Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

Video: Top Web Design Mistakes Small Businesses Make

This is an excellent short 4 minute video on the top web design mistakes that small businesses make from Entrepreneur Magazine.  It covers the problems with:

1) Flash websites;

2) Poor design backgrounds;

3) Not having good About Us and Management Pages; and

4) Not having contact information, especially for your customer service operations.

What other mistakes do you see small businesses and startups make with their websites?

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

5 Steps to Nail Next Year for Your Business By Learning from This Year

It is mid-December and the year is almost over.  And what a year it has been.  Tough economic times has made it hard for many businesses to grow and build momentum.  So as we round the end of the calendar year and are only days away from January we can do two things for our business planning for next year: You can blindly go into January and beyond trying to create a brand new strategic and marketing plan or you can take a look back at the wealth of information and data from your business this past year and try to plan your strategy for next year based on the lessons learned from this year.

Our recommendation, based on what we are doing ourselves, is look closely at your strategy, tactics, execution and plans for this year as you plan for next year.  That will help put you in a better position for success next year by avoiding the tactics that did not work and instead building on what did work.  Here is how we suggest you do it:

1. Take a complete inventory of what worked and what did not over the last 12 months

This one may take some time, but it will be time well spent.  As you make your plans for next year, take a morning (or even longer) to conduct a detailed analysis of what worked for your business or startup this year and what did not.  Your analysis should not stop there.  Take the additional steps to think about did the items that failed fail because of bad execution or they just were not really good tactics in the first place.  If it was bad execution, you should think about whether those tactics that failed could be better executed and then become successful.  Also for the items that did work, consider whether if you put more energy and focus on those items, could you build on them next year?

Bottom line: Make sure next year’s plans eliminate tactics and strategies that failed this year and instead focus next year on building on specifically what did work.

2. What are 3 Trends in your business that you saw this year?

Look back on the year.  What are 3 trends that you saw in your business?  They could be marketing trends, operating trends or even product trends.  I like the number 3 because it is simple and not too overwhelming of a number for people to focus on.  So when you are planning for next year, take the time to make sure that whatever those trends may be in your business that you have them woven into your strategic, marketing and operating plans.  That will help ensure that you do not get left behind.

Bottom line: All businesses should take the time to step back from their company and track and plan for the trends that are impacting their business and industry.

3. What 3 major areas of  feedback/comments did you receive from your customers over the year?

Businesses get a lot of feedback from customers over the course of a year.  The key to any business is making sure that they are keeping their customers happy and serving their needs.  Accordingly, any business needs to pay attention to the major customer issues and feedback that are repeatedly being seen.  But paying attention to these areas is only half the battle.  Your business should track these 3 major areas and ensure that your plans and strategies incorporate addressing and acting on customer feedback.  Here is an excellent article from our one of our favorite entrepreneur magazines, Inc., on using customer feedback for your strategic plans.

Bottom line: Any planning for next year should take into account your customer’s feedback and comments that you have received this year.  That way you will know that your customers’ concerns are being addressed.

4. What is one area of you business you devoted more time to that could have yielded larger growth?

Every business faces this concern, but the trick is to acknowledge the issue.  We all think about areas of our business that we wish we could spend more time on, but we just cannot.  Take the time to really identify these areas and make of list of them.  Then determine if you can outsource any of these areas to freelancers, interns or other professional service providers. Here is a great post from Startup Nation on small business outsourcing.

Bottom line: For these areas of the business where you wish you had more horsepower, next year outsource those areas and see if you can build off the work from experts that will help you focus more attention on your core business.

5. What is two items that you absolutely need to get accomplished by both July 31 and Dec 31 of next year

This is a business planning tip for next year.  Frankly, it may be something we should all do yearly in our business.  When we set out our annual goals we should take the time to go one step further.  That step is to identify two “must dos” for the coming year.  That is a must have accomplishment for the middle of the year (July 31) and then a must have accomplishment by the end of the year (Dec 31).  This will help you focus on two core items for your business that you tie to two time deadlines.  That way at the end of each year you should be able to look back and know that two main areas of your business have seen key goals being met.

