2012: A Good Year for Small Business Finance

2012: A Good Year for Small Business Finance
Internet Marketing Trends For 2013
Maximizing Sales With Existing Clients
Delegate and Know When to Let Go of Small Business Operations
U.S. House Passes Fiscal Cliff Deal

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 01:00 PM PST

Small business lending improved during the past 12 months, which is good news for entrepreneurs and the economy overall. Startups and growing companies create the lion’s share of the new jobs in the private sector, and growth of small firms help make the economy stronger. Several trends emerged in 2012.

SBA Lending

SBA lending volume increased to its second highest level in history. The agency backed $30 billion in loans nationwide. Big banks and smaller, regional banks increased their activity in SBA lending.

Use of Technology in Small Business Lending

Throughout 2012, increasing numbers of entrepreneurs applied for business loans through Biz2Credit and other online platforms specializing in small business finance. Technology eliminates the need to walk into a bank or other lender and fill out paperwork during regular business hours. Entrepreneurs can now apply for funding late at night or on weekends.

Meanwhile, banks and other lenders get pre-qualified leads at no cost, and the whole funding process becomes faster and more efficient. Further, small banks are able to make loans to small businesses outside their local area. Borrowers and lenders both benefit from the use of technology.

Crowdsourcing

“Crowdsourcing” became a fundraising phenomenon during 2012. Young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs used this form of capital raising from friends and acquaintances through social media. It proved effective for artists, filmmakers and other creative types, non-profits, and startup businesses requiring smaller sums of money. However, companies looking for more than $50,000 likely should go a more traditional route for the funding they need.

The Rise of Alternative Lenders

Although large banks increased the percentage of small business loans they approved this year, they still typically grant less than one out of five applications on average. Credit unions were a reliable source of small business funding during the first half of the year before slowing down. Meanwhile, merchant cash advance companies, accounts receivable financers, factors, and micro lenders all have increased their lending significantly. They offer flexible, increasingly affordable terms, and most importantly, quick decision-making.

During the Presidential Election, Democrats and Republicans repeatedly focused on small business growth. As President Obama begins his second term, small business owners are examining the impact of Obamacare regulations and the potential of tax increases for people who earn greater than $250,000 annually.

Additionally, the “Fiscal Cliff” has caused uncertainty in the credit markets.

Despite these concerns, there are numerous signs that the economy is improving, and lenders appear increasingly willing to provide capital to small businesses in 2013.

Diagram on financial report Photo via Shutterstock

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Internet Marketing Trends For 2013

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 11:00 AM PST

A new year is coming. And with it comes a chance for business owners and marketers to evaluate what they're doing, uncover what's not working, and focus on the new trends that are worth their attention.

As 2013 approaches, below are five Internet marketing trends for small business owners to focus on.

internet marketing trends

Emphasis on Inbound Marketing Techniques

Whether you want to call it inbound marketing or simple diversifying your traffic, 2013 will see an increased emphasis on creating, nurturing, and converting leads through strategically placed content. The past year has been about the death of interruption marketing. Businesses can no longer expect to earn an audience by shouting at them or "interrupting" their daily activities. In 2013, earned media will become increasingly important as brands trying to insert themselves into the natural conversation happening on blogs, in social media, in forums, on Q&A sites, etc. It's not enough anymore to purchase a Yellow Pages ad and expect that your audience will find you. Now, businesses need to do the legwork to make their brands appear in the places consumers are looking. They'll be looking to do it via more strategic blogging, email marketing, retargeting, white papers, social activity and other methods.

Responsive Design Becomes The Norm

It's getting harder to predict how a user will access your website. Instead of creating separate experiences for PC, mobile and tablets, in 2013 brands will look to create one experience to rule them all. They'll be looking to responsive design.

Through responsive design, a site changes based on the size of the device used, making it easier to navigate on smaller devices like tablets and smartphones. Responsive layouts take developing for specific screen resolutions out of the design/development equation and make screen resolutions more of a tool than a limitation. With responsive design, site owners are able to shape the experience based on predefined minimum and maximum pixel dimensions. The result is a personalized, stronger experience with higher conversions.

While some design shops still consider responsive design an "option", I'd argue it now has to be the standard. Even Google is recommending responsive design as the best way to optimize for mobile. If your site isn't built on responsible design technology, it's time to start considering it. As Tom Demers noted in his 2013 SEO Trends post, awareness about mobile is going to be the first steps for SMBs but don't wait too long to react.

A Move Toward Big Data

Businesses have long used the trackability of the Web as a reason to invest in SEO, paid search, social media, and other digital marketing initiatives. However, the people in charge of these different marketing disciplines would often sit in different rooms. They didn't talk to one another. Data wasn't shared. Instead, everything was done in silos instead of working in combination.

In 2013, walls will begin to break.

