This morning I read this one from Professor Henry Mintzberg, author of The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Managers Not MBAs, and a dozen others on management and organization:

“A leader has to be one of two things: he either has to be a brilliant visionary himself, a truly creative strategist, in which case he can do what he likes and get away with it; or else he has to be a  true empowerer who can bring out the best in others.”

A few names come to mind:

• Ronald Reagan – visionary
• Steve Jobs – visionary
• Bill Gates – visionary
• Steve Ballmer – empowerer
• Tony Robbins – empowerer

Is it that black and white?  Can you be a visionary AND an empowerer?  How will you lead your teams today?

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1. Are You Talking To Yourself?

Inside Small Business by HP LogoWorks

LogoWorks designs logos, small websites and direct mail  for small businesses at reasonable prices.  You can get a great logo designed for $299, and a starter web site professionally designed and coded for $999.  They aren’t the cheapest or most expensive out there, but offer a good value and high quality.

To stand out among all the companies that offer similar services, they have created the “Inside Small Business” blog as a resource for entrepreneurs and small businesses, reaching over 100,000 readers monthly.  I think its a smart strategy to keep their design customers coming back, and to add value beyond their core service offering.  The trust they are building will lead to other purchases of either services or HP equipment for small businesses.

QuickBooks Community

Intuit’s QuickBooks software is used by millions of small businesses in virtually every industry.  We employ a QuickBooks freelancer who maintains all the books at a reasonable hourly rate and lets me and my business partners focus on the important stuff like working with clients.  The QuickBooks community lets you connect with other small business owners or their bookkeepers to share tips on how to use the software itself, and more importantly on running your business.  There are also resources and articles in the “Library” section to help folks get started on their business, and a marketplace for innovative products and classifieds where QuickBooks users can advertise their business.

The site is also a brilliant resource for Intuit’s developers to understand how real people use the software, where their frustrations are, how they “work-around” issues, and get ideas for new product development.  There’s nothing like getting new ideas from people who are already heavily invested in your product.

Startup Nation

StartupNation was created by two of the country’s top entrepreneurial experts – Rich and Jeff Sloan. They co-host StartupNation’s nationally-syndicated, call-in radio program and share advice and inspiration on over 80 radio stations across the country every week.  The website is a fantastic resource for anyone just getting started and trying to figure out the right model for them – franchising, work at home, web-based, etc.   The site offers high level inspiration, self assessments to see if entrepreneurship is really for you, and down-and-dirty tactical advice with “how to” articles on things like credit card processing and building web site traffic.

LegalZoom

LegalZoom is an online service that lets you take care of common legal matters like setting up LLC’s, wills, incorporation’s and trademarks without hiring an attorney.  They have state specific documents for these and other services and you can get it all taken care of quickly and for far less money than an attorney would charge.  I have set up three LLCs using their services and it has always been painless and quick.  

LegalZoom has done a nice job of building a “Business Resource Network” of credit card providers, logo designers, payroll service providers and so on for their customers.  What is really clever is how they have integrated a number of them into the process – so as you are filling out your LLC information you will be asked a series of questions, some of which will suggest that you check out their preferred partners for services you will need and may have not considered.  This of course drives revenue to LegalZoom, but is also really helpful to the business owner who may not know where to turn for these services.

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A business logo is an iconic representation of your company’s mission, vision, and target market. A well-designed logo can build a good relationship between you and your customer, whereas a logo, which is not properly designed, could make your customer to perceive wrong image about your company and then switch to the competitor.

Think of a Nike, what first comes in your mind, a “swoosh”, this swoosh tells everything about the company. Think again about the McDonald’s golden arches, you come to know all about what company does just by looking at the logo. Your logo should be like this, it should tell everything about your company. But many companies don’t have such logos that can develop the distinctive brand identity.

Therefore, as a business owner, you should know some key aspects of design process to go hand in hand with your logo designer. This however doesn’t mean that you learn the tools of designing, but you should know some basic design elements to give feedback during the design process.

Getting started with hiring a designer:

When you think it’s time to design a logo for your company, it is better not to design it by yourself, no matter how much you know about designing. It is however better to go to any professional advertising agency or design firm, but the problem of hiring an advertising agency is the higher cost that could be thousands of dollars.

The other option is a freelance logo designer. The good thing with freelance is that they will charge you very less amount, but there is no reliability that how they going to design your logo or whether they don’t leave you in between the design process.

It’s better for you to search the Internet and find a logo design company which better know about your industry and market competition. Not only they will charge you less but give you fine piece of logo design with the option of several rounds of revision until you get a perfect logo for your business.

Things to consider during the design process:

After hiring a suitable logo design company, you must check the following design elements and give feedback during the whole design process.

