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4 Rookie Mobile Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Dec 22nd
Mobile marketing. Sure, everyone’s talking about it. They’re busy talking about SoLoMo and how small business owners need to use mobile to target customers on the move. But with the rush to get in on this hot new medium, sometimes we let our excitement get the better of us and we don’t take time to plan our campaigns quite as well as we could. And then we make dumb mistakes.
Below are four rookie mobile marketing mistakes to avoid. We made them first so you don’t have to.
1. Using Mobile to Share Non-Mobile Content
You’ve read all about how to use text messages and quick response (QR) codes to target customers while they’re out in the wild or even just sitting on their couch at home. And that’s great–until you use these techniques to send users to content that is anything but mobile friendly. Perhaps it’s a video their phone can’t download or the desktop version of your website, which takes too long to load and far too much scrolling to use on their device. These types of mistakes leave customers feeling frustrated and almost ensure they never again try to load your website from a mobile device. They’re also a waste of time and resources on your part if you’re creating campaigns that don’t work, let alone convert.
If you’re going to use text message marketing to offer a discount or present a call to action for someone to visit your site, make sure the page you’re sending them to is mobile friendly. Ensure it will load on their device and present them with the proper experience. Otherwise, you’re just spinning your wheels and their data plan.
2. Using QR Codes to Direct Customers Back to Your Site
For many of us, when we think “mobile marketing” we really think “QR codes.” A QR code is that barcode-like symbol that a user can scan with their smartphone to be taken to a page of your choosing. QR codes are great for sending users to mobile-friendly landing pages, informing them about specials and promotions, or providing an exclusive experience via their phone. When QR codes don’t work is when you use them to direct people back to your home page. Or, worse, when you try to put them in an email. (How do you scan a barcode while using your phone for email?)
If you’re going to invest in creating a QR code, don’t simply use the code to drive people back to your website. They could have gotten there on their own. Instead, pack that code with something valuable and unique. It could be an exclusive discount or special offer, time-sensitive information, an image they couldn’t get otherwise, a free download, etc. There has to be a “why” to make the experience worthwhile. Otherwise, you’re going to have a frustrated customer when they take the time to scan your QR code only to be given the same experience they receive every day.
3. Missing a Chance for Better Targeting
You can bet that not all of your customers are going to feel comfortable giving you access to their phone and opting into a mobile marketing campaign. And you know what? That’s OK, because it means you’ll be able to target your marketing to the type of user who is OK with a more personal interaction. To really leverage mobile marketing, find out more about the demographics of the people who do opt into this service and adapt your campaigns to specifically address them. This may including knowing what kind of offers they’re most interested in, the products they buy most, the price point they stay within, the types of deals they respond to, etc. If you don’t know offhand (and why would you?), your analytics will be able to give you this information.
As with anything, if you want customers to do something, you need to give them a reason. People will be more likely to sign up if you send them special discounts and offers that have been hand-crafted for them.
4. Not Optimizing Your Mobile Website
The mobile version of your website should be more than just a shrunken version of what your site looks like on a desktop computer. It should be optimized for a different experience and for a customer coming to you a different intent. We know that desktop users and users pulling you up via a mobile phone are coming for different purposes. They’re not just browsing on their phone; they’re on the hunt for specific information or content. For best performance, use your analytics to understand what your mobile users are after, the pages they request most often, and the mission they land on your site with. This will help you to optimize an experience that is relevant to their needs and that helps them achieve their goals faster. Give your mobile searchers what they want and very little noise.
Above are four very common mistakes SMBs (and even large brands!) make when entering the mobile landscape. But you don’t have to make them. Understand the intent of a mobile searcher, know the tools available to you, and then use them to create a unique experience.
4 Rookie Mobile Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
5 Credit and Financing Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Small Business
Oct 29th
So before we dive in, what exactly do I mean by “hurt” your business? Well, these credit and lending mistakes could do any of the following (this is not a complete list, of course):
- Slow your growth
- Damage your brand
- Make the difference between a profit and a loss
- Cause your business to fail
At the very least you’ll slow your growth or limit yourself from being able to handle the curve balls that are part of business life cycles. It’s also important to state the obvious, which is that we’re only talking about debt capital solutions – borrowing money. We are not going to discuss equity financing mistakes made with VCs, angels, private equity firms and so on.
The credit and lending landscape has not only shrunk from the levels we were seeing in 2005 and 2006 but has also become less consistent and is constantly changing. That means you must be prepared for a variety of factors that can be frustrating, even if you’re working with an expert individual or company in the small business finance arena.
In fact, companies like Commercial Capital Training Group and Compound Profit are capitalizing on the huge need for trusted advisors with expertise in the small business credit and lending space by offering career and training opportunities to individuals looking for a new career opportunity as a small business loan broker. There is such a need that both of these companies are swamped with new trainees.
