FastTrac Entrepreneurs: It’s not a question of whether you have a website, it’s what comes next.

A week ago today I “graduated” from an entrepreneurship course called FastTrac® New Venture™, which is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation (yes, the one that underwrites NPR & PBS). It was administered by the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center (MISBTDC) in Flint.

It seems like a great program, and true to its name, it does move very quickly.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until after I enrolled that I’d rather not work for myself. (Shameless plug: Professional Redheaded Geek Girl for hire!) I’m much happier going somewhere every day and dressing like a grownup, working around people in an office environment. At least I know that about myself–I know that I’m more creative, focused and motivated when I’m around others.

Even though I didn’t have a particular business idea to be perusing in this class, I did get a lot out of it. But I also saw some areas that definitely need improvement, mainly with the lack of emphasis on the importance of marketing, PR, and leveraging new media to build their new business’ brands–the very stuff I immerse myself in constantly. (“Personal branding” wasn’t even mentioned in this course.)

There was a day dedicated to marketing (these were 5 hour sessions), and they did briefly upon the differences between marketing, advertising, and PR, as well as talk about what a brand is and is not, but the tactics and strategies mentioned were outdated, interruption-marketing style that would make Seth Godin cry like a little girl. As far as using the web, there was talk about “having a website,” banner ads, and pay-per-click (PPC), but nothing about actually finding where your prospective customers are, listening, or (God forbid) engaging with your prospective customers/community/whateveryouwannacallthem.

To be fair, there is a lot to cover in this 6-week course, so I turned to the book to see what, if anything, was said about leveraging digital.

Sadly, if all you did regarding your online efforts was what they tell you between pages 222-224 (the extent of it), you’ll have a nice, shiny, outdated Web 1.0 “brochure-ware” site.

And that’s just not going to cut it.

I thought maybe the class would recognize that the suggestions were outdated. After all, the book is copyright 2005, and a lot has changed on the web and the world of marketing since then. But in the last class, those who wanted to give a presentation about their businesses-to-be could do so, and explain how they were going to market their business. Almost every person said “oh, and I’m going to have a website” as if it were some kind of afterthought.

I can’t believe I even have to point this out, but:

Having a website should not be an afterthought–without one your business might as well not exist.

A couple of my classmates seemed to emphasize that they were going to sell their products on their websites. Not once did they really say how they were going to do that or where they were going find people to buy their stuff.

And therein lies the rub.

People, this stuff is important. The “build it and they will come” mentality only works in movies. Unless you have a strategy, you’re just dreaming.

It’s obvious to people that their businesses need to be on the web. What’s not obvious is what to do next.

What’s worse is that the amount of information out there is overwhelming. Where does a new entrepreneur start? There is no single, cookie-cutter solution to marketing your business on the web, but a good start is to take a good look at your new biz and figure out where your potential customers are.

For example, if you’re like one woman in my class who wants to sell her handmade doodads, it’s totally fine to have your own company’s site, but you should also consider setting up shop at Etsy.com. Why? Because there’s already a community there looking for the kind of stuff she makes.

Or, if you’re like the guy who wants to sell Christian-oriented picture frames and Bible study materials, you better get acquainted with a few of these places as a person first, not a business.

I could go on and on, but as I said, the information about what to do after your new business has a website is already overwhelming, and there’s nothing I hate more than regurgitating information you can read elsewhere.  But I’m writing this post with my particular FastTrac class in mind (and have sent all of them a link), so here are a few books and sites I recommend for recent graduates of the FastTrac New Venture program (yes, these are affiliate links, in case you can’t tell):

Forrester Research – Charline Li & Josh Bernoff

• [amazon-product text="Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies" type="text"]1422125009[/amazon-product]

Geoff Livingston:

• [amazon-product text="Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs" type="text"]0910155739[/amazon-product]

David Meerman Scott:

• [amazon-product text="The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly" type="text"]0470379286[/amazon-product]
• [amazon-product text="World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories" type="text"]0470395001[/amazon-product]

Seth Godin:

• [amazon-product text="Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers" type="text"]0684856360[/amazon-product]
• [amazon-product text="Unleashing the Ideavirus" type="text"]0786887176[/amazon-product]

Brian Solis:

• [amazon-product text="Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR" type="text"]0137150695[/amazon-product]

These are only a few of my favorite authors, but I thought it’s a good place to start for pointing new FastTrac entrepreneurs in the right direction to their online efforts. They definitely fill in the gaping voids that the FastTrac book and course left.

So now I’m wondering how many of you out there have participated in the FastTrac New Venture program, and what did you think of it? Have any other suggestions for new graduates?