Three Qualities Your Brand Must Have in a Down Economy
Your brand can be one of your most valued assets, especially when you’re facing challenging business conditions. Here are three key qualities your brand must have in a down economy:
1. Your brand must be loved by your customers.
A customer will stand by a brand even in a down economy. But to maintain that kind of loyalty, a customer must really love that brand.
Arguably, one of the most successful brands in modern history is Apple’s iPhone. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone, and therefore it didn’t start the category — but the iPhone was a game-changer in the category. Why? Some of it was because of cool features, like its intelligent touchscreen, which removed the need for a physical keyboard, like the keyboard on the Blackberry. The real game-changer, though, was the iPhone’s huge and continually growing library of applications. With these applications, customers could do things they couldn’t do on other phones. The iPhone became much more than a phone — it became a smart, sexy portable productivity powerhouse.
Customers don’t just think the iPhone is good, they think it is GREAT. They don’t just like the iPhone, they LOVE it. Apple translated that success into what essentially was a larger version of the iPhone, the iPad, and the same thing happened. Even in a down economy, Apple continues to prosper.
How does a small business learn from this lesson? Use the knowledge you have of your target audience to build a branded product or service that surprises and delights a customer, and you will have a raving fan for your brand. It could be easier than you think — it may just take the addition of one differentiating feature, or highlighting a product benefit no one else has, or relying on a great support representative to make your service stand out.
When your customer loves your brand — you have a great brand.
2. Your brand must have the right combination of rational and emotional appeal.
People think about brands, but they also have feelings about brands.
The rational aspect of a brand is the part of the brand that appeals to a consumer’s rational mind – the brain, the head, the thought process, whatever you want to call it. The emotional aspect of a brand is the part of the brand that appeals to a consumer’s emotions – that person’s heart and soul – how that person “feels” about a brand.
If a brand appeals to a consumer on both a rational and emotional level, it has a very strong chance of becoming a memorable, long-lasting brand. Brands that accomplish this often achieve category leader status.
How does a brand appeal to both the rational and emotional sides?
Basically, the rational argument for a brand involves conveying sensible, practical facts in the brand’s marketing messages. Depending on the product, it may be facts such as saving money, protecting the environment, or offering high quality.
The emotional side is quite different, however. Typically, to evoke emotion, a brand has to make a compelling case or paint a picture that creates a certain feeling. Instead of facts, the emotional side of the brand deals with benefits and feelings – things that make the consumer feel good. Often a brand will lead with the emotional aspect because it has higher impact (and it is less rational) so it might create a desire on the part of the consumer to purchase the brand. The rational aspect is then used to support the purchase decision.
It is particularly important to recognize both the rational and emotional arguments for your brand in a down economy because buyers are making tough choices about where to spend their money. A rational argument will appeal to the need for a product or service, while the emotional argument will speak to want — a customer’s desire to have it.
3. Your brand must be truly differentiated.
Today, very few company, product, or service ideas are truly new and unique. You can almost be guaranteed that someone, somewhere, has developed a product or service similar to yours. And even if you bring a unique product or service to market, it won’t be long before another company comes out with a look-alike. This is just the nature of the competitive marketplace.
This doesn’t mean the situation is hopeless! Use a brand positioning statement to help identify your brand’s unique qualities. A good brand positioning statement includes:
- Likely Brand Buyer – This is the person who is most likely to be interested in buying your brand. Often this person is described as being part of your “target audience.” The likely brand buyer should be described as specifically as possible: gender, race, age, income, geographic area, employment, interests, etc. Ideally, you will build a descriptive profile of one or more target audiences for your brand.
- Competition – The statement should position your brand against existing competition so the target audience can distinguish between your brand and someone else’s.
- Product Benefit – The single most compelling benefit of the brand.
- Unique Brand Promise – The unique selling proposition of your brand.
The brand positioning statement will help you make sure you are creating a brand position that is as differentiated from your competition as possible.
Pay attention to building your brand even when times are tough — and your brand will still be around when the economy improves.
About the Author: Barry Silverstein has over 30 years of experience in branding, advertising, and marketing. He ran his own direct and Internet marketing agency for two decades. He is a branding/marketing consultant, professional freelance business writer and the author of the new eGuide, Branding 123: Build a Breakthrough Brand in 3 Proven Steps. Branding 123 is available for $2.99 at the Amazon Kindle store, for the nook, iPhone and iPad, and at Smashwords.com. More information is available at www.123eguides.com.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
On the Guard against Employee Fraud
With all employers have to do on a daily basis, one thing you would think they need not worry about is employee fraud. Think again.
As it turns out, employee fraud is something that more and more employers have to combat, especially in these days of economic stress in the nation.
According to a report several years back from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, U.S. businesses lose some 5 percent of their revenue due to employee fraud, with the median loss coming in at around $160,000.
