Getting good content is difficult enough. It often needs to come from a professional SEO writer, not just a professional writer, and that comes at a cost. However, what does a business do once the content’s there? It can’t promote itself, and this will take some Web savvy. Otherwise, it’s a complete waste of money and that’s something no business wants. Below are some tips.

5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Good Content

1. Use Analytics

Google Analytics is a free and very user-friendly tool that every business should be using. It can quickly tell site owners how many bouncebacks are happening, which pages are popular, which pages are sinking and in general how much traffic is coming to a site.

By using Google Analytics integration, owners can ensure that quality content is on all pages and take a closer look at the pages that are really excelling or not performing.

2. Keep it Updated

Even the best content can have a shelf life depending on the company and the content itself. While it’s crucial to invest in quality content at all times, don’t forget about updates and fresh content. This is especially critical for businesses that provide content on changing industries.

Stale content is useless even if it is good.

3. Promote, Promote, Promote

Nobody’s going to read great content if they don’t know about it. Promote new blogs or articles on every social media page, share it with bloggers, post videos on YouTube and generally get it out there.

Follow the rules for helping content go viral and make sure the writers are aware of this goal.

4. Use the Right Anchor Text

Anchor text is an important part of SEO. It’s the text that describes what a link is and can make someone click on an article–or not. Anchor text should never be duplicated and should incorporate SEO key phrases as well as marketing tactics.

Consider it the headline for the headline.

5. Turn It Into a White Paper or Best Of

Utilize the best content and get the most out of it. Best of lists, white papers or even mini-books that are sold on Amazon can all squeeze a little extra money out of existing high-quality content. For business owners looking to improve the bottom line, this is a must.

Make sure enough good content is available before starting this endeavor.

Great content is great, but it can’t succeed alone. Put in a little elbow grease to make the most of it.

Online Marketer Photo via Shutterstock

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A recent study shows how reliant small businesses have become on mobile technology. The 2013 AT&T Small Business Technology Poll says 85 percent of small businesses now use some kind of smartphone. And 80 percent of small firms founded less than two years ago use tablets, the survey also showed.

Customers are becoming more mobile too. The International Data Corporation, a global marketing intelligence firm, says the number of smartphones shipped now outpaces the number of “regular” cell phones worldwide. Tablets are on the increase with customers too.

Improve Your Business With Mobile Technology

Add Mobile Payment Options for Customer Convenience ~ USA Today

Uyen Nguyen owner of Lemongrass Truck, a growing food truck business, reckons her budding company would be nowhere at all without mobile technology. Her company uses tablets to take credit card payments at points of sales and uses social media to let mobile customers know where their truck will be located from day to day. Mobile technology makes sense to Nguyen because her whole business is mobile.

Arm Your Sales Team With Mobile Tools ~Tweak Your Biz

Zoe Maldonado, blogger at TechBreach, writes about the tools of the modern sales force. These include smartphones, PDAs, laptops and tablets. Smartphones and tablets provide mobile sales teams with constant communications and productivity tools including email, internet scheduling and calendars. Mobile business applications allow teams to do presentations, engage in social collaboration and even prepare invoices.

Use QR Codes to Engage Customers in the Mobile Space ~ Right Hand Planning

Online marketing and SEO consultant Peter Semple gives two case studies showing how small businesses can do this. In one instance, a savvy auto mechanic sent out a direct mail piece with a QR code allowing customers to download his mobile app. In another, a local promotional clothing company offers customers a protective sleeve for wireless credit cards. On the sleeve is printed a QR code to the company’s mobile store.

Add Cloud-Based Software-as-a-Service for Mobile ~ TechCrunch

Companies like T-Mobile have begun offering cloud-based services for mobile customers, including telephony features like voicemail, CallerID, conference bridges and more. Increasingly, these services will now be available for the small business market, too. This latest package is aimed at companies with 20 or fewer employees.

Increase Agility and Reduce Costs ~ Firmology

Boil it all down and the real benefit of mobile technology is agility and efficiency. Sam Frymer, founder of personal consulting firm the Awesomeness Institute, points to the time you save sharing information instantly via email, social media, or other electronic documents from no matter where you are. Add to this eliminating paper from your world completely and you can begin to see the increased efficiency and decreased costs.

Use Mobile Apps for Management Tasks ~ Digital Journal

A study by email marketing company Constant Contact finds small businesses are using mobile apps for a host of management activities. The study found small businesses most often used apps for activities like scheduling and time management, customer communications, GPS and mapping and accounting and invoicing.

