As I wrote a while ago here in my blog about the Twitter squatter who was trying to extort StartupNation, there are definitely systems in place at the social media companies that support ethical companies and certainly intellectual property rights of individuals and companies. Twitter worked on our behalf to wrestle away the /startupnation account for us given that it was a registered trademark owned by our business and was obviously strategic to us as well as a source of confusion in the marketplace under the squatter’s control. They quickly moved the account into our control.

Now through the encouragement of Daliah Saper of Saper Law, we’ve done the same thing at Facebook. In less than 24 hours, by following their simple, clear instructions, we were able to pull www.facebook.com/startupnation away from the squatter and now have that username as our own, appropriately so.

Here’s the simple, step-by-step process we followed in case you have a squatter issue and/or trademark issue as it relates to a Facebook username:

1. Go to the bottom of any Facebook page. Click on the link called “Terms.”
   For your convenience, that link is here.
2. Scroll down to #5, “Protecting Other People’s Rights,” and select “How to Report Claims of Intellectual Property Infringement”.
   For your convenience that link is here.
3. For copyright infringement, scroll down to “How to report claims of copyright infringement by users” and select the link.
   For your convenience, that link is here.
4. For trademark (or other intellectual property concerns), which was what applied to our situation given our registered trademark for StartupNation that the squatter was unethically using for their benefit, scroll down to “How to report other claims of intellectual property infringement by users” and select the link.
   For your convenience, that link is here.

We are always looking out for you and hope that you find similar success and satisfaction in the process, which is set up and well enforced by Facebook.

We hope that you can soon make your own blog entry titled, “Me 1, Facebook Squatter 0″!

Rich

Great! Now, what do you do?

A.     Sit back and watch who signs up.

B.     Communicate with your new registrants right away.

C.    Send valuable information to your list on a regular basis.

If you answered B and C… Ding, Ding Ding! You are right!

Newsletter Set Up is Just the Beginning.

The whole reason you have an online newsletter registration
is so that you can collect the contact information for potential
customers.

Once you get their names and e-mails, the real work begins…

• Send a thank you.

Immediately after people register for your newsletter, send them
a personalized, e-mail thank-you note. It should include a welcome
message, all the benefits they will be receiving and any kind of
free e-report, survey, white paper, etc. that you agreed to send
them if they registered.

• Schedule e-mail auto-responders.

What are they?

Well, after you send out your initial thank-you
and welcome e-mail, you need to communicate with your
list on a regular basis.

With e-mail auto-responders, you send e-mails to your
audience to remind them about your business. And these 5-10
e-mails are scheduled for automatic delivery over a matter of weeks.

However, you want to ensure these e-mail messages are personal
and provide value to the readers.

Perhaps, you can share a story about something that happened
to you recently, provide a business tip or talk about a current,
news story?

At the end of your e-mail, you remind your list about
a particular product or service that you are selling.

This way, you communicate with your list in a way that provides value,
reminds them you are around and allows them to get to know you
over time.

It is a fantastic way to build long-term, customer relationships.

• Are you blogging and using social media?

In addition to sending out the e-mail auto-responders mentioned above,
you also want to let your list know when you have a new blog entry,
article, sale, etc. And this is just a simple process of scheduling an
e-mail to go out whenever you have a new entry.

For these services, check out:

http://aweber.com/?324776
www.constantcontact.com
www.icontact.com
www.myemma.com
www.verticalresponse.com

This way, you can easily stay in touch with your list on a regular
basis and keep your products and services top-of-mind while
providing value.

• Monitor e-mail auto-responder results.

Once your newsletter-registration and e-mail auto-responder
process is in place, be sure to monitor it regularly.

By checking your e-mail service, you can see how many people
opened your e-mail, the most popular content and clicks,
the best subject lines and send times, undeliverables, spam notices,
and more.

This is valuable information you can use to get the best results
for your e-mail efforts. Plus, you can use this data to discover key
trends with your list members, conduct follow-up, stop issues before
they become big problems, and create new content to meet their
specific needs.

