Folks, I have a final, a project, we’re closing on a house Tuesday and I need to do some remodeling before we move in to it in a couple of weeks. We’ll be taking a couple of week hiatus from posting here until all that clears. See you soon!
We’ve been talking about different channels to get the word out about a small business idea. A new one today is to be awesome.
The Awesome Foundation is another way to gain publicity for a small business idea. The basic idea is that a board of 10 trustees meets once a month to award $1000 to an awesome local idea.
To be a trustee, you pledge to contribute $100 each month to keep your local chapter up and running. Then you get to vote on the most awesome idea of the month. Chapters are limited to 10 trustees to allow the possibility for consensus.
While there aren’t any numbers on the potential ROI of investing time in such an organization, there’s no doubt that the good karma from giving away $100 every month to something awesome would not only be great fun but get your name out in the community.
While some with a small business idea may want to get involved with the organization as fund seekers, it seems like a greater gain could be had by being a trustee. Most local small businesses can benefit from giving back to the community and $100 a month is within the advertising budgets of most.
The only criteria for winning an awesome grant is that the idea be awesome. Any individual, group or organization can submit an idea.
One article featured the Halifax chapter of the foundation. They hold a market where trustees – 60 in all – circulate and talk to pre-screened awesome ideas.
From the article, it appear they pay $400 at a time to be a trustee. The article says there are only 30 trustee slots so it’s not clear exactly how they’re structured.
“Sometimes, it’s just a small amount of money someone needs to advance a great idea forward … or to see if their idea will make it,” Awesome Halifax co-founder Colette O’Hara said in a recent interview.
“That’s what this is really about, getting enough money in somebody’s hands to get to the next baby step they need to take. It’s not about huge amounts of funding; it’s to keep progress happening.”
Sources:
Awesome Halifax supports business dreams
Comments:
As crowdsourcing takes off to fund a small business idea, we’ll have more varieties of it. While The Awesome Foundation seems to be a smaller scale version of it, it’s still enough to get interest and get people thinking about awesome ideas.
If you have a small business, you can go to the The Awesome Foundation’s website and look up your local chapter. Many major cities still have not formed chapters so there’s plenty of opportunity yet to get publicity and fund a small business idea.
Source: Mike Cline via Wikipedia
Today’s small business idea is on how to frame that great small business idea. After you have a USP, you need a way to tell everyone about it.
Let’s look at different ways to frame a hook as well as a great way to distribute those hooks.
CBS posted an article with 15 hooks you can use to get publicity for a small business idea.
They include using a news event, sharing expert advice, coming up with a Hall of Fame to honor people, having a contest, making a prediction, holding an event, starting a petition, busting myths, sharing recipes, sharing relevant historical events, making a list as this article did, making a quiz, writing an editorial, or starting an index to rank something.
This was a part two article so there are further ways to promote your small business idea in the previous article as well.
Another article today was on ways to share your small business idea through YouTube with relevant examples.
They reported that YouTube has said that it’s “how-to” channel has become it’s most popular channel showing that businesses are catching on to the power of consumer education prior to making the sale.
Their categories for video production are branding, consumer education, how-to videos, selling benefits related to the product, problem-solution, as your main service (Khan Academy), product demonstrations, advice, tutorials, or as something intended to go viral.
Be sure and watch a few of the videos to understand the concepts.
Sources:
More media ‘hooks’ to get your business noticed
10 top small business uses of YouTube videos
Comments:
You probably know from personal experience that you hate watching most commercials but you’ll watch a how-to video no, problem. One of the major uses of the internet is to find solutions to problems and how-to videos are often the easiest to use.
The list of businesses that have become successful through promoting how-to videos is long indeed. If you combine these two concepts above – finding a hook and creating videos for customers’ enrichment – there’s no limit to where you can take your small business idea.
If you haven’t gotten started with social media tactics, here are a few suggestions. The two biggies are Facebook and Twitter. If you haven’t set up a Facebook page, it’s fairly easy.
You can do it yourself if you want, you can hire someone on oDesk or Fiverr or hire a full service company like ProFacebookPages.com.
If you’re running short on places to get ideas for social media tactics, consider hopping over to a coffee shop where other entrepreneurs are likely hanging out. If you’re in a friendly enough location you might be able to eavesdrop or join in on an interesting conversation.
