Are Venture Capitalists Making Money?

Venture capital (VC) companies have performed poorly in recent years, according to Cambridge Associates’ recently released statistics. Analysis by the consulting firm revealed that rates of return have dwindled substantially from the double-digit annual numbers they enjoyed in the 1990s.  As of June 30, 2010, five-year returns to limited partners (LP) were merely 4.27 percent; 10-year returns were negative 4.15 percent.

Because most venture capitalists are wealthy, you shouldn’t worry that poor financial returns are imposing true hardship on them.  But you should be concerned that their poor earnings are harming the ecosystem for developing high growth startup companies in the United States.

The Fundraising Side

Venture capitalists’ money doesn’t generally come from the VCs themselves, but from LPs who invest with the goal of earning greater returns than alternative investments provide. Because returns from venture capital investments have lagged returns from other classes of investments in recent years, LPs have been reallocating their money away from venture capital.  As a result, VCs aren’t able to raise as much money as they used to.

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) reportedthat last year the fewest venture capital funds brought in new money since 1993, and that the industry raised only $15.4 billion in 2009, the smallest amount in real dollar terms since 2003. As a result of declining fund raising, last year the venture capital industry had $179 billion in capital under management, the least in real dollar terms since 1999.

Because returns to venture capital investments have been low, many of those working in the industry have decided to exit.  The NVCA reports that in 2009 the number of venture capital funds declined to 1188, the lowest number since 1999, and down 37 percent from the peak in 2001. From 2007 to 2009 alone, the number of principals at venture capital firms shrank 23.2 percent.

The Investment Side

The decline in fund raising pushes down the number of investments venture capitalists make. Although the data through the first three quarters of 2010 suggest an uptick in activity this year, the NVCA reported that venture capitalists invested only $18 billion in start-ups in 2009, the smallest amount in real terms since 1996.  Similarly, the NVCA found that venture capitalists made 2,802 deals in 2009, also the lowest number since 1996.

Fewer brand new companies are getting venture capital.  The 728 companies that the NVCA reported received financing for the first time in 2009 were the lowest since 1994.

Similarly weak numbers are seen in follow-on funding.  The 1,721 companies that the NVCA reports received follow-on financing in 2009 were the lowest since 1997.

As a result of the weak initial and follow-on funding, NVCA data show that the total number of companies receiving financing (2,372) last year and the real dollar value of the investments ($17.7 billion) were the lowest they’ve been since 1996.

Implications

Clearly, the venture capital industry is shrinking, at least in part because of its poor financial performance in recent years.  Because venture capitalists invest in start-ups, the declining venture capital industry means that fewer entrepreneurs with high potential businesses are getting money from these investors.

That’s a problem because venture capital-backed start-ups are disproportionately likely to be job- and wealth-creating companies.  Research shows that venture capital backed companies are about 150 times as likely as the average start-up to create jobs.

It’s unlikely that some other source of capital will replace the missing VC money.  Angels are not a good candidate because their investments are very small compared to those made by VCs. Individual angelsrarely invest more than $100,000 in a start-up and, as I have written elsewhere, the average investment by an angel group is less than $250,000.  These numbers are far below the $6.3 million invested in the average venture capital deal in2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers Money Tree data.

Moreover, as I pointed outin an earlier column, angel groups are also cutting back on the number of companies they finance.

Banks and other debt providers aren’t a substitute either.  They will run afoul of usury laws if they charge the interest rates necessary to generate the rate of return expected for investments in the risky young companies that venture capitalists put their money in.

Unless the types of high growth entrepreneurs who got venture capital financing in a previous era, but won’t in today’s market, figure out a way to grow fast without venture capital, the shrinking venture capital industry is a problem for the future of high growth entrepreneurship in the United States.

Editor’s Note: This article was previously published atOPENForum.comunder the title:“Venture Capitalists Failure to Make Money is a Problem for Entrepreneurs.”It is republished here with permission.

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11 Customer Service Trends to Watch in 2011

Customer service is a perennial issue that is critical to all small business owners. Although it is included in every company mission statement, no one wants to focus on it. But some key customer service trends for 2011 make this phase of your business even more critical in the coming year.

Here are 11 customer service trends to watch in 2011:

1. The time to react to your customer is shrinking. In this 24/7 instant gratification world, the time in which your customer expects you to be able to resolve their problem is getting smaller. Most customers expect to be able to reach you 24/7, and for you to resolve their concern on the very first call (or at least the same day). This is putting increasing stress on companies’ infrastructure and pressuring companies to ensure the profitability of each customer. Look for companies to begin to “fire” customers that don’t meet their profitability metric.
2. Customer service has become the new marketing.Small business owners used to be afraid that a dissatisfied customer would tell 7 people. Now, through social media sites, they can tell 7millionpeople. On the flip side,“raving fans” can be your biggest source of new business as they tell everyone how great your company is. Consumers believe what their peers say about your company more than they believe any of your own paid advertising.
3. You can find out exactly where your customers are talking about your company. Every business is being talked about on the Internet, but where? New customized software from companies likeFlowtownallow the business owner to insert a contact’s name or e-mail address and identify the social networks in which that contact participates. Knowing where your prospects and customers congregate online is critical for engaging your customers where they are.
4. The“social support” experience grows. Consumers now talk and bond directly with each other over using your products. Companies likeGet SatisfactionandFeedback 2.0are building online communities that facilitate conversations between companies and customers. Get Satisfaction states that 46,000 companies use its product to provide a social support experience to listen and talk to their loyal customers.
5. Faster resolution of customer service issues through blog and social media site comments.Calling a company’s customer service number is no longer the fastest way for a customer to get an issue resolved. Since most brands are tracking what is being said about them on all the social media sites, tweeting your concern or posting it on Facebook will often yield quicker results. This has especially been effective for me with my vendors like Comcast, Vonage, American Airlines and Discover Card.
6. Integration of Web customer service and traditional phone support.Customized software now allows integration of what prospects and customers are saying on the Web about your company. More solutions likeParaturefor Facebook are available to integrate that information with your website and customer service center. Software now enables Facebook users to search their knowledgebase, submit help tickets and chat with customer service agents. Look for online and offline customer input channels to continue to merge in the coming year.
7. More self service:Itstarted withATMs 40 years ago and now we rarely go to the airport without using a self-service kiosk. This past year, more complicated transactions like renting a car are now being done via kiosks at companies like Hertz. Although it takes a bit longer, it is effective for impatient customers who do not want to wait in lines. Many stores have also implemented self checkout. Can buying a car or house via self serve be far behind?
8. Faux personalization becomes an expectation.With many consumer interactions now happening online or through automated kiosks instead of live people, customers have come to expect the type of“personal service” they get at websites like Amazon. Easily being able to track your current, past and recommended future purchases has become an expectation that is not easily matched in a brick and mortar store. Amazon always remembers who you are, but does your local retail store? As a result, where would you rather shop?
9. Retail stores are now an experience.Successful retail stores like Apple and Brookstone have become demo centers with a lot of service people around to help. On Black Friday, when other stores were struggling to keep up, I was in and out of an Apple store in 5 minutes with my iPad purchase. In order to compete with online shopping, successful stores are now fun places to come out and shop. Gone are the days when you couldn’t find someone to help you at Toys R Us (and I don’t miss it).
10. You need to chat.Helping a customer on your website used to providing an e-mail address or listing the company phone number. Real-time chat is now becoming a requirement in order to help your clients. Can video chat be that far behind for an even more personal touch?
11. Online inventory tracking from your customer’s phone.Your customer will no longer come into your store to see if you have a product. Companies likeMilo.comcan now tell the customer if a product is on your shelf. The company says it tracks real-time availability of 3 million products in 52,000 stores. Is this the end of“window shopping”?

