How Small Businesses Benefit Communities (and why Small Business Collaboration is Great)

Image credit: Key Foster

Bill McKibben, environmentalist, broadcaster and environmental justice advocate, and Mike Brady, social entrepreneur, recently discussed how small businesses could help each other while revitalizing local communities.

The discussion occurred during a panel after the screening of the documentary Fixing the Future, by David Brancaccio. The documentary is about finding innovative strategies to create sustainable businesses and stable local economies. The following small-business-collaboration ideas were discussed during the panel and reported in the article “5 Steps For Small Businesses to Revitalize Local Economies,” by Alice Groesbeck, film and video production student at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and visual communications intern for Ashoka USA.

Small businesses should discuss social responsibility (even with the competition)

Businesses in a similar, local marketplace should see each other as possible collaborators. “Partnering with other businesses offers you an opportunity to learn new ways to foster a sense of social responsibility within your community,” said Groesbeck.

Organizations, such as The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, can help connect local businesses with each other and can help businesses create sustainable economies, said Groesbeck.

Businesses should develop accountability with customers

“According to a 2010 University of Toronto study published in Psychological Science, people aren’t just buying products based on how much they cost,” Groesbeck said. “Customers also consider how the things they buy reflect their personal beliefs and impact their environment. Since communities have been devastated by the economic downturn, Americans are now shifting away from being isolated consumers and coming together as contributors.”

Businesses should try to build accountability by building natural and respectful business interactions between people in the community.

Local businesses should have a global impact

When local businesses work toward having a global impact, the business can reap rich resources that can, ultimately, help the community.

Small victories are still victories

Work in increments and celebrate the small things. Trying to tackle everything at once can leave you tired and unable to help the community – or your business.

Easy Ways to Stay Fit at the Office

Image source: Fey IIyas

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while keeping a 40-hour-a-week job is not an easy task. Every day, you get to work pretty darn early and many days you leave the office late. And whether you’re sitting behind a desk taking client calls, or sitting behind the wheel of one of your company’s trucks, you’re sitting. A lot.

Luckily, there are a few ways that you (the employee) can still maintain your health while working long hours. And manager: There are a few things you can change (and add) at the office to help your employees keep fit and healthy, too.

For employees

Invest in fit-boosting technology

While technologies, such as television and video games, can make a person more inclined to recline, some innovations (think fitness apps, health websites, etc.), can help people stay healthy.

Use technology to track your health

If your days are packed and you can only fit in random runs in your day (aka you don’t have a particular “running path,” and you just run whenever you can), you can track what you’ve done (and a lot more) by using technologies, such as the UP by Jawbone wristband, to store your activity.

Bring your fitness routine to your desk

Use a fitness ball instead of a chair to improve your balance and strengthen your core muscles. Also: Keep small weights at your desk, and stretch through the day when you can. And take time to go for a daily walk outside -- the sunshine will do you good!

For managers

Offer fitness classes during lunch (or at other times during the workday)

Small businesses often can hire an independent contractor who teaches an aerobics class, or a yoga class, to teach a class -- in the office -- once or twice. Employees can pay a small fee to participate in the class.

Keep healthy snacks in the office kitchen

You don’t need to go overboard or anything, but stocking the office kitchen with healthier options, such as whole-grain oatmeal, natural juice, organic coffee, and fresh fruit, can influence employees to eat healthier throughout the day.

 

Consider adding a standing desk

Granted, this may be a bit pricey, but it may be worth offering a standing desk to employees who are in the office a lot. Or just add a few standing desks throughout the office, and allow people to use them as an option throughout the workday.

Resources

Mashable.com, “Live: Chat About the BestTech for Health and Wellness,” by Dani Fankhauser

Mayo Clinic, "Workplace Exercises: How to Burn Calories at Work," by Mayo Clinic Staff

Forbes, "What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Standing Desks," by Steve Mullis

Blogging for Your Business Part 2: Make Your Blog Better

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If you and your business started blogging a long while ago, you’ve probably built up a decent readership. Your readers dig your voice and you’re able to guess (with reasonable accuracy) what topics will garner likes, shares and comments. Or maybe you kinda tried to start a blog and maybe – just maybe -- attempted to forget the fact you began that blog out of frustration, etc.

