Month: February 2013

Categories
Branding

Make Your Small Business Look Big

Article Contributed by Darcie Hewitt-Dudding

While you don’t want to over step the mark and get too big for your boots, looking and acting professional can really make your business more visible, more credible, and more likely to generate leads for more business. It will affect everyone who interacts with your business as well as the way you feel about it too.

The Office Space

If you can afford office space, then you should definitely invest. Not only will having a business address look good from the outside, but you will feel more like a business if you have to travel to work every day, have somewhere to take meetings and take phone calls without the awkwardness of a home office.

That said, if you can’t afford a proper office space then there are still options. All over the country there are office incubation spaces that offer subsidised, shared office space that allow you to bounce ideas off other people, get help and advice and capitalise on potential collaborations.

If a home office is the only option for you, make sure that you have a dedicated space that you treat the same way as rented office space. Make it your first goal to get your own office.

The Website

This is probably the first point of contact for most of your potential customers, so make it good. Own your own domain and purchase a starter website that’s easy to customise so you can make it look professional.

The Email   

A business email should end with the business email, and not a free email account. Set up a professional mailbox with the same name as your website. Make sure you create a signature with your full name, business title, company name, and logo and contact details.

The Phone

Whether you’ve got a home office or a rented space, a private phone line is essential. You don’t want your five year old answering the phone to a potential client. Ensure that your answer machine message is clear and professional too, stating who you are and what details they need to leave and how long it might take you to get back to them. When you answer the phone, don’t be chewing, eating or drinking and be aware of your phone voice and professionalism. The same guidelines go for Skype or video call meetings.

The Stationary

Business cards are essential, but if you’re going to give someone a bent, stained, badly designed piece of card then you might as well have given that potential client or collaborator nothing at all. If design isn’t your thing, hire someone whose thing it is and get them to design an eye-catching business card that will make want people get in contact with you. Make sure your contact details are checked and checked again for accuracy.

If you’re sending out letters, such as invoices or any other correspondence, make sure that it is sent on a company letterhead with up to date contact details.

About the Author

Darcie Hewitt-Dudding writes on behalf of Microcare Systems, a telecoms company dedicated to bringing you the best in communication technology.

Categories
Finance & Capital

Five Important Financial Steps for Start-ups to Consider

Article Contributed by David Spring

Even in the current global financial climate, new businesses are setting up shop in Canada every day. But these remain challenging times, and if your business is going to not only survive but succeed, you need to get a few things right from the start, particularly as far as finances are concerned. Here are five tips that may give you a head start.

#1 – Decide what kind of company is right for you

The most fundamental choice to make at the start, and one which may affect your business affairs greatly later on, is what type of structure your company will take. For many small start-ups with limited assets sole proprietorship or a partnership is the way to go, but these do have the disadvantages of leaving you personally liable for what the business owes if things don’t go so well. This risk can be avoided by making your business a corporation, but this is more expensive from the outset and means you must follow a variety of tightly controlled legal procedures and regulations.

#2 – Identify what financial advice is available

If your business is going to stay financially viable then you’re going to need some degree of financial advice to carry you forward. This might simply be online resources such the CRA’s (formerly Canada Revenue) website – and Revenu Quebec’s website for Quebec residents -, or you may see fit to hire an accountant to provide more in-depth financial advice. A third option that may particularly suit those with limited financial resources is to use dedicated accounting software designed by professionals to make sense of your finances.

You should also shop around for the best bank accounts and business credit cards to ensure they’re working in your favour.

#3 – Identify the most suitable accountancy package

Right at the start, you should also identify what type of accountancy package will work best for your company. Hiring an accountant is one option, but this is often not feasible for new start-ups. You can of course do it yourself, but this can be time consuming and may result in errors. Again, a viable compromise is to use accountancy software to handle your own accounts. This can save a considerable amount of time and help you to keep your records up to date.

#4 – Keep accurate records to simplify tax returns

Likewise, specially designed tax software can help you to keep track of your taxes, and can give you a real time view of what is owed to the CRA.

#5 – Draw up a cashflow forecast for your first year and have a contingency plan

It’s important to plan ahead, and drawing up a 12-month budgetary forecast of your monthly business revenue and outgoings can help you to do just that and foresee any potential cashflow problems in advance. You should also have contingency plans in place for if things don’t go as planned. This might consist of money in reserve to cover ‘slow’ months, or you might plan to target a different market if sales don’t take off as expected.

About the Author

David Spring blogs about personal finance and taxes, covering everything from accounting software to strategy for small businesses. He has written articles in both English and French.

Categories
Success Attitude

What My Zumba Instructor Can Teach You About Your Biz

I admit it. I’m addicted to Zumba.

