One of the big things I studied in college was business.

I learned a good bunch about accounting, business law, organizational structure, and other stuff like that. When I graduated and stepped fully into the working world–especially when my position put me in touch with a lot of other businesses–I was shocked.

I was shocked (and still am, regularly) that so many aren’t doing what they should be doing according to what I learned in school.

Then I look around and realize two things: A lot of business that goes on today didn’t exist when I was in college and what works in the text books isn’t always practical for the small business actually trying to make it in the world.

That’s where the Internet comes in.

Most of the work I do now–websites, social media, and business development–was just crawling out of the realm of science fiction when I was in college. It wasn’t in any of the text books. None of the professors had any experience with online anything.

That in and of itself makes a lot of what I learned in all those hours (and paid all that money for) more than a bit outdated and kind of useless.

If I didn’t keep myself on top of the new ways of doing business, I wouldn’t have a clue about all the fantastic resources that are available.

Most small businesses–the ones fighting to make it on Main Street in any town you care to point at–don’t have the time to stay on top of all the new developments. Heck, the only reason I can is because it is the core of my business. If I were running a restaurant or retail store, managing employees, or anything else like that, I’d be hard pressed to find enough hours in the day to keep up.

But, for anyone who wants to make the time and take the effort, the Internet is easily available and it’s full of awesome information.

Just $100 to get started

With all of that information readily available, there’s a lot less need to drop the huge hunk of cash on a business school education. Especially if you’re in the market to go solo… or are serious about following one of your passions.

We’re regularly told that doing those things are a bad idea. (At least if we want to keep food on the table.)

The more time you spend looking into it, though, the more you realize that the most successful (and happy) people out there have done just that.

One of those successful and happy people is Chris Guillebeau. He doesn’t have the fancy education or the impressive resume. But he’s spent the last few years traveling the world, writing about it, learning what it takes to make a great business, and making a real living doing it.

He’s about to release a book called The $100 Startup. Guillebeau has gone and interviewed 50 successful business people who started out with around $100 in capital.

You really can’t get much more up to date and hands-on than that.

A damn fine deal

One of the things he’s definitely learned is how to cut a good deal (did I mention all the world traveling he’s done has been paid for in large part by frequent flyer miles?). To celebrate the launch of this new book, he’s been kind enough to get together with Only72.com and let the hard cover version of his book serve as the centerpiece for their latest package deal.

This time around, the Only72 crew have put together 18 different ebooks and online courses to help you tackle the business challenges of the modern world. Each book or course is from someone who’s not only done it before but is doing it now–making their money using the tools available on the Internet (and elsewhere in the modern world). They’re all a far cry from the dusty textbooks and not-quite-cutting edge professors from my college days.

The deal is this is over $1000 worth of hands-on educational material, including the hard cover book, at the very nice 90% discounted price of $100. The catch is, it’s only available for a little while. Get it now.

I regularly follow a handful of the people, including Gillebeau, and can tell you the advice they give is super useful. (It’s also usually more than a little entertaining and comes with a healthy dose of enlightenment, too.)

So, yeah, for just $100 you can get started making your own way in the world, by learning directly from people who are doing it.

Then you and I can trade stories some day about how rough it is starting out on your own, but how nothing really compares to it in the long run.

[Yes, the links here are mostly affiliate links. If you buy from them, I get paid. But I wouldn't push anything in your direction that I wouldn't use... and I did just buy this set myself. There's always something new to learn.]

Well, today’s the day… if you haven’t taken the time to update your business Facebook page, it’s going to automatically switch over to the new Timeline style.

Even though it’s last minute, it’s not too late to put together something that can look good. The two main bits you’re going to get squared away are your cover image and your profile picture.

Your Cover Image

The Timeline cover image is the first thing anyone will see when they come to your business page. It’s kind of hard to miss, since it takes up the entire top of the screen. (The official dimensions are 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall.) There are some rules Facebook wants you to follow, but they shouldn’t be hard to stick to (especially if you’re trying to do something quick).

The main rule is: No calls to action. The cover image isn’t an ad space–it’s branding space. Your image should be something eye-catching that projects the feeling you want people to get when they think of your business. If you have a shot of the outside of your shop (if you have a physical location that’s kind of pretty), you can use that. If you have a snapshot of some happy customers, even better (and if you know them by name, you can tag them when you upload the photo and they’ll be sure to show it off to their friends).

If all else fails, a quick browse through any stock photo service for “abstract backgrounds” or anything else you’d like will provide you with ideas and options. Remember, you’re looking to fill that space and catch people’s attention (preferably while warming them up to your business)–you can worry about perfection and the full details of your message over the weekend.