Employee Fraud
If your company is wondering what it might be up against, there are a number of different fraudulent scams that employees will try and get away with. They include:
- Monetary theft – The most common of problems, this can involve an array of scenarios, including employees diverting company funds into their own accounts, padding expense reports, and literally taking cash from an office fund box slowly but surely. In order to guard against this, do not leave one individual in charge of all company finances, and be sure receipts are provided for any company expenditures by employees;
- Supply theft – Another common issue is employees stealing things from the supply room. Paper, pens, envelopes, staplers, etc. can easily go missing as employees then use the items at home. If one person is in charge of ordering company supplies, be sure they can account for everything ordered. Employees who request and take items such as scissors, pens, etc. should list the quantity of items they took so everything is accounted for;
- Workers Comp fraud – While there are legitimate injuries on the job, companies must also deal with employees who either fake injuries altogether or extend the time off of the job even though they have been medically cleared to return to work. Countless employees nationwide have been caught over the years out doing another job, exercising, traveling etc. when they are supposed to be at home recuperating from a workplace injury. The scam ends up costing the employer money in both time not worked and investigations;
Protect Your Business
While companies can institute every conceivable plan to thwart employee theft, sometimes schemes will initially slip through the cracks. In order to better protect your business, you can:
- Do solid background checks before you hire employees, especially on those who will be tasked with handling money for you;
- Institute a no-theft policy from day one, making sure employees are given a document that outlines such procedures. Employees should sign the document so that they have been warned about such acts and what penalties come with them;
- Review anti-theft measures with your employees on a regular basis so it sticks in their mind. Make sure employees know that stiff penalties, including termination and possible arrests, can follow a theft;
- If you have money around the office or store, be sure to install surveillance cameras so that not only are the funds protected, but employees know they are being watched during such transactions;
In cases where you believe your company has been defrauded by an employee, be sure to do a thorough but fair investigation so that no one’s legal rights are impacted.
While the majority of employees will prove to be hard-working, loyal individuals, employers need to keep their guard up, especially when the economy is stuck in neutral.
About the Author: Dave Thomas is an expert writer on items like business security systems and is based in San Diego, California. He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on surveillance system purchasing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs at Resource Nation
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
5 Reasons Why Online Businesses Still Need Business Cards
According to tech news blog ToMuse, of the 191 online businesses that were started during and just after 2005, 113 of them were still in operation two to four years later. In other words, just as with offline businesses, running and sustaining your business isn’t easy. However, online businesses should keep in mind that offline promotional tactics can still be used. Using techniques such as business card distribution can be an effective way to stay in the game.
Everyone Wants to Do Business with a Professional
Business cards have long been a quick, cost-effective and expedient way to market yourself to the public. A mainstay of traditional business etiquette, business men and women wouldn’t attend a business event without them in order to be taken seriously. Being able to present a business card immediately distinguished you as a professional who was on top of his business. You may be thinking, “Yeah, well that was then and this is now.” Well, let’s bring this scenario to the present.
Working online, you probably have coffee stains all over your desk. Your industry doesn’t allow for much face-to-face time with the public, but the operative word here is “much.” Eventually, you will have to leave your cave to connect with possible investors, clients and customers. When you do, you’ll be sure to clean up and act the part of the consummate businessperson, but there’s one problem: people still ask – and expect to see – your business card. That’s when things get a bit awkward. Will you say that you ran out or forgot them at home? Either way, you come out looking – you guessed it – unprofessional and not serious about your business. Don’t make the mistake of irreparably altering the way people see you.
Cheap and Simple Marketing
Usually, business cards can be ordered in 250- to 500-card batches. Just to give you an idea of the low cost of purchase, you can generally buy 500 cards for around 10 bucks. Yes, seriously. Whether you decide to choose from a number of online companies to print them, order a pack from your local printer or enroll in a couple of business card tutorials to do them yourself, adding business cards to your marketing arsenal couldn’t be any easier…or cheaper.
Let Business Cards Promote the “You”
When you think of business cards, you should think of them as a time-tested marketing tool that can be easily updated to fit your needs.
Make sure to include all of the below on your business card:
- Website URL
- E-mail address
- LinkedIn URL
- Facebook URL
- Twitter name
- Direct line
- Cellphone line
- Mailing address
Handing over an item that houses at least eight points of contact is a smart way to connect with potential clients and customers. What about current apps that allow you to send contact information, you ask? You have a point, but these apps still have their problems.
Bump, for example, is a networking phone app for iPhone and Android users. At a click of a button, you can send your contact information right through your phone. Here’s where things get a bit sticky, though: What if the person you want to connect with doesn’t have the aforementioned phones? Or what if they have those exact phones but haven’t downloaded the app? What does this mean for you and your potential connection? It means a lost opportunity, where fumbling with each other’s phones robs you from possibly making a lucrative connection. Don’t get lost in the shuffle. Next time, just hand her your business card.
Business Cards Legitimize Your Business
Just because you are online doesn’t mean you won’t have offline needs. What about when you ship your products out to your customers? Attaching a business card to your product ensures that any customer who wants to have repeat business with you can. It also puts customers at ease to see that the online company they are dealing with has standard details, i.e., physical address, direct phone number, person of contact, that any offline business would have. For the small expense, business cards go a long way.
Business Cards Also Break the Ice
Whether you are at a dinner party with friends or at a high-powered business conference, giving someone your business card is an effortless way to not only start a meaningful conversation but also build a relationship. If you know that you would like to pitch your online business to that bigwig across the room, giving him your business card for starters is a professional way to jump start the conversation. Outside of your physical appearance, a business card is one of the few lasting impressions that you can make. Long after the event has passed, that person-to-know will still have your card in his possession – and that can mean future business for you.
With the NY Times , saying that only 48.8 percent of businesses monitored between 1977 and 2000 survived after five years, having any business, whether online or off, is tricky business. If you are intent on being one of the survivors, no stop should be spared in promoting your venture. While there are clearly many more complicated reasons some businesses manage to stay afloat, business cards are an easy way to stay above the fray.
About the Author: Mitch O’Conner is an online marketer and writer. When he’s not busy testing sites, generating traffic or writing content, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, watching TV, playing games or going camping.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Why Your Small Business Should Not Try to Be Something it Isn’t
If you listen to the advice that many experts in small business management and marketing are preaching these days, you would have little choice but to believe that it’s a dog-eat-dog world. Small business owners trying to make a buck in this difficult economy are being encouraged to go guerrilla in their marketing, implement a host of the latest killer apps or strategies, aggressively reign in their expenses, and put up a professional, polished front that will make potential customers think they are working with one of the Big Boys, and not some unknown little pipsqueak.
