I'm not a mathematician, designer, strategist, developer, or marketer. I'm an entrepreneur.

The Ultimate Entrepreneur & Small Business Toolbox

03.05.10 Posted in Entrepreneurship by seanMeverett

These hundreds of links are the culmination of years spent on the web researching, reading, and saving the absolute best of the best resources for anyone looking to start or grow a business, whether that’s freelancing, building an app, or selling a product/service.

The topics covered are as follows: Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Web Design, SEO, Social Media, Advertising, Analytics, WordPress, Data Visualization, Videos, Negotiation, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pitching, iPhone Development, PR, Blogging, Photoshop, Pricing, Icons, Usability, Email Campaign, Textures, Landing Page, User Interfaces, Web App Building, A/B Testing, Logo, and Internet Marketing.

I’m going to stop right here and tell you to start using Instapaper (on the web, your iPhone, and even your Kindle), and creating “subject” folders to manage all your intellectual capital.  If you already have Instapaper, then it’s as easy as following each of these links, then clicking the “Read Later” button you installed to your browser.  Or, you could just bookmark this post!

UPDATE:  if you don’t have an instapaper account and are not logged in, y ou will not be able to use these links. If you want something super portable, here is my entire download-able account (an HTML file, which you can either follow the link to or right click and ‘Save As’):

seanMeverett Ultimate Entrepreneurship & Small Business Toolbox


Web Design

Even if you’re not a web designer, understanding the tiny details that separate good from great design can make all the difference in the world when it comes to increasing your sales.  How often have you left a website because it was too confusing or how often have you stuck around on another website because it was visually appealing and did things you’d never seen before?  When all it takes is a split second for someone to get distracted on the web, can you afford not to practice good design principles?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you read any of these links on SEO, you’ll quickly realize that I’m definitely NOT performing best practice adding all these links to my website (which I’m not “no following”).  Thus, I’m giving this website’s “authority” to all these wonderful blogs and authors because I truly value their content.  Not to mention the fact that Google and the other search engine’s are probably going to flag my site as a “link farm”.  Oh well, it’s not always about link building.  Sometimes it’s about giving credit where credit’s due.

Social Media

The most over-used term in 2009 is back for more in 2010.  Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Stumble, Reddit, FriendFeed, and…the…list…keeps…going.  Fortunately, these links represent those posts that have risen to the top of the over-written and reported pile.

Online Advertising

Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.  It’s called arbitrage.

Analytics

A subject close to my heart.  The more numbers the better.  The problem lies in mis-interpreting the data or over-analyzing to the point of creating optimization bias.  We’re also building an analytics web app that’s going to finally bridge the gap between on-site and off-site analytics, something never done before.  Read a bit more about it at Evolyte Analytics.

WordPress

Easy to use and infinitely customizable.  This site is built on it, you should probably have a couple built on it too.

Data Visualization

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Videos

YouTube didn’t blow up for nothin’ and it takes significantly less backlinks to get a better page 1 Google PageRank (i.e., SEO) than text.

Negotiation

You negotiate every day, whether you realize it or not, with your significant other, your friends, at the workplace, even with your family.  Why not get a little better?  The secret, in one phrase, is care…but not too much.

Entrepreneurship

This is what it’s all about.  Follow your dreams and change the world in a big way.  Believe it or not, networking is probably the most under-appreciated yet most important aspect of entrepreneurship.

Twitter

I love twitter.  Seriously.  And the reason I love it is two-fold.  First, you can steepen your learning curve on any subject faster than any other method, and second, because I love sharing interesting things with others (hence the reason this post is ridiculously long with links).  If you’re interested in keeping up with links like these, you should follow me on twitter here:  @seanMeverett

Facebook

Ah, the bane of my existence.  Where Farmville and Mafia Wars updates continually spam my feed, and people who think they’re sarcastically witty start their status updates with “Dear ___”, followed by unoriginal dribble or upload risque pics like they’re still on MySpace.  I’m not mad at you though, just keep uploading pictures of your cats and we’ll be kosher.

LinkedIn

Yah, I know, not much content.  I do have a few videos, however, that I can’t share due to copyright constraints.

