Thank you to everyone who came hear me at the most recent trade shows in Orlando and Philadelphia. The below links bring you to the slide shows that were used at these shows.  Feel free to use them as you wish and reach out to me with any questions.

Blogging Trade Show Seminar Slide Show

Facebook Trade Show Seminar Slide Show

American business has been greenwashed. Every business that strives to reach the masses has come up with or attributed their brand to some form of environmental mission.  Many companies simply support environmental works because they believe they will be more appealing to their customers.  Although this could be viewed negatively, I think it is great.  Even if the management of the company doesn’t care, let them throw money at various conservation works…as long as something gets done.

But I believe the greenwashing of American business has inadvertently affected those businesses that truly strive to make a positive impact on the environment.  As a result of so many businesses making some form of environmental pledge, the consumer is less likely to praise any small environmental impact a company is making.  Unfortunately small businesses that are “just” environmentally friendly will no longer stand out in 2010 as they may have in years past.

So what can and should a small business that wants to have a positive impact on the environment and stand out from the crowd do?

I believe the answer is to become more specific with environmental missions. For instance, instead of having a blanket statement that a certain percentage is being donated towards saving the rainforests a company will need to donate money towards saving gorilla babies who have been orphaned due to poaching.  The reason for this is that people are more likely to take note of a business that is accomplishing a concrete goal than a company who has a vague and somewhat confusing, albeit good, environmental mission.

The concept of having a concrete and SPECIFIC mission can be applied to other forms of socially responsible businesses as well.

One company that does not necessarily have an environmental mission has been incredibly successful with a concrete socially responsible mission of donating one pair of shoes to a child in need for every one pair they sell.  As many of us know from a popular AT&T commercial last year, this company is TOMS Shoes.  TOMS has a nice product, but without their concrete and impressive mission, it is not anything very special.  Competing in the highly competitive footwear market and growing as fast as they have is a direct result of the press and publicity they have achieved from their mission, not their products.  If TOMS had a similar mission and took the same amount of money they put in to giving one pair of shoes away for every one they sell and gave it to children in need through lump sum monetary donations, their mission would not be nearly as visible or impressive sounding as it is.  In fact, they may spend far less on giving children shoes than another company that helps children in need…but they must not be very successful, as I haven’t heard of them.

The association between the sale of a product and accomplishing a concrete social or environmental action, rather than a vague monetary donation, is very influential to consumers deciding whether or not to buy a product.

Having a concrete environmental or social mission can be cheap, and a concrete mission will deliver a far greater return on investment than a non-concrete mission that costs the same amount of money.

What do you think? Do you agree with this?  Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments section.

I began personal blogging more than a year ago.  For the first 8 months I was religious about posting, pumping out quality articles three to four times a week. Now I’m lucky if I put out two a month.

Sandshack.org is a new website we just launched with three blogs focused on various ocean conservation issues - These blogs are where I will be spending more of my time in the upcoming months - The ROI potential is much greater than on my personal blog.

Before this summer, I was spending more than 15 hours per week writing articles and working on developing my personal brand online, which I soon realized was robbing my company of my time and making no money.

Throughout much of my blogging career I convinced myself that the more I blogged on my personal website, the more exposure and success my company would obtain.  And although this is true to an extent, I came to the following realization:

If you have a business and you want it to succeed, focusing on a personal blog is not the answer.  There are plenty of other activities that you should be doing to increase company revenue and grow your business.

However, while my personal blogging slowed down, my focus on business blogging and social media use has increased.

More importantly, I forgot about my personal blog.

As a result, my company is making more money.

But I am not completely denouncing blogging or social media – the shift in focus towards my business means I redirected the time and energy I spent on personal blogging to developing a social media presence for Sand Shack.

What are your thoughts on personal blogging? If you run a business (not through your blog), has personal blogging shown a sizable ROI?

Today I had the privilege of writing a guest post for Deep Sea News.  The authors of Deep Sea News are Craig McClain and Kevin Zelnio.  Craig and Kevin are active ocean conservationists and marine biologists and all around great guys. I reached out to them a few weeks ago to introduce myself and thank them for all the hard work they are doing to better understand our oceans so that we may protect them.

The guest post I wrote for them is about how I have been able to integrate business with ocean conservation.  It can be read here.

This past summer has been an exciting time for my company, Sand Shack, and me.  We have seen strong growth and our products are now found in nearly 200 stores around the United States.

Despite founding Sand Shack in 2006, I did not begin to use social media to market the company until recently.  This summer has been an amazing learning experience as to how to use social media for business growth.  Below are four things I’ve learned this past summer.

