The Web 2.0 revolution is reaching the financial sector. It’s not only forums and chat rooms, and not another Twitter application for stocks. This time it’s about revealing trades in real time. One sector is standing out: forex. Trading currencies has been around for a few decades, but it was limited to big financial institutions. The internet, among other things, brought this niche of financial investment (or speculation if you wish) to the masses.

“Show me the money”

There’s lots of innovation around forex trading platforms, so this served as good ground for networking sites as well. In 2009 and 2010, these networking sites went deeper – deep into the pockets of investors. Similar to applications such as Google Latitude that expose your geographical location, these sites expose data. But it’s not only forex. Let’s see some examples:

1. MT4Pips: These are lots of weird names in Web 2.0, and this name is not only Web 2.0-ish, but uses the forex jargon. MT is MetaTrader, the leading software in this field. Using this site, traders that use this specific software can share their real live trades between each other. This site comes from a company that already made a Digg-like site for forex, has a forums site and more social sites in this field.  The options are somewhat basic, and are limited to this specific platform, but are a great and neat start. Here’s a deeper review of this site.
2. Currensee: Focusing only on the forex sector, this site enables sharing of real time trades and has tools for aggregating the numbers and showing the big picture. While this isn’t limited to a specific software, not all the brokers in the industry are available there. They are adding more and more brokers, and improving the design, so this will probably emerge as the leading tool for social networking in forex. But we guess that most of you aren’t investing in this specific niche but rather in stocks. The last options supports more sectors.
3. PT Multistation: This is a software that enables traders to use multiple brokers at once. They recently added social features that allow traders (in foreign exchange, stocks and others) to chat and also to share real trades. This tool already allows multiple brokers and goes beyond the niche of forex, but the social features still require improvement, according to this review. Also here, a good direction that still needs polishing.

All in all, we have nice starts here with each one taking a different direction. We hope that this trend of transparency will reach stock sites as well. Do you know of any sites like these? We’d love to hear.

Further reading: Is showing all your cards always the right choice?

Picture credit: stuartpilbrow on Flickr.

Part of my work with start-up companies includes finding investors and funds. With time you find that somethings works for you better than others. Of course, these are just my impressions. Hope you’ll find them useful:

1. Your Network - As mentioned here frequently before, use your close network of family and friends to find funding. It’s common for many start-ups who started out in their garage to raise the first amount of money with their family and friends, which often referred to as FFF (friends, family and fools) . Just to get a kick start, make a short and clear presentation and gather up your close friends and family(your living room is fine). This idea has 2 main advantages: The first is you have a great chance to present your idea and get free feedback. The second is, and take this seriously – a true opportunity to raise capital from people who will be suportive and believe in your potential. Take this group of seed investors seriously, and you just might be a step from seeing your idea turn into business.
2. Be prepared – You’ve just launched the works on your new start-up, even took a bank loan, or took your friends and family as small investors. You already have a business plan, you just finished developing the first stage of your application or product. You’ll probably need to find more capital, and look for more investors. Before you do anything else, have at least the following, a short 1-2 pager summary of your business. A few really good images of your application/website and not more than a 10 page powerpoint slideshow. No one can review more than that and stay focused.
3. To the next step – Now that you have a short executive summary, a killer (and short!) powerpoint presentation and the money invested in you by those close to you, your ready to move to the next stage. Make a list of(and this will take time), potential new investors. Who should be on this list? Anyone related to you or your friends with financial means. Look for:
   1. People related to financial organizations such as Venture Capital firms.
   2. Private investor groups. In many cases small and medium investors group up to invest in new businesses.
   3. Big corporates in related industry fields, that might invest or collaborate with your business.
   4. Business Development experts, that raised capital in the past, they will cost you but will save time and can shorten the time you spend in order to raise the funds.
4. Be Creative! Aside from the options listed above, you can search for capital in many places you haven’t thought about. Not only big VC firms or financiers can come up with capital for your start-up. It can be anyone with financial means. The same way you can gather up your family and friends to hear about your great idea, you can do the same with any business person you can find. Ask for a meeting with owners of a retails stores, big agencies or any other kind of business owners. In many cases Business owners are looking for new ways to bring added value to their cashflow, and investing in new start-up can be a great new opportunity for them.

