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10 Dos and Don’ts for Maximizing Supply Chain Efficiency

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:02:00 GMT

Ineffectively managing your supply chain can result in serious losses for your small business. It could cause you to lose money and customers for the following reasons: poor inventory management, a missed delivery date and/or fulfillment issues (the closing of a business transaction between the business and the customer and everything that happens in between). In order to protect your small business, here are some dos and don’ts for maximizing supply chain efficiency:

Dos

Do enlist other departments outside of procurement, such as engineering, operations, quality, accounting, in major supply chain management decisions.
Do consider sourcing locally, if your small business has a global reach. This is possible not only with food-based businesses but with any business that relies on locally made products. Just be sure that you research their reliability, quality control and production schedules.
Do be flexible with your schedule if you use local artisans and you may have to pay cash up front so that they can buy materials.
Do make a contingency plan for emergencies by engaging back-up suppliers who boast a quick turn-around.
Do practice accurate and detailed sales forecasting to ensure that your inventory costs are under tight control.

Don’ts

Don’t neglect your taxes or you may cut into your profits by as much as 25 percent. Hire a consultant who can help you sort it all out.
Don’t ignore your supply chain when it comes to sustainability. You don’t want to be impacted by environmental issues or human rights violations of your suppliers.
Don’t lose touch with your middlemen or brokers, particularly if you don’t have the budget for automated supply chain technology. Try to see these contacts in person periodically throughout the year and maintain regular phone and e-mail contact.
Don’t expect to find one software vendor for supply chain planning and supply chain execution. The most well-known vendors usually fall into one or the other category.
Don’t forget to assess risk at all points in the supply chain – this includes product and service providers, governments and local communities.

Supply chain management may not be the most exciting part of your small business. However, it can have a significant and far-reaching impact on thequality of your products, the reliability of your deliveries and the ultimate success of your company.

The Small Business Case For Offering Health Benefits.

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:16:52 GMT

by Reed Richardson.

Ask almost any small business owner about health insurance costs and they’re likely to tell you the same thing. Were Ben Franklin around today, he would have to amend his famous quote “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” to include one more inevitable fact of life: health insurance premium increases.

Indeed, the recent figures can be eye-watering. Between 2001 and 2011, health premiums increased 113 percent across all business sizes in the United States, according to a recent Employer Health Benefits study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And on average, health care premiums now run to $15,073 per year, nearly $11,000 of which is covered by the employer. So, it’s perhaps no surprise that health benefit participation rates dropped dramatically among the smallest businesses over that same 10-year period, from 58 percent to 48 percent.

All of which begs the question: Facing such rising costs, why would any small business still offer health care to its employees?

There’s more than just one affirmative answer to this question, however, so, below, we’ve broken out three good business reasons an entrepreneur would want to provide health benefits to his or her employees.

1. Health benefits help in recruiting good talent

One of the biggest challenges facing any small business is attracting quality employees. But for many job candidates, a company that doesn’t offer health benefits becomes an untenable option.

A recent HealthPass survey of small business owners in New York state discovered that most small business owners acknowledge this fact. It found that three out of four of those surveyed—including 65 percent of those who don’t provide insurance—agreed that offering health care benefits helps attract quality employees.

“Small business owners are in a Catch-22,” explained Sure Payroll President Michael Alter in a recent survey. “Even though it is increasingly difficult to offer healthcare benefits, a company that offers little or no healthcare benefits is likely to put up an instant red flag for potential talent.”

And the results from that SurePayroll survey bear this out. In it, 20 percent of the small business owners surveyed said they could recall at least one instance when a prospective hire refused a job offer because of a lack of healthcare benefits.

2. Health benefits build stronger loyalty in current employees

Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor, Michigan knows all about the rising cost of health care premiums. Since 1999, he says the premium payments for his company’s 12 employees have risen more than 300 percent. Yet, he remains committed to keeping health benefits as well as paying a majority—75 percent—of the premiums for his employees.

“We’re a 100-year-old downtown business,” he says. “We’re able to compete with the big box stores thanks to having a knowledgeable and stable workforce. But you don’t keep better people if they’re afraid they might lose the equity in their house during a bad weekend at the emergency room.”

