VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Governor's Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship in California

I'm in LA at the Governor's Conference on Small Businesses & Entrepreneurship. They're launching Global Entrepreneurship Week in conjunction with the Kauffman Foundation. It will be the third week in November. There are over 350 people attending, all amazing businesses and stories, ranging from small businesses to non-profits to policy makers from all over CA. We're convening at the Renaissance Hotel.

It's a pretty amazing cast of people here. From the Governor's office Marty Keller, Director, Office of Small Business Advocate is leading the show and doing a superb job. The conference is meant to put real policies forth to the Governor to get more small business growth in the California economy.

The show got off to an amazing start with Author of Jump Point, Tom Hayes, and Michael Malone, ABC News Journalist. They talked about the role that California's entrepreneurs will play in shaping the future of the new economy.

Lunch came and so did the Governator! Governor Schwarzenegger really inspired the crowd with his story on his life and how he came to America to live the American dream and be an entrepreneur. We also got a few muscle jokes out of him too! Watch the video.

After, there were sessions on different issues that small businesses need to deal with. The interesting thing was that in the breakout session you chose, you actually have a say in policies that will be presented to the Governor. The following were the issues facing California small businesses:

Issue: Clean Air
Issue: Access to Capital
Issue: Entrepreneur Encouragement Group - High Tech
Issue: Healthcare - Cost containment (this was a huge issue in a survey I recently did)
Issue: Innovation & technology - Support business who are seeking state dollars
Issue: Procurement Issues
Issue: Regulatory Reform Group
Issue: Transportation - Rising fuel costs
Issue: Taxation - Conformity state tax code, Consolidation of agencies, energy tax credits
Issue: Education - How can we restructure education so that kids want to work in small businesses.

I chose the Innovation & Technology group where we came up with some pretty good ideas. From this, the entire group of 350 will vote on what is the most important for CA small businesses.

After dinner we got to see 3 young entrepreneurs, from the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour that were really inspiring to listen to.

Notable people I've met:

Kristin Johnson, Regional Director, Northern California SBDC, the SBDC has some really great programs to help businesses grow. I met Terry Hicks, GM, Small Business Group, QuickBooks, and Guy Philips, Head of US Small Business, VISA, (we chatted about the Facebook VISA Small Business Network, check it out) I also met Drew Boyles, Franchise Partner, owning seven 1-800-Got Junk franchises and Brook Taylor from the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, and beloved Oregon Duck fan. Brook had a big hand in putting together the conference. All were great conversations and I look forward to more in the future. 

Next up? I speak on a panel with David Fischer, VP of Online Sales, Google, moderated by Arel Moodie, America's Top Young Speaker about marketing tools that will take your business global.

I'll be back.

6 Ways to Cut Costs for Your Small Business Now

Since we've seen the stock market plunge in the past few weeks, there has never been a better time to take a closer look at how we can shave to save. So I put together a list of some things to look at, because every little bit helps.

Credit Card Processing Fees - Banks are hurting these days but it doesn't mean that you have to bear the brunt of it. Call your bank and see if there is any room to lower the percentages you have to pay when someone uses a credit card to buy your product. I found an article on Forbes about small businesses saving on these fees.

Paper Costs - It's becoming rare that you should actually have to print a document. You can read email, you can read a document attached to an email and it's even quicker than printing on paper. So here's an idea: every time you go to print something so you can snail mail it or read it on paper, ask yourself "Can I send this in an email?" or "Can I read this on my computer screen?" I bet you'll find out most of the time you can avoid the printer. 

Another idea for reducing paper usage is to keep your documents online. Google Docs are free and you can invite people to share your documents and make changes to them. I know an events manager at a local restaurant who was keeping event dates on a paper calendar until he was introduced to Google Calendar. Now he's keeping everything online. Even better? The owners can access the calendar without having to contact him.

Obviously I'm going to tell you to stop printing out and snail-mailing your newsletter. It's not environmentally friendly and it's probably about 10x the cost of sending an email newsletter. Now is the time to convert your list into getting your newsletter in digital format. Feel free to take a test drive of VerticalResponse to do it, if you don't already.

Last, but not least, stop faxing. Get rid of the fax machine, there are a ton of free services as well as services with low monthly fees.

Travel - If your business relies on a face to face meeting to close the sale, you probably can't cut down drastically. However there are many ways to have meetings on the phone especially if you need to present something. Check out InterCall and GoToMeeting for web conferencing, and Glance to share you desktop.

One more thing, have you looked at your frequent flier statement recently? Now's the time to cash in on some of those rewards for travel if it is an important part of how you do business.