Reality Lost
While it may be true that the current economic climate has made running a small business more challenging, many of these “essential” strategies, techniques, and technologies designed to beat out the next guy may be missing the mark when it comes to how they are being implemented and what the expected return will be.
But in an effort to save their companies, countless small business owners have jumped in anyway. The result: an army of almost robotic social media business profiles and activity, “professional” websites sporting the latest trends in web design and lathered with prolific professional-speak and equally professional stock photos of good-looking employees who seem a bit too happy to be at work.
Who Are You?
The problem with this is that while the unique flavor of the business ends up getting lost underneath all the “professionalism” and social media “hipness,”potential customers have quickly learned to shut out these cookie-cutter efforts. So what we have here folks is a no-win situation. Businesses aren’t attracting customers, and customers are not being allowed to see what makes a particular company a suitable match for their specific needs.
Let Your True Colors Show
Though there is certainly a time and place for making a small business appear bigger or more established then it is, such as by hiring a virtual receptionist or operating out of a business center, all these strategies should be done carefully and sparingly. Moreover, there is much to be gained by leveraging your true colors and your smallness including:
- You make your company appear more genuine
- You can more easily show off what makes your company unique
- It may be easier to attract specific market segments who will identify with your company’s image or employee makeup
- You will be more at ease since you do not have to worry as much about “slipping up” with customers
In short, though there are times to think big while running a small business, sometimes it just pays to be the small fish in the pond.
Author Bio: Adam Gottlieb is a small business owner, freelance writer, and small business consultant with over ten years experience helping small and home-based businesses improve their image, increase sales and better manage their resources (both the animate and inanimate ones). He is currently the owner and senior editor of the The Frugal Entrepreneur Small Business Blog providing frugal business tips, tools, and resources to small and home-based business owners.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
48 Tips for Dealing with the Media Like a PR Pro
You Need Three Core Goals When Working With The Media
- Continually inform your target audience, via the media, about your activities
- Sustain image building and sales support
- Be ready to control potentially damaging situations
Your Overall Publicity Aims Are To
- Communicate and promote your brands, products and services
- Create positive publicity about the operation of your company as whole AND specifically about your products
- Sustain your image as the authority and leader in your business activity
- Establish and develop good contact and relationship with the media
- Make the work of journalists easier in their dealings with you
- Be open in your attitudes to the press (they need us as much as we need them)
- Give journalists service at every opportunity
- Be pro-active by keeping an eye out for general and specific opportunities to achieve publicity
- Continuously drip-feed your targeted media with news and information about the operations of your company and/or product areas
How You Should Act When Meeting The Media
DO’s
- Answer all questions fully, honestly and promptly
- Treat a journalist as a customer
- Be prepared (Know your organization in detail, your products, services, etc), decide exactly what you want and need to say, select the most important issues
- Have key figures readily available
- Never be a barrier
- Be impartial with the media
- Humanize your organization
- Keep control over the information you are providing
- Target the information you are providing to the specific needs of the publication or journalist
- Demonstrate improvements (production up XX%, sales up XX%)
- Endeavor to find out in advance what sort of information they are after and tailor your answers to their particular interests
- Keep to the point
- Take time to consider your answers
- Tackle misunderstandings and correct errors immediately
- When asked about specific issues, strive to use wording and phrasing that has already been published, for example in corporate releases or in annual reports.
DON’T’s
- Never deviate from corporate policy
- Do not provide financial or other information that may impact share price 14 days prior to a quarterly financial statement (whenever possible avoid any interviews on financial topics in the run-up to a financial report from your company)
- Do not comment on activities other than your own, unless relevant information has already been published.
- Never make forecasts, and be careful with market projections.
- Never confirm or deny, ongoing business deals before they are closed and made public.
- Avoid ‘fudge’ statements
- Do not go ‘off-the-record’
- Do not allow yourself to be provoked (Never get ‘angry’ or become abrupt)
- Do not offer ‘inside’ information or an ‘exclusive’
- Do not exaggerate, bluff or ‘pad’
- Decline to comment on rumors.
- Do not allow yourself to be pressed into commenting on topics we are unsure about.
Your Media Relations Principles
- By keeping media informed in a truthful and respectful way, you can strive to heighten journalists’ awareness of, and familiarity with, your activities. You must be aware that every media relations activity affects your company image, reflecting on the reputation of your products and services, and on employee morale.
- News must be relevant and up-to-date. News is of interest to journalists only if the information is new. By making sure that you are first with all news that concerns you and your company or products, you ensure wider publicity for your messages. By being first with the news, you also ensure greater accuracy, while avoiding external sources of information, as well as rumors and speculation.
- Service to journalists must be of high quality. You should always give journalists good service, communicate through relevant spokespersons, and respond promptly. When answering journalists you never guess, but rather ask to get back with correct information. You should not allow yourself to be forced to comment on topics you are not sure about.
- Have a clear idea of your message. In all media relations, you should have a clear idea of the message you want to get across. This will help you focus your message on what is most important to you. Clear, focused messages help journalists do their job.
- There is no local news. The news business today is a 24-hour, constantly ongoing global process. Your media relations must be based on the assumption that any message can easily and swiftly spread from one market to another. This puts ever greater demand on you to coordinate your messages.
- Professionalism in contacts with journalists.
In A Bigger Firm, Who Has Responsibility For Information
- Contact with media about the business or area for which a manager is directly responsible is a natural part of every manager’s job.
