Home Wealth Project

A plan is a decision about what you’re going to do. It can be as detailed as you choose and potentially complicated. Or it can be core and more simple. I’ve noticed that when you’re running a one man, one woman show or any type of small team, it’s easy to get lost in the details. So make the details second to the beautiful parts of the vision.

plan

For example, it’s the new year and we have fitness resolutions dancing in our heads. But instead of thinking of the 4 or 5 workouts a week and the diet changes, you could choose to focus on a flat tummy in your favorite shirt, a shopping spree at the 20 pound mark, how fun Zumba classes are on Monday nights and the new tasty gourmet meals that you’ll discover, etc.

You still get the same results, but you have a lot more fun along the way.

I have found that adding the pleasure to your business plans makes it easier to do the grunt work as well. For me, it’s not about the workout. It’s about the 20 minutes in the steam room afterwards. It’s not about the hours at the desk, it’s about a solution for the small business owners that I know and love. Now, I’ll show up for that.

Here are four different types of business plans to consider for this year.

The Relationship Plan

In “What Matters Most: Business (Part II),” John Mariotti tells a simple (true) story that makes it easier for you to understand the power of tenacity and relationships in pursuing new clients. His tale highlights the never-give-up, never-back-down, but service-driven-attitude that it takes to attract new clientele. And it reminds you to keep showing up. Because one day your prospects will have an emergency, a problem that you can solve. You just need to be ready and available.

The “Who’s Next” Plan

Every business or program has to have successors but it’s common for small business owners to operate like superman doesn’t have a weakness. Well he does and it’s time to plan for it. It’s time to identify and train a team that is ready to lead when the time comes.

But first you have to:

Get clear about every position in the company and who will fill each spot in the face of an emergency, life-change or tragedy.
Get your team ready to lead now with real world experiences. I love this one because there’s nothing like feeling the fear and handling the situation anyway.

When training your team, get focused on the position you are preparing them for and realistic about how long it will take to get them ready. There is a serious difference between being the right hand man and the front runner. Your team players need a chance to feel that difference and learn to manage it. And real world practice makes it better.

In “The Key to Succession Planning Is Having A Strong Bench,” John gives additional advice to help you plan for the long term future of your business.

The “No BS” Plan

Ivana Taylor says:

“The reason most of our business plans fail is because we leave them on the paper or we suck the life out of them by giving them uninspiring names.”

I agree and to combat that you can do what I did:

Choose the two or three major projects that you will to accomplish this year.
Name them something that inspires you and your team every time you hear it.
Create a visually appealing image to represent the project and put it on the wall.

There will be many details in order to complete your plan, but the core or your desire (with a cool name) will be in your face daily.

For Ivana’s no BS plan check out “A New And Improved Goal Setting Process For Your Business (And Life).” She encourages us to know what our real commitments are, to plan with those in mind, to get them down on paper as soon as possible and then off the page and into real life.

The Simple Plan

And if you are really overwhelmed, just start with the The Overwhelmed Small Business Owner’s Guide to Simplicity. You have to be in motion to be in the game. So even if you take baby steps, as long as you keep moving in the right direction, you will eventually arrive at your destination.

But if you stand in the same place, you’ll be left behind. So, just get started.

Plan Photo via Shutterstock

Simple “Who’s Next” Relationship Plan: What Experts Say

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Experts, Next”, plan, relationship, Simple, “Who’s

Should You Do It Yourself (DIY) or Pay the Experts (PTE)?

Dec 29th

It’s the big mistake that we have the power to fix. But it’s also the kind of thing that we could spend a lifetime getting wrong—without intervention. When should you do it yourself (DIY) and when should you pay the experts (PTE) to do it for you?

Small business owners are the kings and queens of creating something out of nothing, of learning every skill that they have to learn in order to move their businesses forward. Cash-strapped individuals with great ideas have been known to be highly innovative—but that doesn’t have tp mean doing it all by yourself.

When is it time to grow the team? Here’s a simple reality check.

What are you doing?

If you are designing your own graphics when your skill set lies in writing or negotiations or product design, then you may need to re-evaluate your efforts. If you are writing your own marketing copy when you excel at graphic design or customer service, then you may need to add a writer to the team to maximize your time and effort.

How are you doing it?

If you’re creating lowbrow solutions that make your company look like a hobby instead of a business, then you may need to upgrade the team. Just as a weak product is bad for business, weak visuals and weak content hurt your bottom line because they fail to attract the right clients.

