9 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Apps for Small Business

Customer relationship management has always felt like the wrong term to me. You don’t“manage” customers. You don’t“manage” your relationship with a customer. You might nurture it. You might encourage it. You would strive to strengthen it. Butmanage? No.

However, I understand what a company is aiming for when they say it, and the term has stuck for a long time, so I will get off my soapbox and share nine powerful CRM tools you’ll want to consider for managing your small business.  Each of these tools has a customer database at its core; that’s a given.  How they approach that customer data is what each section explores.

CRM Apps With an E-Mail Focus

Infusionsoftis one of the market leaders when it comes to CRM, e-mail marketing and marketing Automation.  One of their strengths and what makes them different is that, instead of a one-time automatic response, they encourage you to create a robust“follow-up sequence” based on customer behavior—this is the automation engine at work.  For example, if a customer responds to a specific campaign, then phones in a question, you can trigger your Infusionsoft system to automatically respond appropriately— which goes beyond e-mail and includes faxing, voicemails, even letters.  If you’re a small business owner struggling who needs more than a simple e-mail campaign, take a closer look at the Infusionsoft approach.

InTouch CRMpromises to make your life with customers easy.   To prove their philosophy, if you only want to store your customer contact information, you can do it for free with InTouch.  If you want to be able to use the powerful customer database and communicate via e-mail or SMS with your customers, then you’ll have to subscribe to a paid plan. I signed up for the free trial and was impressed with the simple dashboards and how quick it was to set up sample templates (you have to pay to start e-mailing) and campaigns for both e-mail and SMS.  Naturally, you can see all your customer data at a glance.

CRM Apps With a Social and Collaborative Focus

According to Gartner, social CRM application spending will grow at a faster rate than traditional CRM spending in the coming years.  Gartner employs the following definition for social CRM:“Social CRM applications encourage many-to-many participation among internal users, as well as customers, partners, affiliates, fans, constituents, donors, members and other external parties, to support sales, customer service and marketing processes. Social CRM works within each of these domains, for example, to provide a social enterprise feedback mechanism in the service domain, or social monitoring or product development in the marketing domain.”

That’s a long definition, but in a nutshell, I liked what Batchblue had to say about social CRM:“Find and join the conversations so you know what’s important to your customers.”  That is the essence of adding“social” to the CRM database.  Tag your customer data so you know what a conversation was about, when it happened and where in the social universe it took place.

Batchbookis a combination of Facebook, Google and contact database rolled up nicely in one.  You can view blog posts, photos, tweets and more alongside contact history, so if part of your customer experience involves knowing what’s going on in your customer’s life, this is a tool worth trying out. Lots of great reporting and integration with many other small business apps like Mailchimp, Shoeboxed and more.

Kickappshas an impressive platform approach to customer relationships and social media.  They explain that they are a“Social Graph Engine” which is generally defined as a look at a person’s online identity, activity, relationship to other people and content.  Kickapps allows you to use that data to inform your marketing and sales functions.  They have a great customer example pagehere. You can use this tool to build a website and a community.

Rapportiveis for the Google Gmail user. If you use Gmail, you’ll love Rapportive.  Right within your inbox, on the right side (replaces where the ads usually run, yay), you’ll see contact information for the person whose message you are reading.  Rapportive scours the social landscape and provides links and details from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and numerous other sites to give you a fast glance at just who it is you’re corresponding with.  It will also tell you location information, if they are nearby and using such services, of course.

Gistreminds you that your contacts are everywhere.  In e-mail, on social networks, on your mobile phone and many other sources. Gist combines them all into one place to give you a full view of your network,making it easy to find anyone, anytime.  It works with Gmail, with Outlook, with the iPhone and Android phones, with Salesforce.com and even Lotus Notes, to create a powerful listening post.

CRM Apps With a Sales Focus

Smartsheet Sales Pipelineis for the many users who want a powerful database, but with a user-friendly interface like a spreadsheet.  If that’s you, then take a close look at Smartsheet.  Think of this as a spreadsheet on steroids– interactive and collaborative. Stop e-mailing spreadsheets around. Great reporting functions as well as Gantt charts and ways to enhance your sales results presentation.

SalesForce.comis one of the best-known online CRM tools; it was built with sales in mind. SalesForce is one of the companies that defined the software-as-a-service (SaaS) space.  Sales teams can see and access prospect and customer contact information via the Web and mobile devices. Hundreds of applications bolt onto the Salesforce system, and thousands of small business owners use it. The company just purchased Jigsaw to help you find more sales prospects.

