Establishment of a business can be daunting. All of your hopes and dreams plus finances are on the line and success is the only option. There are a lot of things to consider- taxes, employees, rent, inventory, insurance, benefits and yes, and everyone wants to get paid. Whether you are just starting out, your business is really taking off or maybe it is losing money, you may want to consider outsourcing your payroll responsibilities. Why, you ask? You're pretty good at math, you can do it yourself or at least hire someone in house to do it. Well, there are a lot of reasons that outsourcing your small business payroll can increase your bottom line.
1. Outsourcing is a time-saver.
If you are trying to get a small business up and running, all the time spent figuring out payroll and writing checks consumes a lot of time, which could be well spent helping your venture grow. Sitting behind a desk in front of a calculator and checkbook keeps you from being out on the floor with the clients, customers and employees to find out what is and is not working. You can focus on marketing, improving and growing your business instead of paperwork. There will still be plenty of other paperwork to be done without dealing with this aspect. Outsourcing your small business payroll frees up your time to deal with more important things to make your dreams come true.
If your venture has already taken off and you need to hire more people just to keep up with the increased productivity, outsourcing the payroll can pay off big time and free up you and your employees to keep the shop running. All you have to do is send off the monthly records and a trusted professional handles the rest. This can probably be done by mail, email or fax.
2. Outsourcing is a money-saver.
Handing the reigns to independent professionals can also save you money. The obvious reason is that you do not have to hire specific people to calculate taxes, deductions, fill out forms, print out and deliver the checks. Not only will you have to pay this staff a salary or hourly wage, but there are insurance, benefits, sick days, vacations and other expenses that go along with in-house employees. By emailing out your reports, you pay a rate for the service and that's it. You know that someone is there to do it and do it right.
Payroll experts handle the accounts and are well-versed with the ins and outs of the paperwork. This could also save you in the long run because mistakes can be costly. If you have problems with inventory or employees or any of the many problems that arise in a work day, focus may not be on the job at hand and mistakes can be made and penalties accrued. On the other hand, if you can free yourself up to deal with other things and be confident that your employees' checks are in good hands. Think about it.
You should enjoy your new venture and save yourself some of the headaches that go along with it. Don't be afraid to relinquish some of the responsibility. It can save you time and money if you let someone else handle it.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
How to Build Your Own Small Business From Scratch
When we think about starting a business, the first thing that usually comes to our mind is: location, employees, inventory and a huge amount of money as startup capital.
Such an array of difficulties often prevent us from taking the step to really begin an entrepreneurial career, because sometimes we do have the money, but maybe not plenty enough to feel comfortable risking it on some business adventure, and sometimes we might be broke or so choked in debt that investing a large sum of money to pursue an uncertain outcome is out of the question.
The solution to this dilemma is to seek for a new business model, to think out of the box. This means exploring new opportunities that this era of technology and globalization are opening and continue to open for anyone willing to claim a piece.
As you might have heard -or not- nowadays the internet is steadily becoming the prime ground for commerce and businesses all around the world, enabling people to profit from the worldwide web in many ways that often require little or no money.
Now, regardless of how you decide to tackle the internet, you will almost always find a common denominator: starting a business online will cost you little or no money. Indeed, depending on how you prepare and educate yourself, you can really create an online real estate that will be worth as much or even more than a physical location.
A few examples of how you can significantly profit from the internet with just a few bucks in your pocket are forex trading online and internet marketing.
You probably think, but how can I profit from those business options if I know nothing about forex or internet marketing?
I wish I could answer this by telling you that I know a secret formula that will allow you to become rich in a month, but that would be simply lying to you. The plain truth that any online effort as a way of creating your very own small business, will demand that you seek for educational resources and tools to help you start and run whatever business operation you set out to build.
Indeed, the online business model usually will not demand a large capital investment, only knowhow and a little bit of effort, so this means that you will only need a few bucks to get yourself some essential tools and educational resources. After that, you can literally build a small empire with only your brain power and some hard work in the beginning (something any business will demand from you).