If you’ve got Facebook and Twitter down, you’ll want to consider other social media tactics depending on your particular small business: Tumblr, Yelp, Google maps/places, Foursquare and Pinterest.
Said one business owner:
“Foursquare became one of my best tools. The ability to do free campaigns enables you to run your own promotions when you want. Foursquare gives you (the business owner) the control instead of paying for advertising.”
Sources:
Noobis Releases ProFacebook Pages for Small Businesses
The Coffee House Isn’t Just Your Corner Office: Small Biz Ideas
Comments:
Of course your small business social media tactics are going to depend on your overall strategy.
More than a few companies ended up getting burned by their Groupon experience when they weren’t able to handle all the traffic it sent them. So the bigger picture has to be considered.
Your marketing will be more effective if you can consistently broadcast your USP. Then it just becomes a matter of finding additional channels for your social media tactics.
There was talk that the JOBS Act would move small business startups away from venture capitalists and toward crowdsourcing options. It appears it’s not an either/or situation but both/and.
From a survey done by national law firm Dorsey & Whitney (originally done in 2010 and recently updated), we learn that:
While I mentioned crowdsourced consulting in an earlier post, it seems we have another similar company.
GenCrowd is also provides crowdsourced outsourcing for small business startups. It’s unclear from their website whether they’re familiar with their competitors or what their USP might be over them.
They have a similar story from the previously mentioned AskYourUsers.com.
“The volume of work that startups have to do, atleast initially – from idea brainstorming and validation, brand naming, tagline and slogan generation, logo design, web design and development, content and copywriting, all the way down to website and usability testing, SEO and marketing, analytics research, customer service, and a whole bunch of other issues – can take a real toll on people and businesses alike,” said Barun Rath, founder of GenCrowd.
“Going through the steps, GenCrowd was conceptualized from these issues that we personally faced when starting a business – we were looking for resources to provide us with different ideas and perspectives on different aspects regarding the business we were working on at the time. And so, the idea behind GenCrowd was formed – an online marketplace allowing people to crowdsource ideas, content, and feedback for their business needs.”
GenCrowd seems different in that it allows “blind” listings which means you can solicit feedback without any of the experts being able to see each others’ solutions. Of course it’s hard to beat AYU’s ties with LinkedIn – whatever that benefit might be.
Sources:
Startup CEOs Crave Venture Capital, Not Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourced Consulting Small Business Ideas
Clive Thompson: Why Veteran Visionaries Will Save the World
Comments:
It seems to go without saying that we prefer working with people we know when that’s an option. But to extrapolate that to the conclusion that crowdsourcing isn’t gaining traction does small business startups a disservice. It’s zero sum thinking.
Before, venture capitalists were the main game in town. You may have got funding based on your relationships with them. Of course you had to have a solid idea too. But the relationship needed to be there.
With crowdsourcing, a whole new source of funding is opening up to the market. People without prior VC relationships will now have options where they can prove their idea and expertise.
Of course there’s the debate about preferred startup CEO ages. If anyone does a demographic study on that, I’d like to know. One I saw said the average age of startup CEOs from 1995-2005 was 39 but that older professionals start different kinds of companies than younger ones.
Clearly the older ones are going to be the ones more likely to seek funding and in all likelihood, the younger ones be more inclined to pursue crowdsourcing for small business startups.
Small business or health care?
Most people are aware of the impact of baby boomers on the health care system. If you’re looking for stable employment, it hard to do better than working in health care as the baby boomer generation needs more and more care.
Another implication most people aren’t aware of is the boomers small business market. Yes, we realize they’re looking to retire in the next few years but most don’t realize that means the ones that own small businesses that they operate may be looking to sell.
In fact that’s what we’re see happening now already.
Bizbuysell.com is a site that lists small businesses for sale. They report that while selling activity has increased to 2008 levels, prices have fallen 3.2% in the last quarter:
“Business owners are continuing to adjust their pricing in order to expedite a sale,” said Mike Handelsman, group general manager of BizBuySell.com. “While some may still be holding out for an economic recovery, many more are trying to exit at acceptable prices, even if it means settling for a lower number than they originally expected.”
If you are a small business owner looking to sell, the WSJ has some tips for you based on common mistakes. Most of them are to do the opposite of the mistake.
