Archive for September, 2009
Don’t Let Your Small Business Web designer Leave You in a Lurch!
Posted by: | CommentsWhen you’re a small business, the last thing you want is for your Web Designer to pull a Houdini and disappear leaving you with no way to access your current site. Sadly, this happens all too often. But you can keep avoid this stressful fate by following this terrific advice from my Web developer Anita Wong at http://www.wsdnw.com…
“If you haven’t heard from your web designer in a while, even if you don’t have any changes to make to your site, check to see if he/she is still around to help should you need it.
As a safeguard, you can ask your designer to provide you the access codes for your website servers and just keep it on file in a safe place. You should know where your domain name is registered, where your files are being hosted, and have the login and password access to both locations. Even if you don’t know what to do with the information, if you ever need to change designers, your new designer will surely appreciate that you have it.”
Have you ever experienced the disappearing Web designer nightmare? What did you do to get access to your site again?
Please do share your story in the comments section below…
That’s exactly the question author Kevin Maney explores in his new book, Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t (Broadway Books).
While I haven’t read the book yet, I did get a chance to read an excerpt from it at Fortune’s online Website, and it’s pretty darn insightful. So insightful I had to post some info about it here so other small business owners could learn from the lessons he discusses using Starbucks as an example. This can affect your marketing in a big way, as well as your chances of success.
In particular, it’s interesting to note that Maney states you can’t offer both a high quality, unique experience (what he terms “fidelity” to refer to the entire experience) and convenience in one business…Mainly because convenience automatically dilutes the idea of uniqueness and high quality. Just like having something be in tight supply often makes it more desirable, more expensive and (at least apparently) higher quality.
In other words, if you can get it on every street corner, how good can it be? And how cool are you for buying it if everyone else does too? And finally, how do these ideas affect consumer behavior?
The question for you then is: Are you chasing after both in your small business? If so, chances are good you’re in trouble. But don’t take my word for it. Read the entire article here:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/16/news/companies/kevin_maney_starbucks.fortune/index.htm
I’d love to know what you think of the article and these ideas. Please do share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
Get Images for Your Small Business Presentation or Marketing Piece for Free!
Posted by: | CommentsNeed images for an upcoming presentation, or marketing piece but don’t have much budget? No worries! Thanks so the Internet there are plenty of options for finding free and low-cost images you can use for your small business.
For example, you can find all kinds of images at no charge from the Creative Commons on Flikr. Just go to flickr.com/search/advanced/. Choose “Creative Commons Commercial License”. Then enter a search term in the box at the top of the page to find the type of image you’re looking for.
Source: Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/03/where-to-find-g.html
Have you used flikr for images? How was your experience? Please do share by leaving a comment below…
Helpful Tip from Marketing Expert Dan Kennedy on How to Increase Your Wealth
Posted by: | CommentsWant to move your small business—and your life—forward in a meaningful way? Then follow this advice I picked up years ago from Dan Kennedy…
Set up 3 savings accounts of some sort. I use interest-earning money market accounts for this.
Earmark one for investing, one for fun, and one for donating to worthy causes. Then set them to auto-withdraw a certain amount from your main checking account monthly. Even if all you can set aside is $25 a month (or even $5 a month), that’s better than nothing. And you’ll be surprised at how quickly it adds up.
Then you have money to grow your small business or buy a new house…Money to take that vacation you’ve always wanted…And you have a little something you can use to give back to worthy causes.
Plus, there’s something to be said for acting like the person you want to be. And the wealthy donate to charity.
It feels great all the way around. And when surprises do happen you can handle them with less stress. For example, my rental condo had a water leak, but thanks to my accounts I had the money to cover my deductible. Yeah!
Frankly, it’s one of the easiest and best things I’ve ever done to increase my wealth, grow my small business and live a better life.
Have you tried this?
What are your thoughts or concerns?
Please do share by leaving a comment below…
Is Your Small Business Selling to the Largest Market of Buyers…Women?
Posted by: | CommentsDo you have a small business that sells to women?
Here are some interesting stats, courtesy of Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero at http://www.redhotcopy.com, that you should consider when marketing your business, products or services:
- 85% of all household purchases are made by women (not just food either but ALL purchases)
- Most family incomes are dual, but the female spends 85% of the COMBINED money
- Women buy 66% of all small consumer electronics
- 65% of all new car purchases are made by women
- In 2006, 3.9 million more women lived alone than men…Among this group, women were 9% more likely than men to own their homes
So if you’re not already focused on marketing and selling to women, you probably should be. Keep in mind, women do have different buying habits then men, and tend to focus more on the emotional side of buying and selling. That means the hard sales are out, and authenticity is in.
How have you changed your products, services or marketing to better appeal to women?
Thoughts on this topic in general?
Please do share by leaving a comment below…
Got Questions About Small Business Bookkeeping? You’re not Alone!
Posted by: | CommentsDo you hate doing your own bookkeeping for your small business…?
Does QuickBooks drives you crazy because the data always seems to be messed up, or you don’t really know what to look at in there anyway…?
Did you hire an accountant or bookkeeper but find your books are still confusing…?
If so, you are so not alone!
Before I hired my current Virtual Bookkeeper, Jen Petersen, 3 years ago I’d been through 2 bookkeepers and years of bookkeeping hell. First because I did my books myself in Excel, which meant I ended up spending about 10 hours a month just doing invoicing!
I came to hate bookkeeping (and I don’t use that word lightly!!). So I decided to get QuickBooks, and even hired a bookkeeper to get it all set up for me. When I finally made time to look at my books after 3 months they were a total mess!
I found duplicate entries, missing entries, and almost nothing in the right categories. Then, to add insult to injury, it took me months to get all my files back from that bookkeeper. And she came via referral, mind you.
My next bookkeeper made some headway in straightening out my books. But then she handed my files off to another woman at her firm who did a terrible job. So I was paying them, then spending 5-6 hours a month finding all the problems and having them fix everything.
During those years I literally had no idea how much money, if any, I had in net profit from month to month. I was pretty much going off gut instinct and my total receivables. So I never knew what I could invest in my business. Or if I had the money to, say, replace a computer that died suddenly.
Plus, as a marketer, it drove me nuts because it was really hard to track the return on investment of many of my marketing strategies. Or the value of a customer. Or which products and services were most profitable. And it was sure hard to plan for future initiatives.
Not having a handle on my bookkeeping was really, really stressful and held my small business back in a big way.
Then I found my wonderful Virtual Bookkeeper, Jen Petersen. She straightened out my books in a jiffy.
Finally, for the first time in almost 3 years, I actually knew what was going in my business financially at any given moment (instead of just at tax time)!
She also gave me a tour of QuickBooks, explaining which reports and numbers were important to me and why. And she’s been invaluable in helping me keep everything straight as my online business has diversified and grown.
As a result I’ve been able to invest more money in the right aspects of my business. And I stress about my cash flow WAY less!
That’s why, for this month’s Small Business Success Series teleseminar I’m interviewing my own Virtual Bookkeeper and QuickBooks expert Jen Peterson.
Jen is going to show you everything you need to know to get the bookkeeping for your business under control so it’s no longer a headache, hassle, and huge time-suck. And so you can actually use the info to grow your business.
Best of all, you can listen to the call for FREE and ask Jen your specific bookkeeping questions! Or request a recorded copy of the call if you can’t make the call live.
http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-16.htm
Here are just a few of the things that Jen has promised to share on this call:
#1 Do you really need a bookkeeper, and if so, how do you know when you’re ready to hire one?
#2 The difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant, and when you need each.
#3 Many small business owners start out doing books in Excel…When and why to use QuickBooks.
#4 Should you go virtual? The pros and cons of hiring a Virtual Bookkeeper.
#5 Critical areas of your books and budget you should be keeping your eye on in order to maximize cash flow, grow your business and pay yourself a good salary!
#9 Tips for organizing your bookkeeping files to make life easier for you, and your bookkeeper.
And much more!
If you’re still doing your own books, find you get overwhelmed or confused anytime you open the QuickBooks, or are thinking of hiring a Virtual Bookkeeper, this free call is for you.
While it’s free to join us on the live call, you do need to register because phone lines are limited. Even if you can’t make the call live, you can request a copy of the interview audio.
Go here for all the details:
http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-16.htm
Got questions about small business bookkeeping or Virtual Bookkeepers? Leave them in a comment below and we’ll make sure to cover them on the call!
Years ago, I worked with a small business owner who had a love affair with “free or cheap” marketing and advertising. Just like someone who is addicted to coupon shopping…If it wasn’t “free or cheap” she wasn’t going to do it. And if it was, you can bet she would jump at the chance—no matter what the opportunity was.
She simply could not seem to help herself.
She advertised on a bench at a golf course because it was only $200. She had a “free” column plus an ad in a community newspaper because it was only $50 a month. She put together a packet to be handed out by someone else to their clients, because it was “free”.
Her goal with all of these was to get new clients now.
You see she had started a new small business, and was badly in need of clients. Plus she didn’t think she could afford to do anything else. As a result, she ended up spending thousands of dollars on the wrong ideas.
How so?
Well, the graphic design and copywriting for the bench cost money. Plus an ad on a bench is more of a branding piece—like all the McDonalds or Coke ads you see. It was not the type of marketing that gets someone to take immediate action. So if she needed new clients now, the bench was probably not going to do the trick.
As for the free column and $50 ad, well…She wasn’t a writer. So she paid a couple hundred dollars a month to have the column ghostwritten. Plus she paid for copywriting and graphic design for the ad.
Not a bad idea, if you are looking for a way to gain visibility and build a reputation as an expert over time. Unfortunately, she did not check the paper’s circulation, where it was distributed or who the target audience was. So she ended up promoting her business to people who would never buy what she was selling.
The packet had the best chance of getting new clients in the door because it included a special, limited time offer. But it was far from free. She still had to pay for copywriting, graphic design, printing and materials costs. Plus spend time folding and putting the packet together (it was pretty fancy).
In the end she was easily spending over $1000 a month on “free or cheap” marketing and advertising.
And you know what the saddest part was? None of it was working.
Because she was choosing her tactics based solely on the up-front cost. Not on whether they were actually the right fit for her and her business, or would reach her target market. Or whether she really had the time to execute them well. And certainly not on whether they would help her achieve her number one goal—get new clients now.
The moral of this story? There is no such thing as “free advertising”, and even cheap advertising usually isn’t. So don’t base your marketing and advertising decisions solely on initial cost.
To create a good marketing strategy, you have to consider your goals, the true costs and the potential gains or ROI of every tactic. Not sure how? Try using the quick list of questions below to help you make your decisions.
1) Will this get me in front of my ideal client or target market?
2) Will this help me achieve my end goal or desired result?
If you answer no to either of these, stop right there and pass on the opportunity. If you answered yes to both, then it is time to calculate true cost.
3) What is the initial, up front cost?
4) How much time will it take to put everything together?
Now add on 1/3 more time than you think you will need, then multiply the number of hours by your hourly rate to calculate your time cost.
5) Will I need any professional services like printing, graphic design or copywriting to complete the project?
6) If so, how much will it cost to get my project done by the due date? Not sure? Call around and get estimates.
7) Do I have time to do this right, or will I have to pull an all-nighter to get everything done?
If you have to work late, count it as time and a half and multiply by your hourly rate.
Now add up all these costs and ask yourself…
8) Does this fit my budget?
9) How many new clients would I need to break even on the investment (Divide the total cost by the average revenue generated by one new client)?
10) Is that even possible, let alone probable?
Now you should have a reasonable idea of the true costs of your opportunity. And I bet it is more than what you were thinking when that “cheap or free” ad, trade show booth, or marketing opportunity first came your way.
The bottom line is…never make a marketing decision based solely on cost. After all which is more expensive: A $5000 campaign that brings in 20 new clients who each spend $300 (net profit of $1000), or a “free” ad that really costs you $800 to create but does not bring in any new business at all? You decide…
Copywriting, or writing to sell, is the key to creating effective marketing materials, ads, sales letters, Websites and more. Most good copywriters spend years studying the craft and reviewing proven, sales-making samples from other writers.
Now you can get access to tons of terrific copywriting tips, rules and samples you can study, or swipe and rework to suit your needs by checking out Elmer Wheeler’s Testing Sentences That Sell. Elmer’s the guy who coined the phrase “Sell the sizzle, not the steak”. While his work might seem a bit old school at first glance, most, if not all, of his principles still hold true today.
Read it all at no charge here:
http://www.stoneruniversity.com/TestedSentences/index.html
Was this resource helpful? Do you know of more free copywriting and marketing resources you recommend?
