Malcolm Gladwell, a talented and observant staff writer for “The New Yorker,” has written a little book that you, the entrepreneur, should read as part of your basic small business education.

Here are the details:

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell, Feb. 2000, 288pp.

Gladwell understands human behavior and social trends that have shaped the American economy and influenced the business world so profoundly. If you’re a businessman, an advertiser, customer relations specialist, product developer, or web site owner, The Tipping Point holds many nuggets and gems that will influence the way you view your job and execute your mission.

Come to think of it, the solo business owner is all of these specialists rolled into one so you would do well to study Gladwell’s premise that ideas, fads, fashions, products, messages and behaviors can be triggered to “spread just like viruses do.”

Therefore, the little changes we make in how we do business can have huge and profound effects on our company success. Get a small number of people (talkative and satisfied customers) sharing their happiness and pleasure about your product or service with others and that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or “tipping point” is realized.

The “tipping point” can be a magical moment for the entrepreneur when the word of mouth endorsement of his business story or product or service crosses the threshold, tips, and begins to spread like wildfire!

Consider this analogy: one sick child in a crowded classroom can start an epidemic of the flu in a neighborhood.

Likewise, a small but precisely targeted marketing campaign can start a fashion trend or cause the popularity of your product to skyrocket literally overnight.

What Gladwell terms “word-of-mouth epidemics” can be started with the unconscious help of three pivotal types of customers.

“Connectors” are the gregarious sociable personalities who bring important people together.

“Mavens” are the middlemen, the moderators, the go-betweens who like to pass along special expertise and knowledge.

“Salesmen” are evangelists or preachers that are able to persuade the unenlightened.

These personality types are natural “pollinators” of new ideas and trends; they are the people who create the word of mouth “buzz.”

Gladwell uses many modern day anecdotes and examples of trends and fads to prove his point that ideas can purposefully be made to become infectious.

Often very minor adjustments in the execution of your solo business can “tip” the prospects and customers in your direction and the result is much greater company profitability.

As a businessman, you have the power to create and start an epidemic of your own that will flood your business with new customers and increased sales.

The little changes we make in how we do business can have huge and profound effects on our company success.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com

If you haven’t picked up a copy of this little book yet, go get one and look at solo business in a whole new light.

On my reading list for all online solo business owners is Michael LeBoeuf’s little paperback called The Perfect Business.

The corporate salaried employee stereotype with stock options, a hefty 401K, and holiday pay may soon become a relic of the past; in fact, it probably is already for nearly everyone.

Job security is no longer prevalent. Corporate downsizing, mergers, and take-overs can spell unemployment for even the most proficient and tenured of workers.  New technology and Internet automation have replaced the need for many small business employees.

LeBoeuf’s book, while a little dated now, is perfect for the employee that decides to leave structured business life and test the waters of self-employment. His writing is motivational, inspirational, and filled with solid reasons why solo business may be just the solution for those ousted from the 8-to-5 routine.

Michael LeBoeuf shows in his examples and illustrations how he has achieved the new American Dream of wealth and independence owning a small business.

He touts the wisdom and savings of starting and maintaining a company having no payroll obligations, no employee problems, and no heavy business debt to encumber the entrepreneur.

His key to home business success seems to be this: the owner must possess the proper go-it-alone mindset. He must think in positive and creative terms and in a less confining and rigid mental framework of what the perfect business must look like.  Mindset is so important as one contemplates earning a living in a whole new way!

Traditional thinking leads to traditional business and the usual business problems and “bloat!”.  Maintaining all the physical and financial business baggage of days gone by makes no sense and only serves to just handcuff the owner.

How we think, how we problem-solve, and how we understand our business and our customers is paramount to success.

LeBoeuf’s approach to home business operation is very practical, sensible, and strategic. It begins with the owner conserving his cash by keeping extremely low overhead and no employees (and their associated hassles, complaints, and financial commitments.)

His book covers such topics as choosing the right business for your skills and education, using digital information technologies to increase business execution and productivity, and thinking like a millionaire.

The Perfect Business is a mere 224 pages and a quick read, but it describes plainly and simply that there is no better business model, no more perfect business, than a solo niche business executed on the Internet and managed from home.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com

One of my favorite marketing writers (even though I have not personally met him) is a gentleman by the name of Seth Godin. He was formerly the Direct Marketing Vice President at Yahoo!

I consider him a mentor because I feel his direction and guidance have helped me immensely in my business career. He keeps in contact with his readers through his popular blog found HERE .

Seth is a prolific writer and a creative genius when it comes to understanding human behavior in the context of online marketing psychology and how companies can be successful as they develop relationships with their customers.

He was a pioneer in the early days of the Internet, in my estimation, because he went where others had not gone and he talked about ways of doing business online that departed from the conventional and traditional thinking of the day.

One of his books, Permission Marketing, is a classic that all solo online business owners ought to study. The book is short (about 250 pages of easy reading) but it is one that you will come back to often for its insights and wisdom.  Yes, it is dated in some ways now, but the lessons and ideas laid out about “permission marketing” are still appropriate today.

I keep his book on my desk rather than on the bookshelf because I refer to it often.

In this time of mega-spam and what Godin calls “interruption marketing,” he preaches that entrepreneurs should market in a way that customers will willingly accept the message.

Instead of interrupting the customer and wasting his time, Godin talks about offering targeted customers an incentive to accept advertising that will be anxiously received. By nurturing and “deepening” the relationship you create with strangers (prospects), you will turn them into friends and later into customers.  Of course, after years of successful online marketing, companies are now following his advice as the accepted norm in online marketing.

Of particular interest to solo business owners is Chapter 8 “Everything You Know About Marketing on the Web Is Wrong!” and Chapter 9 “Permission Marketing in the Context of the Web.”

The conventional wisdom back in the day seemed to be that you treat the Internet as a “broadcast medium.” You shout your message as loudly as possible to the masses like a TV commercial aired on the Super Bowl.

This classic “interruption marketing” is causing companies to waste millions of dollars in time, capital, and energy because very few accept Internet marketing designed for the masses. They have learned to ignore spam and click away from messages they haven’t asked to receive.

Solo owners need to understand the benefits of direct marketing to a targeted audience and focus their efforts in building a permission based list of loyal customers. According to Godin, these benefits of Internet business include:

1. “Free stamps” meaning no cost to deliver direct email marketing.

2. The speed of testing your marketing is 100 times faster than offline.

3. Response rates are 15 times higher than traditional marketing.

4. You can implement what he calls “curriculum marketing” in both text and via web sites.

5. You can identify and talk with customers efficiently and often.

6. Printing is free.

This is just a quick sampling of some of the numerous and groundbreaking ideas about marketing online that Godin shares in his easy-to-digest style that makes reading his work, Permission Marketing, both fun and profitable.

I’ll share some personal thoughts about a few of his other great books in the future. Whatever you do, don’t miss the opportunity to get to know Seth Godin and learn from this master of Internet marketing.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com