Month: September 2012

Categories
Finance & Capital

Small Business Financing Solutions for Entrepreneurs

Article Contributed by Chris M

A typical dilemma today for young business owners is that they operate their new business with inadequate funding. These entrepreneurs believe that they will “get by.” The unfortunate reality is that most businesses cannot succeed under this premise because good customer service is generally the first sacrifice to be made in a tight budget. This is a fact for businesses just starting out as well as businesses that have been operational for years. Management will cut back employee hours and any extras that usually makeup enhancing customer experience. In order for any business to develop and expand with some form of success it will require all operations to run at maximum efficiency. A business does not have to cut back on important expenses during tough economic times if it acquires additional funding.

Business financing has started to become more easily accessible as numerous new private loan providers join the business funding industry. Despite the fact that banking institutions continuously refuse businesses access to funding, a large number of new private business loan companies are giving small businesses the working capital they need.

Many of these lenders provide you with business loans according to a business’ month to month gross income. This makes approving an application much easier so credit worthiness isn’t a major approval factor as it would be with most major banks. Business owners will not be subject to in depth credit checks so the application and financing process is also much faster. These types of business loans are called a merchant cash advance or an ACH business loan.

A merchant cash advance is a transaction between a lender and a merchant to acquire future credit card sales at a reduced price. The application process for this type of funding is usually very fast as there are no massive credit checks or document requirements. The amount of a merchant cash advance loan made available to a business owner can be as much as double the monthly gross income. The merchant cash advance as well as any extra fees are repaid with a portion of each credit card or debit card sale the moment it is generated via electronic payments from the processing company. For businesses that process credit and debit cards a merchant cash advance is a good resource for short term financing.

There are however a variety of small businesses today that collect their monthly gross revenues without the use of a credit card processing company. Manufacturing companies, construction companies, and a lot of small retail merchants only collect checks or cash as a payment option. A large number of online lending companies today offer ACH loans as an alternative financing solution for organizations that don’t feature credit cards as a type of payment. The loan company provides the business owner a bulk payment which is also an agreement to purchase a part of future gross sales at a discount. The payments to the lender are similar to a merchant cash advance whereas a portion of the revenues are deducted as they are deposited in the business account. An ACH loan is an excellent loan option for organizations that don’t utilize credit card processing.

In order to determine that you’ll be working with a reputable lender a business owner needs to view the lender’s web-based profile. Shield Funding or AdvanceMe are examples of a reputable lender with an ‘A’ rating and the both companies have been providing small businesses with funding for almost a decade. Whether you process credit cards or not, there are business loans available online today that can help you maintain the quality of your business through difficult economic times or the early development stages.

About the Author

Chris M writes for Shield Funding, a leading provider of business loans to many of the nation’s small to medium-sized businesses. Go to the website to learn about merchant cash advances, unsecured business loans, and several other important small business lending products.

Categories
Online Business

Starting Up Online: Streamlining Your Approach

Article Contributed by John Burns

The internet has given us the tools, opportunities, impetus and means to make a success of ourselves in ways we could only have dreamed of a few years ago.

In the early 1990s you might have had a natty t-shirt range that you were itching to sell, but lacked the capital behind you to set up the shop and marketing campaign required to get it off the ground; nowadays a Twitter account and a Big Cartel site will do this for you.

But of course the problem with such a suddenly levelled playing field is that – while it’s undoubtedly easier for you – it’s easier for everyone else as well. Because of this, there is much more competition out there and consequently it is difficult to get your voice heard.

Here are a few tips to streamlining your approach and selling your products online.

Remove the Links from the Chain 

Studies have shown that consumers online get bored very easily. As a result, any site which requires them to click through page after page of content on the way to finding the item they require, only to have them click through a load more pages to get to the check out afterwards, is going to suffer.

Unless your product is literally life changing, the browsing public is going to get bored and wander off to find what they need elsewhere. Streamlining your site can combat this.

By all means, include an insightful blog on your page, but keep the links to these articles out of the way of the items on your landing page. Your landing page should be devoted to information about your products, nice looking pictures of your products and “Buy Now” or “Add to Bag” buttons.

The point is to make the process as quick and painless as possible and to minimise the number of clicks required for customers to make a purchase. This is key to a streamlined and effective online shop.

