Don’t have a six-figure marketing budget like the “big boys” to throw around?  Worry not my friends you can still go big without breaking the bank.

Here are 75 big marketing ideas you can begin implementing today to grow your business regardless of the size of your marketing budget. Many of these can be done with little to no money, and will cost you nothing more than a bit of your time.

1) Get Active on Twitter

It takes just a few minutes to make a contribution to Twitter and making this a part of your daily business routine is a steady way to build up a network of followers interested in your area of industry.

2) Start a Blog

This needn’t be an everyday thing but posting to a blog a couple of times a week is a way to keep in touch with your customers and to convey more about your business and the market in which you operate to your potential clients.

3) Blog Commenting

Contribute to the conversations on blogs by bloggers in the same niche in which you operate.

4) Forum Discussions

Find and sign up to forums on a related topic to your business. Actively take part and get to know your fellow posters. Try searching for “Your Topic + Forum” in Google to find relevant conversations.

5) Register Your Business with Google Local

Google has been offering local businesses a chance to register their business address and phone number in its local listings for some time

6) Register Your Products or Services with Google Merchant

Another helpful and free service from the search giant, Google Merchant is a place for businesses to upload a data feed which includes products or services.

7) Make Your Business Cards Memorable

Choose a design that stands out. Here are 51 creative business card ideas to get you started thinking creatively.

8). Consider Paid Search

Google AdWords is the largest sponsored search result program. While this marketing channel isn’t free, it does fall under budget marketing ideas for new businesses simply because you are able to manage it yourself within a small budget.

9) Build a Basic Reward Scheme

Offer an exclusive incentive to your regular customers which will help the business retain customers and win new ones.

10) Improve Customer Service

Many forget that customer service is a form of advertising. You’re advertising that you care, and that gets noticed.

11) Let Customers Know You Appreciate Them

Customers who feel appreciated are going to give the love right back in the form of loyalty. Send them and email, make a call, interact with them any way you see fit. Just let them know they are important.

12) Become Vain

Do you know what your customers are saying about you online? Get vain, and search for yourself! Then, respond to your customers.

13) Don’t Forget Current Customers

We’ve all heard the old adage that it’s easier to keep an existing customer than win a new one. But it may also be worth going through your list of older inactive customers and trying to reactivate a few of the better ones. Give them a call, tell them you value them, ask what it will take to get them back. You might be surprised at how simple or low-cost it is. If they say no thanks, consider it a learning opportunity and wish them the best. Then call them back in a year and ask again.

14) Article Marketing

Write expert articles and submit them to sites such as Ezinearticles.com. Here is  a list of the top 50 article directories, ranked by Alexa. Get writing!

15) Advertise on Yourself

Make some simple t-shirts with your company name and website on them, wear them around town

16) Advertise on Someone Else

Check out guys like iwearyourshirt.comfor a fun, creative, and realtively cheap way to get your company seen.

17) Add your Business to a Review Site

Adding your business to a review site such as Feedback Jar can help put you in touch with customers.

18) Email Signature

Use every email as a way to promote yourself and your business.

19) Social Networks

There is a social network for every niche. Join one and start networking.

20) Leave Biz Cards

You’ve followed #7 above, now don’t just leave those cards in your pocket! Give them out, to anyone, everywhere.  Heck, just leave them laying around, or in library books, or anywhere your customers may see them.

21) Postcards on Windshields

Easy and cheap to print, place them under windshields at parking lots. The more creative your card the more they’ll get noticed.

22) Flyers on Community Boards

Community cork boards are everywhere. Try putting up a flier or two on these boards…cheap and easy, and you never know who will read them.

23) Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce

A local chamber can be a great way to get your business out in the community for very little cash outlay. Chambers offer programs and services free for their members, and oftentimes refer business to chamber members.

24) Give a Talk at an Event

Any chance you get to get in front of a group and show your expertise – do it! 

25) Send Special Deals to Your Newsletter List

Give your newsletter subscribers even more value by offering a “Newsletter only” deal.

26) Don’t Have a Newsletter List?

Get one…

27) Give it Away for Free

If your product or service rocks – it’s your best advertising. Give it away for free, for a limited time of course, then charge when they can’t live without it.

28) Have a “Weird” Sale

Read about a guy who ran a pretty successful “I just broke my foot so you get 25% off sale”. The key here is to keep it fun, and get people talking about it.

29) Ask Your Customers for Referrals

Don’t be shy, come right out and solicit referrals from happy customers. They will be happy to tell their friends about you.

30) Give’mSomething to Give

Put something in the hands of your happy customers they can give to somebody else. Free samples, a “refer a friend” coupon. Build a small army of happy customers to help you spread the word.

31) And While Your Giving

Don’t forget to always give’ em the pickle.

32) Free Classifieds

Use free classified ad servicesto promote your product or service. Aside from big online classified ads (Craigslist), there may be other free options specific to your geographical area, maybe even some free inclusions in local print media. Do some Google searches and see what is available in your hometown.

33) Reciprocity Advertising

Talk to local business owners and explore cross promotion you may be able to do with them. They are probably in the same boat as you, and would be willing to work out a “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” type of marketing campaign.

34) Barter

You may think of bartering as particularly “old school”, but there is no reason you can’t trade a product or service with another business in exchange for some marketing opportunities. Trading an hour of your consulting time, or a couple free products to a local business who is willing then to plug you in their newsletter or mailings could result in a better deal than paying out of pocket for the same marketing. Start with the barter directory, and go from there.

35) Write a Press Release

Write your own press release and submit it to the appropriate channels. If what you’re doing is particularly newsworthy, send it to local media. Also submit your press release to the free services online.

36) Networking

Scout out free networking events in your area, you’d be surprised how many “meet-ups” there are. Not only are they a great way to get out of the house, but think of every networking event as a mini-marketing campaign. Use MeetUp.com to scan for opportunities near you.

37) Organize a Meet Up

Not seeing a meet up that meets your needs? Organize one.

38) Link Exchange with Other Businesses

Offer link exchanges on related business websites where your link will add value to their visitors, and their link will add value to your visitors.

39) Cross Promote

Like a link exchange, but more in depth. Set up a cross promotion with another business. For example if you sell pencils, find a business that sells paper and work out a deal to send each other business.

40) Develop a “Niche Discount” That You Get Known For

I read about a guy who gives a “Laugh Discount” – a small % off if a customer can make him laugh within X minutes of meeting him.

41) Guest Post on Blogs

Expand your reach and audience. Use a service like MyGuestBlog to find blogs looking for guest articles. Or guest post with us.

42) Publish a Free Report or White Paper

Put out a free report related to what you do on your website, or distribute it to those in your target market. A report is a great way to get your name out there, show your expertise, and best of all these reports tend to get shared. Also, use the free report as an incentive to subscribe to your newsletter email list.

43) Encourage Sharing

Once you have a free report to give out, better than waiting for it to get shared, build in some encouragement to do so. Offer a deal if they share it with “X” number of people. 

44) Make a Helpful YouTube Video

Video is pretty easy to produce now, and nobody expects it to look like Scorsese directed it, so put up a couple helpful videos explaining how to use one of your products or how we can benefit from your service. Better yet, answer a common question about what you do, or solve a problem in your video, it will get shared if you’re good.

45) Video Testimonials / Interviews

Better than just you on video ask some satisfied customers to take part in an interview where they talk about you and what you do. This is the best social proof that you don’t suck.

46) Partner With Another Business to Give Away a Prize

Don’t have the money to give away much on your own?  How about partnering with a complimentary business to give away a great prize and getting some great advertising for the two of you?  Then figure out a way where both of your customers can enter for a chance to win!

47) Sponsor an Event

Cheaper than you think, and sponsoring a local event can really give you a lot for your money.

48) Use Your Friends and Family

Ask friends and family to spread the word about your business.

49) Print a Coupon on the Back of Your Business Card.

People rarely use their business cards as a form of advertising. But if you want to have people remember you, or actually use their service, why not put something on your card to encourage their business…you’re giving those cards out anyway, right?

50) Join and Attend Professional Groups

Join a couple professional groups. These don’t have to be related to your niche, they could be something you want to get better at (such as Toastmasters), or an area of interest. You’ll meet other professionals, and who knows what those contacts will turn into.

51) Newsletter Cross-Promotion

Buddy up with another business and do some cross promotion in your newsletters. Again, you’ll want to be complimentary businesses to each other for this to really work. 

52) Do Something Different

Write down everything you and your competitors have in common, then come up with one thing you can do differently than them – then do that.

53) Start an Affiliate Program

Use a service like Shareasale.com to start your own affiliate program. Offer a nice commission and people will be happy to sell your products/services.

54) Ask for Testimonials & Use Them!

Ask for testimonials from existing clients. Good testimonials are perfect for your web page and promotional items. Don’t just ask for testimonials and then let them sit. Put those things on everything you do – website, advertising, handouts, newsletters, etc.

55) Send Promotional Items

Send out invoices to your clients?  Why not send them a small promo gift to go along with it?  You never know where those pens will end up.

56) Join a Social Networking Site For Business Owners & Entrepreneurs

Here are 40 such networking sites, take a look and find one that suits you and your business. Then get using it.

57) Pull a Publicity Stunt

Are you the creative type? Not shy in front of crowds?  Try a memorable, creative, or weird publicity stunt!

58) Hold a Webinar

Creating live, online seminars or webinars is relatively easy these days. Why not hold a webinar relating to your expertise, then promote it as a freebie or special benefit to current customers or to attract new customers?

59) Offer a Guarantee

It’s been shown that guarantees result in more sales.  Make an iron clad guarantee, or better yet offer a guarantee that is outlandish and gets noticed…but if ever called on it, be sure you hold up your end of the bargain.

60) Get Reviewed

Use ReviewMe.com to get reviewed.

61) Become an Expert on Q/A Sites

Jump on a Q&A site and be helpful, answer questions related to what you do, become a trusted expert. These should get you going:

• Yahoo Answers
• Wiki Answers
• LinkedIn Answers
• Mahalo Answers

62) Donate to a Charity Auction

Charity auctions are constantly in need of things to auction off and raise money with in the process. You’ll feel good about your donation, and get your name out there.

63) Do a Memorable Giveaway

Local tire sellers Les Schwab has a “Free Beef” event every year. Buy tires, and get free beef – what does one have to do with the other? Your guess is as good as mine, but it gets people talking and that has been a very popular sale for many years now.

64) Go to a Trade Show

If you can find one in your niche – great!  If not, go and talk to people…you just never know who will need what you sell.

65) Use your 404 Error Page

You know that “404 Error Page” you get on a website when it can’t find what you were looking for?  Well, you can customize that page to say whatever you want. So instead of your visitor seeing “Hey sorry you’re lost”, have it say “Sorry you didn’t find what you’re looking for here’s 10% coupon off our services to make up for it”.

66) Surprise Upgrade ala Zappos

Why not “upgrade” a customer out of the blue sometime? Completely make their day, make them feel special, and they will tell everybody they know. It worked for Zappos…

67) Use Your “Thank You” Page

When someone signs up for your online newsletter they are taken to a thank you page. Customize this page to offer them something of value, give them a deal, coupon, whatever – just use the space creatively!

68) Use Someone Else’s “Thank you Page”

Chances are other website owners haven’t thought about using their own thank you page to promote something. Why not offer to buy some add space on their page? It will probably be cheap, and as long as there are some synergies between your businesses it can be effective.

69) Create a  Podcast

 Podcast can be quick, easy, fun, and FREE to produce. Here’s how to get startedPodcasting

70) SEO Your Website

Making sure your potential clients can find you is important. Take a few minutes to make sure your site is SEO’ed. Here’s 9 tips to get you started.

 71) Know you USP

What is your unique selling proposition? You first need to know why people should buy from you. Once you do, you’ll have no problem telling them.

72) Create an Elevator Speech

In 30 seconds or less can you tell me what you do, what makes you special, and why I should care?  That’s your elevator speech. Think about how many times you are asked what you do, the better you get at explaining it the more customers you will get – easy as that.

73) Sponsor a Local Youth Team

 When I was 6 my soccer team was sponsored by the local Uhaul. Almost 30 years later I still remember that…30 years from now some grown up kids could remember your business, and their parents could have been using your business.

74) Place Google Ads for Influential People You Want to Meet

Do what this guy did to get a job, but replace the names with people you want as clients.  

75) Your Turn

Put the 75th idea in our comments below.

Photo Credit:jdn

You’re probably going to groan when you hear the word “Content”. You’re just trying to run a business that happens to have an online presence. You never intended to get into publishing.  So why do you need to be concerned about Content?

Your website is up and running. You ticked all the boxes with your web development and design. What about the Content? Have you put much thought into the words for your website?

If your business has an online presence, you are a publisher whether you want to be or not.  Compelling Content is now an absolute business necessity.  If you neglect this part of your business, you risk getting slaughtered online.

What you need is Content that is both fresh and engaging. And you need a steady stream of it. And this is why:

Fresh….

You need fresh content because visitors and search engines like the fresh stuff. If you serve fresh Content up to Google, you’ll keep the search engine beast happy. It gives users and Google a reason to visit your website regularly.  Make sure your fresh Content is an internet virgin and hasn’t been published online before.

Engaging…

You need engaging Content because to make sales online, you need to capture the hearts and minds of your prospective and existing customers.  You won’t do this with fresh dull Content. You will do it with fresh engaging Content. Let your business personality shine through. Nobody likes bland.

If your site is stuffed with fresh engaging Content, users and Google will learn to trust you. From there, sales, referrals, backlinks and long term relationships will follow.

Rudyard Kipling wrote “words are… the most powerful drug used by mankind”. Burn this phrase into your mind and apply it to your online business. A business blog is a great way of adding fresh Content to your website on a regular basis.

SEO Content… is that what I need?

So you think keyword-stuffed bland SEO Content will do the trick? Think again. SEO Content which is written primarily for search engines tends not to engage your users. Site visitors and Google don’t like it when you don’t engage your visitors.

When writing or commissioning online Content, focus on who the user is and make sure the Content will add to the User Experience. It’s all about putting your user first. Google advises webmasters to “make pages primarily for users, not for search engines”. Ignore this advice at your peril.

Be good to your Content and it will be good to you

Most small businesses don’t yet realise the power of compelling Content. Now is your chance to stay ahead of the game by paying attention to this element of your online business.

If you have the skills in-house to write quality content, consider yourself lucky. If you don’t have the skills, outsource the task. Don’t cut corners with your Content. It’s a false economy. If you treat Content as an afterthought, expect to pay the price.

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About the Author: Witto is the boss at The Wittery®, The Witty Writer Marketplace.  His mission is to connect businesses with pre-screened freelance writers who will write fresh witty content to order.  You’ll find him and his tribe at TheWittery.com.  He leaves the funny business to the witty writers.

Photo Credit: chrisdlugosz

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Marketing  for any small business is incredibly time consuming, and if you’re only one person or a small army of hardcore marketers, you want to make sure you’re optimizing around acquiring new customers and re-selling to current customers.

