Business Networking - Building your Network

Business networking is one of the most beneficial things you can do as a small business owner. Business owners are consumers as well and building your network with owners like yourself will help to build a community that you can draw on each other’s influences and experiences. Furthermore, this helps to work towards goals that can help out small business as a whole in your neighborhood.

To help you get on your way to strong business networking, keep in mind the following tips and tricks. Networking is all about authenticity and being genuine. It’s about seeing how you can help others and, in turn, they will see how they can help you. Visit as many groups as you can that spark your interest. They were created with the purpose of helping business owners network and build relationships so take advantage of them. Once you find a group or two that you enjoy, seek out volunteer opportunities in them. Use it as an opportunity to become more visible while giving back to the support channels that have helped you out.

When conversation arises, ask open ended questions of other small business owners. This opens up discussion between everyone. Use these discussions to display that you can be a powerful resource to them in their business networking contacts. It will keep you visible and others will turn to you first when they need help. In turn, it will create a powerful network for yourself when you need someone to turn to for suggestions and ideas. Be able to answer the question, “how can I help you?” Too often, we’re approached in these types of settings and help is offered to us but we’re not exactly sure what we need. Going in with a purpose will help people become more effective towards your goal.

The contacts and referrals you get from strong business networking can be one of the most valuable assets you can create for your small business. Best of all, the cost is minimal if anything at all. Make sure that you help others and are genuine and they will return the favor tenfold. Treat their referrals with respect as you are now a reflection on them and help out anyone that they refer to you. There’s an honor and trust that goes unspoken between small business owners across the globe. By treating others with dignity, you can utilize the best resource out there that any small business owner could ask for.

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Business Cycles – Understanding is Key to Success

Regardless of how big or small your company is, it is and always will be affected by business cycles. These cycles happen on a small aspect as well as a global economical level. By furthering your understanding of what goes on during them, you can better position your company to adapt.

On the small end of business cycles, there are busy and slow seasons. The most extreme example of this and a key to illustrate the point is a ski resort in Colorado. Their business cycles, or seasons, revolve around the weather with the peak being the holidays from Christmas to just after New Year’s. Obviously, they are so slow that they close from late spring to early fall. Almost every business has a peak season and a slow season so it’s important to identify what those are in your line of service or sales. With this knowledge, you can help plan your advertising budget better as well as labor needs, control hours of business, and anything else needed to adjust to the change.

On the bigger scale are the economic business cycles we face as an economy. In this fashion, the cycles have to do with production and overall economic activity. It’s usually measured by gross domestic product. The term business cycles have actually come under fire since there is no mechanical or predictable pattern that they follow, making them not a true cycle. Many now refer to them as economic fluctuations for this reason but the definitions are the same and they both refer to the same thing. The fluctuation periods are referred to as economic growth when they are in an increasing level of development and economic recession when they are in a contracting level of development.

There are many different theories that play into business cycles and it’s the reason behind most of our macroeconomics classes in college. Since the contraction or recessed effects of the cycle can be painful to their citizens of many developed countries, many governments have moved to make it their responsibility to attempt to mitigate the business cycle as much as possible. There are alternate views, outside of the most widely accepted expanding and contracting, as to the reasons behind economic growth and recession as well. Everything from politics to general creation of inflation all comes into play when dealing with economic concerns on this level. But most importantly, it is important to understand that there is a global cycle of business that can affect your bottom line as well.

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Best Tips for Marketing – Secrets for Success

Marketing is one of the most important elements in any business. You could offer the best product or service the world has ever seen but without the ability to get it in front of customers, it will go nowhere. Taking some of the best tips for marketing will help to get your name in front of potential clients to allow you to start building your brand.

One of the best tips for marketing available to you at no cost is to get in front of people either on the radio or on TV. You can take this as far as getting your own TV show or webcast to go on a video site like YouTube. If this doesn’t seem feasible, consider getting in touch with programs like local talk shows and news. These types are usually always looking for experts they can call on for their programming. This can also tie together a huge marketing piece, your own website. Use your website to tell your story and the products and services you offer. If you’ve made web videos, link them all to the site and link the site in all your videos. You are slowly building a brand!

One of the other best tips for marketing is to give lessons or otherwise get involved in your community. There are many customers out there who still want to support the small businesses of the world, especially the ones in their community. By building brand awareness in your local neighborhood, you start to become a recognized brand. If you offer a service, consider contributing free lessons to the local library or non-profits in the area. If you offer a product, consider making donations to local food banks and non-profits that could benefit from it or just donate monetarily. These are also a tax deduction!

Finally, one of the last best tips for marketing is to use every outgoing piece of paper and outgoing message as a promotional piece for your business. Print up company letterhead, business cards, stamps, and everything else you can put your name on. Get pens with your name on to put at the counter so if people accidentally walk off with them, they’re stamped with your name on it. The most important element in marketing is, simply, to get your name and business philosophy in front of as many people as you can. Aggressively market your name and service to get your business going.

