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In this first new and totally revised edition of the 150,000-copy underground bestseller, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed. He then shows how to apply the l

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For those small business owners who think they were ignored in the new stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), think again. While the debate continues to unravel as to “who gets what and whether it is enough”, one thing is certain: more money is coming in the direction of small businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Remember, this is the agency responsible for the outreach, licensing, and implementation of, you guessed it, money into the pockets of small businesses. This is done through private licensed lenders who have agreed to join the SBA program. In other words, if your local community bank has a commercial loan department, it might very well have a SBA department which makes these loans. They are called SBA loans because the Federal government will reimburse, to a certain percentage, defaulted loans, thereby giving incentive for the private banks to loan more money. Net effect–more loans will be available for small business concerns.

Before we talk about how much more money is available to the SBA under the stimulus package, let’s look at the current status of one of the popular SBA loan programs. There is a loan program out there and SBA lenders are actually making loans currently: the Community Express Loan Program. This gives unsecured small business loans between ,000 and ,000 with very little paperwork, answers typically in two days, interest rates presently at 7.75%, funding and two weeks, and monies wired directly to your business account. There are still lenders participating in this program, although Congress has failed to make the program permanent and still has a 10% cap on the number of loans. Enter the Obama stimulus bill. Let us look how it affects this program and small business lending as a whole.

So is the stimulus package what we have been hoping for? Isn’t it all too customary in a new spending bill for a government agency to receive more funds? Not at all as to the SBA. During the Bush Administration tenure, they could easily have renamed the agency the ISBA (Ignore Small Business Association). As they were making “sound bite” statements to the press of how they were helping small business, they were arrogantly trying to dismantle it, or when they were in a better mood, just cutting the budget.

The point is we have a new administration that is small business friendly in a big way to businesses owners. Remember these are additional monies over and above the SBA’s current budget. As we all know, budgets are determined in approximately March of each year (assuming Congress has the good graces to agree) to be used for the next year. The SBA has already received their budget. This is whipped cream placed on the top of that small business cake.

And we are not talking about token amounts here. Here is how the additional monies are broken down:

1. 375 million for temporary fee reductions or elimination on SBA loans and increased SBA loan guarantees, up to 90% for some loans. Translation: When a borrower gets a SBA loan they pay a fee which goes to the SBA coffers and is used as a war chest to pay banks if there has been a default. That guarantee fee, depending upon the loan, is currently between 50% and 85%. There is a possibility that some loan programs can now be increased to the historic level of–are you ready–a 90% guarantee. If a borrower no longer pays these fees, the money has to come from somewhere, and in this case it is taxpayers’ money which is subsidizing those fees.

2. 255 million for a new loan program to help small businesses meet existing debt payments. Translation: You have a loan secured by fixed assets or real estate and want to refinance it, either to lower payments or put more money in your pockets for expansion.

3. 30 million for expanding SBA’s Micro Loan Program, with million to help finance new lending and 24 million for technical assistance grants to Micro lenders. Translation: Under the Microloan program, the Federal government loans blocks of money to the Microloan lenders who then reloan it, at higher rates, to the deserving communities and small businesses and usually collateral is required.

4. 20 million for streamlining the SBA lending and oversight process with new technology. Translation: The streamlining process will make it faster and more efficient to process loans and oversight is to monitor SBA licensed lenders–make sure they are acting for the benefit of small businesses and complying with the program guidelines.

5. 15 million for expanding SBA’s surety bond guarantee program. Translation: If you are a building contractor and have to take out a performance or payment bond on a project, you need substantial assets to secure the bond. This will help getting your hands on that needed bond and be able to secure the contract.

6. 25 million for staffing as to the new programs.

7. 20 million for the Office of Inspector General. Translation: To inspect and audit the licensed SBA lenders.

Although one could make the argument this new law is “too little too late”, our new President will need at least a year or so to put into effect the new policies. And don’t forget the mindset of the SBA lender. Although they are not as wildly quixotic as stock market speculators, their purses open and close based upon the mood of the country. We want them to be as comfortable as possible when we walk toward them for money.

About the Author

Sue Malone is a small business advocate, consultant, and the nations #1 provider of unsecured SBA Community Express cash flow loans(start-up and existing). Email:smalone165@aol.com[block]0[/block]Phone:(925)899-8449.

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Most parents today have a tough time economically: they have to be at home raising their children so they cannot work much and the jobs that are out there are often part-time and low paying. Yet most families need two incomes today to get ahead. Detailed in this new book are over 100 business ideas that can be started for very little money and yet may provide parents with a lot more money than they would be paid by the hour. This is a collection of businesses selected especially for stay-at-home

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When entering into the world of internet marketing you need to remember that you own a business.  You must consider the following prior starting your internet business:

Finding Your Niche – Anyone internet for anytime soon realizes the importance of establishing a niche.  I define a niche as a distinct segment of a market.

Let me give you an example: A person searches for weight loss on Google and it comes up with 75,200,000 references available.  To help narrow down their search to his exact need he could type into the search engine the word “fat burning exercises” (34,100 references), “weight loss exercise programs”, or  “weight loss supplements”…

For a person to find exactly what he wants he needs to type in his desire outcome.

