Branding Your BusinessThe Right Way

September 14, 2016 by

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As a small business owner, the branding of your business may not seem important enough for you to worry about it just yet.  Getting the business off  the ground seems to take all the time you have to worry about branding your business, or the social media aspect of it.  But, remember that having a brand that customers identify quickly, can be a great boost to your business.  Having your business logo, colors and fonts form a cohesive image that translates to social media can help customers identify your business online, and perhaps begin a relationship that can last for many years.

For more about branding, follow the links below.

Despite being a branding company, how we failed and sailed with our internal branding

We all know that a brand is an intangible asset. It’s a heavy word though. Branding is what makes or breaks a brand, isn’t it? Well, it’s certainly an exercise that can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. For instance, with consistent advertising, and a decent product, you can create a brand image that is way above your competitors. It can help you make your brand aspirational. What’s more? It can influence people to associate with your brand. Even if that means they have to pay a premium to associate with your brand. So, the power of branding cannot be ignored.

Unfortunately, more often than not, we think that branding is all about external communication only. But to cut a good picture externally, companies tend to forget that branding is a lot about what’s done internally too. It’s only after burning our hands that we tend to really understand the power of internal branding.

Branding feelings: Why marketing leaders do it

A name. So you think that a brand is about remembering a name. A company, product, or service. True, but there is more. When you hear a name, how do you feel? Strong brands evoke strong feelings. Including the “I gotta have it” urge that propels buyers to the checkout counter. What about other feelings?

Trust. Trust is the foundation feeling. We bond with businesses, products, people, and places we trust.

“Great companies that build an enduring brand have an emotional relationship with customers that has no barrier. And that emotional relationship is the most important characteristic, which is trust.” – Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO

Feeling dominoes

One good feeling leads to another. When we trust a brand, other feelings are added. Positive feelings about quality, special features, usability, service, and overall value.

Loyalty. That is the sticky feeling that keeps us coming back for more. The stronger our composite feelings about a brand, the more we are inclined to continue buying from that company and their products. Even when a competitor has strong offerings.

6 Ways Personal Branding Is Your SEO Secret Weapon

Search engine optimization (SEO) has a lot of potential angles and strategies associated with it. Though there are some universal best practices you’ll need if you want to rank higher (such as cleaning up your technical on-site SEO and building natural inbound links), there are variable approaches you can take to find success in your own niche.

For example, you may adopt a local SEO strategy to gain more traction against your larger competitors, or you could opt for niche, long-tail keyword targeting to get a faster rise for lower-volume queries.

But there’s one angle—my personal favorite—that can propel almost any SEO strategy forward, and I don’t see nearly enough companies and organizations using it to fuel their ongoing efforts. Personal branding is your secret weapon, and it’s time you integrated it into your campaign.

 

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Small Business Challenges Facing the Small Business Owner

September 7, 2016 by

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Data security for the small business owner that deals with merchant accounts or other type of high sensitive information, is a very serious business.  Keeping the information secure is for many small and big businesses nothing short of miraculous.  Target, a big retail store had a security breach not long ago, and following that, had to settle a law suit because  of it.  For many small business owners, the idea of being in charge of their own data security is daunting.  The need to have a data security expert in your payroll may not be possible, but the need is real and many small business owners need to address the issue right away.

For more news about this, follow the links below.

5 Data Management Challenges Facing Small Business Owners

Small business owners must now where an additional hat – the data scientist hat.

As small business owners, we generally wear all the hats. And if we’ve grown to where we aren’t wearing all the hats at the same time, we at least rotate through them a few times a month.

One hat that is becoming increasingly important – and scary — to wear is the data scientist hat.

Although data scientists come in many forms, with varied skills, a small business data scientist is mostly responsible for parsing through and analyzing data to present key findings about a business. The goal is to use data and the findings to address challenges, find opportunities, and ultimately, help a business save time and money.

While most of us don’t have the luxury of hiring a bona fide data scientist to handle these figures, there are a few things you should know and consider as you run your business and aim to become as efficient as possible in your business functions.