Does your current system cost you money or make you money?

If the expert charges $300 to create a custom WordPress website but it takes you 300 hours to do it yourself, then you have to factor in the cost of your time to see which option offers the true savings.

Keep this in mind: Hiring an expert doesn’t mean that you stop learning or that you turn your brain off. It means that you have more time

for the parts of the business that you excel at and where you cannot be replaced,
to further develop your communication skills, because that’s a crucial ability for every business leader,
to spearhead the overall strategy behind the business, because no one will care about the big picture as much as you do.

What time is it?

Sometimes it costs too much to DIY. And sometimes it costs too much to PTE. It’s up you, the business leader, to know the time involved and how to make the most of it.

Image from Kalim/Shutterstock

Should You Do It Yourself (DIY) or Pay the Experts (PTE)?

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Experts, Should, Yourself

31 Experts Share Advice for Buying Web-Based Software

Nov 29th

Every day, thousands of business owners buy software. Some are moving to the cloud and purchasing Web-based (aka SaaS – software-as-a-service) and often start with a free or low-cost trial. If you’re considering doing this, here are words of wisdom from 30-plus business owners, including some insights from software creators.

Jon Ferrara, CEO and Founder of Nimble:

Today, business has changed. With the advent of social media, email, IM, text messages and more, businesses are overwhelmed by the myriad applications needed to listen to and engage with their customers. The question is no longer how to stay connected – it is how to efficiently and cost-effectively build business relationships given all the channels of communication. The best Web apps should address all of these issues.

Mark Grilli, Director of Product Marketing at Acrobat Solutions:

SMB owners should look for services designed to meet the needs of today’s fast-paced, interconnected world; services that provide their businesses with simple-to-use solutions to help them deliver their best work, every day, with the productivity, reliability, fidelity, control and cost savings that they expect and deserve.

Pamela O’Hara, President of Batchbook:

Functionality is king! That includes customization, security, ownership, mobility and portability.

Customization - Based on the priorities and the personality of your business, look for flexibility in how you can analyze the information you are collecting, as well as in the user interface.

Security - For desktop or local applications, keep anti-virus software current and back up your data frequently. For software-as-a-service (SaaS), the company hosting the SaaS product is responsible for the security of your data, so check the security policies.

Ownership - Use a business email address when registering the account administrator to protect your business from legal ambiguity about who can access the data.

Mobility - With desktop software, make sure it can sync with your mobile device, either directly or through an application like Outlook. With an online system, see if it has a mobile-ready version or app.

Portability - Ask: What information can be exported? What formats can be used? With what other software can it share data?

Costin Tuculescu, CEO of AnyMeeting.com:

Look for:

1) An active support site that features FAQs, a knowledge base and an active support community through their Facebook or Twitter presence, showing that they care about their users

2) Other companies or users that are using the software, and find out what their reviews are when compared to the competition

3) A history: How long has the company been around? Have they demonstrated financial stability?

4) A free trial that lets you experience the software as closely as possible to what you will be purchasing

Michael Pesochinsky, Cofounder of GovernmentAuctions.org:

The main thing small business owners should look for when it comes to Web-based software is the cost versus output. How much more productive will we be with this software? Will the program do the job efficiently? Can I get this product cheaper–if not for free? Asking these questions prior to selecting the software will help you make the best choice.

John McMahon, Founder and CEO of Sheetster:

Lower upfront software licensing costs combined with standards-based services mean that 90 percent of an organization’s needs can be met using off-the-shelf, open-source services yet still provide “future-proof” and interoperability with line-of-business and commercial desktop products for everything from Excel to Quickbooks to SAP.

The benefits to this approach are many. With a cloud-based server, you no longer need to worry about hardware, networking or maintaining physical systems. Modern cloud servers and drives are extremely reliable and redundant, typically more so than in-house systems. And by running standards-based application server software in the cloud, you get the benefits of dedicated website and database hosting, Web spreadsheets and docs, email and messaging that works with any mail client, mobile-friendly services such as email and calendaring and more.

Sarah Belfer, Director of Public Relations at eDealya:

Rather than focus on quantity, focus on quality. Look for software that engages your fans in meaningful ways – if you listen to them, then they’ll listen to you. Reach out to them at the times that they want to hear from you and about the products that they want to hear about – keep your contact relevant, concise and personalized.

