Up and Running Blog

February 2011

Business in General Blog Merged Into This One

by Chelle Parmele on February 28, 2011

Hello regular readers of Business in General! And a BIG hello to the regular readers of Up and Running!

We have merged Business in General with the Up and Running blog today, so you might notice a few new things.

1. Things looks different! True! We switched to the Up and Running theme for the time being, but we’ll keep working on the way it looks and come to a new and improved look and feel shortly.

2. Where are all the old posts? They are still here. Promise. And there are a whole batch of new-to-you posts for you to look through.

3. What’s next? Lots of things! New content, new authors, new directions, and a new look! It’s all very exciting and we’re working hard to make it happen as quickly as possible. So there might be a little bit of dust while we re-configure things here, but stick with us, we’re excited to show you the all new Bplans.com blog.

As always, we’re interested in hearing from you. If you have suggestions or comments or would like to read on a topic we haven’t covered yet, let us know!

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

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Business Model vs. Business Plan vs. Business Planning

by Tim Berry on February 28, 2011

What’s a business model? How does it relate to a business plan? Or, better yet, business planning? They live together. They synchronize. Your business planning makes your business model happen. And your business plan is a regular step in your business planning. It isn’t business plan vs. business model, the way some people seem to think. The business model is like a destination. The planning is how you’re going to get there. book cover

Alan Gleeson sent me a copy of the book shown here, Business Model Generation. It’s also a website, and perhaps most important, a collective work on what a business model is and how to use it. With an excellent website and a very intriguing way of sharing the work, the thoughts, and the collective creativity. That part of it is fascinating, well worth the visit, even if it weren’t also an excellent summary of the business model.

Just to give you the idea, here below I’ve taken just a blog-sized clip from a proposed one-page business model summary. That’s , taken from the web (you can click it to go to the full-size original):

I’m so glad to see this new work on business model. I confess, I’ve thought of the phrase business model as just a trendy buzzword for how you make money in the business. While I think that’s still true, at least to some extent, this kind of organized thinking is obviously valuable, if you use it right.

Alan, who is managing director of Palo Alto Software’s UK Subsidiary, recently answered the business model vs. business plan question in a quest post on TechCrunch:

… it is worth clarifying the difference between a business plan and a business model. A business plan details the business opportunity you are seeking to exploit. A business model takes the form of either a simple verbal description or a one page visual representation.

Alan also adds this important note about what a business plan really is:

… modern business planning is flexible, agile and concise, and more about goal setting than bound physical documents. This planning process brings numerous benefits for the entrepreneur, not least an ability to look at the operation holistically, to ensure internal focus and to ensure that cash flow management is a key priority.

I said above that the business model is like a destination, and the planning is how you get there. Let me add that the planning I recommend isn’t just a map, or a route; it’s that plus a GPS and real-time traffic and weather information. And in that analogy, the business model is the destination.

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Useful Buzzwords: What’s “Affordable Loss”

by Tim Berry on February 25, 2011

I got an email overnight asking me about “affordable loss,” which is one of the four factors in my Wednesday post on Planning Startups Stories, A Seasoned Angel Investor Highlights These 4 Factors.

stingyI can see why that phrase, affordable loss, seems contradictory or paradoxical. Wade Brooks, who used it in the Monday talk I took Wednesday’s post from, made it pretty clear to me and others; but then I was left with my notes summarizing it. I said:

Affordable loss is about planning, expense control and careful management.  “A little bit of money goes a long way,” he says, when a company is careful with it. If there were no loss, they wouldn’t need angel investment at all; but a big loss means trouble.

The email I received wanted to understand that better, so obviously I didn’t explain it that well. Happily, though, that same phrase turned up in my notes to another blog post I was working on. It’s in this paragraph (emphasis is mine):

That is not to say entrepreneurs don’t have goals, only that those goals are broad and—like luggage—may shift during flight. Rather than meticulously segment customers according to potential return, they itch to get to market as quickly and cheaply as possible, a principle Sarasvathy calls affordable loss.

