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By Karl Walinskas in Business

There are a lot of ways to make your small business competitive and gain an advantage over the other guys fighting for your customers. One of the greatest approaches is, when you have an innovation or strategy to offer consumers, be sure you arrive first. You’ll obtain a competitive advantage that will be tough to beat unless your service is God-awful.

The Back Applicator

As a young dude in my twenties, I’d been going to the beaches in Maryland each year looking for productive things to do, like party and pick up chicks (that is girls or women for the sophisticated yet unwashed masses). Most of the time you end up on the beach soaking in the sun and getting as dark as possible because of how intelligent it makes you look. But Houston, I had a problem. My ethnic background is German, Eastern European, and by now you know that if I don’t get the sun block on in a major way, my summer vacation goes up in the flames of red, burned skin– the anti-chick magnet.

Big problem: How do I get suntan lotion on my back at the beach to prevent burning while being a bit too shy to ask every passing female? It is an inescapable conclusion that, in public, your buds can NOT apply sunscreen to your back. Anti-cool points to the maximum, no chance with any girl within 5 miles.

No big deal, I believed, I am inventive and resourceful. I take a paint stick (unused) and superglue a foam pad to the end of it. I take it to the beach, apply SPF 15 on the foam, and proceed to apply sunscreen to my back like a champ, eliminating the burn and keeping at arms distance from my guy friends. A true win-win.

“Hey Karl, that’s a great invention dude, you should patent it. Chuck me another Bud Lite dude.” And so I threw the drink and forgot about safeguarding the concept. Go forward 5 years down the road, I am getting ready for a grownup holiday to the Bahmas in the winter by doing the intelligent thing: going to a tanning bed. I walk in and the first thing I see is “The Back Applicator,” a 18 inch long plastic stick with, get this, a foam pad at one end to self-apply costly tanning salon sun block.

I walked out, kicking myself for not getting rich on being the first guy with this plan, knowing the other guy or gal was a dang billionaire by now.

Another Big Idea

About 3 months ago my spouse presented me with an idea while she was two sheets to the wind on Chardonnay. I can’t tell you the idea because, in my view, it was a game changer. Literally, as I told her, something that we’d need venture capital to carry out but would change society as we know it if carried out. Stop asking, I cannot release the idea.

Well, we’ve been discussing it for the last 3 months. I helped out and did some investigation, and guess what I came across? Three other companies are test marketing this very idea, maybe not precisely but close enough for intellectual property sake.

Missed again! We’re describing a twist on the idea now that involves cell phones. What can potentially go wrong?

Our Little Beach

When my kid was four or five years old, there was a little strip of land about two miles from our waterside home via the river that we would take the Jetski to and relax. We’d cruise over with my boy in my lap doing about 10 miles an hour to keep his neck from getting whiplash and spend the afternoon there, wading in the water and drinking non-alcoholic beverages. Since we were the only ones there we named this little place “Jack’s Beach,” named after said kid.

My wife Lora gets a mural painter to paint Jack’s room that summer, and she in fact paints Jack’s Beach, with surfboards embedded the sand and a street sign marking the area. Pretty cool.

Now Jack is ten. We still go to Jack’s beach. I am not making up this next part, I swear it. We went there this year and there is an 8 foot high wood street sign embedded in the sand on Jack’s Beach, with absolutely nothing on it! We did NOT put this there, but it was just too poetic.

Well what do you think I did? I got a bottle of paint and a small brush, Jetskied over to the sign in broad daylight, and gave it the proper name. You could read my kid’s name from 30 yards in the water.

Two weeks afterwards we meet a couple of new friends while out for dinner in a local restaurant. They told us they take their boat to an exclusive little beach for fun and so do their pals. “Where could that be?” I ask, pretending interest. “Oh, it’s named ‘Jack’s Beach’ over on the other side of the bridge.”

WIN.

Your ‘Get There First’ Competitive Advantage

Alright, I’m not selling tickets to Jack’s Beach … yet, but these three little vignets narrate a story. Don’t be the dimwit who didn’t defend his idea of a back sun block applicator to watch someone else get all the glory. If you have an idea, even a tiny one, that helps your customers or does something differently or better, make it yours.

Is it patentable? Find out visiting http://www.uspto.gov/ and doing a search. Invent a logo and copyright the art. Go get 5 sites that other folks might want to copy and market your concept with. Most significantly, don’t hesitate in taking action if you really think it’s a killer concept.

CLAIM THAT BAD BOY FIRST! Be the company that sets the new standard before your competition does. Ask yourself these simple questions:

The Innovation Acid Test

1. Do I see this around in the current market? (Internet search)
2. Can this really help my customers?
3. Is this cool and unequaled?
4. Can I visualize somebody purchasing this?

