Small Biz Survival

Celebrate Independence in the Brag Basket

2009-07-03T06:51:00.007-05:00

It's Friday, and that means the Brag Basket is open for the weekend. On this Independence Day weekend in the USA, let's celebrate our independence as entrepreneurs. Share your projects and accomplishments. You can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

Plus, it's Liz Strauss' birthday. So go leave her a comment, OK?

Think that bragging is a bad thing? Read how Tony explains the Brag Basket.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! Make it personal, and not just an ad. You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.
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Social marketing only works if ...

2009-07-02T22:43:00.000-05:00

Reminder: Social marketing only works if your product is excellent.

Dangerous combination: aggressive social marketing and sucky product.

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Shopping local as a partnership

2009-07-01T14:57:00.000-05:00

Lois Loucks, Director of the Tri-Cities Economic Development (Wheaton-Onaga-Havensville, KS), shared some of her innovative thoughts with me in an email about shopping local.

"Shopping Local" as a two way street, with responsibility placed on the business owners to earn "their share of business". Just because someone decides to be in business, does not automatically mean they deserve "their share" of customers. The business owner/manager/employees must earn "their customers". From my experiences, I believe, especially in the present economy, a "Shop Local Campaign" must not only be directed at the citizens, but formulated as to form a partnership, so to speak, between the businesses and the citizens.

Loucks listed some of the key items that business should focus on to earn their share of business:

Convenience (Shopping hours)
Service (not only personal, kind, friendly, but Store layout, Cleanliness, Good Signage, Lighting, Parking, etc.)
Price for Perceived Value (Obvious reasons to offset higher price)
Making Shopping a Pleasant Experience (yes, Enjoyable Experience)

I'm a huge proponent of building your basics first, and building experiences with customers, so we agree on much of this.

What do you think? How do you see small businesses working in partnership to promote the whole community?

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Is Twitter worth it for small town businesses

2009-06-29T12:51:00.003-05:00

Twitter is getting a lot of attention, with mentions in national media, being used on the news, and articles in all kinds of business publications. But, is Twitter worth the effort for a small town business?

Businesses of all sizes are sharing impressive results. Dell announced it has made $3 million worth of sales through its Twitter efforts. Even small businesses in big cities have started benefiting. Small bakeries can now buy an oven-gadget that automatically announces when fresh baked goods are available. Small restaurants in big cities are filling seats and retailers are selling specials with simple announcements on Twitter, thanks to the large number of potential customers online.

But what about small town businesses? We don't have the same share of our local customers on Twitter. How many people can you realistically reach if only 5 or 10 out of your town's 5,000 people are signed up? How can that be worth the time and effort?

There are two ways Twitter can be worth it for such small businesses. The first is to follow smart people. It's worth it to have small business insights from bright entrepreneurs. It's worth it to connect with others in your industry, but far away geographically. It's worth it to discover other points of view. You have the chance to follow small town luminaries such as Jack Schultz, Tom Egelhoff, and Marci Penner of Kansas Sampler. Every day, you will learn new things from them, gain some added enthusiasm, and get ideas.

The second way to make Twitter worth it is to start with your existing fans. Let's say you run the small town quilt show. You may have some email address lists already or you can start by building them. With those email addresses in an online address book, like Gmail or AOL, you can check to see if they are on Twitter. You want to start with people who have attended before and people who are now supporters of the event.

Small town entrepreneur Aliza Sherman made a great point at the 140 Character Conference.

We are measuring small business success by big business standards. The right 15 followers may be much better than 1500.

How about buying lists or gathering lists of people who might potentially be customers? Could you find and follow them? That was the question posed to me by an ag-loan group. Could they not just get the list of emails addresses of everyone who received the right government payment, and start by following them? I said no, because there is no existing relationship with those people. The difference with the quilt show list was it included people who already have some relationship with your event. They know you, and they already like you. The farm payment lists are more like cold calls with people who probably don't care about you.

Then how can the ag group attract those potential customers? First, they'll start with their existing customers and supporters. They can follow them, and start building an audience in a natural way. By putting out relevant, informative tweets on topics those people care about, like upcoming application deadlines or tips for farm money management. The more you talk about those issues intelligently, the more you will attract the very people you are looking for.

With the right approach to following and followers, Twitter is definitely worth it for small town businesses.

How about you? Are you a small town businessperson using Twitter? Share your story of how it's worth it for you. Or how it's not!

Photo: downtown Stirling Scotland by Becky McCray.

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Share good news in the Brag Basket

2009-06-26T05:18:00.002-05:00

It's Friday, and that means the Brag Basket is open for the weekend.