Bottom line: If you have a proper understanding of your borrowing options, that should create realistic expectations. And if you have those two key components, then you’re halfway there.
These are the five biggest mistakes we’ve seen since the onset of the credit crisis in 2008:
1. Using Personal Credit Cards for Your Business
According to the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, 82 percent of small business owners use credit cards as a “vital part” of their overall funding strategy. The problem is that most small business owners use their credit cards the wrong way. They either use personal credit cards or they use business credit cards that actually report to their personal credit report.
Capital One and Discover Card are two of the most popular business credit cards that report their activity to your personal credit report. As a result, they are really no different than using personal credit cards as a funding tool for your business. When you use personal cards instead of the right business credit card, you hurt your FICO scores, damage your credit file and miss out on the chance to separate your personal and business credit.
We have seen hundreds of small business owners in the last year who needed extra funding to grow their business and were unable to get it for one reason: because of the impact of using personal credit cards, or the wrong business credit cards, for business.
2. Using Borrowed Funds the Wrong Way
Once you’re approved and you get your funding, as soon as you high-five the nearest person, it’s time to make sure you use the money properly. It’s tough enough to get funding nowadays, so don’t go spending it without a plan. (We’re talking about “working capital” funding here. If you get real estate or equipment funding, that’s great, but there’s usually no discretionary funding left on the table for you to spend.)
We talk about Revenue Generating Activities (RGA). Make sure a good percentage of that loan or line of credit is used to generate additional revenue to grow your business. I like a combination of short-term efforts (a marketing or ad campaign or perhaps a series of trade shows to build exposure and develop key relationships), long-term efforts (building your brand, social media initiatives, building business credit, etc.) and perhaps some “my situation” needs.
An example of “my situation” needs would be to pay down personal credit cards (if you didn’t read this article in time) so you can increase your FICO scores and then obtain additional funding. Another example would be to give yourself a small salary for a few months while you transition into a more full-time role in the business or to pay yourself back from monies you already spent on the business.
3. Pledging Excessive Collateral With Your First Loan or Line of Credit
Small business lending is constantly changing, and small business owners often think the lender is crazy for saying no, for offering a higher-than-acceptable interest rate, or for failing to live up to their expectations for any other reason. Add all this up and you’ve got a perfect storm.
As difficult as it may be when you’re not working with an experienced small business lender or consultant, try not to give the lender collateral if you don’t need to. And certainly don’t let the lender take an excessive amount of collateral, or you’ll have trouble getting the next loan when that huge, game-changing contract comes your way that will grow your business exponentially.
4. Doing Your Own Research and Getting It Wrong
My guess is that if you were charged with a serious crime you probably would not decide to represent yourself or defend yourself in court. So if the credit and lending landscape is so challenging, difficult and ever-changing then why are you trying to figure it out on your own? We learned a dangerous lesson in the days of easy mortgage money, when websites where you can choose from a long list of lenders and offers became a popular way to find mortgage loans.
The principle behind these sites is that if you talk to enough mortgage companies, you can figure out what the best loan is for your situation. Never mind that you may have no idea about hidden fees, teaser rates and the “bait and switch” tactics used by lenders and brokers, and you’ve never had any training on credit, HUD-1′s, and how to read the 50-plus page mortgage closing package. Despite all that, you’re smart enough to make the right decisions–without professional help–about the largest debt you’ll ever create. I know you’re an exception to the rule but for most “other people” that’s problematic.
Most banks approve less than 10% of the loan applications they get from small business owners. Many of the 10% don’t get as much funding as they need or must give up a lot of precious collateral in order to get their funding. You do the math. Will you be one of the very few who gets everything they need from the bank without pledging an excessive amount of collateral? Do you know where to turn to get the best possible funding after the bank says no? Most small business owners need a good advisor. Even with assistance, getting financing is still a challenge, but at least you’ll be in good hands.
5. Not Treating Your Personal Credit as the Asset it Is (or Not Making it an Asset)
It’s real simple. You’re a small business owner so you’re going to sign on the dotted line when getting financing. Yes, to my friends who build business credit, I have Staples cards and gas cards, and a Dell line of credit that did not require a personal guarantee, but those are exceptions and have limitations. We’re talking about the majority of loans and lines of credit that business owners are looking for.
Your personal credit is part of the underwriting criteria (always, for bank lending solutions, and often, for non-bank solutions). Your personal credit is either an asset to your business or a liability. If it’s an asset, then preserve it and maintain it – and use it the proper way. If it’s a liability, then do something about it. Find a credit professional who can help you. Please don’t find another mortgage flunkie who now does “credit repair” in addition to three other jobs. Find a professional who can guide you and turn that liability into an asset.
