Tulane University’s $40,000 Tulane Business Plan Competition is accepting entrants until Feb. 15. First prizes of $20,000 each are offered for both the traditional entrepreneurship track and the social entrepreneurship track. Entrants have to be seeking outside capital, must be teams of two to six people and must have at least one full-time student as a member.
Thanks to David Miller of Campus Entrepreneurship for picking this one up.
{ 0 comments }
A tip for online retailers out there:
If you want to increase sales on your e-commerce website, try adding a security trustmark in your site header — not just in your shopping cart but for the whole site. We tested it, and it works.
Not familiar with the term “security trustmark”? If you buy or sell anything online, you have certainly seen them. Trustmarks are those small icons that typically appear in online shopping carts to validate that the merchant uses the appropriate security to protect buyers’ private data.
The merchant pays a fee to the provider of these trustmarks, and in return the provider’s security bots check the site every day to make sure it is still secure and reliable. It’s an easy way to communicate to new buyers that your business is above board, professional, and safe to buy from.
We have used security badges in our shopping cart on www.paloalto.com for years. But a while back we wondered if displaying a trustmark on our regular product pages — before visitors have added anything to the cart — would have any effect.
So we tested it using Google’s free split-testing tool (Website Optimizer). Website Optimizer makes it easy to test different variations of a web page (or part of a web page) to see which one performs best. For this test, we did a simple test of our standard sitewide header against a variation that was identical except for the addition of a McAfee Secure trustmark.
Somewhere in their marketing materials (I can’t find the specific reference now), McAfee says that their tests have found that the inclusion of their trustmark can increase conversions by a modest but notable amount, somewhere in the single-digit percentages.
How did it do in our test? Better than that. The header variation with the trustmark did a whopping 23% better than the plain original version. That is a pretty incredible difference for what seems like a minor variation.
Hard to believe, isn’t it? Give it a test for yourself, and let us know how it does in the comments.
Josh Cochrane
Director of Online Marketing
Palo Alto Software
{ 2 comments }
Palo Alto Software is proud to welcome Tim Nagle, one of the Duct Tape Marketing Coaches that will be posting over the next several months.
In our new president’s speech he said, “This is a new era of responsibility.” It is a new era. I can look at these words in many different ways and apply the meaning in so many different aspects of our lives. We set goals to achieve, accomplishments we want to obtain and a life we want to enjoy.
For many of us small business owners, we started a business to serve our lives. A business that serves our lives enhances every goal and accomplishment and fulfills us. Our proud life. A life that serves our business is one that is dedicated to making our business function and trying to reach our goals. A business that serves our life consumes us and makes us reactive, not proactive. The difference between business serving life and life serving business could be the difference between succeeding and not succeeding.
It is a new era.
Gone are the days of having time to recover a business from bad decisions. Gone are the days of having the time to have a long learning curve trying to establish your business and reach your goals through trial and error.
Proactive or reactive, which one describes you?
I was partners with a very successful man that grew his business from one office and one truck to a national company with multiple factories. Needless to say he was a great business man. He always said a couple phrases to me over and over and they are worth repeating now. “Without sales, you might as well throw away the key to the front door, because without sales, there isn’t a business.” The second phrase was, “ If you aren’t marketing you don’t get the opportunity.” What did he mean I thought the first time I heard him say that. Opportunity? I found out quickly that opportunity meant staying in business to keep selling and creating revenue.
By being proactive and saying that I will market wisely and take advantage of my resources, we are developing an aggressive proactive approach to having our business serve our lives. Marketing isn’t about spending more than your competition in the marketplace. Marketing for small business can be simple, effective and affordable. There are resources if you are proactive.
It is a new era.
Tim Nagle
www.TheMarketingCoachVa.com
Tim Nagle is the owner of The Marketing Coach. Tim works with select small companies who want to grow their business to the next level. He is a highly regarded professional marketer with over 15 years experience and is known for his immensely practical approach and ideas. Tim has been involved in a broad range of marketing & business activities which gives him a wealth of knowledge to bring to The Marketing Coach clients.
