The Real Value of Joining a Local Chamber of Commerce

A new national study reveals that membership in a local chamber of
commerce can significantly boost a business’s image among consumers,
as well as among other businesses. In a scientific survey of 2000 U.S.
adults, The Schapiro Group, an Atlanta-based strategic consulting firm,
found positive perceptions of chamber members in a number of areas,
including overall favorability, consumer awareness and reputation, and
likelihood of future patronage.

The study, commissioned by the American Chamber of Commerce
Executives (ACCE), IBM, Administaff, Small Business Network, Inc., and
Market Street Services, showed that when respondents were told that a
particular small business was a member of its local chamber, they were
44 percent more likely to rate it favorably than study respondents who
were not told of the chamber affiliation. Respondents were also 63 percent
more likely to want to purchase goods or services from a small business
that is a chamber member.

“We discovered that informing someone about a company’s chamber
membership opens the door to substantial increases positive perceptions
of that business,” said Alex Trouteaud, Ph.D., senior strategist for
The Schapiro Group. “There clearly is a feeling by our respondents that
chamber membership is synonymous with quality and desirability.”

To tap into this reservoir of goodwill, a small business should not only
join the local chamber of commerce and participate, but also make sure
consumers and other businesses are aware of that chamber affiliation. The
positive impact of perceived chamber membership is felt by big businesses,
too.

For example, when consumers believed that a restaurant chain was a
member of the local chamber of commerce, they were 40 percent more
likely to eat at the franchise in the future. And if a consumer believed that
one of the major automobile manufacturers was a member of its local
chamber,that consumer was 9 percent more likely to consider purchasing
his or her next car from that automaker.

“This study reinforces research done in 2005 about the perceived capacity
of chambers to lead businesses and lead communities,” said Mick Fleming,
president of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE).
“These new national findings point to even more direct benefits for
companies willing to be stakeholders in their local chamber.”

The study results had good news for chambers themselves, where
82 percent of respondents indicated that a local chamber of commerce
“creates jobs and promotes economic development.”

“The message from this national study is as simple as it is
ground-breaking,” said Jim Blasingame, small business expert and president
of Small Business Network, Inc. “Join your local chamber, be an active
participant in your chamber’s programs and be sure to let your customers
and prospects know you’re a proud chamber supporter when they come in
your business and when they see your marketing material.”

J. Mac Holladay, CEO of Market Street Services, an economic development
consulting firm based in Atlanta that helped create the study, said,
“It is refreshing to learn what we have suspected for years — that chamber
membership and community involvement are good investments.”

To review the report click here.

How Are You Promoting Your Business – the Old Standby Methods or Utilizing New Technology?

Expected Change in Media Use by Medium

As the economy continues to be a major factor affecting the ways in which small businesses promote themselves and go about the business of obtaining new customers, we at Strategic Growth Concepts have also found ourselves seeking new, higher impact, more cost-effective ways of promoting our business to prospective clients, as well as ways to help our clients promote their businesses. Our interactions with our clients and those in our many networks tell us that most small businesses are also interested in learning all they can to make the most of these new marketing and advertising tools.

Therefore, we thought we would conduct a brief study to determine the methods of marketing and advertising currently being used by small businesses, as well as to determine which methods are being explored. We will use this information to develop a series of articles and radio shows to help small businesses review and evaluate the marketing and advertising options available to them, and to assist in their determination of which methods will work best for their business. Click HERE to take survey.

We will share the survey results, as well as information about the various marketing methods, in upcoming articles and broadcasts. In the meantime, we would love to receive your comments in response to this article with your thoughts about the results various forms of marketing have produced for your firm.

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The author, Linda Daichendt, is Founder, CEO and Managing Consultant at Strategic Growth Concepts, a consulting and training firm specializing in start-up, small and mid-sized businesses. She is a recognized small business expert with 20+ years experience in providing Marketing, Operations, HR, and Strategic planning services to start-up, small and mid-sized businesses. Linda can be contacted at linda@strategicgrowthconcepts.com and the company website can be viewed at www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com.

Detroit Regional Chamber Hosting Small Business Conference October 28th

The Detroit Regional Chamber will hold its annual small business conference Oct. 28, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at The Henry Ford in Dearborn. The day-long event, called Business InSight, will offer speed networking, panel discussions and a town hall meeting.

Mary Ellen Sheets, founder of Two Men and a Truck; Bob Fish, co-founder and CEO of Biggby Coffee; and Jeff Spilman, managing partner of S3 Entertainment Group L.L.C. will lead a session titled “Inside the CEO Mind.” Other speakers include: Marrianne O’Brien Markowitz, Midwest regional administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration; and Chris Holman, small business advocate for the Michigan Economic Development Corp. For more information about Business InSight 2009 click HERE.

