Up and Running Blog

September 2011

todo_courtneyriancom

10 Effective Ways To Use 1 Piece of Content

by Cidnee Stephen on September 30, 2011

This article is meant to be a hands-on exercise. Why? Chances are you already know that you need to be submitting more content into the marketplace to grow your business, but you find this thought overwhelming. So I have a challenge for you, here today.  Take one piece of content you have already created (this can be stats in your industry, a newsletter article, blog post, case study, etc.) and ACTION each step below as you read them.

Step One – Let’s start with an easy one. Put it up on your website. Make sure you have some common search terms in there so Google can index it and increase your relevance for these terms.

Step Two – Send it out in your newsletter. Don’t have a newsletter? Set one up now. Constant Contact offers a free 30 day Trial and has templates pre-built.

Step Three – Post it on your blog.  Don’t have a blog?  Set one up now. WordPress is by far the leading blog software and will allow you to set one up for free in 5 minutes. You can also get some help and have it integrate right into your site.

Step Four – Submit it your industry or regional publications and to the media. Don’t have a list of relevant publications or media contacts? Call up your library and ask them if they carry a recent copy of the Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media or if they have a local list of such publications (if your focus is the local market). Gale Directories cover media and publication listings all over the world. See if the library can create a list otherwise make time now in your calendar to go down there and compile the list yourself.

Step Five – Submit it to online article sites like www.ezinearticles.com. It’s free to sign up and takes only minutes to submit and link the article back to your site.

Step Six – Take out 5 – 10 little one sentence snippets and create small posts. Post these snippets on Facebook and/or your Facebook Business Page, Twitter, Linked In and Google +. If you don’t have any of these of profiles, set them up.  If you want to make posting to these sites easy, set up a tool such as HootSuite (again free) to submit posts to all your social media sites in one click of a button.

Step Seven – Insert into a Word File titled “MY Book” or “MY e-Book” or “Another great free report”. Place it into the chapter where it would belong so that over time you have created a larger publication and also so you start to put themes around future content (to fill in blanks).

Step Eight – Create an online Ad – This could be on a Chamber online newsletter, Google, Linked In or Facebook.  Link back to the article on your site and have a call to action at the top and the bottom such as subscribing to your Free Tips or a Free Assessment or a trial product or service.  Set it up for one week only and put a small budget on it like $40 – $50 and then watch the traffic to your site and measure results.

Step Nine – Send it out in the mail to prospects.  Include a nice introductory letter outlining your interest in servicing business like theirs, a special offer and this very helpful article. Don’t have a mailing list? Try InfoCanada or InfoUSA and create one today. Dun and Bradstreet also has great lists.

Step Ten – Use it at your next live event (networking, tradeshow, sales presentation). Think of it as a large business card and include your contact details and a call to action on the back.

Content is valuable.  It takes you time to create and is designed to help both your present and future customers.  Make sure you take advantage of ALL the avenues available to you or you aren’t marketing as effectively as you can.

(Photo Credit: Courtney Dirks)

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computers on desk

Technology Creates a Competitive Advantage for Small Businesses.

by Susan Solovic on September 29, 2011

In my opinion, technology is the driving force behind the burgeoning small business market. Technology levels the playing field and allows small businesses to do business anywhere in the world from anywhere they choose. As technology continues to advance, small companies are enjoying the benefits of increased productivity and profitability.

Every small business owner needs to embrace technology in every aspect of their business, from things such as accounting and data management to marketing and sales support. If you aren’t familiar with all the technology-based tools available for your business, then I recommend working with an IT consultant who can help you select appropriate hardware and software to fit your business needs.   Don’t get caught up in the sizzle.  Always find solutions that work for you.

Here are few recommendations to help you make smart technology choices.

*Create a Technology Vision.  You need a technology plan for your business, and a professional consultant can help you develop that. A technology plan prevents you from making the mistake of jumping from one system or application to another, which isn’t time-efficient and can be costly. A technology vision helps make choices that will be appropriate for your business now, and will also grow with your business.

*Buy the Best Fit.  Small business owners often get caught up in the glitzy aspects of technologies, and as a result, they buy more than they need. Purchasing the latest and greatest not only results in unused capacity but also the technology investment may wind up not getting used at all because it is too complicated. So make a list of what your business needs are and make an investment in technology that satisfies those needs.

