Marketing Strategies to Compete with the Big Boys

Many small business owners are faced with the problem of competing against the big boys of their industries.

It's not easy going against the Goliaths; mainly because you can never outspend them in terms of marketing. These big boys have deep pockets that they can use to launch comprehensive branding campaigns dominating various mediums -- from TV, radio to Internet. They can also hire the best ad agencies and public relation firms to help them reach and keep their target customers.

So what can you do? Since you don't have their marketing budgets, you need to market smarter and this means:

• Accept that traditional marketing routes may not be for you -- e.g. you don't have the resources to hire an ad agency or even buy a TV spot. Think outside the box and be more creative.
• Start with a product or service that is better than your competitor as quality will be your main selling point
• Carefully target the customers for your products or services, reach out to them by educating them first -- they may have heard of your competitor but not you, so you need to inform them that you have a much better product or service
• Focus on marketing approaches that would allow you to interact better with your customers, especially those that your competitors will never do

Your competitors can package an inferior product into something glossy -- and with their massive budgets, they can actually make people believe that they are the standards of the industry. Without those resources, all you have is the quality of your product or service.

For other ideas on how to beat the big businesses in your industry, read the article "10 Ways Small Businesses Can Compete With the Big Boys"

Importance of Email in Driving Customers to Your Business

Forrester Research has released a report this month entitled "Email Marketing Comes Of Age" on how email still remains an important tool for driving targeted traffic to your web business. Alas, this 6-page report is not free and costs $279 (such as high price for a mere 6-page report!)

I checked around other sites that may have had access to the report and Internet Retailer and DMNews.com among others wrote about some of the findings of the study, to wit:

• E-mail has reached almost universal penetration: 97% of consumers and 94% of marketers use it
• Average click-through rate for an e-mail campaign is about 5%, which is about the same as in 2003
• More than 50% of those who read the marketing emails are likely to purchase the items on impulse.
• 29 percent of all online consumers buy impulsively immediately following an offer, rather than waiting.
• Those who buy products advertised in e-mail spend 138% more than typical non-readers
• 47% of consumers who think e-mail is a great way to find out about new products or promotions are willing to pay a premium for products that save them time and hassles
• Women are more likely to forward emails to friends
• Younger shoppers ages 18 to 34 represent one-third of all consumers who maintain a discrete e-mail address for promotions.

While email may have lost its sheen, but it still remains a powerful tool in marketing your bsuiness online.

Business Idea: How to Start a Lawncare Business

Spring is here again! Now is the time for replanting, preparing and beautifying the lawn, and doing outdoor gardening. But many people simply do not have the time, the inclination or knowledge to take care of their lawns that they turn to professional lawncare specialists to help them.

If you love grass and lawns, lawncare services is a perfect business for you.

What does a lawcare services do? You can offer mowing services and weed control, lawn care analysis, tree and bush trimming, putting in fertilizers, tree and shrub care. Some offer services to control fire ants and maintenance of the soil's Ph levels, among other services.

The lawncare business is one business that you can start slow and even do on a part time basis. The best thing about it is the flexibility it offers -- after all, for the most part, you will dictate the schedule of the lawn care for your clients. You can work as much or as little as you want. And when you land a customer, you can service that customer even for life!

It is also a business that you can start even on a low budget especially if you are starting out. You don't have to buy top notch equipment at the start. Basic equipment that you may already have will do, and then buy more equipment as you grow your business. At your startup phase, you only need a mower and weed-eater, or make it the riding mower if you expect to service big yards. You can also hire helpers as you start getting more accounts to service.

To get started on this business, the first thing to do is to research everything there is to know about lawncare. Go to your library and check out books on lawncare. Go to your local Home Depot or other tool stores and ask about the best tools and equipment for the job. If you know of any lawncare specialists in your area, talk to them and ask them about the business (some will not entertain you especially if they see you as competitors while others will be more willing to talk).

How do you get customers for your lawncare business? Here are some ways:

• Offer free services that would help you land their account such as free lawn analysis, or free tree and shrub analysis. Others offer discounted first lawn applications. The key is to entice the customers to use your service.
• Always ask for referrals. This business thrives on referrals, so make sure that you talk to your existing customers and ask them if there's anyone that may benefit your service. Sweeten the deal by offering your customers a discount if they refer you to somebody else.
• Send/Drop off postcards outlining your services to homes with lawns in your area.
• Network with other lawncare services in your area. Yes they are your competitors, but sometimes they will have requests for their services that they can no longer do - and they may instead give those accounts to you.
• Dress neatly! Customers don't want slobs to take care of their lawns. Always give your best appearance, even in the most casual of clothes. Look professional. If you can order polo shirts with your company's name and logo, that would even be better.

