Small businesses which comprise up to 97% of the businesses across the United States (Source: SBA) have been kind of left out because it requires large investments that are not really feasible. In support of “Green Week” here at Technosailor, we have taken a look at different ways small businesses, even a one-person shop, can “be green” while not negatively impacting their bottom line. We have come up with five simple things that businesses can do to “Be Green”.

Promote Telework at least one day a week

During these hot summer days, running the A/C in many offices is extremely expensive because of rising fuel prices. As winter will be fast approaching, heating bills will be going up which means you might have to raise prices or not hire someone because you can’t afford it. Keeping the power off and having everyone telework from home or a coffee house at least one day a week can really cut down on the impact employees have on overhead costs. If you are a small firm you are probably utilizing services (e.g. web conferencing, VPN, VoIP) that make everything virtual, so having people work remotely might not be a far stretch.

While many offices still need to have people in the office for meetings, smarter scheduling can still keep the “Water Cooler” environment that all business need in some way. A good way to start is to have it come from the top down as a mandate that Monday or Friday as work remotely day. Tell everyone that power and AC/Heating will be shut off that day so that they know if they come into the office it isn’t going to be a comfortable ice box with everyone around. As more people get into the routine you will be surprised how fast you could take this to two or three days a week and really keep energy costs low.

Offer mass transit voucher/reimbursement program

Living here in the DC area there is a pretty good mass transit system with the Metro. They have a program called SmartBenefits where you can actually load their Metro Cards with a certain dollar value. This can also be done as a pre-tax benefit and you could reimburse the employee because they have the incentive to use mass transit instead of their car.

Offer incentives to be eco-friendly even outside of their job

Now metro and buses are not everywhere and not everyone lives right near easy access mass transit, so people must use their car. In this case, many companies have begun to offer a subsidy for using a hyrid vehicle. For example, Livingston Communications CEO, Geoff Livingston offers his employees a $1000 subsidy toward buying a hybrid vehicle.

Recycle Office Equipment

If you have operated your business for any length of time you probably have office equipment that is collecting dust and if simply thrown away would hurt the environment. There is a great site, called UsedComputer.com, that has all the resources on where to take your electronics. Officefurniture.org has a list of resources on what to do with old printer toner and office furniture that can found here.

Buy Green

This is the way to support other businesses that are going green and in a way motivates others if it becomes a preference by many companies as part of their vendor selection process. SmallBizTrends.com refers to two studies done on the impact of whether people care to “Buy Green”. They found:

A recent survey by Landor Associates suggests that the majority (58%) of consumers do not care whether a business is green. According to the survey, that still leaves 42% who are interested to some degree in the environment.

Another set of market research — more extensive — was done by the Natural Marketing Institute for LOHAS. LOHAS stands for consumers with Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. The LOHAS research found that 23% of the U.S. adult population is “classified as a LOHAS consumer, meaning that they have a profound sense of environmental and social responsibility.” These are the people most likely to buy green products.

Twenty-three percent of the U.S. adult population is no shabby number — it exceeds 50 million people. So obviously a decent-sized market exists.

Good examples of this are buying biodegradable office supplies or looking for companies that incorporate green behavior as a part of their production/manufacturing process.

Selling yourself is different from selling your business

As I mentioned, when starting a business there is probably just you and maybe a partner. Many people bring contracts and relationships from previous jobs that help jumpstart the business and gets the cash flow going. These customers are buying from you because they know you and your ability to deliver. This is great and is the way many companies start, but you are really just selling yourself and not selling your business. This is the habit you must break.

Within the first six months of your business you should be planning a major marketing and sales effort to expand your client base beyond your core relationships. This takes your business to the next level where people are looking at the business and not just buying from you. Still they are buying from you but you must have people that can manage the project and be ready to take the lead. This accomplishes two things:

1. You have more time to continue selling and growing the business
2. You do not become the “go to person” for every issue keeping the perception that they are buying from you

Whale customers are great to have in the beginning

As the business grows, you might be lucky enough to land some great big clients that provide a lot of revenue to help you expand. This is great and we should all be so blessed by winning these kinds of clients. However, what develops is the “90/10″ rule - 10% of the clients provide 90% of the revenue. This could mean that 1 or 2 clients are keeping the company running and losing one of them would be catastrophic to the business. So you must do one key thing quickly - diversify.

You must diversify or your put your success in jeopardy

Diversification is hard for some companies. Many people get lazy and confident that they will never lose them. Trust me, I speak from experience, you will. It could be a change in management, your champion leaves to take another job, budget control moves to a different department that doesn’t know you and doesn’t see your value, or the company goes out of business. What I am trying to say is that anything could happen and it could happen at any time.

So what do you do? After I learned my first hard lesson, I applied this rule - for every whale client, I worked over a six month period to find 5-10 customers that matched their revenues so that over a two year period those whales went from 90% to 10-20% of your overall revenues. This gave us a greater sense of comfort so when we would lose one of those two whales, which we eventually did, we only had a dip in revenues and used our sales campaigns to pick up the slack and pick up a few new smaller customers to fill in the revenue gaps.

