Ideas To Deals

Chamber of Commerce...What's In It For Me?

Recently  I read an article called Seven Reasons EVERY Business and Non-profit Organization Should be a Member of Their Local Chamber of Commerce in a Challenging Economy.  This article got me thinking about how small businesses should think about membership organizations.  Having worked in or with Chambers and other trade associations for years and a couple things are clear. These organizations need you for survival. Without your membership dues and other contributions they can't operate.  Some of these groups have a great focus on small business and some don't (even if they say they do). When they are discussing membership with you most of these organizations will roll out a standard list of benefits. Your responsibility is to look at what is offered and determine if it will truly benefit your business. If you are early in your business life cycle you need to make double sure that what you spend your money on will help you build your business. Just like you need to deliver real value to your customers a Chamber or trade association needs to deliver benefits that allow you to make your business better. 

Here is a list of the standard benefits that most Chambers and other membership organizations offer:

Visibility. This always the first thing a Chamber trying to get you to join will roll out.  They have "X" number of members, a newsletter, a member listing, etc.  Just being on the list won't help you.  These numbers won't translate to your customer count without work on your end. You need to set yourself apart and build relationships to grow your business.

Access. In this case you get out of it what you put in to it however you need to be very protective of your time.  You need to focus on committees and activities that will connect you with the right people for you to know for your business. Don't join everything, join the right things.

Ongoing training and education.  Many Chambers have shifted to a more after-hours type networking that is just that, unstructured networking.  Nothing wrong with that but if you are looking for eduation and content you won't find it here.  What educational content they do have may be more about who is delivering it than what you are getting from it.

Networking. Networking is important but it needs to be targeted. You need to meet the right people that you can either do business with or can lead you to people that you can do business with. The challenge with many Chamber networking events is that they are attended by sales people that want to sell to you not buy from you.

Low cost advertising opportunities. 

• Advertising through sponsorships: Don't expect much from this. You may get some visibility but remember the people attending the event are not there for you so even if you get some face time they probably won't remember you after they leave. Sponsor handouts are usually the first thing to hit the trash following an event. Make sure there is a plan to get activily get propsects to you.
• Member Advertising: Newsletter advertising while typically not expensive is usually passed over in lieu of the content.  You need to be able to stand out and be in the newsletter consistently over time.  If however you can write content that will speak to members and get them to look at your business that is a good strategy.  There may be a number of members looking to get the some content spot in the newsletter so if you get in there make it count.

Advocacy. To many small businesses don't make their voices heard about political issues that impact them.  A Chamber can be a good way to make sure your voice is heard. While this is important as a small business if this is the primary pitch for membership keep your money. Many large metro chambers use this as a selling point but remember they will do it whether you are a member or not. I would recommend that you focus on bottom-line benefits first then if you are making enough money the advocacy will become important.

Money saving discounts.This is the one that drives me crazy. Maybe in the past this was important but I can get discounts on post-it notes without paying to join a chamber. There are often discount programs available through the vendor that are the same as a Chamber. Look around and you will find what you need.

OK, now let me tell you how to select a good Chamber of Commerce to join. 

• Focus on business ~ Know your customer, who they are, where they are and what you can provide to them.  If you know this look at the Chamber and determine what they have to offer and how that fits to what you know about your customer.
• You get out of it what YOU put into it ~ To many small businesses expect their Chamber membership to cause the phone to start to ring. You will need to be active to get a membership to benefit your business. This is why you have to be strategic and determine if what you will have to do is worth your time and effort. 
• Is the Chamber Creative ~ Are they doing the same things they were doing in 1987? What new and creative things are they doing to really make a difference for their members? The business world is evolving, make sure your chamber is evolving too.
• Do they really care about you ~ With a lot of large chambers the volunteer membership is made up of the big players. Chamber decisions are based on the perspective of the big boys. This perspective is often a "rising tide raises all boats" philosophy. If you are a small business you need to make money now, what are they doing to help you do that?
• What is the ROI ~ Know what you need to get out of a Chamber membership to justify what you have to pay. The "pay" is not only the Chamber dues but also cost to go to the annual meeting, the golf outing, sponsorships, etc. Also factor in your time commitment. 

