The Rule of Three in Small Business Marketing

For any small business, marketing can either be a serious challenge or a fun adventure in learning how to reach and expand your client base.  For most entrepreneurs, it is also the last thing on the long list of things that need to be done.   Being the head of the ship can be exhausting but take solace, the Rule of Three comes to the rescue.   This is a borrowed repost from a wonderful small business blog run by Small Business Newz.

What, exactly, is the Rule of Three? It’s a rule that basically states that more than three “whatever” is confusing and overwhelming – either visually or mentally, or both.  That makes it especially helpful if you’re the kind of entrepreneur who likes to give too much.  As in: too many options, too much rambling content, too many bullet points, too much info crammed into a speech, etc.

The Rule of Three is a fascinating thing. Why? Because it seems to apply in so many different situations. And many of these situations are related to effectively marketing a business. So if you’re an entrepreneur, it makes sense to understand how, when and why to apply it.

Oftentimes, the reality is less is more. The Rule of Three can help ensure you aren’t overwhelming your clients and prospects. That translates into more sales. Below are seven ways you can put the Rule of Three to use in marketing and growing your small business.

1)      Follow up. How many times should you follow up with a prospect? A minimum of (you guessed it) three times. More is better! How often do you give up after one or two calls or emails? If you’re not following up AT LEAST three times you’re definitely losing potential clients and projects.

2)      Marketing tactics. I recommend my clients never try to implement more than three new marketing tactics at a time. It’s just too much because each one is going to require multiple steps to execute. Plus you need to track response.  While you might eventually have more than three tactics happening simultaneously, if you overload yourself in the beginning you won’t be able to execute any of them well or on a consistent basis—if ever.

3)      Business cards. Take a look at a few business cards. Some look professional, clean and easy to understand. Others have way too much stuff crammed into way too small a space.  Chances are the best ones have no more than three blocks of information (whether that’s text or graphics) in the layout. For example, logo in the corner is one, name and title in the middle is another, and contact info at the bottom is a third.
Stick with the Rule of Three here and avoid distracting background images or the urge to squeeze every possible bit of info on one card. You’ll end up with a better result that makes a more professional first impression.

4)      Fonts. Never use more than three fonts on a page – online or in print – (and your logo font does count as one). Having too many fonts looks juvenile and unprofessional. Instead, choose one font for body text and one for headlines or callouts, and leave it at that. You can always use boxes, bolding, underlines, colors and italics for emphasis.

5)      Colors. Looking for new colors for your brand? Trying to decide on the colors for your Website? Or that new flier, ad or promotion? Again, the Rule of Three is your friend. Choose one color to be your main color, then one that compliments it, and one to serve as a highlight color.  More than that and your logo, brand and marketing start to look like a car wash poster made by high school students.

6)      Speaking points. The human mind can only absorb and remember so much information in one sitting. So when you plan a speech, talk, teleseminar or Webinar, don’t overwhelm listeners with everything you know. Instead choose three points, tips or topics to delve into and save the rest for another time.  Not only do you avoid confusing or overwhelming the audience, but you keep them coming back for more.

7)       Bullet points. Not sure when to use bullet points instead of a list in regular paragraph format? Rule of Three to the rescue again…If you’ve got more than three things in your list, it’s time to switch to bullets.

If you’ve got at least three things in your list, bullets are optional but allowed. Less than three and you want to stick with paragraph format.

So next time you’re working on any piece of marketing, branding, copy writing or advertising remember the Rule of Three. You’ll look more professional, be easier to understand, and make a much bigger impact that’s going to grow your business!

Expanding Horizons: OPIC Program for Small Business

Globalization is more than a buzz word these days, it could be the crucial growth platform some small businesses need to push past the profit-ceilings we find ourselves reaching. Through workshops and seminars, OPIC educates small businesses about more than government opportunities for global sales but legal issues that all business entities face when interfacing outside of the United States.   In their own words, the reach is wide and growing quickly:

OPIC has hosted Expanding Horizons around the country for the past six years. More than 1,300 small businesses from 39 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have attended. Last years workshops in Orange County, Calif. and Miami drew record attendance.

If you think your products or services have a broader audience, then this is the place to start.  Take the time to contact them and watch your business's profit grow.

