May 10
19
Social Media Tools for Non Profits
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Posted in Nonprofit Social Media by .
I recently read an article from Young Entrepreneur titled Start up Killers: Avoid being a statistic. I thought it highlighted some very valuable information. As a business consultant, I help out many start ups, mostly one man shows and as I was reading the article I felt it touched on some very important issues that start ups face or have the portential of facing. See highlights from the article and my comments below:
According to a recent study by SBA, a mere 44% of new business start ups can expect to still be doing business just four years later
Problem: Starting a business affects your family, It affects the budget, the amount of time you spend them and they have to make some sacrificies.
Solution: Keep them involved -Listen to their concerns and their advice
My Comment: Great advice! If you are going to however involve the family in business operations and major decisions, or if you are going in a partnership with a family member, remember to have a partnership agreement. It could be a legal document or a letter of understanding that outlines duties of each involved party and expectations in addition to any sort of compensation. This can avoid major problems in the future.
Problem: Isolation:E ntrepreneurs, by nature, are independent people. We love the idea of being “self-made.” Be careful not to isolate yourself though.
Solution: Network, Network, Network.
My Comment: Networking is key for any business! What most business owners focus on when it comes to networking is concentrating on events that can help bring business. While this is important, business owners need to focus on networking events that can help them meet competitors, mentors, other start ups and potential business partnerships.
Problem: Productivity destroyers: There will always be something out there to distract you.
Solution: Make and stick to a schedule
My Comment: For tips on how to be productive while working from home, refer to my post Working from home- The good, the bad the lessons learnt
Problem: Plate overload-A startup entrepreneur has a lot on his/her plate no matter what. But one thing that will take the wind out of your sails and kill your startup before it ever really gets off the ground is becoming overwhelmed with all you have to do.
Solution: Delegate the veggies. Whatever you do, don’t let an overflowing plate kill your business.
My Comments: As a business consultant, one of the most deadly things that I see in a failing business is when the entrepreneur tries to be superman/superwoman and wants to do everything and anything. Delegating, automation and outsourcing tasks is how you can protect yourself.
Problem: If you’re expecting to make a killing right off the bat, just know that is not typical.
Solution: Plan ahead, save, and spend wisely.
My Comment: Work on those financial projections, figure out your bottom line, your break even point and project with both best case scenarios and worst case scenarios. In the projections, leave cushioning for unforeseen expenses. For a list of free local resources that can help you with your financial projections and business planning click here.
Link to the original article from YoungEntrepreneur titled Startup Killers: Avoid becoming a statistic – http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog/startup-killers-avoid-becoming-a-statistic/
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Posted in Small Business by .
Feb 10
26
Online tools for Small Businesses
An outline of different online tools to help businesses become more productive, efficient, organized and reach a greater audience.
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Posted in Small Business Social Media by .
On Friday, February 5th the DC area was hit by yet another snow storm, after 3 days of continuous snow we were left with icy roads, slippery sidewalks and sore backs trying to clean the driveway. With the start of a new week, we dreamt of sunny skies, flip flops and ice cream, alas that only thing we saw was yes more ice and snow with the second round of snowmageddon. We stayed inside, locked the doors, pulled the curtains and pretended it was still sunny in DC.
As I sat with my morning coffee complaining about the snow I realized, snow and bad sale pitches have a lot in common, here are my thoughts:
The flurries: Much like any sales pitch it sounds good in the beginning, the potential customer likes to see the passion you show for the product/service you are selling and is willing to give you time and attention, much like the beginning of a snow storm.
The Snowball fights: As time goes by, you even decide to try out the product, much like going out for a snowball fight.
The Clean up: You like the product to the point you work on building a good relationship with the salesman, like putting in an effort to plow the driveway or roads.
The residual snow: Then, like a bad snow storm, the salesperson just doesn’t know when to back off, it keeps calling, emailing and stalking you to force you into making a decision.
The icy melt: Like a pile of three day old snow, the product/service doesn’t appeal you anymore and the mere sight of it irritates you.
Round 2 of Snowmageddon: Just when you think you have ditched the salesman, like the blizzard of 2010, you are hit with the sales pitch all over again.
So what has the blizzard of 2010 taught me?
- Believe in your product/service and others will believe in it too
- Sell a solution not a product/service
- Tailor each and every pitch to the client, do not have a set cookie cutter method
- Give people space to evaluate your product/service, if it’s good, they will come
- Send gentle reminders
- If you make a sale, go out and celebrate
- If it doesn’t work, retreat graciously
- Stay in touch to remind the potential clients you are still here as a prospect
- Move on to the next sales pitch
Good Luck with the snow storm and getting through your next sales/negotiation!
