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#SmallBizChat Live Telesummit Recap (Part 2)

By Melinda Emerson on November 13, 2009 in Business Inspiration, Cash Flow & Finance, Grow Your Business, Mompreneurs, Pink Slip Entrepreneurs, SmallBizChat, Social Media, Solopreneurs, Starting A Small Business, Telesummit, Women in Business, Your Small Business

(Dear readers: this is the second part of a two part post. Click here to see part one.)

Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This past week, I presented the first annual #SmallBizChat Live Telesummit. The goal was to give the audience the information to create a new plan for their business in 2010. After nearly a year of communicating in writing on this blog and using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, I wanted to interview small business experts over the phone. I also wanted our followers to have access to some experts who do not use Twitter, but who have fantastic information to share. In today’s blog post, I have prepared a recap of three key points that each expert shared with us.

Allyson Lewis @allyson7minutes is a renowned motivational speaker and business coach whose focus is on productivity, specifically developing systems to change your life. Her book, The Seven Minute Difference, grew out of the workshops she has been teaching for the past five years. For more information, please visit Seven Minutes Inc. Allyson talked to us about getting more out of your day as a business owner.

Here are Allyson’s key takeaways:
1. Use a daily written plan of action. The average adult has a 7 minute attention span. Take 7 minutes to write down your top priorities for the day. Regain your passion by doing what is most important to you.
2. Get 7-8 hours of rest a night. Stop watching late night TV and sacrificing a good night’s rest.
3. She introduced the 5 before 11am rule. Allyson advises us all to make an exhaustive list of everything in our personal lives and business lives that needs to get done. Then she suggests tackling 5 tasks per day before 11am, if that’s too tough try do 5 a week. Just get rid of the list.

Michelle Villalobos @mivi is a business turnaround expert who teaches busy entrepreneurs how to improve their sales approach through networking skills, personal branding and word-of-mouth marketing. For more information, please visit MichelleVillalobos.com. Michelle talked to us about turning contacts into contracts.

Here are Michelle’s key takeaways:
1. Reframe the typical “elevator pitch” into an “elevator teaser.” Instead of a rapid fire 30 second commercial that describes everything you do, find the core of what you do and develop a tagline that encompasses your entire brand (if you can). Done properly, it will elicit the follow-up question, “that sounds interesting, tell me more.” One therapist who helps people get over their fears and anxieties described herself as “the couchless therapist,” which makes people want to know more.
2. Business card etiquette – Avoid “premature solicitation” – which is the act of handing out business cards before even saying hello. When you give someone a business card, it is all about timing. Your goal is to develop rapport and to connect with someone. The time to exchange business cards, more appropriately, is after interaction.
3. Follow-up is important. Michelle suggests offering a free newsletter signup to people in a follow-up email. And in the monthly newsletter have valuable tips and info, all focused on the needs of the customers.

Paul B. Brown is a long-time contributor to the New York Times and author of more than two dozen books, including the international best-seller Customers for Life. He is the author of Publishing Confidential: What it really takes to land a non-fiction book deal. Paul spoke with us about becoming a published author to build your business.

Here are Paul B. Brown’s key takeaways:
1. Once you have book idea, the first thing to do is to try developing an outline for the book, and then writing 2-3 sample chapters.
2. The title of your book should tell people exactly what your book is about. Do not be afraid to talk to potential readers about the book topic to get the right words to use in your book title.
3. A book proposal is what you need to approach an agent or editor to pitch your book. It’s fine to send a query letter first, but if there’s any interest, the next request will be to send a book proposal which is typically a 30-page document. Start working on the proposal before sending query letter, so that you can respond to interest.
Paul made a special offer to Telesummit participants – he will give out a copy of a book proposal that sold. You should email Paul at paulbbrown@aol.com and use “Melinda’s Telesummit” in the subject line. His offer ends 11/13/09 at 5pm Eastern.

