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The other night, I sat on a panel at a local business organization meeting to discuss how entrepreneurs can cope with the the difficult economy. The keynote speaker was Jim Donovan, an internationally known author, business coach and motivational speaker.

In a truely inspirational presentation, Jim shared several strategies business owners can use to thrive — not only survive — these tough financial times:

1. Ignore Reality. Try to imagine what your business would like like five years from now if everything was running perfectly. Make that your goal. it is pretty much accepted in psychology that we attract what we focus on or, to put it another way, our minds move in the direction of our thoughts. Taking that a step further, it becomes apparent that for our lives to change, we must be focusing on not what is, but rather what we want; hence, ignore reality. We must start telling a different story about how our life is. So many people cling to their “story” about how their life is and why and then wonder why it’s not changing. It can’t! As long as you’re constantly reinforcing conditions as they are, they cannot change. Only when you are willing to let go of your “story” and start telling yourself a new one, will things on the outside begin to change.
2. Change Your Focus. Beginning immediately, stop talking about anything that is not working. Stop defending and justifying why you’re not doing better. Stop blaming the economy or whatever else you deem to be the cause of your troubles. If something is not working, continuing to talk about it will cause you to start seeing more things going wrong and continue the downward spiral. Ask only, “What’s working?” and continue asking every day. Make a list of what is working and have your team do the same, individually and as a group. Change the tone of your meetings. If you understand that you get more of whatever you focus upon, it’s obvious why you’ll want to do this.
3. Fire some customers. The rule of thumb is that 20 percent of your customers account for 80 percent of your revenue. Take a hard look at the 80 percent that are producing only 20 percent of your revenue and get rid of the ones that drain your enthusiam. They’re not worth the energy they require; by getting rid of them you’ll have more time to devote to the customers who generate your revenue.
4. Be creative. Find new products that meet the needs of your existing customers. Understand their problems and figure out how you can solve them. It’s much easier to sell to existing customers than it is to cultivate new ones. You can also find new markets for existing products. Arm and Hammer’s sales of baking soda, for example, were flat until someone realized it was also a good way to absorb odors in a refrigerator. Sales skrocketed. Now the company is offering a whole line of products based on baking soda. The essential product didn’t change; it’s use did.
5. Take advantage of technology. So many options exist for marketing products and services online but most small businesses do not take advantage of them. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are just as few examples. If you can’t master the technology yourself, find someone on staff who can. Or outsource your technology needs to an expert who can maximize their use.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Over at Copyblogger, Brian Clark had some fun this week with list headlines. Seems every story featured on the cover of a recent issue of PC World featured a list headline. Brian’s a big fan of the technique and has a little exercise for anyone who wants to take part.

Anyway, it just so happens that this week’s Stumbling was jam-packed with sites that feature — you guessed it — list headlines. Let’s get counting, from the most to the fewest:

1. Writing at The Future Buzz, Adam Singer offers “65 Bite-Sized Web Marketing Tips.” The sheer number might seem intimidating, but Adam stays true to his word and keeps his suggestions to single sentences (for the most part), and short ones at that. Lots of useful links.
2. The folks at The Bootstrapping Blog came up with “50 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using.” Some are a little off the wall — Temporary Tattoos? Sponsor the Homeless? — but most are brilliant. Great suggestions for businesses where cash is at a premium.
3. We all want to know what our competitors are up to, right? But short of breaking in at night or hacking their network, what can you do to get the real goods? FutureNow’s Bryan Eisenberg says there are several strategies, all perfectly legal, to spy on your competition. If you’re comfortable with some esoteric web tools, these look like they could be a lot of fun to play with.
4. Anyone who has read this blog knows I’m a big fan of Google and the awesome tools its provides. Gil’s Method offers “11 Obscure Google Tricks You Didn’t Know Existed.” You can track a UPS package on Google? I didn’t know that!
5. I still admit it: I don’t get Twitter. I’ve looked at it from every direction and just fail to see its usefulness as a marketing tool. But that doesn’t mean other people aren’t taking advantage. Jeff Woelker has come up with “7 Habits of Successful Twitterers.” My mind remains open…

Popularity: 60% [?]

When the going gets tough, the reaction of many small business owners is to pull back on their marketing and public relations efforts. It’s a quick, easy way to save money.

It can also be a deadly decision. What happens when the economy picks up and customers start spending money again? Will your business even be on their radar screens?

