NY Report

Drinks with Rob Featuring Ken Giddon of Rothman's

mcourt — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:46:57 +0000

Drinks with Rob Episode 4: Ken Giddon, co-founder of Rothman's, talks to NY Report CEO and publisher Rob Levin about taking risks and what it's like to move locations after 25 years.

Google Looks for Answers

mcourt — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:54:16 +0000

Answers are the new keywords when it comes to search engines

By: Mardy Sitzer

May 16, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

“SIRI, where can I find organic mushrooms?”

You’ve all seen the commercials for SIRI and are aware that smartphones are getting smarter. They perform on command and search for our answers. I’m just waiting for them to actually run my errands.

Search Marketing is fast becoming Answer Marketing (hey, did I just coin a new term?) and Google’s latest round of changes supports my theory. Google plans to deliver facts and information to questions asked—and reliable and trusted sources will be their selected choices. DING DING! Time to become the Answer Man or Answer Lady.

I recently wrote a post called “How to Turn Questions into Answers” and have been ranting about this for a few years now, as you can clearly see in this 2010 video. If that isn’t enough motivation to re-think your web content towards providing answers to questions, then the recent changes to Google’s search results should be.

©iStockphoto.com/IvanWuPI

What does that mean for you as a company? The Wall Street Journal recently reported on Google’s shift to semantic search. While Google’s position is that this is better for the searcher, who else benefits and who gets hurt?

Google is a search engine company and search results is their free service. Being the best search solution has to be a core goal for them. The search marketing game is to find ways to keep up with Google’s changes in order to have your website show up when someone searches with relevant terms—those keywords you hear about.

Google doesn’t make money directly from someone searching, nor do they make money from those who beat the ranking system. They make money from companies who advertise. Both search and data are being refined in a way that forces the advertising model. They are even suppressing that free data you used to get in their free analytics programs, which I reviewed in a recent post. It really doesn’t matter what Google’s intentions are—all that matters to small to mid-sized companies with small to miniscule budgets is how to get found.

Turning the search game upside down and inside out means that whatever you were doing to get found may not be enough anymore. And all that money going to SEO companies? Well, good luck with that. The continual refinement of results by Google will more than likely create a stronger need to move toward advertising, and the more advertising that is needed, the more expensive it will be as companies compete for keywords.

You might be thinking that I’m getting off topic, but I haven’t. The point is that if Google is going to be searching for Answers to Questions, then wouldn’t it make sense for you to rethink your web content to offer the Answers to those Questions?

Over the coming months, start using Google search to ask the questions that your prospective clients might be asking and review the results. Where do you come up—if at all? And in the meantime, to get a little ahead of your competitors with deeper pocketed marketing budgets, start re-crafting your website and online content to be the answers to those questions that Google would be proud to deliver.

Author Information:

Mardy Sitzer is a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional, and President of Bumblebee Design & Marketing. Since 1993, Mardy has been delivering creative and innovative marketing solutions. An avid reader of all things internet and marketing, she also writes blogs, articles and web content for industry magazines as well as for Bumblebee’s clients. Follow her on Twitter (twitter.com/MardySitzer) or email her at mardy@bumblebeellc.com.

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

mcourt — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:54:11 +0000

Thinking about giving up on a prospect? Here’s why you shouldn’t

By: Barry Friedman

May 15, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Being a salesperson can be a very exciting job. You get to meet lots of different people and personalities, many of whom give you support and hope and eventually become close friends. On the other hand, being a salesperson can be very challenging and boring. You can be out on the street all week long and not produce any legitimate prospect or business connection. Some prospects give you a runaround, aggravation, and finally they show you the door. Of course, this can really affect you, bring you down, and make you ask yourself: Is it time to throw in the towel?

I remember reading an article in the New York Enterprise Report late last year called “When Should You Throw in the Towel?” The article addresses real issues and concerns for salespeople, with many pros and cons about whether you should move on. Being a small business owner and a salesman myself for almost 15 years, I had a different point of view.

Marketing to the Not-for-Profit Sector

My company deals mostly with the not-for-profit sector. As the name tells you, these types of organizations are mostly there to serve the community and are being funded mostly through donations or government grants. They are not in the business to make a profit, but rather to help people. At the same time, these organizations employ as many people possible so they are also job providers.

Marketing to these organizations is just as complex as to the private sector. Sometimes it can even be more challenging. Since they don’t have extra personnel for each department, some employees are multi-tasking to fill as many shoes as possible, so it’s hard to get in contact with the right person and even harder to get an appointment.

For more than three years I have been trying to set up a sales meeting with a large organization, but with no success. Needless to say, whenever I walked into the main office with no appointment, I was turned away, always for different reasons, and of course my emails and voicemails were left unanswered.

©iStockphoto.com/AVAVA

Engage with Your Customer through Good Deeds

I always had a philosophy in business: “Every door can be opened. The question is, where to find the right key that opens it?” So I came up with an idea which I thought would be to the advantage of my prospects, and, of course, my company as well.

Once a year, usually before the November to December holiday season, I do a mass mailing to the organizations offering them free items, so they can provide a service to the needy (their clients) during the holidays. With that offer came an application where they “only” had to fill in the blanks (i.e. name of buyer, contact, annual usage of supplies, and where to ship the free order). The results of this offer were shocking. The prospect I tried contacting all year, unanswered, suddenly called and emailed me, asking where and how to get the application. The application was the key that finally opened the door.

Maintaining a Longtime Relationship with Your Clients

Although you found the key to open your customer’s door, it is extremely and even more important to constantly follow up with your new client to ensure a long and healthy relationship. Here are some basic ideas:

Always inform them of any price increases in advance, not when they are ready to place an order. I find customers feel cheated when you raise their price at the time of the order. Although it is legit and fair, they would rather have advanced notice so when they place the order they feel like it was their choice to do so.
When you do a mass mailing to prospects, offer some free items or specials and always include your existing clients as well. Even though you are only emailing to attract new prospects, your existing clients deserve the benefits (since they are already your clients) and they may well find out about the offer from someone else. That will turn them off from any more dealings with you almost instantly.
Do not overdo it with emails. Keep your emails to a maximum of one or two per week. Too many emails can cause your customers to consider your emails spam. They will feel harassed by them, and may eventually consider discontinuing doing business with your company.

The bottom line is, if you think it’s time to throw in the towel, think again. Be creative and come up with some ideas other than just phone messages and emails. It has given me proven results and it will for you, too.

Author Information:

Barry Friedman is an entrepreneur and owner of several small businesses, with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience in the hospitality and institutional industry. He can be reached at barry@1877kits.com.

