The top three reasons that small business owners avoid developing their online marketing plans and stay away from social media is lack of capital, lack of time, and lack of skills. This is where a blog will fit your needs perfectly—it is relatively cheap to incorporate into your site, requires very little time, and you do not need any special technical skills or writing expertise to use it. View this guide for tips on getting started with a blog and for best practices on maintaining it.

What is most important to having a successful blog is to understand that it is like hosting a networking event on your site, around the clock. People can read what you’ve written, which should be entertaining and informative. They can also participate by asking questions and posting comments. This can become a sounding board for revealing your areas of expertise and truly helping potential customers. It can also be a place for your current customers to tout your goods or services.

The beauty of the blog is that it does not need to be a picture perfect dissertation of what you do; as a matter of fact, it is better if it is more conversational and speaks to the masses. You can also have fellow employees or business associates write posts to expand your reach. One cardinal rule of blogging is to not only start this conversation, but to respond as well—keep the interaction moving.

Learn more and get started today!

“You can only choose one. Which one do you want,” she asked.

The boy chose the one that directly in front of him. The one he could easily reach out to and take without any fear. He was eager to tear open the pages of whatever adventure awaited beneath the cover.

“That one?  Are you sure?”

He nodded and they were off. I don’t know if he ever enjoyed the comic, but I saw, for that moment, he was completely confident and excited about his choice.

Right then and there, I had my topic.

The rush hour of small business marketing.
With so many people reaching out for your prospective clients’ attention, it’s getting harder and harder to see yourself as the clear choice.  It is easy to get overwhelmed with choosing where to advertise, how to cast the widest net, and what your message will be to get their attention.  It can be frustrating with every niche item salesman suggesting what bit of swag will be sure to lure in that potential client, the local print shop touting the latest sale on brochures and postcards, networking events crowded with the same people over and over again, and yet have you noticed what you want…seems to be right where you need it?

I’m not advocating you ditch any of the tools above, but simply recognize them for what they are. They are tools and avenues to get you to the next prospective client.  But if these avenues are backed up with rush hour like traffic fighting for attention, why would you take them? Because they are safe bets? Because everyone is doing it? Because you are a bit afraid to feel like you wasted your all ready limited resources on an unproven tactic?

But what if you take these choices and you end up with a closet full of key chains, boxes of never seen brochures, and networking events where you end up collecting the same business cards from the same people just on different days?  Isn’t THAT a waste of your valuable all ready limited resource?

Be where you’ll get the most eyes.
Instead of trying to create tactics and plans that brings them to you, try getting out and going to them.  Seriously, go where your future long term customers will be. It could feel awkward at first, but if you’re the first person to tap the well of uninterrupted visibility then you’ve got nothing to loose.

The best example I’ve seen of this was just yesterday at an office where I am doing some contracting.  In their kitchen, right on the refrigerator door, was an advertisement for a Babysitter.  The design was clean, clear, and simple.  There was a pocket, made of folded paper, stapled to it with business cards sticking out. The business cards were even clearer than the flyer. They simply read, in a welcoming font,

“Nicole.
Babysitter.”

And below that were her phone number and email.

This wasn’t done in an off the shelf font, but it was neatly presented and easy to read. No fluff designs or overly wordy content. The business card laden flyer was close to eye level with anyone going to get their lunch.

Nicole tapped a market of an office made up of probably 60% of her chosen clients. She went right to where she would get the most eyes on her services.

Needless to say, I’ve seen Nicole’s simple business card holder refilled at least twice since the advertisement went up.

Be brave with your limited resources.
Don’t be afraid to take chances once in a while. Get out there and go after your prospective clients with the same excitement you started your business.  After all, they are your clients after all, right?  Instead of the next tried and true moderately successful “everyone’s seen it, done it, and got the t-shirt from it” tactic, get a little creative with your limited resources.

If you’re an auto detailing company, offer to wash cars in the parking lot of your local office building for free in exchange for letting people know about your services.  If you’re a business coach, give away coupons for a free session at a networking event for small business owners.  If you’re an author with a new book to peddle, go to where your reader will be and give out free sample chapters of your book with info on where to get the rest of the great, amazing best seller to be. What ever it is that you do, be bold, be creative and be fearless in whatever your marketing endeavor will be.  Failures will happen, but successes will as well.  Be more focused on the later and conscious of what caused the former.