If you add all of those to the mix you can realistically expect to create a stream of income that will enable you to make a pretty decent living from a home office within less than 6 months, and this is a fact. Do not expect it to be easy, just believe it to be possible and you will get there sooner than you imagine.
Think different, work different. Learn how to do it smarter, not harder. If you do that you will build a small business from scratch that will surpass all of your expectations.
Such an array of difficulties often prevent us from taking the step to really begin an entrepreneurial career, because sometimes we do have the money, but maybe not plenty enough to feel comfortable risking it on some business adventure, and sometimes we might be broke or so choked in debt that investing a large sum of money to pursue an uncertain outcome is out of the question.
The solution to this dilemma is to seek for a new business model, to think out of the box. This means exploring new opportunities that this era of technology and globalization are opening and continue to open for anyone willing to claim a piece.
As you might have heard -or not- nowadays the internet is steadily becoming the prime ground for commerce and businesses all around the world, enabling people to profit from the worldwide web in many ways that often require little or no money.
Now, regardless of how you decide to tackle the internet, you will almost always find a common denominator: starting a business online will cost you little or no money. Indeed, depending on how you prepare and educate yourself, you can really create an online real estate that will be worth as much or even more than a physical location.
A few examples of how you can significantly profit from the internet with just a few bucks in your pocket are forex trading online and internet marketing.
You probably think, but how can I profit from those business options if I know nothing about forex or internet marketing?
I wish I could answer this by telling you that I know a secret formula that will allow you to become rich in a month, but that would be simply lying to you. The plain truth that any online effort as a way of creating your very own small business, will demand that you seek for educational resources and tools to help you start and run whatever business operation you set out to build.
Indeed, the online business model usually will not demand a large capital investment, only knowhow and a little bit of effort, so this means that you will only need a few bucks to get yourself some essential tools and educational resources. After that, you can literally build a small empire with only your brain power and some hard work in the beginning (something any business will demand from you).
If you add all of those to the mix you can realistically expect to create a stream of income that will enable you to make a pretty decent living from a home office within less than 6 months, and this is a fact. Do not expect it to be easy, just believe it to be possible and you will get there sooner than you imagine.
Think different, work different. Learn how to do it smarter, not harder. If you do that you will build a small business from scratch that will surpass all of your expectations.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Appointment Letters - Small Business Tips to Get Your Foot in the Door
Many small businesses struggle with writing letters to potential clients trying to get an appointment with them. But it doesn't have to be as difficult as it may seem. As a professional copy writer, here are my top 10 tips for effective appointment letters.
1. Be realistic in the response you are looking for. People are not sitting by the post-box waiting for your letter. For most people you have to prove to them first why they should read (and not bin) your letter and second why they should give up some of their precious time to see you. Industry statistics talk about a 2% - 5% OPEN rate. That means only 2-5% of all of your letters actually get read. Out of those figures, industry statistics vary between a 1%-20% actual response to your offer. There are things you can do to improve these rates, but at least you now know what you are up against. Up to 98% of all people won't read your letter, let alone action it.
2. What list are you using? A good list will make your mailing. If you are mailing to people who you already have a great relationship with, you can expect your response rates to increase. If you are mailing to a cold list of names you have gathered from the Yellow Pages, or just delivered to PO Boxes, your response rates will be much less.
3. Headlines and subheads. People scan letters before reading them. Make sure you have clear and enticing headlines and sub-headlines to make them want to read more.
4. Spelling, grammar and layout count. If you send out a letter full of typos, poorly laid out and looking unprofessional - you can count on getting a very poor response. Good layout, with clever use of bold, colour, underlining, larger fonts and "copy doodles" all boost your response rate.
