Welcome to the One on One conversation series, where Small Business Trends will be speaking to some of the best minds in business today. The goal of the series is to pick the brains of successful entrepreneurs, best-selling author, and executives with organizations serving the small business community, to provide the Small Business Trends community with their valuable business insights.

On Fridays, One on One lets you hear from — as well as learn from — people who have done it, who are doing it, and who will share their experiences and knowledge to help you do it for yourself.

If there are people you’d like us to go “One on One” with, just let us know, and we’ll see if we can make it happen.

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Jon Ferrara is a serial entrepreneur and a pioneer in the customer relationship management (CRM) industry. He co-founded Goldmine, one of the first contact management apps; his newest company, Nimble, is a social CRM service for small businesses.

Brent Leary spoke with Ferrara in this interview, which has been edited for space. To hear a full, audio version of the interview, scroll down to the loudspeaker icon at the bottom of the page.

Question: What is different about starting this kind of company now, as opposed to when you started Goldmine?

Jon Ferrara: I think the best ideas come from your own need, because you are passionate about it and you understand the problem.  When I started Goldmine, I saw a need for teams to communicate and collaborate together, and to integrate that communication back to their customers and prospects. Goldmine was the first networkable sales team tool.

Today, I am seeing the same type of need. Small businesses need to attract and retain customers more than ever.  But the way they are doing it has radically changed.  Customers aren’t [paying attention to] your advertisement; they are having dialogues amongst themselves about what they are going to buy.

Smart companies today are figuring out that they need to find out where those conversations are occurring and get in there and listen and engage, leveraging the way customers want to talk today.  Many times that is social media and the Web.

Question: How has the Internet changed business relationships, particularly at the small business level?

Jon Ferrara: Business relationships have always been social.  People buy from people they like, and they like people who know them.  The only way to know them is to listen.  I tell all my salespeople that when they go into a customer’s office, they need to look at the walls. People put things on their walls that enable you to build connections, relationships, intimacy, which leads to trust.  Today, social media enables you to listen, engage and look at people’s walls in wider ways than you ever thought possible.   Smart businesses today are leveraging social media to connect with their customers.

Question:  What lessons did you learn from starting and running Goldmine in the ‘80s and ‘90s that help you with Nimble today?

Jon Ferrara: The environment that I built Goldmine in back in the late ‘80s is the identical environment that we find ourselves in today.  There was a recession; people were looking for ways to do things more effectively and better and to do more with less.  We bootstrapped Goldmine, and the lesson I learned is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to reach customers.  Back in the day, we called it PR. Today, people are leveraging social media to get their message out and build connections and relationships.  That is really what has changed for today’s startups and small businesses, and I think the companies that understand how to leverage social media, to listen, engage and communicate and collaborate internally and externally, will be the companies that will grow fastest.

Question: With Nimble, you are building an on-demand, social CRM service aimed at the small business market. Goldmine was aimed at the salesperson and sales teams, correct?

Jon Ferrara: Our idea with Goldmine was that people don’t work in a vacuum, they work as a part of a larger team, and everybody on the team touches the customer. Goldmine was the first networkable relationship manager, but it was not just for salespeople, because it’s not just salespeople that touch your customer.  That is a mistake that many companies make — empowering just their salespeople with contact or relationship tools. Everybody should be open to connecting with the customer.

What’s different about Nimble is, where Goldmine leveraged the network to enable a team to communicate and collaborate, we are leveraging the Web and social media. Nimble not only allows your team to internally communicate and collaborate, but also to listen and engage. By listening and engaging, you are able to build thought leadership on top of [data] mining, in ways that are just tremendous.

Question: Do you think CRM is more important to small businesses today, or was it more important back when you were building Goldmine?

Jon Ferrara: I think it is absolutely more important today.  The old ways of touching your customer — cold calling, direct mail, advertising, faxing — just don’t work anymore. If you empower your team to touch the customer and to listen and engage, it will transform your business. Small businesses are nimble, and by leveraging these new methodologies of connecting with customers, they can transform their businesses much faster.

Question: Do you think successfully implementing CRM hinges on being able to integrate social media into a CRM strategy?

Jon Ferrara: Without social, CRM is a stale database.  Goldmine helped create the first model of networkable relationship management. Today, what’s different is the social aspect.  If all you are going to do is CRM, you can do databasing with anything. But combining the ability to communicate and collaborate, to listen and engage, transforms a business.

