* * * * *

Startup Weekend
Multiple Cities and Dates 2012 – see website for full list

Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs. Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations. Participants create working startups during the event and are able to collaborate with like-minded individuals outside of their daily networks. All teams hear talks by industry leaders and receive valuable feedback from local entrepreneurials. The weekend is centered around action, innovation, and education. Whether you are looking for feedback on a idea, a co-founder, specific skill sets, or a team to help you execute, Startup Weekends are the perfect environment in which to test your idea and take the first steps towards launching your own startup.

Spark & Hustle Tour
Multiple Cities and Dates, May through August 2012

Led by Tory Johnson, the jam-packed, high-energy day enables you to experience big breakthroughs in your business and yourself.

Meet great people who can help with product development and packaging; manufacturing and distribution; multiple revenue streams and collaborations; mental preparedness for monumental success; and so much more.
Beyond the jam-packed sessions, this event is ideal to meet partners, collaborators and even clients!

8th Annual Kentucky Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference
June 1, 2012, Louisville, KY

The Annual Kentucky Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference (8th KIEC) will bring together distinguished speakers, tech-based economic development practitioners, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, students and postdoctoral fellows.

The conference will focus on growing local initiatives powered by science and engineering talent.

The Inc. Leadership Forum
June 6-8, 2012, Miami

The Inc. Leadership Forum brings together the knowledge and experience of industry experts, academics, seasoned entrepreneurs and fellow company leaders to share their methods on how to implement leadership strategies that help businesses flourish.

In 2012, the two-day event will immerse attendees in an energizing program with a series of keynote speakers, panel discussions and interactive networking sessions designed exclusively for the unique needs of entrepreneurial leaders. The Forum brings to life the content in Inc. magazine through thought-provoking programming that enables company owners to gain actionable, real-world information to hone their skills and lead their businesses on a path to growth. At Inc.’s Leadership Forum, you’ll learn about innovative approaches, inspirational tools and processes to build teams and workplace environments that have a lasting impact on financial results and personal satisfaction.

CT Business Expo
June 7, 2012, Hartford, CT

The 2012 CT Business Expo offers free educational seminars hosted by industry elite speakers and trainers. All of the educational seminars will be held in custom built classrooms on the show floor. Four educational tracks include Sales, Marketing, Technology and Management.

Crain’s Tech Talk Live
June 11, 2012, Chicago

Join us for a moderated conversation and audience Q&A with mobile Internet pioneer Dag Kittlaus, co-founder and creator of Siri, the new voice interaction feature in the popular Apple Inc. iPhone 4S. Dag will discuss his journey to creating one of the more innovative mobile technologies in recent history—a product that took him from Chicago to Silicon Valley and back to Chicago again. In addition to the discussion about working with Apple, Dag will give his perspective on the differences between the Chicago and California technology scenes.

Enjoy drinks, appetizers and lively networking before and after the program.

2012 Veteran Entrepreneur Training Symposium
June 11-14, 2012, Reno, NV

Designed by Veteran small business owners for Veteran small business owners, VETS2012 brings government agencies, industry leaders and Veteran entrepreneurs together in a small, intimate forum to discuss the questions you need answered.

Unlocking the Secrets of LinkedIn to Grow Your Business
June 13, 2012, Online

You probably think of LinkedIn as “that site” your friends and business associates have used in the past to search for job opportunities. But LinkedIn has become so much more.

This webinar, presented by Venture Beat, will explore how LinkedIn can be used to grow your small business.

Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown
June 13, 2012, New York City

This event is co-located inside the info360 Conference & Expo at the Jacob Javits Center
The Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown is designed to:
Help early stage startups refine their investor pitch
Provide helpful, actionable advice on each startups business model from active, early-stage tech startup investors
Demonstrate to the audience how investors evaluate startup pitches
Award prizes to the most viable startups, based on audience and panel voting.
The three winning startups are automatically invited to pitch to the NY Angels.

TechWeek Conference Chicago 2012
June 22-26, 2012, Chicago

Connect to mobile innovations, new advertising technologies, emerging social media practices, and new apps for managing your business and life. Techweek is the largest technology and innovation conference and expo to put the entire digital ecosytem on stage — in Chicago, an up-and-coming global destination for new technology, with a community eager to harness the spirit of innovation.

