Wyoming Entrepreneur.biz Blog

Where Do I Purchase State and Federal Forms to Start My Business? John, Jackson, Wyo.

How many times do new business owners come to me AFTER paying for State and Federal Forms to start their businesses? I’m talking about fill-in blank, federal and state forms. These entrepreneurs want to make sure they are in compliance and doing everything necessary to correctly start their business. They search the internet and find sites that charge for State and Federal “free forms”. Sound like an oxymoron “charging for free forms”? It is!!!! So what should the fledgling business owner do?? As a general rule “FORMS ARE FREE”!!! How do you know which forms you need and where to find them? If you’re like me, I find it easier and more beneficial to have someone in the know, show and explain something to me rather than spending time “interpreting” information I haven’t a clue about. So where do you find that expert and how much is that going to add to your start-up costs? The answer is www.WyomingEntrepreneur.biz (The Wyoming Small Business Development Center) where business assistance is only a click and a call (307-382-0947) away. Our small business advisors are free and confidential. They offer a medley of expertise from business planning, e-commerce strategy, doing business with the government and YES – even which forms to file and how to obtain them for free! The next time you need information about starting and growing a business give us a click – www.wyen.biz .

Website Management - a balancing act

 

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is the buzz term for increasing website visibility.  SEO is usually about keywords, descriptions and titles for websites.  But they can’t work like they are supposed to if they are used in a website with a poor foundation. 

 

A website has to be balanced.  Think of it like a pyramid with your Home page at the top.  The next level down could be the About, Contact and Articles pages.  Review your article pages often.  Outdated articles throw your site off balance and make it harder for people to find the pages that you really want them to find.  Your site organization has to make sense to the user; make the information that you want them to find easily accessible. 

 

 If you are using a web analytics program to monitor your pages (such as Google Analytics), you will be able to see which of your pages are being viewed the most.  Are you making visitors dig to find your most popular pages?

 

Linking strategies are also an important part of this pyramid.  Cross-links that lead people on a goose hunt throw your site off balance and frustrate users.  A navigation scheme that starts at the top and allows users to drill down to the intended page is a much better approach. 

 

A good SEO strategy is to build the site so that both users and search engines can find your content.  Some of my thoughts are based on an interesting article titled, Intelligent Site Structure for Better SEO by Joost DeValk, October 2007.  I recommend it.

http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/intelligent-site-structure-for-better-se/

 

 

 

 

Savannah's Restaurant in Afton

In the 1840s, as pioneers trod across Wyoming, they could hardly have imagined what treasures were buried below the ground's surface.  Although, there are accounts of how they found surface pools of oil and used it to lubricate wagon axles.

Oil, natural gas and trona are not the only treasures that lye below the surface in Wyoming; there are culinary treasures as well like Savannah's Restaurant in Afton.  Opened June 2009 by Afton resident Pat Boedeker, this Wyoming small business has now been added to my list of staple visits when working this way.

When I travel to Star Valley I typically walk up and down Washington and visit with small business owners.  Guess it doesn't hurt that this one serves what is perhaps Wyoming's best New York steak (Pat hand carves all meat here).

 

Hemispheres

There are two hemispheres in owning a small business.  The first is knowing how to produce/sell a product.  Not a problem for Pat since she started learning about food preparation at age 8.  At that time, she helped her grandmother create delicious pastries in a bakery.  She also has more than a decade of experience working at Dubois' Cowboy Cafe, among other credentials.

But consider the other hemisphere: successfully applying principles of business (accounting, marketing, finance, human resource, etc.).  Pat is well qualified as an entrepreneur and understands the realities of business.  For example, not only did Pat have an adequate amount of operating capital for the startup, she also has an accounting degree from the University of Wyoming.  This recipe seems to have the right ingredients.

Both hemispheres blend well in Savannah's as the food is excellent and the business operations make it so.

If you are looking for treasure (like wonderful steak or Pat's staple offering: Chicken Fried Steak), Savannah's is one that should not be kept below Wyoming's surface.

