Small Biz Startup Grants and Other Tall Tales
If you received a robo-call one evening around dinner time and the recorded voice on the other end of the line boasted that there was “free money” available, what would you do? Most would hang up the phone and go back to the dinner table. The simple fact is that there really isn’t such a thing as free money. However, as I talk to budding entrepreneurs, I occasionally run into some who tell me they plan to start their businesses with grant money. These conversations always occur before they have actually tried to find and apply for these wonderful grants of free money. Somewhere between 500,000 and a million new businesses get started each year in the United States, so you can see what the competition would be for free money. But what about… I know that some of you will protest a little because you know there are businesses that received grants to startup or for expansion. This is true, but the number is very small and the niches within which these grants are divvied out are very narrow. Let me give you a quote directly from the Small Business Administration’s website: The federal government does NOT provide grants for starting and expanding a business. So cross that possible source off your list. There are some state economic development agencies that will occasionally have some money for special purposes. However, you’ll find that loan programs are overwhelmingly more abundant than grant programs – and even the loans can be difficult to obtain. Further, grant programs generally require matching funds so they aren’t really “free money” either. The BusinessUSA website has an excellent “financing finder tool” that will give you a very fast idea if you have any chance at grant money. As you work your way through the questions, you’ll quickly realize that only a very narrowly defined group of people and purposes have any chance at grant money. Access to loan guarantees is somewhat more common. Risk-worthy ideas There is a very good economic reason for the dearth of small business grants: If your idea is a good one that will turn a profit in the marketplace, there should be someone willing to give you a loan to start your business – or you should be willing to risk your own money. If neither you, nor a venture capitalist, nor a bank believes your idea is worth taking a risk on, why should taxpayers pony up the money? I don’t offer this perspective to discourage anyone. In fact, I hope to do the opposite: Develop your business idea so much that its potential for commercial success is undeniable. Then you shouldn’t have any trouble finding money to get you...
read moreFocus Forward Survival Skills: Character, Perseverance and Determination
“The time you could spend wondering ‘Why me?’ is the time you could have spent working your tail off to get better,” — Austin Hatch, two time plane crash survivor. If you’re a basketball fan, you’ve probably heard of Austin Hatch. He is a two-time plane crash survivor who is the only remaining survivor of his immediate family. His mother, father, stepmother and two siblings were killed in the two crashes. The second crash in 2011, left him clinging for life. Now, I think I’m a pretty strong solider, but after two plane crashes, and losing my entire family, I’d be tempted to throw myself a little pity party. Yet this high-school basketball star thought only of getting his life back and back on the basketball court. “It really comes down to character,” he said. “Just being able to persevere in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of adversity,” Hatch told Maria Shriver in an interview on the Today Show recently. He attributes his survival skills to his late father who died in the second crash. Hatch’s dream is coming true. He is now playing in his first season for the University of Michigan, the school which he had verbally committed to a scholarship just two weeks prior to the second crash. His focus and determination is allowing him to build the life and success he desires rather than dwelling on the past. Character. Perseverance. Determination. Never giving up. Key characteristics it takes to build a successful life and a successful business. A noticeable difference in attitude. Forward thinking and a focus on the positive — what can be done, instead of what won’t work or what happened in the past. So if your business is struggling or you feel it’s headed for a crash landing. Think of Hatch’s story and focus forward. ...