*Establish a Budget.  Just as with any other area of your business, you need to establish a technology budget. An IT professional can help you determine the appropriate amount you should allocate in order to meet your objectives. Without an established budget, you may find yourself our of funds before you’ve been able to purchase everything you need.

*Get Training.  Technology isn’t worth a dime if you don’t use it. Invest in the proper training for you and your team. Often the vendor will offer to train you for no additional cost. Take advantage of this opportunity and carve the time out of your schedule so you can utilize your investment. Remember, the technology is there to help you become more productivity and profitable.

 

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2011-09-28_1327

Woman-Oriented Startup: $4 Million Funding in 4 Weeks, $100 Million Valuation

by Tim Berry on September 28, 2011

I was browsing yesterday when I picked up this post by Alyson Shontell of Business Insider on LearnVest, a finance tools and information site for women, founded by a 27-year-old woman and funded very quickly by major venture capital. Here’s Alyson’s quick summary:

In July, LearnVest raised a $19 million round, bringing its total funding to $24.5 million. It’s seeing quick adoption among advertisers and users, and conversion rates on its recently launched subscription product are exceeding expectations. Based on its recent funding, the success of its predecessors, and its quick adoption, we estimate a $100 million valuation.

Alyson’s post on Business Insider includes the 4-minute video embedded here below, where she interviews founder Alexa Von Tobel, who tells her story extremely well. Here are some points I found especially interesting:

  • I hate the unequal representation of women in startups. both in fact and in media coverage, so I’m happy to post an example of a startup founded by a woman, targeting women, that has taken off beautifully.
  • Pay close attention near the end where Alyson asks Alexa about the metric, the hard numbers, that sparked investor interest. I think it’s a great example of how investors want to hear a story, punctuated with numbers, that validates a startup. Alexa talks about 10,000 signups on the first day. I enjoyed the detail about the site going down, which is a refreshing real-world example of good news outweighing the bad.
  • I post a lot about the value of education, and whether the MBA studies are worth it, so I noted here that Alexa dropped out of the Harvard MBA program after one semester. It doesn’t change my opinions already posted here, but some people will want to include Alexa in her list of entrepreneurs who didn’t finish the degree. In this case, it’s an MBA, not an undergrad, but still — in you like those examples, here’s another one.

If for any reason you don’t see the video here you can click this link to go to the original.

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Leadership in The Workplace Means Using the ‘F’ Word

Leadership in The Workplace Means Using the ‘F’ Word

by Linda Finkle on September 27, 2011

Got your attention, didn’t I? Now I don’t mean what you are thinking; I mean the ‘F’ word FAILURE.

Leadership in the workplace has to recognize, embrace and accept failure. Sure, we all want things to go smoothly, but truth is they often don’t and thus it’s no wonder that people see failure as bad, as a dirty word. What would it look like if, rather than labeling any task or action that didn’t turn out as originally planned as a “failure,” we saw each of them as learning opportunities…?What might we create? What opportunities might arise for us? What would change if we were able to step away from self-blame and move forward into celebration?

Leadership in the workplace starts with managers, leaders and business owners building a culture that allows for mistakes, and yes, even failures. These leaders understand that if there are no mistakes then people aren’t taking risks. And they recognize this creates an opportunity for learning, and that nothing new, creative, innovative or exciting happens without taking risks.

So go ahead, use the ‘F’ word. When you do, you’ll be in the select group of leaders who have created a culture that encourages creativity, innovation and celebration.

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kenya

Funding for Philanthropic Efforts Requires More Effort Than Normal

by Guest Author on September 26, 2011

One sad fact in our capitalistic world is that funding for many worthwhile efforts is often difficult to obtain if there is not a direct profit opportunity to be had.  Non-profit’s and local community leaders need special assistance, especially in developing countries, to gain access to appropriate resources of capital devoted to their respective purposes.

