How many times has a thought crossed your mind that you don’t stand a chance when it comes to social media and big businesses that have lots of advertising money and the ability to hire professionals?

How many times have you felt discouraged, just because, thinking you will never understand how communicate on social media?

I have experienced first hand how people approach social media in big companies as well as in micro businesses. But before I go into it, I’ll ask you to stop looking at social media as something out there that you need to learn and conquer, start looking at is as a cultural shift, as a business shift, as space for progress…

Adopting social media really depends upon changing or creating a specific company culture. When you’re a micro business, it’s easier to create and achieve success faster then big companies can. It doesn’t matter whether they have the money to invest in it, they are usually not prone to taking risks, changing the way they do business, adopting new technologies and hiring new staff just for the sake of experiment.

Getting into social media as a business, big or small, demands from everyone in the company to have an understanding of what social media is all about, what can be achieved and why is communication through it so important and powerful. Everyone needs to understand that you don’t use it because it’s new, because some people talk about it every day and because it will supposedly do good for your business. They need to understand and embrace a new client approach.

Facebook and twitter are not about facebook and twitter. They are only allowing you to talk to your clients one on one, to understand them, to make them feel important and taken care of, to resolve problems and to build long lasting and loyal relationships. So who cares about big budgets and investments… when you can be better, faster and create a place for your business in the market. That will cost you time, consistency and some determination. But that is nothing in comparison to what you will get in return if you really stick to it and take it seriously. And you don’t need to hire anyone new, you can do it on your own.

How big companies perceive social media and what micro businesses know

The perception of facebook and twitter in big, opposed to small, companies is completely different. While big companies are trying to find a way to fit their presence on social media into a number of hours they have to spend working on that particular project, deal will all the legal issues they think they have, hire someone who will take care of “that part of the job”, micro businesses understand from the very beginning that they have to talk to their followers. Maybe they don’t know how to approach them just yet, but they do know where to find information, how to understand the potencial of social media for business and find someone who will teach them how to do it.

Big businesses are usually still looking at this as extra work they have to get done, and without putting much effort into it, they will bury their followers in offers which will drive them away. But hey, they thought they were getting some job done in social media. Or should I say marketing? It happens that they forget to check their profiles for days and never answer their fans. They are big, aren’t they; so why would they answer to every little person on twitter or facebook.

No one is innocent, though…

We all make mistakes

Common mistakes micro businesses make are that they will sometimes start talking to a whole group or think that they have to have something significant going on all the time to be able to keep their fans entertained, so they’ll keep quiet rather then talking to them. Some will even become discouraged after a while, but most of you will stay and slowly work on your mistakes and become better and better. Just like you would if you were making those friendships in person.

Who has an advantage?

I’m not saying that micro businesses have it easy, if you drew that conclusion, or that it’s the other way around, but I do want to say that micro businesses potencially have an advantage. While big businesses are resolving certain issues regarding communication, culture and making a decision of going after something that today can’t even be called a “wave of social media” anymore, inside of their companies, you can firmly march ahead.

Micros are faster and more agile… making that kind of a decision will cost you a few hours of discussion one afternoon, and all you need to do to be successful in your social media efforts is to instill those values from the begining, be guided in your business and your conversations by it.

Small businesses will easily understand why you need to say “thank you” to your customers, why you need to talk to each and every one of them and show you’re interested in them. In fact, that is the only logical and acceptable approach. Micro businesses are built by creating intimate relationships with customers and through adopting a different kind oflifestyle. They will always find it easier to answer a question they get on twitter and facebook, they will accept a two way conversation and not have doubts any about it.

Take the Marketing out of the Social Media

But when it comes to getting on twitter or facebook in the first place, don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s not about the social network; that’s only a tool, much like a phone or a computer. I know, not everyone comes web 2.0 ready…but you’re missing the point anyway if you’re thinking that way. You can learn to use it, just like you did anything else. The point is to go where your people are, where they talk and hang out. Now you can reach anyone, anywhere. And you don’t need to ask permission, you won’t appear rude if you start a converation or try to help someone you don’t know.

If you don’t take this opportunity, someone else will and they will make those people that are waiting and searching out there their fans and customers. And that’s fair enough.

You can always build your presence later, but when do you expect this later to be?!

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Talk to me, what are your doubts or challenges about social media?

photo courtesy wili_hybrid

Sometimes I use a chance to post content that isn’t a strictly a “how-to” article, a tip on how to improve your micro business or do an effective marketing campaign. From time to time, I post a video that talks about big ideas.

All of us are busy and we don’t have enough time to go through all the content that comes our way. For the most part we don’t even know what’s of the greatest value to us. That is why I only share with you things that are absolutely worth spending 5, 10 or 15 minutes on because they will help you get more creative ideas, move your business and your team forward or help you understand that’s important.

In this video you will see Stefan Sagmeister giving you his point of view and a strategy for rest and creativity.

When you spend a long time doing creative work, you probably still see it as a challenge, but you tend to spin around the same solutions. If you stop and take a look at a typical work day, whether you have a job, or your own business, you usually work from 9 to 5. That is long! The majority of your day is spent doing preplanned tasks and quickly comming up with new ideas that will come to life in a week or in a couple of months.

Businesses that allow you more creative freedom and “breathing room” are great, but they still face the same problem – your work starts to look the same. Some businesses don’t have to be active throughout the whole year, or you don’t have to be involved in it the whole year (just like fashion designers that can take some time here and there to find new inspiration and come back next season with a completely new line).