Mistake: The business is dependent on you.
Mistake: Not planning for tax implications of the sale.
Mistake: Not getting a realistic appraisal.
Mistake: Only looking at the bottom line of an offer.
Mistake: Not hiring experienced professionals to handle the deal.
Sources:
Sales of small businesses rise as prices decline
Ready to Sell Your Business and Retire?
Comments:
One small business idea is clearly then to be any sort of professional who can assist a small business owner with the sale of their business. Alternately, now and in the near future will probably be a great time to acquire a cash flowing small business.
It turns out the traditional paradigm of developing a business plan and a product over a few years is becoming obsolete in favor of more flexible small business ideas. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the idea of pivoting.
Source: Chris Kirkman via Wikipedia
For more technology and especially web based businesses, the most important component to their product development is customer demand.
For many, the exact recipe consumers will respond to can’t be determined ahead of time.
A number of companies including Groupon, Twitter and Instagram all started out as something else. In the course of initial customer feedback, they changed their product offering to what they’ve become today.
Generally speaking, there is an expectation among venture capitalists that people in their 20s and 30s are better at these flexible small business ideas than their Baby Boomer counterparts.
Investors say the founders who made left turns are generally more experienced—and less fearful of failure—than past generations of tech entrepreneurs. The founders who change products and markets between one and three times raise more money than those who don’t, according to Startup Genome Compass of San Francisco, which tracks more than 13,000 Internet start-ups. In fact, they raised roughly 2½ times more capital than founders who changed products and markets either four or more times or not at all, its research says.
There’s also a graphic comparing companies that pivoted versus those that have persevered.
Source:
‘Pivoting’ Pays Off for Tech Entrepreneurs
Comments:
The graphic shows that there are successful companies that stuck with what they originally set out to do as well as those that needed more flexible small business ideas.
If you’re in a business that can change and adapt easily according to customer demand, then you should. Staying flexible within your mission is essential for long term viability.
Of course that doesn’t mean to chase ten rabbits all at once. Each of the companies mentioned only pursued one idea at a time. It was only when one idea was shown not to be effective enough that another one was adopted.
Jim Collins talked about this concept in a longer term strategy version in his book, Good to Great. He talked about how the most important thing was to get the right people on the bus and then figure out where the bus was going.
Regardless of your current business model, a strategy that includes flexible small business ideas has merit and ought to be considered.
Most small business owners know that sustainability is a concern to many consumers and can affect your small business brand.
While no business is going to claim not to be sustainable, it helps if you can point to actual things you are doing in this area.
Being “green” isn’t going to be a complete USP for most companies these days. But if you are in one of the few remaining industries that doesn’t concern itself with sustainability, then it might help.
Faced with two seemingly otherwise equal choices, most consumers will choose the small business brand that appears more sustainable.
One easy and low cost way to make your small business brand more sustainable is to switch to green energy. Fortunately, these days you can buy sustainably sourced energy from many power companies. That’s much easier than trying to install solar cells or wind turbines.
Then you can tell your customers, employees and anyone else likely to care that your business is helping to save the planet and so on, increasing your small business brand.
In most cases, green energy isn’t going to cost much more than conventional. In fact, it might be one of the most inexpensive small business brand improvements you can do.
Said one retailer:
Yeah, it costs us a little bit extra to do these good things, but I think it helps our bottom line. Employee-retention rates are high and customers are more loyal.
In addition to local press, businesses that reach these sustainability goals may make it on to the EPA’s list of companies that choose renewable power. Official logos are usually good to improve a small business brand.
Source:
Green Power: A Low-Cost Boost to Your Brand and Bottom Line
Comments:
Sustainability can be a tricky subject. Take building supplies for example. You won’t find a product that doesn’t claim to be more sustainable. Concrete is one of the dirtiest, most energy intensive processes out there. But then well laid concrete will last indefinitely. Wood on the other hand, is infinitely renewable but we build with it intending for it to last only 50 years.
Another relevant example is the car battery. Electric and hybrid cars claim sustainability based on extremely low gas mileage. But then if you consider the production cost of manufacturing a hybrid battery and its disposal, it becomes one of the least sustainable vehicles there are.
