Crack It Open And See What’s Inside |  |
- Crack It Open And See What’s Inside
- How to Reduce the Risk of Buying: From You!
- Should We Count Non-Employer Businesses?
- Twitter Has Down Day As Online Progress Mixes with Setbacks
| Crack It Open And See What’s Inside Posted: 25 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT Business is full of exchanges. At the local coffee shop, I watched an older gentleman give a little boy and a little girl a dollar coin each. His big sister knew what it was immediately. But the three year old boy, we'll call him Charlie, turned to his mother and said, "What's inside?"
Charlie was trying to twist that coin and open it up. His mother quickly said, "No, no, no. It's not candy. It's money." What's Inside Your Money?You can't crack your cash open the way you do an egg, but you can twist and turn it into something else. In fact, your money's power is based on how you use it. It can turn into a team that gets "it," because you spent time and money on training and the kind of management that builds connection. Your money can turn into more clients, because you spent it on smart marketing and an attentive sales team. Or your money can turn into what it always turns into, because you refuse to test and try something different. When it comes to marketing, management and tracking your money, it's not about being different for the sake of being different. It's about switching things up until you find something that works. It's about constant evaluation and updates so that you and your team are as effective as possible. Because effective change is about improvement, not busy work. Let's Say You’re Evaluating Your Bookkeeping SystemYou're not trying to be a software groupie. You're trying to be more effective. And since change takes effort, you need a good reason to take that leap. If you're:
Then it's time to update how you track your money. You can save time and money in the long run, by updating your systems in the short run. It may be time to move away from that Excel Spreadsheet to a user friendly accounting software. You could trade that over-stuffed receipt box for a smart phone app that let's you scan and record your spending on the go. With a little updating those end of week reports can become a breeze instead of pain. When evaluating the need for change inside your business, keep Charlie's question in mind, "What's inside?" Then twist that money open and turn it into something that makes a massive or ongoing difference in your business. Don't keep throwing it into a broken and frustrating system. A Few Bookkeeping Tools to ConsiderYou need an accounting software like Quickbooks (Online, for PC or for MAC) or MYOB (Mind Your Own Business), so that you can:
The more you know the better you can plan. Besides, chaos doesn't look good or feel successful when it comes to your money. It's a mobile world now and when on the go, the last thing you want to do is fill out a mileage sheet or organize receipts. A smartphone app like Shoeboxed or Expensify can make it much easier to track your expenses. You can take a picture of the receipt, describe the purpose, sync it online and now you have a digital form instead of a fading sheet of paper that may be blank by the time you get back to it.
From Small Business Trends |
| How to Reduce the Risk of Buying: From You! Posted: 25 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT Fact: People love to buy but … they are afraid to do so. Fear is the strongest sales objection you will ever have to deal with. In fact, it is the only one you will ever have to overcome. Anything else that might be preventing your prospects from buying from you has its roots in fear.
Price, time or other commitments are simply your prospects excuses for not wanting to admit that they do not feel secure to buy from you. Behind any sales objection hides one of such questions as:
Buying poses a risk and quite often prospects take it on a personal level, fearing how much trouble they will get into if they buy from you. And, one of the most important things for you to do, regardless of whether you run your own business or work for a company, is to minimize that perceived risk. Failing at that means only one thing, no sale. Use the following tips below to minimize the risk of buying from you: 1. Build Customer Awareness about You and Your Company Educate your prospect about you and your company before you even initiate the selling process with them. Increase your business accountability by becoming known as an expert in your field. Create your brand advocates. Be everywhere your prospects are, in person or via your publications, writing, advertising and more. Here are some simple ways to achieve that:
2. Become Famous for Your Customer Support Think for a second. . . are people afraid to buy from Zappos? Of course not, the company is famous for its support and because of this one thing alone, it is hard to fear purchasing from them since they will listen to you if things go wrong. Strive to achieve the same level of perception about your business. If your prospects heard about your amazing support before they even met you, how hard do you think it would be for them to decide to buy? 3. Show Mind Blowing Testimonials Build social proof of your service and customer support with great testimonials. Post them up on:
Testimonials are like a seal of approval for your business. Showing that others have been satisfied with your service or product is one of the most powerful ways to reassure potential clients to buy from you. 3. Offer a Sales Guarantee Offer a guarantee that will be hard to beat. At my company, we give money back if our clients realize that our course didn’t bring the desired result. In other words, there is no risk for the buyer to try us out. Worst comes to worst, they will loose some time in their day going through our product. 4. Follow Up With Your Prospects Regardless of what you do, there are times when you are not able to overcome your prospects fear of buying before they meet you. But, you can still do it afterwards. Show your prospect that you care about them, reassure them that you will not disappear the minute they hand over the check. Follow up with them regularly, check if they don’t have any questions to ask or don’t want to clarify some information. Be proactive and come up with ways to stay in touch while offering value. Your TurnWhat other ways of reducing your prospects fear of buying do you use? Is there anything I missed?
