Small Business Trends

Attend a Small Business Event: Here is a List

By Laura Leites on 05/26/2012

Educational conferences and networking events for small businesses and startups abound.   Here is our hand-picked list of conferences, seminars and events.  Don’t miss out on these excellent opportunities to help you start a business, grow it and run it like a pro!

* * * * * Startup Weekend Multiple Cities and Dates 2012 – see website for full list Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs. Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations. Participants create working startups during the event and are able to collaborate with like-minded individuals outside of their daily networks. All teams hear talks by industry leaders and receive valuable feedback from local entrepreneurials. The weekend is centered around action, innovation, and education. Whether you are looking for feedback on a idea, a co-founder, specific skill sets, or a team to help you execute, Startup Weekends are the perfect environment in which to test your idea and take the first steps towards launching your own startup.

Spark & Hustle Tour Multiple Cities and Dates, May through August 2012 Led by Tory Johnson, the jam-packed, high-energy day enables you to experience big breakthroughs in your business and yourself. Meet great people who can help with product development and packaging; manufacturing and distribution; multiple revenue streams and collaborations; mental preparedness for monumental success; and so much more. Beyond the jam-packed sessions, this event is ideal to meet partners, collaborators and even clients!

8th Annual Kentucky Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference June 1, 2012, Louisville, KY The Annual Kentucky Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference (8th KIEC) will bring together distinguished speakers, tech-based economic development practitioners, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, students and postdoctoral fellows. The conference will focus on growing local initiatives powered by science and engineering talent.

The Inc. Leadership Forum June 6-8, 2012, Miami The Inc. Leadership Forum brings together the knowledge and experience of industry experts, academics, seasoned entrepreneurs and fellow company leaders to share their methods on how to implement leadership strategies that help businesses flourish. In 2012, the two-day event will immerse attendees in an energizing program with a series of keynote speakers, panel discussions and interactive networking sessions designed exclusively for the unique needs of entrepreneurial leaders. The Forum brings to life the content in Inc. magazine through thought-provoking programming that enables company owners to gain actionable, real-world information to hone their skills and lead their businesses on a path to growth. At Inc.’s Leadership Forum, you’ll learn about innovative approaches, inspirational tools and processes to build teams and workplace environments that have a lasting impact on financial results and personal satisfaction.

CT Business Expo June 7, 2012, Hartford, CT The 2012 CT Business Expo offers free educational seminars hosted by industry elite speakers and trainers. All of the educational seminars will be held in custom built classrooms on the show floor. Four educational tracks include Sales, Marketing, Technology and Management.

Crain’s Tech Talk Live June 11, 2012, Chicago Join us for a moderated conversation and audience Q&A with mobile Internet pioneer Dag Kittlaus, co-founder and creator of Siri, the new voice interaction feature in the popular Apple Inc. iPhone 4S. Dag will discuss his journey to creating one of the more innovative mobile technologies in recent history—a product that took him from Chicago to Silicon Valley and back to Chicago again. In addition to the discussion about working with Apple, Dag will give his perspective on the differences between the Chicago and California technology scenes. Enjoy drinks, appetizers and lively networking before and after the program.

2012 Veteran Entrepreneur Training Symposium June 11-14, 2012, Reno, NV Designed by Veteran small business owners for Veteran small business owners, VETS2012 brings government agencies, industry leaders and Veteran entrepreneurs together in a small, intimate forum to discuss the questions you need answered.

Unlocking the Secrets of LinkedIn to Grow Your Business June 13, 2012, Online You probably think of LinkedIn as “that site” your friends and business associates have used in the past to search for job opportunities. But LinkedIn has become so much more. This webinar, presented by Venture Beat, will explore how LinkedIn can be used to grow your small business.

Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown June 13, 2012, New York City This event is co-located inside the info360 Conference & Expo at the Jacob Javits Center The Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown is designed to: Help early stage startups refine their investor pitch Provide helpful, actionable advice on each startups business model from active, early-stage tech startup investors Demonstrate to the audience how investors evaluate startup pitches Award prizes to the most viable startups, based on audience and panel voting. The three winning startups are automatically invited to pitch to the NY Angels.

