Each year we choose 100 of the most informative small business podcasts.  While there are many excellent business podcasts out there, these  are ones that we think small business owners, startup entrepreneurs, managers, marketers and budding entrepreneurs will find particularly valuable.

Congratulations to all those listed!

If you didn’t make the list this year, or you don’t see your favorites, leave a comment and tell us who you recommend. And if you’ve made the list, feel free to grab a badge for your site.

Click the “Start Gallery” button below to begin viewing our Top 100 Small Business Podcast picks.

DishyMix – With Susan Bratton. Susan serves up a mix of lessons from individuals from the world of advertising, digital media, marketing, social media and more.

Twitter: @PersonalLife

Total Picture Radio — With Peter Clayton. This podcast features career empowerment interviews with best-selling authors, senior executives, leadership coaches and entrepreneurs.

Twitter: @TotalPicture

HBR IdeaCast – By Harvard Business Review. A weekly audio podcast, gathering analysis and advice of the leading minds in management.

Twitter: @HarvardBiz

The Digital Publishing Podcast– By Tristan Higbee. The Digital Publishing Podcast is about ideas on infoproduct creation, new media and internet marketing for digital publishers.

Twitter: @TristanHigbee

Manager Tool Podcasts – With Mauzenne & Co. This podcast is about new tools and easy techniques you can use to help achieve your management and career objectives.

Twitter: @ManagerTools

The Engaging Brand – With Anna Farmery. A podcast to motivate, inspire and engage people at work.

Twitter: @EngagingBrand

The Bottom Line – With Evan Davis. This podcast gives insight into business from those leaders at the top.

Twitter: @EvanHD

Break Through Business – By Michele Price. Giving entrepreneurs and small business owners tools for success in our new business economy.

Twitter: @ProsperityGal

70 Decibels - Home Work. With Aaron Mahnke and Dave Caolo. A podcast for people who work from home, whether freelancer or telecommuter.

Twitter: @amahnke

Twitter: @davidcaolo

Marketing Over Coffee – By John Wall and Christopher Phenn. This podcast stays on top of all that’s new in the world of business marketing.

Twitter: @MktgOverCoffee

Duct Tape Marketing — By John Jantsch. John provides interviews with influential marketing professionals and those who demonstrate advanced marketing tactics.

Twitter: @DuctTape

Marketing Edge — With Albert Maruggi. This podcast features insights and advice on public relations, marketing, communication and more.

Twitter: @AlbertMaruggi

Small Business Big Marketing Show – With Luke Moulton & Timbo Reid. Hear how other small business owners from around the world go about their marketing.

Twitter: @TheRealSBBM

Social Media and Sales Strategy Podcast – With Shane Gibson. Shane is talking about sales force leadership, new entrepreneur development, social media marketing and how to close bigger deals.

Twitter: @ShaneGibson

AdVerve – With Angela Natividad & Bill Green. This is a podcast about advertising and marketing.

Twitter: @AdVerve

The Official BNI Podcast – With Dr. Ivan Misner. This podcast is a weekly audio discussion with Dr. Ivan Misner, the Founder and Chairman of BNI.

Twitter: @IvanMisner

The BeanCast – By Bob Knorpp. This podcast features a panel of smart ad-biz types discussing news and issues.

Twitter: @BobKnorpp

Managing The Gray – By C.C. Chapman. This is is a marketing podcast that is teaching you and your company about the changing business world.

Twitter: @cc_chapman

Clarity Advantage’s Sales Thoughts – With Nick Miller. Gain tips and techniques for prospecting, negotiating, coaching, and managing the sales process.

Twitter: @Clarity_Adv

The Click Millionaires Radio Show – By Scott Fox. Tune in for free online marketing, e-commerce strategy, and lifestyle business-building advice.

Twitter: @Scott_Fox

Wall Street Journal on Small Business – Insights for starting and running a small business, from the Wall Street Journal and Startup Journal and experts in areas such as management and finance.

Twitter: @WSJsmallbiz

I Love Marketing – With Dean Jackson & Joe Polish. Talk show about new marketing ideas, referral marketing, email marketing, etc.

Twitter: @TheDeanJackson

Twitter: @JoePolish

Small Business Bulletin— With Joe Connolly. Observations and anecdotes from the world of the small business.

Twitter: @JoeConnollyWSJ

Accelerate Your Business Growth – Diane Helbig is discussing small business issues – whatever it is that keeps a small business owner up at night, and she is offering input and suggestions for resolution.

Twitter: @dhelbig

Views From the Top – With Adrienne Graham. Adrienne takes a look at the hard hitting issues affecting women in corporate positions and entrepreneurs at the top of their game.

