Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

Myth # 1: You Will Not Need a Business Plan

If you think that you can start your own business with just a vague business plan in your head, think again. You should have a written business plan explaining all factors of your company such as financing and attaining specific goals in great detail.

A well-documented business plan will chart out the path that you need to follow in order to achieve your business goals. This is a small business startup fact you should remember!

Myth # 2: Advertising Is Only For the Big Players

This small business myth has led to the closure of many small businesses. However, advertising does not necessarily mean spending obscene amounts of money on TV commercials.

You can at least advertise through flyers, sales letters, or by placing advertisements in newspapers or in trade magazines. You cannot increase your business if no one is aware of your business’ existence.

Myth # 3: You Will Become Your Own Master

When you run your own small business, you may have the potential to make more than you would if you were working for someone. It is also quite possible that you will have more time for your friends and family.

However, in the beginning, you will require additional time as you try to set up your business and will also need to put in long hours when you start to expand.

You might be able to attain some flexibility in working hours, but that may only be within a certain limit.

Myth # 4: You Can Convert Your Hobby into a Business

While this myth about business is partly true, it can still be potentially suicidal if you do not conduct proper research into the other aspects of the business.

You will need to arrange for financing, maintain a healthy cash flow, pay off creditors, handle employees and much more if you are to succeed in your business.

A hobby could be a starting point – but it should not be the only point when starting a business.

Myth # 5: You Can Form a Partnership with Close Friends

This myth about business can leave you without both money and friends. Just because you have great friends does not mean that you should enter into a partnership with them.

The small business startup fact is that there has to be the right mix of skills in order to achieve success. Too much money or too little money could cause a fatal crack in the partnership.

You should have all the functions of each partner clearly specified in writing before venturing into a partnership with anyone. Especially your friends.

Myth # 6. You Can Win Customers Just by Lowering Your Prices

Although pricing is very important, equal importance needs to be placed on after-sales-service, politeness and having the right products at the right time.

Your business will not last long if you just lower your prices. By using this tactic, you will not only squeeze your profit margins but land your business in deeper trouble if another business comes along and offers the same products at even lower prices.

Education is another big upside to a recession; as the picture darkens, people begin to wonder why this is happening.

The spike in interest means more markets for those who can explain recessions, and the result is a whole new wealth of material that can benefit anyone with a vested interest in the economy.

Economic resources can also be a great place to look when it comes to strategizing your way through a recession.

The places you can look for business resources that we will describe below are full of information not only on the foundations of a recession, but on ways that you and your business can survive one.

Online

On the Internet, you will find any number of articles, ebooks, and other business resources that can help you understand the economy and how to conduct business in a recession.

One word to the wise, though. Anyone can publish anything they want on the Internet, and it’s not always sound advice.

Check the sites you are reading to see what their “bias” might be. The same print resources that we have relied on for ages when it comes to economic resource material also have websites, so that’s a good place to start.

You should also double check the credentials of any site or writer before taking their advice to heart!

Governmental Organizations

The government has a big interest in making sure America stays busy and business stays American, so it will typically put forth a broad range of economic resources during financially troubled times.

Where can you look for this information, and what exactly will you find? Well, start out with the small business branch office in your town, usually under the auspices of the state government.

If you don’t have such an office, then check with your senator or congressman’s office. They can point you in the right direction in your hunt for economic resources.

What kind of resources can you expect to find? Well, government offices offer plenty of educational advice, but they can also help on the practical end as well.

There are published guides that can help business owners locate grants, loans, and tax cuts that are only available during recessions.

The fact is that there are hundreds of different business resources to take advantage of during a recession.

The trick is knowing where to look, and then understanding how those economic resources can be applied to your own business situation. With the right choice in business resources, you may even thrive during a recession.

A small business website can be a great marketing tool. Developing a website for a small business is not difficult. However, you want to make sure that you do it correctly to reap its maximum benefits.

Here are the steps you should take when creating a website for your business:

1. Business Domain Name
   
   When you pick the name of your website you want it to be a reflection of your business, yet creative and strategic all at the same time. Your business domain name should be something that people can spell and remember.

   Brainstorm possible ideas before you pick a business domain name for your small business website. If you already have a name for your business you may want to consider using your business name for your domain name.

   Once you have a few ideas on tap for your small business domain name, do a little research. Google your domain name to see if anything similar comes up. Additionally, check other companies similar to yours to see what their domain name is.

   If you have found the business domain name you want, make sure you reserve your domain name even if you are not ready to build your website.

2. Hosting
   
   To reserve your business domain name, you will need to find a company to host your domain name for you. There are plenty of options for domain name hosting.

   You can check with your Internet service provider to see if they offer domain name hosting options. Before you select a hosting company for your business website, make sure they offer all the services that you need your site to have.

