Google

Can a small business be successful without Google? Not according to Maria Bartiromo. Google has become the blood supply for not only small businesses, but all businesses. And this is a global phenomenon. There is no country in the world where Google is not a factor. The main way that small businesses can benefit from Google is by purchasing Google Adsense advertising. Apparently, AdSense can transform a mom and pop small business from obscurity on the fringe back roads of Arizona, to a global brand barely able to keep up with the demand.

Google's smartphone, the Android along with its various apps are also fast becoming a must-have for serious entrepreneurs not just in terms of the phone element, but the computing features as well. Google Earth, Google TV, Google Images and Google Searches are all invaluable tools that provide incalcable benefits for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Do you Google?

SEO

I was at a networking event tonight and I happened to bump into a guy who was talking with another guy. It turns out we had met sometime before. We got to talking about our little companies and in the course of the conversation, we started to talk about websites. "Do you have a website?" I asked. "No" he answered. I was actually surprised. "Why not?" I asked. "Because I don't want to promise more than I can deliver," he said. Now I was astounded. I couldn't believe he had such a lame reason for not having a website. But I did not press the issue. I said, "I hear you. Makes sense," and I smiled.

I don't see how any business person today can afford to not have a website. Especially since it is so inexpensive to set one up at places like register.com. Your website is literally your virtual office and business card. How can any serious business person not have one and use the excuse that they don't want to promise more than they can deliver as the reason for not having one?

It is probably a lot smarter to invest the money in the beginning in the site and have a professional design the site because you want it to serve your purposes, including getting indexed by the Google search engines. For that to happen, you need to have someone who is SEO literate and can competently handle the job of creating the site. If you need a recommendation, email me and I will give you a couple of places.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is really rocket science that only seriously smart technocrats can understand and master. It has something to do with scripts and meta tags and source codes and semantics and all kinds of obscure stuff that when put together, can manhandle Google's "algorithms" and get your top ranking in search results. You really need to get someone who knows what they are doing with this, because one wrong move and you and your website can find yourselves de-indexed by Google, and this obviously defeats the purpsose of having a site to begin with.

One key to SEO seems to be having fresh content on the site at all times. That means you have to go in an update the site on a daily basis, and make sure not to duplicate any entries, as Google's algorithms seems to frown upon this rather deeply.

And, obviousy, you don't want to promise what you can't deliver with your site. But better do that than not having a site at all. I don't see how any small business can be without one in this day and age.

Buzz

What’s buzzing? As a small biz today you have to know not only what’s buzzing (trends) but also how to generate buzz about their business, product, services or themselves. But how does a business owner even begin? It is a good question.

Maybe you can start by spending a day in Borders pouring through all of Seth Godin’s books. Then you might get online and start to dig deep into the belly of the internet, to see what the trends are and what the “young people” are doing to get themselves known, and sometimes rich.

Why do you need buzz? Because it is the way you "attract clients and customers, keep existing ones and recapture those who have gone elsewhere, generate leads, cultivate referrals, develop your image, promote name recognition, grow and expand your network anddate base, and increase bottom line."

The key to buzz these days seems to be figuring out the quickest and fastest way to go “viral.” Going viral means getting others to spread the word about you. Obviously, the fastest way to do that is to get online. It is the fastest and the cheapest (often free) and there are no boundaries as far as how far you can reach. The sky is literally the limit.

Specifically, social media is definitely the way to go. For starters, have you heard of the new trend called Twitter? Twitter and twit ads are the new hot way to create buzz for yourself and your company. You join up and upload your contact list and pretty soon, everybody can know exactly where you are at all times and exactly what you are doing at all times. So if you are running a business, and you just started a 25% off sale from products or services, giving your contacts a heads up on Twitter via email or text message is a way to generate buzz.

There are all these other social networks such as LinkedIn, Meetup, Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, Bebo, and a whole slew of others which you can find on Wikipedia.(If this link doesn't work just google wikipedia list of social networking websites.)

