By Arne Hessenbruch, Founder, Boston Denmark Partnerships

Dougan Sherwood started his own company and burned through $20K of friends and family's investment. He got burnt. He now works at Cambridge Innovation Center, located at Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

He sees many startups in different stages and he ponders the impact that location has. His advice for startup companies is a mixture of the conventional and the more existential.

Go where you can:

1. Recruit the talent you need
2. Minimize hassle and free up head space
3. Figure out who you are!

Everyone in the startup world knows that recruiting people is of prime importance and also excruciatingly hard. A startup needs a team of people whose skills complement each other. We tend to know people like us, not people with complementary skills. A startup needs people with drive and enthusiasm, an understanding of product development and the many iterations it has to go through with feedback from potential consumers, people skills, market savvy, fundraising, legal and accounting, technology and so on.

The list is very long, which is why only a very few places on the planet have produced successful startup companies. Putting it starkly, only Silicon Valley and Boston have the critical mass of people with different skills to routinely put together successful teams. But even within those cities, you want to be where you can meet people, preferably on a daily basis. In Boston, for example, you may want to be on the Red Line, because many of the young people you want to recruit do not want to drive cars and sit in traffic.

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By Ellen Keiley

Why are we still having this conversation? That was the theme of the Bentley University Center for Women and Business Inaugural forum that took place on April 27, 2012. The Center is working on initiatives relating to advancing women in the workplace and moving from conversation to action. Energetic as always, Bentley University President Gloria Larson kicked off the forum that over 700 people had signed up to attend. Bentley University’s Toni Wolfman said “the Center provides a framework to develop effective solutions to challenges faced by women in the workplace.”

Betsy Myers was appointed as the Center’s Founding Director. Myers is an authority on leadership and author of the book Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You. She has deep experience in the corporate, political and higher education arenas and served as Chief Operating Officer of Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign. Myers also served in the Clinton Administration as an adviser on women’s issues.

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By Dave McLaughlin, Vsnap

Recently The Capital Network presented its Venture Fast Track program, a one-day “boot camp” to prepare startups for success with venture capitalists and angel investors. So often I find that people with great ideas might be a little bit unsure whether they’re a good fit to plug into all the resources offered by organizations like The Capital Network, Mass Challenge, Boston World Partnerships, Venture Café, and so many more. It’s important that people understand just how open this community is. If you have a hunger to start and grow something, just show up! You’ll be welcome.

At the Venture Fast Track, people commented on two big buckets of value: the info and the people.

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By Donna Dodson, Artist

Veronique Le Melle, Executive Director at Boston Center for the Arts welcomed guests to the First Annual Arts Professionals' Breakfast featuring presentations on new technologies and cutting edge practices in the administrative side of the art world. This year's juried presenters were ArtsBoston, Boston Dance Alliance and Cambridge Community Foundation.

The keynote presenter Kara Miller, who hosts the Innovation Hub on WGBH Radio Boston, focused on where ideas come from and addressed three trends shaping our future in the era of the crowd. Through crowd sourcing, crowd funding and mobile technologies, tapping the wisdom of the crowd, telling your story and getting the word out will be an integral part of these democratizing technologies.

John Beck, Deputy Director of ArtsBoston, discussed market knowledge programs. Arts Boston launched an audience initiative which takes the data of an organization’s membership, overlays it with demographic information and outputs it back to the organization to turn research into action. It works within a city or regional community to build capacity and assist audience development by defining patron behavior. By working with cultural nonprofits in a region to share this information with each other, they create a culture of collaboration and advocacy for the arts.

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By Arne Hessenbruch, Founder, Boston Denmark Partnerships

How does one make a successful product such as an iPad, an app, a drug, or a widget?

You might think that companies start with an idea about a product, something that seems cool or somehow promising. They then build a prototype to prove the concept – that the product can indeed be built or made. And then they make more products and sell them.

If only it were that easy!

Unfortunately, products need a lot of work before they actually sell. The expected demand may turn out to not be there; the price might be too high; the product might be clunky; or there might be regulatory hurdles Much of that work is done in product development. Because product development is underestimated, most people think that the most important part of innovation is invention – the glamorous moment where a genius thinks of something new in a flash. But in reality ideas are a dime a dozen whereas product development is the hard slog that really makes a difference.