So what do you need in this business:

• Check with your local county for the licenses (if any) and other regulatory requirements you need to operate this type of business in your area
• Check with insurance - it helps if you are licensed and bonded
• A system for scheduling and rescheduling jobs, which should also include arranging for fertilizer treatments and other big jobs

Here are some resources and books to help you learn more about the lawncare business:

• Start Your Own Lawn Care Business (Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up) by Eileen Sandlin
• How to Make Big Money Mowing Small Lawns by Robert A. Welcome
• The Lawn Bible: How to Keep It Green, Groomed, and Growing Every Season of the Year by David R. Mellor

Competing with User Generated Content in the Search Engines

Ever notice that user generated contents such as Wikipedia are now dominating most of the organic search results?

I don't mind seeing Wikipedia results if I need some encyclopedic information on such topics as Martin Luther King or something technical as the Index of Economic Freedom. But chandeliers? Or ovens? Or carpets?

I have just moved houses (hence the spotty posting last week for which I apologize) and I am currently shopping for many home decor items. I go to Google and see that Wikipedia is ranked #3 for carpets, #2 for chandelier, and #1 for oven!!! When searching for chandelier, I am not interested in learning about the history of chandeliers, but I want to buy one. Wikipedia is giving me useless stuff (ok, it's not the fault of Wikipedia but the search engines that give it top rankings for every term on the planet).

Don't get me wrong, I like Wikipedia. But I am not too happy of the way it is dominating the search engines, even for searches I feel that it should not. Wikipedia gets millions of links and the sheer number of sites linking to it gives the signal (however false) that it is indeed an authority site, hence should be ranked high.

So what can small and home business owners do to beat this giant of a resource? How can your organic search efforts pay off when Wikipedia is there ready to bump you out of the first page?

• Increase your pay per click advertising - if you can't be seen in the organic search results, then a way to be visible on the first page of the search engine results is to increase your search marketing. It's an additional expense, but hey, you can deduct it as a business expense next year from your taxes!
  
• Get your pages on Wikipedia - if you can't fight them, join them! Try to find a way to integrate your pages in relevant areas of Wikipedia. There is always a section called External Links where you can put your link, although it is best if you can integrate your link into the main content. Be warned though: Wikipedia editors are quick to remove what they think as commercial links. But if you can hang on to your link in Wikipedia, you can reap the rewards of higher traffic.
  
• Work on your links - ok, you may not be able to approximate Wikipedia's link structure, but you can still improve your rankings if you continue to get links from quality and authority sites in your niche

New Book on Promoting Your Business via Talk Radio

I just received a copy of Francine Silverman's book "Talk Radio for Authors: Getting Interviews Across the US and Canada." I previously interviewed Francine on how a small business entrepreneur can market their business through talk radio shows http://www.powerhomebiz.com/022007/talk-radio-marketing.htm so I was looking forward to getting a copy of the book.

The book is light on tips on how to land radio interviews or how to prepare for a radio interview. But it offers a comprehensive listing of radio shows all over the country, both big and small markets, categorized by industries. In fact, the book provides the much-needed information on the contact person for each radio show, the theme of the radio show and the expertise the show is looking for in a guest.

Under the section of Business, Careers and Marketing, here are summarized versions of a few of Francine's listings:

• Business of Success with Alan Rothman http://www.businessofsuccess.com = guests are typically CEOs, Preisdents, entrepreneurs (about 50-75%)
• Career Talk with Maggie Mistal http://www.maggiemistal.com = guests are experts in a career-related or work related fields or have a particular perspective on careers that are new and different
• The Entrepreneur Home Based Business Show with Paul and Sarah Edwards http://www.wsradio.com = self employment and working from home topics
• Growing Your Business Show with Fred Hueston and Lyna Farkas on All Talk Radio http://www.alltalkradio.net = specialties of guests include small business, entrepreneurs and home based businesses.

If you're interested in using talk radio shows to generate publicity for your business, I strongly suggest you check out Francine Silverman's new book.

