Episode 12: Global Business Simplified

Global business can be simplified for small businesses. This week, we talk about ways you are already connecting internationally, how to create more connections, and how to find resources to help you take your small business global.

Laura Allen - Civil War, Coke, Tsunamis, and Green Tea
Laura Allen talks about how Civil War, Coke, Tsunamis, and Green Tea are all a part of Global Business. She shares her theory on how it might be possible to end war if we all sat down and drank some Green Tea together. It seemed to work in that old Coca Cola television ad.

Coke TV commercial: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ccmphtml/colaadv.html

International Women’s Entrepreneurial Network: http://www.iwen-online.com
Monaqui Porter-Young; Srina Green Tea, http://www.SRINA.com

Becky McCray - Global isn’t as big as you think
Becky McCray shares her international business experience, talks about how small businesses can take a first step into the world, and where to find help to do more globally with your business.
Oklahoma Department of Commerce: http://www.okcommerce.gov

Thanks for listening.

Bonus - Interview with Pat Matthews, CEO of Webmail.us

Becky McCray interviews Pat Matthews, CEO of Webmail.us, Inc., based in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Pat talks about starting the company, surviving and retooling through the dot com bust, why they have refined their business plan 30 or more times, and how they compete with the huge conglomerates of technology.

Hear a second interview with Pat at Small Biz Survival, addressing small town business issues.

Episode 11: The Role of Failure in Small Business

Entrepreneurs can’t avoid failure, so we have to learn how to deal with it. Most of society puts an extrememely negative meaning into failure, but small business people think about it differently. Our experts take on the subject of failure, what it is, what it means, and how they think about it.

Heidi Miller - A Few Zen Thoughts on Failure
Heidi Miller has put together a few of her thoughts on failure, from a Zen perspective. Most important, learn from your failures.

Phil Gerbyshak - Defining Success and Failure
New contributor Phil Gerbyshak makes his first appearance, helping us to define both success and failure. It’s all up to you, and how you choose to define it. Take inspiration from President Theodore Roosevelt.

Zane Safrit - The Biography of Failure
Special Guest Zane Safrit has been reading and thinking about failure, and about people who have failed. He sees some patterns in overcoming obstacles, making mistakes, and achieving success.
Download Zane’s handout.

Jon Swanson - Understanding Failure on Different Levels
Jon Swanson is thinking about many different levels of failure, personally and in business. Be sure to think about how to really measure failure.

Becky McCray - Redefining Failure
Becky McCray sees great value in failure, as a necessary part of reaching success. She shares a few notable quotes on failure’s role in small business.
Download Becky’s handout.

Episode 10: Financing, Bootstrapping, and Financial Basics for Small Business

Finances may not be everyone’s favorite topic, but it is one of the basics. We all have to take care of finances so that we can take care of the business. This week, the Great Big Small Business Experts offer ideas on financing alternatives, bootstrapping, on the financial basics for small business, and the ugly truths about nobody’s favorite topic.

Becky McCray - Financial Basics
Becky McCray talks about three simple disciplines for financial success.

1. Keep the right records, on computer or on paper.
2. Deal effectively with the complex tasks of payroll and taxes.
3. Be disciplined enough to do it.

Ben Yoskovitz - Boostrapping
Ben Yoskovitz shares his ideas on how to successfully bootstrap your business.

Steve Rucinski - Alternative Financing
Steve Rucinski has two new alternative financing methods that could be right for your business.
Download Steve’s handout.

Ted Demopoulos - Money and Small Business is Nobody’s Favorite Topic!
Ted Demopoulos says you aren’t as smart as you think you are, and how to avoid the bladder principle!

Thanks for listening!

Video bonus: Marketing with business cards

Every business must market itself and most marketing is visual, so we’ve started this video segment to show you some tips and suggestions for marketing.

In our first episode, Becky McCray shows an example of adding customer value to business cards.

Thanks for watching.

Bonus Episode: Choosing a book publishing method

Remember that we offered to answer your small business questions? We weren’t kidding! So we are here with a bonus episode to do just that.

Phil Gerbyshak asked:

What’s the difference between print-on-demand, self-publishing, and traditional publishing, why would one choose one over the other, and if one wanted to go the way of traditional publishing, does one really need an agent to make that happen?

One of our team of experts, Ted Demopoulus offers his thoughts on publishing: traditional, print on demand, and self publishing. Ted recommends these two books:

• Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents 2007
• The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell Your Own Book

Episode 9: Presentation skills for entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are always in the spotlight, always presenting themselves and their company. This week, our small business experts offer their tips for improving your presentation skills.

Laura Allen - Top Three Tips for Creating a Powerful Presentation That's ALL YOU!!! and Bonus Hint called: Don't be like Glinda, the Good Witch
Laura Allen has three terrific creative tips:
STEP ONE: Find an Idol: There are lots of presenters I admire. Right now I really like Karen Salmansohn. She named her website NotSalmon.com because she was tired of people spelling her name wrong.
STEP TWO: Make it EXCITING! Do you remember when Oprah gave away a car to every member of her audience? Well, that was EXCITING!
STEP THREE: Keep it REAL for YOU. My friend Johnny Dapalito has a workshop called “Actors Where Are you Going?” I'm not an actor, but I love going to workshops and Johnny is an INCREDIBLE presenter so I've been to two of his seminars so far.
BONUS TIP: Don't be Like Glinda, the Good Witch; Your presentation doesn’t have to be perfect, Really.

Chris Brogan - Improv Presentations and The Storyteller’s Promise
Chris Brogan knows what it takes to make effective presentations: improvise, entertain, involve.

Ted Demopoulos - Four ways to compete with the Oranutangs
Ted Demopoulos has four simple tips to help you make a terrific presentaiton, even if you have to compete with other outlandish presentations.

1. Relax! The audience wants to like you!
2. Don’t rely on your props.
3. Smile! Act like a friendly human.
4. Have Fun!

Benjamin Yoskovitz - Constructive Criticism for Small Business Owners
Ben Yoskovitz provides 5 steps to giving good constructive criticism, focusing on building people up, criticizing and building them up again.
Download Ben’s handout.

Steve Rucinski - Delivering effective presentations
Steve Rucinski has three keys for delivering effective presentations.

1. Focus on your audience
2. Know your venue.
3. Know your content, and practice!

Download Steve’s handout.

Jon Swanson - Tips for Presentation Chickens
Jon Swanson used to teach this stuff! The Entrepreneurial Chicken shares what truly helps overcome your fear of presentations: really care about getting your information across.

Episode 8: Building Client Relationships in Small Business

Without clients we have no business, so this week our experts talk about building relationships before the first sale and maintaining relationships for the long term.

Steve Rucinski - Control your ego
Steve Rucinski talks about controlling your ego to focus on the client’s needs. He recommends the book Let’s Get Real by Mahan Khalsa.
Download Steve’s handout.


Becky McCray - Building client relationships one layer at a time
Becky McCray explains a process and a mindset of layering information as a part of building relationships.

Heidi Miller - 8 simple tips to keep client relationships alive after the first sale
Heidi Miller has a real world example of relationship building, plus 8 simple tips to make sure your customers don’t end up calling your competitors.

Colleen Wainwright - Relationship rules for business
Colleen Wainwright explains which rules for personal relationships also apply to business relationship building.