One of the keys to success with small business (and one of the challenges) is that your potential customers need to be able to find you before they can actually spend any money with you.

Of course you also need to have a product or service that solves their problem, presented in such a way that they get what you’re doing and they see the value (and how you’re different than others in your space).  And of course you need to be great at delivering that product or service…all the while developing that difference that makes you Remarkable (just like these 3 Kansas City Businesses have done).

However it all starts with being found – you have to be found first if you want more business.  And the best place to be found is where people are already looking…which is online!

The good news is that it’s getting easier and easier to get your business out there every single day.  At a minimum you should register with a directory like The Finder in Kansas City.  They have free listings or some low cost options that can really help boost your exposure.

On top of that – here are 3 other tools / strategies that can help you raise your online profile for your business.

Get Listed

The first one is a really helpful site called GetListed.org.  Get Listed allows  you to enter your business name and your location / zip code and they will do a local search and see if you are listed in the top local search directories (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp and Best of the Web).  It takes all of 30 seconds to find out if you need to do anything with those directories.

On top of that, they have a lot of resources and information to help you understand how all of this local search stuff works.  Great site!

Get a Video for your business

The next site is Pixability.com.  Pixability has an interesting model for helping business owners get professional quality video for their business promotion (website, youtube, blog, etc.).  They send you a camera, have you shoot some basic footage of what you want covered in the video.  You send the camera back, they edit and combine the basic video with text, voiceover, graphics or whatever makes sense on what you want…and you get a professional looking video for a pretty reasonable price.

Video is a hot topic right now – because people want a quick and easy way to see what you’re doing – video is often a great way to quickly get their attention and make your case.  Especially if you have a business with some visual interest.

Get Found on Google

Google is the 800 pound gorilla of search engines.  If you’re only going to spend time or effort in one place – it should be with Google, they handle 60+ percent of all search engine traffic.

The good news is that Google is constantly innovating, adding new tools (for free) and they make it pretty easy to get up and running.  The first place to start from a local search perspective is Google Places, create or claim your business and fill out the profile.  Once you’re up and running, you can also use the analytics to see how many  people found you, how they found you and  what keywords they were searching for when they found you.

First step is to make sure you’ve got a quality website (doesn’t have to be expensive, but at least professional) and then make sure that you are giving people a real chance to find you online.

What tools or tactics are you using to get found online?  Are you where you want to be when it comes to this stuff?  Share your thoughts or questions below in the comments – I’d love to hear them.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Remember the days of the good ol’ rolodex?

Only 7 years ago Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter didn’t exist (LinkedIn started in May of 2003, Facebook in February of 2004 and Twitter in March of 2006).  Now there are more than 400 Million people on Facebook, 105 Million registered users on Twitter and 65 million on LinkedIn with more joining every single day.

It’s safe to say that Social Media and Social Networks have become mainstream…yet there are still a lot of people asking what the point is.  Just in the last week, I’ve had 2 business owners ask me what the point of LinkedIn really is – they both have profiles and they’ve been using it for awhile, but nothing’s happening.

I don’t have any hard data to back this up, but it’s a valid question for a lot of business owners – “I know I’m supposed to be on Social Media sites like LinkedIn, but now that I’ve set up my profile nothing happens – does this stuff really work?”

Does this stuff (social media) really work?

The problem lies with the question – when it comes to business, Social Media and LinkedIn are marketing tools.  The same question could be asked of other tools – ‘Does networking work?’ or ‘Does direct mail work?’ – ‘Does advertising work?’

The answer is that it works if it’s part of a well thought out marketing strategy that’s executed on an active and consistent basis.

It doesn’t work if you set up your profile in a vacuum relative to other activities in your business, connect to 40 people (or even 140 people) and then just wait and hope for something to happen.

At a minimum, LinkedIn is a supercharged Rolodex

Does LinkedIn really work for your business doesn’t have a yes or no answer – the good news is that there are a lot of benefits you can get out of a tool like Linkedin with minimal effort.  Of course if it makes sense and you’re willing to do more, there are a lot of additional benefits you can get out of LinkedIn, but let’s start with the basics:

Keep track of people

Just like that historic rolodex from 7 years ago, you need a place to keep track of all the business connections you have.  Those connections could be clients, prospective clients, networking connections or just professional people that you know, like and trust and might not be (currently) directly connected to your business.