Surviving the Pricing War

The April 2007 issue of the magazine Fast Company has a very interesting article illustrating the high price of engaging in a pricing war.

Ebrahim Currim & Sons http://www.stagumbrellas.com/ of India has been manufacturing high quality umbrellas since 1860 through their popular brand Stag Umbrellas. They are a leading umbrella manufacturer in India known for the quality of their products.

Towards the end of the 20th century, however, India was deluged with cheap imported umbrellas from China. Prices of umbrellas plummeted. To remain competitive, Ebrahim Currim & Sons decided to join the fray and slash their prices, and to do so, they sacrified the quality of their products.

Instead of their hoped-for improvement in sales because of the lower prices, the company's decision to scrimp on the quality of their umbrellas backfired. For the first time since 1940s, they lost money. The company realized that sacrificing quality to lower the price turned away their customers. They turned away from their main selling point -- which was quality.

The company reversed their strategy and abandoned the pricing competition. Instead they focused on innovation, expanding their products from traditional black umbrellas to funky and cool designs. In addition, they decided to jump in on the branding bandwagon and created umbrellas for companies who would pay to have their logos on the umbrellas. They even produced umbrellas with built in flashlights as well as prerecorded tunes.

Along with these premium features of course came premium prices. Even their classic black umbrellas are now priced 15% higher than the imports from China. But the company's return to quality pushed them back into profitability, and business has never been so good.

Businesses change their strategies in order to survive, and some of these strategies work while others fail. The experience of this Indian umbrella maker should serve as an inspiration to all of you trying to figure out how to compete in the pricing wars your competitors are waging. Remember: the lowest price does not always win.

Read Fast Company's blog post on this company

Basic Steps to Starting an Online Store

Many people wants to start their own online stores, whether clothing, gift basket or toy stores on the Web. Using a clothing store as an example, here are some basic steps to creating your online storefront:

1. Define your business - The very first step is to always know what it is you want to do. This includes knowing what type of clothing business and what market will you tap (online clothing shop for plus sized women, for casual men, for babies, etc)

2. Research your market - Understand your target customer as well as know your competitors -- who they are, what are they doing and how are they presenting their store, how are they marketing, are your target market buying online and from where

3. Arrange your startup capital. If you think your idea can work, then it is time to start the ball rolling. If you need to apply for a loan, prepare a business plan. If you have savings or will ask loan from your family and friends, a business plan is optional but it can help you think through the business. There are no grants for starting an online store to sell clothing

4. Line up suppliers - where will you get your merchandise. You may not be able to arrange an account at this stage without a sellers permit, but at least find out who are they. Attend clothing tradeshows so you can meet manufacturers and other industry players personally http://www.apparelsearch.com/trade_show.htm

5. Start the legal and regulatory processes - Register your business and your assumed name (doing business as), get a sellers permit from your state, find out reporting schedules for tax purposes, decide on the legal structure of your business (e.g. sole proprietorship, LLC, S corp, C corp, etc). Go to your county.

Note that some trade shows will only allow you to attend if you can prove that you are indeed part of the industry - which means you have business registration to show to them

6. Start working on your website.

• Get your domain name
• Decide on a web host
• Find a designer/web programmer to create your site, if needed
• Compare and decide on the shopping cart system
• Decide on your payment gateway
• Find a photographer to take pictures of your clothes, if needed
• Hire a copywriter to write your sales and website copy including the description of your merchandise, if needed

7. Apply for a merchant account in order to accept credit card payments

8. Plan your marketing strategy.

• How to market via search engines and whether you need to hire someone to optimize your website and do pay per click advertising
• Decide whether you need to hire a PR person to help you raise publicity for your business

Sell -- After Closing the Deal

I was leafing through my old copies of business magazines and came across a great article from Direct Marketing magazine on selling after you close the deal. Small businesses often make the mistake of ignoring or failing to communicate enough to customers after their purchase, and doing so reduces the chance to promote to your own customer base.

The article then raised 4 accepted facts in after-purchase marketing:

1. For an average company, 80% of its new business comes from existing customers.
2. You are likely to get strong referrals from your customers within 3 months of their last transaction.
3. A new customer tends to buy from you again in the next 3-6onths.
4. It costs 5x as much to sell to a new customer as compared to an existing customer to buy again from you.

Whether you are selling online or not, it is important to specifically ask your existing customers for referrals. If you are marketing on the Web, sending a pass-along-to-a-friend offer may even prove fruitful.

