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This article from the NY Times calls attention to one of the largest sectors of growth in the world of entrepreneurial start-ups; those 55+.

More than five million Americans age 55 or older run their own businesses or are otherwise self-employed, according to the Small Business Administration. And the number of self-employed people ages 55 to 64 is soaring, the agency says, climbing 52 percent from 2000 to 2007…

A study by Babson College and Baruch College found that Americans age 55 and above started 18.9 percent of all businesses created in 2008, compared with 10 percent in 2001. The 55-and-overs are playing a larger role in entrepreneurship partly because the number of Americans in that age category is rising rapidly. “

Remembering the different communication styles of each cohort is critical to successful communication. Boomers starting their own businesses may muddy the water, adopting the styles of Gen Y as needed. Pew Research has a very in-depth article comparing generational communications styles and self identifying traits that helps provide insight into how to reach each cohort.

Segment your message and deliver it in the channel to which your customers are most attentive.

Risk management and prior planning allow you to weather a business crisis.

As human beings we my not accept the fact that unexpected things happen. In our personal lives, we manage our risks by taking good care of our physical selves, purchasing insurance for our health, our homes, our cars and our high value items. We even undertake financial planning.

When it comes to your business do you pro-actively manage your risks? If we are prudent we have a line of credit to help even out cash flow issues. We may have a team who offers redundant support so that if one person is out, another can pick up the pieces and continue the work flow. We may even have liability insurance.

However, do you have risk management or crisis management plans in place for your business? If you are a restaurant owner, do you know how you’d react if a patron contracted serious food poisoning and your restaurant was the source? If you are a limousine driver and one of your vehicles was involved in an unfortunate accident, how would you respond? Or if you had an employee who embezzled money from you; how would you mitigate the public’s perception that you should have been more knowledgeable about what was happening in your business?

As the people at Sea World have learned, tragic things happen to businesses. How you respond to the crisis can dictate how you will survive the consequences of the tragedy. Even if the negative event is not a life-ending, how will you mitigate or respond to the public’s perceptions of your firm?

Professional public relations practitioners are skilled in analyzing the types of situations you may encounter and helping you create an outline of how you will respond. Don’t wait until you have a tragedy to plan your response. Outline your response now so you won’t have to guess at your reactions; you will instead be prepared.

I’m not a huge fan of the Olympics and being a Southerner, I don’t often see snow in my locality. So winter sports and the Winter Olympics are a bit foreign to me. For the past five nights, my spouse has watched the TV, thrilled with the speed skaters, riveted by the sliders and misty at the figure skaters. I’ve watched in horror as they have spilled, fallen and run off course. For the life of me, I can’t understand why someone would chance their life by hurling themselves downhill on two strips of thin carbon-Kevlar.

On Tuesday the competitors in the short program men’s figure skating awed me with their power and determination. When the American Jeremy Abbot messed up his program, I felt his emotional pain.

Abbot said,

“I’m going to have to do a lot of digging in the next two days because I’m not going to give up, and I’m not going to leave it here,” he said. “I’m not going to leave my Games on that experience.”

What a lesson for us all! It’s easy to be jubilant in victory. It’s harder to be determined in the face of failure.

If we are in business long enough each of us will fail.  So on reconsideration perhaps I do understand why these Olympic athletes do what they do. In order to win we must risk.  This anonymous poem has held meaning for me for years.  Maybe Abbott knows it too.

The Risks

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool;

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental;

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feeling is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas and your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken,

The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing,has nothing and is nothing;

They may avoid suffering and sorrow,but they cannot learn, feel change, grow, love, live.

Chained by their certitude, they are a slave,they have forfeited freedom;

Only the person who risks is free.

Who has money to burn in 2010?

As a solopreneur or startup in 2010 you must know this: Insightful, well planned and conducted market research is as important as the product you wish to sell. Your tight budget has little room to waste money developing a product that your assumed target won’t purchase. Some assume the cost of research is cost prohibitive; however, actually the opposite is true. Wasting money on an undesired product is cost prohibitive. In real estate or corporate mergers it’s called due diligence and it should be the first step after you have the idea to create a product, extend a line or launch a new business.

Yesterday a colleague and I agreed that we see hesitancy among some businesses to conduct market research. Insights gained as a result of research allow for fine tuning of a successful product and positive message creation. SCORE (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) offers this advice in their Business Plan for a Start Up Business:

No matter how good your product and your service, the venture cannot succeed without effective marketing. And this begins with careful, systematic research. It is very dangerous to assume that you already know about your intended market. You need to do market research to make sure you’re on track. Use the business planning process as your opportunity to uncover data and to question your marketing efforts. Your time will be well spent.”

You should conduct qualitative as well as quantitative research. One on one focus groups conducted by a skilled interviewer yield significant understanding which can be analyzed in light of detailed research conducted by online surveys or pencil and paper surveys.

Businesses that use sound research are far and away more successful than those who make assumptions without data.