OPIC Expanding Horizons

The Business of Innovation

What an excellent series. This is actually an older series (2008) but the processes and theories are key to all business models; managing, engaging and motivating employees in a way that grabs their hearts and drives innovative leadership. It starts with creating a culture of innovation not only within the company and it's employees, but outside as well with rewarding positive behaviors and encouraging feedback.

The Business of Innovation: The Human Element

This is a 5 part series that has great tips on breeding innovation within your organization using examples from proven corporations.

Does this apply to small business, in many ways it most certainly does.  We have a local pizza shop that takes the messages this video series has to heart and applies them to their organization daily.  Cam's NY Pizzeria (Camillus, NY) promotes a community and team oriented culture from the floor up.  You see it colorfully painted on the walls when you walk in, signs that illuminate the values of a strong team environment.  There are dozens of plaques adorning the walls, all indicating Cam's community support.  The employees are always happy (really I know this because I am addicted to their pizza) helpful and a real pleasure to do business with.  Their employees help create new products based on their interactions and feedback from customers. This organization is a picture perfect example of a corporate-driven culture of innovation that has been drilled down into small business terms.

The knowledge expressed in this series is applicable to all businesses, big or small. Through creative and ingenious ways, your small business can create a culture of innovation that not only grows your organization but has fun while doing so.

Google Search Tips

I found a blog  post about Google searching tips (link at bottom) and while I knew some of these tips, there are many I did not and wanted to keep the information flowing.  Strengthen your searching prowess using these tools and see better results.

12 Google Search Tips

1. Explicit Phrase:
   Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing.  Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase.  To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

   Example: "internet marketing"

2. Exclude Words:
   Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising.  To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.

   Example Search: internet marketing -advertising

3. Site Specific Search:
   Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase.  Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.

   Example: "internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

4. Similar Words and Synonyms:
   Let’s say you want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms.  To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.

   Example: "internet marketing" ~professional

5. Specific Document Types:
   If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:".  For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.

   Example: "internet marketing" filetype:ppt

6. This OR That:
   By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search.  If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator.  (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).

   Example: internet marketing OR advertising

7. Phone Listing:
   Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know who it is.  If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.

   Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).

8. Area Code Lookup:
   If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.

   Example: 617

9. Numeric Ranges:
   This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip.  Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers.  You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods.)  This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices, or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.

   Example: president 1940..1950

10. Stock (Ticker Symbol):
    Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.

    Example: GOOG

11. Calculator:
    The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.

    Example: 48512 * 1.02

12. Word Definitions:
    If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.

    Example: define:plethora

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/1264/12-Quick-Tips-To-Search-Google-Like-An-Expert.aspx#ixzz1liCUPv7L

ZDNet: Small Business Center

I stumbled onto a really interesting tool that Tech Republic supports called ZDNet's "Small Business Center."  This site carries a moderate amount of information for small businesses via a blog-type platform.  It marries large to middle sized corporate entity news in as well, keeping informed about your competition, no matter what their size is, is crucial to all businesses.  Their description reads:

The ZDNet Small Business Center is a comprehensive and interactive destination for relevant technology news, information, help and how-tos catered to IT professionals in the small business arena. It includes custom blogs, webcasts and news and updates for the challenging and resource-constrained small business sector.

I found trending information, albeit was based largely in part on bigger businesses, it pertained to small business enterprise as well.  Primarily though, its information pertained mostly to smaller enterprises consisting of 30+ employees.

The jury is still out with regards to how it plays into the roles of small businesses of 1-30 employees until I seriously have more time to read into the articles but from what I've seen so far, it contains good information that rolls over into any solid small business IT infrastructure.

SOPA: Anti-Piracy or Anti-Internet?

You have to wonder, at least I did when I was younger, as to why control of the internet is valued so greatly by the government bodies of this world.  From China to the Middle East's "Arab Spring" last year, there is great power in controlling what your people can (or even more so cannot) see or do on the internet.  Controlling the gathering of your people, in any sense, also controls independent thinking and the collective powers that happen when a people gather.  You're probably asking, "What does this have to do with SOPA?"  I'm getting to that part but first let me build a "platform" of understanding for those who don't clearly realize how the most powerful tool in the world originated. 