Regina Au is a consultant helping life science companies with product development. She has spent many years with pharmaceutical and biotech companies such as Genzyme Biosurgery, so she has seen product development up close for many years. She details the following 5 main issues to pay attention to. FULL ENTRY

By David Chevalier, SalesBlend

Do you wish your network provided you with new ideas, greater intelligence and more money? Are you searching for a job without realizing that it's a permanent campaign rather than a job search? Or, are you just trying to find the people who are willing and able to refer business to you? It’s crucial that your network help you encounter new ideas, learn new skills and regain your sense of purpose.The problem is that relatively isolated, homogeneous networks - consisting of people like yourself who live nearby - are unlikely to produce positive outcomes.

I’ve been there - after reading Harvard Business Review’s How to Build Your Network, in 2006, and taking the article’s diagnostic test, my network was revealed to be full of connections made in school and the workplace. It was even bold enough to suggest my network of 90 people was inbred.

Frankly, I liked my network just the way it was because there were very few dissenting views, everyone lived within an hour of me, and I didn’t have to put in any ‘leg-work’ to build the connections. It was comfortable and fun. I wouldn’t have changed anything about it except my network was not producing much business. In fact, it mainly produced beer, wine, food and redundant information. Yet in a fast-changing world, I perceived a credible threat that I could get left behind. I felt compelled to change.

Homogenous groups are very comfortable. They tend to share your interests, opinions and profession and they rarely challenge you or your thinking. But your network should cut across geographies, functions and specialties because that’s where the magic happens! It’s time to let new people into your “circle of trust” and explore ideas that differ from your own.

Start networking outside your comfort zone!

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By Peter Cahill, Principal, Cahill Law Group

Given what we have been seeing lately in the Boston-area commercial leasing market, I'd like to share some recommendations to consider before entering into your next lease:

1. Use a reputable commercial leasing broker

   I am always surprised whenever a CEO or CFO asks whether it’s worth having a broker on the team. The answer is yes! The best brokers know the market and your industry. They can save you time by guiding you away from locations that are poor matches for your needs. They can save you money by providing intelligence on key market prices, terms, and trends.

   Perhaps past experience of using a headhunter to hire employees has unduly influenced these decision-makers. In the HR scenario, a company almost always pays an additional premium when it hires a candidate found by a headhunter. This is not the case with commercial leases. The landlord does not charge more for your lease if a broker is involved; there is no discount on rent if a broker is not involved.

2. Let your lawyer help you before you sign the letter of intent

   I know this sounds self-serving coming from lawyers, but a company often will want to try to sign the Letter of Intent (LOI) before starting the meter on a lawyer. The real risk, however, is that you may be forfeiting leverage that you have prior to signing the LOI. After signing an LOI, landlords often respond to a lawyer’s request for a material provision with a comment such as “This request should have been made as part of the LOI because the rental rate was priced without that provision.” The proverbial ship has sailed.

   Remember, in most cases, the most affection you will ever receive from a landlord is as a prospective tenant when your company is the “buyer” and can choose from among many locations.

   If there is concern over the cost of the lawyer at the LOI stage, have your lawyer agree to a fixed fee or a cap on the project that includes both the LOI and the lease.

3. Fix the Assignment language!

   For venture-backed companies in particular (or those with aspirations towards VC or private equity funding), insist on acceptable Assignment language within the LOI. Many leases will have language such as “a change of control of more than 50% of the equity ownership of the Tenant constitutes an Assignment and requires the prior written approval of the Landlord.” This is not acceptable for a company that may have one or more rounds of equity financing. Nor is it acceptable for a science-based company with valuable, customized laboratory space, who would risk losing that space based on a change of control triggered by substantial VC funding.

4. Do not prematurely make operational decisions on moving into a location if the lease is not finalized

   Your company has been looking at space for a long time. When you signed the LOI, it had a move-in date that was two months away. Now, because of delays/lack of responsiveness/holidays/whatever, you are two weeks away from the original move-in date, tired and frustrated, and the lease is still not signed. Your company is still trying to negotiate important terms while facing a fast-approaching occupancy date. At the same time, your operations people have been coordinating logistics with the landlord’s representatives, and you have been losing negotiating leverage daily. Try to avoid creating a scenario where it is economically impossible or not feasible for your company to go any place else.

5. Learn the prior use of the space

   If any portion of the space that your company is taking was previously used as laboratory space, make sure that you have received and reviewed carefully the evidence that the space has been remediated and that it has been appropriately certified as clean.

All businesses need to worry about finances, but entrepreneurs and start-up firms especially need to worry about the cost of everything. The expenses associated with leasing office or lab space can represent some of the highest fixed costs borne by a small company. Do your firm a favor and proactively obtain value for each leasing dollar spent. Focusing on the tips mentioned above will at least put you on the right path.

