Is your favorite restaurant or local boutique online?    Would you be more likely to purchase something from the local boutique if you could order the latest chenille scarf from your bedside table?

Website hosting companies such as Shopster have made it very simplistic to create a new website and start selling online in minutes.   Having an online site builds trust between consumer and merchant because it can allow a browse before you buy (or eat).   Yet there are still a great number of local restaurants and shops that are reluctant… why?

With the boom of social media, not having a site could be detrimental to your company’s future success.

There are other ways to be active in the online community without a dedicated ‘full’ website.   Creating a dedicated company blog promotes trust and transparency by sharing your company values, and can be done without a full website.

You may think if you only have one or two items to sell, a website is overkill. Even if it’s just one product (such as this unique product for avid boaters -TuftedTopper), the mass consumer base enjoys the convenience of online purchasing. As a merchant, you need to determine what drives the intrigue in your product base.

You’re here reading this, do you have an online business?

How have you built trust and transparency between yourself and your consumers to create repeat customers?

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Today’s small business interview is with the fabulous Whitney Zimet of I Am The Maven. Whitney runs a really cool site that connects moms with local deals.  Some of these great deals include offers at cool restaurants, fun family activities, shops and even online deals on a range of items.  Whitney has taken her super diverse professional experience including a stint as a corporate marketing executive at Redken and she over the last 14 years has lived in LA, NY, DC, Ann Arbor, Atlanta and now Miami.  It was during these last 14 years that people started calling Whitney “The Maven.” So in 2008 she tapped into her small business, startup and entrepreneurial roots to start I Am The Maven.  Her motto is simple: connecting savvy moms to fabulous local deals at the best places! Whitney’s story is a great read for the small business community and she gives us all some great tips in this interview.

1. Tell us about I am the Maven and who you focus on serving?

I Am The Maven connects savvy moms with fabulous deals at the best places.  We find the best local shops, food, services and activities in the Miami area and provide coupons, behind-the-scenes videos and all the scoop to hook moms up with exceptional local businesses.

2. How did you get your started selling online?

After I graduated from Emory University, I was a pretty successful executive recruiter until I found my niche in corporate marketing/advertising with Redken in NYC.  I met my husband, then moved several times (Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Miami) for his career.  Along the way, people started calling me their “Maven” (a.k.a. a go-to girl for recommendations on just about anything).  I wanted to meld the things I enjoyed and was good at at into my own business.  This would allow me to attend ballet recitals and generally be present in my children’s lives while keeping my brain sharp and my confidence as a woman and professional.  As a mom myself, I saw a need to cut through the clutter of traditional advertising and compel action amongst the mom community– specifically directing them to fabulous stuff that caters to their lifestyle (whether a doctor, a donut place or an eco-friendly carpet cleaning company).

3. What inspires you to grow the I am the Maven business?

Firstly, I feel that there are wonderful local businesses that many moms don’t go to or even know of because they are so busy running around and being totally overwhelmed.  Why not go to a local shoe store that really knows how to fit your child’s feet & carries the brands you want and some new ones you might not know about?  My dad had his own retail store for 27 years, so I have lots of empathy for small business owners.  Secondly, I want to create a winning formula for a business that can be franchised to other local mavens.  I believe there are a large number of smart, savvy women out there who may have put their own careers on hold or to the side to raise a family.  The standard 8-5 of corporate America is NOT friendly to moms and some of the other opportunities for flexible employment are not inspiring to me or make me feel uncomfortable about having to sell stuff to friends and family.  I feel that I Am The Maven is an unbelievable brand that, with the right local maven, can be a fulfilling and rewarding opportunity both for the maven herself and for the local business community.

4. If you had 2 lessons learned from your business that you could pass on to others about selling online, what are those?

I don’t actually sell anything online, rather I provide information, coupons, contests, videos and other fun stuff.  In March 2010 my website was relaunched after a year of development.  It was incredibly difficult and time-consuming but ultimately extremely successful.  My advice to people about an online presence is to keep it simple and clean and VERY easy to navigate AND to have a Content Management System (CMS) so you can update your site yourself.  Also, don’t neglect the SEO stuff.  If you send out emails to a distribution list, tailor the message for the groups.  For example, I don’t send emails detailing a special new patient rate at a Miami dentist to the people who elect to receive my “Online/Everywhere MavenDeals.”

