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!

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!

Tom

A: First let me say that as a general rule, I like franchising as a business concept (and write for the Franchise Handbook.) The pros of buying a franchise are self-evident:

• There should be less risk – ideally, the business model has been vetted and there is a successful system in place that you can follow.
• There is support – a great franchisor will help you all along the way. As Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds and inventor of franchising said, “in business for yourself but not by yourself .”
• There is a plan – entrepreneurs who start from scratch have to figure everything out for themselves; franchisees do not.

That said, not all franchises are created equal. You simply must do your due diligence to make sure that you are buying into a system and franchise that has a high likelihood of success and profitability.

Here then are the 3 most important things any potential franchisees needs to check out:

1. What do current franchisees say? When you meet with the franchisor, they will indeed paint a rosy picture, and that is understandable: It is their business, they believe in it, and want you to buy into it.

You will learn plenty more by speaking with current and past franchisees. These folks will give you the lowdown:

• What is the franchisor like to work with?
• How much money can you expect to make?
• What sorts of hours can you expect to put in?
• What should you be on the lookout for?

It is current franchisees (and any former ones if you can find some) who can best impart this invaluable type of info.

2. How much will it cost and how much will you make ? When you meet with the franchisor you will receive their Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC.) This legally-mandated document will relate such important things as expected startup costs, the company’s litigation history, ongoing fees, and so on.

What it probably will not tell you is how much you can expect to make. The reason is because they don’t want to open themselves up to potential litigation if you don’t make as much. So again, this is where doing your homework is essential.

Many people get bit by the franchising bug and cannot wait to jump in, so sure are they that they will make a bundle. Beware of this false euphoria.

Yes, you may make a bundle, and plenty of people have, but remember – you are going into business so act like a businessperson. Crunch some numbers. Do your research. Rely on facts, not emotion.

3. What is in the fine print ? Things you may never think are important can turn out to be incredibly so:

• What about exclusivity ? You probably want to make sure that you are given the right to own the only franchise of this type in your area. You sure do not want another one of the same ice cream shops as yours opening up down the street!
• Who will be your supplier? Some franchisors mandate that you buy your supplies directly from them. If so, make sure the prices are reasonable.
• What sort of ongoing fees will you be required to pay? Whether it is a monthly royalty payment or regular advertising fees, you will be making ongoing monthly payments to the franchisor. How much are they?

The bottom line is that you have to find a franchise that realistically affords you the chance to make a profit and have some fun. Be savvy, make an informed decision, and you will probably be very happy.

Today’s Tip : Here is a SCORE Tip for potential franchisees:

“You will probably want to have an attorney review the UFOC, but it is crucial that you understand every statement in each of the 23 parts:

• Items 1 through 4 – describe the franchisor, his background, business ethics and possible bankruptcy history.
• Items 5 through 10 – deal with the fees, royalties, advertising fees and all financial arrangements including restrictions as to sources of products and services.
• Items 11 through 19 – detail the franchisee’s obligations and provisions in the agreement. These are very important as they define what restrictions there are on products that can be sold, transfer assignments, terminations, dispute resolutions and the like.
• Items 20 through 23 – provide a list of existing franchisees, both active and those who have left the system. They also provide financial statements of the franchisor and copies of contracts used in connection with the franchise offering, including the Franchise Agreement.”

Rick

A: If I had to choose one word to describe small business right now, it would be unease . If I had more words, they would be nervous, retrenched, and cautiously hopeful (alas, we are usually hopeful, even when there is little reason to be.)

Although my pessimistic perspective is inherently subjective, even objective measures point to the same conclusion.

• The NFIB May, 2008 Small Business Economic Trends Report shows that small business optimism to be at its lowest level since the 1979 oil embargo.
• Warrilow and Co., a savvy surveyor of the small business marketplace, found that only about 40% of small business owners were optimistic about their own sales, and far fewer were optimistic about the economy generally (27.5%)

The problem small businesses have is that, very often, we are at the mercy of much larger business and grander economic forces. There is little you can do if, for instance, a big corporation with whom you do business decides to terminate your services in effort to cut back.

Starbucks can close 600 stores and save a wad of cash when things go south, but all we can do is to try to somehow wring out a tad more savings by tightening the belt and to keep hustling for business.

No, it is not my style to sound so dire, but these are indeed tough times for small business. The good news is that there options. As my wife always tells my daughters, “There’s always a solution.”

I recently attended a small business seminar hosted by the aforementioned Warrilow & Co. wherein I listened to a variety of small business owners share their strategies for success in lean times. I came away impressed. Here are a few ideas that you might want to consider:

Look for new clients : If your regular folks are buying less, start looking for customers who can buy more. One owner said, “We leave open the option to pursue business opportunities outside the norm.”

Remember when you first started in business and you used the shotgun approach to customer acquisition, that is, you tried hitting everything, hoping to hit something? That may be needed again. Open your mind as to what is possible, try a bunch of new things, and see what sticks.

Spend money where it will do the most good : Cut back where you can, but consider increasing spending in areas that offer the greatest potential for increasing sales. That may mean more advertising, public relations, business development, buying leads, pay-per-click, or sales training.

Increase your shoestring marketing : There are many ways to get the word out without breaking the bank. All it takes is some creativity and follow-through. One owner at the conference said, “We email and send out postcards more, instead of driving around, meeting potential clients, and giving them brochures.”

Treat existing clients well : A different tact is to take extra special care of those clients who are already your customers.

Add line extensions : Creating additional, related, profit centers means that when one part of your business is down, another will probably be up. A chiropractor added a wellness line that significantly increased revenue in only three months.

Look for government contracts : Even in down times, governments generally, and the federal government specifically, still have contracts that need to be fulfilled by small business vendors. Business Matchmaking is one of many programs that help you do that. A Google search will reveal many more.

No, this is no easy time to be in business for yourself, but with a little ingenuity and some hustle, you can keep things going.

Today’s Tip : One last strategy that I thought was interesting was from one seasoned entrepreneur who looked at slow times as an opportunity to experiment. Whether it was offering a new product or trying out a new advertising campaign, he used down times to refine strategies that can be rolled out in a bigger way during the boom times.

Jenna

A : There is no doubt everyone is feeling the pinch of the economic downturn these days and woe to the business that doesn’t react in accordance with the times.

Back at the turn of the 20^th century, the automobile was a newfangled contraption. But even so, it was apparent almost immediately that it was also a revolutionary item that was here to stay. That is one reason why, if you Google the term “buggy whip manufacturer,” you end up with zilch.

Why did all of the buggy whip makers go out of business? Because they thought they were in the business of making buggy whips.

Wrong.

Sure, when the automobile supplanted the horse-drawn buggy, the need for buggy whips evaporated, but it wasn’t the car that killed the buggy whip maker, it was the buggy whip maker’s thinking that did it.

Literary essayist George Steiner once put it this way: Had a buggy whip manufacturer in 1910 rethought things and concluded that rather than being in the buggy whip business he was instead in the business of creating ‘transportation starting devices’, he just might have been able to survive the challenge of the new economy and make the transition into a new era.

You gotta go with the times my friends. Unlike our fallen buggy whip business brethren, you must avoid what is known as “marketing myopia.”

Marketing Myopia was an influential business paper written by Theodore Levitt for the Harvard Business Review. The essential idea put forth was that too many businesses think like the old buggy whip makers, with a far too narrow an analysis of what their business is.

The proposition instead was to Think Bigger, to be more expansive, to broaden one’s definition of what business they are in. A broader, more unrestrained criteria offers opportunities that otherwise might have been missed.

Here is a current example: I just read a story that the Whole Foods marketing chain is trying to lure more people into their stores by showing customers that Whole Foods is in fact an economical place to shop. I don’t know about you, but when I think of shopping in Whole Foods “economical” is not one of the adjectives that pops into my mind (and of course that is not all bad, with words like “healthy” and “organic” being more prominent.)