Spend time reaching out to your customer base - they already know you; they've bought from you so it takes less effort to convince them to buy again from you. Remember that a sizeable portion of your profit comes to those who are already your customer.

Where to Find Sales Representatives

If you are looking for people to represent you and help sell your products (other than the affiliate program on the Web), try going to various manufacturers' representatives association. There are a number of sales reps organizations representing various industries, and your best bet is to contact these associations for referrals. Here are some of them:

• Agricultural & Industrial Manufacturers Representatives Association (AIMRA) http://www.aimrareps.org/ = for agricultural and light industry and OEM manufacturers
• Association of Independent Manufacturers Representatives (AIM/R) http://www.aimr.net/ = for plumbing, heating, cooling & piping products.
• Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (Manufacturers Rep Division) (AAIA) http://www.aftermarket.org/ = for vehicle aftermarket products and parts.
• Broker Management Council (BMC) http://www.bmcsales.com/ = institutional foodservice industry
• Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) http://www.era.org/ = for electronics products.
• The Foodservice Group, Inc. (FSG) http://www.fsgroup.com/ = independent food service brokers selling to the restaurant, deli and food service distributors.
• Health Industry Representatives Association (HIRA) http://www.hira.org/ = healthcare products except pharmaceuticals

For other groups, check out the Manufacturers' Representatives Educational Research Foundation and their list of members

Researching Your New Service Business

Researching and knowing the target market for your business is an important first step when starting a business. Unfortunately, it is a step that many businesses, not just the small and home based businesses, fail to do.

I've met many business owners who are at a loss as to why they are not earning as much as they expected, only to find that they are unclear as to who their real customers are. I've also worked with this company that was surprised when their perceived target audience did not want their product, only to find a very responsive audience in a market they never considered before.

So how do you research your market? Consider the following:

1. Clearly identify who will use your service. Make a list of those who you think will need your service. The target market should be measurable, and reacheable. For example, if you are thinking of starting a computer repair business, identify how big the market in your area by checking demographic information and other data from your Chamber of Commerce or Bureau of Census' American FactFinder database.
   
2. Verify if they will need your service. It is important to find out what your target market really needs, and whether you can provide it to them. Determine the real features and benefits of your service. Then interview or casually ask people who belongs to your target market. Ask them why or why not they will use your service.
   
3. Get a clear handle of what price customers would be willing to pay for your service. This can be tough for a new entrepreneur as there is always the risk that you will overprice yourself out of the market, or terribly underprice yourself. The internet has made it easy to investigate what your competitors are charging. I know others who even go to the extent of calling up competitors pretending to be potential customers in order to check their pricing. However you do it, it is important to have some pricing benchmarks to consider.
   
4. Find out the sales potential of your business. Going back to the computer repair business, check out how customers in your market actually find and use your type of service. Do they use services such as Geeks on Call whereby the computer technician actually goes to the customer's home or business? How many prefer to go to a shop and leave their computers for the technician to repair? These are the types of information you need to determine whether the business is growing or not.
   
5. Learn from your competitors. Carefully study how your competitors in your area are handling their businesses - from the way they treat customers to the quality of their service. Even better if you can talk to a customer of your competitor to find out what they like and what they don't like from their current service provider. You may be able to pick up ideas on how to ensure that your new business is a notch ahead compared to your competitors.

If you have any other ideas, please feel free to contact me.

Tips for Ecommerce Merchants: Do's and Don'ts In Online Couponing

I am a coupon freak (at least online). While I never collect coupons going to the grocery, I always search the Web first if there are any coupons available before I start my online shopping. I also sign up for offers with my favorite stores so I get their latest deals and coupons.

If you are selling on the Web, online coupons are a must to attract and retain customers. MultiChannel Merchant has an interesting article on "Ten Tips for Online Couponing" written by the founder of CouponCabin.com. His tips include:

1. Create coupons that appeal to a wide audience and are simple to apply.
2. Avoid complicated coupon codes.
3. Higher discounts lead to better conversion rates.
4. Coupons offering a flat rate discount in dollars, such as $10 off a purchase of $50 or more, are very popular.
5. Create a minimum spending requirement (e.g. $10 if you spend $200)
6. Free shipping coupons do well
7. Offer greater discounts to first time customers since they often have larger orders
8. Make your coupons user friendly or just one click of the user
9. Mark your coupon code boxes in your checkout clearly so customers can see them immediately
10. Link the coupons to specific landing or category pages.

Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life

The new book The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon joins a long list of books that provides a road map to achieve success.

What sets the book apart and makes it interesting is its use of a business fable approach. The main character, George, is experiencing troubles in his personal and business life. To make matters worse, his car broke down. He was forced to commute and ride the bus. And the characters he met in the bus from the driver to other passengers showed him the techniques to cultivate positive energy he needs to steer his life to success.

The author calls his techniques "The Energy Bus Action Plan" and these are:

1. Create your vision: develop a vision for where you want your bus to go
2. Fuel your vision with purpose: associate your vision with bigger and larger purpose
3. Write down your vision/purpose statement
4. Focus on your vision: even visualize your vision
5. Zoom focus: write the action steps you need to achieve your vision
6. Get on the bus: identify who else can help you implement your action plans
7. Fuel the ride with positive energy and enthusiasm: cultivate a culture of positive energy
8. Post a sign that says "No energy vampires allowed": take out of the bus those who creates negative energy around you
9. Navigate adversity and potholes: there will be challenges and you need to be prepared to overcome them
10. Love your passengers: as you drive towards your vision and purpose, bring out the best in your employees and partners
11. Have fun and enjoy the ride: every journey should be fun

How to Market in a World of User-Generated Content

I have always been fascinated on how to position your business amidst the user-generated content business models that have grown in popularity in recent years. iMedia Connection has an article called "Smart Marketing in a Wiki World" that explores how businesses could behave in this wiki world of user content, while skating the fine line of "influencing the message and creating propaganda."

Here are the suggestions:

1. Build trust by being transparent, and disclosure is the key.
2. If you invite user generated content, be sure to publish it even if the talk is critical to your business.
3. Understand what the community thinks of your business
4. If you don't think you can handle what users are saying about your business, it is better to sit on the sidelines than participate in user communities only to become a target of blogs

Why Businesses Fail

The Fayetteville Observer has an interesting article called "Why Venture Businesses Fail" . While the article goes off in various directions and does not really address the question of why venture businesses fail, it raises some very interesting points, as follows:

• Some businesses fail at their peak because they stop learning and fail to account challenges from global competition.
• Others fail because they have vague definition of their target customers and fail to account that
• If you fail, you can always start a new business. As Sir Winston Churchill said, “Success is moving from one venture failure to another one without losing enthusiasm.”

Business Idea: Starting an Errand or Concierge Business

People running on tight schedules are the norm nowadays. There's just so many important things to do and places to go to, that running errands slide down the priority ladder. Even kids nowadays are overscheduled and have so much activities. Welcome to life in the 21st century.

With this context, a new business has grown significantly in the last decade -- the errand or concierge business. More people are now willing to pay somebody else to do the time consuming tasks of running errands instead of diverting their precious hours to these tasks. If you think you will enjoy picking up dry cleaning, walking the dog, getting the shoes repaired, hand delivering documents, doing the grocery or even picking up kids, then this business is right for you.

Running an errand business is a perfect home business for those who wants to work at home, but not tied at home. It is a business where there is no routine, and each day typically brings in different tasks and challenges. Note, however, that this business will only work if you are in a place where people live hectic and busy lives, especially urban areas.

Here are resources on where to find information on how to start an errand business:

• iVillage's What's the First Step to Starting an Errand Service?
• Errand Services Portal
• How to Start an Errand Business in Your Spare Time!
• Errand Runners in Demand

To get more in-depth information on how to start an errand business, I suggest you check out the following books:

• How to Start and Operate an Errand Service by Rob Spina
• Start Your Own Personal Concierge Service by Entrepreneur Press
• The Concierge Manual: A Step by Step Guide on How to Start Your Own Concierge and/or Errand Service by Katherine Giovanni
• Ultimate Service: The Complete Handbook to the World of the Concierge by Holly Stiel and Delta Collins

The Art of Selling Yourself

Harry Beckwith, author of one of my favorite business books "What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business," has a new book entitled You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself . The book is all about selling YOU -- the most important product of all.

The book is all about improving yourself, whether you are presenting to clients or trying to make a good impression to employers. It offers a number of ideas to help propel you to the next step to achieve success. Some ideas are common knowledge and have been preached since time immemorial, but are still worth repeating (just because our moms lectured us about something doesn't mean that we actually follow it :o).

