The NYCBNG Better Business Blog

A Guide to Small Business Survival

Small business ownership can be a challenge, especially in the beginning. The rewards can be great but you may need a survival guide to get you through the tough parts or just to provide that simple advice that seems so elusive when the pressure is on. We hope the links below will help, and don’t forget to enjoy the journey.

Basic Resources

Small business blogger survival guide. A big part of surviving as a small business blogger involves being a social animal. Here David Leonhardt gives every small business blogger some great resources to keep you, your business, and your blog alive. ProBlogger

Tax tips for business. How you manage money once your business makes it can sometimes be as critical as your business model. Here are some basic deductions you must take to be sure you are saving all that you can. The One of a Kind Preneur

 

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How to Win Great Publicity - Without a PR Firm

How would you like to be featured on CNN, CBS News, the BBC, and VH1? If you’re San Francisco area artist Steven Backman, that’s just a few months’ coverage; over the years, he’s been profiled by scores of top-tier international outlets. But unlike many top professionals, he doesn’t use a high-end PR firm to shill for him. Instead, he’s become his own publicity machine – and his lessons on winning great press can benefit any executive or entrepreneur who seeks a higher profile.

1. Build a good media list. Backman – who makes elaborate and meticulous sculptures out of toothpicks – began by developing a target list of publications he’d like to be featured in. Next, he identified (through the masthead or looking online) the email addresses for key staffers. “I wouldn’t just email one person,” says Backman. “I’d email the whole staff, the art director, the managing editors.” Journalists might get angry if he did that all the time, but he ensured his messages were timely and interesting. His media list is now up to over 2000, and he says that he each press release he distributes results in at least 2-3 stories.

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Which Way Is Best: Relationships First or Business First?

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Business Networking and Sex (Not What You Think) (Entrepreneur Press, 2012) by Ivan Misner, Hazel M. Walker and Frank J. De Raffele Jr. The book parses data from a survey of more than 12,000 businesspeople that focused on gender differences in networking to understand communication roadblocks between women and men and to provide breakthroughs that can help improve results.

Related: Networking With the Opposite Sex by Hazel M. Walker

It's no amazing revelation to say that the first priority for women is relationships, and for men, getting business. DNA evidence and the roles men still play in our society support that fact. Men have been the hunters, protectors and providers of our clans since the beginning of time. This is not to say female breadwinners are not increasing in number every day as the sole supporters of their families, because they are. But let's go back to who we are at a primal level.

As the provider, I feel it is my responsibility to bring home the bacon, steak, buffalo -- or squirrel, if it has been a very bad day. When I'm bringing that catch home, I'm not trying to build a forever relationship with that meal that I'm hunting. I need to catch it, prepare it for my family and get it home, just like the sales and deals I go after in today's world.

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8 Easy Ways to Boost Your Website on a Budget http://www.openforum.com/articles/a-small-business-guide-8-easy-ways-to-boost-your-website-on-a-budget

Three Affordable Ways to Get Celebrities to Promote Your Brand

Hiring a celebrity spokesperson is a proven way to drive sales. It's also frightfully expensive and has the potential to backfire. Consider all of the brands that had Tiger Woods signed up as pitchman when his marital scandal hit and his golden career suddenly imploded.

A better way to go for many brands may be to get a celebrity to either use your product or even to just appear with your brand for a brief time. Here are three ways to involve celebrities in your business that are lower cost and have less downside risk if your chosen celeb has a breakdown:

Swag bags. Events that attract celebrities usually put together gift bags for attendees. The mother lode of all swag bags is coming up -- the Oscar show and attendant parties. This year's Oscar bag overflows with $75,000 in goodies, including a Kim Kardashian signature watch, beauty products, jewelry, and two different vacation trips. (The luxury swag is reportedly one reason nominees are always "just happy to be nominated.")

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Curation vs. Content Creation in 2012

It’s no longer enough just to blog. Collecting good posts, pictures and information creates value. Curation (a valuable collection of content) is the new content creation, and it will be on the rise in 2012.

Here's how to understand and manage this new wave.

1. Content is still king

Blog posts, articles, e-books, comments and what we see on Facebook and Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn, all of that stand-alone information, is content. A web search for the phrase “content is king” shows why content is still most important. Content is evidence of knowledge and experience. It’s useful and people like it.

Many experts prove themselves by offering content. One of the very best ways to validate who you are is by publishing what you know. And we do most of that for free.

