Small Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Every’

The daily workings of your business are vital to your growth and prosperity. And in these operations, communication is key above all else with you and your customers or clients. You must always be accessible to your clients, especially in these quickly changing times. If you are not, and a competitor is, the business is yours to lose. That’s why it is so vital for your business telephone systems to support you as you race to meet the needs of the outside world.

Here are four considerations you will want to keep in mind when choosing from the best business telephone systems providers on the market:

Check testimonials. If a company is trustworthy and can handle the needs of your business ? whether those needs are as simple as a few lines or as complex as requiring multiple miles of cabling ? make sure you sign only with business telephone systems, who can back up their claims with a documented work ethic from loyal and happy customers. And don’t just read what the other customers have to say. Check out their reputations as well. The need for business telephone systems automatically indicates the entity in question has a business with a reputation. Anyone can write a rousing testimonial, but those words mean a lot more from a reputable, and verifiable, source.

How is customer service? If the company you are considering has trouble returning your phone calls, then you may wish to go with someone else for the needs of your business telephone systems. A successful business will not leave you the potential customer out in the cold. If you have an issue, what will their response time be like? This is a vital consideration because communication is one of the most important elements for your business to have with your customers. If that is broken down, your business telephone systems provider is doing you very little good.

Examine their capabilities. What other services do they offer? Is there an answering service or business voicemail features? Call recording capabilities for the safety, contractual and quality assurance needs of your business? Is there any job too big or any service too advanced for them to offer? And if so, will it matter to the success of your communication needs?

Evaluate your own needs. Maybe you do not require the most complex business telephone systems for the day-to-day growth and development of your business. If you do not, then none of the extra bells and whistles will do you any good. However, if you run an office of 100 or more employees, the advancement in experience and capabilities is vital to your success. Regardless, your business telephone systems can be just as successful small as they can large. The key is in what you need from it. Then it becomes a question of whether your provider will live up to the challenge.

The world is a quickly changing pace, and it is entirely possible the business telephone systems you used five and ten years ago are not doing for you all they could be. Changing times require one to grow or die. Make sure you are prepared for the former, and in the business world, you can always avoid the latter.

A small business plan is very important to a growing business.  It helps you to focus your business.  A business plan also says to potential investors, “I’ve thought this through.”  You don’t have to wait until your business plan is completely perfect to go on and start your business.

Sometimes you really can’t even get your financial projections right until you have at least one year of operation.  A business plan can help you see where your slow months will be and help you prepare for your down periods. Here are some more reasons why you should write a plan for your small business.

When you write a small business plan you provide a daily blueprint for operation.  A business plan helps you budget your resources because you don’t have to guess how many staff people you need.  You won’t have to guess how much material you need to make your products.  
A small business plan will provide you with guidelines on how much to spend on advertising per day.  You will have a good road map for your business when you write a business plan.

Another reason that a small business plan is helpful is that it will provide some benchmarks for you and your staff.  You’ll be able to tell whether or not you are actually making a profit because your business plan will have milestones laid out for you.  You’ll know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it because it will be all spelled out in black and white.

A business plan is essential to the growth of a small business.  Writing a the plan requires you to do research on your niche market and your competitors.  Your plan will allow you to get funding for your business from potential investors later down the road.  A small business plan can help your company stay on track when you see shiny new opportunities that don’t meet your company’s original goals.

Who hasn’t let a typo slip by or misspelled the CEO’s name or printed the wrong phone number somewhere? Those marketing mistakes don’t warrant an article. In fact, just one word of how-to-fix-it advice is sufficient: proofread!

Here are a few more important marketing mistakes that just about every business manager out there makes, along with a recommended fix that will help you attract more business and get better results from your marketing, regardless of how big or small your marketing budget is.

Mistake #1: We think that marketing is something we “do.”

“We need to do some marketing.” It’s the first thing you think when you need to boost business. Problem is, when you think of marketing as something you “do,” you’re usually thinking about publicity, direct mail, flyers, email, ads and promotion. Marketing is much more than merely promotion, and it’s rarely a quick fix.

The real fix is to expand your definition of marketing. Instead of thinking of it as something you “do,” think of marketing as anything that helps or hinders the sale or use of your product or service. This includes: your location, the attitudes of the person who answers the phone, your name, pricing, policies, proposals, personality and more.

Before you write a promotional word, do a “help or hinder” once-over. Make a list of what’s helping you attract business and what’s getting in the way. Figure out what obstacles you can quickly fix or remove? What “helps” can you enhance or spotlight? Until the help-or-hinder homework is done, working on promotion is premature.

Mistake #2: We breathe too much of our own exhaust.

We are such big believers in our businesses that we can’t wait to show it off. We admire our attributes and inhale our excellence. Then we exhale it all into our marketing communications. The problem is, when you do that, your marketing is all about you. And people don’t care about you. They care about themselves.

If your marketing is going to get any response at all, the first thing it must do is connect to something prospects care about. Connect before you convince. Try this four-step exercise:

Describe your products and services. Get the exhaust fumes out.

Identify one or two attributes or “attraction factors”

What is the benefit, the need or the want, that is satisfied by those attributes?

Why is that benefit important, personally, to the target audience?

For example, Joy dishwashing liquid (descprition) has real lemon (attribute) that cuts grease and leaves dishes shinier (benefit). “What a nice reflection on you!” (Connects to what she cares about.) Connect to what people want. Not to what you do.

Mistake #3: We all look alike.

A bank is a bank is a bank. Realtors, lawyers and consultants are a dime a dozen. The list goes on. But here’s the good news: the more two businesses look alike, the more important each difference becomes, and the more impact even the tiniest difference will have on setting you apart. Why?

