Wyospace.com

Getting your Wyoming company on the big WWW

By Mark Atkinson, Director and eCommerce Specialist, Southwest Region, Small Business Development Center

Many Wyoming small business owners believe “getting their business on the web” is difficult and expensive. Others believe that a web site will ensure windfall profits for their small business.  Neither is actually true, although history has seen a few exceptions with the latter.

Getting There
Gone are the days that a person must have strong HTML (the language with which web sites are developed) skills and a vast knowledge of the inner workings of the internet to create and maintain a web site. Now, a person need only have various skills required to use Microsoft Word (or like program) and be able to work somewhat with photos.

There are hosting companies (the businesses that “host” the files for a site and make them available to the entire world) charging as little as $7 per month for a web site. Many of them even have built-in software that practically any computer user can access and employ to construct their own site. And, you may even be able to choose your own domain name such as “greatshoes.com” or “buffalochips-R-US.com.”

Windfall Profits Using the Web
Few, if any of us, have not heard of Amazon.com. This Seattle-based company started ten years ago as a bookstore and has expanded to offer more products than even some of the so-called superstores in our neighborhoods. What most people don’t know about Amazon is the online-based corporation took ten years to become profitable .

For a Wyoming small business this means your web site will not likely bring windfall profits.  However, your site may serve some of the following functions:
• Help your business look professional and capable for the simple fact you have an attractive and useful site.
• Provide a means for existing customers to learn more about you and buy from you without having to drive to your storefront.
• Expand your client base by using your web site, careful marketing advice from your local SBDC consultant and a market research report from the Wyoming Market Research Center.
• Provide information to investors, suppliers and creditors about who you are and what you offer.

To get your business on the web, contact your local SBDC office by surfing to: www.WyomingEntrepreneur.Biz. Then, click on Free Consultation located on the left. Your Wyoming small business can be on the web in no time. And, our services are offered free of charge.

Recruiting young business leaders - they just don't know it yet

By Tom Lacock

This is why I love Wyoming.

You know that phone call you get that reeks of desperation on the other end of the line? Generally, that voice is me, but last Feb. it was Nicole Zendehdel of The Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Seminar’s national office, calling me asking me for a little help.

Her program manager for Wyoming flaked out on her and she was calling anyone who had ever even heard of HOBY (we’ll get to just what HOBY is in a minute) asking for help in pulling off the 2007 HOBY Wyoming conference. A couple years prior, I was a media panelist and came away pretty impressed by the program, so I said I thought we could help.

The powers that be in the WBC also signed on. After all, keeping youth in Wyoming in Wyoming and being able to bring that message to 30 of the state’s top high schoolers.

A little background on HOBY – Hugh O’Brian, the man who formerly played Wyatt Earp in the popular Western of the same name in the 1950’s – went to Africa to meet with famed humanitarian Albert Schweitzer. He is blown away by one man doing so much good and the perspective he gained by the trip. As he is leaving, the good doctor grabs his hand and asks O’Brian what he is going to do to better the world. He decides to start a youth leadership seminar. Today every state in the Union has at least one conference and some states up to three.

The program teaches juniors-to-be in high school through teambuilding exercises as well as panel discussion in which we offer them a new perspective. The one thing I enjoy the most about the program is the motto of teaching you how to think and not what to think.

Last year we held the conference in Cheyenne with 31 of our best and brightest from around the state of Wyoming. We brought them some of the best minds with connections to the state. We showed them the Wyoming Technology Business Center (commonly known as the incubator) in Laramie and most importantly, we listened to them. We asked their opinion and we got it. Somewhere in all that mess of three days, we managed to have a great time and have our faith in the next generation restored.

Can you imagine being 16 years old and having someone like a Tim Bendel (frontierastronautics.com) talk to you about his life’s work of making rockets in Chugwater, or Kevin Schaff showing off his company (thoughtequity.com). What about having the State Superintendent of Public Instruction let you pick his brain for two hours; listening to Bruce Palmer of the National Outdoor Leadership School- the premier leadership training center in the country – talk about what they do. We also offered panels where we brought in folks who have devoted their lives to helping others through charity work and watched as the young eyes were at once opened and inspired by selfless sacrifice.