Take Advantage of This Process.

Having a newsletter registration allows you to create and
grow your own list of customers. But this is just the beginning.

Once you offer your newsletter, it’s important to provide
personalized information  to your list on a regular basis via
an e-mail auto-responder series.

Now, you may think that your customers will turn away if you
send them too many e-mails. And sure, you will get some
unsubscribes. But you do not want these “uninterested” people
on your list anyway.

Just be sure to send valuable information your customers can
use. And note that there is an art to the content and timing of these
e-mails… so I strongly advise that you hire an experienced, SEO
copywriter to help you write and send them.

But it’s well worth the time, cost and effort. With good, e-mail
auto-responders, your list will actually look forward to
receiving  your e-mails.

And this means you can build valuable,
long-term customer relationships that will catapult your business
above the competition and dramatically increase sales.

Do you need assistance setting up your newsletter process and
e-mail auto-responder series? Please write to me here or at
www.rembrandtwrites.com. Your site traffic will increase!

Employees want to do a good job. And what the boss often needs to do is get out of the way and let them perform. Of course, when I became a business owner, I fell prey to the kind of thinking that trips up so many entrepreneurs: You have to work endless hours, you have to micromanage every aspect of the business, you have to make every decision. Ack!

I don’t know if my businesses would have survived if I hadn’t come up with what I call Go Theory. (”Go” as in “just go away”.) Go Theory is not about where you go or what you do while you go away from the office. Go Theory is all about what you don’t do:

• Don’t send your employees lots of little reminders by email.
• Don’t keep checking your smart phone.
• Don’t miss the spectacular view or the interesting presentation or the quality time with friends because you were stressing out about what might be going on back at the office.

Instead, enjoy your time away. Because you’ve got great people taking care of the business while you’re gone. If that last sentence just sent a chill up your spine (“But…no one can possibly take care of my business except me!”), read on.

The first element of Go theory, its absolute essence, is hiring great people to work in your business:

• Fire quick and hire slow. Invest the time and money required to make the best choices. I don’t rely on just myself to spot the right person — I make sure that at least two other people whose opinions I respect interview the candidates.
• Hire smart. I hire people who are smarter than me.
• Pick people with a track record for doing their tasks and accomplishing their goals. You don’t want to deal with excuses.

The second element of Go theory involves what you do with those great employees once you have them:

• Give people a great place to work, including real benefits.
• Trust them to handle problems and give them room to succeed or fail.
• Get in the habit of throwing issues back to employees — otherwise, you’ll be chained to your business 24/7.
• Make your business a vibrant and healthy system and you’ll find that employees work better when you’re gone.

The third element of Go theory is at once the easiest — and the hardest:

• Give employees clear directions or goals, and leave them alone to do their jobs. A quick check-in early in the project to make sure they are on track is OK, but then…go away!

The idea is for you to work on your business instead of in your business. This forces you and your staff to create good systems that can run without you. As the CEO, you want to be useless in the day-to-day business activities so you can be proactive and reactive to markets and opportunities. Keep in mind that what puts your business ahead of the competition is not logging lots of hours at the office — it’s creativity. Ask yourself: How can you be creative if you’re spending all your time making sales calls?

Go Theory provides a lot of rewards, including a “real life” for the CEO and a stronger, healthier bottom line for the company. I find that in my absence my business thrives. Projects move forward, problems get solved, and new ideas emerge. All this — just because I learned to get out of the way and work from a beachside cafe two hours a day.

 The fastest ways to bring your product to market is to get it on QVC!

 The best, and fastest, way to do that is hire a QVC agent!

What is a QVC Agent?

A QVC Agent is an independent person, or group, that can get your product or new invention in front of a QVC buyer. The way they work is similar to traditional Manufacturer’s Representatives that present product to store buyers.

QVC Agents work on commissions so they only make money when your product gets on-air and sells. QVC Agents are fully independent and are not employed by QVC, but they do have the key relationships with buyers at QVC and are often relied on by those buyers to bring them great new and interesting products.