Stephen Fung, Cofounder of Inflow Inventory:

Especially when looking for Web-based software, look for companies that you can trust. If you run into a bug in the software, they should be able to fix it. You’re paying not just for the software, but also for their help and for improvements to the software over time. Look for a company with a track record of regular releases and great customer service.

Robert Landsfield, CEO of Skymira:

It is imperative that companies vetting a software solution ensure that the application can easily exchange information/data/records/etcetera with other applications.

There are cloud-based solutions available that enable companies to gain efficiencies in specific business or manufacturing processes. Think of it as a “business app” store where companies can source apps that do one or two tasks well. What’s new here is there are cloud-based companies with the expertise to tie multiple apps together so they exchange information, in essence creating in a tailored ERP system for an SMB that focus only on the processes that are important to the company. This approach enables a company to layer on additional apps as they see fit over time.

Liz Pearce, VP Sales and Marketing for LiquidPlanner:

Just as important as what to look for is what not to look for. Don’t look for a silver bullet. Forget the mile-long list of requirements and focus on finding a tool that will solve your top three problems.

Darren Levy, CEO of GatherSpace:

Choosing the wrong kind of Web-based software could be a massive waste of time. Look for the following attributes:
1) Free trial – this is a must. If a company can’t let me test drive their software, than they must be hiding something.
2) 1-800 number for customer service and sales, an intuitive website that works well and has great product information, a blog, and any similar signs that show there is customer-centric management behind the curtain.
3) Solid security policies and backup to ensure your data is safe and secure.

Marc Itzkowitz, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Support.com:

When buying Web-based software or any Web-based service, your provider should be an adherent to the Tech Support Bill of Rights, which means that they will honor my right to live support from people who understand my issue but also my culture and my language; the right to have the latest tools brought to bear on my issues so they are solved efficiently; the right to flexible packages of support that meet my financial and business needs; and a guarantee they’ll fix my problem or direct me to someone who can.

Steven Aldrich, CEO of Outright:

You should have no learning curve and get immediate value … if the software is not immediately useful to your business, you don’t have time to waste on it.

Tim Beranek, Partner at BKD:

An important consideration is that the application be device agnostic. The smartphone, notepad, etcetera, trend continues to evolve as new technology is developed. However, with this consideration come huge concerns related to security. Those concerns may depend on the ability to initiate, process, store and query data and transactions. So one must think about the level of encryption on these devices, restricted and secured access, and ability to “wipe” the device if lost or stolen. Periodically, it is important to run vulnerability scans and perform penetration testing.

Eric Peters, Marketing Communications Manager at Mendix:

Look for a balance between out-of-the-box functionality and customizability. You’ll want your application up and running fast, but with the option to make it fit your organization’s business process and integration needs.

Make sure future modifiability is built in to the software: You will want to be able to continuously receive feedback from end users and apply it to the application to maintain a good ROI.

Raj Sheth, Cofounder of Recruiterbox.com:

It should be as simple as email and cost less than your monthly Starbucks bill.

Alan Canton, Owner of Adam-Blake Publishing and Jaya123 small-business system:

Make sure that the service didn’t appear yesterday. If possible see if they have been around for a few years. There is nothing worse (or more expensive later on) than hitching your business wagon to a falling star!

Craig Griffiths, AskFindBuy:

SMEs should look for software that moves customers down the sales funnel without relying on their own site–like Yelp! [does] for the restaurant business. You need a service to promote your category so all you need to do is market your position and not the category itself.

Arun Prakash, Vice President of Marketing at Thinkspeed:

No matter how great the software is, you will likely run into some issues. Make sure they provide proper support so you are not hung out to dry when those issues pop up.

Brandy Sites, Owner of BR Graphic Design LLC:

When I evaluate Web-based software for my small business, the first thing I look for is an active support community. If the forums are very present and up-to-date, it makes me feel more at ease with the new software knowing that I have the proper support when I need it. The next thing I look at is the ease of use. I wear many hats in my organization, so it’s important for the software to be straightforward and easy to use.

Joe Manna, Community Manager at Infusionsoft:

Choosing software based on features and shiny objects alone will result in disappointment down the road as a user. Instead, focus on the strategic benefits that you’re really after, and the features will follow. An example of this distinction is the ability to “stop a vehicle at high speeds” (benefits) vs. “high-temperature ceramic brake pads with drilled and slotted rotors” (features).

