Month: July 2013

Categories
Finance & Capital

How Would You Like to Fund Your Business?

fundbusiness

Article Contributed by Gladstone Brookes

Finding the necessary funding is perhaps the most crucial step in setting up your own business if you hope to survive the tough times gripping the economy. The good news is that there are many different ways to do this, meaning you can choose the method that you believe will best meet the needs of your fledgling organisation.

Loan

The most traditional and popular way to fund a new business is to apply for a loan from the bank. If your application is approved then they will lend you the money which you will pay back gradually over time, plus interest. The frequency of payments and rate of interest will be pre-determined before the deal is agreed and as long as you make sure not to take on more than you need to by agreeing to the likes of PPI, then loans can be a good way to support your business until it finds its feet.

Credit card

A business credit card can be very useful for making purchases when funds run dry or cash flow isn’t at its best; both situations you are likely to find yourself in during the early stages of trading. You have to make sure you keep on top of payments however, or else your credit rating will plummet and you’ll soon find yourself in debt you can no longer afford to pay off. Credit cards are very much a safety net for tough times; not an invitation to spend recklessly.

Grant

In some cases, government organisations or other businesses will offer grants to young companies to help them get up and running. Unlike a loan, this money is essentially a gift that does not need to be repaid and is most often awarded to – but not restricted to – businesses that intend to offer some sort of service or charity work.

Family and friends

Small businesses can often find all the financial support they need from their loved ones. Friends and family will generally agree to lend you money with much lower interest rates and a less strict repayment schedule, taking off a layer of pressure. It is important however to value their investment and treat it with the respect and gratitude it warrants; never take them for granted or else you could lose an investor and a loved one.

Venture capital

Venture capitalists are often wealthy business professionals or organisations that invest in business opportunities that the banks have deemed too risky. It has been suggested that those businesses who secure such funding are a lot more likely to succeed due to the reliable source of finance and business knowledge the investor brings to the table.

Crowdfunding

Very much a modern way of sourcing finance, crowdfunding can be done through the likes of the popular site, Kickstarter, where people and businesses can pledge money towards a creative idea that they believe has a future but lacks the necessary funding to make a reality. It is usually for a one-off idea and therefore is not a long term solution but doesn’t have to be repaid and can certainly help a budding entrepreneur to establish their business.

About the Author

This post was written by Gladstone Brookes. By taking up the claim of behalf of consumers, their specially trained members of staff work to get back money that has been lost through mis-sold PPI policies. £345 million has been reclaimed so far but they continue to accept requests to help people get the reimbursement they are entitled to.

Categories
Branding

6 Steps to Creatively Naming Your Business Venture

hello-my-name-is

Article Contributed by Holly Hurd

Naming your venture is one of the most exciting aspects of getting started, but it can be one of the most difficult to do. It’s an important step to spend time on. A bad name can actually stall your venture and a great name can move it forward. So how do you come up with a great name? Hurd offers 6 steps to creatively naming your business venture.

1. Time to brainstorm.

Start by writing down what you are offering and then write down as many related ideas, synonyms, puns, that you can think of. For example if you are starting a dessert business you might list: sugar, cupcakes, pies, cookies, brownies…anything related. When you can’t think of any more, search an online thesaurus to add to your list. Then add adjectives. In this example you might add yummy, delicious, tasty, sweet, delectable, and on and on. While brainstorming, also jot down keywords that describe your venture. Think like a potential customer; what keywords would they type into a search engine to find a product or service like yours? Keywords is just another list for you to mold your name from.

2. Get personal.

Make a list of names or things that mean something to you. It could be your name, your kids’ names, pet’s name, school’s name, home state, nickname, etc. Look at what the state flower, your astrological sign or your hometown team’s mascot is. The ideas are endless. What else is related? For example, if you are from the Carolinas and starting a line of girls clothing, your venture name could be “Carolina Girls” or “Sweet Caroline” or “Tarheel Togs” – you get the idea. Sticking with the dessert example, the name could be “Tarheel Treats” or “Carolina Sweet Treats.”

3. What’s your venture’s purpose?

Now write what the purpose of the venture is. In our example, you want to provide yummy desserts for parties and special occasions. So here is another list: party, celebration, fete, gala. Go to the synonym finder again. You should now have several long lists that will give you lots of ideas to choose from. How about “Southern Gala Girls” or “Southern Sweets”?

4. Catchy Combinations – think Clichés. 

You want a name that people will remember; something that describes who you are and what you do. Now you are ready to start combining words from your list. Think about common sayings or clichés. Look at words that start with the same letter for alliteration like in our above examples. Rhyming words are great too. Your name should clearly tell what you do. If your name doesn’t tell exactly what you do, add a tagline below. For example, “Fabulous Fetes”, Party planning for you or “Susie’s Sweets”, Delicious Desserts for Every Occasion. It should be a statement telling what you do in just a few words.

