With colleges receiving record numbers of applications each year, any edge students can get helps increase the chances of getting in to their chosen schools. And that’s where The Edge in College Prep comes in.

Started in late 2005 by Palo Alto Software customer Jessica Brondo, The Edge in College Prep provides in-person and online admissions counseling and tutoring for standardized tests, test prep boot camps for schools, and online SAT courses.

Brondo got her start as a tutor in high school and continued helping other students throughout her college days at Princeton. She then went to work for an SAT prep company before deciding to launch her own business, which she says “has a much more customized and global focus than other companies.”

Recently, the 24-person company expanded to cover six international cities and grew revenues by a whopping 500%. “I never expected to go international so soon. We hit Europe and Latin America very quickly!” With some big names in the same space as competition, Brondo’s company has benefited from the same kind of edge that students get when they use her service.

In this case, the edge is a creative approach to problem solving, which has played a major role in the company’s success and growth. Brondo says one of the biggest challenges she’s faced in her business has been “finding quality, standardized test instructors who have the perfect balance of intellect and charisma, especially in smaller cities.”

The solution was not to be dependent on local talent to get her services where they were needed. “Over the last six years, online seems to be the direction a lot of students are going,” Brondo notes. So the Edge shifted focus. “We developed an innovative online learning platform, as well as Skype tutoring. We also recently launched our first online course for the SAT which gives students 24/7 access to nearly 700 questions and 1,000 instructional videos.”

A lot of people dream of making a similar transition, and according to Jessica, confidence is the key.  “A lot of times, it can be overwhelming to think about competing with some of the larger companies, and some entrepreneurs get frustrated about trying to accomplish too many  things. I often think that people are too focused on what other companies are doing and less focused on just doing what they do really well. In yoga, teachers will tell you to focus on what is going on your mat and not look around at what others are doing and I think that holds true as an entrepreneur.”

The Edge in College Prep is a growing business. Within five years, says Brondo, they expect to employ 100 people. “We hope to continue the expansion of additional online course products, and hope to create a network of Edge-certified tutors throughout the world for students looking to supplement their courses with in-person or online tutoring.”

A few years ago, LivePlan customer Caroline Cummings considered herself an “entrepreneur in recovery.” After her first tech startup dissolved in 2009 (costing her a significant amount of money), she knew she needed some time to figure out what her next venture would be. “I’m an entrepreneur at heart, so I knew I’d eventually jump back onto the start-up saddle, but I needed some time in-between to sort things out.”

Two years later, armed with the kind of knowledge only past experience can provide, she was ready to take another shot at entrepreneurship. That’s when Chad Barczak and Jeff Kast came along and asked if she’d like to join them in starting RealLead, a mobile marketing lead capture tool and lead marketplace for buying and selling real estate leads. “The timing was perfect,” she says, and now she’s CEO of a new tech company and enjoying the startup experience once again.

“My favorite part of owning my own business is being able to build and lead a team that works together to build great products that are solving problems in the marketplace. I believe that if you’re not learning something new everyday then something is wrong. Complacency is death to any organization. This is why I love the startup environment – there’s always something new to address and it keeps me and my team on our toes”

One of the biggest challenges the team at RealLead faced during start up was recruiting skilled programmers, a growing problem in Eugene, Oregon where RealLead is based. “Finding the caliber of software programmers we needed early in the startup process” wasn’t easy, Cummings noted.  They were able to recruit a top-notch programmer, who got their core mobile product developed quickly. “We had customers using our mobile marketing tools only five and a half months after starting the company. That was fantastic because it helped us attract other quality developers to join our team.”

Cummings also comments on the importance of “having the right extended team in place” to help handle the tax and legal intricacies involved with starting and running a business. “It can get overwhelming,” she says, so the lawyers, accountants, bankers, and other professionals you surround yourself with are as important as your on-staff team.

Early on, RealLead was able to raise enough capital to start and grow their company for a full year. After only nine and half months, they had a live beta product launched, and they currently have Realtor customers from across the United States using their tools. “It’s wonderful to see our business plan come to life and validate our market in such a short amount of time,” she notes.

Speaking of business plans, Caroline says “Our business plan has been the compass for the ship we’re building. We didn’t even start building the ship until we had our compass fine-tuned. I believe you can build the best sea-worthy ship, but it isn’t worth much if you can’t put people in it, decide on a direction, and have tools that help you reach that destination successfully.”

