Small Biz Reads

Let's give 'em something to talk about.

Kate Mytty — 2006-08-30T14:36:05-05:00

Everytime I hear of word of mouth marketing, Bonnie Raitt's song plays quietly in my head as it did when I came across these posts.

WOM matters for all companies -- big and small. The bottom line to getting customers to talk: give them something to talk about. Is it your service? Product? Thank you letter? The way you remember their name each time they step in the door? Personalized recommendations?

Earlier this week, Guy Kawasaki posted an early review of Andy Sernovitz's (CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association) book Word of Mouth Marketing due out this November.

What's interesting is that:

The most powerful word-of-mouth advocates might be the customers who have only done business with you once so far.

First impressions are important. What are you doing to encourage this WOM from minute one?

Two organizations tried to generate WOM by giving possible WOM-ers the necessary tools.

The Prostate Net, a not-for-profit educational organization, contacted 50,000 barbers to talk to their clients about prostate cancer detection and prevention.

The Wynn Las Vegas resort gave free rooms to cabbies to generate word-of-mouth advertising via this very influential part of the transportation infrastructure.

Who/what is your version of the talkative barbers and Vegas cabbies? Do they know you?

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Next along the same lines...

Why companies should make prettier user manuals. Customers are attracted by pretty brochures and advertisements but what about user manuals? How many times have you actually enjoyed picking up the DVD manual or reading how to build an IKEA item?

You may not have a user manual but this applies to every contact piece. Are your invoices expressing you? One time my co-worker received a package of smarties in with her receipt.

How J. Crew remembered Jackie. It's hard to believe that a chain like J.Crew would remember someone's favorite sports team. I'm amazed. What a great way to use knowledge of customers.

Effective Entrepreneur

Todd Sattersten — 2006-08-10T14:21:10-05:00

Rob at Businesspundit just got done rereading Drucker's The Effective Executive. How many of you out there still haven't read it? No need to raise your hands.

His post is about applying the lessons from EE to entrepreneurship.

His main points are:

Know Thy Time
Focus on Contribution
Make Strength Productive
First Things First
Make Good Decisions
Effectiveness Can Be Learned

Short Reads For Small Biz

Todd Sattersten — 2006-07-31T08:38:19-05:00

How often do you read a book and think that it was too long? You think to yourself the book could have been 50 or 100 pages shorter and still gotten the point across.

How about this? I have two books under 60 pages that are perfect for small businessperson who needs a boost.

The first book is The Book of Yo! by Simon Woodroffe. Simon is an award winning entrepreneur and the founder of Yo!Sushi! in the UK. The book was published back in 2000 and is out of print (you can find expensive used copies on Amazon and Abe Books). I mention this one because if you can find it, it is a gem. Each two-page spread is an idea. On the left is Simon's story and on the right is "advice" and list of things to think about. The topic are all ones entrepreneur's need to be thinking--overcoming fear, practicing failure, the need for speed.

The second will be much easier to find and equally inspirational. It's called Lucky or Smart? Jack will often say when judging a book look at the author, the publisher, and the editor. Bo Peabody, founder of Tripod and now runs Village Ventures, surely has some great stories. Random House published it (versus one of their smaller imprints). Finally, the editor was Jonathan Karp--a star in our humble opinion.

The book does not disappoint. Here is a piece from the chapter titled "Entrepreneurs are B-Students, Managers are A-Students":

When I speak to a group of business school students, I run them through a little game. I ask everyone who ever started a business to raise his or her hand. Typically, about half of the people do. I then ask those who are still running that same business to keep their hands up. Very few do. I then propose that those who raised their hands and then put them down are typical entrepreneurs: great at starting things, but not so great at managing them. I conclude by recommending that these entrepreneurs take a look at the people who didn't raise their hands, jot down their names, give them a call next time they are about to start a business, and ask them to run it. Those people are the managers.

(You can read the full Jack Covert Selects here.)

Both are short and very sweet. They will not disappoint. Check them out.

What does the Long Tail mean for you?

Kate Mytty — 2006-07-26T10:53:00-05:00

Chris Anderson's book The Long Tail came out recently. Chris shows that there is an audience for nearly everything.

What is the "Long Tail"? Here's Jack's review.

For those unfamiliar with the idea, let me explain. The economy is changing. In the past, there weren't a lot of choices. For entertainment you chose between one of your three television channels or your local movie theater with a similarly limited selection. This created a blockbuster-driven culture. Everyone watched the MASH finale and saw Star Wars in the theater. Everyone accepted what was offered.

The variety of choices has since started to multiply. Why? The Internet. It has created a whole new way to distribute content. No longer are we limited to products carried in our local stores. Now we can find something to fulfill even the smallest niche desires.

Before, we went to Blockbuster to rent movies. Their shelf space limits them to carrying 3000 titles. Now we have 15 times that choice through Netflix which aggregates the demand for niche titles across the country. 21% of the movies rented through Netflix would never be found in a physical store. Yet, Netflix is competing with more than Blockbuster; it's competing with and contributing to the growing market for film.