Quick Tips:

  • Your name should clearly tell what you do and represent all you do
  • Your name should be easy to pronounce and spell
  • Use keywords in your name to help with online search

5. Check Domain Availability 

From the time you start to put your venture out there to potential clients, your name will be linked to everything you do. Spend some time to get this right. Check the internet for similar names and see if the domain is available (www.instantdomainsearch.com). If so, once you decide on a name, claim the domain. You can do this through a hosting package for about $10 a year. You don’t want to spend time and money creating a brand and then go to start a webpage to find out it’s already taken. If “yourcompanyname.com” is taken, you may want to go back to square one. Additionally, you can take it one step further and protect your brand and name for $375 (current fee as of 2013) through the US government trademark office (http://www.uspto.gov) if you have plans to go beyond the local area with your venture.

6. Gather Feedback – what name ideas stick?

Once you come up with something you like, get feedback from your family and friends. What does your husband think? Do your kids like it? How about your friends? Use it in sentences or practice telling a client the name. For example, imagine you are talking with an old friend and you say, “I’ve started a new venture (fill in what you do)_____________, it’s called (fill in your name) __________.” Does it roll off your tongue, make sense, is it easy to remember?

Great VentureMom Names

  • One VentureMom I’ve talked with named Patty makes cakes for gatherings. So the name of her venture is “PattyCakes.” It combines her name with what she does and it’s a play on a term we all know and recognize. You can imagine what her business card and logo will look like.
  • Sam is here to help organize and save photos. She can be a lifesaver for those of us who have those boxes of photos in closets. She and her husband were joking about what to name her venture and thinking about the Dr. Seuss children’s book, Sam thought “Sam I Am.” So the name of her venture is “Sam-I-Am Media.”

Other great VentureMom names:

  • “Vintage Vogue” — vintage jewelry
  • “Birdy and Grace” — golf wear for women, Grace is the founder’s daughter’s name
  • “Greening our Children” — a charity to educate parents on how to be green
  • “The Common Courtesy” — a manners class for kids

By now your creative juices should be flowing with ideas for naming your venture. Your venture’s name is an important decision and you should dedicate the time this week to the six step process outlined above. Having a meaningful, relevant and catchy name will resonate with your potential customers and will help you brand your company effectively.

About the Author

Holly Hurd is a Serial Entrepreneur and founder of an online community called VentureMom.com to help mom business owners, comes across so many great names from the moms she features.

Categories
Entrepreneurs

Your 2013 Mid-Year Check-In — 5 Steps to End 2013 With a Bang Rather Than a Whimper

With 2013 half over, it’s time to pause, take a breath, and see if you’re on track with your goals.

 

This is an essential part of running a successful business — taking structured time throughout the year to work ON your biz and make sure the path you’re on is, in fact, the path you want to be on.

 

Don’t do this and you’re just asking to build a biz that doesn’t serve you (not to mention waking up one more morning and realizing your actual results are nowhere near what you want them to be).

 

We don’t want that to happen to you so let’s get started with your Mid-Year Check-In.

 

Now there are a lot of ways to do this, I’ll share some steps I use and you can modify or implement to make it work for you.

 

1. Block off time in your calendar. Maybe it’s a couple of hours, maybe it’s a full day, but it’s important to make this commitment to yourself.

 

2. Gather the necessary documents. You’ll need your marketing calendar and your revenue report, plus you’ll need the goals and plan you put together at the beginning of 2013. (What? You didn’t write down your goals or put a plan together for 2013? Well let’s put that aside for now — but know we’ll be coming back to that in another article.)

 

3. Take some time to analyze where your biz is right now. Now this is NOT about judging yourself or your biz, all you’re doing is taking a realistic picture of where your biz is at this moment. And I also want you to review your initial 2013 goals and plans.(If you have them — if you don’t, I suspect you have some hazy idea in your head where you wanted to be in your biz at this point in 2013 so take some time to write that down just so you have something to compare.)

 

Where are you on track? Where are you off track? The places where you’re off track, was there a time this year where things were clicking and then they stopped? And how off track are you?

 

And for all the places where you’re on track — give yourself a big congratulations!

 

4. Okay so now that you know where you are and how that compares to where you wanted to go, now it’s time to look at the rest of the year. Do you want to continue on the same path? Do you want to change paths? Did you lose the path and you need to retrace your steps to get back on the path?

 

This might be a good place to do a little journaling or maybe some meditation or some other sort of inner check in to decide what you want the rest of your year to look like.

 

5. Put your plan together. Get out all your calendars — your meeting calendar and your marketing/promo calendar — and actually put your plan to paper. This is CRUCIAL — successful people have WRITTEN plans and goals and you are FAR more likely to actually achieve your goals if they’re written down. (And this isn’t just me saying it — there’s an actual study out there about it.)

 

And I have 2 bonus tips — first make sure you give yourself a pat on the back — this is FANTASTIC you did this for yourself. And don’t forget to start working your plan (a plan is great but now it’s time to actually implement).