These are some common mistakes we’ve seen small business owners make. We’re all going to make mistakes, but I hope some of my mistakes and some of what I’ve seen will help you make one less bad decision and one more good decision while you take a step in the right direction to start, build or grow your business.
5 Credit and Financing Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Small Business
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
5 Credit and Financing Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Small Business
Oct 29th
So before we dive in, what exactly do I mean by “hurt” your business? Well, these credit and lending mistakes could do any of the following (this is not a complete list, of course):
- Slow your growth
- Damage your brand
- Make the difference between a profit and a loss
- Cause your business to fail
At the very least you’ll slow your growth or limit yourself from being able to handle the curve balls that are part of business life cycles. It’s also important to state the obvious, which is that we’re only talking about debt capital solutions – borrowing money. We are not going to discuss equity financing mistakes made with VCs, angels, private equity firms and so on.
The credit and lending landscape has not only shrunk from the levels we were seeing in 2005 and 2006 but has also become less consistent and is constantly changing. That means you must be prepared for a variety of factors that can be frustrating, even if you’re working with an expert individual or company in the small business finance arena.
In fact, companies like Commercial Capital Training Group and Compound Profit are capitalizing on the huge need for trusted advisors with expertise in the small business credit and lending space by offering career and training opportunities to individuals looking for a new career opportunity as a small business loan broker. There is such a need that both of these companies are swamped with new trainees.
Bottom line: If you have a proper understanding of your borrowing options, that should create realistic expectations. And if you have those two key components, then you’re halfway there.
These are the five biggest mistakes we’ve seen since the onset of the credit crisis in 2008:
1. Using Personal Credit Cards for Your Business
According to the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, 82 percent of small business owners use credit cards as a “vital part” of their overall funding strategy. The problem is that most small business owners use their credit cards the wrong way. They either use personal credit cards or they use business credit cards that actually report to their personal credit report.
Capital One and Discover Card are two of the most popular business credit cards that report their activity to your personal credit report. As a result, they are really no different than using personal credit cards as a funding tool for your business. When you use personal cards instead of the right business credit card, you hurt your FICO scores, damage your credit file and miss out on the chance to separate your personal and business credit.
We have seen hundreds of small business owners in the last year who needed extra funding to grow their business and were unable to get it for one reason: because of the impact of using personal credit cards, or the wrong business credit cards, for business.
2. Using Borrowed Funds the Wrong Way
Once you’re approved and you get your funding, as soon as you high-five the nearest person, it’s time to make sure you use the money properly. It’s tough enough to get funding nowadays, so don’t go spending it without a plan. (We’re talking about “working capital” funding here. If you get real estate or equipment funding, that’s great, but there’s usually no discretionary funding left on the table for you to spend.)
We talk about Revenue Generating Activities (RGA). Make sure a good percentage of that loan or line of credit is used to generate additional revenue to grow your business. I like a combination of short-term efforts (a marketing or ad campaign or perhaps a series of trade shows to build exposure and develop key relationships), long-term efforts (building your brand, social media initiatives, building business credit, etc.) and perhaps some “my situation” needs.
An example of “my situation” needs would be to pay down personal credit cards (if you didn’t read this article in time) so you can increase your FICO scores and then obtain additional funding. Another example would be to give yourself a small salary for a few months while you transition into a more full-time role in the business or to pay yourself back from monies you already spent on the business.
3. Pledging Excessive Collateral With Your First Loan or Line of Credit
Small business lending is constantly changing, and small business owners often think the lender is crazy for saying no, for offering a higher-than-acceptable interest rate, or for failing to live up to their expectations for any other reason. Add all this up and you’ve got a perfect storm.
As difficult as it may be when you’re not working with an experienced small business lender or consultant, try not to give the lender collateral if you don’t need to. And certainly don’t let the lender take an excessive amount of collateral, or you’ll have trouble getting the next loan when that huge, game-changing contract comes your way that will grow your business exponentially.
4. Doing Your Own Research and Getting It Wrong
My guess is that if you were charged with a serious crime you probably would not decide to represent yourself or defend yourself in court. So if the credit and lending landscape is so challenging, difficult and ever-changing then why are you trying to figure it out on your own? We learned a dangerous lesson in the days of easy mortgage money, when websites where you can choose from a long list of lenders and offers became a popular way to find mortgage loans.