Do your homework and make a good decision that will help you grow your business.

Thanksgiving Weekend (Business) Run

In the spirit of my "Weekend Long Run" posts I am doing a Thanksgiving Weekend Run post. Anyone that runs know the Turkey Trot is a holiday tradition that allows you to eat more, guilt free because you ran before the feast. Same for your business. You can take a little guilt-free time away from your business to enjoy time with family, shopping or in my case hauling my kids to hockey clinics, by spending time with some of the great content I'm sharing with you today. 

Note...Don't forget that this Saturday, November 26, 2011 is Small Business Saturday. Be sure to get out and support your local small businesses when you're out shopping. Check out the Small Business Saturday website and Facebook page. 

Now on to this Turkey edition of the business run. Remember these are articles that I have come across this week that would be good to look at to improve your business.  I will be running the Flying Feather 4 Miler on Thanksgiving morning and reading these posts over the weekend:

Busting The 10 Biggest Small Business Myths by Barry Moltz on the American Express Open Forum 

Get Uncomfortable: The Best Business and Life Choice You’ll Ever Make by Marcus Sheridan on his site The Sales Lion

How to Measure Social Media by Mariya Newman on at Digital Bootcamp

How to Write Faster Blog Posts (Every Time) on Digital Blog Tips

10 Advanced Twitter Tips & Tricks on tweepi

7 Keys to Growing Your Blog Readership via Monika Jansen on Grow Smart Biz

Make Your Slides Count ~ What happens when puppets use PowerPoint? (video) on Duarte.com

Facebook Power Tips For Small Business by Amy Porterfield at Fast Company

How To Find Guest Posting Opportunities on Savvy Sexy Social

Tips for No Regrets Holiday Electronics Shopping at Techmamas (More to help with your shopping than your business)

I know it is a longer list than usual but it's a long weekend afterall.

Here is my weekly running partner. Not really someone I run with but rather a resource I want with me to help my business. This week my running partner recommendation is Herb Lawrence of the Arkansas State SBTDC. Herb does the same thing I do for the SBDC. He does a great job reaching and providing assistance to the businesses of Arkansas. He is a pioneer in the national SBDC network in utilizing social media and is a great follow if you are building a small business.

Finally, I want you all to know that I am truly thankful for all of you that read this blog and/or follow me on twitter or facebook. I hope that what I do helps you improve your business.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving this weekend. 

 

Beware Of Early Success

You launched your business. You have built out the product, you are getting favorable reaction from your early market entry, you even got some early financing. Things are going great. This entrepreneurship thing is a piece of cake, right?

 

WARNING ~ Celebrate early success but don't take your foot off the gas. 

There is a life cycle to business growth and even if things are working at the beginning there are a lot of different issues you will have to deal with in the future that can derail your business. I have been working with businesses for over 20 year and I know those entrepreneurs that are committed, passionate and driving forward succeed long term.

Here are a few things to be weary of early on...

Growing beyond your personal network. One of the most difficult parts of growing a business, especially one that requires scale is to cross the valley of death from early sales to those prospects that you know or are familiar with to those outside of your local market. When I started working in the venture capital space in 1999 there were numerous businesses that were in the education space. They were going to provide some sort of internet/technology solution to K - 12 school systems. They all had interest from local districts where their kids or relatives' kids attended but when it came to the next phase of going to districts where they did not have not internal contacts/champions they couldn't convert. The strategy to move from the early adopters to the mass market is different and can kill your business if you don't recognize it.

Fundraising never ends. This is particularly true for scalable businesses. If you are taking investor growth capital always be looking for the next round. Growth capital is the gas that allows you to grow fast and get to a liquidity event. This liquidity event is the critical point in providing financial return to you, your team and your investors. While you may be patient and your team may be patient your investors expect you to hit the milestones you established when you took their money. I have seen companies get funding and need to start the next round of fund raising almost immediately because the fundraising process takes time and given their growth they will run out cash if they don't get that next round started.

