Small Business Information |
|
Small Business Planning -- Three Myths
Are you -- like 70 percent of small business owners -- working without a plan? Here are three myths that need to be dispelled about strategic planning for small business. 1. It has to be formal -- Not so. The value of a strategic plan for your small business is in putting the ideas on paper, creating action steps that will get you where you want to go and implementing those action steps. 2. I'm too small -- Not so. Even a one-person business can benefit from a strategic plan. A strategic plan can help you make decisions about time management and budget. You can use your strategic plan to help you determine whether to attend an event or advertise in a publication. It's a check and balance tool. 3. A strategic plan is like a ball and chain -- Not so. It's your plan. Too many small business owners feel like once it's on paper, it can't be changed. Wrong! Your plan should be an active document that gets reviewed and updated at least monthly, if not weekly. You're the business owner, you wrote it, you know what's happening in your market -- adjust as necessary. Denise O'Berry helps small business owners take action to grow their business. Find out more at http://www.smallbiz-bootcamp.com
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Obtain Maximum Results For Your Small Business Through Better Time Management Most small business owners are faced with so many responsibilities and an unbelievable workload throughout the day. Mainly because of the many different roles that we have to play. On any given day a small business owner must be a customer service representative, collections specialist, marketing specialist, public relations representative, and the list continues. It's enough to drive the average person crazy. But we small business owners are made of a different stock yet still we succumb to normal, everyday pitfalls caused by poor time management. Poor time management can severely negatively impact your business through lost sales and disgruntled customers. A small business owner can't afford either. Franchising and Royalty Payments If you are thinking of turning your current into a franchising company you will need to determine a fair and equitable franchise royalty fee. There are a number of questions you will need to ask yourself in determining this fee such as what services you will provide to your franchisee team and what that will cost. You will also need to take a look at the competition to determine the amount that you can honestly charge without forgoing cost conscious franchise buyers. Covenants Not To Compete: Another Franchise Quandary Imagine that you have operated a successful franchise business for the past several years. Your franchise agreement's term expires in the near future and you are contemplating whether renewing the agreement would be a wise business decision. In the past couple of years it has become all too apparent that you are receiving little, if any, benefit or assistance from your franchisor. Yet, you continue to pay the franchisor thousands of dollars each year in royalties and other fees. You therefore decide that it would make better "business sense" to operate independently after expiration of your franchise term. After all, you are very familiar with the business and have worked extremely hard in developing and establishing a solid client base to enable you to continue running a profitable and prosperous operation. Your Small Business Suggestion Box A suggestion box is a really good idea for your business. It can help you get valuable feedback from your customers -- feedback that they don't normally think to share with you. Whether your business is a brick and mortar location or purely virtual, it's important to hear from your customers. Here are some tips for success. 7 Cash Flow Secrets Your Accountant Never Told You Looking for ways to boost your cash flow? As a small business consultant, I make these recommendations to my cash strapped small business clients: Employee Relations Manual Sample Outline Most smart entrepreneurs and all large corporations have Employee Relations Manuals. Nearly all businesses with over five or more employees have some sort of employee manuals but not all have Employee Relations Manuals for their managers. It is important in today's litigious lawyer trap to have a good policy in place to protect you from a bad decision or improper handling of an employee situation by a manager. All too often a minor incident can lead to a problematic situation and end up in court, union arbitration or a hefty fine from a government regulatory agency which often tend to side with the employee, regardless of fact. 7 Essentinal Resources for Small Business So you want to start a business but you don't have a lot of money? Start your business online, and it won't be a problem. 3.5 Million People And A Possible UK Home Business Opportunity Has this ever happened to you... 