How to Boost Your Chances of Getting a Small Business Loan |  |
- How to Boost Your Chances of Getting a Small Business Loan
- Springtime Means Time To Pitch Summer
- Why SMBs Should Get Serious About Guest Blogging
- How to Bounce Back From Business Mistakes
| How to Boost Your Chances of Getting a Small Business Loan Posted: 04 Apr 2012 11:30 AM PDT Are you seeking financing for your small business? A report from the SBA's Office of Advocacy has some interesting insights that might help improve your chances of success.
Even though the economy was picking up overall, and total business lending was slowly trending upward, the SBA reports that borrowing money was still challenging for small businesses in the fourth quarter of last year. Overall, though, there's promising news. Small business loans totaled $597.8 billion in the fourth quarter, and the value of small business commercial and industrial (C&I) loans increased for the first time in seven quarters. Bankers saw increased demand for these loans—the highest since early 2005—and they also eased their terms a bit. Here's what's interesting to me: The SBA reports that micro C&I loans (those for less than $100,000) accounted for most of the growth in small business lending. With smaller loans easier to get, how can you cut your costs to shrink your loan amount and improve your chances of getting financing? Here are some ideas: Save on technology. You can slash your software costs with free (or almost-free) in-the-cloud tools that do everything from tracking expenses and billing clients to managing projects. Check out SmallBizTechnology, as well as TJ McCue's many reviews on this site, for some good suggestions. Avoid hiring. Many entrepreneurs assume expansion means adding to the payroll, but these days, smart entrepreneurs keep HR costs to a minimum by outsourcing to independent contractors wherever possible. You'll not only save on the cost of benefits and payroll taxes but also be able to work more nimbly, adding or dropping contractors as business demands. (Make sure you're clear on the IRS' definition of independent contractor vs. employee to avoid headaches at tax time.) Use social media. Marketing, PR, hiring, networking and other costs associated with business growth can be slashed or even eliminated with wise use of social media. Do most of your marketing with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Use social media to spread the word about job openings at your business (instead of taking out costly listings on job sites). Contact the media directly through their blogs or Twitter accounts, instead of sending press releases into the ether. Network online with influencers in your industry—without attending costly conferences or shelling out plane fare to travel to events. Read Lisa Barone's great posts on this site and you'll get tons of tips on marketing with social media. Improve your cash flow. You'd be surprised how much money you can free up when you get your cash flow in order. Are your customers paying late? Put systems in place to follow up immediately and get them on track. Use electronic billing and payment to streamline and speed receivables (and save money on printing and mailing bills). Negotiate better rates with vendors if you pay early or in cash. Use QuickBooks or other business accounting programs to monitor your cash at all times. Put these cost-cutting tips into action, and you'll be able to slash the amount of money you need to start or grow your business. Ask for less, and you'll have more chance of receiving it…at least, that's what the SBA's statistics seem to indicate. Good luck! Loan Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Springtime Means Time To Pitch Summer Posted: 04 Apr 2012 08:30 AM PDT We finally made it to Spring. Even though it wasn’t that harsh of a winter, it’s now that time of year to look forward to the weather warming up, doing a little cleaning up around the house and, of course, packing away the heavy parkas until next winter. For all you business owners planning PR campaigns, writing press releases and pitching stories to the media, springtime means stories that talk about spring training and the start of baseball season, spring break, religious holidays, and of course the warming weather patterns.
