Every week it seems I hear new stories about ways that small business web projects were botched, some of which have been borderline criminal.

I never like seeing entrepreneurs waste money that is difficult to replace (plus weeks/months of time that is impossible to replace) and I hope that all business owners can hire good, honest web partners that match well with their goals — even when that partner isn’t Zero-G.

That’s why we just launched a new pret project called Practice Safe Site which features a presentation, white paper and web glossary to help business owners make better decisions.

Please check it out and share the link with anyone you know that may be starting a business or looking to hire a web designer or agency — I guarantee the information there will save them a lot of time, money and heartache. And we’ll be building on it over time and adding more content with the help of some trusted partners.

I hope you check out the site, feedback is more than welcome!

It’s a funny line and — unfortunately — not terribly far off from reality in a lot of cases. And it goes without saying that there are many business practices that can be considered unethical, even predatory without being illegal. But if you read this blog every now and then you probably already know my feelings on that.

Yesterday, I wrote about the dangers of hiring SEO/SEM people you’ve never heard of. Today I wanted to follow up by discussing a particular pitfall in hiring someone you might know… And yes, you know these folks. You know them because you’ve bought cosmetics, legal services, kitchen accessories, plane tickets and maybe even your home gas service from them. Thats right, they’re Multi-Level Marketers (MLM’s) and believe it or not there are several MLM groups selling Search Engine Marketing services. I won’t mention them by name but one of the more prominent ones almost rhymes with “BadMove.” I wouldn’t ever hire one of these firms and I’ll explain why in a second.

First of all, if you don’t know how MLM’s work, do some research on Mary Kay,which is often held up as the gold standard for these types of businesses. I don’t want this post to be interpreted as an indictment of MLM’s in general; my only concern is how this model has been applied to SEM services.

Selling cosmetics or home goods is one thing, but in selling ongoing business services, there is a fundamental problem with MLM’s in that the person selling the service has little business interest in what’s good for his or her clients long term — the system doesn’t reward salespeople for that. The salesperson has a much greater interest in meeting their quota as quickly as possible and moving on to more profitable activities like recruiting people to work underneath them in the MLM. I always take umbrage when the person selling me a service has little to gain from my success in using his or her product.

And because just about ANYONE with a pulse and willingness to sell a complex service they don’t understand can represent these companies, buying from an MLM also means that you won’t have any direct contact with anyone who is truly an expert. Note also that some of these services do not actually drive traffic to YOUR site with their ads, they drive traffic to a custom page that they create on THEIR site. Not a fan of that either because visitors are still another click away before they get to experience your brand directly.

No, it’s not a scam… It’s business. But it’s a business that will undoubtedly waste your time and money. Only buy search services from real experts that come highly recommended and bring real references. Otherwise I guarantee that you will be sorely disappointed in the results.

If you want to know if SEO, PPC, social media or another online marketing initiative might work for your business, talk to people you know and see who they’ve worked with and what the relationship was like. And even with a high recommendation from someone you respect, spend some time with a prospective vendor before hiring. A true expert will be willing to spend an hour with you to make sure they can help you; a true expert will help you separate the fact from the myth and explain how winning campaigns are built; a true expert will tell you not to waste your time or money on an initiative that isn’t likely to help you even if they stand to profit from it. And be wary of anyone that appears to be selling a “silver bullet” solution that seems to be the answer to all that ails your online marketing.

I know this search engine business is complicated stuff… But that’s all the more reason to do your homework before you dive in. Talk to people about what you really need. You can even talk to me if you like; I’ll give you an honest opinion and I don’t even sell SEO. But don’t hire a stranger, not for this.

I ended up staying up way too late last night writing this Jerry Maguire-esque “mission statement,” but it was important to me. Over the last few weeks, I’ve witnessed a lot of poor conduct in the small business community and I’m just shocked to see what people are willing to do to earn a buck. Not to say that we should all forget about making money and start running charities; for most of us, profits aren’t optional and our families depend on our businesses just as they would depend on our employers if we were regular old corporate guys and gals.

But that being said, can anyone give me a legitimate reason NOT to conduct yourself in an ethical manner? Is it so tough to make money AND do the right thing? I am not perfect (far from it) but I do make an effort every day to run my business in a way I can be proud of. The truth is that, no matter what business you’re in, running it with high moral standards is not only easy and emotionally rewarding, but also a point of differentiation in a marketplace that seems — increasingly, in my opinion — less than concerned about doing right by their clients. And if that’s not enough reason to pay attention, I also believe that being a good business citizen is also profitable. After all, long-term customer relationships are built on trust and if your customers can trust and respect you, they are likely to keep you around longer.

