Linda's Business Blog

Customer Service: are you a May or How person?

In a potential sales situation, which of these two approaches do you think will bring a more successful response from a customer:

May I help you?

or

How can I help you?

If you are the salesperson or the business owner who inquires, the first question most often results in only 1 of 2 one-word responses:

"Yes" or "No"

If you ask the "May I help you?" question as part of your good customer service policy chances are your sales won't be as high as the salesperson or business owner who asks "How can I help you?"

The "How" question requires the potential customer to respond with a sentence.  Even if the response is "I don't need any help," or "I'm just looking," it is far more engaging than a simple, often dismissive "No."  The hoped-for answer, "Yes," often invites an inquiry back that opens up a true conversation between sales person and potential customer such as "Do you have this item in blue?"

As simplistic as this seems, the way in which you open a sales/potential customer scenario can make or break a sale.  Have you ever been shopping and been approached by the sales person who asked "May I help you?" and you could swear you heard in his or her voice a tone that almost begs you to reply in the negative?  I have.  It's as though the sales person doesn't really want to be bothered and hopes you'll just go away.  A "yes" answer is good, it does open the conversation but it requires further questions by the salesperson such as "How can I help you?" Better to just start out with "How can I help you?"

I think the gist of what I'm saying is that if you have a business, whether you are a solopreneur or the CEO of a major corporation, you have products/services that you wish, hope that others will purchase.  If you are the solopreneur then it is you and the customer...this is the quintessential direct selling situation.  If you are the CEO then you have selling divisions and personnel responsible for the selling situations.  Whichever case, it is important that the sales person have their heart in their work:

• a true belief that the products/services are worthy of sale, purchase and ownership
• a true belief in the value of the products/services
• a true desire to serve the interests of the potential customer

I follow the work of sales and positive attitude guru Jeffrey Gitomer.  He has an excellent article on his website, BuyGitomer, titled, "What's the best part of selling? Is it really just the sale?"  In this article he talks about getting your enthusiasm back for sales in what has been a down economy.  He lists thoughts to consider that remind a person of why they went into sales in the first place, such things as [from Mr. Gitomer's list] as:

• The challenge of asking and engaging.
• The great feeling of serving customers and helping them succeed.
• The personal pride of making the sale, and knowing the customer made the right choice.

Mr. Gitomer lists 5 things to put your heart into as regards sales:

1. Put your heart into your job.
2. Put your heart into your desire to serve.
3. Put your heart into your product belief.
4. Put your heart into your presentation.
5. Put your heart into delivering customer value.

So.   What better question to ask of a potential customer than, "How can I help you?"

Marketing and the Solopreneur

I don't think Ivanka Trump is actually a solopreneur, I think she is probably an entire industry.  I like to include photos at the beginning of a post and went to PicApp [a great place to get photos for blog posts by-the-way] to find one for the word 'businesswoman.'  And I got photos of Ivanka Trump!  Well, it does show her holding a book she wrote, "The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life' and attending a book signing.  A book signing is a great marketing strategy where the producer meets directly with the buying public...kind of like direct marketing don't you think?

Solopreneurs are small businesses; actually they are one-person businesses.  Solopreneur businesses run the gamut from virtual assistant to business consultant to network marketing opportunity independent distributor to writer to artist.  Solopreneurs have all the same business stuff to deal with as businesses of any size: accounts receivables, planning, marketing, producing products or fine-tuning services...whatever the owner of the local tavern has to do for his business the solopreneur has to do for hers just in differing ways and degrees.

Marketing is important to the solopreneur just as for the huge multi-national business.  I found a great website, The Solopreneur Life by Larry Kelto, himself a solopreneur.  He has a post on his site titled, "Our Hunt for the Best Marketing Web Sites for Solopreneurs."  In an interesting take on writing a post, he has listed some great resources in the 'comments' section of that post.  It's well worth checking out.

An online marketing venue that is new to my art business is that of YouTube.  Now everyone knows what YouTube is and people are always talking about interesting, funny or outrageous videos they've seen.  What didn't occur to me until recently was that YouTube can be a valuable part of a social media marketing strategy.  I read a book recently by Michael Miller, "YouTube for Business: Online Video Marketing for Any Business."   His book does a good job covering "How YouTube can help you market your business."  He asks good questions to consider such as:

• What is the purpose of your YourTube videos?
• Who is your customer?
• What does your customer want or need?
• What are you promoting?
• What is your message?
• How does YouTube fit within your overall marketing mix?