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Best Tips for Marketing – Secrets for Success

Marketing is one of the most important elements in any business. You could offer the best product or service the world has ever seen but without the ability to get it in front of customers, it will go nowhere. Taking some of the best tips for marketing will help to get your name in front of potential clients to allow you to start building your brand.

One of the best tips for marketing available to you at no cost is to get in front of people either on the radio or on TV. You can take this as far as getting your own TV show or webcast to go on a video site like YouTube. If this doesn’t seem feasible, consider getting in touch with programs like local talk shows and news. These types are usually always looking for experts they can call on for their programming. This can also tie together a huge marketing piece, your own website. Use your website to tell your story and the products and services you offer. If you’ve made web videos, link them all to the site and link the site in all your videos. You are slowly building a brand!

One of the other best tips for marketing is to give lessons or otherwise get involved in your community. There are many customers out there who still want to support the small businesses of the world, especially the ones in their community. By building brand awareness in your local neighborhood, you start to become a recognized brand. If you offer a service, consider contributing free lessons to the local library or non-profits in the area. If you offer a product, consider making donations to local food banks and non-profits that could benefit from it or just donate monetarily. These are also a tax deduction!

Finally, one of the last best tips for marketing is to use every outgoing piece of paper and outgoing message as a promotional piece for your business. Print up company letterhead, business cards, stamps, and everything else you can put your name on. Get pens with your name on to put at the counter so if people accidentally walk off with them, they’re stamped with your name on it. The most important element in marketing is, simply, to get your name and business philosophy in front of as many people as you can. Aggressively market your name and service to get your business going.

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Business Philosophies – Great Management Theories

Business Philosophies – Great Management Theories

When developing business philosophies for your new small business, make sure that you don’t make it too simple or to the point. Many small businesses create slogans that become their mottos and plaster it everywhere. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, just be sure that you don’t disqualify aspects of your business that you could possibly grow into or that there may sometimes be an exception to the rule.

When examining your business philosophies, keep in mind the future. It’s true from the get go that you must start out small and work your way up. In business school, we were taught that the simple formula for small business is that you can’t boil the ocean. Dream big but start small. Know what philosophies you want to move your company towards and have a plan of attack for them when that happens.

This still begs the question of us, what are business philosophies and what are yours? The easy definition is that it is the guideline you hold yourself and your company to, both personally and professionally. You know what the answer is so it’s just a matter of whether you can answer it directly or indirectly. Write down the standards that you will hold yourself, your employees, and your company to. Make sure that you leave it somewhat open ended to account for the exception to the rule as well, though. For instance, if you bake custom cakes, your philosophy may be to always try to have a cake layout back to the customer within 48 hours. But now what happens if you are booked to the hilt and there’s no possible way to get it done within that timeframe? You have allowed yourself the ability to tell the customer you are under a dramatic load and it will take you 3-4 days to get them their custom design layout back to them. You were honest and upfront, that’s more important.

When developing the business philosophies you will be judging yourself and your business against, it’s important to keep all of this in mind. The most important thing to do is to build a relationship with your customer to help you gain word of mouth reputation and open the door for recurring business. By developing philosophies geared towards honesty and integrity instead of simplicity, you will be setting the example for others to follow. Understanding your customers and your customers understanding you are two key parts of business today.

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Business Planning – The Key to Success

Business Planning – The Key to Success

One of the most beneficial and vital documents you can prepare for your business is a business plan. Many people think that business planning is only necessary if you plan on seeking financing for your small business. Banks will almost always require a method to display your plan has been thought out. If for that reason only, it should illustrate why it’s so imperative to have some sort of business planning in place before you start executing.

Proper business planning forces you to think of issues that may have never crossed your mind if they weren’t brought up beforehand. Issues like insurance, retirement plans, 5 year expansion plans, loss mitigation, employee benefits, and many other aspects all must be laid out on paper. This also gives you something to fall back on and check yourself against from time to time. Owning a small business is chaos. It requires long hours, hard work, dedication, and self sacrifice. By putting together some sort of business planning before you are hit with the tidal wave of business ownership, you have written your own reference guide for what’s to come.

It also makes it easier to obtain financing if you do end up needing it. Business planning requires an in depth market analysis of your products or services, competition, and demographic. If nothing more, you will gain an incredible in depth knowledge of your customer base and your market competition that you will soon be going head to head with.

There are plenty of references available to you to help you conduct business planning as well so don’t see it as a daunting task. It is in depth and time consuming, yes, but it will pay dividends by the time you have a complete final draft. With mentors, small business owners groups and clubs, and innumerable books and websites on the subject, there are plenty of things to provide you a basic outline to reference and follow. Consider getting in touch with businesses that may be willing to give you a hand with information and tips for properly planning your business. Mentors can be found nationwide and there’s bound to be one that has experience in your field. If you can’t find one, though, it’s not the end of the world. Plenty of information is available on many different forms of business. In the end, having a business plan is one of the absolute best things you can do for your up and coming company.

Great Sales Tips – Bumping Up the Profits

Great Sales Tips – Bumping Up the Profits

There are hundreds upon hundreds of books covering great sales tips and tricks for raising small business profits. Some of these are great, some aren’t, but most of us just want a quick reference for some things we can start doing this instant to help generate sales for our small business.

