My friend, Margo Geller has found that this recession is that it has generated lots of people being ready to bring their pet dreams and business ideas to fruition, ready to start a new business. Maybe they have lost their jobs, maybe they have decided they could not sit in the cubicle any longer doing work they did not have passion for. Maybe whatever has happened in their life and the world over the past year or so, has giving them just the nudge necessary to decide to try it on their own. But, as I like to say,

Three frogs sitting on a log. One decides to jump in. How many frogs sitting on a log?  THREE.

Just because you decide, doesn’t make it happen. You have to DO something. It is a daunting task to just DO something. I have been working with a lot of people to launch their businesses. As a serial entrepreneur, I have done this for myself several times over. I do it by following my passion. Each time I have launched a new business, it has been like giving birth. Passion gets you into it and then you say Yikes! I have to now deliver the baby. Can you have a baby alone and without help? I guess so, but I don’t recommend it.

In fact, when my first child was born I used a physician practice. The doctor popped in and out during my 16 hour labor and I had a series of nurses rotating in and out. At some point, I freaked and got them to give me an epidural which caused all sorts of problems. It was a really stressful and painful experience. When I got pregnant with my second child, I decided I had to do it differently. I went to a midwife practice. My midwife saw me throughout the pregnancy, asking questions and helping me to plan the delivery I wanted to have. When I was in labor my midwife was there the whole time. When I thought I couldn’t go on, she knew just what to do and I ended up delivering my son without meds and going home in a day. What a difference.

Launching a new baby is like that. We can’t have someone do it for us. It is our ideas and our passion that will make it work. However, it helps tremendously to have some support in getting it done. I am working with someone who has been a high level marketing executive with a major corporation. She left that company a year ago and has been percolating her ideas for what she has a “calling” to do. It doesn’t matter at this point that marketing is her background, in fact it may make it harder to launch your own business, even doctors need a midwives if they are the one having a baby!

Today, Seth Godin wrote about a man trying to find the perfect consulting firm to help his company find their brand essence. Godin says going from expert to expert to find the perfect brand help is not really the point.  That speaks to my belief that the passion is in us but sometimes someone needs to help to bring it out and refine it. A person starting a new business  should take their experience and insight and great information and what they are passionate about sharing with the world and go for it. In that way, you have everything it takes to launch your new business now. But just like giving birth, can a woman do it herself? yes. Is it the best way? Absolutely not.  So essentially, find a person to be your midwife to your brand!

Suzanne Falter Barnes just launched a new version of it ( straight forward blog) and she has a photo of a brand new baby begin birthed. Hmmmm…..  Interesting to me is that here is a woman who is a brand specialist and has great information and a huge following and she talks about how hard it was for her to change to this new site format when she knew she needed to do something different and how she too needed help with the process.  Here is an example of one of her posts where she is talking about the new paradigm of business. She always inspires me.

Another person I follow does not talk about birth but she is a great speaker and expert on making a living speaking.  Lisa Sasevich has lots of info on how to get them  and how to parlay speaking into making a great living. It is all about developing all of the framework, the website has to look premier and clearly display your greatness then you develop an offering like a seminar or a book or podcasts or whatever in a way that you can sell them, you use the speaking engagements to get press through publicizing them with social media and sending them to your website and your events…. and on and on.  She has lots of great ideas.

If you are deciding to start a new business your homework is:

Find some websites that you like what they are saying/doing. Some in your niche and some doing business with themselves as their brand.

• Look at what their sites look like.
• How do they present their information.
• Check out their logos and what they put on the header of their sites
• What do they call  themselves, if anything.
• Do you see what their economic engine is? What are they selling? How would you contact them?
• How do they present themselves as a compelling  thought leader in their area?
• How do they present themselves on the site in terms of their background and credentials. ( check out how Suzanne Falter Barnes handles this) like you she has a specific corporate pedigree but she has gone on from that to work with her passion.

Call me let’s talk about it.

Seth Godin wrote a great post today on being extraordinary using the example of the marketing of this $20.00 bottle of soap. Now why would someone buy a bottle of soap at $20.00 when you could get a similar product for $3.00?  Read his post to find out what the extra $17.00  is for. Maybe this example is a little over the top but can you find ways to apply this concept to your product or service?

Often people have an actual  $20.00 product or service that we actually sell for 3.00 because we don’t have the confidence it takes to sell our product or ourselves. If you can’t do it, no one will do it for you. Work on the packaging and the presentation. Get the confidence to put it out there.  If you find you are stumbling in this area, get some coaching. Practice this. It is really important.

This morning I got a couple of e-mails from Gerald from Canada who is starting his own web design business . I am including our exchange on my blog since I think this is a good topic that relates to marketing any type of business.

Hello Judy

My name is Gerald  and I came across an article that was written last year making the point that many small businesses do not have a website.  You made the following comment with regards to the article.

“This is a great article. I had no idea the numbers of businesses without websites was so high, but it does not surprise me since I started a business this year doing websites for small businesses. Having been a small business owner myself I knew what the hurdles were to getting a site done and we have built out business based on overcoming these issues. We named our business New Tricks, and our motto is, “It’s never too late!”

I have started in the same space in Ottawa Canada and was interested to get your feedback to overcoming the “I don’t need a website” or “I’ve been doing just fine for 10 years on my own” mentality.

Any advice you can provide to assist my business up here would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Gerald

Gerald,

My advice to you is to pick the low hanging fruit. There are many people who already know their websites are not so great. They know that they could be adding content and easily updating the site themselves and sending content to Facebook and Linked-In and Twitter, but they think it is too overwhelming and don’t know where to start. Find them and make it easy for them to work with you.  There are other people who are  not ever going to buy what you are selling, without your knocking your head against the wall. Why do that to yourself?

Find your niche. In your case go after business owners who are ready, who have been feeling like they need to change but didn’t know where to turn. Go out and speak, hang out and talk to people at coffee shops, talk to people wherever you go. When you find someone who is interested, educate them about WordPress and how easy it is to manage as a small business and how you can help them.  They will work with you and they will love you. Good Luck.

Regards,

Judi Knight

Gerald responded back,

Thanks again, I appreciate your advice and help.  That’s good advice Judi thank you… One last question if I may… What would your response be to those business owners who say that they are swamped with business and don’t need a website?

Gerald

I responded back:

Gerald, Although I feel like a WordPress Missionary,  I know can’t save everyone. I’d say to that person, Good Work and Good Luck!  There will always be late adapters or obstreperous individuals such as those who brag that they will not ever get on Facebook. These folks barely have a microwave let alone an I-Phone. Let them be.

Determine your “Ideal Client Profile” and stick with directing your efforts towards them.  You should very specifically write down the definition of your “ideal client” so you can target your approach, your posts and your time on finding and converting them. I did this and it really helps direct my time and attention.

Here is the exercise I did based on work with my friend Margo Geller:

Great Marketing Exercise for a Small Business or Entrepreneur:

My Ideal Client:

• Has an old school brochure style website that is difficult to keep current and maintain.

• Wants to be able to increase and easily cultivate an on-going relationship with their customer base

• Has some understanding of what is possible with social media and web 2.0 but has been overwhelmed and not known where to start.

• Has tried to use or considered using their sister-in-law’s nephew just out of college or a template from Go Daddy and realize they will get what they paid for, and is ready to invest the time and money into doing it right.

• Understands the value of experience, expertise and reputation.

• Wants to be an active participant in using their web presence and social media as an important part of their marketing plan.

• Will make the time, and the money, energy and support people, required to get good results.

• Is interesting, honest, ethical, responsible and appreciative.

My Target Markets:

• Individuals starting freelance careers in their chosen professions after leaving corporate positions.

• Small businesses that need to project a top notch image with their brand and website both in design and usability.

• New and Established Entrepreneurs.

• Artists, Creative professionals, and Small Food Service and Retail.

Introduction:

1. Who are you? My name is Judi Knight. I am a web-designer, marketing coach and entrepreneur. My company is called New Tricks and our motto is, “It’s never too late” .
2. What do you do? I help small businesses create an on-line presence that resonates with who they are, using the latest web 2.0 technologies. I am passionate about teaching entrepreneurs to manage their own sites and use social media tools to create a client base who knows, likes and trusts them in order to grow their businesses.
3. Who are your clients? My clients are small business owners both new and established who need to create or improve their on-line presence using the latest web technologies that they can then maintain themselves. My ideal client understands the value of a polished, search engine optimized, web presence tied into social media tools and wants to be able to work it themselves. However they realize the benefit of having a expert who understands business, design and marketing set it up and teach them to use it.

