Successful Blog

Here is a good place for a call to action.

Search Results for: questions

The Ultimate Pre-Conference Checklist

by

by
Rosemary O’Neill

SOBCon NW Here I Come!

As you read this, I should be happily rubbing elbows with Liz, Terry, and tons of other smart enthusiastic entrepreneurs and small business owners at SOBCon NW in Portland.

The trip inspired me to share my personal pre-conference to do list.

I hope it helps make your next conference experience more productive!

  • Try to connect with other attendees in advance (Twitter is my weapon of choice).
  • Start following the conference hashtag (if you’re really hardcore, make a Hootsuite column for the conference stream).
  • Charge all devices and pack chargers, cords, Mophie juicepack, and a power strip.
  • Download a movie or two to the iPad.
  • Re-look at and update all social profiles, since they’ll hopefully be getting looked at a lot. You want to make a good first impression.
  • Back up your laptop and phone, in case either gets misplaced or stolen. You should already have your important stuff stored in the “cloud” on DropBox or elsewhere.
  • Try to arrange specific meetups in advance (sometimes in the heat of the action you can lose out on meeting specific people).
  • Consider whether you want to capture some content for your blog (be ready to shoot impromptu interview videos or live-blog a session).
  • Include flat shoes that can be tossed in a briefcase (I saw you do that, Gini Dietrich!).
  • Always bring a couple of powerbars (good if you get stuck in an airplane, or if the conference food is bad, or if you skip lunch to meet with someone).
  • If there’s an attendee list (check the event site, or Lanyrd.com) scan for new people you can meet.
  • Decide what your ‘ask’ is, in case anyone says, ‘so what can I help you with?’ (I learned this one painfully ).
  • Brush up your two-sentence pitch for when someone says, ‘what do you do?’
  • Scan the session information and think in advance of what smart questions you might ask if the speaker does Q&A at the end.

Note that this is the ‘attendee’ version of the list. Mitch Joel posted the definitive ‘speaker’ version of this list a few months ago.

What do you do to make the most of your conference attendance?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Are Your Employees Driving You Crazy?

by

Today’s small business owner should be looking for every opportunity to save money. If they’re not, then there is a good chance they may be closing up shop sooner rather than later.

One area that can oftentimes be overlooked, but should be reviewed several times a year to search for additional savings, is a company’s auto insurance coverage.

For the small business owner that must make deliveries or customer contact calls using company vehicles, having the right insurance at the right price should be a given.

In order to get the right coverage at the right price:
* Obtain several quotes – You should go online and put together several quotes in order to compare and contrast.  Also research each insurer to see how they rate when it comes to customer service and financial stability;

* Consider a larger deductible – In order to save some money on premiums, you can opt for a higher deductible, but make sure you have the money in place to meet the expense of the deductible should one of your drivers be in an accident. Even the smallest of fender benders can turn into something major if the other party or parties decide to consult a lawyer, claiming they were injured by your employee;

* Bundle coverage – Another option for trimming your insurance rates is by bundling coverage with the same insurer. In the event you have a homeowners, renters, life or health insurance policy with Company #1, consider switching your business auto insurance from Company #2 over to the former. Many insurance companies will offer policyholders a deal when they manage all of their insurance needs;

* Maintain a clean driving record – This should be a no-brainier, but having a clean business driving record goes a long way in keeping your rates manageable. Make sure that any employee using a company vehicle has a good driving record, practices safe driving, and is reminded of this on a regular basis (see below). As for your company vehicle/s, the latest safety features available such as airbags and anti-lock brakes will also help lower your rates.

Employees Need to Take Responsibility Too

Having said all that, the business owner must also make sure they have a policy in place with their employees who use company vehicles to properly and efficiently use them.

It should not come as a surprise in today’s technological world that more employers are either using or considering putting in place GPS systems to track employees while on the clock.

As an example, your employee is scheduled for a client call at the customer’s business for 9:30 a.m. The employee leaves your office a few minutes before for the short drive over to the business, with the intent being the call should take no more than half an hour. Some two hours later, the employee returns and you have questions. First, why were they gone so long? Secondly, why did a short trip result in an additional 50 miles on the company vehicle? Yes, you can see where there could be an uncomfortable situation here for both employer and employee.

For the small business owner, did they clearly state to the employee when they hired them that a policy was in place for such calls, along with the fact that all trips are recorded for both time and mileage purposes?

Not only did monitoring the employee present the employer with the potential for disciplining the worker in abusing their driving privileges while at work, but it also called into question potential insurance issues, as the employee could have been involved in an accident while doing unnecessary driving on the clock.

And you thought being a small business owner did not come with a lot of responsibilities?

Photo credit: electronics.howstuffworks.com

With 23 years of experience as a writer, Dave Thomas covers a wide array of topics to help small business owners succeed.

Don’t Own the Problem. Own the Solution.

by

If You Argue FOR Your Problems …

cooltext443794242_influence

At least twice a week, I have a conversation with a person or a team about a problem they’ve discovered with their business. Soon as I can I start asking questions about what makes the problem a problem and how we might unravel that knot to get things moving smoothly again.

What’s interesting is that most folks first want to convince me how terrible, awful, horribly huge and unsolvable the problem is. They want to dig deep into the details and issue and vent the emotions they’ve carried while the problem was tying itself up.

If you argue for your problems, they’ll be yours.

Do You Argue FOR Your Problems?

Don’t confuse identifying the problem with communicating how you feel about the problem. The two are just not the same thing. In the same vein, focusing on the cause of the problem is rarely a solution.

  • If he hadn’t … but he did.
  • If they had just … but they didn’t.
  • If this was built this boat right … but it wasn’t and if we keep talking about it, we’re ALL going to drown. We need a way to keep from sinking or a way to get to the shore.

Talking about how we feel about the problem and its cause, doesn’t do much to change the situation NOW. In fact, staying focused on those points is arguing to keep the problem a problem.

Some problems do better if we solve them first and discuss how to avoid them later.
Some problems – like a dropped glass spilling liquid all over the floor — may be just be an accident and not discussion at all
Some problems — like a detour — aren’t problems at all simply a shift in what we were expecting to occur.

Change Your Mind

The way we see a problem is what keeps is a problem. Stop seeing an obstacle. Look for the opportunity.
Inside every situation that seems to be a problem is a chance to learn a new way of doing things. Along with that comes a challenge to show our courage, grace, flexibility, competence, and confidence when faced with the need to find new solutions.

Truth is if we give up the payoff in dissecting the problem we’ll move more quickly to solution.
Let’s just agree that we have one and get on with solving it. We can address the problem after we’ve achieved the solution. We’ll save urgent time and be more rational then anyway.

Don’t Own the Problem, Own the Solution.

New solutions are what lead to innovation.
Necessity (problems to solve) is the mother and father that gives birth to revelation.
Keeping our eyes on each other and our hearts on open communication can bring us to a solution that was better than what we ever thought we wanted.

And being the one who can positively identify opportunity when the situation has been shaken raises influence and gains esteem from the folks who are stuck and frozen. Being able to keep the focus on the direction that moves us forward is a trait of a leader. It’s irresistible to be ready to keep winning when the day is raining.

Don’t own the problem.
Own the quest to find the solution.
Don’t argue for convincing folks how bad it is that it happened.
Argue for how good it is that we’ve got an opportunity to make something great happen.
Don’t parse apart the people and the pieces to find what was broken.
Do all our can to make things whole and moving things whole again.
That’s winning.
And winning is irresistible.

How do you catch yourself when you’re arguing for the problem?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Why Conventions and Conferences Are Worth It: Top Events Left in 2012

by

h4> by
Amanda DiSilvestro

cooltext443809602_strategy

Why Conventions and Conferences Are Worth Your Time

One of the most important things you can do for your business is continue to be informed -— learn the strategies of the top industry leaders, keep up on the latest news, and do what you can to understand how Google works and how you can improve your company website. Knowing what is buzzing in your industry, the Internet landscape, and the overall economy will help ensure that you’re prepared for anything. One key way to make sure that you are present and informed about your industry is to attend quality seminars, conferences, and conventions.

