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September 29, 2006
News! Minority Grant And Minority Small Business Development Opportunities
Senator Kerry introduced a bill today to assist aspiring and existing minority entrepreneurs in achieving success in the marketplace.
"Minority entrepreneurs are underrepresented at the helm of America's small businesses, which means that they are not accessing the opportunities, the financial stability and the sense of pride that business ownership can offer," said Kerry, who serves as ranking member of the Senate's Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. "By investing in minority entrepreneurship, we can ensure that these hard working Americans have every opportunity to pursue the American dream of owning a successful business."
African Americans represent 12.3 percent of the population but only 4 percent of all U.S. businesses. Hispanic Americans represent 12.5 percent of the U.S. population but just 6 percent of all U.S. businesses. Kerry's bill would create an Office of Minority Small Business Development at the Small Business Administration to increase lending and contracting opportunities for minority small businesses. The head of this new office will work with SBA's partners, trade associations and business groups to identify more effective ways to market to minority business owners.
The bill also establishes a grant program at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and at Hispanic Serving Institutions to steer students toward entrepreneurship as a career option. "To get at the heart of the racial disparity in entrepreneurship, we've got to excite these kids about owning a business," said Kerry. "This program targets high achievers at these institutions, giving them the skills, knowledge and desire to succeed in business."
The bill also creates the Minority Access to Information Distance Learning Pilot Program to create distance learning programs for small business owners interested in contracting with the federal government.
Finally, Kerry's proposal reauthorizes the Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Business Program, which provides a Price Evaluation Adjustment for Socially and Economically Disadvantaged businesses as a way of increasing their competitiveness when bidding against larger firms
Contact: Brian Rice of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 202-224-7834
Posted by David at 1:22 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2006
Small Business Marketing - How To Exploit And Milk Zero Cost Small Business Marketing
Everyone in business is talking about zero-cost marketing, but you don’t have to attend a high-flying seminar to know—and profit from—this important business strategy. Zero cost marketing is actually not entirely a new idea, but it has been repackaged into a more modern format, made to take advantage of tools common to the technology of our day.
Before embarking on an explanation, it would be good at the outset to explain the difference between marketing and advertising. Often, people confuse the two; while they are related, there is a significant difference.
Business Name. Marketing involves every action that you take to continually promote your brand in the minds of the consumers. Advertising includes only those activities that are specifically designed to promote your business. The difference is subtle, but suffice it to say, that even actions that do not fall under the banner of “advertising” can be part of your marketing campaign. For instance, one of the most powerful first steps to marketing a business is in its very inception, when you must choose your business name.
Why is this?
People remember names and their unique brands that they associate with specific businesses and their products or services.
We remember Toys ‘R’ Us as being all about toys; the name says it all, and the brand is impressed in our minds. If the owners of that company had chosen a more generic name for their business (Acme, Inc, to for example), it’s unlikely that consumers would long associate that name as being about toys (much less all about toys).
So make sure that your business name is specific, and that it identifies your niche—that is, you’re unique marketing position, that which sets you apart from your competitors.
Publicity. Publicity, the free kind, is the most common way for businesses wanting to promote their companies at little to no cost. This type of zero cost marketing has been often called “stealth marketing,” for the way that it flies under the radar of conventional, direct assault promotional campaigns—yet is remarkably effective. Publicity has both an offline and online component, but we’ll review the offline component first. Press Kit.
The press release kit is a staple of business promotion. Understanding the power of a press kit begins with first understanding how the press corps themselves do their work. Reporters do not comb the Internet or hang out at the local pubs looking for news stories. They find leads by council meetings, calling experts or public figures, combing through public records, and so on.
Sometimes reporters are approached by other people with potential leads to stories. In some cases, these sources are local business professionals in the community who are self-described experts in the arena which a news story might touch upon. These business professionals might agree to be cited as experts, and deliver pithy sound bites or even interviews as needed. In exchange, their business name is mentioned in the article.
Businesses put together press kits to deliver to news organizations, radio stations and print publications, both locally and nationally. Often the press kit contains professional photographs, brief sketches of the product/business, a biographical sketch of the business owner and a brief “success story” of the company.
