Positioning in Small Business Marketing

Great List Of Free Tools And Generators

Here’s a great list of free online tools and code / image generators — some excellent stuff in here…

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I Don’t Want to be Different

by: Brian Grinonneau

To succeed in today’s crowded marketplace where most of the products and advertising look exactly the same, a small business owner must stand out, shouting above the din with a message so clear and compelling that prospects stop and take notice. It’s a matter of business survival. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs quickly retreat to the supposed security of sameness, soon to be lost in a sea of anonymity and a tidal wave of frustration. In effect, albeit at a subconscious level, they are saying , “I don’t want to be different”.

In back room offices and store fronts everywhere, salespeople are telling business owners they should do this or that kind of ad because it worked so great for their competitor. The owners nod and sign on. It’s already proven to be a winner, right? WRONG! Change the name, background color and a font style and you’ve got sameness. Put those ads in the yellow pages, a coupon magazine or a TV commercial cluster and you’ve got advertising death. Want proof? Ask a small business owner how well their advertising is working. Don’t stand too close waiting for the answer.

To make your advertising work, follow the principle if your competition is doing it, don’t. Go where they aren’t and win the battle without a fight. Resist the urge to get a listing in the phone book because that’s where everyone else is. A coupon direct mailer that features 6 or 7 of your competitors is a poor choice too. Look for new opportunities in direct mail and email campaigns. Look at direct response ideas. In short, try to find the biggest number of clients you can find in one spot. Fish in a barrel, not the ocean.

When you’ve chosen different channels to attract your customers, make sure you overcome the “so-what” factor in your copywriting. An ad for a heating and air conditioning company that says it has certified technicians that will fix your problem quickly is a so-what line. No one is looking for uncertified slackers that will get around to the problem whenever. A moving company that mentions superior insurance coverage makes you think they’ll probably break something. Be creative and write copy that will compel prospects to take action.

Consumers are bombarded by thousands of ad messages every day. There is so much overload they tune everything out. To get their attention, look within your business and find all that you do differently and decide which of those elements your customers most want. Decide how to word it best. and where to position it. Decide you really do want to be different. You have to. Your business depends on it.

About the author:
Brian Grinonneau is the general manager of McMann and Tate Advertising, an agency that works with the small business owner helping them stand out from the crowd.

What You Should Know Before Copying Contracts from the Internet

by: Nina L. Kaufman, Esq.

Copying contracts from the Internet is a bit like wearing your old cousin’s hand-me-down dresses . . . in order to walk into abee’s nest (an incongruous image, I know): yes, you’re “covered,” but the style is outdated and they usually don’t fit you well. Plus, they won’t provide you with the protection you need for your particular purpose.

Most small businesses can’t afford the Versace of contracts, and, frankly, it’s often not necessary. Sometimes, Kmart will do nicely. However, when you download something for free, it’s usually worth what you paid for it. Internet contracts need to be mended and altered to make sure they truly fit how you want to do business. But if you have limited experience in making clothing, you risk having the garment unravel at the seams if you try to do it yourself.

In the interest of saving money, you may have downloaded a
freebie contract from the Internet. But it’s often what you don’t know - and what’s not included in the document — that can hurt you. Internet contracts can be helpful resources for identifying issues for you to think about, but are usually not well thought out, nor are they tailored to the needs of your particular business. If an agreement is not drafted in your favor, it may not give you the flexibility and protection that you really need from your business relationships.

For example, I know of business owners who have formed limited liability companies (LLCs) and have downloaded their ownership agreements from the Internet. When “Jemma” got hers from a freebie Internet site, it looked long enough and comprehensive enough, so she and her co-owner (neither of whom are lawyers) signed it. Four months later, Jemma wanted to move to a different state to accommodate her husband’s career path; plus, Jemma learned that she was pregnant. So the time was right to transition to her new stage of life. But her LLC agreement only allowed her to leave the business (1) if she had died (which she hadn’t) or (2) as long as her co-owner agreed (which she didn’t). In short, Jemma’s agreement had no meaningful “exit strategy.” And Jemma did not know that these were among the issues she needed to focus on in creating and signing such an agreement. There were a whole host of things that the LLC agreement did not include, such as how to deal with the client base that each owner brought to the business, how to place a dollar value on the intellectual property that each owner contributed, and how to leave the business should life changes (other than Jemma’s death) arise. Jemma’s agreement didn’t cover any of these issues. In the face of an irate business partner and an insufficient agreement, Jemma found herself staring down the barrels of (1) a lengthy and expensive lawsuit to dissolve the business or (2) a less expensive (but more costly than it needed to have been) way to extricate herself from her business partner.