• Logo should be simple:  Before your designer start your logo design project, you just clearly communicate him that you need a simple yet powerful logo design for your company. Why simple design? You must have seen the logos of large organizations; their logos are very simple in design but very appealing to the eyes. For Instance, the “Swoosh” of Nike or the “M” of McDonald. They are very simple but leave lasting impression on the viewer’s mind.
• Logo should portray the message of your business.  Another thing you should tell your designer that you need a logo which must portray the message of your business. This however doesn’t mean that your logo specifically portrays what your company does but simply describes from which industry you belong to. Like if you are a realtor, obviously you like to have a logo with the image of houses or something that can better tell you are a real estate person. In addition, tell him that color, design, font and other necessary element should be according to the business type. You can’t have a cartoonish logo for a real estate business or a dark black logo for children products.
• Avoid clip-art.  Never allow him to use clip art. Clip arts are seen by lot of people already, and if a clip-art is used within your logo, your logo will come out as an unprofessional emblem that cannot match with your business personality. Therefore, strictly prohibit the use of clipart; otherwise your logo will not be a one of its kind.
• It should be re-sizable.    Usually, when you go to any amateur logo designer, it is a greater chance that he will not design your logo with any vector based application. But if you still have found any not so expert designer, clearly tell him to provide logos in vector format. Vector format allow you to re-size your logo as big as to print on a billboard and as small as to print on a pen.
• Avoid overlapping of text and artwork.  Some logos come only with text, some come as image only, but some logos have both the image and the text. So advice your logo designer to design in way that the image and the text should make a logo one thing, but should not get intermingled with each other.

Make it your business trademark:

After you receive the final formats, it’s time to make it a trademark for your company to save yourself from potential trademark infringements and law suits. You can apply for a trademark at your country’s Patent and Trademark Office.

After making it a trademark, you can use it to any marketing collateral you want. Use it to the maximum to build your company’s visibility and credibility.

Creating a logo is easy as well as difficult. If you follow the proper course, there is nothing that can stop you to get a perfect logo for your company. Remember, you are going to make your logo an identity of your company, which you may not replace very soon, so keep your customers and nature of business in mind while designing a logo.

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Step One – Define Yourself – Who are you, and who cares?

The first place to start is by defining yourself, and the market you serve.  That may seem self evident and obvious, but see if you can succinctly answer that question and put your answer to the “so what?” test.   It really pays off to spend some time thinking about a simple positioning statement for your business that clearly defines who you are and what you stand for. 

Follow this template and see what you come up with:

“For (customers) who want (what they want), (My Company) offers (My Product or service).  Unlike (My main competitor), (My Company) provides (unique offering).”

Here is how that formula might apply to McDonalds:

For Mom’s who want nutritious food served quickly in a fun environment for their children, McDonalds offers kid’s Happy Meals.  Unlike other fast food restaurants, McDonald’s menu provides healthy food options for kids and adults.

 Got it?  Now try it – it’s actually harder than it looks.

Step Two – Define Your Customers

Who are your potential customers?  Again this may seem self evident and obvious, but when you think deeply about them, you may come up with a few surprises.  Think about the following questions, and how well you meet their needs:

a. Where are they located?
b. When do they buy?
c. How do they buy?
d. How do they pay?
e. What motivates them to buy (convenience, price, quality, service, status)?

 Now that you’ve defined who you are and who you think your customers are, you need to define what you want to accomplish with your marketing and advertising.

 Step Three – Define What You Want From Your Marketing Efforts

Stop spending money on advertising until you can really answer this question.  It’s not sufficient to say “I want more sales” or “I want to get my name out there”.  Those are vague statements that only cause you to throw money down the drain.

Start with your objectives – and prioritize the most pressing needs:

1) New Customer Acquisition – How are you bringing new people in the door, and do you understand how to reach them effectively?

• Direct face to face selling?
• Outbound Telemarketing, Inbound Call Center?
• Direct to consumer or thru resellers?
• Self service on the web?

2) Customer Retention – It is always more cost effective to retain and sell more to your existing customers. How can you get a larger “share of wallet”, and turn your best customers into evangelists to bring in their friends and families? Build on your customer base for:

• Referrals
• Word of mouth / mouse
• Repeat sales
• Advocacy
• Community

3) Brand Identity and Positioning - Build a Buzz and an Aura around your business. In addition to the positioning exercise above, think about whether your company will lead on price, product, or service. Hint – you can only be great at one, and fair at another. You can’t be great on all three.

• PRICE Leadership -customer proposition is simple: low or lowest price and hassle-free service -Wal-Mart, McDonalds
• PRODUCT Leadership -offer products that push performance boundaries – Apple is a great example
• SERVICE Leadership-delivering what specific customers want -Federal Express, Nordstrom , Whole Foods Market

Understanding which of these three values you lead in will help drive the advertising and marketing tactics for you to take.