That’s from Leigh Buchanon in How Great Entrepreneurs Think on Inc.com. And she, in turn, is quoting Prof. Saras Sarasvathy, of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

So there you have it again: affordable loss is about getting to market as quickly and cheaply as possible. No wonder Wade Brooks and other angel investors (me included, in fact) like that. I hadn’t heard the phrase before, but it works for me.

(Image: Marynchenko Oleksandr/Shutterstock)

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Color Power And Why a Business Owner Cares

by Tim Berry on February 24, 2011

Andy Crofford, creator of the infographic here, called it The Psychology of Color. He also called it “Must See for Web Designers.” I think it’s also must-see for entrepreneurs, managers, and business owners (small here, but you can click it to go to the source, in full size).

One of the things I’m proud of is knowing what I don’t know. As a business owner, while the business grew up with graphics, and packaging, and websites, I tried to get the best and most knowledgeable people I could afford, and then to listen to them. It often made me uncomfortable to be asked about colors. My answer:

I’m a business planner most of the time, a software entrepreneur some times, and a coder occasionally too. But I’m not a designer. You should know. Make it work.

Still, I always liked the idea that colors have predictable attributes and that designers understood that. Take, for example, what Andy says about the color red. In case you can’t read it here, is says “Use minimally in its purest form as an accent to draw attention to critical elements … for depicting designs that portray power or passion.”

And here below, the same for the color blue. The large chart has the complete color scale shown here on the right. It’s fascinating. And good to know. Not that I recommend second-guessing the designers (heaven forbid), but at least to be able to make more sense out of it.

No, I have no intention of second-guessing the designers or the color scheme. But it’s still a fascinating layout and explanation.

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Why It Rocks to Be a Small Business Owner

by Lena West on February 23, 2011

[Note: with this post I introduce a second new author sharing this blog. I first met Lena in a delightful late-afternoon meeting at a cool little coffee shop in New York, several years ago. I knew instantly she was a smart person with a lot to say. I'm very happy to see her here on this blog. As with Cidnee's post here the other day, I hope this one by Lena is the first of many. Tim.]

Okay, there are loads of reasons it’s great to be the owner of a small business, but the one I’m liking the most nowadays is the ability to turn on a dime.

Recently, I made an attempt to put together an uber-fabulous idea that needed to be in the works by March 1st.  No problem, except the company we needed to work with is a huge, international company and getting the green light on such short notice was impossible. *sigh*

Image from sxc.hu

I know that when dealing with larger companies, this rigmarole is to be expected.  I understand that, but I also know for a fact that this company is trying their best to solidify a connection with their market (they ARE a good company) and my idea was a boss way for them to do so at NO expense (front-end or back-end) to them; all they had to do was give the “go” sign on the idea, and they couldn’t do that within a week’s time. Which, of course, means they lost the opportunity to do something smokin’ and exceed their social media marketing goals in the process. What a downer.

Most of us want our businesses to grow either in size and/or sales/profit volume, but somewhere along that growth trajectory we forget how good it feels to just execute and get things done without 10 mandatory sign-offs and turf wars.

Yet, we have the gall to wonder why innovation is at an almost standstill or why employees want to pull the rip cord and slap up their own shingle?

Good people…the people you want working with you and helping steer your ship…want to be agile in thought and action. They want the freedom to be able to just GO and DO things. They want to be able to stretch out on a whim, put something fabulous together so they look like a rockstar, but if businesses pull out the duct tape every single time someone has an “out of the box” idea (clutch the pearls!), eventually, people stop wanting to share their ideas and they start squirreling their ideas away for their own launch.

Here’s the newsflash: people don’t “moonlight” anymore. They get a domain for 9 bucks, set up a WordPress website and they quit.

