Portland Business Community gets a facelift
Posted in: General | Comments (0)
Hi All,
Bear and I have been working hard to improve the loo
k and feel of the website. We are still getting tens of thousands of hits each week and search engine visibility for all linked sites in your articles are gaining valuable links.
We are looking for a couple more featured columnists. If you have a topic you would like to take on, then please visit the Columnists page and complete the form.
Be sure to visit your Profile page and update your biography. We now have that information listed as part of your posts.
Since this site is meant to help you run your business better, we have put articles on “Management” top and center! The scrolling articles at the top are automatically created from the management category. Please make sure your article is covering a management related topic!
directly below the rotating section on the home page are articles written about the economy. This section will change from time to time based on local happenings.
The elevator speech feature is still alive and well. Use the Elevator Speech category to get your company message listed.
As usual, if you feel we should add a new category, drop me or Bear a note.
Thank you all for your continued support and Happy Business Blogging!
Ed Bejarana
Ed Bejarana @ October 8, 2009
Small Business Tip #12: Share Leads
Posted in: Marketing | Comments (0)
Whatever you’re in business to do, there’s going to be someone else in a related industry. Go out and meet as many of these people as you can. Build a network among them and share what leads you have. If you’re in real estate, you’re probably going to be able to give a few contractors a heads up about construction in the area. If you’re in mortgage banking, you can probably pass a few clients to a realtor as well.
Take a minute and think about your perfect customer. Think about what needs they have that make them a good target for your business. Now think about what other needs they might have that are either related or unrelated to your business.
I met a man once who counseled the recently laid-off and helped them redefine their career path. His perfect customer was someone between the ages of 40 and 60 who had yet to decide what they wanted to be when they grew up. He spent a lot of time networking with college advisors who would frequently touch base with older non-traditional college students (men and women in their 30s and 40s who were going back to school to change jobs).
Being able to identify your customer is big. Knowing how to identify their ancillary needs and the industries that cater to them is even bigger. Building a lead network is a way to build you revenue without stepping up direct-to-market sales. Just think of how much more productive you can be if customers are knocking on your door rather than the other way around.
Eric Mann
Jumping Duck Media | Mindshare Strategy
Ed Bejarana @ October 6, 2009
The Power of Thank You!
Posted in: Management | Comments (1)
With the economy in a slump and staff reductions, there is much more stress at work these days. Employees are asked to do much more with little or no help. Everyone needs to pick up the slack caused by missing co-workers. Tempers can get short and recent studies from The Seamless Workforce, CNN Money and The Workforce Institute @ Kronos, indicate that most employees plan to change jobs when the market improves. Most employees feel over worked and under appreciated.
Since money is tight, what can a supervisor or owner do to improve this situation and retain key employees? An honest THANK YOU will go a long ways to improve morale. When employees are required to operate in a silent vacuum, they tend to think the worst. They believe that their employer doesn’t care if they live or die, that is as long as they do not die on the job, which might trigger a formal complaint and lawsuit.
I discovered the power of THANK YOU while working as a foreman for an electrical contractor. I thanked my workers each day for giving me a good days work. I found that my crew increased productivity, paid more attention to the taskes at hand and enjoyed comming to work each day. They also policed themselves. Slackers were not allowed on the crew. I did not enforce this policy, my crew inforced it. I overheard one of my crew telling a new member that, “everyone works on Bear’s crew. He treats us well and we work hard for him. If you want to goof off, go work for someone else.” I would not have put it so harshly, but then I didn’t need to. His fellow worker made it clear.
So thank your employees for sticking it out and working hard. You will find them happier to simply be acknowledged.
Ken Bear Cole
Ed Bejarana @ October 1, 2009
The Benefits Of M.L.M – Network Marketing
Posted in: Marketing | Comments (1)
The first time I saw what I refer to as the “Magic Circles”, was in 1977 in the meeting room of a local small town restaurant with one of the superstars of the World Wide Dream Builders. While I was intrigued with the concept, it was several years until I decided to join this company and try my hand at starting my own home-based business. Subsequently, I would drop out and restart this process with the same company a total of three times, in addition to the other companies that I attempted to work with.
I became intrigued with the various manifestations of Multi-Level Marketing, including a very enthusiastic albeit short-lived endeavor in the “binary system” with the now defunct Jewelway International. I had become a frustrated proponent of MLM businesses. I believed it was a great method for moving product in the market place, but I also quickly learned that there were many things about being self-employed that I was not yet prepared for. We are rewarded in life in direct proportion to our ability to overcome obstacles. The bigger the obstacle, the greater the reward.