Those two examples look at sustainability from the cradle-to-cradle paradigm. It’s important to consider the energy it takes to bring a product to market as well as its disposal. Consumers are becoming more aware of such issues even if it doesn’t seem that it would be immediately relevant to your bottom line.
All that’s to say that paying a little bit more for your energy might make sense financially too when it comes to customer satisfaction, employee retention and improving your small business brand.
Almost everyone by now knows that the economy is going mobile. Not just a particular segment of the economy – the entire economy. Think Internet sized bigness.
For those who want to be hands on in going mobile but don’t want to start programming from scratch, we have this announcement:
Yes, that’s right, a free course on how to build your own apps. The course on going mobile runs through the month of May (2012) and requires a signup.
The course includes daily short videos on different topics related to using RunRev’s platform – LiveCode – in going mobile.
“We’re delighted to build on the success of our hugely popular Game Academy,” said Kevin Miller, CEO of RunRev. “With our new business-oriented course, we’re unlocking the potential of entrepreneurs and developers by giving them the tools to create custom apps and take their businesses to new levels. Today, every business can benefit from connecting with customers on mobile devices, and LiveCode is a great entry point for those new to development who want to create apps for iOS, Android, Mac, PC and even Linux. The Small Business App Academy will show you how in visual, engaging and easy steps.”
If you’re wondering if there’s a catch – well, sort of. If you have no intention of using LiveCode to build your own apps, then this might only be halfway interesting to you.
If you compare it to hiring a developer to create you a custom app and then maintain it for you, you might just come out ahead going mobile this way.
Even if not, the course is sure to provide a number of pointers to keep in mind while building apps so at the very least, you’ll be a more informed consumer when it comes to hiring someone to build your app.
Some of the topics to be covered include:
If you don’t know what most of those things are, that’s okay. No doubt there will be lost of visuals and examples. It is a feature list after all and the training will probably cover the benefits of those features too.
Regarding RunRev, they were also listed as one of the top cross platform development tools for going mobile.
Sources:
Cross-Platform Developer Tools 2012
LiveCode Academy for Small Businesses
Comments:
As I’ve said before, going mobile – like any other tactic – needs to support your overall strategy and mission. Many apps are nothing more than an exact replica of company’s website. Having your website be mobile friendly may or may not help in the long run. That would depend on how you’re using your website now.
For many small business owners – especially the less tech savvy, learning to create an app might not be for you. It’s another question though whether any app is right for your business. It could help gain new customers with the right level of special offers and interaction.
Like all other marketing tactics, going mobile should be weighed on a ROI basis rather than just because it’s the next big thing.
Starting as an EntrepreneurThere were a couple of articles today on starting as an entrepreneur. One was geared toward showing investors the entrepreneur is committed. The other was on ways NOT to start as an entrepreneur.
Both are useful as self examination tools even if you’re not currently starting a business. If you have an existing business, you can consider whether you still have what it takes to make it as an entrepreneur.
Since investors at the beginning of a venture are betting on the small business idea rather than an established system, they want to know the idea is fully supported by the person who came up with it.
These are some ways investors judge someone to be fully committed to his idea. Even if you’re not looking for venture capital, this is a good way to examine yourself to see if you’re giving it enough to really get things going and grow your small business.
One has to admire entrepreneurs who are willing to have 10 or 20 rejections for every lead they receive. Nothing creates more entrepreneurial believability than a passionate belief in an opportunity. That does not necessarily mean the venture is a good investment, but I would much rather back entrepreneurs who are willing to spend years on an opportunity, and show genuine resilience, rather than those who give up after a few setbacks. The ability to recover from failure, in a country that, sadly, has little tolerance for honest entrepreneurial failure, is especially impressive.
Another article goes into the wrong ways to do it:
Sources:
What makes a real entrepreneur believable?
6 Ways NOT to Launch Your Small Business
Comments:
While it’s entirely possible to start a business without going all in, putting it all on the line is what people want to see if they’re going to give you money to do it. They want the best opportunity for success.
In truth though, many small businesses are started by individuals with their own money part-time. That’s part of what makes business great – there are lots of ways to get it right.
What you can’t do is start without a clear idea of how you’ll connect with and provide value to your customers. Without a way to provide value or make a sale, it doesn’t matter if you have 100 people working on it full time. But then that’s probably the first rule of being an entrepreneur and you probably already know that.