This year has been one of massive changes for small businesses. We started this year in the middle of what has been the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Many people are calling this period “The Great Recession” because of the convergence of economic forces the impact across the planet and the length of time that this downturn has been going on. Only now are some sectors seen an improvement but we are still faced with higher unemployment, massive federal debt and the prospect of stability still a ways away. In order for small businesses to grow you need three things – stability, predictability and reasonable access to capital.
February 2009 – Grow Smart Business Launches
As we look back at 2009 for Small Businesses, we have seen some companies go out of business and other learn how to be leaner and/or tune their business models to the changed economic landscape. It was during this time that Network Solutions launched this blog “Grow Smart Business” to serve the requests from businesses to understand how to do more with their business with what they have at hand.
April 2009 – The First Small Business Success Index is Published
In a partnership with the University of Maryland, Network Solutions published a report called the Small Business Success Index, or the SBSI as it is called by some, which took surveys from 1000 small businesses and created a scorecard grade based on six categories – capital access, marketing & innovation, workforce, customer service, technology and compliance. The Small Business Success Index Report showed what many knew – customer service was great and personal but getting capital and lines of credit was tough to near impossible in the current economic climate.
What it did do was set a scorecard and pulse on the state of small businesses. It also brought Grow Smart Business in the radar of many small businesses and set the direction for the remained of 2009 – help entrepreneurs grow their business.
July 2009 – Michael Dougherty joins as a regular writer on Grow Smart Business
In July, Mike Dougherty came on board after writing on Solutions Are Power to be a dedicated writer on marketing. Known as WickedJava on Twitter he has written in many places about marketing and has a great background in print and digital marketing. Here are some of his best posts of 2009:
10 Ways To Get More Followers Using Social Media
Eight Things to Have Figured Out Before You Meet Your Designer
Eight things to think about before you start your logo
Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk, Author of “Crush It!” Part 1
Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk, Author of “Crush It!” Part 2
Eight Things To Keep In Mind For Your Websites Search Engine Optimization
September 2009 – New Small Business Experts Sign on as Contributors
Starting in September we began our small business experts program and received some great content from some talented contributors. They do this on their own time and for free because they want to share their knowledge and expertise with other small business owners. Here are some of the best of those contributor posts:
What is Generational Marketing?
If You Have Time for Meetings, You Have Time for Marketing
Body Language and the Art of the Interview
7 Ways To Be More Attractive To Lenders
Social Media is a Two Way Street for Business
Understanding Angel Funding vs Venture Captial
Social Networking Etiquette 101: 5 Ways to Mind Your Manners While Online
October 2009 – The First GrowSmartBiz Conference and the Second SBSI Report is published
Keeping with a schedule of monitoring businesses and releasing a report every six months, the second SBSI report showed that people were still giving great customer service, were trying to get a handle on utilizing social media more and that access to capital was getting better.
Network Solutions also put on the first GrowSmartBiz conference with was virtually sold out event that covered many small business issues and topics. You can get a good GrowSmartBiz conference recap on all the speeches and content here.
November 2009 – The Rise of the Homepreneur
In November, Steve King at Emergent Research put out a new paper with the support of Network Solutions on the rise of a powerful trend in entrepreneurship. The “Rise of the Homepreneur” or entrepreneurs that work at home is becoming a rapidly growing sector in the small business marketplace. Some of his findings were:
- Home businesses employ over 13 million people.
- Nearly 6.6 million home businesses generate at least 50% of the owner’s household income
- 35% of home businesses generate $125,000+ in revenue; 8% more than $500,000.
October 28th, 2009 :: Steven Fisher
Over the last decade many entrepreneurs have turned their homes into remote offices in the early days and over time these home-based entrepreneurs or “homepreneurs” have become a force to be reckoned with. Because what many deemed a place for hobbyists or telecommuters, the home has become the affordable and sensible place to do business. With technology today, many work virtually and teams are formed from a global pool of resources, so it quickly becomes irrelevant if you have pricey office space on K Street in DC or at 30 Rock in NY but work out of your home in suburbia. Much to an entrepreneurs desire to be competitive that smart strategy can be passed on to clients in the form of lower costs and flexible teams.
This past Friday, BusinessWeek published this article on “The Rise of the Homepreneur” which discusses the findings of the report “Homepreneurs: A Vital Economic Force” which is a new report published by Emergent Research, a small research and consulting shop in Lafayette, Calif. “We’re seeing more and more home-based businesses that are real businesses,” says Steve King, who coauthored the new report with Carolyn Ockels. To prepare the report, they analyzed U.S. Census data and Small Business Administration research, along with data from our very own Small Business Success Index, a survey of 1,500 companies sponsored by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Highlights of the Report and Download Link
The report is a good read and here are some highlights from the paper:
- Home businesses employ over 13 million people.
- Nearly 6.6 million home businesses generate at least 50% of the owner’s household income
- 35% of home businesses generate $125,000+ in revenue; 8% more than $500,000.
Reading the summary section of the report I was not surprised by the three trends why more people are becoming homepreneurs:
- The lower costs and risks associated with starting a home-based business
- Demographic and social shifts
- A lack of corporate jobs
To find out more and read the whole report click this link to find out more from latest SBSI Research brief.
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Tags: businessweek, emergent research, Homepreneur, SBSI
Posted in Entrepreneurs, small business, Small Business Success Index, Workforce | 20 Comments »
September 2nd, 2009 :: Steven Fisher
Social media is a hot topic for businesses, large and small. The main question is, how do businesses integrate social media into their existing marketing efforts?