Similar things can happen with even the simplest of contracts
with your customers. Download from the Internet all you like, but recognize that the document you copy (1) may not reflect the most recent changes in the law (how will you know? - ask a lawyer!); (2) may contain provisions that are harmful to your business (or omit ones that could help you), and (3) may not properly reflect how you want to do business with your customers. Internet contracts may raise some of the important issues, without a doubt. But they don’t necessarily deal with the specific issues of your situation. In short, when downloading from the Internet: “one size fits all” usually means that “one size fits none.”

How to avoid this pitfall: ideally, by working with an attorney
who really understands the legal issues that small businesses
face. Although some entrepreneurs may try to economize with a do-it-yourself approach, they often end up costing themselves more because they are not trained, as attorneys are, to spot the issues and problems that can harm them. Taking the time to find a lawyer who meets your needs is one of the best investments you will ever make in the growth of your business. Find out more about how to hire and work with attorneys - and keep your costs down - by listening to the free audio class available through http://www.WiseCounselPress.com. With the help of your lawyer, you can start to make the smart decisions that will protect your company and save you money!

About the author:
Nina L. Kaufman, Esq., is a small business attorney and the founder of Wise Counsel Press LLC. To sign up for their FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit http://www.WiseCounselPress.com

What to Consider When Deciding What Type of Small Business You Should Start

Are you an individual who would like to start your own small business? If you are, you are definitely not alone. When it comes to starting a small business, there are many other individuals out there who have similar goals and dreams. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to accomplish their goal of starting their own business or turn their dream into a reality. Many actually give it a try, but many find that their small business ends up costing them much more money than it made them. To prevent yourself from being one of those small business owners, ones that often can’t make it past the two year mark; you will want to make sure that you carefully choose which type of small business you want to open.

When it comes to deciding which type of small business you would like to open, there are a number of important factors that first need to be examined. Perhaps, before focusing on the type of business that you would like to run, like whether you will end up selling products or services and what, you may want to focus on how you plan on running your small business. For instance, do you plan on running your small business out of your home? Do you want to rent a commercial building space? Do you want to run an online business? Do you want to do a combination of them all? How you want to run a business or how you are able to run a business should have a significant impact on the type of business that you are interested in starting.

When examining the type of businesses that you can start, it is advised that you sit down and create a list of things that interest you or topics that you are knowledgeable about. For instance, do you like working with children? If you do, you may want to think about starting your own daycare center or preschool. If you have a little bit of a teaching background the better your chances of success are. Another example can involve your love for pets. Do you enjoy working with pets? If you do, you may want to think about starting your own pet supply store, dog grooming business, or pet sitting service. Starting a small business based on something that you not only know, but also love, will up your chances of your business being a successful one.

Although it is advised that you choose a start a small business based around something that you know and love, that shouldn’t be the only factor that you examine. You also need to examine your competition. When running an online business, you can expect to receive a lot of competition online, as that is just how the internet works. When it comes to starting your own local business, you will want to start a business that has a relatively small amount of competition. In fact, the smaller the amount of competition, the better it will be for you and your business. For instance, if you live in a small town and there are already two or three pet setting services available, it is advised that you do not start another one, as the demand will not be as high as the supply.

Since most businesses, even those that are locally owned and operated, do have competition, it may be a good idea to check out the competition before you decide to start your own business. When checking out your competition, this is easier done if the competition is a retail store or an establishment that you can walk right into. What you will want to do is examine the products or the services available for sale, as well as the costs of each. If you do not think that you can compete with your intended competition, it may be difficult for you and your small business to make a profit; therefore, you may want to refrain from going with your intended business idea. That doesn’t mean that you can’t start a small business, it just means that you should carefully choose which type of business you start.

It’s Time To Get All Strategic - Small Business Marketing Stategy

by: J D Moore

So what’s your small business marketing strategy? I’m willing to bet that close to 85% of the people reading this are scratching their heads now. Many small business owners fail to create a marketing strategy at all, instead focusing on tactics.

Let me give you one of the definitions of strategy from the fine folks at Merriam Webster: a : a careful plan or method : a clever strategem b : the art of devising or employing plans or strategems toward a goal

So a strategy is a plan and the implementation of that plan. Tactics are merely the methods with which which you carry out that plan.

Planning is important in small business marketing for a few reasons:

-Planning helps insure you keep a consistent marketing effort.
-Planning helps you set goals and move towards reaching them.
-Planning helps you set and stick to a budget.

Many small business owners are intimidated by the idea of a marketing plan. They think it needs to be a huge formal document with financials and charts. It can be that, particularly if you are going for funding. However, if you are just in business for yourself, your marketing plan can be very simple.