From Small Business Trends |
| Should We Count Non-Employer Businesses? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT An increasing share of American businesses have no employees. That trend makes it difficult to understand what’s been happening to American entrepreneurship over the past 20 years. Because non-employer businesses are so numerous and so different from employer businesses, the sliding share of businesses with employees makes it difficult to compare apples-to-apples over time in the small business sector.
The most recent data provided by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration shows that, in 2010, 21.7 million U.S. businesses were without employees, while only 5.6 million had them. At 79 percent of all American companies, the characteristics of non-employers swamp the overall data. But non-employers account for very little of the economic impact of small businesses. Non-employer businesses are virtually a rounding error in the measurement of business sales. The most recent Census Bureau data show that non-employer firms accounted for only 4 percent of business receipts in 2009. The average non-employer business generated less than $40,000 in annual sales in that year. Similarly, data released by the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration show that non-employers accounted for only 7 percent of capital expenditures by U.S. businesses in 2009, the most recent year reported. And, of course, non-employer businesses accounted for none of the country's employment. The economic impact of non-employer businesses is so slight that the Census Bureau refrains from measuring employer and non-employer businesses together. Here’s an example of why: In 2009, the average capital expenditure of businesses with employees was $177,000, while that for non-employers was only $3,500. Combining the two businesses often leads to estimates that hide what's going on in the economy. For instance, the number of people working for the average U.S. business declined from 4.8 in 1992 to 4.3 in 2009, suggesting that the size of American companies is shrinking. However, that trend is actually an anomaly of the increasing share of non-employers, which increased from 73.4 percent of U.S. companies in 1992 to 79.5 percent in 2010. Employer businesses have actually grown since the early 1990s, with average size of an employer business increasing from 18.2 to 19.9 between 1992 and 2009. Similarly, average capital expenditures of U.S. businesses declined a slight 4.9 percent in real terms between 1997 and 2009. The decline in average capital expenditures was a much scarier-looking 28.4 percent in inflation-adjusted terms over that period when all companies are measured. That’s because most of the decline in capital spending comes from the rising in the share of non-employer businesses. Patterns like these suggest that we need to understand why fewer and fewer American entrepreneurs are starting businesses with employees. Without knowing the answer to that question, just interpreting the data on small business will be difficult.