What customer service trends are you seeing in 2011?

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Entrepreneurial Finance in Recovery

The Great Recession officially ended in June 2009–at least, so say the economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research. That means it’s time for me to start writing about entrepreneurial finance during the economic recovery.  What has happened to small business finance since the end of the recession?

For the most part, entrepreneurial finance looks the same or slightly better now than at the end of the recession, but worse than before the downturn began. Take loan availability, for example.  The National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB)index of loan availabilitywas at the same level in September 2010 as it was in June 2009.  However, the September figure was seven points below where it was in November 2007, the month before the recession began.

The patterns in venture capital look similar. According to theNational Venture Capital Association, VCs increased investment from $4.3 billion in 707 deals in Q2 of 2009 to $4.8 billion in 780 deals in Q3 of 2010.  Nevertheless, this level of activity remains below the $7.8 billion invested in 1016 deals in Q3 of 2007.

Valuations of VC-financed start-ups show this pattern as well. Data collected by Cooley Goddard, a law firm specializing in venture finance, show that the percentage of venture capital-backed companies experiencing up investment rounds rose from 30 percent in the second three months of 2009 to 58 percent from January through March 2010.  However, in the third quarter of 2007, 69 percent of businesses that received additional VC investments experienced up rounds.

The number of venture capital-backed companies exiting has improved since the recession ended, increasing from 83 in second quarter of 2009 to 118 in the third quarter of 2010.  However, the number of exits in the most recent quarter remains below the 134 occurring in Q3 of 2007.

Since the recovery began, trade credit has rebounded the most of all small business finance measures.  The Association of Credit Manager’s index of trade credit extended increased from 46.1 in June 2009 to 58.7 in September 2010, putting it just slightly below its level of 60.9 in November 2007.

On the other hand, some measures of entrepreneurial finance are actually worse now than at the end of the recession.  For instance, in September 2010, only 27 percent of the small business owners answering the NFIB’s monthly survey reported that their borrowing needs were satisfied, 3 percentage points worse than in the last month of the recession.  Similarly, the percentage of respondents to the Discover Small Business Watch experiencing cash flow problems in their businesses increased from 42 to 46 percent from June 2009 to October 2010.

Data from Angelsoft, the leading provider of angel investment tracking software shows continuing declines in the valuations of angel-group backed companies.  In the first three months of 2010, the median valuation of an angel group backed company was $2.2 million, down from $2.4 million in the second three months of 2009, which, in turn, was below the $2.8 million recorded in the third quarter of 2007.

In sum, the story of entrepreneurial finance in the recovery is straightforward.  While some measures have gotten better since the end of the recession, improvement has been limited, leaving most indicators well below where they were before the recession began.

Editor’s Note: This article was previously published atOPENForum.comunder the title:“Entrepreneurial Finance in the Recovery.”It is republished here with permission.

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5 Tips for Hiring Legal Counsel in Your Small Business

Some readers know that I used to be a corporate attorney.  As a General Counsel I have hired literally hundreds of outside law firms to represent the company I worked for. Trademarks; patents; litigation; transactions; collections— you name it, I’ve probably hired a law firm to handle it.

I’ve managed counsel in law firms ranging in size from solo practitioners, to the largest law firms in the world, such as Jones Day, Mayer Brown, and Squire Sanders& Dempsey, to name a few.

As a General Counsel a key responsibility of mine was to hire the outside counsel;  oversee the matters for the company’s best interests; and most importantly, manage costs.  And I can tell you that managing costs is something that can be done with simple steps.  Many steps work just as well in a small business as in a large corporation.

Interestingly, the same steps that you use to manage costs also help you avoid many of the frustrations that clients often feel.  Those frustrations include unpleasant surprises from fighting litigation for years only to be pressured to settle on the courthouse steps (when you could have done it much earlier and saved countless dollars and hours), to transactions that die a slow death from overlawyering, to misunderstandings between counsel and clients (often due to the client’s unrealistic expectations caused by the failure to discuss expectations up front).

That’s why I was so interested in a new survey by Rocket Lawyer.  Asked what poses the biggest risk to their businesses, one-quarter of small business owners said“legal issues.”  But even though they’re worried, business owners aren’t turning to lawyers as often as they should. The reason? More than half of small business owners (51 percent) contend that legal help is too costly.

Failing to consult a lawyer is often penny-wise and pound-foolish. In fact, getting legal help is actually a smart way to save money for your business. A good lawyer can help you prevent costly problems later, spot loopholes in contracts and agreements that can cost you money, help you save on commercial leases and more.

Fortunately, it’s possible to use a lawyer without spending a fortune. Here are five steps to keeping your business’s legal costs down.

