Month: March 2012

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Using YouTube to Promote Your Business

Even if you don’t use YouTube every day, you probably have a general sense of how it works. Put simply, it’s a website that lets people upload self-produced videos and display them either on YouTube or embedded on their own websites and blogs. But beyond being just a place to store videos, YouTube also has a variety of tools that let people get social with their videos and use them for all sorts of purposes. And for business owners, it can be a great resource.

Making introductions

In many fields of business, clients want to feel a personal connection with the people they work with. When you’re working with people long-distance, phone and email can go a long way toward forging that connection, but what about potential clients who arrive at your website and have not reached out to you yet?

By creating a short video introducing yourself and discussing what you do and embedding it on your website, you can make these potential clients feel as if they have met you. Your video lets them know you’re not some faceless entity somewhere on the other side of the world, but an actual person. This makes them feel secure in reaching out to you for your services.

Offsite promotional videos

Not too many people are going to be interested in videos that are simply about promoting your business. But one thing that web users love is a well-made how-to video that enlightens them on a subject or teaches them a tool they didn’t know about. In your area of expertise, you no doubt have much wisdom to share with the world. YouTube gives you a chance to use it.

Of course, many of my clients are initially uncomfortable giving out for free what they usually charge for. For instance, if you’re a web-design consultant and your job involves sharing your expertise with paying clients, you might be reluctant to put this expertise out there for all to see.

But there’s an easy solution to this: Don’t share everything. Just teach people enough to raise their interest and establish yourself as an authority. It’s similar to writing informative articles or blog posts. Give a quick summary of the topic, and encourage people to get in touch with you for more information and one-on-one help.

If you include a good title and description with your videos and make them searchable, then you should get at least few hits from people searching Google and YouTube with their questions. And if you get lucky, one of your videos might even go viral.

Production values

Keep in mind that, just as a poorly designed website causes people to instantly click the back button in their browsers, a poorly produced video causes people to click stop and move on. So for your videos to be effective in promoting your site, make sure the lighting is good and the sound is clear. If you can afford to hire a professional videographer, consider doing so. Otherwise, make some practice videos before uploading anything. Show them to a few trusted friends or colleagues for their feedback, and upload them only when you feel the product is worthy of your business.

Categories
Finance & Capital

5 Creative Ways to Fund Your New Small Business

Article Contributed by Bill Hazelton

It takes a lot of guts to run a small business these days. You need to be your own boss, your own IT team, your own cleaning crew and, most importantly, your own accountant. Typically, money is always tight in the first year (or few years for some), and things will only get tougher if you can’t find sources of financing to support your early growth track. The problem is that ever since the economic implosion that started back in 2008, the banks have severely tightened their lending criteria.  So, what does a small business owner have to do to find funding for his or her business? Get creative.

To successfully fund your new business these days, you’ll have to think outside the box, over the box and sometimes even on top of the box. We’re talking Zappa-style unorthodox here. If you’re not exactly the creative type though, it might be difficult to conjure up creative financing ideas.  In order to help you kick-start the thought process, we’ve come up with a list of 5 creative ways to fund your small business.

1)    Pitch your business to a local university.  Institutions of higher learning just love seeing small businesses succeed. Universities worldwide donate millions of dollars in grants to promising start-ups every year. If you think your company brings something new to the marketplace, why not compete for funding from your alma mater? While you might have to take on a few interns if you win, funding from local universities is a legitimate option to consider.

2)    Try ‘crowd funding’. In years past, crowd funding was simply a euphemism for begging.  But in 2012, asking strangers for a little bit of money has become all the rage in the start-up community. What makes crowd funding different than investing is that donors don’t expect to receive a stake in the business when they hand you $100. Instead, they typically ask for some sort of recognition or reward. For instance, if you’re opening a bakery, you might give a few charitable individuals a plaque on the wall and free cupcakes for life. On balance, it’s another legitimate source of financing that new small business owners should strongly consider.

3)    Sign up for a small business credit card. Small business credit cards have gotten a bum rap recently, but the truth is that these cards can actually be incredibly useful tools for launching and managing the financial aspects of any small business. They provide great options for tracking expenses, managing your cash flow and also provide a great backstop in financial emergencies.  A card like the Capital One Spark Cash Select is a fine choice for prospective new small businesses.

