THINK TUB BUSINESS BLOG
Small Business Tips, Solutions, Marketing and Success Stories
SEO Small Business is Growing
As you can well imagine, all my efforts of late have gone into growing SEO Small Business. I have practiced what I teach, but I still have so much more to do. Optimizing my own SEO website has been a new challenge. Can you imagine how difficult it is to optimize a website for an SEO company? All you competitors are serious, and doing the same.
Not sure I thought this through enough before I started! :-)
But then, that is typical of any new business start-up, no matter how long or hard you prepare.
New Video
I did just post a new video for search engine optimization on How to Optimize a Website.
It's five minutes long and gives some good foundation. Please pass it along to your friends - they will thank you for it.
I am thrilled to announce that SEO Small Business has wings!
As I mentioned in my past post, I would be busy this year creating specific streams of business out of one big HG Business Consulting. SEO Small Business is the first of the bunch.
SEO Small Business is focused on two things:
- Teaching small business owners how to optimize their websites to drive targeted traffic to the site without expensive advertising.
- Providing quality seo services at affordable prices to businesses that want to capitalize on the benefits but simply don’t have the time or interest to pursue it for themselves.
Quality
I have taken months of research to find colleagues to work with on these projects. We are not limited to only my time and efforts, but I have a team of experts ready to serve.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO is the method used to make your website attractive enough to the search engines that they will visit you frequently and then consistently bring up your information to their customers (the searchers) in SERPS or Search Engine Results Page.
You don’t need to invest in expensive advertising online if you know how to create a website that appeals to the reader and the search engines alike.
Special SEO promotion until May 31, 2010
Now is the time to take action, or at the very least, to get more information. I am offering 25% discount on all regular priced services until May 31, 2010. Learn how to grade your website, how to get a free website evaluation, or how to get paid simply by subscribing and paying me NADA.
I guess you can tell I am excited! Come find out why, and don't hesitate to learn SEO. Now my job is to do for myself, what I do for others, and take the next several months to optimize that site so business is booming!
Do tell your friends will you? And come for a visit.
HG Business Consulting is Transitioning.
Over the past two years, I have seen a lot of growth with my business, and to see that valued growth continue, I have needed to reassess and restructure.
Every business needs to reevaluate from time to time. Where we now, what direction are are we headed, where will it take us, and do we want to go there?
Along with the economy and the dramatic changes we have all witnessed in the past 18 months, there is also the change of values and perspectives that eventuate from personal growth and development. (Some call it aging!)
The Path is Always Unknown
No matter how hard we plan, how we strategize, how clear we are about our goals – Life happens while we are busy making those plans.
I suppose I thought that by now, I would barely “work” and mostly work/play with my artistic inclinations. When it dawned on me a few years ago, that life didn’t seem to be following me down that path – I got resentful and resisted.
Of course, a whole lot of nothin’ follows that kind of energy. But 6 months ago or so, I got re-tuned, re-focused and truly energized to use my business acumen to help others and enjoy what I do. I have always loved science and art, and with more emphasis on internet marketing, search engine optimization, generational marketing and the Triple Win Strategy, I am able to focus on things I love (lots of science and art in the technology world) while I make money. It’s my own triple win strategy.
What You Will See in the Future
I will be moving this website to a new home on a wordpress site. I help so many of my clients build wordpress sites and I love them. Why wouldn’t I do the same? Besides, I do have a host of affiliate marketing sites built on wordpress also. It’s time for this site to migrate.
I will be launchingInternet Marketing Savvyand using that site to focus on helping small businesses to learn internet marketing for their business, and the search engine optimization techniques they need to drive traffic to them for little or no money. Paid search marketing will also be covered as well as hundreds of resources. I will be offering classes both on and offline on the subjects as well as providing extensive written material.
I have a business directory that will be public soon and a small business answer to questions site, so the network keeps building.
What about HG Business Consulting?
On this site, (even after the migration), the focus will be on trends affecting small business, generational marketing, and promoting the triple win strategy. (By 2011, there will be a site dedicated to triple win strategy.) My consulting practice will evolve from these topics and of course, internet marketing.
