In recent years I went to a typical meeting that was being addressed to a room full of people on the topic of marketing in regards to competitors edge. I was at the point when I was wondering when will this meeting be over and admittedly looking at my watch for the umpteenth time when I heard go to your competition introduce yourself and let them know if there is anything that you can do to help them please let you know.
The gist of it was to be honest let them know you are the manager or owner of the same type of business that they are in and a neighboring business. Shake their hands and openly express that it was a pleasure to meet them. In and out type deal, then see if they reciprocate by visiting you. The mentality that you are portraying is that of the aggressor which is interesting.
My immediate response in my head was "that takes nerve". Then I thought about it and clearly it is a way to intimidate or even develop a positive relationship over time with your competition; that is if it is the owner or manager you are talking to. I would ask for the owner or manager if you do this. It is also a way to discover possible weaknesses or strengths in their organization. I have not personally used this technique, and if I did I would do my due diligence by researching prior to visiting.
What do you think?
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Work Hiatus In Your Business
When something happens that causes you to deal with unexpected concerns rather than normal business concerns it could literally bring your business to a halt if you are a one person operation. During these economic times it is important to be focused on producing income especially if you are living paycheck to paycheck.
Whether it is a week long ice storm, a death in a family, pure exhaustion or recession it is really hard at times to get your momentum back and unfortunately the end result is a loss in sales. The first thing that you must do is deal with the unexpected positively.
Remind yourself repeatedly what your purpose is and if you need to set new short term goals, then reward yourself when you meet them. You could re-invent the wheel by changing up what or how you sell or produce. If you like the competition of it all then visit your competitor or their website and see what they are doing at this very moment, then do it better.
If you do experience a loss of income getting a part-time job that will cover essential living expenditures is an option. Try not to live off credit because you do not want to add on to the burden you are already experiencing.
The worst thing you can do is over think it or feel sorry for yourself. Picture a brighter day with new energy and work towards it. I believe that if you keep it positive and work hard everything will eventually get better.
Whether it is a week long ice storm, a death in a family, pure exhaustion or recession it is really hard at times to get your momentum back and unfortunately the end result is a loss in sales. The first thing that you must do is deal with the unexpected positively.
Remind yourself repeatedly what your purpose is and if you need to set new short term goals, then reward yourself when you meet them. You could re-invent the wheel by changing up what or how you sell or produce. If you like the competition of it all then visit your competitor or their website and see what they are doing at this very moment, then do it better.
If you do experience a loss of income getting a part-time job that will cover essential living expenditures is an option. Try not to live off credit because you do not want to add on to the burden you are already experiencing.
The worst thing you can do is over think it or feel sorry for yourself. Picture a brighter day with new energy and work towards it. I believe that if you keep it positive and work hard everything will eventually get better.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Give a Gift Card for Christmas & Minimize Dollars Spent During the Holidays!
It is almost that time of year again...the holidays. Many of you are hosting a party or going to one. Then there are the personal family get togethers; all of which can involve swaping presents.
I have found gift cards to be the best way to maximize the dollars spent towards a gift. The reason is that the best sales happen after Christmas. There is nothing like getting a gift card to use at my favorite store because it enables me to buy what I want and usually more of it due to a clearance or post holiday sale. For the person that is hard to buy for this may be your best option.
Most individuals purchase a specific retail merchant or a bank gift card bought directly from a retail merchant or bank. I am proposing that you minimize dollars spent during the holidays by utilizing your personal or business credit card reward program; if you use your personal or business credit card for expenditures year round especially on major expenditures such as travel, it is possible that you may have been accumulating points related to a reward program. You have to be enrolled in a program at the time of purchase, and many credit cards in existence today have a reward program attached to it so upon acceptance of the card you could have accepted or declined a program. Call your credit card company or take a look at your monthly statement and see what type of reward program you have (not all can be transacted into gift cards) if any. If you are in the right type of program is there enough accumulated points to acquire a gift card to use during the holidays for purchasing party items or to give as a present for a family member, friend, acquaintance, or colleague. This does require foresight because you need to allow time to make the request and have one or more mailed to you especially if the gift card is coming from a third party vendor.
