Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Your Holiday Gift: 30 Second MBA from Fast Company

One of the truly creative and ingenious ideas I saw this year to help small, medium and large business was Fast Company’s 30 second MBA.  What is it?  Fast Company gets industry and business leaders from Digg, Accenture, Ford, Pandora and many other companies to give tips and guidance on key areas of business such as Making Better Decisions, How to Change a Company’s Culture, How Should You Think about Failure, How Do You Retain and Nurture Talent, and many other topics.  Its really a top notch faculty covering key business areas in a short period of time!  Each week there is a new subject matter and five leaders speak on the subect Monday through Friday.  Here is just one excellent 30 second clip from the CEO of Digg, Jay Adelson on making better decisions.

So spend your holidays learning with these 30 second clips.  A great gift to all of us from Fast Company.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Happy Holiday? Do You Take Time Off From Your Business?

This week, my parents are doing something that they never do…travel to my house for the holidays. As far as I can recall, I have always traveled back home (balmy Minnesota) to see them. This has been true for the past 15 years. This year, we convinced them to come out.

Why the drought of visits. Is it because they don’t like me? Of course not. Why? Did you hear something? No the real reason is because 25 years ago, my Dad quit his corporate job to start his own business. He doesn’t have a lot of help running the business, so almost every holiday season, he didn’t have time to get away. As he would say, “the longer I’m away, the more work I have waiting for me when I return.”  The Wall Street Journal just touched on the same issue, giving a guide to small business owners on “How to Take a Vacation“. The advice is solid (the best has to be “Accept the Fact that You’ll Lose Money”).

Since we all have day jobs, and our nights and weekends are dedicated to KikScore, I’m getting a sense that it may be quite sometime before I start doing a lot of personal travel during the holiday season.  Just as sure as I’m going bald like my Dad, I’m inheriting his work schedule.  And I’m not alone (with regard to the work schedule…I mean I’m also not alone on being bald).  Simply searching “Small Business Vacation 2009” reveals a wide variety of blog postings about small business owners talking about the difficulty in taking time off.  Here’s a good one from Newsweek.

So, are you taking time off this holiday?  Any plans for a 2010 get-away?  Can I go with you?

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

The Holiday Birthday… How do you separate??

It’s almost Christmas and yet we’ve been inundated with presents since the 18th due to it being my daughter’s birthday, she just turned 2. My husband and I have a strategy in place (or so we think) to make her birth “day” special and still keep the holiday spirit. On the 18th (we started it last year) we go to pick out the family Christmas Tree… there’s a great tree lot right in our neighborhood, so we don’t have to venture far. This year, Tallyn seemed quite excited about the whole ordeal. We took the tree home, heated up some chili and started to decorate. After all the morning excitement, it was naptime, during which we actively assembled birthday presents to surprise her upon awakening. Our little plan worked and she immediately wanted to ride her new tricycle (fondly found on CraigsList for a steal!) and get messy with her Painting/Chalkboard easel (from Grandma).

Now the tricky part comes in… family from all over the continent then begins to send birthday AND Christmas presents and we (my husband and I) are forced to ‘decide’ which is for which holiday and when does the present opening stop? Toss into the mix her ‘friends’ party (seven 2-3 year olds running around for 2 hours at our house on Sunday) and all the gifts that go with that… which we ended up opening last night since Sunday was much too chaotic. So now she gets 4 days separation between Birthday and Christmas and we are running out of room and wrapping paper…perhaps we are destined to a week of present opening for the next 16+ years… should we be more diligent on the separation of holiday at this early an age?

I fear poor Tallyn will end up one of those horror stories where the birthday and Christmas celebrations get blended into one… I have a co—worker whose 2nd son was born on Christmas day and they’ve had to make a habit of reminding relatives to get him a Birthday present too… his mom almost forgot one year, poor kid. The Holidays are a magical time of year and still Birthdays are the #1 holiday for all of us… we hope to keep the spirit alive for both for our daughter. Are you a ‘Christmas Holiday Birthday Kid’? Or do you have a relative or child that is? How do you separate the celebrations? Have a Merry Christmas and HAPPY Birthday to any and all!