In fact, a March 2011 Met Life Employee Benefits survey found that many employers underestimate the correlation between employee loyalty and health benefits. It noted that, for 60% of employees, company benefits were “an important reason why I remain with my employer.” (Forty percent of the survey’s respondents worked at companies with fewer than 50 employees.) What’s more, 74 percent of all employees said health benefits, in particular, were an extremely important factor in maintaining their company loyalty; that figure was a mere five percentage points behind the top reason, salary/wages.

3. Health benefits make employees and, in turn, employers more productive

In a way, it makes intuitive sense. If workers have better access to a health plan, like one offered where they work, they’re more likely to get the care they need and avoid prolonged job absences that can arise from neglected health issues.

“[R]research shows that companies with successful [health and productivity] programs are linked to improved business outcomes, including reductions in lost time, improved employee effectiveness, lower medical trends and, ultimately, superior financial returns.” That’s according to a 2009/2010 TowersWatson report that studied health benefits programs at larger companies. In the study’s findings, companies with the most effective health and productivity programs achieved 11 percent more revenue per employee, delivered 28 percent higher shareholder returns and had lower medical trends and fewer absences per employee.

Although Fortune 500 behemoths like Dow Chemical aren’t at risk of being put out of business because of a few years of rising health premiums, they nonetheless watch their costs just as closely as a small company does. So, the possibility of improving employee health while boosting the business’s bottom line makes a robust commitment to health benefits a wise long-term investment, according to Gary Billotti, Dow’s leader for health and human performance.

“We truly focus on efforts that will improve health outcomes, realizing fully that these will then lead to the economic benefits of both reduced health care costs and improved employee engagement and performance,” Billotti explained in the TowersWatson report. “Our efforts are felt at the individual level as well as at the operational and corporate level.”

And in the end, that potential combination of taking care of both employee and business—doing good while also doing well, as it were—may be the most compelling reason of all for offering health benefits.

5 Ways to Find a Mentor

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:22:00 GMT

I would venture to say that we have all had an influential mentor at one time or another. It might have been a teacher who inspired you or a colleague who guided you, but whatever the case, you were fortunate to have the right someone at the right time.

Yes, mentors can make a difference but the funny thing about them is that, typically, they show up when they show up. You don’t normally get to choose when a mentor relationship becomes available. All too often, finding a mentor when you actually want one is not so easy.

But it can be done. And it should be done.

Having a business mentor is one of the best ways to get ahead. He or she can open doors, teach skills and give valuable feedback. There’s no doubt that is a good deal for you. But it is often equally, if not more, satisfying for the mentor as he or she can watch his or her guidance make a difference. It is a chance to give back.

So how do you actually go about finding a mentor when you want one? Here are a few ways:

Ask: Finding a mentor is sometimes the result of simply having the chutzpah to ask someone whom you admire if they would be willing to mentor and work with you. Or, just tell people that you are looking for a mentor. You may be surprised at how willing people are to help. Speak with business associates, friends, relatives, other entrepreneurs, your place of worship or even with online communities.

Look: These days, there are all sorts of organizations to help you hook up with a mentor. Many of these are government sponsored. Here are your best bets:

SCORE: SCORE
SBDCs: Small Business Development Centers
Women Centers: Women’s Business Centers NAWBO) is another smart place to look.
Minority Business Development Agencies Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.
If you are looking for government contracting opportunities, the GSA has a good mentor/protégé program

Call: Your trade organization may have a mentor-mentee program that you can tap.

Pay: If you know someone who knows what you want to learn but who probably would be disinclined to be your mentor, for whatever reason, consider buying their time. Is it ideal? No, but it may still work. For instance, what about approaching that person and offering a fee for a few days of consultation and six months of telephone follow up? Explain that you think he or she could help you get your business of the ground that you respect his/her time and are therefore willing to pay for it. You may be surprised by the response. Especially if you are not in a competing business, you may suddenly find yourself with the best mentor that money can buy.

Discover: Just what are you looking for in a mentor? Here are a few things to consider:

You want someone who shares your vision for your business: It would be a frustrating experience to be mentored by someone who is not on the same page as you.

