Archive for February, 2011

What Does Small Business Optimism Really Mean?

By | February 28, 2011 | Micro Business Issues, Small Business Experts | No comments

Small business optimism is a hot topic and it’s something that many are trying to measure. One thing that’s near certain is that small businesses are survivors and by default optimistic, at least the ones we’ve interacted with over the years. In our most recent survey, we found that micro and very small business optimism was very high – specifically meaning those polled think they will make the same or more money than they did in the previous year.  They also believed that small businesses as a whole will help lead the US out of the current economic climate.  But what does optimism really equate to on the whole and more importantly, how does it impact the overall economy?

While we found that the majority of micro businesses were optimistic and planned on making more money this year, over 70% of them didn’t plan on hiring anyone – either part or full-time – in 2011.  While this is to be somewhat expected with businesses this size -many of them sole proprietorships – it begs the question does optimism coincide with employment and growth then ultimately have a broader impact on the economy as a whole?  Or can small and micro businesses have an impact simply by spending to expand their businesses outside of employing others?

Intuit’s monthly small business employment index recently cited a .03 percent growth in employment amongst small businesses with less than 20 employees, which would translate to a 4% growth rate for the entire year. A recent ADP survey also indicated small business hiring was trending up, but that small businesses had shed three million jobs over the past three years.  Meanwhile, the National Federation of Independent Businesses also released results for January that said small business optimism rose 1.5 points in January but was “blunted by small business owners’ skepticism about the future and continued hesitancy to spend and hire.”  Oftentimes it seems optimism is being equated with hiring amongst small businesses, which isn’t necessarily the case.

For our survey, it appeared optimism meant two things: small businesses were willing to continue to stay in business (and continue making money) for 2010 and also spend money to expand their business in 2011.  These two things alone are going to spur economic growth, especially when considering the sheer number of micro businesses in the US alone (25 million.)  Optimism did not equate to hiring of employees, which is an important distinction.  But as we’ve found on a daily basis in interacting with micro business customers, they are almost always optimistic. That’s why they went out on their own to start their own venture in the first place. They think they can make it work, they want to follow their passion and they want to work hard to make whatever dream they have a success.

Our data was encouraging in that it appears small and micro businesses feel that on the whole, things are turning around and they can spend more to expand (and specifically market) their business.  Let’s hope that that optimism continues and that spending continues to spur economic growth.  What about you, are you optimistic about your business in 2011?  And what does that optimism mean specifically?

Share your thoughts in the comments section.

 

Micro Business Roundup

By | February 25, 2011 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

Happy President’s Day week everyone. We hope you had a great week. This week we launched our latest survey results, which centered on small and micro business optimism in 2011. Statistics looked at overall optimism of the micro business marker, social media trends and hiring as we move deeper into the new year. If you haven’t already, please take a look and let us know your feedback. Have a great weekend and enjoy this week’s edition of the Micro Business Roundup.


4 Lessons for Company Presidents from George Washington and Abe Lincoln – With the nation celebrating President’s Day this past Monday, we can look back and reflect on what our nations past leaders taught us. In this recent post from Open Forum, it appears President’s Washington and Lincoln demonstrated a lot about running a successful business. What’s your favorite lesson? We’re partial to failure is part of the entrepreneurial journey.

Has Social Media Changed Customer Service? – Does your micro business utilize different social media platforms to help solve customer service issues? John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing produced a podcast with Peter Shankman, founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., regarding how smaller businesses can choose what social media medium is right for them and how you can help build trust and credibility with your customers, both existing and potential. Have you utilized Twitter or Facebook (or another medium) to help resolve a customer issue?

5 Survival Tips for Work Overload – Whether you work for a large company or as an entrepreneur (or both), you workload always gets to hectic. The recent blog post from Tim Berry at BPlans.com critiques another post about five tips for helping you survive a work overload. Our big take a ways included forcing yourself to take downtime and not abandoning your daily habits, even if they can be distracting.

Small businesses learn to tweet, post, and blog – Since the inception of this blog, we’ve preached a lot about the value of social media and how it can help assist your marketing efforts. In a recent article by our local paper, The Boston Globe, different small businesses talk about their experiences within social media. Be sure to check out the piece discussing the use of social check-in services and how they’ve helped grow businesses.