The first advantage of MLM businesses that we want to discuss is the relatively low startup cost. This is both one of it’s greatest merits as well as one of it’s greatest pitfalls. All that is really necessary to start a profitable turn-key business is a nominal financial investment, a consuming desire to succeed, the ability to follow an established system that others have perfected through trial and error, and most importantly the willingness to learn new attitudes and methods and give up old attitudes and methods that to date have not produced the desired success.
The low start up cost allows people to treat their new business as a hobby or novelty magic set instead of a business. In my estimation, MLM businesses allow people the opportunity to put up or shut up. Rather than sitting back and criticizing how a business is run, the new entrepreneur has the opportunity to put their business acumen to the test. As a tradition, MLM’s have a 90% failure rate primarily because people are not willing to change their failed plans and exchange them for methods of proven success.
Humans are the most adaptable creatures on the earth, and entrepreneurs are the most adaptable humans. Successful entrepreneurs are those people that are willing to do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do. The low start up cost is a great tool to evaluate if you have the skills necessary to succeed, and if not, what must you do to gain those skills. The average millionaire in America fails in ten businesses, so if you’ve flopped, as I have in one or two businesses, or perhaps just felt that you were not being justly compensated for your efforts and decided to hang that business up, join the ranks of the success pursuers. If you believe in the industry, adjust your methods, find a great company to work with, and engage the learning process.
Ed Bejarana @ October 1, 2009
Healthcare Reform in America – Questions to ask
Posted in: Economy | Comments (1)
Health Care Reform is the biggest issue of conversation across America, but what does that mean to me…the everyday citizen? What is right for me, right now, right here where I live? What about the small business owner offering a group plan to employees?
The first thing to do is get educated about the two different systems available to you in Oregon. Did you know you have options? Oregon has a “Provider Network” system” and a “Life and Health Insurance” system. Both will provide programs for financial assistance when health care services are needed. The key difference is one is actual “Insurance” and the other is a “Subscription” to a predetermined plan.
What is the difference between the two systems and what does that mean to me and my family?:
Mind you, this is a very convoluted subject that is ever changing. The best option today, in my opinion, is to make the choice for the system that best protects my family from the “Loop Holes” of what the media calls “The Broken Health-care System”. But wait…What are those Loop Holes and are they in the program I already have? Both good questions and ones that need answering if you already have a program, looking to change that program, or needing to purchase a program.
This is a list of a few of the Loop Holes you need to be aware of:
- Does your plan pay claims based on UCR charges (Usual Customary and Reasonable charges)?
- Do you have to get PreAdmission Authorization for hospital inpatient care?
- Do you have to get a Referral to see a Specialist?
- Does your Co-Insurance coverage amounts decrease if you need medical care when you travel out of Oregon or overseas?
- Do you have to commit to a 6 month or 1 year contract?
These are just a few of the many “Health Care Restrictions” and “Financial Exposures” most people are unaware are already in their health care program.
Ed Bejarana @ October 1, 2009
Your Most Important Customer
Posted in: Marketing | Comments (1)
Many businesses serve multiple markets – you have many different kinds of customers. Some might be infrequent but large-ticket contracts, others might be weekly but low grossing sales relationships. But your most important customer is the one to whom you sell absolutely nothing.
Every day, your employees must “buy in” to your brand. Whether they’re answering the phone, closing a sale, or documenting a new best practice, they need to do so with an on-brand mindset. If they don’t, your marketing message can schism (imagine a world where every externally-facing employee wrote their own marketing message). A business promising “caring customer support” with an employee who answers the phone with a bad attitude has problems.
The easiest way to bring your employees on board with your brand is to give them ownership of it. Living your brand is much easier when you truly believe in it. You won’t resent Mondays, you won’t gripe over new advertising campaigns, and you’ll fiercely defend your business if it ever comes under attack. Living your brand is akin to loving your brand – managers need to make it as easy as possible for their staff to fall in love with the brand.
Use product marketing as an example. You can’t force a new widget down the market’s throat. If people don’t like what you’re offering, you learn from their behavior and re-design your product. The goal is to sell something that people actually want to buy. Extend this to internal branding – the goal is to build a brand that your employees actually care about.
When all is said and done, it doesn’t really matter what the margins are on your new line of clipboards. Well, only if your salesmen care enough about the product to really want to sell it. Your most important product is your brand – in that mindset you have no more vital a customer than your own employees.