Sugar CRMoffers several different CRM tools, all of which are open source. While Sugar CRM is not free, it’s extremely adaptable, allowing you to easily create custom modules as well as add external data.

There are many CRM applications in the market today. Tell us which ones you’re using and how in the comments.

Source

Want to Franchise a Business? 5 Sacred Rules to Become the Next Great Franchise

I’ve recently been engaged to help sell a very successful national franchise company and been able to observe firsthand many reasons why a franchise company grows to $10 million in sales through 600 nationwide locations.  Last year I also worked on the other end of the spectrum, helping two business owners locate the necessary capital and expertise to begin the journey of becoming the next great franchise company.

These two experiences have helped deepen my understanding of the five Sacred Rules that distinguish great franchise opportunities. I offer them here, in case you are considering converting your business into a franchise company.

Rule #1: Make your partners profitable.
This first rule sounds easy, but it often gets obscured by the economic pressures you will begin to feel preparing your financial projections. First and foremost, your concept must allow your franchisees to make a significant profit.  The more the better.

Yes, a unique, exciting concept is helpful in attracting attention and selling franchises, but the business process and procedures, both operations and marketing, must give your future business partners (franchisees) the opportunity to be successful financially. The more successful they can be, the more successful your franchise company will become.  If you maintain focus on this rule, many of your other challenges will become much smaller.

Rule #2: Have a great answer for the question,“What have you done for me lately?”
Creating ongoing value is critical for a successful franchise relationship. Once you have trained your franchisees and helped them establish their businesses, the value the franchisor contributes to their future success will diminish with time, at least conceptually.  Are your recipes unique and always changing? Does your scheduling system make your franchisees more efficient and profitable? Is your marketing process effective and inexpensive? Is your budgeting software critical to profitable projects? Does your real estate department help find great locations? These and other questions are ones franchisees will ask.

While a strong franchise agreement will protect the franchisor, the objective is to create a win-win relationship, and to continually innovate to make your business, service, marketing and products better.

Rule #3: Quit or hire.
Keep in mind you are embarking on an entirely new business endeavor in which you have no practical experience: franchising. You are no longer running your business and training others how to do the same; you are the CEO of what you hope will become a successful national franchise company.

I’ve seen many companies fail and wind up entangled in the legal system because they never make the full commitment to their franchise company.  Hiring a franchise development company to create marketing and sales documents and prepare your Federal Disclosure Document is enough to help you sell acouple of franchisees.  But if you want to become a meaningful and successful company, you have to support your earliest partners and make sure they are successful.

Christian Faulconer, CEO ofFranchise Foundry, offers some good advice here: Remember, if you decide to build a franchise system around your successful business, it’s like starting a second business. Selling your products or services to your customers will still require significant time and effort, but now you also have to find time to build the franchising infrastructure and market and sell your franchise opportunity. It can seem like you are running two separate businesses, and the demands can become overwhelming without the right partners.

Keeping your current full-time job as president of your business and then working in your startup franchise company almost never works out. Consultants don’t cut it, either. Make a commitment and either quit your job as president or hire someone to run the franchise business, but recognize you probably cannot be successful at both jobs at the same time.

Rule #4: Raise capital.
There are two reasons for this sacred requirement. First, it is a great reality check and screening mechanism.  When you begin to talk with others, friends, customers and especially franchise consultants, you’ll hear only positive feedback.  If you want toreallyhear the truth, ask for a check.

Consultants will tell you the idea is a sure success because they have a hammer and you are the nail. Friends want to support you and it is always easier to praise and encourage than provide constructive feedback. Your customers already love your service, so they are not the best ones to offer feedback on the viability of national expansion.

Kert Genningsis the COO ofBoardwalk Fresh Burgers and Friesand has grown two large food-service franchise companies. He offers this thought:“Preparing a formal business plan for converting your company into a franchise company is a very enlightening exercise as it will help you crystallize your thinking.  Once complete, use that document to raise the money you will surely need to have a fair chance at success.  If you cannot raise the money, listen to what the marketplace is telling you.  Not that you have a bad business, but that perhaps it is not ready for national expansion.”

Secondly, you will need the money you raise to help with marketing, sales, franchise support, registration in states that require it, and hiring a person to help run your old or new business (see point 3).

Rule #5: You must have a great selling process (selling is service and vice-versa).
You must have a process to sell your franchise to people you do not know. Ninety-five percent of your customers who tell you they are interested in becoming a franchisee will never write you a check.  And even if all of them do, it is not enough to create a viable business.  You need to sell to people you do not know. All successful sales are the natural outcome of asuccessful process.  If you want a great example of an automated process, you can visitProcess Peak.

Keep in mind, your initial franchisees will be early adopter personalities, risk takers. They will become franchisees because they like ground-floor opportunities and are easier to sell based on a concept and an opportunity.  However, when you update yourFDD, you are required to list your current franchisees (with contact info). Those people will become a critical part of your sales process weather you like it or not.  The key to your long term-success is how happy you make those early franchisees, and if you are cutting corners to save money or because you are not committed to the idea of franchising your business, their negative comments to prospective franchisees will really hurt future sales.

Keep in mind that franchising is a heavily regulated industry. TheIFAhas developed a process for selling franchises calledFranGuard. Your sales team should be familiar with that process and the steps you need to take to protect your system as you sell franchises.

Becoming the next great American franchise is a worthy goal, but there are many challenges along the way. Make sure you’ve done all of your research and identify partners who are truly vested in your future success.

Source

Share Your Store Location with BatchGeo

There’s a story, possibly apocryphal, that goes like this: When one of Albert Einstein’s colleagues asked the eminent physicist for his telephone number one day, Einstein reached for a telephone directory.

“You don’t remember your own number?” the man asked, understandably startled.

“No,” Einstein replied with a shrug. ”Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?”

Today, I think Einstein would say,“Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a phone?”

Location is something important you can get from your phone; most small business owners want customers to have that critical bit of information. If you want to map your retail locations, or provide driving directions for your restaurant, or embed a Google map on your website, the little-known, but super-usefulBatchGeois a site you’ll want to check out.

In about five minutes, I created this cool sample map highlighting some of the Small Business Trends contributors, based on their Twitter profile location. You can see the full size, Google-powered maphere.

You can reportedly do some of these same things in Google Maps, but they are not as easy to do. BatchGeo makes it easy, and even kind of fun.  Some of the uses that I’ve seen for BatchGeo include mapping real estate properties (agents and brokers), coordinating with mobile workers by sending map links to field crews, showing a distance calculator from prominent locations to a specific store (probably useful for tourist towns), and mapping out sales territories by rep.  TheSeattle Timespublished a Holiday Lights 2010 feature using BatchGeo; see the maphere. Finally, you can create aninteractive store locator, so that when your customer uses a smartphone (which knows its own location), they will be given the nearest store location to them.

Here are a few more cool ways to use BatchGeo:

• Create an interactive map– Copy directly from a spreadsheet app like Excel, Numbers or the free Google Docs or OpenOffice Calc.

• Driving directions– Mapped addresses are linked to Google Maps for satellite photos and driving directions.

• Easily mapan address list, postal/ZIP codes, cities or any geography.

• Save a map– Create a map with your locations and associated data to save to a Web page for later use.

• Create a mobile optimized store locator- Map your store properties, and then link to them from your website.

• Visualize many address data pointsplotted on a single map, separated into groups by color.

One of the sweetest things about this service is you can take your data from any spreadsheet, dump it into BatchGeo and it will do the heavy lifting for you.  You just cut and paste your table into their entry form, and within minutes you have a map that you can embed, share or just marvel at.  BatchGeo also has a big brother called Maptive, which is a premium professional level service that may fit your needs better. Find it on their home page.

Overall, I found this tool to be easy to use and practical. With more and more opportunity to market your business via Google Maps and other location-based services, having a robust map of your stores or locations, or using maps to understand your customer base for geographic targeting, BatchGeo is worth a look.

Learn more aboutBatchGeo.

Source

6 Reasons You’re Being Social Media Ignored

We’re just two weeks into 2011 and you may already be feeling a little social media frustrated. It’s okay, you can admit it. You can admit that, despite all your best efforts, your social media accounts are failing to connect with the right people. In fact, sometimes you’re left to wonder if they’re connecting with anyone. You’re not seeing any replies, no retweets and your follower count has been stuck at 200 for three months. What’s going on?

It’s a question I get a lot from small-, medium- and even large-business owners when it comes to the status of their social media accounts. When things aren’t going quite the way you’d hope, sometimes it can be tough to figure out why. However, below are some common reasons I see for why businesses find themselves social media ignored.

1. You don’t update enough: If you want people to connect with you, you have to be present. You have to constantly be updating your accounts, sharing information, talking to people, and acting like you’re part of the community. While we’re all busy and it’s sometimes hard to fit yet-another-task into your schedule, it’s all part of creating that social presence. If you’re having a difficult time finding time to Facebook, schedule it into your day or week. The same way you schedule inall your other work, schedule in these types of tasks to make yourself accountable for them.

2. You go update overboard: Woah, Nelly. Slow down. It’s not necessary to post a new Facebook update every five minutes. In fact, you really don’t want to. By posting too much information you begin to overload your community and make it difficult for them to keep up with your updates. They may also suffer brand blindness – failure to notice youravatar because it’s all they ever seen. If you’re not sure how many times you should updating you may want to take a look at how often some of your favorite brands update their accounts. What frequency seems to be working for them? Don’t be afraid to experiment and see just how much (or little) your customers want from you.

3. You’re not providing enough value: One big mistake I see brands make with social media is that they update for the sake of updating. It’s almost as if it’s Wednesday at 9am and they suddenly realize they haven’t said anything all week. So they’ll log into Twitter and write about what their cat did this morning or how much traffic there was on the freeway coming into work. While it’s fine to share lifestyle tweets, you want to make sure you’re also providing value. You want to create a strategy for the type of content you’ll be sharing and how you’ll communicate with your audience. Whether you decide you want to share value through posting links, writing great content, offering deals& promotions, or just having above-and-beyond levels of customer service is up to you. However, you should know what that value is and what your goal is for being there.

4. You don’t respond to others: Are you monitoring your social mentions so that you can respond to people who mention your brand or who ask questions that you can answer? If not, it would help the health of your account to start. The point of social media is to be social. Take time to track down the people talking about your brand or to monitor keywords appropriate to your business, and then hop into the conversation. There’s nothing worse than a brand that has a Twitter account but doesn’t respond when you ask them a question. It’s like you’re there, but ignoring them.

5. You’re too salesy: We like marketing in social media the same way we like it everywhere else– subtle and when it doesn’t feel like marketing. If you try to use social media to “sell” your customers, you may actually be turning them off. Instead, use these platforms to let them get to know the person behind the brand. Once they form that connection with you, they’ll be much more interested in hearing about what you do for a living and how they may be useful to them. Avoid being salesy as much as possible. Instead, just be a person with a no agenda.

6. You’re hiding from your customers: Do your customers know these social media accounts or are youhiding from them? Are you promoting your Facebook account from your Web site, in your email newsletter, on your Web site? If you’re not and you’re simply hoping they’ll find your social accounts on your own, well, that may be a big reason why your numbers aren’t growing. People can’t connect with you if they don’t know you’re there. Make sure you’re promoting your presence.

Above are some common reasons why customers aren’t connecting with you on social media. Any I missed?

Source

Web 2.0 Pays Off for Businesses

How is your company using Web 2.0? (Oris it?)McKinsey& Company recently released the results of a surveyof how more than 3,200 companies in a range of regions and industries use Web 2.0 tools and technologies. Companies were asked about the business benefits and organizational impact of 12 Web 2.0 technologies: blogs, mashups (a Web application that combines multiple sources of data into a single tool), microblogging, peer to peer, podcasts, prediction markets, rating, RSS, social networking, tagging, video sharing and wikis.

In this fourth year of the study, Web 2.0 continues to grow. Two-thirds of the respondents reported using Web 2.0 tools in their organizations. The percentage of companies using social networking (40 percent) and blogs (38 percent) rose significantly, as did the number of employees using Web 2.0.

And those numbers will only increase. Two-thirds of respondents who are currently using Web 2.0 say they plan to boost future investments in these technologies, compared with slightly more than 50 percent who said they would increase spending last year.“The healthy spending plans during both {2009 and 2010} underscore the value companies expect to gain,”the study reports.

