Categories
Sales & Marketing

Are Sponsorships Right For You?

Although the whole notion of sponsorships has been around for years, it’s only recently been gaining popularity in the online entrepreneurial community. Which leads me to 2 very important questions —

1. Should you as a business become a sponsor?

2. Should you offer sponsorship opportunities?

Let’s look at the pros and cons of each and see if your business is missing out because you haven’t fully considered sponsorships.

First, let’s look if you should become a sponsor. Sponsorships are great if:

* You’re going to be reaching a significant number of your ideal clients.

* The person/biz/event your sponsoring has high credibility and influence with your ideal clients, thus boosting your credibility by connecting your name with theirs.

* You have a way to collect contact information so you can build your list and exposure.

* You’re okay if the sponsorship turns into a long-term tactic rather than making money in the short-term.

Yes, I would classify sponsorships as more of a long-term marketing tactic than a short-term, make money immediately, tactic. That doesn’t mean you WON’T walk out of there with sales. But I would view any immediate sales as a bonus, and the point of why you’re doing the sponsorship is to increase your exposure and visibility for the long term. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t track your sales and make sure you get a good return on your investment, it just means you understand this is an investment in your marketing and your business and the pay off might come that day or next week or in 6 months.

If you need an immediate influx of money, sponsorships are probably not the way to go. First off, they’re more expensive than just the cost of the sponsorship — you’re probably going to have come up with booth design, advertising, flyers, etc. And second, while you very well could walk out with immediate sales (especially if your sponsorship comes with some speaking or stage time) there’s no guarantee of that. It could just as easily work out that the sales start coming in a month or 2 later, which may turn into a very big stress point for you depending on how much you need that cash.

So, now let’s look if you should offer sponsorships. First, is your business offering something where a big group of your tribe is hanging out? Something like an event is perfect, but it doesn’t have to be an in-person event. It could also be a virtual event. Or you could even offer sponsorships if you have a membership site or an association or you’ve created some other community.

Are there going to be enough people involved to make it worth your sponsor’s money and time? Ask yourself if YOU would pay to be in front of your community? (Be honest with the answer.)

Now the other part of this is will the sponsorship interfere with your ability to sell your own products or services? If you think it’s going to dilute what you’re doing, then I wouldn’t do it. But if it isn’t, and your community is big enough to warrant it, offering sponsorship opportunities could be a great way to add an additional income stream to your business plus add value to your community by offering them products and services they need.

Categories
Newsletter

BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 100

BIZNESS! Newsletter

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Cover Story

Community Art

A splash of colour and design can go a long way toward beautifying a grey, ugly space. The Favela Painting project (the brainchild of Dutch artist duo Haas&Hahn) aims to revitalize the slums of Rio de Janeiro through large, community-driven murals….

Continued in BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 100 >>>

Top Stories From CoolBusinessIdeas.com

– Personalize Your Own Clever Design
– Skillfully Sculpted Swan Faucet
– Weigh it Right
– Garage Sales Tracker
– No More Visa
– Boxed Water Cartons
– Chocomize Your Own Chocs

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>


Top Stories From GetEntrepreneurial.com

– What Does the Credit Card Act Mean For Small Business?
– 3 Keys to Building a Successful Online Business
– Seven Tax Tips for Business
– How to Create a Sales Policy That is Fair to All of Your Clients
– Increase Sales with These 3 Types of Special Offers
– Business Success: Utilize Key Sites And Stay Focused
– 3 Lessons to Learn Before Starting Your Home Business

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

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Categories
Finance & Capital

What Does the Credit Card Act Mean For Small Business?

I’ve recently had a lot of people ask me about the new credit card act and how it will affect their small business? We all know that the new law offers a variety of protections to consumers and might possibly change the credit card industry forever. The question is what’s in it for the owners?

Unfortunately, business and corporate cards have no new protections under the act. The provisions contained in the Credit CARD Act of 2009 are designed mainly to protect consumers from unfair credit card practices, not small business.

Most of the major provisions of the act went into effect February 22, 2010, with the rest starting later in December and August of this year. Under the new law,

* Double cycle billing charges, over-the-limit fees, retroactive interest rate increases, and excessive fees on subprime credit cards have all been eliminated.
* Consumers have been granted greater time to pay their monthly bill, and need to be over 60 days behind on a payment before an issuer can increase the interest rate on a balance.
* Credit card companies must give at least 45 days notice of any changes in a borrower’s terms, with the borrower possessing the right to opt out of those changes, if desired.
* Credit card issuers won’t be able to increase rates within the first year of a customer opening an account.
* Card issuers are restricted from giving credit cards to those under 21 unless they have a co-signer or can otherwise prove that they have a means to pay.