So to find or develop a niche you need to target your audiences desired outcome as close as possible to the product or service that you offer.

Those new to internet marketing will find it important to start in a niche that they find most interesting.  Look around your house and see what you have amassed over the years.  Check out your bookshelf or even your magazine subscriptions and you will zero in on what interest to you.    Budget – At all cost try not to go broke just to get rich quick.  Make sure to keep track of all your expense and how much you earn each month.  Before you begin any business make sure that you can survive financially for a period of 6  to 18 months.  Most businesses take about 18 months to truly get off the ground and begin returning a profit from their investment of time and money.

Keeping track of your expenses will save you many headaches when it comes to tax time.  If you have expenses related to your business you can use these to lower the amount of tax expenses that you must pay at the end of the year.

Taxes and Legal Protection – OK, I want to give you fair warning, I am not a legal or tax professional nor do I play one on television. Now that I have gotten that out the way let me tell you about what I do know.

PROTECT YOUR ASSESTS!!!  Please heed this call to protect yourself.  If you do not, you will find yourself in a world of trouble when some unscrupulous individual decides that he does not like the fair way in which you practice your business.

Make your lawyer and account your best friends when it comes to development and protection of your business.  Believe me this will save you from many late nights of worry.

In fact my friend Jose the Economist, says “You should tip your lawyer and accountant before your waiter because they save you the most money.”

I agree your accountant will show you how to legally cut corners to keep your hard earned money and your attorney will show you how to protect it.

Developing your website(s) – I will keep this short and sweet because I will go into details about this important component of your internet business in a later article.  When it comes to developing your website(s) for your business you have several different options.

You can develop your own site – I personally recommend this option because I believe that it gives you the most freedom and movement needed in your internet business.

There are several options to choose from when it comes to developing your own sites.

Community college class on HTML

Search You Tube for lessons on HTML

Purchase a webpage creation program

Hire a webmaster – By searching websites like Elance.com, you can hire a webmaster for little out of pocket expense.

Marketing Plan – How would you like to approach your marketing?  With so many choices you can’t go wrong? My recommendation is to pick one and get really good at it.  The following list is by no means an exhaustive:

Affiliate Driven – Create a product that can be sold to others and allow them to also market the product giving them a commission for sells made.

Viral Marketing – You can create a product such as an ebook give it away to others to freely distribute.  This particular ebook should have links driving traffic back to your website allowing for more opportunities to sell your product.

Membership Sites – If you have a passion for a particular topic you can open this site to people who are also interested in this particular topic as well.  Imagine charging $10 and up per month for information or services that members can’t get any where else.

These are the 5 things you should consider prior to leaping into your internet business.  Remember the internet can be a huge forest and you can get lost if you not properly equipped.

“A research study shows that entrepreneurs managing small businesses in Pakistan consider formal business planning a mere wastage of their precious time.”
Do you agree or disagree, support your argument with solid reasons.

(Your answers must be brief)

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A complete guide to getting your business or professional practice publicized/advertised…. More >>

Big Ideas for Small Service Businesses: How to Successfully Advertise, Publicize and Maximize Your Business or Professional Practice

A well defined business advertising strategy is the key to home business success. All home businesses need to communicate their advertising message either to generate new business opportunities or to reinforce their message to their customers. As a home business entrepreneur, you can advertise your home business either online or offline or use a combination strategy. All three pathways are known to be very effective.

For your home business, the avenues of business advertising may be either online or offline.

Offline advertising includes:

Print media such as newspapers, magazines and brochures

Electronic media such as radio, television and cable advertising

Online media includes:

Internet-based advertising such as Pay Per Click, banner advertising, Pay Per Impression, e-mail marketing and a host of other virtual advertising avenues

Using a Combination Strategy to Advertise your Home Business

By using a combination strategy to showcase your home-based company, you could get a big bang for the buck. So evaluate various options.

You will most probably be creating the advertisement yourself so follow a few simple rules. Write using “you” and in active voice, keeping sentences short.  Bear in mind the context of the reader. A classified advertisement would have to be short and to the point compared to something you are sending out by e-mail or posting on a mailing list, Internet forum  or discussion group. Try and include a referral if you have the space. Just send out one message in the advertisement.

Look at some of the options you have.

Your very own Website

Many individuals go on to the Internet to research products and services even while buying from a brick and mortar shop. Maintaining your own website would be a good option but if you are unable to so at least advertise on sites.  Make sure that you are on to free listings, many municipalities and business associations offer this service. So conduct research. Sell your product on eBay. That is one of the best ways to advertise your product.

Business Advertising through e-mail

There is an increasing level of hostility to spam. So be very careful of this media. It can be used to communicate with people who have shown interest in your product or service and also with existing customers. E-mail doesn’t cost anything to send. However, send it only to your confirmed subscribers such as those who have signed up for your online newsletter on your website. If your company does not have a newsletter, please explore that possibility at the earliest.

Traditional Business Advertising through Community and Neighborhood Newspapers

Newspaper advertising is short lived. Advertisements in magazines have a slightly longer life. Again, look for special supplements that are published periodically. Also, look at newsletters published by community NGOs. For certain categories of products and services, newspaper classified columns work out very well and strangely enough better than large advertisements in the same paper.

