I am going to run a usability test and try this new product launch from Microsoft called Office Live Small Business.  It seems to me the name would have sounded a lot better if it were Small Business Live Office, so I will give them a C- on the name branding and usability.  Office Live Small Business just does not roll off the tounge….try saying it 5 times really fast. 

I took a look at one of their sample pages (they have free web site capabilities) and it was a guy and a fishing boat.  It appeared to me more like a hobby site vs. a small business site.  In my expereince the web sites from hosting companies and other large companies do not have that “professional look and feel” to it especially when at the bottom is the big Microsoft logo.  I’ll rite more on this tomorrow.

Nowhere is this old Microsoft/new Microsoft dichotomy more apparent than in the company’s suite of online tools for small businesses, which reopened Monday in an improved 2.0 version (www.smallbusiness.officelive.com).

What makes Office Live Small Business so compelling is its sharp focus on a single problem: that half the small businesses in America, and 70 percent of one-person businesses, don’t even have Web sites. Obviously, the percentage that exploits Internet marketing tools like e-mail newsletters, search-engine ads and online stores is even lower.

Suppose you’re among them. Suppose you train dogs, or translate documents, or retouch photos, or sell knickknacks on eBay, or make seashell jewelry. And right now, your idea of a marketing plan is taping up fliers in the grocery store.

When a small business requires investment there is a whole new protocol that must be adhered to in order to landing an investor, that is unless you have a rich uncle.  We have used Guy Kawasaki’s materials and we have always received very good feedback, however we have yet to land the investment due to reasons like “prove to me that there is a market for this stuff.”  And we must have all of the pieces in place to make it work and work well.  Here is another article in Web Site Magazine by Jim Butz that is 100% accurate based on my experience in working with VC’s and Angels.

Depending on how much funding your idea requires will largely determine what type of investor you need. Angels do investments up to about $1.5 million, while VCs, on the other hand, usually start at about $5 million. So, if your needs are between $2 and $4 million, you are starting out in trouble. You should either think about how to start with less funding or pumping up the opportunity to justify an investment of $5 million or more.

In my expereince landing page conversion and landing page optimization is almost more important than driving traffic, because if you have the conversions down you don’t need to drive a lot of traffic.  If the page does not convert it is like haveing people come into your restaurant sit down at a table and leave without eating, kind of a bummer.  I am a subscriber of Web Site Magazine and I find it has excellent articles pertaining to the web.  They write in a style that a web master can appreciate and so too a marketing person.  Their articles are supported with great case studies and examples.

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/Landing_Page_Optimization_Guessing_or_Testing.aspx

You can, within the limits of ethics and accuracy, represent yourself any way that you want on the Internet. Your landing page is not written on stone tablets. In fact, it is the most ethereal of objects — a set of bits that resides on a computer hard disk and is accessible to the world.

The only obstacles keeping you from creating more compelling landing pages could be just a lack of attention and imagination. You are as free as an artist in front of a blank canvas, but the promise of high-performing landing pages is often tempered by a fear of making things worse than they already are — it’s impossible to know in advance what will or won’t work, yet you are supposed to be the expert.

In 2007 My Success Gateway participated in the Kaufman Foundation’s entrepreneurshipweek.   Now it looke like this private foundation grabbed a .gov domain and reinvented itself.  They do provide great information for entrepreneurs.  This will be an interesting development for small businesses working with the government.  This is a much better way for the government to stimulate the economy rather than purchase $600 bills from the Chinese and distribute like confetti.

Check out this New York Times Article

For years, a good way to guarantee a laugh was to walk into a room of small business owners and announce, “I’m from the government and I am here to help you.”

Entrepreneurs were more used to dealing with red tape, endless delays in getting an answer to a question and federal employees who were frequently less than helpful.

But there are some government agencies worth your time. Consider, for example, these four:

The Small Business Administration Answer Desk provides a toll-free number (1-800-U-ASK-SBA), and an easy to remember e-mail address (answerdesk@sba.gov) to handle questions not only about S.B.A. programs, but small business problems in general.

“Free one-on-one counseling is also available locally to help entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in the areas of financing, management technology, government procurement and other business-related areas,” the site promises.Entrepreneurship.gov The Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration and the Kauffman Foundation, whose mission is to “foster a society of economically independent individuals,” have teamed up to offer online resources that are intended, as the Web site says, “to help build economies that foster entrepreneurship worldwide.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/business/smallbusiness/05toolkit.html 

This is going to change the hosting landscape for sure.  The pressure is now on the hosting providers to give away storage.

February 7, 2008 (Computerworld) Yahoo Inc. this week introduced a new monthly Web Hosting service for small and medium sized businesses, which provides unlimited hosted storage capacity and bandwidth.