The principle behind these sites is that if you talk to enough mortgage companies, you can figure out what the best loan is for your situation. Never mind that you may have no idea about hidden fees, teaser rates and the “bait and switch” tactics used by lenders and brokers, and you’ve never had any training on credit, HUD-1′s, and how to read the 50-plus page mortgage closing package. Despite all that, you’re smart enough to make the right decisions–without professional help–about the largest debt you’ll ever create. I know you’re an exception to the rule but for most “other people” that’s problematic.
Most banks approve less than 10% of the loan applications they get from small business owners. Many of the 10% don’t get as much funding as they need or must give up a lot of precious collateral in order to get their funding. You do the math. Will you be one of the very few who gets everything they need from the bank without pledging an excessive amount of collateral? Do you know where to turn to get the best possible funding after the bank says no? Most small business owners need a good advisor. Even with assistance, getting financing is still a challenge, but at least you’ll be in good hands.
5. Not Treating Your Personal Credit as the Asset it Is (or Not Making it an Asset)
It’s real simple. You’re a small business owner so you’re going to sign on the dotted line when getting financing. Yes, to my friends who build business credit, I have Staples cards and gas cards, and a Dell line of credit that did not require a personal guarantee, but those are exceptions and have limitations. We’re talking about the majority of loans and lines of credit that business owners are looking for.
Your personal credit is part of the underwriting criteria (always, for bank lending solutions, and often, for non-bank solutions). Your personal credit is either an asset to your business or a liability. If it’s an asset, then preserve it and maintain it – and use it the proper way. If it’s a liability, then do something about it. Find a credit professional who can help you. Please don’t find another mortgage flunkie who now does “credit repair” in addition to three other jobs. Find a professional who can guide you and turn that liability into an asset.
These are some common mistakes we’ve seen small business owners make. We’re all going to make mistakes, but I hope some of my mistakes and some of what I’ve seen will help you make one less bad decision and one more good decision while you take a step in the right direction to start, build or grow your business.
5 Credit and Financing Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Small Business
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
10 Huge Branding Mistakes
Oct 15th
In today’s wacky world of advertising and rampant consumerism, a company must forever be changing in order to stay cutting edge. Attention spans grow shorter everyday, no thanks to the visual rape we are incessantly faced with; a constant barrage of billboards, taxi ads, commercials, YouTube commercials, popups on every website, and even plastered all over sporting events. Sometimes, in the race to stay ahead of the curve, companies hugely miscalculate what audiences want to see — and screw up big time. Here are 10 companies who made enormous branding mistakes.
Netflix/Qwikster
We all know and love Netflix. It seems like only yesterday when the company appeared from out of the abyss, simultaneously changing our lives with easy access to our favorite movies and digging the grave of such outmoded business models as “Blockbuster.” Later, when America had deemed even Natflix’s simple mail-order design to be too complicated, the company anticipated and satiated us with “Netflix Instant Play” allowing the world instantaneous access to the world of cinema at the click of a button.
It was hard to believe that they could make any mistakes over there… until we heard about Qwikster. The best ideas are simple ones — a principle that Netflix had exploited to great success in the past. Qwikster represented the ultimate in unnecessary and inconvenient change. The idea was as follows: split the company in two. One site, Netflix, would be an Instant Play computer movie watching services and Qwikster would handle the mail order DVDs and in the commotion of new logos and log-in pages up a few prices such as video game rentals.
The people were not hesitant to point out that this was an unwanted, unneeded and kind of unfair set of changes and Qwikster was born without a breath, consigned unto the history books alongside the cold, dead corpse of Blockbuster’s glory days.
Burger King King
We all know Burger King, and most Americans have likely indulged in their delicious fast food treats — that is, when there’s no McDonald’s in sight. It’s no small wonder that McDonald’s has been so successful when its spokesman is a rather creepy, white-faced clown.
Burger King gets no such slack for a creepy mascot. A number of years ago they introduced the Burger King King, a mute and giant-faced medieval King who scared most people right off their whoppers. It wasn’t until 2011 that BK execs saw a correlation between dropping sales and the King’s off-putting silence. Meanwhile, Ronald McDonald continues to smirk.
Calvin Klein
Sex sells. It’s the first thing you’ll learn in advertising school… but not the only thing. That’s what the execs at Calvin Klein failed to realize when they spent about 30 seconds translating this cheap marketing wisdom into one of the company’s most famously failed branding attempts.
In 2009 Calvin Klein released a number of video and print ads featuring a series of bizarre sexual images resembling the later hours at a High School party most of us were never quite cool enough to attend… you know the one, where sexy hairless denim lovers of all genders rub up on each other.
The ads were provocative, yes, but for the most part too alienating and uncomfortably arousing to get anyone thinking about their next denim purchase. They were quickly removed from the air.