Blogging Is Not About Selling, It’s About Educating

Our blog has been a huge traffic generator for Sand Shack’s website.  When creating the blog, my desire was to integrate it into our site in such a way that visitors can easily access it as an online resource for ocean conservation news – with or without visiting our store or being a paying customer.  I believe in the power of creating a strong following of non-paying followers, because money will eventually be generated through these non-paying followers (and even if many don’t buy anything, our company mission is fulfilled through educating people about ocean conservation).  A very important aspect of our company blog is that the blog posts do not sell Sand Shack products.  The information relates to our brand through ocean conservation and the occasional mention as to how we are participating in the movement, but we are not trying to sell product through our blog.  This creates trust with our readers and many people come back frequently to read our blog’s content without being bombarded with sales pitches.  In the 4 months our company has been blogging we are now pulling in nearly 300 readers per day.

Networking Is About the Few Rather Than the Many

In my experience, it seems like far too many companies try to get their message out through social media channels through targeting as many people as possible; they try to communicate their message to the masses.  This has never been my understanding of proper use of social media, nor is it how I promote our company.  I would much rather network and become familiar with 5 influential people than 5,000 non-influential people.  Recently, I have used this mindset to network with top bloggers and figures in ocean conservation.  This is something I truly enjoy doing because I am sincerely honored to be able to speak to those who are doing work to save our oceans.  In addition to exchanging emails I usually give these people a free Sand Shack product of a hat or a flip-flop, further cementing our relationship.  Recently, this has generated a lot of good will and even led to articles written about Sand Shack.  As I continue to network with leaders in ocean conservation I even want to get in contact with celebrities who participate in this noble cause.

Facebook Page Creates Loyal Followers

I set up a Facebook page for Sand Shack more than a year ago but didn’t use it until this summer.  One of the reasons I ignored the use of our Facebook Page is that I was living in the prehistoric Facebook days of a “Group”.  I had over 300 members in the Sand Shack group and I didn’t see any need to build a fan base on a page.  Realizing the obvious benefits of a Page over a Group (I won’t go into them here), we began to focus on our page and have begun to build a nice Facebook fan base (currently 185 fans).  We have some exciting things in the pipeline to accelerate the growth of our page to over 1000 highly focused, active, fans by January 2010.

Twitter Use Becomes Repetitive

Unfortunately, Sand Shack has not embraced Twitter to the full extent as it has embraced other forms of social media.  One of the main reasons I haven’t used our Sand Shack Twitter account much is that I have always preferred to use my own personal twitter account for all my tweeting needs.  One thing that has made Twitter easier to use and update is integrating our status updates from our Facebook page to appear on our Twitter stream.  This may be repetitive and not add value to our message online, but it is sufficient for now and seems to be working – as seen through people beginning to retweet our tweets.

Although it is too early for me to see a strong correlation between social media success and increased revenue, as we approach the Christmas shopping season I think it will become more obvious as to how social media use has impacted Sand Shack.  As I go through these lessons, I will be sure to write more on this subject.

If you have a business, what have you learned recently about social media for business?

After watching sales of jewelry on sandshack.com explode over the course of a couple hours this afternoon I decided I had to write a quick entry on it before the day is done.

As you may know, today I started a huge marketing campaign to boost traffic to and sales on sandshack.com.  Sand Shack’s main stream of revenue is through our wholesale channels and we have never put the time and energy we should into making our retail website successful.  In fact, over the last few months we only took a few orders over it.

That all changed today.  Since 4 o’clock this evening we have taken over 40 orders on SandShack.com, and although all of the orders have used the $5 gift cards we issued today, there have been enough orders that exceeded the $5 discount, which allows us to still make a little money.  But this promotion is not so much to make money but to drive traffic to our site and generate new customers.  So far it has worked and we are only at the beginning.

Check out the below order confirmations from 4:30pm – 6:30pm today.

Sales should continue, but I don't know if they will continue at this pace

For information on this campaign click here. Please feel free to participate in this campaign by using the gift card code on sandshack.com and buying something nice for yourself.

I’ll keep you updated on the success of this promotion. I will also post on what I learn from all this, so that you can do something similar if you so please.  There is so much to learn from this experience.

5keepblue is the $5 gift code anybody can use on sandshack.com

Today my company Sand Shack, www.sandshack.com, launched a marketing campaign I am very excited about.  I will briefly tell you about it here, and after you read about it I encourage you to experience it directly and see why it is the best deal on the Internet right now.

The campaign is called the “$5,555 Sand Shack Giveaway”.  We are giving away $5,555 worth of $5 gift cards that may be used on sandshack.com. The number 5 is very important to our company and therefore is an integral part of this campaign.  The significance of the number is found in the fact that we give 5% of our proceeds to ocean conservation, and many of next year’s products will use 5% as a design element.