Barry Friedman

mcourt — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:10:48 +0000

Articles by Barry Friedman

Time for a Change

mcourt — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:51:35 +0000

Shaking things up in your home life can positively affect your work life, too

By: Wendy Kaufman

May 14, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Spring is often when we start making plans for summer vacation. I find that many clients find themselves visiting the same place, same house, same street, year after year. Although I do see the appeal in this trend, as it can be familiar and comforting, it often stands in the way of the exploratory opportunity that vacation time offers. I try to push clients to ask themselves some important questions to get them to think out of the box and try something new:

1. Why are you going back?

2. What else would you want to see, or do?

3. What fears are holding you back?

4. How does the rest of your family feel about change?

©iStockphoto.com/arcady_31

So often we are hit in life with changes, both unexpected and expected. The book Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson is always on the New York Times bestseller list because the vast majority of us don’t like change. Individuals that fall into this category find that they have a harder time with work/life balance in their companies because they have virtually stopped growing.

Life is about exploring, creating new opportunities and experiences, and in part, about scaring yourself. Take a good look at your everyday habits. Do you eat the same things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day? Do you see the same type of movies? Have the same friends, or look for identical qualities in new friends? Are your opinions set in stone?

While I realize it may seem far-reaching to equate where you go on summer vacation to willingness to change, I see a distinct pattern in this vein with the clients that I coach on work/life balance. When I make suggestions, their gut reaction is to explain why this doesn't apply to them, or won't work in their case. If we don’t shake it up, then we never know what else we are capable of or what else life has to offer.

Author Information:

Wendy Kaufman is the President and Founder of Balancing Life’s Issues, a national corporate training company. She can be reached at wendy@balancinglifesissues.com.

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

mcourt — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:54:50 +0000

Congratulations to New York’s nine winners

May 11, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

The Small Business Administration’s New York district office recently honored nine New York entrepreneurs and business owners for their outstanding contributions to the small business community. The presentation of the Small Business Week Awards officially kicked off New York City’s National Small Business Week. To find out more about the awards, visit the Small Business Week website.

Congratulations to the 2012 winners! They are:

NY District Small Business Person of the Year

Delores V. Stafford, President/CEO, Stafford Associates

NY District Women in Business Champion of the Year

Niema Dawn Mack, Educational Director, Minds Childcare LLC & Master Minds Children, Inc.

NY State Small Business Financial Service Champion

Steven Drobysh, Team Leader VP, Provident Bank

NY State Small Business Development Center Excellent in Service and Innovation Award

Ana Catalina Castano, Director, Brooklyn Small Business Development Center

NY District Minority Small Business Champion

Michael J. Garner, Chief Diversity Officer, Metropolitan Transportation Authority

NY District Jeffrey Butland Family-Owned Business Award

Steven Coppola, President, APB Security Systems, Inc., Statewide Fire Corp. Statewide Monitoring Corp.

NY District SBA Entrepreneurial Success Award

Daniel Levy, ManhattanHomeDesign.com

NY State Small Business Exporter of the Year

Mr. Edward Kezys, President, North Shore International, Inc.

NY District Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year

Lou Catalanotto, Veteran Employment Representative, NYS Department of Labor

Author Information:

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

mcourt — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:54:51 +0000

A recent survey sheds light on the thoughts of business owners in regards to the economy

By: Rohit Arora

May 11, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Recently, the Manta SMB Wellness Index found that many small business owners said they were planning to hire at this time last year, but the most of them (80 percent) have not. The survey also found that 45 percent do not plan to hire additional workers this year while one-third say it's too early to tell.

Further, more than half of small businesses (53 percent) say they are not taking advantage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act healthcare tax credit, which took effect in 2010 for small businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees. One in three small business owners say that don't understand the law and its requirements, and nearly one in four say they aren't sure how the legislation will impact their company. Half say it hasn't impacted them and 14 percent say the effects have been negative.

The Manta SMB Wellness Index found that 42 percent of small businesses feel the economy is not really in recovery. New business activity fell 30 percent in the first three months of 2012, compared to the same time last year. More than four in 10 small business owners say taxes are more complicated this year than in previous years, and more than 30 percent report that they owed more money in taxes this year than last year.

However, entrepreneurship still continues, and many small companies aren't letting factors they can't control—like high gas prices or the unstable economy—stand in the way of building their business in new ways. Our Biz2Credit platform received a record number of registrations from small business owners looking for startup funding, working capital, equipment loans, and lines of credit. And our most recent Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index found that lending slowed only at big banks in March (and that drop came after months of increases.)

Small business continues to be a main growth engine in the economy. While the climate is not red hot, it is certainly quite warm.

Author Information:

A frequently quoted expert on small business lending and recently named the Top Entrepreneur of 2011 by Crain’s New York Business, Rohit Arora is CEO of Biz2Credit, which connects small business owners with 300 lenders, credit rating agencies and service providers. Since 2007, Biz2Credit has secured $400 million in funding for small businesses in New York and across the U.S. via its safe, efficient online platform.

How to Find the Best Marketing Help

mcourt — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:54:13 +0000

11 steps to ensure you’re hiring the right marketing professional

By: John Follis

May 10, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

With so many great options on the marketing landscape, there’s never been a better time to market a product or service. In fact, a recent CMO survey reports that almost every industry anticipates “a hiring increase of marketers during the next year.” And yet, while there’s never been a better time, there’s also never been a more confusing time. “New technologies are breeding all kinds of “experts” so clients don't have an objective formula for figuring out who's good and who’s not,” says Joellyn (Joey) Sargent, an Atlanta consultant who’s been on the hiring side as a senior VP.

Adds Mark Cubine, marketing VP of a Birmingham software company: “Lots of people/companies can put on a good presentation and put forth a good proposal. But none of that means anything to me in terms of proving they are the right company to hire.” Vancouver Strategist Jeff Swan agrees: “Sometimes the greatest pitches can lead to a lower service level, while the truly talented simply don't have the time or ability to put together a flashy pitch.”

I’ve seen many businesses owners and managers paralyzed by their confusion, fear, and distrust of marketing and marketing people. These are owners and managers who desperately need marketing help, and know it, but don’t know how to move ahead with confidence.

“It's like taking your car to a mechanic,” says New York marketing director Catherine Ortiz. “Sometimes you get great service and sometimes you get taken because you don't completely understand the dynamics of how your car works.”

That thought is echoed by Sargent, who says, “Finding the right fit can be a challenge, especially for someone who really doesn't know marketing—which is why they need help.”

And, what about those who do understand marketing?

Christine Thompson, a Seattle consultant who’s held senior marketing roles at Apple, says, “Mid-level managers inside larger enterprises are required to procure services only from the pool available from the approved vendors, and that can prevent them from access to the very best talent.” Regarding smaller companies, Thompson agrees with previous comments: “As for smaller firms, often the issue is that clients don't really understand what the real problem is, and therefore the solutions they seek are ill-matched.”

©iStockphoto.com/atakan

Ultimately, a business owner or manager may never truly know the talents of a marketing resource until things begin. Yet there are some simple steps that, if taken, will greatly improve the odds of beginning with the right one. Before listing them, a quick comment on referrals: Referrals are a good, obvious way to go, but they should be considered nothing more than a good starting point if you want to find a truly good match. Here’s want to do next:

1. See and love the work

Invest some serious, undistracted time thoroughly reviewing the work. Do you love it?

