Posts Tagged ‘BizSugar’

Small Business Influencer 2011 Champions: Some Special Shout Outs & Recommendations for Next Year’s List

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

As you know, KikScore was nominated for the top 100 list of the Small Business Influencer’s 2011 list of Champions. Late Monday evening, the winners for this honor were announced. We are happy to see those who made it in and couldn’t help but notice some names that are particularly important to KikScore. These people have been a great help to KikScore as well as the rest of the small business world and we cannot help but admire all they’ve done. It is with this that we are proud to give a special shout out to a select group of people!

Some Judges We Want to Mention

Ramon Ray – Ramon is an editor and technology evangelist for Smallbiztechnology. He has written tons of great articles, including a write up on KikScore on BusinessInsider. We’re really grateful to have had Ramon take the time to help market KikScore and build the brand. Great job with everything you’ve been up to, whether helping us out or judging the Champions list!

Anita Campbell – Anita is a publisher for Small Business Trends and BizSugar, as well as another one of the judges for Small Business Influencer 2011. What makes Anita so special to us is her constant support of KikScore. She got us invited to the webinar for Focus.com on security for small and medium businesses and has suggested small businesses to use Kikscore. Thanks for all your help and keep up all of the amazing work Anita!

Ivana Taylor – Yet another judge, Ivana is DIY Marketers’ small business evangelist. In a nutshell, she’s an incredibly helpful source of information for all things small business. Our hats go off to you, Ivana! We can’t wait to see what you do next!

The Champions of this Year

Shashi Bellamkonda – Shashi, the business swami of Network Solutions who made it into the top 100 list of Champions, has been a huge supporter and incredible help to KikScore. Among the many things he’s done, Shashi was a big part of Social Commerce Camp DC, which was a blast. You’ve been and continue to be an enormous help to all of us at KikScore and we want to congratulate you on making it into the top 100!

Melinda Emerson – Also known as SmallBizLady, Melinda has also made it into the top 100. Among many things, Melinda is the host of Twitter’s weekly talk show, #SmallBizChat. Needless to say, she is the whole reason KikScore got the opportunity to be the guest of honor on #SmallBizChat one week. Congratulations Melinda! You’ve helped us so much and we’re really excited on your making it to the top 100!

John Lawson – Another Small Business Influencer 2011 Champion, John is CEO of 3^rd Power Outlet and ColderICE Media. John helps KikScore out with introductions as well as with The KikScore Startup & Small Biz Daily. His efforts have been a great help and we at KikScore are lucky to benefit from his expertise. Thanks for all your work John and enjoy your Champion position!

Laurie McCabe – A partner at the SMB Group and a small to mid-sized market expert, Laurie is yet another deserving Champion. A while back, Laurie took the time to interview KikScore for one of SMB Group’s podcasts. This was a great opportunity as well as a great honor. You’ve been great Laurie! We’re so happy to see you make it to the top 100!

Our Recommendations for Next Year

Tinu Abayomi-Paul – Tinu is part owner of the amazing Free Traffic Tips. She is truly an example of a small business expert as well as great person. Thanks for all of the guidance you’ve given the small business community, Tinu!

Shonali Burke – Owner of Shonali Burke Consulting and editor of WomenGrowBusiness, Shonali has a treasure trove of advice for us all. Alongside being a PR expert for small businesses, she truly is digital PR pioneer. Keep up all the great work, Shonali!

Jill Foster – Jill has taken on many different roles. The founder of Live Your Talk, a public speaking advocate, a blogger, and the founding editor of WomenGrowBusiness, Jill has a thing or two to teach small businesses. You continue to teach us all and for that we thank you!

To those who made Small Business Influencer 2011 possible as well as those who provide inspiration to countless small business, thank you! To everyone who made it to the Small Business Influencer 2011 top 100 list, congratulations! We think it’s awesome what is being done to recognize the folks who enable small businesses’ success and are so happy that we were nominated! We hope to see you all make the list again next year!

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Posts Tagged ‘BizSugar’

Building a Start-up Company and Having a Family at the Same Time

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

I was reading this post on BizSugar the other day and I thought that it was very applicable to our KikScore team so I am sure that it will also be interesting to a lot of other small business owners who also have families.  This post by Tim Jahn makes the argument that entrepreneurs can start a successful business and have a family at the same time if they maintain their focus, have a schedule, and if they set specific goals for themselves.

I definitely agree with Tim that it is possible to start a successful company while having a family, being a new father myself, and I also agree that it is very important to set aside a specific time and day(s) when you plan to complete work for the new company.  I usually try to work on my KikScore tasks on the same nights each week so my wife and I can plan around those nights so that there aren’t as many conflicts as there might otherwise be if my work schedule was constantly changing.

I also think that Tim makes a great point when he talks about having specific goals for yourself.  I find it very helpful to have a set of tasks that I want to complete each week and I make sure to keep these written down for myself each week so that they are completed.  I think that if you are vague or too lofty about your work goals for each week or month that you may start feeling like you are never getting anything done which may lead to frustration pretty quickly.

Again, I think if you are pretty good at managing your time and setting specific goals for yourself then having a family and starting a new business are definitely two things that can peacefully exist in harmony.  What have your experiences been with managing your business and family at the same time?  Any other recommendations you would like to give to our readers?

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Posts Tagged ‘BizSugar’

Quick Tips on Pitching the Media for Small Business

Friday, May 21st, 2010

All of us small businesses and startup owners wonder how can we get more publicity and buzz about our product and business. Many of us also wonder what do we have to do to become a thought leader where the media actually comes to us for comment on industry matters.  Well I came across this excellent short video by one of the best small business evangelists that is out there, Anita Campbell, the owner of Small Business Trends and BizSugar.  Anita gives us some very common sense and practical tips for every small business and startup to use when they are pitching their business and product to the  media to try to get covered.  She also touches on how to build up your credibility with the media so you can be considered a thought leader.

Here is the video and its only a few minutes long, but it is packed with great tips from Anita Campbell.

Some of the tips Anita mentions in the video are:

1) To help get the attention of journalists and writers, blog about their stories.

2) When you blog about their stories, use the writer’s name and also link to their article. That will help get their attention.

3) When your product or company finally gets covered by a journalist, make sure you blog about the story and again include the name of the writer! We actually did this in a recent post when KikScore was covered by PressTV on issues of cybersecurity and safe online shopping.

4) When you are pitching journalists, give them useful information that will help them write a story.

5) During your pitch, give them other information besides about your business, including data about the industry, trends and even other influencers that the writer should interview.

6) Help the writer by giving them the names, contact information and as much information about those other people for their story.

7) Your pitching should not stop when you finally get some media coverage. Keep trying to build goodwill with the journalists and writers and that will increase the chances that they will come back to you for future stories.

These are excellent tips that we should all follow.  Anita really is a great source that we previously named one of her sites as one of our top small business blogs that we like.   I have met Anita on a couple of occasions including my day job out in Herndon, Virgina and at last year’s Grow Smart Business Conference in Washington DC.  If you own a small business or run a startup, we at KikScore highly recommend following Anita on Twitter and also checking out her sites.  Also she is from my hometown of Akron, Ohio – so I am sure she (and many others) may identify with my recent post about Lebron James and Small Business.

Please tell us how you pitch the media? Any tips would be appreciated!

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