Taking the Leap into Mobile Payments

You may think accepting electronic payments at your small business gives consumers plenty of payment options. And, until very recently, accepting debit cards, credit cards and good old-fashioned cash did meet the vast majority of consumers’ payment needs. But the times, they are a-changing. 

While still a relatively small segment of the market, mobile payment - payments made using smartphone - is making serious headway. How serious? Consider this: In less than a year after Starbucks launched a mobile app complete with a payment option, the company reported more than 26 million mobile payments.

Smartphone use is on the rise and is playing a larger role in where people spend—especially in urban areas where users rely on apps like Yelp to read reviews of local hotspots before taking a gamble on a new businesses. Bumping up “accepting mobile payments” on your to-do list may be a wise move.

How Mobile Payments Work

With mobile payments (sometimes called “contactless payments” by providers), your customers’ smartphones double as their debit or credit cards, or even their banks accounts. Before they arrive at your business, they’ve linked their bank, debit card or credit card information to a specific payment app. Once they’re ready to pay, they tap their smartphones against a device—usually a SingleTap, MasterCard PayPass or Visa PaWave—near your registers that deducts payment from their mobile payment apps.

Mobile payments aren’t limited to brick-and-mortar storefronts. You can also offer mobile payments in your online store so customers don’t have to go through the hassle of typing in their credit card information.

Assessing Your Mobile Payments Options
Google launched its mobile payment service, Google Wallet, in mid-2011 and already claims 300,000+ locations accept this form of payment. This service adds a bonus for your brick-and-mortar store as it includes a Google Offer component that works like this:

1. Someone in your area uses a smartphone to search Google Offers for coupons related to your service or product. (Instead of using an app like Yelp that we mentioned earlier.)

2. Your business comes up in the search results, and the smartphone user decides to visit your store.

3. Google Wallet automatically redeems the coupon upon payment and allows you to distribute “loyalty points” —a rewards system Google hopes will keep customers coming back to your business.

Like any mobile payment app, Google Wallet currently serves a limited number of smartphones, and it’s not iPhone compatible. If you’re looking for a viable alternative, PayPal launched its own mobile payment service, PayPal Mobile Wallet, which may become a worthy adversary for Google Wallet in the near future. And keep your eye on the Intuit GoPayment.

With the smartphone and mobile payments battle still waging, you could end up picking the service that turns into the Betamax of mobile payments. But if your customers are known for tech savviness, starting to accept mobile payments now could be the key to drawing them in before your competitors get hip to the new technology.

About Business Owner’s Toolkit
With an emphasis on problem-solving dating back to 1995, Business Owner’s Toolkit™ (www.toolkit.com) offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs. The site also offers a monthly newsletter, up-to-date news topics, and Ask Alice!, a column that closely follows industry trends and provides trusted advice to inquiring site visitors.

Why Incorporate or Form a Limited Liability Company?

Incorporation is an important step in the life of a business, but unfortunately the true value of incorporating a business or forming a limited liability company (LLC) is often not realized until the business faces a negative situation, such as a lawsuit or bankruptcy.

A primary advantage of forming a corporation or LLC is the limited liability these entities afford their owners. Typically, owners are not liable for the debts and obligations of the business; thus creditors cannot pursue the personal assets of the owners to pay the business debts. Conversely, in a partnership or sole proprietorship, where the owner and the business are considered legally the same, the owner's personal assets may be used to pay debts of the business.

Other advantages of forming a corporation include:

· Incorporating may help to establish credibility for a new business with potential customers, employees, vendors, and partners.

· A corporation's life is not dependent upon its members. A corporation possesses the feature of unlimited life. If an owner dies or wishes to sell his or her interest, the corporation will continue to exist and do business.

· Retirement funds and qualified retirement plans, such as 401(k), may be established more easily.

· Ownership is typically easily transferable.

· Capital can be raised more easily through the sale of stock.

Other advantages of forming an LLC include:

· Forming an LLC may help to establish credibility for a new business with potential customers, employees, vendors, and partners.

· Earnings of an LLC are passed-through to the owners; therefore they are only taxed once.

· LLCs are free to establish any organizational structure agreed upon by the owners.

· There are few restrictions as to who can be an owner or the number of owners and LLC can have.

· LLCs have fewer state-imposed requirements and ongoing formalities compared to corporations.

The primary disadvantage to forming a corporation is the possibility of double taxation. Profits of a standard corporation (or C corporation) are taxed twice when the profits are distributed to shareholders as dividends. They are taxed first as income to the corporation, then as income to the shareholder. All reasonable business expenses, such as salaries and lease payments, are deductions against corporate income and can minimize the double tax. Further, the double tax can be eliminated by making the S corporation election with the Internal Revenue Service. Both the S corporation and the LLC allow for pass-through taxation, where the profits of the business are “passed-through” to the owners’ personal tax returns and any tax due is paid at the individual level.

Other disadvantages of corporations and LLCs include:

· More expensive to form than a sole proprietorship or general partnership.

· Both face ongoing requirements, such as state annual report filings.

· Corporations face ongoing formalities, such as holding and properly documenting annual meetings of directors and shareholders.

· Operating a corporation or LLC across state lines may require the company to register with the other state(s) to transact business in that state.

When evaluating whether the corporate structure is right for your particular business, it is advisable to first determine the goals of your business, and then to assess the advantages and potential disadvantages of the different business structures in relation to those goals.

