but it got your attention, right? Why is it that more and more these days I feel that companies I purchase products and services from are telling me to “shut up and take it”. Let me give you just a few real examples of times I have felt disrespected as a customer in the last few months:

  1. I recently bought some plane tickets for my family to go to London over Thanksgiving. The tickets were not cheap, as traveling from Oregon to London these days is simply not affordable. I spent over $1,000 per ticket. Children under 12 years old are supposed to receive a 20% off discount on international tickets. My boys are ages 2 and 4. I purchased the tickets, and there was no discount. I called United Airlines. After the ridiculous amount I had just spent on tickets I was told that I bought tickets that were too “cheap” and for a class that does not allow the 20% discount. I could though, buy a different class and spend $450 more per ticket, and get the 20% discount on 2 tickets. I am no math genius, but seriously, how dumb do they really think I am? An almost 50% increase in price to get 2 tickets at a 20% decrease of the new higher priced ticket???? Shut up, you stupid customer!
  2. Our company uses a service provider to handle some of our marketing to customers. I won’t be specific here on purpose. Through an error that happened due to a bug in THEIR system, they discontinued our account. We are paying customers, paying them roughly $500 per month. They chose to drop our account rather than fix the bug. Shut up, you stupid customer.
  3. Our TiVo, which was less than one year old broke. It was still under warranty. First it stopped recording programs, then it refused to re-boot. We simply could not get it to turn on. My husband called as was told that they could replace it under warranty, for an up-front fee of $350. They would ship us a new unit, and then credit us $300. The remaining $50 would be a “repair” charge. Last I checked a one-year warranty should simply replace the unit. What’s this BS about a repair charge — when nothing was repaired. The unit simply stopped re-booting. We were sent a NEW unit as per the warranty. Shut up, you stupid customer

So I could go on. But you get the picture. More and more companies seem to be taking this approach. Charge the customer everywhere and anywhere. Promise them one thing, deliver another, and then be annoyed that they point it out. As you think about your customer interactions, I challenge you to create policies and customer experiences that put the customer first. That goes back to the old adage that “the customer is always right.” I can guarantee that you will see a positive change in your business if you re-think the customer experience. Don’t join the new line of thought that treats customers like they are idiots to be taken advantage of. Think about how you can make sure that your customer is truly always right. Listen to your customers. Give them what they want. Your business is sure to be better off because of it.

Sabrina Parsons aka MommyCEO

www.emailcenterpro.com