National Veteran Small Business Conference & Expo
June 26-29, 2012, Detroit

The Department of Veterans Affairs is hosting the National Veteran Small Business Conference and Expo. As the largest nationwide conference of its kind, this event focuses on helping Veteran-owned businesses maximize opportunities in the federal marketplace. Join nearly 6,000 participants in Detroit for the opportunity to:
Connect with procurement decision makers from other businesses and federal agencies
Expand knowledge through over 200 training and business requirement sessions
Engage with other attendees and gain visibility in the Expo Hall of nearly 500 booths
Use VetGovPartner to facilitate online and onsite networking including face-to-face sessions with senior procurement decision makers

Women’s Business Conference 2012
October 4-5, 2012, Louisville, KY

This year’s theme celebrates the entrepreneurial, innovative and adventurous spirit of women business owners. They are starting businesses at record rates and running these businesses on their own terms. They refuse to sit idle, waiting and watching. They have confidence and power to shake things up, take smart risks and do things differently to move forward. They are impacting positive change at every turn, speaking out on issues of public policy, lightening their environmental footprint and creating jobs that fuel the economy. They are part of something much greater than themselves—a grassroots movement of women business owners and their community of supporters all dedicated to helping one another grow, thrive, give back and leave a legacy.

The New York Enterprise Report 2012 Small Business Awards
October 10, 2012, New York City

The New York Enterprise Report Small Business Awards is the annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of the 500,000+ small businesses throughout the tri-state area. Now in its 7th year, the Awards gala attracts more than 400 business owners and executives and is often referred to as “the networking event of the year.” Don’t miss the chance to do business with the “who’s who” of the New York small business community.

To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit the Small Business Events Calendar.

If you are putting on a small business event or contest, and want to get the word out, please submit it through our Events & Contests Submission Form (it’s free). Only events of interest to small business people, freelancers and entrepreneurs will be included.

Brought to you as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.

From Small Business Trends

Attend a Small Business Event: Here is a List

As is the usual case, I received an email from a publicist who asked if I’d be interested in reviewing the book.  Of course, I said “Yes.”  The book arrived and I opened the envelope and just put it on the pile – you know the pile I’m talking about – it’s the one my husband just went bananas over this morning – yeah – that one!

But then I got a call from Michael Dalton Johnson (@RulesoftheHunt).  At first I thought he was talking about the book – but it turned out to be about a completely unrelated reason.  As we were ending the conversation he said that the book had an unusual format – but he wouldn’t say more.  Well, you know what happened next.  I went home, routed through the pile until I found the book, and promptly took it upstairs to read that evening.

Rules of the Hunt Looks Like a Book and Reads Like a Blog

When you get your copy of Rules of the Hunt you’re going to think you got a book.  It looks like a book at first.  In fact, it looks like any other business book you’ve ever seen; it has a businessy title and subtitle, acknowledgements, a forward by famous sales guru, Jeffery Gitomer and even a disclaimer.  Then you get to the table of contents and you see that there are, what look like ten chapters.  The introduction subtly lets me know that I don’t have to read the book cover to cover.  OK.  A lot of books say that, so I’m not surprised.

It isn’t until I turn to page two that I notice the difference – when Michael Johnson said “Rules” – he was being literal.  This was a book of RULES ; paragraphs and sections of things that Michael Johnson has learned over the length of his more than 30 years of attending the school of entrepreneurial hard knocks.

Let me give you an example.  I’m going to select just a couple of short “rules” so that you can get a flavor for what I mean:

“With money or time, new customers are bought.  The question is how much will new customers cost you?  There are many inexpensive ways to acquire customers – word of mouth being the cheapest of them all.  Clever advertising, publicity, and promotion are also very effective.  You must determine, with a fair degree of accuracy what your acquisition costs are.”

OK.  So what, you might say.  But then there are wonderful, golden nuggets of just plain raw and honest business wisdom like this one:

“The immutable law of business gift giving.  Women like chocolates and flowers, men like food, gadgets and toys.  Quality trumps quantity.  A small box of exquisite chocolate truffles is remembered long after a two-pound of so-so candy.  That’s all you need to know.”

Here’s another one I really liked:

“Hire traits, not degrees. The fact that a job applicant has a degree doesn’t reveal much about the candidate’s capabilities.  Many people with advanced degrees lack common sense.  The Wizard of Oz couldn’t give the Scarecrow brains, but he could give him a diploma.  Lots of incompetents have diplomas.  Don’t be too impressed by these.  Honesty, loyalty, initiative and dedication can’t be taught.  The real world of business requires trats and abilities that are not attained by simply having a degree.”

How Michael Dalton Johnson Can Pull off a Book Like Rules of the Hunt

Not everyone can write a book like this.  It takes someone who has lived it and learned from his mistakes to write a book like this and have you actually believe it.  Michael Dalton Johnson certainly fits this description.