Accenture
Oftentimes it’s a desperate exec’s attempt to be hip and cool that steers a company in the direction of branding disaster. Such desperation is never attractive or productive, and this reckless “hip” seeking when the company split from Arthur Andersen was clearly the motivating factor in turning a company called Andersen Consulting into one called Accenture.
Accenture means “Accent on the future,” but not really. The name itself conveys no readily accessible name. And while Andersen Consulting sounds like a company that owns a building filled with men and women who do things for people… Accenture conjures a more faceless set of images as well as other meaningless words like synergy and streamlining.
Considered to be one of the worst corporate rebrandings of all time, the Accenture name-change is estimated to have cost $100 MILLION dollars.
New Coke
Coca-Cola, in addition to being one of the most successful brands in the country, is a deeply engrained cultural emblem symbolic of American values: of our proud past and of our bright future.
In 1985, amidst much pomp and circumstance, the company released a new version of the classic soft drink. New Coke was supposed to be “smoother, rounder yet bolder” but Americans saw all of this as a great tampering rather than an improvement. Would you improve the American flag? Would you edit the Bible? No? Then why change Coca-Cola??
New Coke was failing to sell and consumers were selling black market cases of classic Coke for as much as $30 dollars as a case. It didn’t take long for Coca-Cola to realize it’s mistake and go back to doing what they did best… producing the same brown sugar sludge that had rotted our teeth for decades.
Lost in Translation
A number of major marketing blunders come from simple errors in translation. While it’s amazing to consider that ad campaigns, those silly little business ventures that cost millions and millions of dollars, could actually overlook something as central as, you know, the meaning of the words they print in their ads.
But it happens all the time. The Coors “Turn it loose” slogan translated into a Spanish idiom for diarrhea. Perdue Chicken’s slogan “It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken” was translated in Spanish to “It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate,” and Mexican consumers read the translated “Got Milk?” as “Are you lactating?”
Microsoft Blue Screen of Death
It should be some comfort for Bill Gates to know that Microsoft wasn’t simply buried by Apple’s innovation and superior brand appeal. That might make him feel weak and out of control. Microsoft was also buried by Microsoft. Not only did they lose their ability to make their product seem comparatively hip, hot and oh-so-indispensable, but they made a crucial error during an equally crucial marketing opportunity.
Most of us are familiar with Apple’s signature “Wheel of Death”, a spinning rainbow pie that signifies the end of a computer’s functionality. Our parents might recall a similar phenomenon called the Blue Screen of Death, a Microsoft based harbinger of frustration and doom. When the Blue Screen of Death appears, you’re done for.
At a pre-release screening of Windows 98 for an audience of press members, stunned onlookers chortled as the Blue Screen appeared and Microsoft employees blushed as their new program crashed before their eyes.
Yesterday and Today
This branding disaster might come as a comfort to some who are tired of hearing nothing but praise for the Beatles. I mean, come on, they weren’t Gods among men. Just musicians with nerdy haircuts and the ability to make mistakes.
One notable mistake was the cover of their 66 album “Yesterday and Today.” Known as the “Butcher Cover,” it featured photographs of the rock stars in blood smeared butcher coats surrounded by raw red meat and dismembered baby dolls.
When the public was inevitably both shocked and dismayed, Capitol Records attempted a recall, eventually shipping replacement covers to many of the 750,000 consumers who had purchased the album.
Said George Harrison of the incident: “I thought it was gross, and I also thought it was stupid. Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naive and dumb; and that was one of them.”
The Shack
Some things will never, ever be cool. And one of those things is Radio Shack. Don’t get me wrong. We all love Radio Shack, the strip mall fixture which has dutifully provided us with batteries and clock radios throughout our lives, but it’s never going to be a very glamorous shopping experience. There are too many men with cell phone holsters on their belts in those stores for one thing.
But everyone just wants to be popular and Radio Shack is no exception. Of late Radio Shack has begun rebranding itself as “The Shack.” Why? Well, no one really knows. Perhaps it does sound a little cooler, but it also sounds more like a smoothie stand than an electronics distributor and does a place that already suffers from a reputation of being cheaper and less reliable than stores like “Best Buy,” really want to conjure the image of a ramshackle hut in every single ad they put out?
McDonald’s
Double Cheeseburger? I’d Hit It.
So began a less than popular ad campaign released by McDonald’s in 2005. Don’t these people learn? “Ba-da-ba-ba-ba I’m lovin’ it” made McDonald’s food sound good. Before it completely erased the Justin Timberlake association with its own brand associations, that bit of jingle had us thinking that McDonald’s food was the kind of thing a hot male popstar’s heart would yearn for. After that we just knew that we wanted fries.
But what about “I’d Hit It” coupled with the smirking image of a 27 year old man with a ratty haircut? Does that make someone want fries? Who wouldn’t this dude hit it with?
