Good Plum

How to Find a Small Business-Friendly Bank

Erin McKellar — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:01:48 +0000

The bank you choose for your business is an important decision. The wrong decision can mean crazy fees, big hassles accessing your money, and frustration. The right decision can mean more money in your bank account and a seamless and positive experience.

Here’s how to find a small business-friendly bank.

Step #1 Identify your needs before you go bank hunting. Do you need a credit card or lending services from your small business bank? Do you need online banking? Do you need 24/7 account access. Do you need to be able to accept wire transfers or electronic banking? Not all banks have lending authority nor do they all provide online banking. If you’re going to be borrowing money or applying for an SBA loan, make sure your bank is comfortable working with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loan system.

Step #2 How much will you use your bank account? Some businesses only make a few deposits and withdrawals each month. Their bank account is primarily used to cash the occasional check. While other bank accounts are quite active. Determine how active your account will be and how much you’ll generally leave in the account. This will help you determine your potential banking fees and compare options.

Step #3 Make a list of the banks in your community. You can check them out online however it may be helpful to visit each bank, or to narrow your choice to two or three, and meet with a representative. They can answer the questions you may have. When comparing banks be sure to compare features, interest rates and fees.

Here’s a quick list of common small-business banking needs:
1. Checking account
2. Business savings account
3. Credit card
4. Online banking
5. Lines of credit
6. SBA loans
7. Wire transfers
8. Merchant services

Step #4 Before you sign on the dotted line make sure the bank meets your needs for the long term. Are their opportunities to grow? Will you be able to easily cancel your account if you need to?

Step #5 Get the paperwork together in advance. In order to open a business bank account you will need to register your business and get a tax id number. Some banks also require organization papers. Get these documents together before you visit the bank to open your account. It will make the process much easier.

Opening a bank account for your small business is an important decision. Take the time to research small business friendly banks in your area and compare them before you make a decision. Compare features, compare rates and fees and look for a long term relationship.

You Also Might Like

How to Attract Younger Customers

Elliott Kosmicki — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:58:20 +0000

It’s no secret that getting younger customers is critical. It’s important, because you could potentially have a client for life if you handle the relationship correctly.

So how do you attract them? Here are five tips to make it happen:

#1) Know where young consumers hang out

One of the obvious places they go to is social media sites. The biggest age group using the popular social networking sites is the eighteen to twenty-four bracket. YouTube, Twitter, and MySpace are all examples of social sites that offer a huge amount of profit opportunity.

#2) Know who your customer is

Trying to target all young people is not going to work because it’s not specific enough. You will want to narrow it down to a certain age and gender to be more effective. This will enable you to speak exactly to your customer, instead of trying to design some generic advertising that appeals to everyone.

#3) Get in a conversation

More and more, young people are doing business with companies they trust. Trust is one of the most important words today for business.

How do you build trust?

You have to show you care about their needs, and can help them. If you ram one advertising message after another down their throats, they will know you just want the money.

So you first have to identify their needs, and show that you have a solution for them. You want to engage your target market in a conversation and answer their questions.

This will establish you as an expert. So you first have to give them a lot of great free information. If your free information isn’t that good, they will assume that what you are selling isn’t that valuable either.

Ask them questions. This will show them you care about what they want. After you’ve done this, you can explain how your product would meet their needs.

#4) Use video

As mentioned above, video social networking sites are really taking off. Video is one of the best ways to engage your customer. This is because people can comment on them, much like a blog.

From the comments, you will be able to see the needs that your customers have. Then you can design you product to better meet those needs.

#5) Emphasize benefits

More than ever, young people don’t care about how long you’ve been in business. They are interested in what you can do for them. Your credentials aren’t as critical as the benefits you provide to them.

So don’t talk about yourself; talk about what you can do for your customer. It might be useful to mention you are an expert, but the main focus should be on the benefits.

Remember, you are in the business of helping people. That’s the only way to make money. So engaging your customers, finding out their needs, and meeting those needs is how to attract younger customers.

