It is all hard work

I am paraphrasing from the story you will find from the post I am offering you today.It is from a couple that have started their own on-line business. It appears that they are very successful and offer a great product but what I take away from the story is that they spent the time on developing a plan and then they executed the plan. You can ask anyone that I talk to about starting a business and they will tell you that my first question is "Do you have a business plan?" More often than not the answer is "No, but I have been thinking about it." Folks, that just isn't good enough. Starting a business is hard work. The more effort you put in on the front end the better chance you have of your business surviving.

Planning on the front end won't take away from the hard work that is owning a small business, but it will double your chances of being successful and not making a big mistake. Please enjoy the interview and take today's sermon to heart.

Story by bluehourdesigns, marymary
Published on May 10, 2011 in Seller Handbook
Photo by Blue Hour Designs
Tell us about your previous working situation and how you discovered Etsy.
Before starting our Etsy shop, Norbert was working as a computer engineer and I was an elementary school teacher. We discovered Etsy through one of my old college friends who was selling handmade purses. The visit to the site, however, did not end in just purchasing a purse.

How did you prepare to transition to full-time Etsy selling?
For several years prior to opening our shop on Etsy, we had talked about owning our own business so we could have more freedom and control over our lives — we just never knew what type of business that would be. Norbert was unhappy at his desk job and I was craving an artistic outlet that had been suppressed for many, many years.

I soon took a weekend course in silversmithing and immediately fell in love with it. A chain of events quickly unfolded as we both realized that this could be our future. Despite all of the obstacles — the fear of starting a business during these tough economic times, having two young kids at home — this path just felt right. So we jumped in, like two giddy and ecstatic little kids. When setting up a strong business foundation, we did all of the following:

•Created business and marketing plans with short and long term goals
•Registered an LLC and a domain name
•Opened a business bank account
•Created accounts on Etsy, PayPal, Google Checkout, Blogger, Facebook and Google Analytics
•Designed business cards, banners and packaging
•Developed shop policies
•Expanded our home studio space
•Ordered additional tools and materials
We actually wrote all these tasks down on a big 2' x 3' sheet of paper and crossed them off as they were completed. Of course, not all this work was completed right off the bat, but at least the placeholders were there and we had a scalable business. After completing all of this preliminary work for our business structure and listing the first pieces of jewelry on Etsy, we were officially in business!



What are your best marketing tips?


•We quickly learned that if our customer feels like they are treated well, they are much more likely to tell their family and friends about us and return to our store.
•Good product photography is right up there with excellent customer service. That's what people see when shopping online, not the physical object. We always upload our best product photography to Flickr, which not only brings in additional direct traffic, but also serves as a virtual lookbook of our work. This also makes it very easy for bloggers to grab an image of our work if they want to talk about it.
•Advertising on blogs that cater to our potential customers has also worked very well for us. However, over time we have learned that blog advertising is much more than just supplying an image to be displayed on the blog side bar. Many bloggers love to do trades, so not only are you getting free ad space, but you also get your product into the hands of someone who has a big audience. In our experience, bloggers are also very willing to write sponsor posts and host giveaways, all of which can significantly boost the traffic to your site.
•Another reason why advertising on blogs (especially the higher profile ones) is great is that, by having a direct link to your shop, major search engines start to view your site as more important and increase your page rank. If potential customers spend a lot of time in your store, then Google and other search engines view your site as having relevant content and thus increase your page rank even more.
•Frequently listing new designs is another huge way for us to attract traffic. In most cases, small businesses have a limited audience. Our regular customers might lose interest if we don't keep our shop looking fresh.
•Blogging and posting on Facebook are excellent ways to establish a direct link between customer and artist. I share my work, inspiration and thoughts to provide a more personal connection and allow our customers to view the process behind the pieces they purchase.
•Whenever we send out a package, we always include a little bio card and a handwritten thank you note. We feel this gives deeper meaning to our pieces and separates us from big box stores.
What's been your most popular item or line to date?
Our Burst line of rings have been very popular. Our one-of-a-kind pieces that feature large natural stones also sell incredibly well. The patterns on the stones are unique and, much like fingerprints, can never be matched. While we have several designs that have been in our store from the very beginning, we also like to cycle certain designs in and out at different times. Similarly, if a design is just not doing well and better photographs don’t help it sell, we don’t hesitate to remove it from our store.