And, yes, it’s easy to poke a sharp stick at “big business”, but you know what? They really shouldn’t make it so darned EASY to do. Just sayin’  :-/

About Lena West

Lena L. West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist, technologist and the Founder of the Authentic Influencer Braintrust, a high-level, social media marketing membership program for business owners and Real Women Do Social Media, the only social media training initiative created exclusively for women business owners.

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john durfee

Operation Marketing Freedom

by Guest Author on February 22, 2011

Today’s guest author is John Durfee. John finds many of the principles he learned in the military are ones that he uses in the business world.

Marketing Artillery – A Soldier’s Perspective

The “freedom” aspect of Operation Iraqi Freedom officially started after theUS invasion of Iraq and we found out there weren’t any Weapons of Mass Destruction.The mission turned from a matter of finding WMDs to rebuilding a broken society andinfrastructure. We turned from a fighting force to one that suddenly had be reflective ofhow we appeared, how we acted, and to get the message across that our actions were forthe benefit of the local Iraqi people. In a way, we had to market ourselves to the Iraqisand succeed, if a goal of long term sustainable peace and development we started wouldtake root. The lessons I learned in trying to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis is directlyapplicable to the modern day marketing, where you’re winning the hearts and minds ofyour customer populous.

Gaining Their Trust

It’s hard to gain the trust of a population when you and your tanks and Humveeshave been airlifted from halfway across the world and an unseen enemy is always aroundyou. But we had to gain their trust. We started by offering small things at first, acts ofkindness or helping repair or build old wells, bridges and roads, without asking anythingin return. In very much the same way you have to entice and bring in new customers bypromoting heavily without expecting much in return. Have a sale, have freebies, givefree shipping. This is part of a campaign in a starting business where investment is heavy,but short term returns can be low. You need to think of the long term because if you’vesuccessfully implemented your plan, you’ve caught your customer’s attention, and canmove onto more meaningful interactions.

I’m Your Partner

In any interaction you show that you’re working with your customer, that youunderstand them. On duty, we didn’t start building and repairing and implementinginfrastructure based on how we thought it should be, all of our actions were localizedand based on the information gathered from tribal leaders, from the source. In that samevein, never assume what you think is best, send out a survey, get a focus group. A smallamount of real consumer data is worth more than a ton of marketing theoryOur long term interests might have been different. In Iraq it was long termnational US security, for the Iraqis it was a chance to improve their living conditions andgovernment. In a retail setting we want profits, while the customer wants a good dealand a smooth transaction. Just as long as you show you’re willing to meet their needs,you create that bridge. The way to a lasting relationship is repeating that cycle of trustbuilding and following through. As a marketer, you do this through offers, interactions,customized email notifications. You need to make them feel that you are a friend, notonly a salesman.


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sobe1

Jugular Marketing

by Cidnee Stephen on February 21, 2011

[Note: I'm happy to introduce contributor  Cidnee Stephen with her first post on Up and Running, which we assume will be the first of many. We're including her background at the bottom of the post. Tim]

When I sit down with a business owner for the first time, I will always ask them what marketing activities they have tried to-date. Whether they explain them or show me samples, they will often feel that their marketing activities haven’t worked.

“We did trade shows, but that didn’t generate us one customer.”

“We tried direct mail and that didn’t work.”

“I’m on Twitter, but that’s not getting me any business, it’s a waste of my time.”

All of the above are what I like to call Marketing Vehicles – trade shows, direct mail and Twitter, to be exact. Do these vehicles work? Of course they do. Google them and you will find success stories tied to any marketing vehicle. So how come they don’t seem to work for you? It might be because you are going for the jugular. In other words, you are trying to go directly for the sale instead of simply engaging a prospect to take the next step.

If you have a low risk, low price product or service, you will probably find some success in jugular marketing, but if you are marketing something that requires the prospect to trust you or the product you need to re-look at WHAT you are saying or doing in a marketing vehicle, instead of changing the marketing vehicle itself.
Here is an example of Jugular Marketing.

