Small business owners are optimistic
Small business owners are optimistic about the future of the economy. That’s the gist of a new Bank of America survey released last week. The first of its kind, the survey included some 1,000 small business owners.
“The overarching theme here is despite of all the stress and challenges, small business owners in this country are confident folks and feeling pretty good about the near term future of their business,” said Robb Hilson, a small business executive with Bank of America. “Optimism has improved over the last several quarters.”
Though the survey found that small business owners feel confident about their local economies, they feel less confident about national leadership, which is unsurprising given the upcoming election and the shaky economic recovery.
According to the survey, talent retention ranked as the biggest concern for small business owners. Of the companies surveyed, 44 percent did not offer a benefits package, and Hilson cited the need for employee retirement plans to help retain talent and avoid losing workers to larger firms and companies. That jibes with another recent study Reuters covered about a crisis in employee retirement planning among African-American owned businesses.
Aside from retirement planning, the survey also found that cash flow problems, though helped by debt collection technologies like mobile payment platforms, were another point of stress for small business owners.
To read the full Bank of America survey, click here.
Image: U.S. President Barack Obama talks with small business owners to discuss income tax credits during a roundtable discussion at Taylor Gourmet restaurant in Washington, May 16, 2012. REUTERS/Larry Downing
GoCardless tries to disrupt the credit card industry
For small business owners, frustration with credit card companies is nothing new.
“You are a slave to the lender,” said Doris McMillon, owner of a communications consulting business, in a recent Reuters article. “What some of these banks have done to small business owners is unconscionable.”
Luckily for entrepreneurs like McMillon, one UK based startup, fresh with $1.5 million in venture capital, is trying to shake up the credit card industry. GoCardless is building a way for UK businesses to cut out the credit card middleman, and instead allow customers and businesses to deal directly with banks by tapping into banks’ APIs, which were previously reserved only for larger companies and organizations, reports Wired.
GoCardless joins the ranks of companies, like Square and Dwolla, that are trying to challenge and out-innovate traditional payment/credit companies like Visa, Mastercard and even PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002. With the ubiquity of mobile devices, and new technologies like the Square payment system, the credit/debit payment space seems wide open and ripe for innovation.
“As a merchant, card companies are a rip-off and the application process is eye-wateringly complex,” said Matt Robinson, founder of GoCardless in an interview with Wired. “We charge 1 percent per transaction — a step-change cheaper than alternatives. We can do this and still have attractive economics because we’re able to cut out the cost and complexity of the card networks.”
To read the full Q & A with GoCardless founder Matt Robinson, click over to Wired.
Looking at the new crowdfunders and the JOBS Act
The crowdsourcing site Kickstarter just turned three years old, and the New York Times has a nice profile that explores how the company has evolved and how its changed the way entrepreneurs, artists, and anyone else with an idea can raise capital online.
Much as the introduction of cheap Web services lowered the barrier to entry for people seeking to create a start-up, and as offshore manufacturing gave entrepreneurs a chance to make products without having to build a factory, Kickstarter offers budding entrepreneurs a way to float ideas and see if there’s a market for them before they trade ownership of their company for money from venture capitalists.
Tapping into the wisdom of the crowd is nothing new. And now that Kickstarter has beaten the path, there are a few similar, and niche-focused, alternatives to Kickstarter. One interesting development to consider, though, when thinking about the online fundraising space, is the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, also known as the JOBS Act. As Talking Points Memo reports:
Kickstarter and other crowdfunding websites are also facing something of a watershed moment in the wake of passage of new bipartisan legislation, the JOBS Act, that would specifically allow for private startup companies to solicit investors with stock options offered online, something previously not allowed under Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.
One of those companies that hopes to capitalize on this new opportunity is Return on Change, which recently launched. The mission, according to their website, “is to provide an online medium by which start-up companies and bright entrepreneurs will be able to pool capital through crowdsourcing, while creating a community of advice and collaboration.”
Understandably, opening up crowdsourced investing opportunities online has some concerned. The SEC is still figuring out how to implement the JOBS ACT, but once the details are finalized we can expect to see even more companies like Kickstarter and Return on Change, maybe even a crowdfunding startup that is ITSELF crowdfunded.
Image: REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
Q & A with MycroBurst co-founder Joe Witte
Joe Witte is the co-founder and Executive Vice President at MycroBurst, a crowdsourcing site for companies and individuals who want custom logos and designs. Reuters Small Business interviewed Witte about building a tech startup and how Mycroburst balances work with clients and designers.
First off, can you briefly describe MycroBurst? How it works, etc.
I’ve always described MycroBurst as an eBay for design services. We have a community of more than 35k designers representing more than 100 countries. They participate in design contests for our customers (aka Project Holders), who require anything from a brochure, postcard, website or logo design. What makes our marketplace so powerful, is that a Project Holder will typically receive dozens, and typically more than 100 design concepts from our design community to choose from. And that’s in one week. Our platform makes it easy to communicate with all the designers, and easy to review the concepts side by side.