Since I encourage you to start your own micro business and do the work that fulfills you, that is what I’m going to focus on here. Because even the work that fulfills you comes to a point where you need to branch out or take a break, make a experiment to get better at it.

Stefan Sagmeister talks about taking 5 years out of your retirement and spreading them throughout your work years. Taking those breaks in between should enable you to stop chasing new projects, keep innovating and achieve in being the best there is, which always brings the opportunity of creating your own work rhythm and the type of projects you want to take on.

When you take a year off, there are a few things you need to do and a few outcomes you can expect.

You have to plan your year and not leave it to chance. Think about the things you would like to try and projects your would like to work on. Now you will have the opportunity to try things you could never do in your company, and things that will strech your creative mind, question your work and your interests.

On the other hand, you can spend this time experimenting in your field and improving on what you already have. Stefan told a great example of a chef who keeps his restaurant open for 7 months and then closes it for 5 and experiments with food keeping a ful staff. He can do that because his business goes so well because of how he does it.

When you do something like this, you don’t just do an experiment, you create an immense value for yourself, your staff and you customers.

What I can tell you from my own experience is that you really need to know what you are going to spend your time on and be fairly disciplined about it. If you do that, you will do so much work you never though possible. But if you don’t, your time will fly by, you won’t even notice untill it’s gone. I’ve been in both situations, so take my word for it.

One of the things I think it’s safe to suppose is that when your retirement comes, you won’t feel you’ve missed out on a lot and that you could have done many great things if you only thought about them before.

Of course, you can take this idea and try doing it as a one, two or three month thing. That will work out well, too. It won’t be the same, but if you want to give yourself a chance to explore something new or create something on your own, this is a great way to go. Not only will you test yourself, but you will tap into a potencial you otherwise never would.

So, what do you think about partial retirement? Would you ever do it?

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By now you all already know that I attended IdejaX in Zagreb at the end of May. What I want to bring to you today are a few key thoughts that stuck with me from Gary Vaynerchuk’s talk. His talk was brilliant, as always.

Facebook and Twitter aren’t as big as in the US?

Everyone says there aren’t enough users or that some social networks aren’t as strong as they are in the US. Many of us have used this as an excuse, too. Gary touched on this topic and said: “I hear the same thing everywhere I go.” What makes us think that way, I think, is that the only connection we have with what’s going on in the US is by reading wildly successful blogs and looking at creators of the biggest social networks in the world. We automatically come to a conclusion that everybody “over there” knows everything and uses it the right way. But that would mean 300+ million people (US population) are all early adopters. When you put it like that, it sound crazy. We usually don’t put things into perspective first, we just think of them that way because that is what we see.

Putting things into perspective

The first thing that Gary said, that really caught my attention, was that Croatia has 1,4+ million users on Facebook on a population of 4,5 million people. Then I thought… Yes, and we have way more old people then we do young… Wow… really?! Talk about early adopters…

They have no other choice, but to follow

How many people said they wouldn’t open a Facebook profile just a few years ago and now have one? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any of it didn’t exist only 7 years ago! How many users do they have now and how powerful are they? It’s not about people wanting to open a profile or about using social networks anymore; the only choice you have today is to do it because that it the way we communicate with each other.

Internet as a communication platform

Internet is the biggest and most powerful communication platform in our history, period. It is revolutionizing everything, it’s the consumer internet. Even if you think there might not be many people on social networks you can talk to, about business or anything else, it’s isn’t about the number of people you talk to or the number of followers you have, it’s about the relationships you make there. That is something no one can take away from you.

1 on 1 marketing

I’m sure you’ve heard bloggers talk about transparency for a long time now and you probably didn’t really get what they meant. Gary talked about it from a different angle. “The customer bullshit radar is a lot bigger.” Simply put, we as consumers have the opportunity to say what we think, to like or dislike, to recommend and we do that on a daily basis. We are constantly interacting with hundreds of brands, without even realizing it.

So we, as businesses, need to build relationships with our customers, we need to be honest (you can’t keep anything from your customers or fans anymore), we need to make them a part of the brand we are building, we need to respond. If we don’t do all of that, we aren’t building lifetime value. Without it, you haven’t achieved anything, you haven’t created relationships with people, they’re not attached to your brand and you will, in the near future, start loosing the game to those who know how to do it and who do take care of their customers.

Mobile is the next big thing

The fast rise of the mobile world is something many people probably still don’t understand.

We already have internet on our mobile phones. You’ve noticed that the mobile app industry is huge. In a very short time mobile internet is going to have huge impact on the way we live our lives; we are going to have everything with us all the time, all our data, access to every information and every person we need. If you think in terms of applications, advertising, adjusting content for mobile devices, ways of marketing, communication potential and time, you get the idea. Don’t be surprised when you start paying for everything with your mobile phone instead with your credit card or paypal.

Content is King or Commodity?

Content isn’t really what’s going to sell you something, because content isn’t hard to get. You can look anything up on your computer or phone, it’s free and it’s being produced every day.

Eric Schmidt came out with some really interesting data; every piece of content we’ve produced from the beginning of mankind until 2003 (every picture, photo, piece of music, written word…) is now being replicated in volume every 48 hours.

Context is what going to break through. We know a lot more about each other, we all share more with each other. Now the consumers have a collective voice, we have a say in the selling process.

Create context, engage and care.

We are going back to how our grandparents did business a long time ago.

Old school small business sensitivity is what you need know and implement to be successful. This is something I talked about in the manifesto I wrote. It’s so important to understand. And you can apply that on social media, too. And when you apply that to business successfully, you get your ROI.

