Month: December 2012

3 Marketing Habits You MUST Cultivate for Biz Success

Post author By
Post date December 6, 2012

If you’re like many entrepreneurs, marketing is not one of your fave activities. (In fact, I would bet the only thing you detest more than marketing is sales.)

The problem is if you aren’t regularly marketing your business, your cash flow is also not that regular (and there’s nothing worse than a feast-or-famine business model).

So what can you do? Well, the easiest fix is to start marketing regularly. And the easiest way to start doing THAT is to make marketing a habit. To help you get started I’ve given you 3 marketing habits that are essential to business success:

1. Do 1 lead-generating activity a week. Maybe it’s posting an article to your blog. Maybe you record a video. Maybe someone interviews you to their list. Maybe it’s spending a half-hour on Facebook. Maybe you mix it up and do something different each week. Whatever you decide doesn’t matter as much as doing something.

2. Do 1 nurturing activity to your list each week. This could be anything from sending an ezine or hosting a free call or even just sending your list a few tips or a content-rich video. The idea behind this is to provide content to your list (and by your list, I mean the list of emails you’ve hopefully been collecting at your website).

No one wants to be on an email list and just get constantly sold to. You want to be giving them value and giving them a reason to not just stay on your list but also pay attention to you.

3. Do 1 selling activity each month. Yes I know I just said not to sell constantly to your list, but if you never do any selling than you end up with a list that doesn’t buy from you. You need to balance selling and giving, that’s how you end up with a warm responsive list.

Selling activities include selling your own products, programs or services (for instance launching a new program to your list or maybe doing a quick email-only sale) or offering an affiliate or joint venture product or program to your list. (Affiliate means you offer something to your list and get a commission for each sale you make.)

My suggestion is to balance your own launches with affiliate or joint venture launches. Even though you make more money with your own launches, they’re quite exhausting to do not to mention taxing your list. By mixing it up you can give both yourself and your list a break while still being able to sell.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself “with everything else on my to-do list, how am I possibly going to develop these marketing habits?”

Well, there’s no reason it has to be you personally. You can certainly have your team help. In fact, I would encourage delegating as much as possible. And if you do, then it becomes less a personal habit for you and instead it turns into a habit for your business. (Doesn’t that sound better? Your business has 3 marketing habits that are regularly done regardless of how involved you end up being.)

Now you’re on your way to building a successful, thriving business.

Tags marketing, Marketing habits, small business marketing, strategic internet marketing

Success Attitude

Objective Setting Effectively

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date December 6, 2012

Article Contributed by Mark James

Objective setting; It can prove a useful tool in the entrepreneur’s armoury, helping to provide greater vision throughout their business. If done correctly, the establishing of goals and regular benchmarking provides managers and employees alike with a greater understanding of where they are, as well as where they need to be.

Equally though, the establishing of unrealistic objectives can prove demotivating. If set incorrectly, they can be equally as destructive as they are beneficial. Setting objectives is a balancing act in many ways and it takes a considerable amount of thought. If you’re in the process of setting objectives or plan to do so, here’s some things to consider…

Firstly, stop and take stock

Stop and examine every aspect of your business before you go about setting your objectives. Bear in mind the external environment too. Undertake a SWOT and PEST analysis, this helping to ensure that your objectives are shaped by sound research.

If done correctly, a SWOT analysis will help you to determine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing your business, whilst a PEST analysis will outline the Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors that can impact on your start up.

Having an idea of your businesses capabilities, as well as the current trading environment, will help in your objective creation.

Keep them SMART

The SMART acronym is something worth bearing in mind when you set your objectives, the respective letters standing for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed. Adhering to these five terms, you should be left with solid objectives, capable of acting as both a useful benchmarking and motivational tool.

Of course, the deeming of what’s a realistic objective will vary throughout the business. Therefore it’s important to consider the next tip…

Consult your employees

Objectives should ideally be agreed through consultation with employees, rather than simply set by the Managers and Directors. If employees input isn’t considered, this can lead them believing they work in dictatorial workplace…and as we see time and time again, dictatorships often collapse.

Let the workforce help shape your objectives. This should give them a greater sense of belonging and responsibility, thus leading to higher levels of motivation and job satisfaction.

Seek objective opinion

Consulting employees can go a long way to help you achieving this, their input ensuring your sheer enthusiasm doesn’t get the better of you. They too though, may be a little overzealous, or perhaps equally cautious.

With this mind it may be wise to speak to some sort of business consultancy, their input can bring in a degree of impartiality.

About the Author

Mark James is an in-house Writer for Crunch, an online accountancy firm based in the UK. He specialises in Small Business and Finance, more specifically how start-ups can succeed in what’s a tough economic environment.

Starting Up

Business Plans: Why You Should Study

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date December 4, 2012

For those who have never owned or operated a business, taking the plunge and becoming an entrepreneur can be an anxiety-producing experience. No one is immune to the stress that comes along with starting a business, although it’s fair to say that there are ways for people to make things easier on themselves. One of the main things to take into consideration is just how important it is to have a strong business plan when venturing into the business world. In order for a business plan to truly be solid, however, one needs to study as many business plans as possible.

The following are just a few reasons why studying business plans can help you to get ahead, all of which are worth taking the time to focus on:

Studying Business Plans Allows You to Pinpoint Mistakes

Sometimes the most important reason to study a business plan is not to learn what to do, but what not to do. There are a variety of examples of companies that have perhaps once had a very good run in business, yet a mistake or two caused everything to fall apart. Studying a business plan from such a company will help you to keep an eye on similar mistakes that could cause issues for your company. Since many business plans are available online, there are more examples to take a look at than you’ll ever truly need.

