You Know You Need to Check Out These Contests and Events!

We’ve got another awesome list of contests and events to enrich you and your team, and your business.  This list of events, contests and awards for small businesses, solo entrepreneurs and growing companies was curated just for you. Check them out below!

To see a full list or to submit your own event, contest or award listing, visit the Small Business Events Calendar.

Featured Events, Contests and Awards

Get embed with us! Surveys & forms on YOUR site!Get embed with us! Surveys & forms on YOUR site!
March 18, 2014, Online

Adding a survey or form to your site has never been easier!
Strengthen your brand, bring traffic back to YOUR website (or keep them there longer), and more!

Website feedback
Lead gen
contact
customer surveys

See the options in action!

Brother Back to Business ContestBrother “Back to Business” Contest on BizSugar
March 19, 2014, Online

Use the Brother CreativeCenter to create marketing collateral for your business, and enter the Back to Business Contest for an opportunity to win one of three Brother product prize suites. You will also get visibility on BizSugar.com and its sister site, Small Business Trends.  Entry is FREE - enter here.

Affiliate Management Days San Francisco 2014Affiliate Management Days San Francisco 2014
March 19, 2014, San Francisco, CA

AM Days is the must attend event for affiliate managers who are responsible for their company’s affiliate marketing strategy, management and operations. Whether you have an existing affiliate program or you are creating a new initiative, AMDays offers you valuable insight into how other online retailers are successfully implementing and managing their affiliate programs. Topics include: Affiliate program set up; Affiliate recruitment techniques; Affiliate marketing fraud; M-commerce; and much more.
Hashtag: #AMDays

15 Days of GiveawaysSmallBizLady’s 15 Days of Giveaways
March 25, 2014, Online

SmallBizLady’s 15 Days of Giveaways will take place March 5th through 25th, 2014 on Twitter and her Facebook fan page. To enter the contest participants must sign up for Melinda Emerson’s email list. Each day an email will come out with a description of that day’s giveaway and a special message that must be posted in social media on Twitter or her Facebook fan page using the hashtag #15DaysofGiveAways. The Contest will take place on business days between Noon and 6pm EST. One winner will be selected at random each day.

Small Business Book Awards 2014Small Business Book Awards 2014
April 11, 2014, Online

The Small Business Book Awards honor the best business books published in 2013, and book resources (such as cover design, copy editing and more). No fee required. Get the recognition your book or resource deserves. Nominate now through April 30, 2014!

Hashtag: #BizBookAwards

ICON14 by InfusionsoftICON14 by Infusionsoft
April 23, 2014, Phoenix, AZ

#ICON14 is the eighth annual conference for small business, hosted by Infusionsoft (previously called Infusioncon). Over 3,000 attendees expected. Confirmed speakers include Seth Godin, JJ Ramberg and Peter Shankman.

Hashtag: #ICON14
Discount Code
smallbiztrends (Get an extra $100 off)

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This weekly listing of small business events, contests and awards is provided as a community service by Small Business Trends and SmallBizTechnology.



In Our Community: Unlocking Potential, Empowering Your Team and More

It’s time again for our community news and information roundup. That’s when we collect the best links and resources from the small business blogs and communities we follow across the Web. Here’s what’s being talked about:

Unlock Your Team’s Potential Conspire by Mindjet

You may think creating a winning team for your business is just about getting things done more efficiently. But quite a bit more may be at stake, writes Arwen Petty. Disengagement can lead not only to low productivity but also to some employees simply jumping ship. High turnover of this kind can be bad for business. Here’s an infographic demonstrating the problem.

Why You Need a Store Online StickyWebz

Brick and mortar stores may be surprisingly slow to head online, despite the data about the incredible growth opportunities. One reason may be that they feel they’re business is doing fine as it is. David Winsauer’s company helps businesses create online stores. Here he shares some of the clear improvements any business can see by moving to the Web.

How to Empower Employees  Awake at 2 O’Clock in the Morning

If you don’t empower your employees, you’ll be stuck making every decision yourself. But the balance between empowering employees and keeping control of your business can be a tricky one. Business coach John F. Dini explains in this post above how to empower your employees to try new things. He also took some time in the BizSugar community this week to discuss finding balance in the process.

Build a Better Facebook About Page Tro Smith

Marketing writer Scott McKelvey argues those who don’t do all they can with their Facebook “about” page are wasting some very valuable real estate. But creating an “about” page on Facebook may be trickier than most small business owners realize. McKelvey suggests framing everything you say about your brand in terms of how it solves a customer’s problems.

WordPress Plugins for the Beginner Fiction Notes

You could be a small business owner creating a website about your product or service. Or  you could be a budding author sharing your latest manuscript with the world. Either way, WordPress is a pretty standard tool. Here, author Darcy Pattison gives us an overview of the plugins that can make your WordPress site better, regardless of your goals.

Harness the Power of Impatience In Power Women

Many of us may have been taught the value of patience in our lives. But suppose that isn’t the characteristic we should be cultivating most. Sometimes big ideas and the ability to launch them boldly come from a totally different place, says executive coach Mitch Sheppard. Could your business goals be helped with a dash of impatience?

Discover Hashtag Conversations on Twitter Zimana

Using social media effectively is about more than just knowing what to tweet or share. It should be about listening effectively to find the conversations you should be a part of. But how do you find these conversations in all the noise on social networks? Pierre DeBois suggests these Twitter tools to help you explore hashtags around the conversations you need to know about.

Most Businesses Deal with Price Shoppers Planner’s Lounge

Do you dread customers who ask for your price list or for the cost of your packages? Amber Peterson is talking specifically about the wedding and event planning industry here. But, let’s face it. Many businesses deal with price shoppers at one time or another. Of course, getting a good deal is something everyone can appreciate. But having customers thinking only in terms of price is not optimal. Peterson offers some suggestions that should work for just about any industry.