Your Profile Pic

The profile picture appears every time you post as your business and in other people’s timelines when they “Like” your page. That means that it’s the most publicly viewed thing on your page by default. It’s on the small side, about 180 pixels square, but it’s got a lot of power.

The profile picture should be something recognizable as connected to your business. If you have a square-ish logo, this is where you’d use it, without question. If your logo is more on the rectangular side, you’re going to have to do some more work. Be sure to check that any text in your profile picture is readable… and if it’s not, don’t use a version with that text.

If all else fails, you can go with your own smiling face. Especially if you’re front and center with your customers on a regular basis.

Everything Else

If you haven’t come up with a plan for how to best use your Timeline yet, everything else can wait.

There are a lot of new features you can take advantage of (like being able to place business milestones anywhere along the line) and some old tricks that don’t work quite the same anymore (no more custom landing pages, but you can still point people directly to special tabs/apps). At some point you’re going to have to take the time to familiarize yourself with what’s going on or bring on someone to help out who already knows.

There have been a whole lot posts online about the quirks, benefits, and potential of Facebook’s new Timeline layout. You should check them out. To get you started, here’s a recent one, complete with infographic, from Edelman Digital.

C. Michael Thomas Home Page

The Client

C. Michael Thomas, photographer, writer, filmmaker, actor, and veteran.

The Situation

After spending some time back in our home town, and then some more time bouncing around Europe, CMT decided to head out West and take LA by storm. Part of that included getting a bit of a web presence set up so people could find him. As luck would have it, a bunch of his photos ended up in a show back in New York just as he was getting on the road. He dropped me a line and we decided he should start out with a photography website.

The Criteria

I’d gotten him set up on Flickr a while back, so we figured it would be best if he didn’t have to re-upload photos for use on the new site. Other than that, he wanted to keep it simple and straightforward… a base to build from as time went on.

The Solution

This is the sort of project that WordPress is made for.

Working off of my preferred Genesis Platform, building out the custom theme was quick and easy. All of the gallery “heavy lifting” is handled by the Awesome Flickr Gallery plugin, which pulls the images right from Flickr in pretty much any way you’d ever want. Even better, since all the images are managed in Flickr, he can add or remove pics from the galleries without ever logging in to WordPress.

Aside from the gallery pages, there was just a need for an “about” page and a contact form.

A couple rounds of quick style and spacing tweaks later and a quick content edit, and the site was up and running.

Looking Ahead

Focusing on photography was only a start for CMT. With the gallery show going on, it was the logical place to start. He plans on expanding it with some headshots of his own so he can better pursue some acting gigs. Further down the road, anything is possible.

While there may be thousands of ways to improve your business overall, there are only a handful of ways to really grow the income of your business. Five come to mind quite quickly.

1. Increase the number of customers you have.
2. Increase the revenue from existing customers.
3. Increase the profit margin on your goods or services by raising prices.
4. Increase the efficiency of your business processes (reduce cost).
5. Increase the number of products or services you offer.

Each one has pros and cons attached to it and some may be impossible in certain circumstances. What you have to decide is where you want to focus your attention right now in order to give your business the income boost you want.

More Customers

Getting more customers is the first thing that always occurs to business owners looking to increase their income. After all, if you bring more people through the door, you’re almost always bound to sell more, right?

While that may be the case, you have to take into account the cost of acquisition for each of those new customers. If you spend $1000 to run an ad in the local paper and it brings in 10 new customers, the cost of acquisition for each of them is $100. If they each buy more than $100 worth of what your selling, you at least break even. If they don’t, you’ve actually lost money by bringing more people through the door.

Getting more customers is often the most costly and difficult thing a business can do to get more money. Yes, it’s necessary at some point or another, but it should always be done with a shrewd eye to the bottom line. Always look for the cheapest, most effective way to bring new people in–and once they’re in, be sure they have a fantastic experience, whether they buy anything or not!

More Revenue from Existing Customers

If your business is running okay, chances are you have a steady stream of customers. The question to ask yourself is: Are you giving them every chance possible for them to give you their money?

Online stores like Amazon have this down to a science. Every time a customer makes a purchase, they’re immediately shown a bunch of other stuff they may be interested in. Do you know your customers well enough to know what else they may be interested in? Is your staff trained well enough and knowledgeable enough to be able to suggest other products or services that may help your customers accomplish their goals?

Say you run a hardware store and someone comes in to buy some copper pipe. How many other items may they need to complete a project that involves copper pipe? Soldering tools? Hacksaws? Gloves? Maybe a new sink fixture? Or, perhaps, new carpet to replace what was ruined when that old water pipe broke the night before?