Entrepreneurs face a number of choices when choosing a legal structure for their businesses. BizFilings.com features a convenient tool to help small business owners navigate through each structure's advantages and disadvantages. The Incorporation Wizard http://www.bizfilings.com/wizard.aspx offers a series of questions to define which business type is suitable. To assist in the decision-making process, they should seek advice from an attorney or accountant.

Three Tips for Using an Export Management Company

Tapping into the vast global marketplace sounds great in theory, but if you are like many small business owners, the logistics of making your exporting dreams a reality can be overwhelming. That’s when it makes sense to consider using an export management company for your first foray into international trade.

Yes, direct exporting—where you handle every aspect of the process—does provide the best opportunity to grow your sales and your profits. But the significant commitment in managing everything from learning cross-border distribution to establishing in-country business partnerships or joint ventures often isn’t worth the effort.

With an export management company (EMC) at your side, you can tap into international growth while maintaining your domestic business (and your sanity). The secret lies within developing an indirect exporting strategy using an EMC.

An EMC acts as your export department. What’s more, an EMC functions as a branch sales office or domestic wholesaler—they make money by selling your products. While an EMC might represent products that are complementary to yours, they do not represent competing products.

With thousands of EMCs to choose from, it’s important to find the one that is the best fit for your business. Here are some tips to help you narrow down the potential candidates.

1. Ensure the EMC knows your industry and target market. The vast majority of EMCs specialize by products, by foreign markets or by both. Because exporting, like all other sales, requires solid relationships with customers, select an EMC that has a track record for your type of product in the markets you want to reach. 

2. Negotiate reasonable financial arrangements. Financial arrangements between EMCs and their suppliers vary widely. But most EMCs do not take title to your property. Unfortunately, the risk of loss falls on yours and the EMC’s shoulders.

Like many outsourced sales operations, EMCs often work on a commission. To make it worth your while, the commission should be equal to, or better, than what you pay to your best domestic sales reps. And don’t forget to negotiate how costs will be handled for special services or events, such as participation in a trade show or an extensive advertising campaign. Like domestic sales efforts, you’ll see better results with marketing support.

3. Agree upon acceptable working arrangements. A major disadvantage of using an EMC is the loss of control over your brand and marketing. For this reason, the working arrangements should be vetted as carefully as the financial arrangements are. You’ll want to make sure the arrangement provides for regular, on-going communication, such as monthly reports on activities and successes. You may also want to retain the ability to sign off on advertising campaigns or other big-ticket marketing events.
If you’re interested in locating an EMC to jumpstart your exporting efforts, try visiting the Federation of International Trade Associations. In addition, check out this listof sources for exporting information as well as some options for export financing.

About Business Owner’s Toolkit
With an emphasis on problem-solving dating back to 1995, Business Owner’s Toolkit™ (www.toolkit.com) offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs. The site also offers a monthly newsletter, up-to-date news topics, and Ask Alice!, a column that closely follows industry trends and provides trusted advice to inquiring site visitors. 

To Factor or Not to Factor

If you’ve heard about invoice factoring and are considering it for your B to B company, be sure it fits your needs.  Factoring is a type of specialty lending that’s not meant to replace bank lines or other commercial loans, but to augment them when the need for cash flow is greater than a basic line of credit can provide.  Factoring is helpful for young, non-bankable companies with growth opportunities, and for companies that can benefit by outsourcing their credit and collections activity.  Full-service factoring companies will provide finance, credit services and guarantees, and accounts receivable management.

Here are the Top 10 reasons to consider and NOT to consider factoring for your business:

TOP 10 REASONS TO CONSIDER A FACTORING COMPANY (OR NOT)

10.  Your B2B company needs a line of credit to support growth, but isn’t bankable yet.

9.  Your customers demand credit but your suppliers demand cash.

8.       Your customers love to keep you guessing.

7.      You just don’t have time to manage receivables.

6.      Your growth is outstripping your cash flow.

5.      Your customers worry when you make those desperate calls for payment.

4.      You worry every time you extend credit to a new customer.

3.      You’re passing up new business waiting for old bills to be paid.

2.      Your bank is getting out of the commercial finance business.

1.      You love the thought of outsourcing credit, collection and A/R management so you can concentrate on growing your business.

Or NOT:

 10. Your company is growing, but your gross margin is under 10%.

 9. Your cash is shrinking because your business is shrinking.

 8. Bad management is eating up all your cash flow.

 7. You want to replace your bank line and get a lower interest rate.

 6. You want cheap money.

 5. You’re tired of using the IRS to finance your business.

 4. You want to sell some old, uncollectable receivables.

 3. You’re looking for a collection agency to strong-arm your delinquent customers.

 2. You need some quick cash to pay off your angry suppliers.

 1. You need some quick cash so you can close your business and leave town.

Tom Smith is Vice President, Marketing for Riviera Finance, a nationwide commercial finance company and sponsor of the ASBDC.  Prior to Riviera, he worked as an independent financial consultant and held various positions in finance and marketing for Xerox Corporation.  He is married with two sons, and resides in the Tampa Bay area.  Tom holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

With offices nationwide, Riviera Finance (www.rivierafinance.com) provides early-stage accounts receivable financing to small companies in need of cash flow. Riviera's non-recourse factoring program includes full protection against bad debt, and complete receivables management services. Since 1969, Riviera Finance has funded over 20,000 small companies.

