This Week in Small Business: Don’t kill your startup and start thinking about Generation Z
Survey the news, trends and tips savvy small business owners have been following this week: Entrepreneurism and Startups 2015 style “Startups don’t die, they commit suicide” and other startup Secrets and tips from America’s coolest young entrepreneurs…illustrated! Some small business owners think creating an entrepreneurial culture is one of their most important goals for 2015. Read more and evaluate other smallbiz goals. If you’re new to startups, take a few minutes to get a quick overview of market research before you start plowing money into your project. Marketing Hyper-targeting and predictive analytics are among the five important marketing trends, according to Flipflop founder and CEO Doug Camplejohn. To back that up, a Forbes report quantifies the advantages enjoyed by those who practice data-driven marketing. Are Daddy Warbucks and his high-roller pals your target market? If so check out your marketing strategy against these five steps for marketing to the affluent. Then again, maybe you should be shifting your focus to the under-18 Generation Z. (BTW, how are we going to label the next generation?) Here’s the third part of a series on implementing beacon technology in your retail facility and it includes links to parts one and two. Big brands did poorly in content marketing last year. Some small businesses did great. Here are the lessons to be learned. To do better, half of all businesses say they are going to increase their marketing budgets. They may be spending on these 15 must-have marketing tools or these seven technologies, but I hope they understand these mobile marketing truths few talk about. And with our enthusiasm about mobile marketing, let’s not forget video. Here are eight video marketing resolutions for the new year. Politics, Government and the Economy Is it time to make the “Internet Tax Freedom Act” permanent and stop going through this dance every few years, or has the Internet grown up enough to start playing by the rules others have to obey? Falling oil prices and low inflation have created unusual economic conditions. Here’s a quick primer on what’s happening. Maybe this is why small business optimism is at an eight-year high. Even President Obama’s messaging on the economy is shifting. The Fed, by the way, says the economy continues to modestly expand, so maybe it’s not yet time to start bragging. Untangling the fates of individual nations in the global economy isn’t easy. Here’s how the US and China look from Aussie soil and in Europe, Ireland is set to be the big winner. Since April 15 is looming larger every day, take time out to consider your relationship with the IRS and be prepared. Study the correlation between federal regulations and small business formation and growth. Spoiler alert: when one is going up, the other seems to go down. After all the recent hacks and cyberattacks, the Obama administration now supports controversial legislation that indemnifies tech companies when they share private user data. Does the name of the “Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act” get it right, or are opponents telling the truth when they call it the “Kicking Dodd-Frank in the Teeth Act”? In any case, the House passed it last week and now it moves on to the Senate. Management and Leadership Are your thoughts just as good as those you...
read moreMarijuana and Money: An Increasingly Comfortable Relationship?
It’s long been advised to “follow the money” if you want to know the truth about a situation. Following the money involved in the nascent marijuana commerce reveals a rather interesting story of extremes. I want to follow the money at the grass roots level of the industry and also take a look at how venture capitalists are viewing the potential of pot. Perhaps the biggest problems marijuana entrepreneurs are facing today are the contradictions between a variety of state laws and federal laws. A growing number of states have okayed marijuana for medicinal use and some of those are going even further and allowing it to be used legally for “recreation.” The Obama administration is essentially looking the other way and not pitching legal battles with states that are loosening cannabis codes. However, the next administration could take a different position. A ‘cash flow’ problem A major problem for sellers is that banks won’t allow them to open accounts because to the feds, who have a pretty tight grip on the banking industry, it’s still drug money. Because of this, most sellers conduct a completely cash business it creates logistical problems and prevents growth. First Security Bank of Nevada stepped forward last year and agreed to allow owners of marijuana shops to open bank accounts. Now a Denver-based credit union is being formed to meet the banking needs of the industry – Fourth Corner Credit Union. As the pot industry and banking industry normalize relations, it makes life significantly easier for the sellers. They don’t have to jump through hoops to write checks and they’ll be able to accept credit cards. However, unless federal law changes, they can’t enjoy many of the tax write-offs that are standard in other businesses. Is this angel investor high? Another stream of money to follow are the big bucks from professional investors and noted venture capitalist Peter Thiel made a play in this arena recently. Thiel is well known as one of the early backers of now-famous startups such as Facebook, Spotify and Lyft. In early January, his Founders Fund announced a multi-million-dollar investment in Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm that is solely invested in the legal marijuana industry. While the marijuana industry faces legal challenges, other Thiel investments have as well. Lyft, and other peer-to-peer transport systems, are running up against laws all around the world. When Thiel puts his money into something like Privateer Holdings or Lyft, he is betting that social, political and commercial pressures will force lawmakers to eventually take down the barriers. So, now that we have followed two streams of money relating to the marijuana industry, what can we conclude? It seems to me that Thiel is on the winning side. I believe 23 states already allow for medicinal marijuana and four have approved its recreational use. Now that the genie has been let out of the bottle, it will be very difficult for lawmakers to stop this forward momentum. There will be a lot more money to follow in the future....
