Are you a hold-out when it comes to leveraging mobile technology for your small business success?  If so, you’re now in the minority which means most likely your competitors are using new technologies to increase their market share.  New survey data from Constant Contact found 66 percent of small businesses are using mobile devices, including smart phones and tablets, or a solution, like mobile-optimized websites and text message marketing.   However, of those not using any mobile device or solution (34 percent) for their business, well over half said they have no plans to do so in the future, mainly citing a lack of customer demand.  To those business owners I say, “Wake up and small the coffee!”

Take a look at the statistics.  Mobile computers are spreading faster than any other consumer technology in history. In the United States, smartphones have even begun reaching the group of relative technophobes that consumer researchers call the “late majority.” About half of mobile-phone users now have one.  By the end of 2013, there will be more mobile devices on Earth than people, a new report suggests. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, last year’s mobile data traffic was nearly twelve times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. It’s predicted global mobile data traffic will increase 13-fold by 2017, with more than 10 billion mobile-connected devices by then.

Savvy entrepreneurs are jumping on the mobile technology bandwagon for marketing and management tools.  The Constant Contact survey notes the following top uses of mobile applications by small businesses.

• 73 percent conduct social media marketing.
• 71 percent conduct email marketing.
• 44 percent advertise through social platforms.
• 34 percent have a mobile-optimized website.
• 18 percent run a mobile tablet-based payment point-of-sale.
• 18 percent use mobile apps to manage operations, like accounting.

The survey found the top applications for management operations to be:

• 82 percent use a calendar/time management app.
• 74 percent use a customer communications app.
• 52 percent use a GPS and mapping app.
• 44 percent use an accounting/invoicing app.
• 44 percent use an app for industry news/information consumption.
• 29 percent use a travel planning app.

Mobile technology is the wave of the future.  If you aren’t leveraging it in your small business there is no time like the present!  Familiarize yourself with available options and start slowly.  There are excellent resources on the Internet to help you learn how to best utilize the power of mobile technology solutions for your small business.

Small Business Growth

Entrepreneurs are creative, energetic, visionaries and risk-takers who see business opportunities everywhere.  In fact, most people who are entrepreneurs wind up as founders of more than one company in their careers because they derive their energy from the challenge.  I certainly fit into that category.  I’ve been starting businesses since I was 15 years old.  There is something about seeing an opportunity and going for it that gets me all jazzed up. Some people think it’s confidence — others describe it as insanity.

Whatever you call it, the entrepreneurial mindset is important because it brings innovation to the marketplace, but it has its disadvantages too. First, because entrepreneurs see a world of possibilities, they often get their fingers in too many pies and as a result they lose focus.  Personally, I’ve surrounded myself with people who have an ability to rein me in when I get too far out in left field.  As one of my former business partners cautioned me regularly, “When you say yes to one thing you effectively say no to something else.”  It’s impossible to do everything all at the same time and do it all well.  Something is going to fall through the cracks.

Even more problematic for entrepreneurs is their inability to see their own limitations.  Because their minds are creative, most entrepreneurs aren’t the best at running day-to-day operations.  Once again, this describes me to a tee.  I’m definitely not a detail-oriented person.  I don’t function well in structured environments.

So in order for founders to allow their businesses to flourish and escalate to the next level of sophistication, entrepreneurs often need to get out of the way.  Easier said than done, and that’s why many small businesses flounder or fail.  The entrepreneur/founder isn’t willing to reinvent their role within the organization.

Why do I describe it as reinvention?  Because it requires a readjustment of your vision of who you are in relationship to the business you started — your baby.

Small businesses would never get launched if it weren’t for entrepreneurs, but we need to recognize as our organizations grow sometimes we need to get out of the way and let them flourish.

True confession.  I’m horrible at interviewing job candidates.  “Susan, you can’t run a successful business without learning how to conduct a good interview,” a friend and fellow business owner recently told me.

Why am I not good at interviewing job candidates when as a journalist I interview people all the time?  Probably because I don’t focus on the task as much as I should.  With several job candidates to interview in the next few weeks, my friend offered to lend a hand.  So here are some tips he shared with me and I am passing them along to you.

1.  Don’t Rush.  The first thing my friend told me to do was to carve out ample time in my schedule for the interviews.  Don’t squeeze them in between other meetings.  Hiring a new employee is an important investment, he explained, so treat it as such.  In fact, I have decided to conduct the interviews away from my office to avoid distractions.

