Using Online Customer Reviews for Your Business

Catalog Success magazine offers interesting tips on how your ecommerce business can use customer testimonials and reviews, which if used properly can be powerful conversion tools:

• Given that the hardest part is starting out, encourage customers to leave reviews by promoting them through contests until they become self perpetuating.
• Feature your customer reviews in your promotions, such as email campaigns and other promotional activities
• Build a separate domain for customer reviews and take advantage of double exposure by linking it to your product pages
• Allow customer in their reviews to include and post pictures
• Don't censor negative reviews as it can help you improve the products
• Use customer reviews across channels

How to Improve Effectiveness of Your Press Releases

Simply sending a press release will seldom, if at all, give you any press. Sure, you can use press releases to increase your link (if the press release distribution service you use actually give you a live link), but just using a distribution service is not a guarantee that it will be talked about by the media.

If you want more bang for your buck in terms of getting more results from your press releases, it is important to do your research. You need to make a targeted pitch. Media such as newspaper editors receive a lot of press releases per day, so you need to make sure that yours stand out among the rest.

For starters, be sure that your release format actually conforms to the standard press release format. Then make a list of publications that might be interested in your news release and your product. Include local publications as well. Contact the right editor/s and send your release to that person. One great resource that can help you in your research is Bacon's Newspaper and Magazine Directory -- check if the book is available in your local library.

Our section on publicity and public relations offer several articles on how to improve the effectiveness of your press releases

Starting a Specialty Shop Retail Business

I am currently reading a very interesting book entitled "The Specialty Shop: How to Create Your Own Unique and Profitable Retail Business" by Dorothy Finell. The book is an ideal read for those dreaming of starting their own retail shop as the author talks about a wide variety of topics from pre-planning and finance, to merchandise selection and display, promotion and customer service.

One good approach of the book is that it provides interviews with successful small retailers - those who have done the whole specialty retailing business successfully. The owners of the Juel jewelry boutique in Sydney, Australia and the Henning's Cake Shop in Santa Barbara, California, among others, share their insights on various topics such as:

• Selecting which products to carry
• Developing a business plan
• Choosing the right location
• Hiring and training personnel who will provide great customer service
• Creating an inviting ambience and choosing the right display materials, props and shelvings
• Planning an advertising and public relations campaign
• Navigating the world of trade shows and gift fairs
• Organizing a unique and memorable grand opening
• Developing a website and understanding ecommerce

What I also liked about the book is that it lists where you can source and buy your products - from the most important trade shows to contact information of buying offices. "Where can I get my products" is one of the most common questions of any would-be retailer, and these listings are invaluable.

The book will be available at Amazon on March 30, but definitely get a copy if you are planning to start your own retail shop.

Should You Take a Short Business Course Before Starting a Business?

Someone asked me today whether it is advisable for someone who wants to start a business to enroll first in a short business course before embarking on the process of entrepreneurship.

It is always best to come into the business very well prepared. Depending on your time, resources, and learning preferences, there are a number of ways you can learn about how to start a business -- even without sitting through a classroom. There are plenty of books and websites on the topic, and you can talk to entrepreneurs who are actually doing it and learn from their experiences.

If you really have to enroll in a short business course, I would recommend a course on how to start your specific type of business (e.g. a course on starting an importing and exporting business if this is the line of business you are interested in) rather than a general course on entrepreneurship. Or something more specific like how to raise capital for your startup.

Before enrolling in a paid course, check out SBA's Small Business Training Network (SBTN), which offers FREE online courses on various aspects of entrepreneurship -- from general information on starting a business to writing a business plan to how to raise capital funds to identifying your target market. I highly recommend that you take a look at these free online courses -- and if there is anything that you want more clarification or more information, then go for a short business course.

Interesting Business Idea: Products for the Hair Down There

I wrote about an interesting success story over at WomenHomeBusiness.com about Nancy Jarecki who created very unconventional (and hardly talked about) beauty products.

Apparently, many women want to be true blondes (or true red heads or true brunettes) by matching their hair colors up on their heads and "down there". Nancy created a special hair coloring kit specifically for the hair down there -- and her products are selling briskly. She is about to reach million dollar in sales this year! Who knew that there will be a great demand for color kits for the hair down there?

Read this interesting success story

Tip on Cutting Costs: Free Video Conferencing

If web conferencing has become an integral part of your business, save money and cut costs by using ConferenceCalls.com. The company is offering free and unlimited Web conference hours from February 15th through March 15th with 100 free audio minutes

I don't do web conferencing but I checked out the site. They have features such as pre-meeting and presentation set-up, smart scrolling, application and desktop sharing and other popular Web conferencing features. If you are looking for ways to save on expensive travel costs and lost time due to delays, check out the site and make use of their free minutes promotion.