Four Steps for Getting Your Marketing Message on YouTube

Many small business owners hope their YouTube videos will be the next viral sensations. Even if your video doesn’t achieve such great heights, YouTube remains a great low-cost way to publicize your business and increase your brand awareness. We’ve identified four steps that can help you achieve YouTube success.

1. Don’t deviate from your tried-and-true marketing messaging. Unless your video is the debut piece of a brand new marketing campaign, stick to marketing that works. That doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with humor, a story, or another device to show your business in a new light. But you should reinforce how your business solves customers’ key pain points with language they’ll encounter in your other marketing materials.

Fair warning: Tastes in humor vary. What you consider funny may be boring or offensive to others. When dabbling in comedy, make sure the script reflects a funny situation rather than relying on esoteric cultural references or irony for laughs. The latter two have a tendency to go over many viewers’ heads.

2. Know your limitations with technology.  If you’re comfortable behind the camera, go for it. But if you’ve never even held a camcorder and aren’t tech savvy (or you plan to star in your video), leave the filming and editing to someone else. If you’d like your video to have a little pizzazz, check out local video production firms, many of which offer very reasonable rates.

Getting in contact with your local college’s film students or the high school’s AV club could cost less with a negligible sacrifice in production quality.

 3. Create a YouTube channel for your company or the campaign. YouTube isn’t just about the video. By following these instructions for creatinga YouTube channel and  uploading a YouTube video, you can include your Website address, branding and contact info where your videos reside.

If you plan to create a series of videos, or your videos are part of a specific marketing campaign, create a channel for the campaign. For one or two videos that are more associated with your business than a specific campaign, create a channel for your company.

4. Promote your video via social media. Considering 48 hours’ worth of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, odds are your video will get lost in the shuffle. Posting the link on your personal and business Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites is a good start, but go a step further.

Spend a little time sharing your video link with local media, thought leaders, and anyone related to your field or relevant to the campaign (if, for example, your campaign involves racecars, send a tweet to Jeff Gordon). Their retweet could result in hundreds or thousands of views.

You may not notice an immediate bump in sales, website hits or whichever metric you use to gauge success. Yet the small investment and cumulative marketing effect can lead to larger rewards. 

About Business Owner’s Toolkit
With an emphasis on problem-solving dating back to 1995, Business Owner’s Toolkit™ (www.toolkit.com) offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs. The site also offers a monthly newsletter, up-to-date news topics, and Ask Alice!, a column that closely follows industry trends and provides trusted advice to inquiring site visitors.

How and Why to Support Young Entrepreneurs

Young Entrepreneurs are more important than ever, and it is vital for current entrepreneurs to support this next generation of business leaders.

Regardless of background, ideology or industry – most people in the world agree that entrepreneurial innovation positively impacts society and the world. Future leaders and entrepreneurs grow up in a world where technology and information change more quickly than ever. Information learned in school can be obsolete by the time students graduate. This is why young entrepreneurs need the support of the people that understand how a swiftly changing environment impacts the business community and how that relates to the role of an entrepreneur.

Current entrepreneurs and small business owners should invest in supporting and training up-and-coming entrepreneurs to ensure the most vibrant workforce possible for all entrepreneurial endeavors. It benefits everyone to encourage and train students interested in starting businesses, and the network of SBDC’s is an example of how small business support can make a difference.

Here are the top ten ways for small business owners to commit time to supporting the cause of “The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs”. The best part about this list is the fact that these practices also benefit the business owner.

1. Volunteer to speak at local high schools and colleges about entrepreneurship.

2. Volunteer to be a judge at DECA, FBLA, NFTE and other youth leadership competitions.

3. Host and mentor an intern at your company.

4. Contact local schools and offer to have one of your current business challenges used as a case study for a class. Then interact with the class when they present their recommendations.

5. Recommend the resources at the local Small Business Development Center so that young entrepreneurs know the programs that are available. The SBDC resources are available to anyone – even if they are under 18 as long as they have a parent’s written consent.

6. Make introductions for young entrepreneurs to create connections and open doors to resources that may not be possible at their age.

7. Find ways to partner with promising young entrepreneurs by evaluating their business plans with an eye for collaboration.

8. Take a young entrepreneur with you to an industry or networking event and introduce them to everyone you know.

9. Find a way to offer small business projects to young entrepreneurs that could lead to bigger opportunities.

10. Find a young business leader and make a commitment to meet with them on a regular basis to mentor and encourage them. Give them book suggestions, recommend continuing education opportunities and relevant industry events.

2012 has been called the “Year of the Entrepreneur” by many. I think that the next decade will be the “Age of the Young Entrepreneur”.

Amy P. Kelly is an entrepreneur that specializes in ways that businesses can support causes that improve communities and lives. She is Vice President ofClearPath where her team helps entrepreneurs achieve their goals. Amy started her first business at nine selling hair barrettes and is currently working on several new ventures while leading The Lemonhead Movementwww.lemonheadsrule.com. Some of her projects include: BodyRejoice, The MomVest, Strategies for Life and YipDeals www.yipdeals.com. Amy has a particular affinity for youth entrepreneurship and is a wife and mother of four. Contact her at amypkelly@live.com.

Get More Results from Your Facebook Page

Everyone's using Facebook these days to engage their customers, clients, members, and supporters. But how many businesses and organizations are actually getting results from all this activity?

The good news is that there are proven tactics that can help you get what you really want from your investment in Facebook marketing: More fans, more shares, and more business.

