OWN YOUR NICHE BY BUILDING A NICHE COMMUNITY

by: Steven Van Yoder

In 1997, David Steele was making the transition from a professional therapist to relationship coach. Part of his strategy was to become a center of influence and THE Relationship Coach for his community. David decided to launch his own virtual community as a weekly "Friday Night Social" singles gathering. After a one-month pilot program and some market research, he designed a community for the singles in his area, unlike any other setting available, that would meet their need to meet other singles in a safe, fun setting.

The community also furthered David's mission to provide relationship education and position his firm prominently within his target market. Almost seven years later, his Friday Night Social continues to be a vibrant singles community that supports the practices of the four coaches who collaborated to make it happen. "It is a lot of fun, and the time and effort needed to make it happen is minimal," says David.

"We feature a guest speaker each week, a local professional who is usually a good referral source. We've become well-known in our community and have a loyal following of singles who sometimes continue to attend with their partners when no longer single!"

From Therapist to Singles Guru of Silicon Valley


Slightly Famous entrepreneurs are learning that in today's world, given that most of us have an unmet need for community, one of the greatest services you can offer your clients and prospects is simply to get them together.


The goodwill, contacts and status David has developed as a leader of a niche community has boosted his business. It has minimized the need to aggressively market his services by transforming into a guru and center of influence and trusted advisor to his target market.

Why does this work? There is a basic human need for community. We survive and thrive in relationships. We are social beings and cannot be fully successful or happy alone. Ever since we lived in caves our social environment largely determines our fate.


In today's world, given that most of us have an unmet need for community, one of the greatest services we can offer the clients and prospects in our niche is simply to get them together.
Think about it. A niche is a group of people that share common situations, needs, and goals. When these people get together, they immediately feel a common bond; they understand each other and can easily provide mutual support.

Targeting The Right Niche with the Message

Like David, you too can establish yourself as a trustworthy resource whose reputation and work is beyond scrutiny. The secret to success is targeting a group of people with specific interests. And that group of people can be your target market!

Examples of groups that would be attracted to, and benefit from, participating in a niche community include :

• Fortune 500 CEO's


• Real Estate Investors


• Singles Over 50


• Tai Chi Practitioners


• Small Business Owners


• Unemployed/Laid Off Tech Workers


• Ph.D. Candidates Working On Their Dissertation


• Stay-At-Home Dads


• Women in Transition


• New Moms

You get the idea... any niche you can think of for your practice is a candidate for a niche community.

How a Niche Community Can Benefit Your Business

Once you establish a niche community around your business, you can enjoy the following benefits :

1. Increased visibility. Community participation is a low cost marketing strategy that can yield enormous exposure for your business. Virtual communities provide free or low-cost gatherings that attract more people and create more prospects.


2. Increased credibility. The success of your niche community reflects upon your abilities as a service professional. It provides a chance for you to "show your stuff" and impress prospects who don't feel like they need to ward off a sales pitch.


3. Word of mouth. Virtual communities stimulate conversation. They get people talking. Participants tell their friends more readily about your business as a "community resource" than a private service.


4. Transform a "practice" into a "business". By reaching more people through your virtual community, you will develop a platform to sell more products and services. Your community can open the door to multiple income streams through group mentor programs, information products and other passive revenue streams.
   

Getting Started

The first consideration is how you will structure your community and bring people together. You have two choices: create a "live" community that meets in a physical location; or establish an online community that meets virtually through telephone and the Internet. Live communities are straightforward. Taking David's cue, develop a statement of purpose for the group. Then, market the group to niche market prospects within reasonable physical proximity to one another, choose meeting times and a location, and bring them together around a structured agenda.

Whereas live communities are more limited by location, virtual communities offer the possibility of attracting members from all over the world. Online or virtual communities gather people in an online 'space' where they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other better over time. The idea is to bring members of your niche together virtually where you combine on-line interaction (e-mail, web forums) with telephone conference calls and classes, as well as information and support services.

Online group interactions do not always 'happen' spontaneously. They require care, nurturing and facilitation. The core of facilitation and hosting is to serve the group and assist it in reaching its goals or purpose. Some describe this role as a gardener, a conductor, the distributed leadership of jazz improvisers, a teacher, or an innkeeper. It can be this and more.

