Start Up with $1,500, Become a “Visible Expert” and More

It’s time again for another community news and information roundup. From startup advice to new online tools to the latest stats, we scan the Web and our small business community. And the result is a selection of resources we provide to you, the small business owner. We hope it gives you the information and inspiration you need to run your business each week.

We’d love to have your thoughts and insight on how to improve this list each week. Read more below about how you can get involved.

And now, let’s dig in!

Start a Business with $1,500 (CrowdSpring)

Ross Kimbarovsky, co-founder of CrowdSpring, shares an infographic says it can help you build your business for less than you might have thought possible. This week, Ross also took time to chat with members of the BizSugar community about the possibilities of bootstrapping.

Yes, Social Media Can Drive Sales (Small Business Forum)

When trying to save costs, social media can prove to be one of the the most inexpensive means to market your business. But if you’ve heard social media can’t really drive sales, you should check out this post from Rieva Lesonsky.

Let’s Look at Six Social Media Megastars (Tweak Your Biz)

To understand how to use social media effectively, it helps to follow brands that have done it right. Here Lionel Bryant looks at companies that have mastered the art of social media marketing and what we can learn from them.

Timing Really is Everything (Social Media Slant)

If you want to know how to use social media most effectively, begin by figuring out when your posts have the greatest impact. Cendrine Marrouat shares one service that can help you find the best day and time of day to post on Google Plus.

Embrace the Power of Telecommuting (The Work at Home Woman)

Another way to reduce costs when starting your business is to embrace the power of telecommuting. Here Christy Schutz makes the case for telecommuting…for a lot more than budgetary reasons.

Key to Success: Don’t Follow the Herd (Kexino)

No matter what marketing approach you decide to follow, be sure it is one that makes sense for your business and not just the latest fashion. Here marketer Gee Ranasinha explains to the BizSugar community why it’s important to step back and answer some questions about your business before deciding what marketing channels are right for you.

How to Become a “Visible Expert“ (Blogging Wizard)

One of the most effective ways of building a brand online is to establish yourself as what Lee Frederiksen calls a “visible expert.” This approach can allow you to develop opportunities related to your expertise ranging from speaking engagements to consulting and more.

One Change Can Transform Your Business (Medium)

Entrepreneur Michael Sacca describes his journey from creating a free app with one $1.99 book for sale to the full collection of books that is Bilingual Child today. Thanks to Jennifer Sable Lopez for sharing this post on Inbound.org.

We hope you enjoyed this latest edition of the community news and announcement roundup. Now it’s your turn.

Thanks for reading!

Reading Online Photo via Shutterstock

Guacamole Sales Spike After Breaking Bad TV Appearance

When you think about ways to market a local restaurant, appearing on a show about drug dealers might not seem like the most conventional choice. But Garduno’s of Mexico has experienced an increase in sales after the restaurant was featured in AMC’s “Breaking Bad” in late August.

The well-known local eatery was initially approached by AMC in January about using its Winrock Mall location for a scene.

Said Corporate General Manager Warren Gaustad, who works out of all six of Garduno’s southwest locations:

I just happened to be here when the location scout came in and asked to talk to someone about using the restaurant. At first I thought he was joking.

According to Gaustad, the show was initially going to use a nationwide chain restaurant, but the company backed out and then the show decided to go with Garduno’s. Before filming began, Gaustad received an outline of the script for the scene to make sure it didn’t show the restaurant in a negative light:

Basically everyone watches “Breaking Bad” here in Albuquerque, so I just thought it would be a fun thing for the staff to experience. But it is a show about methamphetamine so we did want to make sure they weren’t doing anything too crazy here.

Garduno’s was closed for one day during the shoot, and AMC covered the restaurant’s losses for that day. Gaustad and many of the restaurant’s 100 employees were present to see the filming take place. They even met some of the actors and crew members, like R.J. Mitte who plays the character of Walter Jr. (shown below).

During the scene, Walter White (played by Brian Cranston) meets with his wife, her sister, and her sister’s DEA agent husband.

The restaurant was featured prominently when a waiter attempted to convince the table to order Garduno’s tableside guacamole.

Gaustad said that the tableside guacamole has come to be known as “awkward guacamole” by fans of the show. And, while he insists that Garduno’s wait staff isn’t as pushy as the fictional waiter featured on the show, he did say that the tableside guacamole has experienced the largest increase in sales since the episode aired.

Gaustad estimated there’s been about a 10% increase in sales because of the show, but said that the restaurant has been experiencing a general increase in sales for a few months anyway. He knows that the show has been a major factor recently because many customers have mentioned it or taken photos of the table featured in the scene:

We have a really unique restaurant. It’s really funky and eclectic, so we always have people taking pictures in here. But, since the show, it’s definitely been even more frequent.