SBA Launches New Online Training Course: Winning Federal Contracts – A Guide for Women Entrepreneurs

WASHINGTON – Women who own small businesses will be able to use a new online U.S. Small Business Administration training course to learn how to identify and take advantage of federal contracting opportunities.  The new training course, Winning Federal Contracts: A Guide for Women Entrepreneurs, is part of an ongoing government-wide initiative to promote opportunities for women-owned businesses in the area of government contracting. 

This free online tutorial is a practical and easy to use guide that walks a woman-owned small business through the contracting process.  SBA is committed to ensuring that women-owned businesses receive at least 5 percent of federal contracts and believes better training opportunities are central to meeting this government-wide goal. 

Click HERE to learn more, and HERE to access the SBA training.

Customer Relationship Management in the Small Business Environment

As we have become more and more technology-oriented in recent years, one of the trends I’ve noticed is that small business owners seem to assume that any task needing to be done to run their business requires a software package to facilitate it. Customer Relationship Management is no different. The multitude of CRM software packages available today, such as ACT, Outlook Contact Manager, Salesforce.com, SugarCRM, FreeCRM, SalesBoom.com and many others, have encouraged this trend.  In fact, to further engage use of their systems, Salesforce.com and SugarCRM have made available FREE versions of their software for small businesses in the hope that they will eventually upgrade to a paid version of the program.

However, what frequently occurs is that small business owners assume that the programs are so complicated, or so work-intensive, that the already over-worked small business owners assume they don’t have the time or resources to utilize them; and then further assume that they can’t proceed with a CRM program since they don’t have time to manage it with the software program.  A recent article, ‘The Small Business Case for CRM’ for which I was interviewed by SmallBusinessComputing.com, further explores this trend.

In an effort to get the very important CRM process started for your firm, I would like to propose that small business owners go back to the basics as listed below:

• A database of your customers, in Excel, that can be sorted and updated and includes a comments section.
• Follow-up steps, including “Thanks for your time/business” letters or e-mails.
• An inexpensive e-mail vendor such as ConstantContact, SwiftPages or any other similar online service that can cost as little as $15 per month to manage up to 500 contacts.
• A solid communication schedule, with a customer feedback loop that captures and logs in the customer contact history.
• Buy-in from every employee in your company to execute the strategy.

The list of basic tasks above comes from a recent Forbes.com article that discussed CRM from a similar standpoint (the complete article can be found on our website), the premise being that CRM programs don’t need to be complicated to implement to be effective. Nor do they need to be costly or time-consuming. Make a plan, have a basic database to track your efforts, some simple tools, and you’re on your way to increasing business from the most cost-effective and profitable customers you can have – the ones who already know you and have done business with you.

When you’re comfortable, go to the next step and start using a free version of Salesforce.com or SugarCRM or the Outlook Contact Manager that comes with the Small Business version of Microsoft Office 2007 to see if it adds value and effectiveness to your CRM efforts.  Then, when you want maximum value, move on to a paid version of one of the software programs with all the bells and whistles.  Try this multi-step CRM strategy and see if it doesn’t have positive impact on your business!

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The author, Linda Daichendt, is Founder and Managing Consultant at Strategic Growth Concepts with over twenty years’ experience in working with small businesses. Linda can be contacted by email at strategicgrowthconcepts@earthlink.net. The company website can be viewed at www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com

Being Strategic: Live from the Inc. 500

This article was posted by Inc. 500 conference attendee, Janine Popick, the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service e-mail marketing, online surveys, and direct mail services for small businesses. Her company has been ranked on the Inc. 500|5000 list every year since 2006.

When I read her take on the information provided by the seminar leader, Erika Anderson, CEO of Proteus International, I couldn’t help feeling that every word of it was important for small business owners to hear.  I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did.

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Posted by Janine Popick at 4:25 PM

I’m at the Inc. 500 Conference, America’s leading conference for entrepreneurs. I’m at a seminar listening to speaker Erika Andersen who is the CEO of Proteus International. Her company helps other companies think about ways to grow through being strategic. By the size of the room and the attendance of this session (130 people and full) it sure seems like entrepreneurs are craving information for how to grow in this economy.

Erika’s session is all about how to think and be strategic when it comes to your business. Her definition of strategic is “consistently making those core directional choices that will best move you toward your hoped-for future.” She believes it’s particularly important for entrepreneurs because our businesses can be very volatile, and I couldn’t agree more.

What all companies need to start off with is a clear vision. Then strategy develops out of that. You as the leader need talk about vision so that everyone in your company knows where you’re heading. In Erika’s opinion, you need to be thinking 4 years out for your vision.

Then it comes to strategy. Erika talks of strategy being something that you think about 1+ years in the future, enough time to see your desired result. She was kind enough to hand out a template for thinking strategically and we all walked through it for our own businesses. What a great template that any business can put to work now. I’ve shared it below.

Overarching Issue: What is your challenge?

