Owners Archives - GUJRAT INDIA

Earn Money Online Using The Secrets Of Other Successful Internet Business Owners

Have you seen, heard or been told about successful business owners and you want to know what secrets they know that you don’t which allows them to be successful? Then you are in luck, you are going to learn the most important secrets that they use to achieve success so you can start using these secrets also to achieve your own success with your business.

Here are the secrets that will let you start seeing your own business become successful like you need and want it to.

1. Hard work – This is not something you may want to hear, but if you want to build a business to be successful, then you have to put in hard work. There is no way around it.

Any business is going to require hard work when you are first starting. That is just a fact that you have to accept and learn to deal with or you will never succeed with your business.

2. Time and patience – Time and patience are both needed to build your business to success. Time for your marketing efforts to start working effectively, time for you to learn how to build a business and time for many other things, along with patience to get everything going is a big secret that many people have trouble with.

3. Online business education – There are many subjects that you will know absolutely nothing about. Successful business owners took the time to learn anything and everything they needed to know, no matter how much time it took, so they could achieve the success they have.

You can do the same thing if you are willing to learn and educate yourself on every subject you find that you need to know for building your business to be a success.

4. Desire to succeed no matter what – Building an online business is not going to be easy so this is imperative to anyone’s success. You need to have a strong desire to succeed so that you can overcome any problems or obstacles that stand in your way.

This will also prevent you from giving up too soon and not giving yourself or your business a chance to be successful.

5. Marketing – This is the number one secret that will help anyone build a business. You have to learn about each marketing method, one at a time. Then put each method into action, one at a time.

This will take time, hard work and patience, but it will be well worth it because without this, you will never make any money. The key thing to remember is that the more marketing you are able to do for your business, the more success you will achieve.

These are the secrets that the successful business owners have used and still use to help them get their business where they want it to be. If you just use these same secrets with your online business, you can easily achieve the same success. If you are smart enough to use them, before you are aware of it happening, you will have a business that is most definitely making you money online.

Why Business Owners Seek to Enter Foreign Markets

It is no longer news that business investors from around the world look at entering foreign markets in order to expand their local business operations or diversify their investments and establish new operations in the international market.

Every year, hundreds of entrepreneurial and growing companies consider international expansion as a marketing and growth strategy.

If you have been successful in your business for some time and you have already mastered everything about running a business, overseas expansion may just be the logical next move you have to make.

On the flip side, for a majority of others, just having an overseas registered company and business address makes more sense to them than moving over to these foreign countries to establish a brick-and-mortar office.

Whichever the case is, there are at least 7 reasons entrepreneurs incorporate an overseas company, subsidiary or a representative office.

1. EXPANSION. About 95% of the world’s consumer’s reside outside Nigeria. Entrepreneurs whose vision and target market is a global one would consider to enter new markets abroad thus increasing their company’s overall market share and growth potentials.

2. POSSIBLE UNTAPPED MARKET. The possibility of an untapped market in foreign jurisdictions may motivate a Nigerian entrepreneur to incorporate an overseas company, subsidiary or representative office of his/her local company. Nigerian entrepreneurs who produce and package local foodstuffs for sale abroad fall into this category.

3. PROXIMITY TO INTERNATIONAL CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS. Truth be told, the Internet hs done enough to bring businesses closer to buyers. However, for some reasons, several business transactions may still warrant a traditional business presence in the city or country of operation. An overseas office of a local company need not be that big, and may be a home business address, a paid virtual office, or a small/liaison office just for the sake of getting customer feedback and linking back to the Nigerian office.

4. CORPORATE IMAGE. In order to boost their corporate image in the eyes of customers, suppliers, investors and businesses, some entrepreneurs just register an overseas subsidiary of their Nigerian company. This gives their target audience an impression that they are a company with international networks. In situations like this, the “international entrepreneur” need not set up a brick-and-mortar office abroad, he/she only pays for a virtual registered office in such country plus a mailing and telephone forwarding service.

5. COMPETITION. The fact that competing businesses or brands are entering the overseas market and are doing well motivates entrepreneurs in similar businesses to follow suit.

