Small Business: 10 Key Attributes Your Sales Staff Must Have

One of the most important assets that any small business can have is effective sales people. Without them, you simply do not have a business that will work or more importantly make sales. Over the last ten years of operating a number of small businesses I have found 10 key attributes all sales staff must have to be successful.

Attribute 1: They Must Be Friendly and Approachable

Without friendly and approachable sales staff your customers will never buy from you. Let me share with you an example, two days ago I visited a well known sandwich store in Townsville Australia. The sandwich artist (better know as their salesman) was incredibly rude and unapproachable. In fact this young woman was so rude to both my wife and myself we almost walked out of the store and I know for a fact that two other people did, because I watched them. Her problem was quite apparent she did not want to be there and that was obvious.

If you were the business owner and the person was being abrupt and plainly rude, people simply will not take it and they will walk away. I still cannot understand how businesses can survive with rude sales staff. Some do though.

Attribute 2: They Must Always Be Polite

One of the biggest killer of sales is when you get to close to a customer and all of the sudden you let your guard down and say something inappropriate. When ever dealing with a customer you must always be polite and never resort to any vulgar language even if sharing a joke, because in many cases this will kill off a sale.

Attribute 3: Smile and Have a Clean Sense of Humour

The quickest way to disarm a customer is to smile at them. It is amazing how often just a little smile will stop the ranting and raving of a disgruntled customer. Too many people today, walk around on this earth with a scowl on their face and if you do this you will have no chance of making a sale. Nobody wants to buy from a grump.

Attribute 4: Always be well dressed

It does not matter whether you are a panel beater or mechanic, car cleaner or office girl, you should always present yourself in a well dressed manner. When choosing a uniform for your staff make sure that it will always look smart regardless of the work that they do.

Attribute 5: Follow-up all leads

Ninety percent of lost sales, simply are caused by people not following up in an appropriate amount of time. When ever you receive a customer enquiry that you cannot deal with immediately, make sure you inform the customer when you will follow-up with them and ensure you stick with that date.

Attribute 6: Ask the Customers What Their Needs Are

Look, as a small business owner, I am guilty of this, if you do not know what the customer wants, then simply ask them. I can assure you they will tell you. Never fear customers are not afraid of sharing with you their opinions or issues, just ask them

Attribute 7: Help the Customer Save Money and Get A Bargain

Every customer loves a bargain. Just look at the number of $2 shops that popup all around the world. Look at how many people travel half way across the world to travel to places like asia to shop in their cheap markets. Customers love a bargain and love to be shown how they are saving money, even when you are charging them more than someone else. Simply educate them why your deal is better then the next persons.

Attribute 8: Educate the Customer, Offer an Opinion or Have a Clear Recommendation

Salesman who are very successful will always have an opinion on what is the best product or service and why. Tell the customer why you recommend a certain product over another. Clearly educate the customer on what to look for when buying the product or service. If your product is not the one to buy or will not suit them then tell then what is the best option. You will be surprised how often you may not get that sale, but definitely get the next one by being honest with the customer.

Attribute 9: Help the Customer

If you cannot service the customers needs, then tell them somebody who can. We often will go to places like Harvey Norman or Tandy to buy certain products and they always tell us if they can not supply the product who can. Do you know the interesting thing about their strategy, my team and I always go back to them for other things.

Attribute 10: Ask for the sale

If you want the customer to buy something from you, you have to ask for the sale. Do not sit there with the customer like a stunned mullet, get in and ask them, "Would you like me to ring that up for you now?"

Whilst selling a product can be an art form, following these basic 10 attributes will certainly make a big difference in your ability to sell and become an outstanding sales person and make your company an outstanding organization to deal with.

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About the Author: If you would like the opportunity to read the book Think and Grow RichMeditation Music by Napoleon Hill simply visit our website where you can download the book and audio reading. To help you in learning this material I strongly recommend our High Performance Meditation Music at -

Small Business Secret #6: No Customer Database - No Goodwill

If you are thinking about building a small business or buying an existing business, the number one tool every small business must have is a customer database. Without a good quality customer database, you will have no Goodwill when you decided to sell or exit your business. It is that important that without it, you will lose over half of the value of your business when you goto sell your business.

Let me explain … why the customer database is so important?

The role of the customer database is to tell the history and the story of your customers over a period of time. Many accountants will tell you that your customer database is your accounting package like MYOB and QUICKEN. In fact, I will tell you now that if you only use these applications you are seriously restricting the success of your business as accounting packages do not tell you the full history of the relationship between you and your customers.

The customer database is the most important tool in your whole business. It contains every bit of information about your customers where as the accounting system only contains basic contact information and what they have purchased. The sort of information that you want to store in your customer database does varies depending on the type of business you actually have.

The sort of information I would generally expect in the customer database are things like, their contact information, products they are interested in, information about what they are expecting from you, when you have contacted them and what they discussed, what marketing material you sent to them and whether they bought off that marketing material, what adverts brought them to you, what their average dollar sale is, what their predicted long term value is, any special deals you have done with them and much much more.

What I recommend to every small business owner is to try and locate an industry specific customer database. Pretty much every industry has its own customized system which focuses on the issues related to your business. If your industry does not have one, then it is really important that you invest the money into building one that addresses the issues of customer management for your industry.

Over the last few years my team and I have built a number of industry specific databases for industries like the car cleaning business, the sewing machine sales and repair industry, the carpet cleaning industry, the recruitment industry, the manufacturing industry and so forth. In each and every case, their requirements for their customer management system were very different.

In the case of the Sewing Machine industry, there value in their business was being able to track and manage the actual sewing machine not the customer. It was more important for them to be able to know what repair work was done on the machine and how many different people had owned it. The real money in the sewing machine industry is in repairs and sales of their material etc.

Where as, in the carpet cleaning industry, the most important element to track and manage in their industry is in fact the homes that they clean not the customers. This was particularly important when you are doing housing rental carpet cleaning. In this industry, renter's can be a very deceptive group of people; one of my clients had a situation arise where the renter actually accused her carpet cleaning company of wrecking the carpet and staining the carpet and not them.

Well because my client had tracked the history of the carpet in that house, they were able to prove to the Real Estate agent, what stains were originally in the house from previous work to what was in there now. In fact, because they photograph every house once they start and when they finish, they had a full photo history of this house on file. They were able to show to the real estate agent the full history of work carried out and which stains were permanent and what were new and this meant the previous renter had to foot the full bill for the damage they had done not our client.

If my client had not invested in building this customized carpet cleaning customer database, then she could have been in a real bind. Further to this, when my client decided to sell her business, she got three times what others were getting for their carpet cleaning business, because of the value that was found in her customer database.

The company that bought her out was a National Carpet Cleaning Company and they wanted her business because of the customer history she had. This is a perfect example of how the Customer Database illustrated the true value of the Goodwill in her business to the prospective buyer. I should note, she now drives around in a white Mercedes because of the money she earned from the sale of her business.

Customer databases do not need to be expensive and they can be easily built in Microsoft Office applications like Microsoft Access. The reason many companies are using Microsoft Access is because of the ease of being able to build the systems and get people to help them. What a lot of companies do is to train one person in using Microsoft Access and then get them to build the database as part of their job. Alternatively, there are lots of Microsoft Access Developers out in the market place and they are really cost effective to hire. Always though check with previous clients to see what they thought of their work and how good they really were.

Look the bottom line is this, in the fifteen different clients that we have built databases for and then have sold their businesses, in every case their accountants have stated categorically that the reason they had the allocation of goodwill they achieved was simply due to their high quality, high detail customer database.

Remember this - No Customer Database - No Goodwill

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About the Author: Would you like to learn more on developing your own Small Business or how to implement the Thirteen Secret Steps all millionaires know in the path to becoming an obscenely wealth and a successful person. Then find out how with a copy of our Think and Grow Rich book by Napoleon Hill and our audio package. Check out our Meditation Music to help you master this important program and to get some relaxation.

Small Business Secret #5: Choose Your Customers Carefully They Are What Can Make Or Break You

When you start out in small business pretty much every small business owner has the perception that everybody is their customer. In fact taking on this strategy can be the death knell of your business before you really get started. The key secret to small business is to carefully choose who you want to be a customer. Do not get trapped into believing that you have to have everyone as your customer.