Eric Mann
Jumping Duck Media | Mindshare Strategy
Ed Bejarana @ September 29, 2009
Learn About Social Networking Online.
Posted in: Happenings | Comments (0)
Portland Business Community founders Ed Bejarana and Ken Bear Cole will be making a short prersentation at the B.R.I.D.G.E.S. networking group on This Thursday 10/2/09. The meeting will be held at the Monarch Hotel in Clackamas Oregon. Meeting time is from 7:15 – 8:30am. Please join us as our guests. You can come and learn and meet the founders of this site.
Ed Bejarana @ September 25, 2009
Senator Merkley Phone Townhall 9/30/09
Posted in: General | Comments (0)
Senator Jeff Merkley is having a phone townhall on 9/30/09. click on the link to sign up to be called. It is important for businesspeople to be heard by our politicians.
Ed Bejarana @ September 25, 2009
The Woes of Social Media – the small business edition
Posted in: Marketing | Comments (0)
In small business, the notion of taking time to write socially appealing articles that integrate with an overall company marketing strategy seems too daunting to conquer.
Phooey I say!
On Social Media, in an article titled, “The Top Six Reasons Companies and Still Scared of Social Media”, the author addresses the most “talked” about reasons, but they missed what I believe to be the most prevalent among small business owners.
TIME! Or should I say, the perception of time to engage their target audience in the social networks.
With hundreds, if not thousands of social networking sites promoted everyday, business owners are confused over how to approach the net—in mass or selectively. The answer may be different for some who need MASS marketing means to promote their wares, but I feel being selective about where you participate is critical.
Quality is always better than quantity. Publishing (pardon the language) crap wastes the time of your reader and does nothing to build a social connection. Herein lies the goal—make new social connections.
If your company already attends a chamber of commerce meeting, leads groups, B2B networking, etc; then you have time to include social media in the mix.
HOW? You ask?
When marketing via social media, stop trying to make the conversation all about you. In the world of “social” communications, very few people care that your widget is best; they care more about you as a person.
Spend 15 minutes a day being social online. Pick one to three social sites with lots of people in your primary target market and be real.
Allow your profile to connect customers to your website, allow the social networking platform to connect you to new friends.
Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc and BusinessBlogging.net
Ed Bejarana @ September 25, 2009
Branding: Five quick steps to a revitalized image
Posted in: Marketing | Comments (5)
“Branding” is one of the most often heard buzzwords in marketing. It conjures images of hip geniuses in spacious offices creating off-the-wall marketing campaigns that immediately endear even the roughest of companies to their customers. Just as quickly, it raises a huge red flag for anyone in the world of small business – “how much will this cost?”
Most smaller companies will neglect traditional branding activities to save money. It’s true, larger companies like Microsoft spend billions on so-called “brand initiatives.” We don’t all have that kind of money to throw around. But branding isn’t about spending all of your capitol or hiring some off-beat professional who’ll charge $300/hr to tell you to start a blog. Branding is about knowing your company, knowing your customer, and knowing how the two can best meet up in the market.
Here are five things you can do on a budget to revitalize your neglected brand and re-establish your image in the market:
- Listen to your customers
Your happiest (and unhappiest) customers will be the most vocal. Listen to what they’re saying about both you and your competitors. Taking this free market intelligence to heart will save you $$ in market research, but only if you can integrate new learnings into your strategy. - Reward your customers
Business is mostly about selling – getting someone to give you money. Turn things around and give something back to your customers. Give one of your most loyal customers a free upgrade to the newest version of your software. Offer a product discount to existing customers who refer a friend. Giveaways create positive word of mouth! - Dump text off your website
If it takes a potential client more than 30 seconds to get you the call to action of your website, it’s not doing its job. Cut the text down and add more images of how things work or the benefit current customers are reaping. An effective sales website is a fantastic tool in a media-centric market. - Sponsor a community event
Whether you sponsor a float in a neighborhood parade or sign your staff up for a corporate build with Habitat for Humanity, being active in the community will raise your image. - Don’t change a thing!
The biggest mistake companies make when embracing branding is trying to change their corporate image. Don’t! Instead, latch on to what you already have an try to leverage it within the market. You have a huge amount of equity built up already and whether or not you’re seeing ROI yet, you don’t want to lose any of it!
Even the corporate giants of the world had to start their brand somewhere. While you won’t be able to jump from obscurity to world recognition overnight, these five steps are in the right direction to owning more of your customers’ mindshare.
Eric Mann
Jumping Duck Media | Mindshare Strategy
Ed Bejarana @ September 22, 2009