Studying Business Plans Can Improve Your Marketing Efforts

Everyone in the business world knows just how important it is for a company to have solid marketing on their side. Without the right marketing plan, your chances of succeeding will be extremely low. Fortunately, you can learn a lot about how to market your business by reading business plans from companies that are in a similar discipline as your own. Let’s say, for example, that you want to create a free website. Studying a business plan from another company can help you to understand which way to go about doing so, and can help you to avoid making a costly mistake.

Studying Business Plans Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur

If you want to get better at business, you have to do what it takes to internalize the right knowledge. Much of this knowledge is actually learned the hard way by many people, although you can avoid letting this happen to you by simply reading as many business plan examples and case studies as you can get your hands on. Many of these are available online for free, and can serve as excellent material for learning which methods and techniques are likely to work for your business. The more you can read, the better your chances of succeeding in business will be.

Studying business plans is one of the least expensive, yet most beneficial things you can do for your business. While it can indeed be time-consuming, it will dramatically increase the chances of your business succeeding, and doesn’t have to cost you a dime if you take the right route.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Work Life

Why Reinvesting in Your Business Could Hurt Your Retirement Future?

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date December 3, 2012

Article Contributed by Neil Jesani

A recent Wall Street Journal study showed that more than half of the 799 small business owners surveyed, 56% considered their business as their retirement plan, or at least had their retirement plan tied to their business. And because of the economy, most of them are expected to retire after age 65.

This statistic disturbed me! How can anyone tie up all of their money and time into one retirement plan option?

Now don’t get me wrong.

As someone who runs one of the fastest growing, privately held online life insurance brokerage firms in North America, I know how important it is to re-invest in your business. I understand that part of the entrepreneurial dream, involves building a business and then selling it when you hit retirement age so you can spend the rest of your life relaxing and doing just what you want with your days and nights.

The Harsh Reality and Why You May Be Working Longer in Your Business More Years Than Planned…

In today’s tough economy you can be working many more years than you’d planned since there is no guarantee that you’ll get the price that you’re asking for when you sell your business. I don’t want to be a downer but four years ago, the median asking price for a small business was about $225,000, and the median sale price was about $200,000. Now, the median asking price is about $175,000, while the median sale price is less than $150,000. That’s a big change in just four years.

That’s why many small business owners who are reaching the age of retirement are finding themselves in a situation like a 62 year old catering business owner who was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article. The owner is stuck in “business purgatory” – not successful enough to sell the business for a big profit and without enough available in his retirement account to support his high net worth lifestyle that he’s become accustomed to.

Yes, you need to work on your business and re-invest in it. But at the same time, you don’t want to be stuck in business purgatory. You want to build a secure future for yourself.

How Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs Should Be Investing Their Money for a Secure Retirement

Those small business owners who do not tie all of their retirement funds to the business usually focus on only one retirement investment strategy – the 401(k). In reality, there are quite a few retirement options specifically designed for small business owners who want to cut taxes and position themselves for a comfortable retirement. These options include:

Profit sharing and SEP plans – These plans were officially created by Congress as an income tax and retirement planning tool for high earning, self-employed physicians, professionals and business owners. With these plans, you define the contribution you make. For example, you would contribute lesser of $50,000 or 100% (25% for SEP plan) of participant’s compensation to your defined contribution plan. For example, a business owner makes $100,000 in W2 income from his or her business. That business owner could contribute lower of $50,000, or 25% of compensation. Since that amount would total $25,000, he or she would contribute the lower amount to their defined contribution plan like SEP.
Defined Benefit Plan – In a defined benefit plan, a business owner does not define the contribution made to the plan, but rather, the amount of the retirement benefit at the retirement age. Based on your current age and income in relation to your intended age of retirement, you must establish how much to contribute annually to the defined benefit plan to ensure adequate benefits at retirement. Essentially the biggest bonus to a defined benefit plan is that it will give you a significantly larger deduction, up to $250,000, as compared to the maximum of $50,000 limit for year 2012 deduction from a defined contribution plan.
7702 Private Pension Plan – This plan is “America’s Best Kept Secret” as it has two components that work symbiotically. The first component has a cash account which enables you to:

Contribute after tax dollars
Earn compounding dividends on the contributions – tax deferred
Take advantage of tax advantaged withdrawals as unlimited withdrawals are allowed before age 59 ½ without penalties, unlike a ROTH IRA or a traditional IRA.

The second component to the section 7702 plan is a life insurance program. If the account holder passes away, it pays a death benefit to the designated beneficiary. The death benefit is typically 3-6 times the invested amount – depending on your age. Furthermore, if the account holder passes away, the death benefit or cash account, whichever higher is paid to the beneficiary tax-free.

Now, it’s never too late nor too early to start investing for a secure retirement. You don’t know what the future has in store for you, your family and your business. So, don’t count on your business as your sole retirement funding source.

About the Author:

Recognized by the Consumers’ Research Council of America as one of “America’s Top Financial Planners”, BeamaLife CEO Neil Jesani helps small business owners create new wealth, protect their assets, secure their retirement and cut their taxes using nonconventional life insurance strategies. Download Neil’s guide on “How to Receive Additional $250,000 Income Tax Deduction Through a Defined Benefit Plan” at: http://www.beamalife.com/250000-in-income-tax-deduction-for-year-2012/