If your responses are N-Y-Y-Y (as in no-yes-yes-yes) to these questions, go claim that beach pal! If your concept is awful and no one copies it, you can still profit at it or at worst, you lost a few bucks and a little time. If you get copycats, you know you’re onto something. If you’ve done it properly and deliver value on the promise, your rivals will always be behind and you’ll be patting yourself on the back, with either your hand or your $10.99 Back Sun block Applicator.

Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness. He is author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the SmartShop. Get your FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization eBook & Video Course, Video Marketing video and course, or Mastermind Groups e-course & video now.

By Adam Shore in Business

Successfully capturing readers’ attention is critical to transform your blog from a part-time hobby into a powerful web resource. To take the giant leap into influencer-status, you must identify your target audience, understand their interests and desires, and credibly deliver quality content. So how do you get there? Many successful bloggers I know, think of their blogs like entrepreneurial ventures. Why? Effective entrepreneurs set goals, determine how to reach them, and make adjustments to keep themselves moving towards their target. You should take the same approach with your blog. Web publishers must know their customers and constantly hone their message and approach to move ahead of the pack.

Aim and Shoot

There’s an old saying that goes, “He who aims to please everyone, pleases no one.” The first step most entrepreneurs take when launching a new venture is to define the ideal customer. Whether you are an experienced blogger, or just starting out, you should always pay close attention to both your real and desired audience, and any gaps that may occur between the two. If you fail to target the appropriate individuals, you won’t reach your desired goals. So who are you targeting, and how can you go about getting to them? Regardless of whom you decide to target, there are certain steps you should follow to capture and maintain their interest.

You can’t always please everyone, so you need to have a particular industry, topic, or style that will be your focus. Customizing your approach towards a niche audience is often referred to as “niche marketing,” and essentially means that you should settle on a specific target with the understanding that your blog won’t be appropriate for everyone. Your visitors are not looking for fancy graphics or functionality, they are looking for something to believe in, something to learn from, and something that will help them entertain or better themselves. Find a topic that will align your interests with those of your ideal readership.

Be Flexible

One you have determined the main industry or niche that you are serving with your site, the next step in understanding who your suitable audience is, should be to perfect your knowledge and understanding of that industry. Quite often, the best way to learn, is to teach. The same holds true with your writing. You will quickly learn new and amazing things as you write about different topics. Use this to your advantage and start writing about things out of your comfort zone at the outset. Remember, you should look at your blog like a start-up company – this means you should constantly be learning, adapting, and adjusting. The result will be a product that is always improving and growing.

Be an Expert

Be sure to share your credentials to galvanize your expertise with your audience. In addition to broadening your horizons with new subjects, you should try to capitalize on your current unique knowledge by writing about your specific areas of expertise and personal experiences. After all, readers want to study blogs published by successful professionals, so don’t be afraid to let them know why they should pay attention to you.

Truly knowing and understanding your target audience is an integral part of any writer or entrepreneur’s ability to connect. When your audience believes their needs are being met, you can be sure that they will keep coming day after day for more useful information. While you should ideally blog about a topic that you love, it should also be written about a topic that you fully understand.

Be a Friend

Lastly, don’t forget your readers. Visitors who already frequent your website have entered into a relationship of sorts with your blog. You must make the most of their loyalty, and offer something that will motivate them to share your content with their network. Get them talking. Ask for their comments, input, and suggestions. If you’re successful, they will feel like they were some of the select few who were there from the beginning. Share your content on social media and interact with the users who retweet, or “like” it. This will help you stand out from the pack and broaden your reach.

Understanding your audience will go a long way towards building your credibility and likability. Tailoring your content to your readers and engaging with them will keep them coming back for more. You can use what you learn to craft content ideas that will pique the interest of the actual readers of your site, not just those you dreamed about prior to your initial launch. Obviously, what you write about, and its perceived quality will determine just how appealing your blog will be. When you write about topics in which you are interested, knowledgeable, or are experienced, you can share your practical knowledge to your audience’s benefit. Enthusiastic writing yields enthusiastic reading. If you share your personal expertise in a way that helps your readers, they will keep coming back for more.

Adam Shore is a former SMB marketing executive, and currently blogs about business and management at Contemporary Manager.

