If you have a number of like-minded customers who are loyal to your brand or company, you should get them together in one place to further ignite their passion and share their experiences. Hopefully, they will become more vocal and overtly zealous in influencing other people to support your small business. This is the essence of brand communities.

Do you know what brand supports a group of rebellious and freedom-loving bikers? Most probably, your answer would be Harley-Davidson. This is just a simple illustration how brand communities can boost your brand image. Other famous brand communities are owners of Apple Computers products, Starbucks customers, and Saab drivers.

The internet has played a very vital role in expanding these communities. Today, it is fast, affordable, and easy to create and set up a forum or a blog to serve as your brand community. Some of the key benefits for entrepreneurs are:

• Word-of-mouth influence. Your brand community members have the power to influence many people to join the group and support your brand or company.
• More accurate customer insights. If you want to fully understand your target, you can easily find them, read their thoughts, and communicate directly with them.
• More promotional and brand opportunities. Since they are concentrated in one area, this will allow you to create a more targeted campaign and help lower your advertising costs.
• More time for customers to know more about your brand or company.
• Instant support for your new products or brand extension.

Get some additional great tips from Personal Branding Blog about developing communities to evangelize your brand. You may also want to download a guide on building online brand communities [PDF, 18 pgs].

Offering incentives is a common practice to motivate employees and increase sales. However, you might have an impression that incentives are for employees only, particularly your sales force. Yes, it is very important to some businesses and you might want to read Young Entrepreneur’s comprehensive discussion on creating a sales incentive program.

But do you know that you have a hidden sales force waiting to be tapped? Yes there is, and they are your beloved customers. Their incentive program comes in different names such as a finder’s fee - which is common in real estate- and affiliate or referral fee for online marketing.

Powered by word-of-mouth marketing, your existing customers can help you get new customers and encourage trials of your products or services. Even if you do not have extra funds to create an incentive program for customers, you still have alternatives such as:

1. Product discounts
2. Group discounts
3. Free samples or consultation
4. Extended warranties

To make this incentive program effective, you should consult with your customers and brainstorm what rewards will entice them to actively recommend your products or services.

With so many things to do in a day, it is sometimes difficult for employees and some entrepreneurs to appreciate the big picture or the essence of the business. That’s why Bootstrap Me says knowing your core goals is one of the patterns of success.

The best way to remember all these goals is to write a mission statement and share it with your colleagues. It may appear trivial but it serves as your lighthouse in the long run.

A mission statement or mantra captures, in a concise sentence, what business you are in, your philosophies, and aspirations or goals. To come up with the right words and phrases, some of the key questions you need to answer include:

• Who are your customers and in what way are you helping you them?
• What sets you apart from the competition or what makes you better than others?
• What business values do you like to emphasize? Is it customer delight, innovation, social responsibility, continuous improvement?

Even if you know the answers to the key questions above, the big challenge is how to make your mantra sticky and powerful. Contrary to traditional mission vision statements with 2 or 3 sentences, Guy Kawasaki’s best advice is keep it short with 3 or 4 words only. This would help you and your employees understand easily the essence of your existence.

The ultimate test for a mantra (or mission statement) is if your telephone operators can tell you what it is. If they can, then you’re onto something meaningful and memorable. If they can’t, then, well, it sucks.

Marketing tactics are specific actions you employ to achieve your planned marketing goals. If you are in need of business inspiration or preparing for a marketing war, here are some useful sites about different marketing tactics:

• Guerilla Marketing Article Archive (free membership required). If you are looking for unconventional marketing activities on a very low budget, visit the expert, Jay Conrad Levinson, and his archives filled with powerful and practical tactics.
• 10 Marketing Tactics Under $10. Your lack of money does not limit you from deploying different creative marketing tactics such as advertising with fliers and hiring students to “picket” your business with a sign protesting something positive.
• Forbes’ 6 Marketing Tactics Worth Paying For. If you have enough money to boost your marketing programs, Forbes suggests tactics like conducting market research, getting a board of advisors, testing new products, and creating a community through blogging.
• Free Psycho Tactics. Unlock the mystery of the business brain with free articles on psychological tactics like how to commit brand suicide and how to get your customers to beg for your business card.

So, you finally have a widely recognized brand. What’s your next step? This is a question faced by entrepreneurs after a successful marketing campaign for their initial brand. If you want to grow your business, you can either introduce a new brand or come up with product extensions.

Unfortunately, some entrepreneurs immediately decide to extend their successful brands without analyzing the consequences of their actions. Before you decide on this alternative, you should do it for the right reasons. Brand Curve highlights the top 5 reasons to extend your brand and the main goal is:

Brand extensions can reduce the costs and risks associated with launching a new product. Since the brand name is already known and (hopefully) popular, using that brand name on a new product (particularly when it’s in the same line as the original product) immediately communicates the same level of awareness and perception.

For brand extension to have a value, it should serve the unmet needs of the main brand and expand usage to different segments. If the main brand is strongly associated with one category, you should limit your brand extension within the same category.

As business owners, you might have a tendency to micromanage or put too much emphasis on details, often resulting in a waste of time and resources. If you feel that you are committing this fatal mistake, you should learn to delegate effectively. Here are some steps you should apply:

Know What to Delegate

Delegation begins with knowing yourself and your abilities. Bring out your organizer, if you have one, and analyze how many hours are allotted on each activity. From these activities, pick what can be given away and what must remain under your turf.