TechWeek Conference Chicago 2012 June 22-26, 2012, Chicago Connect to mobile innovations, new advertising technologies, emerging social media practices, and new apps for managing your business and life. Techweek is the largest technology and innovation conference and expo to put the entire digital ecosytem on stage — in Chicago, an up-and-coming global destination for new technology, with a community eager to harness the spirit of innovation.

National Veteran Small Business Conference & Expo June 26-29, 2012, Detroit The Department of Veterans Affairs is hosting the National Veteran Small Business Conference and Expo. As the largest nationwide conference of its kind, this event focuses on helping Veteran-owned businesses maximize opportunities in the federal marketplace. Join nearly 6,000 participants in Detroit for the opportunity to: Connect with procurement decision makers from other businesses and federal agencies Expand knowledge through over 200 training and business requirement sessions Engage with other attendees and gain visibility in the Expo Hall of nearly 500 booths Use VetGovPartner to facilitate online and onsite networking including face-to-face sessions with senior procurement decision makers

Women’s Business Conference 2012 October 4-5, 2012, Louisville, KY This year’s theme celebrates the entrepreneurial, innovative and adventurous spirit of women business owners. They are starting businesses at record rates and running these businesses on their own terms. They refuse to sit idle, waiting and watching. They have confidence and power to shake things up, take smart risks and do things differently to move forward. They are impacting positive change at every turn, speaking out on issues of public policy, lightening their environmental footprint and creating jobs that fuel the economy. They are part of something much greater than themselves—a grassroots movement of women business owners and their community of supporters all dedicated to helping one another grow, thrive, give back and leave a legacy.

The New York Enterprise Report 2012 Small Business Awards October 10, 2012, New York City The New York Enterprise Report Small Business Awards is the annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of the 500,000+ small businesses throughout the tri-state area. Now in its 7th year, the Awards gala attracts more than 400 business owners and executives and is often referred to as “the networking event of the year.” Don’t miss the chance to do business with the “who’s who” of the New York small business community.

To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit the Small Business Events Calendar. If you are putting on a small business event or contest, and want to get the word out, please submit it through our Events & Contests Submission Form (it’s free). Only events of interest to small business people, freelancers and entrepreneurs will be included. Brought to you as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.

Read “Rules of the Hunt” and Start Playing Successfully in Business

By Ivana Taylor on 05/26/2012

To say that Rules of the Hunt: Real World Advice for Entrepreneurial and Business Success  is one of the most unusual business books I’ve ever read or reviewed would be an understatement.  The whole experience of getting this book and reviewing it was rather serendipitous. As is the usual case, I received an email from a publicist who asked if I’d be interested in reviewing the book.  Of course, I said “Yes.”  The book arrived and I opened the envelope and just put it on the pile – you know the pile I’m talking about – it’s the one my husband just went bananas over this morning – yeah – that one! But then I got a call from Michael Dalton Johnson (@RulesoftheHunt).  At first I thought he was talking about the book – but it turned out to be about a completely unrelated reason.  As we were ending the conversation he said that the book had an unusual format – but he wouldn’t say more.  Well, you know what happened next.  I went home, routed through the pile until I found the book, and promptly took it upstairs to read that evening. Rules of the Hunt Looks Like a Book and Reads Like a Blog When you get your copy of Rules of the Hunt you’re going to think you got a book.  It looks like a book at first.  In fact, it looks like any other business book you’ve ever seen; it has a businessy title and subtitle, acknowledgements, a forward by famous sales guru, Jeffery Gitomer and even a disclaimer.  Then you get to the table of contents and you see that there are, what look like ten chapters.  The introduction subtly lets me know that I don’t have to read the book cover to cover.  OK.  A lot of books say that, so I’m not surprised. It isn’t until I turn to page two that I notice the difference – when Michael Johnson said “Rules” – he was being literal.  This was a book of RULES ; paragraphs and sections of things that Michael Johnson has learned over the length of his more than 30 years of attending the school of entrepreneurial hard knocks. Let me give you an example.  I’m going to select just a couple of short “rules” so that you can get a flavor for what I mean:

“With money or time, new customers are bought.  The question is how much will new customers cost you?  There are many inexpensive ways to acquire customers – word of mouth being the cheapest of them all.  Clever advertising, publicity, and promotion are also very effective.  You must determine, with a fair degree of accuracy what your acquisition costs are.”