Are you in the “Whale Boat” right now?

Are you dealing with the same dilemma? What have you done to diversify your client base? What advice to you have for your fellow entrepreneurs?

The KnowThis web site has a great explanation of the Marketing Objectives section:

“Marketing success is quantifiable using several non-financial market metrics. You want to show the underlying conditions and circumstances facing the company that are not easily seen within financial measures. The marketing objectives section should indicate targets to be achieved across several marketing decision areas. To add additional strength to this section include marketing metrics where possible.”

The Chamber of Commerce web site identifies three major areas for your objectives:

• company definition (e.g., “to be a manufacturer of 100 percent all-natural snack food products”)
• market definition (e.g., “to attain leadership in dollar market share and volume for the healthy, all-natural snacks segment of the salty snacks category”)
• technology (e.g., “to become known in the industry as the leading developer of new vegetable protein products”)

KnowThis web site has a great breakdown and outline of how you should structure the objectives section:

1. Target market objectives

• market share
  • total
  • by segments
  • by channel
• customers
  • total
  • number/percentage new
  • number/percentage retained
• purchases
  • rate of purchases
  • size/volume of purchases

2. Promotional objectives

• level of brand/company awareness
• traffic building
  • (e.g., store traffic, website traffic
• product trials
  • (e.g. sales promotions, product demonstrations)
• sales force
  • (e.g. cycle time, cost per call, closing rate, customer visits, etc.)

3. Channel objectives

• dealers
  • total
  • number/percentage new
  • number/percentage retained
• order processing and delivery
  • on-time rate
  • shrinkage rate
  • correct order rate

4. Market research objectives

• studies initiated
• studies completed

5. R&D objectives

• product development

6. Other objectives

• partnerships developed

Next time in the Marketing Plan Series, in Part 5 - Strategy we discuss how having a well written guideline that sets forth the business’s marketing strategy is critical to the success of your business.

Next time in Part 5, we will discuss the strategy section which lays out a plan for the situational analysis and the problems and opportunities must be addressed by the marketing plan.

Step 1 - Get Your Action Plan Together

Your PR Action Plan will contain information unique to your business, but here is what you’ll want to include:

- Media venues you’d like to pursue for a story

- Marketing Messages that are short and tell your story

- Events You Are going to be speaking at or have a booth there to promote

- Newsworthy Stuff About Your Firm

- Any Awards you have won and any partners that might be important

- Timeline for Execution

Step 2 - Identify Your Targets

Once you have a PR Plan in place, it’s time to get smart with a good dose of research. In this day and age, the media are constantly bombarded with hundreds of emails, faxes and phone calls. The challenge for you is figuring out how to stand out and get noticed. Before pitching any media member or sending out a single press release, ask yourself:

“Why is this reporter going to care about this particular story? Is it really newsworthy?”

Develop a list of media venues and a targeted list of people that are interested or report on your space. By conducting the appropriate research upfront, you’ll avoid wasting time, money and effort later on. Plus, you’ll create valuable relationships with key media members who can help publicize your business.

Step 3 - Build Your Story Idea Library

Once you have your plan in place and know who you are going to target, you really to create a list of story ideas and a library that gives you a schedule of news that keeps the buzz and momentum going about your company. Startup Nation has a great list of 5 Ways to Create Your Own News. Here they are:

1. Take part in a community event, or create your own. Give something back and encourage others to do the same.
2. Create a brief report or ‘top 10 list’ related to a big trend in your industry that will help others solve a problem. Provide your expertise without asking for anything in return.
3. Submit an opinion piece to your local newspaper about a current news item. This can help build awareness for your business.
4. Give a presentation at a local community college, business group or other organization where your target audience attends. Provide valuable information without giving a sales-pitch and invite pertinent reporters. You’ll establish yourself as an expert and meet potential new customers while increasing your chances of obtaining media coverage.
5. Find success stories and promote them.

Step 4 - Create a Media Kit

You have probably heard of one, but what the heck is one and what is in it?

It is a package of information that allows reporters to get the data they need about your business quickly and easily. You want to include facts about the business, business background, bios and news about the company.

Don’t forget to have an online version so that reporters can access the information at all times to meet tight deadlines. This will help you save time and money in printing and shipping fees.

Step 5 - Generate a few Press Releases

You will want to get started writing a few press releases to get the momentum going. Startup Nation has a great write up on places to publish your press releases and tips on writing them. As they state “it should include some kind of business news, announcement or event that you send to targeted media members, partners, customers, investors, sponsors, and other pertinent people. It should be short, truthful, interesting, and easy-to-read.

I have found that it is good to maybe find a freelance writer to help you craft it. This is because you might not be a good a writer as you think you are or don’t have enough time to really write something from the outside looking in.

Another idea is to set up your web site to have your press releases and news in an RSS feed so people can subscribe to in a feed reader and have it delivered directly to them. Just another channel, but a great one nonetheless.

Step 6 - Get Out There and Start Talking

So you have your plan, your target list, your media kit and a few press releases. So what’s next? Get out there and start talking to people. Always be networking to find new resources for your press releases and most importantly, always be available. Being available to answer questions or provide a quick quote when a reporter is on a deadline can get you press you never even expected.

