Lots of companies have websites these days. Your company probably has one. These commercial websites have lots of functions, and they can range from simple information sites about a company to ones more like ours, which are full e-commerce sites that sell products online. No matter what the primary function of the website is, it’s important to know your customers and know how effective your website is.

We’ve been using a very cool product from Google called Google Analytics which provides lots of tools for checking website performance. There’s a lot more to website traffic than counting hits. Google analytics tells us how many of our visitors are first time customers, and how many are returning customers. We can check which days of the week are busiest on our site, and which sections of the site are most effective. Other convenient features check which browsers our customers tend to use and what screen resolutions they’re seeing. If you’re wondering how customers are getting to your website, Google Analytics can see if they’re visiting from search engine results, direct URL, or other sources. You can also compress or stretch the analysis timeframe to see how your website is progressing in the long run.

One of the newer sections of our website sells Milwaukee Tool Parts and we were able to track and analyze the traffic to the page right away. Conversion rates, which show the percentage of visitors that actually place an order online, are important to keep an eye on and we’re able to check how effectively this new section of the website can sell tool parts to customers.

It’s a pretty simple thing, but Google Analytics has provided us with lots of very important information regarding our business online. I would recommend it to any business owner who is serious about their online presence.

The website was the single most important thing. All along I knew this, and the resulting procrastination was severe. First impressions count. Because my business was to be solely on line, the biggest influence on visitors would be how I looked on-monitor. Of course, you have to have good copy—nothing substitutes for that. But your home page says so much, not necessarily in words but in style.

Studying my competitors’ websites meticulously, I hated each and every one of them the entire time for having a share of the market that couldn’t yet see me even if they tried. What was surprising about the homepages of the most popular mineral makeup websites—the ones showing up consistently in the left-hand column of Google searches—was the proliferation of bells and whistles: ads, blinking discount offers, seals of approval from official entities of one kind or another, imprints of logo designers, website creators, and hosting companies.

But was it this that made them popular? Instead, I settled on the look of sites in other areas in the Beauty category – the sleeker sites of small companies selling clothing, skin care, and giftware.

I still surf my competitors’ sites, at least weekly, in part to satisfy myself that I made the right decisions, or what I think were the right decisions. Today I continue to get glowing reviews about how beautiful my site is. These are not from friends and relatives, and at some point you just gotta believe. Weigh in, anyone!

How does IT in a box sound?

That’s the vision of the latest trend in software development - called Software as a Service (SAAS). For small business owners - this model for technical support is very appealing - if you’re willing to accept the risk.

Software as a Service can be best described as outsourcing an entire business function. Typical SAAS functions are Payroll (Paychex.com), HR (Workday.com), Accounting (Quickbooks.com), Sales (Salesforce.com), and Customer Relationship Management (RightNow.com)

These vendors are part of a growing trend of software providers that allow you to subscribe to the service (typically about $100/month/user - but options vary greatly here). This allows you to run your business with some significant advantage. 1. You don’t have to develop these sorts of applications in-house. 2. You don’t have to have an IT staff to support you. 3. You don’t have to buy a bunch of computer hardware (SAAS vendors have the computers at their site - you just log in via the internet). 4. You don’t have to be an expert in these areas - the SAAS vendors support hundreds of small businesses - and their business model will typically work for you too.

The cost of these applications is typically very reasonable. The drawback is that you give up some of the control that comes with having your own in-house operations. In addition - you have to get over the fact that your Payroll/CRM/Sales/Accounting, information is hosted outside of your business - on your vendor’s website. To counter this concern - I would tell you that the worst thing for a SAAS vendor to have happen is a security breach - and I find that their security infrastructure is better than ANY fortune 500 company I’ve worked with. Security shouldn’t be an issue (although you should question the vendor to make sure you’re comfortable).

One other drawback in having your applications scattered across various vendor websites - is that they aren’t integrated. If you want a Sales order to feed your CRM system - typically you’ll have to re-type the information from Sales into the CRM application. However, web service technology is available to hook all these applications together…and for a bit more investment in some integration services (from great companies like ProCore Resource Group ), you can provide a seamless business process that is automated as well.

In short - if you’re considering some investment in technology to help your business grow - look at SAAS options. It provides state-of-the-market solutions for common business functions at a fraction of the cost it would take if you build it yourself.

Some time ago I found a website called Squidoo, a place where anyone can write a mini-webpage on any topic. Mine is entitled “All Things Mineral Makeup” (www.squidoo.com/alicecosmetics), and the hyperlinks in it have sent more clicks to my Alice Cosmetics website than some of the pay-per-click ads I’ve done. Squidoo, it turns out, is a social networking site. Some of its peers are LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and many, many more, each with its own format and concept. These sites typically include member profiles that give potential customers (or friends, or those with similar hobbies, etc.) a peek at who you are, what you like, what you are all about. And blogs are an integral part of this internet-relationship-building.

