The SBAM Power Boost

Innovate or die

Your Innovations Aren't Immortal - Scott Anthony - HarvardBusiness.org.

...the pace of technological change and the resultant increase in competitive intensity means that operational excellence isn't sufficient for survival. Survival requires innovation.
A critical starting point is understanding with precise clarity that what made you great in the past will not necessarily make you great in the future. That the brands that are the lifeblood of today's business might not be the lifeblood of tomorrow's business. And, that the business model that provides today's competitive advantage might not provide tomorrow's competitive advantage (a point my colleague Mark Johnson describes in great depth in his forthcoming book Seizing the White Space).
As a simple metaphor, think about what it takes a sports team to compete season after season. A team can rely on a core group of players for a few years, but long-term success requires bringing in fresh talent. Sometimes it requires shedding beloved superstars before they show their age. These decisions can be gut wrenching, but as legendary Dodger and Pirate General Manager Branch Rickey said, "Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late."
That's not to say companies have to completely walk away from the past. It just means, in the words of Vijay Govindarajan, that companies have to be selective in what they borrow from their core business, and be conscious in what they forget.

Comment -- SBAM was founded by innovators and is guided today by the innovative small business owners on our board of directors. We also honor and recognize Michigan innovation through our annual Innovation Awards, part of Michigan Celebrates Small Business. Application information will be available in September. Michael Rogers

Build an army of trust

Small Biz Survival: You are a trust agent.

Trust is a big part of small business, maybe even more so in a small town. Part of your role as a small business person is to be the trusted source, whether you are the source of a product, a service, or information. But have you given any thought to it? How do you improve yourself in this role? Our friends Chris Brogan and Julien Smith have thought about it. The result is a new book, Trust Agents, launching today. They suggest six things that contribute to your success in this role.

Comment -- The six things are: make your own game, be one of us, use the web for leverage, be Agent Zero, be a human artist and build an army. Surveys show that small business owners are among the most trusted members of society -- certainly much more trusted than politicians, the media or big business. One way to leverage that trust is by participating in SBAM's online community. Add your trusted comments and views to our forums and comment sections. Michael Rogers

Seeing is believing

Saving Time, Money and the Environment With Video Conferencing ...the technology behind video conferencing is much improved and cheaper.  Even across the Internet, video conferencing quality is quite good.  And, of course, corporate network quality is even better. 

We expect video conferencing to continue its strong growth.  With quality improving, costs down and the time, money and environmental benefits increasingly clear, video conferencing's time has come. (photo by Sir Adavis)

Comment -- We videoconference a couple times a month with our daughter and her husband in California, using just an inexpensive Webcam and the free Skype service. It's easy and fun. I think many small businesses are reluctant to take the plunge into videoconferencing because of the perceived cost and complexity. But like most other areas of technology, every day the gear is getting cheaper and simpler to use.Try experimenting first on your internal network, then branch out to the external group with whom you wish to communicate. Michael Rogers

You don't have to be crazy, but it helps

You Aren't Crazy, You're Just an Entrepreneur You aren’t crazy—there are good reasons why starting a business feels hard. Like any big change in life like getting married or having a baby, entrepreneurship has its ups and downs.

Once you get over the initial rush of your launch, certain that everything is going to go according to plan, you run into some snags. Your website developer disappears with your site half done. A sure-thing client cancels his project. Your Mom wants her dining room back and you have to start to pay for office space.

Martha Beck, O Magazine columnist and author of Finding Your Own North Star, has a very useful framework for describing the cycle of change experienced by new entrepreneurs. I explain it at least once a week to reassure my clients that “nothing is going right and it feels like the universe is conspiring against you, but you are not insane for thinking of starting a business, and once you get through this rough patch, things really will get better.” See if you can identify which square of change you are currently in according to Beck’s framework. (Photo by N1NJ4)

Comment -- The square of changes listed in this post are Death and Rebirth, Dreaming and Scheming, The Hero’s Saga, and The Promised Land. Beyond that, the post is a good reminder that even good events, like starting a successful small business, are stressful. Take time to take care of your mental and fiscal health. Michael Rogers

Know what you want your Web site to do

(From Declutter Your Website) If you don’t know the primary goal of your website or you have a variety of goals, objectives and ideals for your website than you may be suffering from what I like to call, “MPNS” or “Multi-Purpose No Success” syndrome.

Every website needs a single purpose and each page of the site must then reflect that purpose. When you go to Google you can see that the primary purpose of that site is to “Search”. When you go to Twitter you can see that the primary purpose is to “See what people are saying about ….” Even when you go to PapaJohns.com you can see that the primary purpose of the site is to get you to order a pizza online, not to call the local Papa John’s pizza restaurant.

Whether you have one user or 1 million visitors to your site, your site needs a purpose. Ecommerce sites are meant to sell a product which means the Buy Now button, Toll-free Order Line and the Free Shipping offer should be highlighted on every page of the website.