My short introduction:

My name is Judi Knight, my business is  New Tricks. I work with small business owners to design and create WordPress Websites that they can maintain themselves. I also teach them to use their site along with the various social Media tools to grow their businesses.

Try this yourself and you will be sure to get more clarity in your marketing efforts.

I have a weekly marketing group for small businesses that meets for 90 minutes each week. In the group we are setting measurable goals and learning to target activities such as writing blog posts to help reach their goals.  I wrote these tips for them but wanted to share them here too.

Blogging Tips

1. Keep your target reader/customer/purpose in mind.
2. Break your posts into short paragraphs, with no more than 7 lines.
3. Use sub-headings between paragraphs. Helps readers to scan and not be overwhelmed.
4. Do not use a black background or text that is too small. Why do people have blog themes that make their writing impossible to read? On the other hand, don’t have text in your blogs posts the size of the senior edition Reader’s Digests .
5. Use links rather that writing out a link URL. And please check the links. Best to go to the site that you are linking to and copy their url and then paste it into the link box. Don’t guess.
6. Use bulleted lists or numbered lists. People like them and Google likes them.Win-Win.
7. Have calls to action on the pages that your posts are on. Don’t make people guess what you are wanting them to do. Make it easy for them to shop with you, become your client, sign up for your newsletter etc…
8.Use the “read more” tag in your posts so that the articles on the front page of your blog are not too long. You want people to be able to scan a number of the titles and thumbnails of your posts. If the posts go on too long they won’t keep scrolling.
9. Use images in your posts. They breaks up the text and makes your posts more appealing. Dreamstime is one of my favorite places to get images at reasonable cost. You only need the small low resolution graphics that don’t cost very much. You buy yourself $20.00or so, of Dreamstime credits then you have access to downloading the images you want.
10.Do post about other people’s posts and link back to them. Don’t copy their entire post. Just tell your readers what you liked about the material, maybe put your own take on it and then link to their posts. Hopefully you will write a post or two that other people will link to.
11. Make em mad, Make em laugh or Kick up some dust with your posts. These are the things that have people comment.
12. Ask questions of your readers. Get them to start commenting.
13. Use key word phrases( something someone may search on to find your article) in the title and the content of the post. Catchy headline titles are old school, print cliches. Your post titles may appear in a Feed Reader or search result, so they needs to describe what you have written about. On the other hand, don’t just stuff key words into your posts you will get dinged by Google and it is bad form and spammy.
14. For most blogs, you should write in the first person. Write conversationally. People want to know you and you should show up. And it will make it easier to read.
15. Proof read and spell check.
16. Keep a file of good blog post ideas that can move you towards your goals and then make a schedule as to when you will write what.

Homework

Marketing plan: Pick one short term goal that you have for your business. How will you measure it? What steps are you going to take to reach that goal?  Write post titles that may help you reach that goal. Schedule the posts. Write and post the first one.

Leave a comment here on the goal you would like to work on and your ideas for it.

I just finished reading Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin and one thing that struck me was his focus on the need for right brain activities in the business world. In fact he said, “All Artists are entrepreneurs and all entrepreneurs are artists”. What he is saying is that what we need and is now valued in society is work that you put your heart and soul into, work that matters. I then saw these prints that artist Hush MacLeod did of some of the concepts in Seth’s book.

I  just read a great post called Why Redesign Your Website? by HubSpot which is a SEO marketing Company that is pretty darn on target. I really liked what they said. One of the main points is that sure you have to have a well done site that is polished and put together, but…. the point is getting more visitors and leads, SO you do a redesign if you are not on a CMS platform, not because you are bored with the design or because your CEO wants it to be blue not red.

The HubSpot post quotes marketing guru, Seth Godin as saying,

“I’m going to go out on a limb and beg you not to create an original design. There are more than a billion pages on the web. Surely there’s one that you can start with? …Your car isn’t unique, and your house might not be either”.

The founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweig once said to me ( I love that he actually, in person,  said this to me)

“I wonder why any developer would build a theme from scratch for a client when there are over 5000 themes to customize and save them time and money”

The HubSpot post also touts creating great content as a hugley important activity and this content drives people to your site. Especially if it is a CMS site. Which brings me to another one of their points, That you should absolutely include a blog, RSS and landing pages.

They say,

Any website built today should include these basics.  They are not expensive, and they work.  A blog is a great way to create content on an ongoing basis, and to start to converse with your customers and prospects.  RSS allows some content from your website to be automatically pushed out to other websites and people, increasing the reach of your content.

So don’t take my word for it. Take the words of Matt and Seth and HubSpot to heart when you find yourself spending too much time with what the banner should look like. Yes, it should look sharp, but it really matters more that you get it out there and you have the right technology, the right navigation, and a way to start and keep adding really great content.

I am talking to a woman today who had her site redesigned over a year ago and it still has not gone live because she was paralyzed over the design the technology choices and her wording. I agree, for someone new to all of this it can be daunting. And there is a lot of competing information out there. There is a lot of OLD school information out there. Like selling people SEO services around key words and metatags, or people still building static, non-owner friendly sites that the site owner has to pay the developer every time they want it updated! At New Tricks, we really try and make it easy for you but it is nice to see organizations like HubSpot and people like Seth Godin confirming the path the New Tricks is guiding our clients down. Yes, of course I believe in good design, but it is important not to let your obsession on perfection stop you from doing it now.

In the words of my friend Grant Henry…” It is our duty to catapult each other into Greatness”

Now is the time….

Are you ready to step up and work on your business, your marketing plans, your website and help others do the same?  What I’m talking about is all about your willingness to step up to the plate and really do what it is you know you are meant to do. Is it time to get on with it? Are you ready?

You know it is not just about the money. I truly believe that the money comes when you jump off  from the fear to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to truly serve your peeps.

Are you ready to invest your time and money, take some risks to do things differently, step outside your comfort zone, ask for help, take a deep look at yourself and your business. What it takes is putting your ass on the line along with your heart and soul to make big things happen, sooner, rather than someday.

What is next for me and New Tricks, is to offer my clients this Catapult group. This past year, I have been very busy helping my clients with their brands and their on-line presence. I love what I do  because I want to help small creative business owners realize their wildest dreams. But, I also know how easy it is for people working on their own to get busy, get stuck, get complacent, lose heart, get afraid and put the business of growing their businesses on the back burner.

I have known that for each of you to have the kind of success you want for your businesses, you need more than a kick ass dynamic website. Many of you have told me that you need on-going support, accountability and information to take it to the next level. I am now stepping up to the plate to offer that to you in the form of the Catapult Group.

This “members only” group will meet each week, starting on

Date: January 26th
Day: Each Tuesday
Time: 1:00- 2:30

In this group you will:

Set short term and long term reachable business goals.
Identify the best use of your marketing resources to achieve your goals.
Develop a plan with action steps.
Be accountable to each other.
Learn about using free social media tools to achieve your goals.
Go beyond your comfort zone.
Get, ideas, support, feedback and attention.
Learn about inexpensive automated systems for your business.
Brag about your success.
Network.
Make a podcast.
Make a video.
Get new headshots from professional photographer.
Learn tips and tricks with WordPress, Photoshop, Twitter …..
Learn what kind of posts to write to get better search engine optimization.
Keep your site up current with up to date content designed to meet your goals.
Become more tech and marketing savvy.
Face and overcome your fears and blocks.
Work on your brand.
Receive honest feedback on your ideas.
Work with people who are rooting for you to win.
Get what you put into it.
and so much more…..

The price for this inaugural 6 months series….. will be $100.00 per month ( with a 6 month commitment)

But……for this introductory price you will also receive Free of Charge our $55.00 per month Save Your Ass website support (which, trust me, you really do need).

If you do not live here or cannot come to the group for some other really good reason, Please go sign up anyway for the “Save Your Ass Support” . There are many good reasons which you can read about when you click that link.

