Media Have a Sense of Humor Too

I had to share this link, which received nation-wide exposure today on MSN.  It is (my) Chicago’s Very Own WGN-TV Noons at Nine, also available on the Superstation.   Hopefully, this will remind you that media have a sense of humor too and that we shouldn’t take the pursuit of achieving positive public relations too seriously ourselves.

Happy Monday!!

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications and Small Biz PR Made Easy

Sourcing External Advice to Grow Your Business

I was chatting to some friends of mine during the week about my “Growing the Family Business” post.  The conversation was about the fact that many small business owners simply don’t have the skills, or sometimes even the confidence, to interview and identify candidates that might be the right fit for their business. 

In a larger business, an MD or CEO can rely on his/her Human Resources department to provide the necessary skills for strategic recruitment.  Even in mid size businesses there’s often a board of directors from which the MD can draw expertise and advice from - and bounce ideas off – when required.  But in the humble small business it’s not uncommon for the kitchen table,  surrounded by spouse, friends or children, to be the sounding board for ideas and advice.

Now don’t get me wrong – some of the best ideas implemented in my business have come from kitchen table discussions.  But getting from a great idea to the actual execution of that idea requires more specific expertise and guidance – expertise and guidance that can be sourced externally.

Types of External Help

A mentor:  This can be a great no-cost or low-cost and rewarding source of external advice.  You might have an informal mentor relationship with another business owner or executive (generally more senior or with more years of industry experience than yourself), or a more formal mentoring relationship through business coaching organisations.

An advisory board:  Small businesses can have a board too!  But rather than a board of directors, you could form an advisory board for your business. This could also have different levels of formality.  An informal arrangement could be a bunch of business owners coming together to form an advisory board representing all their businesses – a bit like a small networking group that meet often to help each other out with business issues.  A more formal arrangement is when you might hand-pick an advisory board by approaching experts that specifically compliment your business and offering them a small amount of equity – this gives them a vested interest and motivation to really help you.

A consultant:  The mere mention of the word “consultant” can send small business owners running to hide their chequebooks.  Yes, consultants can be expensive, but they can also be used to give you very good and specific advice when you need it fast in key growth areas like franchising and exporting.

So what are your thoughts on these sources of external help?  Are their specific examples you could share with us where external help has been great for your business?

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.

What is Intellectual Property?

Whenever I introduce myself to someone as a trademark attorney, the first question I get is almost always, “So, you do patents?”.  This invites a  discussion of the difference between the three common types of intellectual property.  Patents, Coyrights, and Trademarks.

From most people’s perspective, it is all one area of the law, but they are very different from a protection standpoint, a legal skills standpoint, and a market standpoint.  From a market sense, trademarks are by far the most common.  Trademarks can be best described by using words like “identity” or “brand”.  Without getting into the legalese, essentially, a trademark protects the way the public associates a product or service with a name, logo or slogan.  For example, when you drive down the street and see a sign on the side of the road with a big orange shell on it, you know where to fill up your tank.  Or, when you are browsing the isles at your sporting goods store and see a “swoosh” you know you have found the right shoes.  Protecting the association you have with those products requires filing a federal trademark application.  Since every business has a name or identity, nearly every business is affected by trademark law.  Companies spend a great deal of money to protect their brands, as you can imagine.

Compare this to patents.  The common word we associate with patent law is “invention”.  This can be a device to perform open heart surgery in a safer manner, a new combination of chemicals to produce a new drug, or the addition of a new part to an airplane wing to make flying safer.  Most businesses do not “invent” new products so most business do not need to worry about patent law.  The ones that are involved in the patent world, however pay the price and reap the rewards.  You can expect tens of thousands of dollars just to get started with a patent application.  However, to have the rights to produce a life saving pharmaceutical product can be worth billions.

The word, “Copyright” is one of my favorite legal terms because it tells you exactly what you are protecting.  The owner of a copyright has the “right” to make “copies” of his work of authorship.  An “author” is the first person to fix a “work of art” in a “tangible medium”.   Copyrights generally involve paintings, books, songs, software codes, and other atistic creations.

Some ventures require all three types of Intellectual Property protection.  Think of a video game.  The creator of the game will want to get a trademark on “Mario Brothers”, the actual computer code will be protected by the copyright, and the manner in which the software works and relates to the hardware will be the subject of the patent.   Take some time to think about the differences and how it impacts your business.  Are you concerned about your name, logo, or identity?  Have you seen similar names to yours or are concerned that you may unknowingly be infringing on some other company’s trademark?