The problem with this ad is that it’s just too real. Most of us don’t want to eat nasty, cheap, fatty McDonald’s food, but as we cruise down the highway late at night or walk home from the bars at 4 AM and pass those Golden Arches, we know that we would… and will… hit that.
But advertisements are about fantasy, so let’s stick with the idea that a Big Mac is something worth singing a love song to.
View full post on Business Pundit
Are You Guilty of Committing the Top Incorporation Mistakes?
Aug 26th
Now more than ever, forming a corporation or LLC can be a pretty quick and painless process. Yet while the process may be straightforward enough, small business owners can unknowingly make some common missteps that can have a significant impact on the business.
Are you guilty of any of these top incorporation mistakes?
1. Selecting the wrong business structure
Your business entity affects the amount of taxes you pay, the employee benefits you can offer, the amount of paperwork you deal with and more. In the U.S., the three most common business structures are the LLC (limited liability company), S corporation and C corporation. All three entities protect the personal assets of the owners from liability, yet differ when it comes to tax treatment, etc.
- The LLC is great for small businesses that want liability protection, but prefer minimal formality and paperwork.
- The S corporation is a pass-through entity for federal taxes (like the LLC) and is great for small businesses that can qualify.
- The C corporation files its own tax report and should be selected by those companies that plan to reinvest profits back into the company or seek funding from a venture capitalist.
What are some of the common mistakes made when it comes to business entity? For example:
- A public relations consultant creates a C corp for his business, then discovers what “double taxation: means when he files his business and personal tax forms. His CPA advises him to elect pass-through S corp treatment to avoid this the next year.
- Two friends form an S corporation for their new catering business. However, they’re stuck paying taxes in direct proportion to their ownership, even though they’ve actually arranged to allocate the profits 75/25 the first year since one was responsible for significantly more work. Instead of the S corp, they should have formed an LLC so they can have more flexibility when it comes to dividing the profits and their taxes.
2. Picking Delaware or Nevada for the state of incorporation if you have fewer than five shareholders
Many business owners think they should choose between Delaware or Nevada when incorporating or forming an LLC. And, yes, Delaware offers some of the most developed, flexible and pro-business statutes in the country. Nevada offers low filing fees, and has no state corporate income, franchise or personal income taxes. However, these two states aren’t necessarily the best choices for every business.
For the small business (defined here as one with fewer than five shareholders), it’s better to incorporate in the state where you have a physical presence. Otherwise, there can be too many hassles associated with operating out of state. These include difficulties opening a business bank account, having to appoint a registered agent, and fees for operating as a “foreign entity” in your own state.
3. Hiring an attorney to file and send in the incorporation forms
With legal document filing services, you don’t actually need to hire your own lawyer to form an LLC or corporation. In this case, the online service can help you represent yourself to create a business entity. The service can ensure that you have provided all the necessary paperwork right to your state’s specifications. However, a legal document filing service is not allowed to give you advice regarding your specific situation.
Therefore, if you have a particularly complex partnership or financial situation, you should seek the counsel of an attorney.
4. Not keeping your corporation or LLC in compliance
Keeping your LLC or corporation compliant is essential, and continues long after you filed your initial application. A plaintiff may try to show that you have not maintained your LLC or corporation to the letter of the law, and if that attempt is successful, your corporate shield will be pierced, putting your personal assets at risk. To keep your corporation or LLC in compliance, you need to:
- Keep your personal and business expenses separate (this is particularly important if you’ve formed a corporation)
- Send in your Annual Statement/Annual Report on time, as required by your state of incorporation
- File for foreign qualification if you’re operating in any state(s) other than your state of incorporation
- Send in your Articles of Amendment for any key changes to your business
- Don’t engage in any form of fraud.
5. Biggest mistake: Never incorporating at all
The top mistake a small business owner can make is never forming an LLC or corporation in the first place. This puts your key personal assets (savings, retirement fund, property, etc.) at risk.
By avoiding these five common missteps, you can better protect your assets, minimize your liability, lower your expenses and enjoy a legally structured business for years to come.
Are You Guilty of Committing the Top Incorporation Mistakes?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
5 Mistakes Businesses Make When Going Green
Aug 20th
We often talk about all the things businesses are doing right with environmental sustainability. And that’s how it should be: Being an environmentally conscious company is a positive thing and worthy of applause. But there’s also value in evaluating what’s not working so well – what can be done better.
In that spirit, here’s a list of five common mistakes that small businesses make when going green:
1. Not rolling out sustainability broadly enough. Sustainability can’t be a one-trick pony. Consumers are becoming leerier of companies branding themselves as “green” because they, say, installed energy-efficient light bulbs. They’re looking beneath the surface and seeking validation that companies they support are incorporating green practices across the board – from office energy use to water use to supply chain management. To avoid being accused of “greenwashing,” you need to show a commitment to lowering your carbon footprint as much as you can.