One of the trends that we see for marketing communications in the coming year is the expectation that businesses must regain trust.

“In the past year, 91% of 25-to-64-year-olds around the world indicated they bought a product or service from a company they trusted, and 77% refused to buy a product or service from a distrusted company.”

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, trust has been lost around the globe and no where has it been lost as much as in the United States. The Edelman Barometer further demonstrates that increasing government regulation of businesses is favored by publics were trust in businesses has eroded.

The Edleman Trust Barometer findings show trust down around the globe.

How will corporations and businesses rebuild trust?

Many will do so through activities designed to demonstrate corporate environmental and social responsibility.

Edelman states in their executive summary,

among those who trust business to do what’s right, companies that are seen as responsible are significantly more likely to be supported in their efforts to sell their goods and services, pursue changes in local laws, seek preferential treatment, or have foreign investors assume a controlling stake in the business.”

The Subaru Share the Love event is an example of a way to demonstrate a corporations’ caring. Subaru is making a donation of $250 to a non-profit (whom Edelman says are more trusted than any other type of organization) for each vehicle they sell between now and January 4, 2010. According to Edelman, in 2009, banking and automotive companies lost more trust than any other industry sectors. Clearly, Subaru is hoping to gain trust through this promotion.

Subaru which has strong allegiance among millenials is hoping for transference of trust to their products by making these donations. However, this type of activity only works if it is genuine. Any hint of falseness and gains in trust will be lost. Transparency is the foundation of trust.

Great amounts of research have been done to understand what works and doesn’t. An article on ThomasNet.com “Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility,” By David R. Butcher does an excellent job of laying out the research and the article’s summation draws it all together:

With companies facing increasing pressure from investors, governments, prospective employees and consumers to make their operations, products and services more socially responsible, it’s no surprise that Grant Thornton asserts that corporate social responsibility is “now a necessity rather than a choice.”

Businesses who fail to understand these important shifts in the public’s mind will not grow and loose share.

Over this last year, we’ve seen the explosion of social media onto the “big screen” of businesses. Many have scrambled to create Facebook pages and put their customer service online while hearing constantly of the death of print media. Lots of businesses have pulled their traditional advertising to the point where many print media have folded, shrunk or downsized. We seen the complete acceptance of wireless / mobile devices and understand that there is no message downtime.

As the dust settles on this year we see the frantic scramble to get into social media normalizing. More businesses understand the new conversation channels or are at least trying to incorporate them in their mix. We understand that television and print media while changing will not go away. We understand that there is a conversation and that the customer truly owns the brand.

What do you see in your crystal ball for 2010?

We recognize that the U.S. is composed of a diverse population, with 38% of us being over 44 years of age; 37.4% of us being 18-44 years of age and the remainder under 17 years of age.

As marketing and business communications professionals, this means we comprehend each audience segment has preferred information channels. As we promote our services and products, we understand that a 21 year old will get their news from Google reader and that at 58 year old from most probably from either TV or print media. That there are some of us who, while in the older segments, use new technology, embracing mobile media as much as the younger generations. We also understand that not only younger generations care about social responsibility; that social responsibility is a required part of being in business. That when it comes to media relations, the media are just as stressed as other business segments and are trying to do as much with fewer resources. That our job is to work in tandem with them by supplying truly interesting information and sources to help them do their jobs.

2010 promises to be rich with opportunity for small businesses to act like big corporations when it comes to reaching customers through all the channels with a straight to consumer approach that is more about what the customer wants in their lives.

In summary:

• Marketing Communications
  • More segmentation of message—We’ll use Twitter, Facebook, the local newspaper as well as television, and increasingly, mobile technology.
  • Social media acceptance as one of the major message delivery vehicles
  • Social responsibility as a requirement of doing business
  • Blurring of the difference between advertising and public relations
• For PR
  • Video pitching
  • Social media acceptance as one of the major message delivery vehicles to media contacts and the consumer
  • Increasing message delivery direct to the consumer
  • We’ll turn more to multi media releases, using the power of video sharing, and pod casts to enrich press releases
  • Public relations professionals as major advisors for not only publicity but for advertising and marketing messages.

Share your prognostications with us. We look forward to learning from everyone how they see the new year shaping up for them.

Just a few weeks ago, we shared the news of Andi Mill’s search for a ride share to enable her to return to college in order to gain her degree in professional writing.

Today her story is written up in The Anderson Independent. Journalist Charmaine Smith-Miles captured Andi’s spirit and her pluck.

Once again, I am struck by the ability we have as public relations professionals to do good. Many perceive us as flacks shilling for celebrity clients. However, the vast majority of us work daily to bring interesting news to light. We frequently share our abilities with non-profit organizations whose missions we align with.

At the close of this year and the opening of the next, as marketing and public relations pros, we need to remember the power we have to make change, embrace it and work to make our world a better place.

We’re doing our part, how about you? Share your pro bono efforts with us.

