Does Your SMB Do These 8 Things? I spend a lot of time talking to small business owners and startups. I speak with them through my SEO consulting company, during phone calls about social media projects and even just while I’m on my way to and from conferences and taking the train. It’s something I enjoy doing because I like hearing their stories, their successes and the struggles that they’re facing. Often it’s nice to know you’re not the only one going through something and to have a chance to commiserate. I work out of my apartment. Through talking with people, I’ve found there are often common factors in the startups and businesses t hat do well compared to those that struggle. Think NicheDon’t set out trying to solve every problem that your industry has ever experienced. Serve Your Needs FirstIf the idea is to serve one need really well, how do you know what need to focus on first? Stand OutCall it a point of difference, call it an angle or call it creating experiences. Learn Everything You Can.
The new three-way: CIO, CMO & Agency Good article on AdAge this morning, Friends With (Digital) Benefits: CMOs Link With CIOs. The article includes several great anecdotes, from both agencies and brands, talking about the increased frequency of three-way meetings — the CMO, the CIO, and the agency — all collaborating together: Agencies, especially those involved with digital work, say they’re increasingly taking meetings with both the CIO and CMO. Marketers in retail, financial services and media have been among the first to liaise with their technology teams, agencies say, and the result has been more useful customer data and innovative campaigns. There’s also some insightful commentary from Luca Paderni, a leading Forrester analyst focused on marketing leadership. “At this point,” remarks Luca, “Even the marketer that would like to go it alone is realizing the level of complexity and data management is too big to manage alone.” However, there’s a hidden logic in this story that I’d like to dig up. If I paraphrase that: 1. 2.
Six top tips for bootstrapped startups I find people are endlessly interested in what it's like to run your own business, and particularly like the juicy stories, since schadenfreude and rubber necking are yet to go out of fashion it seems. So I'm going to share a few thoughts on starting a business; in particular about bootstrapped businesses where you haven't got a large pile of VC money behind you and the freedom to hire all the people you want and put PS3s in the kitchen. This post is for the poor sod who left the easy nine-to-five job and who is now fighting tooth and nail to keep his/her business going. The first people in are important so make sure your relationship can survive massive stress I co-founded Arena with a friend of 10 years. The same can apply to employing family; I even had to make my mother redundant at one point, which wasn't an easy decision, as you can imagine. Don't manage by committee (even though this may make you unpopular at times) Make your decision making process and requirements clear
A Look at the Growing "Work From Home" Phenomenon [INFOGRAPHIC] Working from home is more prevalent and more widely accepted than ever. With 26.2 million teleworkers in the U.S. in 2010, the virtual workforce is expected to grow in coming years. For starters, 56% of senior leaders and hiring managers at Fortune 500 companies believe that the workforce will steadily or greatly increase at their companies, according to a recent survey by WorkSimple. The study findings outline the changing virtual workforce with a number of compelling stats and findings, as seen in the infographic below. Have you noticed an increase in the number of employees at your workplace that work remotely? Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. Vice President - Digital at Edelman PR in Los AngelesSoftware Developer at Hulu in Los Angeles or SeattleAssociate Games Analyst at Arkadium in New York Infographic courtesy GetWorkSimple; thumbnail graphic courtesy iStockphoto/LajosRepasi
Voyage dans l’innovation sociale scandinave (2/3) : Réinventer l’entrepreneuriat Suite de notre voyage dans l’innovation sociale européenne (voir la première partie) à l’invitation de la 27e Région, laboratoire d’innovation publique. Avec un regard particulier sur la façon dont la conception de services peut aider au développement de nouvelles formes d’entreprises. MindLab : changer l’esprit de l’innovation publique Le MindLab (blog) est un laboratoire fondé par les ministères danois de l’économie, des finances et de l’emploi. Etabli depuis 9 ans et composé d’une équipe de 15 personnes, son objectif a pris une toute autre actualité à l’heure de la crise financière et écologique : penser l’innovation dans le gouvernement et les services publics. « Nous devons dépenser l’argent public d’une manière plus intelligente », explique son directeur Christian Bason, auteur d’un livre à paraître sur ces questions. Image : Les méthodes du MindLab danois, issues de leur Guide pour l’innovation (en danois). L’entrepreneuriat en résidence Soutenir l’esprit d’entreprendre
Want To Be A CMO? The Career Path May Surprise You Think that being a wizard at developing splashy ads, branding, and social media campaigns generates an automatic ticket to become the next CMO or VP of Marketing? Think again. According to a new study, only one-third of CMOs and VPs of marketing arrive at the top post because of their experiences in marketing. But what backgrounds do the other two-thirds of marketing senior executives come from? In the recently released book, Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success executive search consultant and career expert Kathryn Ullrich shares groundbreaking research on career path categories to CMO and other functional disciplines in marketing and sales. According to her research, the career path categories to reach the role of CMO or VP Marketing are as follows: Ullrich analyzed hundreds of resumes in her search database to categorize the backgrounds of executives reaching Chief Marketing Officer or VP Marketing titles. Domain Expertise A Key Ingredient
Comment devenir plus créatif ? Avez-vous l’ADN de l’innovateur ? Voici une question que je trouve intéressante : Les capacités créatives d’un personne sont elles innées ou acquises ? Une équipe de chercheurs de l’INSEAD menée par Hal Gregersen s’est penchée sur la question et leur réponse est très encourageante : Certes chaque personne naît avec des prédispositions mais ce sont surtout nos habitudes et notre manière d’agir qui font que nous sommes plus ou moins innovateur. 5 compétences clefs La bonne nouvelle de l’étude : vous pouvez améliorer votre « innovativité » Bien qu’Hal Gregersen est ses collègues chercheurs aient baptisés leur étude « L’ADN de l’innovateur », la génétique n’entre finalement que peu en ligne de compte. Le point commun des plus grandes innovations de ruptureLes chercheurs se sont également interrogés sur l’origine des grandes innovations de rupture.