{ 5 comments }
Here is the link to an interesting BusinessWeek Online opinion piece by Steve McKee, Why Social Media is Worth Small Business Owner’s Time.
Why? The subheading points it out “All Those Users Spell Opportunity”. McKee also makes a nice comparison of today’s growth in Social Media to the growth to near-omnipresence of the Internet in business during the last one and one-half decades.
Give this a read, and then “Jump Right In”, making Social Media participation a strategy for your business.
Steve Lange
Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software
{ 0 comments }
There is a lot of buzz out there about Circuit City closing down all their stores, liquidating their inventory and cutting a heartbreaking 30,000+ jobs. It doesn’t take an analyst to point out that it won’t be the last big business to do so. According to the WashingtonPost.com: “Last year, there were 64,318 commercial bankruptcy filings, the most since 2005…”
If you are one of the many small businesses who see an opportunity to get some new office equipment at a low price, beware. You might not be getting the deal you are anticipating.
Circuit City passed control of the stores over to liquidators who are selling off the merchandise. If you’re expecting deep sales, you’re going to be disappointed. According to an older (but still informative) TechGear post and the comments from former Circuit City employees, the sales are most likely based off of MSRP or Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. These prices are generally much higher than the pricing you would see on a normal Circuit City sale. So in most cases, you’ll be paying more for items than you would have at Circuit City’s last big sale.
The more you know…
‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
{ 0 comments }
This is the second of three parts. The first part appeared here a month ago. All three were published first on Entrepreneur.com, and are based on the book 3 Weeks to Startup, which I co-authored along with Sabrina Parsons. That book, published by Entrepreneur Press, came out in the autumn of 2008. It’s built on the idea that most how-to-start books fall back on the older, pre-Web ways to get things done; and that today, because of the tools available, 3 weeks is still credible.
Day 8: Plan your marketing strategy.
Think about your target market. Imagine a hypothetical, ideal customer. Determine his or her age, gender, job, favorite media and family situation. It’s important to know your customer well.
What’s your message? Can you say it in a single sentence? What if you have just one sentence that your customers will listen to? Where would you send that message? How would you reach them?
Think about your marketing strategy and implementation details. Take the time to go through a short but focused marketing plan to make sure you understand what it will take to market your business.
Day 9: Develop your look and feel.
Start developing a sense of the look and feel of your company as your buyers will see it. What will your logo look like? What sense will it convey? Old-fashioned? Trustworthy? Leading edge? Everybody has a brand. What will yours be? How will you get that idea across to customers and potential customers?
Develop your look and feel through logos, signs, letterhead and graphic standards. These are your branding essentials, and you need to have them in place before you get much further.
Day 10: Start building your website.
Have you started your website already? Have you been thinking about it? Today’s the day to get going with that.
If you’re building a Web 2.0 application or any website that’s core to your business, then you might have to settle for simply having begun by the end of the three weeks.
For most businesses, you can have a website built very quickly. Think about the basic elements of your website, and at least get a site up with basic information about you, your business, your products, and your services.
These days there are some good shortcuts available: take a look at TypePad, WordPress, and blogger platforms, for example. These were built for blogging but can apply to many small sites, with little to no formatting work.
Day 11: Think about how you’re going to get paid.
Think about how your customers will pay you. If you’re going to be selling to consumers, then you probably want to establish a merchant account so you can accept credit cards.
These days, because of the online vendors, there are a lot more options. In the old days you had to go straight to your favorite local bank, which had a detailed and time-consuming process. These days, you have the option of setting yourself up with some Web stores (like Amazon, Yahoo!, and others) that can handle that part of it for you.
If you’re selling to businesses, then think about invoices and credit policies for business customers. There’s no underestimating how important getting paid is.
Day 12: Try making a sale.
Have you been able to make a sale yet? Maybe you should take today to peddle your goods. Even though you’re not fully established yet, lots of businesses (maybe most of them) start selling before they’re fully launched.