As a bit of history (sorry to those of us who know this already) that the internet was founded in this country in the 1950's by ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), under the Department of Defense.  Thanks to some really bright fellas at MIT, the first networks and email were created shortly after.

Also, the truest forms of "freedom of speech" were founded in this country as well.  So it makes sense that the highest volume of internet traffic with the largest percentage of websites is located at the home of the internet.

The irony here is the internet was initiated (in part) by a Department of Defense initiative during the tail end of the cold war as an answer to the governments fear of losing military communication systems if we were bombed by Russia.  Those fears never came to pass but because of it, we now have the worlds most connected and most powerful tool, the information super highway.  Countries who control this flow of knowledge and connectivity also control their people's understanding of everything around them.  They control the global community influence and their peoples connectedness to the world around them. 

Now enters two bills, SOPA, an anti-piracy bill that has seen many attempts at passing since the Bush administration and PIPA, a protect IP initiative. 

What is SOPA?  As quoted from Luke Johnson at The Huffington Post:

"...it is to force ISP's to shut down any website that may contain copyrighted content as outlined by the issuing entertainment bodies. The legislation would allow copyright holders and the Justice Department to seek court orders against websites associated with copyright infringement. SOPA, the House version, applies to both domestic and foreign websites.  If that court order is granted, the entire website would be taken down. Internet users who typed in the site's URL address would receive an error message, and for all appearances, the site would never have existed. Importantly, the court does not need to hear a defense from the actual website before issuing its ruling. The entire website can be condemned without a trial or even a traditional court hearing.
Copyright holders, like movie studios, simply invoke the "private right of action" against just about any company that does business with a website that copyright holders believe to be involved in copyright infringement. Copyright holders can demand that payment processors cutoff the flow of money to a website or that search engines eliminate links to it -- without ever entering a courtroom. Movie studios and record labels can also require online advertising networks on the website and Internet service providers from hosting the site."
Companies can protest any of these directives from copyright holders, but must get involved in a court action to object. If they choose to simply follow orders from movie studios, both SOPA and Protect IP would give these companies legal immunity for cutting off any legitimate websites that were falsely accused of copyright infringement. Internet service providers and payment processors could not be sued for taking action against sites that were not, in fact, doing anything improper.
For example, if a website was streaming "The Hangover" without permission, Warner Bros. could ask the Justice Department to obtain a court order for to shut down the entire site -- not merely remove the specific film, as required under current law. Alternatively, Warner Bros. could force credit card companies to stop processing payments to the site, make Google to remove it from search results, and the force the site's ISP from hosting it on the Web.
The language in the bill is vague, however, and could spark the shutdown of many websites that accidentally use snippets of copyrighted material that they believed to be available for free under "fair use" standards.
The legislation poses a significant risk to social media. If links to pirated movies were posted on Twitter or Facebook, the Justice Department could seek to shutdown the entire social media website, while Hollywood and other copyright owners could use their private right of action to severely limit the site's functionality.

Critics emphasize that copyright holders frequently abuse even existing copyright infringement tools that require websites to remove improper content, and believe those problems would be dramatically escalated by SOPA and Protect IP. "We would get a lot of erroneous...takedown notices, even on our own trailers for our own films put up on YouTube, because keywords would match," said Reddit general manager Erik Martin recently, who previously worked at an independent film production company. "Especially when companies are using automated tools -- it's a script, and human beings aren't even looking at this -- the potential for abuse [under Protect IP and SOPA] is huge."

The Justice Department would engage in a process called DNS (Domain Name System) blocking to shut down sites, a tactic which internet experts warn could harm the functionality and stability of the web. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has said that he will include a provision in the final bill requiring a study of the potential effects of the practice--however, it would still require DNS filtering after the study concludes.
SOPA makes it a felony to stream copyrighted video without permission, punishable by prison time.
Under current law, companies that think that their material has been improperly used can request for it to be removed, but cannot ask for entire websites to be taken down--hence the frequent sight of videos no longer available on sites like YouTube."

That's quite a mouthful but the end result is one of the harshest and most unbelievable attempts to control websites in America on record.  To take down a business because of an unproven belief they may have copyrighted content rolls us legislatively back nearly 70 years to when it was legal to charge, indict and convict people because it was a "common belief" (cough{{hearsay}}) they may be a communist. 