Read the company's press release that we posted today

Business Idea: Starting an Event Planning Business

If you are thinking of starting an event planning business, here are some free articles that can give you more information on how to start this business:

• How to Start an Event Planning Service
• How to Start an Event and Meeting Planning Business
• How to Start an Event Planning Business in Ontario

To increase your attractiveness as an event planner, it is important to get some of the certifications in this field such as:

• International Special Events Society: Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP)
• Convention Industry Council: Certified Meeting Professional Program (CMP)
• Connected International Meeting Professionals Association: Certified Global Meeting Planner
• Association of Destination Management Executives: Destination Management Certified Professional

I recommend that you read the following books on how to start your own event planning business:

• How to Start a Home-Based Event Planning Business
• The Essential Event Planning Kit
• The Business of Event Planning: Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Successful Special Events
• Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Your Own Event Planning Business : Your Step by Step Guide to Success (Start Your Own Event Planning)
• Event Planning : The Ultimate Guide to Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising Galas, Conferences, Conventions, Incentives and Other Special Events

Success Factors for a Small Business Online Retail Store

Small businesses like us have inherent disadvantages compared to the big boys. This is particularly evident on the Web.

True that we can create Web sites that don't look that it is a one-person based operation but a million dollar operation. However, the big boys still outgun us in terms of marketing resources, technological capability and scope of inventory.

In order for our web retail businesses to thrive and succeed amidst the competition, here are two important things we need to consider and harness:

1. Ability to attract TARGETED traffic = you don't want any kind of traffic, but you want traffic that are actually interested in what you offer. Your traffic generation strategy should focus on what allowing you to get as much traffic as possible at the lowest cost that would be interested to buy whatever it is you are selling

This includes:

• Knowing how to optimize your search pages to get good organic search engine rankings
• Knowing how to maximize your pay per click strategy and improve results
• Knowing how to build your brand
• Knowing how to tap the media and press to raise awareness about your company

2. Ability to CONVERT visitors into buyers = you need to be obsessed with your conversion rate. From the "buy me" buttons to the categorization of products, every single thing on your website is a signal to a buyer and can spell the difference between browsing and buying

This includes:

• Knowing how to build customer confidence in your business
• Knowing how to maximize after sales opportunities
• Knowing how to improve the overall buyer experience
• Knowing how to improve product presentation (from the pictures to the sales copy)

You can get a few ideas on how to improve the sales and competitiveness of your online store from the article "How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site"

Home Business Success Story: Betsy Fein

WomenHomeBusiness.com just published an interview I did with Betsy Fein, President of the Maryland-based Clutterbusters http://www.clutterbusters.net, one of the leading professional home organizing businesses.

Betsy's story is very interesting. She started her home organizing business after she was laid off from her job with only $5,000 as startup capital. She got her first clients from the ads she placed in local newspapers and magazines. Like many new entrepreneurs, Betsy experienced a lot of problems learning the ropes of business -- from not knowing how to tell clients that she is increasing her fees to miscalculating the number of hours needed to complete a job.

Last year, Betsy embarked on growing her business via franchising, which her husband handles. She now has two franchises and hope to get 10 more before 2007 ends. Her business has not yet broken the $1-million revenue mark, but Clutterbusters is slowly but surely reaching that goal.

Read Betsy Fein's story at WomenHomeBusiness.com

Business Book: Know-How - The 8 Skills that Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Won't

To succeed in business, you need intelligence, vision and the ability to communicate. But according to Ram Charan in his new book "Know-How: The 8 Skills that Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Won't" there is another element that is critical to succeed in business: the know-how of running a business.

There are some people who may talk well and appear to possess great leadership skills -- but in reality, are nothing more but rhetoric and hot air. These are the people who dream big but always ends with nothing. A successful entrepreneur needs "the capacity to take it in the right direction, do the right things, make the right decisions, deliver the results, and leave the people and the business better off than they were before."

