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Managing The Stress In Your Small Business

By Melinda Emerson on May 15, 2012 in Guest Articles, Your Small Business

Manage Small Business Stress When you put out your shingle that says open for business, you immediately take on 10-14 jobs all at once. Even the best multi-tasker, can become a spaghetti brain at times, especially when everything happens all at once. How you handling stress is a key ingredient in your long-term success in business. Here is a list of techniques that a small business person can use to help manage their daily stress.

Take a deep breath: If your to do list is out of hand, take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get your mind off of the problem. A person could take a walk, listen to some music, read the newspaper or do an activity that will give them a fresh perspective on things. Stress and anxiety are very common when you work in business.

Break it down: When facing a current or upcoming task at your job that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, divide the task into a series of smaller steps and then complete each of the smaller tasks one at a time. Completing these smaller tasks will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success.

Challenge your thinking: Challenge your negative thinking with positive statements and realistic thinking. When encountering thoughts that make you fearful or depressed, challenge those thoughts by asking yourself questions that will maintain objectivity and common sense. For example, you are afraid that you will not get that contract you’ve been working on for over a year –do not give into the fear. This will depresses you. The fact of the matter is that there all are kinds of opportunities available and just because you don’t get this contract doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the world. It just wasn’t meant for you.

Practice stress relief: Do something regularly to help you manage your stress. Try starting an exercise routine or running. Some people enjoy yoga and team sports. Do not just sit in your office and worry all day. Surround yourself with mentors and others who can give you good advice. Running a business is all about making the hard decisions, but you can’t let the stress get to you or drive your decision making.

Take it one day at a time in your business. Remember, that you want to make decisions based on facts and not your emotions. There are usually other factors that cannot be anticipated and can affect the results of any situation. Get all of the facts of the situation and use them to your advantage. The more control you have over how you handle stress, the better off you will be in the long run.

Managing stress in your small business Managing your stress takes practice. The more you practice, the better you will become.

About the author: Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods” – an easy to read book that presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. For additional information go to: http://www.managingfear.com

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Should You Have Good Pricing or Great Pricing?

By Melinda Emerson on May 14, 2012 in Cash Flow & Finance, Grow Your Business

Should you have good pricing or great pricing? Our first instinct is to have great prices that will permit us to crush the competition, gain market share and fuel fast growth. The usual problem is that great prices typically provide slim profit margins. Good pricing, however, over the long term, should create enough profitability to make your enterprise a business rather than a glorified hobby. The challenge is developing a pricing strategy that is simple in concept and execution. How you create your best pricing will depend on your type of business, your sales objectives, competition, marketing strategy and/or cost structure.

Let’s look at several different types of businesses and their different approaches to pricing: Brick and mortar retail/wholesale enterprises which depend on inventory to sell, typically price the goods on arrival and the pricing can be manufacturer’s suggested retail (with or without discounts), or a standard markup of 50 to 100% depending on the item. Commonly competitive items, like a gallon of milk for example, should be shopped to be sure your price is close to that in stores like yours. It is important to feature the occasional “loss leader”, an item you sell at minimal markup, to stimulate traffic. The overall objective, however, is to have an inventory mix that will give you solid profit margins at the sharpest price points possible (considering your competitors pricing), especially on high-turnover items).

There are some factors, however, that can allow you to build generous margins with minimal competitive penalties. For example, my local convenience store has a 15 to 20% premium on much of what they sell compared to similar items in the local supermarket. The candy, soda, dairy products, and other grocery items are limited in variety and customers typically pay without complaint especially when the purchase must be made when the supermarket is closed or farther away. You can also charge more if your service is unique, for example you repair certain luxury cars, or you are in industrial air conditioning repair, or a doctor with a specialty practice, or a lawyer who deals only with tax litigation. Typically, the more specialized and unique the service the more you can usually charge.

So what should you be thinking about when you are considering your pricing strategy?

Whatever you charge, make sure you cover your costs. A good price should do it; too many great prices might put you out of business.
If competitive conditions are good for you, that is you have few competitors and solid demand, don’t be afraid to squeeze out a few additional profit dollars in your pricing. You can always lower them later if competition heats up.
Focus on cost controls. Work diligently to drive your costs down because it will let you make more money without raising your prices.

Finally, don’t be emotional about creating your pricing program. Let your numbers, e.g. overhead, material costs, sales costs, and whatever else goes into you getting your product sold drive your pricing. It is the only way you are going to be successful. Good luck!

Do you have any good pricing advice?

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is America’s #1 small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestselling author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

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Presentation Communication – Your Quest to Impress

By Melinda Emerson on May 7, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, My Recommendations, Technology

Sponsored Post

All businesses depend on sending the right messages to their customers. Whether it is a brick and mortar office, retail store, online enterprise, a direct sales business or some type of consulting firm, you have one chance to make a first impression, and your business message must be clear. Customers will focus on what they see, what you say, and how you say it.

Look at what your customer sees

Your advertising collateral says a lot about your business. Do you have a color sign out front with the business phone number? Do you have color flyers and quality direct mail pieces? Do you have color packaging that implies quality? Are you effectively using your display space to attract customers to walk-in and then buy once they are inside? Do you have a helpful business website with great photos and customer testimonials?

Just as most customers would have reservations about eating in a dirty restaurant, buying upscale goods from a poorly-organized, junky store, purchasing from a customer-unfriendly website, or obtaining consulting services from a person with poor communications skills – your printed and digital materials have to help convince a prospective customer that what you are selling will definitely solve their problem. As a small- or medium-sized business person, your sales window is usually very small. Fundamentally, on that first impression, they need to believe that you can deliver the goods or services they want. Every customer wants to feel good about a purchase decision. Your job is to use your marketing collateral to reinforce the point that your company will meet their requirements without a problem.