'John, you have a lot of mail this morning dear'. Stunned as a goldfish you walk over to the kitchen table and pick up the envelopes. Each one is a quality envelope that has an address label with your name on it. You flick through them and the labels are more or less identical. You open one, then another and you can then start to feel what the others are about. More UK home business opportunity! Mobile Truck Washing, Case Study Most folks in the pressure washing business are happier to do business cleaning concrete or flat work, because it appears to be easy. Some do both fleet truck washing and concrete, which makes sense. But what some do not understand is once you are totally efficient at truck washing you can surpass the dollars per hour that those in concrete cleaning generally charge. I have been washing fleets of trucks for over 12 years. What I have found is that our car wash guys www.carwashguys.com which is a mobile car wash business ended up being a fleet washing business and not only for car washing. This is because customers needed services and kept calling and we were able to do the work as good as any company could. Build Your Small Business by Building Relationships -- The One Pager Shortcut Series -- Essex Accountant: Accountancy Firm MVP for Your UK Business? Most business owners know when they need an accountant, but they do not realize how important the task is or how much their results can vary. No other job position outside of your own is going to affect your bottom line like an accountant and contrary to common belief, the job is not just about crunching numbers. A good accountant or accountancy firm must know how to crunch numbers that will allow them to provide practical suggestions from useful information that will pave the way for you to make accurate business decisions. Hard Money Lenders -- No Money Down The Easy Way Would it help you as a real estate investor to be able to "Close For Cash in Days," even if you're tapped out financially? Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages - A Whole NewVocabulary for Small Businesss Buyers want both online and local information about where to buy Most small businesses are local in nature, serving people who live nearby. Their customers found them through traditional methods like the Yellow Pages or newspaper ads. So far, the Internet hasn't figured prominently in their marketing efforts. That's about to change, as Local Search methods become more widespread. Even for buyers expecting to spend their money close to home, more and more of them go to the Internet to locate desired products and services. They rely on search engines to find suitable vendors in the fastest, easiest way. Local Search combines the search query word or phrase with specific geographic terms, like city or zip code. That way, search results only include enterprises in that local area. Instead of information about a small enterprise being lost among millions of pages of search results, it shows up in a small pool of local providers. That's good for them, as well as the person looking for what they provide. Small operations can easily be located by a whole new group of buyers Consumers don't simply go to the Yellow Pages when ready to buy - as they once did. Studies show that an astonishing 36% of online searches are conducted to find local businesses. About a quarter of all Internet users already conduct local searches. They'd do even more of it, if the desired small business data were more complete. Local enterprises need to prepare for the impact of changing customer habits. An easy first step is to include your business in Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), along with the printed Yellow Page directory. That puts your enterprise on the radar screen. Learn how your business can make the most of Local Search by visiting http://www.yellowpagesage.com. You'll find reliable advice from experts in Yellow Pages and Local Search so you can get more mileage from your promotional dollars. Start by getting comfortable with search concepts, and improve your odds of being found when people search online for what you offer. You don't even need your own Web site to benefit from Internet Yellow Pages and Local Search. Learn the Relevant Terms Search Engine - method for locating the information available on the Internet; a program that searches Web pages for requested keywords, then returns a list of documents where the query terms were found Google and Yahoo, the major general search engines, have both shifted gears to make Local Search a priority when delivering relevant results. Spider (also called "crawler" or "bot") - goes to every page on every Web site and reads the information so it can be available to searchers; to "crawl" a site it collects and indexes information from it Specialized Search Engines - narrow focus of information crawled and indexed, like medical, business, or shopping sites Keywords - word or phrases used by search engines to locate relevant Web pages; words chosen to improve a site's search engine placement and ranking Search Query - search request, which the search engine compares to the spidered entries, then returns results to the searcher Search Results - compiled list of Web pages that a search engine delivers in response to a query; the number of items returned is usually overwhelming (in the millions), so searchers only bother to view results on the first pages Relevant Results - the test of a good search is whether the results obtained relate to what the person wanted to find, without a lot of irrelevant links Local Search - combining a geographic term in a search query to locate suitable providers in a specific area Pay per Click (PPC) - method of building traffic whereby site owners bid on search terms (keywords) that link to their site