Automate Your Business: 5 Ways to Streamline Processes and Free Up Time

Small business owners are always looking for ways to create more time in their day. Automation is one term used for the many ways of putting a business on ‘autopilot’ so you can spend those valuable minutes doing something else. Here are a few ways to get your business running a little more smoothly so you can focus on what really matters.

1. Create policies and procedures.

   Having the processes that make up your daily business put into a standard form and written down will allow any employee in your business to carry them out with very little explanation. If you tend to forget how to perform certain processes, you also may benefit from this arrangement! It pays to figure out the fastest and most efficient way to do something and then to do it this way every single time.

2. Use automated emails.

   Modern technology has made it very easy to use scripts to automatically generate response emails to people who email you. You can even create scripts that will send repeat emails who fail to respond to you. While you still will have to check your email, this will allow you to do so at an interval that is more convenient for your own schedule. Being a business owner is difficult enough without being chained to your inbox.

3. Get the right programs.

   No one can do their job without having the appropriate tools. As a small business owner, you need to invest in some tools as well.  These can vary according to the type of business you own, but the general rule is: if a tool will improve and streamline your daily life, it is probably worth the cost. The more time that you can invest in actually running your business and making money, the faster these conveniences will pay for themselves.

4. Use scheduled tasks.

   You are probably well aware that your computer can perform certain tasks during times that are convenient for you, but you may not be aware that you can program them to do so on a regular basis at scheduled times. These allow you to perform searches, website updates, and other high energy tasks at a time when all of your computer’s capabilities are free. It also prevents having your non-routine work slowed down by a task that can wait for later.

5. Get into routines.

   Efficiency experts believe that having routines actually helps people to function more quickly. The streamlined movement and lack of need for thought can as much as double productivity. Not only can you accomplish the same amount of work in a smaller amount of time, you also can also ensure that certain routine tasks occur at the proper intervals. There are ways to apply this principle to other aspects of your business as well. For instance, hold certain meetings at the same time every week or day, as this will make it easy for employees to plan their workload and make long term scheduling decisions.

Many books have been written about guerilla marketing, but few small business owners can define it. The same way a guerilla uses creativity to win a war, the small business owner can use ingenious and original methods to triumph over the competition. Here are a few ways you can use guerilla marketing to find success in small business.

1. Talk to local trade organizations. Many of these associations are constantly looking for speakers on niche topics, so pick up your phone and call around. Giving speeches as an expert on your subject has two effects. First, it makes you appear to be an authority in your field, which is always a positive impression. Second, it spreads the word about your business to many potential customers. This win-win situation costs your business absolutely nothing.

2. Treat your customers like friends. This is one area where small businesses can offer more than a large corporation ever could. You can send out not just Christmas and other holiday cards, but also cards for birthdays, graduations, and other events. If mailings are too expensive, even a phone call gets across the point that you are a smaller, more caring alternative to the more impersonal competition.

3. Advertise in unlikely places. Everyone is used to ignoring a flyer left under their windshield wiper or on their doorstep. Try tucking your business communications inside relevant books at the library or in other places where people who need your services are likely to turn. This will reduce your printing costs from becoming someone else’s trash while getting your message directly to the people who need it. Think creatively like this about all marketing expenses; you might be surprised about where you can be more effective and more targeted in your communications.

4. Generate buzz. If you do things that make people talk—in a good way, of course—you will be sure to get a lot of buzz. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to become your local media’s next human interest story. Many flagging small businesses have found huge success when they caught the interest of national media; while this is difficult to do, you can get a similar though smaller effect from your much more approachable local networks.

5. Be loyal to your brand. Make sure your brand and your logo design always take center stage. However exciting guerilla marketing can be, it is easy to get carried away and take actions that are not representations of your brand. Because this will only weaken and diminish your business in the long run, guard against it carefully. Before taking any action, ask yourself: does this work with my brand? How will it affect me in the future? How will my target customer feel about this? Asking these questions will help you make good decisions.

As you can see, guerrilla marketing logos means being creative and motivated. Luckily, imagination and drive are two things that most business owners have plenty of. Use your skills to promote your business and don’t be afraid to be different from the pack.

A small business blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. A blog allows your readers to follow your business in a day-to-day pattern, getting to know your values and even you. However, a blog that doesn’t follow the basic rules of small business blogging will be more of a dead weight than an asset. Here are five tips that should get you off to the right start.

Use a professional blog address. Having your blog hosted on WordPress or Blogger just screams ‘amateur’, which is not the image that most business owners are trying to project. The ideal address for your blog is blog.yourcompanyname.com, although most variations of this will do. This gives you the legitimacy associated with having your own url and sets your blog apart from the millions of personal blogs that are flooding the internet right now.

Have a simple but elegant design that complements your branding. Use the color schemes and fonts that go with your brand. Instead of a boring stock template, have a professional web designer develop a blog that compliments your business and adds yet another professional touch to your image. Avoid the overly flashy and virus-ridden free blog templates that can be found for free or cheap on the internet; even if they aren’t full of malicious software they make the page load too slowly.

Install plug-ins and social media links. You can find a variety of plug-ins; some help your site be more visible to search engines while others simply add visual appeal. Linking to your company website as well as Facebook, Twitter, and other small business social media accounts is imperative because it gives customers a comprehensive view of you and your business, while allowing all of your online presences to be just a little more visible. These combined presences make up your online persona, an important aspect of every modern business.

Strike a balance between professional and personal. While it is okay to share an occasional human interest story, such as announcing a new baby or the retirement of a longtime employee, in general your blog should refer to industry news, jobs, and answering common questions about your company. It is not a place to vent frustration, rant about people who might be reading, talk politics, or complain. These things, while serving to relief your anxiety, will give your readers the impression that you are a negative person and likely send them flocking to your competition’s website and blog.

Update regularly. Most people prefer to read blogs that are regularly updated and full of interesting, constantly changing information. In fact, a failure to update your blog may make readers think that you will drop the ball in other arenas. Try to blog two to three times a week, and try to pass the duty around your company rather than assuming it yourself.

Creating a blog by yourself can be a scary process, but if you follow these five simple steps it will likely work out right. It’s important to give your company the appropriate image that it deserves, and this is merely the first step.

Creating Your Own Economic Recovery: Five Tips for Doing Business in Hard Times

Officials keep saying that the recession is over, but few small business owners would agree. Small businesses all over the country are feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Luckily, there are things that you personally can do to create your very own economic recovery.

Control your budget with an iron fist. Now is not the time to waste any amount of money. Make sure everything bought for your business is a great deal. Consider making changes around your office that might save electricity or other routine expenditures. The key to successfully pinching pennies successfully is to only do it in areas that don’t provide customer experience or product quality. However, that leaves a lot of potential for savings, so scrimp away—at least, in the areas where it doesn’t matter.

Offer lower cost products. Many customers are still buying the same amount of products, but they are buying less expensive products. If you don’t feel like losing these customers, it’s important to provide lower cost products and services that are within the narrowed parameters of a recession budget. Whether it’s a mini-massage instead of an hour-long one or a smaller box of chocolates, offer customers have affordable options and you can be sure they’ll keep coming back.

Expand your market. If you are offering services or products aimed at a very narrow customer base, one way to keep sales high is to expand your base of potential customers. If you have a dog grooming business, consider catering to the luxe crowd by offering spa services and puppy manicures. Almost every business can easily add products or services that are similar but not identical to the current fare. Just make sure this expansion doesn’t interfere with your brand or with the offerings for your target market.

Go global. While our country may still be mired in the recession, other countries have found it easier rebound. If you can take your operations overseas by offering shipping to other countries, you may find the increase in sales is significant enough to get you through these hard times. Look into the issues of taking foreign currency, advertising on foreign search engines, and getting packages through customs to see if this is a good route for your company.

Increase marketing. If this seems counter-productive at a time when you are pinching every penny, think again. Marketing is one area that almost always pays off exponentially. If you are being smart about your marketing, it will increase foot traffic and, if your products are good enough, increase sales. Never, ever cut the marketing budget; this will compromise your company even further.

As you can see, getting through an economic downturn may not be easy, but it is certainly possible. Don’t let a few hard years destroy the dream that you have worked so hard for when helping your business survive the recession can be as simple as following a few easy steps. Take action today and become the next small business success story.

Being Your Own Boss: Five Ways to Motivate Your Most Important Employee

While there are many books focusing on how to motivate your employees, few discuss how to motivate the most important employee in your business: you. Unfortunately, even the best business owners sometimes feel discouraged and even lazy. Because you can’t afford to lose motivation even for a few hours, here are a few ways to keep your spirits and your work output high.

Be organized. There is nothing more demoralizing than having to sift through a pile of papers to find the one that you need, or even worse, being late to an important meeting because you didn’t leave enough time in your agenda. While it may sound difficult to be organized, you can begin by writing a schedule. Not only will this help you get where you need to be on time, it will give you tangible goals to reach throughout the day.

Be positive. Simply making the effort to put a smile on your face and thinking positive thoughts can go a long way toward keeping your motivation high. Make being positive an ongoing part of your day, for instance by posting inspiring quotes or by giving monthly awards for attitude. We do this all the time when we produce an award winning logo design. As a bonus, being positive yourself will encourage your employees to adopt the same attitude, making your day all the more pleasant.

Be realistic. Be realistic about what you can accomplish and the time interval needed to accomplish it. What could be more discouraging than an impossibly long project with no time in which to complete it? Prevent this by breaking large projects into smaller, more manageable chunks. This will keep your goals in an achievable range while allowing you the satisfaction of crossing items off your list.

Be firm. Be firm in cutting ties with people who are dragging you down. Whether it’s an employee who brings you down, a customer who is never pleased, or a family member who is less than supportive, any overly critical person in your life can rob your mojo and drain your motivation. Prevent this by cutting ties where it is necessary. No one is worth giving up your business and your future.

Reward good behavior. Just as you might reward an employee, don’t be afraid to reward your own good behavior. Have you completed a large project on-time and on-budget? Give yourself a prize, whether it’s a few minutes off, an item you’ve been wanting for months, or even a chocolate chip cookie. Although it seems overly simple, even adults will work better if they know that there’s a prize in store for all of the hard work.

Motivation doesn’t have to be the factor that breaks your business. It is very easy to keep a positive attitude and a solid work ethic if you show yourself the same care that you would give to an employee or a loved one. Learning to motivate yourself and get the job done even when it seems impossibly hard will pay off not just in business, but in life.

Emergency Planning for Small Businesses: Five Ways to Be Prepared

Few small businesses think about emergency and disaster planning, but it is a necessary thing for companies of all sizes. Planning for an emergency or disaster will help you deal with an unfortunate occurrence should it arise, and make you feel more secure in the meantime. Luckily, effective disaster planning can be done in just five steps.

Identify the most likely disasters. Every area has certain natural disasters that are more likely than others to occur. If you live in the Midwest, tornadoes are more common than hurricanes, and people in most areas of California should always be prepared for an earthquake. Make a list of the natural and manmade disasters that are most likely to happen in your area so you can focus on prioritizing.

Choose an exit route. You need to know at least two ways that you and your employees can exit the building as well as two fast routes out of your area should an evacuation be recommended. Speed and safety are the priority in route planning for disasters. It’s important to have at least two of each, so that if one is blocked you will have an alternative choice.

Choose a disaster procedure. What should happen in each of the major disasters likely to happen in your area? Should people go home immediately or stay put to wait out the storm? It’s important to have a detailed, step-by-step list so your employees can make safe decisions in the event of a disaster, even if you are not present.

Plan for good communication with each other and with authorities. There should be a disaster telephone list posted in at least two places in each location of your business. It should include your cell phone number as well as the phone numbers of all of your employees. Also included should be the numbers of authorities such as the police and fire stations, which can come in handy if 911 is suddenly overwhelmed by emergency calls. You may want to also include the names and numbers of local radio stations that would be broadcasting information in the event of a civil or natural disaster.

Stock supplies. There are some supplies, such as bottled water, a fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit, that will be necessary in almost any emergency. Other disasters, such as tornadoes, require other supplies. Turn to that list of most likely disasters and settle on a minimal list of supplies that you will need in the event that one of them happens. Stock up on them immediately, and check every few months to make sure the stockpile is up to date and complete.

Disaster planning is an essential part of running a modern business. In fact, some insurance companies will give you a break on rates if you have plans in place that will minimize damage to people and property. The most important part of disaster planning to have the correct supplies and to have a means of communication with the outside world. Having a plan will ensure that you and your business make it through any disaster without any harm.

The Five Second Commute: This Year’s Latest and Greatest Home Business Ideas

Are you interested in the flexibility and profit potential of working for yourself? Working from home provides not only the shortest commute on the globe, but also an opportunity to build a small business without the pressure of an immense overhead. If you are interested in starting a home business, here are five fresh ideas that your community needs.

Eco-consultant. Many people are interested in living a cleaner, greener life, but they don’t know where to start. This has led to a whole new field for home businesses: eco-consultancy. Armed with knowledge of green home cleaners, appliances, and habits, you can step into homes and teach their residents how to reduce their carbon footprint by at least a sneaker size or two. Not only do eco-consultants get compensated well, they also have the great karma of doing something positive for their planet. There are a variety of ways to begin your career in this field; if you aren’t comfortable performing this job without back-up there are franchises and even direct sales positions in this field.

Party planner. These aren’t just for weddings and bar mitzvahs anymore. People are hiring party planners for occasions ranging from their dog’s birthday to their child’s baptism. The duties include basically managing the details of a medium or large gathering, which is not difficult so much as it is complicated. Best of all, there is almost no overhead because you only buy supplies as they are needed, and if you are good at your job you will be able to get by on word-of-mouth advertising.

Professional organizer. If you have flipped through the cable line-up lately, you surely have noticed that organization is a topic almost every American is interested in. Most people have the vague idea that they could do something more with their space and belongings if only they knew what to do. Many of these people hire professional organizers to step in and bring order to their home. However, not every area has these in-demand professionals, so you just might be the only contractor in your field. Home organization does require a certain amount of skills and knowledge, but if you are relatively organized yourself you are already halfway there.

Official pooper scooper. There is one nasty little chore that every pet owner would like to hire out, and that is picking up after Fido in the yard. For this reason, pooper scooper businesses are a huge and still growing field. Best of all, unlike the above options, there is no talent needed. A bucket, a shovel, and a good supply of plastic bags will get you started in this profitable home business.

Personal concierge. Do you know everybody who’s anybody in your area? Are you a master at finagling a reservation from a haughty maître d’? You may have what it takes to be a personal concierge. Basically, for a moderate fee you plan evenings and weekends out, even vacations. You find out what the client’s dream is and make it into reality. Many people with active social lives don’t have nearly enough time to manage them—but one thing they do have is money. You may just find that you have a ready, willing customer base from day one!

A Happy Employee is a Hard Working Employee: Five Ways to Build Employee Morale

Employee morale is an essential component of small business success after 5 things to do before hiring an employee. However, many employers don’t consider employee attitude and happiness something that they can affect. The focus is on meeting deadlines, building a positive bottom line, and keeping the doors open and how employee recognition affects your company. The fact is, you as a small business owner can have a huge effect on the way your workers feel about their jobs and themselves. Here are a few ways that you can help build employee morale without bending your standards or not having to fire employees to save your business.