You want someone who has time: Landing that big fish mentor is worthless if the mentor does not really have the time to help you.

You want someone whom you respect: This means that they have values similar to yours and a track record of success.

You want someone who has connections: A mentor can provide many things and one of them should be the ability to open some new business doors.

The Power of the Crowd: Is crowdsourcing right for your small business?

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:02:00 GMT

You may think you know the definition of crowdsourcing, but there are a lot of interpretations to its meaning.

In the words of Northwestern University professor Jeff Howe, who coined the term, crowdsourcing is “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.”

Regardless of how you define it, there is an argument to be made that crowdsourcing is a particularly good match for small businesses. Here’s why:

Venture capital firms are generally supportive of the concept as it allows the companies they fund to lower operating expenses.
It provides access to a pool of experienced and creative talent that might otherwise be inaccessible to a small business.
The concept of user feedback on product design and branding is already an accepted dynamic in the social media-driven world currently embraced by many small businesses and their customers.
Small businesses may have smaller tasks that need to be solved and they will get a broader spectrum of crowd-sourced solutions.

If you’ve never considered crowdsourcing, there are a multiple of websites dedicated to it and particularly useful to small businesses. Innocentive is a forum where “solvers” compete to devise a solution to a small business’s problem, usually a technical one. Ideaken is a software platform that facilitates collaboration between enterprises and individuals. Whinot is a consulting firm dedicated to providing crowd-sourced technical solutions to small businesses. crowdSPRING is a crowd-sourced marketplace for graphic design and writing services. There are many more crowdsourcing websites including: GeniusRocket, 99 designs, LogoTournament, Minted and Poptent, just to name a few.

If you are considering venturing into crowdsourcing, there are few rules of engagement to consider:

Don’t skimp on information. Describe the project and target audience in detail.
If you have specific pet peeves or favorite colors, spell them out in your project description.
If you’re crowdsourcing creative work, such as a logo design, take steps to ensure the design is original before contracting to use it.
If you’re running a contest, think carefully about the dollar amount of the reward. You’re already saving significantly so let the reward fit the effort.
Don’t forget that, in addition to the financial incentive, many participants in crowdsourcing are motivated by constructive feedback and publicity.

You can start with a non-strategic project, such as how to configure your phone system. Or, you can get input from the “crowd” on something as significant as your company name. Whether you’ve thought about crowdsourcing for a while or are considering it now for the first time, there are very few barriers to jumping into the mix. Have you ever used crowdsourcing? Share your experiences or recommendations with the SBOC community below.

The Discipline Story: How to handle difficult employees

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:02:00 GMT

It is normal for workplace issues to arise amongst colleagues – after all most Americans spend more time at work than any place else. When employees are having difficulty getting along with each other, or when they are having performance problems, small business owners may question how to handle the issues at hand.

Companies of all sizes must manage employees that turn out to have difficult personality traits, are a poor fit for their current role or have trouble working with others. Unless the employee has broken the law, behaved unethically or is grossly incompetent, the goal in most cases should be to help them stay with the company. Terminating employees can often be a long process and often a painful one.

Driven to Distraction

If you have an employee who has suddenly changed from being a valued, trusted worker to disengaged or disgruntled, there may be something going on in the employee’s personal life. When you sit down to talk with the employee, remember that the goal is not to get him or her to confess personal problems. You want to make the employee aware that you have noticed the change in his or her behavior and that you’d like to help the employee get back on track.

Prior to this conversation, you want to garner as much information as you can that showcases the contrast between the employee’s historical job performance and their current one. For example, you may want to speak to his or her direct supervisor, review quality and error rates, look at attendance records and gather recent e-mail correspondence that may speak to a change in attitude. Hopefully, with your help and support, the employee can work on shifting their behavior and mindset in a more positive direction.

The Attitude Problem

Some employees just don’t realize how they come across to others when they are condescending, blunt, offensive or self-aggrandizing. Working with this type of personality can cause a decline in team morale, derail a project or make everyone else’s job more difficult.

