The Top 100 Small Business Podcasts of 2011

“It is great to learn from in-depth interviews in a business-casual style.”– Martin Lindeskog, in a recent interview with me, regarding the Top 100 Small Business Podcasts of 2011

When I say“business casual” I’m talking about fashion,  but when our community member Martin Lindeskog says it, he is talking about the way we consume small business information.  Of course, we can read it sitting at our desk, watch it on our computer screens, experience it in a live class setting orlisten to it while we do just about anything, because the podcast travels well.

For the past four years,Small Business Trends Radiohas compiled an annual list of the top small business podcasts. And for the second year in a row Martin, who hails from Sweden, has spearheaded the effort and taken the time to get a feel for all the shows on the list. As he said in his interview with me (which was funny for me because my nighttime was his daybreak),“The podcasts {on our list} should be related to {small} business in one way or another.”So we can trust that these top 100 shows understand our needs.

Martin also told me,“It is very convenient to listen to a podcast during a long walk.”He enjoys them because“you can‘consume’ the material when you have time.”

I like podcasts too. Audio training can eliminate uneventful downtimes like long drives to meetings or the time it takes to do all kinds of tasks that I would rather not do, but need to do, whether it’s switching out my clothes for the new season or cleaning up the office at the end of the day (after the serious work is over). Podcasts allow us to consume new business information in a casual setting.

You can check out the full list of theTop 100 Small Business Podcasts of 2011.It’s divided into categories, so it’s easy to find what you need, when you need it.

The categories are:

• Leadership and Management
• Marketing and Sales
• Operating a Small Business
• Tax and Finance
• Startups and Starting a Business
• Home Based Business
• Small Business Technology
• Business Opportunities and Franchises
• “All Around” Small Business Podcasts
• Business News and the Big Picture

And this is not a category, but for 2011, the list includes two videocasts in the“All Around Small Business Podcasts” category, The Rise to the Topand Jaffe Juice TV.  Martin expects “you will find more and more videocasts in the near future.” With the rise of YouTube and video marketing, that makes sense.

Happy ironing, walking or whatever you do while you listen to your favorite small business podcasts.Enjoy!

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Social Media Small Business Trainer

Are you using social media marketing for your small business? More and more people are these days, but when it comes to figuring out what trends are important, what’s next and how to begin, you’ll need expert help. Enter this roundup from a variety of news and information sources that will take you into the world of social media and teach you how to use this vital tool for the benefit of your business.

Basics

Seven things you can’t do with social media. Today’s roundup will look again at the possibilities social media offers your small business, but first let’s look at what social media can’t do. Though social media has many uses, there are some definite exceptions. Think of the social space as a new medium for your business with its own langauge. Learning how to use that language, and how not to use it will make you a better social media user.Money Dummy

Better way to schedule Tweets. It’s a huge networking tool, but let’s face it. Keeping up with Twitter networking can be a huge drain on time. And spreading out your tweets to hit your followers at the best time of the day can be a challenge. Unless you want to spend all of your time stuck on your lap top or squinting at your smartphone, here’s a new way to set your Tweets and live your life.New Biz Blogger

Success Stories

Even some of the world’s biggest social media sites started small. Take LinkedIn now valued at $10 billion and relied upon by many small business people to connect them and build and sustain their networks everyday. In this interview, founder Reid Hoffman talks about founding the social media giant literally in his living room. Will the next social media giant start as a small business too?WSJ

How face to face social skills can boost social media savvy. If you are one of those cultural worriers who thinks social media is robbing our world of genuine face to face interaction, think again. This entrepreneur success story may convince you of the importance of low-tech social skills even in a high tech social world. In the end, both will be helpful in your small business. Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Tips

Your social media safety guide. Social media sites like Facebook are a tremendous tool, but like any other work environment, safety is one of the most important considerations. Facebook and other social media outlets have many distraction…and some real dangers. To keep your productivity high and your small business safe while working in social media marketing, learn more about these risks and other potential social media concerns.Just Ask Kim

Bad link building strategies. Building links is widely regarded as a key strategy in blogging today and can be an important method of building community, increasing traffic and eventually boosting referrals. Unfortunately, not all link building strategies are created equally. Here are seven in particular you will want to avoid at all costs.New Biz Blogger

Research

Studying social sharing among your customers. When considering social media channels to reach your customers, is e-mail on your list of possible options? Maybe it should be. In a recent report on how consumers interact and share content online, e-mail came in first, followed by social networks and then blogs. All social channels have theirvalue, but are you building your strategy with the channels your customers use most? eMarketer

Keeping your eye on social media. Social media is becoming huge, but keeping track of your progress and collecting data doesn’t need to be a hassle. Plenty of tools exist to track your stats in the social media space. Here are 14 that deserve your special attention.Abnormal Marketing

Trends

Are your customers brand ambassadors? There is an incredible power in having your most satisfied and enthusiastic clients and customers talk to others about how much they love your products or services. But like with any other technique, there is a downside too. It’s easier than ever before to turn customers into advocates for a business they love, and social media has enhanced this process dramatically. But it’s just as easy for a disatisfied customer to spread the word, so be prepared.Social Media Examiner

Social media and e-commerce. It may be a match made in heaven. Online retailers are taking the next logical step in beginning to sell directly from social media sites. The concept is called“social commerce” and whether it becomes a staple of online marketing remains to be seen. How do you integrate your social media with e-commerce or sales? Leave your comment below.WSJ

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Busy Business Times: I’d Love to, But . . .

I’ve got a second-grader and a preschooler at home, so we read a lot of kid’s books.(In fact, I can do a pretty good impromptu Seuss on almost any topic.)Nursery rhymes were a special favorite of my daughter, and we read one collection until it literally fell apart.

After you read each one a few thousand times, your mind begins to go numb, so you end up looking for patterns, embellishing, and inserting just plain goofy stuff.

This cartoon came after reading Little Miss Muffet and doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider finger play. I quickly ran into my office, wrote it down, and then played Spiderman riding My Little Pony to the circus.

My days are nothing if not eclectic.

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How to Remain Relevant

Today’s economy is more competitive than ever. Take the recession and add in a little (or a lot) of social media plus a high unemployment rate andBOOM, we’ve got the perfect storm for business relevance.

In a recession, savings and value are more important to consumers than in flush times. The abundance of social media and information on the Internet gives these same consumers the opportunity to be more educated and discriminating about their purchases. High unemployment is pushing more and more people into business ownership, increasing the amount of competition in your industry.

As you work to succeed in this highly competitive environment, it is critical that you remain relevant. As consumers seek to gain information and knowledge before they buy, you must be seen as valuable and current. They have to be able to find you above the noise. They will find your competition– will they find you, too?

So, how can you stay relevant?

Get Out

The first important aspect of relevance is to be sure you are out there. This takes several forms. The first is within your own business community. Being seen at events– networking, chamber, seminars and the like – helps others get to know you and identify you as someone who is relevant in your space.

Being seen online is also critical to gaining exposure and positioning yourself as an expert. Bear in mind that you can’t justbethere; you have to participate effectively.

Communicate

How you communicate with others is important as well–not only at events, but through social media channels, too. When you are at an event and are communicating about your company, clarity and brevity rule. You have to be able to share your value in as few words as possible. This shows that you truly know what you do for your clients, and exhibits a level of confidence others are looking for.

Being knowledgeable about your industry is important. However, talking endlessly about it is a killer. Going on and on about your business does not show people you are an expert. It shows them you are only interested in yourself. Build relationships with people and they will get to know you as an expert in your field. More importantly, they willwantto do business with you or refer you to others because they like you.

