Facebook is on everybody's minds these days (or blogs). It's the latest killer app/site/web 2.0/social/community thingy. Well, it's not really the latest, since it's been around for a few years, but since they opened up registration to non-college people, it really took off. Since I joined Facebook, I've been able to create a continuous connection with family and friends who are overseas, and rediscover friends from days of yore. I've had people contact me who I haven't seen or spoken to for 15 years! Cons of Facebooking for business But is Facebook a good business tool? I'm not sure. A number of bloggers believe that Facebook is a good business tool, ...

Small businesses have small marketing budgets. In a previous post, I listed 5 low-cost ways to market your business. Two of the methods mentioned were advertising on Google Adwords and Dapei Zahav. Since bootstrapping businesses need to ensure that every advertising dollar is justified, I decided to conduct an unofficial study comparing Google Adwords and Dapei Zahav (the Israeli version of the Yellow Pages). The winner with no holds-barred: Google Adwords. Here is a comparison of the features of both advertisers: Dapei Zahav: For a relatively low monthly fee, you can have your business appear on their site at the top of the classification of your choice. I put ...

Last night I attended my first speed networking event. It was organized by Digital Eve, who has held two such events in Tel Aviv, and last night's was the first one in Jerusalem. Where? The venue, the Pera e Mela (Apple and Pear) restaurant in Safra Square, was great – good Italian-style food, nice ambience, and an opera-singing owner who did a short piece for us (I'm not kidding!). The women in attendance were of all types and professions, and it was inspiring to meet such a talented, varied and creative group. About 20 women attended, including a handful that schlepped from Tel Aviv. ...

Our eyes play a significant role in our decisions to buy. There is a big difference between a written description of a product and the product itself in all its 3D glory. Salespeople who play to our senses may be more successful than those that rely on descriptions or texts to make their sales. No one wanted dessert until he showed up with the tray of goodies No one wanted dessert. We had eaten our fill of fine café food, and were ready to ask for the bill. But then our waiter arrived with a tray laden with delicate, tempting cakes and sweets, and asked us if we wanted dessert. When my eyes fell upon ...

Ben Yoskovitz at Instigator Blog initiated a Group Writing Project where people can share any lessons they learned over the course of 2006. So here's my lesson from this year: diversifying your marketing strategy can benefit your business, and it is possible to do this on a shoestring budget. Diversity is good People generally agree that diversity is a good thing. Not only is there a lot we can learn from cultural diversity among people, but diversity is praised in other realms as well, such as investing (diversify your portfolio), eating (diversify your diet), exercise (different types of exercise encourage you to continue), etc. And now I can ...

In yesterday's post, I argued that a business should have a website right from the start so that they look professional for the first potential client that they meet. There are more reasons that a business should have a site from the beginning, and all of them have to do with vision – a big vision of where you want your business to go is an essential part of achieving your goals. Therefore, your first steps should take into account where you want to be in a year, or two or three from now. Unless you have venture capital funding or a PhD (Papa ...

A friend is currently enrolled in the MATI Small Business Course, a comprehensive course designed to provide budding entrepreneurs with the basics needed to start their own business. According to many of the lecturers at the current MATI course, it is not recommended for new businesses to invest in a website. These lecturers explained to the participants that first you need to have customers who will go to your website, so first get the customers and then get the site. They said the same applies to printing brochures. I strongly disagree with this approach as far as websites go. I do agree with them on the brochure issue, since designing and printing a brochure is very expensive and inflexible – once ...

5 steps to an effective e-newsletter campaign An exciting subject line – your readers are bombarded with emails every day, including other newsletters. Your first goal is to get them to open your newsletter, and your subject line plays an important role. First, make sure that it is obvious that the email came from your business, and is not spam. It is recommended to start the subject line with your company name in brackets, like this: [illuminea]. After that, write the most exciting subject line you can come up with, in as few words as possible. Try not to use more than ten words in your subject, and make sure it tells your reader about ...

What should you write about? So you're ready to send out your first e-newsletter where you're going to tell your clients how amazing you are at what you do and why they should order more business from you. Don't do it! Your newsletter's level of effectiveness is directly related to how interesting it is. A monthly newsletter raving about you and your business is not interesting. It is perceived as annoying advertising, and your subscribers will either ignore it, delete it, or will unsubscribe. Your goal as the manager of an e-newsletter is to retain your subscribers and encourage them to open and read your mailing. But if I'm not talking about myself, you may ask, how ...

Out of site, out of mind Out of site out of mind. This saying applies to your business as much as it does to anything else in your life. And in business, you want to remind your clients that you are there and ready to help them. Even the most successful businesses with the happiest clients should maintain a continuous connection with their clients. You may think that if your customers are satisfied, they will definitely return to you for more. Don't be so sure. Your business is nothing more than one of dozens if not hundreds of businesses in your field. The competition for attention is fierce, and you need to constantly remind your customers ...