Hiring Issues and Healthcare Put Damper on Small Business Growth |  |
- Hiring Issues and Healthcare Put Damper on Small Business Growth
- Ten Questions Your Web Designer Should Be Asking You
- Breaking the Fear Barrier: Don’t Let Fear Prevent Success in Your Company
| Hiring Issues and Healthcare Put Damper on Small Business Growth Posted: 29 Apr 2012 02:30 PM PDT According to a new poll, the Manta SMB Wellness Index, small business owners were planning to hire at this time last year, but the majority (80 percent) haven’t added a single employee through the first quarter of 2012.
The survey found that more than half of small businesses (53%) say they are not taking advantage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) healthcare tax credit, which became available in 2010 for small businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees. In fact, education may be needed in the business community as one in three small business owners say that don’t understand the law and its requirements. Other findings:
Also, according to the Manta research, new business activity fell 30 percent in the first three months of 2012, compared to the same time last year. However, entrepreneurship still continues, and many small business owners aren’t letting factors they can’t control – like high gas prices or the unstable economy – stand in the way of building their business in new ways. The Biz2Credit platform received a record number of registrations from small business owners looking for startup funding, working capital, equipment loans and lines of credit. The most recent Small Business Lending Index found that lending slowed only at big banks in March (and that downtick occurred after months of steady increases.) Small business continues to be a main growth engine in the economy. While the climate is not perfect, it is certainly spring-like.
From Small Business Trends |
| Ten Questions Your Web Designer Should Be Asking You Posted: 29 Apr 2012 11:30 AM PDT As a web designer, I have come to understand the importance of collaborating efficiently with my clients. When I first started out, I wanted to do a great job for my clients, and give them exactly what they wanted in a site. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know how to get there.
Over the years, however, I have learned some key questions that I always ask every client before beginning the design process. Going beyond general stylistic questions that you might expect a designer to ask, these questions are designed to get to the heart of what it is you need your website to be for your business. If you are working with a web designer who isn’t asking you these questions, you would be wise to bring them up and provide answers to them sooner than later. Some of them may be difficult to answer right away, but if you think about the answers, do a little research, and communicate the answers with your designer, you will be much happier with your new website. 1. “Can you describe your business in a few sentences?” By distilling your business into a sentence or two, you are essentially giving your designer your “elevator pitch.” This is great information and can be used to quickly describe your business on your homepage for instance. After all, when it comes to writing for the web, brevity is your new best friend, as most of your users will never read as in-depth as you would like them to. You have to capture their attention right away. 2. “Who are your main competitors?” By knowing who you are competing against, your designer can conduct the research needed to see how others in your field handle their websites. He or she can then determine what seems to be working well for some of them, and not as well for others. The intent here is not to copy what others are doing, but rather to learn from the benefit of their experience, as well as from their mistakes. 3. “What sets your business apart from your competitors?” This is your chance to really distinguish your business from the others. If you have something unique to offer, then your designer should know about it, so that it can be played up and specifically called out on your site. It doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering. In fact, it can be something incredibly simple, such as offering a complimentary consultation, for instance. 4. “Can you describe your target customer?” Knowing exactly who your main audience is affects almost every aspect of the design. After all, a site that would appeal to teenage boys would not be very visually interesting to women over 60. Other than the visual concerns, these breakdowns would also make a big difference on search engine optimization(SEO) efforts, as well as social media integration. It is very important to be as specific as possible: gender, age, and annual income are major things to be considered in order to design the most appropriate site for your audience. 5. “What is your deadline for completing the site?” You have a deadline in mind, right? Well you should! Having a deadline not only keeps your designer on track, but it will keep you focused as well. All too often, website projects start with a bang and fizzle out over a span of months because a timeline was never established. It’s a good sign if your designer asks because in most cases that means he or she respects your time and is interested in getting the website finished when you need it. 6. “What are some other sites on the Web that you like and why?” This is where your designer can get a sense of your own personal tastes. Since personal preferences are so subjective, it really helps me as a designer to know what visual style you respond well to. Again, this question is not designed in order to copy anything that someone else has already done, but it serves as a great jumping-off point. If a designer doesn’t ask this, then you run the risk of them designing a (possibly) amazing site that just isn’t your cup of tea. 7. “What specific functionalities would you like included on your site?” This is something that you may not have thought very much about. You may not even be fully aware of all the options that are out there. Many of my web design clients know they want a Web presence, but they aren’t always sure about what they want to get out of it. And that’s ok. It is up to your web designer to get to the heart of your business, and suggest new ways to leverage all the technologies that are available and appropriate to your site. For instance, if you run a restaurant, you probably know that you want to have your menu, contact info and directions on your site. But what about adding an option for customers to book their reservation via your website? 8. “Who is going to be responsible for the website’s content?” This is a question that often catches clients off guard. It is a bit easier to answer in the case of a redesign, but what if you are a new business starting a website from scratch? Do you plan on writing the copy for your own site? Unless you have experience writing for marketing purposes, I wouldn’t recommend it. The first reason is, good Web copywriting is a skill that can greatly improve user engagement when done right. Secondly, (and I say this in the nicest possible way,) it will probably take a very long time for you to get around to it, if at all. I can’t tell you how many projects that have either stalled, or been abandoned altogether because a designer hasn’t received the content promised to them by a client. If your designer works with a copywriter, by all means, spend a little extra and go that route. It will take a lot of pressure off of you, the project will be completed faster, and you will end up with a much better product in the end. Well written copy sells. Period. 