This is totally up the alley of our favorite folks at 37signals.
Yesterday, I saw a new advertisement for Sam Adams on TV. In the documentary-style ad, an interviewer asks people how big a company do they believe Sam Adams’ is. Some of the interviewees respond “Sam Adams has 25% market share” or say “They are huge”.
And then the ad reveals that actually Sam Adams has only 0.9% market share (Don’t know whether it is of the lager market, or the overall beer market or something else. But the point is they want to highlight that it is a small number) This really struck me because usually companies boast about how they are the #1 player in the market or how they have a very large market share.
Here is a link to the commercial (video quality is poor).
The commercial ends with the CEO saying “We are in a perfect place. We are big enough to get whatever ingredients from wherever in the world we need to get it from, and we are small enough to still want to do all that crazy stuff.”
Staying small helps them try out new and different ideas and lets them provide a better product. Very much in sync with the approach that 37signals preaches.
Tags:37signals·growth·small business
Good article at the American Express Open Forum on the benefits of Groupon for small businesses.
Here is how Groupon works – (paraphrased from their webpage)
- Each day we feature something cool to do at an unbeatable price.
- You only get it if enough people join that day… so invite your friends!
- Check back the next day for another awesome Groupon
Or watch the video. According to the Open Forum article -
“Groupon is a collective buying discount service. Groupon seems to have figured out how to make it simple and social. It’s really the closest thing to guaranteed advertising available. According to Groupon, 97 percent of businesses featured want to be featured again.
The way Groupon works for the business is that people buy the daily deal, Groupon collects the money, takes a percentage, and then pays the business for all the Groupons sold. The business then simply honors the Groupons (an official document printed out by the buyer) as they come into the business.
The offer doesn’t become good until some prescribed number of people elect to buy it. If a subscriber decides to buy the offer they often pass it along to friends to make sure the deal happens.
Over four million Groupons have been purchased in the fifteen months the company has been offering them”
Tags:boost sales·coupons·groupon·small business
Continuing on my earlier article on communicating simply, here is one more reason why you should always use easy to understand language in all communication.
According to Chip & Dan Heath, the authors of Made to Stick, Simplicity is one of the key attributes of ideas that stick.
Here is a quote from the book, which is a great example to prove this point -
Contrast the “maximize shareholder value” idea with John F. Kennedy’s famous 1961 call to “put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade.” Simple? Yes. Unexpected? Yes. Concrete? Amazingly so. Credible? The goal seemed like science fiction, but the source was credible. Emotional? Yes. Story? In miniature.
Had John F. Kennedy been a CEO, he would have said, “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives.” Fortunately, JFK was more intuitive than a modern-day CEO; he knew that opaque, abstract missions don’t captivate and inspire people. The moon mission was a classic case of a communicator’s dodging the Curse of Knowledge. It was a brilliant and beautiful idea — a single idea that motivated the actions of millions of people for a decade.
As small business owners, you must keep your message to your customers as simple as possible – starting all the way from your website design, to your product categorization, to your shipping/return policies, to your advertisements. Never underestimate the power of simplicity.
Related Posts:
- Business jargon eliminator
- Warren Buffet’s advice for small business owners
Tags:ideas that stick·simplicity·small business
Warren Buffet offers many great lessons that every small business owner can adopt. My favorite -
Talk and write like a human. Don’t embrace corporate speak. The conversational tone with your customers will help them relate to you better. Make them feel like they are doing business with a human and not a soulless corporation. A great example for this is in the article itself. Read what Buffet says -
“GEICO’s managers, it should be emphasized, were never enthusiastic about my idea. They warned me that instead of getting the cream of GEICO’s customers we would get the – – – – – well, let’s call it the non-cream. I subtly indicated that I was older and wiser.”
Now compare that with a now-famous “corporate-y” words from Domino’s CEO David Brandon about their pizza.
“The weakness in our value chain with the customer was really in our core product.” Translated from corporate lingo into plain speak, it just means, “we delivered on time but our pizza sucked”
I have heard the same advice from many others, on speaking clearly and directly. 37signals, for example, talks about the “weasel words and the absurdity of corporate speak“.
If you are interested in following up on this idea of simple effective communication with your customers, a must read for you is William Zinsser’s famous book titled “On Writing Well”. The book has been selling well for over 30 years. It’s filled with great advice on how to write clearly, in a stripped-down, simple manner, and is filled with ideas that you can adopt easily into your daily conversation with your customers and every one else.
Related Posts:
- Business jargon eliminator
- Why simplicity matters?
Tags:clear·communication·effective·simple·small business
Most software is designed to be complex enough. Adding complexity to the buying process just makes it a nightmare for customers. Here is the latest example from Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 product page. Via John Gruber.
Adobe's product choices - Complexity is your enemy
Complexity is the number one enemy of software designers.