Here are four things to keep in mind:

1. Facebook users like to "Like" businesses and organizations on Facebook. Customers and prospects will Like your Page too if you ask them to — just give them a good reason to become a fan. Tell them why they should Like you, whether it be for access to an exclusive offer or download, or even just because you post some awesome and engaging content.

2. Getting more “Likes” and fans is only part of the story. It’s not about how many fans you have — it’s about the quality of the engagement with the fans you have. That's what matters most. Sure, it’s great to have a large list size or fan base, but if no one is reading, commenting, or sharing your content, it doesn't really matter.

3. Word of mouth referrals are the biggest driver of new business. In the context of social media, sharing is really just word of mouth enabled through technology. When a fan shares your content, they are effectively promoting you to their networks of friends. If you consider that the average Facebook user has more than 245 friends, sharing can help you reach a lot of new prospects. (A Pew Research Center study recently found that the extended reach of your Page could be as many as 31,170 people.)

4. It's important to build a marketing plan with a clear goal in mind. If you don't know what you want to get out of your Facebook activity, then why are you doing it? Your goal doesn't have to be complicated: It can be something along the lines of the number of fans gained, documents downloaded, coupons redeemed, donations raised, or something else.

Create a great offer that relates to your goal. Then you can promote that offer with a social campaign that drives visitors to the offer on your Facebook Page and encourages your fans to share the offer.

That's how you start a sharing cycle that will lead to more results for your business or organization, and a greater return on your Facebook engagement.

Are you finding success and real results on Facebook? Visiting our Facebook Page and tell us all about it!

Are Your Deals Ready to Get Social?

The decision to run a special deal for your customers is not an easy one for many businesses to make.

After all, why would you discount your products and services when your customers are already willing to pay full price?

But that’s missing the point.

One of the best reasons to run a deal is to get your customers talking about it, and better yet, sharing your deal with their friends on social media.

When your customers promote your business to their friends, they’re helping you reach new customers, and giving you an added, implied endorsement. It’s the kind of endorsement that doesn’t just create new customers. It creates new loyal customers, ones that won’t just take advantage of the deal, but will be more likely to come back again and again.

You just have to add the not-so-secret ingredient that makes every deal more successful: social media.

But I’m not social media–savvy!

That doesn’t matter. Your customers are, and they’re already talking about all kinds of things: the movie they just saw, their kids, who they think will win American Idol, the weather, the great meal they had last night … whatever’s on their mind.

Why shouldn’t they also talk about you?

Offer a deal worth promoting and your customers will be so excited that they’ll share it with others: “I love this store, and now you can get $20 off your next purchase!” It’s just that simple. You don’t have to go anywhere near Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, but your business will get exposed to the people there anyway.

Do I have to do anything to make this happen?

You don’t have to do anything (other than creating a great deal), but you can do something to encourage the sharing of your deal. Incent your customers by sweetening the deal with a bonus coupon if they share. After all, who wants $20 off when they can have $30?

Tell your customers that you’ll add an additional amount or percentage off their purchase, or you’ll throw in a free appetizer or dessert, if they pass along your deal. Make it worth sharing, and your customers will be more inclined to do so.

Is it really just that simple?

Yes. The combination of a great deal and an incentive to share it will lead to more business from both your existing customers and brand-new customers.

You just have to add social media to the mix to make it happen.


Have you ever run a deal? Share your experience in the comment section below. To learn more about creating a deal that benefits your business and helps you find new customers, check out SaveLocal from Constant Contact.

Gina Watkins is a leading expert on e-marketing for small business – and has a real passion for helping businesses to succeed. Her ongoing series of dynamic lectures are filled with real-world examples, humor and results-driven wisdom garnered from more than two decades of sales, business development and marketing experience. In addition to owning her own business, she is an award-winning direct marketer, has been featured on WUSA Channel 9's Mind Over Money show, Dr. Gayle Carson’s Women In Business radio show, Morgan State’s Briefcase Radio program, and in numerous other media. In her role as Constant Contact Regional Development Director, she’s presented to more than ten thousand seminar attendees about the keys to success with easy, affordable, highly effective technology tools that grow trusted business relationships.

Young Entrepreneurs: How to Counter ‘Lack of Experience’ Concerns

It’s a common experience—we’ve all been told one thing, only to find the opposite holds true. And for many young entrepreneurs, this phenomenon comes to fruition when working with older business associates. Growing up, you may have been told, “Do not let anyone look down on you because of your youth.” But this doesn’t always hold up in the real world.

Because we live in a society that generally assumes people gain worthwhile experience over time—and for good reason, because it’s often the case—you’ll likely encounter potential investors, partners and even customers who will intimate (or vocalize) their concern about your youth and relative inexperience.

While this is the cross the young entrepreneur must bear, it doesn’t mean these opportunities are beyond your reach. As you pursue new business where your youth seems to put you at a disadvantage, try to include these points as you argue against a perceived lack of experience.  

1. Address the concern while showing what makes you the superior candidate. Imagine you’re a tech marketing entrepreneur who specializes in increasing leads for companies through new search engine optimization and social media techniques. While you’ve only been in business for a short time, you’ve delivered amazing results for your clients—and they’re willing to give great references.

The problem is the potential client is dead set on hiring a firm with experience in the industry, racquetball manufacturing. Never lie and say you have experience you don’t. But, while acknowledging this would be your first racquetball manufacturing client, focus on the range of industries you’ve served and how your firm’s approach focuses on core marketing issues that span nearly every company.