Understand the Blog

However, this is not to say that the blog does not play an important role on the site. The vital thing here is to understand exactly what that role is. A blog is there to carry out its own duties; namely, to raise the SEO profile of your site. It should contain the sorts of keywords, links and content that make it attractive to the algorithms Google use to order their search lists.

This acts as a sort of virtual shop window for your company; raising your profile and advertising your wares to the numerous denizens of the web.

The blog also provides useful content to browsers who are unwilling to have sales pitches crammed down their throat. Linking these articles to Twitter, Facebook or other social media site enables users to access this information when they perhaps had previously not even heard of your site. This allows you to expand your customer base.

Your blog articles should also include handy links that enable browsers to navigate to parts of the site where you can convert them to sales. Discreet pictures of special offers, with clickable links, are ideal for this and will help you to rapidly grow your list of customers. Also, Google loves sites which are arranged in cyclically clickable networks, so links like these will not only streamline your site but will also raise your SEO profile.

So, as you can see, the blog is vitally important, but it should never get in the way of those all important sales.

About the Author

This article was written by John Burns on behalf of Simplify digital. Simplify digital are Ofcom accredited and provide independent advice to consumers looking for the right broadband, TV and home phone packages. www.simplifydigital.co.uk

Categories
Success Attitude

5 Strategies to Become Highly Successful and Get More Done

Business owner’s To Do lists are endless … I mean there is so much to do all the time that it feels like a never-ending cycle of To Do lists! And they can spend all day being “busy” but at the end of the day never feel like they’ve accomplished anything…

… they still don’t have a full practice of ideal clients.
… their marketing systems are hit-or-miss.
… they do not have consistent cash flow.

But how can this be? They’ve been busy all day long!

The thing is they’ve been busy doing all the WRONG things … focusing on those things that are easy but do not relate directly to their bottom line. For example…

  • Updating their website before making sales calls.
  • Checking Facebook to see what everyone else is doing, before writing their newsletter.
  • Checking emails instead of reaching out to potential joint venture partners or organizations to secure speaking gigs.

And let’s face it, making an update to your website is a LOT easier than having to make a sales call … but it’s the sales call that is going to directly affect your bottom line, not updating your website.

So here are my top five strategies that will help you become more successful and get more done:

1. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Yes, being a business owner is hard. And it requires us to step outside of our comfort zone. And making sales calls and putting yourself out there doesn’t come easy to many people … but you have to get used to it if you want to create a thriving and profitable business. So get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

2. Prioritize your To Do list. To Do lists are great – they help you stay focused. But only if you’re focusing on the RIGHT things. So go through that big list that you’ve got and ask yourself, “If I do this, how will it directly relate to my bottom line?” If it doesn’t, then move it to the bottom of the list, or cross it off altogether. You only want to focus on those things that are going to relate directly to your bottom line … anything else you either delegate, cross it off, or do it when you’ve got nothing better to do.

3. Get an Accountability Partner. If you can’t stay focused by yourself, team up with an accountability partner. Being held accountable does wonders for your productivity level. I go to a personal trainer twice a week because I want the accountability of working with her … if I’m left to my own devices I’m likely to give up after 15 minutes as I’m exhausted. An accountability partner will push you and make you keep going, even when the going gets tough. And reciprocate too!

4. Don’t be a slave to your emails or your phone. Plan to check your emails twice a day (morning and afternoon) and let unscheduled calls go to voicemail. Email and the phone are two of the biggest distractions for solo service professionals, so have a strategy for managing these distractions.

5. Plan your calendar. Block out specific times in your calendar for certain activities. For example, instead of having your client calls scheduled all over the place, set aside two or three batches of two hours each week for clients calls. Make Friday your Friday Follow-up day … the day when you go through your contact management database and follow-up with people. Monday can be set aside as your marketing day – Monday marketing. When you manage your calendar in this way you will find your time management issues disappear.

Follow these five simple strategies to become more successful and get more done … and watch your business grow!

Categories
Sales & Marketing

5 Tips to Make Your Marketing More Creative

Same old same old just doesn’t sell anymore. To make your marketing stand out, you need to get creative. Below are five tips designed to get your creative juices flowing. Some are brainteasers or are what Michael Michalko in “Thinkertoys” calls Linear Thinkertoys. Others fall under intuition or Intuitive Thinkertoys.

