As a small business owner, you’re feeling the squeeze.  When sales dip just a little, profits fly out the window; in a recession, you start looking at your reserves to calculate how many months you’ll be able to “maintain.”  This type of thinking is, unfortunately, not going to work in the current economic climate.  There won’t be a small business bailout until at least 2011, and no one even knows what that will look like or if you will qualify.  In blunt terms, they can’t make a lifeboat big enough to save everyone.  The best thing you can learn to do is build your own boat now.  You are your own best bailout.

Customers equal opportunity.  If you find your customer base is shrinking, get more.  I hate to be so simplistic, but that’s the success of your business in a nutshell.  More leads.  So what is the most effective leads generation you can do as a business owner? Develop an effective website.

Note that I said effective.  There are millions of websites on the Internet.  Billions of pages of content, videos, MP3′s, podcasts, tweets, etc.  It’s easier than ever to get completely LOST.  How do you maintain top Google (or Bing or Yahoo) position, month after month?  A big part of it is optimizing your website.  If you’re not optimizing your website, you will have zero opportunity for being on the top of any search engine.  Why?  Because search engines look at your content and your optimization to learn what your site is about.  If you are missing good optimization, they are not understanding your site’s intention, and therefore, judge your site to be “not relevant.”  You will fall in ranking.  With 98% of all internet search ending on page one, it’s crucial to optimize your site.

So you’re trying to generate leads with your website.  Let’s say your market generates 10,000 searches in a given month.  You are on page 2 so you automatically only reach 200 prospects.  A typical web conversion can be as low as .005, which means that out of those 200 prospects, you are receiving 1 visitor.  How much are you spending on your website or web marketing to reach ONE visitor?  If your site conversion is .01, how many months will you need to operate the site to receive ONE SALE?  Are you losing money with that site or making money?

Now, if you were on page one instead of page 2, you would have access to 9,800 more searchers; you would receive 49 times more visitors to your website!  It could literally be the difference of being #11 on a search engine versus #10.  One digit away from earning money every month with your website, or earning nothing at all.  No, it’s not fair.  But it’s reality.

Do you see the importance for being on page one yet? Now do a search for YOUR business.  Not the name of your business. Pretend no one knows you exist.  Search for what you do.

Are you on page one?  If not, do something about it immediately.  Fire your lazy website.  Create a highly optimized, search engine friendly website that will pull traffic like a vacuum.  Normally, you would need to invest a lot of money in this type of website — a minimum of $1,500.  But for an extremely limited time, join is in beating your recession — highly optimized website for just $499.

What would being on page one of Google do for your business?  Would having more customers help your business?  You’d hire a hard-working employee if you knew they could enhance your bottom line.  Hire a hard working website that will generate leads for your business 24/7, 365 days a year and never call in sick or complain.  Generate more leads for your business starting TODAY.

Technorati Tags: Bailout, Billions, Build Your Own Boat, Customer Base, Economic Climate, Equal Opportunity, Google, Internet Search, Leads Generation, Lifeboat, Nutshell, Optimizing Your Website, Podcasts, Recession, Search Engines, Small Business Owner, Squeeze, Typical Web, Web Conversion, Wh

This just in from BusinessWeek:

Nouriel Roubini, the NYU economist who accurately predicted the financial meltdown, writes an important commentary in The Globe and Mail about two disparate American economies: “There is a smaller one that is slowly recovering and a larger one that is still in a deep and persistent downturn,” he says.

Roubini goes on to outline two separate Economies emerging within the United States — a smaller economy driven by large corporations that has slowly begun to emerge from recession, and the larger economy that is still in a deep and persistent downturn.

Echoing what I have been discussing in recent months with small business owners and in my Twitter postings, small business owners are reacting with extreme skepticism (even pejorative sarcasm) at the White House notion that the economy is improving.  It turns out, the “recovery” is only a half-truth and addresses the corporate sector which, as Professor Roubini points out, has been able to re-negotiate its debt burdens (or receive government bailout money to ease the pain).

Ironically, the largest economy is the small business sector.  It should be clear by now that the small business sector is not going to get any help from this Administration.  Yet waiting for a recovery is not plausible while one’s business is suffering repeated setbacks and declining revenues.

One of my suggestions would be to start thinking like a larger corporation.  Big business does not think in terms of its individual storefronts; even the storefronts themselves are 100,000 sq. ft. mega-boxes versus the mom & pop sized retail establishments we see in strip centers.  Wal-Mart is not thinking about its current inventory that’s on the shelf; they don’t even pay for current inventory until after it has sold…

My point is that small business owners need to get wise to the way the Government plays business.  The rewards are there for the biggest players, even though they make the least difference in the total economic scheme.  They are the BRANDS  in the marketplace that make the headlines.  Even the media (another mega-corporate empire) responds to this because it is a story that can be packaged easily.

The real story is you and I.  Small business.  We are the driving force of any economic recovery because we are the largest player.