3. Website Plan
   
   Before you start creating your website you should make a plan for your website. Decide what pages you want and how many pages you will need. Determine what will be on each page.

   Figure out if you are going to have an e-commerce site, and how you will set that up through your hosting company. The most important pages for a small business are the home page and the about us page. Make sure you know what these two pages will entail before you start building your website.

4. Creating your Website
   
   If you are not a tech savvy individual, you will want to either hire someone to create your website or use a program. Many companies have software included in their hosting packages that help walk you through the steps of creating a website.

   You can also buy web design software to create your website, if you feel that you have the skills to do so.

Having a web presence is an important part of small business success. It is very important to make sure that you take your time developing your website so that it looks professional. Follow the outlined steps and do your market research before creating your website.

With careful planning and decision making you can create a small business domain name and website that enhances your business – and increases your profit margin.

If you have an online business, then you already know the importance of driving as much traffic to your site as possible. One way to do this is by using articles that are search engine optimized (SEO).

That means that if someone is searching for a word or phrase through Google or some other search engine, then they can be linked to your site through optimized articles.

For example, if on your site you have articles that have been properly search engine optimized for the phrase “outfits for dogs” then people that are searching that phrase may be driven to your site.

SEO Basics

• Aim for articles that are between 550-850 words.
• You can include more than one keyword or phrase, but you don’t want to “stuff” the article with those words of phrases. Generally, you should not have a keyword density more than 2%. So, for a 600 word article with the 2-3 keyword phrases, the phrases should not appear more than 3-4 times each.
• Don’t have all of the keywords in one paragraph, instead try and spread them evenly throughout the article. The keyword or phrase should also appear in the article title. Try to use it at least once in the opening paragraph and once in the final paragraph.

If your SEO copywriting is successful, then it will cause your site to appear as hits through various search engines – but that is only half the battle.

Type in a search for pretty much any keyword you can think of and you are going to get LOTS of hits. The next trick is to get people to click on your site.

Write Good Headlines

You can help in this area by creating article titles that are interesting.

For example, instead of “Survive in an Emergency” you can make the headline more attention-grabbing by adding just a few more words. “Do You Have What it Takes To Survive in an Emergency?” is more bold and direct – and more likely to get someone to click on it than the generic first example.

Write With a Purpose – and Write Well!

So you have achieved the goal of getting visitors to your site, but they probably won’t be back without useful content. Remember the best online writing involves not just SEO, but also great writing!

If you can’t do the writing yourself, there are online sites such Guru.com where you can hire writers, many of whom are familiar with SEO copywriting, to write your articles for you.

Remember, the best online writing is going to get visitors to your site, and it is also going to keep them there!

You can find countless examples of husbands, wives, siblings, and kids who have pulled together to build successful enterprises.

There are the brothers Walt and Roy Disney, who founded the Walt Disney Company and built it into a global entertainment powerhouse, and International Fieldworks, Inc., a multimillion-dollar company that Barry Allen and Pauline Field created from their home that provides work for hundreds of others through project-management contracts.

For many small businesspeople, teaming up with a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, sibling, parent, son, or daughter may seem like the ultimate dream. And for many entrepreneurs, this dream is a reality.

After all, if working at home is the right answer for you, why not for those you really care about as well? But unfortunately, for others, business spouse partnerships can also turn into the very worst kind of nightmare.

The secret is knowing when to team up and when not to, and what to do when a good team goes bad.

You definitely do want to team up when doing so will create a positive experience for you, your spouse business partner, and your customers. You definitely don’t want to team up when doing so will create a negative experience for any of you.

Here are some good times to team up with spouses in business:

• When a significant other has common skills and interests.
  
  If you decide to start a plumbing business in your home and your spouse has solid bookkeeping skills that will help you better keep track of the financial end of your business, teaming up makes perfect sense.

• When a significant other purchases a business opportunity or franchise.
  
  What better time to team up than when a close friend or relative buys into a business opportunity or franchise? This assumes that the business opportunity or franchise is something that you want to do, too.

• When a significant other can make a positive contribution to your business.
  
  There will be times when a significant other is at the exact right time and place in his or her life to make a positive and substantial contribution to your business and to your customers and clients. This is definitely the time to team up, and it’s a time when 1 + 1 can truly add up to more than 2.

• When a significant other has a resource that you need.
  
  What if you need a large amount of cash to get your business off the ground, and your significant other would like to help by providing you with a loan?

  Or what if he or she has a network of contacts that would be very beneficial for you to approach? Such resource synergies can make teaming up a very smart move.

• When a significant other has more work than he or she can handle.
  