- Corporate-related media issues should be handled at a top level by
- Corporate Communications, and sometimes by designated national spokespersons in international environments.
About the Author: The simple guidelines for working with journalists have been developed for Wanobe.com, a business networking site for small and mid-sized businesses, by David Noble, a leading journalist, writer and public relations professional with over 40 years in the media industry.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
5 Spectacular Internet Flops
The flops of dot-com enterprises are largely due to a lack of expertise among CEOs and investors, as well as inadequate management, usually made up of people fresh out of a marketing degree. However, several dot-com companies have failed as a result of poor business models, a lack of target audiences, and rapid business growth in excess of consumer demands.
Even Internet companies structured on the basis of consumer predictions, aggressive marketing strategies and solid investment capital have ended up suffering devastating financial losses and creative failures. Here are some of the more famous ones.
1) Webvan
Webvan’s business model was based on delivery of groceries to consumers’ homes within a 30-minute window of time. Webvan took significant risks in its strategy of rapid expansion, despite decreased consumer orders. The company’s initial investors included several venture capital groups, as well as Yahoo.com. However critical judgment errors resulted due to the company’s lack of experience in the supermarket industry, and in June 2008, CNET named Webvan one of the greatest dot-com fails in history, its stock prices peaking at $30 and within a few months bottoming out at 6 cents apiece.
2) Pets.com
As an online retailer of pet products and accessories, Pets.com was initially backed with $50 million in investment capital from venture capital groups and Amazon.com. Despite its creative marketing campaign, the company managed to lose $147 million during the first nine months of operation. When Pets.com went public in Feb. 2000, stock shares were sold at $11.00 before plummeting to $0.19 by the time the company folded in Nov. 2000. Remembered for its innovative sock puppet and Super Bowl advertising campaign at a cost of $1.2 million, the ultimate lesson may be that clever and creative advertising cannot save a poorly-managed company. As for the sock puppet, he was bought for $120,000 by Barnone.com in 2002 and is still working the television advertising circuit.
3) Kozmo.com
Founded by investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang in Mar. 1998, Kozmo.com promised one-hour delivery of small items, such as Starbucks coffee, free of charge. Delivery modes included bicycles, cars and public transportation. Kozmo, one of the exemplars of the dot-com boom, soon became synonymous with dot-com flop. It was questionable from the beginning that Kozmo would be able to make a profit by refusing to charge delivery fees. Kozmo entered into a five-year co-marketing agreement with Starbucks in 2000, which required that Kozmo would pay Starbucks $150 million to promote its services inside coffee shops. Kozmo had to sever its relationship with Starbucks in Mar. 2001, after paying only $15 million. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Kozmo reported revenues of $3.5 million, with a net loss of $26.3 million.
4) Boo.com
Boo.com, a British company, was developed for the purpose of selling brand name fashion apparel and accessories online. The founders spent in excess of $165 million in an attempt to market the company as a global retailer. Although the advertising campaigns were cute, the company was burdened by financial problems and mismanagement, forcing it into receivership in May 2000. Inadequate website design caused consumer frustration, resulting in a notable lack of interest. Sales were well below expectations and were compounded with high customer return rates. Perhaps the final nail in its eventual coffin was that the company insisted on paying all shipping costs, including returns, which inevitably resulted in significant financial losses. Whereas companies today like Zappos have managed to pull this off, Boo.com lost an estimated $150 million before its demise in 2000.
5) Flooz.com
Founded by iVillage co-founder Robert Levitan, Flooz began business in February 1999, structured on the development of an online currency that would enable customers to make purchases without the use of credit cards. Customers could accumulate Flooz credits through promotional programs offered by Internet retailers or purchase coupons directly from Flooz. Despite online marketing saturation and advertising campaigns featuring actor and comic Whoopi Goldberg, the concept never became a recognizable medium of currency exchange. As well, it was reported in 2001 that a Russian organized crime syndicate had infiltrated the website, and was using Flooz coupons and stolen credit card numbers in a sophisticated money laundering scheme.
Flooz coupons were purchased by stolen credit card numbers then redeemed for online purchases, and Levitan reported that fraudulent purchases accounted for approximately 19 percent of consumer credit card transactions on Flooz by mid-2001. Due to consumers choosing the built-in safety of credit card transactions over the newfangled and untrustworthy online currency, Flooz filed bankruptcy at the end of that year with a reported loss of $35 million.
Closing Thoughts
In the competitive global market for online businesses, fierce competition, lack of business acumen, poor management, and skyrocketing advertising costs have forced many dot-com companies into bankruptcy. As with any business, it is important to develop a cohesive business plan, adhere to strict financial projections, and limit expansion until profits have been realized. Rapid growth without significant financial stability can ultimately lead to failure.
About the Author: Andy Wallner is a freelance writer and web developer that specializes in providing information to students considering a marketing degree, or interested in online and offline marketing information. In his free time, Andy enjoys kayaking, playing trombone in a local jazz band, and learning CSS.
Read more
How to Find a Killer Strategy for Your Small Business Website in 3 Simple Steps
In this post you’re going to learn how to make your website more effective in three simple steps that you can implement right now.
Step 1) Choose a single goal for your website.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.”
- Credited to Laurence J. Peter
Your website may fill many shoes, and that’s okay. It can provide information to new visitors, it can help retain existing customers, and it can support e-commerce sales all at the same time.
The trouble with this is that more often than not, there’s no real goal for the website other than vague statements of wanting it to support the business. The purpose gets lost in all of the fancy features and great things that can come with a website.