If you’re wondering, yes, I’ve seen the aforementioned suggestions done, but those business owners wanted the clients and weren’t afraid to take a calculated risk to reap a little long term reward.

But the real question is…are you?

As all ways…stay wicked.

Overnight something wholly amazing happened.
They opened their email box one morning a month into the passively pushed campaign and found they had, honest to Bob, over 7,000 submissions requesting to be a part of the campaign. Emails poured in from all over the nation taking part in the submission. We all clamored to the marketers’ desk to see this with our own eyes. An email box so overloaded with requests it called to mind the commercial of the new business that puts its store online and the orders just keep going up, and up, and up. Just like the emails that continued to pour in.

From joy to panic.
Some thought it was spam. Some were excited at the potential of something they did being that “viral”. Some freaked out at how they were going to service all of the requests with a limited supply.

With one of their web team helping, I started looking through some of the emails to see if we could detect signs of spamming. We couldn’t find any that were that obvious. The submission forms were filled out were each unique, accurate, and different, that the only thing that kept the curiosity of it being spam was the frequency of how these came in. It was roughly twenty emails a minute with each second a part from each other.

The Google Search is strong with this one.
So there we sat, debating on what to do, and I thought “Google will have the answer”. I threw the name of the campaign between some quotes in Google’s search box and hit send. My screen, and Google’s Search results, were maxed out with Freebie Sites, sites that do nothing but list where to find, and how to get, free stuff online, listing the “Free Gift” that came with campaign and how to get it.

I figured, “if it’s already this deep into Google…where else could it be”. I turned m search to the tools of Social Media. The links started popping up on Twitter with a link back to the directions on how to get the “Free Gift”. It was in different spots all throughout Social Media.

In a very short time, less then ten hours, the “Free Gift” had spread like wild fire. It was time for some damage control.

From excitement to frustration
From there, I created a timeline of when the first Freebie Site listed the campaign, which linked off of it, when other posts picked it up, and cross referenced it with when the emails came in and how often they spiked. Yeah, I know, I’m a geek. My wife reminds me constantly. Sure enough, the spike in email requests coincided with each time the campaign appeared on a Freebie Site.

This wasn’t spam after all, but an army of people who collectively thought the “Free Gift” was worth their time to blog about the “Free Gift” and share how sign up for it. They rallied their own troops, got the message out, and took action on it. This was truly an example of the kind of Viral Marketing companies’ dream of!

Yet notice nothing in that last paragraph talks about the connection with the campaign, the belief in the goal, sharing the message of the campaign over the free gift, or any positive remarks about the non-profit’s effort?

With learning that submissions were still flooding in, we closed down the submission request box. I sent emails to the Freebie Sites letting them know what the intention of the campaign was and how we hoped they update their info. Some did and thanked us. Some ignored us. I sent a few emails to those who submitted letting them know what happened. Some did and thanked us. Some got frustrated and said that they did what the website said and they wanted their “Free Gift” anyway. Some ignored us.

The moral of the story, kids.
This outcome was not what they expected, or intended, when they created their marketing campaign. They just wanted to add a little value for being a part of it. Those online saw the value not in supporting the campaign, but just filling out whatever they needed to get the free item they wanted.

Rather than give a long, lengthy explanation, here are the top five things the non-profit quickly learned:

1. Be proactive on learning the reason once you find a negative reaction to your campaign.a. You could have unintentionally created it. If you sit back and blame the people doing the very thing you asked them to, but for a different reason than you intended…you get nowhere.
2. Accept the mistake, learn from it, and work with it instead of running away from it.a. It’s safe to say, that on the next campaign this will be something that will be brought up and avoided.
3. Don’t give into our initial fear.a. Fear can cause you to assume your first reaction is the best one. Sometimes that’s not the case. Imagine what would happen if they thought they were spammed instead of doing the research?
4. Find out what worked, what didn’t, and, depending on your outcome, how you can either duplicate that later on or never let it happen again.Clearly the free gift had value to people. Is there something that they could leverage in this?
5. When people ask for your free gift that does not mean they are interested in you.a. Free gifts are great. They little items, that shouldn’t break the bank, that if well done should spark conversation or curiosity. They should not be a crutch to get people interested in you or your company.