Subscribers to the new service, priced at $11.95 a month, are free to take up as much disk space on Yahoo’s servers as they need to transfer data, store information or secure e-mail without fear of shrinking capacity restrictions, the company said. The service is only available in the U.S. from Yahoo’s Small Business division and costs $11.95 per month.

Comments on the Microsoft bid for Yahoo

Public Source Government Contracting Databases and Information.  It can be helpful to familarize yourself with these contracting databases.  This too is the short list of information.  Happy web surfing.
FedBizOpps.gov is the single government point-of-entry (GPE) for Federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000. Government buyers are able to publicize their business opportunities by posting information directly to FedBizOpps via the Internet. Through one portal – FedBizOpps (FBO) – commercial vendors seeking Federal markets for their products and services can search, monitor and retrieve opportunities solicited by the entire Federal contracting community.
The goal of FPDS-NG (Federal Procurement Data System) is to make procurement information transparent and easy to find for every user – from the experienced contracting officer to the curious member of the public. 
IAE is a secure business environment that facilitates and supports cost-effective acquisition of goods and services in support of mission performance.  Deploy a single point of registration and validation of supplier data accessed by all agencies.
EGOV Expanding E-Government is the President’s goal of utilizing technology to improve how the Federal Government serves you, citizens, businesses and agencies alike. This website provides an overview of the program, the Presidential E-Government Initiatives and the Federal Enterprise Architecture.
Founded in 1949, GSA serves as a centralized procurement and property management agency for the federal government.  GSA manages more than one-fourth of the government’s total procurement dollars and influences the management of $500 billion in federal assets, including 8,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 208,000 vehicles.  GSA helps preserve our past and define our future, as a steward of more than 425 historic properties, and as manager of USA.gov, the official portal to federal government information and services. 
USAspending.gov, a re-launch of www.federalspending.gov, provides this information to the public, as collected from federal agencies, in an easy to use website. The data is largely from sources: the Federal Procurement Data System, which contains information about federal contracts; and the Federal Assistance Award Data System, which contains information about federal financial assistance such as grants, loans, insurance, and direct subsidies like Social Security.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is known as “the investigative arm of Congress” and “the congressional watchdog.” GAO supports the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and helps improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. GAO’s work includes oversight of federal programs; insight into ways to make government more efficient, effective, ethical and equitable; and foresight of long-term trends and challenges.

The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC), sponsor of womenbiz.gov, is a bi-partisan federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and policy recommendations to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues of importance to women business owners. Members of NWBC are prominent women business owners and leaders of women’s business organizations.

This is the short list of Private Federal Contracting Database Aggregators are excellent places to save time and money to narrow down the number of bids you receive so you can concentrate on the government contracts that best fit your needs.  It is also important that you make calls into government agencies and develop relationships.

FedBuying Intelligence is the most powerful sales tool in the federal market. It searches five years of public bid data and tells you “who bought what”. Enter your product/service using keywords, Product/Service Codes, or NAICS Codes and find the solicitations and awards for the Contracting Officers and Contract Specialists who bought your product/service. Contact data including telephone number and email address is provided for each buyer in a downloadable spreadsheet. 

Eagle Eye offers off-the-shelf and custom CD, DVD and web database applications, programming services, training, custom reports, lists and studies that help organizations grow their government business practices through the smart use of information. Our clients include commercial, non-profit and agency executives seeking to maximize the return on their government research, marketing and sales budgets by targeting and qualifying opportunities faster and more efficiently. 

Find RFP connects government contractors and government agency buyers. Find RFP is a pioneer in online government purchasing and e-government, and a leader in providing government RFP, government bid and government contract finder and notification services. 

Established in 1983, International Data Base Corporation (“IDBC”), which operates under the trade name BidNet, is a leading government bid aggregation and e-procurement service provider. In August 2004, IDBC was acquired by Mediagrif Interactive Technologies Inc. (TSX: MDF), a world-leading developer of e-business networks and provider of complete e-business solutions. 

GovernmentBids.com service aggregates daily opportunities from over 18,000 public-sector websites, government publications, public meeting reviews and supplemented by our team of research experts. To complement our existing service of over 10,000 state and local listings, 15,000 Federal agency listings, we have broadened our jurisdiction to include International opportunities that are open to companies looking to further expand their business. In our continued commitment to deliver outstanding service, we are also focused on assisting smaller companies access more government and sub-contracting opportunities. 

I was lucky enough to be on the short list of reviewers for the new book Gravitational Marketing by Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller.  If you think you are an expert in any subject you will want to pick this book up.  It is currently being pre-sold on Amazon.

Gravitational Marketing is like good hammer in a tool belt.  The subject of marketing is vast and deep and this book covers the tip of the iceberg like snow on a mountain.  I hope small business owners, entrepreneurs, CEO’s from all companies get their feet wet with this meat and potato’s of a marketing book.  These guys ‘get it’ and there is something in here for anyone who wants to improve their results.  Every expert on any subject has to purchase this book, they have something just for you.