Lisa D. Sparks @lisadsparks is an email marketing expert with nine years of experience developing and implementing marketing solutions for small business owners. Lisa taught us how to become email marketing rock stars. For more information, please visit lisadsparks.com

Here are Lisa’s key takeaways:
1. Typical open rate on email marketing is 22%. Be sure not use language in your emails that are triggers for spam filters such as: FREE, space available, special offer, only today, !!!, and ???
2. You should have multiple ways to build your email list for your business. Using an email sign-up for your newsletter/blog on multiple pages of your website is one strategy. You can also offer a special report in exchange for an email address. Conducting free monthly conference calls is another great technique to build your list. When you go to a networking function, be sure to ask someone who gives you a business card if you can add them to your mailing list.
3. Develop an editorial calendar for your e-newsletters and all of your auto-responders. Consider writing a year’s worth of e-newsletters all at once. Email should not be the only way that you communicate with your list – using video and/or audio and are nice ways to break it up.

If you missed the SmallBizChat Live Telesummit, do not worry! We are editing and packaging the calls to make them available shortly… so stay tuned.

I hope that after you read what these experts had to say, you will be ready to tackle 2010 with some inspiration and new tricks up your sleeve. Being in business is a spiritual marathon. Hang in there.

My co-host Cathy Larkin @cathywebsavvyPR and I presented the 1st Annual SmallBizChat Live Telesummit because it is our mission to end small business failure. We will be back November 2010 to do this again.

Please follow us at @smallbizchat and join us for #SmallBizChat every Wednesday from 8-9pm Eastern on Twitter. #SmallBizChat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business.

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

For more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog at www.succeedasyourownboss.com

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#SmallBizChat Live Telesummit Recap (Part 1)

By Melinda Emerson on November 9, 2009 in Business Inspiration, Cash Flow & Finance, Grow Your Business, Mompreneurs, Pink Slip Entrepreneurs, SmallBizChat, Social Media, Solopreneurs, Telesummit, Your Small Business

(Dear readers: this is the first part of a two part post about SmallBizChat Live Telesummit. Part two will post on Friday, November 13, 2009.)

Mike Michalowicz @TPEntrepreneur kicked off our Telesummit. Mike is small business expert who is known as the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. For more information, please visit toiletpaperentrepreneur.com Michalowicz talked about using social media a build your business.

Here are Mike’s key takeaways:
1. Use a 4 to 1 ratio in your content posted on social media sites. Only promote yourself once in every four times you communicate. Always seek to add value to your audience.
2. Take a non-traditional position to stand out among other experts in your field.
3. Blogging and participating in forums is a great strategy, but using Google ad words can be effective as well.

Karyn Greenstreet @kgreenstreet was our second guest. She’s a self-employment expert who runs thesuccessalliance.com. Her website has all the resources a business owner needs to start or run a mastermind group. Karyn talked to us about mastermind group best practices.

Here are Karyn Greenstreet’s key takeaways:
1. Being involved in a mastermind group is something successful entrepreneurs do.
2. Think about the other skills you need in your business when you want to recruit members to start a mastermind group. Mastermind groups are typically four-to-ten people.
3. Develop set procedures for how your group will operate and get all participants to sign the agreement. Using an agreement is one of the best ways to get participants to commit to the terms and then fully participate.

Dr. Mel Gravely @melgravely kicked off day two of the Telesummit. Mel is the founder of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking, the leading think tank on issues related to business development. For more information, please visit entrethinking.com Mel talked about how to retool your business in tough times.

Here are Dr. Gravely’s key takeaways:
1. It is more important than ever to focus on your niche market and your value proposition. Gone are the days of the generalist consultant.
2. Do not launch any new marketing initiative that you can’t afford to keep up for at least a year.
3. Business shouldn’t always be a struggle. If you have been struggling in your business for more than four years, and it’s never been profitable; it might be time to move on from that business or that business model.