Consider cable television  and radio if you can afford it. these have a very loyal audience and accurate local reach all at a low cost.

Direct mail continues to be popular amongst some sellers. However, though it is costly but it may be very effective to relate to existing customers. Also, you can send promos. These offers are often not used but are kept by individuals to give away to others.

Using Business Cards for Business Advertising

Your business card should not just contain the usual company name and various addresses. It is your corporate signature. It should contain several additional  details such as:

The products you sell or the service you provide

The names of  the various brands you carry

A catchy slogan that your prospective customers can remember

Use a double leaf business card and spread your business message. This is one of the most under used tools of business advertising.

Forums on the Internet

don’t think just in terms of forums which are related to your business. A charitable cause in which you could participate may yield contacts which later translate into business. You could keep a stall for hand tools in a school fair well knowing that none will sell but gives exposure to your home business.

Yellow Pages Advertising

Don’t forget the yellow pages. Sometimes a small descriptor of a business is free. So it is not necessary to stick in a large advertisement. Many buyers will call up twenty sellers before deciding, not just the one with a large advertisement. Don’t forget to include multiple classifications of your product or service, as that will increase your presence.

Sending a promotional offer is one of the best forms of advertisement. It can be sent to existing customers or potential ones.

Here are some words that you need to be very careful about using. They often go down badly with readers of advertisements:

Guarantee: If you include a warranty, provide brief details. Don’t say ‘we guarantee the product’.

Free:  When you use the word free, everyone looks for a catch.

Opportunity: Remember, a buyer wants a hair dryer to work well, she is not looking for a ‘wonderful opportunity’ to buy one.

Remember your advertising messages need to be roughly the same year after year. For that you need to understand your business in relation to your clients. Having understood the business, you will have to choose the media. And most importantly, you have to find ways of testing which form of advertisement is working well. Good luck with your business advertising mission!

1. Start thinking about a loan for your small business now, don’t wait until the last minute. Plan ahead. Forecast a cash flow statement for the upcoming six months and revise it at the end of every month. If it looks like you’ll need a cash infusion three months down the road, start applying for the loan now and you won’t run into a cash crunch.

2. Get your financial records for your business in order even if you don’t need a small business loan right now. Lenders of loans for small businesses will want to see your basic financial statements: accounts receivable, accounts payable, revenues and profits and loss statements. If you keep these records organized it won’t be a huge undertaking to get them together for the loan officer.

3. Establish some credit for your business immediately. The credit can simply be a store account, delivery service account or even a business credit card. Use the credit and make prompt payments. After six months or so you will have established a track record. lenders will look at your firm as a reliable loan risk.

4. Establish a relationship with a bank that offers small business loans. Open a company checking account. After a few months see if the bank will offer overdraft protection for your account. It’s a small step in the right direction towards getting a loan.

5. Demonstrate that you can pay back the small business loan. Lenders look at a number of variables including: the risk of the principle of the loan and if your business can pay the interest. They also look at your personal credit worthiness. Your firm should generate enough cash to pay back both the interest and the principle. In some cases you will have to personally guarantee the loan, especially if it’s the first loan for your company.

If you follow these tips you should be able to get a loan for a small business without a problem.

Be prepared

Don’t wait until the last minute

Establish credit now

Establish a banking relationship before you need a loan

Show your business is a worthy credit risk.

Establishing credit for your company with a small business loan is a smart move.

At the top echelon of decision making at a health facility is the C-Level and Vice President level.  C-Level includes titles such as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officers.  The majority of small business owners are technically involved in delivering the products or services of their companies and do not speak the language of this level of penetration.  If it is to be approached, homework must be completed on how the small business products or services fit into categories of accreditation issues a facility is having, return on investment, net present value and blue sheets.  More often than not, a small business would be better suited to approach the next level down at the departmental director level.

Department Directors should be the center of the focus of a small business marketing plan.  They are at a high enough level to where they assemble their own budgets to executive management and at the same time have considerable control over an operating budget in a hospital environment.  In addition, they are usually accessible with a proper value driven marketing sequence in place.

The next level is the staff members of individual departments.  This includes supervisors and technical people working in the department on their specific specialty.  They normally do not have budget powers, but individuals that have worked in a facility for some time have opinions that are listened to by busy department directors that have grown to trust them.  It would be the section of a small business plan to develop rapport and generate an internal referral into the facility.

A common mistake made by a small business in selling to hospitals is to spend an inordinate amount of time soliciting the purchasing department of a health system or hospital.  Purchasing directors rarely spear head acquiring new products, services or vendors, but rather react to their internal departments inquiries who are in the process to finding a resolution to a problem they are having.  Purchasing departments are a critical component of a small business marketing plan, but this plan needs to be from the perspective of getting into the hospitals purchasing system so when a departments comes to purchasing that the small business is on the list to be a potential problem solver.

Another aspect that occurs in the health care environment is an assembling of a committee to evaluate solutions for a major or new unique purchase for the hospital.  In this environment a small business must quickly locate a champion for their company that resides on that committee.  Without this individual, it will be difficult to ascertain what benefits or features are being weighted heavier and what other committee members are looking for.  This activity is more formally sales related than what a typical small business owner is used to performing, but is definitely worth it in not only being invited to propose a solution, but in establishing a very long term relationship with the facility.

