by Emma
A recent study conducted by the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business showed that nearly one in five small business owners are integrating social media into their business processes, and that technology adoption rates in the U.S. among small businesses have doubled in the past year from 12% to 24%.
Whether your business is ahead of the curve or looking to catch up, small businesses on both sides of the track can learn from the success stories of others. Here’s a list of five companies that are kicking tail and taking names while staying on top of their social media efforts.
Read the full story here
http://mashable.com/2010/06/02/small-business-social-media-success-stories/
by Emma
Norm Brodsky is the founder of CitiStorage and seven start up’s and a three time Inc. 500 honoree.
For a full range of articles http://www.inc.com/
Ten Commandments of Business
1) Numbers run a business. if you don’t know how to read them, you’re flying blind.
2) Cash is hard to get and easy to spend. Make it before you spend it.
3) Don’t focus on the top line. Gross margin is the most important number on the income statement
4) A sale isn’t a sale until you collect
5) When your short-term liabilities exceed your short-term assests, you’re bankrupt
6) Forgot about shortcuts. Run a business as if it’s forever.
7) Identify your true competitors, and treat them with respect.
You have no friends in business, only associates.
9) Culture drives a company. In the long run, the boss’s most important job is to define and enforce it.
10) The life plan has to come before the business plan
These are an excellent guide for anyone looking to dive into a new business or expand an existing one.
Have fun.
by Emma
Seth Godin drives home a great message in his latest blog.
The circles (no more strangers
It’s so tempting to seek out more strangers.
More strangers to pitch your business, your candidate, your non-profit, your blog… More strangers means more upside and not so much downside. It means growth.
The problem is that strangers are difficult to convert. And the other problem is that they’re expensive to reach. And the hardest problem is that we’re running out of strangers.
Consider this hierarchy: Strangers, Friends, Listeners, Customers, Sneezers, Fans and True Fans. One true fan is worth perhaps 10,000 times as much as a stranger. And yet if you’re in search of strangers, odds are you’re going to mistreat a true fan in order to seduce yet another stranger who probably won’t reward you much.
Let’s say a marketer has $10,000 to spend. Is it better to acquire new customers at $2,000 each (advertising is expensive) or spend $10 a customer to absolutely delight and overwhelm 1,000 true fans?
Or consider a non-profit looking to generate more donations. Is it better to embrace the core donor base and work with them to host small parties with their friends to spread the word, or would hiring a PR firm to get a bunch of articles placed pay off more efficiently?
by Steven
Continued from Websites are houses too – Part 1
Last week, I talked about a classic recurring dilemma among IT, and especially web development – that is a perception that making websites is somehow easier and less critical than, say, building houses. When a house is getting build, tonnes of time is spent planning and organising it – but with websites, time spent doing that is often perceived as a waste, and the “just get it done” mentality prevails.
There is a solution for the dilemma faces in part 1, and that is a little something called the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). There are many difference processes available for handling a project, and the best should be chosen based on the team, the size and nature of the project, time constraints and experience. A few of the more popular ones are Waterfall, Agile and Iterative (Spiral). I will go into a little bit more detail about the waterfall model, as it is what we use to manage our clients’ requirements.
The waterfall model splits development up into a handful of phases – It basically boils down to Requirements, Design, Implementation, Testing, Maintenance. The idea of the model is to specify as much as possible in an early phase, signing it off, before moving down to the next phase. Any irregularities that are found in a lower phase should be passed up to the earlier phase before continuing.
Continue reading “Websites Are Houses Too – Part 2″
Tags: devlopment, model, process, scope creep