This is designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

Think that bragging is a bad thing? Read how Tony explains the Brag Basket.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! Make it personal, and not just an ad. You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

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Should Congress regulate your Internet service plan?

2009-06-24T09:06:00.000-05:00

Internet providers who charge customers by how much they use would have to justify their prices to federal regulators under a bill introduced last week.

Freshman Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) filed the bill after some providers tested plans to charge customers more if they download video or otherwise use a lot of bandwidth. The companies argue that the increasing popularity of online video is taxing their ability to provide Internet service and that increased regulation could lead to higher prices for other customers.

The bill, H.R. 2902, would allow the Federal Trade Commission to review whether the pricing plans are fair.

Do you think federal regulators should review Internet pricing plans?

WRITE YOUR LAWMAKERS!

Marketing for small town businesses

2009-06-23T06:22:00.000-05:00

Tom Egelhoff, author of SmallTownMarketing.com, is in a generous mood:

From now until the month of July, I want to give Small Biz Survival folks my two marketing and advertising books absolutely FREE: How to Market, Advertise and Promote Your Business or Service In a Small Town - and The Small Town Advertising Handbook - Enjoy http://bit.ly/1099zp

For years, Tom has shared his articles on small town marketing. He has an enormous archive, and he gets the small town issues. I'm excited that he's offering his two great small town marketing books as free e-books. He's not asking to harvest your email address, and he's not making you sign up for any list. He's just sharing.

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Finding your online evangelists

2009-06-22T09:49:00.000-05:00

Letting your fans serve as your evangelists always carries more weight than bragging on yourself. So how do you find those people?

At SOBCon09, Geoff Livingston was asked this question. "How do you identify the people who are going to be your fans and evangelists?" His answer: They self-identify. They'll tell you.

I want to take it a step further. You make is possible for them to self identify. You give them tools and ways to identify themselves as your fans. I shared that comment with my table at SOBCon, and Neenz replied, "Like the frozen peas." Frozen peas became an identifier of Susan Reynolds' supporters in her fight against breast cancer. She used frozen peas as an ice pack after surgery, snapped a photo for her Twitter avatar, and kicked off a movement. Many of us put frozen peas into our avatars in support. It became the symbol for her fight and her later fundraising. We self-identified. A more recent Twitter movement is green avatars supporting free Iran.

It's easy to find your online supporters when you give them the tools to identify themselves. What kind of tools can these be?

Avatar symbols for Twitter
Badges for their websites and social network profiles
Mailing lists for them to join
Fan pages and groups at social networks for them to join
Stickers, tshirts, and other tangible items for them to wear and share

What are your ideas? How do you find your fans and evangelists?

The next topic should be how to help your evangelists to sing your praises. What do you think?

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Overheard at the 140 Character Conference

2009-06-21T00:18:00.003-05:00

People from all over the world, from a huge variety of industries, came together in New York with only a common language and common tool: Twitter. That's bizarre. But that's the 140 Characters Conference, created by Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver).

Aliza Sherman did a terrific job of capturing a flavor of the conference in her summary post at Web Worker Daily, The 140 Character Conference, or Why Twitter Matters Now. Jonny Goldstein made some wonderful visual notes from sessions, too.I'm adding some of my notes made during sessions, and a few reactions from the Twitter stream.

Jeff Keni Pulver (@jeffpulver)
The State of Now

If we suck, we suck. If we're great, we're great. No one is filtering, and every voice matters.
The next person you meet might change your life.
If you don't believe in yourself, it's hard to get things done.
If Twitter were to go away today, something else would come forward to keep us in the now.
Be a little vulnerable, and share what is happening in your life.
There is so much humanity here to be had.
I always wanted to have a conference and have someone from Rolling Stone there.

Jack Dorsey (@jack) - co-founder and Chairman, twitter

Mapping NY people in an app, seeing them mapped in real time, made him feel connected to the city. Watching the inauguration together on Twitter gave him a similar amazing feeling.
Appreciates how we are changing Twitter by how we use it.

Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly) - Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media
What twitter has taught me

Being postmaster was a competitive advantage for Ben Franklin in the news business. He was seeing the mail, so he could watch for stories.
Media is about serving the community.
O'Reilly's early book on UUCP network was written by the community. He wrote the inital 80 pages, and users kept sending him modem scripts. It grew to over 200 pages.
He uses Twitter to build his community. He will Tweet comments from emails. ("Via email.")
The New York Times basically tweets headlines. If he was only tweeting about O'Reilly, he would have to ignore politics and all the world of other interesting topics.
Add value to the community you are part of. That's the real secret of social media.

Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) - VC and principal of Union Square Ventures.
The Power of Passed Links and Earned Media

Passed links have enormous value. Links are currency.
How we'll make money on Twitter: links
That's how Google makes its money and power.
And Google still sends way more free traffic than paid.
Twitter and Facebook combined are set to eclipse Google for traffic referrals to some sites.

Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss)
Marketing for the eavesdroppers in the tri-dimensional conversation

Like on a TV show: characters as talking to each other, but aware that there is an audience. It's actually a powerful way of marketing; just being yourself, living your product.
Was there a conference like this about the telephone? or the pencil? Are we getting a little precious about our tools?
When you walk into a room with 600 people, it's way more powerful to walk in with a friend who knows some of them and can help you meet people. So make a friend first.
If you want me to retweet you, make me proud to retweet it. Make it fun to share.
For God's sake, don't retweet your entire stream, saying thank you, thank you, thank you. (I'd love to send this to one particular person who does it all the time!)

Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd)
The evolution of Microsyntax

Twitter is our Tower of Babel
Microsyntax - embedding structured information into the text of Twitter messages: RT, @, #.
Creating a nonprofit .org around this idea.

Marcel LeBrun (@lebrun) - CEO, Radian6
The effects of twitter on My Business, or how things are different now because of twitter. The corporate perspective.

Listen for the point of need. People are are talking about their needs on Twitter more than other sites.
Every business function in the company that has to do with having a conversation with a customer is touched by Twitter. How do you measure all that ROI?

Tony Hsieh (@zappos) - CEO, Zappos.com
The effects of twitter on My Business, or how things are different now because of twitter. The corporate perspective.

It's all about relationships, so what's the ROI on a hug?
Twitter fits into our brand of delivering joy.

Maegan Carberry (@maegancarberry) - Blogger, Huffington Post // CauseCast // Lifehack; co-host Variety's Wilshire and Washington, Managing Editor, truuconfessions.com
Politics: possibilities of bipartisanship and/or post-partisanship on Twitter

In the 1990's, she felt disconnected and depressed about politics.
Changing your avatar and other Twitter actions is part time activism. "I'd take a whole bunch of part-time activists over a whole bunch of people who feel disconnected and despressed about political issues."
How much are you retweeting, and how much original thought are you contributing?

Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) - News Anchor on NBC's Today Show and host of Dateline NBC

We need to stop reporting the news how America sees it. Let citizens report it.
News judgment is changing away from USA-centered because we all have world connections.
It's not changing fast enough.
People are people whether in Iran or US.
Challenge of conveying good info accurately for news in such short form.

John A. Byrne (@JohnAByrne) - Editor in Chief, BusinessWeek.com
The Business Week perspective on twitter

At the core of what digital journalism needs to be engagement.
Links delivered by people who have knowledge of a topic have cache. The Link Economy.
Then that means Twitter is the Super Fuel of the Link Economy.
Old media was product handed down to people you don't know and really don't care about.
It has to become a process that engages its audience at every single level.
You can get the audience involved, get suggestions, at the idea stage.
For the middle of the process, where you do your basic reporting as a journalist. Lots of people will tell you that what journalists do is a secret, proprietary, and can't be shared, or the competitors will swoop in and beat you to the story. That's bull. Probably 80% of journalism can be open sourced.
For the How Social Media Will Change Your Business story, used blog and twitter to invite audience to tell him how the previous story (5 year old story on blogs) was completely out of date, posted comments and old story online, and generated discussion. Ultimately created a much richer story.
Journalism is transformed from a product to a process.
More than that, it's about opening up what has been a secretive process of news reporting to users and readers and collaborators.
New Wall Street Journal guidelines prohibit sharing what stories you are working on.
Part of problem with revealing stories you are working on is 1) competitive threat 2) potential for corporations or individuals being interviewed to get cold feet. (I missed writing this one down, but it was tweeted by @aaronstrout.)
Ultimately, this is about letting people discover what you think is your best stuff, and even sharing what you think are the best things from your competitors.
Driving traffic is not the primary purpose of why I'm on Twitter.
There is no magic bullet; there is a machine gun loaded with bullets that we are going to have to deploy to succeed in the future.

James Cox (@imajes)
The story behind CNNBRK

Publishers have started being people who have money to invest in product that they think will work. Why not make news work like that? Larger organizations give a budget to the small teams who have the interest and idea to report in a new way.
Journalists could stop telling the news and start telling stories again.