I have found gift cards to be the best way to maximize the dollars spent towards a gift. The reason is that the best sales happen after Christmas. There is nothing like getting a gift card to use at my favorite store because it enables me to buy what I want and usually more of it due to a clearance or post holiday sale. For the person that is hard to buy for this may be your best option.
Most individuals purchase a specific retail merchant or a bank gift card bought directly from a retail merchant or bank. I am proposing that you minimize dollars spent during the holidays by utilizing your personal or business credit card reward program; if you use your personal or business credit card for expenditures year round especially on major expenditures such as travel, it is possible that you may have been accumulating points related to a reward program. You have to be enrolled in a program at the time of purchase, and many credit cards in existence today have a reward program attached to it so upon acceptance of the card you could have accepted or declined a program. Call your credit card company or take a look at your monthly statement and see what type of reward program you have (not all can be transacted into gift cards) if any. If you are in the right type of program is there enough accumulated points to acquire a gift card to use during the holidays for purchasing party items or to give as a present for a family member, friend, acquaintance, or colleague. This does require foresight because you need to allow time to make the request and have one or more mailed to you especially if the gift card is coming from a third party vendor.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
What To Do About Funding Your Start-Up Business
Whether you have worked in the corporate world or small business environment you probably have entertained the thought of being your own boss, unless you literally do not crave the ultimate responsibility of business ownership. Most of us do not follow through on such thoughts, but what if you did…how would you fund it?
If you go the bank route, then your loan will depend on your personal credit worthiness. Simply stated do you have 10% to 30% (lender specifies requirement) of the total loan amount in your personal bank account keeping in mind that this required stash of cash must originate from you? Have you acquired a major business or personal asset(s) free and clear or have a personal asset such as a home with equity that can be refinanced? Are you planning to buy business assets upon receipt of the loan? Do you have an acceptable debt ratio and if acceptable is there any indication that you will make late payments or no payment at all? Do you have a credit score of 680 or higher? If you passed the majority of these questions, then the next consideration is do you have a steady stream of income? If not you will either need to keep your current job until your situation becomes favorable or secure a part-time job work with adequate income to work in tandem with your business while building it up. The end result of your efforts is that over time it is possible to have established enough credit worthiness to be considered for a loan. There are other factors such as the risk associated with the type of business, its set up (Sole Proprietor, Partnership or Corporation) and whether or not you are qualified (experienced) to manage it. Start-ups tend not to get funded through bank loans.
There are non-competing alternative bank sources that can be considered if you need funding to get your business off and running and were declined by a bank. Micro-lenders or economic development organizations specialize in helping existing small businesses and start-ups. Micro loans can be anywhere from $500 to $100,000 dependent upon the lender, however start-ups are typically funded from $500 to $12,000. A micro lender generally will want the same information as banks, however not as strict and do accept different types of collateral. For specific requirements and loan products you will need to seek out the micro lenders. In Texas the micro lenders are ACCION Texas http://www.acciontexas.org/ and BigAustin http://www.bigaustin.org/. All other areas look for the small business development center in your area they should be able to refer you to the micro lender organizations.
In regards to the traditional bank and micro-lenders some of them are participants in the SBA lending program. Here is the link for government resources http://www.usa.gov/Business/Business_Gateway.shtml click on Financial Assistance to go to the SBA site to learn more information on loan products. Http://search.business.gov/startLoans.html is another link that asks you to check off criteria pertaining to you and searches for all possible loan, grant or other products that fits your circumstance.