If you are faced with disciplining an employee for a negative attitude, there are several steps you can take. One option is to present the problem to the employee using the SBI model – this is a way that sheds light on the situation at hand – what the situation is, how different behaviors factor into the outcome and its impact on fellow employees. Be sure to criticize the behavior, not the person. Make it clear that the offending behavior is a problem because of its impact on company productivity. If the employee wasn’t aware of the impact of his or her behavior on workmates, he or she just might make a change.

The Bad Fit

Sometimes you will find that you’ve hired a bright, hard-working employee who just isn’t in the right job. Remember that a performance deficiency is not the same thing as insubordination or misconduct. Therefore, the right solution might be coaching. Keep in mind, this approach will likely require patience by the small business owner, and other employees.

If you’re unsure about whether the employee can gain competence in his or her role, you may have to make the tougher decision to terminate employment. However, before you do that, conduct a formal performance review and analyze the employee’s strengths and weaknesses to determine if there might be a better fit elsewhere in the company.

If an employee has been valuable to your small business, don’t ignore the difficult behavior or immediately write them off. Look for a way to resolve the issues. At the end of the day, it’s usually better to find a way to work with an employee – even a difficult one – than to go through the time- and cost-intensive process of recruiting and training a new one.

Learning from Failure: 3 Remarkable Business Mistakes

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:27:11 GMT

What small businesses can learn from four notable Big Business ‘mistakes’.

by Reed Richardson.

For many entrepreneurs, the notion of making even a small mistake often sends a chill down their spines. That fear of failure can be a powerful motivator, but if in the pursuit of avoiding such a mistake it breeds hidebound thinking and paralysis, it can create even bigger problems.

“Success in a business career—any career, really—doesn’t happen because everything falls into place,” notes author Bob Sellers in his book “Forbes Best Business Mistakes.” “There’s virtually no activity, athletic or otherwise, in which trial and error doesn’t play a role. Why would a business career be any different?”

In the world of Big Business, this inherent messiness sometimes translates into Big Mistakes. But even some of the most notable corporate screw-ups have a surprising upside and can provide an important lesson to small business owners.

Mistake: The Apple - Steve Jobs breakup

Less that a year after high-flying Apple debuted its Macintosh personal computer in a now infamous 1984 Super Bowl ad, the company found itself locked in an ongoing internal battle. Its co-founder, Steve Jobs, had effectively created a splinter group within the company—to the point of flying a pirate flag atop a separate building—and his personality was clashing with newly hired CEO John Sculley. Amidst pressure from lagging Mac sales, Apple’s board chose to bet the company’s future on the experienced manager Sculley rather than its chief visionary, effectively firing Jobs in 1985.

That fateful decision would soon send an idea-starved company on a 10-year downward spiral, one where it continually lost market share until it reached the brink of bankruptcy. Only after Apple acquired Jobs’ follow-on computer venture, NeXT, and tapped him to retake the helm as CEO did the company’s fortunes rebound.

“I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” Jobs said in a 2005 Stanford commencement speech. “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter into one of the most creative periods of my life.”

For Apple, the break-up turned out to have an upside as well. Having been pushed to the edge of failure, the company welcomed the return of its prodigal son Jobs, whose embrace of the entrepreneurial spirit turned the once moribund company into what is now a top global brand.

Small Business Lessons: First, don’t let any member of your venture, even a founder, continually sow dissension amongst the ranks—it creates a corrosive atmosphere that will eventually undermine any chance for success. Second, remember that good executives are far easier to replace than brilliant designers and engineers.. And third, be willing to put ego and pride aside for the long-term sake of your company, even if that means bringing back someone you thought you no longer needed but now realize you do.

Mistake: Coke’s messing with a century of success

In the pantheon of boneheaded business moves, Coca-Cola’s decision to abandon its best-selling, 99-year-old soda formula often ranks among the top. Bowing to focus groups that preferred the sweeter-tasting Pepsi in sip tests, Coke rolled out a sweeter “New Coke” in the spring of 1985 to near universal antagonism from customers. Within weeks, the company saw its market share plunge and its chief rival, Pepsi, take a public relations victory lap. As summer approached, a desperate Coca-Cola caved to customer appeals and re-issued the old formula as “Coke Classic.”

