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Nov
25
What You Need to Know About Millennial Entrepreneurs
by Anita Campbell | November 25, 2007 | 4 Comments
Entrepreneurship keeps attracting younger and younger people — including “millennials,” i.e., those twenty-somethings and teens born since 1980. Since entrepreneurs are consumers first and business owners second, you have to understand their thinking as consumers.
A recent article in Advertising Age offers a fascinating glimpse into millennials’ thinking and debunks certain assumptions we may make about this group. In “Millennials: Clued in or Clueless?” the author, Carol Phillips, a marketing instructor at Notre Dame, writes:
Marketers are fascinated by Gen Y’s youngest cohort, the Millennials — and with good reason: They are an important market today and will become even more important as they graduate, start jobs, marry and establish households.
How to communicate effectively with Millennials is the topic of many research studies. … [W]e are informed that they have lived in a media-saturated world from a young age. Consequently, they are clued in to — and tuned out of — marketers’ most ingenious means of influence.
To the last pronouncement, I ask, “Really?” My classroom provides a front-row seat to just what many college students know about marketing’s basic principles, strategies and methods. Their naiveté regarding retailers’ role, the true target for many brands, the rules on pricing and how product placement comes about might surprise you.
Here are my top 10 observations about what college students don’t know about marketing and the implications for marketers.
She goes on to outline what millennials believe about 10 marketing facts and the implications for marketers — all making for useful insights.
Some of these points translate into B2B products targeting young entrepreneurs. For instance, the author says that millennials don’t realize that most product placements are paid, yet they pay attention to them. On the other hand, they view their mobile phones as communication, not media, and don’t tolerate intrusive advertising on their phones without some free service in compensation.
If you translate this article to millennial entrepreneurs, there’s a lot to think about. For example, the article to me suggests that rather than spending money on advertising in places such as mobile phones that is likely to be viewed negatively, try product placements instead.
I’m just waiting for the TV shows to start about 20-something entrepreneurs working on their startups, filled with business product placements.
PS, note to any millennial marketers or business owners: I didn’t say you were naive. Those were the words of the author of the Advertising Age article.
Nov
18
Giving Thanks with Holiday Greeting Cards
by Anita Campbell | November 18, 2007 | 3 Comments
Don’t forget to give holiday thanks to your business customers and partners. You still have time, for instance, to order greeting cards with your company name embossed or a personal greeting. You want something that looks professional, is business appropriate, and says that you remember those who count.
CardsDirect has a great selection that you can order online, like this one (the one I am ordering):
They also have a really helpful blog that gives tips about greeting cards. You can tell somebody spends a lot of time on it. I never realized you could write that much about choosing and sending greeting cards and that it would actually hold your interest.
There’s also a greeting card etiquette section. You can even send in your etiquette questions to be answered by Ms. Etiquette.
Anyway, if you plan to go the Christmas card or Holiday card route, don’t wait. Tempus fugit.
Nov
11
Small Business Partner Programs - 10 Ways to Get the Word Out
by Anita Campbell | November 11, 2007 | 5 Comments
There’s an increasing trend of big companies partnering with small businesses. I wrote about this a few weeks back in my article, Stop Selling and Instead Partner with Small Businesses.
And if you are one of the forward-thinking companies that already has set up partnership programs with small businesses, kudos to you.
Now, how about publicizing your partner program better?
What reminded me of the need to do this was a simple, informative but incredibly helpful post of Don Dodge of Microsoft. The post is over a year old, but I just came across it recently and it looks like the information in it is still good.
In the post he lists the partner programs offered by Microsoft with links to where to find out more.
There’s nothing fancy about the post — just the facts, m’am. But when you’re a small business owner, the facts are all you need.
It’s best not to assume that everyone knows about your programs — or that everyone looks in the same place to find out such information.
For instance, I follow the small business market closely, and I have had numerous press interviews with Microsoft’s Small Business team. (And, by the way, Microsoft is one of the best in the business at small-business partner programs.) Yet, even I was not aware of the some of the information about Microsoft’s programs.
So if you represent one of those forward-thinking large corporations with small-business partner programs, here are some tips for getting the word out:
(1) Set up a Partner Information Website – Need I state the obvious? Your partner program needs to be clearly outlined on a website. Spell it out in detail. If there is an application process to follow, lay it out step by step. As a colleague of mine is fond of saying, “Today the average business person has so many distractions that you have to strive to over-communicate, just to communicate enough.” I recommend making your partner information website separate from the corporate site, but if it must be in the same site at least make the navigation to get to it prominent.
(2) SEO it – Invest in SEO so that your partner-information website can be found in the search engines. When a business owner searches on a term like “small business partner programs” you want yours to pop up in the search results.
