New Site Helps Businesses Create Professional Marketing Videos on a Budget |  |
- New Site Helps Businesses Create Professional Marketing Videos on a Budget
- Budgeting From The Ground Up: This Budget Actually Means Something
- Rieva Lesonsky: Small Businesses and Big Corporations Need Each Other
- One Reason To Completely Disconnect
- Amazon Glacier Revolutionizes Cloud Storage
| New Site Helps Businesses Create Professional Marketing Videos on a Budget Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT Online videos can be a great way for businesses to reach out to consumers by showing them how to use their product or service and letting them see the benefits first-hand. But for small businesses that don't have a huge marketing budget, professional video equipment and expertise might seem out of reach.
Video software company trakAx has just released the new version of its editing software, trakAxPC 4, along with a new website, trakAxBusiness, which includes video tutorials that demonstrate how companies can create and improve their online marketing videos. The tutorials go hand-in-hand with the software, which costs $54.95. Catriona Gallagher, General Manager of HighAndes, which produces trakAx, says:
The multimedia editing software is aimed at users with very basic audio and video editing skills. So users without specialized training can use the software and learn enough skills and techniques from the site to create a professional looking video. Senior Product Manager, Colm Barry, says:
In addition to the new version of trakAx, HighAndes has released a multimedia editing suite for mobile devices called trakAx MovieExpress. A 15-day free trial of trakAxPC 4 is also available. From Small Business Trends |
| Budgeting From The Ground Up: This Budget Actually Means Something Posted: 23 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT Most small business seem to have a strong dislike for budgeting. The feeling is that budgets are just a time wasting distraction from the things that really need to get done. You probably have similar feelings toward budgeting. And you're right.
Budgeting is a waste of time if you do it the way most small business owners do it. You know the way – where you do a "mathematical" budget by increasing revenues and expenses and come up with a "magical" net earnings figure that you don't really believe, or even know how to actually achieve. But the truth is that you CAN create a budget that is useful for you. One that actually helps you create the financial results you want and helps you identify what actions you need to take in order to keep driving toward your targeted financial results. What is the path to an effective budget? Here are seven quick steps. Follow along and it won't even feel like you're creating a budget: Step One The first step is to create your revenue budget. The way to do this in a meaningful way is to start with the number of customers you have historically served in your budget period. For example, if you serve 75 customers in a month, this would form the starting point if you were budgeting for an upcoming month. Step Two Determine your average transaction size in the past for the period you are trying to budget for. For example, if your average transaction size has been $250 in similar recent periods. Step Three Based on your historical number of customers for the period and average transaction size and given your planned marketing and sales efforts, decide what you feel is an appropriate target for number of customers and average transaction size. For example, if you have an upcoming marketing campaign scheduled that will generate a number of new leads compared to the number you would normally expect you should adjust your target number of customers upward to reflect this. Step Four Multiply your target number of customers, and average transaction size together. You have just created a revenue budget for your business by actually looking at the elements that create revenue. Even more important, you have created granular targets (number of customers and transaction size) that will guide you every day in your budget period to knowing if you are on track to create that revenue or not. If not, where you are falling behind. For example, not enough customers, average transaction size smaller than planned, etc. Step Five Use the targets you just set for the number of customers and average transaction size and your anticipated direct costs to determine your budgeted direct costs. For example, if you are expecting an increase of $2 per additional transaction, make sure you account for this in your budgeted direct costs. Based on the budgeted revenue and direct costs you have now created, you have determined your budgeted gross profit (revenue minus direct costs) which you will have available to cover your budgeted overhead. Step Six Examine your historical overhead costs for the budget period. For each major overhead item, adjust it up or down as appropriate based on actual changes you know are coming, or that you anticipate. You have now created your budget for overhead expenses. Step Seven Subtract your budgeted overhead from the gross profit budget you created in step five and there you have it. You have just created a useful, relevant budget in seven quick steps. How Do You Use It To Create The Financial Result You Want? So now that you've created your budget from the ground up, it's time to use it – daily. The biggest element of driving toward achieving your budgeted financial results is to ensure you meet your budgeted revenue targets. This requires you to monitor the actual number of customers you have served and the actual average transaction size you have generated. Then you need to compare both these amounts to your target number of customers and average transaction size. By monitoring and comparing in this way, you will know daily, weekly, monthly – as often as you care to look – how closely on track you are toward creating your target financial results. Then you can take quick (almost instantaneous) action to bring your actual results back on track to match your targets. Budget Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Rieva Lesonsky: Small Businesses and Big Corporations Need Each Other Posted: 23 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT
When she served as Editorial Director at Entrepreneur Magazine, though, she began to see the connection between small businesses and corporations. Particularly, how they can help one another. Rieva explains how she came to recognize the synergistic needs of business owners and corporations:
So Why the Rift Between Corporations and Startups? Corporations often don’t “get” small businesses and startups. They tend to see startups as “somehow not serious, and that they're cheap,” says Rieva. She continues:
Rieva says corporations benefit from working with small businesses, as they employ more than half of all American workers. And because small businesses are in constant states of acquisition, they need “stuff” from corporations. Through her company, Rieva helps entrepreneurs start and grow businesses, and she also introduces business owners to the products and services available to help them grow smarter and faster. Tasting Her Own Cooking Rieva is now a small business owner herself: she founded GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company specializing in covering small businesses and entrepreneurship. She also runs Small Biz Daily, a site dedicated to providing content to entrepreneurs. She recognizes that there are large differences between working for larger companies and running a small business:
She acted as a judge for the 2012 Small Business Influencer Awards (and last year, she was honored as one of the top 100 Influencers). What she’s enjoyed most about the Awards is the not-so-obvious nominees:
Editor's Note: This article is one of a series of interviews of key players in the Small Business Influencer Awards. From Small Business Trends |
| One Reason To Completely Disconnect Posted: 23 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT There's a long standing question about the validity of multitasking. Is it real or is it a myth?