Please do share by leaving a comment below…
Your Social Networking Questions Answered
Posted by: | CommentsSocial Networking is all the rage these days. And it seems everyone wants to know how to use it to grow their businesses. Or heck, how to use it at all without going batty.
More than 130 people registered for last month’s teleseminar interview on the subject “Social Networking -A REALLY Good Marketing Strategy or a Huge Waste of Time?” http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-12.htm! Even though we covered a ton of terrific info on the call, it left folks wanting more. So today I’m going to answer all the questions subscribers have been emailing me about how this whole Social Networking thing works.
++ Question #1 from subscriber Rose de Dan of reikishamanic.com ++
Regarding Twitter: “Currently I am only following people who I think are in some way related to what my audience might be interested in. What is the purpose of following 2000 people? Does that get you any more exposure? What is the purpose of following someone back unless you are really interested in what they are doing? How could I possibly wade through 2000 or more tweets a day? Why is that a good idea?”
**Answer – What’s it worth to you to be able to communicate regularly with 2000 people at no cost?
I think it’s worth quite a bit, because if they like you, then they’re likely to forward your info on to other people. Your list grows, connections are made, and you have a larger pool of potential customers for your business. What’s not to like about that?
If you’re following 2000 people, then it’s likely most of those people are following you back. Also, it’s considered polite and good form to follow people back who choose to follow you. You can use a program like TweetLater to automate this.
That doesn’t mean you need to read or respond to every Tweet. Find the ones you enjoy and interact with those folks. Reply to their Tweets or ReTweet them if you think others might be interested.
++ Question #2 from subscriber Richard Esmann of pvmdataservices.com ++
“What should you put on your (Social Networking) profile? Can you share a few do’s and don’ts?”
**Answer – There are no hard and fast answers here, but I can give you some helpful guidelines…
1) Don’t put anything up there that you wouldn’t want the whole world to see. Nothing ever goes away on the Internet.
2) Just like with any type of marketing, you want to first consider what information would be of interest to your prospects. If you put stuff up that no one cares about or is interested in, people aren’t going to read it or want to learn more.
3) Second you need to consider your own goals. For example, if you’re trying to land speaking gigs, you want to include info that makes you look like an amazing and experienced speaker with a wealth of knowledge to share.
4) Do write with a personality and voice. This is no place to sound like a textbook.
5) It’s absolutely fine to include some personal details in all your Social Networking profiles. That’s part of how people decide they like you. However, some sites are definitely more geared towards businesses and professionals (Biznik and LinkedIn are two of the biggies) while others are designed more for friends and family (Facebook, MySpace). But the lines are definitely blurred.
My best advice here is to spend a bit of time on sites you think might be a good fit for you before you complete your entire profile. Look at other people’s profiles and see what you like and don’t like. Find folks with lots of followers and try to figure out what they’ve done. Visit competitor’s profiles so you can find a way to be different. Then start creating your own.
Keep in mind, it doesn’t have to be perfect right out of the gate. Done is far more important and you can always change it later.
++ Question #3 from subscriber Bradley Bogue ++
“How do I get the “friends” attention?”
**Answer – This question is a little vague as he doesn’t address a specific type of Social Media, but I’ll do my best to provide a few helpful tips.
1) If you want to get a “friends” attention, first off, offer to connect with or “friend” them. Every site has a way to do this. And some even have programs that let you search for particular types of individuals. I like search.twitter.com for finding other small business owners and marketers to follow.
2) If you really want to get, and keep, friends and followers you need to actively post interesting content. Social Networking is all about building relationships. It is not about directly making sales. If all you do is constantly promote yourself or sell, sell, sell you aren’t going to be happy with the results.
Search for ways to make connections and be helpful first and the sales will come. For example, a good rule of thumb is to make just 20% of your Twitter posts (or blog posts) promotional. The rest should be personal or helpful.
## Got more questions about Social Networking (or marketing, or copywriting, or growing your small biz)? I’m happy to help! Email me at stacy@success-stream.com and I’ll put them in the cue to be answered in a future edition of Bright Ideas. ##
Thoughts, ideas or suggestions on this topic? Please do share by leaving a comment below!
