21 Feb 10 Social Media Got Small Business Acceptance

Social media is increasingly being used by Small businesses as found in a Small Business Success Index study. It was found that the low cost of attracting and retaining the target audience using social media was the impetus behind the doubling down of the adoption rate. Social media adoption grew by 24% in compared to 2008 when it was 12%.

Key findings

Positive Indicators

45% hope to reap rewards (profit) from social media spending in next 12 months
57% have built online network using LinkedIn or similar websites.
61% uses social media to identify and attract new customers.
75% small businesses surveyed had a company profile page on any social networking sites.

Things that make them scowl

6% of survey participants said that use of social media has hurt them
17% of them said using social media left the companies vulnerable to consumers’ criticism.
50% thinks it takes more time than expected.

These findings (See image for complete detail) indicate that to be successful in the new socially-connected economy, the company has to be caring. “Meet deadline and bottom line” oriented company will have a hard time persuading its customers. The concerns that small business owners that participated in the survey talked about had more to do with their business and its operation and less to do with the nature of social media. They will grow and get accepted, if only they accept this fact and make required changes in their businesses.

Tags: 12 Months, Adoption Rate, Bottom Line, Company Profile, Consumers, Economy, Hard Time, Impetus, Nature, New Businesses, Oriented Company, Rewards, Small Business Owners, Small Business Success, Small Businesses, Social Networking Sites, Survey Participants, Target Audience

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30 Sep 09 Creating Your Own IT Business

Starting your own Information Technology business can be scary if you don’t know what you’re doing. The best starting point for any business is planning. Without having a good business model you’re almost guaranteed to fail in the end. You have to have a strong outline to guide your actions down the road. It’s just like driving in an area that you’re not familiar with, you’d want to have a GPS or at least a road map so you could find your way around. The worst thing you could do is be lost trying to run your business.

So first things first, figure out where you want your IT business to focus. By assessing your career goals and educational background, you can get a good feel for what you can accomplish in the industry. Come up with a unique service that you can provide. Something people would need, or something people didn’t even realize that they need. Either way you can give yourself a good selling point to customers or clients. Having a solid selling point is the basis of every business, as it’s hard to turn a profit if you don’t have any money flowing.

From there you want to make sure you have solid credentials within the field. That means having an iron clad work history and academic accomplishments that would make someone what to look to you for a service. If you find yourself lacking in either category, starting your own IT business probably isn’t for you. When it comes to work history, you cannot be thought of too highly. The more renown you can garner through your professional career, the better it will serve you in your own business venture.

From there you’ll have to apply for a business license. You’ll have to look up the legal requirements in your area, and from there take the appropriate actions. Usually you’ll have to fill out some forms regarding the nature of your business, as well as tax info. In some cases you may even have to pay a fee.

Now you’ll have to set up an office, with your own equipment. This is where you use your experience and education to take as little money as possible and turn it into a well functioning office. Any money you spend is negative profit, so you want to be creative in how your money is spent. Don’t allow quality to suffer to save yourself money, but use good judgment when it comes to spending your business money out of pocket.

Finally, you have to hire employees and determine the fees for your services. This is also where your experience will come in handy. To get the best employees you’ll have to offer salaries that are competitive with other companies in the IT field. To find the best customers and clients, you’ll have to be competitive in those fees as well. Use your experience to make informed decisions. Then make sure you work hard to keep all those customers and clients coming back.

Tags: Academic Accomplishments, Best Starting Point, Business Focus, Business License, Business Model, Business Planning, Business Venture, Career Goals, Credentials, Educational Background, Good Business, Gps, Information Technology Business, Nature, Own Business, Professional Career, Renown, Road Map, Unique Service, Work History

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28 Jun 09 Couple of More Crowd-Pulling Headlines

Initially, when I started writing about crowd-pulling headlines, I thought there cannot be more than handful of strategies (formulas) for writing headlines that can build genuine interest in the article. But the more I wrote, the more unconvincing this line of reasoning became, and I ended up writing four posts (including this) on the topic. It goes without saying that I am going to share some more crowd-pulling headlines writing strategies in this post.

Learn… in30 minutes

A headline like this will give the reader a definite time frame in which he or she can acquire the skill or knowledge talked about in the article in question.

Example:

Learn to Disinfect Your PC in 30 Minutes.
Learn Piano in 30-Minute a Day.
Learn HTML in 10 Days.
Learn Photoshop in 30 Days. (Photoshop in 30 Days).
CSS in 10 Easy Steps.

Tried and tested headlines

A “tried and tested” headline infuses credibility in the article. A headline like this suggests that the article following the headline will provide the solution which has been tried by many people and they got benefitted from it. This is a type of testimonial headlines. (Read more on Testimonial Headline)

Example:

Tried and Tested Formula for MLM Success.
Tried and Tested Method to Make Your Abs Flat.

50 best…tips

“50 best…tips, or 10…tips” or any similar headline gives a definitive idea about the length and nature of the article following such headlines. The article following this kind of headline should be written in a list-format. You can also use subheadings (Tip 1, or X tip 1) to write the article.

Example:

50 Best SEO Tips.
10 Media Marketing Tips for Success.
10 CSS Tips.

Tags: 30 Minutes, Credibility, Crowd, Css Tips, Definite Time, Genuine Interest, Handful, Line Of Reasoning, Marketing Tips, Nature, Question Example, Time Frame, Writing Headlines, Writing Strategies

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30 Sep 09 Creating Your Own IT Business

28 Jun 09 Couple of More Crowd-Pulling Headlines

Learn… in30 minutes

Tried and tested headlines

50 best…tips

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