For related facilities such as nursing homes, assisted living and surgery centers, the main focus is on chief administrators of the location.  One item of note in the long term health care market place is that they often purchase solution only at a time where they absolutely have to, such as failing an inspection.  Hospitals on the other hand are more proactive in solving issues before they reach a critical juncture.

Small businesses need to approach all levels of decision makers, but with a different weight of importance on each specific level.  With department directors as the centerpiece of a campaign, getting on file with purchasing departments and at the same time developing rapport with department staff members, a small business is well on its way to consistently selling to hospitals.

There are four main ways to generate useful traffic.

Paid for advertising – this works but is very expensive. You buy sponsored links to your website and bid for keywords. The two main search engines work slightly differently when it comes to bidding for keywords. One takes into account the click through ratios whilst the other only takes the bid price for positioning purposes.

Write articles – writing quality articles about the market your business is in will certainly help. This only works if you write a lot of articles. One or two articles will only give you a temporary blip of traffic maybe for a couple of days. There are literally hundreds of article sites that you can post to. It is hard work but well worth it.

Press releases – write a press release that has some human story behind it. Do not just write about your business but rather how it affected the life of someone doing business with you. Have you got a new product? Have you just picked up a major client? Write a press release!

Keep the press release short and snappy. Make sure you check for spelling and grammar before posting it. Make it interesting! Boring press releases never get read.

There are many places online where you can publish your press release for free. If you use more than one online service make sure you do not release it to all of them on the same day. Give at least a couple days in between each online service. For the best results pay a press release expert to distribute it for you especially to the local media outlets.

SEO – search engine optimisation – I am staggered at how little so called “SEO experts” know. It is important to find a good person to help you here. Do not take their word for it but pick up the phone and speak to a few of their clients.

Speak to people whose websites are already generating a lot of traffic and ask them who they use and how they generate traffic. You will be pleasantly surprised at how helpful other people are especially if they are not in the same line of business as yourself.

You can use Alexa to determine traffic to any website. It is not a hundred percent reliable but it is the best tool you have.

There are other ways of generating traffic which include blogging on online forums and sending emails to your target market audience.

The great thing about internet businesses is that once you have overcome the traffic battle then overheads are relatively low. You can almost get away without using any paper. Your invoices can be mailed out and any queries answered by email.

Make sure you pay a little bit more per month and get the fastest internet connection. Buy a powerful computer, the largest flat screen monitor you can afford and a fast three in one printer. Add a wireless keyboard and mouse and get ready to be inundated with orders!

The first thing that you must remember when creating online advertising internet marketing online businesses is that you must develop a formula. If you want to different websites, you will want them to be run using similar systems or web hosts so that the work you do on one to improve overall performance could translate to similar improvements on other websites. This will help you create efficiencies and save time in the process. The key is to make sure that you have online advertising internet marketing online business systems in place as well as a certain routine that you go around doing things. This may seem vague but it comes down to two things: how efficient you are with your time and how much time you have to spend on each venture. Having software such as Outlook to manage your time will be very beneficial towards you.

My experiences show that internet marketing entrepreneurs, who are very well in time management for their advertising internet marketing online business, have better opportunities to success than people who don’t realize on their time. Especially in the internet marketing world; there are a ton of strategies and opportunities to make money online from advertising internet marketing online business, time management is one of the most significant factor for highly successful.

You’ll discover my investigation on how to run your advertising internet marketing online business smoothly with automation tools below. I highly recommend you to consider those tools and test them effectively by yourself.

There are many different ways to help keep your advertising internet marketing online business running smoothly for within this paragraph; we will look at some software that can help you manage your advertising in a very organized and smooth manner. A good piece of automation tools that you can use are called Niche Portal Builder and HyperVRE. The Niche Portal Builder software can be used to help you develop web pages as well to newsletters and what you must do is simply give the software your domain name, keywords you want to use, what your e-mail is, your Adsense ID, and a few other details. Meanwhile, HyperVRE software can be used for building quality websites with embedded articles, AdSense ads, RSS feeds and links. Also, it allows you to measure the density of keywords in each article for optimization.

Another piece of software that you can use is called Blog Solution. This software can help you build blogs which is important if you have many different blogging websites that you post to each day. By doing this they can post automatically to these blogs soon afterward without having to sign in to each account. You are even able to change the language because of their automatic language translation.

These are three examples of different pieces of software that can help you out. Many successful Internet developers are able to maintain several websites by using software to create efficiencies between their different websites.

Hopefully this article on creating online advertising internet marketing online businesses will help you when developing several quality websites. There are many different types of online advertising internet marketing online businesses but many of them come down to the same sort of broad categories: selling on eBay, retail websites, services websites, and business-to-business websites. You can work within different categories easily but make sure to take what you learn from each different category and apply its in your other ventures.

Final thought, creating online advertising internet marketing online businesses requires time and dedication on your part but you must make sure that the time you are spending is well invested. When you are dealing with multiple advertising internet marketing online businesses, you must be as efficient as possible to make sure that each advertising internet marketing online business is well-tended. If you spend a large amount of your time on one venture and that doesn’t pay off as planned, this can hurt the other ventures due to neglect and the lesser amount of time you are spending on them.

