Tag Archives: Small Business

Business Development, Business Strategy

Social Media for Small Businesses

Social media has become an integral part of our day-to-day lives. Businesses of all size and shapes have started making the most of available mediums. Today we will try to anatomize tips on social media for small businesses. There are a plethora of small businesses eyeing social medium to promote their business/services. However, majorly these small businesses are failing or not being able to make optimum use of social media for their business growth. There are many theories and strategies on how to effectively use social media for established brands, but the topic social media for small businesses is seldom addressed. According to Digital state of eMarketing India 2017 Octane Research:

60% small businesses promote their business on social media. 50% focus on SEO and 35% use multichannel marketing funnel.

70% small businesses consider content strategy as their primary marketing activity.

52% business owners are using social media as to efficiently address customer engagement.

More than 20% of business owners said that they are making 50% plus profit using social media.

The primary reasons for the low turnout are uncertainty on an application of social media, calculating return on investment and persuade employees/stakeholders to clinch social media. Hence it is important to address the elephant in the room and analyze how beneficial is Social media for small businesses.

Social media for small businesses is a great way for emerging businesses to generate lead and build a reputation. If regularly updated, social media can deliver more results as compared to traditional mediums. Social media for small businesses gives brands an edge of control over the content that they want to post. Also, since social media is a two-way dialogue process, it helps businesses to instantly identify what is benefitting them. Social media for small businesses also helps generate Word of Mouth, which is one of the best tools for emerging businesses.

Social Media for small businesses | 10 Tips to effectively use Social Media

Define your Target Audience

The first and foremost important part that small businesses should focus on is to define their target audience. This helps small businesses to device their social media strategy accordingly. The target audience should be defined basis age group, sex, location, users’ online behaviors, their likes, interests, and preferences. For niche products, business owners can even target users based on their birthdays, anniversaries and important milestone. Audience targeting plays a very crucial role in the outcome of the results. For e.g.: a local shop selling footwear should not target users with interest in entertainment. The shop definitely won’t get the desired results.

Set achievable goals

Overnight success is a myth. Small businesses must understand this basic fact. Generally, when a new business starts selling on social media, there is palpable excitement is achieving more than set targeted sales. Businesses need to set goals which are upwards and forward. To achieve enormous goals, small businesses start updating social feed with multiple updates in shorter duration. This leads to user’s disinterest in the product/service. The set goals should be in sync with brand’s core capabilities and expertise. For e.g.: if a business is into selling shoes, they shouldn’t set a goal to repair maximum shoes in their area.

Choose the right medium

By now everyone knows, social media is for free. Even paid campaigns can be conducted at a relatively low cost as compared to traditional mediums. It is in this scenario, that we often see small businesses jumping the bandwagon and creating profiles on all the available platforms. Creating social profile doesn’t hamper brand image, but aggressively promoting a brand on wrong platforms can lead to brand losing its potential customers. Hence it is advisable for SME’s to first identify the right platform through which they can maximize their business. For e.g.: If a shoe selling brand tries to aggressively sell on LinkedIn, they won’t get a plausible response as compared to promotions on Facebook/Instagram.

Promote your core product/services

Since each and every business is riding in the social media wave, it is important for a them to promote their core product/services. Nowadays, we see a lot of businesses promoting their services as well as promoting peripheral products/services, which revolves around their core product/services. Majority of the times, this SME’s doesn’t have capabilities to fulfill a requirement, which can lead to a bad word of mouth for their business on social media platforms. Let us go back to our example; if a shoe seller is trying to aggressively promote socks instead of shoes, it is not going to benefit the business in the long run.

Create quality content

Now that we have covered the topics of identifying the target audience, setting achievable goals, choosing the right medium and promoting the right product/services let us now take a look at the type of content a business should promote on their social pages. A business should always focus on creating good quality content rather than not-good quantity content. Even if the business updates their page once in a day as long as it is relevant to their business, advocates about its core products send across a clear message it is considered as a good quality content. Antagonistically, if a business posts multiple updates which aren’t even relevant to the business’s products and services leads to users considering the business as fake/spam. Also, new businesses should try and refrain from promoting other businesses on their social platforms initially.