Jugular Marketing

Imagine you are single and a member of the opposite sex approaches you on a night out. The conversation goes something like this. “Hi, my name is (LOGO). Let me say that it again (because it takes up 1/3rd of the ad, so it must be important). I have a lot of amazing qualities you would love about me (they’re all listed here in bullet points). So, do you want to get married (there’s that infamous phone number at the bottom that screams, buy from us)?”

There is no reason for me to act today and quite frankly I’m not looking for many of these attributes in a gym. But what if you focused the ad more on the buyer than yourself? What if you made it easy and less risky for me to take the next step? The ad might then look more like the Golds Gym ad to the right.


If we were back in that social situation this one might equate to: “You look like you might want some company and obviously enjoy places like this (after all the headline shows you understand me and highlights a major motivator for me”. I am having a get together in another place like this (some key features and a complimentary VIP pass). It’s next Wednesday (there’s time limit on it). If you would like to come and get to know each other better, check out the details (drives them to more information and a place where they can act easily and with minimal risk).”

Which one would cause you to act more easily? The latter allows Gold’s Gym to capture more prospects. It allows them to better measure the effectiveness of the message and tool (VIP pass) they are using. But most importantly, it allows the prospect to try them out at no cost.

Next time you are looking to execute on that marketing tactic, avoid jugular marketing. Try capturing leads instead of going directly for that sale.

About Cidnee Stephen

Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget-minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought-after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations.

If you would like to build a system to reach those goals quicker, check out Cindee’s Speak for Leads & Expertise Program.

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Ultimate Advice to Stealth-Mode Startups: Just Stop

by Tim Berry on February 18, 2011

I love it! Jason Freedman, who calls himself “humbled MBA,” (which is right-there brilliant, before I go on) writes Startups in stealth mode need one piece of advice.:

Just stop

He explains more than he has to in a brilliant piece of short smart statements. He has explanations in between, and they’re work reading, but for that, go back to the original. I love the raw power of these bullet points (all direct quotes from Jason)… and I agree with every one. On a couple of them, the explanations are so rich and delightful that I can’t resist including them.

1.) Execution is more important than the idea

2.) Someone else has the exact same idea.

3.) Totally unique ideas generally don’t make it

4.) The most likely cause of failure is your incompetence, not losing to the competition.

The likelihood that you execute beautifully but then lose out to someone that stole your idea is so incredibly low, you shouldn’t think about it. The likelihood that you build a product that missed the mark, is an almost certainty.

5.) You desperately need real feedback

6.) First mover advantage is just silliness

The obit has been written on first mover advantage. It rarely helps. Facebook wasn’t the first to social networking, Google wasn’t the first to search, YouTube wasn’t the first to video, yada yada. First mover advantage was a flawed theory that helped pre-product internet companies raise billions of dollars in the 90s.

Jason concludes: “I could go on, but this is a fool’s errand.”

And, to his credit, he also softens a bit at the end, suggests that annoyed stealth-mode-startup readers should just prove him wrong.

Well done. Good stuff.

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Three Ways to Expand Your Social Media Influence in 3 Days

by Lena West on February 17, 2011

When it comes to social media, many business people are overworked, overloaded and just plain over it.

I get that and I feel their pain.

Social media has a lot of moving parts and it’s very easy to become confused. That’s why I always try to provide actionable suggestions that are straight-forward, easy-to-implement and easy-to-digest. I mean, it’s great to read a blog post like this with loads of high-falutin’ ideas only to find yourself lost in technology soup when it comes to actually actioning any of the ideas.

So, let’s keep it simple, shall we? Here are three things you can do in three days to expand your social media influence:

1. Offer to write a blog post for another blogger. For right now, they don’t have to be the most “popular” blogger in the world, the main thing is to take yourself out of your comfort zone.  Sometimes when we’re writing for someone else, we have a different feeling of purpose and duty and that’s when our best work bubbles forth.