Show it and say it

If you are a retail store, it should be clean and well organized, with all of your merchandise clearly priced. Advertised and featured items should be readily visible and there should be some real “wow” factor when customers come through the doors. Do you have POPs or point of purchase displays in your store? Whether you are selling goods, have a cleaning service, a restaurant, a hair salon or a karate studio, your premise presentation should make a potential customer smile. You want them to want to do business with you. Even if you are opening a real estate or insurance agency or other type of office, make sure it is brightly lit, looks professional and exudes professionalism. Customers like to feel that they have come to the right place; your premise presentation should reinforce that perception.

If you provide services that take you on the road, like consulting, sales, or public speaking, you will need some additional materials for your customers to see that will tell them what you are selling and why they should buy it from you. We are now in the arena of sales collateral, which can include everything from glossy brochures to full-fledged media kits. The short version of your presentation is your business card and a brochure about your product or service and the reasons you should be on your customer’s list as a potential vendor. You want to have plenty of cards and brochures because these are initial customer contact items. Hire a professional to design them, and get them printed at the best possible quality.

Have a Clear Message

Most of all have a clear message as to why the customer should do business with you. If you get more interest from the customer, follow-up with a full-fledged media kit with customer testimonials, media clips, product samples, corporate bios, certifications, etc. As a general rule, the higher the cost of the product or service the longer the sales cycle, excellent marketing materials will reinforce that you are the right choice. Customers only want to make good decisions. Your sales materials need to support your brand promise.

Now you’ve said it, how do you get the prospect to respond?

A few tips:

Use color printing to increase response. A recent study shows that 69% of people understand new ideas better when presented in color.
Offer an incentive to drive a response, something that ties to your business will be more memorable.
Provide multiple response methods such as phone number, website address, social media site.
Set a deadline for the special offer you’re providing.

If you are thinking about a new copier/printer/scanner/email and fax machine, how about the Xerox ColorQube 8700?

Disclosure: Melinda Emerson produced this content as a paid contributor to Xerox. The content is the author’s opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Xerox.

Do you have more great ways to have the best presentation to your customer?

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestseller author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

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Smallbizchat Celebrates 3 Years of Helping Thousands of Entrepreneurs

By Melinda Emerson on April 25, 2012 in Business Inspiration, Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady, SmallBizChat

Today marks the third anniversary of my Twitter talk show #Smallbizchat.

We launched the weekly #Smallbizchat, in April of 2009, as a peer-to-peer mentoring program to help early stage entrepreneurs get answers to their small business questions. The goal was to provide information to help end small business failure. With 82% of small businesses going out of business in five years, we wanted to do something that would really be impactful by giving people information that, in many cases, they had no idea was critical to their business success.

Nearly 150 shows and over 150K followers later, #SmallBizChat has become an institution on Twitter as one of the longest running tweetchats. @SmallBizChat’s third anniversary show is tonight Wednesday April 25, 2012 from 8-9 pm ET, with guest Alexis Maybank, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of The Gilt Groupe www.gilt.com, one of the top online members-only shopping websites. Maybank is also the co-author of the new book for entrepreneurs “By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop.

My inspiration to launch the #Smallbizchat community happened after I wrote my bestselling book “Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works” (now in its third printing). Even before the book came out, I wanted to reduce the learning curve as individuals attempted to start and grow their small businesses. My message now reaches 1.5 million entrepreneurs online weekly and has created an additional career for me as social media marketing expert. In fact, more people know me as @SmallBizLady than my real name.

My blog SucceedAsYourOwnBoss.com, which is syndicated by the Huffington Post, has become a valuable resource to small business owners worldwide and Forbes Magazine named me #1 Woman for Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter.

It has also afforded me the opportunity to be featured in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, USA Today, and Black Enterprise; a regular contributor to OpenForum.com, SecondAct.com and Entrepreneur.com, BlackEnterprise.com and Essence Magazine. And a featured a speaker for such organizations as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, INC Magazine, Bloomberg, #140 Conference, New York Expo, National Association of Community College Entrepreneurship and The Pennsylvania Governor’s Conference for Women.

My weekly interactive Twitter talk show #Smallbizchat, has given me the platform to help millions of small business owners. Doing a live show every week is a major commitment, but I love seeing chat participants “get it” – that charges me up every time. Tonight’s third anniversary show #Smallbizchat will feature Alexis Maybank Co-Founder of Gilt.com on the topic: “How to have a million dollar membership site. To celebrate the anniversary, we’ll give away copies of my book, Maybank’s book and limited edition #SmallBizChat t-shirts.

How does the #Smallbizchat work? Every Wednesday, Twitter users log onto tweetchat.com or tweetgrid.com to follow the interviews I conduct with noted small business experts, live at 8 pm ET. The expert guest types answers to questions using the using their Twitter account and the hashtag #Smallbizchat. Expert guests have included best-selling authors and small business experts Michael Gerber, Anita Campbell, Alan Weiss, David Allen and Peter Shankman many others. Each week, hundreds of participants join in to learn from Emerson and the guest, plus share what’s going on in their small businesses as well. Here’s more information on how to participate: http://bit.ly/S797e

About #SmallBizChat @Smallbizchat hosted by Melinda Emerson, @SmallBizLady, is an online community for emerging small business owners whose reach exceeds 1.5 million readers weekly. Committed to creating and sustaining a supportive network where all business owners can find answers and inspiration in their business endeavors. Melinda Emerson is regarded as America’s #1 Small Business Expert, with a fast-growing online brand providing resources for emerging and existing small business owners. Emerson’s corporate clients include Pitney Bowes, Deluxe, FedEx, American Family Insurance, Bloomberg, Walmart.com, Wells Fargo and Xerox. Emerson is a proud graduate of Virginia Tech.