Create a content calendar

Making a small business successful on social platforms is no small task. It takes a lot of efforts for the businesses to keep up their conversion ratio. One such effort is to create a content calendar. Small businesses must anticipate important events and create a content calendar accordingly. Ideally, a content calendar must be planned a month in advance but an even weekly content calendar is highly recommended. This helps businesses to avoid any last minute hassles, strategize much more effectively and it also helps in creating curiosity amongst its loyal fans/customers.

Test and re-test

Social media is highly unpredictable. The content a business posts today, might not work for tomorrow. Hence, small businesses must always test their content before publishing it on their pages. Testing content also applies to the platform a small business chooses to promote. Small business owners must always don the consumer’s hat before posting about any product feature, updates, schemes or offers. A consumer’s perspective is the key when testing the content that has to be uploaded.

Look for inspiration

Small businesses must always look for inspiration from a competitor who is successful in the same category. Copy pasting competitors idea or content is not the answer. Small businesses must look for the kind of content its competitors are putting up and derive their own strategies subsequently. Inspiring content/stories always make a business to strive to create their own content that is appreciated by one and all. It helps in increasing brand consideration, brand visibility thereby increasing conversions for the business.

Calculate ROI

Even a small promotional budget is not justifiable if there is no mechanism to calculate its return on investment. It is more important in case of small businesses. It is very important for a small business to keep a tab on the budgets allocated to any promotions and the subsequent ROI related to it. If a certain promotion is not doing well or the business is not getting desired results, the brand custodian can always look for other platforms to generate quality conversions.

Analyze and Re-strategize

There can be umpteen instances where a particular campaign/promotion might not work for a business. That doesn’t mean that the promotion is wrong or the product/service is not good. Doing an analysis of the campaign is as important as setting the objective. This helps the business to formulate their upcoming strategies in more effective ways. At the end of every campaign, brands must note down the learning’s from that campaign and identify if the content/idea was appreciated by their fans or not. This helps businesses to skip the non-performing updates from future communications.

Final Thoughts

Social media for small businesses is definitely beneficial and fruitful. If followed correctly, small businesses can benefit tremendously from the power of social media promotions.

 

For More details you can visit: http://www.infunotion.com/blog

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Shashank_Dhadiwal

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business Development, Business Strategy

The Importance of the Small Business Administration

Despite being overworked and underfunded, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is taking body shots from all sides. And it just isn’t fair. How many people can truthfully say to a small business owner, “I am from the government and I’m here to help?”

Leading the way in disbursing federal subsidies and other help is the SBA, whose mission statement says that its role is to “maintain and strengthen the nation’s economy by aiding, counseling, assisting and protecting the interests of small businesses.”

In the wake of 9/11, the SBA issued $1.2 billion in disaster loans. In just 90 days since the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, the SBA has already dispersed $1.3 billion to thousands of small business owners under the regulatory guidelines established via federal legislation on Capitol Hill.

But USA Today recently reported that SBA workers are reporting low morale, high stress. Swamped by disaster loan applications from victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, the SBA ranked last in a recent study of employee morale at 30 federal departments and agencies. The agency’s low job satisfaction score is a drop from its 24th-place ranking in a similar survey of 28 agencies and 150,000 federal workers two years earlier.

Meanwhile, the left is comparing SBA to FEMA. Blackenterprise.com reported that SBA Administrator Hector Barreto recently addressed Capitol Hill for yet another attempt to “spin away the SBA’s failure to help small businesses in the Gulf Coast” devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Reminiscent of former FEMA director Mike Brown’s attacks, opined the magazine’s Web site, officials are publicly speaking out against Barreto. Sen. John Kerry, top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, issued the following statement:

“This administration should be ashamed of the SBA’s response to Katrina. Hector Barreto is not doing a heck of a job. Out of more than 300,000 applications, they’ve only approved 20,251. Small business owners throughout the Gulf Coast are still hurting months after Katrina, but the Small Business Administration’s leadership is offering them only hurricane force spin.”