Comment -- When putting together your small business Web site, it's really hard to resist throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. So this post's advice is pertinent: decide what's really important to you and focus on that. Of course, we all want to sell our product or service -- and the Web site should have that goal as its ultimate purpose. But how you do that -- with your value proposition, testimonials, product quality, low price -- should be highlighted and emphasized on the site as much as possible. Michael Rogers

"You're a jerk" is not a compliment

(From The Next Big Thing) So what are the mechanisms that translate being a jerk into being a poor decision-maker? Jerks tend to think their own perspectives are the only ones worth considering, but good decisions require serious consideration of alternatives. Jerks think they're never wrong, but good decisions require acknowledging and learning from mistakes. Jerks are consumed with petty resentments and grievances, but good decisions require clear-headed, objective thinking. Jerks alienate other people, but good decisions require collaboration across a social network (as a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article by Rob Cross and Bob Thomas suggests.) This falls short of a complete description of either jerkdom or decision excellence, but you get the picture. Jerks often seem to get ahead in firms and advance through the ranks, but that's a dangerous phenomenon. If you want good decisions in your organization, don't hire, promote, or retain jerks. (photo by BotheredByBees)

Comment -- Everyone acknowledges that jerks make bad employees, but what if you look in the mirror and discover that the jerk is...you! Even in this difficult Michigan economy, it's hard to find and keep good workers who will help your company grow. Sometimes the one best thing that retains employees is a positive, supportive working environment. It's hard to have that if you, the boss, acts like a jerk. Michael Rogers

Eggs in all the same social networking basket?

The Internet Strategist.

"I've been trying to find a way to use Facebook in a more professional manner and I've found it – it's called LinkedIn." Inevitably many users have an "aha" moment when, after spending a quiet afternoon digging a little deeper they stumble upon some feature of LinkedIn that they find immensely valuable. At that moment they become converts, thirsty for knowledge about how to do more. This is what happened to my friend of the quote above. But many businesses never get there. LinkedIn is a far less frenetic tool than most of the other social networking sites. As noted by blogger Sam DeReign "On LinkedIn, I am able to share the things I am most proud of – accomplishments that show what a capable person I am in the workplace. My contacts on LinkedIn aren't going to tag a photo of me attempting to do the Cha-Cha Slide after a bottle of wine." Thanks to LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman for hipping everyone to this simple but spot on blog post. It is LinkedIn's subtlety which makes it powerful.

Comment -- This post illustrates the value of social media diversification. LinkedIn is indeed powerful, but for good or bad it doesn't do everything that Facebook does -- nor does it necessarily reach all of the audiences you are trying to hit in your marketing/PR efforts. At SBAM, I try to cover all the social networking bases. We have a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And if you check out the social sharing bar at the bottom of the news/articles on our Web site, you'll see that we provide the ability to interact with many niche social networking services, too. Michael Rogers

Yes, small business loans are out there, but...

Learn to Impress Lenders - Getting a Small Business Loan - Entrepreneur.com.

While obtaining a loan may be challenging amid the current economic climate, you can increase your viability as a loan candidate by taking steps to prepare for that initial meeting with a lender. First, be thorough when preparing documents a lender may request. These include: past financial statements and tax returns, a copy of your current note and payment schedule (if your business is already established), and a detailed business plan. (photo by TheTruthAbout)

Comment -- Prepare as thoroughly as you can but be aware (as if you aren't already) that it's a tough lending environment out there. An article in The Wall Street Journal says that the total amount of loans held by 15 large U.S. banks shrank by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. And a columnist in The Detroit Free Press reports many Michigan small businesses may not qualify for the Small Business Administration's new ARC interest-free loan program. Michael Rogers

Get in gear on your invoicing

Small Biz Survival: Why you procrastinate on invoicing and what to do about it.

We like to work on the parts of our business that are fun to us. Even the prospect of, "I have to do this to get paid" isn't usually enough to keep us from putting off our invoicing.
So what do you do about it?

• Build a system. Set up the steps that need to be taken throughout the process to make it as easy as possible to figure and send those invoices. And the first step is to create and record some standards of what you charge, whether by the hour or by the finished product or whatever method works best for your business. The second step is a system that makes it easy to record your work just as soon as you do it.
• Do it only once. Record your work in the same format as your invoices so you can copy from your work record and paste directly into the invoice form. (I use this trick, myself!)
• Use an online system like Invoice More, Fresh Books, or Greener Billing.
• Delegate. If you're bad enough about procrastinating, pay someone else create invoices from your work records. That could be an employee, a virtual assistant, or your local bookkeeping service. (photo by got mesker?)

Comment -- The operations side of a small business is often neglected by entrepreneurs. You'd rather work on the stuff that got you excited about starting the small business in the first place, right? Who gets fired up about doing the paperwork of invoicing? But it's pretty important because it's how you get paid. Sometimes it makes sense to outsource it to someone else. You can search SBAM's member directory for small business bookkeeping services. Michael Rogers

Let's talk about it (or not)

Toolkit - Dealing With Rumors in the Workplace - NYTimes.com.

A common theme in all the advice is that you need to address the rumors. You shouldn’t pretend they are not there. “In the absence of information, employees will make up their own information and that information soon snowballs into a full-blown rumor,” Zoey Day said on Helium.com, which describes itself as “a knowledge cooperative.” In other words, ignoring the rumors is simply going to increase employee concerns, distract them from doing their jobs and make the situation worse. STRAIGHTFORWARD AND SCRIPTED If the whole company is affected by the rumor — say, you are going out of business, will be acquired, will be forced to fire people, are about to undergo a radical downsizing (selling off plants, dropping product lines, closing offices) — addressing employees individually is not the way to go, the experts say. The message will quickly will spread through the company grapevine and may get distorted along the way. You want to communicate to everyone at once and prepare your remarks. Employees are going to parse everything you say. Ad libbing is not the best strategy, no matter how sincere your words. (photo by stuartpilbrow)

Comment -- Open book management can be a very effective strategy for short circuiting rumors in your small business workplace. When all your employees know what's going on all the time with your financials, there's less chance for that surprises and uncertainty will pop up and breed gossip. As this post notes, it's all about constant communications with your employees and vendors. Michael Rogers