I will be sending each of you an e-mail estimate this afternoon, for this offer, which you can activate and sign up for through your New Tricks FreshBooks account. Upon signing up you will be invoiced each month for 6 months. If you drop out of the group, and you will still be billed for the remainder of the 6 month commitment and you will still receive your monthly maintenance for the six months  (basically, for 600.00 you are getting a 6 month group program and getting $330.00 worth of free maintenance service).

Please note:  Because of the low price, and required commitment neither this group or the support will be offered on a barter basis.

I hope to see you on Tuesday, January 26th  from 1 – 2:30 PM at New Tricks World Headquarters for our introductory session!

Eric Stromquist, of Stromquist and Company,  had a vision and he also has a great radio voice.  His company has been in business for 54 years and they have the Southeast territory as a distributor for commercial/industrial HVAC Control Systems. They already had a website that people could find and buy the many products they carry. What they didn’t have was a forum to collect and disseminate all of the great information on their products and their industry they had and continued to accumulate over time, nor did their existing site allow them to have a dialogue with their customers and potential clients.  Check out The Stromquist Control Trends site to see the Interview Eric did with Dene and I about using Social Media to accomplish their goals.

This is a great little article about building your business one  true fan at a time. In it Kevin Kelly is talking about making a living in the music industry, but the concept works for all of us. Build your list of peeps one at a time. True fans. True believers.

Marketing Guru, Seth Godin then adds a caveat,  ”You don’t find customers for your products. You find products for your customers”.  So keep in conversation with these true fans so that you can stay ahead of them and give them more of what they like, want and need. This doesn’t mean selling out. They might not even know what they want next. But if you really know your fans, customers or clients, you will be able to move them in the direction you are going and give them what they didn’t know they craved.

The New Tricks motto is,

It is never too Late

Here is a list I created of 10 free steps that will jump start your business into the New Year using social media technologies. Do it yourself or call New Tricks to do it for you, but please do it! You will be glad you did.

1. Google your business name and find out what comes up.  Do you come up? Is it what you want to see?  Does your business site come up or maybe a Yelp listing, or listing on some other site? Are those links correct, if not some of them allow you to “claim” your business so you can and correct the info, add pics and so forth. Are you satisfied with your placement or do you have work to do?
2. Set up a Google Profile for your personal name so people can find you and your business. Add all of your websites or links to it.
3. Add your company to Google’s local business center which puts you on Google Maps and so much more.
4. Ask your friends/employees/clients to give you feedback on your current website. Get a free consultation on your current website from a web designer who builds content management websites. There are new technologies available ( WordPress for one) that make it easy to have a great site that you can maintain yourself.
5. Sign up for Google Alert on your business name or brand. What are people saying about you or your business?
6. Set up Social Media Sites. Definitely start with a personal Facebook, a Twitter and a Linked -In account and go ahead and fill out your entire profile to include a real photo of yourself. Describe your business and regularly promote your products, but especially on Facebook do not make it only about your business, these are your fiends and they want to hear about you. Work it. Promote other things you come across, whether it be a  great blog post or  news item that your readers might be interested in. Recommend people you have worked with on Linked-In.
7. Get a TweetDeck account to direct your Twitters to the right accounts, ( multiple Twitter accounts and to Facebook) and have full function of  bity urls and pics on your tweets.
8. Create an e-mail signature that contains your contact information including social media addresses, blogs, websites and logo. You can add this pre-formatted signature to each and every e-mail you send out. You can easily add a text signature but we have a great post on adding a photo to your Gmail signature.
9. Google Social Media and find a few people that you like what your hear. Subscribe to their blogs or follow them on Twitter. Ask people who you admire who they follow.
10. Go to the Gravitar ( globally recognized avatar) website and add your profile picture. This photo will appear whenever you leave a comment on a Gravitar enabled website.

Have fun. The cool thing is all of these things are totally FREE. Social Media Guru, Seth Godin says,

The problem is no longer budget. The problem is no longer access to tools. The problem is the will to get good at it.

Remember this: Three frogs were sitting on a log. One decides to jump in. How many frogs are sitting on the log? Three. One decided to jump in – but he didn’t actually jump in. So jump on in.  It’s never too late. But you need to  go ahead and jump.