He gives a great list of possible online strategies:

1. email
2. websites
3. search engines
4. blogs
5. social networks
6. photo-sharing sites
7. video-sharing sites

I read through and studied Miller's book with the idea of using YouTube as part of my business' marketing strategy.  My newest marketing strategy was to sign on with a print-on-demand company, Fine Art America, as I mentioned in my last post on Linda's Business Blog.  At local art events this year, prints and notecards of my art images have been selling well so I wondered how I might expand that and Fine Art America fits that piece of marketing.  Now, how to spread the word about that?  After reading the book about marketing on YouTube and looking at videos by other artists and photographers it began to make sense.  I made my first "sales" video and uploaded it yesterday which you can see below.

There are many good 'tips for making YouTube work for your business' out there just by entering that phrase into a search engine.  I found a good one at Mashable, "Top 10 YouTube Tips for Small Businesses" written by Amy-Mae Elliott.  Her tips:

1. Create and customize your channel.  As a 'first' tip this is a good one.  Miller's book gives quite a bit of how-to on this.  So, it was the first thing I did.
2. Add subtitles.  I haven't done this yet as I have yet to make a video that is a "movie" with talking; right now my videos are artistic slideshows with text.
3. Don't overuse annotations.  Seems YouTube allows you to "write over" parts of your video but I don't see the need.  I agree with Elliott that "...Sure, you want to grab people’s attention and make an immediate impression, but your video content and other info you’ve added to the site should be enough to not have to rely on extraneous text...."
4. Act to remove offensive comments.  Elliot gives good advice for this tip and so does Miller in his book.  He says, "...There's no right or wrong here. Just know that if you enable comments, you will receive some negatives one. How you respond to those negative comments depends on how your company deals with them...."  Since my company is just me I decided to enable 'moderated' comments so that I can best handle this issue.
5. Engage with the YouTube community.  This is good advice whether you are participating on YouTube or any other social media site for business reasons.  In the real world, if you belong to the local chamber of commerce and derive a portion of business from the community itself, especially business-to-business, then you really ought to go to the mixers.  Be a good business neighbor.
6. Organize your content. 
7. Don't overlook tags.  Both Elliott and Miller give great advice here.  Anyone familiar with social media, blogging, websites, and article writing knows how very important tags and keywords are for search engine reasons...people need to find you.
8. Promote your YouTube videos elsewhere.  Of course.
9. Use YouTube's free analytics tools.  I've just gotten started on YouTube and have already found value here.
10. Don't neglect your channel.  The obvious here is that making social media of any kind or variety a part of your marketing strategy is also you making a commitment to your business - a commitment of time and creativity. 

I would encourage any type of solopreneur business that is not already utilizing YouTube to take a look.  Also during this month's review of your business plan, see where this might fit.  -  You do review your business plan every month don't you?

What is the Business of Business for an Artist-preneur?

Times they have changed...but not all the way.  Artists still use easels and canvas and brushes and pigment but the female artists I know [me included] no longer wear those ridiculously tight and long and hot dresses! 

Although I think we're all influenced by those who went before us in whatever profession we work.  Tools may change over time, materials may upgrade or go out of existence but the desire to manipulate the media [speaking of art materials] to express through color and shape and form an idea or feeling remains a shared thing.  I expressed this thought as the closing statement on my art blog, Mosaic Mandalas, today.  Doesn't matter the profession, we learn from the successes and failures of those who went before.

Business is the same.  I remember ten years ago when I was considering becoming a full-time working artist I did some research into art marketing.  Not the "where do you go to buy art" type of marketing, but the "where does an artist market his or her work" type of marketing.  In doing my research I read of the trials and tribulations of artists who tried one marketing ploy after another in an effort to peddle their wares.  The key point I learned from all this research was this: marketing is no different for an art business than for any other type of business - you have to communicate to and connect with the marketplace.

So an artist has to ask: where are the people who are looking to purchase Art looking?  Then the artist must ply their selling efforts in those places:

• outdoor art shows and festivals - these are where individual artists and artisans [fine artists and fine art craftspeople] set up a booth and sell their art works: directly artist to end buyer
• exhibits and shows - these are art exhibits where an artist has one or two works hanging that are for sale during the run of the exhibition: artist receives a percent of the sale, anywhere from 70%-80%
• galleries - these are the traditional brick and mortar storefronts that represent one or more artists: artist receives a percent of the sale, anywhere from 50%-60%
• online: this is a whole 'nother world.  There are online galleries that charge a commission for sales, others that do not.  There are online companies that allow an artist to have their images for sale as prints and notecards - the artists gets a flat amount per print or notecard, but they retain the physical original...some of these companies will list the sale price of the original and provide a way for a prospective customer to contact the artist directly.  [These companies make their money on the sale of the accouterments that attend a print: the matting and framing.]
• artists' own websites and gallery pages - here the artist sets up their website and gallery pages - this is artist to end purchaser directly.