Garduno’s first opened its doors back in 1969. Then just a single, family-run restaurant in Albuquerque, the company eventually added five more locations throughout New Mexico and Nevada.

About two years ago, a company called Southwest Brands bought Garduno’s, which was struggling to stay afloat at the time. The goal was to keep the brand in tact, since Garduno’s had become a kind of local landmark, according to Gaustad.

The Winrock Mall location, where the Breaking Bad scene was filmed, wasn’t the first to open, but Gaustad said that it is the most unique and popular in the chain.

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Read The Focused Business and Become a Small Business Superhero

The slow but steady turning of the leaves from bright green to golden yellow and fiery red is a trigger for small businesses to start thinking about next year.  In a lot of ways, “Back to School” for kids triggers that same fresh look and fresh start feeling for the rest of us.

You know you’re doing it too.  In the midst of finding and serving customers, there is a little voice inside your head whispering for you to think about next year. What do you need to do to grow your business?  Should you take on new projects and new opportunities?

If that sounds like you - then you’ll want to pay attention to this review because the book I’m about to share with you is going to end up on your doorstep before you finish reading this article.

ADHD Inspired a Dedication to Focus

Now you might think that our fearless author, David Crenshaw (@DaveCrenshaw) is some kind of Superman (more on the hero reference later) to take on the challenge of helping entrepreneurs overcome the inevitable chaos that eventually creeps into their business.

Instead, he’s just a regular guy who actually suffers from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and has transformed his challenge into a real strength and learning opportunity for the rest of us.

Dave’s first book, The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done, is a time management bestseller available in many languages worldwide. His most recent book, The Focused Business: How Entrepreneurs Can Triumph Over Chaos, is also a small business best seller.

Dave’s courses on websites such as Lynda.com are also among the world’s most widely-viewed online training.

The Focused Business Helps You Identify Your Super Powers

David Crenshaw sees business owners as superheroes and uses this theme as a foundational structure to the book, with all of the elements of chaos being represented as villains.

Let’s do a quick review of the villains of chaos and see who and what is probably getting in your way.  As you’re reading this, take a moment to note or write down which of these is at play in your business today:

• The Con: This person is the leader of the chaos group in your business.  This is the villain that got you into your business in the first placeâ€"but it’s also the villain that is at play that gets you to sacrifice yourself at the “altar” of your business.
• The Jack-of-all-Trades:  Jack wants you to multi-task and do it all.  He’s the one that tells you that no one can do it better than you.
• The Gorilla:  This is the employee who has a lot of strengths but he/she uses this strength to divert attention from all the messes he/she creates.
• Ms. Opportunity: This is the villain that is responsible for all the distractions that take you away from what really matters in your business.
• Siphon: This villain is the one responsible for being that “pain in the neck” customer.  They are the ones who want what your system simply doesn’t deliver very well.
• The Jumbler: This is often your marketing employee or resource.  They operate under the “throw stuff against the wall hoping some of it sticks.”  This is the person looking for the home run or the silver bullet.
• Overload: This is the last villain and perhaps the most insidious one because it masks itself as data, but what it really does is paralyze you in your business and it keeps you in a perpetual state of inaction and confusion.

Read The Focused Business with a Notebook in Your Hand

This is a very practical and pragmatic book.  As you read this book, you will get ideas and want to take actions.  To help you with that, each section and chapter has an action section where you can take notes right in the book.  Of course, if you’re one of those people who has been browbeaten into thinking that writing in books is bad, bad, bad, you had better go and grab a notebook - or better yet, download the worksheets from the book’s website.

The great thing about this book is that it is very short and to the point. There are a total of ten chapters plus a bonus mini-book in just under two hundred pages.

Since there are seven villains, Crenshaw includes a chapter on how to “battle” each villain.  Just to let you in on a secret, I turned straight to the chapter on “The Jumbler” just to see if I (as a professional marketer) have any of these bad habits that I throw at my clients or that get in the way of my own business.  Turns out - I do.

Here are just a few snippets of Crenshaw’s powerful take on how your ego gets in the way of your business success:

Your customers are somebody - not anybody. . .The way to speak to your MVCs (Most Valuable Customers) is to give them your…Most Valuable Message.

He goes on to say that the job of The Jumbler is to make you feel like you have to be all things to all people:

Your ego is not your amigo.

I love this one.  It speaks directly to the soul of the entrepreneur.  We fall in love with ideas, especially our own.  In this section, Crenshaw bares his soul on the lackluster success of one of his books and how his falling in love with a title, actually hurt sales.

Are You Ready to Be a HEROpreneur?

If your business isn’t at the level that you’d like it to be, then chances are that you are being hijacked by one of Crenshaw’s villains. Rather than hide out or stick your head in the sand, Crenshaw urges you to be a Heropreneur.

While you’re at it, why not use The Focused Business as your super power to not only protect and serve your business, but vanquish the villains who are working against it?

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