Now, this being a McKinsey study, the companies surveyed were not exactly small businesses.“So what does this have to do with my company?”you may be asking. Here’s why you should care, and why—if you’re not already implementing Web 2.0 tools in your business—it’s time to get cracking: Nine out of ten respondents said Web 2.0 technologies resulted in at least one measurable business benefit.More specifically:

When working with customers, businesses reported Web 2.0 led to:

• Increased marketing effectiveness– 63 percent
• Increased customer satisfaction– 50 percent
• Reduced marketing costs– 45 percent

When working with suppliers/partners, here’s what they reported:

• Increased speed of access to knowledge– 57 percent
• Reduced communication costs– 53 percent
• Increased satisfaction of suppliers/partners– 45 percent

There were even measurable results internally: 77 percent of respondents said use of Web 2.0 technologies gave them faster access to knowledge within the company. (In other words, it helps you get things done faster—and every entrepreneur knows how crucial that is.)

However you slice and dice this study, it proves two things: One, that businesses can derive measurable benefits from Web 2.0; and two, that you’d better get in on the Web 2.0 game—because big companies certainly are.

Source

Sales Are Bad: A Cry For Attention?

Often when I’m writing, I’ll imagine a scene and prime the pump with a caption starter like“I appreciate what you’re saying, but…”or“You know what would be great…”Then it becomes more of a puzzle to figure out a funny ending rather than pulling a cartoon entirely out of the ether.

I wrote the above cartoon that way. I started with a bad sales graph and prefaced the caption with“Sales are bad, but…”After a bit it occurred to me that sales might be behaving badly like children, and the end just sort of fell into place.

Source

New List of Webinars and Conferences for Growing Companies

The next few weeks are particularly chock full of opportunities to get out there, learn, network, and start 2011 on the right foot.

This bi-weekly list of small business events, conferences and webinars is brought to you as a community service bySmall Business TrendsandSmallbiztechnology.com.

******

Three-Night Small Business Revival– Grow any Business Idea in 16 Weeks
January 18-20, 2011, Orlando, FL and via teleconference

This three day seminar will teach attendees how to expand any for profit or nonprofit idea in less time and with less effort. You will learn the 11 principles of turning your concepts into cash, and join a group of committed individuals who can offer the support and encouragement you need to reach your business goals.

Starting Fresh-Assessing Risk& Threats to your Business in 2011
January 18, 2011, Webinar

Information on gauging your business’s potential vulnerabilities to natural and man-made disasters will be presented in this lastest in a series of free webinars hosted by the SBA and Agility Recovery Solutions. During the hour-long webinar, Agility CEO Bob Boyd and business continuity planner Mark Norton will discuss the basics of risk assessment, the importance of identifying critical small business functions, and employee preparedness.

SBIC& SBIR: What would you like to know? Come ask the SBA
January 18, 2011, Webinar

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has a number of programs dedicated to assisting new technology companies. In 1958, Congress created the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program to help small U.S. businesses meet their requirements for growth and operating capital not available through banks or other private capital sources. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program funds research and development projects that propose a sound approach to the investigation of an important education or assistive technology, science or engineering question under topics identified each year in the solicitation. This webinar presentation will address such questions as:
- How can technology entrepreneurs get funding from SBIC?
- How to deal with financial institutions when there are no real assets as collateral for a loan (particularly when there is intellectual property or customer commitments to a product)?
- Is there a path that an entrepreneur can take at the SBA when he or she is getting no traction at a financial institution?

Smart Marketing for Small Business Webinar
January 18, 2011, Webinar

The Smart Marketing for Small Business webinar is based on the experience and expertise of Leslie Wolff, CEO, Smart Marketing Group. His five decades in all facets of the sales, marketing and management spectrum has created an approach and focus on providing practical, pragmatic (not theoretical) creative tactics that can be used immediately.

Give Me 5: Ready for Prime Time Training: Make your Capability Statement Stand Out
January 19, 2011, Online

Learn how to hone your own Capability Statement into one that gets noticed by agency contracting personnel. A selected WIPP Member will take part in a consultation with Give Me 5 Instructor Gloria Larkin for a critical review of their company’s Capability Statement. During the webinar, you will review the Capability Statement before and after – demonstrating the process of reviewing and editing so that you can apply the process to your own company.

Rev Up Your Nonprofit, Small Business Revenue with E-marketing
January 20, 2011, Webinar

In this free webinar, you’ll determine where your customers want to find you and how to get to them. You’ll learn to focus your marketing plan so it hits the market: Your most likely customers or donors. What’s more, you’ll be able to prove your return on investment. You’ll learn to measure your marketing mix so you know what’s working and what isn’t. And, most important, how to fix it when it’s not.