Ok, so you are thinking $5 is not that great, right? Well, let me tell you why it is great.  First of all there are $5 items on sandshack.com that may be purchased with the gift card.  Secondly, everything on sandshack.com comes with free shipping…Hmmm, so let’s see, that means you can get a $5 item for free…all you have to do is go on sandshack.com and find it!

Now for those who would like to use the gift card themselves (or give it to somebody else) below is all the information you will need.

Directions for use

1. Go www.sandshack.com
2. Shop around and find what you want
3. Proceed to checkout
4. Register for an account (if you haven’t already done so)
5. At registration, plug the gift card code into the “Promtion Code” box located at the bottom.
6. Now for a tricky part: Even if you are purchasing something and the shopping cart balance is $0, the store will still need to take your credit card information. It doesn’t understand that we are giving away money and not charging for shipping. But don’t worry, if this is the case, plug your info in and you will not be charged. If you have a balance because you went over $5, you will be charged the balance.

And finally, here is the $5 gift code:

5keepblue

We are promoting this giveaway through direct marketing on college campuses as well as social media site such as Facebook.

Our real hope is that this will not only drive traffic to our site, but also that once people get to our site and look at our products they will decide to buy more than what their $5 gift card will cover.

Now go ahead and take the above code and use it!

And as we say at Sand Shack  “keep it blue!”

I’ll tell you all how this campaign went once it is over.

Part 4 of Brianlinton.com’s Series for Entrepreneurial Success | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 |

If you owned a Toyota dealership but you drove around in a Hyundai, what do you think a potential customer would think?

As an entrepreneur you have to live what you sell. If you sell a certain type of car you better drive that car. Showing confidence in your product or service that you sell is of utmost importance when a potential customer is deciding whether or not to buy from you.

I wanted that hat so bad, and I'm not even a tennis fan.

This may mean making sacrifices. One of the main products I make for Sand Shack is our Sand Shack brand baseball caps. I love them, I really do. But this summer there was a Lacoste hat that I just had to have. It was the white one with the crocodile logo and mesh backing. Andy Roddick wears it on tour. So a few weeks ago I succumbed to my desires and bought one for $55. And as I sat in my room with the hat on and tags still hanging off I felt so good, it fit perfectly and I looked so good in it.

_____________________________

Last week I returned that hat. It was hard to part with it, but I knew it was the right thing to do. 30% of my company’s sales this summer were from our hats. How could I possibly bring myself to wear a Lacoste hat in public when I am trying to build my own brand? I couldn’t, it wouldn’t do anything for Sand Shack; and if it did anything it would be hurting my brand if a customer saw me wearing it. It could be seen as me not having enough confidence in my own products to wear them in public.

This may be extreme; after all it was just a hat. But it was my product, my design, and my brand that I disowned when I donned that Lacoste hat.

You can wear whatever hat you want, as you probably don’t sell hats, but think about what you sell and always make sure you use your product or service. I say services because this applies to them too. If you sell financial advice you better adhere to the same advice you are selling.

Always live what you sell. This picture appeared on the front page of the Cape Cod Times over the summer. The red plaid hat was our best seller.

This is all obvious, but it is essential for entrepreneurial success. You will fail if you don’t live what you sell. All great entrepreneurs are passionate about their products and you can see it in the way they live. Think about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, and many more.

As I come out with more and more products I will continue to wear my products with pride. Eventually I will be able to clothe myself completely in Sand Shack apparel.

3 Reasons to Live What you Sell

1. You show your customers you are confident in your products or services

2. You will be able to find flaws in your product or services, and fix them

3. As an entrepreneur you are the face of your company, always using your products or services means you are a walking advertisement

Are there any other benefits in living what you sell? Let’s hear what other people sell, or are thinking of selling, and how you live or will live what you sell.

| Part 1: Have a Great Personal Story | Part 2: Be Serial at a Young Age | Part 3: Blag About Yourself | Part 4: Live What You Sell | Part 5: Be the Nicest Person Your Customers Know | Part 6: Always Ask For Business | Part 7: Always Seek Great PR | Part 8: Get People Talking About You and Your Company | Part 9: Sell Something you are Passionate about and can Easily Get |

Brianlinton.com’s Series for Entrepreneurial Success is a series that touches on a variety of topics that all entrepreneurs should focus on to ensure success in their entrepreneurial endeavor.  The advice comes from the lessons I have learned from starting and growing multiple companies.

The advice is not complete, and this being said, there is always room for improvement through suggestions from readers like you, so feel free to leave a comment or start a discussion on any of the points that are brought up.