Geographic Terms - specific information about the local area that can be included in a local search: zip code, town, county, geographic region, state Top Ranking - sites shown on the first page(s) of search results Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - fine-tuning keywords and page content so the Web site rates high in search engine results Tags and Titles (on Web Pages) - provide site keywords and information to search engine spiders for indexing a site Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) - directory of business phone numbers and locations in a geographic area, organized by category; searchable data base accessed on the Internet Make your business easy for searchers to find The public is embracing the convenience of searching on the Internet to find information about local businesses. However, their searches for desired information are compromised because so many local enterprises don't show up in the databases as yet. Those that do have an edge in their local market. Climb aboard! Make sure searchers can find you. For little or no money, you can expose your enterprise to the whole world. Whether or not your business has a Web site, you need to provide the information people are looking for in the places that they look for it. Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages open new avenues to buyers ready to spend. Best of all, they support and compliment your traditional methods of finding new business. So you cover all your bases. (c)2004, Lynella Grant Dispute Resolution of Territory for Mobile Franchised Companies Franchisors of home based and mobile businesses need to carefully watch their franchisees who innately try to hunt in their fellow franchisees territories. The most important advice a franchisor should give the franchised outlets in this case is to work it out themselves. A simple policy is best for example here is a possible excerpt from a franchise manual which lays out some basic understandings: Community Relations Strategy for Small Business Does your company have a community relation strategy? Have you even considered it? It is essential to have policies in place. Having run a small business for years which eventually turned into a multi-state franchise system, I realized early on that a business who is part of the community it serves can survive the ups and downs of the business cycles, making it somewhat recession proof. Nothing turns off the community more than a business which refuses to give back a little and gives some ridiculous excuse of; "It is our corporate policy, sorry!" Many times a volunteer for a club or organization will come in and ask for a hand out. Rather than giving them an excuse, talk with them about what you can do, have a policy which helps them too. Do not just tell them sorry; "No can do" offer them other assistance instead. For instance if they come in a are looking for a donation, you might say. We are not able to give a straight donation, but we are allowed to give you an item or two on the discount rack for a door prize or silent auction. Get Free Payroll Forms Download from the Internet Having a successful business means also having a good working relationship with your employees, and nothing more makes it sour than having problems with the payroll. You can't expect them to work gratis, employees expect to be paid and compensated fairly. If this is done, the working environment will be pleasant and the employees will be more productive. Many company's experience labor problems because they don't have a smooth payroll system. If that is the case, many complaints will arise. Salary is a form of payment for the services rendered provided by the employer to the employee for a certain period of time. This payment should be in accordance to what has been agreed upon by both parties prior to the start of work provided. Increase Your Profits with a Point of Sale (POS) System Whether you operate a chain of restaurants, a mom-and-pop convenience store, or a medium-sized retail shop, you are in business to make money. And, one of the most critical aspects to your profit and loss is your ability to track information? you need to know which products are making you money, what items need to be re-ordered, who your customers are, and so on. This is where today's point of sale (POS) systems play such a valuable role. Pressure Washer Companies and Steam Cleaner Maintenance If you run a pressure washing business it is a must that you understand and take care of your equipment. It is your livelihood. Proper maintenance is a must. If your equipment does not work; you make no money. Discover How You Can Start Making Your Small Business Dream Come True As a teenager I worked for my father's small business. At 18 I worked for a small video rental business owned by two partners; there were 4 employees. At 23 I worked for an auto body shop, the owner was from Greece; there were 8 employees. At 25 I became CEO of my family's small business; we have 15 employees. Today, I own a 3-employee automotive repair shop; an online business; a promotional licensing business and I still consult for my family's business. The PR Commitment to Small Business We're birds of a feather, public relations and small business. Wonderfully compatible and a perfect fit. Usually makes it easy to commit resources to small business success. |
home | site map |
© 2005 |