I have recently been doing a lot of writing for small business websites like Chron.com (Houston Chronicle) and . I’ve also written for Zacks.com, a personal finance website. I’ve had more than 30 articles published in the last 30-45 days. I thought I’d share some links with you since the topics and content may be of interest to you. I’ve provided a teaser and the link to 5 articles below.
You know how your personal bank account is protected if you lose your debit or credit card as long as you notify the bank within a specific period of time? Well, this same protection occurs if the bank’s accounts are hacked and your money is taken. The bank is responsible, not you. The bad news is, this protection only applies to personal bank accounts, not business/commercial bank accounts.
Caption: If you did not protect your business account from fraud and cyber attacks, this could be you.
Unfortunately, business owners, especially small business owners, usually assume that their business bank accounts are protected in the same way their personal accounts are. Not so. According to an article in the New York Times, “Provided banks can show adequate security procedures, they have no legal obligation to reimburse businesses for attacks, as federal regulations do not cover commercial accounts.”
What that means is you MUST search your bank’s fraud and IT security measures and see what level of protection they provide. You must take action to ensure the money in your account does not magically disappear one day. The good news is rarely does this type of breach occur. But rarely, is not never, so take precautions.
To read more on the subject, read the NYT article, A Win for Small Businesses in a Bank Fraud Case.”
Here’s a direct excerpt from an article I wrote:
“Many small and medium businesses in numerous industries encounter a lot of competition due to low barriers to entry. In industries where start-up costs are relatively low and few regulatory, relationship, or infrastucture hurdles exist, the competitive landscape can be fierce. Such industries are often fragmented and local. Consequently, possessing a clear strategy for how you will differentiate and run your business can mean the difference between success and failure.
Determine goals and objectives.
One of the primary purposes of a strategic plan is to identify your business’ goals. To do this you must ask some challenging questions. What are your core competencies? What makes you better than your competitors? What are your revenue or net income goals? What area of the market would you like to focus on?”
To read my blog artilce in its entirety, go to The Need for a Strategic Business Plan in Competitive Industries.
As you may or may not know, esteemed, crowd pleasing motivational Zig Ziglar died yesterday at the age of 86 of pneumonia. In his honor, I’d like to share a few great quotes from him over the next week or so. Today’s quote is “Yesterday ended last night. Today is a brand-new day. And it’s yours.”
I like this quote because it focuses on the present. Too many of us live in the past which can stop us from enjoying today. Others live too much in the future and also can’t enjoy today since they’re so focused on what will happen instead of what is happening.
Let’s take a hint from Zig Ziglar and start each day afresh and hopeful. Have a wonderful day!
I am at the annual Christmas / Holiday Parade in Raleigh, NC. If you have a retail business, especially food-related, along a parade route, a parade is a great opportunity to make additional money. Participating in the parade is a good way to promote and attract. Here is a photo of a high school band. I probably should have included a photo of an area business’ float! Oops!
I read a job search blog that provided some good tips. But I thought some of the tips were directy applicable to small businesses looking to build credibility in their industry or sector and attract customers. Here is the applicable quote from that blog, “Donate your time or your services to an event in return for personal promotion. Offer to become a guest contributor to blogs in your industry. If there’s an organization or committee of like-minded people in your area, join them.”
Becoming a spokesperson by doing the above will definitely help you promote your business. If your business is less local and more national, you could join national organizations or take advantage of small business forums through online entities such as Yahoo! and LinkedIn.
This was excerpted from the blog post, What Supermodels Can Teach You About Getting a Job by Cara Barone, the Social Media Marketing Manager at Kforce.
I don’t know that much about using Facebook to connect with your customers. Admittedly, I focus on businesses and not on consumers so I utilize those sites and other marketing and PR options that tend to reach business owners and management. However, I do try to stay abreast of available resources, even if I don’t use them. You never know when an opportunity may present itself. If you have no idea an option even exists, you can’t circle back and find out more about it when a potentially great fit arises. (Of course, you wouldn’t know it was a good fit if you hadn’t been exposed to it, would you?)
Before I get completely sidetracked, my point is that there are myriad ways to now leverage Facebook to connect with and engage with potential, prospective, and current customers. What are those ways? Well, check out the article, Facebook’s Post Targeting Feature a Boon for Small Business by Angela Stringfellow to find out.
A SEP is a Simplified Employee Pension plan.
According to an American Express Open article written by Mike Periu, a “SEP is setup by a business for the benefit of its employees.” The good thing about a SEP is that it can be used by a single member LLC or by any other business with only one person drawing employment income. Hence, SEPs are great for single-person consulting firms or other personal and professional service providers.
If your business has more than one employee, you can still use a SEP. A SEP, “is a tax-deferred individual retirement account.” So the business can contribute money on behalf of all of its employees. That’s also the primary limitation of the SEP. A SEP requires that all contributions be the same for all employees. In addition, neither you nor any employee can directly contribute; only the company can contribute. Therefore a SEP pension plan differs significantly from a 401(K) plan.
To read more on the subject, check out the article in its entirety, “Tailored Retirement for Small-Business Owners“.
I read an article on Inc. online earlier which quotes a serial entrepreneur as saying, “Selling your company doesn’t make you happy”. (The entrepreneur’s name is Ryan Carson and the article title was “Selling Your Company Won’t Make You Happy“.) The real question is: What does make you happy?
If you are an entrepreneur who thoroughly enjoys creating something from scratch and building it until it becomes a truly viable business, sustainable without you AND this process is what you enjoy most, then selling your business when it reaches this stage will make you happy. Then you can rechannel your efforts on finding some other problem to solve and another business to start from scratch. This kind of challenge and the need for this challenge is what often drives those who are classified as “serial entrepreneurs”, especially those who seem to sell out of their businesses every 5-7 years or so.
There are also entrepreneurs who take 10, 15, or 20 years or more to build a very large business who then sell for a variety of reasons. If you are truly bored with the business, you may be in need of a new challenge. Realize that if you started a business and grew it once, you can do it again. Or, if you bought a small business and grew it to a large business, you could do it again. So take the leap and sell.
However, if you have owned your business for a while, do not wish to retire, and are still enjoying your company, do not succomb to any pressure you may feel when you read about other entrepreneurs selling to private equity firms, competitors, larger companies, etc. Only you know what drives you and what drives you at any given point in time may differ than what drives others to sell. Sell or don’t sell. But let your needs and desires be the driver.
Small Business Finance Forum 