2009 December | Small Biz Bee

Dec

AlikeList – One More Tool in Your Bag of Online Tricks

The following guest post is from Mike McGrath of Blendr Media who wanted to share with you all a new social web company that offers a local-social solution to finding businesses through trusted word of mouth.

I‘m always surprised that many small businesses don’t take the time to claim their listings in online directories or keep an eye on Yelp.

It doesn’t take much time and it can lead more traffic to your door. With the effectiveness of print Yellow Pages diminshing every year, you’ve got to pay attention to all flavors of IYP (Internet Yellow Pages).

A New Local Referral Solution

One of the latest entrants to the local referral market is AlikeList.

AlikeList just emerged from Beta and is designed as a directory and a social engagement platform for businesses. It really lowers the barrier for small business operators to engage their customers and prospects.

AlikeList has developed a local-social solution to finding businesses through trusted word of mouth. AlikeList makes it very easy to put together lists of businesses you like and share them with your friends. That puts a level of trust into referrals that you can’t get on anonymous review sites.

AlikeList connects businesses with the local customers that like them. Businesses can use AlikeList to build a customer community and easily make offers or promotions available to them as well as a larger pool of local prospects. It’s an effective and simple self-serve tool that even sole proprietors can take advantage of.

It’s surprising that after 15 years of the Internet, local search is still a hard nut to crack. The founders are all veterans of previous local search websites such as Geocities, SmartPages and Yahoo. Their lessons learned are all being applied to AlikeList’s feature set.

Whether AlikeList becomes one more tool in your bag of online tricks or grows to become your small business CRM tool, I hope you’ll agree that online directories are an important part of local business marketing. Make sure you claim your listings, ensure their accuracy and pay attention to what people are saying about you. Manage your reputation and you’ll reap the rewards.

More Information

To learn more about AlikeList, visit the site at AlikeList.comor see the AlikeList video on YouTube here.

Why not share your expertise with our readers? Be our next Guest Author!

Dec

And the Winner of the $150 Competition is…

After eight great articles, some really super content, countless comments, and priceless camaraderie the time has come to announce the winner of the $150 competition sponsored by Bizsugar!

For those of you just joining us, here’s how the competition worked:

Contestants submitted an article of original content to be published at Smallbizbee.com for 24 hours.

The winner is decided by who got the most unique page views in the first 24 hours their article was on the site.

Contestants were allowed to promote their articles in any way to drive unique page views to their submission.

So now, without further ado…the winner is:

Please join us in congratulating Cathy Iconis from CathyIconis.com in winning our $150 Competition!

Cathy’s article titled Managing Your Cash generated 200 unique page views during its 24 hours in the competition.

A Quick Recap

To recap, the other articles in the competition were:

All of these articles are fabulous (most are the kind I wish I could write myself), and all offer terrific insight for the entrepreneur – don’t miss a one of’em.

A Very Close Competition

Everyone did great, and top to bottom it was an EXTREMELY close!

Of the remaining 7 articles in the competition, Michael Bennett Cohn at Revolving Floor received the 2nd most number of unique views of his article Bric-a-Brac Branding with 157 in the 24 hour period.

From 3rd through 8th only 50 page views separated the entries…nice job everyone!

Thank You Everyone!

Thanks to everyone who submitted an article in the 2nd blogging competition here at Smallbizbee.com!

Big Thanks to Bizsugar.com

A very special thanks to the great folks at Bizsugar.com, and especially Anita Campbell for reaching out to us to offer a sponsorship. They certainly sweetened this deal, and made the competition a lot of fun for all involved.

Final Note

All stats were compiled using Google Analytics. If any of the contestants would like to know their exact page views during their 24 hours of fame, please just send us an email and we’ll give you the details.

This year Cathy is $150 richer, next year will it be you?

Dec

Managing Your Cash

Below is the final article in our $150 competition sponsored by BizSugar.com. It’s submitted by Cathy Iconis, who provides Virtual CFO & Consulting services. Good luck to everyone who contributed an article!

We all know that cash is critical to running a business, no matter the size. But as small businesses, we generally have less cash than the big guys, so we need to know how best to manage it. The first step is to better understand how much cash you have and how you are using it.

First, I want you to know that just because you have profit at the end of the day/month/year, that doesn’t mean you have more cash. The Income Statement (or Profit & Loss) is a tricky thing. It shows you how much revenue you have for the period and the costs related to just those revenues. It might not include cash spent on a large investment, money you received from an investor, or even disbursements you’ve made to yourself as the owner.

