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• Successful Home Business Started With Baby Steps

  Thu. Aug. 14, 2008
  by Janet Fabri-National Corporate Comm., Dell Canada

  Almost eight years ago, first-time parents Heather Campbell-Dewar and husband Gary discovered that it wasn’t easy to find a diaper bag that could hold all the extra baby gear they needed to carry.

  Finding a solution to their bag dilemma turned into a full-time job, literally. To meet the needs of active parents like them, the couple designed and manufactured a technical, multifunctional and ergonomical diaper bag backpack called Baby Sherpa.

  Based in Stony Mountain, Manitoba, this small business has a handful of employees sprinkled across North America. In order to achieve dramatic online growth, the company realized it had to boost its technology capabilities and truly become a global presence in a niche market.

  This strategy received the green light when Baby Sherpa won the Dell and RBC Small Business Excellence Award. The award gave them $20,000 in technology and $5,000 in professional services from Dell Canada.

  “The award did help us gain exposure and sales,” said Heather Campbell-Dewar, CEO of Baby Sherpa. “The new equipment has helped us with efficiency and productivity.

  “In fact, we are introducing two new products into the line-up this year -- Alpha and Urban -- designed for transporting laptops. We hope to use Dell equipment to help launch these new lines in fall 2008,” said Campbell-Dewar.

  The Baby Sherpa team spent time with Dell consultants who advised them on what suited a small business ready for the next stage of growth-- a.k.a. the kindergarten years! Some of that advice included a dual-screen desktop solution, a mobile solution (three laptops and a portable printer), digital cameras, an external hard drive and networking capabilities.

  Campbell-Dewar now doesn’t miss a moment of her family summer vacations since she can now process customer orders and arrange deliveries from her campsite. “It’s a great testament to how virtual our business has become since implementing the Dell solution,” she says.

  Up to 95 per cent of all retail and customer inquiries are online and a sound IT system now allows Baby Sherpa to respond to inquiries, track customer feedback and acquire information within minutes. This makes it possible for the company to efficiently communicate with hundreds of customers on a daily basis. With a stronger online presence, the company is starting to attract celebrity clients, including Tiger Woods and Dan Spitz.

  “We value input from parents and our retailers, and the Dell-designed solution enables us to stay connected with our valued customers, all the time,” adds Campbell-Dewar.

  Baby Sherpa is also enjoying more prominent media coverage, which can only help sales in the long run. For more details on the small business story, check out the case study on SB360.
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• How to grow your business: Takeaways from WSJ’s Small Business Panel

  Wed. Aug. 13, 2008
  by Jillian Fisher

  Solve a big un-met customer need, well, and you’ll be successful. That was the big takeaway at Monday’s “Insight Exchange: A Business Owner’s Breakfast Series,” hosted by The Wall Street Journal’s small business editor, Wendy Bounds. The event turned into a dynamic idea session where well established entrepreneurs offered start-ups tips, discussed trends and shared advice on what it takes to turn a good idea into a major business proposition.

  Panelists included…

  • ·Steve Demos, CEO NextFoods, a multi-million dollar organic food powerhouse (who is often called the Steve Jobs of small business) who helped to build well known brands such as Silk soy milk.
    His Advice: “Differentiate by design and the presentation of your product.”
    
    
  • Colin Roche, CEO of Pacific Writing Instruments, turned into a global retail sensation overnight when he beat out brands like Papermate and Bic in getting his ergonomic pen into Wal-Mart. His product can now be found everywhere from Amazon.com to OfficeMax.
    His Advice: “Knock on every door, chase every opportunity…don’t give up.”

  • Dan Brown, President, LoggerHead Tools, took the phrase 'a gripping experience' to new levels when he re-invented the basic wrench. His Bionic Wrench has received a number of awards in form and function.
    His advice: “VC funding should be your last resort.”
    

  • Anne Zehren, President, Common Sense Media, an award-winning marketer as a media executive at Current TV, Teen People, Glamour and Newsweek, is currently the President of Common Sense Media, a national, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the media and entertainment lives of kids and families.
    Her advice: “SEO is one place where you’ll get instant business results.”
    