Do Banking in the Mobile World ~ American Banking

There’s at least one other small business task you can complete using mobile apps, though it’s a task that didn’t show up on the list of popular activities in the Constant Contact study. Small businesses can use mobile apps to do their banking too. Check out the latest feature on Jot, a mobile app Chase provides its business customers.

Use Mobile Video Messaging Apps ~ OurHelix Blog

Mobile video apps aren’t limited to Vine, the 6-second looping video app Twitter acquired while still in development and launched a few months ago. There are also apps like Tout and Viddy. Amy Nedoss, strategic direction and business development leader for OurHelix, takes us through some of the basic differences between these apps and then gives us an overview of what businesses can do with each.

Create a Mobile Friendly Website ~ Entrepreneur

Your website should be easy for mobile users to view. One way to accomplish this is to simplify your web design so it is easier to view on a smaller screen like the one on a smartphone. Another is to create a special mobile version of your site designed specifically with mobile visitors in mind.

Look Into Responsive Design ~ Small Business Trends

When looking into creating a mobile friendly website, one term that keeps coming up is “responsive design.” Simply put, this means creating a website that is not designed for a specific format. Instead, this kind of website resizes itself based upon the screen of the device upon which it is being viewed. In practice, this may be the most versatile solution for the issue of making your site friendly to mobile users.

Have we missed something? Tell us how you’re using mobile technology to improve your business today.

The post 10 Ways to Improve Your Business with Mobile Technology appeared first on Small Business Trends.

And today with the growth of smartphones and tablets, more of us are networking socially and consuming content via mobile devices.  Using some of the following Pinterest apps will only make your experience that much more profitable, and they all work on the go with mobile devices.

12 Pinterest Apps for Mobile

If you want to post to Pinterest from your smartphone or tablet, you first need to download an app to your mobile device.

iPhone and iPad - The granddaddy Pinterest mobile app of them all is the Pinterest iPhone app.  There used to be a separate iPad app, but now it has been combined into a single iOS app that can also be used on the iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch.

Android – If you have a device on an Android platform, you will need to download an Android app in order for Pinterest to work.  Although you will not have the same functionality with the Pinterest Android app as you do with the iOS app, each allows  you to pin your pictures, which is the important part.

Pinterest Pin It Button makes pinning easier and greatly improves the functionality of iPhone and Android apps. Just go to the goodies page and drag it to your toolbar. (There are several apps for Pinterest all with this same or a similar name and different functionality, so follow the link to get this one.)

Just today Pinterest announced that it had made its Pin It button available in a number of website-specific mobile apps.    Those apps include:  Behance, Brit+Co, Etsy, Fotopedia, Jetsetter, Modcloth, Snapguide, TED, The North Face, and Zulily.  You have to have switched to the “new” Pinterest look with it’s larger pins, to be able to see these pins.

Windows phones – There’s no official Pinterest app for Windows phones, but one third-party Pinterest app, Scrapbook for Pinterest, is available. It seems to function well, but has the disadvantage of carrying ads or requiring subscription fees. However, if you have a Windows Phone, this may be the only way to be mobile with your Pinterest page currently.  Scrapbook works with Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.5.

PinHog for Pinterest lets you be mobile, but allows you to minimize extra data charges while you are browsing the Web for pins. Check it out in the Google Play store.  This unique Pinterest app allows you not only to browse while offline, but it also lets you schedule when you would like to pin items to your board.

PinReach is designed to let you know how well you are influencing others. It provides you with a “Klout” score to inform you about trends and let you know when your influence is waning, you know, before it is gone.

PinPuff lets you track trends and analyze how your Pinterest account is doing. PinPuff also calculates the monetary value of your Pins and what kind of traffic they are generating for you.

Snapito is for you if you prefer surfing the Web and taking screenshots for your Pinterest page. this app gives you a variety of easy ways to pin screenshots to your page, including a Pinterest Bookmarklet that lets you do this from your iPhone.

Wallo Pinterest allows you to use your mobile wallpaper to discover new images and travel destinations.  You can pin things from your Android Live wallpaper, on Android devices.

Reachli (formerly Pinerly) has a user-friendly dashboard interface. It keeps you updated on your pin schedule, helps you locate like-minded users, and unfollow groups.

Wisestamp, while not a Pinterest-specific app, lets you add a follow button for your Pinterest account to the bottom of your emails. It features your latest pins.

