Tag Archives: Small Business 

You certainly know that a small idea can lead to great business opportunities. The first movement is to think of an idea that would be suitable for the business market. After coming up with the idea, the next step is to put that idea into action. Of course, this is a very difficult step and having the idea is only the start of the journey. After that, you will have to face many obstacles before being able to carry on with your business project. This is just the beginning of this process and there is a lot of questions you will have to answer before even start.

One of the first questions which must be answered when looking at your business opportunities, is whether or not you have the resources to turn the opportunity into a home based business. Ultimately, this will determine whether your project has any chance of being a success. You have to determine whether or not you can see yourself enjoying the business which you are proposing to engage in. For instance, if you do not like kids, you probably should not open up a daycare in your home. However, if you love computers, and are astute enough to repair them, you can look into starting a computer repair home based business. The point which I am making is that if you are able to put your efforts into something that you enjoy, you will more likely have success with it.

Furthermore, you must look at whatever what you are offering, whether it be a product or service, is best for your region. Ask yourself if there is a need for this product or service in your neighborhood or town. Determine whether the needs of the market are already being served by another business in the area. If so, you have to consider the competition which you will encounter, and determine whether or not you can add something more desirable to the market. You also must determine if you will be able to build a client base, or whatever what you offer is a one-time service or product. As you may have gathered, you will have more success if you are to build a customer based.

Below, you will find some other things which you should take into account:

1. If your business opportunities are unique, you will dominate the market. However, if there is a lot of competition, it may be difficult to even enter into the market.

2. Regardless of whether the business opportunities you engage in are one of a kind, or very competitive, whatever you are trying to sell to the market must be of high quality. If it is not, do not expect to remain in business for long.

3. Last but not least, you must know upfront what resources your home based business is going to require of you. You should not that there are several business opportunities which are not going to cost you an arm and a leg, …

Small business marketing can be distilled into two basic elements: the acquisition and the retention of customers. For many business owners, it's not overly difficult to reach out and find their ideal target market. Where they often fail to achieve the kind of marketing results that they are looking for is in converting those prospects into paying customers and keeping them coming back for repeat purchases.

Since small business marketing can be broken into the basic elements of acquisition (the "getting") and retention (the "keeping") of customers, so too must conversion be broken down into the same two basic elements.

In this article, we will look specifically at three ways you as a small business owner or marketing manager can improve your new customer conversion rate.

Three Ways to Increase New Customer Conversions

The rate at which prospects can be successful converted into paying customers for the first time is the cornerstone of measured marketing. It is essential that you, the business owner or marketing manager, know fairly at what percentage prospects or leads are converted to paying customers for each of the marketing channels you employ.

Large "big brand" companies do not need to worry about this metric and, in fact, have a difficult time even tracking it, because of the nature of their advertising.

Some of the largest and most recognizable companies in the world employ a "brand marketing" strategy to remain in the forefront of our minds. But small business marketing managers do not have the luxury of an eight-figure marketing budget and have to take a much different approach.

Customer Conversion Tactic # 1 – Know Your Customer

Knowing your customer means understanding at a basic level exactly what fears, frustrations and desires motivate their behavior.

In many cases, business owners or marketing managers assume that they know what their customer needs, without ever asking them what they actually want.

Since people make most decisions from an emotional state of mind and then validate their decision with logic after the fact, missing this key point can be the difference maker for many businesses.

Of course, the easiest way to know what your customer wants is to ask them!

You can ask in the form of a survey that they fill out online or complete and send back to you, you can ask them directly while they can call them up and ask them.

Which method you employ will depend on the specific type of small business that you own or are trying to market.

Case in point: if people always purchased what they need instead of what they want, sports cars and beer sales would be overshadowed by economy cars and milk sales.

Customer Conversion Tactic # 2 – Craft Your Message

One of the most common marketing mistakes that small business owners make when trying to create their own marketing materials is talking about themselves instead of talking about the customer.

Just like everyone else on the planet, including you, your customer's favorite topic of …

Logo designs are typically a visual representation of a graphic or text or a combination of both that provides a unique identity to a company and its products. Logos help to create a visual recognizable identity for a company that effectively contributes to the company's branding.