2. Trying to do everything at once. While it’s wise to think about sustainability broadly and how you can improve your overall footprint, don’t let it overwhelm you or you risk making some big, costly mistakes. Small steps, such as starting an office recycling program, are important and worthy of promoting to your customers. Being green isn’t something you can do overnight, so take your time to do the research and do it right. Your customers should understand that, too. Writing a sustainability plan can help you flesh out your goals and pursue them in an organized fashion.
3. Not effectively communicating how you’re going green with your customers. There’s a big opportunity to explain your sustainability progress to your customers. You can’t assume that just because you’re doing the right thing, your customers will find out about it. There’s a huge opportunity now to connect green initiatives to the consumer.
4. Leaving your customers out of the solution. There’s also a big opportunity to not just inform but also engage your customers in your green mission. Find out ways to let them chip in, whether it’s by donating to an environmental cause or explaining how they can be environmentally friendlier in their daily lives.
5. Overlooking no- and low-cost steps. Some companies automatically assume that sustainability is an expensive undertaking. And while it can require an investment, you should focus on the inexpensive measures before spending a lot of money. Sure, solar panels might cost $50,000, but have you fully addressed ways to reduce your energy usage? Do you have efficient lighting and have you enabled power management settings on your office equipment?
Have you made, or seen, any mistakes when businesses go green?
5 Mistakes Businesses Make When Going Green
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
4 Big Social Media Mistakes SMBs Make
Jul 28th
When a small business owner comes to me experiencing frustration with social media, I admit, I’m a little confused. Why? Because I can’t help but think that small business owners are the segment of the business population that is most suited for social media success. I mean, who knows how to talk to their audience better than a small business owner? Who understands customers’ needs better than a small business owner? Who lives and breathes the same everyday struggles? No one.
But then I realize that that’s not where small business owners find themselves in trouble. The trouble spots for SMBs are much different. Often they’re in the implementation of social media.
Below are four social media mistakes common to small business owners and how you can maneuver around them. Because once you do, you’ve got this social media thing down.
1. They don’t build a unified presence.
Social media doesn’t work when it exists as its own island or when it’s fragmented from everything else you’re doing. In order to truly benefit, your marketing campaigns should work together. For example, your website should support what you’re doing on Twitter, which should support what you’re doing on YouTube, which should support what you’re doing on your website. Creating a unified presence helps customers to trust your brand, to find the information they’re looking for, and to pick the form of engagement that makes most sense for them. If you’re using Twitter but not connecting it to anything else you’re doing, you may be causing your customers to question if that account really belongs to you or if they’re supposed to be engaging with you there. Customers want to get the same “feeling” from all your touch points. If your presence isn’t unified, you may be sending them mixed signals.
2. They’re not connecting with customers.
I don’t mean emotionally, I mean physically. One of the biggest mistake I see small business owners make with social media is that they log on to talk to people, to share what they’re doing, to gripe about something that ruined their day, but they’re not proactively connecting with potential customers. They’re not taking advantage of Twitter’s Advanced Search features that allow you to search by ZIP code, hashtag, sentiment or combination of keywords. They’re not getting more out of their Facebook status updates by targeting content to a particular area or interest group.
If you’re a pizzeria located in Columbus, Ohio, you should be using Twitter’s Advanced Search to find people in your area talking about how they want pizza for dinner. When you find them, invite them to come try your pizzeria instead of spending another boring night ordering in from one of the larger chains. There are ways to be a proactive business in social media. These are the opportunities SMBs should be seeking out.
3. They don’t use tools.
No. I am not suggesting that you automate your social media presence, but there are tools out there that you can use to make social media more manageable and to help it fit into your day.
For example, a tool like HootSuite can help you schedule tweets in advance so that you can share posts without being present. It will also allow you to manage multiple accounts (personal + professional) and sync your Twitter and Facebook updates so you can post at both locations with one button.
Creating Saved Searches on Twitter can help you find quick brand or keyword mentions that you should be watching and responding to so you don’t miss any important conversations. It can also help you find users in your area who tweet about topics you’re interested in.
Services like Tweepz or Twitter Grader are also good platforms for finding relevant users to follow and start conversations with.
Using these tools can help small business owners do more, faster, by putting them in touch with the users they want to connect with and helping them quickly find conversations to participate in.