Focus on the RIGHT numbers

While marketing can be a volume game, it’s easy to measure the wrong metrics and to aim for the wrong goals. We came across that problem when we were shooting for high volume traffic, but it wasn’t converting as we expected. The Key Performance Indicator should have been sales, not traffic.

Spend money to get money back

Sure, goodwill is a good idea. Advertising is good for branding purposes too. But will these things help you reach your goals, which mean more revenue and more profit? Will goodwill turn into an amazing piece of press for your company that in turn will lead to sales? Will that branding campaign cause more people who were initially hesitant to purchase at one point, to actually pay for your product or service at another time? You have to have justification for your initiatives, as well as proper metrics to measure the effectiveness of the programs; otherwise you’re just wasting time doing things that might not be working or things that do not work as effectively as other things.

Double down on what’s working

It’s important to know what is affecting the bottom line and focus more of your efforts on what will help you reach your business’ goals. Cut out the fat and stop doing things that aren’t as effective as other things you can do or things that aren’t effective at all.

Test, Test, Test!

If what you’re doing works well enough for you, then that’s great, but if you want to take your business to the next level, test out ways to make what you’re doing even more effective. Try out new things with CRM like offering different sales and promotions, rearranging your website and its contents for readability and usability, or just testing a few things with your email marketing.

 About the Author: Danny Wong is the Lead Evangelist for Blank Label, a provider of men’s custom dress shirts. He specializes in Small Business Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

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Photo Credit: jsmjr

 Don’t think you have enough time in the day to effectively market your business?  Think again!  This is a guest post by Stacey Cavanagh of Tecmark: SEO Liverpool and Manchester, shows that with as little as 30 minutes a day you can be on your way to attracting more customers.

30 Minutes a Day Online Marketing Tips

For the small business operating in a particularly tricky financial period, the bulk of your marketing budget may come in the form of time.

While it’s true to say that online marketing, SEO, social media marketing etc is a worthwhile investment, we’re not just talking in terms of money.

Putting some time into online marketing can pay dividends for a small business and you can even make a difference in just half an hour a day by implementing some of the following:

Twitter

It takes just a few minutes to make a contribution to Twitter and making this a part of your daily business routine is a steady way to build up a network of followers interested in your area of industry. Share a link to an interesting news story relating to your industry or details of a special offer on your own website. Just make it a post that offers the reader something (information or a great deal) and your followers will gradually build up. Start to search for people in a similar area and follow them. Begin networking within your niche to meet contacts.

Blog

The same sort of concept applies with blogging as with Twitter, except the posts are much longer! This needn’t be an everyday thing but posting to a blog a couple of times a week is a way to keep in touch with your customers and to convey more about your business and the market in which you operate to your potential clients. This is an excellent means of marketing. It takes a while for a blog to take off, so have patience. 20 minutes or so twice a week can really get this going for your business.

Blog commenting

Contribute to the conversations on blogs by bloggers in the same niche in which you operate. This, again, is a form of networking and it also keeps you abreast of everything else happening in your industry. You also get back links when commenting, which potentially has SEO benefits for your website. A few minutes a day to read and comment on blogs in a similar niche will make a big difference in the long term.

Forum Discussions

Find and sign up to forums on a related topic to your business. Actively take part and get to know your fellow posters. Yes, more virtual networking but once again, the importance of this cannot be overlooked. It contributes to building an online presence for your brand and can begin to establish you, the business owner, as something of an authority in the specific area in which you operate. This can eventually lead to people getting in touch with you about the products and services you supply, as well as encouraging more links from the sites of others back to yours (more SEO benefit)!

Checking your content

Make it a goal to read one page of your website through each day to check the content. You’re looking for grammatical and spelling errors, typos etc. But you should also be keeping an eye on how frequently your keyword is mentioned. By keyword, we mean the word relating to what the page is about. It’s surprising when reading back over content how infrequently your keyword might be mentioned. When you think about it, the only way in which Google can recognise the topic of your page is by the words on it. So ensuring you mention the keyword in the content is critical. However, this should not come at the detriment of the meaning of your content and if you struggle to write keyword rich content that reads naturally, you should consider investing in a professional copywriter through an online marketing company. But it’s certainly worth investing a few minutes a day to read through your own existing content.

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These are quick tips that will, over time, increase your web presence which will, in turn generate more traffic and thus more leads to your small business website.

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Photo Credit: mao_lini

Here’s an old (old as in I’m not making it up) marketing dictum that I believe should be a mantra for all small business marketing efforts.

It was as true yesterday as it will be tomorrow when it comes to explaining consumer behavior.

We’ll look at each of these individually, but I think you’ll see that by approaching your marketing with all of these in mind will lead you to the results you’re after. 

People Don’t Believe What You Tell Them

How many of you are selling your products or services by telling your customers what it can do for them or why they need it?

This Yo-Yo is the best Yo-Yo money can buy! I think you’re going to be so happy with this Yo-Yo you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

They Rarely Believe What You Show Them

So if telling them doesn’t work – maybe show them?