Rather than pulling back, small businesses should pick up their marketing pace when things are slow. But instead of spending gobs of money trying to court news customers, why not concentrate on the one’s you already have?

Aftrer all, you’ve probably already spent considerably time and money wooing them in the first place. You’ve already overcome the toughest hurdle: you’ve gotten them to give you a try. They’ve liked what they saw and they bought.

Now, you want to keep them coming back. Again and again and again.

How do you do it? The easiest way is with great customer service. Anticipate their needs. Solve their problems. Smile a lot and tell them how much your appreciate their business.

Try a customer rewards program. Send your loyal customers a special offer, a discount, a two-for-one deal. Make them feel important as your customer.

Another possibility is a referral program. Give your customer an incentive to introduce friends or family members to your product or service. You win two ways: you thank your loyal customers in a worthwhile, tangible way, and you open your market to new potential customers who are, in a way, pre-qualified by way of endorsement.

How about former customers? Ones who bought from you in the past but, for one reason or another, stopped. Try to bring them back with a special offer designed especially for former clients.

Slow times can be scary for small business owners. But imagine how you’ll feel when things pick up and you’re left behind.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Weird week of Stumbling. Almost every worthwhile stop had to do with Search Engine Optimization and Social Bookmarking. If that’s what’s hot, then that’s what we need to know about, right?.

Enjoy!

1. Social bookmarking continues to be a huge opportunity for marketing and PR professionals. Figuring out how to make the best use of these tools can be quite a challenge. With more than 50 sites to choose from, where should you concentrate your efforts? Buzz Gain offers its choice of the top 10 Social Bookmarking sites to focus on. WorkConnexions answers key questions about social and business media while you can figure out how to convince your old fogey boss that social media is the way to go at ReadWriteWeb.
2. Making sure your website or blog is optimized for search engines is an ongoing process. At “Thou Shalt Blog,” check out 15 SEO Tools for Beginners that will help you stay on top. The Big Oak blog offers a way to check a webpage’s SEO quality.
3. We’ve all been faced with the frustration of trying to email large files. Even Gmail’s generous 20MB attachment limit is sometimes not big enough. Life Hack Magazine analyzes seven ways to send huge files. All are free; some have paid premium services that eliminate ads or increase upload speeds.
4. Nothing subtle about this one. Derek Halpern, author of Prevential, a blog about “Success, Money and Business,” offers 15 tips on how to become incredible. I especially like no. 9 on his list: Use Fear Constructively. Do you know what drives me to wake up everyday and improve myself? I fear mediocrity. I fear being average and I do everything in my power to avoid it. Incredible people will not settle for less than incredible.
5. Finally, just for fun, here’s a site that tracks the history of truth in cigarette advertising. Amazing what they got away with back in the day.

Popularity: 38% [?]

Over at theprlawyer.com, author Gina Rubel weighs in on the use of canned quotes by reporters. She references a blog post by Michael Doyle, a reporter for the Washington bureau of McClatchy Newspapers, in which he says reporters welcomes quotes they can cut from a news release and paste into their stories. “It’s E-Harmony,” he says.

Wow! Unless good journalism has changed in the last few years — come to think of it, maybe it has — most respectable reporters would be loathe to use canned quotes in a story of any substance. At the very least, they would want confirmation from that source that the quote was accurate. And using a prepared quote doesn’t allow for any follow up questions that curious reporters might have.

Anyway, if you are preparing a press release and hope that the reporter will use canned quotes, here a few guidelines:

1. Cut the fluff. Self-serving platitudes are the first thing to go. In newsroom, they’re called “throw-away quotes.” If they somehow make it into a story, they are the first to get cut.
2. Make it interesting. Don’t quote your CEO as saying the company has been around for 20 years or that sales are up 20 percent. Have him say something insightful, controversial or memorable.
3. Write the way he speaks. Some quotes from CEOs sound stiff and rehearsed. Try to make it sound like he actually said it.
4. Anticipate follow-ups. Think like a reporter. What else might be asked? Stay on message but provide answers to additional questions.
5. Offer to arrange an interview. Let the media know your source is available for questions. Providing quotes and then denying access to the source throw up a red flag.
6. Prepare your source.. If the media does call, go through a mock interview with your source. Ask the same tough questions the media will ask. Be confrontational, if necessary.

Popularity: 27% [?]