Outsource most of it to someone else. Here’s how…

My outsourcing value equation

I have been a big believer in doing what you do best and outsourcing the rest. Because you may have financial constraints that might prevent doing all of this at once I suggest that you do the following:

- Make a list of what you love doing that contributes to your business

- Make a list of what you hate doing that contributes to your business

- Take the list of what you hate doing and estimate how much time it takes to do those tasks

- Take the list of what you hate and figure out how much it costs to have someone else do it

- Figure out what your hourly time is worth

- If the task can be done for cheaper than what you are worth, outsource it immediately

- If the task can not be done for cheaper than what you are worth, estimate the impact if you do it wrong (i.e. accounting, taxes, bad web site). If the impact is negative on your part, find a way to outsource it as soon as you can.

Striving for the 4-hour work week

Most people have heard of Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Work Week. His philosophy is to outsource almost everything and as he says “The goal is to spend as much time possible doing what we want by maximizing output in minimal time.”

So it is not about working only 4 hours a week. That is impossible but that what you recognize or think of as “real work” only takes up about 4 hours of your week. This means that by getting to that point you have time to grow your business and if you want, hire staff to help you expand it. This is the reason most of us start our own business. Other reasons include having more personal freedom and making loads of money but they are all tied together.

What are some resources to help me get started?

Here are a few sites that I have found invaluable in my quest for outsourcing my life:

Lifehacker

43Folders

Tim Ferriss’ Blog

Do you have any others that you love? Please share them in comments.

Identifying and Maximizing Opportunities

This is where you look externally for areas your competitors are not fully covering, then go a step further and think how to match these to your internal strengths. Try to uncover areas where your strengths are not being fully utilized. Are there emerging trends that fit with your company’s strengths? Is there a product/service area that others have not yet covered?

Once you have uncovered these opportunities take each one and discuss how you will market them. Will it be a mixed marketing campaign? A targeted sales effort? What resources will you need (e.g. new collateral, selling guides, web site content, e-mail marketing)?

Addressing and Overcoming Problems

Problems are not necessarily a bad thing. They are just issues that need to be overcome. It is better to get out front of problems that may exist than have them rear their ugly head when you are selling or raising money. Problems could be strong competitors, your product lacking critical features that you are not able to roll out yet or a long sales cycle.

You should list each problem and discuss an approach to overcome them in a sales situation and with specific marketing messages that counter what a customer might be thinking.

Next time in Part 4 - Strategy

In our next part, we will discuss the strategy section which lays out a plan for the situational analysis and the problems and opportunities must be addressed by the marketing plan.

So let’s get started….

1. Please provide us with a bit of your personal background in business and entrepreneurship.

I was always business-minded as a child. I lived by a swimming pool where they charged 75 cents for a soda. I realized that I could provide sodas at a better price and offer a larger variety. I put together a business plan, took out a loan from my parents, and started selling drinks outside the pool. When the summer ended, I modeled the same business plan around selling gum and candy to my classmates.

Fast forward to the year 2000. Busboys and Poets, a restaurant in Washington, D.C., was one of my first freelance clients. I pitched my ideas to owner Andy Shallal and landed the account. From literally before the restaurant existed, I consulted with Andy and gave him key creative input. I helped come up with the name, designed their logo, mural, signage, and built the website. Partnering with Andy Shallal was another very important experience in my career. We still do lots of work for Busboys and I am their Creative Director.

At that time I was working at Qorvis Communications. I wanted to improve my skill set and breadth of knowledge, so I spent my money on attending workshops and traveling to various conferences all over the country. Through networking and meeting many interesting people during my travels, I received several job offers and ended up taking a position at Ogilvy PR as Art Director for John Bell’s 360 Digital Influence team. Building on my experiences at Qorvis, I further cultivated a keen business sense for what it takes to execute at the agency level while at Ogilvy.

Then I left Ogilvy and worked for AOL in the Experience Prototype Lab team creating new products for AOL. This added another tool in my tool belt in terms of what it takes to conceptualize and develop a product; it was also done so on a less profit-pressure-based system. While at Qorvis and Ogilvy there was a strong emphasis on account billables and profitability, which was an important set of lessons I carry with me now that I run my own company, at AOL there was a broader sense that we needed to think about the future of the Internet and industry as a whole.

When I left AOL in December 2007, I took with me a hybrid vision of always watching my margins (just as an Ogilvy would), but pushing the boundaries of conventional thought in the industry, letting ideas that are not bound by what is possible today, but possible tomorrow lead the way (as AOL would). I believe I have combined the best of both worlds with JESS3.

2. Your current venture is JESS3 - what’s your elevator pitch for it?

JESS3 is a creative interactive agency that specializes in Social Media. We design branding and interactive projects for fortune 50 brands and small businesses. If it is a product that exists online, we are able to build it. If it needs to look extra amazing, we have the ability to craft it from scratch using many old-way methods of typography and illustration often lost on a digital age.