Here are some items I think it should include:

-Your overall vision, value proposition, and unique selling position
-A list of your target markets, and what you know about them
-Your budget for marketing
-A list of strengths and weaknesses with the customer facing side of your business.
-A list of steps you are going to take (I recommend a marketing calendar)
-There are three ways to increase your revenue, and your plan should take each into account:

1. Increase your number of customers
2. Increase the amount of your average transaction
3. Increase the frequency at which your customers buy from you

Most marketing efforts I encounter focus only on #1. However #1 represents the most expensive, difficult, and slow method for increasing revenues.

Remember that marketing is not just advertising and PR. Your plan should encompass your customers’ entire experience with you. It might include changing the way you answer the phone, more frequent followup calls, cleaning the bathrooms at your store more often, adding plants to your reception area. your plan also might include some kind of customer satisfaction survey, maybe during followup calls or during a visit to your business.

Your plan might also include presenting your products or services better, or repackaging them in different ways. It might have you creating a new brochure, or giving sales training to your staff.

Your plan should include the tactics you want to use, and a budget for each tactic.

There’s an old military aphorism that goes: Even the best possible battle plan has not survived first contact with the enemy. This basically means that the unpredictable always happens - it’s what makes life interesting. Do not be afraid to revise your marketing plan to respond to changing conditions. However, you still need a consistent and intelligent marketing effort.

You should be able to capitalize on new opportunities and respond to new challenges.

Plan and stay consistent - you will outpace most of your competition.

About the author:
J D Moore Small Business Marketing Coach “helping small business owners inprove marketing results” http://marketingcomet.typepad.com

The Benefits of Using the Internet to Help You Advertise Your Local Business

Are you a small business owner who runs a business in or around your place of residence? If you do, the business that you run may be referred to as a locally owned and operated business. Locally owned and operated businesses are often looked highly upon, as they tend to help local economies. Although this will automatically give you a little bit of edge above your competition, especially above large corporate companies, you may need to do a little bit more to get your business noticed. When doing this, you may want to think about turning to the internet.

When it comes to using the internet to help with advertising or marketing, there are many locally owned and operated small business owners, possibly just like you, who wonder exactly how the internet can help them, especially when they do not run an online business. Despite what you may believe, the internet can actually help you and your business out in more ways that you could ever imagine. For information on just exactly how, you will want to continue reading on.

When looking to use the internet to help you advertise or market your business, there are many locally owned and operated small business owners, possibly just like you, who mistakenly believe that they have to start their own online store. When using the internet, you don’t have to sell your products or your services online, if you don’t want to, although it may be something that you may want to look into at another point in time. However, for now, you may want to think about getting information about your business out to the public. Since many consumers use the internet to research the products that they buy or services that they need to pay for, even if they don’t plan on buying them online, the internet is a great way to get your business noticed.

If you are interested in using the internet to help you advertise your business, you will want to think about making your own website. If you are only interested in making your website an informational one, like a website that has information on your business, what your business offers, as well as your local hours, you may only need to purchase a small web hosting package, as your website doesn’t need to take up a lot of space. Even if you are just creating a simple informational website for your small business, it is still advised that you try and keep it professional in nature. If you are unfamiliar with HTML and web design, you may want to think about hiring the services of a professional web designer, as it will likely end up being money well spent.

As previously stated, there are many consumers who use the internet to research a product or a service that they need to buy or pay for. Many consumers want to know that they are getting a good deal or a good product before paying for something. This is why many consumers turn to the internet. By having your online website outline some of the services that you offer or the products that you sell, internet users may be able to come across your website by chance, but many may end up being glad that they found it and had the opportunity to learn about your business and possibly even become a customer. You may even get customers who are not local who may be interested in working out an arrangement with you to buy a product that you have available for sale or pay for one of your services.

The decision as to whether or not you want to use the internet to help you advertise or market your locally owned and operated small business is yours to make, but, as outlined above, there are a number of benefits to doing so. Since many web hosting companies allow you to pay as you go or cancel your plans at anytime, you may want to think about at least giving an informational company website a try.

Inside the Innovation Factory at Google

Maybe you’ve heard how Google encourages its engineers to invest 20 percent of their work schedule on “something of the engineer’s own choosing.”

According to Google’s top executive, by focusing on resources that aren’t directly related to Google’s core business, it ultimately leads to new discoveries.

Find out how Google continues to pump out nifty products employing innovation and creativity at…

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Small Businesses: Tips for Competing with Larger Businesses

Are you a small business owner? If you are, you will likely face a large amount of competition from others; others who may be larger than you and others who may have more resources at hand than you do. Although it may seem as if you are at a disadvantage because your business is a small business, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are a number of different ways that you can make sure that your business is able to successfully compete with your competition, even your competition that may include large, national companies.