QVC is the number ONE home shopping channel in the world. It reaches over 160 million viewers globally, and is one of the fastest ways to get your product in front of ready to buy consumers.

Why Use an Agent to Present Your Product to QVC?

QVC Agents understand what makes for a successful product and they have relationships with buyers that often count on them to screen products for them, bringing them only the ones that have a high chance of success.

Just as importantly, QVC Agents understand the internal pricing structure and know how to position your product for the maximum amount, and still hit a target retail price. For this reason, a good Agent will earn their commissions by getting your product seen by millions!

How do QVC Agents Get Paid?

An agent gets paid by receiving a commission of the wholesale price for each unit that is sold on QVC. Example: you sell your product to QVC for $10 wholesale, and they sell it to their customer for $20. The agent receives a commission on the $10 wholesale price. A typical agent commission is 10-15%.

A good agent knows the pricing formula that QVC uses to create its on-air retail prices and can advise you on the right pricing structure to ensure you get accepted by QVC, then make sure the product sells well at a good, reasonable price.

How do I Find a Good Agent to Present My Product to QVC?

The best way to find an agent is research and word of mouth. Google “QVC Agent” and research who is out in the market. You want a dependable and well connected agent to present your product because statistically, submitting a product online is a black hole. Because QVC is inundated with product submission, the chances of hearing back from QVC are very, very small. A well connected agent can get your item right to the buyers and decision makers. Another great way is to attend tradeshows, where all agents secretly roam looking for items to present to TV. QVC gets over 2000+ submission a day for product reviews. This is a staggering amount and most products get lost in the shuffle.

Kim Babjak is owner of Kimco, LLC, helping companies get their products seen by millions through mass retailers such as Wal-Mart and QVC. As an expert in consumer product design and development, manufacturing and prototyping, and retail product placement KimCo LLC helps companies develop “Mind to Market” strategies. Read Kim’s blog on StartupNation.

Watch Kim on The Big Idea Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te1SjoA6VNo

Click on the image here to view the interview or select “Play ABC Video.”

I was able to mention these winners in the quick interview:

• Haralee Weintraub’s Haralee.com
• Joe Hansen and Cristy Stewart-Harfmann’s PricelessProfiles.com, and
• Christine Perckett’s Perkett PR

I wish I could have mentioned more of you, but not to worry, we plan to “spread the love” in upcoming media opportunities!

This kind of coverage is inspiring winners to send us emails like this one from Haralee Weintraub, winner in our Boomers Back in Business category in this year’s ranking:

 Hi Rich,

Well finally I have time because I have been so busy to tell you how winning the Boomer Back in Business Category has impacted my company. In one word FANTASTIC! Since I am e-retail it could not have come at a better time, that being the Holiday season. When the story of the winners went to the MSN home page, orders were coming in on line like crazy. The phone rang with questions and we were wonderfully busy. Many men, more than normal, ordered my product for their wives and girlfriends because they read about me. I could not be happier. It is truly an honor to have this honor, which I am working on incorporating into my email signature.

Sincerely Cool,

Haralee

Haralee Weintraub
CEO Haralee.Com
Cool Garments for Hot Women

Onward, home business heroes!!!! and Congrats again!

More press to come in the days ahead!

We are women. Watch us Manage!

I have people ask me, usually men, how do you do it all? How do you take care of the family, and your business, and be so management oriented?  Did you study business management in college, get an MBA? No sir, I did not even finish high school. I even worked at McDonalds as the French fry girl 10 years ago, now I run a multi-million dollar company.

Shhh, my Secret!  I had to work really hard, re-train myself, be willing to admit failure, be willing to change what was not working,  and develop skills that I never knew I had.

 It is not easy! Let me tell you, however, once you have the skill set, anything is possible. Here are my 5 tips and secrets that I use EVERYDAY, to do it!

 1) Make sure you have a very clear to do list. I cannot function without it jotted down, even on a scrap paper.

2) Enlist people to can help you do these items, or that can do them for you.