4. They don’t empower employees.
I see a lot of small business owners experimenting with social media. However, I don’t see that many small business employees participating in social media. I’m not sure whether their bosses are discouraging it or whether they just don’t think to encourage it. However, as the owner of a business of any size, it’s up to you to empower your employees to use social media. Your customers want to hear from them. They want to hear their stories, learn their names, and get to know their voices. If this is done correctly, your employees can become great advocates for your company and help you build awareness and trust among a larger audience. But first you have to let them. That means teaching employees how to properly engage, giving them guidelines for that interaction, and then trusting them to represent your brand properly.
Those are four mistakes I see common to social media. What am I missing or where do you find yourself struggling?
4 Big Social Media Mistakes SMBs Make
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
50 Kit Home Owner Builder Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Apr 9th
Don’t let construction and design mistakes rob your kit home building project of time and money. 50 mistakes and tips. Bonus ebook: 80 Self Build Home Suppliers (Aus,Can,US,GB). 2nd Bonus ebook: Kit Home Groundwork: 5 crucial steps.
50 Kit Home Owner Builder Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Is Your Business Blog Making These 10 Deadly Mistakes?
Jan 13th
In my work helping small businesses improve their blogs, I can say I’ve found some common mistakes. These problems can kill your blog dead — drive visitors away and make them never come back.
Fix these problems, and your business blog will start to get noticed and bring you new clients.
Here are a dozen of the biggest business blogging flubs, and how to fix them:
1. Weak headlines. On the Internet, headlines are make-or-break. If your headline doesn’t entice me, I’m not clicking, I’m not reading, I’m not subscribing, I’m not returning to your blog, and I’m not becoming a customer. If you do nothing else to improve your business blog, learn what makes a compelling headline. Headlines that ask a question can be great. List-based posts often do well, too…like this one. It should have at least one key word in it that relates to the topic or theme of your blog.
To learn more about the psychology of what makes people click on headlines, read Psychotactics’ free report, Why Do Some Headlines Fail?
2. Weak opening paragraphs. Blogs are too short to take five paragraphs to get to your main point. Your first paragraph should include key words for good search engine optimization (SEO), and lay out immediately what you will cover in the post.
3. No social sharing. So many business blogs have no easy way for visitors to spread them around the Internet. At the very least, install a Tweetmeme button, or better yet a plug-in such as Sexy Bookmarks. The latter will give visitors the option to share on dozens of social sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. If you’re not familiar with any of these social sites, poll your staff and find someone who’s into social media. Then, put them to work on socializing your posts.
4. No photos. Yes, you have precious written messages you want to communicate to the prospective clients who visit your blog. And you’ll be amazed at how much more interested readers will be in those words if you include an image with each post. This one change will immediately make your blog look more professional. You can get great images that are free (in exchange for a credit link) at Flickr Creative Commons or stock.xchng.
5. Not scannable. Great blog posts have subheadings, or bolded lists like this one. Know that the majority of people don’t read online, they scan. If your post isn’t scannable with at least a few bold headings, they move on.
6. Too-long paragraphs and too-long sentences. People read things on the Internet in a different style than they do in print. They’re looking for a quick read for the most part. If your sentences run on for miles, that’s a big turnoff. The same for long, complicated sentences. Break up paragraphs — two sentences in a paragraph is great online — and break meandering sentences into two or three sentences.
7. Posts are too long. Posts of 1,000 words or more work on a few sites such as Copyblogger, but for the typical small-business blog, shorter posts are a better bet. If you have a lot to say, split your topic into multiple posts or create a blog series, which helps drive subscriber signups. Aim for 400-500 words.
8. Rambling posts. Once you’ve created a strong headline, you need to make your post stick strictly to that topic. Going off on a tangent only confuses readers. If you have a related topic you want to discuss, create a followup post. Make one, focused point, and you’re done.
9. Tone is too formal. I’ve seen business owners sign their posts with a letterhead block including their street address! A blog is not a letter you’re going to mail. Instead of a formal signature, enliven your byline or signature with a link to your site. Also, don’t use jargon that could alienate new readers or legalese. Write like you’re talking to a prospect in person.
10. Links are naked or dead. Newbie bloggers often throw links into posts raw, like this: http://www.mywebsite.com. That’s bad blogging form that tips readers off that you’re an amateur. Enliven words as links instead. Then, check the links to make sure they’re working. It’s a big turnoff to click a link on a blog only to find it goes nowhere.
Got any questions about using your blog to help your business find customers? Leave a comment below, and I’ll try my best to answer.
–Carol Tice’s blog, Make a Living Writing, was recently named one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers.
View full post on Entrepreneur.com – Daily Dose
10 Social Media Mistakes We Bet You’re Making
Sep 24th
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Social media might not come natural to everyone, but there are a few basics everyone should know. I think this does a great job of laying a foundation. |
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View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