Peter Cahill of Cahill Law Group is a corporate lawyer with significant transactional and general corporate experience representing start-ups and small and mid-sized companies. His experience encompasses debt and equity offerings, drafting a variety of corporate contracts, and negotiating commercial real estate transactions.

By Dave McLaughlin, CEO & Co-Founder, Vsnap

Two weeks ago, I went to a conference in San Francisco. In planning the trip, my business partner and I used a few well-known web/mobile services to arrange various details. Although these tools are not new to us, and all of these services are available right here in Boston, what struck me is that you really get a glimpse into their value when you use several of them together within the space of a short trip.

I run a startup, so the pressure to save money and maximize value is extra intense. These services are truly changing how we take care of the basic needs for business travel, saving us money and increasing our ability to navigate unfamiliar cities and get the most return on our spend.

For starters, we used AirBNB to book an apartment. The place we got was huge and clean and sunny, and the woman who owned it left us a bag of bagels & cream cheese on the kitchen table as a welcome. The last night we were there, the apartment wasn’t available so I booked a night at the Westin. It was 50% more expensive than the massive, sunny apartment.

For transportation, we used Uber. For a pretty small cost markup, we had immaculate Towncars picking us up within minutes of us notifying them, anywhere in San Francisco. I think the cost of taking an Uber car to the airport was actually the same as taking a taxi.

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By Chad O'Connor, Adjunct Professor, Northeastern University

As someone who teaches college students, I am reminded daily of the importance of helping them find meaningful work with internships, co-ops and jobs. I gather whatever info I can and pass the opportunities along to my current and former students. Thankfully, there are some other people in Boston who have been focusing on this critical problem too...

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are hosting a gathering of business and academic leaders on Monday March 19th to discuss the benefits and best practices of student internships. Remarks will be made by Governor Deval Patrick; Kenneth Montgomery, First VP/COO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; and Paul Guzzi, President/CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce also is offering Chamber Intern Connect to connect area employers with college students throughout the region. No matter the specific internship, industry, or paid vs. unpaid opportunity, Chamber members post summer internships to a high-traffic database as well as the Commonwealth’s statewide Mass Stay Here internship site.

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By Lex Schroeder, Writer, Editor and Program Associate, The Berkana Institute

In my last blog I suggested that in order to adapt to a “new creative economy,” and set ourselves up for success in a changing world of work, one of the things we must do is take smart risks. Just the word risk makes some folks uncomfortable, but taking small, smart risks fairly regularly is important because it it creates new opportunities where there previously were none, and it helps us prove to ourselves that we are capable of taking lead on our work lives. Taking risks keeps things interesting and reminds us that ultimately, we have tremendous agency over our projects. FULL ENTRY

By Donna Dodson, Artist

Elln Hagney has worked with many notable organizations in the course of her 20 year career but none has so clearly allowed her to demonstrate her gifts and talents as the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation (CRMII) in Waltham. Through her many creative outreach efforts and diverse community collaborations, she has positioned the museum at the center of the community, by acting as a governor herself. "A centrifugal governor is a specific type of governor that controls the speed of an engine by regulating the amount of fuel admitted, so as to maintain a near constant speed whatever the load or fuel supply conditions." One could very well say the balancing act she has managed to perform since she joined the museum in 2008 has prepared the institution to move full speed ahead into the future.

Community Partner

One of the oldest and largest community events is Open Studios, which is run by the Waltham Mills Artists Association. It has enjoyed a vibrant 35 year history, drawing an estimated 5,000 visitors over the course of the weekend. The Museum is located in one of the mill buildings that houses artist studios, and it has become an important community partner to the event. Since all 80 artists who participate in the event open their studios at no charge to visitors, last year the museum offered free admission all weekend long to draw crowds into its exhibitions.This year, the museum will be increasing its role by providing space for artists to exhibit their work.

Business to Business

The Waltham Food & Wine Festival has been running for 20 years. The museum used to host the festival but the event has outgrown its capacity of 180 guests and in more recent years, the CRMII has turned to the Waltham Westin Hotel to play host to its over 600 attendees. The event is designed as a fundraiser for the museum but the festival itself celebrates Waltham’s culinary businesses by offering samples of fare prepared by some of the city’s most popular restaurants.

Back to its Roots

The last and perhaps most important civic group that calls the museum home, is the New England Model Engineering Society. This ‘group for those who enjoy metal working and machining’ has been meeting monthly at the museum for over 15 years. It recently held its annual show at the museum in February which used to draw crowds of 500 people to find out ‘What trains, flutes, and clocks all have in common?’ Under Ms. Hagney’s direction the model engineering show has more than doubled its attendance to attracting over 1200 visitors this year.

