I have this unrelenting suspicion that people deeply, innately, in every fiber of ourselves need to be connected. Radical, I know.

I recently went back to Princeton for my college reunion and spent 48 hours either with people I hadn’t seen or spoken to in many years and yet because of Facebook and LinkedIn still felt oddly knowledgeable about, or with people I had actually never met but again felt oddly knowledgeable about through the sheer quantity and intensity of the virtual communications we shared. As inevitably strange situations and new sensations came and went at my reunion (because reunions are kind of wonderfully odd), I couldn’t escape constant little reminders of how the new technologies we’ve so quickly become immersed in, are playing a role not only in our need but also our ability to be connected.

While I was on campus, I gave a lecture on social media marketing (and giving a “lecture” at my alma mater was certainly odd for me in so many ways). We looked at the Susan Boyle phenomenon. Note that according to The Telegraph the episode of “Britain’s Got Talent” in which Susan Boyle debuted (it was the show’s season premiere) had was viewed on television by 11.8 million people. But in just a few days, the video of that same show on YouTube had generated more than 80 million views. That’s TV 11.8 million, YouTube 80 million. Anyone who grew up with television as the quintessential mass medium may need to take a moment just to absorb that fundamental shift.

And more and more people have a nagging suspicion that things like Susan’s YouTube video are stark examples that social media tools really are changing the way that we communicate, and wondering what to do about it.

I agree with this suspicion because I think such change is inevitable.

What we now call “social media” are just the latest in a long and continuing evolution of communication tools. From smoke signals to Morse code to radio to television, each new tool we invent changes the way we communicate.

If you imagine with me for a moment, communication tools shifting over time in four respects:

1. who sends the communication
2. who receives the communication
3. the ease of communication
4. what’s in the communication

we seemed to have had a long progression toward an ever increasing number of recipients from tools like Morse code (only a few people can send complex messages to a few other people, so presumably senders and recipients are chosen carefully as are the messages they send) to tools like television (once the infrastructure is built, a few people can send messages to massive quantities of people relatively easily and so senders are chosen carefully while the recipients not so much & the messages can be drivel or not).

Follow Maisha Walker on Twitter

But Social Media seems to have taken this progress on a new path where we are growing not just in the numbers of recipients but also of senders. Large numbers of people can now relatively easily reach large numbers of people, as if we are each our own publishing house.

But the tools go beyond that too. In the past large numbers of recipients meant one-directional messages — you could reach lots of people but they were passive recipients of your information. Now, these large numbers are also interactive. You can reach out to lots of people and every single one of them can immediately reach back. Instead of controlled, one-directional messaging, these tools enable a constantly evolving, living dialogue on a huge scale.

In it’s novelty, just the fact that the power to create large scale dialogue is in the hands of individual people is kind of amazing. As a business owner though, the fact that you can now communicate interactively and regularly with 10 or 1,000 times more people can seem overwhelming.

There is a middle ground.

In the 1970’s a sociologist named Mark Granovetter introduced a concept called “the strength of weak ties.” It is the idea that as we reach beyond our closest friends and families, we have “weak” but vitally important ties that connect us to other people and their networks and the important information and opportunities that those networks hold. It is far more often through the networks of our “weak ties” for example, that we get referrals for business and find opportunities for new jobs.

What’s amazing for small business owners about these new social media tools is that they are incredibly good at empowering individual people to efficiently and inexpensively maintain a far larger number of “weak ties”.

Half the battle of being a successful business is just making sure people remember your business and what you offer when it’s time to make a purchase or a referral. Through social media tools, a business can stay connected to a larger number of “weak ties” and the networks they belong to, have access to the information and opportunities in those networks, and do it better and faster.

By helping you maximize those weak ties Social Media Marketing provides small businesses with a powerful tool that doesn’t need an overwhelming amount of complexity to be useful. Its power is based on the simple human desire to be connected and the tools that now exist to enable you, as an individual to fill that desire.

Here are a few steps for how to maintain your sanity while using social media tools effectively.

