Business and Career Killer: Dumb Use of a Smartphone
Here’s an interesting peek into our attitudes: A few years ago, a survey revealed that only 8 percent of cellphone users thought that their use had irritated other people. Yet in a rudeness study done by the Associated Press, 85 percent of those surveyed said they occasionally witness rude cellphone use. In other words, we think that there’s a whole lot of rude cellphone users, but it’s just not me! Can we be honest with each other and admit that there have been times when our cellphone use has been rude, distracting or inappropriate? We need to create some internal alarms and give ourselves the will power to control ourselves when they start to sound. With that said, let’s set some alarms. Your cellphone is on the table. Have you been in a meeting, taken your cellphone out of your pocket or purse and set it face up so you could see who was texting or calling you? It’s standard operating procedure for many. Don’t do it. First, you’re probably suffering from a mild case of thinking-you’re-important-itis. If you’re in a meeting, be 100 percent the meeting. Every time you pick up your phone or glance at its screen you’re belittling the others who are participating Your cellphone is peekable. Maybe even worse that having your phone on the table is tucking it away in a place where you can sneak peeks every so often. Come on! You know everyone sees those sly little glances. You aren’t fooling anyone. The rule is simple: Put it somewhere it won’t be a distraction. You’re yelling. Fully 63 percent of all cellphone users yell (warning: statistic made up, but it seems about right) when talking on their phones. Find out if that is your predilection and get the cure. And even if you do talk in a normal voice, there are many times when you should step away from others so you don’t become a distraction…or annoyance. Others are being noisy. Don’t call or try to carry on conversations when the ambient noise is a half decibel shy of a Pratt & Whitney jet engine. First, you and the party on the other end are likely to miscommunicate and second, you’ll have to yell so loud, others in your vicinity will be tempted to strangle you. You’re moving. “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is a classic Steve Martin and John Candy movie, but they aren’t such great places to be conducting business over your cellphone. Even when you’re using your inside voice, if there are others around – including business associates – you’re going to be an annoyance. So far this has been a list of “DON’Ts.” However, there are a couple of things you should do to maintain good cellphone etiquette. Return calls and messages promptly. Don’t let voice mail or a text messages languish on your device. Nothing says, “I don’t care” as much as letting a text message go for hours before responding. Return a voice call with a voice call. People have their preferred styles of communicating. I know some kids who pretty much restrict all communications with their parents to text messages. However, there are many business professionals who prefer to hear your voice. Don’t relegate them to second-class citizenship by answering their voice mail message with a...
read moreKick Your Business Into High Gear: Capture a Big Elephant.
The economy is beginning to show signs of recovery; however, small businesses continue to shy away from expansion plans. If your company is struggling to simply maintain your current level of business, a new report finds that landing a big elephant as a customer may be your ticket to success. Corporations are currently sitting on piles of cash and they typically spend billions of dollars a year with suppliers, but only a small percentage of that money is spent with small firms. A research study from the Center for an Urban Future found that becoming a corporate supplier is a springboard for growth. Of those businesses responding to the survey, 70 percent reported significant growth in jobs and revenues during the two year period after becoming a corporate supplier. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of corporate suppliers earn more than $500,000 annually whereas 77 percent of non-suppliers earn less than $500,000 annually. The challenge for small businesses is how to tap into the corporate market. Here are a few quick tips. 1. Make a list of prospects. Make a list of companies with which you’d like to work and then do your research. How can you solve a problem for them and help them reach their goals? Never approach a big elephant unprepared. You need to give them a reason to change their current buying habits so make sure you clearly articulate your value proposition. 2. Be Creative. When it comes to hunting for the big elephant, there are obvious brands that will come to mind. However, everyone is chasing those businesses. So be creative. Try to identify other less obvious firms who could use your products or services. Once again, it’s all about doing your homework. 3. Look Big. Large companies need to have confidence in your ability to perform. It’s imperative you present yourself as professionally as possible. The first thing the big elephant will do once you’ve contacted them is an Internet search. So make sure your digital presence presents the right image. Review your website: Does it represent your brand appropriately? What about your social media platforms? Are you positioning yourself as a market leader? What kinds of comments are posted about your business at online review sites? 4. Network. The best way to get beyond the gate-keepers with the big elephant is a warm introduction and/or referral. Seek opportunities to meet people who work for the companies you’re targeting. You never know who may be able to help you. Perhaps a neighbor or someone from your gym. Additionally, don’t be shy about asking your existing customers if they know someone who they can refer you to. Your network can be a powerful asset to get you in the door. 5. Get Certified. If you are a women-owned or minority-owned business, certification may enhance your opportunities to land a big elephant. Many large companies are looking for qualified women-owned and minority-owned businesses to become suppliers. However, simply getting that certification alone isn’t enough. You still need to follow the first four tips. For example, I get mailings from recently certified companies announcing their status with a list of their products or services. No one is going to pick up the phone and call you because you’re certified. Certification may give you a slight competitive advantage, but you...