I say, give “Free Gift” away, but don’t let the value of the gift be greater than the message. There are some really big marketing lessons in this that came to light. What, life lessons, have you learned from you marketing experiences?

Until next time, stay wicked.

If you liked it, please Tweet it.

As a small business owner you are probably so busy growing and managing your business, satisfying your customers, or other attending to other important considerations that the mere idea of taking time to participate regularly in a volunteer project in your community sounds ridiculous. However, performing community service can be a great way to enhance your business profile, establish important professional relationships, and gain new customers while at the same time strengthening your community.

When evaluating volunteer opportunities for your small business you should consider three important questions. The first is whether the volunteer effort you spend will deliver high impact results. There are thousands of national charities and non-profits and probably hundreds in your state or local community. Although probably all have honorable intentions and missions, the sad truth is, only some charities are really effective at what they do.  Robert Egger, community activist and founder and President of DC Central Kitchen, observed in his book Begging for Change, that too many non-profits lack good leadership and sound strategies and consequently drain funding resources from other better organized non-profits making it harder for those to succeed. Make sure the non-profit organization you choose to work with is well-organized, well-led, and uses its resources wisely to make a measurable impact in the community it serves.

Second, consider whether the charity or non-profit organization is aligned with, or related to, your company’s industry, product segment, or goals because if it is, you are more likely to be volunteering alongside others who may have an interest in your business. For example, if you are a small business that sells eco-friendly products, you may want to support a non-profit organization that helps or protects the environment. Volunteering has always been a good way to meet people with like minded interests, and therefore it should be no surprise that it’s also a good way to connect with potential customers and promote your business. Always remember to take a few business cards with you on your volunteer event.

Finally, your should consider whether the charity has a flexible volunteering schedule that is convenient for you and will allow you to participate regularly enough so that you and your small business are visible on a frequent basis and are in a good position to get recognition from community leaders.

Realize that large businesses are not the only ones that get recognized for making charitable donations or supporting causes. Small businesses can get recognized too. For example, in the Washington DC metropolitan area, the Washington Post and Greater DC Cares co-host a Business Philanthropy Summit that aims to recognize outstanding community contributions made by businesses, both large and small. In Chicago, the Association of Fundraising Professionals hosts a philanthropy awards luncheon that also champions the work of small businesses.

Being recognized by community leaders and your local media as a committed volunteer and service leader helps build your brand and is a great way to raise your business’ visibility to potential customers.

For more information about the benefits of small business philanthropy, please check out resources and ideas at: How Small Business Philanthropists Make Big Connections and
Business that Cares. And don’t forget to Twitter all the great things you have done in your community!

Statton Hammock is Sr. Director, Legal & Business Affairs at Network Solutions and member of the Company’s Corporate Philanthropy Committee.

…in a good way. His post “Backwards Work” stuck with me for a solid day, because he’s absolutely right. You’ve got to know the rules to break them, and you need to know what you want your end result to be before you start swinging for the fences. As Chris said, “know what it is you’re shooting at before you draw back.”

So without rehashing everything Chris wrote (its damned fine blog post on its own so go read it), I want to talk about the one thing that will help secure success…excitement in marketing your own company.

Excitement in your company period. Because, if you aren’t excited about your own business…no one else is going to be!

If you really want a good example of what passion and excitement for your product, brand, service or what it is that got you to start your own business, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better example than Gary Vaynerchuk. When I’m getting frustrated in what it is I do for a living, I go to YouTube and check out his talk from Web 2.0 Expo NY from September 2008 on “Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape,” and I get pumped all over again.

Now calm down, Sparky. I’m not telling you to go out and be Gary, but you can take a few things away from that talk that will help you. Gary’s passion for the things he loves (like wine, personal brand, and the New York Jets) is empowering. He loves what he does, and it pays off in spades? Take a lesson from that, and apply it to your own business. Whether it’s plumbing, coffee, design, legal work, the medical field, or, hell, even turning? paperclips into life size replicas of the entire 1969 winning Super Bowl team. In his talk Gary says, “if you love it you will win,” and that’s something I’ve always believed in.

Whatever it is…you started a business for a reason right? I mean, you didn’t start a business because one day you woke up and said, “I’m really good at (insert your whatever it is you want to do here), but I really don’t care about it…maybe I should go into business for myself doing that.” No. Something inspired you to shuffle off the 9-5 coil and strike out on your own. Now I’m saying this, and I am making the assumption you didn’t have a large bank roll behind you. I’m assuming you stepped out into the cold dark unknown of self employment, looked at the horizon, and smiled like a Cheshire cat. I’m assuming you looked out at whatever it is you wanted to tackle as the boss of a new business and said to yourself, “I can do this… and I want to for the rest of my life.”

You’re going to fail sometimes, but it’s that excitement for whatever it is you’ve decided to get yourself into that pulls you through to the next achievement. If you don’t have that, go back to the 9-5’er, lick your wounds, figure out what went wrong, and let someone else worry about where the monies coming from for a while.

If you’re on the fence about whether you’re excited about what you do or wherther the shine has worn off… pick a side and go there. It’s going to suck at times. It’s going to be exhausting at others. There are going to be days where you look at your loved one, friend, employee, or business partner and think, “What the hell did I get myself into?” The answer to that question is the very same thing: “I love what I do for a living!”

Chris Brogan wrote in his post: “Someone had to hunt the first mammoth. Oh, and that poor bastard died a bloody death.”

Bring me that mammoth and my rock. I’m ready to go down swinging. I’m willing to put in the hours, the time, and the effort to move forward regardless of the obstacle. I’m ready to get called crazy, loud, determined, passionate, and…a success. I am going to fail, and I look forward to it so I can get back up, dust myself off, and attack whatever knocked me down in a different direction.

I am a Small Business owner, and I’m excited to wake up every day and say that.

In Gary Vaynerchuks’s talk. he says, “if you love it you will win.” That’s something I’ve always believed in and something that, even before hearing Gary say it, has been the key to all of my successes.

Until next time…stay wicked.

* Photo courtesy of istockphoto.com

Does spending a lot of money guarantee you are going to be successful?  No, but spending it smartly does help.  I’ll get into that in a few.

Does spending very little money guarantee you are going to be successful?   It’s more than likely to ensure…you’ll get the type of client that’s looking to make the same decision about your product/service/widget as you did on your marketing pieces.  “I want the biggest bang for the least amount of money”.

I was recently talking with Steve Fisher about the upcoming “Rock Star Entrepreneurs and Your Business: a Webinar Event” and my frustration with some past clients I had.  Keep in mind; these are clients who thought that by investing very little in their own business…their success was guaranteed because people would just “want” their product/service/widget.

As if the magic Small Business Fairy was going to bless their frugalness with a line of clients stretching a mile long, a phone that magically rings every five minutes with people saying “yes” before the elevator pitch is done, and a website that has to have its bandwidth updated daily to handle the flood of internet savvy customers that magically found their website without the use of a search engine, business card, advertisement, or word of mouth marketing efforts.

Sorry to disappoint you, but that little pixie of small business goodness doesn’t exist.  Trust me I’ve been looking and I assure you when I find that winged temptress with the strategically placed golden horse shoe I will quickly pin that fictional character of business down and sell tickets to let it discontentedly bless new entrepreneurs who want to take the cheap way out.

There are things you will need, right out of the gate, which will help you.  In later posts I’ll go into each in greater detail, but to start a good brand name and identity that will resonate with your clients, a business card with your brand and company information on it, and a website with key information that will visually engage your prospects/clients.  Think of a networking event or coffee shop corkboard where you’ve seen a business card or flyer of a company that blatantly did not invest much into their business.  You have two companies side by side that offer the exact same services.  Without knowing a thing about their actual performance you have thirty seconds to make a decision on which company you will go with. Company A has a business card with a strong visual presence, their messaging and information is clear, and the quality of the card alone shows the business invested in itself.  Company B printed their business card on their home computer in black and white, the edges are perforated, and their information doesn’t clearly identify what the company is about.  Which would you choose to take with you?

Be smart with the time and money you invest in establishing your marketing pieces.  You can find some very talented designer/marketer starting their own consulting business and accomplish visually, and at a reasonable cost, what major companies pay thousands of dollars to marketing/design firms to accomplish.  You should look at the money you spend on marketing your company as, you guessed it, an investment in the way you, and your company, will be perceived.  Done right, your marketing materials should speak about your company without you even having to be in the room.  Your marketing materials should resonate the type of attitude, style, experience, and care that your customers will come to expect of your company and services.

I’m not asking you to break the bank, but what I am asking you to do is to not think with the wallet you have now, but the wallet you want once your business is established.

I’m also going to ask you to invest some time in your business, and yourself, and attend the “Rock Star Entrepreneurs and Your Business: a Webinar Event”.  This FREE, live webcast has an all-star line-up of entrepreneurs who will talk about some of the pains that small businesses will face in the areas of finance and marketing.

In the end, the money you invest into your company will come back to you through your clients.

As all ways, stay wicked.

Wikipedia defines Founderitis as “the unhealthy condition that afflicts many companies whose founders maintain a stranglehold on organizational leadership. While many companies owe their success — and in fact their very existence — to their founders, those same individuals can create chaos that ultimately leads to the organization’s collapse. The challenge to founding CEOs and boards of directors is to take steps to change conflict and chaos into opportunities for growth.”

Founders, because they are not detail-oriented and are driven by their exclusive devotion to mission, often disdain management tasks. At some point, staff members begin to complain to the CEO or perhaps even directly to the board, calling for more systems to be established. Founders, comments Linnell, may “see all such challenges as malicious or wrongheaded or an abysmal waste of time in the face of the real (mission) work of the organization. This can lead to all-out battles between the champions of mission and the champions of systems.

While this may not be a disease that makes you sick, you sure can feel stressed and nauseous working for someone with this “affliction”. Unfortunately, I was someone who used to have this problem in a bad way. Over time I have learned that hiring people smarter than you and getting the hell out of their way is usually the best way to build a company. More on that topic in a future “Rules for Entrepreneurs”.

Symptoms of a Larger Disease that can Kill Your Company

Founder’s syndrome manifests in numerous ways. The Center for Association Leadership has an excellent list of the symptoms. The leader who suffers from founderitis exhibits these types of behaviors:

• Gives short shrift to planning activities, staff meetings, and administrative policies;
• Is reluctant to relinquish strategies and procedures that worked in the past, although circumstances may dictate new approaches;
• Neglects to institute new systems, even though the board has formally requested them;
• Seeks and accepts little input from others in making decisions;
• Sees all challenges as hostile and drives away staff and board members perceived as disloyal; and
• Refuses to delegate authority.

Treat the Personality not the Problem

Managing through a fit of founderitis requires a tricky mixture of growth opportunities, board involvement, and a firm delivery method. In the mean time, here are a few things you MUST do to beginning shed the affliction of Founderitis from infecting your company:

• Respect the need for planning activities, staff meetings, and administrative policies;
• Realize that as the company grows circumstances may dictate new approaches;
• Institute new systems with approval of your board;
• Seeks and accepts input from others in making decisions;
• Delegate, Delegate, Delegate
• Accept the fact that you can’t do everything themselves and you need to bring on people whose strengths complement your own.
• Separation of your identity and goals from your role as a founder.
• Accept that the organization’s success no longer depends solely on your creativity and decisions but instead requires the input of partners who are equally or perhaps more skilled than you.
• Dance around the room to let things loose
• Shift responsibilities to worthy successors and trust them to fail and succeed.

Don’t worry if you can’t over come this there is a simple solution. Get your board to hire a professional CEO and take a long vacation.

Do you have Founderitis and not even know it?

Do you see yourself in these words? Have an errie feeling that you might be like this or working in an environment where you engender Founderitis?

First, read this article again and see how many symptoms you may have already. If you notice some, ask those around you if you fit this profile. Tell them it is ok to tell you if you do and be very honest. If you are a classic case of Founderitis then go back one section in this post and follow the instructions on beginning to let go. This is not something that will happen over night. It took you all your life to build up these habits and it can take just that long to work them out of your system.

Photo Source: iStockPhoto

Guest post b

Advertising on the search engines seems simple at first. Sign up, write your ads, pick your keywords, set your bids and done. But do your ads really work? Here are five easy steps to writing effective search engine marketing ads.
(Photo attribution: HighPosition.net)
1. Match your keywords to your ads
It’s easy to get lazy and write one ad for all of your keywords. Don’t fall into that trap! On the search engine results page, keywords in the pay-per-click ads are in bold. Guess what? Your potential customers will click on those ads instead of the ones that are not in bold.