4)    Make a deal with the angels. If your business has serious growth potential, an angel investor might be a source of financing to investigate.  Angel investors are wealthy businesspeople that are willing to provide capital for promising start-ups. The only catch is that angel investors will require an equity stake in the business, which might require a cut of your profits in the short run, an equity position and a voice in management and strategic direction on a long term basis.

5)    Get a microloan. The SBA maintains a microloan program that provides small short terms loans to small businesses.  Maximum loan amounts are capped at $50,000 but have an average microloan amount of roughly $13,000.  These SBA loans are a great way to fund working capital needs or to purchase inventory, supplies, machinery or equipment.  While you won’t be able to buy a new lot for that new retro diner you just opened, an SBA microloan might be enough to provide that new grill you’ve had your eye on.

Sources of financing for small business have multiplied in recent years, but you still need a very compelling business model to convince investors that you’re worth their time. The reality is that securing an angel investment or venture capital funding is highly unlikely for the vast majority of new businesses.  Guy Kawasaki said, “[The] probability of an entrepreneur getting venture capital is the same as getting struck by lightning while standing at the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day.  This may be too optimistic.”  The good news is that most small businesses don’t really need that type of funding.

In the end, the most credible sources of financing for the vast majority of small businesses will still be a micro loan, crowd funding or a small business credit card, which are all viable financing options.  All in all, those options aren’t half bad.

About the Author

This is a guest contribution from Bill Hazelton, CEO and Founder of Credit Card Assist, a leading pro-consumer, credit card information resource.

Categories
Finance & Capital

Changes to Child Benefit: How to Keep Your Payments

Changes to child benefit payments for thousands of higher rate tax payers come in to effect in April 2013. Here’s how to keep your tax-free child benefit if you’re a higher rate taxpayer.

If you are a higher rate taxpayer that currently receives child benefit payments you could lose thousands of pounds a year when changes to child benefit come in to effect in April 2013.

Depending on how much you earn it may be possible to reduce your taxable income below the 40% higher rate tax threshold so you still keep these payments.

Here are your options:

Invest in a pension
The quickest and probably the easiest way to keep your child benefit is to increase, or begin making contributions to a pension.

This should be done by salary sacrifice and can be paid into an occupational pension run by your employer or to an independent personal pension.

Doing this will reduce your taxable pay and, depending on your contribution, could bring you beneath the higher tax rate threshold so you get to keep your child benefit payments.

If you have a family to clothe and feed, you may feel that paying into a pension is lower down your list of priorities, however putting more into your pension could leave you better off come April 2013.

For a family with 3 children, child benefit is currently worth £2,449.20 a year, so paying an extra £1,000 or £2,000 in pension contributions would not only boost your retirement savings but is likely to leave you better off overall as well.

There are two main was to set this up, either by simply increasing the amount of your salary that is paid into your pension, or by sacrificing a part of your salary (perhaps a pending pay rise) in exchange for greater pension contributions from your employer.

Throw into the mix the tax relief that you get when you pay into a personal pension and opting to keep under the higher tax threshold this way can be very tax effective.

For more help deciding whether a pension is right for you, read our guide: Should I Get a Pension?

Childcare vouchers
Purchasing childcare vouchers from your pre-tax pay is another way to reduce your taxable income and could help you keep your child benefit.

Childcare vouchers can be used to pay for registered childcare at a nursery, playschool, childminder or after-school club.

Basic rate tax payers purchasing childcare vouchers for the first time can buy up to £55 of vouchers a week. So if your current salary is just over the higher rate threshold it’s worth investigating this option.

Buying the full £55 a week of childcare vouchers could reduce your taxable income by £2,916 a year, which may be a sufficient amount for you to be classed as a basic rate tax payer.

This is because tax-exempt benefits like childcare vouchers are excluded from the tax rate assessment. So, for the purpose of childcare vouchers, you can earn up to £45,391 a year before being classed as a higher rate tax payer.

Even if your child is too young to be left in child care, you can still purchase vouchers and use them at a later date. Although each voucher will have an expiry date they tend to last a long time.

