According to the New York Times, the analytics features have been available in alpha for a small number of businesses for a week now. The selected businesses are able to see, in real time, who has checked in to their businesses (on a daily, weekly, 30/60/90-day or all-time basis), when they arrived, the male-to-female ratio, what times are most active for certain customers, and they get the ability to offer instant promotions. FourSquare will also offer a Staff page so that employees can interact directly with customers using the site.  It makes things significantly more interactive for business owners, which may increase a Twitter-esque adoption.

Early shots of the dashboard look like this:

And that’s just the beginning.

According to FourSquare’s Tristan Walker, the social site plans to up the information they’ll be providing. Things slated to be added include correlations between check-ins and weather to help merchants offer better rainy day incentives and the ability to tie purchase information to check-ins.

What FourSquare is really doing is taking everything up a notch. Over the past year, SMB owners have learned to use Twitter as a medium to reach out and connect with customers. We’ve used it to have real conversations, to find people talking about our brands and to encourage them to come visit our store or Web site. However, with the new analytics from FourSquare, we actually have an ability to track users and tie them to specific actions. It’s a much more interesting conversation when you can identify a former “regular”, and look at their behavior to see they haven’t been in the store for weeks.  Knowing this means you can use the Staff pages to then interact with that specific customer and give them an incentive to come back in.  It’s as much about retaining customers as it is attracting them with new deals.

And whether you’re a FourSquare user or not, yesterday’s announcement is something you should be aware of because it signals that location wars are very much upon us.

On the heels of FourSquare’s launch Twitter announced it will be turning on geolocation for tweets and Facebook will also allow users to share their location. With everyone going in the same direction, it’s probably a sign you should be paying attention. We understand social media, now what can you do to make it more locally-focused and to connect with your current customers. FourSquare is giving SMB owners a great way to look into the habits and actions of people who frequent them, and so are many of the other social networking sites. The more data you can use, the smarter decisions you can make.  Start figuring out how you can use it.

From Small Business Trends

FourSquare Adds Analytics, Real Business Value

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But that lifeline could be about to snap. The Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the financial bailout, just released a report on the state of commercial real estate lending—and the news is not good.

“There’s been an enormous bubble in commercial real estate, and it has to come down,” panel chair Elizabeth Warren told the Washington Post. “A mortgage crisis like the one that has devastated homeowners is enveloping the nation’s office and retail buildings,” the Post reports. The fallout will hit community banks hard.

In general, large, community banks haven’t been hurt by the residential real estate crisis. But community banks issued higher proportions of commercial mortgages than did the big banks. Some 3,000 community banks have disproportionate amounts of commercial loans relative to their assets, according to the oversight panel’s report. And, as Warren says, “Every dollar [community banks] lose in commercial real estate is a dollar they can’t use for small businesses.”

Commercial real estate mortgages have shorter terms than standard residential mortgages; according to the report, some $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate debt will come due in the next three years. And Warren says, half of all commercial real estate mortgages will be underwater by 2011.

Areas most at risk? South Florida, metropolitan New York and Washington, DC, lead the nation in the per capita value of commercial real estate currently in foreclosure, default or delinquency, according to research group Real Capital Analytics.

Responding to the problems many borrowers are already having refinancing commercial mortgages. President Obama has proposed expanding the SBA’s 504 loan program to temporarily support refinancing for owner-occupied commercial real estate loans. Currently, these loans cannot be used to refinance maturing debt.

The full report from the Congressional Oversight Panel is interesting reading.

From Small Business Trends

Looming Commercial Real Estate Crisis Threatens Small Businesses

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Marketing

Is the idea of viral marketing a bit too contagious? Viral marketing may not be good for every business so keep in mind it’s a means not an end. Right Ideas/Bright Ideas

Getting personal with your marketing strategy. With all the buzz words out there in the marketing world, sometimes the best advice comes down to a very simple idea. Five Forces Group

It’s not just about the clicks. A look at how to improve sales through more focused online marketing campaigns. Web.com

Operations

Why should your customers trust you? The answer may have to do with how you operate your business everyday. Flying Pig Communications

Forbes puts small business owners on the couch. Another report looks at the mental outlook of the small business community. morebusiness.com

How to get more business. Some thoughts on bringing the new customers you need to you. Unique Insights

Startup

Date your business before you marry it. How can you be sure the business you’re planning is the right one for you? Open Forum Innovation

Is your business making Google nervous? How to create a startup that sells to the big boys for millions. The Huffington Post

You don’t need to go to heaven to meet an angel. How to find these special investors and what they can do to help your business. Youngentrepreneur.com