Moeed Ahmad (@moeed) - Head of New Media Technology and Future Media Department Technology Division, Al Jazeera Network
The Al Jazeera Twitter Strategy

Al Jazeera includes Arabic, English, documentary, eleven sports, and children's channels, research and study and training centers.
Focused toward the middle east region.
"If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space." and the corollary, "If it doesn't fit in 140 characters, its not worth saying."
Their web team was initially not for creating a Twitter stream page from Gaza, but it turned out to be the fourth most viewed page.
Taking questions via Twitter does help weed out the irrelevant, and makes questioners get to the point.
The cross section that you get with Twitter is not the average person.
Telling the truth is hard. Not telling it is even harder.
Flew 16 hours from Doha to speak for 10 minutes.

Jeremy Epstein (@jer979) - Marketing Navigator, Never Stop Marketing
How I followed Jeff Pulver on Twitter for 16 Months and Ended Up on This Stage: Twitter as a Strategic Relationship Building Tool

What is your Global MicroBrand? Do a Venn Diagram with your three passions. His are Marketing, Community, Technology.
Only follows 140 people, experts in his passion fields.
Filter and optimize who you follow. He looks for quality, no overtweeters, and a high signal to noise ratio.
You read everything they say, you earn the right to gain some of their time/deeper engagement. You build real relationships.
Requested a tweet of his points - but he won't follow people who overtweet, so we can't tweet it for him. :D

Christopher R. Weingarten (@1000TimesYes) - Music Writer, RollingStone.com and Village Voice
Twitter and the End Of Music Criticism.

People are getting more stratified in their listening habits.
Crowdsourcing kills art. People have terrible taste. The result is what rises to the middle.
After more than 400 record reviews, I can say that there is enough room in 140 characters not only to elaborate but also for good writing.

Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett) - Chief Marketing Officer, Kodak
Kodak and twitter: What we are learning

What's the ROI on Twitter? Well, what's the ROI on ignoring customers?
Understand what your company voice is going to be.
Grow a thick skin. It's a culture shift. You will not have control over it anymore.

Kevin Slavin - founder area/code
Things that twitter

Likes to create games that blend some aspect of the real world into the game.
Shark trackers - blend online players as ships with real GPS data from actual sharks.
Created a game played in New York City with people being pursued by invisible GPS character.
Some unusal things creating data tweets: Plants (water me), shoes (ran 2.3 miles), washers (2 dryers available), ovens (turnovers coming out fresh), taco trucks (where we are), Space Shuttle Endeavor, London's Tower Bridge (going up), the River Thames (high tide will be at 6 feet in two hours)

Jim Jones (@jimjonescapo) - Recording artist

Should you think before you tweet? Yes! People take things too twiteral on Twitter!
Tells knock knock jokes to his followers. Plays games with them.

Steve Rubel (@steverubel) - SVP, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital
twitter and PR

Communities online don't usually last more than 5 years.
Second Life was online marketing's Vietnam.
Next is the open web, where social just fits in every website.

Debbie Stier (@debbiestier) - SVP, Associate Publisher, Harper Studio
twitter: Book Publishing

40% of the books produced end up pulped.
9 out of 10 books don't make back their advance.
Going to 50-50% profit share. Not tricky, just a simple way to make it a partnership. Signed 10 book deal with Gary Vaynerchuk. She saw him speak, and knew he had the magic.

Kaylie Jones (@KaylieJones) - Novelist. Her upcoming memoir is: "Lies My Mother Never Told Me." Her bestsellig novel: "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" (Merchant Ivory film)
twitter: Book Publishing

Memoir writing is not about me, the person writing the book. It's about the people who can understand the situation that I have been in.
I have been very careful about who I followed and who followed me, because it's very time consuming for me. I have met the most wonderful people, readers of fiction, authors. For me, it's a sign of hope.
Authors fail on Twitter with too much self promotion and not enough community. Too many events announcements.

Ron Hogan (@RonHogan) - Curator, Beatrice.com
twitter: Book Publishing

A problem among the 6 conglomerates in NY translates to an industry wide crisis. (He added later on Twitter,"Don't forget: the problems of 6 publishers = industry crisis ONLY to a reductuve financial media." and "Now is a fantatsic time for small publishers to jump in and set the new standards of success.")
Memoirs are popular because people talk about themselves. Those are the kinds of things we are interested, passionate about.

Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) - President, New Marking Labs
Julien Smith (@julien)
Twitter and Trust Agents
Jeff Pulver introduced Chris, saying not enough people know who he is, even though he is one of the best known people in the Twitter community. Jeff is dead serious about reaching outside the closed community.

