Springing from humble beginnings, the Small Business Trends Radio program has had a very interesting journey over the last 20 months.

What started out as an experiment in podcasting in November of 2004 has turned into a very viable business with over 60 hours of audio content, major sponsors and advertisers, an audience of tens of thousands and is distributed by an internet radio network.

It has been a fun and wild ride over the last 20 months. Join Anita and yours truly as we share with you our story of the journey so far and the key lessons we have learned along the way.

Read more and learn how you, too, can take a podcast From a Hobby to a Business

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (1) | Permalink

We have made a last minute schedule change in today’s show. Our scheduled guest had a business emergency and will not be able to make it today. (That’s what happens when you are a small business owner.)

So Steve and I thought it would be a great opportunity to do a show we have been toying with doing for a while now.

Today’s show will be called, “From Hobby to Business: Lessons of a Radio Show.”

The show will be Steve Rucinski, Executive Producer here at the Radio show / podcast series, and myself. Just the two of us.

We are going to do an informal review of our first year (almost) with the Radio show.

We will share how it grew from a home-grown podcast to a radio show. We will give the inside scoop on what it takes to bootstrap a radio show into a business. We will lay out some of the challenges and how we overcame them. For anyone considering how to turn podcasting into a business, or even how to turn blogging into a business, I think you will find this show helpful.

This is also our last show on the Voice America Business Radio network, and we will be thanking the good folks there for everything they have done. We are excited about the new iteration of this Show which will appear on a new network starting in September. Look for an announcement on where the show will be moving to, within the week.

Meanwhile, tune in live today (Tuesday, August 29, 2006) to this Internet Radio broadcast, by visiting http://business.voiceamerica.com at 1:00 PM Eastern U.S. time.

Posted by Anita Campbell | Comments (0) | Permalink

Our very own Anita Campbell made the local (Akron, Ohio, USA) Akron Beacon-Journal Sunday paper with an article about her business, her blogging and this radio show.

I was lucky enough to get into a picture with her in the print version of the paper. It is a very neat article about and with Anita that you might care to review.

You should also visit Anita’s main blog at www.smallbiztrends.com and also read the article about her New Media Ventures.

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (1) | Permalink

Big Shows start small. Lily Tomlin would test her acts, not on an off-Broadway hide-a-way in New York City — not even another country, like say, New Jersey.

No, Lily would test her lines and the script in another world: Branson, Missouri.

A few decades ago, Your Business Blogger — that’s me, the dork on the left — caught up with Tomlin backstage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, during a run of The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe.

It was no secret that Tomlin is a professional whose performances seemed effortless. Yes, she and her team practiced with military precision.

But she did a bit more. One of her secrets was to practice in front of a live crowd. To test her timing. For the laughs and special effects. Practice and pace. To hit the marks and watch the sparks.

Her testing would require stops and starts and direct interaction with her Branson audience — which was a test market for her new show; her new product. She would be an alchemist reformulating as she observed and assessed her focus group’s response. And the laughs.

Comedy is hard work.

The challenge of conducting the practice, the dry runs, was that the critical, cynical New Yorker would not sit still through trial run. Tomlin as magician perfected her act behind the curtain, away from the show-bizzie chattering classes. So Lily would go to ‘fly-over country’ where normal people live, to hone her act.

To Branson, Missouri, the Show Me state where over 100 shows play in over 40 theaters. Branson is called “The Live Music Show Capital of the World.”

Lily Tomlin and her crew would then take her perfected, polished performance back to the Big Apple and the rest of civilization.

Her business lesson from show business was to quietly introduce a pilot show, a pilot project. Gauge reaction and launch a high percentage deal. And practice to a small sample size.

Because you will screw it up. And it is best to screw up on the farm team than before the big league crowd.

Do you have a pitch to practice? Find a small group who loves you.

Looking to flog your product on national television, the cables and network? Start with small radio wattage.

Practice your sales pitch to a radio audience.

Posted by Jack Yoest | Comments (0) | Permalink

Franchising continues to grow as a method of business expansion for both franchisors and franchisees. Hundreds of new franchise concepts were launched last year and the concept is starting to spread across the globe as a business methodology.

Howevre, there are some major trends and shifts underway in franchising and many more resources to help both sides of the equation be successful, but how do you sift through and identify the key trends and the most credible resources?

Marty McDermott a multi-decade experienced franchise expert and owner of FranchiseInterviews.com shares his perspective, trend analysis and advice at how to identify the right fit for you and identify the resources that can help you be successful.

Read more and listen to Franchising Trends - Making a Franchise Decision

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (1) | Permalink

This week’s Podcast Review is about the Podcast, Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch.

Description: Audio interviews and marketing tips delivered right to your iPod.

Comments: This is the big daddy of marketing podcasts, with a great format and great guests like Seth Godin, Tom Szaky of TerraCycle, Jack Covert and many, many more, you simply cannot find a better show on marketing on the Internet. Shows typically 20 minutes in length.

Pluses: A wealth of available shows, each of which is value packed. The website is easy to navigate and John makes it easy to subscribe to the podcast feed with your favorite subscription tool.

New shows are available about once per week on average. Great use of music and high production value are applied to make it easy to listen to John.

He has a who’s who of guests that follow a typical interview format. Sometimes the business story of the guest is as entertaining as the content and knowledge shared.

Minuses: I wish the audio streamed when I listen from the website. Waiting for the file to download can take a little bit of time as each file is pretty large. Clearly identifying the show’s time length in each summary post would be a nice feature to add as well.

I highly recommend that you give add Duct Tape Marketing Podcast to your list of favorites.

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (1) | Permalink

Tip O’Neill

Congressman Tip O’Neill was a master politician. And most everyone always wanted favors from the former Speaker of the House. But before visitors would come a-calling, Tip would direct his staff:

Don’t take nobody, nobody brought.

Tip found it best to bestow favors only on the advice of a known, trusted third party.

In days past a trusted third party, an individual could be trusted to peddle influence. Today the trend is to use a trusted individual: a friend who visits you in your car, home or office over the radio.

Here’s how it worked in O’Neill’s office. The vector — the connector, would be known to both Tip and known to the supplicant. Introductions made. Wheels greased. The fix in.

The Irish know how to do these things. Tip O’Neill. Ronald Reagan. Chris Matthews. Tip O’Neill knew that trusting a third party would accomplish two very important objectives for a politician. 1) Kept him out of trouble, and 2) Economy of political capital — bestowing a favor with and through a “friend” doubled the effectiveness of the favor. An easy two-fer.

What the Chinese call guanxi. Personal connections; social capital; a brand name.

These days a trusted friend with seasoned advice and wisdom can be found on the airwaves or on-line. If Anita Campbell suggests a small business trend, smart money moves. If Steve Rucinski recommends a strategy for small business CEO’s, I’m on it.

If you have a chance to get your voice heard on radio with a trusted interviewer, jump on it — people may not know you, but they may come to trust you through your host.

Posted by Jack Yoest | Comments (2) | Permalink