For more information on childcare vouchers, read our guide: How to Get Help with Childcare Costs.

Register as a company
Reducing your pre-tax salary by purchasing childcare vouchers or investing in a pension will be the two options open to most people worried about losing their child benefit payments.

However, depending on your circumstances and terms of your employment you may be able to keep you child benefit by setting up a company.

Essentially this involves setting up your own private limited company, paying yourself a minimal salary and declaring the rest of the money you earn as dividends from your company.

However, this option is best suited to the self-employed as well as freelancers and consultants not directly employed by a business and simply isn’t an option if you are a full time employee earning an annual salary.

This option could also make your personal finances considerably more complicated so you may need to seek advice from an accountant to ensure you are paying the correct levels of tax on all areas.

Change your working patterns
If you or your partner are a higher rate tax payer but the other perhaps works part time or stays at home, it may be worth considering changing your working patterns so you remain eligible for child benefit payments.

The higher earner could take advantage of flexible working arrangements or switch to lighter working hours to drop below the income threshold, while the lower earner could look at increasing their hours if they work part time, or finding some other means of making up the difference.

While this may not be a feasible option for some couples, balancing your salaries a little more evenly could mean you get to keep the child benefit payments and leave you better off overall.

Salary sacrifice?
You may think that you can sign up for a host of different salary sacrifice schemes in order to reduce your income.However company cars, phones and other benefits are considered to be benefits-in-kind and part of your salary.

This means that you don’t get the same perceived salary deduction as with paying into a pension or purchasing child care vouchers.

Take a pay cut?
Taking a pay cut to reduce your income below the higher rate tax threshold so that you can keep your child benefit may seem like the easiest option.

However, while doing this could mean you lose less than doing nothing at all, paying the money you would have scarified into a pension would essentially have the same effect.

Regardless of your attitude to pensions, investing in your future in this way will leave you better off rather than just sacrificing the money so it’s very much worth considering.

If you don’t have a pension, why not try following our Action Plan: How to get a Pension.

Before you take any action to reduce your taxable income it’s important to research the full implications so that you make the right decision for your household finances.

About the Author:

By Martin Lane from money.co.uk

Categories
Networking

Technology Trend Report For Entrepreneurs

If you’re going to be entrepreneur, you’re better off preparing yourself for the new frontiers of online innovation. The best way to approach this is to think of the Internet as just the first phase in a telecommunication revolution that will change human interaction as we know it. The successful entrepreneur of tomorrow will be not only well versed in the innovations of today, but the innovations of tomorrow and the next. This involves preparing for the next phase of the Internet—the Web 3.0, which will include real time communications embedded in every nook and cranny of society, virtual reality interfaces taking over the workplace, and location-based messaging taking over the commercial landscape. This sea change will affect a wide variety of industries and professions, from healthcare contract management to online marketing.

Real time communication. It’s not just social media, chatting or texting. It’s all of these combined and layered on top of powerful new networks. Skype and Voip services are just the beginning. In the coming decade, we will be embedding real time communication applications in the simplest of every appliances, making ubiquitous real time video an everyday staple. Feel free to talk to your boss through a window on your microwave while you’re making toast. If you think this is overblown simply look at the rise of cloud services as a significant profitable and trusted industry, adopted by tech startups and Fortune 500 companies alike. Real time communication is just hitting its stride, but you can expect to see its muscle truly flexed during the upcoming Olympics.

Virtual reality communities. The future is going to see an exponential rise in virtual reality communities that will assist in everything from remotely held boardroom meetings to literal online dating, as in dating via avatars. Expect the trend toward virtual reality communities to mix business and pleasure and become the next great battleground for marketers and advertisers. It’s going to be Second City, except streamlined for everyday use. While it will be a while until we’re talking about the real Avatar, as in actually inhabiting someone else’s body, virtual reality will grow by bursts and fits in the coming decade and will slowly become as widely used as social media is now. The next big virtual reality communities will be like Second City, except streamlined for everyday use.