What have you found to be an unsuccessful promotion?
The danger for any small business is spreading yourself too thin. We always try to focus on tasks and promotions that yield the best results with the least amount of effort. The great thing about promoting online is that Google Analytics makes it so easy to track the resulting traffic.

What's the hardest part about running your own business?
It’s all freaking hard, but we absolutely love it! We have never worked this hard in our lives, but we don't want to do anything else — this is it! Every morning we wake up looking forward to our day. We’re very passionate about what we do and know that having our own business is what allows us to live our lives exactly the way we want to live them.



What is the biggest challenge you face during your daily schedule?
Honestly, our biggest hurdle is time — or the lack of it, to be more specific. We have two little rambunctious boys and whenever they’re awake, one of us is watching them. We have become quite good at prioritizing and scheduling. Each week we have a meeting and discuss the status of our previous week’s goals and come up with new goals for the following week. Knowing exactly what needs to be done also helps us come up with a realistic schedule. As funny as it may sound, even if you’re running a business by yourself, having a weekly status and goals meeting is definitely something we’d recommend.

Although we have made great strides, keeping business and life at balance has been a big learning process for us. Working from home has so many benefits, but at the same time it makes it too easy to work too much. Whenever we don’t spend enough time with our boys, put off household chores, don’t spend enough time with each other as husband and wife, or don’t eat or exercise properly, everything else starts to fall apart as well.

What do you enjoy most about not having a day job?
While we should be saying that we miss distinct cut off times and a steady paycheck, we don’t really ever think about it. We're too busy moving forward with our plans. We love that we have freedom in scheduling, business, creativity, and pretty much everything else.

Another really great thing about having your own business is seeing the direct relationship between how hard you work and the results that come out of it. Often times in corporate America, the slackers get paid just as well as the others who work really hard. If we do well, it’s because we worked hard for it and that feeling is simply amazing.



What are the positives and challenges of working with your significant other?
We shared a collective laugh here. The bottom line is that we’re very different people — an artist and a businessman. While this balances and strengthens us, it can also lead to clashes. But we’ve improved greatly since we figured out that each of our roles are indispensable and equally important. Date nights and non-business related conversations are key to keeping us connected as a married couple and keeping the personal relationship strong.

What advice would you give someone considering a similar path?
Don’t spread yourself too thin. Figure out what is the best course of action and do it well. Working on too much at the same time can only lead to mediocre results. Also, don’t re-invent the wheel — chances are great that somebody else has already faced the problem you’re about to tackle. A little bit of research (the Etsy Forums are a great resource) can yield some helpful results and significantly simplify almost any task.

Don’t forget that business ebbs and flows. When business is temporarily slow, instead of feeling down, use that time to come up with new designs, marketing techniques or anything to improve your business. Don’t worry, the sales will come — and when they do, you need to be prepared!

What goals do you have in store for the future of your business?
Growth within the context of a small business. We’re the kind of people who love to go to a quaint little restaurant and see the owners working behind the counter or head to the farmer's market and buy vegetables straight from the family who owns the farm. While we don’t exactly have a store front to serve customers, we always strive to maintain that personal connection.

Good Info on Social Networking

The best place to be is in front of the curve. This means being inovative, looking for solutions to problems and searching for opportunities while everyone else is busy with what happened yesterday. This leads me to a blog post that I found today concerning social networking. If you are a small business owner and think that this is yesterdays news and that everyone is already aboard the bus, you are wrong. I hope you will take a few moments and read this post. If you are a business in Stokes County and don't have a web site, or business facebook page, get in touch with me and we can help you to become a leader and not a follower!

Most Small Businesses Don't Use Social Media. Big Mistake.
Friday, April 29 2011


By:Rieva Lesonsky

From the buzz it generates, you'd think almost all small business owners would be actively involved in social media. But you'd be wrong.

This disconnect becomes clear in the latest Small Business Success Index survey conducted twice a year by Network Solutions (disclosure: they're a client of mine) and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. While the SBSI showed an "almost universal awareness among small business owners of Facebook and Twitter" only 27 percent of the entrepreneurs used Facebook for business purposes, and a mere 7 percent were Twitter users. Linked In garnered 18 percent.

Despite the tepid survey results, Network Solutions is a big believer in the power social media has to impact business. To gain some insight I talked to Tim Kelly, Network Solutions' CEO and the company's Director of Social Media (known on Twitter as the Social Media Swami) Shashi Bellamkonda (@sashib).

