Doing More With Less

The New York Times has a great story which showcases how one small business owner is able to leverage technology as a powerful tool to grow their business and be more productive. Whether you're a large business or very small business - if any of your competitors are like YourLittleFilm (which creates short files) and are powerfully using technology, you need to be worried.

Most entrepreneurs often would like their businesses to appear larger than they are, and present themselves as capable of running with the pack. With the utilization of customer relationship management software and other available tools for everything from file organization to scheduling software, they demonstrate phenomenal resource management as well as being a cut above their competition in quality and caring. If they can keep up with their competitors with their legions of employees and fancy buildings simply by using a few smart software tools and their own ingenuity, imagine what they could do with even more.

Pay to Play!

Here is an interesting interview with Garrett White, the creator and presenter of “Paid to Play”, a WebTV show that helps entrepreneurs to enjoy what they do. Garrett is an interesting character, he’s full of energy and enthusiasm, and here he talks about a wide range of topics that have pertinence in the small business technology world, and even delves into how spirituality relates to business.

http://helpmybusiness.com/

Why Embracing Social Media Is Essential

These days there are so many new and exciting ways to connect with people.  If you just think about the strides that we have made, in a technological sense, in the last 10 years alone, you can't help but notice how far things have come along.  In recent years we have begun to witness a revolution.  This revolution is centered around social media platforms, namely Facebook and Twitter.  While the younger generation has welcomed these two platforms with open arms, it has taken some time for older generations to jump on ship.  This is especially true for small, family owned businesses.  Every major company in the world has some form of social media marketing and although they utilize them to varying extents, their presence shows an adaptive and forward thinking attitude. 

The more these platforms become integrated into our daily lives (which has already become a reality), the more effective they become as a means of promoting yourself and your business.  When you don't have the financial resources to launch major marketing campaigns, such as most small businesses, you need to find the best way to reach customers in a low cost, high exposure manner.  This is where social media has become an essential tool.  By implementing Facebook and Twitter pages for your business, you can reach a larger audience of potential customers, as well as offer a number of discounts, coupons, and exciting new offers.  It is also an invaluable way to convey information quickly to customers such as store hours, daily deals, or unexpected closings.  Being able to reach your customers quickly and effectively allows for your company to truly stay ahead of the curve and show that you are willing to roll with the times.  In a world where small businesses seemingly are becoming more and more antiquated, adapting social media will offer a magnificent opportunity to rejuvinate your image as well as provide you with the means to reach a multidude of customers and reshape your public image.

Twitter Tools for Small Businesses

In what seems like a never-ending quest to stay on top of ecommerce trends, small businesses are adding social media campaigns such as Twitter to their existing marketing plans.  Embracing new social media tools is something that can be very beneficial for a small business on a number of different fronts.  It allows you to reach a variety of potential customers, it costs nothing, and it shows a progressive attitude for your company by embracing new technologies.

When it comes to promotion of your business on Twitter, there are many free and low cost tools available to help you better manage your variety of marketing tasks.  To make things even easier, most Twitter tools are Web-based and very easy to use.  I will focus in particular on three tools that are best suited to help a small business owner stay on task with their Twitter marketing efforts. These Twitter tools can help a business cut down on thier time investment by automating the tweeting process or by providing features that help integrate Twitter into the marketing tasks already being performed. 

Creating Coupons with TwtQpon
Small business ecommerce sites will find the Twitter coupon generator, TwtQpon, useful for promoting Web store deals on Twitter. You can also create special reward coupons for your own loyal Twitter followers.

The TwtQpon site allows you to create your coupon with ease and very little information necessary.  Once created, your Twitter followers will see a Tweet, which is the text you enter in a TwtQpon Web form. Customers who click the link are directed to the image-enabled version of the coupon page and are then redirected to the URL you specified when they click to redeem.  The best part about this application is the speed of use.  You can have brand new coupons up within seconds.  There is also an option to add personal branding, which is shown on the image-enabled version hosted at TwtQpon.com.  The website doesn’t specify a fixed price for the upgrade but suggests you enter a price at check-out based on what you think the upgrade is worth.  Overall this can be a very useful tool for small businesses owners looking to improve their Twitter efforts.

Schedule Tweets with FutureTweets

FutureTweets is another useful tool for busy small businesses looking to expand their efforts. If you often forget to update your Twitter status or you have difficulties working in regular tweet time this is a good tool to use.  The Web-based service lets you schedule a number of tweets and specify the time you want the tweets to be published on Twitter.  You could pick one or two days a week to add multiple tweets that you set to publish at different times.  The scheduling aspect will not be noticed by your followers and it will appear as if you Tweet on a more regular basis.  All you need to do is type in your Twitter message and then select a publish date. You can enter the publish date manually in the form field or you can choose the date on a calendar button and select the time by dragging the hands on the clock widget beside the message box on the form.  After scheduling your Tweets you’ll see a list of all scheduled tweets you have written with a star noting the ones that have been published. From this single Web page you can also edit or delete any Tweet you set using the tool.   What is nice about FutureTweets is that it offers a simple interface with everything you need on one page so you can go in and schedule future tweets quickly. 

HootSuite Social Media Dashboard

HootSuite is a social application that you can use to manage a number of social media tasks in an efficient way.  The service supports a number of social platforms in addition to Twitter, like Facebook, WordPress and others.  HootSuite offers several tools that will help small business owners to better manage their Twitter and social media marketing tactics. Some of the tools let you schedule updates across one or more social media sites, and you can also collaborate and manage multiple social accounts that are spread amongst your marketing team.  Small business owners will also like two of the more business focused tools in HootSuite. The first is the “Monitor Mentions” tool. This is used to track and gather mentions of your company or brand across multiple social sites.  Another business tool in HootSuite is used to review statistics and reports on individual status messages tweets you publish.  HootSuite is a more professional Twitter tool with a focus on the needs of a business user. 

Overall, these three tools can be very useful for small business owners who are seeking to have a sound social media marketing plan, without it getting in the way of their day to day work.  Each one can be extremely helpful and promote a forward thinking and progressive attitude that is usually not seen in small, family owned businesses.

Welcome To My Blog!

Hello everybody!

Welcome to Small Business Technology, my blog for the class CIS*600 with Professor Bruce White.  I chose to blog about this topic because my father currently operates a third generation family-owned business in New Haven, CT.  His company, Jet Cleaners, was passed down to him from my grandfather, and was started all the way back in 1956 by my great grandfather.  Many people are aware of how difficult it is to run and operate a small business in this economic climate, but few people every focus on the technological and IT measures that a small business can take to keep it from being lost in the mix of just every other mom and pop shop on the corner.  Throughout the years, Jet Cleaners has managed to find ways to implement new technologies that have kept them ahead of the curve and in business for longer than many competitors that have come and gone.  Through a series of blogs this semester, I will do my best to highlight what small businesses are doing to keep up with the times and stay relevant in a fierce world where they find themselves disappearing far too quickly.  Whether it is through new inventory systems, improved databases, or using social media to spread their brand, you will see that it isn't just the big boys that can take advantage of the constantly improving technology in the business world. I hope you enjoy reading my posts and learn a bit about the struggle of running a privately owned, local business.