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March 30, 2005
Motivational Thought For The Day
I arrived six hours late for work today due to delays caused by low fog over London City Airport. It was a miserable start to the week. What's more, I felt like going back home to do something more productive like finishing off my book on small business marketing.
Reading and taking notes was how I passed the time.
The minute the plane took off all around was a 'sea of white soup'. I prayed that the pane's navigation system would not fail because if the pilot had to fly the plane on manual how on earth was he going to see in this sea of whiteness. I continued to read my book and it was then I came across a page that sparked off the reason for the brief article.
At 14 thousand feet I had a brain wave!
This article relate to the small business entrepreneurs who arrive at 2-small-business.com in search of small business grant and government grant. Before you click away to another web site here's the exact text taken from the book by Eric Hoffer, Author of "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. He wrote:
"There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement, for an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything, we are fixed, so to speak, for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book and not painting a picture and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement."
Hoffer's observation is one of the finest, most accurate, and profound I have ever encountered.
So what can small business entrepreneurs hope to gain from Eric Hoffer's observation? I believe it's this:
If you have a passion to be in business for yourself don't let the lack of start up grants for small business or government grant dampen and ultimately rob you of achieving your dreams. It's better to achieve your goals than to be forever fixated by a "lack of grant alibi." Rise to the achievement challenge rather than succumbing to the alibi excuse.
Taken from Dan Kennedy's book: No B.S. Time Management For Entrepreneurs - Ep Entrepreneur Press
www.entrepreneurpress.com
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March 29, 2005
Why Is Google Up To In Buying Web Traffic Log Analysis?
Google said it would buy Urchin Software, a web traffic log analysis program, for undisclosed terms. Google intends to offer the software to its advertisers in an effort to help them maximize their returns. The deal is scheduled to close before May.
But why is Google getting into traffic log analysis when thousands of Internet Service Providers already provide traffic log analysis as standard in their hosting package?
What's even more perplexing is the fact that the vast majority of Internet users, particularly small businesses seldom look at their traffic logs.
Established providers such as Web Trends have provided traffic log analysis software for many years and together with ISPs and thousands of bespoke (desktop and server side) web log analysis software already available it is not clear what Google's plans are in acquiring Urchin Software.
A wealth of information is available in a web traffic log however it takes time, patience, testing and tweaking to really benefit for this information. Furthermore interpreting the information in web logs is not as simple as it may seem. That's why large companies have paid thousands of pounds to Search Engine optimisation companies to analyze their web logs and optimize their search engine ranking to generate increase traffic to their web sites.
Whatever Google’s intentions the fact remains that it's difficult to see how small business owners are suddenly going to change their habit unless some financial incentive was involved.
David
Small Business Resource
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March 23, 2005
Small Business: Now That The Chancellor's Red Book Has Been Laid To Rest
It should come as no surprise to small business owners that While the Chancellor had talked much about cutting red tape prior to the budget many of the measures announced in the budget had already been mentioned in previous budgets or were merely proposals for consideration.
On the plus side for small businesses was the acceptance by Gordon Brown of the finding of the Hampton review into red tape, which will reduce the number of agencies that carry out small businesses inspections from 35 to 9.
In real terms, Gordon Brown claim that this will result in 1m fewer inspections.
David Brown of the Federation of small business said, "Hampton recommendation is an important start in tackling the burden of compliance faced by small businesses".
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) also welcomed Hampton recommendation but they warned that small businesses would only see the benefits in the long term, as the initial cost of change will be substantial.
Gordon Brown also stated in the budget that small businesses would no longer have to file separate VAT and company tax return and that this was out for consultation to the Inland Revenue and Custom And Excise.
supporting this initiative, the Chancellor plans to create a combined Inland Revenue and Customs department as a single point of contact for small businesses.
The general belief is that this initiative is a long way off from being a reality. A view supported by David Bishop and Mike Warburton, tax partner in Grant Thornton who says "even if it happens, it could be problematic for small businesses that don't have an expert on site in direct and indirect taxation.
Gordon Brown introduced a timetable for the introduction of cutting red tape surrounding working tax credits. The Inland Revenue rather than employers will made direct payments. This will reduce payroll burdens faced by small business owners.
The Chancellor also announced proposals to extend research and development tax credits available to small business but he gave no detail about how this would work.
At present the process of claiming research and development tax credit is cumbersome so this should make it easier for small businesses and business generally to get the relief.