1. Learn the differences, know what each tool is good for
   Each social media tool has its own personality, its own community of enthusiasts, its own speed and frequency. Take the time to learn them. Log on, create a personal profile and “lurk” for a while. Invite a few close friends and start to interact. Join groups that are of personal interest to you and watch how people share information. Learn first-hand how the tool is used by others before using it for your business.
2. Stay focused on your goals and know your audience
   While social media tools can reach millions of people as they did with the Susan Boyle video and for the Obama campaign, for most small businesses, reaching millions of people is just not the point. Don’t get sucked into the hype and forget that. Perhaps you need to find and build a few key relationships, or reach a few tens of thousands depending on the scale of your business. Figure out who & what you’re looking for and stay focused.
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel (yet)
   What’s already working for you? You don’t necessarily need to use social media in a completely different way if you’re not trying to reach a completely different audience. If you know what works with your audience now, start by figuring out how to achieve similar results but within the context of these new tools.
4. Don’t spread yourself too thin
   You don’t necessarily need to be active in all places at once. While Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are the hot spots of the moment, spend some time figuring out which ones will give you the greatest access to your audience and start there.
5. Don’t sweat it and don’t rush it
   Honestly everyone is still figuring out the best way to use social media tools. Heck, the sudden explosion of these tools themselves shows that people are still figuring out how best to use the Internet! Don’t give in to the feeling that you’ve missed the boat and rush into something that you’ll have to back pedal on later. Take the time to learn and do what’s right for you and your business.

Maisha Walker is the Founder & President of message medium, a 10-year old New York City Internet Strategy firm that focuses exclusively on Small Businesses. You can follow Maisha on Twitter or learn about her upcoming Web site and Internet Marketing Classes.

That is a scary question for lots, if not all businesses. We spend so much time focused on getting our businesses started, and then successfully running our businesses, that we give very little thought to disaster recovery planning. Really, planning for disaster sounds like we are betting on failure. Betting against ourselves. Yet we think nothing of getting health insurance and auto insurance and home insurance — betting against ourselves, betting that something bad is going to befall us.

So, why aren’t you betting against your business, as it were? Let’s change the view. Your disaster recovery plan is betting ON your business. You’re now going to bet that regardless of what disaster (natural or man-made) comes your way, you and your business are so successful that you are going to pull through and keep right on going.

Now, when I say disaster, do you immediately go to Hurricane Katrina? Mississippi River flooding? Santa Anna wind-fed wildfires? Yes, certainly you need to have your financials backed up off-site, maybe on a different server, or on some tape drives. Tax records for current and past years should be saved, and supplier and distributor contact information recorded somewhere besides your desktop computer.

But what about the small disasters? Last winter the Northeast states were frozen solid and without power after an ice storm. Here in Eugene in the heart of the Willamette Valley, three inches of new snow and temperatures in the low teens have almost locked up the city because only the skiers have snow tires and know how to drive in this stuff. The rest of us are a hazard. Just a simple thing that we so casually depend on – driving to work – can be a minor ‘disaster’ for our businesses.

Fifty years ago, if we were blanketed by an ice storm we didn’t expect every business in town to be open. We were all in the same boat and knew it. In today’s global Internet economy we expect everybody to be open, busy, and available to us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. How are you going to handle your business needs in times of minor crisis?

As an example, several years ago a summer windstorm blew over many trees around our office which brought down all the power lines. No power to our building at all. No computers, no phones, no lights, no tech support, no customer care for several days. Yet our Internet sales from our off-site servers kept up with business. We ended up buying a portable generator to get just enough electricity to run our phone system to play a specially recorded a message for incoming calls explaining why we weren’t there and available to them.

Small businesses can be just as hard hit if a key employee has a car or bicycle crash and ends up in the hospital, uncommunicative, for days, or if all 3 or 4 employees get the flu at the same time. You don’t want your business operations to slam to a halt because people weren’t cross-trained or no one else knew procedures.

One step you can take is to institute a system of transparent communications in your company, so that incoming and outgoing email communications continue smoothly. With Email Center Pro, email management for businesses, you can manage all of your email queues from one location and efficiently route email from one mailbox to another and from one user to another. Email is securely saved off-site, and, in the absence of an employee, someone else in your company picks up the communications thread immediately.

What would you do to backstop your business if calamity should strike? Give some thought to protecting and recovering your company, your records, your business and your customers in the event of disasters, both large and small.

by Lindsey Enloe
Business Success Coach

Whether you are starting a new business or growing an existing business, this is not a game. It’s real life, everything is on the line, and there is no room for error. You walk onto the field each day, armed with a business plan as your playbook, and the motivation to succeed, but when you are in the middle of the play, who can help you see through to the end? A coach.

Nothing is more exhilarating than the anticipation of starting up a new business idea or growing a business to the next level — until the details and day-to-day challenges start to seem daunting. Business planning is a tornado of required actions mixed with emotions that can sometimes seem to whirl around at breakneck speed. One day you just want to get started, another day you might stare at a blank computer screen wondering what the point of a business plan is anyway. Still other days, the ideas start to seem overwhelming and it seems much easier just to give up. The problem is that you have this entrepreneurial spark that sits in the back of your head spinning yet another idea to create or grow. So how do you keep going? How do you see through to the finish line? How do you really get into the business game?

Any athlete who really wants to compete gets a coach. You can gather a strong team of advisers, but they won’t hold you accountable to a set plan of actions and goals. You can read every book on business there is, but the books can’t provide detailed feedback on your unique ideas. You can write a plan, but the plan itself doesn’t challenge you to push further than you thought possible. A coach can provide that extra set of eyes that can objectively see the holes or potential pitfalls or even the strengths that you haven’t yet considered.

We can’t always do it on our own with just pure will, even when we have a great idea. So many things can get in the way. Lack of knowledge on where to start; inability to manage time and resources; inability to identify challenges; or the inability to look objectively at an idea to which we’ve become very emotionally attached. This is where a coach steps in.

When you are tired, coaching can reignite passion. When you are unclear, coaching can dig deeper into your potential by clarifying values and purpose. When you are feeling overwhelmed, coaching can discover your strengths and mobilize your talents. When things are moving too slowly, coaching can provide the fuel needed to push you and your business back up to speed. When you are stuck behind barriers, coaching can help identify and clear the obstacles to success. When you have reached a stalemate, coaching can revitalize you and uncover new opportunities.

You may very well be a brilliant entrepreneur and business owner. If so, have you reached your full potential? Have you reached every one of your business and personal goals? Have you considered expansion? Have you considered a new business? Are you equipped with the tools to make it happen? Do you know all the right questions to ask? Have you aligned your team with the best that there is? The world’s best will seek help while answering these questions.

Just as coaching is used from little league to professional sports, it can help on all levels of business development, from conception to expansion, and in small to large ventures alike. You can set your pace faster, set your goals higher, achieve success and perform better. Everyone benefits from that bird’s-eye view, which is what a coach provides. People come to business coaches for a variety of reasons. You may need an expert who isn’t blinded by the industry or by too many years of staring at the same numbers. You may need the accountability created by reporting to your coach weekly after setting personal commitments. Many times we get bogged down in the day-to-day operations and forget that there is a much bigger picture to look at if we want to grow. With ever-changing markets, you may need a coach to bounce ideas around with, in order to grow through the challenging times. You may simply need to rediscover the passion that created your brilliant business idea in the first place. You may need guidance to find the proper people to support your business and advise you in proper strategy. Finally, you may be looking for greater profits or returns with less work. Anyone can hang a shingle and be open for customers, but it takes more than a name and idea to really own a business.

In the end, however, coaching is more than just the bottom line. Coaching can help you discover a life of balance that works for you, especially important since a business can, at times, take over every aspect of your life. It can guide you in making better decisions about life and business. It can help you find ways to get more done in less time, and overcome the many potential barriers to success. Coaching will help you set and attain goals in life and business, and then push you to become the person and business owner that even you didn’t think was possible. If you really want to be a player in the game of business, don’t sit on the side lines; don’t wish and dream. Get a coach and make it all reality.

I’m sure almost everyone is familiar with the story that Thomas Edison discovered 99 ways to NOT make a light bulb. That’s 99 no to reach 1 yes. The point here is that a negative result, proving something didn’t work or was not so, is just as valuable as a positive result. Sadly, scientific research has become so expensive, and so heavily subsidized/sponsored by corporations, that it has become the expected norm that every result must be a commercially marketable yes result.

That “always yes” attitude has come to shade the development and use of business plans as well. It’s gotten to where people think that every business plan has to show exorbitant profits and wild success. And to reach that end, all that they need to do is overestimate the financial tables a bit, or a lot, until the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet show the desired results. This is a bad and dangerous tack, in my opinion.

For instance, we saw one plan for a tennis club with indoor court rentals. The financial tables looked good until we divided the rate per hour into the sales forecast. Seems those courts were rented continually, 28 hours a day, every day, 365 days a year. Not possible I’m afraid.