From Small Business Trends |
| Twitter Has Down Day As Online Progress Mixes with Setbacks Posted: 25 Jun 2012 02:30 AM PDT Despite much progress, Twitter experienced technical glitches last week that kept the microblogging site down for hours, proof that these kinds of problems can impact any online business, large or small. Opportunities continue to expand for entrepreneurs on the Internet with new ways for marketing and getting your message across, but beware of the setbacks, technical and otherwise, that can impede your progress. Twitter TroublesStop breaking down. Twitter experienced a worldwide outage last week for several hours. Mazen Rawashdeh, vice president of engineering with the microblogging platform, addressed the Twitter community afterward via the company blog to explain the problems and apologize for the inconvenience to its users, an important step for any business when things go wrong. On the positive side, Rawashdeh explains that the community’s reliability is improving steadily, with between 99.96 and 99.99 percent reliability over the last six months. Twitter Blog Keep customers in the loop. During Twitter’s downtime, the biggest beef from users seemed to be a lack of information about what was going on. Twitter did finally explain in a couple of tweets and ultimately, in a longer but not necessarily more informative blog post. The most important thing when problems occur is to keep your customers in the loop. As we reported above, Twitter certainly did that, but the reaction of fans and pundits proves you can never go overboard when keeping your community informed. TechCrunch Putting the “fail whale” behind you. Focusing on the downside of a business failing is always a temptation, and of course, small business owners must always work to avoid problems when possible. But, as in the case of Twitter’s major downtime last week, it’s also important to see how far you’ve come. Trouble is, that with each new step forward the stakes get higher, more people rely on your business, and there is more to loose if you fail. Strive for excellence, but put failure into perspective. Just be sure to put the “fail whale” behind you. All Things Digital Show a sense of humor. When your business is clearly wrong and a customer calls you out on it, be big. It’s no time to get over-sensitive when you’ve made the mistake. This is another lesson small business owners can learn from Twitter’s unfortunate outage last week, when the social site found itself taunted by a heckler using the Twitter handle @CascadedBug. Folks at Twitter apparently suspended, then unsuspended, then suspended, and again unsuspended the user, all for having a bit of fun with the microblogging platform in 140 words or less. Los Angeles Times Online Business Risks & SolutionsHow to loose your credibility online. Technical problems along the lines of what happened to Twitter last week are only one example of the problems that can affect your business online. There are some credibility issues that no cascading bug can explain. They have to do with the professionalism and attention to detail every business owner should show when creating and maintaining a Website or blog, establishing a social media presence, or engaging in any conduct online that will reflect on your brand. Small Business Trends The content that will make your online business thrive. Non-technical issues that can make a big difference in how your Website is perceived often come down to content. Most important is to be sure that content is compelling and intriguing, created for your audience’s needs, credible and trust building, and clear and direct. Your Webpage titles should grab a reader’s attention. Your content should be easy to consume for visitors in a hurry. You should build credibility with readers using testimonials and whatever other techniques work for you. You should have a clear and effective call to action. Amelia Champion Some Steps ForwardTwitter to Mac, with new app. Despite the technical problems of last week, Apple users may be excited to catch a glimpse of the new Tweetbot app for Twitter on the new MacBook Pro. Though few details about the app are available yet, reviewers think it will be similar to the Tweetbot app already available for the iPad. If you are a big Twitter user for your business and have a MacBook, this tool may add significantly to your productivity in the very near future. The Verge Twitter ad offerings expand. Twitter also announced last week the roll out of products like promoted tweets, promoted trends, and promoted accounts, features previously available in only a handful of countries. Some of the first to receive the service will probably be users in Latin America and Western Europe, said Twitter chief executive, Dick Costolo speaking at a press conference at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity last week. Small businesses online have long been using the service for global networking and communications, but soon, greater advertising scope will also be a possibility. The Guardian More Online Ad PossibilitiesNew Google ads bring local back home. The search engine and online advertising company says a 100 percent increase in click through rates is one of the big benefits of its redesigned local Google ads. Calls to action have been made more prominent, new hyperlocal markers show users how close they are to a business location, and when a users click on the ad, they will be taken to the advertiser’s Website within the app. The new local advertising formats were introduced last week on newer versions of Android. WebProNews Facebook mobile ads real money makers. Of course, Twitter isn’t the only social network looking to develop a workable advertising system to monetize the incredible amount of social activity happening on its site. Facebook has been at the advertising game for some time now with mixed success. The good news, however, for businesses trying to advertise on the premier social media network, is that the company’s mobile ads seem much more effective. Mobile ads are clicked 13 times more and earn 11 times more than their PC counterparts. TechCrunch From Small Business Trends |
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