Shane Neman, CEO of Ez Texting:

SaaS should be more than just software. Good Web-based software should be backed up by great customer service. If you’re paying for a product you should get prompt, helpful support.

Robby Slaughter, Owner of Slaughter Development:

Most importantly, you should choose Web-based software that has a clear exit path. If you can’t easily export your data and get up and running somewhere else quickly, look elsewhere. Beware vendor lock-in. Don’t confuse “open source” with “free.” There are hidden costs to all Web-based applications, and if you’re not paying someone up front to keep the system running then you will eventually pay for it yourself.

Local options trump faceless mega-corps. If a hometown company is offering a Web-based solution that has merit, the ability get support from someone in your own community is of incredible value.

Eric Richard, Public Relations Specialist at Appointment-Plus:

Make sure the cloud-based software provider is an established and proven business, not a fly-by-night operation that may cease to exist in a year. Also, be sure the provider offers sufficient customer support–including live phone support–for you and your staff.

Grace Sales at CardWiX:

When choosing Web-based software, users must keep in mind the privacy and security of their data.

Jitka Sykora, Vice President of LeaseRunner.com:

Avoid any software that charges on a “per user” basis. Collaboration, one of the biggest advantages of Web-based tools, then gets really expensive.

Amy Bennett, Cofounder of ShopKeep.com:

Know that Web-based means you are dependent on a stable internet connection and cloud server uptime. For mission-critical applications like point of sale, consider companies that provide a native app paired with a cloud-based service. Even if the Internet or cloud servers go down, you’ll still be able to ring up sales.

Juli Klie, CEO of InfoPreserve:

Remember, the Web is just another delivery mechanism (albeit a practical, cost-effective one!) The core rationale for choosing software still needs to be:

1) What’s the problem I’m trying to solve? and

2) Who does it best for our needs today and for the near-term future? Don’t get caught up by “hot” buzzwords or solutions that are great for someone else but not a one-size-fits-all answer for you.

Michael Kaiser-Nyman, CEO and Founder of Impact Dialing:

The best way is to try it out. Most Web-based software has a free plan or at least a trial; pick a few different offerings, try them all out and then stick with the best one.

Steve Tennant, Managing Director of Tennant Consulting:

Consider the total cost of adopting a software package–most of which is the time it takes for your team to get trained to use it. Do the math on the cost of training employees: days per employee multiplied by the number of employees. You might find a more expensive-but-easy-to-use software product makes more business sense.

What’s your “Plan B”? Walk through and test what happens if the Web-based software is no longer available due to circumstances beyond your control. Can you really get copies of your data, say each day or week as an offsite backup, and could you really use that data backup in another software program? Believe it only if you’ve done it as part of your evaluation process.

Michael Ortner, Founder and CEO of Capterra:

Five years ago the common wisdom regarding Web-based software was to be careful about things like security, data access and uptime. But these issues have been dealt with fairly adequately by the vendors, especially as they relate to small businesses, so the main things to consider when buying Web-based (or any kind of software, for that matter) relate to functionality and usability:

1) Does it do everything we need it to do?

2) How quickly can we get our users trained?

3) How user-friendly is most of the functionality?

If you are using Web-based software to operate your company, please share your expertise and wisdom in the comments. We’d love to hear about your experiences and advice for other small business owners considering moving their software into the cloud and operating on a SaaS platform.

Image from LilKar/Shutterstock

31 Experts Share Advice for Buying Web-Based Software

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

advice, buying, Experts, share, software, WebBased

SEO Experts Academy

Nov 28th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in All Posts

Learn How To Dominate Any Niche With Free SEO Traffic, By Doing SEO Like The Big League Players Do.
SEO Experts Academy

Academy, Experts

Simplify This: User Experience Experts Are in Demand

Sep 27th

3 comments

It’s about time. If we’re going to be online and be in business online, then I want it to be as easy as possible. I don’t want to log in to some digital tool and get lost before I get to the second screen. And I especially don’t want to have to overthink in order to understand how to use the tool.

I’m at a crossroads and my guess is you may be at the same spot. I’m loving the technology—and the advances and the potential—but I am drawn to simplicity, as in “easy” (or at least “easier”) to use tools that solve my complicated marketing problems. (Most of the tools I use are for marketing purposes, such as content management systems like blogs and website frameworks, social network interfaces, email list building platforms, etc.).