The above are some of the places people looking for art to buy find it and places where artists put their work for sale.  There still remains the whole marketing thing, how you let your target market know where to find your work.

• most outdoor art festivals have their own marketing/advertising to publicize the event as a whole.  Individual artists still need to let their audience know that they will be there
• most exhibits are advertised and publicized as a whole before the fact and are lucky if they get media coverage for the opening reception after the fact
• all galleries employ their own marketing strategies to advertise the gallery as an entity and the artists they represent
• online - depends upon the entity: a print-on-demand company markets both to an art buying public and to artists [they need to have art uploaded to their site for the public to buy]; an online gallery, like its brick and mortar counterpart will market itself
• artists with their own websites and gallery pages hold the entire magilla of marketing

So what to do?  The business of business for an artist-preneur is to 1) produce work and 2) sell that work.

• maintain a mailing list of people who have a) said they enjoy your work and b) will allow you to market to them via either postal or e-mail
• take full advantage of online Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, blogging
• publicize yourself through press releases [awards won, major show appearances, etc.]
• have your booth at relevant art festivals
• take active part in exhibits and events such open studios tours
• seek gallery representation if that is part of your overall business plan
• have images with the best print-on-demand online company you can find
• image licensing

There are many ways to market [advertise and publicize] your work and the above list is not exhaustive.

So.  I am an artist-preneur and have taken my own business advice...which is saying a lot as it is so much easier to give someone else advice than to follow it - that whole 'do as I say, not as I don't do myself' thing!

I took a sabbatical last year [2009] from my art business to re-do my business plan and direction.  The result has been an exciting 2010 for my home-based business.  Taking my own advice:

1. I have had my work in exhibits - winning an award in one for one of my new mandala mosaic pieces
2. I've filled my 2010 schedule with relevant outdoor art shows where I set up my booth and have original work for sale as well as prints and notecards - an am participating in an open studios tour in October [I'm pleased to be one of the artists listed on Chico's Artoberfest site]
3. At this point gallery representation is not in my business plan; however I did just this week sign up with a premier print-on-demand company, Fine Art America.
4. I'm getting more adept at utilizing Social Media for my art business.  I started a Fan Page on Facebook [see the Fan Box in the right hand column] specifically for my art business which has direct access to my work on Fine Art America - my Fan Page has a shopping cart which allows for direct purchasing of prints and notecards via FAA.  Pretty cool from a business standpoint.
5. I do have an art blog, and there are gallery pages which showcase my work.  Part of the traffic to my blog is a result of utilizing Twitter for announcing new posts to the blog.

There is still much more I can do from a purely business standpoint for my business and I'm working on it.  And down economy or not, paying attention to the business of business is key to remaining in business for any type of endeavor.

Is a Customer Service Strategy important?

Here's a question for a woman-owned business [okay, it's really a question for any business owned by anyone]: is it important to have a strategy in place for Customer Service?

Asked a different way: does your business plan include a well thought out strategy for Customer Service?  Is it written down as a policy and procedure kind of thing?  Or are your thoughts on the matter along these lines:

• My company is too small to worry about a hardcore customer service plan.
• I'm a solo-preneur, for what reason do I need a concrete customer service strategy?
• I believe in dealing with customer service issues as they arise.
• I'm more interested in attracting new customers than retaining old ones.

Recently I was given an interesting study regarding this very issue.  It came via Forbes.com Forbes Insights and is titled, "Strategies for Recovery: Woman-Owned Small Businesses Put the Customer First."  This was sponsored by Key4Women, a program of Key Bank.  The summary:

• "...There’s little doubt that woman-owned small businesses understand the importance of customer service, and coming out of the 2008-09 recession, boosting loyalty and retention are clearly top priorities. But even with this customer-centric approach, a sizable number of these companies are not taking advantage of the full range of loyalty tools, and many don’t even have a formal customer service strategy in place...."

In a nutshell this study - which was based on a survey of more than 300 women small business owners - examined their "attitudes and actions" on the subject of customer service and found that:

1. most relied on old-fashioned, "tried and true" customer service practices
2. most did not utilize online tactics [including social media] to enhance customer retention and prospecting
3. many were hampered by a lack of planning...knowing that customer service is a good thing is not enough...you need a plan for it

I found one of the statistics revealing in answer to the question: Does your company have a dedicated customer service strategy?

