Wow.  Here is the take from TechCrunch.

Let’s say you’re a small business owner and you procrastinate.  A lot.  Well, you’re in luck.  There is still time to get in on the American Express Small Business Saturday campaign.  To get started, go here and sign up.

Believe it or not, here are a lot of people out there who would rather buy from you than an impersonal, packed full of crazies box store.  Take a few minutes and take advantage of this promotion but be realistic.  This is about American Express pushing their brand more than anything else.  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some ways you can’t smartly take advantage of it for yourself.

Know that American Express does NOT limit the promotion to businesses that accept its card and that it does offer special bonuses like a $25 statement credit for card holders who shop at participating stores today.

Also, there are some cool free tools you can get that are perfect for the holiday season like $100 in free LinkedIn ads and the exposure you get from participating in a campaign “liked” by more that 2.4 million Facebook users.  Go to the page here.

Start by liking that page.  Then click on For Your Biz on the left navigational menu.  The free Facebook ads are gone but you can still get free in-store signs, digital marketing materials and LinkedIn ads to use AFTER the holiday weekend.  If you post an in-store sign, email a picture of it to AmEx at socialmedia@open.com to potentially have it posted on that Facebook page.

To get the digital marketing materials, click on the Get E-Marketing button (who says e-marketing anymore? AmEx that’s who), then the Print Yourself button and download the .ZIP file.  Warning: it’s not intuitive at all.  Your marketing materials are contained in the print materials package.

AmEx either thinks you’re an idiot or lazy because they have put together an email message, Facebook posts and tweets for you to send out about the event.  There are links to create a Facebook Business page using the Small Business Saturday page creation wizard if you are still living under a rock and don’t yet have a page on Facebook.

Good luck!

I am late for my meeting.

And that is not a good thing.

Because there is only one smart, friendly, down to earth, real as the day is long, work your ass off until you reach your goal, Blogger/Digger/Skater/Biker/Social Media Fanatic all wrapped up in one…and that is Louie Baur.

Louie Baur has juice.

He runs Skateboardingmagazine.com, one of the top skateboarding blogs in the country.  He is a long-running Power Digger and has placed over 1,000 stories on Digg‘s front page which may mean nothing to you except for when you consider that 700,000 sites link into Digg, putting in the upper upper echelon of most visited websites on planet earth.  He hangs out with Chris Brogan (ok, he had his picture taken with Chris Brogan). And he has over 73,000 followers on Twitter ,where he can almost always can be found, which should not be surprising given that he has posted more than 30,000 tweets.

But that is not what makes him powerful.

What makes him powerful (and lucky) is that he knows exactly who he is.

If you mentioned personal branding to Louie (which is exactly what he has mastered) he would probably look at you like you had two heads.  And then he would throw up on your shoes.

In other words, he would not be going to any seminars hosted by this guy.

Louie is Louie and you can take it or leave it.

The bottom line is he is a guy who gets shit done.

Louie is (man I hate this word, but I have to use it) a true “entrepreneur” in his focus, drive, success and desire to live life on his own terms.

In this economy he is a perfect model for the need to get down to work and carve out a niche, build and maintain relationships, have a smart strategy, stick to it until the cows come home and get up tomorrow and do the same thing all over again.

Is he flying in Lear Jets?

Does he have four homes and a yacht?

No.

Louie is me and you.

And what most of us want when it comes to a small business is success first and some time left over to spend with the ones we love.

So smart people focus on building things and doing things that can truly help other people.  They don’t make it about them.  They understand success is about solving real problems for real people.  Not running around trying to impress people.  It’s not about impressions.  It’s about results.

Louie gets this to his core.

That’s his juice.

And the most successful and powerful people in small business have that in spades.

If you want to know more about Louie check out his LinkedIn profile here.

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