Policy

For solopreneurs, health care may be getting even more expensive. Health care reform may shift a disproportionately large burden onto the shoulders of the already struggling self-employed. National Association for the Self-Employed

Can risk really be managed? The recent meltdown contains lessons about economic uncertainty, but what can it teach business leaders for the future? The Economist

Why bigger is not always better. Finally government reformers may discover what small business owners and their customers have always known. Huffington Post

Tech

New tools allow a more customized approach to sales. Wouldn’t it be great if visitors could buy from you even after they’ve left your site? smallbiztechnology.com

How to make cool side-by-side interviews for your Website. A warning to PC users: This tutorial is for Mac’s. The Rise to The Top

Contests

Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest. Two of the Net’s fastest growing small business communities join forces to promote great business blogging online with some really cool prizes. Bloggertone

From Small Business Trends

Small Business News March 9, 2010

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In fact, technology has increased our appetite to watch to entertain ourselves since we can now watch not only on television, but computers and smartphones.

There’s no reason to feel guilty about watching a movie, thinking you should be working instead.

Relax! You can actually learn about business by watching movies!

I asked a few small business leaders what were their favorite movie quotes of all time and then I thought about what I learned from that movie. Grab your popcorn and take a look at what they shared:

NO EXCUSES!

Movie:  Goodfellas. “Business is bad? F-you, pay me.  Oh, you had a fire? F-you, pay me.  Place got hit by lightning, huh?  F-you, pay me.” (From Bob London)

• Lesson: If you are part of the organization, there are no excuses for results. It is also an incentive to keep your company overhead low so you have cash to pay for what you really need.

FOCUS FIRST, GROW LATER!

Movie: Jerry Maguire: Remember the Mission Statement? “We are losing our battle with all that is personal and real about our business. Every day I can look at a list of phone calls only partially returned. Driving home, I think of what was not accomplished, instead of what was accomplished.”

• Lesson: Fewer clients, more personal attention makes for a better business. Growth for growth’s sake is a bad business strategy.

STAND UP FOR YOUR BUSINESS!

Movie: Road House: “Be nice.  Be nice until it is time to not be nice.”  (From Prasann Thakrar)

• Lesson: Being nice in business does not always get the results you want. Many times, we need to press our point.

RISE TO THE OCCASION

Movie: Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium: “Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.” (From by Phillip Zannini – @PhillyMac)

• Lesson: We need to remember that we are responsible for our own success. Never look for that one magic bullet in business or for someone to save you because no one is coming. The magic comes from the hard work you give to your business.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO SELL

Movie: Glengarry Glen Ross “Good leads are for closers”.  (From Vicki Donlan)

• Lesson: You need to know what to do with a lead if you are going to close a sale. There is no substitution for being able to sell. We all need to learn and have skilled sales people on our team.

GET TOUGH — DON’T COMPLAIN!

Movie: A League of Their Own: “There is no crying in Baseball”.  (From Scratch at Boston Baby Dolls).

• Lesson: No matter how bad it gets, long term, crying does not help us in business.

From the same movie “Of course this is ‘hard’:

• Lesson: People always tell me that their business is especially hard. Guess what, every business is hard.

RELATIONSHIPS ARE POWERFUL

Movie: Hustle & Flow – You’re in charge of your business and the power of marketing relationships.  (From Elizabeth W. Wilson)

• Lesson: No matter where you come from, you can become successful.

DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN’T DO

Movie: Legally Blonde: Elle uses what she has to achieve her goals. (Submitted by Phillip Zannini)

• Lesson: We all need to make it work from where we are right now

LEAD BY EXAMPLE

Movie: It’s a Wonderful Life:  The movie shows the principles of leadership. George Bailey puts his customers, employee and family interests first by taking responsibility.  (From Stephen Antisdel of Precept Partners)

• Lesson: If more financial institutions has operated this way maybe the “Great Recession” would have been avoided.

LOVE YOUR LIFE

My favorite movie quotes are from the movie, Jerry Maguire, as said by Jerry’s mentor, Dickie Fox:

”Hey, I don’t have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success.”

Want more? Check out Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo, the co-author of The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies interview on my radio show.

What are your favorite quotes or business lessons from movies?  Share them below.

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Lessons We Can Learn from Watching Movies

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Because these indices get reported and discussed in the media, it’s important to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. First, the overall numbers sometimes mask big differences between groups of entrepreneurs because the surveys are given to very different business owners. Some are male, and some female; some sell products and others provide services; and some serve consumers and others serve businesses. The respondents vary in age, income, number of employees, and years in business.