This story is not unique to Adobe. Over the past few months, we have been surveying small business software packages to meet the needs of one of our small business clients. After hours of web research, we finally reached the web sites of some software providers. And we were presented with a similar matrix of options to choose from. It was almost impossible for us to figure out what the right solution is. And then we had to call the sales people and waste time on the phone listening to their pitch. Why do things have to be so difficult?
Tags:complexity·design·small business·small business software·software
Great advice from one of the greatest entrepreneurs ever -
Even in a big business like the Virgin Group, I sit down now and again and sign every single cheque that goes out, and I ask my managing directors to do the same. For a month. Sign everything for a month every six months and suddenly you’re asking: ‘What on earth is this for?’ You’ll be able to cut out unnecessary expenditure quite dramatically when you do that.
As a small-business person, you must immerse yourself 100 per cent in everything and learn about the ins and outs of every single department. As you get bigger, you will be able to delegate, and when people come to you with their problems, they’ll be surprised how knowledgeable you are and how much practical advice you can offer.
The reason you’re knowledgeable is because in the early days of the business, you learned all about it. This is how business leadership is achieved. There are no short cuts.
Money’s only interesting for what it lets you do.
Via Derek Sivers notes on “Business Stripped Bare” by Richard Branson via 37signals
Tags:advice·richard branson·small business
This business week article discusses how to build a good credit history and a credit line once you restart your small business after declaring bankruptcy. The key take aways are -
- Approach lenders at community banks who evaluate your application by sitting down and talking with you, looking at your specific collateral and your cash flow
- Ask a customer or colleague to make an introduction for you at a bank. If they are willing to co-sign a loan guarantee for you, that would definitely improve your chances
- Start off asking for a small amount and work your way up to a larger loan or credit line
- Consider leasing equipment and asking suppliers for credit terms on your inventory
- Attract a partner with a stellar credit history that could offset your own
Tags:bankruptcy·credit history·credit line·small business
Wall Street Journal has a good set of articles in their How to Guide for Small Businesses section. Here is an article on how to choose a bank for your small business.
Most small business owners have an option of choosing between a large national bank and a small regional bank. Both have their pros and cons.
Pros of Small, Regional Banks
- With small, regional banks, you often get better customer service and one-on-one access to the loan officer. Such banks are usually more flexible and focus more on personal relationships and the borrower’s character than just the numbers on a credit report.
- Loan officers at smaller banks have the authority to make loan decisions. With them, the turn arounds for your decision may be faster than with a large national bank which will have to check everything with their corporate office.
Pros of Large, National Banks
- Large national banks may be able to give you a better rate than the small regional bank. So if you are more interested in that additional basis point and less on the flexibility, large banks may be better for your business.
- Small Business Administration (SBA) loans can be a great source of cash for small businesses. If you are planning to apply for an SBA loan, ensure that your bank will issue SBA backed loans. Large national banks are more likely to offer SBA loans than small regional banks.
- Large banks often give you additional perks that small banks may not be able to offer. Examples include payroll, sending invoices, collecting payments and issuing credit cards. However, be aware of additional fees for these services. A recent article on the American Express Open Forum suggests that banks have dramatically increased their fees for individual and small business accounts. According to J. D. Power, 46% of all bank customers reported a problem with bank fees so far in 2009.
Analyze the pros and cons of each option, and talk to officers at both kinds of banks before you decide on a bank for your small business. It is important to build a strong relationship with the officers of the bank no matter what size the bank is.
During this process, certainly discuss the bank rates with the loan officer. Negotiate the bank fees openly. If you can afford to maintain a high balance, then use that to drive fees and rates in your favor. Sometimes moving your personal banking too into the same bank will help negotiate a better deal.
Tags:bank·choice·pros and cons·small business
Every small business owner who is looking for a shopping cart for their ecommerce business is faced with hundreds of options. According to Practical eCommerce magazine, there are about 500 ecommerce shopping cart solutions. How do you decide which one is right for you?
This is my attempt to aggregate and list information about the majority of small business ecommerce shopping carts.
The list below is in no particular order -
- Shopsite – One of the most popular small business shopping carts. You need either download and run the software on your own servers, or you can find a hosting provider to host your webstore. Lexiconn is one of the popular Shopsite hosting providers.
- Shopify – A pure SaaS (hosted) small business shopping cart that focuses on ease of use and simplicity. No installation, backups or upgrades required. Easy to get started. Read a detailed review here. Shopify recently acquired StoreSync, thus extending its ease of use to the iPhone platform. Pricing starts at $24 a month up to $699 a month. Some of the packages have transaction fees.
- Miva Merchant – Hosts about 200,000 stores. A preferred shopping cart solution for many small businesses. You can either install and run it on your own, or seek a hosting provider. Recently, the company launched a hosted platform called Miva Merchant SaaS, with monthly prices for it ranging from $59.95 to $129.95. More information here.