Business owners can definitely benefit from reading the book -- the book's approach is to first focus on a story whether it is about the real life experiences of a person such as the actor Jim Carrey and then distills business lessons from it. The author then summarizes the main learnings from the story shared into a one-sentence nugget of wisdom.

Take for example the section on Thinking Outside the Box. He used the story of singer Paul Simon who have written songs that have become instant classics. He flourished inside his box particularly in the 60s, and then he didn't. His box failed him. He solved it by not changing his thinking but by growing his box. He went to Africa and got inspired with that continent's sound and music. What resulted was the Grammy winning album Graceland.

The main lesson from Simon's story? Grow a bigger box. Simon didn't think outside his box, but he grew his box by studying different cultures and bringing in new things.

Other important lessons from the book from its chapter on communicating include:

• The real first rule of communicating: Make yourself clearer, and people will think you are an expert.
• Simplify. Simplify gives people certainty and certainty they can deal with.
• Watch your white space. Silence talks (in reference to talking and the importance of pauses; in visuals and the importance of white space)
• You have a brand. Make sure yours is honest.
• If you worry "Is my idea professional?," it probably isn't.
• Touting your credentials: Be careful in complimenting yourself.
• In terms of telling a story: Put the audience, not you, in the hero's shoes.

Check out the book You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself

Maximize Results of Your Email Campaigns

Target Marketing magazine has an interesting article entitled "Four E-mail Opportunities You Could Be Missing" that you should read if you are using emails to market your business and connect with your customers. According to the article, many marketers are making mistakes in the implementation that results in poor performance from email campaigns:

Missed opportunity #1: Make sure your message is visible to recipients.
The rule is simple - make sure the recipient can see your email. Outlook for example blocks images, so be sure that even if the images are blocked, a user can still get your message

Missed opportunity #2: Send a welcome message
One of the most common of marketers is the failure to send a welcome message when the customer or visitor first signs up to receive emails. This is a missed opportunity to drive home the benefits of agreeing to receive your emails.

Missed opportunity #3: Segment your e-mails.
Avoid acting like Big Brother who knows every move of the customer (e.g. whether they simply opened the email but did not click), but do send a reinforcement email making a stronger case of your offer.

Missed opportunity #4: Work with the right deliverability metrics.
Investigate the metrics given by your email provider, and check whether the numbers make sense or how false positives are counted. You need to work with good measurement statistics to accuratelt determine the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

Top 10 Turn-Offs About Networking

Networking is not my forte; in fact, I am more comfortable at times just being the wallflower. That's why I am looking forward to reading the new book "Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-How for Business and Career Success" by Anne Barker and Lynne Waymon.

From the book, the authors made a list of the top 10 expressions people use when they are talking about networking that can make you cringe:

1. Schmoozing = this word makes networking seem so slimy and insincere. Networking is about teaching your contacts to believe in your character and competence so they want to work with you, send business your way or hire you
2. 30 Second Commercial = while you want to "sell yourself" you don't want to appear as too much of a hard sell
3. Pick Your Brains = this expression makes the authors think of vultures coming in for the kill; and wish that people would instead say "I'd like to get your thoughts about something."
4. Work a Room = this phrase sounds as if you intend to work people over and take all you can. Instead, focus on listening and showing others what they can count on you for and what kinds of opportunities to send your way.
5. Information Interview = You can make networking a way of life -- at professional meetings, backyard barbeques and all kinds of professional and social venues.
6. Tricks of the Trade = there should be no "tricks when you network; only upfront, clear offers to be helpful to each other
7. Favor Bank = give without strings, without expectations of getting -- that's the way to create a network that works
8. Power Lunch = this term sounds too much as if you value people just for their positions
9. Business Card Exchange = your goal is to build real connections, not "cardboard connections"
10. Important People = give your whole attention to the person you are with. Anyone can turn out to be a valuable contact!

Shotgun vs Rifle Approach to Marketing Your Home Business

One of the long standing arguments in business is whether to use the shotgun or rifle approach in marketing.

Shotgun approach typically involves reaching as many people as you can, such as mass marketing through TV, Cable and radio. On the Web, it means doing a lot of advertising from banners to text ads in as many websites as you can, even using high traffic portals such as Yahoo, in order to get enough eyeballs that will hopefully turn into sales.