In this class, you’ll learn how to tailor online marketing to the specific needs of your business or nonprofit. You’ll learn how to figure out which media will work best for your purpose, whether that purpose is attracting new customers or advocating for a cause.

Minority& Women Owned Business Workshop
January 20, 2011, Brooklyn, NY

Grow your business with the city, state and other agencies. Become certified as a Minority-and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (EBE) Locally-based Business Enterprise (LBE). Companies that become certified obtain greater access to contracting opportunities with government and private corporations. Attend one of our certification workshops and learn how to become certified!

Entrepreneur Magazine’s Growth 2011 Conference
January 20, 2011, Atlanta

* Nearly a dozen hands-on seminars to help your business soar to your highest vision
* Growth strategies from top business authors, radicals and visionaries
* Meet and tweet with host Amy Cosper, editor in chief ofEntrepreneur
* Networking throughout the day to build partnerships and connections
* Business growth perspectives from theEntrepreneur of 2010winners

Women in Denim Conference
January 21-22, 2011, Storm Lake, IA

For women in agriculture from Iowa and the surrounding states, the event offers opportunities for fun, networking, learning and inspiration led by entertaining and knowledgeable speakers. Workshop sessions cover topics such as grain and livestock marketing, starting a small business, entertaining and cooking, digital photography, farm financials, new technology in agronomy, staying healthy, Iowa travel gems, sewing and gardening.

Vertical Response 2011 Take Action User Seminar Series
Multiple Cities and Dates

January 21, 2011– San Francisco
March 23, 2011– Boston
March 25, 2011– New York City
June 23, 2011– Chicago
September 30, 2011– Denver

The Vertical Response 2011 Take Action User Seminar is designed to educate you about e-mail marketing in the age of social media. Complement your attendance with a one-on-one e-mail consultation and get the chance to take what you learn and immediately put it into action!

NFIB Virginia Small Business Day at the Capitol
January 25, 2011, Richmond, VA

This event is an opportunity to learn what key state lawmakers are planning to achieve during the 2011 legislative session. NFIB can schedule meetings for you with your legislators.

Join NFIB at 7 a.m. for breakfast at the Richmond Marriott and continue on to the capitol to lobby the issues important to the business community. Confirmed to speak at the breakfast are Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. NFIB has invited Governor Bob McDonnell and all 140 legislators. This is a great opportunity for you to network with other businesses and meet directly with lawmakers.

Governor’s Business Growth Conference
January 26, 2011, Mt. Pleasant, TX

The Texas State Governor’s Office, Texas Workforce Commission, and Northeast/Texarkana Small Business Development Center at Northeast Texas Community College will present an all-day conference for business owners to provide information and resources to grow their businesses. The Governor’s Conference on Business Growth Strategies at the Mount Pleasant Civic Center is one of 20 governor-hosted forums around the State of Texas devoted to strengthening the small business community.

The $20 fee includes the Governor’s Business Awards Luncheon, resource exhibits, sessions on technology, grants, government procurement, international trade, financial solutions, business growth strategies and conference materials. Keynote speakers during the event include Texas Secretary of State Esperanza Andrade and Monica Cornetti, acclaimed author and expert on empowering women in the workplace.

Small Business Seminar: The Entrepreneurial Equation
January 27, 2011, Brooklyn, NY

Presented by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Seminar Committee. Learn how you can put banking, retirement and insurance tools to work to build and protect your business. Breakfast served.

Getting a Financial Makeover with Bonnie Nagayama
January 27, 2011, Webinar

QuickBooks is a great cornerstone for building a business, but how do you leverage that data into something that provides quick& easy actionable items to really take your business to the next level?  Join Bonnie J Nagayama, CPA, CEO of 4luvofbiz to learn how to do just that.  Topics include: (1) Take what you know about reports& use that as a spring board to unlimited grouping& subtotals, improved filters, enhanced memorization, granular security, without Excel or report writing tools. (2) Quickly determine who your most profitable customers are so you can make choices about how you will work or maybe even not work with in the future. (3) Review your company’s financial health in 5 minutes.

Blogging Success Summit 2011
February 1-22, 2011, Online

Blogging Success Summit 2011 is a live online conference designed to help you master blogging, empowering you to quickly attract and connect with customers (and prospects) via your very own platform— a blog.