Attempting to improve the health, education, and welfare of the impoverished by starting a business designed to support the local need is admirable, but your typical banker is not the one to be approached for a business loan. Most people that follow this route are too often met with the reality of bank lending practices.  Loans cannot be made without collateral, and the security of this collateral must meet high standards set by each individual bank.  If the project fails, the bank wants something to salvage to recover its money.  It also will not lend unless there are “visible” flows of cash to pay back the loan over the loan’s term

If banks will only make a business loan under these conditions, how is a local effort to get funded in the first place?  Most often, if the initiative is not driven by an organization that already has funding, then the effort will require more effort than with a normal startup venture.  There are philanthropic institutions, both charitable and faith based, which are devoted to this purpose.  The difficulty involves approaching the right organization and applying for a grant in the appropriate manner, not an easy task when language and cultural barriers stand in the way.

Local development agencies should be approached first since their reason for being is to assist with projects of a non-profit nature for the good of the regional community.  These groups should also have information and contacts at larger organizations that may not be in the local area.  There are an enormous number of philanthropic groups around the globe that network through many smaller organizations.  If you do not meet success at the first one contacted, they may connect you with a group that will be eager to help.  Here are a few examples of these larger groups:

  • The Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group (AGAG) is a membership organization of foundations that either fund or are interested in funding in Africa.  AGAG has its roots in the South Africa.  These influential managers are instrumental in sharing and learning the most effective ways to support development efforts in Africa.
  • The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is a fund-raising and grant-making initiative, which aims to support the work of the African Women’s movement.  AWDF, the first Africa-wide fund-raising and grant-making fund, was established in June 2000.
  • The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) promotes peace and stability by fostering economic growth, protecting human health, providing emergency humanitarian assistance, and enhancing democracy in developing countries.  USAID has working relationships, through contracts and grant agreements, with more than 3,500 companies and over 300 U.S.-based private voluntary organizations.


Tom Cleveland is a writer for SmallBusinessLoansDirect.com.  He has over 30 years of experience in executive management, corporate governance and business development.  Tom served as CFO for various Visa International entities from 1980 until his retirement in 1999 and was instrumental in expanding the global reach of the Visa system.  Tom’s writing on business issues has appeared in the NY Daily News and BusinessInsider among others.

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tim_face

Tim Berry – The Greatest Hits

by Chelle Parmele on September 24, 2011

Did you miss any of Tim’s posts this past week? Let me just quickly sum up what you might have missed. Are you smart? Have you failed? Read this book. Check out Gust. Save the pie for yourself.

Mmmm pie.

 

Gust Streamlines the Angel Investment Process

Are you hoping to find angel investment for your startup? Are you looking to invest in startups? Go look at gust.com. It’s a better-than-ever first step.

So You Think You’re Smart? Prove It.

I’ve become increasingly more convinced that the best sign of real intelligence is being able to see both sides, or all sides, or any argument. You might call that having an open mind. You might call it listening. And you might call it having the good sense to say “I don’t know” a lot.

Why Don’t We Include Failures in Speakers’ Bios?

I say entrepreneurs should agree on full disclosure in their bios. We should list not just our successes, but also the failures. Nobody lists the failures.

Don’t Give Your Company Away in Pieces

Too often people in startups think they’re supposed to give pieces of their company away to people who help them. They aren’t. Or they think it’s clever to pay people for services by giving away pieces of their fledgling company. It isn’t.

5 Blogging Mistakes And A State of Wonder

Yesterday while flying cross country I read State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett. It’s about real people in an almost-but-not-quite magical Amazon jungle, and, although the plot moves steadily forward, it’s more of a spell, woven with words by a great writer, than just a story.

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keywordresearch

How to Conduct a Great Keyword Research

by Guest Author on September 23, 2011

Keyword research is probably one of the biggest areas that people struggle with first when they’re setting up their first website. They may have their niche but now it’s time to pick the keywords that they’re going to build that niche around, and this is where confusion sets in. After all, everyone you ask has a different opinion on how keyword research should be done so who’s actually right?

The reality is that nobody really has a keyword research method that is all encompassing – you’ll learn a little bit from a lot of people and most likely formulate your very own way of finding keywords. What I want to share with you here is some tips to get you started so at least you have some research momentum going on and you can learn as you go.

Search Counts

Having a reasonable search count for your keywords is very important. Why? Because if people aren’t searching for that keyword often enough per month then you simply won’t have enough visitors to convert into sales at the end of the day.

In some niches you can convert a very small number of searches into sales but generally speaking you’ll need a search volume of more than 1,000 searches per month (or 30+ searches per day) to make your online efforts worthwhile for your broad keyword terms for your site. When it comes to searches more is simply better – but you’ll need to mix in long tail keywords too.