You Also Might Like

Get Your Business on Google Places

Scott Reynolds — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:50:27 +0000

Google says that one out of five searches on Google are related to location. For that reason they created Google Local which has since been transformed into Google Places.

If you’re familiar with Google’s Local Business Center, then you’re also familiar with Google Places. Google changed the name of their local business center to offer better services to businesses and their users.

Like its predecessor, Google Places is designed to help people find businesses and to help business owners reach out to their prospects. Like the old fashioned Yellow Pages, Google Places offers business information organized by category. If you sell dog treats in Austin, Texas all your prospect has to do is look for Dog Treats in Austin, Texas and they’ll find you.

However, unlike the old fashioned Yellow Pages, Google Places is available on any computer and mobile device. This is important because many people use their mobile device as a resource for finding stores, services and businesses.

What Does Google Places Offer?

Google places offers the same tools and features that Google Local Business Center offered and they’ve added several new features including:

* Service areas: Designed to help internet marketers make their address private and help brick and mortar establishments cater to people in a geographic region.
* $25 Enhanced listings and tags to help users search.
* Business photo shoots. Businesses can upload their own photos or request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business which can supplement existing photos.
* Customized QR codes which can be placed on smart phones and business cards and scanned to help people find your establishment
* Business owners can post real-time updates to their Place Page. This makes promoting special events, offering coupons or incentives easy.
* Google Places also offers a personalized dashboard for business owners so they can track the data including how many times prospects have found your business on Google, what keywords they used and where they came from.

Getting Started On Google Places

Getting Started on Google Places is easy. If you have an account simply log into your account and create a listing. You can add coupons, description, location and you can use the QR code to market your business.

If you don’t have a Google account, then it’s easy and free to get one. Visit Google Places and sign up. You can immediately begin creating your listing.

Why Use Google Places?

Google Places is good for business even if you do not have a brick and mortar establishment. Many people prefer to do business with local businesses and they conduct searches for these businesses online or on their mobile device. You can reach a whole new audience by listing your business with Google Places.

You Also Might Like

Choosing an Affiliate Product to Promote

Scott Reynolds — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:09:30 +0000

How do you determine the best affiliate product to promote? First you want to choose your niche, which will help you decide which products to promote.

Consider going with a topic that has a variety of affiliate products being offered. That way, if one of them doesn’t sell well, you can choose another one and try that.

Once you’ve found the right niche, you then need to determine which product you should promote. A great method for doing this would be to do a search in Google and seeing which products are being promoted via pay per click.

Look for the ones being sold by affiliates. This is very important. If it’s the product creator themselves that is promoting it, they might be making money on the back end and losing money on the front end. As an affiliate, most of the time you only get the front-end money, so the back end is meaningless.

However, if it’s the affiliate that’s promoting it, you know they are only making money on the front end. This means it must be very profitable if they are willing to pay money to advertise it.

Look for the products that come up again and again. For instance, if there is one program that is being promoted for all of the main keywords in your niche, this is a better option than something that’s there for only one.

How should you test it?

Once you’ve chosen three to five products based on the above method, you will need to see how well they convert. This will give you a good idea of their moneymaking potential.

One option is to throw up a quick pay-per-click campaign. Set a limited budget and test those three to five products on the same keywords, getting the same number of clicks to each. Then see which performs the best. This will be the one you promote.

The reality is that there’s only so much you can tell from reading the sales page. A certain product might appear to have the most convincing sales copy, but the only way you can know for sure is by testing it yourself.

Choose something you believe in.

This is obvious but worth mentioning anyway. Remember – you are probably going to be writing a review for this product and putting a lot of time into promoting it. Do you really want to put in a lot of effort selling a product you can’t get behind?

The bottom line is that testing is extremely important. This is because the best converting affiliate products are often ones you would have never guessed on your own.

Seeing what’s being promoted on pay per click is one of the top methods for getting an idea of what’s converting before actually trying it out yourself. This will help you avoid wasting a lot of time when looking for your next product to promote.

