THE 5 PILLARS OF GUARANTEED BUSINESS SUCCESS BY DR GREG CHAPMAN

Amanda Ferry

The 5 Pillars of GUARANTEED Business Success : Why most businesses will stay small and what YOU do about YOURS.
Published by Empower Business Solutions Pty Ltd (Australia)
2008

Dr Chapman has written this book divided into two key areas.

1. The life cycles of a business
   1. Infancy
   2. Adolesence
   3. Growing Pains
   4. Maturity
   5. Decay
2. The 5 pillars of guaranteed business success 
   1. The plan
   2. Marketing strategy
   3. Business systems
   4. People systems
   5. You!
      

For any budding entrepreneur growing a small business or anybody that has ever grown and sold their business you will find yourself nodding (or crying) in agreement with nearly every aspect of this book.

However rather than providing a ‘road map' for your business this is more a ‘how to drive the car' instructions manual that is incredibly useful and lets you know how to slow the vehicle down, speed it up and ultimately get you to where you want to go. The where you want to go is up to you.

The key to this book for small business is that it inspires and shows you how to drive and really gives you the tools drive.
Where you want to go is up to you. Take it for a test drive. Pointless having a map if you can't reach your destination

I highly recommend this book for any small business owners and suggest that you get along to one of Dr Greg Chapmans Seminars. More information at

www.gregchapman.biz
http://blog.australiansmallbusiness.net.au

POWER FRIENDING BY AMBER MAC

Amanda Ferry

Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business
Published by Penguin Group (USA)
2010

Amber Mac is a strategist, speaker, author and journalist with extensive online experience. As co founder of agency MGImedia.ca her team has managed social media initiatives for Tony Robbins, Canada Goose, Rogers, the American Dental Association amongst others. As a new media journalist, she currently hosts net@night with tech guru Leo Laporte.

A recent webinar by Amber on social media cemented my beliefs about the following: 

• blogs and social media posts are essential in todays online market
• be engaging when you write your blog
• blogs allow us to build credability and awareness
• your website is your asset, blog regularly to increase your content
• add "how to" content for your product, blogs are a great way to educate & entertain your customers
• most of our website content remains relatively static, consumers will look at your blog for your most up to date content
• it must be objective focused, don't blog just because your competitors are. Stick to your objectives and ensure your business keeps it's authenticity
• don't measure your social media for an immediate ROI, but rather as an ROE (return on engagement) - it should increase your businesses awareness / branding and thus, long term increase your sales

My copy is yet to arrive in the post, I will keep you posted. 

A LOGO FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Amanda Ferry

At Goop we work exclusively with small business in digital strategy encompassing web design and development through to social media integration. After being engaged by a client the very first item we require is a logo. The volume of small businesses that don't have a professionally prepared logo is amazingly high. When developing the website this presents us with  a number of issues but more importantly I believe the business has already created issues for itself.

PRESENTATION OF YOUR BUSINESS

Instability
Creating one image and changing regularly can imply lack of direction. A central logo ensures that all materials eminating from your business remain consistent with constant logos and colours.

First Impressions
First impressions can be lasting. The lack of a professional logo can serioulsy impede your first impressions.

Amateurish Design
Unless you have a very good eye nothing screems amateur like clip art or other home made graphic creations. If you are a professional at work and wish to convey this then make sure you have a professionally created logo.

Established and Professional
A strong corporate logo conveys established and professional. 'We care' about all aspects of our business and we want to be remembered. 

Whilst cashflow is essential in the early days of your business do not under estimate the power of your logo to help establish and drive your business and it's reputation. At Goop we work with and recommend several graphic designers who can help with your corporate identity and in the process help us to keep your corporate look and feel consistent. 

		Narelle Craven 0422 630 020 email
		Shell West 0416 111 295 email
		Nick 03 5444 5222 email

SOCIALNOMICS BY ERIK QUALMAN

Amanda Ferry

Socialnomics : How social media transforms the way we live and do business
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey 2009

This book gives an incredible insight to the growth and development of social media. It offers invaluable lessons into the protocols of operating in the new world of social media. Dell Hell (Jeff Jarvis, Dell Hell ) is an amazing example of social media and the power of the people in the 'early days' of this phenomenon.

The ascendency of Barrack Obama to the US presidency and the startling statistics of the comparison with the McCain camp further reiterate and drive home the power and influence that social media has in today's society. This book gives real world examples of businesses that have got social media right and those that have got it wrong as well as those that have amended their ways on 'the fly' because they are listening and reacting to 'the community'.

A great book and a simple read that you can easily go back to and identify points of interest however it is definitely not a nuts and bolts 'how to' of Social Media and for this I would recommend you get yourself a copy of Safko and Brakes, The Social Media Bible. All in all though, Socialnomics is a great book for influencers that can take snippets to assist in convincing businesses and clients of the importance of utilising social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAN NO LONGER BE IGNORED

Karl Morris

Social Media has exploded in popularity and is no longer the domain of 16~24 year olds taking photos of themselves on a Saturday night out with their freinds. US President Obama is at the forefront of Social Media with his successful challenge and ultimately winning not only the democratic nomination but also winning the presidential election in 2008 in the United States of America. Women aged 55~65 are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. If Facebook was a country it would be 3rd largest in population. The explosion in GPS tracking data via IPhones, Blackberry and android mobile phones mean applications such as foursquare are only just starting to hit their straps. But what does this mean for small business?

Small business needs to get a handle on Social Media. It's essential moving forward.