Well the time has come. I’ve finally had to sit down and start learning how to use social media for my budding business. It’s a daunting task for someone getting onboard late in the game. I realize that I should have made this a common practice several years ago, but at that time, since I didn’t like social media much (and still don’t), I just couldn’t see that it had any [...]]]>

Even in our in-person conversations we use social media!

Well the time has come. I’ve finally had to sit down and start learning how to use social media for my budding business. It’s a daunting task for someone getting onboard late in the game. I realize that I should have made this a common practice several years ago, but at that time, since I didn’t like social media much (and still don’t), I just couldn’t see that it had any potential. Especially Twitter. Who wants to write just one sentence and send it to a bunch of people. Well only several hundred thousands of you. Boy was I shortsighted.

Anyway, the time has come. Right now I’m mostly learning what needs to be done with social media, then I’ll get to the actual setting up of accounts. My site isn’t quite ready for anyone to visit it anyway. Hopefully by the end of this week.

I think the most valuable thing I’ve learned is to go into it with a plan. You can’t just willy-nilly your entries and hope to get a following that trusts you and purchases from you.

Second, is that you want to engage your followers. You want to pay attention to consumer insights. Some of the best ideas for new products or tweaking the ones you already have, comes from your followers. They know what they want and will gladly share that with you if you set up a good supportive atmosphere on your pages.

Third would be, become a follower yourself. You need to know what others in your field are talking about. What their innovations, insights, strengths and weaknesses are.

It’s a pretty heavy learning curve, but one I know has to be done in this day of electronic communication. I’ll keep you up to date on the progress and let you know when you can start following me if you’re interested.

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I was surfing the web and found some really funny pictures of how stickers have been used to grab people’s attention. Of course, most of these were large stickers, placed in busy outdoor places, by companies that can afford to do that.

With your small, budding business you might not have the advertising budget of Apple or Folgers. You can still use [...]]]>

Stickers can be a good way to get your companies info into a potential or current customers hands.

Sticker Fun

I was surfing the web and found some really funny pictures of how stickers have been used to grab people’s attention. Of course, most of these were large stickers, placed in busy outdoor places, by companies that can afford to do that.

With your small, budding business you might not have the advertising budget of Apple or Folgers. You can still use stickers effectively.

Sticker Ideas

If you own a business where you install equipment that you also service, you can put a sticker on the equipment with your contact information on it. That way, if the equipment ever needs servicing the customer isn’t having to run around looking for the information to contact you for needed repairs. All you need, or probably even want, for this are simple square or round die cut stickers. There’s not really a need for custom work here.

Another option is to include a sticker in with your catalogs, sales letters, or with the invoice. These types of inclusions can work well with custom die cut stickers. Since they have been cut to a specific shape it will grab the attention of the recipient, rather than the usual round or square shapes. Including them in with mailings to new and old customers can help spread the word. They can either post it in a prominent space, or pass it along to someone they think could use your service. Here, being creative is a bonus. What is going to catch their eye, so that they’ll hang onto it? Thinking about the demographics of your customers is important when planning your design. Things like gender, age, possible pastimes, are important considerations. You don’t want to do a pink frilly looking sticker if your main customers are football loving, beer drinking, chest thumping middle-aged men. Sorry for the stereotype, but you get the picture.

If your business caters to children, they are great candidates for stickers. That could be a rather slick way to get the information to their parents. Kids love to post stickers just about anywhere, so you know they’ll get used!

Share Your Sticker Experience

If you’ve found a creative way to use sticker, let us know in the comment box below!

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The headlines are everywhere touting that small business owners are optimistic about growth. However, when you really read the small print, the outlook is anything but promising.

In April companies who answered one survey were almost equal in who added positions and who decreased positions, with 53% of businesses staying the same. That makes growth pretty much a wash for April.

The Wall Street Journals outlook was pretty much the same. In almost every area where they saw [...]]]>

Is small business growing?

The headlines are everywhere touting that small business owners are optimistic about growth. However, when you really read the small print, the outlook is anything but promising.

In April companies who answered one survey were almost equal in who added positions and who decreased positions, with 53% of businesses staying the same. That makes growth pretty much a wash for April.

The Wall Street Journals outlook was pretty much the same. In almost every area where they saw an increase, there was an offsetting decrease in a similar index.

One good sign was “The percent[age] of owners reporting positive sales trends quarter on quarter reached the highest level seen since April, 2007.”

Or declining?

With the upcoming elections, there’s a lot of attention be placed on small businesses. The focus is off big business and the underdog is expected to save the day. They’re being touted as the backbone of the American economy, but it looks like we’ve got a ways to go before we have enough strength to stand up straight and tall again.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t start a new small business, or that your small business is going to fail, just that you should know the fact about the current trends before making any moves.