By Karl Walinskas in Business

Small business is pretty competitive these days, whether you’re a professional speaker, a lawyer or a software provider. What are you doing to get noticed by meeting planners, industry leaders, and your clients? Making loads of cold calls and strewing Faxes all over the world? Buying email lists to total strangers? Come on! The secret word is positioning. I consult 90% of the time and only speak 10% of the time for my daily bread, so I have zero time to cold call and plead with meeting planners or worse, total strangers from a call sheet. I position myself as a subject-matter expert through write-ups and blog posts that I write to create business opportunities coming at me, and so can you.

Adhere to this 6-Step Process to professional positioning with words:

Have Sustenance

This one is obvious. It’s rather easy for professional speakers, you’d think, but you’d be shocked how they and business leaders at large cannot really explain what that is. Quick Answer: Something readers can use straightaway that doesn’t require (vital word there) that they call you to fill out the blanks. Of course, a fraction will because they don’t have the time to do what you whatever it is you just taught them but love it all the same. Cha-ching!

Write Good Stuff

They have to be informative and easy to read. Your piece has a better opportunity at publication if it tickles the funny bone, so use humor that supports your arguments (not just jokes). Your topic’s not funny? Hey, with a little imagination and half a bottle of barbecue sauce, you can make a burning hen-house full of baby chicks enjoyable. (Try to get that picture out of your head, go on.)

Find Your Venue

Years ago, you could find Ulrich’s Guide to Periodical Literature at the library and spend the day looking up publications, sorted by subscription and subject matter that back up your concepts. Now of course you can go on-line to http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/login and register to use their service.

This is print periodical stuff, but blogs are even more important if you get in the appropriate ones. Just Google your topic and the really huge blogs (translation, big following) will appear, or Google blog rankings and the leading websites with blogs by categories like Technorati will turn up. Click on the blogs you like and find their submission procedure or editorial contact to figure out if they accept external content (some don’t, some do). Now develop your list of publications and blog sites by the subjects you cover. Every time you write on that subject, you have a list of probables that might accept it (with some modifications to get it in their format).

Entice Them to Your Sales Funnel

Write a byline at the end of your piece that lets the reader to talk to you by phone, email, and whatever you do, include your website URL (or a landing page on it) as a hyperlink. That hyperlink is one more back link to your website, which not only supplies an avenue in for the reader, but it boosts your website page rank for your SEO endeavors.

You can even provide a bounce back or lead magnet in the byline where the reader can contact you to get a top ten list or something else they may want for free. Of course, link directly to that freebee so they don’t have to work a lot to find it. Then make them enter their email addresses to get it, and that puts them into your sales list. Opportunities aplenty.

Submit Again and Again

Each week I write one to two pieces that right now we call blog posts. I post them on my website. I promptly develop a library of content that I have produced that expresses my expertise. It takes a little work, but you can then make versions of your initial blog pieces, either segments with only an aspect of the text or the entire content, re-written so that it is original in the Internet world.

I can write a whole article (actually I think I will) on making unique material from your really original content the proper way. There are plenty of article spinning tools around that can help you rewrite things, but be careful with these. Unedited even the best spinning applications will create a load of useless rubbish that is neither enjoyable and gets you the Google slap. I pay a virtual assistant (VA) every week to re-create 2-3 of my articles with the same ideas but completely different headlines, subtitles, and body subject, and then submit for me to my top 10 outlets.

Promote Yourself Socially

You can promote your blog posts via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Groups, etc. Most bloggers do. It’s just as big a deal to market the links of the blogs that publish your write ups. Your byline will give a means of getting to your site, as will well-placed text hyperlinks within the article, but by promoting the other guy’s blog, it advances your authority as a subject matter expert. It’s not only you that posted this piece on a site you control, but now a noted authority site thinks enough of you to publish your articles. That makes a big difference on your click-thrus from the byline to your website and on your ultimate conversion rate.

Keep submitting and promoting. If you observed these steps, the law of averages (my hit rate is about 75%) says your name will be in print or online. The phone starts ringing or the contact page starts generating and you’re in business.

Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development and cost management consulting firm for small to mid-size enterprises. He has made a career of leading, inspiring and raising the game of small business people. He is author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the Smart Shop, Amazon.com, or Barnes&Noble.com. He can be reached at kwalinskas@smartcompanygrowth.com.

By Christine Marmoy in Business

There is one single truth to understand if you want to succeed in your business.

“Success is built with others!”

If there is one thing I realized from day one, it was this: “I could not do it alone”. Why? Because I didn’t know everything (and I still don’t), because I didn’t want to waste money learning everything to start with then only getting results a couple of years later, because I wanted to identify an easier path for me.