Julien: you can't copy someone else and expect the same result.
Julien: Trust Agents are the individuals who are humanizing the group.
Chris: GM covered their own bankruptcy on Twitter, in two languages.
Julien knew someone who would take 20 minutes to plan out a tweet. As RT's and passed links grow in importance, perfection in copywriting grows in importance. Communicating on the internet is skillset to be learned.
Julien: Intimacy seems to trump everything in a trust relationship. All things being equal or not equal, you want to do business with people you like.
Chris: After first PodCamp, he and Chris Penn sat there, miserable and tired, and had to watch the What Sucked About PodCamp video. (But it was the start of a movement. I thought of this story when a few folks trashed the 140conf. We'll see who starts a movement, the critics or Jeff Pulver.)

Aaron Strout (@AaronStrout) - CMO, Powered, Inc.
Brian Morrissey (@bmorrissey) - Digital Editor at Adweek
David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz) - Emerging Media Director, 360i
Hadley Stern (@hadleystern) - Vice-President, Fidelity Labs
Peter Fasano (@pfasano) - Principal/Lead Catalyst, Mass+Logic
Twitter as GPS for the Greater Social Media Mesh

Brian: brands are going to want to move into demand generation, not just demand fulfillment.
Peter: auto responses to every mention of a keyword mention don't matter. But context and passion does matter.
Brian: Don't always be selling.
David: (haiku) Twitter GPS/Once you turn on the tweetstream/You can't part with it.
Peter wants to know how do you manage your dashboard? What are you doing?
Hadley asks, if it's not Twitter, what is the sea change in social media?

I gave Aaron Strout the award for Best Moderator at the conference for this panel. He asked questions, shaped the discussion, gave his panelists a chance to shine, and didn't try to overwhelm them.

Richard Nash (@R_Nash) - former publisher of Soft Skull Press; publishing guru

Publishing: a tiny industry perched atop a massive hobby.
Twitter will not save publishing. And Publishing should not be saved.
Clearly Twitter is rather good at bringing people together.

Ami Greko (@ami_with_an_i) - Digital Marketing Manager, Macmillan.

Publishing is a very old-school process. Lots of silos. She worked a lot of years as a publicist, and didn't know anyone who worked in a bookstore.

Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee)

When do I do my real job?? When was caring not a real job?
Social media, I actually prefer to call it "business." (@TatsuyaNakagawa added on Twitter, "or just 'marketing.'")

Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) - multi-platinum Haitian-American musician, actor, producer and former-member of the hip hop trio The Fugees. Wyclef has sold more than 31 million albums.

What will help Haiti develop? Education is important, but JOBS. Until you bring business and investment, you will always have a group of kids who are sick.
I feel like I'm in the Jetsons. Everyone in front of me has a computer.

Aliza Sherman (@alizasherman)
twitter and Small Business

If you want to make money, come up with a good idea, provide a good product and good service, and then use the tools that are right for you to reach the right people.
We are measuring small business success by big business standards. The right 15 followers may be much better than 1500 for a small business. (I applauded this one!)

Marcy Shinder (@marcyshinder)
twitter and Small Business

I've never met a small business owner who I don't think should be on Twitter.
Benchmark your business against other small businesses.
Use it as an ESP tool: predict the future for your industry, your peers, etc.
How do you convince clients to buy into twitter? Part of it is storytelling, stories they can relate to.

What? You still want more? Aaron Strout did some live blogging at 140 Character Conference, and he caught some panels I missed.

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Brag Basket is back from NYC

2009-06-19T06:39:00.000-05:00

Each Friday, I open the Brag Basket for the weekend. Today, finally home from New York City, we jump right into the Brag Basket.

This is designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

Think that bragging is a bad thing? Read how Tony explains the Brag Basket.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! Make it personal, and not just an ad. You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

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How to sell more tickets to events

2009-06-17T06:52:00.002-05:00

You might be selling tickets to a community event or to you own business event. Either way, selling event tickets in a small town can feel like a real fight. Here's a trick I picked up from Cody Heitschmidt, of Hutchinson Kansas:

Limit the number of tickets and publicize that limit.

This simple act turns tickets into something exclusive, something valuable. Make sure to pick a limit you will reach, and sell out.

Next year, your buyers will line up and call you. You'll do a lot less work selling.

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Part of the process

2009-06-16T06:52:00.000-05:00

"I love to sit in these chairs."
My friend and I were at church for a meeting. The two of us were meeting before the meeting. We were walking toward some chairs and couches in one of the large "milling around" spaces.

The chairs my friend was talking about are nice chairs. They are nice for "big public space" chairs. (I wrote about them when they were delivered to us a year ago.) But I don't love to sit in them.

"I love to sit in these chairs. Wakefield makes the arm caps."
He runs the company that supplies the piece that you rest your arm on when you sit in the chair. And he loves the chairs.

It made me think: when people take what I supply and fold it into their own product or service or setting, do I love the end result? Or am I concerned that the quality of my part is shabby or that they used it wrong or that no one will know what I did because someone else's name is on it?

Brian wasn't bragging. He loves his business, cares about his employees, and rightfully pleased to be part of a great product. The people who designed and assembled the chairs had the same pride when they brought them.

Those chairs get more comfortable all the time.

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Guide to getting started with blogging

2009-06-13T07:22:00.001-05:00

Our friend Ben Yoskovitz has written a terrific guide to getting started with blogging. It's targeted to corporate human resources departments, but you can use it, too. The ideas for how to get started, work with contributors, stay motivated, and build an audience are all equally applicable to small businesses.

Ben invited me to contribute, and I gave him a short tip on crisis communications and blogs.

There is no charge for the whole 30 pages, but you do have to register. It's available for download at Instigator Blog.

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The early Brag Basket

2009-06-11T22:45:00.000-05:00

Each Friday, I open the Brag Basket for the weekend. This weekend, I'm opening it early, because Deb has some exciting news to share!

This is designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

Think that bragging is a bad thing? Read how Tony explains the Brag Basket.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! Make it personal, and not just an ad. You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

New here? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Subscribe.

Work Opportunity Credit

2009-06-11T19:41:00.000-05:00

The IRS may have some useful tax credits for you if you hire members of certain targeted groups.

The work opportunity credit has been extended to cover members of targeted groups who begin work for you before September 1, 2011. For tax years beginning after December 31, 2006, there is no longer an alternative minimum tax limitation with respect to this credit. For more information about this credit, see Form 5884, Work Opportunity Credit.
Members of targeted groups.

For individuals who begin work for you after May 25, 2007:

The qualified veterans group is expanded to include veterans entitled to compensation for a service-connected disability and who, during the one-year period ending on the hiring date, were (a) discharged or released from active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces or (b) unemployed for a period or periods totaling at least 6 months. The first-year wages taken into account for these disabled veterans is $12,000.

The high-risk youth group has been renamed "designated community residents" and expanded to include individuals who are at least age 18 but not yet age 40. In addition, residents of rural renewal counties have been added to this group.
For more information, see Form 8850, Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Credit, and its Instructions.
For tax years beginning after 2006, the work opportunity credit is allowed against both the regular tax and the alternative minimum tax.

Welcome Ohio Growth Summit folks

2009-06-10T09:24:00.001-05:00

Chris Brogan said you might stop by. I'm glad you did.

I'll bet Chris told you how new interactive tools change small business, how your customers are already seeking information and interaction with you online. And I'm sure he talked about trust. I hope we can earn a bit of yours.

Please, leave a comment. Let us know you came by. Tell us the issues that are burning for you. And then, you might want to take the Guided Tour. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe.

(Thanks to Chris for the photo live from Ohio!)

It is about stories and smiles

2009-06-10T08:52:00.000-05:00

It's about experience. Creating the experience with your customers that makes them smile; the experience that makes them tell a story about you.

It's about the stories you tell about your customers.

It's about smiling while you do it, finding joy in your business.

DQ gets it. They are featuring customer stories on their food boxes.

Do you create experiences, smiles and stories?

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Brag Basket once a week every week

2009-06-05T06:04:00.001-05:00

Each Friday, I open the Brag Basket for the weekend. This weekend, I'm in transit. So I'm asking you to take the lead and cheer for each other.

This is designed as a fun place for you to share your projects and accomplishments. But you can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back.

Think that bragging is a bad thing? Read how Tony explains the Brag Basket.

The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it's true that I love small town brags!)

Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! Make it personal, and not just an ad. You don't need special permission, and you don't have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There's no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I'll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.

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QuickBooks Contest ENDS

2009-06-04T15:09:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, June 3, was the last day that entries were accepted for the 15 copies of QuickBooks Premier to be given away from our blog, thanks to Intuit.

Today those 15 winners were notified and Intuit will be contacting those winners who get the downloads. Five CD copies went in the mail today to those who aren't getting the download. All winners have been notified by email.

Thanks to everyone who participated by posting on the blog. Those who didn't win had valuable input to share and we appreciate your time!

Thanks, INTUIT, for giving 15 small businesses the opportunity to improve the way they keep the books!

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the power of playdoh

2009-06-04T06:25:00.001-05:00

He smiled when I walked in.

"You brought me Play-doh?"
"As a matter of fact, I did," I said as I stood by the counter and opened the small yellow plastic container.

He just watched.

