NY Times small-business guide to using Facebook

A few good tips from "How to Market Your Business With Facebook" from the NY Times:

• Identify a short list of goals before you begin.

• Show some personality in your page.

• Don't shill. Use your page to engage-and trust that sales will follow.

• Use Facebook data to analyze your customer demographics.

WSJ on volunteer advisers

Have a startup and want to tap into free advisers? The WSJ has some options: "Some small-business owners say their firms are surviving tough economic times thanks in part to advisory boards they regularly turn to for fresh perspectives and support."

Inc. on microtesting

One of my favorite parts of The 4-Hour Workweek is Tim Ferriss's discussion of microtesting new products -- marketing something cheaply and scientifically online to see if you get interested buyers before you go produce it. It's very consistent with ideas I've long been attracted to, in particular: predicting the future is impossible, and it's better to get user feedback on products as early and often as possible. And it's an especially appealing approach for startups and small businesses that can't afford to spend a lot on developing products that go bust.

A recent article in Inc. magazine - "The Bootstrapper's Guide to Launching New Products" - offers some good examples of "microtesting" or "minimum viable product." "What sets this approach apart from practices like using focus groups," the article points out, "is that companies base product development decisions not just on what customers say they want but on how they vote with their wallets."

WSJ on Web tools for small businesses

The WSJ covers 8 free or cheap web services designed to help small businesses with organizing, raising funds, or gaining insights. The last 5 all looked interesting to me.

Just go for it

From a WSJ interview with Chipotle founder Steve Ells:

Q. What advice do you give to other entrepreneurs starting out?

A. So many people told me it was not a good idea to a start a restaurant, especially a fast-food restaurant. There was so much wrong with it – it was too spicy; everything was done by hand, from scratch. Everything was wrong. But that's why customers liked it; it's different, in the right way. If you have an idea, just go for it. If everybody is telling you that it's wrong, maybe that's an indication that it's an original idea.

Business owners and happiness

Sue Shellenbarger covers interesting findings from a new Gallup survey in her WSJ column:

In the broadest, most-comprehensive survey yet of how occupation affects happiness, business owners outrank 10 other occupational groups in overall well-being, based on the landmark survey of 100,826 working adults set for release today. Defined as self-employed store or factory owners, plumbers and so on, business owners surpassed 10 other occupational groups on a composite measure of six criteria of contentment, including emotional and physical health, job satisfaction, healthy behavior, access to basic needs and self-reports of overall life quality.

This puts Roger the Plumber well ahead of movers and shakers typically regarded as the top of the heap in society—professionals such as doctors or lawyers, who ranked second, and executives and managers in corporations or government, who came in third—according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a collaboration between Gallup and Healthways, a Franklin, Tenn., health-management concern. This is despite business owners ranking below those more-prestigious occupations in physical health and access to basic needs, such as health care.

The findings, psychologists say, reflect the importance of being free to choose the work you do and how you do it, the way you manage your time, and the way you respond to adversity. Regardless of occupational field, the survey suggests that seeking out enjoyable work and finding a way to do it on your own terms, with some control over both the process and the outcome, is likely for most people to fuel satisfaction and contentment.

"Despite the recession, it still pays to be your own boss," says Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll. The survey, adds John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, "reaffirms my view that the more control you have over your work, the happier you are."

Boosting Byblos

I'm excited to share a new case study on my experience building and marketing the website for Byblos Deli, a small DC restaurant.

Byblos was my first website, and it's been great to watch its traffic grow over the last year -- and to see that paying attention to marketing and SEO best practices really works.

Please share the article, especially with any small business owners you know.

Seth on naming

I'm trying to come up with names for a couple new companies and this blog post from Seth is the best advice I've come across. It's a few years old and I think the one tool he recommends has shifted its focus to selling domain names and is a lot less useful. Guy has some name advice as well.

Seth on crossing the chasm

Any talk of chasm crossing, early adopters, and the like gets me fired up. Especially when it's coming from Seth ...