SMALL BIZ Make Your Small Biz Into Big Markets

Small business marketing tips are everywhere these days and if you pay attention, even in the most unexpected places.

My partner, Greg and I attended a search engine optimization symposium presented by Search Engine Workshops in Raleigh, North Carolina. Greg lives in Montreal and I live in Toronto, so it was a great opportunity to meet and catch up on a few small projects while learning the latest SEO techniques we will employ in marketing our business.

Robin Nobles inspired us to develop creativity in our content development; Andy Beale gave us an in-depth overview of blog marketing for businesses, Dave Barry discussed dynamically delivered web pages and Michael Marshall…..well, if you want to know what Michael is up to, you will have to attend the next symposium.

John Alexander renewed our enthusiasm about keyword research with Wordtracker and gave added a few small surprises, as John always does.

However, one of the most important business lessons during the two day session wasn’t taught in the classroom and it wasn’t delivered by the usual suspects.

The first night in town, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. A waiter approached our table and introduced himself; “Good evening everyone, my name is Omar and I am your waiter this evening.”

Omar was taking our dinner order when we noticed that he wasn’t taking notes which caused some concern in our group. Omar told us not to worry and that after he had taken our 5 orders that he would repeat the order….of the table of 6 behind him and then he would repeat our orders, which he did, flawlessly.

The food was terrific and the service was great so the next night we decided to go back to the same restaurant. Of course, we asked to be seated in Omar’s section. Once again, Omar delivered. When the kitchen took too long to cook a meal for one of our associates, Omar provided a free cocktail, brought over some finger food and boxed the dinner for later…..no charge.

Now we were hooked. Our last night in town, we walked over to the restaurant and asked for Omar. We were disappointed to hear that there was a 60 minute wait to get into Omar’s section but if we would sit elsewhere it would only take 30 minutes.

It had been a long day so we decided to forgo Omar’s section and went to the bar to drown our sorrows in a cold beer. We asked the bartender for a food menu and ordered our drinks. I was paying for the first round, as I usually do when I am with Greg, so I asked the bartender for the bill.

“Your bill has been taken care of”, the bartender told me and pointed to a young man, carrying a tray of food, heading towards a table at the back of the restaurant. Greg and I stared at each other in disbelief and immediately went back to the headwaiter and demanded to be seated in Omar’s section.

It gets better. Our table was ready but my partner was finishing off a beer so I walked over alone to secure our booth. Before I had time to sit down, Omar arrived with a beverage in hand. “Diet coke, Mr. Byers” Omar knowingly stated. I was floored but the best was still to come.

Omar took our dinner order in his customary respectful fashion. He returned with our meals and placed a glass of red wine in front of me.
“I thought you might enjoy a glass of Pinot Noir with your steak, Mr. Byers”, Omar stated matter of factly.

OK, all of the business marketing services offered by Omar can be explained:

- The memory thing; a learned technique.

- Remembering the diet coke, well, I had a diet coke all 3 nights.

- Addressing me by name, I paid with my credit card, as I usually do when I am with Greg.

- The Pinot Noir, I had a glass of Pinot Noir on the very first visit to the restaurant two days earlier.

- Buying a round for the boys; priceless!

5 Small Business Marketing Tips We Can Learn from Omar

1. Differentiate Yourself – We’ve all seen waiters take orders by memory but how many engage the table a challenge?

2. Get Personal Fast – In 5 minutes, Omar addressed every person in our booth individually by name.

3. Know Your Client - take the time and effort it had to take Omar to understand and deliver uch personalized service to your customers. Learning the small details about your client’s business can make all the difference.

4. React Quickly To Control Damage – Instead of complaining about how our colleague’s meal was late, we found ourselves once again marveling over Omar’s handling of the situation.

5. It Ain’t Over Till it’s Over – Omar saw us with food menus in hand, ready to order dinner at the bar when he paid for our drinks.
Never stop selling.

Ok, I mentioned at the beginning of this article that John Alexander always has a small surprise or two in store for us at every search engine workshop. So now I am wondering about two things; did John plant Omar in the restaurant to give us a valuable lesson in small business marketing? And when will Greg send my credit card back to me?