There are many reasons why you want to choose your customers, rather than they choosing you. One of the key reasons is money. Having too many companies that do not pay you within an acceptable period of time can in fact put such a financial burden on your business that they can bankrupt your business. Let me explain …

I had a number of government clients a few years ago which had a policy of choosing when and if they were going to pay. These government clients used purchase orders to buy training from our company, but just because they could, they decided that they did not want to pay because the whole purchase order had not been completed. So even though one person out of 15 had not completed their training and had been sent overseas, they chose that they were not going to pay the $14,000 bill.

Fourteen thousand dollars to any small business is a massive amount, add onto the fact that we had to outlay money for these courses including wages, catering and manuals. The consequence of this organization deciding not to pay put a huge financial burden on my business. I should note that this client was not dissatisfied with our training, which was far from the truth, the person in charge simply decided that they were not going to pay. Some government bureaucrats and large corporation managers do this just to show that they have power.

Anyway, after 9 months we did finally get paid, however, that training actually cost us more than $14,000 by the time we accrued things like penalty payments on products we purchased and interest plus legal fees in recovering the money. In the end I learnt a very important lesson that you need to be very careful as to whom your customers are because they can do a huge amount of damage to your cash flow and can put you into huge debt just to survive.

Let me give you another example of a family member who recently experienced the same situation …

Certain members of my family decided they wanted to try their hand at the trucking industry. They purchased a truck and got into a contract with a large freight distribution company. Essentially, they ran into trouble within the first few months of starting their business, simply because they chose to have just one client and the contract they entered into with this client allowed the freight company to withhold payments for upto 3 months before they got paid. This has cause this family a lot of problems because without cash, you can not run your trucks cause you need to fill up on Diesel. Not being paid for over 90 days means you can not buy fuel and as such you can not make money.

The one thing I have learnt from small business is that I like customers who pay cash upfront before the service or product is taken out of your store. I also prefer customers who have a reasonable expectation on service.

You would think a car cleaning business would be a relatively simple business to run with very few complaints. I kid you not; this is a nightmare industry where some people have some unreal expectations so when we are on a recruitment drive for new customers we choose customers who have four facets -

1. Want Regular Cleans
2. Have kept their cars relatively well cared for
3. The cars are no older than 6 years old
4. They pay cash upfront

In fact, when it comes to our car cleaning business, or all of our businesses we actually interview our customers before we enroll them as our clients.

Here is the reason why we have chosen those customers above for our car cleaning business. Any business where you get repeat business is always a boon, because the long term customer value is always more than somebody who just wants it cleaned once. One thing we have learned about our customers is that those who want to get a regular clean have more realistic expectations than those who only get their cars done once or every now and again.

Customers who keep their cars relatively well cared for means the amount of work to maintain it is much less than those who do not and it means less work on our behalf and better profit. The third facet, we like cars that are no older than 6 years old. Cars that are older than this usually have a poorer paint quality, simply because the paint has faded and most people when they get a car detail think their car is going to look brand new and if your paint work is terrible well there realistically is not much we can do cause car detailers do not respray cars or do that sort of paint work. We can only work with what we have. The fourth facet is they pay cash upfront.

In small business, cashflow is everything. Without cash you cannot pay your bills. If you have a good solid cashflow then you will be making a profit. A small business without cash will be placed into receivership very quickly.

Look the bottom line is that small business is really hard and to make it easier you need to choose customers that have the following facets:

1. Pay Cash Upfront or By the Due Date
2. Have Realistic Expectations of your products and services
3. Want to Buy From You Regularly

If you have customers that have these facets then you have a good chance of surviving small business. The mix of customers you have is something that you have to manage and review on a regular basis to ensure that you do not build a customer base with to many customers without all of these facets.

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About the Author: Would you like to learn more on developing your own Small Business or how to implement the Thirteen Secret Steps all millionaires know in the path to becoming an obscenely wealth and a successful person. Then find out how with a copy of our Think and Grow Rich book by Napoleon Hill and our audio package. Check out our Meditation Music to help you master this important program and to get some relaxation.

Small Business Secret #4 – The 10 Chapter Elements Every Business Plan Must Have to Be Successful

One of the ten most important documents you must have in creating a successful small business, and in fact any business is the Business Plan. The Business Plan is the overall summary document that describes how your business will work, how people will invest into your business and how the business will operate.

A successful Business Plan will contain 10 key Chapter elements and they are –

1. Company Description
2. Business Concept
3. Management Team
4. Market Analysis
5. Marketing Strategy
6. Operations
7. Investment Analysis
8. Growth Plan/Exit Strategy
9. Financial Projections
10. Business Mastermind Group Advisers

One element that should also be in your business plan that is not in the list of 10 key Elements is the Executive Summary. All documents that have some substance should have an executive summary that outlines a summary of the contents of the document. As this should be in every document you create, I felt that it was not a Key Chapter element and as such that is why it is not in my list of 10 Key Chapter Elements.

Chapter 1 – Company Description

The company description is the first chapter of 10 for your business plan. The role of the Company Description is to define the organization, who it will be owned by, the capitalization of the business, the location of the business and generally what the business will do.

Chapter 1 to a certain degree is a summary of other chapters within the business plan like the capitalization information but it also carries unique information like, where the business will operate from.

Chapter 2 – Business Concept

The Business Concept chapter is the vision side of your business plan. This is where you get to put your dream down on paper. You will define in this chapter information like the concept design of your business, an explanation of what your business will look like, what sort of image it is going to have, what your customers will see when they walk up the street and or into your front door. It will also define exactly what your business is going to do and how you are going to do it.

In the business concept chapter you may like to put some samples in this chapter as to what you will be selling or offering. For example if you were opening a restaurant then you might put a sample menu into this chapter as a sub chapter or if you were cleaning dogs then you might put in your sales brochure.

Chapter 3 – Management Team

The Management Team sets out who is going to manage your business, who the key players are and what their experience is. This chapter alone can make the difference in securing considerable money, if you are using the business plan to get others to invest in your venture. If you can demonstrate in this chapter that the people you are going to enlist to help manage the business have solid experience in your target industry then investors or banks or private equity groups are more likely to back you financially.

You should also include in this section any lawyer approved management agreements and confidentiality agreements.

Chapter 4 – Market Analysis

The Market Analysis is specifically focused on talking about the industry in which you will be operating. This chapter should included lots of facts and figures from reliable and verifiable sources. The sources of this information could include information from Government agencies that provide statistics, information from the local chamber of commerce or better business bureau or your industry association.

All the fact and figures you provide in your business plan must be verifiable. If you are hoping to garner money from private equity groups or financial institutions, they have teams of people whose job it is to go over Business Plans and to confirm that the facts and figures are in fact true and not made up. If they find that you have used dodgy figures or that you have made them up, then organizations will very quickly identify that and reject your application for financing.

One other way you may gather market information is by doing your own surveys of your intended market. Make sure though that if you are going to use these results that you keep the raw data and make it available to your investors. If you do not do this, they will question the validity of your findings. If they can take your raw results and verify what you have said then your survey results will be given a higher weighting during an investment review.

Chapter 5 – Marketing Strategy

The Marketing Strategy sets out what marketing and advertising you are going to do, to get the required business to meet your financial projections. This section will include how you are going to build that all important customer database, what mediums you will use to market your business. What marketing mix you will use to keep your customers coming back time and time again. In this chapter you will also address issues such as your Community and Charity Involvement plus who will be responsible for your public relations management.

Chapter 6 – Operations Chapter

The Operations Chapter looks at how your business will operate on a day-to-day basis. Issues to be included are how many staff you will employ, what positions they will hold, what training will they get, who your suppliers will be, an alternative list of suppliers if something should happen, the daily operations that will need to occur, what administrative systems you will put in place and finally the management controls you will put in place to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Chapter 7 – Investment Analysis

This is an important area for those people or institutions who will be investing into your business, cause essentially they want to know what they are going to get for their money. The Investment Analysis chapter will outline the full investment strategy, the investment types, the amount of the investment, the percentage ownership value for the investor, the investment roles and the Return on Investment.