You Also Might Like

7 Tips to Avoid Distraction and Prevent Interruption

Erin McKellar — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:10:41 +0000

Oh how easy it is to be distracted when you’re working from home. True, you don’t have your coworkers talking about last night’s Dancing with the Stars or showing you photos of their children. However, you do have other distractions, like last night’s Dancing with the Stars and your very own children. How do you handle them and still manage to be productive? It isn’t easy.

Here are seven tips to avoid distraction and prevent interruption.

#1 Create “work time” and set limits. Get a do not disturb sign if you need to. Just make sure everyone knows you’re working and not to be disturbed. It’s helpful if you can create special times during the day that are devoted to work and special times that are devoted to family, chores and errands.

#2 Close any and all computer applications that aren’t directly related to what you’re doing. Yes, that means Facebook and Twitter too! And of course close your email unless you’re checking it.

#3 Speaking of email, stop checking it every five minutes! Check it three times a day, max. Check it once in the morning, once in the evening and once during lunch.

#4 Turn off your phone or set specific ring tones for important numbers and ignore all other calls. Google Voice is a great tool because you can have voice mail messages sent to you as text messages. That saves you time during your lunch break because you can check your voice mail and your email at the same time.

#5 Remove the television and the radio/stereo from your office if they’re distractions. Generally, television is a distraction for most people. However, some people find it easier to work to music. You decide. You know yourself better than anyone else. If music is a distraction, remove it from your work environment.

#6 Plan ahead. Take the dog outside before you settle down to work. Use the facilities and grab some food and something to drink so you don’t have to get up while you’re working.

#7 Set time aside for chores and errands. Laundry, dirty dishes and grocery shopping can wait, right? However, if you haven’t set aside time to get them done they’ll loom over you and distract you from getting your work completed. Schedule time for them and the stress is removed. You can focus on being productive.

Distractions are a part of working from home or anywhere else. As they arise, you’ll need to figure out the best way to manage them and prevent them. Enjoy the benefits of working from home for what they are and the amazing freedom you do have.

You Also Might Like

Developing Resilience in Your Business

Scott Reynolds — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:51:47 +0000

Why is resilience critical for business? It’s because every company, large or small, goes through struggles at times. It is so easy to get caught up in all the “instant success stories” about people who’ve made a million dollars overnight. When that doesn’t happen for you, it’s tempting to get frustrated and quit.

Here’s a secret: there’s no such thing as an overnight success. Everyone takes time to start making money, despite what you’ve heard. Sometimes “overnight success” really amounts to five years of hard work prior to that “overnight success.”

The real people who succeed in business and life are those who overcome adversity, not avoid it. However, this is much easier said than done. Here are four strategies to develop a resilient attitude:

#1) Know what you want

It’s not that some people are resilient and others aren’t – everyone is. It’s simply that most people don’t have a reason to persevere, since they don’t know exactly what they want out of life.

If you don’t know where you are going, how are you going to get there? Goal setting might be one of the most important strategies for getting through hard times. If you have no idea what you are working towards, you won’t be willing to push through during the hard times.

However, if there is a clear target you are going after, you are going to do anything to get there. So one of the main keys to being resilient is first knowing why you are working, and then staying focused on that.

#2) Tell others about your goals

How many times have you set goals and not achieved them? If you are like most people, probably a lot. However, what if you’ve told twenty other people that you are going to be earning x amount of dollars thirty days from now? You are a lot more likely to push through the hard times and achieve it.

This is simply because of the embarrassment factor if you don’t. You might even want to consider putting your goals on a highly trafficked forum or blog, or sending out an email to people you know.

#3) Take responsibility

If you are constantly blaming others for your lot in life, how likely are you going to be to have resilience? It’s only by accepting responsibility for your results that you are going to push through.

Many people blame parents, their boss, or their spouse for their circumstances. However, it’s not until you realize that your life is up to you that you can develop true resilience.

#4) Get healthy

There is a strong correlation between health and resilience. If you don’t eat healthy and exercise, you aren’t going to have a great mindset, because you are likely going to feel lousy. However, when you feel clear-headed and energized, you will have a lot more stamina to push through the lemons that life throws your way.