(3) Make it Bookmarkable – In your partner website, use human-friendly URLs that the entrepreneur can bookmark and find again. One of my pet peeves with corporate websites is that they have some of the worst URL structures on the planet. Session IDs that expire — or my personal favorite, information contained only in javascript popups – can make it tough to return back to partner information. Humongously long URLs that break in emails are just as bad. It’s not that hard to create human-friendly, bookmarkable URLs — don’t let your Web development team tell you otherwise.
(4) Link to it from Corporate Websites – Prominently point to your partner-information website from multiple places of your other websites. All too often I see large corporations set up small-business community sites, but don’t include information about partner programs that small businesses might find useful!!! Instead, these small business sites get cluttered with recycled Entrepreneur magazine articles covering Marketing 101. Entrepreneurs can find canned marketing advice in a bajillion places today, but not information about your partner program. And trust me, if something can put money in entrepreneurs’ pockets, they want to know about it.
(5) Make it Self-Service – Make the websites as self-service as possible to find information and apply to become a partner. Business owners and entrepreneurs are likely to be investigating this kind of thing in the evenings or on weekends and prefer self-service. If a process takes a lot of back and forth spanning multiple days, it may fall through the cracks. Not every partner program lends itself to self-service, but with a little effort, you’d be surprised what you can do with a Web-based application process.
(6) Blog it – Write about and link to your partner programs in company blogs and employee blogs — this is a perfect use for blogs. Blogs are great because they are written in a conversational way that makes them easy to understand. Give insider tips and personal insights into partner programs – people love to pick up little behind-the-scenes tidbits about company programs that don’t make it into official websites. (Why else do you think Matt Cutts’ and Robert Scoble’s blogs became so popular?) Put a link to the blog post as a “popular post” on blog sidebars so that the information can be found even after it cycles off the blog home page.
(7) Involve Your PR Team – Have your PR team remind journalists (and bloggers who cover your space) about your partner programs regularly. And weave a good newsworthy story around partner programs from time to time, by highlighting some of your small-business partners. Journalists (and bloggers) may not always be interested, but it helps to repeat the message. And cover multiple types of publications — vertical trade pubs as well as general business publications – because business owners and entrepreneurs read a wide variety of publications. We all know the small business market is fragmented; it means the burden is on you to touch as many relevant fragments as possible.
(8) Reach Outside Silicon Valley – If you’re a tech company, remember that the vast majority of tech small businesses and entrepreneurs are NOT in California. Or Washington. Or Boston.
(9) Attend Events – Attend selected large events throughout the country that attract business owners. And when you’re there, have a presence specifically for your partner programs – don’t treat it as an afterthought to the rest of the corporate presence. Display a big banner saying “Become a Partner” or “Ask About our Partner Program” or “Find Out How Our Partner Program Can Help Your Bottom Line” or something equally obvious. If you brand your partner program, just be certain to make clear that it is a partner program. Sometimes brand names can be too coy.
(10) Encourage Partner Evangelists – The concept of customer evangelists applies equally well to partner evangelists. You can get the power of word of mouth working for you with partners. If you apply the concept of “net promoters” to your partners, the key is to pay special attention to the partners who rank your company most favorably. They may be inclined to sing your praises far and wide and can have a huge impact. Give them proper care and feeding.
* * * * *
I hope this post gives you a few action items for spreading the word about your small-business partner programs. I’ll do a post with ten advanced techniques in the future.
Nov
9
Latest Small Business Snapshot: Businesses and Employees
by Anita Campbell | November 9, 2007 | 2 Comments
The SBA Office of Advocacy has come out with an updated annual snapshot of small businesses in the United States (PDF).
This chart shows the number of small businesses, the industries they are in, and the number of employees (click chart to open larger image):
In reading this chart remember these points:
- “Nonemployer firms” means single-person small businesses — ones without any employees, except the owner of course.
- If you want to see the true picture of employment for firms with fewer than 100 employees, add together the non-employer column and the column under “Employment - 1 to 99 employees” — or 62,231,000 for all industries. Why? Because you have to consider employment for both the owner and employees — you can’t ignore the owner in a single-person business for purposes of counting employment. Self-employment is a form of employment from the business.
- Do not be surprised by the fact that the chart uses data from 2004 - 2005. Hey, in government terms that’s considered hot off the presses in 2007.
Oct
29
How Small Business Friendly is Your Organization?
by Anita Campbell | October 29, 2007 | 2 Comments
Uh-oh. It could be bad news for small businesses in the lumber business that hire immigrants or aliens. They have to deal with two of the least responsive agencies in the U.S. Federal government for small businesses: the U.S. Forest Service and Immigrations.
The National Ombudsman Report (PDF) just came out for 2006. The National Ombudsman, Nicholas Owens (yes, there really is such a person), operates within the Small Business Administration and issues a report each year to Congress.
The National Ombudsman’s Office rates Federal agencies on whether their regulatory enforcement policies are small-business friendly. The agencies are assigned letter grades (A through F) in a variety of categories.
This year, Immigrations scored straight Fs — for shame! The U.S. Forest Service did better, but overall was rated C. All other agencies got overall grades of A or B.
The most instructive part of the report contains real-life stories about entrepreneurs having problems dealing with particular Federal agencies and the outcomes. In some cases the problems arise from a comedy of errors — except that to the small business involved it is no laughing matter, of course.
The report identifies five common themes that lead to most complaints by small businesses against Federal agencies:
- Confusing/Changing Regulations – Small businesses often struggle to interpret regulatory complexities and keep up with new requirements.
- Crossed Signals/Lack of Communication – Busy entrepreneurs and Federal regulators inhabit separate worlds, and some miscommunication might be expected. The trouble arises when misperceptions or misplaced messages seriously impact the vitality of a small company.
- Costly Agency Errors – Even minor mistakes in the regulatory enforcement process can produce a heavy financial or logistical burden for a small business.
- Costly Compliance Conditions – A rule that appears reasonable to regulators can result in costly and frustrating hurdles for businesses with small staffs and limited financial resources.
- Regulatory Overkill – Fines and inspections meant to foster good business behavior and protect the public good can result in serious financial setbacks to a small business.
Do you see any of these issues in your organization or business, say, in the way you communicate with small businesses or in your organization’s policies? Do you make it easy for small businesses to do business with you?
Oct
22
Call it a Small Business, No a Mid-Sized Business, No a Large Corporation
by Anita Campbell | October 22, 2007 | 8 Comments
The need for clear and consistent terminology to define “what is a small business?” has been obvious for a while now. Let’s go over some of the existing definitions.
The U.S. Small Business Administration adheres to its definition of under 500 employees. That is, except in the case of about a zillion exceptions for various industries (so many that the SBA needs a 42-page PDF document to explain all the size definitions).
Other countries’ governmental agencies overseeing small businesses use their own definitions of small. In the U.K. a small business means under 50 employees, as it also does in the European Union. Some countries go even smaller. In Australia, for instance, the government defines a small business as having under 20 employees.
Not only are governments all over the ballpark when it comes to defining what is a small business, but so is just about everyone else.
For instance, non-profits and NGOs are referring with increasing frequency to microbusinesses or microenterprises, as they are sometimes called. Microbusinesses are defined generally as having 5 or fewer employees.
And then you have the commercial marketplace, which adds yet another layer of complexity. Vendors that sell to small businesses have developed their own lexicon for what constitutes a small business.
Some include single-person businesses. Others consider those a separate category that sometimes gets lumped under the definition of SOHO or home office — I’m not sure which is more vague. Other terminology for single person businesses includes the self-employed and the newest term, “personal business,” which I first heard used by Steve King in the Intuit Future of Small Business Report.
Some vendors, such as Microsoft, consider a small business as being up to 50 employees. Others consider anything under 100 employees as a small business, and others still consider anything under 500 a small business.
And then you have my favorite term of all, SMB, which stands for small and mid-sized businesses. In recent years the acronym SMB has come to refer to that no-man’s land stretching from small businesses, all the way up to large corporations. However, when the term SMB is used these days, it increasingly has taken on the meaning of the somewhat larger end of small businesses. Usually the SMB category starts at 50 or 100 employees and then goes to the upper limit of 500, 1,000 or even 5,000 employees, depending on which company happens to be doing the talking.
IBM’s approach to the SMB market demonstrates even further categorization. IBM has divided up SMBs into two groups. One group is 100 to 1,000 employees. The other group is 1,000 to 5,000 employees, a group that IBM has dubbed SMB-LE (or SMB large enterprise). Note this IBM sales presentation which defines SMB-LE. Read more at: IBM Gets Clearer on the SMB Market.
All of which proves once again that one person’s definition of a small business, is another’s definition of a mid-sized business, er … no, I mean, a large business.
Oct
18
Stop Selling and Instead Partner with Small Businesses
by Anita Campbell | October 18, 2007 | 5 Comments
Are you finding it a challenge to reach niche markets? Too costly to go after on your own?
Has innovation inside your organization stalled or become stale?
Perhaps it’s time to do what companies like Google and Proctor & Gamble are doing: partner. A growing trend is that of large companies partnering with small businesses to their mutual benefit in the marketplace.
Steve King, project leader for the Intuit Future of Small Business report and a research affiliate with the Institute for the Future, spoke about this trend in the latest episode of my radio show:
Partnering between large and small businesses is occurring more frequently. — Large companies such as Google are now partnering with small and mid-size firms, whereas a year or two ago, they were partnering strictly with larger firms. By partnering with smaller niche players, Google can now provide technology and services to these niche markets, with the small business partner receiving a percentage of the profits from those sales. These new partnerships differ from the traditional relationship dynamics between large and small businesses, which were either competitors or vendor/purchaser.
Steve also points out the example of Proctor & Gamble, which used to do all of its product development and innovation internally. Now as much as half comes from partnering, especially with smaller firms. One example he gave is the Swiffer cleaning product — it is licensed from a smaller firm, not developed internally.
Steve gives an insightful look at the development of the ecosystem between large and small businesses: What Small Business Owners Want.
Oct
3
Constant Contact Goes Public!
by Anita Campbell | October 3, 2007 | 3 Comments
It just goes to show: there is money in the small business market.
Constant Contact, the email marketing services company that made its bones selling to small businesses, went public on the NASDAQ yesterday. Today was its first trading day.
Here is the announcement (sent via the Constant Contact email marketing software, of course):
We have some exciting news to share with you. Yesterday, October 2, Constant Contact became a public company, and we expect our shares to begin trading today on the NASDAQ Global Market, under the symbol “CTCT”. Please view the press release we issued and feel free to share it with your clients.
This is an important milestone for Constant Contact, and we owe much of our success to you, our partners. Having grown from zero to 130,000 customers, and from only a few employees to more than 300, the past nine years have been an incredible journey for all of us. During this time, you’ve taught us what it takes to truly serve small businesses and organizations, and we look forward to continuing our partnership and helping you succeed.
As always, we’ll be there to support you as you have supported us, every step of the way. That’s our commitment to you. Thank you for partnering with Constant Contact.
According to the press release, 6.7 million shares of common stock were offered at an opening price of $16.00 share. The latest news from TheStreet.com shows that share prices soared to north of $30 by the middle of today.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Sep
30
Can Changing Your Brand Make You Successful in the SMB Market?
by Anita Campbell | September 30, 2007 | 3 Comments
Can changing your brand be all it takes to make your company successful in the SMB or small business market?
Nestor Arellano writes an interesting article at IT Business about the topic of changing your brand to appeal to a different market. He notes, “Some key reasons for brand change include: a change in ownership, repositioning or introduction of a new offering, weakness of an existing brand or pursuit of a different market.”
I think he makes some great points and I agree with 90% of them.
However, it takes more than a brand change alone to be successful going after the small business market. As I pointed out in my last article, it requires an entire business model focused on SMBs if you truly want to be successful.
Changing your brand can be one tactic to help appeal to SMBs and convey what your company is about and why/how you serve small businesses. But before you get to that point, your company must first have:
- a product and/or service offering that is right for SMBs
- an infrastructure and organization set up to cost effectively sell to and service SMBs
- a compelling selling proposition that appeals to SMBs
Simply changing the brand name alone won’t do it.
Sep
25
Going Downmarket is Tough For Enterprise Vendors
by Anita Campbell | September 25, 2007 | 3 Comments
You have two companies on the Fortune 1000 list. Company A delights in serving small businesses — and counts 7 million of them in its customer base. Company B won’t touch the small business market with the proverbial 10-foot pole. Why not? In the words of Company B’s Chairman, “We just haven’t figured out a way to make a substantial profit in that market. We think it’s hard to make money.”
How can two companies — successful by anyone’s measure — have such radically different views of the small business market?
The answer: it’s all in your business model. How your product is set up, how it’s priced, how you sell it, how you service it.
Scaled-down big company methods and approaches don’t work. You have to design from the ground up for small businesses.
Company B is Oracle. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s Chairman, made his remarks about not being able to make money in the small business market last week, as reported in eWeek magazine.
Enterprise vendors — those technology companies that sell big complex solutions to large corporations — have tried before and more often than not failed in efforts to reach down to the small business market.
The problem is that most of them start out with a large-company product and try to scale it down. What they end up with is a product that is too complex for small business needs. Then they try to sell the product using some variation of their existing structure and processes, and of course the price points that small businesses can afford don’t begin to cover the costs of highly-compensated solution-selling teams and account reps. To be successful, the enterprise vendor would have to create an entirely new business, losing any synergies and efficiencies in the process, as Ellison points out.
Now let’s look at Company A, which is Intuit. A company like Intuit can be profitable serving small businesses because it takes a completely different approach. Theirs is a mass-market product and sales process. Instead of starting with a big-company product, they designed and built a product from the ground up for small businesses. Their sales and support costs are much lower, because they don’t call on small businesses individually and try to sell them one-to-one. With a lower cost structure, they can afford to price lower to meet the small business budget.
There are 2 lessons in all this.
(1) Yes, Virginia, you can make money selling to small businesses. You just have to have a business model designed for the small business market, not for selling to large corporations.
(2) Enterprise vendors, you may be better off not trying to go after small businesses – the adjustments you’d have to make may cost more than the value of the market you’re going after. Instead, consider purchasing or investing in a company that’s already made it in the small business market.