1. Understand how the lawyer bills you.

Some attorneys bill hourly, some by the day (per diem), and some on a monthly retainer. Attorneys may also charge flat fees for standard jobs like contract review. No matter what method your lawyer uses, ask questions to be sure you understand the details. For instance, if the attorney has assistants, are you billed for their work at the attorney’s rate? Also ask about extras — some lawyers will pass the cost of faxing and making copies on to the client, while others won’t.

2. Use time wisely.

Time is money for a lawyer, so when you meet with or talk to your attorney, plan ahead to keep the time as brief as possible. Make a list of questions so you don’t forget anything you need to ask; then focus on what you need to do.

3. Keep it simple.

The less work the attorney has to do, the less you’ll get billed for. Provide the lawyer with documents he or she will need to review before the meeting. Have your information in order. Send one detailed email rather than 17 short ones with question after question. Like any businessperson, lawyers appreciate it when you make their job simpler.

4. Review your legal bills.

If you’ve got a complex project with an attorney, ask for an itemized bill. Go over it in detail to make sure you weren’t overcharged and that you understand what you’re being billed for.

5. Be proactive.

Some entrepreneurs are scared to talk to their lawyers for fear of incurring a fee…  so they let small problems spin out of control. Make it a point to communicate with your attorney briefly every month or so and bring up any issues of concern. This way, you can nip problems in the bud and take advantage of opportunities for growth when they arise.

Editor’s Note: This article was previously published at OPENForum.com under the title:“5 Ways to Keep Your Legal Costs Under Control.”It is republished here with permission.

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5 Ways to Tune Up Your Content for 2011

It’s that time of year. The time where you start looking at your website and tilt your head wondering if it’s starting to sound a little stale to readers. If it’s been a few years since you’ve updated your content, your site could probably use a good scrub. A lot changes in a year – trends, tools, keywords, methodologies – and you want to make sure your Web site is giving users (and the search engines) the most up-to-date information about your company. The best way to do that is to give your website a quick content audit to determine what exactly it’s saying about you.

Below are five ways to tune up your content for 2011. You want to start the New Year off on the right foot, don’t you?

1. Highlight your strengths.

You’ve probably heard it a lot over the past year–marketing is storytelling. Each sentence on your site should be part of a larger effort to tell your brand’s story and lure readers in. To capture people’s attention, your content has to be telling a story that displays your product/company’s strength and tying it back into how it will solve a problem they’ve expressed. Does the content on your site do a good job highlighting your strengths oris it simply a list of features? Do you show customers how your product will help them achieve a larger goal or are you waiting for them to put it together themselves? If it’s the latter, you need to go in and tweak your message. What’s different about your product or service? What goes aboveand beyond in a way your competitors don’t? Revamp your copy to include these selling points and clearly outline the benefits you offer to customers.

2. Know your competition’s weaknesses.

Part of knowing where your product succeeds means also knowing where your competitor’s product fails. Maybe you deliver superior customer service, maybe it’s a price point issue, or maybe they’re nowhere to be found on social media whereas you’re dominating and ever-so-accessible. Whatever their specific weakness is, make sure you account for it when highlighting your strengths. Don’t do this in a way that speaks badly about your competition, but in a way that highlights something thatyoudo really well. It’s aboutyou, not them. You have to remember that potential customers are landing on your website to research their options in service providers. Make sure you’re showing them why you’re the best choice and what you offer that your competition can’t match.

3. Tighten your calls to action.

One of the most important things you can do for your website is to use your analytics to find your high-traffic/low-conversion pages. You know that a large number of potential customers are landing on these pages, but for some reason, they’re abandoning before they can convert. Why? Often it’s due to too manydistractions on the page, or maybe your calls to action aren’t as compelling as they should be. If it’s a case of the latter, experiment with your calls to action to try and find ones that do better with your audience. Sometimes simply changing the call to action on a page can change the whole tone and make things sound fresher.

4. Reassess keywords.

Two years ago you used keyword research to help you determine how users were searching for your products and which terms you needed to rank for. You then developed content based on those terms. But have you checked back in to see if you’re still on the right path? Are you regularly looking for new opportunities, checking for any terms that may be falling off, or calculating the ROI for going after a specific term? If you haven’t, now is a good time to go through your site and reassess your keyword needs. Just because your customers typically referred to something one way doesn’t mean they’re still searching for it that same way. By tidying up your keywords you ensure you’re attracting the right people and optimizing your search traffic.

5. Freshen up your stats.

Another way to revitalize your content is to go through it and update the statistics you’re referencing to make them more relevant. It’s hard for customers to establish trust in your brand when you’re still talking about how effective your company was five years ago or about the latest in mobile trends from 2002. Make sure you’re constantly reading up on different sources toupdate your stats as your industry and market matures. If your site is talking about what happened decades ago it’s an unintentional sign that you haven’t done anything since.

The end of one year gives us a chance to tidy things up in preparation for the next. One of the best investments you can make for your website right now is to clean up your content to make sure it’s attracting the right people and properly differentiating your business from your competitors. Give yourself a content audit before the calendar hits 2011 to start things off on the right note.

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Spotlight on Management Books: Small Business Book Awards

Somebody has to be in charge.  The sooner we learn to manage our team (we cannot do it all) and ourselves (for long haul ideas), then the more freedom we have and the better our business. And for the hardcore work-a-holics among us, we also have more time for the other aspects of our business.

In a lot of ways management is the ignored art of small business. It takes creative skill to understand yourself and others better and to put that understanding to use. Management is a pivotal position— handle with care. After all, it’s the manager in us that markets the business to the internal team long before the team markets it to the public. Smart management. Effective team. Better business.