5 Things To Do Every Day For Success Fast Company wants you to have your best year yet in 2012; click for more advice and tips on how to work smarter, manage your career, and lead a more meaningful life. "You get up at what time?" I hear that a lot, along with "You are so lucky." So, I'm going to help out here and let you in on the secrets of my success. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. A simple yet highly effective list. Looking for more advice to rev up your career?
Four Keys To Effective Delegating Delegation, Business-Building one of the critical determining factors for everyone who wants to be an effective leader or manager. And for those of us control freaks, lack of delegating skill can be a real show stopper. Because the harder you try to hold on to things, the faster they can get away from you, and if you want to extend your reach beyond your ability to do everything at once, you must delegate some things to other people. In my business coaching practice, and in our franchise for business coaches we find that delegation is simply frightening for many people. Why? First of all, you may enjoy doing the thing you have to delegate... You may think you do it better than anyone else. And you know it won't get done your way. Know this: whatever you keep to yourself instead of delegating will get shorter shrift than it deserves. There are four keys to effective delegating. 1. If you do that you are simply setting them up to fail and setting yourself up for disappointment. 2. 3. 4. Rate This Post
5 Online Learning Resources to Help You Run a Better Business This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. If your web travels are anything like ours, it seems like every day someone’s pitching a new online tool that’s going to “triple productivity!” or “help you scale your business quickly!” or “make doing payroll more fun than 10 barrels of monkeys!” OK, maybe not that last one. Payroll is never that fun. But if, again, you’re like us, you rarely get around to implementing that tool. Or, perhaps you actually do try and get started, but the FAQs don’t shed too much light on how you actually use these tools. What’s an entrepreneur to do? 1. This New York-based startup won hearts at last September’s New York Tech Meetup with a charming, quirky video featuring their team. 2. For coding newbies, just familiarizing yourself with the general syntax in an approachable way can be a good place to start. 3. 4. 5.
Le futur du journaliste? Apprendre à entreprendre Journaliste et entrepreneur. Deux mots qui, jusqu’alors, n’allaient pas ensemble. Pourtant, mutation du métier de journaliste aidant, volonté aussi de redonner de la valeur économique à cette profession, nombreux sont ceux qui veulent se lancer dans la création d’une entreprise, au sens premier du terme, journalistique. Or trouver une idée inédite, monter le business plan qui va avec, lever des fonds, et embaucher ses premiers salariés, cela ne s’improvise pas. Comme l’Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po (1), et comme l’Université de Stanford, la CUNY (The City University of New York) a lancé cette année son programme de journalisme entrepreneurial, sous la tutelle de Jeff Jarvis, qui tient le blog BuzzMachine. Crédit: DR Dans la salle de cours de la CUNY, située à quelques mètres de l’immeuble du New York Times, se trouve une douzaine d’étudiants – pas une seule fille au bataillon. Jeff Jarvis le sait bien. Conseil numéro 1: «Votre idée de business doit être unique» Alice Antheaume
Best Social Media Tools For Marketing Your Business Social media is a growing field to advertise your business. Twitter and Facebook are large websites where a company can have thousands or even millions of people interacting with them on a daily basis. It is impossible to interact with each and every one of those individuals. Management tools are among some of the most user friendly tools that a marketer will need. YouTube is actually a social media tool as well as a social media website. Mail Chimp is another useful social media tool. Google Apps is a key tool in any organization.