How to Handle 12 Big Issues for Small Businesses
By Diana Barnum
You have permission to publish this article electronically
or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are
included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated - send to: diana@ohiohelp.net
How to Handle 12 Big Issues for Small Businesses
Some day-to-day work issues can turn into big headaches for small
businesses. For example, not having enough help during a busy
season or new promotion can hurt production, sales and customer
relations in the fulfillment of orders and customer service.
A quick glance at the following stats reported by the US. Small
Business Administration, shows that small businesses are not
small potatoes in today’s economy. In fact, the number of small
businesses multiplied by the number of large problems equals the
need for a lot of solutions.
Small firms*:
·Total approximately 23 million in the United States, with
roughly 75 percent of the firms having no employees.
·Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
·Employ half of all private sector employees.
·Pay 44.3 percent of the total U.S. private payroll.
·Generate 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually.
·Create more than 50 percent of non-farm, private gross-domestic
product (GDP).
·Are employers of 39 percent of high tech workers (such as
scientists, engineers, and computer workers).
·Made up 97 percent of all identified exporters and produced 29
percent of the known export value in FY 2001.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
How can small business handle big issues? OhioHelp.net, an
Ohio-based company that helps businesses worldwide with their
marketing, public relations and freelance writing services,
shared 12 tips based on their own client projects.
1. Need help? Find some great subcontractors & cyber-helpers.
Post for help on your favorite forums and freelance biding sites
like Elance.
2. Need enhanced product / service lines? Offer larger pricing
packages or specials for larger businesses and clients who have
worked with you previously. And offer introductory pricing and
smaller packages to new clients and smaller businesses.
3. Have a guarantee? Forget worrying about “Guarantees” and offer
payment due AFTERWARDS with no-cost trials- -so clients can have
the product and make sure it meets their needs. (Only risk small
portions of the project at a time, though. But it works great for
everyone.)
4. Need more business? Keep marketing- offline, especially. Work
with associations in your industry.
5. Need help collecting? Keep ongoing collection efforts going
with a list and don’t be afraid to offer deals. Anyone can get
into a bind once in awhile. And helpful efforts are appreciated.
Offering multiple payment options help, too. Be able to accept
credit cards by fax or phone using a system like ProfitAuto
http://presssuccess.com/AutoPilot with pricing packages for all
levels of business.
6. Money flow problems? Pay helpers, media ad billings and
suppliers FIRST. Period. Also let clients know that you pay your
helpers promptly (like every Friday).
7. Are you keeping up with the competition? Keep educating
yourself and your helpers. For example,inexpensive company
subscriptions to an ebookwholesaler
http://presssuccess.com/wholesale
and the jvAlert Perpetual Learning Series
http://www.jvAlert.com/LearningSeries.aspx?id=1805 help to catch
up with the latest scoop about what works and what doesn’t work
from top-level marketers & industry leaders.
8. Do you have ongoing campaigns? Send a direct mail campaign one
month, then call them the next. Continue with a monthly or
bimonthly postcard newsletter with calls in between. Keep in
touch regularly.
9. Need to jumpstart new business, maybe B2B? Submit an executive
resume via ResumeRabbit and ResumeZapper, both listed here:
http://movingaheadcommunications.com/partners.html . In the
resume, include an active link to get the updated version 24/7.
More than a year later, local & non-local companies will still
seek you out with proposals.
10. Are you trying new product and service lines? Don’t be afraid
to test and try new things. Place small classified ads & really
listen to what the people want when they call in. Stay
competitive.
11. Are your goals too high? Don’t try jumping the gun on
increasing income too rapidly. If your income is very small to
start with, you may get away with doubling it from one month to
the next. But for higher figures, higher $$ can mean increased
expenses, work load, deadlines, workers coordinating,
communications, stress, technical issues, etc…Instead of a shaky
foundation, grow slow and learn to gradually handle more in a
professional, fun, growing environment. An average, solid growth
figure is much closer to 20% than it is 100%.
12. Are you keeping track? Keep progress logs similar to this
listing so that you have a history of issues you’re working on.
They say, “History repeats itself” so write out your positive
results.
* Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census; Advocacy-funded research by
Joel Popkin and Company (Research Summary #211); U.S. Department
of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey;
U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration.
***********************************************************
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
By Diana Barnum, president of
http://movingaheadcommunications.com and CEO of
http://ohiohelp.net . For more help with marketing, public
relations and writing, email diana@ohiohelp.net or call:
(614)529-9459.
|
What Everyone Should Know About How To Buy Wholesale
By: Melanie Burns
Finding a supplier for the product you want to sell, at a price that you can profit from, can be a big task. The best suppliers for your online sales or auctions do not advertise their services and often cannot be found online.
Those that you can find online tend to be middle-men. It is often difficult to get a good enough price to make any real profit online.
Let me tell you about my simple 2 step system to find an untapped source for wholesale suppliers. This is so simple that it's often overlooked as a source for product. This system involves thinking outside the box and not letting policy stop you. (continued below)
The First Step to find a supplier is to find someone that already sells or has access to what you want to sell. This could be a website, an eBay seller, a manufacturer, a wholesale outlet, or a regular store in your city. This is the easy step. You know what you are looking for and you can search on the internet, not for a wholesale source, but for anyone already selling what you want to sell.
Another valuable source for a local supplier is your local phone book. The yellow pages are the best way to find local sources. This should be the first place you look. Doing business locally with someone that you can meet face to face is a big plus for your business.
Another potential source for your product is to find a distributor who would be willing to private label a product for you. You could get a very high quality product for a much lower price than if it had the name brand label.
The Second and Key Step is to convince the source you found to become your supplier.
Manufacturers and wholesale sources often have minimum orders that might be beyond your reach if you are just starting out. Online retailers, eBay merchants, and retail stores may be your best bet. Try to find a small store who is looking to expand.
But remember, you are dealing with a human being and they can be convinced to do business with you. Just be sure to sweeten the deal for them. One way is to offer the person you are dealing with at your new found source, a percentage of your profits from the products he supplies you.
Be sure to project it out for him. If he can see the benefit of working with you even though it causes extra work for him, you can be successful in making a deal.
You could offer him 20% of the profit from sales of his products. For example you could show him that you project to make at least $100 profit from each product, and you expect to sell 40 of them per month. The $4000 a month means an extra $800 per month in his pocket. You still make a nice $3200 profit for the month in this example.
On top of that, he will be ordering more products from his supplier and may be eligible for a higher price break from them. This way, his reward for the effort to work with you, is making money on both sides.
There are many benefits you can offer your potential supplier, but no matter how you look at it, the main thing it comes down to is MONEY. What's in it for your potential supplier to do business with you? If can you show him that, you have a better chance of making a deal with him and starting your online sales.
NOTE: When looking for suppliers around your city, don't go trying to impress the big stores with your $800 or even $3,000 extra income per month proposal. Try going to the little stores that are looking to expand their business, they are the ones that are usually more open to new opportunities.
The big stores are making hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in profits, so an extra couple of thousand would probably not impress them the least bit.
So now you see that by thinking outside the box, you open the door to many possibilities and increase your ability to make money online with your products.
About the Author:
Copyright © Melanie Burns
This article is free for reproduction but must be reproducted in its entirety including live links and this copyright statement. Subscribe to the iBusiness How2 Newsletter to receive hot tips, how to's, internet business tools, and relevant product reviews by sending an email to: newsletter@internet-business-how-to.com
|
|