Pin4Ever lets you create a backup of your pins on your Android or any storage device by using the Pinterest backup app. They have a simple signup process shown in the screenshot above.

Finally, be sure to check out our Pinterest Start Guide for Small Businesses.  And if you already know how to use Pinterest, you might be interested in Pinterest analytics tools to tell how much traffic is going to your site.

The post 12+ Pinterest Apps and Tools for Pinning While Mobile appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a mega-millionaire with your next business idea? It’s a reality for 26-year-old David Karp. The founder of Tumblr, the popular social blogging platform, has become the latest tech tycoon almost overnight.

Today Yahoo officially announced plans to purchase the site Karp started at age 21 out of his mother’s Manhattan apartment. The Daily Mail has Karp’s story as a high school dropout who taught himself HTML. Karp then started his own computer consulting company before launching his incredibly popular platform.

Yahoo’s board of directors recently approved a $1.1 billion cash purchase price for Tumblr, according to a report from AllThingsD.com. In an official announcement, the companies said Tumblr would continue to operate as a separate business with CEO Karp at the helm.

Tumblr, a blogging platform that has following, sharing and other social features, gives Yahoo a stake in the social networking world, The New York Times observes. The platform also provides a source of user-generated content Yahoo management believes the company needs. How Yahoo would integrate Tumblr content into its current model remains to be seen.

Initially, the two companies will work to create advertising opportunities that are “seamless” and “enhance the user experience.” But a joint announcement was not specific about what kinds of advertising opportunities these might be.

Tumblr boasts 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, 900 posts per second and 24 billion minutes spent on site each month. The two companies state in their joint release that this makes Tumblr one of the fastest growing media networks in the world.

Even Small Business Trends has a Tumblr presence.

The announcement said the deal is subject to the customary conditions and will close in the second half of the year.

Photo Source: Davids Log

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Staying alive.

In a bit of novel research coming out of the United Kingdom, Professors Sascha Becker of the University of Warwick and Hans Hvide of the University of Aberdeen compared 341 private Norwegian companies where the majority owner passed away within the first ten years of company founding with similar companies started at the same time in which the owner remained alive. They found that the companies where the entrepreneur died performed worse in subsequent years.

The analysis showed that the companies whose founders passed away were 20 percent less likely than the others to be in operation two years later. Moreover, four years after the entrepreneur’s death, those companies whose founders had perished had only 40 percent of the sales of the businesses whose owner-operators were still kickin’.

The authors figured out that poor company performance didn’t kill the founders. (We await some other enterprising academics to explore that question!) The sales and employment of the companies whose founders passed on were just as good as the others before the entrepreneurs died. The death of the founder was the cause of the company’s problems, not the other way around.

The adverse effects of the founder’s demise weren’t the same for all businesses. The performance drops triggered by the founder’s passing were worst for the youngest companies and for the businesses where the deceased entrepreneur had a large ownership stake.

In short, the study shows clear evidence that entrepreneurs matter for the performance of their companies.

But how?

Unfortunately, this study doesn’t tell us about the impact of entrepreneur death. However, other studies suggest the myriad of ways that entrepreneurs matter. In some cases, company founders are very good leaders. Their passing is problematic because it puts someone less charismatic in charge of the company.

In other cases, the entrepreneur is a great sales person. Without him or her, the company just isn’t as good at generating revenue.

In still other businesses, the founder has better control over costs or operations and keeps the business humming along more efficiently than those who follow in the CEO slot.

The performance decline documented in this study, however, needn’t have occurred because the founder was more talented than the people who followed him or her. The founder’s death could simply have disrupted the business in ways that made it hard for the companies to recover. Competitors might have swooped in and taken away customers while the firms were transitioning to new CEOs. Or creditors or suppliers might have become jittery and imposed stricter terms on the companies, raising their costs and hurting their performance.

You know, Apple’s stock price has dropped a lot since Steve Jobs passed away. Maybe that’s just the typical performance effect these authors found, just with a lot more zeros tacked on.

The post Stay Alive. It’s Good for Business appeared first on Small Business Trends.

The Q5 device, aimed at markets like Latin America, the Middle East, parts of Europe and Asia, will be available in July. The company has announced no plans to introduce the device in the U.S. thus far.

The new BlackBerry Q5 smartphone is a spin on BlackBerry’s recent new releases, the Blackberry Q10 and Z10.

Confused Yet By All the Qs and Zs?