This year it was my turn to make some of what I thought were going to be frantic phone calls asking for help with HOBY Wyoming. By about the third call, it became pretty obvious there was no need for frantic. NOLS said they would not only stop down for the education panel, but they enjoyed themselves so much they are coming for two DAYS this year to offer their services for free. They are also working with HOBY International to offer a program to HOBY World Leadership Seminar later this summer.

The incubator folks not only offered their facility for two panels, but want to buy us lunch while we’re there. To this point, no one who was a part of last year’s effort has said anything but, “of course.” We have had folks come out of the woodwork when they heard HOBY was back in Wyoming to tell us they are alumni and want to come back.

We still have some spots available if anyone wants to help out June 7-9 in Cheyenne. If you want to be a part of the event, we have room for you. If you want to sponsor a meal and offer a presentation to reach 30 of the state’s best and brightest, call me. If you want to be a part of this next year or just check out what this is all about to look into being a part of next year’s event, let me know (777-2834 or tom.lacock@wybusiness.org).

Too busy running your company to worry about finances?

By Bruce Morse, WSBDC Region 2 Director

Your situation is not uncommon for many small business owners. They wear many hats and there are only so many hours in the day. However, you are absolutely correct in that you need to pay attention to the financial side of the business as one of the important things you do, or eventually you may not have a business to worry about.

One way some people cover this base is by sitting down with their bookkeeper or accountant periodically, reviewing the numbers, and kicking around ideas for improvement. Granted, this will cost you a little money if they are not your employees, but it might make you even more money in the long run.

Another option is a new service that is being offered by the Small Business Development Center called a Financial Health Check-up. This free program consists of a computer analysis of your historical financial data that will compare a local business to others in that industry as well as look at trends within the business itself. The result is an easy-to-read narrative report that can be viewed by the owner or with the assistance of an SBDC counselor. To learn more about this new service, contact me at 800-383-0371, 307-754-2139 or via e-mail at bmorse1@uwyo.edu.

Marshall Plan wins out at 2-Bar Bowl

By Tom Lacock

CHEYENNE – While the man may lean heavily to the right in his political beliefs, his bowling ball ran true down the center.

LaGrange native and known Wayne Newton enthusiast Brandon Marshall scored the high game during lunchtime bowling at 2-Bar Bowl in Cheyenne, today.

Marshall used a pair of strikes in the tenth frame to overtake Wyoming Business Council Manager of State Energy Programs Tom Fuller 159-157 with Matt Cox taking third place at 150.  Marshall came into the day with a previous high of 147 and started the day a bit slow, rolling a 115 in his first game.  Marshall, the son of LaGrange Mayor Mark Marshall, managed to pick it up in the second game and delivered his 159 to best 12 other bowlers from the state’s economic development entity.

“Ain’t no mountain high enough… Ain’t no valley low enough… Ain’t no river deep enough… To keep me from beating all you,” Marshall said after his high game. “For two hours I was near perfection. I now know what it is to be Rush Limbaugh.”

The mission of the Wyoming Business Council’s payday bowling group is to get out of the office over the lunch hour, eat some greasy food, throw bowling balls at some pins and have a good time with co-workers. There is no website with more information.

Pitchin' to the Media - How to get good press

By Tom Lacock, WBC

I just flew in from Baltimore and my arms aren’t the least bit tired. I spent three days this week at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (typical editors put the “E” before the “W” in the title of the organization) Conference on the east coast.

While the job duties are a lot more specific, it is basically my job to help people say pretty things about Wyoming in print or television and SABEW lets me hear specifically what the media is looking for.

Spencer Ante, an editor at Business Week, opened his playbook and offered his checklist of how he decides who he is going to cover. He won’t listen to a pitch without knowing about:

Management - He wants the story on a company interested in getting ink to tell him who the managers are, what is their story, why did they arrive where they have? Who have they surrounded themselves with to insure success?
Level of innovation - Sure you have a new product, but how is this changing people’s lives?
The company they keep - Who is using this product or who are the investors?
Evolution of their business plan - They might be innovative, they might be making money, but where are they as opposed to where they want to be and how they intend to get there.

If you can answer those four questions in a way that is fun or interesting, let me know and we can find a publication to plug you in.

