Archive for October, 2010

Micro Business Roundup October 29, 2010

By | October 29, 2010 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

This was a busy week for our team. Earlier in the week we put out our data on micro businesses using social media sites on their business cards, are you one of the businesses using social networking URLs on your card? We are also setting up next month’s survey which should have some cool results. Have a great Halloween weekend with your family; our treat to you is this week’s edition of the Micro Business Roundup.

Making a micro business – This piece from the Florida Times Union interviews a handful of micro business owners on why they started their own business. Some were out of necessity due to a lost job, but others did it to make some extra money on top of their current job. Do these stories sound like yours?

MAKUHARI, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 18: A hand is placed above the prototype of Fujitsu's new biometric authentication device which can identify a person by reading the veins without the hand touching the device during Asia's biggest digital exhibition, WPC Navi Expo 2003 on September 18, 2003 in Makuhari, Japan. Fujitsu is planning to sell the product in Japan before the end of the fiscal year. (Photo by Junko Kimura / Getty Images)

How a Pas5woRd Can Sink Your Company – How much thought do you put into the passwords that you use for corporate accounts? Is it your wife’s name? kid’s birthday? or something completely random? If you don’t put much thought into yours or use the same one, you may want to read this article on the evils that can be done by hackers who get access to your accounts.

Hiring Your First Salesperson: How to Pass the Torch – All entrepreneurs need to cede some of their responsibilities as their company grows. One problem with this is that they may often set unrealistic goals for their employees who pick up their torch. This article from Entrepreneur offers some great insight into setting realistic expectations.

Landing Clients Is Hit or Miss – Do you have trouble finding leads for your business? It’s OK, you aren’t alone. Many people struggle when looking to land new clients or leads at various points in their business’ life. This article in the Wall Street Journal talks to some businesses in the same situation and shares their tips. Small

Businesses Expect to Grow, But Hiring May Not Follow – According to this article from Kiplinger noted that the majority of respondents to a recent ADP survey noted that they expect their business to grow. Despite this view towards growth, there does not seem to be as optimistic look towards these companies growing in headcount. What do you think? Does you expect your business to grow or add headcount in the coming year?

Social Media Mentions Trending Up on Business Cards

By | October 26, 2010 | Marketing, Offline Marketing | 6 Comments

Business cards continue to evolve over time.  What used to be a simple piece of paper that had a phone number and name on it has morphed into a double-sided snapshot of someone’s business or personality – with graphics, codes, websites, logos, colors, emails, and anything else that can set someone apart while encouraging you to connect with them.  One of the questions Vistaprint often gets is, “Are social media sites or mentions finding their way onto business cards?” We decided to find out.

As social media continues to become a greater focus for our micro business customer base, it appears that references to popular SM sites are in fact making their way onto physical direct marketing materials – specifically business cards.  A recent analysis of U.S. business card orders at Vistaprint over the past 12 months showed that some of the most popular social media properties (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace) have more frequently been appearing on them.  In October of 2009 social media mentions were included on just 2.5% of business card orders.  One year later that number has risen to nearly 4%.

Facebook is the site most mentioned on business cards and has continued to grow in popularity as its user base has increased. In October of 2009, Facebook was included on less than 1% of Vistaprint business card orders.  As of last month, that number had grown to nearly 4%.  And while Twitter has gained in popularity both in usage and amongst the mainstream media, that hasn’t translated into adoption by micro businesses on business cards.  Currently Twitter is mentioned on just under 1% of business card orders, seeing slight gains and losses over a one year span but never cracking the 1% barrier.  Micro businesses are clearly seeing the benefits of having a Facebook page for their business and highlighting it in marketing materials, whereas Twitter has not yet had the same impact.

Not surprisingly, MySpace has fallen in popularity as its user base has diminished.  One year ago the property was mentioned on 1.5% of business card orders.  That number has fallen to .6% just one year later.  Twitter has passed MySpace in terms of business card popularity.  Finally, LinkedIn references were miniscule, holding steady at .1% over the last year.   The hypothesis here is that micro businesses are feeling the need to connect where their customers are, rather than network or connect with other professionals in their space, which is the primary function of LinkedIn.

So are you including any social media sites on your business cards? What have the results been?  Do you plan on including them in more and more direct mail or even online marketing pieces?

Micro Business Roundup, October 22, 2010

By | October 22, 2010 | Marketing, Micro Business Roundup | No comments

Happy Friday everyone, how was your week? Did you see the news this week regarding our new features on our website packages? If not check out the press release here. We’re also excited about the unveiling the first of our four Make an Impression contest winners next week.  We hope you have a great weekend and here is this week’s edition of Micro Business Roundup.

