Top Social Media Sites

If you need a few ideas beyond Facebook and MySpace, take a look at this post by David Wilson on research from eMarketer.

The OTHER Social Media Sites

I taught the first class of the four-week Start your Own Business class at the Ren. Center. Great class, really looking forward to seeing how everyone develops their business ideas.

Next week we'll be talking about how to find where your customers hang out. One area I want to bring up is that there are lots of social media sites BEYOND Facebook.

For example, I like to cook every now and again. Foodbuzz is a social media site focusing on - yep - foodies. I cruised on over to that site when I'm in creative cooking mode. Another site I just heard about is Tip'd, "a community for financial news, ideas, and tips." I'll be checking that out too.

These sites don't have the same overall traffic as Facebook or MySpace. But what they do have is users highly interested in food or finance. If that's your market, that's where you want to be, above being on general social media sites. They also provide an inexpensive, powerful way to increase your understanding of your customers.

Go find your social media sites. Then let us know where you like to hang out.

Reducing Start-Up Costs

CNN has a cool article, Air Force vet turns to dogs for cash. Lori Lawrence wrote a very detailed business plan. Originally, she thought she needed $147,000 to open. But in the end, she reduced her start-up costs to $35,000, with help from the Small Business Administration.

Entrepreneurs who want to start a business, especially one which requires capital investment like a storefront or specialized equipment, sometimes think they need a lot more cash than they may really be able to get by with. If Lori Lawrence had continued to think that she needed $147,000, she would've had to walk away from her dream.

One of my students from a few years back (i.e., before the economy recessed) wanted to start a bakery in San Francisco. Originally, she needed a whole wad of cash - five zeros worth. But her lack of access to capital forced her to re-think. Through careful consideration, she realized that she could purchase much of her equipment used. In addition, she realized that she could actually *outsource* part of her manufacturing needs, by carefully finding the right vendor who shared her values in food preparation.

So take a look: are your start-up costs too high? If so, can you be creative in reducing your costs? How? If you've got a good idea, share it - someone else may be able to use it too!

Learn More From Your Client in 15 Minutes A Day

One of the consistent issues I hear from clients is that they don't like to do research. They have bad visions of being in high school and having to write that book report. "Yuck," they say.

So I've been thinking about this problem for awhile. With good market research, I've seen how it is so much easier for my clients to:

• decide what product or service to sell (!)
• describe their product/service;
• price their product/service;
• design a marketing plan that doesn't waste time or money by being in the wrong place at the wrong time; and
• SELL their product/service

So, what can you accomplish in 15 minutes?

• read your Google alerts
• visit your trade association website
• view a video on survey design fundamentals (this is really only 10 minutes!)
• create a mini survey for your best customers
• call one ongoing customer and check in with them
• call one ongoing customer and ask them the questions from your survey
• create a free survey on survey monkey or zoomerang and send it out to your email list

Got some more ideas?

Pay What You Think It's Worth

I've been hearing about a few restaurants here and there that are fighting dangerously slow sales by letting their customers pay what they think their meal is worth. It turns out that for some this works. One success case is the gastropub at the Hilton in San Francisco.

They ran the promotion for a week, and discovered that diners, 600 of them, actually paid $1 more than the cost of the tab if prices were set. And yes, they still tipped.

Only two walked out without paying a penny.

Of course, this idea is not new. If you're working on a business plan or new product offering, this might be a great way to discover what your customers want to pay.

Revenue, Anyone?

In the marketing classes I teach, I always emphasize that an undeniable goal of an entrepreneur - no matter what - is about making revenue, 'cause without revenue, they'll be out of business.

That doesn't mean they can't have other goals. My company, for example, supports a social venture in Kenya called Uplift Business Alliance. In fact, we're looking for business-minded volunteers who would like to go to Nairobi, Kenya for a week in January 2010 to work with Kenyan entrepreneurs. Leave a comment if you're interested and we'll get in touch.

So I found a recent email invite from Guy Kawasaki to attend Revenue Bootcamp, "a conference for entrepreneurs to energize their strategies for generating revenue," intriguing.

Here's who's speaking:

• Chris Anderson, the author of "The Long Tail" and editor of Wired Magazine, talk about "The Future of Pricing"

• Mike Moritz, general partner at Sequoia Capital and Google board member, talk about the outlook for high tech startups

• Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, talk about helping entrepreneurs start their companies

• Eighteen other authors, experts, and entrepreneurs talk about what it takes to win new customers, increase sales to your current customers, and expand your revenues in today's economy

Guy, the founder of Garage Technology Ventures, will also speak, of course. Check it out ... maybe I'll see you there.