With the wide artistic abilities, logo designers often become too enthusiast in creating a company logo design that actually fails to meet the purpose. An extremely abstract art, or a very complex illustration is often not a good example of a logo though they may be considered as a good art if considered from the perspective of a general artwork and not a logo. A logo design should be well thought out, with factors like usage, application and the nature of the company being kept in mind. These few simple tips will give you a grip on the job and even when you get a professional logo design firm to do your logo, you will know what exactly to ask from them.

Primary Identity for your Business

A company logo design creates the primary identity of your business and it should be designed in a way to represent the attitude and nature of the business in the best possible way. A logo designs should not be "dated" and should always have a fresh and contemporary look. Also while deciding on the logo you should consider where and how you are going to use it. Depending on the various mediums on which you are going to put the logo, the color and nature of the logo should be chosen. Also, a logo design can have a long term cost impact, for example having a four color logo can cost very high when you need to print it on your business cards and corporate stationary. Logo design is one of your most important business decisions that are sure to have a great impact on your business for its lifetime.

Simplicity is the Key

Do not go for a complicated design, always remember a logo is not a piece of art but it is a symbol for your corporate identity. Complicated designs are difficult to remember and are not easily recognized. Also, if you ever require a miniature version of your logo, say to put on some gift items like pen or coffee mug, it will loose the clarity and look like a colored blob.

Use Less Colors

Even if your logo design company does not charge you more for using more colors, always restrict your choice to a maximum of three colors. Using more colors can make the logo look good on the web but how would it look when you are sending a fax with the logo in black and white? Beside, the more colors you use for logo the more will be your printing cost.

Use Regular Fonts

Although some fancy fonts might look good on your company logo try to keep your font choice as close to the regular fonts that are commonly …

Small business loans are an ideal financial option for small business owners. Now you can easily keep up your business cash flow and resolve business related expenses easily. with the help of these loans you can resolve outstanding debts, investing in a new venture, buying raw material, paying wages or salaries, buying machinery or tools etc. Various such business expenses can be easily tackled and solved with the help of these loans.

For entailing secured small business loans you need to pledge your valuable asset as security. By pledging asset you can easily borrow a huge loan amount that too at lower rates of interest. But if you do not have nothing to pledge as security then you can apply for unsecured small business loans. you can advance a smaller loan amount for a shorter term. These loans are provided at reliably higher rates of interest because of absence of security.

To easily access the loan amount and get the approval; you need to have a well prepared business plan and your plan should be working and must be approved by a national corporate body so as to get quick approval. With this You should also mention the type of business, purpose and loan amount in your application. Creditors verify and analyze the documents and if found satisfactory then your application is approved.

Are you facing bad credit? If you have CCJs, IVA, late payments, arrears, defaults, missed payments and bankruptcy in your credit report then you can still apply for small business loans. These loans are open to all types of borrowers.

You can apply for these loans through banks and online. The online application is very simple and easy; you just have to fill a simple application form. If you scout around the market well to find a lower rate deal with flexible conditios easily.

Small business loans are a great financial solution that helps you solve various expenses easily. With these loans you can keep the cash flow of your business intact and expand your busienss as well. …

When talking about business writing, the first word that pops in almost everyone's mind is formality. A business writing piece must have a no-nonsense quality since as a business writer, you do not want to waste the time of your readers. No need to use flowery, overly expressive words; what you need to do is be concise, clear and accurate. You need to make sure that the message you want to convey is easily understandable.

There are different types of letters that fall under business writing: memos, cover letters, resumes, business proposal, letter of request and many more. Although they have different purposes, the basic rule of business writing places the same. You need to show professionalism; to do this there are different things you have to consider.

Organizing your Thoughts. Before you start writing, you should know what exactly you are writing about. You need to make sure that the topic you want to discuss is the focus of your letter. For resumes, memos and business letters, focusing on the real subject is much easier compared to composing a propos or a business report. Collect all the data necessary and filter the ones that are most important and make it the prominent part of your piece.

Write in an Active Voice. An active sentence means that the subject of your thought is the one doing the action and not receiving it. It is direct to the point and the message is clear. Write in an active voice instead of a passive voice so that your subject is not buried underneath your sentence. For example, instead of saying "On the 30th of June 2009, the new rules and regulations will take effect." say "The new rules and regulations will be effective as of June 30, 2009." The focus should be on the subject at hand.