While the Democrats attacked, the Libertarians followed suit. According to one Libertarian scholar, there is no factual reason to base policies on the idea that small businesses are more deserving of government favor than big companies. Preferential policies hurt, not help, economic growth.

“Wasteful spending is wasteful spending. The Republicans need to return to their message that being compassionate is doing what it takes to implement a system that works,” said Veronique de Rugy, economist for the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

When du Rugy began looking at the long-held notion among entrepreneurs and policymakers that small businesses were the “fountainhead of job creation” and an important economic driver, she came to a radically different conclusion.

“For nearly 20 years, political leaders of all stripes have taken as gospel truth that small companies are the chief drivers of economic growth and are responsible for about two-thirds of all new jobs created in the United States,” says du Rugy. “But is this conventional wisdom true? Do the facts justify the many government spending programs, tax incentives, and regulatory policies that favor the small business sector?”

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Oversight is one thing, but it is no fun being a political football.

As someone who for 23 years has helped owners of privately owned businesses sell their companies, let me speak up in defense of the SBA. Small business is the engine of the U.S. economy. Without small businesses, where would today’s big businesses come from? Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Marriott and countless other examples started out as a small business.

Although in its bureaucratic past this wasn’t always the case, today the SBA is a preferred lender when small privately owned businesses decide to either sell their business or want to borrow additional capital to expand their business. Business expansion clearly creates additional capital spending and new jobs. In addition, the transfer of ownership is both good for the economy and also good for employees.

When a business is sold, the fact of the matter is that virtually all employees fare better in the future because a high percentage of new owners come in with additional capital and a desire to grow their new business. This growth typically spells opportunity for employees who want to grow their careers and who welcome working with a new owner. Meanwhile, the former owner of a business typically either buys and grows a new business or invests for retirement and those invested funds and savings are recycled into to new loans and additional capital expansion through the banks, savings and loans and other investment vehicles typically used by retirees.

There always are political opportunists who will take either side of any argument. The fact of the matter is that the SBA fulfills a vital function in the U.S. economy. Even with reduced staff levels due to earlier budget cuts, the SBA gets assigned the massive 9/11, Katrina and other tasks and is unreasonably expected to perform those additional tasks perfectly.

SBA, thank you for being there.

Written by Steven Fitzgerald, president of Acquisition Services Group, who has a professional team of California business brokers. He has extensive experience representing business owners who want to sell manufacturing, service, and distribution firms.

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Steven_Fitzgerald/5410

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business Development, Business Strategy

Opening a Small Business – Top 7 Steps to Success

Opening a small business is both challenging and rewarding (if you do it right). It takes a lot of planning, organizing and drive. There is no guarantee for business success but certain things you do will increase your opportunity for success.

To-Do List for Opening a Small Business:

1. How do you want to structure your business? Do you want to set up as a sole proprietorship, or in a partnership or do you want to incorporate your company and limit your liability? These are questions you need to answer before you startup your business. Talk to your local government small business agency; they can help you investigate what option best fits you and your business. Before you make your decision, ask for legal advice and tax advice; talk to a business lawyer and a tax accountant.

2. Once you’ve decided what your business structure will be, you will need to create a business plan. First, develop a business plan outline that includes the areas of a plan that are specific to your business or your industry. For example, if you are planning to go into manufacturing you will need to build an operations plan, a new product development plan, your human resources plan (including a workforce plan) and safety checklist plan; include your capital expenditures budget. The objective is to focus your plan on the manufacturing aspects that are unique to your business. Other businesses with an inventory focus, or retail focus, or services focus will need to adapt the plan to be specific to their needs. All businesses will need to include your long term mission and vision statements, your business goals and objectives, a marketing plan, sales plan, business financials plan, exit plan, business continuity plan and the business strategies necessary to be successful.

