Interview: Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends

If you are a small business entrepreneur or a business journalist in USA, then I guess Anita Campbell is not a stranger to you. She is the owner of Small Business Trends, one of the most successful and informative websites about Small Business organizations in USA. A Law graduate, Anita Campbell has a wide range of interests. She worked in various sectors of business organizations such as, banking, information technology, human resources, marketing and eCommmerce. Before starting Small Business Trends, Anita worked in executive positions in different companies. She served as a senior executive with Bell & Howell Company. She also worked as a CEO for one of the technology subsidiary of Bell& Howell. Anita Campbell is also a respected speaker.

In 2003, Anita Campbell started Small Business Trends. At that time, it was a blog. As it became more popular and successful, she turned it into a multi-author publication. Now, it is an LLC (Limited Liability Company). Just go to Google Blog search and type the word ‘Business.’ Small Business Trends will come up in the first five websites in the search result. Famous business magazine, Forbes, included Small Business Trends in its “Best of the Web” list in 2005 and 2008.

Recently, I had the great opportunity to conduct an interview of this talented web-entrepreneur for SouthAsiaFair. Here is the interview:

SouthAsiaFair: What was your inspiration behind starting Small business Trends?

Anita Campbell: I was doing some consulting and wanted an easy way to publish a newsletter for clients.  It was taking me a long time to post newsletter articles on a Web page, using Dreamweaver software.  Finally, one day someone suggested that I go over to Blogger.com and set up a free blog and publish my newsletter articles there.  I did that, and found it was very very easy.  I decided to call it Small Business Trends, because I wrote about trends that impact small businesses (sounded pretty descriptive to me!).

I started posting there more frequently, and before I knew it I started to get an audience.  People started visiting the blog and subscribing to the RSS feed. That was in 2003.  Before long I came to realize that my blog ranked higher than my own business website when searching for my name.  That’s when I decided to start putting more and more effort into the blog.  Eventually I was able to attract advertising.  I also began to get consulting assignments from the blog.  So it started to be meaningful in a business sense – more than just an easy way to publish newsletter articles.  It because much more of central focus of my business, and my business evolved around the blog.

SouthAsiaFair: Small Business Trends is a multi-author publication. Do you have to pay the guest authors for contributing to your website?

Anita Campbell: I pay an assistant editor and some service providers such as a webmaster.  The “Experts” are not paid – they contribute their expertise in exchange for expanded visibility.  That may change at some point, but right now that’s the way it is.

SouthAsiaFair: You are also engaged in other activities? How much time do you give for writing in your website?

Anita Campbell: Small Business Trends LLC is a business consisting of several websites, an Internet radio show (half hour per week), and syndication of articles on various places around the Web.  It is a full-time business for me.

I spend half of most days writing or conducting online research.  The other half is divided up among administrative work, marketing, communicating with members of the community and other activities.  I also speak at events, participate at other events, and otherwise engage with other entrepreneurs and small-businesspeople.  And I take on a limited number of consulting engagements.

SouthAsiaFair: You started Small Business Trends as a business blog and then turned this into an LLC. For professional bloggers, especially those who want to write about business, what will be your advice?

Anita Campbell: If you want it to become a business or a significant part of your business, then treat it like a business.

That means, treat it as an entity separate from you the individual.  For instance, I have had to stop writing about certain topics that were specific to me personally or specific to certain parts of my business, say, my consulting work or the next trip I would be making.  It’s no longer “my” blog so much as it is the community’s blog.  Even if I am not interested in a topic, if a certain kind of topic gets visits and page views, then we are likely to write about that subject.  If the Experts write about a topic, that’s their decision, not mine.  While I exercise editorial oversight, it’s no longer just me deciding direction (which is the way it was during the first two years).  That is a crucial shift in mindset – and it is sometimes hard to do.  It means giving up control.  It means no longer considering this thing you’ve shed sweat and tears to build, as “your baby.”

SouthAsiaFair: Very often, you have guest authors who write about doing business in other countries like China, Europe, Middle East. Do you have any plans to start a new branch in your website where you would cover about business sectors of other countries such as China, India, or European countries?

Anita Campbell: I would definitely like to get more articles written about doing business in Asia and elsewhere.  We live in a global economy – that’s important to us all, even if our businesses are small.  We in the United States cannot afford to be insular. I am very interested in global business matters.