If you take the plunge, be patient. Online communities don't happen overnight. Often they take time to coalesce and form themselves into something valuable and sustainable. It's crucial that patience is exercised, since it WILL take time for momentum and a critical mass to develop whereby the community becomes solid and established.

Choosing the Best Name for Business

by: Sean M. Lyden

Understand the elements of a great name before you commit to one.

Q : I have been in the income tax business for 18 years, and this year I have just stepped out on my own. Now I need a name for my tax service business. Can you give me any ideas?

A : Choosing the right name for your business is a daunting task for many new entrepreneurs because there is so much at stake. Does your name stand out to prospects and customers? Or does your business get lost in the crowd? Does your name communicate the right message? Or does it inadvertently keep prospects from calling you?

To simplify the process of generating a name for your new venture, begin with a brainstorming session, asking yourself the following questions. This exercise will help you get ideas on paper so you have something to work with.

1. Who exactly are my target customers?


2. What problems do I help solve for them?


3. What words or phrases appeal to them?


4. What are the three to five most attractive benefits my business brings to customers?


5. Are there word pictures or metaphors that communicate what I do that would be relevant to my customers?


6. What names do my competitors go by? What kind of name would differentiate me in the marketplace?

Your answers to these questions serve as "raw data" from which you begin to formulate a list of five to 10 possible names.

Evaluating Your Names

1. Does the name appeal to my target customers?
   Get feedback from customers or potential customers. What names appeal to them the most?


2. Does the name give me room to expand, or is it limiting?
   For example, the name "Press Release Services" would be confusing to prospects if the owner were looking to expand services to include Web site copywriting, bylined articles or any form of writing beyond press releases. The assumption is that this company only does press releases.


3. Does the name distinguish me in the marketplace?
   An example here is a high-tech attorney firm in Atlanta. Most attorney firms are named according to their partners' last names, such as "Brock & Clay." But when Evelyn Ashley launched her law firm, she came up with something very different. She named her firm "The Red Hot Law Group of Ashley." This name has become a highly recognizable brand throughout the Southeast and has helped generate dozens of PR opportunities.


4. Is the name "too cute"?
   You want to avoid using cute puns or phrases in your name, which may be confusing to customers if they don't understand what you mean. This is especially important to avoid if you want to project a highly professional image.


5. Is the name simple to spell?
   If it's not, people will be much less inclined to send you referrals or log on to your Web site. Make things as easy as possible for your customers, prospects and referral sources.


6. Does the name elicit pride and enthusiasm within me?
   Choose a name that makes you beam with excitement when you talk about your business. Prospects will notice your enthusiasm and want to do business with you.

Making Sure It's Available

After you've shortened your list to one or two "winners," how do you find out whether the name is available? One of the first places to start is the US Patent and Trademark Office. To check out available Web site domain names, log on to http://www.networksolutions.com/ or http://www.icann.org/.

BUSINESS NAME PROTECTION

by: Carlotta Roberts

http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/startupbasics/namingyourbusiness/article31156.html

Think you have a clever name for your business? Good! But you also need to make sure that name isn't being used by someone else and that you protect it once you're sure it's yours to keep.

Choosing a business name can be one of the most gratifying tasks in the startup phase, but naming your business is unfortunately more complicated than simply picking a clever name for your startup. The issues surrounding the choice of a name generally fall into two categories: mandatory government requirements for registration of business names and optional registrations that provide more comprehensive name protection.

Required Registrations

• Trade or Fictitious Name

If you'll be using a name for your business other than your personal name, you'll want to register it to ensure that other businesses can't use the name you've chosen. This registration process will also help you avoid legal problems with competitors by keeping you from choosing a name that's confusingly similar to that of another business. Registration of an assumed or fictitious name is also referred to as a "doing business as" or dba. In most states, this registration is done at the county level by filling out a short form and paying a small fee.Usually a sole proprietorship or a partnership requires such a registration, but it may also be required of a corporation if the company will be operating under both the corporate name and a dba. For example, if you've incorporated your business as the XYZ Corporation but will be operating as the Sunshine Bakery, you'll need to register the Sunshine Bakery as a dba unless, of course, your first name is Sunshine and your last name is Bakery.

