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StartupNation President Shines Spotlight on the Home Based Business

Have you heard about the StartupNation contest to recognize the Top 100 Home Based Business Owners? 

The contest is easy to enter - you just have to own a home based business, spend a few minutes writing about what you do and who you help and then spread the word.  I entered the contest about two weeks ago and have used Linked In, my opt-in email address list and contact lists from the organizations I participate in to get the word out "VOTE FOR ME!"  (And I emailed my folks).

The idea is to turn the spotlight on one of the fastest growing business segments in

America- the home based business owner.  There are ten categories - from financial to yummiest and voting takes place through September 30. 

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with StartupNation's founder, Rich Sloan about the contest and home based businesses and this is what he had to say:

Rich, as the founder of StartupNation, what inspired you to create this online resource for home based businesses? 

I know what it's like running a business from home. Did it for over 8 years in a windowless basement. We know that home-based entrepreneurs are often overlooked as a sector of the business marketplace and we wanted to change that. The StartupNation Home-Based 100 is our way of celebrating the achievements and fascinating endeavors of the people behind the best of America's 19 million home-based businesses.

As more traditional marketing is being replaced or supplemented with e-marketing strategies are you seeing an increase in web marketing home based businesses?

 Web marketing is white hot! The web is where the future is, at least in part, for every business in existence. I truly believe that. And anyone good at offering marketing assistance to maximize the power and punch of the web is sittin' pretty!

What role is social media playing in helping home based businesses connect with prospects?

 Social media connects you to customers, collaborators, sources of inspiration, and chips away at those feelings of isolation that plague many a home-based business warrior.

Emily Borders (SuN associate from whom I first learned of the contest via Twitter) shared a fact that home based businesses aren't getting the same media play (i.e. INC 500 businesses) as other start ups.  What do you recommend owners of home based businesses do to create media buzz for their business? 

 First and foremost, home-based entrepreneurs need to start looking at themselves as the smart, savvy, cut-above people that they mostly are. No more casting your gaze to the ground in the midst of bigger players or brick-and-mortar businesses. This is a new era in which it's actually smarter and preferred to run a business from home. Second, leverage the colorful aspects of what you do to appeal to the media. Thirdly, position yourself as an authority in your field and let the media and trade associations know you're standing by. Lastly, be remarkable. Stealing this from Seth Godin, but it's so true. Do something that's special, memorable, that goes an extra mile and converts people from bystanders into believers. If you can wow them, they'll end up being your buzz machine.

What benefits have you seen for prior winners of the Top 100 contest? 

·         Being named a winner put my business on the map.

·         I'm taking orders from every state in the country, I can't believe it!

·         My phone is ringing and emails are streaming in at the same time.

·         I've started franchising my business.

·         We've grown over 550% since being named a winner, in spite of the recession.

·         We grew so much, we were forced to get a brick-and-mortar office.

 Those are significant benefits!  Keep your fingers crossed for me (better yet, vote - see the box on the left?) and good luck to all of the participants.  Thanks so much for your time, Rich, and most importantly, thanks for the recognition of home based businesses and the contribution they make.

 

Start Up Nation Contest for Home Based Business Owners

I recently learned about a contest for home based business owners sponsored by Start Up Nation.  How did I hear about it?  TWITTER!  Yep, that silly little social networking vehicle with the funny name is proving to be a valuable source of information.

This morning I was having coffee with the Akron Bloggers and Ron McDaniel of Buzzoodle marketing said that he'd read where the number one way to connect online is still though an opt-in email list but number two is TWITTER!

Sure enough, it was through a "tweet" left by Emily Borders that I learned about the contest.  It's free and easy.  Just select your business category, upload a photo and write a brief description about your business and why you should win.  Friends, customers and online followers can vote every day (just once a day) for you!  One hundred small business owners will win.

The categories are fun:

Most glamorous
Slacker-friendly
Baby boomers back in business
Most YUMMY
and several more.

So give it a visit and while you are there I hope you'll consider voting for me!  See the VOTE button in the upper left corner of this blog.

Using YouTube to Create Internet Fame

The Jonas Brothers are on the cover of Rolling Stones magazine this month.  I was surprised a "boy band" made the cover but because my daughter is a huge fan - we read the article together.  It was interesting to learn that it was the youngest, Nick (now 15) who is the leader of the band and was the first to begin a musical career for himself, being discovered while singing outside a beauty salon while his mom had her hair styled.

If it seems as though they went from unknown to overnight success - you aren't far off the mark.  Although once hooked in with Disney - that behemouth took over their branding and marketing, but it was the use of YouTube that has helped the Jonas Bros connect with their target audience.

From the article we learn:

"The secret ingredient of the Jonas Brothers phenomenon?  Oversharing.  They may wear skinny jeans and narrow ties, but the boys reject the maxim that rock stars should always be cool.  The band spends hours cranking out mundane homemade videos about everyting from Joe's new headband to the food in the greeroom at The Oprah Winfrey Show.  I watch a video of Joe whacking Nick over the head with a plastic baseball bat that had nearly 8 million viewers."

Through YouTube the Jonas Brothers became human, accessible and the grassroots marketing spread their name worldwide. 

How can we use what these three teens have perfected to grow our brand awareness. Perhaps we don't want a video of our marketing director whacking the CFO with a plastic bat, but how can YouTube and the informal nature of their videos help increase our brand value?

Joe Whyte has written a guide to Video Marketing on YouTube which begins with a little background on the growth and awareness of YouTube as a resource and then provides 8 tips for marketing on YouTube. 