• 18% replied yes, they did have a concrete company-wide strategy
• 55% replied that they approached customer service on a case-by-case basis
• 27% replied no - no plan at all

My initial reaction to these figures was Oh My Gosh!  A whopping 27% of respondents had no plan at all for addressing customer service and a huge segment preferred the shotgun approach.  By this I mean that if you operate your customer service policy as case-by-case then you have no consistency.  Without a formal concrete strategy that takes into account the 1) nature of your business, 2) the nature of your products and/or services, 3) who your current customers are and 4) who your desired new customers are you are flying blind.  What you say to Customer A in Situation A will be different than how you handle Situation B with Customer B.  This could lead to all kinds of mis-communication and potential loss of both business and reputation.

Here's a very simplified example:  I have a candle business.   I make my products and sell them through craft shows and on consignment through gift shops.  I have no formal plan for customer service.  One day a customer contacts me saying that the package of candles she bought the previous week did not perform adequately and wished a refund.  I decided to go ahead and refund her purchase.  On another day a different customer contacts me and says she is displeased with her purchase and asks what recourse there might be.  In this case I tell her that every purchase is final.  I don't offer this customer a refund or a replacement.  Should these two customers ever find one another and compare notes...well, you can see the potential problems for my candle business.

Over the next few weeks I want to take a deeper look at the survey and present some thoughts and research of my own.  I also invite feedback; it would be great to get a discussion going.

In your business do you have a dedicated customer service strategy?

When a Small Business is a Delight of Words

Have you ever considered that an author, a writer, is also a small business person?  A solo-preneur  whose business is the written word, published and distributed? 

I love to discover things that are new-to-me whether they are products or services or businesses...foods, beverages, destinations...Life has so much variety!  I'm a voracious reader...I read business "stuff" but for recreation and sheer pleasure I read novels...detective, murder mysteries and spy stories and sheer adventure.  I have several authors' whose books I collect which I'll mention below.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent some time on vacation this month and in typical tourist style, I took a fiction novel with me to the beach [I actually read my way through two and a half novels, finishing the third just yesterday in the comfort of my recliner here at home].  This third work is by author Louise Penny who has introduced to me a new character, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the homicide department of the Surete du Quebec.  Fictional of course.  And it was halfway through my reading of this book, The Brutal Telling, that it hit me: authors are solo-preneurs.  Just like visual artists.  And actors.  And many musicians.  To me writing is one of the artistic creative endeavors.  Even if the material is factual, it has to be crafted through the mosaic of words, grammer, spelling, syntax and punctuation.

Louise Penny weaves a magnificent tapestry of delightful phrasing in the telling of her murder mystery.  Her characters are rich and layered.  And her prose is a delight to read.  Penny surprises you with unexpected morsels: "...Ruth Zardo, despite her extreme age, her limp, and her diabolical temperament, had been elected head of the volunteer fire department. In hopes, Beauvoir suspected, that she'd perish in the flames one day. But he also suspected she wouldn't burn...."  I read this and chuckled because this unique way of describing the old poet made me almost see her - so crotchety she wouldn't even burn.  

There are many solo-preneur businesses that require their products to be produced during solitary hours; hours spent over an easel or drafting table; hours spent at a keyboard; hours spent in a kitchen making pies or cupcakes or candles; or hours spent at a sewing machine.  Authors produce a product that can be enjoyed.  I'm glad I found the work of Louise Penny and look forward to adding her products to my collection.

Other authors whose work I collect:

• Sue Grafton: author of the alphabetical series starring private investigator Kinsey Millhone - I love Kinsey!  I read "U is for Undertow" earlier this year and now waiting for "V."
• Clive Cussler: My late dad and I were fans of the Dirk Pitt adventures and I wish my dad were still here so he could have enjoyed the latest one I recently read, "Arctic Drift."  This one was co-written by Cussler's son, Dirk Cussler.
• Michael Chrichton: who hasn't read "Jurassic Park?"
• Books by the team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child: I discovered this duo when I read their book, "Relic."  I read it and thought 'wow! this would make a great movie!' and so it was.  Relic the movie came out 1997 starring Tom Sizemore, Penelope Ann Miller, Linda Hunt and James Whitmore.  Sometimes I like a good old-fashioned monster movie and this fit the bill!

Other authors whose works I collect: Tami Hoag, Nevada Barr, John Grisham, Anne Perry, Tony Hillerman, Ellis Peters, and Iris Johansen.

My solo-preneur business is that of visual artist [painter and mosaic artist] and I'm pleased to say that my products are also collected. It's cool to be in a market niche where products can bring joy and enjoyment to their purchasers.