Another type of a non-competing alternative bank source is organizations that specialize in lending to minorities such as Strategies for Small Businesses, http://strategiesforsmallbusiness.com/. Their sole purpose is to help existing minority owned small businesses and start-ups get funded. It is a government guaranteed SBA unsecured small business loan started in 1995. It is different from the traditional business loan program because no collateral is needed, no current financials or income taxes are needed; but it is also limited up to $25k for non-veterans. The use of funds is not as restricted (depending upon lender) like most traditional bank loans as long as it is used for business purposes. It may not be funded timely due to government quotas so if you are in the extreme need of funds this may not be the product for you. Veterans you may want to call the lending organization to get a clear understanding of the loan details because loans to veterans generally are more favorable. The final concern is this particular loan can only be funded once every ninety days regardless of who the lender is so beware because it is called different names (depending upon the lender) such as SBA Express Loan, SBA Loan for Woman, Unsecured Business Loan, Minorities Small Business Loan, etc.
Other methods of funding a start-up include credit card or line of credit. It is best to get it in the business name, however if you have to use a personal card then decide which card is for business purchases only. Always keep personal and business transactions separate that includes bank accounts.
There are people lending to people networks that you can join, however the networks stated purpose is personal lending. So you would have to enter in your personal information, the purpose of the loan which can be for business, the amount that you wish for limited to $25k, plus term and interest rate desired. What generally happens next is that people who lend on the website can then decide whether or not they want to lend you money and if they do will contact you. You then decide if you are in agreement or if you have multiple offers then choose the best one for you. The websites that I have found are http://www.prosper.com/ and http://www.lendingclub.com/.
You could attract investors or venture capitalists, but you must set-up your business in the right entity, complete a detailed business plan that includes a 5 year forecast if not longer, valuation of your business, investment analysis, payback period in years and exit strategy explained. The last step is to find and convince investors to partake in your business, then legally bind the agreement. This takes the longest amount of time to do. If you go the investor route you may be given up ownership of your business if issuing of stock is involved, so keep this in mind if you want to keep ownership of your company do not give away more than 51%. To keep 100% ownership you need to convince potential investors to agree to receiving a return on their investment which could be more favorable to them if they do not want to incur any liabilities.
Asking a family member to fund your start-up is another source, but not advisable. The last sources would be winning on reality TV and of course the lottery all of which of course is nothing but luck. Then there are the websites that promise grant money which is practically non-existing if you are a for profit start-up; here is the link to find out for yourself, http://www.grants.gov/. My advice to start-ups is to start small, think big, be creative, put in the effort, stay focused, don’t be afraid of change, steadily grow, and only use another source for funding as a last resort.
If you go the bank route, then your loan will depend on your personal credit worthiness. Simply stated do you have 10% to 30% (lender specifies requirement) of the total loan amount in your personal bank account keeping in mind that this required stash of cash must originate from you? Have you acquired a major business or personal asset(s) free and clear or have a personal asset such as a home with equity that can be refinanced? Are you planning to buy business assets upon receipt of the loan? Do you have an acceptable debt ratio and if acceptable is there any indication that you will make late payments or no payment at all? Do you have a credit score of 680 or higher? If you passed the majority of these questions, then the next consideration is do you have a steady stream of income? If not you will either need to keep your current job until your situation becomes favorable or secure a part-time job work with adequate income to work in tandem with your business while building it up. The end result of your efforts is that over time it is possible to have established enough credit worthiness to be considered for a loan. There are other factors such as the risk associated with the type of business, its set up (Sole Proprietor, Partnership or Corporation) and whether or not you are qualified (experienced) to manage it. Start-ups tend not to get funded through bank loans.
There are non-competing alternative bank sources that can be considered if you need funding to get your business off and running and were declined by a bank. Micro-lenders or economic development organizations specialize in helping existing small businesses and start-ups. Micro loans can be anywhere from $500 to $100,000 dependent upon the lender, however start-ups are typically funded from $500 to $12,000. A micro lender generally will want the same information as banks, however not as strict and do accept different types of collateral. For specific requirements and loan products you will need to seek out the micro lenders. In Texas the micro lenders are ACCION Texas http://www.acciontexas.org/ and BigAustin http://www.bigaustin.org/. All other areas look for the small business development center in your area they should be able to refer you to the micro lender organizations.
