The New Business Blog

Social Media Management for Small Business

2010-06-30T17:29:00.001-04:00

Traditional forms of advertising for businesses - things like the yellowpages, billboards, print ads, radio/TV commercials - are dead. They're expensive and likely aren't bringing a positive ROI.

Online advertising - things like SEO, SEM, social media management, online video marketing - are the way of the future. They're cheap, and bring tons of qualified traffic to your website.

Think about it, when was the last time you used the yellow pages? When was the last time you Googled? Exactly!

Small Business Online Marketing and Social Media Management

2010-06-29T19:17:00.001-04:00

Traditional forms of advertising - things like billboards, newspaper ads, yellow pages, etc. - are dead. They don't bring in new customers because we've learned to tune this out.

Internet marketing, on the other hand, is growing by leaps and bounds and is becoming more and more effective each and every day. What are you waiting for?

Congratulations to Daily Fuel Economy Tip

2006-07-27T19:58:00.000-04:00

Today I'm going to "toot my own horn" (which if you read yesterday's post, The Donald would say that's perfectly fine).

This morning, I checked the web stats for Daily Fuel Economy Tip and I noticed that at some point yesterday, I reached the 75,000 hit "milestone."

Now why that certainly may not seem like much, for me it's quite an accomplishment. Considering I have next to zero web design skills and that I really don't know a whole heck of a lot about cars, 75,000 hits is a pretty big deal.

So, with that being said, congrats to Daily Fuel Economy Tip and hopefully the next 75,000 hits will come even faster than the first.

Think Like a Billionaire

2006-07-26T19:47:00.000-04:00

I hope that at some point in my life I will be able to tell you what it feels like to think as a billionaire, but in the meantime, I will tell you a little bit about Donald Trump's Think Like a Billionaire, the latest business/motivational book I've picked up and read.

I'd just like to preface this by saying even if you don't particularly care for "The Donald", this is a book worth reading. Without a doubt, Donald Trump is one of the single greatest self promoters in the world, not to mention one of the most business savvy people around.

Yes, some of his antics are over the top (coming out with his own clothing line, telling everyone who will listen how great he is, etc.), but at the same time, don't you think those over the top antics are what made him a household name?

Can you name even three other billionaire real estate magnates? I know I can't. But, we all know the Trump name.

Anyway, back to the book.

I think the book was a good read and gave a lot of pointers on how to get yourself on the path to becoming wealthy. For example, if you want to be successful in business, you have to be willing to trust your gut and take risks. You also have to be willing to accept your failures, learn from them and then move on.

The only thing I would have changed about the book is it tends to focus on getting rich through real estate. Don't get me wrong, I expected that, after all, it is how Trump made his fortune. But I was also hoping it would delve more into entrepreneurial sorts of things (starting a business, brand and image building, etc.).

All things considered, it was certainly worth picking up from the library and I would recommend it to all Trump fans as well as anyone who dreams of making tons of money.

New Site on the Blogroll - Blogtrepreneur.com

2006-07-23T20:33:00.000-04:00

First off, I'd like to thank the person that submitted my Daily Fuel Economy Tip site to Fark.com, as it got over 20,000 hits over the last two days. My Google AdSense account thanks you.

Okay, back to what I originally intended to talk about which is Blogtrepreneur.com.

As you may remember from my post on procrastination, there was about a two month period where I didn't check my New Business Blog email account. During that time, I received an email from a guy named Adnan who wanted to swap links with me. So, two months later, this is how I first came to find out about Blogtrepreneur.

Anyway, I've visited the site a couple of times and I think there's a lot of good information to be had. Adnan is in the middle of putting together his own e-business (GolfChum.com) so I think he would be a good resource for anyone else out there who is thinking about putting together a for-profit site. Myself included.

Some of the topics covered on Blogtrepreneur include Google AdSense, how to start an e-business, blogging for money, and search engine optimization. These topics are covered well and would be a great starting point for anyone who is in the process of starting a blog or an e-business.

So, for those of you interested in checking out another online business resource, I'd recommend checking out Blogtrepreneur.com.

How Irresistible is The Irresistible Offer?

2006-07-22T12:09:00.000-04:00

Another book I had an opportunity to read while relaxing on the beach was The Irresistible Offer - How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less by Mark Joyner. I thought the title was catchy enough, so I went ahead and gave the book a try.

All things considered, I thought this was a pretty decent read. Although much of the information given is kind of common sense, Joyner does a good job of presenting the information from the viewpoint of both the buyer (your customers) and the seller (you).

Without going in to too much detail, Joyner believes that in order to turn a potential customer into a paying customer, you have about three seconds to capture their attention and make them believe your product or service is just as valuable (or more valuable) than the money you want from them.

The reason behind having such a short amount of time to convince a potential customer is because consumers are so bombarded with advertising and product information, they have instinctively learned to tune out items that are of little or no interest or offers that are just plain awful.

Most of The Irresistible Offer focuses on what an "irresistible offer" is and how to go about creating one.

Again, without going in to too much detail, according to Joyner, an "irresistible offer" consists of high ROI offer (a customer will get more from owning your product than they would just keeping their money or buying someone else's product), a touchstone (something that quickly explains what you're selling, how much it costs, why the customer should buy and why they should believe you) and believability (people know that if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is).

So, if you can bring these items together, you have put together an irresistible offer and will have a much better chance of making a sale.

Joyner's classic example of an "irresistible offer" was the old Domino's Pizza "30 minutes or it's free" guarantee. According to Joyner, the offer had a high ROI (if you're hungry, you don't have to wait long), a touchstone (you're getting pizza in 30 minutes or less, or you don't pay anything) and believability (Domino's followed through on the offer).

All things considered, I thought this was a pretty good basic marketing book. While I don't know if I will be rushing to add this to my own personal collection, it was certainly worth grabbing off the library shelves.

Millionaire Republican Review

2006-07-21T18:39:00.000-04:00

While I was at the beach this past weekend, I read a couple of interesting books in regards to business, entrepreneurship and just wealth in general.

One of the more interesting books I read was Millionaire Republican - Why Rich Republicans Get Rich - And How You Can Too! by Wayne Allyn Root. While I don't classify myself as a Republican (I'm more of a fiscally conservative, socially liberal moderate), this looked like a pretty interesting read.

All things considered, I'm pretty glad I read the book. While Root was a bit over-the-top in regards to his Republican stance and self boasting, Millionaire Republican was an easy read that had some valuable points.

The core of the book is very pro-entrepreneur, which I liked. I've said it time and time again, if you want to make it big (I'm talking tens of millions of dollars) you need to own a business, and Root does a good job of driving this point home.

Another point Root really harps on (to the point of almost going overboard) is the fact in order to succeed at business, or anything for that matter, you have to be an optimist (Republican) because if you are a pessimist (Democrat) you will do nothing but drag yourself and your business down.

I full-heartedly agree with the point Root makes regarding the need to look on the bright side, however I've known enough pessimistic Republicans and optimistic Democrats to know that he is using faulty logic in equating the two political parties with the two different outlooks on life.

The other item that rubbed me the wrong way was Root's boasting, in particular his claim that his company was the only publicly traded gambling site on Wall Street. That sounded a bit fishy to me (oh God, the pessimist is emerging) so I checked it out. It turns out, his company is traded on an Over-The-Counter board, so it's not even a "real" stock.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with people bragging about their accomplishments. I certainly wish I had this guy's money. My problem lies with the embellishment of the truth. Don't try to make yourself sound bigger than what you are.

In summary, I would recommend this book for anyone whose political views skew to the right and is looking for a quasi-entertaining, quick read.

The Price of Procrastination - A Lazy Man's Confession

2006-07-20T21:10:00.000-04:00

Well, this seems to be a recurring theme - I'm enthusiastic about posting on my blogs, I stick with it for a few days and then something comes up and I end up not posting for days or weeks at a time.

I wish I could say the above statement is entirely true. Unfortunately, it's not. You see, stuff doesn't usually come up; I just find ways to procrastinate and I end up not posting.

It's not usually due to lack of content, mostly just lack of motivation. For those of you who know me, I'm not a loss of opinions or ideas, so that will probably never be the issue.

But, in the future it may not be lack of motivation either.

I finally got around to checking my New Business Blog email account, and by the time I finished cleaning out my nearly overflowing inbox, I was just about ready to kick myself for being so lazy.

There are two instances that really stick out in my mind. The first was an email dated May 30 (yeah, it's been that long since I checked my email) from a copy editor at the Dallas Morning News. The editor was doing a story on high gas prices and simple things people could do to help reduce their fuel consumption and wanted to use the Daily Fuel Economy Tip as a reference in her article.

For those of you not in the know, the Dallas Morning News is the largest newspaper in the 9th largest city in the United States.

Needless to say, I wrote back to the editor, apologizing up and down for such a tardy response and letting her know I would be glad to be referenced in her article. Too bad the article was published on June 5.

Awesome.

The second email came from Pigwisdom.com. The emailer had noticed The New Business Blog, showed it to her boss who in turn wanted to send me a copy of his book, The Wisdom of the Flying Pig.

While this may not be as cool as being referenced in a large newspaper, it was neat to see that someone liked The New Business Blog enough to want to send me a copy of their book to read (and then, more than likely, post a book review).

So, again, I wrote another apologetic email, asking for a second chance. So, Ms. Emailer-Who-Will-Remain-anonymous, if you see this post, I still want to read the book!

Aside from trying to just get all of this off of my chest, there is a moral to this story: being a lazy procrastinator may seem like a good idea, but it pretty much blows. Just think, instead of talking myself into watching reruns of Seinfeld, The Simpsons and Law and Order, I could have just bucked up and continued writing seemingly good posts.

Or, at the very least, checked my email!

So, the next time you find yourself plopped down in front of the TV because you "have nothing else better to do" remember this article and try and coerce yourself to get up and do something.

In My Memories

2006-07-02T21:04:00.000-04:00

Well, In My Memories is now just that. Unfortunately, we just don't have the time to put in to creating the type of site that we want.

So, it looks like the back and forth has finally come to an end. Good idea, bad execution.

On to the next idea!

The Best Online Resource for Entrepreneurs

2006-06-21T21:44:00.000-04:00

Today's post isn't going to be long, but I just wanted to share what I think is the greatest online resource for all of your entrepreneurial needs.

Today I wanted to do some research on developing a solid online marketing strategies, so I checked out Entrepreneur.com.

Three hours and 20 articles later, I think I'm an expert.

The breadth and the depth of the information on Entrepreneur.com is absolutely astounding and I would highly recommend it for any entrepreneur, or, for that matter, anyone who's already in business.

Hopefully you learned something new. If not, check back tomorrow and I'll try a little harder.

In My Memories Barely Hanging On

2006-06-20T20:56:00.000-04:00

Well, it looks like In My Memories is hanging on by a thread.

After careful consideration this weekend, it looks like we're going to give In My Memories another month or two before we pull the proverbial plug.

Again, it's not because we think the idea behind In My Memories isn't a good one (we actually think it's a really good idea), but we're just not sure if we can put in the necessary time to get this to the point where we want it needs to be.

So, we're going to try our best to get something up and running soon.