Every business is different, but I definitely suggest that all business owners take the time to define the elements key to ethical conduct in their businesses. Seeing what I’ve seen recently, I’ve taken my own advice and started writing down the most important guidelines in ethics and fair dealing that we’ve incorporated into the business here at Zero-G. A lot of these have been part of the business since day one; some were learned later, “the hard way.” Below are the top 10, in no particular order:

1. Help the client make the best possible decision for them — even if that means NOT hiring us: Bottom line, if you are not a good fit for us, we need to stop trying to sell you something that you’re not going to want and instead shift gears and try to help you get what you need someplace else.

2. Don’t “nickel and dime” the client: If we quote a project and the scope/expectations don’t change, the price shouldn’t either.

3. Focus on core competencies: It seems that every day we’re approached by someone new who wants to share a fantastic reseller or affiliate opportunity that’s going to make us “tons” of money every month. While Zero-G does resell some services like web hosting and printing, we do so primarily because sourcing these items is a convenience to our clients and improves our efficiency in completing projects which saves time and ultimately money; a savings which can be passed back to our clients. We will not sell products or services though that do not help make us a better agency, that compromise our neutrality and that may potentially create conflicts of interest as we serve our clients.

4. Don’t cut corners: This one is easy… If we can’t be proud of what we can accomplish given the tools, budget and people we have available and in the time given, we should pass on the opportunity. Doing otherwise is not fair to anyone.

5. Believe in the client: If — for any reason — we are not comfortable with a client’s business model, we will pass on the opportunity to work with them. In our business, we’ve been offered a variety of “interesting” projects and if they challenge us ethically, create conflicts of interest, or we simply can’t get behind them 200%, we decline.

6. Treat the client’s business like it’s our own: This is a variation on a phrase that my CEO at my last corporate job used frequently — and I still believe in it. To me, this means being honest, making responsible decisions with the client’s time and money and doing whatever it takes (within legal and practical limits of course) to influence their success. Sometimes that means telling your client something that they don’t want to hear and sometimes it means leaving potential revenue opportunities for us on the table to better serve the client’s interests.

7. Contribute positively to the community: For me, this is twofold. I think it’s important to contribute positively to the community as a whole by engaging in charitable/philanthropic activities (Zero-G donated about $10K in time to a local charity last year and we have plans to do something similar this year) — but it’s also important to impact your small business community. I think it’s wonderful when small business owners can be generous with their time and lend their experience to a fellow entrepreneur who could use a little helpful advice. I do this as much as I can. And as much as I enjoy helping small business owners in general, I have a special place in my heart for people getting started in the design and web business. I’ve done a lot of coaching for graphics folks and programmers trying to establish themselves and that has been very gratifying.

8. Never use ignorance as a sales tool: Many small business owners haven’t done a lot of marketing; they don’t always know what they need and may not have the right experience/tools to make a good hiring choice. Pushing the sale without providing some level of education beforehand is irresponsible. If they don’t know HOW to make a good decision on how to move forward with a particular initiative, I need to provide that information before they invest in me. Having all the facts may lead them in a different direction or possibly even cement my firm as the front-runner. Either way is fine. As long as I can provide a client with a great experience in the meantime I never feel as if my time is being wasted.

9. My responsibility to our clients extends beyond my contract: If I sit back and allow my client to spend money with a firm or individual that I know won’t deliver or can’t deliver what they are promising, I am not doing my job. My clients are solicited all the time by phony SEO and social media experts, people selling “too good to be true” advertising schemes and a variety of other marketing industry parasites. Sometimes my clients are already in a dysfunctional relationship with a service provider when I get there. Either way, it’s my responsibility to give them a “heads up” that spending money with certain folks is a bad idea, even though my firm may not have been hired to offer those opinions. The final decision is always in the client’s hands but I can’t withhold valuable information. In my opinion, it’s analogous to witnessing a crime but not calling the police.

10. Do unto others: I spent years as a corporate guy and, as such, played the role of “client” every day. And during that time, I was subjected to more than a few bad vendors. I need to conduct my business in a way that — were I the client — I would not want to fire myself.

I am not a saint and as I said before I am far from perfect. As with all firms, our batting average is less than 1.000 when it comes to delivering complete customer satisfaction. But I am an honest marketer and a fair businessperson who works hard for the benefit of my clients — and I believe strongly that this fact along with guidelines like the ones I’ve detailed here have been a major driver in the success of my company. I am certainly not “unique” in using a moral compass to guide my business principles, but it does feel sometimes that I’m among a dying breed. To me, that’s a real shame.

And by the way, I know I said earlier that my “top 10″ were guidelines in the business. As I’m wrapping up this novella of a blog post though, I now realize that’s not good enough. As of this writing, these 10 principles are now a business mandate and from this day forward I will invite and encourage any client to hold us to them.