At the age of 15, Johnson dropped out of high school to take a full-time job.  He joined the army at age 17.  Then, after serving in the military, he worked as a ranch hand, factory worker and construction laborer before venturing into the business world.  He’s never taken a business course and it seems like he’s proud of it.

Now, let me tell you about what he’s accomplished inside the world of business.  Johnson is an award-winning trade book and magazine publisher.  He’s been an entrepreneur for over 30 years and is the founder of SalesDog.com.  He hasn’t lived an obscure entrepreneurial life, rather, he’s been on more than 200 radio shows and been featured in U.S. News and World Report, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and many, many more publications that are too numerous to mention here.

I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Michael a few weeks ago and I can tell you that the creative marketing and sales secrets he shared with me can ONLY come from someone who has gotten his PhD from the real world of work and not a classroom.

Rules of the Hunt is a Mentoring Textbook

With so many young people graduating from college and looking to contribute and get to work – this book would be a fantastic graduation present.  It’s easy to read and will give them just the right amount of insight to think about – but leave them the freedom to see how they would put it to work.

If you’ve been running a business, but not getting as far ahead in the process as you’d like – you might find some clues as to what’s been missing in your strategy.

Overall, this is a great general read for anyone who love reading business books.  You don’t have to read it cover to cover.  You can simply keep it at your desk and open to a random page to see what pops up for you.

I really enjoyed Rules of the Hunt and I think you will too.

From Small Business Trends

Read “Rules of the Hunt” and Start Playing Successfully in Business

Sure, you know that you must sell. Deep in your heart of hearts though you despise it. You know that making sales is the only way to increase your revenue, build up your company and, well, stay in business. You have heard of the results others get. You know that selling works.

But, for some reason, it’s not working for you.

You work hard researching and contacting prospects. You do your best to interest them with your work during a sales presentation. Hell, you even follow up, which is not something many small business owners would do.  But you still don’t make sales. At least not as many as you would like. You do everything by the book but you get no results. And, the sales that you make, well, sometimes they feel kind of accidental. Like as if they just happened, as if you were simply in the right place at the right time.

You know that wasn’t selling, just luck.

So, what’s wrong? What’s causing all this hard work to go to waste?

Well, I may have an idea so read on. I will show you a simple hack that can help you make more sales almost instantly.

This Is Not Only Your Problem

Before we begin, there is one more thing I want to talk about.

You are not alone. The problem I am about to discuss with you is one of the most common ones amongst all small business owners. There are literary thousands of people that struggle to make sales. Some of them try very hard, others give up because, as someone once told me, “this is the difficult part.” Nevertheless, they make no sales.

But do you know what is the reason for that?

Wrong Attitude

Yep, it’s nothing to do with who you are, what you do and how good you are at selling (well, technique plays a part in that too but it’s not the most important part). It’s your approach to selling that’s causing the problem.

Because, you see, you go to a presentation hoping to make the sale (and I fully realize how stupid this sentence sounds but please, read on). The trouble is, it’s true. You go to the sales call with one intention, to get the order.  It’s not a genuine, honest reason. It’s being selfish. And, the trouble is, many of your prospects see through that.

Do you know what a seasoned salesman does instead? They go to a meeting hoping that their solutions will help the prospect solve their problems and improve their business.  They know this, hell, they believe in it. And, they get the sale.

Want to make more sales? Go to your next sales call believing that what you are going to do to your prospect is going to help them, improve their business or increase the revenue.  And, you know what the best part is? It’s actually quite simple to do.

How To Change Your Sales Attitude And Show Your Prospects That You Care

1. Realize What You Are Really Selling

You can’t change your mindset if you don’t know what are you really selling. By this I don’t mean the actual product or a service you are offering but what is the biggest benefit of using it.  A web designer does not sell websites. She sells the opportunity to promote the business online, to gain more leads and sales for the business.  A garden designer does not sell new gardens but rather an opportunity to have a special place to rest and unwind.

Find out what you are really selling and figuring out the ways to help your prospects will become extremely easy.

2. Understand That You Are Not The Most Important Part of The Sale

By nature, we think of ourselves first. It’s quite natural, however, if you want to make sales, you need to change the way you think. In sales, in spite of what you might say you are not the important part. It is your potential client, their business and the problems they are looking to fix. Everything else is secondary.

3. Prepare Solutions For Your Prospect

When you initiate a sales process with a prospect, you usually have a very good idea about the kind of problems they might have in relation to what you are selling. If not, I suggest you stop here and first learn how to research your potential clients thoroughly before making the initial contact.