One has to wonder why Congress would enact such a sweeping credit card reform and not include provisions for small business? Or, moreover, why couldn’t the new protections be extended to cover commercial card users as well?

Business and commercial credit cardholders have been fighting tooth and nail with card companies over abusive and unscrupulous practices for quite some time. Ever-increasing interest rates, continuous introduction of new fees, and frequent increase of existing fees have made it more and more costly for small businesses to use and accept credit cards. Even offer merchant services providers (companies that enable businesses to process credit cards) from large banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, to ISO’s like North American Bancard, have all felt the pinch of card companies soaring rates.

For those of you that are thinking of setting aside a personal card for business so that you can take advantage of the act- that probably wouldn’t be the best idea. Using a personal credit card for business lessens the amount of interest and/or various fees that you are able to deduct on your taxes and all activity and debt made on behalf of your business shows up on your personal credit score. Also, keep in mind that the blending of personal and professional finances can lead to serious money management problems.

It’s been hinted that much-needed relief is on the way for commercial and business credit card owners. The Fed has recently been tasked to examine small business credit card usage and make protection recommendations to Congress within the next year. Let’s hope so because it’s long, long, long overdue.

About the Author

Robert Sommers is a freelance mortgage and small business writer based out Baltimore. He has worked for over 25 years as a licensed real estate agent in all areas of commercial and residential real estate.

What Does the Credit Car Act Mean For Small Business?

I’ve recently had a lot of people ask me about the new credit card act and how it will affect their small business? We all know that the new law offers a variety of protections to consumers and might possibly change the credit card industry forever. The question is what’s in it for the owners?

Unfortunately, business and corporate cards have no new protections under the act. The provisions contained in the Credit CARD Act of 2009 are designed mainly to protect consumers from unfair credit card practices, not small business.

Most of the major provisions of the act went into effect February 22, 2010, with the rest starting later in December and August of this year. Under the new law,

  • Double cycle billing charges, over-the-limit fees, retroactive interest rate increases, and excessive fees on subprime credit cards have all been eliminated.
  • Consumers have been granted greater time to pay their monthly bill, and need to be over 60 days behind on a payment before an issuer can increase the interest rate on a balance.
  • Credit card companies must give at least 45 days notice of any changes in a borrower’s terms, with the borrower possessing the right to opt out of those changes, if desired.
  • Credit card issuers won’t be able to increase rates within the first year of a customer opening an account.
  • Card issuers are restricted from giving credit cards to those under 21 unless they have a co-signer or can otherwise prove that they have a means to pay.

One has to wonder why Congress would enact such a sweeping credit card reform and not include provisions for small business? Or, moreover, why couldn’t the new protections be extended to cover commercial card users as well?

Business and commercial credit cardholders have been fighting tooth and nail with card companies over abusive and unscrupulous practices for quite some time. Ever-increasing interest rates, continuous introduction of new fees, and frequent increase of existing fees have made it more and more costly for small businesses to use and <a href=” http://www.nabancard.com/accept-credit-card/“>accept credit cards</a>. Even offer <a href=”http://www.nabancard.com/“>merchant services</a> providers (companies that enable businesses to process credit cards) from large banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, to ISO’s like North American Bancard, have all felt the pinch of card companies soaring rates.

For those of you that are thinking of setting aside a personal card for business so that you can take advantage of the act- that probably wouldn’t be the best idea. Using a personal credit card for business lessens the amount of interest and/or various fees that you are able to deduct on your taxes and all activity and debt made on behalf of your business shows up on your personal credit score. Also, keep in mind that the blending of personal and professional finances can lead to serious money management problems.

It’s been hinted that much-needed relief is on the way for commercial and business credit card owners. The Fed has recently been tasked to examine small business credit card usage and make protection recommendations to Congress within the next year. Let’s hope so because it’s long, long, long overdue.

About the Author

Robert Sommers is a freelance mortgage and small business writer based out Baltimore. He has worked for over 25 years as a licensed real estate agent in all areas of commercial and residential real estate.

Categories
Networking

3 Secrets on Getting the Most Out of Attending Events

You’ve got your suitcases packed, your airline booked and you’re on your way to a live event.

But you’re a little nervous. You’ve already spent a bunch of money, you’re about to spend a bunch more on hotels and food, not to mention the time away from your business and life. Will this turn into a good investment (i.e. help your business grow) or will it end up being just a waste of time and money?

That’s an excellent question and as someone who has attending more than her share of events with fabulous (and not-so-fabulous) results, let me share my 3 secrets to getting the most out of your attending events.