In fact, I have changed my email list-building platform three times so far and every time it was because of the user experience. Two platforms looked great but weren’t intuitive (enough for me) to use—and I got lost in a maze of links and buttons. The third platform was easier to use, but ugly to look at—and I lost my marketing inspiration in that visually challenged back office.

But the tides are changing.

Are You a User Experience (UX) Expert?

OnwardSearch.com recently released a Guide to UX Careers. At left is an infographic highlighting the growing demand for User Experience Experts. While it breaks down the jobs and positions in this industry, it also exposes a possible opportunity for specialized small business owners and consultants.

There are more websites today, as well as a demand for more sophisticated components on our websites, such as landing pages and shopping carts. We demand these components look and function a certain way, while also being easy to implement. And this demand creates an opportunity, suggesting that it may be a good idea for freelancers and professionals in the emerging UX field to polish their skills so that they can take advantage of this shift.

But maybe you are on the other end.

Do You Need a User Experience (UX) Expert?

When the shoe is on the other foot and we find ourselves in front of the counter (as the customer) instead of behind it, then we are looking to have an excellent user experience. Likewise, our clients want the same thing from us. Brian Wallace, owner of NowSourcing.com and the designer of the infographic above, gave me three pieces of quick advice for small business owners who are looking to hire a User Experience Expert. He says:

GET CLEAR. “Make sure you clearly scope your project. Define what you want to accomplish as well as the projected goals you hope to achieve.”
BRING THE ENTHUSIASM. “Be prepared to sell the sizzle of your project. The best designers are attracted to the best projects, so be able to demonstrate why this would appeal to their skills.”
PERSONALITY MATTERS. “It’s not just about their technical skills. Make sure you find someone you can work with, collaboratively, throughout the duration of the project.”

When he’s looking to add new team members to NowSourcing, Brian says he looks for a person with “outstanding creative insight.” And that’s what the user experience is about. At least that’s what we want it to be about—happy customers, easier use and a better look and feel. Now, that’s outstanding.

Simplify This: User Experience Experts Are in Demand

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

demand, experience, Experts, simplify, This, user

How to Play Pro Basketball-Interviews with the Experts

Aug 14th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in All Posts

Pro coaches, players, agents and scouts teach you what it takes to play Professional Basketball.
How to Play Pro Basketball-Interviews with the Experts

BasketballInterviews, Experts, play

Who Do Your Customers Trust: Friends or Experts?

Feb 23rd

2 comments

It’s all a matter of trust. Whether we’re talking social media or business, it’s about building relationships with potential customers so they trust us long enough to stick around and hear what we have to say. Because if they don’t, all that great content, interacting and marketing won’t help. Without trust, you have nothing.

With trust so important, everyone wants to know who people trust more. Who is it you want singing your company’s praises to make an impression? Is it a potential customer’s next-door neighbor, an authority figure, a celebrity? Recently, I stumbled upon on an eMarketer post that commented on two studies that seemed to offer conflicting answers to that question. I thought perhaps I’d dig into their numbers a bit to find the real story.

Study 1: GlobalWebIndex’s Annual 2011 Report

The first study mentioned by eMarketer was GlobalWebIndex’s 2011 report, which claims to have the most detailed set of data on your online audience ever. (So, take that, everyone else.) According to their numbers, since 2009 users worldwide have reported:

50 percent increase in their trust of social network contracts
21 percent increase for microblog contacts
16 percent increase for blogger contacts

Not bad, but probably what you’d expect given the date ranges, right? That study also showed that trust in traditional media like newspapers, television and radio has barely moved over the same time period. GlobalWebIndex states these numbers show the important synergy that exists between professional content and who it is that’s sharing that content.

While that’s true, I don’t think it paints a very clear picture of who your prime distributor is. It makes sense to see social media sites showing the highest “increases,” since they had the most to gain over the past couple of years. That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where your audience is or that trust is growing for “people like us.”

Study 2: Edelman’s 2011 Trust Barometer Report

Edelman’s data provides an entirely different look at consumer trust than the one mentioned above. According to their research, it’s not “people like us” that we look toward for influence, but people smarter than us. Edelman’s data lists the most trustworthy folks as:

70 percent: Academic or an expert
>64 percent: Technical expert
50 percent: CEO
43 percent: Person like you

Why are Edelmen’s numbers so skewed toward academic professionals? Well, because of the group polled. The respondents for the Trust Barometer study were not your average sampling of Internet users. Instead, they were college-educated consumers ages 25 to 64 , in the top 25 percent of household income relative to age group, who regularly follow business news and public policy. “People like them” are academic professors or field experts. Therefore it makes sense that those are the opinions they would seek out and trust.

