Practice Safe Site: Avoid Being Cheated By Developers

by Erik Wolf and Stephanie Frost

Horror stories of entrepreneurs being ripped off by web developers and online marketing scams are everywhere. Some business owners have been burned so badly, they hesitate to invest anything in the web despite the fact that it plays such an important role in our increasingly digital society. But there’s no need to fear – while there may never be a means to ensure overwhelming success in a website or blog design project, there are a LOT of simple ways you can reduce your risk. Making sure that the right things are in the contract, protecting your down payment, and asking the right questions are just a few examples. In this session, we’ll discuss how to hire the RIGHT web partner/consultant/designer/developer/agency, how businesses can protect their web and online media interests and how to avoid being disappointed, scammed, robbed or otherwise taken advantage of. This presentation is designed to help attendees make the most of a limited web budget and steer clear of common pitfalls that will cost weeks or months of time and thousands of dollars.

WordPress: The Small Business Swiss Army Knife

by Stephanie Frost, Erik Wolf, Adria Richards and Jamie Turner

WordPress has been steadily growing in popularity as a CMS over the last two years because it’s free and relatively easy to learn–especially when compared with other packages like Joomla and Drupal. But WordPress is more than just a convenient choice — in many cases it’s the only web tool a small business owner is ever likely to need. WordPress isn’t just for blogs anymore, seamlessly handling media content, ecommerce, membership sites, search engine optimization, mobile sites, lead generation and much much more. Our panel of experts will describe the many uses and strengths of WordPress and demonstrate how WordPress is adaptable into just about any small business use.

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Today is Friday the 13th.  Some people are superstitious about this day and believe some bad luck might befall them just because of a number.  Silly, right?  So powerful is the myth of unlucky 13 that it is often missing in places like elevators and airplane seats.  Clearly, enough people believe in “luck”–in this case the bad kind–that it got me thinking about the subject of luck in general especially as it relates to business.

Most definitions of the word luck describe it as a “chance happening” or “unpredictable phenomenon.”  I think most people would say that luck—good or bad—is something beyond their control.  That might be true some of the time.  Most of the time, however, I would argue that luck in its purest form is something entirely different.

I don’t normally go around quoting Oprah but awhile back she said something that’s always stuck with me: “Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.”   Think about that for a second.  In other words, being prepared might have something to do with your luck quotient.  Louis Pasteur is credited with a similar quote that I really like: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

So, if this “unpredictable” or “chance” occurrence called luck can be influenced, it is through hard work and determination rather than just sitting around wishing for it.  Conversely, “bad luck” probably favors those who are not prepared.  The harsh reality of this economy has shown us that over and over again.  The automakers turning out big SUVs were caught off guard by the gas crisis last year.  The newspaper industry is finally facing the fact people get their news in a very different way than they used to.

A lot of the advice we dole out seems so obvious:  “Be prepared.” It sounds simple enough yet many people are so mired in the operations and day-to-day challenges of keeping their business running that they aren’t thinking strategically. Consequently, they aren’t prepared when a great opportunity comes their way.

Spend some time each day (or at least each week) thinking about the what-ifs and how you might respond to them.  Write down your plan.  Communicate that plan to your team.  Then, when that great opportunity does come along, you’ll be the luckiest person in the world.

Last week we discussed how simply staying afloat in a down economy is commendable.  And, it is.  However, it’s worth examining what it is you are doing (or not doing) that is keeping your business just barely in the black.

I’ve spoken with several business owners over the past month who have proudly declared that they are making ends meet in this economy.  As I said, that’s great.  But, with equal enthusiasm they then say, “And all without spending a dime on marketing!”

“Wait. What did you just say?” I think to myself.

At a time when consumers are being even more discriminating with their hard-earned dollars, now is the exact wrong time to throttle your marketing budget.  The fact is, a lot of businesses have had to make the tough decision to cut their payroll. It seems counter intuitive to then turn around and spend that money on something like marketing.  But, considering that competing for business is no small task when times are good, it’s about three times as hard when people have less money to spend.  Your company needs to be doing everything it can to stand out from all the other companies who have climbed under proverbial rocks waiting for things to get better.

“But I can’t afford to run ads in newspapers or on TV,” is one of the responses I’ve heard.  A lot of small business owners simply equate marketing with advertising and even then, only a limited type of advertising.  Sure, that’s one aspect of marketing.  But, marketing is the total of activities involved in getting your product or service into the hands of your target audience.  For instance, placing an ad in the local paper for a product or service aimed at teens or tweens might not be the best use of your money.  How many kids do you think read the paper?  My guess is not many.  Hosting a Tweetup (a gathering of Twitter users) to launch or introduce your service would probably cost way less and be much more effective.

The thing we do best here at Zero-G is help you decide how to use your marketing budget in the most effective way for your business/product/service.  We don’t use a “one-size-fits-all” approach.  On the contrary, we design custom plans for each client to ensure we are delivering results without draining their budget.

What does that mean to our clients?  It’s the difference between merely surviving and actually thriving.

“It’s the small businesses that are going to get America back on its feet again.”

–Iconic entrepreneur Richard Branson explains…

In this short clip on the American Express Open Forum Website, Richard Branson talks about how the current financial crisis we are facing here in the United States and around the world is not the fault of the small business owner.  I guess that’s kind of stating the obvious since we’ve all read the headlines and know that the lion’s share of the blame rests with the Citigroups, Lehman Brothers, and AIGs of the business world.

What may not be so obvious, however, is that Branson believes—and we here at Zero-G agree—that it is the small business owners who are going to bail us out of this financial crisis.  It is the pure grit and determination of the entrepreneurs in this country and worldwide that will rebuild the economy brick by brick.

The election of Barack Obama has hopefully ushered in a new era of responsibility and service.  Some of that service needs to come in the form of people rolling up their sleeves and taking the plunge into the world of small business ownership.  And, with the unemployment rate at 7.2 percent in the U.S., now may be as good a time as any to take hold of your financial destiny instead of relying on a large company with a pension to take care of it for you.

If you are already in business for yourself and managing to stay afloat in these turbulent times, you deserve a pat on the back.  Running a small business is no easy task in a booming economy.  Keeping your head above water in this economic climate is nothing short of commendable.

Small business owners and would-be entrepreneurs should think of themselves as a small army of financial paratroopers who, in addition to growing their own companies, will serve the greater good by rescuing the economy.  While this may sound dramatic, it underscores the important role that the thousands of companies–from neighborhood businesses to technology startups–will play in restoring our economy.