LAST CALL FOR SAASY DALLAS. If you are or know a student, or are involved with or interested in SaaS (Software as a Service) or Cloud services, check out our FREE report contest, student scholarships, and startup discount now! The sweepstakes end this week. Register for Monday’s Networking meeting to listen to the research presentation and receive two full months of Softletter.
FEBRUARY ROUNDTABLE. We’re bringing back our Entrepreneurs Roundtable Feb. 9 over lunch. The topic will be Building Teams. Come join us if you need help, have questions, can help others, or just want to network and learn with other entrepreneurs. Get more info & register.
Are you ready to grow your venture or raise money? Try a FREE Taste of the Tribe on Monday.
Building Your Success,
Marc Freedman
IN THIS ISSUE
Dallas Entrepreneurs
All Entrepreneurs
NEXT MEETING – Dallas Entrepreneurs Roundtable: Building Teams
No venture is an island. No man or woman can do it all. Angels and VCs won’t invest without a team.
This Roundtable is for all business phases, whether you’re a founder seeking partners or operating business filling key roles.
How do you recruit people? Where do you find them? What is the right mix of personalities? What incentives can you provide when you can’t pay a competitive or even any salary? In what order should team members be recruited and when? How do you communicate, motivate, and manage team members? If you seek capital, what do funders expect?
Learn and discuss this and more at our Entrepreneur Roundtable!
The Entrepreneur Roundtable is your guide to learning from experts to tune your operations and build a successful business. It’s an interactive discussion on crucial startup and business topics where we address your issues and answer your questions.
BLUE EVENTS
BLUE CALENDAR
Wednesdays & Fridays
Tribe Blue for Entrepreneurs & Business Owners
Application required
Business coaching, consulting, and accountability
that’s powerful and affordable.
http://TribeBlue.com
Monday January 25, 11:45am-1:15pm
A Taste of the Tribe
Margarita Ranch at Mockingbird Station, Dallas
Get FREE entrepreneur and small business advice. Learn how you can use Blue resources to build your business, launch marketing and social media programs, find new partners, and generate leads. Reservations required.
http://TribeBlue.com/taste.php
Monday January 25, 5-8pm
Fat Tuesday Business Networking and LinkedIn Party … on Monday
Presentation “To The Cloud & Beyond: Software Industry Insights” by Rick Chapman, Publisher of Softletter
Hosted by Visual Image Fine Art Publishing, 14320 Midway Rd, Dallas
http://DallasTuesday.com
Monday February 8, 11:45am-1:15pm
A Taste of the Tribe
http://TribeBlue.com/taste.php
Tuesday February 9, 11:30am-1:30pm
Dallas Entrepreneurs Roundtable: Building Teams
BlackFinn, 4440 Belt Line Road Addison
Join an interactive discussion where we address your issues and answer your questions.
http://DallasEntrepreneurs.com
Tuesday February 16, 11:30am-1:45pm
How to Exceed Customer Expectations – Featuring Lisa Ford
Facilitator and Speaker Clay Curtis
Blue Leadership Seminar Series
Swan Court, 1900 N Central Expressway, Plano
http://DallasBlueSuccess.com
Tuesday February 23, 5-8pm
Fat Tuesday Business Networking and LinkedIn Party
LinkedinAganza – Program & Details To Be Announced
http://DallasTuesday.com |
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TRIBE ALERT: Online media help
One of our members is developing an online media venture, including an Internet radio service. We seek help with a business model and technology. Please reply if you can help or can refer us to someone who can.
TRIBE POWWOW: Lead Generation
A common theme for our members is generating sales, especially in a tough economy. The regular sales pipeline has dried up. Cold calling and old school advertising don’t work. Large scale marketing is too expensive.
The solution is relationship marketing and lead generation to create a sales funnel and generate business. When you have a handle on the process and are ready to take it to the next step, look at shrinking the sales funnel from contact to close. Dissect your lead gen process to determine how you can make it more timely, direct, and personal. Read more at our blog.