• Incorporating

As part of the process of incorporating, you'll be registering your corporate name with the secretary of state in the state you'll be doing business. This registration process will reveal whether any other business has a confusingly similar corporate name. Following the filing of your corporate papers, you have the right and the obligation to use the corporate name throughout the state in which you filed.

However, you don't have the exclusive right to the name because other unincorporated businesses may already be using it as a trade name, and other businesses may be using the name as a trade or service mark. In other words, your registration has provided you with the exclusive right to use XYZ Inc. That is, your corporate name with the corporate designation such as Incorporated or Inc., Corporation or Corp., Company or Co., Limited or Ltd. is protected.
However, depending on the situation, prior use of the name as a dba, trade or service mark by another business may prevent your use of the corporate name if use of the name will confuse customers. Therefore, it's always wise to conduct a name search using governmental and nongovernmental sources such as telephone books, city directories and industry trade publications for your industry.

Optional Registrations

Whether you seek additional name protection beyond what's required for your business or your products or services depends for the most part on the size of your business and whether you might operate beyond your local geographic area. It's a good idea to conduct a wider name search before choosing a name for your business if you anticipate operating regionally or nationally in the future. To do so, you should conduct a search of the federal register of trade and service marks. You may refer to http://www.uspto.gov/ for the patent and trademark office information. If you conclude that the name you've chosen is available, you should look into registering the name as a business trademark or service mark. Although there's a cost attached to these registrations, it's far more costly to have to change a business, product or service name in "midstream" because you've infringed on someone else's name.

Trademarks or service marks consist of two parts: the noun that tells what kind of product or service you're talking about (for example tissues), and the descriptive word or words that identify it as being different from all others (Kleenex). The best trademarks or service marks are those such as Kleenex that are coined words because they're distinctive, and you can keep others from using them. If you're using a mark, be sure to:

• Capitalize the first letter.


• State on your packaging and/or advertising that your company owns the mark.


• If you've registered the mark, use an R with a circle around it to indicate this.


• If you've registered the mark only within your state or not at all, use the letters TM for trademark or SM service mark to indicate your ownership.


• Enforce your rights by notifying other businesses or the media if they're improperly using your mark.

Like every other business decision, the issues surrounding business names can be complicated, and it's always wise to seek information and assistance. In addition to books and websites, you may want to visit your local Small Business Development Center for individualized consulting assistance at no charge.

The Secrets of Building A Successful Business

by: Brian J Fanale

Are you one of the many who are struggling building your home based business? If you are then you are part of a 95 percentile who deserve better results. It's a tough industry out there with all of the options and if you don't know what you're doing, you will get eaten alive and run out of money very quickly.

I can tell you from experience that the reason the 5 percentile have success is because they received exceptional training/support and they also had the mindset for success. Sadly, there are a lot of companies out there that promise a lot but when the rubber hits the road they just don't deliver. Promises of a fully automated system, a 6-figure income with very little work or even no work involved, a support team that will be there 100% of the way, you name it and the company has probably claimed it. If this were all true there wouldn't be a 95% drop out rate with home based businesses. So how do you know you've picked the right company and are headed for success instead of failure?

Imagine for a moment how nice it would be to move into the 5 percentile category who are generating a 6-figure income working from the comfort of their own home. The freedom, the ability to pretty much do whatever you want whenever you want. Nice life, wouldn't you agree? Now what do you think the difference is between the 5% and the 95%?

Well, if you're like I was 15 months ago, tired, broke, struggling, and ready to do whatever anyone would show me to do to actually start making some serious money, you’re probably ready for a big change in your life. Now that you’ve made the decision that you’re better than the measly salary your boss throws at you every year and that you’re ready to leap from mediocrity to excellence, it’s time to find the company that can get you there. I hope you’ve looked at all of the options out there and done your due diligence. You will only find one that fits the mold for success. One where there are live training calls from the top income earners, people already making 6-and7-figure incomes using the exact same system you will be using, taking you step-by-step and showing you exactly how they run their business so you can follow suit to get the same results. Also, a 24-hr support stream of recorded calls so they can fit your busy schedule as you initially build your business and slowly get out of your J-O-B. Along with a lead generation system that anyone can follow to generate so many leads that you can’t even get back to. Couple this support/training with the right mindset training, a company who's core product is to develop your mindset for success, to train you how millionaires think and how they attract success into their lives so you can do the same and you have a powerful, unique system that will allow you to SUCCEED in business.