5. Where will I am the Maven focus most of its energy this year?

We are expanding our presence to 35 local schools (offline we distribute reusable grocery bags called MavenBags filled with custom gift cards to Maven-Approved businesses) and will be attending more community events that focus on the family. Additionally, we’ll be leveraging the Maven-Approved brand by creating cross-promotions with non-conflicting featured businesses that allow them to get more bang for their buck!  Lastly, we’ll be adding staff locally so that I can begin to focus on franchising opportunities and other corporate initiatives.

6. What do you see as 2 new trends in for small business and in your business?

I feel that small businesses are recognizing that they can’t do everything themselves.  Like my business, there are others out there who are motivated to work with smaller businesses and are tailoring programs to meet their needs.  It used to be that it was all about the big accounts– big national names.  Now marketers, website designers and other professionals are coming up with ways to help smaller businesses in more sophisticated ways, that don’t cost an arm and a leg.  Another trend I see is that local businesses are teaming up to drive customers into their location– whether with events, cross-promotions, business improvement districts & local chamber of commerce.

7. If your business/store could be any movie or movie character, what movie/movie character would it be and why?

I guess I Am The Maven would be a cross of a less vicious version of Meryl Streep’s magazine editor character in “The Devil Wears Prada” (specifically her intolerance of anything sub-par) and Michelle Pfeiffer’s struggling career mom in “One Fine Day” (who made a costume out of duct tape and shoulder pads that were in her purse; also the romantic interest of George Clooney- yummy!)

8. If I am the Maven could have a dream spokesperson for your company who would it be and why?

This is a tough one as I am the maven.  Literally.  But I guess Oprah is a close second, although I don’t think she has kids.

9. What is the biggest challenge that I am the Maven faces as a small business and how do you work to overcome that challenge?

It’s absolutely critical that the businesses we promote meet the certain quality standards for value, convenience, the fun factor, price, selection, service, eco-friendliness (if possible), etc.  This is the cornerstone of the I Am The Maven brand.  Particularly when I began the business, it was a struggle to get certain businesses to participate because they were either already successful/awesome (which is why I approached them) or because they didn’t “get” what “Maven-Approved” would grow to mean in the community or the only businesses that were interested weren’t suitable for our audience.

It’s always difficult to turn away a shop or whatever that just doesn’t meet our standards.  But can you imagine if we worked with a shop that was totally disorganized with bad lighting in the fitting rooms and a salesperson who was no-where to be found?  That would compromise the integrity of our brand.  Another challenge is there is a certain amount of exclusivity to I Am The Maven, depending on the level of promotion the business elects.  For example, you won’t see 5 pizza places in the same general area on our website.  This limits the number of businesses we can promote, which of course limits our revenue.

10. Do you have any parting thoughts for our readers and the small business community?

I never thought I would be an entrepreneur (although if you ask my friends and family they would tell you they aren’t surprised) but the stay-at-home mom thing just wasn’t enough for me.  I looked at my professional strengths and what I actually ENJOY doing.  Sometimes those don’t mesh, but for me they did.  I thought about a problem in the marketplace that I could solve (moms finding out about good local places and being incentivized to go to them).  Then I put my nose to the grindstone and planned the heck out of my business concept. When I launched in October 2008, I began rather small and incrementally grew, never allowing my growth to outpace my revenue except on rare occasions (like my website re-build) when I knew I could re-coup.  I have stayed true to my voice and my brand and, with only a few unpleasant exceptions, followed my gut even when all the other signs pointed the other direction.  Being a successful small business owner and entrepreneur means you must be relentless in your pursuit of excellence. I love being my own boss!

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As a small business grows and not only builds the customer base but also expands the solution offerings, a metrics tracking method should be developed. There are a wealth of options of different metrics to track across any business. The hype for small companies seem to focus on SEO and website traffic metrics, but there are other business and process facing metrics that can greatly help a small business grow and succeed.

This article promotesmetrics are magic.  Key areas that can keep all team members in-check are to outline metrics surrounding milestones with dates and deadlines, and tracking of metrics like calls, presentations, programming modules, etc.

Depending up on the size and complexity of your business, utilizing a tool set to track and report on metrics could be very useful.  This provides the business leaders an avenue in which to review and evaluate trends and to determine if new solutions are working as expected and increasing cash flow.

Metrics help to outline the quality and measurement of success for any given business, product or process.  As a small business owner, factoring quality into daily activities helps to keep the entire team focused on top quality solutions and practices

What defines a quality metric and tips how to determine where your solution measures up?  The key is to create a metrics roadmap early in your business cycle so that you can formulate processes and checkpoints throughout that adhere to it.