5. Go with the flow. Your letter must flow logically and consistently. You want them to understand the features and benefits of what you are offering - and how these will make their lives easier. You want to take your audience through a gradual development of ideas, building them to a point where they know clearly whether or not what you are suggesting will meet their needs and wants.
6. How credible are you? People want to know you have background, knowledge, experience and expertise in the area. They want to know that other people have used your services and are fully satisfied with the results. Demonstrating your credibility through including testimonials or case studies will help potential customers feel comfortable with you - enough to want to take the next step.
7. Strong call to action. Many people send out a letter seeking an appointment and do not make it clear what they want the person to do. Are they to wait for your call to make an appointment, call you to make an appointment or contact you for more information? Tell people clearly what you want them to do and they will do it.
8. PS. If there is a PS on a letter people will read it. Use your PS to reinforce a key point or your call to action. PS's increase your response rate.
9. Follow up. A single mail shot with no follow up rarely works well. All letters should be either followed up with a phone call to the person, or a second mail shot a few weeks later. Many people intend to take action but simply forget. Following up significantly boosts your response rates.
10. Test & measure. Businesses need to test and measure the responses to all marketing. How many responses did you get to the one letter? Now try sending out the same letter to a different sample with just different headlines and sub-headlines to check the response rates. Try changing the call to action with a third sample. The top direct mail companies all tweak their mailings until they get a "control" piece - one that consistently performs well. Once they have a control piece they keep using it, every now and again testing a sample with a new piece to see if it beats the control. Small business can do the same thing - use sample sizes of about 100 minimum as this will give you some indication of trends (Big business uses about 10,000 as their minimum but few small businesses have the budgets to work with those numbers).
Ingrid Cliff is passionate about small business ideas ... with a belief there are no small businesses, just small ideas. Ingrid has over 25 years experience as a HR Manager with companies up to 7000 employees in both the private and public sector.
1. Be realistic in the response you are looking for. People are not sitting by the post-box waiting for your letter. For most people you have to prove to them first why they should read (and not bin) your letter and second why they should give up some of their precious time to see you. Industry statistics talk about a 2% - 5% OPEN rate. That means only 2-5% of all of your letters actually get read. Out of those figures, industry statistics vary between a 1%-20% actual response to your offer. There are things you can do to improve these rates, but at least you now know what you are up against. Up to 98% of all people won't read your letter, let alone action it.
2. What list are you using? A good list will make your mailing. If you are mailing to people who you already have a great relationship with, you can expect your response rates to increase. If you are mailing to a cold list of names you have gathered from the Yellow Pages, or just delivered to PO Boxes, your response rates will be much less.
3. Headlines and subheads. People scan letters before reading them. Make sure you have clear and enticing headlines and sub-headlines to make them want to read more.
4. Spelling, grammar and layout count. If you send out a letter full of typos, poorly laid out and looking unprofessional - you can count on getting a very poor response. Good layout, with clever use of bold, colour, underlining, larger fonts and "copy doodles" all boost your response rate.
5. Go with the flow. Your letter must flow logically and consistently. You want them to understand the features and benefits of what you are offering - and how these will make their lives easier. You want to take your audience through a gradual development of ideas, building them to a point where they know clearly whether or not what you are suggesting will meet their needs and wants.
6. How credible are you? People want to know you have background, knowledge, experience and expertise in the area. They want to know that other people have used your services and are fully satisfied with the results. Demonstrating your credibility through including testimonials or case studies will help potential customers feel comfortable with you - enough to want to take the next step.
7. Strong call to action. Many people send out a letter seeking an appointment and do not make it clear what they want the person to do. Are they to wait for your call to make an appointment, call you to make an appointment or contact you for more information? Tell people clearly what you want them to do and they will do it.
8. PS. If there is a PS on a letter people will read it. Use your PS to reinforce a key point or your call to action. PS's increase your response rate.
9. Follow up. A single mail shot with no follow up rarely works well. All letters should be either followed up with a phone call to the person, or a second mail shot a few weeks later. Many people intend to take action but simply forget. Following up significantly boosts your response rates.
