We talk with Joe Zwiebel, President of New England Business Media., about:

What is a flat business org chart?

Why is flat better for selling?

And we role play with Joe Zwiebel selling US on advertising with his online publications.

Issue: Your business model is about how you make money.

Rules: Sell products - gross margins rule the day
Sell personal services - hourly optimization is key
Sell knowledge - licensing and distribution matter
Solve a need - Uber has no cars; Alibaba has no inventory

Actions: Answer the following questions:
What problem do you solve?
Is it worth solving?
Is anyone else focusing on the problem?
Are you better?
Will people pay for the answer?
Will they pay enough to make it worthwhile?

Conclusion: A unique business model that solves a problem and makes money

Dissent: Speed to market and resources

Social Media has become CLICK BAIT for business owners getting screwed by consultants. I observe people forgetting the basic tenant of social media, if they ever knew it at all, and that’s is SOCIAL!

Engaging with other, sans sales pitch.

For this episode I ask my friend Johnny Mac -- owner of Barbarino Nissan and Barbarino Mitsubishi, to visit with me to discuss social media and how he uses it.

At the age of five, Billy Nachman and Hobson Brown were forced into their first collared shirts to attend an all-boys school in New York City. Although initially squirmy and uncomfortable, the boys quickly began to notice the power of the polo: the approving nods from parents, the lingering glances from the ladies...

These two lifelong friends have created a brand that is classic but not stuffy. They tell us how they did it.

CEO and Founder of iDevices, Chris Allen,
iDevices - started with the invention of the iGrill - one of the first app-enabled devices to be featured in the Apple retail stores way back in 2010,

This was the cutting / bleeding edge of the IoT era - the Internet of Things era.

Today Chris’ company, iDevices, blends the art and science of app development and hardware infuse to create wondrous new products to make our lives more enjoyable.

Inbound marketing and accurate marketing ROI -- they are like two peas in a pod. Beer prices may go up if fracking messes up the water. Starting an online business? A few bases you need to cover. Customers leaving? A few questions to ask. Brian, Tommy and Ken go far and wide in this episode of Open for Business.

Steve Hall from Hubspot was our guest this week (he also run AdRant.com). He wrote a HubSpot blog post about how inbound marketing aligns well with how people make buying decisions. The biggest AHA moment of the conversation -- the alignment really brings to the forefront the ability to get accurate ROI on your inbound marketing, and marketing ROI has been the elusive holy grail forever.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34158/how-inbound-marketing-aligns-with-the-new-purchase-loop?source=Blog_Email_[How%20Inbound%20Marketin]

Brewers in Philly are in a panic. Fracking is coming to PA and if it pollutes the water it pollutes the beer. Pizza in Philly will never taste the same.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/dell-poncet/2013/02/new-reason-to-oppose-fracking-is.html?ana=e_abd

Going online with your business? 1) make sure your domain is available, 2) decide on open source or custom built for the website, 3) start small and build.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/broadway_17th/2013/02/lessons-learned-from-launching-an.html?ana=e_abd&page=all

Have you ever asked a customer the following -- How will you know we are doing a good job? What does success look like? These are just two of the questions to consider if you are losing customers and are not sure why.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/broadway_17th/2013/02/im-losing-customers-and-i-dont-know.html?ana=e_abd&page=all

Open for Business #67 – more great information than you could hope for in less than an hour.

Super Bowl ads for $3.9M, social media hijackers, inbound marketing bubbles?, and a message of endearment from LinkedIn. All this and more to help you get and keep customers, on the latest edition of OFB.

Brian, Tom and Ken explore the mania of advertising tied to the Super Bowl, specifically looking into some marketing stories tied to the game.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34138/the-top-5-super-bowl-themed-marketing-stories-of-the-week?source=Blog_Email_[The%20Top%205%20Super%20Bowl]

And did you know that you can dunk Oreo’s in the dark and radiologists can operate in the dark? These are just two of the brands that “newsjacked” the Super Bowl blackout through really fast and pretty creative use of Twitter.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34141/10-innovative-social-media-newsjacks-of-the-super-bowl-power-outage?source=Blog_Email_[10%20Innovative%20Social]

Want to go to a game? Be a good customer. Companies spent over $20 billion on sports tickets last year; a 25% increase over two years ago. More than 75% of the tickets went to customers.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/01/31/businesses-shelled-out-20b-on-sports.html?ana=e_abd

With February 14th around the corner, LinkedIn offers up 7 do’s and 7 don’ts in using LinkedIn. Follow them and you will definitely endear yourself to all of your connections.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/LinkedIn-Status-Updates-7-Dos-54066.S.205646647?qid=213fe6da-08bc-4555-b441-f0516a2955be&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-ttl&goback=.gmp_54066

And finally, no one is still around from the “tulip mania” over 100 years ago in Holland, but lots of us remember the dot.com bubble and the burst heard around the world. There’s thought among a lot of smart people that the inbound marketing mania is a bubble waiting to burst. You decide.

http://www.mpdailyfix.com/the-folly-of-inbound-marketing/

Open for Business #66 – more great information than you could hope for in less than an hour.

Ken, Brian and Tommy “fly off” on the airlines and airports and then segue into an enlightening conversation about the revolution going on in our universities.

And speaking of revolutions, Facebook appears to be, at the very least, redefining the rules of the social media game leaving some “users: feeling that Facebook is being rather anti-social with some of their new restrictions .
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34108/facebook-puts-their-foot-down-and-other-marketing-stories-of-the-week?source=Blog_Email_[Facebook%20Puts%20Their%20]

All three OFB hosts seem to agree that Seth Godin provides wonderful commentary on a wide variety of subjects. In one of his recent blogs, he reminds us why most ,if not all ,of us hate airports and air travel.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/01/ten-things-organizations-can-learn-from-airports-.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsethsmainblog+%28Seth%27s+Blog%29

Speaking of OFB “favs” Tom Friedman’s recent article in the New York Times about the revolution going on in our universities makes you realize and even believe that great things are on the horizon here in our country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/friedman-revolution-hits-the-universities.html?hp

Open for Business #65 – more great information than you could hope for in less than an hour
.