That knowledge should be enough to think of the best solutions for your prospect. It doesn’t mean that you should have the whole proposal ready. But having examples of how you could implement your solution into the prospects business in your presentation will certainly present you as someone who cares.

Here’s A Scary Fact

Every time you lose a sale, you most likely also lose a prospect for life. It is an unfortunate fact that you may never get a chance to sell to them again.  A simple change in your business mindset can make the difference between this and constantly winning new clients for your business.

So, what do you choose?

Mindset Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

A Small Change in Your Business Mindset Can Increase Your Sales

* * * * *

Small Business Trends:  Can you tell us what small business means to Yahoo! and give us your impression of Small Business Week and its importance?

Tom Byun:  We are obviously very excited about Small Business Week.  To first answer your question about what small business means to Yahoo!, it is a critical, core part of our strategy and mission to continue to provide relevant news, content and information to consumer audience.

You know, the thing about Yahoo! – it is not a well known stat but, we have  nearly ten million small businesses, plus what we call intenders – people that may be aspiring entrepreneurs – visiting and consuming a variety of our services.  They are a very important audience for Yahoo!

The business unit I manage is to service those customers and provide them with lead sources and tools to help them grow and manage their business on line.

To your second question about what Small Business Week means for me, overall I think small businesses are really the life blood and engine of growth for this economy.  I don’t need to mention all of the stats you and your readers know about how many people small businesses employ.  And the type of services and growth they provide for the economy.  They are a crucial part.  I think Small Businesses Week is a great vehicle and means by which more and more awareness for small business is created.

Small Business Trends:  What are some of the main issues you are hearing from your customers about the challenges of marketing from a small business perspective?

Tom Byun:  I have spent a lot of time with customers day to day, as well as working with customer research focus groups that are set up.  There are a couple of things that we hear:

• One, they are very pressed for time and are focusing on bringing their next sale and the next foot in the door, or traffic to their website.
• Two, they are inundated with calls or requests for a variety of different services.  Whether it is someone who wants to sell them a customer list, they are just inundated and overwhelmed, not sure of which services to use.

Often times they’re also overwhelmed with having to use a variety of tools and not having it in one central place for them to manage in a way that is not only cost efficient but, also give them time savings.

Those are some of the pain points that we have heard from customers.  I think one of the trends we are seeing is more and more small businesses moving a lot of their marketing dollars online.  But they are not sure which resources are cost effective and drive the best ROI.

Small Business Trends:  Can you tell us about the Marketing Dashboard you recently released?

Tom Byun:  Sure.  The Marketing Dashboard we launched a few weeks ago is a free tool that helps businesses, entrepreneurs and all types starting with small businesses discover new marketing opportunities to grow their business.  How to get that additional sale.  How to get the word out, build awareness and get a more transparent and clear picture of their marketing campaign results.

As I mentioned, it is a free tool.  But for a small nominal fee, they can get a much more robust set of features to help them manage marketing campaigns all in one place.

Small Business Trends:  You have some services integrated into the dashboard.  Constant Contact for email marketing, Orange Soda for SEM/SEO and Google Analytics for analytics?

Tom Byun:  One thing we did as part of the research in talking with small businesses is understand, “When I am business today, and think through all of the different services that I am looking at to grow and market myself, what is at the top of the list?”  There are a few things that come to the top and based on that, we talked to a number of different potential partners out there.

Email marketing is near the top of the list and Constant Contact is someone that we decided to partner with because they are already a proven, strong branded player.  Then, as you eluded to SEM and SEO, we decided that a managed SEM and SEO approach is a cost effective way.  It is the right approach because again, small businesses do not have a lot of time in the day.  So we partnered with Orange Soda.

Now there are other services.  For example, local directory listing management and online reputation management that we also are offering as part of the service.  The local directory listing management covers over a hundred sites.  Then, online reputation management we pull from up to eight thousand different sources.  And then, as you mentioned, site traffic analysis is with Google Analytics.

Small Business Trends:  Can you talk a little bit about marketing initiatives and their impact on a company’s reputation online?

Tom Byun:  Definitely.  You know, especially with the growing voices and opinions from consumers, it is really important that you stay abreast of what is being said and how to respond to it.

In the dashboard, we have integrated a reputation tracker.  You can look at how many reviews in terms of mentions you have gotten, how many reviews this month, and there is a distribution of ratings – whether it is positive, negative or neutral.

One other I will call out, and this gets added as part of the paid upgrade feature, is being able to understand and track what is being said by your competitors near you.  Just having a pulse on that and the voice of the customer is really important.  Once they have information at their fingertips, it can help them improve the overall customer experience.  I think this will be a valuable tool.

