Archive for September, 2010

Accountability, Focus Paramount in Downtimes

By | September 30, 2010 | Perspectives | No comments

Image courtesy of www.travelblog.com

Today’s Micro Business Perspectives guest post comes from Cathlyn Driscoll, owner of Best Business Mastery.

One of the changes that I see our customers making is  insisting on more face-to-face meetings with their marketing team to review goals and strategies to ensure implementation and targets are on point.

In the past, there seemed to be a concern but also a “laissez-faire’ type of attitude when it came to marketing their business. They knew they needed marketing and ventured into it, but now seem to take it more seriously. I believe they are watching their spending dollars more and making sure they are putting their monies to the best possible use- creating exposure to a tighter, more targeted audience.

The face-to-face meetings being stepped up is markedly significant for those of us who work on the web and who for years have worked with clients without ever actually having face-to-face meetings. The ephemeral, intangible web now seems to be made more tangible through these meetings and they seem to have a greater need for more understanding of these technologies and how they can benefit their businesses.

Education, more phone calls and face-to-face meetings, texting, emails – reassurance of marketing goals will take more time out of actual work time for these clients, but they will ultimately perceive a greater comfort with technologies and the personnel that carry out their plans and projects to their ultimate goals; greater sales, exposure, and brand recognition for their businesses.

As a business owner, this will require more time dedicated to staying in touch and in tune with clients and will create a more ‘team like’ working relationship with them which ultimately works out better for us as service providers. Businesses are about relationships with their clients, and the more contact we have with them the better.

Business Plans Matter

By | September 30, 2010 | Micro Business Issues, Micro Business Tips | 2 Comments

A common denominator that all businesses can agree on is the importance of a well-developed business plan. Many micro businesses who have achieved success in a particular marketplace can point to the execution of a well-built business plan for their accomplishments. Even the success here at Vistaprint started with countless hours of research and planning by President and CEO Robert Keane in his small studio apartment in Paris fifteen years ago.  In fact his business plan then maps almost exactly to what the company is today.

Whether your business plan is in action now or you’re still in the development stages, it’s important to remember that a business plan can be altered as you expand. Here are a few tricks we’ve come across to help make your business plan (and ultimately your business) a success.

Know your mission: Many times new entrepreneurs will jump into a business venture simply to make money.  While that may be a key reason for creating your micro business, making it your driving goal can lead to generating revenues “any way possible” and can potentially end up hurting your business in the long term.  Instead, form your company mission around a key goal such as providing one quality product or delivering customer satisfaction that sets you apart. This will help keep you focused on what’s important and in turn these attributes the correct way will help produce revenue as you grow the business.

Think about your brand: While many entrepreneurs will create a company logo to produce business cards and other stationary items, you should take time to think about your brand image. Whether you are creating a business plan or updating an existing document, take some time to think about what your brand looks like and what it says about you. Whether you want to convey trust, quality or some other attribute, you want to make sure you are planning accordingly during the set-up process.

Know your customers: We’ve all seen it. A new business opens up in town only to be shutdown within the year. Why does this happen? Many times an entrepreneur will not perform the proper market research and realize after closure that their thought of “people need this” was really “I think people need this.” Whether your business will have a brick and mortar proponent, or will operate strictly online (or a mixture of both) make sure you have taken the time to research your market and test the validity of opening your business. Remember, it can be easier to start small and expand your operations later. You don’t have to execute your entire business plan in the first six months of the businesses life.

Have an “emergency” plan: It’s been six months and your business is floundering out of the gates.  Now what? While entrepreneurs are always looking ahead positively things don’t always go as planned, especially in our current economic climate. While you’re mapping out your road to success, you should also take a step back to think about what happens if things go wrong. Would you look to a new marketing strategy? Perhaps expand your product or service offering?  Or would you decide that you’d shut your doors if your business ever hit a certain low point? Creating a plan with these issues in mind will help you save valuable time during critical period in the lifecycle of your micro business.