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By David Chevalier, SalesBlend

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point, Paul Revere is the ultimate connector, a man with the requisite respect, intelligence and social network to efficiently spread ideas about the oncoming British. The historical legend says he rode quickly but more importantly, he talked to other connectors who considered him a credible source of information. Since then, small business owners have studied Paul Revere in an effort to replicate his success as a connector and influencer.

Not everyone realizes it, but it’s much easier to spread messages now. When someone clicks a sharing button - a “like”, “retweet”, “+”, “share” or “repin” - they endorse and broadcast the message to their followers, friends, connections and other constituents. When the information continues to get shared repeatedly, the message spreads throughout social networks in a self-replicating process that mimics a virus.

Effectively spreading ideas among prospects and customers is so much easier now than it was in 1775 because of communication technology and word-of-mouth marketing.

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By Donna Dodson, Artist

Arts and Culture dynamically contribute to Boston’s business community. The New England Foundation for the Arts, NEFA, recently released its 2011 annual report, New England’s Creative Economy: Nonprofit sector impact. ‘In 2009, the spending of these 18,026 organizations amounted to nearly $3.7 billion, and they provided jobs for over 53,000 people.’ This sector has grown substantially since 2002, and these organizations have a track record for being a steady reliable industry, not susceptible to the ups and downs of the market economy.

NEFA’s study also demonstrates that direct spending results in significant indirect and induced impact on the region’s economy. ‘Nearly every dollar spent becomes sales to suppliers and income to employees. These businesses and employees, in turn, spend that money to buy goods and services to meet their own needs.’ Therefore, the $3.7 billion of art and culture spending has an indirect impact of $2.2 billion and an induced impact of $2.5 billion, providing a total of $8.4 billion in the New England economy. Within the workforce, the 53, 270 individuals employed by art and culture industries result in an additional 12,960 jobs as an indirect impact and an additional 17,000 jobs as an induced impact for a total of 83,330 jobs.

The last and perhaps the most important impact of nonprofit arts and cultural organization is ‘more than economic.’ The NEFA study highlights ‘visitor attraction impact’ where those who come to an art museum, historic site or cultural festival spend money on food, lodging, shopping, etc. in the local economy. These nonprofits also help ‘attract new residents and new businesses’ by providing key dollars and vitality to a community. The Fenway district in Boston exemplifies this where key cultural institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, are accompanied by teaching institutions like The Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts that jointly bring visitors and students to Boston, provide key jobs across economic spectrums and greatly add to the vitality of Boston. This pattern is repeated across New England where museums, historic organizations, art and performance centers, gallery districts, artist’s housing, art schools and community centers contribute to the human capital of the region. The impact of this on the economy is significant and far reaching.

An interesting case study of the economic impact of art is told through a 17-year effort to bring public art to Edward Everett Square, in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. Organized in 1995 by historian and archivist John McColgan with a network of dedicated residents, civic associations and historic organizations, the group advocated for public art to celebrate the historic legacy of the community. Recognizing the importance of urban planning and design, the community successfully enjoined the city of Boston to provide $2.2 million in public works capital funding to redesign and renovate Edward Everett Square, transforming traffic and pedestrian safety, green space and creating a pedestrian plaza for public art.

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By Chad O'Connor, Adjunct Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University

As the Chatham Forum continued, the second panel of the day (See last week's intro post) – Greg Selkoe, Vicky Wu Davis, Travis McCready, Helena Fruscio and Frederick Kramer – convened later that morning to discuss strengthening Greater Boston’s global presence. A key theme the panel kept coming back to was changing the way we think about barriers geographically. One dysfunctional example that gained many nodding heads of support was discussion of taxi pickup regulations that prevent Boston cabs from picking up in Cambridge and vice versa. Not only is it frustrating to people who live in the Boston area, but it is frustrating and bewildering to out-of–towners who will remember such anecdotal encounters.

The taxi example seemed to represent the desire of the panel to see more cooperation between the region’s cities, minimizing regulation and bureaucracy that stifles business and detracts from a positive experience in Greater Boston. Heather Fruscio neatly summarized the problem by noting that “A brand is only as good as it functions” – harkening back to the earlier panel’s praise of Barcelonactiva for integrating processes that help business permitting go smoothly. Healthy competition between cities, emphasizing real differences, is okay; unhealthy competition with a winner take all mentality will not help Greater Boston as a whole. One panelist even noted that districts within a city, sometimes blocks apart, can get into unhealthy competition that loses sight of the bigger benefit.