- ZenCart – Is an open source shopping cart solution but you need to download and install it. ZenCart’s authors claim that their software “can be installed and set-up by anyone with the most basic web site building and computer skills.”
- Interspire - This solution includes a shopping cart, an email marketing module and a content management system. More information here.
- MightyMerchant – A hosted shopping cart that also provides flexibility to customize according to your needs. The company also offers a web design service for small businesses that want to modify the look and feel of their webstore. More information here.
- Volusion – Yet another hosted shopping cart solution. Monthly pricing plans from $25 to $160. More information here and here.
- ProductCart – You need to download and run the software on your servers. License fee starting from $695. Additional services for additional fees. More information here.
- X-Cart – Not hosted. License fees starting from $115. The company provides installation and customization services starting from $57. Used by 20,000+ live online stores worldwide. The X-Cart shopping cart can be modified by the merchant and by third party developers. More information here.
- ShopCreator – They offer three different shopping cart packages targeted towards small to medium businesses. The Transact package charges a percentage of the shop revenues. The StartUp and Retailer packages charge flat monthly fee. All packages are fully hosted.
- Magento – Is an open source ecommerce shopping cart platform. Hosts 30,000+ merchants. Since it is open source, there are numerous third party plugins. More information including a video walk through here.
- Wahmcart ((Work At Home Mom Cart) – Easy, light-weight, hosted small business shopping cart. Available for $40 a month.
- GoECart – Hosted solution. Customizable. Provides good integration with shipping services, payment gateways. More information on the shopping cart can be found here, here and here.
- SearchFit – Hosted solution. Starting from $49 to $249 per month. Has a flexible template system that will allow you to customize your web store. The shopping cart also has a strong focus on SEO. Has functionality for email marketing and Google feeds.
- ColdFusion Shopping Cart - You have to download and run the shopping cart software on your servers. The company offers installation service for a fee. Requires MS Access, MSSQL or MySQL database running on your servers. Integrated with shipping services, Quickbooks and payment gateways.
- Fortune3 – You can download and run the shopping cart on your own. Or you can choose the hosting plans provided by the company. Pricing ranges between $30 an $160 a month with an additional one-time setup fee.
- Cubecart – Authors of the cart claim that their ecommerce shopping cart is used by “over 1 million stores worldwide”. You can download and run the ecommerce software on your own. Or use the hosting plan offered by the company.
- Network Solutions – Hosted shopping cart with price ranging from $27/month to $100/month. Additional setup fees. The company claims that their shopping cart is SEO friendly and is integrated with payment gateways. The cart also works with Google Analytics and various other third-party software. (Thank you Ross for the suggestion)
- BigCommerce shopping cart from Interspire – According to the company, “more than 1000 businesses sign up for BigCommerce every week”. This too is a hosted shopping cart with a monthly fee ranging from $25 to $300 depending on the size of your online store. ($50 set up fee for every plan).
- Big Cartel – This is an easy to set up cart marketed towards artists. Their plans range from $10 to $20 a month. No transaction fees are involve. Backseat Vintage is an example store that runs on Big Cartel.
- Etsy – This one is more of a community market place targeted towards small businesses selling handicrafts and vintage goods. Like Big Cartel, this site too is geared towards artists. There is a $0.20 listing fee per item and a transaction fee per order processed.
- Sell Simply – This cart focuses on set up simplicity. You can list items on Sell Simply via Twitter updates. There is a $1 listing fee. And payments are processed by paypal. An example site is Lisateso’s photography services.
- 1shoppingcart – This cart provides email marketing and shopping cart packaged into one solution. Pricing starts at $59/month for the combined package. (Thank you Cristie for the suggestion)
- Venderr – This cart claims that it “makes it dead simple for anyone to start selling online”. The team is based in Portugal and their pricing varies from 9 euros/month to 49 euros/month. They also have a pure transaction fee based pricing model. (Thank you Filipe for the suggestion)
…. I will be adding to this list over the coming days. In the meanwhile, here is a wikipedia article that does a good comparison of shopping cart software.
Please help me complete this list. Please add your entries to the comments section with links to relevant reviews and I will move it to the main article.
If you would like to be notified when I update this list, please follow us on Twitter @ordoroteam
Tags:choices·comparison of shopping cart software·ecommerce·hosted·list·pros and cons·SaaS·shopping cart·small business·Webstore
This is a no-brainer for every ecommerce merchant. Upload your product information into Google Product Search. It’s free, and will improve the chances of your product showing up during Google search.
Google Product Search lets online shoppers compare products and their prices across multiple online retailers. Some of the new features introduced in November 2009 are -
- A gallery view which displays images of the product
- A review section with review summaries
- Video product reviews from YouTube
Tags:ecommerce·products·Sales and Marketing·SEO·small business