Sounds easy, but here comes the tough part. Any lemonade stand can knock through those first four. You have to be willing to back your story up with solid financials - doesn’t mean you have to make money, doesn’t mean you have to be getting close, it just means you have to be willing to open your books.

Here we have a personal space alert just like that time in second grade gym class when the girl behind you got into your bubble and her glasses went flying across the room because she had no idea you were about to do a helicopter. This is personal, this is closer than we want to let someone in.

Granted, I don’t walk around with my credit score on a t-shirt or tell anyone on the street my amount of credit card debt, because it is personal. It’s a pretty personal thing to have your entire life on bank statements and just show that to a guy you just met. The flip side to that is a reputable reporter isn’t going to risk his/her rep for someone who isn’t about to show that off. Keep in mind, the financials aren’t necessarily going into the story, but it will legitimize you.

In a lot of cases you can talk to the reporter about using percentages of growth in a story or another measure that doesn’t necessarily give away a financial position to a competitor.  Think about it like this - if someone is writing for the Denver Post, Business Week or any other reputable publication, they are probably a smart cookie and didn’t get where they are by putting a knife in the back of the businesses they write about.

Just write the business plan for Pete's sake! (Part 2 of 2)

By Cindy Unger, Wyoming SBDC

Once you are convinced that this business is going to be a “winner”, you likely will have to convince the bank and/or private investors that their support of your venture will result in success.  Thus, a business plan is also your sales document to potential sources of financing.  Remember, if your financiers don’t know you personally, then your business plan is your introduction, and they want to know as much as possible about both the individual(s) and the business they are lending money to. 

Business plans are not just for start-up businesses.  Companies at all stages of development need to prepare business plans for various reasons, including planning and financing a specific project, new product introduction, general expansion financing, mergers or acquisitions, and overall improvement of the company’s financial and managerial performance.  Contact the Wyoming Small Business Development Center at 800-348-5194 to take advantage of their free Business Plan Review Service, or e-mail your plan to busplans@uwyo.edu.

Just write the business plan for Pete's sake! (Part 1 of 2)

By Brandon Marshall

Thank goodness for the Wyoming SBDC!  They’ve been bailing me out of making actual contributions to wyospace.com for months now.  So, here they are again, making me look functional and helping entrepreneurs at the same time.  Heck of a deal really. 

At both the Wyoming Business Council and the SBDC, we review literally hundreds of business plans every year.  It sometimes seems like an extraordinary task just to get businesses to realize that they need a very solid plan for the future of their company.   One of the biggest obstacles that people have to overcome in business plan writing is the idea that it needs to be a certain length, like it’s some kind of term paper for your 11th grade English Teacher/local Nazi Party leader.  (My 11th grade English teacher was actually very nice, it just seemed like it would be comedic to put the Nazi line in.)  Nonetheless, today I’m posting part one of “Just write the business plan for Pete's sake!,” with the much anticipated part two to come Monday.  Enjoy!

By Cindy Unger, Business Counselor, Wyoming Small Business Development Center, Region III

The business plan is a written summary of what you hope to accomplish with your business and how you intend to utilize your resources to meet those goals.  The plan is the “roadmap” for operating your business, measuring your progress, and determining when and how to expand.  Ultimately, your business plan must demonstrate that your business concept will generate enough sales to make a satisfactory profit, thus making the business worthwhile for you to start and of interest to potential financial backers. 

First and foremost, the business plan must sell YOU on the business. Researching and writing the plan will help you gain an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the business.  You will be forced to take an objective, critical, and unemotional look at your planned business in its entirety.  The result may be that this business is not going to earn the profits that you originally anticipated, or that the daily operation of the business is going to be more complex than you planned, or that the initial financial needs are beyond your means.  Making the decision not to go into a business at the planning stage is far better than being forced to make that decision after you have invested large amounts of time and money. 

For any business to achieve success, the management should have a clear understanding of its operating procedures, customers, strengths and weaknesses, and competitive environment.  The business should also have a plan for future expansion and evolution. The business plan should explain how all aspects of operation of the business will be integrated and operate together. Fortunes have been made and lost because one area of a business organization failed and dragged the successful pieces with it. 

Continued tomorrow......

Federal regulation hurting your small business? Here's how to let 'em know!

