Thoughts on Building a Business

Sensis undertakes a quarterly Questionnaire on business confidence for Small Business, called the Business Index. The June 2009 questionnaire focussed on how Small Business was utilising technology and the Internet. It had some very interesting results that I thought I would share with you.

Business Computer Ownership

• 97% of all businesses used a Computer
• The highest usage is Communications & Business Services, Finance & Insurance and Health & Community at 100%
• The lowest usage is Building & Construction at 90%

Business Internet Connections

• 95% of all businesses use the Internet (up from 34% in 1998)
• Finance & Insurance the highest users at 100%
• Building & Construction the lowest at 87%

Business Internet Usage

• The main use for Internet in Small Business (97% of connected businesses) was email and communication
• 92% use it to look for information on Products and Services
• 83% use it to access Online Directories (such as Yellow Pages)
• 78% to place orders for Products and Services
• 78% to pay for Products and Services

Consumer Internet Usage

• 90% of Households have a Computer with 85% having Internet
• 78% of all Australians used the internet to research Products and Services
• 61% ordered Goods and Services
• 41% used a Social Networking Site
• 41% read a Blog
• 27% belonged to an Online Community
• The biggest increase in usage for the last 12 months was the number belonging to an online community (up 7%)

So what does this all mean. Well to be blunt, it means that if you don’t have an Internet Presence, than you are not being serious about growing your business. But don’t worry if you don’t have a website, only 56% of Small Business have a website.

Now forgive me as I get onto my Soapbox, but I find this astounding. The Internet is arguably the fastest growing area in our life. More and more people are using the Internet for not only research, but connecting with other people and businesses. This is only going to grow as Gen Y becomes more influential in Society. Yet there are still a large number of businesses out there refusing to get on board.

Recently we’ve seen businesses seize opportunities with Government funding in Water tanks, Solar Panels and Insulation and develop their businesses to take advantage of these. Yet many of these same businesses are still resisting the Internet.

So as Professor Julius Sumner Miller asked – Why is it so?

This is the million dollar question, but I believe that it boils down to 3 main reasons:

1. Don’t really understand the Internet and what it takes to develop an Online Marketing Strategy
2. Believe that it’s expensive
3. Or just refuse to embrace technology

So if you don’t have a web Presence, I ask you – which one are you?

Download the full Sensis eBusiness Report

I heard a great joke the other day, that i just had to share with you:

"What's the difference between Ignorance and Indifference"

"I don't know and I don't care!!!!!"

I would argue that this could sum up some Small Business Owners when it comes to the Internet.

I came across this amazing video on Youtube with interesting Stats on Social Media. It reinforces my opinion that any Business that is serious about growing into the future should focus on their online presence. The Internet (and Social Media) is here to stay, so don't get left behind.

 

If you don't have time to watch the video, some of the key points to come out of it are:

• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers
• 96% of Gen Y have joined a social network 
• Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
• The years taken to Reach 50 millions Users: 
  • Radio - 38 Years
  • TV - 13 Years
  • Internet - 4 Years
  • iPod - 3 Years
  • Facebook - 100 million users in less than 9 months
  • iPhone applications - 1 billion in 9 months.
• If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia
• China’s QZone is larger with over 300 million using their services
• 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
• 80% of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
• Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama
• 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
• Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé
• What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook
• The 2nd largest search engine in the world is YouTube
• Wikipedia has over 13 million articles. Some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica and 78% of these articles are non-English
• There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
• 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily
• Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth
• 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
• 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
• People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations 
  • Only 14% trust advertisements
  • Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
  • 90% of people that can TiVo ads do
• Hulu (a TV Show Download site in the US) has grown from 63 million total streams in April 2008 to 373 million in April 2009
• 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video…on their phone
• According to Jeff Bezos 35% of book sales on Amazon are in Downloadable format
• 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
• In the near future we will no longer search for  products and services they will find us via social media
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.
• Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy Listening first, selling second
• Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertiser

I’ve just started reading Stephen Coveys “8th Habit” book and must say that I am inspired. If you haven’t read (or listened) to any of Covey’s stuff then I would definitely recommend it. It’s probably the most powerful stuff I have come across (up there with napoleon Hill).