Check out my Podcast in the iTunes music store by searching for Brian Fons or Corporate Creations.

“PR Works” For Small Biz

PR Works – Episode 3

Posted using ShareThis

Last week Lee Weinstein of “PR Works” radio interviewed me on my new site www.SmallBizPRMadeEasy.com and what small businesses can do today to keep their businesses moving forward. Also included is Margaret Nathan of Strategic Communications.  The show is new and picking up steam with both those in the PR industry and businesses. Check it out!

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications and Small Biz PR Made Easy

Follow me on Twitter @SmallBizPRXpert

Top 10 Reasons to Write a Business Plan – Part One

You have a GREAT idea for a new business – one that you’re convinced will be the next BIG thing and your raring to go. But wait – an advisor you respect and trust has told you that you MUST have a Business Plan before you proceed.

Do you listen to her? Here are my top ten reasons to take her advice and put pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard and do that business plan.

And yes, I understand you aren’t looking for investors or a loan – still do the plan.

Its time-consuming but essential if you want to have a successful business that’s going to survive the startup phase. If your business doesn’t have one, it’s never too late to start. The process of writing a plan can do wonders to clarify where you’ve been and where you’re going.

1. To Outline Each Area of the Business – A business plan will provide an overview of all aspects of the business. You’ll be able to detail the who, what, where, when, and why of your day-to-day business operations, costs, and projected profitability.

2. To Learn About the Market and Your Competition - Researching, analyzing, and writing about the market not only provides you with an overview for the business plan, but gives you greater insight into the overall market.

3. To See If Your Business Ideas Will Work - By writing a business plan and outlining each aspect of your business, you can determine if your idea is actually a good one.

4. To Set Up Milestones - By forecasting where your business will be in six months, one year, or five years, you are not only letting potential investors know your plans, but also setting up realistic milestones for yourself and your employees.

5. To Determine Your Financial Needs - The process of writing your business plan will force you to understand your financial picture.

6. To Attract Top-Level People - Your business plan will give talented people an overview of your business and let them know you’re serious about succeeding.

7. To Attract Investors - Before investors can decide whether or not to back your business financially, they need to know as much as possible about how the business will operate and how their investment will be spent – and it will cost you some equity.

8. To Secure Additional Funding or Loans - Your business plan can demonstrate that you have met goals and illustrate the company’s growth and need for additional funding.

9. To Monitor Your Business - A business plan should serve as an ongoing road-map – a business tool that you can use to monitor your progress.

10. To Devise Contingency Plans or an Exit Strategy – While business plans often include some contingency plans, by virtue of having the document available, you can see how and where you can make such changes relatively quickly if, and when, necessary.

In my next entry, I’ll discuss the essential elements of a business plan.

Michael Shapiro – Dynamic Management Solutions, Inc.

Growing the Family Business – Outsiders or Intergenerational?

When a small family business finds itself in growth mode, or at least with aspirations of growth, a common mistake is often made that hinders any growth altogether:  the mistake of automatically placing someone in the family lineage in charge of driving the company forward.  It might be the up-and-coming prodigal son who’s been earmarked to take over from the old man on his retirement, or it could be the owner’s mature sister who’s bringing her years of big corporate experience to the family business.  Either way, the best decision isn’t always an automatic family succession.

Succession Planning

In planning for growth and succession, a family at the heart of their business needs a clear vision of where the business is at and, most importantly, where they want to take it.  Some families simply don’t want growth and others have huge ambitions.  The point is, a vision must exist.

The next step is to understand the core capabilities required to achieve that vision.  Generally growth requires some key changes to the nucleus of a family business:  It needs a stronger strategic model from which to base decisions, a more functional internal staff structure and a much greater commitment to investing in the development of people – both those in the family and “outsiders”.    Only when all the capabilities are identified can the task of finding a leader or team of leaders begin – and it’s important the family surname is taken out of the equation.  All potential candidates, whether they are related, existing “outsiders” within the business, or new external candidates, should be assessed objectively against the list of capabilities.

Finding the “Right” Person

For most small businesses, employing people – especially management – is more about finding the right person, not the best person.  Often new staff are hired on their previous work experience alone, without ever having demonstrated any of the core capabilities required.  On paper, they were the “best”.  But in practice they aren’t “right”.  The decision is made based on the candidates resume, not on information uncovered from the interview process – after all, the family business owner isn’t always an expert in interviewing candidates.