4) Public Relations, Reputation and Word of Mouth – Build your market leadership and your long term branding. Public relations is not about press releases or getting your name in the local paper every week (though those are components of your tactical PR plan). PR is really about getting people to think of you as a leader and to be able to tell your story the way you would when you aren’t there. Successful PR includes your approach to the Media, local Influencers, your employees and Team members, your Suppliers, local Governments and the other pillars in your Community.

Once you can prioritize the most important objectives, you can quickly get into the tactics that will make up your marketing mix to achieve your goals.  Establish quantifiable marketing goals – this means goals that you can turn into numbers. Your goals might include sales, profits, or customer’s satisfaction.  For example, your goals might be to gain at least 30 new clients or to sell 10 products per week, or to increase your income by 30% this year.   They will change overtime, but having them defined and written will help guide your marketing efforts.

Lastly, watch your competition, but don’t always emulate them.  Just because the “other guy” has bought some cable TV spots or a billboard doesn’t mean its right for you.  Stay focused and have a plan to build real marketing success.

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Yes.

GoDaddy has created a series of integrated tools that allow you to literally do everything in a matter of hours and begin selling online. I used this platform to create a proof-of-concept platform and within 120 days had sales in excess of $20,000 a month.

I am going to show you how to navigate the system, and a few tips I learned along the way. The GoDaddy platform is an excellent way to start for a new site, and I found the customer service to be very responsive and knowledgeable.

With the GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart, you can create and publish a stand-alone Internet store or add one to your existing Web site in a matter of minutes. Accept PayPal® and credit cards, offer multiple shipping options, issue coupons – all via your secure site. And there’s NO “percentage of sales” fee like with other instant online stores (such as Yahoo).

How To Start Selling Online with GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart

Step One: Choose a domain name and the plan you need – they have three different versions of Quick Shopping Cart and it really comes down to how many products you plan to list. They all have plenty of disk space and bandwidth. Once you do this, you will go into a wizard driven utility that lets you set up the store (this is for beginners, or for a quick and dirty proof of concept. Advanced users just click on the “Advanced” tab to get to more detail, HTML and CSS).

Step Two: Storefront Information Basic contact information, an image of your company logo and a contact e-mail address.

Step Three: Product Catalog. This is where you will spend most of your time in building your storefront. List all of your products, product categories/departments, pictures of your products, and some marketing copy describing each product. You can import a data file here, and there is seamless integration with eBay if you plan to sell via that channel as well.

Step Four: Design your site. There are over 40 store templates to choose from, and you get more opportunities to modify the color, font, product page layout etc as you go through the wizard. You wont find any Web 2.0 designs here – they are basic, and effective. Give some thought to how you want your storefront to look on the Internet and how products should be displayed. You will also have the option to create linkages between products, such as popular add-ons or related items.

Step Five: Taxes and Shipping. Apply the tax rate applicable for your state. Shipping can be set to UPS, USPS, or a custom setting (no Fed Ex integration). If you don’t have a UPS account, you can quickly register or continue without an account.

Step Six: Payment options. You can accept PayPal right out of the gate. If you don’t have a PayPal account, you can apply for one here. If you want to accept credit cards directly and not via PayPal, you will need your merchant payment gateway account information. Again, if you don’t have a payment gateway established, you can sign up for one here. PayPal is pretty quick to set up, a merchant account requires an SSL certificate and will take a week or so to set up. But you can still start selling today and accept cards via PayPal. I used the QuickBooks Merchant Services which is integrated with the Quick Shopping Cart. It worked well, gave excellent “potential fraud” warnings, and has a great user interface. They also have an introductory offer which makes it inexpensive to set up. I would like to see Google CheckOut as an option here, but that’s not a show stopper as PayPal is more widely known and used.

Step Seven: Publish. Here you preview your site and go live on the web and start selling!

So far this is all pretty painless and straightforward. It’s the next level of integration that I like. Within the tool you can set up a Google Base feed (also known as Froogle) to get more exposure. And by adding a few other products like Traffic Blazer and Express E-mail Marketing you can get your advertising set up and begin working with customer lists. The Quick Shopping Cart is fully integrated with both of these packages, so when you start marketing to your current customers all the data is in your CAN-SPAM compliant tool. Makes life much easier so you dont have to import lists, etc. Same goes for the Quick Blog which helps promote your site and is good for SEO rankings.

The interface is pretty clean and easy to use. When ever I called GoDaddy customer support they were always helpful and knew what I was going through.

Check out the videos and tutorials on the GoDaddy site to get a better idea of how easy it is to set up a real online store in just a couple of hours.

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