    
  • Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and founder of Alltop.com, Truemors.com; blogger; author and speaker. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.     
    His advice: “Don’t confuse fundability with viability.”

  Monday’s panel is the first of four in the series and will head to Palm Beach, Denver and Austin this fall. For more information visit: https://insightexchange.wsj.com/
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• Small Business Cost Saving Tip: Go Virtual to Reduce Expenses

  Thu. Aug. 07, 2008
  by Robert Peek, SMB Liaison

  The US Postal System, FedEx, and other major carriers do a great job delivering for small businesses.  These services can get quite expensive, particularly if you use them regularly or ship bulk materials. More and more, small businesses now have computer systems and rely heavily on web pages, email, and online banking to handle their daily transactions.  So, cutting out paperwork altogether can make filing easier, save on staff resources, and reduce postage costs, not to mention the environmental advantages.  Megan Prusynski of the Ecopreneurist wrote an article that dives into the economics of a paperless operation. This is a great read if you’re looking for some tips on how to become paperless.

  If you do plan on converting your business records and transactions to “virtual transactions”, be sure to keep duplicate records.  Sites like Yahoo and Google will store business emails online for free, and online data storage is relatively inexpensive.   Jeremiah Owyang brings up an interesting point that - in the future - data storage companies might start paying their customers to upload their records.  In addition to uploading, creating a ghost copy, tape backup, or RAID backup of the computer's hard drive locally would be imperative for saving critical data.
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• Bye-Bye Yellow Pages?

  Fri. Aug. 01, 2008
  by Robert Peek, SMB Liaison

  When I owned a local security guard company, I relied heavily on the Yellow Pages to get the word out to everyone I was “open for business” and to drive customers to call me for services. I had a snazzy page with a picture of the company logo and one of the patrol cars, plus I listed the services I provided and my phone number. This proved to be very successful, and within just a few weeks of the new phone book going out, I had a lot of responses. The Yellow Pages were great. They listed all the local businesses and were easy to navigate. Your business could be placed in several different categories to gain more exposure and everyone with a phone had access to them.

  Now that we’ve moved into the age of the internet, it looks like the Yellow Pages and print media advertising is on its way out. Mark Robertson of ReelSEO has done some research on this subject and blogged about his findings here. The trend shows that online advertising and online video will be the Yellow Pages of the future. It seems like the data might be right. Many of the right parts are there to benefit small businesses: price, availability, and accessibility.

  Beyond the bland banner ads and SEO, online video advertising is a powerful new way to tell your customers about your business. There are plenty of resources in the internet that enable a small business to promote their business through online video advertising. Just to name a few:

  · YouTube – where you can place links in your web page that point to your video.

  · Jivox – which lets you design your own video and market your product to specific markets.

  · DirectoryM - has simplified the world of local online advertising by enabling you to reach millions of consumers through one online advertising network.

  · SuperPages.com – offers free business listings.

  While I hate to see the “good ole” Yellow Pages go by the wayside, I guess it’s time for small businesses to branch out and find out how technology can benefit advertising, even at the local level.
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• What exactly does “going wireless” really mean?

  Wed. Jul. 30, 2008
  by Robert Peek, SMB Liaison

  Wireless isn't just a single technology. It is actually a whole collection of them -- Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, wireless WAN, ultra broadband and others, which are all a part of everyday life. From a home/office wireless setup, to Global Hot Spots, do you really know what "going wireless" really entails?  In the podcast below Kirk Neibert and Alan Sicher, Dell's global wireless project managers, give a brief overview -- sort of a wireless 101-- of the technologies used around the world. 
  
  What are the differences and when do you use them?  What is the future of wireless technology in the home?  At the office? Local coffee shop?  Abroad?

  Listen Here
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• Small Business Tech Tip: Access Content from your HD whenever, wherever and however

  Thu. Jul. 24, 2008
  by Robert Peek, SMB Liaison

  A friend of mine has been ranting and raving to me recently about how he can access his computer's movies, music and more via his cell phone through a new Winamp Remote service.  Upon investigation, I learned that Winamp's service is powered by Orb, a company that I became familiar with a few years ago.  Orb's technology has come a long way since then and does essentially what my friend mentioned - allows you to access music, videos, photos and other content from your computer's HDD via any Web browser or Web-enabled PDA or cell phone granted the source computer is on and the Orb program is running.
  