Artist-preneurs create Beautiful Businesses

Never let it be said that artists are not also business people.  In fact, artists of all stripes [painters, mosaic artists, sculptors, fine jewelry, fine art photography and more] are "manufacturers" of a product they hope to sell.  I'm not talking about the hobbyist here, but rather the working artist.  These are people who are direct sellers of their work through art shows and festivals; they put their works in galleries and other settings where they hope for a share of sale [gallery commissions can range from as low as 30% to as high as 60%]; they offer smaller price points through the sale of cards and prints; they have their work available online and sometimes sell licensing rights for their images.

Yes, working artists are small business people and a great majority work from home...so they are home business owners.  I like the term artist-preneur and first coined it this past February in a post I wrote about the quiet business sector.  In my article I said: "...Most artists are solo-preneurs meaning that they own their own business, they produce their own products, they sell their products themselves and do all the in-between work of a business...."

This past Saturday I participated in an art event in my community...I am one of those artist-preneurs.  This was a craft and art show and three artist friends and I shared a sale table.  We offered small original works, prints, cards and other small items.   One of those friends is artist Linda Jeffery Sailors; I interviewed her for my art blog in January.  On her website's biography page, Linda says she, "...currently runs a fine arts business...." 

Another artist sharing our sales table was Lenore Kreit.  I've shared several sales events with Lenore and we've discussed the recessed economy and its effects on the art world more than once.  The third member of our 4-artist table was fine art photographer, Claudia Schwalm.

In this photo you can see our sales offerings: Linda's small original watercolor works to the far right, Claudia's photography cards in baskets next; Lenore's basket of small original works and prints and notecards to left of center; then my cards and prints at the left end of the table. 

I met some other artist-preneurs at this event and wanted to mention two others.  Artist Laura Davidson has a name for her company that I found charming: Firefly Moon. She offers handmade products using original art and design for jewelry, notecards and other products.  I asked her about the name she chose for her company and she said she fell in love with fireflies "down on the farm."  I've never seen a firefly...but then I've never spent any time on a farm either.

Owner [with her helper] of Gallup Jewelry is another artist I met this past Saturday [and many apologies, but I neglected to write down her first name - and I used to be a reporter!] She had some beautiful examples of wire sculpture.  She also had this little basket of rings on sale for $1.50; she called them her "practice" rings...I bought one because I thought it lovely and because the color in the leaf-shaped beads compliments my wedding ring [I'm not fond of diamonds - I prefer colored gems].

It's difficult to find economic statistics about the art world, especially about the visual arts sector.  However I found an interesting article at U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics that gives a hint in their 2010-2011 Occupational Handbook:

• "...Median annual wages of salaried fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators, were $42,650. The middle 50 percent earned between $29,230 and $60,650. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $20,780, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $83,410...
• Earnings for self-employed artists vary widely. Some charge only a nominal fee while they gain experience and build a reputation for their work. Others, such as well-established freelance fine artists and illustrators, can earn more than salaried artists. Many, however, find it difficult to rely solely on income earned from selling paintings or other works of art. Like other self-employed workers, freelance artists must provide their own benefits...."

Reading that information, you have to wonder why someone would choose art as a home business.  It's like anything else though, you build your business around your passion, what you are interested in, what you know best.  Like all the artists I know, in the several communities where I show my work, we are all hoping for a much better selling season this year.

Twitter is for You too, the Solo-preneur

This is one impressive bird!  This bird of prey doesn't just tweet, it commands its presence in the skies and demands you acknowledge its existence.  Kind of like some people's Twitter tweets.  Back to birds.

This fellow is one who shared a bit of beach with me two springs ago at one of my favorite California towns, Half Moon Bay.  Gulls are pester-ers.  If you are a sea fisher-person and clean your catch dockside, you know what I mean.  They like to hang around and screech and chatter, not saying much, just looking for handouts. These birds, too, are like some people who use Twitter.  

These two are the subject of a photo I titled, "Visitors."  We were approaching the wharf at Monterey [CA] and these two geese were strolling along as though they were good friends on a tourist trip themselves.  They were sharing a beautiful day at a beautiful destination site with the humans around them.  This, too, is like some people who use Twitter.

George is part of my own flock.  He is both raucous and sweet.  If you give him a piece of fresh corn he will purr like a cat with the pleasure of it but if he sees a cat in the yard he'll holler an alert that will hurt your eardrums.  His tweets can alert me to danger, or tell me he's pleased with something.  Because he is an Amazon Parrot he also sings [opera is a favorite], talks, yells and laughs.  He's actually the perfect Twitter user.