Twitter: @TalentDiva

The Smallbiz Brain – By David Wolf. This podcast features interviews with small business experts and leaders.

Twitter: @SmallBizAmerica

The Passionate Entrepreneur – With Kenneth Darryl Brown. This show is for passionate entrepreneurs who want to take their companies to the next level.

Twitter: @KenE3C

Help! My Business Sucks! – Video podcast by Andrew Lock. A weekly show that helps entrepreneurs to get more done and have more fun.

Twitter: @Andrewlock

Ecommerce Podcast – This podcast interviews ecommerce entrepreneurs who share the lessons they’ve learned.

Twitter: @slisystems

Accounting Best Practices — With Steve Bragg. Steve covers a broad range of accounting topics and other financial-related matters.

Marketplace — With Kai Ryssdal. Daily business and economics news updates.

Twitter: @kairyssdal

The Clark Howard Show – With Clark Howard. Save more, spend less and avoid rip-offs.

Twitter: @ClarkHoward

NPR: Planet Money Podcast – Everything you need to know or want to learn about money and finance.

Twitter: @planetmoney

WSJ’s Your Money Matters – This podcast by The Wall Street Journal will help you to keep your finances in tip-top shape.

Twitter: @WSJ

Ernst & Young International Tax Podcast – Business insights by Ernst & Young.

Twitter: @EYIntlTax

Money Box – With Paul Lewis. News of savings and investments, credit cards and loans, pensions, banking, tax, benefits and giving to charity.

Twitter: @paullewismoney

DH Unplugged – With John Dvorak and Andrew Horowitz. Hard hitting commentaries on the financial market and the economy.

Twitter: @andrewhorowitz

Twitter: @THErealDVORAK

Small Business CEO Radio– With Glenn Garnes and Bob Graham. Free flowing discussion of issues affecting entrepreneurship and small business.

Twitter: @glenngarnes

Marketing Mix Man– Marketing Mix Man. By Gary Bembridge. Helping passionate marketers build brands better, bigger and faster.

Twitter: @garybembridge

5by5- Back to Work. With Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin. A podcast on productivity, communication, work, barriers, constraints, tools, etc.

Twitter: @hotdogsladies

Twitter: @danbenjamin

This Week in Startups – With Jason Calacanis. Video podcast with entrepreneurs of startup companies.

Twitter: @Jason

Work at Home Success – With Leslie Truex. Leslies shares business tips, tools and resources for those who work from home.

Twitter: @ltruex

Home Business Internet Talk Show — With host Paul Stanton. Paul covers all aspects of running a business from home and episodes range anywhere from 2 minutes to a half hour or more.

Twitter: @bigpaulusa

Solo Smart Solopreneur Podcast — With Kelly McCausey. Kelly interviews a successful WAHM (work at home mom) or business owner with an emphasis on Internet-based businesses.

Twitter: @kellymccausey

I Should Be Writing – With Mur Lafferty. Mur shares tips, insights and motivation for freelance writers.

Twitter: @mightymur

The Big Web Show – The Big Web Show. By Jeffrey Zeldman. The podcast show on everything about the web that matters; including web publishing, content strategy, typography and web technology.

Twitter: @zeldman

The Force Field — With Rick Savoia. This podcast is a half hour production dedicated to the small, independent IT service provider.

Twitter: @theforcefield

Entrepreneur’s Journey — By Yaro Starak. Yaro provides specific help to those starting and running Internet businesses such as how to take payments online, sell e-books or launch a new product.

Twitter: @yarostarak

The Hobson & Holtz Report – With Neville Hobson & Shel Holtz. This podcast is a twice-weekly show at the intersection of online communication and public relations.

Twitter: @shelholtz

Twitter: @jangles

Tech Chick Tips – With Helen (techchick) and Anna (digimom). Tips and tricks for teaching 21st century students using 21st century skills.

Twitter: @jess_benton

Twitter: @BetterAnnaMac

Quit – Quit. By Dan Benjamin. A call-in show helping people sort out their lives, reevaluate their options, kick their crummy jobs, and start something awesome.

Twitter: @danbenjamin

Practical eCommerce — This podcast is for those attempting to grow their businesses online and provides practical tips, tools and resources including help with ecommerce software and more.

Twitter: @PracticalEcomm

The Boagworld Show – By Paul Boag. A podcast for those who design, develop and run websites.

Twitter: @boagworld

Internet Business Mastery – With Jeremy “Sterling” Frandsen and Jason “Jay” Van Orden. A podcast dedicated to help you escape the 9-to-5 route by turning your life’s passion into an Internet business.

Twitter: @jeremyfrandsen

Twitter: @jasonvo

FT Connected Business – By Stephen Pritchard. The Financial Times podcast examines how business leaders can use IT to improve performance and exploit new opportunities for growth.