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You’ve got a project that needs to be completed, but you don’t want to hire someone full-time. Not only that you don’t want to just hire someone online, out of the blue, as you’ve had some bad experiences with not getting what you paid for and no real recourse.

Sideskills may just be the answer [...]]]>

Putting an ad in the paper is the best way to get thousands of unqualified applications. There are better ways now.

When You Only Need Temporary Help

You’ve got a project that needs to be completed, but you don’t want to hire someone full-time. Not only that you don’t want to just hire someone online, out of the blue, as you’ve had some bad experiences with not getting what you paid for and no real recourse.

Sideskills may just be the answer for you. It is an online project based hiring system where you can post job vacancy and receive a pre-screened list of potential people to hire. The list will contain only people who meet the criteria you set when you posted the job. This helps refine your choices right off. No more sifting through people who see your opening, but don’t have any of the skills needed. You’ll also be able to see a profile on the prospects, so you’ll know whether they are a good match. If you need someone local, there’s even a way to mark the offer for people within a certain distance from your location.

No More Paying For Work Not Completed

You have good control over the payments with this system, too. You can set it up so that they have to complete certain steps in order to be paid a set amount, or you can pay them when the project is complete. Payment can be made via credit card or PayPal, too.

There is a small fee for the service, but it comes out of what you offer in the posting, so it’s not added to your offer, but subtracted from what you offer the prospect.

So, if you’re needing some help on a full-time, part-time, or just for a one-time project, you may want to take a look at Sideskills.

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Now that I have my site started, I’m really on a steep learning curve on plugins. You see when I started blogging I had someone had me a set of plugins and tell me to add them. They didn’t explain them or anything, but I dutifully did what they said. In reality I don’t have a clue [...]]]>

There are so many different plugins to choose from. It's hard to know which will be the best for the job.

Web Site Functionality

Now that I have my site started, I’m really on a steep learning curve on plugins. You see when I started blogging I had someone had me a set of plugins and tell me to add them. They didn’t explain them or anything, but I dutifully did what they said. In reality I don’t have a clue what any of those plugins are doing, well at least most of them, or whether I really need them. I don’t know if I was supposed to set something up with them, or if they came out of the package ready.

Now I’m doing a web site on my own and I’m realizing it can be very daunting to find what I’m looking for. I want a simple calendar to put the dates of my classes and demonstration into, so people can always be up-to-date on what’s available. There must be a gillion (that’s way more than a billion) choices. All I can see to do is to look at the ones with the highest ratings and pick the one that looks like it’s going to do what I want it to do.

Of course I want it to look elegant, be compatible with other formats, so that people can subscribe to it with their own calendar, and it must be extremely user friendly. I don’t want people to have any excuse for not knowing about upcoming events. I never want to hear, “I couldn’t figure out how to navigate your calendar.” as an excuse for not attending a program.

Right now I feel like I’m not really much of a tool provider, but am in need myself. It was easy to write this blog when I was just gathering information for opening a business, but the actual doing takes a lot of knowledge and computer skills.

What’s Your Favorite Plugin

If you know of any great plugins for an eLearning web site (I’ll be offering online programs), I’d sure appreciate you sharing that info with me. All the templates I’ve found are for school oriented classes with lots of stuff I don’t need like quizzes, grades, attendance, etc.

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The problem is that everything I’ve been able to find has been related to classroom courses being put online. All the web sites, information, and programs that actually help you put a program online are for teachers, who need to keep track of attendance, quizzes, grades, etc.

What [...]]]> Hmm, this is being harder than I thought it would be. I’ve done several keyword searches and still have come up empty-handed for any really useful information on how to put a workshop online.

The problem is that everything I’ve been able to find has been related to classroom courses being put online. All the web sites, information, and programs that actually help you put a program online are for teachers, who need to keep track of attendance, quizzes, grades, etc.

What I need it a program where I can deliver the content, keep in contact with the participants, and have a CMS that will help me contact them and potential students on a regular basis. So, far I’ve not found anything like that.

I did find one sort of interesting thing and that was SCORE. I’d heard of it before, but am wondering if they might have a mentor that can help me find the resources I need. I mean there must be someone in my area that has successfully done something like what I want to do. So, I’m going to check that out.

Anyway, wanted to let you know that the progress is slow at this point. Not sure how I need to search to find what I want, but someone out there must have a web site, or blog post, or something that will list resources for learning how to do what I need to do.