So what are the eight know-hows every business person must have to succeed? Here is the author's list:

1. Positioning and Repositioning. Getting into the right business that meets customer demands and that makes money.
2. Pinpointing extrenla change. Understanding what is happening in the business environment and competition to put the business on the defensive.
3. Leading the social system. Getting the right people with the right behaviors and right information working together for the business.
4. Judging people. Hiring the right people to do the job.
5. Molding a team. Getting all these talented individuals to work seamlessly together, never mind the egos
6. Setting goals. Determining the goals that the business can realistically achieve
7. Setting laser-sharp priorities. Defining the path and making sure all the resources, actions and energies are allocated to reach the priorities
8. Dealing with forces beyond the market. Knowing how to anticipate and respond to the market particularly to events and pressures you don't have control over but may affect the business

Using Talk Radio to Market Your Business

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Francine Silverman, an author and a publicity expert, on how to market your small business through talk radios.

I am not a radio listener, so I was surprised to learn that radio reaches 94% of consumers every week according to the Radio Advertising Bureau’s study “Radio Marketing Guide and Fact Book.” The study also found that consumers listened to the radio for about 20 hours per week -- with every minute representing an opportunity for your message to be heard.

Francine gave a number of great information on how you can tap the radio for your business. She has created her own Internet radio show Book Marketing with Fran on Achieve Radio and specializes in helping authors tap the radio to publicize their books. She has a new book coming out entitled “Talk Radio for Authors,” which contains valuable information on talk radio shows across the U.S. and Canada that invite authors as guests.

To complement my article, my colleague Lyve Pleshette wrote an article on how to get guesting or interview spots on talk radio. You can read the articles at

• Using Talk Radio To Market Your Small and Home-Based Business
• Radio Marketing: How To Get Invited To Guest On Radio Talk Shows

Mobile Marketing: How Home Businesses can Tap the Mobile Phones to Reach their Customers

Cell phones have become an ubiquitous accessory in our society today. People use and bring their cell phones almost everywhere -- in the car, during lunch, and just about every waking minute of the day.

Now the question for marketers is: how do we tap this medium to reach our audiences? Should home-based entrepreneurs start learning about this medium? How can it be used for our businesses?

One way mobile marketing is being approached is to tie local search and local shopping with mobile phones. Ads arrive with laser-like targeting precision, informing the customer of deals and sales in places that is accessible to them.

NearbyNow, a mall-centric shopping search engine, allows users to signup to receive special offers and ads from local malls that it covers. Their subscribers are those who are planning to go to the mall, or who are already in the mall; and they signup to receive information on sales and what stores sell the items they want via SMS. Their approach incorporates a time element -- ads arrive in their phone up to 90 minutes after optin as it is assumed that once the subscriber receives the ad, they are already heading to the store. To date, the company has deals with malls in some parts of California, Arizona, Texas and Florida.

Yokel is another search engine that focuses on local search and uses the mobile phone to reach customers. Unlike NearbyNow which sends the information via SMS, Yokel allows users of smart phones such as Treo, Blackberry and Motorola Q to access a Yokel search page to get the list of stores offering the products they want.

While the above examples are most beneficial to store owners, Target Marketing recommends three things business owners and marketers need to consider before embarking on mobile marketing:

1. Rethink your media buys - consider how to integrate mobile marketing into your marketing mix, especially since the mobile phone can be a big "buy it now" button
2. Develop a truly special offer - especially since the cell phone is too personal a tool (not to mention costly when sending SMS messages that the user will just consider as spam)
3. Keep the creative approach simple - the best is a text message with 100 characters or even shorter.

Earning Advertising Revenues from Blogs

I previously wrote on ways you can earn from your blogs though this post focused on selling your writing instead of selling your ad spaces on your blog.

If you are thinking of monetizing your blog, here are Blog Advertising Network that sells ads exclusively for blogs. Sign up with them and start earning from advertising from your blog

• Federated Media Publishing http://www.federatedmedia.net/blog/
• Feedburner Ad Netword http://www.feedburner.com - you must have a healthy subscriber rate to be accepted to their advertising program
• CrispAds http://www.crispads.com/ - a blog advertising network
• BlogAds http://www.blogads.com/ - they represent some of the best known blogs

Here are other earning opportunities for Bloggers

• Google Adsense http://www.google.com/adsense = some blogs such as Yahoo 360 does not allow for placement of ads on their blogs so be careful and read the Terms of Service of your blog provider
• Chitika eMinimalls http://www.chitika.com
• Text link ads - you can sell for fixed price for a fixed period of time
• Donation (yes, you can beg)
• Affiliate programs such as Commission Junction http://www.cj.com and the Amazon Associates program
  

Entrepreneur Success Stories

I will now be writing the Entrepreneur Success Stories blog of WomenHomeBusiness.com . The blog was in hiatus for a long time, and now it's back sharing success stories of entrepreneurs.