That’s usually the end of the story one hears, but there’s more to it. What was undeniably a strategic miss of epic proportions actually paid numerous dividends within a few months. With two products now bearing the Coke name in the market, Coca-Cola rebounded quickly, so much so that sales and profits from all operations actually rose 10 and 9 percent, respectively, for the entire year. What’s more, by listening to the consumer’s overwhelming response and reacting rather nimbly for a worldwide corporation (“old Coke” was only off the shelves for 11 weeks), the company rewarded its customer’s loyalty.

“Yes, [New Coke] infuriated the public, cost a ton of money,” acknowledged former Coca-Cola marketing executive Sergio Zyman in the late 1990s. “Still, New Coke was a success because it revitalized the brand and reattached the public to Coke.” In fact, after it returned original formula Coke to the market, the company experienced a near decade-long run of ever-increasing market share. And because Coca-Cola made a point not to fire or demote anyone associated the New Coke decision, former Pepsi CEO Roger Enrico later admitted that the way the company stood by its employees through the crisis paved the way for future brand broadening efforts, like the top-selling Diet Coke.

Small Business Lessons: Number one, don’t overlook the many different ways your customers may relate to your product. Coke’s reformulation decision was framed entirely around one of taste, so it missed the powerful emotional relationship its customers had with the brand. Next, be open to “third way” solutions. Rather than just drop New Coke and go back to the old formula, Coca-Cola chose to sell both, which rejuvenated sales even quicker. Finally, don’t sacrifice tomorrow’s next great idea by harshly punishing those responsible for today’s lousy one. Though it easily could have tossed numerous executives overboard, Coke sent a message to its employees that risk-taking was acceptable and it has since reaped the benefits.

Mistake: Amazon’s ominous repossession of its customers’ content

In the summer of 2009, Amazon realized that it had been selling certain novels to its Kindle e-reader customers illegally, because the publisher had failed to properly acquire the rights. Faced with the prospect of having sold intellectually purloined material, Amazon decided to refund its customers and remotely delete the content. Unnerved by the company’s unilateral action, a public relations uproar ensued with customers claiming their privacy and trust had been violated. (In addition, Amazon appeared to have violated its own Kindle license agreement, which grants customers the right to a “permanent copy” when they buy and download digital content.) And there was also the too-good-to-be-true ironic twist: one of the books in question was 1984, George Orwell’s dystopian novel about life in totalitarian society ruled by an all-powerful Big Brother.

Making matters worse, Amazon responded to the initial outcry with a vague press release sprinkled with legalese. So, six days after the incident, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos finally addressed the situation on a post at a company-hosted bulletin board.

“This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle,” wrote Bezos. “Our ‘solution’ to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.”

As far as corporate apologies go, Bezos’ was bracingly honest and forthright in its ownership of the mistake. By speaking plainly and avoiding the passive tone, he sent a clear message that the company had erred and, more importantly, that it had realized and accepted that it had erred. For Kindle customers concerned about further encroachments by Amazon into their personal devices, his straightforward (albeit somewhat tardy) mea culpa was welcome news and went a long way toward repairing any damage the brand had sustained.

Small Business Lessons: While it goes without saying a company should never violate the letter of the law when it come to its own user agreements with its customers, it’s also worth pointing out the potential damage from violating the spirit of those contracts. Amazon learned this hard way and re-affirmed the old-fashioned notion that two wrongs don’t make a right. But Bezos once again proved that customers are forgiving if they feel that a company has genuinely accepted responsibility for a mistake and is taking legitimate steps to preventing it in the future.

8 Ways to Market on a Shoestring

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:00:46 GMT

The dirty little secret about entrepreneurship is that most people who start a business had no idea what they were doing when they began – myself included. Oh sure, they may have read some books and articles, gone to seminars, or maybe have even written a business plan. But actually knowing what to expect, what slings and arrows would come their way – no.

The good news about that, as one intrepid entrepreneur once told me, is that you don’t know what you don’t know. That is – you don’t know enough to be scared or timid. The bad news is that there inevitably will be a steep learning curve as mistakes are made.

One mistake I see often has to do with marketing. People usually start a business because they find something they love and want to do that every day, for example a gardener buying a nursery. But because someone knows how to grow orchids does not mean that they know how to grow a business.