I'll keep you posted.

Decision Time for In My Memories

2006-06-16T18:22:00.000-04:00

It looks like this weekend is going to determine a lot about how much longer In My Memories will be around. Unfortunately, my buddy and I have been sitting on this for a long time, and not much progress has been made, both from the business side and the operational side.

So, hopefully my buddy and I will be able to sit down and hash out where we want In My Memories to go from here. Considering we both work full time jobs, it's been difficult trying to find time to work on the business plan, trying to figure out all the details of the business and putting the site together.

The tough part about it is we have invested a lot of time into this project and we both feel that this is something that could catch on. It's just a matter of whether or not either of us will be up to keeping this thing going.

So, hopefully I'll have some good news in regards to In My Memories. If not, hopefully we'll be able to come up with a good idea that we can pull off in our spare time.

The Power of Positive Thinking

2006-06-15T20:36:00.000-04:00

For those of you who know me, I think it's fairly safe to say that I'm pretty much a pessimist; the glass is half empty sort of guy. It's not that I particularly like being that way, it's just how I've always been.

I'm trying to do something about that though.

The more I get into trying to start and run a successful business, the more I realize that in order to get to where I want to be, I need to have a more positive outlook on things and, more importantly, learn to trust my gut.

Look, I'm not trying to post a self-help manual here; that's not what I'm about. But I do think that there is something to be said for having a positive outlook as well as being confident in your abilities to make good decisions for both you and your business.

Let me give you a real world example, two million dollar example.

In the winter of 2004, I was reading a stock picking forum on Yahoo! and I came across this one penny stock that for some reason or another caught my attention. The ticker was QBID.pk (pk means it was traded as a pink sheet, so technically it wasn't really traded on any major exchanges) and was actually the stock for the first dedicated gay and lesbian cable television station.

While the station itself was of no interest to me, the idea behind it was, and I remember a year or two before Bob Johnson sold Black Entertainment Television (BET) to Viacom for over a billion dollars. I likened this new TV station to the next BET.

Anyway, I did my due diligence, researched the stock, checked the balance sheets, called the company - basically all the stuff you should do before you invest in any company. After all of my research, I thought this would be a good investment and was ready to throw down $10,000 on the stock.

For some lucky people, 10 grand may not sound like much, but at the time, that was about 50% of my free cash.

The next day at work, I entered all of the transaction information into my Ameritrade account and was ready to make the trade. I had done my homework and everything in my gut told me to make the trade.

Then the little voice inside my head said to not do it. It was too much money. Why would you invest in that stock? It was too risky.

So, that day the negative, little voice in my head won out and I didn't make the trade.

Within in three months, that $10,000 investment would have been up to $2,500,000. Instead, it was still $10,000. I essentially lost $2.5 million dollars by simply not listening to my gut.

So, don't tell me it doesn't pay to be positive, confident and listen to your gut. You've done the work, you know what you're doing, so you might as well trust in your abilities and let the chips fall where they may.

Sites to Use To Drive Traffic to Your Blog

2006-06-14T20:38:00.000-04:00

When I started doing this whole blog thing, I never realized how many people were blogging for more than their own enjoyment; a lot of people are actually making a ton of money doing it.

So, after figuring all of that out, I thought it would be a good idea to go about adding Google AdSense (all of those links on the top, side and bottom of all of my blogs), if at the very least, to try and earn enough money to cover the cost of hosting each of the sites.

For the most part, I've made a small amount each day, probably averaging less than $1 per day. Not that I'm complaining, I mean, that's $30 per month, more than covering the $12 per month I'm spending on all of my hosting accounts.

Obviously, the days where my sites have experienced a spike in the number of hits, I've received more money for the increased number of AdSense clicks. For example, the last two days, I've had over 10,000 hits on my Daily Fuel Economy Tip site, and I've made about $10 each day. I know that's not enough to go and quit my day job, but it works for me.

In an effort to try and get more hits to my sites, I've found a couple of places where you can post links to your sites as a way to help drive traffic. Here are the sites that I've found to be the most helpful:

You can set up a free account on each of these sites and use them PERIODICALLY to post articles; you shouldn't post links to your articles very often. Otherwise, you'll be labeled as a spammer and then nobody will want to read what you have to say. Your articles should be good enough that the new traffic you've generated will do the work for you.

More Ways to Come Up With the Next Big Thing

2006-06-13T20:58:00.000-04:00

You'll have to forgive me; I'm using this forum as a way to think out loud. Hopefully you're getting some sort of benefit from it as well. If not, feel free to point and laugh.

Anyway, on the way in to work this morning, I kept thinking about some other ways to come up with "The Next Big Thing." I liked what I posted yesterday, but I felt like it came up a bit short, like it needed some extra juice.

Because I'm a super nerd, I bought one of those digital voice recorders about two months ago, and thought it would be a good idea to quickly blurt out any idea that came to mind. Here's what I came up with.

Look inward: Yesterday I advocated taking a step back to observe the things around you, which is fine, but I think it's probably a better idea to look "within yourself," specifically try and think of what could make your life easier.

The reason why this is such a great way to attack the problem of finding the next big thing is because if you can come up with something that makes your life easier, I'd be willing to bet there are tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people who would be willing to pay to have their life made easier, too.

What is something that will be needed by everyone at least once?: This one's probably easier said than done, but think about it anyway. These are the items that typically cost a little bit more, but allow you to have a little bit higher margin.

That was one of the reasons I felt, and feel, In My Memories is a solid idea; at some point we're all going to be affected by the loss of someone close to us. While making money certainly isn't my only motive, most businesses do want to make a little of it.

What is something that will be needed by everyone many times?: Again, probably easier said than done, but worth the investigation. These are the items that are typically small ticket items, but are sold so frequently, that the small margins quickly add up to big bucks.

This is how Wal-Mart was built. Whether you like or dislike the store, Sam Walton was obviously on to something, and if he were still alive, would be the richest man in the world.

Come up with products to support the current "Big Thing": One of the people that posted a comment yesterday beat me to this, but it's worth repeating. If you can come up with a good idea to "accessorize" the current in thing, you're going to make a killing. The perfect example, which was in the comment, was the booming business that's surrounding the accessories for iPods.

Anyway, feel free to post a comment telling me I'm completely off track and how you've got it all figured out... but leave some bread crumbs for the rest of us.

Coming Up With The Next Big Thing

2006-06-12T20:36:00.000-04:00

The other night my buddy and I were talking about how great it would be to put together a solid business idea that would make us instantly wealthy; rich enough so that we could each do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.

I think this is the reason why I'm never actually going to come up with that idea, because spend too much time talking and dreaming, not enough time actually doing. But, I'll save that for another whoa-is-me post.

Anyway, I think my buddy summed it up perfectly when he said, "it's not about copying something that's currently successful, it's all about being lucky enough to come up with the next big thing."

I think that sentence there encompasses the entire entrepreneurial spirit - searching for the next big thing.

Now, if I knew exactly how to come up with the next big thing, you'd be paying to read this post and I'd be working from my 75 foot yatch somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean. That being said, I think I have a couple of good places to start.

Step Back and Observe: Your multi-million dollar idea doesn't have to be a world changer. I'll bet there are probably four or five ideas that you could implement around your town or city that could do well by you.

Changing Demographics: Plain and simple, America is changing. But change can be good, especially if you can find a way to capitalize on it. For example, the Hispanic population is growing faster than any other group of people in the United States. What are some businesses you can develop that can serve this growing (both in population and in amount of money spent) group?

What Are You Good At?: I know it sounds cliche, but more than likely, you can probably do one (or more things) better than anyone in the world. How can you capitalize on your talent and turn it into a wealth generating businesses?

Use Technology To Your Advantage: With the most recent advances in technology, many items related to business have become more efficient and less expensive. How can you take advantage of that? Can you incorporate it into your business to finally turn a profit? Can you find a way to integrate it into other small businesses and generate wealth that way?

Look, I'm not a business genius, I'm just a guy who wants to come up with a solid idea and run with it. These are the sorts of things I like to think about to try and stimulate some thought or dialogue that may end up generating the next big thing.

I'm sure you've got some ideas on where to look, or things that you've used, so if you want to share them, feel free. I'm sure there are plenty of want-to-be entrepreneurs out there who would love to open some dialogue.

I'm A Blogging Jerk

2006-06-08T21:48:00.000-04:00

I apologize for letting my uber busy life get in the way of The New Business Blog.

That being said, on Monday, I am going to "rededicate" to The New Business Blog and bring it back better than ever.

Another Day, Another Update

2006-05-28T07:54:00.000-04:00

Well, I've done it again - I've been busy doing other things besides posting on The New Business Blog. But, it's all for a good reason.

The Doug (business partner) and I are still working on the site, but things are coming together nicely. While we're obviously not going to meet our goal of having the site up and running by Memorial Day (tomorrow), I'm confident we will have everything ready for business very soon.

What we are currently working on is deciding who will handle our credit card transactions. There are several companies that specialize in this service and most major banks will also do those transactions for you.

Obviously, the service isn't free, so we're trying to find out who has the lowest transaction fees with the best customer service. Considering this will be our first venture, it is probably best to pay a higher fee if it means we will have better customer service... chances are we're going to need it.

So, that's where we are as of now. I should have another update tomorrow evening.

Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway

2006-05-23T21:31:00.000-04:00

The latest audio book I got from the library is Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. While I'll be the first person to quickly dismiss so called "self help" books, I thought the overarching concept of this book was pretty good.

Essentially, people who are able to overcome their fears, whether it's by simply ignoring them or by training themselves to think positively, are more likely to be successful in their endeavors.

The biggest point that I'll take away from listening to this so many people prepare for the worst, and live in fear that the worst is going to happen. The problem is, 90% of the time, the worst doesn't happen! Well, I guess that's not really a problem, but you catch my drift.

Anyway, if you're looking for a book to help give you some intertia to get off your butt and get things done, I'd recommend this one highly.

Your Marketing Sucks

2006-05-22T21:06:00.000-04:00

Lately, in an effort to try and kill two birds with one stone, I have been listening to books on CD while driving to and from work. Your Marketing Sucks by Mark Stevens is the latest book I've listened to and it's an absolute gem.

Stevens, who runs MSCO, Inc., provides a very straight forward and brunt synopsis of how most people attempt to market their business and, in the process, how most people screw up their marketing.

It's not cheap to market your business or product, and Stevens gives plenty of ideas of how you can get the most bang for the buck.

The most important thing I took away from Your Marketing Sucks is how important it is to put together an all encompassing marketing plan. It's not just enough to advertise via TV or radio commercials (as a side note, you also learn that marketing and advertising ARE NOT the same), but that you have to create an effective plan that uses all applicable forms of marketing for your company.

For example, you may write several press releases in the hopes of getting free marketing in a local newspaper. Once you have secured a story in the local paper, you go ahead and buy advertising space in the business section. This way, the press release will add validity to the advertisement; anybody can pay to advertise, but this business has an ad AND the paper wrote a story about them.

Essentially, it's all about figure out what works together and will help you effective get your name and product out in front of the people most likely to become your customers.