2. Check credentials and experience

The professional pedigree and experience of the person, or people, handling your business can make all the difference. So, be sure you find a kick-ass bio on their website. Otherwise, look them up on LinkedIn.

3. Results

Ultimately, it comes down to this. On their website, do they display great testimonials and case studies? A couple, or many? Do they talk about results?

4. Beware of the hidden agenda

Many marketing “experts’” expertise is limited to a niche, and sometimes a fairly narrow one. Unfortunately, that’s not always apparent, so beware. They may be advising you to do something because it’s what they sell and not what’s in your company’s best interest.

5. How well do they market themselves?

You’d assume that any marketing firm looking to help you would be awesome at marketing themselves. Not true. And I’ve heard all the excuses, from “the shoemaker with no shoes” to “I’m just way too busy with my clients.” As Joan Rivers says, “Pa-leeeeeeze!” The very last thing you want to do is to hire a marketing firm that sucks at marketing themselves.

6. How’s their G-Cred?

G-cred is what shows up when you Google them. It's an easy and valuable litmus test.

7. Do they know social media?

Talking about it is one thing. Find out how effectively they’re putting it to use. Do they have a great blog? Facebook page? YouTube channel? Do they Tweet? And, are they tweeting about the bar they’re drinking at, or something that reflects true marketing savvy?

8. Awards and press

This one can be a bit controversial because while awards can be a great litmus test for some, for others, not so much. The argument is that few award shows factor in “results” as a winning criteria. Also, if an agency is doing lots of boasting about their awards, it might be a way of overcompensating for other major weaknesses. On the other hand, if someone has no awards, that’s not good either. So, seek a happy medium.

Press-worthy work is a good litmus test because great press can be a great, free, added benefit for you. So, find out if they’ve gotten any. If they have, are we talking the local PennySaver, or The New York Times?

9. Are they a respected thought leader?

The more respected they are within their industry, the better the odds they’re good. Things to find out include:

Are they published in respected magazines and blogs?
Have they written a book?
Do they speak at respected venues?
Have they been interviewed?
Are they on Wikipedia?

10. Do they make it easy to work together?

This is one you might not have considered. The fact is that investing in marketing help is a scary proposition for most business owners, especially first-timers. A smart marketing person or firm will be aware of that and have an easy way to start the process and test the waters.

11. Are they driven and passionate about their business?

It's one of the most important, yet most overlooked, items on the list. If you're passionate about your business you'll want to work with someone equally passionate about theirs. Sometimes you can simply hear it in their voice or see it in their eyes. You can also tell by how they present themselves online. Is it inspired, or rudimentary? For more on this, see "The Power of Passion."

If someone scores well on all these, they deserve a shot. You can test the waters with a project and take it from there. Hopefully, it’ll be the start of a long, beautiful relationship.

Author Information:

John Follis, of Follis Inc, is a 25-year business owner and marketing exec. In ‘93, his previous agency, Follis/DeVito/Verdi, was the second most awarded in New York. John is also author of "How to Attract and Excite Your Prospects" and his innovative “Marketing Therapy” program helps businesses around the US achieve their marketing goals faster, smarter, and more cost-effectively.

What’s Your Line?

mcourt — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:20:55 +0000

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

By: Mardy Sitzer

May 9, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Does it ring a bell, strike a cord, elicit a response like “Tell me more!” or “Ah ha! Just what I need!”? Your tag line and elevator pitch is a critical component to any branding program for your company and a necessary ingredient to a first meeting or first impression.

So first, let’s take a look at how you might want to develop or refine your tag line:

1. Start with a simple definition of what you do or what you offer, in six words or less with no adjectives.

2. Next, in six words or less, describe outcomes for your client, limiting or excluding adjectives.

3. Then, in six words or less, describe how you are unique, different, or better than your competition.

4. Finally, are there motivational reasons to buy or use your products or services? If so, write down up to six motivations.

5. Take your 24 words and read them out loud.

6. Test out three to four words that deliver the most meaning to a potential client.

7. Organize three to four options of the best three to four words.

8. Ask a dozen or so friends, clients, and associates what they think of the tag lines. Please only select friends, clients, and associates who will be brutally honest.

©iStockphoto.com/logorilla

Now that you have your tag line, let’s move on to your elevator pitch:

1. Write down what you normally say in your elevator pitch.

2. Remove all references to yourself.

3. Remove all justifications or “why”s.

4. Describe your ideal client in six words.

5. Describe customer outcomes in six words.

6. Form a new sentence that follows this equation: [we] + [offer or provide] + [product or service] + to [best customer description] + who want to [achieve, realize, or get] + [outcome]. Please note that it is one sentence, not a speech.

7. Pause (shut up).

8. How the person responds will let you know if you should continue on with more information or change the conversation.

9. If they go silent, you might ask, “What about you—what do you do?”

Please pay close attention to number 7—this is where most folks go wrong. If you don’t get that overjoyed “Oh boy, where have you been my whole life?” response, try not to fall into the way of thinking that they didn’t understand, so you need to go into a deeper explanation. Should you keep going on, the likely result is that whoever you’re speaking with will suddenly see someone across the room that they must go to now—leaving you standing there.

If you want an opportunity to continue the dialogue, then start getting interested in who they are and what they do—and stop trying to be interesting. (See number 9.) Turn the conversation around to get them to talk about themselves. This tactic has a better chance of a positive outcome.

Author Information:

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

mcourt — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:54:21 +0000

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

By: Jennifer Scott

May 8, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Networking has long been described as the number one way to get ahead; to increase sales, to find investors, and yes, even to find a job or new employees. We’ve all overheard people ask “How did you get that lead?” or “How did you hear about that opportunity?” And we’ve all heard people answer, “Oh, I knew someone…”

Networking—it’s all about who you know. Or is it?

I have connections on LinkedIn I’ve never met, followers on Twitter I had not previously heard of, and <gasp> “friends” on Facebook that I’m not friends with. Crazy?

I can walk into a room of 150 people gathered to hear me talk about social recruiting, and they’re in that room because they know about me, not because I already know them, and that’s good for business. Networking, in my possibly not-so-humble opinion, is not just about who you know. I believe that’s only half the picture. I believe that who knows about you is equally as valuable.

Facebook gives you the perfect opportunity to get as many people to know about you (and your business) as humanly possible. With almost 66 percent of all internet users in the United States on Facebook (that’s more than 156 million people), it’s a treasure-trove of active and passive candidates. Simple messaging on your company’s Facebook page can not only help you attract new customers, it can also help you attract potential employees and communicate your employer brand. And, depending upon how you choose to use your own personal Facebook page, and how your current employees choose to use theirs, you can consider cross-posting and increase your visibility. Why not leverage your personal networks, too? Do you really care where that next great lead comes from?