The year 2012 already saw how big data was changing the practice of online marketing. However, now that we've seen it, more will embrace it. By taking a cross-channel view of our marketing efforts, marketers will be able to take advantage of the data they're getting from each channel and combine their data for deeper insights. This will result in not only smarter, more efficient campaigns, but for more integrated marketing that blends SEO, PPC, PR, social media, video, etc, together for a more unified message.

If you're not currently looking at your data as a whole, start developing a process to help you do so. Because as valuable as your data is broken out in different silos (social media, SEO, PPC), its leagues more valuable when combined and looked at as one entity.

Taking A Deeper Look at Content

Tom already spoke about the need for "thick" content, so if you didn't hear his cry then, it's time to give it another read. Content has long been hailed King, but it's only been within recent month that it's really been given any respect. With search engine updates specifically geared at rewarding high quality content (and penalizing low quality content) more and more sites will be looking to up the ante in 2013. The result will be a larger focus on creating evergreen content that provides a great value to searchers. It also means businesses will have to take a much more strategic approach to content marketing.

Businesses that get more serious about content will see great gains, both from the searchers who consume it and the search engines who can't help but rank it.

Creating a True Process For Social Media

It's been a bit of a gold rush out there in social media. For a bit, brands were getting involved without much thought as to why they were there or what they were hoping to get out of it. We saw lots of dollars thrown at Twitter use, Facebook marketing, and creating Pinterest strategies. And while that won't slow down in the coming year, applying metric to this avenues will become increasingly important. Because as the medium matures, so must the results.

This will start with creating a smarter social media framework. Identifying your objectives for getting involved and then building out the metrics that will show you whether you've reached them or not.

Brands will look to create stronger internal pipelines to help them respond to the insights they're gleaning via social. It's not enough to hear consumer complaints. There must be a system for how to move social messages from one department to another so that everyone benefits and everyone is tuned in.
Brands will move from a single Community Manager to adopting tools to help them manage the whole process.

The result will be that social media becomes a more legitimized marketing practice. Those who are ready to take it to the next level will benefit. Those still hoping to "make do" with the primitive brand use will not fare so well.

Those are five big Internet marketing trends I see coming down the pipeline for 2013. What do you most have your eyes on?

Relationship building will be big in 2013 especially now that SEO can be dealt with offline with citation. You don't necessarily need links any more as Google is intuitive enough to pick up on non linked name drops and the associated content that are being named with.

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Maximizing Sales With Existing Clients

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST

A lot of attention is placed on the modern business development model in obtaining new customers, but an equally important part that is often neglected is how to maximize your current customers.

These two items work hand in hand to help you bring in new revenues, but because the latter is often neglected, a company’s revenues are rarely maximized.

Developing Customer Loyalty is Critical to Your Business Development

It has been said that a loyal customer is worth their weight in gold, and considering the high price per ounce of gold these days, your business development model can’t afford to neglect it.

For many business owners, the amount of returning customers they have will either make or break their business for good. So how do you create customer loyalty?

By offering a better product or service than your competitors.
By offering better customer service that your competitors.
By offering your customers a better value with you than with your competitors.
By building an actual relationship with your customers.

Relationships Are Essential

When people feel like they have an actual relationship with an organization, they are much more likely to stay with that organization, be lenient with them, and spend more money to stay with them. Almost 7 out of 10 customers will leave a company for good because of a bad experience.

Why do those other 3 out of 10 people stay with a company?

Because of their sense of loyalty to that company.

Are You Looking for an Easy Way to Maximize Your Customer Base?

One of the easiest ways to help get your products promoted and develop customer loyalty is to promote the products or services of others as you promote your own. An in-turn promotional relationship not only gives you a free way to expand your business development model, but it creates a relationship with the other party who is more likely to use your product or service when they need to do so.

Offering discounts for returning customers is another simple and easy way to maximize the potential of your existing customer base.

Are You Ready to Expand Your Business Development Model?

Loyal customers are the most cost effective way to building your profits, so finding ways to keep your customers coming back time and time again is critical. You will have to experiment with unique ways your business can make a statement today that will have your customers coming back tomorrow every single time.

It will be well worth the effort.

A pile of money Photo via Shutterstock

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Delegate and Know When to Let Go of Small Business Operations

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST

As a business owner, you are the parent of your company. Planning for the business, getting it off the ground, and making sure it survives and thrives is taxing, time-consuming, and can be incredibly rewarding. It requires you to wear many hats, and you may find yourself serving as the head of sales, marketing, and customer support.

Once the business begins thriving on its own, you need to delegate those responsibilities to other employees so that you can focus on higher-level tasks and because, frankly, you are probably not the best person for every job.

That being said, letting go of key operations can be very difficult for a business owner. Whether you over-manage to make sure people keep doing things "your" way, or to insist on having the final say on every single project, the result will be the same.

If you cannot hand off key operations to qualified employees, you will not be able to grow your business.

Before taking a look at the best way to hand off key roles to employees, it's important to consider managerial style. Everyone is familiar with Steve Jobs and his desire to maintain creative control over the design of Apple products, and many attribute his success to that keen scrutiny.