And, if the elevator happens to be in Washington, DC, I would mention my contribution to Busboys and Poets. From its inception, I have been a part of what it takes to build a meaningful, community-minded brand. We are now in the process of providing tools for their vibrant offline community in an online setting.

My team is comprised of project managers, web developers, and super creative people. I really enjoy brainstorming big ideas that can be achieved on cost effective budgets.

Our current clients include Wall Street Journal, Verizon, AARP, AOL, New Media Strategies, Lookery, Heritage Foundation, Blue State Digital, Advertising.com, Userplane, Clearspring, Busboys and Poets, Shopzilla, Social Times, Brian Solis’ PR 2.0, Tech Cocktail, the Interact 2008 Conference, Ellwood Thompson’s, Buzzwire, and the list goes on. We are always looking to partner with creative, talented, go-getters.

3. There’s a ton of competition in the interactive space. What makes JESS3 unique?

We focus on branding, content creation, and social media PR. Many of our competitors focus mainly on the coding aspect, or sometimes view design as turning the crank; our advantage is creativity and drawing from atypical places for inspiration (I went all the way to Paris to come up with the just-right font for a local market down in Richmond, VA – Ellwood Thompson’s). JESS3 happily works with large corporations, but we also love to take on very abstract projects. We are active in a lot of communities and events such as Social Media Club, Barcamp, Podcamp, Tech Cocktail, Interact2008, Social Times, Facebook Developers Garage, AIGA, Art Directors Club, Startup Weekend… this list also goes on J Not only are we leaders for these events and in these communities, we are also service providers and sponsors. I feel that it is very important to give back to the ecosystem in which I live and do business in – it just feels good and seems right that way.

4. Since your business model seems really aligned with pushing the boundaries using Web 2.0 technologies, what is the general roadmap for your business so readers get a sense of your vision?

My roadmap for the future culminates in a Think Tank/Lab business model. I am inspired by IDEO, Fabrica, and the work I did at the Experience Prototype Lab at AOL. I believe that innovation doesn’t have to happen inside a handful of large companies in room with “Innovation” written on the door. JESS3 will be expanding into product design as well as IP patents.

I want to cultivate my team and build the ultimate work environment. Generating revenue from select clients and being an incubator for select startups is my passion.

The JESS3 of the future will be heavily focused on Venture Capital. I want a full service, integrated agency that can service the incubated companies and can ultimately provide award-winning work at cost-effective prices. I plan on continuing to work with friends, creating new experiences, and patenting as we move upward and onward. A big part of this expansion will be recruiting talented, young college graduates and developing them into priceless ninja innovators.

5. Could you elaborate a little more on your approach to revenue creation?

My approach to revenue creation is to be profitable on everything I do. If I take on a small project I try and keep my out of pocket expenses below the project fee. As I expand the margins get smaller, but the clients get bigger.

Right now, I’m doing my best to maximize effectiveness and efficiency for our 86 active clients. I’m also traveling the world, hiring, and training new employees. Hiring the right people is a big part of my strategy and I’m a big believer in hiring only the highest quality individuals. Zvi Band, CTO, is a tech genius. James Callahan, Art Director, is an absolute artistic prodigy. Leslie Bradshaw, President, is insanely smart and hard working; she grew up on a farm and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago. I am so inspired by my team and partners.

6. How many employees do you have at JESS3 now? Is it important that they all share your entrepreneurial spirit and drive? How do you find that in new hires and keep that entrepreneurial energy alive?

Currently, I have 4 full-time employees, 15 part-time and 1 intern. Keeping the energy and spark alive is essential, especially because we are growing so rapidly. I highly value people who are hard-workers and I like to think that the harder and smarter we work, the more it pays off. We are beginning to attract some very big brands and I think this brand recognition helps encourage my team to continue their phenomenal work and dedication to the company.

7. What are the most important elements for a successful start-up company?

In the film Wall Street, Gordon Gecko said “A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place” and I believe this to be particularly true for start-ups. I think innovative branding, a well-executed website, and a presence in social media are all essentials for a successful start-up. Cash flow and the core team are also very important elements. I believe a successful company is 20% ideas and 80% execution. Start-ups should focus on quality and enforce standards regarding execution and consistency. A start-up should spend their advertising budget on customer service. Microsoft and Google can come in and beat you on size and scale, but one of the few advantages small tech start-ups have is a combination of agility and freedom.

Travel to conferences that make sense for your market and meet new people, broaden your perspective. Always have a nice business card and make sure you always have plenty of them with you. Read blogs that pertain to your industry and always be a part of the conversation. Listen to your heart and be the best start-up you can be! I am a big believer that “if you shoot for the moon, even if you miss you are still amongst the stars.” It is important to have big dreams and large goals. One thing I do is talk to everyone that will listen to my ideas. When someone says something negative or criticizes the idea, I think of the answer, and sometimes I change part of the idea or the way I explain it, depending on the feedback I get.

8. You are self-funded which is poses a different set of challenges versus those who get money from the likes of Sequoia and Novak Biddle. Can you give us a bit of detail on your approach to managing cash flow while trying to grow?