6. INTERNATIONAL PAYMENT. There are quite a number of international banking options available to companies registered in overseas jurisdictions – whether you are currently established in the overseas country or operating the overseas company from Nigeria. Having a corporate checking account abroad makes international payment much more easier by direct deposits, cheque or international wire transfers.

7. MIGRATION. Entrepreneurs considering a migration or move to an overseas country may incorporate a company in the destination country pending the time of their travel.

The United Kingdom, for instance, grants an Entrepreneur Visa to persons outside the European Union to gain entry to the UK for business reasons.

The initial visa will give you 3 years in the UK; and if during that 3 years you can show that you met certain criteria, you can then apply for a further 2 years extension visa. Following the 5 years, you’ll have the option of applying for permanent residency in the UK.

The 5 Most Dangerous Trends Facing Business Owners and Entrepreneurs Today

Trend #1 Fighting for Attention

The average consumer is bombarded with more than 4,000 commercial messages per day. And that number is even HIGHER for business owners.

Attention has become the scarce resource of the information economy. The advertising and information clutter only worsens when it comes to your email In-box, with countless hours wasted with spam.

More and more are joining the “Do Not Call” registry and many consumers are purchasing ad blocking technologies. Consumers feel they are constantly bombarded with too much advertising.

Trend #2 Customers Leaving You for Perceived Indifference

Why customers leave you…

1% Death 3% Move 5% Buy from a friend 9% Sold by a Competitor 14% Product Price

68% Perceived Indifference

Major global corporations now lose, and must replace, HALF their customers every five years. A typical company’s customers leave at a rate of 10 percent to 30 percent per year, and this number GROWS annually.

“Most companies spend their hard-earned marketing and sales effort attempting to attract elusive new customers when they probably have most of the business they will ever need sitting on their database.” – Jay Abraham

A typical business hears from only about 5% of its unsatisfied customers. Fully 95% just leave most will never come back.

60%-70% of the customers who complain to you will do business with you again if you resolve their problem. If they feel you acted quickly and to their satisfaction, up to 96% will do business with you again, and they will probably refer other people to you.

If you do a great job your customers will tell 2 people about it, where as if you dissatisfy a customer they will tell 22 people about it.

It costs five to six times as much to get a new (first time) customer as it does to keep a current one, and it takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for one negative incident.

Trend #3 Increasing Marketing Costs and Decreasing Effectiveness

It now costs 3 X more in 2008 than it did in 1992 to reach your prospective buyers. In 1992 – it took an average of 4 attempts to reach your buyer.

In 2008, it now takes 8.4 attempts. Therefore, ½ the results from the previous same efforts are commonplace.

As the popularity of Search Engine Marketing has increased, so have the costs of playing the game. Pay-per-click advertisements are being driven up in costs as the demand for online advertising space increases. Organic search engine marketing is a long-term, uncertain and often costly endeavor.

The recent postal rate increase is inflicting HIGHER COSTS on small publishers.

Newspaper advertising rates and Yellow pages advertising costs are also increasing.

Plus Brand Loyalty continues to decrease, changing from 56% in 2002 to just 39% in 2007.

Trend #4 Lagging Behind With Internet Technology

Now, more than ever… companies MUST utilize and actively embrace the newest technologies like: RSS Feeds, Social Networks, Blogging, Streaming Video, Webinars, etc.

Over 50% of internet marketers surveyed, are now utilizing or expect to pilot the following marketing channels because of recent market shifts: – RSS – Podcasts – Interactive Banners – Ads Within Online Video – User-Generated Content – Blogs – Social Networks

Most Small Businesses are racing to play catch-up with companies that are prospering with Web applications that establish interaction, dialog and deep connections with their Customers, Prospects, Employees and Partners.

The Internet has shifted the balance of power to the customer, and companies that fail to empower customers – risk losing them to competitors who are only a short click away.

Trend #5 Increasing Competition & Increasing Business Failures

We are in the midst of the largest entrepreneurial surge the world has ever seen.

Nearly 672,000 new companies with employees were created in the U.S. in 2005. That is the biggest business birthrate in U.S. history!

30,000 more startups than in 2004, and 12% more than at the height of dot-com boom in 1996.