3. The next step is to do a financial analysis of your business idea and business plan. Can you make a profit (and once you’ve earned a profit, can you maximize your profit) in your business? How long will it take to make a profit? Can you fund your business growth and survive until you make a profit? What are your cash flow needs and projections? Will cash flow management be a struggle? Can you finance the business and survive?

  • Your objective in conducting a business financial analysis for opening a small business is to be realistic. Do not under-estimate your costs and over-estimate your sales. Develop a list of expected startup costs. For example, startup costs might include your legal and accounting costs to set up your business; a business license fee, furniture, computer hardware and software, property insurance; trade-marking your product (if applicable); inventory and/or materials; and more.
  • Once you’ve identified your startup costs, develop a list of your other expenses (from daily expenses to annual expenses). For example, business space rent, your monthly utilities (such as heat, phone, etc.), membership in trade associations, office supplies, contract employees, wages and benefits (including yours if you expect to take a salary out of the business). For simplicity, put all the data into a spreadsheet and verify that you haven’t forgotten anything (check out online examples income statements – they show expenses and revenue).
  • The next step in your financial analysis is to do a sales forecast for the same period as the expenses (usually banks or other lenders want to see a three year plan in annual increments and a monthly cash flow plan for the three years). Make sure to include the assumptions you are using in your sales plan and in your financial plan (for example, interest rates, dollar exchange rates, gross domestic product rates, political environment, and more).
  • Put together a worst case scenario (expenses high, sales low); a best case scenario (expenses low, sales high) and an average case scenario (expenses and sales on target). Test the sensitivity of your projections. What would happen to your financials if you didn’t ‘win’ a large account? What would happen to your financials if your key supplier increased the cost of materials by 12%? Make sure you have a plan to address those issues.
  • Try to find industry information that will support your financial plans and include them in the financial section. For example, talk to your industry’s association and see if they can provide average data for financial ratios, revenues, costs, salaries, benefits, etc. within your industry. Compare that data to your financial plan and see if you are ‘in range’; if you are not, you will need a good explanation for the variance.
  • Run your financials: total your expenses (outgoing) and your sales revenues (incoming). According to your financials, will you lose money or make it? If you are losing money in your plan, how much are you losing? And how much cash do you need to survive before your plan starts showing a profit? Be realistic.

4. Now consider where you are going to get your startup financing from. Are you independently wealthy? Have you won a lottery? No? Then you need to borrow money or find a way to get some cash to startup. Traditional methods of financing a startup business are bank business loans, government loan programs, borrowing from family and friends, selling a share of the business to a partner who will invest in the business, and re-mortgaging your home. Less traditional methods (also known as bootstrapping), are using personal credit cards, selling assets, such as your car, furniture, your house; continuing on in your day job or taking a second job for additional income. If you believe in the business you want to start, you will find a way. Choose the lowest risk, the best value and the lowest cost financing for your business startup. But be realistic; it can be very difficult to do this. If your business cannot succeed or if you over-inflate sales and under-forecast expenses, you will go out of business and likely owe a lot of money to a lot of people.

5. If the decision is to proceed with your plan for opening a small business, and you obtain the necessary financing, then you must now focus on your product or service plan. Define your service or product. What differentiates it from other services or products? Where is the product or service in its life-cycle; in the introductory, growth, mature or declining phase? How will you position your product or service in the market? Develop your service or product plan and then define your marketing mix for your service or product. Focus on the features and benefits of the product or service. Develop your pricing strategy. Develop a strong promotional program. Define how you will get your product or service to the market (ensure that if your product is inventory-based, that you have enough inventory before starting up).

6. Ensure that you plan your workforce needs and hire the employees needed to open your new business and consider the advantages of outsourcing, particularly in the early days of startup when you might not need full time employees.

7. Finally, open your new business and launch your product or service. Use your promotional program to support the launch. Measure your results continually. Talk to customers and potential customers. What do they like or dislike about doing business with you? Is the product or service meeting their needs? If not, why not? Do this research even if the products are flying off the shelves, you want to know what customers are thinking at all times; the good and the bad.

