Now that 2009 has come and gone and we’ve entered a new year, it’s time to set some goals. Have you thought about your small business goals for 2010?

Goalsetting is an important part of any small business, but it’s vitally important for marketing. That holds true for traditional marketing and for Internet marketing. You’ve got to know what you want to get accomplished and have some idea as to how you will go about accomplishing it. The best starting place place is where you’ve been.

The first thing to do in small business goalsetting is to analyze where you are now. What have you accomplished in the past year? Write down your three most noteworthy accomplishments.

Next, analyze your current situation and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Are there any weak areas you’d like to improve?

Write down three goals for 2010 and at the end of the year, be sure to measure your small business success.

Business finances are on everyone`s mind right now. With all the news about the economy, people are getting stressed out and worried, but that doesn`t have to be. A good small business still has more than enough room to grow, you just have to know how.

The Wealth Spa offers some excellent points on how to raise your income and improve your business finances, something everyone could use, no matter what the economic climate is like. Here are just a few of the points covered in the blog post.

Raise your prices: You might be surprised at how receptive people are to paying you more for the same thing!

Increase your net: Lower costs and increase income . . . it seems simple, but are you doing it?

Boost customer value: The more value you provide, the more likely your client is to keep buying from you.

The article goes into much more detail, but I think it`s important to realize that as small business owners, we are the ones responsible for how the business grows. If we are too stressed out and focused on the fact that people don`t have much disposable income . . . then our businesses will languish and die. Focus instead on improving your business finances and you`ll be amazed at how far you can go.

With the economic slowdown, it`s natural that people are starting to wonder about finance and banking. Small businesses tend to be particularly worried about this, especially those that have never weathered an economic downturn before.

Regardless of whether you are confident that things will be looking up shortly or if you are more pessimistic, it`s a good idea to understand just what is going on with your money and what the risks are. After all, 8 US banks have closed this year and have caused chaos throughout many businesses.

Entrepreneur.com offers some ideas for finding out just how safe your bank is:

• Seek financial advice. Hire a financial expert to give you advice and you`ll ease a lot of stress.
• Know your cash flow. Your money is insured for up to $100,000 and if you need more than that, you might need to take special precautions.
• Do your research. There is a lot of information available to business owners, but most of them just don`t take advantage of it.

Pay attention to your small business financial options and take preventative measures now to avoid losing everything in the event of a bank crash. It`s just common sense to protect your assets.

Time management. Just thinking about it makes us sick, doesn’t it? In truth, we need it. It’s necessary. It keeps us on track and makes us more efficient.

Greater business efficiency boils down to just one thing: How you spend your time. It’s the most important thing in business. Making money is good. You always want to make a profit. But if you lose revenue over a bad decision, you can always turn that around and increase your future revenue. You learn. You turn a loss into a gain. But if you lose time then you can’t get that back. That makes a time a bit more valuable than money, doesn’t it?

Small business owners are typically more strapped for time than their big corporation counterparts. Corporate executives usually have access to free training tools that help them become more efficient managers. Small business people, though we face the same challenges, are on our own. We’ve got to pay to play. Many of us feel that we can’t afford to shell out the dollars for the efficiency training, so we go on and on and on spending our time on things that don’t matter and in the process lose out on ROI. It’s one of the reasons many small businesses go down before the five year mark.

One tip I’d like to share for making your business day more efficient and allowing you get more done is this: Limitation. Grasp it.

Yes, I’m talking about limiting your activities. Let me explain:

Many of us, when we hear of the great new tool that everyone is using, rush over to give it a try. Some of us have so many social media accounts that we don’t use that if we started using them all then we’d only spend one day a month at each one, or less. Stop that!

The key to more efficiency is to learn what is truly important to your business and to focus on that. Do you need all those social media accounts? Maybe not. Maybe you just need one or two. Or maybe more, but who’s going to manage them?