Lets face it, without the right training/support or the mindset it takes to have success, you're dead in the water. If you're ready for a turnkey business model that will produce for you the results you desire, then you deserve to hear what this company has to offer. I look forward to assisting you in building massive wealth and results in your life.

TRIPLE YOUR BUSINESS WITH LIST BUILDING

by: Keith Wellman

There are several things that you can do to really boost profits within your business but the real secret is collecting emails. Several companies have already realized huge profit gains by simply adding one simple step to their business...collect your clients name and email address. Doesn't sound very profitable until you realize what you can do with that information. No I am not talking about spamming, I am talking about sending emails to your client that they can't wait to receive.

One business that implemented this technique sells video games, hardware, ext. After walking up to the counter to pay for their merchandise the cashier simply asks for their information and includes the email address of the buyer. What better way to get someone back into your store than inviting them. So how do you send your clients an email without their getting angry and yelling spam?

Send them legitimate offers that make sense. If you just email your client to tell them to come back to your store then their is no real reason for that email. In fact the person who received it might think it to be junk mail. How about setting up your system to email a person 3 days after they purchase from you to let them know that when they come back, they have a 10% discount waiting for them. You let them know that all they need to do in bring in a special code that you give them or just let them know to mention the email.

There are several ways to profit from you list, especially if you run an online business. What you have read here is just the tip of the ice burg. What is written here is the very basics. The real aspects come with knowing how to multiply profits several times with other email techniques. Beware that when you start an email list you are going to run into several "road blocks".

One such road block is managing your email list with the right server. Certain domain names get email delivered to your prospects much better than others. This is due to spam blocking my many of the major email companies. Another road block is timing your emails to go out at the right time. Send your email at the wrong time of day, or even the wrong day, and you may not get any responses. Another big problem is managing spam complaints. So what can you do to ensure that you do things right the first time?

There is a new website that is being released that does reveal many of these major marketing techniques. Many of the secrets revealed have more than doubled profits for several businesses...online and offline. If you are interested in finding out more about the website you will need to see the resource box of this article.

Women Have Secret Weapons In Business

by: Monica Willyard

Women have 3 assets that I see as secret weapons in the business world. For the past 30 years or so, women have been encouraged to behave as their male counterparts do so they can succeed and achieve equality. To me, this is backward and counterproductive because we have several valuable skills that businesses need to grow and serve their customers well. Since people are unique, these assets show up differently in each woman. Today I'll share the 3 most important of these abilities with you. My hope is that these skills will be recognized for the powerhouses of strength that they truly are.

Women have strong verbal communication skills. In fact, scientists and psychologists tell us that women speak more than 3 times as many words during a day than men do. Furthermore, our conversations tend to involve responsive listening and focus on the process of relations rather than sharing facts. Women know how to build rapport, understand a person's strengths and weaknesses, and can easily include encouragement in conversation. Businesses need effective communication and team building skills, especially in sales, marketing, and negotiations.

Second, women are intuitively skilled negotiators. They have been conditioned for centuries to get what they want through negotiation and community. No matter how you feel about it, this is an historical fact and is our present reality. Women had little economic power, and they learned how to work in a system where they weren't the boss. Rather than bloody fighting and wars, they learned to work with others and create good compromises or find a win/win outcome. Now that they have economic freedom, they can use the skills they've learned to help themselves reach their goals and do it with class. these skills can help a business flourish by creating partnerships with those they do business with. Win/win situations are good for everybody, and women have a talent for finding ways to make that happen. They've done this socially for centuries, and their mothers have taught them these skills from infancy. Women just don't recognize it and thus think they can't negotiate in business matters. They can, and they can often see win/win options that their male colleagues miss.