4 Reasons Your Brand Should Avoid Facebook – Does your micro business have a presence on the popular social networking site Facebook.com? Do you feel like it’s a waste of your time to be there, but you stay on because “everyone is on Facebook?” There could be a chance that Facebook is not suitable for your business brand. Check out this post from Small Biz Trends to learn more and see if your company should be present on Facebook (don’t worry, even if your business shouldn’t be, you can keep your personal account).

[INFOGRAPHIC] Small Business Optimism in 2011

By | February 24, 2011 | Marketing, Micro Business Insight, Micro Business Issues, Social Media | 3 Comments

Today Vistaprint announced the latest results of a recent survey with very small and micro businesses around their optimism for 2011, their likelihood of hiring and whether or not they will be spending money to expand their business.  Not surprisingly, optimism is high and they intend to invest money in their businesses, but aren’t likely to hire in the coming year.  For full details on the results you can see our release here, or click here for a larger infographic image.

Click Image for Larger View

Click here for larger image.

LinkedIn – Good for Your Small Business?

By | February 23, 2011 | Marketing, Micro Business Insight, Micro Business Issues, Online Marketing, Social Media | 4 Comments

Social media is on the rise, and the adoption rate among small businesses is growing. We’ve seen sites like Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and foursquare all take off in terms of popularity in the past year.  One site that hasn’t been mentioned as much in the small business and micro business space is LinkedIn.  The site, which is aimed at networking, connecting and conversing has been trying to take steps to get more small businesses on the site, rather than individuals.

Our research has shown that LinkedIn was the least mentioned social media site amongst the big competitors, on Vistaprint ordered business cards.  But the company recently launched a series of videos designed to show small businesses how they can utilize the site, create profiles and connect with others to drive business and ultimately sales.  For sole proprietors out there, it’s worth a look.  Truthfully  a LinkedIn profile is a relatively simple one to set up, and can rank highly in organic searches.  And you just might find groups that can lend insight and advice on how to run your business, or you could end up with a partner before you know it.

Are you a small or micro business that uses LinkedIn to drive connections and leads that have paid off for your business?  Let us know in the comments section below.

Micro Business Roundup

By | February 18, 2011 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

Middleton Place [slide]The week has been really busy for the Micro Business Perspectives team. We’re wrapping up the data of our latest survey and will have something pretty cool for you to check out next week. We were also surprised with some warm weather this week and it’s supposed to hit 60 degrees today in Boston so we’re pretty excited that it may be a sign that spring is on its way.  Hopefully the weather is great by you and you’ve got some entertainment planned for the weekend. Be sure to check back next week and enjoy this week’s edition of the Micro Business Roundup.

Small Business Administration yet to set rules on new loan program – Congress passed a two-year program for small businesses to refinance their mortgages. One problem is that the SBA has yet to release rules surrounding the program so lenders cannot offer the program to businesses. Good news is that the SBA looks to have these rules by the end of the month. Would this program benefit your business?

Saying “No” To Customers Can Save Your Company – While we all love our customers and want to make them happy, it is not sustainable to act upon every suggestion that comes into suggestion boxes or surveys. What is sustainable is working on the vital fixes that will not only accommodate short-term wins, but also long-term ones as well.  Don’t believe it? Read some examples of how Henry Ford and Steve Jobs built their companies on this principle.

Making Local Reviews Part of the Content Strategy – Do you know what your customers are saying about you on Yelp and Google? Have you ever thought about interacting with the folks leaving reviews? You might want to consider it because it can help you out in local search. If you are on the fence and want to see a success story, check out this post’s case study of a Brooklyn Optometrist.

Four Tips for Raising Your Google Rank – there is no question that Google is important for your business. Ranking higher means that people can see you before your competitors. But how can you make your site rank higher? This article from Entrepreneur offers tips to help you improve your ranking.

Why It’s Worth Paying for a Tax Pro – It is almost that wonderful time of the year. You know the one that we all love – tax season.  While many folks can use a tax program to whip up their personal taxes, there are many things that may go overlooked when filing taxes for your business. This article from the WSJ looks at some horror stories of people who did not enlist a professional when filing their business’ return. Do you hire someone to handle your taxes?

