Business Exposure

In our last blog we talked about setting up your corperation and start to network your business.  You have heard me say," It All Starts With The Sale".  So, the first thing to do is get all the exposure you can, as quick as you can. The more people know you, the more business you will get. I found a way to reach more people when I owned a mortgage company. This business is very competitive. So, I looked for an edge, it was radio. Now, there are a lot of ways to go into radio. You can just do ads. I went a step further by getting a weekly radio call in show. A lot of stations have   "Ask  the Experts" shows on the weekends.  It's important to find the strongest station in your area, One with the largest listening audience. I found  that talk  radio  stations are best, rather then a music station. Music stations have a shorter listening time then talk  radio stations. Check demographics of the station, make sure they fit into what  you sell. If you sell, home improvements, you want to be sure the listeners own homes. Make sure the station you want to go with has a good reputation, been on the air for a log period of time,(earned listeners),who keep that station  set on their car radio. 
 Compare your costs for the show against the business you get, do it  monthly!  If done right, the show could bring you great rewards, it did for me. I became a local celebrity, people knew me from the show. When they needed a mortgage, I was the first called.
Whether you go this way or not, get the word out on your business as soon as you can!


Your Business Guru


John  


John can be reached  jg@beltwaydevelopment.com 

Business Basics

I want to get into some basics to start a new business. What to do first. Have a good business plan, in writing. Set up a budget. Check out state and local licensing. If you live in a city , you may have licensing requirements for  the county as well. To incorporate your business go to www.sunbiz.org in Florida, find the one in your state. I would look at an LLC, Limited Liability Corp. You can do this on line , not a lot of money. Also look into getting your sales tax number, and fed  tax no. Do you have an accountant? find a good CPA, NOT a tax company. ( If you need to borrow money in the future, the bank will want to see who handles your taxes, they will ALWAYS want a CPA).  Now, you are ready to start. The next thing to do is get business! Learn how to network. join  the local chamber of commerce. Go to online sites that promote your kind of business.  Try, Linkedin, Facebook,etc. Video yourself and put it on U TUBE.  These networking sites will get the word out about your new business.  Set up a marketing plan, where to advertise,and what form of advertising, radio, TV, newspaper, magazine. Check prices, see what  works for you.  Remember, "It all starts with the sale"!  This is where you will need the most money in your budget.
Be prepared , do all this upfront, then you can hit the ground running. You can email me with questions at jg@beltwaydevelopment.com. This is very exciting, good luck!


Your Business Guru


John

The European Effect

What does Europe's problems have to do with small business? I think most people wouldn't give this a thought, but, they should! Today, we live in a global market.  What happens in Europe, effects us here. With the election coming up, who you vote for will determine the future of our country.  Do you want to stay an independent capitalistic form of government,(like we have) or become a honorary member of the European Union. This European social democrat model will have a large effect on opening and running a small business. In that scenerio, the government has too much control on your outcome. If you take a closer look at Europe, you will see their system failing.  They have too much government, too many regulations, too high taxes, too many government jobs and not enough private business. Big government feeds on itself.  It needs more money to grow.  Then as it gets bigger, it needs more money to maintain it's size. As you have seen, in the past three years, it could get out of control. That's what happened in Europe. So, as their prices go up, so do ours. The cost of money changes due to their large debt, the cost of materials go up. We buy and sell to the whole world, if they are in trouble, they cannot buy our products. As our debt and taxes grow here, we price ourselves out of competition. 


Starting a new business today is a little different then it was 20 years ago, a lot more to it. The good news is that, as a small business you can find the same clients as a large business through the internet. You can compete with the whole world with your product.


If you pay attention to world events, you can see that this is an exciting time to open your own business!


Happy New Year


Your Business Guru


John