Elle

A: One of the surprising things about PR is that the value to your business, in my opinion, is not that you are in the news one day. Sure it’s great to be able to say to your friends and family, “We’re going to be on the six o’clock news!” or “Look for us in tomorrow’s business section,” but for my money, that one story pales in comparison to other benefits:

• It is independent 3rd party validation that your business is worth noticing. An advertisement that you purchase is you saying that your business is great, but PR is someone else, someone with credibility, saying it. That is why it is so valuable.
• It can be used again and again. This is the other major benefit. You can take that TV news piece, post it on your homepage, and you have instant credibility forever more. You can post that newspaper story in your store window.
• It helps you stand out from the crowd. With 27 million other small businesses out there, anything you can do to distinguish yourself makes a difference.

So how do you get noticed by a writer, producer, or editor? Here are the steps I would take:

First, you have to think like an editor (or writer or producer). What does that mean? Consider things from their perspective. First, like most of us these days, they are busy, busy, busy, so the first thing to think about is that you have to craft a pitch that is quick and easy for them to understand.

That is why, for me at least, I find that a simple, informal pitch via email is far more likely to catch my eye than an oft-boring press release. Yes, I know we are taught to craft a who-what-where-when-and why press release, but I think that is not the way to go in this faster, less formal business era, and I also think I am fairly typical in that regard. An email addressed to me personally, from someone who know what it is I write about and offers a story that would interest my readers is what works.

Additionally, editors, writers and/or producers have space or time they need to fill every day, and their job is to fill it with news. They are not in the business of giving you free publicity, but they are in the business of offering their readers and viewers interesting, intriguing news. So your job is to craft a story – have an angle – that is newsworthy. As they say, dog bites man is not news, but man bites dog is.

There are several ways to come up with an angle that might intrigue your desired reporter:

• You could sponsor an event.
• You could offer some sort of innovative product or service that could help the reporter’s readers or viewers.
• You could have a contest. I once knew a baker who sponsored a ‘Best zucchini bread recipe” contest only to get some publicity and it turned into an annual goldmine for her.
• You could create a publicity stunt. Remember when Ford gave every one of Oprah’s audience members a new Ford Focus one day? How many millions of dollars of publicity to that get them? GoldenPalace.com sponsored Dennis Rodman when he ran with the bulls.

So the basic steps are these: Do some research and find the right reporter who covers stories like the one you want to pitch. Create an angle that is different, interesting, and newsworthy. Send a friendly, short and snappy email pitching your story. Be friendly and accessible and make it easy for the reporter to follow up. Follow up yourself, but don’t be a pest.

Today’s Tip: Remember, if you are pitching a television story, you have to make it visual; TV is a visual medium.

JD

A: What if I told you that there was a surefire way to make your website standout and POP . . . would that be of interest to you? And what if I further told you that this method is inexpensive, easily accomplished, and even so, has a 50 times greater chance of landing you on a Page 1 search result?

I thought that would grab your attention.

What is the secret ingredient, that magic potion, you ask? The answer is – video.

It turns out that of all the things you can do on your website to engage viewers, create more page views, and get higher search engine rankings, adding video just may be the best. As I said, Forrester Research did a test and found that when search results are blended (that is, they include text, video, images, news, etc.) videos that are search engine optimized (more on that in a moment) give you a 50 times greater chance of ending up on the all-important first page of a search result.

Now that is what I call standing out from the crowd.

But here’s the catch: You can’t just add a video to your site and expect a great search engine result for that page. The video must be search engine optimized, that is, it must contain key words in the file names, captions, and so on. That same Forrester blog indicated that less than 20% of all online marketers search engine optimize their video.

That offers a tremendous opportunity for you.

So I spoke with Benjamin Wayne, the CEO of the great video website Fliqz. Fliqz offers affordable, branded video solutions – everything from video hosting, and SEO tools to search engine submission. He explained that offering video content on your small business site actually serves three functions:

1. It helps attract new customers by virtue of the SEO factor
2. It engages them, and
3. It helps convert them into paying customers

But again, just adding video to your site is insufficient. According to Wayne, if you want your video to be picked up and analyzed properly by Google and the other search engines, you must not only add SEO keywords to it, but you must actually “submit the video to Google using XML tools.” Fliqz helps with that too, giving you an easy way to submit your video’s URL.