96% of ALL businesses Fail within the first 10 years… 80% of those Fail within the first 2 years.

Many Reasons Include: Lack of planning, Poor management skills and Failure to seek professional assistance.

The next step…

Visit The Business Commandos website listed below and claim your FREE copy of Aaron Parsons best new book: “How To Make A Million Dollars In Your Business In 3 Years Or Less” and while your there find out How To Double Your Sales In The Next 12 Months with the Profit Acceleration Systems coaching program led by international award winning business growth expert Aaron Parsons.

Small Business Owners: Plan to Hit Your Profit Targets

To make a Profit, the business needs to focus, not on breaking even, not on survival, but on business profitability – literally, the ‘ability’ of the business to aim at and produce a specific dollar amount of profit as a percentage of projected gross income. Only when this is the clear business target is it possible to build a business that can deliver profit to the owner year after year. Only then can that business truly become an ongoing, revenue-producing asset for the owner. How is this done? How can a business become a profitable asset? Show me the Money! Most small businesses are inherently profitable. Depending on the business, a reliable profit of 10% to 30% of total annual sales already exists as the potential, ongoing profit return on investment of the company. But where is this Profit? Why is it so hard to see, let alone produce?

As a small business consultant for a major consulting practice, I was continually amazed at the number of small-to-medium sized companies operating with a ledger notebook and aluminum box for cash. I was stunned that the computer was used only for internet email, customer letters and office decoration. The accounting software (QuickBooks or Peachtree) was on the computer for tax purposes used by the accountant at tax time. As a consultant I was able to help the small business owners realize the most effective way to run a profitable business was to plan to be profitable. By getting the owner to understand that expenses and sales should be planned towards a goal and events controlled in such a manner as to yield the profit target. By not monitoring the profit and loss statement, the business events control the owners, and management cannot drive process and procedures toward profits. The accounting software packages were then set up to view each product by profit and loss statements on a monthly and annual basis. This allowed the small business owner the ability to react quickly to any deviations from its budgeted plans (cash falling through the cracks). The organization learns from the feedback it gets by comparing budgeted goals to actual results(revenue decreasing). Communication increased throughout the organization about employee expectations towards profitable goals.

Owners, when was the last time you updated your business plan, which is probably on your bookshelf where you placed it since you initially developed it. Now, don’t get bogged down in the document, just dust it off and use a red pen to ask your self the following questions:

Profit Planning: Budget vs. Business Plan

Has the management team updated the business plan to reflect current/future market industry ‘realities’?

Does my management team understand the ‘market intricacies’ of each product they sell and service in the business unit they oversee?

Does my management team understand the ‘customer’ product needs and wants they sell and service in the business unit they oversee?

Have you developed a profit and loss statement for each product? What are your sales revenue, direct costs, and overhead expenses for each product?

Have you benchmarked your Gross Profit margin against industry standards? Is it high or low?

How are your products sales trending? Quarterly? Is product cost percentage lowering as you sell more volume of products? If not, can workflow be streamlined.

Is my business making money? Do I have a simple profitable business model in place for every product?

Have you identified your bestselling product lines vs. your worst selling products? Select which product will grow your business?

Have your management team created action plans to meet planned product profit specific objectives and goals in target areas?

Employees/Operational Readiness

What is the current morale of the employees? Who will champion the ‘Profit Program’ that they can believe in?

What are the current ‘roadblocks’ to lowering cost and increasing throughput of products? Why?

What are the training needs of my employees to achieve profit goals? How will training improve business or morale?

Do the employees know what’s expected of them? How will they be held accountable for performance?

How will they be rewarded? Plan to give Incentives, increase Profit-Sharing, surprise Bonuses, spontaneous Intangibles?

Have your managers and supervisors set specific production objectives and goals in target areas?

Are my employees cross trained in key (growth products) production areas? Why not?

Do I have financial measurements scorecard posted in work area? Do I have relevant workflow processes posted in work area?

Do we have the best technology solution in place to reach profit goals?

Customers

Has my customer base changed?

Has my product/service offering changed?

How often/how many new customers have I obtained in the last year?

What product do my customers need to solve their problem? What services can we offer to provide convenience or can we lower product cost?