I am so blessed to have great cash flow and a long list of clients waiting in line to work with us.

9. Is there room in the web development space for more competitors? Have you seen any recently that seem interesting?

Sure, I believe there is a lot of room for competitors. I just completed a tour of Asia (Japan, China, Hong Kong), where I participated in lectures at design schools, took tours of agencies. What blew my mind is that, even in China, with billions of people, there is a labor shortage for Interactive Designers. At the universities that we visited, there was a lack of teachers, and in some cases it was the blind leading the blind. This is such a new concept that the rest of the world hasn’t caught up with and I believe this to be an incredible opportunity. Richard Florida writes about creative classes, and I think we should all read his books to realize that we can cultivate communities that attract smart, innovative people.

As more people get online around the world in different more exotic ways, there will be more web development needed. Brands will always need craftsmen to build beautiful original web services. The cream of the crop will always rise to the top. We are in the middle of something akin to the Industrial Revolution. It is as if I am a car creator and I am trying to explain to someone about the future of the car market. We are at a game changing moment, like the invention of the cotton gin.

10. What approach to marketing plays a significant role in promoting and attracting customers to work with JESS3?

Passion. My own passion and that of my team. My customers are so important to me; we have an amazing set of existing relationships and partnerships. I spend a lot of time in the trenches by attending events and volunteering my time and services to industry groups whenever possible. I talk to a lot of people in this industry. I pass out a lot of schwag and ask even more questions. At JESS3 we practice what we preach with creative and social media PR; we use the products we build and we hyper-actively participate in the online space that we help shape.

11. If you want people to remember one thing when they think about JESS3, what is it?

I want people to know how passionate about design and technology we are. We truly put our blood, sweat, and tears into this business. The second thing I’d like people to know is that JESS3 isn’t just me: my core team is comprised of Leslie Bradshaw, Zvi Band, James Callahan, Nick O’Neill, Jamie Gale, Eric Leach, and Becca Baker.

As we all know, the boom busted hard and it left a lot of space available for companies to sub-lease or established companies to take over really cheap. As the economy got better, not like it sucks now, most people took a different look at office space but still some never learned.

My message to you who are growing companies or raw startups, you don’t need swanky office space and you probably never will. So here are some pointers in approaching your search for office space and some alternatives to serve your growing business.

Pointer #1 - You are a startup and most people will understand that.

As you grow your business people that are looking to join your company or sign a contract with you know you are startup. They will understand that and if they are potential employees they are more concerned with the fact that they will get paid on time and their stock options vest. Clients are buying from you because they believe you can deliver and what your office space looks like has nothing to do with it. A perfect example are law offices. Swanky offices and high billable rates but they do the same work that most small practices can do and probably they do it better for less cost.

Pointer #2 - You can work out of the house - the good and the ugly

When I started my first business we worked out of the house for the first 18 months. Granted, I didn’t have a wife or kids and I had a great space in a finished basement that worked well. The problem I ran into was since it was my house I was the only one with the key and had to be there to let everyone in. When my travel schedule got hectic it became ugly. This is good when you are working for yourself and have no desire to grow to a larger company. Plus, if you have really nice stuff and people you don’t exact trust, stuff can disappear. I had an intern steal most of my DVD’s and some CD’s that I didn’t realize until after they left the company had taken them.

If you have a place with a separate entrance you could make this work but it would be good to have an admin person hired that has a key to this part of the house so you can at least travel and not worry about people coming and going. Lastly, don’t forget about zoning laws. Some people in the neighborhood are just busy bodies and if lots of cars show up every day in front of your house they might call someone and you get hit with some type of fine and you will have to scramble fast to find real office space.

Pointer #3 - There is always Starbucks

If you continue to work out of the house it can become very isolating. Plus, there are many distractions (e.g. TV, Xbox, refrigerator, sofa) that can make focusing on work very hard. I found that when I don’t have to go into the office (which is far and costs me alot on gas) I work out of Starbucks where there are many regulars who have become my virtual offices mates. I also use it as a meeting place that people who have to live in an office love to escape to for a meeting. Plus, the coffee is ok and the wifi is great.

Pointer #4 - But I have a business where clients come in all the time….

Some of you have business where clients visit often or you have to present to potential customers. If you aren’t ready for formal office or your office doesn’t have a conference room, partner with someone that has nice conference space. Network with fellow entrepreneurs who you partner with and have nice conference space and see if you can use it for meetings. You can also leverage “Executive Suite” office spaces that have virtual packages that I describe next.

Pointer #5 - The beauty of “Executive Suite” offices

If you are meeting with clients alot or need to get your small team out of the house but are not ready or staffed high enough to justify a dedicated office space, these “Executive Suite” offices are great. They offer virtual plans that you can use a certain amount of hours to get an office to work in or use their beautiful conference space for client meetings. Plus they offer voice services to give you a centralized phone line with a real person answering the phone and access to other concierge services that can help you so you don’t have to pay for an assistant.

Pointer #6 - Have you thought of co-working?

