This was a lively session, with good back and forth between the attendees and panelists. The breakout was moderated by  Ronald Monford, President and CEO, Mind Over Machines, Inc.; the panelists were Kevin Hourigan, CEO, Bayshore Solutions and a finalist for the Small Business of the Year Award; Eric Reed, Vice President, Verizon Communications; and Bob Mathew, President, Catalyst Web Services, LLC.

Ronald Monford of Mind Over Machines opened with the story of how he got into technology from the men's apparel business when he recognized that the line of work he was in represented the "old" economy and he decided to get into the new economy.

He pointed out the small business owners tend to "love to hate" technology, partly because it's hard to walk the line between budget and needs. Even during his days in the clothing business, there was the question of "How much do you spend on technology", although back then technology was represented by things like electric typewriters (I don't miss the Selectric or carbon paper).

Although he realized that he had to spend on technology, no one ever told him how much he needed to spend. Today we tend to rely on professionals to help us make this decision, and for small businesses the answer tends to be to outsource IT.

Ron then introduced each panelist, and asked them to give a brief description of what their company does.

Bob Mathew went first, and introduced his company, Catalyst Web Services, as one "founded by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs". They offer a web-based suite of core IT applications that cover small business needs such as email, electronic documents and collaboration.

In this area of "Software as a Service" (SaaS), Bob notes that it's been small business that's driving the technology forward, and that for most, it's a great fit.

He goes on to answer his rhetorical question of how this fits in with trends in the global economy with three answers:

1. Geographic dispersion of people. People work from different places, in virtual teams, and partner with other businesses. This trend isn't just international, but local as well with people living in different suburbs.
2. Green. Rising fuel costs are really forcing consideration of alternatives to physical proximity, and while options like telecommuting aren't necessarily for every business (or for every day), new technologies are improving on the limitations of old ones like VPN.
3. Global. Markets are increasingly global, and being web-based means being accessible anywhere, at anytime. For example, they noticed a large increase in business from places like Australia when their system became Mac compatible - not something they really considered would happen.

Eric Reed from Verizon's Broadband division spoke next. His key point was that small businesses need to "embrace technology" as a key to growth. Continued investment in infrastructure by Verizon and others will allow for more businesses like Bob's, and help to create new commercial markets.

Small businesses can become part of the supply chain for larger businesses, but a business has to use broadband for that to happen.

Verizon also supports green initiatives such as telework and video conferencing as alternatives to jumping on plane for meetings. He pointed out that there are lots of options for broadband connectivity, including satellite and cable and told the audience not to be intimidated by technology.

Kevin Hourigan of Bayshore Solutions introduced his company as one that helps businesses leverage the internet as a platform to grow their companies. He stressed that putting a toe in the water isn't testing technology, echoing the common theme that good use of technology is essential to running a successful business.

Kevin said that online and viral marketing can be the most cost-effective, shortest duration way to get your company in front of new audiences, and can help you get a national or global reach.

Business has been regionlized in its approach to reaching out to new customers - that means relying on methods such as yellow pages and billboards. Technology gets the same message national or global, in a  push rather than pull method - and reaches them where they are.

There may be ads for lawyers in the paper, but how many people reading the paper are looking for lawyers, and what's the return on investment for that kind of non-targeted messaging? You want to get your message to people looking for your type of content.

Throughout the session, there were several questions and back and forth with the audience, some of which I'm including here.

Q: What's the latest in search engine optimization; what's the latest best practice?
Ron: Make sure Google picks up your keywords. (which got a laugh)
Bob: It's a little bit of cat and mouse, as people figure out what works, the algorithim changes. Google is increasingly going back to their roots of determining what's the most referenced source, by reputable sources, and using that to rank sites and page higher.
Ron (to the panel): Can you pay to get your listing higher?
Bob: You can, but you never know what paid bloggers will say, it's a risk.
Ron: In the early days of the web, we didn't even know what SEO was. Then we had people come in to optimize our pages, and it cost a lot of money. Even if you've had that done, you need to keep doing it. See where you come up in search because this all changes so quickly, but it's a lot cheaper to do now than it was before.

Eric: To the gentleman in the back without a website (there was only one person in the session without a website), you need to know that this is a way to reach to your audience.

Ron: Websites started off being informational, now they need to be functional. You need to be able to do business via your website. You don't need to be on the bleeding edge, but you do need to be on the cutting edge to allow customers to do things like set appointments or buy from your site.

Q: Bob, Do you have a different way of communicating with me vs. my employees?
Bob: Our service has to speak for itself. Dealing with the decsion maker is different than dealing with the various work habits of the users. Four years of observations of how people use our service shows that people are not just passionate, but self-righteous about how they work.

For the owner, we need to speak about cost, etc. For the user, how the service works for them is most importants.

Ron: After creating the TradeRoots site for the U.S. Chamber (back in the late 90's), we found that technology knowledge levels were very broad and discovered that many people didn't even have computers. Some small businesses have embraced technology, and these are the folks that are leading the commerce parade. If you have young people working in your office, listen to them. They can teach you new ways to do things that are more cost-effective than what you're used to. They're so many things out there that small businesses can miss if they're not in the mainstream of technology.

Q: What percentage of the marketing budget should be spent on online marketing?
Kevin: It depends on the business. You need to look at the cost of your overall marketing, which many businesses put at 2-3% of their total budget. I believe that businesses will find their customers faster, at lower cost, online.

I'll wrap up with Kenneth R. Wolfe, CPA (I'd list his website, but he doesn't have one), who asked several questions throughout the session, including a couple on Barack Obama's use of the Internet, which he kindly allowed me to use by name, and I've condensed and included below:

Q: Barack Obama's internet campaign, is there anything unique to what they're doing?
Kevin: Howard Dean showed how effective viral marketing can be and showed business that technology can spread our message without paying for it. Blogs, YouTube, etc. spread the message at no cost. The risk is that it can get in front of the wrong audience. Understanding your audience and getting the message to them is key.

Q: Are you saying that the first contact is like a chain letter?
Kevin: You can't control how the message is redistributed by the initial audience. But if you make it easy to redistribute, then you make it easier for that message to be spread, with the cost only for the message to be delivered the first time. With the use of technology, you can track to see who among the initial recipients read the message, and of those, how many sent it on. What's your cost to the original group vs. the cost of then reaching a much broader audience? As your message group grows, it allows you to reach more people with your initial message at no additional cost.

The key is how good your initial targeting is. If it goes to a good group, you increase the chance of it getting to like-minded people, rather than getting to a disinterested group

Audience Comment: I think you have to assume that everyone in the world can get their hands on your message, so you have to make sure you tailor your message to accomodate that.
Ron: It's the same as if your competitor gets your message: so what? You have to get it to your audience and if it gets to others, it doesn't matter.