I am conducting an informational overview of the Duct Tape Marketing Coaching program. If you have any interest in becoming a marketing coach or aligning your practice with the Duct Tape Marketing brand then phone in and hear about it this Thursday, June 14th at 2pm Central.

Enroll for the call here – Find out more about the program here – Marketing Coach

Applied Measurement Professionals, Inc. (AMP) recently launched the AMP Business Institute (ABI) as a practical solution for the development, planning and management training needs of businesses, associations, and certification boards.

To kick-off the Business Institute they have asked me to conduct several one day workshops at their new headquarters located in the Kansas City area.

On June 29th I will be conducting the 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success. Participants will get a very deep dive into building a small business marketing system with practical hands on exercises.

On July 27th I will conducting Harness the Internet. The information rich session will show small business marketers how to use the Internet and a web presence to amplify their marketing message. Blogs, RSS, podcasts, and search engines will be covered.

When I first started my business over 20 years ago, I was a bit of an odd duck for my age. At the time, business ownership was equated to a form of joblessness.

Times have changed and I visited with Kelly Spors, Small Talk columnist for The Wall Street Journal and StarupJournal.com about the raging trend of campus entrepreneurs and college entrepreneurial programs. You can hear our interview on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast.

Colleges all over America are creating ways to foster early entrepreneurial growth while students are attending classes. A growing number of schools are offering entrepreneurial degrees, but some are going as far as creating “hatcheries” and offering funding for start-ups.

As a side note, I interviewed a couple twenty-something college success stories, Tom Szaky of Terracycle and Ryan Allis of Intellicontact (not published yet). Great shows!

Some resources:
• Kelly Spors: Entrepreneurship 101
• Corporate College at Cuyahoga Community College
  
• Money magazine article
  
• Grand Canyon University’s College of Entrepreneurship
  
• Idea Bounce

I would love to hear about some college entrepreneur success stories – I know I have lots of college age entrepreneur readers – let’s hear about what you’re doing.

Nettie Hartsock is a wonderfully generous writer who covers “Must Read Business Books” for AllBusiness.com. Last week she asked me a handful of questions about Duct Tape Marketing.

Here’s my favorite question:

Nettie: Why do you love small businesses?

John: (laughs) There’s something in equal parts about it being both gratifying and terrifying and for the challenges that you have to meet for the companies.

It’s s a whole different feeling in terms of the results that you want to get for these businesses. With small businesses, you’re really working for the person that signs the check, directly with them in order to help their business grow.

Early on I did work for a large corporation and I got a check for 156,000 dollars and it was an error and the thing it was just an accounting error, but I remember that day thinking I could cash this check and no one would ever know. But it also served as a really good example of what happens in larger corporations where there is no accountability and no real drive to get anyone results.

So for me the challenge in working with small businesses is that you really have an opportunity to prove yourself and they really have an opportunity to see the results.

You can catch the full interview here.

I’ve recently reopened the Duct Tape Marketing forum to allow small business owners to meet and discuss marketing with like minded business folks. Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach Bill Brelsford of Rebar Business Builders is moderating the forum to keep the conversation valuable to members and visitors.

If you haven’t ever gone by, visit today and add your two cents or dispense a little wisdom to benefit others. I love resource, book, and tool recommendations too, but keep it valuable and don’t spam the readers or Bill will kick you off the island!

For all you Duct Tape Marketing book wanters in the KC area, I’ll be doing a mini workshop and book signing at the Borders Books in Overland Park, KS this Saturday, Feb. 24 at 2pm. Come on out and say hi.

Can’t make it. You can always just buy the book!

Increasingly I am asked to run ads on my blog and web site. About a year ago I signed on with John Battelle’s Federated Media to handle this aspect of my business.

If you have an interest in advertising on Duct Tape Marketing you can speak with an account rep at Federated or even try the self service option.

Federated has done some great things for my brand and opened some doors for opportunities beyond blogging. Nice article in Business Week about them today.

Book shipping in full swing and already the reader comments have been very humbling. I love all the big name testimonials and media coverage that can come with a project like this, but when a small business owner, one I’ve never met, takes the time to send a note saying something I’ve shared is changing the way they think about business and renewing the hope they have for their dream, well, that pretty gratifying. (I’ll share some of these soon.)

We peaked at #5 on Amazon this weekend and are still hanging around the top 5 for marketing books.

I did an interview with Wall Street Radio This Morning that should air this week on its radio network around the country.

Lastly, the image in this post is a marketing class at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, ID happily sporting their textbook for the semester. Note the one neatly covered in duct tape for safe marketing learning. Thanks to instructor Brian Kolstad for the shot.