Bottom line: Creating a list of goals and targets for your business each year is necessary to track progress.  But having two must have goals set out at the middle and end of the year will help you focus even more to move your business forward.

So in the remaining part of this month, use these steps as you build, develop and fine tune your strategic and marketing plans for next year.  Building these plans on your lessons learned from this year should help you set your business or startup for more success in the coming year.

Let us know how you are approaching strategy and business planning for next year.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

Does the Better Business Bureau Sell Its Grades?

I was watching ABC News the other night when I saw this report that suggests that the Better Business Bureau is essentially selling good business ratings.  In this report, Brian Ross makes some fairly shocking realizations while interviewing a small business owner that had received a ‘C’ grade for her business and the day after paying the $400 membership fee to the BBB her rating immediately shot up to an ‘A’.  The small business owner indicated that she did not do anything else that would have resulted in her increase in grading. 

The report goes on to detail how some “pranksters” made up a business called “Hamas” which is a well known terrorist organization and paid the same $400 membership fee to the Better Business Bureau and, sure enough, this made up business received a grade of A! 

The ABC report also includes an interview with Wolfgang Puck, who has an ‘F’ rating by the way, and says that he thinks paying for a grade is wrong.  Other business owners interviewed in the piece say that they think the BBB is running a scam by trying to strong arm these small businesses into paying for their BBB membership in order to get a good rating through their system.

The end of the report seemed to indicate that the Connecticut District Attorney was in the process of requesting that the BBB stop rating businesses using this rating system as it seemed to be fraudulent.  If these allegations are true, this no doubt will have huge impacts to the small business community as a large number of them have purchased trust and rating seals from the Better Business Bureau and they would now most likely be requesting refunds for these products if the rating system is, in fact, fraudulent. 

Have you ever purchased any of these products for your business from the BBB and had similar issues in getting a good rating?

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

Lessons from Arnold Schwarzenegger: The Mental Game is Key to Success

I have to admit when I was growing up back in Ohio I idolized Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, I used to get Muscle & Fitness magazine and I watched every Arnold movie from Conan the Barbarian, Commando, Predator, and of course through all of the Terminator classics.  At that time I looked up to Arnold mainly because I was (ok now dont laugh) big into weightlifting and well the movies were just the movies – pretty cool for any teenage kid.

It is funny that nearly 20 years later my wife sent me the video below which is a recent interview of Arnold where he discussed his approach to the success he has had a different phases in his life.  It wasn’t until I watched the short 10 minute video that I realized that Arnold reinvented himself three separate times and was wildly successful in each instance. First, as the bodybuilder and multiple Mr. Olympia, then as a huge action movie star and finally as Governor of California.

The punchline for the video and largely this post is that Arnold said the difference between himself and others in each of the three major  roles in his life was the mental game.  As an example, he said there were plenty of weightlifters when he was competing to win bodybuilding competitions that were just as big as him, trained just as hard as he did, but the difference between Arnold and these other folks was their approach to mentally winning. Arnold always envisioned success and winning as well as achieving his goals.  His goal was not just to be a good bodybuilder, but it was to win Mr. Olympia repeatedly.  And so as opposed to other bodybuilders who were just good at training, Arnold continually envisioned mentally winning Mr. Olympia.  And he won it not just once, but six consecutive times! In the video he says the difference between himself and others was not being physically bigger or having more defined muscles, it was instead the mental aspect of training, focusing and envisioning success at all times.

This was Arnold’s approach to the mental game:

a) constantly envisioned success and accomplishing the near and short term goals he laid out for himself;

b) was always mentally focused on that success and accomplishing those goals;

c) carried that focus into everything he did and his approach to training and executing his plans; and

d) was relentless in his pursuit for the success that he set out to achieve.

For startups and small businesses there are strong parallels and lessons learned from Arnold’s approach that he has taken in his life to succeeding not once, but in three completely separate areas as diverse as bodybuilding, acting and being elected as to the highest office in the largest state in the United States.

Watch, listen, take notes and start acting on the Arnold’s guidance! You will not regret it.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

KikScore Presentation: Security for Small and Medium Businesses: Top Trends That Matter Now

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

Great Videos For Small Business & Startups from the 2010 GrowSmartBiz Conference

My wife and I were so looking forward to attend the 2010 GrowSmartBusiness Conference in Washington DC. We previously covered the reasons that the small business and startup community should have attended this event.  Unfortunately for us we had to miss the great conference due to the stomach flu making an appearance in our household.  So this post is as much for me as it is for the entire small business and startup community.

Just a simple following of the #growsmartbiz hashtag on Twitter will show you that the conference was a huge success.  But the organizers went a step further.  They have put most of the content online in the form of the speakers videos from the day.

So here is a tally of the links you should visit to watch and learn from some of the wonderful speakers from the 2010 GrowSmartBiz Conference:

1. The lunch keynote from Raul Fernandez, Chairman of ObjectVideo, Vice Chairman, Monumental Sport and Entertainment is here.

2. The marketing and innovation session was given by Barry Moltz, author of “Bust a Myth” and it was titled “How Social Media Has Made Customer Service the New Marketing.”

3. Another great session was “Reinvigorating Small Business Innovation” with small business experts Jason Falls, Steve King, Jeremy Epstein, and Duncan Alnay.

4. The final session that included the Marketing Keynote with Rohit Bhargava, Ramon Ray on 6 Rules for Tech Success, Rieva, Lesonsky, 3 Top Small Business Trends for 2011, Shonali Burke on PR & Small Business, and Jill Foster on Public Speech 2.0 in an 140 Character  World.  Check out all of these great videos here.

I sure hope we can make it next year.  What a great conference and thanks for the fantastic content!

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

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

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?

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

4 Reasons SmallBiz & Startups Should Attend Friday's GrowSmartBiz Conference in DC

On Friday, November 5, 2010, the Second Annual GrowSmartBiz Conference will take place at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Washington DC.  If last year’s conference gives us any idea about how this year’s one will be, you can expect a full day of great tips from real subject matter experts across a wide range of topics that impact small business and startups. I have to say last year my wife (who owns a small business) and I both attended and we could not stop talking about the energy, the people we met, the important tips we learned and frankly all of the fun we had in one day.  Besides our experience going to SXSW in 2009 when I co-presented, this is hands down one of my personal favorite conferences I have attended – and I even worked the conference last year manning the “SmallBiz Answers Booth” with PR specialists, lawyers, marketers, developers and startup founders.

So here are 4 independent reasons to attend this year’s GrowSmartBiz Conference:

1. The Speakers Are Awesome and Experienced Starting with the keynotes that include Successful Entrepreneur Raul Fernandez all the way to the speakers and moderator at the four track sessions and excellent.  The speaker list includes small business, technology, social media and PR kings like Ramon Ray (recently on MSNBC), Brent Leary, Marissa Levin, Joe Libava, Steven King, Jill Foster, Shonali Burke, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Ken Yancey and Rohit Bhargava. And this is just a few of the names that will be there on Friday.  The full speaker list can be found here and Jill Foster has a great summary of the lineup on her excellent blog Live Your Talk.

2. The Topics Are Going to be Highly Informative Building off last year’s conference, the organizers this year broke the conference into four main tracks: 1) Marketing & Innovation; 2) Small Business, Government & Non-Profits; 3) Technology as a Tool for Your Business; and 4) Entrepreneur Bootcamp.  Each of these four tracks has a dense topic list that includes Socal Media Marketing, Learning How to Tell Your Business Story, How to Track and Keep Customers, 6 Rules for Tech Success and Tips for Smart Hiring Practices.  These are just some of the great topics (see full agenda)  that will help any small business and startup.