Watch the Yo-Yo go up and down, see it’s fun. Up, down, up, down. Walk the dog. Want to buy it now?

They Often Believe What Their Friends Tell Them

Ah, here we are finally getting to the meat of what good marketing should be doing – creating word of mouth.  If my buddy is using your product, and likes it, that means something to me!

Dude, check out this sweet Yo-Yo I bought – I don’t know how I ever lived without it! WHAT?  You haven’t got one yet?  Are you living in a cave?

They Always Believe What They Tell Themselves

The crux of all effective marketing lies right here. If through your campaign you can get individuals to believe themselves that they need your product or service, it’s sold.

That is a pretty sweet Yo-Yo, and I hear the chicks really dig a guy that knows how to Yo – why am I living without one of these? I’ll take two.

Make this Your Mantra

What the above says to me is that you need to position what you’re selling in front of your potential customer in such a way that they sell themselves on it.

That’s right – starting selling to your customers in such a way they sell themselves, and you’ll start to see the results you want from your marketing. Whether you’re selling Yo-Yo’s or not.

Photo Credit: Sarah_Jones

Sadly Glen Bell Jr, the founder of Taco Bell, passed away January 16, 2010 at the age of 86. For those of you unfamiliar with Bell, and his business successes – consider this.

Bell first sold tacos for 19 cents in San Bernardino in 1951, and he built Taco Bell from one stand in 1962 to a $125-million business when he sold it in 1978.

In reading about Bell’s life, and his outlook on doing business, I ran across his Three Rules for Success – or as he called it “”recipes for success”. Growing a business from one taco stand to a $125 million dollar company – I want the recipe, and thought you would too!

Glen Bell Jr’s Recipe for Success in Business

Here are Glen’s top three rules for growing a successful business, with my thoughts on how we can use them to grow our businesses.

You Build a Business One Customer at a Time

Every customer counts. Too often we get caught up in the idea of growth, or scaling our business and forget that it really happens one person at a time.

Considering the velocity of word of mouth these days as opposed to Bells time has the ability to grow or destroy a business much quicker than when Bell was selling his first tacos.

Satisfy the individuals and eventually your business will satisfy the masses.

Find the Right Product, Then Find a Way to Mass-Produce It

The right product for any business is one that there is a need or perceived need for. The greater the need, the larger your business can become. Don’t confuse a need with a necessity. A $4 cup of coffee isn’t a necessity, but Starbucks has me believing I need it.

Once you confirmed the need within your market, your only obstacle to growth is finding a way to scale up – effectively, and efficiently.

This is probably the toughest point in a young businesses life – scaling too fast or two slow can lead to at best sub par results, and at worst disaster.

An Innovative Product Will Set You Apart.

This could be a product or service, the important piece is differentiation. Why should customers buy from you, what sets up apart from the competition?. And what will keep your competitive advantage into the future? 

Conclusion

There is no debating the success of Glen Bell Jr, or the continued success of the Taco Bell brand.

The “recipe” is simple when put down on paper, and while few businesses may never reach the level of success of Taco Bell they can become better and more successful by remembering Glen’s rules.

Your Turn

Would you add anything to Glen’s rules? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo Credit: KayVee.INC

Below is a guest post from Michelle Strassburg, a small business owner who shares her ideas for budget online marketing.

 
Marketing your new business has its fare share of challenges. Your marketing is supposed to generate leads and sales on a competitive budget, but you’re also expect to keep running the business on a day to day basis.

This means dealing with everything from cash flow issues to finding suppliers, therefore getting your marketing right is crucial.

Here are a selection of budget online marketing ideas for your new business which are easy to action and proven to deliver results. Let’s get to it.

1. Register Your Business with Google Local 

Google has been offering local businesses a chance to register their business address and phone number in its local listings for some time. When the search giant started to display local listing in its search results, the service become a must service for many businesses. When a user searches for a keyword together with a location, for example ‘DC plumber’, the search results will include listings from Google Local displayed on a map. The service is free to register.
 

2. Register Your Products or Services with Google Merchant

Another helpful and free service from the search giant, Google Merchant is a place for businesses to upload a data feed which includes products or services. Under some types of user searches, Google will include feeds from this service in its search results. Creating a data feed is easy and quick. You will need to build a simple product feed based on the type of products or services which the business is offering and upload them. It’s that easy.
 

3. Promote Your Business Elsewhere

If you’ve reached the stage of been able to manage your own business, clearly you know a thing or two about your industry or occupation. To get your business out there in the public eye consider contributing your time and knowledge. Offer to write a guest post on quality sites and participate in the conversation across Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers and Linkedin Answers.              
 

4. Consider Paid Search

Google AdWords is the largest sponsored search result program. While this marketing channel isn’t free, it does fall under budget marketing ideas for new businesses simply because you are able to manage it yourself within a small budget. The idea behind any type of sponsored search result is simple. You bid on a keyword which best describes your product or service and pay a certain price for each click. While the price for each click depends on many variables the beauty of this channel is that you can set a daily budget to limit your investment. If you’re new to AdWords and think your business might benefit from this channel, Google has a fantastic online how-to resource.   
 