Just like that rolodex, LinkedIn becomes the single place for you to find the information you need on people you already know.

Unlike that old rolodex, LinkedIn has several additional benefits:

LinkedIn updated by your contacts

One of the historic drawbacks of keeping a rolodex (or even just a stack of business cards) is your contact information could quickly get out of date as people move around, change jobs, etc.

However on LinkedIn, when your contact takes a new job, they’ll update their profile with new information, not only making it available to you, but also letting you know when it happens so you can reach out to them if it make sense.

LinkedIn supplies context for your contacts.

On the rolodex you had a name, business, title and contact information.  Important but really of minimal value.

On LinkedIn you can learn where your contact went to school, what their interests are, what kinds of groups they belong to, what their experience and strengths are and lots of other stuff – great information to make for stronger connections.

LinkedIn delivers their connections

On the rolodex you could tell where someone worked, but you didn’t have anyway to really tell who they knew.  Obviously you could ask them, but when you’re prospective for a specific connection, that could be pretty long way to go about things.

One of the really cool things about LinkedIn is that it’s an online version of the 6 degrees of separation.  Your connections connections are a very tangible representation of the influence you could wield.  Let’s say that you’re trying to meet the HR manager at a company in your town.  You can do a quick search on the company in LinkedIn and the search results will quickly show you if you are connected to anyone that knows someone at that company.

Let’s see you do that with a rolodex!

There are a lot of other more active marketing strategies that are a great fit with LinkedIn, but if you’re looking for a place to get started – setting up your supercharged rolodex is probably a good idea.  Here’s a quick summary on how to do that:

• Create a good profile – if you’re just getting started, here’s a free Getting Started on LinkedIn guide that might be helpful.
• Connect with people that you Know, Like and Trust – most people should have at least 200+ professional connections that can fit into this category.  If not you need to start doing some more networking
• Visit LinkedIn at least once a week and check out what people are up to (and obviously starting using LinkedIn as you would a rolodex).

There’s a lot of great information on how to use LinkedIn on the LinkedIn blog – as an example they just posted an article on new enhancements for status updates.

How do you use LinkedIn?  Do you have an offline rolodex?  Can you see the value of just moving it online?  I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions – post a comment below and tell me what YOU think.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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Every parent wants their kids to do well in school.  Even with a lot of the great schools we have in the Kansas City area (with some obvious exceptions) there are a lot of kids that would benefit from an opportunity to learn more…to learn new ways to learn, especially when it comes to math!

That was a big part of the mindset that Chris Kuttenkuler had when he decided to open Math Monkey of Leawood.  A franchise operation that offers Math Enrichment for gradeschool age kids in a game based classroom environment and 1-on-1 tutoring for all ages in an online environment.

However having a good idea (and even having a good product) isn’t enough to succeed in the long run.

Chris Kuttenkuler knows what it takes to start up a business and succeed.

Imagine starting a brand new business at the beginning of a bad economy, selling a brand, an idea and a product that no one has ever heard of. That was the situation that Chris faced back in the summer of 2007. It was an uphill battle, but it’s an uphill battle that a lot of new business owners face.

Chris is the owner of Math Monkey of Leawood and this past March has been his best month ever after  two and a half years in business. Math Monkey is a franchise that offers math enrichment classes for elementary age kids and 1-on-1 remote tutoring for all ages in over 40 different subjects.

Because Math Monkey is a new concept and a new franchise, Chris knew that he would be facing a real challenge that almost all business owners face in terms of getting noticed by potential customers. The first year, even the first 18 months was slower than expected but by concentrating on a few key ideas he has successfully turned the corner, is growing his business and he’s created a strong group of excited kids and parents in Johnson County.

Keys to Success:

Deliver more than your customers expect: Before you’ll get referrals, before you’ll develop confidence, before people will start talking about you, you need to deliver outstanding value. Chris focused on this from day one and consistently hears great feedback from parents and students.

Chris describes the feedback he gets: “Parents are always amazed and thanking me for what we’re doing at Math Monkey – the kids are excited to come to class each day and parents are thrilled that they no longer fight with their kids when it is time to do their homework!”.

