FEATURE PAPER

Encouraging Future Social Entrepreneurs: Community Outreach and MBAs

The following paper was written by Dusty Bodie from Boise State University. It was presented at the 2010 Small Business Institute Conference.

Abstract

Running a nonprofitprogram.ismuch more like running a small business than it is like being a professional in a large corporation (Masaoka, 2009.) Recent studies have indicated concern about future leadership of the nonprofit sector, questioning whether the sector can effectively recruit a workforce that will meet current and future needs. This paper introduces a unique MBA course that uses Service Learning to introduce potential nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs to this sector.

(Read Entire Paper)

TIP OF THE WEEK

Writing and Publishing a Free E-Newsletter

An e-zine is an online newsletter. If you want to market your product or service over the internet, I strongly urge you to distribute your own e-zine free to your customers and prospects. There are several reasons for doing so.

First, the e-zine allows you to keep in touch with your best customers - indeed, with all your customers - at virtually no cost. Because it's electronic, there's no printing or postage cost.

Second, by offering potential customers a free subscription to your e-zine, you can capture their e-mail addresses and add them to your online database. You can then market to your prospects, also at no cost. Whether you are generating leads or direct sales, there are two ways to see to you e-zine subscribers. You can place small online ads in the regular issues of your e-zine subscribers. You can place small online ads in the regular issues of your e-zine; these ads are usually 100 words or so in length, and include a link to a page on your site where the subscriber can read about and order the product. Or, you can send standalone e-mail messages to your subscribers, again promoting a specific product and with a link to your site.

There are thousands of e-zines published. Examples of successful, money-making e-zines include John Forde's Copywriter's Roundtable (SUBSCRIBE@JackForde.com) Paul Hartunian's Million-Dollar Publicity Strategies (hartunian.com), and Agora's Daily Reckoning (dailyreckoning.com). No two e-zines are the same, and there is no single accepted formula for writing and designing e-zines. However, my e-zine, Bob Bly's Direct Response Letter, has been pretty successful for me (you can subscribe atbly.com), and I do have a formula for producing it.

When you are dealing with a free e-zine, people spend just a little time reading it before they delete it with a click of the mouse. I am convinced that most subscribers do not print out the e-zine, take it home, and curl up with it on the couch later to read. Therefore, I use a quick-reading format designed to allow the subscriber to read my e-zine online right when he opens it. In this formula, my e-zine always has between five and seven short articles, each just a few paragraphs long. Every article can be read in less than a minute, so it never takes more than seven minutes to read the whole issue, though I doubt most people do.

I advise against having just a headline and a one-line description of the article with a link to the full text of the article. All that clicking forces your subscribers to do a lot of work to read your articles and that's not what they want.

I do not use HTML; my e-zine is text-only. This way, it is easy and inexpensive to produce. I don't make a production out of it - this way and they don't like HTML e-zines, which look (a) more promotional and less informational and (b) seem to have more to read.

When preparing your text e-zine for distribution, type our copy in a single column as a text file. The column should be 60 characters in length, so you can set your margins at 20 and 80. However to make sure the lines come out evenly, you must put a hard carriage return by hitting "Return" at the end of each line.

I happen to be a freelance copywriter. Let me show you specifically how having an e-zine helps bring in business for me. I recently gave a speech on software direct marketing. It was recorded, so I had audio cassette copies made. In my e-zine, I offered the cassette free to any subscribers involved in software marketing - potential clients for my copywriting services. Within 24 hours after I distributed the e-zine we received over 200 inquiries requesting the tape, many from qualified prospects who needed copy written for direct mail and e-mail to promote their software. By comparison, most copywriters tell me that when they send postal direct mail to a list of prospects, they average a 1 percent response. At that rate, they would have to send out 20,000 pieces of mail to generate the 200 leads I got in an hour for free.

That's what an e-zine can do for you. Once you build your subscriber list, you have an incredibly powerful marketing tool and the most valuable asset your business can own: a database of buyers with e-mail addresses and permission to mail to them at any time.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SBI Journal - Request for Papers And Reviewers

The Small Business Institute is now requesting papers and reviewers for the fifth volume of the Small Business Institute Journal. If you are interested in submitting a paper please visithttp://www.sbaer.uca.edu/sbij/about.phpto see the guidelines and submission procedure. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer or would like more information please email us atsbij@uca.edu.

