5 Tips to Help Small Business Owners in a Struggling Economy

Recession. It’s an ugly little word on the mouths of everyone in our country. The economy is struggling and as such, small business owners are feeling the brunt of the falling dollar. Out Of Business signs are becoming more and more rampant, and that leaves small business owners to wonder, what can I do to save my livelihood?

Times are tough. But there are important business strategies businesses owners can take during these times to ride it out in hopes of calmer seas. Below are 5 tips for business owners to be considered:

-Don’t Set and Forget

All businesses, big and small, have to make goals. Goals help drive your business into the next phase and keep things moving forward. We all have days where it feels like we are cleaning up one mess after another with no real sense of direction. But it is vital that we have a long in mind, to keep things on track. The biggest mistake most small business owners make, is they set and forget. They pick a goal, but don’t set forth any motion to achieve it. A goal without a plan of action, or due date is like getting on a plane without a destination. Sure, you’re plane is going somewhere, but you have no control over where…and more importantly…HOW that plane is going to land. There is some food for thought. The recipe for success is Goal + Action = Achievement. Set a goal, and a date to reach it by. Get a plan together to make it happen.

Image is Everything

How you look is how people judge you. Period. It’s not pretty but it’s the truth. Businesses that present a professional image seem more trustworthy and therefore, it is easier for customers to feel good investing their money in your products. The economy is tight on everyone’s pockets. So an ace in the hole for competing businesses is simple: Look better than the other guy. Offer a good product, and present it well. Make your customers feel safe and secure in purchasing from you. Taking the time to maintain a professional, and well kept business shows that you take it seriously, which encourages your customers to do the same.

A few good tips to consider for maintaining the proper image are: Phone etiquette. Make sure all employees are trained to answer the phone in the appropriate manor. Dress Code. This can vary widely depending on your business, but bear in mind what you would want to see if you were a customer at your store. Customer Service. Insure that all employees who deal with customers have proper training. If a customer has a good experience, they may tell 3 people. If they have a bad one, they’ll tell 7 to 10. Maintaining a good report with your customer is paramount.

Publicity Matters!

You’ve got a great product. You’ve got a wonderful business, offering competitive deals. But you’ve got no customers. It doesn’t matter how amazing your business is, if no one knows about it, you’ll never make any money with it.

During this hard economic time, many people have found internet marketing to be an excellent way to capitalize on their publicity efforts for the lowest cost. Using the internet as a marketing tactic can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but with a few simple guidelines you could see a huge R.O.I. First and foremost, invest the time and money to get a professional looking website and make sure it is search engine friendly. If people can’t find your site, they’ll never find your business. Also, consider taking advantage of small business support.By doing this it will help interaction between you and the customers.

Peer Groups

Being the owner of a small business can be a struggle. You work long hours, worry over details, and have the responsibility of your employees’ livelihood on your plate. There are times when you feel like no one understands your daily struggles. But there are people who do: other business owners. By joining, and becoming active in a peer group for business owners, you can interact with other people who understand the daily fight you face. Not only is this a great tool for your personal health, it can help grow your business. Organizations like The Alternative Board provide small groups and a moderator. These groups meet and discuss their business models, plans, and goals. Other business owners in the group can then offer advice, or tips to help you see those goals become reality. Take advantage of other people’s knowledge and experience, while offering up your own. There are many TAB boards locations, and certainly one near you.

Schedule Time for YOU

You’re the hardest working person at your business. You work through lunch to catch up on paper work. You squeeze a few hours in after close to get organized for tomorrow, and you spend your weekends in front of a computer screen instead of at the park with the kids. This is the price we pay to own our own business. But remember time is constant. It’s our perception of time that changes. We’ve all had those days when the clock moves so slow it feels like it’s going backwards. And we’ve all had those days when we glance at the clock and then a few seconds later it’s the end of the day. Time didn’t change, how you looked at it did.

Studies show that taking half and hour, to an hour break daily helps to clear your mind, revitalize you and get you ready to deal with stress. So whatever it is you enjoy doing, be it a brisk walk, reading, a short nap, listen to music…do it every day. Schedule it into your day and stick to it like you would a meeting with a client. The benefits in your overall health and attitude will more than exceed the time invested. Remember you are the most important person in your business; make sure you take time to enjoy it.