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

A Small Business Discussion with Oregon Seafoods' Rick Shoop

KikScore likes to profile small businesses from around the world so that our readers can learn from other small businesses.  In this post we interview Rick Shoop the owner of Oregon Seafood.  Rick is a passionate small businessperson who has a wide range of interests and a number of small business endeavors in action right now.  This interview came out of Kikscore coming across Oregon Seafoods on Twitter which within about 15 minutes led to a great 30 minute Sunday afternoon conversation.

1. Tell us about Oregon Seafood and who you focuses on serving? ~

Oregon Seafood is a retail seafood market in Hillsboro Oregon. We almost went out of business a few months ago. I had to do something. I turned to the internet to educate myself. I learned the real world is indeed in the toilet. See this video as an example of how the recession has impacted employment by county.  As you can see the decline of our Nation. It is very scary. However, I also learned there are people making money online hand over fist. So I spent the next 3 months in study. I learned just how to locally target my market and as of today my Seafood Market is doing very well. To see just how I did this, I am creating a series of videos explaining the process. I have the first two drafts here for review. More to come. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.

2. Where will Oregon Seafood focus most of its energy in 2010?

Local marketing and adding global marketing type products to seel off the website.

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

Be willing to change.  Always look at your business in a new way.

4. As 2009 closes, what do you see as 2 new trends in your business this year?

I think it’s a world wide trend. People are buying online more now than ever. We need to monitize this trend.

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

Dare Devil. Instead of following most small business into the OUT OF BUSINESS trend. We Dared to change our antiquated methods and adapt to the future.

6. If you could buy a potential customer a drink, what drink would it be?

Cup of Coffee so we can be friends.

7. While having that drink with the potential customer, what would you like to talk about with them?

What makes them unique as a business and a person.

8. Do you have any parting thoughts?

Eat Healthy, Eat Seafood. Visit some of my other sites. I build WordPress Blogs and also am a Graphic Artist. Here are some of my other sites.  I encourage everyone to please check them out.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

7 Steps to Increase Trust for More Online Sales

Nearly all small businesses face a common challenge.  This challenge is demonstrating to potential customers that your small business is credible, trustworthy and has a track record of success and delivering products and services.  This challenge is typically derived from the fact that when someone gets to a small business website, they often do not have any indication whether they can trust that small business if the shopper wants to buy from that business.

Further complicating matters for small businesses online, is the constant threat of fraud and misuse of personal and financial information that weighs heavily on online users minds.  This fear of shoppers online is real and tangible.  In fact, a  Javelin Strategy & Research study found that the fear of identify theft and online shopping in general cost retailers over $21 billion in lost sales in 2008.

A June 2009 McAfee’s study showed that 92 percent of consumers are concerned about their security when shopping on new or unknown websites. Further, that study found that 63% of shoppers will not purchase from a web site that does not display a  security policy or other indications of trustworthiness.  A 2009 Verisign Security Report also found that nearly 50% of internet users avoid buying online due to concerns that their financial information will be stolen. The report also found that 83% of internet users want assurances that their information will be secure.

These concerns are getting the attention of all types of businesses, including industry giants like Microsoft.  Scott Charney, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Trustworthy Computing, said at the 2009 RSA Security Conference that  “When [shoppers] visit Web sites, they don’t know if that Web site is to be trusted or not. For all of these reasons we need End-to-End Trust.”

Steps for Small Business to Demonstrate Trust

Shoppers concerns with buying online are well documented and the data supports those concerns. The good news is that there are some simple steps that all small businesses can take to demonstrate trust on their website to shoppers:

1. Management/Owner Information:  Be transparent to your shoppers. Prominently display under a Management tab the names of the owners of your business.   Make sure you add some background information on that manager/owner.  You can even include  it in story form.   This information gives shoppers comfort that there is a real person behind your business and makes it more personal.

2. Use Online Video to Virtually Introduce Yourself: A hot new trend is using online videos, through a YouTube clip, that introduces the management of your small business to shoppers and potential customers.  Here are some good tips in this prior post on using videos to build trust and credibility for your small business on your website.

3. Contact Information: Another way to build trust is to clearly and prominently display contact information including phone number and email addresses for customer service and management contacts.  By showing shoppers that they can contact you in case there are any product or service issues, you give them comfort that your business is accessible.

4. Return, Shipping, Customer Service & Data Policies: It is important that you clearly provide a list of your return, shipping, customer service and data protection policies.  It is important enough that small businesses should consider devoting a whole tab or area of their website where shoppers can visit and see what are the policies for your business.  Again the goal here should be the more information about these policies the better.

5. Trust and Validation Marks/Seals:  The 2009 Verisign Security Report found that 86% of online shoppers feel more confident about entering personal and financial information with sites that have some type of security indicators, such as trustmarks.   A few seals provides much of the information that is covered in this post through just one seal that resides on an online store’s website. Look for those seals.

6. Customer Feedback: Show that you can be trusted and also let people know your track record with customers by publishing comments about your product, service and business.

7. Actively Engage Customers: Use social media sites and tools like Twitter, Facebook and a blog to profile your business, create a tangible brand and personality and also engage customers.  These conversations with your customer and the community give shoppers a more complete, in-depth and intimate look into your business.  These conversations and having them like we have covered in previously posts via Twitter and your blog only make your business more credible.

Also one of our favorites, Inc Magazine has a good article on this same topic of online trust and you should check that out too.

If you start using these tips, your business and your website will go a long way to clearly demonstrating trust to shoppers and thereby helping you increase sales.

Please tell us in the comments section below what you look for before you buy online.

*Image from Bill Mullins Blog.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Forget the Store, Lets Just Buy That Online!

As the picture above from the classic Christmas movie Bad Santa shows, the holiday season is generally a time to flock to the mall.  Many of us try so hard to overcome the crowds, the aggressive shoppers and the mall traffic to make sure we have all of our gifts for friends, families and co-workers.

My wife and I began this season spending a lot of time shopping at various stores.  A lot of the places were actually home improvement, department and electronics stores like Home Depot, Best Buy and Sears.   Much of the shopping focused around our never ending condo renovation.  And I am not the only person shopping from Kikscore. Others spent time shopping for items like coats for their brother!

Throughout much of our shopping, I kept saying to my wife, “Lets go get some Red Lobster because we can buy these items online.  Its easier, we can get more selection and we can pick it out while we are relaxing on our couch.”  One added bonus of not buying in the store is when you purchase online it gets delivered. Therefore I am saved from breaking my back trying to load the purchases into the Black Dragon (our 2000 Black Honda Accord – @157,000 miles).

Buying online is just so much easier than having to fight through the crowds to get what you want.  Its even better because then I do not have to face the challenge of my pregnant wife being able to outwalk me!

This season we are buying online much more because:

1) Buying online is easy;

2) Buying online is convenient;

3) Buying online allows you to shop at multiple sites from the comfort of your home;

4) Buying online allows you to do real time price and product functionality lookups and comparisons;

5) Buying online gets your products delivered to your doorstep; and

6) Buying online allows you to avoid the hyped H1NI germs, frantic shoppers, bad traffic and interesting characters that roam the shopping malls

Now buying online is not without its issues too. For example, we recently ordered a large sink for our bathroom.  Well the supplier of the sink decided to ship it via ground transportation.  What do you think happened when the sink had to make its way from St. Louis to Washington DC in the back of a truck along beautiful and scenic I-70?  Well that sink was delivered 3 separate times and each time there was a large crack in it forcing us to return the sink.  So watch out and make sure you use these 5 tips for safe online shopping when you buy online.

Let us know if you are avoiding the crowds and buying more online.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Diary of a Start-Up: "Why Didn't We Think of That?!"; Why you should seek input on your Startup business

There’s an old saying that goes something like this:  The only way to end up on the same side of a war as the Italians is by switching sides twice.  I bring this up because this post may seem to contradict a previous posting (the one advising when to shut up about your business).  As we have promoted KikScore among friends and through social media, we’ve gathered a lot of feedback.  Some good and some really good.  We’ve found that we’re not alone in our experience.  The more you get feedback, the better your business planning and product can be.