Advertising, marketing and public relations: Where should your resources go? – It’s a debate that micro businesses can wrestle with for years… where do you allocate your limited resources? Different businesses will have different needs, and in turn, different distribution of resources. This Toronto Star article from Tuesday takes a good look about the thought process behind deciding where you place your resources to receive maxim results.

Why Twitter Is a Big Win for Small Businesses – Is your micro business still not engaging on Twitter? You may be missing out. This Mashable.com article from Thursday gives you three different prospective from micro and small business owners who are using Twitter to help grow their business. This article is part of Mashable’s ongoing small business roundtable series. To see more from this useful series, please visit here.

Survey Shows American Local Business Owners Lack Confidence in Government’s Ability to Boost the Economy – An interesting survey was released Thursday from MerchantCircle regarding the confidence of small business owners towards the government’s ability to enhance the economy. Key takeaways include merchants rated today’s economy weaker than it has been over the past year, with 50% saying they would not start their business again in today’s economic climate. However merchants did report optimism about the upcoming holiday season and credit availability. What are your thoughts about this survey? Would you agree or disagree?

How Can I Close More Sales? – A classic question that every business of all sizes encounter day to day. This week’s segment of “Ask Rod” with Rod Kurtz, executive editor for AOL Small Business tackles this difficult question with solutions for converting more sales. Kurtz’s big takeaway is that you don’t want to be over the top with your sales pitch as this can push many potential customers away. What is your biggest tip for closing sales? What helps deliver for you personally?

Somebody Stole My Idea! – Have you ever had your can’t miss business venture idea stolen? Or did someone beat you to the punch of starting a business in your local area? This recent New York Times blog post takes a look at a few ventures that she had thought of, but did not act on for one reason or another. We’d be curious to hear if you ever thought about starting a business but decided not to, only to see the idea go on to be a success with someone else.

Thinking about ROI

By | October 21, 2010 | Marketing | No comments

Perhaps one of the toughest parts of being a micro business owner is deciding what efforts are going to provide you the best return on investment (ROI).  With many micro business owners limited in the amount they can invest on different initiatives (usually their marketing budgets are between 0-$500 per year), it can be stressful deciding where and how to allocate resources. A few poor investments that do not produce quality ROI for your micro business can spell disaster for the life of our business.

But what exactly is ROI and how does it relate to running your business? ROI is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments (for example: comparing different email marketing offers). You can calculate ROI by taking the benefit (return) of an investment and dividing it by the cost of the investment. The results are typically expressed as a percentage.

Here are few tips to think about when you are looking to measure your ROI and invest your resources effectively.

Consider the long tail: Many times business owners equate ROI as a dollar amount. They want to look at ROI as investing X dollars should generate Y dollars. This is fine, but don’t forget the other, non-tangible benefits that are brought in from an investment. For example, you spend $300 on a direct mail piece that contains a special coupon. If that coupon only generates $40 in revenue, is the campaign a failure? It might not be. What if that same direct mail piece helped sign up 20 new newsletter recipients and 25 new Facebook fans? And because those folks are now receiving updates from your business, roughly half of them go on to purchase 6-months after the direct mail piece was delivered. Though the short term ROI may not have been strong, the long term ROI gain from Facebook fans and newsletter recipients turned out to be a success.

More Money Does Not Guarantee More ROI: While possessing a marketing budget the size of a Fortune 500 company would most likely raise your company’s awareness in the marketplace, it doesn’t guarantee strong ROI. Your business should leverage the initiatives that will help deliver the highest ROI. For example, say your micro business sets up a free Facebook fan page for customers to interact and connect with your company. If you generate just one sale from that Facebook fan, you are already producing a high return on investment. It’s important to note that time and energy should be factored into ROI, not just money.  Social media takes time, so that costs you money in the long run.

Test before You Invest: Sustaining a strong ROI on your marketing efforts does not happen entirely out of luck. If you’re looking to invest in something that may be more expensive then you are comfortable spending, try a smaller scale of that same project. The scaled cost (and scaled results) will help you gain a better understanding if this initiative is worth your investment. Unfortunately you need to test your own initiatives as every business is different and making comparisons to other businesses is not feasible.

Set Goals: Like with all facets of your micro business, it’s suggested that you create goals for your ROI. While the simple goal would be “I just want to generate a lot of revenue,” setting goals allows you to determine if an initiative was successful for your business.

How do you measure ROI in your business? Do you measure simple revenue generate, or factor in other

Internet Marketing Doesn’t Have to Be Time Intensive

By | October 19, 2010 | Perspectives | No comments

Today’s Micro Business Perspectives guest post comes from Cathlyn Driscoll, owner of Best Business Mastery.
Our micro-business is mostly consulting and runs mostly online and on the telephone. What resonated with me at Best Business Mastery with Vista Print’s Micro Business Survey was online direct marketing and social media adoption. Both are economical forms of reaching out customers and potential customers.