If the optimism and pessimism of all of these business owners moved in lock step over time, the tendency to focus on the average of all of them wouldn’t be a big deal. Whether optimism was high or low would pretty much be the same for everyone. But when the levels of optimism of different groups don’t all move in the same way over time (they aren’t that highly correlated), then knowing the average but not what’s happening with the different groups hides important information.

I don’t have data on the Optimism Index for different groups of respondents to the NFIB survey, but I do have it for the DSBW from December 2006 through January 2010. So I can talk about those correlations.

While the optimism levels of all of groups are positively correlated, the correlations aren’t super high. For instance, the correlation between the optimism levels of the owners businesses that are one to two years old and those that are six to ten years old is only 0.44 over this time period.

Similarly, the optimism levels of business owners 18 to 29 only correlate 0.64 with those of business owners 65 and older, and optimism levels of owners making under $20,000 per year only correlate 0.66 with those making between $75,000 and $100,000. Thus something common affects the optimism of owners of different ages, those running different aged businesses, and those making different amounts of money, but different factors also drive their levels of optimism.

Second, the responses of the business owners to different questions on the surveys don’t all correlate highly. For instance, there is essentially no relationship (correlation of -0.02) between the share of business owners who say the economy is getting better and the percentage that say they have experienced temporary cash flow problems that caused them to hold off on paying some bills over the past 90 days. And the percentage of small business owners who say that the economy is getting better and the percentage that plan to increase spending on business development correlate only 0.36, while the percentage of owners who say the economy is getting better and the percentage that plan to hire correlates only 0.30 over the August 2006 through January 2010 time period.

What about the question everyone wants to know about right now: are businesses going to hire? Over the August 2006 through January 2010 time period, the share of owners planning to increase spending on business development is a better predictor than the percentage who say that overall economic conditions are improving (a correlation of 0.73 versus 0.36).

But here’s a piece of evidence that shows what a lot of people in Washington are worried about. If the data are split into two time periods – from August 2006 to June 2008 and from July 2008 through January 2010 – the correlation between the share of small business owners planning to spend more on business development and the percentage planning to hire is greater for the first period than for the second. That pattern suggests that the factors driving the spending and hiring plans are more different now than they were in the pre-financial crisis period.

What about the two optimism indices themselves? They’re pretty highly correlated. From December 2006 through January 2010, the NFIB and DSBW optimism indices correlate 0.85. Because the NFIB surveys its members (who tend to run larger businesses than the respondents to the DSBW), that level of correlation suggests that both indices are picking up general trends rather than factors affecting larger versus smaller small businesses or NFIB members versus nonmembers.

The overall measures correlate more highly than specific items. For instance, the NFIB’s measure of the percentage of small business owners who answer “better” minus the percentage that answer “worse” to the question: “About the economy in general, do you think that six months from now general business conditions will be better than they are now, about the same, or worse?” correlates only 0.40 with the percentage of respondents to the DSBW survey who answer “better” minus the percentage who answer “worse” to the question: “Generally speaking, are the economic conditions for your business getting better or worse in the next 6 months?” Unfortunately, we can’t tell whether this low correlation results from the types of businesses surveyed by the two groups or the difference between the NFIB’s focus on general conditions and the DSBW’s focus on the respondent’s business.

None of this says that there is anything wrong with these surveys. They provide us with useful information about what’s going with small business owners’ thinking on an up-to-date basis. We just need to be cautious about how we use them. We can’t assume that the patterns over time are going to be the same for both surveys, between questions on each survey, or between different groups of respondents to the surveys.

From Small Business Trends

Assessing Small Business Owners’ Optimism

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Step 1:  Have A Great Product, Service or Business

Most small businesses think that what they sell is great. 

The Key:  To get publicity, you need to provide what the media thinks is great.

Here are some examples of what makes products interesting to the media:

• A truly new product (just launched in the last few months or about to be launched)
• Unique, breakthrough product
• Works well, tastes great, etc. (In most cases the media will test out your product if they are interested in featuring it in a story)
• Colorful packaging / visually appealing – especially important for visual media
• Product ties into trends – organic/green, political, etc.
• Priced right – less than key price points ($100, $50, $25, $10) or priced high if truly a luxury item

Here are some examples of what makes services and businesses interesting to the media:

• New service, company or book (just launched in the last few months or about to be launched)
• Unique, breakthrough service, concept or business
• Provides ways to save money
• Offers something for free
• High rate of revenue and employee growth
• Ties into trends

Step 2:  Approach The Right Media Contact With A Great Pitch

You should only approach media that cover your type of product or business.  This means that you’ll need to read, listen to or view these media outlets prior to pitching them.

