Avoid the noise in marketing strategies

An important aspect of bootstrap marketing is to choose a media where you are not competing with too many other businesses for customers’ attention. Small Business Trends offers some interesting thoughts on the current challenge small businesses face with Internet search engines. They offer several options that can make the use of the Internet work for your venture.
But remember, think like your customer. Not every business needs a web site (I must be getting old, as I remember giving the same advice about yellow pages advertising years ago). Know how your customer makes decisions about you versus your competition and choose a marketing media that makes sense for that behavior. The cost of a web presence can add up quickly, so make sure it is an investment that will bring you customers.

So you need an idea for a business to start?

Thanks to Dane Carlson for leading me to his blog Business Opportunities. His blog provides many great links to the creatively-challenged but doggedly determined would be entrepreneurs to explore as possible ideas for businesses to start. Dental equipment repairs, wine bars, and elder care are just a few of the opportunities he links you to at this site.
Of course, like with any idea, even already developed ones like these, you still need to go through a very thorough opportunity assessment and develop your own business plan for your specific market. Also, make sure it is something that really interests you and that you can be passionate about. There are too many ups and downs to pursue some idea just because it makes financial sense. Starting a business is more like a marriage than simply finding a roommate to share an apartment. It becomes part of every waking moment of your life (and often many of your sleepless ones as well), so make sure you find an idea that you can stay emotionally committed to over the long haul.

Starting ’em young in Florida

There is an explosion of programs for young people to expose them to entrepreneurship. Here is one example sent to me by RM Cornwall from Miami. Exposing young people to the option of self-employment and entrepreneurship is already helping to expand our current entrepreneurial economic boom. It also helps to counter the anti-capitalistic bias that so many of their teachers expose them to every day in our schools.

small businesses not just being created, but creating jobs

One of the criticisms we keep hearing about the current economic expansion is that it is ?jobless?. This report
from NFIB (you need to scroll down a bit in this link to see the article) shows that any jobless growth due to excess capacity is about over, and this economy is heating up. This includes new jobs in the most important sector for job formation in this entrepreneurial economy: small and medium enterprises.

Making ethical decisions in small business

Barry Moltz (his book visited here on a recent blog book tour) talks about the struggles of ethical decision making for small businesses in this on-line article he published at his web site. Barry is always honest, and this piece gives a realistic picture of the struggles entrepreneurs face in their day-to-day work. Often without others to bounce situations off of or corporate codes of conduct to guide you, entrepreneurs must muddle along through what can be very difficult situations. The best I can suggest is to first have a clear set of standards. Write them down and think about how they apply in daily situations. Once that is developed (it should never be considered “done”, but a work in progress), reflect on it often and use it to not only evaluate decisions you are currently facing, but decisions you have already made. Remember that each ethical situation you face shapes your character in some small but significant way. Virtue is a habit that is developed over many of such decisions and actions.