©iStockphoto.com/pearleye

Ready to face your Facebook fears? Here are some ways you can optimize your company page for recruiting top talent today.

Choose a great cover photo (851 x 315 pixels) and profile image (180 x 180 pixels) that really scream your brand. Your cover photo should be exciting and indicative of who you are internally as an organization. Your profile image should be a square version of your logo to capitalize on visual brand recognition.
Set up your custom feature tabs. These are just to the right of your About section, and they stand out! Use them wisely. You can include career opportunities, featured news, upcoming events, and even contests.
Use your timeline to share milestones and important dates in your company’s history. This is a great way to tell your story. You need to include when you started your business, and then fill in important historic events. Maybe you can highlight when you hired your 10^th employee (and include and tag a photo if they’re still there!) Other milestones to consider are past events, awards and honors, articles and features, and anything else that helps you stand out. And remember, a picture may be worth a thousand words.
Engage your audience. Continue to add value to your network. Post regularly to keep your audience coming back for more. Share news, events, and ideas, but don’t just push content. People like to have conversations; nobody wants to be talked at. Ask for opinions, poll your fans, interact with those who comment, and encourage others to participate.
Demonstrate your corporate culture. Take pictures during your team-building activities or at your company picnic. Take and tag photos of Bring Your Child to Work Day. Honor, congratulate, and celebrate your employees’ achievements. Like other pages from your page, especially community organizations or charities your company supports.
And, don’t forget to announce your job openings! Use those status updates and ask your employees and fans to share the post. Like attracts like, so leverage your existing network and spread the word.

With a little work, and a little imagination, Facebook may just become your number one source of hire.

Author Information:

Jennifer Scott is the director of talent acquisition for Workforce Engine; a consulting firm helping small and mid-size businesses drive productivity through strategic HR. Since 1993, Jennifer has been helping companies understand how the candidate sourcing, recruiting, and retention processes work. She can be reached at js@workforceengine.com.

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

mcourt — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:16:28 +0000

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

By: Barbara Weltman

May 7, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

If your business is incorporated, you can take a salary for the work that you do. Obviously, your company’s revenues are a big part of the decision on how much you can afford to take out of its coffers as compensation. Taxes are another important factor.

C or S?

Which type of corporation you run affects the decision on compensation. As a general rule (and by no means your guiding factor):

C corporations want to optimize compensation to an owner to create as large a tax deduction as possible.
S corporations want to minimize compensation to keep employment taxes low. Owners will pay income tax one way or the other (as their share of profits or as compensation).

©iStockphoto.com/emreogan

IRS looking over your shoulder

The IRS is well aware of the general rules for C and S corporations. Thus, it seeks to disallow a C corporation’s deduction for any compensation that is not considered to be “reasonable” under the facts and circumstances of the situation.

By the same token, it is on the hunt for S corporations and their shareholders who try to avoid employment taxes by underpaying compensation. One recent court decision is a case in point. A CPA was the sole owner, shareholder, director, and employee of his S corporation. He had a contract with his corporation to provide exclusive services and took a salary of $24,000 each year (for the years in question). He also had dividends distributed to him of $203,651 and $175,470 in these years. The IRS recharacterized the dividends as compensation and imposed FICA taxes on them. A district court, affirmed by an appellate court, said that the economic realities of the situation—the earnings of the corporation based on the owner-employee’s services—should control the amount of compensation. (The IRS’ expert witness was used to determine what was appropriate compensation in this situation.) Thus, paying a minimum salary may not be sufficient to avoid an IRS challenge if the minimum amount is not reasonable under the circumstances.

Work with a tax advisor

Compensation to owner-employees typically is fixed in the annual meeting for the corporation and memorialized in the corporate minutes. It is a good idea to discuss the compensation matter with a tax advisor before holding the annual meeting and setting compensation for the coming year.

Author Information:

Barbara Weltman is an attorney, author (with such titles as J.K. Lasser’s Small Business Taxes and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business), and trusted professional advocate for small businesses and entrepreneurs. She is also the publisher of Idea of the Day® and monthly e-newsletter Big Ideas for Small Business® at www.barbaraweltman.com, and host of Build Your Business radio. Follow her on Twitter: @BarbaraWeltman.

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

mcourt — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:54:51 +0000

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

By: Rohit Arora

May 4, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Small business loan approvals by big banks (more than $10 billion in assets) dropped to 10.9 percent in March, down from 11.7 percent in February. This number represents a 6.8 percent decline over a one-month period and from the 11.6 percent approval rate one year ago.

According to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index that my company produces monthly, small bank lending was flat at a 47.6 percent approval rate, alternate lenders were up 0.5 percent to a 63 percent approval rate, and loans made by credit unions increased ever so slightly—just 0.1 percent—to a 57.9 percent approval rate.

Big banks are always cautious, particularly when the economy is slow. The March jobs report was disappointing, showing that only 120,000 new jobs were created in the economy, which was a figure significantly short of rosy estimates of up to more than 300,000 jobs. Meanwhile, rising oil prices make both borrowers and lenders nervous. So while the availability of small business financing has improved over the past 12 months, the flow of capital seems to be slowing, which is a cause of concern.

Big banks loan parameters are tight, and they approve loans at a lower rate than other categories of lenders, despite advertising that they are very active in small business lending.

Lenders of all types had been steadily increasing the number of funding approvals for small business owners during the past year. The momentum of the past few months appears to have slowed, and business owner optimism has dipped. However, I am still cautiously optimistic that this is a temporary blip and not the start of a slowdown similar to what happened in the second quarter last year when lending stalled after a strong first quarter.

The good news is that credit unions and alternative lenders continue to approve more than 50 percent of loan requests, and small bank lending remains strong.

Author Information:

How to Manage Your Records

mcourt — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:54:08 +0000

What to keep, and for how long

By: Phyllis Barr

May 3, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Note: I have been called Chicken Little, but having dealt with floods, steam pipes bursting, bugs, theft, and records being destroyed or discarded, sometimes it is worth listening to Chicken Little!

It is recommended that companies and organizations have a records management survey conducted to determine what should be kept for one year, seven years (for example, tax records), 10 years, or permanently, no matter what the format. But once is not enough. They should be updated when the organizational structure has changed, or the company merges with another, and even every few years if no major changes occur. A survey of each department should lead to a records management schedule, which will list what should and must be kept, and for how long.

©iStockphoto.com/creisinger

The following are suggestions on what to keep, as well as some suggested rules in regards to records management:

What should your business keep permanently?

Incorporation papers and all legal documents still extant
Audits
Annual reports (four of each)
Human resources manuals and benefit information for employees
Historical information, such as photographs and copies of newspaper and magazine articles about your business

Even with all of today’s technological advances, when computers are updated, it may not be possible to read older documents. Back-up servers can have a problem, or even go out of business. Paper documents are still readable hundreds of years later—can you say that about a computer file or external hard drive? If possible, keep your most important paper records at another site such as a document storage company, or in a bank vault.