In regards to the traditional bank and micro-lenders some of them are participants in the SBA lending program. Here is the link for government resources http://www.usa.gov/Business/Business_Gateway.shtml click on Financial Assistance to go to the SBA site to learn more information on loan products. Http://search.business.gov/startLoans.html is another link that asks you to check off criteria pertaining to you and searches for all possible loan, grant or other products that fits your circumstance.
Another type of a non-competing alternative bank source is organizations that specialize in lending to minorities such as Strategies for Small Businesses, http://strategiesforsmallbusiness.com/. Their sole purpose is to help existing minority owned small businesses and start-ups get funded. It is a government guaranteed SBA unsecured small business loan started in 1995. It is different from the traditional business loan program because no collateral is needed, no current financials or income taxes are needed; but it is also limited up to $25k for non-veterans. The use of funds is not as restricted (depending upon lender) like most traditional bank loans as long as it is used for business purposes. It may not be funded timely due to government quotas so if you are in the extreme need of funds this may not be the product for you. Veterans you may want to call the lending organization to get a clear understanding of the loan details because loans to veterans generally are more favorable. The final concern is this particular loan can only be funded once every ninety days regardless of who the lender is so beware because it is called different names (depending upon the lender) such as SBA Express Loan, SBA Loan for Woman, Unsecured Business Loan, Minorities Small Business Loan, etc.
Other methods of funding a start-up include credit card or line of credit. It is best to get it in the business name, however if you have to use a personal card then decide which card is for business purchases only. Always keep personal and business transactions separate that includes bank accounts.
There are people lending to people networks that you can join, however the networks stated purpose is personal lending. So you would have to enter in your personal information, the purpose of the loan which can be for business, the amount that you wish for limited to $25k, plus term and interest rate desired. What generally happens next is that people who lend on the website can then decide whether or not they want to lend you money and if they do will contact you. You then decide if you are in agreement or if you have multiple offers then choose the best one for you. The websites that I have found are http://www.prosper.com/ and http://www.lendingclub.com/.
You could attract investors or venture capitalists, but you must set-up your business in the right entity, complete a detailed business plan that includes a 5 year forecast if not longer, valuation of your business, investment analysis, payback period in years and exit strategy explained. The last step is to find and convince investors to partake in your business, then legally bind the agreement. This takes the longest amount of time to do. If you go the investor route you may be given up ownership of your business if issuing of stock is involved, so keep this in mind if you want to keep ownership of your company do not give away more than 51%. To keep 100% ownership you need to convince potential investors to agree to receiving a return on their investment which could be more favorable to them if they do not want to incur any liabilities.
Asking a family member to fund your start-up is another source, but not advisable. The last sources would be winning on reality TV and of course the lottery all of which of course is nothing but luck. Then there are the websites that promise grant money which is practically non-existing if you are a for profit start-up; here is the link to find out for yourself, http://www.grants.gov/. My advice to start-ups is to start small, think big, be creative, put in the effort, stay focused, don’t be afraid of change, steadily grow, and only use another source for funding as a last resort.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Financials...how important are they?
Not to offend anyone reading this, but here I am coming in to do a business plan and when I ask for financials I am told that there are none other than a tax return. Ok tax returns work, however your managerial skills will look even better if you were actually doing the bookkeeping or paying a qualified bookkeeper to keep your books.
There are many people who start businesses based on their experience as in working knowledge and never had to do the behind the scenes bookkeeping. There is nothing wrong with that, however keeping the books current is important if you want to run an efficient and strategic business.