Are there any solutions outside the industry that will ‘wow’ the customer? Is the marketing strategy relevant to customer wants?

What is the company reputation to the customer? If low, how can we improve reputation and brand image to the market?

Do I know who my best customers are? What do they really want?

Do I have more/fewer customers? Why did they leave?

Who are the current ‘bad customers/clients’? Money Owed? Should I keep them or sell them?

Competitors

Do I have new competitors? Who?

Do I have more/fewer competitors? Why?

What are the current competitive threats to my business?

How are my competitors resolving the customer problem? Who?

What industry has the best innovative solution to address my customers need? Why? Applicable?

What technology is a competitive threat to my bestselling product?

Evaluate answers against the strengths and weaknesses of your business capability. Formulate your strategy according to the opportunity available in the marketplace. The game is to make money for the long term, not to see how many widgets you can ‘hide’ at the end of the month or play financial engineering games with the books.

Price Points

It is never a good idea to cut your price, even in tough economic times. If you do cut your prices, only do it for a limited time encouraging customers to “act now.” This should be a last resort effort.. The temptation to cut your price in tough times is great. Ask your management team ‘If we cut prices, how will you get the prices up when the tough times are over?’ Stay on the message. Your value doesn’t diminish in tough times. Why should your price go down? Businesses should focus more on customer satisfaction. By focusing on delivering more than you promise, you are putting the customer first. It reinforces their decision to buy.

Business Partners

Look for businesses that you can partner with to cross-promote your products and services while sharing the costs. For example, a laundry mat offers free detergent with each washer load and the free detergent is paid for by both the owner of the laundry mat and the supplier of the detergent. The price was not reduced, but there is a unique incentive for the customer with a specific start and end date, which will get the customer to “act now.”

Plan to profit with sales this year. Explore new markets, new prospects and new products and pitches. This year, the three Ps of marketing your business are: prospects, products and pitches. All three may need to change a bit to get you to a profitable year.

You can do it. Surround yourself with mentors who you can talk to plan for success. It’s amazing the difference it makes just talking through your ideas. Think of planning as preparing yourself for success with a clear profit picture in mind.

New Markets

As you review your business plan, ask yourself where else you can sell your product or service. Go back to those customers who have not bought from you in a while. Have a compelling reason for them to buy from you now, such as improved service, different products or greater customer satisfaction just to name a few. Does it make sense to enter new geographic markets? Have any competitors in that market left or ‘retrenched, waiting for better times’?

Update Your Offerings

After reviewing your business plan is it necessary to change or update your product or service offering? Will product or service changes or additions allow you to sell more to your existing customers? An “update” here could mean a redesign of your web site, starting a blog, joining a social network. Essentially any way you can expand your reach to potential customers. The reason newspapers across the country are closing is due to lack of readership. People are moving to the internet for their news and information… and to find your business!

Improve Your Pitch

Thoroughly understand your product and service and why someone should buy it from you. Use written testimonials from some of your satisfied customers.

• Tell your story in five minutes or less.

• Practice to perfect your pitch “before” the sales call.

• Listen well. Ask questions & really listen to the client’s needs and concerns.

The bottom line is practice makes perfect. Be a dedicated practitioner in client connection. You are the owner. Your time, care and connection in the sales process will bring results. In these times, you can be tenacious & focus on seeking out new opportunities which will pay huge dividends when the economy turns around.

Our nation is experiencing a recession and has been in a prolonged serious economic downturn in the past decade. According to Tom Reilly, MissouriBusiness.Net, “Seventy percent of today’s CEOs have never led a company in or out of a recession and 60 percent of today’s salespeople have never sold in tough times”.

On every championship team, great coaches must receive accurate information in order to adjust their strategy to win the game. To be a truly great small company you must operate from a core value of honesty toward strategy and profitability. Remember the old management adage ‘If it doesn’t get measured, it doesn’t get done’ and ‘Lost Opportunity’ (bad decisions) can close your business. Planning profitability is a proven business method that allows your business to measure whether its succeeding or failing, not smooth talking inexperienced senior executives, presenting the latest management theory of the month to the board.