Twitter: @s_pritchard

Spark – By Nora Young. A weekly podcast of smart and unexpected trendwatching.

Twitter: @nora3000

Wall Street Journal Podcasts – Stay up-to-date on the latest business trends and changes with The Wall Street Journal.

Twitter: @DailyWrapWSJ

Smart Companies Radio – With Kelly Scanlon. A weekly radio show that highlights successful small business owners and small business issues and resources.

Twitter: @IThinkBigger

Small Business Trends Radio — Our very own show with CEO Anita Campbell featuring interviews with today’s professionals on a wide variety of small business topics.

Twitter: @smallbiztrends

Business Insanity Talk Radio – By Barry Moltz. This is a business radio show where we talk about all the craziness of small business.

Twitter: @barrymoltz

Blog Business Success – With Wayne Hurlbert. Podcast about business blogging, search engine optimization SEO, marketing, public relations, and entrepreneurship topics that will help your business grow.

Twitter: @WayneHurlbert

Zane Safrit – Zane talks with his guests about small business, innovation, word-of-mouth, leadership, generating positive cash-flows, topgrading, social media, and the economy.

Twitter: @ZaneSafrit

Small Business Advocate – With Jim Blasingame. The Small Business Advocate® Show is the world’s only weekday small business radio program.

Twitter: @JimBlasingame

Mixergy – By Andrew Warner. A video podcast with downloadable audio featuring interviews with experts that help teach others from their own experiences.

Twitter: @Mixergy

The Rise to the Top – Video podcast by David Siteman Garland. The #1 non-boring business show.

Twitter: @TheRiseToTheTop

The Human Business Way- The Human Business Way. By Chris Brogan. Discussions and more with today’s top authorities on sales and marketing in a relationship-minded way.

Twitter: @chrisbrogan

The Lifestyle Business Podcast – With Ian & Dan Andrews. Design your personalized worklife with a Tropical MBA.

Twitter: @DansPodcast

Twitter: @AnythingIan

Twitter: @TropicalMBA

The Smart Passive Income Podcast – With Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income blog. Learn about online business and blogging strategies, as well as income sources and marketing tips.

Twitter: @PatFlynn

YouCanWorkLess – Entrepreneur Ideas Podcast. By Dean Soto. Tips on how to start a profitable side business.

Twitter: @DeanSoto

From Scratch — From Scratch. By Jessica Harris. A radio show about the entrepreneurial life.

Twitter: @JessGHarris

The Schiff Report – Video podcast by Peter Schiff. Peter provides the market outlook and a dose of current news events.

Twitter: @schiffradio

World Business News – By BBC World Service. This podcast provides in-depth analysis of global business developments and trends that affect consumers, investors and the environment at large.

Twitter: @bbcworldservice

Ambitious Entrepreneur - Ambitious Entrepreneur Show. With Annemarie Cross. Taking your business to next level by using practical tools and mindset strategies.

Twitter: @AnnemarieCoach

New York Times Podcasts — The New York Times offers over a dozen podcasts on topics ranging from personal technology, international news, book reviews and the backstories behind NYT published articles.

Twitter: @nytimes

Marketplace – By American Public Media. This podcast brings you the latest and most talked about headlines in business news today.

Twitter: @MarketplaceAPM

WSJ’s This Morning – The Wall Street Journal brings you the morning’s top business and finance news.

Twitter: @WSJThisMorning

CNNMoney – This podcast provides a wealth of finance information, advice, tips and tactics to apply to your business and personal life.

Twitter: @CNNMoney

David Allen Company Podcast – by David Allen. David’s show, “Getting Things Done” is “a podcast designed to help you win at the game of work and business of life.”

Twitter: @gtdguy

Done! – By David Stiernholm. This is a podcast about structure and how to visualize, simplify and get more time at your disposal.

Twitter: @stiernholm

Great Work Interviews – With Michael Bungay Stanier. ”Find Your Great Work” by Michael Bungay Stanier.

Twitter: @boxofcrayons

On The Media – From NPR. Podcasts on the Internet.

Twitter: @onthemedia

The Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders – Podcasts from the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

Twitter: @ECorner

The Economist – Multimedia content from The Economist magazine.

Twitter: @TheEconomist

Peter Day’s World of Business – Insights into the business world with Peter Day.

Twitter: @BBCRadio4

Freakonomics Radio – By Stephen J. Dubner. Explore ”the hidden side of everything.”

Twitter: @freakonomics

EconTalk – By Russ Roberts. An economics podcast for the daily life.

Twitter: @EconTalker

Six Pixels of Separation – With Mitch Joel. Mitch talks about digital marketing, new media and personal branding.