The other area that I recommend that be included is the Equity analysis showing how Cash Distributions will be undertaken. From experience this area alone causes a lot of concern for investors and is often a sticking point when profits are being divvied out.

Chapter 8 – Growth Plan/Exit Strategy

This section is as important a chapter as the Investment Analysis Chapter. Knowing how you are going to expand your business and exit the business is your number one strategy and issue you need to address before starting the business. More so, you also must have it clearly articulated how your investors can exit the investment in your organization and also how you will expand investment options for other investors. For example, if you want to expand and to bring on more investment capital how will that affect the equity of the existing investors?

Each of these issues are ones that can often cause clear concerns and divisions with the investors in your organization and it is always best to have these issues addressed prior to the establishment of your business rather than once it has been started.

Chapter 9 – Financial Projections

Everybody likes this chapter as it defines what sort of money everyone is going to make. This section should include all project sources and how the cash will be used, it should define where all capital acquisitions will becoming from, sales projections, expenditure projections, labour projections, cash flow projections (the most important issue of all) and detailed summary statement of income for 1 year, 2 years and 5 years.

One of the other areas I also like to see at this point is a sample Chart of Accounts for the business. Often what is given in the Business Plan at this point is simply the same simple Chart of Accounts that every business uses rather than the one that is most appropriate for your industry. Getting a clearly defined Chart of Account at the start will tell investors whether you really understand how to invest and if you understand the industry you are going to be operating in.

Chapter 10 - Business Mastermind Group Advisers

Your Business Mastermind Group of Advisers is your 10 people who you will use, that are independent of your business to help your build your enterprise. These 10 people are usually made up of accountants, lawyers, industry specialists, marketing specialist and so forth. It is important to list this group in this chapter as equity investors or banks and financial institutions will look on these advisers and if they see people on your Mastermind Group that are expert specialists in the area of business you are entering then they will know that you have done your homework and if you are in trouble you will have people you can rely on to help you.

I like many people when I built my first small business, I did it without writing a business plan and that made life incredibly difficult for the first few years because I didn't have focus. As I have built more and more companies, and created their associated business plans, I have found that it is easier to build a successful enterprise once you have that information.

Without a business plan you will never truly achieve your goals, because you will not have clearly articulated what they are for that business. Making money is not an acceptable goal in business, you need to know where you want your business to go and what you want to achieve from that business.

To finish off, I would like to take a moment to summarize the ten elements every business plan must have –

1. Company Description
2. Business Concept
3. Management Team
4. Market Analysis
5. Marketing Strategy
6. Operations
7. Investment Analysis
8. Growth Plan/Exit Strategy
9. Financial Projections
10. Business Mastermind Group Advisers

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About the Author: Would you like to learn more on developing your own Small Business or how to implement the Thirteen Secret Steps all millionaires know in the path to becoming an obscenely wealth and successful person. Then find out how with a copy of our Think and Grow Rich book by Napoleon Hill and our audio package. Check out our Meditation Music to help you master this important program.

Small Business Secret #3: Seven Documents All Small Businesses Must Have to Be Successful

When many small business owners start out thinking about building a small business, they are often mislead into believing that the only document that they need to succeed is a Business Plan. In fact this plan is only one of seven documents every small business should have if they ever expect to survive let alone succeed.

Let me explain …

Doc 1. Business Plan

The Business plan, which is what most accountants, lawyers and business coaches will say is the only document that you need is the first document you must complete. I certainly do disagree totally that this is the only document you need, because the actual roll of this document is to summarize the other six mandatory documents that you must have.

The size of your Business Plan document will vary depending on the size of your business that you are either buying or building. Your business plan should contain details on how your business will be run, how you will finance the business, what sort of profit you will make, how you will advertise and market your business, what your exit strategy will be from your business, what form you business will take, where it will be located etc.

If you are going to be buying a Business rather than starting up a new one from scratch, always ask the previous owner to see their business plan. This will give you a good insight into the inner workings of the business and how it got to where it is. One thing to note though, always make sure that regardless of whether you are buying an existing business or building your own, that you create your own business plan so you have a clear understanding of where you are going with this business.

Doc 2. Business Model

A Business Model is usually built using tools like Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access. The model allows you to apply various scenarios to your business model to see what sort of outcome will occur. This is a fantastic tool for running scenarios and seeing what the outcome would be if certain conditions might occur, like your truck broke down or what would happen to your profit if a certain piece of machinery broke down for a period of time.

The Business Model is also very useful when dealing with organizations like banks or finance institutions. If your business model can show what impacts various factors might have on your business and that you can still survive, then the banks and finance institutions are more likely to give you the money you need.

Doc 3. Marketing Plan

The Marketing Plan document sets out how you are going to market your business. It includes information on the brochures you are going to use, the types of adverts you may use, the frequency of the campaign, the medium you will be using and so forth. The marketing plan provides an in depth look at how you will be marketing your business. Your marketing plan should represent 12 months of operations, that is, you should have developed all of your marketing strategies so that they flow on and build on each previous marketing campaign over a 12 month period.

Doc 4. Operations Plan

Your operations plan is designed to define exactly how your business is to be run. The operations plan should include how to do every task in your organization, checklists on what needs to be done every day, week, month and year. Essentially the Operations Plan defines how your business actually works.

The key advantage of your operations plan is that if at any time you lose a staff member, you can use the operations plan to teach your new staff members the tasks that they need to complete each day.

Doc 5. Sales Plan

The Sales Plan outlines how sales will be undertaken on a day to day basis. How you will be selling your products and services, who your target markets are, your approach techniques to new clients, any clients that you need to contact on a day-to-day basis and what your contact processes are. More so it should define what step-by-step process you follow to convert a prospect into a customer.

The Sales Plan should use flow charts and should also include any letters or marketing material that should be used for a particular sales process.

Doc 6. HR Plan

The HR Plan, sets out the Human Resource structure of your organization. It should include information such as position descriptions, who each person reports to, who they are responsible for, what tasks they are responsible for and any special duties they might have to do during the year.

The HR Plan should also have information in it such as Job Advertisement Templates, approved Position Descriptions and templates, Hourly Rates, Acceptable Work Practices and so forth. The HR Plan sets down how your staff must engage at work and what you define as being acceptable workplace behaviors in your workplace.

Doc 7. Style Manual

The Organizations Style manual sets out how you are going to present yourself to your customers. The style manual includes information on your logos, your business cards, the colors your business will use for its logos, banner layouts, how to place newspaper adverts and what colors must be used, what fonts must be used in Letters or Faxes. The style manual will also set out what information will go onto your business cards, where the logo will sit and what information must be contained.

The Organizations Style manual sets out how you are going to present yourself to the public and what standards you will use. If you have never seen a Style Manual before simply go to any large corporation's website and type in 'Style Manual' and you will generally find one available for review.

After 10 years in small business and a number of small businesses under my belt, the one thing I have learned is that if you do not have these 7 Plans and Documents done prior to creating or building your business, then they will never get done. The simple fact is that small business is incredibly demanding on the small business owner and once the business is up and going, it is highly unusual the owner will ever get the time to go back and create them. Without each and every one of these documents your business will lack focus on what you want to achieve and that is why 70% of all small businesses around the world fail in the first 12 months.

To finish off, I would like to take a moment to summarize the seven documents all small business owners should have before contemplating a small business…

1. Business Plan
2. Business Model
3. Marketing Plan
4. Operations Plan
5. Sales Plan
6. HR Plan
7. Style Manual

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About the Author: Would you like to learn more on developing your own Small Business or how to implement the Thirteen Secret Steps all millionaires know in the path to becoming an obscenely wealth and successful person. Then find out how with a copy of our Think and Grow Rich book by Napoleon Hill and our audio package. Check out our Meditation Music to help you master this important program and to get some relaxation.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (SEO) - AN AFORDABLE TOOL FOR SMALL BUSINESS

All marketing activity is an investment. Unfortunately, some activities such as TV advertising, national poster campaigns and cinematic extravaganzas are beyond the reach of the small business - the investment is simply too great, irrespective of the possible benefits.

The good news is that, as the web becomes possibly the most powerful marketing medium ever created, the key activity for success, professional SEO, is a very affordable solution for small businesses. This is because SEO is a scaleable activity - you can start small and increase your investment as your capacity to meet increased demand improves.

But, you ask, how does a small business compete with the big boys on the web? They've been around longer and they can throw big money at optimisation. Isn't it the same old story?

The answer is that while it will always be difficult for a small business to compete for very popular key words, you can play smart by targeting the less popular but more targeted search terms. These will typically be phrases comprising of three or four words which will, by their nature, be more descriptive of what the searcher requires and hence indicative of a prospective customer who is ready to buy.


Incise specialises in affordable SEO for small businesses - call us to discuss how we can help you on 01453 873638.

For SEO to be affordable and worthwhile for a small business, you need to be prepared to invest over an extended period and to see your traffic build steadily rather than spectacularly.

The first important factor for Affordable Small Business SEO is keyword popularity. You have to realise that you won't be able to get the top position in Google for a highly popular phrase if you're new to the web. We can help you to identify the words and phrases that may be less popular but which, combined, can build your traffic.

The next important factor for Affordable Small Business SEO is keyword competitiveness - that is to say the number of web pages competing for the same keyword, knowingly or unknowingly. The more pages that are competing for the search term, the tougher it will be to get a good position.

Finding the right keywords for Affordable Small Business SEO involves competitor research, database checking (there are numerous online databases that track the search terms people use), brainstorming and checking your own web logs.

But however good your optimisation might be, the cost effectiveness of a project will depend on the rate at which you can convert visitors into enquirers, subscribers or buyers. Getting more traffic is pointless if a site is not an efficient sales machine.

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About the Author: http://www.incisecomms.co.uk/affordable_small_business_seo.htm

Search Engine Optimization Tips For Small Business

Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of analyzing and optimizing websites so that search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN will find them easily. Ranking well with these major search engines have been proven to generate more traffic than any other form of online marketing like PPC advertising or link buying.

Marketing your site or business through SEO is a must for small business, it’s a good investment if you are thinking about the long term benefits it can give you. Unfortunately, marketing through Television Ads, Newspapers, etc are beyond the budget of small businesses even if it might yield possible benefits. So what’s the solution? The cheapest and most affordable solution is to do search engine optimization yourself. One important reason why small businesses should be doing SEO for themselves is that they know their product better than any SEO company and surely they can do a better job of promoting their own business than they would.

So how do you start learning SEO? There are lots of information and articles regarding search engine optimization. You can start by searching Google for “introduction to search engine optimization” or “search engine optimization introduction”. Searching for these phrases can give you tons of information around 4 million results regarding SEO. Another great source of information are article directories like articlewheel.com, ezinearticles.com, or goarticles.com.

Search engine optimization can be classified in two broad categories as:
1. On-page optimization. This pertains to the content and structure of your web site. A well structured web site with quality contents will surely be favored by search engines than those site that are poorly built.

2. Off-page optimization. This is probably the most important category in SEO. Off-page optimization pertains to building links. When building links for your site it is recommended that you get links from quality web sites related to your site.
Doing SEO is not as hard as you might think it is. You don’t even need to spend lots of dollars to get to the top search results. All you need to do is to educate yourself with the proper ways to search engine optimization.

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About the Author: Gio Castro is the owner of ArticleWheel.com, an article submissionituloy angsulong blog, which talks about search engine optimization, internet marketing, technology, and anything about the internet. directory and

Small Business Credit Cards - Does Your Business Really Need One?

One of the great things about life in America is that anyone can start and own their own small business. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people do just that. It wasn't until about 10 years ago that the major credit card companies began taking note of this in a serious manner, and began expanding their markets.

Today, every major bank and credit card company offers some form of business credit card to their customers. The question is, are they right for you?

For many, the thought process is this; I don't have employees so I can just use my regular personal credit card for my business. I really don't need a business credit card, right? You could do that, but it will make both you and your accountant pull your hair out at tax time, and it may even cost you money to boot.

Here are a few of the advantages of having a small business credit card:

Record keeping and taxes - This is one of the bigger reasons. If all of your business expenses are on one business credit card, tracking expenses and keeping track of records becomes a snap. You'll have your statements each month to give to your accountant, and your taxes will be much easier to figure.

Employees - Do you have employess in your small business? If so, a business credit card makes it possible to add one on the account and allow them to use it for business purchases when you're not there.

Building your business credit rating - By having a business credit card you are helping to build the credit rating of your small business. Don't underestimate the importance of doing this.

These are just a few of the many reasons why you may want your business to have its own separate credit card.

What type of card is right for you? It really depends on your situation. If you will be paying off your balance each month, then a card with few fees and a rewards program may be your best bet.

If you'll be carrying a balance from month to month, then look for a low interest business credit card.

I think you can see that having a business credit card offers you many advantages for your small business. The key is taking your time and finding the offer that is right for you and your situation.

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About the Author: Terry Edwards is the owner of Credit Cards A-Z, a site providing great information and help with credit cards. Find out more about Business Credit Cards as well as get more information about all types of credit cards at http://www.CreditCardOffersA-z.com

Small Business Secret #2 - Build Your Business Knowing How You Will Exit the Business

Creating a small business from nothing is easy to do anyone can do it, by simply filling out a few forms at a government office and then you have your small business. Making it successful is the hard part but also knowing how to get out of your business is as important to your business as owning it. Way to many people startup small businesses but then have no idea how they are going to exit it and in the end the way they build their business in many many cases results in them not getting the windfall they had hoped for.

Let me be really honest with you, if you build your business correctly and make it successful, you can make millions, but you can cost yourself money in not knowing how you will dispose of it and building it in away in which selling is not easy.

Now, I hear it now, but are not all businesses built the same way?

Well in fact no and if you structure your business in the wrong way, it can affect your ability to offload your business.

So what are the ways business owners can exit their business?

Let me list them straight off -

1. Sell to another small business owner
2. Sell off Franchises and Areas to Master Franchisors
3. Sell your business to an Equity Group
4. Sell Shares in your company to other people
5. Publicly List Your Company Shares

The first secret to building a Successful Small Business is to know how your business will look when you are finished. Now based on what your vision of your business is will depend on which of the 5 options you will take.

For example, my team and I are developing a new business that we have decided in three years will be publicly listed. The way in which we are designing this business is very different to how we are growing and building our other businesses. For example, our car cleaning business has been designed specifically to be franchised which has meant we have essentially built each area as its own small business that is profitable for a single operator and will bring them in a good weekly wage and small profit on their investment.

In designing our publicly listed company we have to treat it in a different way so that it is designed to meet the needs of serious investors like institutional buyers. Now by know way am I saying I am an expert in this area but some companies are more suited for public listing than others.

For example if you are building your company for a listing on any of the worlds stock exchanges, investors are looking at three core areas -

1. Good Solid Business Growth (double digit growth)
2. Solid growing profits (double digit profit growth)
3. High Potential for Share Value Growth

If your business does not have those elements then you could be punished in a big way on the stock market with a low share price and in many cases you can loose more money than you make. A few years ago I bought into a small diamond mining company because of this one reason. The share price of the company had been savaged by the bigger players and in those players driving the share price to on 1 cents a share, simply because its potential for high share value growth and profit return per share was simply not there. What happened in the end was that the Publicly Listed Company was bought out by an equity group and was changed to a privately owned company. I actually bought the shares for less than 1 cent a share and the cool part for me was that I made a couple of 100% profit on those shares, but those people who invested when the company was publicly listed lost a large amount of their investment. This really drove home to me that you need to be careful about what you do when you want to get out of the business. In this case, publicly listing the private company cost the owners and shareholders more, than if they had of stayed private.

In the end the company which had an initial listing of 10 million dollars sold for a couple of million dollars. The original shareholders lost an investment of over 8 million dollars. The owners would have been better off keeping the company private and selling it to another mining company or a publicly list company. The reason I know this to be true is because the private equity group did that just 18 months later and I know they doubled their money.

On the other end of the scale, do not just sell your business to anyone. When you build a small business, one of the things that will happen is that you will build a very close relationship with your clients and many of them will become friends. Make sure that when you decide to exit the business, that you talk to your existing customers prior to exiting because getting the wrong person into your business can hurt them as well, both financially and personally.

There is no right or wrong answer to what you should do when it comes to exiting out of your business, but always have a clear strategy on how you are going to exit and build your business towards that exit strategy. If you are partnering with someone else to build your business, make sure that when you create your partnership agreement that you both have a clear understanding of how and when you are going to exit the business.

I have seen so many small businesses destroyed by partnerships that are fine for the first couple of years but then the partners fall out and because one partner wants to exit now, it puts such a clear strain on the business that the business collapses.

One of the clear things I have learned about business is that you must have a vision of what you want for your business and work back from that vision and develop your timeline for success.

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About the Author: Would you like to learn more on developing your own Small or how to implement the Thirteen Secret Steps all millionaires know in the path to becoming an obscenely wealth and successful person. Then find out how with a copy of our Think and Grow Rich book by Napoleon Hill and our audio package. Check out our Meditation Music to help you master this important program.

Small Business Secret #1 - Build Your Business with The End In Mind

Small Business is the toughest industry to break into. If you were a betting man, you would never in a million years want to go into a small business when the odds for success in small business are so bad, that 70% of all small business fail in the first year. Let me be blunt, if you want to succeed in small business, only listen to those people who have built a small business in an industry they no nothing about and succeeded. These are the people who seriously know how to build a small business.

I just happen to be one of those people - I am not a business coach - I offer no consulting on small business, just let me share with you my secret to building 4 small businesses from a three thousand dollar credit card.

The first secret when building a small business is this, have the end in mind. When I first started in small business, I was like most business people, I was a technician (bit more than that, but this is how the E-myth would describe me) in the IT industry with the belief I could build a better computer training company than those around me. One thing I can tell you about this industry, stay out of it. It is tough and there is no money in it, well that’s not quite true, but there are far easier businesses to make serious money. In fact I married my wife and I decided I wanted to experiment on whether all business was as hard as the training industry or was it just computer training.

My wife and I, after much coaxing agreed to setup a car cleaning and detailing business, we new nothing about the business and were simply doing it as an experiment. Two years on, we have a successful thriving business and we are about to Franchise and expand the business to over 10 cities in Australia.

The key to building a successful small business is to have the end in mind and to know when you are going to exit the business. Most people when they start a small business simply believe they are going to have a business to make money, come home and do it better than their boss. If you are going to go into business for this reason, quit now, because your life is doomed.

There is more to business than simply doing the technical work and this is what most new small business operators do not realize. When you are first thinking about starting a small business, imagine how it will look when you are finished. For example, what image will you have, what logo's will you have, what marketing material will you be using, where will you be operating from, how many stores will you have, how many people will be working for you, what sort of profit will you be making and more so, how will you know that the business is complete.

For example, let us say you wanted to start up a dog washing business. You saw in a market that there was a massive need for dog washing. How are you going to satisfy the market? How are you going to build your business? How are you going to clean the dogs? Are you going to build the business like other? When will you know that the business is finished?

These are all the questions you must ask yourself. In fact, if you don't ask yourself then you will find that your business may grow but without any focus. It will go so far and then become a huge noose around your neck. By knowing what the end will be, you then have a clear goal of what you want to achieve and you can then build the business based on that vision.

Let me give you a really good example of this methodology. If you get a chance watch the movie, Concierge with Micheal J Fox. Micheal plays a concierge that has a vision of building a hotel. He first builds a model of the hotel and then sells the idea to a developer. As he says in the movie he knows every aspect of the hotel he has built.

You as a small business owner must do exactly the same thing. Before you rush out and start your small business, you must know exactly what you are building know every aspect of it and how to build it. You must know every job, every role, every procedure and how it will work within your business.

By creating your business in this way, you will learn very quickly what will work and what will not.

Most people who want to start a small business will say that they don't have enough money. If you have a clearly articulated vision and you can prove that your vision works, then there will always be someone out there prepared to back you. It may take a while to find someone to support you, but there are people out there who will. Just remember it took Walt Disney, 500 plus knock backs for Disneyland before he found that one group of people that would back him.

If you truly want your vision to work, then you must be prepared to be relentless in your pursuit of success. Remember the first secret in small business success, is to build and develop your business with the end in mind.

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About the Author: Would you like to learn more on developing your own Small Business or how to implement the Thirteen Secret Steps all millionaires know in the path to becoming an obscenely wealth and successful person. Then find out how with a copy of our Think and Grow Rich book by Napoleon Hill and our audio package. Check out our Meditation Music to help you master this important program.

Small Business Homepage Construction

Custom design of the home page for a small business client is not much different than making a contract to construct a new brick and mortar home for their private residence. When complete each should be functional according to the owner's specifications, and each demands interaction between the client and contractor to meet expectations before it's time to move into that lovely new home.

Let's have some fun and compare a new house and a website in a way that may help put this relationship into perspective.

To succeed most new homeowners know that their (online) home is necessary to compete. Customers are less likely to buy from you if you lack the sophistication of another vendor if their (online) home is up and running while you are homeless.

Having designed custom websites for more than 10 years, and interacted with other web developers in online communities where we share advice to help newcomers to website design, I have discovered some common problems.

The most difficult part of designing a new home is the obligation for interaction between the two parties. As the homeowner, only that owner knows their expectations for the performance of the new house, and that information must be communicated effectively to the contractor. Most designers will ask the right questions to determine the size, number of rooms, and functionality of the appliances in the new home. The complexity of the project will be fairly clear before the actual contractual agreement takes place.

At this point many homeowners only imagine the finished product and overlook their obligation to stay involved during the development and construction of the new home. It would be different if they decided on do-it-yourself, but with someone else taking the lead many drop out and simply look forward to moving day. It's not that simple, and herein lays the biggest problem.

The contractor is not a mind reader, and it is highly unlikely they are an expert in your niche. The information you internalize and take for granted must be extracted and communicated to your new home designer to ensure the success of your project. Take the time to do this and be prepared to discuss your needs in detail before you commit to a contract.

Analyze 5 key elements to define and document your expectations as follows:

1. layout
2. benefits
3. performance
4. promotion
5. growth

The project cost will depend on your needs. If you specify and pay for a cottage and later you request features for a mansion, expect a price increase from the original contract. This may seem silly, but it happens more often than some people realize. The complexity of your project will affect cost. A simple design takes less effort than a highly interactive design which requires more technology and time to complete.

Unless you specify what you want initially, how it will perform, and the future plans for growth, your finished project may result in disappointment. Any contract to perform is worthless if in the end either party resents the deal.

Let's drop the website and house analogy now, and focus on a real website for a small business owner. The client should prepare a plan in advance and below are suggestions using the previous 5 item list. For a small business website, each element should be analyzed to make sure you communicate your needs to the website designer.

Layout
A familiar look to match printed materials is important for your website. If your business is brand new, establishing your corporate identity should be done and approved in a logical order with the logo, then a business card, other printed materials, and finally the website. Branding your company requires a consistent look in print and online. You may also want to search and view websites that belong to your competition, and give the web addresses to the designer to better communicate what you like.

Benefits
Your business is unique even if 1000 other companies within 100 miles do exactly what you do. When all things seem equal, the personality and character of you and your staff makes you unique. Prepare a list of the benefits people enjoy doing business with you. Stay focused on positive aspects including quality, price, delivery, and service, and then list these as bullets in a word processor that you can copy and paste into an email to send to your designer. Write 10-20 benefit statements in short phases or sentences to communicate and share what's stored between your ears.

Performance
Your website allows you to present more information online than can possibly fit on a business card. One page may be fine if your business is local and all you want is the sophistication of a www domain name on your business card. Multiple page static sites are more likely to draw search engine traffic, so be prepared with a larger budget for this information only website. If you require an interactive site with contact forms, client login with passwords, full eCommerce including a shopping cart, or similar advanced features, the price increase will be substantial. Know what you want and tell the designer.

Promotion
If the internet were compared to a forest then your website is just 1 tree among 6 billion pages online. If you want to be noticed, some form of off site promotion will be necessary. Make sure your www domain name is on all printed marketing materials. Add it to your email signature. If your business involves ground travel, have the www domain on your vehicles. For larger or interactive sites that depend on search engine driven traffic, you cannot simply launch a website and expect visitors automatically. Advanced promotion takes time and effort, and although your website designer should be able to make suggestions, be prepared with an ongoing annual budget for promotion.

