Social Media | Gerard Spinks UndagroundMilli

Minority Business Success Starts with a plan

On 07.05.10, In Entrepreneur, by admin

How does the small nimble minority business succeed in such a large space? Well, the first thing to know is that the Federal and State government has set aside programs for minority business.

Creating true wealth in the United States for minorities and specifically for black owned businesses start with creating a sick tight plan of attack and a strategy on how to make money. Obviously, in these harsh economic times this is a seemingly tall order but it can be done. Business is tough to come by for everybody but one place that people sometimes overlook is the government market.

There are many tall tales about the government spending billions of dollars on contracts but what people do not tell you is that most of these contracts are with large prime goverment contractors such as Lockheed Martin and others.

Gerard Spinks' business guide

This doesn’t mean that you will easily sign your business up with the small business association and start making tons of money. Been there done that.

I set up my minority business as a government contractor in 1998 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Went to all the meetings with the SBA in downtown San Francisco. Got registered as a MBE Minority Business Enterprise, a small disadvantaged business, and a 8A contractor. I thought the money would start pouring in to my account as I would easily win government contracts. Not so and far from the truth of even what the SBA tells you.

My company, Spinks Industries, took years of hustlin’ to come up on the government market and learned one major thing after working with a partner firm to grow their business to $35 million in contracts; you must create a business plan and provide it to the SBA to become an 8A contractor and you must learn to write business proposals and respond to requests for proposals from agencies. No easy task because the proposal writing process itself is tedious and requires expertise across a number of disciplines.

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A Black Kids’ Guide to Business Success

On 07.04.10, In 1, by admin

I would succeed if it killed me. I would make a million dollars. I would claim it and I would actualize it at all costs in the San Francisco Bay Area. I would be successful with out you, my pops.

Gerard Spinks’ Open Letter to a black father who I’ve seen once in my life:

A Black Kids Guide to business success

Dear ~~Dad~~ Pops,

I’m sure you are a good dude. If you’ve ever seen a black man become successful in life and the Internet, you’re looking at him right here. I was surprised when my moms showed me pictures of me that I had signed when I was my daughters age around 7 or 8. Yes, I was the one looking real ~~geeky~~ studly and interesting at St. Philomena’s elementary school in Peoria, Illinois. I don’t know how my moms got me to sign those pictures because I never saw you.

I vaguely remember seeing you once when I was getting ready to go off to college to St. Ambrose ~~College~~ University in Davenport, Iowa. Moms never had any money so she sent me off to St. Ambrose with $20, a skillet, and a bag of clothes. Yes, she expected me to do well but she had nothing else to offer. Wish you were there. Actually, at St. Phil’s, being around all these white kids, everyone had a dad. It used to make me feel real crazy that you weren’t there but their dads were at the basketball games and taking them to play JFL (Junior Football League) that some call Pop Warner Football.

I always longed for a dad especially as I started playing sports and doing ~~well~~ average in high school. Some of the white kids really hated on me and even the coaches didn’t want to see me succeed because I was black. If I could only tell them that my dad was there and supported me, it probably wouldn’t have been so tough and hard on your son. At any rate, I had to fight through this nonsense, the hatred, the dissing, and somehow make a success of myself. Moms told me to just keep playing and stop listening to everyone.

How to do this I have no idea. Really could have used your help and guidance. Moms ~~didn’t~~ did know exactly how but she did. She already had two boys, I was her youngest so she did have some experience. Anyway, I learned how to be successful without you. It was hard. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears. While at Texas, I really needed help and called mom for some money. She couldn’t help. She had none. ~~She never had money~~ She had God and that was all we needed. Even though some of the kids in high school thought we were doing well because I had success in football, ~~we were broke~~ we had cash flow issues, always. ~~Forever on food stamps~~ Forever relying on God’s grace and power. It was our secret though.

When I called out for help to moms and wishing you could help, I realized in that moment that ~~no one could help me~~ God was guiding me and taking over. I realized that I was raised in a situation where I could count on no one other than ~~myself for success~~ God. I realized as a very young kid that it was up to ~~me and only me~~ God to succeed. Yes, pops, this kind of sucked because other people around me had help. They could go home and get help. I couldn’t. I vowed at this moment to turn my life around and be the success that I envisioned and that I saw all these white kids have. Their parents literally sent them to the University of Notre Dame. They made sure they went to great colleges and universities in the midwest. My moms made sure I knew how to ~~apply for food stamps~~ be successful by listening and relying on God. I would do it. I would succeed if it killed me. I would make a million dollars. I would claim it and I would actualize it at all costs in the San Francisco Bay Area. I would be successful ~~with out you, my pops~~ by putting God first and having faith and belief in what God had created, ME.

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Social Media In A Business World

On 06.15.10, In Current Events, by admin

People talk about social media all the time like it’s the best thing in the world. It can be if utilized right. For those of us who have been around the block with technology and have seen the dot com implosion first hand, you know not to get too excited about the next coming of [...]