I value my readers and appreciate your patience over the past month while I worked to design a business growth strategy. In fact, that is what I would challenge any business owner to do. With the economy reshuffling our priorities, it is vital that we take the time to examine our direction and determine if the destination feels like paradise or a pair of dice, and luck is all we’ve got!
Small Business Ideas for 2010
Based on the extensive data available on social trends, copious opportunities are available for business in 2010 and beyond. You will need some imagination, courage, financing where appropriate, basic business strategy, and a network of people smarter than you to assist you when needed.
Hip Trends with Big Opportunity
- Rentals
- Copy Cats
- Do it for yourself (DIY)
- Everything is Green
- Upscale Discount
Rentals
The shortage of credit available coupled with North American’s present mood to avoid more debt means consumers are buying less. Rental options have become a great way to meet the need for basics and beyond.
Now buyers can rent designer handbags for a weekend, gowns for events, baby equipment for their holidays, GPS units to keep them going in the right direction or impressive furniture for their next party.
If they can’t buy it, they still want to enjoy it short term.
What can you offer? Do a keyword study with one of the free tools online and find out what people are searching to rent in your area. If the demand is right, and the competition reasonable, you may want to give it a go.
Copy Cats
The recession has given a new meaning to the word KNOCK OFF. It’s hip to be thrift, so offering “look alike”, or dummied down versions of the real McCoy, can yield returns.
Do it Yourself - DIY
In a recent article I mentioned a student of mine that is launching a business targeted to would-be mechanics. The customer will bring their badgered auto to the garage, so they can fix it themselves.
Of course, there will be a mechanic on site for advice, and peers up to their elbows in grease, sharing one another's burden. Essentially, they are renting the shop, the tools, the expertise, and maybe sharing a beer.
There are DIY art studios, grocery check outs. even do- it-yourself hotels and serve yourself pubs. What could you simplify, thereby reducing costs, and allowing your customers to be self-sufficient, save money and cultivate their creativity?
Sexy Green
You are a sensual, sexy, savvy individual if you eat, wear, dispose of, clean with and drive green. Green is the new COOL.
There are new products on the market everyday for items that protect or respect our natural environment. To name a few:
- You can recycle your old vinyl albums – into serving bows, picture frames and coasters. What could you do with milk jugs, discarded light bulbs, used batteries?
- Industrial Artifacts takes cast offs from manufacturers and recreates something useful.
- Commit to Care for An Acre of Land. The Nature Conservatory encourages buyers to purchase an acre for preservation in endangered rain forest areas. Could you sell sponsorship for care of a block of city streets? What about selling shares for community expanding recycling stations? Some new business models are built entirely on collaboration.
- There are green septic tanks, children’s toys, clothes and furniture, office equipment, eco-friendly travel, and water bottles.
Do you remember what we thought when someone first put WATER into bottles and wanted to charge us for what had always been free? Who could have dreamed that the industry would grow to global usage of 188,776.6 million liters in 2007 with a compounded annual growth rate of 7.6%?
To add insult to injury, the largest manufactures of bottled water, Coca Cola and Pepsi, use municipal water.
Who will make the new water pill popular? What if a handy dispenser was available that you could carry in your pocket or purse? Filled with tiny pills that effectively oxygenates the water while cleaning up the unwanted up toxic residue? Possibly, they are displayed in local grocery stores next to the mints and gum.
The new fashion would be to carry designer “green” water bottles with us and fill them up anywhere (using the same municipal water no doubt). We then pop the pill into the bottle as mindlessly as we would a piece of gum into our mouth, and bam, purified water that doesn’t pollute as a result.
My imagination takes me a couple years ahead when the competition for pill manufacturing has taken us to new heights. Now the water pills have vitamins in them too, or bio-identical hormones, or weight loss stimulators.
Upscale Discount
Discount is in. 
People still need underwear, trousers for work, kitchen tools, baby clothes, kids toys and laundry detergent, and automobiles but for the best price they find. Even though the price is cheap, that doesn’t mean consumers want to feel cheap. Feelings have a significant impact on where and what we buy.