That does not mean this style will work for everyone. Similarly, it is not necessary to delegate away every task. If you have a background in creative design, for example, it makes sense to review final projects and offer your critique. Determining just how involved you should be takes a combination of self reflection and analysis based on hard data.

So, when it comes time to delegate to employees, how do you make sure they are going to follow through and improve upon your existing methods?

As is true with most situations in the business world, the best security is to get it in writing. Hiring or promoting an employee without providing clearly-defined goals for their new role is a recipe for disaster. Simply saying "make it better" does not provide the direction needed, and without an achievable goal to work toward, it will be difficult for both you and the employee to determine success.

When you are ready to hand off a key task, sit down with your employee and clearly state your expectations and time frame for goals.

By the way, these goals should always be SMART, and you should never assign more than one or two major milestones or they will never be achieved. If your employee believes that the goals you put forth are not feasible, allow him to explain himself and compromise as necessary.

When you are done, create a document stating what you've agreed upon. Of course, this does not guarantee success but it does ensure that everyone is on the same page moving forward. You can also measure productivity as a function of time spent on meeting this goal.

Once you have set expectations, you can determine the value of your input and whether that time would be better spent elsewhere. For instance, if you find that you are taking substantial time to review employees' work but not making major changes, it's a good indicator that you can loosen the reigns and step back.

Once an employee has proven that they can handle a process, you should move on to other tasks that make better use of your time.

As a business owner it can be difficult to let someone else take care of your baby, but it is almost always in the business's best interest to create a team with diverse and useful skills to improve processes.

If you feel you are being marginalized and want to take a more active approach while still delegating responsibilities to qualified staff, consider joining an executive group, such as Vistage, to get ideas for future strategies and expansion planning.

As the owner of your business, only you can ultimately decide where your company goes, and that continued growth and profitability should always be your number one priority.

A boss happy with a team of employees Photo via Shutterstock

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U.S. House Passes Fiscal Cliff Deal

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 02:30 AM PST

It’s a done deal! The U.S. House passed a bill Tuesday that avoids the looming “fiscal cliff” averting some problems for business owners and potentially creating others. Meanwhile, we’ll look at some of the additional issues business leaders and entrepreneurs must consider heading into 2013.

Challenges and Compromises

It’s a real cliff hanger. Initially, critics of a proposed tax increase on those making $200,000 and over worried some small business owners who claim business revenue as personal income would be adversely affected, but the new stopgap compromise raises taxes only on those making $400,000 and over, though it does eliminate some tax breaks for those making $200,000 or higher. On the other hand, avoiding a steep middle class tax increase could mean more disposable income for your customers. Washington Post

Good news, bad news. An initial analysis suggests the stopgap measure is just a so-so deal for U.S. businesses. For example, those digging in will find about $46 billion in business tax breaks, reports say. On the other hand, one of the big concerns for businesses of all sizes, overall deficit and debt reduction, is not a part of the compromise package. It will probably take a while longer for business analysts to wade through the bill, but here are some of the highlights of interest to business owners. Yahoo! News

What we really need. If you’re still scratching your head over what last night’s vote really means, Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University, has got you covered. Here Shane looks at some of the issues that will affect small businesses in the coming year, including a challenging credit market, increasing taxes, and more healthcare legislation on the way. This post is indispensable for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want the real scoop. Entrepreneur

Other New Year Trends

Your big execution item. Spend the first part of the New Year identifying the big execution item, the change you really want to make in your company in 2013, writes Ian Smith, an adviser who helps entrepreneurs scale their businesses to create big value. This major execution item could be a tweaked version of your product created to dominate a specific sector, identifying or hiring the key member of your staff that will transform your team, or any other project that you will deliver without excuses by year’s end to transform your business. The Smith Report

Setting some better goals. Don’t sell the goal setting process short when entering 2013. You may dismiss goal setting because it ends up as the same old set of specific, measurable, achievable results year after year. Instead, give self-employment guru Jenny Bhatt’s technique a try. Here’s a hardcore plan for self and business improvement that takes some chances and may force you to try some things you haven’t considered before. Free Agent Economics

Big changes in online marketing. Online marketing strategist Rachel Parker changed the focus on her business last year, and with good reason. Parker says the online world is evolving, and in this brief video and transcript she reviews some of what she boldly predicts as trends this coming year. Some of those may include a emphasis on content development over SEO on Websites and (gulp!) the decline of Facebook as the unrivaled leader in social media marketing. Resonance

Look forward, look back. Planning for the future of your business is fine, but it turns out it’s important to look at past accomplishments too. Celebrating your accomplishments in 2012 is tied to looking ahead to what you hope to accomplish in 2013, writes business coach Elli St. George Godfrey. “Incremental steps do add up, even when they don't feel like it,” she explains. “And while it is easy to note the challenges and difficulties you may have faced over the year, it is essential that you acknowledge any successes.” Ability Success Growth

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