No matter if you’ve an active blog, or merely an existing dead-as-a-door-knob blog, you can still wring success out of what you’ve already created.

Keep and entertain current readers:

Know your target audience: Don’t scare away current readers by changing all of your content. Add in new types of blog posts (photo, or gif-centric posts, or fun employee Q-and-As) along with your currently covered topics. If you think you’ve lost touch with your current audience, ask your readers what they want to see on the blog.

Use free keyword research tools:

Before you begin to write your next blog, stop and do keyword research. Most keyword research tools are free and all keyword sites are relatively easy to use. After you’ve searched for relevant keywords, make certain to pick keyword phrases that rank as a “low,” or “medium.”

 

“Once you have a few keywords chosen, make sure that at least one fits into your headline, as close to the first word as possible,” Verrill says. “Try to have it appear again in the first few sentences, and your other related terms somewhere else in the copy. Only do this if it seems natural within context of the blog.”

 

Take advantage of social media:

Promote your posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you mention a particular industry service, or person, make sure to tag the company, or person in your tweet. Including people in the conversation will help you get more clicks and shares.

Source: Improve Your Blogging and Increase Traffic: 3 Tips,Jonathan Payne from Social Media Today, and Ashley Verrill from Social Fresh

Blogging for Your Business Part 1: How to Build a Useful Blog for Your Delivery Company

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You have a slick business website and have taken the time to create a few social media accounts for your company. All of these things are marvelous! But do you have a business blog?

 

You may have never started a blog because you thought creating and writing posts would be too much work. And as a blogger I understand that -- blogging is difficult and at times it’s time consuming. Also: No matter how great of a blog manager you are it can take a long time to find your audience and for your blog to find its voice.

But there are many benefits of business blogging:

• Blogging allows your employees to discuss the aspects of the company they enjoy.
• If you’re blogging (and if you’re the president or owner of the company you should be), the research for future blog posts allows you to easily stay current with trends in the industry.
• The more true and fact-filled things you write the more authority you give your business.
• Blogging allows your customers to easily interact with you and your business associates.

-Source: “5 Reasons Your Business Should Be Blogging,” by Marcus Sheridan, from Social Media Examiner

So, just how do you successfully start your company’s blog? According to the article, “How to Plan Your Business Blog,” by Amanda DiSilvestro, it’s important to plan your blog before you begin writing or promoting your services via your new, shiny blog. To make an effective blog, consider the following:

• “Who is my target audience, and what do they want to read?
• Am I going to allow guest bloggers on the blog?
• How often should I post to the blog?
• How can I track its success? What will I consider success?”

-Source: DiSilvestro, Social Media Today

DiSilvestro also provides some easy-to-follow steps that will help new bloggers plan their blogs:

Know your readers: You need to know who your audience is before you start to create content. Attract new readers (aka customers) to your blog by conducting some simple SEO keyword research. “Utilize keyword research to determine what a lot of people are searching for on Google,” DiSilvestro said. Learn more about keyword research over atCopyblogger.

Choose a snappy name: Name your blog something that will make your current customers smile and also will attract new readers. Also: Make blog titles intriguing. Starting titles with, “5 Ways to…,” or “How to,” will make your blogs more clickable.

Easy communication: Link to related articles and to your company’s social media sites often. Also: Include an “opt-in offer that readers can fill out if they want to contact you about more information,” DiSilvestro said.

Update often: Recruit employees to write blogs and come up with blog topics. And if there’s no one at your company who wants to write, consider hiring a freelance writer, or asking guest bloggers to contribute to your content. “Generally you should try to produce most of your content in-house at the start so that readers can see you really know your stuff. When you do allow the occasional guest blogger,” DiSilvestro said.

Don’t push yourself too hard: Posting once a week is enough, but two to three posts per week is ideal. “The more content you have the easier it will be to promote that blog; not to mention the more chances you have to really ramp up your SEO (blogs are an excellent way to improve the SEO of your website),” DiSilvestro said.

