3 New Ways to Network Your Small Business

By on November 8, 2011 in Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, Social Media

working on computer 300x199 3 New Ways to Network Your Small BusinessRecently, I’ve noticed a couple of interesting details about the e-mails I receive inviting me to connect online.

First off, I’ve been receiving more invitations than usual. Don’t get be wrong; this is just fine by me, but I started to get curious about why the number was growing at such a fast rate.

It was the second detail however, that really caught my eye: I was receiving invitations to connect on 3 sites that I had never heard about before the e-mails arrived.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s part of my job to keep up on all the ways a business can use the web. Because of that, I’m always looking at new solutions, tools and methods for marketing and managing a business online.

Given that, this upsurge in new business networking sites made me very curious about the new ways businesses are networking using the web so I decided to spend some time digging into the 3 new sites.

Not LinkedIn

When it comes to business networking online, LinkedIn is at the top of the heap. I am an avid LinkedIn user and have enjoyed seeing how the site has evolved from launch up to now.

Often, new online business networking solutions are “LinkedIn Wannabees”; sites that offer the same functionality and features. Sure some of them focus on smaller regions, specific industries and even other countries, but at the core they are the same solution in a different package.

In this case however, it became immediately clear that each of the 3 new business networking sites were not “LinkedIn Wannabees”. Each one brought something unique and different to the table and below, I’m going to dish on the details.

3 New Business Networking Sites to Try

Branch Out

branch out1 3 New Ways to Network Your Small Business

Out of all three sites, BranchOut is the most like LinkedIn. The primary difference is that BranchOut is actually an app built on top of the Facebook platform and that means it’s completely integrated with everything Facebook.

That integration offers some handy features such as the ability to:

  1. Invite and connect with Facebook friends on a professional level as well;
  2. Post jobs to your company’s Facebook page; and
  3. Easier that LinkedIn search capabilities that allow you to find folks in your network who work at specific companies (handy if you’d like to learn more about, or get a job at, that company).

Bottom-line: BranchOut allows you to leverage your personal connections in a professional way, opening up a huge world of opportunities.

Referral Key

referral key 3 New Ways to Network Your Small Business

With Referral Key, you get just what the name promises: a platform for sending and receiving referrals to and from your professional network.

One of the cooler features on this site is the ability to reward referrers for successful referrals. You set up your reward in your profile and then, when a successful referral occurs, you click the “Reward” button. After that, your referrer can select a reward from the options you choose to offer. Best of all, it’s all hands-off once it’s set up.

There’s also a handy search feature here that allows you to find professionals with many types of expertise. You can even use this to grow your local network by searching locally and connecting online.

Bottom-line: Referral Key is a focused system that greatly facilitates the time-honored tradition of giving, and receiving, referrals.

Commonred

commonred1 3 New Ways to Network Your Small Business

Commonred is a young offering with a very interesting take on, and some really cool ideas for, business networking.

To start with, they take “common” to heart, offering you tons of data points you can enter in order to find people with whom you have something in common. Nothing is off the plate here with spots to record things such as companies where you’ve worked, places where you’ve lived, your favorite sports teams and even your hobbies and personal preferences.

With all that data, it’s easy, and fun, to search for other like-minded professionals. However, the data they collect is more than just functional; it forms the basis for starting conversations and building relationships both on and offline. In other words, it’s an “ice-breaker” and a pretty powerful one at that.

Two other interesting features of Commonred are:

  1. Board of Directors — you can create a board of directors out of those people who “have your back”. These are folks who advise you, refer business to you and more. You can also be a member of a board for someone else. Though loosely structured right now, this can become a solid system for the mentoring that many business folks crave.
  2. “Get a Meeting With” Contests — on a regular basis, Commonred holds a contest where the winner gets a meeting with industry bigwigs. To win, you need to enter the reasons why you specifically should get that meeting and then all members can vote on the entries. The entry with the most votes wins.

Bottom-line: Commonred is just ramping-up, but there is a lot of potential there for robust community building, practical mentoring and business networking. It needs to grow so give it a shot and invite your friends.

Matt Mansfield is the Head Tour Guide at Matt About Business where he helps entrepreneurs and Fortune 500

matt headshot 150x150 3 New Ways to Network Your Small Businesscompanies figure out what their business SHOULD be doing online. From providing global leadership as the head of e-business for a $1 billion manufacturer to designing the functionality and look-and-feel of an award-winning online student-learning environment, Matt has mastered the art of using the web to manage and market a business by connecting online strategies and tactics with real-world results.

 

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5 Things Wrong With Your Business Plan

By on November 7, 2011 in Branding & Marketing, Cash Flow & Finance, Starting A Small Business

Business plan iStock 000016101845XSmall 300x198 5 Things Wrong With Your Business PlanIf you’ve taken the time to develop a business plan for your start-up business, you are on the right track. You have a roadmap that will help you with decision-making in your new enterprise. Take the time to be sure your business plan doesn’t contain any of the following shortcomings that will prevent your business from being effective. If you need help, check put my three part series on how to write a business plan for even more advice.