Your PR to-do list is filled with Spring in the air, right? Wrong. For the majority of companies out there in just about every industry, if you focused your PR campaign on only springtime angles you would be missing out on a huge PR opportunity. Right now, thousands of reporters at major consumer and business magazines are writing about Summer, not Spring. Case in point, if you own a boutique salon with a branded cosmetics line and wish to get a review in Cosmopolitan or Redbook magazine, you better be pitching a summertime angle right now. Perhaps their website editorial teams are still focusing on Spring because they do not have as long a lead time. But if your goal is to make it into the print edition, those section editors are focused on finishing up June and getting ready for July angles. Most print magazines that have three or four-month lead times are in the consumer segment. Walk into any Barnes & Noble and browse the magazine section (remember, physical bookstores still exist). Most of the major titles you see (Ladies’ Home Journal, Better Homes And Gardens, Parenting, etc.) are published with this long-lead approach. Regional lifestyle magazines (Ocean Drive, Naples Illustrated, Denver 5280) are also published with a long lead cycle. This is not isolated to just consumer magazines, by the way. There are many business print magazines that are published with a long lead time. Florida Trend, Builder, Money, are all business magazines that have a long lead cycle. As with all PR campaigns, it is important to know whether your story is better suited for a consumer or business audience. Once you have that figured out, do your research to see if your list of targeted magazines has a long lead cycle. Here are some tips for pitching a long-lead print magazine: 1: When crafting your story pitch think three to six months ahead. What season are we in at that time? What are the major holidays? What are the annual occurrences taking place? Shape your story around all of these to get the editors attention. 2: Take a trend that is currently happening (high gas prices, Presidential campaign, housing meltdown, economic recovery) and try to project what the landscape will be like a few months down the road. How does your company, product, service, or trend story fit in? 3: Apply the same rules as every day pitching for a reporter. Send a well written email with a compelling subject line. Offer links to your website where the editor can find additional information and resources. Also offer contact information where editors can get back in touch with you. 4: Read the magazines first and get to know its style, tone, format and editors/contributors. Create a pitch that matches all these and target the appropriate editor or contributor. Most magazines will include contact information for many of the editors and writers. Google contributors to find their contact information. 5: If you are pitching a product it is okay to send a press kit with your product for a review. But do understand you may not get the product back. The press materials that accompany the product should focus on the trend and explanation of why it is a compelling product, in addition to the focus on the features and benefits. If you call the editor be sure to get to the point and make your phone pitch impactful. Every PR campaign should include long lead print magazines because achieving a story in one of these magazines can change your business overnight. Depending on the publication, a feature spotlight of your product in a magazine read by millions, and passed on to thousands more, is just as good as appearing on daytime television.
From Small Business Trends |
| Why SMBs Should Get Serious About Guest Blogging Posted: 04 Apr 2012 05:30 AM PDT If you've been slow to adopt a guest blogging strategy for your small business, I can understand why. It's hard enough to keep constant content on your site without dedicating time to creating content for someone else. But in this noisy content-eat-content world guest blogging on relevant third-party Web sites is a powerful way to grow your business and introduce your brand to new customers. How exactly will guest blogging bring value to your business? Below you'll find six potent side effects of a serious guest blogging strategy.
1. Increased Exposure You know those people who appear to be everywhere all at once? Their content is always being tweeted and shared, and you hear their name from everyone in your contact list? This isn't an accident. They've strategically increased their exposure by being a part of multiple conversations. Guest blogging can help you accomplish this. By contributing content to relevant blogs, sites and satellite communities you increase your exposure by introducing yourself to new audiences. You put your brand out and give people something to talk about and associate you with. With new content on multiple channels, you're always part of the conversation. 2. Increase Your Community & Engagement Guest blogging also gives you the opportunity to increase the size and engagement of your community. By posting on related blogs there's a good chance you'll have an overlapping audience of readers who know you, as well as the blog you're writing for. By showing up in another one of their trusted networks, it raises the trust they have for your site and elevates your profile in their eyes. At the same time, you'll also be introduced to an audience who may not have been familiar with you beforehand but who is interested in the material you're talking about. Without your having to sell, they you and how your blog and/or Web site can help them reach their goals. Because they heard about you from a site they trust, now they're more inclined to check you out. 3. You Can Attract Varying Audiences By being strategic with the content you write and the sites you pitch it too, you can go after a variety of different audiences. For example, maybe you're a local caterer trying to increase your customer-based in a certain area. Sure, you could write for other catering-related blogs and try to work up some partnerships or goodwill. Or you can get more creative and go after a completely different audience than the people already reading your blog. You could write guest posts for:
By going after completely different types of readers than your main blog, you can introduce yourself and your company to people who wouldn't have found you otherwise. 4. Brands You With A Topic/Expertise Consistent authoritative blogging about a topic or niche brands you in that area. Pretty soon you become the Go To source for social media. Or home repair. Or DIY designs. Or whatever else it is you want to be known for. By increasing your exposure around the Web for these topics, you leave behind a trail of helpfulness and expertise that will be tied back to you wherever you go. This can be a huge help if you're trying to build your personal brand and authority. 5. Build Relationships Let's face it, we could all use a little help. By offering to guest blog for someone else, you're making their load a little lighter and adding value to their community. That's not something a small business owner is going to forget. By building that relationship now, it allows you to take advantage of it in the future. Maybe you'll need them to "cover" for you on your blog during a really busy time or maybe you'll need them to share an article you wrote or to make an introduction for you. A pre-existing relationship will help. 6. Take Advantage of SEO Benefits Another powerful side effect of guest blogging is all the SEO benefits you get to take advantage of. Like having the ability to link to your own Web site via keyword-rich anchor text and driving traffic to important pages. Or varying your author bios on different sites you post on to go after different terms. Or building links to your site simply by creating a great post that everyone wants to link to and reference. It may seem like guest blogging just equals more work for you to do, but if you take a look at all the benefits listed above its clear to see why so many SMBs have adopted aggressive guest blogging strategies. From Small Business Trends |
| How to Bounce Back From Business Mistakes Posted: 04 Apr 2012 02:30 AM PDT This collection of posts looks at what to do when you realize you’ve gone down the wrong path or have made a serious misstep in your business. The key, of course, is to pick yourself up and get back in there…with a little helpful advice, of course. Here Comes TroubleThe key to recovery. It happens to the best of us. From time to time even the most careful and thoughtful small business owner makes that one bad judgement that can cost big and prove hard to overcome. The good ones, of course, bounce back anyway. Inc.com Bill raises concerns. A U.S. bill aimed at helping newer startups find investors may remove some of the oversight companies going public usually receive, but is this a good or bad thing? Bloomberg Businessweek Making Better ChoicesKeeping your data secure. It’s part of today’s business landscape. With so many employees telecommuting and you yourself probably often accessing company data from a variety of mobile locations, how do we keep small business information safe? Buzz Small Business Magazine Improving your inbound marketing. So how is your marketing effort doing these days? Is it delivering the success you had hoped? If not, perhaps that’s because you haven’t taken the time to to map it out correctly. Marketo Tools for ImprovementKeeping it real. Emotional branding is an important tool for any entrepreneur, so realize the power this technique represents. Here are some important tips for getting it right. UPrinting Social media marketing mistakes. We won’t pull any punches here. We think your biggest mistake is not using social media in your marketing campaign. Yet, that’s exactly what some small businesses have decided. Four51 Opportunities MissedMissing the boat on Pinterest. If you’ve missed the opportunity thus far to take advantage of the latest social media phenomenon, take care! Serious benefits abound for businesses that get involved. Sydcon Web Development Inc. Ignoring a diamond in the rough. Ashley Neal has some very good reasons you may want to think about contributing to Examiner.com. Have you taken advantage of this opportunity for your business? Small Biz Diamonds Tips for TriumphBeing productive. Many small business owners who aren’t productive may never know it. That’s because they’ve spent too much time developing an elaborate set of activities that make them think they’re getting things done. Puzzle Marketer Boosting your retail sales. If your retail sales aren’t what they should be, you’ve got no one but yourself to blame. Here are some ways you can bring your retail sales back from the brink. Take heed! BusinessSigns.org From Small Business Trends |
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