Use your networks: Don’t start your business plan thinking you need to recreate the wheel. You may have friends or families who have started and maintained a successful micro business. Ask to see their business plan (if you are not creating a competing business). Simply viewing their business plan can help you get started, as well as asking questions and receiving feedback from fellow entrepreneurs.  In addition, don’t be afraid to share your plan with those you deem helpful.

These tips should help you create and alter a more robust business plan. Your plan should not be viewed as a “set it and forget it” document, but a tool you go back to frequently to review and revise.  If you need help with your business plan, feel free to drop us an email, tweet us or leave a comment, we’re happy to offer advice.

Use Free Time to Maximize Your Efforts

By | September 28, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Today’s Micro Business contributed post comes from Erin Herold, owner of www.harkherold.com.

As micro business owners, we do not typically operate under the same constraints faced by major corporations.   We don’t require Board approval to make changes to our marketing strategies, we have greater flexibility with the content and direction of our marketing programs and have the ability to efficiently and effectively market ourselves with minimal expenditure.

The economic downturn has caused many companies to downsize their non-revenue and ‘non-essential’ departments.  Mine was one of them.

By taking time and seriously considering long term goals for my business, I have utilized this new-found free time to maximize efforts in expanding my offering and taking a long, hard look at how I have been marketing myself.

When employed full-time, my micro business was more of a dream than an active reality.  I ordered the supplies needed to have the ability to launch my business when the timing was right.   My office is filled with fantastic marketing materials for, ironically, my online marketing business.  I have a few clients that I work with on a regular basis, but did not have the time to take on new commitments.

Post-layoff, I took the time to beef up my website, order third-generation business cards that now present the image I want to sell to my clients.  The businesses I worked with in my past professional life have now become clients and prospects – they know my ethics, they recognize my abilities, and we have a pre-established positive relationship.

For established micro business owners, I encourage you to seek out new ways of building your business.  If you have a website, but are not active on social media – now is the time!  Most of the tools are free; establishing accounts, finding a preferred social network stream aggregator to monitor your business presence online, and getting involved in the newest trends.

Early adopters of internet ‘trends’ have the luxury of being among the first to get your brand name populating search engines, generating traffic through online gaming programs, and being involved in your area’s online community.  It takes time, yes, but if you are experiencing a slowdown in traffic, the time is available – it’s how you choose to use it.

Seek out online communities in your area and become active.  Share your personality first and product second with thousands of people in your area, for absolutely free.

If you are not internet savvy, or just simply don’t get it, that’s fine – there are plenty of former professional marketers with years of experience just starting their own companies to show you the way and assist you in your efforts.  Think of how you began your business, how you wanted to share your product or your skills with the world and re-energize that dream.

Downturn is only that for those that ride the wave.  Grab your board and rise above it.  The view is endless!

Recession Forces Micro Businesses To Seek Education

By | September 27, 2010 | Micro Business Issues, Perspectives | No comments

Today’s Micro Business Perspectives guest post comes from Shakira Brown, owner of Best Business Mastery.

About a year ago, my business partner and I were leaning toward helping small business owners do more of their own marketing. Today, we are finding that small business owners embarking on marketing for the first time need more assistance from us. This is because the needs of our potential customers have changed.

Many of the small business owners who call on me to help raise their profile using public relations  need more than that. I am hearing from business owners who say they have never needed to do any sort of promotion for their business because their customer base constantly recommended them.  The reason why they call on me now is because the referrals have stopped and business has literally dried up.  For me this means  that I need to provide more comprehensive  services beyond public relations to get them up to speed which equates to website design, branding, message development and sometimes much more.

In addition, I am serving in the role of business adviser to many small business clients seeking  marketing help for the first time. Many small business owners in operation for more than 10 years  are being approached to advertise and they are considering it for the very first time. In order for my clients not to be taken for a ‘free ride’ by slick sales people I help them make decisions on what they should consider and what they should do.