 

Customer service?

As a business owner I always hear about customer service, I think my employees provide that but how do I really know?  What can I do to improve the elusive "customer service"?     Ann,  Torrington

By: Anya Petersen-Frey, Regional Director, WyomingEntrepreneur.biz

 

It’s a fact of doing business.  To stay competitive, you must constantly monitor the quality of the customer service you offer.  If the first experience is poor, you may never have a chance to change that expectation.  The customer will find another supplier.  Yet, customer service is a buzzword that like many others has lost its significance.  It’s time to revisit this valuable asset.

 

Every single contact that your business has with its customers, internal and external, either enhances or corrodes that relationship.  This includes letters you send, advertisements you run and phone calls you make or answer.  This includes employee contact and vendor contact.  So, your business is only as good as your worst employee!

 

Try to see your business through your customers’ eyes.  Create systems that will encourage a positive customer service experience.  Let your customer feel valued and appreciated.   Your customers may range in age from 12 to over 80.  They come from varied ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.  They are very diverse in their tastes.  They are also more educated, technologically savvy and wealthier than any previous group of consumers. Recognize that they are less tolerant of mistakes and are demanding higher levels of service.

 

Try to see your business through your employee’s eyes.  One of the goals of customer service training is to instill in your employees that it is their business too.  Customer service must be viewed as company etiquette.  If employees are not treated will, it’s tough for them to treat others properly. 

 

Often the difference between a good company and a poorly run company is not always demonstrated when things run smoothly; the difference is how they handle situations when there is a mistake.  Create a feedback loop for customers and employees.

 

 

 

 

 

Ten Commandments of Customer Service: As shared by Inc. Magazine (2002), and still holds true today

 

1. Care about your employees and treat them well.  Employee relations mirror your customer relations.
2. Praise and recognize your employees often.  The more, the better and don’t just leave it to ‘employee of the month’ programs.
3. Know and listen to your customers.  If you don’t really know your customers, how can you value them?
4. Believe that customer service drives profit.  Your bottom line can be positively impacted if your service is good enough.
5. Train and empower your people.  How can you expect employees to handle difficult customers if you’ve never taught them how to do it?
6. Clarify your service strategy.  Are you going to be a Ritz Carlton or a McDonalds as far as service goes?  How far are you willing to go to achieve the level of service you desire?
7. Weed out policies and procedures that are customer unfriendly.  For example, is your return policy easy to understand and implement? 
8. The company culture must be fanatical about customer service.  As Home Depot states: “If you’re not serving the customer, you’d better be serving someone who is”.
9. Continually improve your service levels.  Everyone in your business needs to continually look for ways to improve service.  Develop systems to capture everyone’s ideas and implement the best of them.
10. Remember that everyone has customers.  Internal customer service is just as important as external customer service. 

Social media - where to start?

There is so much out there on the Internet and the new "social media".  How do I know where to start?  Susan, Cheyenne

By Anya Petersen-Frey, Regional Director for WyomingEntrepreneur.biz

Tip-toeing into Social Media waters....

 

Social networking sites and services like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are essentially online hangouts that have evolved into a branding, lead generation, and sales tool for business.  With the right approach, they can help you promote your business, at a very low cost and sometimes no cost at all.

 

I'll introduce just the three tools I mentioned above but stress that there are many choices. It can be helpful to re-visit your entire marketing strategy and then explore how social media will fit into your goals. A WyEn.biz counselor can assist with that process.

 

Facebook offers several applications for promoting your website, products or services.  Creating a Facebook page for your company means that you can share information about your business with ~220 million Facebook members.  Gaining viewers ('fans or friends') to your pages takes time and maintaining new material and asking people you know to join your page is the first step. There is also the choice to pay for premium advertising for a more targeted approach.