This is not to say that you should seek input from everyone you meet and change your product willy-nilly.  Instead, when seeking input look for advice from someone that knows your industry and, when you receive the feedback, take it with a grain of salt — knowing that you’ve spent a lot of time on your business, but are open to making improvements with valuable input.  Sounds easy enough…but why the hell did I feel like a complete dolt the other day?  Let me explain:

My partner, Raj, and I were talking about KikScore with a good friend,  who is very familiar with the Internet and ecommerce space (Let’s call him “Internet Sam”).  Sam liked our service and gave very solid advice on tweaking the current business model.  Then he suggested a potential channel for KikScore that is large and perfect for our service (I can’t get into that now…see, I’m not completely disregarding the advice about shutting up).  Raj and I sat silently, slack-jawed, completely stunned that Sam, who has thought about our business for 5 minutes, could think of an application that we hadn’t in 2 years.  We called each other later and my exact words were “I feel really stupid”. 

But is it stupidity?  Isn’t that the point of seeking some one’s advice and input — the hope of valuable insight that you wouldn’t gain easily on your own?  I’ll let these questions remain rhetorical, because I really don’t want to know the honest answer.  Oh hell, if you want to answer them, go ahead.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Choosing the Right Smartphone to Manage your Business While you Aren't in the Office

I recently made the decision to move out of the pre-iPhone ages (believe it or not that was only a little over 2 years ago) and get a smartphone that allowed me to better manage my work and personal life while I wasn’t in the office. After I made this decision I started researching the various smartphones on the market and determined that there were some features that I really needed and others that were nice to have but not vital to managing my business while on the go.  I thought that I would share a few of these features to consider the next time you are looking for a new smartphone:

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Inc. Magazine: A Must Read For Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs

I have read a lot of magazines in my life from the Economist, Mens Health, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated….ok you get the picture.  I have also read a lot of business magazines ranging from BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, etc. There is not one magazine that gets me so energized and enthused  like Inc. magazine.  I realize that most of those other magazines do not cover small business, entrepreneurship and startups, but none of those magazines’ content makes me passionate about what they are covering even though  I am very interested in each magazine’s subject mater.  Inc. simply makes me more passionate and motivated to be a entrepreneur and have a successful business with each issue that I read.

Some of you may say, wow you lead a pretty boring existence.  Get a life.  Look, I like a lot of different types of forms of entertainment – Will Farrell as Chaz Michael Michael in Blades of Glory and an occasional AC/DC concert included, but I  honestly look forward to getting Inc. magazine every month.  I also really like the Inc. magazine website and the blogs, especially the staff one called Fresh Inc.  Here are the reasons why every entrepreneur and small business should read Inc magazine cover to cover:

1)   Many writers are real successful entrepreneurs:  Joel Spolsky and Norm Brodsky write monthly columns on real business issues.  Norm Brodsky has been giving us a play by play of the sale and then resale of his business, CitiStorage, and it has been tremendously insightful for anyone going through a sales or negotiation process.  I remember his Rule of 3 from his stories- Three issues will always arise at the very end of a deal, that can kill a deal.  It s so true and your challenge is to overcome them, if you want the deal to close.  Joel Spolsky who is co-founder of Fog Creek Software, has excellent monthly articles about a range of topics from software development, sales, strategy, pricing and management that  often relay real examples from his company.  These first hand accounts are incredibly informative to any small business because so often we are facing the same issues that are covered in their columns.

2) Tone of Small Business Success: The tone that weaves its way into nearly every Inc. article is how to make your small business or startup succeed.  Inc. does a great job of profiling successful entrepreneurs.  But it does even a better job of profiling entrepreneurs and startups that may have failed in some way.  The writer or interviewer always does a great job of getting the entrepreneur to describe how they may have failed, what they learned and what they should have done differently to be even more successful.  Each of the articles then has a rich value of showing not only the successes of these entrepreneurs but also the lessons learned.  No better article from Inc. does this than the “How to Kill A Great Idea!” profile of the founder of Friendster, Johnathan Abrams.  Its a must read for any startup and especially any start up getting venture capital.