Pitching

If you’ve never given a presentation, or if you plan to ask a VC or Angel Investor for a bit of cash flow, then you should take a look at the link below.  I’d also recommend searching for Dragon’s Den on YouTube, which is somewhat similar to the American Idle concept, but replaces singers with entrepreneurs and Simon, Paula, and Randy with VCs.

iPhone & iPad Development

Self explanatory.

Blogging & PR

If you don’t know what a blog is, you should probably just call it a day.

Photoshop

This is a graphic designer’s greatest tool.  I don’t pretend to be anything of the sort, but I have been known to hack around with it from time to time.

Pricing

This is one of those art-and-a-science sort of things.  It’s the single “easiest” way to impact your revenue (positively or negatively).  Pricing is hard, especially dynamic pricing where you charge the highest price possible for each unique customer.  Fortunately, a few of the guides below will help you in your quest.

Icons

You’d be surprised how many things can be represented with a simple icon, and how these basic icons can impact behavior on the web.  For example, I recently reviewed a sign-up section of a landing page that asked for the typical information (name, email, address, etc).  The goal was to determine a way to increase the conversion rate of folks signing up.  By adding a simple lock icon with a green checkmark next to the 5 information fields, it increased the conversion rate by a staggering +50%.  That.  Is.  Insane.  Like I said, a picture’s worth a thousand words, and perception often outweighs reality.

Usability

You may have never heard this term before.  That’s okay, it’s a little web design specific.  Think of it like the UI (user interface) of Apple’s iPhone.  There was a ridiculous amount of thought and human interaction testing that went into the final design of how to actually use it.  For example, most phones make you push the “menu” button, followed by navigating through a hierarchy of confusing folders in order to accomplish a task.  Apple, on the other hand, transferred the most used items into apps and allowed for easy navigation throughout these apps, which included forwards/backwards arrows, consistent placing of buttons, etc. In basic terms, usability is the difference between Google’s homepage and Yahoo’s.  Google’s minimalism allows you to only do one thing, search, and not get distracted by any other tasks, which is in stark contrast to Yahoo’s over-engineered homepage.

Email Marketing

If you have an email account, chances are pretty high that you’ve received an HTML email asking you to sign up to something, buy something, or informing you of something.  There are a few best practices to understand that produce higher conversion and sharing rates, without being obtrusive/annoying to current or potential customers.

Textures

And we’re back to web design.  You’ve likely seen these during your travels across the inter-web and typically represent background details on a page or the “skin” on a specific website element.  For example, this site uses a simple intersecting line box design (not something that would traditionally be described as a texture, but same concept).  Other concepts include a wood or stone “feel”.  Just click through some of the links already!

Landing Pages

If you have any sort of online presence, then a landing page becomes extremely important because it is designed to push a visitor to perform some action, whether that means signing up for a newsletter or blog RSS feed, inputting contact and demographic information, or paying for a product or service.  See the “A/B Testing” section below for more information on optimizing your landing page to increase conversion rates.

User Interfaces

Akin to usability, the UI is the more technical aspect of the wireframe/layout of buttons, navigation, etc.

Web App Building

Basecamp from 37 Signals is the classic case study in how to build a web app.  As an example, Gmail is a web app.

A/B & Multivariate Testing

This type of testing is extremely important as  you develop a landing page, but is also essential for your website’s design, usability, and user interface.

Conceptually, an A/B test is the most simple test you can perform.  It involves changing one specific element of a web design (e.g., color of a “sign up now” button) and sending 50% of traffic to the old design and 50% of the traffic to the new design.  Then, you calculate the difference in conversion rates and choose the final design based on the highest conversion rate.

Multivariate testing is just like it sounds, instead of testing two elements at one time, you test more than two.  Google’s Website Optimizer allows you to do both A/B and multivariate testing somewhat easily, but also for free.  Then things get really cool, because there are some services (i.e., GitHub) that allow you to optimize multiple variables in real-time so you’re constantly getting the highest conversion rate with your web design.

Logo

My suggestion is to hire a professional so you don’t get a cheesy, self-explanatory or ugly logo.  This is the first thing a customer sees…’nuff said.   Feel free to contact me and I’ll set you up with our web designer and developers, who do all our work (though not this site).

