7 Reality Checks for Your Small Business
Thursday, July 20, 2006
American Chronicle is presenting 7 Reality Checks to help you reconcile your dreams with reality so that you can build your dream into a thriving business:
- In spite of your best intentions you will make mistakes
- Things go "wrong"
- Not everyone wants or needs what you have.
- Humbly welcome opportunities to profit.
- Customers have bad days, too
- Sometimes whole systems go wrong or you find out too late that a new project was not quite ready for prime time
- Owning a business can be isolating
Labels: customers, mistakes, reality check, small business
Small Business Branding
LA Times:
Branding your firm is a crucial part of your overall marketing strategy. Establishing a brand involves defining your company, knowing exactly what niche you serve in your industry and convincing your potential customers that your product or service is the only solution to their problem.
The smaller the enterprise, the more important branding is because small firms tend to have fewer resources and lower marketing budgets.
If you have established a strong brand, you will not have to do as much marketing to have an effect on potential customers.
Labels: branding, small business
5 Elements of a Good Marketing Plan
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
John Jantsch in Small Business Marketing Ain't For the Timid found 5 elements of a good marketing plan:
Tags: marketing plan
- Strategy
- Simplicity
- Consistency
- Multiple facets
- Self-promotion
Tags: marketing plan
Small Business Global Trends
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Top Ten Trends according to McKinsey:
1. Centers of economic activity will shift profoundly, not just globally, but also regionally - Asia will overtake Europe economically, although the U.S. will have the largest economic growth for the next 20 years.
2. Public-sector activities will balloon, making productivity gains essential - Aging populations are creating demand for public services, which in turn will increase taxes.
3. The consumer landscape will change and expand significantly - Consumer spending power in emerging economies is growing. Here in the U.S., the Hispanic consumer is growing.
4. Technological connectivity will transform the way people live and interact - The article notes, “For perhaps the first time in history, geography is not the primary constraint on the limits of social and economic organization.”
5. The battlefield for talent will shift - A global labor market is opening up.
6. The role and behavior of big business will come under increasingly sharp scrutiny.
7. Demand for natural resources will grow, as will the strain on the environment.
8. New global industry structures are emerging - According to the article, “In many industries, a barbell-like structure is appearing, with a few giants on top, a narrow middle, and then a flourish of smaller, fast-moving players on the bottom. ”
9. Management will go from art to science. Gut instinct management is dead, the authors say. I say, “maybe.”
10. Ubiquitous access to information is changing the economics of knowledge - Think open-source knowledge creation.
Read the whole article at the McKinsey Quarterly (requires free registration)
1. Centers of economic activity will shift profoundly, not just globally, but also regionally - Asia will overtake Europe economically, although the U.S. will have the largest economic growth for the next 20 years.
2. Public-sector activities will balloon, making productivity gains essential - Aging populations are creating demand for public services, which in turn will increase taxes.
3. The consumer landscape will change and expand significantly - Consumer spending power in emerging economies is growing. Here in the U.S., the Hispanic consumer is growing.
4. Technological connectivity will transform the way people live and interact - The article notes, “For perhaps the first time in history, geography is not the primary constraint on the limits of social and economic organization.”
5. The battlefield for talent will shift - A global labor market is opening up.
6. The role and behavior of big business will come under increasingly sharp scrutiny.
7. Demand for natural resources will grow, as will the strain on the environment.
8. New global industry structures are emerging - According to the article, “In many industries, a barbell-like structure is appearing, with a few giants on top, a narrow middle, and then a flourish of smaller, fast-moving players on the bottom. ”
9. Management will go from art to science. Gut instinct management is dead, the authors say. I say, “maybe.”
10. Ubiquitous access to information is changing the economics of knowledge - Think open-source knowledge creation.
Read the whole article at the McKinsey Quarterly (requires free registration)
Labels: small business, trends