This post is part of our 6-part series putting the spotlight on the books in each category of the 3rd Annual Reader’s Choice “Small Business Book Awards.” Today’s spotlight is onManagement bookswith 31 books nominated so far:

Against the Machine
Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
by Lee Siegel

Analytics at Work
Smarter Decisions, Better Results
by Thomas Davenport, Robert Morison, Jeanne Harris

Black is the New Green
Marketing to Affluent African Americans
by Andrea Hoffman, Leonard Burnett

Broke, USA
From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc.– How the Working Poor Became Big Business
by Gary Rivlin

Built to Sell
Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell
by John Warrillow, Bo Burlingham

The Checklist Manifesto
How to Get Things Right
by Atul Gawande

Clutch
Why Some People Excel under Pressure and Others Don’t
by Paul Sullivan

Defy Gravity
Propel Your Business to High-Velocity Growth
by Rebel Brown

Delivering Happiness
A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
by Tony Hseih

Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink
Why 40% of Your Business Is Unprofitable, and How to Fix It
by Jonathan Byrnes, Erik Synnestvedt

Linchpin
Are You Indispensable?
by Seth Godin

Making Ideas Happen
Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality
by Scot Belsky

Microsoft Office Live Small Business
by Rahul Pitre

Plugged
Dig Out& Get the Right Things Done
by Krissi Barr

ReWork
by Jason Fried

Service Innovation
How to Go from Customer Needs to Breakthrough Services
by Lance Bettencourt

Smart Business, Stupid Business
by Diane Kennedy, Megan Hughes

Success Made Simple
An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive
by Erik Wesner

Switch
How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
by Dan Heath, Chip Heath

The Termite Effect
25 Common Business Mistakes and Their Hidden Consequences
by Shawn Brodof

The Business Devotional
365 Inspirational Thoughts on Management, Leadership& Motivation
by Lillian Hayes Martin

The Highest Calling
by Larry Janesky

The Recipe
A Fable for Leaders and Teams
by Amilya Antonetti

The Right Thing
An Everyday Guide to Ethics in Business
by Sally Bibb

The Sky is Green and the Grass is Blue
Turning Your Upside Down World Right Side Up!
by Deb Scott

The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working
The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance
by Tony Schwartz, Catherine McCarthy, Jean Gomes

Wealth Creation for Small Business Owners
75 Strategies for Financial Success in Any Economy
by James Cheeks

Web Analytics 2.0
The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity
by Avinash Kaushik

Yahoo! Web Analytics
Tracking, Reporting, and Analyzing for Data-Driven Insights
by Dennis R. Mortensen

Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us
Customer Service and What It Reveals About Our World and Our Lives
by Emily Yellin

Your Career Game
How Game Theory Can Help You Achieve Your Professional Goals
by Nathan Bennett, Stephen Miles

If you see something you like, then– Vote for it. Read it. Share it. And if you don’t, then nominate your favorite management book (provided it’s eligible).

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Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: A Review

The phrase“smarter, faster, cheaper” sounds exactly like what any small business owner or entrepreneur (or manager or executive) wants in their business.  We all want efficiency, speed and low cost, don’t we?

Smarter, Faster, Cheaperis also the name of the new book byDavid Siteman Garland(book websitehere).  The subtitle“Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business”is a description of what’s inside this book.  The author uses the phrase“smarter, faster, cheaper” often compared in the same sentence with the phrase“dumber, slower and expensive” to highlight the difference between today’s marketing and traditional forms of marketing.

Regular readers ofSmall Business Trendswill no doubt recognize the author.  He is an expert contributor here.  David Siteman Garland caught my attention with his exuberant upbeat attitude— an attitude that permeates this book. So I couldn’t wait to dive in when he sent me an advance copy of his book.

Content as Core to Your Marketing

This is a marketing book.  But marketing is a wide topic, so let me narrow it down for you.  This book is heavily oriented toward marketing via creating online communities and online content.  Although in a few places it covers offline marketing such as networking at events, the majority is geared toward the online world.

John Battelle, Founder of Wired magazine, once made a crucial observation when he said that everybody is“in the media business today.”  If you expect to have your business found online and spur online word of mouth through social media, you have to be creating and sharing content.  It’s content that gets indexed in the search engines that your prospects and customers will search.  It’s content that consumers and other business people consumer online.  And it’s content that people share online.  There’s a huge, never-ending, 24/7/365 conversation going on; your business needs to be part of that conversation online.

Let me put it to you this way.  Today, without content you might as well be armed with a crossbow but no arrows in your quiver.  You may aim, but you’re going to find it hard to hit your target.

And content is really where this book shines:  when it discusses strategies and techniques for creating and promoting online content to market your business.

The Big Picture

But David’s book is different from, say, a how-to-blog or how-to-use-social-media book.  Yes, you will get some tips for how to write successful blog posts online, or how to create effective video, or how to use Twitter or YouTube.  But this is primarily a book about marketing, so the emphasis is on strategies and tactics for promoting content and using content to build a communityof loyal followers for your brand.

This is a book that’s always bringing you back to the big picture. At regular intervals, David forces you to step back and think about your overall business goals.  For instance, in a chapter about online video, he says“forget viral, focus on function.”  Sure, we might dream of a video that goes viral and gets a million views.  But as David points out, the real value of video is“providing content for a targeted market.”

That sounds deceptively simple— you might even think simplistic.  But I think it’s a profound point that more businesses should pay attention to.  I see this come up all the time with small businesses that get sidetracked by attempts to create viral videos or“link bait” articles.  While funny or outrageous, they may not get you any more customers.  Worse, they  may even be a turn-off for serious prospects.  And they’re certainly a misuse of your precious company resources  of time and money if they are offtrack.

What I Liked About Smarter, Faster, Cheaper

I mentioned David’s exuberance— well, that comes through in the book like a cheerleader with a megaphone.  Part of the reason his personality comes through so well is the informal writing style.  It makes the book very readable, with its me-to-you style in sentences like this:

“Here comes another hockey example (stop groaning! Hockey is a great metaphor for business… and for life).”

Another thing I liked about this book is the down-to-earth advice.  For instance, in a section on how much time you should spendcreatingcontent, such as blog posts and videos, versusmarketingit, David writes:

“Your time— and any given person’s time— is finite.  The biggest pitfall here is to spend all of it creating— worrying about this word or that word, staring for hours at a shadow in your video, being concerned that it is not perfect, and other endless time wasters.  None of us is Shakespeare or Spielberg.  This doesn’t mean that we should rush through the creation process and put out garbage.  But from my experience, and picking others’ brains, you have to focus at least as much time and energy on marketing and promoting (hence, this section of the book).

Those who have created strong content often skyrocketed because of the 20/80 rule.  Twenty percent of your time is allotted to creation; 80 percent to promotion, relationship-building, and so forth.”

Why ReadSmarter, Faster, Cheaper

Content is fundamental to any online marketing strategy today.  You have to become good at creating content. But creating alone is not enough.  You must be adept at spreading your content widely, and starting and engaging your market in conversations.  In short, your business must develop a competency in marketing your content.  And that’swhy you should readSmarter, Faster, Cheaper.