I just wrote a post about the extraordinary story of Johnnie Bryant Hunt Sr., who only reached Grade 7 yet went on to become a billionaire with his tremendously successful trucking business J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.

Read about this fascinating man in the post J.B. Hunt: Maverick in the Trucking Industry .

How to Buy a Business

Inc.com's Entrepreneur of the Year Ken Hendricks, the CEO and chairman of ABC Supply and #107 on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans, is said to "buy companies more often than most people buy toothpaste." The Inc.com article pointed out that he seems to have a sixth sense when looking at financial statements and can immediately spot questionable numbers.

For us not gifted with such talent, here are his tips on how to buy a business:

1. Make the call -- If you are going to buy a business, call the target yourself to demonstrate serious interest in the acquisition.
2. Find the why -- There is always a reason why the owner is selling the business (and the owner may not always tell you the real reason) -- e.g. they lost a major customer or lost their lease. Do your research "so you know when you're walking into a dead horse."
3. Gather the team -- Get a fact finding team to look into the business and advice you with the acquisition (if you can afford to buy a business, surely you can afford to put together a team)
4. Look in the back -- The employees can be a source of information that the owner/s may not freely give you
5. Draw the dream -- After the acquisition, talk to the employees of the business you bought and let them in on your plan

Impact of the Internet on Home Businesses

We know that the Internet has opened a lot of doors for home-based businesses. But it's just fun to see some statistics on how Internet affects home-based businesses.

An SBA entitled "The Impact of Location on Net Income: A Comparison of Homebased and Non-homebased Sole Proprietors" included some interesting market research data on home business owners and the Internet:

• Home based firms using the Internet are growing 46% faster and surviving longer than home-based firms not using the technology
• Over 70% of US adults "believe that the Internet has made it easier to start a small business"
• Web sites generate business leads for 81%
• 77% believe a website helped to make them more competitive
• 55% thought that having a website "helped their company weather economic downturns"

Improve Your Sales Call Technique

If you are looking to improve your sales technique, the book "ULTIMATE SALES TOOL KIT: The Versatile 15-Piece Skill Set That Every Professional Needs (AMACOM, January 30, 2007; $19.95 hardcover) by William Miller can give you the right tools and skill set. The book presents 15 skill sets that a sales professional need, giving concreate examples and even worksheets to help you internalize the book's teachings.

One of the techniques presented by the book is called the 20-Second Intro. This tool is designed to help you create an effective intro message for your sales call or email in order to pique the person's interest enough to contact you back.

The mistake of most sales people is that they leave messages -- but the messages are about themselves, which will obviously not interest the potential client! For example:

"Mr. Smith, this is Jim Morris at the ABC Company. What we do is ..."

Instead of doing this approach, use the 20-second intro by asking questions that will resonate with them, not you. The goal of this approach is to have your prospect take your second call. For example:

"Hi Mr. Smith. I'm Jim Morris from the ABC Company. The reason for my call is to answer any questions you may be asking yourself, like: Is there a way that I can increase my revenues in a timely manner?"

The book offers more useful how-tos. Check it out if you need help finetuning your sales techniques.

Is a Business Plan Really Necessary?

When we read books on starting a business, the advice is always to prepare a business plan. When we study entrepreneurship in schools, the advice again is to start with a business plan. So do government agencies, mentorship programs such as SCORE, and yes, even websites like PowerHomeBiz.

But is a business plan really necessary?

Wall Street Journal published an article questioning whether startups really need to prepare a business plan. From the article:

A study recently released by Babson College analyzed 116 businesses started by alumni who graduated between 1985 and 2003. Comparing success measures such as annual revenue, employee numbers and net income, the study found no statistical difference in success between those businesses started with formal written plans and those without them. The study concludes that "unless you need to raise external start-up capital from institutional sources or business angels, you do not need to write a formal business plan."

The same question was posed in the study called Pre-Startup Planning and the Survival of New Small Businesses: Theoretical Linkages that appeared in Journal of Management in 1996. The study raised the following real-life examples to support the assertion that business plans are not essential to the success of a small business:

• Apple Computer began as a mail-order business operated out of a garage. Business plans were not developed until after initial mail order successes encouraged the founders to expand operations.
• Fred Smith of Federal Express spent years developing and refining a business plan. But then implemention proved impossible because the Federal Reserve-i.e., the primary customer on which the plan hinged- decided not to go along with it. By then, Smith had already spent millions on aircraft and other plant and equipment. He had to scramble to find alternative ways of pursuing his vision of an overnight delivery service.
• Microsoft burst into prominence, not because of any planned actions, but because its founder, Bill Gates, seized an unexpected opportunity to develop the IBM PC’s operating system.
• A survey of 220 “INC 500” businesses (i.e., relatively small, but among the fastest growing businesses nationwide) revealed that 5 1% did not have formal business plans when they started (Shuman & Seeger, 1986; Shuman, Shaw & Sussman, 1985). Of the 49% that did have plans, an overwhelming majority (70%) generated them, for the most part, simply to get external financing. Furthermore, those businesses without formal plans tended to be more profitable.