Social Media in a Business World

People talk about social media all the time like it’s the best thing in the world. It can be if utilized right. For those of us who have been around the block with technology and have seen the dot com implosion first hand, you know not to get too excited about the next coming of the Internet Age. Having said that, you can be successful with social media. When I talk to people I tell them that it’s not about aimless talking on Twitter and not about constant business promotion on Twitter or Facebook.

There must be a balance and you must walk a tight rope between engaging with people since most people like to just chat away about anything and selling your business or your product. It’s good to talk personal and it’s good to talk business only. You must find that line. I feel that the line is where you draw it in the sand. I’ve had some friends say that they are only on Facebook and Twitter for personal reasons and just to chat with people in their inner circle. I’ve also spoken to people who want to maximize it and use these platforms for business connections.

We’ve all been inundated with the myriad of party flyers that now dominate Facebook. I’ve recently turned these off and only post business stuff to my wall. My fans see it on my Facebook fan page and choose whether or not they wish to read it. Find the balance but don’t ever do too much of one side. Don’t talk about your dog and your mother all day and don’t talk about your music all day. Do both, but have a strategic plan as to why you are even social.

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What If Twitter and Facebook Died? #socialmedia

On 04.13.10, In Current Events, by admin

If Twitter or Facebook died, all of those people live on their computer servers and server farm.

I had a conversation with Ms. Abiola Abrams the other night about social media and building your own site. It prompted me to think about what if Twitter or Facebook suffered the same fate as BlackPlanet and Myspace? What if you built up 100,000 followers, tried to monetize it just for the company to sink like the Titantic Sinks ?

Anyone serious in business and trying to grow their business needs to be concerned about this real possibility.

I’m in California and it’s like not thinking that an earthquake will ever hit. It will. It’s not if it will come it’s when it will happen. I’ve lived through 2 massive earthquakes and now I take pre-caution and am prepared no matter where I am if I was suddenly in an earthquake but two hours and three long bridges away from my home in the East Bay of San Francisco.

Many of us spent countless time and effort building up pages on BlackPlanet and Myspace and building up our fan base only to see all of those fans mean nothing today. The solution lies in two things only: 1). Seriously build your own blog and market the mess out of it and 2). For those with a massive fan base, build your own social network on your own server that mimics your very own Facebook community.

The key to understanding this concept is in YOUR OWN Server. If Twitter or Facebook died, all of those people live on their computer servers and server farm Facebook Server Farm .

If they go under, so does all of your connects, followers, and fans. This is something serious to think about. The prevailing thought should be “How to I move my X followers over to my community so that I can build fan loyalty in my own “social neighborhood”?

This is truly the next step for anyone building a brand or building their own network. Still utilize the other popular social networks but it is imperative to build our OWN social neighborhoods. Getting your own server and hosting your own system is cheap now. If you happen to be in business and need to build your own thing and own community check I Am Rogue Pictures for an example of what I’m talking about.

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Get more web visitors with no money

On 03.31.10, In 1, by admin

You can increase web traffic on a shoestring budget

One little known secret of increasing viewers to your website lies in putting anchor text on your webpage. When you have anchor text to quality websites like Wikipedia, or other reputable company’s or websites, it increases your page rank and the Google robot sees your website during indexing each night. The anchors on this website is the text embedded in here that you can click on. The plain text that I’m writing with means nothing to the Google robot when it sees your webpage. And, if you NEVER update your website, the Google robot operates on a out of site, out of mind mentality. It overlooks you completely if you never update your website or blog.

The other way to be seen on the Internet is by writing articles on your specific niche. I suggest everyone who abandoned their blogs years ago, start blogging about your niche and adding anchor text to your blog of keywords that you want people to see in order to increase web traffic. Even though you may not be a writer, to win traffic on the Internet today is all about writing articles to have the Google bot see your site. No writing, no traffic, and no money. If you don’t know how to write, email us to get started on having my team write articles for you for a fee. We will write articles for you for $50-$200 depending upon what you need Spinks to do and how comprehensive it is. Some writings require a ton of research and this takes time.

You will also need to add Google analytics to your webpages so that you can start to measure the success rate of each individual webpage. If you need us to become your webmaster and get this going for you, please feel free to contact us for individualized pricing on your needs at gds (at) spinksindustries (dot) com. So, step 1 is to start to add anchor text to your website and step 2 is to start dusting your blog or website off and add new content. Your goal should be to add new content to your blog at least once per day or three times per week. Good luck on increasing traffic today.

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The Black American Pocket Guide To Success

On 10.25.09, In Entrepreneur, by admin

The pocket guide used to be a small book that you would fit in your pocket. Today’s pocket guide is your iPhone or Blackberry that literally goes in your pocket. Download this posting to your phone immediately and move it over to your notes application and reference it everyday. 1). Believe in yourself and believe [...]

The pocket guide used to be a small book that you would fit in your pocket. Today’s pocket guide is your iPhone or Blackberry that literally goes in your pocket. Download this posting to your phone immediately and move it over to your notes application and reference it everyday.