Small Business Trends:  Where can people learn more?

Tom Byun:  They can go to Yahoo! Small Business.   We also have an advisors site at Yahoo Small Business Advisor where there is a personalized set of content and resources to help small businesses. They can also visit the Marketing Dashboard.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

Whether you’re growing your business or starting a new venture, BlackBerry solutions provide you with the freedom you want and the control you need. [Series sponsor]

From Small Business Trends

Tom Byun of Yahoo! Small Business: Solutions For The Overwhelmed

I tend to write first, then draw. But sometimes when I just can’t think of anything, I put the process in reverse to see what happens.

It goes like this. . .draw a standard scene, but add a talking animal, or a random object, or, in this case, take a standard object and exaggerate it. It’s a great way to get your mind working differently and break out of your rut.

I don’t know exactly what motivated me to draw the giant telephone in this cartoon, but it pretty quickly occurred to me that when that phone rang, you’d really want to answer it. Problem solved.

From Small Business Trends

Excuse Me: I Have To Take This

Mobile Has Far Reaching Implications

Google has finally acquired Motorola. Google CEO Larry Page blogs about the historic and long awaited deal coming to fruition and about long-time Google executive Dennis Woodside taking over as CEO of Motorola. Page pays tribute to Motorola as a great American tech firm and talks about how cell phones have become supercomputers in our pockets. Google Official Blog

Reasons new mobile deal might be important. Technology writer Dan Frommer speculates about why Google’s $12+billion acquisition of Motorola might be important news for the search engine’s company…and for the rest of us. Unlike other acquisitions—YouTube or AdMob, for example—this isn’t just another Web-based or mid-sized company that can be easily folded into Google’s operations. SplatF

Microsoft plans Office for iOS and Android Tablets. Google isn’t the only big tech firm continuing to make forays into the mobile space. Accessing Microsoft’s full office suite via iPad, Android tablets, and maybe even iPhone and iPod touch may be just around the corner according to this report from tech blogger Jonathan S. Geller. Geller says the release of some of these new products may come as soon as November.  BGR

Yahoo! makes mobile bookmarking and search easy. The company’s new Axis app combines a variety of unique functions in one place to be used via the iPhone or iPad. A review of the new app shows a full-tabbed Web browser for mobile users, meaning more and more search and bookmarking will likely be done on the go. Engadget

6 Reasons You Should Care

Mobile helps small businesses cope. A recent study including 258 small businesses shows 78 percent of respondents use mobile devices to do work while away from the office or their work computer. The study demonstrates how small business owners are using mobile technology to handle longer working hours and extended workweeks. eWeek

Your customers may already be there. Mobile searches and app-savvy customers and clients are part of the new landscape all businesses face. There is one important question every small business owner and entrepreneur must answer: To what extent is mobile technology part of the shopping experience for the customers and clients you serve? Small Business Trends

E-mail, too, is getting more mobile. If you do much of your business communication via e-mail, you should consider the fact that many retrieve these messages on mobile devices, too. Here are eight tips for making your e-mail marketing more mobile friendly from mobile marketing expert Eric Pontides. Idea Sprouts

The market will be huge. Perhaps most important of all is a recent projection by research company Forrester, that by 2016 one billion people will own smartphones. The number represents a massive potential audience and market for all your businesses. The New York Times

Security threats abound. Just as with your other small business technology, mobile devices are susceptible to a variety of security threats. Like your computer, they can be attacked by viruses and malware, and can allow access to any sensitive data that may be stored on the device. Fortunately, some simple steps allow you to neutralize most of these threats. Fusion Alliance

Mobile marketing can help even the smallest businesses. Shea Glenny, founder of IM for Solos: Internet Marketing Plans & Tutoring for Solopreneurs, says even single employee business may be able to take advantage of mobile marketing. The key is to decide whether mobile will work effectively for your small business or not. The Solopreneur Life

From Small Business Trends

Google Acquisition of Motorola Finally Closes: Why You Should Care

Are you familiar with Google Alerts?  It’s a similar concept, except it’s for Pinterest, the image-based social site.

PinAlerts is a simple service.  To sign up, go to PinAlerts.com and register. During registration you’ll enter the URL of a blog or site you want to track. Add as many URLs as you like.  You can also go back and change how often you get email alerts.  Then when something from that site gets pinned, you will get an email.

The product was co-founded by Paul Wilson and Janet Thaeler (a contributor here at Small Business Trends).  It was designed with small businesses in mind, and grew out of a tool Thaeler wanted for her own research.  One day she  checked Pinterest to see if someone had pinned any images from her blog. She discovered that someone had pinned her profile picture from her blog and said how much they liked the blog.  Naturally, she was flattered, she says.