Internet Marketing

Marketing…but on the internet!  This includes things like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Pay-Per Click (PPC) advertising, Social Media, web design, branding, pricing strategy, and the list goes on.  I co-founded Evolyte, which specializes in these services, feel free to contact us if you have questions about your strategy and efforts in this area.

Whew, that took a ton of time.  My goal is going to keep updating this list if folks are interested.  I’d love to hear your thoughts about these links (too many? too few?).  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about any of this or follow me and ask me on twitter here: @seanMeverett.

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16 Responses to “The Ultimate Entrepreneur & Small Business Toolbox”

  1. Deni Kasrel says:
    March 5, 2010 at 5:47 pm

    Sean,

    Thanks so much for including my post 8 Great Blogs All About WordPress — the acknowledgment is much appreciated.

    Meanwhile, this is a fantastic list. Thanks so much for doing all the work it took to compile all these useful articles.

    Yes, I am going to save via Instapaper — which I use too, and agree that it’s a fabulous tool.

    Reply
  2. seanMeverett says:
    March 5, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    No problem Deni, glad to throw some love your way. Keep the hits coming!

    Reply
  3. The Ultimate Entrepreneur & Small Business Toolbox | Ez Twitter Tools - Resources, Articles, and Tools says:
    March 6, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    [...] Read more: The Ultimate Entrepreneur & Small Business Toolbox [...]

    Reply
  4. Blog Service says:
    March 6, 2010 at 6:14 pm

    BT seeks winning entrepreneurs A search for the UK’s most innovative and inspirational entrepreneurs has been launched by British Telecom (BT). Blog Service

    Reply
  5. Jeff SanGeorge says:
    March 7, 2010 at 11:29 am

    Wow, that’s a deep list. Thanks for putting this together!

    Reply
  6. seanMeverett says:
    March 8, 2010 at 10:40 am

    No problem Jeff, glad to share the love with others. If you have any other best-in-class and relevant links, feel free to send my way!

    Reply
  7. Grayfox says:
    March 10, 2010 at 11:41 pm

    You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view

    Reply
  8. seanMeverett says:
    March 11, 2010 at 9:36 am

    @Grayfox, thanks for the comment. Obviously this list functions more as a “brain dump” of useful resources for the type A person who can’t wait for tutorials. My goal is to provide short, quick hit guides that will outline the steps needed to start and run a successful business…with a bit of philosophy mixed in :)

    Reply
  9. djnaff says:
    March 13, 2010 at 2:20 pm

    How you find ideas for articles, I am always lack of new ideas for articles. Some tips would be great

    Reply
  10. seanMeverett says:
    March 14, 2010 at 12:38 pm

    @djnaff, I think you have to immerse yourself in the topic you’re blogging or writing about. As you start to become an “expert” in that area, you will start to find areas of opportunity or things you don’t necessarily agree with. Then, the world is your oyster, just start blogging away!

    Reply
  11. Startup Team | Sean M Everett says:
    March 25, 2010 at 4:43 pm

    [...] look and feel such as colors, placement, font, etc).  These folks should also be experienced in UX and UI (user experience and user interface).  This team member’s value is extremely important, yet [...]

    Reply
  12. Michelle says:
    April 19, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view

    Reply
  13. John Koht says:
    April 28, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    Sean,

    What an awesome list! Thanks for sharing. It’s going to take a month to go through all this.

    Thanks,

    John

    Reply
  14. seanMeverett says:
    May 28, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    Thanks John, appreciate the love!

    Reply
  15. Steve says:
    May 28, 2010 at 11:15 pm

    BT seeks winning entrepreneurs A search for the UK’s most innovative and inspirational entrepreneurs has been launched by British Telecom (BT). Blog Service

    Reply
  16. Landing Page Optimization Silver Bullets - Topic Research, Trends and Surveys says:
    July 18, 2010 at 6:42 am

    [...] powerful impact … Read More RECOMMENDED BOOKS REVIEWS AND OPINIONS The Ultimate Entrepreneur & Small Business Toolbox These hundreds of links are the culmination of years spent on the web researching, reading, and [...]

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