Tim Berry @Timberry is president and founder of Palo Alto Software the makers of Business Plan Pro, and founder of bplans.com. He’s the author of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, Entrepreneur Press. Tim talked about Managing Cash Flow in a Tough Economy.

Here are Berry’s key takeaways:
1. Make sure you know how your clients process invoices. When you can, build a relationship with someone in accounts payable. When evaluating a deal with a major corporation, make sure you’ve got enough cash reserves to wait on your money, or don’t do the deal.
2. Would you walk a city-block blindfolded? Well that’s what is it like to run a business without up-to-date financial statements. You must have a current statement of cash flow, profit & loss statement, and a balance sheet every month.
3. Do not use your line-of-credit to finance marketing efforts to generate sales. Use you line of credit of finance business you have already won.

(NOTE: This is part one of the #SmallBizChat Live Telesummit recap. Part two will post live on Friday, November 13, 2009.)

If you missed the SmallBizChat Live Telesummit, do not worry! We are editing and packaging the calls to make them available shortly… so stay tuned.

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

For more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog at www.succeedasyourownboss.com

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Are You Ready for 2010?

By Melinda Emerson on October 26, 2009 in Business Inspiration, Grow Your Business, How to Start, Mompreneurs, My Recommendations, Pink Slip Entrepreneurs, SmallBizChat, Solopreneurs, Starting A Small Business, Women in Business, Your Small Business

smallbizchat_live_telesummit The economy is on the rebound, but the nature of business has changed.

Is your small business repositioned for 2010? October and November is the perfect time to start planning for how you will kickoff the New Year. It’s not about making it through the recession; it’s about coming out of this recession with a stronger business.

Every Wednesday #SmallBizChat delivers training on how to start and run a profitable small business via Twitter, now for the first time we we’re delivering what you need over the phone and at your own desktop.

I’m known as @Smallbizlady on Twitter, I have developed a FREE resource to help you develop tools to compete in this new business environment. We’re calling it the SmallBizChat Live Telesummit. To register now, visit http://bit.ly/1TxnoL .

I’ve pulled together top small business experts who are allowing me to pick their brains and share with you invaluable advice that will take your business to the next level.

The Smallbizchat Live Telesummit interviews will take place over four-days the first week of November.

Mark your calendars for Nov 3-6, 2009

Register now http://bit.ly/1TxnoL

Listen and Learn! Each day, we will do live interviews at 1pm and 7pm Eastern Time

We’re going to introduce the challenges and advantages this new business economy has created.

Live Telesummit Nov 3-6, 2009 | register for full program – http://bit.ly/1TxnoL

If you’re already an entrepreneur and you want to improve your business, or if you’re planning to take the leap and want to start out on the right foot, here’s your chance to learn from top experts who are business owners just like you.

Sheer passion and courage aren’t all you need to succeed in today’s business environment. Listen in and you’ll be able to learn key strategies to accelerate your business success.

This is a great time for an aggressive entrepreneur, but you need an action plan for business success in 2010.

Wondering if this is for you?

The old rules of business no longer apply. Do you know how to compete?

Are you tired of dealing with the unpredictable ups and downs of cash flow in your business?

Is the daily stress in your business draining you of the passion you have for your business?

You know you need to be utilizing social media, but don’t know where to start?

Are you ready to invest in learning how to adapt and grow your business while others struggle?

If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of the questions above, sign up today for the 1^st Annual #SmallBizChat Live Telesummit http://bit.ly/1TxnoL!

Telesummit Topics:

Using Social Media to Brand Your Business

Developing a Mastermind Group

Retooling Your Business in Tough Times

Strategic Cash Flow Management

Growing Your Network

Getting More Out of Each Business Day

How to Author a Book to Grow Your Brand

How to Be an Email-Marketing “ROCK STAR!”

