Wayne Liew Dot Com

What Google Starred Results Means to Search Engine Optimization?

Wayne Liew — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:35:41 +0000

While doing some routine searches on Google today, I noticed a small star appears at the side of each search result item. Popular blogs haven’t got their hands on this and I have no idea whether this is an experimental or a permanent feature.

One thing is for sure though. Google has been introducing a lot of additional features to its search engines to introduce personalization into their search results. Google Starred Results will definitely bring the level of personalization in search to another level.

(Click on image to enlarge screenshot.)

The basic idea is, searchers can now ‘star’ items that appear in search results and when they conduct the search again, all the starred results will appear on top of all other search result items.

What does this mean for search engine optimization efforts? Why should you pay attention to this?

Search Results Curation – More Than Just Content

I know, great content, great content and great content… You hear this all over the Internet. Now, with starred results, not only that your content should be great, it must also be relevant to the audience that you are targeting.

A search term may bring up multiple results with roughly the same idea behind their content. However, other elements such as the design, content presentation and the overall experience at a page will now play a role in influencing a user whether to ‘star’ that particular page in the search results.

As a marketer, you need to make sure your content explains ideas in the context of your target audience and that they are presented in a way that your target audience favors.

Higher Return Visits from Google

If you look at your analytics software installed to your blog or website right now, a large percentage of traffic from Google or other search engines are new visitors, which means that these visitors never visited your site before.

With the introduction of Starred Results, useful and relevant content will appear on top of search results and start to receive a higher percentage of return visits from Google. This is simply because users, if given the choice, do not want to spend time going through tons of search results to find what they need.

Content or Search Engine Optimization?

The explanation above may bring along a headache for marketers and small business owners who are just dipping their feet into search engine optimization (SEO). Since the relevance of content is becoming important, should we be discarding our focus on SEO?

Well, SEO and content creation goes hand-in-hand. Without well-crafted and relevant content, users will leave your page even though you rank first on search engines. Also, useful content get links from other sites and this definitely helps in SEO.

On the other hand, great content without proper SEO elements will be left deep in the search results. If a page is ranked in the 100th page for a search term, the chances for it to be discovered is nil and you can forget about getting the page some stars on Google.

Prediction: Curation by Searchers Gain Momentum

Google Starred Results seems to me like a stripped down version of Google SearchWiki, which was introduced in early 2008. Instead of a simple ‘star’, users were given the opportunity to vote up/down for search result items and even comment on them. Of course, ‘starring’ result items is definitely more intuitive and require lesser efforts from the user side.

Nevertheless, the introduction of Starred Results shows the seriousness of Google in giving its search engine users the power to personalize search results. Their starring (or perhaps, voting) activity will definitely be taken into account in the ranking algorithm one day.

Your Thoughts on Google Starred Results

How do you think the search engine optimization arena will change as a result of Google’s continuous push towards personalized results? Also, how will your online marketing strategy align itself with these changes?

Leave a comment in the comments section below with your thoughts.

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Interview with Ash Sud, Founder of ZippGo

Wayne Liew — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:01:30 +0000

Green businesses or businesses that focus on making the environment a better place always get my attention. You don’t have to come up with an alternative to oil or fossil fuel in order to become a green entrepreneur although that would be a dream come true for everyone.

The first interview with a green entrepreneur on Wayne Liew Dot Com is finally here when I had the chance to interview Ash Sud, Founder of ZippGo.

In this interview, Ash tells his story as an entrepreneur and why entrepreneurs should adopt the triple bottom line approach to run their business. Additionally, Ash also talks about how ZippGo created customer evangelists and fans despite the young age of the company.

Introduction of Ash Sud, Founder of ZippGo

Wayne: Ash, I have been looking for an entrepreneur running a green business for some time now and I’m more than glad to have you as an interview guest. Thank you. Before we look at the questions I have for you, can you do a brief introduction about yourself and your background so that my blog readers can get to know you better?

Ash: I have been around entrepreneurs since the time I could walk. My parents have owned and operated a number of small businesses in the last 30 years including a drive-in dairy in the early 80′s, an employment agency, and a metal manufacturing business. Working at these businesses growing up, I developed an internal passion for entrepreneurship.

Ash: After working at a few startups during the dot-com boom of the late 90′s and early 2000′s as an ERP developer, I was laid off during the market crash in 2001. I used this time to travel to Europe, let my creative juices flow, and focus on my true calling of being an entrepreneur. A few months later I started my first green venture called Westside Organics.

Ash: Westside Organics was a web-based organic food home delivery business serving the San Francisco Bay Area. During the 7 years I operated Westside Organics, the business had lot of press, awards, and happy customers. I merged Westside Organics with North America’s largest organic home delivery company, SPUD, in 2008 in order to increase our market share, expand outside the San Francisco area, and benefit from economies of scale.

What is ZippGo?

Wayne: Our interview today is going to revolve around your current venture, ZippGo and your experience as an entrepreneur. ZippGo was launched in November 2009 and I think it’s still a fairly new business. In simple English, can you explain what ZippGo is all about and the service that it offers?

Ash: ZippGo was created to solve the problem of excessive waste created during the moving process. With 46 million people moving annually in the United States, and many using cardboard boxes during their move, our landfills are becoming congested with cardboard boxes.

Ash: ZippGo created a reusable moving box made from 100% recycled plastic to replace the conventional cardboard box. Each of the ZippGo boxes can be used 500 times each where as cardboard boxes even if reused can be used a maximum of 3 times. ZippGo rents our green moving boxes to people relocating to a new home or to a new office. We deliver our boxes and sustainable moving supplies using trucks powered by biodiesel made from waste vegetable oil. We typically rent our boxes for a 2 week period with an option for additional weeks if needed.

Wayne: Does your company provide moving services or just the boxes?

Ash: ZippGo provides rentable moving boxes and sustainable moving supplies such as recycled packing paper, a compostable bubble wrap made from recycled paper, and eco-friendly packing peanuts also made from recycled paper. While we don’t provide moving services ourselves, we have partnered with green moving companies who share our same vision of reducing waste and reusing when possible.

ZippGo Services for Business Owners

Wayne: Let’s say a business owner reading this is planning to move his/her office soon. What is the process they need to go through? Can you briefly explain the process that a customer has to go through after he/she got in touch with ZippGo?

Ash: Our goal is to simplify the moving process and make it as easy as possible for our clients. We offer our clients two methods of ordering. They can call our toll-free phone number and speak with one of our green moving agents or place an order and schedule a delivery on our easy-to-use website. We will ask them a few questions about the size of their move, including the size of their current office and the number of employees they have to determine how many boxes they will require for a successful move.

Ash: We will then schedule a delivery day and time that works for the client, they receive an email confirmation with the details of the move, and a cheerful ZippGo driver will be at their office as scheduled. After the move is complete and the boxes unpacked, a ZippGo driver will return to pick up the empty boxes again at a time that is convenient for our clients.

Providing Great Customer Service in Business

Wayne: I want to move into your experience as an entrepreneur and I’m sure you have tons to share. What do you think is the most important lesson that you learned from your previous venture that you have applied to ZippGo?

Ash: A principle that I always live by in business is to make sure the client is always happy. I will go to any length (almost any) to make sure our clients are thrilled with our products and service.

Ash: I once had a customer in my previous organic grocery delivery business who had placed and received a food order a day before Christmas. She was hosting her family for a Christmas dinner and was preparing a home cooked meal. For one reason or another, the bottle of organic olive oil she ordered was not included in her order. She called on the 24th around 4pm after all our drivers had gone home and I was on my way out to my own family Christmas party. I knew I had no other choice but to drive to her home which was 3 hours roundtrip through heavy rain and traffic.

Ash: I could have just given her a credit for the missing olive oil, but I wanted to make sure she was absolutely thrilled with our service. After this "emergency trip" this customer started increasing her weekly food orders and turned out to be one our top ordering customers. Going above and beyond to make a customer happy can do amazing things for your brand and customer loyalty.

Creating Customer Evangelists for Your Business

Wayne: ZippGo’s Twitter profile and Facebook page show that it is indeed a company that successfully won the heart of its customers. Also, Ash, I think that you did a great job of explaining the purpose of ZippGo and how it could help the environment. Apart from this, can you share with us some tips on how you get the word out and more importantly, how did you create a fan base that does not only follow but also tell others about the services you offer?

Ash: People appreciate products that are not only good for the environment but also make their lives easier. Moving is rated as one of the most stressful events in a person’s life. ZippGo takes much of the stress out by providing a solution that simplifies the moving process. We provide ready-to-use moving boxes (no assembling or tape required), deliver them to our clients on an eco-friendly truck powered by biodiesel, and pick them up when they are done unpacking.

Ash: Most of our clients become evangelists for our products after using them and realizing how much easier they are compared to cardboard boxes.

Future Plans to Make ZippGo Greener

Wayne: Zippgo is a great business concept and I do foresee growth for the company. I believe that most green businesses are always looking for opportunities to become more sustainable, whether it is by introducing more green features into the business or by taking up initiatives such as tree planting. Can you share with us some of your plans to make ZippGo a more sustainable company?

Ash: Our entire business is based on reducing waste using sustainable methods and practices. In addition to the core green of our business model, we are also in the process of being certified green by our local state agency for practicing green methods in our office and warehouse. Much of the policy is based on things such as internal recycling, using energy efficient equipment, and developing green initiatives within our organization.