The thing is, these new technologies are not for the tech-illiterate. And unfortunately, most people north of 25 tend to be tech-challenged at least, if not downright tech-illiterate. This is a great disadvantage in terms of creating buzz for your company, product, services and business. I, too, am north of 25. So I can totally relate and commiserate. But you have to find a way to overcome that. You may never be a tech genius. But you have to have some level of competence with the new internet technologies if you and your business are going to be competitive.

Another way to generate buzz is to start a blog that answers and solves problems for others. But since there are millions if not billions of blogs out there, the small business owner will have to figure out a way to get traffic to their blog. This takes time, patience, and knowledge. So it is prudent to stay informed, keep content fresh, and to be accurate. Then as one person visits the blog and is happy with it, by word of mouth you may find that your audience grows. With some ingenuity, you can turn that into an even bigger audience if you combine it with the social media networks discussed above, and if you are really lucky, you can even start to monetize it too. (People have been known to sell their blogs, and to make a full time income just from blogging! All you have to do is familiarize yourself with Google Adsense, and other affiliates for sources of income such as - Kontera, PepperJam Network, Text Link Ads, Bidvertisers, private ad sales, Shoemoneytools and RSS ads. Don't ask me to elaborate on any of these because I'm still trying to figure them out. But I'm just saying the information is out there.)

Other ways to generate buzz is to give free seminars, write a newsletter, write a newspaper column, start a radio station (possible for about $40.00!) start an email list and get known by the media. There is no substitute for being the best in your field. That goes a long way to generating buzz too. Especially if the price is right.

Ideas

Ideas are like belly buttons. Every body has them. The question is, what do you do with your ideas? As a small business owner, hopefully you find a way to take your ideas and turn them into a lucrative franchise, or, maybe even, the next Google. Think about it: Sergey Brin and Larry Page were a couple of geeks till they took their brilliant idea (I believe it started with them writing a thesis at Standford) for organizing the world’s information, and ran all the way to the billionaires club with it. Now they own their own boeing 767 and are both listed on the Forbes List of Billionaires.

What is the price of an idea? The beauty about it is that ideas are priceless. They cost you zero dollars but could make you a gazillion. All you have to do is think them up. How hard can that be?

Ideas can come to you from all sources, places and people. Ideas can come in your dreams, from your soap lather as you shower in the morning, from the glass of wine that loosened you up over dinner, from the clouds. You don’t have to be in any special place to get really good ideas. Ideas have no sense of timing. They pop up all the time, sometimes even when you are busy doing really important things, wink wink.

Different people, including quantum physicists have different ideas of where ideas come from. Jack Foster, author of How to Get Ideas suggests that each person can actually program themselves to be more “idea prone.” He seems to think there is a science to getting ideas to flow. Whether his theory is right or wrong, it is probably true that every body has at least one brilliant idea in their lifetime. Those who become millionaires or, in Bill Gates’ case, billionaires, just seem to know when and how and what to do with it.

There is not one small business or big business that did not start with an idea. Nothing in the entire universe – even the creation of the universe itself – started without an idea. The Big Bang was an idea. Something, somewhere, thought it up. Kentucky Fried Chicken was an idea. The P.C. was an idea, so was the light bulb, jogging shoes and Victoria's Secret underwear. Every book that was ever written and published began with an idea. Microsoft was an idea. So was Starbucks. Every fashion show in Milan and Paris starts with an idea. Vogue Magazine was somebody’s idea and it wasn’t Anna Wintour’s. The International Monetary Fund was somebody’s idea. Video games were somebody’s idea. New York Sports Club, Disney and Liposuction – all ideas.