2.  Be Prepared.  The second thing he told me to do, was to really think about the type of individual I need for the current job opening.  It’s a new position, so I have a general idea of what I need, but I really hadn’t defined it completely. So I created a list of responsibilities and job skills that would be critical for someone to succeed.

3.  Ask Thought-Provoking Questions.  I usually resort to the standard interview questions you would find in any book on the topic.  But my friend encouraged me to ask questions closely related to the job responsibilities so the candidate can demonstrate his or her related skills and experience.

4.  You Aren’t Networking.  I’m guilty of talking to a job candidate much as I would to someone I met at a networking event.  That isn’t a good way of getting to know whether or not this person is someone who will be a strategic fit for my business.  So my friend reminded me not to be afraid to ask tough questions to see how the candidate can function under pressure.

5.  Seek Feedback.  Ask someone else to sit in on the interview or talk with the candidate independently.  You’ll get more than your own perspective about the candidate.  (My friend is joining me for my upcoming interviews.)

6.  Don’t Make Desperate Decisions.  Because most small business owners are over-worked, it is easy to make snap hiring decisions.  My friend cautioned me to make sure to give myself enough time to find the “right” candidate rather than someone who is just “okay.”

Armed with these tips, I think I’m prepared for the upcoming interviews, and I hope you find them helpful too.

For today’s entrepreneurs, starting a business is not all about the money.  According to the 2013 State Of The Business Owner (SOBO) Report, recently released announced by the business coaching company EMyth, the top three reasons today’s entrepreneurs start their business are: freedom to pursue new opportunities; following their personal passion; and, to gain independence from other’s control.  Money ranks fourth on the list.

The 2013 SOBO Report highlights the importance of entrepreneurs getting more guidance and insight into what it takes to build a successful, sustainable business.  Another entrepreneurial trend identified finds that 85 percent of business owners believe they have a competitive advantage, and 50 percent believe that their employee’s productivity is better than their competitors.  While passion and commitment are essential traits for a successful entrepreneur, EMyth counsels its clients to keep overconfidence in check.

The 2013 SOBO Report also reveals the importance of values to business owners’ hiring decisions.  The Report found that 85 percent of business owners have written company values and 70 percent of them say alignment with those values is a major factor in their hiring decisions.  However, owners are struggling to have their employees use those core values in daily decision making – only 44 percent felt their employees did this effectively.  To solve this challenge, EMyth teaches business owners how to get everyone from the owner to the employee to the customer personally invested in the company’s success.

More insights from the 2013 State Of The Business Owner Report are available at stateoftheowner.com, on EMyth’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and on Twitter at #sobo2013 and #emyth.

Every day it seems I hear of yet another “phishing” scam.  There are so many cyber-criminals out there and many are focusing their efforts on small businesses.  If you aren’t familiar with the term phishing — it’s when someone pretends to be from a major company, organization or government agency and tries to trick you into giving them your social security number, financial account info, passwords and other proprietary personal or business information.

I’ve previously shared tips on how to identify potential scams so you can protect your self and your business.  In today’s post, I’m sharing a number of excellent resources to keep you informed and up-to-date.

*  Cornell University’s “Phish Bowl” provides examples of common phishing emails so you can become familiar with “red flags” to watch out for.

*  OnGuardonline is a website supported by the federal government with a wealth of valuable resources.

*  National Cyber Security Alliance is a non-profit with a website called Staysafeonline.org.

*  National Consumer League Fraud Center (Fraud.org) provides regular reports and information on the latest scams.

Share these resource rich websites with your team so everyone is always on the alert.  If you feel you’ve been the victim of a “phishing” scam, notify your financial institutions immediately.  These criminals act quickly once they have your information.  Additionally, contact the Consumer Federation of America’s IDTheftInfo website.

No matter what type of business you’re in, you’re in the business of selling.  And many small business owners admittedly don’t like sales.  They are passionate about their product or service, but when it comes to closing deals, they fall short.  Why?  Often it’s the fear of rejection.  But good sales people view “no” as a mere objection to overcome, not as a reason to stop trying.

How do you face rejection and keep your confidence level high?  For the most part, you must have a thick skin. The sales game is a game of a law of averages — the more sales presentations you make, the higher your probability of getting a deal.  But the reality is you’ll hear many more “no’s” before you get to one “yes” — particularly in the early days of your business.  However, there are a few things you can do to improve your chances of getting to “yes.”

1. Be prepared – Good preparation can enhance your ability to succeed.  Before you make a sales call, take time to do your research.  Know a little history about the company and your prospect. Visit their website. Do an Internet search and look for recent press releases or other pertinent information. Pay attention to the company’s advertisements and marketing strategies. And don’t forget to check out their competition.