You can still be ahead of the curve, you just need to be smart about it and act now

If you live in Europe, or almost anywhere else, we still have the chance to be ahead on the curve. We should start thinking more in terms of “local”, watch what’s going on in America and apply those things here, wherever you are. Because you can, because no one has done almost any of it. Many people have ideas, but they do nothing about it. The only way to move forward for yourself, for your business, for what is “local” to you, is to make that happen and not sit this one out.

Personal branding

There was a question about personal branding I had for a long time. Probably since I started :we are micro because I was serious about this project and because I knew I wanted to bring it to a lot of people. The thing that was holding me back all of this time was that this isn’t the only thing I’m passionate about. There is something else I’ve been madly in love with all my life, that I wanted to do also. So the idea of creating a personal brand through :we are micro and the niche of micro businesses scared me. I didn’t know whether I was going to do a good enough job, branding wise, to be able to work on the other thing I’m passionate about, without this holding me back all the time.

I knew it was possible, I saw people who did it, but for the time being, it kept me from taking :we are micro to the next level and really giving my all into it. The biggest reason I decided to attend IdejaX (presented as an advertising festival) was because Gary Vaynerchuk was going to give a talk. I have so much respect for him and think that if you are serious about your business, no matter how big or small it is, don’t miss out an opportunity to learn from him.

That morning when I was walking to IdejaX , this question just reappeared in my mind. So I used the opportunity to ask Gary about it. He was able to create a strong personal brand and be successful in two different industries; with Vayner Media and Wine Library. And if you follow him, you know that you can find a ton of videos on YouTube and his website where he talks about personal branding.

So my question was:

How do you create a strong personal brand and manage to be successful in two completely different industries?

Gary: “The answer to that is really simple: know what the hell you’re talking about.” That immediately put a smile on my face because I understood him perfectly. He went on to explain that if you know what you’re talking about, no one can take that away from you, no one can deny you that. You don’t see many people doing it though; even he’s heard many times that “he should just be the wine guy”. But the important thing to take away from this is that if you can do it, go for it.

It was the best answer I could have got. And in case you were wondering, Gary is sooooo nice, down to earth and genuine, it blows my mind. I came there knowing that, but still…

All in all, I had a blast at IdejaX. I was able to take away some great advice, hear some amazing speakers and meet really nice people. Good job IdejaX for organizing such an event! I will definitely come back next year.

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Any thoughts or dilemmas on your side? What do you think about what Gary talked about?

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(1) photo courtesy by IdejaX (facebook)

(2) photo by Kristina Majetić

This time I decided to do a critique of a website that is actually great, with as few drawbacks as possible. Why did I do that? Because I wanted you to have a good micro business website example, too, and show you how some of the elements come together.

Enjoy the video and comment below!

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Here is a quick update on the events in the next few days…

I’m attending the IdejaX event (May 26 – 27) which is a national advertising festival held in Zagreb. This is the first year and they already have a great line-up of speakers, like:

• Gerd Leonahrd (The Futures Agency),
• Helge Tennø (Scandinavian Design Group),
• Marc Lewis (School of communication arts),
• Steve Walpole,
• Doug Harris,
• Keith Ginsburg (The Central Office of Information),
• Ari Merkin (Crispin Porter + Bogusky),
• Clark Parsons (Berlin School of Creative Leadership),
• Pieter Goiris (Boondoggle nv)

as well as many local experts in the field.

But the speaker that I’m most excited about is Gary Vaynerchuk! Yes, he is going to speak at the event and I can’t wait.

I’m not sure I will have time to do big posts during these days, but you will be able to follow my tweets and talk to me on facebook because I will be reporting from the event. When the event is finished, I will put a lot of content, ideas and conclusions from IdejaX event on the blog.

You are free to join the conversation during the event or later through post commenting, there will be a lot going on.

I’m also preparing new content for :we are micro. New website critiques (videos) should be published this weekend and the begining of next week, so watch out for those. June is knocking at our door and so is the new issue of :we are micro newsletter. If you haven’t signed up for it yet, you can do that here.

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photo credit IdejaX

To get your own custom micro business website, you don’t have to hire a designer or spend months learning how to do it. A simple tutotial as this one can explain you in 10 minutes how to make one yourself.

If you are looking to create a free business website, read the previous tutorial. But if you are also unfamiliar with WordPress and blogging platforms I suggest you start, too, by going through the previous tutorial because this one will make a lot more sense to you then.

You are in the right place if you are ready to learn how to easily create a business website on your own. All you need to do is follow this tutorial, research your options and choose the ones that suit you best.

Advantages over a free website

• you have more templates, free and premium (paid) to choose from
• you can create a completely new design on your own (Headway) or you can have someone create the design for you
• you can sell product and services through your website
• you can also put advertising on your site if it fits your needs and your business
• you can add a lot more elements to your website; sidebar widgets
• you can download and install plugins to improve your website (make it faster, add social links, change the type of comments, have maintenance mode and add all the other things that you can’t in basic (plugin free) WordPress system)
• you have your information and design hosted on your server
• your website is made on your domain name which is better because of branding, because you own it and because you can structure your website the way you want (important for users and optimization)
• you can get a better looking, branded, more functional and customized website for your business for very little money

Lets start…

:o1 Get a domain name for your business website

A domain name is a website address; what you write at the top of your browser when you want to go to a certain page. In this case it was “wearemicro.com”.

When choosing a domain name for a business make your first option your business name. That should take care of it for most businesses. Of course, depending on the type of business your have, it can happen that more businesses are called the same and that one of them already has a website.