Our customers are crying out for one-to-one relationships and connections.  Companies that listen to their customers and engage in conversations will be the companies that have customers for life. Don’t we all want that?

From Small Business Trends

One on One: Jon Ferrara of Nimble

Occasionally cartoons are just handed to you.

One day my manager came to me with a stack of paper. “Mark,” he said, “would you do me a favor and shred these? Also, there’s lots of price info in there, so make sure to shred it really good, OK?”

I’m not kidding. “Shred it really good.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to do that – barring maybe setting the shredder on fire in the process – but I assured him I would.  I wrote down “shredder set to puree” on a Post-It, and drew it up that evening.

From Small Business Trends

Shredder Setting: Puree

So you’ve decided to start a small business. Great! Small Business Trends was created for people just like you to bring you the resources and information needed to grow your small business everyday. In fact, the collection of resources we’ve collected for this small business roundup may be particularly helpful in your new venture. We hope this startup guide will get you thinking creatively about the first steps in your new venture.

First Steps

Six entrepreneurs to inspire. When planning to start your own business, think not only of the money you’ll make but of awesome products and services you can create that will make the world a better place. Here are six entrepreneurs whose stories should get you started on the road to your first great business idea. Personal Dividends

Trusted resource or product pusher. David Siteman Garland frames this in terms of a Website marketing content, but in the end it’s really about all businesses. Before you start your company, ask yourself what need you fill, what resource you provide, what help you can render to the people who you hope will become your audience and customers. Don’t make the mistake of believing business is just about pushing a product. It’s about much more. The Rise To The Top

Legal

Is LLC right for your small business? The LLC, or Limited Liability Company, is a popular way to incorporate a small business these days. With some protection as far as litigation and while avoiding the tax difficulties connected to some other forms of incorporation. Learn the basics of the LLC format compared to other kinds of business setups to decide whether it may be right for your small business setup. MoneyedUp

A ton of small business legal resources. When it comes to seeking other legal advice on your small business startup you may wish to consult an attorney. But also remember there are a huge number of small business legal resources on the Web as well. For example, take a look at this incredible overview of small business legal resources (Thanks for the nod to BizSugar as well, guys!) in the initial nominees for an upcoming “Top 25 Business Law Blogs for 2010.” Add your own resources, if you like. LexisNexus Communities

Marketing

Learning more about marketing. In the end, your small business will only be as successful as your ability to market it effectively. This said, Susan Oakes runs down some of the most important myths about good marketing and gives us a guideline for what great marketing needs to be. M4B Marketing

Picking the right domain name. Another important part of starting your business will be establishing an online presence. Few businesses today will not need at least some Internet marketing and this means both a Website and a domain name. But how do you choose the right domain name for your small business Website. Here is one possible strategy. ScottFox.com

Financing

Do I want to give you money? OK. You’ve got a workable idea and have worked out the fundamentals of your business. You’ve thought about the legal organization of your business and created a marketing plan. But wait. Where will you get the money to start? Selling your business idea to investors is another point to consider. Startup Professionals Musings

Basic financials a startup MUST understand. Having great ideas figuring out how to structure and market your business and even how to raise funding is fine…critical in fact if your business is ever going to become a reality. But when it comes to running your business day to day, there are also three very basic ideas you must understand, potentially the difference between success and failure for your new venture. Michael G. Holmes

Conclusions

The biggest mistakes a business startup faces. Though, they shouldn’t deter you from starting your new business venture, be aware there are many mistakes that can spell doom for your dreams of becoming a successful small business owner. Here’s a list of some of the big ones. WSJ

It’s lonely at the top. You’ll meet some fantastic people as you work to start your small business. Many will mean well, give you encouragement and even offer to help with your cause. However, in this guest post Brett Owens suggests that, when it comes to making that big idea really work, an entrepreneur is really on his/her own. Ego

From Small Business Trends

Small Business News: A Startup Guide

Although the results of the health-insurance reform passed earlier this year will take years to fully work out, there’s one way your small business might be able to save on health insurance right now, reports CFO Magazine: Do what a growing number of small businesses are doing, and self-insure.

Large companies have used self-insurance for a long time, but until recently, the conventional wisdom held that was only a good fit for businesses with 1,000 or more employees.  But new data from PricewaterhouseCoopers shows the percentage of employers with fewer than 1,000 people that self-insure has risen from 29 percent in 2008 to 48 percent in 2010.