We all need help at different levels, but you must be strategic about it otherwise you may very well lose yourself, your time and all your money getting help where you don’t really need it at a particular time. And it all boils down to 3 questions:

1. What do you want with regards to your business?

Once you answer this simple, yet difficult question it is easier to address the next two questions:

2. What do you need to get what you want?

3. Who can do some of the things needed so you get what you want?

Answering the third question is not always easy because it means letting go. You’ll have to let go of wanting to do everything, you’ll have to acknowledge that some parts of your business can be done much faster, much better by other people.

You Have to Change the Way You Perceive Control

When you do everything on your own, you control everything (so you think!), but most likely you waste a lot of time controlling HOW things are done instead of focusing on WHAT needs to be done and WHEN.

Once you get one person in to take care of some of the numerous activities there are in your business, you cannot keep on controlling how it is done, you have to learn to control results and timelines. This can be very challenging for some people. The fact is that if you want your business to grow, your position within your business will have to grow as well. You, as a business owner, will have to grow.

You Have to Perceive “Help” as an Investment Instead of a Cost

One of the main issues of doing everything yourself is that more often than not, you run the risk of delaying your projects. Due to lack of time, you may have to postpone the launch of a product or a program, because the page is not ready, or because you get sidetracked and start too many projects simultaneously. Then as a result, between preparing, publishing articles, writing and sending
newsletters, working with clients, changing your welcome page 6 times, you don’t have the time to launch that great program. What does that mean at the end? You are losing money!

Now, what if you had just one person a few hours a week to take care of the regular activities so you could have started 2 programs, what would that mean to your bank account? Would you consider that “help” as a cost or an investment?

You Have to Perceive Yourself as a Decision Maker

When you do everything yourself, you have a harder time finding the space needed to make the important decisions. You run the risk of making a decision based on the time you have (or don’t have) instead of making a decision based on the best possible return for your business. When you remove yourself from the day to day “must be done” activities, you have the chance to think strategically, you can see your business from a higher perspective and you are in a much better position to close the gap between where you want to go and where you currently are. Let’s be honest here, somebody has to do it, and that is not the part that you should give up!

Christine Marmoy helps and coaches business owners tap into their brilliance and transform their passion into remarkable businesses. She works on three levels from discovering your brilliance, to daring to be bold, to finally claiming your spot. No stone is left unturned as she unleashes your creativity, your imagination and your innovative power so you become unstoppable in attracting
great clients. http://www.coachingandsuccess.com

By Chip Cooper in Business

lawYour personal New Year’s resolutions are important. You bet.

However, if you’re a SaaS or Internet marketer, your best-laid plans for 2012 may hit the skids if you fail to avoid new website legal compliance gotchas that emerged in 2011.

So, It’s highly recommended that you add to your personal resolutions the requirement to review the checklist of critical developments and related gotchas in these 2 categories: privacy and Internet marketing.

Privacy

Privacy developments have led the way in terms of new developments in the last few years, and 2011 was no exception. These are the new key developments and related gotchas to avoid.

* Readability of Privacy Policies. In its Preliminary Staff Report issued in December, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated its criticism of “long, incomprehensible privacy policies that consumers typically do not read, let alone understand”. The FTC stated its policy that “although privacy policies may not be a good tool for communicating with most consumers, they still could play an important role in promoting transparency, accountability, and competition among companies on privacy issues – but only if the policies are clear, concise, and easy-to-read”. So, the gotcha to avoid is clear: review your Privacy Policy and replace the disclaimer boilerplate language with clear and easy-to-read text.

* Location Data Now Subject to Privacy Protections. In its Preliminary Staff Report, the FTC also added a new category of information that’s now subject to privacy regulation which includes location data. If your site collects location data via GPS (also referred to as “Covered Information”), avoid this gotcha by disclosing in your Privacy Policy how location data is collected, what’s actually collected, and how it’s used and shared.

* Behavioral Advertising. On March 14, 2011, the FTC announced a settlement regarding behavioral advertising, and along with it, the FTC’s policy requiring prior notice and an opt out mechanism for the collection of data online for behavioral advertising purposes. Behavioral ads are based on anonymous data collected on how a user’s computer browses the Internet, including websites visited, searches made, and content read. This data is used to create a behavioral profile that is linked to a specific demographic. If your site collects behavioral data or serves behavioral ads, avoid this gotcha by full disclosure in your Privacy Policy.

* Undisclosed Uses of Personal Information. On March 20, 2011, the FTC announced a new settlement regarding its established policy regarding undisclosed uses of personal information. This is the big gotcha to be avoided at all costs: collection, use, or sharing of personal or covered information in a manner that is materially different from, or contrary to, the stated purpose in your Privacy Policy. For example, if you collect personal or covered information for one online service, but use this information for a new online service without permission, you could be in big trouble with the FTC.

