For most marketing savvy solopreneurs, this blog post title isn’t breaking news. What is surprising though is the number of solopreneurs and small businesses who are still considering if social networking and social media content are the real deal or just a fad.

Let’s start by looking at some recent numbers stated in the American Express OPEN “Small Business Monitor” spring 2011 edition (change in percentage from Fall 2009 to Spring 2011):

Companies with a website … up from 49% to 65%
SEO … up from 20% to 36%
Mass email … up from 13% to 24%
Online social networking … up from 15% to 35%
PPC advertising … up from 9% to 17%
Banner ads / pop-up ads … up from 5% to 11%
Blogging … up from 3% to 12%

Which social networking sites were small businesses the most active on?

1. Facebook
2. LinkedIn
3. Twitter
4. Blogs
5. YouTube

The most amazing stat was that 56% of small businesses that American Express survey stated they were not actively using social media.

So where are you in this competitive mix? Which of these social media activities are a part of your campaigns? Are you one of the active 44%ers in social media or are you one of those 56%er solopreneurs and small business owners sitting on the sideline waiting to see how this all plays out?

A bit of advice: Start building a buzz for your business online now.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Sounds like a bold title, doesn’t it? Is this just catchy copy or is it truly possible that there are just seven essential actions solopreneurs master for breakthrough success?


The truth is many of these top small business pros worked very hard to get where they are today. Their success didn’t happen overnight. The honest ones will tell you that they struggled and made mistakes along the way. Some big mistakes. Costly mistakes. I sure have. More than once … and in multiple industries.


These are all talented people that have the entrepreneurial DNA, but before they achieved their breakthrough success, they had certain patterns or habits that kept them just on the other side of success. They fought through frustration, confusion, procrastination, small results and some degree of self-doubt … all at a cost of tremendous effort, personal pride, loss of money and cashing in a few favors with the people that supported them most.


Does this sound like your current situation?


If so, we want to help you.


My Small Biz Break partner, Maria, and I are hosting a live webinar on Tuesday March 1^st at 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST titled, “Discover the 7 Essentials for Going from Cruise Control to Crushing It in Your Business”. In this no-cost webinar, we’ll talk about the seven key actions that successful entrepreneurs mastered for breakthrough success.


You’ll discover the primary secrets of:

1. How to change your thinking to achieve bigger results

2. How to avoid procrastination, a lack of confidence and burn out while keeping focused on specific actions to achieve your desired success

3. How to attract more of the right customers

4. How to avoid multiple false starts

5. How to replace your busy work with results producing action

6. How to rally others to your cause to achieve greater success faster

… and …

7. How you can capitalize on your current achievements for greater future success


We don’t believe in taking up your time with fluff and only talking about theories. We are committed to introducing you to new ideas so you can see new possibilities. We will discuss why they’re important and we back that with practical, how-to steps so you can start taking action right away.


The first action you need to take is to register for this event. At the bottom of our Small Biz Break Events page, you will see a registration form. When you sign in your name and email address, not only will you reserve one of the limited spots to:


1. Our live 60-minute free webinar on Tuesday, March 1^st

… but for a limited number of take-action entrepreneurs who register early, we will give a complementary bonus  …

2. A one-on-one 30-minute private strategy session. We are only offering this for a limited number of people, so take action now before the other action-oriented entrepreneurs beat you to it!


We’re excited to get the opportunity to help your business reach its full potential!


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

I’m bringing back up this post that I wrote roughly a year and a half ago. It isn’t laziness. I’m reposting the message here because in helping out solopreneurs lately, I’ve noticed that many who are in the startup phase or launching a new product have their PR strategy backwards.
 
For a frame of reference , when I wrote this original post, it was September 2009. And now, on with the post …


Let’s see, the calendar says that today is the 12^th of September which means …… that’s right, were about two weeks away from retailers putting the marketing and PR (press release) push on their holiday specials. And by holidays, I mean Christmas.


I have to admit it drives me nuts to see the Christmas banners up before the end of October. Not that I have anything against Christmas; I just like to enjoy my holidays one at a time. Forget Halloween, and although meaningful in intent, Thanksgiving, usually doesn’t give the shops much to be thankful for. And if your are of a different religious persuasion, the retailers lump in your holy celebration to cash in on Christmas.


I understand why they do it. And you need to learn from this annual strategy. The big day in the retail world as we all know is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. As a matter of fact, Google shared some recent statistics regarding holiday shopping:

• 44% of shoppers have already started their holiday shopping and researching

• Over a third of recent polled respondents said they have already begun making holiday purchases

So what does this have to do with teaching you about planning out your PR campaign? Most businesses that I’ve worked with and consulted send out press release and began their marketing blitz AFTER they release a new product or service.


This puts them way behind the game. Why? Can you imagine if Best Buy, Macy’s, Kohl’s, or Toys “R” Us, waited until Black Friday to first announce the special deals that they have that day?


Consumers, by that time, have either spent a portion of their holiday budget and are waiting at 4:00 AM in front of one their competitor’s shops ready for the running of the bulls to elbow, shove, stomp and kick their way to grabbing the deals that they saw in the papers weeks or months before.


So as you are preparing your next product or service, start pinging your market with PRs prior to your release date. This will give your consumer base the opportunity to send in their questions giving you excellent feedback for fine-tuning your finished product, take pre-orders if possible, spread the word to others that they know may be interested in your product, and allow your customers to allocate their cash for buying your product instead of purchasing an alternative from a competitor.