OK.  So what, you might say.  But then there are wonderful, golden nuggets of just plain raw and honest business wisdom like this one:

“The immutable law of business gift giving.  Women like chocolates and flowers, men like food, gadgets and toys.  Quality trumps quantity.  A small box of exquisite chocolate truffles is remembered long after a two-pound of so-so candy.  That’s all you need to know.”

Here’s another one I really liked:

“Hire traits, not degrees. The fact that a job applicant has a degree doesn’t reveal much about the candidate’s capabilities.  Many people with advanced degrees lack common sense.  The Wizard of Oz couldn’t give the Scarecrow brains, but he could give him a diploma.  Lots of incompetents have diplomas.  Don’t be too impressed by these.  Honesty, loyalty, initiative and dedication can’t be taught.  The real world of business requires trats and abilities that are not attained by simply having a degree.”

How Michael Dalton Johnson Can Pull off a Book Like Rules of the Hunt Not everyone can write a book like this.  It takes someone who has lived it and learned from his mistakes to write a book like this and have you actually believe it.  Michael Dalton Johnson certainly fits this description. At the age of 15, Johnson dropped out of high school to take a full-time job.  He joined the army at age 17.  Then, after serving in the military, he worked as a ranch hand, factory worker and construction laborer before venturing into the business world.  He’s never taken a business course and it seems like he’s proud of it. Now, let me tell you about what he’s accomplished inside the world of business.  Johnson is an award-winning trade book and magazine publisher.  He’s been an entrepreneur for over 30 years and is the founder of SalesDog.com.  He hasn’t lived an obscure entrepreneurial life, rather, he’s been on more than 200 radio shows and been featured in U.S. News and World Report, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and many, many more publications that are too numerous to mention here. I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Michael a few weeks ago and I can tell you that the creative marketing and sales secrets he shared with me can ONLY come from someone who has gotten his PhD from the real world of work and not a classroom. Rules of the Hunt is a Mentoring Textbook With so many young people graduating from college and looking to contribute and get to work – this book would be a fantastic graduation present.  It’s easy to read and will give them just the right amount of insight to think about – but leave them the freedom to see how they would put it to work. If you’ve been running a business, but not getting as far ahead in the process as you’d like – you might find some clues as to what’s been missing in your strategy. Overall, this is a great general read for anyone who love reading business books.  You don’t have to read it cover to cover.  You can simply keep it at your desk and open to a random page to see what pops up for you. I really enjoyed Rules of the Hunt and I think you will too.

A Small Change in Your Business Mindset Can Increase Your Sales

By Pawel Grabowski on 05/25/2012

Okay, show of hands, who hates selling?

Sure, you know that you must sell. Deep in your heart of hearts though you despise it. You know that making sales is the only way to increase your revenue, build up your company and, well, stay in business. You have heard of the results others get. You know that selling works. But, for some reason, it’s not working for you. You work hard researching and contacting prospects. You do your best to interest them with your work during a sales presentation. Hell, you even follow up, which is not something many small business owners would do.  But you still don’t make sales. At least not as many as you would like. You do everything by the book but you get no results. And, the sales that you make, well, sometimes they feel kind of accidental. Like as if they just happened, as if you were simply in the right place at the right time. You know that wasn’t selling, just luck. So, what’s wrong? What’s causing all this hard work to go to waste? Well, I may have an idea so read on. I will show you a simple hack that can help you make more sales almost instantly.