If you are on your own and plan to stay that way and the “Executive Suite” is a little too expensive, there is an emerging model that blends the “Executive Suite” with the “Work at Home” model. It is called Co-Working and it is essentially renting your own cubical on a part-time, full-time or dedicated basis. It is an open space that blends together all types of consultants, freelancers, artists into one space. It usually has a conference room and a fun room along with a shared kitchen. Examples of this are Independents Hall in Philly and LaunchPad in Austin, TX. For a complete list of coworking spaces, check out the CoWorking Wiki.

Pointer #7 - Sublease, sublease, sublease

When you are ready for office space of your own, you might want to consider sub-leasing space first. We found this effective because we knew we were growing fast and didn’t want to commit to anything long term. There are always companies that have leased too much space than they need. Talk to local real estate agents or work your local chamber to find companies that are looking for companies they can sublease to quickly. This will buy you enough time to get to a point where you stabilize on your company size and will be ready for space of your own.

Pointer #8 - Getting a better space doesn’t really change anything, except how much you pay every month

As you prepare for getting your first dedicated office space, remember this simple thing: Better space doesn’t change anything, except how much you pay every month. If you are prepared to go this route and can do it to serve your ego, go for it. But don’t come back to me when you have to cut costs and are staring at that massive lease bill every month.

Pointer #9 - So what should I not have?

Here are three quick “never haves” from my past experience:

Open Work Spaces

When I first saw those dot-come spaces that were all open I thought they were really cool. Then I had one for our office and all I could think of is “everybody shut up!”. It was very noisy and you couldn’t have any kind of private conversation. You usually had to walk out of the room on your cell to talk to someone. The “ad-hoc” conferences became distracting for people that were not involved and need to get real work done. Don’t do this. You will regret it.

Huge Lobby Areas

This is just a waste of money. Most startups leave the receptionist as the last job hire so the front area is usually empty. Keep it small and simple. And no expensive furniture that no one sits on while they are waiting for someone.

Massive offices for executives

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You must be thinking, I am the master of my company I should have the biggest office so everyone knows who the CEO is. Trust me, they know who signs their checks so they know who the CEO is. You probably hired them yourself. Big offices just piss the rest of the staff off because it communicates that you deserve better than the rest of your staff when you are busting your ass as much as they are but still they come to resent you. Resist the massive office, you will have more space to put valuable staff in its place.

Pointer #10 - So what do I really need to have?

Here are three quick “must haves” from my past experience:

A big break room with free stuff

Tiny little crappy kitchen says to everyone that they should eat at their desk and never talk to each other. Smart startups put free stuff in their fridge (e.g. sodas, beer, snacks) and have good water machines along with great coffee machines. This keeps people fed when they are working late nights or want to work through lunch. You might also be surprised that buying lunch once a week can really keep morale up.

A “fun room”

Of course you should have big break room, but with many startups you are probably hiring a younger, hipper crowd. What better way to create real camaraderie than to have a plasma with a Wii or Xbox and have lunch or Happy Hour tournaments of Guitar Hero or Halo. People have fun and it helps give them an overall perception that going to work can actually be an enjoyable thing.

Great chairs, crappy tables and large multi-monitors for your people

I heard this from Jason Calcanis but he must have gotten this from me. People don’t need fancy desks, heck they really need a table to work from. The chair is way more important. People are sitting on their butts for 8-12 hours a day. Great chairs like Aerons are amazing and keep people from having to go to the chiropractor and be out of work and ultimately raise your health care costs

The other part of this great work environment is providing large multiple monitors because it has been proven that people see at least a 30% productivity improvement with two monitors. Go with two 24″ monitors so they can multi-task maximize the effectiveness for your company. Plus, if you have video game LAN parties after work, HALO looks amazing across two monitors. I am just saying….

So when is the time to get the swanky space?

Mostly, never. Spend it on getting good people.

What are your office space horror/humor stories?

So what are your horror or humerous stories about looking for office space?
Ever worked at one of those place that spent too much money on being self-important but not enough money on hiring the resources needed to grow the business?

Please share…we all want to know.

Current Product Analysis (if you have an existing product)

If you already have existing products/services you should start with this so that you provide a “lay of the land” for readers not familiar with where you are at with your current product(s) and/or service(s). You should cover the product attributes, current pricing, current distribution and services offered. This should be about a page or two in length. If you are a new company, you can skip this part and dive straight into defining the market.

The Market

The market is a description of your total potential market (your potential customers). You should include the needs of this market. You will also need to describe the particular customers that you will target. This includes the size of (1) total potential market (number of potential customers), and (2) your target market.

This subsection of the situation analysis section provides actionable information on selling to target buyers and stimulating purchases or usage by the ultimate end users. Key questions answered in this subsection include: description of target buyers or end users in demographic, psychographic, and lifestyle terms target buyer/end user wants, needs, attitudes, and perceptions of category products and services where target buyers/end users are located and how to reach them which segments of the total market or category are growing or declining and why.

Demographics: Consumer wants; preferences and the frequency of their purchases are mostly associated with demographic information. Demographics help you determine the market’s age, gender, nationality, education, household composition, occupation and income.