This sums up the proposals announced by the Chancellor in the budget. The overall feeling among small businesses was that the budget was neutral and that this was all that could be hoped for.
David
Small Business Resource
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March 18, 2005
Small Business Marketing Blogs Can Act As Spy ware Carriers
The recent failed attempt by hackers to transfer £220 million from Japanese Bank in London highlights the security risks now being faced by large organizations including small businesses that use blog as a marketing and publishing tool.
Unknowingly to blog owners, hackers use their blogs to infect computers with spy ware. This is a security flaw in many self-blogs that affects millions of people who use the web.
Security experts said malicious programmers can use JavaScript and ActiveX to automatically deliver spy ware from a blog to people who visit the site with a vulnerable web browser.
If you own a small business blog that publishes articles you could unwittingly be using an infected tool as a delivery platform for spy ware.
Richard Stiennon, chief of technology at Webroot Software, a maker of anti-spyware technology, said: "It is one more link in the commerce chain of illicit adware."
Users of Internet Explorer are very vulnerable. In fact security experts say the problem only affects web surfers using Microsoft's Internet Explorer who fail to choose the highest IE browser security settings.
If you use Google's Blogger as your small business blog you are vulnerable as the problem has cropped up most visibly in this most widely blog publishing tool.
Another popular blog, Blogspot.com has been exposed to infection and visitors have complained that they were exposed to infected sites when they used the "Next Blog" link. The feature was designed to help people discover new journals and takes web surfers to a random Blogspot site.
Ben Edelman, a Harvard University researcher who has documented the vulnerability on his site, referring to Blogger, said: "They left the back door wide open."
Edelman said that one major culprit of malicious code was a service called iWebtunes.com, which lets people add music to the web sites in the form of a couple lines of JavaScript code. Bloggers using Blogspot might embed the iWebtunes code into their template and then pass on the spyware unwittingly to visitors to their site.
Faced with increasing cyber crime and cyber ware, small businesses that publish articles and news via small business marketing blog should take all the precaution they can to avoid being victims the this increasing menace.
That includes taking the advice of Webroot's Stiennon who advises people to switch to the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox web browser for reading blogs. Either do that, or change IE security settings to deactivate ActiveX or JavaScript in the web browser, he said.
Based on article published by www.silicon.com
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March 16, 2005
At Last A 2005 Budget That'll Cut Red Tape For A Small Company
The Chancellor is set to announce in his coming budget a number of measures that will finally alleviate the red tape that's a burden to small business. His speech is expected to focus on reducing the multi-billion pound burden of regulations of red tape blighting the energies of entrepreneurs.
Over the past 20 years small businesses have been promised more than thirty times by different British governments that they are going to address the problem of red tape that stifles small businesses. This budget it seems will finally address this long standing issue.
Gordon Brown has promised to get rid of unnecessary regulation that stops small companies from progressing by bringing the UK into line with the Dutch enterprise model based on cutting red tape through targets.
The Director General of the British Chambers of commerce who met with the Chancellor last week said he was encouraged at the chancellor's promise to cut the excessive red tape burden faced by small businesses.
While this is good news for small business owners, the federation of Small Business says small businesses will be skeptical until they see Mr. Brown delivers on his promises.
Reasons to be hopeful that the Chancellor is not making empty promises include the following:
. Gordon Brown visit to China put into focus the burden faced by small business in the UK. In China the whole emphasis is on deregulation.
. He is also due to announce the creation of an executive body to oversee future regulations in a new "one in, one out" approach to business compliance. The body, known as the Better Regulation Executive, will implement recommendations made under last year's Hampton Review, which set out to examine inspection and enforcement regimes.
Mike Warburton, senior partner at Grant Thornton said "If the government's desire is to encourage entrepreneurship, then it must provide tax incentives that are genuinely fair to people who are starting up on their own by introducing tax rates that are lower that apply to company employees," he said.
"At present, there is no level playing field. Lowering the tax rates for small companies would be an incentive to ordinary people to break the mould of being an employee and help them to do extraordinary things."
Based on Sunday Times article
David
Small Business Resource
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March 11, 2005
Starting a Small Business Aided By Family Finance
Starting a small business by borrowing from relatives is often the only way to get started.
Take James McAnerney who decided to open his own business, he needed €50,000 to buy into a franchise but without a track record approaching the bank would not be easy so he looked closer to home to raise the start up finance.