Have you used YouTube to prompt a product or service?  How did you market the video and attract customers?

Interested in the Jonas Brothers?  Here is the complete Stones article entitled The Clean Teen Machine.

Measure the ROI on Marketing Campaigns

I've been asked to give a speech at an upcoming business expo entitled 30 Marketing Tips in 30 Minutes.  As I began to write the speech today I sought additional tools and resources to add to the handout.

With any marketing effort one of the key tips is to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign.  In other words - did I make money or loose money on that last marketing program.  Whether it is a direct mail post card, pay per click ads or the effectiveness of an online marketing campaign, you need to determine whether or not it was financially worth your while.

I discovered a marketing calculator that easily determines potential ROI before you commit the dollars.  It requires you speculate a little but isn't that what you do every day of your business.  The calculator takes the following information:

• # of pieces
• cost of marketing effort
• expected number of responses
• expected number of those you will close
• profit on the product you'll sell

Using that information it will tell you the expected ROI.  I have a bunch of $.41 stamps (not the "forever" kind) that I need to get rid of before May 16 when the price goes up again.  So I've been tossing around the idea of using them to send a note out to a select group of prospects.  Using the information from the calculator I can plug in the estimated numbers and play around with it until I discover what combination will bring me a positive return on my investment. 

I believe that your marketing message should just focus on one thing - that being said, which of my services would appeal to the largest audience and bring me the best ROI?  Using the calculator I was able to see which message, based on the profit margin of the service, would be the best.

It's a fun tool to use - there are a lot of "guesses" and so it isn't a hard and fast tool to use BEFORE the marketing campaign but it will give you an idea of the calculated risk.

Used AFTER the event is completed, the marketing calculator will quickly let you know if that is something you want to do again.  Don't rely on "gut feel."  Check the facts.  Marketing dollars are too precious to do anything less.

Get Paid for your Knowledge: Ether

You have knowledge others would benefit from, but how to connect the two?  Have you found Ether?

Ether is a service that allows you to sign up for an Ether phone number, establish an account with your areas of expertise and you set the hourly rate.  When someone is looking for help and you have the knowledge they need - they give you a call and viola - a phone consulting opportunity. 

You only get the call if they've prepaid your hourly rate. Think of the times you've given away your knowledge for free.  Here's a chance to earn a little income while helping those that need your assistance.

Have you tried Ether?  If not - do you know of another service that allows you to connect with potential customers?  How do you handle the circumstance where someone wants answers that only you can provide?  Picture the man on a plane whose seat mate unveils that she is a doctor.  All of a sudden she is barraged with questions about his aches and pains.  All for free.  How do you handle a circumstance like that?

Planting a Seed - You Never Know When It Will Bloom

As always I checked my emails first thing this morning to see what I'd missed in the nighttime hours.  I found an email from an unknown source which started out like this:

Dear Deborah Chaddock Brown:

I saw an article on you as you began operating your company 02/23/05, and saved the article for future reference.

She was writing about a project she needed help with and had saved my business information for THREE YEARS.  You just never know when a press release will benefit your business.

When was the last time you wrote a press release about your business?  Not only should it be sent to the local papers, industry journals and magazines but also posted online and on your website. 

There are a variety of FREE online directories that you can post your company news:

Free Press Release

PR Log

PR Free

A couple of tools you may not be aware of:  John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing offers a press release tool that helps you create a new release in the proper format.

Joan Stewart of Publicity Hound offers 89 reasons to send a press release - so you don't have an excuse to get your name in the news.

Make sure your name is in front of your prospects both on and off line - you never know who is clipping the news for future reference!

Deborah

Social Networks: Survey Says...Linked In

At the recent State of the Web address the results of a survey conducted of the association members revealed that the majority of participants plan to frequently use Linked in as their social network of choice.

Other results:

Linked In                             42.6%

Industry specific networks    17.3%

Facebook                            12.9%

My Space                            11.9%

Flickr                                    6.8%

Twitter                                  1.8%

I was recently reading Chris Brown's comments at Branding and Marketing about the social networks.  There is a discussion going on over there about the benefits of Facebook versus Linked IN.  Google's survey shows that Facebook is outdistancing Linked In yet both Chris and those commenting seem to see a professional value to Linked In.

What do you think?  And what about Twitter - the up to the minute account of where you are and what you are doing - is that catching on for professionals or just youth? It's on the bottom of the heap in this survey but perhaps it is because it is so new.  Do you use it? 

Deborah

Create Buzz About Your Business

How do you create buzz about your business?  There is the obvious:  spending money on traditional advertising, but what about your employees?  Do your employees help spread the word about the benefits and solutions you provide?

Ron McDaniel, president/owner of Buzzoodle Marketing has put together an amazing two day university completely focused on creating buzz about your business.

It will be held January 24, 25 in sunny Las Vegas so for those of you in the cold north - there is the added bonus of WARMTH.

This amazing seminar is limited to the first 35 who sign up and the available seats are now limited to the final few openings.  Save $400 off the registration if you sign up before January 1, 2008.

What can you expect to learn?  The following is from their program flyer:

Buzzoodle is 100% dedicated to helping organizations achieve:

• More Buzz & Word of Mouth generated by the workforce
• Better employee morale & stronger sense of ownership
• Higher employee enthusiasm
• Awareness of opportunities and pitfalls with new media when creating buzz
• Better and more frequent communications
• Personal Brand as an extension of the Business Brand

Click here for more information about Buzzoodle U scheduled for the end of January.  Start the year off right with tips and techniques that can help increase awareness of your business.

Deborah Chaddock Brown