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Are You Doing Your #1 Job as an Entrepreneur

By Melinda Emerson on April 23, 2012 in Business Inspiration, Grow Your Business, Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady

Your skills as an entrepreneur can make the difference between a booming enterprise and closing your doors far too soon. Your #1 job as a small business owner is to sell. Your job is to motivate, inspire and convince customers, potential investors, and often family that your business idea is worthwhile. It typically requires passion for your project, a coherent message, and most importantly, a confident delivery of that message. This can be a tall order if you don’t have a sales mindset. Do you have discomfort speaking to strangers? Are you unable to convey enthusiasm about your business? If you have a tough time getting into the sales mode, your solution might be to hire or partner with someone and let them do the selling, but then you can get into a mine-field of issues around control of your message.

How do you build your sales confidence? First, you need to understand where you are today. If your venture is a side-hustle in addition to a main job, and your business passion is on “low” and you just want to keep working your flea market stand, or selling cosmetic products to friends, you probably are where you want to be from a sales energy standpoint. The stakes grow considerably, however, if your venture is a full-time effort. The pressure to generate enough revenue to support yourself and your family will make you become laser focused on selling. Not to mention, if you have goals to grow your enterprise, this means a stepped up selling effort, too.

The Flawless Pitch – First you want to create a “flawless pitch”, telling your company’s story in one minute or less – what you do or sell, who you specialize doing it for and what makes your business special. For example “My name is Bob and I own Bob’s garage. We specialize in the repair and maintenance of luxury car transmissions at far less than dealer prices and all work is guaranteed”. You have a story to tell both potential customers and prospective investors which will get them to ask “Tell me more”.

Give it a Test Run – Practice is not just for baseball and dance class. You need to practice your pitch in the mirror, with your family and friends, and with anybody else who will listen. Ask for hard questions and honest feedback. This will keep you from looking foolish later. If you open a dry cleaning store, and a customer asks you about the chemicals you use for cleaning, you should be informative and give that customer good reason to do business with you. In the restaurant business it is about tasty, quality food, well presented in a clean environment. As proprietor, you and your staff will be touting signature dishes, great service, and satisfying portions giving customers great reasons to return by delivering on what you promised. People need and want to be convinced to buy stuff. You must be able to tell them why they should buy from you.

People should be able to feel your passion – Your enthusiasm and positive spirit are absolutely essential to selling. Whether you are selling to customers, selling your business concept to potential investors or trying to borrow money from your local bank, don’t minimize the excitement of your passion for your business and your absolute belief in its success. If you are short on enthusiasm for your enterprise, you need to take a hard look at whether being in that business is for you. Your ability to sell is key. Introspection today should set your expectations for tomorrow. Once you get the hang of power selling, closing a sale will be thrilling and more fun than work.

Do you have more ideas to get over the fear of selling?

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Budgeting Tips for Small Business Owners

By Melinda Emerson on April 10, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, Cash Flow & Finance, Guest Articles

Photo credit: BUSINESS OBJECTS © Anatoliy Babiychuk

If your fiscal year parallels your wall calendar, then you made it through Q-1 or as you may formally call it, the first quarter. Perhaps you’re feeling optimistic about the goals you’ll accomplish this year, or are concerned about your revenue goals for the second quarter. It’s best to look at where you’ve been to figure out a great strategy for where you are going next. Here are four things you can immediately do to make the most of the remaining three quarters of this year in your small business.

1. Stick to your budget:

Not only do you need to stick to your budget, but you need to track your budget against what you actually spend each quarter. It is so important to prevent cost overruns before they occur. In fact, you should ask yourself Why three times, before making a purchase that is not in your budget. Keeping the numbers in your head is easy when you have one project, but not when you have many. Invoicing and accounts payable can easily become overwhelming. If you’re seeing success then add a stretch goal to your budget. A good stretch goal to consider is five percent of your figures.

2. Track Your Business Development Time

If you’re like most movers and shakers in small business, then you’ve spent a great deal of time this fiscal year building relationships, following up on leads, and hopefully closing contracts and sales. Remember to add up the time you’re spending on business development and use that number as a projection in your budget. Keep a daily timesheet to help you record how you’re spending your time on this critical marketing activity. Over the next three quarters, think about how much work you can actually complete in addition to your business development activities.

3. Track in Black, Red…. And Gray

Not only must you review your budget for revenue and expenses, but also, you must track the actual numbers. If you’re using a basic spreadsheet, include an actuals column next to your budget column so that you can record what you’re really spending versus what you budgeted as the year progresses. Be sure not to overlook the obvious growing pains associated with any business such as rework, rush fees from your vendors, process hiccups, emergency breakdowns of equipment, etc. In the area of marketing, remember that you have to spend to create opportunities to sell. This means that there should be monthly spending activity for marketing.

Your labor will often be a direct cost expense. Track your expenses closely and to think about what it takes to create and deliver specific products and services to your clients. You will also need to track your indirect costs, which support the entire business as a whole including admin, marketing and your professional services like accounting and legal support. Likewise, be sure you understand the difference between fixed and variable costs so that as you grow, you know how to budget expenses that will increase and decrease with scale.