Social networking, I learned, is a new way to communicate with your target audience, a way of “having a conversation” with those who, increasingly, appreciate knowing you in a more personal way. As I learned in a webinar I attended recently, “the most credible source of information about a company is now ‘a person like me,’ which has risen dramatically to surpass doctors and academic experts for the first time.” This according to the Annual Edelman Trust Barometer, published by Edelman, the leading independent global PR firm.

The bonus? Hyperlinks on blogs and social networking sites also mean precious “backlinks” to your website, one of the things Google loves to see when it ranks your website.

Social network marketing can be a lot of work, but I’m a convert. Try it and let me know what you think.

It was easy to raise the first $200,000 and easy to blow through it. What do we do now? We realized that “Angel” investors are anything but angels. Most of them are looking for companies who are desperate so they can buy shares at a reduced price. We vowed that Card Café was not going to be one of those companies. We really struggled to know how much ownership we should give up to raise money. The one thing we did know was we were almost broke. After countless hours of fundraising to our friends and family, we were able to raise more money.

There are so many questions with angel investors. Am I looking for equity investors or is debt a better way to go? How much stock am I willing to sacrifice? Does the angel offer more to my company than just money? Do we allow the angel to sit on the Board of Directors? How much do we involve him/her in the day to day operations? These are hard questions but must be asked and answered before you allow the investment.

We did pitch to many different angel groups. I am convinced if you talk to enough of them you can find a fit. They are all looking at different aspects of your business and each likes a different type of businesses. There are generally many angel groups in a city.

One method I absolutely loved was speed pitching. If you have the opportunity to participate, you should. This is where they have many angel investors spread out in a large room. You only have a short time with each (generally 5 minutes) angel to sell them on your company.. There are two things I liked about speed pitching. 1) It makes you really search to find the best aspects of your company. You have such a short time to tell a big story, you quickly realize what it is that separates your company from the fray. 2) You get to meet a lot of great people. Most of them won’t invest but you have been able to peak their curiosity about your company. Who knows if that will lead to something down the road.

There have been a few angles who are willing to help and seem to have the best interest of the company at heart. We have allowed one such angel to invest. It has been a great situation. We did appoint him to the Board. His business knowledge has been invaluable. He gives great suggestions and is quick to let us know when we do things he does not think are in the best interest of the company.

The bottom line is that angels are sometimes a necessary evil. When you need to include them, look for those that offer more to your company than just money and those that will give you a fair valuation.

How much do you know about your customers?

It sounds funny, but you probably don’t know enough. Some of my most recent consulting engagements have been centered on Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

This term has been around for years, and it can’t be defined well. The latest way to define this term is to build a 360 degree view of your customer. This means that you understand all aspects of your customer - and have access to this information as you work with your customer.

CRM 360 degree view includes any orders placed, any problems called in, any invoices sent, and any other information gathered during ANY interaction with the customer.

If you’re not doing so - you should find a way to log every customer touchpoint.

Here’s why: One customer called in with an order. The service agent handling the order managed the transaction, and went about their day.

The customer, however, was dissatisfied with “normal” treatment, and called back. The customer asked to speak to a supervisor, and informed the supervisor that they had purchased over $10,000 in materials in the last 2 weeks. 20% of their ordered materials had been damaged or defective, and they were placing a new order because when they reported the damaged goods, the rep handling the damaged goods claim couldn’t place an order for new goods.

Wow! How different would the phone call have been if the rep handling the order KNEW that this was a top customer, and KNEW that there was a problem with the previous shipment. Perhaps a discount or other relationship enhancement techniques could have been employed. Instead - the customer is left feeling unimportant.

Even if you’re not at a scale where you can afford a CRM system, start logging your customer interactions in a single place (Excel spreadsheet if you must). Bills, inbound calls, outbound telemarketing offers, mail/email solicitations are all contact points…and all of these should help you gain that 360 degree view of your customer.

Use this informaiton to make each one of your customers a special customer. You’ll be glad you did.

Truthfully, I’m not an expert on anything. I don’t even pretend to know much about business and it’s all a constant learning process for me. More often than not, I learn by messing up or by doing something wrong or perhaps by being too aggressive or too cautious. The experts should explain all the really smart technical stuff because they know better than me. But one thing I know all about is persistence.

If you’re a small business owner then you already know that business will never get off the ground without some serious hard work on your own part. We’re definitely no exception. When all of us here at eReplacementParts.com decided to become a tool parts distributor a long road opened up before us. There was, and still is, a lot of work to do. And it wasn’t one day’s work. Our work, and I suspect the work of most small businesses, is a long marathon and the only thing that keeps our company going is pure persistence.