Volunteer together. While you shouldn’t make employees donate their time, getting together once a month or even once a year to help the needy is a good way to bond. There is nothing as grounding as helping to build a Habitat for Humanity house or dishing out soup at your local rescue mission. It will also help your employees see each other, and you as well, as giving people with many admirable qualities. If you cannot volunteer, you can also collect items for the needy at certain times of year, such as holding a coat drive in the fall or a toy drive just before Christmas.

Celebrate major holidays together. Celebrating major holidays bonds people together, whether the people are family or coworkers. This doesn’t have to break your budget, either. Even the smallest business can afford to have an after-hours cookie and cocoa social before Christmas or an egg hunt for employee children in the spring. Whatever the major holidays in your area, find low cost ways to celebrate them with your employees. They’ll feel appreciated and work just a little harder because of it.

Start an ‘Employee of the Month’ program. Whether you have three employees or fifty, an employee of the month program is a great way to recognize good work and implement good habits. Whether you choose to give employees a small bonus, a certificate, or simply announce their award at a meeting, it’s important to tell your workers when their performance is truly shining.

Start traditions. What’s a family without traditions? Many small business owners want their employees to feel that they are part of the business family, but they are reluctant to put in the minimal amount of energy that it takes to build ‘family’ traditions. Whether it’s casual Fridays or a pot of gourmet coffee on Sunday mornings, your business needs to have traditions, even small ones, that give your employees something to look forward to.

Implement family-friendly policies. Modern people have to balance working with multiple other duties, so making this a little easier has a huge potential to build employee morale. Allow people to take an afternoon off occasionally to go to their child’s soccer game, or let them take a paid day of leave on their birthday. Just a few little extras will go a long way because many employers simply don’t care. These little things pay off; they will not only build morale, but reduce expensive turnover as well.

One of the fun parts of owning or working at a small business is the family-like atmosphere. If you take steps to sustain this feeling of family, you can sustain it even as your business grows. Having good employee morale will not only improve their attitude; it will improve job performance and help retain employees. Every small business can benefit by following these five simple steps to a happy, grateful work force.

While many small businesses fail, others seem to flourish almost from day one. You find yourself overwhelmed with work and faced with the difficult task of expanding from a one man operation to a CEO and supervisor of others. Here is a list of things you must do before taking the crucial first step of hiring your first employee or if you are hiring employees for your startup.

Deal with tax issues. Although this can be scary to a first-time employer, there are really only two basic things you are required to so. First, apply for an employer identification number. You can do this by submitting IRS form SS-4, available at the Internal Revenue Service websites. This number will be used on tax forms and any other documents that the IRS requires of employers. Second, file form 940-EZ when you file your own taxes every year. This form basically allows you to report the federal and state unemployment tax that you paid throughout the year on behalf of your employee. Both forms are available at www.irs.gov.

Register with your state’s unemployment compensation agency and labor department. In most states, when you hire an employee you are responsible for paying state unemployment insurance. This serves as a safety net for anyone who loses their job by providing money for living and job-hunting expenses.

Buy a worker’s compensation policy. This is not just wise, but also legally required because it will help support any employees who are injured in your workplace. Worker’s compensation insurance is necessary for any employee, even in generally safe jobs such as office or counter work.

Implement a tax withholding system. Like all employers, you will need to withhold federal and state taxes as well as taxes for Social Security and Medicare. You can obtain information on how to do this from www.irs.gov (look for Employer’s Tax Guide, which is publication 15, circular E). Your state’s tax website can give you information about what is required of you by your state tax agency.

Create a safe workplace. Not only is this fair to your future employee or employees, it will protect you from law suits and labor board violations. You must comply with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) regulations as well as any state labor safety requirements. This requirements generally include teaching employees safer ways to perform their job duties, keeping safety and incident records, and providing a safe workplace. The details can be found at www.osha.gov. Another way to design a safe workplace is to post all legally mandated notices and posters regarding worker rights. This will keep your employees safe from exploitation and protect you from legal action.

Hiring that first employee is an important step in your business’s growth. Although these five steps can seem difficult and even oppressive, there are good reasons for them. Making sure to follow all legal mandates will ensure that both you and your employees enjoy all of the rights that you are entitled to, and that your business can continue to grow in a healthy and safe manner. You also need to be aware of how employee recognition affects your company. After reading this you might also want to find out how to fire employees and save your business.

A Place to Call ‘Work’: Five tips for finding the perfect location for your business

Every business owner is familiar with the old adage that the three most important factors in a business’s success are ‘location, location, and location’. However, few people know exactly how to go about picking the right location for them and their business. Here are a few tips for choosing the right nest from which your company can soar.

Know your customer and their habits. The best business plan is to be located somewhere on the flight path of the customer you are courting. At the very least, avoid parts of town that they will find uncomfortable or unsafe. For some businesses, a large shopping center is the best choice, while others do best in a quieter, quainter setting. You will need a steady flow of foot traffic to keep products moving, and a good location is one way to bring that traffic in.

Sidle up to the competition. If you have a competitor who is doing good business in a particular area, that is the neighborhood that you want to be in. Why? Because some of those customers, who are already in the area and looking to buy your product, will probably stop at your store out of curiosity or convenience. In many cases, your competition has spent money to entice customers to visit your neighborhood for the product that you also are selling. From there, all you have to do is convince them to keep coming back.

Choose the best location you can afford—no more, no less. People are more likely to trust a location that is in a favorable part of town, and being in certain areas can bring enough foot traffic to justify the cost. On the other hand, while it is important to choose the best location you can afford, don’t go over your rent/lease budget to the point that it will compromise the rest of your business. No location, however wonderful, can overcome the challenges you will face if you end up trying to cut corners on products, services, or marketing.

Make a list of must-haves. Whether you need a certain number of bathrooms, ample parking, or a modern ambience, make a list of traits that your location absolutely must have in order for your business to be successful. Once you have this list, don’t compromise. There are enough commercial properties that the right one might come around tomorrow. Certain weak spots may compromise the success of your business, and it’s better to identify those before even looking for a place to call work.

Get professional help. A real estate agent or lawyer experienced in leases will help keep you from falling into many of the pitfalls that new business owners commonly experience. Nothing can replace real life experience; if you don’t have it, hire somebody who does.

Choosing a location may be the single most important decision that you make on your small business’s behalf. Avoiding the major pitfalls while getting a great deal on the property that is right for you can give you a huge advantage as a new small business owner. Let location be one of your advantages and not one of your advantages; educate yourself and get the location that is perfect for you.

Forget management and product development; attracting investors and convincing them that your small business is a worthy gamble may be the most important skill for an entrepreneur. Without investors, there is often not sufficient capital for starting your business on the right foot or financing crucial expansions. If you have trouble making an irresistible pitch to potential investors, here are five tips to hone your hooking skills.

Keep it simple. One classic first-timer mistake when it comes to pitching investors is filling your media with frills. While it’s important that you be perceived as a professional, fancy pictures aren’t going to achieve that. Keep it simple and fill your presentation and materials with just the facts. Once your potential investors grasp the basic concepts, you can fill in the details as needed.

Keep it real. While it’s tempting to share your winning vision of the future with your investors, they aren’t looking for a fantasy. They want reality—based on prior evidence, how likely are they to get their investment back and then some? Along the same line, show them all of the possible projections for your company, the best case along with the worst case scenarios. No one is impressed by inflated projections; they are impressed by a solid previous performance in a market with a track record of success.

Keep it cheap. Everyone is feeling cheap in this economy, and investors are no exception. Don’t try to convince investors to pay for top of the line materials and extra perks, especially where these materials have no effect on the product or the customer experience. Nice furniture and paid vacations can come later; build your projected budget by adding just a little wiggle room to the most bare-bones operation you can succeed with.

Start small. The one thing most likely to convince an investor not to give you money is to give him or her the impression that you are getting in over your head. Don’t ask for millions of dollars to finance a small start up company, and don’t jump into a complex product line before you have one product selling well. Start small, prove yourself, and then ask for the funding that you need to expand. Investors like to put their money into small businesses that show slow, sustainable growth.

Ask the experts. Sometimes the true strength of a business is the caliber of people manning it. If you have an employee who is an expert in the field, or even a consultant with a great track record, investors are going to feel a lot more confident in your management of their money. Smart people know to surround themselves with smarter people.

When it comes to winning over investors, it isn’t so much what you say or how you say it. On the contrary, both of these elements are equally important. If your presentation has the right mixture of solid facts and professional polish, it is sure to win the funding that you need to begin the business of your dreams.

What is vision? The dictionary gives this word multiple definitions, including ‘the ability to see’ and ‘imagination’. For small businesses, vision can be both of these things and more. A company vision is a firm statement of what path your company wants to take. This vision will be a large part of developing your marketing plan, branding, and even your products. In order to make your customer believe in your company, you will need a vision to share with them. As you can see, developing a vision is very important to your business’s success, and it luckily isn’t very difficult at all. In fact, you should be able to complete the following process in just a few days.

Define success. What does success look like for your company? Do you want to be the corporate industry leader in your field, or an exclusive boutique brand? Are you looking to expand to a global operation or would you rather remain a local or regional brand? The choices are many, and isn’t so important what you choose as much as the fact that are making a firm choice and making decisions based on it. However you define success—that’s your company vision.

Define failure. What would failure look like for your company? What, ultimately, is the factor that would take your small business down? One way of deciding what would make your company fail is to write a company obituary. The magic of this activity is that it will allow you to see the roadblocks in your path to success. On a separate piece of paper, list these roadblocks and develop a plan for preventing them.

Get literal. Now is the time to return to your definition of success. You likely have several factors in your definition that will make your small business successful. Some can be combined, while others may need to be broken down into more concrete ideas. These are your company’s goals. Now that you have a list of goals that will lead to success, give them a projected completion date and include them in your business agenda.

Set your priorities. What you have in your hands now is a list of tasks—tasks to help you achieve success as well as tasks to help you avoid the most likely causes of failure. Obviously you cannot focus on all of these at once. This is where priorities come into play. It’s best to choose three to five goals that are the most important to your company’s vision and to focus on those. Prioritize your entire task list so you can move onto another task as each is completed.

Hone your focus. What good is a vision is you can’t focus your eyes on it? A business vision is no different. Take those three to five top priorities and think about how they can be transformed into a project. Think of which employees would be the right choice to manage this project and hand it off.

You now have not just a vision, but a highly personalized and focused vision along with a series of concrete steps to making it reality. This will not only give your company a set of tangible goals; it will allow you to make better marketing and planning decisions based upon how they fit into your long-term plan. With your bright future set in stone, you can move on to more important things—like running your business.

Every successful business owner knows the power of good marketing. Without it, industry giants like Starbucks and Google would still be operating out of someone’s aunt’s garage. However, overspending on market isn’t necessary to get positive exposure and bring in traffic. While marketing is definitely an essential for businesses of every size, there are a few ways to cut marketing costs while still offering a high quality, compelling message to your target audience. Here are five ways you can scale back on marketing expenditures while keeping a steady flow of customers.

Get to know your target audience. Every marketing expert says this, but few elaborate on exactly what that means. When you really know your target audience and make your business scalable, that means you know not just basic demographic information such as gender, social class, age, and income range. Knowing your target audience means knowing their dreams, their aesthetic taste, and, of course, what makes them want to spend money on a product or service like yours. This doesn’t take money, but it helps save your marketing money for the areas where it will do the most good.

Package yourself to appeal to this market. Once you know your customer base, tailor every aspect of your company and products so you appeal to these people. Your materials, website, and even paint job should be in colors that your customer finds pleasant. Whether your target audience wants superior service, the feel of an upscale designer boutique, or a product that will make their friends and neighbors green with envy, your chief challenge in achieving success will be packaging your company and your product so it delivers consistently. This doesn’t cost extra; you will need flyers anyway, so why not make sure they are as effective as possible? Also try and identify what kind of business is YOU.

Sell yourself to the media. Almost every business has a compelling story or a unique person behind it. Many local and even national media groups periodically do stories on interesting people and businesses. Why not be that story? Not only will you get great exposure at a can’t-be-beat price, you’ll gain additional credibility and have an opportunity to get your message out there in more than a fifteen-second ad spot.

Cultivate a referral culture. Customer referrals are taken far more seriously than traditionally advertising, so getting your customers to refer you can be one of your most lucrative marketing tools. Whether you offer a small incentive, such as ten percent off their next purchase when they refer a friend, or try another plan, encouraging customers to refer you by creating effective surveys is a cheap way to increase your customer traffic.

Avoid cold calling. In fact, don’t just avoid it; axe it from your marketing repertoire altogether. All of your advertising should be specifically geared toward your target audience and structured in a way that appeals to them. Cold calling and other types of broad advertising might make you feel like you are getting your word out there, but there are much cheaper and more efficient ways to market yourself such as business networking.

As you can see, there are many ways to save money on marketing without sacrificing quality. By cutting broad advertising techniques so you can focus on quality ads targeted at a very specific audience, you can decrease marketing expenditure while increasing meaningful exposure. That’s a win-win situation for every business, big or small.

A Virtual Storefront: Five Simple Steps to Developing a Successful Web Commerce Business

With time at a premium and customers looking for more and more variety—all at a bargain price, of course—starting a web commerce business is a one way ticket to small business success. However, many people are intimidated because they don’t even know where to start. Ecommerce is not as complicated as it looks; in fact, you can build your empire in these five simple steps.

Establish a professional, polished web site. This is one of the most crucial parts of this process, a component that is so important that a wise entrepreneur would seriously consider outsourcing this task to a professional. Your website design is not just a convenient online information storage site; to internet traffic, it is your marketing department, storefront, and service personnel all rolled into one tidy HTML package. Having a messy website is like sending out an ad with rampant misspellings or letting your sales staff wear cut-off denim shorts. If your website is not well-run and professional, customers are just a click away from your competition.

Market your web site. One obvious way of doing this is by buying advertising on popular search engines such as Google. You can choose keywords that are tailored to your product and place your company name and website solidly at the top of those results. Web advertising is the best media for website marketing because it is so tailored and so easy for customers to access your sites. Once potential customers search for a relevant keyword—indicating that they are interested in your product and perhaps actively seeking to buy it—your website is a mere click away. If you don’t want to spend money on an ongoing basis, you can also choose to have an expert in search engine optimization reconfigure your website so it shows up higher in search results even without paid spots.

Get involved in the web community. From YouTube to Facebook, there are a variety of social networking sites where you can sign up for free and quickly build a profile that will get your business added exposure. If you regularly post videos or articles related to your business in visible places, you will also be building a public perception of you as a web expert, increasing the likelihood that they will buy from you by using social media to promote you website. Read more about 5 ways social media can help build your small business.

Evaluate your data. If you are purchasing advertising from a search engine or other internet advertising company, they will likely provide you with tools to run reports detailing what keywords lead customers to visit your site and which bring customers that actually purchase a product. The last set of numbers is crucial, because foot traffic that isn’t buying won’t earn the income you need to keep going. Read more advertising tips and common advertising mistakes by startups.