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Small business owners and new startups find it hard to raise the capital the needed for the hardware, networking, licenses and staff required to operate in today’s connected business world were solutions like Microsoft Exchange, SQL, SharePoint and CRM’s are now a part of almost every business.

As small business owners, you work pretty hard on windows desktop applications and software, sometimes for testing, other times for running applications to keep your business up, developing or running these applications in the past required windows servers within your business or hosted dedicated servers. The costs of server hardware, IT management and network infrastructure within your business can be a very costly. Most start ups or small business cannot handle such one-time or large monthly expenses to provide them with the IT infrastructure or management they require.

But luckily there is cheaper and sometimes better option to use Windows VPS Hosting. Windows VPS hosting providers such as ResellerChoice you can retain all the power you would get from windows dedicated servers but only pay a fraction of the cost. For example, if you have multiple windows servers in your office they tend to take up a lot of room, power and management. You can make a simple change or start to convert your current dedicated servers into Windows VPS servers instantly. This will start and reduce operational costs and hardware costs.

Windows VPS hosting providers can offer you reduced cost, simply by creating virtual multiple windows servers on a single physical server. With this advanced technology, you can run your multiple windows servers from a remote desk top session, running your applications and software as needed with full administrator and consol access. You can create private networks or complete virtual clusters of servers or load balanced geographically diverse servers all at a fraction of the costs.

Windows VPS hosting providers using Microsoft such as ResellerChoice offer this economical solution to help small businesses run the multiple servers that are often required at a fraction of the cost of dedicated hardware. Microsoft has released new technology, called Hyper-V, which comes as a key feature with Windows Server 2008 and continues to be the talked about in the IT world as possible contender in a world once powered by VMware and Linux.

With Windows VPS hosting solutions you still get all the great benefits of having multiple windows servers. You get root and administrator access, terminal server/RDP and select from any Windows OS you prefer. It’s really everything you need and would expect from your old servers but with windows VPS hosting you won’t need the dedicated hardware on site and just have one small monthly fee.

The system that Windows has created uses isolation of partitions to separate sections of the server. While there will be one root partition running on a Windows Server 2008, the technology of Hyper-V will allow the server to create ‘child partitions’. These child partitions act as individual servers but running off one server. The child partitions don’t have access to the hardware directly. Rather, these partitions simply get a view of the hardware, and it’s more in a virtual environment.

Now windows hosting providers and take a single server and split the costs among two or more customers allowing each customer to now pay less by sharing the costs of the physical host server.

So, it can work, but you’re a business, and what you want to know about is cost. For small businesses, plans for windows vps servers running this new technology are actually rather low in cost. You can compare prices and many windows vps hosting starting as low as $60. That’s great savings compared to buying multiple servers, which can cost several hundred, to several thousand dollars a month. If your bottom line is important to you, you’ll want to talk with a hosting service that can tell you how you can save money and still keep your server system, as you need it.

In the small business world, saving money is just as important as making money. When you can reduce your need for dedicated servers hosted in in-house into windows virtual servers it can save you money by increasing your bottom line. Switching to a Windows VPS hosting solution is very simple.

When you want to save money and improve performance, consider this solution that has changed how small businesses do business.

The study from the National Federation of the Independent Business Research Fondation, sponsored by Wells Fargo, recently researched the issues that small business owners consider the most problematic in their work.

No wonder, on the top is the problem with health insurance, but liability insurance as well. On the second place are the business costs, with emphasis on the tax cluster and worker’s compensation.

Difficulties such as incompetent employees, problems with customers and suppliers and inability to organize their time between job and family are also regarded as important, but with much lower ranks, according to this survey.

Even though most of the small business owners don’t have time nor interest to deal with some political issues, many of them believe that politics does have an impact on their business and can be a source of their problems.

Many small businesses’ worries are connected with the cost cluster, among them, the most difficult to control are health insurance costs, energy costs and inflation. Other cost problems are connected with the costs of fuels and electricity, supplies, inventories and worker’s compensation insurance.

An American economy used to provide a good, stable fondation for small business owners, but lately it had a negative turn, resulting with small businesses stragle searching for innovative ways to solve their small business financing problem, by reducing expenses and increasing sales.

Speaking of problems with taxes, we are talking about federal taxes on business income, property tax (real, inventory or personal property), tax complexity or state taxes on business income.

Obvesly, most of the high ranked problems small business owners deal with are connected, this way or another, with some general issues or a state. The only way to deal with those difficulties is to be well informed and to have a good strategy, as a part of your initial small business plan.

Still, there are some concerns more locally oriented, which are connected with the organization within the company itself.

There are, of course financial problems, which could be solved by careful and professional managing and a special emmergency bank account with some money saved on regular basis but used only in tough months.

The survey also showed that some of the everyday headaches a small business owners may have, come from their near surrounding. For example,incompetent employees which can give company a very bad look. In comparison to large companies, small businesses have a high employee turnover, and reliable and trustworthy employees are a great challenge.

Maybe the most serious problem of this kind is a relation with suppliers. Most of the businesses are sort of net or chain of services and goods, and a flue of the money, so one business works as good as is the functioning of business deal with suppliers or other company you cooperate with.

