small business help

small business start up success – find solutions to existing problems (video)

Small business start up is plain hard work. If you are wanting inspiration and ideas here’s 2 videos from Backblaze, a company specialising in having customers back up their data onto the Blackblaze system. There are a many great points that I took away from the videos and I am sure that if you are in the start up or planning stage of a business you will find helpful as well. My opinions will be different from yours, as each of us will pick up on different ‘aahaa’ moments.

The videos are 4 & 3 mins. respectively

Here are my take aways:

1 – recognize a need – 96% of computer owners do not not back up their data regularly

2 – keep it simple – simple pricing option just do ‘everthing’

3 – business start up is hard, many owners do not take a salary for years

4 – little things that can be forgotten even a on/off switch

5 – most start ups require owners to take a high risk with investing their savings

6 – look at and review all options – built their own storage system

part 2

What did you find helpful from the videos? We can learn from both small business start up successes as well as failures, it’s great to report on a success!

An issue facing all small business owners – where to advertise your business

I know that half of advertising doesn’t work, the problem is I don’t know which half – As a small business owner does this quote ( paraphrased) by retailing tycoon John Wanamaker, resonate with you? Do you want to know where to advertise your business? Knowing how, what & who to advertise with was bad enough when the options where limited.

where are you going to spend your advertsing dollar

where are you going to place your advertising dollar?

Not so long ago the options were television, newspapers, radio, mail outs, flyer’s, and a small amount of others and now? The internet is fast being a superhighway of advertising. What with Google ads and other pay for click advertising, internet marketers advertising everything including the kitchen sink, our own business website, Facebook ads, Facebook offers (on the way, see below), Twitter ( and soon twitter ads), pinterest, You Tube ads, and next, you tube ads for small businesses. Don’t forget all those fantastic coupon deals and loyalty schemes our businesses must be a part of that will drive thousands of buyers to our stores, services or websites…

An issue facing all small business owners – where to advertise your business

Basically the whole web and most social media is becoming advertising driven. Now I’m not saying that that is wrong, it’s just the way it is. There was always going to be a price to pay for the mega load of information on the web. Someone, somewhere needs to be paying to support the infrastructure and on going maintenance of websites of, for example, charities and other social causes, craft forums, pet information etc. Facebook is going public, and as such will need to generate a return for it’s investors from what? from businesses advertising on the platform.

What worries me most, as a small business owner is, where do we place our advertising dollar? What is going to give us the most return? Who do we trust [Read more…]