In “Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again,” NPR correspondent Jon Hamilton highlights the work of Neuroscientist Earl Miller who says that you are NOT. You're simply switching focus between tasks very quickly. While Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo from McGill University says that you CAN multitask, but to what end, he doesn't yet know. Of course, the real debate of merit, in my life, is the one that happens between my mother and I. She swears by multitasking and I think it's a villain. Regardless of who is right or wrong, there are moments when it pays to completely disconnect. If we can multi-task, then we can't multi-task all the time. And there is a real benefit to moments of complete focus. I call it "building a fire." When your ideas have a chance to grow in a protected setting and build on top of each other, you carry the potential for seeing things in a way that they have never been seen before. You start with a spark, and then you nurse it to a full flame until it's strong enough to warm the house. Taking 30 minutes to brainstorm, but answering 10 unrelated phone calls throughout the session can weaken your strategy development. I've tried it and it doesn't work. When you're interrupted you have to refocus yourself and that costs you time. On the other hand, I have watched the best ideas come to life at the end of a short but focused session. Sometimes it pays to completely disconnect, to focus on the one and let your mind reset. Disconnecting can protect your sanity. Maybe you need 30 minutes of working out, 30 minutes of eating or a private moment in the bathroom without a phone call, text message or email. The world will be there when you get back — ready for you to multitask or switch focus quickly (depending on who you believe). If you disconnect and refresh, then you just may find yourself a little smarter, faster and more effective when you plug back in. Unplugged Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Amazon Glacier Revolutionizes Cloud Storage Posted: 23 Aug 2012 02:30 AM PDT Your business can create tons and tons of data over its lifetime. At some point, you will need to think about storage, but the question whether to store your data locally or in the cloud has become a major topic of debate. That storage can become expensive depending on the amount of information and the type of storage used. Along the way, however, storage options have been transformed with other cloud computing tools. But, Read on! Our posts below can help you decide whether the benefits of the cloud outweigh its risks. The Coming Ice AgeThe tip of the iceberg. Amazon is revolutionizing cloud storage again, with a new service called Glacier, offering an incredible one GB of storage per month for only one penny. Glacier is intended to be extremely affordable archive storage for data of all kinds, and uploading is free. Amazon Web Services Blog Cold storage. Amazon hopes the new Glacier service will completely transform the way businesses large and small view data storage. Much of this data is today still kept on company hard drives or even tape. Soon, Amazon hopes it will convince companies to store all this data in the cloud. ZDNet Slow thaw. However, there is at least one downside to the new Amazon storage. Since the service was designed as an archiving solution and not for active use, it may be much more costly to retrieve your data than it is to store it. The question is, whether businesses will consider this a good trade off. Wired Expert cool on the cloud. At least one of the founding fathers of personal computing is worried about cloud storage. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak worries plenty about a day when all data may be in the cloud and taken out of the hands of those who created it. Google News Business in the CloudSaving grace. The greatest benefit of moving data and applications into the cloud is in a business’s bottom line. According to a 2011 poll, 84 percent of businesses reported a noticeable savings with cloud computing. On average, that savings was about 21 percent annually. Smallbiz Technology Data detour. On the downside, when you share data in the cloud there are several points at which information could easily fall into the wrong hands, as this post and graphic clearly illustrate. No matter what you think of the cloud, the security of your data and your customer information should be a primary concern. Small Business Trends Where has all the data gone? If you’re uploading content or data from a point of sale or other application to the cloud, it might be a good idea to understand the risks involved. You will want to take precautions in case the data is lost. Here are some considerations. Michael Hartzell From Small Business Trends |
Having covered entrepreneurs from a media perspective for 30 years, Rieva Lesonsky (
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