Up and Running Blog

September 2009

Just like A Hollywood Movie – A Success Story

by Jay Snider on September 4, 2009

It sounds like a movie about the American dream. A native of Kenya moves to Massachusetts. He dreams of opening his own business, and begins writing his business plan on his commute to work at his first job in the U.S.

But then the economy falters and our hero gets laid off. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he sees it as an indication that it is time to get serious about his dream.

It’s not a movie premise. It’s Njoroge Kabugu’s life. “I decided that this was a great opportunity. I had to be able to dedicate the majority of my time to completing my business plan and working on my website.”

After his layoff, Kabugu got to work on the plan for Kijiji Republic, a website selling handmade African crafts, baskets, sandals, jewelry, personal accessories and home decor. The company, started in 2008, builds long-term relationships with the artisans whose work they sell. Kijiji Republic not only markets and retails the crafts, but also maintains a non-profit branch which reinvests money back into the communities where they acquire their products. The goal is to help the artisans meet their basic needs, such as providing clean drinking water, building and supporting schools for children, and providing health facilities. Kijiji Republic also helps its artisans establish their businesses in their local communities, providing them with additional revenue possibilities.

Kabugu feels so strongly about the connection to the villages where the artisans work that the name of his company actually means ‘village’ in Swahili. “The creation of Kijiji Republic LLC was based on the concept that a village would be elevated… by empowering the people.” Selling products in the previously untapped U.S. market was his goal, and in writing his business plan and doing the market research, Kabugu realized he was on to something. “I came to realize I was the only Kenyan selling the products online directly from the U.S.,” which helped give him the security to move forward with his plan.

Kabugu says that one of the greatest values of using Business Plan Pro was what it helped him learn about his business. He particularly appreciated being “forced to think systematically throughout the process.” He strongly encourages anyone starting out to do as he did. “It is important not to shy away from an idea. Put the idea on paper by writing a business plan. It helps you to be able to see those areas which you may otherwise not realize when you carry it in your head.”

With a story that sounds like it’s straight out of Hollywood, it might not come as a surprise that Njoroge Kabugu is a big proponent of following through on your dreams.

And of having a plan.

To read more stories about how Business Plan Pro has helped businesses success, click here to check out our Customer Gallery.

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Great New Superlatives Needed

by Steve Lange on September 3, 2009

We need to start using some new improved superlatives in our marketing copy. “Great!” you say. Yes, that’s the one. Great really grates on me. Great is so overused that it may as well be blank space. Great carries all the impact of a cotton puff.

Now, there was a time when great really meant something. Take Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, conqueror of lands, founder of cities for example. Now, he is great. Somehow I just can’t see Product XX’s great online resources changing the political and demographic history of three continents.

Or maybe Ramesses II, Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty, known as the Great. Can you imagine the great new flavor of Processed Food XXX ruling unchallenged for 66 years, causing the building of cities and monumental sculptures that survive for 3,500 years? Or inspiring poetry such as P.B. Shelley’s Ozymandias “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”?

OK. Actually, I CAN look on Processed Food XXX and despair. But Processed Food XXX great?!?! Not a chance.

The Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s east coast is truly Great. The reef system is thousands of kilometers long, and hosts a diversity of corals and sea life unmatched on the globe. Somehow it just seems insulting to compare it to the great customer (dis)service system of Company XXXX.

So let’s stop claiming every new and old product or service is great. After all, when every thing is great, nothing is great.

There are plenty of under-utilized superlatives available. Pick up a thesaurus or a dictionary and take a look. Click over to Thesaurus.reference.com, Merriam-Webster.com’s Thesaurus or any of the other online thesauri and peruse some of the

august, capital, chief, commanding, dignified, distinguished, eminent, exalted, excellent, famed, famous, fine, glorious, grand, heroic, high-minded, highly regarded, honorable, idealistic, illustrious, impressive, leading, lofty, magnanimous, main, major, noble, notable, noted, noteworthy, outstanding, paramount, primary, principal, prominent, puissant, regal, remarkable, renowned, royal, stately, sublime, superior, superlative, talented, able, absolute, aces, adept, admirable, adroit, awesome, bad*, best, brutal, cold*, complete, consummate, crack*, downright, dynamite, egregious, exceptional, expert, fab, fantastic, fine, first-class*, first-rate, good, heavy*, hellacious, marvelous, masterly, number one, out of sight, out of this world, out-and-out, perfect, positive, proficient, super-duper, surpassing, terrific, total, tough, transcendent, tremendous, unmitigated, unqualified, utter, wonderful, abundant, ample, big, big league, bulky, bull, colossal, considerable, decided, enormous, excessive, extended, extensive, extravagant, extreme, fat, gigantic, grievous, high, huge, humongous, husky, immense, inordinate, jumbo, lengthy, long, major league, mammoth, mondo, numerous, oversize, prodigious, prolonged, pronounced, protracted, strong, stupendous, terrible, titanic, towering, tremendous, vast, voluminous,

alternatives to great. It is time to spice up and enliven our marketing language.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

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10 Ways to Market When Cash is Tight

by Guest Author on September 3, 2009

About a month ago, Staples and Angus Reid released their latest “STAPLES Canada Small Business National Quarterly Index.” It looks like we believe we are over the hump. 70 per cent of business owners expect at least some improvement to their business over the next six months (compared to 58 per cent in March 2009).

Now that you’re feeling better, get out there and make sure that your customers will come to you rather than your competition when they are ready to buy.