1. Ask yourself what isn’t working. One example is there might be a disconnect between what your customers are asking for and what your team is providing. Sales might think the product they sell has the features it needs. The product team also thinks the product has all the features it needs. Your customers are saying the product doesn’t meets their needs.
2. Ask yourself how can I/we fix this? For example, you might try talking to the customers and find that they just didn’t know about the features and benefits you provide.
3. Ask yourself, would this feel like success?

I wrote down that at my company VerticalResponse one of our challenges is that we need to be more customer-focused. What’s your challenge?

Through this entire process Erika outlines a common thread you need to be aware of:
Become a fair witness – You need to be neutral and objective. Ask yourself; “Am I being accurate and true to myself about my situation?”

Pull back the camera – People that don’t can be too tactical. See the situation you’re assessing from a wider lens and what effects any decisions you make would have.

Sort for Impact – Can you figure out what the impact of your decisions will be?

Once you’re clear on this, get clear on your current situation. You need to know where you’re starting from relative to the challenge.

Envision: What’s Your Hope?

1. Pick a timeframe that’s appropriate relative to the size of your challenge.
2. Imagine yourself there. Ask yourself what’s it like to be there?
3. Describe it – Pick out 5-6 key elements and describe them.

Face What’s in the Way

1. List the things that can get in the way of your vision and the challenge you want to overcome.
2. Define how you’ll overcome them.

For VerticalResponse a few hurdles included access to people resources and capital for equipment. We found that by looking at our overall budgets and seeing what we could do without, we could find the money and the resources.

Determine: What’s the Path to get there with Strategy?

1. What does the roadmap look like?
2. What do you need to accomplish to overcome your challenges?

At VerticalResponse for instance our strategies are to give even better customer service and offer a better product that is more reliable.

What’s the path to get there with Tactics or Action items?

1. Tactics need to arise from strategy
2. Tactics need to be FIT (Feasible, Have a high Impact, a bang for your buck and Timely)
3. Tactics include a Who, What, and When (Here’s where you don’t pull back the camera, you’re laser-focused)
4. Tactics take 6+ months to see any changes in your business.

At our company we’ve put more effort into our CRM tool so that our Customer Service reps will have access to the customer. We’re also developing new features for our customers in the next 6 months, and we’ve beefed up the back-end of our product to be more reliable. Of course all of these come with a ton of tactics, but I won’t bore you with them.

Being Strategic is an Ongoing Process.

You should be looking at your progress every quarter or 6 months to assess how it’s going or if things need to change. To do that assess:

1. What is Now
2. Re-confirm The Hope
3. Re-assess What’s in the Way
4. Revise the Path

One thing we do at VerticalResponse is have an executive offsite every 6 months to go over where we are, what’s happened in the industry, and where we need to focus for the next 6 months.

The great thing that Erika ended on was a quote from Michelangelo: “We’re still learning.” I think it’s something all entrepreneurs need to be aware of. I sure am.

Strategic Growth Concepts Donates Website to Non-profit Recovering from Recent Theft

Strategic Growth Concepts has joined with Detroit-based web consulting firm, Powerful Design to develop and provide  a website to a non-profit animal rescue group that was recently victimized by thieves.

Detroit-based animal rescue group, HomeFur-ever, recently suffered the loss of thousands of dollars worth of food, medical supplies, crates, and other equipment when thieves stole their van and enclosed trailer in broad daylight (see news coverage HERE).  The van and trailer were eventually abandoned and recovered with extensive damage, but the items stored in both were either gone or destroyed.  Since HomeFur-ever does not currently have a building, the group stores all of its supplies and equipment within the vehicles, this makes the loss even more devastating and has seriously hindered their ability to care for the 90+ animals currently under their responsibility.

In order to help the group obtain donations of cash and goods to facilitate their recovery from this ordeal, Strategic Growth Concepts worked with the group’s pro-bono web consulting firm, Powerful Design to provide a comprehensive website that will meet their current needs, as well as expanding with them as their organization begins to once again achieve growth.

The website, www.HomeFurever.com was built utilizing Powerful Design’s proprietary website management system, MYCE, a user-friendly system enabling the rescue group to offer a wide array of useful tools for visitors to the site, including:

• the ability to provide one-time donations OR monthly donations in increments of $10, $25, $50, or $100
• the opportunity to ’sponsor’ on-going animal care, treatment for major animal medical issues, or gifting an adoption
• a HomeFur-ever ‘Fundraising Kit’ for individuals or groups who want to develop fundraising events on behalf of HomeFur-ever
• photo galleries of the group’s animals which enlarge significantly when clicked on to enable better views of the available animals
• a HomeFur-ever video
• links to upcoming HomeFur-ever adoption & fundraising events (including links to maps of event locations)
• videos of, and links to, the news coverage received as a result of the recent robbery the group was subjected to
• resource links for pet owners, including:  pet emergency care, trainers, veterinarians, pet insurance, and many others
• an educational page about current animal-related issues
• access to the HomeFur-ever Twitter and Facebook sites
• online forms for those interested in:  fostering, adoption, volunteering, raising funds for the group, making food or other donations to the group, etc.
• a link to the website of an artist who does custom animal paintings; HomeFur-ever will obtain 10% of the revenue generated from every painting contracted via the link from the HomeFur-ever website
• links to national animal rescue related fundraising sites.