This Is Not Only Your Problem

Before we begin, there is one more thing I want to talk about. You are not alone. The problem I am about to discuss with you is one of the most common ones amongst all small business owners. There are literary thousands of people that struggle to make sales. Some of them try very hard, others give up because, as someone once told me, “this is the difficult part.” Nevertheless, they make no sales. But do you know what is the reason for that? Wrong Attitude Yep, it’s nothing to do with who you are, what you do and how good you are at selling (well, technique plays a part in that too but it’s not the most important part). It’s your approach to selling that’s causing the problem. Because, you see, you go to a presentation hoping to make the sale (and I fully realize how stupid this sentence sounds but please, read on). The trouble is, it’s true. You go to the sales call with one intention, to get the order.  It’s not a genuine, honest reason. It’s being selfish. And, the trouble is, many of your prospects see through that. Do you know what a seasoned salesman does instead? They go to a meeting hoping that their solutions will help the prospect solve their problems and improve their business.  They know this, hell, they believe in it. And, they get the sale. Want to make more sales? Go to your next sales call believing that what you are going to do to your prospect is going to help them, improve their business or increase the revenue.  And, you know what the best part is? It’s actually quite simple to do.

How To Change Your Sales Attitude And Show Your Prospects That You Care

1. Realize What You Are Really Selling You can’t change your mindset if you don’t know what are you really selling. By this I don’t mean the actual product or a service you are offering but what is the biggest benefit of using it.  A web designer does not sell websites. She sells the opportunity to promote the business online, to gain more leads and sales for the business.  A garden designer does not sell new gardens but rather an opportunity to have a special place to rest and unwind. Find out what you are really selling and figuring out the ways to help your prospects will become extremely easy. 2. Understand That You Are Not The Most Important Part of The Sale By nature, we think of ourselves first. It’s quite natural, however, if you want to make sales, you need to change the way you think. In sales, in spite of what you might say you are not the important part. It is your potential client, their business and the problems they are looking to fix. Everything else is secondary. 3. Prepare Solutions For Your Prospect When you initiate a sales process with a prospect, you usually have a very good idea about the kind of problems they might have in relation to what you are selling. If not, I suggest you stop here and first learn how to research your potential clients thoroughly before making the initial contact. That knowledge should be enough to think of the best solutions for your prospect. It doesn’t mean that you should have the whole proposal ready. But having examples of how you could implement your solution into the prospects business in your presentation will certainly present you as someone who cares.

Here’s A Scary Fact

Every time you lose a sale, you most likely also lose a prospect for life. It is an unfortunate fact that you may never get a chance to sell to them again.  A simple change in your business mindset can make the difference between this and constantly winning new clients for your business. So, what do you choose? Mindset Photo via Shutterstock

Tom Byun of Yahoo! Small Business: Solutions For The Overwhelmed

By Brent Leary on 05/25/2012

It’s no secret, many small business owners are overwhelmed. If that sounds like you, you’re not alone. Too much to do, too many choices, too little time, not enough money. Wouldn’t it be great if you could have one central place to manage tools that was cost efficient while providing time savings as well? Look no further. Tom Byun, Vice President & General Manager of Yahoo! Small Business, joins Brent Leary to provide a solution.

* * * * * Small Business Trends:  Can you tell us what small business means to Yahoo! and give us your impression of Small Business Week and its importance? Tom Byun:  We are obviously very excited about Small Business Week.  To first answer your question about what small business means to Yahoo!, it is a critical, core part of our strategy and mission to continue to provide relevant news, content and information to consumer audience. You know, the thing about Yahoo! – it is not a well known stat but, we have  nearly ten million small businesses, plus what we call intenders – people that may be aspiring entrepreneurs – visiting and consuming a variety of our services.  They are a very important audience for Yahoo! The business unit I manage is to service those customers and provide them with lead sources and tools to help them grow and manage their business on line. To your second question about what Small Business Week means for me, overall I think small businesses are really the life blood and engine of growth for this economy.  I don’t need to mention all of the stats you and your readers know about how many people small businesses employ.  And the type of services and growth they provide for the economy.  They are a crucial part.  I think Small Businesses Week is a great vehicle and means by which more and more awareness for small business is created. Small Business Trends:  What are some of the main issues you are hearing from your customers about the challenges of marketing from a small business perspective? Tom Byun:  I have spent a lot of time with customers day to day, as well as working with customer research focus groups that are set up.  There are a couple of things that we hear:

• One, they are very pressed for time and are focusing on bringing their next sale and the next foot in the door, or traffic to their website.
• Two, they are inundated with calls or requests for a variety of different services.  Whether it is someone who wants to sell them a customer list, they are just inundated and overwhelmed, not sure of which services to use.