Indeed, most small businesses discover one or two marketing ideas, use them, then beat them to death, and wonder why they are not getting any new customers. The reason it doesn’t work is simple: By doing the same old thing again and again, the same people see your business. If you mix it up and try something new, different people will discover you are out there and your business will grow. Here are some inexpensive and easy ways to implement marketing ideas that you can use. Let me suggest that you test several (maybe four or five) and then roll out two or three of the most promising:

Click here to read more articles from small business expert Steve Strauss.

1. Email marketing: The idea is not to send out spam, but rather, individualized email offers to targeted individuals. Email marketing is the 21st century equivalent of direct mail. Create a list via a search or other means, create a snappy email offer and send it out. Maybe you will send it to members of your local chamber of commerce, or all the lawyers in town. It doesn't matter; what matters is that you can get in front of new potential customers at almost no cost.

2. Create an e-newsletter: If you don’t have an e-newsletter, then it’s time to hop on the bandwagon. E-newsletters are popular for a reason – they work. By offering interesting content (and a few specials) you can get people to agree to let you regularly contact them. Best of all, it costs nothing but your time.

3. E-newsletter advertising: What about this cool, affordable trick – find some e-newsletters that you like, and think would appeal to your type of customer, and advertise in them. It won’t cost much because the circulation numbers, especially in comparison to traditional advertising, will be small, but it will be highly targeted to your target market. Even better, as with any e-newsletter, the recipients want to receive the periodical.

4. Pay-per-click: As with e-newsletter advertising, the beauty of PPC ads is that you only pay for qualified leads – people who like your ad enough to click on it. Use PPC on Google, Facebook, Yahoo, MSN, etc.

5. Search Engine Optimization: Why even pay for a click when you can get one for free? SEO is the way. Yes, SEO takes a bit of time to learn, but it pays enormous dividends.

6. Overnight radio: Drive-time radio spots on a big station can cost upwards of $500 a minute. However, if you advertise on that same station overnight, while the numbers are of course much smaller, the costs are likely to be significantly less, potentially as low as $10 a spot.

7. Co-op advertising: My dad used to have a giant billboard on the San Diego freeway in Los Angeles that said “Carpet World . . . Elegance Underfoot.” In the corner it also said “featuring Ban-Lon Carpets.” Ban-Lon paid for about 80 percent of that advertisement. This is a perfect example of co-op advertising. If you have a wholesaler or distributor with whom you work, see if they offer co-op funds. Mention their product in your advertisement (online, in print, or over the air) and they will pick up a good portion of the costs.

8. Social media: Engaging in social media, if done right, can create new relationships and extend your brand and again, requires little of your time.

Okay, you get the idea. By expanding your options and marketing more with inexpensive, shoestring options, you can grow your business in any economy. If you want to learn even more about different ways to market your small business, you can watch this video.

About Steve Strauss

Steve Strauss is one of the world’s leading small business experts. The senior small business columnist for USA Today, his Ask an Expert column is one of the most highly-syndicated business columns in the country. Steve is also the author of the Small Business Bible and his latest book is Get Your Business Funded: Creative Methods for Getting the Money You Need. A popular media guest, Steve is a regular contributor to ABC News Now and frequently appears on television and radio. His business, The Strauss Group, creates unique, actionable, entertaining, and informative multi-media small business content.

5 tips for a Successful Small Business Blog

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:02:00 GMT

Many small business owners are already well versed in writing and managing a blog. Others are just getting started. No matter your level of experience, it’s important to remember blogs can be more informal than traditional business correspondence. Here are some key guidelines to writing a blog post:

Be concise. Once you’ve written your first draft, start cutting words. After you’re done, continue to edit your post. Eliminate extra adjectives or explanatory clauses. Blogs are often as short as 250 words, and they should rarely be more than 700 words. Most readers will skip an article that long.

Use keywords in your post. One of the most important aspects of your blog post is the headline –it should contain some key search terms that your customers may enter into a web browser. And, without a doubt, it should have something to do with the content that follows. You should also include key search terms throughout the post. Questions, or intriguing statements, can also be very effective in attracting readers.