Getting small business owners up to speed with how the internet works and how they can benefit from it is the biggest part of what we are doing today. Explaining how search engines work and the importance of optimizing websites for search is quite challenging. In the end, I usually give them enough information to trust my suggestions. The downturn has definitely led to an increase in business opportunity, however, the small businesses retaining us need more assistance than ever before which means that we have to increase the level of services we provide to satisfy demand.

Micro Business Roundup September 24, 2010

By | September 24, 2010 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

This was an exciting week for our team. We rolled out our first micro business survey and also announced that Vistaprint was one of FORTUNE’s 100 fastest growing companies.

a computer displaying the message printing online discount coupons

How was your week? Did you impress your customers or start a new marketing campaign? We would love to hear about what you have going on. Here is this week’s edition of Micro Business Roundup.

Small Business And Social Marketing – After seeing the results of our micro business survey that showed 46 percent of micro businesses use social media, we felt like this article from Forbes would be a great one to share.

Some businesses are victims of social-couponing – Everyone always says that they want their offer to go viral, but what does that mean? This story talks about businesses who realized that social couponing got them more customers than they could handle. One business owner had to dip into their personal savings to pay rent and payroll. Check it out if you are thinking of testing the social couponing waters.

Impressing Your Employee’s Better Half – When hiring employees you usually focus on making the employee happy to accept the job. This article from the WSJ notes that one way to help keep employees happy is to impress their significant other. One way suggested in the piece is to make their first day awesome.

Small Businesses Expect Social Media Usage to Become Profitable – This Small Business Trends article shows some interesting numbers in terms of profitability of social media. It shows that 57 percent of businesses recently surveyed say that they expect social media to become profitable.

Expert Gene Marks weighs in on how to increase 2010 profits – This post is a teaser to a webinar hosted by Gene Marks, a business management expert. It might be worth checking out.

Are Yellow Pages a Thing of the Past?

By | September 23, 2010 | Micro Business Issues | 4 Comments

CC 3.0 / Andrew Sullivan Kabl00ey

If you saw the post we ran on Monday that surveyed Vistaprint micro business customers, you might have noticed that there was data that suggested Yellow Page listings and ads were no longer an area of focus.  In fact, just 3% surveyed considered it the most important marketing channel for their business, and only 28% indicated they currently had a listing or ad or planned on pursuing one in the next 12 months.  This was the lowest of the five channels offered in terms of current and future interest.

This past weekend Bruce Barker, an Athens, Georgia business owner and contributor to the Athens Banner Herald told a story in his column about how much of an impact Yellow Page ads once had, but no longer have in today’s internet savvy world.

I remember back in the 1980s and 1990s when our business was spending as much as $1,200 a month for two display ads in the Yellow Pages. It hurt every year when the Yellow Pages man came around, and I cringed when I had to sign the yearlong contract. But, at the time, the Yellow Pages was a main source of information. Businesses that wanted to be seen had to advertise in the Yellow Pages – and the bigger ads stood out more. Things have changed, and now more consumers are getting their information from the Web. We ask most of our new customers how they found us, and more than 65 percent say Google and the Internet.

The point, it seems, is that more and more people are going online to do local searches for businesses.  That much is obviously, but are the traditional print ads no longer effective? Organic searches are  key for businesses to get found, and sites like Yelp are allowing consumers to offer up real time reviews and influence the purchasing power of others.  Yellow Pages has truly embraced the move online and acted accordingly, providing content and other services beyond just listings.  But will listing services ultimately not survive as a relevant avenue for small and micro businesses? Will they get the know how and savvy to pop up in local searches and reap the benefits of the move online?

The data would suggest yes, but what are your thoughts?

Are you currently using Yellow or White Page listings or ads for your business? Have you found value in them? Will you continue to use them?

Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Image courtesy of CC 3.0 / Andrew Sullivan Kabl00ey via Flickr.com.

Streamline Processes in Tough Times

By | September 22, 2010 | Micro Business Issues | No comments

Today’s Micro Business contributed post comes from Caprice de Lorm, owner of de Lorm Designs.

The economy. The stock market. Spending. What a roller coaster ride it has been, and continues to be. How is it impacting my business and goals, at least in one way?