The metrics you track will change over time, as your business expands (or shrinks).  You must also be diligent in that tracking process and share out not only the positive metrics, but the negative ones as well with your entire team. The only way to improve upon your business processes and ensure quality is to define the metrics and make appropriate changes to continue to improve them.  And allow your business to evolve in a positive light by continuously reviewing the metrics and creating new benchmarks that define your business success.

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Today KikScore sits down with Alli Donofrio, the owner of the very cool boutique called Pre-Loved Consignment.  Her store is a very unique type of boutique that offers a variety of quality merchandise ranging from casual to formal wear, to accessories, handbags and much more.  Alli’s store is in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, but she also sells online.  In this interview, she gives the small business community (and all of the shoppers out there) some great tips on small business life.

1. Tell us about Pre-Loved Consignment and who you focus on serving?

Pre Loved Consignment is a unique boutique……. far from your average thrift shop! I focus on serving everyone. I think with today’s economy… budgeting your money and saving is most important! My store is focused on value & style.. what more could you ask for !

2. How did you get started selling online?

I just recently opened up my store online- I did my homework first before doing so- searching for the best website designers I could find (Palmtree Creative LLC). We get a good amount of customers in the store- but I think to widen the audience and viewers of our selection of awesome stuff – opening an online store was the greatest idea!

3. What inspires you to grow the Pre-Loved Consignment business?

Other successful stores and consignment boutiques – like my own.

4. If you had 2 lessons learned from your business that you could pass on to others about selling online, what are those?

Customer service is very important- Make sure you are there to help them at all times! Also make sure you use a secure website (such as PayPal)- people want to know they are using a secure site – which means they will come back to shop again.

5. Where will Pre-Loved Consignment focus most of its energy this year?

It will focus on what my customers want and will focus on finding new ideas on how to grow!

6. What do you see as new trends in for small business and in your business?

Consignment boutiques are flourishing every where. They are the hottest businesses to open up today. Id say Consignment alone is a new hot trend! And this article on NorthJersey.com actually discusses the tend!

7. If your business/store could be any movie or movie character, what movie/movie character would it be and why?

I think it would be Betty Boop – Shes Hip, chic , flirty and fun – which best describes my store!

8. If Pre-Loved Consignment could have a dream spokesperson for your company who would it be and why?

I think any young or old woman into fashion- and not afraid to wear pre-owned clothing , handbags and shoes. It does not necessarily mean you are poor or do not have enough to buy new. It just means you know how to shop smart and you know how to get more for your money!

9. What is the biggest challenge that Pre-Loved Consignment faces as a small business and how do you work to overcome that challenge?

The biggest challenge is trying to get our name out there more! Advertising can be pricey but its the most important thing to get involved with when opening up a Small business!

10. Do you have any parting thoughts for our readers and the small business community?

“Don’t Underestimate consignment you’ll be surprised by the treasures you can find !” “Buy More Pay Less!”

Let us know if you have any thoughts for Alli and Pre-Loved Consignment.

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On Friday, we passed the 200 blog post mark on the KikScore blog.  For us folks that are working on the blog on nights and weekends, I think that is a pretty special achievement seeing that we hit that 200 posts mark in well under a year’s time since this blog was launched late in 2009!  So to my fellow writers, I say thanks and great job.  But much more importantly to our readers and the community we say thanks.  We hope that the next 200 posts will be even better.

So to mark this occasion I thought it would be nice to give some our our tips and lessons learned for small businesses and startups through our prior posts.  So here they go.

1) Stay Positive & Remember Why You Are In Business - The road for small businesses or startups is paved with many roadblocks.  The key is to keep your chin up and do not let those obstacles get you down.  To that point, we talk about the continual need for small businesses and startups to be optimistic in a post that makes its point from a spilled margarita.  Also in addition to staying positive, it is important that you remind yourself why you are on this entrepreneurs journey.  We actually discuss that need to keep in mind the influences of the entrepreneurial spirit in your day to day business.

2) Launch Early - Every startup engages in that internal discussion of when should we launch our product and when is it really ready?  For every startup it is a little different, but I think we would likely come out on the side of launching as early as you can.  We actually discuss this debate about when is the time to launch your new product and whether you should wait until it is just right.

3) Get & Act on Customer Feedback – As a small business or a startup, it is critical that you have the tools to gather customer feedback.  But perhaps just as importantly, you business needs to analyze and then act on that feedback. This is a post that describes some of the tools that are available for getting customer feedback.  Also we laid it bare to give you an idea about how we were looking at customer feedback when it came to our own KikScore product features.