Maybe you are thinking that it is enough to put your video on YouTube and embed the YouTube player and URL into your site. According to Mr. Wayne, that too is insufficient. “The traffic and the rankings will be applied to YouTube and not your site,” he says. So the best practice is to add your video to your site and submit your URL and keywords to the search engines.

And don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have to create an expensive video for this to work. In this YouTube era, people are used to watching videos that are less than perfect. Of course yours must be professional and add to your brand, but that does not mean they must cost a fortune or take forever to create.

The second advantage of video is that it engages your audience. When you have video on your homepage, 50% to 80% of your visitors will click that first. So video becomes a very effective tool for reducing your “bounce rate” – the amount of people who come to your site, take a quick look, decide it’s not what they are looking for, and surf on.

And the final thing video can do for you is to help increase your conversion rate – that is, the number of people who visit and then end up buying something. According to Benjamin Wayne, by using video instead of just text as part of your call to action, your conversion rate can be increased multi-fold.

He gave me the example of a rental property website that decided to vastly increase its use of video: It offered guided tours of each of their properties, and then near the end of each video, up would pop a link that said “Rent me now!” As a result, both the site’s traffic and conversion rates increased dramatically.

Web 2.0: It’s not just for the big boys any more.

Today’s Tip: Another very good business book that I recently received and read is The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Strategies for Managing Your Business and Your Life by Gehse Roach. Roach explains how his years as a Buddhist monk and the principles he learned helped him build a multi-million dollar diamond business. It is a compelling book – for not only how to be an ethical and highly successful entrepreneur, but how those principles can change your life, your business, and the world.

Steve

A: The above exchange occurred over the weekend when my brother, my wife, and I went out to eat at a nice restaurant. It turned out to be one of those terrible dining experiences we have all been through at one time or another. Everything went wrong – bad service, cold food, wrong orders, etc.

But it was when the young waitress started crying at our table that we new it was time to go.

We actually should have left much sooner. When we first walked in we were sat at a “special” table, even though the restaurant was fairly empty. Soon, the manager came up and pointed out that if we wanted to stay sitting at that table we would have to pay an 18% gratuity, per the sign on the table. When I pointed out that they were the ones who sat us at that table, she didn’t care and actually made us move tables – to a different part of the empty restaurant.

It was a Seinfeldian moment, and I could just hear Jerry say: Who are these people?

How do they stay in business? Since when did policies become more important than customers?

I have a friend, Steve Little, who is a great speaker. Steve has a signature story that he calls The Milkshake Moment (which he actually turned into a book) that goes something like this:

It was the end of a long day of travel. He had been in airplanes, airports and taxis all day. What kept him going was the thought that at the end of the day, after he checked into the hotel, he would get to order one of his beloved vanilla milkshakes. So he finally gets to the hotel, checks in, calls room service, gets “Stuart” on the line, and orders his milkshake.

Stuart: “We don’t make milkshakes Mr. Little, I’m sorry.”

Steve: “Stuart, let me ask you a question. Do you have vanilla ice cream?”

Stuart: “Sure we do Mr. Little!”

Steve: “And do you have milk?”

Stuart: “You bet, Mr. Little!”

Steve: “Well then Stuart, put them together in a blender and please send it up to me.”

Stuart: “But we don’t make milkshakes Mr. Little!”

In his speeches, Steve then says to the audience, “And I have one question for you – Is Stuart stupid?” It always gets a big laugh, and it does so because 1) Steve tells a great story, and 2) we can all relate.

How many times have you encountered a business that seems far more interested in following their own rules and pricedure than in making you happy, even when it would be a simple thing to say yes to you instead of no? Too many times, I know.

Stuart’s problem, and the problem that the manager of the restaurant had, is two-fold.