So what are the takeaways for small business owners? Be wary of studies and do your own research to understand who your particular audience takes its cues from.

As a small business owner, you need to observe your own audience. Who are they conversing with? Who are they retweeting? What blogs/information sources do they read? Where do they get the information that they share? Do they ask Twitter for answers or do they ask Twitter for sources? These are their trust circles and how you’ll want to appeal to them.

Trust is essential to your business. That means both gaining trust yourself and understanding who your core audience trusts to help you market to them. You don’t need a fancy survey to tell you who that is. You just have to do your homework.

Who Do Your Customers Trust: Friends or Experts?

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Customers, Experts, friends, trust

A Small Business Summit With No Small Business Experts

Feb 18th

Recently, I attended the 2011 Small Business Summit in Cleveland, put on by COSE, the Council of Smaller Enterprises.

Steve Millard, COSE President and Executive Director, said that event was being put on to help “redefine” the future of the local small business community.

Hundreds of small business owners and managers were in attendance, and it was obvious that they were there to not only voice their concerns, but also contribute actionable ideas to help shape this region’s future. The timing for the Summit was good; signs of optimism are starting to appear.

The Summit, facilitated by CWRU Professor of Organizational Development Ron Fry, was an “AI” (Appreciative Inquiry) Organizational Summit. The Professor billed it as “not your typical planning meeting.” He was right on the mark with that statement.

This was not a PowerPoint event. Professional speakers were nowhere to be found. This event was all about what this 300-person-strong group could bring to the table. It was about ideas.

If you’ve never heard of AI, the folks at Wikipedia define it as:

“A particular way of asking questions and envisioning the future that fosters positive relationships and builds on the basic goodness in a person, a situation or an organization. In so doing, it enhances a system’s capacity for collaboration and change.”

The handouts that each attendee received stated that, “the whole system participates—a cross-section of as many interested parties as is practical. That means more diversity and less hierarchy than is usual in a working meeting, and a chance for each person to be heard and to learn other ways of looking at the task at hand.”

The room was filled to the brim with round tables, and our table had a group of six attendees, along with a COSE employee to help keep us moving through the AI process. We were asked to choose partners; my partner was part owner of a local Sandler Sales Training franchise.

The first part of the process involved us both sharing a recent time when we were really proud to be a small business owner/leader. We were told to take notes when our partner was sharing, and that we would be using them later in the session.

Then we dug a little deeper and discussed what past collaborations, networks and learning experiences helped shape the outcomes of the stories we had presented to each other.

Another part of the process included sharing instances when we were able to leverage community alliances and networks to overcome a small business hurdle or barrier to achieve a greater result.

We then went on to discuss ways in which our local community currently supports and fosters small business success. All those at our table were able to name several organizations and institutions that were doing a good job supporting the small business community, and that would be worth preserving, or even amplifying, as we move towards the future.

Speaking of the future, the next part of the process involved our vision for the future, as it pertained to our small business success as a community. Of all the things we did, this was probably the most enlightening.

We were told to imagine what things would be like for our community in February 2015, as if a miracle had happened. We imagined our businesses and our community experiencing success like never before. We were told to share specific images that came to mind.

Most of the images that were shared came in the form of newspaper headlines:

“Cleveland Becomes a Portal for International Business Success”

“Ohio Unemployment Is Lowest in the Country”

“Major Shortage of Residential Housing in Metropolitan Cleveland Reported”

“8 Out of 10 Local College Grads Are Choosing to Remain in Cleveland”

“Browns Win Super Bowl!”

You get the picture.

Finally, a member of each table presented their ideas for change to all of the attendees. Some of the ideas included:

The creation of a small business lending hub (credit union style)
A one-stop concierge-style online resource destination for current/future small business owners
A small business incubator located right at COSE headquarters
More small-business-focused grass-roots involvement in local communities

There were lots of other great ideas presented, and COSE will be providing a summary of the event (including results of the voting on the ideas) in the near future.

I found the format of the COSE Small Business Summit to be really powerful. It was a real chance for real small business owners to get together and propose real ideas for a region that needs them.