read moreNow Is the Time To Act on App Threats
Not a day goes by that we aren’t warned about threats to our privacy online. As I’m writing this, the current dustup is over the Facebook messenger app, which apparently knows everything about you down to the color of your unmentionables. For small businesses the threat posed by the panoply of apps employees carry around on their mobile devices is quite real. Appthority just released its Summer 2014 App Reputation Report that surveys the threats posed by free and paid apps. In a world where everyone is commingling personal apps and apps intended for business use on their own devices, small business owners need to understand the stakes and implement appropriate policies. First, let me say that both iOS and Android apps pose problems and while both free and paid apps are problematic, free apps are the bigger problem – essentially all free apps pose risks. The figure is between 80 and 90 percent for paid apps. Pernicious data collection When you and your employees “agree” to the conditions that allow an app to be installed on your device, here’s what you’re agreeing to that puts you at some risk: Allowing the app to track your location, Allowing the app access to your contacts, Allowing the app access to your calendar, Allowing the app to connect the unique device ID to the user, and Allowing in-app purchases. The data that is gathered by allowing your apps to access this information goes to a variety of places. Most is sold to advertisers so they can better target the ads you see. The privacy concerns you might have as an individual are somewhat different than those you have as a small business owner, and probably the biggest single concern is access to contacts. Mixing business and pleasure If you and your employees sync your devises with software such as Outlook, you are undoubtedly carrying around contact information that includes both personal and business data. By allowing your apps to access this data, you are exposing business contacts to third parties and perhaps increasing the risk for corporate espionage and theft of valuable contacts, according to the Appthority report. You are certainly exposing your business contacts to increased spam. Also, not to get overly Jack Bauer-ish about it, the report points out that location reporting could allow corporate executives to be tracked. Even if this seems unlikely today, it’s best to be aware of the potential and account for it in your mobile device policy and training. There is no way around the fact that you need to do a risk assessment for your business, consult with your IT team and formulate a policy and strategy. It should include training your employees, controlling company data and instilling good online habits in your team, such as logging out of apps and changing passwords. Image: Image: Mobile Apps & Games, © 2011 methodshop, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike...
read moreHow to Put Real Meaning in ‘Thank You’
Sometimes both the “old fashioned” way and the new web-savvy Internet way miss the mark. Let me give you an example. It’s standard procedure – and good business – to take note of your customers each year with some kind of “thank you.” Traditionally this might be a card during the holiday season, or at some other milestone during the year. But can we talk? Anyone who has ever received the mass-mailed thank you card knows full well how impersonal it is, despite the company’s best intentions. Email no big improvement Now let’s flip the calendar forward the the Internet age. Today you can send all kinds of messages and greetings via email and by referring someone to a web page. With basic database manipulation you can even have the recipient’s name properly incorporated into the message. However, those are, frankly, just as impersonal as the bulk-mailed greeting card. In both cases, what is missing is anything resembling a truly personal connection between the business and the customers. I’ve spent a little while setting this up because I believe the solution that Constant Contact devised to add the personal touch to the customer thank you, is both clever and very effective. Their creative team, under the leadership of Tim Weldon, came up with the idea of videoing Constant Contact employees writing personal thank you messages to their customers on a big “chalkboard” wall. Let’s call it a “thank you wall.” Benefits all around “Rather than our creative team simply creating the video – as in years past – we wanted to make it more personal and get all of our employees involved. That would help put a face to our company, the people behind the logo,” explains Tim. “And a huge side benefit would be that, when the wall was finished, we’d have a constant reminder to both our employees and visitors of what is most important to us. Oh, and it simply looks cool as hell,” he adds. I agree. Using real people, writing the messages they have written themselves, gives the thank you wall a level of authenticity that you can’t get with either a typical email or even a nice card sent through the mail. I’d also add that the video itself is very fun to watch. How many times does a year-end thank you from a business also offer entertainment value on its own? The lesson learned Here’s the big takeaway from this project, as I see it: Look at something you do all the time and approach it from a completely different angle. Get inventive with what you usually consider to be mundane. Your customers will notice. Image: “Thank You,” © 2003 Paul Downey, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike...