3) Do not overload your schedule. I know that after I drop my kids at school, I have from 9 AM to 3:30 PM to get my things done. Because as you know, once the kids get home there is a host of activities going down i.e. dinner, homework, chores, and don’t forget you and daddy time! That is a whole other blog to write about. I have been successfully married for 20+ years, so I guess I can claim to be an authority on how to make it all work.

4) Keep your office, or home office clutter free. GET organized!

5) Set a daily schedule of the 1-2-3 + things you need to do every day. Example, take calls from 12-2PM. Make your calls form 4-5 PM, answer e-mails first thing in the morning etc…and stick to it daily. Training and conditioning ourselves is probably the hardest things to do.

I have 4 very, very busy boys, and I am a single parent during the week (hubby commutes M-F), and a life that I must maintain, outside of my business. If I cannot do that, my business will suffer. If I do not bring in money, my family will suffer! So, it is a tedious balance act between the two. You have to simplify things, do what works for you and roll with it.

If you cannot seem to get organized, hire someone to help you. Be careful who you hire however. Make sure they are credible and can really help you. You want to make sure they can listen to your wants, and needs, and can help develop a system that works for you. I once hired a gal who wanted to bring in her trademark system and make me adjust to it. It was stringent and non-flexible. Not going to happen!  Work with someone who will devise a plan and system for you, not them…

Just remember, you can do whatever you organize yourself to do!

Always Dream BIG!

Kim Babjak

Tom founded Lead411 in the summer of 2001 and is mainly focused on marketing and management of the overall business. Prior to Lead411, he co-founded BlueChip Resources, a tech recruiting firm serving Silicon Valley and Southern California. Follow him on Twitter!  

Tom uses several components to create his online strategy:

Public Relations: Twitter and blogging to be part of the greater community connect with other bloggers/columnists about topics he cares about. In particular, Tom has taken a lesson from the Zappos CEO (who several years ago resolved a customer support issue through his blog and won a lot of free press); Tom resolves several support requests via twitter and enjoys the close contact with customers.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) highlighting a “Freemium” business model à where part of our content is free so that search engine and people can find them more easily, AND part of their content is behind a paid subscription. Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the BTS411 blog is able to get traffic into their site which brings in more awareness of their products/services.

The Challenge?

The idea for starting his business come came to Tom when he ran a recruiting company. He was in charge of finding partners to work with and instead of cold calling, Tom went to press releases and business articles to find companies that had just got venture capital funding, announced they were hiring, or opened a new office. 

The Opportunity?

After that he found the right executive to contact and connected with them to see if they were interested in recruiting services.  He knew that other sales people were doing the same thing in different industries in order to find new business so in 2001 he built a website which provides all of this data in one place.

Here is a little more from my conversation with Tom.

What do you do? 

I am the CEO/Founder of Lead411 so I basically oversee all operations.  I also handle a lot of marketing efforts.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome to start your business? 

The biggest challenge was not having any money when I started.  That was the toughest time. But it has huge benefits.  This is when I learned the most and it is also forced us to be profitable immediately which is definitely a “great” thing.  I knew within 4 months whether or not we had a viable business.  Venture funded companies are flying blind.  Also, I never considered venture capital financing at that time.  I didn’t want anyone controlling where my company was headed and I knew I could make it on my own.  That might have made it harder, but I learned so much from it and I still own the company. I think the other “challenges” have to do with me personally.  I needed to learn how to move faster and make quicker & better decisions.

What’s the most satisfying thing about running your business? 

Knowing that I provide a quality service at an inexpensive price.  Users need our service which makes me and my company desirable.

How do you define success? 

Being extremely good at what you are responsible for.  That is for me though… The definition of success is personal.

What are your sources of inspiration? 

Other bootstrappers.  I love hearing stories of other businesses that came from zero starting capital.

What’s the worst thing about running your own business? 

You can never pass the buck.  You cannot leave on a vacation and expect people to run the company just as you do.

Has running your business been what you expected it would be? How? 