And those small businesses who have tried social media often see results: 63 percent say it helped make their customers more loyal. Other say social media it has helped them:

1.Stay engaged with customers.
2.Build brand awareness.
3.Identify and attract new customers.
So why aren't more small companies doing it?

More than half of small business owners (56 percent) worry that social media is too "time-consuming." Bellamkonda acknowledges that at the beginning, "it's hard for small business owners to keep up with their many responsibilities, without adding social media into the mix." But, he adds, "Rather than viewing social media as time consuming, you should integrate it into your marketing plan from the start. Once you become familiar with social media, you'll find it's an easy and affordable way to grow a loyal customer base, and more often than not, see that it's absolutely worth the time investment."

Bellamkonda believes the benefits are more than worth the time for small businesses. "If building a loyal customer base is a top priority (which it probably should be), social media is a great way to start. Its reach is immense with more than 500 million active users on Facebook and 1 billion tweets [sent] per week. Putting your small business out there gives you an opportunity to build relationships with your customer base, and allows customers to personally bond with your business."

Bellamkonda is a big proponent of Twitter, especially for dealing with customer service issues. "Twitter is fantastic because it's real time, and an easy way to [quickly answer] customer questions."

Even so, getting started with social media can seem overwhelming. Bellamkonda recommends starting slowly. "Ask your customers what social media platforms they use the most and start there," he says. "When you get a feel for your voice and presence on that network, you'll find it easy to expand to other platforms."

He boils it down to a 2-step process:

1) Listen. Where is your key audience online? Set up Google Alerts for your business. You'll begin to see where the conversations about your business are taking place. Listening helps you develop your voice.

2) Engage. Be sure you aren't just blasting out information and news about your business. Interact directly with your followers. Ask them what else they would like to see from you and your business.

Network Solutions CEO Tim Kelly puts it this way: "Social media levels the playing field" for small businesses, giving you "access to the exact same audience that the big brands" have. "No matter whether a business is large or small," Kelly adds, "you have to go where your customers are. Given the huge popularity of social media, odds are that's where many of your customers will be."

Entrepreneur and AllBusiness blogger Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, recently put it in perspective: "This is not the Field of Dreams. If you build it, they will not come. Choose one tool, implement it into your overall business strategy, get good at using it, refine its use, and move on to the next one. And be patient. It does take time. After all, you're building relationships online. Online or off, relationships don't happen overnight."

Stokes County Farmers market

With the rising costs of food and transportation, it is more important than ever to support our local farmers and take advantage of the wide variety of fresh and healthy foodstuffs they provide. The market is moving to the Stokes YMCA starting today!

King Farmers Market has a new home

The King Farmers Market opens for the season today in a new location, outside at the Stokes County YMCA.

The market will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays through October.

The market was at the American Legion Post on the Stokes County Fairgrounds.

The move should give the market more opportunities because of the YMCA's large customer base, said Randy Fulk, a Stokes County extension agent.

The Stokes Family YMCA is at 105 Moore Road in King.

For information, call the YMCA at (336) 985-9622 or the Stokes office of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service at (336) 593-8179

The Only Stupid Question,

is the one you don't ask.

I was taking a few moments this morning and came across this topic in one of the blogs that I follow. Evidently a prospective entrepreneur asked a question at a seminar and was not treated with a great deal of respect. I think this happens way more than it should and it leads to many people sitting on their hands rather than jumping into the fray. Let me say this in the strongest possible terms: if you are an entrepreneur or thinking about becoming one, never be afraid to ask your questions. Sure there may be people in the room that already know the answer and bully for them. That does not lessen the legitimacy of the question or the fact that others are sitting there wanting to know the same thing.

To take this discussion a step further, I implore you to take the time to develop a written business plan! This includes balance sheets, cash flow statements and break-even analysis. If you don't know how to do these, ask for help. It is available from several partners across North Carolina and in many cases at little or no costs. This will lead to a better understanding of what you are trying to accomplish, who your market is, how much money you need to start and at what level you become profitable.

So don't worry about the guy or gal who sits there and rolls their eyes or snickers when you ask your question. Most of the times, these know-it-alls will be the first ones who go out of business!

Why Bringing it Back is Not the Answer

Or at least not all the answer. I found the blog below during my daily reading and I think it makes many interesting points. I also think that is misses one very major one. Once companies have grown to a certain level of sophistication, they must start looking for ways to cut cost, increase production and add to the bottom line. The only way they are going to do this is increase productivity and cut labor cost.