 

Twitter is a case of instant messaging meets social networking.  Members share what is happening right now. Tweets, as the short 140 word posts are called, have a short shelf life so are best used to make company announcements, spotting trends, posting new products, or short lived specials.  The fun part is that you can begin to link your tools - such as Facebook and Twitter to reach a wider audience.

 

LinkedIn is a more traditional platform for business networking and is useful for business-to-business relationships. I like to think of it as a global Chamber of Commerce.  Create a profile that will help other LinkedIn users find you as an individual or company to do business with.

 

Begin by exploring these social networking site, perhaps 'follow' or become a 'fan' of businesses or people who interest you and you will get a sense of how the sites work and the benefit they can bring to you. Remember to maintain and build your brand online - keep a consistent message that ties back to your other marketing activities.

 

 

Pink event in Second Life raised funds for Breat Cancer Awareness

The Pink event, held October 16 at the Disney fan park in Second Life called Mouse World, was a hit and demonstrated the burgeoning power of 3-D online virtual worlds. Money was raised for breast cancer research and awareness.

 

I recently read an article from the Journal of Information Systems Education (refereed) titled Extending the classroom through Second Life. The authors report a figure from 2007 that states "80 percent of active Internet users will have a virtual presence in the form of an 'avatar' in at least one virtual world by the end of 2011." If true, online 3-D virtual worlds will indeed become the second great Internet revolution, possibly as great in magnitude as the world wide web itself. So what does this all mean and why is virtual world technology becoming such a sociocultural phenomena?

Since the Romans introduced the concept of a world wide web by building their extensive road system, human beings have reached out with manifest destiny-like ventures to extend life to and beyond all possible borders. Once we learned to use email we extended societal borders greatly but lost some human touch in the process. Now, we are claiming it back and virtual worlds is one way we are doing that. Nonverbal communication cues are part of Second Life and similar environments, unlike practically any other medium on the web right now.

Last Saturday morning in Second Life I attended a live Folk concert from the U.K., then attended a class on basic building in Second Life, both broadcast in real time. These are great technologies that will eventually be present on Wyoming Entrepreneur island.

Maxing out your website

A properly developed and maintained, a website can be a great way to connect with your customers, open new markets and cut operating costs.  In her Dec, 2008 article entitled, Need to Cut Costs? Improve the Website Experience, Megan Burns emphasizes consistent website monitoring to uncover usability issues http://www.in-depthresearch.com/pdf/Forrester-Research-Website-Usability-ROI.pdf.  The result can be an increased return on your website investment.  In these days of cost-cutting, having a website that works can help with customer service and sales issues.  

Start by determining the labor costs of answering phones and emails.  Examine the questions that you get and think about how costs could be reduced by using your website to its fullest potential.  

Many folks tout the benefits of surveys to find out what people are thinking about online sites but web analytics is a no-cost tool that can also help here.  Google has a free tool that will monitor your website; it provides you with a vast amount of information about how your visitors are reaching you.  Are they landing on certain pages more than others?  Are they finding you through your URL, through search engines or by your business name?  What keywords are they using to find you?  This is invaluable information to have as you make changes that will strengthen that connection between you and your customers, leading to a higher ROI for your website.

Even Expedia.com is not immune to usability issues.  Just two years ago, they discovered that their bookings were down because people didn’t want to fill in the boxes to register.  When they deleted the registration process, which served no real purpose, bookings went up.

There’s a big difference between failed attempts at trying to use a website and abandonment; that is people that want to do business with you vs. those that don’t even try.  If they want to do business with you but can’t negotiate your site, rethink customer service strategies.  By improving the site, you remove the barriers for doing business and increase your ROI.

For help with Google Analytics, call me and I’ll walk you through it.  Elizabeth Parks eparks@uwy.edu  307-766-5405

Are you using keywords to their fullest?

In my last article, I talked about the importance of linking strategies in web optimization.  Second in importance to links are keywords.  I know this term gets used and abused a lot, but it is still a top-ranking web strategy for online sites.  The most common problem I see with businesses and organizations is that they are not implementing keyword strategies to improve rankings and visibility.  For example, I recently ran across an article highlighting the need for universities to be more SEO savvy, Best College Sites Named, Sep 2009. http://www.higheredmorning.com/best-college-web-sites-named .