4) Stay Focused & Have a Plan – With so many distractions for your startup or your small business, it is often a challenge staying focused.  We covered steps to address this issue with two posts that highlighted ways to stay focused with an analogy to the great SNL skit “More Cowbell” and tangible actions that your company can take to keep your team focused.

5) Have the Right Team – This point is so important because without the right team, a company will fail.  The right players, in the right position with the right game plan help increase the chances for startup and small business success.  These points were highlighted in our posts about the US World Cup Team, building the right team, lessons from team building from the NFL Draft, and learnings from the recent Lebron James fiasco.

6) Be a Leader and Roll Up Your Sleeves -  Following on the right team, each of the team players in a startup or small business need to be leaders and be proactive, relentless and constantly trying to push the business forward in big ways!  Wall flowers are generally not the best for startup and small business teams, instead you have to be able to wear multiple hats, improvise when necessary, be creative and always be aggressive.  Our two part series on small business and startup leadership discussed this important topic in more detail here and here.

7) ABP – Always Be Pitching – Our tips to startup and small business is get out there and talk about your business, your product, and get feedback.  Do not be one of those people that is always talking about themselves, but at the appropriate times at networking events, with contacts, with key players and potential mentors talk about your business so you can get different ideas and also potentially get introductions to people and companies that can help you build and grow your company.  We had posts on this topic about elevator pitches and again an internal lesson at KikScore we learned from talking to people titled, Why Didn’t We Think of That?.

We have many more posts and hope to have many more in the future. Please let us know if you have any thoughts or tips for small businesses and startups!

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As KikScore continues to grow and add customers, our team is more active in social media sites.  In anticipation of a large partner release, we are working to ensure staff support and processes in place to respond to customer inquiries and issues.

Providing an avenue for your customers to sing your praises and also to vent when needed helps to build trust in your brand and confidence in your customers.  With social media continuing to rise, consumers savor the ability to have a voice in a variety of platforms, and they can yell loudly.  To build trust and loyalty in your customer base, you have to listen and react in a timely and professional manner .

Being a mom, I could relate to the outrage set forth by moms across the country on this Motrin add.  Motrin could have quickly regained confidence and trust in its consumer base by reacting to this outrage in a much more professional  and empathetic manner.

As a small business, creating an avenue for clear communication with your customers on good and bad topics will not only build trust, but also instill loyalty which creates new customers and reduces abandoned shopping carts.  Be an advocate for your customers and they will yell loudly on social media platforms that your business is the business to connect with.

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Take the Leap, is a great blog that profiles entrepreneur’s and startup stories.  The blog is sponsored by the company Creative Hub.   We had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jennifer Spivak about KikScore and our growth.

To check out the interview, please visit the Take the Leap Blog and the interview is titled From Lawyers to Entrepreneurs.

Please let us know what you think.

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I am still frankly in some ways recovering from what I knew was going to happen all along.  Lebron James was going to leave Cleveland. I actually predicted it in this post about lessons small businesses and startups can learn from Lebron James after his flame out in Game 5 of the Celtics/Cavs series earlier this year.

So his departure got me thinking about a few things.  As we all know, his departure was a complete PR spectacle.  But there are some serious lessons learned.  Even strangely  I see some commonalities between how we all viewed Lebron James (especially Cavs fans) and how we decide whether we should trust someone online.

1.   People Change – Cavs fans, and frankly many in the media, thought they knew Lebron. Heck there was probably good reason for the belief, they watched him grow up in my hometown of Akron, watched him get drafted and become a global icon in Cleveland.  Many people thought that they knew Lebron to be “one of us” because he was from Ohio and knew the long frustration of Cleveland sports fans.  Boy were they (we?) wrong. Many people say something changed with Lebron in the last few months, even reporters that have covered Lebron since he was 16 and back in high school. It started with the complete collapse in Game 5 against the Celtics where he looked clueless and uninterested in playing in front of 20,000 crazed fans in a series that they should have won. And it continued to this summer where Lebron blew off the owner of the Cavs not responding to one of the owner’s calls or voicemails.  Wow, did he indeed change and change at that very quickly!

Lesson Learned: You may think you know someone online (and maybe even offline), but you need to be prepared for the unexpected. The only thing you can do to protect yourself is a) get as much information as possible about a person and business and b) always be cautious for the unexpected to happen because it will.  Also the person or business you know one day may be very different a few months or years later.  So always keep your information gathering up to date before you decide to do business online.