  What I believe makes this application even more powerful is the ability to then share selected content with others.  For example, I now have access to my friend's shared DVD and music collection and while that may not make the business world go round, sharing corporate photos and documents with my colleagues in Europe does.  Take a look at Winamp Remote or Orb to learn more.
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• What is Smart Security? And, Do You Need It?

  Tue. Jul. 22, 2008
  by Robert Peek, SMB Liaison

  There are more security threats to small businesses every day. And, as IT becomes more complex --and workers become more mobile-- controlling access to key data is becoming even more critical. Millions of business users-and their laptops-travel through busy transportation hubs worldwide each year.

  Several weeks ago, Suzanne Atkinson described some of the ways Dell is helping Small Businesses secure and protect their data and machines while traveling. From preventing wireless connection hackers to avoiding physical theft and damage, the airport doesn’t have to be a threat to your IT security.

  Outside of the terminal, securing all your IT assets remains a concern for many small business owners. Don McCall, an enterprise security strategist here at Dell, discusses four primary areas of vulnerability and provides practical solutions to address them in a simplified way.  The topics he covers are:

  • · e-mail,
  • · lost laptops,
  • · identity management
  • · anti-malware

  Click this link to hear the podcast.
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• Change is Good: A New Small Business Community Manager

  Thu. Jul. 17, 2008
  by Kara Krautter, Small Business Community Manager

  As some of our readers already know, Kelly Curnow has decided to leave Dell to pursue other opportunities.  Over the past several months, Kelly has laid a great social media foundation for the small business space. As Kelly and I talked about the Small Business Community Manager role, it was obvious to me how pleased she is with the progress made so far and anticipates seeing how the momentum continues.
  
  As for me, if you are active in the Dell Community you've probably already seen my name and face as a part of the IdeaStorm team. Vida Killian, our new IdeaStorm Manager, talks here about the changes going on in the IdeaStorm Community. As the Small Business Community Manager, I will still spend quite a bit of time on IdeaStorm and our other Dell Community properties.
  
  But, getting back to more SB-related things. Small business runs in my veins, literally. I grew in a small business family; my dad has owned a small business for most of my life and started several other small companies as I grew up. I understand what good years - and bad years - are like for small business owners and their families. Vacations and health insurance are not a given, but more like a blessing rather than of a benefit. For me, many summers were spent working at my dad's office doing a variety of different jobs. Oddly enough, today when you call the company's main phone line, I'm still the voice of the operator. After being on the IdeaStorm team for almost one year, I'm excited to have even more conversations with the SB online community on ways technology can help simplify and grow small businesses.
  
  Let me know what you like best about the blog and any suggestions on what you would like to find out more about. Post a comment here or catch me on twitter @kara_atDELL.
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• Small Business Tech Tip: Truly Breathing and Living Documents for Multiple Users

  Tue. Jul. 01, 2008
  by Kelly Curnow, Small Business Community Manager

  Last week my colleague called me and told me to open a free account with Zoho.  Not wanting to sign up for another social networking site, I initially refused.  However, as she assured me that this had nothing to do with finding me a date, I gave in. 

  Zoho, according to their Google description, is a “suite of online web applications geared towards increasing your productivity and offering easy collaboration.”  In the case of my co-worker, she told me that she had uploaded a multiple user spreadsheet to Zoho Sheet that previously was flying around via e-mail to users in different offices and even different companies. 

  So I took two minutes to run through the formalities and—ta-da—just as she had said, I was able to access the spreadsheet through the Zoho portal.  Now, you may be thinking that this tip is not so interesting; there are other products that offer the same “file hosting” or “virtual server” services.  While that may be true, what I find super cool about this site is that Zoho Sheet allows multiple user to access the file at the same time and make real-time edits.  You can see who is accessing the document and send messages to other users.  Messages to other users?  Oh no, it may be just another social networking site!   All joking aside, I find Zoho Sheet to be a great way to collaborate on spreadsheets and when I need to take a copy on the road with me, I just export a local Excel file to my machine.