Growth
As your business grows you may want the website to expand as well. Some small business website owners want a highly interactive website including the ability to add, remove, or change content without the assistance of the original designer. Some will negotiate a rate up front and delegate this service. Regardless, looking ahead in anticipation of future needs for your online presence should be reviewed up front and on a regular basis. If you decide you want to take over managing your website, there are no easy solutions because the learning curve may be steep. The added cost bears consideration, so be prepared to make a decision about what you need versus what you want.

Based on experience, here is some advice to assist small business website owners maximizing the relationship with their designer. Plan ahead using the points already given before you even contact the designer. Being prepared to discuss your expectations is more likely to result in a finished project where neither party resents the deal. If in the course of the project development you decide more features are required, expect to pay accordingly.

Understand what you need. Aside from the website design you need a www domain name registration priced per year, and monthly hosting for storing your site online. As simple as that seems, it is surprising how much can go wrong if these two basic needs are handled poorly. The options are too numerous to detail here, yet if purchasing a domain and hosting is new to you, seek the advice of your designer. Mistakes my clients have made have delayed projects by weeks or months.

For a static site that will not change, the annual cost for the domain and hosting should be less than $100 USD. For an interactive site the design fee may be more, but the annual cost to remain online should still be less than $100 USD. Sites requiring advanced promotion or ongoing maintenance to add, revise, or delete content could add several 1000 dollars to your cost.

Finally, acknowledge emailed progress updates or requests for information from your designer. From experience, clients have ignored or overlooked multiple emailed requests to clarify content needed to continue with the design, and then weeks later questioned why a given page was not done. One example was a simple application form which was not part of the original proposal, required a list of fields for the form, and incurred an additional design fee for the add-on. Failing to respond with timely communications only delays the launch or your website.

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About the Author: Jim Degerstrom writes small business advice based on 30 years in management, sales, and marketing, including GM or President of small companies in 5 states. He is proficient in website and graphic art design, and runs his online Small Business Resource Center and offers advice on his Small Business Advice Blog from Kissimmee, Florida USA.

Remote Data Storage for Small Business

Big business has been using remote data storage since they began using computers. However, until recently the remote data storage companies have been priced out of the range of small business. New technology has changed that. As small businesses have changed from paper files to digital files, the costs for backing them up in another location have come down dramatically. The need for data backup is evident, since crashes of hard drives and servers can destroy vitally important records. Natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and floods can bring a business down. The ability to recreate its records and information can be the difference between recovering the business and losing it.

At Home and Away

As information and technology become more important to every kind of business, the ability to protect both becomes more important as well. In the past, a couple of secretaries and some file cabinets were all that were needed to maintain and retrieve any information needed to carry on a business. Today, the growing amounts of information needed and the demand for instant retrieval make digital storage a given. While data stored digitally is more convenient and easy to use, it is also harder to care for. The safety of this valuable material is usually in the hands of a team of technicians who have to make backups, keep the storage technology going, and recreate the data in case of a loss. Outsourcing this important job is often the best answer.

By using remote data storage, the decisions on storage and encryption are left to experts without adding the cost of an expert to the bottom line. The machinery that stores all of the business’s information is also not an extra cost to the business owner, but is included in the service. Best of all, remote data storage means automatic backups. No technician has to stay until 2 a.m. to run updates and store the tapes in a safe place. Data downloads are set up to take place automatically. And the remote data storage company can employ experts to keep the information safe from hackers and others. All this can give you peace of mind in knowing that any disaster that might strike the business office will not affect the place where the backups are stored. The cost of recreating the data files is also usually included in the yearly cost, instead of becoming another large expense following a disaster.

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About the Author: Roland Parris Jefferson III is an online researcher based out of Los Angeles, California. Need more details and expert advice on Data Backup? Then please visit our Remote Data Storage Resource.

Small Business Ideas There's Something For Everyone!

The best small business ideas are the simple ones. You don't need a lot of money to start up with, and it will allow you the option to work from home. There are plenty of business ideas available for anyone looking to entrepreneurship as their next step of life.

Of course it will take some time and effort to figure out the best small business ideas with great income potential, and the possibility of freedom to enjoy your life. Now, To determine what small business ideas that would work best for you, you'll have to investigate and penetrate your options. You'll have the best chance to find your small business ideas in something you know and love.

You can take your pick of many different and interesting small business ideas, from work at home businesses, to mobile catering, travel, eBay, franchise and others. There are so many opportunities out there, just sitting, waiting for you to step up and grab your new small business.

Before you start your own business, it is very important that you check the business opportunities in detail. Whether you are looking for ways to earn extra income, or are an unemployed who want to start a business from scratch, there will be several opportunities and ideas that you can tap, to start a business on a moderate budget.

In the start up phase, you need to force yourself to relax and keep a cool mind. Starting your own business can be a traumatic experience, or a fairly simple thing as long as you know the basics. To make it a smooth and pleasant ride, educate yourself, learn the basics before you jump on the wagon. Make a plan for how many hours and when you will work. Stick with your plan. If you find it's not working, rework the plan, all to maintain your discipline.

Make a list of small business ideas at your own leisure. There are small business ideas and opportunities everywhere. keep in mind though, that the average human being spend the rest of her life learning about small business ideas, and never actually get going. Take action, take the plunge!

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About the Author: At http://www.small-biz-ideas.net You'll find tips and techniques, small business ideas and inspiration. Learn more. Evaluate a number of different small business ideas, take advantage of tools, courses and usable resources!

Small Business CRM In Detail

Small business CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a process that enables a company to integrate all customer related information to efficiently identify and provide solutions to the customer’s needs.

Small business CRM will help track sales, consolidate leads, increase sales, improve customer service and help the business grow while lowering the cost of operation in the process. In other words, it makes better use of the available information for the benefit of both the customer and the company.

Small business CRM stores all customer data in a centralized location which makes it readily accessible to everyone within the company through multiple communication networks.

It helps quickly identify potential problems before they occur, and in cases where problems do occur, CRM will provide means of finding quick solutions and handle problems and complaints.

It can achieve this by making it easy to identify the nature of the situation and assign the right person or group to deal with it.

This will greatly improve efficiency and save time and resource. Customized automations can be utilized which will enable a small work force to respond to a large customer base effectively.

Since the customer is the main focus in a good CRM, it will help a small business broaden its customer base, identify the value of customers, retain customers and provide service according to their individual needs.

CRM for small business, in general helps to stream line its business processes, automate sales , customer and marketing functions, in addition enhances customer service and support activates and over all increase in ROI (Return of Investment)

For more information visit : http://www.officeinteractive.com

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About the Author: I am content writer by profession, having amicable knowledge in composing articles on various topics.

Money for Small Business from the SBA

While poor management is often cited most frequently as the reason businesses fail, inadequate financing is a close second. Whether you're starting a business or expanding one, sufficient capital is essential. But you must also have the knowledge and planning required to manage the financing correctly. Some of the commons mistakes to avoid include: securing the wrong type of financing, miscalculating the amount required, or underestimating the cost of borrowing money.

If you work through your local Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), the advisers there help you in your SBA loan application as well as help you avoid some of those mistakes. The SBA loan programs are operated through private-sector lenders that provide loans which are, in turn, guaranteed by the SBA. Most private lenders (banks, credit unions, etc.) are familiar with SBA loan programs. Working with the SBCD can help facilitate your applications because they are a government agency that have experience helping to get money for small business and they have existing relationships with local banks.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE POSSIBLE LOANS AVAILABLE FROM SBA

The loan guaranty which SBA provides transfers the risk of borrower non-payment, up to the amount of the guaranty, from the lender to SBA. Therefore, when a business applies for an SBA Loan, they are actually applying for a commercial loan, structured according to SBA requirements, which receives an SBA guaranty.

7(a) Loan Guaranty Program - One of the SBA's primary loan programs is called 7(a) and offers loans of up to $1,000,000. (the maximum dollar amount the SBA will guaranty is generally $1 million.)

Certified Development Company (CDC), a 504 Loan Program - Provides long-term, fixed-rate financing to small businesses to acquire real estate or machinery or equipment for expansion or modernization. Typically a 504 project includes a loan secured from a private-sector lender (local bank) with a senior lien, a loan secured from a CDC (funded by a 100 percent SBA-guaranteed debenture) with a junior lien covering up to 40 percent of the total cost, and a contribution of at least 10 percent equity from the borrower.

