Down to Business at SOBCon08

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Gorgeous and I spent this past weekend at SOBCon in Chicago. It was a tremendous weekend for the both of us.

This years event kept some of the best parts of SOBCon07 and yet was quite different in at least one key element, that of focus. Last year SOBCon was all about community with a little bit of marketing thrown in.

All About Business

This time around SOBCon was all about business. Sure there were several bloggers in the room whose focus was not on making money with their blogs. But having just made the break from corporate life to the entrepreneur world this year, Gorgeous and I were definately focused on business while we were in Chicago.

And we weren’t disappointed.

Still Made Connections

Just like last year we made new connections which will likely produce valuable exchanges to help mutually propel our various businesses forward.

It is interesting to me that the people I made strongest connection with were not the same folks that I set out to get to know. Because I set out with that intentionality I still met the people and started the relationships that may potentially be catalysts for growth in my business. Those connections were just with unexpected people is all. Read more

Sandra Yancey Speaks at Savannah eWomenNetwork Event

Sandra Yancey the CEO and Founder of eWomenNetwork came to Savannah this week to speak at the local eWomenNetwork chapter’s monthly Accelerated Networking Event.

Her talk was fabulous and I’ve got to say that Sandra Yancey is a tremendously good public speaker. She had the whole room captivated for the entire time she spoke and the audience was silent for the entire time. Getting a room full of 80 women to be quiet for a few minutes can be an accomplishment but Sandra spoke for nearly an hour and a half! The time had passed so quickly while she spoke that it felt like less than half that time to me.

Starting a New Business

Sandra spoke about some of the struggles it takes to get a business off the ground and running profitably. She shared how close to failure she’d been at the beginning of her business and how she was able to acquire the skills and knowledge she needed adapt her business turn it into a successfully growing venture.

As Sandra Yancey spoke she filled her talk with stories and anecdotes ranging from her own personal experiences to relating the classic children’s story of The Little Engine That Could.

Most Valuable Asset

Sandra shared what she thought was the single most valuable asset in her business career, and it wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t capital reserves, marketing savvy, or the ability to come up with earth shaking new ideas. Read more

Gorgeous on TV

Gorgeous and I were up early this morning. I set the alarm for 4 AM because we had to be down at one of our local TV stations by 6 so that Gorgeous could be interviewed about her upcoming eWomenNetwork event.

The event Wednesday will be a big deal because eWomenNetwork founder and CEO Sandra Yancey will be here in Savannah as this month’s speaker. With over 113 eWN chapters in the US and Canada you can imagine that Sandra can only attend a very small percentage of the events in any given month.

We’re fortunate here in Savannah that Sandra will be paying us a visit and sharing her insights into how to network with folks who can help entrepreneurs and business women expand their business vision and attract new customers and referrals. It promises to be another top notch event. Read more

A Lifetime of Odd Jobs

HighCallingBlogs has a group writing project underway. Marcus Goodyear is hosting on his page Lessons from Odd Jobs. He’s updating the list as entries are submitted and there is no hard deadline so if you want to add your take on the subject feel free.

Here is mine.

An Unusual Career Path

Even though I’ve had wide array of jobs in the 20 or so years I’ve been in the work force I’ve never been one of those fortunate people who could successfully describe what they do for a living in a word.

With job titles like Naval Flight Officer, Marine Manager, Port Captain, Vessel Planner, Stevedore, Marine Surveyor, and now Social Media Consultant I’m used to folks either guessing completely wrong about what I do or giving me that awkward look like a heifer staring at a new gate. {Blink. Blink.}

Either way it invariably takes about a 10 minute conversation to explain what it is I really do.

When I was in the Navy the conversation would go something like this. Read more

Should You Be Worried When Your Competition Starts Blogging?

So you just noticed that one of your competitors has started a blog. Should you be worried?

The answer to that question really depends.

If the only web presence your business has right now is a traditional static web site, then yes you probably have some cause for concern.

Implemented well, their blog may very well give them a leg up as they increase their web presence, move up in the search engine rankings, interact with potential customers and generally put a human face on their business while opening another avenue to engage the marketplace.

However if your business has been blogging for a while (and doing it well) then having a competitor jump into blogging may very well be a good thing for you.

The Law of the Tide

Competition is a good thing. For example, have you ever noticed how often McDonald’s and Burger King’s are located right next to each other?

Or the way car dealerships seem to usually be concentrated in the same part of town?

Those businesses are in direct competition with one another yet they tend to group together. You might think it would be better for all of them to be as far from their competitors as possible.

But it’s not.

Because of what I call the Law of the Tide.

A rising tide raises all the ships in the harbor.

Looking at that photo above it’s obvious that as the tide comes in the shrimp boats will be raised just the same as the bigger cargo ship. The idea that the tide would affect one vessel differently than another just because they are different sizes might seem logical.

But the reality is they’ll all rise up exactly the same amount.

Blogging & Tides

How does the Law of the Tide relate to business blogging?

Well if your competition starts blogging too it will add to your efforts to raise awareness about your industry.

But even beyond that having a little competition can help spur you on to take your blogging to the next level. I think Jim Cronin over at The Real Estate Tomato goes a little overboard when he says that your blogging peers are not your competition. Competition is still competition whether they are blogging or not.

However I do agree with the gist of his article in that you shouldn’t overly worry about it. Jim makes a good point about competition in general.

Competition keeps you sharp and keeps you driven.
But, most importantly, it keeps the audience interested.
Imagine running a race, by yourself.
Now imagine that same race with a few others breathing down your neck.
You run harder, they run harder, and the crowd shares in the emotion.