Are you creating fans of your business?

Keep working consistently: It takes a long time to build up your business and it takes a lot of hard work and sustained effort. You need a consistent approach for marketing and delivering on your business. It takes people several exposures to understand who you are and what you do. If that story changes over time, or if you don’t show up for a while you will lose all of your progress.

“I knew this was going to be a lot of hard work.” Chris told us. “But I also knew that this was a great service and we could help kids get excited and more confident in math, so it made sense to keep pushing forward”. It may sound obvious, but you have to put in the same effort in year two that you did just starting out.

Do something you love: Or at least do something that you really enjoy. You’re going to be spending a lot of time in your business – especially in the first couple of years, so it better be worth getting out of bed for.  In addition, it’s pretty easy for customers or potential customers to tell if you don’t really care about the product or service that you provide and if you’re not excited, why would they be excited?

Chris is involved in every aspect of his business and although the business success is great, it’s the students succeeding that really keep him motivated and coming back for more.

Do you love what you do?

Get the basics right and your chances of success go way up.

A lot of businesses fail early on. About one third of small businesses fail in the first 2 years and just over half fail within the first four years.

There are a lot of things you need for long term business success. You’ve got to have a product that people are willing to pay for. You’ve got to have enough money in the bank to get you through the start-up and any slow times. But the real keys are the basics that Chris focuses on – delivering more than people expect, showing up and putting in the effort every single day and bringing passion to what you do. If you can do those 3 things you’ll give yourself a real fighting chance for success.

What do you do in your business to insure success?  Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Presentation.

Attention to detail.

Serving the customer.

I was at my daughter’s soccer game this morning and one of the other parents had recently purchased furniture for their daughter and although they liked the product, the overall experience was very bad.  What was promised in no later than 8 weeks delivery took over 10 weeks.  When they did deliver, they left out a mirror…it had been ordered and paid for, but didn’t get shipped and they made the family jump through hoops to finally get it done right!  On top of that, the store and the installers all acted like this was business as usual and didn’t offer a single apology!

But here’s the really sad and frustrating part… 

One of the other parents who was listening said “Yeah – I know what you mean, but that’s how all of the the furniture companies are…I’ve gotten to the point where I just expect them to screw up and I’m relieved when it’s only a minor issue.”

Business is hard to come by these days and entire industries have decided that the way they’ll survive is by cutting service, customer focus and attention to detail to the bone (and then some)!  I don’t think it’s possible to save your way to prosperity, but I can guarantee there are a lot of companies trying to do just that!

Here’s the good news!

As a small business owner, you have the ability to be different!  You should constantly be looking for your competitive advantage – something that you’re doing that your competition is unwilling or unable to do for themselves that’s meaningful to the customer. 

For a lot of businesses, that competitive advantage could be as simple as ‘we get the little things right!’.  Think about the stores that everyone loves to shop at…the big ticket example is Nordstrom.  Customer service is part of their demonstrated core values and they have stories and stories about how their staff will go out of their way to make it right if there’s a problem.

What about those non-chain stores that people rave about?  I haven’t been to Nell Hills, but wife loves to go despite it being a drive of over an hour to get there.  Based on what she’s told me, they do an amazing job of selecting seasonal merchandise that their customers enjoy, helping them plan out how pieces might look in their homes and generally making it an overall shopping experience not just going to a store.

Walt Disney realized that the longevity of the Disney theme parks was going to require more than just some rides and a theme…the whole experience needed to be filled with all of those little details that people may not notice at first but really appreciate in the long run.  In an interview Walt once said:

"Give people everything you can give them. Keep the place as clean as you can keep it. Keep it friendly, you know. Make it a real fun place to be…"

At Disney you’re not just an employee, you’re a cast member and when you walk out on the park, you are on stage and performing…even if that performance is pushing a broom.  If you’ve been to a Disney park, you can easily see and feel the difference there versus any other park I’ve ever been to.

What details can you over deliver on?

What do people typically hate about your line of work?  Is there a stereotype of inefficiency?  The cable guy will show up sometime between 8 and 12:00…!

