Hey all,
Here’s an interesting article from the New York Times on managing online reputations. It has a small business angle and even references some research conducted by ORC Guideline.
What are your thoughts?
Don’t work too hard!
StormDawg
Hey all,
This research on small business start ups from Senior Analyst Mark Broderick of ORC Guildeline shows what we have been talking about lately. People are turning to small business owners out of necessity. They need to find a way to make money, and jobs in the traditional sense are hard to come by these days. This is exactly what my sister-in-law, Karen, is going through.
Here is a news flash. I got an email from somebody that read my post about Karen, and they wanted to talk to her about an event planning opportunity. They were willing to talk to her about doing it long distance and just make the arrangements for various function around the country. This is how it works in 2009.
Keep your head up, keep thinking and you might come up with something that works for you. I bet there are millions of stories out there, I would like to hear them and see if we can help.
Don’t work too hard!
StormDawg.
Hey all,
People keep asking me why they should spend money to market in a down economy. And I tell them, well… there are lots of reasons. In fact, one of my first video blogs talked about three reasons:
Here’s a short video clip of me talking more about these reasons and others for why you should market. I’d love to hear from you about what you’re doing to market, what’s working, what’s not and how I can help.
Don’t work too hard!
StormDawg
Hey all,
I love this article about small businesses using Twitter. It talks about how people are trying to figure out twitter and how to make money with it. A key point is made in the article about where the innovation will come from. I bet it will be from a small business owner.
“Watching how small businesses use Twitter is particularly interesting,” Mr. Banerji said, “because they are able to take more risks, try out things on Twitter that it will take a little more time for big businesses to do.”
Let’s keep watching, and let me know how you are using twitter. I use it to drive traffic to my blog and to talk to other folks that are interested in small businesses and small business marketing.
Don’t work too hard!
Stormdawg
Hey all,
The past couple of weeks have been pretty different around my house. On July 5th my wife, Kim, left on a mission trip to Galveston, Texas. She went with the pastor and two other adults from our church and 10 teenagers to help with the ongoing clean up from last summer’s Hurricane Ike. Like she said, “I guess somebody forgot tell them how hot it is in Texas in July.” After that long week, I was going to take her on a long weekend in Colorado.
Then just before she was about to get home, I talked to her sister Karen from Austin, and she told me she was coming to see us on Wednesday. She planned on staying with us for few days but her real purpose was to plan and work a party for her friend’s mother’s 90th birthday. My first reaction was, “when are you leaving,” because I was trying to figure out how all this would work out with the trip I planned. In the end, I postponed the trip, and we spent that weekend with Kim’s sister. It was actually pretty enjoyable.
Kim, Karen and I had an interesting conversation about her employment situation. She was recently laid off from her job and is trying to renew her teaching certificate so she can go back to teaching. In the meantime Karen was thinking about what else she could do to augment her income. She thought about becoming an event planner and was wondering how she could get her name out there.
We talked about putting small advertisements in the local newspapers and maybe contacting the golf club near her house in Lakeway. But it seemed to me that the real way to promote this endeavor would be to get in contact with some of the people she had worked with when she was an event planner at the Driskill Hotel in Austin a few years back. In this day and age, social networking seems like a perfect solution. If she contacts even a handful of folks and they recommend her to their friends on their Facebook page or on their Linkedin account, she would be all set. She would probably have to turn business away.
It occurs to me that this is an opportunity to make lemons out of lemonade. During tough times, people have to be creative, and as they say necessity is the mother of invention. People can focus on what they love to do and figure out how to make some money at it. Karen loves to do event planning, so she should give it a try. What does she have to lose? I’m going to keep an eye out for Karen and help where I can.
Tell me your story about starting up a business on a shoestring budget, and a little passion in your heart. Maybe I’ll decide to sponsor a marketing plan for you… you never know!
Don’t work too hard!
StormDawg.
Hey all,
I’ve been invited to a Liminal Group event call “The Articulate Executive” being held next week in New York City. The event features legendary communications coach Granville Toogood, who will be critiquing my presentation skills in front of a LIVE AUDIENCE! The event promises to teach us how to vastly improve our communication skills, command any stage, and compel any audience to do exactly what we want them to do. I’m very excited to be attending, and you should consider it, too. I hope to come back with a story or two for you small business people… and who knows… maybe it’ll help me tell my stories (and yours) even better than before. So keep your stories coming!
For more information on the event, click here.
Wish me luck!
And don’t work too hard!
StormDawg
Hey all,
Here is some great research on small business confidence conducted by infoGROUP’s research company, ORC Guideline. The research supports what I have been feeling lately. infoGROUP interacts with small business hundreds of times a day, and we have been seeing a change in attitude. Small business confidence seems to be rising, and they are starting to get back to the business of doing business.
Optimism and heart are the greatest attributes of small businesses. I believe that generally speaking small businesses are more willing to take chances and do what it takes to stay in business. The vast number of small companies are going to lead us out of this recession.
Keep plugging away, stay optimistic and think your way through your business problems. Let me know what you are feeling at your small business.
Don’t work too hard!
StormDawg
I suspect that a good majority of small businesses do not act rationally. To be most successful, small businesses should. They should carefully consider the opportunity costs and spend their dollars carefully, and not based on hunches. Think it through, and don’t work too hard!
StormDawg
Hey all,
From this Wall Street Journal article, it looks like small business are getting a little antsy waiting to see what the Federal Government will do for them. I hate to tell you this but small businesses don’t have the lobby power or the financial clout to get the same breaks as the auto industry and the financial giants.
It’s okay. Small businesses have something that the big guys don’t… and that is heart. You will find a way to make it. I will continue to try and find creative ideas and tips for you to raise money and to grow your business or at least stay in businesses during this recession, and you will continue to press on and do whatever it takes to stay in business.
I get it. For you it’s personal.
Remember, when I say don’t work too hard, I mean it. Keep your head in the game, and remember to try and work smart. Good things will happen.
Don’t work too hard!
StormDawg
Hey All,
Several years ago I used to go to a local gym for some personal training. The place is named after the guy that runs it, Mick Doyle. I quit going after I tore a muscle in my calf, and it looked like somebody stuck a softball in my leg. The good news is that I didn’t get the injury at the gym, but home mowing my lawn.
Mick Doyle is a very accomplished kick boxing champion, known as the Emerald Mongoose, with a very heavy Irish accent so the message he left me after several months of absence from the gym was a classic. The Emerald Mongoose himself called and left this message, “Hey Stormy, DJ and I were talking about all of the fat and lazy people we know and your name came up, when you coming back to the gym?”
The thing is I never went back, but I kept in contact with Mick because several of my work colleagues still go to his gym for personal training. One of his protégés, Houston Alexander, got some attention for wining some UFC fights on national TV. The gym was going great guns and then the sky fell in.
Last November, the gym’s personal training revenue dropped by about 30% and is just now starting to recover. I have made an offer to help Mick out with some marketing ideas to see if he can get the business to pick up faster as long as I can share the results with you. I think it will be a great study in how a small business can rebound from the recession in a stronger position than before if they are able to make the investment in marketing. In fact, I would argue that Mick can’t afford not to market, if he wants to survive the recession with his small business intact.
Remember my tips about using postcards, emails, social media, and direct mail, to get your message out there.
Research shows that a small business that markets in a recession will get the most bang from its marketing dollar. The research also shows that customers think that if a business is marketing in a recession that is a pretty good indication the small business is doing pretty well. That perception can impact their willingness to buy goods and services.
I will keep you posted as Mick’s story develops. I would love to hear from you about your story of perseverance and recovery during this recession.
Don’t work too hard!
StormDawg