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Starting catering business can be an overwhelming task. One must be very organized and willing to work long and hard hours. Then why do it you ask? Because the rewards are priceless.

*Get paid for something you love to do
*Make tons more money than being an employee
*Gain respect owning our own business
*Self gratification seeing people delighted with your food, presentation, and service.

Now that you are aware of the benefits it’s time to get to work. The starting point before starting a catering business or any business for that matter, is research and development. Find out what catering you will do. Corporate catering or social catering. Personally, I would recommend a combination of both. Using this approach should keep you busy since most corporate catering is done during business hours and social catering is done in the evening and weekends.

Deciding what type of menus you would like to serve is another important decision. This decision is made on two key factors. First being personal ability: Only you can answer this question? How much experience do you have and what do you feel comfortable preparing? The second is involved around research. Find out what your competition is doing. What is popular in your area, and what has been overlooked? Can you create a nook for yourself?

I can’t emphasize enough about sizing up your competition. Find out what they are serving. How much they are charging and what their presentation looks like. Chances are, you will be bidding against them at some point. The more you know about them, the more competitive you can be and still make a profit at the end of the day.

One of the most difficult stumbling blocks to overcome is marketing. You can have the best food, service and price point around but if nobody knows about your business…Well, you know the rest of the story. This can be especially hard if your Starting your own home catering business. There are a few ways to overcome this predicament.

I recommend joining your local Chamber of Commerce and participating in all their networking functions. They also provide you with all the contact information of its members which means leads for you.involving yourself in any network club is an inexpensive way to get your name out there. I also recommend getting in contact with event facilities and trying to get on their list of vendors. If they like you, they will use you. Contacting Wedding and Event Planners is another great way to network.

Hands down the best way to drum up business is take samples of your food to potential customers. Call them up and ask if you could make an appointment to discuss your services and would like to bring them lunch.

Eventually, the ideal situation would be to hire a salesperson to perform this task for you. You simply won’t have time. They are generally paid a small salary plus commission. This is the most efficient way I have found to get new and repeat business.

Don’t forget your customer once you provide catering services for them. Stay in touch with them, especially corporate accounts. Business accounts are continuously getting menus from people, once you get in, keep your name in front of them via phone, e-mail, postcards, etc.

Remember to research your markets, always be networking and don’t be afraid to ask for business. Good luck in all your endeavors and may you find your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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How to Get Free One Way Backlinks Virally

One way backlinks is one of the best and most effective ways to get high positions in search engines and milk these positions for targeted traffic. But getting quality one way links is a big job.

Free Traffic System is a new project that helps you to get top quality one way links for free – unlimited number of one way links, because you build as many as you need. Moreover, Free Traffic System has integrated a brand new concept of viral marketing, rewarding its members with bonus one way links.

Before getting to the viral part of the project, it is important to explain where exactly you are getting these backlinks. The backlinks are built inside real blog posts, not in the footer or blogroll – in the very body of the real, unique blog post. This is the most safe way to build one way links, because you give real unique content to the visitors in the blog posts and search engines will always welcome it – search engines were created to help people in finding quality information in the Internet.

You get backlinks from relevant sites that belong to real people in different niches. Natural, safe and smart way to build backlinks for free. You submit one article to Free Traffic System and it converts into up to 60 top quality one way backlinks! And – unlike traditional article marketing – no one will delete your backlinks from the article, like they do when stealing your content from article directories.

The viral part of Free Traffic System is simple – they reward people for bringing others into this free project. You are receiving a BONUS backlink on every 3rd post that people whom you referred to Free Traffic System are making. This means you get bonus backlink on article No 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, etc. of all people who got into the system via the affiliate link.

As every article can be republished on up to 30 sites in Free Traffic System, this means that one article with your bonus link equals to 30 backlinks from Free Traffic System. 2 articles = 60 bonus backlinks, 3 articles = 90 bonus backlinks. And this is in addition to the unlimited backlinks that you can build inside Free Traffic System yourself.

And the final perk of the viral strategy. If you add at least one WordPress blog to Free Traffic System, they instantly increase the number of bonus backlinks by 7%.

So, in Free Traffic System you get:

- free backlinks that you build yourself
- viral bonus backlinks for affiliating people into the project
- viral bonus backlinks for adding your blog(s) to Free Traffic System

With this free backlink building power targeted traffic from search engines becomes just a matter of time.

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