Consider identical twins. What’s the first thing you do when you meet a pair? You try to find a little something to tell them apart. The same is true for your business. Your prospects are looking for a point of difference—just about anything—they can use to set you apart from your competition.

To find your points of difference, start with your points of contact, or “touch points” in your company. Make a list. Business card, fax cover sheet, invoice, phone greeting, front door, home page, etc. Then look at what the competition does and ask yourself how you can do it differently. Just a little bit will make a big difference, because your prospects are looking for them.

For now, try the Help or Hinder, Connect Before You Convince and Find Your Points of Difference tools to make your marketing more meaningful and effective. Be wary, too, of unrealistic expectations, faulty research, deadly bullet points and lack of follow through– four other common marketing mistakes.

The one thing that nobody seems to have enough of these days is time. This is especially true when you are building a career. For aspiring musicians, singers and songwriters, learning how to establish, promote and sustain a career is a full time job in and of itself and would leave little time for working on music.  That’s why The Indie Bible is considered one of the most thorough and valuable resources for anyone in the music business but especially newcomers.

Written by David Wimple, The Indie Bible is currently in its 11th printing, which reflects the rapidly changing nature of the music business. What makes The Indie Bible so valuable is the depth of the research to give musicians and songwriters the most up-to-date information possible. It would literally take someone months of intensive research to gather all of the contacts and resources detailed in the book. Even music industry veterans have endorsed The Indie Bible as an invaluable tool.

The resources listed include 3600 radio station and radio show contacts; the names of 4200 publications and periodicals that review music; the names of 500 CD vendors and music promoters; 500 web site where you can post your music for downloading and promotion; 500 miscellaneous resources – all together more than 10,000 contacts are contained within The Indie Bible.

The Indie Bible is written to address a wide range of situations, from seeking representation to selling your son online, across all genres, from Hip Hoop to country. The book is organized into seven sections to make it as user-friendly as possible.

Sections one and two offer tips on how to get your CD reviewed in print publications.

Section three discusses who t contact about doing radio promotion. Radio stations are a particularly accessible area because they have a lot of air time to fill. It’s especially smart to approach home town radio stations; they are usually very open to promoting local talent.

Section four focuses on marketing oriented services.

Section five covers the growing importance of Internet based distribution and cuts through the clutter to list the top sites proven to be most valuable to performers.

Section six is a compilation of miscellaneous resources.

Section seven reprints over 50 articles on various aspects of the business to give a complete and informative overview of the business.

Being a music professional is an on-going learning experience. Aspiring musicians need to learn the basics on how the industry works, from how to find an agent and get a record deal to understanding how royalties are calculated and the best way to use the Internet and Social networking groups to promote music.

Once the record deal is secured and the CD recorded an entirely new learning curve is needed – how to promote your CD. Your Successful CD Release by Peter Spellman and Dave Cool is a detailed marketing guide written specifically for songwriters and singers. The guide is a blend of three other Spellman books – The Self-Promoting Musician, INDIE Power and INDIE Marketing Power – plus new material provided by co-author Cool. The book is an easy to read to-the-point guide that is a unique tool is perfect an important tool provides readers with the tools to start marketing a CD immediately.

Written conversationally, Spellman explains the strategies for marketing a CD in an easy to understand style with step by step instructions including how to get sponsored; avoiding marketing mistakes; staying within a budget; creating a marketing and promotional plan. Spellman also stresses the importance of having fun with your promotions because enthusiasm is contagious.

The guide details the ways in which singers and songwriters can generate income through licensing and other opportunities. Spellman includes sample templates to track the campaign’s progress such as a spreadsheet to plot out a marketing budget. Co-author Cool says he was inspired to participate in the book because when he started out he was not great with numbers and financial projections, and didn’t understand spreadsheets. He calls Your Successful CD Release a kind of spreadsheet for dummies because the templates are ready to use, They are also available online.

Your Successful CD Release is more than a how-to manual. It gives personal insight from four professional singer-songwriters who recount what their experiences have been and what it takes to be a full-time indie musician that successfully manages your career and life.

Being a professional means being informed. That is as true for musicians and singers as it is lawyers and doctors. Reading industry trade publications is one way to keep abreast of trends and news. But to study the music business in depth there is not better resource than books. In the first of a three part series, here are reviews of three books about the music business that are must-reads. Each author explores the music business from their unique perspectives, offering readers an honest view of the industry they strive to be part of.

Donald S Pressman’s All You Need to Know about the Music Business: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century is a detailed, frequently humorous look at the business of making music. Now in its eighth edition, the book is considered a bible for anyone wanting to know the ins and outs of the music business. Pressman is a Los Angeles-based music attorney with twenty-five years experience and his clients include everyone from record label executives, singers and songwriters to film companies and publishers. He is widely recognized as one of the most influential people in the entertainment industry.

His book offers many useful tips such as how to hire agents and managers, strategies for marketing one’s music and the steps needed to legally protect intellectual property. Pressman also guides readers through complex contractual issues such as recoupment, royalties, advances, and distribution deals. Being an attorney, Pressman stresses the need to protect oneself against copyright infringement, bad record deals, and unscrupulous business managers and agents.

The most recent edition has up to the minute information on how the Internet is impacting the music business and the performers’ bottom lines. The information is just as important for industry veterans as it is newcomers. Pressman explains how video streaming services work and how royalties are computed for digital distribution services. He also covers podcasting, music downloads, streaming and webcasting.

More than just nuts and bolts of how the business works, Pressman gives readers an insider’s guide that shows how to navigate potential pitfalls and how to establish successful relationship with other music industry professionals.