Ash: We also plant a tree for each new person who becomes a fan of our Facebook Fan Page.

Advice for Aspiring Green Entrepreneurs

Wayne: With two green ventures under your belt, what will be your advice for entrepreneurs who are planning to start an environmental-friendly business?

Ash: Working for a triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits is how every business should be run and I commend anyone who aligns themselves and their business with these values.

Ash: Whatever business you decide to do, make sure you are passionate about it because there will be days when you are challenged, things may feel impossible, and you’ll feel like giving up. Don’t give up on your dream. You need to keep pushing forward because success is around the corner.

Connect with Ash or Learn More About ZippGo

Wayne: Good advice. Ash, what you shared with us today means a lot and before I end this interview, how can my blog readers get in touch with you, whether to learn more about ZippGo, or just to connect?

Ash: Thank you Wayne for this opportunity to discuss ZippGo with your readers. You’ve done an excellent job of providing interesting content for your readers. Your readers can contact me in a number of ways:

Web: http://www.ZippGo.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/zippgo
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZippGo

Wayne: Thanks again for taking time to do this interview and sharing your experience as an entrepreneur with me. I truly appreciate it.

Share Your Thoughts on ZippGo and Green Businesses

With this interview with Ash Sud, I am looking forward to talk to more entrepreneurs behind green businesses so that they can share their insights on green business trends and tips to run a successful business that is also sustainable at the same time.

What do you think about ZippGo’s business concept and what do you think makes a great green business?

Share your thoughts and let us know about your opinion in the comments section below.

If you like this interview, you may want to subscribe to Wayne Liew Dot Com Newsletter to get premium content, weekly updates and priority notifications of upcoming blog posts by submitting your first name and email address using the form below.

Weekly Biz Buzz #13 Haiti, Present Better at Meetings, Improve Conversion Rates

Wayne Liew — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

It’s all about preparing for 2010 in the last couple of weeks with blog posts on New Year resolutions, self improvement areas and how to reach your goals. Now, you should be taking action and strive forward according to your plans.

My New Year started off pretty well, with a few of my plans already taking place, including a change to my Twitter follow strategy. Apart from that, I am also going to outsource more of my work so that I can focus on profit-making activities. I will also continue to review my social media marketing strategies over the coming few months with some experiments.

In this week’s Weekly Biz Buzz, I have a long list of blog posts to share with you but each and every one of them deserve your time. If you are looking forward to some fresh tips that you can apply to your business, this Weekly Biz Buzz is for you.

People of Haiti Needs Your Help

Unless you are living under a rock, Haiti is currently all over the headlines after the country was rocked by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and a 6.0 magnitude aftershock two days ago. It’s heartbreaking to look at the damage caused by the disaster.

Every little effort counts. If you are trying to help but don’t know what are the best ways or the best channels, How Your Small Business Can Help Haiti by Shira Levine will be able to help you out.

In this article, she explained extensively on picking which non-profit organizations to donate to, suitability of donation items and some key issues that you should be paying attention to when donating. Personally, I made my donation via the Google Crisis Response page and you can make your donation over there as well.

Presenting at Big Venture Capital or Sales Meetings

Presentations form a big part of running a business, especially in a B2B or startup environment. Unlike selling to businesses with a single decision maker or pitching to an individual investor, presenting to venture capitalists or businesses with a management team or multiple decision makers are harder.

In fact, there are a lot of preparations needed prior to attending a big meeting. Successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Mark Suster, wrote a blog post with the title, How to Present at Big Meetings without Going Down a Rat Hole, which I highly recommend anyone reading this to read it.

In his blog post, he listed a few types of individuals with different personalities that you are likely to find at big meetings and how you should handle them while accomplishing your agenda as a presenter. Again, definitely a must read.

Improving Your Website’s Conversion Rate

One huge mistake that I see a lot in Internet marketing plans is the overemphasizing of traffic building. Yes, a site with no traffic is worthless. However, once your site is receiving a considerable amount of traffic, you need to shift your focus into turning site visitors into a lead or a sale.

21 Ways to Increase Your Conversion Rate by Michelle Strassburg is a must read if you are looking to generate leads or sales from your website and your Internet marketing activities.

In this blog post, Michelle introduced several factors such as the trust factors, user experience factors and checkout factors, which are very useful if you are going to tweak your site for better conversion rates.

Using Social Media for Better Networking

As more business owners and professionals get onto social media, it is important for you to understand how to communicate and network using these platforms. The way of we communicate is changing. For example, if you are contacting someone through a platform that he/she only logs in once a week, you might not get an instant response.

Soren Gordhamer wrote 7 Lessons for Better Networking with Social Media which is a nice read. The seven lessons in this blog post are more of a set of etiquettes that you are expected to follow when utilizing social media as a networking platform. It can be very different than your current methods of reaching out to others.

As a big proponent of networking, the fact that more people are using social media has opened up the opportunity for us, as business owners, to connect with more businesses and individuals easily. Keep in mind that keeping your relationships on social media platforms is not a wise choice as these platforms might go away someday. Always try to bring social media relationships to the next level.

Is Your Search Engine Optimization Company Lying?

Search engine optimization services can be found all over the Internet and everyone seems to be an expert on the topic. A business owner who cares about whether a marketing expense is well spent needs to know whether the search engine optimization company that he/she hired knows its stuffs.

Mani Karthik came up with a blog post, 5 Ways to Find Out If an SEO is Lying, and in this blog post, he outlined the signs of an SEO solutions snake oil seller. You can use this blog post as a guideline to indentify whether a potential SEO solutions provider is lying to you.

Just to give you an idea, a reputable and reliable search engine optimization company will not offer a link building service right after their appointment. Instead, they will first audit all SEO elements on your website and then identify all possible link building sources before initiating the link building process. They might also inquire about all past search engine optimization activities carried out.

Useful Marketing Content Coming Up Next Week

Other than my recent Twitter follow strategy blog post, it has been quite some time since I posted an article that is related to online marketing or Internet marketing.

Next week, I am going to publish a blog post covering the most important aspect of an Internet marketing campaign. Feel free to guess what is the most important aspect in the comments section.

If you have any questions or opinions about the articles and blog posts above, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below.

If you like this week’s Weekly Biz Buzz, you might want to subscribe to Wayne Liew Dot Com Newsletter for premium content, weekly updates and priority notifications by submitting your first name and email address using the form below.

Photo Credits: chanchan222, Zach Dischner and United Nations Development Programme

REACH: 5 Success Tips to Reach Your New Year Resolutions

Wayne Liew — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

New Year resolutions and the latest blog post on self improvement areas of small business owners and entrepreneurs are causing a frenzy on the blog. Of course, we all know that setting your New Year resolutions and goals is one thing, achieving them is another.

Today, I am proud to have Steve Schack, founder of BeMyNudge, a new, breakthrough service that helps keep people on track to achieve their goals, to share with us his tips on how to reach your New Year resolutions.

These tips come from Steve’s experience as a professional coach. He knows exactly why people struggle to achieve their goals. In this blog post, Steve is going to share with us 5 points that can help you to achieve your New Year resolutions.

Reaching Your New Year Resolutions

Over the 20 years that I’ve been coaching individuals, I’ve learned that changing habits isn’t easy. In fact, it’s very hard. That’s why coaches like me stay in business!

In fact, according to a recent survey of New Year resolutions, more than 75 percent of respondents will break them within 3 months. Why? Nearly half say they are not committed to the resolutions they set and a quarter percent say they have too many other things to do.

Some of the most common goals that I see with my clients are to get in shape by going to the gym or losing weight, achieve more balance in their lives – spending more time with the family and less time at work, or improve their finances – like becoming debt-free.

In working with clients, I’ve seen what makes a difference and have distilled them down to five key points. I use the acronym REACH.

5 Key Points of REACHing Your New Year Resolutions

Realistic: Make the goals realistic – Ambitious goals are great, but they should be achievable, meant to start small and build on successes.

Envision: Envision a vivid picture of what reaching this goal will mean for you. Reflect on that mental image regularly to serve as your target. And if you get off track, don’t let that derail you – We all have missteps along the way to lasting change. Just remember why this is so important to you and get back onto the program!

Attention: Focus your attention. All too often we see people set 4 or 5 big goals. The chances of keeping on track for all or even most of them is slim at best. It’s better to target one or at most, two goals, that you can really commit to and mean the most to you.

Compensate: Set interim milestones early-on, and compensate or reward yourself a meaningful reward for achieving each. These don’t have to be big or elaborate. Something as simple as putting $5 into a lay-away fund toward that new outfit you’re going to buy when you achieve your weight loss target can be a powerful motivator.

Help: You’re not alone – friends, family, peers, co-workers… There are many people out there who will want to help. Declaring your intentions is a powerful start. Ask them to help with encouragement and reminders, and a swift kick in the "aspiration" when needed. Here, a coach or trainer can be very effective as an external and very focused motivator.

Taking Action is Key to Achieving Your Goals

With the tips from Steve above, you should be more prepared to take action in order to achieve your New Year resolutions and goals. Stop procrastinating, apply the tips above and start working towards your goals. Nothing beats taking action on your plans.