How to train your employees about records management

It is not uncommon for people to clean out their desks and filing cabinets without asking what should be kept. Employees should be told:

Do not throw out any records without permission.
Decisions about what to keep should be made by department heads and lawyers and accountants, based on standard records management procedures and laws (such as those regarding taxes).
All employees should be provided with a list of records to be kept permanently, for five years, seven years (fiscal/tax) and 10 years. This should be in manual and part of new employee orientation.
When an employee leaves the company, ask them to make a list of their paper files and give the list to the head of their department. Any records not relevant for their replacement can be taken to the main filing area if needed.

As for e-mail records, that is more difficult and decisions have to be made given the amount. I suggest keeping on hard drive those dealing with policy decisions, requests for funding, changes in employee "rules," and board minutes, and photographs and gala information as well as backed-up on a server and external drives.

Lastly, it must be decided what should be removed from an office in the event of a disaster, if possible. Sometimes Chicken Little could be on the mark!

Author Information:

Phyllis Barr is president of Corporate Culture Marketing by Barr Consulting Services, which helps companies leverage their history and heritage. She can be reached at ladyhistory@earthlink.net.

Free Has a Cost… and It Is Rising

mcourt — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:18:52 +0000

Google, Facebook, and other online tools may be free to use, but they come with a cost

By: Mardy Sitzer

May 2, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

(Warning! This is a rant, and it has to do with the new burdens to small business marketing.)

We get access to amazingly complex and free social platforms to play with, promote our businesses, and gather free data that allows us to measure how we are doing. Just think about LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, Pinterest, Flickr, and Youtube, and you begin to realize that the free services that are out there are pretty amazing.

We get free tools to enhance the user experience on our websites, free tools to encourage visitors and fans to share our stuff, and free tools that make our mobile devices dance, sing, and perform in amazing ways. We get free data here, free entry there, free content just about everywhere, and tons of great tools and information for free.

And we wonder why our current generation has a sense of entitlement. I get a real kick when I read rants from people that complain about these free services as though they have rights to demand quick customer service, or features that should be added. Okay, I digress—let me get back to the Cost of Free.

Hordes of users get angry and demand privacy of their content and selections on these free-to-use sites, and become outraged when they discover that this very tracking data collection is being sold for a profit—a hefty profit. But no one seems to mind using those bar coded discount cards in the drug and grocery stores that track your every purchase, or your credit card companies and your bank packaging and selling your data.

The currency trade is that you get discounts from your drug store in exchange for tracking your buying trends, matched to your psychographic and demographic profile. You get free information and tools in exchange for your interests, from your buying, clicking, sharing, connecting life, plus your psychographic and demographic profile.

©iStockphoto.com/frender

But when the data dries up or becomes distorted, then the currency exchange rate is not in balance anymore. That’s my beef with Google. Yes, me, I have a beef with Google. I’m the same person who sings the praises of Google, but now I have a bone to pick. And yes I am seeking alternative tracking methods, since I can no longer rely on Google to ‘do no harm.’

A real point of pain for me, as I am sure for tons of others doing what I do for a living, is Google’s move in November 2011 to block data in analytics reporting. The way this works is if you go into your analytics report you will see a new keyword category named (not provided). Huh? Yes, (not provided) is a new keyword. Well, no, not really—but here is the scoop.

Google will not share keyword search analytics from searchers who were signed into any Google product at the time of their search. Google product users’ keyword selections now get anonymously bundled into the (not provided) category. Google’s sentiment is that this will represent a small percentage of your search analytics. Now, they really don’t believe that, as they continue to roll out products and promote services that take on major market share.

The idea that the (not provided) keyword is a small fraction might be true if you have hundreds of thousands of visitors to your website each day, but this is a small business killer. Basically, it renders your search analytics somewhere between mildly useful to totally useless when you are analyzing small traffic for small businesses. Realistically, the percentage of (not provided) can reach well over 50 percent of your search volume.

So while you are getting all huffy about your Tweets and Facebook posts, clicks, and shares being packaged and sold, so is your search. And if you are a small business, you’ve just been forced into a greater marketing spend and are going to have to cough up more money to market. That level playing field is no longer level because as you are forced into PPC campaigns, you will be competing with pockets far deeper than your own.

Now, if you are wondering why Google made this move, allow me to offer my point of view. All these free sites need to make money to stay in business, and they aren’t making money directly from you. Now, it isn’t like Google is hurting for cash flow, but clearly this is a new direction to enhance their revenue streams. The new buzz in the big data collection world is ‘proprietary data.’ What that means is, while you are using these free tools, these companies are gathering ‘proprietary data’ and this allows these big data collection companies, like Google, to court the big advertisers with their point of differentiation being access to their proprietary data. This is the new battleground for large companies who make their money through selling ads.

The only way that this data becomes ‘unlocked’ is through the purchase of their higher performing services and their advertising platforms. So if you want to know how your keywords are doing through your search engine optimization and marketing efforts, you will be forced to add PPC in to the mix or get a third party vendor who has access to some ‘not provided’ data. Search marketing, SEO, and PPC tactics will become far less valuable and far less accessible to small businesses in short order.

My suggestion, in the meantime, is to start enhancing your social media and content marketing efforts. In the end, it is the customers who decide what and where they will buy, and they will share what they value. Your marketing can continue to be a cost-effective strategy if you pay attention to the people and less on the statistics. It is time to go into warp speed to enhance your engagements online and enhance and grow your value as a business to motivate customers into becoming raving fans.

If you want to conquer, build a volunteer army.

Author Information:

Game Changers

lindsaytigar — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:55:47 +0000

NY Report takes a look at a few entrepreneurs who are building businesses today that will fundamentally change the way business is done in the future. The Game Changers are industry disruptors who are creating rapidly scalable businesses. They can change their business model in hours, not months. Many of these companies are mission-driven and are as focused on the good they can do in the world as they are on the profits they stand to earn.

The 2012 Game Changers

Hardware Retailer Enemy #1

Jonathan Hefter, Neverware

How it’s changing the game: You may never have to buy a new desktop and you will still be able to use the latest software and OS, without sacrificing speed. “We have a piece of technology that can bring millions of aging computers back online and allow a few IT managers to manage the deployment of thousands of computers,” says Hefter.

Tableteer

Jason Baptiste, Onswipe

How it’s changing the game: Not only does Onswipe technology allow content publishers to automatically optimize a website that was built for point-and-click devices for a touch-and-swipe device within three minutes (yes, three minutes), but they do so for free.

Higher Ed Revolutionary

Joseph Cohen, Lore

How it’s changing the game: “Our personal life is on Facebook, our business life is on LinkedIn; but if you think about educational life, it doesn’t exist online,” says Cohen. “We basically bring the idea of Facebook and LinkedIn to the educational world.”

Online Art Dealers

Catherine Levene (pictured left) and Christopher Vroom, Artspace

How it’s changing the game: Having contemporary art from all over the world accessible in one place is unique. Artspace is also making the process of buying art much easier. On behalf of both the buyer and seller, the company handles logistics such as shipping, insurance, and customs, if it’s an international order.

