PowerBlog Review: Opportunity Wales

Editor's note: Welcome to the forty-second in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs.



Opportunity Wales is a blog serving small and medium sized businesses, (SMEs), which make up 99.9% of the businesses in Wales. The site is a European-funded initiative designed to help SMEs with eCommerce.



The blog was launched in the spring of 2003 and is one section of a larger site. Anyone can register to post on the blog. The site gets registered users from all over the world.



This is not your everyday, run-of-the-mill blog. It is unusual, even unique, in several ways.



First, it is bilingual, with most of it written in both English and Welsh. The bilingual aspect is a legal requirement in Wales. As Paul Squires, the Head of Web Services, tells me:

"...our site is almost completely bilingual in terms of original content - several thousand pages. This makes our site one of the largest Welsh-language sites on the Internet. Where we don't translate is in content sourced externally - including Weblog entries written by users. This is due to both resource impact our side, and the possibility that certain mannerisms (inflections, humour, slang etc) that one uses everyday in English may be mis-interpreted in Welsh - or indeed vice-versa. We overcome this by our 'Best of the Weblog' which is a commentary on the best postings each week, which we write up in both languages.



So, whilst the interface of the Weblog can be swapped around, we leave it to the user to decide what they want to write and in what language, and then round up the best stuff in a commentary style for everyone to read each week in both English and Welsh."

Another unusual attribute is that the weblog engine was built completely from scratch -- something you don't see everyday. The weblog was also a finalist in the UK government Web awards 2003 and finalist in the Information Management Awards 2003.



A third unique factor is how precisely targeted a niche blog it is. The site is designed for Welsh SMEs located in special development zones, who want to learn more about eCommerce strategies. Reading this site you have no doubt who the target audience is. The target audience is rarely so clear on other blogs.



Yet as targeted as the blog is to Welsh businesses, at the same time the site opens up a new world to non-Welsh readers. Through the blog, readers outside of Wales can learn about Wales and the Welsh language. The site operates as a kind of online ambassador, helping spread news and information about Welsh culture, language and business.



A notable feature of the weblog -- and one of the best features in my opinion -- is the section entitled "Using Weblogs in Business." This is an 8-page resource section describing how small businesses can use blogs. This section of the site gives specific examples. It helps SMEs get up to speed quickly on business blogs. For anyone wanting to know how to leverage a business blog for their business, this section is a must read.



The Opportunity Wales blog is maintained in Abercynon, Wales, about 15 miles north of the capital city of Cardiff.



The Power: Opportunity Wales proves that a blog can be used to serve a niche audience and at the same time introduce the world to that niche audience, its culture and its language.

Small Businesses To Adopt VoIP in 2005

Voice over IP (VoIP) -- telephone calls over the Internet using a broadband connection -- may finally start being adopted in meaningful numbers by small businesses in 2005.



Until recently the hype about VoIP was greater than the actual subscribers. You'd think there were tens of millions of subscribers given all the media reports about VoIP. Yet, in the United States there will be only 1 million consumer VoIP subscribers by year end 2004.



According to research firm Instat/MDR, businesses are still taking a conservative approach to VoIP. Just 12% of businesses are using VoIP in 2004 (or about 700,000 businesses out of 5.9 million total).



More larger corporations are using VoIP than small businesses according to Instat/MDR. And that's what you'd expect of a new technology. Small businesses are usually not quick to adopt cutting edge technologies. They can't afford to take risks with technology.



However, the crescendo of attention on VoIP is rising. It started back in the summer of 2004. It seems that every research firm worth its salt is predicting big jumps in VoIP subscribers in 2005.



We're seeing it everywhere we turn. We keep running into small businesses -- like this one -- that have implemented VoIP or are seriously considering switching to VoIP.



And it's not just high tech small businesses and the early adopters. More and more regular small businesses -- retailers, beauty salons, dry cleaners -- seem to know what it is and what it can do for them.



Research firm IDC predicts that "VOIP will finally go mainstream in 2005...."



eWeek's Ellen Muraksin writes: "Remember 2004 as the year that VOIP finally penetrated mass consumer consciousness, as friends in normal walks of life began to gain a dim awareness of the stuff I write about."