10. Test & measure. Businesses need to test and measure the responses to all marketing. How many responses did you get to the one letter? Now try sending out the same letter to a different sample with just different headlines and sub-headlines to check the response rates. Try changing the call to action with a third sample. The top direct mail companies all tweak their mailings until they get a "control" piece - one that consistently performs well. Once they have a control piece they keep using it, every now and again testing a sample with a new piece to see if it beats the control. Small business can do the same thing - use sample sizes of about 100 minimum as this will give you some indication of trends (Big business uses about 10,000 as their minimum but few small businesses have the budgets to work with those numbers).
Ingrid Cliff is passionate about small business ideas ... with a belief there are no small businesses, just small ideas. Ingrid has over 25 years experience as a HR Manager with companies up to 7000 employees in both the private and public sector.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Comparing Small Business Credit Card Offers
Special Business Credit Card awards come in the form of cash back, air miles, merchandise, or other rewards. These awards are offered in addition to the standard benefits offered by companies.
The Business Credit Cards - The Advantage
Business credit cards offer will help you benefit in the form of expediency, rewards, and cash back facilities. Executives and professional can take advantage by earning limitless cash back, rewards and frequent flyer miles by making use of these business credit cards.
Several business offers have immediate approval where information comes online whether you are approved, not approved, or will be notified later.
How To Find The Best Credit Card For You
Various sites on the net provide you with the tools and information to help you choose the best credit card and applying for it is as simple and as easy as possible. With the extensive assortment of cards obtainable by the provider on the net with the majority competitive rates and rewards, you are sure to find the right and best card that suits your needs. The providers constantly update their sites to provide the best credit card deals that is easily available online.
You can browse through the various card categories that is displayed by the credit card providers on the net. You can also use the credit card comparison charts and search tools available to compare the credit cards or to find the best card with the right features that suits your needs. The card comparison guide provided by the credit card companies enables you to compare rates, type of rewards, and the applicable annual fees.
In order to educate and inform the visitors about choosing the right credit card and how to spot the best credit card deal, they provide an extensive help facility. The help features available help you to become skilled at additional on how to take benefit of the a variety of card benefits, as well as to have a improved understanding of their facial appearance and the significance of your credit score.
If you are searching for a business credit card, you can find the best credit card deals for your business easily available on the net. Detailed information of the features will be displayed and provided to you by the credit card companies. You can directly apply for the same and make the best use of the same directly online.
The Business Credit Cards - The Advantage
Business credit cards offer will help you benefit in the form of expediency, rewards, and cash back facilities. Executives and professional can take advantage by earning limitless cash back, rewards and frequent flyer miles by making use of these business credit cards.
Several business offers have immediate approval where information comes online whether you are approved, not approved, or will be notified later.
How To Find The Best Credit Card For You
Various sites on the net provide you with the tools and information to help you choose the best credit card and applying for it is as simple and as easy as possible. With the extensive assortment of cards obtainable by the provider on the net with the majority competitive rates and rewards, you are sure to find the right and best card that suits your needs. The providers constantly update their sites to provide the best credit card deals that is easily available online.
You can browse through the various card categories that is displayed by the credit card providers on the net. You can also use the credit card comparison charts and search tools available to compare the credit cards or to find the best card with the right features that suits your needs. The card comparison guide provided by the credit card companies enables you to compare rates, type of rewards, and the applicable annual fees.
In order to educate and inform the visitors about choosing the right credit card and how to spot the best credit card deal, they provide an extensive help facility. The help features available help you to become skilled at additional on how to take benefit of the a variety of card benefits, as well as to have a improved understanding of their facial appearance and the significance of your credit score.
If you are searching for a business credit card, you can find the best credit card deals for your business easily available on the net. Detailed information of the features will be displayed and provided to you by the credit card companies. You can directly apply for the same and make the best use of the same directly online.
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