MEET THE EXPERTS

Melinda Emerson “Smallbizlady” is your host for the #SmallBizChat Live TeleSummit! Melinda is a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach. Her areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development and social media strategy. Melinda hosts #Smallbizchat, a weekly talk show on Twitter. #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business. Melinda has been featured on NBC Nightly News and in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report and Black Enterprise. Melinda publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com and has several special reports including 44 Things To Do Before You Go Into Business and The 12 Cardinal Sins of Small Business-and How to Avoid Them! Melinda’s first book Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to Start a Business that Works!” will be released in February 2010 by Adams Media. For more information, please visit melindaemerson.com

Mike Michalowicz is the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Mike Michalowicz has a driving passion for entrepreneurialism. Michalowicz wrote The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur with the sole purpose of giving first time entrepreneurs the information they need to grow their concepts into industry leaders. Michalowicz has successfully launched three multimillion-dollar companies. His most recent venture, Obsidian Launch LLC, partners exclusively with first-time entrepreneurs to launch their ideas into niche industry leaders. For more information, please visit toiletpaperentrepreneur.com

Dr. Melvin Gravely, II, is the founder of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking, the leading think tank on issues related to business development. The Institute is nationally known for providing thought leadership, and industry changing research on issues at the intersection of business and race. The Institute is a trusted advisor to Chambers of Commerce, major corporations and community leaders across the nation. Gravely is the author of seven books including The Lost Art of Entrepreneurship, When Black and White Make Green, and his latest Getting to the Next Level. He has been featured in many national publications including Black Enterprise Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, and American City Business Journals. After ten successful years working for a large corporation, he co-founded a civil engineering firm and grew it into a multimillion dollar company. Dr. Gravely speaks and writes on various topics related to entrepreneurial thinking and business development. For more information, please visit entrethinking.com

Michelle Villalobos is a Business turnaround expert who teaches busy entrepreneurs how to improve their sales approach through networking skills, personal branding and word-of-mouth marketing. As a 14-year sales & marketing veteran, she first made her mark in the publishing industry. Michelle is known for never turning down a sales challenge, she has helped numerous small businesses significantly increase their revenues. She conducts seminars, brainstorming sessions, strategic planning workshops, roundtables and other programs that “educate, entertain and engage” by helping businesses learn to build revenues, through effective sales, networking and word-of-mouth techniques Michelle holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, and an MBA from the University of Miami and is a life-long devotee of Sharpies. You’ll have to listen in to find out the deal with that. For more information, please visit MichelleVillalobos.com

Paul B. Brown is a long-time contributor to the New York Times. Paul is the author of more than two dozen books, including the international best-seller Customers for Life. A former writer and editor of Business Week, Financial World, Forbes, and Inc., Brown has “ghosted” books for several of the nation’s most success business executives. The latest example: Obstacles Welcome: How to Turn Adversity into Advantage in Business and in Life, written with Ralph de la Vega, president of AT&T. Even more relevant for our purposes he is the author of Publishing Confidential: What it really takes to land a non-fiction book deal. Brown was trained as a lawyer, but he asks that you do not hold that against him.

Lisa D. Sparks is a marketing expert with nine years of experience developing and implementing marketing communications solutions for small and medium sized businesses. A small business owner herself, Lisa uses her expertise to teach small organizations in South Florida how to use technology to maximize the power of relationship marketing. She is experienced in providing guidance, instruction, and comprehensive planning advice for the development, growth, and expansion of new and existing businesses. In 2007, Lisa won the Florida State Star Award as the top small business analyst in Florida.