3. Do Your Homework

If you’re new to budgeting, or are jumping back into business, the first place to start is within your own network. Begin creating trusting relationships with other professionals in your industry. This will allow you to talk with them about how they budget without revealing what you might consider trade secrets. You need the right answers, and ones that are based on data to manage your business. You need to know the following:

How much your products or services cost in the competitive marketplace?
How much companies like yours pay in expenses on average to operate weekly, monthly and annually?
What is the standard timeline for delivering similar products and services?
How much each supply chain component costs in similar companies in time and money?
What is the standard profit margin?

4. Unless You’re A Magician, Leave the Rabbit Tricks Alone

Moving into the second quarter of your fiscal year can be a bit scary if you didn’t start off with a budget. The opportunity is now for getting your arms around your company’s financial performance. You’ll need to plan for revenues and expenses to better understand what opportunities to pursue this year. You’ll want to know how to price them, and most importantly you’ll get clear about how many opportunities you must win to turn a profit. When setting objectives, there is no magic wand to earn greater profits. Through consistent efforts you’ll do three things; increase revenue, fulfill your company’s mission and move closer to turning a profit.

Do you have any tips for establishing a budget once the business year has started? Please share you thoughts.

About the author:

Akia T. Garnett, MBA is a speaker, columnist for Minority Business Entrepreneur Magazine and CEO of Brandbuilder. She is an adjunct professor of business, marketing and consumer behavior at Trinity University of Washington, DC, and Co-Author of Seen and Sustained: Best Practices in Communication that Increase the Visibility of Small and Diverse Businesses. Akia helps small business owners create, cast and complete vision and mission mapping exercises for their professional and personal brands. Learn more at http://www.BestPracticesforSmallBusinesses.com

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How to Get New Customers Part II

By Melinda Emerson on April 3, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady, Starting A Small Business

There are numerous ways of getting new customers but not all methods are applicable to all businesses. I also need to remind you that getting repeat business from your existing customers is far easier than attracting new customers, but it is important to have a strategy for getting new customers in the door. In Part 1 of this series, I provided a philosophy and an approach for obtaining more business. Choosing your best customer acquisition strategy will be driven by why your customer is buying, their purchase frequency, and how they collect purchase information. In Part 2, the focus is on specific strategies and tactics to create a stampede in your small business.

Here are 7 strategies for getting new customers:

Start advertising: You want customers to know you exist – If you have a storefront business that depends on local customers. Consider investing in local online advertising, direct mail, flyers, or local penny-saver ads. You can also do pay per click ads online too. Use calls to action in each advertising initiative to get prospects to contact you. Do not start any advertising program that you can’t maintain for at least six months.
Start building a prospect list. One of the key ingredients in a business is having an active prospect list. One of the best ways to build your list is through your website. You should have 3-5 ways to engage web visitors to get them to give you their contact information. Create a coupon or giveaway from your website. It could be a special report, free chapter of a book, or audio interview, a 10% off coupon, a free estimate or a giveaway for the first X number of new customers who download the giveaway.
Launch a public relations campaign: Your PR campaign should have a story behind it. The fact that you open your doors is not compelling enough. Consider having a PR tie-in a local charity, cause or group. For example, my neighbor got a front-page story in our local community paper as a donor of care packages in support of our troops. The article also highlighted her business and her contact information. You can always donate a portion of net proceeds to charity and get a tax write-off too.
Use incentives: Give your current customers referral incentives – everybody likes a deal. If an existing customer gets a special discount, cash, or free stuff for recommending a new customer to your business, it creates a winning situation for everyone. Interestingly enough, when you give a surprise benefit to an existing client, like a free pizza after so many purchased or a “no charge” for a regular dry cleaning customer, or free shipping and a discount on future business, customers tell others about these unexpected bonuses.
Develop a social marketing strategy: – Like it or not, we are in a digital age and ignoring free marketing tools, such as social networking sites is just plain foolish. You must be googleable! It used to be that all you had to do was build a website, now you need a blog and to have a social media footprint to go with it. No one uses the yellow pages any more. It is pretty common that if we want to know anything about anything we go to the internet. If your business is not there, it can really impact your visibility. Read, read, read and seek out a professional to get you started with social media marketing. Check out my book “Become Your Own Boss In 12 Months” to get more insights on building an online brand.
Use Success By Association – Become a part of your industry trade organization, local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, community service organizations, and other groups both local and national. My active membership in the National Speakers Association led to some outstanding business contacts for me. It is very satisfying to learn from peers and fellow business owners.
Create recognizable value – If you are in a business where you can provide informational value through articles or newsletters that provide tangible customer benefit, it can lead to getting a new customer and development of a “following”. Media is always looking for content to sustain itself and to grow. If you have a message of interest, write an article for your local media outlet, notify your local TV or radio station about your unique business and the benefit it brings. Don’t keep your better mousetrap a secret.

Getting the word out about you and your business will take planning and hardwork and you will sell your faith in your enterprise. It is not always easy to do, but persistence will get you to success.

Do you have any other tactics to share on getting new customers?

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For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

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How Do I Get New Customers Part 1

By Melinda Emerson on April 2, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady, Starting A Small Business

So often I am asked about how to get new customers that I decided to develop a two part series on the topic.

No customers, no business. A simple and obvious fact, which leads new business owners to ask the question “How do I get customers to see and buy from my business?” The first question to ask yourself is: Who are your customers and how do they like to buy the kind of products you’re selling? You want to be able to see the “face” of your primary customer. Is it a child, teenager, senior citizen, a techie, “do-it-yourself” person, a woman, a man, or some other demographic? If your target customer is Hispanic, it would not make much sense to advertise your product in an Irish magazine or Jewish website. Knowing your target customer lets you tailor your message to who’s buying.