But it wasn’t until she saw one of her consulting clients getting pinned, that the lightbulb truly went off.  ”People may not leave a comment on your blog but they will write a glowing review on a pin. With PinAlerts you don’t have to keep going back to Pinterest to monitor comments and reviews.”

The advantage of PinAlerts is that you don’t miss anything.  For instance, I can check manually to see what’s being pinned from Small Business Trends at the following URL:  http://www.Pinterest.com/source/smallbiztrends.com. (Check your own site just by replacing “smallbiztrends.com” with your own domain.)  But you may not remember to do that, and, says Thaeler, “it’s not a full list of everything from your site that’s been pinned.”

Here are five ways to use PinAlerts:

1. Identify your target market on Pinterest and get insights into what they like. When someone pins something it’s usually a compliment. According to Thaeler, “The demographic on Pinterest are the Dot Moms – who are more inclined to share. They are typically higher income and educated.” By getting alerts of what is being shared, you get insights into who finds your content interesting.

2. Figure out how to get more Pinterest traffic by seeing what images are popular.  You can see what’s being pinned and either improve on it or otherwise promote those images (being sure that it has a Pin It button to encourage even more shares). What is being pinned might surprise you – you may not have many pinnable images on your home page or blog posts. PinAlerts will give you insights on how you could improve.

3. Authors can promote their books on Pinterest.  If you’re an author be sure to promote your book on Pinterest.  Says Thaeler, “Almost everyone has a board that centers around what they have read or want to read. Hold a contest to encourage pins and use PinAlerts to track them and choose a winner.”

4. Use PinAlerts to conduct market research.  You can research not only your site but others in your market or with a similar audience. When you see the same image or type of image coming up again and again, you know it’s a winner.   Use that  as inspiration for images you create or display on your own site.

5. Get attention from influencers in your niche.  Get alerts of what’s being pinned on the influencer’s site.   Thaeler researched Guy Kawasaki’s site in just such a way to see what was being pinned from his site.  You will start to get a feel for what they like. Then create a pin image you believe would appeal to them and alert them. You can get far more traction if they pin your image than if you do.

The basic PinAlerts service is free.  The founders would like to add premium features, as well as accept advertisements in the emails.  For now, they are focusing on increasing their user base. The founders say they are not aware of any similar services - PinAlerts is a first of its kind.

The service just recently launched and already there are nearly 1,000 users of it.

From Small Business Trends

PinAlerts: Discover When One of Your Images Gets Pinned on Pinterest

More than any other topic that I’ve written about recently, the data is all over the place:

• Text Messages have a 98 percent read rate
• Text Messages have a 100 percent open rate
• Texts are typically read within 15 minutes of being received
• Mobile phones have reached 100 percent penetration in the United States

Let’s go with something more trustworthy: Do you know very many adults without a mobile phone? How about business owners without one? Have you had a customer without a cell phone? Here’s the leap, but I have pretty good evidence it is true: If they have one, they likely use text messaging on it, too.

Text message marketing is a permission-based approach to sharing short updates or specials with your customers. It lends itself to point of sale or retail offers, but not entirely. My gut or intuition tells me that it’s a good way to share news, updates, ideas, and special offers with customers with whom you have a relationship and who express interest in signing up.

Here are 13+ services that can make it easy and affordable; some are completely free if you keep your efforts small and focused:

Fanminder is a great service that I’ve reviewed before and think has a lot to offer. They offer a combination of social, email, and mobile phone marketing. It is free to text to up to 100 numbers. Pricing starts at $15/month after that.

Signal is pretty robust and lets you send text messages, QR codes, barcodes, and mobile optimized web pages. You can do coupons, sweepstakes, polls and plans start at $29/month with a free trial.

TellMyCell is useful if you want to give your customers a specific keyword to text in and receive a special offer (or any response really). You can have unlimited contacts and unlimited groups, but you pay on a per message basis. You can pay-as-you-go for five cents per message or plans start at $29/month after free trial.

Trumpia sells texts in packaged units (i.e. 500 or 1,000) and they don’t expire. You can use them in your text message marketing in a variety of ways, from appointment reminders to event coordination to standard marketing messages. Plans start at $25/month with 30-day free trial.

ReachPeople.com charges by the number of contacts and number of messages. They have a full free plan with up to 25 messages and 100 contacts. Paid plans start at $29/month. I like that they had a voice broadcasting option if you wanted to leave a voicemail for a group.