Barry Byers and Greg Mate have a significant body of experience as Professional Search Engine Optimizers and Internet Marketers and they have owned and operated successful National Yellow Pages Advertising Agencies for the past 15 years. Together they have helped a number of businesses achieve top search engine rankings and increased web site traffic in both Canada and the U.S. Together, they have designed and programmed effective websites as well as consulted on SEO and marketing on existing sites. Offices located in Montreal and Toronto. Web addresses: http://www.searchengineacademy.ca and http://www.adperformancedirect.com.

Author: Barry Byers

Small Business Social Network Marketing

MerchantCircle Marketing Advisor: AD|MAX.MERCHANT MEDIA LLC . title: Small Business Social Network Marketing, Is It Ready?.

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Technorati Tags: search engine optimization, Small business marketing tips

Posted under best business to start

Small Business Marketing Solution - Let Brand Guide Your Staff

Employees that know your company’s Brand will be able to make on-the-spot decisions.

Your employees should know your Brand–what you stand for. We’ve written on this before, but it is just a vital concept for small business success. As we discussed in an earlier article, following process and procedures is important, staff training is Read More…

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Many small business owners are astounded to find out that they can indeed profit from giving proceeds, or donating products to charity and intern market there small business.

There are three reasons that giving to charity leads to an increase in profits and the businesses market share: first, giving to charity allows the business to claim valuable tax receipts for their donations. Second, giving to Read More…

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Small businesses are between a rock and a hard place. Usually they are coming into an environment that already has plenty of competition and they need to find a way to make themselves competitive in an over-saturated market. This means they need to find ways to bring in customers to their own business and steal customers away from other businesses. Most small businesses rely on word-of-mouth advertising Read More…

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Is your small business losing thousands of dollars a month due to marketing failures?

Even the top marketing experts make many fatal mistakes in their marketing campaigns. However, when they are working for the huge corporations and Fortune 500 Companies, a massive marketing mistake can be fixed. But for the small business on a small budget, a marketing mistake of similar size may cause the failure Read More…

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     As India is all set to become the new industrial centre of the world, vast amounts of changes are happening all around it. The global economic downturn has taken a heavy toll on the working status of millions people worldwide, but for Indians living abroad thus far, this seems to be the ideal time to pay a visit back to the homeland. India as it is known has been consistently on the rise, with an ever increasing GDP, and the prospect of larger investments that are awaiting finalization.      

     Employment seems to be faring better than in other places around the world. NRIs are starting to realize their present hometown may not offer them the lucrative prosperity that it once promised. This has become a driving force that has drawn the NRI back to India. The entrepreneurship opportunities in India have broadened so much that it needs the best minds to tackle the present situation.

     Successful global projects are a plenty and these are most successful in one of the many business core areas of India like Mumbai, Delhi etc. These opportunities only lure foreign investors who have seen the success of some of their competitors and want to grab a slice of the Indian market. The funding is there in India and the prospects of some truly large projects have begun surfacing even in second tier cities.

      Down south in India, there are some phenomenal engineering opportunities available and the need for a truly global entrepreneur cannot be stressed enough in these situations. Companies like Larsen and Toubro etc have invested a lot of money into developing state of the art R&D facilities that will cater not only to the local market but also to the ones abroad. General Motors is also keen on centralizing its Research and development ventures in Bangalore, in the southern part of India which will mean that the scope of employment in the core areas of Engineering will be a lot more here than ever before.

      There are a huge horde of software companies from the United States and European nations that have invested heavily in India to provide solutions to many of their global operations. Such ventures do have a fair share of risks that the company must overcome if it has to be successful in a country like India. The market is so unpredictable at times that the product that a company launches must satisfy every criteria of a discerning buyer else it will become a failure no matter how successful it has been worldwide.

      Entrepreneurs required in India must be accustomed to every sort of situation and this is where the experience and knowledge from Indians abroad comes to the forefront. As Indians abroad one will not only have the theoretical knowledge of the west but also possess the Indian mindset and cultural values that will truly be an unstoppable force capable of overwhelming the competition in the homeland. Thus entrepreneurship opportunities are abound in India provided one is set to tackle some of the challenges and risks that are posed by it.

By: Harpreet H Singh 

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Technorati Tags: entrepreneurial, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education

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The following are some of the most popular myths of being a business owner.

1.Myth: The first objective of building a business is to make it profitable / Truth: The first objective of any business is to make it functionable.