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Latino Link Uncovers Great Ways to Gain Hispanic Customers Online

Funny how some ideas can stare businesses in the face, but the response from leaders never truly changes over time.

In 2004 and 2005, Anita Campbell wrote briefly onLatin American immigrants sending moneyto their home countries -“In 2004, immigrants to the United States sent home US $30 billion (yes, that’s billion with a “b”).”A year later she wrote that banks that had at first left this market to mom-and-pop outfits decided tocourt Latino customersagain.

Fast forward to today. I learned about another pan-regional opportunity, this time from Joe Kutchera (@joekutchera) through his new bookLatino Link: Building Brands Online With Hispanic Communities and Content. The book, which delivers vital guidance, is distinctive not only because of its insights about Hispanic consumers, but also because of its tips containing nuanced analytic implications for how a business evaluates its online opportunities. I reached out for a review copy from the publisher, Paramount Market Publishing, a small business press based in Ithaca, New York.

Learn what it means to say“Bienvenidos, estamos abiertos para negocios”

One thing you will learn is whether universal or local Spanish should be used for your site content.  That choice is not trivial.Latino Linkfocuses on Mexican and U.S. Hispanic consumers, and explains how an imbalance in Internet infrastructure investment has inadvertently created a pan-regional effect for Latinos online consumers.

“Spain…invested $960 million in online advertising.  For U.S. Latinos or Mexicans online, it means when they search in Spanish, many sites from Spain appear in their results…Spain invests four or five times more in content than other Spanish-language markets.”

This impacts online behavior analysis and can lead to a missed opportunity to encourage customer visits to physical stores.  For an example, read the polarizing tale of two Spanish-language e-commerce sites from Best Buy and Home Depot.

An enlightening fact Kutchera details— Mexicans shop at U.S. retailers to the tune of $10 billion annually (yes, that’s billion with a “b”). That figure “does not include capital expenditures such as cars, houses or even computers.”  Another sobering fact: Mexico’s middle class is larger than the population of Spain, re-emphasizing the irony that “search engines can send your potential U.S. Hispaniccustomers to businesses overseas… Thus a U.S. company may reach customers from other countries that they would otherwise not attract.”  The pan-regional effect is a startling contrast to widespread posts encouraging businesses to gain customers locally through location-based social media.

Furthering his point about infrastructure and demographics, Kutchera shows that while Spanish-speaking users are among the fastest-growing Internet segment, Spain is not the largest within the Latin segment; the Dominican Republic is.    Kutchera predicts, “By the time computers, smartphones or tablets cost $100 or less, the Internet will much more resemble the list of top spoken languages in the world.”

Gain guidance that leads to action and connects with the community

One important cultural point: Much of the featured research centers on a US Hispanic-Mexico consumer perspective.  But Latino Link does provide nuanced commentary to guide small business owners and marketers in attracting and serving a diversity of Hispanic customers.  For example, you’ll read about the contrast between one global site with language settings& IP specific pages (globalization) vs a series of country-specific sites (localization).

“If you sell an intangible service, like airplane tickets, music or consulting, the global .com approach might work better for you…If you offer country-specific information, or sell products via distributors…a country-specific website would be best.”

Case studies cover a helpful gamut of the ways localization and globalization can give your business an advantage, such as geo-marketing with online maps and how Hispanics use social networking sites.  One chapter is dedicated to attracting Latina customers online, while other chapters cover developing content communities, launching a website in Spanish and organizing teams.

The points raised are enhanced by personal perspectives from contributors such as Elizabeth Perez, Digital Insights Analyst, regarding the in-language vs. in-culture concept of pushing a birthday person into a cake as they bite it, chanting“Que le muerda! Que le muerda!”:

“A non-Hispanic might wonder why we would do that or think that we ruined the person’s party by doing this.  However, in reality, that is part of our tradition and one very much looked forward to… For reasons such as this, when I have the option to obtain news coverage about Hispanics from non-Hispanic or Hispanic media outlets, you will more likely see me turn to the Hispanic outlet, as it will be the one I will relate to the most.”

What’s truly cool about Latino Link is that some analytics perspective peppers its comparison between online behavior and respect for the intended audience— companies that combine acumen and data reach the insights that truly indications the needed business decision.  Kutchera also mentions some Latin American companies alongside US-based companies, so that readers can broadly envision the best applications while discovering long established successful companies in Latin countries.

A welcome and much-needed guide to digital Latino marketing

Latino Linkis a convincing application of social media, marketing, and analytic concepts to real cultural and customer behavior dynamics. I closed the book feeling that readers will quickly think how to best create a solid strategy.  They will invest inLatino Linkagain and again as an actionable guide to serve Hispanic customers with genuine care.

Note:  For Spanish speakers, please check out theSpanish version of this review, translated by Augusto Ellacuriaga ofSpanish Translation.

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Does Your Business Have Reason to Celebrate This Holiday Season?

I was a little surprised by the results of a study that recently came across my desk:Fewer companies plan to host holiday celebrations this year than at any time in the past 22 years, according toAmrop Battalia Winston, which has been tracking holiday party trends since 1989. Seventy-nine percent of businesses surveyed this year say they will hold some type of holiday celebration, down from 81 percent in both 2009 and 2008.

What’s the reason for the Scrooge-like attitude on the part of some businesses?It’s not all about money; just 27 percent are nixing the party to cut costs. But more than half (55 percent) of those who aren’t planning a party say it’s “not appropriate” to celebrate in today’s economy. In contrast, 37 percent of those hosting an event are doing it to celebrate a good 2010, 33 percent to boost employee morale, and 29 percent to show their optimism about 2011.

Personally, I think making it through these past few challenging years is reason enough to celebrate. So if you can afford it, it just seems foolish to me not to host some type of holiday event.

I’m a big believer in letting employees know how much you value them.Especially in today’s economy, when your staff is working long and hard to help your business succeed, what’s more “appropriate” than giving them some type of reward? While a holiday party may seem like a small thing, it’s an important occasion for bonding, team-building and looking forward.

Worried that your staff will criticize you for spending money on a holiday party when they’d rather have cash? If that’s a concern, use the money you would have spent on a caterer for bonuses—but don’t skip the event altogether. Have everyone chip in to hold a holiday potluck or cake baking contest. Get your employees involved in planning, and it just might be one of the most funtimes you ever have.