Short term goals for the company are to raise another round of financing this summer and to hire more staff to accommodate their fast growth. Longer range goals include growing their team to 40+ members, expanding their tools into international markets, and becoming known as “the go-to for how to generate and respond to real leads.”

In between her two startup gigs, Cummings worked for both the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network and the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, creating programs to support emerging companies and developing and training networks of angel investors. So you can pretty much trust her advice when she says “There are no shortage of ideas in the world – it’s getting the product to market that is challenging. If you believe in your idea, your market and in yourself, you’re half-way there.” She is a strong believer in the importance of mentors, adding “Starting your own business is not all peaches and cream – there’s a fair amount of sour patches along the way – and having a solid base of mentors can help you make it over those intense waves that will most certainly come your way.”

Learn more about RealLead mobile marketing tools for Realtors.

RealLead uses LivePlan, the online business planning tool, to plan and manage their business, as well as the email management tool Email Center Pro to handle their customer support.

Whether he meant to or not jolly old St. Nick created one of the most recognizable and beloved brands in the western world; one that children have adored and parents embraced for centuries.  Santa Claus has endured wars, depressions, scrutiny (is he real or not??), imposters who tried to tarnish his image (ala The Grinch), and even opposition from certain religious groups.

So how the heck did he do it? How did Santa Claus build such a phenomenon, despite the obstacles and challenges the world threw at him? And what lessons can businesses owners learn from him for building our own brands?

I’ve identified some key things that Santa does to solidify his brand, create raving fans, build trust and grow his Christmas Empire! Here they are, along with the lessons we can learn from his success:

Marketing Lessons from Santa

1.  Santa is painstakingly reliable. Most of us awoke every Christmas morning, year after year, to find a plate sprinkled with cookie crumbs, an empty milk glass, and a bounty of presents; all bearing witness to Santa’s  late night visit. Despite snow storms and freezing temperatures, or dad losing his job, moving to a new house, or fighting with our brothers too much, Santa never let us down. Santa is the epitome of reliability.

Business Lesson:  How reliable is your business? Are you letting customers down?  Like expectant children on Christmas mornings, our customers have high expectations and it’s our job to deliver – or risk losing them.  Make it a habit to ask customers if they’ve ever felt let down by your company, what areas you can improve upon, and what products or services they’d like you to offer.  Being painstakingly reliable builds trust and people buy from companies they trust!

2.  Santa surprises and delights us!  Who doesn’t think of Santa and smile? Why is that? It’s because he always surprises and delights us! Whether it’s flashing a jovial smile and belting out a jolly “Ho Ho Ho”, delivering that Barbie doll we’d been obsessing over for months, or making a surprise appearance with a bag full of goodies at a holiday party, happiness and smiles follow Santa wherever he goes.  

Business Lesson:  Can you say the same about your brand? Does your business leave a lasting smile and happy thoughts? Do you surprise and delight? If not, study your competition and your industry, talk to people, and find out where others let customers down. Then do something that no one else in your industry does.  Find that  “something extra”  to add to your product or service mix.  Customers love the unexpected, so what can you do to leave a lasting impression?

3.  Santa encourages us to write.  Everyone knows Santa loves getting our letters – and even reads every single one of them! And what does he ask of us?  Nothing but a list all the presents we want him to deliver on Christmas morning!

Business Lesson:  Imagine if our customers felt comfortable enough to send us a list of their wants, needs,  and desires. Don’t you think that would help us understand  and serve them better? What can you do to encourage your customers to stay in touch with you?  Since we don’t have our own North Pole address, I’d recommend things like suggestion boxes (on, or offline!), surveys, and, service follow up calls.

4.  Santa rewards good behavior.  ”Have you been naughty or nice?”  Your answer could mean the difference between that diamond necklace you’ve been eyeing or a big ole lump of coal!  

Business Lesson: Businesses can build their brands by rewarding “good” behavior too! Did a customer buy more than usual? Reward them with a discount or an extra freebie. Did a customer refer you or leave a raving Yelp review? Send a special present or gift certificate to say “thank you.” Rewarding good behavior not only shows the customer your appreciation, it encourages them to do it again!

5.  Santa has elves and  8 reindeer- Santa wouldn’t be Santa without his team. Do you think he’d be able to read all of our letters, be painstakingly reliable, or jolly and delightful if he didn’t have a team to help him with all his Christmas responsibilities?  Of course not, so then why do you expect to be able to take care of all of your business responsibilities by yourself?