Or the mobile auto oil change business in a large mid-western city. Again, closer inspection of the sales forecast showed that the one worker was changing the oil in a car every 45 minutes, with no travel time between jobs, in all weather, every month of the year. Now, I’ve tried to change my oil in Illinois in January, outdoors, lying on my back in the snow and below-freezing temperatures. Let me tell you from experience that 45 minutes is painfully unrealistic.

Final example: there was the apartment rental company with five vice-presidents but no employees in the personnel forecast, and they never showed how or when they paid for the buildings they said they purchased.

These business plans all said YES in the financials — if you didn’t look too closely.

Now, I say that NO is an acceptable result from a business plan. A business plan for a start-up company that shows huge losses, or negative cash flow is an OK result. It tells you that the business as planned will fail. It tells you that some of your basic assumptions are wrong. It tells you that you are missing something immensely important.

And this is better than OK! Rather than starting up with unrealistic expectations and then hitting bottom in an excruciating crash, you can stop right now and reassess, before you make a financial commitment. Don’t ‘embellish’ the financials by boosting the sales forecast. Look at your market, your competition, your expenses, and everything about your plan and be realistic.

Honest reflection may tell you that this isn’t the business to start right now. Or, you might revise the plan and discover if you put some of those vice-presidents out on the production line, it reduces your costs of goods to a point where you really can make a modest profit on steady sales, without hockey-stick growth. After your revisions, you still might not make a profit until year three. But in going through this process, you may become convinced that the business is viable with adequate start-up funding and second-round investment.

NO is an acceptable result for a business plan if the plan exposed the flaws and showed the way to a realistic YES.

All of us know, or should know, that we need to save and safeguard our business records. When we start up it’s easy to hang on to every document, receipt, invoice, and business record. But after a few years we find that all these records we’ve been keeping are taking up more floor space in file cabinets than the work spaces for ourselves and our employees.

The good news is that we really don’t have to keep all those records forever. Yes, some we do need to keep forever. Some we keep only until the IRS has had their way with us. And some we need to keep for only a few years.

Determining which records need to be kept, and for how long, is a little harder. And properly disposing of temporary records is not as simple as just tossing the papers into the recycling bin.

Here is where the Records Retention Schedule comes into play. This document lists the types of records your business produces (financial, personnel, employee handbooks, contracts, operations, meeting minutes, policy statements, online privacy statements … the list can seem endless); identifies any legal requirements for how long the record must be kept and the requiring authority, such as the IRS or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; will note how long the record is generally actively used in business operations; and may contain other information as well, such as noting that the records contain sensitive personal identifying data; and if microfilm or digitally scanned copies are acceptable legal alternatives to the paper document.

Search the Internet and you will find plenty of information about Records Retention Schedules and samples, such as this one kindly offered by Millennium Records Management. Remember, however, that a sample schedule is just a generalized representation of what one looks like. Your Records Retention Schedule will be tailored to your type of business, where you are located, in what state(s) and/or countries you do business, whether you are privately owned or trade shares on the stock market, are a public institution, hold government contracts, and a myriad other factors.

You will want to work with your accountant, legal counsel, and/or a professional records management company to develop and establish yours.

You implement the Records Retention Schedule officially so everyone in your company knows about it. This helps ensure that your vital records are actually kept in the first place. Later, say you have several file cabinets of Accounts Payable invoices. Your Retention Schedule says you need to keep these for 6 years, but experience shows you really only get into them for 3 years. Knowing this, you can free up your business/office floor space by transferring these records to secure off-site storage or an acceptable alternative storage media.

Once you have records that reach the end of their retention period you can dispose of them. But, as I said, you can’t simply toss them into the recycling can. You need to have an established process for their disposal. Yes, you have to create more documentation to get rid of old documents.

You will want to have the people who generated the records sign off that they no longer need the records. You should note that the records have reached the end of their retention period according to your established Records Retention Schedule, and check that their retention period has not been extended due to audits, litigation, etc.

You will want to certify when, how, and by whom, the documents were destroyed. This is easier today, than in the past, when I spent many hours hauling boxes down to a loading dock and feeding paper into a shredder next to a dumpster. In recent years mobile shredding companies have proliferated. They will drive their big truck-mounted confetti shredders to your business, haul your boxes to the truck, let you witness their destruction and give you a certificate of destruction.