Some factors you may want to consider are confidentiality level and your expertise in these business activities. If you are a marketing person, for example, you might want to get rid of some accounting tasks you are currently doing and focus more on building a great brand.

Get the Right Person for the Job

Once you pinpoint the tasks you need to delegate, select among your employees or interview candidates. Which person has the right skills and determination to take over these activities? If you are running a single person business, you may want to consider outsourcing these tasks. Always check that what you are outsourcing has low strategic importance or not confidential such as data entry and customer service.

Monitor and Measure

Discuss with your chosen employee the expected output of these delegated activities. Be reasonable, specific, and very clear with your all your expectations to avoid any miscommunication along the way. Also, it would help if you can set regular meetings to check how they are performing.

Try these steps in your small business and hopefully it will help you become a more productive entrepreneur. You can also get more insights on delegating responsibility at Blog Business World.

No matter how compassionate you are with your employees, a time may come when you have to pull the trigger and fire some of them. There are different reasons to terminate employees. The common issue is very poor performance. If you are operating at a loss, however, you have no choice but to fire some of your employees, even if they are meeting your expectations. The Change Revolutions explains that although firing is very tough, it might be necessary. Here are some things you need to do before pulling the trigger.

Document Performance

Have a formal system to keep track of employee performance and do not be subjective in your decisions. Your report should include previous memos or warnings received and all violations committed by the employee. Be careful about involving other employees, questioning them, as it may cause fear and tension in you workplace. Follow a chain of command, if you are not the immediate supervisor/ manager of the person who might be fired.

Forgive but Don’t Forget

If a particular employee is exceeding the memo quota, talk to that employee and explain the possible consequences if the sloppy performance continues. In some situations, an employee might be experiencing major personal setbacks or tragedies, so it is better to understand the whole picture and be lenient if possible.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

If there are no other compelling reasons for keeping an underperforming employee, it’s time to end your professional relationship. Asking for a resignation is often a more graceful way for both parties, and does not show up on the employee’s record. This is important if they intend to be hired again elsewhere. If a resignation is not forthcoming, be sure that you follow the specifics of local labor laws when firing. Some US states have none, and you can fire an employee without reason.

After finding the right business prospect, the next challenge for you and your salespeople, if any, is how to close a deal. At the end of the day, all your efforts are wasted if you fail to get that “yes”. Here are some tips to guide you:

The Bottom Line Approach

Start the meeting by stating how your customers can benefit from your products or services. In some cases, an upfront approach projects your honest intentions and this can easily gain the trust of your customers. Try to create a sense of urgency so they won’t have to look for alternatives. However, not all situations call for this method. Sometimes, you need to be indirect to gather more information.

Pay Attention to Cues

Be very particular with your customers’ verbal and nonverbal gestures because this indicates to you the appropriate time to close the sale. When they start asking for details about deliveries, payment methods, or free goods, then it’s time for you to ask for their commitment. Visit the Public Speaking Advantage to know the emotional meanings of our nonverbal gestures.

Assume Agreement

In some cases you need not ask your customers if they are willing to buy because that will give them a time to think things over. Instead, you go to the specifics right away by asking them how much is their first order or when is their preferred initial delivery.

Branding for a small business is somewhat tricky and most entrepreneurs are confused about this very important business aspect. To appreciate the value of branding, you can download and read Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2007 [PDF, 63 pages].

In that report you will see that Coca-Cola’s brand value is worth $65 million. It means that even if you burn all the physical facilities of this company, the brand name Coca Cola is still worth that much. That’s an intangible power your business should strive to achieve. Here are some basic things to do:

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The heart of branding lies in finding what’s unique with your products or services. You should know what sets you apart from competition. It can be your fast delivery, friendly customer service, or superior products. You can find this once you do a competitor analysis and talk with your target market. It is also strongly advised not to use price advantage as your USP.

If you are still in the startup stage, try to find out what your major competitors are doing wrong and use that as your key proposition. Even if you are already established, you can still reposition your brand but it must be done very carefully.

Consistent Communication

Once you find that powerful USP, the next step is to integrate it in all your communications such as press releases, advertisements, giveaways, store front, and your company logo. Make sure that you are saying the same message to all channels to achieve clarity and recall.

You might also be interested to read about additional tips on branding that authors can use.

Conflict is unavoidable in every business, for we have different perspectives, working styles, and behavior. To some extent, many business experts encourage conflict to spark creativity and spur friendly competition. Unfortunately, situations can get out of hand.

As the business owner, part of your responsibility is to know how make a team run like a well-oiled machine and maintain conflict within the acceptable level. Below are simple tips on resolving team conflicts:

Feel the signals

Sensing any animosity or hostility among your employees is very important in preventing big conflicts to happen in the near future. Some of the signals include absenteeism, withholding information, finger pointing, and not attending team meetings.

Identify the Root Problem

The signals mentioned above are like symptoms, but your objective is to cure the disease. Otherwise, it will just be a firefighting or short-term solution to the problem at hand. In most cases, conflict arises due to personality issues and lack of clear objective or responsibilities.

Implement your Solutions

To resolve clashes quickly, you can arrange for a face-to-face discussion with all the conflicting team members to air their opinion and help direct the team towards finding a common ground. You can visit the Conflict Resolution Blog for a more detailed discussion on managing team conflicts.