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By Chad O'Connor, Adjunct Professor, Northeastern University

Super Bowl weekend kicked off with a star-studded retreat focusing on Boston’s future. World Class Cities Partnership (WCCP), in collaboration with City to City Boston and Boston World Partnerships, planned the 2012 Chatham Forum for engaged Greater Boston citizens to learn, discuss, renew friendships and expand networks. To quote from WCCP Executive Director Mike Lake’s invitation, the Forum sought to update everyone about “opportunities for the Boston region in relation to innovation, entrepreneurship and adapting best practices from around the world to strengthen economic development in our region.” In addition, attendees participated in Massachusetts’ first Urban Excellence unConference with “Solution Sessions” to share ideas and projects on economic development, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Insightful content and action opportunities were in abundance. A Friday night cocktail reception and dinner with opening keynote from Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson set the tone for an ambitious agenda. Jackson stressed the importance of getting the youth of Greater Boston civically engaged, something that starts with a strong public education system.

On Saturday morning everyone reconvened with a heart-felt montage tribute to the recently deceased former Boston Mayor Kevin White. [As a sad epilogue, Lowell Richards of Massport, a former deputy mayor to White, who was at the Chatham Forum unexpectedly died on Sunday. Condolences go out to his family and friends. He spent the better portion of his last weekend with us doing what he did best: working behind the scenes on making Greater Boston better.]

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By Ted Chan, Founder, Upward Mobility and Noyo

Over the past couple years, I have successfully launched two companies and there’s another one coming in a few months. One of our key partners is WorkBar, a Boston co-working space. In general, I feel very bullish about the co-working models and the value they bring to a young firm like ours. WorkBar saves us money on office space while providing everything we could ask for in terms of a productive environment.

Different co-working spaces in Boston have a different feel and tailor to different types of companies. Given we are young and have a fairly informal culture, WorkBar’s laid back environment works really well for us. Many of my friends from MIT have had success working out of the Cambridge Innovation Center. Having spent much time hanging out there as well, it has a great tech/start-up vibe.

Why has co-working been the right move for us?

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By Dave McLaughlin, Founder, Vsnap

I am a fan of the web service Survey Monkey. But for about a half-hour last week I was a hater. Now I am a fan again. And in the fluctuations of my fandom lies a key lesson for all of us in business.

In short, the lesson is this: the customer drives your offense. In fact, at my company we’ve actually given our customer a name.

We call him Tom Brady.

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By Donna Dodson, Artist

To be an artist in the current economic slump is not unlike a swan, gliding across the water. Its movements appear to be graceful and elegant yet beneath the water, out of sight, its feet are paddling like crazy. Indeed, survival is an art form in itself. In this article I will outline and discuss some local and global trends I have noticed in my day to day life as a Boston based artist who is trying to get to the next level in my career. I will use the example of my experiences as a starting point for a conversation about best practices in the art world, i.e. how it’s possible to be global while being local, how to build networks using electronic tools, how to create community and harness expertise without recreating the wheel.

Global reach of New England art Galleries creates meaningful dialogue and collaboration across cultures

Gallery Ehva in Provincetown is owned and operated by a visionary artist, Ewa Nogiec. She threatens to leave the USA and go back to her home in Poland if the gallery business doesn’t work out for her. Art is her whole life. In preparation for my recent show, Birds of a Feather, she made an unusual request. She asked me to make a stork, because they are very special to her. They breed in Poland and remind her of home. They are born with black legs and beaks, but when they reach sexual maturity, their beaks and legs turn bright red. Their bodies are white except for the brush of black that remains on the wingtips. As I developed a wood sculpture, White Stork, this bird took flight in my mind.

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By Mark O’Toole, Managing Director, Public Relations and Content Marketing, HB

After the holidays, the intrepid among us look at the remains of our respective feasts and see opportunity. That turkey bone can flavor a soup. Those leftover veggies would taste great in a stew. That untouched pie should be sent to a shelter.

Making the most of the feast, during and after the meal, is smart, sensible and doable.
Companies and organizations can similarly extend the life of their feast. Companies are realizing the power of creating and sharing "unedited" messages through channels that more directly reach their consumers. Content marketing is having a renaissance, in large part due to Boston-area companies and thought leaders who have revived it as a vibrant part of building a brand and communicating corporate stories.