Simple Texting has one of those sites that is just clear and easy to grasp and the main screen calls out to business owners. I like that. You can integrate with social media like Facebook and Twitter. Free 30-day trial, then $15/month for up to 250 messages.

CallFire offers a variety of telephone-based services like IVR (interactive voice response – you know those automated attendant types) and a virtual call center service. But their SMS plan is a basic flat rate of three cents per message and it has a free trial.

SnapGiant knows that many small businesses (including restaurants and food service businesses)  use text message marketing and their page gently reflects that. You only pay for outgoing messages, not incoming, and unused messages roll over to the next month (that’s kind of cool). Plans start at $19.95/month after free 30-day trial.

Mozeo is another text platform with flat message pricing – five cents per message. Unlimited contacts, unused messages roll to the next month. You pay a one-time charge for keywords (as in your customer texts in PIZZA to your number to get a special offer). You get 10 free text messages to trial the service.

TXT180 offers 500 messages for $14.95 per month. Discounted to only $9.95/month if you prepay for 12-month contract. No free trial.

SMS Marketing has a one-time flat rate of $35 to setup your web-based text messaging account, then a per message fee. You get unlimited autoresponders and can schedule text message offers with ease. It even comes with one free keyword.

TextMagic is a text messaging service that you don’t even need a phone to use. You can forward your emails to this SMS service, too. You buy credits in 200 pack increments starting at $27. I discovered this UK-based service via a terrific post at the Content Marketing Institute: Why SMS is a Must for a Younger Audience.

Betwext is one of the only text message marketing companies that had unlimited keywords (which could be important if you intend to do a lot of different campaigns) and a low rate of only one cent per message. There is no monthly fee and that’s sure to shake up the marketplace.

Some Bonuses:

If you simply want to replace your mobile phone text plan for something less expensive, these five options are worth a look:

Go SMS Android App. Free texting. Handcent is another.

JaxtrSMS is sort of like Skype but just for texting. If you text another Jaxtr user, it’s free. Otherwise a low message fee based on destination country. Makes international texting pretty easy.

Kik Messenger  is texting for smartphones. Or more like texting with an instant messenger feel. Free.

Google Voice  is a free voice-over-IP phone (like Skype) but offers free texting, too.  You can send to up to five people at one time.

GroupMe is part of Skype and is a novel way to text a group of people. Totally free. Might not work in a business situation with a group of customers, but might be good for internal teams.

If you just want to be able to get Twitter or Facebook updates on a mobile device, but not cell phone type text messages, then Boxcar for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is a notification app that allows you to get updates from many different web services (Curdbee, FourSquare, GitHub, Google Voice, just to name a few more). Free for the iOS world. Android and PC versions coming.

Notifo is another that handles notifications to the iOS platform.

If you’ve been contemplating how to offer your customers a way to get special marketing offers, via cell phone, then one of these 13 text messaging solutions will help. Like all services we review, I try to pick ones with transparent, affordable pricing and that make it easy for a busy small business owner to figure out. Let us know what services you’ve been using in the comments below.

Text Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

13 SMS Text Messaging Services for Marketing in the Mobile Age

The Internet clothing and shoe retailer reached over $1.9 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2009. Their growth is powered by service and a whimsical culture. Essential to this growth is attracting people to work there who find it natural, according to one of their core values, to be “a little weird at times.”

Zappos conducts a rigorous interview process, which includes an initial culture interview, followed by many conversations throughout the company to find just the right people who will fit in and, most important, feel at home in the culture. And while they do their best to get to know candidates during the interview process, once someone is invited inside, Zappos continues their quest to make sure that there’s a match between candidate and company.

Offering new hires $2,000 to leave if they don’t fit the culture is their litmus test to ensure that, well . . . the shoe fits.

Only the Most Passionate Employees Should Stick Around

Zappos doesn’t want anybody sticking around who sees their role with them as just a job. They want people with passion who see Zappos as a vocation rather than work, one in which you just happen to get paid for. They see what they do as a quest to make the world a better place for customers, and they want to hire people who feel that way too.

So the company makes several offers during the four-week new-hire training period to say:

“Are you sure? Is this the place where you feel at home?”

And in true Zappos style, if someone does decide that the shoe doesn’t fit, the company makes sure that they’re paid for their time, that they leave with dignity, and that their decision is honored. Tony Hsieh, Zappos’s CEO, says:

“We want people who are eager to live the Zappos lifestyle and promote the Zappos culture—not a typical nine-to-five office employee.”