Develop a plan to generate leads and more at the Tribe. Get a Taste of the Tribe, learn more, or apply now.
VENTURE NEWS & TIPS: Build Your Team Sites
In support of our Dallas Entrepreneurs Roundtable: Building Teams, there are a few web sites that do exactly that. They connect technology, design, and business entrepreneurs and experts who seek to start or join a venture.
VENTURE SPOTLIGHT: HITA resorts in Bali
Visit our free promo page to learn how YOU can be featured!
Blue Entrepreneurs journeys to Bali in Indonesia!
The Hita is a dynamic and multfaceted green property development and resort management company with a primary emphasis on SUSTAINABILITY. The Hita runs several luxury villa properties throughout Indonesia, including Bali. The company uses sustainable design, sustainable construction, and sustainable operation that is the basis of the Hita philosopy of creating harmony between God, Man and Nature.
Contact Yoshua Daely on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, or directly via email or +62 811 387 205. Full DallasExecs/MyLinkNetwork profile .
NEW IDEAS: Reserve your own table
Industry community for kids’ products
Retail / Media & publishing
Based in New Zealand, Skout Trade Fair is an online community that
aims to help those in the children’s products industry find each other
and connect.
Helping media buyers find sellers of alt advertising
Marketing & advertising
DOmedia bills itself as a matchmaking service for media buyers and
sellers. Listed in its database are opportunities to advertise on college
student notebooks, on phone kiosks, on golf carts and in restrooms.
Jackets and bags made to be handed down
Fashion & beauty / Eco & sustainability
Countering the forces of “fast fashion”, British brand Howies is
focusing on the long-lasting quality of its newest clothing line,
appropriately named Hand-Me-Down.
Online practice dispenses self-help physio advice
Lifestyle & leisure
Patients can often self-manage their recovery with the help of some
expert advice. That’s the premise behind a new physiotherapy practice
that focuses purely on dispensing self-help guidance online.
More low-impact branding from Curb: snow tagging
Marketing & advertising
Curb — the media agency that specializes in campaigns using natural
materials — called to let us know that they’d added another novel
medium to their offerings: snow tagging.
Restaurant lets patrons reserve a specific table
Food & beverage
Madrid restaurant chain Wagaboo is following the lead of airlines
and theatres, allowing customers to pick and reserve a specific table
online.
Follow these new ideas and more in Iconoculture and Springwise.
FREE PUBLICITY
Highlight your venture to 1,500 readers. You can be in Dallas or anywhere in the world. Submit your listing now!
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Free travel! But is it smart marketing?
Published January 28, 2010 Commentary , Marketing Leave a CommentSuddenly I’ve received and see a score of free travel deals. That’s free for qualified buyers, of course. Typically two days and nights, including airfare, lodging, and meals, with a conference, networking, and one-to-one meetings with sponsors. That’s one way to bag a qualified lead. I’m waiting for the Hawaii offer that applies to smart-ass consultants who don’t live on a coast.
Sponsored executive trips, often oriented around golf or a cruise, have been around for decades. What’s new is that the trip offers now have multiple sponsors to share the cost and blatantly advertise in mass media.
Does it work?
It’s tough to find a prospect in a recession. Marketing is producing fewer leads. You quantified the results and noticed that it’s actually costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a qualified lead. Why not just cut out the marketing in the middle and pay for the leads in a sponsored meeting program with free travel?
My gut is that it smacks of desperation. Marketing from market validation to lead management is a process that can’t be short-circuited. Didn’t your mother tell you there are no real shortcuts in life … or business?
Freebies mask intent and corrupt results, especially when you’re talking about a $1,000 trip to hot sunny Miami to a bored buyer stuck in blizzard in Rochester. I wonder how truly qualified these leads are. Be sure to include a huge fudge factor in your budget. That said, the math may still work in its favor.
What do you think? Have you tried it and how has it worked for you?
Marc
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