The final secret weapon women have is their ability to work as part of a team. Again, this is partially due to their inborn character as a female and partially due to their cultural conditioning. Have you ever noticed that when you're with a group at a restaurant, one woman at the table says she's going to use the ladies room; almost immediately others will go with her. They often will go as a group and will come back to the table together. You don't see this behavior from men. Our culture seems to value the image of a self-made tycoon who takes the business world by storm. Reality is very different though. Most "self-made" business tycoons have a quality team of support staff behind them. It is actually the power of the team that brings success. Those companies who reward employees for good teamwork will profit and will survive when hard times come. Women excel at teamwork, and they should be sought out for this quality. Mary Kay Ash understood this well, and she became wealthy by creating a team and helping each team member to reach his/her personal goals.

Women who recognize the power of these 3 secret weapons can accomplish anything they want to do. Using her strong communication skills, her ability to negotiate well, and her teamwork skills, the sky is the limit. Will she be a self-made tycoon? Probably not, and to me, that's as it should be. Can she build wealth and reach her dreams? Yes! You would win that bet.

8 MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN NAMING YOUR BUSINESS

By Phil Davis, April 07, 2005

When choosing a name for your new company,

keep these tips in mind to help you find one that will work now and in the future.

Naming a business is a lot like laying the cornerstone of a building. Once it's in place, the entire foundation and structure is aligned to that original stone. If it's off, even just a bit, the rest of the building is off, and the misalignment becomes amplified. So if you have that gnawing sense that choosing a name for your new business is vitally important, you're right. With 18 years experience in the naming and branding business, I've witnessed the good, the bad and the really bad. To help you get off to a good start, read on to discover the top 8 mistakes I've found people make when it comes to choosing a name for their business :

• Mistake #1: Getting the "committee" involved in your decision
  We live in a democratic society, and it seems like the right thing to do--to involve everyone (your friends, family, employees and clients) in an important decision. This approach, however, presents a few problems. The first and most obvious fact is that you'll end up choosing only one name, so you risk alienating the very people you're trying to involve. Second, you often end up with a consensus decision, which results in a very safe, very vanilla name. A better method is to involve only the key decision-makers--the fewer the better--and select only the people you feel have the company's best interests at heart. The need for personal recognition can skew results, so you'll be best served by those who can park their egos at the door. Also make sure you have some right-brain types in the mix. Get too many left brains on board, and your name will most likely end up too literal and descriptive.



• Mistake #2: Employing the "train wreck" method of creating a name
  When forced to come up with a catchy name, many aspiring entrepreneurs simply take part of an adjective and weld it onto a noun, essentially colliding the two words head on to create a new word. The results are names that have a certain twisted rationale to them, but look and sound awful. Someone starting a high-end, service franchise becomes QualiServe. Someone starting a classy day spa becomes TranquiSpa. It's a bit like mixing chocolate syrup with ketchup--there's nothing wrong with either ingredient, but they just don't go together. Other common truncations include Ameri, Tech, Corp and Tron. The problem with this approach is that it's simply forced--and it sounds that way.



• Mistake #3: Using words so plain they'll never stand out in a crowd
  The first company in a category can get away with this one. Hence you have General Motors, General Electric and so on. But once you have competition, it requires differentiation. Imagine if Yahoo! had come out as GeneralInternetDirectory.com? The name would be much more descriptive but hardly memorable. And with the onslaught of new media and advertising channels, it's more important than ever to carve out your niche by displaying your uniqueness. Nothing does that better than a well conceived name.



• Mistake #4: Taking the atlas approach and using a map to name your company
  In the zeal to start a new company, many businesses choose to use their city, state or region as part of their company name. While this may actually help in the beginning, it often becomes a hindrance as a company grows. One client came to me with complaints that he was serving more of the market than his name implied. He had aptly called his business St. Pete Plumbing since he hailed from St. Petersburg, Florida. But Yellow Page shoppers assumed that was also his entire service area. With a little creative tinkering, we changed the image of St. Pete from a city to St. Peter himself, complete with wings and a plumber's wrench. The new tagline? "We work miracles!"
  Many other companies have struggled with the same issue. Minnesota Manufacturing and Mining was growing beyond their industry and their state. To avoid limiting their growth, they became 3M, a company now known for innovation. Kentucky Fried Chicken is now KFC, de-emphasizing the regional nature of the original name. Both of these companies made strategic moves to avoid stifling their growth. Learn from them, and you can avoid this potential bottleneck from the beginning.