It’s time to pick a single most important goal for your website. All decisions will be based around this goal, so it’s very important you think about it all the way through.
Why does your website exist? Here’s some sample answers to get your wheels moving:
- To bring in new local customers to my brick and mortar store.
- To provide support to existing customers in a convenient, 24/7 manner.
- To sell products nationwide through the power of e-commerce.
Step 2) Know your target audience.
If you want to sell something, it’s very important to know who you’re selling to.
For example: if you want to sell dog food, your target audience is dog owners. Your average dog owners will identify with a bond and connection they have with their dog and be interested in finding how they can give their pet the best they can without breaking the bank.
Think about the troubles that your audience encounters on a regular basis – go ahead and make a list. Here’s a few considerations for our dog owner example:
- Vet fees
- Scooping pet excrement
- Keeping pet at healthy weight
- Dog misbehaving
Now, make a list of all the positive things your audience encounters on a regular basis.
- Walks (in the park, at the beach, with other dog owners)
- Fulfillment and friendship in their dog
- Community with other dog owners
These examples are very short lists to give you an idea of what we’re going for here. Make these lists as big as you need to – these lists should be referenced every time you make a decision or write anything that is about or for your customers.
Usage Example: If you want to show how your product can help alleviate a common problem encountered by your audience, you have a list to refer to for that.
Usage Example: If you want to appeal to your audience’s likes and experiences, you have a list to refer for that.
Knowing how to communicated and reach your audience is one of the most important ways to develop a killer strategy for your website.
Step 3) Brainstorm a work flow that satisfies your audience’s needs and leads to your goal.
Now you have a clear goal for your site and you know how to appeal to your target audience. You’re already 95% there – by knowing why you’re making a decision and how to angle it for the people you’re selling to, the answers come fairly naturally from here on out.
Where does the audience start?
Hypothetically your audience could land on any page of your website. Where will you lead them? To your goal.
Perhaps you want customers to come to the brick and mortar store – the “Visit Us” page should be clear and prominent from every page on your website.
Perhaps you want to help answer any existing customer’s needs. A well designed FAQ section would do a great job at providing that. The FAQ should be easily accessible from every page of your website. You may even consider highlighting the most popular questions and answers throughout the site.
Think outside of the box! Put yourself in your audience’s shoes (by using the lists you made above) and think about what you might be looking for and where you’d expect to find it.
Take Action
Now it’s time to make things happen. If you haven’t followed these steps, you need to do so right now and make the appropriate changes.
Here’s to your effective website!
——
About the Author: Anne Dorko is a business web consultant helping business owners like you succeed online every day. Whether you need to create, shape or grow your website, Anne is there for you every step of the way explaining how to get it done in a way you can actually understand! For more tips and a free worksheet, be sure to sign up for the Web Tips newsletter.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
5 Reasons Being Your Own Boss Makes You A Better Person
We are a culture that celebrates leadership. We glamorize generals who lead men into battle, and admire the entrepreneurs that built Silicon Valley. There is no question that being the one in command has its appeal as well as its perks.
On the other hand, people in leadership positions also have to make tough decisions, and at times are not looked upon fondly by the masses. In the corporate world the boss is a pejorative term, the very word associated with a draconian taskmaster who will flog an employee for every second they are late returning from break.
So the question is, does being the boss make you a better or worse person? Does the anchor of responsibility make you more mature or more of a jerk? The following are 5 reasons why being your own boss ultimately makes you a better person.
1. Leadership
As your own boss you are responsible for the direction and hierarchy your business assumes, including everything from the marketing strategy to the delegation of duties. You will have to make tough decisions and have the conviction to exercise them.
2. Expanding Your Creativity
As a company drone you are nothing more than a tool, following the orders given to you. The brain goes on auto-pilot the second you clock in. As your own boss, you must think creatively to expand your business and stay ahead of the competition. You must fight ways to be more efficient and
3. Dealing With Pressure
Owning your own business means dealing with the pressure of success and failure. A salaried employee whose income is not tied to the bottom line has little incentive to care. At times it may not feel as if it makes a difference if he or she shows up at all. As the proprietor, however, your livelihood depends on the growth of your business. Exposing yourself to the crucible of business makes you more equipped to handle the pressures of everyday life.
4. Learning to Motivate
In addition to learning how to handle pressure, making your business thrive also represents a challenge. Regardless of whether it’s sports, education, or business, setting a lofty goal and attaining it provides a valuable experience and helps you grow as a human being. Furthermore, as your own boss, not only do you learn how to succeed, you learn how to stay on top. Finding ways to stay ambitious and motivated are key components in keeping your business growing. Finding the energy to keep customers and employees motivated will help you grow to become a more pleasant and affable person.
5. Empathy
Being your own boss means you are responsible for the satisfaction and safety of both your customers and your employees. You must handle disputes amicably and foster strong relationships with your client base. As an employee, the courtesies you extend to customers are perfunctory, a rote phrase spoken to appease a manager with no authentic enthusiasm. For a boss, however, these customers are the arteries of their business, and learning what they think is critical to improving the product or service they provide. Being a boss makes you a better listener, a more gregarious person, and teaches you the empathy required to be an effective manager of people.
In the end, the qualities that make a good boss are the same traits we admire in all human beings. As your own boss, you will find that as your business grows, so does your character.
About the Author: This article was written by Joan Evans of PublicLiabilityInsurance.org, Joans writes on a wide range of business topics including employers liability insurance.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Don’t Promote on Social Media Unless You Know These 5 Common Mistakes
Social media has become an important aspect of online business marketing, but there is still a lot of confusion regarding how to get the right kind of attention using social media channels.