As a public relations consultant, clients have asked us to make sure that a reporter gives us in advance all the questions they’ll ask during an interview, or to preview the reporter’s story in advance, or to edit the journalist’s  story.

Listen to your PR pro.

We often find ourselves having to help clients comprehend that just because you are in business, doing what you are supposed to do in your specialty, and are successful at it; there is no reason to write about your company. Except, if you are using ground-breaking new technology that advances the industry, or is dramatically more profitable, or has landed Oprah as a client…and then you probably should not be talking about your clients.

This article from Susan Young makes the point that unrealisstic expectations from public relations firms’ clients often cause issues.

When you hire a PR pro, you have done so because you recognize that you either can’t or don’t wish to manage your company’s public relations program. If your PR counsel tells you that you need to be doing something newsworthy, listen to them. That’s why you are paying the PR firm.

In the 1980s many were spouting phrases about quality time in regard to parenting our children. Many followed the line that when it comes to parenting, that quality time spent with children trumps quantity time. I’ve disagreed with this since I first heard it. Children need quantity and quality.

Question everything

Unlike child rearing, public relations is the most significant arena where quality trumps quantity each and every time. When a client asks us to generate coverage for an event, our first question is why? Getting ink, digital or printed, is all about the story. Is it relevant to the publication’s goals; their readers; and most importantly, is it news?

Shel Holtz is on the mark in his post.

Good PR is not, in fact, about the number of relationships you have developed with media contacts. It never has been and, as we navigate our way through the shifting media seas, it is less important than it ever was. Getting people to tell your story is not about the relationships you have with reporters. It’s about the quality of the story and how well it aligns with the reporter’s beat and interests.

In addition, Shel writes of a colleague’s comments about the value of a journalism education in life.  However, as Shel also points out, may not work for all.

It is our contention that most important for all, whether CEO, CMO or Account Executive, is a curious mind. Questions and answers lead the way forward in all aspects of life, and most certainly in public relations.

An unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates

**Photo courtesy of admiller & flickr creative commons

Strategic Marketing & Charleston PR is providing pro bono services to help Andi Mills find her carpool so that she can go back to school. Please share her story and help her find a ride. The Greenwood Index Journal wrote up her story and while Andi has had some good comments, she still does not have a ride.

Loosing sight no deterrent to living life

Former truckdriver, avid horsewoman Andi Mills only ‘sees’ the positive side of life as she heads back to school

Charleston, SC, December 3, 2009—“I don’t beat on closed doors,” says Honea Path resident Andi Mills. “I find the open ones and go through them.” Mills, who lost her sight in 2008 as a result of congenital factors, has every right to feel bummed about life. But she chooses to continue to live positively, recognizing the abilities she has. Part of her plan for her new life includes attending Lander University to earn a degree; that is if she can find a daily carpool to Greenwood. Mills said, “When I found out that I would be blind and there was nothing I could do about it, I decided to be the best, most productive blind person I could be. Going back to school is a way for me to be productive and help others.”

Greenwood's Index-Journal wrote this story about Andi.

Mills who is no stranger to accomplishing her goals and who in 2007 rode her horse a total of 1,528 miles to advance “Stroke Awareness and The Value of Early Detection of Strokes,” is determined to keep on living. “I’m going to be the best blind person I can be.”

She spent the first five months of 2009 at the South Carolina Commission for Blind learning the adaptive techniques and technologies she needs to live without sight. “My computer talks to me; I have devices that tell me when a cup is full and a one foot by one foot kitchen timer. My washer and dryer have Braille on them and now I have Mr. Tibbs.” Mr. Tibbs is her yellow Labrador Retriever guide dog who in Mills’ words, “gave me back my freedom and independence.” Mills spent one month earlier this year at Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar, California learning to work with Mr. Tibbs.

With Mr. Tibbs, her training and adaptive tools, Andi is now ready to earn her degree in English. The University will set up a place for her to study between classes, allowing her to have a comfortable place to study between classes.  But she needs to get back and forth daily to Lander. Andi is hoping to meet someone from Anderson or Honea Path who commutes daily to Greenwood and who will allow her (and Mr. Tibbs)  to carpool with them.

Mills reached out to Nelson Ohl of CarolinaCommuter.com who is committed to helping her find transportation.  Referring to Mill’s inquiry received through CarolinaCommuter.com., Ohl says, “Over the last year I’ve been wrapped up in the obvious reasons for carpooling, environment, congestion, etc.; and then along comes a sincere call to share a ride that, well, hit me like a freight train.” Ohl is convinced that someone is “out there” who will help Mills by forming a carpool that includes her.  Mills’ story has been made public through CarolinaCommuter.com’s blog (http://carolinacommuter.blogspot.com/2009/09) and by his personal e-mail campaign to friends and now he’s taking the call to the public media.

People who would like to assist Mills can reach Ohl at nohl@carolinacommuter.com or by phone at 843-870-0821.