After many requests, I finally agreed to meet with a representative of a large, regional bank who wanted my company’s business.  It was clear early in the presentation that the young woman had no idea what my company did or who I was. She brought information about local organizations for women-owned businesses, and unbeknownst to her, I served in national leadership positions with several of the groups. Shame on her for not doing her homework.  Getting to know your prospect is a right of entry in today’s market.

2. Listen and get to know your prospect – During the sales call, ask open ended questions to learn as much as you can about your prospect.  Look for common interests so you can build rapport. Listen carefully so you can customize your presentation. When it comes to selling, no two prospects are created equally. Make sure your presentation is directed to their particular needs.

In my experience, I’ve found most sales people don’t understand the customer’s needs.  They make the mistake of jumping right into a canned sales pitch.  And as a result, many get pitched right out the door.

3. Don’t give up too easily – When faced with objections, don’t give up and race out the door.  Handle objectives in a positive, professional manner. Make sure you clearly understand what’s being said, and if you don’t, ask for clarification. Find out what you could do to resolve the objection. Then, armed with that information, you can devise an appropriate solution and close the sale.

The more calls you make, the more opportunities you’ll have for success. With that in mind, every “no” you receive takes you one step closer to a “yes.”  And remember, every sales appointment is a new opportunity, so don’t carry negativity from one into another.  It’s like my mother used to say, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

What’s your best sales tip?

It’s easy to say, “I’m sorry, we don’t have that… We can’t get it… We can’t do that… It’s not our policy” Blah, blah, blah.  In other words, it’s easy to say, “No.”

But, that is not what amazing companies do.  Amazing companies empower their employees to find solutions for their customers.  They train, motivate, and praise their employees for coming up with “Yes” answers for their customers.

At Ace Hardware, the role model for my upcoming book Amaze Every Customer Every Time, one of the tactics that many of the retailers have adopted is a concept called “One to Say Yes and Two to Say No.”  The concept is simple.  At Ace, a single associate (employee) can’t just say “No” without exhausting all options.  Furthermore, it takes two people to say “No” to the customer.  In other words, “No” requires the approval of a manager.

For example, a customer wanted a Toro lawnmower that Ace didn’t stock.  While the store carried Toro lawnmowers, they just never carried that particular model, and the customer was insisting on that one specific model.  The store associate could have told the customer, “No, I’m sorry we don’t stock that model,” and the customer would have left to buy the lawnmower from a competitor.  But that’s not what happened.  Instead, the associate called the manufacturer and asked if he could place a special order for one of the store’s customers.  Just a few days later that customer had the lawnmower she wanted.  One other important point: the associate didn’t have to get the manager’s approval.

The idea of empowering the employee to say “Yes” to a customer seems natural.  Yet to get the approval of a manager to say “No” to a customer is the opposite of what many of us, as customers, have experienced.  We’ve all heard someone tell us, “Hold on while I get a manager to approve this.”  Yet, you have probably never heard an employee say, “Hold on while I get a manager to confirm that I can say ‘no’ to you.”  Of course an employee would never actually say that.  With this strategy, the employee has been trained to come up with solutions that are customer focused.  The idea of having to go to the manager for approval to say “No” to a customer is what empowers the employee to come up with a “Yes” solution for the customer.

In the process of writing about this concept I found that there were other companies that embraced this approach. However, it doesn’t seem to be the norm.  But, the companies that do make this a regular practice a part of their customer-focused culture reap the rewards of happy customers, repeat business and more success.

NOTE: This article is a modified expert from Shep Hyken’s upcoming book Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools for Delivering the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet, which appears in stores everywhere in September 2013. Preorder the book and get valuable extras at www.AmazeEveryCustomer.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact (314) 692-2200 or http://www.hyken.com. For information on The  Customer  Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com/. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken
(Copyright © MMXIII, Shep Hyken)

May is “Get Caught Reading” month.  How many books do you read a month?  I try to read at least one business book a week along with other periodicals to stay current and informed about business trends.  However, many business owners say they don’t have time to read.  Personally, I think you don’t have time not to.

Reading is way to get introduced to new ideas, and in this face-paced world we live in, it’s important to be creative and innovative.  If you allow yourself to grow stale, the competition will quickly pass you by.

Do you remember the movie “Working Girl” starring Melanie Griffith.  Griffith’s character was an ambitious assistant trying to break into the world of investment banking.  She comes up with a brilliant merger idea for which her boss tries to take full credit.  However, when her boss is questioned as to how she developed the idea, she can’t answer.  Griffith, on the other hand, quickly explains how she got the idea from a tabloid article and a separate newspaper column.  After all, she explains “You never know where the really big ideas will come from.”  The broader your knowledge base is, the more credible and creative you’ll be.