The best way to understand how much cash you have and how you are using it is to look at your Cash Flow Statement. It is a simple report giving a ton of information in these four parts:

Operating Activities: How much cash you have at the end of the period from your daily operations
Investing Activities: Cash outflows from purchasing a new asset or making loans to vendors or customers
Financing Activities: Includes cash you have received from banks or owners or cash you’ve taken out of the business
Cash at End of Period: How much money you have at the end of the day, net of the above

The Cash Flow Statement is fairly easy to get your hands on. Even businesses running on QuickBooks can run a quick Cash Flow Statement from their Reports menu. You can also ask your accountant to supply you with one when they review your books.

Now that you know how much cash you have and where it is going, spend some time thinking about the best uses for your cash. If you are eating up all of your cash from daily operations, then you aren’t able to invest in assets that could potentially help grow your business, like an additional server to give you added capacity so you can have more customers. Here are some ways to manage your cash:

Budgets: Budgets can save you money and time! In a few hours, you can create a simple budget. Just look at what you spent last year and adjust any items that you don’t expect in the future. Enter your budget in your accounting system. Then run a report to see if you are on track. Easy as pie!

Dashboards: These are just graphs, charts, or some other visual representation of your financial data. We all know it is far easier to “see” your company when you are looking at a picture. You can visually compare your data: you can see how you are doing versus last month, see what you are spending the most on, or even see which customer is giving you the most money.

All in all, it is important for you to manage your cash. This means understanding how much you have, where you are using it, and how to track it. I challenge you to move past going from hand to mouth and start managing your cash so you can grow your business!

If you have any questions or want to learn more about how you can better manage your cash, visit my website, www.CathyIconis.com.

Dec

Bric-A-Brac Branding

Below is the seventh article in our $150 competition sponsored by BizSugar.com. It’s submitted by Michael Bennett Cohn, who is the publisher for the online magazine Revolving Floor. Good luck to everyone who contributed an article!

Most small brick-and-mortar businesses don’t brand the inside of their establishments. I didn’t realize this until I started playing Foursquare, the shopping scorecard social media iPhone game. Foursquare awards users points for “checking in” at their favorite restaurants, bars, convenience stores, etc. Often, in recent months, when I’m taking out my phone during an idle moment waiting for my food, or a drink, or to pay, I’ve found myself thinking: “I should check in here on Foursquare!” followed quickly by “What the heck is the name of this place?”

There’s plenty of branding inside chain establishments like Olive Garden, McDonalds, 7-11, or The Cheesecake Factory. That’s because the chain, taking the long view, wants customers to stay interested in the brand, so that they’ll see each franchise as just one manifestation of the greater whole.

But once you enter an independent restaurant, bar, shop, or even grocery store, if you forgot the name of the place on the way in, then you’re probably not going to be reminded of it again until your next visit.

When I was in college, I worked at a place in Lawrence, Kansas called Joe’s Donuts. The catchy name was just a coincidence, as the original owner’s name really was Joe. The food was good and cheap, the place was open late and located near a couple of nightclubs, and Joe’s was hugely popular with the students. (A donut-loving girl once introduced herself to me on campus after overhearing me say that I worked there.) Customers regularly asked of their own volition if we sold t-shirts. We didn’t. I talked to the proprietor, Ralph (Joe’s son) about it. “Yeah, the kids ask about those, so sometimes I think maybe we should make some,” he said. “But what would they say? ‘Eat at Joe’s?’”

Ralph also kept the store closed on Saturdays, which would have surely been his best day for business. I tried to convince him to give it a shot. He shrugged. “It’s not a question of profits,” he said. “I just don’t want to work Saturdays.” The closed storefront was noted weekly by disappointed would-be customers, leading to widespread speculation as to what Ralph did with his Saturdays. “That’s when this place is closed,” was the only explanation that he offered querulous donut-buyers.

Around this time (1991) localized versions of Monopoly were a popular gift item. The Monopoly people scoped out our little college town, and determined that Joe’s Donuts was enough of a landmark to warrant a spot on the board (instead of, say, Park Place). They approached Ralph and asked him to pay for the privilege. He refused, and he continued to refuse as they kept lowering the cost. Ralph told them that he didn’t play Monopoly, and that he wasn’t interested in participating at any price. But the truth was that the Monolopy board based on Lawrence, Kansas just wasn’t complete without Joe’s Donuts. People would expect it to be there. And, indeed, it ended up on the board anyway.

At the time, Ralph saw this as a triumph of practicality over silliness. His business was successful in the physical world, and that was all that mattered. But times have changed. Nearly every local business has been reviewed on Yelp, they all show up on Google Maps, and that inevitable sales call from Foursquare is perhaps the loudest knock yet on the doors of those who don’t want to be dragged into the 21st century. (“We can prove that 100 of your customers check in with us every day. Do you want the ad they see to be from you, or your nearest competition?”)

It’s increasingly understood among online startups, even those focused on direct-response business, that they need a recognizable name, logo, and design. That’s just part of the deal. So is participating in the social media basics, such as tweeting and setting up a Facebook fan page. The social media landscape is eclipsing reality so quickly that brick-and-mortars are already part of it, whether they want to be or not.