Is your business a “brick and mortar” storefront? Online? Industry specific? Are you selling pizza, hats or doing software consulting? Your approach to creating “buzz” for your enterprise will vary in each case. If I am selling pizzas, I’ll advertise locally via the web and direct mail to announce specials, offer coupons, and give great friendly service. This business is built on the perception of competitive value-pricing, tasty meals, and ease of ordering on-line or by phone. Your likely customer will be within a few miles of your store and wants quick pick-up or available local delivery. Specials will get new customers in the door, but quality, value and taste will bring them back and get them to tell their friends. Having an online presence is important because it makes it easier for customers to order and to see all of your menu items.

If you are selling hats, you have several marketing options. You can offer hats online showing a variety of styles, perhaps with a buy-one get-one 50% off and free shipping. Consider partnering with local women’s organizations on fashion show fundraisers where you offer a discount on the hats shown. Or you can partner with a local boutique to help them accessorize their outfits — with special prices on your hats.

If you are developing a software consulting business you must position your business carefully. How unique are your programming skills? How much demand is there for what you know? Is a business built on reputation, contacts, networking or SEO? You must have a very targeted audience. You might start by creating a website and brochure outlining your skills and experience and distribute it to your network of contacts online and offline. Look through Information Technology magazine want ads to look for good matches to your qualifications. Sometimes a company looking for an employee might be willing to outsource the services to a company instead.

The underlying philosophy in getting new customers is trying to get them to buy when they have a need or are “in market.” We are “in market” for groceries when we run out of food, or for a new washing machine when the old one finally breaks down, or for another car when the cost to fix our current car is just not worth it anymore. The key is the right offer at the right time to increase the chances that customers will call or come in ready to make a purchase. Some offers must have a seasonal flavor, you don’t sell snow shovels in July, some are timed to days of the week – 30% off on Tuesday or after 3pm, restaurant deals for slow mid-week periods geared to seniors for example. It is also true that sometimes a customer being “in market “ is dependent on future plans for example a home renovation, creating a web site, deciding to plant a garden, to join a gym, or take a vacation. All of these activities typically mean that money is going to be spent and not surprisingly, cost-conscious customers still want that great deal. Now that we have covered the framework for getting new customers, Part 2 of this series will get into specifics of attracting new customers. Remember, choosing your best customer acquisition strategy will be driven by why your customer is buying, their purchase frequency, and how they get their purchase information.

Do you have any ideas to share about how to get new customers?

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog.

Melinda F. Emerson, known as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestseller author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

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How to Grow Your Small Business

By Melinda Emerson on March 26, 2012 in Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady

For those small business owners who survived the startup phase and are now ready to grow your business, there are numerous possibilities. Keep in mind, growing your business will depend on what business you are in and how much money, time and sweat equity you’re willing to invest all over again. Here are four ways to kick start growth in your small business.

When thinking about how to grow your business first, consider opening a new location, franchising your business, look for markets overseas by expand globally, and make sure you are taking part the biggest market in the world by expanding on the internet.

Open another location. Your first option for growth is to open an additional location. Now, this can be really tricky. You need to look at the economic environment and trends for indications that theirs is enough business to support an additional location. Make sure your operations, banking an processes are all in order. It will be important to have a strong management team to send into the new location. One of the biggest decisions you’ll need to make is determining how you will finance your expansion. Choose your new location carefully. Don’t let you wallet drive your decision making or you could end up in the poor house.

Turn your business into a franchise. I recently interviewed Dina Dywer Owens, Former Chair of the International Franchise Association (IFA) and she suggests anyone interested in turning their business into a franchise, check out the free resources at the IFA’s website www.franchise.org. and hire a professional franchise consultant to help. Now if you are really interested in this growth strategy, you must streamline all your internal systems and marketing processes first. Then, start networking within the franchise community, become a member of the IFA and find a good franchise attorney as well as a mentor who’s been through the franchise process. Here’s more information about how to be successful in a franchise business.

Expand globally. If you are an internet business, you may already have clientele from across the world, but there are many programs and services that will help sell products overseas markets including China, India, South America and across Europe specifically. Check out my recent interview with former under secretary of international trade Frank Lavin on How to Export to China. In most cases to export outside of the US, you’ll need a foreign distributor who’ll carry an inventory of your product and resell it in their domestic markets. Trade groups and foreign chambers of commerce in the U.S., are good places to find distributors. Also check out the government’s website businessusa.gov which is a great resource for small businesses looking to export outside the US.

Expand on the Internet. Are You Googleable? In many business circles, if you can’t be found on the internet you do not exist. Make sure that you have a useful website that tells people how to hire you within 3 seconds of arrival onto your home page. Think of your website as the front door to your business. Be sure that you use an e-commerce solution such as shopify.com or bigcommerce.com that also has the ability to mirror your online store on your facebook fan page. An online store will bring you customers that your brick and mortar business could never reach.

Do you want more great ideas for business growth? Sign up for my Free Webinar March 29th 1-2pm ET on How to Better Communicate With Your Target Customers http://bit.ly/wPX0SV

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she
develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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How to Communicate Your Business Vision

By Melinda Emerson on March 19, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, Business Inspiration, How to Start

As a business leader, it’s your job to craft a vision for your business. Once you know what that is, you need to be able to communicate it to a wide audience including your customers and your employees. Even the interns need to know. Why? Because your need to share a vision that everyone understands, can relate to — and ultimately believe in. Here are five ways to communicate your business vision.