Consider Your Readers. Whenever composing a business report or making a presentation, bear in mind that what you want to say may differ from what they (your readers) want to read. There are different departments in a company, focusing on different tasks; the level of detail in your composition should complement a specific department. For example, if you're making an annual company report most of the gritty details are expected to be presented to the boss; all the details relating to security procedures should be given to the security department; however, the rest of the employees does not need to be overburdened by such details.

Write.

Once you gathered all the information that you need, start writing. It does not matter if you can not make much sense of it in the first glance; just write everything that crosses your mind. For some people, this does not work; they prefer smoothing things out as they go along so find your own style and pace.
Review and Edit. When you've finished your report or letter, read it over and over until you're sure that you're satisfied with your work. Do not be complacent, check every word, …

We often wonder whether writing business letters correctly is as important as it is made out to be. Communication, written or verbal has always been significant to civilization. The method of communication is often dictated by various factors such as who is addressing whom, why, and when.

Business letters are generally used to communicate formally with various players regarding business matters. Unlike informal letters, these need to conform to certain rules so they could be read and processed speedily and at the same time provide you with the relief you are seeking. Fortunately, the basics of writing business letters are easy to master.

1. The beginning – you begin with the name, designation and address of the person you want to communicate. In case you do not know the name, the designation would often suffice, though personalization always provides better results.

2. The subject – you should keep in mind that the person who would read your letter has limited time and therefore needs to know what the letter is all about at a glance. The subject line serves to this purpose.

3. Reference – next, is your reference. This pertains to the source that influenced you to write this letter. For example, the advertisement in the newspaper if you are applying for a job; a previous letter, a recent development, your own preceding letters and so on.

4. The opening address – you start the letter with a “Dear Sir or Madam” depending on the gender of the person. It is important that you address a woman as Ms unless she makes it obvious she wants to be addressed as mrs or miss.

5. Body of the letter – the matter you want to be said should be put in simple and crisp language, avoiding wordiness. The tone should be polite, even when the letter is a complaint or gives negative feedback.

6. Closing statement – try your best to end the letter on a point of action. This is what the person would read last and therefore carry it in his or her mind. What you want the person to do? What do you expect from him or her? What you want them to remember about the letter?

7. Ending – the letter generally ends formally with, “yours faithfully”, “yours sincerely”, “warm regards”, or “best wishes” depending on how well you know the person you are writing to.

As you can see, writing business letters is not a difficult task. All it needs is a little practice and the basic know-how.…

No matter what my personal role in a business transaction-as business owner, supplier, customer, facilitator, or as an attorney for one of the parties-everyone has the same reaction to the lawyer's participation: "Oh, no …. now nothing is going to get done …. here come the lawyers! "

Before I became an attorney, I felt the same way. The presence of them seemed to automatically up the tension and the probability that whatever we wanted to get accomplished just was not going to happen (or if it was, with a tremendous amount of difficulty). Why is this? Why does everyone dread a lawyer's participation in a business transaction, and what can be done, if anything, to change that?

I believe the first part of the question may be answered, on one hand, by the simple fact that most people consider them to be a necessary evil. You do not call one because you want to, you call one because you need to. The feeling that you need to do it could stem from a variety of reasons-fear that the other side will take advantage of you, a feeling that you do not understand the situation as well as you would like, apprehension of what will happen if you do not have someone to stand by your side, that the other side, at the very least, will perceive you to be vulnerable without their presence, or just simply because they have a level of understanding and expertise about the issue which you don 't possess.

On the other hand, I also believe that people dread the lawyer's participation due to a misunderstanding about the lawyer's role. Unfortunately, lawyers themselves also hold this misperception much of the time, which only aggravates the situation.

So what is this misperception?

In a business transaction, like most other attorney-client relationships, their job should be advise the client-you. Typically, the purpose of hiring one is to minimize the risks and maximize the advantages to you, the client, as much as possible. What often happens, though, is that the lawyer and / or the client lose sight of the business transaction at hand. No one would argue that there are risks inherent in every business deal. The risks for you are different from the risks to the other side. The question is, how much risk are you willing to accumulate in order to accomplish your goal of completing this business transaction?

When the focus shifts strictly to minimizing the risks, the ultimate result is often that that the other party no longer finds the business deal attractive, or feels that they just can not work with you. When this happens, many businesspersons have lost sight of the goal because they become focused on allocating liability to the other side. When this happens, it often causes a break in relationships between the parties-and most of the time, to the parties' detriment, not to their advantage.

In the end, it is important to remember at all times that you…