You haven’t researched your market. Many business owners don’t have enough information about who is buying their products and why. You need to find out who your ideal customers are, what their income is, what their buying habits are, and how they make purchasing decisions, for a start. You can do this by conducting surveys or polls online, interviewing people you consider potential customers, and searching for existing data on your demographic. Organizing the results will give you a clear picture of your customers’ perspective. This is an advantage when you develop messaging and begin to “talk” to them. All public relations and customer communications should center around customer pain points.

You haven’t researched your competitors. Know who your competitors are and stay up to date on their activities not only helps you make strategy decisions, it is a learning experience as well. You should know who has the best quality product or service at what price and who has the least, what customers are saying about the company, any financials made publicly available, and what kind of marketing or advertising they do. As you follow your competitors’ movements, you will be able to observe the rewards and consequences of their decisions on many levels, and adjust your own strategy to expand, advance, or target your market in new ways.

You haven’t planned for growth. A business plan is an action plan. It’s hard to motivate yourself, your employees, and your investors with research and projections. Be sure your plan outlines an actual plan for at least one future scenario. I say at least one because you should make plans for factors beyond your control that may derail your first plan.

You don’t know your numbers. Running a business is all numbers. Sales projections, production yields, profit estimates and more can swallow the heart of a business plan: the viability of your business model. Don’t get so focused on month-to-month numbers that you lose sight of whether your business idea, operations, and strategic decisions will allow those numbers to be actualized.

Your business plan is not up-to-date.  If your plan is outdated, you will not be able to use it to run your business. Most business plans are created before launch. When your new business meets the real world, however, you often need to make adjustments that aren’t incorporated or reflected in your written plans. If you haven’t looked at your business plan in a while, ask yourself why. Is it because you’ve made so many changes to daily operations, or your numbers don’t correlate with what’s on paper at all? Take the time to sit down and go over your business plan once again and decide whether you need to make changes or make a new one that will better reflect your business’s current direction.

Do you have any other common business plans mistakes for small business owner?

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

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts.Melinda 2011 Headshot 150x150 5 Things Wrong With Your Business Plan As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestseller author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. 

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How To Go from Idea to Store Shelves QA Interview with Jen Groover

By on November 3, 2011 in Grow Your Business, Q & A Interviews, SmallBizChat

Smallbizchats 300x132 How To Go from Idea to Store Shelves QA Interview with Jen GrooverEvery week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @Jengroover.  She’s a top business expert and has been tagged by Success Magazine as a “One-Woman Brand” and named a leading “Serial Entrepreneur” by Entrepreneur Magazine. Jen Groover’s signature product the butler bag has revolutionized the handbag industry. www.butlerbag.com Her has quickly become synonymous with innovation, entrepreneurship and evolution. She has gone from guest-hosting spots on QVC to linking deals with some of the industry’s biggest heavyweights. For more information www.jengroover.com

 

Smallbizlady: Once I have a product idea what are the first things I need to do?

Jen Groover: Once you have an idea you need to check a few things:

  1. Analyze the market and see if you see the idea already out there?
  2. If so, why is yours different, or how can you push yourself to make it more unique than your original concept
  3. If it was tried before was it successful? If not, when? And why?

 

Smallbizlady: What is intellectual property and why is it important in product development?

Jen Groover: Once you have answers for those questions, you will need to find an Intellectual Property attorney to verify legally what is already out there.  Even if you don’t see something “in the market” it may be something in development and you don’t want to risk getting in trouble for patent or trademark infringement.

Intellectual Property is basically creative ideas that can be protected so that you can “own a space” in a category of business or develop enough brand equity that you can license your idea, which basically gives someone the right to use your patent and possibly trademarks to increase supply of your products and distribution channels while paying you’re a royalty to do so. You need to consult with an Intellectual Property attorney (very specific niche of training) in order to get proper representation.

Once an attorney verifies it is safe to move ahead, you can conserve costs by filing a provisional patent (if it is a patentable item) which buys you a year to begin product development and we as brand development.

 

Smallbizlady: Once I file for protection what do I do next?

Jen Groover: Once you file for protection whether it be a patent, trademark, copyright, etc, you will need something to be protecting the brand equity you are about to build. You begin product development by making a prototype. A prototype is an example of what your product should look like. You may need several iterations of the in order to perfect how you want your product to look and function. While you are clarifying that, you should also be devising your plan on what type of brand you want; for example is it a high-end luxury brand of a daily household affordable type brand. This will help you identify more closely the type of materials used to finalize your prototype. Because more often than not, many different grades of materials can be used but the type of brand you want will dictate that.

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