SouthAsiaFair: Anita, I live in Bangladesh and I work from my home. In America, I heard that many people work or run their businesses staying at their homes (I came to know about Robert Clough from your website). Did you ever thought about starting a blog or website where these work from home people can write about their business? With the rise in fuel price many people are now considering working from home as an option.

Anita Campbell: Yes, in fact quite a number of our most loyal community members work from home.  I do as well – and I am very glad for it. A number of the Small Business Trends Experts work from home, too.  I am always open to exploring new things.

SouthAsiaFair: USA is now suffering from economic slow down. Rising fuel price has also become a major issue. What are the critical steps do you think small business owners should take to survive through the period?

Anita Campbell: Some may have to raise their own prices, if their costs have gone up.  Some may face the difficult decision to shut down their businesses.  For instance, I just ran across this article, in which the business owner shut down her business temporarily (we hope it’s just temporary) and took a part-time position:  http://smbceo.com/2008/08/05/candle-wax-rising-fuel-costs-zero-profit/

I survived through the Dot Com Boom and subsequent Bust of 2001.  I keep watching for signs of weakness in Web 2.0 businesses, especially ad supported businesses.  In 2001 I ran an ad-supported Internet business and saw ad revenues slow to a trickle very quickly, and not turn back on again for a few years.  I think the times are different now (more and more advertising is shifting to the Web, whereas Web advertising was unproven 7 years ago), thank goodness.  Good management and responsible fiscal control, with a focus on sales, will help small businesses get through any economic softness.

SouthAsiaFair: One of the major allegations of small business owners is the tax burden they have to bear. I admit that small business organizations have major contributions to the economy of USA. Unfortunately, they are the first ones to be affected by any kind of economic change or natural catastrophe. Do you think that government should lessen the tax burden on small business organizations? (Small Businesses: Stop With the Taxes and Regulations)

Anita Campbell: Yes, I think the tax burden should be reduced.  Also, I would like to see the regulatory burden reduced, too.

Taxes and regulations make it harder for small businesses to start and grow.  There’s very little cushion in the finances of many small businesses.  Two or 3 bad months sometimes can drive a business to the breaking point.  And regulations that make it harder to do business may not individually seem like a big burden – each may seem small taken by itself.  But it’s a mountain of little things.  Just keep piling a bunch of little things on top of one another, and before you know it, it’s as big as a mountain.

And in order to cut taxes, government just has to stop spending so much.  It’s just like managing our home budgets — we’ve all faced it at some point where we had to stop spending so much in order to make ends meet.  The answer to every problem does not need to be “pass a law” or ”institute a new regulation.”  Every time that happens, there are costs – costs for the government to enforce those laws and regulations, and costs for businesses to comply with them, and costs in the form of higher taxes for everyone.

Some laws and regulations are necessary, just as some taxes are necessary.  We need those things in a civil society, for the public welfare.  But I advocate reasonableness – be reasonable in taxes and regulations, and know when to stop.

SouthAsiaFair: While going through your website, I came across this post published on June 30, 2008; Downsized Into Entrepreneurship, the 21st Century Way.  As you know, the number of unemployed people has risen recently in the United States, do you think this will create a surge in small business? I have a feeling that many of these unemployed people (including those who are downsized) will try their luck in small business.

Anita Campbell:I think there is a vibrant small business scene and will continue to be.  Also, what we find is that people flow in and out of entrepreneurship these days – I wrote about it as “The On Again, Off Again Entrepreneur.”  We will run our own businesses for a while.  Then maybe get a job if we need to for a while to make money to fund another startup.  This happens quite a bit. J

Thanks a lot for the interview.

Thank YOU for the interview, Mehdi!

If you want to know more about Small Business Trends, here is the link of the official website: http://www.smallbiztrends.com/. This website is a one stop information center for small business in USA. You will get the latest information about business trends, policies, and various other articles, regularly published by business experts. You will also receive newsletter upon subscribing. Anita Campbell regularly interviews various business personalities which you can listen to from her radio show: http://www.smbtrendwire.com/

If you want to know more about Small Business Trends, then visit the following link: http://www.smallbiztrends.com/about/faqs/

For more information on Anita Campbell visit the following link:

http://www.smallbiztrends.com/about/anita-campbell/