Mr MCAnerney said , “I reckoned franchising was the way to go rather than start a business from scratch, I found Cartridge World within four weeks.”
Mr MCAnerney had less than half the finance required himself so he decided to borrow the rest from his family.
Just more than 18 months ago he opened his first Cartridge World store in Dundalk about 18 months ago specialising in recycling printer cartridges at bargain prices.
“I had the option of going to the bank but I would have been able to give only projections,” he said. “It was easier to borrow from my family with the promise that, after one year’s trading, I would be able to get a bank loan to pay them back.”
Many successful small businesses look to family and friends for start up finance says Pat Delaney, the director of the Small Firms Association.
Delaney says it's a good idea, “It is probably the biggest source of start up capital available to very small companies.”
Delaney pointsout that there's plent ofthis type of funding available to finance start ups given that the first generation has inherited wealth.
Michael Dwyer is another small business entrepreneur who used a mix of family loan when setting up Pigsback.com, the online marketing portal says usingfamily finance can work well for those who follow a few rules.
Some of the rules include:
. If you are asking your family to invest, you must put in your own
capital too. This shows that you are committed.
. If funding is really an investment make it clear to your family
members that this is an investment that should be written off.
. Get family members to put in only as much as they are prepared to
risk.
If you are considering starting a small business and you're interested in raising finance from family members read Bank on family members for a helping hand
David
Small Business Resource
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March 9, 2005
Bloggers Blog Way Into White House
An unassuming 23 year old outsider yesterday took one small step for a bolgger, one giant leap for the bloggosphere, as he became the first recognised Internet diarist to be welcomed into the White House.
Garrett Graff filed his first report from inside the White House after Scott McClellan, President Bush's spokeman, conducted his initial morning briefing. The occasion marked another breakthrough for bloggers, the writers of weblogs, who are increasingly making their mark as an influential arm of the news media.
Mr Graff received his pass as editor of FishbowIDC, a blog published by Mediabistro.com, a networking service for journalists, having spent nearly a week fruitlessly trying to gain access to the Brady briefing room, named after James Brady, Ronald Reagan's press secretary, who was crippled when John Hinckley tried to assassinate the President in 1981. But the White House press corps urged Mr McClellan tolet Mr Graff in and he received a prized day press pass. The decision to open the door to blogger comes after the recent brush with controversay over Jeff Gannon, a reporter for a republican webswite who used a false name and asked highly sympathetic questions of Me Bush. The reporter has not been see in the White House since his sideline in X rated websites was revealed.
Online commentators are growing in number and prominence. Bloggers revealed that the documents in an election smear story about President Bush's National Guard service were fake. Several CBS producers lost their jobs as a result.
Facts about bolgs:
. Weblogs (blog) are websites where users can post entries on any
subject
. The term was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997
. In 2002 US Senator Trent Lott resigned after bloggers accused him
of racism
. Politicians Howard Dean and Wesley Clark kept bolgs as campaigning
tools
. Several blogs have been published as books, such as those by the
Baghdad bolgger Salam Pax and the prostitute Belle de Jour.
White House or not learning how2bolg whether for fun, fame or profit is gathering monuntum.
The Times
Tuesday Mearch 8 2005
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March 8, 2005
How Small Business Owners Can Take Advantage of Market Trend
Spotting market trends early can give small businesses a competitive advantage but real benefits come from being second to market on the coat tails of a larger company that has done all the research and development.
So how do you spot market trends?
Take fashion goods, many big companies use North Eastern England as their testing ground before deciding whether or not to roll out on nationwide basis.
David Lewis who runs a marketing consultancy said: Key to success is to find out what's going on in the marketplace and this means being out in the filed and listen to what people are saying.
It's no secret amongst savvy Internet marketers that when considering developing a product or service you can research the Internet to find out the keywords people are searching on the search engines and by going to book stores and looking at magazines that people are spending money on.
David Lewis said big companies employ people called "cool hunters" to find out what's going on in the market place and owners of small companies have to be their own cool hunters.
Lewis also said to find out what customers are thinking you need to do what they do: read the same magazine, join the same clubs and frequent the same places they do.
Once you've done your discovery in identifying a trend the next step is to get the timing right and this often means being second to market. Being second rather than first to market means you let the big company prove the market and incur the development and marketing costs from which your small small company can reap the benefits.