For more in-depth tips on starting up a small business, please visit Opening A Small Business. For more small business advice on managing, planning, pricing, strategy, money, networking, and people – all areas a small business owner needs to understand, please visit http://www.more-for-small-business.com Kris Bovay is the owner of Voice Marketing Inc., a business and marketing services company. Kris has more than 25 years experience in successfully managing and leading large, medium and small businesses; businesses that she has worked with have grown by more than 30% in sales in the first two years. Use Kris’ experience to help you manage and lead your business. Copyright 2008 Voice Marketing Inc.

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kris_Bovay/216730

 

 

 

 

Business Development, Business Strategy

Business Plans For Small Business – Simple Is Better

There are some very compelling reasons for writing a business plan for small businesses. The challenge is that the misconceptions about what needs to go into a small business plan scare most owners and entrepreneurs away.

If you are like most small business owners or managers, you are incredibly busy, if not borderline overwhelmed. The idea of taking hours of valuable time to write a plan for your business may not seem worth it. But the data proves differently.

When writing a business plan for small business, focus on what really needs to be done, and what really needs to be measured. The plan does not have to be a 15 or 20 page document. In fact, it should only be one or two pages maximum. You should also have a yearly budget or financial plan as well. You really do not need to go overboard and do tons and tons of research about the market, and the opportunity, especially if you are already in business!

To write your plan, you will need a few things to get started. If you can assemble any of your sales and financial information for the past couple of years, that would be a bonus. You will need a notebook and writing instrument, possibly a laptop or a computer, and yourself. Then, basically find a quiet place to sit down for about an hour, and think about your business, and where you want it to go, and how you think you can get it there.

Let’s start with where you want your business to go. This is just a fluffy way of saying your vision for your business. Set a timeline for your vision; say 18 months or up to 5 years out. Then think about what your sales would be if everything goes as planned. What are your primary products or markets, and where will you do it.

Here’s an example: Within the next 3 years, grow MS Cut to $750,000.00 in sales providing industrial routing and cutting services to manufacturers and distributors in the Indianapolis market.

Or how about this: In the next 18 months, launch Tim’s Lunch & Deli, growing to $250,000 in sales. We will provide delicious sandwiches, soups and salads using all locally grown vegetables and products to the public in downtown St. Paul.

By writing out where you want your business to go in this fashion, you can clearly imagine the end result of your vision.

In terms of how you are going to get there, this is the strategy and tactics section of your plan. Again, what are the ways you are going to do the things you need to do? This could be everything from the methods you will use to attract customers, to the way that you will approach pricing your products or services. It can also address your marketing and advertising plans.

The main thing to keep in mind when it comes to your strategies and tactics, is to make them realistic. If you are going to need a lot of specialty skills (that you don’t currently have…) or technologies or a lot of money to do them, then chances are they won’t get used. Write this section of your plan so that you can actually do everything you need to do.

Next, you need to create a few measurables for your business. These are things like monthly sales revenues, profit percentages, labor hours to sales, number of returns per month, number of employee hours each month, etc.. These are all things that you can keep track of so that you will know if your plan is working, or if you need to address something quickly.

Each business, and each industry can have it’s own set of unique measurables. You may have one statistic you can keep that is a telling symbol for your business. Keep track of it, and see how it effects other areas of your business.

You should be able to track anywhere from 3 to 9 different measurables. Any more than that and you will not get much from it, and you are less likely to actually collect the information anyway. If you are using software like QuickBooks, Peachtree Accounting or another accounting app, there are several measurables you can pull and use to track your success.

All of the above information will fit nicely on one or two pages. Once you have that information, and you have written your business plan for your small business, the number one thing you can do is to use it, and use it often. Make a monthly (or weekly) appointment with yourself, your business partner, or your senior staff to review the plan, and make sure it still relevant. If something changes (and it will!), change your plan. It should be a living, dynamic document that you use on a regular basis to run your business.