Small Business Taxes: 48% Don’t Do Them Alone

By | February 16, 2011 | Micro Business Insight, Micro Business Tips | 1 Comment

April 15 (although this year it’s April 18) is a date that every individual, small business, corporation and accountant knows all too well.  It’s the deadline to file a tax return for the previous year’s income, and that means one way or another you have to navigate the tax waters to figure out what you owe or what you might have coming back to you.  We’ve talked about tax changes in the past and how it could affect your business, but today we have some new numbers to share with you.

As we’ve said previously, very small and micro businesses are extremely loyal when it comes to other local businesses; they are likely to do business with another local business owner, rather than go to a big company for example.  It’s a sign of community, camaraderie and trust.  Trust plays a big part in allowing another professional to do your taxes.  But statistics have shown that over the past five years, electronic filing as a whole has taken off, oftentimes cutting out accountants.  In a recent story in the Syracuse Post-Standard, John Mariani cited IRS figures that “30 percent of the 224.4 million returns filed in 2004 were done electronically; last year, 46 percent of the 236.5 million returns were electronic. Individuals especially have been quick to latch on. In 2004, 47 percent of returns filed by individuals were electronic; last year, 66 percent were.”

Are small businesses following that trend as well? A recent Wall Street Journal story talked about the deductions many small businesses might be losing out on if they decide to file their taxes themselves, as well as the hassles associated with filing.  There are risks with not knowing the potential pitfalls of doing it alone. With that in mind, we surveyed our micro business owners to find out whether or not they trusted someone else to do their tax return – a tax professional – or simply used an online software to do guide them through the process.  While we’ll be releasing more detailed results of our entire survey – including numbers on micro business confidence for 2011, the likelihood of hiring, spending habits and other topics – we did want to divulge our findings around taxes given the deadline is fast approaching.

According to our recent survey data, 48 percent of micro businesses use a tax professional to do their taxes.  But that doesn’t mean that the other 52 percent choose to do them on their own.  In fact, 17 percent indicated they don’t have to file a tax return in relation to their small business, while another 35 percent said they do go through the process on their own. Surprisingly, 23 percent don’t use any online tax software as a guide or aid, preferring to do it themselves without any assistance. Some of this percentage are undoubtebly accountants or tax professionals themselves, but the number is still high. So what tax software do people use when they do decide to file online without any help?  Not surprisingly, Intuit’s TurboTax option was the most popular choice.

So for your business, do you compile your taxes on your own, or do you trust an accountant to help? Have you done your taxes before only to realize later you were missing out on more money coming back?  Let us know your thoughts and stories in the comments section.

Valentine’s Day Marketing: Pros and Cons

By | February 14, 2011 | Email Marketing, Marketing, Micro Business Insight, Micro Business Tips, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing | 1 Comment

Happy Valentine’s Day all! A few weeks ago, I received an email offer from one of my favorite New England gold courses with the subject line “A Sweetheart of a Valentine’s Golf Deal.” The first line of the email simply read, “Flowers fade. Chocolates are quickly gone. But the gift of a bluebird day on a golf course in Maine? THAT says love!” and proceeded to offer me an early-bird deal on golfing this spring. Now for anyone familiar with the current weather in New England, we are more than a few months away from hitting the links. But that’s not the question that came to my head. Instead, I was curious, is marketing an off target product or service effective around an upcoming holiday?

Obviously, if your micro business sells chocolates, flowers, jewelry or other traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, marketing around Valentine’s Day is a must. But in the case of this golf promotion, did the company have to pull Valentine’s Day into their email marketing campaign to be effective? Was it relevant? Chances are I’d be enticed to save a few dollars on a round of golf whether it was tied into Valentine’s Day or not, so it was at least a good reason to get in touch with me.

But let’s take a closer look at what you should consider and think about before doing a campaign specifically around non-traditional “holidays.”