Establishing, implementing, and following a Records Retention Schedule will go a long way to ensuring that your company keeps and maintains the vital records you need to continue in business. And, in a worst case scenario, should you be caught up in litigation or the like, prove that your records are kept and destroyed in a regularly occurring, established, approved, documented process, and not in a midnight burn out behind the barn in an amateurish attempt to avoid culpability and responsibility, or obstruct the legal process.

I was fascinated by the analysis of the Obama campaign. In many ways, Obama’s campaign and its success is a big, bright, “LCD sign” of the times. New media has come of age in a very public way.

Most people seem to agree that the campaign used a number of techniques to capture an audience and even inspire those traditionally lacking enthusiasm for politics. Some of my favorite attributes are:

Audacity – the fact that Obama wasn’t afraid to “redefine his target audience” and go after states like Indiana who this November voted for a Democrat for the first time in 44 years.

Mobilizing Large Numbers and doing it “Grass Roots” – unprecedented fundraising success by generating large numbers of small donations rather than small numbers of large donations to raise more than an estimated $600 million (McCain raised an estimated $250 million).

The Message Consistency – the message never wavered from the idea of being an “antidote” to the status quo.

But perhaps the most obvious and (to a techie like me) inspiring elements of witnessing this campaign was its focus on social technology to support and propel all of the other techniques.

The use of “new media”, from friend building on Friendster to the seemingly simple text message, proved to be a powerhouse for the campaign, as it extended the concept of “Team Obama” far beyond campaign headquarters literally into the hands of millions of Americans who voted and vocalized with their typing fingers.

For all the small business owners who couldn’t help wondering, wow – can I do that? My answer is Yes you can! (Sorry couldn’t help myself).

In taking a closer look, the technologies used form a rather familiar list:

• Official Web site: http://www.barakobama.com and http://my.barakobama.com
• Text messaging strategy – enabled via collecting phone numbers on a mass scale
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama
• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/barackobama
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/BarackObama
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom
• Meetup.com: http://barackobama.meetup.com/

The list reads like a “who’s who” of social media marketing.

But the real power in these technologies is understanding that the goal is not just to “set up” one tool or another, but to understand each tool’s potential. That potential in the Obama campaign was brought to fruition by:

• Having a consistent message
• Providing free and open access to “making a connection”
• *Always* keeping the tool up to date
• Providing pertinent digestible bytes of information that could be read, downloaded, passed on
• Leveraging the sheer quantity of enthusiasts and supporters on each tool to disperse messages almost instantly across an unbelievably wide, new network of venues and communities that hasn’t been seen since the invention of television.

Think about the leverage that a database of 948,000 people on MySpace and 3.1 million people on Facebook provides when you have a message to communicate (and consider that vs. McCain’s 221,000 on MySpace and 600,000 on Facebook).

As you think about your business and consider the challenge to build brand, generate buzz and stay on the radar as a small business owner with limited time and a limited budget, there are some very simple lessons to learn here:

1. Everybody needs a team. Whether you’re trying to build a team of millions of voters or a few thousand supporters of your business, build a team by building a venue for them to get involved. Even the simplest involvement can be powerful.
2. Email, the Web, and cellular technology have created an unprecedented venue for that involvement. Know who should be on your team and know the different ways they like to be involved.
3. Use wisely. Learn how these technologies work and learn by example how they can be leveraged to build a community of supporters for you.

This is an advantage that won’t last forever. As businesses gain competency in these techniques and learn to invest wisely, these techniques will slowly become standards rather than competitive advantages.

But it is possible for a growing small business to build a strategic, cost-effective and impactful social media campaign. As “Team Obama” has shown – yes, you can.

Maisha Walker is the Founder & President of message medium, a 10-year old New York City Internet Strategy firm that focuses exclusively on Small Businesses.  You can follow Maisha on Twitter or learn about her upcoming Web site and Internet Marketing Classes.

Last night we were talking about getting angel investment, and valuation, which is one of if not the most important points in the discussion. Valuation is essentially price.

Say you want to bring in $150,000 from an angel investor. The immediate question from the investor will be something like: “at what valuation?” Sometimes that’s called “pre-money valuation,” because the instant the deal happens the valuation will change into post-money valuation, which is always higher — because your company just got some new cash.