Competition

Now you’ve found some keywords that have 1,000 searches or more per month for your niche but your next step is calculating the competition for those keywords in your niche. There are two quick methods I’d suggest here. The first is to put your potential keyword in quotes “” and search Google for it.

Now look at the number of results displayed – if it’s any more than say 100,000 then pick another keyword. Also pay attention the types of sites listed in Google for that search term – if you have large authority sites like Wikipedia or Microsoft listed then the competition may be too much for you.

Buyer Keywords

If there’s anything people get wrong most often it’s choosing keywords that aren’t buyer keywords. Buyer keywords are when your visitor has done their due diligence and are 90% of the way to their buying decision.

Let’s look at an example. If you’re interested in buying a new LCD television are you going to search for just “LCD TV”? Nope. You’re going to look for something more like “Samsung LCD TV” at first and then as you’re refining your decision even more you’ll search for “Samsung LN40D630 LCD TV” and then just as you’re about to buy you’ll probably search by using a keyword phrase like “Samsung LN40D630 LCD reviews”. The more focused your search terms are on the buyer decision the better your sales conversions will be.

Look At The Tail

Several years ago now the term long tail keywords entered the language of search engine fans all over the world. In a way long tail is very similar to finding buyer keywords but it delves a little deeper than that and long tail keywords are basically phrases that have average or below average search counts but that have very little (sometimes almost zero) competition. So if we look at acne for example. The keyword “acne treatments” might have 550,000 searches per month but you’ll also find it probably has millions of competing web pages. That’s a no go for a keyword beginner.

But then if you look at a keyword like “best acne treatment for adults” you’ll find that it has only 500 searches per month but only 1,000 competing web pages – now you have a winner.

Even if a long tail keyword like “best acne treatment for adults” had only 50 searches per month that’s fine because you can take 10 or 20 phrases with similar counts and suddenly you’re adding another 500 – 1,000 unique visitors per month to your website. It’s not unusual for long tail keywords to be the most searched for keywords on your site.

Check Your Web Stats

This is one of my personal favourite ways of finding niche keywords once I’ve set up a website. After your site is 30 – 60 days old you need to start digging into your Google Analytics, AW Stats or whatever statistics package your site or web host is using. The reason is that your site is being found for keywords you’d never have thought of and that keyword tools simply don’t generate. You can then take these keywords and create an entire new page of content around them and hey presto you’ve just added a whole new traffic stream to your site.

If you’re looking for a keyword tool to get you started that allows you to work with this article then the Free Google Keyword tool is available to anyone who has a Google Adwords account. If you don’t have an Adwords account you can sign up for one for free and start grabbing all those valuable keywords that are just waiting for you out there.

Lior Levine is a marketing consultant for various online companies including an online personal task management company and a psd to html conversion company.

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John Dennehy

Different Views from Opposite Sides

by Alan Gleeson on September 22, 2011

Today is the first in a new series by Alan Gleeson, managing director of the Palo Alto Software UK offices. The series will focus on business issues and commentary from the EU perspective.

John Dennehy is a serial entrepreneur based in Cork, Ireland. His latest venture Zartis.com is an impressive software-as-a-service application that makes it easier to manage the recruitment of employees. The software integrates with applications such as Facebook and LinkedIn and pulls data into a dashboard so employers can save time and money managing the entire hiring process.

Despite the difficult economic conditions in Ireland, entrepreneurship is buoyant. There are a number of reasons for this; a supportive government, a highly educated workforce, a falling cost base and a favourable tax regime. It is also a function of both attitude (Irish people are generally very entrepreneurial in outlook) and culture, i.e. the geographic context of being a small island with limited resources has meant that Ireland has always relied on overseas trade. For others, a career in entrepreneurship is a matter of necessity when compared with the less palatable alternatives of emigration or a stint on social welfare. The unemployment rate currently stands at 14.5 % (September 16, 2011) with a high portion of this being amongst young graduates.