Where did the idea come from?
Previously, we had a design team that provided services to our clients via online transactions. Many of our designers were leaving in order to freelance for sites like eLance. And after seeing this model work for other crowdsourcing sites, we felt that this was where the future was with sourcing design services. After we shifted in 2009, it was apparent that everyone was happier. Our designers had freedom, and our clients received far greater choice, and flexibility in a faster delivery method.
MycroBurst relies on a crowdsourcing model that actually helps pool talent for clients. Are there any other sites that you think are operating a similar model (not necessarily with design), and how has that affected MycroBurst?
We are actually a member of a “Crowdsortium” which had more than 100 crowdsourcing companies such as UTest, CrowdFlower, and GeniusRocket. Some of the other services that are crowdsourced include videos, website/application testing, content writing, labeling, research, translation, and the list goes on.
I think it a little strange Designcrowd & 99Designs is not mentioned like his competitor. Those are what students at my university use. I’ll check MycroBurst.
How to avoid getting swindled under the JOBS Act
The new JOBS Act was aimed at making it easier for start-ups to raise cash, but critics warn the legislation makes it easier for criminals to do the same. In this Reuters TV video, Fred Katayama explains how you can avoid getting ripped off.
The JOBS Act: Washington Takes One Step Back Toward Capitalism
Read a very different take with a free-market perspective on the new JOBS Act by Ron Holland, CEO of Biologix Hair Inc.
Looking at Greece’s entrepreneurs
Maybe it’s Instagram-size payouts or maybe it’s just pure desperation and a lack of good opportunities that drives someone to start a business in the middle of a recession. Either way, instead of protesting or moving away in search of work, a group of entrepreneurs in Greece are tapping into that same spirit and defying the odds to launch their own startups, NPR reports.
The Athens entrepreneurs, based around an incubator called CoLab, include at least one tech startup, BugSense, that has already raised capital from Silicon Valley. So while many tech startups, including those in Greece and those that launch during a recession, will never turn a profit, it’s worth noting that a more than few startups have successfully launched during a recession.
For perspective, here are just a few of those companies that launched during hard economic times:
GE, IBM, Microsoft, Apple. Oh and of course, Instagram.
Photo: A Greek presidential guard hoists the Greek flag in front of the Parthenon temple at the Acropolis hill in Athens October 3, 2010. REUTERS/John Kolesidis
Mr Peabody, looks like you got tipped for writing & mentioning only a handful of specific startups in Greece. As a journalist, you should have done your research better. That is in the case you care to provide your readers with a quality article that is also head and shoulders above the rest.
However, it’s just a shallow article with almost nothing to “take away”.
As one of fellow posters already mentioned, there is a good number of great startups from Greece. Here’s few: Babelverse, betcafe.com, tsoonami, etc.
Hopefully, you’ll investigate more for your next articles.
Rocco
Q & A: Uncovering the hidden agenda
According to Kevin Allen, we pitch business ideas every day. But how do we ensure our pitches will be successful? Allen’s forthcoming book, The Hidden Agenda, teaches readers how to connect to their audience on an emotional level in order to win pitches. Entrepreneurial spoke with Allen about how to find and connect to what he calls the hidden agenda.
You write in your book that each of us makes a pitch every day. What do you mean by that?
Whether you’re trying to get a group of people to follow you for the first time who you’ve hired or you’re running a small company, at the end of the day there’s an organization you’re trying to reach and connect with. In business (that’s) an audience that you’re trying to get to do what you want them to do and to buy your product. So the notion of pitching, that is reaching someone and connecting with them so they will follow you is a universal thing in business we do each and every day.
What do you mean by the title of your book, Hidden Agenda?
Over the years of pitching, I realized that behind every decision is an emotional desire. People don’t buy with their heads, they buy with their hearts.
While everyone was listening for the functional stuff (in meetings), my antenna would go up and I would say I think this person is nervous or this person has an ambition. If I could connect with that in the form of what makes me special or what I believe or maybe establishing a shared ambition, I’ll connect with them and they’ll believe in my business. Once I started to codify this and use this as a process, we won much of the time.
First, it’s putting yourself in a relationship of empathy with your prospect to understand what keeps them up at night, what they aspire to, what they believe in. But that’s only half the job. The other half is reaching inside yourself, your core, to see what makes me special? Or what is it I believe or what ambition do I have? Often connecting to that hidden agenda is the magic.
One of the other elements you probably need to consider is the difference between a conversation with one or two people and talking to an audience. It’s hard to judge what a large group is thinking because we tend to think blank faces are judging us. Blank faces in groups are normal.