If you want a skilled coach that will continuously nudge, support, challenge, encourage and make yourself accountable for the goals you set, feel free to check out BeMyNudge, a service created by Steve Schack.

Your Personal Tips to Achieve Goals

Everyone has their own secret sauce to accomplish goals. What’s yours? How it helped and why do you think more people should know about it?

Let us know by commenting in the comments section below.

If you like this blog post, you might want to subscribe to Wayne Liew Dot Com Newsletter for premium content, weekly updates and priority notifications by submitting your first name and email address using the form below.

Photo Credits: Ү

21 Self Improvement Areas of Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs for 2010

Wayne Liew — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:50:21 +0000

Last week, we looked at New Year resolutions of 30 small business owners and entrepreneurs for 2010. The response was well received and a lot of readers actually told me that the list inspired them on where to get started with their own business resolutions for 2010.

Apart from drafting a plan and resolutions to grow your business, you should realize that as an entrepreneur or business owner, you should be improving yourself continuously on different aspects of business.

21 small business owners and entrepreneurs from last week’s blog posts have agreed to share how they plan to improve themselves in 2010 so that they can become a better leader and manager for their business.

Learn and Tap Web 2.0 Opportunities

I am looking to improve myself by learning more about the power of social networking. I am amazed at the capabilities and branding opportunities from Web 2.0 initiatives, and this seems to be the most logical – not to mention, economical-way to market your product and service in the 21st century.

I have already hired a Director of New Media who has experience with Web 2.0, but one of his responsibilities is to train me to be more involved with this new medium.

Thanks: Todd M. Schoenberger, Managing Director, LandColt Trading, LLC

Work Hard Towards Success

I want to continue to recruit talented writers, photographers and artists as contributors. We’re planning to reach out to prospective advertisers upon the release of our first print edition – these would be companies that share Dunce Cap‘s target demo of under-45 city dwellers and sympathizers. It’s no secret that publishing is incredibly competitive these days, and we’re not blessed with trust funds nor a kindly deep-pocketed benefactor.

Everyone invested in Dunce Cap has an outside source of income, and whatever gains we make in the next year will come off the sweat of our backs. Hard work, organic collaboration, outreach and networking – that’s the model we’re using, and we hope it’ll bring us big things in 2010.

Thanks: Ben Fuchs, Publisher, Dunce Cap Quarterly

Build a Better Team and Acquire New Skills

First and foremost, I want to focus on building the right team to grow our enterprise. We are hiring a director of sales and plan to add our outstanding team of freelancers to more permanent roles. I want to ensure that I keep our collegial culture in tact while bringing in new talent. We want Behind the Burner to continue to be an organization where people can grow and learn, while having fun.

I plan to craft a strategic plan for 2010 so that I can stay focused on key initiatives and not get sidetracked by ancillary opportunities. I also plan to spend at least 2 hours a month getting 1-on-1 business coaching from my mentors who are successful entrepreneurs. I want to discuss my daily challenges and issues and get their advice and guidance on these matters.

I also plan to become a more web savvy entrepreneur as I will be educating myself further on search engine optimization and search engine marketing as we grow our presence online.

Thanks: Divya Gugnani, Founder and CEO, Behind the Burner

Give Back and Getting Back the Focus

It sounds a little malicious to say, but as an entrepreneur I need to become more "selfish." With already a tightly packed Google Calendar directing every single one of my daily appointments, I still feel obligated to speak at events at my school, Drexel University, speak at entrepreneur events, attend fishbowls and networking sessions, awards lunches and dinners, and the like.

As much as I truly enjoy doing all these, and i try to give back to my school as much as possible for all their help with the development of my business, I need to start taking back "my" time and work on the actually product and the business that has gotten me all this attention. Not only that, I need to start sleeping more!

Thanks: Bradley Ericson, CEO, 3SecondReceipts

Focus on Income Generating Activities

The number 1 area I want to improve in myself is to be wiser at how I spend my time. I need to stop doing busy work that does not generate income (i.e. checking my email 25 times a day, playing on Twitter too much) and focus my time on the types of activities that generate income and growth for my company.

This means delegating more of my non-income producing work to other employees (or outsourced contractors) and focusing my time on activities that grow my company – publicity, marketing, and sales.

Thanks: Peter Geisheker, CEO of The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm

Improve on Human Resource Management Skills

To sustain our growth in 2010, I would like to expand our recruiting and hiring practices. In addition to matching skills, experiences and career objectives, we will also work with a number of HR experts and staffing agencies to use new hire assessments, meaningful interview questions and personality tests that will allow us to assess employees using criteria that is important to the culture of our business.

Thanks: Crystal L. Kendrick, President, The Voice of Your Customer

Delegate and Focus on Strategic Growth

I hope to bring on more support staffs and delegate some day-to-day responsibilities so I can focus on the strategic growth of Mom Corps and our franchises.

Thanks: Allison O’Kelly, CEO, Mom Corps

Strive Forward to Fulfill Company Purpose

I would like to improve communication and organization among our employees in order to complete an ambitious list of projects, maintain a high level of customer service and improve the reach and effectiveness of our advertising efforts.

The ultimate goal remains the same as it was on day one: be the best and easiest place to find quality private instruction. With our WyzAid program, we hope to make the same service available to qualified non-profit organizations.

Thanks: Andrew Geant, CEO, WyzAnt

Improve Conversion and Pitching Skills

The area that I’d like to see improved is my conversion rate from website visits to phone calls to actual appointments. My closing rate of sale, from face to face meetings, is about 95%, but I need the former to get those meetings.

I’m also working on a series of email responses (not auto responses, but along the same idea) that will send press releases about me, testimonials, and articles about picking an officiant. I am also working on a "juicy initial offer" that will be presented at the in person meeting.

Thanks: Celia Milton, Wedding Pastor and Celebrant, CeliaMilton.com

Maintain Work/Life Balance and Continuous Learning

In 2010, I would love to run this business in a balanced way while I create an authentic life for myself, rather than carrying out a “role” (my last job in government seemed to require that). I will also spend time developing my creative writing skills and learn all I can about bookkeeping and taxes.

Thanks: Joyce Wilde, Organizer and Transition Coach, Joyce Wilde Services

Learn How to Say No! and Focus

I’d like to be more focused on a few things instead of a little bit focused on a lot of things! It’s so easy to dive into every request I receive and explore new opportunities, but I’d like to create concrete strategic goals to stick to and let the other things fall off if they’re not in line with those goals.

As an entrepreneur, it’s hard to say no to anything, but I’m seeing now that saying yes too many times can lead to a business that is not profitable and growing! In essence, I want to put on tunnel vision, but maybe the sides of the tunnel are made out of mesh so I can still see what else is out there?!

Thanks: Angela Lussier, 365 Degrees Consulting

Build Relationships with Charitable Foundations

As a business owner, my goals for 2010 are to expand productively in the beauty industry. I would like to build strong relationships with charitable foundations who’s missions are to aid women and families to live a better life. I want to empower all women to look their best and take care of themselves.

Thanks: Ebony Sparks, Etsetera Lash Studio

Close the Gap Between Owner and Employees

I want to be more involved in my employees lives. I make it a point to be truly interested in their lives outside of work, but I want to expand on that. I feel that it can only help employee relations and make them more motivated to do a great job for Virtual Assist USA.

Thanks: Danielle Cuomo, Owner, Virtual Assist USA

Learn How to Let Go and Build a Leadership Team

I would love to grow my capacity to not be in control. Like just about every business owner, I’m a bit of a “control-a-holic”. To successfully scale a business, the owner must learn to let go of things to systems, intelligent business controls, and a core team of leaders who run parts of the business.

In order to accomplish that, I will continue to develop my leadership team and help them be better business people and business leaders.

Thanks: David Finkel, CEO, Maui Mastermind®

Become a Professional Paid Speaker

I’m improving myself as an entrepreneur by getting training on how to become a professional paid speaker. I think that training is essential to success. A business owner or entrepreneur needs to be learning new skills related to business all the time and the best way to do that is get involved in training of some type that fits your professional goals.

Thanks: Taylor Ellwood, Business and Social Media Coach, Imagine Your Reality

Manage Teams and Selecting Potential Leaders

As a small business owner, I’m involved in every aspect of the business, which can make it difficult for me to focus on other areas, such as business development.

One of my goals for 2010 is to step back and have key players on my team take on more leadership. I hope to change the company dynamics where team leaders can report to me directly. I think this will result in greater company productivity and free up my time to forge new relationships, partnerships and areas of growth for the company.

Thanks: Mary White, BnBFinder.com

Help Others with Professional Development

In 2010, I am making a personal commitment to professional growth of the students and associates around me. I believe it is ok for people to “not know” as long as they know they “don’t know”. With that realization I want to help people preserve with integrity to always continue learning as they strive to reach their goals and vision. I feel this is best demonstrated by working closer with people helping them to see what they don’t know and helping them to overcome.

Thanks: Mario Tricoci, Founder/Owner, Tricoci University of Beauty Culture

Acquire Better Listening Skills and Go Green

In art, it is important to project a strong personality, but it is just as important to be a good listener. I want to get better at listening to my clients to understand more clearly what they expect from me.