On another end of the spectrum, there's YouTube, the exploding website of amateur videos. With professional production tools available to the masses, all you need to create a video is a webcam and iMovie. The content found on YouTube is what the Long Tail is all about. People can now find and "consume" content that matches their niche interests.

This concept is not limited to videos. Consider the king of the colored toy block--LEGO. 90% of their products are not available in retail and that represents 10-15% of their annual revenues. In the spirit of consumer production, LEGO has created a factory program. With simple software, customers can create their own kits and upload them back to the website for others to order.

Ultimately this means that there is a market for nearly everything out there. Someone somewhere will be interested in it.

Where is your long tail?

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Learn more about The Long Tail over on Chris' blog.

A Great List of Summer Readings

Todd Sattersten — 2006-07-21T10:33:14-05:00

National Dialogue On Entreprenuership puts out a list every year of books you small biz types should be reading. Click through to get their take on all the titles. We have added a few links in the lists to additional content we have the books.

How We Compete: What Companies Around the World are Doing to Make It in Today’s Global Economy by Suzanne Berger (Currency, 2005)
Small Giants: Companies that Choose to be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham (Portfolio, 2005) - [Check out our three part podcast with Bo].
Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams by Michael D’Antonio (Simon & Schuster, 2006)
Organic Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew by Samuel Fromartz (Harcourt, 2006).
I Said Yes! Real Life Stories of Students, Teachers and Leaders Saying Yes! to Youth Entrepreneurship in America’s Schools by Julie Silard Kantor (Gazelles, Inc., 2006).
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson (Princeton University Press, 2006) - [This was a March Jack Covert Selects].
Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics by Paul Ormerod (Pantheon, 2006).
The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy by Anna Lee Saxenian (Harvard University Press, 2006)
Lead Like an Entrepreneur: Keeping the Entrepreneurial Spirit Alive within the Corporation by Neal Thornberry (McGraw Hill, 2006).
Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery by David Warsh (W.W. Norton, 2006).

It is a D.I.Y. World

Todd Sattersten — 2006-07-11T16:28:04-05:00

We found this cute little book a couple of months ago called D.I.Y. (Design It Yourself). It is a manual for anyone who needs to design the stuff they need for their business or maybe want to start their own business designing stuff. They talk about making books, printing T-shirts, and building websites. There are 27 different projects in all.

The online version of the book is worth a visit as well.

More Ideas for Your Marketing

Todd Sattersten — 2006-06-29T11:01:37-05:00

Small business people are always looking for inspiration for what they can do to marketing better. Jack always recommends Guerilla Markeing by Jay Conrad Levinson. I would wholeheartedly second that. The book is overflowing with simple, inexpensive ideas for getting your company noticed.

There is a new book by Kim Gordon called Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars that explores the same territory. Gordon give readers fifty ways to use their time and money differently. One idea that caught our attention was Multicultural Marketing:

If you’re looking for a smart, low-cost way to expand your business,consider taking on ethnic markets. With the general affordability of ethnic media and the tremendous escalation in the buying power of ethnic groups, it may be the brightest way to take your product or service to new niche markets.

If you would like to read the whole chapter, jump over to the 800ceoread Excerpts Blog.

Fire Someone Today

Todd Sattersten — 2006-06-20T15:29:42-05:00

p>If you are looking for something new on bookshelves, you might want to check out Fire Someone Today by Bob Pritchett. Each month the big guy at 800ceoread reviews four or five books. This was one of his Jack Covert Selects for June.

Fire Someone Today is a title that grabs your attention. It's not a book about poor employees or bell curve purging in corporate America. It's about small business. Author Bob Pritchett takes great lengths to introduce himself. He's not a professional speaker, investor nor an academic; he's the "guy down the street who is working hard, running a pretty good business, and who has learned some lessons that may help you too."

One of the great things about small business books is that they apply to everyone. If you run a five-person company, you'll find help and inspiration. If you just joined a 50-person company, you'll learn what matters to the owner. Or if you work in the Fortune 50, it'll help you run your team like a small business.

Pritchett covers all the big stuff like firing, cash, and profit. He also covers some of the tried and true. For instance, you'll often hear about a founder who needs to hire a manager to run his growing business. Pritchett twists that idea and reminds entrepreneurs to do what they love and what made the business successful in the first place.

To illustrate this, he tells the story of an owner-engineer who was consumed by running the business. So he hired engineers who were ultimately less proficient and made products that looked like everything else. Eventually, the company lost its uniqueness.

Don't be fooled by the title. This is a strong book in the ever-crowded entrepreneurship, small business category. Pick it up and gain something new.

Welcome

Todd Sattersten — 2006-06-20T14:31:00-05:00

Welcome to our corner of the Duct Tape Marketing site.

You'll be hear from the gang at 800ceoread about small business books that you should be checking out. We'll do some reviews and maybe invite an author or two over to hang out here.

Thanks for stopping by!