Twitter: @mitchjoel

The Great Business Project–

The Great Business Project Podcast. By Ralph Quintero. A podcast on how to work “on” your business and not “in” your business.

Twitter: @RalphQuintero

The Social Hour – With Amber MacArthur & Sarah Lane. Amber & Sarah are taking the pulse on what’s happening on the social web right now.

Twitter: @sarahlane

Twitter: @ambermac

Revision3– Foundation. By Kevin Rose. Interviews with tech entrepreneurs.

Twitter: @foundationkr

Building 43 – By Robert Scoble. Video podcast by a geek who grew up in Silicon Valley and interviews technology innovators and executives.

Twitter: @Scobleizer

Social Pros Podcast – By Jay Baer. Jay is highlighting real people doing real work in social media.

Twitter: @jaybaer

Online Marketing & Communications – By Jon Buscall. A podcast on how to get the most out of online marketing and communications to help you grow your business.

Twitter: @jonbuscall

Deborah Shane Metropolis – By Deborah Shane. A podcast with information, trends and resources on careers, work, new media, branding and motivation.

Twitter: @DeborahShane

33voices - 33Voices. A global conversation about things that matter in business and in life.

Twitter: @33voices

Ms Ileane Speaks – By Ileane Smith. Get basic blogging tips and learn social media ninja techniques.

Twitter: @Ileane

Foolish Adventure - Foolish Adventure. By Tim Conley. A show for the online-fueled business world.

Twitter: @TimConley

Dave Hall - Business Tip of the Day. By Dave Hall. Quick pieces of advice to help your new business find success.

Twitter: @DaveHallSBA

Inside PR – With Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley and Martin Waxman. A weekly podcast on social media and public relations.

Twitter: @martinwaxman

Twitter: @thornley

Twitter: @ginidietrich

Social Media Examiner- Social Media Marketing Podcast. By Michael Stelzner. A show that will help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

Twitter: @Mike_Stelzner

Until next year, happy listening!  

And if you don’t see your favorite small business podcast on this giant list, tell us in the comments below so we can review for next year. 

If you’ve made the list, feel free to grab a badge for your site.

The post Small Business Top 100 Podcast List: The 2013 Edition appeared first on Small Business Trends.

I read the statement (”A stimulating read!”) by Professor Philip Kotler and got the nagging feeling that this book could actually be a breathtaking read. As I relaxed, I then read in the introduction that the book is not intended to spread fear in any form (”except in the boardrooms”).

Whew!

The subtitle is ”how to attack market leaders,” but the second part of the book covers ten points on how market leaders could defend themselves from shark attacks. In order to do research for the book, the author took a scuba-diving certificate and spent plenty of time in the water with sharks in South Africa.  Full disclosure: I have known Stefan for some time and I received a review copy of his book at an early stage. I wrote the following blurb in the book on page 3:

”Catch a wave of the groundswell and surf the social Web with Sharkonomics! Stefan Engeseth’s book will take off and swim by itself.”

As a a blogger and social media evangelist, I am glad to see that Stefan Engeseth (@engesethsblog) is covering the power of new media in the book and is including social media in the to-do list for smaller sharks (read: small businesses):

10 Points for Smaller Sharks for Attack and Defense

1. Dive with fleshy friends.
2. Dive below surface to find new opportunities.
3. Team work is like sharing a whale (team workers also taste good).
4. Do less, bite harder (saves energy).
5. Take a test bite (blood in the water is always bad news).
6. Big prey are vulnerable – they underestimate an attack from a smaller shark.
7. Bite off the fin (make them sink).
8. Swim together to look bigger and stronger than you actually are.
9. Use social media to find prey and spread buzz.
10. Move faster than your environment.

Here is an excerpt from chapter 7, timing is key to successful attacks, on page 85, describing social media as a sonar system:

”If a predator knows the agenda of its prey, it will be easy for it to predict the prey’s next move. Social media tools such as Facebook and Linkedin together function even better than the shark’s senses. Through social media, the prey not only reveals its behavior but also what it is doing currently and what it will be doing next.”

Small Businesses Have Plenty to Chew on in Sharkonomics

I think that small business owners will appreciate Stefan Engeseth’s idea on how to do market research in smart ways, taking ”test bites” instead of trying to take a huge chunk at once.

For example, Apple took a test bite of the mobile phone market by starting out small. The company started out putting iTunes into a Motorola mobile phone, instead of creating a totally new phone from scratch. The Apple fans were not happy at first.  But I think it’s safe to say, they’re happy today – with the iPhone.

I must admit that I am an Apple fan since I purchased an iPhone and then got a MacBook from my brother. I am now an active member in a Mac user group (Got a Mac) in Gothenburg, Sweden.