Class Act

Payal Kadakia, Classtivity

How it’s changing the game: Classtivity puts all its information on available classes together on one site that allows you to search with ridiculously specific and convenient criteria. Classtivity also incorporates user reviews.

Journalism’s New Hope

Shafqat Islam, NewsCred

How it’s changing the game: While licensing and syndicating content has been done for years by services like Associated Press and Reuters, NewsCred does so with sophisticated, semantic technology. This technology automatically organizes all of the content NewsCred licenses by topic.

Employee Location Specialist

Joe Essenfeld, JIBE

How it’s changing the game: For employers, hiring an employee through someone you know is usually more desirable than a “cold” hire. And for job seekers, JIBE aggregates users’ friends and connections to show them the companies and industries they are linked to.

Party Hosts

Brad Hargreaves, Adam Pritzker, Matthew Brimer (pictured left), and Jake Schwartz, General Assembly

How it’s changing the game: They host several classes each month. Startups pay fees for desk space and access to classes. General Assembly offers 30 to 50 classes a month, including one keynote lecture each week.

The Apprentices

Kane Sarhan and Shaila Ittycheria (pictured left), E[nstitute]

How it’s changing the game: E[nstitute] was founded on the principle that real world experience and direct access to successful business owners will provide a more robust and valuable education than sitting in a classroom and taking notes.

The 2011 Game Changers

Wharton Guys Sticking it to “The Man”

Neil Blumenthal, David Gilboa (pictured left), Andrew Hunt, and Jeffrey Raider, Warby Parker

How they're changing the game: For anyone who wears prescription glasses, the notion of paying only $95 for a pair may seem like a dream come true. By designing their own frames and selling direct to the consumer through the website, Warby Parker is able to cut the licensing and retail costs.

The Model of Sustainability

Summer Rayne Oakes, Source4Style

How she's changing the game: Even as a teenager, Oakes had a strong sense of activism and studied environmental science. Before starting Source4Style, Oakes started in the fashion industry as a model at age 17. She entered the business side of the fashion industry with the caveat that she would only work with environmentally relevant brands or those interested in taking a path toward sustainability.

The Mobile Disruptor

Amos Winbush III, CyberSynchs

How he's changing the game: The idea for CyberSynchs came about after Winbush’s iPhone crashed in June 2008 and he spent hours upon hours trying to recover all of his lost data. At the time, he was a recording musician who didn’t even know what software engineers did. Today, his technology startup has effectively disrupted the way the mobile content marketplace operates.

Ambassadors of Fashion

Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, Rent the Runway

How they're changing the game: Hyman and Fleiss are effectively democratizing luxury fashion. While doing market research, the partners learned that there was an eager market for their “Netflix for dresses” idea. But signing designers on as partners was a whole other matter.

He's No Agency Man

Ian Schafer, Deep Focus

How he's changing the game: So, what is “consumer engagement?” Let’s look at a project Schafer is most proud of. AMC network hired Deep Focus to “engage” more viewers for their show Mad Men. They were given the task to draw a million new viewers to the show for its third season.

Mobilizing the Masses via Mobile

Steve Martocci and Jared Hecht, GroupMe

How they're changing the game: “There’s no real-time group coordination tool for mobile phones,” said Martocci. “I thought it was a cool idea but it seemed so generic and simple I thought, ‘Why hasn’t this been done this before?’”

The Matchmaker

Rachael Chong, Catchafire

How she's changing the game: Chong was born in Australia but lived throughout Asia from the age of eight until she graduated high school because her mother was an Australian diplomat. From that experience, Chong grew up seeing and understanding poverty from a very young age.

The 2010 Game Changers

The Cross Continent Connector

Anjula Acharia-Bath, DesiHits!

How she’s changing the game: Just like our economy and many other aspects of our culture, music is going global, in large part due to technology. And Acharia-Bath was out in front of this trend.

The Educator

Jenna Arnold, Press Play Productions

How she’s changing the game: By creating “edutainment” for popular venues like MTV, Arnold has helped to create a form of activism infomercials. By presenting the content in a format similar to globally popular reality shows, Press Play’s products aim to create empathy and understanding of foreign cultures, as well as creating empathy for the US around the world.

The Menswear Men

Alan Chan (pictured left) and Manoj Dadlani, Arbitrage Clothing

How they’re changing the game: These are not your father’s dress shirts. With the help of designer Kristin Ming, Chan and Dadlani set out to create dress shirts that not only fit slim men better, but have a youthful, trendy style, while remaining work appropriate.

The Serial Re-Innovator

Fabrice Grinda, OLX, Inc.

How he’s changing the game: Some of OLX’s features that have changed classified, if not e-commerce as a whole, include: a distance field allowing you to see postings within a certain geographic range; the ability to post items in virtual worlds; the ability to include videos in listings; RSS feeds; the ability to display ads on social networking profiles; and the ability to access the site from mobile phones.

The Foodie

Divya Gugnani, Behind the Burner

How she’s changing the game: Behind the Burner integrates culinary brands into the content for a flat fee. In most online advertising, clients pay a price per guaranteed impressions or per unique viewers. By getting paid directly from the product, instead of basing her revenue model on charging for content distribution, she flips conventional video and television models upside down.

The Innovation Instigator

Brandon Kessler, ChallengePost

How he’s changing the game: When an individual, company, non-profit, or government agency posts a challenge, developers working on innovations to meet those challenges are rewarded with a cash prize, but also with the intellectual stimulation of the challenge itself, altruistic satisfaction, and social recognition for their ideas on the site.

The Thrill Seeker

Ben Lerer, Thrillist

How he’s changing the game: Most media companies use newsletters to drive traffic to their website, but Thrillist uses its website to drive newsletter subscriptions. According to Lerer, the reason their model was engaging to advertisers was because email is an easy way to quantify the audience.

The Impulsive

Eric Litman, Medialets

How he’s changing the game: The company’s offerings can now be found installed on nearly half of the iPhones and iPod Touches in circulation. “The mobile industry is growing at a pace that is faster than anything I’ve ever seen,” says Litman. “Mobile use is outpacing desktop Internet use.”

The Man About Town

Nihal Mehta, buzzd

How he’s changing the game: The concept for buzzd was influenced by other technologies, such as Twitter and foursquare. Since the vast majority of Internet users are voyeurs, Mehta knew it would be more effective to aggregate social media and attach that content to venues, rather than creating a venue completely from scratch.

The Trader

Ted Myerson, FTEN

How he’s changing the game: What sets FTEN’s technology apart from financial enterprise software that existed in the past is that they help clients manage access to trading venues and adapt to regulatory changes. But unlike outsourced services, the clients keep the controls.