The Internet gives you a multitude of channels to communicate and share your expertise. You can write articles, answer questions, comment on other people’s blogs, write your own blog and participate in communities. Sharing information without selling is a great way to remain relevant. Remember, people are looking for you online. When you participate online, they will find you and have the opportunity to get to know you in their own space.

Help Others

Everyone loves a connector, helper, resource. As you build business relationships so that you have a lot of resources at your fingertips, you will be able to connect people. It isn’t enough to just know a lot of people. You should thoughtfully and intentionally work to help those people grow their businesses and solve their problems.

When you do this, people will want to connect with you. They will see you as someone who is well-connected (never a bad thing) and as a giver. Does this make you more relevant? It certainly does. Consider the difference between the person who is always out for themselves and the person who seems to always be connecting others. Don’t you like the connector better? Doesn’t he/she seem more professional? Connectors get more attention from others.

Facebook guru Mari Smithtells us to build a community around our business. When you share information through social media and build relationships in your business community, people will naturally want to be in your space. They will want to hear what you have to say. They will want to stay connected. This is how you become and remain relevant. Relevancy will lead to improved business relationships, and increased referrals and sales.

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Small Business Financing: Who’s Getting the Money?

The state of small business financing has been a mixed bag lately, asJoel Libava previously wrote aboutonSmall Business Trends. But slowly, things seem to be improving. Last month,The New York Timesreported that more small businesses are seeking—and getting—bank loans. And in a new study by Capitol One, 85 percent of U.S. small businesses surveyed say they are able to access the financing they need—up from 70 percent at the same time last year.

But what kind of capital are these businesses getting, and is it helping—or hurting—them in the long run?A new survey by MultiFunding LLC, a firm that helps small companies find financing, sheds a slightly different perspective than most surveys on the issue.

MultiFunding’s National Small Business Lending Snapshotfocused on small and relatively new businesses: The companies surveyed had average annual revenues of $750,000 and had been in business an average of only three years. Culled from a wide variety of industries and regions, the entrepreneurs in the survey were MultiFunding clients actively seeking an average of $325,000 in loans; more than 25 percent had already been rejected by banks. The study sought to determine what loan types small business owners in today’s market can qualify for and what interest rates they can expect to pay for their loans.

MultiFunding found that banks classify loan applicants into one of three categories and base their approvals and interest rates on the categorization. Here’s how it breaks down:

1.Asset-Rich Business Owners– (31 percent in the study)

These business owners have assets and/or the cash sufficient to meet the collateral requirements of banks and SBA lenders. As a result, they’re able to obtain interest rates between 3 percent and 8 percent a year.“Government supported SBA programs favor this group,”the study says.

2.Marginal Business Owners(47 percent in the study)

These business owners have credit and cash flow, but lack the assets to serve as collateral. Considered“B-level” borrowers, they have to use less desirable and more costly financing methods, including factoring, merchant cash advance loans, unsecured loans and private money loans. “They pay a high premium because of their lack of collateral,”the survey authors say.

3.Non-Lendable Business Owners(15 percent in the study)

A triple whammy of bad credit, poor cash flow and lack of collateral leave these small companies ineligible for financing at any price.

Even for small businesses that can get financing, the interest rates are often prohibitive to continued growth. Just 10 percent of entrepreneurs surveyed qualified for conventional loans from FDIC-insured banks. MultiFunding found that approximately 40 percent of entrepreneurs would have to pay more than 23 percent in annual interest and charges if they were able to get financing, and 21 percent of owners would pay more than 30 percent. Those rates are comparable to those of credit card financing, which most small business experts typically caution against.

Based on these lending trends, MultiFunding concludes,“Small businesses are facing a national lending crisis that is not adequately reflected in the data published by the nation’s leading lenders.”The situation is particularly challenging for small businesses with income under $1 million per year as these interest rates pose a problem with staying in business.

“In today’s economy, collateral is a key factor in determining interest rates,”the report continues.“Credit and cash flow, previously important in assessing a small businesses’ credibility, have taken a backseat to equity in their balance sheet.”

Have you had trouble accessing credit at acceptable interest rates?

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4 Ways NOT to Promote Your SMB Blog

You’ve started blogging. You’re now spending your time mining your analytics, answering your customers’ most common questions and doing your best to provide a great resource for your industry. You’ve got that part down.

Where you’re stuck is in how to market your blog, because you’ve been watching what everyone else is doing and you’ve picked up some bad habits. Not only are you annoying people, it’s also not working.

Well, of course it’s not! Below are some common bad promotion habits that newbie bloggers (and some old-timers!) pick up and how you can help break them. Because let’s face it – just because everyone you know is doing it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

1. Blog Comment Spamming

As a blogger yourself, you’re pretty well-versed in comment spam and can spot it a mile away. You’re onto those tragically named readers called Buy Shoes Online and Cheap Designer Purses who stop by to leave comments on your blog that say nothing more than “great post!” It drives you crazy having to moderate them,yet you’ve somehow found yourself engaging in the same type of behavior. It’s easy low-hanging fruit and, hey, it must work or everyone else wouldn’t be doing it, right? If this is you, please stop–because of the rest of the Internet would like to kick you.

You can absolutelyuse blog commenting as a marketing strategy, but you must do your homework to make sure you’readding valueand not just trolling someone else’s forum.  To familiarize yourself with the blog you’re commenting on, read their last five posts and see what they’re all about. Otherwise, if you engage without research, you may find yourself harming your blog instead of helping it.

2. Using Every Email You Can Find

Networking! It’s all the rage, right? So to help market your blog, you decide to “network” with all of your favorite blogs by tracking down their owners’ email addresses and messaging them to see if they’ll link to/mention/share your blog URL. You then feel totally confused when they ignore your email, respond negatively or post it on their blog as a lesson in whatnotto do. What gives?

What gives is thatyou’re spamming them. Yes, building relationships with other bloggers in your niche is a key component to blogging success, but that doesn’t mean you should cold-call everyone you know and asking them to promote your blog for you. Do some research and determine who, realistically, needs to know about your blog.

• Who has an audience that overlaps with yours?
• Where can you provide value?
• Who could you partner with?
• What do you have that’s of interest to their readers?

Once you have that list, send a quick email introducing yourself and commenting on something they’ve written recently or addressing a problem they’ve expressed. Your first point of contact shouldneverbe about you. It’s always about the other person.

3. Talking Only About Your Blog. Everywhere.

You’re a proud parent and a little consumed with your blog. That’s understandable when you spend so much time writing content, responding to commenters and working to build awareness. However, you’ve taken normal parent pride and gone into overdrive. You can’t have a conversation online with name-dropping your blog. You work it into every conversation, every interaction–in fact, it’s the only thing you ever talk about. The only problem? People are now ignoring you.

Can I say“duh”? While I’m a huge fan ofhealthy self-promotion, there’s a difference between self-promotion and all-out shilling. We’re all in social media to promote what we’re up to, but that doesn’t mean there’s not time to help someone else out, highlight another resource, or share content someone else has written. You will always get more out of social media by lifting up others than by constantly promoting yourself.

4. Submit Every Post You Write to Your Favorite Social Media Site

Back to being a proud parent– you think everything you do is worthy of attention. Your content is so good that everything deserves to be submitted to all the social media sites and pushed to its fullest. Every day, you have a new post you’re trying to hawk, and you’re posting it to every channel you can. However, forsome reason, your once-interested audience now appears to turn a blind eye to your content.

That’s because you’re overloading them! If you’re being honest, it’s very unlikely thateverypiece of content you put out is your absolute best and worthy of a big social media push. And that’s OK, because it doesn’t have to be. So save those big social media pleas for the content that truly deserves it. Not only will you spare aggravating your audience, but you’ll also help your truly stellar content get more eyeballs.