3. Great Networking Opportunities It has been reported in many places (and I have heard first hand) that small businesses would like to spend more time networking and learning from each other.  Well GrowSmartBiz took the feedback from last year;’s conference and created more opportunities for the small business attendees to network and meet each other.  This year there are multiple times during the day when you can meet the fellow attendees and also ask the speakers questions after their presentations.  More networking means more learning and more business opportunities for your business.

4. Pre-Event Happy Hour This year a night before the conference happy hour for speakers, bloggers, the media, attendees and sponsors is being organized.  This way you can start networking even before the conference begins!  Who knows your question or story may end up being referenced or mentioned on Friday by one of the speakers.  My wife’s website got mentioned last year during Ramon Ray’s presentation after he met her right before his speaking session. Here is the information on the Thursday evening Happy Hour!

These are just some of the reasons to sign up and attend on Friday.   Last year there were well over 400 attendees live in person and hundreds more that watched it streaming live from as far as Australia.

Hope to see you there! By the way, here is the signup information at the Washington Business Journal site.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

20% Less Spam for Thanksgiving This Year!

To be honest with you, I actually really liked Spam when I was kid.  I don’t know what it was about that imitation, rubbery, ham-like substance but I am fairly certain that my Mom had me convinced it was real meat…either that, or I just didn’t know enough to think anything of it.  Jump forward 20 years, and Spam (emails) have become the bain of every Internet user’s existence.  Well, we are all in luck according to this article in the New York Times a couple days ago that indicates that these Spam emails should be decreasing by about 20% in the United States.

This article gives more details about how a major “spam kingpin” was recently arrested by Moscow police.  Apparently Igor Gusev was paying spammers handsomely to send emails promoting online pharmacies through his SpamIt.com domain.  The New York Times article goes on to talk about how known mass spammers and other cyber security threats have operated in public view for years but that recently the Russian government has started to try and clean up this image while also trying to partner with Silicon Valley to bring more commerce to the country.

While the reason for this Spam clean-up may be a little back-handed, I think that this is definitely good news for online security in general and a much needed step in the right direction.  Have you noticed a lower level of Spam email in your inbox over the course of the last 3-4 weeks?

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business Tips’ Category

All Things Small & Medium Business – Free Focus.com Interactive Summit on 10/28/10

On October 28, 2010 Focus.com is putting on a great FREE online interactive small business summit that is a must attend event for small and medium businesses, entrepreneurs and startups.   The agenda is jam packed with a list of heavy hitters and small business thought leaders like Fran Tarkenton (calm down Mike, we know he was your hero while you grew up in MN),  Anita Campbell, Brent Leary, Ramon Ray, the Swami Shashi Bellamkonda and many many more. The sign up information and full list of speakers and topics is available at Focus.com.   The FREE online event lasts from 11am-6pm ET.  and the range of topics is wide and covers items such as:

1) The Small Business Survival Guide;

2) Accounting and Finance Secrets;

3) Connecting with Customers through New Media Channels;

4) Socialization of the SMB;

5) Top 10 Web Marketing Strategies;

6) IT for SMBs;

7) New Revenue Streams for SMBs with Partner Marketing; and

8) Security for SMBs (Ok Mike and I are representing KikScore and are speakers for this presentation – by the way, we are not heavy weights, but just heavy!).

Anyway, this really is a very exciting online summit and is going to have a ton of valuable information for entrepreneurs.  We have to say a special thanks to Anita Campbell for recommending us to Focus to be a part of this presentation and also Courtney Sato from Focus.com who has been great with preparing for next week’s session.

So please sign up.  The event should be excellent and we are really excited about the opportunity to be a part of this great small business event next week!

Tweet This Post