Celebrating sends an optimistic message.And in fact“optimism” seems to be key here. In announcing the results of the survey, Amrop Battalia Winston CEO Dale Winston noted, “There remains a deep divide in organizations’ economic outlook and how they perceive their 2010 performance.  Fundamentally, those having holiday parties this year are much more optimistic about the year ahead, while those not having parties are more pessimistic.”

There’s an old saying every salesperson knows:“Fake it till you make it.”In other words, it’s important to present a good face to the world—and that includes your employees. If you don’t feel confident enough to host some sort of holiday celebration, what does that say about your business’s future?

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CopyPress: A New Model for Outsourcing Your Web Content Needs

Recently I got a press pass to attend theBlueGlass online marketing conferencein Florida.  One of the highlights of my visit was a demo of a new product calledCopyPress.

Copy Press is an outsourced content-creation service for online content.  If you need content created for a blog or  website, or a white paper or other use, CopyPress streamlines the process of commissioning that content.

HOW COPYPRESS WORKS

As a customer of the service, you go to the CopyPress website and order the content you need.  Then CopyPress finds the writers and manages the process from start to finish.  Eventually the content is delivered back to you via the CopyPress Web platform in a variety of formats ready for you to download or publish to your own website.

As a customer, you place your order, pay for and receive your ordered content online. But behind the website, there are still human beings— writers— delivering a creative service.  This is not machine-generated content (the scourge of the Internet!).

ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE SERVICES

CopyPress is fundamentally a service that has been“productized” and given a Web interface.  Regular readers know that I am fan of this type of business model.  It is a business model and delivery model that’s getting more common today.  (Other online services that I’ve reviewed include PointBanner.com for getting banner ads, and LogoWorks.com for getting logos.)  I think such online services empower small businesses, and offer distinct advantages:

• Speed and convenience—CopyPress is designed to make it relatively fast and easy for you to hire Web writers online. You go to one central place and deal with one entity, instead of having to recruit and hire individual freelance writers every time you need one. That’s usually less work and time commitment for you as the customer.
• Self-serve, 24/7—Services like CopyPress  have another advantage. You can take advantage of the service on your own schedule 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  So if you are like me, and need to work in the early mornings, late evenings, weekends or holidays, an online service is ideal.
• Lower cost—CopyPress has developed technology that has streamlined processes for the customer-facing front end, as well as the back-end interaction with the writers. This technology and process standardization presumably keeps their costs down— cost savings they pass on to you.

But CopyPress is not a writers’ marketplace nor a freelance writers’ job board.  You don’t put out writing jobs for bid, and then have to select individual writers and negotiate prices.  Instead, CopyPress manages the process of creating content for you. CopyPress hires qualified Web writers who not only can write well, but understand search engine optimization.  CopyPress assigns your project to a qualified writer. CopyPress checks work for plagiarism and if you request it, for SEO benefits.  CopyPress also has an editor review the content and send it back to the writer for revisions if it is not acceptable quality.  You then have the ability to review the content and ask for revisions, also.

COPYPRESS PRICING

At the time of this writing, CopyPress’s typical prices range from $5– $40 for an ecommerce catalog description, to $10– $60 for a blog post, to $20– $200 for a whitepaper.  However, numerous factors come into play, including length and customization required, and prices may vary.  CopyPress also providesbulk pricingfor large packages of content.

CopyPress is not going after the cut-rate market that some content services go after.  The company is positioning the service as a middle-range offering— above the low-end content creation services, but not as expensive as custom content.

CopyPressis still in a controlled public Beta. Right now if you want to use the service, you have toapply on the website.  CopyPress, created by the BlueGlass online marketing agency, is only accepting a limited number of of Beta users at this time.

I have not yet tried the service myself, although I am considering it.  Would love to hear from anyone who has tried it, and your impressions.  Please leave a comment below sharing your experience.

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Make Your PowerPoints Pop!

This post is part of the Inspiration series, sponsored byVeer.com.

If you’re like me, you prepare a lot of PowerPoint presentations. I’ve been creating slide presentations for nearly 20 years. In that time I’ve learned a few things about how to make presentation slides useful and stimulating.

I won’t say my slides are works of art— I know they’re not. And for the first decade of my business career they were pretty boring. They were almost all text!  But over the years I’ve learned a few things about how to keep them functional, simple, yet visually stimulating.  Here are a few things I’ve learned:

Use an image at least every-other slide–Nothing is more boring than a slide presentation consisting of an unrelenting sea of text!  Images“open up” your slides and draw the viewer in. Images stimulate our right brain(intuitive / creative side) while words stimulate our left brain (analytical side).  Thus, you give your slides more sensory appeal by including an image (or chart) on every slide— or at the very least, on every other slide.

Keep background images muted–I prefer plain backgrounds on my slides because they are easier to read— either white or other light color.  As a matter of personal preference, some people prefer a background image on slides, with text superimposed on top.  But a background that is too distracting will compete  for attention with the text over top it.  Then the slide simply becomes annoying. For example, imagine trying to read textsuperimposed over top of the following image:

I deliberately left in the Veer watermark so that you can see exactly how difficult reading text can be over top of a detailed image.  With all its detail and contrast— the word is difficult to spot, isn’t it?  Imagine trying to read bullet point after bullet point on top of a background like that.

Contrast that with starting with a muted image, perhaps a swirl or texture without a lot of contrast. Thenmake the image transparentso that it competes even less with the text. The following is an example of a muted texture image you might use for a background, that would not be nearly as distracting to read text over, as the nuts and bolts image above:

Use an image to balance a block of text next to it—A simple way to add images is to insert a relevant image either to the left or right side of a short block of bullet points.  The general size of the text should be balanced by the image.  This technique is easy for business people to do, because it doesn’t require advanced skills with graphics, yet it adds visual interest quickly to slides.  It works really well using stock photographs. Awesome Presentationshas a simple example of animage used to balance a block of text.

Bold, uncluttered images are best—A presentation slide is usually viewed at a distance and quickly.  Therefore, it is not the place for“busy” images or images with fine detailing.  Keep your images simple and recognizable at a glance.

Use relevant images—Now this should be obvious:  if you use a photograph or vector image, you’re going to want it to be relevant to whatever the slide is about.  However, I frequently see images on slides that seem to have little relationship to the topic.  When choosing images, look for a stock image site that has good keyword search, and lets you refine your search in many ways.  Today, there really is no excuse for not pinpointing a high-quality image relevant to the slide’s topic.

Use a single image and few/no words for impact—If you really want to drive home your point, try using a single image taking up the entire slide, with few or no words.  In other words, you convey your point visually, instead of using text and bullets.  This can make a point powerfully.  It’s especially powerful when such a slide is mixed in with other slides that have bullet points on them— it’s a nice break.  For an image to cover the entire slide, go for a medium or large size image, and make sure it’s a horizontal image (not a vertical image).

Of course, I didn’t learn all of this on my own.  Here are tips on presentations from two other resources, that you may find helpful, that I’ve learned from:

The 10/20/30 Rule- Guy Kawasaki says PowerPoint presentations should have 10 slides, last 20 minutes and be in 30-point font. His tips are meant for entrepreneurs seeking investment from venture capitalists. And while I do have many PowerPoint presentations that are more than 10 slides and last longer than 20 minutes, I find his simple rule easy to remember and a good general guide. If you interpret his rule to mean (1)  keep the number of slides limited;  (2) allow 2 minutes per slide; and (3) keep the font large— you’ll be doing your audience a favor.

1-Minute Billboard Test— Vivek Singh ofAll About Presentationshas an interesting test, where he asks you to think about  slides as being like billboards.  He has a self-test on his site, where he asks you to imagine you are glancing at a billboard while driving and you have exactly 4 seconds for the image to make an impression— what stands out after 4 seconds?  While there is no right or wrong answer, by taking his self-test you realize the importance of de-cluttering your slides.  So, when choosing and presenting images and text on a slide, keep it simple.“Busy” slides need not apply.

What about you?Share your tips about creating visually powerful presentation slides in the comments below— love to hear from you and draw on your expertise.

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To see more inspiring images check out ourImages for PowerPoint Presentations Albumon Veer.

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14 Tips From the Pubcon Experts About Landing Page Optimization

I recently had the good fortune to attend a session on landing page optimization atPubCon.com, the annual conference about search, social media, Internet marketing and website operation. I learned a lot, so I thought I’d share the 14 top takeaways from the session with Small Business Trends’ readers.

The experts who shared their knowledge at this session were Joanna Lord, Director of Customer Acquisition forSEO Moz;Kate Morris, SEO Consultant; and Tim Ash, CEO ofSiteTuners.com. Here’s what each of them had to say.

There Are Tons of Tools to Help You—Use Them!

Joanna Lord’spresentation was focused on tools and programs you can use to discover which pages on your website and what types of content are converting well or poorly. I came away with lots of interesting tools I’m going to try.

1) UseGoogle Analyticsto data mine.Google gives you so much information to uncover what parts of your site are working to convert customers and which are not. Everyone should start with this tool.

2) Use heat mapping.(In case you’re not familiar with this term, a “heat map” uses colors to show the areas of a Web page where users most frequently scan.) By seeing where users spend the most time, you can improve your click-through rates and conversions to products/services. Here are some heat mapping tools Joanna suggested trying: Clickheat (this is a free tool); Click Density; and Crazy Egg.Crazy Eggis Joanna’s favorite heat mapping tool. While some heat mapping tools update you on the most popular areas of your site every 24 hours, Crazy Egg provides hourly live reporting.

3. Do user surveys.When people leave your site, do you know why? No one likes a popup box on a website, but if you can get useful information by running a popup or exit survey for a week, a temporary decrease in conversions is worth it for the long-term health of your site. Here are some user testing tools Joanna likes: Assistly.com (free trial), UserTesting.com ($39), Keynote (free trial), Providesupport.com (free trial) and Zendesk (free trial). The tool SEO Moz uses isKISS Insights($29/month). Joanna likes KISS Insights because it has great survey options, including surveys via popup boxes or upon user exit.

4. Test out new options.After you have surveyed your users, make changes and test their effectiveness. Tools Joanna recommends to test different landing pages: Unbounce.com, Google Website Optimizer andOptimizely.com.

Think Like a User

Kate Morrisoffered some great advice as well.

5. Know your product and always keep in mind user intent. What are users trying to do when they are on your site, and can they do it easily? Assess your site from the viewpoint of the user trying to accomplish a goal. Can they check out quickly? Can they navigate back to a prior page? How good is your search function?

6. Identify high-traffic pages that are not converting and make changes.If a page is getting lots of traffic, great! But if that traffic isn’t converting, not so great. Kate suggests using Google Analytics to pinpoint these pages. She used the example of one customer that had a high-traffic page with lots of white space on the right nav. She had them add a form, which helped increase conversions.

7. Look at“top landing pages” in Google Analytics and search for outliers.Are there pages on your site that are receiving zero visitors? Is your internal linking structure poor? Do you need more links to those deep pages?

Image—and Images—Matter

Tim Ash’spresentation was extremely visual. He showed a number of before and after pictures for sites and displayed heat maps for the old and new pages so we could see the comparison. I will mention a few of the sites that he has worked on, so you can check them out for yourself (unfortunately, you won’t be able to see the “before,” but hopefully the “afters” will inspire you!).

8. Create trust.Many sites don’t convert because they lack credibility and fail to establish trust with users. Consider displaying seals (Truste, McAfee, BBB, VeriSign and the like) as well as displaying the logos (he couldn’t stress enough the importance ofimages, not just the names) of large companies that you do business with.

9. Keep it simple.Don’t offer too many choices on the home page. Keep strong images of what you are selling on the site, but don’t clutter things up with unnecessary Flash (especially not fast scrolling Flash shows). Tim showed us the “before” look ofMosquitoCurtains.com(which was very scattered) compared to the new look. Cleaner and simpler is much easier for users.

10. ReadInfluence: The Psychology of Persuasionby Robert Cialdini.

11. Adjust guarantees.Don’t offer 30-day guarantees; offer lifetime guarantees and watch your purchases increase. Lifetime guarantees make the user feel much safer.

12. Ask for the sale.Sometimes it’s simply a matter of asking for the close. Tim showed us the “before” for1-800-Flowers. Their order form was so buried and blended in that users never clicked on it. After changing things up, the order form was much more prominent and got a ton more clicks.

13. Check outB.J. Foggfrom Stanford Labs.B.J. helps organizations use technology and new media to influence people. Tim suggests reading through his papers and articles on customer interaction and usability.

14. Remember, you’ve only got an instant to make a good impression.Tim emphasized that customers make up their minds in a fraction of a second whether or not they want to interact with your site. Good, clean design is of paramount importance.

What tips and tactics have worked for your website in improving conversions and click-throughs? Share them in the Comments.

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Awards and Contests for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

Welcome to this week’s list of contests and competitions.Notethat there are quite a few deadlines coming up in the next few days and weeks!

This list of contests, competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service bySmall Business TrendsandSmallbiztechnology.com.

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PC Mall Small Business Network Supreme Office Makeover Contest
Enter by November 30, 2010

The PC Mall Small Business Network Supreme Office Makeover contest is targeted towards small businesses with one to 100 employees and runs until November 30, 2010. Featuring a prize valued up to $17,500 for businesses with 11 to 100 employees and a prize valued up to $7,000 for businesses with one to 10 employees, the Makeover includes PCs, notebooks, printers, small business networking equipment, backup software and more.

Love a Local Business Hiring Grant Competition
Enter through December 2010

Enter by submitting a few sentences about why you love serving your customers and community. Each month between October and December 2010, winners of a $25,000 Intuit Hiring Grant will be chosen by popular vote onhttp://lovealocalbusiness.com. Judges will review the three monthly winners and choose a grand prize winner of an Intuit Hiring Grant worth $50,000.

21st Annual Holiday Spirit Award
Enter by December 1, 2010

Do you know an Orange County business owner who is generous, kind, cheerful and goes the extra mile all year long?
Nominate him or her for the 21st annual Holiday Spirit Award.

The award gives recognition to local business owners who don’t get many accolades for being good to their employees, generous to local charities and always cheerful to their customers.

Send some details of the nominee’s year-round spirit — specific examples help — to me atjnorman@ocregister.comor by snail mail to Jan Norman, Orange County Register, 625 N. Grand Ave., Santa Ana 92701.

Marketing Sherpa Email Awards 2011
Enter by December 3, 2010

MarketingSherpa’s annual Email Marketing Awards are back for another year of inspiration. Nominate your best e-mail-related campaigns from 2010 for your chance to have:

o Your entry published in the MarketingSherpa Email Awards Winners’ Showcase
o Recognition at MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Email Summit in Las Vegas
o Campaign featured in a MarketingSherpa newsletter
o A badge to display on your website

This year’s entry categories:
o Best triggered e-mail or autoresponder series
o Best integration with other channels
o Best e-mail list growth campaign
o Best personalization/segmentation strategy
o Best e-mail newsletter for marketing purposes
o Best innovation

Click herefor the submission form.

Small Business Book Awards– 3rd Annual
Online– vote by December 15, 2010

The 3rd Annual Small Business Book Awards by SmallBizTrends.com are now open. The Book Awards celebrate books for small businesses and entrepreneurs. And since most such books are also written by entrepreneurs and small business owners, the Awards recognize their work. Ten winners will be named in the 2010 Book Awards, based on the number of votes. Vote for your favorites. You may vote once every day,  per IP address. Vote for as many books as you wish. Currently there are 65 books entered in the Awards. If your favorite book is not there and it meets the rules, you can alsosubmit it.

Extreme Payroll Stories
Enter by December 15, 2010

This contest awards participants with free payroll services for sharing their stories about how they’ve processed payroll under extreme circumstances.

To enter the contest, small business owners and small business employees who process payroll can submit their“Extreme Payroll” stories to the official contest site, and encourage family, friends and colleagues to vote for their extraordinary experience. The participant who submits the story that receives the most votes wins free payroll service from SurePayroll for one year. The participant who submitsthe story with the second-highest number of votes will receive free payroll service for three months.

New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition
Enter by December 20, 2010

The New York Public Library, with its sponsor, Citi Foundation, announces the New York StartUP! 2011 Business Plan Competition for New York-based startup entrepreneurs with cash prizes totaling over $30,000. The second annual New York StartUp! gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to bolster their business acumen. Competition is open to those who are 18 years of age or older; live in Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island as a legal resident or U.S. citizen; and wish to start a business in Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island.
1st Place Award: $15,000. 2nd Place Award: $ 7,500. 3rd Place Award: $ 5,000. 4th Place Award: $ 1,500. 5th Place Award: $ 1,500.

DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year Award
Enter by January 7, 2011

The DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year Award, sponsored by Sam’s Club, is designed to honor U.S. job creators and recognize their significant contributions as drivers of economic growth. View the eligibility and criteria at the website to learn more and check out the Application Process FAQs for tips on filling out the application.

Launch Lewiston-Auburn Maine Contest
Enter by January 2011

The Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council (LAEGC) and the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce have launched an entrepreneurial contest that has an ambitious goal of connecting with youth who have roots in the local community, and encouraging them to consider starting a business in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine. The program, called Launch L-A!, features a contest inviting young entrepreneurs to submit a proposal to start a business in L-A.

The winning entrepreneur will receive an equity infusion of $10,000 to $20,000 in seed money, along with a number of in-kind services for a year, including business consulting, accounting services, legal fees, advertising agency services, rent and more— all provided by Chamber members. Runners-up may also receive in-kind services. See website for entry rules.

The CITI Foundation Business Plan Contest
Enter by February 1, 2011

For Start-up and Existing Businesses-Put your ideas on paper to find out if you have a viable business and compete to win cash prizes. Eligible candidates must attend at least one of the following workshops by February 1, 2011: How to Write a Business Plan; Understanding Your Small Business Financial Report Card; or Boot Camp– CORE Four Business Planning Course.

All registration forms and business plans must be received by February 1, 2011. Please review the checklist on the website for all required information. Or call (312) 673-3462 or e-mailsbdcduman@jvschicago.org.

Rhode Island Business Plan Competition 2011
Enter by April 4. 2011

The Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, open to everyone, seeks to promote entrepreneurship and development of start-up and early stage companies. Winners and finalists in the 2010 Competition shared more than $195,000 in prizes.

To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit ourSmall Business Events Calendar. In addition, we also have a giveaways page; click to learn more about oursmall business giveawayssection.

If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through ourSmall Business Event and Contests Form. (We do not charge a fee to be included in this listing— it is completely free to submit your award or contest for our review. )

Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award.

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