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The pricing formula (S&S)

Years ago, my bosses and I needed to finalize the pricing for a new line of software I was launching. In the room we had MBAs from Harvard (2), Stanford, Tuck and, I think, Wharton. We had three prices in mind, and the five of us couldn't agree. So we did the only scientific thing: we flipped a coin (two out of three, just to be sure).

Pricing your product is actually simple, as long as you consider it from the buyer's point of view. How much it costs you to make something is irrelevant. They don't care (of course, you can't price something at a loss and hope to stay in business for long). The two keys to the analysis:

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7 lesser-known ways to make money from your content online

Do you remember ‘Charlie bit my finger’? Charlie’s family certainly does: they made £120,000 in YouTube earnings. Yet, this remains an exception; unless they go incredibly viral, YouTube videos aren’t a reliable source of income.

However, it doesn’t mean you can’t monetize your digital content online. Yet you may want to look elsewhere than Google and turn to smaller companies. Several of them are experimenting business models that go well beyond the traditional CPM approach for online ad impressions, resulting in interesting returns for authors and publishers.

To get you started, here’s a list of lesser-known platforms that let you distribute your own media content – and make money from it:

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Six tips for better brainstorming

(CNN) -- It's a familiar scene: The boss calls for a brainstorming session and everyone obediently shuffles into the conference room to stare at a white board, trying to pull new ideas out of thin air.

The result? A handful of participants monopolize the conversation, a few others contribute occasionally, while the remainder sit waiting to get back to work.

"The typical session lacks structure and focus," says Shawn Coyne, co-author of "Brainsteering: A better approach to breakthrough ideas."

"Some ideas seem quite interesting, some of them ridiculous, some are great but will never see the light of day. In the end, people mostly leave feeling dissatisfied and frustrated," he adds.

For Brian Clegg, director of Creativity Unleashed -- a consultation firm that helps businesses apply creative thinking methods -- companies are harnessing only a fraction of the brainstorming session's potential.

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A Guide for Using Mobile Devices When Traveling Abroad http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222686

Entrepreneurs Who Changed Business as We Knew It

 

John Byrne

I recently spoke with John A. Byrne’s, who is the author of World Changers: 25 Entrepreneurs Who Changed Business as We Knew It. John is the founder and chief executive of C-Change Media, a digital media company creating niche business websites that combine original, high-quality content, with curation and community to gain distinction and competitive advantage of the Internet. He is the former executive editor of BusinessWeek, editor in chief of Fast Company, and associate editor at Forbes. He co-authored the New York Times bestseller “Straight from the Gut” with former GE Chairman, Jack Welch. In this interview, John talks about the biggest challenges leaders have when building companies, gives advice from successful entrepreneurs, and more.

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Starbucks Is Into Them. But What Exactly Are CDFIs? Community Development Financial Institutions http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222683

10 tips to get the most out of Pinterest for your business

Now that we’ve given you the ultimate guide on how to get started with Pinterest, it’s worth taking a look at how businesses can put the social networking world’s darling to work for them.

Before taking a look at how you can put Pinterest to work for you, it’s worth looking at why you shouldn’t be ignoring Pinterest. First and foremost, the numbers speak louder than anything else. In the past six months, visits to Pinterest grew by 4000%, receiving an amazing 11 million hits in just one week.

Pinterest has also proved to be a great way to drive traffic to your site, and in some cases, has out-performed Facebook. According to Adage, in December, Shannon King, the General Manager of Time Inc’s magazine Real Simple said, ”Pinterest is a huge source from a referral standpoint, even beating out referrals from Facebook in the month of October.”

Read More: 10 tips to get the most out of Pinterest for your business

Five Best Online Meeting Services

If you work at a company with employees in offices around the globe, or you work in a small company but want to collaborate with a contractor who works from home or vendor across the country, you need a service that will let you connect with your team, share documents, collaborate on them, and in some cases even share your screen or webcam with them. Here are five of the best services to conduct productive online meetings, based on your nominations.

Earlier in the week we asked you which services you used for online meetings. You responded with lots of great options that you use personally or your company provides for you. Here's a look at the top five.

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97 Ideas for Building a Valuable Platform http://www.chrisbrogan.com/97/

Don't Give Up If You Want To Build A Web Business But Don't Know How To Code

Ostriches can’t fly. To add insult to injury, they’re one of the largest bird species out there. They have to hobble around looking for something to do while their avian counterparts swoop into the air in boundless directions.