I also want to establish some new working relationships with Green Entrepreneurs. For many years, I have put forth visionary environmental designs. I want to work with some green manufacturers this year to turn some of my concepts into reality.

Thanks: Pablo Solomon, Artist and Designer, PabloSolomon.com

Support the Small Business Community

As a small business owner, I know it’s important to provide support to others to ensure we all move forward as a community together. We already have initiatives in place to enhance our firm’s non-profit and outreach efforts in 2010.

Thanks: Ed Lubbers, Partner, Lubbers & Borg

Understand Social Media Integration for Business

One area I really hope to improve upon in 2010 is my own understanding of implementing social media into our more traditional marketing efforts. While I have set up a Facebook and Twitter account for my business, I know that I am drastically under using them as a marketing tool. My goal in the coming year is to become an expert in using them to augment any of the more traditional marketing methods I may be using.

Thanks: Matt Robison, Owner, Jump Around Fun Zone

Balance Work and Life

I definitely want to get a clear boundary between work and personal lives. I’ve been working on both of my companies non-stop and it has seriously killed my personal life. I went on a date a few months ago and the guy asked what do I do for fun. I completely blanked and couldn’t remember! All I could remember was work!

Working non-stop also burnt me out. It becomes more and more difficult to muster up energy to work. Or worse, feeling uninspired. I also don’t have time for things that enrich my soul. Because of that, I have become unbalanced and stressed, which affects work. It’s a vicious cycle.

Thanks: Cindy Lin, General Manager, EcoJoe

What Are Your Self Improvement Areas for 2010?

How are you planning to improve yourself in 2010 so that you can become a better entrepreneur? Are you going to learn a new skill? Will you be talking to your employees and customers more? Perhaps you might want to improve on your writing skills!

Share with us your self improvement areas for 2010 in the comments section below.

If you like this blog post, you may want to subscribe to Wayne Liew Dot Com Newsletter for more interesting and useful content by submitting your first name and email address using the form below.

Photo Credits: mikebaird

Twitter Follow Strategy: Are You Really Building Relationships?

Wayne Liew — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

If you are immersed in the crazy world of social media, you don’t need another person to tell you how powerful Twitter has become as a marketing tool and a platform to network or to discover new connections. People use Twitter in a variety of ways. Marketers and business owners apply different strategies to make Twitter work for them.

I am on Twitter for almost two years now. I achieved a lot in terms of getting business, building traffic for this blog and I also established professional connections that I might not have come across if not because of the platform. However, stepping into 2010, I want to get more out of Twitter by switching my strategies a little, especially after getting some inspiration from Twitter Marketing: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users by Maki.

Please note that this is not a post on how you should be using Twitter. Everyone is entitled to use Twitter the way they like it. This is just a new strategy that I am experimenting. If you have your own Twitter marketing strategy to share or suggestions which I can implement to improve this strategy of mine, feel free to leave a comment below.

Mass Following on Twitter: How Effective It Is?

On Twitter, most marketers and business owners are following a sequence of steps that can be outlined with the points below:

Follow a large number of relevant Twitter users.
Initiate a conversation when opportunity arises.
Promoting products, services or content occasionally with the hope that 1% of their total followers will click.
Remove inactive users from the following list.
Rinse and repeat.

I was once a big proponent of this Twitter marketing strategy. The following are the reasons why I adopted it and questions that popped into my head over the last couple of days.

Mass following for traffic. A huge follower base generated spikes of traffic every time I publish a new blog post. However, having not even 1% of my Twitter followers click on the links I tweet got me thinking. Am I truly engaged with the two thousand plus followers that I currently have? Do my followers have enough trust in me?

Mass following for professional relationships. Through Twitter, I got to know a lot of like-minded individuals. Yes, the number of people that I know has gone up but am I doing enough to maintain the relationships, and bring them to the next level? With all the noise caused by the thousands of people that I was following, am I missing out tweets from individuals that really matter?

Mass following to listen to your community. I was following close to two thousand people consisting of marketers, small business owners and entrepreneurs because I want to keep tabs on the conversations that are happening. I realized I can do that by monitoring Twitter Search and by following the influencers. By putting everyone in my main Twitter stream, am I focusing more on the noise rather than key happenings or trends?

Turning Twitter into a Relationship Nurturing Platform

Twitter will still be an essential part of my marketing strategy to find new connections but for me, it will slowly become a relationship nurturing tool. Twitter will become a platform that facilitates interaction with people that I care most about rather than just another broadcasting tool.

Formidable relationships cannot be created through once-every-two-months interactions. Constant interactions, value adding and care are the key ingredients to build strong connections that will not only reciprocate but also willing to take that extra step to help you out someday.

Think about this. Instead of spreading your attention everywhere and hope that something will latch on, why not create a loyal community around your business or brand that will go all out to promote you and your business to their followers?

Here’s a challenge for you. How many of your followers actually know who you are by just looking at your username in their main Twitter stream? Also, do you know all the names in your main Twitter stream and what they do for a living?

Twitter Lists for Followers Relationship Management

Twitter Lists will play a huge part in this new strategy. Not all followers and individuals that I am following are equal. Some of them are prospective customers, some are authorities and influencers in my niche while some are just individuals that I love to chat with.

In customer relationship management, we use sophisticated CRM tools to remind us of followups and the stage of engagement with our clients or customers. In the case of Twitter, it will not be that complicated but segmenting will put you in a different mode when interacting with different sets of people.

Here are the core Twitter Lists that every marketer and business owner must have on Twitter:

Buffer. Acting as a waiting list for sorting purposes, new followers or interesting individuals that I came across will first go here. Placing them in this List allows me to understand their tweeting style and determine how I can further develop the connections.
Authorities. In every topic, niche or industry, there will be authoritative figures or influencers that boast a large number of followers or a sizeable community. You should be paying attention to them for the purpose of learning, trends monitoring or just to find an opportunity to reach out. You will miss important tweets by them if you fail to separate these individuals from others.
Prospects. Twitter can be a very effective tool to help businesses find prospective clients or customers. Questions relevant to your industry are being asked in this massive chat room all the time and as a business, you should approach these users with your answer or solution. While waiting for their response, why not put them into this List? This will ease the follow up and value adding process in the future.
Customers. Not all customers are equal and not every one of them purchases the same products or services from you. Segmenting them out according to products or services that you offer or the degree of loyalty can help you in distributing promotional messages in a more targeted manner. On top of that, support staffs can be assigned to handle a particular set of Lists.
Competitors. They are monitoring your social media activities anyway so why aren’t you? Follow them from a private List. This will not only let you know about what they are up to but opportunities such as a customer support crisis faced by them might arise from time to time.

If you didn’t realize it yet, you can follow someone using Twitter Lists without actually following him/her from your Twitter profile. This is why even though I unfollowed so many individuals, I am still replying to some of them. Also, by setting a List to private, accounts that are followed will not be notified.

My advice will be to make sensitive Lists and Lists for internal purposes, such as Competitors, Prospects, Cool People, Pretty Chicks, etc., private. The last thing you want to happen is a close friend coming to you asking why isn’t he/she on the Nice People list.

Will My Twitter Follower Count Drop?

What will happen to your follower count if you start unfollowing everyone that you don’t know right now? Your follower count will drop. Why? Well, most accounts on Twitter are managed by bots or simply, they are spam accounts. These accounts detects who unfollowed them and they are programmed to reciprocate just so they can follow more people.

The follower count is irrelevant should you decide to follow this Twitter marketing strategy. Forget about it! What you want is quality followers, a strong community that is not only interactive towards your tweets but also helps to influence others with your message.

Applying the Strategy to Other Social Media Platforms

I am still in the process of testing this strategy out on Twitter and so far, I am glad that keeping up with all user groups that are relevant to what I do is so much easier.

Over the next few days, I might modify this strategy so that it can be applied to my Facebook account. It will be a harder task due to the higher concentration of my personal connections over there. Nevertheless, I will continue to optimize my social media marketing strategy to find one that suits me and my business the best. You should too!

Your Take on Twitter Follow Strategy

How are you currently following people on Twitter? Do you use Twitter Lists and how are you using it to your advantage? Do you have any comments about the strategy that I adopted and explained above?

Leave your feedback, questions and opinions in the comments section below.

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Photo Credits: matt.hintsa and visualpanic

Weekly Biz Buzz #12 ACHIEVE It, Avoid Collaboration Failures, Facebook Pages Tips

Wayne Liew — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Wayne Liew Dot Com experienced a great week with a blog post covering 2010 New Year resolutions of small business owners and entrepreneurs. Of course, I am excited to see most members of the small business community are pumped and ready for 2010. Are you?

Improving your business in 2010 is important but you can’t neglect the need to improve yourself as an individual. This week, I am going to publish self improvement or development areas that small business owners have identified for 2010. Add yours in the comments section below and I’ll try to include it in the coming blog post with a link to your site.

This week on Weekly Biz Buzz, I have 3 tips covering 3 different areas to share with you. Let’s see what I have for you!

Don’t Just Plan, ACHIEVE It!

Planning for the New Year isn’t something new but most plans created by individuals and businesses tend to be carried forward into the next year. Why? People fail to achieve what they planned to achieve. It’s very frustrating to know that you failed to achieve something and excuses will start popping up in your mind to shrug the failure off.