Strategic Growth Concepts (www.StrategicGrowthConcepts.com) utilizes the powerful MYCE Website Management System for its own website, as well as in the development of websites for their client firms.

SBA Launches FREE Online Training to Help Small Businesses Get Government Contracts

The U.S. Small Business Administration today launched a new online training course to help strengthen access to contracting opportunities for small businesses, including those owned by women, minorities, disadvantaged individuals and veterans.

The training course, “Recovery Act Opportunities: How to Win Federal Contracts,” is part of a federal government-wide initiative announced last month by President Obama and being led by SBA and the Department of Commerce.

“Government contracts can play a key role in helping small businesses turn the corner in terms of expansion and job creation,” SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills said. “But make no mistake, the benefits the government receives are equally as impressive – working with small businesses allows the federal government to work with some of the most innovative companies in America, often with direct contact with the CEO.”

“The SBA online training course can help businesses access the federal purchasing system and position themselves to compete for the commercial opportunities offered by government contracting,” Mills continued.

More about the course and a link to access it can be found HERE.

Technology Benefits for Small Business is the Theme of Upcoming Radio Appearances by Strategic Growth CEO

Two upcoming radio appearances by Strategic Growth Concepts CEO, Linda Daichendt, will focus on the latest technologies for marketing, and the benefits those technologies can provide to small businesses.  If your firm is seeking new cost-effective and efficient ways to generate leads for business growth, make sure to add these FREE online radio events to your schedule:

Virtual Events:  The New Networking Forum for Small Business

When:  Tuesday, 8/25 @ 2:30 p.m. EDT

Listen LIVE by calling:  (347) 215-6955, or download a podcast at your convenience  by accessing the ‘Strategic Growth Concepts for Small Business’ show home page at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/StrategicGrowthConcepts .  Read News Release about this show and our industry experts HERE.

Mobile Marketing for Franchises

When:  Thursday, 9/3 @ 2:00 p.m. EDT

Obtain all show information on the FranchisEssentials Show home page at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FranchisEssentials .

Market Research on the Cheap

One area of importance that is often overlooked by small business owners with too much on their plate, is Market Research – to get a good grasp of their competitors, their target customers, their geographic market areas, and their industry.  As a result, many small business are operating in the dark – functioning on the ‘gut instinct’ of small business owners or their staff.  While that may work for a period of time, pretty quickly it becomes evident that you don’t know enough about what your competitors are doing, who exactly your most profitable customers are, and where exactly you can find those most profitable customers.

Having such information can help a cash-strapped small business owner specifically target potential customers that are most likely to be interested in his product or service, and to keep costs manageable since you won’t be spending money directing advertising/marketing efforts to groups that are unlikely to have interest in what you have to offer.  Knowledge of your market area allows you to know exactly where to find those highly profitable customers.  Being aware of what your competitors are doing allows you to find opportunities they may be missing and take advantage of them, and Industry knowledge allows you to insure that your company is ‘keeping up’ and that consumers needs will be met by the use of your product or service – as well as ways others in your industry are approaching their customers.

We at Strategic Growth Concepts are strong proponents of utilizing cost-effective ways to conduct Market Research to enable small businesses to gain every advantage possible.  We have developed a variety of tools to enable small businesses to capture the information they need, and are always available to assist you in this endeavor.  Should you have interest in learning ways that Market Research can help you more cost-effectively market your business, please contact us via our website or via email at info@StrategicGrowthConcepts.com.  In the meantime, please read the article below from Forbes for some excellent information and resources.

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Kern Lewis, 07.17.09, Forbes

Free data? It’s out there, if you know where to look.

Small business owners can be forgiven for shying away from projects without an immediate payoff. Cash is tight, customers are hurting and the future is uncertain.

Still, when it comes to understanding your customer base, the education process can’t stop. Tastes change, markets morph. If you rely on the same dusty old data that once anchored your business plan, you’re finished–maybe not tomorrow, or three months from now, but soon enough.

I’ll grant you that the returns on continuing market research are hard to measure, another reason that task gets pushed to the back of the line. The good news is that there’s a wealth of free information out there for those willing to pound a few hundred key strokes to find it.

This topic is so important that I will be dedicating two columns to it. This first one focuses on actionable data–the kind that you can truly put to work, as opposed to the stuff that’s merely “nice to have”–and where to find some of it for free. We’ll discuss the stuff you pay for (but not too much) in the next column.