If you can’t code and aspire to start a web business, odds are you feel just like the ostrich. Despite spending years in school and hours at the workplace, you can’t create your vision. You're left with two options: learn to code (a worthy investment of your time if you can afford it: Codecademy) or find a programmer (which warrants an article in and of itself). Given the frustration, many would-be entrepreneurs give up on their vision without giving it a real chance. A real pity.

Based on my own experience, this article provides some tips to help you flap those stubby little wings and turn them into airlifting power.

Read More: Don't Give Up If You Want To Build A Web Business But Don't Know How To Code

5 Best Online Meeting Services http://lifehacker.com/5878067/five-best-online-meeting-services

21 Essential Community Management Resources http://mashable.com/2012/01/23/community-management-resources/

How to Raise Prices Without Hurting Your Business

With prices for all kinds of essentials going up — gas, heating oil, health insurance — it may be time to consider raising your company’s rates or profit margins in 2012. Customers often bristle at paying more for goods and services when they’re accustomed to a specific amount, but you can raise prices without hurting your business if you’re careful. Here’s how.

• Don’t be afraid to lose the cheapskates. Let’s say you’re still giving a heavy discount to a client who supported you in the early days. If the relationship is important to you, it may be worth maintaining some type of price break. However, if the client now takes you for granted or you don’t find the work rewarding, don’t hesitate to send a letter stating your new rates. If you lose the client, so be it — you’ll build a more profitable business by finding a higher-paying replacement.

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Who Are You Talking To?

Is there anyone outside of your company challenging you to grow yourself and your business?

The "Master Mind Group" I am in is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. This group of business owners and CXOs has been a source of incredible wisdom, insight, painful accountability and great personal growth.

I honestly wonder how anyone goes through the struggle of owning and running a business without one. My strong suggestion is that you don't.

A Master Mind Group is another name for a peer group that works together to better each member. In business, user groups and associations often provide some of this collaboration. But that said, I have always gotten great benefit from business leaders not in my industry from their diverse experiences and often-complementary thinking.

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Walmart Is Using A Savvy PR Move To Get Small Businesses To Stop Hating It

Walmart Stores via flickr

Walmart's harshest critics might be small business owners, but in a brilliant PR move, the world's largest retailer is trying to make amends. 

To show that the company supports small businesses and individuality, Walmart is hosting "Get on the shelf," a contest which will give any inventor in the U.S. a chance to get their product on Walmart's shelves (via CNN Money).

Similar to the selection process in American Idol, the fate of the entries are dependent on the public's votes. 

The top three winners will get their products sold at walmart.com and the grand prize winner will have their invention displayed at the actual stores nationwide.

Walmart Is Using A Savvy PR Move To Get Small Businesses To Stop Hating It

Is It Time to Finally Ditch Your Paper Business Cards? http://mashable.com/2012/01/22/paper-business-cards/

How to Disagree At Meetings in a Positive and Productive Way

How many times have you sat in a meeting thinking, "This is all wrong"? How many times have you disagreed with something, but not spoken up, for fear of making waves, rocking the boat, holding things up or being viewed as the naysayer? How many times have you wanted to disagree but were afraid to in front of others? And how many times have you left the meeting upset at yourself for not speaking your mind?

Are there ways to disagree at meetings in a positive and productive way?

Joel Garfinkle, one of the top 50 executive coaches in the U.S., has something to say about it in his book Getting Ahead: Three Steps To Take Your Career To The Next Level.

Read More: How to Disagree At Meetings in a Positive and Productive Way

Marketing Is The Ongoing Operation of a System

So often marketers get stuck in the reaction of the week kind of marketing and wonder why it always feels like such a bumpy road.

Marketing should feel graceful, thoughtful, even joyful, but that takes planning, process and patience – mostly though that takes systems thinking.

I’ve spent the better part of the last ten years singing the “marketing is a system” tune and today I’m pleased to introduce my most ambitious compilation of all that I know about how to build a marketing system today.

Introducing the Ultimate Marketing System from Duct Tape Marketing – a complete online guided training tool designed to help you build your marketing action plan and install your marketing system.

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10 Things I Want in a Business Partner

You don't have to agree on everything. If you do, you haven't found the right person.

I own a $4 million Web design business… but I don’t know how to build a website. 

How did I do it? My business partner has a lot to do with it. 

Finding the right partner is one of the most important steps in building your business. It’s the first thing I do in every one of my companies. Even if I had all the skills necessary to run the business myself, I’d still find a partner. 

The right person must not only share your passion, but also compliment your weaknesses.

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