So, it is a bit hard to digest Stefan Engeseth’s posts on ways Apple could become prey for sharks due to management problems and leadership challenges. But this is the ”big thought” (phrase coined by Tim Sanders) of Sharkonomics:

”Always do more than these lists (attack and defend) and never, ever stand still (”move or die”).”

How can we learn from the behavior of the Great White Shark? Do you think we will be able to draw parallels from the business cases in the book and then apply them to our own daily work life? Will we soon hear the following phrase in the boardroom:

”Do you remember the Sharkonomics’s moment of X company?”

Lots to Love About Sharkonomics

What I like best about the book is Stefan Engeseth’s frank language.  It is refreshing that he’s not afraid of stirring up a healthy debate now and then. Take his response to Michael Muth’s question as to whether the ideas found in Sharkonomics are applicable with those in the book, Blue Ocean Strategy:

”Kim and Mauborgne based their book on a study of 150 strategic moves in 30 industries over a period of 100 years. Sharkonomics is based on sharks which have been around for more than 420 million years and made billions of strategic moves. Blue water has become red and it’s time to change strategy. Sharks don’t care what colour the water is when they attack and feed.”

I want to end this review on a lighter note (but at the same time, still an important message and lesson from the world of sports). The hockey team, San Jose Sharks, (pun intended?) has built a strong team culture by focusing on both the forwards and defensive players.

“The team also invites its fans to play a role in its fanzone and community on the website, thus making the fans feel a part of the team. Being one internally and externally inspires everyone to be loyal to the team. The culture of defense is also powered by fan websites such as FearTheFin and ArcticIceHockey, where fans analyze every part of their Shark’s defense team.”

In the beginning of this review, I told you that I had a gnawing feeling that I would be missing something if I didn’t read this book. Now that I’ve finished it, I’m glad I didn’t let the cover scare me away.

If you feel that doing business in today’s economy is akin to swimming with sharks – then let Sharkonomics be your survival guide.

Improvement Photo via Shutterstock

The post Take A Bite From Sharkonomics to Compete and Survive appeared first on Small Business Trends.

In my favorite section of the book, you will learn to remember the ‘Big Thought’ about a book. Why?  The author explains:

“Maybe someone was worried about job turnover and volatility; if you’d known Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, you could have recommended it for advice on how to be likable even in trouble times.”

As a “cat person”, I love the author’s concept called “lovecat.” The first chapter is called The Lovecat Way and is a good instruction on how to come up with an excellent new idea and run with it. In the afterword, you learn about an acronym called NSPS (Nice, smart people succeed). I think that this is the essence of love as the “killer app.”

“Here, then, is my definition of love business: the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles with your bizpartners.

What are your intangibles? They are our knowledge, our network, and our compassion. These are the keys to true bizlove.” (Page 13)

You have now got the titles for chapter III (Network) and IV (Compassion).

Tim Sanders gives you at least six benefits for being a lovecat and he starts with how “you build an outstanding brand as a person” by using a “brand mindset” (coined by Duane Knapp) around the DREAM (Differentiation, Relevance, Esteem, Awareness, Mind’s eye) acronym.

As an avid book reader, the second chapter (Knowledge) is music for my ears. Through the book you get plenty of book tips and in the appendix you have a list of The Ten Must-Read Books for Lovecats. Tim Sanders says that books are the “complete thought-meal,” magazines are “between-meal snacks” and news media “are the equivalent of candy and soda: fun to eat, but hardly appropriate to live on.” He applies the Pareto principle as a food for thought idea: “Spend 80 percent of your time on books, and the 20 percent on articles and newspapers.” My question is: How would that classify the new media? How much time should you spend on blogs, social networks, etc.?

And now it is time for the explanation why you should buy hardcovers:

“And by books, I don’t mean just any book. I mean hardcovers. A paperback is made to be read. A hardcover is made to be studied. There’s a huge difference. I don’t read a book just to say that I’ve finished it. I read it so that when I’m done, the inside covers are filled with enough notes that I can use this book for as long as I need to.” (Page 70, paperback)

Tim Sanders has created a “practical four-step program designed to make knowledge work for you:”

1. Aggregation - How do you know which books to read?
2. Encoding – How do you consume the books in the right way?
3. Processing – How do you properly digest, “chew” and review the books?
4. Application - How do you share the knowledge you get from the books?

The application part entails four steps:

1. Learn from the consumption and digestion on how to draw the big picture from the book. You have to “own the book’s Big Thought.”
2. Do as George Constanza (Seinfeld TV show) and visualize a moment when you are adding value to the conversation by bringing up Big Thoughts from books related to the topic you are discussing.
3. Look for the right moment to insert points from your reading literature in a real-time conversation. It is similar to do an “elevator speech” to a business contact. After inserting the pointers, ask for feedback.
4. “Play doctor” and prescribe “medications” (books) to your “patients” (business contacts).