Where we in the U.S. are falling behind is our R&D. We became a Super Power by being ahead of the curve, not figuring out how to cut costs and produce goods at lower margins. We would create a new product, or advancement of and existing product, skim of the cream (highest profits) and move on to something else. We won because we were creative and spent the time, energy and money to figure out what to do next. It really didn't matter that the Japanese or Chinese or anyone else were stealing our technology and reproducing it. By the time they had perfected the old technology, we were already two steps ahead. This is not happening today and we are facing a real crisis. So I applaud the efforts to "onshore" jobs, to tighten supply chains and to pay attention to customers, but if we don't get our act together on the research and development issue, I fear that we will find ourselves on the outside looking in.

Enjoy the attached blog and let me know your thoughts:

Why Bringing It Back Home Makes Sense
In Uncategorized on April 17, 2011 at 8:10 am

There has been much speculation and conversation of late about U.S. manufacturers considering “on-shoring” or “re-shoring,” essentially bringing production operations back home.

When I read articles on this subject, I cannot help but think of a quote from A.G. Lafley, the former CEO of Procter & Gamble, which goes to the heart of this issue.

“The only strategy that matters is one that touches the consumer.”

This quote, provided to me by a former P&G exec Ed Burghard, is one that I periodically revisit to remind myself of certain fundamentals that should never be lost on anyone in business, but frequently is. The customer really is boss, and if you don’t provide the product or service expected, watch out.

Certain American manufacturers have learned the hard way that they could not best meet the needs of their customers with production facilities offshore, especially if their customers were here in the United States.

What It Is and What It Isn’t

And that is by definition what off-shoring is all about. It is not about moving production to another country simply to meet customer demand in that particular market. If you are making widgets for a Chinese market, which is a very big and growing market, then it might be a very smart and appropriate move to build a plant in China. But I don’t consider that off-shoring.

Rather, off-shoring is about moving operations offshore only to later import the goods back into the U.S, which still remains the world’s largest market, to fulfill demand.

Mind you, it can work. It has worked, particularly for certain industries such as telecom. But for many U.S.manufactures, off-shoring has not proved to be the panacea as expected.

Let’s Get Closer

A recent survey conducted by Accenture among 287 manufacturing companies identified that, in order to compete effectively, they needed to rebalance their existing supply footprint to better match with demand location. The majority of 61 percent of the respondents said they are currently considering shifting their manufacturing operations closer to customers to provide better service and to enable accelerated growth.

“Companies are beginning to realize that having off-shored much of their manufacturing and supply operations away from their demand locations, they hurt their ability to meet their customers’ expectations across a wide spectrum of areas, such as being able to rapidly meet increasing customer desires for unique products, continuing to maintain rapid delivery/response times, as well as maintaining low inventories and competitive total costs,” the Accenture report said

Managing supply operations that are separated far from where demand occurs has weakened some companies’ overall operational planning, forecasting and general flexibility, while driving up costs, particularly when energy prices are soaring. In short, the off-shoring experiment for many has backfired.

It would probably not be accurate to call off-shoring a fad. Again, it does work for certain companies in certain industries. But it is also clear that there is a lot of me-too-ism in business, a lot of follow the leader because they might know something we don’t know. For many companies, these strategic moves were simply not well thought out.

For example, nearly half (49 percent) of respondents in the Accenture survey reported facing issues with cycle or delivery time, and 46 percent have experienced product quality concerns as a result of off-shored manufacturing and supply operations.

Seeking Nirvana

The simple truth is that global competition will always force factory managers to try to replace expensive workers with machines or with low-wage labor overseas. Seeking nirvana through low labor costs has been a prime reason for off-shoring. By the way, it is also been the reason why the U.S.manufacturing is as efficient as it is. Because we cannot compete in terms of labor costs, we have had to develop more efficient, more automated systems for production. The proof is in the numbers.

A recent report by HIS Global Insight said China required 110 million workers to produce approximately the same amount of goods that 11.5 million American workers could produce. You may want to read that again.

In 2009, productivity in U.S. manufacturing increased by 7.7 percent, more than any other country followed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The simple truth is that manufacturers in the U.S. beat sweat-shop wages in developing countries through innovation employed here at home. It is the only way we can hope to compete. It is our only chance.

But clearly it is a chance, a risk worth taking for many manufacturers who have discovered issues of quality control that is not to their (or their customers’) liking and that total costs of manufacturing off-shore turned out to be not as low as expected.