Everyone is tightening their belts, both customers and consumers. Imagine the consequences if no one wanted to purchase goods other than the essentials. What will happen to the restaurant industry? What will happen to the retail industry, particularly those marketing electronics and those gadgets that people can manage without? It’s not just a matter of reducing expenses. Small businesses need to survive and compete with the lower prices that are offered by their competitors, and good cash management is a must.

Here are some tips to help you to save money and manage your business and cash flow. These will also help individuals to better manage their home expenses.

1 Energy Consumption

Electricity is an expense we can’t avoid, but if you are able to keep your energy consumption lower than normal, you can save a fair amount of money. One way to save energy is through the use of laptop computers. Sure, they can be more expensive than desktop computers, but imagine the great savings you’ll get when it comes to energy consumption. A laptop or notebook computer consumes around 90 percent less energy than desktop computers. Most small businesses use computers, and if these are replaced with laptops when the time comes, energy expenditure will be less. The more computers your business uses, the more money you will save.

2. Telephone Costs

The telephone is essential to all small businesses, and many use mobiles as well as land lines. Check up on your monthly plan and negotiate a better deal. As competition is increasing, many businesses are stuck on a deal they started off with, and if they renegotiate they can save a lot of money. Use mobiles only where necessary since they are significantly more expensive to use than land lines. Good cash management involves keeping a close eye on communications costs, especially those that are non-essential.

If you use multiple telephone lines in your business, consider VoIP as an alternative. This can allow you to make huge savings, particularly if you have more than one location for your business. Skype offers a completely free service between Skype users, and it is less expensive than normal to phone non-Skype users.

3 Save on Your Ink

Ink for printers can be another expensive item, particularly when calculated over a year. Try to go paperless and print only what is essential. Use recycled cartridges or buy in bulk to save money. Printer sharing on a network can save on the cost of the hardware and also on ink!

4. Save on Lighting

Most people turn off the lights in their homes when they leave the room, but strangely they rarely do so at work. Make a point of doing so. Switching to energy-efficient light bulbs can save a lot of money over a year.

5 Use the Internet

Small businesses should use the internet as much as possible. It is amazing how many tasks can be carried out online, including business calls, sales calls, online business conferencing, video conferencing, live meetings, instant messaging, seminars and so on.

Owning a small business involves almost constant communication with customers, suppliers and other employees. This can be expensive, particularly if it involves travel. It is just as easy to communicate online as by telephone, and video conference is cheaper than a transatlantic flight! Online seminars can be arranged for training purposes, and advertising costs can be slashed through online advertising. Websites are becoming easier and cheaper to put up with every day that passes. The internet offers many opportunities for you to improve your cash management and improve your overall cash flow.

6. Assess your Office Space

Perhaps you have too much office space and you can afford to let some of it out until you have expanded enough to need it. If you are renting, share the rent with another small business that only needs a desk or two.

7. Bulk Buying

A lot depends on your cash flow situation, but it is sometimes cheaper to purchase office items on a quarterly rather than a weekly or monthly basis. This is particularly true if bulk discounts overcome the problem of tying up your capital in stock. You will save on delivery charges, but make sure that you budget the use of such supplies, since there is sometimes a temptation to use more materials or supplies when stocks are higher than normal.

Although times might seem bad, those with the ability and desire to make savings will come through in a much stronger position than small business owners who do nothing. Don’t let that be you, and by following these seven cash management tips for small businesses, you should be able to make significant savings.

Today’s business world is quite complex and competitive markets seem to get tighter by the day, as a small business owner you need strategies, organization, creativity and you need to make a lot of “friends” as you develop your marketing plan. The first step is to always have some sort of flow chart which can be made from putting random ideas on a piece of paper, you can write down your budget, your options, costs and target markets you want to reach within your local community. Whether you are in a big or small town within the UK or anywhere in the world for that matter, knowing your potential customers and competitors should be one of the highest priorities.

If you are in business, you should have realized by now that your product is not “unique”, if it was you’d be monopolizing the niche you are in but since this is not the case you need to come up with a way to spin your marketing campaign to make your product sound and look unique to your prospects. You can offer a special guarantee, a trial, samples, free merchandise, discounts or any other kind of “incentive” which is going to add value to your product or service setting you apart from the competition.

After developing a good marketing idea and positive spin for your business products and services you need find a medium to advertise what you have to offer, this is where your networking skills will come in handy, many people love the “business card” approach but if it not done correctly you will be throwing away your fancy piece of paper. The number one mistake is to pay someone to distribute your cards on the streets or placing them on phone booths, etc. This practice will only degrade the look of your business and will drive people to your competitors who might be advertising through more professional mediums.

Always advertise to your target audience, for instance, it would be futile to advertise Real Estate deals on a high school football field, why? simply because the ones who will be looking at those ads will be teenagers who still have a lot of work to do before buying a house of their own, so consider places where your average customer would be exposed to your advertising

Another good way to get the word out is to use the web. As a smart business owner is your responsibility to learn new ways to advertise to your clients cheaply and effectively. Major search engines such as Google and Yahoo are excellent for this type of advertising since they are able to deliver “geo-targeted” visitors according to their “IP addresses” this only means that if you are operating in Whales, you will be able to target potential customers using these “geo-targeting” capabilities. Also if you advertise online try to avoid advertising through mailing lists unless the people you send emails to have opted to get your newsletter.