7 ways to make your small business attractive to venture capital funding

In 2015, venture capitalists invested over $58.8 billion in businesses, yet African-Americans only received one percent of venture capital funding. While opportunities to grow small businesses have been scarce in the past, large investors are beginning to dedicate more attention and inclusion to minority commerce that fosters growth and success. This leaves new opportunities for African-Americans to obtain the money they need to reach more customers.

Before jumping into the big leagues of expanding your business and making a global impact, here are seven ways to attract the right venture capital players and stand out from the competition.

  1. Know Your Business

Investors are looking for companies who have studied their market, discovered loopholes and are creating a valuable solution to a problem. When presenting your plans,you must be very knowledgeable of your project and of the venture capitalist industry. Useful websites like A VCand Both Sides of the Table offer practical advice through the lense of very successful startup founders and investors. From the materials used to where investors distribute their money, build your confidence so that no investor will doubt the future of your company.

The SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard®: Most Still Struggle to Offer, See Value in 401(k)s

Less than a third of small business owners offer the retirement saving vehicle.

GLENVIEW, Ill., Sept. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — The majority of small business owners (66%) do not offer a 401(k) plan and 42% of those not offering it don’t see the value in it, according to the August 2016 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard®.

Thirty-five percent of those not offering a plan said the fees are too expensive, and 23% said they don’t know how to manage a 401(k).

The small business owners that do offer a 401(k) said they do so to build retirement savings for themselves and their employees, with just 5% saying they offer it to attract new employees and 6% saying they offer it for tax breaks.

In total, 28% are offering a plan and another 6% plan to add one soon, the Scorecard survey found.

 

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Small Business Hiring And News

September 1, 2016 by

64002400Small business owners across the United States are being careful after the dismal reports of hiring across the country.  They are holding off any hiring they may do, and are still reticent to make any moves that will put their financials in jeopardy.  Economic growth seems to be inching forward a bit slowly, and some small business owners are still holding off till elections are over.

To read more about this and other stories follow the links below.

Dear Donald Trump: I’m a Small Business Owner, and I Want More Regulation

We love the election-year attention but the presidential candidates are focusing on the wrong things

In election years, I love calling myself a “small business owner.” It’s the one time when the act of selling falafel, building a website or otherwise trying to make a buck comes off as heroic. We’re the “backbone” of the economy, you know, and the “heart and soul of equal opportunity,” as Fran Tarkenton told the Republican convention.

It’s the season when politicians shower us with love and policy papers. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have put forward proposals to make our businesses great again, together. I prefer Clinton’s, but mostly I think the election-year pandering to small businesses misses what really matters.

 Trump, like most Republicans, focuses on tax relief. He proposes lowering the top rate for pass-through business income to 15%. This doesn’t move me. Why? My company doesn’t earn enough for the proposal to make much of a difference, as is true for most small business owners. The lion’s share of pass-through income is earned by a small percentage of businesses, which means wealthy individuals would catch a giant tax break while the majority of small business owners are unaffected.

Columbus, Ohio: A growing mecca for small business

In a prior life, Joe DeLoss worked as a banking analyst, but today, his day job couldn’t be more different. DeLoss owns the wildly popular Hot Chicken Takeover in Columbus, Ohio, serving up Nashville Hot Chicken, a spicy style of fried chicken.

 But it’s not the leap from banking to fast food that makes his story so interesting. It’s the fact that his two-year-old restaurant is staffed by a nearly 50-person workforce that has largely experienced incarceration. Some employees have criminal arrest records, while others have served time for everything from misdemeanors to felonies. DeLoss admits they might be overlooked by other employers, but he’s a firm believer in second chances. Make no mistake, though; it’s no charity.

“We created Hot Chicken Takeover to be a fair chance employer. A large part of our workforce has been affected by incarceration in the past, but it’s not what defines our future. We have a team that works harder, is more productive and more motivated than most people in our industry,” DeLoss said.

 State lawmakers OK parental leave for small-business workers

SACRAMENTO — California parents who work for small businesses would be eligible for six weeks of job-protected leave under a bill heading to Gov.Jerry Brown.

The bill was among the myriad of proposed laws sent Wednesday to Brown on the final day of the two-year legislative session. Brown has until Sept. 30 to act on the hundreds of bills on his desk.

With Wednesday’s adjournment, lawmakers concluded a year in which they raised the minimum wage, extended greenhouse gas reduction targets to 2030, added gun control measures and approved $2 billion in bond money for housing and treating mentally ill Californians who are homeless.

On a lighter note, lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday declaring denim as the state’s official fabric under AB501 by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael.

 

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Small Business Health Coverage And Retirement Plans

August 23, 2016 by

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Saving for retirement as a small business owner is hard.  The extra cash is immediately invested in the business, and retirement plans are always for tomorrow.  According to  the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), many Americans are falling short when it comes to retirement. In 2015, 28% of Americans had less than $1,000 dollars saved, and a whooping 64% had less than $50,000.  While retirement plans are not always available through their employers, many workers should be happy to know that the ease to open a retirement account through other mediums is fairly easy and pain free.

To read more about this topic, follow the links below.

Some Small Businesses Restore Group Health Coverage

Backtracking reflects tighter labor market and pricier individual plans.

Some small companies that dropped group health insurance for their employees are reversing course, driven by a tightening labor market and rising costs and fewer choices for individual coverage.

Laura Cottrell, owner of a seven-person home-furnishings and home-improvement products business in St. Louis, dropped group coverage in 2014, not only because of the cost but also the complexities of picking the right plan within a short deadline. Instead, she gave her employees a raise that they could use to buy their own health plans, sparing her from choosing for them.

Now Ms. Cottrell is looking at adding health benefits to make a cabinetry business she launched this year more attractive to potential employees. If she makes the change, she says she would offer coverage to employees of both of her businesses.

“People are looking for health care,” said Ms. Cottrell, who said she was recently turned down by one job candidate because she doesn’t offer health benefits. Adding to her pain: UnitedHealth Group Inc., her personal carrier, won’t offer individual coverage in Missouri next year.

When can you quit your day job when starting a small business?

Q: When you’re starting a small business, when is the right time to quit your day job — financially speaking? If you’re starting your own business and you plan to take out a loan, should you factor in your own living expenses?

Anonymous business owner.

A: When you are starting a business, your personal finances are inseparable from the business. So you need to factor your living expenses into all your financial calculations.

An exercise I use with my students is to have them calculate their “runway.” It is a simple calculation to determine how long they have before they and the business run out of money. How long before the business has to take off. How do you calculate your runway?

 You begin by estimating the cash needs of the business. This includes investments in property, plant and equipment, lease improvements, inventory and all the other outflows of cash required to get a business off the ground. Don’t underestimate your monthly outflows.

California set to join states offering retirement plans

Workers without a workplace option can now open accounts.

More than half of American workers — roughly 55 million — don’t have access to a retirement savings plan on the job.

While those people can open an individual retirement account with an investment company, less than 1 in 3 American households has an IRAand even then most of those people have access to an employer-sponsored plan such as a 401(k).

This week California lawmakers are expected to vote on a bill that would enroll employees who are not covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan at work into a state-run one.

Lawmakers in California, the nation’s most populous state, are not alone. Since 2012, more than half of state legislatures have considered bills that would create government-run retirement plans for private-sector workers. (See map below.)

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Don’t Let Passive-Aggressive Employees Harm Your Business

August 8, 2016 by

64735957Passive-aggressive is a word you hear people use a lot.  But, many of them use it to describe someone’s actions when it doesn’t actually apply.  They don’t seem to understand what it really means; it’s just a buzz word.

Small business owners are some of the people who don’t understand it.  Overall, they rarely recognize the behavior and don’t see how it’s negatively affecting their company.  That’s a problem, because odds are they’ve had in the past, currently have or will in the future have passive-aggressive employees.

The smart owner will learn what passive-aggressive behavior is, be able to recognize it and know how to manage it.  If it’s not managed it can and will: undermine authority, damage morale, lower productivity and quality, harm customer/vendor relationships, create a hostile work environment and increase staff turnover. 

It has turned functional operations into nonfunctional ones, without the owner knowing how it happened.  The behavior is hard to identify if you don’t know what you’re looking for.  It’s a sneaky, deliberate, sabotaging, underground way for an employee to express anger at his boss, managers, co-workers and the company, without getting caught doing it.

He wants to avoid direct, face-to face communication (passive), while still being able to act on his anger (aggressive).  He thinks his anger is justified, but won’t state his concerns or dissatisfaction directly.  Passive-aggressive people believe others “must pay” for their unhappiness, and they “get back” at them in indirect ways. 

Some of these ways include:

  • Always having excuses (“good reasons”) for not doing tasks they’ve agreed to do, have been assigned to do or are their regular job duties.
  • Regularly missing clear deadlines, with excuses for why they couldn’t meet them.
  • Withholding information, sometimes critical, from others while feigning ignorance — “All they needed to do was ask me for it.”
  • “Stirring things up,” then standing in the background to watch the fireworks.
  • Going over someone’s head or behind their back to make them appear incompetent.
  • Using innuendo and rumor to sabotage others and their work. 
  • Not taking responsibility for their actions/words, while repeatedly blaming others.
  • Giving others vague, incomplete instructions and blaming them when the job goes wrong.
  • Claiming information has been sent when it hasn’t — “The text, email, fax, phone message must have gotten lost.”
  • Appearing busy (texting, emailing, walking around) without doing any identifiable work.
  • Taking credit for others’ work.

Doing some of these things doesn’t make a person passive-aggressive, it makes them human.  Instead, look for someone who has a pattern of consistently deflecting fault by having an excuse — which includes blaming someone or something else — for doing poor or incomplete work.  He believes he’s a victim, but it’s really the business that’s a victim of his behavior.

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Small Business News For The Entrepreneur

August 3, 2016 by

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It seems that after so many months of uncertainty about the US economy, reports are becoming more encouraging for the US. A  Deutsche Bank strategist writes that in the last past two weeks the US market has surprisingly jumped into positive territory for the first time in almost two years.

With more jobs in manufacturing and services, the result should be a positive economic growth for the small business owner as well.

To read more about this and other  stories, follow the links below.

How These Entrepreneurs Are Living the Startup Life 24/7

If you occasionally get nostalgic for college – missing its around-the-clock access to homework help and social outlets — or if you’re tired of the lonely business owner’s life, you may be captivated by the idea of living with a group of entrepreneurs. But could you take the constant stream of ideas, the high energy, the 24/7 lifestyle? To some, such as Chandler Bolt, this living situation is nothing short of a profitable dream come true.

Bolt, the founder of Self-Publishing School, has lived in San Diego for the last year with four other super smart and motivated online entrepreneurs. The goal in creating the living arrangement was to create an intentional community of likeminded business people intent on improving every level of their lives – from physical to financial.

“I thought, ‘Why not put five people in a house?’” Bolt, said. “I thrive best when there’s work going on around me – knowing there’s stuff always happening.”

12 tips for creating a must-read business blog

Business owners, bloggers and online marketers discuss what small businesses can do to drive traffic to their blogs, increase their page views and keep readers coming back for more.

Too often business owners start blogging in the hope that it will drive traffic to their business, only to quickly fall into the trap of posting stale or sales-heavy content that gets no or few views. Then they become frustrated and either blog less frequently or abandon their blog, wondering why they bothered.

1. Think about and write for your target audience. “Think about the audience you are trying to attract to your blog and share content that is relevant, interesting and valuable to that specific demographic,” says Arsineh Ghazarian, cofounder & CEO, Zveil.

July Small Business Job Growth Is Positive, Paychex CEO Mucci Tells CNBC

Paychex (PAYX) CEO Martin Mucci discussed the country’s July small business job growth, which slowed from last month, on CNBC today.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Paychex  (PAYX) CEO Martin Mucci explained the outsourcing solutions company’s somewhat weak July survey results on small business job growth, which were released Tuesday morning, with CNBC‘s Brian Sullivan on “Squawk Box.”

Small business job growth was down by 0.12% to 100.68 in July after increasing 0.21% to 100.81 in June, according to the Paychex IHS Small Business Jobs Index.
“It was just a small drop in July after a pretty good increase in June, so we’ve been a bit choppy this year on the overall index but year to date we’re up 0.3% so I think it’s still positive. It’s cautious but it’s still positive,” Mucci said.
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Are You Really Delegating?

July 7, 2016 by

64510516A lot of successful small business owners think they’re good at delegating work to others.  However, their employees, sub-contractors, partners, customers and family would disagree with this thinking.  In actuality, most owners aren’t good at delegating responsibility and tasks to others.

The average owner’s way of delegating is some combination of: writing a memo or email, yelling, begging, assuming employees “will figure it out,” threatening, bribing and making promises he won’t keep.  And it’s true — these techniques do work in the short term, but they eventually fail in the long term. 

There’s a better way of assigning responsibility to others, and it’s a method which can be learned.  However, the steps must be practiced to become skilled at them.  But, once they’re mastered they can be used in work, home and social situations. 

The first step is to define the task.  This includes identifying what materials, time, money and people are needed.  The owner sets realistic, measurable targets and decides when progress reports will be due.  The desired goal of the project should be defined.  Employees aren’t mind readers — they should clearly know what’s needed, when it ought to happen and what the expected outcome is.   

Assigning the task to the right employee is the second step.  Now that the task has been defined, matching the right person to the job is important to it being successfully completed.  The right person should have the training, knowledge and ability to do it correctly.   Anything else is a set up for the employee and the owner.

The final step is discussing the task with the assigned employee.  Let the person know why they’ve been chosen for the project; focusing on their value to the company and qualifications.  Go over the job’s requirements, budgets, timelines and goals with them.  Make sure they completely understand what the task requires and what’s expected of them. 

Most owners haven’t learned these steps and struggle with believing they need to do them.  Some say, “I should just be able to tell someone to do something and they should do it.  I shouldn’t have to do anything else.”  While others say, “If I want something done right I have to do it myself.”  Neither way of thinking is productive, especially for long term success.

No matter how intelligent or energetic an owner is his reluctance to learn how to successfully delegate will eventually take its toll.  There’s a tipping point where a too controlling or a too detached management style deters expansion.  Also, over time, these styles affect the bottom line; profitable companies lose ground.  It’s too bad, because once learned it isn’t hard to do.

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Taxes, Economy, and Productivity In the Workplace

July 1, 2016 by

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For many people considering starting their own business, the statistics are not very encouraging.  According to an article in Forbes magazine, 7 out of 10 small businesses survive at least 2 years in the United States, and although some people believe those are grim statistics and do not reflect the real reasons why many business close their doors after two years, the truth is many do close their doors and that’s what counts.  Choosing the best state and the best people to help you start your business seem to be key if you want to succeed.

The Growing Gig Economy’s Impact On Small Business

There’s a trendy term making its way through the business world: the gig economy. As a small business owner, you’ve likely heard it being thrown around at networking events or read about it in industry publications. But what does it mean, and how does it affect your business? In this article, we’ll discuss exactly what the term “gig economy” refers to and how it’s shaping today’s small businesses.

Defining the Gig Economy

There was a time when the word “gig” conjured images of a garage band booking a concert at your local bar and grill. Now, however, the word refers to any project an independent professional completes in exchange for pay.

It can be concluded, then, that the term “gig economy” references the increasing trend in today’s business world toward hiring independent contractors (think interims, consultants, freelancers) as an integral part of companies’ task forces.

State Ranks 10th Worst For Small Business Taxes

Connecticut ranked 10th worst in the country for small business taxes, according to a report issued Wednesday. It is the fourth straight year for that ranking.

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) ranked Connecticut 41st of the 50 U.S. states in its annual Small Business Tax Index. The last time the state wasn’t ranked in the bottom 10 was 2012 when it was 40th. The report is issued just ahead of the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. Connecticut did not pass any new taxes in its budget set to take effect Friday.

SBEC uses 25 measures to create a ratings system for the index. The measures include the state’s personal income tax rate, taxes applied to LLCs and other types of companies, gas and internet taxes, among other factors.

Connecticut’s index rating was 65.467, which put it between Nebraska with a 57.933 and Maine at 65.492. South Dakota ranked first at 12.114 and California was last with a rating of 84.547. In addition to Maine, Vermont was another New England state that rated below Connecticut.

7 Small-Business Owners Share Their Best Productivity Tips (Infographic)

Efficiency is a buzzword often bandied about in the office, but what does it actually mean and why is it so important?

Merriam-Webster defines it as “the ability to do something or produce something without wasting materials, time, or energy.” In other words, efficiency — rooted in the Latin verb efficere, which means “to accomplish” — is essentially making haste without waste. In the results now-focused world of business, it’s accomplishing things quickly without frittering away company time or money, both of which many entrepreneurs cannot afford to lose.

To help you mind your business — and, by extension, your bottom line — in good time, the folks at Make It Cheaper, a service that helps small and medium-sized businesses negotiate cheaper rates on insurance, broadband and electricity, have rounded up seven key efficiency lessons from a host of entrepreneurs. From delegating tasks to avoiding distractions, check them out in the short and, yes, efficient infographic below.

 

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Apps And Tips To Help Your Small Business

June 21, 2016 by

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There is always the dream for many people to have their own business and be their own boss.  You either will succeed on your terms or not.  A small business for many people is a scary idea that they better not contemplate.  But, if you are like the millions of entrepreneurs in the United States, you need to try, and it is never too late according to many small business owners.  The paperwork, and costs  associated with starting a small business have been declining over the years, making it more feasible for an individual to open shop.  For free advice and other related articles to starting your own business, follow the links below.

Facebook Messenger Is Actually Helping Small Businesses Boost Sales

According to the company’s director of small business.

Facebook has built its reputation on its ability to get granular. Because the social network knows so much about its 1.6 billion users, marketers can use the platform to target highly curated groups of people.

But small–business owners should think on an even more individual level, says Dan Levy, the company’s vice president of small business. He repeatedly sees companies missing out on a valuable, and inexpensive, tool: Messaging.

For better or for worse, over the last decade the phone call has gone the way of the Dodo. Millennials may have driven the trend, but by this point Gen Xers and even Baby Boomers would often rather text than talk. This extends to their interactions as consumers. “Small-business owners are telling me, ‘I’m getting more sales leads over Messenger than I get over the phone,’” Levy says.

Ken Crite: It’s never too soon to start small business

Small firms accounted for 64 percent of the net new jobs created between 1993 and 2011 (or 11.8 million of the 18.5 million net new jobs). Since the latest recession, from mid-2009 to 2011, small businesses have accounted for 67 percent of the net new jobs.

With this in mind, if the focus was on the development and/or expansion of small businesses, we should experience a more rapid rebuild of the economy.

When large corporations expand and create 50 new jobs, there are several hundred applications, leaving the majority of the applicants in the same situation that they were in prior to applying.

If half of the applicants decided to start their own small business and hired only one additional employee, the job creation and development increases dramatically.

10 Must-Have Apps for Your Small Business

Today, tablets and mobile phones are enabling every industry, every line of business and every employee to work in astounding new ways. This capacity is fueling a new generation of apps, delivering more power, more insight and more capability to businesses than ever before.