I'm not against finding a way to control copyrighted content from being illegally reproduced or used for purposes other than it's intent but to forgo proper legal channels of timely notice and legal action is absurd to me.  America built this great legal "empire" steeped in pleadings, complaints and summons that encourages all people to believe their personal rights are protected with the many layers of the legislative processes at hand, and all under the guises of fairness.

To me, SOPA has completely ignored the basic rights of its people, the right to defend themselves before a judgement is passed.  Innocent until proven guilty.  This bill needs a re-do.

LinkedIn: Small Business Benefits

A very smart professor impressed upon us in class how important creating a LinkedIn profile would be.  "Its a 'dynamic resume' for all the world to see and has connections Facebook could never compete with."  Those were her exact words from my notes back in 2009.  So, I jumped on the band wagon and while unsure of how truly important it would become, I gave it my all and created a comprehensive profile that I felt would at least present well to potential clients.  Little did I know what an incredible tool LinkedIn really is, especially to small business owners and freelancers.


Here are a few of the things I have learned since I began my LinkedIn journey:

1) Keep your profile public if you want everyone know what your qualifications are.  I know this isn't the most secure thing but if you only publish details that are crucial to your business (i.e. outline, skills, education and recommendations), most of it would be public knowledge anyway so it is my opinion that you are no more open to identity theft than if you purchase online from Amazon.  Again, this is what I have done and it works wonderfully for me.  

2) Word of mouth and new connections create paying work through recommendations. By simply connecting to your clients, customers, co-workers, supervisors, professors and friends (limited), you open yourself an enormous network of people from around the world, literally.  How cool is that?  I'll tell you, I've managed to land several really great clients through this technique.

Global Buzzwords in LinkedIn Profiles

3) Buzz words in your profile work to draw peoples attention but the real nuts and bolts are the recommendations.   A few strategic work and character recommendations by some influential people and your potential clients will take notice.   The above photo outlines what were deemed as overused words as of 2009.  I actually don't have "extensive experience" in my profile which it appears is an issue for North American's.  Either way, it works and I stand behind it 100%.

4) Join groups, get answers and give advice: this is another huge advantage LinkedIn has over Facebook and Twitter.   Free help from individuals who are sailing these same crazy waters as you are and maybe can prevent you from making the same mistakes they did.   Sounds like your mother's advice but really, she was spot-on so listen to Mom!   I cannot tell you how excellent this tool is, really.  I'd rather assist and get assistance for my daily hour of social media work than play with Facebook and Twitter combined.   Don't get me wrong, each has its importance and needs to be worked but for personal interest and real support factors, LinkedIn gets my vote hands down.

If you don't have a LinkedIn profile (which there are literally thousands of college students who don't because Facebook is their life), get one and join groups today!  Who knows, someone out there might just have the answer that unlocks your key to small business success....a growing list of paying clients!

The "Buy Local" Push: Spiking the Small Business Economy

What is all this hoopla about "Buy Local" really mean?  I've see ads for it on the T.V. and just a few hours ago I heard an advertisement on an internet radio station based in Canada!  Even Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal have joined the pool by publishing several articles touting the positive side-effects of this "vision of the future economy."   A specific article written by Judith Schwartz states:

"At the most basic level, when you buy local more money stays in the community. The New Economics Foundation, an independent economic think tank based in London, compared what happens when people buy produce at a supermarket vs. a local farmer's market or community supported agriculture (CSA) program and found that twice the money stayed in the community when folks bought locally. "That means those purchases are twice as efficient in terms of keeping the local economy alive," says author and NEF researcher David Boyle."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1903632,00.html#ixzz1ihw6fKIU

Coming from a small central New York community and running a small business here,  I not only understand how important it is from a financial perspective but also from a "connectedness" stand point.  Community stays connected via contacts and the only way to make contacts is to stop by a local small business to full fill a need rather than run home and hit the internet.  Its a simple choice that has far reaching benefits.