When you are looking for money because you want to expand your business, if you go the bank route, they will ask for atleast 2 years of past tax returns. Which is good, however if you have an accountant that is very efficient and is dwindling away your profit with deductions or showing your business at a loss for the past 2 years this will make it harder for you to qualify. On the other side of it, think of all the receipts that never made it to their destination and are forever lost because in the daily task of running a business most business owners are prone to lapse in memory.
This is between you and your accountant, but it is not always smart to take all deductions possible, it should be strategically and legally planned. If you are actually keeping the books and not taking in a shoe box filled with receipts to your accountant, then you will have a credible profit & loss and balance sheet that will show a proper picture on how your business is doing. You will probably pay less money to your accountant because he or she does not have to add up receipts; instead it will enable your accountant to be both efficient and strategic because he or she has the time to do it. Remember it is crunch time for your tax accountant, the easier you make it for him or her the less money you will spend and it could possibly lead to a better end result.
The last thing to discuss is that if you are keeping books, what better way to know throughout the year how your business is doing. You can make goals, budgets, use tracking metrics; all of which will help you when you are looking to be funded through a bank or investor(s) to expand your business. Better yet wouldn't it be useful if you discover that there are cost cutting strategies you could implement or be enabled to eliminate unnecessary spending and employee theft. In 2 years time it might even be possible to fund your own expansion without the help of a bank or investor(s).
There are many people who start businesses based on their experience as in working knowledge and never had to do the behind the scenes bookkeeping. There is nothing wrong with that, however keeping the books current is important if you want to run an efficient and strategic business.
When you are looking for money because you want to expand your business, if you go the bank route, they will ask for atleast 2 years of past tax returns. Which is good, however if you have an accountant that is very efficient and is dwindling away your profit with deductions or showing your business at a loss for the past 2 years this will make it harder for you to qualify. On the other side of it, think of all the receipts that never made it to their destination and are forever lost because in the daily task of running a business most business owners are prone to lapse in memory.
This is between you and your accountant, but it is not always smart to take all deductions possible, it should be strategically and legally planned. If you are actually keeping the books and not taking in a shoe box filled with receipts to your accountant, then you will have a credible profit & loss and balance sheet that will show a proper picture on how your business is doing. You will probably pay less money to your accountant because he or she does not have to add up receipts; instead it will enable your accountant to be both efficient and strategic because he or she has the time to do it. Remember it is crunch time for your tax accountant, the easier you make it for him or her the less money you will spend and it could possibly lead to a better end result.
The last thing to discuss is that if you are keeping books, what better way to know throughout the year how your business is doing. You can make goals, budgets, use tracking metrics; all of which will help you when you are looking to be funded through a bank or investor(s) to expand your business. Better yet wouldn't it be useful if you discover that there are cost cutting strategies you could implement or be enabled to eliminate unnecessary spending and employee theft. In 2 years time it might even be possible to fund your own expansion without the help of a bank or investor(s).
Friday, August 1, 2008
Internet Cached
I learned something new today. I do a lot of research on google. I cannot count how many times that I finally found something in a search that looked like it would benefit me or my client; clicked on it only to find out that it is a broken link. This of course happens after spending hours researching on google.
Did you know that google takes a polaroid snapshot of a web page to cache it? So the next time you click on a broken link and you really want to see what use to be there use the back button, then click on "Cached" that is displayed on the last line of the link description.
I also discovered that are also text descriptions of a web page and if you click on the word "text" a text version of the page appears. There is also the "Similar Pages" link that is displayed to the right of "Cached" that could possibly be of help because it may allow you to see similar web sites if any. I also started to click on all the available options on the cached copy the links and discovered descriptive information of several internet tools that google has; look for "Learn More".
There is a very good book out there that you can purchase through amazon.com called "Take The Cold Out Of Cold Calling" that reveals "Web Search Secrets". The author of the book is Sam Richter. I totally recommend this book if you utilize the search engines regularly on the web.