Supplies - Take a look at the monthly supplies you buy for your location. Can you save money buying cheaper paper plates? Can you use real silverware in the lunch room instead of buying plastic utensils? Do you really need name-brand paper towels? Are there coupons you can use from the Sunday paper? It might not seem like a lot but it all adds up.

Phones - Do all of your employees need a phone? Of course you'll need them especially if your sales or marketing folks have to speak to your customers or order inventory. But if you've got a group of employees that don't need their own, try setting up a phone for them to share.

Also look at Voice over Internet Protocol. VoIP allows users to use regular telephone networks anywhere through any internet service provider, cuts down on long distance charges. For a listing of providers go here.

Shipping Costs - If you ship a lot of your products, why not put a call into your shipper to see how you can reduce some of those costs. I also found this blog post from the Shipping Coach with tons of advice on reducing shipping costs.

Little by little it all adds up so make sure you keep a close eye on everything you're spending money on!

New Free Business Forms in the VR Lounge

Have you visited the VR Lounge yet to interact with over 1400 people interested in email marketing? If that hasn't been enough to get you there maybe this will; over 60 business forms for you to download absolutely free!

I would have loved to have these when I started the business. We've even put some of the ones we use today in there too. Here's a small sample of what you'll find:

• Accounting - Pro forma balance sheet, profit & loss statement, cash flow statements & more.
• Admin - Credit check, fax cover, wire transfer, purchase order, invoice template, expense report template & more.
• Finance - Lease or buy comparison, calculating present value & more.
• HR - Job description, application for employment, offer letter, employee termination report & more.
• Legal - Consulting agreement, confidentiality agreement & more.
• Marketing - Marketing plan, creative brief, press release template, marketing budget & more.
• Strategy - Strategic plan outline, SWOT analysis, executive summary & more.

So have fun with them but remember, the forms are to be used only as a starting point. VerticalResponse makes no claim that these forms are legally binding in your state, country or part of the world so first consult your attorney!

How To Use an Instant Messenger for Your Business

From time to time I write about some tools we use here at VR to keep the business running. Today it's going to be about Instant Messaging. We use instant messaging here a LOT since we're on different floors and very spread out. Maybe too much. But it can be a really useful tool and very cost-effective since for the most part it's free. It stops our one-on-one email traffic and if we need to move quickly on something it's easy to do. But to most positives there are negatives to be aware of too. Here are a few that we've run into.

Positives

• It's great if you're in multiple locations and you need a cost effective way to communicate.
• It saves us money on long distance.
• You chat with someone while on a conference call to steer the conversation.
• It's great if you can't leave your desk and need a quick answer to a question.
• It saves you on foot traffic if you've got a long way to walk for a quick discussion.
• Stops the shouting between offices if that is a factor.
• We use live chat to talk to customers real time because many of you can't wait for a call or email back from us. Some of our reps have multiple windows open chatting with you.

Negatives

• For long drawn out conversations, pick up the phone. I've been a victim to this too many times.
• Sometimes tone is misconstrued and conversation can take a turn for the worse.
• Putting a smiley face on the end of a nasty note does not make it ok to say nasty things:-)
• Managing people from afar 100% by AIM doesn't really work. People still need to talk.
• It can be an interruption when receiving them since either a tone is heard or something pops on your screen.
• People tend to be more courageous with what they say vs. talking face to face or on the phone.

How to use an instant messenger in your business:

Be Considerate! - Don't just start typing. A nice "U There? before you start typing is always considerate. It's the proverbial knock at the door.

If you are not paying attention and are talking to someone while someone is instant messaging you simply say "hold". Then get back to them. If you're not going to get back to them for a while let them know so they are not sitting around waiting.

Pick Up The Phone - If you're unsure about how the tone of a conversation is going, pick up the phone or have a face to face conversation.

Use Your Status. I'm terrible at this but getting somewhat better. If you're not available or do not want to take messages, tell people that by saying "unavailable" as your status. With many programs you can go as far as to use a custom status and tell people where you are or when you'll be back.

Your Picture - Remember in many programs your picture will show up to anyone you're chatting with. Make sure it's appropriate.

Be Careful - Don't put crucial information like user names and passwords in IM, it's not secure.

How are you using instant messaging for your business? What do you like and what do you hate?

Is Your Company Getting Greener? Tell the World!

Today businesses and consumers alike have to be careful about the energy we use and the environment we want to protect and clean up. There are so many ways a business can get greener, we know, we decided to go on the journey ourselves and believe me, there are a lot of tough habits to break!

As a company that works at sustainability we tend to attract the type of employee who cares about the environment. As a side benefit, employees who work in environmentally friendly organizations might even collectively learn what they can do outside of the workplace. Here at VerticalResponse we've got a long way to go but we'll share a few steps we've been working on. A lot of little things sure add up to a lot.

