The Changing Environment of Small Business Owners

As the global diversity of business reaches a newfound height, small businesses with physical locations are noticing a change in the economic environment. The small business owners that sell their products exclusively at their stores are observing that their much larger competitors can lower prices and outsell them. The corporations that strike the small towns have shareholders to please and will do anything to derive as much revenue possible.

Seth Godin, one of my favorite bloggers/authors,commented on local businesses that must compete with large corporations:

Real estate is the soul killer here. You can’t have a beloved local market and a public drugstore chain occupying the very same spot. Pundits like me can talk all we want about being remarkable, about leading and about making connections, but when a public company wants your spot, when it can extract a few extra pennies per square foot, you lose.

He makes a fascinating point that large corporations are able to buy up real estate and force out small business owners. He goes on to exclaim:

The Internet has opened the door for millions of businesses to do things differently, because there are other assets now, assets that can transcend location. Your permission to talk to customers, your reputation, your unique products–you can build a business around them online. But that doesn’t work so well if you depend on local (and leased) real estate, if you’re selling watercress or radishes, apparently.

In response to this problem, businesses must differentiate their products from the status quo. If a product can be sold at Walgreens, Wal-Mart, or Target, there is not a suitable way to sustain a competitive advantage. This can be viewed positively because innovators will be called upon to create meaningful products that have never been created.

The Internet has made it incredibly easy for businesses to sell their products on the Internet at a greater quantity to any person across the world. The Internet will become more important than ever because the long tail will become utilized. Public corporations may ignore the market and cause small business owners to recuperate from the takeover of real estate seeking corporations.

Consumers will become fed up with the continued collaboration to push out small businesses. The future is dependent on the truly amazing and remarkable. Seth Godin has unveiled the issue and shot out the warning flair. Now as entrepreneurs, we must drastically change the way we do business and create meaningful products that change lives. Corporations, in response, will struggle to replicate the earth shattering innovation.

Work for Free with E-mail Scripts and Creative Ideas

There has been a rapid trend to work for Internet bloggers. This has created quite a stir for aspiring entrepreneurs who do not know how to start their own venture. By working for free, people are able to gain the knowledge and experience without risking serious cash.

The key to working for free is to assemble an appropriate e-mail for each prospective client. Below is a sample e-mail that can be used as a brief guide on how to approach interesting figures.

Hey [Insert person’s last name],

My name is X and I am a fan of yours and the [Interesting work that the person does]. [Boost the ego of the person in this sentence]. I would like to help you for free. There are three areas that I could contribute to [website, marketing plan, research, ect.]

1.

2.

3.

I know that you are busy preparing for X and that is why I am offering to help you for free. If you have any other areas that I may assist you with, let me know.

Thanks

For this e-mail to be effective, there must be specific details that will add value to the client. If the e-mail is too ambiguous or broad, the client will swiftly hit delete. Here are some examples of what you can do for a client:

• You read a productivity blogger and notice that she uses Delicious bookmarks. She routinely tags “research_later”. You are a researching whiz and can do simple tasks that can make the blogger more efficient. Boom!

• Find an author who has limited traffic and has a horrific marketing strategy. Look for ways to improve their traffic with your specific marketing knowledge

• Work for a previous professor that you once had. Since you know their complaints and where they need help, you can make them more efficient

• Design a website for a local small business who is looking to create revenue online. Or improve an existing website that has major flaws that needs fixing

This is in no way a complete e-mail and should not be used by every situation. Match prior experiences with what is needed by the client. This should be used to create ideas and spark a creativity push to start working on interesting projects.



Starting…Anything

One of the toughest parts of starting a new project, blog post, or business is actually starting the venture. Fear creeps into mind while self-doubt looms in repeated succession while plans are being made. Fretful thoughts multiply as one questions the ability and skill of being able to accomplish the desired task.

The greatest entrepreneurs, thinkers, and scientists were able to ignore the anxiety of starting a new project because they knew the possible upside potential. The snowball effect of starting a project is so powerful that the costs of starting are near zero. Albert Einstein started researching an idea of his special theory of relativity. Once his theory was formed, he made a drastic impact on the world. This escalated quickly as he published a paper, explained the motion of molecules, and modeled the structure of the universe as a whole. Now, imagine if he never began researching the theory of relativity. Maybe he was nervous and didn’t know if his ideas were succinct enough to form a theory. Some other genius would have come behind him and made history. Einstein was able to set aside his fears by continuously testing the common believed assumptions that made the average person uncomfortable.

When in doubt, just start something. The greatest minds always started somewhere and, of course, some failed. The missed time is a dismal cost that can be made up quickly. Starting is a small cost that has an infinite upside.