A Small Business Summit With No Small Business Experts

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

business, Experts, Small, summit

10 Tips for Working with Outside Experts

Feb 8th

May I call it the expertise business? As a provider, I made a good living with business planning consulting on my own for 11 years and as an employee of larger consulting companies for nine years. As a client, I’ve worked with some excellent attorneys, some good and not-so-good accountants, and good and not-so-good package designers, copywriters, graphic artists, and public relations consultants. And I’d like to suggest some tips for buyers of expertise, to help you get what you pay for.

Map the different species. Different experts have different standard behaviors. Some experts do the work for you, some tell you what to do, some help you do it. Some are obvious, like the accountant filling out the tax forms for you, the lawyers writing the legal documents, the designers designing, and the graphic artists drawing. But the lines get blurry. Accountants and lawyers, for example, don’t just do things, they also give advice and charge you for it. Coaches and consultants have some obvious differences. Know who does what.
Define your real needs. So you have to think through whether you’re looking for somebody to actually do things, or to help you do them, or maybe just deliver a consulting report and walk away. In business planning, where I’ve spent most of my career as an expert, people don’t understand that they need planning, not just a plan; having somebody do a plan for you is as smart as having somebody do your exercise. In graphic arts and design, where I’ve been a frequent client, you want the finished work, not just coaching.
Find multiple candidates. Never hire any kind of an expert without first looking into three or more candidates.
Research those candidates. Get recommendations, search the web, and always check references from past clients. Insist on a client list: not just one happy client you can call (that’s too easy to fake), but enough to keep them honest. Check the references, don’t assume anything. And as you talk to possible candidates, be fair about not asking them to give you their expertise for free, and work into the discussion that you are talking to more than one. Don’t be shy about rates and terms.
Know what you really want and communicate that clearly. If you’re not sure and you’re looking for advice, say so. If you are sure, say for example that you want coaching not consulting, you want help not reports and instructions, you have to say so.
Make your timing clear, and your scope realistic. If you don’t know fairly well what you’re talking about, then listen first. For example, when prospective clients go to programmers wanting a morph between Facebook, Amazon.com, and Google, for $5,000, smart programmers run away. When prospective PR clients start expecting to be in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Huffington Post, and TechCrunch all at once, smart PR people run.
Get it in writing. A written understanding protects both sides. Agree on the scope, timing, and fee schedules, write it in plain English in a short document, and sign it. Don’t try to foresee all possible problems and put in a clause for each. Assume reasonable is good enough, avoid legalese, and put it in writing.
Use letters not contracts. (Attorneys please skip to the following point. Do not read this.) Contracts with professional vendors are a waste of time and money on both sides. Disputes will be solved by negotiation, not contract; and in the worst case, mediation. Just make sure that both sides of the relationship understand the main points. Avoid legalese. Save the contracts for deep fundamental stuff, long-term ownership, long-term employees, alliances, etc.
Start simple. Think in Steps. Don’t do the equivalent of agreeing to scale all of the stories of a 40-story building if you can agree to a simple first-step engagement that gives you and the experts a chance to work together and get to know each other. I use the term “abandonment point.” As a consultant I always scoped a job in a way that allowed me and the client to fall out quickly and drop it soon. That makes it much easier to sell, and much easier to buy. Make your first agreement a simple step one.
Manage: review, evaluate, communicate. Find a happy medium between driving your expert crazy with repeated meetings and hand holding, on the one hand, and leaving them alone with no feedback or communication for way too long, on the other. The more time that goes buy without reviewing progress, the more risk of disappointment and problems. You have to give feedback. You’re the client.

By the way, I conceived of this post after I saw eConsultancy’s post listing the five clients you should avoid like the plague. I was amused by the taxonomy of client types, but it also struck me that there are two sides to that question. It isn’t just about avoiding annoying clients; it’s also about understanding both sides of the relationship. You don’t want to be one of those client types.

Trite but true: there’s no such thing as a win-loss business relationship. You both win or you both lose.

10 Tips for Working with Outside Experts

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Experts, Outside, Tips, Working

14 Tips From the Pubcon Experts About Landing Page Optimization

Nov 29th

I recently had the good fortune to attend a session on landing page optimization at PubCon.com, the annual conference about search, social media, Internet marketing and website operation. I learned a lot, so I thought I’d share the 14 top takeaways from the session with Small Business Trends’ readers.

