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Business Answers: Finding Grants & Investors

Posted by tlcoles on April 6, 2009   |   No Comments

In this video segment, Ken Yancey, the CEO of SCORE, and investment advisor Phil Town answer questions from MSNBC viewers on funding for their small businesses. The two debunk the myth of federal grants, caution viewers on accepting investment dollars from friends, and clarify the full credit risks of bank loans.

Author Peter Johnson offers some advice on what to do before you seek investors (http://money NULL.cnn NULL.com/video/fsb/2008/12/11/fsb NULL.urg NULL.johnston2 NULL.smb/) in this December 2008 video interview with CNN Money.

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Local Search: What’s it all about, Alfie?

Posted by tlcoles on April 6, 2009   |   No Comments

In the past, local advertising was the best way to reach new customers for if you have a business offering local goods and services. Yellow pages, local newspapers, door-to-door flyers, coupons and promotions and word-of-mouth do still generate phone calls and storefront traffic. But today consumers are increasingly using the Internet as their primary source of local business information. Having your business presented at the top of search engine results and in local directories is now a critical part of any local marketing plan. And it can be very cost effective when compared to traditional media.

This series of posts will explain the ins and outs of local search visibility, provide an overview of the pros and cons of local search marketing, and explain how it can be integrated into your overall marketing plan. …more at Local Search – What’s it all about Alfie? Local Search Marketing Series, Part 1 – smallbiztechnology.com (http://smallbiztechnology NULL.com/archive/2009/03/local-search-whats-it-all-abou NULL.html), published 30 March 2009.

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101 Tips for Getting Started with Email Marketing

Posted by tlcoles on March 30, 2009   |   No Comments

Sometimes it seems like EVERY business in America is using an email marketing service – but there are tons of small businesses (more than half – see below) who either do not use one or need to drastically refresh their email marketing activities – beyond just the occasional random email they shoot out to their lists.

Campaigner has just launched a new series of “101 Tips for Getting Started with Email Marketing” to help companies create and execute an effective email marketing strategy. You can sign up to receive a few tips each week via email, or read them as they are posted on Campaigner’s website at http://www.campaigner.com/lp/101tips.aspx (http://www NULL.campaigner NULL.com/lp/101tips NULL.aspx)

The tips will focus on a different theme each quarter of 2009, starting with Building a Strong Email Marketing Foundation. Here are the first five…more at 101 Tips for Getting Started with Email Marketing – SmallBizTechnology.com (http://smallbiztechnology NULL.com/archive/2009/03/101-tips-for-getting-started-w NULL.html), published 29 March 2009.

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6 Steps to Better Business Solutions

Posted by tlcoles on March 30, 2009   |   No Comments

Learn to think like a business consultant and turn your experience into expertise.

Physician, heal thyself is good advice if you run a small business. You already know how to fix the problems in your business, and you know how to grow from those problems.

Last month, I gave a talk on “Surviving and Thriving in Real Estate” to about 200 people. I went around the room and met about 50 people before I spoke. I asked, “If you were giving today’s talk, what would you say?” I got eight great ideas and shared them with the audience. I showed them: If you’re working, you already know what works.

Your experience is more valuable than the expertise of a dozen MBAs and Ph.Ds. Your experience becomes expertise when you look squarely at your problems and create solutions. You just need to know how to think like your own consultant.

Fix Your Business

Follow six steps to think like a consultant and fix your business. …more at 6 Steps to Better Business Solutions – Entrepreneur.com (http://www NULL.entrepreneur NULL.com/management/operations/article200928 NULL.html), published 26 March 2009

Flickr photo credit: Ms Photo (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/msphoto/224414415/)

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The Pros of Planting Startups in Smaller Cities

Posted by tlcoles on March 30, 2009   |   No Comments

Quality of life and local incentives can lend a competitive advantage to entrepreneurs when they need it most

Philip Eggers has started six medical device companies in his Dublin, Ohio, hometown. His last five followed a pattern: Eggers would develop the product in his Ohio lab, fly frequently to the Bay Area or Boston to raise money, then relocate the company to one of the coasts when ready to commercialize the product. But Eggers has a different plan in mind for his latest startup, Cardiox, founded in 2006 to develop a noninvasive way to detect heart shunts: He wants to find funding locally and keep his five-employee business in Dublin.

As the economy reels, Eggers is one of many entrepreneurs quick to tout the ease of doing business in small or midsize cities. Plenty of factors make the city of 38,000 outside Columbus attractive for starting up: Abundant, inexpensive office and lab space; a major university, Ohio State, nearby; a growing population; and good local schools to attract workers with families. “It draws the highly skilled and educated people you need to bring in, especially to a high-tech startup company,” Eggers says.

In high-growth and more conventional businesses, many entrepreneurs find that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to selecting a place to start a company. …more at The Pros of Planting Startups in Smaller Cities – BusinessWeek (http://www NULL.businessweek NULL.com/smallbiz/content/mar2009/sb20090327_385972 NULL.htm), published 27 March 2009.

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Recession Pricing Strategies – How Low Can You Really Go?

Posted by tlcoles on March 30, 2009   |   No Comments

Tempted to cut prices? You’re not alone. With slumping sales, many businesses have been quick to offer discounts. “Cutting prices is by far the easiest marketing technique you can use,” says Frank Luby, a partner in Simon-Kucher & Partners, a pricing and marketing consultancy. But price cuts raise some tough questions: Will deep discounts cheapen your brand? Once you cut prices, can you raise them again? How do you deal with narrower margins? Says Luby: “I try to get my clients to think about where they want to be as a brand when things turn around.”