Market Geographies : This section addresses where your customers are physically located. If you are marketing your services over the Internet, your client’s physical location may be irrelevant. However, if your job is to promote a local fundraising or store, having an internet as marketing tool is a fast and cheap way to advertise your products.

Market Psychographics: This category describes the personality of a person and how they might buy your product/service. It is less tangible to quantify, but still important that you address this area to demonstrate what motivates people to buy. For example, the lifestyle of a single person is significantly different with a two-income family.

Market Behaviors: Buyers can be analyzed based on their knowledge, use or response to a product or service. These behavioral variables may include the occasions that stimulate a purchase, the benefits realized when reading a testimony, the rate of possible usage, their loyalty, the buyer-readiness stage, and their attitude toward the service you offer.

Market needs: People have three buying modes. They buy what they want, what they need and what the can’t live without. Where does your product/service fit into these buying modes? Your product/service value and worth is determined by the user or client. Whether it is in tangible or intangible forms, the question is what is needed? Are you providing the right solution to the right problem? Are you making the users or clients overall value as a company increase or satisfy the needs? These questions would be compiled in this section.

All of your marketing activities should be based in meeting the needs of your customers. For each market segment a strategy should be included that outlines the market needs that would lead this market segment group to want to buy your products or use your service.

The Competitive Environment

The competitive environment is essentially a SWOT analysis. You may have never heard this term but it stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats”. Start with posing these sessions to your brainstorming team: Are your competitors becoming stronger? Are there emerging trends that amplify one of your weaknesses? Do you see other external threats to your company’s success? Internally, do you have financial, development, or other problems?

Strengths: Here is where you must capture the positive aspects internal to your business that add value or offer you a competitive advantage. This is an opportunity to remind yourself of the value existing within your business. Think about what your company does well. You should address the strengths within your business that add value to your product or your marketing efforts. You should also describe your positive tangible and intangible attributes.

Weaknesses: These are factors that detract from your ability to have a competitive edge. It includes the negative aspects internal to your business that distracting customers from seeing the value you offer or place you at a competitive disadvantage. These are areas you need to enhance in order to compete with your best competitor. The more accurately you identify your weaknesses, the more valuable the SWOT Analysis is to your readers. Some questions to help you get started are: What do your customers complain about? What are the unmet needs of your sales force?

Opportunities: Traditionally, a SWOT looks only at the external environment for opportunities. I suggest you look externally for areas your competitors are not fully covering, then go a step further and think how to match these to your internal strengths. Remember, these are opportunities external to your business. If you have identified “opportunities” that are internal to the organization and within your control, you will want to classify them as “strengths”. Try to uncover areas where your strengths are not being fully utilized. Are there emerging trends that fit with your company’s strengths? Is there a product/service area that others have not yet covered?

Threats: A threat is a challenge created by an unfavorable trend or development that may lead to deteriorating revenues or profits. As with opportunities, threats in a traditional SWOT analysis are considered an external force. By looking both inside and outside of your company for things that could damage your business, however, you may be better able to see the big picture. Competition — existing or potential — is always a threat. Other threats may include intolerable price increased by suppliers, government regulation, economic downturns, devastating media or press coverage, a shift in consumer behavior that reduces your sales, or the introduction of a “leap-frog” technology that may make your products, equipment, or services obsolete. What situations might threaten your marketing efforts? Get your worst fears on the table. A part of this list may be speculative in nature and still add value to your SWOT analysis.

The Technological Environment

The technological environment is creating new ways of satisfying needs (i.e. using technology to enhance the demand for existing products). Innovation can create or wipe out industries and businesses in less than a year. One example is the popularity and convenience of DVD players all but eliminated the sale of VCRs and seriously depressed the manufacture and sale of video tapes. This is especially important for you if your product is technology based.

The Socio-Political Environment

These are governmental policies and regulations that affect the market. It is also the economic environment around your company; which is the business cycle, inflation rate, interest rates, and other macroeconomic issues. For example, here in America there is a sweeping trend to dress more casually, with function and comfort driving new clothing and shoe trends. People are cooking less and are more concerned about nutrition and fat in their diets. And today, American business people are less willing to sacrifice family life for business careers. These types of factors can impact the marketability of your product or service.

Other

This section is open for other situational factors that will affect your marketing plan. It could include additional environments that the product/service must address. It could also expand on aspects of the market or product analysis as well as alternative distribution and promotion ideas that are not part of the core sections of the plan. I guess the bottom line of the this section is that anything is game as long as it relates to the situational analysis of the marketing plan.

Next Time….Problems and Opportunities

In the next part of our marketing plan series we will take the SWOT analysis and the problems you uncovered in your situation analysis and really dive deeper. This is so your readers, some might be investors and will definitely be your upper management will see the potential issues ahead, the fact that you know them, know how to address them and have plan to overcome them. It goes a long way and much farther than you may think.

Your marketing plan should be the reference document you use as a basis to execute your marketing strategy. It sets out clear objectives and explains how you will achieve them. Perhaps most importantly it looks at how you can ensure that your plan becomes reality.

