Small Business Center

One of the strongest trends in small business today is the emergence and adoption of technology.

If you’ve started or run a business in the last 10 years, there’s a good chance that you have turned to technology for help.  You may have created a spreadsheet to track leads.  You might use a desktop calendaring system to plan out your days.  You might use a web-based to-do/task list to keep on track.  There’s a good chance you’re now using a web-based email marketing system.  Hopefully you have a website by now.  If you sell products online you almost certainly have a shopping cart hooked into your website (which might be made up of a merchant account, PayPal, eBay and more).

But, is this new technology a friend or a foe?

As an entrepreneur growing a business, you’re bootstrapping it.  You’re finding amazing technology tools (many of them free or are low cost) to grow your business – that’s the right thing to do.  Each tool provides a new benefit to your business.  Some automate your work while others allow you to organize information so you can easily find it later.  Each tool makes your business run more smoothly and makes your life less chaotic.  Or does it?

Growing your business is extremely exciting. There comes a point when the business you dreamed of for so long is starting to blossom and success seems so close you can taste it.  But, that’s usually also when things start to go haywire.  Suddenly, the technology you turned to during your startup phase is now a jumbled pile of incompatible systems.  Your email program doesn’t work with your shopping cart and your spreadsheet of leads is definitely not in sync with your customer database.  Trying to find all the information you know about one of your customers is nearly impossible and very time consuming.

Here’s a great example – I know of one man who sent out an offer for a 50% discount to his prospect list, hoping to get a big boost in sales at the end of the month.   To his horror, he started getting phone calls from angry customers that had recently paid full price.  Since his systems weren’t in sync, he could not ensure that his past customers were not also in his prospect list.  This is a common problem called “Multiple System Chaos” – it can be crippling.  Small businesses don’t have the resources to integrate all the systems they use and they don’t have the luxury of time to chase down the information they need.

So, what can you do to combat multiple system chaos?  How do we stay sane when the very technology that houses our most important data is suddenly our enemy?

1. Awareness. The first step is to know that this problem is coming.  It usually hits most small business owners right in the face because they’re not expecting it.  Be aware that growth brings complexity – this will help you avoid costly mistakes.  Take stock of the systems you’re now using and those that you will need as you grow.
2. Plan. Once you’re aware of the complexity that will come as you grow, you can start planning for the future.  Planning will help you make well thought decisions about implementing technology before you have a problem on your hands.
3. Integrations. Today, there are many technology integrations that allow your systems to talk to each other, saving you time and headaches.  Make sure that you look for systems that can easily integrate with others.  Social media tools are great examples of this – I can post a status update on Twitter and it will automatically update my Facebook as well because they integrate with each other.  Find customer systems that do that same.
4. All-In-One Solutions. If you’re a serious entrepreneur and want to grow quickly, you’ll want to consider an all-in-one system built for small businesses.  There are several systems that include marketing automation, a customer database, a shopping cart and more.  These types of systems can save you time and money in the long run.  One of the recent developments in this area is the concept of “Email Marketing 2.0”.  Most email marketing systems don’t include a customer database, they only allow you to maintain lists of email addresses.  Email Marketing 2.0 is the marriage of email marketing with a customer database, allowing you to keep track of your customers and prospects, and send them timely, relevant emails.

If your appetite for growth is strong, you will run into multiple system chaos.  By being aware of the problem and planning for the future, you’ll avoid nasty mistakes and turn technology into your friend again.

What’s new in your small business? Whether it’s a new launch, an updated Website, a new product or service or a new marketing technique to bring it all before the customer that much better than before, one thing is certain. Your business is always changing. In this small business roundup for April 19, 2010 at Small Business Trends we’ll do a bit of catching up.

