Conference Buddies

How to Run Your Business or Nonprofit on the Cheap
Moderator – Barbara Russo, Business Coach, Founder, Barbara Russo Strategies. Concept: CPR, Clarity & Confidence, Persistence, Resilience

Panelist: Kevin Reeth

Founder, outright.com

• Get a paying customer first
• Start off as a side business first, then start buying stuff
• Don’t buy any new equipment, get everything used if possible, go to Craigslist, warehouses, clearance sales
• Get on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, all the social networks, get personal referrals
• Get a web presence
• Get free tools, like Google analytics
• Big mistakes new businesses make: spending too much on details instead of focusing on getting more clients

Panelist: Matt Jordan

Enterprise Development Manager, Skype for Business

• Get used stuff
• Skype: 500 million unique suscribers
• Skype has solutions for business on the cheap
• Use eBay and PayPal
• More Skype promotional talk……..(blah, blah, blah)

Panelist: Jonathan Rochelle

Product Manager, Google Apps, Jrsays.com, @Jrochelle

• E-Mail (G-Mail) to get your own domain, IM’s video chat
• Shared calendars, post calendars and create meeting events
• Collaborative documents, spreadsheets, presentations, create and share documents
• Forms and websites, manage shared data on spreadsheets
• Company video library
• E-Mail security and archival
• Used by 2 million businesses with 20 million users

Panelist: Mark O’Leary

Comcast, Regional VP of Business Services, California

• Metrics: to get money from investors, give your metrics.
• Know the following: conversions, click thrus, customer acquisitions, which customers are profitable, pathways to cash flow, do you understand your finances?, every business should have a scorecard, always know your financial and marketing data, where are you spending your money?, where are you making your money?
• Advisors: bring an advisor into your business, some are free, most are financially successful people who are interested in helping people: Google local financial advisors, some advisors want equity, go to legal zoom.com. Set up a cap table, a contract for services in exchange for equity

Questions from audience:

1) How is Google’s confidentiality? Jonathan: Google employees use Google, too. So, they trust their own privacy policy. They are very strict on how they treat your property, your property belongs to you, and they are regularly audited
2) What is the going market rate for advisors? Mark: It depends on the scope of the engagement. If you can convince your advisor that your expected time period to make x amount of money, give them an hourly rate based on that math. Keep tight records
3) For Skype and Google, what is the best video recording device? Matt: DV cam and consumer grade webcams. Jonathan: Logitech webcam would do.
4) The sexiest metrics to quote for VC’s? Mark: Customer traction, finding adoption in the market, cash flow, Do you understand what’s driving sales?, What are your most effective channels?, Do you know your business well enough to make it successful? What’s you return rate?, Don’t use a selective metric unless you are ready to tell the truth, Don’t cherry pick, really understand your metrics and be prepared to go deep on your metric
5) What are the most unexpected expenses in small businesses? Kevin: Where to set the budget, trying marketing that does not match ROI. Spend a little bit of money at a time, test what works first.
6) How do you define a little bit of money? Kevin: Not 10’s of thousands of dollars, a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand, get data first before spending too much.
7) Do Google’s free accounts give the same level of service as paid accounts? Jonathan: No, paid accounts get more dedicated support. Paid accounts get 24/7 support.
8) Why are there so many Google threads out there unanswered? Jonathan: Google cannot answer everything and has to dedicate more time to paid accounts.
9) Why is Google Voice not discussed? Jonathan: Google Voice is not mature enough to discuss at this point
10) Any federal or state taxes on internet sales/communications happening soon? Mark: They are keeping an eye on that, don’t know yet.
11) Are there any plans for Skype to have video conferencing for multiple party users? Matt: They only have 25 audio users, but not video conferencing, Only A to B conferencing right now. They are working on it.
12) Will Google Wave be used for Google Apps? Jonathan: It’s too early to put apps into it.