A key component in sending out your PRs prior to your actual release date is that you need to make sure that you stick to your release date. Black Friday is a firm day. If the retailers advertise ahead of time that they are going to run specials that day, they had better be ready with plenty of their advertised discounted inventory or face extreme negative backlash.


Yes, KFC survived when they had Oprah hand out millions of meal deal coupons for their new grilled chicken, but most locations couldn’t keep up with demand – so they had to hand out coupons to come back at a later date. But, they’re KFC. If they anger 10% of their customer base – although significant in numbers, they can still survive. As a solopreneur, if you lose 10% of your customer base, it could have devastating effects.


So the next time that you are planning a new product or service, keep these key points in mind:

1. Send out your PRs prior to your release date
2. Allow customers to ask questions helping you fine-tune your final revision
3. Word of mouth is still the #1 form of advertising – the sooner your customer base knows, the sooner they can start spreading the word, helping to build your demand
4. Take pre-orders where possible – it can help fund your development phase – or at least have them hold off from buying a competing product
5. Stick to your release date

Sending out your PRs once you have your product or service ready to sell puts you way behind the game. Get the word out ahead of time so you can start taking orders on Day 1.


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

I’m excited to let you in on a New Year’s resolution that I’ve been working on for the past two weeks. It’s the start of a new coaching program my Small Biz Break partner, Maria, and I are putting together. I apologize that I haven’t had a post up here in that time, but this resolution is a priority.


It isn’t that we are focused on us and not you, quite the opposite. We are passionate about helping you grow your business. One of our resolutions is to provide you with a greater service.


Since our desire is to put together the best program for you that will give you the greatest transformation in your business that you seek, we are asking for your feedback. No sense in putting together a program that doesn’t solve your biggest problem, right?


Based upon the status of your business today and what holds you back from achieving the level of success you desire, which of the following programs sound like what you want or need:


1. Thinking Like the You of Tomorrow
How to change your thinking to achieve bigger results


2. Discovering Your Shortest Path to Success
How to avoid procrastination, a lack of confidence and burn out while keeping focused on specific actions to achieve your desired success


3. Finding Your Market’s Sweet Spot
How to attract more of the right customers


4. Creating Your Blueprint for Success
How to avoid multiple false starts


5. Going from Ordinary to Extraordinary Through Massive Action
How to replace your busy work with results producing action


6. Why Do it On Your Own When Others Want to Do It for You
How to rally others to your cause to achieve greater success faster


7. The 4 Rs for Perpetual Success
How you can use your success to create greater success


You can vote for one program title or multiple titles in the comments (and any other comments you may have on the help you want).


Thank you in advance for your participation.


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Do you have a tough time going to sleep at night wondering how you can achieve the success you dreamed of when you started your new business? Do you procrastinate during the day because you aren’t sure what action you should take that will produce the results you are hoping for? Do you simply feel stuck with your solopreneur startup?


If so, you likely have had one of the following thoughts:

“… if only I could do a better job of managing my time …”

“.. I just need to learn how to be more effective at sales …”

“… I wish I knew how to manage my finances better …”

“… I’ve got to learn how to create a Facebook fanpage and figure out what to do with YouTube …”

I know I have.


Although all the above statements are valid, and do require that you find a way to manage them successfully, for most, these are just symptoms of a deeper problem.


We are so condition to “just do something” … take action! But when you take an approach of fire and then aim, you’re taking the long road to success.


Trust me, I understand why you’ve taken the approach of just take action. With all the online “gurus” spewing out mantras to support the belief that success is just a quick couple of actions away, why wouldn’t you just jump in? You’re intelligent and talented, right? If it worked for them, why shouldn’t it work for you?


What you probably don’t realize is that some of these people have been at it for a long time … and had a few failures along the way. And through this process of failing frequently, they found their own success. And it is possible that it can work for you, too.


While you may be tempted to learn how to tinker with Twitter, or hire a marketing consultant to craft a beautiful looking logo and tag line, none of this matters if your business idea (and why you are doing it) is flawed.


You will never manage your time better if you don’t know what direction to go in because you lack research and a plan. You certainly won’t dedicate your time effectively if you don’t have a passion for your purpose.


Being a better salesperson won’t help you effectively sell something that you don’t have a strong belief is the best solution for your customers’ problems. Besides, if it doesn’t meet their needs, they won’t be interested in purchasing whatever you’re pitching.


Learning the latest techniques for social media success can’t save a bad business idea. Hopefully, you can fail fast and move on to a better business idea.


However, if you want to keep from getting stuck in the trial and error of various tactics, you need strong, integrated answers to these 3 fundamental questions:


1. Why did you start your solopreneur startup in the first place?
Were you pursuing a personal talent? Did you have a passion for the people that you planned on helping? Did your business allow you to maximize your strengths and experience? Or were you simply pursuing a perceived opportunity?


2. What do you know about your market?
Did you do any research before you opened for business? Did you find out what was the biggest problem your market was experiencing and how they were resolving it? Were you offering an improved solution … that they wanted? Is there successful competition in the market? Was there enough of an opportunity in the market to create the success that you wanted?


3. What was your plan?
Did you create any form of a plan? Did you create any goals with a plan for how you would accomplish those goals? Did you believe in your plan?


If you don’t have strong answers to the 3 fundamental questions above about your solopreneur startup, don’t waste any more time or money trying to figure out how can improve your tactics. Stop and reconsider your business idea and your strategies.


If you’re not sure how, contact me.


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide