Month: July 2007

Kiddy Entrepreneurs

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date July 21, 2007

Springwise: Umpqua, an Oregon-based bank, recently launched something similar. Their Lemonaire campaign is aimed at helping ‘really small entrepreneurs’ start their first business: a lemonade stand. After completing an application, children can pick up a free Umpqua Lemonade Starter Kit. The kits include cups, napkins, a sticker, table cover, small business guide (‘How to Become a Lemonaire’) and USD 10 start-up capital. No purchase necessary, but children must be under 13 to qualify.
Unlike Postbank’s Bizznizz, Umpqua’s Lemonaire is a temporary campaign, and the marketing aspect is key here. As quoted in the New York Times, a spokesperson for Umpqua explained: “We look for ways to hit people with a different mindset, and the lemonade stand is a perfect metaphor for what small business is about.” Time for other banks to follow Umpqua and Postbank’s lead, offering junior entrepreneurs the tools they need to earn and save? As long as children aren’t forced into labour, it’s a great way to teach them about business and money.
Facilitating kidpreneurs [Springwise]

Business Ideas

Freecycling

CNNMoney: Three pairs of women’s shoes. A box of record albums. Stereo equipment. A stovetop. A quill and ink bottle. A wicker basket. An acoustic guitar. A dehumidifier.
As I write, all those things and more are being offered for free on my local Freecycle Network. By the time you read this, they’ll be taken. As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
With more than 4,000 Freecycle networks operating in 75 countries, and with more than 3.5 million members signed up to give things away and take them, that’s lot of trash or treasure, all of it kept out of landfills.
The Freecycle Network is an amazing Internet phenomenon. In four years, it’s become one of the most effective environmental groups around. It’s also an example of how social networking – the connections between people made on such Web sites as MySpace and Facebook – can be used to address social and environmental problems.
The amazing Freecycle story [CNNMoney]

How-To Guides

How To Get More Customers

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date July 19, 2007

BusinessKnowHow: The good news and bad news about marketing is that price and results are not necessarily connected. You can pay the same price for poor results as you would for great results.
The difference is based on what you put into your marketing before you implement.
By planning your marketing well, you can put more quality into it and therefore, get better results out of it. Here is an easy and effective method to plan your marketing so you can see better results from your marketing without spending more money.
1) Understand your strengths. People buy from you because you do something for them no one else does. Understand this and you’ve taken the first step to better marketing.
2) Identify your customers (your target market). To promote your business you should focus on people who value what you do. Your strengths (or competitive advantages) will help you focus on who will most value your service or product.
3) Create a meaningful message. The key in successful marketing is to deliver the right message to the right people as often as your budget will allow. So, you need a message that tells your target market why they should do business with you. Your message should reflect your strengths because those are what you do best. And, your message should be in terms that your target market is interested in.
4) Deliver your message as often as your budget allows. Now you have to find and purchase the appropriate delivery vehicles (or media) for your marketing messages. Unless your budget is unlimited, you need to choose delivery vehicles that focus your message.
Four Easy Steps to Getting More Customers [BusinessKnowHow]

Technology

Best Tech Help

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date July 18, 2007

StartupJournal: Most small-business owners can’t afford consultants or an IT staff. For tech support, they draw on other resources: neighbors, friends, relatives — anyone they know who might have a handle on a tech issue they don’t understand.
But there are other sources that small businesses can turn to for reliable, inexpensive and even free tech support: online, government, and academics.
We interviewed technology experts about where to find the best help. We also asked small-business owners where they go to find the latest and most comprehensive tech information. In the process, we discovered not only what some consider to be the most helpful Web sites on tech matters for small businesses, but also government services that offer free consultations, and a business school whose students give free support to local companies facing network-security issues.
Where You Can Find Good, Cheap Tech Help [StartupJournal]

Technology

Tech Trends For Small Business

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date July 17, 2007

Small Business Trends: The latest installment of the Future of Small Business report is out. The Future of Small Business report outlines major trends affecting small businesses in the United States over the next ten years.
This latest installment of the report focuses on technology. It outlines three categories of technology trends that are shaping the face of small business.
On My Time, On My Terms — We will run our businesses increasingly “on my time” and “on my terms.” For instance, mobile devices will be used for more than just communications to let us talk and send text messages. Instead they will be tools that let us run our businesses at any hour, from anywhere. And we will also have access to a new wave of sophisticated analytic tools to help run our businesses — tools such as large corporations use today. The analytic tools will help us make decisions.
But instead of all this connectedness and technology meaning that we will be working around the clock, these tools put us more in control. We can leave the office at noon if we want to go play golf, and then put in two hours of work in the evening from home.
Global, Local, Virtual — The evolution of the Web makes it easier to start a business, operate it and innovate in it.
High-tech ceases being a hurdle, because it keeps getting cheaper and easier to use. In turn, that is spurring the formation of small and personal businesses.
At the same time, small business relationships will become increasingly virtual, as we develop relationships with customers, partners and suppliers beyond the local neighborhood to potentially anywhere in the world. Peer networks become more connected and become a much more important force in helping small business owners make decisions.
From “Push” to “Pull” — The small business marketing approach will shift from a “push” to “pull” mindset. In other words, customers take charge. Customers increasingly find the information they need to make buying decisions, rather than accepting what is pitched to them.
A Web presence will become the most important factor for small businesses to acquire customers. And a Web presence is not just a Web site but the totality of your online presence across a variety of places. And mobile phones will increasingly become an important part of marketing for small businesses.
Technology Trends and the Future of Small Business [Small Business Trends]