Subsequent paragraphs should only be three or four sentences. Use subheads and photographs to break up the text.

Write like you speak. The voice you use within your blog should be similar to the way you speak. You’re trying to engage your audience, so there’s no reason you can’t be lighthearted and creative in your topic, just as you would be in person or on the phone. Avoid copying another well-known blogger.

Be courageous in the opinions you state. Don’t use “I think” or “it might be true” or “one could argue.” Such phrases are not powerful and lack authority. Take a stand and support your argument. Don’t be afraid to shake things up a little.

Stay engaged with your readers. Finally, your writing responsibilities do not end once you post your blog, pay careful attention to the “comments" section. Communicate openly with your readers, to encourage dialogue. Bee receptive to any feedback they may provide.

At the end of the day, a well-written, engaging blog will keep your readers coming back. And readers can easily turn into customers. Share your thoughts and best practices on blogging with the SBOC community below.

You’ve hired interns. Now what do you do with them?

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:02:00 GMT

According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), nearly 50% of employers would like to see an internship on a student’s resume. Following up on a previous article about identifying an intern for your small business, here are some guidelines on how to manage interns once you’ve brought them on board.

If you’ve found an intern who has some background in your industry, there’s no reason to pigeonhole them into the most obvious position based on their work or college experience. For example, if the intern is a marketing major, you might want to give them some exposure to operations. Or, if the intern is a writer who works best independently, it could be educational to have them participate in meetings and brainstorming sessions. Either way, try to give your interns a variety of experiences.

Whether the intern is working in or out of his or her comfort zone, it’s important to allot enough time to train and advise them. In fact, assigning a point person or a mentor can strengthen your intern’s first professional experience. To further enrich the internship, spend some time planning projects for the interns before they come on board, rather than throwing ad hoc assignments at them.

When it comes to aspects of your business related to social media, you may find that your interns bring fresh insights that you may not have considered. Many young people are well versed in the subtleties of social networks ranging from mainstream outlets like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to lesser-known ones such as Pinterest and Tumblr. Some Internet-savvy interns may even be able to take it a step farther and handle tasks such as writing for your company blog or e-newsletter.

You might also want to consider creating a special project for the intern, such as a marketing campaign for a new service or a rollout plan for a new product. If you have any pro bono clients, assigning interns to spearhead the project can give them valuable leadership skills and more “real world” experience.

Finally, don’t feel like you have to reinvent your internship program year after year. You can have current interns play a role in training new ones, either by writing up guidelines, videotaping a procedure or contributing to an intern manual. Also, ask for feedback on the intern program during and at the conclusion of their time with your company.

Fortunately, as a small business owner, you may be better equipped to manage interns than a large company would be. Your agility can allow you to offer your interns a wide variety of experiences while also providing more guidance and structure in comparison in a larger company. What types of programs/work do you typically assign interns? Share your recommendations with the SBOC community below.

Staying On Message: How to Ensure Your Marketing Channels Speak as One

updates@sbcommunity.bankofamerica.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:36:44 GMT

by Sherron Lumley.

Who, exactly, are you? Amidst a veritable sea of sales pitches that consumers must navigate daily, that’s the essential question they are trying to answer when it comes to your small business. But if your company’s message is muddied or constantly shifting, connecting with potential customers in a way that reinforces trust and credibility becomes difficult, if not impossible.

“The world has changed,” says Sander Flaum, former chairman of Euro RSCG, one of the world’s largest advertising firms. “The whole concept has to be a unified one, because you look like an idiot otherwise. The marketing message has to be consistent. You can’t have one message for one channel and a different message for another channel.”

Staying on message means articulating a single passion or vision across all of the different platforms that your small business uses to advertise or promote itself—everything from Facebook to the phone book, from the graphics on your homepage to the signage on your front door. Keeping the content and appearance of your message consistent builds awareness, reinforces credibility, and fosters customer loyalty, while enabling you to reach multiple target audiences through the medium and style that they each prefer.

Many digital channels, one human voice.

