Hands On Small Business

Monday night was the first Hands On Small Business session in Atlanta! We had an almost sold out crowd register and despite the waivering weather, a good crowd showed up to sharpen their skills.

In the session we covered the basics of Twitter, Microsoft Office Live and Kirtsy, in addition to much conversation of additional platforms for DIY website development. Many of the attendees were already on Twitter and Facebook but that was where their previous interaction ended.

Relationships, one-on-one interaction and discovery were the themes of the evening and I encouraged the small business owners to automate as little of their engagement as possible. As a small business owner especially, you should do everything you can to ensure an authentic presence online — one where you are genuinely interested in interacting with your consumer, potential consumers, and the collection of others you’ll run into along the way. Bumps aside, I think the upcoming sessions will just get better!

~ Tessa Horehled

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Monday’s night kick-off event in Charlotte was quite cozy.

We had hoped to get 15, maybe 20, people signed up for the first class. Nope. 30 people signed up. *Gulp!* We only had a room for 18 max at Amélie’s French Bakery. Thank goodness, the law of RSVPs applied (about a third will not show up) and we had 22.

Cozy, see.

The small business owners included a jewelry designer, an art gallery/boutique owner, a professional organizer, a lifestyle blogger, a reiki practitioner and a fellow raging extrovert who makes balloon bouquets for parties.

Twitter 101 consumed a good bit of the program. We even got a “fail whale.” Their Twitter experience is complete.

However, I saw lightbulbs going on above the heads of many when the Office Live Workspace and web site demos started. They got even brighter when we talked about Kirtsy, Digg and other aggregation sites. (I’m setting up a Workspace to share some take-aways with the class.)

“This is all free?” one woman asked. “Really?”

Yes, we assured her. You might have to pay for more storage but it’s free.

We’ll be tweaking the teaching module. We’re saving Twitter and other social network sites for the end.

And they loved the prizes!

But I think most of all the small biz owners enjoyed getting a chance to connect with each other and noshing on Amelie’s most delectable goodies (including the infamous Salted Caramel Brownie).

~ Crystal Dempsey

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