2.Myth: Good products sell themselves/Truth: No product will sell itself, but great marketing will sell anything

3.Myth: Anyone can start their own business if they do what they do best and are most passionate about / Your craftsmanship has nothing to do with your business skills

4.Myth: Having your own business is riskier than working for an established company / Truth: Working for someone else puts all of your eggs in one basket, while having a wide customer base from which to draw your income decreases risk.

5.Myth: You must have a clever idea which no one has ever thought of before / Truth: Product quality is more important than product uniqueness

6.Myth: You must have a lot of Money in order to get started / Imagination and specific specialized knowledge can save you thousands of dollars and years of time in startup cost

7.Myth: In order to make a career in something you should go to school for it / Truth: While a degree cannot hurt, eighty percent of college graduates are not even working in the field they studied.

8.Myth: You should never start a business when the economy is not going well / Truth: Tony Hawk began his company when skateboarding was all but dead. Napoleon Hill’s book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ which is responsible for more millionaires than any other book ever written was released before the end of the great depression and sold over one million copies the first year. Waiting for the ‘right time’ to start a business is a sure way to never get started.

9.Myth: You should not start a business where there is too much competition / Truth: The person who devotes themselves to making an honest contribution to others in doing something they love has nothing to fear from the competition.

10. Myth: You need to learn another trade so that you will have something to ‘fall back on’ / Truth: Giving yourself something to ‘fall back on’ will distract you from your goal. You will end up stuck in a rut, or worse not being able to change careers for fear of taking a pay cut.

By: Jon Alan

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Entrepreneurship is surrounded by a variety of dangerous myths that can bust a new business owners chance at success.

Debunked!

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Technorati Tags: innovation change management, innovation leadership, management innovation

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     If you are dealing with crushing debt, and you’re tired of having creditors call you day and night, you might be wondering if bankruptcy is a good solution. Here are five reasons why bankruptcy might be the answer you’ve been looking for:

1) Your first priority is your family - you must place your own needs, and those of your family, over those of your creditors. It doesn’t make sense to let creditors push you into paying them if it means your family has to go without.

2) In many cases, bankruptcy will actually improve your credit. That sounds counterintuitive, I know, but consider this: One third of your credit score is based on your debt-to-income ratio, so eliminating your debt gives your score a significant boost. If you have good credit, though, bankruptcy will lower your credit score - but only temporarily. If you establish at least 4 lines of credit after bankruptcy, you should be able to raise your score to the 600s or 700s within a couple of years.

3) The concept of bankruptcy is deeply rooted in history - even back to Biblical times. The Book of Numbers required debt forgiveness every seven years; likewise, cultures throught the centuries have recognized release from debt as an element of a productive society. Even the founding fathers of the United States saw debt forgiveness as important to entrepreneurship and risk-taking - they wrote uniform bankruptcy laws into the United States Constitution!

4) The chances you will regret a bankruptcy filing are next to zero. Bankruptcy lawyers almost never hear a client say that they wish they hadn’t filed - in fact, most people will tell you that it’s the best thing they’ve ever done. Being free from overwhelming debt and nagging creditors is well worth going through the filing process.

5) You will avoid garnishments, leins, and tax levies. It’s a terrible feeling to discover that your wages have been garnished, or that your bank funds have been frozen. Bankruptcy gives you the assurance that this will never happen.

By: Jay Fleischman

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Technorati Tags: bankruptcies, bankruptcy, bankruptcy protection, new bankruptcy laws

Posted under small business

On your journey of conscious entrepreneurship, I wonder if you’ve noticed the duality that I’ve seen when it comes to “going the extra mile” for your customers and clients… or not “going” at all.

Last month, I had the great pleasure of meeting Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. Under Tony’s leadership Zappos grew their gross merchandise sales from $1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008 by focusing relentlessly on customer service. Literally, Zappos.com has been built on an incredible company culture and on customer service that beats all customer service. This is a company that goes far beyond the extra mile to keep their customers coming back over and over again. And, it’s making a huge impact on their bottom line.

The other end of the spectrum seems to be companies who believe their successful status allows them to be less customer service driven, and more about the distance they create between themselves and their customers/clients… the philosophy being that the more unreachable the company is, the better it is for elite positioning in the marketplace.

And, here’s my two cents on this topic, based on my own experience…

Go The Extra Mile

I’m a firm believer in going the extra mile. Perhaps it was my childhood experience as an arts ‘n crafts facilitator at the local park (constantly trying to do the best thing to keep parents and kids coming back for more), or my later experience as a fitness trainer who kept my clients for years rather than months (like most trainers). But, somewhere along the line I learned that going the extra mile works wonders… and resonates more with my philosophy than the “keep your distance” approach to business.