Once you determine that your business or product is a good fit for their editorial coverage, you need to find the right contact.  You can do this in several ways:

• Call up the media outlet and ask who the person is who covers your area
• Look at the print masthead or producer credits
• Search online 
• Buy a list – you can find these online

Then you need to pitch the contact. Include why your product or service is a great fit for that media outlet, as well as a product or service description.  Don’t forget to include your contact information.

You can pitch via phone or email.  Here, you can see a sample pitch for a product or service business.

Step 3: Follow Up

This is the part that trips up most do-it-yourself publicists and even P.R. folks.  Once the media has expressed interest in your product or service, you must be persistent in contacting them. 

Often you’ll need to follow-up with them several times, via the phone or email, until you have gotten media coverage.

By following these steps, your chances of getting publicity are greatly increased.  And once you get publicity, you’ll see more buzz, more sales and more credibility for your business.

From Small Business Trends

3 Steps to Free Publicity for Your Business

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Are you primed and ready to make money this year?

Have you put a plan in place to promote your business and maximize your success?

Here are ten quick, easy-to-implement things you can do that will guarantee your online business will be making you money this year:

Write down your personal affirmation for the month and the year.

The goal here is to help you step back from the hustle and bustle and stay focused on what’s important to you.

Get your story, idea, product, or service announcement out into the marketplace seven different ways, all at once.

Choose from these options to make a powerful impact:

1. Press release
2. Blog post
3. Facebook
4. E-zine blast
5. Email announcement
6. Videocast
7. Downloadable audio snatch
8. Free e-book
9. Podcast
10. Teleseminar

Use free classified ads to promote your business.

If you have a knack for writing short ads, you will be able to increase your site traffic by using free (or pretty darn cheap) classified ads. Place ads where you know your target audience will see them.

Introduce yourself to three potential referral sources.

A nurturing referral relationship can be quite profitable. So think of professionals who would be good referral sources for you. Then make contact with them today.

Add three success stories to your website.

You already may have testimonials from your clients on your website. Now create a space for their before-and-after success stories. Remember to include a link back to their sites so everyone gets some love.

Add a tantalizing promotional “special” to your email signature space.

Put a brief promotional line about the special product or service that you are giving away (or offering at a reduced rate) this month.

Write each of your clients and customers a personal, hand-written “thank you” card.

Thank them for sticking with you through the 2009 recession. Be sure to include a coupon they can use for a special product or service.

Offer a deal, such as “buy-one-get-one-free.” This will increase your sales!

Follow up with all your 2009 leads that showed an interest in your product or service but didn’t buy.

Call (don’t email) them and see if they now have a need for anything you offer. 

Let your clients know about something big you’ll either be doing or offering in 2010.

Here are some big ways to make an impact and get their attention:

• Book launch
• DVD training program
• Keynote speaking engagement
• Public seminar
• Corporate training program
• Boot camp
• Mentoring and apprenticeship program
• Weekend retreat
• Television show
• Membership website program
• Special teleseminar series

As a business owner with an online presence, you need to offer special buying opportunities throughout the year. This list will help you do just that.

Implement one idea each day. You’ll not only be promoting your online business, you’ll also be making certain it will be a success this year.

Editor’s Note: this article was previously published at OPENForum.com under the title: “10 Things You Can Do to Make Your Online Business Money” It is reprinted here with permission.

From Small Business Trends

10 Steps To Generating Revenue Online for Your Business

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They want to change how businesses are run, and to borrow a segment title, “Make a dent in the universe.” They are definitely knocking on the universe’s door.

I read a review copy, and was inspired to rework my own thoughts on entrepreneurship and business strategy.

What Worked Well in Rework

This is a book you don’t want to judge too quickly. On first blush the short content seems gimmicky for a book claiming to have a revolutionary outlook.  The chapters cover an arc of business growth with intriguing names:  Takedowns (addressing the barriers to starting a business), Go (Getting started in business), Progress, Productivity, Competitors, Evolution, Promotion, Hiring, Damage Control, and Culture. Within each chapter is a bold statement, a short page or two of explanation, and a memorable image, all with a ready-for-e-book feel.

Ah, but what seems lacking on the surface can be fulfilling when examined.  Rework will pleasantly surprise you once you delve in.  This book offers simple been-there-done-that advice  — and it is anything but shallow.

