Small Business Blog from Atlantic Canada

I am "CA" Atreya (PMP, MBA), the author of this blog. I help businesses in Atlantic Canada achieve their BHAG successfully. You may subscribe to this blog using a feed reader (RSS).

The Carnival of Small Business Issues completes one month. I am sure with the insights you contribute, we can achieve many more and bigger milestones.

We finally got some some good weather this weekend. As I begin this compilation, I see people out gardening, mowing, out on a walk, or just chilling out with a few beers and friends.

And then there are those of you who are at work. Entrepreneurs and small businesses owners may not necessarily take even such a weekend off. I just wanted to let you know that we are right there along with you doing our bit to help you move your mountain.

Finally, please do link to the carnival and support its growth. I have also placed a link on the sidebar to the blog carnival submission page as a permanent link for those who want to submit articles to the next edition.

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Finance

• I doubt if anyone needs an introduction to Scott Allen. For those who do, he is currently the Entrepreneurs Guide at About.com. His passion is helping people build business relationships online. With over twenty years of experience, he would definitely know a thing or two about Borrowing to Build Your Business. “Many small business owners think of debt as a 4-letter word. OK, it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s only a last resort. In many cases, [if you are a responsible money manager] borrowing money makes better business sense than bootstrapping or equity financing … borrowed money is cheaper than invested money … don’t be afraid of debt financing … “

Comment: In a society that borrows to exist, I thought small business borrowing was a norm, Scott. Of course, as you rightly pointed out, often times the business owner must be the guarantor or a co-signor. I would, however, caution entrepreneurs to stay out of long term debt (especially when they are the guarantor/co-signor) and be prepared to quit (if things do not go too well).

Marketing

• Barbara Sundquist, a self-employed business consultant, is the brains behind HomeBusinessWiz.com. When working for the government, she couldn’t stand: 1. riding up the elevator the same time every morning, and 2. having to stay at work on slow afternoons when nothing was getting accomplished. Creating a Stable Email Address - No matter What Google Does is about ensuring the validity of your small business email address even if Google goes under (worst case scenario - right Barbara?)

Comment: Barbara, if my SMTP sever belonged to a bad IP block, I think I would immediately move to a different hosting company, even if it is just for emails. I am not sure if I want to use gmail as an SMTP server. A unique domain represents (at least when you look at the business card) a level of professionalism that gmail or similar free email service does not provide. Would you not agree?

• Ashton Udall assists small businesses, startups and inventors manage overseas engineering and design, sourcing, manufacturing and shipping. In his post Market your product online, offlline, both: The sky is the limit Ashton talks about using both online and offline marketing methods to generate publicity. ” … that creative stunt earned the non-profit $1.9 billion in free advertising … smaller companies [now] have more opportunities than ever to capitalize on creativity, technological savvy and integration to market and sell their products.”

Comment: This is a great post Ashton. It just goes to show how an organization can market effectively using both the channels. Small businesses generally tend to stick to online ones since they are cheaper than say, direct mail. In order to maximize your marketing ROI, small businesses need to plan ahead and choose the offline activities to match online ones.

• Brennan Ryan is the co-founder (along with Steve Gray) of Free Business Tips. You can benefit from their pain by using their resources to avoid some of the challenges you may face. Networking - How to make profitable relationships in 7 easy steps: “Networking is not about numbers, it’s about relationships … It’s not about meeting as many people as you can; it’s about helping as many people you can.”

Comment: An amazing article Brennan. Kudos. What more can I say?

• Tinu Abayomi-Paul is a semi-retired web promotion specialist. She writes about encounters of the online kind at Web Wahala. In her post Fear and Loathing of Sharing in Web 2.0 she writes that sharing knowledge is good marketing. “If you are in business to make some cash, that is probably going to sound a little soft to you. You want cold hard numbers about how participating in all this fuzzy, warm web 2.0 googey goodness is going to help you increase sales by x percent … This “share to get” philosophy would have completed befuddled Me 1.0, the person who thought that I had to be three times as good, and then indispensable, to get ahead. I vaguely remember thinking getting ahead was all there was. Any notion that sharing would equal success would have had me on the floor rolling with laughter.” “

Comment: It is an interesting perspective, Tinu. I attended a seminar way back in 95 that preached the very same concept - sharing and giving before receiving. And it was in the offline world. In the online world, it is imperative you share. How else will one show off his/her knowledge and gain the trust of their prospects?

• Jim Tobin can “take the words right out of your mouth and put better ones in.” Life is Marketing is a blog dedicated to discussing the best and the worst in marketing. In What Makes a Good Advertising Client, he discusses the client-agency relationship from the agency’s perspective. In his own words, this is “an article on how to be a good client to your marketing firm. So much focus is on how to find a good agency, but nobody teaches how to be a good client.” Some really great tips; “Agree to what you are trying to accomplish … Trust each other …”

Comment: It is so true, Jim. I had just joined an organization providing financial services. The CEO wanted his name and the organization’s name in a leading business publication every week. I was at total loss for words the first time I heard him. There was no strategy, no execution plan, nothing. I was quite embarrassed to even discuss it with the agency that was retained.