Why don’t we start to actually achieve our goals this year? Yes, 2010, achieve goals. Not plan, not just talks, but ACHIEVE it!

We are always distracted by tons of tasks, new projects and unexpected events throughout the year and they make us sway from our path. How to Keep Your Action Plans on Track by Gill Korkindale will show you how to keep yourself, your team and your business as a whole, focused on the goals that are in place.

Stay focus and we should be at where we want by the end of 2010. Let’s do this together, OK?

Are You a Headache to Collaborate with?

Collaboration is slowly becoming an vital part of every workplace and as the Internet develops, online collaboration is becoming the preferred way of getting things done by freelancers all over the world.

We cannot escape the need to collaborate with other business owners, freelancers or individual contractors and in order to complete a project, we ourselves must become a good collaboration partner.

In 10 Reasons Why Your Last Collaboration Did Not Work, an article dedicated to freelancers, Marshall Rake elaborated on factors that may fail your collaboration efforts. Although this is an article dedicated towards freelancers, you need to understand how to collaborate with them better in order to complete your projects successfully.

Your Facebook Page is Dull, Make It Shine!

Facebook now has more than 350 million users and they should have a few millions more by now as the most recent announcement on their user numbers was in early December last year.

More and more businesses are creating their own Facebook Pages, a platform by Facebook for businesses and brands to connect and to interact with their prospects, customers, clients, or simply, their fans. However, most Facebook Pages are dull and boring.

If you are looking to enhance your Facebook Page and make it stand out from the crowd, you should read 10 Steps to Make Your Facebook Page Shine by Francisco Rosales. There are way more things that you can do with your Facebook Page and this blog post will show you what you might be missing out on.

Remember, ACHIEVE IT!

Now, you have my tips for the week. If you want to improve your Facebook Page, write it down and DO it! If you want to collaborate better with others, start learning, either by collaborating more or by learning from others.

Don’t wait! TAKE ACTION!

If you are serious about achieving your goals in 2010, let me know about it in the comments section below. Perhaps we could push each other forward.

If you like this week’s Weekly Biz Buzz, make sure you subscribe to Wayne Liew Dot Com Newsletter for more great content by submitting your first name and email address using the form below.

Photo Credits: SmokingPermitted – "Cosa sono? La bambina dei no" and Thomas Myhre

30 New Year Resolutions of Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs for 2010

Wayne Liew — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:00:00 +0000

It is now weeks into 2010. Small businesses and startups owners should have started working on their plans and resolutions for 2010. If you have not set up any goals or plans for 2010, you might be losing out to the 30 entrepreneurs and small business owners in the list below.

In this article, 30 entrepreneurs and small business owners with different backgrounds and experience has agreed to share with you their New Year resolutions, aspirations and plans for 2010. As an entrepreneur reading this, this will provide you with not only business tips, but also perspectives from different industries heading into 2010.

Let’s get started and I hope you’ll have your own business resolutions ready.

Generate Publicity Through Interviews

The major aspect of my business I will focus on in 2010 is spending more of my time generating publicity for my company by providing expert marketing quotes to the media for business websites, blogs, magazines, newspapers, etc.

My goal is to be interviewed by a minimum of 50 magazines and/or newspapers and I think that goal is very attainable. This will get my name and my company’s name in front of millions of prospects while building my reputation as a master marketing expert.

Thanks: Peter Geisheker, CEO of The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm

Ramp Up Efficiency and Hire More Staffs

Our business has been suffering a sluggish growth, mainly because I as an owner was too hands on and not concentrating on the work that really mattered. We also expanded into a new territory too quickly (we actually launched a second business 4 months ago). While the new business is exciting, it also distracts me and pulls me off track from running our core business.

In 2010, I will be focusing on building systems that can help us increase efficiency and hire additional staff to help growing the companies healthily.

Thanks: Cindy Lin, General Manager, EcoJoe

Aggressive Marketing and Promotions

In 2010, we will continue to focus on growth and creating revenues. To grow our business, the following strategies will be executed:

Strategically develop our keywords (including language) based on our target customers and services.
Register for more RFP databases.
Target industries projected to grow in the next 10 years (healthcare, energy, technology, education and infrastructure industries).
Attend conferences, join more industry groups, hire persons with related experiences and join boards of related non-profit organizations.
Obtain various small, disadvantaged, minority and women owned certifications and promote our business to larger marketing firms seeking supplier diversity partners.
Offer pro-bono services to organizations who share our mission and offer experiences needed to expand our scope of services and market.
Launch our own PR and marketing campaign to establish a presence among end users who may refer our company to their employers.

Thanks: Crystal Kendrick, President, The Voice of Your Customer

Build a Stronger Personal Brand Recognition

I plan to build on the successes of 2009 rather than worry about the lows. I used 2009 to build my name recognition. This resulted in more success than I even imagined.

I ended up being featured in numerous magazines including National Geographic, Investor’s Business Daily, Go, Insight, and many more. I was also featured in more than a half dozen books, several newspapers and numerous major blogs. One of my illustrations appeared in a New York Times’ bestseller and one is now in a book for Victoria’s Secret. I was interviewed by the New York Times twice and Wall Street Journal once.

I was recognized as an artist, a visionary environmental designer and for my insights into art as an investment. The tremendous amount of exposure that I have received has upped my status as an artist many fold.

Thanks: Pablo Solomon, Artist and Designer, PabloSolomon.com

Enhance Customer Acquisition Funnel and Experience

I am focusing on improving the conversion rate from my casual website visitors to appointments/sales. I’m hoping to put together a really compelling initial offer (for my industry, probably a book of insider wedding planning tips), followed with a series of automated email followups.

I am also going to work on an even more holistic customer process, from the first inquiry to the followups, which I think will garner recommendations all along the way, not just after the service happens. If every step of our interaction is unusually great, they will start talking about my company before we even get to the event we’re planning.

In these economic times, it is even more important to stand out as the vendor who provides exceptional, personal service. Our customers are NOT just looking for price, or they would all be driving smart cars, wouldn’t they! They are looking for an outstanding experience at a price they can justify.

Thanks: Celia Milton, Wedding Pastor and Celebrant, CeliaMilton.com

Deal with the Media Better

After recently being named Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2009, we recently received a flood of media attention. All this is great and we absolutely love the publicity we are getting but in the new year, our management team needs to have a better, faster and more efficient way of dealing with the media.

Be it automated newsletters or phone secretary services or even hiring a PR firm, we really need to sit down and focus on how our company can take full advantage of this limited opportunity, all while working to get our digital receipt software implemented on client’s campus!

Thanks: Bradley Ericson, CEO, 3SecondReceipts

Acquire Clients Through Teleseminars

I plan to host several teleseminars following a proven format to increase my client list and promote my coaching services and information products. I will also add a team member to assist with some of the administrative things I shouldn’t be doing.

I want to do better at tracking – tracking responses to email campaigns, tracking my finances, and tracking client acquisition cost and average profit per client in the year.

Thanks: Ann Ronan, Ph.D., Authentic Life Institute

Reevaluate Suitability of Marketing Strategies

After spending the last year focused 50% on speaking engagements and seminars, 25% on online presence, blogging, writing my book, and 25% on individual consultations with clients, I’ve decided to change my business model so I don’t get a heart attack at 30.

I’ve realized that as a natural introvert, it’s hard to put so much energy into speaking in front of large crowds. I’m going to spend more time online promoting my current book, "The Anti-Resume Revolution" and writing my next book, which is more natural and comfortable for me. To give up public speaking and do something easier makes me feel like I’m failing, but I’m really putting myself in a better position to shine in 2010!

Thanks: Angela Lussier, 365 Degrees Consulting

Explore New Markets as Business Environment Changes

I will be focusing almost exclusively on growing a new area of my business dedicated towards helping other entrepreneurs to build their own professional looking web sites. I am a professional web developer and have been doing this for 12 years, but it was just in the past year that my efforts have focused more towards the front-end and SEO.

I want to help other people to grow their businesses online and get a huge competitive advantage over corporate America. I really think we are at the beginning of a revolution in which all the rules about business are changing. The Internet is a big part of that and enabling social connections for the purpose of business. I am thrilled to be a part of it all.

Thanks: Sara Morgan, Consultant, Custom Solutions

Explore Existing Business for Future Opportunities

I started an organizer business a little over four months ago. One of the major aspects that my business will focus on in 2010 is the implementation of new advertising strategies (learning about marketing and sales).

Other than that, I would love to have the opportunity to learn about carpentry and the market price of belongings (selling through flea markets, estate sales, antique stores, etc.). Learning more about participating in the “green” movement of recycling, reusing, and reselling items will be one of the major aspects too.

Thanks: Joyce Wilde, Organizer and Transition Coach, Joyce Wilde Services

Grow by Leveraging Existing Customers and Users

This past year, due to the struggling economy, many of our customers cut back on our advertising service. Innkeepers who were trying to save money actually ended up losing profit by not marketing with us. On the whole, although the travel industry has been hit hard, bed & breakfast inns appeal to travelers who are looking for affordable trips closer to home. Basically, our focus in 2010 will be growth through an expanded customer base (innkeepers that use our advertising services) and B&B guests (travelers visiting our site).

Within the travel industry, the B&B sector has been slow to embrace new technology. Integrating new technologies will be a key aspect to our growth and BnBFinder.com is working on developing new applications which will promote our business as well as our industry.