Some tips may appeal to you more than others. My suggestion is to try them all. Even the ones you’re not drawn to may still open some doors that wouldn’t have opened any other way.

These tips will work whether you sell a product, a service or both.

1. Find the “second right answer.” Roger von Oech talks about this in A Whack on the Side of the Head. Don’t be content with the first good idea you come up with. Take the time to think of a second, or third or 50th idea. Quantity counts – the more ideas you have to choose from, the more likely you’ll discover an excellent or even a brilliant one. Remember, Thomas Edison discovered thousands of ways a light bulb didn’t work.

2. Change the question. If you change the question, you’re probably going to get a different answer. You say you want to sell more products? What if you changed the question to how can you make more money? Well, there are other ways to make more money than to sell more products – maybe you lower the cost of making the product or you raise the price of the product. Now you suddenly have new avenues to explore rather than just going down the same tired path.

3. Ask your product or service how it wants to be sold. Now we move into more intuitive techniques. Start by getting yourself into a relaxed state. Take a few deep breaths or practice some relaxation techniques. Imagine your product or service in front of you. Now ask it questions. Who do you want to be sold to? How do you want to be sold? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Who do you think you can help? Why do you want to help them? You can also do this technique as a journal exercise. Write down the question and answer. See what bubbles up onto the paper.

4. Paint a public relations campaign. What would a press release look like if you painted it? Or sculpted it? How about a dance number? A collage? Take any part of your marketing that troubles you and turn it into a piece of art. By combining two dissimilar acts, you may discover your answer. Or you may not come up with anything at all, but just the act of “playing” and “creating” could jolt something loose. Hours or days later your idea may suddenly end up in your lap.

5. Walk away from it. If nothing is working, then stop. You can literally walk away by taking a walk, or just quit thinking about it. This is especially important if you find yourself getting frustrated or discouraged. Give your subconscious time to mull things over. The idea may just suddenly appear to you. Or, after a few days, try another exercise or two. That may be the catalyst you need.

The most important tip of all? Make sure you have a blast. Being creative should be fun. Keep it light and fun, don’t struggle too hard with it, and see how many ideas you’re rewarded with.

Categories
Uncategorized

3 Ways to Give Positive Customer Service in a Negative Election Year

Your customers aren’t sure what to expect from you right now.

Election year uncertainty casts a negative anxiety over doing business that political ads only exacerbate. Customers aren’t sure who cares, who to trust, and who is on their side.

How do you engage this adversity so as to increase sales, and get greater productivity from your team so you can leave the office early to do what you love with your family?

Employ these 3 Ways to Give Positive Customer Service in a Negative Election Year:

Give Care

Your customers are thinking, “Who cares about me?”

Let your customers know they are far more than an account number, or monthly payment, or transaction size. Tell them, “It’s all about you.”

How? Ask yourself, “What are the results our business produces for our customers?” Think from their perspective. Talk about the benefits, not the features of what you do.

When your customers sense your care, they return often and with their friends.

Give Core Values

Your customers are thinking, “I’m not sure I can trust you.”

They’ve been lied to before, and feel lied to right now by all the political ads.

Cast core values like honesty and integrity to your customers. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale used to say, “Promises are like crying babies in a theater. They should be carried out immediately.”

Keep your word by producing promised results. If you fail to deliver on time, own the results and acknowledge them before your customer finds out.

Customers are far more likely to believe that you’ll make it right and repeat their business at your address.

Give Cooperation

Your customers are thinking, “Who’s on my side?”

Politicians cast stones at each other, telling us what the other person can’t do. Statesmanship and bipartanship are virtues lost in the lust for controlling the headlines.

Cooperate with your customers. Be on their side.

“How may I help you?” then listening deeply for a response casts a willingness to work together to solve problems. What they ask for trumps what you have in stock or what gets you a trip.

You succeed when your customers succeed whether it’s a home remodeling project or a million dollar marketing campaign or helping them achieve their financial goals.

Yes, your customers are unsure right now. By employing these 3 Ways to Give Positive Customer Service, you avoid the Negative Election Year effect and Work Positive!

About the Author: 

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who help professionals discover success in the silver lining of their business and achieve their dreams. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.