Whatever the little things are that your competitors typically get wrong because they don’t care or can’t be bothered with…that’s where you can step things up and really stand out.  And the beautiful thing about developing a competitive advantage is that you are no longer competing on price.  You will succeed at a premium price with people that appreciate the importance of presentation, everything in it’s place, everything working the way it’s supposed to (or being handled if it’s not).

What are some things you could start doing in your business today that would upgrade the experience you deliver?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on companies that are doing it right – or maybe ideas on things that a lot of companies should be doing?  Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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Dolphins are really smart – if you haven’t had a chance to check out the new show Life from the Discovery Channel you’re missing out.  There was a recent episode that did a segment on dolphins who lived in a really shallow area in the ocean.  The dolphins would purposely stir up mud in a circle around a bunch of fish.  The fish would see the mud as an obstacle and jump over the mud…right into the waiting mouths of the rest of the dolphins!  Lunch delivered!

What does that have to do with blogging for business?  Technically not much other than blogging for business is also a really smart thing to do…and I bet if dolphins could type they would have blogs for their businesses!

Still not convinced?  Well here are 5 great reasons why you should have a blog for your business:

By the way – when I’m talking about blogging for business, that covers pretty much any kind of regular content creation.  It could be a podcast, a video blog or the old fashioned run of the mill blog that you just read!

1. Educate clients and prospects

Regardless of what business you own, you would benefit substantially if people considered you to be an expert in your field.  Now you and I both know that simply writing a blog post does not make you an expert, but if you consistently write good posts that educate people on your stuff…then you’re an expert!

Take Jason and Garret at BridgeBuilder as an example:  They are estate planning attorneys here in Kansas City and part of their mission is to help people understand how Estate Planning really works and how it might impact you – here’s a recent post answering questions that clients have been asking about Estate Planning law changes.

2.  Great for Search Engine Optimization

Search engines love content!  Google is like the world’s biggest librarian and the more relevant (and fresh) content the search engines can find, the higher your site will move up the search engine results.

Check out Signal Integrity.  Colin Warwick is a product manager at Agilent and his product is all about improving Signal Integrity, which is a term Network Engineers have to worry about.  Last year, if you went to Google and searched on Signal Integrity (which his potential customers were likely to do) his product’s page was 5 pages down in the search results – no way they were getting found!  Colin decided to start a blog, he called it Signal Integrity and began to write about Network Engineering topics that his prospects would be interested in…a few months later he was on Page 1 of the search results!  Here’s a more detailed write-up of how that worked for him.

3.  Start a conversation

One of the reasons that blogging and social media work so well from a marketing perspective is that they open the door to interaction and conversations.  Most people (your customers) are burned out on traditional 1 way advertising and being told what to do.  Blogs enable you to tap into what your customers are thinking, get feedback, get ideas, all sorts of great stuff that come from having a discussion.

One of the best blogs I’ve seen in terms of generating interesting comments is Awake @ the Wheel by Jonathan Fields – here’s a great post and example of a conversation:  Be your own guru.

4.  Show your personality – be a person

People want to do business with other people, not with a nameless, faceless corporation.  Although it’s generally important to be professional, it’s just as important to have some personality and let people know that you’re real.

A blog gives you the opportunity to show who you are as a person…it’s a business blog, so it’s 80% to 90% about business topics, but even there you can demonstrate some personality and let people get to know you.  This example is putting the bar pretty high – but Seth Godin does a great job of letting you know what he’s all about – here’s a post on Exposing Yourself!

5.  Gently….sell stuff

I hesitated to put this one on here because it has to be done the right way.  In my opinion, the primary purpose of a blog is to educate with a dash of entertain and a healthy dose of putting yourself out there so people can get to know you.  However, as long as you’re doing all of the above, it’s perfectly fine to occasionally slip in a soft sales pitch.  After all, people are looking to you for answers, and if your business can help address their problems – it’s your job to let them know about it.

The writers at Copyblogger are masters at this selling process.  Copyblogger is one of the best business blogs in the world – if you ever have a couple of hours free, you will learn more from Copyblogger than any number of business books you could find out on the shelves today.  And while you’re learning, you’ll have an opportunity to buy some of their products!  Take a look at this post on Social Media Marketing to see what  I mean!

What else am I missing?

You’re a blog reader (otherwise you wouldn’t be here…) and maybe you have a blog of your own – what are some of the other great reasons to blog for business?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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