Do I need to describe what Twitter is?  I don't think that's really necessary.  You can learn all you need at the Twitter about page.  Much discussion exists, however, about the best way to utilize this free service...especially if you are a business owner.  And businesses of any size and complexity can benefit from its addition to its marketing platform. 

I'm especially interested in the small business owner, the tiny business owner: the solo-preneur.  If you have a web presence at all, Twitter should be a part of it.  Rather than just say it myself, I sought out some other folks' opinions on the matter.

One of the people I follow on Twitter is Melinda Emerson, @smallbizlady.  She has a great article about why small business folk ought to utilize Twitter - in fact, I found a video where she talks about these points too.  In her article, titled "8 Ways to Use Twitter to Grow Your Small Business," she says [in part]:

• "...know your niche customer..." - I agree; knowing your target market is a key element to every part of your marketing strategy
• "...give to get...." - I love this tip of Melinda's.  She says, "...Twitter and all of social media is about giving to others and adding value...."
• "...Use 4:1 ratio...."- in essence she is saying to promote others and soft-sell yourself.

I found two articles at Social Media Today that have some good info on this topic.  One is by Stuart Crawford and he asks, "Small Business: Is Twitter Important?"  In his article he says, "... I believe effective use of Twitter has some importance for a business and your presence on Twitter can help with your overall online fishing...." 

I found two interesting points in the comments section following the article. 

• One comment, by Owen Greaves included this thought: "...Twitter has allowed me to reach more people faster than any traditional means ever could. I spent 15 years in Radio & Television and I can tell you that today I would not recommend traditional advertising vehicles. I would however, recommend Twitter over Radio and a FaceBook Fan Page for better each than TV...."
• The other comment, by Dr. Edward Wallington included this: "...Twitter, and other social media, allow business to communicate to a wide audience in real time and to see what others are saying, to guage views, comments etc. I see social media as an essential communication and marketing tool...businesses that actively use social media are at an advantage in this ever increasingly competitive market place and economic climate - it's the edge that counts!..."

The other article is by Dan Schawbel, "How to Create Evangelists for Your Brand on Twitter."  Among the points he makes:

• "...Define your goals...What is your goal? To attract new clients? Grow awareness for a cause? Land a job? Whatever the case, you’re going to want to engage the right people in the right way on Twitter.
• Proactively join relevant conversations...find conversations surrounding your industry.
• Focus on quality over quantity...tweet useful links, tips, quotes, advice, and experiences that resonate with your followers, and retweet those who add value to you...."

One of the blogs I check in with on a regular basis is She Takes On The World, created by Natalie MacNeil.  A recent article, written by contributing author Sylvia Browder, "Six Surefire Ways to Grow Your Business," addresses social marketing with this thought: "...Social media is a great way to leverage your products or services. It is an easy and inexpensive way to connect to people around the world and an opportunity to make friends with people who have similar interests, find solutions to problems they might have by collaborating with others, as well as attract clients that might need your products or services...."  She adds, "...It just makes good business sense to learn how to leverage social media to build communities around brands and then leverage them into revenue...."

I think you can get the idea that if your business has a web presence at all, in order to let various publics know about it [which is the essence of marketing] you need to utilize all the ways in which people are now receiving information...and social media is one of those ways...and Twitter is one of those services.  What do I do?  My Twitter moniker is @LindaCSmith [and I invite readers to connect with me via Twitter].  I use Twitter for my business:

• it is linked with my Facebook profile and business page
• it is linked with my LinkedIn profile
• it is linked with my blogs: this one and my art blog

How can you use Twitter's tweets?

• product launches
• product changes
• location changes
• special events
• staff changes
• special "deals"
• build relationships with customers
• share, teach, connect
• announcements and updates
• blog posts
• quotes and sayings

The solo-preneur, home-based business owner can leverage social media effectively just like large companies do and can.  There is quite a lot of information out there on how to make it work for you...just do a search.  Remember, 140 characters is all you have, but within that you can say quite a bit.

 

iPhone Developer Entrepreneurs

I happened to give some thought to a business sector of which I've never before given thought: that of the app developer entrepreneur.

Here's how I define entrepreneur: someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it.  You put up the capital and all the risk is yours; all the benefits are yours also. [This does not preclude the tiny start-up that uses funds from family and friends or a small bank loan.]

But wait - an entrepreneur is also a small business owner - a business that is independently owned and operated, with a small number of employees, if any [1-10], and relatively low volume of sales. [This is relative of course.  Some small businesses do millions of dollars in gross sales; most do not reach that high.]

I think an entrepreneur is also a business leader - someone with the capacity to establish direction and to influence and align others toward a common goal AND an innovator: someone who introduces something new.  This is certainly true of many developers of apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and possibly the iPad.  So what's an app?