Why 80 Percent Won’t Do EnMast

So, you’ve got that project 80 percent done? Well, to your clients or customers waiting for your work, that’s the same as zero percent done, unfortunately. And for your business, says consultant Brad Farris, it’s even worse. But how can that be? That’s because you’ve already invested so much time and energy in the part you did finish. Devan Perine, who shared this wonderful post with the BizSugar community this week, also took time to comment on a challenge we all must get better at meeting.

You Might Be Missing the Point Aimsights

If you think social networking is just about being active on Facebook and Twitter, you may be missing the point. In this post, Donald Castle argues that the social networking giants might indeed be only symptoms of a much larger trend. If you really want to understand how customer behavior is changing, it’s time to look a bit deeper.

Now it’s your turn! If you think there’s news or information we should cover in the next edition of our roundup, please email us at sbtips@gmail.com. Or take a tip from John F. Dini and Devan Perine and share your content in the BizSugar community. It’s the place we turn often for the freshest and most authentic voices in the small business community. Please be sure to drop by.

Reading Photo via Shutterstock



Read Virtual Freedom and Unleash More Time and Money for Your Business

Read Virtual Freedom and Unleash More Time and Money for Your Business

It’s 5:30 am Eastern Time.  As soon as I open my computer and turn on Skype, I’m greeted by a morning flurry of smileys, good mornings and sometimes silliness - all from part of my virtual team that’s already into the full swing of their workday either in Argentina, South Africa or the Philippines.  In …

Content

Usefullness

Freshness

94

Summary

Learn to hire, train and manage a virtual team for your small business.

94

It’s 5:30 am Eastern Time.  As soon as I open my computer and turn on Skype, I’m greeted by a morning flurry of smileys, good mornings and sometimes silliness - all from part of my virtual team that’s already into the full swing of their workday either in Argentina, South Africa or the Philippines.  In the same way you might pop your head into an office, we instant message, catch up on the weekend and get on to the projects at hand.

Don’t be fooled, I’m not some kind of management mogul, I’m just a solopreneur that has seen the light and experienced the power of virtual teams.  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I have an MBA in multi-functional work teams.  But believe me, you don’t need one if you just follow the advice Chris Ducker gives in his new book Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Business.

I received a review copy recently and thought it would be a perfect book to share with you, just in case you’re freaking out thinking you have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done.

What a Virtual Team Is and Isn’t

The most important part of the book is the beginning where Ducker (@chrisducker) clearly defines virtual assistants, virtual teams and the general mindset of outsourcing a virtual staff.

The biggest mistake business  owners make, according to Ducker, is thinking that they can find and hire what he calls a “Super VA;” that person that can update blog posts, do social media, follow up with clients, transcribe, etc.  This is impossible and will lead to maximum stress and frustration for YOU as the business owner as well as for the unlucky VA that thought he or she could do it all and do it well.

This massive mistake alone is the biggest reason you want to read this book.  And, luckily for you, Virtual Freedom will not only keep you from making these kinds of mistakes, it will educate you, inspire you and give you the incentive you need to take your business to the next level.

Virtual Freedom Will Show You How to Buy More Time

Unless you’re in the manufacturing world, you may not be familiar with the concept of “man-hours.”  All this means is that every task requires a certain amount of time to complete.  If you are the one to do EVERYTHING yourself, then you’ll be spending all your time working on projects and infrastructure to manage your business - and NO time building and growing your business.

This is how a virtual team actually allows you to buy time.  You are literally expanding the hours you have in a day by assigning tasks to your virtual team.  Don’t worry. Virtual Freedom provides the step-by-step guidance to help you get there.

Ducker has divided the book up into seven sections:

  1. Finding and hiring your virtual staff
  2. Training your virtual staff
  3. Managing your virtual staff
  4. Staying local or going overseas
  5. Building your virtual team
  6. Content development
  7. Getting started

As you can see, he’s got the whole process covered from beginning to end.  In fact, every chapter and section is loaded with great advice.  I can say that with certainty since I’ve had many of the experiences Ducker is talking about.

One section that threw me for a loop, however, was the content development section.  At first, I wasn’t exactly sure what content development had to do with virtual teams.  As I thought about it, however, I realized that so many business owners struggle with creating content and they often look to a VA as a sort of magic bullet.  So, this section is important.

In fact, as you read through it, you’ll see how the other sections come into play in helping you successfully use a virtual team to help you develop great content.

In addition to all kinds of insider secrets, Ducker shares many, many tools and resources that you can use to find, hire, train, manage and build your team.  If you’ve been wondering how it’s done - Virtual Freedom will show you.

The Successful Business Owners’ Secret

If you’re reading this thinking, “I can’t afford to hire someone” - SNAP OUT OF IT.  I’m telling you, if I can afford to get help - so can you.

In fact, ask any successful small business owner and they will tell you that their business grew when they finally let go of their “DIY disease.”  Hiring a virtual team will not just make you money - it will save you money.

Believe me - I know - and I’m the DIYMarketer!  About two years ago I started using a shopping cart for my business.  It was costing me $129 per month.  Of course, I would learn to use it myself.  Three months and $330 later, I hadn’t had time to figure it out.  Finally, I relented and went looking for some help.  I hired Rhonda to set it up. She charged me…..are you ready for this…$50.  It took her less than two hours to completely set up and populate the system.

Normally, you’d think a sales and marketing book would give you tips to make money.  But sometimes a book comes along that not only helps you save money - it helps you make money.

Ducker is right on track with this and is doing a huge service to struggling small business owners.  Virtual Freedom is a book that will take you from stressed to successful if you follow its advice.



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