What do you do then?

You have two options. First of all, your website address has something else that can distinguish it from others. If you take a look at my website address wearemicro.com, it has a .com at the end of it. When it comes to choosing the extention of your domain name, if you have a local business, go with that extention (UK – .co.uk, France – .fr, The Netherlands – .nl, The Czech Republic – .cz, Croatia – .hr). It will position you better in the search engines in your area and not confuse it with every other similar business. That means you will show up more in the local results which will result in more click for your website. More traffic to your website will also help you rank in other searches and areas on Google.
Even if you are not only restricted to your local area or country, but you do business locally, go with that extention.

In case the domain name you are searching for has already been taken, go with the .com extention. Also, if your website is only in English and you operate your business on an international level, then also go with the .com extention.

Those are the only two extentions I recommend. If both of those options are taken for your business name, the second thing you can do to make it work really well is to add a word at the end or at the beginning of your business name (depending what works better) that will  make it clear for people who are searching for your business which one is you or how they can definitely find you.

This happens a lot with family names, so for example:

CafeBianchi.com
RussoConsulting.com
MorganMusicShop.com
WatsonUmbrellas.com
Hotel16.com

That way when your business name comes up in the search results, it will be clear it’s your business, but also, when there are a lot of results and people can’t find your business, they will probably write what your do with your name.

The other thing you can add to separate your business from the other that is called the same is to add the name of the town at the end of your business name. This works really well for local micro businesses. For example:

ChezMarianneParis.fr
MundialBarcelona.es
AmysCupcakesBrighton.co.uk

How do I get a domain name?

First what you will want to do is check business benefits in your country. Some laws allow businesses to get one domain for free for as long as the business exists. Of course the domain you can get for free is with your country’s extention, not the .com. Ask someone who knows or has done it before, search on Google, look for the academic and research network, organizations who manages domains, research the website of The Ministry of Technology or any local website that gives out information to entrepreneurs.

That is not an option and you need to buy a domain name, go to Godaddy. They have a simple website and great customer service. Plus, I have never had any problems with them, they are safe, secure and everything works without fail.

All you do is search for a domain name, when you find it you sign up with GoDaddy and pay with Paypal or your credit card through a secure system. The whole process takes a couple of minutes.

Price: .com domain name $12/year

:o2 Get a hosting account

You need hosting to put all of your information (your website) on a server (provided by a hosting company) so that anyone in the world who is searching for your business online can find and see your website.

Hosting is also charged on a recurring basis, but you can choose whether you want to pay for it every month, every 3 or 6 month or every year. The price also slightly varies depending on how you decide to pay for it.

I recommend HostGator as the best hosting company. Your website will never crach or slow down, they have an outstanding customer service and tons of videos that will help you set up your website. Step by step, go there and click here type of video, and best of all you can find them specially for people who have a domain on GoDaddy and want to install their website on WordPress which is what we are aiming for here.

If you go with HostGator, you have two options. The first is Baby Plan. That will be more then enough for your business and for everything that you want to put on your website, even if you want to be an avid blogger and do some of your business online (have an online shop, a membership site, etc.).

But you can also go with Hatchling Plan; the only significant difference between the two is that on this one you can install only one domain. If you plan to create only one website, your business website, which will be the case for most, you can definitely go with this one. But if you know you will need more domains for your business in the future, for whatever reason, then you need the Baby Plan.

However, nothing is stopping you to upgrade you hosting plan at the point when you find it necessary.

Price: starts at $4/month.

:o3 Download WordPress

To create an actual website, you need a software called WordPress. To download it, go to WordPress.org. It’s free, you only have to click a button to get it. If you don’t know what WordPress is or for it works, read the previous article in which I explain how to make a free website in WordPress(.com).

You will need an account in WordPress.com to make WordPress.org work, so no skipping steps. Besides, once you find your way around WordPress, you won’t have any problems in either of them.

:o4 Install WordPress – create a website

To create a website you need to install WordPress. Now it’s time to go back to HostGator and find videos that will help you install WordPress on your domain.

It’s a simple process and you really don’t need to know any of it since you will be guided through it in the 2-3 videos you need to watch to make it work.

To connect your domain name to your hosting account watch and follow this video called “Changing name servers via GoDaddy”.

To install WordPress, log into your cPanel and watch and follow this video called “Using Fantastico”.

In the video, you will have the option to fill out the field called “Install in directory”. Leave it blank! That way your website will be installed right on your domain name like this: yourbusinessname.com, but if you fill a directory name, your home page will show on this address: yourbusinessname.com/directoryname. You don’t want that to happen.

For all other tutorials just go to HostGator>Support>Tutorials and you will find the answer to anything you need.

:o5 Your micro business website design

a) You can pick an existing theme. A WordPress theme is a template for your business website. You can choose the look/design of your website, install in and just fill it with content. You can search for free and commercial themes on WordPress’ website or you can Google “WordPress (premium) themes” to find the combination of design and functions your want.

b) You can design your own website with Headway Themes. I used this system to design :we are micro and had a blast. Definitely the best system to create a website if you don’t know any code (even if you do) because it’s all drag and drop when arranging elements and styles and colours changing right there on the screen for you to see.

If you have an eye for esthetics and detail then you can create an amazing website for your micro business. Far better then with any template. Headway is the best when it comes to customization. Besides, they have great customer service and they are working hard to make it better all the time. I mean it, they make it happen.

c) You can work with a designer to create a WordPress based website. This is the ultimate level of customization and great if you really want some elements or looks that any of the existing systems can’t produce. Also, a designer is a great option when you want custom graphics and someone who will be able to brand everything you put on your website – videos, podcasts, downloads, etc. that you don’t want to do on your own.

