San Francisco Small Business Week: A Phenomenal Conference Experience

It was one of those events where I thought, maybe this is one small business conference too many, and heck, since I’ve been consulting to small businesses already in my day-to-day, probably I’d be going over old ground. Boy, was I wrong!

First, it was my attitude. It was great to get to meet so many interesting people conceiving of themselves as small business owners, something that you wouldn’t have seen in either hardier times or when social media wasn’t as prevalent a few years back. Secondly, all the presenters were incredibly forthcoming, sharing what and whom they knew. And third, there was a wealth of focused resources.

But sometimes, it is just the ideas, information and leads that come in little bits that form “aha” moments, and give you the extra energy to move forward.  Little things.  Like at a PR & Marketing presentation, I learned from the speaker, PR Specialist David Perry owner of David Perry & Associates, that one of my all time favorite books, “Writing Down to the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg was actually a great read for branding ideas.  At a branding session led by Robert Friedman, Owner of the company, FEARLESS BRANDING and found at this fearless site, I extended my learning through a set of key questions that can guide how truly differentiated branding is achieved.

Like at a mobile presentation, I learned about Mobile Spinach, that provides local coupon deals, but linked with Loopt now enables location-based discovery, and through their TasteMakers commentaries, a brief but interesting review of key places/activity you might want to check out as well. Unlike deals of the day sites, they offer a range of categories for unique businesses to advertise within (arts, gyms, events, etc), and then the opportunity for visitors to pre-select their preferred categories, not to mention leaving open a small door for non-profits who might like to shout out about their fundraising events too.  Need a mobile web design? Through Mobile Web Up, your site can be mobilized, which will come in handy if you are the type of business people are likely to look up on the go.

Like at an online tools for small businesses session presented by Suresh Khanna, a Google executive and owner of Kasa Indian Eatery in the Castro and Marina, I also learned about trend-intelligent Google’s Places, which is essentially the Local Business Center with the addition of a whole lot of new features, including QR codes, best explained through the link here.  And about the latest in what is actually working for small businesses in terms of increasing visibility (Facebook ads are not bad at all!).  Okay, you get the picture!