The impacts of the economy to my customers and also to my business, has shown that it is important that business fundamentals are strong and that there is space for the fluctuations that are occurring in the current environment. The downturn has created an opportunity to further streamline processes and increase offerings so that my business continues to be efficient, flexible, and responsive.

I have noticed that many clients appear distracted financially and mentally as a result of the economic instability. They are concerned about the downturn and unknowns and are doing what they can to operate as economically as possible. Many are not sure what the future holds and its impacts to their short or long term processes. As a result, many clients are focusing on being more careful with spending yet sometimes are behaving in a way that might instead cost more money or result in lower productivity.

Because of the volatility, some clients are not willing to invest in infrastructure at this time or may be doing so in a condensed fashion. What I have observed is that these clients are more hesitant to proceed with projects or project elements. This can result in delays in funding and approval, as well as delays in payment processing. This can also result in a reduced, or “bare bones”, version of a project that would otherwise be more comprehensive in scope. For example, a client that would typically want a ten page website is launching with a three page version that can expand as the economy stabilizes. Another client has taken on the task of learning how to edit their site content to save on administrative fees. Read more…

Vistaprint Survey Shows 46% of Micro Businesses Use Social Media

By | September 20, 2010 | Business Stories, Small Business Experts | 7 Comments
Vistaprint Survey Shows 46% of Micro Businesses Use Social Media

You have heard the term “micro business” a lot on this blog and some of you might be wondering what exactly that means. For us, it means any business that has between one and 10 employees.  So if you’re self-employed, you’re a micro business.  So if you just have a small dog walking operation that you do part time during the week, that’s a micro business. But if you own a deli in the center of town and you only have a staff of 10, you also would be considered one.  While the industries and stories vary, this group is a very small but vital subsection of the “small business” community.

Other surveys have focused on “small businesses” that range from one employee to 50, 100 or even 500, but our target audience is the very small micro business (often referred to as small office/home office businesses, or SOHO businesses), typically local and with an average of less than 60 customers.  Collectively they have a big impact on communities across the nation.  You have more than likely done business with one in the past year.

But how do micro businesses behave, how do they market to others and do they even consider marketing a vital component to their success?  If so, what channels are they using right now and what would they explore if they had more money and more time?   These are questions that we posed to a group of Vistaprint micro business customers (over 90% of Vistaprint customers are considered micro businesses, based on internal survey data) and the results were interesting to say the least, click here to see the questions asked in the survey.

For example, many micro businesses seek out advice and counsel on marketing from friends and family, as well as other micro businesses they interact with locally. Very few actually leverage resources like a local Small Business Administration office or Chamber of Commerce.  Also, over 40% of them are currently using some form of social media for their marketing initiatives, while another 36% use online direct marketing.  These businesses are moving online due to the lower costs and easier tools that now exist to help them grow.

Did you also know that only 3% cited Yellow Page listings as their most important marketing channel?  Another 66% indicated they have no interest in this medium as a channel for future growth.  Business listings used to be the lifeblood of any local business, but no longer appears to be the case. Nearly 30% identified physical direct marketing as their most important marketing channel, so some of the “tried and true” marketing channels that have been around for decades are still important.  And micro businesses tend to be savvy; we found that an average of nearly 54% of Vistaprint’s micro business customers currently test their marketing campaigns to see what’s working and what’s not.  With limited budgets, they have to make sure that what they are doing is getting a good return on investment otherwise they could risk serious setbacks.

As we continue to explore the trends, attitudes, and behaviors of the micro business community, what are some of yours? Do you fall into the categories of the data sheet at the top? How do you differ?  Do you think you’ll try something new as a result of this research and what else would you like to learn about your fellow micro businesses?

Let us know in the comments section.