In fact, his “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” was the inspiration for most of Probity Partners Values Statement. So with this inspiration in mind, I thought I would write this month about the 7 Habits and give my take on it.

So what are the 7 Habits?

The 7 Habits are:
1. Be Proactive
2. Start with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek first to Understand and then to be Understood
6. Synergise
7. Sharpen the Saw

1. Be Proactive
This seems pretty obvious, but is very often forgotten in our busy business lives. I believe we are all guilty of it, just at different levels. It basically means that we should always strive to be proactive rather then reactive. That is, be proactive at making change happen rather then reacting to change when it is thrust upon you. The best current example of this would be the doom and gloom of the “Global Economic Crisis”. Many people reacted to the media portrayal of this and became negative about their business. Rather then being proactive and looking for the opportunities that they could take advantage of. A Proactive person is in charge of their destiny.

2. Start with the end in mind
Yes, you guessed it. We all need goals. A successful business needs to have an overall vision that you work towards, otherwise where you end up is left to chance. This is true for even small projects. Take the time to quickly decide what it is you hope to achieve and then set about achieving it.

3. Put first things first
This goes hand in hand with Habit 2. Once you know what you want to achieve, you need to plan out how you are going to get there. Otherwise, you might get ahead of yourself. This doesn’t always mean a formal plan, but may simply be a to do list you keep in your head.

4. Think Win/Win
This is one of my favourites. Whenever you are negotiating with someone else, always aim to get a solution where both parties win. Never set out to rip people off and take advantage of them. This may work a few times, but will ultimately catch up with you. I’m sure we’ve all seen great ideas get destroyed by somebodies greed.

5. Seek first to understand and then to be understood
This is similar to the saying “you have 2 ears and one mouth, so use them in that proportion”. Most people want to put their side forward first (this includes sales meetings) and leave little opportunity for the other party to put forward theirs. A great way to get the best possible outcome is to really understand the other party’s issues first, before trying to fix them. This is especially true in a heated exchange. You will be amazed at how much people calm down when you simply listen.

6. Synergise
This replaces compromise. Often when dealing with people you may not get consensus (think price in a sales meeting). In these circumstances, we generally compromise to get an agreement. However, the very definition of compromise means that one party must lose out and what they really want (think habit 4). Synergise means to brainstorm to come up with a solution that is better than the first. One that means that both parties win. In a Sales Meeting you may not budge on price, but throw in an additional product or service. These may cost you very little, but mean a lot to the customer, leading to a Win/Win situation.

7. Sharpen the saw
This is probably my favourite and one that I can struggle with at times. It’s best explained by something that happened to me recently. When we build an online shop website, we need to organise the products into a spreadsheet ready for importing into the site. The price field needs to have “AU/” put in front of the price to signify that it is in Australian Dollars. Every time I set up one of these spreadsheets I start by trying to work out an easy way to add this to the 100+ products, but after a few minutes decide I’m wasting time and add it individually. This can take hours. The last time I had to do one, I decided to take the time needed to find the solution (Sharpen the Saw). After 30-45 minutes I had found it and it took me 10 minutes to complete the job. Now if I had done this the first time, I believe I would have saved close to a week of my time. So the moral of the story is, don’t let yourself get that busy doing stuff (sawing), that you don’t have time to work out a way to make it easier (sharpening the saw).

I hope you have enjoyed my take on these Habits. I believe that these are powerful and am just now starting to teach them to my 2 young sons, as I believe it will make them better people. I would love to hear your thoughts.

But what’s the 8th Habit?

As I mentioned, I’ve only just started the book, but fully intend to talk about it in the near future. But from what I’ve read, it is “To find your voice and inspire others to find theirs”.

For sometime I have been a fan of David Blain and have probably referred him to some of you. He is Scottish (we won't hold that against him) and has a really good take on Internet marketing.

Anyway, he has just released his latest version of "The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing". This covers what he considers are 13 key strategies to maximise your internet marketing and is a really easy read as well as being incredibly informative. He has released it on a site called scribd.com, which is a really interesting site. It is essentially a Youtube site for Articles.

So I thought the best way to show you both, would be to embed David's article in my blog and you can then see both. So here it is - enjoy!

The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing