New York SBDC Research Network

This week we’re sharing some helpful worksheets you can use to evaluate and plan your social media marketing.  They come from our “ SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS ” planning guide.  Come in to your local SBDC for a copy of this book - 65 pages of step-by-step social media instructions.   Social Media Marketing Worksheet #5: Social Media Platforms Choose the platforms that will be best for your business and focus your energy on doing those platforms well. Don’t try to manage social media accounts on every platform out there. Select the ones that will work best with your company culture, brand vision, and available resources. Once you’ve decided which social networks you want to join, use this worksheet as an example for organizing your account information in one location. Keep this information updated and on hand. It will be especially helpful if you have multiple people managing the company’s social media accounts.

Bplans.com knows a thing or two about what it takes to start a business. The Managing Editor of Bplans, Candice Landau, distills what entrepreneurs and the leadership at Palo Alto to get to what entrepreneurs need to figure out as they stand on the threshold of being business owners. It includes legal issues, working through business ideas, and resources for helping to figure out your vision. Here is an example of the type of things you need to know before you start a business: 2. Start working through your business idea Do your research and validate your idea: You’re probably going to be doing this at the same time as you write your business plan. This is why we strongly recommend starting with a one page pitch first. It’s the lean format of the business plan—the format that will allow you to adapt fastest as you progress through the startup phase. More importantly, it will allow you to play with ideas before you even start. As you work through this section, the key things t

This week we’re sharing some helpful worksheets you can use to evaluate and plan your social media marketing.  They come from our “ SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS ” planning guide.  Come in to your local SBDC  for a copy of this book - 65 pages of step-by-step social media instructions.   Social Media Marketing Worksheet #4: Social Media Goals: Your social media marketing goals should be unique to your business and overall company vision. First, determine current challenges facing your social media presence. These might include: no current content or presence, low website traffic, weak audience engagement, minimal brand awareness, or poor brand reputation or customer service. Once you’ve identified current challenges you should produce strong social media goals and clear plans of action to meet these challenges.  This worksheet shows what a completed goals worksheet would look like.

This week we’re sharing some helpful worksheets you can use to evaluate and plan your social media marketing.  They come from our “ SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS ” planning guide.  Come in to your local SBDC for a copy of this book - 65 pages of step-by-step social media instructions.  Social Media Marketing Worksheet #3: Competition Investigation: Dig deep and analyze the competition. Use this worksheet to examine your competition’s social media platforms, content, and engagement.

Until a few years ago Steve Cronce’s Raphael Industries did $1 million dollars a year of specialized industrial painting for customers within driving distance of their plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One of them happened to be GE Healthcare, which sent Raphael “dead” X-Ray tube parts for re-coating and re-commissioning. Challenged by other entrepreneurs in Scale Up Milwaukee’s Scalerator program to come up with a plan for rapidly ramping up his business, Cronce wondered: “What if I redefined Raphael as a strategic link in the global medical imaging supply chain, rather than as a paint shop?” This supply chain epiphany is taking Raphael toward $10 million of work a year by burrowing into GE’s global network as well as serving its competitors. He is poised to become the leader in this segment of a multi-billion dollar market. “By serving as GE’s and other equipment makers’ supply partner, the whole world is now my scope. I am no longer limited by geography.” This story leads us to a ques

This week we’re sharing some helpful worksheets you can use to evaluate and plan your social media marketing.  They come from our “ SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS ” planning guide.  Come in to your local SBDC  for a copy of this book - 65 pages of step-by-step social media instructions.   Social Media Marketing Worksheet #2: Current Social Media Presence: What does your social media marketing look like today? Use this worksheet to make note of the platforms you’re using, how many followers you have and their level of engagement.

Marketingprofs.com is likely well-known to do you for their articles and great advice on marketing for small business. They also offer video tutorials like their Take10 program. Marketing professionals offer focus on specific topics to get you up to speed.You can even watch them on your mobile device through their app. They are available in real-time but you can also purchase single sessions for $10 on-demand. This tutorial is by Viveka von Rosen of Marketingprofs.com  who is the author of LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day . Take 10: Use LinkedIn's Newest Features to Boost Your Profile You created your LinkedIn profile five years ago, and it looks fine. So why spend more time on it? ... ... In just 10 minutes, LinkedIn expert Viveka von Rosen will share how you can start using LinkedIn's newest features to boost the effectiveness of your profile. You'll learn how to create a custom hero image to help define your business and how to add media to increase your cred

