Small Business Seminar
I went to a Small Business Seminar in Salt Lake yesterday. It was put on by Zions Bank, so it was no surprise that a lot of the speakers were bankers who talked about understanding your balance sheet and improving your ratios, etc. There was also a local ad agency, Richter7, which had a few guys giving a seminar called "Impact Marketing on a Shoestring Budget." They gave some good insight and even talked about a few aspects of online marketing, including paid search, but there certainly wasn't enough time to get too deep into any serious discussion about search marketing. Search isn't really one of their strengths anyway. They seem to focus more on traditional advertising and PR. Richter7 is one of the biggest ad agencies in town and from what I've seen they do some great work. I really liked the first guy's presentation who talked about the importance of branding for small businesses.
The lunch was great--turkey, mashed potatos and gravy, with apple pie for dessert, yum!. The keynote speaker was also very good. It was Jim Blasingame author of "Small Business is Like a Bunch of Bananas" and small business advocate.
He spoke about how the printing press was the greatest invention by mankind. He highlighted the progress we've made intellectually since Gutenberg's invention of the press. He also spoke of what he called "Our Journey of Intellectual Property". He emphasized that small businesses need to embrace technology. He talked about how 20 years ago, most companies' balance sheets had about 80% fixed assets and 20% intellectual property. Over the past 20 years, those percentages have flipflopped, with most companies now owning about 80% intellectual property and only 20% fixed assets. Small business owners need to leverage intellectual property more and hard assets less.
Jim gave an interesting viewpoint on outsourcing and Wal-mart. He said small business owners should embrace outsourcing because it enables us to reduce our costs and improve our level of service. Also, outsourcing can provide us with an opportunity to be the outsourced partner for our customers. We should always ask ourselves, "must this be done in-house?" If not, we should outsource to someone who can do it better and cheaper. We should ask our customers the same question, but then ask, "If not, can we do it for you?"
Regarding Wal-mart, he said Wal-mart is great for small buiness because they attract all the price-sensitive customers who are looking simply for commodities, and leave the best customers for small businesses who are best at giving them what they really want--a customized product or service that goes beyond just what they need. Basically, he said small business owners should thank Wal-Mart for getting rid of all those customers who take up all our time as they shop for the lowest price. Along those same lines, he said the price war is over and we lost (small businesses). We should get rid of any part of a business plan that focuses on price and we should instead focus on what differentiates us from our competition.
Jim also talked about how more and more, people are valuing their time more than their money. So if we can offer them something that will save them time, they won't mind paying us for it.
The lunch was great--turkey, mashed potatos and gravy, with apple pie for dessert, yum!. The keynote speaker was also very good. It was Jim Blasingame author of "Small Business is Like a Bunch of Bananas" and small business advocate.
He spoke about how the printing press was the greatest invention by mankind. He highlighted the progress we've made intellectually since Gutenberg's invention of the press. He also spoke of what he called "Our Journey of Intellectual Property". He emphasized that small businesses need to embrace technology. He talked about how 20 years ago, most companies' balance sheets had about 80% fixed assets and 20% intellectual property. Over the past 20 years, those percentages have flipflopped, with most companies now owning about 80% intellectual property and only 20% fixed assets. Small business owners need to leverage intellectual property more and hard assets less.
Jim gave an interesting viewpoint on outsourcing and Wal-mart. He said small business owners should embrace outsourcing because it enables us to reduce our costs and improve our level of service. Also, outsourcing can provide us with an opportunity to be the outsourced partner for our customers. We should always ask ourselves, "must this be done in-house?" If not, we should outsource to someone who can do it better and cheaper. We should ask our customers the same question, but then ask, "If not, can we do it for you?"
Regarding Wal-mart, he said Wal-mart is great for small buiness because they attract all the price-sensitive customers who are looking simply for commodities, and leave the best customers for small businesses who are best at giving them what they really want--a customized product or service that goes beyond just what they need. Basically, he said small business owners should thank Wal-Mart for getting rid of all those customers who take up all our time as they shop for the lowest price. Along those same lines, he said the price war is over and we lost (small businesses). We should get rid of any part of a business plan that focuses on price and we should instead focus on what differentiates us from our competition.
Jim also talked about how more and more, people are valuing their time more than their money. So if we can offer them something that will save them time, they won't mind paying us for it.
posted by Dave @ 8:28 AM
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