March 8th, 2010 | Business Strategy | no comments
The one question that we get all the time is, “How can I raise money to start my business?” We have posted before on the reality that more than 90% of all new businesses are self-funded without outside investment. We have also examined alternative methods of raising capital including crowd sourced funding, and other ways to raise money for your business.
In the same vain, famed business startup specialist Rhonda Abrams, in her USA Today Money section column for small business strategies, adds one more method of raising money to the list. While it may be obvious, its also very true that the best way to fund a startup is with sales.
Ms. Abrams acknowledges that some business will require upfront capital just to get the doors open, but suggests that there are always options,
… you can start small and less expensively, especially if you’re a novice entrepreneur. Instead of opening a restaurant, begin with small-scale catering or being a private chef. Instead of opening a dress shop, launch an eBay store or conduct in-home sales parties. Developing a new product? Build a few prototypes and start selling. I had a client, the founder of Mountain Board Sports, that hand-made a few prototypes, took them to a sporting goods trade show, got orders and launched the business.
We agree. Its never too early to start selling, but its a point often missed by many entrepreneurs. Moreover, there’s nothing that investors, bank loan officers and wealthy relatives like better than seeing a clear track record of sales success. Not only do sales inject cash into your business they also provide the basis for other capital to find its way in.
Ms. Abrams shares a wealth of knowledge in her weekly columns which we highly recommend.
March 1st, 2010 | Marketing | no comments
Does your website pass? Here are 5 basic rules for having and maintaining a good business website.
#1 Good Fresh Content
Original content is the key. Provide your opinion or take on the subject and where appropriate give credit to the originator of the idea. Original content not only makes it interesting for the readers but you may get a better ranking on search engines since you won’t be categorized as a duplicative site.
Keep your pages current. Make certain that the info you’re providing is not out of date, otherwise you won’t get repeat visits, plus the search engine robots will have something new to look for.
Make sure also the site is spell checked and proofread. Your site may instantly loose credibility if visitors find obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes.
#2 SEO optimized graphics
Do you have pictures on your site? You probably do. Make sure each picture has an alt description. The search engine robots can’t understand what a picture “shows” unless it has a written description. So having a description or key words associated with each picture will help your ranking as well as searchability.
Here is an example of what this might look like in your html code.
<img src=”../images/my-picture.jpg” width=”222″ height=”176″ alt=”some great key words or description goes here” />
#3 Your site stats
How do you know which of your pages are most popular? How many visitors do you get each day, each month, etc? Where are they coming from? Are you ads working?
The answer to all those questions lies with your website analytics. Most likely your website host provider gives you some stats about your website. Some are better than others it just depends on your provider. However the most popular website analytics out there is offered by none other than the internet giant Google.
Google Analytics is quite flexible, you can track your whole site or just parts of it and best of all it’s FREE! Depending on how big your site is (i.e. how many unique pages you have) the initial integration of Google Analytics can be a bit cumbersome but it’s worth the time.
If for some reason you don’t like Google Analytics here are some other alternatives:
Site Meter
Stat Counter
Crazy Egg (not free but they offer a really cool heat map of your site)
#4 site map
A site map as the term suggests, is a visual representation of the architectural structure of your site. It’s a tool you can use to help your visitors navigate through the site, but more importantly, it’s a way for search engines to gather information about your site. This in turn helps with your page ranking.
Search robots look for xml files in your root directory. Don’t have one yet? You can try to create your own or use free tools available online like this one from XML Sitemaps.
#5 site submitted to search engines
How do search engines know your website is out there? Well, you can wait until they find you OR tell them you’re there! Submitting your website to all major search engines is as important as remembering to unlock the doors to your store so the customers can walk in.
The process of submitting to the search indexes should be done manually. The auto-submission places are great but they don’t submit your site to the major search engines. To ensure proper submission it has to be done manually. An important field to think about during the submission will be the site description, so take the time to nail down what your site is about.
There are obviously many other aspects to building and running a great business website, but these in our opinion are the most fundamental.
Do you need help with optimizing your website? Contact us today for free consultation and your site review.
February 24th, 2010 | General | no comments
What do all businesses need? Its not tax incentives. Not more employees. Everyone needs more sales. This article in the Washington Post reporting on a NFIB survey drives the point home.
A survey to be released Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group, found that 51 percent of small-business owners reported a lack of sales as their greatest challenge. Only 8 percent cited a lack of loans.
The reason is simple. Any business that has more sales than they can handle will be able to easily secure a loan for expansion capital necessary to keep up with demonstrated market demand. However, going to a lender with hat in hand without a full sales pipeline is putting the cart before the horse.
So what can businesses do to increase sales? The Start Company is all about helping businesses get started, revamp and do things better. A few of the projects that we have worked on in this down economy that have been successes for our clients include (1) a total corporate rebranding with a fresh and updated look to stand out from competitors (2) designing and implementing a robust ecommerce website to drive internet sales and open a whole new sales channel (3) developing business models and presentations for our customers to bring to their investors, and many many more.
There is nothing that we like better than helping you get more sales.
February 15th, 2010 | Marketing | no comments
Google Ad words is an excellent tool for getting noticed on the internet but the problem for many small businesses an effective ad campaign can easily cost several thousands of dollars per month. For businesses in larger metropolitan areas, in order to have your Google ad noticed you have to compete with larger businesses who are targeting the same customers. It can get expensive quickly and the results are often underwhelming.
Fortunately, Google has a number of free and inexpensive tools that you can use to increase your visibility. For instance every small business should go to the Google Local Business Center to add your business profile to Google Maps. Its easy and its free and it takes no time at all.
Your business listing on Google Maps can be enhanced with not only your address and phone number but also your business website and other information including your hours of operation, coupons, photos and videos. It’s a simple way to stand out from the competition and it costs nothing.
Additionally Google is experimenting with a paid service to highlight business listings as a cost effective way to draw more attention to your business. The New York Times recently profiled a business in Huston that is getting good results with this new highlight feature for a flat fee of $25 per month. There are many ways to increase your exposure on the internet without going broke with pay for click ads that deliver questionable results.
Our marketing packages at The Start Company are designed to help you generate results without a huge advertising spend. Contact us for more details.
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