In our next posts I wil give some more input on the subject with actual examples from my experience.

1. Setting up a website can cost as low as $150: there isn’t a bigger mistake for a business than this one, especially for small and medium businesses. In many cases, a business website is the ‘Front Cover’ of the business and your reputation. This is where most of the new clients and costumers first encounter your product. That ‘Front Cover’ of your business should reflect the quality of your product. You don’t have to spend a fortune on it, but have a professional do the job, plan wisely what your site should consist of, make sure the design is friendly, and that all the features work properly(links, payment, video’s, ads etc.). This still isn’t a big cost, and it is of great importance. Isn’t it worth paying a little more on your website?
2. Social media is a waste of time. I will start by how NOT to use social media (Sent by Shooky Galili) It’s rarely heard that social media is a waste of time. I can relate to businessmen who say the haven’t any spare time to be active on social platforms. I don’t think a business owner should be active on more than 3-4 social websites. It can be difficult to keep track. The key here is to start with a small modest blog, where you can update on new products and news. All that with writing no more than one 200-word post a week. Some businessmen such as lawyers already have a substantial amount of content written, and can start by posting it. After the blog is up and running, you can link it to your facebook, twitter and so on. Step by step is a good method to step into social media. An interesting discussion about this issue is happening right now at the Social Media Today group on LinkedIn.
3. Offline Advertisement is dead. Although social media and online advertisement are taking their share in advertising budgets, offline media such as newspapers, radio and TV is still part of our lives, and businesses should consider them as part of their marketing campaigns. When focused on local costumers, radio and local papers still have influence on the market. With local radio stations and papers you could complete your campaign and reach more clients in a relatively low cost. It turns out there is even much to learn from radio. Read more about it on digitaltonto by Greg Satell
4. Online Networking and Offline Networking are two completely different stories. The truth couldn’t be further away from that. On social media, email, conventions and even birthday parties, people behave like…people. Most of us enjoy meeting new people, knowing them and having some kind of a relationship (business, romantic, community..) .  If you meet someone face to face, you first want to know who you’re meeting and what common grounds you have. Then, if it seems reasonable enough for both side, a connection can be made. Online and social media aren’t that different. Our previous post about befriending too soon on Facebook guides you what to ‘do’ and what  ‘not do’ on social media.

I’m sure there are many more myths we all encounter daily. I would love to hear yours, and post them.

Don’t miss opportunities – When does that big opportunity come? You could never know. In order to avoid missing opportunities, there’s only one thing to do. Take part in activities related to your business and personal life as mentioned here before. Any occasion or person you meet, could easily become a great opportunity  for a big client or  a new contract, or finding the perfect candidate for a job your hiring for.

Then again, some meetings just bring up too many bad memories

Don’t force your  business – Your product is great, I’m sure of that. But try to understand the event you’re participating in. Timing is everything (along with a good product,creative  marketing and some luck…). Sometimes you might just have one opportunity to introduce yourself to someone relevant to you -  don’t blow it. If you speak about your business in the wrong place, you might be considered rude and maybe even boring. From my experience, always introduce yourself first as a person, an individual. Don’t talk about your business straight away. People like to connect with people, not companies. Start by a short introduction about yourself. People will remember you but they will seldom remember a company name. If people will remember you it doesn’t matter which business it is, They would be interested in YOU.

Don’t beat yourself when you’re wrong – We all make mistakes, and we learn from them. You tried to introduce your business to a potential investor and failed. Well, these things happen. When you’re unsuccessful, a few things should be done. First of all, go back and trace your moves. What went wrong? Was it the PowerPoint slides? Were you under-prepared? Understand what can be improved for the next time. Now that you are ready to try again, do it as many times as possible. You failed making connections in a convention? Go to a dozen more. You approached potential costumers and it didn’t work, try doing it better, and this time approach a hundred costumers more.