Share Your Vision With Everyone. To be effective, you’ll need to rally people around your vision. You will need to keep saying it to remind your team of your message to reinforce what you are trying to achieve. You’ll need to do this constantly to keep everyone focused. Don’t worry about sounding like a broken record, after all it is your business.

Use Storytelling: When you tell a story, you give life to your vision. The telling of stories creates trust, touches people’s hearts and minds, and serves as a reminder of the vision. It is also a great way to make your vision relatable to anyone. Your team will find it a lot easier to repeat a story than a vision statement.

Don’t be Afraid to Share: Sometimes we, as entrepreneurs come up with ideas that may seem far-fetched to others. Do not let that stop you from telling people your vision. When you speak it out loud, you speak it into existence. I remember back in 2007, when I told people I was going to be “America’s #1 Small Business Expert,” at the time I am sure some of them may have thought, can she really do that? or they may have thought I was crazy. We’ll who looks crazy now? You must be willing to share ideas people have never heard of.

Be Brief: Learn to share your vision like it is an elevator pitch. Every business leader needs to be able to communicate the vision in a clear, brief way. Can you describe your compelling vision in the amount of time you have during a typical elevator ride? Your pitch should highlight your solution, your target audience and your niche focus. Try to keep it to two minutes of less.

Be Flexible: Don’t feel like you have to have all the answers. As an entrepreneur one of the most important things that you must do is evolve. Be sure to create dialogue around your message so that people feel comfortable to share suggestions and help you take your vision to the next level.

Put out calls to action. Don’t just tell people what you imagine for the future, ask for their help in making it a reality, and be specific about what you want people to do and why.

When you are think about how to communicate your vision first, create a strong vision and communicate it to everyone. Use storytelling to help people visualize your vision. Have the courage to share your vision. Be brief, and willing to take suggestions that could take your vision to the next level. When you put out calls to action, and assign specific roles you want your team to play in your success.

Are you looking for ways to better communicate with your target customers? Don’t miss my FREE webinar sponsored by Pitney Bowes March 29th 1-2pm ET Register today http://www2.pbsmartessentials.com/how-to-better-communicate-with-your-customers

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

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When You’ve Done All You Can, Get Up!

By Melinda Emerson on March 12, 2012 in Business Inspiration, Grow Your Business

There comes a time in every entrepreneur’s life when you just catch a bad break. You work really hard on a deal. You thought it was yours. Then at the last minute, after nearly a year-long sales process, you loose the contract. This especially stings when you’ve spent hours studying the customer and cultivating an internal advocate over lunches and dinners. You tracked the incumbent vendor and shaved you margin as much as you could to get the business. It feels like a kick in the gut when it slips right through your fingers.

After you get over the initial shock, this becomes one of those days that makes you wonder why you are even in business. You probably feel like nobody loves you and no one seems to care. When it happens the first time, you might not be sure how to handle this, particularly if you are one of those small business owners who takes things personally. Your business is your baby after all, who can blame you, Right! Not really. The sooner you learn not to take these things personally, the better you will handle it when things don’t go as planned.

I know this pain. During the early years of running my first company Quintessence Multimedia it happened several times, and it hurts—a lot. I remember one time in particular, there was an advertising agency we had been chasing nearly a year. Once day we got a call and that they wanted us to fly down to Austin, TX to discuss a specific project. At the time, things were tight financially and we really needed this opportunity. When we got there, the client invited us to dinner and then stuck us with the check. Then the next day, as we were presenting our capabilities, I knew five minutes into the meeting that these people had no intention of doing business with us. They had wasted our time and our money, and I was furious. I actually lost it that day on our host after the meeting. I later found out that one of our corporate advocates had asked their agency to meet with us, but a real business opportunity was not promised. I learned a lesson that day about how to qualify customers, and that people have no problem wasting your time.

After it happened, I reached out to a mentor to complain, and she told me something that has always stayed with me. She said, ”When things don’t happen that is God’s way of protecting you from something or someone.” I took what she said to heart, but then I felt so defeated every time we got the rug pulled out from under us. I know that many of you have felt the same way, maybe even recently.

This past week, I heard Olympic ski medalist, amputee, and author Bonnie St. John speak at a women’s history month event. Now, Ms. St. John is a one-legged Olympic skier, and she talked about how she won her first medals. She said in downhill skiing you needed to compete in two races to win a medal. After the first race in 1984 Paraolympics, she was in first place in gold medal position, but the second race was on a different course. Word from the field was that there was an icy spot on the course, and some people had wiped out, and one woman had been taken to the hospital. Bonnie said as she started her second race, she was doing well hitting her stride, and all of a sudden she hit the ice. She fell, and said she felt like crawling off the track. But something in her said get up. She got up and finished the race and earned a Bronze medal. She’s said, ”Everybody falls, but winners get up.” She later said the woman who won the gold medal had fallen too, but she got up faster.

In our businesses, there will be many times when we get knocked down, but successful entrepreneurs get up faster than the competition.

Do you have a suggestion for how to handle major disappointment in a business?

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource bloghttp://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the bestselling author ofBecome Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

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Do It Yourself SEO for Small Businesses

By Melinda Emerson on March 6, 2012 in Grow Your Business, Guest Articles, Social Media, Technology

No matter how you approach a search engine optimization or (SEO) project, the ultimate goal is to increase your brand’s online visibility in the search engines. This visibility will help increase traffic, conversions and sales.