American Institute for Higher Education Conference

The American Institute for Higher Education invites you to join them for the Fall 2010 American Institute of Higher Education - The 5th International Conference, to be held September 29 - October 1, 2010, in Orlando, FL. The conference will be located in Rosen Center Hotel (special rates for this conference). The deadline for submissions has been extended to July 15, 2010. For More Information,Click Here

2011 Small Business Institute Conference Submissions

The site for the 2011 Small Business Institute® Conference is now available for conference submissions. The direct link to submit a paper, workshop or best practice is as follows:Click HereFor more information about the 2011 SBI Conference, including author instructions and submission guidelines, please visit the conference website:Click Here

Allied Academies Call for the 2010 Summer International Internet Conference

The Allied Academies Summer 2010 international Internet Conference will be held July 19 through July 30, 2010. Conference Submissions and registration materials are due by July 6. Base registration, on or before July 5, is $250, late registration after that date will be $300. For More Information,Click Here

AACSB Annual Accreditation Conference

Make room on your calenders for the Annual Accreditation Conference. The conference will take place in Houston, Texas September 26-28, 2010. This conference is for deans, associate deans, department chairs, and faculty. Register by August 15, 2010 and save 200 USD off the on-site registration fee. For More Information,Click Here

ASC 21st Annual Conference

Please join the American Society for Competitiveness October 28-30, 2010 for their 21st Annual Conference in the Washington, D.C. area. This conference provides an excellent opportunity to interact with scholars, business leaders, and government leaders from all over the world, discuss research findings and current practices pertaining to the various facets and sources of competitiveness to survive and succeed in today's global marketplace, present your paper in a very congenial and professional conference environment, and publish your article in peer-reviewed Cabell's journals. For More Information,Click Here

NCIIA 15th Annual Conference

We invite you to attend the NCIIA 15th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. March 24-26, 2011. NCIIA's Open is the premier conference for faculty and students involved in technology innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education. Explore the science, business and practice of catalyzing innovation in higher education. You'll have the opportunity to be part of the foremost community of thought leaders in these fields, take away tangible learnings from workshops taught by leading faculty innovators, make connections that will advance your work, see breakthrough technologies at our annual showcase of student innovations at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and experience Washington, D.C.. For More Information,Click Here

2011 Small Business Institute® Annual Conference

The Small Business Institute invites you to attend their 2011 annual conference which will be held in Bonita Springs, Florida. The conference will take place February 17-19, 2011. The deadline for paper submissions is September 17, 2010. Conference tracks include accounting and finance, ethics and environmental responsibility, experiential learning, family business, global entrepreneurship, marketing social entrepreneurship, small business, and women & minority business. For More Information,Click Here

2010 ASBE Call for Papers

The Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ASBE) invites you to submit competitive papers, cases, and workshop proposals for our Fall Conference at the Stockyards Hotel located in the National Historic District in Fort Worth, Texas. The conference will take place October 6-8, 2010. The deadline for submissions is August 1st, 2010. For More Information,Click Here

International Enterprise Promotion Convention: Call For Speakers 2010

Do you see Enterprise as a transformational force for people and communities? Do you support Enterprise Promotion, as a practitioner, funder or policymaker? Are you proud of your own achievements? Do you want to share your successes? Would you like to learn from the experience of colleagues around the World? If you can answer YES to even one of these questions, you should come and speak at IEPC 2010, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire from 8-10 November 2010.. For More Information,Click Here

Student Case Writing Competition

The Baylor University Entrepreneurship Program and USASBE are jointly sponsoring a student case writing competition in conjunction with USASBE's annual meetings beginning in 2011 at USASBE's 25th Annual Conference to be held January 13-16, 2011 in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This is an innovative international event that supports and encourages undergraduate and graduate students who wish to engage in case research and case writing. Submitted cases are suitable if they advance the field of entrepreneurship, broadly defined, and contribute to an understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena. For more information,Click Here

CONFERENCES

CALLS FOR PAPERS

SBANC STAFF

Main Office Phone: (501) 450-5300

Don B. Bradley III, Executive Director of SBANC & Professor of Marketing - Direct Phone: (501) 450-5345

Meagan Dukes, Development Intern

Derius Campbell, Development Intern

Raven Ambers, Development Intern