Location-based messaging. This trend is already in full motion but will become even more prevalent with the rise of the previous two trends. Place-based messaging services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook will grow to involve more real time video chatting. Expect to also begin seeing location-based messaging being used for ‘online’ places, like virtual reality communities. Services like Loopt are already pushing the envelope with ping-enabled “location-based text messaging”. Expect further experimentation in this industry, as demonstrated by ChatSq, a Foursquare extension that involves creating chatrooms that are attached to locations. Each venue will have the potential to become its own mobile social network. Marketers take note!

All three of these technologies already exist and have been widely adopted. But they are set to evolve qualitatively and quantitatively in the coming years. A wide variety of small business opportunies and venture capital streams are primed to result from these innovations. Entrepreneurs looking for leverage should be familiarizing themselves with these trends and the industries related to them. Don’t get left in the e-dust.

This Guest Post is written by Samantha Peters, an active blogger who enjoys writing about anything of interest to entrepreneurs and business start-ups.

Categories
Communication Skills

The Rule of Thirds: How to Truly Listen

“Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage,” wrote Publilius Syrus more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome.

Such wise advice from ages ago has never been more relevant. In the modern professional world, we are suffering from a listening crisis.

Actually, it’s a “lack-of-listening” crisis.

Whether your role is executive, managerial, sales, customer service or anything else, it is critically important to your success that you listen.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” wrote Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Too often we get that order mixed up. We focus on being understood as opposed to understanding those with whom we live and work.

Ask any of the greatest salespersons or sales trainers what it takes to succeed. Chances are that “ability to listen” will be at or near the top of the list. Success in sales requires you to understand your prospective client before you can do any sort of pitching, convincing or persuading. The smart salesperson asks carefully crafted questions designed to drill as deep as necessary to find out what makes the prospect tick. Truly listening to those answers allows a salesperson to customize, or at least portray, the product or service in such a way that creates maximum appeal.

By the way, “truly listening” doesn’t mean you act like you’re in one of those cheesy “active-listening” workshops. Many people who have completed such workshops look like they are listening actively – they have an intense look on their faces, nod their heads and occasionally paraphrase what the person is saying – but they still don’t retain any of it. Active listening is much more about understanding than it is about facial expressions and head-nodding.

Super executive Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler, once said, “I only wish I could find an institute that teaches people how to listen. Business people need to listen at least as much as they need to talk. Too many people fail to realize that real communication goes in both directions.”

Iacocca’s statement reminds me of the old saying, “God gave you one mouth and two ears; use them proportionately.”

In other words, we should listen twice as much as we talk. I call it the “Rule of Thirds.”

Two-thirds of the time you spend talking with a colleague, client or a prospect should be focused on the other person. One-third of the time is focused on yourself.

“No man ever listened himself out of a job,” said former U.S. president Calvin Coolidge. Simply put, listening is one of the top skills required for professional success.

But be careful you don’t over-do it. Some people become so committed to good listening, that they become 100 percent “interpersonal givers.” In other words, they spend three-thirds of their time listening to other people. If you do this, people will tend to like you, because you allowed them to talk about themselves. However, if you fail to reserve your third, they won’t know anything about you or how your business can help them. Listen twice as much as you talk but don’t forget to pitch something about yourself.

Why is focusing on the other person so important? The answer is simple: most people are rather self-absorbed. Want proof? Here it is: I am my most favorite subject. My friend is his most favorite subject. You are probably your most favorite subject.

Saying “I am my favorite subject” sounds awful, but it is not necessarily a selfish or narcissistic thing to say. After all, I spend a lot of time working on my favorite subject. I have invested much in my favorite subject. The success or failure of my favorite subject determines the direction of my life and has a big impact on the people I care about. I sometimes lay awake at night worrying about the things my favorite subject has screwed up.

Most people are the same way.

If you show earnest, sincere interest in my favorite subject, I can’t help but like you. I can’t help but feel some sort of connection with you. Showing sincere interest by truly listening disarms colleagues and clients and paves the way for your success.

You might be wondering to whom you should listen. Who is worthy of your attention? Who deserves your best listening skills? That’s easy: everyone. You never know who has the right information for you or knows just the right person you need to meet.

Sam Walton, the late founder of Wal-Mart, once said, “The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It’s terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stock boys.”

When it comes to listening, remember to do it sincerely and remember that everyone counts.

About the Author:

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. You can learn more and follow his “Business Motivation Blog” at JeffBeals.com.