read moreHow to Use Instagram Video in Your Marketing, Branding
We’ve already looked at ways major corporations are getting good marketing results using Instagram and discussed how you can adapt their strategies to your small business. Here I want to move away from the standard picture posting and talk a little about video and give you a quick update about the social medium. Video is to Internet marketing what banner ads and photo galleries have been in earlier days. I’ve discussed the importance of YouTube as a marketing and branding tool, as have many of the guest writers who have posted here. Instagram can be an important part of your video marketing. Interestingly enough, I think one of Instagram’s video limitations is also one of its strengths: videos can be no longer than 15 seconds. Now, answer me honestly: Aren’t you ready to abandon many videos after around 10 seconds anyway? The short nature of the videos should provide a hint about the best natural hook into Instagram: Twitter. If you’re already a big tweeter, adding Instagram videos is a natural…even though Facebook paid beaucoup bucks for the startup not all that long ago. Instagram trends toward younger consumers, so keep that in mind as you plan to integrate it with your campaigns. Here are some ideas to get you started: New product or service teasers. Think of a 15-second video as like a “coming attraction” teaser at the movie theater. Show just enough to pique your customers’ interests. Go behind the scenes. Do you make something? If you produce something that is used or consumed, show vignettes that illustrate parts of the process. If you are in the food industry and use special organic ingredients, introduce a farmer. Do something funny. If your business is all desks and offices, do you have a class clown, or someone who likes to prank his (it’s almost always a “he” – isn’t it?) neighbor, capture one of these moments. Or illustrate a harmless prank others might emulate. Show your customers. Sell a big ticket item? How about a video of your customer driving away in her new Porsche? People’s favorite video subjects are themselves; second favorite: their friends and relatives. 15-second insights. We love information in bite-sized chunks; that’s why “list” blogs will be forever popular. Have an expert at your business take one small topic and deliver one useful insight. Make it a series. Fiverr cartoon, animated graphic, whiteboard presentation. Come up with a idea for an animation, head over to Fiverr.com, find someone to render it and then post the video to Instagram. How cool could that be and all you have invested is five bucks? When you post your videos, don’t forget to use hashtags so they will be found by the right people. Also, be persistent about featuring them via Twitter and Facebook. Don’t just promote them once, come around to them on a repeating schedule, as appropriate. Lastly, for the Instagram update: There are new advanced photo editing tools that you should become familiar with. There might be hope for that washed out image after all… Image: Instagram Logo, © 2013 Zenspa1, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike...
read moreGraduate: Get the Training You Need For Your Startup
This year’s crop of college graduates is facing a tough job market. Yes, I know, it’s a perennial story. But in recent years the situation has worsened. Even the vaunted science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates are dealing with resistance as they enter the workforce; although certain STEM graduates remain in high demand. This makes conditions ideal for recent college graduates to opt for the entrepreneurial route. However, there is a catch: many don’t have the practical experience required to make the transition. For many of those, although the job market isn’t easy, hiring on with the right company – at least for a while – can serve as a good training ground. Wealth creation If you’re a college graduate in this situation, or close to one, start with this truth: You’ll never get rich selling your time. The number of hours you can work is limited and even if you’re making a good hourly rate, your earnings quickly max out. Worse, you’ll find that your living expenses will inflate to equal or exceed your income. That’s just the way it is. However, if you create value beyond your personal ability to toil, you can accumulate wealth and the way to do that is through entrepreneurship. If this is ultimately what you would like to do, be careful about who you hire on with immediately out of college. Look for a company whose founder is still actively leading the way and study what makes her or him successful. Look for character traits and see how you can make them your own. The right atmosphere You want a company where the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and kicking. You want to work in a place where you are encouraged to take initiative and risks. This is the best entrepreneurship training available today. Keep your eyes open and see everything you do as preparing you for your own startup. Develop key relationships with individuals and other companies. You may meet your partner in your first job out of college and you might get to know the decision makers in a company that will later be central to your entrepreneurial success. Know what your weaknesses are and actively seek business and personal friendships with people who make up for your shortcomings. Understand what your startup must be good at in order to succeed. It’s about tomorrow As a prospective entrepreneur, you must always be looking to the future. It’s not about what you’re doing today; it’s about accomplishing something today that makes tomorrow’s achievements possible. If you systematically go about putting all the pieces together, soon you will be able to see a clear path to your startup. At that point, it becomes a matter of will, commitment and courage. And hey, you got through four years of college. You can get through four years of a startup. I can’t wait to see what you’ll do. Image: Public Domain...
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