Make it easy to buy—and to keep buying. Customers should find shopping at your site simple, straightforward, and intuitive. Part of this consumer-friendly design falls under the first step—website building—but there are a few things you can do to make customers enjoy shopping with you. Giving customers a percentage off with a large purchase or free shipping encourages them to fill their virtual shopping cart while reducing their fear that shipping and handling will double the cost of their product. Similarly, sending former customers a coupon may encourage them to come back in the future.

Why is there no discussion of product on this list? While an innovative and high value product is important to a web commerce business, customers will never see your product unless and until you follow the above five steps. Webpreneurs are a driving force in the small business community. You could be just a few days away from joining these ranks.

Research shows that the majority of small businesses fail. While there are many market forces that cause this, one key reason may be because these small businesses are making decisions based on inaccurate information. In particular, look out for these myths, which have led many business owners astray.

Myth: ‘Doing it yourself’ is a good way to save money.
Fact: ‘Doing it yourself’ is a good way to waste money and time.

From web design to ad copy writing, many business owners believe that they should be masters of many specialized fields. Unfortunately, the result is often shoddy work and an unprofessional image. Not only will doing everything yourself most likely lead to a lower quality result, you will have to take valuable time away from actually building your business. It is usually more cost effective to outsource work to experts where needed so you can focus on doing what you do best.

Myth: Lower prices mean more people will buy.
Fact: High quality means more people will buy.

As a small business person, you stand very little chance of undercutting industry giants. However, there are certain benefits you can offer, including better service and a higher quality, more personalized product. Because you are a smaller business with less red tape, you have the additional advantage of being able to quickly respond to market demands. Don’t undermine your bottom line by charging too little. If people only bought the lowest priced option, there would be no designer jeans or high-end automobiles.

Myth: Marketing is an ‘extra’ expense.
Fact: Marketing is the most important aspect of growing your business.

Many business owners mistakenly think that marketing or using marketing logos is an option. As in, you can do without it in a crunch. Nothing could be further from the truth. Marketing is in fact the only way to keep customers walking in your doors (or clicking on your links). Without a steady flow of customers, even the best product or service won’t be noticed or bought. The only way to create sales is develop a message and deliver that message to the right people. Professional marketing consultants know how to do this.

Myth: The broader the marketing campaign, the better.
Fact: Targeting is key to success.

Why spread your message among the masses when you can instead focusing on hitting the people most likely to buy into your product? This process of identifying and marketing to the small segment of the population who are likely to support you is known as targeting. Before you open a small business, you need to think about who your target market is. What do they enjoy? What do they think? Most important, what do they buy and why?

Myth: A great product will sell itself.
Fact: People who patronize a small business are buying more than just a product.

Having a solid, marketable product is very important—in fact, it’s crucial. However, people who shop at a small business are buying more than that product. They are buying an experience. They are buying a public image. They are buying the story behind the product. Having a solid image and a compelling story is just as important to success as having that unique product.

Have you ever believed any of these myths? If so, you aren’t alone. Many business owners buy into these fallacies and suffer the consequences. If you want to beat the odds by having a successful small business, you will need to avoid the pitfalls that most other small business owners fall into. Don’t let your dreams become yet another statistic.

If you are a small businessperson or interested in becoming one, one of your first steps should be to select an accounting logos software package. Accounting software is absolutely essential to maintaining the detailed, accurate records you need to run a business. The following five accounting software packages give small business owners everything they need to handle bookkeeping in an affordable and easy to use package.

QuickBooks Accounting Software Pro Edition.

Quickbooks is one of the most popular accounting software programs for small businesses and it’s easy to see why. This software includes not just accounting programs, but payroll management and other financial features as well. Quickbooks is easy to master and there are a variety of how-to books on the market detailing how it can be used and modified according to your needs. Quickbooks can be bought in a variety of editions, but the Pro Edition has certain extras that will make your life easier, such as a vehicle mileage tracker. This software is the golden standard of accounting software because it is easy to learn and includes everything you need to manage small business accounting.

BusinessVision 32.

BusinessVision is a great choice because it includes real time accounting, constantly updating all of the records as new information is entered. It uses Crystal Reports for credit reports, which makes it easy both to create reports from the data and to import any information into Microsoft Excel. Like many accounting software packages, BusinessVision comes in a variety of editions. BusinessVision 32 is custom-tailored to the needs of small businesses.

Microsoft Small Business Manager.

If you are already using other Microsoft Office programs, Microsoft Small Business Manager is an easy choice. This program is easy to integrate with other Office software and allows easy importing and exporting. Microsoft Small Business Manager has an intuitive design that allows users to use it as soon as it is installed. There are also many add-ons available, such as a PayPal account manager, that can be bought for a reasonable price if you need them.

MYOB Plus Accounting Software.

MYOB wins for versatility. This small business accounting program with a variety of features including ecommerce management. It is made to link to and work with Microsoft Office programs. This is an especially apt choice in accounting software if you will have multiple users, because the program is designed to accommodate several users.

Peachtree Complete Accounting Software.

Peachtree is a good choice if you will need to make regular reports, because this software comes with the benefit of being able to quickly and easily import information to more than one hundred different report templates. The design is intuitive and there is a feature for every need a small business owner might have, from inventory to time billing. The software is simple to learn because the screens resemble the paper documents once used for the same purpose.

As you can see, there are several excellent choices in small business accounting programs. Whether you want an easy program, a fully featured one, or one that integrates well with your other programs, there is sure to be a good choice in this short list for you. What’s most important isn’t which of these programs you choose, but that you select a program and begin keeping good records from the very start. Please read this article on logo software too.

Are you interested in starting a small business? Do you have an idea that you think is almost guaranteed to make money? If so, you might be interested in the following five basic tools, which will help your business open its doors with a good chance of success.

A Logo. Many businesses begin without a logo, but this is a mistake. A company logo is as important as your name because it is how your prospective customers will recognize you. Your logo will be the face of your business, present on business cards, stationery design, and even your office door. It is so important that there is no way to be successful without it. If you are starting a small business, getting a professional logo is the first step.

A Website. Many people view a website design as an option, but in the modern world it is a small business necessity. In the modern world, your customers are just as likely to turn to the internet to find a business as they are to look in the phone book. Having a website—a professional one that will interest your target audience—is one powerful way to keep the customers coming. As a side benefit, this website will allow you to have a more professional email address: yourname@yourbusiness.com.

An Audience. You may know a lot about your products and/or services, but what do you know about the people who will be buying them? You must know your target customer’s age, income, and aesthetic tastes so you can know what they want to buy, how they want to buy it, and what kind of shopping experience will bring them in as a customer and keep them coming back. Knowing your audience will allow you to better reach your future customers without wasting valuable time and money on people who aren’t interested.

Product Literature. In order to sell a product, you need to have a brochure design, marketing materials or other literature describing exactly what you are selling. This literature should include your business name and logo along with pertinent information about your company and product specifications. Although this may seem unnecessary, you won’t think so the first time you have the opportunity to hand your professional brochure over to a potential customer or vendor.

A Marketing Plan. Once you have your small business ready to open, you will need a marketing plan. This can be an expensive plan developed by a team of marketing consultants and graphic designers or simply an outline of how and when you will get your message into the hands of your audience. If you have an interesting story behind your product or another aspect of your business that is interesting and unique, you may want to market your business to news stations and other media.

Did you think this list was going to talk about accounting logos software or the latest telephone systems? These things are important, but they will not affect your business’s success in the profound way our top five will. The reason many small businesses fail is that they don’t pay attention to these five key areas. Giving your business the right start will ensure that you don’t become just another statistic and infinitely improve your odds of accomplishing your goals in a competitive market.

What causes a downturn? Sometimes there is a general recession, due to overreaching economic events or credit availability. Other times, a downturn may be limited to a particular industry or a certain area. Whatever causes the sales slump in question, every small business has to have tools for making it through the storm. The current climate, even though seems to be improving, still has a long way to go before things really start looking up.

Here are five ways you can keep afloat even in the worst of times.

Keep expenses down. When your sales and income are down, the only way to keep your business viable is to reduce your spending. Often, there are lower-cost or even no-cost alternatives to many of your current expenses, if not identical, will at least get you through the hard times. It may even be necessary to take measures such as cutting back on staff or reducing pay. While these can be heart-wrenching decisions, no one is going to get paid if your business fails for a lack of these extreme measures.

Be creative. This is a time to think of new supply chains, new procedures, and new models for every aspect of your business. Whether you are thinking of a new angle to market your product or a new audience that might become your new customer base, this is a time to abandon old habits and seek new and original ways to run your business.

Be flexible. You may need to take on new duties to reduce expenses or change your operating hours. This is a time of change, and being flexible will make it all easier. It will also set the pace for your employees, making them more likely to react positively to your changes. Remember that in a storm, the flexible objects bend while the more rigid ones break.

Avoid making cuts in crucial areas. It’s one thing to reduce your electric usage or travel less; it’s a completely different issue if you decide to reduce spending in crucial areas such as product quality, service, or marketing. Anything that affects the customer experience or keeps the flow of customers coming should be maintained to the best of your ability. Anything less will diminish your public image and reduce your sales even more they currently are. In fact, many companies have found that the key to surviving a downturn is to increase the budget for product development and marketing. Because so many businesses unwisely cut these areas in a financial crisis, beefing up yours will really make you stand out.

Make new connections. Now is a time for businesses to band together. Perhaps there is a business in a related but not competing field that would like to put up a small sign advertising your business if you do the same for them. Maybe you have contacts in the business community who have survived similar times and lived to tell about it. You have more than ever to gain from meaningful relationships with other businesses.

Can you make it through the next big downturn? While there are no guarantees, following these five tips will certainly improve your odds. Businesses can survive and even thrive during downturns. In fact, many businesses find that hard times are the impetus to help them streamline their business and develop new and more efficient ways of succeeding.

Many people wonder why they should hire a website design company to design their website for them. After all, there are web design books on every bookstore shelves and even online classes offering to make you an overnight expert on the subject. However, there are many things that a website design company for small business can do for you that can only be learned over years of education and experience.

First, web designers can design a site with web solutions tailored to your company’s needs. What kind of web solutions does this include? Whether you need a website that recommends items based on your customers’ buying history or a site that can change color at the click of a button, a web design company will be able to create web solutions that make your site appear more professional to visitors and make the day to day operations easier for you to manage. It takes years to learn exactly what can be done and how to do it, years that most web designers already have under their belts. Be sure to check out the website samples first.

Second, a website design company has experience with the marketing consultant aspects of planning a website. Not only will you need web solutions to make your site more efficient and accessible, you need to know exactly what appeals to your particular audience. The caliber of web designers that are employed at a professional website design company are good at reading an audience and knowing approximately what your users’ skill levels and computer specifications are likely to be. This kind of knowledge allows them to design a site that will make your potential customers feel at home and understood.

Third, a website design company can create a website that will be noticed by the major search engines. Let’s face it: even the best website will do no good if there isn’t a steady flow of traffic. Because most people on the web are using search engines to locate companies and products, your website might as well be invisible if it doesn’t appear on the first few pages of a relevant search. A web design company is likely to train all staff web designers in creating websites that will be search friendly.

If all of the above aren’t enough incentive to use a web design company instead of going it alone, here is a fourth and last reason: time. Whether you are a business owner or an employee, you probably have a packed to-do list, as well as many activities that actually can be making money. The time that you invest in learning to create a website and then in actually constructing it is indeed worth money. These countless hours often add up to a higher cost than you would actually pay to outsource the work to a website design company.

In all, choosing a website design company to create a customer website with web solutions for your company is often the financially correct choice. This does not even take into account the stress that most people go through when learning a complicated subject such as web design or the value of the more professional product that web designers will create. Most business owners who choose a website design company are pleased with both their choice and the end product.

I was reading Seth Godin’s book entitled “small is the new big” and came across an interesting perspective about how benchmarking can weaken your business performance. Here’s an excerpt:

“…benchmarking against the universe actually encourages us to be mediocre, to be average, to just do what everyone else is doing. The folks who invented the Mini (or the Hummer, for that matter) didn’t benchmark their way to the cutting edge. Comparisons to other cars would never have brought about these fashionable exceptions. What really works is not having every little thing be up to the usual standards – what works is everything is being good enough, and one or two elements of a product or service being amazing.”

Indeed, current standards can sometimes be a deterrent in realizing your product or services’ true potential. It should be shattered to pave way to new and better standards.

That doesn’t mean you have to abandon your benchmarking efforts right away. In fact, I suggest that it remains an integral practice in your business, particularly if you’re just starting up. Why? Because it will help you make realistic choices as well as see your business relative to competition and the overall industry.

What you should avoid is the habit of copycatting. Many businesses, big or small, still mistake benchmarking as this. The result is lack of creativity and failure to develop innovative concepts. Copying other brand’s strategies, designs, and marketing communications won’t help you cut through the clutter.

Benchmarking works best when used as a guide to help you take the right direction on what aspect you have to innovate or differentiate.

The Internet has changed the way we play marketing. It has turned one-way talks to dynamic conversations. Before, businesses bombard customers with messages from printed, radio and TV ads. But with the explosion of company blogs and social networking sites, customers can easily talk back if they don’t like what you’re doing.

A double-edge sword if you will. Do great things and it will spread like wildfire. Yet, one fatal mistake can stir numerous protest and boycotts. The recent privacy issue on Facebook has created hysteria in the online world, forcing the company to retract its terms within hours.

Conversation is a two-way process. Before, only people in the media can launch attacks against companies. Today, everyday customers can start conversations with you through comments in your website and other popular social networks. Passionate and disgruntled customers are now empowered to make or break your image. And they don’t need to pay a dime to do whatever they want to do.

Being responsive is more critical than ever. It can be your advantage over big corporations. These guys have to deal with bureaucracies before issuing official statements. As small business owners, speed and flexibility are on your side. With a little help from your slick BlackBerry or iPhone, you can reply wherever, whenever.

A well-designed website backed by a superior content management platform is a big help in managing crisis and reaching out with your customer. You might remember that there were toy recalls last year from Mattel, the renowned makers of Barbie. Its website became the main mouthpiece in resolving issues and informing the public about safety.

In the market filled with customers longing for personal attention, how you respond can be a crucial element in building strong relationship. Who knows what 1 comment can do to your business.

In running a business, whether startup or established, it is important to find out if it is scalable or capable of expansion over the long haul. It is a serious mistake to assume that your business will remain on the same level.

If you’re a marketing consultant, for instance, your business may start slow with one or two clients. Over time, assuming you’re good, your firm will be flooded with testimonials and referrals. These factors will attract more and more customers. Perhaps more than you can handle.

Though this is the ultimate fantasy of every business man, it can turn to a horrible nightmare if your business is not geared up for expansion. You may end up wrecking your work-life balance for you have to work long hours and during weekends to catch up with your clients’ needs and whims. To make matters worse, dividing your time to so many clients may negatively affect your output.

Before you even get to that point of no return, consider asking these questions to check if your business is scalable:

1. Can I exploit the skills of other people in exchange for money? As your business expands, time becomes a scarcity. Your alternative is to hire the right people or partner with another successful person in your industry to duplicate your success.

2. Am I equipped with the right technology? This is crucial for businesses relying heavily on machines such as video/photo editing, internet marketing, and graphic design firms. When investing in equipment, always consider its capability for upgrades.