Photographer and small business owner David Lutz, of Portland, Oregon, recently started promoting his events on Facebook. As one of the top commercial photographers in the Northwest, he understands the value of local marketing, but he also wants to position his business at the cutting edge and push it into larger markets. “Large companies have the resources,” he says, “but how does a smaller business do it?”

According to a recent social media survey from Social Strategy1 and Office Arrow, nearly nine out of 10 small business owners recognize social media does or will impact their ventures, yet half still say there’s too much social media to manage. Additionally, 44 percent of small business owners are concerned that social media can feed an “information overload,” and negatively impact a business’s image. While these fears aren’t completely unfounded, social media remains a powerful way to bundle and multiply the effectiveness of a small business’s integrated marketing strategy.

To marshal his marketing forces and keep his message consistent, Lutz’s company website, blog, and Facebook pages are all linked. He also has the ability to simultaneously post to Twitter and LinkedIn, making communicating that single message via all of these channels as simple as posting to one.

And as social media giants like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook have struck deals and formed partnerships, communication between the different applications and platforms has gotten even easier for users. (For a quick and easy how-to, check out Mashable’s articles on syncing social media, such as this one: “Twitter to Facebook, Five Ways to Post to Both.”)

Whereas Lutz’s previous methods of reaching customers mostly included art shows, galleries, and direct mailing, he says his new marketing focus is mostly digital, with an emphasis on his website, online store, and PDF versions of his catalog. “My goal with all of the social media is to drive people to my website home page, from where I get business,” he says. And while his Facebook page lets him showcase frequent photo updates, his business’s website is more content-rich, with consistent images.

Match your message to your market

“Your marketing and PR is meant to be the beginning of a relationship with buyers, and to drive action such as generating sales leads,” says market strategist David Scott. Here’s the rule: “When you write, start with your buyers, not with your product.”

Ernie Valdez, of Ernie’s Paint and Body Shop, in San Marcos, Texas, says with a wide range of customers from ages 16 to 80, his company’s slogan, “Just take it to Ernie’s,” works well because it solves a problem. Rather than selling any particular product or service, Valdez likes the idea of giving the customer a simple, reassuring answer to an age-old question: “How will I get my car fixed?”

For years Ernie’s advertising has included occasional TV commercials, billboards at the nearby college stadium, and local little league sponsorships. Now, with an increasingly saturated market, Ernie’s is expanding its marketing channels by adding an online component, highlighting its 25-year history and expertise on the company website, while also positioning the company as a trusted cornerstone of the community.

This tactic of sharing with the world your business’s expertise and developing messages that your buyers want to hear is a wise move, says Scott. Small businesses gain credibility and loyalty with buyers through content, he adds, so smart marketers will deliver messages targeted directly at their audience. When the message and image are consistent, such as with Ernie’s, the reward is a loyal customer base.

In marketing, it pays to sweat the small stuff

Consistent marketing also involves choosing psychographic symbols that trigger a repetitive recognition in the customer. These brand standards can encompass something as small as an email signature or as broad as a musical melody (think Intel’s distinctive “bum-bum, bum-BUM”). The four most important elements are: logo placement and sizing, consistent graphic symbols and shapes, specific font styles, and, finally, color, which is perhaps most important because of its link to memory retrieval and emotions (think red for Coca-Cola and brown for UPS.) A good starting point for finding a cohesive color palette is Color Scheme Designer, a free online tool used by graphic design professionals.

Once the brand standards and marketing message are set, some companies stand by them forever, but they don’t have to be etched in stone. “When a company begins to lose market share, this is when it’s time to change the message,” says Flaum. As a cautionary tale of strategy and marketing gone awry, Flaum cites one of the world’s top brands: Ford. After losing market share and dropping from the 30^th to 41^st most valuable brand in 2007, he notes that Ford acted quickly to refocus its operations and simplify its image—killing off its underperforming mid-range brand Mercury and selling off its expensive, luxury marques Range Rover and Jaguar.

Nowadays, a small business may reach its customers through a retail store, a website, social media, direct mail, email, or even text message and online chat, making it possible to tap multiple market segments and socio-economic groups of consumers. However, to build the trust and loyalty essential to strong customer relationships and long-term success, all of those various marketing channels must speak with a unified voice, so the customer can answer that key question “Who are you?”