Here are a few examples from my recent experience that may help drive this home for you:

Example #1: At the inaugural Freedom Formula Experience this past January, I told my event manager I wanted to be in the seminar room on Thursday morning when the doors opened to allow attendees in. She was a bit surprised because she hadn’t had that request before from other clients. Most of her clients stayed back stage until they were formally introduced at the front of the room.

But, for me, it was important to greet my seminar attendees and connect with them prior to taking the stage. They travelled from across the US, Canada, Australia and the UK to be there, so it only felt right for me to say “hello” as they entered the room. The surprise benefit was hearing from everyone how much they loved seeing me there giving out hugs; and it gave me a HUGE boost of energy and enthusiasm as I took the stage that morning. Going the extra mile served them… and me. Everybody was happy!

Example #2: I have the great pleasure of working with 24 of the most incredible entrepreneurs in my mastermind; one of whom happens to be a Twitter expert. Well, if you read about my experience as a “Twitter snob” you know Twittering is a whole new world that I’m learning bit by bit. It just so happens that most of my mastermind clients are also Twitter challenged… so I decided to “go the extra mile” and do something about it.

It was so simple (and obvious) how I could serve everyone on their Twitter journey. I simply asked my client, Julie Isaac (the Twitter genius), if she’d allow me to interview her about Twitter and we’d invite everyone in my mastermind to attend the interview. She was ecstatic about the oppor^tunity to begin teaching what she knows about Twitter; I was thrilled because I was going to learn more about how not to be a Twitter snob; and all of my coaching clients were so happy they got to learn about Twitter especially because it was an unexpected bonus that was above and beyond what I’d promised. Again, going the extra mile served everyone involved… it was a win/win/win all the way around.

I share these examples only to get your mind thinking about what you want your approach to be, and what you can do to solidify that approach. So, if you’re aligned with “going the extra mile” I encourage you to take a look at your current customers and clients, and identify at least one thing you can do to “go the extra mile” to help them succeed today.

By: Christine Kloser

Designing eCommerce Storefronts

When designing websites that are to be used as an online catalog of products their are some special considerations for you to take into account to help ensure your clients success.

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So, if you’re aligned with “going the extra mile” I encourage you to take a look at your current customers and clients, and identify at least one thing you can do.

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Technorati Tags: business communication, communication training, customer service training

Posted under best business to start

     Do you need small business ideas for a tight budget? Well, then you should turn your eyesight online. There are many different options available. We will have a look at some online businesses you can start on a shoestring budget.

   You can set up your own online publication in the form of a web site, and it can be done at a low cost. The key is to build a popular publication that attract visitors. The next step is to learn how to turn the traffic into revenue through advertising and sales of products and services.

Affiliate Marketing

     An affiliate program is a very efficient way for companies to market their products and services online. Your job as an affiliate is to promote the product.

You want to send as many visitors as possible to the companys web site. You do this using your own personal link so the company know to whom they shall send the commission. Whenever a visitor, sent through your link, purchase a product or a service, you’ll earn a commission.

     It’s popular to promote affiliate products using pay-per-click advertising. This method will take some time and money to master. Therefor, if you are on a tight budget you can choose to use other methods. The most reliable approach is to promote on your own web pages, writing articles relating to the product. If you don’t have a web site, it’s well worth to get one. It will be the backbone of your online business.

Article Marketing

      Informative high quality content is always in demand. One of the best free online promoting techniques, is to write articles that web masters can use on their web sites, in return they have to include a resource box at the end of the article. That snippet about you, will contain a live link to your web site.

       This will allow you to build your own business without any cost except for your time. By using this method you can promote your own web site and get both direct traffic and links that will increase your web sites search engine popularity long term.

Other online business ideas

Freelance Writing
Forex trading
paid surveys
Data Entry
Network Marketing

      That’s a few small business ideas for starting an online business on a tiny budget.

By: ove nordkvist

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Who would not want a system that can help people to building a high-traffic website, make money online, and allow you to let your current boring job. 

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If you are looking to make money online you should consider build a website. If you make your own website you will have so many options to not only create income,

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Technorati Tags: entrepreneur ideas, home based business, small business ideas

Posted under best business to start