Pros:

  • Staying Connected: If you have an existing mailing list that customers and potential customers have opted into, you want to reach out to them often with news and offers. Valentine’s Day gives you an opportunity to reach out with an offer, even if your product or service is not a perfect match for the holiday (i.e. the golf outing offer mentioned above). Valentine’s Day (or any holiday) can also be used as a reason just to check-in and say hi and wish everyone a happy holiday. Most importantly, you want to stay top of mind with your customers, so events are always a good reason to reach out, even if you’re not strictly selling.
  • Good Timing: Chances are if you use direct mailing/email marketing, you exhausted your mailing list leading up to the busy holiday season last November and December. After giving your list a rest in January, Valentine’s Day gives you a reason to ramp back up with an offer and recent news. As a marketer you have to look for opportunities to reach out, and with a lull between January and February, this could be a good chance.

Cons:

  • Annoying Your Customers: While customers and potential customers may have signed up for your mailing list, you don’t want to seem like you are intruding on their inbox. Most times, customers want to hear from you when you have a relevant offer for them, rather than trying to shoehorn your business into a holiday that doesn’t make sense. Going back to the golf promotion, did they have to connect their offer to Valentine’s Day? Probably not.
  • Valentine’s Day Scrooges: Given the love and romanticism tied to Valentine’s Day, many folks are turned off by it; some do not even recognize it as a “holiday.” Depending on your target market and demographics, you stand the chance of annoying your target base by trying to leverage a holiday some aren’t a “fan” of. So be careful, know what your customers want and want they are likely to react poorly to.

Unfortunately, there is no clear cut do or don’t when it comes to marketing on various non-traditional holidays such as Valentine’s Day. You have to decide if the benefits outweigh the risks. But as is the case with all marketing, knowing your customer base is paramount.  You need to have a feel for what works and what doesn’t, and what your customers will respond to versus what they won’t.  It’s always better to air on the side of caution, rather than turning off a large portion of your customer base.  And of course you can always test an offer on a holiday like Valentine’s Day to a portion of your list and gauge the reaction.  If it’s a positive one, St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner

So what’s your approach to Valentine’s Day marketing? Do you hold off on reaching out to your customers, or do you use the holiday as a reason to reconnect?

On another note, I didn’t end up buying the rounds of golf, but next time around, that might change.

Micro Business Roundup

By | February 11, 2011 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

Did this week fly by or is it just me? One minute we were watching the Super Bowl and then next, well it was Friday morning. The team has also been busy crunching the numbers on our latest survey that we produced with data from our customer council so be on the lookout for that data in the next week or so. Do you have any big weekend plans or sales going on for your customers? If so, we’d love to hear about them below in the comments (who knows, we may make ask you to do a case study blog post on it). Hopefully you have a great weekend, and here is this week’s edition of the Micro Business Roundup.secrets

The dirty little secret of successful companies – While you always hear that great employees make great companies, you probably don’t hear much about having to hire borderline great folks. This piece from the New York Times looks at building a great company and letting go of employees who just don’t fit that great mold.

5 Technology Tools Small Businesses Must Have Today – Have you ever stopped to think about what kinds of technologies you couldn’t live without? If you haven’t and happen to own a micro business, Steve Strauss does a great job outlining ones that your business can’t live without.

A License to Shampoo: Jobs Needing State Approval Rise – As folks across the country are calling to cut regulations to stimulate growth, there is a group of people who are clamoring for more regulation. This group is looking to get legislation that would help make more industries require licensing from their state. Those against it say that it will limit competition for better prices to the consumer. What do you think?

Yelp Data Shows the Power of Mobile Marketing – If you are looking for reasons to look into testing the waters of mobile marketing, consider that 35% of all searches on Yelp.com came from the company’s local application. That means that a decent chunk of people searching for a local business did so on the go.  Lisa Barone discusses that percentage along with a few more that may make you do another double take on mobile marketing.

How to Make Your Business Greener (and Save Money) – Everyone likes to save money and many of us strive to be greener. Combining the two to help out your business can only be seen as a win overall. But how can you do both? Well if you are Mi Rancho or San Leandro, California, you can do both while saving $100,000 per year. On top of the case study, this piece offers a number of tips to help save your company some greenbacks while also going a little greener.