This is true for businesses of all sizes – both large and small. Leveraging the right kinds of apps can make for a cohesive business ecosystem valuable in increasing productivity, streamlining business processes, and instilling creativity overall. So where to start? This slideshow offers a look at some of the best types of apps for kicking your small business off the ground or to a higher level.

Mind Mapping

The practice of mind mapping goes beyond the brainstorming exercises you did in elementary school. When you’re beginning a business, it’s important to think through everything and being able to collect your thoughts in a flexible way, especially when you’re on the go, is valuable.

 

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Small Business Tips And Information

June 15, 2016 by

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The United States unemployment rate to date is 4.7%, and that’s a rate many considered full employment.  And although the unemployment rate is very low, many people wonder if it is because many people have stopped looking for jobs because they are frustrated with the jobs available to them.  The economy though seems to be growing, but at a smaller rate than the previous two years.  Up to date, the U.S  economy has grown only an 0.8%, when historically has grown 3% in a year.  More than 750 thousand jobs have been added this year, and people are wondering if the economy is not stalling.  For more about small business news, follow the link below.

Every Small Business Owner Should Know The 80/20 Rule

Alternately referred to as the Pareto principle or the law of the vital few, the 80/20 principle is one of the most important concepts in modern entrepreneurship. The term dates back to the 1940s, when the principle was named after pioneering Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. In brief, the principle states that 80 percent of the effects are derived from 20 percent of the causes. Here are three different ways the 80/20 rule applies to modern-day business practices.

Training Your Staff

Regardless of industry, the success of any for-profit organization depends on the training and talent of its sales staff. To ensure that your sales staff is in the best possible position to succeed, they must receive training that allows them to overcome the objections of potential customers. As noted in this Entrepreneur interview, the best way to meet that objective is to teach your team the 20 percent of the knowledge they’ll need to answer 80 percent of consumer inquiries. Using the 80/20 rule, your training program will be compact enough to get new staffers up to speed as quickly as possible.

Pursuing Leads

The most commonly cited example of the 80/20 rule in business is that 80 percent of your company’s profits will come from 20 percent of your customer base. In order to maximize your company’s profitability, you should pour over your sales data to find what your most lucrative customers have in common. Whether its geography, age or marital status, you will find a commonality among your biggest purchasers, and once you do, you can adjust your marketing strategy to target that specific demographic.

Gene Marks: Here’s how one small business is controlling its healthcare costs.

The numbers are starting to come in and it’s not looking good. Healthcare premiums for both individuals and businesses of all sizes are going up again in 2017.

By a lot.

This is the time of year when insurance companies in each state request approval from regulators to set premiums for the following years. And big increases are being requested. How big? Humana is asking to raise rates by as much as 65 percent in Georgia and 38 percent in Pennsylvania. Providence Health wants to increase rates by almost 30 percent in Oregon. Insurers in Indiana, New Mexico and Maine have all requested rate increases north of 20 percent. Let’s not go into the reasons why all this is happening – there are many. What’s more important is facing up to the fact that healthcare is going to cost my small business a lot more next year. And, like every other business owner in the country, I’m struggling with what to do. How can I keep this huge cost under control?

Get Started: Money, Regulation Are Small Business Challenges

MONEY, REGULATIONS CHALLENGE BUSINESSES, SURVEY FINDS

Small businesses are still struggling to get the money they need and to comply with government regulations, according to a survey by Babson College.

Company owners who took part in the survey said they’ve been able to get only about 40 percent of the money they requested from all sources, including loans and investor funding. The nearly 1,900 survey participants sought a median amount of $100,000, but received only $40,500. The survey also found that banks are companies’ primary source of funding.

Finding money has long been difficult for small businesses, particularly young ones. However, getting loans has been even tougher since the recession because banks are extremely cautious about lending in general.

Businesses that seek funding are most likely to use it to supplement their cash flow or to buy real estate or equipment. Only about 8 percent of the owners said they wanted money so they could hire more staffers — a finding that’s in line with other surveys that have shown owners are conservative about expanding their payrolls.

 

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