But it didn’t happen right away. For a year I flitted in and out of classes, not really clicking with it but since I kept hearing from my friends how much they loved it I kept trying it.

And then I ended up in a class with a woman named Tiger. And I was hooked.

Tiger was born to teach Zumba. Her passion and love for it are infectious plus she’s an excellent teacher (in fact she’s been honored at a statewide level she’s such a fabulous teacher.) Her classes are packed, and her teaching methods and style has influenced all the Zumba instructors at the YMCA.

But, it wasn’t always this way. In fact, she almost got fired after her very first class.

In that class, she started with 18 students. By the time the class was half over she had 9. But the time class ended it was down to 6. And the next day her boss asked Tiger to come to her office.

Her boss told her she had been flooded with complaints about Tiger.

* Too much hips

* Too Latino

* Too sexy

* Too loud

(I’m unclear what they actually thought Zumba was all about since that’s pretty much the definition of Zumba but whatever.)

Her boss told Tiger she couldn’t teach anymore unless she toned it down. So she went home and said to her husband “They won’t let me teach because they think I’m too sexy.”

Her husband answered “Oh they’re a bunch of old white women, they don’t get it.”

“I have to tone it down if I want to teach,” Tiger said.

“You don’t change a thing,” her husband said. “You teach it the way you want to. And if they don’t like it, we’ll find a place that does.”

So Tiger went back to her boss and begged to be given another chance. “Will you change?” her boss asked.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Tiger said, fingers crossed behind her back.

And of course she didn’t change a thing. Her next class she taught it exactly the way she had taught the first one. But this time she had younger students who loved it and told her boss. So her boss finally gave her a class of her own to teach. It was the smallest class the Y ever had — about 6 students. In 3 months it was up to 40.

And the rest, as they say, was history.

So there are a lot of things to take away from this story, but the one I want to talk about today is the idea of ideal clients.

As successful Tiger is as a Zumba instructor, in front of the wrong crowd (i.e. the opposite of her ideal clients) she was a complete failure. Once she found her ideal clients everything fell into place.

And that’s why knowing your ideal clients is so crucial to the success of your business, and why trying to market to everyone leads to spinning your wheels. Because not everyone is going to become your customer (it honestly doesn’t matter how good you are or how much they need what you’re selling, they just aren’t). And all you do is dilute your message when you try to talk to everyone instead of just to your ideal clients.

And even if you end up getting your non-ideal clients in your business, those are the ones who will be harder to please, who will be more likely to complain you’re just “too sexy.” And at the end of the day, ask yourself: Are those the people you really want to be serving in your business?

Because chances are you’ll probably be a lot happier if you have a business filled with clients who love how sexy you are.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Results! 7 Reasons Why You Absolutely Must Get Creative With Your Marketing RIGHT NOW

1. It’s not your grandfather’s communications model.

Communications has drastically changed since, say, the 1970s when advertising was in its heyday (actually most of the 1900s, but the 1970s is a good representative year).

Target markets are fragmented, customers have more demands on their time and they’ve learned to shut out the majority of advertising messages out there. The old ways of marketing based on advertising don’t work the way they used to. To succeed in the new communications model, you need every advantage you can find. And that includes harnessing your creativity.

2. Break through the information/products overload.

The Internet has been the biggest boom to small businesses everywhere. It’s simple and affordable to sell your products and/or services to anyone in the world. However, the ease of setting up an Internet business means lots of people are doing it. Lots of people doing it means lots of products and services are available.

The easiest way to set yourself apart from the other 16 million Web sites out there is to enlist the help of your creativity.

3. If it looks like your competitors’ marketing plan…

While it’s always good to know where your competitors are putting their marketing dollars, it may not be smart to be there too. (What I’m referring to are the different marketing vehicles, such as print publications, radio stations, billboards, event sponsorships, community groups, etc.) This is especially a problem if you’re always following your competitors’ lead and are never “the first” to take advantage of a new opportunity.

Think of it this way: If your message is only appearing in the same places as your competitors, how are you going to keep from blending into the crowd?

I’m not saying to ignore the places where your competitors are hanging out. I’m just saying you had better get creative with your marketing vehicles. Maybe you need a token presence on some media outlets while you branch out and look for other “off the beaten track” opportunities you can own.

4. If it smells like your competitor’s marketing message…

Producing similar marketing materials to your competitors’ is a surefire way to get your customers to ignore you. Take cars for instance. Can you tell me the difference between a Ford and Chevrolet commercial (other than the tagline)? Do you even know if the commercial you’re remembering IS a Ford or Chevy commercial?

See what I mean?

And when your customers can’t remember what’s different between you and your competitor, how will you convince them to buy from you rather than your competitor?