You can either enter the keywords in your ads manually or use the automatic keyword insertion code to save time. This is especially helpful when you make updates to multiple ads. An example of a keyword insertion code in Google is {KeyWord:Default Text} — you can use this code in your title, description and URL.

Let’s say you have a company called Yummy Yummy Cakes in Boston, where you sell custom cupcakes for special occasions. One of your keywords is “Boston cupcakes,” so make sure to have “Boston cupcakes” in your ad for that keyword. If you use {KeyWord:Yummy Boston Cupcakes} in your ad title, searchers will see “Cupcakes In Boston Ma” as your ad title. If they search for keywords that are longer than 25 characters (Google limits title text to 25 characters), the default text will be shown instead. So if they search for “delicious Boston Massachusetts cupcakes,” they’ll get “Yummy Boston Cupcakes” as your ad title.

2. Make your words count
You have a limited number of characters to tell your potential customers what your offer is, so be brief.
Long description: Chocolate, red velvet, almond cupcakes & more for your special occasion.
Make it count: Boston cupcakes for special occasions.

3. Have the keyword in the title, description AND display URL of your ads
To re-emphasize that you have what your potential customers are looking for, repeat that keyword in the description and display URL of your pay-per-click ads:

Keyword: Boston cupcakes
Title: {KeyWord:Yummy Boston Cupcakes}
Description: Boston cupcakes for special occasions.
Display URL: YummyYummyCakes.com/BostonCupcakes

4. Differentiate your offer
You still need to give a compelling reason for your potential customers to consider you as their vendor. Depending on your keyword, you may be competing with up to 10 other advertisers on a search engine results page, plus 10 natural search listings. Some examples of differentiating your ad are offering a special discount, featuring your award-winning service, or highlighting a benefit that your competitors don’t have. And yes, still be brief.

Keyword: Boston cupcakes
Title: {KeyWord:Yummy Boston Cupcakes}
Description: Boston cupcakes for special occasions. Voted #1 in MA.
Display URL: YummyYummyCakes.com/BostonCupcakes

5. Add a clear and urgent call-to-action at the end of your ad
The final step in writing an effective search engine marketing ad is to include a clear and urgent call-to-action at the end of your ad. Your goal is for those potential customers to take the next step; either to learn more about you or to purchase your service or product.

Keyword: Boston cupcakes
Title: {KeyWord:Yummy Boston Cupcakes}
Description: Boston cupcakes for special occasions. Voted #1 in MA. Free tasting today!
Display URL: YummyYummyCakes.com/BostonCupcakes

These 5 steps are pretty easy, right? Just start updating one ad and before you know it, you’ll play around with more ads and improve your pay-per-click ad effectiveness.

If you’re interested in getting some recommendations on your search engine marketing ads, leave a comment below!

Original Post:

Over the last 9 years and two startups I have learned many things and screwed up royally in some cases. This series is about providing you best practices of lessons learned and avoiding the mistakes I have already made.

In the past, I have had good years and bad years. When you have employees, they expect to be paid and when you mess with payroll (and payroll taxes, but that is a post for another time) you create such a negative culture that nothing will get done.

With that said, when you are starting your business regardless if it is a service or product company, you will have startup costs and probably forgo paying yourself for 6-12 months to keep growing the business. That is fine and to be expected. What you should not do (and what I did) is keep adding staff and sacrifice your own salary in the name of growth. If you keep going like that and have a bad quarter you will have nothing saved for a rainy day and if the business fails you will probably be in immense debt and get nothing out of the business.

Granted, the balance between growth and cash flow is a tenuous one but it is one thing you should never defer to someone else in beginning. Plus, there is a difference between creating a lifestyle business and an enterprise. A lifestyle business is really making enough money for yourself and having some contractors or 1-2 people that gives you a good salary but is more about freedom. An enterprise is a business that scales and gets big over time but you will be working intense amounts in the beginning but will need to hire those smarter than you with the intention that you are looking for an exit and will have time for freedom when you cash out.

So when you are growing the business you should work the first 6-12 months paying off the initial capital expenses and getting about 6 months of cash flow for yourself before you hire anyone else. Once you have that done, start paying yourself something, even if it is small and will ramp up over six months, pay yourself first. This will get you in the habit of being committed to making the business pay for itself and you so you are not worrying about living month to month and lets you find some resources to help you deliver while you continue to sell and grow the business.