1. Set your intentions on what you want to get out of the event. Are you looking for joint venture partners? New clients? New ideas or information you can implement in your business? Is there someone you really want to meet in person? All of the above? Something else entirely?

It doesn’t matter how you define a successful event, what’s important is that you actually spell out what you want to have happen and make it as clear as possible.

If you’re not clear on what you want, then your results could end up being equally murky. You want to visualize exactly what would have to happen for this to be a successful event for you.

Let me take a moment and share a quick story about this. At an event I recently attended, I was walking through the dining room at dinnertime and I saw a woman sitting by herself. I went up to her and asked if she wanted some company, which she did. It turned out she had set the intention for meeting ME at this event and we’ve ended up doing a couple of joint ventures together. Isn’t it amazing once you set the intention how the Universe actually delivers it?

2. Don’t just hang around your “crowd.” There’s no question that one of the reasons why I love going to events is I can reconnect with all my old friends and colleagues. However, as much as I treasure the face-to-face bonding, I also want to meet new friends and colleagues too.

Make a point of having either lunch, dinner, drinks, etc. with a new group each day. That gives you the opportunity to meet new people without going too far out of your comfort zone. (Now, if the thought of that is making you break out into a cold sweat, take a deep breath. Bring a friend with you, just don’t only talk to your friend. Or only do this once or twice in the few days you’re there and slowly work your way up. You’ll probably discover the vast majority of the people at these events are just as eager and just as nervous as you are, and it all ends up working itself out.)

3. Manage your energy. This is a big one I never see anyone talk about but it’s really important. Events are exhausting. Period. Between being “on” when you meet people to absorbing all the information that’s flying at you, it can wear you out.

So it’s important to know your limits and listen to your body. You don’t have to be at every single networking opportunity. It’s okay to skip a group lunch or dinner and get room service.

Everyone is going to have different limits and whatever that is, it’s perfect for you and you should honor it. The last thing you want to do is wear yourself out so much that when that perfect client DOES show up on Day 3, you’re not so drained you don’t properly represent yourself (and end up losing the sale).

There’s one more thing I want you to do to make your event attendance as successful as possible, but this is SO important I’m going to devote an entire article about it. Stay tuned!

Categories
Online Business

3 Keys to Building a Successful Online Business

After building a successful online business myself, not to mention being a part of my clients’ online businesses, I’ve found there are 3 main keys you need to have in place to enjoy a solid successful Internet business.

Although it’s not easy to build a successful anything, these 3 keys will go a long way to putting the foundation together for a successful online business.

Ready to get started?

1. Send warm leads to your web site. Every successful business needs a fresh source of new leads and a great place to find those leads is on the Internet.

But that’s just easier said than done. Alas, the “if you build it, they will come” just doesn’t work for web sites. So how do you find new prospects on the Internet? Here are 6 ways to get you started:

* Social networking (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Linked In)

* Article marketing (placing articles on article portals such as Ideamarketers or EzineArticles)

* Paid ads (pay per click or Facebook ads)

* Online press releases

* Podcasts

* Videos

The key is to integrate several ways to drive traffic to your site. If you rely on just one or two, and something happens to those sources of traffic, it could dramatically impact your bottom line. (In a bad way.) The more sources of traffic you have, the more stable your business becomes.

2. Get those warm leads in your database. You may have heard the saying “the money is in the list” and that’s because there’s a lot of truth to that. When you have a warm list of names to market your products and services to, it makes building a successful and profitable business that much easier.

So how do you build a warm list? (Note — a warm list is defined as people who know who you are and are inclined to buy your products and services, versus a cold list that doesn’t have any idea who you are and needs to be convinced you do indeed have the solution to their problems.) You build a warm list by first capturing leads (from your web site, from speaking on stage and teleclasses, etc.) and then by making sure you get in front of them on a regular basis so they get to know you. A regularly published ezine is an excellent way to do that. You also want to regularly sell to your list, because if you don’t ask your list to buy your products and services, you’ll create a list that is only interested in what you offer for free.

3. Turn warm leads into paid customers.
This is where direct response copywriting comes in. Actually, it starts in the second key as you need to use direct response copywriting to get people on your list in the first place.

Copywriting is writing promotional copy for business (it has nothing to do with copyrighting a book or piece of artwork, note the spelling difference). Direct response means the copy itself is persuading people to take action (the copy is causing a direct response). This is a learned skill, no you don’t have to be a writer to be a successful direct response copywriter. And once you master this skill, selling online becomes a heck of a lot easier because you can make money directly from emails and web site pages.

If you master these 3 keys, you will be well on your way to building a successful online business.