I disagree with the survey that they are time intensive. Managed properly – with templates, resourceful writers and a consistent schedule of newsletters, email campaigns and posts – I find it much less expensive than other forms of advertising for our niche business. Eventually though, customers will want face to face interaction and some type of printed materials in their hands, whether that is a full out 8-12 page booklet or a simple trifold brochure.

Know your audience. There is a huge difference between the way a 62 year old business owner might get his information in the morning than the 27 year old female junior executive. Deliver your message with the right vehicle for your business.

Micro Business Roundup, October 15, 2010

By | October 15, 2010 | Micro Business Issues | No comments

How was your week? We hope your micro business had another successful week. We’re getting excited about the unveiling of our four Make an Impression contest winners in the coming weeks.  We’ve also been busy putting together some interesting results we came across regarding business card trends. Be on the lookout for those results next week.  We hope you have a great weekend and here is this week’s edition of Micro Business Roundup.

Twitter Prepping Ad Product for Small Businesses – For many, Twitter has been a useful social media tool for promoting your micro business and reaching out to existing, and potential, customers and clients. On Monday, Twitter announced an additional avenue in which small businesses can get noticed on the World’s fastest growing networking site: a self-serve tool for local businesses buying Twitter ads. This Mashable article will give you all the need to know as the Twitter looks to roll out this service.

Strategies: Get the latest info on small business plans – We hope you had a chance to checkout our recent post regarding the importance of revamping and updating your business plan. Here is another great post on the topic from USA Today’s Rhonda Abram about the significance of updating your business plan to incorporate all of today’s business features that may not of been available when you first drew up your plan.

Small Business News: Social Media Mavens – It seems each week we’re passing along an article or two around social media and its potential value to your micro business. This week’s installment comes from Small Business Trends and is a great roundup of social media mavens that will help you expand your knowledge of this ever growing space.

Business ownership is siblings’ cup of tea – We love to share micro business success stories as we come across them. The OC Register this week featured siblings who through hard work and determination were able to open their tea house after 18 months of hardship in getting funding through the recession. Interesting how the couple credits their use of Facebook, Twitter and Yelp among other online sites to help grow their business into the success it’s been over the past year.

Make Your Blog Posts “Must Reads” – Does your micro business website have a blog? Have you ever thought about adding one to your site to enhance your brand and better interact with customers? Take a look at this blog post from our Internet Marketing team who offer a few quick tips on how to make your blog posts “must reads” and keep your customers (and potential customers) coming back for more.

Become a “Linchpin”

By | October 15, 2010 | Micro Business Tips | No comments

Seth Godin is s a pioneer in the realm of social media, marketing and small business. He’s an author, speaker, blogger and entrepreneur. In a recent chat with Entrepreneur.com, he talks about how small businesses will lead in the new economy, but that the way to succeed is to be indispensible, or a “linchpin” as he calls it. Some of his insights and thoughts give new meaning to how small businesses can approach their relationships with customers and their community. This short interview is worth the few minutes.

What are your thoughts, are you a business or person who’s a linchpin in your local community? Should you be?

I’m Leaving the Gate: An Adventure with Twitter

By | October 13, 2010 | Micro Business Issues | 2 Comments

Today’s Micro Business Perspectives guest post comes from Karen Hodges, owner of Synthesis Coaching

When I read the recent survey about marketing behaviors for micro businesses at Vistaprint, the statistic that jumped out at me was that 46% were actively using social media.

I’m not totally sure why, but I’ve been dragging my feet about getting into the conversation on Twitter. Perhaps I’ve gotten a bit too comfortable in my comfort zone?

I should know better, it’s my job as a business coach to help my clients embrace new challenges as adventures. And as micro business owners we’re faced with doing things we’ve never done every day, and that means being uncomfortable at times. Yet, if we let fear stop us from tapping into new opportunities and learning new skills, our business will suffer.

So the question I asked myself was do I really need Twitter? Will it make an impact on my business or is just a fad? Edison Research just released a study called Twitter Usage in America 2010 looking at three years of tracking data from Twitter users to determine whether this platform is gaining momentum.

Here as some findings that can’t be ignored:

  • Twitter “awareness” has exploded to 87% in 2010
  • Nearly two-thirds of active Twitter users access social networking sites using a mobile phone
  • Marketing & business case studies for Twitter far exceed similar usage for social network sites in general
  • 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products

These statistics were definitely convincing enough to get me to take the leap into Twitter. I put together a to-do list that I will share with you to inform and inspire you (plus, I figure revealing this list will help me feel more accountable).

