Visibility Equals Credibility -- it's my third law of entrepreneurial gravity (the other two under DETAILS below). It's why PR is better than advertising and why it's useful to take the time to win awards, make your way onto lists, and sign up for any opportunity to give the company visibility. As marketing guru Doug Hall describes, one of the three laws of marketing physics is giving people a "reason to believe" -- visibility does this. In addition, recognition validates the efforts of your entire company, giving your people another reason to feel proud of the company for which they work.
Three "visibility" opportunities (North American companies only) -- I've listed them in terms of ease of participation, with the easiest first -- I've also included the deadlines with information on how to apply following:
- The Private Company Index -- as soon as possible
- New Inc. 5000 (expanding the Inc. 500)-- March 1
- The Wall Street Journal's new small business award created in conjunction with Winning Workplaces -- January 31.
Bloomberg, the leading financial reporting organization, is adding tremendous credibility and visibility to the Private Company Index, agreeing to track and announce the PCI monthly starting this month. For the life of me, I don't know why every single one of your companies doesn't sign-up to participate. Gazelles has been a part of the index for two years. All we have to do is report anonymously our revenues each month. And I feel it's all of our patriotic duties to participate in order to bring visibility to the mid-size company segment of the market. The PCI was up over 55% last year, outstripping the performance of the public market by a factor of 5! Sign up now
Badge for your website -- and the Private Company Index, now that it has Bloomberg's reporting giving the Index visibility, is issuing a "badge" for your website designating you a Private Company Index reporting firm (like being a part of the Dow or S&P 500). The badge will point back to the Index and visa versa. All of these links help bring visibility and higher search results for your website. Again, it takes one minute to sign-up and a few minutes each month for your accounting person to email just your revenue numbers -- again, anonymously.
Inc. 5000! -- (deadline March 1) yes, you're reading that correctly and no, I didn't accidentally add an extra zero. The Inc. 500 will still be featured in the Inc. 500 issue in September, but they'll be ranking private companies from 1 to 5,000 based on revenue growth from 2003 through 2006 at their website, Inc.com. The preliminary application is now available at www.inc5000.com.
Top Small Workplaces -- (deadline January 31) The Wall Street Journal and Winning Workplaces are seeking nominations of exceptional small organizations -- private, nonprofit or publicly held -- for their first annual ranking of the Top Small Workplaces. They want to find small employers that foster teamwork, flexibility, high productivity and innovation while also treating their employees with respect, providing opportunities for professional growth and advancement, and providing benefits, both traditional and nontraditional, that make the employee experience better.
Each nominee must be a North American organization that:
- is independent -- not a unit of a larger corporation
- has no more than $200 million in annual revenues
- has 500 or fewer employees
- has been in business at least five years
Finalists will be selected in the spring, and the Top Small Workplaces will be announced on October 1, 2007, in a Journal Report on Small Business. Those named will be honored at a conference and celebration in Chicago in the fall of 2007.
To nominate an organization, StartupJournal.com
DETAILS:
First Law of Entrepreneurial Gravity -- Growth Sucks Cash
Second Law of Entrepreneurial Gravity -- Buy Low, Sell High
Third Law of Gravity -- Visibility Equals Credibility