In Pictures: 12 Innovative Marketing Tactics (That Won’t Break The Bank)

In Pictures: Seven Ways To Get The Word Out Locally

What constitutes actionable data? Here are three main categories:

Demographics. You can’t sell to people if you don’t know who they are, where they live and how much they have to spend. Demographics determine how to spend precious marketing dollars–for lists, advertising, direct mail, keyword testing (for online campaigns), and on and on.

I learned this lesson back in 2005 when I launched a new cash-flow-based loan product. I simply didn’t know which customers would be likely to leap at these loans. After a number of months and many thousands of wasted marketing dollars, we surveyed our new customer base and revised our original profile (turned out our core base were not just “wealthy households,” but more specifically, self-employed small businesspeople at least 45 years of age). Understanding those demographics honed my marketing strategy and boosted the return on those efforts.

Measurable preferences for specific product attributes. You can’t offer every bell and whistle. You have to know what matters most to customers.

When Allstate markets auto insurance, it picks one benefit to emphasize, such as “accident forgiveness.” In a separate ad it might focus on “peace of mind.” Each effort is targeted, not cluttered with a kitchen-sinkful of selling points. You need to know which benefits will resonate with your customers. Good research that answers that question is crucial to performance.

Behavioral trends. Once you know who your buyer is and what they want, you then have to know how they like to buy it.

Younger people tend to be more comfortable buying product and service online, for instance, while older folks still appreciate personal interaction with a salesperson. Conclusion: If you target Generation Y, you had better have a killer Web site, a presence on social networks, etc. If most of your customers use Twitter, you better use it too.

Now that you know what you’re looking for, how to find it for free?

Step one: Cast a wide net. Start searching the Web by name of industry and add qualifying terms like “market size” or “competition.” (Remember to put quotes around multi-word phrases.) Don’t just use Google;  tap other search engines, including outliers like www.cuil.com and Microsoft’s new www.bing.com. You’ll be surprised how different the results are.

Two research-focused sites I like are www.marketresearch.com and www.quirks.com.  Quirks has a glossary of market-research terms, lists of vendors and a library of 2,500 articles searchable by topic. I recently looked for articles on telephone interviewing and came up with over 100 worth browsing. (Some of this material was behind a free registration wall, a minor inconvenience.)

Keep your eyes open for helpful material that you may not have been expressly looking for. While sussing out my competition (by typing in “marketing consultants” and “San Francisco” in the search box), I came across an article about what the average marketing consultant makes in the Bay Area. (I am doing better than I thought!)

Step two: Check government databases. The portal www.fedstats.gov is the gateway to multiple federal data sources brimming with demographic data. The mother lode, of course, comes from the Census Bureau, which presents detailed population and housing data, such as place of birth, education, employment status, income, value and age of housing units. The full data set, compiled every 10 years, is getting a bit long in the tooth, but to find specific neighborhoods that match your desired profile, it can’t be beat.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has gobs of useful stuff, too. Thinking about selling frozen filet mignon through the mail and want to know how much the average household earning at least $150,000 spends on beef? Check out the BLS “Consumer Expenditure Survey.” (The answer is $339 a year, by the way.) Just choose the demographic category most relevant to your product or service. You can also access regional breakdowns under the “Geography” tab in the left-hand navigation bar on the main page.

Step Three: Mine the trade associations. Some associations are better data trackers than others, but be sure to browse what they do have. I’ve used information compiled by the Yellow Pages Association to advise my clients on the relative merits of advertising in print or online Yellow Pages.

The bottom line about market research: It takes time and tenacity, so get to it. And I’ll be back in a bit to tell you what information is worth paying for–and what isn’t.

Strategic Growth Concepts’ CEO Interviewed About Mobile Marketing for Small Business

We would like to thank Justin Hong, host of the BlogTalkRadio show, ‘The Small Business MBA’ for inviting our firm’s CEO, Linda Daichendt, to be a guest on his show today for a discussion about ‘Mobile Marketing for Small Business’.  Topics discussed included:

• the benefits of mobile marketing
• explanations of the different types of mobile marketing
• the Federal laws that affect a mobile marketing program
• the results a small business can expect from a mobile marketing campaign
• the costs of implementing a mobile marketing campaign
• ways in which small businesses can use mobile marketing to promote their business and reach consumers

Be sure to listen to today’s broadcast by clicking HERE so you can take advantage of the special offer our CEO made available to the show’s listeners!

40 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence On

By Inside CRM Editors

If your business limits its online presence to advertising banners and blogging, it’s missing out. The Internet provides powerful networking opportunities that allow users to effectively target their audience by logging on to social sites like LinkedIn, Digg and more. Take advantage of these tools by asserting your company’s presence online and reaching more potential customers, business partners and employees.

Social-Media/Social-Bookmarking Sites

Share your favorite sites on the Web with potential clients and business partners by commenting on, uploading and ranking different newsworthy articles. You can also create a member profile that directs traffic back to your company’s Web site.

1. Reddit: Upload stories and articles on reddit to drive traffic to your site or blog. Submit items often so that you’ll gain a more loyal following and increase your presence on the site.
2. Digg: Digg has a huge following online because of its optimum usability. Visitors can submit and browse articles in categories like technology, business, entertainment, sports and more.
3. Del.icio.us: Social bookmark your way to better business with sites like del.icio.us, which invite users to organize and publicize interesting items through tagging and networking.
4. StumbleUpon: You’ll open your online presence up to a whole new audience just by adding the StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser and “channel surf[ing] the Web. You’ll “connect with friends and share your discoveries,” as well as “meet people that have similar interests.”
5. Technorati: If you want to increase your blog’s readership, consider registering it with Technorati, a network of blogs and writers that lists top stories in categories like Business, Entertainment and Technology.
6. Ning: After hanging around the same social networks for a while, you may feel inspired to create your own, where you can bring together clients, vendors, customers and co-workers in a confidential, secure corner of the Web. Ning lets users design free social networks that they can share with anyone.
7. Squidoo: According to Squidoo, “everyone’s an expert on something. Share your knowledge!” Share your industry’s secrets by answering questions and designing a profile page to help other members.
8. Furl: Make Furl “your personal Web file” by bookmarking great sites and sharing them with other users by recommending links, commenting on articles and utilizing other fantastic features.
9. Tubearoo: This video network works like other social-bookmarking sites, except that it focuses on uploaded videos. Businesses can create and upload tutorials, commentaries and interviews with industry insiders to promote their own services.
10. WikiHow: Create a how-to guide or tutorial on wikiHow to share your company’s services with the public for free.
11. YouTube: From the fashion industry to Capitol Hill, everyone has a video floating around on YouTube. Shoot a behind-the-scenes video from your company’s latest commercial or event to give customers and clients an idea of what you do each day.
12. Ma.gnolia: Share your favorite sites with friends, colleagues and clients by organizing your bookmarks with Ma.gnolia. Clients will appreciate both your Internet-savviness and your ability to stay current and organized.

Professional-Networking Sites

Sign up with these online networking communities as a company or as an individual to take advantage of recruiting opportunities, cross-promotional events and more.

1. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular networking site where alumni, business associates, recent graduates and other professionals connect online.
2. Ecademy: Ecademy prides itself on “connecting business people” through its online network, blog and message-board chats, as well as its premier BlackStar membership program, which awards exclusive benefits.
3. Focus: Focus is a business destination where business professionals can help each other with their purchase and other business decisions by accessing research and peer expertise. Most importantly, Focus provides open, quality information for all businesses that is freely available, easily accessible, and community powered. 
4. YorZ: This networking site doubles as a job site. Members can post openings for free to attract quality candidates.
5. Xing: An account with networking site Xing can “open doors to thousands of companies.” Use the professional contact manager to organize your new friends and colleagues, and take advantage of the Business Accelerator application to “find experts at the click of a button, market yourself in a professional context [and] open up new sales channels.”
6. Facebook: Facebook is no longer just for college kids who want to post their party pics. Businesses vie for advertising opportunities, event promotion and more on this social-networking site.
7. Care2: Care2 isn’t just a networking community for professionals: It’s touted as “the global network for organizations and people who Care2 make a difference.” If your business is making efforts to go green, let others know by becoming a presence on this site.
8. Gather: This networking community is made up of members who think. Browse categories concerning books, health, money, news and more to ignite discussions on politics, business and entertainment. This will help your company tap into its target audience and find out what they want.
9. MEETin.org: Once you’ve acquired a group of contacts in your city by networking on MEETin.org, organize an event so that you can meet face-to-face.
10. Tribe: Cities like Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New York and Chicago have unique online communities on tribe. Users can search for favorite restaurants, events, clubs and more.
11. Ziggs: Ziggs is “organizing and connecting people in a professional way.” Join groups and make contacts through your Ziggs account to increase your company’s presence online and further your own personal career.
12. Plaxo: Join Plaxo to organize your contacts and stay updated with feeds from Digg, Amazon.com, del.icio.us and more.
13. NetParty: If you want to attract young professionals in cities like Boston, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Orlando Fla., create an account with the networking site NetParty. You’ll be able to connect with qualified, up-and-coming professionals online, then meet them at a real-life happy-hour event where you can pass out business cards, pitch new job openings and more.
14. Networking For Professionals: Networking For Professionals is another online community that combines the Internet with special events in the real world. Post photos, videos, résumés and clips on your online profile while you meet new business contacts.

Niche Social-Media Sites

Consider linking up with one of these social-media sites to narrow down your business’s target audience. You’ll find other professionals, enthusiasts and consumers who are most likely already interested in what your company has to offer.

1. Pixel Groovy: Web workers will love Pixel Groovy, an open-source site that lets members submit and rate tutorials for Web 2.0, email and online-marketing issues.
2. Mixx: Mixx prides itself on being “your link to the Web content that really matters.” Submit and rate stories, photos and news to drive traffic to your own site. You’ll also meet others with similar interests.
3. Tweako: Gadget-minded computer geeks can network with each other on Tweako, a site that promotes information sharing for the technologically savvy.
4. Small Business Brief: When members post entrepreneur-related articles, a photo and a link to their profile appear, gaining you valuable exposure and legitimacy online.
5. Sphinn: Sphinn is an online forum and networking site for the Internet marketing crowd. Upload articles and guides from your blog to create interest in your own company or connect with other professionals for form new contacts.
6. BuzzFlash.net: This one-stop news resource is great for businesses that want to contribute articles on a variety of subjects, from the environment to politics to health.
7. HubSpot: HubSpot is another news site aimed at connecting business professionals.
8. SEO TAGG: Stay on top of news from the Web marketing and SEO (search-engine optimization) industries by becoming an active member of this online community.

General Social-Media Sites

The following social-media sites provide excellent opportunities for businesses to advertise; promote specials, events or services; and feature published, knowledgeable employees.

1. Wikipedia: Besides creating your own business reference page on Wikipedia, you can connect with other users on Wikipedia’s Community Portal and at the village pump, where you’ll find conscientious professionals enthusiastic about news, business, research and more.
2. Newsvine: Feature top employees by uploading their articles, studies or other news-related items to this site. A free account will also get you your own column and access to the Newsvine community.
3. 43 Things: This site bills itself as “the world’s most popular online goal setting community.” By publicizing your company’s goals and ambitions, you’ll gain a following of customers, investors and promoters who cheer you on as you achieve success.
4. Wetpaint: If you’re tired of blogs and generic Web sites, create your own wiki with Wetpaint to reach your audience and increase your company’s presence online. You can easily organize articles, contact information, photos and other information to promote your business.
5. Twitter: Is a social networking and microblogging service that allows you answer the question, “What are you doing?” by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called “tweets”, to your friends, or “followers.”
6. Yahoo! Answers: Start fielding Yahoo! users’ questions with this social-media Q&A service. Search for questions in your particular areas of expertise by clicking categories like Business & Finance, Health, News & Events and more. If you continue to dole out useful advice and link your answer to your company’s Web page, you’ll quickly gain a new following of curious customers.

The original source of this article is InsideCRM.com, part of the Focus network of sites.

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If after completing this article you’re still not certain how Social Media can be utilized to market your company, we would be happy to assist you in developing a customized program to promote your business.  Please feel free to contact us via our website or via email at linda@StrategicGrowthConcepts.com to schedule a FREE initial consultation.

Dallas-based AT&T Hosts Makeover Contest for U.S. Small Businesses

By Pegasus News wire

It takes vision, hard work and sacrifice to successfully operate a small business in this ever-evolving and competitive marketplace. Savvy small business owners may have what it takes inside themselves, but do they have what it takes inside their office?

Furthering its commitment to small businesses, Dallas-based AT&T announced the AT&T Small Biz Tech Makeover contest for businesses nationwide. To thank entrepreneurs and small business owners for their continued support of and interaction with AT&T’s online resource center, AT&T is sponsoring an online contest for small businesses to win a technology overhaul for their business.

Contest prizes include Web hosting services, AT&T Secure Mail, AT&T Tech Support 360, a pair of 3G mobile smartphones and a variety of other advanced solutions that can be used to improve collaboration or drive small business productivity. Video submission by small businesses on why they think they need a technology makeover can be submitted to www.att.com/smallbizmakeover through August 31, 2009. Video guidelines and contest details can be found by visiting the “Contest” tab on the AT&T Small Business Facebook page (http://bit.ly/ContestRules ).

In addition to the contest, AT&T today announced its own “makeover” in the form of a redesigned online resource center. AT&T Small Business InSite (www.att.com/smallbusinessinsite ), is focused on the growth and success of small business customers by delivering robust and interactive “how-to” advice that helps both the seasoned small business owner and the “just-getting-started” entrepreneur integrate advanced business technologies into their businesses.

Contest for Small Businesses Seeking Investors

I recently received notice of a contest called ‘Pitching Across America’ to find the ‘hottest emerging companies across america’ who are seeking venture capital, so I wanted to make all of my small business readers aware of it. 

2009 is the 6th year this contest has been held, and this year’s competition currently includes 130 Venture Capital and Angel Investor judges.  During each of the last 5 years, 50 companies have been selected to achieve investment funding based on the Executive Summary of their business plan.

During 2009, there will be 50 Top-rated Companies selected from across the US, and of those, 1 Company will be selected as the Top Emerging Company in America. All 50 companies will receive exclusive access to pitch to investors at FundingPost CEO events, inclusion in a featured VC mailing, a full year listing on FundingPost online, and the Top Emerging Company will even be able to pitch for free at every FundingPost event nationwide!  All of the previous years winners have raised capital since winning the competition!!