Internet Marketing

New Internet marketing regulations were numerous in 2011. This is a checklist of the new key developments and related gotchas to avoid.

* ROSCA’s Limitations on Data Pass Transactions. On December 29, 2010, President Obama signed the Restore Online Shopper’s Confidence Act (ROSCA) that regulates credit and debit card data pass transactions. ROSCA prohibits cross-sell Internet marketing schemes where Merchant 1 makes an online sale to a consumer and then passes billing information (the “data pass”). ROSCA permits transfer of the consumer, but not the consumer’s billing information, and that’s the gotcha to avoid.

* ROSCA’s Limitations on Sites With Continuity Income. Websites with continuity income are now regulated. The typical continuity income site would be a membership site where a consumer agrees, for a price or for free, to receive a product or service for an initial period of time, after which the consumer will be charged without giving additional consent for another period of time. If your site is a continuity income site, avoid this gotcha by (i) clearly and conspicuously disclosing all material terms of the plan prior to obtaining billing information, (ii) obtaining express informed consent before charging the consumer’s account, and (iii) providing a simple mechanism for canceling the plan.

* Defamatory Blog Posts. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) shields operators of “interactive computer services” from liability for defamatory posts by visitors. However, if you make the defamatory statement in your blog yourself, you’re not protected by the CDA Section 230. A key development in 2011 involved a defamatory blog post in a blog that was a direct competitor of the defamed person, and the blog operator also re-posted the defamatory statements as a stand-alone post together with a new heading and some additional comments. Although the court found that CDA Section 230 still provided a shield from liability, this was a very close case with a strong dissent. So, the gotcha to avoid is to not repost or even enhance potentially defamatory posts by visitors.

Conclusion

Beginning in 2009, we’ve experienced a tsunami of new legal regulations affecting websites and Internet marketing. And the tsunami continued in 2011. The old “wild, wild west” days are over.

It’s critically important for SaaS providers and Internet marketers to stay on top of new developments and to avoid the related gotchas. The price for failure to comply in terms of liability exposure can be very high. While this checklist is not exhaustive, it’ll provide a good start as you plan ahead for 2012.

This article is provided for educational and informative purposes only. This information does not constitute legal advice, and should not be construed as such.

Is your website legal? Do you understand what you need to do for website legal compliance? Protect your website and your business with near-custom Website Legal Documents. One size doesn’t fit all. Leading Internet and SaaS Attorney Chip Cooper’s “done for you” online legal document service does all the work for you. No special knowledge required – http://www.digicontracts.com/

By William Galkin in Business

(c)It’s really basic: ownership of the copyright in work a business pays for can often be critical for successful commercialization of that work. Unfortunately, the U.S. Copyright contains arcane provisions that will often produce a counter-intuitive result – leaving full copyright ownership with the contractor. How could this possibly be?? Internet attorneys, advisors and businesses cannot afford not to be aware of the applicable laws.

Background:

When copyrightable work is created by an employee, the work can become the property of the employer in one of two ways: either by qualifying as a “work made for hire” as defined in Section 101 of the U.S. Copyright Act or by having the employee assign the work to the employer.

A “work made for hire” can be created by an employee or by an independent contractor. If created by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, then all such work is automatically owned by the employer as a “work made for hire.” No written agreement or mention in an employee manual is required, though this may be recommended.

HOWEVER, when work is created by an independent contractor, then the law starts getting strange and, as time has passed, out of touch with reality. The work created by an independent contractor will only qualify as a “work made for hire,” and therefore owned by the employer, IF (1) there is a written agreement that the work is a “work made for hire” and (2) the work falls within one of the following categories: “a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas.” When was the last time you hired a contractor to prepare a test or an atlas?? If the work does not fall in one of these categories, then even a written agreement stating that the work is a “work made for hire” will not be effective in causing the work to be owned by the employer. In such a case, only a written assignment of copyright will be effective. Computer software, websites, graphic work, and music will often not be considered included in one of the “work made for hire” categories.

Let’s be clear on this, the default under the law is that copyright will be owned by the contractor UNLESS there is a written agreement that the work is a “work made for hire” (if it qualifies under one of the listed categories) or the work is assigned in writing to the employer. This is a counter-intuitive result – but that’s the law.

To make things worse, what if a business has all of the correct documents in place with the independent contractor, but the independent contractor, hired a different independent contractor, and did not have the correct documents in place with this second independent contract. Well, you get the picture.

What Is An Independent Contractor?