This debate is likely to continue. All you can do is to think long and hard whether a business plan is really needed (e.g. the lender requires a business plan) or whether you can think about your business strategy without going through the business planning process.

Selling Tips for the Small Business Owner

Costco Connection, the monthly magazine of the warehouse club Costco, has a very interesting article entitled"Tips from the Top: Selling for the Non-Salesperson" in their January issue. The article is a collection of tips from the top sales guru. While most we already know, it is also useful to be reminded of them again:

• Selling is about helping your clients
• Listen to your customers: they will tell you how to make them successful and grow your business
• Tell everyone you know what you do: referrals can come from the most unlikely sources
• Customers don't want to be sold: so stop selling and start solving the customer's problems, needs and wants
• To be successful in sales, learning to operate outside this comfort zone is a must!
• One of the most common mistakes people make when presenting is being too informative versus being persuasitve
• To close more sales and have more satisfied customers, business people must understand what their prospects want.
• The greatest weakness of businesspeople today is that they are product centered, not people oriented.

12 Ways to Maximize Paid Search

Catalog Success Magazine in their January issue has a very interesting article on how to maximize your paid search marketing this year. Pay per click has become an important source of traffic and sales for online marketers; hence it is esential to get the best ROI from this advertising medium. Here are their tips:

1. Invest in Google - being the largest search engine, you'll be rewarded with the largest return for your time
2. Grow your term list - test 3 to 10 times as many distinct keywords as there are pages on your site
3. Make your landing pages relevant - send search visitors to the most relevant selling page on your site
4. Split out branded from non branded terms - advertising on your brand makes sense because the cost is low and sales are high; but traffic is not incremental. Grow non-brand keywords aggressively
5. Use strong bid management technology - invest in a bid management tool that operates on the keyword level and allows you to specific different metrics
6. Track paid search into your call center - if you have a 1-800 number that people call on to buy from you, check if the customer found out about you through your paid search ad
7. Bid by margin - compute margins based on actual products ordered, not on terms advertised as certain ads will generate significant orders
8. Use contextual advertising with caution - potential customers from contextual advertising such as Adsense are viewers, not searchers and are less qualified prospects
9. Scrutinize your affiliate programs - don't allow affiliates to advertise on your brand name, and don't provide affiliates with better offers than on your site
10. Manage your agency - if you are using an agency to manage your paid search, establish clear return on investment metrics. As the agency has no role in your brand reputation, take into consideration how you will compensate them given that a large portion of your sales will be driven by your brand name
11. Audit your search programs every six months - look at the costs, sales, and other metrics
12. Obsess about conversion - the ultimate winners in paid search are those with the highest conversion rate

How to Use Yahoo Answers to Promote Your Business

For almost a year now, I have been spending time (ok, a LOT of time) on Yahoo Answers. The time spent has paid off -- I have been #1 in the Business and Finance category and in the top 20 in both the global and U.S. leaderboards. I even got an award for category excellence from Yahoo Answers during their 1st year anniversary (though I wasn't able to attend their festivities in California).

Based on my learnings and yes, strategies on the site, I finally wrote an article on how you can use Yahoo Answers to promote your business. Traffic to PowerHomeBiz.com is up, and Yahoo Answers is one of the reasons.

I interviewed Shannon Moore of TMExpress.com for the article, who is #2 in the Business and Finance and gives excellent advice on the issue of trademarks and protecting business names. In the article, one of the ways I wrote that Yahoo Answers can help your business is through networking. My collaboration with Shannon -- for this article and for another article on trademarking -- is definitely a result of Yahoo Answers. Shannon and I constantly answer similar questions in the Small Business sub-category, and I'm always impressed with her answers.

I finally had an idea of contacting her and pitching to her an article on trademarking and protecting business names. And again for this article. So it was a win-win situation for both of us: I get materials for articles while she gets promotion for her business -- and all because of Yahoo Answers.

Read my new article How to Use Yahoo Answers to Promote Your Business