Patterns

Many good businesses are created to address a customer or client’s pain. But are businesses preying on a customer’s fears really a positive trend for entrepreneurship? Yahoo! Finance

Does your business profile need a tune-up? Facebook and other social media are exploding in popularity, so make sure your business profiles are up to date. Small Business Loan Blog

BlogHer announces a brand new look. An online social media community for women bloggers announces changes including improved profiles, improved blogging tools, improved blog listings and improved search. BlogHer

Moves and Launches

Sometimes you’ve got to follow your heart. When making a change in your business or career, sometimes it’s about more than just dollars and cents. Social Media Handyman

A new startup is giving a whole new meaning to online real estate. Now you can put your small business on the “Streets of the Internet.” Killer Startups

Sency for Cities launches this week with Sency/Atlanta. Founder Evan Britton says the new real time search engine will eventually be rolled out in 20 U.S. cities in the near future. Sency.com

Operations

Sometimes success is about handling slip ups. Renegotiating after missing on commitments should be more than just damage control and can be one of the most important tasks for any small business owner. The Sales Blog

Are you winning over your harshest critics? Improve your business by really listening to those critical voices and deciding how to address their concerns. Bloggertone

Slicing through the Gordian Knots of management. How to confront the largest problems in running your small business and find the leverage points to make things better. The Alchemist Entrepreneur

Marketing

More on the importance of business blogging. If you’re in business and want to know how blogs can help you and how to do them right, read on. The Yonatan Maisel Blog

What are your top marketing mistakes? Here are some major mistakes many small technology businesses make when marketing their product or service online. Cloud Marketing Labs

How to attract customers to your Website. “People hate sales pages on social media” so here are some alternative approaches you may wish to consider. MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

Mother knows best. And so do the people marketing directly to her. The Lunch Pail

Policy

One private equity investor argues for “rescue loans” to SMBs. But we at Small Business Trends ask ourselves whether it is really good policy to funnel $50 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars to guarantee loans to small businesses in such deep trouble other lenders have given them up as dead. SME Rescue Loans Program

Book Shelf

A review of Making Things Happen. Our own Anita Campbell has a look at a new book on business from Scott Belsky about taking a great business idea from dream to reality. Small Business Trends

Whether an elaborate 30 page opus or a couple of ideas scribbled on a cocktail napkin…or something somewhere in between…a business plan may take a wide variety of forms. But one thing all have in common is that they make you think about your business. From how to fund your business to who you will sell your product or service to, there are plenty of questions to ask. In this business roundup, the Small Business Trends team looks at posts and news that make you make decisions about your business both before and after you get things rolling.

Strategy

Will the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act help your business? Or more importantly, as Small Business Trends Anita Campbell asks, do small businesses even care? Open Forum Money

Are you taking advantage of Facebook? A new study suggests the social media giant is getting increasing online business traffic. What are you doing to take advantage of this trend? Online Media Gazette

Want to cut payroll expenses without sacrificing talent? A podcast from the Wall Street Journal recommends offering equity instead but cautions that this decision can have consequences down the road. WSJ

Are you developing a big idea for your advertising campaign? Better to develop an advertising campaign for your big idea. Here’s the difference. BusinessWeek

Startups

Knowing your market and watching your overhead. Lani Hay, CEO of Lanmark Technology Inc., gives some great advice to Dow Jones Newswires on getting started even if here at Small Business Trends we wouldn’t necessarily recommend your first stop for funding being the SBA. WSJ

Who says a good business plan couldn’t translate into big investment dollars? Try $1.07 million in investments, cash and business services handed out as prizes in the final round of this business plan competition. You’re The Boss

Why your bookie wouldn’t bet on a startup. We here at Small Business Trends believe there are synergies to working with other startups, this post adequately spells out the risks. Corporate Raiter

Operations

What’s your business model? If you can’t explain your model simply and aren’t modeling off of others’ success, you may be missing great opportunities. Chris Brogan

Marketing

Can ethical marketers learn lessons from spammers? Yea, Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips hates spammers too, but when it comes to online marketing, sometimes you’ve got to give the devil his due. Copyblogger

You don’t need to be a hard drinker to understand the Vodka test. But marketer Josh Black insists that when trying to sell your product or service even teetotalers would do well to heed this advice. The Underdog Millionaire Blog

The best of 2009. Tom Pick reviews top e-mail marketing strategies and tactics from last year with links to the full overview. Webbiquity

Networking

What’s the key to successful networking? It’s all about cool shoes, the right underwear, forgetting your business cards and keeping up with current events. The Woo

The ultimate business networking experience. What’s your philosophy when using LinkedIn to connect? America’s Best Business Practices

Customer Care

Forget that ideal customer. Is there someone you definitely DON’T want to do business with? Why not figure this out ahead of time before being faced with an agonizing decision down the road. M4B Marketing

Asking predictive questions. How a seemingly unrelated inquiry can help you serve your customer better. Small Biz Survival