Getting creative with your marketing will help your message stand out from the crowd.

5. Harness the power of your creativity for your marketing.

Not only is there power in using your creativity, but there’s power in new ideas. Skeptical? Think of the surge of energy you feel during that “A-ha” moment. Think of all the excitement surrounding a new idea. You can even take it further and look at the energy surrounding the creation of a new life (which, when you get right down to it, is the ultimate act of creation). When you focus that power on your marketing, there’s no telling how far it will take you.

6. Enjoy your marketing.

Let’s face it. Marketing isn’t always fun. In fact, sometimes it’s drudgery. But when you add your creativity to the mix, your marketing takes on something completely different.

Being creative is fun. So, the more you can blend your creativity with your marketing, the more fun you’ll have with your marketing. And the more fun you have, the more you’ll do it (and the more results you’ll see).

7. Use it or lose it, baby.

The more you use your creativity, the more creative you become and the more your creativity will spill over in other parts of your life. What better way to consistently make use of your creativity than by making it a part of your marketing plan?

The bottom line? No matter where you are on the creativity scale, your attempts at creativity won’t hurt your marketing (no matter how “bad” you think you are at it). But if you don’t at least try to be creative, you’re definitely never going to stand out from the crowd. And, chances are, being creative will only enhance your marketing – probably in new and unexpected ways.

That’s the beauty of creativity – you never know when or how it will step through the door, bringing with it the all the energy and excitement of new adventures.

Categories
Starting Up

Top Reasons You Don’t Get To Do What Is In The Business Plan

Article Contributed by Patrick Del Rosario

When you’re just starting out, one of the biggest pieces of advice you will receive is to create a business plan. Your business plan will guide your new venture. With a business plan, you will be on track for success, right? After all, you have a plan in place so what could go wrong?

While it is a good idea to have a plan, many entrepreneurs find that their plan is not as effective as they thought. Ideas go off course, better opportunities arise, and some tasks simply require more time and focus than first thought. Without following the original plan, the risk of failure seems greater. It becomes easier to get distracted and business goals continue to be pushed back each month.

What went wrong?

Here are the top business plan mistakes entrepreneurs make that inhibits their ability to grow and thrive.

  • Your business plan lacked detail – Businesses are multi-faceted and without acknowledging each detail of the company, you could leave out critical aspects for your business growth. Each business plan must outline details about the products or services you will deliver, customer demographics, how the business will operate, marketing plans, sales goals, competitive analysis and the team in place to bring it all to fruition. In addition, you should have financial projections that will help you determine if you are on track with your efforts or if you need to step it up. Without these details, you leave out a big piece of the puzzle causing you to increase your risk of setback, or worse, failure.
  • Your business plan is vague – Although you may have the essential sections listed above, each of these sections must be written with laser sharp clarity. The details provided in these sections will provide a framework for how your business is run. This will make it clear for any new investors or team members that may come on board. With more detail, you can show clearly on paper what you expect, your timeline for success and data to support your plan.
  • You did not do your research – While you may draft the perfect looking business plan, your ideas may not be as realistic. By nature, your business plan will be filled with assumptions, since no one can predict the future. However, these assumptions must be backed with data that shows how you arrived at the assumption that a plan or strategy would work and why you chose a specific direction to take your new venture. Without this, you may steer your new business off in the wrong direction. Before you realize you have misjudged your potential, it may be too late.
  • You do not prepare with alternative plans – Starting a new business is inherently risky. No one knows that better than an entrepreneur. So having a plan in place to mitigate risk and know how to overcome blunders when they occur is crucial. Your business plan should contain a variety of approaches so that you can test and determine over the course of time the best approaches for your model. When you take risk into consideration while drafting your plan, you can better prepare yourself for struggles or challenges that you will undoubtedly meet along the way.
  • You ignore the competition completely – For an entrepreneur to start a new endeavor, you must see a need in the marketplace. Even if there is an unmet need, you will still have competition on some level. In order for you to create your competitive advantage, you must acknowledge this competition and clearly define how you will differentiate yourself from the others in your niche. Without doing so, you risk your market not being able to see your competitive advantage and not buying what you have to sell.

Starting a business is tough. Without a solid business plan in place and a clear roadmap of how you plan to accomplish your goals, you may be left in the dark. Worse yet, you may manage your business to failure. Creating a strong plan can help you stay on course and watch your ideas, goals and dreams come to fruition.

About the Author

Patrick Del Rosario is a blogger from Mayple Marketing Blog. Mayple matches businesses to digital marketing professionals that meet their unique needs, and ensures they are performing optimally, at all time. When not working, Patrick  loves to do event photography. He also runs an event and photography business in the Phillippines. He loves to travel around the world with his wife and son