Small Business Commando News

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LiveDeal (who owns YP.com) has elected Rejesh Navar to Chairman of the Board and is searching for a CEO to replace Dan Coury.

YP.com was notorious for sending “activation checks” that appeared to be small rebate checks from the Yellow Pages publisher.  By cashing the checks (they were generally about $3.52), the cashing company granted access to YP.com to withdraw a monthly fee from the bank account.  Other billing methods consisted of LEC billing where charges go on a businesses’ phone bill.  That billing source has become much less viable recently because of changes in requirements by carriers.
After an FTC investigation and change at the company, independent board member Dan Coury stepped up to the CEO position to clean up the company.

I’ve become friendly with Dan during his time, and was frankly amazed that he was able to keep the company from falling into oblivion.

The new team at YP.com merged with LiveDeal.com to combine online Yellow Pages and classifieds.  Their sales came through domestic and offshore telemarketing. The company became listed on the Nasdaq, streamlined operations and retooled its sales / marketing processes.
The transition from deception (which was highly lucrative) to reality was painful, and unfortunately Dan Coury was a casuality of depressed stock prices and slower than acceptable ramp.  You’ve got to grow to keep investors happy.
Selling advertising to SMEs is hard work, but can be highly rewarding if you control expenses while building revenue.

(This is a post of the recent Small Business Commando Newsletter)

My 80-year-old father is in a nursing home, and I’m fortunate to spend time with him weekly.

My daughter and the Bishop, our 8-pound Maltese puppy, join me on every visit.

Dad’s doing pretty well, but he misses his old friends. He can’t talk on the phone, use a computer or write a letter, so he’s pretty much cut off in that respect.

To help him reach out, I snapped a photo of Dad holding the Bishop and made a greeting card. My Dad has a great sense of humor, so I put little thought bubbles on the photo.

Both Dad and dog were thinking the same thing, “I hope he doesn’t pee.”

Then I wrote a few paragraphs in my Dad’s voice to let his friends know how he is doing.

The online card service printed the cards with my message inside, stamped and mailed the cards via first class mail. His friends were hysterical and were thrilled to hear from him.

This greeting card is a great example of how technology allows us to personalize communication. I would never take the time to physically print and write two dozen cards, but using an Internet service, I was able to complete the task in a few minutes with much greater impact than if I had sent a fancy Hallmark card or an email.

This teaches us a powerful message about advertising and marketing.

As you market your business, look for ways that you can personalize the message, inject humor, and make the recipient happy to hear from you.

That’s the real power of technology. It gives us the ability to target and personalize our communication.

See you next week.

By the way, if you’d like to see a copy of the card, email me your postal address. I’ll be happy to send it.

My LinkedIn network recently passed the 1,000th connection.  I’m currently at 1,018 connections.

That’s quite a few, and I wonder what significance it has (if any).

I receive a 5-10 emails and requests each week that originate from LinkedIn.  Generally, they are people seeking advice, trying to sell me something, or wanting to connect to someone else in my network.

I like being well connected, and think that LinkedIn has done a very nice job.  I’ve posted a number of jobs there, so they do make some money from me.

If we’re not linked, drop me a line.  You’ll have access to my network.