In my community (and surrounding communities as well) we have many groups that work to provide local consumers with local buying options and incentives for doing so.  The largest is a non-profit called Syracuse First.  This young organization (June, 2009) uses both savvy technological approaches as well as plain-old grass roots movements to get their messages to the masses.  With over 3,000 Facebook fans and thousands more as Syracuse First members, one can't help but be impressed!  


So is globalization just a dream?  Can we get off of this economic roller-coaster ride driven out of control by global economics or are we destined to the same ill fates as the combined economic conditions of the volumes of nations that surround us?  Maybe the answer is local economics do have a profound effect.  Maybe...just maybe to become a truly self-sustaining nation we must first look locally.  After all, it was what our founding fathers fought for, the right of independence in all things, starting with our communities. 


I'll close with a quote I swiped from the Syracuse First website that sums up the message I'm trying to convey here:

  “Going local does not mean walling off the outside world. It means nurturing locally owned businesses which use local resources sustainably, employ local workers at decent wages and serve primarily local consumers. It means becoming more self-sufficient and less dependent on imports. Control moves from the boardrooms of distant corporations and back into the community where it belongs.”- Michael H. Shuman, author of Going Local

TED TALKS: 12 year old App Developer...awesome!

The next generation is blowing my mind...literally.  I am continually impressed by the young adults I come into contact with, whether it is via school, family or friends.  Through their tenacity a level of innovation like no other has been born.  Take this fella for instance, he is a 12 year old app developer, not because he wants to make a fortune but for the simple pleasure of it. He enjoys programming, period.  

Thomas Suarez @ TED.com

He is quite a speaker and his message is simple.  How do you learn to program apps?  His solution is sound and his energy is contagious.  The fact that he gives credit to his mentor, his teachers and his school shows a level of respect that isn't always present in people of all generations.  Additionally, his future desire to continue sharing knowledge with other students in a collaborative environment gives him a leg up on the multitude of college age students I work with daily who have no clue how to work in a team-based environment.

Bravo, Thomas!

eLearning Modules: Creating Training Made Simple

Ever wonder how some of those incredible training videos were created?   There are quite a few different software packages that accomplish great eLearning modules.  Some are free communities of leaning management systems like Moodle that promotes both content management systems and virtual learning environments while others carry a fairly heavy initial investment like Adobe's Captivate but contain incredible bells and whistles for the investment.

Each system has it's own learning curve and all have some form of support whether it is an web community or direct support from the developers themselves.  The end results vary from single learning modules like "Emailing for Dummies" to dynamic degree programs that are totally controlled via enterprise networks like "Blackboard" or "Angel."

My two favorite forms of web education come from "YouTube" learning videos and Lynda.com. YouTube offers a host of free quickies that provide answers to hundreds of tasks while for a fee, Lynda will walk you through the intricacies of over 70,000 software applications.

As Lynda.com explains in their training, online education was the wave of the future 10 years ago, now it is an integral part of  every campus around the world.

For web developers, this is an incredible opportunity to share your knowledge and expand your technical skill sets.  Finding ways to make additional income as a sole business owner or "Freelancer" is the intent of most small business owners, more 'bang' for your time so-to-speak.  And this is your opportunity to teach, learn and increase your income, all while keeping up with the latest in technology!  It's a win-win for everyone so get out there and become part of the eLearning community today!

Fast Track to Business Boot-camp!

We are very fortunate to have the Small Business Development Center right here and freely accessible to Ononadaga Community College students.  It is one of those ingenious pairings that surprises most but benefits a growing number of students who are highly interested in becoming part of this nations small business backbone.

The program is a "soup-to-nuts" type of 3 day course that covers nearly every aspect of starting a business from picking the right type of business you are, to accounting and legal issues.  The answers I received were invaluable, a market analysis for my area of expertise, contacts for taxes and I even met other small business owners that went through this program and are successfully doing what I am now.  The support factor is what really makes the difference, I continue to use their resources and have been thankful beyond measure for all the input.  Smart people with a solid plan to help you make your dream become a reality.

Pride in owning your own business goes farther than simply working for yourself.  It is a powerful statement to the world of commerce that there is and always will be room for more than the mega-giant corporations gobbling profits daily.

Supporting local is more than a bumper sticker, it is the mantra for the new year.  Buy local, support local business and see our communities growing stronger each day even when corporate America leaves for cheaper lands.