The Auctioneer

Barry Silbert, SecondMarket

How he’s changing the game: With nine diverse asset classes, more than 10,000 buyers and sellers, and more $25 billion in assets available for sale, SecondMarket is the largest illiquid asset marketplace in the world. The SecondMarket business model combines the efficiency of a centralized, transparent, online trading platform with the expertise of market specialists employed by the company.

The Social Networker

Gary Vaynerchuk, VaynerMedia

How he’s changing the game: Through VaynerMedia, Vaynerchuk is helping traditional companies and organizations integrate “bleeding edge” technology and adopt new strategies.

The Movie Buff

Nate Westheimer, AnyClip

How he’s changing the game: “We’re different because of the way we think about data and about searching,” says Westheimer. “We believe people need to have the ability to search through the entire film, not just a few select clips.”

(Image credits: Jonathan Hefter, Jason Baptiste, Joseph Cohen, Catherine Levene, Payal Kadakia, Shafqat Islam, Matthew Brimer, Kane Sarhan, Shaila Ittycheria by Jill Lotenberg; Steve Martocci, Jared Hecht, Brandon Kessler, Eric Litman by Philip Ficks; Jenna Arnold by Geoff Letchford; Alan Chan by Amber De Vos)

May 2012

mcourt — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:47:13 +0000

Cover Image:

Cover Story:

Game Changers

Upper Left Article:

5 Steps to Building a Winning Internship Program

Upper Right Article:

Join the Club: Why You Should Treat Your Customers like Members

Middle Left Article:

Growth Charting

Middle Right Article:

Hunger Games: NYC's Top Food Delivery Websites

Bottom Left Section

Article #1:

Find New Ways to Network

Article #2:

Is Bigger Better?

Article #3:

5 Things Not to Miss on NYReport.com: May 2012

Bottom Right Section

Article #1:

Africa Leads the World in Entrepreneurial Intent

Article #2:

Cloud Computing Set to Bring 100,000 New Jobs to NYC by 2015

Tableteer

mcourt — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:54:57 +0000

Jason Baptiste, Onswipe

By: Daria Meoli

May 1, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Jason Baptiste, Onswipe

Launched: June 2011

What Onswipe does: It’s a simple concept—make your website look good on a tablet. With tablet sales estimated to reach 120 million units in 2012 (up from 60 million units in 2011), publishers are scrambling to not only figure out user-friendly ways to present their content on these devices. However, developing custom tablet apps can cost thousands. With a fast and free solution, Onswipe is poised to be the leader in an aggressively growing market.

How it’s changing the game: Many content publishers are facing the huge time and money investment of creating custom apps that will allow users to access their content across any digital platform. Not only does Onswipe technology allow content publishers to automatically optimize a website that was built for point-and-click devices for a touch-and-swipe device within three minutes (yes, three minutes), but they do so for free. Onswipe makes money with an advertising revenue model. And they have changed the game for brands, as well. Unlike the banner ads and pop-ups we associate with digital advertising, Onswipe technology allows for full-page, high-design ads, similar to those that run in national consumer print magazines.

“If Google changed content distribution by how you find information, we want to change it by how you experience it,” says Baptiste. “And then, we put beautiful full-page, magazine-like advertising with that. We see this big gap. There’s $50 billion of missing online media spend that needs to shift there and we don’t think that could have happened until the tablet. That’s the genesis and thesis for the company over the next 5 to 10 years.”

Brands that have purchased campaigns with Onswipe include Chanel, Verizon, and American Express. Their technology can incorporate content from most CMSs as well as sources like Flickr, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, and more.

What’s next: Baptiste became a published author last month with the release of his book, The Ultralight Startup. Baptiste and the company are focused on improving the product, and building their network of publications.

Photography by Jill Lotenberg

Author Information:

Daria Meoli is the Executive Editor at The New York Enterprise Report. She can be reached at dmeoli@nyreport.com

5 Steps to Building a Winning Internship Program

mcourt — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:54:56 +0000

How to recruit and manage interns who will make a big impact

By: Margaret Poswistilo

May 1, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Interns. They’ll drain your time, make mistakes, and commit political errors—but they will also contribute fresh ideas and add much-needed manpower to complete projects. All in all, it’s usually a fair trade-off—your time for their labor. If you’ve decided that an internship program can benefit your company and your company can help a young person along his or her career path, here are five steps to making it work.

1. Recruit

Once your team agrees to try an internship program, the first step is to assign one person as the intern manager (IM). The IM’s responsibilities should include creating the job description, contacting the universities, recruiting, and interviewing candidates. Both the IM and your management team should be in charge of deciding the interns’ duties and analyzing their work. Decide on the work that needs to be done, determine the amount of hours you need, compensation, and decide how many interns your company should take on.

Make sure the job description is written so students can determine the position’s value. The job posting, derived from the description, should appeal to students, and differentiate your internship from the many competing opportunities that are also being posted. The job posting should describe the job, the tasks the intern will be performing, the skills required, the benefits of the internship, and what the intern will learn, with at least one example of each. In the job posting, request that potential interns submit both a cover letter and a resume.

Post the internship opportunity at universities that offer majors in your business. In my experience, sophomores and juniors tend to be the most reliable interns, because seniors and masters students will often request too much time off to look for full-time work.

Review the submitted applications, paying attention to the professionalism in their cover letter and resume. Is the writing clear? Are the words spelled correctly? Interview all of the qualified candidates before making a decision. Avoid the “warm-body syndrome” of hiring the first person you interview. Record your conclusions after each interview, review findings with your team, and select the top candidates. When you’ve made your decision, submit a written offer, including information on the set hours, paid time off available, compensation (if any), and class credit (if offered).

2. Make Introductions

Be sure to prepare for the interns’ arrival in advance. Make sure the interns have a workstation with a computer and the appropriate security clearance, and that they are included in your company’s systems, as necessary. Notify all managers and staff that the interns have started work, and what their purpose and duties are. Post a welcome note and short bios on the company intranet. Be sure the IM is prepared to manage them.

On day one, welcome them to your firm with an orientation. Review your company’s culture, policies, and procedures, and finalize their schedules. Have the interns sign a contract with their committed hours so that there is no future conflict. Orientation should also include a tour, introductions to key people, and an interactive discussion on the interns’ expectations. After orientation, make your interns feel at home on their first day. Pay attention to the little things, such as giving directions on how to make an outgoing call.

3. Assign Responsibilities

Give your interns the highest level of work possible; you will be surprised how much they know and can accomplish. Create one or two team projects per semester for the interns to work on together in order to promote teamwork, bonding, and motivation. When assigning projects, communicate your expectations clearly, and check their work early on to avoid mistakes. Remember, what seems obvious to you, as a veteran of your job, may be brand new to an intern. The IM, as well as other senior managers, must also budget extra time to work with interns. Explain the interns’ projects to your staff and ask them to review their work and provide feedback. The intern can report day-to-day to the IM, but as a business owner, you should meet with the interns and the IM together on a regular basis, at least several times a week.