2. Emphasize your flexibility and entrepreneurial spirit. Most potential clients, business partners and investors fail to realize experience is a double-edged sword. Yes, with experience you can learn how to do something well, but you’ll also learn to stick with what works and rarely attempt a more innovative and better solution.

At its heart, entrepreneurship always questions convention to find a better way to fill a market need. Demonstrate your original thinking by finding out the other party’s basic assumption and approaching them with your unique perspective. Fair warning: Many people don’t like their methods questioned, even if it means improving their business or investment portfolio. The key is to approach this as presenting your ideas, not debunking their business practices.

3. Outsource what you don’t know, and don’t want to learn. Some projects will require skills, knowledge and experience outside of your realm. If this is the case and learning the skill provides little benefit to you as an entrepreneur—or you’re on a tight timeline—there’s no shame in finding an expert to take on these tasks. Companies hire people for specific functions every day; there’s no reason your business can’t.

Unfortunately, some prospects will always consider youth a handicap. But with solid arguments to many common objections, your youth shouldn’t prohibit you from winning opportunities.

About Business Owner’s Toolkit
With an emphasis on problem-solving dating back to 1995, Business Owner’s Toolkit™ (www.toolkit.com) offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs. The site also offers a monthly newsletter, up-to-date news topics, and Ask Alice!, a column that closely follows industry trends and provides trusted advice to inquiring site visitors.

Young Entrepreneurs: How to Counter ‘Lack of Experience’ Concerns

It’s a common experience—we’ve all been told one thing, only to find the opposite holds true. And for many young entrepreneurs, this phenomenon comes to fruition when working with older business associates. Growing up, you may have been told, “Do not let anyone look down on you because of your youth.” But this doesn’t always hold up in the real world.

Because we live in a society that generally assumes people gain worthwhile experience over time—and for good reason, because it’s often the case—you’ll likely encounter potential investors, partners and even customers who will intimate (or vocalize) their concern about your youth and relative inexperience.

While this is the cross the young entrepreneur must bear, it doesn’t mean these opportunities are beyond your reach. As you pursue new business where your youth seems to put you at a disadvantage, try to include these points as you argue against a perceived lack of experience.  

1. Address the concern while showing what makes you the superior candidate. Imagine you’re a tech marketing entrepreneur who specializes in increasing leads for companies through new search engine optimization and social media techniques. While you’ve only been in business for a short time, you’ve delivered amazing results for your clients—and they’re willing to give great references.

The problem is the potential client is dead set on hiring a firm with experience in the industry, racquetball manufacturing. Never lie and say you have experience you don’t. But, while acknowledging this would be your first racquetball manufacturing client, focus on the range of industries you’ve served and how your firm’s approach focuses on core marketing issues that span nearly every company.

2. Emphasize your flexibility and entrepreneurial spirit. Most potential clients, business partners and investors fail to realize experience is a double-edged sword. Yes, with experience you can learn how to do something well, but you’ll also learn to stick with what works and rarely attempt a more innovative and better solution.

At its heart, entrepreneurship always questions convention to find a better way to fill a market need. Demonstrate your original thinking by finding out the other party’s basic assumption and approaching them with your unique perspective. Fair warning: Many people don’t like their methods questioned, even if it means improving their business or investment portfolio. The key is to approach this as presenting your ideas, not debunking their business practices.

3. Outsource what you don’t know, and don’t want to learn. Some projects will require skills, knowledge and experience outside of your realm. If this is the case and learning the skill provides little benefit to you as an entrepreneur—or you’re on a tight timeline—there’s no shame in finding an expert to take on these tasks. Companies hire people for specific functions every day; there’s no reason your business can’t.

Unfortunately, some prospects will always consider youth a handicap. But with solid arguments to many common objections, your youth shouldn’t prohibit you from winning opportunities.

About Business Owner’s Toolkit
With an emphasis on problem-solving dating back to 1995, Business Owner’s Toolkit™ (www.toolkit.com) offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs. The site also offers a monthly newsletter, up-to-date news topics, and Ask Alice!, a column that closely follows industry trends and provides trusted advice to inquiring site visitors.

Export Compliance Introduction

Who is the U.S. Principle Party in Interest (USPPI)? What is a shipment and when you must file in the Automated Export System (AES)? For more information, please visit our website: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/

The Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy. We honor privacy, protect confidentiality, share our expertise globally, and conduct our work openly. We are guided on this mission by our strong and capable workforce, our readiness to innovate, and our abiding commitment to our customers.

Military Family Leave for Veterans’ Families Can Cause Staffing Dilemmas

If you’re a small business owner subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), you may be affected by the expansion of military family leave to include family caregivers of veterans.

In 2008, the FMLA was expanded to provide job-protected military family leave. Part of this required leave directed employers with 50 or more employees to allow up to 26 weeks of leave during a 12-month period for the spouse, child, parent, or next of kin to care for an active service member in the National Guard, Reserves, or Armed Forces who incurred a serious injury or illness in the line of duty.

The FY 2010 National Defense Authorization Act expanded the military personnel whose family would be eligible for caregiver leave to include veterans, and rules recently proposed by the Department of Labor are implementing these changes.