It distills the typical business subjects to essentials, then offers inspired suggestions with a sharp imaginative eye. Here’s one piece of realistic advice that rings true:   entrepreneurs should seek alternative means to get their business  exposure besides major media publications.  In the “Forget about the Wall Street Journal” segment they write:

“Pitching a reporter at one of these place is practically impossible… you’re better off focusing on getting your story in a trade publication or picked up in a niche blog.”

The Takedown segments get the ball rolling, with sharp headlines throughout the other chapters.  Hansson and Fried explain why Meetings are Toxic and Press Releases are Spam.  Especially powerful was the segment on the “Myth of the Overnight Sensation”:

“It’s not the whole story.  Dig deeper and you’ll usually find people who busted their asses for years to get into a position where things take off…. Trade the dream for overnight success for slow, measured growth…. You have to do it for a long time before the right people notice.”

I loved the musings on “Learning from Mistakes is Overrated”:

“You might learn what not to do again, but how valuable is that?  You still don’t know what you should do next…. Evolution doesn’t linger on past failures, it’s always building upon what worked.  So should you.”

Every idea proposed shows imaginative ways to spur you to intriguing decisions.  Example:  letting your customers outgrow you:

“When you let customers outgrow you, you’ll most likely wind out up with a product that’s basic….  Small simple needs are constant. There’s an endless supply of customers who need exactly that.”

Steps in the growth process are turned on their head without being dumbed down.  Tips such as “Hire managers of one” will re-imagine the hiring process for leaders.  “Resumes are ridiculous” says resumes are “filled with action verbs that don’t mean anything.”

Rework relies on the authors’ perspective, who deliberately set about creating a small business and avoided being bogged down by external factors such as venture capital or extensive research.  That’s the perspective of this book.

References to outside sources to support their views do appear, like in the overrated mistake learning example (it mentions a Harvard study on entrepreneurship and failure).

Readers are cautioned to de-emphasize traditional tools for early efforts — “Your Estimates Suck” dovetails into the concept that not having a plan is okay. It is based on the authors’ experience.  These ideas are valuable for startups or small businesses with a few employees.

What Might Have Worked Better

In a few instances subjects contradict or need more explanation than a page or two.  A tip to “Pick A Fight” – calling out your competitors – seems to contradict a later query “Who cares what they’re doing?”  which is about ignoring your competitors.  Moreover, the Audi example in the “Pick A Fight” segment breaks a marketing rule to never mention your competition (doing so can remind your customers of the competition’s advantage over your product).

Miscues are rare, though.  In a brisk and comfortable pace Rework experiments well in reframing business.  It offers  practical steps for establishing culture, strategy, and productivity.

Who Should Read Rework

The advice in Rework fits small service firms with simplicity at their operational core.  Refreshingly the authors own up to their perspective, offering no apologies for its honest language, or for the fact that it is written mostly from the 10-year experience of running a 16-employee software firm.

Rework may not fully appeal to firms with engineered products or joint ad-hoc projects that want more detail regarding processes.  Managing a joint project between businesses can require coordination to make a profit.   Such joint collaboration is not deeply covered, a particular point given the increased tendency to coordinate small businesses remotely together.

Rework is right for entrepreneurs and small businesses that offer services and are intent on steady solid growth and profitability.   If you have a services type of business, this book will be ideal for you. The flexibility to scale advice, coupled with clear explanations, is what makes Rework a rousing success in its mission.  In its originality Rework has found a clever way to stir the entrepreneur in everybody.

From Small Business Trends

“Rework” by 37signals Founders Reimagines How Business Should Be

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Marketing

What can Lego teach us about guerrilla marketing? Shane Gibson talks about giving away real value and offering a variety of options in the digital world. Closing Bigger.net

Does your business really need customers? Here’s a completely different way to look at and treat the people you serve each day. Walt Goshert

Self-Development

How to create your own online business training. Whether you attend an accredited business school or design your own “personal MBA” with online and other resources, the key to a good education is the information you take away. Copyblogger

Learn better speaking skills with seven simple steps. When it’s time to do a presentation for your small business, some simple advice will help you shine. MarketingProfs Daily Fix

Tech

Google Translate breaks the online language barrier. Think Skype is something? Joel Libava will tell you about one more tool that will increase your small business’s global reach. The Franchise King

New mobile devices may challenge Apple products. What will a Sony line of products offer by way of small business tech tools? WSJ

Operations

Want to make more money from your small business while putting less time in? Who doesn’t? But the key to success may be much more than simply increasing your efficiency. Bloggertone.com

Embarrassed by your profit margin? Remember, profitability is a sign of a healthy business and of good value delivered to your clients and customers. MyProjectTracker

Does your small business need a lawyer? Better read this first. Open Forum

Do you take notes while meeting with clients? Or when having any kind of important business meeting where issues are being discussed and hashed out? You should and here are some more tips on how to do it right. Sales Tip A Day

Startup

A great business is about more than a great idea. When it comes to launching your next venture, you’ll need plenty of hard work and the right skills. 37 Signals

Actions speak louder than words. What’s the difference between talking about that startup idea and making it happen? The answer is simpler than you think. Chris Brogan

Ever dream of launching an online retail store? Entrepreneur Cristian Dorobantescu talks with one small business owner about his experiences in the competitive world of e-commerce. Entrepreneurship Interviews

Policy

Are more loans really the key to recovery? Or is easy credit what got us into this mess in the first place? Cato Institute

More sales not government incentives are the key to economic growth. Businesses are happy about any tax breaks, but a $15 billion jobs bill won’t create new hires on its own. WSJ

From Small Business Trends

Small Business News for March 5, 2010

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The point is the 100 people!

As a local business, you don’t need to become the biggest, most well-read blog on the Internet. You just need to connect with your audience and the people on the Web who could become customers. If you’re a local hardware shop in Detroit, Michigan and you’re able to connect with100 people who live in your area – that’s a pretty significant number. There are lots of benefits to being a ‘small-time’ small business blogger. Here are a few more.

More Intimate

Yeah, so you’re probably never going to have the readership that Darren Rowse has at Problogger, but a smaller audience allows you to really get to know the people who are in your community. You get a better understanding of what your customers want, who they are and you can form real relationships with them in a way that bigger bloggers have a difficult time doing. You can reach out to the person who comments regularly on their blog and get to know them on a more personal level. You may even be able to tie the online person with the real-life customer so that you’re better able to target them. Playing to a packed stadium may feel great, but it’s those coffee shop environments that introduce you to your real fans.

More Engaged

At my other blog Outspoken Media last week I encouraged all the lurkers to leave a comment and tell me why they lurk instead of participating and how I could help bring them into the conversation. The response I received from people who had never commented before was amazing. And while reading over their replies, I noticed that many feared commenting on posts that had tons of comments or where they didn’t feel a connection with the blogger and the audience. They were looking for a place where (a) their comment would be heard and (b) a place they could establish a connection. Niche small business blogs are where many commenters enjoy hanging out. It allows them to get to know the blogger and really feel part of the community. Rather than feel like an anonymous person, now they know their voice will be heard and they feel more invested.

Better Signal

Having a smaller audience that you can get to know allows you to target content directly to their needs. There’s no trying to please a bunch of people who will never impact your business – you only have to worry about being useful to your customers. You can write content specifically designed to answer questions they’ve asked, respond to trends you’re seeing, and really talk to the people who matter to your company. It’s a lot easier to get to know your community when it’s made up of tens of dozens instead of tens of thousands. And the matter you know them, the more relevant content that you can create. Content that will get them off your blog and into your store.

As a struggling blogger, I know it’s hard to see the A-listers with their tens of thousands of readers, but for a small business, getting the attention of 100 of your most interested customers is nothing to turn your nose at. Imagine if you had 100 people in your store asking you product questions. Your blog is your customer service desk on the Web.

From Small Business Trends

Why Size Matters & Smaller Is Better

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Policy

Will small business really be better off with another layer of government regulation? Some small businesses have come out in support of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes. Entrepreneur.com

The road to patent reform runs through the Eastern District of Texas. VC investor Brad Feld runs this op ed about patent litigation in the U.S. and how it could strangle innovative small to medium sized businesses. Feld Thoughts

Employer-provided health insurance remains in proposal.  Excerpts from President Obama’s  remarks on his health care program today.  “The proposal I’ve put forward … builds on the current system where most Americans get their health insurance from their employer.” National Review Online

Tech

Want to know how other small businesses are using social media? Here’s a cool graph with stats and some other information. Mashable

Some things are just too good to be true. Free hosted phone service for your small business may be one of them. Be sure the company will still be around when you need them. SmallBizTechnology.com

Credit

The problem with small business – is it really lack of credit? In this interview, Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) insists he was told by one small business owner that lack of customers or sales was not the problem but only lack of credit due to lack of capital in the banking industry. How many small business owners would agree? TalkRadioNews.com

What do you need to buy a business? Before you even think about trying to secure a loan or other financing here are some things you may need to consider. Business.gov

Marketing

So, what do those little stars next to some Google search results mean? They may be an important factor in your Website’s positioning in the future and an important consideration when marketing your presence online. Wayne Liew Dot Com

New Hampshire small businesses are bucking a trend and exceeding the national average in exporting overseas. How that state’s small to medium sized companies are fostering growth and how other entrepreneurs can imitate their success at marketing abroad. NashuaTelegraph.com

What marketers really can’t stand about advertising agencies. Lack of communications, industry knowledge and insight into clients’ needs top the list in this report. American Association of Advertising Agencies

Who are you following on social media? If you’re just checking your own brand, you may be missing the boat. BetterCloser.com

Operations

Small business payrolls showed a 2% increase in hiring and slightly larger paychecks. From the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard for February 2010. Data based on thousands of small business payrolls. SurePayroll.com

Despite the best laid plans, your product or service will someday fall short of customer expectations. Roger Breisch, Executive Director at the Batavia, Illinois Chamber of Commerce draws on 25 years of business experience  about when the worst happens. Oops…There Goes My Worldview

What if there were a simple and complete guide on how to keep your customers happy? You’re in luck! Ken Beaulieu has seven tips that should keep customers and clients sticking to you like glue. FuelNet.com

Steer clear of the usual tax preparation pitfalls by keeping good records. Tips from the Associated Press to keep your business out of trouble at tax time. Associated Press

The secret to turning your business into one you can sell. John Warrillow draws on his experiences building his business, which he sold a few years ago. Small Business Trends

From Small Business Trends

Small Business News for March 3, 2010

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I found by offering such a broad set of services, we never really got good at any one thing. We had consultants doing certain types of projects only once or twice a year, so they lacked experience and got intellectually rusty. We needed all sorts of people to offer such a broad set of services, making the business neither scalable nor sellable. Eventually we decided to change models and offer one set of research papers to all of our clients on a subscription basis.

The subscription business started off well enough, but along the way, someone asked us if we still did focus groups. It was like a recovering addict being offered a fix. We jumped at the opportunity to do the project. The problem was that people noticed the crack in our resolve and burrowed a large hole in our claim of being specialists. Clients realized we weren’t totally committed to the subscription model and started asking for customization to our reports and one-off side projects. My employees noticed we had strayed from our offering and started accepting other projects — much like a child seeing his parents say one thing and do another.

Pretty soon, we were running two businesses in parallel with our resources being spread across two completely different models. We were half-pregnant: spread thin, cash flow tightened, project quality slipped and deadlines pushed. After a while, with clients demanding custom work, we had to abandon the subscription model and go back to just doing projects.

After retreating for a few years into the misery of owning an unsellable service business, we took another run at building a subscription business. This time, we told clients we were not accepting custom projects anymore.

We had to start saying no before clients realized we were serious.

I expected good clients to balk and that sales would dip. Instead, a funny thing happened: we started having much better conversations. Clients stopped asking us to do custom work and started asking how our new model could help them achieve their goals. For every one client who said no to our new model, two new ones heard about our unique offer and wanted in. Our salespeople got good at the pitch and were able to sign up 100 enterprise customers as subscribers.

The subscription business is a build-once-sell-many-times annuity model. Our scalability, recurring revenue and focus ultimately allowed me to sell the business in 2008.

Here’s a video that describes how you can identify a scalable product or service of your own:

The point is, we would have never built a sellable subscription business had we not started to turn down the one-off project work. The irony is that saying no actually made my business more valuable, not less.

From Small Business Trends

The Secret to Turning Your Business Into One You Can Sell

Blog contents are provided by Small Business Trends

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You may remember that I interviewed search expert Andy Beal about Trackur back in September and he chatted about the importance of protecting your brand as a SMB owner, what to track and how his tool Trackur could help. Well, last week Trackur released a free tool for SMB owners that I thought was worth mentioning sharing.

The new tool is called Trackur Free and the functionality is the same as you’d find in a paid Trackur subscription. With it, you can set up a search and Trackur will look for mentions in traditional and social media, scouring through mainstream sources, blogs, tweets, images, videos, etc and deliver you the results via the Trackur dashboard, RSS, email or CSV export. What separates Trackur Free from the paid product is that you can only track one keyword. That said, if you’re a small business owner who’s already using Google Alerts for the “other stuff”, it may be worth using Trackur to keep an eye on that one money term that you’re really focused on. Where Trackur Free trumps a simple Google Alert is that it runs every 30 minutes and graphs mentions over time so that you can easily see if buzz is growing and how sentiment is changing. As I mentioned, it’s a bit more mature than a simple Google Alert.