read moreThis Week in Small Business: Be heard on Capitol Hill, Market on a Shoestring and Improve your EQ
Politics, government and the economy Want to get a message straight to the lawmakers who have the greatest impact on US small business? Here’s the page on the House Small Business Committee website where you can tell your story and let them know what is causing you the greatest problems. Leadership, management and productivity Are you part of the sharing economy? If so, be sure you’re aren’t sharing too much with the IRS. Sometimes it seems that it’s all about data and analytics today. Managers and small business owners need to understand analytics via the Google-plus dashboard. You may be smarter than a fifth grader, but do you have more emotional intelligence than a high school cheerleader? Okay, unfair question. But EQ is crucial to your success as a leader. Bob Burg believes that empathy is the key differentiator between successful and less successful people. His guest article on the Living in Courage website gives you his reasoning. The future of work. Steven Melendez outlines how businesses are using surveys to help improve employee engagement. Marketing and sales Social media marketing is best when it’s personal and creating a powerful social media bio plays a major role in that. Here’s how to get your bio right. And once your bio is in place, here are another three ways to turn your small business brand into a social media juggernaut. Along with social media marketing, SEO is another low-to-no cost way to be seen and heard. If you need better local SEO, you’ll find a five-day game plan on this Convince and Convert blog. We’ve talked about social media marketing and SEO, it’s time to work public relations into the marketing mix. Operating on a shoestring? Boom Social founder Kim Garst gives you 20 inexpensive ways to market your small business. Here are 10 more newsletters every small business content marketer should subscribe to…assuming you’re already getting my weekly newsletter! (If not, you can sign up at the bottom this page and I’m also including a link to a free ebook right now!) Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation If you need a little startup, small business, or entrepreneurial inspiration, check out these small biz stories on the Constant Contact blog. Or maybe you need a little pep talk to get your entrepreneurial juices flowing. If so, you’ll love these 21 inspiring quotes…and hey, they also make great content to share in your social media accounts! Sign up for my weekly newsletter: First Name * Email...
read moreSmall Business and Entrepreneurship Council Hosts Twitter Chat: Small Biz Hill Update
Were you able to participate in our Twitter chat with House Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot and Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council? If you participated or watched the chat session unfold, thank you. The more people we get involved in these, the more impact we’ll have. And if you weren’t able to be there, I will briefly mention some of the topics we touched on and give you some links so you can do additional research. Chairman Chabot outlined his priorities for this session of Congress: Improving access to capital, Increasing exports, Reducing over-regulation, and Reforming the tax code. Some bills are working their way through Congress that could have some impact on these issues for small business owners. Exactly, how big that impact would be is unknown. Here are some of the bills you might want to keep your eye on. H.R. 527: Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2015. The House has passed this bill sponsored by Chairman Chabot and it is awaiting action in the Senate. If signed into law, it would require regulators to better communicate the effect regulations would have on business and see if proposed regulations would have a disproportionate effect on small organizations, including small businesses. S. 226: The REINS Act (Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2015). This would require Congress to approve all major regulations. If Congress fails to take action on a proposed regulation, the regulation would not go into effect. This bill, sponsored by Senator Rand Paul, is in committee. Kerrigan pointed out that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has been changed more than 50 times since its passage and another change may be on the way. The bill defines companies with between 51 and 100 employees as “small businesses.” H.R. 1624 and S. 1099 give states the flexibility to define companies of this size as large businesses. The problem is that the number of health insurance companies working with small businesses is more limited than the number working with large firms. If enacted, this change should give these businesses more options when they shop for health insurance and this might help slow the rate of premium hikes. H.R. 1023: Small Business Investment Company Capital Act of 2015. This increases the amount of money the Small Business Administration is authorized to lend from $225 million to $350 million. The issue of trade also came up during the Twitter chat. Participants, including Kerrigan and Chairman Chabot, believe that the trade pacts Congress expects to see in the near future will benefit small business. Chairman Chabot pointed out that 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside of the United States. Increased free trade should improve the ability of small business owners to sell to this market. However, lawmakers – and the public – will not get to see the actual language of the agreements until they are totally finalized, although negotiations have been underway for years. At that time lawmakers will be able to vote up or down on the entire packages. No amendments can be proposed. Chairman Chabot shared a great link with the Twitter chatters – https://smallbusiness.house.gov/forms/form/default.aspx?ID=1007. It’s a page on the House Small Business Committee’s website that lets you tell your small...
read moreHave Passion? Great, but don’t forget these key ingredients!