Want more helpful articles like this one sent to your Inbox each week? Sign up for a subscription to Bright Ideas weekly e-newsletter along with a copy of my Free Report “The 7 Deadliest Small Business Marketing Sins…Are You Guilty?” at http://www.7deadliestsins.com.
10 Cheap Ways to Create a Professional Impression with Your Small Business Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsI was recently talking with an aspiring copywriter friend of mine who’s struggling to get his first clients. He thinks he keeps hitting the wall of not having a portfolio of writing samples in hand. But really, he doesn’t need a big portfolio of client work…He just needs to get his own marketing act together.
You see, he doesn’t even have a business card, let alone a Website or other materials. So he is putting the cart before the horse (which never gets you very far).
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Marketing is all about perceptions…
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Right now, because he has no marketing materials, the perception is that he’s just sort of getting started.
On the surface there’s nothing wrong with that. Except that if he doesn’t look like a competent professional no one is going to take him seriously or give him their money. And why should they? With no business card or marketing materials, he looks like a beginner or hobbyist.
He needs marketing materials that convince people to hire him. Otherwise nobody is going to pay him to write THEIR marketing materials. On the other hand, if his own stuff seems top notch, most folks will never even ask to see his portfolio.
Seems painfully obvious, right?
—————————————————————-
So, what’s this got to do with you?
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Whether you are launching a business, event or a new product, you have to give the impression you know what you’re doing from the get-go. Otherwise no one is going to spend their hard-earned dollars with you.
It doesn’t work to just test the waters with a few homemade-looking fliers and free Vista Print business cards (or worse, no cards at all).
The Internet has created tons more competition in any field than there was just 5 years ago. So you’ve got to have your marketing ducks in a row before you try to sell a thing. Otherwise someone out there is sure to be making a better impression than you.
Thankfully, creating a top-notch impression with your marketing doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Just use my…
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10 Cheap Ways to Create a Professional Marketing Impression
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1) Having a fancy graphic logo is often overrated and expensive. But you should have a unique look to your business name. Try looking at other company’s logos (not your competitors) for a font that gives the right impression. Then search the Internet for something similar and download it to your computer.
2) Design a nice business card and have it professionally printed. Not sure how to design one? Look at a bunch of other people’s cards for ideas on layout or use a Publisher template. You can now get 500 cards digitally printed for just $29.99. If you aren’t serious enough about your business to at least do this, you have a long, uphill road ahead of you.
3) Buy a domain name and hosting at www.godaddy.com for about $50 a year. Then put up at least a single page Website with your products or services and contact info. Unless you market to senior citizens, this is a must.
4) Have your email connected to your domain name so it reads you@yourdomainname.com. This makes you look professional and drives people to your Website.
5) Create your own letterhead with your spiffy new business name and contact info. Then just add it to your documents in Microsoft Word and print as needed. And don’t pay for expensive envelope printing. Grab a pack of blank return address labels and print them out at home as needed. Most Avery label templates are already in Microsoft Word or can be downloaded from the Web.
6) Skip the spendy brochure. One-sheets (IE fancy fliers), articles, and tips sheets are easy to create on letterhead or with your logo at the top, and add credibility. Then just print them up at home. Or turn them into downloads you can offer from your Website.
7) Get yourself online. Social networks offer an easy and inexpensive way to market your business, increase credibility and drive traffic to your Website. Pick a few like LinkedIn, Biznik, or ones that cater to your target market and set up a profile. Then be sure to include a link back to your Website.
8) Make it easy for people to get in touch. Always include your phone number, email, and Web address on all your marketing materials—especially business cards. And use either a cell phone or get an extra phone line at home (often no charge) so the impression is professional when they call.
9) No graphic design ability? Find someone else who does. www.elance.com can be a source of cheap labor. Or, hire a college student. If you have no other choice, use the templates in Publisher or Front Page.
10) This should go without saying, but always, always, always dress the part. If you want people to pay you big bucks, you better look like you’re already making it. Marshall’s, Ross, and Macy’s sales are terrific places to pick up designer brands on the cheap.
Remember, giving people the right impression from the get-go is critical to making them feel confident in hiring—or buying from—you. If you look like an experienced professional, you’ll be treated like one—and that means more clients and sales for you!
©2007 SuccessStream. All Rights Reserved. www.success-stream.com
[tags] Small business, marketing, materials, professional, cheap, inexpensive, brochure, Website, impression [/tags]
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