Personally, I like the idea of using Trackur as your “specialty” tool and Google Alerts to pick up the easier to find stuff or terms you’re just casually monitoring. I use Google Alerts like a fire house to give me lots of different information in different areas, Trackur is considerably more refined.

Worth noting is that Andy has chosen to make the tool retroactive. So if you read our interview back in September and signed up for a free trial, your account has already been moved over and you can start using it. If not, you can sign up for a free trial to give it a look. If you’ve resisted because of the associated price tag, now’s your chance to look under the hood. The importance of knowing what people are saying about your brand is going to diminish anytime soon. In fact, it’s only getting stronger.

From Small Business Trends

Trackur Gives SMBs A Free Social Media Tool

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Credit

• Jeff Cornwall. Current Small Business Problems Will Not be Solved Solely by Focusing on Lending, Says Report. The Entrepreneurial Mind
• Martha C. White. Obama Administration’s Small Business Loans: Will They Really Work? The Minnesota Independent
• Phyllis Furman. Loans Remain Tough for Small Business, Startups. NYDaily News
• Paul Davidson. Credit Unions Want Congress to Lift Limits on Small Business Lending — But There are Two Sides to That Story. USA Today

Healthcare

• Samuel Gregg. Why More Regulation Probably Won’t Save the Economy. National Review Online
• NFIB. Small Business Owners Want Less Political Drama Over Healthcare, More Solutions.  NFIB.com
• The Cato Institute. Why a Free Market Can Cure the Health Care Crisis. Healthcare.Cato.Org
• The Quincy Cove. Small Businesses Interviewed About High Insurance Costs. Quincycove.com

Hiring

• Intuit. Small Business Shows Signs of an Economic Rebound. Small Business Trends
• Scott Shane. But Hiring Has Not Bounced Back According to the Discover Small Business Watch.  Small Business Trends

Marketing

• Niccolinas Soto. Capitalizing on Social Media: A How-To Guide. Smallbiz Central
• John Janstch. Standing Out with — of All Things – Rockabilly.   Duct Tape Marketing
• Becky McCray. How to Track Your Daily Marketing Activity. Small Biz Survival
• Martin Lindeskog. A Great Big List of 100 Small Business Podcasts.  Small Business Trends Radio
  

Tech

• Steven Andrés. Big Fish or Small-Fry, Don’t Wind Up on a Hacker’s Hook. NetWorkWorldAsia.net
• Financial Web. Small Business Accounting Programs Can Create a Simpler Life. Internet Brands
• Hewlett Packard. Elite 7100 Small Business Desktop Increases Productivity. Small Business Trends

Operations

• Seth Godin. I Don’t Feel Like It. Inspiration for the Business Leader. Seth’s Blog
• U.S. government. Business.gov Collects 2010  Small-Business Tax Information in One Handy Place.  Business.gov

Startups

• Adam Toren. Too Much on Your Plate Can Kill Your Startup (and So Can 4 Other Things). YoungEntrepreneur.com
• Dharmesh Shah. The 10 Most Tempting Software Startup Categories. On Startups.

From Small Business Trends

Small Business News for March 1, 2010

Blog contents are provided by Small Business Trends

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With Youtube becoming the second most-used search engine to Google, now has never been a time for small businesses to jump on the incredible opportunity of online video. Here are a few reasons why.

1. Cost Of Production: Your video budget no longer has to have a lot of zeros especially with the rise of high quality pocket cameras including Flip Cameras, Kodak zi8, iPhones and the webcam on your computer.

2. Easy Hosting: All kinds of easy options. If you are using it for selling, talking about your products and other major business functions, Brightcove might be a great solution. Looking to add mobile video? Check out Widget Realm. Creating awesome, engaging content? Nab more eyeballs via viddler, vimeo, youtube, and blip.tv.

3. Many Functions: Entertain, inspire, sell, recruit, add personality, have a show related around your expertise. If you think it, you can create it. One piece of advice is not just talk about you and your product but relate it more to a subject. For example, Zappos rarely talks about shoes. Instead, they talk about customer service and company culture.

4. Personality: People like doing business with people. The second best thing to face-to-face is video. Video creates a much more personal connections with your customers and clients.

5. Easily Spreadable: Like peanut butter, video in 2010 is now easily spreadable. Links can be posted to Twitter and Linkedin. Video can be uploaded Facebook. Plus you can send it out via Tube Mogul to multiple sites.

Bottom line? The opportunity is there. The eyeballs are there. Are you there?

From Small Business Trends

Why Online Video Is Key For Small Business

Blog contents are provided by Small Business Trends

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