Designing a website is really where you need to define it’s structure and the content you will put on it. After that, you are practically done. You can play with general settings and work on improving your content and design over time.

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Your turn.

Any questions, doubts, suggestions or thoughts about the tutorial? You can tell me what’s lacking better then anyone…

If you find it useful, don’t forget to bookmark it for future reference and share it online.

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photo courtesy (Paris Mercy) Jason Whittaker

One thing is sorting through and answering your private emails, but when it comes to business, volume, etiquette and handling certain situations through email sometimes become a challenge. Who hasn’t tried to change their way of checking email or made a mistake or two writing emails. Sometimes those mistakes are conscious and we learn from them, but when they are unconscious, we don’t know what we did to get such low results or cause bad communication.

So here are a few tips to facilitate your email communication for your micro business and help you get more better work done.

:o1 Schedule time to check your email (and kill your email notifications!).

So many people like to feel “busy” when they are just starting out. Many things to do for the business, but not too much business at that point. So everything that make you seem busy and multitasking, everything that you expect to happen in the future, you already do. That way many people kill their work efficiency with email notifications. Everytime that thing beeps, it messes up your focus and usually gets you to jump to the next thing, and the next thing all day long without giving your full attention to one thing only and finishing it.

The only way to deal with your work load (big or small) and your email efficiently is to schedule a time during the day to check and answer email. that way when you actually get to your email you can focus on it and answer, not only read through and jump to the next urgent thing. I check my email twice a day. you can do once or twice, whatever you like, but the reason I do this is because I work with people from very different time zones. If I worked with people in my time zone only, maybe I would check it one a day. Doesn’t really matter at this point. Know why you do it and keep it efficient.

:o2 Email volume can be overwhelming, when is it too much and how to deal with it?

Once your business gets ahead, your inbox gets crowded. The standard time to answer an email should be between 24-48 hours. And during that time, email shouldn’t be the only thing you spend your time on. When you get to the point where you have more email then you can handle in that time frame, you need to hire customer service or anyone else who can deal with the email you don’t have time for. As simple as that. It’s a natural progression and you need to delegate email and answers.

Also, at the beginning, you don’t get as many emails as they tell you will, so you take a lot more time to answer them. You easily get trapped in being overcautious and over editing them. Or maybe just procrastinating too much, but whatever it is, try answering emails the same way you write them; fast, clear and concise, because it could turn into a big problem later.

:o3 Precondition the emails you get.

Set email conditions on your website; how you want people to contact you. It’s not rude, it’s the rule for the busy and efficient. Depending on what suits your business and why they are contacting you, tell them how to do it. It will make it easier for them, because they won’t have to stress out about whether they approached you in the right way and you will get the information you wanted.

Sometimes you will see this in a way in contact forms when you can pick a subject. It’s their way of sorting email, but you can go much further then that. Which information you need, the length, anything that’s…reasonable. No one profits if they don’t stick to what works. That way you will be of best service to your clients and you will be able to spend the right amount of time in email.

:o4 The shorter the better? Or not so much…

Very often you will hear “the shorter the better” advice. If you can send only one sentence, you’re a hero. Of course, I’m being sarcastic now, but this advice usually doesn’t go over well. It’s misunderstood. The clearer the better, and done in as few words as possible. That’s what they are trying to say.

You need to learn to communicate well. It’s done through practice, but your goal should be exactly this; to get to the point through as few words as possible. You need to be able to make simple explanations, be focused on concrete things like tasks, decisions (you can back up with research, not the other way around), results. When everyone values their time because they have a lot of work and a lot of people to listen to, this is what will get you past doors and get you opportunities you want.

:o5 Be decisive or don’t send an email yet.

There is no point to sending an email to your client, boss or partner if you are not clear about the conditions, action steps or your own basic decision – are we doing business or not. There is no point in sending 10 emails that say “I might accept your proposal” or “you might be hired” or “maybe we should do this…”. Yes, certain things can be tweaked along the way, but one of the true characteristics of a successful business person is decisiveness, being certain in your opinions. You need to stand behind what you say, you need to have your own values and be clear with yourself and others what your work is. If you can’t say what the next action steps are or say “yes, we are doing this”, then you are wasting your time and your clients/bosses time. But worst of all, you are now seriously affecting your reputation; you become the one everyone wants to stay away from, because they can’t take you seriously about doing business with you.

:o6 Lead a conversation, don’t expect the other person to.

You need an answer or an opinion. If your email is bland and uninteresting, you will either get an email written with as much effort as you have put into your to explain it for them or your won’t get an answer at all. Everyone is considered to be busy. Everyone can procrastinate. You can’t influence that. But you can well improve your chances with the right structure so, write down actions steps, make a clear proposal, number your questions, anything you need to make it as clear for them as possible. That will get you an answer, and a clear one, too.

:o7 Prioritize your email.

Oh, you knew that one. And how’s that working for you? Are you using it?

You can sort your email by people, projects, actionable-nonactionable, deadlines, etc. But what works for your company and what works for you is a different story. Work with your habits and your workload. That’s the only way prioritizing email will work for you. You are the only one who can tell you what comes first, not anyone else,

:o8 Learn how to write headlines.

A lesson they teach you in advertising works like a charm here, too. We all go through our inbox when we open it, skimming the names and subject lines and pick what we might think could be important, or what seems interesting to us. Be clear what the email is about and think how they will perceive the subject. Sometimes it’s very clear like “Copy of the Searse project” or “Details for lunch tomorrow”, but when it comes down to you needing and answer or an opinion, you need to make it clear for them and make it obvious why they should read it now.