Once you are looking at hiring someone use these two rules as a starting basis:

- Have six months of payroll for that person in the bank on top of your salary

- Have 90 days of projects or sales committed for that person to deliver so they not only have something to do but are earning their keep.

You may have to be conservative at first in your growth but in the end you will scale better and create a business that is focused on delivery and customer service without putting you and your employees on a cash flow roller coaster.

Update, One Year Later:

When I read that post I reflect on the mistakes of past and having had a business through the dot com bust and subsequent recession. Granted, it was not as deep or as long as this one, but the word that comes to mind is, balance. And while it holds true that you need to pay yourself first before you keep growing, the original post was written with the tone of growth and not reduction which may be more likely these days.

When you are growing you are tempted to throw caution to the wind and sacrifice your pay in order to hire that extra person that keeps the idea factory turning out wonderful widgets. When times are good and the sales are going upward, your risk threshold increases. When times are tight, you might feel like you are holding on with your fingertips to a 5,000 overhang below you and no way to see up over the ledge. In these cases, it is natural for people have a tendency to pull WAY back into their shells and not hire when they know they need to or lay people off in order to stay cash positive. In this case, you might sacrifice your entire salary to keep people on board. While this might sound noble, I have done this and it usually ends badly.

This is where the word “balance” comes in.

You can only go so far to reduce staff and pile tasks up on people that are probably already overworked, but cutting down too much can keep you from potentially delivering to clients in the end making things worse. Look to reduce costs in other ways, like office services you may not critically need, or ask if people would volunteer (including you) to take a 5% pay cut so we can keep everyone and deliver at the level of quality clients have come to expect so we can keep our clients happy and ride out this recession together.

You can subscribe to the feed on iTunes or RSS.

Week in Review Segment:
Joe Loong:
Networking events revisited — from the smaller-scale Digital Happy Hour in Reston, to Tech Cocktail DC 4, and advice on how to be a better and more effective schmoozer. With some followups that I forgot, like review and post photos from the events you go to.
Jill Foster:
“Learning to Launch” at WomenGrowBusiness.com
From small business e-learning tools to venture capital, the action was in full force at Women Grow Business.  Shana Glickfield, Washington, DC’s area venue/restaurant expert, launched her new series about converting her hobby to an expert company.  She just registered ‘DC Concierge’ as a LLC; and in the coming weeks Shana will share insight and lessons learned on starting up.

Business Tips Segment:
Jill Foster:
Biz tip:  Make ‘the ask’: host events, invite experts, and build your business pipeline
Networking style has been an interesting discussion at Solutions Are Power.  And on this note, a favorite sales mindset comes to mind:  Don’t forget to “make the ask.”
This applies to certainly your sales funnel but also to your collaboration pipeline too.   Example:  DC Media Makers – a peer learning group in digital education – has grown a lot in the past year.  But what’s interesting is it’s growing partnerships.  It partners with NPR downtown to host monthly meetups on digital media — for entrepreneurs, marketers, producers, & tech enthusiasts.  But what drives their meetups is the unique, in-depth feedback at each session.  And what drives the feedback?  –asking people in the community to share their work and initiate Q&A.  So many collaborations and leads have come from this type of initiative by just asking folks to present.
Joe Loong:
Biz tip:  Preparing for a Business Crash Landing
Preparing for a Crash Landing — this isn’t one of my tips, but Jason Calacanis, outspoken serial entrepreneur, has a thought-provoking blog post detailing his advice on “what to do when your startup is about to fail” (http://calacanis.com/2009/02/27/what-to-do-if-your-startup-is-about-fail-or-dont-stop-believing/ )

Week Ahead:
Joe Loong:
A few more local tech and social media events (from last week and upcoming)
Jill Foster:
Business owners discuss their changed operations in this economy; plus a new Women Grow Business series starts about entrepreneurs and leadership.
Steve Fisher
Marketing Plan Series Launching on Solutions Are Power

We are taking two weeks off because of upcoming events and our travelling to SouthBySouthWest. We will be back on March 27 with new segments and new things we can’t reveal yet in Episode #13. You can subscribe to the feed on iTunes or RSS. We hope you listen in and keep listening!