When it comes to competing with your larger competitors, it is important that you remember exactly what you are, a small business. This automatically makes you unique right away. Each year, a large number of small business owners end up closing their doors. While this may not sound promising to you, it should give you a little bit of hope. There are actually a large number of consumers who like doing business with small businesses, just like you. In fact, some prefer to do business with them. The less competition you have from other small businesses, the greater your chances are of staying profitable and in business are.

While you may not necessarily be able to control the competition that you do and do not have, one thing that you can control is your business’s public perception. For instance, if you were to run a pet supply store or a clothing store, there are a number of other businesses where your customers could go to buy the same products at, like a large department store. To prevent that from happening, you want to give your customers a reason to come to your store, as well as reason to keep on coming back. The first step is to make sure that your establishment is well-kept and always clean. You will want to pickup your sales floor, if your business has one, each and every day, dust, mop the floors, and keep all of your entranceways cleans. To many consumers, nothing is more unappealing that a dirty business.

In addition to making sure that your establishment is well-kept and always clean, you need to examine the type of service that you and your employees provide your customers with. Most small businesses are known for their personal feel. When it comes to doing business with a small business, there are customers who want to feel like they are known by name, even if they aren’t actually, or feel like they can stop and talk with you and your employees about nothing in particular, like the weather, just because. This is what will essentially set your business apart and make it easier to compete with larger businesses. Unfortunately, many of today’s larger corporations have more of a focus on “don’t waste company time or money,” than they do the customers. Making sure that all of your customers receive the best service available, as well as thank you every time, is the best way to compete and win against your larger competitors.

The above mentioned ways are just a few of the many ways that you can make sure that your small business is running just as strong as the competition. Even if you run an online business, instead of storefront one, a personalized, friendly service is an important component of being successful. For additional methods that may help your business stay afloat, you may want to think about turning to your customers for suggestions. A simple suggestion box may give you insight into your customers, as well as their wants and their needs.

Small Business Tax Deductions You Should Remember to Claim

Are you a small business owner who is planning on preparing your own taxes this year? If you are, you may want to know about the business deductions that you can claim. You may be happy to know that there are a number of deductions that you may be eligible for. Just a few of those deductions are touched on below.

Your commercial space can be used as a tax deduction or a business expense. What is nice about this type of deduction, it that it can be used a number of different ways. For instance, if you are a small business owner who operates an online business, you may actually work from your home. If you do, you could actually calculate the amount of square footage that your business takes up and calculate rent for yourself; rent that is tax deductible. The same can be done if you rent a commercial building space from a commercial landlord.

The supplies that you need for your business can also be considered tax deductible. For instance, if you run a pet grooming salon and you recently decided to update your equipment, you may be able to write off the new equipment as a business expense; a business expense that is tax deductible. When it comes to supplies that your business may need to survive, it can be anything from a new computer, to computer paper, to pens, and a stapler. To save yourself the most money on taxes this year, you will want to get as many tax deductions as you possibly can. Of course, you will want to do so legally though.

In addition to the supplies that you may need to run your small business, the future that you need can also be written off as a business expense. In keeping with the above mentioned example of running a pet grooming business, if you run a pet grooming business, you may need to have an office desk, office chairs, as well as lobby or waiting room chairs. All of these furniture pieces and others that may need to be purchased can be considered businesses expenses and can be written off as deductions.

The above mentioned small business expenses are just a few of the many that can be written off, but they are some of the most obvious ones. One other expense that you may be able to receive a tax deduction for is any insurance than needs to be purchased. This can be looked at form a couple of different perspectives. For instance, if you need to buy your own health insurance coverage, the money spent on coverage can be deducted from your profits made. Also, if you run a business that requires you to be insured, like a pet grooming business or even a hair salon, the cost of insurance coverage can also be considered a deductible business expense.

As nice as it is to know what type of tax deductions you may be able to claim or business expenses that you may be able to write off, it is important that you remember to save all applicable documents and receipts. For instance, if you are going to list your new office desk as a business expense, you need to make sure that you have proof that you actually bought it, when you bought it, and how much you paid for it. That is why it is extremely important that you keep accurate business records, all year round, not just at tax time.

Body Wraps Should Tanning Salons and Spas Offer Them? Posted By : B Walsh

Tanning and day spa business owners are constantly faced with changing customer demands that affect their business choices. What can the tanning industry do to prepare for these changes and the inevitable peaks and valleys of the seasons? What services could be added to a tanning or day spa that could improve their customer loyalty, and keep their income steady throughout the year?

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