Part 1: Have a Great Personal Story

Part 2: Be Serial at a Young Age

Part 3: Blag About Yourself

Part 4: Live What You Sell

Part 5: Be the Nicest Person Your Customers Know

Part 6: Always Ask For Business

Part 7: Always Seek Great PR

Part 8: Get People Talking About You and Your Company

Part 9: Sell Something you are Passionate about and can Easily Get

Part 10: Build Your Web Presence and Personal Brand

Enjoy!!

~Brian

A screenshot of the article on startupnation.com

I recently had the opportunity to revise and rewrite some of my recent articles on brianlinton.com for an article that was published on StartupNation.com.  If you are not familiar with StartupNation, it is a leading website on entrepreneurship. Check out their website and also check out the article that I wrote that was published there.  Here is the link, and if you don’t want to use it you can just read the article below it.   Either way, it is the same article.

When I first started Sand Shack three years ago I was determined to succeed.  I read piles of books on business and I was sure I had it down.  I found a product I knew I could easily get and thought I could easily sell.  Because I grew up overseas, I knew I could buy beach-style jewelry in Thailand and sell it for a mark-up in the United States.  I prepared everything I thought I needed.  I created a name that was catchy, easy to remember, and reflected the product I was selling.  I made business cards, product labels, and formed an LLC.  And then I hit the streets of Cape Cod, product in hand and not a clue as to what I was doing.  I didn’t make a sale that day. I lacked experience and confidence.  I went into countless stores, and all the owners were very kind and encouraging, but none of them bought.  I didn’t know what I was doing; I still had a lot to learn.

I didn’t make a sale on my first day because I was inexperienced and not confident enough in my product or myself, and buyers could see that in me.  However, I was still motivated to succeed, and therefore, the next day I went out again.  I worked the streets so hard that day; I must have walked miles and miles in search of that first account.  And then, when it seemed like I had failed again, I walked into a surf shop on the main street of a small Cape Cod town and made my first sale.  Needless to say it was the best feeling in the world.  After that moment I had the confidence I needed to establish over 100 Sand Shack accounts across 12 states, and create a company that would help put me through college and buy my first house.

Below are some of the things I have learned as a young entrepreneur since I began Sand Shack three years ago.

Sell Things Close to Home

The biggest mistake an entrepreneur can make is to choose to sell a product they know nothing about or have no passion for.  Just because selling a product can make you money does not mean that it is the right product for you to sell.   It is so important to sell something you are truly passionate about, because if you aren’t passionate, your customers will know and your business will suffer.

So when you are choosing what your company will sell, take note to the following steps.   Following these three simple steps will not guarantee your success, success will be based upon your merit to sell what you chose, however, following these steps will ensure that you enjoy, and are passionate about, what you are selling.

1. Decide what you are passionate about. What do you love?

2. Find out what product or service you can easily offer.  What can you offer that is already close to home?

3. Research the market for the items you have chosen.  Can you make money offering these products or services?

Think Big

Always think big.  Set a high sales target for you to reach in one day.  When I tell myself I need to make over $2000 in one day, I will usually make it.  But if I don’t have a goal, if I don’t think big, and sit around my house, my companies don’t grow.  So, set yourself a goal for tomorrow and exceed it.

Don’t Make Excuses

If you need to do something, don’t make excuses that inhibit you from doing it.  For instance, when I have a sales meeting with a customer I don’t simply go home after the meeting is done.  There is an unlimited amount of possible customers for Sand Shack’s jewelry, hats, belts, or flip-flops.  You will be surprised at how much you can fit into a day if you don’t make excuses.

Always Seek Great PR

Nothing lifts you up more than a positive story about you or your company.  If you are a young entrepreneur there are plenty of media outlets that would love to broadcast your story to the masses.  Visit the offices of your local newspaper or write to a magazine that might share interest in your story, introduce yourself and give them a compelling reason to write a story about you and your company.  Recently, my companies and I were featured on the front page of the business section in the local newspaper’s Sunday Times.  It not only made me feel great about myself and what I am doing, it brought in more business.

Get Smarter

I’m sure the readers of this article are all smart; you wouldn’t have read to this point if you weren’t.  The reason you are reading this is because you want to get smarter!  Never be content with your current amount of knowledge.  The more you know, the more comfortable you will be when doing business.  Expand your knowledge of not only the focus of your business, but of everything.  Right now you are expanding your knowledge and getting my insights into how I do business.

Obviously, following these steps does not guarantee success, but I believe they all play an important role in an entrepreneur’s life.  More entrepreneurial advice and updates on my company can be found at brianlinton.com.

Please feel free to contact me at brian@sandshack.com