We are already ahead of the curve when it comes to social networking. We were the first business in our industry to have a blog and we will continue to be on the cutting edge of new social networking tools.

Thanks: Mary White, BnBFinder.com

Focus on Growth and Marketing

We plan to grow in 2010. The major components of that growth will come in the forms of our first print editions (first launch slated for January 2010), a robust features section on our site comprising short stories, non-fiction and photo essays, and an expanded marketing effort targeting our core audiences in New York, San Francisco and the LA basin.

Thanks: Ben Fuchs, Publisher, Dunce Cap Quarterly

Promote Business Automation Using Technology

The major aspects that I will focus on for my business is increased automation of it via technology, specifically learning to use and integrate autoresponders into my business for events and classes so that I spend less time following up with people interested in my classes, but still maintain a viable presence.

Thanks: Taylor Ellwood, Business and Social Media Coach, Imagine Your Reality

Understand Customers Better and Better Product Line Management

We plan to make a major shift in our new products area. In the past, our best selling products have been custom orders. That is difficult to market and sales have not made it to our projections. Our plan is to take one technique/style and apply it to all our products and make fewer varieties. For example, we are working on a weaved technique and plan to make every purse, wall hanging, bag, etc. from this weave. Each year we will feature a new line.

In an effort to improve, one needs to know the place for improvement. It is our goal this year to find out what our customers (and potential customers) want/need and what they like or don’t like in dealing with online "green" companies. This will give us the information we need to start making needed improvements to better serve our clients.

Thanks: Tina Wick, Owner, Greenpurse

Stay Passionate and Have Fun

I started my second company this year and I have a simple rule about end-of-year forecasting/planning for the coming year. I set 4 goals I need to accomplish in the next year (anything less, and I really need to reevaluate my passion for the business):

Set-up new distribution channels
Hire more people
Schedule speaking engagements
Have fun

The secret to success for the small business owner is create your own luck. You need multiple (dozens) of initiatives floating out there. If you don’t, you get stale, and your business will probably not survive.

Thanks: Todd Schoenberger, Managing Director, LandColt Trading, LLC

Build Community and Scale Effectively

Growing our community of business owners will top the priority list. Right now we have about 78,000 business owners in our community and we have targeted 150,000 by end of 2010. This means we’ll place a big emphasis on lead generation activities. I’m writing another book (my 8^th) that we’ll target giving away 100,000 copies in 2010. We will be strengthening our affiliate program and use joint ventures to reach more business owners. Finally, our live event schedule has been stepped up to reach more business owners.

We are looking to building our tele-sales team and capacity too. Our consulting program for business owners has proven to be an incredibly popular and in demand program at all our live events. I have cut back my personal travel schedule for 2010. This means we can scale the way we want in order to present the program effectively and enroll new clients via phone.

Building our core operational systems will be crucial this year to allow smooth scaling process. Also, we are hard at work at building out the lead flow systems, sales scripting, and hiring processes to make this a huge success.

Thanks: David Finkel, CEO, Maui Mastermind®

Launch a Charity Arm

WyzAnt maintains a searchable directory of nearly 20,000 tutors, providing in-home lessons for over 130 different subjects across the country.

Ever since we started the company in 2005, we’ve wanted to apply our business model (wide scale tutor-student matching) to the volunteer realm. A recent poll of our tutors indicates that 87% are interested in providing volunteer tutoring to underprivileged students in their communities. With this volunteer manpower at hand, in addition to a private donation from a WyzAnt investor, we have the essential foundation in place for a program called “WyzAid”, that we plan to implement in 2010.

More about WyzAid: One Entrepreneur’s Resolution: Do Well by Doing Good

Qualified organizations, which may include schools, children’s hospitals, Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs, and other non-profits, will be able to login to WyzAid.org to find volunteer tutors for deserving students. Ultimately, we’d like to grow the volunteer tutor force beyond that which current WyzAnt tutors can provide. This means wide-scale recruiting of new volunteers and building more relationships with organizations in need.

WyzAnt would like for WyzAid to grow into a highly utilized and effective national charity with enough scale to make a difference in the education of our country’s students.

Thanks: Andrew Geant, CEO, WyzAnt

Improve Operational Systems for Growth

In our fifth year of business, it is time to look at our systems, partners and procedures. I plan to review our processes and improve them to set us up for growth over the next 5 years as we go from 6 franchisees to a goal of over 100.

Thanks: Allison O’Kelly, CEO, Mom Corps

Build a Better Online Presence

Some of our commitments/resolutions for 2010 are the following:

Improve our website by making it more user friendly and easier to navigate
Go full swing into social networking. We will tighten up and use LinkedIn, create a Facebook Page, a blog and commit to submitting articles twice a month. We will also create videos featuring our printing techniques – screen-printing, embroidery and wide format, and post them onto YouTube.
Outsource more artwork and review all employee responsibilities.

Thanks: Marian Gordon, Yippee Print & Marketing

Diversify Services While Maintaining Quality

In our company the main focus will be broadening our services in order to completely support our clients in the model of a “one-stop-shop” kind of format. We are taking our traditional printing company and adding to our design department, interactive marketing and online creative plus email and social media services.

Allowing our customers to build upon their visibility and differentiation in their industry while only having to coordinate this outsourcing with one account representative; this will afford our clients the opportunity to really focus on what they do best, their own unique products or services.

Improving on our services each year is a constant goal for us. We are “customer-centric” and we improve by giving more value added services to our current customer base while striving to grow in new markets. We are completely involved in satisfying our customers in every aspect or our services and We push ourselves to ask what our client’s truly needs in their process.

Thanks: Anya Downing, Design & Marketing Director, Imperial Image

Apply Laser-Targeted Marketing Strategies

My biggest focus for 2010 will be increasing revenue thru effective marketing. Since I own an indoor kids play center for children under the age of 11, the primary focus of my marketing is moms between the ages of 25 – 40.

Because of this, I try very targeted marketing that I can track instead of the costlier blanket approach such as radio and television. I know that those types of advertising have their place, but as a small business owner with a very tight budget, I cannot afford a marketing approach that I can’t track. The majority of my marketing budget goes into coupons that are brought in to be redeemed so I know where I get the most bang for my advertising buck.

Thanks: Matt Robison, Owner, Jump Around Fun Zone

Outsource Smarter, Focus, and Expand

We’re moving rapid pace out of "the dip" and I really want to make smart, better, strategic use of our outsourced admin support staff. This is in some ways a commercial decision – if they’re half the price I am, I can spend more time on client work and make more money.

But it’s more about quality of life. I got into business to have a better quality of life, so why not make a little less money but give someone else the stuff I don’t like/want?

Otherwise, areas of the business that we need to constantly improve are marketing and brand to establish trust and expand our reach beyond our core US and UK markets.

Thanks: Andy Hayes, Founder, Travel Online Partners and Sharing Travel Experiences

Set Up Partnerships and Strategic Alliances

For iBlue, our main competitive edge is our commitment to becoming strategic allies with our partners and clients. By building a business based on long-standing relationships with satisfied clients, we will ensure continued and sustained success.

We will also focus a great deal this coming year on partnering with other solution providers, whose solutions truly complement ours. Some companies we look to partner with are WiFi and digital signage companies. iBlue will offer the companies a unique partnership opportunity in which both companies will offer their services as a package to potential clients. Therefore, this would allow them to receive not only intense and effective marketing campaigns but the expertise and know-how of two spectacular companies.

Furthermore, iBlue will be searching for the chance to partner with investors that may see the potential that iBlue has and the possibilities this company may offer the mobile advertising/marketing world. We are willing to offer the investors a portion of ownership in the company in exchange for their financial support and business knowledge. This will ensure a win-win relationship that both iBlue and the investors will find invaluable.

Thanks: Mona Ismaeil, PR Manager, iBlue Mobile Advertising Solutions

Communicate Goals for Growth to Employees

In 2010, we will be focusing on growing our business at 1% everyday. That is the goal that is going to be posted on everyone’s office wall and desktop. Our main goal is to always scale the business, but this gives us a specific number to set our sights on. Additionally, we want to continue to support start-ups and expand our pro-bono program.

Currently, we support several non-profits and early start-ups at no cost to the business. Of course, it takes time and resources, but it is so personally rewarding for myself and for my team. We are also implementing major initiatives for the ever-growing social media aspect of our business. We will be “upping” our presence on Twitter, Facebook and in the blogosphere.

Thanks: Danielle Cuomo, Owner, Virtual Assist USA

Assist Stakeholders with Professional Development

Thanks: Mario Tricoci, Founder/Owner, Tricoci University of Beauty Culture

Strengthen the Brand Through Multiple Channels

In 2010, we will speak to build our brand and build our audience. This will be done by extending our media reach. We will seek to expand our broadcast TV reach by either adding additional local TV coverage or trying to get a nationally syndicated TV show. We will also build our network of online syndication partners and will be adding Bravo TV to the roster of already impressive sites that feature our content.

We will also seek to integrate with cable providers to offer our videos through video on demand services. We want to build our mobile reach. We already have an iTunes podcast and want to launch a mobile app or game. We will also be extending into print as I signed a two book deal with Harper Collins and my first book, Food Slut, My Blackbook of Tips from Behind the Burner (a no-nonsense guide to being slim, fit and fabulous for women who live to eat) will most likely come out in 2011.