Remember that marketing in itself will not guarantee sales, but by adopting a well-researched and coherent plan, you have a much better chance of building long-term, profitable relationships.

It is funny, when you start writing a series like this you start with the Summary section because it is first in the document. However, it is usually the last thing you write.

So how can you write a summary without knowing the content you are summarizing?

The approach that you should use is that you should keep this section up as a separate document during your overall plan writing to take notes and capture important points that will be used when you submit this to your management and/or board. Everyone will read the intro and summary, some will read various parts they want to dig into more, and very few will read the whole thing

I know that might sound depressing but keep this in mind. If your intro and summary do their job, they won’t have to read further and that is a credit to you. However, for those that read the entire plan it will be a critical roadmap to help you reach your sales goals and guide your team as it builds marketing momentum.

Logically, the names intro and summary should speak for themselves as to what they should have but it is important to elaborate on what key information it should contain.

Elements of the Summary Section

Your marketing plan should start with an executive summary. The summary gives a quick overview of the main points of the plan. Writing the summary is a good opportunity to check that your plan makes sense and that you haven’t missed any important points.

Business Strategy

It’s a good idea to introduce the main body of the plan with a reminder of your overall business strategy, including:

• what your business is about (your business mission)
• your key business objectives
• your broad strategy for achieving those objectives

This helps to ensure that your marketing plan, your marketing strategy and your overall business strategy all work together. For example, suppose your business strategy is based on providing premium quality products and service. Your marketing strategy and plan will need to take this into account, targeting customers who appreciate quality, promoting your product in ways that help build the right image and so on.

Strategic Focus and Plan

To connect readers with your overall business plan and strategy, you use this section to connect it with your business unit and/or company strategy, depending on your company size. You should address your vision and mission, the environment in which you are marketing, and the results you expect from a marketing plan.

The vision statement is something that you will pursue over an extended timeframe. It is not
quantitative in nature and should be one or two sentences at most. The mission statement contains the ideas attainable in a five to seven year range. This is a general statement shared in one or two sentences. You want it to be something that can define your unit/company and its purpose. The best mission statements are those that staff—and eventually constituents—use as a guide for where you are heading.

You should also include your objectives at a high level. These are general statements about what you hope to accomplish through marketing. You will provide more specific marketing strategies and quantitative goals later in the document. These will also be a guide for setting priorities as you develop strategies for reaching target audiences. You may choose to include unit objectives with general program goals listed under each.

Next you should have a summary paragraph on your competition. This should show how your awareness of the competition will make you stronger. Outline the competitive environment of your market, including both direct and indirect competition. You should describe the competition, their strengths and weaknesses, how you are alike or different, and how you plan to effectively market with the competition in mind.

The last paragraph should capture a SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Within this analysis provide information about current marketing efforts, programs and services, client reactions and any other details that may be helpful as you develop marketing strategies.

Marketing Focus

In this sub-section, you will describe all of the objectives you wish to attain through your marketing program. You will start with measurable marketing goals and a detailed description of how you will accomplish each one. Based on your Marketing Goals, list markets that you plan to target. Include research about target marketa and reasons that you plan to direct marketing at this area. If you do not
have valid research or information regarding the target audience/market for your goals, this is
a good time to develop focus groups to learn more about the market.

Marketing Strategies

Generally, your overall marketing plan will focus on promotion strategies, although you will want to keep an eye on the product, price and distribution. Including all four factors in the marketing plan, provides you with opportunities to reach your target market more effectively. As for promotion strategies, it is one of the most important sections of the marketing plan and is your action plan based on your goals. You need to identify your target audience, channels for reaching them (advertising, media/ public relations, events, strategic alliances, direct contact, internet, etc.) and the consistent message and other branding techniques you will use to engage your target audience. You will need to prioritize these strategies, tie them into your marketing budget, assign tasks and set deadlines.

Marketing Evaluation

In this section, explain how you plan to gather data to show that your plan has worked. You may need to look for resources that already exist or develop surveys that can give you baseline data for comparison over a period of time. This is your proof of success, so you must work closely with your team and include key stakeholders to ensure this follow-up effort is completed.

Marketing Financial Strategy

As with all plans, the seem to hold the financial stuff for the big finale. The end of the summary is going to bring the full impact of the strategy laid out to bear in terms of costs and return on investment (ROI) for those that are the hard core numbers people. You will need to include the high level information on the various market share amounts each product and/or service line will garner over the life of this plan. You will also need to include a few sentences on break even, which is when the investment in this marketing strategy will start to pay for itself. Last should be how you will handle cash flow and when and how much you might need to dip into the well for the strategy you have laid out.

Other Summary Sections You Should Include?

Did I miss anything? Is there a critical section that you have included in your summary that is missing here and should be added to the list? Do you have a different opinion on what should go in the summary? Please let me know in the comments.

Next Time - Part 2 - Situational Analysis

Situational Analysis lays out the overall marketplace you are competing in and the various environments your business will have to address. We will discuss the market and the various types of environments that your marketing plan will need to address for your products and/or services.