Today’s business world is complex and competitive so when it comes to marketing your business you must always think outside the box.

Particularly for small businesses, advertising your business in say, custom greeting cards, needs a flawless execution of the basics of marketing. In order for you to understand fully the essence of mounting an ad for your business, you also need to consider the fundamental laws of advertising.

The Law of Having One Message
If you want higher response rate to your ad, be sure to have only one message in your marketing campaign such as your greeting card printing. Advertising means having to convey your message in as quick a time as possible because you are only given at least 5 seconds by your target readers to convince them of your worth. With too many messages, you will more than likely to overwhelm and confuse your target market with what you are really trying to say to them.

The point: create one core message that is simple and compelling.

The Law of Credibility
Over the years, advertising has acquired a bad name when it comes to telling the truth and nothing but the truth. People in general have been taught to turn off anything that is even remotely related to a sales pitch. Needless to say that many marketing campaigns failed miserably because the readers know that people in advertising tend to stretch the truth to achieve their goals. So the next time you try to include promises that you are sure not going to keep, think twice and even three times before you do so. The credibility you have built for such a long time can easily crumble with just one bad impression.

The point: do not waste your time coming up with a message that does not speak the truth to attract attention. Your target clients will surely know about it.

The Law of Testing
Unlike their Fortune 500 counterparts, smaller businesses will find it a luxury to test their advertising first before launching them to their target clients. But truth be told, you do not need much resources to see whether your ad campaign such as your custom greeting cards will be effective. You can always utilize simple methods such as coming up with coupons and codes to measure your readers’ awareness of your message. You can also have you staff make a survey for several weeks where they ask your target clients on how they heard of your business.

The point: test everything even if you have limited budget for your marketing campaign. It will give you an idea of where you can improve the next time you have your marketing campaign such as your custom greeting cards.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Custom Greeting Cards, Greeting Card Printing

More small businesses fail than succeed. Some studies show that as much as 90% of small businesses fail in the first five years. Don’t let yours be one of them. Avoid these common finance mistakes.

Lack of Sufficient Start-up Funding

Not having enough money is a major cause of failure. Unforeseen emergencies can eat up cash reserves. Establish a credit line or apply for a business loan before you need it. If your business doesn’t qualify for a loan, apply for a credit card in your name and keep it for business use only. This credit reserve, or credit card, will allow you to take advantage of opportunities that may pop up, such as supplying a new major customer, product introduction, or media blitz.

Underestimating Expenses

Entrepreneurs have a tendency to underestimate expenses, especially expenses they’re not familiar with. It can be a shock to find out that newspaper ad is going to cost three times what you expected or that the Pay Per Click (PPC) budget you though would last a week is used up in less than a day. When projecting expenses add in a contingency factor of 8% – 10%. Base your expenses on actual expenses. If you’re not familiar with the type of expense do some research.

Overestimating Revenues

It’s a double whammy. Expenses are more than you projected and revenues aren’t nearly what you’d thought they would be. You’ve spent more money and you’re getting less return. Be conservative when forecasting revenues. Use assumptions that are realistic and based on fact rather than hope.

Confusing Profit for Cash

Some entrepreneurs confuse being profitable with cash. You can take cash to the bank you can’t do that with profits. A profit is sales/revenues minus expenses. If some of these sales are on credit, or on payment terms such as payable after 30/60/90 days, the cash won’t be available when the sale is made, but the expenses will still have to be paid.

For example: Sales were $30,000 for the month of March. The sales were from an affiliate program that pays 60 days after the sale was made. Expenses for March were $20,000 so your profit would be $10,000, not bad. However, on a cash basis you won’t see the $30,000 until June, but the expenses still have to be paid. If March was your first month of business you’d be in a cash deficit position of $20,000.

Waiting Until the Last Minute

It takes time to establish credit whether it’s with a vendor or a bank. don’t wait until you’re desperate for cash before you start the process. Apply for a credit card for your company as the first step in establishing credit. Talk with your banker and see if it’s possible to establish a small line of credit. Use the credit and then promptly repay it within the appropriate time frame. After a year request a bigger credit line and use it wisely.

Don’t let these common finance mistakes hurt your business.

The real key to local search visibility is to recognize that your location is your brand. In most cases, searches with local intent rarely reflect brand terms. In the research I have seen, most local searches are industry and/or service based with geographic qualifiers. For example, “boston emergency plumber” or “san diego pediatric dentist” are more likely to be searched for than “city name + your business name”. If people are searching for your business by name, that’s great! You’ve done a great job establishing your brand! But if your sole focus is on brand promotion, you are missing out on some great opportunities to develop relationships with new customers in your area. Recent research has shown that almost 40% of allinternet searches are local in intent. If you want to maintain a lead over your competition, now is the time to take action. The following short-list of actionable items will help get you started:

1. Get listed at all of the major local search engines and telecom directories. Start with Google Local and Yahoo Local. There are also services such as UniversalBusinessListing.org which facilitate your submissions to such sites for a minor fee. If you don’t have the time to manually submit your listings, this is an excellent option.