In other words, every small business has a brand now, even the no-name bodega on the corner with no signage anywhere. Even proprietors who like to think that they can’t, or won’t, be bothered with something as abstract as shaping their customers’ long-term associations with the place are going to increasingly find that this attitude is not tenable. The no-name bodega on the corner will end up on Yelp as “No-name Bodega On Corner,” or not at all. And places that don’t bother to remind customers where they are will get fewer online mentions. It won’t be long before someone looking for, say, a toothbrush, will enter a search into their phone and then scan their surroundings through the viewfinder, looking for augmented reality signage hanging in the air. Those signs won’t be “hung” by the proprietors; they’ll be hung by the aggregators. And businesses who haven’t taken their image seriously by that point are literally going to disappear.

In New York, there’s a joke about what to tell a tourist when they ask you where to find the best pizza in the city. The answer is “Ray’s.” And there are indeed many pizza places called Ray’s throughout New York. Also, they have no connection to each other.

It’s a good joke, but it won’t be funny for very much longer.

Photo Credit: tandemracer

Dec

5 Tips to Grow Your Business Like Michael Jackson

Below is the sixth article in our $150 competition sponsored by BizSugar.com. It’s submitted by Wayne who blogs on small business and entreprenurship at WayneLiew.com. Good luck to everyone who contributed an article!

Michael Jackson passed away on June 25th, 2009. Whether you are a Michael Jackson fan or not, you cannot doubt his ability to get the attention and impress his millions of fans worldwide.

Michael Jackson’s ability to wow his audience is definitely something that you would want your business to have. In this article, I am going to give you 5 Tips to Grow Your Business Like Michael Jackson.

Be All About Your Audience

No one cares about you. If Michael goes up on stage and start singing songs that are only meaningful to himself, no one will pay attention. For example, “Heal the World” was written by Michael to be lyrically deep but melodically simple so that fans all around the world, especially those in non-English speaking countries could chant along when the song is played.

Spend time listening to the desires and wants of your prospects and customers before selling them your products or services. Not only that the selling process will be easier, your prospects will not be turned off by any hard selling tactics too.

Find Your Signature Move

What are the signature moves of Michael Jackson? Ask this question to anyone on the street and they will definitely give you answers like the Moon Walk, 45 Degrees Lean or they might even perform his dance moves, especially the spinning move for you. These are the moves that make Michael stand out from the rest of the singers. Not only that his fans were astounded by these moves when Michael first performed it, they LOVE it!

How can your business stand out from the crowd? It can be something as simple as changing the way you engage new customers or launching a marketing campaign that is so interesting and catchy that your target market just cannot get the message out of their head.

Become the Best for What You Do

As compared to modern celebrities, Michael do not have a lot of appearances on commercials, movies or his own fashion line. He knows that he is a good singer, dancer, performer and he keeps improving on these aspects until he gained the sparkling title, “The King of Pop”.

Often times, businesses deviate from what they are really good at and as a result, every single thing that they offer becomes mediocre in quality. For example, if you are running a pizza place that is rated 5 stars on Yelp, don’t start serving Chinese food just because there’s a new Chinese restaurant being set up right beside you.

Learn How to Grab Attention

Every time Michael Jackson makes an entrance, all the fans in the room or at a venue will immediately pause whatever that they are doing, turn to him and go wild. Yes, part of it is because he is the King of Pop. But there are other things that help him to get the much needed attention. For example, his fancy clothing.

In business, grabbing someone else’s attention is an important skill. Whether you are crafting a pitch to the press or writing a business plan to secure funding from investors, you need to make them focus on what you have to offer.

Go All Out Against All Odds

Michael Jackson’s success didn’t come to him easily. Michael had troubled relationships with his father, endured childhood abuse, fought a couple of sexual abuse allegations and more. However, none of these are able to stop him, or even slow him down. In fact, they made him a stronger person.

Running and maintaining a small business isn’t easy. Stay persistent, hardworking and continue to learn and acquire new skills. Stay calm when faced with challenges and slowly untangle the complexities. Success is only for those who works and strives for it.

Inspired by Michael Jackson’s Story on Wikipedia

Image Credits: Michael Jackson – WikiPic

Dec

How Business Owners Can More Easily Reach the Affluent

Below is the fifth article in our $150 competition sponsored by BizSugar.com. It’s submitted by Maria of Elevating Your Business. Good luck to everyone who contributed an article!

Locating and Engaging Affluent Clients More Quickly in Your Own Community

Remember the scene in Pretty Woman when call girl Julia Roberts goes into the pricey boutique, money in hand, to buy some clothes, only to have the sneering sales ladies shame her out of the store? Well, Julia gets them back by taking her excessive purchasing power elsewhere, then coming back to flaunt it in their faces. The point is, don’t judge a book by its cover OR miss out on a great opportunity that may be right under your nose.