The rising tide of increased competition will improve your blogging along with theirs. And your combined audiences get the benefit of your improvement.

It’s a win all around. So don’t worry. Keep blogging.

Photo by: SunsetSailorWU

Advice to Yahoo Employees - Start Looking Now

It’s not big news that Yahoo is facing some significant challenges. Even if everything was roses for the search engine company the very fact that another company like Microsoft is looking to buy them out is going to make for some tough going for the good folks who work for Yahoo.

Been There, Done That

Event though I use Google products and services way more than those of Yahoo, I feel for the good people at Yahoo. I’ve been down that “the company I’m working for is being bought out road” my self. It isn’t very much fun. I was in the maritime industry, not the tech field at the time.

9-11 hit the transportation sector pretty hard. The company I was working for was on a shaky financial footing anyway and the couple lean years after that day was simply too much to for the company to endure.

Rough times have a very Darwinistic way of weeding out inefficient companies. Read more

Think Before You Call It Spam

Those of us who make our living working primarily online know full well how pervasive the scourge of spam has become. Whether you are an online publisher like me, or just dealing with the hoards of junk emails that come your way everyday you know the problem is real.

But did you know marking that email newsletter as spam is probably not the best way to keep it out of your in box?

In fact you could even be causing problems for other folks by doing that.

Unwanted Newsletters

From a marketing perspective the email newsletter is a wonderful way to reach out to potential clients and keep a recurring contact with past customers. Because the costs per message are incredibly low this is a marketing tool of choice for just about everyone from the solo entrepreneur to the major corporation.

Trouble is, it is usually pretty easy to add email addresses to the mailing list. Because of that it’s easy to get on to mailing lists that we really don’t want to be a part of, whether we unwittingly “agreed” to be on the list at one point or not.

Being bombarded with unwanted email can be frustrating. And the temptation is to just “make it go away” by hitting the “mark as spam” or “junk” button. But you might want to think before you do that and here’s why. Read more

Analog Networking Morning

Just as Social Media can be a useful avenue to raise the visibility of your business face to face networking is also an important element to promoting your business and the service or product you offer.

I call that my analog networking time. And today will be full of that.

I’m heading to the eWomenNetwork event at the Savannah Southern Women’s Show. And while that may sound like it could be a bit of an estrogen filled morning, I find eWomenNetwork to be one of the most productive of the networking events I attend locally.

And I don’t say that just because Gorgeous is the founding Executive Managing Director of the Savannah chapter either. Though I will admit that probably adds just a little bias to my opinion.

Truth is women make or heavily influence something like 80% of all buying decisions in our culture these days. Couple that with the fact that this particular group is focused on intentionally making business connections and it adds up to a winner for my business.

The similarities between seeing results with analog face to face networking and with digital social media networking are striking. And when you get right down to it, your results are usually tied directly to how much effort you are willing to put into building those relationships.

So for now I’m off for a breakfast event.

Creative Marketing from an Accountant

OK. One of the points of marketing is to help folks remember your brand, right?

What if your product or service isn’t exactly flashy or naturally attention getting? How can you stand out from the crowd?

Say your business is accounting. Good accounting is a critical piece of any successful business. But let’s face it. Not only is accounting a little on the, um, unexciting side for most folks but accountants themselves generally tend to be very conservative unflashy folks.

So how can you make sure you’re noticed and people remember your brand?

Well a local Accounting firm here in Savannah just made sure I’ll not forget them soon.

My Kind of Marketing

As regular readers here may know I have two flavor passions. Coffee & Chocolate. The argument could be made my consumption levels of these two wonderful substances is remarkably unhealthy. I’m OK with that.

Knowing that you can imagine how I stood up and paid attention when Gorgeous brought the chocolate bar pictured below home from her BNI meeting yesterday.

Now that’s just plain creative. Since it’s tax season a nudge in the IRS direction is a good attention getter.

How much more effective do you think handing someone that instead of a plain old business card would be?

I promise I’ll be talking about Karp, Ronning & Tindol far more since they helped feed my addiction than I ever would have otherwise.

What can you do to help get more conversation rolling about your business?

2008 Will be Dramatically Different at SuccessCREEations

It’s funny how we measure time by the calendar. I mean January first will dawn just like any other day. Here in Savannah odds are pretty good it will be a bit foggy, just like this morning. It’s that time of year.

However 1 January will be a vastly different time for me here at SuccessCREEations. A big part of that change involves me leaving my day job.

Yep. You heard right.

As of the new year I will no longer be employed full time in my old position in the maritime industry. I’m leaving that job to focus on growing SuccessCREEations, Inc.

It is a big step, no doubt. and that is one that Gorgeous and I have been working towards for quite some time.

There have been a myriad of things to get in place, things like health insurance, a car to replace the company car I’m giving up, and a new laptop - again to replace the company one I’m forfeiting.

What it Means

In the next few weeks y’all will see some big changes around here. For starters we will be overhauling the entire site.

SuccessCREEations will transform from a pure blog to a hybrid site that will be our company site with a blog on it. We’ve thought long and hard about the pros and cons to changing the site. Based on the direction we are moving a change is in order.

Gorgeous will be starting her own much anticipated blog here after the first of the year. I’m excited about her joining the blogging community in a more formal way after all her involvement with SOBCon.

I will be writing much more often and in a few new places. I’ll be firing up my personal blog here again shortly after a 6 months or more of neglect and joining in on a couple new projects.

All in all 2008 promises to be dramatically different around here. I’m looking forward to it.

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