Shop local

When we go shopping, we typically choose to do business where we perceive the best value for our time and money. But in that decision have you considered the value of locally-owned small businesses?

Consider the real cost of losing locally-owned small businesses – local values. It’s the local business owners that typically employ more than 50% of the workforce, support local charities, sit on local boards, elect local officials and even challenge City Hall.

And when you think of your favorite restaurant, café or shop – is it a national chain? Not likely! It’s the local merchant who went the extra mile. It is the restaurant whose food and service is off the chart.

By supporting these businesses, you insure that they - along with the diversity they provide - don’t disappear. Shop local!

Why Doesn’t Anybody Visit My Website?

So, you’ve built a website and posted it for the world to see. Having launched your global marketing campaign, just sit back and reap the rewards. Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it is.

A successful website must be accessible to customers. So, unless customers can find your website, it doesn’t matter how amazing it is or how good your product is. According to Netcraft, there are over 80 million websites on the internet (in 2006), and the number is growing. With all that spam and cyber noise, how will you lead your customers to the treasure on your site?

You have to leave clues (search words, Meta Tags, and computer language markers) so search engines can recognize the value in your site, and lead your potential customers directly to you. Your clues must be clear so that customer web searches by key “search words” will return your website first in the list of results, at the top of the customer’s “search engine ranking."

But what if this is the first you’ve heard of Meta Tags, search word and search engine rankings? Do you need to hire a specialist to optimize your Internet website? One of the quickest way to answer this is to consider where is your time best spent.

There are benefits to hiring an outside service as well. Assuming you have selected a quality SEO company, you will be getting the services of well-trained and very experienced professionals rather than relying on your brother-in-law, who also keeps the books.

Impact Direct offers a helpful guideline on How to select an SEO Company.

Defensible Position

The other night, I was teaching a class about Internet Communications and in the course of the evening we ventured into scary waters. I asked the class – “What is your defensible position?” Silence. Deafening Silence!

What is a defensible position? I tend to think of it in two steps –

• What do you do different from the existing competition? (Competitive Advantage)
• Can you sustain the differentiation?

Most folks I work with can easily articulate the first piece, but it starts to fall apart when you consider part two. For example, many retailers use price as a competitive advantage. “We will not be undersold!!”

But without the economies of scale of a large organization, many small businesses price themselves out of business. Sure they can be the cheapest (that’s their competitive advantage) for awhile, but eventually their margins are squeezed, their costs mount and they have to raise prices. Now their customer base, whose expectations were developed solely on cost, moves on to the next cheap deal.

So when you look at your business, you can probably answer how you can differentiate from your competitors - but the true entrepreneur can survive the test of time.