So focus the interview and selection process (regardless of whether it’s an outsider or family member!) around the ability of the candidate to demonstrate previous application of the required core capabilities.  This ability to really get under the skin of candidates will result in a much higher chance of appointing the right person for the role.

Having a family vision for the business, not automatically assuming an intergenerational succession plan, identifying the core capabilities required to achieve the vision and not assessing candidates just on their previous work experience but also on their demonstrated application of the core capabilities  – adopt these steps and you are well on your way to having the right people leading your family business in to growth.

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.

Point in Case for Crisis Planning

It’s SO SAD but a chance for me to reiterate why you need to plan for a crisis.

It took her almost a year to replace her beloved Sophie.  When Oprah was finally ready she went to a highly respected no-kill organization in Chicago called PAWS, where she adopted two adorable blonde cocker spaniel puppies.  Sadly, just days after sharing her exciting news with the world, one of the precious pups died from a virus.

Can you imagine?  First the heartbreak but then being the organization receiving national, even international, press regarding the adoption and now this sad news.   This could be devastating for PAWS’ public perception and positioning as a credible expert in caring for animals and adopting healthy ones out.  How the organization deals with this situation (heartbreaking for everyone) will determine how they come out the other side.   Yesterday they put out a statement for a Chicago Tribune article.  It’s general and one I’m sure will be distributed to cover many media inquiries, but it’s something and it’s proactive and covers everything I mentioned Monday.   I will be interested to see what they do next and if they will continue to be proactive in their approach.

So, case in point from my post this week on planning for a crisis.  It can happen anytime to anyone and in any way.  While I feel many people will have great sympathy for everyone involved, it’s still not the kind of PR you hope for when Oprah, media mogul and most recognized woman in the world, is supporting your organization.  I’m sure there will be no hard feelings, but then again it’s a unique situation.  You and your business/organization cannot hope to be so lucky.

Get crackin’ on that crisis plan!

Jennifer Fortney, President, Cascade Communications and Publisher, Small Biz PR Made Easy

Are You Prepared for The Worst? Crisis Planning Key For All Businesses

We’ve all seen how the news media react to toy and food recalls, even local restaurants with, uhm, pest problems.  The truth is that every business, regardless of your size, should be prepared for the “worst case scenario”.   It can happen anytime, anyplace anywhere and how you manage the situation can determine whether or not your business weathers the storm.

Take a minute to sit down and list what those worst case scenarios are for your business.  If you’re a doctor it could be a misdiagnosis, dentist patient has an allergic reaction, restaurant – food poisoning, employee theft, toy store – child swallows something, a law suit, and so on.  Really the worst is someone’s death due to any ignorance on the part of your company or employees.  After defining every single possible scenario, sit down and determine what your crisis communications plan is going to be.

A crisis communications plan is an outline of the steps you and your business are going to take to:

a). communicate with the public about what happened – remember this one thing, the first 24 hours are the most crucial and the time to get out your message in reply.  The longer you wait to communicate to the public the more the story will spin out of control.  Get the facts out and make sure that the company’s owner (you) is the only one delivering the message.   Think Exxon Valdez.  The CEO took more than a week to speak to the media about the tragedy.  The sooner you start talking, the less damage done and the better chance you have of repairing your reputation/brand/company image.  Plus, the media will be more willing to work with you.  Otherwise, speculation will take hold, the story will keep appearing in the news and you will lose the public’s trust, and customers.  So, how are you going to respond?  Write out messages for every potential scenario and put together tactics to be implemented by each.

b). what you’re going to do to regain the public’s trust – what steps are you going to take to show the public that you are “taking action” to prevent a future situation from occurring.  It’s important to map these out in detail and communicate them to the public/media.  Make a list for every scenario of what you can do to prevent this from happening again the future; any steps and measures on the part of the company and its employees.

c). train your staff on your company’s crisis protocol – this is two fold because it gives you an opportunity to remind employees the role they play and how one misstep can affect your business, and you lay out the guidelines for what comes out of their mouths about a situation.   Really, they shouldn’t be commenting on the situation at all.  What you should do is provide them with what to say about the situation if asked by media or even family and friends.  What your employees say and how they react is a form of PR whether it’s positive or negative.  In a crisis situation you need to be sure to keep a lid on things and control the messages.   Plus, your employees feel more vested in the business when you keep them fully in-the-loop.