Business Lesson:  If you don’t have the time to provide the level of service you want, surprise and delight customers – or market and build your business then it’s time to get your own team of elves and reindeer! No one ever built an empire alone…not even Santa.  Want to be insanely popular like Santa?  Then it may be time  to hire some help!

6.  Santa is one-of-a-kind!  Santa has an image like no one else:  long gray beard, velvety red suit, and shiny black boots. Santa has a catch phrase, “Ho, Ho, Ho”.  Santa knows his target market are children. Santa also knows these three things set him apart from the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and moms and dad -  and he used that to build the Santa brand to be the unmistakable symbol it is today!

Business Lesson: Take a look at your business, what can you do to make your business stand out from the crowd? Do you have a unique image? A symbolic uniform? A bright red sleigh pulled by 8 tiny reindeer (Ok, a fleet of bright red trucks will do!)?  A quirky catch phrase? Find your uniqueness and do something big to stand apart from the competition!

Summary:

The bottom line is this: Santa “gets” marketing – he built one of the most recognizable brands that ever existed by doing these 6 things.  Sure, we may never be as popular as Santa but by following his example, we can certainly create our own little world of magic!  Happy holidays! Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

By the way, if you liked this post, I’d really appreciate your Retweet!!! Thank you.

When is a plan not a plan? When it’s a tool.

Perhaps the most important factor in achieving your desired result and turning your plan into a management tool is regularly reviewing the plan.

In the final two videos of Tim Berry’s video series on how to write a successful business plan, he talks about the actual heart and soul of business planning.

It’s not in the number of pages you have, or in how the finished product looks, or even if everything is spelled right. It’s in its ongoing success. Were you able to take your thoughts, ideas, forecasts and plans and make them work? Did your work on the original plan give you the proper base from which to continue your business by making adjustments, setting goals and milestones and achieving them as close as possible to what you’d planned?

This is the key.

A business plan is never done.

(If you can’t see the videos above, you can view them on our how to write a business plan video page)

Tim has taken us through what a business plan is, how to just jump in and get started, how to hone your strategy and focus… now it’s time for the reason why you started a business in the first place. Money!

Knowing how much money you have and how much you need are two important parts of a successful plan and a successful business. But just as important is forecasting out your sales.  According to Tim Berry, good forecasts are created by forming well organized, educated guesses based on research and past results. In other words -  it’s okay to be wrong in your forecasting! But make sure you pay attention to where you were off and why. That will help you make better guesses in the future!

(If you can’t see the videos above, you can view them on our how to write a business plan video page)

We’re continuing the series from Tim Berry on how to write a successful business plan.

Yesterday we learned the basics and how to get going, today Tim talks you through narrowing your focus and strategy.

I’ve learned a lot from Tim over the years, and this quote from him is something I’ve found myself passing along to others – “You don’t write your plan in the same order that somebody would read it.”   It’s one of those things that after you hear, you totally get. Of course you wouldn’t write a summary of your plan first thing! And yet, that’s where so many people seem to start.  Check out the next two video’s from Tim below.

(If you can’t see the videos above, you can view them on our how to write a business plan video page)

Business planning is about determining your business future.

Where do you want your business to go?
Where should it be in three years?
What are the steps to get there?

Wouldn’t it be great if you had someone who could help you through the hard parts of business planning? Maybe give you a guiding hand in the how and why of it all?

This week we’re going to be posting Tim’s popular business planning video series.

Tim has spent years studying and honing his process of writing successful plans. And he’s passing that knowledge on to you.

We’re starting with the first two videos.

(If you can’t see the videos above, you can view them on our how to write a business plan video page)

Many of us fall into business because of passion, circumstance or perhaps an exciting idea, forgetting about the end game.

However, goal setting- making tangible, definable goals- is critical to get you to where you want to go.

To illustrate this, I wanted to tell you a bit about my mother, Sheri, and her adventures in entrepreneurship.  I can only describe my mom as a cross between Martha Stewart andCher, meaning that she can create an elegant evening broach out of a brown paper grocery bag and free-hand pancakes in the shape of elephants (the Martha part) and would often do just that wearing four-inch stiletto heels and purple contact lenses (theCher part).  Being talented and creative, once upon a time, that creativity led her towards entrepreneurship.

In the early 1980s, my mom was putting together some really unique holiday gifts that looked like this:

One of our neighbors came over and asked my mom if she would make a few gift baskets for her to also give as gifts for the holidays.