There are multiple factors that can be applied to determine whether there is an employment or an independent contractor relationship. Here some of the factors that will be considered and no single factor will be determinative:

1. Does the hiring party have the right to control the manner and means by which the work is created?

2. Who provides the equipment and tools needed to produce the work?

3. Is the hired party working on the hiring party’s premises or on their own premises?

4. Does the hired party have discretion when and how long to work?

5. Is the method of payment hourly or by the project?

6. Is the hired party getting any benefits offered to employees?

7. Is the hiring party withholding taxes?

Implied License:

If you don’t obtain copyright ownership in work you commissioned based upon the above analysis, then all might not be lost. Usually, when work is commissioned and paid for, then the hiring party and independent contractor understood that the goal of the project was that the hiring party was going to use the work that was created. This would create an implied license. Whereas, a “work made for hire” agreement or a copyright assignment, MUST be in writing, a license (other than an exclusive assignment) does not have to be in writing.

The complications begin when trying to define the scope of use granted by an implied license. For instance, if a website was developed for a business, then the business would have the right to use the website for the purpose for which it was created. However, could the business “white label” the website and license it out to third parties? Could the business modify the website or take components from the website and use them for a different purpose than for which is was originally developed?

Bottom Line:

Make sure you don’t fall into this trap for the unwary, and end up paying a lot for a product that you cannot properly exploit.

William Galkin, Esq is an Internet lawyer who has dedicated his legal practice to representing Internet, website, e-commerce, computer technology and new media businesses in the U.S. and around the world. Go to http://www.galkinlaw.com/services to learn more about agreements needed by websites.

By Sara Schoonover in Business

spn_exclusiveJust because you have a killer business idea doesn’t mean you have killer business skills. The most successful young entrepreneurs recognize their own limitations and lack of experience. They rely on a network of seasoned and successful business mentors to give them the advice they need when they need it.

Finding those mentors is often easier said than done, however. While some people may have success walking into a CEO’s office and simply asking, there are more effective and more natural ways to find mentors.

Here are 10 tips to get you started building your network of mentors:

1. Know what you want to get out of a mentoring relationship. Not every mentoring relationship is the same. You need to know exactly what it is that you need help with, and how the mentoring relationship should benefit you. You might need help with business strategy, networking, the work-life balance, or more. Maybe you need comprehensive advice, but in some cases you may just need a sounding board.

2. Find a mentor with whom you have chemistry. Don’t just accept anyone into your network of mentors. You need to click with these people. If you have diametrically opposed views on marketing, for example, you’re going to have a hard time connecting on related topics.

3. Start by looking at your family and friends. Your first mentors may be people with whom you’ve had a relationship most of your life. A trusted aunt or a grandfather, for example, may have business experience from which you can learn. These are wonderful early mentors, because they may be more patient and understanding as you grow and develop, and they may be more willing to make that mentoring commitment early on.

4. Grow your network of mentors via your extended network of associations. After you’ve exhausted resources among family and friends, start looking to acquaintances, colleagues, former or current employers, and others in your extended circles of influence.

5. Some of the best mentorship opportunities will come from strangers. Let’s face it: unless you’re going into the family business, chances are you’re not going to find a mentor who’s wildly successful in your field. That means you need to seek out those wildly successful people. Approach those prospects humbly and delicately. Schedule a brief telephone conversation, limit the call to a handful of very specific questions. If it goes well, raise the idea of a repeat phone call. After a while, you may be able to raise the prospect of a more formal mentoring arrangement.

6. Look into SCORE. SCORE is a group associated with the Small Business Association. It consists of retired executives and professionals who have a passion for helping up-and-coming entrepreneurs. They offer free and confidential mentoring. SCORE mentors can be a bit hit-or-miss, depending on your industry, but in general they can offer a useful perspective and are more than willing to give advice.

7. Check out the Chamber. Many local Chambers of Commerce offer mentoring connections. The key thing here is that, if a given chamber member is in the same niche as you, it’s going to be much harder to convince them to work with you. After all, if you’re currently starting a business, they don’t want to be responsible for training their competition.

8. Look for industry specific opportunities. For example, if you do contracting for the federal government there is a mentor program offered by the Small Business Administration that helps you understand how to grab government contracts.

9. Consider local options. Larger cities often have mentorship programs in their business communities. The Silver Fox Advisers in Houston is a good example of this. Chicago, Detroit, and Jersey City all have non-profit groups that focus on mentoring for businesses run by women and minorities, too.

10. Pay for it if you have to. There are paid mentors out there, as well. Often going under the moniker of “Business Coaches,” these mentors will often be very hyper-focused. They will provide some of the most efficient mentoring relationships, mainly because both of you realize that the relationship is costing you money.