Now, if you think you don’t need a crisis communications plan, think again.  I can only think of maybe two or three industries that don’t need one.  A plan helps make you aware of the possible negative impact your business can have on someone’s life, as well as your employees (if your business goes under because you failed to handle a crisis situation appropriately, your employees will be out of work).

Even if you never use it, you can take comfort in knowing that you are thoroughly prepared for any and every situation that may face your business.  My hope is that you never ever have to use it.

Jennifer Fortney, President, Cascade Communications and Publisher, Small Biz PR Made Easy.

Social Media? Argggggggggghhhhh!!!

As a professor at the college, and in my day to day travels, I get asked about Linked-In, Twitter, Plaxo, and a myriad of other online networking sites at least once a day. The general feeling is one of overwhelming confusion. So here’s a simple piece of educated advice on the topic.

 

Small business owners who are the only employee of a business. My advice is that you ignore social networking trends. You don’t have time for it.  Now I’m not saying ignorie social networking. I’m saying, pick one, only one. Learn it well and use just that one.

 

Check out these names….Twitter, Face Book, MySpace, Blogs, Linked-In, Plaxo, Flickr, – - “Jaiku” (get ready for this one folks, it’s owned by Google and in Beta)-,  Bebo, Geni, Plurk, and on and on and on and on. You can go to this wikipedia site for a list of about 150 different social networking sites out there. Some hot, some not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Twitter is really hot today, MySpace is so yesterday, what’s Plaxo? Isn’t Linked-In overcrowded??? Heaven help us when Jaiku hits the scene in full force. Could be bye-bye Linked-In. Who knows!

As a small business owner do you need to know and be using all of these social networking sites? The answer is resoundng NO! If you have a staff and can assign someone to each tool, then go for it. If you try to cover them all yourself you’ll be in over your head in less than a week and frustrated by them all.  If you do have staff make sure what’s being put out there runs a very tight common company message. If you’re a Christian company and you assign one of your staff to manage your MySpace page, hmmmm, better watch it close.

Social networking for business benefit only works if you have time to…..

 

- – devot to them
- – form relationships online
- – participate in discussions
- – lend expertise to a topic
- – stay on top of what’s hot and what’s not every day or week

Most business owners don’t have time to do this. So don’t even try. At a high level, learn what the common ones are, then pick one that best gets your company message out there and get good at it! Only that one!!!

 

Good luck, and try to avoid getting caught up in the current buzz frenzy……. ”Man, you’ve just got to be using Twitter(insert any other name) if you want your business to be successful”.

Which one do you belong to, if any, and how has it helped your business?

Chris Nastav, KC Web Specialists, LLC. www.kcwebspecialists.com
Experts in how business gets done on the Internet (913) 908.5642

Making Time to Network

If you consider yourself serious about growing your business through networking, you should ask yourself:

1. How much time will I dedicate to networking each week?

2. What % of my marketing budget will I dedicate to word of mouth?

3. How many meals each week will I eat with someone else?

4. How many new people do I want to meet each week?

5. What other methods will I use to generate new business?

• Cold calls – For most people, the term cold call is 2 four-letter words…

• Advertising – Expensive and difficult to define a ROI

• Public Relations – Frequently PR is unpredictable with little control over what gets printed and when.

• Networking – Many experts believe you should plan your networking activities just as you plan any other aspect of your business.

The key is to be able to apply metrics to always know where you’re at in achieving your goals.

How much time you devote to networking varies but conventional wisdom and many experts believe it’s between 20 – 27% each week – yes that’s about 8+ hours per week.

Commit to spending enough time networking each week and you will quickly see the results as you move into the elite group of master-networkers.

Michael Shapiro

Dynamic Management Solutions, Inc.

Business Growth in a Down Turn

Back in January, Jennifer had some great tips on growing and thriving in 2009.  I want to revisit one of the main points she raised and a message I’m continually delivering to my small and medium business clients:  You CAN create new opportunities, outperform your competitors and grow your business in this economic climate.  You need to hunt now or risk being eaten!

One of my golden rules in a down turn is market, market, market!  I’m not talking about mass media brand building type marketing here; I’m talking low cost lead generation type marketing.  (Jennifer has a great list in her post.)  Again, the key here is to take action, and not think too much and stress, so make sure you draw up a marketing plan and commit to it.  Keep it simple – a spreadsheet detailing the activities you are going to perform each week for a month in advance is a great start.