My mom agreed (and as an aside, of course she didn’t charge the neighbor anything incremental to put the gifts together!).

Proof of Concept

News of the unique gift baskets my mom was making spread like wildfire throughout the neighborhood and kept my mom busy throughout the holiday season.  She enlisted a friend to help her- who thankfully informed my mom that they should charge something to make the baskets- and a “jobbie” (a hobby disguised as a business) was born.

When the orders continued after the holiday season for baby gifts, get well gifts, birthday gifts and more, it occurred to them that maybe this jobbie could be turned into a business.

The “Job Business”

While today there are hundreds of gift basket companies, nearly 30 years ago, this concept didn’t exist and my mom and her partner really were pioneers in the niche.

They started in the business in our basement, which usually looked like a tornado had hit Party City.  Inventory, cellophane, ribbons and balloons were everywhere.  The business quickly took off- they were working full time, taking orders, assembling and wrapping the gifts, packing, finding new business, purchasing inventory, invoicing, chasing down payments and creating marketing materials.

Eventually, the operation outgrew the basement and they bought a warehouse and they continued to work hard.

And by 1991, nearly a decade after they had started the business, their circumstances changed.  My mom was getting a divorce and her partner’s family was in financial trouble and so they had to look at the business and how much they were making.

They realized, for the first time, that they were making $10,000 a piece.

Working 50 hours a week and 50 weeks each year, they were pulling in a whopping …drum roll, please…$4 per hour.

This was a job, not a business, and one that wasn’t even pulling in the minimum wage.

This was not enough money to sustain either my mom or her partner when their circumstances changed.

Needing a Purpose

My mom went into her business because she had a creative idea.  Even though she got some proof of concept, there was no goal, no purpose and no real strategy.  She got orders, she filled orders, she had increasing interest in her product, but ultimately, she never made enough for it to be worth her time or effort- a fact ironically lost on her for a decade until her circumstances shifted.

If you are led by your creativity or passion, make sure to ask yourself what you want out of your business.  If you don’t set goals, how will you know what direction to go in?  Do you want to build something?  Do you want to help even more people?  Do you want to create jobs and growth in the economy?  Do you want recognition as a savvy businessperson? Are you looking for a hobby?  It is totally up to you and there is no right answer, but make a conscious decision.  You can’t keep score if you don’t know what game you are playing.

Why it Matters

After my mom’s circumstances changed, she had to abandon her business to support herself (as did her partner).  She swore she would revisit running a business and do it differently the next time.

However, there wasn’t time for a “next time” for her.  Just a few years after leaving the business behind, my mom was diagnosed with Leukemia.  She passed away just after her 51^st birthday.  She was creative, she was bright and she had an entrepreneurial spirit, but she never had someone tell her how important having a goal was to get where she wanted to go.  She never had an opportunity to hear that message and she also never had an opportunity to be everything that she could be.

In her honor, I have vowed to help change that and I hope that her story can be an extra motivator for you to be and achieve everything that you can.

There are no right or wrong goals, only the ones that matter to you.   Set them so that you can make progress and achieve success, whatever that may mean to you.

(Image by Drew Melton)

Think about the last time you made a big change in the way you run your business or perhaps even in your personal life. It’s hard to adjust your day to day habits. Sometimes we are even at a loss where to start. The same tends to happen with our marketing. Perhaps you have worked with a strategist like us to help you build the right marketing system for your business, but don’t know how to actually implement all these changes going forward. There seems to be so much ongoing content, “tweets” and updates to the website. It can all be overwhelming unless you can make certain elements part of your day to day routine. Here is a roadmap to your marketing routine

• Make the time. Let’s face it if you had a hot prospect that was looking at spending a considerable amount of money with you, you wouldn’t ignore them to go get toner for your printer. Yet when it comes to marketing – by far our biggest prospect for earning a considerable amount of money for the company, it always remains low on the priority list. So start treating it like a hot prospect.

Action: Book a recurring appointment with your marketing in your work calendar every day for at least 30 minutes and then once or twice a week for 1.5 hours each.

• Create your tasks. I love my Tasks feature in Outlook. It allows me add a task, make it recurring and prioritize it. I can even share it or allocate it with others. You can’t just expect, after all, to sit down to do your marketing and then wonder what the heck it is you’re going to actually do.

Action: Using a task program (or a spreadsheet) start by listing what you want to accomplish this quarter. Then back this up into monthly tasks, weekly tasks and possibly even daily tasks.

