Thanks to
Twitter Mom's I recently got the chance to interview Chandra Clarke who is the founder, co-owner and President of
Scribendi. It's an online English-language editing and proofreading company. If you'd like more information you can check them out
here. You can also follow them on
Twitter and check out
Chandra's humor blog as well.
As a small business owner of
Artistic Albums By Nicole it was wonderful to get to "pick the brain" of someone who's been there-done that before. I thought her answers were so great I wanted to share them with you all as well! Enjoy!
Ramblings By Nicole Interview
1. As a new business just getting started, it's difficult to find easy, effective means of advertisement. What did you find worked the best for you in this area?
As a small company, chances are good that you have a small (ok, non-existent) marketing budget, so conventional forms of advertising, like television and print ads, are not an option. This means that you’ll have to get creative. As an online business, one of the best places to begin your search for publicity is the Internet, of course. If you don’t already have a social networking presence, get one. Start a Facebook page for your business, or begin Tweeting about your services. Video is also becoming extremely important these days, so why not have a friend shoot some footage of you working on a project, or explaining the concept behind your business? A simple video phone or webcam is all you need to get started; once you’ve loaded the videos to YouTube, it’s easy to integrate them into your blog. You can also search out forums and online communities that are relevant to your service and start interacting with users by providing links to blog posts or content from your webstore. There are also thousands of legitimate (and free) online directories out there; spend a few hours searching for directories that feature listings for similar business and post a link to your site. This will help drive more traffic to your webstore, and, with any luck, increase your sales.
2. As someone who offers scrap-for-hire services along with business and blog design, my clients are specific yet varied. How can I advertise effectively to my appropriate client bases?
Knowing your client base is half the battle when it comes to effective advertising. Are you absolutely sure that you know who you should be marketing too? If you are, try thinking like a potential client. Try and find web sites that deal specifically with scrapbooking and offer to write some content rich resources about the benefits of scrap-for-hire services in exchange for a hyperlink back to your store. Or why not try it the other way around and post some informative articles on your site, then invite these types of communities to link to your information?
Don’t forget to take your marketing efforts offline as well. If you have business cards, have your web site URL printed on them. Everything that comes out of your home office should all be tied together with your business name and logo. This includes e-mail messages; an e-mail signature with your company name, web site address and contact information can help drive more traffic to your site (and it’s easy for your contacts to forward onto someone else!). Design some flyers with your web site and contact information and then take them to your local craft or photography store. The manager might be willing to let you post them in the store window if you’re willing to provide a small shout-out to their services on your site.
3. Giveaways and reviews are a large part of the blogging world these days as the Word of Mouth movement is spreading. What are your opinions on this and how it can positively or negatively affect a company?
Like most things in business, it’s risky, but you can mitigate your risk. First, be certain of the product you send out to a blogger for review. Get some non-bloggers to test and provide feedback on it first. You don’t have to break the bank to do this either... do something like put a classified ad in the local paper and offer lunch for the first ten people to come to your office (or rent an office space for the occasion if you have a home office) and give you honest feedback about your product. Check out a few books on usability testing and focus groups for ways to do this.
If your product tests well and/or you’ve fixed any issues with it, then search for bloggers who are likely to be interested in it. Then ask their permission to send them something for review. If you’ve done your homework correctly, the result should be something positive.
4. If you had one piece of advice to give someone who wanted to become successful in running their own business, what would it be?
Think hard about what you would like to achieve in an ideal world. Then work backward from that to develop the plan to get there.
5. Was there ever a point you felt that it just wasn't worth the work and that you wanted to give up? If so, how did you push past that to succeed?
Oh, quite a few times! Running a business is like riding a roller coaster, sometimes. A good trick is to ask yourself, “in a year’s time, will I even remember what was stressing me so much today?” Chances are, the answer is no, and that puts it all in perspective again.
6. What do you like the most about running your own business?
I love having the ability to help people each and every day. Our services help students, academics, authors... in fact, virtually anyone can benefit from have their writing edited and proofed for errors! I think it’s extremely important to be passionate about what you do, because lets face it, if you don’t believe in and enjoy what you’re doing, your business won’t succeed.
7. What's one thing about running your business that you dislike that might surprise us?
Every company has its “public face” – one or maybe a few people that come to represent the company to the general public. In my company, that role falls to me, because I’m the president but it’s a role that doesn’t always sit comfortably with me. I’m fine with public speaking and so on, but I have to give credit where credit is due: I have an absolutely fabulous team behind me, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.
8. Do you feel that setting goals is important in maintaining a successful business? What are some goals that you've set and reached?
I think goal setting is extremely important when it comes to maintaining a successful business. When you set goals, you automatically begin to think of the steps that you need to take in order to get to where you want to be. Without goals, you’re simply floundering around trying to figure out what you should be doing.
One of the most recent big goals we've set and reached is to revamp and relaunch our web site - that happened this past August. Some smaller goals have to do with filling positions we have available on staff, ie., we wanted to create a role in HR and fill it by a certain time. It's important to note that goals should be as specific as possible. It's not enough to say, "I want to make a million dollars." Who doesn't? You have to say, "I want to make a million dollars in net revenue from widget sales." Being specific really helps you set your steps for getting there.
9. How did you manage to keep and thrive your business during the current economy?
We could see the situation brewing a few years ago and took steps to brace the company for the coming storm.
10. What is one thing you wish you'd done differently as you look back on your business history?
I wish I had had the time and manpower to go bigger sooner. I was very careful to play it safe when I started my business, which don’t get me wrong is important, but sometimes being too conservative can also harm your business and hinder your growth. Finding the happy medium between risk and security is what makes all the difference.
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