In order to create the right kind of social media personality for your company, and build credibility as you do it, avoid the following missteps:
1. Crossing the Line from Professional to Personal
You indeed want to represent your company as personable and approachable in order to reach your customers. However, often that line from professional to personal is crossed, and information that is way too personal is shared. For example, it is completely appropriate to tweet, “Sorry for my slow response; I just got back from vacation.” However, you cross the line when you tweet, “I couldn’t get back to you last week because I was partying it up in Cancun!”
2. Over the Top Self-Promotion
Your customers expect a certain degree of self-promotion. However, if your posts never vary from the self-promotional variety, your followers will get tired of them.
Discern what kind of content your followers are most interested in—what drew them to you in the first place? Then, be sure to post useful links and information that will keep them coming back; when you do post promotional information, your customers will be more likely to respond.
3. Not Interacting With Your Followers
If you don’t reply when fans post comments on your Facebook page, if you don’t ask questions and respond when they answer, then you are missing out on a huge marketing opportunity. Think of your social media sites as additional opportunities for customer service, and be sure that you are engaging your followers with questions and discussions.
4. Responding Only to Positive Comments
When you get negative comments via social media channels, it is perhaps even more important to respond to them than to the positive comments. Ignoring the negative comment is like telling the customer that you do not care. As mentioned above, responding to tweets or posts is an opportunity for great customer service.
5. Jumping in Without a Plan
Mistakes made on the internet are likely out there forever. Often, companies wanting to get on board with social media make the decision to do so, then just jump in tweeting and posting without any kind of marketing plan. Considering the permanent nature of online marketing, having a well thought-out plan is the best way to make the most out of social media.
Conclusion
A good social media campaign can contribute greatly to the success of your business. Keep these guidelines in mind as you create social media accounts that positively represent your company.
About the Author: Kaushal Gandhi is Director at Aaris Internet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Aaris is SEO company in India. Kaushal has conceptualized SEO Traingulation Method to get desired ranking. In addition, he is also a passionate blogger and writes on diverse topics such as Search Engine Optimization, PPC Management and Social Media.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Review: 3 Complete Packages to Get Your Business Online Today
Getting your small business started online can be a frustrating task. You need a domain name, a website, someone to design the website and code it for you, a shopping cart programmed to sell your products, and another person to set it up for you. The fact is, many small business owners cannot afford to have someone else take care of everything.
Luckily, there are solutions you can implement yourself.
1. Yahoo! Small Business
The basic 12 month web hosting package on Yahoo! Small Business starts at $7.46 for the first three months, then moves up to $9.95 per month. The package includes:
- A suite of simple website design tools. For those who aren’t tech-savvy, or don’t want to build the website from the foundation up, Yahoo! offers a number of free, professional-looking website designs that you can use to get started. There is also support for MySQL, Flash, Shockwave, and PayPal.
- Security and reliability. Yahoo! Small Business offers a 30 day satisfaction guarantee, an uptime guarantee, and 24/7 support online, or via phone or email. Your website is backed up on multiple servers to ensure your website stays live.
- Disk space, email and analytics. Your website has unlimited disk space, unlimited data transfer, and unlimited email storage for 1,000 business email addresses. Yahoo! also provides a full analytics suite, so you can see what kind of traffic your website is receiving.
- Ecommerce features such as a shopping cart, inventory management support, and order management are sold separately, but may not be necessary for the business just starting out.
2. Go Daddy
Go Daddy remains a competitive player in small business offerings, and the 12 month “Ultimate” hosting package costs only $14 a month. The package is very similar to the Yahoo! Small Business basic package above, including the unlimited spaces, data transfer, and the 1000 emails, but offers a few extras:
- Access to the ZenCart ecommerce add-on, a shopping cart for your users when purchasing items from your website. You have to set it up yourself, but Go Daddy offers some support, and there are tutorials available online.
- Advertising credit. Go Daddy offers advertising credits for your website to many major search engines and popular social networking websites, allowing for greater immediate exposure, ideal for any starting business.
Go Daddy has had some customer service issues, and occasionally website slow downs, but overall is a well respected, reliable hosting service.
3. Adobe Business Catalyst
Adobe Business Catalyst has the steepest learning curve of the three, but is also backed by a large, very well respected company that specializes in professional business software. The 12 month “Business” hosting package runs approximately $17 a month, and again offers similar options to the above packages, with a few notable exceptions:
- Rotating advertising. Not only does Business Catalyst support email advertising, it also offers support for dynamic ad rotation on the internet, allowing your advertising to stay fresh across websites.
- A free, 30 day satisfaction trial. Because of the learning curve, the 30-day free trial is valuable, since you may discover the web host isn’t a good fit for you.
- Business email addresses are limited to ten in this package, though if you’re just starting, you may not need more than that.
How do I get started?
All of these services are similar, and each will walk you through the set up process, once you’ve decided which is best for you and your budget. Get your domain and e-mail address set up first. After that, get your website looking the way you want, and enough information to attract your users and start generating sales. When the demand is there, create your shopping cart to offer any products you may have.
After your website is running, don’t just sit back and wait for the sales to happen! Online advertising, search engine optimization, and other marketing techniques can be covered by the remainder of your budget to improve your conversion rate and generate more leads and sales.
About the Author: Lin Edwards is a content and technical writer at SmallBusiness-Domain.com, where you will find web hosting, domain names and e-commerce offers and promo codes, such as GoDaddy coupons. Follow Small Business Domain: http://twitter.com/#!/sbdomain
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
The Safest Small Business Startup Strategies Are Virtual, Guerrilla, and Flexible
Our continually struggling economy, at least on ground-level, is sending aspiring entrepreneurs mixed messages. On one hand, there’s enormous incentive to stake your claim at a time when competition is low and human resources are high.On the other hand, the still-unknowable future state of our national and global economies is enough to intimidate even the most ardent of entrepreneurs.