Caregiver Leave Rules

• If you are subject to the caregiver leave rules, your obligation to allow time-off includes families of veterans who need care for serious injuries or illnesses. 
• You should also be aware of the following provisions: 
• An employee’s eligibility for leave covers serious injuries and illness for up to five years after the veteran leaves the military. 
• Conditions that arise after a veteran leaves military service are included in the conditions that require you to grant leave to a family member. 
• The definition of serious injury or illness includes those incurred in the line of duty resulting from pre-existing conditions. 

The Effect on Your Business
It’s not difficult to picture how the expansion of the military family leave law to include veterans, coupled with the fact that employees’ leave eligibility can continue for up to five years after the veteran’s military service is completed, can create a staffing issue for small businesses.

While recognizing and appreciating the service of veterans and the need for family to provide care for serious health matters—not to mention complying with the law—you’re trying to run a business. And while you can’t predict the future, you can prepare for it, particularly if you learn enough about your employees to know that they have family members currently serving in the military or who are recent veterans.

Here are a couple of steps you can take now to avoid staffing snafus:

• Train employees to cover more than one position: Then after training, allow these employees to spend some actual work time in those new positions. In the long run, your business may discover employees’ hidden talents while employee motivation—and, in turn, productivity—increases. 
• Think about lining up some short-term labor sources: Maybe you already have a go-to source for labor during your busy season or independent contractors you use for certain tasks. If you don’t, now is the time to act. When using a temp agency, an intern or even a family member as your staffing solution, if possible, try out him or her before you need the help. That way, if one solution doesn’t work for your business, you still have time to try an alternative without the pressure of having to fill a spot. 
• By anticipating your staffing needs, not only can you comply with the law and respect the needs of those who have served their country, but also solve potential workforce issues and perhaps even increase worker morale and productivity. 

About Business Owner’s Toolkit
With an emphasis on problem-solving dating back to 1995, Business Owner’s Toolkit™ (www.toolkit.com) offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs. The site also offers a monthly newsletter, up-to-date news topics, and Ask Alice!, a column that closely follows industry trends and provides trusted advice to inquiring site visitors.

Do you know how your brand rates online?

There is increasing pressure for SMBs to have an online presence. After all, Facebook alone claims consumers spend 700 billion minutes per month on the site, and Twitter has reported 190 million tweets per a day. But what does that really mean for SMBs? How can you tell if being online is helping or hurting your brand?

While people worldwide use the Internet daily to get information and interact, there is no one right way for businesses to approach their online presence. One thing you can do as a small business owner is understand what’s being said about your businesses online. From controlled information that you approve and publish, to user-generated information including customer reviews that can be true or untrue, it’s imperative that companies know how their brands are represented and perceived, digitally. Yet many small businesses avoid monitoring their online presence because it can be a time consuming, expensive and overwhelming endeavor.

Making it quick, easy and affordable (it’s free!) for small businesses to understand and manage their online presence is the promise of an exciting, new tool, Brandify.

§  It’s free. Brandify is so user friendly that small businesses won’t spend valuable time using and managing the tool. Brandify also will shed some light on new opportunities for your company to promote or enhance your online presence which could increase leads and sales.

§  It’s quick.  It only takes a few moments for Brandify to scour the Internet – pulling from more than 80 different sources – and provide your company’s online strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. It also checks competitors’ presence and recommends actions you can take to help improve your online presence.

§  It’s easy. Registration is simple as you log in through an existing Windows Live, Facebook or LinkedIn account and claim your company’s website. The assessment also offers clear recommendations for how to enhance your online presence; just review them and decide which opportunities seem like the best fit for you. You also can use Brandify for ongoing management, checking in routinely on your online presence status.

Part of running a successful business is making sure you are covering all your bases, as well as finding the right tools to help you get things done. After all, you simply can’t do it by yourself. If your core business is not networking socially, or specialized in managing online brands, Brandify can help your business today.

Seeing is believing. Take a few minutes to try Brandify and see for yourself how it can help your company.

For more tips and information on how technology can support you and your business, follow me on Twitter (@Cindy_Bates) or follow Microsoft SMB on Twitter (@MicrosoftSMB) and Facebook (Microsoft SMB).

Start a Business on the Cheap Using the Internet

Starting a small business has never been easier, especially if you know some of the incredible tools on the Internet. This month, I go over some of my favorites. 

Free PDF Business Cards
http://www.freepdfcards.com/
One of the first steps in starting your business is to have some business cards created. Well, now, instead of paying some printer for these essential promotional pieces, you can make them yourself. At the aptly named, FreePDFCards.com site, you can easily upload a logo, choose numerous lines of text, and, in the end, create an 8.5 by 11 PDF sheet of cards ready to print. At that point, all you have to do is buy a bunch of Avery pre-cut cardstock. Simple!

Gliffy
http://www.gliffy.com
One of the ingredients of a good business plan is a clear explanation of EXACTLY how it will operate. And what better way to communicate that idea than a professional flow chart or diagram. Instead of going out and buying expensive software like Visio, check out Gliffy.com, a free site that allows you to create beautiful Venn Diagrams, floor-plans, and business process charts. See their site for even more ideas!