Chances are you are a little tight for cash, so here are ten low-cost ways to market better that we’ve worked out with help from Joanna L. Krotz, co-author of the “Microsoft Small Business Kit”. (If you haven’t already, check out Advice for Entrepreneurs at www.microsoft.com/canada)

• Stop servicing break-even customers. By now you know this is a theme with us. Every second you spend with a customer who doesn’t help you make money; you are short-changing those who do.
• Make every customer feel special. Always add something to the purchase, whether it’s a hand-written note to a consumer o29r a recommendation on the latest, greatest business book to a business customer.
• Create business cards that prospects keep. How about a good-looking notepad with your contact info and tagline on every page? Or a free or low-cost trial offer on the back—paper real estate that’s valuable and often wasted.
• Develop an electronic mailing list and send old-fashioned snail-mail letters too.  E-newsletters are cheap to send, but you can quickly stand out by occasionally sending personal, surface mail letters to customers and prospects. Just make sure the letter delivers something customers want to read.
• Boost your profile at point of sale, trade shows and conferences. You can quickly create your own signage, glossy postcards with your contact information, product news inserts or a web site for a special event—even if you are not a software pro.
• Combine business with pleasure and charity. Spearhead an event, party or conference for a cause you care about. That puts you in the position of getting to know lots of people, and shows off your small business leadership skills.
• Create a destination. Indigo Books & Music has its coffee bars. Ikea offers child-care centers and cafeterias. Steal this idea. Add a free advisory service. Add customer loyalty services, such as free delivery for second-time buyers.
• Become an online expert. This is the “free sample” approach to bringing in business. Research active e-mail discussion lists and online bulletin boards that are relevant to your business and audience. Join several and start posting expert advice.
• Court local media. Editorial features convey more credibility with prospective clients than paid advertising does. (Check our recent article on how to get PR.)
• Finally, don’t let customers simply slip away. It costs a lot less to retain a disgruntled or inactive customer than to acquire a new one. Send a personalized e-mail (you can automate this process), inquiring whether all is well. For a customer who suffered a bad experience, pick up the phone, acknowledging the unpleasantness and ask if there’s anything you can do. A discount can’t hurt either.

Being kind to customers is the smartest low-cost marketing you can do.

ducttapemarketingbadgeKen Burgin and Elizabeth Walker are the Marketing Masters (www.MarketingMasters.ca), a full-service marketing and advertising partnership that helps build busy businesses. Send your ideas on How to Thrive in Times Like These to liz@marketingmasters.ca or ken@marketingmasters.ca, or call 1-866-908-5720.

web: http://www.marketing,masters.ca
blog: http://thebuzzwithkenandliz.blogspot.com/

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The Blog Week in Review — 9/3/09

by Jay Snider on September 3, 2009

Are You a Good Manager? How Can You Tell? — Tim Berry poses some questions to think about in trying to determine what makes a good leader.

Tell the World How Fast You Respond to Email — When you handle email efficiently, you’ll be proud to display a Response Time Badge on your website.

How to Write With A Knife — The Copyblogger’s excellent post on effective editing.

7 Reasons Why Your Marketing Plan Doesn’t Work — Marketing guru John Jantsch looks at the most common mistakes people make with their marketing plans.

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Business Plans Are Not Just for Startups

by Tim Berry on September 3, 2009

I have to admit bias squared with this post, because I like Ramon Ray, the author, and he’s congratulating Business Plan Pro, which is my work, on its 15th anniversary. Still, Ramon makes this point very well:

We all know that when applying for a loan and seeking venture capital funds you simply have to have some sort of business plan. But we often forget about one important audience, ourselves. A business plan is not only needed for third parties involved with providing funding to us in one shape or another, a business plan is an important, strategic document to help guide our growth. Like a good road map on a trip, it helps us know where we have been, where we are and where we are going.

That’s from Business Plans Are Not Just for Startups on Ramon’s excellent blog Smallbiztechnology.com. If you don’t follow Ramon there and as ramonray on Twitter, well, you ought to. He’s a true expert in the subject.

(Photo credit: I captured that picture from Ramon’s Twitter profile)

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Does Small Business Mean Job Security and More Personal Time?

by Tim Berry on September 2, 2009

Many years ago I was leaving a job as a vice president at a market-research firm to go out on my own when several of the other four vice presidents at the firm suggested I was crazy to do that. Their worry was security, family and so on. My wife and I had four small kids at the time.

I left anyhow, and I didn’t feel any more at risk on my own than I was with the salary. “You’re only as safe as your billings in this small firm anyhow,” I told them. That turned out to be ominously true. They were out of their jobs within the next two years. All four of them.

I was reminded of this by Steve King’s post Do Small Business Owners Have More Job Security and Personal Time? on Small Business Labs last week. Steve gives us research from Ace Hardware that seems to say this (his words):

So small business owners feel their jobs are more secure and they have more flexibility, independence and personal time. Sounds pretty good–if you make it.

Interesting for entrepreneurs. But remember, with all research like this, consider it food for thought, and stay skeptical.

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Small Company, Big Stimulus, Clean Air

by Tim Berry on September 1, 2009

I’m very happy to see our local (Eugene, Ore.) newspaper (The Register-Guard) leading today with this story by Diane Dietz about a local company getting $40 million in stimulus grants.

To you and me, this means “hey, it could happen to you.” Or so it seems to me.

Cascade Sierra Solutions in nearby Coburg, Ore., specializes in technical solutions to increase fuel efficiency in trucks. These are things like special add-ons to reduce wind drag, in one program. The latest grant is to install power pedestals at truck stops so truckers can plug into electric power without having to run their engines.

Cascade picked up $17 million in an earlier grant, and $22.2 million last month. It has about a dozen employees locally, but its programs are supposed to add about 1,700 jobs worldwide through greater fuel efficiency.

I’d like to think this is happening all over the country. It’s creating jobs, helping the economy and helping the clean-energy movement (or maybe just less dirty). But for today, here’s one example close to my home.

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