You can read the profiles of the participating VC and Angel Investor judges online by clicking HERE, and learn more about the contest and how to enter by clicking HERE.  You can enter until August 14th.

If your company is seeking to raise capital, then you need to explore this year’s ‘Pitching Across America’ competition, sponsored by Duane Morris.

Mobile Marketing is Topic for Radio Guest Appearance by Strategic Growth Concepts CEO

Given the precarious state of today’s economy, small businesses are on ‘high alert’ for new ways of increasing revenue. While recent technology advances provide a variety of methodologies that can be useful in achieving this goal, there is one that has only recently come to the forefront of marketer’s awareness – Mobile Marketing. This will be topic of discussion during Strategic Growth Concepts CEO, Linda Daichendt’s upcoming guest appearance on the ‘Small Business MBA Show’ on BlogTalkRadio.  This show will broadcast live on Friday, July 31, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. EDT.  Click HERE to learn the details about the program – and some interesting information about Mobile Marketing.

Importance of Budgeting and Financial Management for Small Business

In this time of economic hardship, small businesses and micro-businesses are among those being hardest hit – particularly with their inability to access lines of credit to help maintain effective cash-flow.  Therefore, it is imperative that these business owners take the steps necessary to budget and effectively manage the funds they do have available.

However, it is a common occurrence that small businesses, particularly micro-businesses having 10 employees or less, tend to shy away from developing an operating budget.  Frequently the businesses are so small or so new that the owners are convinced they have no way of projecting their revenue and therefore have nothing to budget.  This is a serious mistake! 

In spite of a ’supposed’ inability to project revenue, the business is still incurring expenses, therefore it needs to develop a basis from which it can discern business trends and identify opportunities which will enable you to make decisions about how you are running the company.  A budget is one of the most important tools to help you do this.

To help you understand the value of developing a budget – and managing that budget – for your small business we offer the article below which recently appeared on Entrepreneur.com.

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Even startups need to forecast and plan–especially now.

By Asheesh Advani   |   Entrepreneur Magazine – July 2009

Most entrepreneurs detest budgeting. Working on something as old-fashioned as an annual budget confines the imagination and limits flexibility. Still, budgets are more important than ever in today’s market environment.

I’ve heard all the excuses for avoiding budgeting. “Startup cash flow is too unpredictable.” “One big customer order could change the course of the business, so what’s the point in setting a budget?” “I can’t predict the capital market, so how can I forecast how much cash I’ll raise and be able to spend this year?”

In my experience, these excuses mask the fact that right-brain creative entrepreneurs just don’t like left-brain financial planning. So, if you’re running your startup solo, you should force yourself to develop a budget to hold yourself accountable. Here are three reasons why:

1. It will help you to become a better manager. When done properly, budgets can be extraordinarily useful in testing and refining your ability to forecast and manage. While boards like to use budgets to hold managers accountable, the startup CEO can use budgeting to test whether the drivers of his business hold true. One straightforward way to do this is to set an annual budget with a set of key assumptions (e.g., number of new clients; product price), then reforecast the year every quarter by updating those assumptions with the latest results.
2. It will help you raise money. When I raised money from angel investors or institutional investors, I learned firsthand the importance of budgeting. Investment terms often specify that management must provide the investors or the board with an annual budget. Developing a company culture that tracks results to budget will help you meet and exceed the expectations of your investors.
3.  It will help you avoid running out of money. The No. 1 risk to any startup is running out of money. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’ll fluctuate between a conservative reality and an aggressive dream state, which keeps you motivated and helps you inspire others. When you build your budget, start with expenses, not revenue; they’re much easier to forecast. This will keep you grounded and reduce your risk of running out of money.

Asheesh Advani is president of Virgin Money USA, author of Investors in Your Backyard and founder of CircleLending, which pioneered the business of managing person-to-person loans and mortgages and was acquired by the Virgin Group.

Top 5 Social Media Tips for Small Business

A few years ago, using the Internet to market a small business simply meant to create a presence online with a simple, informational Web site.  Then came the demands of search engine optimization to ensure Google and Yahoo searches yielded top-ranked results for your company.

Today, social media is transforming the small-business marketing landscape. Social media are Web- or mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information. It’s not just for seeing who your high school sweetheart married. Businesses can tap into powerful networking sites and other social media to drive customers to their shops or companies.  If done right, small-business owners might even be able to slash their traditional marketing spending to zero.   Read how by clicking HERE.

Recovery Act Changes To SBIC Program Mean Increased Funding Available For Small Businesses

WASHINGTON – Effective today, small businesses that would otherwise have difficulty securing private equity or venture capital may find funding easier to get as a result of changes made as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Investment Company program.

“The Recovery Act expands SBA’s venture capital program to increase the pool of investment funding available to the Small Business Investment Companies licensed by SBA,” said SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills. “We believe those companies will be better equipped by these changes to help sustain and grow small businesses for their next important growth steps.”

Read about the specific changes at http://snipr.com/mireo .