Selling to Small Business - A New Site

I am pleased to announce that I am also writing a blog for BNET, the business portal arm of CNET. It's called Selling to Small Business. (Some of you have already found it -- thank you!)

It's written from the perspective of companies -- especially large corporations -- that sell to small businesses.

There are two other BNET blogs I also recommend you check out: Leadership Now written by Don Blohowiak, and HR's Brand New Experience, which is written by Regina Miller. And very soon you will see Church of the Customer content there, too.

Today my post is on the U.S. Small Business Administration's hearings to reconsider the definition of what is a "small business." So go on over and visit!

PowerBlog Review: Blogging About Incredible Blogs

Editor's note: We're back once again with the sixty-eighth in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs. This week's review is being guest-blogged by Lynne Meyer. Lynne Meyer, APR, is president of A Way with Words.

So many blogs, so little time
By Lynne Meyer

There are thousands millions of blogs out there. No way can you keep up and sort out the ones you are interested in and the ones you are not. Blog explosion = brain implosion.

That's why Blogging About Incredible Blogs by Ken Leebow is such a great find. Here's what Scripps News Service says about this blog:

"It's the era of the blog on the World Wide Web. In fact, there are so many of them, it's nearly impossible to find the best blogs on your own. Ken Leebow tries to do that with his site at www.incredibleblogs.com. He links to blog journals dealing with anything and everything. If you want to know where you might find the best blogs on the Web, or what makes a good blog, this is the place to start."

Ken heads up his own book publishing company and has authored a book that's a compendium of incredible web sites. He thought about authoring a similar book about incredible blogs. Instead, however, he decided to do it in -- what else? -- a blog format.

"Since I've been in the technology world for more than 25 years," he explains, "I simplify technology for the general public. I review technology and trends and assess their long-term visibility. I take out the hype -- and there's lots with blogs -- and report the real meat to my readers. My main goal now is to be a blog expert and simplify blogging for the uninitiated, and also provide some information for experienced bloggers."

Here's a good tip for small business owners with blogs who want to elevate their profile by giving speeches. In addition to operating his own publishing company and writing books, Ken is a speaker. He has used his blog well to promote his speaking business. "One of my reasons for having a blog is to increase these opportunities," he says. "Over the past five months, I have landed 12 speaking engagements as a direct result of my blogging efforts."

Brevity and links. These are the two elements I like best about Ken's blog. Ken does not make you wade through a lot of blather. He provides just a quick paragraph or two of his own comments regarding someone's blog and then gives you the blog link. Straight forward. To the point.

Is there an expert in your field? Why not include his or her link in your blog as a service to you colleagues in the field as well as general readers? One neat business link Ken offers is The Tom Peters Wire Service. In a May 17, 2005 post Ken says of the service, "At this blog," says Ken, "Tom Peters filters out tons of clutter and feeds you interesting articles that appear in major publications."

Bottom line? You'll want to read Ken's terrific Blogging About Incredible Blogs regularly!

"Ask the Expert" Business Blogging Session

I'll be the featured Expert on "Ask the Expert" on Monday evening, June 6, 2005. Join me from the comfort of your home or office on BusinessTVChannel.com.

I'll be talking about how to develop a competitive selling advantage using blogs.

Find out how I've used blogs to create one for my business -- without costing you an arm and a leg!

This is a live, Internet television show on www.businesstvchannel.com at 7 PM Eastern U.S. Time.

Here's your opportunity to learn the answers to questions like:

• What is a blog?


• What can it do for me?


• How can I start one?


• Will it really help my business?

You can call in (or chat in) and pick my brain and make me think.

If you miss the program live, or you want to watch this dynamic program again, you can watch it from the archives until July 6, 2005 at your convenience 24/7.

To participate, log onto www.businesstvchannel.com, and subscribe for only $1 (regular 30-day subscription price is $19.95).

Put my name, Anita Campbell, in the promotion code on the subscription page.

Remember: no long term commitments -- you can cancel at any time. And that $1 subscription will get you access to a variety of high quality programming for a full 30 days, not just my session!

Hottest Sites to Find Small Businesses for Sale

One of the trends that we noted over at our sister site, TrendTracker, is the trend of more small businesses changing hands. In other words, more small businesses are being bought and sold these days.

Indeed, Marketwatch just wrote an article to this effect, quoting us.

Since readers frequently email us with questions asking how to find businesses to buy, or sometimes how to go about selling a business, I thought I would outline some of the hottest places online to look for businesses for sale today.

But first, some background information.

Many small businesses today are sold through business brokers. A business broker is an intermediary who helps bring buyers and sellers of small businesses together. In some ways they are similar to realtors, except that they sell businesses instead of real estate.

At the Corporate level, such professionals might be called investment bankers, M&A professionals, or similar exalted titles to match their huge fees.

But in the small business market their title of "business broker" simply matches what they do, broker businesses for sale. And their fees are not the multi-million dollar fees of the big boys, but more realistic for the market.

A former colleague and friend went from being an executive in a NYSE-traded company, to opening his own business as a business broker.

He and his partner started out as the only business brokers in a small town in Ohio. Things are booming, and it is becoming much more common nowadays to buy and sell small businesses. They have since merged with another firm and now cover a wider geographic area -- three states.

Says my friend, L. Don Prince of Business Resource Group,

"We find there is more interest than ever in buying and selling businesses in the small-to-midsize-business market. From my perspective things are hot. According to a recent article in Fortune magazine 3.5 million people between the ages of 40-58 lost their jobs between 2001-2004. Ouch. Five percent of the baby boom population... a lot of them have money and can "buy their next job." Additionally, baby boomers who own businesses are rapidly approaching retirement. I think these are two key drivers of ownership transfer activity."

I asked Don for the best places to find small businesses for sale on the Web. I thought if anyone would know, he would. He actually took a few minutes to sit down and write out a list of sites with small businesses for sale.

Here is the list of sites he gave me:

• Biz Buy Sell


• Biz For Sell


• Busimarket


• Business Broker Network


• International Business Broker's Association


• Merger Network

You heard it from an expert.

Narrow Niche Magazines are In

Magazine publishing is slicing itself into ever-narrower niches. Each year sees a growing number of new niche titles catering to very specific interests.

The reason for this trend? Something dubbed "narrow-casting" (as opposed to broadcasting). A BusinessWeek article highlights the trend:

"NARROW-CASTING." Part of the boom derives from an old phenomenon: What entrepreneur wouldn't love to see his or her name as editor or publisher emblazoned on the inside cover of a magazine? And now, the barrier to entry, at least from a technology standpoint, has never been lower, with sophisticated publishing software and high-speed Internet connections commonplace.

Combine that with Americans' greater discretionary income to spend on leisure, which allows them to more fully cultivate interests, from cooking to coin collecting, and you have a trend. "I call this phenomenon narrow-casting, where people want to know more about just one subject, and they either flip to a TV channel that offers that information or pick the magazine that does," Husni says. "I mean, you have tons of new magazines on fishing, a magazine for landscaping, even furniture painting -- you name it, and we've got a magazine for it."

Last year saw the launch of 125 new magazines on crafts and hobbies, 83 on specific geographic regions, 59 on home design and services, 57 on sports, and 41 on different types of cars. The latest craze: "There have been eight poker magazines launched in just the past six months," Smith says.

Of course, as with any startup, the chances are that startup magazines will not be successful. That doesn't seem to stop entrepreneurs from starting new ones, believing that theirs might be among the small percentage of successful titles.

Now, if the large publishing houses would just catch on that narrow niche titles are what the public wants....