Your answer sets your deal equivalent of an asking price. If you say $500,000, then you’re offering the investor 30% of your company for $150,000. If you say $300,000, you’re offering 50%. If you say $1 million, then you’re only offering 15%.

Which leads to the question:

So how do I know? How do I set valuation appropriately? What is that based on? Is it some multiple of sales, or intellectual property, or what?

And that’s a good question, and very hard to answer. Sure, you want some compromise between what you want to give, as a percent of ownership in your company, and what investors would want to buy. Investors will simply say no if it’s not an attractive offer. But that’s still very vague.

• In the case of an existing business, with some history, you do have some formulas you can use. For a great site on that business interpretation of valuation, for existing busineses, I suggest bizequity.com, the zillo of small business.
• When we’re talking about startups, however, you don’t have history and you can’t really apply formulas based on sales, or revenue, or even intellectual property (although that could be more relevant).

So here’s my concrete suggestion:

1. Calculate starting costs. That’s two lists, the expenses you have to incur and the assets you have to have at the starting point — except cash. Leave that blank for a bit.  Add those all-except for cash assets to the starting costs, to get an amount, a number in dollars.  Click here for a lot more on that.  

   So, for example, in the illustration here, that would be about $40,000. Yes, I know it says $38,750, but this is just an estimated guess; always round up. You never guess just right.  

2. Calculate cash flow through the lean period at the beginning, before your sales cover your costs.  Make a good guess at how much money you need to cover the deficit spending to get you to an operational month-by-month break even level of cash. That’s where the cash requirement number in the illustration came from: it seemed like this company would need about $400,000 to survive from startup to break-even.  You can’t see much in the chart below, because it’s small, but it shows a projected 12 months of cash flow (in blue) with a minimum balance, a deficit (in red), of about $400,000.

   

3. That gives you a number. In this case, it’s $400,000. That’s what your cash flow shows you you’ll need to get to cash-flow break-even. In the last two months, the cash flow is positive, so the negative balance starts shrinking. With that estimate as a best guess, you go back into your startup costs calculation, and add in the cash required. It’s $400,000. You can see what that does to the startup costs worksheet in the next illustration here.
4. Having done that, you now know that you need about $500,000 from investors (again, technically it’s $458,750, but you’re using best-guess estimates, so round up.) Set that as the amount of investment you’re seeking. Then — and here it gets hard, to be sure — you need to decide how much of your company you’re going to offer to an investor in exchange for that $500,000.

5. Get some help here if you can. Ask somebody with experience in startups, or dealing with angel investors, or both. Ask an attorney you can trust, who should also be somebody with experience. The thing is, how much of your company you offer to investors is about a compromise between what you’d like — none, free money — and what will entice the investors to write checks.

   At this point a lot depends on your overall business offering, the cards your company brings to the table. Investors want as high return as possible, with as little risk, but in relation to return. How experienced is your team? How defensible is your product? How rich is the market? All these factors determine what kind of a deal will be acceptable to investors.

   • Let’s say, in this case, you’re new at startups, you have very little track record, and you want to attract an active angel investor as a partner. So maybe you set your initial valuation at $750K, meaning you’re offering to give away 2/3 of your ownership to get the money you need. You’re being realistic about what will attract an investor. You better really, really, like that investor, because he or she will essentially own your company. But this is a hypothetical case, and without a lot of experience and defensibility, that may be the best you can do.
   • Or maybe you’ve got better cards to play: you’ve got a team with startup experience, and a defensible new product, with some intellectual property, and it looks like an attractive market. That makes you able to set a stronger valuation, and maybe — we hope — still make it an attractive offer to investors. So maybe you say you’re valuing it at $1.5 million. You’re offering investors one third of your company for $500K.

So there’s a quick and (I hope) simple summary of how you set the initial (pre-money) valuation when you want to attract investment.

At the very least your Web plan ought to have a market forecast, traffic forecast, sales (or business benefits) forecast, expense budget, and specific milestones. Be sure to include these essential tables as part of your plan.

Even though we agree that Web plans will vary depending on the exact nature of your plan, it is hard to imagine a plan that doesn’t contain, at the very least, these five essential tables. Usually you’ll have these plus several others.

Market Forecast

Analyze your market by segments and project market growth for five years. Look for the details in the chapter on Market Forecast.