I feel strongly about this book, so you could see this blog post as a fan letter to Tim Sanders! I look forward to meeting Tim Sanders someday and check out his book libraries. I love the example with Steve Leveen of Levenger company and his fan letter to Stanley Marcus, the author of Minding the Store. I wonder if Tony Hsieh of Zappos found his calling as a merchant, in the same way as Steve Leeven.

At the end of the book (P.S. I Love You) you could read three fascinating stories, including the uplifting story, Spreading The Love: The Rosetta Story.

Do you have a story? Write it down in the comment field.

* * * * *

About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego.

The post Love Is The Killer App – Or How to Get Ahead by Helping Others appeared first on Small Business Trends.

They’re fast talkers and promise all sorts of things – and then the hammer drops . . . they ask you for an advanced fee, a consultancy payment, so they can start to, ahem “work” if you will, on your project.

Then the circus is on the road including pranksters, clowns and magicians, all wearing different “hats.” They get very “busy” for a period of time and then they start to play hide-and-seek with you and eventually (yep, you guessed it) – they disappear!  Below is an excerpt from a piece I wrote titled, “Five Lessons Learned From My Startup and Why I’d Do It Again” which includes some lessons I’ve learned so far:

“There are many external barriers. For example, we faced bureaucracy, rules, the jante law and fraudsters who seek to cheat you. I have been a bit naive, but personally I think that in the long run it is still a good idea to give people the benefit of the doubt.”

I think it’s the buyer’s responsibility to check that everything is in order (i.e. act according to the “caveat emptor” rule). But it’s important to note that the “buyer beware” rule does not include fraudulent behavior. Take this, for example, from Answers.com:

“This rule is not designed to shield sellers who engage in fraud or bad faith dealing by making false or misleading representations about the quality or condition of a particular product. It merely summarizes the concept that a purchaser must examine, judge, and test a product considered for purchase himself or herself.”

We have seen several versions of these robberies, (e.g., ponzi schemes and advance-fee fraud) come and go. During the summer period, July through August, and vacation time in Europe, you often get fake invoices and order confirmation documents from scammers. I received an “order confirmation” from a fake yellow pages directory and a phone call from telemarketer who wanted to force me to say “yes” to his questions, so he could record it as evidence for a purchase of their online directory.  Here is one key finding from Ernst & Young’s European fraud survey 2009:

“Our survey respondents believe the likelihood of fraud and corruption is set to rise further still. 55% of the respondents expect corporate fraud to increase over the next few years.”

So, what can we do to prevent future frauds from happening? Any suggestions? Well, I have been discussing it with an entrepreneur to try to set up some kind of support network for small business owners who have been victims of fraud so we can warn fellow business owners and keep them from going through the same scenario. The goal is to create something positive out of all of this negative. It’s time to learn from old mistakes and share the new experiences with others. As Friedrich Nietzsche said so eloquently:

“What does not kill me, makes me stronger.”

One idea could be to create a member forum together with one of the associations of business owners. Personally, I am thinking of joining a BNI (Business Network International) chapter in Gothenburg, Sweden. My goal is for this post to be seen as an open letter to small business owners around the world, as an attempt to start an ongoing thread and conversation on this issue, and to create a proactive defense program for the producers in the long run.

* * * * *

About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego.

The post Time for a Small Business Safety Network? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Not being an American by birth, I must say that I had a problem understanding the full meaning of the duct tape analogy used in the book. (I’m not the only one.)

I would have liked to see a bit more story-telling regarding the name, Duct Tape, as an introduction to John Jantsch’s personal approach to the field of marketing. I got so curious after looking at the image of the Duck tape brand by Henkel Corporation on the book cover, that I had to do a search on the Internet in order to satisfy my thirst for historical background. That said, I am in hands-down agreement with Michael Gerber’s statement:

“This book is just like its namesake – Duct Tape – it’s good, incredibly smart, amazingly practical, and immensely sticky stuff. You can begin to put it to use immediately.”

The book is divided into three parts. The first seven chapters lay the foundation and describe the way to sticky marketing. The second part is focused on how to turn the stickiness into a full fledged marketing system. Chapter 14 concludes the last part, there you find out what works and learn how to say: “Let’s Roll!”

Every chapter of the book ends with some action steps in order to get going and move forward to implement the ideas into business activities. The book is filled with concrete examples of companies and an appendix with further reading material and resources linked to every chapter. It would have been great if the book had included an index with names and notes, but you could get hold of this kind of information by checking out the page for the book.

