This month’s issue has a lot details about this Saturday’s 14th Annual Straight Talk.  Also included in this issue… Additional Funding for SBA Recovery Lending Programs will Support $4.5 Billion in Small Business Lending

For more information about Straight Talk visit wnystraighttalk.org.

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Does your agency, organization or association commit resources to promote economic stability and self-sufficiency for its clients?  Would you like it to do more?

From basic entrepreneurial development programing to the innovative Web Incubator Program, MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. can help promote business success.

Our standard entrepreneurial development program is a 12 session course designed to introduce participants to the possibilities and challenges of being self-employed.   Experience and relationships in the business development community enable MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. to adjust programming to meet the specific needs of participants.  Many of the sessions are supported with SCORE materials and by SCORE Counselors.

For entrepreneurs and businesses seeking new and enhanced revenue streams, the MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. Web Incubator Program (WIP) (* and #) offers businesses an economical way to market and sell their products online. Much like other business incubators, this program offers the requisite tools to foster low-risk growth and development with supportive programming, which includes a one-stop, online clearinghouse of information and resources to help satisfy inspirational, technical and financial needs of entrepreneurs and the self-employed.

For more information and to find out how you can offer entrepreneurial assistance to your clients, to show your support for our WIP, or to start selling your organizational t-shirts, mugs etc. in your own secure online store, please contact us.

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www.microbizbuffalo.org is the tool at the center of MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc.’s Web Incubator Program (WIP). The site provides information for entrepreneurs and offers businesses an online marketing outlet and a secure online checkout.

Is there a fee? Small retailers selling 10 or fewer products pay only $250, while larger retailers pay $500, annually. Service providers pay $100 annually to promote their services, which do not require a checkout. Shoppers and people interested in becoming an entrepreneur pay nothing to use the site.

So how easy is it to purchase items from the retailers? It’s pretty easy. Think about going to your favorite business district… You walk into one store, see some items you like and then you check out. You do some more discovering at another store, find something you like, then you check out.

What about shipping? It’s important to mention, we ask our retailers to encourage customers to pick up their purchases, rather than ship them. Instead of taking the Skyway, 190 or 33, take the local. Take Grant Street or Main St. Run in and say hi and pick up your merchandise. Better yet, plan it around dinner. For customers who are not local, we will work with subscribers to develop or enhance their shipping protocols.

Who built your site? BuffaloWeb Services, LLC, a local web hosting and site development company, earned the contract and built the site using OS Commerce with some modifications.

What do I need to open a store and be part of the Web Incubator Program? You will need a business name, a logo, a PayPal Account, descriptions of your products and/or services, pictures, information about your products including available sizes, colors, etc., pricing, and a plan for getting your products to your customers.

What is the advisory board all about? The advisory board consists of subscribers to the site, web developers and MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. personnel. The group will meet regularly to discuss enhancement to the site.

How is the site marketed? We use social networking, organic search engine optimization, collective marketing and an occasional pay per click campaign.

If you have more questions, please comment below or contact us.

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The MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. Web Incubator Program offers businesses an economical way to market and sell their products online. Much like other business incubators, this program offers the requisite tools to foster low-risk growth and development of a business with supportive programming, which includes a one-stop clearinghouse of information and resources to help satisfy inspirational, technical and financial needs of entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Our website helps to connect prospective entrepreneurs and the resources they need to be profitable and successful. We recruit small business service providers to the site and list their available services to small businesses. Moreover, MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. recruits experts to share their knowledge and experience with problems they have faced and the solutions they engendered. In fact, anyone with good advice with broad, or even narrow, application is encouraged to submit short posts to our website’s blog. MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. staff and the website advisory board monitor posts to ensure quality. These posts will be available to anyone; however, entrepreneurs and business owners attempting to comment on such posts will be asked to register on the site.

www.microbizbuffalo.org offers entrepreneurs an inexpensive opportunity to develop revenues through online sales. The stores on our site are not meant to replace an entrepreneur’s website; rather, each store can be used in conjunction with a native site to convert customer interest into online sales. The multistore site offers businesses their own store, an independent checkout and the control of managing the products they list.

MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. further supports business development by providing workshops (e.g. getting on the site, choosing the right products to sell, how to make and place “good” images and product descriptions on the site, shipping and “in-store pick-up,” etc.), peer-to-peer forums, and an advisory board, which will inform future workshops and programs, as well as further enhancements of the website.

The online retail market is $200 Billion annually. We encourage local businesses to get a piece of this by doing two things: offering Erie County’s online consumers a local alternative to satisfy their online purchasing needs and encouraging expatriate Buffalonians to use the site to stay connected to their roots. MicroBiz Buffalo’s theory of regional economic development is dependent upon keeping dollars in the community and working to engender the regular infusion of capital from beyond our borders. Therefore, we have locally designed and developed our website to be a platform for the web incubation of locally-owned businesses.

Buffalo and Erie County have struggled for many years from the withdrawal from our community of large corporations. Our municipalities continue to encourage large corporations to come to our community by offering greater and greater levels of incentives, such as property and payroll tax abatements. However, studies show that locally-owned businesses reinvest three times as much in their local community as chains and large corporations. Therefore, encouraging the growth and expansion of locally-owned businesses directly supports the improvement of schools, the Arts and the community overall.

MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. is a mission-driven 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that connects people to enterprise resources and builds tools and and relationships to enhance the economic growth of Western New York through entrepreneurism.

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It is the trend. What is missing from this model, however, is a a focus on a local economy and local, independent businesses.  Offering programming designed to encourage successful online retail is also lacking with the Sears, Ebay and Amazon models.  It is for that reason, that MicroBiz Buffalo, Inc. has created its Web Incubator Program.  To read more about the efforts at Sears.

In today’s Buffalo News…

Sears expands Web sales

January 08, 2010, 6:51 AM

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (AP)— Sears Holdings Corp. joined at least two other major retailers Thursday in allowing third parties—including some rivals—to sell items on its Web site.

Sears’ latest push to beef up its Web presence follows similar moves by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., at walmart.com, and by Amazon.com, which have tussled recently over prices for books, movies and music.

Officials wouldn’t say how many products were available at Sears.com before the announcement of “Marketplace at Sears.com.” But they said more than 10 million items were being sold there through 1,500 outside vendors by Thursday.

If you would like to learn more about how you can grow your business’s revenue through online retail and marketing, please contact us coordinator@microbizbuffalo.org.

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