Those are some of the common blog marketing mistakes I see small business marketers making. What mistakes have youcommitted, um“seen” your “friends” make?

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Few Americans Work in Startups {Chart}

Recently released U.S. Census Bureau data indicates theshare of employment in companies of different ages.  The figure below shows that, in 2009, only two percent (2%) of Americans working in private sector businesses were employed in companies started that year. Even young companies, those aged one-to-ten, only employed another 19.5 percent of private sector workers.

So where do most people in the private sector work?  The answer is mature companies.  The Census Bureau’s data reveal that 55.8 percent of those working in the private sector are employed in companies 26 years or older.  Another 8.4 percent have jobs in companies aged 21 to 25.  And 6.6 percent work in businesses between 16 and 20 years old.

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Small Business News: Marketing Matrix

Like the characters in the sci-fi/fantasy filmThe Matrix, today’s small business marketers face an unfamiliar and rapidly changing landscape in which nothing is what it seems and from which none of us can return to what we once knew. With the coming of new technologies and new trends, your small business must be ready for a whole new kind of marketing…or disappear forever.

Trends

Are you using video marketing? We’ve probably all heard repeated predictions about the importance of video for online marketing and being found on the Web, but Chris Hamilton suggests that soon, because of rapid expansion of video on the Web, your company may soon have no business at all without using it.Sales Tip a Day

Why marketing remains a numbers game. Targerting smaller niche audiences has become the key trend, especially in Internet marketing where relevant search rules. But this approach may still be at odds with another key philosophy of marketing which suggests that big numbers still matter.Sprouter Blog

On the other hand…This post gives a compelling overview of what is probably the most rational approach to marketing. It’s probably between launching your product or service and finding your customer base that all the real trouble happens. So how do you handle marketingbeforeyou know who your customers are?Seth Godin’s Blog

Strategy

Market research in the want ads. Find out who companies are hiring and you can effectively target their needs. It may not be the craziest idea anyone’s ever had. This  is a great way to add yet one more layer of knowledge about your potential customers and your market.WSJ

Better marketing by changing your product. Sometimes, let’s face it, the product or service is the problem. A simple change to what you are offering or a change in focus of the people you are offering it to can make all the difference in the world. Want more prove? Read the above case study.You’re the Boss

Social Media

More businesses spend money in social media. Are you spending money advertising in social media? Should you? There is a definite increase in social media advertising spend happening out there, probably, in part, due to the ever increasing audience social media commands. Do you need to reach that audience too?Technorati

How to track social media effectiveness. OK, so you’ve started using social media to market your business or brand. But how can you tell if it’s working or not? Well, measuring social media impact is not only possible, it’s not that difficult with a bit of practice.Small Business Trends

Old School

Newspaper advertising that still works. If rates are competitive and reaching a specific established geographic audience is still important to you, do not forget the option of newspaper advertising. But not just any newspaper advertising will do in this highly competitive marketing environment.StepByStep

Using radio to build your brand. Whether broadcast over the airwaves in the traditional format or distributed across the Internet in podcast form, radio remains a powerful form of communication. Securing spots for interviews etc. on either traditional or online radio can be a way to help get your message out in a form that people will respect.EMSI

Marketing with vintage vinyl. No, this doesn’t mean placing information about your business on vintage vinyl recordings. (But what a unique concept, huh?) It’s about using outdoor vinyl signs, of all things, to market a restaurant or similar business dependent upon street traffic. Remember, even in a digital, social media age, it’s what works that counts.UPrinting

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One on One: Mike Muhney, Co-Founder of ACT!

Welcome to another in our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. Mike Muhney, co-founder of ACT! and one of the creators of the contact management industry, recently founded mobile relationship management applicationVIP Orbit. Muhney spoke with Brent Leary in this interview, which has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, page down to the loudspeaker icon at the end of the post.

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Small Business Trends: Tell us what was it like starting ACT in the late 1980s and how it compares to starting a business today.

Mike Muhney:I started my career with IBM in the mid-70s selling mainframes. I was taught the techniques of relationship management with no technology other than a Day-Timer. In 1985 my partner and I started a company with another software product that failed. We had to come up with another idea or close down the business. At a four-hour breakfast, we conceived what became ACT!.

By 1987, ACT! was on the market. With it, we actually created the category of contact management, although we didn’t quite know what to call it then.

Small Business Trends: You are starting a new company, VIP Orbit, and instead of saying it is contact or customer relationship management, you talk about mobile relationship management. Can you tell us what that is?

Mike Muhney:If you add up the global user base of content management and CRM customers from the“Big 7”– Seibel, SalesForce, ACT!, Gold Mine, etc.– fewer than 20 million people in the world use those products; most are salespeople. That is a tiny market against the backdrop of what Forrester Research claims by the end of 2011 will be 1.4 billion smartphone users.

Those people are not immune from, nor should they be out of the reach of, the benefits and value that relationship management provides. Since we are a mobile society, with tablets and smartphones, it made sense to call it mobile relationship management.

My business plan is to go after that market neglected by the big vendors–the mobile professional or the“prosumer” who is using their phone to organize their life, relationships and activities.

Small Business Trends: How has the customer– vendor relationship changed from the days when you created ACT!?

Mike Muhney:The problem with CRM {solutions} is they are very complicated. They intrude on salespeople’s lives. Salespeople don’t like to give all the information they know to the company, because then they {lose} their exclusive value. The companies that are attempting to do a better job with CRM still have a 50 percent failure rate because salespeople sabotage the intended use of the system.

With VIP Orbit, I am going back to the individual. Because we carry these devices with us now, the company is less in control and I, as an individual, am more in control of what information I keep. Over time, personal use of mobile relationship management products, of which VIP Orbit is the first, is going to become evident in companies through a Trojan horse process.

Small Business Trends: Explain what the Orbit part of VIP Orbit is.

Mike Muhney:Webster’s dictionary defines orbit (as it relates to relationships) as your sphere of resource and influence. I know you, but you know a lot of people that I don’t know. If I provide value to you, I may, as a result, penetrate into your orbit. We all walk amongst many orbits. Orbit is a way of very efficiently, effectively and instinctively categorizing people with which to work with.

The {orbit} is not focused on me. Social media is all about me–How many friends do I have? What power do I have? That is not what relationship management is about. It’s about you, {the customer}. My job {as a relationship manager} is to keep as good of information as I can that is unique and exclusive, not publicly portrayed on people’s Facebook pages.

Small Business Trends: VIP Orbit has no desktop application, no laptop application–it is all the mobile device in the cloud, right?

Mike Muhney:Yes. My database is literally on my phone. Also in the cloud, so I have collaborative benefits like sharing information with other colleagues. The one thing that is with me at all times is my phone. That is why I started {VIPOrbit with} the phone.

Small Business Trends: In the end, is mobile relationship management a replacement for contact management, or an enhancement to it–do they work together?

Mike Muhney:The answer could be yes to both. I could easily describe it as an extension into the market of contact management, but I hesitate to, because I don’t think that the current CRM and CM vendors will ever reach that market. They are focused on the enterprise realm. The mass market is a brand new opportunity.

What Excel did for people who deal with numbers, I’m doing for people who deal with people. Fundamentally, that is what any relationship manager is about. There is something called the Dunbar Limit. Scientists concluded that we have a capacity of about 150 people that we can keep information on {in our heads}. You and I deal with a whole lot more than 150 people. What do I do about keeping that same quality of information, beyond what I can {remember} on my own, so I can deal with more people?