Traffic Forecast

A Web plan should include a reasonable estimate of future traffic. There are several measures of traffic that might be used, such as page views, sessions, etc. The important point is not what measure is used, but whether it can be applied consistently and tracked for achievement. Look for the details in the chapter on Traffic Forecast.

Sales (or Business Benefits) Forecast

Forecast your sales by product or service. The mathematics are simple, but important. You can’t do a Web plan without a sales forecast. The details are discussed in the chapter on Sales Forecast.

Expense Budget

The budget is another absolute essential. How much are you going to spend? On what? How does your spending relate to strategy? Look for more on budgeting in the chapter on Expense Budget.

Milestones

This is perhaps the most important table in the whole plan: concrete milestones to make it real, with managers, deadlines, and budgets. More on this will be presented in the chapter titled Keep it Alive.

by Cidnee Stephen of Strategies for Success, www.strategiesforsuccess.ca

Let’s face it, at some point in our businesses we are faced with at least one insurmountable obstacle – one that challenges our passion, taps out our resources, and pulls us far, far out of our comfort zone. Many business owners give up at this point, wave the white flag on entrepreneurship and return to the working world. Others settle into a comfortable life of mediocrity.

But perhaps you are looking for more. Deep down you know that you and your business have more potential. You truly believe that what you are doing serves an important purpose and is your special way of making a difference, of helping others, the economy, the environment, etc.

So what does it take for you to get your business to the next level, to grow it to where you have reached your definition of success, and/or to leave a legacy or success story that others can tell?

Why not look to a mortician? Not just any mortician, but one who has left such a legacy. Some of you may have already come across his work. It’s located outside of Boswell, British Columbia and it is a dwelling called the Glass House. I took my son there recently, because I felt it was important he see it. He is, after all, partially named after this mortician – his great grandfather David Brown. As my step-aunt Diane (who still runs the Glass House with my step-uncle Eldon) regaled us once more with the story of how it came about, I couldn’t help but find myself in awe of what my grandfather had created and left for so many to enjoy. The beauty is not so much in the house, but rather in the story of how it came about.

Here is my version of what it takes to achieve success.

Seizing an Opportunity – David Brown was a mortician. He and my great-uncles ran the funeral home in Red Deer, Alberta. Being a very creative man by nature, he felt that there must be something that could be done with all the embalming fluid bottles that went to waste in funeral homes. Call him a re-cycler or environmentalist before his time; he saw within this problem, an opportunity.

Is there an opportunity that others in your field are missing?

Something Unique – I wish I could tell you how he came up with the idea of using the embalming fluid bottles to build his retirement home, but I haven’t a clue. The how doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that he came up with something very unique. A dwelling that, to this day, over 50 years later, still attracts the attention of passers-by to the point that they will stop and spend some time to have a closer look.

Finding your difference in the marketplace is essential for long-term success and can save you a fortune in lost revenues and unnecessary promotional costs.

Planning – My grandfather spent a lot of time planning his development. He required approximately 500,000 bottles for a start. Additionally, he knew he would need to test how the bottles would stand up to heat in the summer and cold in the winter. So the experiments began. Mini-structures were built and heated, others were built and frozen. Finally he found the right combination of bottles and mortar that would work.

It’s common to think things out at 50,000 feet. But attention to detail and planning for eventualities is worth its weight in gold.

Location – David Brown knew that his structure couldn’t withstand Alberta winters. He also needed a location where the building would experience very little shifting. So he chose a piece of bedrock in the milder climate of BC as the final destination for his glass house. This piece of bedrock happened to be located on a major thoroughfare to Vancouver in its day, so the traffic was tremendous!

They say in marketing only three things really matter – location, location, location. Look at your business at this moment; is it possible that better positioning or a different distribution channel could be what you really need to achieve success?

Hard Work – There is a great picture of David Brown at the Glass House. He is sitting down and on the bottom of his shoe is very big hole. He didn’t sit down very often (a trait my mother definitely inherited). He worked hard. He was not a builder, nor was he an architect. He was a mortician, but he built a large majority of the house by himself. It took simple “grit.”

What else can I say about this? Chances are you already know that being a business owner is a lot harder than working for someone else. The good news is hard work WILL pay off!