Remember, Enron, WorldCom, George S. May International, Arthur Anderson and Tyco.

Permission Email Marketing Tips for Offline Small Business Owners

Unless your small business is situated under a rock, you’ve probably heard something about email marketing by now, and you may have even wondered if it’s time for your small business to get into it.

In its simplest terms, email marketing means communicating with consumers through email. But there’s a big difference between trying to talk to consumers who never asked to be talked to in the first place, and talking to your own customers, who at some point have said, “Yes, I’d love to hear from you.”

That’s where permission email marketing comes in. Permission email marketing means giving valuable information to consumers who have requested to receive it. It is the ONLY legitimate way to send an email marketing campaign, and it is the only way your small business can benefit from email marketing.

But how do you get your customers to say “I do”?

If you have an online business, or if your offline business has a website that receives many visitors, compiling subscribers can be as easy as adding a subscription box to your website. You would offer users something valuable, like a periodical newsletter or emails with discount coupons and, in return, your users would subscribe to your mailing list.

Sounds great. But what if your business is primarily offline, and what if you don’t even have a website?

Many businesses think that’s reason enough to step out of email marketing altogether. But what they’re missing here is that compiling a permission email marketing list offline can be as easy, if not easier in some instances, as building a list online.

We have advised many clients on tips to collect email addresses at the point of purchase. Here are some of our favorite tactics:

– Collect business cards, Offer a prize.

This is one of the oldest, most proven methods of collecting customer information in-store. Your prize doesn’t even have to be huge. If you own a restaurant, it can be as simple as a free dinner for two. If you own a hair dresser, it can be as easy a 50% off coupon towards their next cut. The beauty here is that customers who submit their business cards have expressed genuine interest in your products or services. So when you contact them by email with further offers, you know you’re talking to people who want to buy what you’re selling.

The one thing to keep in mind here is that you MUST inform users that by submitting their business cards, they are agreeing to receive email communication from you. This can be as simple as adding a sign to the business card drop-off box saying: “We will send you an email to notify you if you have won. We may also send you periodical emails with special offers and announcements. If you do not wish to receive emails from us, please write ‘No Email’ on your business card.”

– Start a V.I.P. Club

Many consumers like the idea of belonging to something exclusive, and receiving offers that are extended only to a select group of people. The labor on your part is minimal. It’s as easy as keeping a notebook by the cashier. As a customer comes up to complete a purchase, casually tell them about your businesses’ V.I.P. Club and ask them if they would like to join. Customers will appreciate this if you position it as a rewards club, or a way to say “Thank you, we love to have you around” to your most loyal customers. Of course, you should offer V.I.P. Club membership to any of your consumers, as you may find, once you start emailing them offers, that’s a great way to build your most loyal customers. Make sure the offers you send them are, in fact, exclusive, and that you email V.I.P. Club members often enough, but not too often to become annoying (once or twice a month is usually a good interval).

Again, when you’re collecting customer emails for the V.I.P. Club, make sure your customers know they’re signing up to receive email offers from you.

***

These are just some ideas to get your permission email marketing subscriber list started. The best news here is that compiling a list is actually the toughest part of managing an email marketing campaign. As long as you’re using an email marketing manager program that’s specifically designed for small businesses like yours, the rest of the process is a breeze.

Creating a campaign involves little more than selecting a professionally-designed template, typing text and choosing a few good images. Your campaigns will be scheduled and sent automatically, so you’ll never have to worry about being involved in that part.

What you will get to do (and this is probably the most exciting and most rewarding part of email marketing), is analyze your campaign after it’s been sent. You’ll be able to see how many people opened your email message, how many people clicked on each link within the message and, best of all, exactly who did what. Now that’s what we call accurate, detailed, and immediate consumer research (you actually get to track your consumers’ actions from the exact moment they happen). And while you would previously pay a fortune just to get this research data, today your small business can send professional email marketing campaigns and track detailed consumer behavior for less than it would cost you to print store flyers.

It’s the new age of marketing, and there’s never been a better time for your offline small business to get into the game.