But what people today want, as much as they want healthy, organic, fresh food, is something that does not cost an arm and a leg. The gas pump already has that distinction. So Whole Foods is offering discounts and less expensive brands.

Of course a business like Whole Foods , that has built its business and its brand on matters other than discounts, certainly can’t re-brand themselves as a discount warehouse, nor should they. But it is equally true that neither should they suffer from marketing myopia and conclude that they are a high-end grocer, for good or ill.

Dumb thinking, that.

So all of this is a long story to make an important, succulent point: Go with the flow. If people are looking for discounts, give them some discounts. Listen to your customers. Follow the market. As I am wont to say, if you own a deli and your customers want mustard on the table, put mustard on the tables.

You are not a buggy whip maker, you are not a high-end store owner, you are an entrepreneur, a business person. Your job is to stay in business.

Today’s Tip : Remember to ask for help when trying to figure out which way to go. John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach from my alma mater UCLA puts it this way:

“When I had assistants, I always wanted them never to be afraid to make a suggestion. We don’t know a thing we don’t learn from somebody else in one way or another. If you do agree with their suggestion and use it and it works, be sure that they are the one that gets the credit, not you.”

Stan

A: Stan and I met earlier this year when I was giving a speech. When he learned that I write for USA TODAY, he really wanted to share his story and in the process help other small business owners avoid his unenviable fate.

Stan is an accountant who kept all of his records on the computer at his office. That included client tax returns, client lists, his own business records – the whole shebang. Unable to get to his office once the hurricane hit, Stan not only lost his data and computer in the disaster, but all physical files and other records too. He lost his entire business.

"Please, tell your readers to just take some basic steps that can ensure that their businesses can survive a disaster," Stan insisted.

With the official start of hurricane season about a month away, it seems to be a good time to spread the message that, while no one likes to think about what can go wrong, it behooves us all to take some basic steps to avoid the avoidable.

Of course, it is not just hurricanes that are a threat to a business – it could be any number of other natural disasters – earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, fire – as well as personal disasters – a stolen computer, a hard drive that crashes (try losing three chapters of a book you are writing!), a power outage . . . .

Luckily, I was recently offered the chance to read a White Paper produced by HP and SCORE that sheds some light on not only what a significant problem this is, but what you can do about it. This White Paper was incredibly useful and has been shared with government officials and business leaders.

Consider these sobering facts:

* About one-third of all respondents to a survey in the paper said they backup their data rarely, if at all. Most of the rest did it less than monthly, and yet
* 70% of small businesses that suffer a major data loss will go out of business within a year.

But, as pointed out in the paper, "disasters can be averted with some foresight and planning." Here is what you can do:

* Of course, the easiest and most obvious preventative measure you can take is simply to backup your data, and not just in the same location, but remotely.
* Important documents should be kept in a fireproof safe.
* Software should be utilized to prevent computer worms and viruses from destroying your hard drives.
* Create a plan to keep things running if something should happen. Assign roles and responsibilities as a part of that plan and walk through them with employees. Then keep the plan updated.

To underscore their commitment to helping small business in this regard, HP and SCORE have even taken things one step further and are now offering free "Wellness Workshops" around the country so as to better help small businesses prepare for unanticipated disasters and shutdowns.

According to Lisa Baker, Director of Business Marketing, Americas, Personal Systems Group, HP, "many small businesses are not prepared for disasters large and small. As such, through the Wellness Workshops, HP and SCORE are working together to ensure that small businesses understand the simple steps needed to safeguard a business’ survival."

During the workshops, attendees will learn how to protect their core business assets such as employee records and customer databases. There will also be a special session on providing small businesses with guidance on how to green their business.

Hurricane Katrina was a tough lesson for too many small businesses. Let Stan, HP and SCORE help you help yourself. Create that disaster preparedness plan today.

Today’s Tip: The HP/SCORE Wellness Workshops are coming to a location near you. You can find out where and when here.