Selling has always been about numbers. The more people I deal with, the greater my chances of success.

With ACT!, we equipped people to extend their memory to deal with more people more effectively without sacrificing quality. I am doing it today for the user who is unaware of the value of contact management, but since they have the device already, to enlighten them and let them share those same benefits that the longtime users of CRM systems have enjoyed.

Small Business Trends: Where can people learn more about VIP Orbit?

Mike Muhney:VIP Orbit is on the {Apple} app store. You can also go to our website atVIP Orbit.

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Small Business Resource Roundup

There is, perhaps, no better place to seek resources for the small business owner or entrepreneur than the Internet. In this roundup, we present not only articles and information to help the new or working entrepreneur in your journey, but also lists of resources by others we think will help you. Take time to enjoy this resource list and share it with a friend:

Startup

The best cities for entrepreneurship? Looking for the perfect place to start and grow your business, specially a business involved in innovation? If you haven’t started your small business yet, you may first want to check out this list of 26 cities around the world given high marks for business, innovation…and life.The Atlantic

Are you passionate about your business? You should be. Without passion, a love and real commitment for the business you create, the many tough times will only be tougher and the burden of running your organization will be harder to bear, says Adam Gottlieb. As an alternative, try to reconnect to the excitement that caused you to get started in the first place.The Frugal Entrepreneur

How to connect with your ideal client/customer. Though it could be the way you connect in a blog post or create content for the Web, in a broader sense every beginning small business owner must work to connect with the customers and clients who they can best serve and must be able to, throughout their business’s existence, be able to keep adjusting as customers, clients and their needs change. Here how to get started.Annemarie Cross

Operations

Getting started with sales. It can be one of the greatest challenges new entrepreneurs face. Despite their other talents, comming to terms with the many hats worn by small business owners also means improving at sales. In this interview, Greg Fry speaks with“Queen Of Sales” Jill Konrath on the topic.Bloggertone

10 tips for checking on competitors. No matter how innovative your small business my be, there will always be competitors, or at least other businesses working in the same market and targeting the same customers. How can you stay ahead of what others are doing, stay ahead of trends and always make sure you’re the first choice with your customers?Inc.com

Self-development

What makes an entrepreneur? Bryan Elliot talks with Seth Godin about the importance of curiousity, the ability to fail and about building a company or business bigger than yourself. If you want to learn more about the philosophy and heart and sole of creating something new and different you will want to watch this video…several times.Behind the Brand

Good writing: the surprising key ingredient to business success? You bet! In fact, according to Sonja Hegman, the ability to write well or hire be essential for your business’s survival. After all, good writing in a press release could entice press coverage of your very important announcement, attract a strategic partner interested in working with you or convince a customer or client to do business with you instead of youir competitor.Get Busy Media

More Resources

19 top small business blogs. We are honored to be on the list with numerous deserving others. We encourage you to explore and find the incredible depth of entrepreneurial information out there. Thanks to blogger John Paul for taking the time to assemble the list. It’s a link online entrepreneurs will want to return to again and again.Money Dummy

20 top small business influencers. Again we’re thrilled to have been included, but we’re certainly in good company here with some of the major movers and shakers of the large and small business world. No matter how small your own startup may be, it can’t hurt to take advantage of the experts and plenty are represented here.Hawkeye Management

25 influential women entrepreneurs. You’ll want to follow these ladies on Twitter learning from the wisdom they impart and the resource they share. There are som many free resources out there that it’s sometimes overwhelming. Then you need to seperate the good advice from the bad. It’s so great to have a community of leading business leaders (includingSmall Business Trendsfounder Anita Campbell) to always be helpful and reach out.The Work at Home Woman

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The iPad: An Excellent After-Hours Device

Technology is a small business owner’s friend–it can increase productivity exponentially. I first discovered this when I was working for a restaurant in the late 1990s. (I recounted the story here: The fax machine is broken! Hurry, get a website!)

A lot has changed since those days. Today, everyone is excited to be the first to own new technology. When the iPad first came out, people stood in line for hours to be among the first to get one. (Speaking of lines, I stood outside thefirst McDonalds in Moscowfor almost four and a half hours to get a Big Mac in 1990.What people will do to be the first to get something. . .

But when you’re making technology choices for your small business, it’s not all about being first with the coolest new toy. There are three questions a small business owner should ask to determine when it’s time to buy a technology tool:

1) How will I recognize and learn about new technology that I should be implementing?

2) What problem in my business will this technology solve?

3 ) Do I need it (even if I can afford it)?

Question 1 above was asked by a business owner a few months ago on a panel I was part of for270inc. My fellow panelist Patrick Haley, owner of BridgePath Scientific, gave this answer:

“A technology board of advisors is a great way to go about doing that. Invite five or six people from your community to sit on a technology advisory board for your organization. Offer to buy them a meal every three to four months, and just talk about what you do as a business and what you should be doing.”

The answers to Question 2 and 3 will depend on you and your business applications. Let’s look at both of these questions when it comes to the iPad.

The iPad is an excellent device. Our family has two of them. The iPad is good in bed– what I mean by that is, if you want to watch a movie in bed, the device is light and easy to hold or prop up; the screen quality is excellent for watching movies. My kids love it, and it is incredibly easy to use. There are tons of apps from productivity to puzzles to games. It’s also great for email. If you’re considering the iPad for business, be aware it may not be ready to replace your desktop, laptop or other small business devices you rely on.

You need a iPad for your business if you:

• Travel a lot
• Have a desktop but no laptop
• Have to show customers products online
• Need customers to fill out a form and you can use the iPad to do this
• You go to a lot of conferences and take notes
• You need to take payments from customers (an iPad app can do this)

You may not need an iPad for your business if:

• You don’t need to go online frequently
• You are always close to a computer
• You have custom software that you need to run on desktops

Changing technology that gives you double the efficiency and saves time is definitely a winner. Examples of this type of technology are moving from dial-up to broadband, or having a website so customers can find information about your business instead of having to call you.

But before buying an iPad, ask yourself if you are buying technology for technology’s sake or solving a business problem. The iPad is an excellent after-hours device; every family should have one. In its present form, however, not everybusinessneeds one. This will no doubt change as more productivity apps and tools get introduced.

Are you using an iPad for your business? What are your thoughts?

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Technology Downtime: The Impact on Your Small Business

Technology exists to help us leverage our resources and do more with less. In fact, one of the best things about technology is how it helps ushandle more business in less time (that thing that we can’t get back and always need more of). At first, new technology means a greater time commitment because there’s a learning curve.  But the cost of getting to know the latest BlackBerry upgrade, accounting software, or high-end copier eventually pays off.

But what happens when our technology breaks?  And how many of us are dealing with technology frustrations?  In the annualBrother Small Business Survey(PDF), 501 small business owners were asked a series of quick questions about their companies (Brother Survey Demographic Report PDF). This tech-related inquiry, in particular, caught my attention:

“In the past year, how often did productivity suffer due to office technology not working properly?”

Only 3 percent said that technology issues affected their productivityall the time. However, according to Brother, the majority– more than three-quarters of small businesses surveyed– indicated that they experienced at least some type of tech-related frustrations in the last year.

Me too.

In this past year, I have experienced some serious technology downtime of my own including:

• primary computer crashing in the middle of a deadline,
• copiers dying in the middle of a deadline, and
• glitchy cloud-computing backups and synchronizations that overrwrote my latest information.

Murphy’s Law states,“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,”and getting around Murphy’s Law requires a little planning on our part.  The biggest time savers during my technology downtime were the automatic backups to the backup, the time buffers that were added to the deadlines, and the fact that I used equipment with excellent repair policies and was able to lease an affordable (temporary) replacement.