While we often can’t make up our minds as to whether to invest our capital into budding businesses or stow it away in StorageMart lockers for fear of an economic Armageddon, there are ways to make your enterprising dreams come true while minimizing the risk of these uncertain times:
Virtualization
The lingering frailty of the real estate market means that at any moment another crisis could lead to rising rent as mortgages skyrocket. For start-ups renting office space, this could devastate the budget for monthly expenses. In addition, the cost of furnishings and supplies takes their toll on limited income too. Considering the prevalence of cloud computing and mobile Internet connectivity, start-ups should forgo a centralized work environment in favor of a remote operation. The benefits of an office fail to apply to young small businesses in an age when the Internet is the primary means people research goods and services.
Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing tactics center on the idea that the modern public responds better to seemingly off-the-cuff promotions and brand awareness. It’s also a conveniently cheaper way of executing large-scale marketing campaigns than traditional means such as television and radio. Guerrilla marketing takes some serious creativity, because, in essence, its got to be a purely original approach to spreading awareness about your goods and services. It does, however, keep you from having to invest large volumes of cash up front for more mainstream campaigns through pricey marketing agencies.
Flexibility
The main objective is to make your business practices elastic in their necessity. Young businesses need the ability to change pace or strategy without the added expenses of increases in marketing and further investment in company assets. You’re going to want to change some of the things you do because every small business start-up makes mistakes. You want to make sure these inevitable mistakes don’t result in major setbacks due to the added cost of fixing them when your business model is set in stone.
Don’t hold back on a great small business idea at a time when the best thing you can do for yourself and for your country is to do your part to help get the economy’s wheels turning again. But at the same time, don’t set yourself up for potential failure by investing large amounts up front when you can succeed just as easily by practicing a Spartan business lifestyle. Offices and expensive marketing can always come later.
About the Author: This article was contributed by Riley Kissel.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Choosing a Virtual Receptionist Service: 5 Tips for Dazzling Call Answering
As growing businesses make the transition from small to medium-sized, many are finding that hiring a virtual receptionist service not only helps free up time for other projects, but it adds a whole new level of professionalism and customer service. A virtual receptionist is an off-site company that fields all of your phone calls and directs them to the appropriate channel.
Depending on the virtual receptionist service you choose, your call answering may be highly customizable. Some virtual receptionist services are even able to sound like they are in your office, just like an in-house receptionist. To get the most bang for your buck, consider these five preferences when setting up service:
1. Start with a great greeting
Typically, you’re able to personalize what your virtual receptionists will say when greeting callers. Try beginning with “Thank you for calling” or “Good Morning/Afternoon” and follow with your company name. Sprinkle in a “How may I help you?” or “How may I direct your call?” for good measure. The whole greeting should set a welcoming tone for the call: “Thank you for calling ABC Company. How may I help you?”
Bonus: If “Good Morning” sounds good to you, confirm with your service that no matter what time zone the virtual receptionists are in, they will answer with your time zone in mind.
2. Request helpful information from callers
Virtual receptionists can often gather certain information when taking a message or before transferring a call to you. Would knowing what company someone’s calling from or what the call is regarding make your life easier?
3. Pick your messaging preference
Each individual in the company may also be able to customize his or her own messaging procedure. Would you prefer written messages or voicemails? Or would you like the virtual receptionist to offer a choice between the two?
For example, salespeople may prefer to have the receptionist take down a short intake form from their callers (first and last name, how they heard about you, an email address, what services they’re interested in, etc.). That way, they’re able to make an informed return call, and the potential client has a chance to engage with the company.
4. Distinguish between types of calls
Just as you can set specifications for what information to collect before a call is transferred or when a message is taken, virtual receptionist services can also personalize call instructions based on the type of call. For instance, the virtual receptionist may only try your desk line for current clients but try your cell as well for new clients.
5. Ask about FYI messages
Your virtual receptionist service may be able to send you an email every time a caller is connected to voicemail or declines to leave a message. That way, you’ll know that they called whether or not a message is taken, and you can impress clients with a proactive offer of help!
With advanced software and savvy virtual receptionists on your side, there are lots of different ways to set up your phone answering. By customizing your call answering, you’ll be able to enhance your business’s image while increasing your productivity. There’s a great big virtual receptionist world out there – don’t be afraid to ask for what you want!
About the Author: Elizabeth Robinson writes for Ruby Receptionists, a live virtual receptionist service that provides call answering for businesses nationwide.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
So You’ve Got an Idea – Now What? 8 Foolproof Steps from Idea to Implementation
If you’re reading this blog, you probably had the realization at some point in your life that you could do it better. Maybe you were working for someone, and realized that there was a better way to run the business. Or maybe you were using a product and had a flash of insight about how to improve it. Or perhaps you had a brilliant idea for a product that could change the world.
But you’re realistic. You know things are never as easy as they seem. You’re willing to gamble your time and money on your idea, but what’s the first step towards realizing your dream? And how do you make sure you don’t lose all your money on a business that ends up failing?
Where to Focus?
The answer is to focus on the customer, not the product. It’s easiest to demonstrate this approach by example. Let’s say I have an idea for a new kind of recipe site, designed specifically for professional chefs. Before spending thousands of dollars building the site and creating all the content, I would go and talk to chefs and ask what they would like to see in a recipe site. I’d look for forums or Facebook groups for chefs and ask for ideas. I’d put my vision out and try to get feedback. And I’d do all of this before building the product at all.