2. Do Not Trust Labels, Trust Actions – Lebron repeatedly said so many times he puts a premium on loyalty.  He said he is a loyal guy and that he will always be that kid from Akron.  The fans, media and even his teammates bought into that card.  Heck, I even bought into it.  You have to kind of grow up in Akron to understand it but there generally is a common bond of many people from NE Ohio that ties us together for some of the events, sports nightmares and generally ribbing we have endured.  Again, we were so wrong. You can literally have the word “Loyalty” printed on your chest like Lebron does, but it means ZERO if you do not live up to your word.

Lesson Learned: When you are online, people and businesses will say all sorts of things to get your business. They will say that they guarantee certain things, that you can trust them, that their website is safe.  Make them prove it to you by having them show you their trackrecord of reliability, trustworthiness and success.  Heck, that is what the KikScore seal allows you to do as a small business.

3. Look for Hints of Information to be Wary:  So in some ways I can say myself and the rest of the city of Cleveland/Akron feel blindsided.  But that would be naive.  There were many hints of information and actions, though small and isolated instances, that should have made people wary of what Lebron was going to do.  There was the lack of commitment to the team last year when he had the opportunity to resign, there was his space cadet look and play in game 5 of the Celtics game, there was the lack of engagement with the team after the season and then maybe the most glaring one is when Lebron constantly referred to the fact that he needed to consult “his team” for the decision.  No that would not be his Cavs teammates, that was his marketing team and his bunch of his fellow St. Vincent, St. Mary high school friends and agents. I should have known, I went to Walsh Jesuit the arch rival of St. V’s. We could never trust those guys……but that goes back nearly 20 years now.

Lesson Learned: Transparency is key.  If a person or business is transparent and gives you information about themselves and their actions, first that is a good sign because they are comfortable enough to give you that information.  But more importantly, in order for you to make that online trust decision you need to analyze that information in way that allows you to feel comfortable.  To help, here are 7 items to look for from in stores that sell online to make sure they are legitimate,  5 safe online shopping tips and some help with finding contractors you can trust online.

There probably are many more.  Please let us know which ones you think there are.  I am sure you probably heard that the Cavs owner last night had a nuclear response to Lebron breaking his trust and the city of Cleveland’s trust.  We all should learn a few things from this free agency experience so that we do not end up having to send a letter like that to a person or company you do business with online because you did not take the steps to protect yourself.

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We have been growing quickly at KikScore so we have decided to expand our team. If you are in college and would like to be an intern at a fast growing startup, this opportunity is for you.  In fact, we are looking for two interns to help support our Marketing & Strategy teams.  You can read all about the opening at the two sites where we have posted detailed information about the job/intern opening:

1) Startuply – by the way, that is a very cool site for startup jobs.

2) InternshipIn – a new site that our Twitter friends told us about recently.

We are looking for a self-starter that is passionate about learning and is willing to hit the ground running!  This is a virtual position so you do not have to be in Washington DC or Denver.  Also it is important that the interns that join the company like to laugh.  We are serious about that!  As you can see from our blog, we do like to have our fair share of fun – even when our sports teams, hometown cities, favorite 80′s hard rock bands and favorite movie stars are repeatedly tanking!

Also we promise that as a part of this internship we will NOT make you go through the pledging process that Frank the Tank put his interns through in Old School.  We instead may put the entire team through the Blades of Glory training program.

If you are interested, please reach out to us using the process outlined at either of the sites that we listed in this post.

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I was reading this article by Dharmesh Shah on the OnStartups blog where he indicates that a Minimally Viable Product (MVP) is “a product that has the minimum set of features needed to learn what the market wants” and conversely he defines that Maximally Buyable Product (MBP) as “the set of features needed to capture the maximum potential opportunity in a market.”  Dharmesh then goes on to give 5 features of the Maximally Buyable Product.

I think the interesting point that is made in this article is not with the MBP but instead the Minimally Viable Product (MVP).  How does a company know when they have completed building their MVP?  When is an MVP “finished” enough in order to increase online sales and not result in abandoned carts of potential customers at checkout?  I know that when we were putting our finishing touches on our MVP one year ago for our KikScore trust seal product that it was very difficult for us to know when it was more important to get the product to market and when to add that one last feature that our customers would love.

My point here is that I think that building the MVP is not the most difficult thing most of the time.  Usually the entrepreneurial spirit inside of the people that are involved with MVPs is such that dreaming up and building the MVP is not the difficult part.  The difficult part may sometimes lie in the area of limiting the scope and defining the lines of exactly what the first iteration of the ultimate product is going to look like.  Initially, the MVP may be just a shell of what the founders of the company initially dreamed up but the team needs to decide as a whole when it is close enough to “learn what the market wants.”

How did your company define your MVP and how is your MVP different from your MBP?

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