Fewer than 1 Percent Take Zappos Up on the Offer to Depart

In 2010, fewer than 1 percent of new hires took Zappos up on their offer. That means that those who stay are committed and passionate. As a result of their interviewing and training process, Zappos is an electric place, filled with people who want to be there. It’s filled with people who are encouraged to bring out their inner whimsy. The IT crowd holds parades in which they dress as bugs because their quest is to stamp out computer bugs.

Where “Zapponians” work is filled with karaoke music at lunchtime and people who couldn’t imagine being anywhere else or doing any other thing. Selling to a fiercely loyal customer base of over 10 million paying customers, the company can boast that on any given day, approximately 75 percent of their sales are to repeat customers.

And they keep screening for culture fit, all the way through a new employee’s orientation. They let people opt out of their new job by offering them $2,000 for their time if the new hire believes they can’t be passionate about the culture and job they were just hired for.

Beloved companies are filled with people who love what they do. Is yours?

How do you screen people during the hiring process to ensure that they possess your core values?

Do you help people gracefully exit your company if they don’t fit your customer culture?

Karaoke Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Fill Your Company With People Who Love What They Do

As a matter of fact, in a post I wrote titled “5 Great Questions To Ask Franchise Company Executives,” I didn’t even include a question concerning franchise company financials. Maybe I should have.

The economic environment over the last three years in the US has been challenging, to say the least. By now, you know that the housing market has been hit hard, lenders for the most part still aren’t freely lending small businesses money, and millions of people are having difficulty finding good jobs.  While signs of optimism are starting to appear, it’s going to be awhile until this optimism is reflected on company balance sheets, including the ones that are located in the finance and accounting offices of franchisors, nationwide.

It’s Not a Perfect World

Hopefully, you weighed the pros and cons of entering into an arrangement with your franchisor well before you became a franchisee, and you did top-notch research. Your research included talking and visiting with several current franchisees, and you spent a day or two at corporate headquarters getting to know the staff there. Basically, everything lined-up the way you’d hoped, and your decision to move forward felt right. Except for one thing;

Your franchisor declared bankruptcy.  In franchising, bankruptcy is not a very common occurrence, but it can and does happen.  So, what can you do to protect your interests?

Protect Your Interests

As angry as you probably are, this isn’t the time to let your emotions get the best of you.  It’s also not the time to gather suggestions from well-meaning friends who “only want to help,” but may in fact make things even worse for you. The most important thing for you to do is to find out exactly where you stand, and it’s relatively easy to do. That’s because it’s all in black and white. Remember that franchise contract you were required to sign?

I reached out to Rush Nigut, an Iowa franchise attorney, and asked him what some of the options are that a franchisee has when their franchisor is in trouble:

Small Business Trends: What is the first thing franchisees who finds themselves in this situation should do?

Rush Nigut: The first thing a franchisee should do if the franchisor is in trouble is to review the franchise agreement to make sure the franchisor is meeting its obligations. If not, a franchisee will want explore whether there is a breach of contract and whether the franchisee can possibly terminate the agreement if that makes sense.

Small Business Trends: Franchisees spend a lot of time and money to find and keep customers. Can they keep their customers if the franchisor goes under?

Rush Nigut: Obviously, franchisees will want to keep their customers or clients; they’ve worked hard to get them. But they need to make sure that they avoid any non-compete enforcement. Many franchisees are under the mistaken belief that the customers belong to them. Instead, the termination provisions and non-compete provision written into franchise agreements tend to favor the franchisor.

Small Business Trends: What about licenses and trademarks? Can a franchisee still use them?

Rush Nigut: A franchisee may want to look at extending their license agreement to allow them to use the trademarks of the franchisor in certain instances. I know of a franchisor that got into trouble and agreed to allow the franchisees to use the franchise name and trademarks even though they could not continue the franchise business. A critical issue in that situation was gaining access to product that had been solely supplied by the distressed franchisor.

Small Business Trends: Rush, I know that every situation is different with regards to franchisors that go under; one size doesn’t fit all. How proactive should franchisees be in situations like this? How aggressive should they be?

Rush Nigut: Joel, my goal in distressed franchisor situations is to make sure my clients don’t sink with the captain. It’s crucial for franchisees to be proactive, and they need to try to be aggressive in enforcing their rights. It may even be beneficial for franchisees to band together. Waiting to see if the franchisor will make it is probably not good business, in most cases. Franchisees need to see an attorney that knows franchising immediately, so that they can understand their rights.

The bottom line; if your franchisor runs into serious problems, don’t take a wait and see approach. Move quickly, so you can protect yourself, and increase your odds of staying in business.

Going Under Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

What If Your Franchisor Goes Under?