After reading (or in my case, listening to) this book, the ultimate goal for your marketing plan is to get more than $1 in business for each $1 you spend in marketing. Sounds simple, but a lot of people forget the purpose of marketing is simply to help you make more money.

All in all, this is a great resource for someone who is trying to put together a marketing plan for their business or for someone who's a marketing pro and just wants a different point of view.

Holy Schnikes

2006-05-20T16:29:00.000-04:00

Wow, time flies when you're working your butt off.

I apologize for being so delinquent in regards to posting on The New Business Blog, but I've been spread very thin lately between work, coaching, working around the house and attempting to get a few hours of sleep each night.

But, things seem to have slowed down a bit so I should be able to focus more time on The New Business Blog.

Just to give a few updates, Daily Fuel Economy Tip is coming a long very nicely and has established a pretty good following with, on average, 400 or more hits per day.

Also, In My Memories is coming along very nicely. The site is still in the process of being built and I'm making sure everything is good to go from the business side, but things are rolling along and I'm excited to see where things go.

Anyway, thanks for all of your patience and, again, I apologize for taking so many days off between posts. It won't happen again :)

The Art of War

2006-05-12T22:43:00.000-04:00

For years I had heard about what a great read The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, was for anyone interested in running a business. For the longest time I resisted reading it, but this past week I finally picked up a copy at the library.

Needless to say, it was worth the read and lived up to the hype.

Essentially, The Art of War was written by Sun Tzu, a great Chinese military general from around 500 BC. When the book was written, obviously it was meant as study material for people in the military, not people in business. However, over time people began to realize that much of what Tzu was applying towards war was also applicable towards business.

For example, Tzu stresses the importance of proper planning. According to Tzu, if you knew yourself, knew your enemy and knew the lay of the land where you were fighting, you would know the outcome of every single battle even before you fought it.

Much is the same in business. If you properly plan your business, know it inside and out, know the competition inside and out and know your market, you should have a pretty good idea how well you're going to do.

All things considered, this was a relatively quick read and should be a MUST READ for anyone who plans on running their own business.

One More In My Memories Update

2006-05-09T19:06:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally have some good news to report in regards to In My Memories.

The second draft of the business plan is finally completed. I think one more revision and that part will be finished for the time being.

In regards to the actual site, steady progress is being made. The actual site is still under construction and the only real hold up we've come across is finding a graphics person to help with the design.

If anyone knows a good graphics person, please email me ASAP with their contact information. The sooner we can get that done, the sooner we can get our site up and running.

Who knew starting a business could be so much fun?!?

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 17

2006-05-07T16:38:00.000-04:00

Today's tip is probably is probably more useful and relevant for someone who has a site that a product or products, but can also be implemented by someone who simply wants to create traffic.

Create and distribute coupons.

If you took a poll of 100 people and asked them if they would buy a product from a site they were fairly certain would save them money or from a site where they weren't sure if they would save money, I'd be willing to bet at least 99 would choose the first site.

Let's be honest here, EVERYBODY likes to save money, so finding a simple way to help potential customers save money is probably the easiest way to increase traffic. One of the easiest ways to help customers save money is through some type of coupon system.

Whether you mail or email the coupons out to potential customers is up to you (I would chose email because it's free) but by simply getting a coupon in front of a potential customer, you are greatly increasing the chances they will visit your site.

So, what do you do if you don't sell a product or service? You can just put a simple twist on the coupon idea and get the same results.

For example, a coupon may say something like, "buy one item, get the second half off." For someone who doesn't sell a product, you can create a mock coupon that says something like, "FREE gas saving tips at Daily Fuel Economy Tip."

Everyone loves free items, and at the very least it will get someone to check out your site.

Announcing Monk In The Hall

2006-05-04T20:59:00.000-04:00

Today's post is short and sweet.

I'm putting together a website whose sole purpose is to help get Art Monk into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The website is Monk In The Hall and it is currently under construction.

The site will have a brief biography of Monk, his career stats and his stats compared to current Hall of Famers as well as compared to his contemporaries. I would also like to include a section for interviews and I am hopeful to get the chance to speak with current Hall of Fame voters as well as Monk himself.

Please feel free to comment or leave any suggestions.

I'll let you know when the site is up.

Awesome Blog Marketing

2006-05-03T20:19:00.000-04:00

First off, just wanted to apologize for not posting yesterday. Something came up and I wasn't able to make it home until late. Needless to say, it was a less than great afternoon.

Anyway, that being said, I do have a couple of cool resources for you if you want to try and promote your blog.

In case you weren't aware, I recently started Daily Fuel Economy Tip and it's now up to about 1,200 unique hits each day. I directly correlate the spike in the number of hits to my daily submission to the following two sites:

Shoutwire
Reddit

Both of these sites are places where people can submit and read blog articles.

I haven't submitted The New Business Blog to either of these sites yet, but seeing the success that Daily Fuel Economy Tip has seen from those two sites, I think I'm going to start. You probably should, too.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site - Part 16

2006-05-01T18:48:00.000-04:00

The good thing about today's tip is you can spend as much money as you want. The bad thing about today's tip is you may ultimately have to spend a lot of money for it to be effective.

Try a Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign.

Essentially in a Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign, you create an account with a search engine (probably Google or Yahoo!) and you bid on specific keywords for your site. When someone types in one of these keywords, your site will be at the top of the search results, usually highlighted in the "sponsored links" category.

The nice thing about Pay-Per-Click marketing is it really narrows in on your target market; you're not advertising to the whole world, just the people that want to search your particular keyword(s).

Unfortunately though, you do have to pay the amount you bid each time somebody clicks on your link.

Let me give you an example:

Let's say I want to bid on "business blog" with Google's PPC program. I create an account and I see how much the highest bid on "business blog" currently is. Let's say the bid is $.25 per click. I would go in and out bid that amount ($.30) to ensure The New Business Blog was the first site listed.

Now, whenever anyone searches the term "business blog" The New Business Blog would be the first site to be listed. Now, whenever anyone clicks on my link, my account with Google is debited by $.30.

When you create your account and bid on your keyword(s), you set a spending limit so that once you've reached the amount of clicks to bring your account balance to $0, you will no longer be ranked first.

There is a lot of work that goes into researching which keywords to bid on, how much to bid, what keyword description you should use, etc. So, if you're serious about starting a PPC campaign, I would recommend doing a lot of homework.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site - Part 15

2006-04-30T20:14:00.000-04:00

Today's tip will not help you market your site or business, and will take less than a minute to do

Print up business card sized flyers and put them on the windshield of the cars parked next to you.

The flyer doesn't have to be anything extravagant, probably just a catchy line and your site's URL would do the trick. Even just your URL may be enough to pique someone's interest.

Most people have learned to tune out the sheet of paper sized flyers and don't even bother looking at them before crumpling them up into a ball. However, people will take notice of a flyer if it is the size of a business car.

Certainly, if you had more time and energy, you could put these cards on more than just the cars parked in the immediate vicinity of your car. The more the merrier.

The nice thing about marketing this way is you can carry the cards in your car or even your pocket, and it doesn't really take much time to leave a card on the four or five cars that are parked next to you.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site - Part 14

2006-04-29T13:19:00.000-04:00

Today's tip really isn't a way to market your site, however it does give you a place where you can go to lots of information from marketing experts, all for free!

Use your local library!

Your local library is probably the single greatest resource you have as an entrepreneur or website developer. Where else can you get pages and pages of advice from world renowned experts, all for free?

Over the past six months, I have probably checked out 50 or more books from the library on topics ranging from marketing, running an online business, Adobe Photoshop... you name it, I probably checked it out.

And as an entrepreneur, I always have to be thinking about the bottom line. You know how much all of those books cost me? If you guess free, you're wrong - I did have a $.75 late fee.

But you catch my drift.

In addition to all of the books and research materials available to you, most public libraries will periodically have free seminars that may be of use to you and your business or site.

All things considered, your local public library should be one of the most important resources you use while you are starting a business.

In My Memories Update

2006-04-28T11:54:00.000-04:00

First off, thanks to everyone who has sent me emails regarding the "Cheap Marketing" series. I appreciate your feedback and thoughts. Hopefully the ideas have been of use to you, and if you have tried some of the ideas I hope you're getting more traffic to your site, blog or business.

Today I don't have much time to write, so I just thought I'd give an update on my business, In My Memories.

Things are going slowly but surely. The site itself is still under development and we are currently in the process of finding a graphics person to help us make the site nice to look at. I am also in the process of drafting several press releases to send out to local newspapers and news stations to help get the word out about the site when we are ready to launch.

The business plan is close to completion. Thankfully the core of the plan has been done for quite some time, I'm just in the process of fine tuning everything.

I wish we were farther along than where we are, but all things considered, I'm satisfied with our progress.

Who knew starting a business could be so tedious?!?

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 13

2006-04-27T19:27:00.000-04:00

Today's tip may be pretty difficult to pull off, but if you're able, it will certainly be worth both your time and effort.

Create a press release and send to all of your local newspapers.

The reason why I say this is hard to pull off is because you have to essentially create a news story out of your site. If you send a press release into a newspaper without a story, it becomes obvious that you are just looking for free advertising.

Newspapers don't mind you advertising with them... as long as you pay for it!

On the other hand, if you do give them something news worthy, they may be more likely to run a story on your business or site and what it provides to the community at large.

To give you an example, I have sent an email to one of my local newspapers to tell them about Daily Fuel Economy Tip. With gas prices soaring (news item) drivers are looking for the easiest ways to get the most miles out of their gas (another news item). One place people can go to for free information is Daily Fuel Economy Tip (my site).

Granted, I have no idea whether or not I will make it into the newspaper, but at the very least it's worth a shot. It took me a total of 10 minutes to find the newspaper's contact information and to draft an email, so I'm not out much if the release never makes it to the paper.

If it does make it to the paper though, that 10 minutes will probably net me hundreds, if not thousands, of hits.

Creative Ways to Market Your Site, Part 12

2006-04-26T11:28:00.000-04:00

Today's tip will not only help you bring in new customers but, more importantly, will help you retain all of your current customers or site visitors.

Have great customer service.

I know, this is probably one of the more obvious tips I've given, but the fact remains that it's hard to get customers or visitors, so once you do get them it's in your best interest to keep them. The easiest way to do that is through great customer service.

Regardless of whether you have a business, a website or "just" a blog, you need to have top notch customer service. Some examples include:

Returning emails and phone calls as quickly as possible
If you make a promise to a customer, keep it.
Over promise AND over deliver, but be careful to not go overboard on your promises.
If a customer asks a question that you don't know the answer to, be honest and say so. Then get busy finding out the answer.

My high school basketball coach used to say, "Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves," which is true in customer service as well. Great customer service typically comes down to your willingness to do the little things that your customer expects or wants, like delivering a product when you said you would.

While your customers may not always remember the great customer service they receive from you, all it takes is one slip up to lose that customer, and in some cases their referrals, forever.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 11

2006-04-25T18:28:00.000-04:00

Today's tip requires a lot of thinking and creativity (and probably some software as well), but in the long run, will be a great way to help you brand you business, website or even your blog.

Create a logo.

This is something that I'm working on for both The New Business Blog and In My Memories. Actually, let me rephrase that, this is something I've asked others to work on for me.

Unfortunately for me, I don't have an artistic or creative bone in my body, but with programs like Adobe Photoshop it's becoming easier for people with a little bit of skill to come up with very creative and endearing logos.

If done well, a logo can be something that you can use for people to instantly recognize your business or site. Think about it, I bet you could tell me what the logos for Microsoft, Pepsi, AT&T and the NFL look like without batting an eye.

A logo that is instantly recognized and associated with your product, business or site is worth its weight in gold, so regardless of whether or not you think you need a logo, it's worth looking into.

Even if it's just different lettering, if you or someone else can come up with an idea that differentiates your business, you have to go for it.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 10

2006-04-24T19:54:00.000-04:00

A lot of people feel that today's tip has gone the way of the dinosaurs, but I'm not buying it.

Get yourself some business cards and hand them out to everyone you meet.

You don't have to hire a graphics designer or even pay someone else a lot of money to print up the cards for you. Just something nice and simple that you can print out on your own printer should be more than adequate.

For example, a couple of weekends ago I bought business card paper from Office Depot, downloaded some card templates from Microsoft and ultimately spent $15 and a little under an hour creating 300 business cards.

Now when I go out, I carry a couple of cards in my coat pocket and hand them out to people when I talk about The New Business Blog or In My Memories.

Granted, even if you hand out a lot of cards, the effort probably isn't going to lead to a huge increase in the number of hits to your site or business, but I guarantee you it will bring in some new traffic.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 9

2006-04-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

Much like yesterday's post, today I'm going to talk about an item that isn't necessarily an act of marketing your business, blog or site, but in the long run, implementing this strategy will help you expand your business or site.

Get feedback from everyone that contacts your business or site.

This is critically important in helping you tailor your business or site to what your potential customers want, not what YOU think that they want.

Whether that is giving your customers or visitors the opportunity to leave comments (such as what I do with each post on The New Business Blog), giving out your contact information (such as an email address or phone number) or asking that each customer complete a feedback form, you have to create a way where you can hear what the customer wants from you.

For example, you may have noticed that the number of posts on The New Business Blog regarding In My Memories have become less and less. A lot of that is because of the feedback I've received from readers, who have asked for more resources for starting their own businesses and not so many updates regarding mine.

The reason I'm okay with that is because I want people to come here and read my business blog and use it as a resource. If they want me to post less about In My Memories, I will gladly do so.

In order to be successful in business, or in anything for that matter, you have to be flexible and willing to adapt.

There's no point in being stubborn if it's ultimately going to cost you visits to your site or decrease the number of sales your business makes.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 8

2006-04-22T15:06:00.000-04:00

I have to apologize in advance; today's "Cheap Way to Market Your Site" really isn't a way to market your site, but ultimately it will help you in marketing your site.

Confused? That's okay, keep reading.

Keep a daily journal of your marketing activities

Much like writing a business plan, many people don't log their day to day activities when they're starting or running a business or a website, probably because they are either to busy actually running the site or think that logging activities is a waste of time.

Not logging what you do is a terrible mistake!

By logging your daily marketing activities you will be able to quickly and easily identify which strategies that are working for you and which strategies need to be reevaluated or dismissed.

Your "log" doesn't need to be anything extravagant. For example, just write, "Today I added my URL to the signature line of my email accounts." Nothing elaborate, but detailed enough to jog your memory when you come back and look at it.

By using this log, if you have a sudden spike in the number of hits your site receives each day, you can go back and look at the recent marketing activities and focus on those ideas, considering they probably account for the spike. Or, if for some reason, you find yourself getting less hits each day, you can quickly correct any marketing "errors" you may have made.

Logging your marketing activities doesn't have to take a lot of time, but it will certainly help you save a lot of time when you're trying to figure out which strategies are working for you.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 7

2006-04-21T12:01:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the positive response I've received for the "Cheap Ways to Market Your Site" series, I've decided to continue it.

Magnetize your URL and take it for a drive.

What do I mean by that?

The other day while I was waiting at Jiffy Lube to get my car's oil changed and the vehicle in front of me had a magnetic "sticker" across its trunk. And, you guessed it, on the magnet was a company's URL.

Because there was nothing else to do while I was waiting, I wrote down the URL and then visited the site when I got home, which of course got me thinking about how great that magnet was.

Think about it, how many different cars do you get stuck behind when you're driving down the road, waiting at the drive thru or sitting at a stop light? I would imagine it's over a hundred different cars each day. That's a hundred different people you can expose to your website and even if you don't get all of them to visit your site once they get home, if you get a few people each day, you're really going to see a spike in the number of hits, and sales, your site sees.

Also, with proliferation of cell phones that are web accessible, you can even reach people that can access your site immediately (but let's hope they're passengers, not drivers).

From the quick research that I've done, it looks like you should probably be able to get a relatively simple car magnet for less than $20, which would definitely be money well spent.

Don't Make Me Think

2006-04-20T17:49:00.000-04:00

While I've been reading a lot of different articles and books related to Search Engine Optimization, I recently picked up what many will argue is the best book on web usability:

Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krugg

This book should be on the must read list of anyone that plans on starting an online business or even just a website in general.

While I currently use the Blogger.com templates and software to publish my blogs, at some point in the future I would like to be able to design, create and maintain my own templates and sites, independent of Blogger or WordPad. I think this book will give me a good start when I start to map out what I would like my sites to look like.

While many of Krugg's points are just plain common sense, the way he lays everything out makes it easy to see how you could implement the changes throughout your site.

The most important thing I took away from the book was that a website (specifically an e-commerce site) is set up in pretty much the same way as a store; there are lots of different ways to get to the product you want. The key is to make the shopping experience as simple as possible, so simple that you shouldn't even need to think about it. If the customer has to think, they'll go somewhere else.

Make sure that you pick up a copy of this from Amazon and add it to your "must have" collection of business books.

Google AdSense is the Greatest Thing Ever

2006-04-19T21:45:00.000-04:00

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I'll be the first to admit, I was wrong to resist the power of Google. I never had any intention of including Google AdSense on The New Business Blog. I really didn't.

I also didn't know how much I would come to enjoy blogging and how my longing to be a writer, mixed with all of my interests, could all be taken care of by by simply starting many, many different blogs.

Unfortunately, I also didn't know how expensive it would all turn out to be.

I figure, with my latest round of domain names and hosting plans, I've spent probably over $100 on items dealing with blogs. Thankfully, Blogger.com is still free, otherwise we could be talking about even more money.

Anyway, back to the point.

Google AdSense has given me a quick and easy way to try and earn some of that money back.

By simply placing a couple of AdSense banners around my various sites, I'm setting myself up to make enough money to hopefully cover the cost of hosting and maintaining my sites.

I don't really have any grand illusions of being one of those people that make $10,000 per month from their sites (to be honest, I don't know if those people really exist, but I'll let you know if I become one, trust me). A couple of bucks never hurt though.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is if you've had any reluctance to add Google AdSense to your site or blog, get over it. It's easy and as long as you get some traffic that pokes around and clicks on the ads, you'll make a couple of bucks, too.

Not a bad deal for essentially doing nothing, huh?

Business Plan Update

2006-04-18T21:13:00.000-04:00

I've received a couple of emails in regards to continuing the "Cheap Ways to Market Your Site" series, so in the next couple of days I'll start to post ideas 7 through 10. If there is continued interest after that, then I'll keep posting "Cheap Ways to Market Your Site" until I run out of ideas.

In the meantime, I wanted to give an update as to where I'm at in regards to starting my business and my business plan.

Last week I went through and edited the first rough draft of my business plan. I'm pretty comfortable with where things are right now, but I obviously have some holes to fill. Once I take care of those and run the revised plan by my business partner, I'll feel much more comfortable with the finished product.

I haven't heard back from the State Corporation Commission regarding the legal name of my business, so I'll probably go ahead and give them a call tomorrow just to make sure there weren't any glitches. You'd assume that if there were any problems they would go ahead and contact you, but you never know.

Anyway, that's about it for tonight. I'm glad to see that people have taken so well to the "Cheap Ways to Market Your Site" series so I will come up with more ideas to continue that as well as figure out additional series that will be of use to people that are starting a business.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 6

2006-04-17T20:31:00.000-04:00

Sometimes there's only so much that you can do on your own to promote your site or your business.

When you're starting a business or a site, most of the word of mouth (the easiest way to grow) is going to come directly from you, if only because you're the only one that really knows about the business or site to begin with.

Once other people find out about the site though, you need to get them to do your work and pass on the site to everyone else.

Tell people to tell others

What I mean by that is remind people to spread the word about your site.

For example, if you collect email addresses on your website (which you should be doing anyway) every day, week or month (depending on your content) send out an "exclusive" email to the people who've submitted their email addresses to you. This could be a tip of the day, thought of the week or an article you can only read by email.

At the end of the email, write another statement that simply says, "Did you like this tip/thought/article? I bet you know three people that would benefit from it as well. Please pass this email on to them!" and have your site's URL directly under the paragraph.

Even if only 10% of the people who received your original email follow through and forward your email, you're going to increase the number of visits to your site or business by a couple of people each day, which will lead to more customers and ultimately more money for you.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 5

2006-04-16T19:46:00.000-04:00

Why should people visit your site as opposed to another one?

Probably because you do something better than anyone else or, at the very least, you put a fresh perspective on a relatively generic topic.

Be bold. Promote your uniqueness.

If you're site is the same as everyone else's, what's the incentive for people to come to yours? There isn't any.

But, if you make your site different, if you put a new perspective on a topic or you are bold with your ideas, people are going to take notice and continue to come back for more.

Don't try to write the way you think people want you to. You'll just end up coming across as insincere and phony.

Granted, this is going to vary regarding what sort of site you have. If you have a blog, you can get away with being a little more controversial than if you were running a book store. Not to say that you couldn't find ways to be creative and "out there" while running a book store, but I don't think you'd have the same amount of freedom as someone who was trying to promote their blog.

Write in your own voice and bring your own bold perspective and I think you'll be surprised at how much this will help you promote your site.

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 4

2006-04-15T18:45:00.000-04:00

You can file this tip under the obvious department, but to be honest, I don't know how many people are actually doing it.

Cross promote your site!

What I mean by this is when you see another site or blog that you like, send an email to the person that runs the site and let them know you like their work and you'd like to link to their webpage.

You should also let them know that they should check out your site and if they like what they see, they should feel free to go ahead and include a backlink to your site on their webpage.

Here's where my advice will differ from most people's; don't just try to promote your site on similar sites, but branch out to other sites that are seemingly unrelated.

I'll explain. If you were to ask me what my interests are, I would tell you in no particular order sports, business, music and movies. I would imagine that I'm not the only person in the world with multiple interests.

Should you concentrate your cross promotion with similar sites? Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. But at the same time, don't limit yourself. If you read a movie blog that you really like, but you have a business blog, go ahead and try to cross promote anyway.

As long as you have good content, it doesn't matter how somebody finds your site!