It is not always easy to spot someone with considerable purchasing power, namely because on the outside, they appear just like you and me. However, by changing your thought process and using some strategy, you may find that you’ve been surrounded by affluent prospective clients all along.

Affluence Today

First, let’s consider what it means to be affluent. Simply put, affluence indicates an abundance of money, property, or other material goods. For the purposes of this article, we’ll use the Wikipedia description of affluent to mean the top 1% of U.S. earners, which is about $350,000 in household income. Inarguably, this is a lot of money. But the upper class are still people like you and me; most of them are not in the multi-mega millionaire Donald Trump category.

Short of asking everyone you meet their annual salary (definitely NOT a strategy I’d ever recommend!), how do you go about identifying affluent clients? They demonstrate consistent traits and habits.

About The Affluent

The affluent are zealous about their involvement. It’s easy to see their passion because it’s where they’re involved the most. Besides their devotion to their vocation, the affluent spend considerable time in organizations that allow them to live their avocation – think sailing, flying, and cigar clubs. Meeting affluent clients in this type of environment allows you to see what motivates them outside of a traditional business setting.

Similarly, the affluent are generally very philanthropic. A simple search of social networking sites for various charitable causes can yield long lists of members; clearly these are people who enjoy helping others and spreading the word about worthwhile organizations among their peer group.

An affluent client also values self-improvement. Whether it is personal or professional development, this type of person makes time to attend workshops or classes on topics of interest to them. They spend their time on high-value activities to continue personal and professional growth, and ultimately be more successful.

It probably also goes without saying that the affluent are a very discerning crowd. Simply put, they like “the best”, be it a service, product, or perception. This means they demand individualized attention. No matter how many customers or clients you have, make sure your affluent clientele perceive themselves as your one and only concern. This may require some additional work on your part, but the return on investment will more than make up for it.

Finally, affluent individuals typically surround themselves with other prominent people. They want to work with someone who’s already a known commodity – someone who has been prominently published, has received considerable news coverage, or is already connected within the right circles.

Why Target Affluent Clients

Affluent clients, though potentially more demanding than other clients, can provide significant payback.

This client type easily makes referrals to people they like, know and trust. Similarly, if you can help one of their friends or family members, it typically results in a new client somewhere down the line, a lá the “pay it forward” mentality. As business owners, affluents like to be part of joint ventures or strategic alliances of others who work with their clients.

Like most other consumers, the affluent buy things based on emotion but they are looking for exceptional value they couldn’t get anywhere else. Affluent clients see such expenses as an investment because it ultimately helps them make more money. If you are able to complete a task faster than they can, their time can then be focused on their core strengths. If you can demonstrate how your product or service benefits affluent clients, you won’t be seen simply as a commodity, but as an advisor.

Where To Look For Them

Knowing the background and value of affluent clients, you’re ready to fine tune your marketing plan to seek them out. Chances are, you’re already involved in many of these activities yourself.

Arts & Leisure

Boating/sailing clubs
Flying clubs
Fitness centers (especially early in the morning or during the school day)
Wine/cigar clubs
Performing Arts (opera, symphony, theatre)
Extreme sports like rock climbing, mountaineering, and deep sea fishing
Golf & Tennis clubs
Spa

Personal & Professional Development

High-priced conferences or events (especially retreats and cruises)
Speaking circuit
Business or executive clubs and bars (especially after work)
Masterminds like: Visage, Entrepreneur Network, The Alternative Board, Young Presidents Organization, Women Presidents Organization
Reading magazines such as Town & Country, Millionaire, Worth, The Robb Report

Community

City/Country clubs
Board of Directors/Trustee for large non-profits, banks, large corporations
Philanthropic Associations
Rotary and other service related organizations
Political dinners/fundraisers
First class seating in planes
Volunteers or participants at fundraising events
Angel Investment Organizations, some of which have a “service provide” category
Church (specifically for the older affluents)

How to Engage Affluents

Reaching these clients can be more fun than work – it’s all in your thought process! From the list above, pick activities that sound appealing to you trying them on for size. Keep your integrity intact and never do anything you hate doing just to meet prospective clients. Some other ideas:

Consider joining a group where they hang out, if you enjoy what the group offers of course.
Consider marketing or speaking to a group where they hang out.
Considering joining an organization you enjoy in one of the more affluent zip codes near you.
Get involved on a board of something you’re passionate about.

More Resources

Reading about the upper echelon may provide you additional marketing ideas.

Forbes List

The Sound’s wealthiest zip codes

The Richest Zip Codes—and How They Got That Way

Archive for December 2009