Interns should not send out anything on their own, make any changes, or contact others in the firm unless the IM or the direct manager of the project they are working on approves. Be sure to highlight the importance of reviewing their work with a manager. Some of the best and brightest interns can also be aggressive and ambitious, so it is important to explain these boundaries ahead of time.

Some interns, if they don’t know an answer, will provide incorrect data to your customers or staff. They would rather give some information than be perceived as unknowledgeable. Let your interns know ahead of time that it is okay not to know an answer, and that they can always ask for help.

4. Manage

Make sure the interns’ hours are reasonable. Do not let them over-commit their time, or you will be setting them up for failure. As the semester continues, interns may come to you with many excuses on why they cannot come to work. Hold them accountable for their hours and make sure your firm has an attendance and leave of absence policy for the interns to follow. Simultaneously, flexibility is needed to retain interns. Students have demands, but as interns, the students need to learn to say no to certain demands and prioritize their internship. A meeting with their professor is not an excuse to miss internship hours, although a final exam is.

Stay on top of the interns’ work habits. Address any infractions of dress codes or time policies immediately. Have an intern team meeting every two weeks, where you can review their projects, results, and expectations, as well as answer questions. During these team meetings, provide lunch or arrange for a social outing after work.

5. Follow Up

At the end of the internship program, celebrate their success and give them a certificate of completion. Offer to be a recommendation for future employers, but put the responsibility on the intern to keep in touch. (If they do, respond immediately.) If you’re interested in hiring an intern, you should plan on starting the discussions at least a month before they’re due to leave. Find out their interest level, agree on a salary, and have them sign a written offer. If you don’t have any long-term opportunities for the interns, however, you can use your networks to help them find a job.

On the interns’ last day, depending on your company culture, you can take them out to lunch or go out with the rest of the office for after-work drinks. Make sure to ask them what they’ve learned, and let them know how the company has benefited from them, as well. If they’re moving, update their records and keep their contact details on file as potential future hires, or even future clients.

Want to avoid an internship fail? Here’s what NOT to do:

1. Ignore your interns—you and your staff are much too busy.

2. Don’t challenge them, just give them basic admin tasks and personal errands to run.

3. Assign projects, but don’t give them any context on the bigger picture.

4. Delegate the entire internship program to a junior person.

5. Do not provide any feedback on the quality of their work.

6. Reduce your interns to silly non-persons, who are too young to know anything.

Author Information:

Margaret Poswistilo is vice president of human resources and hospitality practice for ABA-RFR, the business advisory affiliate of Anchin, a top 30 US accounting firm. She can be reached at margaret.poswistilo@anchin.com.

Class Act

mcourt — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:54:54 +0000

Payal Kadakia, Classtivity

By: Daria Meoli

May 1, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Payal Kadakia, Classtivity

Launched: April 2012

What Classtivity does: Classtivity is an online database that enables users to search for any type of class, from yoga to creative writing workshops. Users can search by activity, venue, time, location, price, level of difficulty, instructor, and more. Users can book the class as well. The company earns revenue by charging a fee on those transactions. The database is nationwide, so you can book classes while traveling, too.

How it’s changing the game: Until now, searching for a class went something like this: Google “cooking class midtown nyc.” You get a few results, but none are what you are looking for. You refine the search and try again. Then you click on each link to search for locations, class times, instructors, prices, and more information on the content of the course (such as French vs. Japanese cuisine). Classtivity puts all that information together on one site that allows you to search with ridiculously specific and convenient criteria. Classtivity also incorporates user reviews. As a method of quality control, only people who have actually attended the classes will be able to review or rate.

Founder Kadakia has a diverse background. She graduated from MIT with a bachelor of science in operations research. She went to work at Bain & Company as a general consultant. She went on to a position in business development at Warner Music Group. In 2010, she started the Sa Dance Company, a professional Indian dance company in New York City. It was her dance experience that gave Kadakia an understanding of some of the challenges class venues and instructors have marketing themselves.

“A lot of these small businesses can’t effectively market themselves,” says Kadakia. “Many don’t have the money to put up a website at this point. So we’re trying to give them discoverable real estate on the web, to give them a place to present their work in multimedia. Every time a new person comes to them, it’s great, because they have fixed costs. So, this is incremental revenue for them.”

What’s next: Classtivity launched with beta invitations to the site on April 16th, 2012. They currently offer 30,000 classes a month in New York City, but 500,000 classes nationwide. The next year will be focused on building that database and building subscribers.

Photography by Jill Lotenberg

Author Information:

Daria Meoli is the Executive Editor at The New York Enterprise Report. She can be reached at dmeoli@nyreport.com

5 Things Not to Miss on NYReport.com: May 2012

mcourt — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:54:51 +0000

The latest news and blogs on our website

May 1, 2012

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Networking – and recruiting – for the 21st century

What’s Your Line?

From elevator pitches to tag lines, how do you know what works?

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Loan approval dropped, but small bank lending is still strong

How to Manage Your Records

What to keep, and for how long

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Take note of taxes when deciding on your own salary

Today on NYReport.com

Google Looks for Answers

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Time for a Change

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Go Behind the Scenes with the 2012 Game Changers

We’ll be posting behind-the-scenes photos, plus a video interview from this month’s cover shoot on our Facebook page. Visit www.facebook.com/nyreport to see the exclusive content before we share it with anyone else!

Photo by Jill Lotenberg

Drinks With Rob Returns

NY Report’s CEO and publisher returns for another round of our Drinks with Rob web series. Click here for the latest episode.

Top 5 Blogs

1. All in the Family: An Interview with Tamsen Fadal and Shannon Elizabeth

2. How to Balance Parenting and Business

3. How to Use YouTube to Generate Leads

4. Why I Tossed Your Business Card

5. How to Implement a Great Idea

Be in It to Win It

Applications for our 2012 Small Business Awards close on May 13th. Don’t miss out on your chance to be one of our winning businesses this year. If you think you’ve got what it takes, click here and let us know.

Marketers Wrap-Up

Our second Marketers Business Development Roundtable was a big hit, and moderator and NY Report contributing editor Mardy Sitzer blogged about her top takeaways. To read what she had to say, and check out the pictures from the event, click here.

Author Information:

NY Report

Drinks with Rob Featuring Ken Giddon of Rothman's

Google Looks for Answers

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

Barry Friedman

Articles by Barry Friedman

Time for a Change

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

SBA’s Small Business Week Award Winners

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

Hiring, Healthcare, and Small Business

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

How to Find the Best Marketing Help

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

What’s Your Line?

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

How to Use Facebook to Find Potential Employees

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

How Much Should You Pay Yourself?

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

Dip in Loan Approval Rates During March Is a Cause for Concern

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

How to Manage Your Records

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

Free Has a Cost… and It Is Rising

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

Game Changers

May 2012

Tableteer

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

5 Steps to Building a Winning Internship Program

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

Class Act

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles

5 Things Not to Miss on NYReport.com: May 2012

Today on NYReport.com

Related Articles