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.

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

Megamergers: Interesting look at Globalization

I recently read a quote by technology philosopher (who knew we had those) named Nicholas Negroponte that said the global market driven by electronic information

"...forces things to get bigger and smaller at the same time.  And that's so ironic, when things want to do both  but not stay in the middle.  There will be an increasing absense of things that aren't either very local or very global."

A very interesting idea and as I looked around at how things are shaping up here and abroad, it really made sense, in a very eerie sort of way.  This has been going on here in the U.S. for at least the past 15 years.  There have been more megamergers turning large corporations and organizations into behemoths like Walt Disney and Pixar, Kmart and Sears, Kraft and Cadbury...the list is long and growing consistently.

So what does this mean and how does it tie into my usual rants about technology?  It means beyond outsourcing, beyond international acquisitions, beyond even the assumed destabilizing effects of international economics is the growing globalization of this world.  It is more than business and technology, more than e-commerce and off-shoring, it is nearly 7 billion (6,852, 472, 823) humans thousands of miles apart but sharing the same electronics stores, retail shops, automotive industries and clothing boutiques.  And technology did this, it created our interconnectedness through cell phones, smart devices, satellites and the internet. 

Good, bad or indifferent, this is what appears to be our reality and staying ahead of the technology curve will not only keep you in the game but may make the difference between sitting on the sidelines and being the star quarterback.