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A list of different Twitter tools to make tweeting, efficient, fun and practical
1. www.twitterbackgrounds.com- customize backgrounds for your twitter account
2. www.Twellow.com: Directory of public twitter accounts. Organizes by categories. Great to see who to follow related to what you’re interested in.
2. www.Friendorfollow.com: Who are you following that’s not following you back? Who’s following you that you’re not following back? Find out!
3. www.Tweetdeck.com: A desktop Twitter application. To allow users to send and receive tweets and view profiles. It is the most popular Twitter application
4. www.whatthetrend.com: Find out what’s trending on Twitter and why.
5. www.Bit.ly: Shorten a URL, Track clicks. Similar to www.Tinyurl.com
6. www.Twittercounter.com: Offers Twitter user statistics and historical follower count.
7. www.Tweetchat.com: TweetChat helps put your blinders on to the Twitter-sphere while you monitor and chat about one topic.
8. www.Search.twitter.com: Search everyone’s tweets – in realtime
9. www.Twittersheep.com: Enter your twitter username to see a tag cloud from the ‘bios’ of your twitter flock.
10. www.hootsuite.com: An online based Twitter management tool which allows you to tweet on multiple twitter accounts, track statistics. You can create groups, schedule tweets, view tweets as threaded conversations.
A post on Online Marketing Blog discusses Five New Twitter Tools it mentioned some great new gadgets.
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Posted in Small Business Social Media by .
“You are so lucky, I wish I could work from home” I remember hearing several of my friends telling me that once I announced to the world I am quitting a job I love to pursue my business full time and fall in love once again. Though the idea of not commuting for hours seemed attractive I had my reservations about working from home. I am sharing the good the bad and the lessons learnt from working from home.
The good:
1. No commute: rush hour traffic, spending my life of I 495 and the toll road bye bye
2. Saving money on gas: I can’t believe this but I actually don’t have to get the tank full every week-what a concept.
3. Dress Code-casual: No more wearing the power suit spending half an hour infront of the mirror and wearing painful heels. Ouch!
4. Networking here I come: I can actually go to networking events refreshed and since I have more flexibility I can go to the breakfasts, power lunches and evening networking events.
The bad:
1. The wall and me: One of the things that have been the greatest challenge is my brain storming sessions, over the past few months my wall and I have had several brainstorming sessions, arguments and discussions. There is a plus side to this-I always win the argument.
2. Distractions: There will always be a neighbor’s kid that’s crying too loud or a trash truck begging you for attention when all you want is some peace and quiet
3. The kitchen calls: whether it’s the dishes in the sink or the junk food you’ve hidden, somehow they all have a voice and call out to you while you work
4. we are open 24/7: one of the worst things about working from home is that you forget to close shop. You tend to work during the day, during dinner, while entertaining guests and sometimes in your sleep.
The Lessons Learnt:
Lesson 1: Wake up on time
Lesson 2: Get out of the PJs and into work clothes
Lesson 3: Hide the cookies
Lesson 4: Stick to a routine
Lesson 5: Choose a room that you use for work only
Lesson 6: close the door when you work and let everyone else in the house know a closed door means a closed door
Lesson 7: Learn to close business
Lesson 8: Learn to take breaks, if you work non-stop you will get unproductive
Lesson 9: Do not take any personal calls while working on business, unless they’re important
Lesson 10: Have a good support system – friends, family, mentors, other business owners, a good lawyer, a good accountant and anyone and everyone who can offer value to you and your business. Keep them close!
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Posted in Small Business by .
The internet is swarming with things to do when it comes to Social Media and yes I too have written a post to that affect. Today I would like to do a different kind of post, one that talks about things NOT to do when it comes to social media. I think it’s important to learn the ethics of social media and equally important to learn what’s a big no-no.
The following strategies are pet peeves:
1. If I repeat, they will come: Sell your skills/expertise not your products- I will never promote or recommend someone who is constantly announcing why their company is the best and the special deals they have going. If you don’t engage your online community and have conversations with them or have something of value to offer, get a megaphone and get off social media.
2. TMI: If you are using social media to promote your business, keep bathroom breaks to yourself. I understand social media has become part of life, but I truly feel the concept of TMI (too much info) has become invisible. Please keep bowel movements to yourself.
3. If it exists, I must tweet: Do not just tweet about anything and everything, have a strategy, a focus. Ask yourself, what are you focusing on? What are you trying to achieve?
4. I have a camera, I must share: Do not put up a picture of anything and everything, be cautious. Just saw a fellow tweep put a pic of herself in Hawaii in a bikini-where’e the unfollow button? (This would depend on the type of profession you are in I guess.)
5. If they exist, I must add: Do not add just anyone and everyone. If I see someone following 1000people and only 100 people following them, I will think of them as a spammer and not be interested in following them.