By writing a business plan for your small business, you are creating a better opportunity for your business, and giving it a better chance of success

Robert Trube

Business planning for your small business does not have to be hard. I have created a series of e-books and software tools that simplifies the process of writing a plan for your business or organization, and actually allows you to get it on a single page! Check out The Simple Focus Plan, http://www.simplefocusplan.com or learn more about us at http://www.strategysimple.com.

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robert_Trube/457153

 

 

 

 

Business Development, Business Strategy

Bootstrap Business Financial Plan – Starting a Small Business With Bootstrap Financing

Preparing a sound, bootstrap business financial plan is the absolute key ingredient for any budding entrepreneur starting a small business with bootstrap financing. Unlike a traditional business plan, a financial plan for a bootstrapped business contains six essential components.

Components of a Successful Bootstrap Finance Plan

1. Expense Summary
The expense summary contains the start-up costs and ongoing operating expenses needed to get your business up and running.

2. Projected Profit & Loss Summary
Your profit and loss summary is a key tool for determining how long it will take your business to become profitable. It reflects a very simple formula of: revenues minus expenses, equals profit or loss.

3. Sales Forecast Summary
Your sales forecast summary is an estimation of what you believe your sales are likely to be each month. Sales forecasting requires research and a solid knowledge of your industry, niche market and product or service.

Starting a small business with bootstrap financing requires laser targeted forecasting. This is not as difficult as it sounds, it just means you must really invest the time in thoroughly researching your business.

4. Reserve Funding Plan
Establishing a reserve funding plan is essential for weathering the “start-up storms”. This is a back up funding plan for keeping your cash flows above dangerous levels.  Your bootstrap business financial plan must include a reserve funding plan, in order for your new venture to be successful.

5. Cash Flow Management Plan
This is simply the anticipated inflow (sales) and outflow (expenses) of cash through your business by month. Why it’s so tricky is due to the fact that you may have slow sales or no sales when you’re just getting started. Or, perhaps your customers are not paying within terms. Even if you have great sales on paper, your cash flow management plan will determine your success to a large degree.

6. Balance Sheet
A balance sheet provides a good overall picture of what your business is actually worth. It takes your assets (physical goods like equipment or property) minus your liabilities (debts owed to creditors) and gives you the equity value of your business.

What makes these components different from what you would prepare for a business plan written for bank financing? Well, the main difference is that this plan is just for you. It is an actual plan that you must follow to achieve success in your business. I have seen far too many instances where a traditional business plan is almost completely ignored, once the bank loan check is cashed.

With over one third of brand new businesses failing in their first year of operation, you owe it to yourself to minimize your start up risk, by being well prepared with a sound financial plan.

Where Does a Bootstrapped Business Plan Fit In?

 Where does a bootstrap business financial plan fit in? Well, first you must understand bootstrap financing. Starting a small business without borrowing is the ultimate goal of a bootstrapped business’ financing strategy. Many new entrepreneurs just don’t realize that you can start up a business, even if you have very little money, poor credit or don’t own a home. How is this possible? I know that I’m going against conventional wisdom here, but you really can start up a brand new business without BIG bank loans or a stockpile of cash.

Find the free sources of business start up funding your new business needs to survive and thrive. Start by claiming your free copy of The Bootstrapper’s Business Start-up Planner, by visiting my website.

©2009 Kimberly Kelly – All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Permission to reprint this article is granted strictly on the condition that it be reprinted in its entirety, with all live links and author bio in tact.

 

Kimberly Kelly is a Certified Start Up Business Consultant, specializing in bootstrap start up financing. She teaches new entrepreneurs the secrets for finding free sources of business start up funding [http://www.startupbusinesssurvivalguide.com] through her ebooks, seminars and coaching services. She is the author of the popular selling ebook: The Start-Up Business Survival Guide: 101 FREE Products and Services to Help Finance Your Dream of Successful Business Ownership. Visit her website at [http://www.startupbusinesssurvivalguide.com]

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kimberly_Kelly/337048