John Wandishin, Vice President of Marketing, Brother International, has it right. “When running a small business, time is the ultimate commodity,”Wandishin said in announcing the survey results.“Small business owners are looking for reliable equipment and services that help {save time}.”Ultimately, we want to spend more time addressing the core of our business, not fixing our equipment.

But sometimes, stuff happens. As small business owners we have to do all the planning that we can to prepare for those moments– and move through them quickly to get back to our customers.

How doyouplan to prevent technology downtime, and what do you do when downtime happens anyway?

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How to Win New Work

Sales are a weakness in so many startups.  I will talk with tech entrepreneurs who work incessantly on their product thinking that is the path to success.  Having a quality product is very important, true. In some cases product deficienciesmay make the difference.  But most of the time startups fail (or limp along disappointingly) because of insufficient cash.  And cash boils down to sales.

You see, no product is ever perfect.  I was an executive in a publicly-traded tech company for almost a decade, and I can tell you that all of our products had deficiencies— some small, some large.  And no one knew those deficiencies better than those of us working in the company, because we worked daily to improve the products. Despite not having perfect products, ours was a successful unit of the company.  Part of the reason: we had strong sales processes and an experienced sales team.

The importance of sales was driven home for me one day while in an internal meeting.  Things got a little heated. One of the product managers bemoaned the lack of time to make yet another round of product improvements, and said,“The product still needs work!”  Then one of the sales executives broke the tension when he laughed and said with perfect comic timing,“So what’s your point?”  HIS point was that skilled sales reps knew how to address product objections.

A good sales person sells.  Period.  This is why I always suggest that entrepreneurs get sales training. It’s the most important part of your education for running a business.

A GUIDE TO LEARN HOW TO SELL

One resource to improve your sales I suggest you check out is an ebook called“The Smart Business Guide to Winning New Work.“  A review copy of this PDF-format book made its way to me several weeks ago.  I get a lot of ebooks and find there are two types:

• First, there are  free ebooks. These are fairly shallow in content and designed mainly as marketing pieces for the company offering them. They’re a bit like getting a free sample of food at a local fair. You get a taste and it may be awesome, but it’s still just a taste.
• Second, there are ebooks offered for sale.  These are more in-depth. The best ones offer something you can’t get in a printed book— up-to-the-minute information, or insights into a narrow niche market, or extensive worksheets and tools.

TheGuide to Winning New Workfalls into the latter camp.  Written by Pawel Grabowski (@pawelgra77on Twitter), the book is a complete outline of sales for those who have not done much selling.  The core text of the book explains how to sell in 52 pages, including how to set up a sales process for your business, from scratch.  It covers:

• the difference between marketing and sales
• 3 traits of a successful sales person
• finding and qualifying prospects
• cold calling
• making the sales presentation
• overcoming objections
• closing the sale
• follow up

Now, if you’re like me and you’ve had some sales experience and read a lot of sales materials, you may not find anything earth-shatteringly different in the above list.  The real beauty of this book comes from two things.  First, the book is  written in simple straightforward terms. You don’t need formal sales training to understand what to do.  You don’t have to learn an entire new vocabulary.  Pawel presents sales as an interaction between two business people— a structured interaction, to be sure, but it’s still just an interaction that anyone can relate to.  Second, you get some valuable templates and tools— what Pawel calls“bonus materials.”  These include:

14-day Plan—this 20-page supplement walks you through 14 days of prospecting to develop new contacts for sales.  It literally gives you a step by step approach to identifying companies to approach.

Follow-up sheet—this is literally just a fill-in-the-blank sheet for sales follow up.  While this may seem simple, in my experience, many sales are lost by startup founders due to poor follow-up.   That’s because you’re so busy and may lack a system that forces you to focus on follow-up. Or your prospect is not quite ready to buy, but you allow your connection to him or her fade away, thereby wasting your investment of time.

Killer Questions—these are questions designed to probe for needs and pain points during the selling process.

Meeting Preparation sheet—this is a sheet where you jot down all information needed to make an effective sales call or sales meeting.  Again, this is deceptively simple, yet powerful.  A disorganized unprepared mind leads to a disorganized unprepared sales call.

Email templates–these are email templates for introducing yourself through email.  It’s cold calling through email.

Tracking system spreadsheet—this is a simple Excel spreadsheet template for tracking your pipeline — from proposals to lost sales.  Depending on your sales process, you may have to adjust the spreadsheet, but at least you have the bones of a sales tracking system and can build on it from there.

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

The advice in this e-book applies best to those who sell B2B, i.e., to other businesses.  Consultants, freelancers, Web designers, software developers, copywriters, SEO professionals and the like will find it applicable.  The book is not about online eCommerce sales nor is it about mass consumer retail.  It applies best to a one-to-one sale offline.

I recommend this book for beginners.  If you’ve never had sales training before or have minimal experience with sales, there’s a lot you can learn fromThe Smart Business Guide to Winning New Work.  Pawel Grabowski takes the intimidation factor out of sales.  Best of all, the book helps you establish a sales process and structure in your startup— because it’s not enough to know how to sell. You need a well-oiled process if you want to keep the sales pipeline flowing.

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Small Business, Taxes and Assorted Numbers

You might be a little surprised to see how very little the recession affected the proportions of different-sized businesses. Or you may not… but I was. But the latest research does suggest that, whatever these trends towards smaller firmsmean, they don’t seem to be going away.

New Firm Size Data

This month, we had one of my annual favorites:the release of the new firm size class data for 2008.  Overall, the population of U.S. businesses declined from about 27.7 million to 27.2 million, a decline of 476,224 firms or 1.7 percent, after growing by a relatively healthy 3.6 percent between 2006 and 2007. The number of nonemployer firms fell by 1.6 percent, down from 21.7 million to 21.4 million firms.

The number of employer firms fell by 2 percent, which shows that the bad news was felt across the board in 2008. Microbusiness employers with fewer than five employees declined in number by 2.4 percent; if you expand the category to include employers with fewer than 10 employees, their numbers fell by 2.2 percent.

Non-micro small businesses with between 10 and 499 workers declined by 0.3 percent in number in 2007 and the population fell again in 2008, this time by 1.3 percent. Large firms saw a modestincreasein population, of 0.9 percent (an additional 158 firms).  When the dust settles, the relative percentages of the business population, as classified by size, has not changed a smidgeon.

Nonemployers still comprise 78.2 percent of all U.S. firms. Microbusinesses with fewer than five employees still make up 92.4 percent of U.S. firms; microbusinesses with fewer than 10 employees are still 95.4 percent of U.S. firms. Non-micro small businesses make up 8.4 percent of all U.S. firms, and large businesses remain less than 1 percent of all firms.

Is There Life After Bankruptcy?

Theoretically, filing for bankruptcy is supposed to (sort of) wipe the slate clean and give small firms a fresh start. But does it?

That question was examined in a newly released research paper, “Beyond Bankruptcy: Does the Bankruptcy Code Provide a Fresh Start to Entrepreneurs?“,written by Aparna Mathur with funding from the SBA Office of Advocacy.

The research findings were largely unsurprising. Approximately 2.6 percent of all small businesses have filed for bankruptcy at some point over the past seven years. Firms that have previously filed for bankruptcy perform similarly to other firms for most variables.

On the other hand, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that a bankruptcy filing does have a very negative impact on the ability of a firm to secure financing, and that is the case even when controlling for credit scores.

Firms that have a bankruptcy filing in their past are 24 percent more likely to be denied credit and, when they do secure credit, pay interest that is an average of 1 percent higher than what is charged to other, similar businesses.