AnyMeeting
http://www.anymeeting.com
Communication is key when staying competitive. Keeping in touch with your employees and contractors becomes much easier when you use a site like AnyMeeting. Basically, this tool brings all the best features of WebEx or GotoMeeting without the cost! You can host a webinar of up to 200 people for FREE. Features include video conferencing, application sharing, conference calling, and screen sharing. You can even have your webinars recorded and take online surveys. The site is ad supported and they have paid options if you want to nix the ads.

mint.com
http://www.mint.com
One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make is ignoring their expenditures. Proper cash tracking is essential. Mint.com can help. This free service, owned by the people at TurboTax, allows you to track every check, payment, and deposit in one easy place. You simply connect your bank account and their system does the rest. It has easy budgeting features and can even alert you of any unusual expenditures. While more sophisticated software exists to do the same thing, Mint.com is perfect for the “just-starting-out” business needing to keep an eye on the checking account.

New sites are always popping up. If you have found an online tool you just can’t live without, leave a comment below and let us know!

Eric Spellmann continues to be one of the highest rated speakers at our national ASBDC conferences. His unique view that small business websites should “do” something pushes against the standard “online pamphlet” view of most web design companies. He believes your customer’s websites should be driving qualified leads and sales on a weekly basis. Eric speaks at a number of other national and state conferences nationwide, but enjoys running one of the most successful web design companies in the country. He truly believes in the SBDC mission as it helped him start his own company many years ago. To contact him, visit his website at EricSpellmann.com.

Tech Tools with Ramon's Taste of Tech

Tips from the Trenches: A Young Business Owner’s Take on Entrepreneurship After College

In our last Youth Entrepreneurship blog post, we brought up several points to consider when mulling over whether enrolling in college or starting your own business is the right post-high school choice.

Of course, the end of high school isn’t the only time you’ll be presented with two roads diverging. For those of you who attend college, “What’s next?” resurfaces in four short years—or in just a few weeks for some of you. So the question is now, in LeBron James-speak, “Where should I take my talents after college?”

While most young entrepreneurs tend to think they should acquire some real-world experience at full-time jobs before embarking on their business ventures, we recently spoke to a young entrepreneur who might encourage you to reconsider the merits of obtaining that “real-world experience.”

David Comisford, 26, started buying back college textbooks from fellow undergrads at Capital University in winter 2006. Since then, he’s transformed his dorm-based business into Frewg, Inc., an online storefront where college students can buy, sell back and rent college books. And he did it all without any full-time work experience under his belt.

As the chief shareholder of the company he founded, David has some credibility in questioning the value of real-world experience. In fact, he asserts that starting your business right after finishing college is, in many cases, the best time to be your own boss. Consider a couple of his reasons:

· It’s much easier to take the risk of starting your own business when you don’t have a house payment, spouse or children to worry about. Odds are, through the help of family or a social safety net, you won’t end up starving and destitute if your venture fails.

· Inertia sets in once you’re accustomed to co-workers who can ease your workload, departments that tell you a project is impossible or a technology is unavailable, and bosses who take the heat for you and your team’s failures. Being your own boss and having everything fall on your shoulders may not sound appealing. It’s often more comfortable to stay the course. And, as David put it, “Once you become comfortable, you become uncertain.”

From David’s perspective, being the boss beats experience gained in the corporate office, especially when it comes to problem-solving. During the early stages of his book-buying business, a local municipality’s decision to put the kibosh on his seasonal buy-back kiosk threatened his livelihood. By working with local contacts and appealing to the village’s town hall, he found a solution—not the solution he originally envisioned, but a solution that worked. If he had worked in a full-time environment that had conditioned him to accept defeat, David argues, he might have given up.

While you can gain certain skills more easily in the workplace, learning on your feet has its merits too. As an entrepreneur, crossing every bridge when you get there usually offers a more exciting journey. But full-time work can mean a lot of wading in the shallow end of the pool.

About Business Owner’s Toolkit
With an emphasis on problem-solving dating back to 1995, Business Owner’s Toolkit™ (www.toolkit.com) offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs. The site also offers a monthly newsletter, up-to-date news topics, and Ask Alice!, a column that closely follows industry trends and provides trusted advice to inquiring site visitors.

Preparing For Take-off Once The Crowdfunding Bill Is Passed

Funding sources are hard to find, and without capital businesses in the initial phases of development find it difficult to move past the idea stages. “While Americans currently have trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines in money market accounts, countless brilliant ideas, technology, research and innovation have been squandered for lack of investment, with ongoing consequences for our health, our economy and our society. We need to encourage investment in entrepreneurs and innovation in every way possible and provide a fast track system to launch viable new ventures.” I said this several years ago to many government officials and it looks like some of them are finally listening to all of us who have been fighting to get a crowdfunding bill passed.

You can learn more here at http://www.startupexemption.com-the creators of the framework for the bill that passed the house by 407 to 17. So as the senate moves toward (we hope) the passing of the Jobs Act, which also passed the house with overwhelming bipartisan support, (that has the Crowdfunding bill in it), one thing is certain: its passage will provide startups and early stage small businesses with expanded access to capital.

This bill will create a regulatory framework to let private businesses use crowdfunding to raise up to $2 million annually from investors pledging no more than $10,000, or 10 percent of their annual income, opening up far more resources to entrepreneurs, promoting entrepreneurship, sparking innovation, accelerating economic growth and creating jobs,

What will happen next?

Most agree that current laws prohibiting crowdfunding exist to protect investors from scams, but those laws were written 80 years ago, before the Internet and social media were around to disclose negative information about a business project instantly to interested investors. Crowdfunding comes with crowd feedback. Public forums make the environment more transparent and fraud-resistant, helping to vet and weed out the shady characters that operate all over the world, even in the public markets.