For more information on how small businesses can take advantage of market trends read the full article
on How to take advantage of a new market trend
David
Small business Resource
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March 4, 2005
Overture Just speeded Up Pay-per-click Ad Listing to Under An Hour
For years it would have taken you about five days to get your pay-per-click ads listed on Overture. All that has just changed because according to folks at Overture they've implemented new technology that has drastically cut the time it takes your ad to be listed.
Overture states: "80 percent of all search listing requests should now be listed within 60 minutes of being submitted and that the other 20 percent that require a greater degree of review by a human editor should take just one or two business days."
That's a massive improvement!
If only Overture could dispense with it's minimum deposit they might begin to challenge Google on pay-per-click ads.
Read the full Overture article here.
David
Small Business Resource
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March 3, 2005
Search Related Internet Marketing Has a Long Way to Go
The following letter appeared in the Financial Times "Leaders & Letters section on 25 February 2005. All small business owners who are using the Internet should take note. There's lack of knowledge and skills in this most vital area of Internet marketing.
I was interested in the article because it's about search engine marketing,a subject dear to my heart and small business.
The letter in factual in some respects but the writer's knowledge on the subject is about 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm not saying this to sho off my knowledge and skills in this very important area of Internet marketing but on how easy it is to get articles published and free publicty on topics that you're not an expert.
The writer's has his name and company name published in the FT. In the popular "leaders & Letter column.
Here's the letter in its entirity:
From Mr Ian Saunders
Sir, it wasinteresting to read that recent research has shown that majority of FTSE 100 companies havefailed to make their websites visible to potential customers on leading search engines. While individual organisations could be accused of not running fully integrated online search advertising campaigns, some of the blame needs to be directed at existing search technologies.
Many existing systems are largely based on statistical algorithms and keywords. These are great for delivering significnt quantities of result but these are all too often include many that are in appropriate, bizarre and downright insensitive, which can compromise rather than enhance brand identity. This is a prime reason why some
top brands have so far shield away from search-related marketing.
To be truly successful, search needs to take into the semantic context of web pages. Only by analysing the linguistic content can searches become more accurate and deliver more relevant results. The
methodology can also be applied to online advertising, because if more ads are applicable to each user's needs there wll be an increase in clickthroughs.
A customer's ability to locate the products and services he or she wants is key to successful online sales. It is time to put some "sense" back into searching; otherwise potential sales will be lost.
Comment: I read this letter with disbelief! If this is indictative ofthe knowledge of search engine optimisation and advertising on the Internet in the UK then no wonder there's such a gulf between the USA and UK.
Credit nontheless to the writer who although lacking in knowledge about search engine optimisation and marketngtook the time to write a response and getting free publicity as aresult.
This web site has more free information on search engine optimisation and Internet marketing than you can read, understand and apply than anything you'll read in the UK press.
Do you have a comment? What do you think about the letter?
David
Small Business Resource
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How A Small Business Owner Can Make Money By Loving People
The Financial Times in its "Business Life Enterprise" column of 2nd March 2005 dedicated half a page on the business successes of Emma Harrison, a successful entrepreneur who has many mottos one of which is: "Be ruthless on the issue and kind with people". A motto based on her father's advice.
As I read the article my main thoughts were on how on earth she was able to get such awesome publicity: Half a page in the FT broadsheet that's read by hundreds of thousands of readers some of whom will undoubtedly turn into customers. Such publicity is worth its weight in gold!
Publicity aside, the article elaborated on Emma Harrison's baptism into business life after working in the public sector. Ms Harrison was named woman entrepreneur of the year in 2003 by Inner City 100, a government backed scheme.
So what can you as a small business owner learn from Ms Harrison's entrepreneurial successes and mottos?
Ms Harrison believes, and I quote "I am not trying to make a load of money, but trying to do something worthwhile." So Ms Harrison is more interested in people rather than making money. It's easy to say that when you're sitting on a £55 million fortune. But let's focus on her practical entrepreneurial insights that small business owners can implement and grow their business. These include:
1. Don't make the mistake in thinking that you are a big hairy spider sitting at the centre of the web, thinking the whole depends on you: Ms Harrison starts businesses and play the role of absentee owner. Instead of mothering her babies, she employs others to nurse and manage them while she distance herself from the day-to-day operational concerns.