Wish I were a techie, but I’m not…

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Simply celebrating a little too much, and getting caught behind the wheel, can completely change your life or the life of one of your employees. It could means months of court appearances, loss of money, productivity, and even some time in jail, depending on the severity of the charge. Sometimes we think that the charge is something simple, and we’ll get out of it [...]]]>

A good lawyer will convince the gavel to fall in your favor.

A Small Mistake, Turns Big

Simply celebrating a little too much, and getting caught behind the wheel, can completely change your life or the life of one of your employees. It could means months of court appearances, loss of money, productivity, and even some time in jail, depending on the severity of the charge. Sometimes we think that the charge is something simple, and we’ll get out of it easily. However, unless you’re a lawyer you might want to think twice about trying to defend yourself.

Take California, for instance, a california criminal lawyer should be carefully trained to know exactly what the laws are pertaining to your particular problem. Laws change, they have many different permutations, and often the way the law has been rendered in one county will not be the same as another county. Your lawyer should be fully aware of state, county, and city laws or ordinances that are going to affect your case.

Even Archaic Laws Can Be Big Trouble

I can remember reading somewhere that, in some city, it is against the law to chew bubblegum while walking backwards! Now, I wonder why that ever even became a law, but amazingly enough, someone was being charged with breaking that law! That’s what the article was all about.

A los angeles criminal defense lawyer, who specializes in working with clients only in the Los Angeles area, will know the laws of that area better than someone coming in from the outside. They’ll be better able to gather information firsthand, and not have to rely on someone sending them pertinent information via email or fax. Missing just one pertinent case, law, or ordinance can make the difference between winning or losing your or your employee’s case.

Know Who You’re Hiring

So, ask a lot of questions before making a choice on who’s going to represent the case. Look at their track record for your particular charge. Do they have a reasonable amount of experience? Just winning one or two cases does not make them an expert. Criminal charges are very serious, and the long term effects can be devastating if not handles properly. Don’t leave any stone unturned. Look for the best money can buy.

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If you’re interested in putting up an online site you might garner a few non-technical ideas from the couple of [...]]]> I’ve been continuing my search for good information the nuts and bolts of setting up an elearning site. Unfortunately, so far I’ve only been able to find some extremely rudimentary ways of doing it. They don’t have any sophistication; no way to track current, former, or possible future students; no way to automate emails; no way to set up forums, etc.

If you’re interested in putting up an online site you might garner a few non-technical ideas from the couple of sites I’ve found, so far. You can take a look at “How to Set Up An E-course” and “How to Teach an Online Course Using WordPress”.

Of course I’ll keep looking. For now I think I’m going to set up a two-way connection and use VSee. At least I can get started that way. I truly want to automate this course as much as possible, so the search will continue.

This next week I’ll put together the components. After teaching my pilot program I found that I need to break the information into smaller, more easily managed sections. People want to feel like they can do what I’m asking, so I’ll ask more slowly, and fewer things at once.

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Widgets here, widgets there, widgets-widgets everywhere! You’ve just started up your manufacturing company and have loads of stock. Now how do you get it where you want it to be, at a price you can afford? For many startup companies you need to be able to ship small amounts of product to a lot of different places, but you know you’ll grow [...]]]>

When starting out a Less than Truckload company may help you ship your stock.

You Have Lots Of Stock

Widgets here, widgets there, widgets-widgets everywhere! You’ve just started up your manufacturing company and have loads of stock. Now how do you get it where you want it to be, at a price you can afford? For many startup companies you need to be able to ship small amounts of product to a lot of different places, but you know you’ll grow and want to be able to ship more over time.

Do You Need TL or LTL?

Truck Load (TL) delivery may not be an option for you. You’ll have to have a lot of product to move before you can work with a company that works exclusively with truckloads of product. Less Than Truckload (LTL) companies may be a good place to start, but you’re pretty sure you’ll be up to truckload shipping within a year or two. What you want to find is a TL and LTL trucking company. This is a company that can start with your less than full loads, but also continue to service you once you need an entire trailer to deliver your goods.

A few things to think about when you’re looking at a trucking company is whether they offer other services, as well. One in particular might be of use, which is cross loading, where you can unload you stock and then reload it onto another truck heading a different direction. If you really want a one-stop carrier, look for one that also has warehouse space. That way you can store your inventory and ship all from the same place.

Check Them Out Thoroughly, Then Sign The Dotted Line

Make sure you look at the track record of the company you choose. Don’t base your choice solely on price or you might be unhappy with the outcome. You should look at customer testimonials; do they have a good track record for on-time delivery; what kind of equipment do they use, do they have GPSs in their trucks, etc.; what is the safety record of their drivers; can they help in a pinch with same day service. Think about your specific needs and ask lots of questions before you commit. Now that you have the goods you want to make sure they get into the hands that want them without delay or mishap.

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