Here’s how self-insurance works: Rather than paying a monthly premium to an insurance company, your company agrees to pay for employees’ medical claims. As with insurance, you build some type of deductible or co-pay into the agreement, so the employee is paying some of the cost. Your company may still use an insurance company to administer some benefits, and may choose to get stop-loss insurance (which covers claims above a certain dollar amount and below a certain limit, so you can “cap” your costs).

One 95-person company cited in the article has saved money by paying claims compared to what it would have spent on premiums. Other benefits include avoiding state taxes and other costs that insurers usually pass on to you-and you also save because you’re not paying the insurance company’s profit margins.

Many small business owners like self-insurance because it allows them to design a plan that will save them money and fit with their employees’ needs. For instance, if most of your employees are in a certain age group or are women, you can tailor coverage to fit their most likely medical issues.

Is self-insurance for you? Well, it’s not a way to avoid dealing with health-care reform; you’ll still have to meet the requirements of the new law. And it’s not a good fit for companies that are planning a merger, expect layoffs or have fluctuating cash flow. But it does enable you to avoid certain regulations that come with dealing with insurance companies. Michael Thompson, a principal in PwC’s human-resource services group, says self-insurance typically results in long-term savings, but you have to be comfortable handling the short-term risk.

From Small Business Trends

Can You Cut Your Health-Care Costs by Self-Insuring?

Whenever I speak about social media, the biggest question I get is “How much time do you spend on it?” My response? Not as much as you’d think. I use a number of time management tools to help me streamline my activity. The 5 with the greatest impact are outlined here:

1. Hootsuite or Social Oomph

The beauty of Hootsuite and Social Oomph is that they let you manage all of your Twitter activity and relationships in one place. You can post-date tweets for another time. You can monitor direct messages and mentions as well as your Twitter stream. You can decide which posts will go to which social media platforms.

2. RSS Feeds and Subscriptions

These allow you to pull information to you. When you want to know about items of interest to you or your following, or find fuel for articles and blog posts, it’s easier to have the information come to your e-mail or dashboard than to go out searching for it. Whenever you find a blog, podcast or newsletter that you’d like to continue to read, subscribe via RSS feed or subscription box. Then the information will come into your e-mail box.

Another way to use RSS feeds is to pull your social media platforms to a dashboard like iGoogle or Netvibes. Like to answer questions on LinkedIn but don’t want to go there every day to find them? Great! Use RSS feeds to have the questions show up on your dashboard and make it easier to participate online. In the same vein, you can see all of your social media platforms so you can update your statuses in one place – saving you the time of going to each site individually.

3. iGoogle or Netvibes

These dashboards make it easy to monitor your social media platforms in one place. You can also send your blog there. If you make the dashboard your home page, it will come up every time you log on. I use both and keep them open while I’m working. That way I can take a look a couple of times throughout the day and see what’s going on. I can update my statuses easily as well. I have a couple of LinkedIn Question categories that I like to keep an eye on, so I’ve got them on my iGoogle page. They automatically update so I know I am seeing the most current questions.

I have my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blog links attached to my Netvibes page. I’ve also added some other blogs that I’d like to follow there. Both websites are very easy to set up and manage. And, once set up, they handle themselves. Imagine the time savings of not having to go to each website to update your status!

4. Google Alerts

Want to know what’s going on in your industry? Looking for interesting articles to tweet or use to write articles or blog posts? Using Google alerts is a great way to have that information come to you. You can put any words into an alert and choose how often you’d like to receive an e-mail with whatever Google found with those words. You can then go to the webpage and read the item for yourself.

This reduces the time it takes to participate online. Instead of having to search the Internet every day, you’ll have the information you need coming to you. The more you can pull information to you, the less time you’ll have to spend accomplishing your online goals.

5. Linking

So you have all of these great Internet profiles. However, having to post to each of them could take over your life. Solution? Link them. Let’s start with Twitter. You can link your Twitter account to your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. Now when you tweet the post will go to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. One post, three sites.

Next is your blog. You can link your blog to your Twitter profile by using Twitterfeed.com. When you post to your blog, the post will go to your Twitter profile and then to your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. One blog post, four sites.

If you write articles and submit them to online article submission sites, you can link those accounts to your profiles as well. When you post an article, the news that you’ve posted will show up on your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles.

As a small business owner, you need to have and maintain an online presence. More than that, you should be building your brand online. The challenge is to do this without spending all of your time on it. Using these tips can help you streamline your activity so you have time to be active online and in your business.

From Small Business Trends

It’s About Time: 5 Tools to Streamline Your Social Media