Awesome Contests and Events – What Are You Waiting For?

Welcome to our latest curated list of events, contests and awards for small businesses, solo entrepreneurs and growing companies — 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

Wells Fargo Works ProjectWells Fargo Works Project
June 30, 2014, Online

The Wells Fargo Works Project is a video or essay contest specifically for small business owners in the United States. To enter for a chance to win, tell your business story. Five small business owner winners will be selected from a pool of 25 finalists. The finalists will each receive $1,000. The five winners will each receive:

- $25,000 for their business.
- Business mentorship tailored to their specific business needs.
- A $5,000 donation in their name made by Wells Fargo to a local eligible non-profit organization in their community.

Wells Fargo is a sponsor of Small Business Trends’ CEO Anita Campbell.

Hashtag: #WellsFargoWorks

Bizapalooza 2014: Planning and ProfitsMarketing Makeover $25,000 From CBS Local
June 30, 2014, Online

Would you like a Marketing Makeover, to the tune of $25,000? Enter for a chance at this awesome prize package valued at $25,000 in products and services! The winner will get a streaming ad for CBS Local’s online radio station; display ads; search optimization services; Constant Contact Toolkit; and expert advice and a marketing plan. Just tell your story and why you deserve a marketing makeover. Open to U.S. small businesses. See rules, and enter today!

Bizapalooza 2014: Planning and ProfitsBizapalooza 2014: Planning and Profits
July 09, 2014, Online

Bizapalooza gives you a unique opportunity to connect with industry pros who really want to see you do more with your small business. Come as you are to this virtual small-business festival, then walk away with a fresh perspective, loads of free resources, plus practical solutions to fix what’s holding you back. FREE – and with freebie resources. Sponsors needed, too!
Hashtag: #Bizapalooza

More Events

More Contests

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

The post Awesome Contests and Events – What Are You Waiting For? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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From Our Community: An Open Letter to Seattle, Dealing with Mean People

Tablet reader outdoorsEDIT

It’s time for another edition of the community news and information roundup. Here’s what’s being talked about on the small business blogs and in the small business communities we follow.

Mr. Mayor, Franchises Aren’t Big Business (The Franchise King)

You may have heard. Seattle’s decided to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next seven years for small businesses and over the next three years for larger ones. In the wake of the decision, Joel Libava writes an open letter to Mayor Ed Murray to clear up just one little point.

How To Deal With Mean People Online (GeriRichmond.com)

We’ve all been there. And if it hasn’t happened to you yet, it likely will someday. Someone will choose to be less than respectful to you online, leaving you feeling discouraged and upset. This wonderful post from online marketer Geri Richmond was shared with the BizSugar community by member Donald Thomas. And started a lively discussion on the topic.

How To Curate Content for Your Website (Social Media Just For Writers)

It doesn’t matter if you maintain a website or social channel for your own business or provide it as a service for others. You already know curation can be a great way of broadening the kind of content you offer readers and potential customers. Frances Caballo has these suggestions for tools and techniques that will help you do it better.

Improve the Reach of Your Message (J.G. Communications)

Up until now, content marketing has been about the quality (and maybe the volume) of your content. Now, it may be about something else, as well. John Grimley shares this post about the move toward improving marketing messages through better distribution. This involves not just creating your marketing message but getting more precise about targeting your customers.

Facebook Will Share Less Data (Adventures in Career Change)

That is, Facebook will share less of your data with third party sites. These are the websites and applications that are always requesting data in order for you to click through. In this post, freelance social media specialist Janet Gershen-Siegel points out that Facebook will go on collecting data on its members for its own purposes. Arguably this is good news for businesses with a Facebook presence worried their data may be shared. But it’s bad news for small third party website or app operators who have previously benefited from this customer data.

Five Content Marketing Approaches (BloggingTips.com)

In the past, online marketers often talked about blogging, social media, online video, etc. Today, they talk about content marketing. And, as blogger John Conor explains, this can include creating content for any number of different platforms. But it also includes having strategies about how to reach the right audience or customers.

Unmanaged Emails and Meetings Can Drain Away Your Time (Tweak Your Biz)

Contributor Flor McCarthy, the managing partner in a legal practice, calls these “time vampires.” Unscheduled meetings from within your organization or without and reading and dealing with every email when it arrives can be tremendous drains. There are exceptions, of course. But McCarthy gives small business owners some advice on how to drive stakes through these particular vampires and stop them from draining away your productivity.

Seek Tools for Better Organizaion (Doug — Off the Record)

We can’t all be born well-organized. For example, business and computer science educator Doug Peterson admits to being the kind of person who drops files into folders with names like “Doug’s Documents.” And he says moving to the cloud has only made things worse. Fortunately, Peterson says, there are tools to help put your digital house in order.

Think Hard About Your Pricing (Creative Live)

Pricing of your product or service should not be taken lightly. Kari Chapin, author of “The Handmade Marketplace” and “Grow Your Handmade Business” gives some advice. (See the video of her presentation in the BizSugar community.) Many of Chapin’s suggestions on pricing extend to other kinds of small businesses. Thanks to member Martin Lindeskog for sharing this one.

Use Social to Grab Your Prospects’ Attention (Small Business Sense)

Kim George gives us seven tips to grab the attention of prospects using social media. This is about more than just boosting your brand. Kim’s advice is about targeting the right prospects with the right message, a recurring message in the social media and content marketing world these days.

We hope you’ve enjoyed another installment of the community news and information roundup. Please feel free to participate in upcoming editions. Drop us an email at sbtips@gmail.com to tell us what you think we should be sharing next. Or contribute to BizSugar.com where we go each week to find the best and freshest in small business content.