2. Get links from related local sites, industry associations, and the chamber of commerce. One thing to keep in mind is the importance of anchor text; the clickable words that link to your website. Ask your business partners to link to your website using the phrase you want to rank for as anchor text (ie. “boston emergency plumber”, if you are a plumber in Boston). You could even incentivize your suppliers to link to you in exchange for a discount, as the value of the links gained will far outweigh the short-term costs of discounting.

3. Get reviews from customers and/or suppliers. If you go to Google and do a search for “your industry +reviews”, you should come up with a decent list of sites that contain reviews of businesses like yours. Naturally, some industries are more popular than others. If you don’t find one related to your industry, consider it an opportunity and start your own review site To continue with the discount idea noted above, why not give your customers a discount for a favorable review? Note that businesses can be given reviews directly on Google Local, but you also want your reviews to appear on reputable third party sites like Yelp.com (for restaurants), TripAdvisor.com (for hotels, etc.) or RateItAll.com (for general consumer products).

4. Consider the impact of universal search. Universal search refers to the use of non-traditional media in standard search results. Search engines generally serve up hypertext search results. With the introduction of universal search, Google now serves up video, photos, news, etc. in addition to hypertext. Get your geeky nephew to help you produce a video for Youtube. Take some funny photos of the hijinks in your office and upload them to Flickr. Ask one of your industry bloggers if you can contribute an article to their site. Submit a press release. Write an article like this and syndicate it. The opportunities are endless, if you are motivated.

Jacob Davidson is happy to share his new found knowledge of search engine marketing with other small business owners. When he is not trying to stay abreast of the latest marketing and advertising techniques, he spends his time exploring the local yellow pages for new business leads.

Im just asking because I own my own business and am looking into alternative advertising ideas

• 2004 – Tarcher/ Penguin Books – 1st Edition
• The Best Home Businesses for People Over 50+
• By Paul and Sarah Edwards
• NEW – Never Touched
• Collectible

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For the fastest-growing segment of our population, here is a comprehensive guide to starting and running a home-based business in midlife and retirement.

A baby boomer turns fifty every seven seconds, creating what will soon be the largest and most influential senior generation in history. These dynamic seniors have both a desire and a need to continue their working lives past the age when their parents retired.

Boomers have been the primary b… More >>

Best Home Businesses for People 50+

You should not worry about a business plan.
People often mistakenly think that if they do not need to secure funding for their business, it means they should not worry about a business plan. Technically, you do not need a business plan in this situation, but you should still compose one for your own purposes. Creating a business plan will allow you to research your industry, organize your thoughts, and set your long-term goals.

To get customers you need to be cheaper.
New business owners frequently think that they need to have the cheapest prices if they want to get customers from competition. This is anything but true. Look at stores like Macy’s or Nordstrom’s – they do not have cheap prices but still attract customers. You do not necessarily want to overcharge your customers, but do not take a loss in order to offer cheap prices.

If you cook well, you should open a restaurant.
How many times have you overheard someone saying, “Wow, you are a good cook. You should open a restaurant”? Little do they know that opening a restaurant requires a lot more work than just cooking the food. As any small business owner will tell you, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of hurdles to opening a business. Then, after opening the restaurant, business owners typically end up hiring a chef and focus entirely on operating the business.

Good friends will work well together.
Every year, friends forming partnerships open hundreds of new businesses. Unfortunately, just because you are good friends with someone does not mean you will work well together. Forming a partnership with another person is a huge commitment. You need to be 100% sure that you will be able to work together before you take this big step.

Failure is the opposite of success.
In life we are all taught that failure is the opposite of success. However, the opposite is true when it comes to small businesses. Failure is actually an essential part of success. When you open a business, you are embarking on a new journey, and you learn through trial and error. It is unlikely that any business is going to be immensely successful from the start. There are going to be failures and bumps along the road.

Watch employees closely or they will slack off.
As we mentioned in last week’s tips for managing employees effectively, you cannot expect your employees to be productive 100% of their shifts. By allowing employees to have some time to breathe they will be more efficient when they are working on a project. The last thing you want to do is cause employees unnecessary stress by breathing down their necks.

If you build it, they will come.
Small business owners often invest all of their money into opening their business and forget to save funds for marketing purposes. People think, “if I open my store, people will naturally just come in off the sidewalk.” Uh, not true. You might get a few walk-ins if you have a great location, but it is essential to advertise your business if you want to attract new customers.

You can write-off everything.
Too many people learn this myth the hard way. If you take too many business deductions it sends a huge red flag to the IRS and could cost you thousands in unpaid taxes and fees. A general rule for write-offs is to ask yourself, “would I make this purchase even if you did not have a business?” If the answer is yes, then the item you are purchasing is probably not a business expense.

The customer is always right.
This is one of the oldest – and most incorrect – myths about running a small business. No, the customer is not always right. In fact, they are frequently wrong. If you always tell customers they are right, then you can wind-up losing thousands of dollars to customers who take advantage of you. There is nothing wrong with correcting a customer who is in error. However, you always want to be polite and professional in doing so.