We don't have a tangible product that needs cardboard boxes to sit on a store shelf!
We send email marketing campaigns on behalf of businesses that are replacing direct mail with email.
We print our postcards on recycled materials.
We don’t use plastic utensils.
We supply our employees with water bottles made out of recycled plastic so they don't drink from plastic cups.
We recycle glass, cans, plastics and mixed paper.
We buy Fair trade coffee.
We print on recycled 20% post-consumer materials.
We often use eco-friendly supplies from green businesses.
We buy many supplies from The Green Office.
We use eco-friendly cleaning products like those from Seventh Generation.
We use reusable bags instead of paper bags.
We recycle used batteries and encourage employees to bring in old batteries.
We offer commuter benefits for people who take public transportation, it's a pre-tax benefit.
When we have to print on paper we print double-sided.
We keep our lights off during the day, it’s nice and bright in here anyway!
We turn our computers off at the end of the day. It saves more energy than sleep mode.
We buy local - saves transportation costs and supports the local economy.
We offset carbon emissions with Native Energy who is building a farmer-owned wind project.
We regularly participate in computer recycling drives.
We collaborate with each other by sending electronic documents through email or posting and sharing them using Zimbra and Google docs to avoid circulating paper.
Our office building is green, using recycled carpeting, and eco-friendly lighting.

You probably have something like this in your area, but if you want some ideas, SFEnvironment has a great checklist with ideas for greening up your business.

And if you've got some ideas for us let's hear them!

Webinar: Getting Started With Google Apps

Join Google and the VerticalResponse product specialists for an exclusive webinar on Google Apps. Find out how you can use Google docs, calendars, and sites alongside VerticalResponse. From collaborating with coworkers on newsletter content, to creating and hosting a site, to developing a list of your most valuable customers, it's easy to do with Google Apps.

               When: Wednesday, July 9,  10AM-11AM PT

Learn more about all the features in Google Apps and how you can use them to effectively manage your business. This is your chance to chat directly with the folks at Google, so don't miss out!

Reserve your spot today, I think it's gonna be great!

January '08 Inc.com Article - Welcome New Employees With Open Arms

I write an article for Inc.com's Women in Business Section every few months. This month has me thinking about how tough it is to hire great people and how I think every company needs to be treating a new employee. Check it out.

VerticalResponse Integrates with NetBooks!

Have you heard? A super new company called NetBooks just launched  and they're using VerticalResponse as their email marketing partner!

What is NetBooks?

They are the newest partner of VerticalResponse! They are an online solution that lets any business run everything from soup to nuts for a low monthly fee.

What Soup and Where Are the Nuts?

You can run everything from bookkeeping, to production, to inventory management, to sales and shipping. Oh, throw in a bit of CRM and email marketing (VerticalResponse) and you've got a nifty solution all rolled into one. Best of all? Since it's all online you get it from anywhere, anytime, no more software to keep upgrading. I highly recommend you joining the online demo, it's packed full of information and you can ask any questions you'd like. The team over there rocks.

True story: Ridgely Evers, the CEO, also started DaVero, an amazing wine and olive oil business. He's been a customer and fan of VerticalResponse for many years, and came directly to us to be heavily involved in this new gig. Oh, and as the guy behind the original Quickbooks, you can imagine how great that was. You will still get all of your fantastic VR functionality when you use them.

By the way, they are using the VerticalResponse API to do much of the integrated work. If you need to integrate with a top-notch email service provider check out our robust API. Developers love it!

July Inc.com Article - Hiring & Retaining Great Employees

Summertime got you with extra time on your hands? I have an idea! Forget Harry Potter! Why not curl up with my monthly column for the Inc.com Women in Business section entitled Hiring & Retaining Good Employees.  Happy reading!

Free Business Forms, Letters and Templates on WorkZ

Our sister company WorkZ just got an update! There are now over 150 forms, letters and templates you can download for free to help you manage your business from marketing and sales to accounting and HR. These are forms and templates for your business that we use here at VR, and there are those that we luckily got from McGraw Hill! So you know they're good.

Here are just a few some examples, there are tons more:

Marketing - Marketing Plan Outlines, Press Release Template and more...
HR - Employment Application, Offer Letter Template, Sample Interview Questions and more...
Accounting - P&L Statements, Balance Sheets, Cashflow and more...
Sales - Comparing Sales Rep Performance, Average Cost Pricing and more...
Office Stuff - Fax Cover Sheet, Invoice template, wire transfer template, expense reports and more...

So check them out, they're easy to download and free of charge. Also look at the great articles people have written to help small businesses grow. Got an article YOU want to submit?  Email us.