Discipline is essential to running a proper business. The most successful business owners have great habits. Whether checking inventory at the end of the day or following up on each and every email before closing up shop, it’s the little things that make big differences. You need the same kind of discipline when managing your online ratings and reviews. While some business owners may think they don’t have to deal with what happens on rating-and-review sites, they’re wrong. They do. Yelp processes 26,000 new reviews per minute, and customers pay more attention to them than ever before. You need samurai-esque discipline when it comes to managing your online reputation. (highlight to tweet) The Manipurated Code of Conduct can help give you that katana-sharp edge. By following these four simple rules, you’ll see steady improvement in your ratings and reviews. Step 1: Do This Everyday The first step of discipline is consistency. This means checking your ratings and reviews sites every s

Do you have big plans for improving your small business social media efforts in 2016?   We do too.   This week we’ll share some helpful worksheets you can use to evaluate and plan your social media marketing.   They come from our “ SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS ” planning guide.   Come in to your local SBDC for a copy of this book - 65 pages of step-by-step social media instructions. Social Media Marketing Worksheet #1 : Google Your Business: You should assess your current social media presence before beginning a new social media marketing strategy. Whether you’re starting from scratch or starting over, you might find that your brand, product, or service is already being talked about in key social media networks. Evaluate what comes up from a search for your business with this worksheet. 

While the old adage of “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” might conjure images of a John Wayne-esque steely resolve, ignoring sleep flat out is a horrible idea. Headlines nowadays are filled with information about sleep deprivation killing everything from your productivity to your moods, and with that, the notion of sleep being for the weak has fallen out of vogue. The jury is in: Skimp on sleep, and you pay the price. But how much—and how well—do you need to sleep to feel rested, recharged, and ready to tackle all of the challenges an entrepreneur faces in everyday life? Read more at: liveplan

This is the first post in our " Contracting Corner " series from Judy Wolf, Government Contracting Coordinator, Mohawk Valley SBDC & NY SBDC Procurement Assistance Center Interested in government contracting? There’s good reason to look toward this area of opportunity. According to USAspending.gov, on the federal level in FY 2015 alone, more than $428 billion were spent on nearly 3.4 million contracts. More than 127,000 of those contracts were awarded in New York State, bringing nearly $9.4 billion into New York. Add to that the fact that it is written into law that the federal government has to do everything in its power to funnel 23% of its spending to small businesses, and this equates to great opportunity for entrepreneurs! Federal agencies take this responsibility very seriously. Recent measures to enforce the importance of these goals include adding measurements to the evaluations of senior federal agency officials tracking progress toward meeting small busine

There are plenty of reasons to start a business while you are still in your 20s. Many people shy away from it — not because they don’t believe in their idea, but because they think they will be better at executing it once they are older and have more experience, more knowledge and more connections. Some of these arguments might be relevant, but most of them are just excuses not to step out of your comfort zone, so you continue the normal, everyday path of life. Once you start thinking seriously about the advantages of starting a business now versus starting a business when you are older, you realize being young has several invaluable advantages: 1. It’s a learning opportunity. Starting a business teaches you more than any university business course ever could. You get hands-on experience and get to see if the principles you learned in your classes are applicable in the real world. You also learn a lot about yourself: What are your strengths? Your weaknesses? Are you a people perso

Your opinion is important! The Small Business Administration (SBA) wants your input on how to design and implement a federal Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) certification process to replace self-certification.  The SBA is seeking input and comments on certification of WOSB and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSB) in connection with the WOSB Federal Contract Program (set asides, sole source, etc).  SBA is planning to amend its regulations to implement section 825 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (2015 NDAA), which  removed the statutory authority allowing WOSBs and EDWOSBs to self-certify.  SBA intends to draft regulations to implement the statutory changes.