For the most part.  The only difference is that when I was younger and was just about to start my company I had so many doubts.  I thought it was going to be much harder than it was.

How did you fund your business in the beginning? 

I had about 3 month’s pay saved up so that is how I funded it.  After that I needed it to be profitable.

What’s the biggest dream you have for your business? 

I would like to own multiple web properties.  Lead411 should be the primary business, but I plan on starting a number of other sites/companies that will be subsidiaries of Lead411.  We should be able to fund them internally.

What’s the happiest moment you’ve ever had in your business? 

Probably the first payment we ever received.  I felt like it was actually going to work.

What’s the darkest moment you’ve had? 

Overextending myself financially the second year. This lead to very little cash and some self reflection.

Do you think of yourself as an entrepreneur? 

I used to hear that entrepreneurs were born not made.  I don’t believe that.  I had some qualities that gave me a head start, but most was learned.  Yes, I think I am an entrepreneur now.

What can large businesses learn from a small business like yours? 

Accountability.  If every middle manager had more accountability there would be so much less waste.  I think that so many times expend

Where will your business be in a year? In 10 years? 

Who knows?  I would really like to keep Lead411 forever and just have it grow and fund other businesses, but you never know if someone comes in and offers you something in which you should not refuse…

If someone who was about to start a business asked you for advice, what would you say? 

This is a loaded question, but here are a couple suggestions.  1. Start as early as possible.  The younger you are the more risk you can take.  If it isn’t a success you are still young enough to get another job or start another company.  2. Just keep trucking. Like any job, you are going to make mistakes.  Don’t beat yourself up or spend too much time thinking about the “correct” decision.  Just make up your mind and keep going.

What makes you get up in the morning?

The ability to make 1% improvement in my company that day.  Over a year period that will improve a company 250%.

When or how did you know that this is what you wanted to do? 

Pretty early in college.  That is why I majored in Entrpreneurship at USC.

Have you ever failed?

Of course.  Too many times to note here.

What have you learned from failure?

It is really true that the more you fail the better you become.  You definite learn from these experiences.  That being said, I have learned just about everything from failure.  Every time we add a new feature and our customers hate it they tell us.  From there we know more of what they like and what to avoid in the future.

Click on the image below to learn Natalie’s challenges and my recommendations.

As I say at the end of the interview, Natalie’s really on the right track here. She has a day job and has started ChicSweets part-time, ramping it up slowly but surely with little risk so she can gracefully step away from her day job when everything is ship-shape with ChicSweets and not a moment before.

Note also that I got a great tip/idea from fellow StartupNation member Carli Kiene of Inked Fingers Photography to help Natalie drum up business in the wedding planning arena. Thanks Carli!!!

I just moderated an expert panel on video as part of the Wells Fargo Webcast Series on this very topic and believe it’s a great way to get a snapshot of residential and commercial real estate realities and strategies. The program discusses how real estate can be a tool for reducing expenses as well as generating revenue. It also sheds light on the new rules of the road, including federal initiatives that impact us. Learn about:

• Lowering monthly payments by refinancing or renegotiating
• Mitigating commercial property tenant vacancies
• Reducing overall operating expenses and discovering true cost savings for your business
• Adapting to the current residential and commercial property markets

Maybe I should pick up some Obama Red to wash down my Freedom Fries…

From Speigel Online:

French Vintner Creates ‘Obama Cuvée’

While Germany opted for creating the dubious Obama Fingers, France has gone a more tasteful route. A female vintner, originally from Africa, has created an Obama wine — and is donating all the profits to an NGO in Darfur.

France has come up with a brand new Obama wine.

The culinary world decided to celebrate the election of Barack Obama as United States president with some strange and possibly questionable products, including the Obama Fingers fried chicken snack, but now the rarefied world of wine is trying to get in on the act.

French winemaker Angela Bousquet-Keita, who hails originally from Guinea in Africa, has created the Obama cuvée (or vintage wine) to celebrate the election of the first African-American to the White House.