Probably no other business is more filled with ideas than Hollywood. Hollywood is literally an idea tank. People with ideas gravitate to Hollywood more than they do to Silicon Valley. Hey, Steve Jobs would be lucky if he got half the ideas that floats around Hollywood in a given day. Putting Brad Pitt and Angelina in a movie together. Who’s idea was that? The movie industry has spawned many derivative industries and companies, from production companies, to PR outfits, Studios to Cinemas, to MTV - all of which depends on other people's ideas to keep going.

If you are stomped about what kind of business you want to start, or how to take your business to the next level, maybe you need to get in touch with your idea lobe, that side of the brain that does the thinking. The trick seems to be not to censor yourself and your ideas. It seems to be that the more you can allow yourself to become like a kid, the more likely you are to come up with something brilliant.

Architecture

If you read the literature for the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it might inspire you to think of your small business as a sort of Egyptian temple, and of yourself as a designer, architect and builder of said temple. As you read about the Temple of Dendur, you will learn that “Egyptian temples were not simply houses for a cult image but also represented, in their design and decoration, a variety of religious and mythological concepts.”

When constructing a small business, from its microscopic DNA to its macrobiotic evolution as a successful and profitable enterprise, it might be useful to keep in mind that what you are trying to build is not necessarily the next Google, or some other entity of mythic renown, but something that incorporates your own sense of values, your worldview and honor code. Structurally, your company should reflect, in its design and “décor” those concepts, issues and qualities that will shape your brand image for years to come.

In reading about the Temple of Dendur during one of my recent visits to the MET, I was intrigued to learn that “one important symbolic aspect was based on the understanding of the temple as an image of the natural world as the Egyptians knew it.” The Egyptians understood about following the trends of their times; they knew that in constructing the Temple, it would be more relatable to their audience if they incorporated images and concepts into the infrastructure that are readily identifiable. Thus, in constructing a small business and building up, and building up your “Temple of business” it is important to consider who your target market is, and what and how they identify in and to their environment.

The Egyptians, in building the Temple of Dendur, “lined the temple base with carvings of papyrus and lotus plants that seem to grow from water, symbolized by figures of the Nile god Hapy.” As a small business person, you may have no idea who the Nile god Hapy is and what he stood for. And that is fine. But it is important that as a small business owner you know what your clients and customers value and you find ways to build a company that reflects what your customers want, and who and what they hold sacrosanct.

It is not just the customers’ needs that you have to consider when defining your mission and setting your strategies. The Egyptians were concerned with more than just their gods and friends. “Above the gate and temple entrance are images of the sun disk flanked by the outspread wings of Horus, the sky god. The sky is also represented by the vultures, wings outspread, that appear on the ceiling of the entrance porch.” As a small business owner, you have to keep in mind that your competitors, too, are a part of the calculus and must be factored into the blueprints you draw up for the construction of a successful company. As they say on the street, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Globalization

Whether you run a textile mill in rural China, or an organic juice factory in the South of France, a hedge fund in Mumbai, a winery in Southhampton, or a IT outfit in Silicon Valley, you would have to literally be living under a rock not to realize that business has gone global.

The internet has shattered barriers and ceilings and have opened up all nature of commerce to global consumption. It is imperative that small businesses, just like large businesses, learn to think globally even though they may be local actors.

That is going to mean getting technologically literate. At the bare minimum, you need to invest in a website. That is your primary point of sale (POS). With a website, while you are acting locally, people around the globe can find your business and you may be surprised that you can generate customers that way. Of course, the key will be optimizing your website, using the kind of key words that Google would pick up in a search done around the globe. That is not easy or inexpensive but small businesses need to keep these issues in mind as they develop their strategy and chart their goals. And this is just for starters. There is so much more to think about in this shifting global economy.

Just because you are a small business in New York city, for example, and your services are strictly confined to New Yorkers, doesn't mean that over time you could not or should not expand to other markets. You can bet that your competitors are keenly aware of this phenomenon called Globalization, and they are constantly thinking of ways to exploit these global markets - as should you.

If you are interested in even more sophisticated and proven ways to get the job done, check out this blog.