Raising Prices

Many business owners–especially those in service industries–are loathe to raise their prices. They worry that they’ll scare away existing customers or have trouble bringing in new ones. Sure, you can increase your profit margin on a per-sale basis, but is it worth risking losing customers to do it?

In many cases, yes, it is.

The reality of it is that people are willing to pay for good products or services. As long as you deliver what you promise (and a little bit more), they’ll remain happy and not have a problem handing over your increased fee. There are upper limits to what any given market can bear, but chances are, if you’re looking to grow, you haven’t reached that limit yet.

Reduce Cost

Always be on the lookout for ways to improve the efficiency of your business processes. Cutting 15 minutes a day off of a task you perform gives you more than an “extra” hour of time for other things by the end of the week.

Sometimes technology is the answer. Long ago, when I worked at a newspaper, we cut hours off of our production schedule by moving to all-digital production. That freed up a lot of person-hours and saved a good chunk of change. If you run a retail business, see what you can do to reduce the time it takes to manage your inventory. For a service business, see what you can put in place to make managing clients go more quickly.

Whatever you do, don’t cut costs to the point where it has a negative impact on the quality of what you provide your customers. Shoddy work and crappy service will cost you much more than you’ll ever save. Even worse, the hit your reputation takes could spell the end of your business.

Offer More

Be on the lookout for other goods or services your clients want, specifically, stuff that you don’t offer. If it’s something easy to add, like another product line or an additional service, add it to your business and reap the rewards of more income and happier customers.

Even better, take a look at what you already have and see if you can offer it differently or to a different target market.

If you’re a veterinarian, think about creating a couple of small books (either physical or electronic) focusing on ways to keep different types of pets healthy. You can sell those on the side or give them to customers for free (which will build good will and help encourage them to spread good things about you, bringing in new customers at no real cost to you). Chances are, you have a ton of knowledge and experience that you can package and deliver in numerous ways. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of that.

The best thing about packaging (or re-packaging) information and knowledge you already have is that you only have to put it together once–after the first round of creation, it’s all profit.

Most Importantly, Listen and Talk

If you’re looking to expand your business or increase your income, the best things you can do is listen to the customers you already have. They’ll let you know what they want and what they’re willing to pay for it.

The second best thing you can do is talk to your customers. Tell them you’re looking to do something a little different or that you’re looking to bring in a little more business. If you’ve been treating them well, they’ll be more than happy to offer up whatever they can to help you out.

How do you want your business to grow in the next three months?

Last time, I shared a little about how taking just 30 minutes to sit down and talk about possibilities could lead to a better, more profitable business.

This time around, I’m going to outright give you five principles to start with.

The new report I’ve put together for you covers five of the biggest concepts that can help any business or organization of any size. For those small businesses and organizations, though, these are make or break ideas that can save tons of time and frustration.

Over the next week, there’ll be a little bit more on these topics, but for now feel free to “read ahead” and grab the report for yourself.

Make Your Business Better Now

This report looks into the five principles you can take action on right now in order to improve your business or organization’s connection with your customers and community.

In it you’ll learn:

• Why getting online is more important now than ever
• How to make use of social media to grow your reach
• Why you shouldn’t over-automate you communication
• The two things you need to do, without question, to really be trusted and respected by your community
• How to not be overwhelmed by all the options out there

For a limited time, this report is available for free when you subscribe to the Presence @ Durosia.com newsletter.

We’ve all heard the saying “Time is money,” right?

If there’s only a certain amount of time in a day (24 hours), that should mean that the amount of money you can make in a day is limited.

Obviously, that’s exactly not the case. Otherwise there wouldn’t be people pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars a day while barely doing anything with others barely making ends meet while working 18 hour days.

So what’s the deal with that?

I think it comes back to another old adage: Work smarter, not harder.

It’s the ability to be clever about our business practices that allows one business owner to make more money in less time than another. Being clever is mostly about how you use your time.

Can 30 Minutes Make a Difference?

As part of my normal process when working with potential clients, I sit down and talk with them a little about their business–what they have planned, what they’re already doing, how hard they’re working. That’s my standard Presence session and it takes about half an hour. At the end of that time, I decide if I can help them get what they want and they decide if they want me to help them.

During those 30 minutes, there are invariably a handful of things I see right away that they can be doing to improve their business. Since my main focus has been on getting people set up online, most of those improvements have been directed toward tweaks to their websites and social media plans. Regardless of whether they become clients or not, I’ll always let them know what some of those things are… after all, my goal is to help people out (because better businesses are better for everyone).