5. Build a Basic Reward Scheme

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Below is a guest post from author, speaker, and business coach Andy Hanselman,  who says forget New Year resolutions and start thinking New Year revolutions in 2010.

January is the time for New Year Resolutions. Well here are 10 ideas for ‘New Year Revolutions’. 

Not a list of ‘do’s and don’ts, but some simple and practical things to consider that can help ‘Revolutionise’ your approach in 2010, which the evidence suggests is going to be a tough one for many of us. See it as a menu, not a recipe. Pick the stuff (or variations of it) that appeals and could work for you.

Here they are, in no particular order…

10 ‘Revolutions’ for 2010

1. Get That ‘Vision Thing’

The evidence suggests that in tougher times your people may well be looking to you for focus and drive. As well as the traditional 12 month ‘Vision Thing’, you may also need a short term one too. What are your key business priorities for the coming months? Does everyone know what they are and what they need to do to achieve them? Your job is to let them know, and get them on board.

2. Work On ‘Dialogue’, not Diatribes
Focus on creating ‘conversations’ with your people in 2010. Ask for their opinions, views and ideas. This is not just about memo’s and emails and meetings. Aim to ‘engage’ your people more this year. People are often looking for security and reassurance in tougher times. That means listening, and reacting and having ‘ongoing’ discussions on things they say are important.

3. Stand In Your Own Queues
Regularly spend time in 2010 ‘at the sharp end’. What are you like to do business with? Find out what’s stopping your people delivering what customers want. How can you make it easier?

4. Don’t Just ‘Think’ Out Of The Box – GET Out Of It
It’s easy to get drawn down into the ‘nitty gritty’ of daily business. Try to create time to make visits to companies, conferences, events and seminars (even some that have nothing to do with your industry). Read a magazine or journal, surf websites from sectors you know nothing about. The point? To get a different view and perspective. Who knows what you’ll learn?

5. Think In ‘3D’
That means being ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’. What makes your business stand out? How do you demonstrate it? Remember, it’s not what you say, it’s what you do. Explore ways in 2010 to demonstrate your competitive edge in everything that you do, particularly to your existing customers who will no doubt be getting mailshots, calls and visits from your competitors desperately looking for business.

6. Value Your Values
Evidence suggests that customers are engaging more with businesses they believe in, they trust and respect. What does your business really ‘stand for’? Work on establishing, communicating and demonstrating your values. Not a list of weasly words and phrases, but a set of principles you believe in and that differentiate your business. Why not create a ‘manifesto’ that outlines what your business really is about?

7. Stand Out And Deliver
Actions speak louder than words. Concentrate on consistency. In 2010 focus everyone on creating a ‘great experience’. ‘Champion’ those in your team who ‘go the extra mile’ and deliver the goods. ‘Challenge’ those who don’t. There’s no room for ‘passengers’ in times like these.

8. Maximise Your Customer Relationships
When things slow down, it’s tempting to get out there knocking on doors and chasing ‘new’ business. Obviously, this can be very important, but I see too many businesses doing it at the expense of their existing customer relationships. Now is the time to get closer and focussed. Who are the key people you need to be getting closer to?

9. Be Visible
What are you like as role model when it comes to your key priorities? In 2010, ensure that you live your values, demonstrate your commitment to those key priorities and make sure that your actions reinforce this. That might mean taking ‘symbolic’ actions for emphasis. Not PR stunts, but genuine activities that ensure that your people know what’s high on the agenda. Ensure that in these tougher conditions no one is under any doubt about what you see as important.

10. ‘Just Do It’
When it comes to thriving or surviving, don’t just talk about it, just do it. It’s as simple as that. Commit to making 2010 your year for action, and…..’Do Something’!

Best wishes for this New Year and have a great and successful 2010!

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Andy has developed a reputation for his innovative, inspirational and stimulating approach. This is reflected in his training and motivational seminars, and is in demand as a speaker at team building events, seminars and conferences up and down the country. Having presented to over twenty thousand business leaders and decision makers Andy is recognised for his engaging, humorous, and down to earth approach. He has been recognised by Enterprise Magazine as a Future Top 100 Entrepreneur. You can reach him at AndyHanselman.com

Photo Credit: Sukanto Debnath

Want to be our next guest author? Here’s how…

Below is a guest post from Jeremy Schafer of MyCorporateLogo, who reminds us of the impact a good logo can have on our business and brand identity.

A logo represents a company – it defines its identity – its purpose. It is an integral part of a company’s brand strategy.

Without a logo or brand identity it would be impossible for a consumer to identify one product or service from the next.

Brand Connection

Most consumers have very strong opinions regarding their favorite brand. These opinions are more emotional than rational. Some brands (e.g. Nike, Coca-Cola etc.) resonate with customers more than others. They form an emotional attachment to these brands, often disregarding better products and services for ones with higher visibility and brand recognition.

Some brands even become synonymous with the product and the consumer starts recognizing the product by its brand name (e.g. Xerox).

It is therefore of the utmost importance that every company – especially the small business, has a sound brand strategy and a strong brand identity with a unique identifiable logo.