Those who eat from the content marketing plate should pay attention to the following trends in 2012:

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By By Cheryl Meyerson, Founder, New city, INC

New city, INC recently helped design the experience for the Colorado Chapter of WPO’ers (World Presidents’ Organization) visit to Boston. A global organization of more than 4,600 business leaders who are or have been chief executive officers of major companies and who are “graduates” of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), WPO is dedicated to the mission it shares with YPO: "Better leaders through education and idea exchange."

As we start 2012, it's great to be able to reflect. What better city to visit to learn, network and see how we utilize our resources, than Boston?

We showcased our city of firsts, (first public high school, first university, first public library) that serves as a model for the future, (the Big Dig, Innovation District, areas of sustainability, high tech, education, start ups, etc).

WPO members experienced rowing on the Charles; a class at Harvard University; a behind the scenes tour of Fenway Park; a curated tour of the MFA's New Art of the America's Wing; the nuts and bolts of successful local designer, Sarah Campbell’s business; and a dinner with Boston philanthropist, Bobby Segar, who shared his view on poverty in the world while discussing his foundation. The group got to see first hand the contrast and local color of our diverse and varied neighborhoods.

The former president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Dr. Bill Fowler, charmed them with our rich history through his eyes; and managing director of Citizen Schools, John Werner, shared how his organization partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities across the country, perhaps paving the groundwork for expansion to Colorado.

Jennifer Hopkins, a member of WPO, who attended and helped organize the program, said: "The weekend was a wonderful opportunity to truly explore and experience Boston from a historical and current business perspective. We all left with positive thoughts and new ideas from this amazing city".

Boston is truly a treasure – our treasure. Happy New Year everyone!

By Lennox Chase, Founder, MyBarPrep

Boston is the backdrop for some of the most prestigious financial companies in the world. The attractive demographics of Boston are based on the elite institutions that employ and educate Boston residents. Boston banks have seen a high level of customer turnover due to consumer dissatisfaction with fees and an overall impersonal banking experience. As a result, the onus is on Boston-area banks to respond to the needs of a highly educated populace.

In 2012, banks and consumers will be faced with:

1. Vanishing bank branches;
2. Increased online banking; and
3. The ongoing battle of fees versus convenience.

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By Sean Butze and Ross Beyeler, Spark Launch

These days there seems to be a million-and-one blogs out there pitching the latest tips, tricks, and techniques for how to optimize your business website to make more money. Harder to find, however, is conversation around the simplest, most basic principles of website design that many small businesses continue to get wrong over and over again. Principals that, when ignored, can render a business website ineffective at best and totally useless at worst.

That's why we've decided to highlight 5 of the most fatal mistakes that small businesses make when building a new website. We've also included practical advice on how to avoid them, so that you can ensure your business's new website will be well-equipped to provide the value you intend.

1) Not providing a clear call to action

One of the most common mistakes that businesses make with their websites is not accounting for how short people's attention spans are on the web. In many cases, companies provide too much non-essential information on their homepage, overwhelming the user with too much text and providing little to no direction for what to do next.

THE PROBLEM: Consumers who search for products and services online want to find what they need FAST, which means you have a very small window of opportunity to get your message across to a first-time visitor of your website.

WHAT TO DO: When designing your company's website, think about the most important action you want people to take when they visit. Maybe it's to buy a product, subscribe to a newsletter, or request more information. Whatever that action may be, make sure you provide a clear and obvious path to it on your website such as a button, form or link. If getting to the desired next step requires digging through endless paragraphs of text or a cluttered navigation menu, most of your visitors will immediately move on. After all, your competition is just a click away.

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By Philip Guarino, President, Elementi Consulting

Although some encouraging signs have started to emerge in 2011, the US economy still faces significant challenges on the road to recovery. Nationally, most indicators tend to point to a tepid rebound and a protracted period of slower economic growth. For decades, the US economy has relied on domestic consumption as the major engine for growth; a large and growing domestic economy masked the immediate need for companies to look abroad for customers.

Today despite a devalued US dollar, only a minimal fraction of US businesses actually conduct business overseas and an even smaller percentage in more than one country. With slow growth on the horizon, exporting is no longer a luxury but a necessity if American businesses aim to grow.

The vast size of the US economy and relatively strong economic growth have largely shielded most American companies from the need to export that virtually all other industrialized economies have faced. Smaller countries by default must look abroad as domestic markets are often too small. Startlingly only 4% of US companies actually export at all, and less than 0.5% of US companies export to more than one country- yes- Canada included.

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It's been a little while since we showed you Candice Cabe's story via Reel College Ventures. Now we bring you the story of Brian and Trevor and how they launched Pure Pest Management!