Join 23 blogging pros, including Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra, Scott Monty (head of social media, Ford), Darren Rowse (co-author, ProBlogger), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Debbie Weil (author,The Corporate Blogging Book), Douglas Karr (co-author,Corporate Blogging for Dummies); experts from McDonald’s, Cisco, Southwest Airlines, Sony, and Procter& Gamble; plus Joe Pulizzi (co-author,Get Content Get Customers), Mari Smith (co-author,Facebook Marketing), Jay Baer (co-author,The Now Revolution), Chris Garrett (co-author, ProBlogger), Dave Garland (author,Smarter, Faster, Cheaper), Mike Volpe (VP of marketing, HubSpot), Rick Calvert (CEO, BlogWorld) and Michael Stelzner (Social Media Examiner)—and more.

Tory Johnson’s 2011 Spark& Hustle National Tour
Multiple Dates& Cities Feb-July 2011

Whether you’re just getting your feet wet with this“business thing,” barely keeping your head above water, or finally ready to swim with the sharks, Spark& Hustle is the place to learn (exactly) how to transform your fledgling (or floundering) business into a wildly profitable venture.

NAVSEA Small Business Conference
February 1, 2011, Miami

Small business owners are invited to attend the NAVSEA Small Business Conference, sponsored by the Program Executive Offices (PEOs) for Aircraft Carriers, Integrated Warfare Systems (IWS), Littoral and Mine Warfare (LMW), Ships, and Submarines. This conference will provide a forum for small business owners to connect with senior Navy and industry leaders to learn, collaborate and explore ways in which they can offer their products and services in support of Navy warfare programs.

For more information regarding this exciting event, please contact the Small Business Conference Planning Team at (703) 941-0600, or by e-mail at mandi.jackson@sbconference.org.

BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media
February 2, 2011, Austin, TX

Toyota, REI, Texas Instruments, Kellogg Company and more will share case studies in corporate social media at BlogWell Austin: How Big Brands Use Social Media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250. Get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. Presented by GasPedal and SocialMedia.org.

Digital Marketing Forum 2011
February 2-4, 2011, Austin, TX

Digital Marketing Forum Austin will feature:

• Keynote sessions from provocative thinkers—get inspired by new perspectives on digital marketing
• Case studies from leading brand-side marketers—see what’s working NOW and apply those best practices to your own campaigns
• Actionable advice and how-to’s—leave the event and start immediately improving your e-mail, search, social media, and digital marketing results
• Day-long, pre-conference workshops—choose in-depth training on social media measurement or content marketing/development
• Plenty of networking opportunities—learn from other marketers in our unique Peer-to-Peer sessions, and mingle with speakers, thought leaders, and digital marketing enthusiasts during the conference

Social Media Week
February 7-11, 2011, New York, San Francisco, Rome, Paris, Toronto, Sao Paulo, London, Hong Kong, Istanbul

Social Media Week is a global platform that connects people, content, and conversation around emerging trends in social and mobile media.

Delivered primarily through a network of internationally hosted biannual conferences and online through social and mobile media, Social Media Week brings hundreds of thousands of people together every year through learning experiences that aim to advance our understanding of social media’s role in society.

Strategic& Financial Planning Seminar
February 24, 2011, Doylestown, PA

This two part seminar for business owners will help you make informed business decisions about where to spend your money and time. The event is organized by Network Now, a business networking group for women.

Part 1– Strategic Planning. A strategic plan is the road map for your business. You will learn how strategic planning can help you increase your profitability and be guided on how you can easily develop a solid plan for your company.
Part 2– Financial Planning. Your financial plan should support your strategic plan. You will learn how to create a budget, keep track of your income and expenses, and measure your results to your forecast.

How to Conduct Market Research for Business Plans, Launching New Ventures
February 28, 2011, New York City

Fordham Marketing Professor Hooman Estelami, in this interactive seminar, discusses techniques for conducting market research for evaluating new products, new markets and competitive landscapes. This seminar will help you address the questions: Is your new product/service idea a good one? Is there a market for the product? How big is the market? How do I learn about the competition? How do I make forecasts?