First, they obviously were not empowered enough to be able to bend the rules, even slightly, and even when it would have meant keeping a customer. So in one sense, the problem is not theirs, it is that of the owner and their managers. Clearly they worked in environments that did not allow them to make smart, independent decisions.

Does your business empower your employees to be smart, rather than slaves to rules? If not, that is really something to noodle on.

Second, it also seems obvious that the culture of the businesses in question, and that of many similarly rigid businesses, is not a customer-centric, positive one. I have said it before and I will say it again – if you want to stay in business, if you want to thrill your customers, if you want to succeed in this tough economy, then the answer is YES.

Can we please stay sitting at this table and pay whatever gratuity we think is appropriate? Yes. Can you please combine the milk and ice cream and make me a milkshake? Yes. Sure you have to have rules and policies and follow them, but it is equally true that mediocre companies would rather follow the rules than follow their customers.

The answer is yes.

Today’s tip: Continuing in my series of great business books I have come across recently:

At the airport recently I saw Magic Johnson’s business book 32 Ways to be a Champion in Business (Magic was No. 32.) I was intrigued for two reasons: First, no one loved his Laker teams more than me, and second, and more importantly, I know that Magic had become an entrepreneur and was interested in his what e had learned.

This is an excellent, substantive, interesting, well-written, engaging book. Whether it’s his lessons from his successes (like teaming with Starbucks) or failures (a sporting goods store that failed) Magic truly has learned what it takes to be a great entrepreneur. The stories are interesting and the lessons are very relevant. Steve says check it out.

Jess

A: Of course there are a lot of things that go into creating a successful business, but one of the most important, and one that is often under the radar, is the need for a great recipe, or two.

Huh?

Think about any great recipe that you like. Why do you use it? I bet the reasons are essentially two-fold. First, you like the result, that is, the tasty food. Second, you probably like it because you can count on it – you get the same basic results time and again.

Well, the same should be true in your business. To succeed long-term, you need a success recipe that you can turn to which consistently cooks up new customers.

When I first started my law practice, I tried a lot of ways to generate business, and finally settled on putting on legal seminars for the public every other month or so. I learned that whenever I put on one of these free seminars I would create enough new business to keep me busy for the next few months. After some trial and error, I had figured out a way to make money consistently. I had figured out my recipe for making my “dough” (I know – groan!)

That is what you have to do. Your recipe could be almost anything:

• An ad that consistently pulls
• A sale
• A viable social networking presence
• A weekly e-newsletter
• A killer e-commerce site

The important thing is that you try out various ideas and find one that works, again and again. Creating a great recipe will give you a sense of calm, knowing that you can always count on this recipe to keep you in business.

And then, down the road, if you really want to succeed, what you will do is create yet another great recipe, or two or three, and here is why: When an investor invests in the stock market, he or she knows not to buy only one stock or sector. That sector or stock may go up, but it also may go down. By diversifying their portfolio, investors create a hedge against failure.

Great businesses, large and small, do the same thing. Take Apple for example. No, they are not the biggest computer maker out there, but they are vibrant for many reasons, including the fact that they have created some additional great recipes: Computers begat laptops which begat the iPod, iTunes, and the iPhone (among others.) By creating additional recipes – additional profit centers in music and telecommunications in additional to computers – Apple continues to be a growth leader.

The best small businesses do the same thing. To be a long-term success, you need to add more profit centers. Here’s how:

1. Make a big list of additional ways to make money or create customers that is a natural outgrowth of what you already do. It should not be too much of a stretch.
2. Winnow the list down, and then go over it with some people’s whose judgment you trust. You are looking for the best two or three ways to create additional revenue.
3. Again, it could be almost anything – a new product, a new location, an additional service, whatever.
4. Test the ideas out and see which one has the greatest potential.
5. Roll it out.

The important thing is that you test and find new profit centers that make you money consistently while reinforcing your brand. Avoid being like those restaurants that advertise “Chinese and American food.” Well, which is it? A great recipe makes logical, intuitive sense.

And they should also yield some yummy results.

Today’s tip: I am sent plenty of business books and read a lot of them. Over the next few weeks, I would like to share in this space some of the best that I have come across recently.