read moreMobile Businesses: Is Opportunity Rolling into Your Future?
Sometimes old good ideas make the best new ideas and that’s what we are currently witnessing with the resurgence of mobile businesses. In earlier times, knife sharpeners were a common sight traveling through neighborhoods and towns. Today, what started as a food truck renaissance has now spread to a wide range of commercial activities. To determine if there is a mobile business in your future, we need to consider the question from four distinct points of view: Are you looking to start a new venture on something of a “shoestring”? Are you an online business that could grow by adding a mobile component? Are you a brick-and-mortar store that could grow by adding a mobile component? Do you have a home-based business that might benefit from going mobile? The other important point is to evaluate your community and determine how far you want to roam in your mobile business. Larger urban areas often lend themselves well to most mobile businesses but some smaller areas can be great too. In many cases the determining factor is the level of concentrated activity within the community. A smaller active community with lots of centralized events can be productive while a larger city with few events can prove to be a dog for many of the business models currently popular among mobile business entrepreneurs. If you are starting your business as mobile-only, you need to be sure you’re in a community that will support it. If it’s an adjunct for incremental growth and branding, then you can probably do okay in a wider range of communities. Here are some concepts that are “out on the road” right now: All kinds of food. Consider putting a twist on regional favorites. New and used. Make it yourself or find unique artisan offerings. Organic produce and products. Think farmer’s market on wheels and wheeling to all your local farmer’s markets. Pet grooming services. Tattoo parlor. Vinyl records, new and used. Beauty salon. Bring the latest coifs, nails and makeup to the street. Locate outside night clubs. Junk, I mean used treasures. You know that the guys from American Pickers would be successful anywhere they parked and there are busy flea markets in every city. Flower shop. Fitness activities. People are experimenting with mobile gyms and dance studios. Be a personal trainer on wheels. DNA and drug testing. A guy is taking this to hospitals, job fairs, accident sites and jails. Really. Sell cigars and provide a lounge. Not only can you locate at certain events, you have the potential of renting your trailer out for private parties. Some of the other concepts have that potential also. Many mobile businesses aren’t mobile all the time. They have a semi-permanent parking spot where their customers know they can find them when they aren’t at an event. Food trucks are associated with certain bars, for example. A clothing truck can find a place in a commercial district. This makes life a lot easier on owners. Many of these concepts also integrate with ecommerce, which adds another revenue stream. And since we’re talking about the Internet, one of the biggest keys to success in the mobile business world is to have a tremendous social media marketing program, and fortunately the idea lends itself very well to social media like Twitter,...