Beware of the accolades associated with early success.  You have this early success thing going then all of the sudden everyone that gave you some advice along this journey is coming out of the woodwork to pat you on the back and talk about how great you are. Reporters are wanting to do stories on you, you are getting nominated for awards, you are being asked to tell your story, and you are being ask to be on committees to help government agencies fix the economy...Don't forget about your business.  Awards are great, recognition is great and these can certainly help you build buzz and credibility but always remember that it is your commitment to the customer and solving their problems that are the true reward.

Everything that is happening to you around your early success is certainly deserved but you need to stay focused on your plan and not be distracted by shiny objects. When you got into this venture you probably developed a mission statement around what your business is all about and a vision statement around where you want to go. Stay true to these and you will succeed.

Weekend Long Run November 18, 2011

Another week has come and gone and I hope you took advantage of opportunities to build and grow your business. 

I wanted to share this video from Barefoot TV by my friend Carrie Wilkerson. In this segment Carrie visits with Mike Litman. What I like about this video is the discussion about getting started in your business. You have to get started sometime and by started I mean getting out there and making money. Often times people make the start-up process so complicated that they can't get launched. It is important that you take action and start.

Another thing I like here is the importance of getting the first sale. Often people plan around long-term financial projections, which is valuable to the business, but that tends to diminish the importance of getting early sales. I've been doing this for a long time and I can guarantee that you can not get to your goal number without making that first sale.  So be sure to recognize the value of getting that first sale. 

Go ahead and check this out and check me out on the other side of the video.

Now on to this weekend's business long run. Remember these are articles that I have come across this week that would be good to look at to improve your business. again a pretty busy hockey weekend for my kids which may impact my long run but I will still get 8 or so miles in and read these posts:

20 Easy Ways To Grow Your Company Facebook Page & Fans via Bloggertone

Holiday Shopping On-Line - Santa is On-line in 2011 via Arkansaw State University SBTDC

Tips For Building Your Online Business via Small Business Trends

Five Upselling Tips to Help You Supersize Your Bottome Line via Intuit Small Business Blog

17 Ways to Integrate Facebook and Email Marketing via Jay Baer's Convince and Convert

Finally here is my weekly running partner. Not really someone I run with but rather a resource I want with me to help my business. This week my running partner recommendation is David Hunegnaw, founder of About Our Work. David is a serieal entrepreneur that I have know for years. He is a great resource for start ups and as a matter of fact his new venture About Our Work was recently featured on Vator.TV. Check it out, could be a great resource for your business.

So get out and get your mileage in this weekend so you are ready for your business marathon.

Blogging For Small Business Owners

Do you have a blog for your small business? You should consider it. Blogging  enables you to build credibility, expertise and thought leadership in and around your business. It is also a great way to showcase information about your product or service in a way that provides you flexibility to add information on-line without having to make changes to your primary website. Given all of these advantages the biggest challenges in blogging typically revolve around generating ideas to write about and the time to create posts. Yesterday I attended a session put on by the Social Media Club of Columbus on the business of blogging.  The session featured Matt Russo, ChatterJet.com, Lori Crock, Written Impact, BlogCoaches and Sharon Santino, Leaderpromos. The speakers shared their thoughts on how to best implement blogging into a business's marketing mix.  Here are some takeaways I wanted to share that may increase your interest in blogging for your business.

The Strategy of Business Blogging

Like most things in business there are strategic business reasons to blog. In addition to the points I mentioned above blogging can increase your business's relevance, authority, increase your ranking in search engines and your leverage. However, what your get out of blogging will be different for every business as the outcome will be determined by your business goals. While most would point to traffic and comments as a success metric in a blog that is not always the case. Depending on your business you may not need large traffic numbers to show success. Using Leaderpromos as an example they do B to B sales. Typically people come to them later in the sales cycle so it is more important to them to attract specific, engaged audience that need their products so large number of non-business readers are not that critical to the success of their site. In other cases there is a value to large numbers, it just depends on your customers and what your are trying to accomplish with your blog. 

