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Small Business – the New Social Security Plan
How often have you calculated and re-calculated the figures from your pension and your recession battered investments in order to determine how much you’ll have upon retirement?
Too many to count right? Those underwhelming totals likely contributed to your decision to start your own small business.
Well paid full time employees do it as well since job security is history and let’s face it we’re a generation that is obsessed about quality of life. We want to know what steps we can take to give ourselves some sense of financial security and control right now and in the years ahead.
The small business ownership option is working for young people, women raising children at home, laid off workers, retired workers and the general unemployed who’ve got the experience and energy to build their own opportunities.
The trend towards entrepreneurship is like a tonic for many. Instead of worrying about how depleted retirement savings and social security coffers will impact on the quality of life, thousands of people are doing what they can to capitalize on business opportunities that put them in control of their income now and in the future.
The sticking point of course is financing and sustainability. Small business financing is very difficult to come by in this economy. Most small businesses look to family, or network to find local investors or raid their own savings to fund their business start-up.
What steps you take to ensure your business will take care of you and your family today and tomorrow, really depends on how knowledgeable you are about choosing a business, finding and reaching a viable target market and operating a business at a profit.
That’s a tall order that should never be underestimated.
Yahoo conducted a recent nationwide survey indicating that 72 percent of American adults have considered starting their own businesses. At the same time the U.S. Small Business Administration recently reported that less than 50% of small businesses survive beyond the first five years of operation.
Don’t become a Statistic – Equip Yourself with Knowledge
How can you avoid becoming one of the SBA’s failing statistics? Equip yourself with knowledge and really be honest about how you retain information and your preferred “learning style.” Adults learn differently than kids. Don’t think that taking a class or two at your local college/university or community center will give you what you need.
A lot of adults like to learn independently via online courses that are augmented by practical peer learning or mentorship programs. It really isn’t hard to understand why entrepreneurs prefer learning from peers – people who have succeeded in the business you’re in – as opposed to an instructor somewhere who delivers theory without having the practical know-how.
Remember that you can join an established professional group of small business owners locally or online. I often recommend peer groups with active online networking since connecting online is more flexible and suited to the busy schedules of full-time and part-time entrepreneurs.
Have you chosen a business because of social security/future income concerns? Your story might help so many others – so please share.
To your success,
Sharon
Marketing Strategies for A Small Business
As a small business owner working online, your marketing department is likely comprised of one person – you. With so much on your plate already that means you’ve got to enlist marketing strategies that leverage your time and energy well in order to see sales results in a timely fashion.
In an earlier post I talked about the essentials of marketing and how important it was for a small business owners to incorporate “internet marketing” into their overall marketing strategy. Keeping in mind sound marketing principles you can revise and add to your plan at any time as long as it supports your goals and keeps you on track.
Five Marketing Strategies for a Small Business
Let’s look at 5 marketing strategies that can be incorporated into your plan to boost sales this season:1.
1. Social Networking
Get involved in social networking! Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are not just the hottest places to be for those who want to promote their business online they are the smartest places to be for entrepreneurs on a budget – whether you’re online or offline.
Access is free but if you’re inexperienced with social media and are busy taking care of other essential elements of your business you’d be wise to enlist the assistance of a consultant or join a peer mentorship group to help you make the best impression and connections in these forums. Millions of your clients or customers are involved in social media forums so you’ll want to ensure you are too.
2. Online Press Release
Generate valuable backlinks to your website by producing and issuing an online press release about some newsworthy aspect of your company. Use a newswire service like PRWeb and you’ll end up depositing nice links throughout the Internet that users may come across and use to access your website. That kind of activity can improve your search engine rankings and ultimately increase traffic to your website.
3. Pitch a Story to Specific Media Reporters
Prepare a story idea to “pitch” to the media and then email it to a “current” list of reporters and editors at local and national traditional news outlets that reach your target market. Follow up every pitch letter with a phone call.
Newspapers and TV stations were hit hard by this recession and many are currently operating with skeletal staff. Your story idea may be just what they’re looking for. For example USA Today and the New York Times are newspapers with a national focus and they reach millions. What’s even better is they have very popular small business sections.
If you’re not comfortable contacting the media, remember that you can always outsource this to the multitude of writers (and former reporters) who are unemployed and freelancing but more importantly have the experience to do a good job of promoting you to their former employers 
Use Good SEO Techniques
Incorporate good search engine optimization techniques into the production of your website pages. Ensure that the content you’re creating contains well written, comprehensive information along with the key words your target market will be using when they go looking for your product or service on the Google search engine.
If your pages are optimized well for your keywords, your website stands a good chance of showing up in the top results of your customers’ searches. If you’re like me and need some hand holding when it comes to SEO, see what I suggest in #5.
5. Join a Mentorship Group
Connect with peers in your industry to keep up to date on best practices and opportunities. Small business networking groups are invaluable to your business’ development and can considerably reduce your learning curve.
There are of course many other creative and practical marketing strategies that you can put in place for your small business but don’t allow yourself to get too overwhelmed trying to build a complicated strategy.
Do your research and be clear on your goals. Break your strategy down into manageable activities that you can do each day. You’ll feel great as you check each activity off your list. In fact, you may find you really enjoy carrying out some of the activities in your marketing strategy and that will give you tremendous momentum.
What are some of your favorite marketing tasks?
To you success,
Sharon
Web 2.0 Expo: Chris Brogran, New York
The fact that so many solopreneurs and small businesses working out of efficient home offices are managing multi-million dollar companies is something we’re all cheering, in between multitasking and refreshing our computer screens. Now comes a conference that gives us a moment to pause, celebrate and examine the “Power of Less.”