Luxurious attitudes can make discount shopping a rewarding emotional hit. While the economy slugs through the recession and gradual growth spurts, businesses that offer great pricing, for less quality but great “feeling,” position themselves significantly in the marketplace.
For businesses in a discount-targeted business, consider adding a line of products that customers can use short term and enable them to continue to do business with you. Or perhaps, use the rental idea. Established businesses can offer discount items online, or consider trade-in options, using the trade-ins to sell through other distribution channels. Don’t hesitate to offer coupon savings, coupons are making quite the comeback!
Related Article: Trends the Small Business Owner Must Know
To our Success
Harmony Thiessen
PS. Please share if you liked what you read.
What are the trends evidencing in 2009 that could affect your small business in 2010?
Over the next few weeks we will examine data from Google’s 2009 Zeitgeist (or spirit of the times), Hitwise, news summaries, future trend specialists, and others to determine how the next decade is poised to begin, and what your small business can do about it.
Although business owners are community leaders and stand out among the crowd as free thinkers, risk takers and entrepreneurial minded, owners are nonetheless the summary of the societies they serve. It is vital to our success that we become tealeaf readers of the times, or those who see beyond the obvious to prepare for future needs and opportunities.
Luxury is required
Skimping and saving and “making due” are getting boring to the American public.
When a society has been marinated in privilege and choice, a year or 18 months of cash flow limits is quite enough.
However, the emotional need does not reflect the economic reality.
According to Harvey Schachter, in the Jan 04, 2010 Globe and Mail, shoppers in 2010 will be well informed, research savvy and ready to shop for a bargain. All things being equal, the deciding factor for many shoppers may be the “feeling” that accompanies the hunt.
A Luxurious Cup of Java?
Look at Starbucks. The lines are long, young and old cued together with the classy and the ordinary. The middle working class from the nearby office towers, and CEO’s alike, share lattes with no foam and hazelnut flavoring. They may joke at the price they spend for their fix, but they will likely return this afternoon for latte #2.
Starbucks opened their first store in 1971. As the chain grew and matured, they found an unusual niche. Not the niche for those who loved coffee, they found a niche of people who wanted to feel ‘gourmet” at a price they could afford. People feel good about going to Starbucks. Face it. It is the emotional attachment to the self-perception, and of course, the savvy business minds that provided the environment and standards of excellence in the staff to keep the dream alive.
Sure, people who like coffee go to Starbucks. But as small business owner who leases office space at no charge (except for my coffee!) from the aforementioned, I have witnessed plenty of people who drink juice, tea and even warm milk at Starbucks.
What can you do?
The question for the business owner is not “how do I get into the luxury market. Ask rather, “how do I help old and new customers to feel like they are treated like royalty when they do business with me”?
- Do you offer your customers free upgrades when what they want is not in stock?
- If they are a few pennies (or dollars) short do you act as though they are so important and respected that, you toss your hand in the air and say, “not a problem!”
- If they are responsible for dropping their purchase in the parking lot and you know it, are you still willing to set them up with a new product?
- What environment do you provide for your “guests”? Is it trendy, savvy, or relaxing? Clearly if you sell antique furniture, you may not want trendy, but what could you do to help your guests feel like “this IS the place” where they want to part with their dollar?
- Do you cater to the hours of your customers or expect them to take time off from the job they are happy to have, just to buy from you?
- Do you provide extra services?
The Produce Shop That Could
Just a few blocks from where I live, is a produce market. They sell a bit of bread and deli meats, but mostly produce; FRESH, CHEAP, NO SPRAY, CLEAN, SPOTLESS produce. The store is a run down little dent in the wall, and the videos they play while you shop are from the disco music of the seventies and Russian opera. Mary, the main cashier wears hats. Wild, crazy, abominable hats. And the lines are eternal. You wait 30 minutes on a good day to get out of that store.
Why does this middle class and upper middle class neighborhood flock to Mary?She knows you, throws in free produce, makes you try new things, tells you to pay the remainder next time, sings, encourages the line to sing, and cheers people through by name.
The style is discount, the manner is luxury.
Your business can cash in on the desire of North American’s to feel special once again.
To our Success,
Harmony Thiessen
PS Look for me at a Starbucks near you!