• Mistake #5: Turning your name into a cliche
  Once past the literal, descriptive word choices, your thought process will most likely turn to metaphors. These can be great if they're not overly used to the point of being trite. For example, since many companies think of themselves as the top in their industry, the world is full of names like Summit, Apex, Pinnacle, Peak and so on. While there's nothing inherently wrong with these names, they're overworked. Instead, look for combinations of positive words and metaphors, and you'll be much better served. A good example is the data storage company Iron Mountain, a name that conveys strength and security without sounding commonplace.



• Mistake #6: Making your business name so obscure, customers will never know what it means
  It's great for a name to have a special meaning or significance--it's sets up a story that can be used to tell the company message. But if the reference is too obscure or too hard to spell and pronounce, you may never have the opportunity to speak to that customer because they'll simply pass you by as irrelevant.
  So resist the urge to name your company after the mythical Greek god of fast service or the Latin phrase for "We're number one!" If a name has a natural, intuitive sound and a special meaning, it can work. If it's too complex and puzzling, it will remain a mystery to your customers. This is especially true if you're reaching out to a mass audience.
  I pushed the envelope a little on this one myself, naming my branding firm Tungsten after the metal that Thomas Edison used to create light. But because my clients consist of knowledgeable professionals who appreciate a good metaphor and expect a branding firm to have a story behind its name, I knew it would work. It's also a way to differentiate my services--illuminated, bright, and brilliant. But while something different might work for a branding firm, it wouldn't work as well for more common businesses, like an ice cream parlor or an auto body shop.



• Mistake #7: Taking the Campbell's soup approach to selecting a name
  Driven by the need for a matching domain name, many companies have resorted to awkwardly constructed or purposefully misspelled names. The results are company names that sound more like prescription drugs than real life businesses. Mistake #2 sometimes gets combined with this one and results in a name like KwaliTronix. It's amazing how good some names begin to sound after searching for available domain names all night. But resist the urge. Avoid using a "K" in place of a "Q" or a "Ph" in place of an "F". This makes spelling the name--and locating you on the internet--all that much harder.
  And it's not that coined or invented names can't work--they often do. Take, for example, Xerox or Kodak. But keep it mind that names like these have no intrinsic or linguistic meaning, so they rely heavily on advertising to convey their meaning--and that gets expensive. Many of the companies that successfully use this approach were either first in their category or have large marketing budgets. Verizon, for instance, spent millions on their rebranding effort. So did Accenture. So check your pocketbook before you check into these types of names.



• Mistake #8: Choosing the wrong name and then refusing to change it
  Many business owners know they have a problem with their name and just hope it will somehow magically resolve itself. The original company name of one of my clients, for instance, was "Portables", which reminded some people of port-a-potties or portable classrooms--neither was accurate nor something the business owner wanted to be associated with. This added to the confusion when sales reps tried to explain their new concept of moving and storage. After some careful tweaking, we came up with the name PODS, an acronym for Portable On Demand Storage. The rest is quickly becoming history as they expand both nationally and internationally.
  Mike Harper of Huntington Beach, California, bought a 30-year old janitorial and building maintenance company named Regency. We both agreed it sounded more like a downtown movie theatre than a progressive facilities management firm. After a thorough naming search, we developed the name Spruce Facilities Management. Spruce not only conveyed the environmentally friendly image of a spruce tree, something important to the client, it also meant "to clean up." The new tagline fell right in place: Spruce..."The Everclean Company."
  It's only a matter of time before Southwest Airlines, Burlington Coat Factory and others who have successfully outgrown their original markets begin to question their positioning. Much like 3M and KFC, they may need to make a change to keep pace with their growth and image.
  In the fever to start your new business or expand a current one, take time to think through some of these issues. By tapping into your creativity and avoiding these potential pitfalls, you'll be able to create a name that works for both the short and long term. Like the original cornerstone of a building, it will support upward expansion as your company reaches new heights.