Organizers argue that the notion that small budgets prohibit big success is so pre Web 2.0. Instead here’s how they look at the dynamics of the small enterprise in a Web 2.0 world:
“Constraints drive creativity, whether in business models, or platforms. It means the power of the small screen, the thin client, the streamlined itnerface. It might mean the power of small teams, or even going solo. It’s also the paradox of power: sometimes the best way to gain power is to give it away, which why during these challenging times, we are learning that nothing builds brands like a nurtured community.”
Amen.
If this sounds like your kind of conference, especially since it features speakers like Trust Agents co-author Chris Brogran, then you ought to plan to be in New York city from November 16-19, 2009 at the Javits Center.
For more information about the program and registration click here.
Time to Get Organized for the Busy Season
With the Holiday season upon us now is the time to ensure your business is organized and set not just for the busy and fun weeks ahead but for the serious season beginning January 1st.
Nothing allows you to enjoy the Holiday season more than knowing that you’ve got your strategies and activities planned and ready to implement.
That’s possible only if you do the actual research planning and today’s post is about one special took that so many of us rely on successfully to get things done – the daily planner.
In fact, right now is the perfect time to order your 2010 planner if you haven’t already done so. Currently my well worn 2009 planner is filling up with notes and references for meetings in 2010. Those notes bulging my planner serve as a big red flag reminding me to get that 2010 calendar now.
As a business owner you likely have many priorities. But of course everything can’t have the same priority. You can only do one thing at a time but by at least doing one thing (as opposed to thinking about it with dread) you’ll get the control you strive, one completed project at a time.
Using a daily planner will help you to break your work down into chunks, hour by hour, day by day. What a planner can help you do is tend to the details and the big picture as well. For example, it’s not good to be chipping away at something for 5 hours, when in reality you only have a 2 hour slot to work on an activity because of other deadlines that day.
Use your daily planner to keep you on track. I love the week at a glance, spread over two pages with with a reduced snap shot of 3-months of full calendars. That way when I open my planner I get a quick visual of the week ahead – what’s due, who do I have to meet, how much longer until Thanksgiving, etc.
I’ve done some research and just come across the At-A-Glance QuickNotes daily/weekly/monthly planners. I think this particular product may be ideal for multitasking business owners. What I especially like about this planner is that it is made by an industry leader (the Mead/Day-Runner journal producers) and that it has the unique and nifty QuickNotes feature which allows to you track a running list (for me it would be my task list) on a colored area of your “week at a glance” page and also at the beginning section of each month.
The use of colored paper for the list or “Quicknotes” looks like it will be really helpful. I’ve included the link below so you can look a little further into this product for yourself.
Planning and implementing small projects is what helps me to build momentum in my business. With all the activity taking place during this Holiday season it will be easy to feel overwhelmed and even get side tracked from the marketing strategy already planned. Ensuring that I have the simple tools to support me is an easy way to keep on track.
What steps are you taking to get your business organized and humming for this holiday season and the all important year ahead?
To your success,
Sharon
The Giving Season is the Holiday Season
Like clockwork, the day after Hallowe’en the holiday season marketing drive shifts from a whisper to a roar. As I watched a Sesame Street Elmo toy ad this afternoon I started to think about the typical entrepreneur’s holiday marketing season efforts.
If you created a marketing strategy this time of year should be highlighted as an opportune time to raise the profile on how you can benefit your clients/customers AND community this time of year. One of the the best ways to do that is to offer holiday deals to drum up interest in your business and your favorite charities.
As we’re just coming out of a recession it is probably a really good time to promote discounts and special deals. Right now consumer goods manufacturers are going to try to get everyone’s attention and they’ll do a bang up job of it.
Whether you sell widgets, or information products or professional consulting services – you can benefit from the gift buying fervor.
For the person that needs widgets (or some other non-sexy but necessary gadget or tool that I haven’t the vocabulary for) if you save them money with a holidy discount there’ll be more money for them to direct towards gift buying. That’s the perfect angle to incorporate into your marketing material.
If you create informational products that help business owners to understand social media, you can create the timeliest guide showing how businesses can boost their holiday sales by using social media. News wire agency, Reuters, just released a news item indicating that major consumer companies were planning to invest heavily into social media this season – more than ever before. Is your “holiday season” social media guide for businesses ready yet?
These are just a couple of examples, but the point is you have the opportunity to benefit from the general consumer urgency to buy over the next two months by tailoring your marketing efforts to capitalize on the biggest buying season of the year.
Don’t be dissuaded by news stories indicating lower sales because of the recession – that’s in comparison to boom years. People will still be purchasing in higher volumes and will be keeping their ears particularly attuned to anything sounding like a “deal.”
Here are some ideas to add to your own creative list of marketing activities this holiday season:
- Host a teleseminar or other special event targeting your market and partner with other business owners to offer holiday themed prize draws for those attending the event
- Offer to donate a certain percentage of every sale over the next two months to a recognized and respected charity
- Sponsor high profile holiday events in your online communities and even in your local communities (if the exposure generated will reach your target audience)
Sometimes people complain about the overly commercial focus that colors this season of joy. There’s nothing preventing you or anyone else from changing that focus by incorporating charitable and giving initiatives into planned high profile promotions this season.
Any non-profit or charitable organization will tell you that this is the season when they receive the MOST donations. So many like you are doing their part. By and large we have an enormous ability to give, care and support one another.
I say it’s the holidays and lets begin to celebrate by showing how creative we can be with our businesses and how giving we can be to the community.
To your success,
Sharon