Content is King

Content is king in blogging. Content that speaks to your readers is going to increase activity on your blog. Writing about something that you have a passion about will improve the quality of the content. This is perfect for most small business owners in that the thing they are passionate about, their product/business, is what they are writing about in their blog. Having said this the best way for businesses to generate content is to understand what their customers/readers are talking about and respond to these issues. Solving problems makes great blog posts. Most of the posts on this site are generated around questions small business owners tell me they are struggling with in their business.

Activity and Visability 

In order to increase activity and visibility to your blog the best way is to connect to communities that are dealing with issues you are dealing with. For example, if you are a food blogger then food communities and blogs are best to connect with as opposed to just randomly posting and hoping the people will notice. Social media promotion to get the word out on platforms that your audience frequents is important.  Connecting to other bloggers in your space can often lead increased visability and possibly to guest posts that will expose you to another audience. Submitting posts to social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon  or Digg can extend your reach across the web. If you have a strong post that you feel will fit to the content of a large publisher you can submit the post to them and they might use it on their site. For example, in that I deal with small business owners sending links to posts and offering it to publications like Inc. or Entrepreneur might get me published there. Also, good use of keywords in your posts can attract traffic via search engines. To that point, be sure to write content that is valuable to the reader not the search engines. If the placement of the keywords makes sense that is fine but don't write stupid stuff just to stuff keywords into the post.

Just Do It!

Finally, like I say with all social media activities in your business you have to do it. Nothing frustrates me more than going to a blog and seeing nothing has been posted in the last year. There is time to blog and there are plenty of things for you to blog about. Build some consistency and schedule yourself to blog. There is no hard an fast rule to how many times a week you need to blog. Don't burn yourself out trying to blog everyday just do what makes sense. If you aren't a writer then consider video posts (vlogging). Videos are powerful ways to get your message across and draw attention. Many people use photos and minimal words in their posts especially photographers. This is common on platforms such as Tumblr. Find what you are comfortable with and blog.  95% of blogs fail within two years...Don't be a statistic.

Let me know your thoughts on best practices for small business blogging. Please leave a comment or go to our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Ideas2Deals, to be part of the conversation.

How To Ask For The Business?

For many small business owners sales is the most difficult part of being in business.  Most of us are very passionate and strong on the product side but sales and marketing is somewhat of a mystery. However, there is no one better to sell the product than the founder/owner. They have passion around the business and know what value there is in the product for customers. Books and videos on how to close that are often focused on the sales professional miss the mark when it comes to helping the small business owner sell. All of these closing techniques, while good for the right person, may seem forced and aggressive for the average business owner. They key is to find a style that is natural yet still moves toward the sale. Here is a tip I picked up from my friend Jack Windsor of the Windsor Group to get to the close. 

Instead of being intimidated by closing the sale look at the close as a logical conculsion to the sales process. Forget all the "tie down" close techniques, if you have done a good job in the sale process closing is a natural step. 

As you do your sales presentation first focus on the prospect's needs and how your solution fits to their needs. Once you have built rapport so that you and the prospect agree on their needs ask what they see the business relationship looking like in six months. Based on their response you simply say that you agree and propose some steps that can be done now to get to that future state. Guess what, you just closed the sale. Here you are aligning yourself with the prospect to help get them get to the desired future state they described. The next steps fit right into where you both agree the business relationship should be going. No heavy pressure just a logical conclusion to the sales process.

Simple right? Be yourself and find conversational ways to "lead" the sales discussion to a close that will bring you sales.

 

Weekend Long Run November 11, 2011

Here we are with the Veterans Day edition of the Weekend Long Run.  The first thing I would like to do is thank all of those that have and are currently serving in the armed services to provide us with the freedom to do what we do. We often take for granted the opportunities we have in the United States to pursue our passions which is what entreprenurship is all about. Without the veterans our ability to be a small business owners certainly wouldn't exist as it does today. Again, thank you veterans for all you do!

This has been a non-eventful week in running in that I didn't get any runs in but I did get a few work things done. The big thing is that we got started planing the Ohio Growth Summit. In 2012 we will be holding the Summit during National Small Business Week on May 24 at the Center for Workforce Development at Columbus State. We are planning several events throughout the week to celebrate small business owners and entrepreneurship. I hope to be able to announce the keynote presenters yet this month with active promotion and registration commencing in January. Mark your calenders and expect the Ohio Growth Summit to be bigger and better in it's eighth year.