Hopefully this advice will help you develop resiliency in business and life.

You Also Might Like

How To Get Customers to Take Action

Elliott Kosmicki — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:57:31 +0000

There’s a general cycle to internet business, a series of phases. The first phase is generally to drive traffic, increase awareness and build your subscriber or opt-in list. The second phase is to motivate subscribers to become customers. This is generally accomplished by offering entry level products like low cost reports and ebooks. However, once you have customers, how do you continue to increase sales and motivate purchases? What’s the next step?

Motivating customers into action involves a few different strategies working cohesively together. The first is to continue to offer quality information. You want to continue to give them a reason to come back to your website. And you want them to think of you often, particularly when they have a need for your information, products or services. This is accomplished by continuing to reach them through your autoresponder, social networking, blog posts and other marketing strategies.

Continue building your community. The more people feel like they belong and they can relate to your brand and personality, the more they are likely to become repeat customers. And they’re more likely to recommend you to others. Social networking, blogging and social networking badges and buttons on your website are excellent ways to accomplish this.

Reward your customers for their loyalty. Loyalty programs help accomplish a few things. They make customers feel appreciated. They motivate purchases because loyalty programs and rewards often come with privileged promotions, special pricing and exclusive information – and they help build your community.

Build a marketing funnel. It makes sense to have a tiered level of products or services in your catalog. If your first entry point cost $5 you don’t want your next product to cost $500. There has to be a mid range too. And like wise, some people may be ready, after buying your first entry level product, to buy the whole cow as they say. So make sure you have larger priced items available too. Provide choices and a tiered level of products or services.

Tap into those all important buying triggers. Your customers will respond to:
- Emotion
- Scarcity
- Urgency
- Authority
- Credibility
- Liking

Embrace these buying triggers and use them in your communications and promotions.

Finally, make sure it’s easy to buy. Sometimes we don’t realize that there are artificial blocks to making a purchase. Maybe we ask for too much information during the checkout process, maybe the call to action isn’t clear. Eliminate any obstacles to making a purchase and make it extremely easy to buy from you.

Turning customers into repeat customers and motivating sales is an ongoing process. However, once you create good systems and procedures here, it can essentially be an automatic and repeatable process.

You Also Might Like

2 Tips for Motivating Yourself in Business

Scott Reynolds — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:28:24 +0000

When it comes to business, being motivated is key. Without it, your business will never become successful.

Lack of incentive is one of the biggest reasons that 95% of start-up businesses fail. If you are really willing to go after something, you will stop at nothing to get it. However, most people give up long before they reach their final goal.

So the obvious question is, how do you get motivated? It’s actually not hard. Here are two ways to do it:

#1) Set specific goals

Let’s face it, you really can’t be motivated if you have no direction. You have to have a strong “why” or else your business will probably never become profitable.

You’ve no doubt heard about goal setting before, and maybe you’ve even read books about it. However, until you sit down and write out your specific goals and set a deadline for them, you are going to have a hard time making money.

Plan out exactly what you want to achieve and when you want to do it. You might not want to set too many goals at once. Consider having just one or two main things to work towards.

You could try thinking about what your ideal lifestyle would be like, and then figure out how much money you need to get there. That will become your new goal.

#2) Self-talk

Everyone knows that positive self-talk is important. However, most people aren’t aware of how to do that. Once you know what you want, the self-talk part is easy: just stay focused on your goals.

Most people spend all their lives focusing on things they don’t want. You’ve probably heard of the Law of Attraction, which states that what you focus on the most is what you end up getting.

So instead of focusing on what you don’t want, get clear what you do want. Then focus on that constantly. It might help you to put pictures of things you want to achieve in areas where you view them often, to constantly remind you of your goals. This is what’s really going to give your business life.

Here is another tip: Instead of saying that your goal is to simply make a lot of money, how about changing it to say your goal is to live the life that a lot of money allows. Nobody just wants to make a six-figure income. They desire what that six-figure income can do for them, such as enabling them to help others, improve their own lifestyle, and so on. When you focus on the way you really want to live your life rather than an arbitrary monetary figure, you really zero in on what your needs and wants are.