We will also seek to drive revenue opportunities through branded integration, advertorial content and e-commerce partnerships.

Thanks: Divya Gugnani, Founder and CEO, Behind the Burner

Push Hard Through the Startup Phase

2009 was our first year running the business, so the focus was mostly on getting the business up and running, with all of the lessons and growing pains that come from that. As a result, 2010 will largely be focused on taking those lessons and applying them. Examples would include clarifying and honing our policies, increasing our marketing efforts in a targeted manner, and expanding into new markets.

We want to improve by working smarter rather than harder, find ways to decrease overhead while maintaining (or improving) quality, and to make the ordering process more streamlined. For instance, one of the things I’m working on right now is looking into solutions for adding online ordering to our web page.

Thanks: Todd Post, Historical Chocolate

Answer Your Client’s Most Pressing Question

Nevada’s economic climate is unique. While most of the country is considered out of the recession, Nevada is still deep within it, and it doesn’t look like we’ll pull out of it just yet. Therefore, we’re focusing on preparing our clients for the “what if.” “What happens to my business if Nevada’s economy doesn’t pick back up in 2010?” We are working to ensure our clients have all the tools necessary to address this possibility head on.

Thanks: Ed Lubbers, Partner, Lubbers & Borg

Keep Clients Longer

My primary focus for 2010 is to increase client retention. To accomplish this, I plan to continue providing a superb, luxury experience in a serene atmosphere, while increasing the services and amenities that add value for my clients. I always want to provide my clients an experience, not just a service, and I intend to expand on that philosophy even more in the coming year.

Thanks: Ebony Sparks, Etsetera Lash Studio

Post Your Own Business Resolutions for 2010

I think most of you reading this would have lost count on the number of resolutions. There are only 29 business resolutions above. The only spot left is dedicated to YOU.

Do you have your business resolutions ready? Share with us in the comments section below!

If you like this blog post, subscribe to Wayne Liew Dot Com Newsletter now for more content dedicated to entrepreneurs and small business owners by submitting your first name and email address using the form below.

Weekly Biz Buzz #11 Internet Marketing Problems, Irrelevant Trends and Getting Clients from Elance

Wayne Liew — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:14:29 +0000

It’s another edition of the Weekly Biz Buzz and I hope everyone has recovered from their New Year blues.

If you are subscribed to a number of blogs, you would have noticed that recently published blog posts are mostly about trends, things to expect in 2010 and resolutions. In fact, I published my own about mobile application development.

Out of all the blog posts, I only handpicked three that deserve your attention because they focus on things that others fail to cover, perhaps due to the excitement for 2010. :p

Common Problems with Digital Marketing

2009 was a great year for marketing. Digital marketing, especially social media, took off like crazy. The way businesses market themselves is now significantly different than the past. Although there are a lot of companies, agencies and individuals offering solutions to counter a change like this, most campaigns fail.

Adam Singer took a deep look at the landscape and discovered the many flaws that caused the failure of digital marketing campaigns. In his blog post, Digital Marketing Strategy Development: 12 Common Problems, Adam outlined and elaborated on the specific problems that contributed to a digital marketing campaign failure.

If you are heavily into Internet marketing or social media, you may think that most of the points should come as common sense. However, from what I observed, such mistakes are being made by businesses, big and small on a daily basis.

Irrelevant Internet Marketing Trends for 2010

A lot of blog posts that feature trends focus on things that you should pay attention to. Ian Lurie, on the other hand, published 11 Internet Marketing Signs to Ignore in 2010, which caught my attention.

In his blog post, Ian pointed out several things that business owners and marketers shouldn’t worry about moving into 2010. Some of them are:

Mobile Advertising (Read more about other mobile marketing ideas)
Bing vs Google
Web 3.0
Google Real Time Search
Green Marketing

Most of the trends listed will be happening in 2010 but because of the predicted slow adoption, you shouldn’t be paying too much attention.

Getting Clients from Elance and Guru

Elance and Guru are two of the most popular jobs bidding site for freelancers. Despite their popularity, there are still a lot of freelancers holding back from using these sites due to various reasons such as low quality clients, lack of knowledge about how these sites work, etc.

Tim Wasson came up with a great blog post with the title, How to Use Elance and Guru to Land that Client Every Time. In this blog post, Tim detailed every element that you should pay attention to if you want to start winning clients from these sites.

If you are skeptical about the effectiveness of such sites because of various presumptions, Tim also laid down a few advantages of using them. Whether you are going to consider Elance or Guru as a potential source of clients, this blog post is a must read.

Wayne Liew Dot Com Newsletter Upgraded (Slightly)

Frequent site visitors know that I do maintain a newsletter for the site and if you are subscribed to it, you will be receiving weekly updates from me.

Over the past few weeks, I cleaned up the design of the newsletter and have devised a new schedule to send out the newsletter. No worries, I am not ramping up the frequency. Content will have a better arrangement in terms of layout and the weekly updates issue will be more than just updates from Wayne Liew Dot Com.

If you like this Weekly Biz Buzz and you are curious about what I am offering through the newsletter, subscribe to it now by submitting your first name and email address using the form below.

Photo Credits: Optical illusion

Rocky Reichman, Editor-in-Chief of Literary Magic Interview

Wayne Liew — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Content marketing is one of the most preferred online marketing strategies. However, one problem exists. The amount of content available online is overwhelming. How can you stand out among all the competition? If you are not producing content to market your business yet, do you stand a chance?

To answer all these questions, Rocky Reichman, founder of Reichman Media and Editor-in-Chief of Literary Magic has agreed to do an interview with me regarding online content and content production in general.

Since Rocky is a young entrepreneur, I am super excited throughout this interview and he shared a lot about his experience as well as tips for fellow entrepreneurs. You’ll love it!

Introduction of Rocky Reichman

Wayne: First of all, Rocky, thank you for taking time out to do this interview with me.

Rocky: And thank you, Wayne. Congratulations on your BizSugar moderator appointment.

Wayne Liew: Thank you. Before we talk about Reichman Media, Literary Magic and your experience as a young entrepreneur, can you introduce yourself to my blog readers and maybe talk a little bit about what ventures are you currently involved with?

Rocky: Sure. My name is Rocky Reichman. In a nutshell, I am an entrepreneur, writer and tap dancer. Right now, I serve as Editor-in-Chief of Literary Magic, an online literary magazine I started at 15. I have 6 editors and a staff of about 20 writers and 2 web technicians to work with.

Rocky: I also created a parent company called Reichman Media where I do content writing, part-time consulting, editing and sometimes, marketing for a small pool of clients. In addition, I do marketing for Narobo, a robotics/electronics startup, where I am now CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). I am also writing my third novel (and trying to get the first two published!)

Literary Magic and Reichman Media

Wayne: Wow, that’s a lot of stuffs going on for you. Let us talk about Literary Magic. From what I read, Literary Magic is an online magazine for the literature crowd like writers and so on. Can you elaborate further on this?

Rocky: Sure. Our main target group is "literati". "Literati" means "people of letters". People who love words, like to read, that’s our crowd. "Bibliophages" – which translated literally, means "people who eat books", are also among our readers. What makes us different and the reason I started Literary Magic in the first place is to have an online magazine that covers the whole of the English language.

Rocky: Usually it’s either just literature – fiction and poetry, maybe book reviews and author interviews too, or linguistics. But we want to cater to the crowd that loves both, like myself. So Literary Magic is a place to find not only a great story, poem or review, but also articles on linguistics, etymology and grammar. We also hold writing contests to help display new talent. Two other attributes that help us stand out is our versatility of content and easy reading. Check out the content rotator on the LiteraryMagic.com home page to see how we present our feature stories. For more, click on the About page on the website.

Wayne: How does Literary Magic ties into Reichman Media? Do they complement each other in any way? Or both of them are just separate ventures that are independent of each other?

Rocky: Reichman Media is a parent company. Right now it is not important, but in the future I envision creating more websites and online communities, likely around the same writing and literature niches, and Reichman Media will serve to organize everything under one simple umbrella. But they are connected. My focus remains on Literary Magic. Later on I will work on creating new ideas and implementing them.

Development of Online Content

Wayne: Ah, OK. Can’t believe that there are more coming up for you. As you are in the literature and content field, can I have your insight on what do you see coming for online and web content as publishing content on the Internet has never been that easy?

Rocky: Great question, Wayne. Since I am no "expert", I asked this question myself to publishing professionals at McGraw-Hill, where I interned during the summer. So before I say anything, I need to credit their help.

Rocky: Publishing content has never been easier than it is now, thanks to new tools and technology. A big thumbs up to WordPress here. But if everyone is now broadcasting their messages, who will be left to listen?

Rocky: What is already happening is that more people are "able" to publish. However, what matters is, you need to publish great content that people want to read, and that you can attract an audience. So as far as the future, I think everyone will maintain their voice. There will be dominant players, like in every field, but at the same time, newer and small online media journalists will occupy niches.