  Nothing succeeds like success, as they say, and there may be times when a significant other is so successful that he or she needs help, and needs it fast. Teaming up can be a win-win in this kind of situation.

Not every business team or business spouse partnership is going to work. Working closely together day after day may bring out the worst in your partner, and you should always be ready to break up your team if necessary.

Do not allow a bad situation to become worse just because you are afraid to tell a friend or relative that your partnership is not working out. Always be honest with yourself and with your partner.

With spouses as business partners, never team up out of weakness or pity for a significant other who just can’t seem to get his or her act together. Finding the right time to team up is a must if you want your business relationship to be successful in the long run.

Great marketing is what allows someone to sell a 50-cent cup of coffee for $5.00 and have people lined up around the corner to buy it. On the other hand, poor marketing efforts can stall the growth of your business even if you have the best product or service around.

Here are four common business marketing mistakes:

1. Not Having a Plan

Sounds simple, but the truth is that many small business owners fail to spend the proper amount of time developing a plan for marketing their product or service.

At the same time that you are perfecting your product or setting up the other aspects of your business, you should also be spending a good chunk of time figuring out how to find customers.

Figure out who is going to be interested in your product, and then decide how you are going to reach those customers.

2. Advertising in the Wrong Markets

If you are opening a tattoo shop it wouldn’t make much sense to advertise in a children’s magazine.

While that is a rather extreme example, the fact is that many businesses make very costly mistakes when it comes to where they spend their advertising dollars. You’ve got to know who your potential customers are so that you can develop a plan about how to reach them.

You should not decide how and where to advertise based solely on cost.

3. Not Going First Class – Where it Counts

There was a business owner who was getting ready to launch his product after months of development. He had rented beautiful, class-A office space and furnished it with the best that money could buy.

But when it came to advertising packets to send to potential customers, he suddenly became stingy. Instead of spending the money to have the materials professionally printed, he printed everything on his office printer.

He designed (and the term is used loosely) his own logo instead of shelling out a few hundred dollars for a professional one. In his particular business, customers would not be visiting those beautiful office spaces.

Obviously, he made some serious business marketing mistakes about how to spend his money. When it comes to anything that the customer is going to see, you’ve got to go first class.

It would have been much better for him to have gone all out with his marketing materials while renting a smaller, less luxurious office filled with used furniture.

4. Writing Your Marketing Materials Yourself

Another trouble spot for some is business writing. Not everyone is a gifted writer. If you know that writing isn’t your strong suit then it will be worth the money to hire a freelance writer to help you develop your marketing materials.

Also, if you’re prone to grammatical errors, find someone who can proofread your work BEFORE any customer sees it.

Avoiding these common business marketing mistakes will bring you one step closer to growing your small business into the most successful venture possible.

Defined simply, grassroots marketing delivers your core message to the people where you live, work and play. Grassroots marketing is ideal for small businesses that are on a budget but still need to expand their customer base.

Knowing some highly effective grassroots marketing strategies will help you develop your own grassroots marketing campaigns.

Cold Calls

Nobody likes to do cold calling or get cold calls – but when you are just starting out, you often lack warm call leads. Contrary to popular belief, cold calls don’t have to be sales calls.

Cold calls can be just a “for your information” call that lets potential customers know about upcoming sales and promotions. In fact, cold calls don’t even have to be actual calls.

You can simply drop in on potential business customers to network and let them know how you can assist them with their needs.

Give your Business a Face

Many large corporations have a mascot, symbol or logo that represents them. They use their mascot or symbol on all their business tools and marketing materials.

That mascot or symbol eventually becomes synonymous with the services or products of that business. Market your small business by handing out toys to kids that have your mascot on it or pens, pencils and other miscellaneous items to adults.

Co-Op your Products

Another grassroots marketing strategy is to find another local business that will allow you to display your products or advertise your services in their store or office.

Many other businesses will allow you to do this for nothing. However, some businesses may require a trade of the same right or a small kickback. Online, this can be done by trading website links and displaying each other links on one another’s site.

Offer Samples

Many successful businesses allow potential customers to sample their products prior to using them. When you offer samples, not only does it draw in customers, but it shows your customers that you have confidence in your products.

Depending on what you sell you may have to get creative with your sample offerings, but it will be well worth it. Studies have shown that giving out samples greatly increases the likelihood of a sale.

Plan an Event

Drawing people to your business through an event is another highly effective grassroots marketing technique.

The event can highlight local performers or offer a trial service. Think of something that will attract potential customers to your small business. You can also take part in local events, like craft shows or school and church fundraisers to promote your business.

You don’t have to spend a ton of money to effectively implement grassroots marketing strategies, just time. However, your time and energy will be rewarded if you do things right.