Of course, Om Malik has been saying this for some time now, noting this back in August of 2004: "Sandy Wormington, owner of the Kennewick-based Just Roses chain of flower stores, recently signed up for a voice over Internet protocol telephone service in his home. And his business has never been the same since he coughed up $55 installation charge. He pays $20 a month, and expects to save $100 a month on the long distance calls placed to his Just Roses stores across Washington and Idaho. *** More than the loss of consumers, incumbent phone companies should be worried about the loss of TDM voice revenues from these small and medium sized businesses."



Look for VoIP to be a hot area for small businesses in 2005.



UPDATE December 8: Alex over at IT Facts has compiled some excellent VoIP links.

Weak Dollar Hits European Small Businesses Hard

Last week I wrote about the weak dollar and whether it helps or hurts U.S. small businesses (answer: it all depends).



Here is another side to the story. A New York Times article by Mark Landler profiles the disastrous impact the dollar's fall is having on European small businesses that export to the United States:

"To get a sense of how fast the falling dollar can ruin a European businessman's day, talk to Udo Pfeiffer, the chief executive of a small German machinery maker in the industrial Ruhr Valley.



Mr. Pfeiffer's company, SMS Elotherm, builds machines that forge crankshafts for cars. He exports many to the United States and Mexico, selling them for dollars to manufacturers like DaimlerChrysler.



In recent weeks, the euro has been rising so rapidly against the dollar that Mr. Pfeiffer lost $10,000 in profit in the three days between shaking hands on a $1.5 million deal for a machine and signing the contract. The profit on these machines, he said, will be no more than $30,000."

Small family businesses that don't have the resources to do currency hedging have been hit especially hard. Read the whole article here.

Upcoming PowerBlog Review Schedule

One of the Internet trends we spotted over a year ago was that of business blogging. To track that trend, we started a weekly feature back in February of 2004 called PowerBlog Reviews.



Each week we review notable examples of blogs that are being used for some sort of business purpose. We pick out a few key points about each blog that we think are powerful and serve as a "lesson" to other bloggers.



We've completed 41 PowerBlog Reviews so far, covering blogs from 5 different countries. We've even had some help from expert guest reviewers Paul Chaney and Wayne Hurlbert, as well as blog recommendations from Fredrik Wacka.



Here is the schedule of blogs we will be reviewing in future weeks:

5 December 2004 - Opportunity Wales

12 December 2004 - Tinbasher

19 December 2004 - Business Works

26 December 2004 - Biz Tips Blog

2 January 2005 - Binza

9 January 2005 - MaxBlumberg.com

16 January 2005 - Business Romania

The schedule is generally booked up about 5 to 6 weeks in advance. If you are interested in having your site reviewed, don't delay. Email me with your request.



And please leave a comment below with any suggestions about how to make the PowerBlog Review series better.

Women-Owned Businesses Growing Fastest

Women-owned businesses are the fastest growing group of businesses in the United States. Minority-owned women businesses especially are growing. That's according to an interesting article by Erin Chambers in BusinessWeek:

"Business ownership among women in general is growing at nearly twice the rate (17%) as all businesses (9%), according to a new report released this month by the Center for Women's Business Research. And the number of businesses owned by minority women, long the smallest segment of entrepreneurship in the U.S., is growing at six times the rate of all private companies, the study found."

So what is driving this trend? The article cites two reasons, among others. First, women are being driven by their desire for economic independence. The second factor is the increased societal support -- there are simply more organizations to provide support for startups in general and for women in particular.



For instance, I am preparing to drive to Pittsburgh tomorrow to attend an Advisory board meeting for a woman-owned business through the PowerLink program. PowerLink is a women's advocacy organization that did not even exist 15 years ago.



I would also add one other key factor driving the growth in women-owned businesses: the Internet. The Internet has made it possible to spread the word about the entrepreneurial resources available. After all, what good are those resources if no one knows about them?



The Internet has also fundamentally changed our access to the world around us. It enables a small business to have greater leverage and reach than it otherwise would. I have written about the growth in businesses by stay-at-home moms. Most of that growth wouldn't have happened if the women didn't have the Internet to open up possibilities and bring the outside world to them.