Leveraging the possibilities of internet marketing can be overwhelming for small business owners who are already wearing many hats within their company. Over the past few years I’ve seen SEO evolve into many shapes and forms. On-site content optimization, link building, local search optimization, mobile search optimization, social media optimization are some of the forms it takes today. If hiring a professional SEO agency doesn’t fit into your company’s current budget, there are still some things you can do on your own to jumpstart your website’s online presence.

On-site optimization – the foundation of all things SEO

The foundation of any SEO effort should be your website’s content. On-site SEO is the process of analyzing a combination of elements that affect your site’s search engine visibility, usability, navigation and content. In its simplest form, this means focusing on the primary content types of your site such as:

URL filenames
Page title tags
Meta description and keyword tags
Header tags
Internal linking
Image alt and title tags
Videos and other rich media content types

Before you can get started with SEO you need to understand what words people are using in search engine to find your website content. We call them keywords. It’s best to identify 3-5 keywords that will be used through your site to attract your best target customer.

Conduct keyword research

Keyword research is one of the most crucial tasks in any on-site optimization project. Not only does it help build the foundation of on-site optimization, it helps you better understand the behavior of your customers and clients. You need to identify your target audience and determine how they search for your site. Finding the right keywords is a balance between search volume, competition and most importantly relevancy to your business. Most of the time, you’ll be surprised by what you find when conducting proper keyword research. Usually, the keywords that you thought would be key traffic drivers to your site are not what prospective customers and clients are actually searching.

The most well-known keyword research tool is Google’s very own AdWords Keyword Tool. Google AdWords Keyword Tool gives the information you need to choose the right keywords for your website

Use this tool to gather valuable information needed in order to choose the best keywords for your site. You can start off by simply typing in a few words that relate to your business’s services and see what keywords Google serves up. Remember, you’re looking for keywords with high search volume (small businesses should focus on Local as opposed to Global) and low competition, but you really want to focus on the ones that make the most sense for your business.

Use your keywords to optimize your content

After spending several hours hunting down the right keywords for your SEO efforts, you will need to figure out which ones to use on each page of your site. Avoid excessive “keyword stuffing” and focus on no more than 3-4 keywords per page. You’ll want to designate a “primary” keyword, which should be used as the main focus of each page during your optimization efforts.

Now for the fun part! Use the 3-5 keywords you’ve assigned to each page to re-write each pages’ tags and content. Here are some quick tips to get you started:

URL filenames – When rewriting URLs to include your keywords, it’s a best practice to separate each word with a dash (or hyphen) to help the search engines clearly depict the separation. An example of a properly written URL for a page showing “red tennis shoes” products would be http://www.example.com/shoes/red-tennis-shoes.
Page title tags – Page titles should always include the primary keyword as close to the beginning as possible. You’ll also want to avoid writing page titles any longer than 65 characters, as any page titles longer than that will most likely get truncated in the SERPs (search engine page results).
Meta description tags – Although it’s crucial to plug your keywords into your Meta descriptions, make sure your descriptions read naturally and that there is a strong call-to-action that will draw searchers to visit your site. Similar to page titles, be aware of the length of your descriptions and try to keep them under 165 characters.
Header tags – Use headers to better organize your site’s content. Not only does this help give site visitors a better understanding of the content, but by plugging keywords into your header tags (H1, H2, H3) you give the search engines another element to analyze when determining what your site is all about. It’s important to also point out that your header tags should follow a hierarchy similar to when writing an outline for an essay. For example, the H1 tag should be used first, then the H2 tags, then the H3 tags under each H2 tag, and so on.
Internal linking – One of the biggest signals that search engines use when ranking webpages in their search results is the amount of links pointing to that page and the relevance of those links. To help increase the relevancy of your site’s pages, be sure to include your keywords in the clickable text (called “anchor text”) of links pointing to any pages on your site.
Image alt and title tags – Search engines have a tough time crawling and identifying the content of an image. Alt tags and title tags take care of this issue. When writing the alt and title tags for an image include your keywords, keep it short and use the same text for both the alt tag and title tag of a given image.

Although keywords are an important piece of the puzzle, it’s not just about plugging them into your tags (page title, description, headers, etc.) and hoping for the best. It’s about creating content that’s interesting and useful for your visitors. It’s essential that your site’s copy content is optimized to include your keywords in a natural and understandable manner.

Ongoing SEO efforts

SEO is not a “set it and forget it” type of project. As search engines constantly change their algorithm’s ranking factors (Google makes 500-600 changes a year) it’s important to keep your site up to par with best practices and any new ranking factors that may affect your site’s web presence. It’s also essential to continue to grow your online reach by constantly expanding your keyword universe and adding resourceful content. The more good content your site has, the better.

Measurement of your SEO efforts

Measuring your SEO efforts’ successes and failures is critical in building more efficient ongoing optimization strategies and processes. Review and analyze key statistics such as:

Recognizing which URLs get the most traffic
Identifying which keywords are bringing in unqualified leads with high bounce rates
Keyword search result ranking increases and decreases

These are all valuable assets in identifying any missed opportunities and where further SEO work may be required.

Do you have any SEO tips?

Joe Douress is the SEO Manager for Teknicks, a well known SEO agency in New Jersey. He brings 5 years of search marketing and technology experience to provide valued service and consultation to both the client and agency side. With his expertise in on-site and off-site search engine optimization, local search, usability and analytics, Joe is involved with all aspects of search marketing, providing quality advisement and appreciated support.

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Are You The Right President For Your Small Business?