To start, for a couple of reasons, I highly recommend the newest edition of Barbara Winter’s classic, Making a Living Without a Job. This great book shows anyone how they too can become “joyfully jobless.” In a different life, when I was the unhappiest lawyer in the land working for the big firm, this book helped me plan my escape. It changed my life, and it can change yours.

In the years since, Barbara Winter has become my friend and I was privileged enough to be asked to write the Forward to the new edition. Steve says check it out!

Deanna

A: I know of very few small business people who would trade their lot for a gig with a big business, even given the steady paycheck and benefits that would come with it. The lack of freedom alone would likely emotionally pummel most small business owners (and in fact, probably did – that is why they left.)

But it’s not called “big business” for nothing: Large corporations have bigger budgets, better resources, more people – a whole host of bigger and better advantages small business can only dream of.

But, to quote the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, “You’ve got one thing they haven’t got,” namely, the ability to adjust quickly and move fast. You are the speedboat to their tanker. And in an economy like this that is no small thing. The best small businesses shift course, quickly.

Here’s an example: Polly Liu is the founder of Beau-Coup.com, a website that started out offering an amazing array of wedding favors. Ms. Liu and her husband started the business because, while looking for unique wedding favors for guests at their wedding, “we seemed to come across the same set of products from vendor to vendor.” They knew they could do better.

Beau-Coup.com was born not long thereafter and while the site is great and the business quickly became successful, the question arose: How to grow, and more importantly, in what area? This is where being a nimble small business really comes in handy. Beau Coup used Google Analytics and Google AdWords to research and test out new possibilities. They concluded that the next natural extension for them was, maybe not surprisingly, the baby market. Beau Coup soon began to sell favors, accessories, and party supplies for lots of non-wedding events like baby showers, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties, and so on.

The two Google tools Beau Coup used are indeed a great way to test new ideas inexpensively and quickly, but they are not the only way. There are in fact plenty of online tools available that can help you too do some market research and make some smart decisions about what’s working, what’s not, and which way to head next:

Google Analytics, as indicated, is a free tool that analyzes how visitors interact with a site – from how they found it (referrals) to what they do when they get there (navigation). Savvy marketers can use this info to make smart decisions. For example, by testing new products and seeing which visitors click on most often, you can determine which are most popular. You can then emphasize them in ads, move them to more prominent pages on the site, expand inventory with similar items, etc.

Microsoft AdCenter allows you to place ads throughout the Microsoft world – on MSN, Bing, etc. and because such ad campaigns are easy to change, they are a good way to effectively and quickly test something new and hunt for new customers. Example, a sporting goods retailer who wants to try his hand at selling archery equipment can create ad campaigns related to bows and arrows, targets, etc. and see what ads and which key phrases work best.

AT&T (whom I do some work with) allows you to place ads using the online Yellow Pages, on mobile devises, in search engine results, and more. They also have some great local search options.

Google AdWords, as you likely know, allows you to place ads on Google and throughout the Google world.

Of course the other big player is Yahoo.

All of these tools allow you to try something new, inexpensively, and see if it works. If this idea of shifting into new markets is of interest to you, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1. Consider line extensions: A line extension is, as the name suggests, simply a logical expansion of the line of products you already carry. But remember to think broadly – Beau Coup did not just consider wedding products, they thought about celebrations generally.

2. Consider new customers: Who else may be interested in what you offer? How can you reach them? What might they want?

3. Start small, tweak, expand: The beauty of these tools is that you can look before you leap. Test, see what works, don’t spend a lot, test some more, analyze results, and then go for it.

4. Keep your brand in mind: Going in a wholly new direction could hurt your brand. Be careful of that.

Today’s tip: Know a great woman entrepreneur? Ernst & Young is looking for her. The company is now hosting its second annual Entrepreneurial Winning Women contest. Winners

• Receive ongoing personalized business advice from Ernst & Young professionals as well as entrepreneurs, executives and advisors;
• Will get to meet role models, coaches and mentors;
• Will connect with possible investors, partners, customers, and suppliers; and
• Can participate in formal and informal educational sessions

Apply here

Linda

A: There are so many great things to be said about e-commerce that I am not sure where to begin, but let’s start with this one: E-commerce is, even today, a fairly new market; it has really been around for a little more than a dozen years.