Usually there’s another set of insights that come up, too. Ideas of ways that they can work smarter, increase their revenue, and really make use of a lot of assets they already have.

Ideas to develop their business. To get more money for their time.

In that single 30 minute span, it’s possible to set the groundwork for amazing growth.

Fresh Perspective

One of the best ways to inject some new ideas into your business is to get a new brain involved. Even better is to get one from outside of your industry.

Someone who hasn’t been fighting the same day to day battles, listening to the same experts repeat the same tips again and again, and hasn’t had all the same experiences you’ve had can bring in ideas that you probably wouldn’t have come up with. This is the thought behind a lot of cross-industry mastermind groups or cross-training programs in larger companies.

The more diverse the pool of experience, the better the chance for a new idea that can really make a difference.

Outside consultants (like me) bring just that sort of “outside” brain to the game.

The thing is, many charge a good bunch of money for any ideas they come up with. After all, their main goal is to make money. Why would they give stuff away for free?

Creating Better Business

One of my goals with Presence (and, really, Durosia.com as a whole) has been to encourage excellence in many areas of life. Business is one of those. For many entrepreneurs and small business owners, life and business are intertwined.

When one is be improved, the other usually gets better, too.

If in 30 minutes we can come up with just one idea that helps you create a better business, then I’m happy I’ve made a difference.

That’s why the initial 30 minute Presence session is always free. If you want to keep me around to help you implement or further develop a plan (leaving you more time to focus on what you do best), then we can start talking about that investment. Otherwise, there’s no obligation and you get the ideas to do with as you wish.

Ready?

Do you want to improve your business? Are you willing to take just half an hour–at no additional cost–to figure out how you can? If so, you can sign up for a Presence session.

I look forward to helping you develop business.

The Homepage, Before

The Client

Since Antarctica, a DC area rock band.

The Situation

After over a year of playing gigs and crafting original tunes, the band spent some time in the studio a few months ago to lay tracks for their first album. While they already have a decent local fan following on Facebook and had a workable website of their own, it was time for them to turn things up a little more in the push with album publicity.

Lead singer Shannon Woods had built out the WordPress theme Since Antarctica’s site had been using and it was doing a good enough job of showcasing their music, letting them get the word out for events, and helping people get in touch with them. She (and the rest of the band) really wanted something a little more, something that included the artwork from the new album and had a little more flexibility. Like many people who go the DIY route with a theme, fitting in some tinkering among all the other demands of daily life (and a rock star nightlife), Shannon’s theme lacked some of the more advanced bits that really make WordPress shine as a content management system (like wigitized sidebars and a mix of dynamic content throughout the site).

The Criteria

The only real criteria the band had was that the new album artwork be featured prominently and that the site didn’t look too “blog-like.”

The Home Page of the New Site

The Solution

Right off the top I noticed that there wasn’t anywhere on the site where the band was collecting email addresses for their own mailing list. They have a presence on ReverbNation, and that has a mail list option that can be used, but it doesn’t appear to be quite as robust or flexible as more dedicated services. So, right off the top, I had them set up an account on MailChimp.

Most of the fan interaction was going on via the band’s Facebook fan page. I suggested that they put up a special tab with their mailing list sign up form on it and direct people to that while we took care of the website redesign. As a little bit of a push to jump start the list-building, we decided it would fun to give away a copy of their new CD to someone who signed up for the mailing list. The band took care of implementing that promotion and we should see the results soon, after the album comes out.

Design-wise, the existing theme wasn’t bad, but it lacked some key features and an underlying structure that would support easy modification and growth. To take care of that, I made the choice to build the theme as a child of the Genesis framework. With a few plugins like Genesis Simple Hooks and Genesis Simple Edits and some new code added to the child-theme’s functions file, it was possible to build the entire child theme without creating a single new page template. Everything else was done using CSS.

An Interior Page of the New Site

After a little bit of back and forth on rough designs, we decided we’d stick with the existing idea of keeping the band’s name full-width on the front page, but wanted to bring the content a little higher on interior pages. Using a reduced-size logo on the interior pages, there was space in the header to add the mail list signup and the social media icons. This freed up space in the sidebar for other promotional or featured content.

To really make the font page jump, I made use of the dynamic content gallery plugin to feature new content. Keeping that a reasonable size left some space to the right of it for a slightly larger mail list pitch than on the interior pages. Below the feature area we went with full-width teasers for the most recent content, only slightly modifying the default homepage display by removing the sidebar via CSS.

Overall, the redesign wasn’t that difficult, but the effect was pretty stunning.