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 3

2006-04-14T18:34:00.000-04:00

For a lot of people, this is going to be the hardest way to market their business or site, I know it was for me. But, you have to overcome your fears because this is probably the best way to market your site.

Run your mouth!

By nature, I'm a very shy and reserved person, so even after I started The New Business Blog and In My Memories I was reluctant to talk about them. I always felt that if I brought my sites up I would be imposing and would end up jamming it down the throat of the person I was talking to.

Then I realized, this is the stuff I should be talking about because it's what I'm passionate about.

Not only will you feel good talking about your business or site, but that passion is going to rub off on the person you're talking to and it's going to make them that much more interested in what it is you're doing.

If you don't toot your own horn, nobody's going to do it for you!

Getting Some Publicity

2006-04-14T17:49:00.000-04:00

Looks like my ramblings have caught the eye of someone else!

Yesterday afternoon I checked Technorati to see if there were any new blogs that linked to The New Business Blog. Usually when I check, it's usually just my posts that include a link to The New Business Blog somewhere in the writing.

But, yesterday was different - there was a completely different blog that included a link to my business blog. Turns out, Denise O'Berry (author of Just For Small Business) read my Added Perk to a Business Plan article and included it in this week's Carnival of Entrepreneurship (my post is the fourth bullet on each page).

Needless to say, I was thrilled to see that someone else is getting something out of my business blog! Hopefully I can keep it up.

Search Engine Optimization Update

2006-04-13T21:15:00.000-04:00

This morning I checked my search engine rankings in Google, Yahoo! and MSN and was pleasantly surprised.

My rankings really haven't changed much in Google and Yahoo!, my business blog still isn't coming up in the major keyword searches. The New Business Blog is still coming up mostly only if you add "Brian Carr" to the keyword (ex. "business blog brian carr").

But, when I went to MSN, I typed in "new business blog" and The New Business Blog came up number three in the search!

Then, I tried "starting a business blog" and The New Business Blog came up on the bottom of the first page.

Now that may not seem like a lot, but I think that means that the things I have done regarding search engine optimization have started to pay off!

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 2

2006-04-13T20:04:00.000-04:00

You and I both know that when you start a business, a website or even a blog, you aren't going to have much of a life for the foreseeable future. You probably won't even have time to do much laundry.

That's okay, because you really only need two or three shirts.

Get a shirt (or two) that has your company name and URL on the front and back and wear it everywhere you go!

Okay, well maybe not everywhere, but anywhere it would be considered appropriate (the mall, grocery shopping, the movies, etc.), wear that shirt!

Think of all the people you interact with on any given day, or even the number of people you just walk by. It's probably hundreds of people per day. Even if only 2% of the people that see your shirt visit your site, that's an extra 4 or 5 unique hits each day. That adds up.

You have to wear clothes as it is, so you may as well make them useful in advertising your business or your site.

To get a couple of simple shirts made should cost you less than $15 or $20, or you could probably even do it yourself for even less money.

Better yet, get a couple more made and pass them out to your friends and ask them to wear a shirt out every once in a while.

You should be proud of the work that you're putting into starting your business or website, so why not show it off?

Cheap Ways to Market Your Site, Part 1

2006-04-12T20:01:00.000-04:00

I figured it was time to add some more substance to my blogs; less about me and more about you.

On that note, I've put together a 6 part blog on cheap (and creative) ways to market your website or blog. Here goes the first one:

Add your URL to the signature of every one of your email accounts!

How many emails do you send each day? 10? 20? 100? By adding your website's URL to the signature of each of your emails, that gives you that many more opportunities to remind people to check out your site.

Granted, it may not generate the most amount of UNIQUE traffic, but it will remind everyone you email to visit the site. However, in a round about way, it may generate unique traffic through word of mouth or even by your friends forwarding on your email to their friends.

Best of all, it's free and it takes about 5 seconds to do.

To give you a real example, when I started The New Business Blog, I wasn't getting as much traffic as I had hoped. I was averaging about 25 hits per day, which by most standards is pretty low. So, in order to help get the word out, I added http://www.thenewbusinessblog.com to the signature line of each of my email accounts.

Slowly but surely, I began to notice that each day I was getting a couple of more hits to the site.

While adding the signature line to my outgoing emails wasn't the only thing that helped to increase traffic, I know that it accounted for at least a couple more hits.

Now, go take 5 seconds out of your busy life and add your website to the signature line of all of your email accounts.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

2006-04-11T18:24:00.000-04:00

If I was a Mets fan, I'd be thrilled. 7 to 1 is a pretty good win.

Too bad I'm a Nationals fan.

I take that back, it's not too bad that I'm a Nats fan, it's actually a great thing. It's nice to finally have a hometown baseball team.

All things considered I don't have much to complain about; it was a nice day for a baseball game (sunny and warm) and I got to go to the game with my dad.

Oh well, I guess there's always next year's home opener.

Let's Go Nats!

2006-04-10T21:20:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I'm going to take a break from everything. No waking up early and going to work, no coming home and working on In My Memories and probably not even posting to my business blog.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off from everything to go to the Nationals' home opener!

I went to the Nats' first home game last year and it was absolutely awesome. I had never been at any of the big Redskins' games at RFK, but I can imagine they were much like the Nats' home opener. I'm going to miss that stadium when the team moves to their new stadium.

Anyway, hopefully tomorrow the weather will be nice and the Nats will get a win.

Hard Work Pays Off

2006-04-09T13:05:00.000-04:00

The other day in my Driving Traffic To Your Blog post, I talked about how I had submitted The New Business Blog to over 150 blog directories and how it was starting to pay off.

It looks like the hard work is continuing to pay off; when I checked my Feedburner stats this morning, I saw that the number of subscribed readers has increased from 25 to 36!

Granted, that doesn't seem like much of a jump, but when you look at the fact that a little over a week ago I had 6 subscribed readers, to have increased that number SIX TIMES is pretty remarkable.

That being said, if you want to do the same thing for your blog or your website, you have to be willing to do the leg work. I know I spent over 6 hours submitting The New Business Blog to all of the blog directories, and that's still probably only a fraction of the amount of work I need to do to get to my goals.

But, it is nice to see the hard work starting to pay off.

Name of my Limited Liability Company (LLC)

2006-04-08T19:15:00.000-04:00

Today was a big day in the history of my business - I sent in the paper work (and the $100 check!) to get the business' legal name. The registered business will be the "owner" of both In My Memories and The New Business Blog.

I was surprised at how easy the process really was. I just went to Virginia's webpage, followed a couple of links and then printed the documents out. I would have figured the process would have been a bit more cumbersome.

I'm sure no matter which state you are in, the process has to be pretty similar to what I've done.
I know there are websites out there that will do this services for you, but they didn't seem that cheap. I figured I should be able to register my business myself and keep some extra money in my account.

While I was driving home from work on Friday I called the Clerk's Office to check on the availability of the name, which, thankfully, wasn't taken.

Once i get confirmation that the paperwork has been processed, I'll go ahead and share it with anyone that will listen.

Driving Traffic to Your Blog

2006-04-07T19:56:00.000-04:00

One of my goals for my business blog is to have over 200 subscribed readers (a subscribed reader is someone who reads your blog through an RSS feed. You can do this by clicking on the orange and white button on the right side of this blog.)

Unfortunately, I'm never going to make it to 200 daily readers unless I get The New Business Blog out there, and that is going to require a lot of leg work.

The other day while researching the subject of driving traffic to my business blog, I came across RSSTop55, a site that lists close to 170 blog directories you can submit your blog or RSS feed to. (I actually mentioned this subject in a previous blog, but didn't go much in depth).

Last night I was able to submit The New Business Blog to 50 additional blog directories. While it was time consuming and redundant, it definitely helped my stats.

This morning when I woke up, I checked my Feedburner stats and saw that the number of subscribed readers had jumped from 12 to 25. Granted this isn't anywhere near my goal, but it's a start.

I guess the moral of the story is, much like starting a business, growing your site or blog is a something that takes time; you have to be willing to put in a lot of work and have a little bit of patience (and luck).

Hopefully this will be good training for when In My Memories is finally launched.

How to Become a Marketing Superstar

2006-04-06T18:41:00.000-04:00

Apparently I drank too much coffee yesterday because I wasn't able to fall asleep. So instead of editing my business plan, I read another book.

Last night I read How to Become a Marketing Superstar by Jeffrey Fox. It was pretty much along the same lines as Purple Cow but, as the title might indicate, Fox's book was more geared towards marketing your business as opposed to differentiating it.

I thought Marketing Superstar was a good read and was better to read before I start marketing In My Memories.

There were a bunch of interesting points regarding advertising (never use the word "we" and don't tell the customer what they're gaining, tell them what they're not losing) but the most important thing I took away was the important role good customer service plays in your advertising.

By simply having good customer service and sending a nice thank you note, you will create incredible word of mouth advertising, something that will probably increase your sales more than any other form of advertising.

Take care of your customers and they'll take care of you.

Creating a Purple Cow

2006-04-05T22:05:00.000-04:00

I want my business to be different.

The other day I picked up Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin in the hopes of finding out ways to differentiate In My Memories from similar sites. While I don't have any other books to compare against, I think Purple Cow should be on every entrepreneur's must read list.

The book was a quick read (it took me an afternoon to get through it) and it had several helpful points. But there was one point in particular that stood out above the others:

Your business can't be everything to everybody. Focus on your target market and then make your product or service the best that it can be for that particular group.

Don't worry about trying to make your product for the masses because it ultimately won't be good enough for anybody; tailor your product or service to your target market and it'll end up being great.

Added Perk To a Business Plan

2006-04-04T19:38:00.000-04:00

Last night, I finished up the very first rough draft of In My Memories's business plan. Aside from the feeling like I was actually well on my way to starting a business, I found another benefit of being able to review my business plan:

I felt reinvigorated about my business.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not lacking in passion for In My Memories, but going back and reading over the first draft of the business plan was like a breath of fresh air.

So, I guess what I'm getting at, make sure you don't run yourself into the ground while you're in the midst of planning and starting your business. Make sure you take time to sit back and enjoy what you're in the process of accomplishing.

It'll help keep you out of a rut and push you to get more out of your new business.

More Regarding In My Memories And The New Business Blog

2006-04-03T18:26:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have already visited In My Memories, I want to say thank you.

For those of you who have yet to visit In My Memories, I want to say: What are you waiting for?!?

Thanks to the work of my business partner, Doug, the coming soon site is looking much better. It certainly looks much more professional and presentable which hopefully will help continue to drum up interest.

Also, I have a nice announcement regarding my business blog. The other night, I submitted "The New Business Blog" to over 100 blog directories hoping to increase the amount of people reading this blog by a couple of hits.

I was absolutely floored to check my stats this morning to see yesterday I had over 200 hits to my business blog. So, thank you for continuing to read my blog and for sharing it with people you think might be interested.

Keep it up!

Announcement of In My Memories

2006-04-02T17:52:00.000-04:00

Here it is folks, the announcement of my business idea and my business' website (well, sort of).

In My Memories will be the premier site for creating online memorials and celebrations of the lives of your loved ones.

The premise behind In My Memories is simple; we wanted to create a website where people would be able to create meaningful and lasting online tributes for family and friends who have passed away. We wanted to give people an avenue to create a memorial that is easy to share with family and friends throughout the world, but is in depth enough to capture the essence of the loved one they are memorializing.

In My Memories will offer several packages, ranging in price, but the most common features of each package will include:

An unlimited page biography
Pictures with captions and slideshow capability
Audio/Video upload
Timeline/Milestones
"Personal Favorites" lists
Guestbook where visitors can leave notes of sympathy and personal stories of remembrance.

In My Memories will also offer several secondary services in relation to the online memorials, however I will go much more in depth regarding these services in another post.

I have to apologize for the current coming soon page on the In My Memories page. I'm not very proficient with web development, so this was the best I could throw together so far. A new and improved page will be up soon.

In the meantime, feel free to bookmark the page for future updates, continue to check out my business blog and submit your email on the In My Memories page for emailed updates.

I really think that this business has the potential to help a lot of people through a difficult time in their lives, and I'm looking forward to launching the fully operational site in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

If you have any suggestions, comments, etc. please feel free to email me or to leave a comment on this post.

Finally, A Day Off

2006-04-01T15:34:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? Pretty much, it's about a guy who just decides to stop showing up to work. Anyway, I'm bringing this up because there's a line in the movie that sums up my day yesterday:

"Yesterday, I did nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be."

So, for the first time in a long time, I didn't do anything business related yesterday. I didn't write in my business blog, I didn't do anything with the business plan, I just sat outside, enjoyed the weather and did nothing.

I highly recommend today you do the same.

Business Plan Software

2006-03-30T19:44:00.000-05:00

Come hell or high water, I will unveil my business idea Sunday evening. So, for the time being, I thought I'd take the time to update you on my business plan and the software that I'm using.

As I stated in a previous business plan post, I am using The Ultimate Business Plan Starter software, which is published by ABS Online. By using this software the past couple of days, I think I've written more of my business plan than I had in the previous couple of months!

What I enjoy most about the software is the fact that it breaks down the business plan in a step by step manner, going over the aspects of (and providing examples for) the executive summary, company background, products/services, competition, marketing and operating plans, goals and strategies and financial assumptions.

While I was a student at James Madison University, it was a College of Business requirement to take a 12 credit class where we had to work in a group to come up with a comprehensive business plan. My group and I worked on a plan from scratch, using templates and ideas we found in our over priced text books. We got a C+ on the project. I think if we had the foresight to use a product like this, we would have done a lot better.

Granted, just using a good business plan software doesn't guarantee you're going to have a good business plan, but I think that it certainly will help you make sure you hit everything.

Remember, a good business plan is essential to have (or in my case, develop) when you are starting a business so you may as well take advantage of anything that will make the whole process easier AND more thorough.

Another Day, Another Delay

2006-03-29T22:03:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry to say that tonight won't be the great unveiling of my great new business. Unfortunately, there has been a snag in creating our "Coming Soon" page, so it looks like things are going to get pushed back a few days.

The reason we want to launch the "Coming Soon" page is twofold. First, we want to start to get traffic coming to our site, even if it's only just to see that the site exists. The second reason is probably the most important (as well as the cause for the delay); we want to be able to gather the email addresses of people who come to visit the site.

By gathering email addresses (people will voluntarily have to enter their names and email addresses), we will be able to start to build up a database of prospective clients. This way, we can send them updates on the site and on our business in general.

We want people who visit our site to come back, and by keeping them aware of what's going on with our business (as well as letting them know to check our business blog for more updates) we think we will be able to make sure people come back to the site once it's fully operational.

"Denouncement" of Link Trader

2006-03-29T19:29:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to let you know that I will no longer be running the link trader blog. While in theory it was a good idea, in practice it wasn't. It was taking time away from the two pressing matters at hand: The New Business Blog and finishing my business plan and starting my business.

Thank you to those of you who read my posts on the link trader blog, I hope you got something out of it. Hopefully you will continue to read The New Business Blog to not only get updates on how starting my business is going, but also to get good resources for your business ventures.

Keep On Keeping On

2006-03-28T20:32:00.000-05:00

Sorry things have been uneventful lately, I really don't have anything new to post just yet. I'm still working on the business plan (which is coming along just fine), I'm continuing to chase down high profile partners all while trying to figure out ways to drive people to this blog.

I am finding out a bunch of interesting ways to help bring people to the blog, but I'm so wrapped up in finalizing the business plan I haven't had the time to incorporate them into my business blog.

I have a feeling tomorrow will be the day the premise of the site is unveiled, so make sure you come back.

More Business Plan Stuff

2006-03-26T19:53:00.000-05:00

Lately, as I have become more and more discouraged with the progress of our business plan, I have tried to find ways to simplify the process of putting everything together. Today, I think I found my solution.

I've downloaded the trial version of the Ultimate Business Plan Starter, published by ABS Online. So far, I have been able to quickly write a draft of our business opportunity, product/service description, current business position, financial potential and company background.

The software has laid out the key points of a business plan in a step by step process, making it easy to get your initial thoughts down and then giving you the opportunity to go back and create a document that flows well.

I believe the trial version of this product allows you to save your plan, however, you are unable to print or convert what you have saved into a Word document. To have those capabilities, you have to buy the full product, which is around $80.

Once I finish the first draft using this software, I'll make my decision on whether or not I'm going to buy the product, but it's looking like that's going to be the plan.

Business Plan Update, Sort Of...

2006-03-24T20:15:00.000-05:00

Not much to report tonight.

The business plan is still a work in progress. I think the perfectionist in me it trying to make the first draft the second coming of some great work of literature - an actual title of a great work is escaping me right now. What can I say, it's been a long week.

Tomorrow I should be able to devote the rest of the entire day to completing the first copy of the business plan, so, at the very least, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Part of me is questioning whether or not a business plan is essential in the process of starting a business. Thankfully, I've realized that's probably just the 98% of me that loves to procrastinate talking.

Regardless, the delay on finalizing the business plan is starting to put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm, so I'm in the process of working through that. Nothing that a few late nights with an IV of caffeine won't take care of.

On the brighter side, I have found several different organizations that are open to teaming with me once my business is up and running. Not to give away too much yet, but all of these organizations are household names.

On that note, I'm off to grab a quick bite before I get back to work on the business plan. Wish me luck.

Announcement of Link Trader

2006-03-22T22:58:00.000-05:00

I've got a big announcement, although unfortunately it's not really business related. But, I'll get to the announcement later.

Tonight, I went to another Loudoun SBDC seminar. Tonight's topic was about building a great website and was put on by VECTEC, a company that assists businesses with website development and e-commerce. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good presentation and went into a lot of detail about how to make a webpage easy to navigate and customer friendly. The amount of money spent on the internet is growing by leaps and bounds as the number of internet users (especially broadband users) increases exponentially.

Unfortunately, they didn't talk in specifics regarding two things that I wanted to hear about - incorporating a business blog into your business' website and search engine optimization. This (indirectly) leads me to the big announcement.

So, while I was sitting there thinking about what I was going to post on my business blog tonight, I started thinking about easy and efficient ways to get backlinks. I refuse to pay to get the links and going out, trolling site and sending emails begging for link exchanges was getting to be a pain. Then, it dawned on me: I needed to start another blog whose sole purpose was to quickly and easily facilitate link exchanges. So, my big announcement is The New Business Blog now has a younger sibling: Link Trader.

The premise behind Link Trader is simple; every couple of days I'll make post a tip regarding backlinks and people will post their URL and link text in the comment section of each post, the rule being if you leave your link for others to take, you have to backlink to other sites that have already commented. If several people have posted, you can go in, look at their sites and then backlink to the three or four you liked the most.

I think it's a fair deal, and hopefully it'll be an easy, stress free way of helping people get backlinks to their sites or blogs.

Some Things I've Learned About Search Engine Optimization

2006-03-20T20:22:00.000-05:00

Ever since I've started this business blog and come to the decision that I wanted to start a web-based business, I've started to learn about how to get my sites ranked higher on the main search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN). I guess because I'm not particularly tech savvy, I was just expecting simple stuff like, "submit your URL to the search engines," or, "use a lot of keywords on your pages." Unfortunately, the more I dig the more I find out that making your site search engine friendly is much more intense than I had originally thought.

If you do a search on "search engine optimization" a whole bunch of sites (typically pay services) will pop up, offering to help ensure your site consistently ranks in the top 10 for any particular search you'd like. By nature, I'm always skeptical of these sites with grand promises, so I'd like to share a couple of things that I've learned, as well as a resource I've come across in my search for free help.

In looking for a good free resource I came across Brad Fallon's webpage (full disclosure - I do not have an affiliate program with Fallon's webpage, so I'm not pushing you to click on this so I get paid, I actually thought it was a good resource). On this page Fallon writes about how he quickly increased the number of hits to the site he owns and operates (MyWeddingFavors.com) by using his search engine optimization background, and how he used this knowledge to turn his website into a million dollar a year business. In checking around the site, it became obvious that he was probably trying to sell something, however if you entered your email address on his webpage you would receive "The 7 Mistakes Search Optimizers Make" for free. I figured it was worth a shot, and was actually pleasantly surprised at the depth of the emails. I'm not going to go into detail regarding all of his tips because I don't want to take away from his site. Take my word though; it's worth giving him your email address.

After receiving his emails, I have tried to implement some of his tips on my business blog. One of the tips Fallon talks about is editing the "title tags" of your webpage. Title tags appear at the top of your web browser, often identifying the page you are currently on. Although unlikely, you may have noticed that I have added additional items to the title tags for this blog. When I first set up this webpage, the top of your browser only said, "The New Business Blog," and then probably the name of whatever browser you were using at the time. I have now changed my title tags to read, "The New Business Blog - Business Plan - Start A Business."

Being the curious person you are, you're probably asking yourself, "Why would he do that?" Well, as was news to me, putting key words in your title tags actually helps increase your site's ranking in the search engines. The words that are listed first have the most importance in increasing your rank and decrease in importance as you move out. Choosing the best key words for your website is something you should take your time on, and be willing to play around with. The words I chose are related to what this site is mostly about; starting a business and business plans.

Before I changed my title tags, I would have to do very specific searches on the search engines in order to have my blog pop up. A typical search to bring my blog up would be "thenewbusinessblog brian carr leesburg virginia united states," and even then, it wasn't certain that my website would pop up! Now that I've entered those tags I can enter "business blog starting a business brian carr" and my site will be the first one listed. Granted it's not much of an improvement, but it's better than what it was. Ultimately, I would like my business blog to be highly ranked for just "business blog" or "starting a business." It's going to take some work and a lot of other tactics to get it there, but I'm going to give it a shot.

You also may have noticed a link for "Link To Our Site" on the right side of my business blog, at the bottom of my profile section. This is because I've learned of the importance that "backlinks" play in getting your page highly ranked on search engines. A backlink is a link that is directed towards your site from another site and the more backlinks you have the better. When your site has a lot of links pointing towards it, search engines are more likely to view your site as important, popular or relevant to a particular search.