Finding and building your network of mentors takes some serious legwork. Chances are you’ll face some rejection along the way. The good news is that there are many people out there in business who have experienced success, and who are more than willing to take a budding entrepreneur under their wing in a mentoring relationship. Keep looking until your mentoring needs are met, and you’ll find your business skills growing by leaps and bounds.

Sara Schoonover is Vice President of Ticket Kick, a California company that helps drivers get red light tickets, speeding tickets and other traffic tickets dismissed by helping drivers through the trial by written declaration process. The company, which formally launched in 2010 after providing similar services since 2006, is the leading company in this space and growing rapidly.

By Chip Cooper in Business

sopaWebsite legal compliance is now under serious consideration by lawmakers in Washington. The U.S. Congress is now considering two proposed bills, which if enacted into law, would provide ground-breaking weapons for law enforcement and content owners to enforce intellectual property rights. If you’re a content owner that provides content on the Internet, you have an important stake in the current legislative process.

The competing bills currently under consideration – The Protect IP Act (Protect IP) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – are both aimed at websites that are focused on infringing the intellectual property rights of content owners. What’s both creative and controversial about these proposed laws from a website legal compliance perspective is the enforcement mechanism – shutting down the offending websites regardless of whether they’re U.S. based or foreign based websites.

The typical offenders that are the targets of Protect IP and SOPA are websites that pirate and illegally stream movies, TV shows, and music. However, if you’re a content owner with valuable content that may be the target of infringers, these proposed statutes may provide important legal remedies for you to protect your intellectual property.

The Protect IP Act

The target in Protect IP are websites that are “dedicated to infringing activities”. The key to determining if a website falls under this standard is whether it can be proved that the website has “no significant use” other than engaging in or facilitating infringement.

Remedies for violations are three:

* blocking the domain name from DNS servers and search engine results (available only to U.S. law enforcement),

* mandate that financial institutions (meaning primarily credit card processors) cease doing business with offending websites to the extent of U.S. online customers (available both to U.S. law enforcement and content owners), and

* prohibition of advertising services that provide ads to offending websites from continuing to do business with them (available both to U.S. law enforcement and content owners).

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

SOPA is similar to Protect IP, but there are differences. The key difference is that SOPA lowers the bar for proof requirements when determining which sites are “infringing”, meaning that content owners would have an easier task in getting to the remedies.

Under SOPA, content owners would only have to prove that an offending website is “dedicated to the theft of U.S. property”, clearly a much lower proof requirement than Protect IP’s.

Unlike Protect IP, SOPA would employ a procedure similar to the current DMCA notice and counter-notice procedure prior to bringing action against an infringing website. The notice would enable payment network providers and Internet advertising services the opportunity to cease dealing with offending websites prior to an action for a court order.

Conclusion

Given the severe remedies of both bills – shutting down offending websites – critics are numerous, particularly regarding SOPA. Critics argue that the severe remedies amount to censorship with related violations of free speech, plus they argue that there will be serious unintended consequences.

Most commentators are predicting that a statute with the same goals as both Protect IP and SOPA will eventually find consensus and be passed into law. If you’re a content owner that provides content the Internet, the outcome will likely affect you in a significant way.

Is your website legal? Do you understand what you need to do for website legal compliance? Protect your website and your business with near-custom Website Legal Documents. One size doesn’t fit all. Leading Internet and SaaS Attorney Chip Cooper’s “done for you” online legal document service does all the work for you. No special knowledge required – http://www.digicontracts.com/

By Daya Mukherjee in Business

virtual_officeA virtual work environment is not an uncommon one, given today’s increasing we-are-a-global-village scenario. As employment spans geographical boundaries and employees working for a single organization could be doing so from anywhere in the world, the shifting nature of work does present its own set of challenges. One of them, and arguably the most pertinent of all, concerns the sticky issue of communication. A virtual work environment is another form of outsourcing and communication can be said to be the lifeline of any Outsourcing success.

Which brings us to the crux of the matter – lack of communication is unacceptable in a virtual employee environment. This refers to both parties involved – the outsourcing service provider as well as the virtual employee who is working for the client.

Lack of Communication from the Vendor

The choice of an outsourcing partner plays a crucial role in determining the success of any outsourced venture. Since both parties are sitting hundreds or thousands of miles away from each other, the only connecting bridge is that of communication. So, it is essential that the vendor has access to technology that ensures a smooth communication system, particularly if you have hired a remote employee from them to work for you.