Now on to this weekend's business long run. Remember these are articles that I have come across this week that would be good to look at to improve your business. This weekend I'm thinking about running both Saturday and Sunday with 6 miles each day and reading these posts:

Resources for America's Veteran Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners via SBA.gov

How to Build Your Team by Getting Rid of Your People via ThoughtLeaders

Service Delivery: The Other Side of the Marketing Coin via Tonya Wilson on SBA Community

Pros and Cons of Facebook As Your Website via Gini Dietrich on Spin Sucks

Denai Vaughn interviews Guy Kawasaki (audio) via Only Three Degrees Radio

Why a Thriving Community MUST Be a Part of Your Business Plan via Escaping Mediocrity

Finally here is my weekly running partner. Not really someone I run with but rather a resource I want with me to help my business. This week my running partner recommendation is Brandi Young-Sharp of Advanced Language Access. Advanced Language Access offers precise interpreting and translation services in over 20 of the most predominantly spoken foreign languages. I have worked with Brandi since the early days of her business and as much as I would like to take some credit for her success it is all her. She works very hard to improve cultural growth, unity, and understanding through her efforts. She is definitely someone that you should know.

So get out and get your mileage in this weekend so you are ready for your business marathon.

Business Start-up ~ Don't Make It Difficult

I talk to people everyday that want to start a business. Most of them have interesting ideas but things start to go down hill from there. Many people get bogged down in complicated business processes, creative legal structures and the need for large amounts of financing. Due to this they may never get started. To these people I recommend you step back and take a deep breath. Don't make starting a business any more difficult than it needs to be. Simplify, especially in the early stages of the business. 

Here are a few "Easy Button" things you should consider as you are developing your business idea.

Does your background provide you the skills to create a business around your idea?

The "Ah Ha" moment where you come up with your idea is actually the easy part. The challenging part is building a workable business model around the idea. 

• Easy Button ~ Look at things that you are excited to do and that you have experience in when trying to come up with a business idea. Build what is easiest for you, what you can do fast and what you are strong at.

What is your plan to build your business?

Note...I didn't say to do a business plan, I asked what your plan was to build your business. If you are a regular reader of this blog or have heard me speak on business development you know I am an advocate of the process of planning but not big on business plans. To many people get hung up on the structured format of a business plan and never really end up with anything workable. I prefer developing goals and the series of steps that will lead you to your goals, regardless of format.

• Easy Button ~ Establish your "Mission", why you are in business, and "Vision", where you want your business to go. Next set business goals and the key milestones that will need to be reached to get to those goals. Finally, set the intermediate steps that will lead you from milestone to milestone. Once this is done execute.

Can you do it or do you need someone else?

Sometimes you just can't do everything yourself and need outside help. This is fine but the question is how much outside help. I once met with a person that had a retail prodcut idea. That is pretty much all that he had, an idea. To create the business he needed a designer, manufacturer, and investor. Without those things he could not move forward. 

• Easy Button ~ Break things into pieces and do as much as you can by yourself before bringing in "paid" outside expertise. More than likely you will find that you can make a great deal of progress on your own that will actually make it easier to utilize outside help when the time is right.

What is your legal structure?

Amazingly to a lot of people this is starting a business. What is it is filling out paperwork. Don't get me wrong it has to be done and can be somewhat complicated but I don't know anyone that has ever made any sales because they chose to be a S-corp over and LLC. 

• Easy Button ~ Look at what you are doing and select the strucuture that gets the job done, complete the forms and move on. The more time you spend debating legal issues the longer it will take you to launch your business. Depending on the complexity of your business you may want to consult an attorney and a CPA to make sure everything is completed properly so you can get on with business. The money you spend to get an attorney/CPA will get things done quicker and save you time in the long run.

How much financing do you need?