Micro Business Roundup, September 17, 2010

By | September 17, 2010 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

It was a busy week around the office as we have been putting the finishing touches on a micro business survey that we recently conducted. We’re excited to share the data in the coming weeks and it is a glimpse of what’s to come from our team moving forward, Have a great weekend and enjoy this week’s edition of the Micro Business Roundup.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) joined by other Senators, speaks on the Senates passage of the Small Business Lending bill, on Capitol Hill in Washington on September 16, 2010. The Senators said that this bill would help to allow small business growth. UPI/Kevin Dietsch Photo via Newscom

Marketing Strategy: Buddy Up – Marketing your business is hard, especially in tough economic times. The WSJ offers some pretty interesting tips in this piece on partnering with other businesses to maximize exposure to your company. Have you done this?

How to Create an Online Buzz – It is safe to say that social media is not going away any time soon. Micro businesses are entering every day, but what does this mean for you? How can you leverage social media for your business? This Fox Small Business Center article provides eight quick tips to help get your social media presence off the ground and in the right direction.

Former Lehman’s banker drives startup Zimride – For many of you, you’re already entrenched in the day to day efforts of operating a micro business. For others, they’re looking to jump into the game for one reason or another. This article from Reuters profiles a pair of entrepreneurs who came together to create a business that promoted greener living through a different look on carpooling. The company today consists of just 10 employees and already has contracts with 60 colleges and corporations and became profitable just last year!

Senate Passes Bill to Aid Small Businesses – No matter your political views, the heavily debated bill for small business (that could affect your own business) was finally passed by the Senate on Thursday. This New York Times article gives a nice, quick roundup of what the bill includes and the pros and cons. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for approval.

Five Reasons Why Social Media Is Right for Small Business – If you are still on the proverbial social media fence, check out this piece from the folks at Marketing Profs. It offers some great reasons to bring your business to the social Web.

- Jason Keith

Getting Your Feet Wet in Social Media

By | September 16, 2010 | Micro Business Tips | No comments

– Jason Keith

There is no question that social media is currently one of the hottest marketing topics.  Despite the buzz, don’t feel like you have to start everything immediately. Instead, think about it like you were starting your business; small and strategic steps now can reap large benefits in the future.

A few years ago the team at Vistaprint was in the same situation, wondering where to get started in the social media space.  Here are five tricks that we learned along the way that can help you get your micro business started in social media.

Claim your brand – The first and most vital step is to claim your brand name across all networks. Sites like KnowEm, Clam.io and namechk are sites that will let you know if your name is available across over 300 social networks. If it has been taken or you have a name that may be similar to another company, select a name that can easily be identified with you across multiple networks. For example if you own John’s Pizza and it is taken consider a social handle like JohnsPizzaNYC as it identifies you with a geographical region.

Separate church and state – Despite having social in the name of the platform; keep your personal accounts separate from your business account. Doing so will not only offer great support and interaction with your customers, but will offer you separation from work. This is especially important when looking to unwind or take a vacation from the business.

Fish where the fish are – It may sound cliché, but you need to be active where your customers are. That means that even if a network is extremely popular, but your customers aren’t there, it is not where you should focus your efforts. Instead start out where they corrugate as it has the most likelihood to help build a stronger relationship. After a connection has been established you can branch out from there.

Listen (really listen) and connect – Having a big set of ears may be the biggest asset to have when entering into a social media conversation. Do a search on the major networks to see what is being said about you. There will probably be a mixed bag of comments coming out. Some will be flattering while others will be alarming and scary. Be sure to take it all in and see it as a way to improve your business. This is honest feedback so thank positive responses and don’t ignore the negative ones. Ask these individuals how you can improve on the issues that they are complaining about. You will be surprised at how quickly some of these people will become your brand’s strongest allies after making a few tweaks.

Be Patient – Much like a contractor building a house, a social community takes time to build. Be sure to let your customers know where they can find you on social networks. This can be done in many ways from signs by a cash register or links from your website or emails. Once they know where to find you, customers will look to connect and build up their relationship with you.

These tips should help you get your business started on the social Web, but the whole experience is what you make it. So have fun and do it the way that you think is right as there is no right or wrong way to do it. If you need help along the way, feel free to drop us a line, tweet us or leave a comment, we’re more than happy to offer some tips.

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