Logo Design & Brand Identity

Brand Identity and Small Business Logo Design helps small businesses in many ways. A few of the more important ones are listed below.

1. It helps give the company an established and professional feel. This increases the customers trust in the products or services the company offers.
2. A powerful brand identity is important as in general, people find it easier to recall images than text. There is an old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The logo represents that picture and can be remembered and identified with greater ease than a thousand words describing the company.
3. Logo graphics can bring about awareness of the products or services that you offer in cases where the company name is not self-explanatory.
4. As the company grows, the consumer base stays loyal to the brand.
5. The brand value generated can also be leveraged when selling stock in the company or the company itself for a higher perceived value than the actual value.

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Since 2005, MyCorporateLogo.com has been offering affordable logo design and corporate identity design services to start ups, small and mid-sized organizations. Our creative team can effectively deliver any message across a wide variety of media. We have successfully designed thousands of logos catering to the needs of almost every industry imaginable. Additionally, we have designed hundreds of websites, brochures, letterhead, business cards, and stationary.

Photo Credit: kyz

Want to be our next guest author? Here’s how…

The collective wisdom of our readership never ceases to amaze me.

Over the past couple weeks we’ve been asking for your Best Business Tips for 2010, and the responses did not disappoint.

And, as promised we selected one of these great tips at random, and that person won a $25 Amazon gift card courtesy of Smallbizbee.com (you’ll have to read to the end to see who won).

A big thanks to everyone who contributed – Here’s to taking your business to a new level in 2010!

What’s Your Best Business Tip for 2010?

Jason O’Neill

Website: www.pencilbugs.com

Don’t sit on your ideas because doing nothing will guarantee nothing.  Everything takes effort.

Bob Baylor

Website: www.ccca.org

Whenever possible, always try to give your prospect — and customer — more than they’re asking for. Under promise, but over-deliver; they’ll appreciate it, and keep coming back.

Trevor

Website: http://twit101.com

Don’t hesitate, but make plotted decisions.

Nick Leung

Website: http://feedbackjar.com

Not only should you listen to customer feedback, but engage them on how you could improve your products and services.

Cindy Miller

This is something simple I learned from my days with Mary Kay Cosmetics….always carry your business card with you and each time you get into conversation with anyone (at the grocery store, at a restaurant, etc.), introduce yourself and hand them your business card. Have them handy (in your pockets; not your wallet or purse). Make it your goal to hand out a minimum of five business cards a day! Oh yeah, keep record of your mileage as you are making your errand runs since you are going to be discussing business.

Jamie Glass

Website: www.artfulthinkers.com

Identify three groups, associations or networks that you can join in 2010 that have your target market decision makers as members.  Look for opportunities to join groups that your competitors wouldn’t join so that you can definitely stand out and influence them over time.

Gail Sideman

Website: www.publiside.com

Continue to communicate coherently, consistently and credibly.

Jessie Burke

Website: www.posiescafe.com

For new businesses: Make sure that there is actually a real need for your business (just because it will make all of your dreams come true is not a good enough reason… unless you have the money for that).

For existing businesses: Know that everything is renegotiable, especially in a tough economy (rent rates, vendor pricing, etc.)

Jenna

Website: www.verticalresponse.com

Fill in your small businesses pot holes. With things like social media sticking around, it is going to be more and more important that each customer’s contact with you is an experience. In order to make it an experience you need to have all your bases covered. Make sure you know what happens to your customers the second they step in the door until they no longer have a need for you if and when that happens.

Manning Hanser

Website: www.postsurgerycomfort.com

Have a good plan and stick with it. Change is bound to happen, so make sure to incorporate it into your plan. Work your plan, and plan your work!

Anita Campbell

Website: http://smallbiztrends.com

If you run an online business, stop wasting time looking at stats and surfing around.  Set goals: sales goals, profit goals, and other achievement goals.  Tell your spouse your goals, or hire a business coach and share you goals with your coach — you need someone else to hold you accountable for meeting your goals.  Give it respect as a business.

John Carroll

Website: http://trescoach.blogspot.com

Keep it simple – don’t over-complicate the work that must be done in 2010 to ensure your success.

Brian J. Smith

Website: www.scanmonkeys.com

One of the best tips is to get everything in writing before you begin a service or deliver a product of any significant size.  This includes expectations for both parties.  If everything is laid out properly up front, there are less chances of things veering off course.  Clients tend to be happier when you hold up your end.  You tend to get paid easier making it a win-win. (Oh and coming through on your promises is good for business, too).

Chris Taylor

Website: www.CustomPlanet.com

Embrace Social Media. Businesses, both with or without a web presence need to get next to the idea that sales and conversations about their brand or product are occurring whether they are present online or not. These conversations are happening millions of times per day on social media sites. Businesses that recognize this will be more successful.
Recently, we were hired to print custom t-shirts for an upcoming event for a cheer team. We posted the design to their facebook page and sold 30 more shirts, not to mention that we exposed our brand to 600 new potential customers that were fans of their facebook page. These people would have never heard about us otherwise.