External financing is never needed to build a business. Now having said that, without external funding it may take 50 years to get to where you could get in five years with funding but in both cases you reached your goal. You need to think about funding as fuel for growth. The more money you have the faster you can implement your plan and grow. However, that funding comes at a cost. You need to really determine if you are ready to obtain funding before your pursue it. 

• Easy Button ~ Bootstrap as far as you can before seeking funding. Bootstrapping, while challenging, will make your business stronger as you will have a much greater appreciation for revenue, expenses and cashflow issues. Also, the further you can push the business before taking someone elses money the more the business will be worth when you take other peoples' money.

Execute, Review, Adjust, Repeat

Once you start your business focus on moving forward. As your business progresses you need to constantly be looking at actual vs plan. How are you doing? You may find that you need to make adjustments, re-set and get going again. This is not a problem and is very common. The key is that you are moving forward.

• Easy Button ~ Just Do It!

Denai Vaughn

I was in Dallas at Carrie Wilkerson's BOSS 2011 event the first week of October and met Denai Vaughn. I remember Denai having great energy and having built a great business platform under the brand of the "Networking Queen". I sat next to Denai during a panel presentation where we discussed building "buzz" for your business. I was so impressed with Denai that I knew I wanted her to be a presenter at the 2012 Ohio Growth Summit. We discussed this and agreed to talk in November. This week I am beginning preparation for the Ohio Growth Summit. I have my first internal meeting and am speaking to my first potential keynote presenter today. I was planning to call Denai this week to begin discussing content and how she would fit into the program. Early this morning I checked my email and received a message from Carrie that Denai had been killed in a car accident in Texas yesterday. I was and still am in shock.

While we did not know each other for very long Denai was an inspiration to me. I had hoped to build out Ideas2Deals the way she had built out many of her on-line properties. Her use of podcasts is a model that I am using for upcoming Ideas2Deals podcasts. I feel that Denai would have been a great addition to the 2012 Ohio Growth Summit both in assisting people build an on-line presence and to help them improve their on-line and off-line networking.

Denai was a person of great faith which will help with the grieving process but we will always have a void left by Denai's absence. Denai leaves behind her husband Tim and a young daughter along with countless friends and associates she had touched during her all to brief life.

One of Denai's profiles reads "Do more. Be more. Achieve more. You are worth it!". She lived that motto and truly made a difference.

While you won't physically be with us on May 24 when I take the stage at the Ohio Growth Summit Denai you will be there with me. Thank you for everything.

Weekend Long Run November 4, 2011

It has been one of those crazy weeks where there is to much to do in to little time. Our SBDC Statewide Conference was Wendesday and Thursday. I don't know about you when you have out of the office events that doesn't mean the other work goes away it just shifts to the remaining three days of the week. I did get three early 6:00 am runs in this week but my Twitter participation has suffered. Like I always say "If you're to busy for Twitter, you're to busy". Anyway the conference was good. Some good info on integrating international trade into the strategies of small businesses. As well as tremendous presentations on social media for small business and a great venture investment panel presentation (I did both of those) and some other stuff (that I didn't do). Overall time well spent.

Now on to this weekend's business long run. Remember these are articles that I have come across this week that would be good to look at to improve your business. This weekend I'm thinking about running 12 miles and reading these posts:

Don't You Dare Fake It Until You Make It via Brass Tack Thinking

The Art Of Planning Your Blog via Build a Better Blog

Questions for New Entrepreneurs via Seth Godin's Blog

Three Steps to Building an Incredible Brand via David Horne on Spin Sucks

The Power of Mention via Savvy Sexy Social

The 5 Critical Components of Fantastic Lead-Capture Forms via HubSpot

Finally here is my weekly running partner. Not really someone I run with but rather a resource I want with me to help my business. This week my running partner recommendation is Mike Figliuolo.  I've know Mike for several years now and he knows leadership. He is former military and fortune 500 executive that has taken his talents and knowledge of leadership and founded the successful leadership coaching organization ThoughtLeaders. He is also the author of the new book “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership”.  Learn to write your leadership philosophy on just one page. You should check out his blog and his book.

So get out and get your mileage in this weekend so you are ready for your business marathon.