The Small Business Administration Wyoming Office will be hosting a "Fair Regulatory Enforcement Roundtable", April 17th from 10:00 a.m. to Noon at the JC O'Mahoney Federal Building in Cheyenne.  Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.   If you would like to attend (and who wouldn't?) please RSVP to Steve Lobdell at 307.261.6500 or steven.lobdell@sba.gov. 

Take advantage of this opportunity to be heard by the Federal Government on issues relating to the regulation of small businesses!

When: April 17, 2008

Where: JC O'Mahoney Federal Building, 8th Floor, Room 8005, 2120 Capitol Avenue, Cheyenne

RSVP TO: Steven.Lobdell@sba.gov or 307.261.6500

My website hits stink! How can I make people see me?

By Elizabeth Parks, Researcher, Wyoming Market Research Center

I’m not getting much traffic to my website; it seems to be “lost in space”.  How can I attract new customers through this venue if no one can find it?

There are several things you can do to make your site more visible on the web, first let’s begin with a definition. Web optimization means increasing your chances of having your website found by customers on the Internet. When you purchase a domain, you are competing with millions of other websites to display on the first 3 pages of search engine results.

Search engines use a method of indexing to organize the millions of web pages existing in cyberspace. Simply put, they send out indexing “robots” to scan pages looking for similarities in keywords, URLs, page descriptions, titles and content and then organize pages according to content.

The key to optimizing your website is to build the pages in your site so keywords, page titles and descriptions are picked up by search engines. Behind these elements of your site is HTML source code. Indexing bots scan the source code for these elements and rank web pages according to what they find in the code.

When developing a website, the first thing to consider are keywords or phrases visitors may type into the search box to find you. Each page of your website should have keywords, much like a paragraph is written around a topic sentence.  Keywords should reflect the text on the page and capture the attention of indexing bots, which in turn give you a higher ranking on the results pages of search engines.

Content keywords are becoming increasingly important as businesses compete for customers, as well as search engine visibility. Keywords are your connection to customers on the Internet. Write your content with customers in mind, then go back and insert keywords and phrases into the text you think searchers will type into the search engine box. Customer optimization, or writing for customers, should come before search engine optimization. After all, search engines don’t buy products, customers do.

Page titles work much the same as keywords. They are found at the top of each page and are one of the first things seen by indexing bots; therefore, they should include principle keywords. Titles are a marketing opportunity and should be thought of as a form of advertising. Consumers look for product benefits, so titles should be directed to the benefit derived from the product (or service); for example, “Learn how to ski over the weekend”.

The page description is the two line announcement appearing on search engine result pages. This description is a customer’s first exposure to your business and should be used to “hook” them into clicking on your site. Use compelling text to cause them to explore further. Like titles, your description should include your keywords and read like advertising copy for your business.

If you would like more information on web optimization, the services of WYOMING ENTREPRENUER.BIZ or the Market Research Center contact Elizabeth Parks, eparks@uwyo.edu.

WBC employees Steve Achter and Terry Koerwitz to retire

The Wyoming Business Council announced the retirement of Steve Achter and Terry Koerwitz. The people Steve and Terry have worked with over the years are invited to send sotries and well wishes via the comment section on this post.

“We are very grateful to Steve and Terry for their many years of service to the state and to their community development efforts on behalf of the Wyoming Business Council,” said Bob Jensen, CEO of the Wyoming Business Council.

Steve Achter, who retires in March, has served as the director of the Investment Ready Communities Division since the creation of the Wyoming Business Council in 1998. During his tenure, the division has increased services available to Wyoming communities; developed two new programs - the Business Ready Communities Grant and Loan Program and the Community Facilities Grant and Loan Program; and invested over $136 million into community development in every county in Wyoming. Since 1979, he has served with every economic development predecessor state agency of the Wyoming Business Council.

Terry Koerwitz, who retires in March, has served as the Community Development Program Manger for the Community Development Block Grant Program at the Wyoming Business Council since 1998. During her tenure at the Business Council, this grant program has invested over $6 million into 32 Wyoming communities, helping them develop public infrastructure, increase access for the disabled and improve community facilities. She has worked in community development for the State of Wyoming for 32 years and every economic development predecessor state agency of the Wyoming Business Council.