Small Business Trends

With the events of National Small Business Week largely behind us now, it’s time to re-energize every small business owner for the summer season ahead and for growth as the economy slowly crawls out of its doldrums. We’ve collected some links and resources as sort of a mini sales and marketing boot camp–these are the most important elements of your business, let’s face it–to get you moving forward toward a prosperous second half of the year. We’ll also share some more highlights from Small Business Trends’ coverage of the National Small Business Week events in Washington. More below:

Sales

Forget the Venture Capital! Get out there and close some deals. First up in our mini sales and marketing boot camp for the upcoming summer months, an online marketer and author tells perspective small business owners and entrepreneurs that more important than a business plan is a business model that works. Successfully finding investment for your business idea is rare and may cost you too much in equity. And with enough sales you may not need investment anyway. ScottFox.com

Why your sales copy can’t make the sale. It’s not that sales copy (or Web design or the strength of your offer for that matter) isn’t important. But if you’re wondering why that brilliant copy and wonderful Web design you paid big bucks for isn’t closing sales, maybe you should look a bit deeper to figure out whether something else is missing. Terry Dean

The sex life of Bolivian bullfrogs and other business truths. OK, so what does all this have to do with making sales in your small business? Well, B2B sales coach S. Anthony Iannarino maintains that many of the things we spend most of our time on don’t really make sales. What does? Finding a way to differentiate. Read on. The Sales Blog

Marketing

Don’t change your tactics, change what you do. When you can’t find buyers for your product or service, maybe the trouble isn’t your marketing campaign. When no one will hire you or refer friends and business associates to you, maybe it’s got nothing to do with working hard enough to get your name out there. If no one is calling or e-mailing for your product, maybe there’s something else that needs to change. Seth Godin’s Blog

Make your pay-per-click ads seasonal. Give paid-ad landing pages a summer feel.  Tweak ad copy to tap into the vacation psyche using words like relax, enjoy, have fun. And set up alerts for your ad campaigns, instead of logging in everyday – you need a vacation, too.  We happen to think that last part about taking a vacation is super important for all small business owners to remember.  Microsoft Advertising Community

SEO company Warlock Media says “greed is good” when it comes to viral marketing. In their viral marketing guide they note that “The essence of a successful viral marketing campaign is to create something that people will want to spread themselves. Greed is also a popular motivator, as we know that “greed is good” and it drives people to great lengths, so take advantage of this fact with your viral campaign. If people feel they can get something out of it, they’ll be all the more willing to spread your campaign as quickly and as efficiently as possible.”  We might not have called it greed, but we definitely agree with the point.  Remember that others will be looking for the WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) in your viral marketing campaigns.  Warlock Media.

Updates

(Here are more of Small Business Trends editor Anita Campbell’s reports filed from the National Small Business Week event in Washington D.C.)
Google’s presence strongly felt at national small business event. Search engine giant Google dealt with potential clients face to face in workshops at the National Small Business Week event which ended Tuesday in the nation’s capital. The online colossus, partnering with SCORE and others, has set the ambitious goal of creating one million new businesses with broadband and online tools by 2017. Small Business Trends

Small business person of the year and runners up named. The national small business person of the year went without a salary for three years and gives his staff every other Friday off. Sound anything like your last boss? We didn’t think so. But that’s what makes Orlando-based Waymon Armstrong and other small business leaders honored at the National Small Business Week event in Washington, so unique. Small Business Trends

Celebrate National Business Week with a free Webinar tomorrow Sign up for this free Webinar and join Small Business Trends editor Anita Campbell, Barbara Corcoran, of Shark Tank, and Rich Sloan of Startup Nation for this informative panel entitled “Small Business, Big Wins: Innovative Tools to Drive Your Business Forward”. Small Business Trends

Policy

Credit cap fight impacts small business lending An attempt to raise caps on lending for credit unions and community banks is under attack by big banks who complain it will give the little guys an unfair advantage. Credit unions and community banks are chief sources of lending for small business. Hmmm. Now, who should we side with on this one? WSJ