small business

Big goals are not only more fun and exciting; they carry more weight than small ones. Ambitious, serious, “weighty goals” have attraction power.

They attract others into the process and magnetize ideas and resources. Big goals pull you along. They pull you through the difficult times and help you remain diligent. They inspire you to greater innovation and effective action.

It’s been a month since Go Green Go has won the 2009 Idea Café Grant – let’s see what’s happening with the “little green guy”. Our goals were to update the website and put “the little green guy” on a T-shirt design and get ready to launch the first in the series of our eco-friendly activities.

I’m happy to report that great strides were made on the web site. We have a community page that details the ultimate purpose of the company and the organizations that we are partnering with to accomplish these goals. As I worked on the site, I realize that this will be an ongoing project as the company continues to evolve. (There is also a sneak preview of the first design).

Looking to expand your client base?

You can put your website out there – but they probably won’t see it.

You can do Search Engine Optimization – but the rules for that seem to change daily, and most businesses are in categories that are populated with thousands of competitors.

You can do mass e-mail, but most people delete, without reading, dozens of e-mails daily.

You can do a snail-mailing, and if it’s clever enough it will probably be looked at. The percentage of people who act on it, however, is likely to be tiny.

Or you can simply call.

I would like you to know what Go Green Go is all about, our mission and what makes us tick. But before you can understand what we are all about, I would like you to know where we came from and how we got here (Where ever “Here” is).

I was recently at a networking meeting and met a really nice woman. After several minutes of conversation, I asked her what she did. She excitedly launched into how she was a real estate agent, but that was slow right now, so she was going back to giving massages, but she was also selling Mary Kay cosmetics.

While I was trying to process all of those unrelated businesses, she dug into her purse and handed me a card that listed her as an Ambiance Coach. I questioned her about that since it didn't seem to fit with any of the businesses she'd mentioned. Amazingly, she said, "Oh, I'm also a distributor for PartyLite Candles."

Doing four totally different businesses with different target markets is the wrong way to establish multiple streams of income. Why?

Idea Cafe's editorial team has selected the semi-finalists for the Seventh Idea Cafe Small Business Grant. The selection process took into consideration several factors: how viable or interesting the business idea was; how well the entrepreneur described her plans for the future; and what she was willing to give back to the local community. We are thankful to everyone who applied for the grant, because going through the descriptions of hundreds and hundreds of wonderful small businesses was an inspiring and somewhat humbling task. And here they are, the semi-finalists for the Entrepreneurial Spirit 2009 Grant.

As you may know from our recent updates, we here at WOMbeat! have used the winning proceeds from the Idea Café “Innovation & Originality Grant” to continue updating our website which allows our users to easily share great local recommendations with people they actually know and trust - friends, family and coworkers. Some of you may have already seen many of the new features we have already implemented over the past couple of months.

The registration period for the Seventh Idea Cafe Small Business Grant closed on May 17, 2009. The editorial team of the site will now begin the preliminary selection of finalists, and voting for the winner will open on June 2nd. The entrepreneur who received the highest number of votes from Idea Cafe Regulars will be officially announced the winner of the Seventh Idea Café Small Business Grant on July 7th.

Online marketing...Email marketing...Blogs...Search engine optimization (or SEO)...Google Adwords...Yellowpages...LinkedIn...Facebook...MySpace...

Do any of these words cause you heartburn? Today, we are fortunate to have so many marketing options, but more options can mean more confusion. But how is a business owner supposed to evaluate which ones are right for their business or the most cost-effective?

Network Solutions recently conducted a survey with the University of Maryland to create the Small Business Success Index (www.growsmartbusiness.com). The Small Business Success Index measured the strengths and weaknesses of small companies, and found that small businesses are succeeding despite the economic downturn, and also that they are still investing in their companies, in spite of the 48% of small business owners expecting the economy to be in decline in 2009. According to Network Solutions, small businesses can optimize their performance for maximum success using the index.