The author gives the reader a great boost at the end of chapter 4, by explaining the correlation between value and the price of your product or service. John Jantsch demonstrates the importance of offering value to the customer, in chapter 8. The hardcover edition of the book has a price of circa $25, but you get “over $450 worth of coupons and discounts on marketing tools and services inside the book.“  He also says:

“And, of course, overdeliver on the stated value. Don’t worry about giving too much away. Depending on what you have to offer, you will only enhance your status as an expert when you demonstrate, through your information products, that you do indeed know what you are talking about. The best news of all, though, is that most of those you compete with won’t offer anything like this.”

When you have established a relationship with a customer and they know, like and trust you, it is time to turn them into a “referral machine.” I must say that chapter 11, Ramp Up a Systematic Referral Machine, gave me a lot of fuel for my soul and I will look into the possibilities of speaking engagements, holding a workshop, creating a “win-win-win” situation and contacting a local chapter of the referral networking organization called BNI (Business Network International).

I want to end this review by using a quote from John on page 222 on how a blog is a natural marketing integration tool:

“From my point of view, though, one of the best reasons to have a blog is that it’s a simply one more very easy, very affordable method to connect with your prospects and integrate all of your marketing messages. Blogs also force you to write and research new content. No matter what business you think you are in, you are in the information business. Blogging creates information that can be used in a variety of ways.”

Read Duct Tape Marketing — I think you will like it.

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About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego.

The post Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide – A Book Review appeared first on Small Business Trends.

By Martin Lindeskog

The Illusions of Entrepreneurship. The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Policy Makers Live By is the latest book by Scott A. Shane.

After you have read Scott A. Shane’s book, The Illusions of Entrepreneurship, you are rewarded with the answers to 67 myths about entrepreneurship.

Before you start, take the entrepreneurship quiz and see how much you know. I got a score of 40% before I had read the book.

The book is divided in 10 chapters. The author starts off with debunking the myth that today’s America is the land of opportunity when it comes to entrepreneurship. According to research, he says, the self-employment rate was much higher in the beginning of 20th century compared with today’s situation. The United States of America is bottom on the list of self-employment rate compared with the other OECD countries. Turkey is number one with 30 percent of new established businesses per capita. America has a rate of about 7.

If you look on a local level, Silicon Valley is not the startup place in America. The green mountain state of Vermont is number one. [As a side note, If you are interested in "how people across America are transforming their lives by finding the where of the happiness," I recommend you to check out Rich Karlgaard's site Life 2.0. ]

In the next chapter, you get a wake-up call if you already have decided your industry to work in. Your chances for success are much higher if you choose the right industry. Some industries have dismal success ratios and you may want to avoid them.

In chapter three, you get a not-so-rosy picture on who becomes an entrepreneur. Scott Shane states that physiological factors account for much less than demographics like age, race and gender. Some may view this as a controversial viewpoint. As an example, Scott Shane’s post here at Small Business Trends, Why is the Rate of Entrepreneurship Among African Americans so Low? generated plenty of comments and the discussion got pretty heated. To cool things down a bit, I have to use a funny quote from the book:

“Therefore, if you want to become an entrepreneur, go to school — just don’t go on to get a PhD. With that much education you are likely to become a nerdy professor like me, who studies entrepreneurship instead of doing it.” [Chapter 3, Who Becomes an Entrepreneur, page 47.]

With that statement I want to conclude that this book is inspirational reading material. You get mental exercise by reading the book and you start to think in new directions. Plenty of the old myths are taken care of in an elegant way. It is reassuring to read the following paragraph:

“Starting a new business isn’t as quick, painless, linear, collective, or all-encompassing a process as our popular conception suggests. A remarkably small percentage of entrepreneurs – one third – manage to get business established within seven years of starting the process, and even then it often takes several years to do so.” (Chapter 4, What Does The Typical Start-Up Look like?, pages 77 – 78.]

Scott Shane ends the last chapter with criticizing the government’s intervention in the business field, pushing their own agenda to show the voters that they have “created” economic growth by actively promoting the establishment of new enterprises. I think we should start a debate on why policy makers encourage people to start new companies.

I want to end this book review with a great quote from the conclusion:

“We shouldn’t get rid of the start-ups. Despite the dismal story about the typical start-up portrayed in this book, getting rid of start-ups isn’t the answer. Entrepreneurship is central to the success of a capitalist economy.” [Conclusion, page 162.]

While at first glance the book may not sound like a “feel good” book that gets you fired up to go start a business, it is inspirational. It will get you thinking. You may learn some things that help you be smarter about deciding which business to start, and how to get it off the ground, so that you have the best possible chance for success. Give yourself the best shot at success by reading this book.

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About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is running his own small business in Gothenburg, Sweden, called the Blue Chip Cafe & Business Center. He is a member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego.