On the front end of things, visitors are presented with a much more dynamic experience with more chances to interact with the band (via the more prominent social media icons, newly added share option on posts, the mailing list sign up, and a fully functional contact form).

On the back end, the addition of properly widgetized areas makes it easier for the band to update content in the sidebar and header whenever they want. The Genesis templates make full use of all the available Worpdress functionality, meaning additional modules can easily be put in place and work properly within the site design.

Looking Ahead

Since Antarctica will be releasing their first album this weekend. At that show they’ll also be encouraging fans to sign up on the mailing list. As far as the site itself goes, the band was already updating it on their own, so they’ll continue doing that, but can now highlight their content better and should see an increase in traffic and interaction as visitors discover the share options.

Client Reaction (Update)

The album release was this past weekend and the band was so happy with the site they gave me a shout-out on stage between songs. Here, check it out:

Thought I’d pop in and give a general overview of what’s going on here in the Presence province of Durosia.com.

Aside from the launch of Splash of Color Designs in December (which is still being tweaked and added to). There have been a few projects under-way or in the works.

A couple of them are kind of big deals.

One of those is a stock tracking site for day traders that I’ve been working on with a friend of mine (who came up with the idea). You’ll be seeing a lot more about that soon as we’re getting ready for the PR push leading up to  launch.

Another is a partnership with a film project and production company that’ll be producing their second fan film for charity. That’s possibly a multi-webside deal with some other fun thrown in. More on that when all the details are worked out.

Coming up are a few smaller sites: more for my friend Carrie (Splash of Color), a site for a lawyer who’s moving to the area and setting up his own practice, sites and social media for a local band or two.

I’m also about to release the first special report from Durosia.com, focusing on five ways you can improve your business right now. That will kick off a push to complete a handful of training and information courses that I’ve been outlining and thinking about for well over a year.

Expect case studies on most of those as they launch and play out. Expect more detailed announcements as new things happen.

There’s still space for you!

Even with all that going on, I still have a few spaces left for new clients in my calendar. So if you or anyone you know needs a website, social media plans, or is just curious to learn more about how a good presence can improve your business, drop me a line.

You can also sign up on the Presence mailing list to get notified as soon as things like that report launch.

Subscribe to the Email List

Nice infographic from Investp.

If there’s ever any doubt that social media can reach people, all you need to do is look at the number of people online who use it and how much time they spend there.

If you want to be seen, you need to be there.

Infographic by – Invesp Conversion Rate Optimization Blog

The Client

Carrie Johnson, Splash of Color Designs (custom hand-made jewelry)

The Situation

An old friend of mine who has made jewelry for a long time finally decided it was time to put up a website to display and sell her creations. This was something a few of us had been on her to do for years, so I was overjoyed to help out. The problem was, she wanted it done in time to get some orders in (and shipped) by Christmas. It was already the beginning of December.

The Criteria

The site had to be easy to update with products, display multiple images per product, have the ability to set different options for different products, track inventory, have multiple categories of products (some organized by color), and, of course, allow the purchase of items.

The Solution

Because the organization of products was going to be a bit complex and the fact that there were some other options she wanted to eventually add in down the road, Drupal was the sensible choice. The wide variety of modules available coupled with the flexibility of the content type and taxonomy systems meant most of the rough stuff could be done relatively easily.

The Ubercart module, along with a few modules related to that project, took care of just about all the ecommerce stuff, including special discount coupon codes to use in promotions and variable shipping charges.

The Views module allowed for the easy grouping and sorting of products based on color (which was noted using taxonomy terms on the individual products) and provided the ability to have dynamically generated pages.

The Context module helped enhance the default block functionality to allow for some more variety when it came to placing the individually grouped products on various pages.

While we were working on the site, I put up a placeholder page with a MailChimp email capture form (“Sign up to be notified when the site goes live!”) and we started building her a mailing list. By the time the site launched, there were a half dozen people (mostly friends and family) who’d signed up. Once launched, that email capture form moved to the top of the page and has continued to add new subscribers to the list.

Thanks to my friend’s organization and the clear ideas of what she wanted, we pulled the whole thing together–including her photographing and entering dozens of wonderful hand made earrings–in just under ten days. We’ve continued to tweak and work out some kinks in the site as time has gone on, but there hasn’t been a single major problem that’s come up.

Looking Ahead

So far, the site has been running and generating her sales without a tremendous amount of promotion. She sent out a notice to a number of people she knew and I publicized it via my preexisting social media channels. In the coming months, there will be more publicity as she’ll be teaching some of her beading techniques at a conference and working out some cross promotional plans with a couple of other sites I’ll be working with her to create.