He could have started laughing at me. After all, he was the counter guy at a tire store. They sell tires and rims and not much else. And they certainly don't sell toys.
I dumped out a lump of white dough, marked with a bit of dirt. It had a hole in it.
"My son's car has tire rims from this store. The brakes are too bad to drive, but the nuts holding on the tires won't come off without a special wrench. I can't bring the car, so I used Play-doh to make a mold. Will this work?"
He picked it up. He looked closely. "Are all the nuts the same on the rims?"

"Yes," I said.

"Let me check." He headed through the door to the service area.
One of the service techs, in washing his hands, watched the other guy go. He smiled at me: "I used to make stuff with Play-doh all the time."

"Ever make molds of lugnuts?" I asked.

"Can't say that I did." he said. "Can I look?"
He picked up the mold and looked closely: "Six spline, right?"

"Yep," I said.

"Pretty bad that I can recognize it that easily," he said.

"I think it's pretty good," I said.
My counter guy walked back in with a chrome nut and a black tube. He picked up the mold, fitted the nut into it, and said, "That's it. It's good it is this kind. One of our other kinds of nuts takes our equipment. You would have to bring it in."
I had been afraid that they wouldn't help me at all. After all, the reason that these tire rims use special nuts is to keep people from stealing them. But there must be something about a middle-aged man carrying Play-doh that seemed trustworthy.

Or maybe they just care about customers.
By the way. I bought two of the wrenches. I didn't want to have to do this again.

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Small town economic development idea

2009-06-03T08:56:00.001-05:00

If I was an economic development professional in a small town, I'd build a local version of the Oklahoma City Co-working Collaborative. Instead of looking for that next big company to recruit, I'd grow my own. And instead of focusing on "big" local businesses for my incubator space, I'd build a co-working incubator, styled after this one.

Here's the press release:

A new place to go for people officing out of coffee shops

okcCoCo, Oklahoma’s first coworking collaborative, hopes to brew up something big by offering freelancers and entrepreneurs an alternative to coffee shop “officing”.

The Oklahoma City Coworking Technology Collaborative opened to the public on May 1, 2009 in midtown Oklahoma City. okcCoCo’s goal is to provide freelancers, entrepreneurs and small businesses with the comfort of a coffee house and the resources of a professional workspace in which to meet and work on a flexible time-share basis.

Co-owners Derrick Parkhurst, Chad Henderson, and Tommy Yi identified with the challenges presented in freelance work and each came to the same conclusion: Oklahoma City needed a place where the freelance and entrepreneurial community could grow and enjoy shared opportunities. Inspiration hit, and the idea for okcCoCo was born.

“We would like this to be a stepping stone for the young entrepreneur to create a successful business,” said Parkhurst. “We want to do everything we can to encourage and support that enterprising spirit in Oklahoma.”

Parkhurst also issued a challenge to independent and freelance professionals to “Stop working in a coffee shop, now.” He promotes a modern office setting and flexible membership plans as a better option. While some independent professionals question the merit of a coworking atmosphere, Parkhurst maintains, “You can rent an office somewhere or sit in a coffee house, but you won’t get the added benefits of shared resources and knowledge. Here, you will be surrounded by other professionals who can give you a sense of community.”

People are increasingly using digital methods of communication, which frees them from the fixed office setting. However, homes and coffee shops do not always provide the resources necessary to a working environment. As a result, the OKCCoCo concept was greeted with enthusiasm by many local independent and freelance professionals.

“I love working in a place where I feel welcome to stay as long as I want,” said Rex Barrett, director of ProjectOKC, an organization that connects people to volunteer opportunities. “I’m able to connect with people who are start-ups just like me, and I’m not just taking up space in a coffee shop.”

okcCoCo provides members with 7500 square feet of space containing coworking areas, conference rooms, and an event space among other amenities such as free wi-fi and accessible parking. Membership plans are flexible and available in a range of affordable packages.

Photo of Monique Terrell and Derrick Parkhurst in one of the offices at the OKC CoCo. Photo by Becky McCray.

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Promotional Items for your Small Town Business

2009-06-01T06:44:00.005-05:00

Guest Post By Neal Rohrbach

I’m sure you’ve been to a trade show in the big city with big time vendors and corporate representatives handing out cool “freebies” with their logo on them. The “big dogs” certainly aren’t the only ones who can have a cool item or gadget to pass out to potential customers. It doesn’t matter what size business or what size town you live in, a promotional item can work for your business and will continue working for you even after your client or potential customer is long gone from your office or event.