The post From Our Community: An Open Letter to Seattle, Dealing with Mean People appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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How to Turn a $300 Investment into a Design Business

how to turn 300

Terrence Kelleman started his business completely by accident. With no previous business or marketing experience, he turned a small investment into a multi-million dollar design business.

While working as an eCommerce photographer at the Museum of Modern Art, he found some magnetic puzzle pieces in the trash. Later, they sprung together on their own and his first product, a bracelet made exclusively of magnets, was born.

how to turn 300

Kelleman's initial business investment was a $300 box of magnets to make more bracelets.

He wasn't sure if the products would catch on. He just left a few of the bracelets at a receptionist desk at one of his art shows. When they sold out, he decided that he could be onto something. So he started dedicating more time and energy to making his new business, Dynomighty, a success.

Before Dynomighty, Kelleman was a fine artist featured at gallery shows in New York and Europe. So designing unique new products came pretty naturally to him.

how to turn 300

In 2005, Kelleman launched a new line for Dynomighty, The Mighty Wallet. The Tyvek wallet was the first to feature a single stitchless piece of material and has become the flagship product for Kelleman's company.

But designing new products isn't the only important factor in running a creative business. Kelleman had to learn about things like marketing as he went along. In an email interview with Small Business Trends he said that his creative thinking also helped in those areas:

"I'm not trained in business or marketing but I try to use creativity and innovation to solve business problems."

how to turn 300

Some of the innovative tactics he’s used include online video marketing, unique showings at trade shows, collaborations with other artists, and integrating QR codes into TV ads. He has since been recognized by YouTube and Google TV Ads for those effective campaigns.

Today, Dynomighty products are sold in over 60 countries and in 1,800 stores across the U.S. And Kelleman isn't done yet. His latest business expansion includes a venture into furniture design. But Kelleman's goal is to always keep his products different from everything else available in the current market. Creative thinking in both product design and marketing has been a huge part of the company's success. He said:

"Dynomighty is in its twelfth year and we've had many highs and lows but we keep growing and evolving thanks to our hard work and innovative product designs. Many of the products I have designed are so different that we have a strong edge in the market for our uniqueness and creative thinking."

Photos: Dynomighty

The post How to Turn a $300 Investment into a Design Business appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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Become the Sales Person You Never Thought You’d be With “Conversations That Sell”

conversations that sell"I hate selling!  What can you do so that customers will come to me and I don't have to sell?"  I can't begin to count how many times clients say this to me.  They say it a lot and my response is generally something flippant like, "I can help you find a job."

Do you think that's rude?

I'm not sure, but as far as I can see, it's virtually impossible to own and run a business if you're not ready to sell.

Why We Hate Selling

The problem is that we've been fed an overdose of selling stereotypes that paint sales people in such an unflattering light that you'd have to be nuts to "want" to sell.

Not only that, but the business environment has changed so much that successful selling looks nothing like what you may have been taught in the past.

This is why I was so excited to get a review copy of Conversations That Sell: Collaborate with Buyers and Make Every Conversation Count by Nancy Bleeke (@SalesProInsider).

When I saw the forward of the book was written by Jill Konrath, author of SNAP Selling: Speed up Selling and Win More Business From Today's Fazzled Customers, I knew that this was going to be a book I read and reviewed for you.

Whatever You Do – Don't Sell Anything

Years ago, when I first started my business and realized that I would have to "sell," my coach told me something really powerful. "Whatever you do, don't sell anything.  Have conversations that you feel passionately about." This is exactly the distinction that Bleeke brings out in Conversations that Sell.

The book is divided into three parts:

  • Selling in Today's World: Where she highlights the evolution of sales from a persuasive conversation to a collaborative conversation.
  • The What and How of Collaborative Sales Conversations: Where she shows you how to understand the structure of the collaborative conversation.  My favorite component of this section is what she calls the "Tribal Types" and highlights the different communication styles of the people that you'll be having conversations with.
  • The Factors that Make or Break Your Sale: Where she provides you with the supporting tools, tips and management strategies to put her powerful conversation system into practice for your business.

A Little About Nancy Bleeke

Nancy is the President of Sales Pro Insider, a training and consulting firm that specializes in helping salespeople improve their customer service, leadership and sales skills.

I think you will resonate with Nancy because she spent an entire career "denying" being a sales person. Mostly because all she knew or remembered were negative conversations or impressions of sales people.  She didn't want to be "that guy."  But when a killer opportunity came a long that was firmly grounded in sales, she embraced it and came out of it with a new appreciation and understanding of the sales process.

What will matter to you is that her perspective is spot on – we are all in sales, whether we like to acknowledge it or not.  The only difference between calling yourself a salesperson and being a sales person is it requires more conscious effort and conversation management.

Yes – This Book is for You

I know that some of you are reading this thinking, "Yeah, I know I am a sales person. I've read so many books about sales and if the number of books I've read were dollars, I'd be rich!"  I know.  I know.

Indeed, this is a book about selling.  But, I think it's more a book about having conscious conversations that lead to profitable relationships.

Yes, this book is for you.  Whether you want to admit that you're selling or not.

The post Become the Sales Person You Never Thought You’d be With “Conversations That Sell” appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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SoftBank to cut smartphone charges in Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Corp , Japan's No.3 mobile carrier, will cut its smartphone charges in Japan with a flat rate for unlimited voice calling and cheaper data plans, in a sign that price competition may be starting to pick up in Japan's mobile market.






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