  Zoho has many other features besides Zoho Sheet, including Zoho Writer and Zoho Show which I presume are kin to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.  There are also Business Apps for more complex things such as invoicing and project management, though it appears you only get a free trial with some.  You can explore all things that Zoho has to offer at www.zoho.com.
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• So, You Want to Start Your Own Business? - Part Two

  Mon. Jun. 30, 2008
  by Robert Peek, SMB Liaison

  As promised, here is part two of my series about starting your own business.  In this part we will discuss: Naming your Business, Finding the Right Location, and Tips on Marketing Your Business.

   

  Naming your Business

  After I figured out what type of business I was going to do, what accounting method I was going to use, and how I was going to fund my business, I needed to call it something.  Entrepreneur.com has some good ideas on some of the things to consider while thinking of a name for your business, as does the SBA.  Ideally, your name should convey the expertise, value and uniqueness of the product or service you've developed.  The particular type of business I had was one where just about any kind of name would be popular, but I wanted something very unique.  Most of my customers were members of the Hispanic community, so I wanted a name that would be familiar.  The name I chose was "El Sapo Verde", which when translated to English means The Green Frog, however in Spanish the word for frog is raña, and the word sapo means toad (which are usually brown colored).  So I had all kinds of people coming in to find out why I named the place El Sapo Verde, which when translated actually meant The Green Toad, but, a toad is supposed to be brown.  This contradiction in terms proved to pique the curiosity of everyone who came in, and was very successful. 

   

  Finding the Right Location

  Most everyone has heard the saying; "location, location, location.  These words are very true and can sometimes make the difference between success and failure of a new business. 

  So, where should you locate your business?  Some experts will tell you location is absolutely vital to your company's success; others will argue that it really doesn't matter where you are-and they're both right. How important location is for your new company depends on the type of business, the facilities and other resources you need, as well as where your customers are. 

  I chose to locate my business on a street right in the middle of several other similar businesses, my theory was that customers would want to go from location to location along the strip sampling the ambiance and flavor of each of the businesses, even though the basic prices, services, and products were similar.  The theory proved correct, and everyone profited from it, customers had fun and enjoyed walking from business to business, up and down the strip.

  If your business or organization focuses on local clients and customers, another effective way to make sure they find you, is to get listed on an online map.  Cynthia Closkey of Big Big Design has some great ideas on using free web searches to get customers to your business.  Sites like Google maps, MSN, and MapQuest will all display your company's location for free.  They are fairly easy to set up and activate.

   

  Tips on Marketing Your Business

  There are several ways to market your business, through word of mouth, another through print media, and now in the age of the Internet, electronic media.  Dell Small Business 360 has some great ideas, as well as some free online courses to get started promoting your business.

  Here are some inexpensive everyday tips that can be used to promote your business:

  1. Take steps to make customers feel special. Customers respond to being recognized, especially in these hurried and impatient times.  I would always try to greet the customers when they entered my establishment with a smile, a greeting, and their favorite product out and ready.
     
  2. Create a destination. Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble has its coffee bars. Furnishings giant Ikea offers child-care centers and cafeterias. Why? So customers gravitate to the stores to enjoy an experience, to hang out for a while. Sunday morning at Barnes & Noble becomes a pleasant weekend routine, rather than a shopping errand. Steal this idea.
     
  3. Don't let customers simply slip away. Make an effort to reel them back in. It costs a lot less to retain a disgruntled or inactive customer than to acquire a new one. If you haven't heard from a customer in awhile, send a personalized e-mail (you can automate this process), inquiring whether all is well. For a customer who suffered a bad experience, pick up the phone, acknowledging the unpleasantness and ask if there's anything you can do. A discount can't hurt either. Being kind to customers is the smartest low-cost marketing you can do.

   

  Ok, that about does it for Part Two of the series, so stay tuned to this blog for future editions of So, You Want to Start Your Own Business.
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