Episode One, Cut 11 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Episode One, Cut 12 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Episode One, Cut 13 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Episode One, Cut 14 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

By Rachael Weiker, Bryan Solar and Alex Russell, Main Street Partners

So far we’ve covered the importance of establishing a web presence and setting up basic optimization. Now that you have your site up and posted, how do you know if anyone is seeing it? You track it!

When walking the owner of Mehak through the chart below, he was immediately blown away by how we “knew how many people were checking him out.” The secret? We didn’t. That’s Google Analytics. Its extremely easy to use, and most importantly free. Once you have your website set up just go to www.google.com/analytics and from there Google will do an excellent job of walking you through the process. Once you have it set up you will not only be able to see how many people come to your webpage, what pages were the ones they stayed on the longest, but also HOW are they finding you.

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By Rachael Weiker, Bryan Solar and Alex Russell, Main Street Partners

In our last post we hammered home just how important it is for every small business to have a website. So important that it bears repeating: Every business MUST have a website.

So now your website is done, it looks great…why aren’t people visiting?

Well, your site is one of the over 350,000,000 websites that exist. With that much out there, people are going to need a little help finding yours.

So how do you do it?

By thinking like a babysitter. It sounds crazy, but think about how babysitters (or at least my little sister) gets customers. She makes a flyer and posts it everywhere she thinks people will bring their kids. Your website is your flyer, and the internet is filled with places you can post it.

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By Arne Hessenbruch, Boston Denmark Partnerships

Recently, Brown Rudnick organized a seminar at their offices in downtown Boston entitled “Navigating the Intersection of the Utility Sector, Venture Capital Funding, and Energy Policy”. The advantage of the seminar lay in having the differing perspectives alluded to in the title represented on the panel: three utilities, a company seeking to enable large electricity customers to react to price fluctuations, a VC investing in new energy technologies, and finally the government of Massachusetts represented by two bodies: the Energy and Telecommunications Division of the Massachusetts Office of the General Attorney, and the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.

It is fairly easy to articulate the problem with electricity distribution. The electrical grid was constructed 100 years ago and its structure reflects that. The agents of change consist of deregulation and new technologies. The former has broken up vertically integrated industries, and the latter consists of decentralized energy production (e.g. wind, solar) and measurement of the flow of electricity throughout the grid. The result is aged equipment, obsolete system layouts, and, one might argue, outmoded concepts and procedures. Articulating the problem may be easy, but the solution to the problem is exceedingly complex.

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By Rachael Weiker, Bryan Solar and Alex Russell, Main Street Partners

This summer Main Street Partners worked with a small business whose story seems to be all too common for today’s small business.

The situation: the owner of a small Pakistani and Indian restaurant in East Boston was starting to become very concerned that the business wasn’t growing as fast as he would like and he couldn’t pinpoint why. The restaurant (Mehak) makes exceptional food (the Chicken Tikka Masala is as good as it gets) and their customers spoke very highly of the restaurant to their peers and online. Nevertheless, business seemed to have plateaued and without more revenue the business wouldn’t be able to survive.

Sound familiar? Having spoken with dozens of small business owners this story seems to be a reoccurring theme. The good news is there are some very easy ways to break out of this pattern. The key is to understand that even if you have THE BEST product or service available, you cannot count on your potential customers to do all of your marketing for you. They will not embark on an hour-long search to find you – on foot or online. You have to go to them and make their search easy.

This process can have many components but if you are a restaurant, grocery store, or service provider, the following posts include three steps to optimizing low cost, high impact tools that we have found to be great engines for driving new business.

1. Your Website Is Where It All Starts

The first and most important piece of helping customers find you is developing a website. For those who think this is a “nice to have” but not a “must have”, consider the following: if I were a customer who really wanted to buy your product, how would I find you? Would it be the Yellow Book? I’d first have to go out of my way to even find one. SuperMedia Inc., the company that makes Super Pages, saw a 61% decrease in revenues from 2009 to 2010. The reason isn’t that people are searching for businesses anymore, it’s that they are doing so elsewhere.

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By Lennox Chase, Founder, MyBarPrep

“Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in every walk of life” – Napoleon Hill

The Greater Boston area continues to shine in the housing market as numerous banks and countless borrowers bicker about the housing crisis at the national level. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price data shows that housing is flat in Boston, which is far superior to the housing markets in other parts of the country. One of the reasons for the cushion enjoyed by Boston homeowners is the city's array of customer-friendly resources.