3. Will I enjoy the fruits of my labor? Otherwise, what’s the use of all the money in the world, right?

To borrow the words of author Stephen Covey in his infamous book, 7 Basic Habits of Highly Effective People, you should always begin with the end in mind. So go ahead, take a look at your business and see if you’re ready to a profitable future.

As with any form of business, even the logo design business, an essential ingredient for success in online business is passion. I am not talking about a passion to make money – no one starts a business wanting to fail. What you need is a passion for the type of business you will be doing. Your online business is you and your computer. If you don’t love your work, it will become a drudgery and highly likely to be unsuccessful. A look at the basic types of online business will help you decide where you want to be.

Informational sites cover activities like blogs, e-magazines, specialized online news, databases etc. There are two ways of making money here. One is by selling information and articles either through subscriptions or against specific one time payments. What you will need to do this is to have information that is difficult to find or else presented in a way that is what your target market is looking for. Alternatively, the information can be made available free and revenue can be generated from the sale of advertising space on the site. The amount advertisers will pay is dependent on the popularity of the site.

The direct online shop is exactly what its name implies. It is a site which offers goods or services for sale. The goods are stocked by the online business who will arrange for supply against payment. All the stocking and shipment problems are taken care of by the website owner who will also need to control inventories, and sales receipts. This kind of business will require some working capital and physical space for the stocking of the goods. If you want to learn more about setting up an online shop, you can check out Ringgle’s’ online shop management features. It sure provides complete online business solutions. Profit comes from the margin on sales

The secondary, sub or affiliate online shop is similar to the online version as far as the website and presentation goes. The difference is that this type online business does not buy and stock the goods and so does not have the problems of needing a higher working capital amount and storage space. The affiliate shop can work in two ways. The most common is that orders received are passed on to the supplier who receives the payment, ships the good and pays the online business a commission on the sale.

Alternatively the online business can accept the order, receive the payment and, after deducting its commission, send the balance to the supplier who will ship the goods. The online affiliate shop is a good place to start since the amount of money and space required is low. Income in this case is solely dependent on sales commissions.

Web enabled services include project based activities such as sending bulk emails, conducting online surveys, data collection, preparing project or market reports, translation work, graphic or web design, internet marketing and so on. This type of online business is order based; that is, the order for the work is received along with an advance or part payment. Upon completion of the project, it is sent to the customer against the receipt of the balance payment. Much of the work can be regular in nature, such as in the case of ongoing contracts for sending emails or data collection. Income will be dependent on the value of projects completed.

There are other forms of online business such as medical transcription, insurance adjusting etc. which require specialized domain knowledge. See related medical logos description.

Logo Design Works is at cross roads now. We have stayed small for a very long time and offered personalized logo design services to clients from all over the world. Even though this meant we could not take on too many logo design projects, it allowed us to be in control of the process and the deliverable that we offered our customers.

For the past two months, we have had an increase in sales and the trend seems to be accelerating. This despite the slow down of the economy. Now, our small team of 4 lead logo design team and a small number of junior designers (you can count them on your fingers), is not able to cope with the increased projects.

We know we need to increase our work force to handle all the new sales, but the question is: what happens if the sale start to slow down? For small design firms I guess this question is not easy to answer. Do we start recruiting a new logo designer? If we do then we are stuck with salaries that have to paid no matter what happens to the sales.

So do we go for freelancers? The problem with is that freelancers are not reliable any more. At least in the logo design industry. When your core service depends heavily on the quality of logo design concepts you provide, you can not risk placing that responsibility in the hands of unknown and untested logo designers.

We are now thinking of taking on partners or angel investors who would be able to provide us with the management know how and the resources to be able to bring on full time logo designers and be still able to wither any turn in the sales cycles. I will update this post as and when we have had major changes to our situation.

Columbia University in New York is the second-ranked school of business in the U.S. Professor of Marketing, Dr. Don Sexton, offers refreshing insights into the value of branding. The refreshing part is the measurability of brand value! That is always the marketer’s/advertiser’s lament: “I know about half of my budget is wasted! I just don’t know which half!”

Dr. Sexton has a number of intriguing observations about the merits and measurability of branding – not the least of which is the characterization of the equity in your brand to be an asset just like any other asset. I found this to be particularly courageous. Few experts want to come right out and quantify the results you can expect to get from your branding effort. According to Sexton,

“Estimated company brand equity values include $69.0 billion for General Electric, $53.3 billion for Microsoft, $42.1 billion for Toyota and $36.6 billion for Johnson & Johnson.”

I hope you are noticing all those ‘b’ words! If these kinds of heady figures surprise you, you need to continue to learn more about the whys and wherefores of branding! (Although, I was surprised to learn that Microsoft is No. 2, until I realized that G.E. is No. 1, of course!)

That thing you do – whatever it is – is your expertise. You know more than the average person about your occupation whether you’re in sales, marketing, production, distribution… doesn’t matter. You know more than most people about it. Surprisingly, this edge may be all you need to get an article published in an appropriate trade magazine! (It’s easy to publish on line, but it’s something else to see your name printed on dead trees. It’s heavy, man.)

“Euw! I hate to write – I can’t.” Save it. Yes, you can write about what you do. Why would you want to? Hinted above (the heaviness) of being published on paper can be an excellent branding/marketing tool. When people in your own industry see your byline, you gain immediate credibility, attention and respect. The potential of getting print published is highly likely to pay off as a lofty component of your reputation.

Here’s a good place to consider whether writing is for you.

But the best tip of all is this closely guarded secret: Magazines need ink! Many are actively seeking and enormously welcoming of an article contributed by someone in their field. I know this for a fact. Don’t delude yourself that they have great mountains of wonderful, professionally written articles just sitting around. Call an editor. Odds are, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Finding good people to populate your small business or startup is crucial. Without a pool of sharp, productive workers, your business is doomed. Payroll is one of your biggest ongoing expenses. This whole area of human resources is full of hidden opportunity costs as well as the hidden expenses of losing a key worker. You must not only find suitable candidates, you must be able to attract them to the point where they choose to work for you. Only then does the really hard work begin of retaining your most valuable people.

Business owners are naturally attracted to younger workers, even fresh graduates. After all, they have a fresh education and it’s possible to get productive results based on sheer talent rather than experience, which costs more.

On the other hand, the more experienced you become, the more you realize how valuable it is. As the bulging baby-boomer workforce ages, yes, they are older, but by now, they have acquired 20 to 40 years of experience. Here is an excellent article that makes the case for considering mature workers for employment in your company. Sure, there’s a fine line between “mature” and “geezer,” but many companies discount recruiting older workers because they think hiring the experience is too expensive. But, when you take a closer look, you just might want to reconsider your priorities.

Here’s how to use Google for rough market research. If I Google “How to start a business” and I get 281,000 results, I know I am in a hot area. Now, I’m certainly not going to start clicking through 281,000 responses, but, I’ve certainly learned that lots of people have advice, programs, products and services that cater to new businesses. It’s a rough measuring tool, but it’s also fast and free.

You can use Google for rough market research about your new company. Right off the bat, Google the company name you are considering… If you get no results, that’s pretty golden (but still NO guarantee, you must search the USPTO for definitive results!) Google the URL you want. That’s the fastest way to know if it’s available.

eHow is a site I subscribe to, therefore trust and endorse for finding out how to start a business, At eHow, you’ll find a large number of business-related articles. I’ve chosen two samples to give you a taste. One is a laundry list of steps, the other is a good roundup of grassroots marketing tactics.

The point is to explore eHow to find out how to do any number of things that interest you. I subscribe, and find I am often entertained, and frequently educated by the daily delivery.

It is possible to make the case that as an advertising message, “excellent customer service” has become a waste of time/ink. Everybody claims to adore their customers more than any competitor. People know it’s their credit card/checkbook that is adored.

Touting customer service as a differentiating factor is reminiscent of the 1950s, when offices and shops were just beginning to install air conditioning. Many advertised this fact with “It’s Cool Inside” door stickers and even in their ads. Today, advertising that you have an air conditioned facility is somewhat like announcing that you have “flat floors” or “adequate lighting.”

At the same time, there is far more to customer relationships than just promising to “care more” than your competition. “Defy conventional wisdom,” says Frances Frei, associate professor at the Harvard Business School. When you apply her insights to your business, you may come up with new ways of leveraging customer value. For example, learn how an insurance company quickly weeds out high-risk customers who end up denting their bottom line. Sounds implausible, but it just may be possible you don’t want to sign up every customer who lurches through your door!

Can’t think of creative and effective ad or slogan to go with your impressive logo design? Burnout happens even to very creative individuals. Also, not all entrepreneurs have the much needed creativity or enough resources to commission a branding agency.

In case you badly needed an ad or a memorable slogan, you can visit The Ad Generator by Alexis Lloyd. It is a free mashup tool which manipulates languages and images to create fake advertisements every 15 to 30 seconds. Here are some of their samples.

Here’s the explanation of his process:

Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly. By remixing corporate slogans, I intend to show how the language of advertising is both deeply meaningful, in that it represents real cultural values and desires, and yet utterly meaningless in that these ideas have no relationship to the products being sold.

While some of the generated ads are really meaningless, visiting this site can guide you to the right direction or help spark the creativity within you. If you’re lucky, you might find the ideal slogan or ads for your small business here.

Writing is a creative art. Writing for others is a commercial science, I suppose – similar to the difference between fine artist and commercial artist. Writers are always writing to some audience, but the difference is, you hire a writer to speak on your behalf to your audience. Tough assignment, because for your writer to have a shot at success, you have to not only carefully explain who your target audience is, but also the message you want to convey. Many many many people believe if they can do that much, they might as well just go ahead and write it themselves. That’s why there is so much terrible writing everywhere.

The commercial artist/designer suffers when the client ties one arm behind his back. “No black, it has to be shaped like a square and the text must be yellow in this X font…….” You don’t need an artist/designer, you need a tracing machine. Do people hire an attorney, then proceed to choose the applicable statutes for the litigation? Do you hire a doctor, then proceed to dictate what tests you will not undergo?

To work with writers, here’s some help. First this article concisely delineates the different types of writers. Then, this site explores some of the abstract difficulties of working with a writer. But, no matter who you work with, when you hire someone for his expertise, please don’t pick him or her to death – that’s a sure fire way to get crap results, even as you are torturing a fellow human. Creatives are fragile folk! Some just pretend better than others.

Although consumers in general plan to spend less this holiday, online shopping is still growing. If you are running an e-commerce store, this is the busiest and most competitive time of the year so you should be more aggressive to increase your sales.

Although there are many Internet marketing strategies and tactics today, email marketing logos continues to be an effective and cost-efficient strong weapon of choice. According to Direct Marketing Association, “For every dollar spent on email marketing in 2007, marketers can expect an estimated $48.29 ROI. Without a doubt, email marketing achieves the greatest ROI of all marketing channels we look at.”

Another statistics from Shop.org shows that email delivers sales at an average cost per order of less than $7, compared to $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search and $17.47 for affiliate programs.

Here are 2 clever ways to use email marketing this holiday season:

1. Suggest a gift. Offer gift ideas and packages specific to a person like dad, mom, friend, lover, brothers or sisters. This will make shopping a lot easier for many of your customers.
2. Offer Christmas deals. Most consumers are in the mood for shopping these days so why not offer a promo they simply can’t resist? This will encourage them to buy more in return for a small concession like incremental discounts (example: 10% for purchase above $100, 15% for above $200, etc.)

Risk is an essential part of running a business. It can make your dreams come true but it can also shatter it if you are not careful. A new study shows that successful entrepreneurs are more likely to take risks.

Some 60 per cent of those with assets of more than $1 million said a high appetite for risk had been a big influence in generating their wealth, compared with 36 per cent of those with less than $1 million of assets.

Given that risk is all around us, you should learn how to take calculate your chances of survival in this game. Here are some of the things you need to consider:

1. Look before you leap. Research about the risk you are about to take and consult with experts in the field to gather more information. The more you know the better your chances of survival.
2. Have a Backup Plan. Because there are different ways to solve a problem, you should have an alternative plan in case things will go out of hand.
3. Rank the risks. If you are taking several risks, you should prioritize which one to tackle first. A good measure is to consider the consequences of each scenario and the probability of it happening. However, this is a very tricky method because it’s difficult to avoid subjective opinions.

If you think selling over the phone is easier than face-to-face selling, maybe it’s time for you to think again. Phone selling is very challenging given the high level of mistrust of many consumers and the lack of physical contact to gauge the openness of your customers. If this type of selling is vital to your business, you should consider the following tips:

1. Establish relationship in less than 10 seconds. Since you can’t convey your message with a good body language, you will have to rely entirely on your friendly tone and charming personality to forge a relationship. Make your approach more casual so your customers won’t know you’re reading a script.
2. Keep it short and sweet. Don’t bore your prospects with details by focusing on the key benefits of your product, the main message you want to tell, and some personal positive experiences from other customers.
3. Plan your calls. Segment each call if it’s a prospect, cold call, close, follow up, or existing customers. Each segment needs different approach and phone selling tactic.
4. Follow up. Don’t expect to make a sale after just one selling session. It takes time and persistence to win a customer. Remember, you’re not the only one pursuing that customer so take time to call again on the date agreed by both parties.

Start your week with these 8 practical small business tips and news happening around the globe. More importantly, try to integrate these new insights to help your small business succeed.

Here we go:

1. IndyStar.com says true entrepreneurs seem to have a knack not only for spotting an emerging business opportunity, but also for spotting another opportunity within that first opportunity.
2. Do you know the basic psychology of marketing? Understand the difference between needs and wants? AllBusiness.com offers an overview of marketing and how it affects your business.
3. Do you really need to learn employment law? A new study in the UK shows that 78 per cent of entrepreneurs deal unaided with employee-related paperwork. This may be from another country but I have a strong feeling the U.S. has the same trend.
4. Time to brand yourself because CareerBuilder.com says like consumer products, you have a brand as well and that is your reputation.
5. If you want to hire good employees, don’t just rely on your academic books. Why don’t you try football? Rob of Businesspundit explains what you can learn from this contact game about hiring.
6. Regardless if you are in online or offline business, do you believe we are all in the business of ideas? Small business marketing consultant Amy Biddle suggests to all small business owners that our primary business is the business of being a visionary.
7. Because many Gen-Y people don’t want to climb the corporate ladder, will they succeed as entrepreneurs? Just combine the freshness of the younger generation with the work ethic of Gen-X or boomers and they’re good to go!
8. Jamie Herzlich of newsday.com says keep customers by keeping them happy. This might appear obvious but check again for you might be missing some important points in your business.

We’re giving to you the must-read tips for entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on gathering new insights to help you succeed. Read our compilation for today:

1. If you are a Six Feet Under entrepreneur or interested in running your own funeral home, you may want to invest in Maryland’s funeral industry because a new court decision has opened the door for more entrepreneurs to enter the funeral business under the legal and financial advantages afforded by incorporating.

2. Looking to expand your online business? Why not try the virtual world Second Life? Read this interesting news about how entrepreneurs reap profits from this site.

3. Protecting your business data like financial statements, marketing plans, or business plans is a very important task every entrepreneur should not forget. For $10 dollars every month, At&T is offering a Remote Vault service to allow small businesses with a broadband Internet connection to remotely access, copy and store data from PCs or laptops to an AT&T Internet Data Center.

4. Visit BootStrapMe to learn some great bootstrapping suggestions from a diverse group of business leaders. One interesting suggestion is to be honest with yourself by not chasing an idea forever if you can’t pull it off.

5. Fortunately, Rhonda Abrams of Gannett News Service believes cash isn’t the only way to reward employees. Understand how you can use well days, birthdays, extra time off, and employee of the week program as meaningful tactics.

There are many temptations hindering the success of small businesses across the globe. These are the things we should not do but for some reason, many entrepreneurs keep doing it. Here are some of the fatal temptations in running a small business.

1. Cutting corners. Some entrepreneurs offer substandard products or poor service just to minimize expenses. They are tempted to buy cheap raw materials or accept bargain deals without regard to quality.
2. Forgetting the basics. Every business has essential parts like special equipment, unique business skills, or secret formula. However, we sometimes take these things for granted because we focus on new but less significant matters.
3. Listening to everybody. Starting a business can be very confusing so we solicit advice from experts in different fields like finance, accounting logos, marketing and leadership. Although there is nothing wrong with that, we should learn to evaluate every advice and uncover any hidden agenda if there’s any.
4. Not assessing your business skills. There are some entrepreneurs who believe that common sense and luck are the main ingredients of success. It is important to know your limitations so you can identify what skills to work on and the people you need to hire.

With many banks now catering to small businesses, finding the right bank can be very tedious for many entrepreneurs. On the brighter side, too many options mean we have higher chances of getting low-interest loans and build better business relationship.

In case your intention is to get a loan to improve your cash flow or finance your new ventures, here are some things you can do:

1. Check the websites of different banks in your area and compare their loan rates. The difference would probably be smaller because each bank is constantly monitoring the moves of competitors.
2. Talk with bank representatives to get more details and check if there are hidden costs. Make sure you do tip #1 to help you negotiate better.
3. Consult with your professional network to get their feedback and experience about the different banks in your area.

If you want to improve your business relationship with your bank, you should do the following:

1. You and your employees should be friendly with bank’s staff. Some network only with bank managers but this is a grave mistake. Establish relationship with enablers like tellers, customer service, loan officers, and guards for they can help in your daily transactions.
2. Give referrals. Refer other clients to the bank manager and don’t be shy to promote your efforts. Since they also have sales targets, they will greatly appreciate any prospects you point in their direction.
3. Don’t ask negative questions. Inquiring about bankruptcy or overdraft policies might create a wrong impression to bank officers about your capacity to pay.

Check out related accounting logo design portfolio.

Many of us are familiar with promotional items. These are free stuffs like pens or shirts bearing a company logo given to consumers or business partners. Some entrepreneurs don’t believe it is effective but a recent study (pdf file) conducted by Promotional Products Association International shows the positive impact of promo products to brand and company image:

Promotional Products have a positive impact on brand image. Specifically, when comparing people who receive a promotional product from a company with others who do not, this research shows that people who receive a promotional product have a significantly more positive opinion about a business through more positive overall image, more positive perception of the business, higher likelihood of recommending the business, and higher likelihood of patronization

Before you employ this method in your business, you should know the reasons behind your giveaways. Is it to increase sales, encourage trials, build brand or company identity, or generate new leads?

This important question will lead you to the right direction and right approach towards your customers. Otherwise, it would result to a complete failure, similar to what happened to Pontiac/Oprah giveaway 2 years ago.

You’re probably wondering what promo items are best for your business. It would greatly help if there is a strong connection between your brand and promo items. Knowledge of your target market will play a large part in this tactic.

For instance, your business is connected with helping other people earn money online. You should give away free information products like e-books or videos on different tips to increase traffic or improve conversion.

If you’re a big fan of any sports like basketball, baseball, football or soccer, why don’t you build a business around it? Your passion will be a major motivating factor but can also be your very weakness. Make sure you scan the market first before investing. Here are some of the business ideas you can build around your favorite sports:

Sports camp

Every summer many parents enroll their children in different sports camps or clinics to enhance their skills and boost self-confidence. Minimum startup cost is about $10,000 to pay for accommodations, equipment, marketing campaign, salary, and a possible endorsement by a local sports celebrity in your town or city.

Designing and Printing Team Uniforms

If you pay particular attention to team uniforms instead of the actual game, why not start selling and designing uniforms to different teams in schools or companies. You can pattern the logos on your favorite teams and subcontract the actual printing on the clothes if you are afraid to invest initially. Minimum cash outlay is about $2,000.

Sports Coaching

Some play on the field while others with their minds. If you have experience as a coach of any sports, it is feasible to offer a one-on-one service both to starting athletes and aspiring coaches. You can also run monthly seminars if you prefer dealing with many clients.

Even if your business is not connected with sports, sponsoring sports activities can help increase awareness about your company and possibly reap additional revenues.

It is a common knowledge that employees who have fun at work are the most productive. It means part of our responsibilities as entrepreneurs is to make our company a happy place. Today, it is not enough to celebrate holidays and birthdays to have fun in our office. We should take a step further by doing some of these things:

1. Engage in social events. Movie nights, bowling, or even a simple coffee session are good for bonding sessions. Discourage any conversations about business and focus on personal matters.
2. Create a “happy” team. Gather your fun-loving employees together and come up with different creative activities to add more laughter in your company.
3. Review your office practices. There are some annoying activities in your office like soliciting money among employees that negatively affect other co-workers. You should correct these things as soon as possible.
4. Maintain a positive attitude. Employees usually mimic the attitude of the business owners. Lead your team towards a more optimistic life by starting within yourself.
5. Adopt flextime. Some employees have other personal matters to attend to like children or sick relatives. Giving them a flexible schedule will not only ease their stress but build loyalty to your company as well.

Is your business a fan of creativity? A recent survey shows that majority of US workers suffer from lack of creative stimulation. This is a very fatal blow for many small businesses since creativity is the core of our existence.

In a study of 674 full- and part-time workers, 88 percent said they consider themselves creative, but only 63 percent said they are putting their creative abilities to use on the job, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey commissioned by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

Moreover, 39 percent of respondents said they do not think of their company as a creative entity. Nevertheless, the survey found that 75 percent of workers believe their employers value their creativity.

To help you boost your creativity, I have gathered several resources for you to read:

Jpb.com offers numerous creativity tips such as 10 Steps for Boosting Creativity, 10 Creative Myths, and Creative Idea Implementation Plan.

Brain Reactions has gathered 31 tips for improving your creativity and I personally like the idea of spending time with kindergartens and trying new experiences to widen one’s perspectives.

Download this pdf file from Laughterremedy.com to learn how you can use humor to enhance your creativity.

Compass Life Designs guides you on how to unlock your creativity by exercising, brainstorming, and using affirmations.

Ettiengt at Flixya will help you boost your creativity using your 5 senses.

Would it be nice if we can promote our business and contribute to the society at the same time? Cause marketing logo design is a not a new concept but many entrepreneurs have a misconception that this is only applicable to big companies.

They say a good deed is often rewarded. In the case of cause marketing, it can boost your company image and make your customers feel better about themselves. According to a new research,

The perception that a company is doing good raised the premium consumers are willing to pay for a brand by an average of 6.1 percent.

Among survey respondents, 70 percent said purchasing products from companies that support causes makes them feel they are being socially responsible. Fifty-three percent said the connection makes them feel like a part of something beyond the scope of their own lives.

In case you are interested to integrate this approach in your small business, here are some things you should consider:

1. It needs passion and commitment. This step can be very risky if you simply want to increase your revenues. Choose a charity that is close to your heart and take time to know more about this group before you implement this strategy.
2. Deal with the right charitable group. You should also check the credibility of your chosen institution. Unfortunately, there are numerous swindlers who use charity as their front. Also, make sure the organizers are equally willing to promote your company as well.

We’re giving to you the must-read news concerning small businesses and entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on learning new stuff. Today’s leading news include:

Nina Kaufman, an official blogger of WomenEntrepreneur.com, provides a lesson on how entrepreneurs can survive trademark lawsuits. She also emphasizes the importance of having a legal counsel before starting your branding and trademark process.

If you want to build your business, you should know the Dr. Stephen Covey’s 4 “L’s” of success in your career or your relationships – living, love, learn, and leave a legacy.

Involve your business in saving the environment by following these recycling tips. According to LondonTopic.ca, it will help lower operating costs through more efficient use of materials and resources, save waste disposal costs and show your customers that you are environmentally conscious.

The Seattle Times reports how business coaches can help entrepreneurs stay on task. According to David Matthew Prior, a business coach based in Saddle River, N.J., “Coaching isn’t therapy, and it’s not consulting. The basic philosophy is that the client knows the answers, and the coach is there to facilitate and provide structure, support and accountability. And there is no coaching occurring if the client is not taking action.”

The ongoing Campbell’s soup recall of more than 72,000 cans is a wake up call for many entrepreneurs to have stricter quality evaluation procedures. More importantly, it prompted us to prepare in case we experience this same problem. Speed is very here because a defective product can trigger serious damages to your customers. Here are some of the important steps you should do when recalling a product:

Step 1. Assign a responsible person in your company to oversee the entire recall activities.

Step 2. Gather info about the product you want to recall such as bar code, description, size, manufacturing date or import date.

Step 3. Track the customers who received your defective product, inform them immediately stop sellingor using it. Depending on the problem, a product can be repaired, disposed, or returned to your company.

Step 4. Inform the public about your recall, no matter how small your business is. Don’t just rely on your customer service and learn to use all your employees to spread the word as soon as possible. Get in touch with the media to help you out.

Step 5. If you have a website, create a “Recall Safety Information” in your homepage and make sure it is very conspicuous to your readers. Maintain this information even after the actual recall. There might be some customers who don’t know about this yet.

Step 6. Assist your customers for any refund, repair or replacement caused by the recall. Prepare your team to deal with angry customers and ask them to be more patient.

Step 7. Be prepared to spend additional money for the recall to be effective. This is the price for being lax on your quality inspection.

Customer service has transcended from a mere support to become a very important function in every business, irrespective of size and industry. In fact, CNN Money reports that mid-size companies believe this is now a competitive differentiator to fuel growth.

However, there are still many entrepreneurs who do not appreciate the value of this service and continue to commit the 8 common mistakes that will eventually undermine their business performance. These include:

1. Failure to fulfill your promises. Once a commitment is made there must no excuses or apologies.
2. Lack of flexibility. Saying “that’s our policy” is one of the quickest ways to lose a customer. You should explore all possibilities to meet the demands of your customers, even if you have to bend some rules from time to time.
3. Selling substandard products. If you can’t bridge your product claims with actual experience then there is no sense continuing your business.
4. Not accessible to customers most of the time. If customers find it difficult to contact your customer service then don’t feel bad if they switch to your competitors right away.
5. Lack of training. As they say, winning is a habit and so is losing. If you have lousy customer service agents, don’t expect any miracle that they will improve without any effort at all.
6. Lack of proper manners. Basic customer service protocols like greeting your customers and saying “thanks”, “sorry”, and “please” do matter to most customers.
7. Inaccuracy. Misspelled names and wrong contact information can bog down your customer service and might vex even your loyal customers.
8. Ignoring complaints. Some customer service agents like to jot down complaints but don’t really act on it until a customer makes a follow up.

As promised, we’re bringing to you the must-read news concerning small businesses and entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on learning new stuff. Today’s leading news includes:

Optimism remains high today. According to The Washington Post, small business owners expect their sales and profits to be the same or better over the next six months

Not so good news for female entrepreneurs because the law passed in 2000 that would directly help small businesses owned by women still hasn’t been implemented.

Confused with numerous online tools available in the market? Search Engine Land will guide you on which Google products a small business should use.

Learn how Arvizu Advertising & Promotions Inc, a startup company specializing in marketing to Hispanics, has succeeded using the simple guidelines – Set aside your ego. Find your niche. Go grass roots. Dream.

This is your chance to shine as U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is seeking nominations for the 2008 NH “Small Business Person of the Year” and other small business champion award winners. Feel free to volunteer yourself or other deserving entrepreneurs in this prestigious ceremony.

Business intelligence is about gathering information on current market situations, upcoming trends, and competitor activities. If you think this applies only to big companies, think again. A new survey has revealed that poor intelligence results to substantial losses:

58% of surveyed business executives admit that business opportunities have been missed or problems have not been spotted as a result of not having access to relevant information at the right time;

The survey indicates that the Fortune 500 companies are losing approximately $250 million per year in missed business opportunities as a result of inadequate business intelligence.

You may not lose thousands or millions of dollars but the point is you will lose lucrative opportunities and might not stay on top if you don’t take business intelligence seriously. The good news is you don’t need to spend too much money on this, if you apply the following tips:

1. Check your competitors’ websites. Most businesses now do have websites and that is a rich source of competitive information. Important sections include “About Us”, “Press Releases”, and “Products or Services”. Don’t forget to check the profile and competencies of its founders or co-founders to gauge how well they know the market.
2. Internet research. A simple Google search will give you tons of information about the market trends and financial data of your publicly traded competitors. If you are looking for annual reports and financial info, check out Yahoo! Finance and SEC Filings & Forms (EDGAR). Also talk to your accountant about any information that they might share with you.
3. Use your network. If you have friends or professional colleagues connected in your industry, why not give them a call or set an informal meeting? This is your chance to collect info not commonly available in websites like hearsays or daily operations.

Starting from scratch might be very daunting for some starting entrepreneurs. They might find it very difficult to build a customer base, develop new products, handle initial marketing campaign or hire reliable employees.

To sidestep these birth pains, one alternative is to buy an existing business and expand it to reap more profits. All systems are already in place and you might just need to tweak it to be more efficient. When buying a business, you should carefully consider the following:

1. Reasons for selling. If it is so good, why sell it? Don’t expect some owners to tell you the truth but you should find ways to validate the reasons provided. You can talk to some of the employees or other business partners.
2. Business image. Although having a negative business reputation gives you the power to bargain for a lower acquisition cost, it can hurt the future operations of your business. You should meet with several customers and suppliers to gauge the existing business image.
3. Financial statements and sales records. Get the financial statements for the last 5 years and hire an accountant to audit all the books for accuracy and consistency with tax returns. This will also give you a good estimate of business profitability and much how liabilities you have to assume.
4. Legal documents. Some of the important legal contracts include articles of incorporation, purchase agreements, sales contracts, employment contracts, copyrights, and trademarks. You should consult with legal experts to be more accurate.

Do you consider health care coverage important to your business? A recent survey about this subject has some surprising revelations. For one, male entrepreneurs are more concerned about health insurance to employees, compared with the female entrepreneurs. According to USA Today:

The American Express survey of 627 small-company owners and managers found that 67% of men vs. 59% of women feel such coverage is important. The results, out today, are surprising to authorities on female-owned firms who believe women put more emphasis on health benefits.

Moreover, the number of small businesses with health insurance has declined given the rising premiums. Here are some tips to help you minimize your health care expenses:

1. Know all your options. Compare the premiums and perks offered by different insurance companies to get the best deal possible. With so many competitors in this industry, you have a good a chance of getting lower rates. Search over the internet and ask other entrepreneurs in your area about their experience.
2. Be part of a group. If you have less than 10 employees, you can partner with other entrepreneurs to create a bigger group. As your group becomes bigger, your premiums will be significantly lower.
3. Have a wellness program. You should be proactive and create a comprehensive fitness program for your employees to follow. As they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It can also include a diet guide and disease management counseling for chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and asthma.