Often times they’re also overwhelmed with having to use a variety of tools and not having it in one central place for them to manage in a way that is not only cost efficient but, also give them time savings. Those are some of the pain points that we have heard from customers.  I think one of the trends we are seeing is more and more small businesses moving a lot of their marketing dollars online.  But they are not sure which resources are cost effective and drive the best ROI. Small Business Trends:  Can you tell us about the Marketing Dashboard you recently released? Tom Byun:  Sure.  The Marketing Dashboard we launched a few weeks ago is a free tool that helps businesses, entrepreneurs and all types starting with small businesses discover new marketing opportunities to grow their business.  How to get that additional sale.  How to get the word out, build awareness and get a more transparent and clear picture of their marketing campaign results. As I mentioned, it is a free tool.  But for a small nominal fee, they can get a much more robust set of features to help them manage marketing campaigns all in one place. Small Business Trends:  You have some services integrated into the dashboard.  Constant Contact for email marketing, Orange Soda for SEM/SEO and Google Analytics for analytics? Tom Byun:  One thing we did as part of the research in talking with small businesses is understand, “When I am business today, and think through all of the different services that I am looking at to grow and market myself, what is at the top of the list?”  There are a few things that come to the top and based on that, we talked to a number of different potential partners out there. Email marketing is near the top of the list and Constant Contact is someone that we decided to partner with because they are already a proven, strong branded player.  Then, as you eluded to SEM and SEO, we decided that a managed SEM and SEO approach is a cost effective way.  It is the right approach because again, small businesses do not have a lot of time in the day.  So we partnered with Orange Soda. Now there are other services.  For example, local directory listing management and online reputation management that we also are offering as part of the service.  The local directory listing management covers over a hundred sites.  Then, online reputation management we pull from up to eight thousand different sources.  And then, as you mentioned, site traffic analysis is with Google Analytics. Small Business Trends:  Can you talk a little bit about marketing initiatives and their impact on a company’s reputation online? Tom Byun:  Definitely.  You know, especially with the growing voices and opinions from consumers, it is really important that you stay abreast of what is being said and how to respond to it. In the dashboard, we have integrated a reputation tracker.  You can look at how many reviews in terms of mentions you have gotten, how many reviews this month, and there is a distribution of ratings – whether it is positive, negative or neutral. One other I will call out, and this gets added as part of the paid upgrade feature, is being able to understand and track what is being said by your competitors near you.  Just having a pulse on that and the voice of the customer is really important.  Once they have information at their fingertips, it can help them improve the overall customer experience.  I think this will be a valuable tool. Small Business Trends:  Where can people learn more? Tom Byun:  They can go to Yahoo! Small Business.   We also have an advisors site at Yahoo Small Business Advisor where there is a personalized set of content and resources to help small businesses. They can also visit the Marketing Dashboard. This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

Whether you’re growing your business or starting a new venture, BlackBerry solutions provide you with the freedom you want and the control you need. [Series sponsor]

 

Excuse Me: I Have To Take This

By Mark Anderson on 05/25/2012

I tend to write first, then draw. But sometimes when I just can’t think of anything, I put the process in reverse to see what happens. It goes like this. . .draw a standard scene, but add a talking animal, or a random object, or, in this case, take a standard object and exaggerate it. It’s a great way to get your mind working differently and break out of your rut. I don’t know exactly what motivated me to draw the giant telephone in this cartoon, but it pretty quickly occurred to me that when that phone rang, you’d really want to answer it. Problem solved.