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.

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 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.”

Discrimination against employees has been an ongoing problem in many businesses nowadays. In Salt Lake City a young employee has accused Park City for pervasive race discrimination and a hostile work environment for Latinos. While in the UK, 3 women has alleged that a culture of gender discrimination was fostered by top managers in Bloomberg. This case could result to $145 million in damages.

Entrepreneurs must learn the dangers of discrimination and its impact to the business. While race and gender issues are very rampant, there are 9 different types of discrimination according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):

1. Age
2. Disability
3. Equal Pay
4. National Origin
5. Pregnancy
6. Sex
7. Sexual Harassment
8. Religion
9. Retaliation

Recently, EEOC has released a revised guideline focusing particularly on unlawful discrimination against workers with caregiver responsibilities. These are the people who take care of their children or relatives who are very sick and old. While this is composed mostly by women, the number of male employees with caregiver responsibilities has risen recently. Under this new law, businesses will be penalized if they do the following:

1. Refusal to hire an employee who takes care of disabled relative because this might affect his or her performance.
2. Unwillingness to adjust the workload and schedule of a pregnant employee
3. Not allowing fathers to leave to take care of their babies
4. Not hiring mothers with young children because they might take many leaves to take care of their children.

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.

Tired of spending countless hours surfing the Internet and looking for marketing lessons suitable for your small business? Don’t worry! We’re compiling the most relevant articles and news that will help your business succeed without wasting your precious time. Today, there are 10 marketing tips you may want to apply in your business.

1. The Trump Blog exposes the core of entrepreneurial success and it’s about finding a fit between you and your business idea.
2. Roger Dooley of Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog gives us 5 keys to selling to tightwads or customers who resist spending money even when the expense is reasonable and perhaps justified.
3. Learn about the two gynormous mistakes when it comes to marketing to women at WonderBranding.com.
4. Neuromarketing highlights the smart marketing move by Endless.com from “Free Shipping” incentive to offer “Negative $5 Shipping.”You may want to try this approach.
5. Paul William of Daily Fix elaborates why it is important to calibrate the meaning of “service” in your small business.
6. Fan of Seinfeld? Do you know that there are 7 marketing lessons you can learn from this sitcom? Download your free pdf copy of Seinfeld in Marketing now.
7. Brand Curve recommends that you research your brand name before you launch it. It will definitely save you money in the long run.
8. Richard Watson of Fast Company believes there are five trends that will transform the society – globalization, localization, polarization, anxiety, and search for meaning.
9. Jeffrey Phillips of Innovate on Purpose reminds us to always check our business assumptions regularly and never take them for granted.
10. Do you want to distinguish yourself? Rajesh Setty of Life Beyond Code says we should increase our capacity to increase capacity of others.