On the other hand, rifle marketing involves targeting your audience more closely. Instead of mass advertising, you identify the publications that attract the demographics that are likely to be interested in your products. You do direct mail where you can better pinpoint your market.

Both approaches have their benefits. However, in my opinion, rifle marketing is better suited for resource-challenged small and home-based businesses. Carefully targeting your market is a better use of your limited resources so you get more bang for your buck. Small businesses cannot always afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing expenses that yield no immediate results.

Take for example a web design business.

You can definitely stand in the middle of the mall (or in the parking lot) and hand out flyers and coupons. The problem is that out of 500 flyers you've printed, how many of the recipients of these flyers are actually looking for a web designer? Chances are you may have wasted your money making all those flyers if majority of them, if not all of them, end up in the trash.

You need to adopt a rifle approach so you can target precisely those who are most likely to be interested in getting your services. To do this, you first need to identify who your target audiences are, and then and only then should you start figuring out how to market to them. For example:

TARGET AUDIENCE: Small and home-based business owners

Marketing approaches:

• Get a list of small businesses in your locality and then contact them through direct mail or call them
• Put up a website and get your site visible to sites that attract small and home-based business owners. You can write articles on how important it is to have a good website, how you can create a great website, how sales is dependent on having a website that works.
• Network, network and network. Attend chamber of commerce meetings, or even Meetup.com's small business owners and home business owners groups -- these places are filled with your target market. Get to know them, introduce yourself to them and let them know that you are available to create their websites.

Do the same exercise for other target audiences you have in mind.

The goal is to find the best approach that will help you stretch your marketing dollars while maximizing the results of your marketing campaign.

Will Your Business Fly? Getting Dynamic Feedback

The folks at WillItFly.com alerted me of the new wireless functionality of their website where you can afind out instantly if you’re up tothe latest standard for important business tasks. I've never visited the site before so I checked it out.

The site does a good job in letting an entrepreneur understand the thought process that should go through in various aspects of running a business -- from finding a business to knowing how to launch a viral marketing campaign. A user is presented with a list (ok, make that a LOOOONG list) of questions that needs to be answered. Some questions I find thought-provoking, while some questions don't really contribute much in helping a user understand the process involved.

I was however disappointed in what you can get when you answer all those questions (they need to have a button that will allow you to check YES or NO to all). After answering most questions in the section on finding a business with YES with a few NOs, I was looking forward to what I will see when I click the button "Click for Dynamic Feedback: WILL IT FLY?" All I got was

Congratulations! You're good to go…
No educational briefs needed. Your answers indicate you are well prepared.

After spending 5 minutes reading and answering the questions, I was expecting that I would find some advice, tips or even recommended articles at the end of it all. Apparently, the site recommends some educational readings only when you answer most of the questions "NO."

But nonetheless, the site seems to be a good resource particularly if you are just thinking on embarking on starting a business. Check out the site WillItFly.com

What to Watch Out For When Seeking Investors

Many home-based businesses often start very small, but some end up growing big enough to be attractive to private investors.

If you are thinking of looking for investors to infuse the much-needed capital your business needs, you may first want to read Inc. Magazine's article "8 Private Equity Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them" (March 2007 issue, pp. 111-115). The article warns that it is important to remember that "not all investors care about your interests -- and some will do whatever it takes to close the deal." Here are the common pitfalls you need to watch out for:

1. You move too fast -- it can be very easy to be ecstatic with multimillion dollar offers of private equity investors, but it is important to take time to think through and research the proposed deal.
2. You don't know what you want -- give a lot of though to what you want, and whether the deal being offered to you fits your idea of getting investors on board. Some will want a single big investor, while others want smaller investments from more investors.
3. You're not ready to cede control -- determine how much control you will be giving up by accepting the offer of investors
4. You're not ready for due diligence -- getting investors on board often involves due diligence, a process that can take months and distract you from what you really need to focus on which is running the business
5. You skimp on advisers -- select the best lawyers or investment advisors you can find to help you assess the deal, and be sure to be on top of the whole process
6. You don't acknowledge your weaknesses -- put your best foot forward, but be honest about the weaknesses and challenges faced by your business
7. You don't do your homework -- research your investors by talking to other business owners they've worked with and ask them to clarify their expectations with your business
8. You ignore the importance of chemistry -- there are people you work better than others, and it is important to determine if these investors you are bringing on board are the types of people you can work easily with