Technology gives you access to limitless amounts of critical business information.  Years ago I’d lug magazines, newspapers and books with me in my briefcase nearly breaking my back.  Those days are gone. Today, you have quick access to the latest business publications as well as the newest books from the world’s leading business experts.  It’s all at your finger tips on your computer, smart phone or other mobile device.  You can read at your convenience whenever and wherever you like.

Last week I moderated a panel at an entrepreneurial event hosted by Columbia College.  The panel consisted of four young, successful tech entrepreneurs who talked about what it takes to succeed in business.  Each emphasized the importance of being a voracious reader and becoming a constant learner.  You can’t stop learning and growing as you develop your business.

So this month, why not get caught reading.  Not sure what to read?  Learn what other business owners are currently recommending and reading on Facebook or LinkedIn.  Never underestimate the value of a creative idea and the power of knowledge for your business success.

What business books to you recommend?  What business publications do find most helpful for your business?

“Take this job and shove it.” Is that something you dream about telling your boss? You aren’t alone. Millions of Americans — over half the workforce – are currently thinking about leaving their current job to start their own business.

However, before you boldly tell your employer, “I’m outta here,” make sure you’re prepared to do it the right way. No matter how angry you are at your current employer, the manner in which you make your exit may impact your future success. There are many examples of business owners whose former employer became one of their first customers. Furthermore, you never know when a former colleague may become a decision maker at a potential customer’s company. So here are tips o help you exit with integrity.

Don’t burn bridges. No matter how upset or angry you are, don’t lose your cool. Going on the attack or bad-mouthing the company or your boss is only going to make you look bad. As a new business owner, you want your former employer to speak highly of you.

Give sufficient notice. Even though you are excited about launching your new business, be patient. It’s standard practice to provide at least a two-week notice to your employer. By providing notice to the company, you are giving its management time to determine how to cover your job function. You don’t want to be guilty of leaving the company in a bind. Imagine how you would feel as the business owner if that happened to you. Remember the old saying “Do unto others…”

Put it in writing. Once you’ve made the decision to go out on your own, put your resignation in writing so there is no confusion about when you plan to leave. A verbal resignation may cause confusion. And never resign during an altercation. Be professional.

Ask about benefits. Be sure to ask about any unpaid compensation you are owed. Find out when and how you can expect to receive your money. Also, if you have health care benefits, ask for information regarding your COBRA coverage. Obtaining affordable health insurance as a business owner is difficult, so take advantage of the COBRA coverage if you can.

Get a contact person. Before you leave, make sure you identify a contact person who can be a “go to” person after you are gone. Most likely it will be someone from your company’s human resource department.

Be cooperative. Willingly release any company property you have in your possession. If asked to help train your replacement, do it without complaining. And as long as you are getting paid by the company, continue to fulfill your job requirements professionally.

A Slovakia-based operation that tricked small businesses and non-profits into collectively paying millions of dollars to be listed in an online directory for which they didn’t understand they’d be charged has been temporarily halted by a federal judge at the request of the Federal Trade commission (FTC).  Now, the FTC is seeking to permanently halt the alleged scam and require the defendants to refund the fees.

According to the FTC, the defendants sent mailings to retailers, home-based businesses, local associations, and others who attend trade shows.  The mailings mention a specific trade show or exhibition and are designed to appear as though they are merely asking the recipient to update and check the accuracy of information for the “exhibitors directory” for the named trade show or exhibition.

Reportedly, the mailings included a form stating that the recipient’s basic information has been listed in the directory for free, and instructing them to confirm its accuracy or make corrections on the form.  The form falsely suggests that the parties have a preexisting business relationship and that the directory listing is related to the recipient’s participation in the named trade show or exhibition.  Many recipients do not notice a statement, buried in fine print at the bottom of the form, that by signing and returning the form they agree to pay the defendants $1,717 per year for three years.  Often, the person who returns the form is not even authorized to enter into contracts for their employer.

This is one of the many scams targeting small businesses.  Whenever you receive correspondence such as this, make sure you verify that it is legitimate.  Call the trade show coordinator or sponsoring organization to verify the information, and always make sure you read the fine print.  Additionally, put your team members on alert for these scams, and be sure to advise authorities should a scammer target your business.

To file a complaint in English or Spanish with the FTC, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or  or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.