Disney Institute’s Business Owner& Management Conferences: Quality Service and Brand Loyalty
February 28-March 2, 2011, Lake Buena Vista, FL

Presented in partnership with Disney Institute and Northpoint Services.“Benchmark your Business to Disney’s” and discover the strategies and practices that contribute to Disney’s world-renowned success at this conference that includes an exclusive “Business Excellence: Behind-The-Scenes” tour.

Sixth Annual Small Business Summit 2011
March 8, 2011, New York City& Online

Produced by Prime Strategies and SmallBizTechnology.com, this event is an informative, inspiring and productive day. Headline speakers include Chris McCann of 1-800-Flowers and Jim Fowler of Jigsaw, which was acquired by Salesforce.com in early 2010.

At this year’s Summit you will network with your peers, gain insight from business leaders who have built successful businesses– including 1-800-Flowers, Jigsaw, 888 Red Light, ColderICE and more– see demos by the hottest technology companies for small businesses, and hear the success story of this year’s Small Business Strategy Award winner.

Geek Girl Boot Camp
March 19, 2011, Cape Cod, MA

At this full-day technology“unconference” for women, workshops include PC and Mac, Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), Location (Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp) Photoshop, QuickBooks, Blogging, Podcasting, WordPress, Google Tools, Dreamweaver, Video, Inbound Marketing, digital photography and more. The workshopsare designed for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. There are Discussion Groups and an all-day Help Desk. The Mission of Geek Girl Camp is to educate and empower every girl and woman at every age level, on every skill level, at every income level on computer technology with fun and provide a legacy by giving back and paying it forward.

GROWCO Grow Your Company Conference
April 6-8, 2011, Las Vegas, NV

Inc. created GROWCO, a three-day conference, for business leaders who want brass tacks advice to achieve the next level of growth. GROWCO speakers include founders and CEOs of fast-growing companies, icons in the business community, and authors of definitive business tomes. Learn how to develop a vision, manage a team, create a brand, get the most for your marketing dollar, connect with customers, close deals, and find capital

12th Annual U.S. Department of Energy Small Business Conference& Expo
May 10-12, 2011, Kansas City, MO

This event will feature plenaries, educational workshops, an Exhibit Hall with over 200 exhibitors/sponsors, as well as business matchmaking sessions. Over 1,600 attendees will represent all levels of federal, state and local government agencies, the small business community, large/prime contractors, minority educational institutions and many more!

The largest civilian contracting agency within the federal government, DOE spent over $25 billion in contracts in FY 2010. The 12th Annual DOE Small Business Conference& Expo is a great opportunity for small business owners, large companies and universities alike to network and partner.

The Art of Angel Investing: What Investors Look for, and Look Out for, When Investing in Startups
May 24, 2011, New York City

This event is a must-attend for anyone interested in learning more about pitching business ideas, venture capital/angel investing and starting their own business. And for those who are Fordham Students or Alumni, come cheer on your peers in the final round of the Fordham Business Plan Competition!

140 Characters Conference
June 15-16, 2011, New York City

This event is expected to be the largest worldwide gathering of people interested in the effects of the real-time Internet on both business and“we” the people. It seems like everyone is talking about Facebook and Twitter but so what? Why do they really matter?

#140conf exposes you to the power the Internet has to disrupt businesses, change lives and create serendipity. You will leave with a fresh outlook on how the real-time Web can be used in your business or personal life to actually do something meaningful.

FAA Small Business Opportunities Training Conference and Trade Show
June 28-July 1, 2011, Oklahoma City, OK

The FAA will host its Annual National Small Business Procurement Opportunities Training Conference and Trade Show on June 28– July 1, 2010. The conference provides a forum for small businesses (including service-disabled and veteran-owned small businesses and 8(a) certified firms) to participate in technical and procurement opportunities workshops. Sessions will link small businesses with program managers, address business issues and concerns, and provide information that will benefit small businesses seeking to do business with the agency.

NAWBO Women’s Business Conference 2011
August 31– September 1, 2011, San Diego, CA

The NAWBO Women’s Business Conference is the only event of its kind focused on connecting women entrepreneurs to real business opportunities that deliver bottom-line results. The conference brings together businesses of all sizes from various industries to provide women entrepreneurs with both personal and professional tools and resources to take their business to the next level of success.

To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit ourSmall Business Events Calendar.

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 ourEvents& Contests Submission Form(We do not charge a fee to be included in this listing— it is completely free to list your event.) Only events of interest to small business people, freelancers and entrepreneurs will be considered and included.

Source