Sometimes, having a good customer service might not be enough to encourage customer loyalty. It is important to deliver consistent customer service. Consistency is one of the essential ingredients of success, regardless if you want to lose weight, attract more customers, or achieve any goals. As entrepreneurs, here are 5 things we can do to make sure we’re consistently providing excellent customer service:

1. Make your employees as important as your customers. Remember this magic formula: happy employees = happy customers. Since they deal with your customers directly you need to make sure they are satisfied first.
2. Commend and reward your consistent customer service agents. You should also check with your employees what rewards are enticing to them. It need not be expensive as long as you show your concern to their well-being.
3. Consistently train your agents to improve their skills. Preparing your agents to react to worse-case scenarios will also prevent potential major problems from occurring.
4. Talk with your employees regularly. Fifteen-minute daily meetings can help you solicit suggestions for improvements and foster relationship among employees.
5. Turn your employees into friends. Hopefully they will turn customers into friends as well.

If you’re blogging your business, content alone is not going to draw potential customers/ clients to your site. Networking on the other hand, both in person and online, can make a difference if you’re persistent with a broad strategy to promote your business online.

Welcome to the third edition of the Carnival of Better Blogging (CoBB #3). This Carnival covers any aspect of blogging: writing, design, analytics, infographics, SEO, etc. As always, there are some great entries this week. So please go check out the articles.

If your entry was accepted, support of this carnival of a link back to this page would be appreciated. If you did not get in, it’s likely you will be accepted in the next edition. Please: no one-paragraph articles or trying to push your affiliate links, and no pages with pop-ups/ pop-unders. These will be deleted immediately. I also have a current aversion to anything about BlogRush because they’re always from bloggers trying to get people to sign up (i.e., have affiliate links).

Enjoy.

Featured Post

This is the featured post for this edition.

1. Pat B. Doyle: Is Your Blog Easy To Read?
   Every blogger that enters blog carnivals (or not) should read this. When I have to go through as many submissions as I do (almost) every week, you win points in my editor’s book by having easy to read pages. Else your post has to be exceptional.

Weekly Picks

Here are the weekly entries for this edition.

1. Ant: 10 Questions to Ask When Writing Hypnotic Posts.
2. Doris Chua: 15 FREE Ways to Bring in New Readers to Your Blog/ Site.
3. Edith Yeung: How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog – Part 1.
4. Vaibhav Gadodia: 9 Surefire Tips to Get Traffic to Your Site for New Bloggers.
5. Amanda Harris: Resources For Your Charities Website.
6. Mandy: How Do Bloggers Get To Take A Holiday?
7. Silicon Valley Blogger: Ways to Monetize Your Blog.

That’s it for this edition. If you have an article that you think fits in, please use the Blog Carnival submission form. A couple of notes to consider before entering:

1. If you submitted your article on or after Sep 22nd, it may appear in the next carnival.
2. Please do not resubmit the same article to the same carnival.
3. One entry per person per week (Monday through Sunday), please.

Even if you’re managing your small business efficiently, there might be instances wherein you face negative publicity. It might come from an irate customer or from your not-so-friendly competitor. These things can easily damage your business reputation, shatter relationships with your customers, and affect your profitability. Here what you should do in these situations:

Keep it Cool

Although it’s more easily said than done, you should try to keep your cool and analyze the situation objectively. Don’t be compelled to answer right away for it might further damage your business. You may want to check the information reported for any inaccuracy or false claims.

Talk to the Source

Contact the writer or editor if you find any inconsistent information in the report. Most writers are very open to reactions from the other party to complete the picture. If your point is valid, they will issue a correction right away. If they stick to their article, you can go to their direct media competitor and share your story. I’m quite sure this competitor will be very delighted.

Issue Your Official Statement

They say silence means yes, so you should clarify to the public what needs to be clarified. Send your press release to different sites and also email all customers in your list. Aside from stating the facts, try to make it more personal and heartfelt to win your customers back.

Do you think having a company uniform is important to your small business or that it’s just for the corporate guys? If you are one of those entrepreneurs who don’t bother much about this matter because there are other more important issues to deal with, you might be losing a good branding opportunity.

A company uniform bearing your logo can transform your employees into walking and talking advertisements. A good example here is FedEx’s classic-casual and very functional uniform that is consistent throughout the world. If you plan to have a company uniform, here’s what you need to learn:

1. Your uniform must be consistent with your company identity. If your business is known for its classy appeal, your uniform should also be elegant.
2. It must be functional and comfortable. Uniforms should not hinder your employees from doing their work. Partner with your employees in designing your uniform.
3. Remember there are 4 seasons. Don’t make the mistake of using just one type of uniform all year round. Learn how to adapt to the changing climate.

Also, if want to know how courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement, you should pay a visit to YoungEntrepreneur.

Having problems increasing your online sales? You might have thousands of website visitors and great article content but for some reason you can’t convert them to buy. It basically tells you that there might be something wrong with what you are doing right now. Here are some pointers you may want to look into:

1. Use High Quality Images

It’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words. Since there is no way for your online visitors to touch and test your products, using high quality photos will somehow make your products look real. Don’t just put any photo you have for it may damage your image. Try using professional photos to create credibility. If you want to use background photos, you can get free and low-priced high quality images at sites like Stockvault.net and SXC.hu.

2. Limit the Options

While it is good to offer numerous products on your website, you should limit the number of products to display per page and add more information – such as key benefits, shipping options, and answers to common questions. Too many choices can be intimidating and/or confusing, so some customers end up not buying.

3. Problem Comes Before the Solution

Try to establish a relationship first and hard-sell your products. Online visitors love to shop for free information related to their problems. Try to connect with them by giving away information and sharing your experiences or even stories from loyal customers.

Blurbs, client testimonials, and quotes are a great way to promote yourself or your book as you let the clients and readers do the talking. No worries about sounding like a braggart. But there are good, bad, and tricky testimonials.

“This is a great book!”

“Joe did an excellent job on the project!”

Do these tell you anything? These are empty and generic quotes. Here’s one that’s an example of a tricky testimonial, but you wouldn’t know it:

“Jane is very reliable.”

This tells part of the story. The rest of the story… “Jane is very reliable in arriving late for work every day.” Makes it easy for someone who didn’t like the person’s work to avoid saying something bad. But in most cases, the employee wouldn’t use such a person as a referral.

When reading book reviews in Amazon or elsewhere, you can tell which ones might be friends of the author’s. They’re short and empty. They tell you nothing about the book. It’s better not to have a testimonial than one like this. What if a big name wrote this kind of blurb? The blurb is useless in terms of convincing you to buy the book, but the author’s association with the person could convince some people to buy it (that old “It’s who you know.”).

When asking for a testimonial after the person agreed to supply one, ask the person to answer this results-oriented question and the testimonial will more likely be valuable.

“What has [product or service] helped you achieve?”

Or, if it’s too soon to know the answer to this, ask for a testimonial about the process of working with the company. How well they did in meeting deadlines, how well they did meeting requirements, and so on.

You can make your testimonials more credible if you include one that’s not positive. Why would you want to include that? It shows you’re honest and human. But why would we want to show our weaknesses? Everyone has weak areas and we might as well as be up front about them and earn credibility points.

About the author

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl.net, helping companies build relationships with clients and prospects through content.

Even successful business owners eventually have to let go of their small business and transfer it to family members or sell to interested buyers. Should you decide to put your business up for sale, here are some things you need to prepare for:

Many entrepreneurs dream that someday their business will be the number 1 player in its industry. But once you reach that much-coveted position in the market, a bigger challenge now is how to stay on top as long as possible.

One key strategy to maintain your strong position is to make sure you have relevant products all the time. You should constantly check every product line you’re selling and observe if there’s any downward trend. The bottom line is you introduce new products and manage the graceful exit of your obsolete products. Here are some tactics to ensure your relevance:

Monitor technology changes

New inventions or improvements might render your product truly useless. Classic examples include the obsolescence of the typewriter because of PCs, pagers due to SMS or text messaging, and someday possibly snail mail because of email. That’s why it is very important that you understand how technology will affect the future of your business.

Suggested activities include reading journals related to your industry and regular online research. It would help greatly if you can keep an eye on what changes might be in the pipeline of your customers lives.

Pay Attention to Changing Market Trends

As they say, nothing is constant but change. The buying behavior and preferences of our customers also change for a lot of reasons and you should be one step ahead to make your products really relevant. If you are in the fashion industry, for instance, you should know the 2007 fall trends many months ahead of time so that you can offer products customers will be dying to buy come time. The website TrendHunter.com is very useful for this task.

When it comes to selling, some entrepreneurs have an ongoing debate about which is generally better: on the phone or in the field? Although selling’s importance varies from industry to industry, some business experts recommend that you don’t choose which method is better. Rather, you should use both to have better sales performance.

Field Team

The field team are your good old traditional salespeople who visit your clients. The advantage of this team is its power to build more personal relationship. Also, a face-to-face communication motivates customers to share more details about their preferences and complaints.

Inside Team

Your inside sales team is composed of contact center agents who spend countless hours over the phone to close a deal and generate new leads for prospecting. Generally, this team is relatively cheaper because you can sometimes outsource the work to contact centers in various countries. In some cases, your inside sales team can also be your customer service team.

Integration

You should pay attention on how to seamlessly integrate both teams so they work optimally. Some helpful activities include weekly coordination meetings, setting of shared goals, sharing of information and best practices. When it comes to motivating your sales team, check out Biz Plan Hack’s advice.

A positive cash flow is very important to our daily operations. However, a major stumbling block to attain this is the collection of accounts receivables. There are different ways to handle collection, ranging from friendly calls, automated email reminders, warning letters, and referral to debt collection agencies.

Don’t let yourself run the risk of not getting paid. Use a more proactive approach. Below is a simple step-by-step guide to improve your cash flow and reduce uncollected debts:

Step 1. Know the payment policy of the other party. This will help you validate if this is acceptable on your part. Usually it is 30 to 60 days, but in some cases it takes as long as 90 days. Negotiate right away if the terms are not acceptable to you and propose a new one.

Step 2. Request for a deposit. Try to get the other side to make a partial or whole upfront payment. While the percentage varies from industry to industry, you should always try to bring up this matter to help minimize your overhead expenses and ease the stress of having to wait 45 to 60 days for payment.

Step 3. Put it in writing. Make your agreements formal by drafting a legal contract covering the details of any project. E.g., agreed price, delivery lead time. This will serve as your bible for the duration of such projects.

Step 4. Offer discounts for early payment. If you really need payment badly, to shore up cash flow, you could offer a small discount to your clients in return for earlier payment. Some customers might agree to pay sooner if they’re getting an enticing percentage discount.

Disasters are not part of our daily survival, but they do happen – in nature, and in business. Be proactive and have a disaster recovery plan ready, especially in terms of data redundancy if you are an information-intensive business.

Some entrepreneurs mistake disaster planning as a tool for big companies only. On the contrary, small business should take disaster planning more seriously because most of us do not operate in several locations. It means all our resources can be destroyed by a single disaster – be it a hurricane, fire or something else. The big companies, on the other hand, can simply transfer to other locations. In general, the cost of preparation is a lot cheaper. Below are some of the things you can include in your scenario planning:

Make a Disaster List

Brainstorm with employees, disaster planning experts, and if possible the local fire department. Identify all possible problems you might encounter given your location and the nature of your business. Once you identify the most probable disasters, create detailed plans and more importantly, run monthly drills to familiarize your people.

Backup Your Documents

Every business keeps information such as sales report, inventory levels, financial statements, and other important transactions. In some cases, entrepreneurs also leave their personal documents in their office. What you should do is to have a backup of these documents in both hard and soft copy. Here’s a checklist:

• Tax returns
• Credit cards
• Personal and business insurance policies
• Contact information of your suppliers and other partners
• Bank statements
• Employee records
• Medical records
• Legal documents like power of attorney and supply contracts
• Financial statements like Balance Sheet and Income Statement

Telecommuting, also known as working from home using an Internet connection, is growing business trend. Entrepreneur Daily mentioned that 73 percent of remote and home-based workers said they’re satisfied with the company they work for. There’s also a Senate Bill focused on telecommuting for SMBs (Small/ Medium Business).

The question is, are you ready to implement this system in your own small business? To help you answer this question, let me lay down the advantages to your business of telecommuting:

4 Major Advantages

Who Should Telecommute?

Not all employees in your business can take this option. Commonly, this system is applicable to writers, salespeople, researchers, public relations professionals, and architects. With the use of VoIP technology, even phone-based tasks can be outsourced.

Qualities Needed

Even if your employees are technically qualified, you should assess first if they have adequate self-discipline to deal with any distractions at home, the ability to make their own decisions on small matters, and enough drive to deliver results.

Who’s the man behind the success of Apple Inc.? Maybe 9 out of 10 will answer Steve Jobs. It is very reasonable because Mr. Jobs is in charge of overall marketing. Business Pundit, however, mentioned Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, and how he is such an inspiration to entrepreneurs.

What struck me from that short but very insightful post is the idea of trying things you’ve never done before. How about you? Have you tried something different in your small business lately? Or are you afraid to change what you’re doing right now? Maybe it’s time for you to expand your business by stretching outside your comfort zone.

The longer you are in the business the more you become careful not to make any mistakes and stick to the conventional methods. However, it will be very difficult for you to gain new customers and expand further. In case you find yourself in this situation, just follow the valuable lesson from Carly Fiorina, one of the most powerful women in corporate America:

In bullfighting there is a term called querencia. The querencia is the spot in the ring to which the bull returns. Each bull has a different querencia, but as the bullfight continues, and the animal becomes more threatened, it returns more and more often to his spot.

As he returns to his querencia, he becomes more predictable. And so, in the end, the matador is able to kill the bull because instead of trying something new, the bull returns to what is familiar. His comfort zone.

What will you do after creating a massive marketing buzz and successfully launching a new product? For many entrepreneurs, we’ll say time to reap what we sow. Not for Apple. Two months after launching the ultra cool and revolutionary iPhone, they reduced the selling price by $200! While many investors reacted negatively, some business analysts believe there was wisdom in that move. MarketingBlurb says this price cut has far reaching effects.

Welcome to price-cutting strategy 101. It’s not an insane idea, only unconventional. In fact, it is proven effective for some established brands. However, this strategy is not advisable for startups. The value of this post is to give you a preview about the different strategies available to your competitors. There are two reasons why a company should employ this strategy:

Defensive strategy

Reducing your price increases barrier to entry, logically making the lives of startups more difficult and less profitable. Most startups base their pricing strategies on the current market price of leading brands. It means any significant drop in market price prompts a new player to look for a cheaper supplier, delay development, and suffer losses. Given this situation, many entrepreneurs will simply back out.

Expand the Market

Sometimes a price cut is aimed to increase usage or expand the market. Some experts think this is the reason why iPhone called that shot. The new price will attract more buyers and encourage other mobile users to switch to iPhone. However, this is an open declaration of price war. Apple is not worried because they have a very strong brand anyway.