Network Solutions® is pleased to announce Jill Foster of DC Media Makers, Terri Holley of Creative Blog Solutions, Brent Leary of CRM Essentials, Danilo Bogdanovic of Loudoun Scene and Joanna Pineda of Matrix Group will address this topic as the panelists for the Integrating Traditional Marketing with Social Media session at the GrowSmartBiz Conference.
Attendees will learn what social media is and gain a better understanding of social media tools. Learn how blogs can help showcase your expertise, how to harness brand advocates through social networks such as FaceBook© and Twitter, and where customer service fits into the social media world. Additionally, attendees will be able to determine whether or not social media can help market their business and, if so, what steps they need to take to develop and integrate a social media strategy that aligns with their current marketing efforts.
In addition this topic and to Wired Editor-in-Chief and author Chris Anderson’s keynote, the conference also will focus on the following topics:
• Driving Small Business Performance with Marketing & Innovation
• Raising Capital with Effective Finance Strategies
• Stay Ahead in the Current Economy
The GrowSmartBiz Conference will be held on September 29, 2009, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event was created to highlight the findings from the Small Business Success Index (SBSI) – an ongoing measurement of the overall health of small businesses commissioned by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and Network Solutions, and to provide small businesses with tips, information and network opportunities that will help small businesses thrive in the current economy. The conference will focus on key areas of business that small businesses view as critical to their success according to the 1,500 small businesses that were interviewed for the Small Business Success Index.
For more information or to register for the event, visit the GrowSmartBiz Conference site. Don’t forget to turn in your small business success story for the chance to have it posted on the GrowSmartBusiness Blog and to receive FREE admission to the GrowSmartBiz Conference. For more details visit: http://growsmartbsuiness.com.
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Tags: Brent Leary, Chris Anderson, Creative Blog Solutions, CRM essentials, Danilo Bogdanovic, DC Media Makers, GrowSmartBiz, Jill Foster, Joanna Pineda, Loudoun Scene, Matrix Group, SBSI, Terri Holley
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Events, Marketing, Small Business Success Index, social media | 1 Comment »
August 7th, 2009 :: Steven Fisher
Earlier this year Network Solutions in partnership with the Smith School at the University of Maryland, College Park surveyed 1000 small businesses the good old fashioned way – they talked to them. The survey covered many data points and its goal was to get a baseline on how small businesses rated themselves in six key areas – capital access, marketing & innovation, workforce (HR), customer service, computer technology and compliance (accounting and tax). The results were surprising in some areas and expected in others.
With the economic crisis in full swing, access to capital scored a ‘D’ which was not very surprising, customer service and compliance rated B+ and A respectively. This showed that people felt they did an excellent job keeping records and serving their customers which was the key to managing their cash flow and retaining their customers.
Marketing, Technology and Workforce was in the surprising ‘C’ range. This showed people were still trying to find ways to effectively use their technology, working hard to innovate and market effectively and hire good people.
The Second Edition is in and the results surprise again
The second wave was collected in June 2009 from 500 small business owners. Small businesses included in the study are privately owned, for-profit, have fewer than 100 employees, and have a payroll and/or contributed to at least 50% of the owner’s household income. The data are weighted to ensure representativeness to the entire population of small businesses in the U.S. The survey is longitudinal in nature, tracking small business trends over time; the completion of the second wave provides a six month trend line.
Released on August 1, the second edition of the Small Business Success Index, which you can download here, was released and after reviewing it I have to agree with the sentiment of the report. As a small business owner myself, I can attest to the fact of how hard it is to get funding from banks. Aside from the SBA loan rescue program implemented from the TARP program over the last few months, the credit markets have really tightened up but they are improving which might account for the slight uptick
The other area where things ticked up is customer service and that reflects the focus that small business are working hard to keep the customers they have happy and impress them to get referrals which are the lifeblood of many small businesses.
Where things went down is on the “Marketing Innovation” section and that according to the report “Surprisingly, the June 2009 wave revealed that relationship to be weaker than originally thought; businesses with minimal technology were nearly as competitive as the tech-poweredones. This is likely due to falling demand in the current economic climate, which has restricted the effectiveness of companies’ marketing efforts. Internet business solutions have their greatest impact on success in the Marketing and Innovation area of the SBSI, but in an environment with declining sales, the weak economy blunts the benefits of these technologies”.
There are a few negative quotes from the report:
“More small businesses think the economic climate for their business is worsening (38%) rather than improving (25%)”.
But there are some uplifting sentiments from small business owners:
“More small business owners expect the economy to improve in the next 12 months (38%), than decline (28%).”
“As many small businesses believe their 2009 revenues will be higher than in 2008 (29%) as think it will be lower (30%), with 38% expecting revenues to be the same.”
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT and leave a comment
Download the Report at this link and take a read. We would love to hear your thoughts and if you are experiencing the same thing.
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Tags: SBSI, Small Business Success Index, Smith School, University of Maryland
Posted in Accounting and Taxes, Capital Access, Compliance, Customer Service, Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Raising Capital, small business, Small Business Success Index, Technology, Venture Capital, Workforce | No Comments »
In our second episode of the GrowSmartBiz Podcast we speak with John Backus, Founder and Managing Partner of New Atlantic Ventures (www.navfund.com). He is a seasoned technology investor and entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience investing in and managing rapidly growing, high-technology companies.