1). Believe in yourself and believe in God to protect and cover you.
2). Don’t listen to anyone who doesn’t believe in you. Tune them out and stop talking to them, now.
3). Never share your takeover plans with anyone that you don’t trust. They will immediately begin to kill your dream because they don’t believe in themselves.
4). Put the right people around you who can help you succeed. Build the right team.
5). Seek out and meet new team members who can advance your life.
6). When times get thin, tough, hard, and unruly, pray and act at the same time.
7). Success only follows action. Always do a small action to build to a big action.
8). Know that huge success is a process of small steps that lead to big ones.
9). Act small and keep your success and money in the bank.
10). When you have nothing and when you have a whole lot of something, help others always.

Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries; a web content developer and online marketing agency based in Atlanta, GA USA. You can get started with a comprehensive marketing plan at http://www.spinksindustries.com.

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Making Money On The Internet The Slow Way

On 10.25.09, In Entrepreneur, by admin

This is what no one wants to hear but I’m going to blog it anyway. Making money on the Internet is about the slow, arduous process of building credibility with an audience who does not know you. How is credibility built? This means hard work, dedication, and a commitment to excellence for your product or [...]

This is what no one wants to hear but I’m going to blog it anyway. Making money on the Internet is about the slow, arduous process of building credibility with an audience who does not know you. How is credibility built? This means hard work, dedication, and a commitment to excellence for your product or service.

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This is also the slow route and the anti-get rich quick mentality that is in almost every email offering that you see. Making money online is really a result of building up a name that people trust by what you say and by your actions. Tweeting all day, either, does not do this.

Offering solid products, solid advice, and solid service to your potential customers to turn them into paying customers does this. Unfortunately, this takes time because the Internet is full of both good and bad spam and con artists. The only way to stand out from the crowd of mischievous Internet scammers is to post relevant, truthful, and timely information to build trust of your patrons.

There is no silver bullet and no magic wand over building your brand and making money online. Even as an affiliate marketer, this too takes time and you need patience to tweak offers and learn the best place to market and sell for a particular product that you are marketing.

Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries; a web content developer and online marketing agency based in Atlanta, GA USA. You can get started with a comprehensive marketing plan at http://www.spinksindustries.com.

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Work At Home The Right Way

On 10.25.09, In Entrepreneur, by admin

Working at home takes discipline, patience, and action. People have somehow mistaken working at home with relaxing’ while watching Maury Povich and television all day while streams of money come rolling in. It’s not going to happen. [picapp src="5/5/e/6/Balancing_Act_51b0.JPG?adImageId=6618789&imageId=6722917" width="380" height="258" /] Working at home takes discipline. The United States has the technological infrastructure to [...]

Working at home takes discipline, patience, and action. People have somehow mistaken working at home with relaxing’ while watching Maury Povich and television all day while streams of money come rolling in. It’s not going to happen.
[picapp src="5/5/e/6/Balancing_Act_51b0.JPG?adImageId=6618789&imageId=6722917" width="380" height="258" /]

Working at home takes discipline. The United States has the technological infrastructure to easily support this. I used to support an Indian Software Engineering Center for Cisco Systems from my home office in the Silicon Valley. All the developers were in Bangalore, India, I was in the East Bay, and our headquarters was down in Milpitas, CA.

What did this take? Discipline. Working at home can be done easily but people abuse it and watch television while they should be working. Contrary to popular belief, you actually don’t need to wake up put on business clothes just to sit down in your home office. If you need all of this type of false hype to make yourself feel like you’re in business mode, you shouldn’t be working from home at all.

You should be able to wake up and do your work and make your money right at home. There are now Internet Phone and Skype that allow you to dial another computer for free. I suggest getting Skype, GoToMeeting.com, and a nice web cam or iMac computer so that you can hold meetings in your home office without interruption and without fail.

Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries; a web content developer and online marketing agency based in Atlanta, GA USA. You can get started with a comprehensive marketing plan at http://www.spinksindustries.com.

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Are Blog Sites Better Than Regular Web Sites

On 10.25.09, In Entrepreneur, by admin

In today’s business world, blog sites are much better to build a website than having a traditional website. A traditional website is one where someone buys a stock template from Yahoo or some other web hosting company and creates a website where the content never changes. This is an EPIC FAIL and will never prove [...]

In today’s business world, blog sites are much better to build a website than having a traditional website. A traditional website is one where someone buys a stock template from Yahoo or some other web hosting company and creates a website where the content never changes. This is an EPIC FAIL and will never prove to drive traffic to your website.

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I highly recommend using a blog site to build your brand. Blog sites are designed to have constant content added to them and make it easy to do this. Regular websites are not blog oriented and not designed to have constant change. They are designed to have a landing page with content that never changes.

There are a myriad of blog themes for cheap on the web. I suggest getting started immediately with a plan. Don’t just launch the blog and write one posting and let it sit there. Be committed to writing every day and changing the content on your blog. This will build customers and build your personal brand. Don’t just sit there. Do something.

Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries; a web content developer and online marketing agency based in Atlanta, GA USA. You can get started with a comprehensive marketing plan at http://www.spinksindustries.com.

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