Unfortunately, many companies are still not taking advantage of all that these meetings have to offer. Attending conferences takes time, energy, and money. Business owners are typically so busy that they barely have time to go home and be with their families let alone attend a conference, so it simply doesn’t get done. However, most business owners who do attend one to two conferences per year find them to be extremely valuable for a few reasons:

  • You make great connections.
  • Speakers usually give advice from experience, so you can learn from others’ mistakes.
  • Conferences often discuss strategies and tactics that are new to most.
  • Typical question and answer sessions allow you to make the experience personal.
  • Customers and clients love to hear that you’ve been to a conference with some of the top industry leaders. It proves to them that you are just as authoritative as those popular names, and it proves that you have the same information at your disposal as they do.

The important thing about attending conventions is making sure you attend the right conventions. Try to go to a convention or seminar that has a good reputation and has been going on for a few years. There are conventions that occur in all different parts of the U.S., so chances are you will not feel as though you need to travel to attend.

Top 5 SEO and Social Media Conventions Left in 2012

Some of the most popular conventions occurring in 2012 revolve around SEO and social media. These lessons can transfer over into every industry and work for any company with a company website. Fortunately, there are still a few left in 2012:

1. Event: SES Chicago; Date: Nov 12-16; Location: Chicago, IL

This is by far one of the most popular and talked-about SEO events of the year, and it’s coming up quickly! A great variety of industry leaders will be speaking at the event, and there are so many different seminars that occur that you can really pick and choose what you need to learn about the most. People come from all over the world to go to one of the many SES conventions, and Chicago is the last one in the U.S. this year. Prices differ based how many different presentations and/or workshops you want to attend (you can also get a discounted price if you sign up early!).

2. Event: Search Marketing Expo (SMX); Date: Oct 1-4; Location: New York City

This convention has workshops including International Search Summit, aimClear Facebook Marketing Intensive, Advanced Adwords Training, and Bruce Clay SEO training. Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land is the co-chair of the event, so you know you’re getting top information and a personalized experience. If you sign up before August 31 you can earn Early Bird specials, which will save you an average of $150. The price will depend upon whether you’re looking to attend the entire weekend or just one day, so you can click here for more details.

3. Event: Pubcon; Date: Oct 15-18; Location: Las Vegas, NV<.h4>

This is another one of the most famous seminars for small businesses because it offers very specific information about technology and how you can use technology to your advantage. Many attend this event only to attend what is called an “interactive site review,” which is where you can talk with several industry leaders about your website specifically. This isn’t something many conventions of this size offer, so it’s a huge benefit. If this doesn’t interest you, Matt Cutts of Google will be speaking, so have your questions ready! There is a huge range of prices, so visit the Pubcon website to decide which itinerary is right for you.

4. Event: Under the Radar; Date: Nov 15-16; Location: San Francisco, CA

Despite the name, this convention has been around since 2003 because it is always so successful. According to the Under the Radar website, 67% of their presenters have gone on to raise funding or be acquired by top names like Google, Yahoo, Cisco, BT, Microsoft, Twitter, Fox Interactive, and more. Naturally, hundreds attend this convention to follow in their footsteps.

5. Event: Content Marketing World; Date: Sept 4-6; Location: Columbus, OH

Many of the conventions discussed above are very broad and allow you to choose different seminars you’d like to attend. Content Marketing World, on the other hand, is very specific. This convention is all about SEO and content marketing, which is something that is becoming increasingly important for companies looking to improve their SERP ranking. Visit the website to learn more about prices and options.

**Bonus Event** SOBCon; Date: Sept 28-30; Location: Portland, OR

I know I said this was a top 5 list, but I couldn’t leave out the convention coming to you from our own Successful Blog. This seminar is full of interactive sessions and features some of the top industry leaders, including Liz Strauss. The conference is mainly focused on starting a business or re-starting your business. With so many looking to go in a new direction for the New Year, this is one of the best conventions to attend. You can sign up now by visiting the website.

I tried to find conventions that were spread out across the U.S., but there are certainly more to be found. Do you know of any great SEO or social media conventions in your area? Would you go back again? Let us know in the comments below!