Housing fuels the economy and we will not see an improved U.S. economy until the national housing market is restored to health. In order for our economy to heal, banks must be willing to lend. Banks will play a crucial role in the U.S. recovery by providing the capital for homebuyers to buy and construction companies to build. Boston is a prime example of an economic environment that allows companies to provide flexible solutions to consumer needs.

According to Chris Teachout, a Business Development Officer for Needham Bank, “One thing many community banks look for within their communities is the relationships they can build with the residents and businesses of their town, as opposed to fee income. We are not dependent on the fee income as a way to stay in business. We are looking for customers who will be banking with us for years to come. That, to us, is far more important than whatever fees we can collect from those customers. “

As the years pass by, the Boston community will continue to enjoy the benefits of its proximity to world-class universities, hospitals, and companies. Consequently, the incentive for banks to form long lasting relationships with customers is at hand for customer-friendly lenders that are ready to form a long-term relationship. Going steady pays dividends in the long-term for both borrowers and banks.

Interview by Manya Chylinski, President, Alley 424 Communications

Not all business-to-business (B2B) technology marketers have to contend with an 800-pound gorilla in their market. In segments with a number of smaller, nimbler companies, there can be quite an interesting competitive dynamic as they each fight to get their message heard. To lead the way, companies have to work to keep up with the technology and innovate. In this kind of rapidly changing environment, one of the most important things a marketer can do is focus on the basics—segmenting the market and finding their position and message.

Mike Braatz is Senior Vice President and General Manager at Memento, Inc., a Burlington-based company that provides fraud prevention solutions to the financial industry. This is the fourth early-stage B2B technology company he has worked with in the Boston area in the past eleven years. Even with his experience in business development and product management, Mike is a marketer at heart. He shares his thoughts with Manya Chylinski about industry trends, what technology marketers struggle with, and his vision of the future of marketing.

What works for marketing in the technology space today?

Two things are working really well for us. One is that we have effectively become our own content publishers. Because of consolidation of media and analyst outlets across the B2B and technology landscape, there are fewer opportunities for us to get our message in front of customers. Rather than bemoan this change, we take it upon ourselves to hire subject matter experts to create interesting and compelling thought leadership.

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Candice Cabe tells us how she came to make her famous shoes and here come the lads from Pure Pest Management, Brian and Trevor!

Please excuse the tough cuts between 8 and 9. Sometimes the product isn't perfect and, as all entrepreneurs know, you can't let perfect be the enemy of good!

Episode One, Cut 8 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Episode One, Cut 9 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Episode One, Cut 10 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Reel College Ventures followed three startups through all of their trials and tribulations and made a show out of it. You've seen the first 4 clips. Now we bring you Candice's story.

Candice Cabe is an innovator in the fashion world. Here she is showing it!

Episode One, Cut 5 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Episode One, Cut 6 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Episode One, Cut 7 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

By Yoon J. Lee, Executive Director, Boston World Partnerships

In today’s global economy, businesses in knowledge and innovation sectors must provide more than efficient transportation for people and products. Their infrastructure must also support the flow of transformative ideas. Economies with rich human capital thrive when fostered by a robust and cooperative social framework.

Sociologists call this social capital, or the intrinsic worth of social networks and their potential to bring about action.

Social capital places high value on the collaboration between entities working towards a common goal. It stands for solidarity among like-minded groups and underpins the sense of mutual trust that is critical to any healthy business relationship. The hallmark of effective social capital in business is when the open and equal exchange of ideas yields significant value for companies.

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By David Friedman, President & Founder, Boston Logic

I play on a summer Ultimate Frisbee team. Mostly, it’s made up of Tufts Alumni who played Ultimate as undergrads. Each year, we get some young blood joining the team from the graduating class. This year, I noticed that we had no new recruits. When I asked our team captain why, he told me that the seniors this year had such a hard time finding jobs in Boston, that they either moved wherever they could find work or, mostly, they moved back home to live for free, due to a lack of employment.

Little known secret: There are lots of great jobs in Boston that need filling.

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We posted the first section of episode #1 of ReelCollegeVentures' series on three great Boston entrepreneurs. Here are the next three shorts from the first episode. We hope you enjoy them!

Episode 1, Cut 2:

Episode One, Cut 2 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

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We love small businesses here at Global Business Hub and we love to hear about all the craziness that they go through. We're pretty excited about Reel College Ventures, who followed three Boston based companies as they worked through the daily pressures of running a small business.

We have the first part of their first episode for you here:

Episode One, Cut 1 from REEL College Ventures on Vimeo.

Come on later this week as we feature more from Episode 1!

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