The Four Stages of ‘Change Curve’ Small Business Owners Should Know

The ‘Change Curve’ is a helpful tool for small businesses to understand the stages of personal transition each employee undergoes. Kubler Ross developed this model to explain the grieving process (Shock and Denial, Anger and Fear, Acceptance and Commitment).

This model helps small business owners predict how employees will react to a change, and advises how to help and support the employees through their personal transitions.

An organization does not change just because of new systems or processes. It changes because people within the organization adapt and change. Only when people within the organization make their own personal transitions can the organization benefit from the change.

The Change Curve model

The ‘Change Curve’ model helps small business owners understand the stages of personal transition and organization change. This model comprises four stages that employees go through as they adjust to a change.

Stage – 1: Shock and denial

Stage – 2: Anger and fear

Stage – 3: Acceptance

Stage – 4: Commitment

Stage – 1: Shock and denial

This is the first reaction that small business owners notice in their employees – they react to the challenges to the status quo. This reaction is seen more in experienced and established employees because these employees are indifferent to new systems and procedures. They feel uncomfortable because of the fear of the unknown, fear of doing something wrong and lack of information. They feel threatened and fear failure. Under these circumstances, they normally take it as a friction rather than an opportunity.

What do the employees need here?

Employees may experience this stage multiple times. To get over it, employees need information, need to understand what is happening in the organization and need to know how to get help from the organization.

Note: This stage affects particularly those employees who have not experienced any major change before.

What should the organization do?

At this stage, it is the responsibility of the owners to communicate with their employees and educate them about the benefits that they will gain by adapting to new systems – personally and professionally. Remember not to overwhelm your employees by flooding them with loads of information at a time, or they may even be more confused.

Stage – 2: Anger and fear

This is the second stage that is seen in the employees. As employees react to a change, they start expressing their anger, concern, resentment or fear. They may resist the change actively or passively. This stage could be dangerous and if the organization does not manage it carefully, it might result in chaos.

What should the organization do?

At this stage, the small business owner should handle employees’ objections carefully. Since reaction to change is personal and emotional, it’s impossible to prevent it from happening. Therefore, the organization should try to address the employees’ experience and iron out the issues as early as possible.

Note: As long as employees remain at Stage – 2 of the Change Curve by escaping progress, the change will be unsuccessful.

Stage – 3: Acceptance

This is a turning point for employees as well as the organization because the employees have stopped focusing on what they have lost and have started accepting changes. They begin exploring changes, and get a real idea of what’s good and what’s not and how to adjust themselves accordingly.

What should the organization do?

This stage is critical – it takes time for employees to learn and accept things. Therefore, don’t expect your employees to be 100% productive during this stage. Give them time so that they learn and explore without much pressure.

Stage – 4: Commitment

At this stage, there will be a commitment from the employees in analyzing and embracing the change. They start rebuilding the way they work and this is the stage at which the organization starts to see the benefits of the change.

Benefits of the change

At this stage the organization will see the benefits of putting in effort for the welfare of their employees when they were in a grieving stage. The positive effects of the Change Curve are now more evident through its productivity and profit.

The Change Curve is an effective model for small business owners while managing employees. Locating an employee on the change curve will help the business owner decide on how to effectively communicate information to employees and to know what kind of support they require. This helps them take necessary measures and protect both the business and the employees.

5 Common Digital Marketing Mistakes That Today’s Business Owners Must Avoid

If you are a business owner and have plans to start a digital marketing campaign, make sure you avoid making some common mistakes. First of all, knowing the fact that digital marketing is not a simple task is important. Since it involves a lot of things like paid advertising, content marketing and SEO, making mistakes is quite common. This article discusses some common mistakes that you must avoid making if you want to make your campaigns be successful. Read on.

1. Not having Realistic Goals

If you don’t have a focused digital marking plan, you can’t create an effective marketing campaign. Without some goals in place, you are not going to get anywhere. Since your campaigns won’t be focused, you won’t be able to hit your goals in the given time period.

In the absence of realistic goals, your business won’t grow at all. The thing is that unrealistic goals are a source of discouragement. This type of goals is not achievable no matter what you do.

Also, you need to track your goals to find out how much success you have gained so far. This will also help you identify areas that require improvements. So, make sure your goals are specific, measurable, realistic, time sensitive and achievable.