The big players have websites and they transact far outside their neighborhood boundaries.  At the same time, they intend to OWN whatever market they are in.  They don’t play for second or third place; they realize that a loss these days equals death to their business.

How do you play outside your boundaries?  With an effective website.  Not just a “pretty” site that isn’t relevant to your market, but an SEO-enabled website that benefits your bottom line.

“Aren’t websites like that usually $1,500 or more?”  Yes, usually.  But right now, your friends in business at Kinetics Web Pro are offering exactly the right website for your bottom line growth — priced at $499.  Things are already looking up for your business.

Be your own bailout.

Technorati Tags: Bailout, Business Sector, Businessweek, Corporate Sector, Debt Burdens, Downturn, Extreme Skepticism, Financial Meltdown, Globe And Mail, Large Corporations, Nouriel Roubini, Professor Roubini, Recession, Retail Establishments, Sarcasm, Setbacks, Small Business Owners, Storefronts, Strip Centers, Wal Mart

Despite the pessimism all around us, despite what the media tells us, people ARE still buying.  There is still an economy happening; even the reporters don’t seem to realize that they bought their suit somewhere, had it drycleaned somewhere, ate lunch somewhere, bought groceries, put gas in their vehicles, tires on their trucks, microphones in their hands, advertising to pay for their broadcasts, and so on.

People ARE still buying.  This is an important point to remember as a small business owner.  More than ever, you need to reach out to your customers.  Doing so will benefit you greatly.  Did you know that businesses who invest in their marketing in a recession grow 1,347% MORE than those who don’t? (source: McGraw-Hill).  Get serious about your marketing NOW, you will see immediate results in your cash flow.

Technorati Tags: Broadcasts, Cash Flow, Economy, Groceries, Important Point, Invest, Lunch, Marketing, Mcgraw Hill, Microphones, online marketing small business, Pessimism, Recession, small business marketing, Small Business Owner, Tires, Trucks, web marketing

Lee Iacocca, the business leader who rescued Chrysler Corporation from extinction, has a new book, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?”   It’s a fascinating insight into the man, and not only identifies our current crisis (and set of crises) but calls for leadership to get our world through this tumultuous period and back on the road to real recovery.  

Here is an excerpt from the book, or you can buy it at a discount here – Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Lee Iacocca Says:

‘Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder! We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, ‘Stay the course.’

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned, ‘Titanic’. I’ll give you a sound bite: ‘Throw all the bums out!’

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in  Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do And the press is waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of the ‘America’ my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?

I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have. The Biggest ‘C’ is Crisis! (Iacocca elaborates on nine C’s of leadership, with crisis being the first.)

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a  strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a mess, so here’s where we stand.

We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving.

We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country.

We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.

Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble.

Our borders are like sieves.

The middle class is being squeezed every which way.

These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: ‘Where have all the leaders gone?’ Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the  point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?

We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.

Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when ‘The Big Three’ referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change? 

Had Enough? Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here.  I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope – I believe in America. In my lifetime, I’ve had the privilege of living through some of  America ‘s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises: The ‘Great Depression,’ ‘World War  II,’ the ‘Korean War,’ the ‘Kennedy Assassination,’ the ‘Vietnam War,’ the 1970′s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: ‘You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a “Call to Action” for people who, like me, believe in America’. It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the crap and go to work. Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had ‘enough.’

Technorati Tags: business leadership, depression, economic crisis, economic rebound, Lee Iacocca, Marketing, offline marketing, Online Marketing, Recession

My friends, here at Kinetics Web Pro, we’re all about creating results for your business.  The fact is, you can create success in whatever economic circumstances exist around you.  People might be more deliberate in their expenditures during tough times, but the bottom line is that they still need to live life; commerce still takes place.  The most relevant survive.

Here are three things you can do right now with your marketing to increase revenue for your business. I hope they help and you remember your good friend John at Kinetics Web Pro when you’re writing tha check at the Bentley dealership…

1) Send out a sales letter to your current customer list with a KILLER offer.  This works with whatever industry you’re in.

2) Contact your customers who have been dormant and haven’t purchased from you in a while.  Send an offer and find out why they went away; or better yet, make them an offer they can’t refuse.

3) Create an “endorsed” mailing from one of your mega-clients or a business that’s in a similar niche as yours.  In the case of the business, they mail to your business and you mail to theirs; you gain new leads and generate sales to a whole new group of clients.

These are traditionally off-line (direct mail) strategies, but with the proper care could be directed as an e-mail or social marketing campaign.

If you don’t have a mailing list, what are you waiting for? LOL  We will be happy to help you set up your mailing list in a way that protects your customers’ privacy, captures their interest and insures the deliverability of your e-mail.  Did you know that in some e-mail campaigns over 80% of the e-mail is never even delivered?!?  We have ways to monitor the effectiveness of the campaign to reach your targeted customer with an offer they find highly relevant.  Contact us for details.

Technorati Tags: Business, Direct Mail, E-mail marketing, Mailing List, Marketing, Offline Business, Online Business, Opt-in Mailing, Permission marketing, Recession