Being able to tap such a huge market at the relative start won’t happen again in our lifetimes.

There remains a world of opportunity and untapped e-potential. Other benefits include easy access to global markets, having an automated and additional profit center open 24/7, a low cost of entry, and the ability to compete with larger companies.

Here’s how to jump in – 7 Steps.

Step 1: Notice what works: Whether it is eBay, Amazon, or your own favorite, e-commerce sites that succeed tend to do the same things right:

• They are attractive, intuitive, engaging, and easy to navigate
• They offer plenty of inventory
• They are easy to shop and check-out
• There are discounts and specials (coupons, free shipping, etc.)
• They offer great customer service

Step 2. Consider the competition. Who else sells what you want to sell? Take a look at the players both big and small. Buy some merchandise from them and ask yourself – what do they do right, and wrong, and how can it be it be improved?

Step 3. Pick your products: If you are in business and have products that you already sell, then adding them to your online store is easy: Take pictures of them, add them to your online catalogue (see below) and write some great copy.

If you don’t know what you want to sell, then consider your options. There are tons of wholesalers and distributors from which to choose. If you don’t know of any, I would suggest you surf over to my site – MrAllBiz.com – and check out the wholesale product search engine we offer. You can find wholesalers for just about any product you are looking for.

Note: The culture of the Web is one of discounts, keep that in mind, and remember that selling expensive items online is more difficult.

Step 4. Create a great site: You have about five seconds once someone finds your site to impress them enough that they will decide to poke around a bit and maybe buy something. That means your site must be graphically pleasing to the eye, unique, and useful.

Step 5. Consider drop shipping: What if you just want to get your feet wet and don’t want to spend a lot of money discovering whether this online universe is for you? Then check out drop shipping. Drop shipping is an arrangement between you and a wholesaler whereby you offer their products on your site but you don’t actually physically stock any inventory. If someone clicks and buys, notice is sent to you and the wholesaler, the wholesalers ships the product using your labels and logos, and you split the profit.

If you think this is a great way to get started, you are right. There are no products to buy and stock, no huge up-front costs, no labor expenses, etc. You can find drop shippers for most any product by doing an online search, or again, by typing “drop shipping” into the product search engine at my site.

Step 6. Build your store: There are two parts to your online store – the front end and the back end. The front end is what the world sees – your products for sale, specials, policies, and so on. The back end is what you see – inventory control, reports of what sells, etc.

You will need to find an online partner / Web host to help you build your store. Their software will create both the front end and the back end. It will allow you to create thumbnails of your products as part of your overall online catalogue.

What you want is a partner that offers

• Pre-designed, customizable templates
• Inventory support
• Easy acceptance of credit cards
• Search engine optimization
• Easy adding and subtracting of products
• Up-selling tools, coupons, gift certificates, etc.
• Real time stats and reports
• Secure transactions, and
• Plenty of support

Step 7. Handle sales: To be able to accept online sales, you will need a merchant account (an account with a credit card issuer) and / or the ability to accept PayPal payments. You will also need to be able to handle inquiries, returns, exchanges, and refunds. Don’t underestimate shipping and related costs either.

Plenty of other small businesses have made the leap to online success, and if they did it, so can you.

Today’s Tip: If you would like to know more, I recently did a webinar with my friends at AT&T called E-Commerce Essentials. You can watch it here.

Ira

A: If I think about it, there are definitely some strategies I have learned along the way – legal and otherwise – that are inexpensive while also making your business life easier. Some are well known, others are not, but all can make a difference.

And of course, being the lawyer I am, let me note that nothing beats meeting with your own attorney who is aware of your facts and situation. But this list should give you something to talk about.

1. Get creditors to leave you alone, quickly and inexpensively: Especially these days, plenty of folks are being called incessantly by bill collectors. If you want the phone to stop ringing, one thing you can do is invoke the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. Say something like, “Pursuant to the FDCPA, you are to never call me again about this debt.” (Note: This has to be made to 3^rd party bill collector and not the original creditor.)

Once they have been given notice (doing it by certified mail is even better) they have to stop calling. They may sue you, or not, but the threats will cease.

2. Often, you can do it yourself: There are plenty of times when you don’t really need a lawyer and can do it yourself far less expensively. I am partial to the do-it-yourself law products at Nolo.com, but there are other good sites out there as well, like LegalZoom.com.

Of course, it’s the basic stuff I am talking about here – forming an LLC, creating a will, etc.

3. And when you can’t do it yourself, you may only need a letter: When someone owes your business money it is understandable that you want to sue the bum. But lawsuits are messy and expensive. Many times, a strongly-worded letter from a lawyer can yield even better results than costly, complex litigation, and at a fraction of the price.

4. And if you need more than a letter, negotiate: A little secret lawyers don’t want you to know is that their fees and costs are not written in stone. You can often negotiate better prices. No, they may not reduce their hourly rate, but you can bet that paying 50 cents per copy, or $2 a page for a fax is negotiable.

5. Protect your intellectual property: If you are a creator or inventor, it is vital that you protect your IP – your copyrights, patents, or trademarks. Patents usually require legal help, but copyrights and trademarks can be registered and handled on your own at www.USPTO.gov.

Also, one good thing to know about copyrights is that they need not even be registered with the federal copyright office to be legal; they are created as a matter of law at the moment of creation. See, this sentence is now copyrighted (though registration does offer a lot of extra protection.)

6. What to do if you don’t have a contract: This was one of the more interesting things I learned in law school – sometimes you can enforce someone’s promise to you, even though you don’t have an actual contract, and you don’t even need to hire a lawyer.

It’s called promissory estoppel and happens when you rely to your detriment on someone’s promise.

Example: A contractor asks you, a subcontractor, for a bid for a project and you give a very low bid. The contractor then gets the project but you now say you can’t perform with the low bid you gave. Even though there is no contract, you may be forced to live up to the low bid price because the contractor relied on your promise.

7. Know when to throw it in: When you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and fighting will cost you money.

Today’s Tip: Put it in writing. I know you know this, but make sure you do it, always. Memories fade over time, people remember things differently, and people lie.  Writing prevents all of that from being dispositive.

Emile

A: It couldn’t be much worse, could it? Like many others, I do indeed see things continuing to improve as this calendar year winds down, and getting better next year especially.

I think the real question is – what are you going to do to make it better?

By now, you know the drill.  I don’t need to tell you to work smarter, or market more, or increase your networking, etc.  If you are still in business right now, you have figured those things out for yourself, along with plenty more.

That said, you got me thinking.  The kids are indeed going back to school, and like us, they want this year to be a good one too.  My youngest daughter, Mara, is starting high school tomorrow (bittersweet for this old dad for sure!) and the more we talked, the more I thought what I am telling her about high school is pertinent to many of us too, me included.

Here is what I mean: One piece of advice I gave her was to ‘get involved.’  The more you put into school, high school especially I said, the more you will get out of it.  But it is a point equally as valid for any small business person – just ask my pal Bill.

Bill is a freelancer, and like many small business people, he found it frustrating and isolating to work alone most of the time.  So about a year ago, Bill made a conscious decision to get more involved in his community.  As a result, not only was he happier, but his business took off.  Between joining Le Tip, and his local chamber, and taking some development classes at the local community college, and sponsoring a local Little League team, Bill expanded his network greatly, met lots of new people, increased his happiness quotient, and yes, grew his business.

Of course this also fit in with other things that my daughter had been hearing from us, her big sister, and friends, namely, be open to meeting some new people and making some new friends.  It turns out that that is as important in business as it is in school.  I think the thing my pal Bill liked best about his year of living socially is that he got out of his self-imposed cocoon and made a couple of new friends.

I also liked the piece of advice one of my brothers gave my daughter – “make a mistake” he said.  It wasn’t “don’t be afraid to make a mistake” but to actually make a mistake.  His point was that in her willingness to try some new things, my daughter would have to be a bit fearless and not worry so much about how it might look.  That is especially valuable advice for a teenager.

It’s not bad for an entrepreneur either.

I was watching the new NBC show Shark Tank last night and was fairly disgusted by something I heard.  One of the sharks, Kevin the billionaire, hammered one of the would-be entrepreneurs because he had filed a personal bankruptcy at one point. “Don’t ever file bankruptcy!” Kevin bellowed.

Easy to say when you’re worth a couple of billion, eh Kevin?  But for most entrepreneurs, bankruptcy is the safety net that makes taking a big risk on a big idea more tolerable.  No, of course no one likes to file bankruptcy, but unless you are willing to swing for the fences, you will not hit the business homerun.  You may knock it out of the park, or you may strike out.  That’s the risk you take.  That’s the juice.

So yes, make a mistake my sweet Mara.  Try and hit one out of the park. You will, and you’ll whiff a few too.  That’s perfectly OK.

Today’s Tip: Do you have a business travel horror story? It might earn you a free trip to Hawaii. Embassy Suites Hotels last week announced the launch if its “My Business Travel Blunder” contest, where entrants can win a complimentary vacation just for revealing their most “blunderful” business travel story. You can enter here.

Deanna

A: I know of very few small business people who would trade their lot for a gig with a big business, even given the steady paycheck and benefits that would come with it. The lack of freedom alone would likely emotionally pummel most small business owners (and in fact, probably did – that is why they left.)

But it’s not called “big business” for nothing: Large corporations have bigger budgets, better resources, more people – a whole host of bigger and better advantages small business can only dream of.

But, to quote the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, “You’ve got one thing they haven’t got,” namely, the ability to adjust quickly and move fast.  You are the speedboat to their tanker.  And in an economy like this that is no small thing. The best small businesses shift course, quickly.

Here’s an example: Polly Liu is the founder of Beau-Coup.com, a website that started out offering an amazing array of wedding favors.  Ms. Liu and her husband started the business because, while looking for unique wedding favors for guests at their wedding, “we seemed to come across the same set of products from vendor to vendor.”  They knew they could do better.

Beau-Coup.com was born not long thereafter and while the site is great and the business quickly became successful, the question arose: How to grow, and more importantly, in what area? This is where being a nimble small business really comes in handy.  Beau Coup used Google Analytics and Google AdWords to research and test out new possibilities. They concluded that the next natural extension for them was, maybe not surprisingly, the baby market. Beau Coup soon began to sell favors, accessories, and party supplies for lots of non-wedding events like baby showers, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties, and so on.

The two Google tools Beau Coup used are indeed a great way to test new ideas inexpensively and quickly, but they are not the only way. There are in fact plenty of online tools available that can help you too do some market research and make some smart decisions about what’s working, what’s not, and which way to head next:

• Google Analytics, as indicated, is a free tool that analyzes how visitors interact with a site – from how they found it (referrals) to what they do when they get there (navigation). Savvy marketers can use this info to make smart decisions. For example, by testing new products and seeing which visitors click on most often, you can determine which are most popular. You can then emphasize them in ads, move them to more prominent pages on the site, expand inventory with similar items, etc.

• Microsoft AdCenter allows you to place ads throughout the Microsoft world – on MSN, Bing, etc. and because such ad campaigns are easy to change, they are a good way to effectively and quickly test something new and hunt for new customers. Example, a sporting goods retailer who wants to try his hand at selling archery equipment can create ad campaigns related to bows and arrows, targets, etc. and see what ads and which key phrases work best.

• AT&T (whom I do some work with) allows you to place ads using the online Yellow Pages, on mobile devises, in search engine results, and more. They also have some great local search options.

• Google AdWords, as you likely know, allows you to place ads on Google and throughout the Google world.

• Of course the other big player is Yahoo.

All of these tools allow you to try something new, inexpensively, and see if it works. If this idea of shifting into new markets is of interest to you, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1. Consider line extensions: A line extension is, as the name suggests, simply a logical expansion of the line of products you already carry. But remember to think broadly – Beau Coup did not just consider wedding products, they thought about celebrations generally.

2. Consider new customers: Who else may be interested in what you offer? How can you reach them? What might they want?

3. Start small, tweak, expand: The beauty of these tools is that you can look before you leap. Test, see what works, don’t spend a lot, test some more, analyze results, and then go for it.

4. Keep your brand in mind: Going in a wholly new direction could hurt your brand. Be careful of that.

Today’s tip: Know a great woman entrepreneur? Ernst & Young is looking for her. The company is now hosting its second annual Entrepreneurial Winning Women contest. Winners

• Receive ongoing personalized business advice from Ernst & Young professionals as well as entrepreneurs, executives and advisors;
• Will get to meet role models, coaches and mentors;
• Will connect with possible investors, partners, customers, and suppliers; and
• Can participate in formal and informal educational sessions

Apply here.

Kim

A: Nothing I have written about in the past year has generated more follow-up questions than the column I wrote a few months ago on the new stimulus law and what it offers small business.

I have received scores of questions like the one above.

But the answer to these sorts of questions has not been so easy to give. Stimulus contracts are still in the early stages and are being doled out on a variety of governmental levels and of course in different locales across the country.  So especially for businesses that have little experience with the seemingly byzantine government contracting process, finding and successfully bidding on those contracts has been a challenge.

That is why I was so happy to hear about, and give the keynote at, a great new venture designed to increase access to these, and other, government contracts.  Sponsored by that great friend to small business American Express OPEN, in conjunction Business Matchmaking – the country’s leading small business procurement program – the initiative is called Teaming USA.

The idea is this: With the economy still so sluggish and consumer spending down, it makes sense to go where the dollars are: Either with major corporations looking to contract with small business or with government agencies, where spending is up. But trying to get one of these contracts on your own can be a challenge.  Some are too big for some small businesses, others may require skills or products you don’t have, and so on. So what do you do?

You find a great teammate with whom to work and bid on contracts, that’s what. “Teaming USA will not only assist in bringing together established small businesses but in launching many more in the field of procurement so they too can work together in selling to the government and major corporations,” said Michelle Dolberry, the savvy point person behind the new initiative at American Express OPEN. This will be done in a series of free workshops across the country (the next one is September 29^th in Springfield, Illinois), and online.

There are plenty of benefits to teaming generally, but especially insofar as procurement goes:

• You increase what you can do, offer, and bid on
• You can eliminate geographic barriers
• You increase your credibility and skill level

Think about it this way: Samson was the strongest man in the world, and while most people think it was Delilah who cut his hair and sapped him of his strength, according to the Bible, she had some help. Several of her guards had to hold Samson down. It took a team to cut Samson’s hair (sort of like me in the 70s!) By teaming up, you can do far more than you accomplish alone.

For big business, teaming up to grow is the norm.  HP and Microsoft have teamed up for years to mutual benefit. The same is true for McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. But for many small businesses, teaming is a foreign concept, even though it should not be.

Think about it. What if you found a compatible business who already knows government contracting and needs what your business offers in order to get a contract?  Or, even better, what if they already have a contract and need help servicing it?  Or what if you found a business with whom to bid on contracts together?

All could lead to getting some valuable and lucrative public and private sector contracts.

Example: One of stars of the event I was at was Nathaniel Couser.  Couser started his four year old company at his kitchen table and thanks to teaming now not only had 12 employees, but last year landed a 10-year multi-billion dollar government contract.

So that is the idea behind Teaming USA.  It will foster new alliances and create new opportunities. At the program I was at, a packed house learned about government procurement, the certification process, how to get a Dun & Bradstreet DUNS number (and those who didn’t have one, got one), insider tips and strategies, and then broke into groups where they could locate logical teammates.

It was a great event and will be a great program. Kudos to all involved.

Today’s tip: The event was held at a place called The Corporate College in Cleveland, Ohio.  This great place is the sort of public-private partnership that any community looking to encourage entrepreneurship should have. Not only does it offer training programs and space to local corporations, but it also has a state-of-the-art entrepreneurship section where new businesses can meet, work, network, and yes, team up.  Bravo!