2. Not Targeting the Relevant Audience

Not targeting the right audience is another common digital marketing mistake. Similarly, if you are going to focus an overly broad audience, you will get your desired results. Since you want to reach as many people as possible, you may be discouraged when you won’t see them buying your products or services.

Targeting the wrong audience is not a good idea and you will end up wasting a lot of time and money. What you need to do is provide relevant content with the relevant audience. Before you target your campaign, you must consider the following parameters:

Buying habits
Hobbies
Interests
Demographics

3. Ignoring your Website Design

In this digital age, having a user-friendly is a must, especially for businesses. So, you don’t want to end up ignoring this aspect of your business website. In other words, your website must be easy to use and it should offer valuable information. Not optimizing your site is bad when it comes to user experience, and you will be left behind in competition.

A good website should feature a simple search bar, a shopping cart, pictures, and call-to-action buttons.

4. Not Working on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO helps you look for your business on major search engines, especially Google. So, if you don’t consider this aspect when optimizing your web content, you will lose a lot of prospective customers and clients.

One of the biggest online marketing mistakes that businesses make with SEO is not giving it enough time to start showing results. SEO requires patience. In return, your campaign will grow over time and drive the results you desire.

Apart from incorporating relevant keywords in the content, you must follow some good SEO practices. Some of them are listed below:

Optimization of title tags
Optimization of the page load time of your website
Delivery of informative, targeted content

5. Not Focusing on Existing Customers

If you are trying to attract new customers only, you are making a grave mistake. You also need to focus on your existing customers to enjoy a higher conversion rate.

In short, these are 5 common digital marketing mistakes that you must avoid as a business owner in 2021.

Great News, Business Credit Has No Impact on the Business Owner’s Personal Credit

When done properly, business credit is obtained without the SSN being supplied on the application.

This means there is no credit check from the business owner to get approved. This also means that anyone who has bad, even horrible personal credit can still be approved for business credit.

Reports to the business credit reporting agencies, not the consumer reporting agencies.

So as it has no adverse impact on the owner’s consumer credit because it’s not reported to consumer agencies.

This means utilizing the account, even over 30%, won’t have any adverse impact on the personal scores.

And there are no inquires on the personal credit when you apply for business credit as long as you don’t supply your SSN.

30% of your total consumer score is based on utilization, so if you use your personal cards for your business and if you use those cards you will lower your scores. Using more than 30% of your limit WILL result in a score decrease

So if your limit is $1,000, having a balance above $300 lowers your scores. This means 40% of your total score is damaged. With true business credit, 0% of your score is affected.

10% of your total consumer score is based on inquiries, so if you are using your personal credit to apply for business loans and credit, your scores will go down as a result of those inquiries.

Plus, those inquiries can remain on your for an extended period of time affecting your ability to borrow more money.

And some unsecured business lending sources won’t even lend you money if you have two inquiries or more on your personal credit reports within six months.

The credit doesn’t report to the consumer agencies, so neither inquiries nor utilization have any effect on your consumer scores.

How to Devalue Your Business

Anyone who has sold or bought a business will tell you of the importance.

All potential buyers can easily obtain extensive information about your business, just by obtaining your business credit report… that anyone who wants it can get.

This means they’ll quickly know details about your business including:

• Credit scores

• High credit limits

• Past payment performance

• Employees

• Revenues

And much more…

Now that you know how easy extensive credit and financial information is to get for a company, if you were a buyer wouldn’t you get it?

Based on what’s on your business credit report, would you want to buy your company?

Does your report reflect that your company is “established”, does it show that you pay your bills, do you look like a successful company from your report?

If you could choose from two companies to buy that were the same in every way except business credit, which one would you buy…

… The one with a very limited or no credit profile… or one with a credit profile that reflects good payment performance, and one with available credit.

Self-Employed Disability Insurance – Protection for Business Owners

There are a number of advantages to being your own boss. The freedom to set your own schedule, control over client and business relationships along with a feeling of liberation are a few of the main reasons increased numbers of Canadians are headed down the self-employment path. Self-employment does come with its list of challenges, one being, health insurance and more specifically… disability insurance.