3. Practice the art of delegating: Ms Harrison says "One of the mistakes many small businesspeople make is to think that they are the big hairy spider sitting a the centre of a web twitching away, and thinking that the whole thing depends on them. It does not." Taking advice from her own mentors she has recruited both chief executive and non-executive directors to fill the gaps in her knowledge, such as finance and accounting.
3. Embrace mentoring as being natural to entrepreneurship. Ms Harrison's first mentor was her father who taught her how to run a launderette and a small industrial training establishment. Ms Harrison will soon be competing against other mentors who'll feature on Channel's 4 answer the BBC's Dragon's Den - a reality TV series called "Make Me A Million" in which budding young entrepreneurs will be helped in turning £60,000 of start-up capital into £1m.
4. Diversification is key: Ms Harrison own several businesses and does not believe in putting all her eggs into one basket. What Jay Abraham call the "Parthenon Principle." Ms Harrison's new invention is targeted at asthma suffers who are allergic to bed mites. Apparently 25% of the weight of your bed pillow is bed mites. Other business include management of £300m retraining and small business support contracts through 100 offices for public sector clients. Small business also use her A4E's services.
Her A4E company was one of four foreign companies to be picked to run the first welfare-to-work schemes in Israel.
5. Hire a publicity expert or invest in an excellent publicity course that teaches you the are of getting publicity (preferably free).
There you have it, an insight into the entrepreneurial skills, practices and motto of one of the UK's small business entrepreneurs.
What's you view on Ms Harrison's entrepreneurial style and motto? Also, do you include free publicity as part of your marketing strategy?
David
Small Business Resource.
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March 1, 2005
Time Pressures COuld Be Holding Back Businesses
90% of businesses surveyed spend less than two hours a week on business planning. British businesses are missing the potential to improve productivity gains because time pressures mean planning takes a back seat, according to research from DTIs Achieving best practice in your business and Management Today.
Nearly 95% of business managers and directors surveyed recognise that investing more time in day-today planning would improve overall business performance. However, 90% of businesses admitted to spending less than two hours each week on business planning with almost a quarter saying they simply don't have enough time in the week to plan properly.
The vast majority of the businesses surveyed (84%) are worried that they are not able to spend enough of their time planning to improve their business in a more proactive way.
Of the managers surveyed:
· 60% plan for their business whilst travelling to work
· 40% plan late at night
· 30% plan at weekends
· 25% plan for their business either on holiday or during gym /leisure activities
Ideas for business management, a publication from DTI's Achieving best practice in your business, looks at the key characteristics in successful business management, including strategy, leadership, and growth. This can be accessed via DTI's best business practice
David
Small Business Resource
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Regeneration Grant That Could Benefit Small Businesses
A £38m government grant was announced on 22 February 2005 to create a Birmingham version of New York's Central Park in an old industrial district in Birmingham. This is only part of a larger £2bn regeneration scheme taking place following completion of the £530m BullRing shopping centre which was opened in 2003.
Revamps are being co-coordinated by Birmingham council. Planned project include £350m facelift of NewStreet Station. All this will increase public self confidence, especially after Birmingham suffered setbacks following losing the motor show to London, failing to win nomination as European Capital of Culture in 2008 and coming second to Wembley to build a national football stadium.
With Manchester growing and the planned development of Milton Keynes business leaders see this as a competitive threat.
The £38m grant from Advantage West Midlands, a public sector body, to buy land for the eight-acre park and for a technology-based development, is small. But it is an indicator that an ambitious plan to regenerate the grimy Eastside industrial district is gaining momentum. The council has appointed planners to design an important segment of the new Eastside, a "learning and leisure quarter" expected to cost £250m.
Earlier this month work began on a £350m redevelopment of the Masshouse area, which connects Eastside to the city centre.
Birmingham is facing many challenges that include how to make it easy for pedestrians to get about as the road network favours motorists rather than pedestrians. Visits to the city are disappointing despite the £165m Millennium Point attraction place there as a lure.
On the plus side for small business and businesses generally Argent, which built the successful Brindley place office complex, a kind of mini-Broad gate beside a canal, wants to put up more offices at Paradise Circus.
An expansion in prime office space is sorely needed. According to Simon Murphy, chief executive of Birmingham Forward, a trade body, 150,000 people work in the professional services sector in Birmingham "and it will employ another 50,000 over the next five years".
David
Small Business Resource
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