Office politics is an inevitable incidence in every office, small or big. It corrodes decision-making, teamwork, relationship, and overall productivity of your business. Not to mention the stress it brings and numerous rumors ignited. As the overall leader, here are the things you can do:

Implement Performance-based Measures

You should set evaluation policies based primarily on the performance of your employees, both as an individual and team member. Without any formal system, you run the risk of rewarding the wrong employee and eventually trigger terrible office politics.

Stay in the Loop

As your business expands you will need extra hands to run the daily tasks. Given your busy schedule you may not have enough time to bond with your employees and monitor any tension in your office.

There is an interesting story I read in the book entitled The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, about staying connected with your people. Louis XIV, better known as the Sun King of France, had created a palace where his room is the literal center and surrounded by other members of his kingdom. In this way, he was updated on every single event happening in the palace.

The lesson for entrepreneurs is simple: openness must not only be encouraged, it must be formally organized and channeled.

Rumors go hand in hand with office politics. Learn how to diffuse them properly, because as Leadership Turn points out, rumors never die.

Ever wonder why your online visitors don’t come back anymore? You can drive huge traffic to your online business, but if you can’t motivate them to return and buy from you then you’re bound to lose. One major reason for this behavior is poor online customer service. Below are some simple tips you might want to use:

Write Detailed FAQs

Interested customers might have many questions in mind, so you should feed their curiosity with your FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. Make it as detailed as possible but use simple words and images to avoid any miscommunication. You should also set a dedicated email address and possibly toll-free numbers exclusively for customer service. Using live assistance through Instant Messenger or VoIP will also help.

Add Personal Touch

Since almost everything can easily be automated, many online entrepreneurs forget the relationship aspect of selling. Talk to your online customers the way you talk to your offline customers. Show sincerity, concern, and willingness to help them solve their problems. Send personal greetings and if possible handwritten cards during birthdays and holidays.

Use Autoresponders

It would greatly help if you have an autoresponder or a software that automatically answers any e-mails sent to it. This is good for welcoming new members and notifying customers about the delivery of their shipment. However, I urge you not to rely on this technology too much. Keep it more personal.

Customer service is just one aspect of keeping your customers. Entrepreneur’s Journey has an interesting post on how to keep website visitors coming back for more.

Ever consider using coupons to promote your business? In case you don’t know, coupons are documents or tickets that you can exchange for a discount on a particular product. Mostly, they appear in magazines, newspapers, and recently on the internet. You can check dealcatcher.com for sample coupons.

Marketing Blog suggests we use coupons as part of a marketing strategy because 9 out of 10 US consumers use coupons.

The upside of offering coupons can be improved branding, awareness, and transactions. Over the long-term you can see the benefits of this strategy. The downside however, if offered in an ineffective manner is that consumers get used to always using a coupon to purchase your product or service. This habit can be hard to break.

Here are some tips to help you succeed in using coupons for your small business:

• Highlight the benefits. Don’t just say big discounts, premiums, freebies, or bonuses but make your target customers realize the value of coupons: save money, look more beautiful, improve health, and other benefits.
• Use your company logo to increase brand awareness.
• Use images of product use to create desire.
• Create compelling headlines and use powerful selling words such as new, easy, simple, free, save, proven, fast, effective, and guaranteed.
• Combine with other marketing tactics such as contests or games.

As entrepreneurs, we deal with business problems often. They can be complaints from angry customers, delayed payments, unreliable suppliers, and many other issues to deal with. Our role is to be the problem-solver in the company, together with our dependable employees. While there are many complicated ways to solve problems, you might to go back to basics:

Identify the Main Problem

Seems pretty obvious? Not quite. Many entrepreneurs confuse the effects of the problems with the real problems. Poor inventory planning, for instance, could result in late deliveries or cancellation of orders. While this is the root cause, some may blame the logistics guys for not sticking to schedule or even your customers for being so impatient. You should retrace your steps to identify the main issues.

More importantly, Software Project Management reminds us not to look back to find who is guilty. Instead, let’s focus on fighting the problems.

Generate Alternatives

It’s time to brainstorm and find all the possible solutions. Follow the advice of Chess Grandmaster Emanuel Lasker: “When you see a good move, look for a better one.” Don’t scrap any ideas yet.

From that pool, start selecting the most practical solutions. You might want to set some criteria for your evaluation. For instance, speed might be more important than cost or vice versa.

Implement

Create your action plans, emphasize accountabilities, and set your timetable for implementation. You will realize that your plan is not 100% accurate and there are times you need to adjust or even abandon your plans. That’s why it’s important to have several options.

Part of implementation is monitoring the progress and impact of your solution. If you are still not satisfied, you can rework again.

Having a well-defined target market or niche is the first important step towards success in your small business. Previously, we emphasized the things you should know about your customers. This time we will dig deeper and present the details of target audience segmentation. You may want to copy the following bases for segmentation:

Demographic

• Gender
• Age
• Education Level
• Monthly and Annual Income
• Occupation/Profession
• Marital Status
• Nationality
• Religion
• Social Class
• Number of children
• Family lifecycle

Geographic

• Region
• Seasonality
• Population size

Buying Behaviors

• Key benefits they are looking for
• Usage rate or how often do they buy
• Decision-making process
• Key motivators for buying
• Readiness to buy

Psychographics or Lifestyle Factors

• Attitudes (are they socially-conscious, family-oriented, fun-loving, conservative, liberal, eco-friendly logo designs, trendsetter or trend follower?)
• Activities/Hobbies
• Interests
• Opinions
• Values

While it helps if you can conduct a formal market research, you can still gather these things through customer feedback and membership to related associations or groups. You will find several groups of customers as you do this exercise. Instigator Blog suggests that the next step is to identify your best customers and create a persona to capture their essence.

Most of us love security and a sense of safety in our lives. However, these emotions obstruct us from taking calculated risks and sometimes lead to fear of change. This very fear stops us from reaching higher goals and conquering greater challenges.

Undeniably, change is very important to our business. The cliché nothing is constant but change remains relevant until today. Slacker Manager profoundly expounds the 3 important things one can learn from change. Below are some of the things to consider in managing changes in your company:

Is it Necessary?

Do not change for the sake of changing. Every change should have strong justifications based on customer feedback or planning sessions. Since your business exists for profits, changes should result in profitable gains over the long haul. More importantly, it should create additional benefits for your customers.

Comprehensive Plan

Some changes in your business might result in temporary setbacks and customer dissatisfaction. That’s why you should have a very solid plan to begin with. If you are shifting to another reliable supplier, for example, you should build up buffer stock to support your business during the transition phase.

Involve Your People

Any change will be a failure if your employees will not adopt the new system. It is important that you involve them in your plans by seeking their opinion. It is unavoidable that some might be inflexible and stubborn. Your job is to motivate them and help them visualize your goals.

A time may come for some entrepreneurs to say goodbye to their family business and turn over the turf to the next generation. Some major concerns for many outgoing founders deal with effective transition and ensuring the continuity of the business in the years to come. In case you are just starting your family business, you might want to read some practical tips from BootStrapMe.

If you are looking for an inspiration about effective transition, maybe you can watch the Godfather movie and observe how the great Mafia godfather Don Vito Corleone guided his youngest son, Michael Corleone, to become a more powerful godfather and carry the familia to the next generation.

While you don’t need to spill blood and practice the omerta (code of silence) to be effective, the key to smooth transition is careful planning. Here are some practical tips you might want to apply:

Start Early

You should not wait for your children to finish their studies before getting them involved in your business. Expose them as early as possible by giving them small errands. This is also a good gauge of their interest, commitment, and skills about running the business. Still, it is important they finish their schooling before going full time with the family business.

As they grow older, assign them to different departments to fully understand the importance of each unit and learn the day to day operations. More importantly, this will forge a good working relationship between your employees and your children.

Talk with Your Employees

The other side of effective transition is preparing your employees for this big transition. Some employees are afraid that new management might affect their salary or even future employment. Share with them your transition plans and solicit their full cooperation.

Networking can do great things for your small business. As you enter into several challenges in your startup, sometimes who you know is more important than what you know. That’s why you need to take a time off from your busy schedule to network with your competitors, suppliers, and customers. Below are some key pointers about effective networking:

No Selling

The purpose of networking is to train people who matter in your industry to be your indirect sales force through word-of-mouth marketing or recommendations. During conversations you should focus on building your company identity, highlight your competence, and refrain from boring them with your detailed product features or discounts.

Meet One on One

If you are in networking sessions like tradeshows and association meetings, try to get away from the crowd and engage in a one on one conversation with your network. Try to deepen your relationship by exploring business opportunities or sharing best practices. Strive to get few but high quality networks instead of collecting 100 corporate business cards from people you don’t really know.

For a deeper discussion about business networking you can visit PowerHomeBiz to understand the six networking essentials.

Many small businesses consider excellent customer service as their main competitive edge to convert the neglected customers of the big players. Despite the importance of this function, many entrepreneurs are still baffled about the right training for their customer service agents.

The good news is that a new study published at Strategy+Business has discovered the subtle signs [requires free registration] to be aware of that will help boost the effectiveness of your customer service operators:

Successful operators, it turned out, speak little and listen much. When they do speak, their voices fluctuate strongly in amplitude and pitch, suggesting interest and responsiveness to the customer’s needs. Operators who speak with little variation come across as too determined and authoritative, but by speaking invitingly, being responsive but not pushy, a skilled operator can let callers find their own way to a sale. “Like a mother speaking singsong to a baby,” says Pentland.

It means we should take a holistic approach with regard to our customer service. Too often we are busy with “major” activities, such as writing the best script for our agents or crafting wonderful loyalty programs. Unknown to us, we can achieve victory in small ways like adjusting the tone of our voice and taking time to really listen.

Via Business Pundit

One of our tasks as business owners is to engage in productive and meaningful conversations with our customers and employees. Every small talk is an opportunity to strengthen our relationships and hopefully build loyalty. Given the importance of communication, you should learn how to communicate effectively. More importantly, you should also teach all your employees to do the same. Here are some tips:

1. Listen before you talk. You will learn more by listening to what people have to say about your business. You should focus on the needs of the person you are talking with. If you have time, you may also want to learn more about your customers and employees so you can relate in a more personal manner.
2. Find the real issues. We talk for a lot of reasons and sometimes for no apparent reason at all. You should learn to read what is on the other person’s mind by observing his or her tone and non-verbal gestures.
3. Establish 2-way communication. Striking a good balance between talking and listening gives you the power to ask more questions and gather more insights about your customers and their experiences with your competitors.

There are certain words and phrases that can easily irk other people and you should avoid saying these things. Edith Yeung has a good list of disempowering phrases successful people never say.

How do you handle new competitors? Do you allow every new player to enter your market easily or do you go out of your way to intentionally build barriers to discourage them to play?

This is a big question lingering in the minds of many entrepreneurs. More importantly, this one of the 10 difficult questions venture capitalists and angel investors are going to ask you, according to Instigator Blog.

Brutal or even unfair as it may seem, pre-empting competitors to enter the market is more practical than letting them compete and take your chances. Here are some tips to protect your business against approaching competitors:

Be Exclusive

If you are using a unique technology or raw materials, you may want to sign an exclusive agreement with your supplier so your competitors will have difficulty sourcing it elsewhere. However, this move usually requires you to increase your minimum order because you are, in a way, limiting the business of your supplier.

Master Your Turf

If you are an amateur basketball player, will you play one-on-one against NBA superstar LeBron James? The same is very true in business. Yes, your expertise can be a very intimidating barrier against new players. It means you have to work closely with employees, run things more efficiently, and maintain stronger ties with your key customers.

Pimp Your Ride

If your business relies heavily on technology, you should allot money to upgrade your systems regularly and acquire cutting edge technologies to further improve your business operations. If you want to see this strategy in action, you might want to observe the mobile phone sector wherein new products are released every few months.

If you think customer loyalty can be achieved by using cutting edge customer relationship management (CRM) software and different loyalty programs, think again. Just like in friendship, loyalty must be earned through excellent service and high quality products, over a period of time. Borrowing the words of Zoomstart, loyalty is all about making unconditional connections.

Customer loyalty does not happen overnight. You should be sensitive to their needs and follow it up with action. Here is a simple 3-step method to start building loyalty:

Sit Down and Listen

If you want to learn more about your customers, then you should talk with them as often as possible. Know their habits, buying patterns and their feedback about your current performance. You might also want to use them as part of your crowdsourcing initiative.

Test Drive

If you are implementing some changes in your products or services, you may want to test first if it will satisfy your customers or if it will add value over your current offer. In some cases, they will agree with the idea but totally disagree with the execution. Product testing will bridge that disconnect.

Say Sorry (If Necessary)

If you make some mistake, admit it right away and assure your customers that it will not happen again. Do not let this matter escalate to a point of breaking up your professional relationship. You should also offer something in return like discounts or gifts for giving you another chance.

Business experts are one in saying that your employees are your greatest assets. They are the movers of your ideas and contributors of great insights. That’s why selecting and hiring new employees are very important tasks for many entrepreneurs.

Equally important is measuring how well they are faring compared to their assignments as well as their relationship with other employees. Also, employee performance reviews offer a glimpse of their satisfaction level with your company. To make each review more productive, here are some things you should do:

• Be ready. Gather all information you have and read it carefully before talking with an employee. This will give you enough time organize your thoughts and handle the discussion.
• Criticize the performance not person. Avoid any personal attacks and do not provoke your employees. Be objective and highlight both their high points and low points.
• Probe on the job satisfaction level. Most of the time, poor performance is strongly related to poor job satisfaction level. Make the evaluation a two-way communication and find out what you need to improve or change to improve satisfaction.

It is advisable that you have a formal system to evaluate your employees. You can read a comprehensive guide from Seeds of Growth on how to implement a performance management system.

Business ethics represent your moral principles or values. Unfortunately, some of the age-old business practices are either unethical or considered part of the gray area. Common unethical practices include price fixing, bribery, bid rigging, and selling substandard products.

As your small business continues to expand, you might encounter decisions that will challenge your business ethics. Given this situation, you should know how to influence your employees to maintain your values all the time. Here’s what you can do:

• Set a clear policy and standard procedures about the right values and ethics related to customers, employees, and suppliers.
• Gather your employees and run several “what if” scenarios related to common unethical practices in your industry. This will greatly help your employees maintain their composure under pressure.
• Recognize employees who uphold your business ethics even if it results in lost revenues. Doing the right thing might result in significant losses. However, if you are dead serious about this, you should learn to accept it and reward those who do the same.

Do you know that business ethics can be a competitive edge? Find out how at Business Pundit.

If you want to boost the productivity in your workplace, you should start by saying “thank you” to your employees. According to Brain Based Business, these two simple yet powerful words can transform both your personal and professional relationships.

Say thanks to somebody – for something – according to Dr. Robert Emmons … and watch the power of gratitude transform the human brain. It also brings benefits not found in any ordinary workplace.

Managing your employees is very similar to marketing to your customers. They also need appreciation and recognition. Whether you are saying thanks to your employees or customers, you should observe the following:

Timing is Important

Saying thanks right away instead of waiting for another hour or day renders maximum impact to the receiver. Showing your appreciation is more about courtesy and less about creativity.