These businesses will then distribute these press kits to media professionals, and will follow-up on delivery, to be sure that the material has been delivered. As appropriate, reporters may contact these business professionals to weigh in on stories that touch their areas of expertise. Begin now to put together a press kit for your business and prepare your contact list for distribution. You can get more information on writing press release and learn how to put a professional press kit together. As soon as you become known as the expert in your field, your advice—and your sound bites—will be sought out.
Press Release. In addition to a press kit, you will need to become versed in writing a press release. A press release, like any other news item, is all about story - a newsworthy story—but one that mentions your business in the process. A press release follows the usual who, what, where, and why of any other news story, and is a valuable way of getting your business mentioned in local and national newspapers.
An excellent web site with a tutorial about writing the press release is . Once you’ve learned how to write a press release for print publications, you will then want to ensure that you have a company web site, and then write a press release for the Internet. PRWeb is the premier online press release distribution services to newswires all over the world. Consult their website is at http://www.prweb.com, to learn how to get your press release accepted by them and circulated in cyberspace.
Community. You can also generate free publicity by agreeing to speak in local community events, or teach in a vocational school on a subject related to your business. Begin to give your time, and even a small sampler of your goods and services, to others in the community. You might also consider a “referral swap” with a business which does not compete with you directly, but complements your services. Agree to swap referrals of customers who need each of your services. In short order, word-of-mouth advertising from satisfied customers will become the biggest source of publicity for your business.
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 9:58 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2006
Manage Your Small Business Well or The Consequences Could Hit You Where It Hurts
Imagine having the chance to run as state senator but because of bad financial management of your family business, you face the prospect of having to stand down. Well that's exactly what has happened to Joy Padgett, R-Coshocton.
Joy Padgett's aspiration as state senator has been temporarily halted because she has to explain her family’s $1.16 million of personal bankruptcy filing.
I don't want to go into the political aspects of this story, instead you can read it for yourself. There’s a lesson here for you as a small business owners.
If you run a small business it pays you to diversify your income – “don't put all your eggs in one basket.” Try to build more than one business to mitigate or reduce the risk of failure. This is critical if your pension is directly dependent on the success of your business. If one business fails, your pension is still safeguarded because you have other businesses to rely on.
You should also ensure you have good management in place to manage your business. Don't make the mistake in believing you have the all skills to manage a growing business. You must hire good people who have the range of skills to develop / expand your business.
Finally, develop a succession plan. This is vital if you want to manage your exit in an efficient manner that mitigates your tax liability and the handover of the business.
Statistically nearly eighty percent of small businesses fail within three years of starting up. The main reasons for failure are lack of cash and poor management.
Joy Padgett blames her family’s personal bankruptcy on the failure of Main Office Supply Co., the Coshocton-based small business she and her husband owned and operated for 30 years.
She said when every bit of her husband's retirement is built into the company and that is suddenly gone, it is a shock to your system.
Note: It's not enough to want to start a business and make money; you must be savvy enough to make your business a success and to extract the benefits of your hard work. Associate with winners, brainstorm with winners, hire the services of winners, hire good managers, continually tweak you game plan and know when to exit.
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2006
Business Startup News! Accelerating Trend of People Starting A Business After 9/11
The number of New Yorkers starting a business in the city rose to 719,986 from 554,204 between 2000 and 2004, a jump of 30%, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. A clear signal that the entrepreneurial passion and dreams of people in that city after the terror attacks has helped it to rebuild the economy.
"It reflects the dynamic and entrepreneurial character of the New York City economy," said Mitchell Moss, professor of Urban Policy and Planning at NYU's Wagner School.
A factor in the surge in people starting a business has been put down to the dot.com collapse and mergers post 9/11 that resulted in a big pool of talented people looking for work.
Experts who predicted that the city would never bounce back did not take account of the generation of risk takers who see owing their own business an advantage over a paid 9 to 5 corporate job.
As the World reflect and remember the life changing events of 9/11 this week there are hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs driving an increasingly dynamic post 9/11 economy.
Posted by David at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