Karyn Greenstreet is a small business coach and a mastermind group facilitator, and the owner of The Success Alliance, a website devoted to helping mastermind group facilitators start and grow their own mastermind groups. She has been creating and running these groups since 1994 and is the author of How to Create a For-Profit Mastermind Group. She also teaches a series of classes on starting and running mastermind groups. Karyn holds a B.S. in Business Administration and Management, and is a certified Adult Education Trainer. She has postgraduate work in Business Administration and Computer Systems, and is graduate of CoachU. She has spoken at numerous national on business-building topics and action planning. Visit her website TheSuccessAlliance.com

Tim Berry, is president and founder of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, and a co-founder of Borland International. He built Palo Alto Software from zero to 40 employees and 70% market share without outside investment. He is a Stanford MBA and taught starting a business at the University of Oregon. He’s the conceptual author of Business Plan Pro, author of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, Entrepreneur Press. Find Tim on twitter at @TimBerry. “I’ve seen startups and small business from multiple views. I’ve had the good years and bad years. My wife and I had three mortgages and $65,000 of credit card debt at one very low point, which we survived, but I really don’t recommend. I’ve consulted with startups on bringing in venture capital, and angel investors, and business loans, and friends and family.” He’ll be talking about Cash Flow in a Tough Economy.

Allyson Lewis is a renowned motivational speaker and business coach who focuses on productivity, specifically developing systems to change your life. Allyson has spent the last 22 years teaching concrete yet actionable ideas to business leaders all over the country. Her book, The Seven Minute Difference, grew out of the workshops she has been teaching for the last five years. Author of The Million Dollar Car and $250,000 Pizza (Kaplan Publishing, 2000), Allyson is frequently asked to host motivational and educational public workshops throughout the country. She has been a guest on CNN, CNNfn, Bloomberg Information Television, and many other regional radio and television programs. For more information, please visit Seven Minutes Inc.

The nature of business had changed, if you register for this Telesummit you will be equipped to handle anything the economy will throw at you. Don’t delay! Register now Smallbizchat Live TeleSummit http://bit.ly/1TxnoL

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The New Rules About Blogging for Money

By Melinda Emerson on October 12, 2009 in Grow Your Business, Mompreneurs, Social Media, Solopreneurs, Women in Business, Your Small Business

Lady Justice

As of December 1, 2009 the Federal Trade Commission is going to require Bloggers, Podcasters and video producers – any producer of consumer-generated content online to disclose any paid endorsements to their followers and audience they communicate with online. These new rules have the potential to change everyone’s online habits. Here’s what you need to know:

If you receive even a small fee in exchange for reviewing a particular product or writing a blog post about it – this new ruling applies to you. Under the FTC’s new rules, all bloggers who blog for dollars will have to disclose that they are receiving a fee for their blog post. In addition, bloggers will also need to disclose any gifts they receive such as books, product samples or even toothpaste. All merchandise now counts as compensation.

Many bloggers already disclose when they are being paid for reviews, but this could get tricky for some blogs who use sponsors, and particularly for some corporations such as Walmart, Office Max etc. who use mom bloggers to target women customers. It will be interesting to see how these relationships will change.

Transparency is what you need to have in social media anyway, but now it’s on another level. Prominent users of social networks such as Twitter will need to pay attention to the FTC’s new rules. If you want to give a business some praise – do it, but if you work there, you need to tell people. If you want to get on Twitter and talk about how great a new book or product is…make sure people know it’s your product or that you are the author.

When commenting on blogs and in forums, please do not pretend to be someone else particularly if you are leaving a negative comment. If you post comments in an online forum that undercuts your competitor without making it clear who you are, you have broken the rules.

The FTC is not trying to fine mombloggers! Repeat offenders may end up being punished, but the new regulations are really just trying to regulate how advertisers pay for endorsements and reviews.

So Blogger Beware!

What you do think about the new FTC regulations? Should you really have to disclose a free book?

Additional resources on the new FTC regulations:

http://www.whitneyhoffman.com/2009/10/06/the-new-ftc-guidelines-on-endorsements-by-bloggers/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda Emerson “SmallBizLady” is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #SmallBizChat on Twitter. #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business. Melinda’s first book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 months! A Month-by-Month Guide to Start a Business that Works! is scheduled to be released by Adams Media in Feb 2010.

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