By Melinda Emerson on February 20, 2012 in Grow Your Business

When I first started thinking about President’s Day this year, I thought it would be helpful to blog about being an effective business leader.

Whenever you start a company, you have the right to be the president. After all, it is your company. It was your idea, your seed capital, your contacts that got the business off the ground, but is that the best idea for your business? There may come a time in your business when you realize that perhaps you are not the right person to lead the charge anymore. It takes a true leader to recognize that, and more so to do something about it. Are you a big enough leader to put your ego aside and do what’s in the best interest of the business? Here are five signs to look for when its time to bring in help to run the business.

Chronic burnout – If you are stressed out just thinking about going into the office, try going on a real vacation first. If the condition persists, start looking to see if anyone on your staff has the skills to be elevated to management. If that is not an option, start searching for an appropriate manager to hire in your business.

Growing pains – If you started with one location and now you have four locations and 50 or more employees, you are now running a much bigger business than what you started. You have no time to be proactive or strategic about anything, because you always reacting to things and putting out fires. You feel breathless at the end of each day. Your business has grown beyond your personal skill set.

Uneducated – Now, I’m certainly not one that believes everyone who starts a business needs to be an MBA (I’m not one), but knowledge is power. If the last time you took a class was high school or even 10 to 25 years in college, you need to update your business skills. Since the beginning of the great recession in 2008, the nature of business has changed. Your industry has probably changed, and technology has changed that way we all do business. Get yourself some education and hire some educated managers to help you. Professional development is a key element of business success.

Is selling an option? – If one day you want to sell your business, than you must get yourself in a position where your business runs without you. You must have systems and managers in place who run the day-to-day operations. When you accomplish this you will transition from being an entrepreneur to running a business, and that’s what you want. Entrepreneurs work 14-16 hours days and can never can leave the office. People who run businesses can go on vacation, get the little league game, and sleep well at night.

Have an honest conversation with yourself. Are you still the right person to be calling all the shots in your business? Hiring a business manager is not a dirty word. It is exhausting to make all the decisions in a small business. Hire smart people and empower them to make decisions and help you run your business.

Did this piece hit a pain point for you? Please tell him if this issue is affecting your business.

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

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How to be a Successful Freelancer

By Melinda Emerson on February 6, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, How to Start

working freerlancer Most small businesses start today as a side hustle first. In fact, 1 in 3 Americans is a freelancer or temporary worker in the post-recession era, according to research by the Human Capital Institute (HCI). The majority of contract workers are part-timers, and their ranks are growing at more than twice the rate of full-time employees, the HCI reports.

The reality is that many people who lost jobs during the recession are putting themselves back to work by pitching their skills to companies, including their former employers, as “free agents.”

Your flexibility as a free agent can be appealing to employers who need to get the job done but don’t want to pay for things like health insurance, taxes and retirement benefits — which is associated with full-time employees. You can use this demand to your advantage and build a freelance business to support yourself, stay current in your field and keep moving in an unstable economy.

Here are five key attributes you’ll need to be a successful freelancer.

1. Be Professional. Just because you may be working from a home office doesn’t mean you forget your manners. The same standards of professionalism you used in the workplace apply as a self-employed professional. Set up a work space that is conducive to doing business and working long hours. Make sure you are in quiet surroundings when making calls — your clients should not hear the TV blaring, your child crying or the dog barking while they’re considering whether to give you money to work on a project for them.

2. Be Meticulous About Tracking Your Hours. It’s easy to lose track of the time you spend on a project when you’re not punching a time clock. Often, independent contractors find themselves spending more time on a project than they would have if they were working in a regular office environment. It is up to you to ensure that you’re getting paid for the work you’re putting in and complete projects in a timely manner. To set a realistic hourly rate, Michelle Mangen, president of Your Virtual Assistant, based in Sarasota, Fla., suggests surveying the competition. “When I first started my business as a virtual assistant, I asked other VAs what they charged, and that’s how I figured out my initial pricing strategy,” says Mangen. Be sure to include project management time in your bids; interaction with clients eats up lots of time.

3. Focus on a Niche Specialty. You cannot be all things to all people. Focus on a specific niche customer or industry. Examine your transferable skills, figure out the pain points of your target customer, find out where those skills are in demand, and go after the business. Also, seek out work that may fulfill a passion that you wouldn’t have gone after on a traditional job. For example, if you are a CPA who enjoys cooking, you could specialize in doing accounting work just for restaurants.

4. Build a Web Portfolio. Potential customers and recruiters will search online to find information about you before making contact. That’s why it’s essential to have a website and online presence that displays your expertise. Establish a LinkedIn profile to help you showcase your portfolio. (Read my article Are You Google-able?)

5. Be a Networking Machine. Don’t sit in your house and do all of your socializing online. Seek out local networking events and trade associations in your field and join the chapters in your area. Keep your elevator pitch handy. When you’re out in the community, whether you’re in transit to meet a client or running errands, talk up your business to your banker, your local merchants, and the parent on your child’s baseball team who is an executive at a company that could use your services. Carry business cards at all times. Make sure contact information is updated and includes all places they can find you online.

Finding work: Many websites help freelancers develop their businesses and stay sane in the process. Here are three good resources.

Elance. Site connects freelancers with companies looking for help.
Freelancer. Companies and entrepreneurs use this online hub to post their projects and expertise and find good matches. .
Guru. A freelancer marketplace that also handles payment processing. The site features profiles and websites of 250,000 active freelancers.

Do you have a favorite website for finding freelance opportunities?

This article was originally posted on www.secondact.com and the copyright is held by Entrepreneur Media.

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestseller author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

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