Let us sort it out for you:

• The Q5 is aimed at reaching younger audiences, and features fun colors like red. It has a full QWERTY physical keyboard. It uses the new BlackBerry 10 software.  It has a 3.1-inch touchscreen for those who prefer that method for communicating or navigating. The CrackBerry video below previews it.
• The Z10 is BlackBerry’s flagship touchscreen phone. It was launched in March and represents a departure from previous BlackBerry devices which mostly have featured a physical keyboard. The Z10 is also built on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. That system offers a number of new features, including the BlackBerry Flow which helps you save time by not having to  jump in and out of applications. It also features the BlackBerry Hub, which gives access to all your messages from various apps in one place. The Z10 is an attempt to catch up with smartphone competitors in a mobile industry BlackBerry helped create.
• The Q10, also using the BlackBerry 10 software, is a return to the company’s roots with a physical QWERTY keyboard. The physical keyboard is beloved by stalwart BlackBerry users. The Q10 is a more high-end product than the Q5.

No Mention Of a North America Release

BlackBerry made no mention of introducing the Q5 model into North America.  That has some BlackBerry fans disappointed. One fan said in a comment on BlackBerry’s official blog, “What about the USA or will we have to wait until next year? I think Blackberry is forcing many of us in the USA and myself to go to other manufacturer(s).”

Image: BlackBerry

The post New BlackBerry Q5 Device Makes Three So Far This Year By BlackBerry appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Have you updated your company’s Google+ page today? How about in the last week? Or month? … Year?

Maybe your company doesn’t even have a Google+ page yet, and if that’s the case or you’ve been abandoning that page in favor of other social media networks, you’re not alone. According to a Reuters report, Google+ continues to generate less interest from brands than other social networks including rival Facebook.

In an informal survey, Reuters found that of the 100 most valuable global brands in 2012, only 72 have a presence on Google+ compared to 87 on Facebook.

Of the brands that have established a presence on Google+, 40 percent have either never posted content on Google+ or do so infrequently, Reuters found.

For example, Nike and Pepsi hadn’t updated their Google+ pages in more than a week.

Some other companies, like McDonald’s, had never updated their page, even though it was created. Another example provided by Reuters, was a side-by-side comparison of a recent Cinco de Mayo promotion run by pizza company Domino’s. The promotion was loudly touted on Facebook, but the company’s Google+ page hadn’t been updated since 2012.

Reuters’ Alexei Oreskovic writes, “For Google+ to thrive, it is vital to draw in household names, not just to lay the groundwork for potential future business, but also because users of the site have come to expect being able to follow, comment on or even vent about their favorite brands.”

There are many reasons why Google+ has been slow to get more active users since its launch. Remember, there wasn’t an initial crush of users to Facebook, either, and the look and feel of the site certainly has changed dramatically, even in just the last few years.

Google+ vs Facebook

Facebook of all other social networks has more active users. More than a billion people worldwide use their Facebook account at least once a month, and the average user spends at least six hours on the site in a month. While there are more than a half-billion people with Google+ profiles, the average per-month user time is less than seven minutes, according to the Reuters research.

As we noted recently, our own research here at Small Business Trends shows small businesses are still flocking to Facebook.  There are now 16 million small business Facebook pages.  And 3 million of those were added in the just the first quarter of 2013.

Also hindering the use of Google+, especially for business owners, is the discomfort level with learning a new social media environment and how to make what this site offers over rivals Facebook and Twitter work for their companies. For some functions, like video conferencing or streaming live video, Google+ clearly has an advantage.

Untapped Potential in Google+

However, the way brands react today may not reflect the future potential of Google+  Reuters notes that some companies are beginning to realize that maintaining at a presence for their business or product on Google+ appears to help them in Google searches. “Many businesses do build outposts on Google+, eager to benefit from its integration with Google’s popular Internet search service,” the Reuters report concludes.

Here’s another reason to get more active on Google+:  Google is focusing more resources on Google+. Clearly Google sees Google+ as key to its future.  In fact, Google just rolled out some new features and a new look for Google+ this past week.

For small businesses, there are advantages to getting in early on a social network, learning the ropes and building your base, before the competition.  In the Google+ vs Facebook stakes, you may not want to wait.

The post Google+ Less Popular With Brands Than Facebook, Report Claims appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Keeping track of activity is a common challenge for small business owners. We wear many hats and are responsible for many things. One of the places where we fall down is with our sales process. I am a huge fan of systems because I believe systems keep us on track and focused.