Part 2 of this discussion will examine how people with existing business blogs can improve their blogs and attract more customers.

The Importance of Supporting Other Small Businesses

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I’m going to take a wild guess and say that most of Courier Magazine’s readers own or work at a small business. So, I don’t have to tell any of you how important small businesses are! But did you know that small businesses tend to thrive more and find continued success when they work together?

In the article, “6 Ways Small Businesses Can Band Togetherfor Better Results,” on Mashable.com, Nellie Akalp, CEO of CorpNet.com, a filing service, said that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for small businesses to access business capital and credit over the recently past years.

Akalp said it’s important for small businesses to work together to compete with larger companies. Although it might be difficult to see other small businesses as partners and not competitors it’s essential. According to Akalp, small business owners should: 

• Seek out symbiotic and collaborative relationships with other small businesses.
• Build a collective co-op of similar businesses and individuals.

Akalp said the business owners can easily meet other like-minded company owners by:

Joining a local meetup group for entrepreneurs: Finding new business is all about finding referrals and connections. Join local groups that meet weekly, or monthly at local cafés, or restaurants. Akalp suggests checking Meetup.com, or your local chamber of commerce for groups.

Organizing a social media meetup: Get all your social media followers together and organize an in-person meetup.

Getting online: I know I just suggested that’s it’s important to get out from behind the computer and meet your contacts in person, but connecting with other small business owners online can be helpful, too. Akalp suggests browsing online communities, such as Entrepreneur Connect.

Reaching out to other types of small businesses: Even though not all small businesses may be similar to your company, you can still help other companies learn how to increase exposure. “By giving business to others, you will get business in return,” Akalp said.

Supporting other small businesses at your own company: See if you can use other local businesses to help provide your marketing materials, or serve a local coffee blend in your break room.

Courier News Roundup

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Woo, boy. We’re super busy here at Courier Magazine, so this week’s post is going to be super short, but still packed with information.

Over the past week we’ve clicked across a few interesting stories that relate to the courier and delivery industry. Here are a couple of the stories that stood out:

"JumpTech adds mapping to automated proof-of-delivery system," via Fleet Owner

“Jump Technologies (JumpTech) recently announced that it has added mapping capability to JumpTrack, its cloud-based, automated proof-of-delivery (POD) solution that leverages standard smartphones and tablets to enable drivers to capture signatures while allowing customers to check delivery status. The POD function now also records the actual geo-location of where the signature was captured.” – to read more click to Fleet Owner

"Fleet maintenance: Cleanable and reusable filtration devices from Pure Power," via Utility Products

“Utility Vehicles and more: Pure Power! Incorporated (PPI), a provider of filtration technologies, announced the issuance of their 3rd patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office. Their most recent patent is for an O.E.M. Replacement Drop-in Cartridge Oil Filter for cars and trucks. PPI’s newest patent also includes Drop-in Cartridge Filters for Fuel, Hydraulics and other applications.” – to read more click to Utility Products

Get Prepared for the Future: Who Will Fill Your Shoes When You Retire

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve come across a few blogs that discuss how some family-owned businesses plan for a company owner's retirement. These companies are mulling over some pretty serious (and sometimes sensitive) stuff early on (initial succession planning should be done many years before you plan on retiring. The sooner you start to have the conversations, the better) to avoid more problems once the boss’ retirement occurs.

A business owner should know the answers to the following questions when deciding who her replacement should be:

Who will take the owner’s place: Will it be a friend, or a child? How do you choose between children? And will your choice be willing to take over?

Will you sell: If you don’t want to choose someone in the family, or a close friend to take over the company, you may want to sell the company.

Source: WeKnowNext.com

No matter what you choose to do, it’s essential that you choose someone who can do the following:

Make sure everything is in order: Feel secure and make certain that the correct person is in the right place and position to take over your job when you retire.

Keep the company dynamic the same: It’s important to make sure your successor will keep the same “feel” at the company. If a new leader goes in and changes everything, it can really upset employees, which can make transition even more difficult.

Still need help? It may be wise to seek outside council. Outside consultants can help you make sure you are doing everything correct and not letting personal bias get in the way.