By soliciting link exchanges, I am hoping to get more people to link to this blog (and in return I will link to their site) in order to help increase the site's ranking in Google, Yahoo! and MSN. I don't know if this has made much of a difference yet, but I have a good feeling that ultimately it will.

Needless to say, I have barely scratched the surface of ways you can make your site more search engine friendly, but the two tips I've listed are two pretty simple ways to help you get on your way. I'm sure the more I find out, the more I'll be able to list.

In the meantime, don't forget to search for "new business blog starting a business brian carr" in Google!

Choosing A Legal Structure For Your Business

2006-03-19T20:41:00.000-05:00

This is where my business blog may actually start to be useful to some of you.

Needless to say, choosing your business' legal structure is one of the first, and most important, things you need to do throughout the business planning process. While it may seem like a daunting task to figure out which direction you should go, it is something that you need to figure out early in the process so you can begin to plan accordingly. In fact, this decision is so important that it may be worth it to consult an attorney or an accountant to help you with the decision.

Anyway, there are several different legal entities you can choose for your business; a sole proprietorship, partnership, a corporation (C-Corp or S-Corp) or a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Here is a great resource from the Small Business Administration that goes over the highlights of each of these different entities. In addition to this great resource, I'll go ahead and give you the quick and dirty on each one, as well as tell you why my business partner and I decided to go with an LLC for our business.

The first type of business entity is a sole proprietorship. Sole proprietorships are a very common legal entity for small businesses because they are relatively easy and inexpensive to establish, are owned by one person and that one person is typically in control of all of the day to day operations of the business. The sole proprietor receives all of the income (and losses) for the business, and all of the profits are taxed at the sole proprietor's tax rate. Unfortunately, this type of entity has a very large downside: the sole proprietor has unlimited liability and assumes all of the business' debts. Both the assets of the business and of the sole proprietor (i.e. their home, personal bank account, etc.) are at risk in a sole proprietorship.

The second type of business entity is a partnership, in which two or more people split ownership of a business. Much like a sole proprietorship, partnerships are relatively cheap and easy to establish, however you may need to consult a lawyer to help draft a partnership agreement. Again, all of the businesses profits are taxed as income for each of the partners, so their individual tax rate will determine the amount of taxes paid. Additionally, since there are more people involved, the liability for the business is spread among at least two people. That being said, the large downside to partnerships is there is still unlimited liability, even though it is spread among the partners, and a partner's personal assets are still at risk. Also, partnerships may not last forever, as it is possible they can be dissolved in the event of a partner's withdrawal or death.

The third type of business entity is a standard corporation or a C-Corp. In the eyes of the law, a corporation is its own stand alone entity, meaning two key things: First, it limits the liability of each of its shareholders (owners) and second, it is "double taxed" meaning it is taxed at the corporate level and then the owners are taxed on what they take from the business (more often than not, in the form of a salary). If you chose the route of becoming a corporation, expect a fair amount of time, money and paperwork to get everything set up, but if you choose a field where you risk being sued, that extra protection may be worth it.

The fourth type of business entity is another form of a corporation, but it is called an S-Corp. In an S-Corp the shareholders (owners) of the business are afforded the same protection as a C-Corp, however they have the option to allow the earnings and profits of the business to be taxed at their individual rate, thus avoiding double taxation. However, if the shareholder works for the company, they must pay themselves a fair and reasonable salary for the work they are performing, assuming there is a profit. If the shareholder does not do this, they run the risk of having all of the business' earnings be reclassified and subject to payroll taxes.

The fifth type of business entity, and the one that my business partner and I ultimately chose, is a Limited Liability Company or an LLC. This relatively new business entity is set up to provide the limited liability of a corporation with the tax structure of a partnership, thus giving you the best of both worlds. While it takes more time, money and paperwork to set up than a general partnership, I believe the extra effort is worth it. An LLC is good to have when you are going to have few investors and the members of the LLC are active in the day to day operations of the business. Here's a good webpage that goes into more detail regarding an LLC.

We ultimately narrowed our choices down to an S-Corp or an LLC. We ultimately decided to go with the LLC because we wanted the protection of limited liability, the tax structure of a partnership (which both pretty much provide) and we wanted something that was flexible and would be easy to set up and maintain. In an S-Corp, you have to file articles of incorporation with the state, form a board of directors, have an annual shareholders meeting and keep minutes. In general, it seemed a bit more rigid than an LLC and just seemed to be more of a hassle.

Again, as I stated earlier, if you are going to make this decision for your business, make sure that you put a lot of thought into this and, at the very least, consider using the services of a lawyer or an accountant. Hopefully this will give you a good start, but make sure you do plenty of your own research and due diligence.

Getting A New Perspective, Part 2

2006-03-17T20:04:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago I had a post on my business blog regarding the importance of sharing your business idea with others; today I have an interesting addendum.

Last weekend I had a get together at my house and shared my business idea with everyone that was there. All things considered, it went pretty well and I was able to get a bunch of new ideas for my business. Thankfully, I didn't stop there. That night, I sent out an email to several close friends in the hopes that maybe a few of them would reply and give me some new ideas.

One of the people I sent the email to was the only college professor that I have kept in touch with. I've always respected him and I figured he would have some good business ideas for us to work with. Little did I know that I was going to get a lot more than sound business advice.

It turns out that my former professor liked my business idea so much that he wants to help get the business up and running. Needless to say that when I received his email this morning, I could hardly contain my excitement. Somebody else believed in our business enough to want to help us get it started! Now I have a great resource to share my business plan and prototype with.

The most amazing thing about all of this is I WASN'T GOING TO SEND HIM THE EMAIL! I was afraid I was going to be a bother by emailing and asking for his advice. What a mistake it would have been to not email him.

Moral of the story, make sure you are willing to share you business with anyone you think will listen. If they ultimately don't want to listen, they'll tell you, but at least give them the opportunity to hear you out.

In the end, you only hurt yourself and your business by keeping your mouth shut.

Starting To Make Our Move

2006-03-16T19:05:00.000-05:00

It seems things are really starting to look promising for "the business," which is more than I can say for my NCAA Tournament bracket (still not sure why I picked Seton Hall to go to the Sweet 16, but I digress). My business partner and I have decided on the legal structure of the business - we're going with a Limited Liability Company, or LLC, but more on that in another business blog - and we have finally found and locked in our domain name (again, something I will share later). We have also narrowed down the list of the legal names for the business, so it finally feels like things are really coming together.

Needless to say, starting a business is a lot more detail oriented than what I'm used to. What am I getting myself into?!?

Thankfully, this weekend we're going to be able to put together a lot of the framework of the site, so I'm cautiously optimistic that we will have a prototype by the end of the month. Keep your fingers crossed.

Now that those important, and might I say daunting, things are pretty much out of the way, I can do a better job of concentrating on finalizing the business plan. While searching the web for good online business planning resources I came across a pretty comprehensive business plan outline that I think will help me bring together all of the bits and pieces I have written so far. I don't particularly like to be told what to write and where to write it, I'd much rather have a general outline and go from there. In that sense, I think this outline is going to be a great resource for me. Either way, I'll let you know.

Last night I spent a lot of time researching search engine optimization and came across a lot of good information. In fact, I came across so many useful resources, that I plan on bringing all of them together and dedicating a post or two to the topic, specifically how I'm utilizing the many tips I've found to help increase this blog's page ranking in Google, Yahoo and MSN, and how I plan to use those methods to ensure my business' webpage consistently ranks at the top of those search engines.

So, that's it for today. Time to watch my NCAA Tournament bracket go up in flames.

Resources That Are Worth A Look

2006-03-14T20:41:00.000-05:00

I've given the change of direction in my business idea a couple of days to stew, and I'm still pretty excited about the way things are headed. I'm a pessimist by nature, so being able to stick to a new idea for two consecutive days is a pretty reassuring thing for me, so much so, I'm going to dedicate and entire business blog to it (well, not really, I just wanted to illustrate how excited I am)!

Anyway, since I had already started to dive head first into my business plan for my original idea, I thought it would be best to look for some simple (and hopefully free) software that would allow me to quickly and easily write and change a business plan without having to start from scratch, which is what I'm going to have to do with my current Word document. So, as most people probably should, I started my free and easy search at my local library.

While searching the shelves I came across Complete Business Plan With Software by Bob Adams. Needless to say, since this was exactly what I was looking for, I grabbed the copy and checked it out. Yesterday afternoon I installed the software and spent some time tooling around on it. The program itself is a bit outdated (not that it bothered me that much) but I found the layout and use of the software to be a bit cumbersome and actually made it more difficult to write the business plan. I guess the moral of the story is just because the title is exactly what you're looking for, doesn't mean the book will be.

Thankfully, before I left the library I grabbed a copy of Growing Your Business with Google by Dave Taylor. Obviously, our business' website isn't up and running yet, but learning about search engine optimization beforehand certainly can't be a bad thing, not to mention the fact that I'd like to experiment on my business blog site before I start tinkering with my business' website. Anyway, to be perfectly honest, I haven't done more than flip through the book, but it looks like it will be a very thorough resource for figuring out how to make sure my webpage is always at the top of the search page. Either way, I'll keep you posted.

Finally, now that I've gotten into this whole business blog thing, I've started to see what other people have to offer on their pages. I've come across two great business blogs that I'd like to share.

The first one is Small Business CEO, written by Steve Rucinski, and it has a bunch of different articles relating to business, not just small business. One particular article I found interesting was about how businesses are starting to use business blogs as a way to boost sales growth. I thought the article was interesting because at some point down the road I would like to use my business blog as a way to help "drive" people to my business' web page.

The second business blog may be one of the most useful resources I've come across yet. It's called Entrepreneur's Journey, written by Yaro Starak, and it is action packed full of useful items. The blog that I found most interesting so far (believe me, I plan on going back and reading more) centered on the top eight search engine optimization techniques. Because I'm such a novice at both blogging and at business, I'm obviously going to be awestruck by a lot of articles out there, however the depth of the content covered in this article blew me away. I have definitely bookmarked this page and will be checking it out on a daily basis.

So, long story short, there really isn't much progress to report regarding the business. My business partner and I have narrowed down a list of names and are figuring out where we want to go with that. This weekend we are going to start work on a prototype site and continue work on the business plan. While I feel we've hit a bit of a rut lately, I'm confident that things will quickly pick up and we will be well on our way to finalizing a successful business.

Getting A New Perspective

2006-03-12T18:44:00.000-05:00

This weekend I took the advice of a comment left on one of my business blog's posts and I told a bunch of my friends and family about my business idea. Needless to say, it was one of the best things I have done as I've attempted to start my business; not only did I receive great questions and constructive criticism, but I also received several great business ideas that weren't even on my radar.

I thought (as probably most people who want to start a business do) that you should probably keep things close to the vest, sharing only minor details with those close to you. This weekend I learned that is probably the worst thing you can do, especially in the beginning stages of planning a business. While I'm sure it's a good idea to follow my Grandma's advice of, "make sure you don't give away ALL of your secrets," it's probably not a bad idea to share the basic premise of your business, your products, services and features, and why anybody would want to buy this from you.