The inevitable proliferation of thousands of crowdfunding sites and millions of participants will impel reasonable levels of investor protection. Participating startups will have to provide a detailed business plan, complete and transparent due diligence, great execution and popular emotional appeal to be seen and considered by investors able to make informed decisions, and they will also need to provide this same kind of disclosure and reporting to the SEC and state regulators.

Crowdfunding sites will need to implement a proper, standardized, due diligence reporting system to handle the coming demands for transparency and due diligence. And once funded those new entrepreneurs will also be expected to have the ability to communicate their progress on the cloud to a large group of people who will now be shareholders in their companies.

As crowdfunding takes hold, entrepreneurs will begin to use it as the go-to source for initial stages of capital formation. The flood of crowdfunding capital for startups will expand the pool of viable startups qualified for consideration from Angels, VCs and Bankers.

These professional investors will bring a more exacting analysis to the table, giving entrepreneurs an even greater reason to be prepared with complete, compliant and transparent due diligence information.

“We couldn't have imagined that the online launch of the Funding Roadmap TM would coincide with the most profound economic crisis of our lifetime, but here we are, and as a world full of investors and lenders look to reboot, we’re here to provide an innovative, networked business planning and due diligence reporting system for funding professionals and entrepreneurs alike. It also includes a video pitching platform, a document repository and deal flow marketplace so entrepreneurs will have an online medium to brilliantly communicate all the essential data – along with their personal passion and commitment.” 

Ruth. E. Hedges is the creator and CEO of Fundingroadmap.com. and Startups Across America. She has been featured in the New York Times, on ABC’s Home Show, and the Financial News Network did a two-part series on her for their show entitled ‘American Entrepreneur’.

For more information please visit http://fundingroadmap.com and http://www.startupsacrossamerica.com/SAA/

Home Based Businesses

Blue Pen Success is an Entrepreneur training program based on the tried and true My Own Business Inc. (MOBI) training. MOBI allows certified graduates to teach the course. I decided to "teach it by creating an online video series of the courses for FREE!!www.bluepensuccess.com 

Procurement Corner: Capability Statements…….”The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”

Sample of this month's mini-series content.

Last month, I posed the question: Are Business Cards Passé? “Probably not” was my conclusion. In my opinion, they have limited value, but are certainly useful for basic non-consequential “casual encounters”. However, I recommended that if your strategy is optimizing your marketing/branding effectiveness, consider creating a Capability Statement. What’s the difference between the two? Space, for one thing, 3 ½” X 2” versus 8 ½” X 11”; making the buyer’s job easier and faster with useful information/lasting impressions. 

I also had suggested some simple content (see last month’s article) that we will look at in series over the next several months. Keep in mind that the thoughts I share are my own based on my professional procurement experience. I hope you find them useful when building your capability statement, but I encourage you to explore your own creativity,. Before starting, let me just say that if business cards are “working” for you, that’s fine, stay the course! But if you are looking beyond status quo to improve your marketing visibility, consider a capability statement. Having said that, let’s begin creating our first series: Logo, Contact Info, and Capabilities Statement. Top of page:

Logo (if you have one). Logos generally impart little information so ‘size it’ proportionate to its message, small. Remember, we’re populating an 8½ X 11 single sheet, not the door of a pickup truck. Place the logo in the upper left or right-hand corner, whichever compliments overall appearance better. Try it in both, then decide. Directly beneath it, place a thin single line separating it from the text.

Next, contact info. Fairly straight forward: name, title, phones, email, company address and, website. How you arrange it though is very important; easy to read but conserving valuable space. If it appears “lengthy”, split into two columns, one to the far left, the other to the far right, ‘equal in length’. For example, three lines on each side. Symmetrical. To emphasize certain portions, bold and/or italicize, such as, jward@globalalliance.com and/or www.globalalliance.com.

And finally (for this series), Capabilities Statement. Give this allot of thought! Use Capabilities Statement as your title. Bold, italicized, centered or left-justified. What follows is critical. 2 – 3 concise sentences; avoid repetition and always be factual. First, introduce your company (name) and highlight your business size (woman- owned small business). Second, outline your product-line/service, core competencies and any specialties, plus years of experience. Lastly, conclude with a statement demonstrating ‘best value’. Always try to anticipate readers’ questions and incorporate answers as part of your strategy, as you may not be present when it’s read. In other words, avoid leaving things open to interpretation.

Your goal is creating lasting impressions/branding yourself. Capability statements are powerful tools that convey powerful messages. So as you design & build yours remember that more does not equal better; avoid information overload!


Remember the title from the Eastwood blockbuster movie, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”….? When reviewing your capability statement, ask yourself which category from the movie title best describes it.

Next Series, Next Month!

Scott Sealing is a Procurement Consultant with the UH SBDC (TX) and an ASBDC member. He also works closely with the UH PTAC (TX) and is an APTAC member. He specializes in counseling small businesses through the rigorous process of registering with government agencies, and then researching and bidding on government contracts. He also provides SBIR/STTR proposal development support. Scott has over 28 years of procurement and logistics experience working for A&D prime contractors on federal contracts. He supported NASA contracts in NM, TX, FL, AL CA and, DoD contracts in NM and CA. Scott is a certified Supply Chain Management (SCM) Professional (SCOR) and is certified in the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt curriculum. He has authored white papers on SCM and conducted domestic & international presentations for government, industry, and academia on procurement and supporting government contracts and, on the effective application of SCM tools & techniques.