Adding “important” or “Urgent” to your email subject line won’t do the trick. It will only make you pushy and annoying after a while. Plus, if they don’t see it as urgent, well, that’s just bad…
Also, no-subject email is a big no-no in business.You are not the most important person in their world and if you can’t even make the effort to write a subject line, why would anyone make an effort to read what you wrote?

:o9 No angry emails.

When replaying to your clients, customers, partners, etc. never, never send an angry email no matter how pissed you are. It can definitely help you feel better for a while, but it will cause even more emails in your inbox and a badly resolved situation others might find out about. It’s not as much about finding out, as it is about you not handling the situation well, no matter how right you were.

If you do encounter a situation with someone you can resolve or for some reason you want to drop the job, just thank them and say that you were unable to reach an agreement. State under which conditions! because if you don’t you will go through the same discussion all over again.

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Your turn.

What is your biz email etiquette? Any crazy miscommunication examples or difficult clients?

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It is so easy to get intimidated by the web these days. Especially if you use the web to do some research, check your favourite websites and update your facebook or twitter accounts. Once you discover the whole world of things you can do online to help your business and see all the people that are making money with their online businesses, you can go from zero to crazy in a matter of seconds…and give up.

It’s not only all the new things you need to learn, because, let’s face it, if you want to get ahead and stay in business, you need to adopt new technology and be where your customers are. It’s also the technical side that we can get thrown by.

And this is where we usually stop ourselves and start avoiding even the possibility of getting into something so “complicated”. We think it’s intimidating and hard. We have never done it before!

But that is why so many people around the world work hard every day, doing their best to make this process easier for us and help us focus on what we do best. That is why we don’t need to be desigers or know any code, that is why we don’t need to spend money beforehand, that is why we can be complete beginners and still do a good job if we use the tools that are given to us. That is, if we find the courage to use them.

To create a completely free, well structured and great looking website for your business, all you need to do is sign up for WordPress, be ready to play around with the elements and fill out the website with text, pictures and/or videos you want.

Ok, but what is WordPress and how do I just “fill it” with content?

WordPress is a blogging platform that allows anyone to log into their account (like in any social network account you have) and in a few steps post content to their website. What you will see when you log in is a dashboard where you will see a menu with all of the elements you can use to create your website and the actions to follow through with it.

For example, in you want to write an “About your company” page, you will go to the menu and select Page>Add New and then write it out and edit it in a typical looking text editor you have on your computer. Once you hit the “Publish” button, what you wrote will appear on your website.

Or, you can use widgets to arrange the sidebar or your website. You can add and remove elements by drag and drop like social media links (profiles or pages), newsletter boxes, categories or any other type of content you would like to put there.

But all of this is a lot easier to get if you actually see what it looks like. The interface is very much self-explainatory. There are elements that you might not know what they are for at the begining, but that won’t stop you from creating a website or reading about them online when you catch some time.

So let’s get started by creating a free website for your micro business! I’ll explain everything as we go through it.

:o1 Sign up on WordPress.com.

You will create an account with your email address and a password, but at the same time creating a name for your website and a username you will use to log into your account.

The name of your website should in this case be the name of your business or your own name in case you operate your business under your name.

For your username choose your name+surname, the first letter of your name+surname or another combination that you maybe used when you created other social media accounts.

Once you sign up, you will get a confirmation email and will be able to log into your WordPress.com account.

:o2 The next step is to learn your way around WordPress interface (dashboard).

WordPress has it’s own Getting Started Guide which is great and once you go through it, you will know exactly what to do and what everything is for. It’s not a faq or terms of service, but an easy 10 step guide with pictures.

Most of the following steps will already be explained in the WordPress guide, but I do what to give you some extra information and to eliminate confusion since you are creating a business website on a blogging platform.

:o3 Pick a theme.

This will be the easiest and the most fun part – you will create a great looking website without any design skills or coding. All you need to do is go here, browse the themes (website looks) and choose one you want for your website.

You can later adjust and change sidebar elements and header images, but here you choose the general concept and the colour scheme. Best of all, you will soon notice that themes support different looks and features, not only the general blog look, where you post one article after the other on the home page.

:o4 Create a menu.

Now it comes down to the content. You need to have a plan of everything you want on your website. The pages, the information and the formats (text, images, videos, music, podcasts, etc.).

The most important thing you need to know is the difference between posts and pages to create a website that will make sense for your micro business and your customers.

Tip: When you create a menu, use “Pages” in WordPress to create pages with content that will stay the same like “About the company”, “Contact”, “Services” or all of those custom business pages like “Menu”, “Exercises”, “Resources”, etc. That way, you will get a new tab in the menu for each Page you create. You can create categories with pages, too and have dropdown menus. You can arrange them in the Appearance>Menus on your WordPress Dashboard.

You can also add a blog tab to your website if you want to have a business blog (and I will always encourage you to have it and use it). All you need to do is mark it/create it as a parent category and mark any posts (not pages) you write under blog category.

All about menus in WordPress.com find here.

:o5 Add different elements to your website.

Besides the theme look and some unique elements that might come with it, you will always be able to arrange the sidebar(s) the way you want to. This is where Widgets come in. Appearance>Widgets is where you can drag and drop any elements you see on this dashboard and add media to it. You again don’t need to know any coding and they will turn out on the website according to the existing design (template).

Click the picture to enlarge.

:o6 Track your results.