SBA loan financing is provided for a wide range of businesses. Some examples of the types of businesses that can apply for a small business loan through the SBA include: Assisted living facilities, Auto businesses, Business supplies, Chiropractors, Construction loans, Convenience stores, Day care centers, Franchises, Funeral homes, Gas stations, Hotels/motels, Nursing homes, Restaurants, and Women-owned businesses. SBA loans are also available for professional service businesses like Doctors, Dentists and Veterinarians.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF SBA LOANS

Less Money Down - You can leverage your personal or investment capital harder with an SBA-guaranteed loan, which means you can get more done with less up-front investment.

Longer Payback Terms - You can improve your cash flow with lower monthly payments. And where possible, you can fix a better match between loan terms and the longer-term rates of depreciation for capitalized equipment or real estate.

Lower Interest Rates -Because the SBA absorbs a significant percentage of the lending bank's loan risk, the bank can lend at a lower interest rate

No Balloon Payment Required -You can establish terms that minimize your monthly payment without attaching a large pay out at the end of the loan.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY TO SECURE AN SBA LOAN ?

• Business Plan - you must not only know how to make a business plan, but make sure it includes some of the following essentials: The unique marketing strategy and advantage of the product or service you are offering; the strength and experience of the small business management team; and the purpose of the loan

• Cash Flow Statement - this cash flow statement must show the revenue stream and income available to pay back the loan in 5-7 years time.

• Credit History - to have both acceptable personal and business credit history

• Personal Equity Investment - the SBA and lenders want to know that you have personally invested money in your small business – which is usually between 10-20% of what is needed.

• Security and Guarantee for Loan - the SBA will require you to pledge available business assets, and in some cases, personal assets to secure your loan.

Whether you are a start up or if you have a successful small business and need money for expansion and growth, the SBA is a very reasonable and easy way to get the business financing you need.


How To Get A Small Business Loan

To get a small business loan, a firm requires submitting an appropriate application form. There are different types of application forms for different categories of loans. The information furnished in the application covers, inter alia, the following: the name and address of the borrower and his establishment; the details of the borrowers business; and the nature and amount of security offered.

The application form has to be supported by various ancillary statements like the financial statements and financial projections of the firm. The application is then processed. This primarily involves an examination of the factors like ability, integrity and experience of the borrower in the particular business. General prospects of the borrower’s business, purpose of grant, requirement of the borrower and its reasonableness are also taken into perspective when granting loan.

Once the application is duly processed, it is put up for sanction to the appropriate authority. If the sanction is given by the appropriate authority along with the sanction of loan, the bank specifies the terms and conditions applicable to the loan. These usually cover the amount of loan or the maximum limit of the grant, the nature of the grant, the period for which the grant will be valid, the rate of interest applicable to the grant, the primary security to be charged, the insurance of the security, the details of collateral security, if any, to be provided, and the margin to be maintained.

Working capital advances are provided by commercial banks in three primary ways: cash credits/overdrafts, loans, and purchase/discount of bills. In addition to these forms of direct finance, commercial banks help their customers in obtaining credit from other sources through the letter of credit arrangement. Under a cash credit arrangement, a predetermined limit for borrowing is specified by the bank. The borrower can draw as often as required provided the outstandings do not exceed the cash credit limit.

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About the Author: Smith Chen is an author and internet marketing consultant.
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Powerful Public Relations On A Budget Small Business

Why are businesses scrambling to meet the emerging intolerance for errors on internet properties and documentation? The answer to that question is encompassed in two words. Public Relations.

Public relations is defined as the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.

There was a time when it was enough to simply have an online presence. Potential customers tended to ignore the various flaws and mistakes of online content. That trend is rapidly changing as consumers begin to expect, and in some cases demand, better quality content.

Large corporations and small businesses know that an online presence is a requirement in todays competitive environment, and successful businesses also know that attention to detail is key to grasping and holding the attention of visitors.

However, much of the attention that is paid to public relations issues excludes careful study of the companys website content. We all make mistakes but it is a proven fact that distractions can kill a sell very quickly. It doesnt have to be a glaring error to interrupt readers and kill the sell. All it takes is something like a misspelled word, a grammatical error, a punctuation error that breaks the readers natural flow or a simple lack of clarity on a key point, and the sell can be gone.

The company website is often the most accessed piece of a public relations material and it interacts with potential customers more than most public relations managers. The heart and soul of public relations is effective communication and a website is a communication tool. To ignore the need for having a website that can fulfill the role of a perfect communication device is the equivalent of flushing a percentage of your companys public relations budget down the toilet.

You must understand that for many businesses, the website is the spear head of public relations. The website is where the potential customer gets to slow down and focus on what you are really saying. Write it incorrectly and your customers see it.

TypoBounty dot com allows companies of all sizes to put many public relations dollars back into their pockets, while gaining the perfection of their web properties and drawing large numbers of potential customers.

Companies are able to offer small cash rewards to consumers that are able to locate and report errors that exist on their web properties. This departure from the philosophy of errors are O.K. is a great PR move. It tells your potential customers that you care about what you present to them and that you are committed to providing them your best.

Companies have employed declarations of commitment to quality for years. However, most consumers view many of these verbal business cards as nothing more than a clich given because there was space to fill on the website. Placing a bounty on errors through TypoBounty.com says We will give you our best and pay you if you show us where we fall short. That is a much more powerful public relations statement and it actually promotes the loyalty in the customer base that typical mission statements used to.

When image is everything, a few cents per error is nothing.

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About the Author: The author, John Reed, has 15 years business experience and has had the opportunity to use and review multiple online marketing strategies. You can read more about avoiding the money trap of marketing and advertising online at www.cheap-online-advertising.com

Guide to Getting Small Business Grants

Do You Know that Small Business Grants Can be Waiting for You Almost 'Round the Corner'?

We are living in the times when governments understand the value of small businesses for the global economy. Small businesses are the pushers and testing grounds for new trends, they provide lots of jobs for the masses, they make any society more stable and happy. So governments have created special funds, programs, associations to provide government grants for small business.

You can be surprised to find out that there are so many types of grants that you can be missing and that can help you out almost instantly - minority small business grants, small business grants for woman, federal grants for small business, business start up grants and even free small business grants. All these types of grants act as a real proof that they really help many small businesses to succeed.

There are two typical issues about getting small business grants.

(1) WHERE to Get Small Business Grants.

Start with doing local search for 'small business grants', 'small business bank loans', 'venture funds' and 'angel investors'. This will give you a pretty big list of places to apply for help.

If you are in the USA - there are some majors that provide this type of financial assistance - for example, Small Business Administration (SBA) that has many departments that fit all possible types of businesses or help. It can also be wise to check the catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance - there you can find many good places to apply for the grants.

For businesses outside US there is also a way to succeed. Government, public or private organizations in your country must be giving some help to new small businesses within the framework of these institutions:

- economic development programs, funds, departments, opportunities, initiatives; - banks (usually they have special small business loans and programs); - venture funds, companies, firms; - credit partnerships; - angel investors (this type of business got very popular recently).

The list is big, but it means that you do not need to trust one business grant opportunity. The more opportunities, the better for you!

(2) HOW to Get Small Business Grants.

There is no magic formula to safe getting of grants.

But you can increase your chances using these simple tips.

Build a good business plan. Surely you are starting your business with some plan, but here you need to be very convincing, well-prepared to any questions. People who read this plan must understand and feel that the only element necessary for your success is the money, the grant.

Keep in good contact with your grant agent (manager, officer, anyone who is in charge of all details). Don't be a pusher, but make sure that you are in control of the situation. A lot will depend upon this person, maybe not the final decision, but a lot. Make sure he/she can reach you at any moment. And would be great if you have his/her contact details, the more, the better.


Resource Guide For Small Business Start Up Venture Capital

Small Business Resource Guide. The "How to Where to Guide" for all small business on advice, money, financing, public funding, grants, capital seed, venture capital, networking, product development, research, education, management and start up business plans. Get small business loans and start up capital. US Government and local contacts for Cleveland and Akron Ohio.