So reaching a group can be hard unless we understand what is going on.
We, as speakers, still tend to look for approval because we are still using normal conversational skills in front of a group. But on the whole we don’t get approval signs when we speak. So you might be thinking that you know their hidden agenda (they think you are boring) when you are interpreting the wrong signals. They are just listening. We need to re-think the audience and need to re-think how we are in front of an audience. It’s a fundamental of public speaking that tends to get missed. It seems to catch a lot of people out and during my courses you see the a-ha moment when we explore this point. So to be in front and to have trust in yourself learn how to be ease with blank faces – then you can probably see their agendas better.
John Dawson, Bath UK
Small business defense against cybercrime
Small businesses can innocently expose themselves to cybercrime when an employee opens an email that appears to be from the CEO, not updating the anti-virus program or having a laptop lost or stolen.
Eduard Goodman, Chief Privacy Officer for Identity Theft 911 has seen an increase in small businesses being targeted for cybercrime within the last five to seven years. Highly desirable data include customer information lists and personally identifiable information such as social security numbers, dates of birth and account numbers.
A recent survey by Symantec and the National Cyber Security Alliance shows 85 percent of small business owners believe their company is safe from hackers, viruses, malware or a cyber-security breach. Sixty-nine percent rely on Internet security for their business’s success.
Yet, the same survey shows 77 percent don’t have a formal Internet security policy for employees and 49 percent don’t even have an informal policy.
So how can small businesses protect themselves?
Ensuring your business has the latest anti-virus, spyware and firewall programs is one method of protection, according to Goodman. Training on how to recognize phishing emails is essential as fraudsters will send emails from someone like the CEO of a company so employees think they have to open the email.
“Question what you’re clicking on, question where it’s coming from,” says Goodman. Have an awareness to take that extra 10 seconds to ask ‘Hey did you send me something? Is it legit?’”
It is not just small businesses, but also small charities, churches and non-profit organisations, as they tend to be more open to communications (including emails) from others.
Bob
Administrator
Tekgia
Tekgia.com
The man behind BlackBerry, Swiffer and Scion on how to do branding right
– Connie Loizos is a contributor for PE Hub, a Thomson Reuters publication. This interview originally appeared here. The views expressed are her own. –
In the brand-naming world, Sausalito, Calif.-based Lexicon has become legendary for its work over the last 30 years, and no wonder. It named the Pentium chip for Intel, the PowerBook for Apple, the Swiffer for Procter & Gamble, and Dasani for Coca Cola. As a recent New Yorker piece about the firm observed, Lexicon also managed to transform Research in Motion’s bland, corporate, painstakingly matter-of-fact smart phones into caressable little devices, all with the word Blackberry.
It’s not an easy trick to pull off, says Lexicon founder David Placek, who believes a good brand has to blend numerous variables, including resonance, pluck and the ability to tell a service or product’s story, often in just a few characters.
Following Netflix’s now-famous Qwikster debacle, I called Placek to learn more about his job, and how both big and small companies might do a better job of selecting brands for themselves. Our conversation has been edited for length.
Q: Let’s start with a really annoying question. Why can’t you just tell a client, ‘I’m going to give you 25 great names, and you’re going to love one of them.’ That tactic seems to work just fine for Don Draper.
A: Ha. I think a number of clients might think like that. For us the role of a name is to help someone tell a story, to break [consumers’] habits, to convey something new — all in a world with trademark protection and the need to work fairly well across a number of languages. That’s saying nothing of needing an available URL.
In our work sessions, we might show our clients 25 names, but it’s really treasure hunting, a way for us to go back and forth and see what will get attention and general interest and get something new into the market. Most people don’t appreciate how hard this is, and how valuable this word, their brand, will be to them in the future.
LinkedIn expands promotional features for businesses
The online networking site, which more than a year began ago letting companies create their own profiles, last week expanded features within Company Pages that allow businesses to build and sustain their own followings in the professional community.
“It’s some pretty good intelligence,” said Ryan Roslansky, who heads LinkedIn’s Content Products. “It really helps members to have deeper insight and richer business intelligence on these companies.”
Not unlike the microblogging site Twitter, LinkedIn’s Company Pages update individuals about specific businesses of interest. But the depth of content is richer, said Roslansky, noting that posts include company news, employee moves, videos and white papers, among other information. These status updates appear in a follower’s news feed.
“When people are on LinkedIn they’re really in the mode of… how do they become more professional, productive and successful in what they’re doing?” he said. “And in that context we want to give the companies the ability to disseminate information to members.”
Individuals can also get alerts when a company posts job listings, an enhancement that aids in individuals’ career advancement, Roslansky said, noting there are nearly 5 million LinkedIn members employed by small businesses. Businesses pay for that feature but other features in Company Pages are free.