Another great thing about WordPress.com is that you will be able to track your stats inside your WordPress account and everything will be done for you. The second you log in you will have access to a monthly chart, top visited posts/pages with number of views, most active parts of your website in the last 24 hours and top terms people have written into google to find your website. Pretty amazing, ha?

That will allow you to understand your audience and your customers better, it will help you come up with more topics if you write a blog and it will help you improve your micro business.

How do I add stats to my WordPress.com website?

It’s already done for your once you create a website. There is nothing you need to add and the stats you get are WordPress’, not from Google Analytics. To learn more about stats features go here.

:o7 Do the necessary improvements and start developing your business and your site!

Once you have everything in place, design, content, visitors comming to your site and stats to track your progress, it’s time to test and improve. There will always be room left to learn about the techincal stuff no matter how much you already know, but what is more important is that you have a strong business tool that can help you improve your business, spread the word, check your customer’s pulse and come up with new business ideas.

Don’t ever get caught up in technical aspects of it, that is not why we need a business website or why we are creating one. Optimization and certain marketing strategies can improve your website and, as a result, your business, but it will never make the difference like the one between having and not having a business website.

To wrap things up, we will take a look at positive and negative sides of creating a free website for your business.

Positive sides

• you get a great looking functional website for your business, without investing in design or technical work
• the platform itself is very popular and an amazing tool; WordPress made its way through search engines so you don’t have to worry about code or structure
• you are able to do basic optimization yourself without even realizing it or knowing how to do it, because the system will lead you
• although it’s a blogging platform, you can create a static website with or without a blog
• you can easily add elements and arrange the site the way you want it to look, by drag-and-drop
• you can incorporate other social media in it
• you can give a website or your business idea a test drive without investing money in it
• you can keep track of your visitors and their interest in certain parts of your website

Negative sides

• you don’t have your own domain name; it’s branded, but it belongs to WordPress and looks like this: http://youname.wordpress.com
• you can’t sell anything on the website, put up ads or affiliate links
• you can’t make money through the website or use any promotions

A paid website is a little more complex to create, but only because it has a few more steps. It obviously offers more options and opens more space to creativity, but once you get familiar with the free way of doing it, there is nothing a simple tutorial for domain and hosting, and a walk through some new features can’t get you up to speed just as fast as we did here.

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Your turn.

Any questions, doubts, suggestions or thoughts about the tutorial? You can tell me what’s lacking better then anyone…

If you find it useful, don’t forget to bookmark it for future reference and share it online.

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photo courtesy (Paris Merci) Jason Whittaker

Happy Easter!

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photo courtesy sally_monster

Our second interview in the TALENT WATCH series is with interesting and amazing Benigna Iwasaki, whom I have had a chance to get to know more personally during the last week. She is a German designer gone Japan.

For those of you who are reading one of the interviews on :we are micro’s talent watch, welcome and enjoy! The idea of Talent Watch is to inspire you with stories from other people who have started successful micro businesses and for you to be able to learn from their experiences, but also to support the existing community of micros. To find out how to get your business featured, learn more here.

I am happy to present to you Benigna and her design studio BCOME

To start off, tell us a little bit about what you do and what your philosophy is.

I am a freelance designer with emphasis on graphic design – branding, logo design – but also a great interest in product design; originally from Germany, and based in Tokyo, Japan for over 10 years.

I have an architectural background, with main focus in interior design, and many of my different design interests, so I would not call myself a specialist, rather a designer with several main focuses, who is enjoying challenging herself every day with her creativity. Honestly due to my several interests, I often have to pull myself a bit together and tell myself better to focus on a few design fields instead of trying to do everything I am interested in.

How did you decide to become an entrepreneur?

Honestly, until 2 1/2 years ago, I wasn’t really thinking of starting my own business, but life does not turn out always as you you thought it would, and suddenly I was a freelancer and I was starting to like it, after a period of insecurity and thinking whether I will like it or not.

Did you find the whole process of starting a business challenging and why?

Due to the fact that the first steps were not really intended for starting my own micro business, in the beginning, it was just fun and relaxing and I enjoyed being able to get creative as I was never able before, while working in an office.

When I decided to turn my creative ‘hobby’ into a business, I started to dig into websites like :we are micro to get inspiration on how to start best. The biggest challenge was honestly the insecurity, if this would be the right decision and if I would have the creativity and strength to keep up with the mass of incredibly skillfull designers who were already on the market. Honestly this feeling sometimes comes back, but after 2 1/2 years I know how to keep myself going and stay creative and positive.

What did you do previously to becoming an entrepreneur?

Studying both in Germany as well as in Japan, gave me already at that time a good background of being able to live in both worlds and get a profound knowledge of Asian and Western design and thinking, which is helping me right now as a German designer gone Japan.

For the Japanese I am the so called a bit ‘exotic’ Gaikokujin – foreigner – while I can offer my non-Japanese clients my knowledge of Japanese design. It is challenging to live somehow in between worlds, but it is also rewarding and a lot of fun!

Can you briefly describe your typical workday?

Due to the fact that I am a bit of a night owl, I am working often long hours during the evenings which makes it’s difficult to get out of bed the next day. I try to start my day around 10am, with checking and answering my emails, posting in case of a new project a short note on my blog, as well as facebook, and than digg into my current project.

In case I’m working on different projects at the same time, I try to divide my day into two work-phases, so that I can keep up with the workload on all projects and meet deadlines.

What’s the best and the hardest part about running your own business?

Definitely the positive direct feedback from the clients is rewarding for late hours and pushing you to keep going and doing your best.