What Happened to Our Cost Savings?

For one, labor costs are rising in Asia, particularly China, where wealth is building and a middle class is being created. And on the energy front, many analysts are predicting $150 a barrel oil before the end year’s end. Any way you cut it, moving a container load of pink flamingos from a far-off plant in Shandong province in China to the U.S. and to eventually find its way into your local Tacky Wacky store (I just made that up) is going to become more expensive. That is just the way it is.

So the seemingly initial cost savings – the reason why many if not most U.S.manufacturers jumped into a off-shore strategy with both feet are no longer so big. In fact, they are diminishing. And then there are your customers, you remember them. They are those pesky, challenging people requiring better service, agility, speed, and quality.

And now it starts to dawn on you that your plant in Shandong province alone may not cut it. Indeed, if you are going to keep these customers as customers, you are going to have to bring at least some production back home.

And that is what is happening, pure and simple.

The Right Strategy

“Getting closer to the customer allows for improved flexibility to respond to uncertain mand and unknown customer requests in an agile way with fast delivery times while maintaining high quality and optimized costs,” the Accenture study said.

It may not always prove to be the lowest cost strategy, but it is the right strategy for keeping customers happy. So a rebalancing act is taking place to better match supply operations with demand locations. BMW, Nissan, Siemens, Electrolux are recent examples of companies investing hundreds of millions of dollars in this country in pursuit of a strategy that A.G. Lafley spoke about.

Yes, indeed, it’s a brand new world out there. Heck, it’s always a brand new world.

Dean Barber is the president/CEO of Barber Business Advisors, LLC, a site selection and economic development consulting firm in Red Oak, Texas — www.barberadvisors.com

Stokes County Treasure

As spring move onward, I wanted to take an opportunity to bring you up to date on the lake and beach opportunities at Hanging Rock State Park. In addition to the wonderful trails, wildlife and vistas to enjoy, you now have additional hours to enjoy the lake and beach area.

Hanging Rock Lake

Fishing is permitted year round on the lake for bass, sunfish, and catfish. Anyone over 15 years old must have a NC fishing license. Fish from the shore, the wheelchair accessible pier, or from a rental boat. Only the swim beach and stone dam are off limits to fishing. There is no fee for fishing.



Rowboats and Canoes are rented for use on the lake weekends April, May, September, and October, and daily Memorial Day-August. Spring and fall hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Summer hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Rental cost is $5 for the first hour and $3 for each succeeding hour. To protect the lake from weed introduction, private boats are not allowed.



The Lake Refreshment Stand is open on weekends April, May, September, and October from 10:00 to 5:00 and is open daily to 5:45 Memorial Day through August.

If you are a regular visitor to the park, welcome and if you haven't visited the park, what are you waiting for?

What Consumers want from facebook

Below you will see information that may surprise you somewhat. That certainly appears to be the case for many of the large corporations in America. They have been busy trying to have a conversation with their customers rather than offering them what they really want, which is deals or special promotions for their products.

The social media perception gap
April 4, 2011 by engagesciences0
inShare.Most companies are misunderstanding the massive opportunity that social media marketing represents. Last month the IBM Institute of Business Value published a report entitled ‘From Social to Social CRM’. The report surveyed 1000 consumers about the reasons they interact with companies via social sites and then compared this with the results from surveying 350 business executives on why they thought consumers followed them on on social media. The results highlighted a perception gap that can only mean companies are missing out on direct revenue opportunities.

The reality is social media followers WANT to be monetized – they are after deals, promotions and discounts. Unfortunately most business executives are barking up the wrong tree by thinking that conversation with the brand is what drives people to follow them. In reality it is quite the opposite. Of course this represents a massive opportunity. If brands build up large social followings they can distribute social offers into this community and the research suggests that commercial results will be healthy. You can’t get more focused social ROI than campaigns focused on revenue. Marketing executives need to meet consumers expectations when they follow companies on social sites through providing regular deals, coupons and social offers.

This reminds me of what an "old time" salesman told me one day after I had made my sales pitch. I was really excited about the job I had done and I had walked out with an order. I asked him to critique how I had done, just knowing that I had hit it out of the park. He looked at me for a moment, sort of nodded and said: " Wood, you did ok but you talked to #### much, just say your piece, ask for the order and shut-up." This sounds like sound advice to anyone trying to promote products on social sites. Give them what they want, then get out of the way.