Think hard about the key marketing messages you deliver and how you can rework them to suit the current buying climate.  To help you do this, ask some of your key clients what is important to them right now.  Common answers from my clients at the moment include “cut costs”, “increase efficiency”, “lower our head count” and “do more with our existing clients”.  So put some thought in to how your product/service can deliver these benefits and rework your marketing messages to reflect that.  Here’s an example from my business:  We offer a managed online data backup service for SMBs and generally it’s marketed heavily around data security benefits, but now we’ve changed the key message to reflect the fact it can cut costs (no ongoing consumables expenses such as backup tapes) and increase efficiency (it’s fully automated, no need for staff interaction to change tapes every day or check the backup log).

Finally, if you sell in to particular vertical markets that aren’t buying, don’t just try and ride out the storm – look for another vertical that is buying.  Even in a down turn there are vertical markets that experience growth, so try and get a piece of them.  For example, a recent report in Australia by Sensis indicated that health-care, government and community services were still high confidence sectors.  So follow your basic marketing plan, utilise low-cost lead generating marketing and deliver your reworked marketing messages in growing verticals to develop new opportunities for your business!

What vertical markets in your state or country are in growth mode?

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.

Choosing Your Legal Structure

Have you revisited your legal structure lately?  Most business owners start out a a sole proprietorship because it is the easiest entity to operate.  However, after putting some thought and consideration into the different options, many change their structure.  There are a number of different structures that may be more suitable, including S-corporation, LLC, C-corporation, and partnerships.  Just because you were a sole proprietorship when you started, doesn’t mean it is the best option now.

While you are getting your taxes done, take a minute to ask you accountant or tax adviser about your options.  The various states offer different kinds of protection for the business owner.  You don’t want to end up losing all of your assets because of a bad business decision.  Talk to your attorney.  What type of legal structure are you?  When was the last time you did a legal “Check-up”?

Brian R. Fons, Attorney and President, Corporate Creations Chicago LLC, since 1997.  Brian.Fons@corpcreations.co

Free Press Release Webinar

For all of you who find that your press releases are getting you no where, either because it sounds more like sales copy or you just can’t figure out how to put your story together, this is a great opportunity to get some advice:

“Happy News Release Resolutions,”by Business Wire

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 1 p.m. EST.

Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/518472577

I look forward to hearing what you get out of it.  This is a rare opportunity so take advantage of it.

Be well,

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications

Publisher, SmallBizPRMadeEasy.com

Small Business Daily Welcomes New Contributors

Small Business Daily has been a busy little bee making changes and enhancing content to meet your needs.  It’s a crazy time for everyone.  We know what you’re interested in reading more about and we’ve set out to make it happen.   Our goal has always been to provide you with all the highest quality of information you need to start, run and grow a business, and this is yet another step.

The first part of this development is the introduction of two new contributors:

Brian Fons, President, Corporate Creations Chicago, LLC - knows the law, small business and the Chicago Cubs.   Got questions about trademark?  Copyright?  Should you incorporate or LLC?  His posts will surely answer all of your small business legal questions.  Plus, he’s just a nice guy!

Clayton Moulynox, Managing Director, Evolve IT – is our token Aussie who we look very much forward to hearing a great deal from.  He offers great insights into business growth and an international perspective that we’ve been missing and know many of you are interested in.  We may rope him into some other assignments as well, but we don’t want to drive him away too quickly.

We will soon have their bios and photos up on “The Experts”, but until then we invite you to check out their websites to learn more.

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, our readers.  You drive our content and your feedback is essential and valuable to us all.  Got ideas on topics?  Share ‘em!  Email:  smallbizexperts@live.com
Be well,

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications and “Editor-in-Chief” (of some sort) of Small Business Daily

Saving Money With A Web Site

Simple, simple advice for anyone giving forms, sales literature or other printed materials to their existing clients. Save money by directing them to your Web site to get the materials. Put all your stuff out their as forms for them to download and print off. This gives the impression of convenience and great customer service. Which it does! But it also saves you those recurring printing costs. Every dollar counts. Why hand out literature that just ends up in the trash or recycle bin. Put the content on your Web site for them to read and enjoy as many times as needed.

Please share with comments your Web site cost saving methods.

Chris Nastav, KC Web Specialists, LLC. www.kcwebspecialists.com
Experts in how business gets done on the Internet (913) 908.5642