Testing, Testing…
So now I’ve got a sense of how to build this amazing recipe site. My instinct might be to build out a huge site now and have a big release party in 6 months. But what if everybody was excited about it on forums and interviews, but nobody wants to pay? Or what if, when the site is actually built, it turns out to not really work the way people want it to? That’s where the idea of a minimal viable product comes in. Once you feel like you have a basic handle on your customer, create the minimum experience you need in order to test if you’re on the right path. For my recipe site, I might just create a site for desserts, with plans to expand into other meals if it goes well. I might have a very rudimentary billing system, and only the most important of my site’s future features.
Crowdsource and Improve
Once you’ve got some people using your product or service, you’ll have a better understanding of where to go. So far, I haven’t spent too much time or money on my recipe site, so if it turns out it’s a flop, I haven’t lost everything. I can talk to my customers and find out what’s going wrong: Do they have a hard time finding the recipes? Do they like the site but not want to pay as much as I’m charging? Or is the whole idea just not something they’re interested in?
If the answer to the last question is “yes”, it’s a disappointing day, but at least I haven’t wasted a huge amount of time and money. But otherwise, I’ve learned a lot from talking to our first customers. Now I can make changes – changes I probably never would have thought of myself, or changes I thought were unimportant but that my customers really value.
8 Foolproof Steps from Idea to Implementation
The process in its entirety looks like this:
1. Have an idea.
2. Talk to potential customers about the idea.
3. Build a minimal viable product or experience.
4. Get customers.
5. Learn what they like and don’t like.
6. Make changes.
7. Repeat 4-6 until you have a business people are steadily buying from.
If you get to 7, congratulations! It’s time for:
8. Scale out your business and grow like crazy.
The fallacy that too many entrepreneurs fall for is thinking that step 8 comes before step 3. They think (and I’ve thought this, too!) that, if they could just build the perfect product or service, the customers will come. In fact, you need to have the customers in order to know what the perfect product even is.
If you’d like to read more about these ideas, check out Steve Blank’s Four Steps to Epiphany and Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup.
About the Author: Michael Kaiser-Nyman is the CEO and founder of Impact Dialing, an easy to use power dialer and hosted predictive dialer for small businesses, call centers, and political campaigns.
Photo Credit: Roomic Cube
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Choosing a Virtual Meeting Service for Your Small Business
In the past, unwieldy equipment and the absence of widespread broadband internet capacity put video conferencing out of reach for many businesses. However, technological advances in just the past few years have made virtual meetings a viable option for even the smallest companies. Even as the economy recovers, virtual meetings are expected to remain a popular alternative to business travel.
Because of the rise in popularity of virtual meetings, there has been an explosion of service providers. The following points should be considered in choosing a virtual meeting service that meets the needs of your small business.
Ease of installation and set-up
Some virtual meeting services, such as GoToMeeting, require that the participants install a software program or browser plug-in. If software must be downloaded, you must make certain that the appropriate parties have operating systems compatible with the software and verify that they have installed it prior to the meeting.
Many popular virtual meeting services, such as GoToWebinar, Adobe Connect, and WebEx Meeting, are entirely web-based, and do not require that any software be installed. It is important to verify that the service will support your company’s operating system, however. GoToWebinar supports instant virtual meetings for any Windows or Mac operating system. Adobe Connect and WebEx also will support instant web conferencing on Linux operating systems, and WebEx will run on any smartphone mobile device.
Invitation Tools
A variety of invitation tools are offered by popular web conferencing services. Many virtual meeting services, such as Infinite Conferencing, Adobe Connect, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting, are integrated with Microsoft’s Outlook email application and will add a meeting’s details to participants’ Outlook calendars. This feature is useful for businesses holding regular meetings with a large number of attendees. Most services offer a variety of invitation options, including automated email templates, instant or planned webinars and meetings, and webinar registration pages.
Collaboration Tools
Virtual meeting services offer a variety of features allowing participants in a meeting to collaborate with ease. Most services currently include screen-sharing capabilities enabling a presenter to share his desktop, certain documents, as well as chosen applications in a full-screen view and allow the presenter to highlight a specific portion of his screen.
Another common feature is the capability for multiple participants to act as presenters. This tool is useful for businesses holding meetings in which it is important for various employees with expertise in different areas to participate in the presentation of the meeting. AT&T Connect and IBM Lotus Live only will allow up to four presenters, while Watchitoo will allow up to 25 presenters.
Annotation and drawing tools, such as virtual pens, pencils, and sticky notes, allowing presenters to underscore or highlight certain points also are generally available, although some popular services, such as Zoho Meeting, do not offer them. Whiteboard tools, enabling presenters to note ideas or develop outlines for projects are offered by some services, such as AT&T Connect, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Watchitoo, and Yugma.
Communication Tools
Almost all web conferencing services provide a built-in text chat tool, enabling participants in a meeting to communicate with specific people in the group or with the group as a whole. Other standard communication tools are teleconferencing, a voice-calling feature enabling attendees to talk to each other during the meeting, as well as VoIP (Voice-over-Internet-Protocol), which allows participants to make telephone calls over the web.
Videoconferencing, although a commonly offered service, is less ubiquitous than the tools mentioned above. It allows participants to broadcast video images of themselves, making the meeting seem like a more traditional in-person gathering. Some virtual meeting services, such as Yuuguu, do not offer this service.
About the Author: Neville Luff is a marketing strategist for NewNet, a UK-based internet, hosting and networking solutions company. NewNet services include data centres, dedicated servers, business VOIP, web hosting and more. Follow NewNet on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/NewNetISP
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