9. “What key search phrases would you like to be found for?” Search engine optimization (SEO) is your key to being found on the Web. Your designer should be asking you this because your answers could have a big impact on not only the copy, but the overall site structure as well. Let’s say you run a photography business in Boulder, Colorado. You might want to be found for the terms “wedding photography boulder colorado,” as well as “yearbook photography boulder colorado.” It would be a good idea to design two different landing pages for those different keyword phrases, rather than relying on being found through a more generic homepage. 10. “How much time do you want to put into new content creation per week?” Another key element to SEO strategy is keeping your content fresh. This means adding brand new content to existing pages, and/or adding new pages altogether on a fairly consistent basis. This can be done any number of ways, including a blog, user generated content if appropriate, or even a podcast. When I ask a client this question, I am looking to find out how I should design their site to make the most use out of the time they are willing to spend. If its only a few hours per week, a blog would be sufficient in most cases. If it is a company that employs someone who can work on content creation full-time, I would start thinking of new areas that would attract users. A video page perhaps? Or maybe a twitter contest? The ideas are endless, but it all comes down to how much time you are willing to spend on such efforts. Final Thoughts There is much more to your new website than just the visual elements. A good web designer knows this and will go beyond the basics. The questions on this list each serve a very important purpose, and your web designer should touch on all of them in order to make fully informed design decisions that will positively impact your business for years to come. Web Design Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Breaking the Fear Barrier: Don’t Let Fear Prevent Success in Your Company Posted: 29 Apr 2012 05:30 AM PDT
Fear is universal. It’s in our DNA, our basic structure. If it wasn’t for fear, mankind wouldn’t exist today. It’s the fear that makes humans aware there is danger. It tells us to pay attention because there is the possibility that something bad is going to happen. It’s one of those emotions that is deeply ingrained inside each of us. It will never change. Although fear is what has kept humans alive, it can also be very disruptive if it permeates every part of your life including work. You can become so fearful that you are not thinking clearly. The fear paralyzes you to the point you can’t move forward – or worse yet, the entire company doesn’t move forward. As a business person, fear can either work for you by making you pay attention, becoming better at what you are doing. Or it can work against you because you are so fearful you’re unwilling to take any chances, make any decisions. A Must Read for Business Success Every CEO, president and business owner, every entrepreneur or startup founder should read, Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Fear Destroys Companies From the Inside Out And What To Do About It written by Tom Rieger. Why? Because fear permeates through not only our individual, personal lives but also through the hallways of every company to some degree or another. This is not to scare you – or to put even more fear into you. If you want your company to truly be successful, if you want to run your company with the least stress and the least amount of problems possible, then you need to read this book. Fear acts as an invisible barrier. It can stop your company from closing that next big deal, attracting the right employee talent or developing a product that will allow your company to dominate the marketplace, are just a few examples. As it states in the book:
The Three Levels of the Fear Pyramid of Bureaucracy The Great Recession may be over but the uncertain economy, divided politics in Washington and the rapid rate of change in our personal and work lives only leads to more fear. That’s why it is necessary to identify the fear that exists in your company. The author, Tom Reiger (@TomReiger), knows of what he speaks in the book. He has studied fear and its missed expectations. Through his work, he is considered a leader in developing methods and frameworks to identify and remove barriers to success. In Breaking the Fear Barrier, Reiger identifies the three levels of fear and the resulting bureaucracy:
Can you relate to any of these in your company? All three levels limit success, stifle employee engagement and, as the book states, infuses a sense of futility across the organization. Fear can literally zap the energy right out of a company. Fear is about perceiving potential loss. In the workplace it can include loss of power, loss of respect, loss of a raise or bonus, or loss of a job. This is what creates the walls or barriers within an organization; which then leads to the company becoming “stuck” and not as successful. Removing the Fear Can Transform Your Company Reiger shows in his book how identifying and addressing the fear on all levels can bring about extraordinary results such as skyrocketing business, improved service rankings, dramatic drop in turnover, increased sales and improved morale. The author goes on to demonstrate that by rooting out the fear within a company, you can create a culture of confidence, engagement and long-term success. The book is on target. It’s what everyone – and every company – goes through. Fear is the destroyer of creativity and action. Yet, fear isn’t always bad. At times, in life and in business, it keeps you from making mistakes that will be very costly. The key is to know the difference. To do that you need to look fear right in the face and deal with it. If you can eliminate the fear that exists, your business will have an opportunity for growth and success. This book was so interesting that when I was at the library browsing through the recently published books it just jumped right out at me. When I read a few pages, I knew that this was a book I wanted to review and share with the readers of Small Business Trends. Breaking the Fear Barrier is easy to read, well organized and well worth your time to improve your business; as well as understand yourself and those you work with. It can be a pathway to transforming your business and taking it to a whole new level of success. From Small Business Trends |
“A company’s worst enemy is not always the competition. Sometimes it’s the fear that lives within its own walls.” ~ Breaking the Fear Barrier| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business News, Tips, Advice - Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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