This is why it is so important to get clear why you want the money before setting monetary goals. It will give you a definite target to shoot for, and will most likely solve any motivational problems you are experiencing.

You Also Might Like

Making Money Using Tutorials

Erin McKellar — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:05:34 +0000

Why are tutorials so important for making sales? Because most great marketers agree that educating your customer while also selling to them is very effective.

How do you educate them? By offering free “how to” advice related to the product you are selling. Even though you aren’t giving away your most valuable information, you are still providing good quality advice they can use.

When most marketers give away free information, they just throw together a bunch of useless bonuses to make their product appear more valuable than it really is.

This is not how to do it. Instead, you want to offer great value. This way, your customers will be thinking “if the free stuff is this good, I can’t imagine how great the product must be!”

What kind of tutorials are the most effective?

There’s really no right or wrong answer to that. The best marketers generally use a variety of outlets. For instance, write an informative blog posts along with your email course. Also submit articles to online directories. Post “how to” videos on YouTube. These are all great methods of getting good free information.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sell. At some point you obviously want to tie the free information into your product. Don’t stop educating, but now focus on why the product you are selling is the best option for them.

How do you focus on your product?

First attract people by giving them free information. Do not give them the entire solution to the problem, but more than enough to get them interested. You leave out a piece of the puzzle, which is the product you are selling. Then you explain why they need to invest in it to get the whole story.

For instance, if you have an information product on how to play better golf, you might have ten really great tips in your product. You wouldn’t give those in your free emails. Otherwise people will just ask for a refund when they find that the information they’ve bought is the same.

Instead you might have an e-course on the “top ten mistakes golfers make.” This at least helps them know important things they can avoid doing on the course, even if it doesn’t give them the whole solution.

The bottom line is that if you say nothing worthwhile in your sales letter or emails, people are going to think that what you are selling can’t be that great either. Your free information doesn’t have to give away any of your valuable secrets, but it should provide enough value to generate interest.

You Also Might Like

Chaos: Getting Productivity Back in Your Business

Elliott Kosmicki — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:42:11 +0000

A lot of businesses fail for the simple reason that they have no clear direction. If you go to work and don’t have a plan for what you want to achieve, chaos is inevitable. This is how you end up simply answering hundreds emails or phone calls during an eight hour day, and not getting anything important accomplished.

First you need to know where you are going. If you haven’t already done so, consider setting goals for the next three to six months for things you want to achieve with your business. This is the only way you are going to have a clear direction.

Once you know what you are working towards, now you can begin planning your day and your week. Break that three month goal down to a one month goal, and finally a weekly goal.

Consider writing out everything you have to do in the upcoming week prior before it starts. Then set two or three really important tasks for each day and attempt to get those done first.

Most people set an unachievable amount of stuff to get done. When that doesn’t get done, they just carry over the ten things they didn’t get done to the next day.

If you are honest with yourself, there probably should be no more than two or three really important tasks that have to be accomplished. If there are more, consider outsourcing the less crucial things.

Try not to do anything else until you’ve finished the two or three important things you’ve written down. That means no checking your email, handling phone calls, etc. Attempt to get your critical activities done before lunch if possible.

What if you work with employees? Then try getting to the office before anyone else so you can get things done before the distractions begin. The alternative to that is time blocking. This is where you set aside time where you don’t allow visitors into your office, and eliminate all other distractions. Consider taking the phone off the hook if you have to. Try not to leave until you get those crucial tasks done.

What are these “crucial tasks?” Any successful business owner will tell you that the most important thing you can focus on is the marketing. Other things can be outsourced, and probably should be if they are cutting into your marketing time. If you not adept at this skill, you will not get customers no matter how great your product might be.

Finally, get rid of clutter. If your desk is littered with papers from the past few years, this can wreak havoc on your mental state of mind. Consider throwing out anything and everything you haven’t used for the past three months.

You will probably be amazed at how much better you feel from doing this. Hopefully this advice will help you get a lot more done in a shorter period of time.