If you want to send a thank-you gift to a loyal customer, you should do it before or after holidays, but not during holidays. Chances are, many businesses including your competitors will do the same and that will not make you unique.

Thank Even Complaining Employees and Customers

You should not limit your appreciation to your good employees and loyal customers. In fact, you should try to give a little more attention to your complaining customers and employees. Outspoken employees might help you correct some of the recurring problems in your company such as miscommunication or unsanitary workplace.

Also, a complaining customer is most probably a buying customer. Annoyed customers do not usually complain about your products or services. What they do is shift to your competitors. If a customer complains, it means they he or she is still interested in your product or service, provided you correct your mistakes. Thank them for giving you that one more chance.

As business owners, you might have a tendency to micromanage or put too much emphasis on details, often resulting in a waste of time and resources. If you feel that you are committing this fatal mistake, you should learn to delegate effectively. Here are some steps you should apply:

Know What to Delegate

Delegation begins with knowing yourself and your abilities. Bring out your organizer, if you have one, and analyze how many hours are allotted on each activity. From these activities, pick what can be given away and what must remain under your turf.

Some factors you may want to consider are confidentiality level and your expertise in these business activities. If you are a marketing person, for example, you might want to get rid of some accounting logos tasks you are currently doing and focus more on building a great brand.

Get the Right Person for the Job

Once you pinpoint the tasks you need to delegate, select among your employees or interview candidates. Which person has the right skills and determination to take over these activities? If you are running a single person business, you may want to consider outsourcing these tasks. Always check that what you are outsourcing has low strategic importance or not confidential such as data entry and customer service.

Monitor and Measure

Discuss with your chosen employee the expected output of these delegated activities. Be reasonable, specific, and very clear with your all your expectations to avoid any mis-communication along the way. Also, it would help if you can set regular meetings to check how they are performing.

Try these steps in your small business and hopefully it will help you become a more productive entrepreneur. You can also get more insights on delegating responsibility at Blog Business World.

No matter how compassionate you are with your employees, a time may come when you have to pull the trigger and fire some of them. There are different reasons to terminate employees. The common issue is very poor performance. If you are operating at a loss, however, you have no choice but to fire some of your employees, even if they are meeting your expectations. The Change Revolutions explains that although firing is very tough, it might be necessary. Here are some things you need to do before pulling the trigger.

Document Performance

Have a formal system to keep track of employee performance and do not be subjective in your decisions. Your report should include previous memos or warnings received and all violations committed by the employee. Be careful about involving other employees, questioning them, as it may cause fear and tension in you workplace. Follow a chain of command, if you are not the immediate supervisor/ manager of the person who might be fired.

Forgive but Don’t Forget

If a particular employee is exceeding the memo quota, talk to that employee and explain the possible consequences if the sloppy performance continues. In some situations, an employee might be experiencing major personal setbacks or tragedies, so it is better to understand the whole picture and be lenient if possible.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

If there are no other compelling reasons for keeping an underperforming employee, it’s time to end your professional relationship. Asking for a resignation is often a more graceful way for both parties, and does not show up on the employee’s record. This is important if they intend to be hired again elsewhere. If a resignation is not forthcoming, be sure that you follow the specifics of local labor laws when firing. Some US states have none, and you can fire an employee without reason.

Conflict is unavoidable in every business, for we have different perspectives, working styles, and behavior. To some extent, many business experts encourage conflict to spark creativity and spur friendly competition. Unfortunately, situations can get out of hand.

As the business owner, part of your responsibility is to know how make a team run like a well-oiled machine and maintain conflict within the acceptable level. Below are simple tips on resolving team conflicts:

Feel the signals

Sensing any animosity or hostility among your employees is very important in preventing big conflicts to happen in the near future. Some of the signals include absenteeism, withholding information, finger pointing, and not attending team meetings.

Identify the Root Problem

The signals mentioned above are like symptoms, but your objective is to cure the disease. Otherwise, it will just be a firefighting or short-term solution to the problem at hand. In most cases, conflict arises due to personality issues and lack of clear objective or responsibilities.

Implement your Solutions

To resolve clashes quickly, you can arrange for a face-to-face discussion with all the conflicting team members to air their opinion and help direct the team towards finding a common ground. You can visit the Conflict Resolution Blog for a more detailed discussion on managing team conflicts.

If you are looking for ways to start or expand a business, you may want to consider building a membership site to earn recurring income. These are paid sites where your customers are given access to exclusive data, insights, or secret tricks. Most often, customers need to pay monthly fees to access membership sites.

While this is a popular technique now among many internet marketing experts, isn’t it wonderful if you are the first to do this in your industry? If your business is related to the stock market, for instance, you can set up a membership site to give some hot tips and mentor starting traders.

The heart of a membership website is the value of information you are sharing with your members. It’s important to give something that will truly help your members achieve their goals. Otherwise, it will become a short-lived project.

If you are wondering about the strategic value of this venture, here are some key points:

• Captured Customers. Instead of selling just one product, you have more opportunity to promote all your products. The mere fact that they paid for membership means these customers trust you. It’s up to you to make the subtle moves.
• Steady income. With customers paying monthly subscription, you already have guaranteed sales. Take advantage of this opportunity by offering lower subscription fees for customers paying 6 months or 1 year subscription in advance.
• Low Cost. You simply need a domain name, web hosting, and a well-designed template with your company logo. Try membership site software for quick implementation. If you already have your website, then setting up will not be much of a problem.

You can learn more about launching membership sites by reading Entrepreneur’s Journey.

Word-of-mouth marketing is definitely one of the most powerful marketing techniques to build your brand identity. One critical task is targeting the influencers in your industry. They are considered the thought leaders who have this mysterious power to seduce our minds to follow their leads.

According to a research by eMarketer, the most powerful influencers are family, friends, and strangers having experience with a product. Education and religion also play critical roles, since teachers and religious leader have strong clout over a community. More importantly 93% of the respondents follow the influencers.

Buzz Law highlights the reasons why we should establish relationship with the influencers as soon as possible.

If you’ve invested wisely, you’ve built a great relationship with them. They know your name. They answer your email. They may not even be a fan or brand champion, but they trust you.

When it hits the fan, and you have great relationships with them, they will give you a forum to tell your story.

Paying your employees their regular salaries and giving away some bonuses will not guarantee that they will be highly motivated and loyal to your company. You should find ways to recognize their efforts and praise their accomplishments. Ideally, you should allot additional 3% on top of your payroll budget for employee awards and milestone celebrations.

While the impact of this effort is very hard to quantify, a pat on the back or simple thank-you notes are proven to increase motivation and commitment of your employees. In psychology, it is called positive reinforcement. Here are some simple ways to do this:

Award Your Star Performer

Recognizing top performers works both ways. It encourages the top performer to work harder at the same time inspires other employees to get that much-coveted title. To avoid any office politics, make sure you have a clear policy on choosing the top performer.

Reward the Team Not the Person

Depending on the nature of your business, you should reward the whole team instead of highlighting individual performers. This will further strengthen the concept of teamwork in your organization and minimize credit grabbing.

Celebrate Every Milestone

As the head of your business, find reasons to celebrate every small victory and big contributions of your employees. You can bring some pizza in the office or drink a couple of beers after office hours. The important thing is to make them feel you are grateful for a job well done.

An interesting twist on this management style is the public shame/praise model discussed at Service Untitled.

Given the economic slowdown we are facing today, it is very common for our suppliers to increase their prices in order to stay afloat. In this situation, most entrepreneurs are compelled to pass this cost to their customers by increasing the selling price.

But do you know that there is a way to maintain your selling price despite the increase in your cost? It is called downsizing or reducing the quantity of the product.

Although this is not a common strategy even among big companies, an interesting study by Harvard University shows that consumers are more sensitive to price increase over quantity decrease. If the ingredients of Starbucks’ Mocha Frappuccino have increased for instance, it is better to maintain the current $4.60 price of venti size but reduce the quantity from 24 fl. Oz to about 22.

The downside of downsizing is the perception that you are cheating on your customers. Knowing this, you should inform your valued customers about this plan to avoid any misunderstanding.

On the other hand, you might also be interested to know why Drew’s Marketing Minute believes dropping your price to keep a customer is never a good strategy.

There’s a saying that two heads are better than one. That is why teamwork is very important if you want to get things done efficiently in your business. Can you honestly say that you have an effective team now? Take time to visit Leadership Turn first to know the secrets of successful teams.

A bigger challenge now is how you can use your team to help resolve the big problems in your company. You can start by building what I like to call a “Solutions Team” with members coming from the different departments in your company. Do not limit the solutions to a specific department for this is very similar to running a company-wide marketing campaign – you have to involve everybody.

The objective is simple – identify the root problem and find the best solution among many alternatives. Coming from different background, you can be sure that all angles are covered and every perspective is valuable. In the corporate setting, this is called a cross-function team.

Start by choosing your best guys from the departments connected with the problem. Limit the number of members to at most 6 people. To make this team very effective, all members must be considered equal regardless of their current position. This will eliminate the power play, increase motivation, and intensify focus on solving the problems at hand.

One difficult aspect of running a small business is the collection of past due invoices. Some entrepreneurs find this part very uneasy but it is really necessary if you want to survive in the long run.

The first thing you need to do is keep your cool and do not resort to any form of verbal or written harassment. Assume that it must have slipped their minds and it is your duty to remind them. In case you are facing this situation now, here’s what you can do:

The Ring

Make phone calls to your delinquent customers to remind them of their past due payments and politely ask them to settle it immediately. This is also your opportunity to determine the circumstances involved why that customer failed to pay on time. If they cannot pay in full, it is better to come up with an installment payment scheme instead of getting nothing.

Unleash Hell

If a customer is not yet willing to pay his debts after several calls from you, it is time to take a stand and claim what is rightfully yours. You can contact your legal counsel or refer this matter to a collection agency. You must act quickly; otherwise you will have to write off that debt as an expense.

Ask for Upfront Payment

In case you still don’t have the wherewithal to confront your delinquent customers, it is better to take a more proactive approach by asking your customers for a deposit upfront or a staggered payment based on milestones. However, always check the prevailing business practices in your industry to check if this acceptable.

Via BizInformer

Many entrepreneurs do not hire employees until the business starts to grow or expand. Admittedly, employee salary is one of biggest costs in small businesses. But do you know that you can get free employees to save money?

This bootstrapping tool is called internship! Yes, there are many eager high school, college, and university students who love to gain exposure in the actual business environment.

Using interns is a win-win solution. You get to save money while these students learn new skills, gain actual working experience to spice up their resumes, and get valuable study credits. All you need to do is get in touch with reputable schools in your neighborhood by sending emails or meeting with the department involved with the internship program. To filter your applicants, you must make a very concise job description, and clearly list key qualities needed. More importantly, you should convince these schools why it is better to work with your company.

You can also hire interns even if you are financially capable of hiring your own employees. An intern has an outsider perspective to encourage out of the box thinking. In addition, they are more focused in delivering results because most of them do not worry about other matters like mortgage and other expenses, which can cloud the mind and cause apprehension towards making decisions

A common problem faced by many established entrepreneurs is how to spot new business opportunities to expand their ventures. As a starting point, Young Entrepreneur has an interesting post about how Virgin’s Richard Branson identifies an opportunity.

This is a hallmark of Branson’s strategy for entering new markets – look for industries where the customer is either being taken advantage of or is receiving such poor service that they would welcome a change. One of the hardest jobs of a new business is to convince customers to switch from an existing supplier to their companies.

However, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Sizing up opportunities involves different considerations such as:

Opportunity vs. Your Competencies.

Even if there is a gap in the market, it is important to match it with your competencies and experience. If the problem in one industry is customer service for instance, is your business equipped to make a difference in this category?

Additional investment

Entering a new market is always expensive for you have to build a customer base and promote heavily to increase awareness. It is time to check your bank account if you have enough resources to survive this new battle. Do not be tempted to shell out additional money out of your pocket. Ideally, any expansion must come from the income of your existing business.

Profitability vs. Other Business Opportunities

Try to evaluate and compare several business opportunities so you can find which one has a better return on investment and higher projected income over the long haul.

Every business has made some regrettable mistakes that irked some customers. It can be poor customer service, inferior product quality, better competition, or rude sales agents. You must now do some fence mending and find ways to win them back at reasonable cost. There are simple steps to do this:

Identify these Lost Customers

The first thing you should do is to know who these customers are and their reasons for not sticking with your company. This is very easy if you are closely monitoring your customers using a simple database or CRM software. Be careful in your screening for you might include some demon customers in your list.

If their reasons are something you can resolve then include them in your list. If not, simply keep track of them and maybe someday you can serve their needs.

Apologize and Present Peace Offerings

Be sincere in saying your apologies and offer something as a way to prove how serious you are to win them back. It can be a free service, low interest rates or discounts. Visit Ageless Marketing as it analyzes the superb effort and sincerity of JetBlue’s CEO David Neeleman to win back customers. Hopefully, you will embrace this same passion.

Get Feedback

Of course you do not want to lose your customers again, so you must get regular feedback to assess how they are doing. It is advisable that you, the owner, handle these things to have more emotional impact to the customers.

Establishing a good and lasting relationship with your customers is the key to the long-term growth of your business ventures. According to a new manifesto by entrepreneur and author, Rajesh Setty, the best way to forge a relationship is to be a piece in many puzzles:

Everybody is solving one or more puzzles at any part of their lives. The problem is they have too little time to gather all the puzzle pieces and complete the puzzle within a reasonable amount of time. If you want to truly add value to others in a very short time, try and become a piece of their puzzle and help them complete the puzzle in a time shorter than what it would have taken them to complete it without YOU.

There are some basic things you can apply to your business:

• Take time to listen to customer complaints and suggestions. Minimize talking and focus on what your company can do to solve their problems or how you can accommodate their suggestions.
• Improve your customer service to encourage repeat purchase and marketing“>word-of-mouth advertising.
• We all love freebies, so offer rewards to your loyal customers in the form of discounts or free goods.

Business risk or uncertainty is natural in all businesses, big or small. As entrepreneurs, we must be on the lookout for new trends in customer behavior, technology, and market forces.

One of the best tools to manage uncertainties and spot opportunities in our business is scenario planning. Basically, it is like predicting the future based on different assumptions and trends. A classic case of poor scenario planning is the death of beepers or pagers. A powerful technology called SMS text messaging changed the business environment, making beepers obsolete. Their failure to anticipate and adapt to this trend resulted in their eventual death. Do not let the same thing happen to your small businesses.

Scenario planning can be done in these simple steps:

Develop Scenarios

Set a brainstorming session with your colleagues. Based on your knowledge about your competitors, new opportunities, changes in government regulations, emerging threats, and upcoming technological advancements, you create situations or predictions about the future of your industry. Do not discount even ridiculous scenarios for they might make sense later on.

Prioritize

In your pool of scenarios, identify which will likely happen soon and those that might happen in the long run. Your aim is to limit most possible scenarios where you can focus your efforts and resources

Craft Action Plans

Cover all your bases by planning your next moves if these situations happen in the future. You have different strategies for scenario A, B, and C. The bottom line, there will be no surprise in the future and you will always be a step ahead of competition.

If you want a more detailed scenario planning guide, go visit Small Business Information.