When you write that post, make sure you Tweet the link a few times the week that it goes live and once the week after.  Remember, not everyone reads everything you write all the time. If you spread your Tweets across the week, more people will be able to see the link. Don’t overdo it though; you don’t want Tweet spam.

2. Make a concerted effort to reach out via Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, to someone whom you’ve always wanted to meet. And, not the easy person, either. You know that person I’m talking about…the person who makes you a little nervous? Actually take the time to read their Tweets and blog posts and when the time is right, contribute. Give them a digital high-five by retweeting them. Heck, send a smoke signal, just DO something (sane) to get on their radar.  So many people don’t want to be perceived as a “stalker” so they don’t do this. Here’s the deal, if you were a stalker, you’d know it, so stop making excuses and take action.

3. Interview someone. If you have a telephone or a pen, you can interview someone.  Here’s the trick, take the time to think of a REALLY cool interview angle for them. Make it an offer they can’t refuse. Show them that you’re smart and that you don’t want to interview them about the same old topic.

The same thing you did in tip #1, do the same thing here. Tweet it and make sure you include the interview in your newsletter, too. And, guess what your interview subject is going to do? You guessed it…they’re going to Tweet and Facebook it, too.

BONUS TIP:  Get the interview transcribed, edit it a bit, add a cover and bundle it together with the audio and you’ve got a GREAT lead generation tool!

All three of these things are totally do-able. So, get going and come back and let me know how they worked for ya!

Lena L. West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist, technologist and the Founder of the Authentic Influencer Braintrust, a high-level, social media marketing membership program for business owners and Real Women Do Social Media, the only social media training initiative created exclusively for women business owners.

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We’ve Moved Up and Running to Bplans.com

by Tim Berry on February 16, 2011

No, I’m not breaking up with entrepreneur.com. I’ve worked with them happily for 10 years already and I expect to continue to work with them in the future. But this blog, all 801 posts of it, has moved from its old home at upandrunning.entrepreneur.com to its new place here at bplans.com.

As it moves, I intend to maintain its focus on the needs of the small business owner, manager, and entrepreneur who already has the business up and running; and the entrepreneur who wants to get a business started, meaning, there too, up and running. It’s different from my main blog at Planning Startups Stories because it is more focused on starting, running, and growing a business.

I also intend to make it more of a “we” and “our” blog and less of a “me” and “my” blog. Its 801 posts have been entirely my work so far. It’s time to let that go. I’ll be getting more help from the marketing team at Palo Alto Software, and you’ll be seeing me sharing this space with other authors.

I’m will continue to do my monthly business planning column as the business planning coach at entrepreneur.com. I’ve been doing that for six years next month. In fact, my most recent column there, Let Your Story Frame Your Business Plan, has been getting a lot of play since it came out last week. You might like that one. Here’s a snippet:

Suspend your image of a business plan as a document, for a while, and think of it as a collection of all your stories, combined with concrete specifics or goals that aim to make those stories come true.

I’m also still doing videos for Entrepreneur.com in the Coaches’ Corner. There are three video answers to frequently-asked questions in that section right now.

And I’m doing ask-the-expert at Entrepreneur.com as well. I’ve answered 129 questions there and I have one pending this morning, as I write this post.

And Entrepreneur Press, part of the same organization, is publisher of both my Plan as You Go Business Plan and 3 Weeks to Startup Books.

So, like I say, it’s not a break-up. This blog, however, which started in August of 2007 at entrepreneur.com and has 801 posts since then, is moving here today.

I hope the move will have been a good thing for entrepreneur.com. That site is changing and shuttering all its Entrepreneur Network blogs, so the move of this blog is part of a larger strategy.

I’m sure it will be a good thing for bplans.com, which is a second home to me. I started bplans.com in January of 1995, as Palo Alto Software‘s way to give back to small business and entrepreneurship with free information on business planning, starting business, running, and growing businesses. My main blog, Planning Startups Stories, moved here (to timberry.bplans.com) from timberry.com about a year ago.

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