If passionate fans could win championships, the Chicago Cubs would be in the World Series almost every year. Here’s the truth: Passion by itself is little more than a flame that puts out light but no heat. This becomes a problem for many small business owners because they have been sold the lie “Do what you love, the money will follow.” That may be true, but just as often as not the money follows someone else. The only consolation here is that if these folks are going to go broke, at least they’ll go broke doing something they’re passionate about. I’m able to talk to a lot of small business owners as well as many who are planning to start their own businesses. This subject often comes up in conversation and I’m always quick to advise them that having a solid business plan and a willingness to put in a lot of hard work trump passion in the business world. Recently I ran across some data from a yet-unpublished study that bears this out and also illustrates a wide chasm between those with business experience and those without. The Harvard Business Review reported some preliminary findings of a study conducted by Utpal M. Dholakia, Michal Herzenstein, and Scott Sonenshein of Rice University. They looked at projects posted on Indiegogo and analyzed the promotional information posted with them. They were looking for words that indicated passion and words that indicated preparedness. They found that projects with passionate language were about three times more likely to hit their funding goals. (Lesson: passion sells.) However, when they looked more closely, they found that experienced investors weren’t swayed by the passionate language; experienced investors put their money on projects where there was a greater degree of preparedness expressed. Here’s the major take away: As a small business owner, or a person considering a startup, there’s a good chance you are going to be investing your own money on your project. Will you have the wisdom of the experienced Indiegogo investors and only put your money on a well prepared business, or will you allow emotion to lead you and risk it all on passion? Finally, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with having passion about your business idea. In fact, passion can help you get through some of the tough times you’re bound to face as you grow your small business. I just want you to know that passion is no substitute for preparedness or hard work. By the way, I’ve just published a guide that outlines 10 essential building blocks for your small business. It touches on all the essentials required if you want to consider your business “well prepared” for success. If you overlook any of the 10 building blocks on this list, frustration and failure become a very likely outcome. It’s just a $2.99 Mac and PC download at Revizzit. (The reading software is free.)...
read moreBeware of the Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer Cyberscams
Entrepreneurs spend a lot of time thinking of great ideas to build a business and eventually make money. Hackers today seem to be spending even more time thinking of larcenous ideas to build great scams and make money ASAP. Let’s check in with some of the latest scams so we can better protect ourselves. Verification code danger Do you use Gmail? If so, you’re probably familiar with the two-step verification process that involves sending a code to your cellphone to verify your identity and relationship to the email account. I was glad to participate in the process because I felt it adds a very secure identity checking step to the process. However, the bad guys are using the security we sense in the process and twisting it to hack email accounts. Here’s the way it works: Out of the blue you get a text message from Google giving you a security code when you’re away from your computer. Soon thereafter you get another text message saying there has been irregular activity on your Gmail account. This message requests that you text the code you were sent earlier in order to halt the activity. If you follow through with this request, you’ve just given hackers access to your email account. If a hacker has your email address and cell phone number, all he has to do is attempt to log onto your email account and say he has lost the password. Google then sends the verification code to your cellphone. The hacker then sends you a text message asking for the code. If you send the code, the bad guy can now get access to your Gmail account, comb through your information and even forward future emails to another account. The Federal Trade Commission consumer division gives this sage advice, and it applies to more than just your Gmail account: If you receive an unexpected verification code, contact the source. Something’s up. Never send or forward a verification code via text message or email. You’re probably sending it straight to the bad guys. Traveling this summer? A lot of us will be booking hotels this summer for both business and pleasure. Hackers are taking advantage of this by creating fake hotel and hotel-booking webpages. This is a variation on the standard phishing technique. The websites often look like well-known brands. The crooks may even be staffing a “1-800” number with a fake customer service rep, so if you call you’ll think it’s legitimate. The idea is to capture your credit card information. The BBB cautions consumers to examine the URL closely. It might be bookhotels.co instead of bookhotels.com, or something similar. Also, look to see if it is a secure connection; the URL will start with HTTPS with a “lock” icon. Further, when deals look too good to be true, they usually are. Do some comparison shopping before booking any “fantastic” deal. Gift cards that are no gift Gift card scams are taking on a life of their own. Popular right now are: Participate in a survey, get a gift card, and Facebook “like” scams promising a gift card. (An Aldi version of this promising a $100 coupon has been circulating recently). At some point in these scams, victims are asked to participate in a survey where they have to...
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