• Charles Green is an executive educator on trust-based relationships and blogs at Trusted Advisor. “The single greatest factor affecting sales and business success is the level of trust in the customer relationship.” My Client is a Jerk: Three Keys to Transforming Relationships Gone Bad is about clients “who won’t share [material] information, cannot make a decision, is frozen by politics or fear or ignorance, rejects or argues or is disrespectful.” He also writes Trusted Transactions - Credit Card Processingp; a case study on a credit card processing company with a unique value proposition - transparency.
  

Comment: Many of us are so involved with ourselves (especially salespeople) that we do not do any introspection when things go wrong. We are quick to blame others while, perhaps, not pausing to think what we could have done differently to avert an undesirable event. You hit the nail on the head with this post.

However, as some of your readers have stated, there are going to be people who act like a baby if things do not go their way; or there are people who have developed an intimidation approach to all their relationships. But I have learnt that I need to give permission (by my actions) for people to treat me that way. I refuse to toe their line - politely.

• Bill Sheridan provides short, concise and motivational articles for small business owners. He is also a guest writer at The Freestyle Entrepreneur. In Thirty Words that Sell, he suggests making power words like “benefits, proven, trust …” a part of your vocabulary. “… one such idea was a list of words that are powerful and help his clients and prospects take action on his recommendations …”

Comment: A useful word-set, Bill. It takes dedicated effort to make such power words part of one’s day-to-day vocabulary. Some of the power words I use are: “please, thank you, yes, uncover, secret, offer.” These are just a few words that I have collected over the years.

HR

• It is not frequent that you come across an individual with a strong background in HR and Web Designing. Nick Roy is one such SEO specialist and also an avid blogger about HR, recruiting, and group & team dynamics. Workplace Management Strategies focuses on group and team dynamics in the workplace with special emphasis on work teams. Nick writes about Favoritism in the Workplace in which he asks, “Just because the employee comes and goes with the manager, is it ok not to be in compliance with the company’s policy of punctuality?”

Comment: This is a great case study, Nick and I think I’ll play a devil’s advocate. I also think some more information on the kind of work the employee performs is in order. The focus should be more on working smart than just punching in at 9 am and punching out at 5 pm. For certain tasks, yes, the employee needs to be in the office and on time. But if the employee can get things done and her punctuality (or lack thereof) does not hold up the team, then I would not take the employee to task.

My thoughts on your 2 cents: 1. What happens outside of work is not an organization’s business. Employees may carpool; that does not mean we must make the driver sign a liability document. If this is legally enforced, carpooling may be a thing of the past. 2. Again based on the information provided, I am assuming that the employee is not reason for excessive OT - or is she? If yes, then I share your views. 3. I do have bone to pick about the third point. We need to remember the objective of the business. Punctuality is just a means to get there. If a person can get things done in half a day, then why can’t this individual take the rest of the day off? You cannot box-in productivity between 9 am and 5 pm.

• Becky McCray is an entrepreneur and a rancher in a small town in Oklahoma. She writes about small business and rural issues at Small Biz Survival. Becky is quite candid about her failures in her post What I learned from failure. “Those failures have helped me to some notable successes … I plan to make lots of changes to revitalize both my store and our ranch. I keep picturing the ultimate destination store and using that as in inspiration for smaller changes that we can implement for our customers today.”

Comment: Awesome post Becky. It is so true that “when a window closes on us, multiple doors open up.” It is important to think of failures as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks. All the very best in your mission. I would love to read about your progress in your blog.

Economy

• I like Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket and her writing style . Very straight and to the point, one can definitely benefit from her experiences and insights. How about creating an about page Wenchypoo? High Gas Prices: The New Reality talks about what you can do about high gas prices. “… as we speak, the price per barrel of light sweet crude is $64 and is forecasted to go to $72 by 2009 … I’d rather plunk down money for a house than plunk money down for a so-called fuel-efficient car, because one appreciates and the other depreciates…”

Comment: I wonder if we can have a “no-driving” day - just like memorial day or labor day. All vehicles should keep off the road on that day. Think of the fuel we will save. On the flip side, think of the increase in costs for businesses. It could be a weekend too, couldn’t it?

Miscellaneous

• If I thought coming by a person with HR background and web designing was infrequent, what would you say to person with an M.S. degree in Medical Virology who now works as a webmaster and Internet marketing consultant. Meet Vahid Chaychi at Learn to Use the Internet Power and Online Marketing Strategies to Work at Home (That’s a mouthful name for a website Vahid ) “When people want to start working from home, they Google for a good home based business opportunity, but unfortunately 95% of the programs they join are scam and they only lose money with them.”

Comment: I must say those are some real decent ideas you have outlined Vahid. For a person looking to start a home based business, the article is a good start.

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That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Small Business Issues.

• Carnival of Small Business IssuesWelcome to the revised version of Carnival of Small Business...