  • Add social media addresses to my email signature file
  • Get new business cards with social media addresses
  • Dedicate time and money to Twitter training
  • Learn HootSuite
  • Spend 30 minutes daily listening and learning
  • Spend 30 minutes a day being in the conversation

So, how about you? Have you been sitting on the sidelines with Twitter? Or maybe it’s another tool or resource that you’ve resisted diving into – even though you know you’re business will benefit?

I’m discovering that I need to step out of my comfort zone, take some risks, make mistakes, and survive these moments of dread in order to grow my business.

Micro Business Roundup, October 8, 2010

By | October 8, 2010 | Micro Business Issues | No comments

How was your week? What are you currently working on to help make your business a success? We are currently working on sending out our first Customer Council survey as well as nailing down details for a micro business event we’ll be hosting in the Boston area. This week’s edition of Micro Business Roundup offers a variety of micro business topics including Facebook group updates and geolocation services and how they can help you attract more customers. Please have a great weekend and here is this week’s edition of Micro Business Roundup.

Getting Comfortable With Self-Promotion – You’ve started a great micro business that offers an amazing product or service, but your marketing efforts are slow to get off the ground. While word of mouth is slow to travel, you’re put in the position of hitting the streets to self-promote (gulp) yourself! While this may come natural and easy to some entrepreneurs, it can be terrifying for others.  This Small Business Trends piece provides a few helpful words of advice about self-promotion and how to effectively do it.

Facebook Retools With Focus on User Control – On Wednesday, Facebook announced a new set of capabilities to give users stronger control over their activities and interactions. Whether you use the popular networking site as part of your micro business marketing mix or for personal use (or both), it’s critical you keep on top of their constantly changing platform as it pertains to your privacy. This Datamation.com article highlights noteworthy new changes that affect Facebook Groups and Chat, as well as finer control over individual privacy.

Geolocation Services: Find a Smartphone, Find a Customer – So your micro business social media repertoire includes a Facebook fan page and a Twitter handle, great! But what more could you be doing within the social media space to help bring customers to your business? Check out this New York Times piece about geolocation services and how they’re helping business reach out to and attract more customers via their smart phones.

Home Sweet Home Office – By now you’ve heard a lot about our recent survey around micro business trends which included the statistic that 63% of respondents worked from their home. Many of you may fit within this micro business demographic. In the October issue of Entrepreneur the staff kicks of a series of articles around different antidotes to ensure you’re home business work is running efficiently and pain-free. We’d be interested in learning what tips you have when setting up your micro business home office.

5 Steps for Your Small Business to Get Credit and Get It Right – While we do not claim to be financial experts, we do keep tabs on all areas of the micro business space. If you’ve ever had questions about how to obtain credit to help grow your business, take a look at this helpful piece we came across this week in Fast Company.  The author offers a handful of tips to help you avoid crucial mistakes that can hurt your chances of landing credit.

Testing is Vital to Success

By | October 7, 2010 | Marketing | No comments

Image courtesy of www.fuelinteractive.com

There were a few things that stood out to me with the results of our latest survey.  The first was that nearly 20% of micro businesses didn’t consider marketing to be a major success factor with their business.  The second was that on average only 53.5% of micro businesses test their marketing campaigns.

Testing is vital to ensure that all marketing campaigns are succeeding.  If you aren’t testing, how will you know what’s working and what’s not with certain audiences and with certain offers?  But more importantly, how do you get started with testing, and what exactly does it mean for you?

As an example, if you’re using direct mail, you can test a number of different things.  Start by picking an area to do your mailing and keep it small.  If you pick 100 new arrivals in the town your business is in, that will give you a good chance to acquire them and buying mailing lists can be easy based on demographics, etc.  From there if you’re sending a postcard, make the offer actionable but also trackable.  If you have a physical store make the postcard a coupon that is redeemed for the offer, so you can see how many people the postcard brought in.  If you’re an online business, include a unique link or a promotional code so you can see how many people took advantage of your postcard mailing.  From there, you can determine how much the campaign cost vs. how much revenue it brought in.  If it was a huge hit, expand the offer to others in town, knowing that it will be worth the investment.

You can do the same thing with email marketing and the tracking is even simpler.  Most email marketing tools allow you to see things like click through rates, open rates and other metrics.  Use the same criteria for tracking as you would with a direct mail piece.  Make a coupon that has to be printed and brought to a physical storefront, or track the discount link you include in your email.  You can also test things like subject lines to see which phrases and words have the most impact on open rates.  Or change the creative look and feel to see which ones resonate with customers.  A/B testing means sending one campaign to one list and then a different one to another list, then comparing the results.  All these tests can be done on a small scale to see patterns that will help you succeed on a larger scale.

Getting as much information you can about your marketing campaigns will allow you to make good decisions and invest your marketing dollars more effectively.  How have you tested your campaigns and have you seen dramatic results that have allowed you to make better decisions?

Share your thoughts with us below.

Page 1 of 212