When you’re in a larger market the promotional item game can get a little more tricky. You have more competition and more items floating around. Choosing an item for small town distribution is also a lot different than choosing an item for a large trade show, for example. You don’t have to “out-do” everyone else, or make as large of an impact. At a trade show the average customer is going to see 20 or 30 vendors and you want to make sure they hang onto your item. Some of these obstacles are non existent in the small town. I’d be willing to say there’s not that many items floating around already.

Choose an item with a descent “shelf life.” A magnet, note pad, ink pen or mouse pad will hang around your customer’s home or office a while and get much more exposure than even the most unique business card would. A clock or calendar will continue to advertise for you long after they receive the item.

Stay away from key chains, flashlights, calculators and similar items. I don’t know anyone who walks around with a pocket full of loose keys. The odds are against you when handing out key chains, people are funny about their keys and when you hand someone a new keychain it’s very rare that they pull out their keys and immediately put that promotional item to use. The keychain will get set aside, put in a drawer or heaven forbid tossed out. Flashlights are handy and almost every promotional item catalog I’ve looked through has them, but that doesn’t mean they’ll work for you and your business. First think about when they’re used: in the dark. The power just went out, it’s pitch black and now is the time to promote your business? Yeah right. Calculators are better than flashlights, at least they’re used with the lights on, but their recipients don’t reach for them as often as they reach for a nice pen, notepad or letter opener. Many software programs have calculators built in, all computers have them, so why would someone reach in a drawer and hunt for a calculator when another one so readily available?

Keep in mind that promotional items are an extension of your company and your brand. You don’t always have to go with the very top of the line when choosing a specific promotional item, but do steer away from “budget” items. An ink pen that falls apart, a notepad with only 10 sheets of paper, or a magnet not strong enough to stick to the fridge with a note under it isn’t going to extend the message you want portrayed. The last thing you want to be accused of is being “cheap.”

The best piece of advice I can give is to use common sense. If your business name doesn’t reflect what you sell, choose a promotional item that has space for more than just your logo. “Smith Productions” doesn’t say “we offer event planning.” So Mr. Smith probably doesn’t want to hand out an ink pen with only enough room to print his company name. Common sense can carry you a long way. Plan out the entire process: choosing an item, deciding what to print on your item, and determining how to distribute them. Many aspects of running a business in a small town can be daunting, but executing a promotional item campaign is certainly not a project you should expect to lose sleep over.

About the author:
Neal Rohrbach is Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Idea Anglers, an online small business collaborative tool that helps turn ideas into successful businesses (http://www.ideaanglers.com). He also owns Dixie Design.us, providing graphics, marketing, and web products. His portfolio boasts successful projects on both small and global markets, from "Mom & Pop" businesses to professional sports teams and Fortune 500 companies. He is a marketing zealot, graphic designer and entrepreneur. He thinks outside the box, not off the shelf.

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Start over

2009-05-30T10:27:00.001-05:00

Tommy Hilfiger had to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy at age 24. He started over, even bigger.
-Heard on the CBS Sunday Morning.

Consider this your reminder that you might have to start over, several times.

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Brag Basket where you cheer

2009-05-29T06:15:00.002-05:00

Like he owned the place

2009-05-28T06:58:00.001-05:00

I seldom rent cars. Seldom means twice in my life. However, because a couple of us needed to take a trip for work, we rented a car. It was half the price of paying mileage.

I picked up the car at the airport on Sunday afternoon. That location was further than others, but it was the only branch open on Sunday.

The airport in Fort Wayne in empty on Sundays. Even when it is full, it is empty compared to other airports I have known. I had to wait in line for one other person, but that is because his plane had just arrived. And I didn't wait long.

And then it was my turn. I met Timothy. In the next five minutes, as he took car of the paperwork that would get me the car, I learned a lot from Timothy.

they hold a car for two hours and then release it, because
20% of their reservations don't show up.
his company has a clear niche which is helping them in a difficult economy.
they also are picking up business from people like me, who are wanting to save money.
they are privately held which is giving them stability.
though they aren't owned by employees, Timothy still said "we" a lot.
he gave me his business card.
I know his private email, too.
I finally understand the collision damage waiver. "You are going to have to sign it, so you might as well know what it is."
I understand the "We'll pick you up" concept.
If I'm going to be late? "It doesn't cost much. Besides, you have my card. Call me."

In a quiet airport on a quiet Sunday afternoon, Timothy ran the Enterprise counter with the friendliness and competence that you would expect of an owner. Which, of course, he had decided he was. In a very good way.

By the way, I'm writing this post on a Monday. One of our cars will be at the repair shop for several days. Usually, we would make do, with much frustration. This time, we're renting a car.

From Enterprise.

Because of Timothy.

--
Jon Swanson also writes at http://levite.wordpress.com.

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