Categories
Entrepreneurs

3 Tips for Being a Successful Entrepreneur in the 21st Century

great-entrepreneurs

Ask anyone who has started their own business how they got to where they are, and there’s a strong chance that “hard work and determination” will be mentioned. While just about anyone can become an entrepreneur, it takes a certain mindset in order to truly make it in today’s business climate. After all, more new businesses sink than swim these days, and those that survive often do so because they’ve tapped into a niche market.

No one ever said that entrepreneurship was easy. If you make the right decisions and keep a clear head on your shoulders, however, it can be a lot of fun. Succeeding in the 21st century is all about learning how to use the tools that you have at your disposal and implementing proper time-management skills.

With a little bit of hard work and determination, you’ll be on your way towards finding success in business as an entrepreneur.

Focus On Your Vision

There are plenty of people in the professional sector who will tell you that even if you have a strong interest in your vision, you’ll need to adapt in order to meet the needs of your clientele. While there is certainly some truth to this, sentiments such as this often discourage entrepreneurs from taking the leaps necessary to getting where they want to in business. If you have a clear vision, stick to it. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve your goals, especially if you believe in your business plan. The difference between entrepreneurs who sink and those that swim is that the latter category is typically filled with people who stick with what they believe in, even in the face of controversy and hardship. Consider the story of Jeff Bartel of FPL Group – his foward-thinking mindset landed him Leadership Florida’s “Distinguished Member” award in 2009, and he wouldn’t have likely gained this without following his own path.

Take on a Business Partner

Many entrepreneurs consider themselves to be control freaks, taking every aspect of the business into their own hands whenever possible. While there are some benefits to this approach, it’s also a very quick path towards burnout. Entrepreneurs, after all, aren’t necessarily equipped to handle both the financial and operational sides of a business. If you are more operationally-minded, you might want to hire someone to deal specifically with the business’s finances. Taking on a business partner often means sacrificing pay for yourself, but since it can also increase your chances of building a successful business, it’s more than worth considering.

Don’t Waste Any Time

Time is everything for entrepreneurs. Just because the Internet has made it easier than before to own and operate a business doesn’t mean you can sleep til noon an expect to find success. A good idea can be a great start, but that’s all it is – a beginning. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to get your business off the ground and keep it afloat, and the more you can get done in a single day, the better off you’ll be. Strive to put in at least 8 hours of work each day, and don’t hesitate to burn the midnight oil when the situation calls for it. You might find yourself a bit over-worked at first, but it’ll just make things easier for you down the road.

There’s never been a better time to become an entrepreneur than now.  Just remember – stick to your vision, consider taking on a little help and develop a strong work ethic!

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Categories
Planning & Management

3 No-Cost Ways to Positively Receive More Business

Business Graph

Article Contributed by Joey Faucette

Zig Ziglar describes well the essence of the fifth core practice, “Receive,” of a Work Positive lifestyle in which you increase sales with greater team productivity so you get out of the office earlier: “When you help others get what they want, you get everything you want,” he said.

What goes around, comes around.

You reap what you sow.

So how do you actually practice “Receive” in your daily business?

Here are 3 No-Cost Ways to Positively Receive More Business:

Discover What Your Customers Want

The most powerful, transformational question you ask your customers is, “How can I help you?”

Everyone wants some kind of help. All of us find challenges, get stuck, and want more positive something. That’s one reason this question is so vital and robust. You surge the relationship to new heights by proactively caring enough to ask.

This question is also empowering. Rather than assuming you know what they want, you ask. This curiosity steers your business directly to more revenue because you avoid answering questions they’re not asking. You stay on the profitability path as this question is your GPS to your next pot of gold.

Deliver What Your Customers Want

Many times we fail to ask “How can I help you?” because we fear our customers will ask for something we can’t deliver. Just the opposite is true.

Your customers’ answers are based on their relationship with you. Even if it’s a new relationship, what they know of you and your business informs their response. They offer a service or product based on what they understand you can deliver.

For instance, I recently asked, “How can I help you?” and a coaching client asked about preparing to shift his business toward less work involvement to free time to spend with his grandchildren. I understand personal and organizational development.

I asked “How can I help you?” of another client who, knowing I’m a best-selling author, responded, “I think I want to write a book.”

Our customers respond based on who they know us to be. So ask and deliver with confidence.

Declare What You Want

Asking “How can I help you?” opens up a mutually beneficial relationship. Your customer will ask, “Now how can I help you?”

Be ready by already having declared to yourself, “Here’s what I want…” Share that with your customer when the opportunity presents. Even prompt it by saying, “May I ask a favor?”

Of course you receive more business from that one customer. Also, be prepared to ask for referrals. You’ve earned the trust and established credibility. “Who else do you know?” is a powerful question that prompts a direct response.

You desire to positively receive more business. Get it as you discover what your customers want, deliver it, and then declare what you want as you Work Positive today.

Bio

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), Work Positive coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.