PCMag has a great definition - "...APPlication) The term has been used as shorthand for "application" in the IT community for decades but became newly popular for mobile applications, especially since the advent of Apple's App Store in 2008...."

For someone like me...the non-technical, non-computer talker...that wasn't enough of a definition.  So I thought of an app as a tiny program, just like my email program.  My new iPhone [finally I'm catching up on technology] came with some already-loaded apps like a calendar, weather, compass, calculator and maps.  Handy little programs, or apps.  

It seems that the attractive magic of the smart phone and specifically iPhone is:

• portable information access
• synchronization of that information
• touch screen technology - fingertip as opposed to using a stylus - no extra hardware needed
• multi-use - it's not just a phone, not just a voicemail or email system, it's also a way to access the internet, and download programs for business, education or entertainment

In the introduction to the book, "iPhone User Interface Design Projects" is the information that, "...the number applications on the App Store will have crossed the 100,000 mark..." and at the publisher's site for the book, "...and 125,000 registered iPhone developers...."  Wow.  That is a lot of tiny programs and quite a few entrepreneurs who design/invent them.  This is a new and growing business sector and a viable one for a home-based business.

One example of an app developer/designer entrepreneur is David Barnard, creator of the suite of App Cubby apps. [Gas Cubby, Trip Cubby and Health Cubby]  In the above mentioned book, David Barnard writes Chapter One and says, "...I came to the iPhone platform not as an experienced developer, seasoned entrepreneur, or even programming hobbyist but as a rabid fan...."  As with many entrepreneurs, Barnard began his business because he was excited and passionate about the possibilities.  On his website he writes of his role in his company, "...After many years as a recording engineer, David founded App Cubby as an alternative to the long hours and late nights at the recording studio. He now works even longer hours and even later nights as both Team Lead and Office Lackey...."

Barnard is basically a solo-preneur.  He lists the contractors he works with on his website's company page.  This shows that the entrepreneurs who make apps often don't work alone, rather they work with other entrepreneurs, contracting out the elements in which they don't have expertise.  One formula:

• have a "light bulb" moment of a good idea for an app
• assign yourself the element for which you hold expertise such as coding
• contract out the other elements: digital designer, graphic design, marketing, and so forth

Entrepreneur to entrepreneur the app business sector is a vibrant one.

MoJo Tweeting with Marshall Goldsmith

I love Twitter, that company, application, website that lets you nano-blog - write something, anything, in 140 characters or less whenever you want.  Twitter updates, or postings, are called tweets. 

Mojo is a slang word long used to mean one's personal groove.  In antiquity, the term referred to a magical charm or amulet or magical powers.  I admit to being a fan of science fiction.  I'm a lifelong fan of the television show Star Trek and all its incarnations; I enjoy Stargate SG-1 - I'm working my way through all 10 seasons for about the third time.  In Season Seven, in one episode, the character of Teal'c undergoes a severe challenge to his sense of self and when this is resolved at the end of the episode, the team leader, Colonel O'Neill, tells him that he has his mojo back. 

Marshall Goldsmith says mojo is, "...the moment when we feel we're 'on a roll,' firing on all cylinders, and everyone around us senses it...."  Goldsmith is referred to as America's preeminent executive coach. He is among a select few consultants who have been asked to work with more than sixty CEOs. His clients have included many of the world's leading corporations. Goldsmith has helped to implement leadership development processes that have impacted more than one million people around the world.

He has a Ph.D. from UCLA and is on the faculty of the executive education programs for Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan. The American Management Association recently named him as one of fifty great thinkers and business leaders of the past eighty years.  And he has written a little book called #MOJO Tweet - 140 Bite-Sized Ideas on How to Get and Keep Your Mojo.  

 I found this book relevant because to be a small business owner, a solo-preneur, requires you to be and stay on your toes.  It requires:

• energy
• discipline
• passion
• a desire to make your dreams reality

Some of my favorite Mojo Tweets in this book are:

• #42: Five qualities that you need to bring to an activity in order to do it well are: motivation, knowledge, ability, confidence, and authenticity.
• #65: You don't write a mission statement.  You live it and breathe it.
• #111: Fact: People with high Mojo tend to be assaulted with opportunities. This happens at all levels, high and low.
• #128: Live your mission in the small moments too. When to stay, when to go? It's better to jump than be pushed.