• Do your tasks. Now this might seem obvious, but if you have ever created a to-do list before, you probably have found that a few of those “to-do’s” just don’t get done. There is one reason for this. Simply, you don’t want to do it right now.

No matter how you try it’s just not your forte, you don’t want to learn it, you can’t find the time or it just is against your personality. It would be like choosing swimming as part of your new fitness regime, when you can’t even swim and have no time or desire to learn. In the case of marketing then you have 3 options. If a task element is still on your list a month or two after it’s due:

Delay it – Move it to the next quarter if the reason it hasn’t been done is you have ran out time or it’s not as big of a priority as you thought.

Delegate it – If you don’t have the forte or don’t have the desire to learn it, delegate it to someone else with experience in this area to get it done for you. After all, a successful person is one who has learned to spend money to save time instead of spending time to save money!

Delete it – if this just doesn’t fit with who you are and you can’t delay it or delegate it. Delete it as part of your marketing system. Don’t be surprised when you go to actually delete it if you have a change of heart and find you can’t really let it go! This is good news because it means you have now chosen to either do it, delay it, or delegate it!

So what might a marketing routine look like? Here’s one created by one of my peers, Kelly Weppler Hernandez of WH and Associates.

Daily

• Facebook and Twitter daily update first thing in the morning, and maybe a posting later in the day

Weekly

• LinkedIn update at least once a week.
• Hand-written Notes – every Thursday. Send at least 2 handwritten notes to colleagues, past clients, strategic partners etc.
• Blogging – anything that’s related to your industry. Blogging might be written, video or audio.
• Update content on your website

Monthly

• Newsletter – email corporate newsletter at least once per month. Pick a target date like the 15th.
• Run a monthly promotional campaign

Quarterly

• Speaking Event – set a goal to do a speaking event once per quarter.

Annually

• Client Appreciation Event – pick a month that works within your calendar and work with a few strategic partners to host a client appreciation event.

Remember the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Create your own marketing routine and make appointments and tasks in your calendar to get it done!

This is our third post on startup lessons from David Fincher’s new film about the founding of Facebook, The Social Network. We’ve already seen that business ideas aren’t protected, and that startups, especially, need to be clear on partnership agreements, and whether partners are actually a good idea. Today, the important lesson is about actually shipping, getting to market, and seizing opportunities.

Doing, marketing, selling is what makes a successful business
While the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendr focused on the idea of the business, Mark Zuckerberg actually coded and launched a product. When his friend and partner Eduardo Saverin dragged his feet on investment and expansion decisions, Zuckerberg cut him loose to move faster.

The success of Facebook wasn’t about the idea. Business ideas aren’t actually worth very much. “If you have a good idea, a thousand other people have the same idea. You’re in a race to take that idea and make it happen, make it real. You build the business, you don’t just have the idea.”

As one commenter wrote about the case back in 2007, “I have taken a look at ConnectU and their script…anybody could write such a script..what makes Facebook facebook, is not because of any code or script…it’s Faceboook’s strategy and [how they] positioned themselves.”

Zuckerberg himself credits Facebook’s success to three things:

* Boldness
* Speed
* Focus

Zuckerberg used his technical savvy to take an event that was already happening offline – college students socializing – and move it online. Boldness and speed were apparent even in the one-day success of an earlier experimental site, Facemash, which he created in a weekend while at Harvard. According to the Harvard Crimson, Zuckerberg intended to share the site only with a few friends, but it quickly spread across campus to get 22,000 votes. No doubt that early feedback (and the fact that more than half of all Harvard undergrads joined Facebook in its first month) helped encourage him to moved quickly to expand beyond his initial market (Harvard) into other colleges, and then to non-college students.

Of course, as reviewer Richard Corliss says, “Zuckerberg would make billions selling friends — and if need be, the film reckons, selling them out.”

Making it, getting it launched and to market, is especially true for startups now, in a down economy, as venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki explains.

“In today’s economy and tight credit markets, there is a much greater emphasis on getting to revenues fast and more emphasis on business models than before,” Kawasaki says. “You also meet companies that are further along. Whereas, a few years ago the accepted practice was you raised a bunch of money, then you went away for a year and built your software. You needed the money to hire people, buy tools and all that kind of stuff.”

Will you follow through, or foul up?

Sara Prentice Manela
Editor

P.S. Speaking of Facebook – Have you joined our fanpage?