By being willing to share your business ideas with, at the very least, those close to you, you are doing yourself and your future business a great favor; you're allowing people outside of your "business team" the opportunity to objectively look at your ideas and processes and offer a new and sometimes better perspective.

For example, today I shared my business idea with over ten relatives and ended up having a conversation that lasted close to two hours. We talked about the basic premise of my business, various features I expect to offer, pricing, who the customers would be, how we plan to market the product - pretty much anything that could have been brought up was!

In the end, I felt like I had solidified my business idea and product/service AND saw that I was missing out on several other markets where I could grow my business and several other businesses. So, instead of staying tight-lipped like I usually am, I opened up, shared my business and ended up with a bunch of great ideas that will make my product/service that much better.

Long story short, sharing your business idea with people that are close to you is probably the best thing you can do in the early stages of putting everything together.

Great Weather, Good News

2006-03-10T17:54:00.000-05:00

Well, after taking a day off from posting here on my business blog, I have some good news to share: WE HAVE A MISSION STATEMENT! Now all we have to do is settle on a business name and a domain name and then we're good to go.

Thankfully the weather yesterday evening was awesome, so I was able to sit out on deck, light some tiki torches and knock out some of the business plan, namely a large portion of the marketing section. The more involved I get in the process of starting to build a business the more excited I get. I can't believe I'm really attempting to start a business! And, I really think that what we're doing is going to be successful as well as help a lot of people.

Unfortunately, today I'm going to keep the business blog posting to a minimum. I'm going down to my business partner's house so we can enjoy the nice weather, grill, sit out on the deck and pretend that we know what we're getting ourselves into.

Back to the Drawing Board?

2006-03-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

Well, not everything went according to plan today. This morning when I woke up and reexamined my great mission statement, I noticed one problem: I hated it. I completely hated the final sentence, I wanted to change a bunch of the words and completely wanted to change the tone of the statement. Unfortunately for you, my business blog today is going to be a rant about my indecisiveness.

While driving into work this morning and while driving home this evening, I must have come up with about eight more mission statements, all of them seemingly better than what I had when I woke up this morning. About an hour after I got home, a funny thing happened - I looked at my original mission statement and fell back in love with it.

I think my problem (and what ultimately may end up being my downfall) is the fact that I love to over analyze things. Even when I have something that I know is pretty solid, I'll sit there and poke and prod until I find something that can be changed, even if it's only slightly.

Thankfully, this time it appears that I was able to come to my senses and quickly realize that the statement that I had originally come up with was a very good starting point and didn't need wholesale change, just a few tweaks.

So, now I guess my business partner and I can turn our attention to naming our business, so I can stop calling it "the business idea" and start calling it "the business." I'm sure we'll come up with a great idea, I'll sleep on it and wake up the next morning only to hate it.

On the optimistic side, I think we're only a day or two away from unveiling our business idea, name and mission statement.

Passing the Toughest Test of All

2006-03-07T21:12:00.000-05:00

It appears the four and a half hours I spent last night formulating my three sentence mission statement wasn't spent in vain. The "draft" of the statement has been reviewed and passed the most difficult test known to man - The Girlfriend Test.

When I posted my business blog last night I had what I thought to be a nearly complete mission statement. I had outlined the premise of my business idea, the products and services I plan to offer my customers and had mentioned the virtues and ethics that would set my business apart from any and all competitors. Another 15 or 20 minutes and I would have my final mission statement, right?

Wrong.

When I went to bed last night a little after 1:30 in the morning, I had a statement that hardly resembled the one I started with four hours earlier. After examining nearly every word, its placement, tense and everyone one of its synonyms, I finally was able to come up with a mission statement that made every word count, was radiant, flowed well and properly captured the spirit of my business idea.

So why was it that I was more nervous after finishing my statement than I was before the evening started? Now I finally had to share it with someone. With bated breath, I emailed the mission statement to my girlfriend, knowing that if she was able to find little or no fault with it, presenting the statement to my business partner would be a piece of cake. My girlfriend has always had a way with words (a skill that continues to elude me) so if she thought my statement was good, then it really was good.

Today, around lunch time, I gave her a call, knowing she had ample time to tear my previous night's work to shreds. When she picked up the phone, I don't think I even said hello, I just asked, "How was it?"

"It was really good. You used the right words in the right places and it'll make the readers feel your passion for both your business and for your customers."

That was all I needed to hear. Tomorrow I'm going to sit down with my business partner, go over the statement and hopefully have something to post along with the back-story behind the business. Then hopefully it will pass the tests of the court of public opinion.

But, for the time being, I'm happy to have passed the toughest test known to man - The Girlfriend Test.

The Mission Position - Formulating Our Mission Statement

2006-03-06T21:11:00.000-05:00

Our mission statement has to be the most intensive thing I've worked on so far, and for good reason. The mission statement is the very essence of why you are in business; it captures your business idea and puts your values and practices in print and in full public view for both you and your customers, so it's probably best to not mess it up. Thankfully, I was able to find several useful resources (both online and in print) that helped to minimize the amount of pain involved in the process of beginning to hammer out the actual statement.

The first book I used was Business Plans for Dummies by Paul Tiffany, PhD and Steven Peterson, PhD, which devoted roughly four pages to why you need a mission statement and how to go about formulating it. The main point this book tries to get across is that your mission statement needs to be to the point and easily understood. Dummies also recommends using the mission statement to capture the essence of your business in 50 words or less, which I think is a rather daunting task. However, they gave a couple examples of well known companies that were able to create quality mission statements with less than 50 words. Because I'm not exactly a wordsmith, I gave myself a bit of latitude and decided to limit myself to four sentences.

The second book I used was The Mission Statement Book by Jeffrey Abrahams, which lists "301 corporate mission statements from America's top companies." Thankfully, in looking through this book I was able to see that most companies don't limit themselves to 50 words and are still able to pull off good statements (that made me feel much better about my sentence limit). This was an interesting resource to see how diverse mission statements are; there really weren't a lot of similar statements. That being said, after reading 25 different statements, my eyes started to gloss over - 301 statements may be a bit much.

The third and final resource was the one I ultimately used to help me begin to write my mission statement. It came from Entrepreneur.com and gave a very helpful outline to formulate the mission statement, asking 10 questions about the purpose of the business, the customers you expect to serve and why they should use your product or service. The questions really made me reflect on my business ideas and my values and philosophies, which was kind of refreshing and reaffirmed why I'm doing what I'm doing (or at least attempting to do).

So, now I have the basic ideas and wording behind my mission statement, I just need to rearrange some things and change a couple of words to include more radiant and inspired words. And I swear, if I have to spend one more minute looking through the thesaurus for a more personable word for "customer" I think I'm going to just make up a word and hope that it catches on.

I think once I finally have a mission statement that I'm proud of, it will be time to unveil both the statement and the business idea it's supporting. Hopefully I can get it done tonight, but I'm running out of caffeine. Let's hope for some divine intervention.

You've Got To Crawl Before You Walk

2006-03-05T19:34:00.000-05:00

Overall, today was a pretty successful day for business idea (I can't call it "the business" quite yet as it's still not fully off the ground). However, the fact it was a successful day may be only because my basis for comparison is my procrastination plagued Saturday. Either way, at the very least I started to get a lot of important things out of the way.

Doug (my business partner) and I worked today for about three hours to start to hammer out some details for our business plan. We finally narrowed down a list of names, or pieces of it, for the business, came up with a working slogan, began to form our mission statement and listed all of the ideas for our mission statement. Come to think of it, we were able to get a lot accomplished.

While I was at the library I checked out a couple of books to help us finalize the tasks we worked on today - Names that Sell by Fred Barrett and a copy of The Mission Statement Book by Jeffrey Abrahams. Hopefully these two resources will help out the finishing touches on these two key issues regarding the business. I'll let you know if they were of any use.

While the weekend wasn't as successful and productive as I had intended, I think that the ball is finally rolling on getting the framework of the business plan and finally getting our business idea to be more than just an idea.

Business Plans = Getting Stuff Done Around The House?

2006-03-04T20:35:00.000-05:00

Well, so much for good intentions.

Last night I started reading Business Plans for Dummies with the intent of waking up early this morning to start to bang out my business plan. What it actually led to was a day action packed full of procrastination, although I ultimately ended up getting all of my laundry finished AND vacuumed the entire house. So, I guess the day wasn't an entire waste.

In all actuality, today wasn't completely wasted on non-business planning nonsense; I did get a little bit of work done and I got to write another post for my business blog! Today I spent a fair amount of time on the Small Business Administration web page to see what sort of resources they have. I found a couple of mock business plans, only one of which was much help, and that was only because it was for a web based business.

Alas, it's appearing more and more to me that I'm actually going to have to do some grunt work to get my business idea going. Who knew?!? If only I could get that initial burst of inertia!

After doing my manly chores around the house, I was able to get a hold of my "business partner" and we agreed to meet tomorrow (hopefully we'll go to the library so we can actually get work done). On that note, I'm going to go listen to my Coldplay CDs, play a game or two of Madden and enjoy my last night free of business planning, this business blog and my business ideas!

Starting A Business From Scratch

2006-03-04T08:27:00.000-05:00

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to own my own business. I don't really know why, but... actually, I know exactly why. When you look at the type of person who has generated the most wealth for themselves and their family, it's typically someone who has started and grown a business. Of course, I'd like to think that on some level I would be above worrying solely about the bottom line and could create a business that was not only financially viable but one that could really make a profound difference in the lives of my customers.

I think I may have found the way, too (more on that in another posting).

Anyway, for the past year or so, my friend and I have been kicking around ideas for things that we can do to start a business. They range from completely absurd business ideas (starting a gym where the out of shape members could vote out the in shape people) to the somewhat feasible, to something that I would be proud to call my own (again, more on that some other time).

Because his background is web development and my background is in finance, we've narrowed down our business ideas to stuff that are web-based so that he can work the technical and operating side of things and I can work the business side. Regardless, I'm sure you don't care much about the details, but I'm just trying to give some background.

About a month ago, my buddy and I went to a "Start Your Business" seminar put on by our the Loudoun Small Business Development Center and afterwards we sat down and finally decided what we were going to do (yep, tune in later folks). Good for us.

The following week, the Loudoun SBDC put on a "Web Marketing" seminar whose keynote speaker was Brian Chavis, founder of ARGroup, a well respected IT consulting firm in the Washington, DC area. Most of his seminar revolved around business blogs and how blogging is a great way it was to interact with people and to let them know about your business ideas and, ultimately, your products and services.

While I was sitting there, I knew that in order to help start a business and help it grow that I had to start some sort of business blog, I just didn't know what I should write about; I didn't want to have an infomercial online. Then it dawned on me, I would start a business blog where I would chronicle the painstaking process of starting a business from the ground up.

So, long story short, that's what I plan to do with this blog. I plan on detailing the steps (both good and bad) I take to finally get my business idea off the ground, hopefully with the intent of inspiring/helping others who share the same aspirations. Tonight I'm going to start to hammer out my business plan, which I'm sure will be the subject of many tirade filled posts. Hopefully you'll get just as much a kick of this as I will and, at the very least, I'll give you someone to point and laugh at.

Wish me luck; I'm going to need it.