Each new generation of communication networks allows technology to flourish. When 5G becomes available by the end of this decade, what will it mean for small business owners and the tools we rely on? With data transfer rates greater than tens of megabits per second, 5G will be 1,000 times faster than what we currently experience. This will make the possibilities for communication and marketing endless. Here are five ways 5G could help you bring your business to the next level: 1. New Ways To Communicate With Clients One of the first ways 5G could open up business prospects is through the capability of new forms of communication. If you’re an entrepreneur, blogger or small business owner of any kind, you probably already rely on services like Skype and WhatsApp to stay connected to your contact list. The mega-fast speeds of a 5G connection will enable new forms of communication. Think 3D holographic phone calls, rather than just flat streaming video. This will make virtual meet

A growing number of U.S. companies are expanding their operations into developing nations. But while the rewards can be significant, it can mean dealing with risks like including political instability that can hinder or harm normal business operations. That's where political risk insurance comes in. In the first installment of an ongoing series of interviews with various U.S. federal agencies about their most critical business programs, we talk with John Moran, vice president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) about political risk insurance. But while some risks in business can have downsides such as rapidly shifting geopolitics, taking beneficial risks in the form of opportunities is part of every successful entrepreneur's DNA. In this newsletter we cover both opportunities and risk reduction across topics such as global markets, healthcare coverage, partnerships and patents. Read more at: Businessusa

The year 2015 began with a powerful nor’easter that dumped several feet of snow in Massachusetts, forcing major road closings and flight cancellations in the Northeast. In October, heavy rains in the Charleston, South Carolina area resulted in flooding that caused widespread losses. The year ended with deadly tornadoes and floods sweeping through the Midwest and the South. The factors that cause financial losses to small businesses exist every day. A solid business continuity plan will protect your organization and your assets while ensuring a quick recovery when a disaster occurs. Join Agility Recovery and the U.S. Small Business Administration on Tuesday, Jan. 12, for a free webinar that will take a look at how small businesses handled disaster-related losses in 2015, lessons learned, and the resulting best practices.

Reaching international markets has become easier than ever because of the variety of digital tools available. Simply translating your website into a local language and waiting for the new customers to come rolling in can be tempting: Your marketing is rock solid at home, so why wouldn't it work just as well abroad? This article will cover five common reasons why that kind of thinking won't win you new customers, and it'll offer suggestions for achieving success. 1. You didn't choose the right audience One of the biggest mistakes companies make with their global marketing is that they think of the world as an extension of their home market. How much time did you spend analyzing your home market's buyers' profiles, their habits, behaviors, needs, and motivations? When expanding abroad, you need to do make the same amount of effort for every market that you decide to enter. You'll need to take an in-depth look at whether potential customers will have

1. Time is more valuable than money. In essence, there are only three things we can spend in life: money, time and energy. The biggest caveat, however, is only money can be earned. The rest are just plainly lost in the process. That’s why it’s so important to be more stingy with your time than your money. You will need to say no more than you say yes. Most people think, in order to be productive, they should work tons of hours each week. But studies have shown that 35 is the special number. If you’re only working 35 hours a week, it’s hard to make time for office chat and wasted meetings. It’s important to avoid time sucks and to spend your time in the office focused on your priorities. Some of the most serial time-wasters are people who take bits and pieces of your time, which is quite significant in total once you add everything together. Some want to have incessant meetings with you, some want you to speak at their event and some just want your take on anything and everythi

Set up the basics Create a logo you love and a description that clearly, powerfully and simply explains what you're going to do. Include an email for people to contact. Then, create a landing site that briefly explains what is "coming soon" and a place to capture emails. We used Launchrock, which took under 10 minutes to set up. Plan your content You're going to need lots of quality content that reflects your brand. It's important to create a look that people will recognize as your own. Keeping this in mind in the beginning will also make it a lot simpler to decide what to post. We wanted to feature moms with their kids and share their stories. Now this is what people expect when they come to our feed. Be mindful of the fact that Instagram is a photography driven platform and images need to be clear, beautiful and interesting. Remember that timing matters To ensure you are posting at the best time of day for your market and reaching as many people as you can,

“Mother always knows best.” We’ve all heard this saying before. Whether she’s kissing a boo-boo or fixing up a meal that just hits the spot, Mom always seems to know the right thing to do in any given situation. So, it’s no surprise Mom’s advice could actually apply elsewhere. Here are five pearls of wisdom worth listening to while dealing with business: 1. Money doesn’t grow on trees. If it did, you wouldn’t need to be in business in the first place. Since you’ll have to work and earn every dollar you make, treat that money with respect. Remember the feeling you had when you made your first sale? Hold on to that. If you lose sight of the value of your money, you’ll find your business starting to spiral out of control. An easy way to save up is to set a budget in advance and stick to it. Even if you have an unexpectedly good month, by resisting the urge to spend (or reinvest) it all right away, you’ll be better prepared to ride out future bumps in the road. 2. If everyone jumped