AmEx OPEN Studies Women-Owned Firms

As of this year, an estimated 8.1 million (29 percent of) U.S. firms were women-owned (that is, a woman owned 51 percent or more of the company). Women-owned businesses generate almost $1.3 trillion in revenues and employing roughly 7.7 million people. That’s the main finding ofan analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data on women-owned businessesperformed by our old friend Julie Weeks ofWomenable.comforAmerican Express OPEN, based on data from the quinquennial Survey of Business Owners.

The analysis found that the number of women-owned firms grew at 1.5 times the national rate between 1997 and 2011, but that not many of them are growing very much. In 1997, 2.5 percent of women-owned firms had 10 or more employees and 1.8 percent had $1 million or more in revenues. In 2011, 1.9 percent of them have 10 or more employees and 1.8 percent have $1 million or more in revenues.

In addition, women-owned firms seem to stop growing at or before 10 employees and between $100,000 and $999,000— which is what you would expect, if you were willing to factor microbusinesses into the equation. According to a November 2010 survey conducted by Vistaprint, a decisive 74 percent of microbusiness owner survey respondents indicated that they had no desire to grow their firms beyond 10 employees.In other words, the period from 1997 through the present has seen an unprecedented growth in the number of microbusinesses, and microbusiness owners keep their firms at micro size by choice, regardless of gender.

NSBA Releases 2011 Tax Survey

Right around tax day, the National Small Business Association (NSBA) released the results of its2011 Small Business Taxation Survey, because that’s what we all want to do at that time of year: talk taxes. The survey demonstrated yet another instance in which there was a critical microbusiness issue but, evidently, there weren’t very many microbusinesses available to answer the questions about it.

Survey respondents identified economic uncertainty as the top challenge facing their business by a wide margin (66 percent), followed by“Decline in customer spending” (39 percent),“Cost of health insurance benefits” (35 percent), and regulatory burdens (32 percent). Federal taxes rounds out the top five challenges (29 percent). In light of the fact that 87 percent of small business owner respondents report paying an outside professional to prepare their taxes, it is somewhat shocking that almost 60 percent of small business owners still spend more than 40 hours dealing with federal taxes.

Another interesting set of numbers to emerge from this survey has to do with deductions. As much as lawmakers like to pat themselves on the back for repeatedly increasing Section 179 expensing, only 47 percent of these small business owners use it. And, under the category of Least Surprising Survey Result, only 18 percent of these respondents take the home office deduction, although 28 percent report working out of a home office.

Finally, almost two-thirds of survey respondents here support a combination of simplification and reduced tax rates as their preferred tack for reform. Then again, six in 10 would also favor a proposal such as the Fair Tax Act of 2011 (H.R. 25), which would eliminate income taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes and gift taxes, and replace them all with a 23 percent national sales tax.

Study: Corporations Grow, Proprietorships Don’t

Most U.S. business owners make a decision about the legal form of their business at startup and rarely change it within the first few years of operation. That is the principal finding of a new research report, entitled“How Do Firms Choose Legal Form of Organization?“, written by Rebal Cole with funding from the SBA Office of Advocacy.

Advocacy released the study last week. According to Cole’s findings, only one in three firms starts its operations as a sole proprietorship, while almost another third start life as limited liability companies and corporations. Once the choice is made, it appears to be fairly stable; only 9 percent of companies changed their legal form of organization during the four years covered by the study. If all this sounds peculiar to you, there is a reason for it. Dr. Cole used data from the Kauffman Firm Survey in order to do this study. It shouldn’t be surprising that Kauffman’s database is rather thin on microbusiness survey respondents (85 percent of which are sole proprietorships).

In any event, firms are more likely to change forms if they are growing, if they move out of their home office and into commercial space, if there is a change of owners or if the number of owners grows, if the firm is highly leveraged, or if the firm changes industry. Finally, this research shows that corporations grow twice as fast as sole proprietorships. From all this, Dr. Cole concludes that policymakers can encourage entrepreneurs to select business forms that“are conducive to growth and complexity.”

But corporations don’t grow because they are corporations. They grow because of the choices of their management teams. And ultimately, the federal government probably needs to stop wasting its time (and our money) on this sort of thing. Owners who want to grow their firms will do so, with our without incentives. Owners who don’t want to grow their firms won’t, no matter what you offer them.

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PowerPoint Slide Needs Work

A while back I was asked to give a presentation about cartooning and I had to learn PowerPoint.

You see I went through school before PowerPoint became commonplace, and most of my later sales jobs were in decidedly low tech fields. And now, despite earning a living selling cartoons to make boring presentations bearable, I’d never actually opened the program a single time.

So I spent a good week researching ideas, looking at techniques, and watching video. After some practice, I performed my talk for my wife who noted that I had a few slides that needed work, including one that was an incomplete continuation of several previous slides that read simply“more goes here.”

The above cartoon came pretty soon afterward.

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7 Steps to Disciplined Business Blogging

Everybody and his cousin is blogging these days. All it takes is a template and a little time on your hands to have your thoughts broadcast on the Web.

An effective business blog, on the other hand, take a commitment of time, resources and intellectual energy. Unless you are committed to producing a quality, well-written blog and are committed to updating that blog on a regular basis, don’t even bother starting.

The worst business blogs are the ones where it is clear that the writer is winging it, just writing whatever comes to mind. A business must approach its blog in the same way it would approach any other marketing or branding campaign: with planning, staffing, execution and monitoring.

By following these seven steps, your small business can take the first steps towards a highly successful business blog:

1. Define the business goals of your blog
2. Identify your target audience
3. Allocate resources
4. Create your editorial calendar
5. Carve out time to write
6. Listen to your audience feedback and adjust accordingly
7. Get the word out

1. Define the Business Goals of Your Blog

Don’t blog because everybody else is doing it. Blog with a plan. Some business blogs focus on products and services, while others try to humanize the company by putting a face on employees and executives and providing a look into the company culture. For service providers, a blog can be a great way of demonstrating your expertise (you can demonstrate your capabilities through thought leadership or actual client histories).

2. Identify Your Target Audience

While this may sound crass, you are not blogging for your health. You are blogging for the health of your business. As a businessperson, you should know who you are trying to attract. If you throw out too wide a net, you will not be able to write the kind of posts that will be of interest to your specific demographic. You can’t be all things to all people, so don’t even try.

3. Allocate Resources

One of the biggest reasons blogs fail is because they are not budgeted for in terms of personnel and financial commitment the way other marketing efforts are. A blog is not a value-add. It is an integral element of your marketing plan.

For a midsized company, devoting a person to the task shouldn’t be difficult. If you are a five-person shop, it can still be done–you just need to find the appropriate person (or people) who will be responsible for the blog.

Some businesses make the decision to hire a freelance ghost-blogger. I have seen advertisements ranging from $20 per 150-word blog post to several hundred dollars per hour for high-level copywriters. The good news, if you can put it that way, is that the relative demise of print publishing has put many highly qualified freelance writers on the market, and you can hire quality writers for a fairly modest cost.

If you are looking for a freelancer, you can look on sites likeMediaBistroor even look at the writers’ posts onCraigslist. If you’d like to put more of your own stamp on the blog, you can provide freelancers with bullet points that the writers can transform into blog posts.

4. Create Your Editorial Calendar

Leaving your blogging schedule open-ended is an invitation to disaster. Laying out a framework for blog entries over a period of time gives a business enforceable deadlines. As we all know, having hard deadlines hanging over your head can be a great motivator. The editorial calendar should not be considered to be etched in stone, however. Businesses need to be sufficiently flexible to add impromptu posts when news and business dictates.

Here’s atemplateto get you started.