One of the best guidelines out of all the great sales tips is to know your product and what you sell inside, outside, and backwards. If you can’t answer an onslaught of questions about it without more than half of a second to think about it, do some research and make sure you are an expert. In the small business world, knowledge is more important than tactics and it will be this base that keeps your customers coming back. The bottom line is that people love to buy things but hate being sold to. Your ears will keep you out of trouble so listen until your customer has explained everything to you. From there, you’ll be in a better position to offer them advice and they’ll be more inclined to heed it.

Another one of the great sales tips to notice is this one. With the previous in mind, make sure your product or service is unique. Identify your competitive advantage and why your customer should spend their hard earned cash with you, the new guy, instead of walking down the street and giving it to someone who’s been around for awhile. Be excited and let people play off of your enthusiasm. Excitement is contagious, that’s why it plays such a key role in infomercials. Bring this level of enthusiasm to your product or service and people will believe they should be as excited as you are.

Finally, of all the great sales tips, this one is probably the most important. There are three elements that make up any business and they can lead to your success or demise. Your company can focus on quality, service, or price but only two. If you try all three, you will be trying to reach the summit of Everest. Pick two, focus on those two, and drive them home to your customers as to why you are best suited in those two categories than anyone else they could choose to provide them your product or service. Sales isn’t an easy gig, you will hear the word “no” a lot but don’t let it phase you. Just keep on truckin’ as they say and you will break through eventually. Your success lies in your determination.

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How to Choose a Business Name

How to Choose a Business Name – Why It’s Important

There are many fun aspects to starting a business. You stand proudly as you see your dreams and visions come to life and one of the most fun aspects of business creation is naming it. When it comes to how to choose a business name, there are a few key factors and rules you want to take into consideration. By carefully planning your name, it will help your business succeed.

One of the most important factors in how to choose a business name is that it must be both memorable and easy to spell. Of course, you want to pick a name that will stick in your customer’s heads but you also need them to be able to spell it in case they need to look it up online, in the phone book, or give it to a friend. You also want your name to have a visual element tied to it. Our minds are hardwired to see pictures so you want something visual to pop into your customer’s heads when they hear or see your name.

To that end, though, you need to make sure that your business name has a positive connotation to it and uses the visual elements to display what your company does. If you were starting a bakery, you would not want to call it something like Mason Stonebreaker Bakery as it has a powerful and masculine tone. You’d want to choose something like Mom’s Kitchen and Bakery, which has positive connotations. It’s the reason that almost every construction company has the word construction in their name. Also, take note that in the examples, that they list what the business does. When taking into account these rules on how to choose a business name, you’ll notice that they help potential clients identify what service you provide immediately and, especially if they’re using a directory, know if you may be suited for what they’re after.

Finally, when considering how to choose a business name, take into account the length of the name. You want it fairly short and concise, not only so customers can remember it, but so it will do you a favor as well. Smaller names are easier to print on business cards and fliers. Also, signage usually charges by the letter so you could end up running up huge marketing bills before you even get to voice your message. Pick two or three clear winners in your book and jot them down. You will need a few in case your first choice is already registered when you go to register your business.

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What to Look for When Hiring Staff

What to Look for When Hiring – Finding the Best Employee

When it’s time to hire an employee for the first time, this can be as equally exciting as it is daunting. By knowing what to look for when hiring, though, you can eliminate a lot of your anxiety. It’s exciting because it shows that your company’s has now outpaced your ability to perform it and it’s profitable enough that you can take on an employee, possibly for the first time ever. But many of us have never had the challenge of creating an interview and identifying what exactly our company needs from someone else.

There are a few things to take into consideration in what to look for when hiring an employee. Before you advertise that you need help, sit down and write a job description of everything you will be expecting from your new hire. Take into account scheduling and if you’d like them to work a regular schedule or simply be available on short notice. Do you need them to work the front cash register or restock the shelves? How about place orders and reorders for supplies or merchandise? How many hours are you looking to have them work? The more you can lay out in front of you, the more prepared you will be.

As important as it is to know what to look for when hiring, it’s just as important to know what kind of manager you are. If you are the type that wants to check in and break down your employee’s work schedule activity by activity, look for someone that wants a lot of feedback. If you want someone who you can just delegate tasks to and they can run with it, look for more independent thinkers. Set aside time for hiring when you will be able to provide them the undivided attention you will be expecting from them.

Determine your policies for your employees. This includes time off, if they get any benefits like discounts, and a list of policies and disciplinary actions. There is an old saying that says plan for the worst, hope for the best. The idea is that you won’t ever have to enforce your discipline code but you need it on the books in case your employee turns to the wayside. Keep in mind things like chronic absenteeism and customer complaints. Also, consider the opposite end. How will you award outstanding performance? There’s more to what to look for when hiring than can be depicted in just a short few paragraphs. Hopefully this will give you a great enough overview to get you well on your way to finding the perfect employee.

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