Systems To Build Business

There are three areas where I see these systems having a lot of value. They are:

• Prospecting
• Selling
• Follow up

Prospecting Systems

Who and where?

The question here is, “Who is your target market?” You can have more than one. However, pick one at a time to work on. Ask yourself which industry or demographic makes the best client for you. Now, go find the prospects within that target. Once you have the list, determine how you are going to pursue them.

Having a specific, structured system for how you are going to connect with the prospects within a target market will help you schedule those steps and implement them.

Monitoring

How are you going to monitor your interactions with those prospects? Having a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system makes the most sense to me. There are a number of small business CRM programs out there. Explore a handful of them with an eye toward what information you want to be able to capture.

You should use a CRM system that integrates with your calendar so you can set reminders and tasks. A couple of systems to take a look at are: Salesforce, Insightly, and Base.

Selling System

I consider selling to be what you do when you are in front of a prospect. So, think sales appointment. The key to a successful sales appointment is gaining information – not giving it. This is your chance to learn as much as you can about the prospect. What is their issue, urgency, budget, decision making process, ability to pay, etc.?

Create a list of questions you can ask the prospect. As you listen to their answers and write them down, pay attention to how they are sharing. You want to do business with clients who value you, are forthcoming with information and openly discuss their situation. You have the chance to determine if they are a prospect you really want to do business with.

Having this list of questions, will help you gain all of the information you need to successfully quote. Which brings me to the next step of the selling system. Create a quote that speaks directly to what they’ve told you. You can even repeat what you heard them say. This is confirmation that you heard them and are responding to what they told you. This will diminish objections as well.

Follow up System

One of the most critical parts of sales success is the follow up. This is also one of the places that we fall down the most. We get busy and are prone to focus on the task at hand. However, follow up is a key ingredient in the health of a business. Using a CRM program to monitor when and how to contact your connections, prospects and clients can be invaluable.

Determine what information you need to keep track of when it comes to follow up. Then look at the tools you already have in your business; tools like an Outlook calendar. You can set reminders and alarms with Outlook that will remind you of when you need to make a call or send a letter.

Setting agreements with the other person is an interesting part of a follow up plan. This entails suggesting to the contact when you will call them or when you should meet again. When they agree, put it on your calendar. You can email them a confirmation as well.

When you keep these activities on your calendar and treat them as appointments, you are more likely to see them through. This will help you maintain your activity and progress.

You can see how setting up systems can help you maintain your forward progress and business growth. Don’t leave these important areas of your business to chance – the chance of having time and remembering to do them. Rather, create your systems and then implement them.

You’ll find your business growing steadily.

Building Business Photo via Shutterstock

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The video shows Psy singing and dancing in a unique “horse” style in a variety of settings. It’s fun, it’s upbeat, it’s even a bit campy.

The video (embedded below) was first released in July 2012 and soon went viral on YouTube. In December 2012, the Gangnam Style video became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views. Today, it is still the most viewed video in YouTube history.

What is Gangnam style in a business context?

The video’s success is an example of the power of social media in viral marketing. Psy was a relatively unknown musician (at least to many in the West) before Gangnam Style became a YouTube sensation.

Then, thanks to the powerful reach of YouTube, and the fact that the video was also shared on social channels like Twitter and Facebook, Psy and Gangnam Style became global sensations.

Because of the song’s catchy upbeat tune and massive popularity, some businesses, such as Intel, adopted the Gangnam Style dance or song to use with their own marketing campaigns.

Even now, in 2013, Gangnam style still has legs. Currently Psy is appearing on U.S. television in a Gangnam Style commercial for the pistachio industry. And President Obama referred to Gangnam style in the White House recently.

Why has Gangnam Style been so successful?

There are a few different factors that led to the viral success of Gangnam Style.

First, the video was meant to be fun and not take itself too seriously. It was a bit uninhibited and “over the top.”  

Second, the video gave viewers the opportunity to participate. Fans could try their hand at the Gangnam Style dance. Many even created their own YouTube parody videos.  MIT produced a version that featured professor and activist Noam Chomsky.

Online entrepreneur Adeyemi Adisa said: “Just as Gangnam Style music video is catchy and encourages viewers to participate or even do their own parody, businesses need to make their customers participants rather than just customers.”

Third, Psy’s video was different from other videos at the time. This helped to grab attention. It got people talking about and sharing the video with others.

What can my business learn from the success of Gangnam Style?