Now that social media can be used to spread the word, it is still challenging to get new clients, but it is still quite a help when promoting yourself so that you can plan the next move if you get organized well and while the social media is ‘working for you’.

How long did it take for your business to take off?

Business started to pick up a year ago, but it is always like a wave and there are busy and not so busy times.

What effective way of marketing have you used to promote your work (this can include your friends and maybe ex work collegues word of mouth and help)?

Becoming a freelancer was actually not intended in the beginning, so I started simple, with a blog where I showed my upcoming design ideas.

Than, totally by surprise, the interest from my friends arose pretty much so that I decided to take the serious step and officially become a micro freelancer. Still working now on my own website, I am right now trying to promote my work via blog, facebook, twitter as well as mixi, a Japanese version of facebook, which works pretty well.

How do you find clients or do they find you?

Lucky me most of my clients have been introduced to me via friends or ex work collegues, but I also got contacted by a client who was attracted by my blog. Networking and staying in touch with friends and ex work collegues is from my point of view definitely helping a lot!

As a micro freelancer you can not lie back and wait until clients are knocking at your door – well, most of the time not. So it is pretty challenging and you have to be open and approach people. When business is running low, I try to work on as much personal design projects as possible, to keep people interested in my work as well as attracting future clients.

Are you focusing mostly on local clients or do you have foreign clients approach you for work, too?

Right now I would say it is 1/3, which means 2/3 of my clients are from Tokyo, were my micro studio is based and 1/3 is from abroad. Being able to meet up with clients and talk about a project face to face is definitely very good and ‘break the ice’, but with the technology nowadays like skype, it became much easier to work with clients abroad, too.

How much has internet and social media helped your business?

Honestly, without internet and social media, I would have never made it so far and my micro studio BCOME would not exist! It is incredible how especially social media can be of help when one starts a micro business and wants to ‘spread the news’ of what one is doing!

What are your 2-3 goals for the future?

One goal is definitely to create a network with other designers to get more inspirational exchange as well as the possibility of working together on bigger projects and / or complement each other with different creative knowledge and skills. I really enjoy working on my own, and being challenged in many ways, but what I miss from time to time is the continuous exchange you have when you are working in a team.

My second goal can maybe be better called a dream because one of my ‘still in progress’ projects is to create a small brand of so called Omiyage – souvenir – here in Japan, which would attract people from all over the world who are coming to Tokyo / Japan and are looking for a beautiful, but also useful stylish souvenier. I’m still looking for the right chance and the right business partner, but what I’ve learned during my time as a freelancer is that dreams and visions are necessary to create new things and keep yourself going!

Are you working on any special projects at the moment?

Yes, I actually am. As you have heard, for us here in Japan, the world as we knew it changed on Friday March 11^th, when the country was hit by an earthquake of such strength we have never felt before. Tsunamis followed the shaking ground and destroyed an incredibly big part of the cost area in Tohoku, Northern Japan, and also hit and effected the nuclear plant in Fukushima.

Thousands of people were immediatelly killed, thousends are still missing, a countless amount of people lost their beloved ones and their entire life aquirements. We are still not really able to understand what has happened.

Many of us find our hearts with families and friends we love, including those in all the cities and towns across this special and great country.

It’s very difficult for most of us to imagine what it must be like to find oneself in such circumstances. Though we know what it feels like, when we hear that people are thinking about us at such a difficult time, it means a lot.

So a group of friends and I gathered because we thought that we have to do something beside ‘just’ donating money. This was the beginning of 心は共に KOKORO HA TOMO NI (our heart is with Japan), a website, where people from all over the world can show with simply uploading a photo their sympathy and support for the people in Japan and Tohoku.

Working together with friends from totally different backgrounds for a project like this was very nice. To see the positive feedback with the increasing number of uploaded photos is very rewarding and of course we hope that this will, to those who see it here in Japan, give some hope and the feeling that they are not alone.

So please check out www.kokorowatomoni.jp and show your support and sympathy with everybody here in Japan! Thank you very much in advance!

How do you detach from your business and recharge?

I am pretty much an ‘explorer’, which means I love to cycle through town in my free-time, and explore new areas, shops, cafes, restaurants and so on. It’s on one hand super refreshing and the air clears my head, while the sporting part of touring through town gives me new power and keeps me genki – happy and motivated.

If I could I would travel more, but in the meantime Tokyo is my ‘country’ which still surprises me after more than 10 years, with interesting spots and inspires me which leads, of course, again back to work, so I never leave the house without my little notebook and my iPhone ’cause I don’t wanna loose any idea which comes into my mind while being ‘on the move’!

Any words of wisdom for the people who want to open a micro business?

Believe in yourself, stick to your dreams and try to focus – hm, one of my problems, because there are so many things I would love to do and challenges to take. If you are passionate about what you are doing this is already a very good condition to open a micro business. Talk with your friends, exchange opinions and keep your ears and eyes wide open, because there is so much out there that will inspire you and help you follow your dream! 頑張って下さい! Don’t give up!

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I would like to invite you once again to join Benigna and her friends and participate in their project to support Japan. All you need to do is to print this document, take a photo and upload it to their website. Invite your friends too because this is the least we can do and I’m sure that any support means a lot to those who are facing such challenges.

Also, thank you Benigna once again for doing this interview with me. We all wish you all the best; a lot of interesting projects, great clients, growth and success in your business. We send our love and support to Japan.

To find out more about Benigna and her BCOME design studio, you can visit her website, browse her portfolio here and find her either on twitter or facebook.

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