When all is said and done this may not be a bright spot in your day, but it is in mind. I cannot believe that it has always been there in front of me. The things we tend to overlook in life sometimes can make all the difference in making our lives a little less complicated.
Did you know that google takes a polaroid snapshot of a web page to cache it? So the next time you click on a broken link and you really want to see what use to be there use the back button, then click on "Cached" that is displayed on the last line of the link description.
I also discovered that are also text descriptions of a web page and if you click on the word "text" a text version of the page appears. There is also the "Similar Pages" link that is displayed to the right of "Cached" that could possibly be of help because it may allow you to see similar web sites if any. I also started to click on all the available options on the cached copy the links and discovered descriptive information of several internet tools that google has; look for "Learn More".
There is a very good book out there that you can purchase through amazon.com called "Take The Cold Out Of Cold Calling" that reveals "Web Search Secrets". The author of the book is Sam Richter. I totally recommend this book if you utilize the search engines regularly on the web.
When all is said and done this may not be a bright spot in your day, but it is in mind. I cannot believe that it has always been there in front of me. The things we tend to overlook in life sometimes can make all the difference in making our lives a little less complicated.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Work At Home Ads Is This For Real?
There are many ads out there with claims that you can make money working from home over the internet with little time invested in the venture. I saw an ad on a cable channel and autions at Ebay that are selling website ventures that are built for you. What goes unsaid is the time and the money advertising these websites...you got to have internet traffic for them to work for you.
I will say that I put no emphasis on their claims. I believe that you get what you put into it...as in blood and sweat. There are programs out there that do make money, but it takes time and creativity to do it. Keep in mind the people who are making the most money are the ones selling the pre-built web sites and/ or they have numerous of websites working for them.
I am weary of the programs that ask for money, but I do believe that you have to spend money to make money. When you work from home you essentially running a business, so you have to make an investment of time and money. There is an element of higher risk when you do business over the internet because you are interacting with faceless individuals. Not just the buyer trusting the seller, but the other way around.
More and more people are selling products and/or services or becoming affiliates/ partners of businesses that sell products and/ or services. So the competition is becoming stronger and thus the potential to make money. So that is when the creativity comes in...clever ways to attract traffic to your website. The problem is there are people out there who are out there practicing fraud to get you to their website. People who are willing to promise you the moon and take your money.
In summary you can make money over the internet, however you have to attract clientele to your website, you need to have integrity, and you need to be creative. Do not spend your hard earned money on empty promises. Do your research on the company...if the company or individual is in a hurry to take your money I would probably not do business with them.
In regards to scams, here is a good site to utilize when you are researching whether or not you are being scammed Federal Citizen Information Center .
I will say that I put no emphasis on their claims. I believe that you get what you put into it...as in blood and sweat. There are programs out there that do make money, but it takes time and creativity to do it. Keep in mind the people who are making the most money are the ones selling the pre-built web sites and/ or they have numerous of websites working for them.
I am weary of the programs that ask for money, but I do believe that you have to spend money to make money. When you work from home you essentially running a business, so you have to make an investment of time and money. There is an element of higher risk when you do business over the internet because you are interacting with faceless individuals. Not just the buyer trusting the seller, but the other way around.
More and more people are selling products and/or services or becoming affiliates/ partners of businesses that sell products and/ or services. So the competition is becoming stronger and thus the potential to make money. So that is when the creativity comes in...clever ways to attract traffic to your website. The problem is there are people out there who are out there practicing fraud to get you to their website. People who are willing to promise you the moon and take your money.
In summary you can make money over the internet, however you have to attract clientele to your website, you need to have integrity, and you need to be creative. Do not spend your hard earned money on empty promises. Do your research on the company...if the company or individual is in a hurry to take your money I would probably not do business with them.
In regards to scams, here is a good site to utilize when you are researching whether or not you are being scammed Federal Citizen Information Center .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