Gangnam Style demonstrates the power of interjecting personality into marketing. Psy created the video himself without a huge budget. And the video is memorable because it is a bit “over the top.”

Marketer Hamilton Wallace says that small businesses should not let lack of resources hold them back, but use authenticity to their advantage. The fact that Psy created the Gangnam Style video himself, had fun with it and “set it free” is what helped attract so many views.

So in your small business, try employing “Gangnam Style.” Enjoy what you do and let it show. Inject some personality into your marketing and your business. Do it with a style people remember — your own Gangnam style.

Image credit: remix from Psy video

The post What is Gangnam Style? And What Does it Mean for Business? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Among the most stellar coverage of small business finance resources is Spank the Bank: The Guide to Alternative Business Financing.  Karlene Sinclair-Robinson (@KarleneSinRob), founding member of finance consultation firm KsR Solution LLC, wrote the book to deter small business owners from pursuing poor business models that never get proper capital.

Her expertise in handling millions in non-traditional financing and research on the subject has crafted a sensational finance guide. I discovered the author through a Twitter chat and asked for a review copy.

A Signpost on the Many Highways of Finance

Spank The Bank covers the latest finance instruments such as peer-to-peer lending and crowdsourcing, as well as traditional financing services such as business credit lines, asset-backed loans and factoring.  What makes the book a unique guide is how it outlines these resources.   With each financing option, Sinclair-Robinson explains the pros and cons, along with what to do in your business prior to selecting a choice.

Using asides called Biztips, Sinclair-Robinson highlights the “so-what” of the information provided. For example, the first chapter details the business structures available, with a reminder as to what is at stake when selecting a structure:

“Many funding sources will not work unless you are formally registered your company. They prefer that you do not operate as a sole proprietor.”

One great aspect of the book is that each option is fit against the kind of businesses that would pursue an examined option. Cost is considered, as well as term definitions associated for each subject.   In fact, a terrific aspect is that the definitions are lengthy enough to appreciate what to expect with a choice.  Take the explanation about Purchase Order Financing (POF); there’s a context about the type of risk being considered with POF:

“When you consider Purchase Order Financing and Factoring, always keep in mind the ‘number line.’ You have a positive and negative side… Purchase Order Financing is on the negative side or high risk, for the main reason that the lender is providing funding for you prior to any work being done or any tangible product delivered.”

Sinclair-Robinson then follows up with key takeaway of what to expect with POF:

“The fee for using this financing service will be much higher than most but the key will be for you to price your product correctly, deliver it in a timely fashion and keep your customers happy. It’s important that we not just look at how much things cost but also at how they can help enhance what we are doing.”

Learn Finance Facts Instead of Myths

Sinclair-Robinson also dispels widely cited myths, such as free business grants or that the SBA issues business loans.  You’ll understand what resources matches to your business.

The chapters are brief, so you may weigh the information value against the nature of the topic. The chapter on venture capital is nowhere near as detailed as David Gladstone’s Venture Capital Investing, for example. But the information would give your business the right starting point for appreciating the difference of VC investment against another financing choice.  Plus, if you are using an accounting system, the topics in Spank The Bank will help you frame what accounting metrics and concepts need scrutiny and potential improvement.  You’ll get an idea of what to work in on. Cases, recommended reading and sample forms round out the guide.

Such comparisons are what Sinclair-Robinson intended.  She succeeds at every effort to make information accessible to all small business owners.  In reviewing each chapter, I felt that the explanations were as straight-forward for the electrician contractor as it would be for a professional looking for a few pointers.  Both business people would make confident decisions after reading this book.

I also liked how Sinclair-Robinson ties other business aspects into the financing decision.  My personal favorite is the reference to an online presence – bet you had not considered how much your website is a factor in finance. Read this 9th myth from the Business Financing Myths and Misconceptions chapter:

“The thought that you do not need a website in today’s technologically and internet savvy market must be reconsidered. If you have operated without one, you could lose potential business, credibility, and more….Bankers might not care too much one way or the other, but unfortunately it is a problem for alternative financing sources.”

We’ve seen a few good books on specific details, such as local investment options in Locavesting or wealth creation in Wealth Creation for Small Business Owners. Few books covers finance details with the scope Sinclair-Robinson has provided.

Spank The Bank is a winning addition to the business library. It will help many small business owners craft one of the most important, sought-after resources and deploy it effectively.

The post Read “Spank The Bank” to Choose the Right Financing for Your Business appeared first on Small Business Trends.