5. Carve Out Time to Write

I can’t emphasize this point enough: If your blogging time isn’t a part of your calendar, then you are going to find ways to avoid the task. This is not a game! It is not a hobby! It is a business tool that should be treated with the same respect as other business tools. For entrepreneurs and smallbusinesses, this may mean setting the alarm an hour earlier or setting aside an hour or two on your weekend.

6. Listen to Your Audience Feedback and Adjust Accordingly

As you know, blogs are not one-way streets. The comment function empowers your target audience and gives them a chance to participate in the conversation. If your audience loves your blog, they will tell you. Just as importantly, if they have issues, you need to deal with those as well.

Analytics can help you here. See which posts get the most traffic. See who is sharing your content. See who“likes” your content. All of this information can help you better serve your target audience.

While there are a number of analytics packages out there (some free, some at a cost), I suggest starting off withGoogle Analytics, a free and remarkably robust package that’s easy to install on your site.

7. Get the Word Out!

It’s great to have a blog on your company website, but that certainly limits your audience. There are a number of ways to get a wider audience for your posts.

The easiest path is to find other blogs that attract your target audience. See what people are writing about there and see if you have something meaningful to add to the conversation. Most blogs allow for links within comments.

Another simple trick is to announce each new blog post on social media sites likeTwitterorFacebook. To get the title of your post on Twitter and still stay within 140 characters, shorten your URL with a site likebit.ly.

To monitor your success in social media, there are plenty of tools includingTopsy,Facebook InsightsorHootsuite.

If you are more adventurous, then I suggest you reach out to appropriate blogs and offer your services as a guest blogger. The key here is that you have produced relevant content that would both be of interest to your target audience and is written sufficiently well for a broad audience.

Making It Work

If you commit to writing a business blog, then commit to having one that is well written, of interest to your target audience and is refreshed on a regular basis. A great blog can be a valuable business development tool. A lousy one can damage your brand and your reputation in your industry.

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Business Blog Rankings From Wikio–Sneak Peek!

On the 5th of every month, Wikio.com publishes its updated ranking of blogs, in various categories, including business blogs.  This month they gave us a sneak peek at the new rankings for the Business Blog category.

For blog rankings, Wikio takes into account the number of tweets and the weight and number of other sites linking to the blogs,  among other things.  As a result, Wikio generates an up-to-date blog ranking and the Wikio Blog Ranking makes it a place to find blogs to scope out.

Thanks to you, dear readers, we were delighted to see thatSmall Business Trendsexperienced a nice leap forward in the Wikio Rankings for business blogs and now stands in the top 15 business blogs. It is an honor to be in the company of sites like GigaOm, Techdirt, Freakonomics, BusinessInsider War Room and others.

Below you will find an early ”sneak peek” preview of the very latest list of Wikio’s Top Business Blog Rankings, that is coming out officially tomorrow (May 5, 2011):

1	GigaOM
2	DealBook– New York Times blog
3	The Conscience of a Liberal
4	Techdirt
5	Clusterstock
6	zero hedge
7	The Wire
8	The Big Picture
9	Company Town– L.A. Times
10	felixsalmon.com
11	Freakonomics– New York Times Blog
12	Small Business Trends
13	naked capitalism
14	Calculated Risk
15	Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Brad DeLong’s Se
16	War Room
17	EconLog
18	Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis
19	Cafe Hayek
20	Economist’s View
21	The Money Game
22	Money& Company– L.A. Times
23	Crain’s New York Business
24	A VC
25	Triple Pundit
26	Greentech Media
27	Vox
28	CARPE DIEM
29	Rortybomb
30	24/7 Wall St.

Ranking from Wikio

One reason we like to share listings is that it’s a good place to discover other quality blogs, or remind yourself about ones you already know of.  So please check out the entireBlog Ranking sectionat Wikio.

While you’re at it, you might also want to explore the rest of Wikio.  From the name it sounds like it might have started out life as a wiki site— but it’s not really a wiki site.  And it’s more than just a blog ranking service.

The main focus of the site is a news search engine that aggregates news articles and original interesting blog posts. In other words, Wikio is a place to find the latest news.  Wikio gets its information from various sources such as news pages, blogs, consumer websites, merchant pages and Wikio members.  So you’ll find more varied news sources at Wikio.com than you might find in something like Google News, which tends to focus on information culled from the major media outlets and press release services.

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CHART OF THE WEEK: Microbusiness Perceptions of Economic Conditions Still Weak

The finalDiscover Card Small Business Watch surveyof owners of microbusinesses (companies with no more than five employees) showed little improvement in business owner perceptions of economic conditions.  In March 2011, only 9 percent of microbusiness owners said the overall economy was good or excellent, as the chart below shows. This number has been stuck around the ten percent level since late 2008 and is well below the 50 percent level achieved in March 2007 before the recession hit.

Percentage of owners of small businesses with 1 to 5 employees reporting that the economy is good or excellent

Click for larger image

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My Big Break–What Was Yours?

In most businesses there’s no such thing as an overnight success.

People suddenly become aware of a business or person and assume it or he or she came out of nowhere“overnight.” Usually, though, you don’t see the years of preparation and work behind the scenes. Nor do you see the winding path and all the dead ends and false starts and retries.

Many factors play into success.  We might think any small amount of success we have is due to hard work or brilliance.  But chances are some of it was luck.  And often, we owe it to a person who took the time to mentor us or who simply took a chance on us. Or pushed us out of our comfort zone.

I’ve had several careers:  as a corporate attorney and General Counsel; as a CEO of a technology company; and as an entrepreneur building my own business.  In each of those careers, I’ve had at least one event that made all the difference.  Those events ultimately can be traced back to a person who inspired me or mentored me, or who just gave me a push out of my comfort zone.

One such break gave me the confidence to start Small Business Trends LLC, my current business— even though it occurred years earlier.

You see, my academic training is as an attorney.  I spent most of my legal career in-house working for corporations. Yet I was always drawn to business, even while an attorney. Being an attorney felt too restrictive  because most of the time I was in the role of advisor.  Oh I had plenty of prestige and power— after all, my word was law when it came to anything legal.

But I wanted to be the one making the decisions on business deals, not just advising. I might have gone on indefinitely as a General Counsel working in corporate law, and silently chafing in a role that I perceived as being on the sidelines of business, but for that fateful day….

My big break came when my boss at the time (the CEO of the company I worked for) walked into my office one morning and announced that I was going to be the new Vice President of Human Resources in addition to General Counsel. And 2 minutes later he walked out.

It wasn’t a request.  I didn’t apply for the HR role.  I had no interviews. It  happened— just like that.

Now, you might not consider that a“big break.”  The role was not a promotion— just an additional responsibility.

But you see, that’s the point about big breaks.  You can’t always tell at the time they happen, that they are a big break.  It’s only later when you look back that you see the momentous change.

The reason I consider it my big break?  Simple. It forced me outside of my comfort zone.

Suddenly I was responsible for new areas that I had to scramble to master.  I had to learn new things. The company I worked for promptly sent me off to the University of Michigan Business School for a crash course in executive education.  It was the beginning of my transition away from the law and feet first into business roles.

From there I held a variety of senior executive positions. Eventually I became the CEO of a subsidiary of the company I worked for.  With each new role, my knowledge grew.  I was tested again and again— and it wasn’t always pretty.

But along the way the most important thing happened.  My confidence grew.

Had it not been for my boss forcing me to go outside my comfort zone, who knows?  I might still be a General Counsel.  I don’t think I would have gained the confidence to become an entrepreneur and start my own business.

And I would have missed out on the most rewarding part of my career: being a business owner.

How about you?  What was your big break?  Was it something that pushed you out of your comfort zone, like me?  Or was it landing a big customer?   Or something different?  Tell us in the comments below.

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Thanks to American Express OPEN for sponsoring this post as part of the Big Break for Small Business program. VisitFaceBook.comto learn more about the Big Break contest. Enter your small business for a chance to win a trip to Facebook headquarters for a one-on-one business makeover and $20,000 to grow your business with social media. See Official Rules for complete details.

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Small Business Contests

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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Forbes List of America’s Most Promising Companies
Entries currently open

Forbes wants to shine a light on high-growth, privately held companies with brilliant prospects. Forbes— with help from CB Insights’ Beacon software— has developed a methodology for picking promising companies. The best will appear on Forbes’ second annual list of America’s Most Promising Companies. See website for entry survey.

Intuit Collaboratory Challenge
Enter by May 1, 2011

To participate in Intuit’s open innovation challenges, visitors go to www.IntuitCollaboratory.com and respond to specific Intuit business needs, called “challenges,” and potentially win a cash reward plus an opportunity to enter into a pilot test with Intuit.

Two of the new challenges offer a $5,000 cash prize for the winning idea:

Make Mobile Payments Easy with QR Codes
Quick Response barcodes, those black-and-white matrices composed of tiny squares, are popping up in store windows and magazine ads everywhere. The challenge asks whether the average consumer could also benefit from receiving a bill or invoice information via a QR barcode, or perhaps pay it at the same time. The prize will go to an innovator who finds a way to allow consumers to instantly pay by simply scanning the QR code with their mobile device, and have both consumer and seller receive immediate confirmation of the payment.

Help Small Businesses Get Productive With iPad and Other Tablets
Tablet devices, such as iPads, present interesting possibilities for helping small businesses. The challenge is to come up with apps for tablets that can save time and/or money for small businesses on the go.

The Next Million Dollar Entrepreneur
Enter by May 9, 2011

This contest is for those who want to grow the value of their businesses to $1,000,000.

The Grand Prize Winner will receive $5,000 in start-up funding and 1-year of business coaching.  To enter please visit The Sleeping Giant Facebook page and click on the Contest Tab.  From there describe“Why you are The Next Million Dollar Entrepreneur.”Entries must be submitted by May 9, 2011.  From May 10– May 16 voting will take place. The Top 10 contestants will be selected by the votes, and one lucky grand prize winner will be selected by The Sleeping Giant Author, Ken McElroy and his team. The Winner will be announced May 24, 2011 at 10am.

CRM Idol
Enter by May 13, 2011

CRM companies compete to be named the CRM Idol!  Forty eligible small CRM  companies from North America and South America— and 20 from Europe, Africa, and Middle East— will be given the opportunity, first come first serve, to secure a time slot on a specific day that will put you in front of some of the most influential people in the CRM (customer relationship management) and social CRM world. You give a demo in front of 5 judges, and a review of your product will be published in multiple venues. It can be a good review, a bad one, a mix or indifferent. All 5 judges will have to sign off on the final review, and they promise to be opinionated and fair.  Then the finalists will be chosen.

Each of the finalists will be required to do a 10-minute video. The community can then vote and along with the judges’ votes, a final CRM Idol for each region will be chosen.  Entry is by email only: nextbigthing@crmidol.com.  For updates follow #CRMidol on Twitter. Go here for CRM Idol eligibility requirements

Facebook Big Break for Small Business
Enter by May 20, 2011

American Express OPEN is giving five small business owners the ultimate Big Break.  You could win a trip to Facebook headquarters for a two-day, one-on-one business makeover and $20,ooo to help grow your business.

To enter the Facebook Big Break for Small Business from American Express OPEN, small business owners need to visit http://www.facebook.com/OPEN and submit answers to a short questionnaire describing how they would utilize the competition’s winnings to better their business.

2011 Small Business Awards
Enter by May 20, 2011

In its 6th year, The New York Enterprise Report Small Business Awards honors the achievements and accomplishments of the 500,000+ small businesses throughout the tri-state New York area. In addition to the Best of the Year Categories, the New York Enterprise Report Small Business Awards will honor nine small businesses for their accomplishments and best practices.

Build It Big
Enter by May 23, 2011

This is a new business development program by Springboard Enterprises, especially for Ohio-based, women-led companies seeking success strategies to help grow their businesses.The program is looking for companies that meet the following requirements:

• Awoman in a key management positionw/ significant equity ownership
• Aqualified and profitable market opportunityw/competitive advantage
• Atrack record of milestone achievement, which may include: product development, distribution or licensing contracts, grants, beta clients, customers, revenue, etc.
• Afavorable debt-to-equity ratio
• Acredible core management teamor ability to attract one
• Aninterest in and ability to growthe company beyond its current position

The applicants that are chosen to be part of the program will have:

• Access to trusted advisors from Thompson Hine LLP, KeyBank, and Meaden& Moore in one-on-one advisory sessions to discuss appropriate strategies for growing their business
  
• Ongoing support from the Springboard network of industry experts, investors, and seasoned entrepreneurs

e-Cycle iPad2 Giveaway Contest
Enter by May 31, 2011
To celebrate, e-Cycle has declared April“National Recycle Your Cell Phone Month” to help raise awareness for the growing e-waste problem with mobile devices, and as a reminder for organizations to implement responsible mobile phone recycling programs. As an incentive, e-Cycle is offering businesses and organizations a chance to win one of four Apple iPad2 tablets when they recycle and/or sell their used wireless devices with the company through May 31.

National Association for Moms in Business Grant Competition
Enter starting March 1st, Competition runs May 1– June 15, 2011

Business grant competition via crowdfunding to give mom entrepreneurs a better chance at launching a new or current business project. All participants win a half-page feature in Moms In Business Magazine, publicity on peerbackers.com and momsinbusinessgrant.com, and a $2,000 publicity toolkit from PRNewswire. When the crowdfunding competition ends, all grant applicants who raised 80% or more of their funding goal will become semi-finalists. A team of mom executives and entrepreneurs will judge each application to determine the $10,000 Grand Prize Grant Package winner. Competitors must be a member of NAFMIB.

Ernst& Young’s Entrepreneurial Winning Women Competition
Enter by June 30, 2011

Ten winners will be paired with advisers and resources for growing their businesses and they’ll get to participate in a customized executive-leadership program. In addition, winners will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the Ernst& Young Strategic Growth Forum 2011 in Palm Springs, Calif., in November.

The contest is being run in collaboration with the Women Presidents’ Organization, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the Committee of 200, National Association of Women Business Owners and Babson College.

The Conway Center for Family Business Awards
Enter by August 4, 2011

The Conway Center for Family Business Awards Program was established in 1998 to recognize excellence in family business and has honored more than 115 Central Ohio family businesses during its first 11 years.

The program honors recipients in categories consistent with the success and longevity of a family business: leadership, planning, communication, support and community service. For more details, see the website.

Cleantech Open Idea Competition
Enter by September 12, 2011

The Cleantech Open runs the world’s largest clean technology business competition and they’re looking for the best clean technology ideas from around the world.

Enter to win a prize package of services worth $100,000 to help you start a business to grow your idea. If your idea beats out the competition in your National Competition, you get to represent your country as a Global Ideas finalist at the annual Cleantech Open Awards Gala on November 17, 2010 in San Francisco.
There, your idea will be presented in a five-minute pitch in front of a crowd of 2,500 investors, entrepreneurs, sponsoring companies, corporations, members of academia, press, and others interested in hearing your ideas and getting involved. The crowd will vote via text message for the“People’s Choice” winner.

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. )

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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