Michelle Mangen

Website: http://www.thevirtualasst.com

For marketing on a “shoestring” I would highly suggest you do two things which can have a significant impact on your business 1) get a WordPress site and begin to blog 2) join the social media craze
Both of these things will take time but you will find, if done properly, can have an amazing impact on your business and bottom line

For great free software I have so many but will limit my suggestions to only two.

1. Free online accounting software www.outright.com

2. For remote screenshare sessions www.crossloop.com

There are so many great things out there that can help you and your business succeed – and the most important one is “other people’s knowledge”. So start building your relationships now!

Michelle @mmangen on Twitter

Ken Conn

Website: http://www.dataprojections.com

Postal mail your customers hand written thank you notes once a project is complete.  With customer service becoming more and more automated or outsourced it is valuable to show your customers that you are there for them and to treat them more like a partner and not just another customer.

Simon Paul Louw

Small and medium sized business entrepreneurs should not allow themselves to be bullied by some of these big conglomerates, but look at effective ways to grow their businesses. Now with this downswing of the economy world-wide they should take the opportunity and race ahead with their marketing, creating a niche market for them. Take good care of the meager finances you and don’t splash on anything that is unnecessary.

Lynn Strand-Meyer

Website: www.OutsideKnowledge.com

When face to face networking, remember to be a good listener. Too often, we spend time giving “our pitch,” and forget to listen to what the other has to say. You will be surprised what listening can do to help your understanding of what the other person might need.

Kathy Drewien

Website: http://SweetTea-StraightTalk.com

Get comfortable with business planning in the midst of chaos. Planning is good – but when you spend your time saying “going to do” and “learning to do” you are not doing. Implement. Test. Measure. Revise. Rinse. Repeat.

Ken Shenkman

Website: http://www.bulkcandystore.com

Reinvigorate yourself every so often. It’s human nature to become complacent when things are going well. Every now and then find a reason to push yourself to bring your business to the next level. For me, it was an article about how well a competitor was doing. That article forced me to push even harder and double our our online business this year.

Dave Kollasch

Website: http://greenerbilling.com

People can go to many Web sites, can use numerous similar applications … but they will remain faithful to the business that supports them and their needs.  Before launching a business, it is imperative that you assess the level to which your customers will be in control.  Some of their needs may not deliver a high return on investment (monetarily), but if those result in a flurry of positive word-of-mouth advertising, then it has paid for itself!

Kamau Jackson

Website: http://www.internetknowledgesolutions.com

Building a local search engine presence– with optimized listings, online coupons and customer reviews– will give you a competitive advantage. Especially so when you don’t limit yourself to Google alone. The tight integration with social media makes it even more powerful.

Peg Kelley:

Website: www.meetingtoolsandjewels.com

Have only the meetings you really need to have.  One of the biggest complaints of businesspeople is the time wasted in meetings.  Therefore, have fewer of them.

Ask yourself a few questions such as: 
Does the size of the group make a meeting feasible?

Is the knowledge required for any problem solving dispersed among several people?

Is the commitment of several people or groups necessary for successful implementation of the results? 
Are there likely to be conflicting points of view that need to be reconciled? 

If the answers to this are YES, then a meeting makes sense.  If not, then consider email or phone calls instead. 
Always respect the time used in a meeting and give a second and third thought to your first impulse to call a meeting. 

Merchant Account Provider

Website: www.ampyourcashflow.com

Find creative ways to trim your bottom line. This could include finding new vendors for cell phone service, Internet, web hosting companies, and merchant account providers (to name a few). A little bit of research could pay good dividends for your business.

Kristi Hines

Website: http://kristihines.com/

Be honest with potential clients.  Even if it costs you one sale, you will gain their trust.  If they recommend you to others, you will benefit with many more sales and loyal clients.

Julie

Dedicate yourself to entrepreneurial reading materials at least 1 hour a day and applying at least one insight within the next week.

Timothy Kioko

Website: https://twitter.com/CRMBrussels

2010 is the year of relationship building… segment your customer base and build a one on one relationship with the customers in the most profitable segment… do not forget the other segments…. success

Daniel Watson

Website: http://uniqueinsights.com.au

What’s your best business tip for 2010? Read all 26 business articles published at http://uniqueinsights.com.au and apply the relevant advice to the areas you know your business can improve. The hour or so invested in reading and absorbing the article will pay dividends many times over for your business.

Andy Hanselman

Website: www.andyhanselman.com

Think in 3D! That means be ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ in your chosen market places. In ever more crowded markets, and massive customer choice, remember ’same as’ sucks!

Matt | Small Biz Bee

Website: http://smallbizbee.com

Set specific goals for what you want your business to accomplish in 2010 – and make sure they’re SMART goals!

And the Winner is…

All the business tips were great, that’s why I had to pick a winner of our $25 Amazon Gift Card at Random. The winner is…Cindy Miller! Congratulations Cindy, we’ll be in touch to send you our gift of thanks for your contribution.

Your Turn

If you think a small business out there could benefit from these tips, we appreciate you sharing this post with your network.

Have a tip you want to share?  The comment section is waiting…

Headline Photo Credit: rachaelvoorhees