Is it difficult or next to impossible to get your remote employee on the phone? Do the phone lines get disconnected every so often, even when you do manage to get your employee on the phone? Do Skype chats turn into duds due to fluctuating or constantly-interrupted Internet connectivity? If you find yourself hitting such constant roadblocks every time to communicate with your remote employee, due to the vendor’s crumbling Internet connection and other forms of technical problems, then maybe its time to review the possibility of finding another better-equipped vendor.

Lack of Communication from the Remote Employee

This is obviously the more worrisome possibility, and justifiably so. If your virtual employee working remotely thousands of miles away and in conflicting time zones, chooses to ‘go incommunicado’ so to speak, then these are the warning signals to look for:

1. Do your emails go unanswered?

2. Do your emails, asking for specific job details, work targets achieved and status of the project, elicit vague and ambiguous responses or no straight answers?

3. Is this employee unavailable on the phone even though the vendor has a sound telecommunication system in place?

4. When you do get your virtual employee on the phone, is the conversation less than illuminating? Are your direct questions answered with evasive or ambiguous responses?

Remedial Measures to Handle the Uncommunicative Remote Employee

1. To avoid communication breakdowns between you and your virtual employee, it is best to be clear in what you have outlined right at the beginning of your association. Be clear and consistent about what types of communications are best suited to your purpose; how often this communication is needed and other expectations.

2. When the remote employee does not meet the communication expectations, a review (either via phone or face-to-face through video conferencing) is essential to reinforce the expectations. However, if the employee continues be uncommunicative, then you need to involve the vendor’s management to intervene in the matter.

3. Try discussing the employee’s worrying conduct with the HR executives of the outsourcing service provider. Set a time limit by which the errant employee should be showing some signs of improvement.

4. Keep all the records of your efforts to establish communication with the virtual employee. These will serve as valuable proof should you ultimately do decide to stop working with such an employee.

5. Sacking such an employee outright may be tempting but try other tactics first and let termination of services be your last resort.

Communication is crucial to establish a smooth working association with any employee, but more so when the employee is a virtual one, working remotely some thousands of miles away. Keep these handy points in mind and pay heed to warning signs to nip the problem of non-communication in the bud.

Daya is an experienced former journalist who has written extensively for the UK gift industry till recently. Now, she brings her considerable creative writing experience to the exciting world of Outsourcing, offshoring and in particular, PHP Outsourcing.

By David Hurley in Business

onlinereputationThe Internet has become one of the first places that potential customers turn to for businesses and product reviews. As a result, it is imperative that your home business avoids negative online product reviews, especially now that social media has become the backbone of online communication. So, here are 6 quick tips to help you avoid getting negative online product reviews.

1. Dominate the Top 10 Search Engine Results

The best long-term solution to this is simply to create a strategy to control as many properties as possible that appear on the first page of Google for your particular keyword phrase, product name, or business name. Many people may think this is an unrealistic goal. However, those properties do not have to be all your own. You can easily leverage other popular websites, such as YouTube, free blogging platforms, and article directories to fill in the rest of the results.

2. Make It Clear to Your Customers that They Should Contact You Directly

Another strategy is simply making sure that your customers bring any problems that they have directly to you, instead of sharing them with the world online. The easiest way to do this is to simply have a set of follow-up e-mails delivered to them incrementally for the first week or two. By including your contact information in your emails your odds of getting contacted directly and getting the problem resolved dramatically increase.

3. Add an Area for Complaints on Your Website

One of the easiest things to do is simply add an area to your website where customers can complain. In many cases, setting up a small forum is the easiest option. Not only does this give you an opportunity to address customer concerns quickly, but it also demonstrates to potential customers that you respond and are willing to help fix any issues.

4. Do Not Post Fake Positive Reviews on Other Websites

It has become common for some online profile management companies to post positive reviews for their businesses and products on popular review websites. The problem with this is that they often come off sounding insincere and scripted. As a result, these overly positive reviews will often get flagged. Not only will this NOT provide you with the benefits that you want, it will actually do more harm than good to your reputation.

5. Stay Visible on Social Media Platforms

You should make sure that your company is always visible on popular social media platforms, especially Twitter and Facebook. For some reason most people are more likely to complain when they don’t think that the company they are complaining about is actually listening. By staying visible, many people will avoid leaving negative feedback without first contacting you.

6. Reply to Any Negative Reviews

If you do find negative reviews popping up in the search engines, then it is important that you reply to them. As long as you sound reasonable and make an honest attempt to find a solution then you can turn a negative review into a positive experience for that particular individual, your company, and potential customers. This is because it shows people that you are actively trying to ensure that your customers are satisfied, even if they don’t come to you directly.

Read David Hurley’s online business product reviews at: http://www.grasp-the-nettle.com/reviews/

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