Here are three companies that made big pricing changes and the results of those decisions.

Wooing Recessionistas

Jeremy Shepherd started to get concerned last summer. The founder of PearlParadise.com, an online retailer in Los Angeles, Shepherd noticed that sales of high-end pearl necklaces were slipping, and he worried that might foreshadow a dismal holiday season. The company relies on sales of $1,000 to $5,000 pearl necklaces during the crucial end-of-year months, which typically account for about 40 percent of annual sales. But though Web traffic was up, many customers were favoring jewelry priced well under $1,000.

Instead of promoting his higher-priced items, Shepherd decided to boost sales by appealing to his customers’ thriftiness. He created a “luxury for less” campaign and priced his strands of Tahitian pearls, which usually sell for $500 to $700, at $300 each. Then Shepherd spent $75,000 to promote the sale. He also revamped his website, placing lower-cost items on the home page.

Orders began to pick up. …read more at Recession Pricing Strategies – How Low Can You Really Go? – at Inc.com (http://www NULL.inc NULL.com/magazine/20090301/pricing-how-low-can-you-really-go NULL.html), published 1 March 2009.

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Getting It Wrong

Posted by tlcoles on March 26, 2009   |   No Comments

In 2008, entrepreneurs Chris DiMambro and Keith Dupuis sought to upscale their Main Street Grill, a sports bar and family style restaurant in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Their $48,000 risk–in seemingly positive changes that included an expanded menu, flowers on the table, linen napkins, and even new salt and pepper shakers–so angered their regular customers that, after 9 months, the pair had to acknowlege a flop. Disheartened by the empty seats, angry customer letters, and a 15 percent drop in revenue, the two look back in this MSNBC video to what went wrong and the lessons learned. Says MSNBC in summary, “to keep the customers you have, you need to be in touch with what they’re looking for.”

See the video below and a related, more positive piece from the Boston Business Journal (http://boston NULL.bizjournals NULL.com/boston/stories/2009/01/26/smallb1 NULL.html), 3 February 2009.

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10 Types of Bad Clients and How To Avoid Them

Posted by tlcoles on March 26, 2009   |   No Comments

Last week we ran an article about the various characteristics of a good client (http://freelancefolder NULL.com/characteristics-of-a-good-client/). This week, we’re going to look at the other end of that: ten different types of bad clients, and what you can do to avoid them.

If you’ve been freelancing for long, then there’s no doubt you’ve read some of the horror stories about bad clients. You may have even run into a few bad clients in your own business.

Over the years, I have noticed that most bad clients seem to fall into certain common patterns. In this post, I share those patterns with you. Keep in mind that none of these bad client types are specific to any one client that I’ve ever worked with. Rather, these examples are a generalization of the many different characteristics a bad client can take. Personally, I rarely ever have to deal with a bad client in my business, and I’ll explain how you too can avoid them later on in the article. …more at 10 Types of Bad Clients and How To Avoid Them – FreelanceFolder (http://freelancefolder NULL.com/bad-clients-and-how-to-avoid-them/), published 17 March 2009.

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Beyond Gender and Negotiation to Gendered Negotiations

Posted by tlcoles on March 26, 2009   |   No Comments

Women often negotiate over issues that men take as givens—opportunities for promotion and training, mentoring, client assignments, partnership arrangements, resources, and office space, among others. When and if these negotiations occur, they take place in the context of a particular negotiated order—cultural patterns and work practices that are the result of past interaction and negotiation. What is of interest here is how these patterns and practices might shape our understanding of gender and negotiation in the workplace and the implications of this framing for research and practice. We explore second generation gender issues, or how gender and gendered relationships shape negotiated orders such that they can have differential consequences for women’s and men’s negotiations. …more at Beyond Gender and Negotiation to Gendered Negotiations – HBS Working Knowledge (http://hbswk NULL.hbs NULL.edu/item/6122 NULL.html), published 19 March 2009.

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18 Tips For Small Businesses That Outsource

Posted by tlcoles on March 26, 2009   |   No Comments

Outsourcing has received a bad rap in some circles because of its association with job losses that occur when corporations “export” jobs to countries with much lower labor costs than the U.S.

But those of us who run small and home businesses have a different perspective on outsourcing.

For us, outsourcing is the “secret sauce” that lets us pull together the resources to handle temporary work overloads, reduce fixed costs, speed products to market, simplify distribution, provide more or better service to our customers, and compete with our deeper-pocketed competitors.

Much of the business that small businesses outsource goes to other small and home businesses within our own country. Often those freelancers or subcontractors are business owners we’ve met at local business meetings or events. Sometimes they’re people we’ve “met” by participating in a mailing list or forum, or via specific Web sites, like Elance.

But the key to successful outsourcing has little to do with where you meet the subcontractors and freelancers you work with. Like anything else, it takes planning. Here are 18 ways to get the best results when you outsource work… more at 18 Tips For Small Businesses That Outsource – SmallBizResource (http://www NULL.smallbizresource NULL.com/blog/main/archives/2009/03/18_tips_for_sma NULL.html), published 19 March 2009.

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