Vision, Patience, Passion and Determination – Across the road from the glass house is the side of a hill. David used to sit up there, sometimes for hours and simply imagine what his final dwelling would look like. His plans came from this vision and his vision came from his passion and the end result came from his patience and the determination to see that final outcome. Even after the house was completed, he continued to add to his dream.

When the going gets rough, there can be times when the only thing that keeps us on track to success is our vision, patience, passion and determination that what we are doing is the right choice.

Know When You Need Outside Help – While my grandfather was comfortable in building the external structure, he was not going to chance the electrical, plumbing or stone work to his own volition. It was in areas like these that he called in the experts.

Do you know when you need external help and do you know the right talent to bring in?

Savvy Business Sense – While my grandfather was building the house, curious passersby stopped to see the odd structure. If you go, you will see notes inside some of the bottles that people left as the house was being built. In a way, the glass house is like a big time bottle. Eventually the traffic became so great that David Brown decided to start charging for visits. Because the house was on a major road, the revenue became enough for a sustainable business. Soon thereafter, he moved to a house next door, and turned his masterpiece into a tourist attraction.

His unique product was featured in an architectural magazine and other publications and of course it continued to attract the attention of passers-by. David began working on the grounds to enhance the experience, until he passed away in the early 1970s.

Sometimes success can be as easy as simply re-writing your business plan, raising your prices or changing your marketing strategy. What can you do to improve your business processes?

Succession Planning – Before he passed away, David Brown offered the business to his children. As I mentioned earlier, Eldon and his wife Diane have been running it ever since. They have continued to add to the attraction and the grounds so that my grandfather’s legacy is still open to the public to enjoy. If you’re ever in the area, stop by and say hi.

Is your business structured so that others can purchase it and run it when you are ready to leave? What is your exit strategy?

About the Author…
Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget-minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought-after speaker, writer, and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations. Subscribe for Free to her bi-weekly marketing tips for small businesses and also receive a special report on the 7 Steps of Marketing Success.

Grass, a tree, and solid block lettering—these elements make up the vast majority of landscaping logos. If your logo looks like everyone else’s—how will your customers remember you? And how will new customers find you?

A good logo is critical for a successful business—especially in a trade as competitive as landscaping. Here are five ways an outstanding corporate identity will help your company succeed.

1. Great Logos Make Great First Impressions
Before your sales person knocks on the door, before your truck pulls up, and even before they call you, potential customers consider your logo when they decide whom to trust.

Wayne Stuetz, founder of The Sodfather Landscaping in White Plains, New York, understands how that first impression gives them an edge. “People are always asking for a t-shirt with my logo on it. My logo is very memorable, and once a person has seen it, it’s hard to forget.”

When people can easily remember your logo, you have a competitive edge.

2. Attract New Customers
Your customers see hundreds of logos a day—and they know a good logo when they see one. By sending the right message to potential customers, your logo helps them choose you over the competition.

The Lawn Rangers, in Pearland, Texas, have seen the fruits of a good logo. “When customers initially see the logo on our estimate sheets, trucks and website, they feel good about us,” said co-owner Aaron O’Donley. “And unless there’s something you can show potential customers to convince them their expectations will be met, they will turn to the competition. Our logo helps us persuade them.”

3. Stand Out from Your Competition
Flip through the phone book and you’ll quickly see that potential customers have plenty of landscaping company choices. You’ll also notice very few logos stand out from the crowd. Differentiating yourself from your competition is critical in winning the battle for customers.

The Lawn Rangers do that with color. Instead of the usual greens and blues, they use a warmer color combination that stands out. Original uses of colors, words, shapes, and fonts can set your logo apart from the rest.

4. Keep Loyal Customers
Good service is the key to keeping your customers. But what happens when a competitor moves in with shiny trucks, clean-cut employees, a professional look and promises to match your service? If your company image isn’t as good, your customers may be tempted to try the competition.

Don’t put your business in that position. “A great logo convinces high-end customers who look for a loyal, long-term relationship to choose you over the next guy, who is probably waiting around the corner,” adds Stuetz.

5. Earn Trust with Professionalism
What convinces people to choose an established landscaping business over a couple kids with lawnmowers? Often it’s the professionalism of the business.

“People see our professional logo, and see that we’re here from year to year, and that builds trust,” said Tina Zoltan, owner of Oak Leaf Landscape in Groveland Florida. “If we can send the message of professionalism through our logo, a lot of the work is done for us.”