Consortium of African-American Organizations Minority businesses, research, education. Information about starting or running a restaurant. Industrial Incubator - Management services, capital, seed, incubator, operations. Bio Enterprise - Business Plans, validation, assess, strategy, capital, seed, venture capital, research, incubator, advice. bio tech. Advice, public funding, manufacturing, operations, product development, info, intellectual, tech. network. Information about structuring a business plan sample plans. Services Offered Advice: Help with big picture management decisions such as how to make or price a product. Assess: Assessment or your business Concept. Management Help to develop managers. Plan Help writing a business plan.

Strategy Thinking or rethinking your business concept works. Validation Making Sure your business concept works. Capital Help Finding debt or equity to capitalize your business. Grants Help finding grants (which you don't have to repay).Micro Loans and help for very small or start-up business. Public Funding Leading programs tat gets some or all of their money from the Government. Seed Early stage money for business being developed. Venture Capital Investor equity that comes later in a company's development. Biotech - Biotech or bioscience business help. Incubator Buildings that offer, rent, utilities and technical help to small businesses. Marketing for your future. View Guide

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About the Author: Smith Chen is an author and internet marketing consultant.
Find more about Business Online and review page more

Does your small business need a website?

The following is a checklist of questions to answer before you can think of going online with your business -

• What kind of a small business is it? If it is about selling a product, then can the product be sold online? When ordered for, can it be transported to any part of the globe?

• In case of a service-oriented business, will the website be able to provide information pertaining to the service or industry? Buyers like to purchase from the net only after they are thoroughly informed. Therefore, web sites must be designed to inform the customers about the services that the small businesses offer.

• How can the web site be used to cut costs? Will the web site reduce costs of manufacturing, distribution etc? Also, will it be easier to communicate with distant vendors, clients and workforce?

• How can the small business develop better relations with clients using their website? Small business can adapt several methods such as provide guidance, up to date information on products or services, feedback forms etc. on the web site.

• How does the small business intend to reach out to its potential customers using its website? As the Internet is full of customers who know what they want and are looking to buy, it is important to have a solid marketing plan so that the business can successfully sell its products and services.

Once the business decides to have a website, it is necessary to include the web site in collateral material and also submit to search engines, as nobody would visit it unless they know it exists. The small business should also try to get listed in directories and place banner ads.

What do small business owners feel about having a web site?

The Internet has not only been useful for running small businesses but also has also helped them to succeed. In a survey carried out by Lewis, Mobilio & Associates for Homestead Technologies, Inc. in 2002, out of 970 small businesses owners in the US, 57% agree that having a website is a key to the success to their business. About 75% of the respondents believed that they couldn’t do without a web site, while 61% wanted to have a web site for their business. 86% would recommend other small business owners to build their own site.

In another survey conducted by Verizon SuperPages.com's Third Annual Small Business Internet Survey in 2001, about 50% of small business owners having a web site communicate regularly with customers through e-mail. Another growing use of web sites by small businesses is for advertising and communications. The study discovered that 35% of small businesses with a use it to advertise or offer company data in comparison to 8% who sell their products and services through the web site. Also, 56% of business owners believe that the web site has a complete return on investment.

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About the Author: Marvist is a Professional Search engine optimization firm providing Professional SEO, pay per click management and web analytic services to help companies to increase online sales and improve their profitability. Marvist was founded in 2005 and has been rapidly growing since then and has clients now in nine countries including USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Norway and Ireland.

The Quest For Affordable Small Business Health Insurance

Studies have consistently shown that small businesses are much less likely to provide health insurance to their employees than larger companies. Indeed, the smaller the business, the less likely it is to offer health insurance benefits. As recently as 2003, about 50% of the uninsured in the United States were either self-employed or worked for companies with less than 26 employees.

The main reason for this disparity is cost. Health insurance for small businesses is typically more expensive than for larger companies (on a per employee basis) because it is more difficult for insurance companies to accurately predict the average cost of medical care for a small group.

That is, risk is greater for insurance companies for small businesses since small businesses have fewer employees to spread the risk of health claims. It only takes one employee with significant health claims to have a significant impact on the overall costs for the group insurance. This is also the reason why small businesses do not self-insure; the financial risk is simply too great for the majority of small businesses.

So what can a small business do if it wants to offer health insurance to its employees? Often they have no choice but to pay the premiums. More often than not they will split the cost of premiums with their employees, typically 50/50. Unfortunately, these small business health insurance plans are not only quite expensive, but also include significant deductibles and co-payments for the employees.

Small businesses can sometimes reduce their health insurance costs by either joining or forming a purchasing cooperative to negotiate better rates and benefits from companies offering small business health insurance. Depending on the type of business, professional organizations can also offer better health insurance rates to small businesses.

In their search for affordable health insurance, small businesses should obtain multiple quotes before deciding on any one small group plan. One of the best places to start the process is online. By using the Internet, within a very short period of time, small business owners can access dozens of quotes from several insurance companies, making comparison of various plans much easier.

Of course, as a small business owner, if you are not comfortable shopping for your small business health insurance on the Internet, look for a good health insurance broker. If possible, interview more than one broker, and ask your peers for recommendations.

In order to remain competitive in the labor market, small businesses need to be able to offer health insurance benefits for their employees. This is not always easy as cost can be a limiting factor. With some effort, however, small business owners can find affordable small business health insurance. Joining buying cooperatives or professional organizations, using the Internet (probably the most convenient), or contacting a health insurance broker can be effective ways to begin the challenging process of securing affordable small business health insurance.

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About the Author: Jonathon James has been working in the health insurance industry for nearly twenty years. For additional tips and information about health insurance for small businesses, please be sure to visit
LearningAboutHealthInsurance.com

Choosing a Small Business Web Hosting Provider

If you are looking to have a web presence for your small business you will need a web hosting provider to host your website. It does not make any difference whether you are an individual who wants to share their hobby with the world, or a large company requiring e-commerce applications to sell your goods online, either way you will need a web hosting provider to make your site available on the Internet.

Currently there are many thousands of web hosting providers out there all fighting for your business, this alone can make choosing a web hosting provider a confusing task. Below are a few aspects to consider that will hopefully relieve some of the confusion involved with choosing a web hosting provider.

The first aspect that you must determine is the type of website or websites you are planning to make available on the Internet. This will greatly influence your choice in web hosts, if you are going to have a website of less hundred pages and will not be hosting any multimedia content such as streaming videos, a standard entry level hosting plan will more than likely provide more than you will ever need. Entry level plans can be found for less than $5 per month, there are many companies covering this segment of the web hosting market.

A good option to consider for small business is shared web hosting, this type of web hosting is very affordable and can be found for less than $10 per month, most if not all shared web hosting providers these days offer good feature sets, as well as a generous amount of disk space and bandwidth. Features such as PHP and MySQL databases are the standard features offered by shared hosting providers running on Linux powered servers. The main thing to remember is not to sacrifice quality just to save a few dollars per month. Be sure to read reviews, check the hosting providers message boards if they have one for user feedback about a prospective host and arm yourself with as much information about a hosting provider before making your final decision.

Other considerations that need to be taken into account are bandwidth and disk space. Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred from your site, although it is almost impossible to calculate the amount of bandwidth your site will require you can make an educated guess by working out the average size of your websites pages, and then multiplying this size by the amount of page views you expect to see in a month.

It is crucial that you allow for more bandwidth than what your site will require, if at any point your site requires more bandwidth than your plan allows you run the risk of having your site shutdown by your web hosting provider to conserve bandwidth. Working out disk space usage is easier, this involves adding up the size of each page you will be uploading to your hosting space, if you will be using databases be sure to allow for this usage in your calculations.

In summary, find out as much information about a web hosting provider you are considering as possible, find out their good aspects, as well as their bad aspects, be sure to allow more bandwidth than your site will require, and more disk space than your site will require, also allow for any growth in the future, either by allowing for growth when choosing your plan initially, or choosing a provider that allows you to upgrade your web hosting plan easily.

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About the Author: David J. Smith owner and operator of Webhost Advisor has recently written a Bluehost review and they have been found to be a reliable web hosting provider which you should put on your short list when choosing your web host.