Like many of his peers John’s outlook is global, with a strong focus on the US. The market opportunity in Ireland is simply too limited for Internet ventures like Zartis.com to succeed without looking overseas.  An island population of 6.4 million is a far cry from the US with over 300 million. Europe can also be a difficult place to do business with different currencies, languages, legal systems and heterogeneous cultures. As an Irish Government Minister once said;

“As Irish people our relationships with the United States and the European Union are complex. Geographically we are closer to Berlin than Boston. Spiritually we are probably a lot closer to Boston than Berlin.”

Source: http://www.djei.ie/press/2000/210700.htm

The view across ‘the pond’, as the Atlantic is known, is very different depending on which side you are standing on though. For many US entrepreneurs the path is pretty straight forward; gain traction domestically and then look to expand overseas using Ireland or the UK as the first overseas outpost. The benefits of locating in the UK or Ireland are compelling as there are no language barriers, a well educated populace and well developed communication infrastructures. In Ireland’s case a compelling corporation tax rate and a strong Irish American diaspora has made Ireland the more popular of the two in many instances. As a result American behemoths such as Intel, Apple, EMC, Microsoft, Facebook and Google all have extensive European bases there.

From Europe, breaking into the US is a much tougher proposition. Establishing a US base is expensive and can be tricky given additional red tape with everything from securing work visa’s through to establishing legal corporations.

The popularity of the American search engine, Google can also serve to inhibit the growth of European Internet firms. The search results we get here in Europe typically contain numerous results from US sites displacing local sites that may have more relevance. Given that search engine results are hugely important in gaining market awareness, this factor makes it more difficult for many European Internet companies to compete favourably with their American counterparts. Of course there is more to the story than just that, in my view, Americans are also less risk averse compared to Europeans and more likely to embrace new technologies so customer adaption rates can be much higher in the US.

Despite some of these structural limitations, entrepreneurs like John do succeed. If you build a great application with a strong customer proposition and back it up with an effective marketing budget, the importance of location diminishes. Eventually you may end up with a call from a US Venture Capitalist or competitor looking to acquire you as Autonomy and Tweetdeck did.

 

 

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Fishing_istockphoto

Teaching Entrepreneurs to Fish

by Tim Berry on September 21, 2011

Give people fish, and you feed them once. Teach them to fish, and you feed them forever.

I’m paraphrasing an old saying. Here’s my updated version:woman fishing

Give one person a business loan and you help start a business. Teach starting a business, and you help a whole community.

That comes up because I’m doing a training tomorrow for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Women’s Business Centers (WBC). It’s about teaching entrepreneurship.

In these very politicized, polarized, and economically challenged times, it’s a damn shame we don’t all support spending some public money on the teaching and advocacy of entrepreneurship. I’ve seen WBC, SBA, SBDC, and SCORE programs close up. On the front lines, it’s not politicians or bureaucracy, it’s real people with real experience teaching other people how to start, run, and grow their businesses. It’s workshops, counseling, classes, and demystifying the process, setting the steps. And that’s a good thing.

Entrepreneurship is good for the entrepreneurs, the people they hire, and the communities they change. And entrepreneurship is contagious.

(Image: istockphoto.com)

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Listening-Skills

Improving Listening Skills: The First Step in Better Communication

by Linda Finkle on September 20, 2011

 

I work with a lot of people and companies on improving their communication skills. Whether a company or individual hires me because there is a serious problem or they recognize that poor or ineffective business communication skills are hindering them in some way, the root cause is always the same: They don’t listen, but they always think they are. If I asked 100 people, “Do you think you listen to other people?” the answer would be a resounding YES! Of course, they would also tell me that other people don’t listen to them — which of course is what they see as the problem. “If only those dimwits would listen to me, we wouldn’t have these problems.”

Every one of us believes, truly believes, that we listen to other people. I’m here to argue this point. We don’t listen — we hear. Our ears hear what someone is saying but we aren’t really listening.

We miss tone, inflection, the specific words they use, their values, beliefs, the nuances and what’s under the words. We attach judgments to what they are saying or how they are saying it, and don’t listen. At times we are even thinking about the upcoming meeting, the report we have to finish, the fight we had this morning with our kids, or any number of other things. If any of these facts exist we can’t be listening, even if we hear the words. Improving listening skills is the first step toward improving communication.

Even more than that, improving your listening skills will build trust by making others feel understood, It eliminate misunderstanding, and improves productivity and, and, and … all leading to happier relationships and more fun. And who doesn’t want that?

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