Never, but NEVER, work ‘on the fly’ – It’s nice being spontaneous when it comes to going out, not for your business. Although networking is not a science as accurate as rocket physics, you can plan your moves wisely. Decided on going to a convention to make new connections?  Wonderful! Is this convention in your field of work? Is there a better one soon? How costly is it? You must ask yourself these questions. Otherwise you will be spending more than you can afford of your time and money.

Don’t underestimate the power of online networking – We wrote here about LinkedIn, blogs and other means of social networking. These tools are already important enough for businesses, and will become even more dominant in our lives. Even if your business is completely offline, you need to start changing it. Be sure your competitors are working on it as we speak. Learn where your line of work is exposed on the web. Learn which blogger writes about your industry. Bloggers write almost about everything, from technology to foreign-exchange , Graffiti and even Hummus. Take a few hours a week and find the places interesting for you on the web and be active there, for reputation, costumers, colleagues and in short Networking.

How to connect to unfamiliar people: LinkedIn is a great and fast way to connect to people you would like to do business with, but haven’t met before. Here are a few ways on how to do it.

First of all, I recommend as a prior step to get connected to all your existing connections as described in my last post: LinkedIn – Increase Your Networking. After doing so, the LinkedIn system will automaticly suggest people you might know, and can be used to connect to people you might want to know. This appears on the upper right side of your screen titled “People you may know”.

LinkedIn - People you may know feature

By clicking the ‘See more’ link below the ‘People you may Know’ box a long list of possible connections will appear. You can approach these connections through a third party, who will be a connection of both of you. You can also approach directly and it would be acceptable if you have a mutual work place or school or any kind of organization.

A good example would be approaching someone you don’t know personally, but heard him speak at a convention, and you might think could help your business. You could start by sending a message on LinkedIn, telling a few words about yourself and your business, write what in the speech was relevant to you, and ask politely to meet in person, talk over the phone, or maybe send some additional information. This way you might just grow your network of connections faster and beyond your current familiar friends and colleagues.

In our next post we will review the recommendations feature on LinkedIn.

Well, luck isn’t really the key for success here. A good idea is important, timing people will say is crucial, and of-course L-O-C-A-T-I-O-N (usually said three times). But is that all?

We think not.

As a partner in more than one business I think one of the most important things is to let people know you have a business. It’s not that obvious: most people would think that they need to talk (or write for that matter) about their business only with customers and suppliers. This attitude could be the downside of your business, Let’s review this:

Costumers – whether it’s customers, clients or users you need, they are practically every way you look. Don’t judge the people you meet. Anyone of your friends, family or community could become a costumer (even a paying one). As mentioned in previous posts, most of the people in your surroundings are part of your network, and in this case part of your business’s network. If your business is a store or a user related online website, it means anyone and everyone are your customers.

Make sure to be enthusiastic about your business and tell the story behind your store/company/website to your bar-tender (before the fourth round of drinks), to your friends, their friends, former work colleagues, family and even to the annoying neighbor from across the hall. If you show enough motivation about your business to enough people, be sure, the word will get around.

Suppliers – With a new business comes great responsibility and even greater costs. You will probably need a place to rent, buy office supplies, online or offline storage, pay consultants and maybe even experts. Experts are the same as consultants but cost more . Except for getting a competitive price from your suppliers, you need them to be reliable and supply quality products.

Try to always find  suppliers inside your network, if they meet your standards of course. Suppliers within your network will probably be more convenient about terms of payment and credit, be more loyal to you, and most importantly might speak highly of you to potential costumers or even becomes costumers themselves.

All this shouldn’t be instead of marketing and advertising, but it will make it much more effective, and its really cost-effective.

One last thing, looking for a job isn’t so different from starting up a new business from the networking point of view. We’ll discuss it in one of our the next posts.