Competition has never been more fierce for enrollment dollars; especially with online universities growing at a fast pace.  And yet, most educational institutions do not implement SEO strategies as they build or rebuild their websites.  They often make the mistake of thinking people will find them using only their brand name.  Institutions need to research how people are searching for higher education products and services.  What words are they typing into the box to find college and program information?  What if they are looking for a specific program and not an institution name?  What if they are comparison shopping for MBA or PhD programs?  What if they are searching for general registration, research library, online course, admissions or international information?  All of these words should be included as keywords.  And don’t leave out the typical program names like biology, business, fine arts, nursing and agriculture.

 

You can test the effectiveness of your keywords by using a web analytics tool such as Google Analytics.  Google’s is a free tool and it provides lots of quantitative data that will answer many questions such as:

• What keywords are being used to find you?
• Which search engines are being used?
• Where in the world are these searchers?
• Which of your pages are being viewed the most? 

Having this kind of data will be invaluable as you move forward in your SEO strategies.  The great part about websites is that they are always dynamic and can be changed at the click of a mouse, resulting in more visitors to your site.

 

This is just one example of how keyword strategies are not being used to their fullest capacity.   The one described above can be used for any business.  How is your website doing?  Do you know?   The Market Research Center can help answer these questions.  Elizabeth Parks eparks@uwyo.edu  307-766-5405

Explore the Metaverse in Video

What is a metaverse?  Many definitions, but it is basically the virtual universe that is here now, and about to explode much further.  3-D muli-user virtual environments, like Second Life, are leading the way.  To me, the most important contributions in the metaverse are educational.  The video mostly shows the night club scene, which clouds reality (no pun intended) somewhat.  At least mine.

There has recently been another major breakthrough in metaverse technology.  It is found at the site called Exit Reality (www.exitreality.com).  Their technology makes websites appear in 3-D, which can then be explored with an avatar.  While this is a first generation software, its signifiance should not be underestimated and its influence will prove seminal.

Enjoy the original music and be blown away by all that is happening in the young, yet growing metaverse.  And remember, it is higher education that is leading the way with meaningful content, IMHO.

 

Photo Do's and Don'ts

You should never use a photo that you find on the internet without the express permission of the person who owns the copyright.  This is normally the photographer, but can be an organization or company.  Finding the copyright holder can be tough, especially since many photos on the internet are not properly attributed.  So how do you find that perfect picture to make the point you want in your advertising materials?  The time-honored way is to hire a professional photographer to take the picture.  This will probably give you the best results, but it can be pricey. 

Another method is to take the picture yourself.  If you take the picture, you generally own the rights to the image, although if you have a picture of a person, you should make sure that you have a signed model release.  A Google search for “model release form” will give you several examples of forms that you can use.

If all of this seems a bit much, you can always look to one of the stock photo services.  There are a bunch of them, but I am particularly fond of a few.  My personal favorite is Fotolia (www.fotolia.com).  This site offers millions of images that are available for unlimited licensing for extremely low cost.  The site features a great search feature and photos can be purchased in different levels of resolution.  For a web site, you can use an “XS Standard” file, most of which just cost $1.00.   For larger images, the prices go up, but $4 - $5 per picture is standard.  Fotolia allows you to place images in a “lightbox” so that you can compare images against each other.  You also can download a free “comp” image that you can use for layouts and for review.  The site also features a selection of illustrations and cartoons that are available for similar fees.

Other excellent sites are:
iStockphoto (www.istockphoto.com)
Big Stock Photo (www.bigstockphoto.com)
Dreams Time (www.dreamstime.com)

There are literally dozens of similar sites and millions of photos available.  Photography can now be a stress-free part of your marketing materials design process. 

What are your experiences with using photography in your marketing materials?