read moreHow to Get Your Social Media Lineup Just Right
The social media world is becoming more like Baskin Robbins everyday. While there aren’t 31 flavors yet, it wouldn’t surprise me if we got to that point pretty soon. That’s fine for users, but it can be confusing for small business marketers. I remember ballpark vendors at the entry gates shouting, “You can’t tell the players without a program,” so let’s create a social media “program” and pencil in the current lineup, including some stats and each player’s strengths. Facebook. The seasoned and savvy veteran. Commanded big money last time he was on the market. Can hit to all fields (demographics) and if you’re looking to target an older crowd, this is probably your first choice (second might be Pinterest). If you have an ad budget, increasingly sophisticated systems allow you to reach your audience. You can post all kinds of content here, so it gives you another place to post content you’ve created for your blog, Instagram, Twitter and others. Instagram. This is the younger player who surprised many social media scouts by overtaking Twitter in number of users. The content here is visual and the audience trends young and urban. If you can post visually interesting and creative photographs, you need this one on your team. Many businesses are doing a great job with Instagram. Scout the competition and plot your strategy. Twitter. This is the player who gives you a great quote after every game. If you can say it in 140 characters and have an occasional image you want to share, this one is for you. Skews young with a widely dispersed audience. Good for fostering conversations with your customers and clients – keeping the channels of communication open and therefore promoting your brand. Pinterest. Somewhat older women (25-45) make up the Pinterest fan club. If you make or sell visually interesting items, you need to be here, but be sure to bring your A-game of photographic skills with you or you’ll strike out immediately. You have the ability to generate great links to your site. Google-plus. This is one of the most valuable utility players in the business. By establishing a solid Google-plus profile you help insure that Google is going to get the details of your business correct. You can also engage your customers and like-minded professionals. It also offers an excellent gateway to YouTube. YouTube. When your customers go scouting for the product or service that you offer, there’s a good chance that at some point, they will be looking a videos on YouTube. You probably can’t afford to advertise on CBS during primetime, but you can post some how-to videos on YouTube that will be available to prospects 24-7. Vine. While we’re handicapping social media video platforms, we have to mention Vine. Vine is to YouTube what Twitter is to your company’s blog. Can you produce a six-second looping video with viral potential? Vine appeals to younger social media users. Major brands have used it with some success. Barcardi Rum, for example, has a six-second lesson on making a Cuba Libre. Cheers! Snapchat. When six-second looping videos consume too much time, there’s Snapchat. Users send photos that delete themselves 10 seconds after being opened. Because of that feature they can create a sense of “urgency.” One company devised a way to...
read moreHow To Wean Millennials from an Emoticon Mentality
We call it social media, but is it stripping our youth of true social skills and will that be a handicap for their career success? Despite the prevalence of ecommerce and communicating through email, text messages, and online forums, important business depends on the spoken word. Further, sales and marketing professionals understand the critical nature of personal interactions in creating long-term business relationships. A good portion of millennials starting their careers are coming in with less than satisfactory personal communication skills. A 20-something related a story to me from her workplace the other day. She works at a spa and a coworker was explaining that she doesn’t bother using big words around younger employees because she has to stop and explain what they mean. (My friend, by the way, has a real talent for words.) The blame game We can blame our society’s degrading vocabulary on parents who don’t read to their kids, schools that are battling social woes as much as they are teaching the basics, and a huge array of media – social and otherwise – that has dumbed us down. I suppose there’s more blame I could dole out, but that’s not the point. What is important is to recognize our shortcomings and work to correct them. Let’s briefly outline some problems and solutions. Conversational speech is a big one. If the art of conversation isn’t extinct, it’s certainly on the endangered species list. It’s a bottom line requirement in business, necessary for basic telephone conversations and sales calls. Many of our youth do not have the listening skills required to hold a good conversation. A lack of patience is often the culprit. Be quick to listen We need to teach students and young employees that listening is 90 percent of communication. Further, much is communicated by our tone of voice and it comes across even over the phone. In a live conversation, the tone of your voice is your emoticon. Recording and rehearsing sales pitches and practicing customer interactions should be part of training programs. Upspeak – ending a sentence with an upwards inflection – has also become a significant problem and it’s hampering employees. Business associates tend to discount people who practice upspeak. It makes them sound very young, insecure and not credible. Fortunately, individuals can wring it out of their language when they realize it’s a problem. Multitasking combined with unending social media interactions seems to be an intellectually deadly combination. Both multitasking and social media tend to keep us swimming on the surface of communication and understanding. They do not promote deep thinking. Just say no to Facebook I know a brilliant young man who is studying to be a rocket scientist, literally. He graduated from the Air Force Academy where they restrict social media engagement. He would disappear from his old friends for weeks at a time. While it took some adjustment on his part, I think it was very constructive for his intellectual and personal development. Millennials (and others) should be encouraged to track the amount of time they spend on social media and decide for themselves how productive it is for meeting the goals they have set for their lives. And, as I’ve said before, studies consistently show that multitasking lowers productivity, no matter how young or old we are....
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