Author’s Bio:
Amanda DiSilvestro gives small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice ranging from keyword density to recovering from Panda and Penguin updates. She writes for Higher Visibility, a nationally recognized SEO consulting firm that offers online marketing services to a wide range of companies across the country. Connect with Higher Visibility on Google+ and Twitter to learn more!

Big Brand Advice for Small Business from Paul Smith, Consumer Research Dir of P&G

by

by Paul Smith

cooltext443809602_strategy

One of the luxuries afforded big brands at multi-national companies is their million-dollar consumer research budgets and large teams of trained researchers.

Leaders of smaller companies and startups also recognize the importance of understanding their consumer. They just don’t always have the resources to hire swarms of research experts or commission an endless string of expensive studies. If that describes you and your company, the post below from Procter & Gamble consumer research director Paul Smith offers some big-brand sized advice, for a small-company sized budget.

Big Brand Advice for Small Business from Paul Smith, Consumer Research Dir of P&G

One of the pitfalls of consumer research is that people aren’t always able to accurately portray what goes on in their own lives, or even explain their own behavior. As a result, researchers often use multiple ways to get at the same piece of information so they can triangulate on the truth. The story below is often told at research conferences as an example.

A breakfast food maker wanted to understand if and how moms were providing healthy breakfasts for their families. So they sent a survey to a dozen women asking about their morning routine. The general consensus was that their families were enjoying healthy meals in the morning. The company then followed up with each woman asking if they could come to their homes one morning to observe.

Arriving at the first home at 6:30am, company personnel find mom is downstairs already, dad is in the shower, and the kids are still asleep. True to her word, mom is in the kitchen preparing a healthy breakfast for her family. She then turns her attention to getting the kids up and dressed. The little one needs help brushing her teeth, and the bigger one needs help choosing clothes that match. As each child is finally ready for breakfast, mom releases them to the kitchen and turns to the next child and task. After the last one is ready, it’s mom’s turn to ready herself for the day.

As a result, most of the actual eating happens in an unsupervised rotation—except, of course, for the company observers. They see everything. They see children pick at their “healthy” breakfast before feeding the lion’s share to the family dog. They see dad race out of the house, grabbing only a cup of coffee and the muffin that was easy to throw in his briefcase. Mom, who’s late herself at this point, covers her dish with plastic and explains that she’ll eat hers at the office. The team leaves the house along with the family, thanks them for their help, and makes arrangements to follow up with a few questions later in the week.

During that follow up phone call, the company observers described to mom what they saw: the kids eating only half their breakfast, dad taking only coffee and a muffin, and her packing her meal to go. That wasn’t exactly what she said happened in the initial survey. Was mom surprised? “No, not really. The school has a breakfast program, and sometimes the kids eat there. And John was running late, otherwise he would have eaten at home. And I’m normally more on top of things myself. I never did eat what I packed, by the way. My eggs were cold and runny by the time I got to work.”

“How often,” they ask, “does that happen to at least one of you? In other words, how often is somebody leaving home without eating the healthy meal you’ve prepared?”

Mom thinks about the question for a moment, and then sheepishly admits that most days at least one of them is too busy or distracted to eat their breakfast. In fact, it’s rare that all four of them eat the full breakfast she’s prepared.

One Story, Two Deep Lessons

Our memories are often constructed after the fact to cause the least distress to our sensibilities and concept of who we are. That’s the first lesson in this story. The three-part technique described above is designed to uncover the true behavior and the reasons behind it.

  • First, ask the consumer what she does.
  • Second, observe what she does.
  • Third, discuss with her the difference between the two.

In this case, the breakfast food makers learned there was a real need for healthy breakfast food that appealed to kids’ taste, was already prepared, and was portable enough to be eaten in the car or at work. The plethora of on-the-go breakfast bars and drinks on the market today are a result of this kind of research.

But there’s a second lesson to learn here. Sometimes a single story can teach you more than a whole semester at business school. In this case it was about consumer research techniques. But it could have been about anything. Imagine how much less effective the lesson would have been if delivered textbook style instead of via a story. You probably wouldn’t have even gotten this far reading it.

Experience has always been the best teacher. But a good story is a close second. All other forms of communication leaders use at work—like email, policy memos, and PowerPoint slides—are a distant third. Master the art of storytelling, and you’ll be a far more effective leader no matter what line of work you’re in.

Author’s Bio:
Paul Smith writes about leadership and storytelling at Lead With a Story. He is the author of Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. You can find him on Twitter as @LeadWithAStory.

Online Surfing and Depression. Is There a Connection Between Them?

by

by
Jack Samuelson

Depression is hard to diagnose, but the earlier symptoms are discovered, the better.

That is why a new study of Dr. Sriram Chellappan of Missouri University of Science and Technology could be a turning point in fighting depression. Dr. Chellappan and his associates found that students showing signs of depression use the Internet differently than other students.

Online Surfing and Depression. Is There a Connection Between Those Two?

According to Dr. Chellappan, his research could be a real breakthrough. That is because this is could be the first study based on actual Internet data, not surveys. Using surveys to retrieve the information about Internet usage was the main problem of previous studies. People usually forget the course of their online activity (especially if it was random), and even if they remember what they did — errors are common. Another problem is the so-called “social desirability bias” (i.e., the tendency to answer survey questions so they would be viewed positively by others). Using “real” Internet data gave researchers the advantage of analyzing empirical, undeniable, totally accurate facts.

The study itself should be considered as the first step showing new, possible ways in recognizing signs of depression (or other mental/social disorders). It was conducted on 216 Missouri students, collecting their Internet data for a month.

Students received pseudonyms so they would remain anonymous to the researchers. But first, all participants were tested for symptoms of depression. Having gathered and analyzed all the data, researchers found that the online activity of students with no signs of depression differed from that of participants with signs of mood disorders.

The differences in the two groups were significant.

Researchers managed to identify nine fine-grained patterns of online surfing that may indicate surfer’s depression. Identifying nine patterns on such a relatively small group is a remarkable finding, showing how much our mental health can influence every part of our life and change the way we perform even the most mundane activities. A longer research could help better recognize symptoms of depression.

What are these differences?

Depressed students tend to surf online much more randomly, frequently changing sites and applications. They also are more likely to use file-sharing sites and services, chat online, send messages and emails, watch online videos and play online games. Which pattern really stood out? The randomness. Dr. Chellappan connected this finding with the fact, that people suffering from depression have trouble concentrating, which would help understand reasons behind such activity patterns.

How Would Knowing This Connection Help?

According to the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) between 10 and 40% of all American students suffer from depression. It could almost be called an “epidemic”. Findings of Dr. Chellappan’s group could help deal with the pressing problem of depression among students.

This kind of study could help develop a new, effective tool to identify symptoms of depression. Software monitoring online activity could send an alert when Internet behavior patterns indicate signs of depression. It could also be installed in campus computer networks to help trained counselors detect students with mood disorders, and help them deal with their problems as soon as possible. I doubt that such software could be created before new studies are conducted on much bigger student groups. But the right idea is there, and it could only encourage further research.

If future studies confirm Chellappan’s findings, it would open the doors to analyzing Internet usage patterns of people suffering from other forms of mental disorders — for example anorexia or schizophrenia. It might also give a strong push for studies on other groups with high risk of depression such as war veterans or single elderly people.

Why Not?

The only disturbing thing about this research is concern about online privacy. If it were possible to diagnose depression through Internet usage patterns, then eventually it would be possible to create a “psychological profile” based only on an individual’s online activities.

Such profiles would be valuable for commercial companies and for public institutions. Employers could predetermine psychological profiles of future employees, and hire only those matching their expectations (or fire employees who showed undesirable psychological traits). Companies could tailor their advertisements for specific target groups (and those advertisements would work every time). To be honest – just the idea of an outside entity having my full psychological profile makes me a bit anxious. It seems Orwellian. But maybe I’m just paranoid – what do you think?

Author’s Bio:
Jack Samuelson is a contributing author who writes articles on numerous subjects. He has a wide range of interests, and a soft spot for weird news and funny stories. He has been an insightful observer of the world but always tries to balance his commitment to serious issues concentrating on some less serious, funny news. You can find him on Facebook