There are always the bad days too. You know the ones. They are the days when you seriously consider closing up the doors. As we make more progress and as we grow those days get more infrequent but they still happen. Maybe a supplier hurts your business or a large customer leaves you. Maybe three employees decide to quit within one month and force you to take on all their responsibilities while you frantically interview people to replace them. Things can get really awful. For me, it all comes down to persistence, persistence, persistence. Every business owner has a vision of what their company can become. We all have grand dreams and it takes hard work each day to keep moving.

So that’s my pep talk. I have to hear it too. The endurance race continues. Well, I’m off to work…

I will never write a blog, I said to myself. Why would anyone want to hear my rambling thoughts about anything? Then I found out, and in doing so was introduced to the whole new world of internet marketing called social media, sometimes social networking, or, most appropriate for my purposes, social network marketing. And lo and behold it’s all part of Web 2.0, which I previously thought was some more technologically advanced internet. It’s not, it’s a new way of communicating via the internet.

A friend called my attention to Geek Girls Camp, advertised as an “unconference” for women who wanted to learn more about how to use their computers and the internet and to network with other women. Learning how to better use my computer was not of interest to me, but marketing on the internet, one of the presentations listed, was. Other topics to be covered included blogging and social media, whatever that was.

Long story short, I not only signed up but became a sponsor so that I could put little gifts and Alice Cosmetics coupons in the goodie bags for the 100 women who attended. I came away from that event excited and motivated to continue and expand on what I had already done on Squidoo, a website that encourages readers to create “lenses” (mini web pages) on any topic. My Squidoo page, entitled “All Things Mineral Makeup” (www.squidoo.com/alicecosmetics), had sent as many clicks to my Alice Cosmetics website as the pay-per-click advertising I’d hired a company to do for me.

Squidoo, it turns out, is a social networking site. More to come. Meanwhile, go out and get yourself a Squidoo page.

I recently had an opportunity to talk to one of the software vendors that I was using on one of my projects. The account manager indicated that they had too much business in their installation backlog, and couldn’t meet all their demand.

This became an opportunity to explore a partnership with that vendor. What’s great about this?

Channel partners give two great benefits if you can find the right ones. First - you get another way to talk to your existing clients. You can offer new services, or new products with a new perspective. Secondly - you get access to new clients. Your channel partner also has a new way to talk to their clients - and might be able to represent your products & services to their clients.

Hopefully the new business is beneficial to everyone. I’ll be exploring one of these types of channel partnerships with the software vendor (I’m offering value-added consulting/integration services). We’ll see how it goes. Negotiations first, and then execution.

I know there’s a long way to go before this channel starts to pay out. I’ll have to invest in training and resource allocations, so this investment comes with some risk, and we’ll have to see how it goes. I’ll keep you posted.

However - I thought I’d pass along the thought to see if this post might cause anyone to start thinking about utilizing their partners to gain a path to new business.

Something that I am discovering is that great customer service can go a long way in building a small business. In truth, it is probably the one edge we have over “the big guys.” It also seems to be the area that gets neglected the most in all businesses. The majority of the work that I do is referral based and therefore it is essential that my existing clients think well of me. The only way that I will get a referral from one of them, is if they had a great experience with me. For that reason, I constantly want to get better at taking care of my customers. One of the ways that I try to do this is by beating my own deadlines. So if I tell a customer that they will have their order within two weeks, I try and deliver it within one to one and half weeks so that they are pleasantly surprised. The worst, is when I say two weeks and it takes me three to deliver the product! When that happens I am unconsciously telling them that they are not that important, or that I am inefficient, or worse yet, I’m a liar!!!

I also try to go beyond what they are expecting so that, again, they are presently surprised…to the point that they would tell someone about it. I always include a little something extra. Something that may not cost me too much overhead, but that they would love to have. Better yet, giving them a product that is cool that they may not know about, and then in turn, tell someone else how cool that product is. This recently happened when I personally delivered some product to a client who’s business is near my office. Not only was she surprised that I would hand deliver something, but then the product she got (something called “Stand Out Photomounts”) was so cool and different that she was telling and showing everyone in the office how awesome it was. I was getting great referral business right there because the client was already telling people about it!

This is one of those areas that could be such an easy way for us to boost our business. There are some many little and inexpensive things to do for our clients that make a difference. Sending a note, remembering a birthday, or anything that is beyond what you might normally expect. I’ve noticed over the last few years that good customer service is really hard to come by. My website fiasco that I blogged about last week is a great example of that to me. So many businesses just care about money more than people these days. To care about people and serve them well I think will go a long way in making our small businesses very successful. I think when you genuinely care about people, the money will follow.

Jason