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Is There a Vote of Confidence for Small Businesses?

Filed Under Business Life, Strategy, Trends | Leave a Comment

If you ask a lot of small business owners, they’re worried right now.

Whether it is higher costs for health insurance, higher taxes or the inability to hire more workers to meet demand, many small businesses are going through rough times. If that doesn’t already paint a dreary picture, a recent survey from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) won’t help matters.

According to the recent survey, small business confidence dropped for a sixth straight month in August, as the NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index dropped to 88.1, the lowest level going back to March 2010. Data shows that the index has steadily declined since February, when it hit a high of 94.5.

Noting that these results are the first to be unveiled since the debate in Washington regarding the debt ceiling, small businesses are not exactly brimming with confidence over the deal struck by lawmakers.

According to NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg in a statement, “The tumultuous debate over the nation’s debt ceiling and a dramatic 11th hour ‘rescue’ by lawmakers did nothing to improve the outlook of job-makers. In fact, hope for improvement in the economy faded even further throughout the month, proving that short-term fixes will not help.”

Numbers Paint a Grim Picture

As the U.S. Small Business Administration points out, companies with less than 50 employees accounted for 65 percent of all positions created during the last 17 years. Up a point from July, 12 percent of small business owners believe they will decrease their payrolls over the next three months, while just 11 percent say they are likely to increase employment over the same time frame.

Data mined from the recent survey of nearly 1,000 small businesses indicates that the drop in small business confidence in the last month was highly focused on decreased expectations for real sales gains and business factors. Small business owners tabbed sales figures as their biggest concern.

According to the survey, small business owners were also less optimistic regarding business conditions down the road, with the net percentage of owners believing they would see improved conditions down 36 points since a January 2011 survey.

In order to stimulate hiring, President Obama went to Congress with a $447 billion job growth package, including granting businesses a 3.1-point decrease on taxes they must pay on the first $5 million of their payroll. The plan was presented to Congress as the national unemployment rates holds at 9.1 percent.

Should You Hire Now or Hold the Line?

As a small business owner, have you been toiling with the idea of hiring employees heading into the final quarter of 2011?

In the event you are considering hiring, take several factors into consideration:

Being a small business owner comes with a myriad of responsibilities, not least of which is deciding when is the right time to add and subtract employees.

Photo credit: londrescallando.com

Dave Thomas writes extensively for B2b lead generation online resource Resource Nation that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs. He is an expert writer on items like business cash advance and is based in San Diego, California.

Create New Business Connections Using Twitter Less than 30 Minutes a Day!

Filed Under Marketing, Strategy, Successful Blog | 2 Comments

Grow Your Business

This article first appeared on Amex Open Forum

If you produced the world’s most enticing business networking event, who would you invite? Certainly we’d all want people from our own industry – vendors, partners, stakeholders, employees, customers and clients, even competitors – people from all over the world connecting and sharing what they do and how they do it.

Information and connections invaluable to creating more opportunities for any business … but taking advantage of all of the possibilities at a huge event — finding the best strategic matches to your business — is clearly impossible to do. After all, such a gathering would involve thousands of great people (and likely a few who aren’t so great), and you’re only one you. In the few days at any live event, it’s not possible to explore a serious business relationship with every person who might strategically help you grow your business. And the cost in time and resources to attend more than a few events a year limits that ability to connect even more.

That’s what has made Twitter so popular. Twitter has become the World’s Largest Networking event and you can sign in to connect and build relationships that will grow your business simply by investing some quality time every day. Here’s how to get started building that Twitter network in as little as 30 minutes a day.

  1. Decide who you are. Twitter is about people of like minds and like values connecting to share what they know and to find ways to work together. To attract the people who meet that criteria for you, you have to be clear on your values, clear on who you are, and clear on what you have to offer people who might want to work with you.
  2. Choose a great profile pix. Your Twitter profile is your calling card and the first place people look when they want to know more about you. Think about the vendors, partners, stakeholders, employees, customers and clients, and even competitors you might want to talk with and learn from when you choose your profile picture. Make it a picture that reflects a real person that those real people will want to get to know.
  3. Make your bio more than a pitch. Read a whole slew of Twitter bios. Which ones make you interested in the people they represent? Say something in your bio that makes me want to know more about you and be sure to include a link to where I can find that “more” if I do.
  4. Search for like-minded people and follow them. Many tools can help you locate the people you want to follow. Make a list of key words that might identify the people who are a good match for you. Job titles, issues, and trends make good key word searches. Some tools to start finding people to follow might include Twitter’s own search box, Listorious.com, and a “who to follow on Twitter” search on your favorite search engine.
  5. Check who your followers are following. When you find and follow someone who knows your industry and also knows Twitter. Click through to see who that person is following. Read their bios and decide whether you should be following those people too.
  6. Listen to the people you follow and add value to their conversations. Watch what the people you follow do that you find worth imitating. Most influential Twitter folks talk directly to other people and make their message about the people they’re talking to. If you want people to listen to what you’re saying, speak in their language and make the message about them.
  7. Curate Attractive Content. Read the online publications that the people you want to attract and connect with would be interested in. When you find a great article, share the title, share the link, and share the @Twitter name of the author if you can find it. Everyone enjoys it when someone passes on their work. Many writers watch their Twitter “mentions” to see who has talked about them. It’s a great way to make relationships with them.
  8. Start slowly. Show up at the same times every day. With 15 minutes in the morning around 7am and 15 minutes in the evening around 4pm or 7pm, you’ll start seeing the same faces show up in your Tweet stream. and relationships will naturally happen, if you simply reach out to the people who care about the same things that you do.

Though Twitter can take more time than anyone might be able to afford, if you invest 30 minutes a day for a month, you’ll begin to get or extend invitations to share an email or a phone call about working together. Then, you’ll know how Twitter has come to be the world’s largest networking room inside your computer.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Should Credit Reports be in Play for Potential Employees?

Filed Under Interviews, Strategy, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

Despite an economy that some consider to be on life support, there are some employers who are actually hiring these days.

With that being said, should an individual’s credit report be fair game for employers, who are looking for the best and brightest to fill their ranks? Or, should how a person handles their personal money be off limits during the hiring search?

 

Following the Money Trail

In general, there are two schools of thought on this issue.

The first is that what a person does outside of their employment with their money is none of an employer’s business. The thought is that as long as an individual abides by the law, whether or not they have a $10,000 credit card balance is no one’s business.

On the other side of the coin, any applicant for a job, especially those applying for work where finances play a role in their daily responsibilities, should be checked out to see if they have had issues paying off credit card debts, handling a car payment, overseeing a mortgage etc.

While each company has to determine which road it wants to travel, some of them are being told in no uncertain terms by some state and even federal officials that they have limited means to check up on potential employees.

 

Do the Laws Need to be Stricter?

According to federal law, an employer needs written permission from an applicant to run a credit check. Given that replying no may send up a red flag to a possible employer, how many applicants will actually say no to this request? Also, do you not think some employers try and skirt the law and do credit checks anyhow?

Both Connecticut and Maryland recently enacted laws that in essence prohibit employers from using a job applicant’s or an employee’s credit information in deciding whether or not to hire that individual. Both laws will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2011.

The laws recently enacted in Connecticut and Maryland are different in their application but have a number of similar provisions.

While both public and private sector employers are expressly protected by the new Connecticut law, it seems that Maryland’s law will not be applicable to governmental employers. Both laws in essence exempt financial institutions, credit checks required by federal or state law for employment, and credit checks that are for a bona fide purpose that is substantially job-related.

Meantime, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon and Washington presently limit employers’ use of credit history in employments selections. Legislation that would impose similar restrictions is pending in a number of states and also at the federal level.

With more individuals hoping to return to the workforce in 2011, giving them credit for their workplace experience should override how much they owe on a credit card or loan.

Photo credit: publicdomainpictures.net


Dave Thomas is an expert writer on payroll processing services based in San Diego, California.  He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as small business payroll services at Resource Nation.

5 Steps To Create a Solidly Successful Online Product

Filed Under Marketing, Strategy, Successful Blog | Leave a Comment

A Guest Post by
Rahil Muzafar

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We know that almost all products, no matter how good or bad they are, have a certain life cycle, and once a product has ran its lifecycle, the business needs to modify, innovate, or even create new products to survive. So, whether you are an old online business or a new one, you can benefit from having a step by step course-of-action for product creation, because you will need it sooner than later.

Online businesses should not be treated differently from their offline counterparts, as far as product creation is concerned. In both cases, the businesses have to come up with a product, or service that some customers are looking for, while expecting some rewards (AKA profits) for doing so. The only difference is probably in the nature of the products, for example, in cyber world, even a website that offers a very basic service like accumulating news on a specific topic at a single platform is still a product, regardless of how profitable or unprofitable it turns out to be.

Following are five basic steps that you should adhere to, when creating a new online product, regardless of how small or how big the product is supposed to be.

Step 1 – Idea

First step in product developments of all sorts is the idea, whether it is unique or just inspired by an already successful business model. The idea for an online product should be based on solving an unattended problem or a particular need of Internet users. Mindlessly copying some get rich quick schemes with the purpose of earning some extra income doesn’t really stand for an idea.

Remember that the web might appear to be already cluttered by all types of business, but a little out-of-the-box thinking will reveal many untapped markets, however you will be able to see these opportunities only if you are not driven by “overnight riches” dreams.

Step 2 – Scrutinizing

Next step is to brood over the idea, while considering all aspects. This phase is very important, still most entrepreneurs, in sheer excitement, neglect this very important step, and go straight from idea to development phase. It’s important that you take some time and wait for the excitement to settle down, only then you will be able to see the glitches in your plot. Once the initial excitement fades out, you will see that it’s not really a walk in the park.

Step 3 – Marketing Strategy

Some businesses devise a marketing strategy after the product is ready. Ideally, you should be wearing your marketing hat even before you get into the development phase. Having a marketing strategy, or more importantly the target market in mind will help you come up with a product/service that caters to the specific type of customers you are going to target. Thinking from the perspective of a marketer will give you an idea of the cost, and profit margins. Otherwise, it’s quite possible that once you’ve invested your time or resources in the product development, you will discover that you aren’t left with enough money or resources to invest on marketing.

Step 4 – Product Development:

Once you’ve mulled over the idea a number of times, and devised a marketing plan, it’s now time to develop the product. This should be easy, because you’ve successfully gone through the planning phase.

When developing product, think of your customers, and what they’d be looking for, and not what you’re looking for.

Step 5 – Test Marketing

Before you go full throttle with your marketing strategy, you must do the test marketing. Test marketing is quite the same like the actual marketing, but on a smaller scale, while targeting a small test group. Thanks to the Internet, you can use the power of social media to identify your target customers and check the initial response. If it’s good, you should set the wheels in motion, and if they are finding faults in your product/services, be thankful that you’ve avoided a bigger setback, and get back to make necessary changes before launching the final product into the market.

Rahil Muzafar

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Author’s Bio:

This article was contributed by Rahil, who’s an Internet Marketer, specializing in discounts and coupon codes websites. At his website, you will find all kinds of coupon codes and discounts, from hosting packages to stuff like 4inkjets or 123inkjet. Feel free to avail these coupons at 123inkjets discounts and 4inkjets discount code.

Thanks! Rahil!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

What Great Interviewers Ask to Always Hire the Best

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Strategy, Successful Blog | 3 Comments

Guest Post
by Riley Kissel

Insight on Interviews from Stan Duncan, SVP, Westfield

People power boils down to one thing: potential. Just ask Stan Duncan Senior Executive Vice President of U.S. Human Resources and Global Head of Management for Westfield. Rome could always have been built with enough hands, but those hands needed a dream to follow and voices to guide them. In the 20-plus years that Stan Duncan has worked with human resources divisions in several multinational companies, he’s learned a thing or two about what makes a good job candidate. He’s learned which specific resources are vital to those who are ultimately hired and, more importantly, which questions to ask those candidates.

Duncan says that it’s all about asking the candidate to tell you what they want, what they have done, what will make them successful and “why.”

According to Duncan, having a prospective employee reveal what they see as their own abilities and competence is a surefire way to not only get a raw understanding of their talents and pros and cons, but also to get an understanding of their ability to adapt and their potential to last in the long term. “We aren’t looking for super-humans; in my two decades as an HR executive, I’ve yet to meet one. We want people who are talented, but most importantly, willing to grow and change as the company grows and changes, too.” I believe people who know a lot about themselves do the best selling themselves in an interview. Basically, make sure you’re introducing yourself, presenting the real you in the interview.

Duncan is certainly not shy about his two decades’ of experience as an interviewer. That was proven when he was asked what he’s learned about hiring the right people: “Doing this for 20 years certainly helps you see the big picture; it’s all about potential.” Duncan has been around long enough to see what works for the long-term and what only succeeds in the short term, and his reflections have resulted in him founding an HR model that prizes a prospective worker’s long-term potential over short-term spunk.

“Working in human resources for companies that focus on everything from career apparel, managed services, aerospace glass manufacturing to chemical agent creation has allowed me to see what always stays the same despite the change in labor practices, techniques, and strategies. Human resources are universal in that HR personnel are always seeking out that potential for a long-term employee presence once they’re hired. That’s because longevity in employment means a stronger, more developed team, which increases the likelihood that each member reaches their potential due to the longstanding support of one another.”

The beauty of Ancient Rome would never have been erected by unorganized stone cutters with no collective vision, no matter how many were hanging around looking for work, which demonstrates the power of potential. Without a guiding vision, the kind that an institution like Westfield has and HR leaders like Duncan possess, the potential of individual talent to serve something greater is often wasted. Asking the right questions and paying close attention as human resources workers is the only way to uncover that potential and make sure the talent stays around long enough to make an impact. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your company won’t be, either. Let Stan Duncan’s success show you what can be accomplished in 20 years if you put your mind to it.
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Riley Kissel is a freelance writer who covers many industries with style. You can find out more about him at RileyKissel.com

Thanks, Riley, for new insights on a critical topic.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.
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