IRS Notice 134, revision 11-2002, which is attached as a card along with a refund check from the IRS reads:

If you are certain the refund check is too large, please return the check with a letter to the service center where you filed your return and we will send you the correct amount.

There’s more:

If the refund is too large, and you don’t return the check, you may owe us interest.

Wait, did I read that correctly?  If they make a mistake and I don’t notice, I am the one at fault.

Can you imagine a business operating that way?  Unfortunately, many do.  Just search the web for countless rants against (usually large) companies who are so out of touch with their customers that their staff or policies are right up there with IRS Notice 134.

To their credit, the IRS has come a long way in trying to change the public’s perception of the tax man.  I had called them last fall (granted, not during tax season) and both times the representative I spoke with was very courteous, pleasant and, best of all, well-informed.  I suppose getting a notice like this attached to one’s refund check will cover them by law, but the message contradicts my recent phone experience.

What customer service message do you send to your clients?  You can answer this by asking your them one simple question, known in many business circles as “the ultimate question.”

Would you recommend us?

If the answer is “no,” find out why and fix it.  In a turbulent market like this, your reputation as a customer-focused company is critical.

We all know that a good branding strategy is an important aspect of success in the business world, but often it seems like an impossible task. Small businesses often feel this more so than large businesses, but in today’s competitive world it is even more crucial to their success.

Branding your small business lets the world know the benefits, products and services of your business. It also gives your business an image that will be effective in the marketing world.

1. Corporate Image
   Often, small business owners do not think it is necessary to portray a corporate image to their customers. Even if your business is run out of your home office, it is important to have a good branding strategy.

   It is important to develop a website, business cards, letterhead and other related business tools with a consistent theme. This helps create a level of confidence in your customers, because it portrays you as a professional.

2. Be Unique

   When you are developing business tools it is important to make yourself appear unique. This will help you stand out among a sea of other small and large businesses within your same industry.

   Create a logo and slogan that you use consistently on all of your business tools both online and in print. Doing this allows customers to develop an understanding and recognition of your services.

3. Consistency

   When you create your brand it is important that you maintain a solid level of consistency with all of your business tools. This means that your brand should be unique and recognizable.

   Create your brand by using the same logo, slogan, colors, statements and overall theme in all ads, websites, e-mail and any other business correspondence. Avoid using free images, cheap clip art and other elements that are used elsewhere for other companies.

4. Lasting Impression

   When you have contact with customers and business associates, make sure you leave them with a lasting impression. In many instances, you will only get one opportunity to create a lasting impression.

   Make sure you act professionally and represent your business in the right light. Gather contacts if possible and follow-up with all contacts immediately.

5. Appeal to Customers

   Knowing your customer demographics is essential to effectively branding your small business. When you create your brand you will need to know what style of branding is more likely to appeal to your customers.

   Some demographics are more likely to find fun logos and fonts appealing, while others may be more drawn to something more professional and elegant.

Regardless of your budget, you can create a good branding strategy for your small business. Pulling it all together with consistency and professionalism is key.

Once you have done your research and you know your demographics, you can select business tools that effectively represent your products and services.

Many small business owners try and handle a PR campaign on their own and fail due to lack of experience and contacts. If you manage a small business, it is important to remember the link between PR campaigns and your company.

Here are some ways that the right PR campaign can lead to an increased exposure and sales.

Search for A PR Agency That Is Comfortable With Small Clients

You have to be realistic. Know that you will not be able to afford the large PR agencies that handle big corporations. Instead, you should search for a PR agency that is happy dealing with small clients and can also provide quality service.

You should crosscheck whether the PR agency has enough experience in their field. Ask them to provide references, and then do some research on those clients.

Check if the exposure of the client has increased after the PR agency had started their campaign. Compare the rates between various PR agencies and the services that they provide.

If your business grows with their help, ensure that they have the capability to grow with you.

Check the Efficiency of the PR Agency

The PR agency should have the right contacts in different types of media such as TV, magazines, trade journals, newspapers, etc.

They should be experts in all marketing-related activities, such as market research, distribution of marketing material to the media, placement of articles in various media and how to conduct interviews with the right media people.

Track Your Progress

Keep track of the progress the agency makes and compare it with the benefits that are passed on to your business.

You should check if your exposure in the market increases due to the efforts of the PR agency, and whether you are receiving lots of new inquiries and orders as a result.

Also, find out if your PR agency is promoting your small business in the right direction. Compare all your present figures with earlier figures to get an accurate picture.

Maintain copies of any articles that may have been printed in various magazines due to their efforts, and display them in a prominent place in your office (or online) to enhance your reputation.

If your PR campaign is handled by the right people and if you stay within your budget, then you will soon notice an increased presence in the market – and an increase in your bottom line.