I find relevance in #42 because each of those five qualities is vital to the small business owner:

1. motivation - the dream and passion for the initial business idea has to remain strong enough and alive enough to fuel the engine of the day-to-day activities
2. knowledge - this is both a knowing yourself and your abilities, but also knowing your industry and specific business inside and out and maintaining a habit of continual improvement
3. ability - it takes more than a dream to make a go of a business - the "what" of your business needs to be something for which you have the gifts and talents - both the intuited and the learned
4. confidence - this is the quality of surety: knowing what you know and knowing you can find out what you need to know
5. authenticity - being "real" is about being transparent...letting your customers, your competitors, all your publics see who you are and what your business is about

Number 65 is important.  Every business should have a mission statement.  Goldsmith's tweet is a reminder that the mission statement should be a reflection of the vision for the business and that both should be organic...a living, breathing reason to have your business.

The #111 tweet says that if your mojo is on, and as Goldsmith says is "...firing on all cyclinders," then it means that you are looking out at the landscape and able to see opportunities...when we're looking inward all we can see is ourselves and opportunities pass us by.

I agree with number 128 - know when to hold them, and know when to fold them, as the saying goes.  However, when folded, just deal a new hand and stay on mission.

Not every book in our business library needs to have a 500 pages to be valuable.  Sometimes bite-sized morsels are more than enough provided they are packed with value in every thought.

Home-based business owners are solo-preneurs

"Hey mom," offered my daughter over the phone recently, "did you know you were a solo-preneur?"  I, of course, had no way of knowing if she hyphenated 'solo-preneur,' and frankly I didn't know she was aware of the concept.  But I should have as both my daughters are extremely bright and brilliant young women! A note about being a Baby Boomer and mom to two extremely bright and brilliant young women...it's a challenge!  Kim, the older of the two, attended and graduated from Chico State University in northern California getting her degree in music.  She then taught high school music [this included classroom, choirs and marching band] for 5 years.  Then along came Matthew.  Now she is the busy mother of a 2-year old, teaches piano in her home and has turned her creative muse to mosaic art - something she and I share.   Jenn, the younger, is an actress, just building her resume.  She has some impressive Indie work already and she and I are looking to do some kind of collaboration regarding my fiction novel...more to come about that.  Jenn has a mind sharper than an ancient samuri sword and continuously amazes and humbles me with her keen insights into politics and world affairs.  Both girls have always given me worthwhile input in my endeavors.  So, to have one of them offer her opinion that I, as the owner of a home-based business, am a solo-preneur - well, I had to run to my laptop and look that up. I found what I think is the perfect definition of solo-preneur. [I hyphenate the word...but that's me.]  Abacus Coaching Ltd. [find their homepage here] defines it as:

• "An entrepreneur who works alone, "solo", running their business single-handedly. They may use Associates or Contractors yet they have full responsibility for the running of their business."

I love what Bryan Leslie, owner this business consultancy in the UK says about the responsibilities of being a solo-preneur: "...you are responsible for the following activities within your business, either by doing the work yourself, or by outsourcing a combination of your businesses primary, secondary and support functions...." He lists these as Primary:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Operations
• Customer Services

As Secondary:

• Finance
• Quality Control
• Statistics
• Continuous Improvement

As as Support Functions:

• Research
• Human Resources
• Systems
• Training and Development

This list seems overwhelming at first blush for the person who is going their business alone and does no outsourcing at all.  There are millions of small home-based businesses where every one of Bryan Leslie's responsibilities are piled, one atop the other, on the lone soldier looking out over the battlefield of commerce. However.  It's do-able.  Being a solo-preneur requires certain gifts and skills:

1. determination above all...the will "to do"
2. diligence and discipline...keep at it
3. a positive mental outlook that feeds the emotional engine...like the little train, tell yourself "I think I can," then you'll know you can and you will
4. belief in your business and yourself...you had a big "why" that caused you to start your business in the first place; keep that dream alive and real and know that you are the best person to make it come to pass through the vehicle of the business that you chose to build

As a home-based business person, you can ask yourself:

• Am I an entrepreneur? Someone who saw a need or an opportunity and through innovative thinking found a way to meet or fill that need or op?
• Am I a small business owner? This is certainly so...you own and operate your business...there is no one else's name on the dotted line.
• Am I a business leader? Many business owners claim to be business leaders through the semantics of ownership...however, a leader carries the vision and sets the direction.  If you have given your business a vision and mission, then consider yourself a business leader.
• Am I an innovator? Not everyone can see the possibilities of a home business; and not everyone can shoulder the responsibilities of being the leader, the manager and the worker bee all in one person.  So, yes, you are an innovator of your business.

Entrepreneur + small business owner + business leader + innovator equals solo-preneur in the world of the single-owner home-based business.