Every so often I re-evaluate the tweeps I follow, the pages I am a fan of and re-evaluate who to continue to follow and who to leave behind. Sorry if you are one of those who didn’t make the list. Maybe if you stop doing the things mentioned above, I will follow you again. Until then adios!
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Posted in Small Business Social Media by .
As a business consultant one of the most common things I urge businesses to do is to get feedback, know your customer, ask questions. During a recent meeting, a client asked me to provide a list of common poll/survey applications that can be utilized.
Here is a list of the different tools I have tried out, got any others, add them to the list:
1 Linkedin Polls: I have personally used Linkedin polls and have found it easy to use and simple. Easy to create. Can be shared with with your network or selected professionals. View real time results. Get external link that can be distributed to anyone.
2 Poll Code: Free. You can customize with colors and fonts. Quick post option for Myspace, Facebook and Wordpress.
3 FreeOnlineSurveys.com: Create email or web based surveys. Free. You can create upto 20 questions. Data Analysis feature available. You can insert videos from youtube or google video within survey.
4 Poll Daddy: Free. Real Time reporting. Embed pictures or html within poll/survey. International language support. Export data as XML, CSV, and receive results via email or RSS. Works with blogger, TypePad, Wordpress etc.
5 Facebook Poll: I haven’t had any problems but I have heard some complaints. Free. Application is easy to add. Can be added to personal profile or business pages. Allows you to add HTML tags to the polls.
6 Survey Monkey: Free version is quite powerful. Powerful designs available. Different lay out options, Send automated responses to those who haven’t responded or left the survey incomplete. Powerful reporting tool. Highly recommend it for the analytic tools alone.
7 Constant Contact: Free 60 day trial. Gives sample questions. Survey wizard is quite powerful. Customize poll with colors and your logo. Can be embedded within website or blog. Create custom invitation. Send auto-reminders. Analyze invitations and results.
8 Ace Polls: Free. Can be added to website, blog, myspace, wordpress, email link etc. Simple and easy to use.
9 Google Forms: Google Forms is a great way to collect information, I have utlized the online based system to gather information from clients or getting feedback specific to a client. You can create a private poll or a public one and publish it on the web. For more information about Google Forms and other Google Docs, read my post 10 ways to use Google Docs for Small Business.
10 Twt Poll: Another online based poll, great for social media usage. You do need to have a twitter account to use the product. Ability to customize the look and feel of the poll. To see more features, click here to see video.
Got any other suggestions? Email me at rabiyaj@lumenica.com or post a comment below.
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Posted in Small Business Social Media Website by .
We are on our way to celebrate our two year business launch anniversary. As I reflect over the last two years, I started thinking about the different tools that we used that helped our business be a success. I quickly realized that we could not have been where we are without the help of Google Docs. Below are some of the ways we and other small businesses use Google Docs
1. Create word processing documents, we used it to write proposals and develop website manuals.
2. Share documents with other people on the same project, this was helpful when people involved on a project were not in the same physical location.
3. Created a document that could be edited by multiple people simultaneously for collaboration purposes. This was very important for us when we were trying to meet a deadline.
4. Divide documents into different folders/labels/projects-always nice to be organized!
5. Share folders with selected people, helpful to make sure there is a consistent way of sorting and organizing documents. You could have folders project based or sorted in what works for your organization.
6. Create forms to collect information from clients- For projects that required specific information, we would create simple forms and use them to gather the information we wanted. Made us look professional and helped us gather the information we needed.
7. Create forms for feedback after completion of projects-Always nice to get feed back in a professional way.
8. Email form or embed form in blog or website for quick responses-love this option!
9. Create presentations with Google presentation tools. Helpful if you don’t have MS Powerpoint.
10. Create spreadsheets using Google Spreadsheets-helped us with managing time spent on each project and amount of money owed by each client!
These are some of the ways we used google docs to help with our business. Do you have any stories to share? Tell us under comments or tweet them to me at @bizincubation !
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Posted in Small Business Uncategorized Website by .
I recently read a post on 7 tools to make online collaboration easy. Where as I haven’t tried out all the tools mentioned on the list, over the next few months I plan to try them out. I would highly recommend the Google Apps platform for online collaboration, which is what we are currently using. I love the fact that multiple people can update a document in real time. It truly has made data more accessible and the new folder sharing information makes sure all parties involved with a project have the same information in a uniform way. One website not mentioned in the list, zoho.com is also a great resource of tool which we have used with project management. The basic package can be tried out for free but I would recommend using it and seeing if it fits your organization.
For a complete list of tools and the complete article by Jelmer de Jong, click here.
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Posted in Small Business Uncategorized Website by .