Losing the safety net of an employee benefit program offered by large employers is challenging and sometimes costly. Buying disability insurance through a group plan will have lower rates, no medical exams and no financial underwriting but once you leave the group plan for self-employment, the rules change! Rates are higher, underwriting wants more details and you may have to go through a medical examination. This new set of hoops to jump through tends be the reason why most self-employed people shy away from obtaining any type of extended health care at all.

It is estimated that 15% of Canada’s work force is self-employed. A recent study showed that more than 500,000 Canadians said they had established their own businesses over the past two years, which is a record number. (CIBC Study, Globe & Mail). Not setting up the proper disability coverage to protect ones ability to earn an income can have it’s consequences. Disability Insurance will help protect your business (overhead expenses) and family in the event you are unable to go to work, an important building block to consider when you are self-employed.

You may be earning more than you would work for someone else, but what if you get sick? Or are in an accident that leaves you without the ability to earn an income either temporarily or permanently? You will likely have a number of medical expenses, personal expenses and you may not find your accounts payable are as patient as you had hoped. Here is where a well structured disability insurance plan can create a safety net, allowing you to concentrate on returning to good health and take the time away from work that you need.

While most business owners in their 40’s and 50’s are more conscious of their own mortality, there has been a marked increase in the number of entrepreneurs starting their own companies in their 20’s and 30’s. While encouraging for the economy it is important not to forget about the benefits and importance of a well structured disability plan.

A simple question you can ask yourself is: How do you plan to live if you can’t earn an income? Or more accurately, how will you support your dependents, pay your staff, or pay your business overhead if you can no longer earn an income?

10 Things New Business Owners Must Know

Starting a business can be expensive and complex depending on what kind of business you start. A strategic business plan helps you address questions like, what are my capital resources, how will my product or service reach the market place, or how will I manage my day-to-day operations. These are very important issues for any start-up, and must be addressed, however there are other “must knows” that are just as critical to new business success.

The first, which is the proper business form to choose could have a significant impact on your bottom line. This is because different business forms are taxed differently. The various forms of business structures include sole proprietor, LLC, Partnership, S-Corporation, or C-Corporation. Each with their own set of rules, as it relates to how you pay taxes. The next consideration, whether I should get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) has been a popular topic among start-ups. Generally, regardless of your business form, applying and obtaining an EIN is a must. This is because during the course of conducting business you will most likely make certain payments that require information return(s). The forms used to report these payments must include the payee’s identification number.

Another important consideration is deciding on your tax year. A tax year usually consists of twelve months. The IRS allows two kinds of tax years. The first is Calendar Year, which starts January 1 and ends December 31 of every year. The second is Fiscal Year. “A fiscal tax year is 12 consecutive months ending on the last day of any month except December. A 52-53-week tax year is a fiscal tax year that varies from 52 to 53 weeks but does not have to end on the last day of a month” (IRS pub 538). Though most start-ups choose the calendar year, it is good to understand the difference between the two. Once your business grows it may become prudent to switch to Fiscal Year due to many potential tax advantages they may avail themselves as a result.

The next three considerations include businesses owners knowing what type of federal and state tax they will be responsible to pay, which tax forms are you required to file, and how to properly account for employees, as it relates to taxes. The IRS requires different business forms to file different tax returns (Schedule C, 1120, 1102s, 1065) at different times during the filing period. In addition, depending on whether you have W-2 employees or independent contractor’s different type information return requirements will apply. You may also be faced with state and local sales tax payment and reporting requirements. It is also important because it has been argued to be one of the most troublesome areas for small business start-ups.

Finally, understanding the proper accounting method (cash vs. accrual), what business expenses are deductible, and which records to keep and for how long are the last three “must knows”. Depending on what accounting method you choose, you could be paying more in taxes than you should. Making this determination requires a good understanding of the accounting methods available and how those methods affect your specific situation. Understanding what expenses are deductible will assist you with proper record keeping, as well as help your tax professional maximize your credits and deductions. Remember, a tax pro generally is limited to information you provide. Tax professionals may understand the implications of certain deductions, but not know without your input that said deduction(s) apply.