Image – Martoulette

Focus, Focus and More Focus

By | February 9, 2011 | How To, Marketing | 1 Comment

We asked our fans on Facebook what the biggest challenge in marketing their business was, and one of the common themes was uncertainty in which marketing methods would work best and how to truly succeed.  With so many options and so much competition, people just aren’t sure where to turn first.  Things like rate of return, ROI and effectiveness were all mentioned as difficult to quantify.

The truth is, every company struggles with which marketing efforts work best, how to optimize them and how to get the greatest rate of return.  If marketing was easy, everyone would be succeeding at it.  But just like big companies, you face budget constraints, competition (locally) and clutter.  The key to marketing is to focus on what you think will make you successful.  Be it one product or service you offer (and a competitive price) or one marketing method that you think can have the best chance to succeed, you need to do a few things really well.  Being all things to all customers is impossible.  There are dozens of channels that you could use to attract customers – email marketing, social media, direct mail, advertising, local and paid search, signage, local events, networking – the list goes on and on.

Marketing takes time, effort, resources and patience.  But you have something in your business that’s unique, something that your customers need.  Focus on showcasing that and offering it at a price that will continue to keep them coming back. As John Jantsch argues in a recent blog post, focus can be critical, and there’s a good case study here that shows how it can pay off.

And as an aside to focusing on just a few things or a few channels, the one marketing tactic you should always have in mind is getting a referral from an existing customer.  As a small or micro business, referrals are the life blood of your business.  One of the most effective ways to grow quickly is to have others sing your praises for you.  From there, loyal customers will hopefully follow.  Give your customers incentives to refer someone else to you, and focus on the things that you do well.

Have you found that focus helps in your business? Do you think that focusing might help your long term results?

How to set up Google Places

By | February 7, 2011 | How To | 1 Comment

One of the most important things for businesses is to get found online, and local search is starting to become more and more popular for consumers.  One of the top spots to be seen by potential customers is on Google through a local search. With local search, even businesses without their own website can be found by anyone searching for particular businesses within a geographical region via Google Places. You may have seen these listings in a Google search like the ones in the image below:

Local Business Search on Google

Google Places is a free service that Google offers to business owners, so if you haven’t already taken advantage and claimed your own place page, you should do it immediately.   We’ll walk you through the process to make it simple and easy. Before we move any further, please create a Google account (click here) if you don’t already have one.

Step One

To get started, log onto http://www.google.com/places/ and select “Places for Business”

Step 2

If you are not logged into Google, you will be asked to login at this time. If you are logged in already, click the “List your business” button.

Step 3

Enter your main business phone number for Google to search and add your country. Once done, click the “Find business information” button.

Google Places

Step 4

Google will then search for your business by phone number. If your business is in their database, some information will be pre-populated and if not you will have to fill in the pertinent details about your business.  The two areas that you will want to fill in completely are your website and hours of operations. You want customers coming to you and knowing when they can expect service from you.

Google will ask you to categorize yourself so be sure to add categories that your business may fit into. For example if you own a sandwich shop, make sure that you add up to five categories relating to your business that people may use to search for you including sandwich shop, catering, lunch, etc. As you fill in the data, Google will generate a preview of how your listing will appear in searches.

Step 5

After filling in all of the information above, you have the ability to spruce up your page with any pictures or videos that you have for your business.  You can add up to five videos and 10 photos, so if you have them, place them here. They will only help customers see what your location looks like.  If you offer a service like interior design, you may also want to consider pictures of recent jobs that you have completed.

Step 6

This is the most important step of the entire process of setting up your Google Places listing. Take a few minutes to read through your listing to make sure that everything is correct. You can always come back and edit or add details later, but you want the first impression that customers have of you to be the correct one. Once that has been completed, click the “Submit” button.

Step 7

All that is left now is to validate your listing with Google. This can be done via mail or telephone. The phone method involves Google texting you a confirmation to your cell phone that is entered into their system to confirm. A postcard can also be sent to your location to complete the process, but takes longer. Please note that if your listing was not previously in the system you will need to go the postcard route that takes two-three weeks and is pictured below.

What will my listing look like?

Below is an example of what your completed page will look like.

Once all of these steps have been completed, you’ll be visible on local searches and hopefully business will start coming through the door from people searching for you online. We’d love to hear any success stories that you have and let us know if you have any additional questions in the comments field below.

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