If anyone wants to comment, I would really enjoy hearing about how other entrepreneurs have built strong ethics into their businesses. This  is especially important today, in an age where our economy was nearly destroyed by corporate greed and millions suffer as a result. It may be big firms that get all the press, but our country is built on small business; companies with less than 500 employees represent more than 95% of all American firms. We should be setting an example for everyone else, we should be the ones taking the driver’s seat right now and showing the mortgage lenders, the investment banks, the special interest groups and a certain oil company how things should be done. I might be an idealist, but I honestly believe that we can all make a difference.

For those of you that don’t read the same news sites that I do (I’m a geek — it’s what I do — don’t judge), the Open Graph API is a software interface that allows websites to integrate Facebook functionality directly into their pages. So while “social media” has been big for quite some time as we all know, this is  a major step towards a truly social web experience. Now you can “like” things without logging into Facebook and you can see what your friends think about a particular website while you’re browsing it.

Mashable’s Pete Cashmore even believes that this technology may even grow up to threaten Google.

It’s a little premature to say where this is all heading, but we at Zero-G know that we want to go along for the ride and see for ourselves. Today, Zero-G Creative is unveiling our new “social” homepage, equipped with a “like” button and seamless integration with our new Facebook fan page.

Within the next month we expect to be doing Open Graph API integrations for our clients and we’ll make those details available soon. But in the meantime, we hope you like us. We hope you really like us.

Last Thursday afternoon, a small box came in the mail from our client Mark Taylor, inventor of The Durand wine opener. This past winter we helped Mark and his group launch their product with an e-commerce website designed to sell the innovative product to wine collectors all over the world. Inside the box was a Durand wine opener and a letter.

“Dear Erik,” the letter read, “The Durand is a huge success. Every wine aficionado who has used a Durand on a fine old bottle has expressed admiration for its effectiveness… Before offering the Durand to the general public we first created a limited edition of the Durand for those of us who created and/or brought it to market, and for those who would help us most with the Durand as we went along… With this letter we proudly deliver to you #007 of the Durand.”

 

The product is even engraved with the limited edition number — the very cool 007. It’s an incredibly thoughtful gift and one that I was very proud to receive on behalf of everyone at Zero-G who worked on the project.

And it serves as a really nice reminder of what it is that we really do here and what we help our clients accomplish.

Now if I only had a 100 year old bottle of wine to test it on…

Coincidentally, our friend Jeff Hilimire opened a debate on his blog this week asking whether social media is best managed by an agency or by the brand and I was compelled to weigh in. Here’s what I said:

In the idealistic world that exists only in my head, I’d prefer to see agencies stay out if it entirely. But that’s not reality and I think many brands are going to require the assistance and guidance of an agency to plan the strategy, provide feedback and likely handle some of the upfront and ongoing effort to maintain the strategy. But I think it is a HUGE mistake for a brand to outsource its social media entirely to an agency as it seems many are doing. As a culture, we’ve immunized ourselves to advertising in part because of overload and in part because people have become increasingly aware of how “manufactured” advertising is. By contrast, we are drawn to social media because there’s still an element of authenticity there that has been stripped out of traditional marketing, advertising and PR over the years. Ultimately I believe that brands need to control the tone, content and tempo of their social media, no matter how impractical it is from an organizational perspective. I believe that impracticality can be overcome in many cases with a combination of effort and creativity

But it’s hard to overcome the disappointment and betrayal that our best customers would no doubt feel if they ever discovered that they were being misled. How would you feel if you found out that a company insider you’ve been developing a relationship with was actually a ghostwriter or a fictional character?

Authenticity is a prerequisite for a successful social media effort and outsourcing it wholly to an agency is disingenuous at best. Agencies can and should play a role — this is a big job after all, but any scenario that takes the brand out of the driver’s seat is a failure in my book.

Don’t give your brand’s voice away. No one can manage your company’s relationships or evangelize your company’s products and services as well or as passionately as you can. Should you ask for advice? Should you engage others both inside and outside of your organization to brainstorm ideas and help you evaluate success? Absolutely. But I could never offer or endorse any service that encourages companies to outsource such a critical element of their brand.

Business owners, I promise you — you can do this and you can do it well. It takes time and effort, no doubt — both commodities that are easily outsourced. But is also takes care and authenticity which are much harder to buy and impossible to fake.

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Could it be? A traditional direct advertising model that is targeted, available to small business and has analytics built right into the platform? Watch this space; ScoutMob may very well be the start of an important trend in small business marketing and perhaps a renewed relevance for more traditional advertising in local markets.

You can listen to Tuesday’s episode of GFR below. The interview with Michael from ScoutMob starts about halfway through. But don’t be too hasty to fast forward through the first half — we were talking with Amy Pedersen of Slimpressions, a truly homegrown Atlanta-area business.

A full transcript of the chat is available here. Thanks so much to Robyn and Cliqset for having us!