The experts who shared their knowledge at this session were Joanna Lord, Director of Customer Acquisition for SEO Moz; Kate Morris, SEO Consultant; and Tim Ash, CEO of SiteTuners.com. Here’s what each of them had to say.

There Are Tons of Tools to Help You—Use Them!

Joanna Lord’s presentation was focused on tools and programs you can use to discover which pages on your website and what types of content are converting well or poorly. I came away with lots of interesting tools I’m going to try.

1) Use Google Analytics to data mine. Google gives you so much information to uncover what parts of your site are working to convert customers and which are not. Everyone should start with this tool.

2) Use heat mapping. (In case you’re not familiar with this term, a “heat map” uses colors to show the areas of a Web page where users most frequently scan.) By seeing where users spend the most time, you can improve your click-through rates and conversions to products/services. Here are some heat mapping tools Joanna suggested trying: Clickheat (this is a free tool); Click Density; and Crazy Egg. Crazy Egg is Joanna’s favorite heat mapping tool. While some heat mapping tools update you on the most popular areas of your site every 24 hours, Crazy Egg provides hourly live reporting.

3. Do user surveys. When people leave your site, do you know why? No one likes a popup box on a website, but if you can get useful information by running a popup or exit survey for a week, a temporary decrease in conversions is worth it for the long-term health of your site. Here are some user testing tools Joanna likes: Assistly.com (free trial), UserTesting.com ($39), Keynote (free trial), Providesupport.com (free trial) and Zendesk (free trial). The tool SEO Moz uses is KISS Insights ($29/month). Joanna likes KISS Insights because it has great survey options, including surveys via popup boxes or upon user exit.

4. Test out new options. After you have surveyed your users, make changes and test their effectiveness. Tools Joanna recommends to test different landing pages: Unbounce.com, Google Website Optimizer and Optimizely.com.

Think Like a User

Kate Morris offered some great advice as well.

5. Know your product and always keep in mind user intent. What are users trying to do when they are on your site, and can they do it easily? Assess your site from the viewpoint of the user trying to accomplish a goal. Can they check out quickly? Can they navigate back to a prior page? How good is your search function?

6. Identify high-traffic pages that are not converting and make changes. If a page is getting lots of traffic, great! But if that traffic isn’t converting, not so great. Kate suggests using Google Analytics to pinpoint these pages. She used the example of one customer that had a high-traffic page with lots of white space on the right nav. She had them add a form, which helped increase conversions.

7. Look at “top landing pages” in Google Analytics and search for outliers. Are there pages on your site that are receiving zero visitors? Is your internal linking structure poor? Do you need more links to those deep pages?

Image—and Images—Matter

Tim Ash’s presentation was extremely visual. He showed a number of before and after pictures for sites and displayed heat maps for the old and new pages so we could see the comparison. I will mention a few of the sites that he has worked on, so you can check them out for yourself (unfortunately, you won’t be able to see the “before,” but hopefully the “afters” will inspire you!).

8. Create trust. Many sites don’t convert because they lack credibility and fail to establish trust with users. Consider displaying seals (Truste, McAfee, BBB, VeriSign and the like) as well as displaying the logos (he couldn’t stress enough the importance of images, not just the names) of large companies that you do business with.

9. Keep it simple. Don’t offer too many choices on the home page. Keep strong images of what you are selling on the site, but don’t clutter things up with unnecessary Flash (especially not fast scrolling Flash shows). Tim showed us the “before” look of MosquitoCurtains.com (which was very scattered) compared to the new look. Cleaner and simpler is much easier for users.

10. Read Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.

11. Adjust guarantees. Don’t offer 30-day guarantees; offer lifetime guarantees and watch your purchases increase. Lifetime guarantees make the user feel much safer.

12. Ask for the sale. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of asking for the close. Tim showed us the “before” for 1-800-Flowers. Their order form was so buried and blended in that users never clicked on it. After changing things up, the order form was much more prominent and got a ton more clicks.

13. Check out B.J. Fogg from Stanford Labs. B.J. helps organizations use technology and new media to influence people. Tim suggests reading through his papers and articles on customer interaction and usability.

14. Remember, you’ve only got an instant to make a good impression. Tim emphasized that customers make up their minds in a fraction of a second whether or not they want to interact with your site. Good, clean design is of paramount importance.

What tips and tactics have worked for your website in improving conversions and click-throughs? Share them in the Comments.