This is where you get to make sure that people want to buy what you’re selling.
Even if you can’t make a sale, because things are ready, talk somebody through it. The selling will continue for as long as your business is open, but we wanted to include it here as well because so many businesses are born at the moment the first customer says “yes.”
Day 13: Get an insurance policy.
Time to talk to an insurance broker, and get your business insurance started. These days, you can do a lot of research or even do the whole thing online. And if not, remember the old-fashioned telephone tree-style of finding the right people. Talk to any insurance broker you can think of, ask some questions, and if he or she isn’t the right one, ask who else you should talk to. Find the right person by asking the wrong person who else you should talk to.
In the doing, you’ll find out what kinds of insurance are appropriate for the type of business you’re starting.
Day 14: Build your dream team.
Have you been thinking about how to build your team? Do you know the people you want to bring on? It’s time to start ironing down the team and the employees, and start the recruiting process. Depending on your specifics, you’ll likely need job descriptions, and you’ll need to place ads on the right websites.
Start thinking about your employee list. Who will you need to help you out when you actually open for business? Will it be just you and your business partner? Do you need to hire service people? Drivers? Designers?
To get started, take another look at the financial planning you did in Week 1. See who you can afford to hire and start looking.
{ 2 comments }
I was happy to see the news release this morning, about Rice Alliance of Rice University’s entrepreneurship center winning the USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) annual award for the outstanding specialty entrepreneurship program. No, I’m not an alum there, but yes, I’m proud to say I’ve visited twice in recent years. I participate in the annual venture competition there, and it’s a great program.
I’ve met the professors, talked to the students, done some guest speaking, and had enough time to see what I’m talking about. There’s a very nice international mix there, and interested, interesting, and engaged students. Plus the Alliance, which is one of the best links between community and academic entrepreneurship anywhere.
My congratulations to Brad Burke, managing director of the Alliance, and Philana Diaz, director of the annual business plan competition. Well deserved.
{ 0 comments }
I noticed this very plan-as-you-go post by Guy Kawasaki on the American Express Open Forum. What I like about it, particularly, is where Guy says “set goals” and then lists these four desirable qualities of goals:
Measurable. If a goal isn’t measurable, its unlikely you’ll achieve it. For a startup, quantifiable goals are things like shipping deadlines, downloads, and sales volume. The old line “What gets measured gets done” is true. This also has ramifications for the number of goals, because you can’t (and shouldn’t) measure everything. Three to five goals measured on a weekly basis are plenty.
Achievable. Take your conservative forecasts for these goals and multiply them by 10 percent; then use that as your goal. For example, if you think you’ll easily sell a million units in the first year, set your goal at 100,000 units. There is nothing more demoralizing than setting a conservative goal and falling short; instead take 10 percent of your forecast, make this your goal, and blow it away. You might think that such a practice will lead to underachieving organizations, because they aren’t being challenged. Yeah, well, check back with me after you don’t sell a million widgets.
Relevant. A good goal is relevant. If you’re a software company, it’s the number of downloads of your demo version. It’s not your ranking in Alexa, so telling the company to focus on getting into the top 50,000 sites in the world in terms of traffic is not nearly as relevant as 10,000 downloads per month.
Rathole resistant. A goal can be measurable, achievable, and relevant and still send you down a rathole. Let’s say you’ve created a content website. Your measurable, achievable, and relevant goal is to sign up 100,000 registered users in the first ninety days. So far, so good. But what if you focus on this body count without regard to the stickiness of the site? So now you’ve gotten 100,000 people to register, but they visit once and never return. That’s a rathole. Ensure that your goal encompasses all the factors that will make your organization viable.
What I like about this, as you might guess, is that it’s a very close match to what I’m saying here, in this site, and in the Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan book. Goals are about business, getting things done, and they do you no good unless you follow up on results and manage accordingly.
Tim Berry
President and Founder
Palo Alto Software
{ 0 comments }
Subscribe via RSS