3) Micro-Articles on Strategy, Marketing and Management: – Inc also covers the main areas of a small business each month.  In these separate articles devoted to specific areas such as marketing, strategy  and management they often give valuable and very practical business tips that businesses can incorporate into their daily operations immediately.  Last month, they had a great strategy tip of using interns to develop talent and even using contests at schools to attract recruits.

4) Small Business Tools, &Applications:  In nearly each issue, Inc. profiles tools and applications that can make your business more productive and efficient.  The magazine often tries to look out for the most cost-effective tools and even give you recommendations for what tools are best for what types of businesses. I have found out about tools and applications such as Zoho (free productivity and collaboration applications), BaseCamp (project management), Guru (outsourced software and web design and development) and many more from these profiles.

5) Learnings From Cover Stories:  I have read every Inc. magazine cover to cover from mid-2007 to November (I am a little behind, have not read this month’s yet!).  Nearly every cover story that Inc has had has profiled a small business or entrepreneur that has not only a noteworthy story, but has powerful lessons for every businessperson that is reading the article.  The cover stories are deep, insightful and tell the story ofl real life successes,, failures, challenges and obstacles that businesses, partners and entrepreneurs lived through while operating their company.

There are so many other valuable parts of Inc. magazine including the “How to” guides that I have used that describe how to buy the best insurance, how to hire the best small business lawyer, or how to make the most of trade shows.

I can not tell you how many times my wife and I have sat down and discussed one of Inc.’s great articles about a business, startup or entrepreneur from that month’s issue.  We recommend it wholeheartedly to any small business, entrepreneur and startup. Keep it up Inc. Thank you for being such a great magazine.

Let us know your views on Inc. magazine.

Tweet This Post

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Customer Reviews and Blogs: Do They Matter?

There are a lot of websites and blogs that track the good and bad customer experiences with online sites and service providers.  The general notion is that these past experiences will help predict what future experiences will be.  The concept makes a lot of sense, but it presumes a few things to be true.  I just finished reading SuperFreakonomics, so I think I’m more than qualified to address these issues in a rigorous manner (did I mention that I am a scientist?  Yep, I graduated with a degree in political science, so you’re in good hands):

Sample Issues: The review sites and blogs are very much slanted towards those actually inclined to share their experiences, and those who actually know how to share them.   There is a large bloc of people not interested in telling the world about how they were ripped off by an unknown online seller (it’s called “loss avoidance” and most of us engage in it at some point…see I told you I was a scientist).  The sample of these comments are further vexed by the fact that some people don’t know how to voice their opinions (or which sites to do it with) — so the sample will likely skew towards more positive and be made by those familiar with technology/online industries.

Fraud: This is also a concern, and likely why most ratings skew overly positive…online sellers/service providers rate themselves (via fake accounts or their friends).  It’s not “fraud” in the sense of defrauding someone out of their money, but it’s not honest and defeats the purpose of customer reviews.  It’s similar to how I used to inscribe my own yearbook to make it seem like I had more friends.

Low Visibility/Little Negative Impact:  An online seller isn’t likely to promote their customer reviews unless  they are positive, so it takes a consumer extra effort to research the negative reviews.  And once you do come across those reviews, what do they mean?  If you’re about to save 20% on the new plasma t.v., it’s likely that you’ll take your chances — it’s likely the previous customers were just complainers. 

Time for the anecdotal: My wife bought a new light fixture online.  She receives it and finds out it can’t be used in a bathroom because of a potential fire hazard.  The contacts the owner of the site, he tells her “she should be fine putting it in the bathroom”).  After realizing she is not going to be able to return the item, she threatens to “blog about her experience”.  Of course, she has other things to worry about and in time she moves one — no negative review, no blog posting, no negative effect for the online seller.

Of course, we here at KikScore think we’ve solved the issue, but until we’re ubiquitous, we’ll have to determine whether customer reviews are helpful.  What are your thoughts?

Tweet This Post