Short exploratory to marketing hell courtesy of HubSpot, wonder why Facebook needs a search engine, and discuss intrapreneurs vs. entrepreneurs.

References to Dante aside, HubSpot says there are nine circles of marketing hell. From ugly content to bad automation to interrupting way too much, we take a look at all nine circles and how they hurt your marketing efforts.
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34055/the-9-circles-of-marketing-hell-where-will-you-spend-eternity?source=Blog_Email_[The%209%20Circles%20of%20Mar]

Facebook is about to introduce a new search engine called Facebook Graph Search. The foundation of any search will be what matters to someone in the context of their social life -- people, pictures, places, interests. It depends on the data entered in Facebook, and is limited to the data entered in Facebook. The jury is skeptical but still out on this one.
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34058/facebook-announces-new-social-search-feature-called-graph-search?source=Blog_Email_[Facebook%20Announces%20N]

Ownership has its censorship privileges. CBS removed the best in show award given to Hopper at the CES show in Vegas. Hopper is owned by Dish who is in a big legal hassle with CBS. CBS owns CNET who runs the CES show. Hence, Hopper gets no rewards in CBS’ sandbox.
http://adage.com/article/special-report-ces/cnet-disqualifies-dish-s-hopper-ces-awards/239134/

From the inside they are known as intrapreneurs. On their own they are known as entrepreneurs. In today’s business climate the successful ones are valued, even revered. Why? Fast Company looks at intrapreneurs, Inc.com looks at entrepreneurs, and Guy Kawaski adds the voice of experience. We talk about all of it.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681203/to-change-a-company-you-need-intrapreneurs

http://www.inc.com/steve-tobak/great-entrepreneurs..html?goback=.gde_4577943_member_198444328

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_art_of_intr.html

Open for Business #64 – more great information than you could hope for in less than an hour.

http:/www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/ofb.s3.amazonaws.com/OFB63_TheTalkingStick.mp3

On this edition of OFB Brian, Tommy and Ken take a crowd sourced funded trip to Vegas, visit another innovative online retailer, and explore how collaboration works in Silicon Valley, but doesn’t work in Washington.

HOT POTATO NEWS:

Crowd sourced funding is still wide open because the SEC has not acted yet. But they will. CrowdTilt (another Kickstarter funding site) tapped their crowd while the getting was good. They got $62,000 in crowd funding for a killer private jet, limo laden New Year’s Eve trip and party in Vegas. Cynical, smart, or just too drunk to care. You decide.

http://www.businessinsider.com/crowdtilt-new-years-eve-party-2013-1

Hall and Madden make custom clothing for men. They saw in today’s Mad Men dress up era $1,000+ suits teamed up with off-the-rack ill fitting shirts. Another innovative online retailer is born. Order a custom fitted shirt online for $50. Over 1,000 paid subscribers in just the first few months.

http://www.businessinsider.com/hall-and-madden-business-story-2013-1

Tom Friedman in his latest NY Times column talks about collaboration. He highlights how collaboration works in the one of the most competitive arenas in the world -- Silicon Valley. He contrasts that with Washington DC where the word collaboration is considered treasonous. Friedman notes that if Congress were a start-up it would fail and the investors would be left with nothing. Why -- the inability of the partners to collaborate.

We dive deep on the power of collaboration, blasting Congress for the power grab and exploring why collaboration works and how it enables 1+1=4.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/opinion/sunday/friedman-collaborate-vs-collaborate.html?hp

Open for Business #63 – more great information than you could hope for in less than an hour.

Smart marketing is smart marketing, regardless of the venue. On this edition of OFB Brian, Tommy and Ken, along with our guest Chris Reimer explored some applications of smart marketing, and some not so smart marketing moves as well.

Our first Hot Potato was ReferralKey.com. Describing itself as an online community of connected people sending lots of referrals to each other, we all concluded that what they really do is SPAM people and offer little in the way of new business opportunities. Our guest Chris Reimer wrote an especially insightful and funny blog entry on the topic --

@RizzoTees Chris Reimer Blog about Referral Key

Our next Hot Potato stop was WalMart who is going somewhere no retailer or channel partner has gone before -- they are discounting iPhones and iPads. We initially thought this demonstrated the power of WalMart as a discount retailer. But maybe not. There’s real value in hearing Brian’s astute insight about channel conflicts and this being a somewhat desperate strategic move by WalMart to counter Amazon and other online retailers stealing their business.

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/walmart-cuts-prices-on-some-iphones-and-ipads/?emc=eta1

Our third Hot Potato was time of the year appropriate -- Resoultions -- do they work? We pretty much concluded they do not. Tune in to hear our clinical analysis of this annual and always important debate.

Our focused discussion was about smart marketing and how it really applies anywhere. The in thing in marketing is social media, inbound marketing, and the connection to the website. A recent article highlighted some well known websites and how they exhibited brilliant home page design. What they actually exhibited was smart marketing, whether it’s on a home page, in a mail piece, in an ad, or face-to-face in conversation. The principles espoused in the article are below and they don’t change; just the venue changes.

Clarity on who you are and what you do
Messages that are important and valuable to your target audience
Compelling Value
Easy to understand
Call to action
Relevant and timely

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34006/15-Examples-of-Brilliant-Homepage-Design.aspx#i

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Open for Business #62 – more great information than you could hope for in less than an hour.