Rocky: Going further, people will eventually call for more regulated online publications with higher standards. It’s quantity vs. quality. As the quantity of content available online increases, so does the need for a few quality content sources, which is why at Literary Magic, my editorial team and I work to ensure high standards. We want to give our readers what they deserve, which is the best content we find. This is becoming easier. In our case, we now get hundreds of submissions and contest entries a year, so we have the privilege to pick only the best for publication.

Rocky: To review: people will start congregating more around their niches and dominant players who can keep up high standards of quality, well-researched content will emerge too, likely as dominant players.

Rocky: There is much more on the subject to discuss, but I think I’ll cut it short here. One last thing: although Literary Magic is all about the "written" word, another trend that even we cannot ignore is video. Video is easier to consume. While books will never disappear, video will certainly become more and more common in online media. This serves as a caveat to the journalists of the future: be prepared. Besides writing skills, your ability to code or shoot a video will also serve you well in the future.

Tips to Become a Better Content Writer

Wayne: Yeah, video is definitely the up and coming form of media and in fact, it is already booming. Publishing content online is one way for entrepreneurs to brand themselves and to showcase their expertise. Can you share with us some tips on how to become better at content writing?

Rocky: Write, write, and write! Practice is the most important factor. Get a column somewhere, or start your own blog. Make sure you write something everyday. Also, work on crafting your "hook", which is the first thing readers see and it will decide whether they keep reading or leave your website, brochure or business.

Rocky: First, you need the "hook", a sentence or two that draws the reader in. If you are doing content writing for your website or business or in marketing, make sure you outline the benefits of your products and services clearly and concisely. These are not features or attributes that describe it, but the benefits people get if they buy or use it. At the end, always be sure to include a call to action and leave a link to your website, contact information or a "special offer".

Rocky: Also, go easy on the adjectives. Focus on your verbs. Verbs drive your writing, make it stronger, more powerful and easier for readers to consume. And watch your grammar, or else the Totalitarian Grammarian and sticklers out there will get you.

Rocky: To review: write, write, write!, find a venue for practicing your craft, learn how to write "hooks", focus on benefits to your readers if you are doing marketing content, don’t forget your call to action and make sure to always edit your work before sending it out. Not just for your content writing, but try improving your e-mails, tweets and other social media messages.

How Rocky Got Started?

Wayne: Nice tips there. Rocky, since you’re a young entrepreneur, this is a question that I’m sure everyone is eager to have your answer. What prompted you to start out as an entrepreneur instead of taking the normal route like other teenagers and why is it something to do with writing, literature, language and so on instead of other businesses?

Rocky: Well, to tell you the truth, I didn’t start out as an entrepreneur. I started out writing at the age of 12. Then I got into etymology and linguistics. I started exploring the other side of writing – the publishing side, and realized there was no place to go for someone like me, who loves the written word not only in its science form – linguistics, etymology, but its art form – fiction and other literature.

Rocky: So I started Literary Magic, and eventually it turned into a new venture for me. I like to label it as an "online magazine" more than a business, because while we have a readership and a sizable staff, I have not succeeded with the monetization of Literary Magic. We have made some money, but not a lot of actual profit. My goal now is to turn it into an actual business, assuming your definition of a "business" is an entity that makes a profit.

Rocky: Moving on to your next question about why I chose language and literature as my focus, the answer is easy. It’s because that’s my passion. It’s what interests me and something I would enjoy spending lots of time on, even if the rewards were small. And this is something I suggest to all fellow entrepreneurs: focus on your passion. Take what you like to do and build your venture or blog or business around that.

Why Aspiring Entrepreneurs Stay Aspiring?

Wayne: Thanks for reemphasizing the importance of passion because I see a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs looking at things that are making others the most money without realizing that these successful entrepreneurs are actually doing what they are passionate about. I’m sure that you know most teenagers or people that are around our age talk a lot about ideas and running a business but never really take any action. What do you think are the reasons why actions are not being taken?

Rocky: My father was a mathematician but I am terrible at math. However, I have realized an equation which any aspiring entrepreneur will understand. In fact, it is drawn from the simplest of mathematical formulas. A+B=C. If "A" is our starting point, your idea and "C" is your end result – money, fame, we’ll call it "Success" for now. What do you think "B" is? What else is required for you to succeed, besides the idea? The answer is "Implementation".

Idea + Implementation = Success

Rocky: You have to do something if you want to succeed not just with your website or business, but in life. Ideas are nothing without implementation. Lots of people want to do things. They may even plan out their paths to succeed. But they cannot achieve anything unless they get up, take action and do something. To quote the great young entrepreneur mentor Shonika Proctor,

A dreamer is someone who aspires to do something, an entrepreneur is someone who is DOING that thing.

Rocky: There are exceptions to this rule. Certainly. Even with implementation, your idea itself may not be sell-able, or the market may not be ready for it. Even if "success" to you is not about making money but just building something great, the only way to reach "C" is through action.

Rocky: To focus more specifically on your question, the reason actions are not taken can include a plethora of variables, excuses and plausible reasons. A rough childhood, laziness, distractions and especially with all the content available today, it is so much easier for most people to consume content without ever creating them.

Rocky: But everyone is different. Some may be more prone to getting things done and taking initiative. These are certainly valuable traits for entrepreneurs. Even if you are not one of those people, work at it. Change your attitude and do something.

Rocky: Another reason why actions are not taken is because people lose interest or focus. For me, focus used to be a big issue before the past summer. I know from personal experience that having a lot of ideas is great, whoop-dee-doo, but you need to focus if you are ever going to get anything done. You can have multiple interests, yes. I still do. But make sure you set your priorities and have one thing as your main focus.

Rocky: For me, that’s Literary Magic, which is why I have only mentioned that today and left out any irrelevant projects. Please engrave my above equation into your head: Idea + Implementation = Success.

Internship Experience with McGraw-Hill

Wayne: Those are some very important advice for all entrepreneurs out there. Rocky, you mentioned that you are an intern at The McGraw-Hill Companies. How’s your experience over there and how did the internship make you a better entrepreneur?

Rocky: The experience was great. Not only do opportunities like this give you an inside work into business, marketing and publishing, but you are welcomed warmly and treated with respect, despite age or rank. That may be unique to my internship experience, but from what I’ve heard at McGraw-Hill, its people are its products. Not once was I asked to get coffee, if you understand my meaning.

Rocky: I should have mentioned before that it was working at McGraw-Hill that started to make me see my ideas as businesses too. Building and marketing your website are important, but so is monetizing, and I have still not succeeded in that regard.

Rocky: At my internship, I learned a lot about the importance of professionalism in corporate America (sometimes the hard way, folks). I was given hands-on experience working on projects and research reports, and was allowed to present my results to my peers and directors at the end of each summer.

Rocky: I intern with the Online Media team in their Marketing department, and usually, focusing on competitive analysis. For this past summer, my main project was a competitive benchmark report on business models in the architecture and construction industry.

Rocky: Besides etiquette and hands-on work internships like mine, it also gives you the chance to meet professionals and experts in many fields. I grabbed every opportunity I could to form acquaintances, turn them into a contacts or even friends, and able to interview many people for advice. Among them are marketing executives, an editor-in-chief and a former astronaut. I guess the best word to describe my experience is "funductive". It’s been both fun and productive.

Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs

Wayne: Haha… Good to see that you are learning a lot instead of just being the coffee boy. Currently, you seem to have a lot going on, from your own ventures, upcoming ones to being an intern at McGraw-Hill. Can you share some tips on how do you manage your time because it is obvious that "lack of time" is a major excuse for those who are still sitting by the sidelines?

Rocky: First of all, make time. And make sure you have clear priorities in mind. Let’s say for me, Literary Magic and writing – clash. You need to think of a plan beforehand. Let’s face it. You will not have time to do everything every day. Something will need to be sacrificed. Just make sure you know what that is beforehand, to ensure that you make the right choice. For me, as I mentioned before, my primary focus is usually Literary Magic. Sometimes, if I am behind on one project, I might set aside a day in advance, so I can focus on getting it done.

Rocky: Another way to manage your time is to separate them. Especially if school is crushing your time, you might need to do homework on weekdays, then use weekends to focus on your venture or book. Right now, in my mind, I am not trying to do ten things at once and write, edit Literary Magic submissions and do this interview. The interview is on my mind. In the background, I have my primary focus for the day set, and on the sidelines, await my other projects. Also, learn how not to waste time. Stay far away from the TV. Very far away….

Contact Rocky Reichman

Wayne: Rocky, it’s been great to have you on this interview and not to mention all the great tips that you have shared. How can my blog readers learn more about you and get in touch with you?

Rocky: The best way is by visiting Literary Magic. Check it out. Read a story or learn something about the words we use to communicate everyday. I also maintain a personal blog at www.RockyReichman.com. You can follow my tweets with @RockyReichman. I also enjoy talking via e-mail, rocky@rockyreichman.com. Thanks for your time, Wayne!

Wayne: You’re welcome, Rocky. Thanks again for doing this interview with me.

Share Your Opinion About the Interview

What have you learned from this interview? Are you inspired to take some actions after reading this? Also, do you have anything to comment on the issues discussed in the interview such as online content and entrepreneurship?

Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

If you like this interview, subscribe to Wayne Liew Dot Com now by submitting your first name and email address using the form below. By subscribing, you will get the latest updates and priority notifications of upcoming interviews!

Photo Credits: indi.ca and Yuliya Libkina

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