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By Martin Lindeskog

Joseph’s Marketing Blog‘s tagline says “Rants of Marketing, Business, and Daily Life.” Joseph DePalma started his blog in February by saying: “I’m probably going to turn this into somewhat of a business-experience blog.” For being in his twenties, he has lots of business experience. I got curious about his different companies, so I sent him an e-mail and asked for an description of his ventures.

Here’s some other information I can tell you: Vertora, Inc. is my main focus that everything sort of “falls back” to. It’s a brand consultancy focusing on building amazing brand experiences (focusing on customer interaction, more so than graphic design and the like.)

AerialText, Inc. is a text message advertising firm that I’m currently selling. It’s opt-in text message advertising. Currently there is no site for it because of this sale and how things are moving over.

Digital Charisma, is a web development firm I’ve had for years. it provides top notch web design and user experience – bottom line.

My favorite project, outside of brand experience consulting (which I absolutely love) is coming up. It’s called OpenBeat – it’s an internet radio center for independent music. Musicians will be able to sign up for a small annual fee, and we will promote their music on our 10 radio stations, give them a personalized artist website which we will also promote, and handle all payment processing for any CDs they wish to sell. It’s a very exciting project, and we ran into some big delays with it, but it’ll be going live in the next 2 months or so. Anyone will be able to go to the site and listen for free, and buy artist CDs right through our site. I can’t wait till it’s live. (E-mail, 07/09/05.)

From the About page: “In his spare time, Joseph writes this blog as a way to share his experience and knowledge.” Joseph DePalma seems to be very good at managing his time, running all these different companies and at the same time being an active trader on the stock market. I bet he has read something by “productivity guru” David Allen. Joseph told me that he likes to read books. His favorite book is Good to Great by Jim Collins. I read Jim Collins’s book, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, in my Organizational Leadership course. Talking about leadership of an organization, I have to recommend the book, The Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior, edited by Edwin A. Locke. I think that chapter 10 (Motivate Performance through Empowerment, pages 144-145) by Jay A. Conger, could be of special interest to Joseph DePalma and his readers. The author is listing Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, and Jack Welch of General Electric, as two positive examples on how empowerment works. See Joseph’s reading list for books by Jack Welch and Richard Branson, and read his post, The Power of Empowerment.

The power of Joseph’s Marketing Blog is the focus on how to build a better brand through customer experiences. I want to end this review with an excerpt from Joseph’s post, Marketing is Life:

Marketing is not an afterthought. It should be integrated into the entire product or service right from the beginning. So many businesses focus on rushing to create a product or service, but never really think about the marketing behind it. (JosephDePalma.typepad.com, 05/16/05.)

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I have been thinking on how the small business climate is quite different around the world. I invite the readers of this blog and fellow bloggers to comment on this post and inform about how the situation is in different countries. I have searched for information on Sweden and America. Here are some of my findings:

99.6% of the companies in Sweden could be classified as small businesses. I used the size class 01 – 06 (0 – 99 employees). The information is gathered from Statistics Sweden’s Business Register and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Facts about Sweden’s economy 2004, page 51).

I must admit that I am a bit surprised by the high number of small businesses in Sweden. According to a 10 year old article (Is America Really Different?) in the Inc. Magazine, Europe is on the same high level as America. Here is an excerpt from John Case’s article.

Paul D. Reynolds, Paul T. Babson Professor in Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College, in Wellesley, Mass., points out that the information we have doesn’t allow us to make easy comparisons. “The best we can say is that most industrialized nations have comparable rates of entrepreneurial activity,” he says, adding that regional variations within countries are much more dramatic than variations among countries. (Inc.com/magazine, May 1996.)

Comparing my life here in Sweden and my study and work period in America between 1997 – 2002, I think it is definitively a different business climate in Sweden than in America. It is hard to put the finger on it, but the following excerpt from an article by James C. Cooper and Kathleen Madigan (U.S.: Weak Payrolls Mask A Tightening Job Market) in Business Week will hopefully give you an indication.

The importance of the entrepreneur is also evident in recent comments from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which represents small companies. NFIB’s surveys of its 600,000 members indicate job creation among small businesses is “much more consistent with the household survey than the payroll survey.” Corroborating that, the personal income created from proprietorships is growing at an annual rate of 10.5% so far this year, up from a 9.2% pace for all of last year and twice the pace of income from wages and salaries. (BusinessWeek.com/magazine, 06/20/05.)

I will try to find figures for Sweden, but I could bet on that Sweden has a lower rate of income created by small businesses than America.

I hope that the American sense-of-life and the entrepreneurial spirit will continue to be strong, and that small businesses will thrive in competition with bigger companies on a free market based on the ideas of laissez-faire capitalism.

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