There are two ways to increase your efficiency: Hire someone to handle the tasks that are eating up your time, and that costs money – although, it may not be a bad solution for some of you – or to limit the amount of time that you spend doing unnecessary things. In some cases I’d say hire someone and pay them $8-$10 per hour to handle those menial tasks that you shouldn’t be doing. In other cases, and in a lot of cases, I’d say cut out completely some of those things you are trying to do and just focus on the important ones. I’ll bet you get more done.

Here’s a good read on how to look at competing sites and analyze traffic using Compete.com and Google Trends. According to the author of this blog post, the real story is that Alexa is worthless. I’ll have to agree. It’s not very reliable. But for small business owners who want to analyze traffic trends and make decisions for their business based on real, and real helpful, data, I’d suggest the story here is that Google Trends is the tool to use.

One could conclude that it’s an either/or situation: Compete.com, since it is every bit as accurate as Google Trends, is just as viable a choice as Alexa or Google Trends. Except for one thing: Both Alexa and Google Trends are free.

Compete.com has a free version, but it’s very limited. If you want to get the kind of reporting that Daily Blog Tips is referring to then you’ll need to spring $199/month for the upgraded version. Otherwise, you’re stuck with free tools. As a free tool, Google Trends provides enough information for most small businesses to analyze their competition and get a leg up. While the data is never 100% accurate (but neither is Compete.com’s or any other tool’s, for that matter), Google Trends will give you enough of a broad overview that you can make competitive decisions about which keywords are most valuable and compare yourself to your biggest and most challenging competitors. If that’s your goal then you might as well go free.

Need a competitive analysis report?

The most important thing to remember when you are building a site for your business is that websites are now critical marketing tools. The days of static sites that simply present products or services are giving way to the Web 2.0 boom, and these types of sites are a critical sales vehicle for any type of business.

Finding a web professional who can build these interactive sites is essential for today’s competitive marketplace and they can help you build, develop and even market your business with ease. When you’re searching for the right web professional to join your team, here are the top ten questions to ask during the interview process:

1. Do they build for the search engines? Making sure your website is compliant with today’s SEO rules and regulations is a critical step for site construction. If a web professional isn’t keeping up to date with SEO guidelines you could be left with a less-than-stellar site that doesn’t get any exposure on the major search engines.
2. Do they check their work for W3C compliance? W3C compliance is another critical area for websites, and building a site with these rules and regulations in mind can also earn you high rankings on the search engines. This will save you coding work in the future, so make sure the candidate is aware of industry rules and can apply them to all of your projects.
3. Do they have Web 2.0 development skills? The days of static websites are long gone, and it’s essential that your web professional has the skills and experience to build a web 2.0-friendly site. Avoid getting left behind as the industry grows with the latest Web 2.0 developments; select someone who knows which direction the industry is growing and can help you build your business accordingly.
4. Do they understand your marketing concept? Building and designing a website in today’s competitive marketplace involves a thorough understanding of the market and sales. Your candidate should be able to understand your marketing goals and build something that attracts your target market appropriately. Remember, you need to build a site that sells to get the traffic and advertisers you need to build your business; can the web professional create a site with this goal in mind?
5. Do they have verifiable references? Checking work history is an important part of your interview process, and can help you learn more about the candidate’s work style, commitment to projects and deadlines, and the types of projects they’ve worked on.
6. Are they committed to ongoing education? Ongoing education is necessary for all professionals in your organization, especially with the rapidly changing world of the internet.
7. Will they provide you with the code of their projects? Even when you’re hiring a web professional permanently, you need to have access to their code and work at all times. If they end up leaving or are dismissed for any reason, you don’t want to have to start from scratch – make sure you back up all copies of their work and have access to their projects.
8. Can they sign a non-compete agreement? Making sure you don’t lose out on business opportunities is an important part of running a successful business; make sure they are willing to make a commitment to your company and sign a nondisclosure and non-compete agreement. It’s a simple step that can protect your business for the long-run.
9. Are they willing to train and lead a team? If you are planning on growing your business or outsource various projects, the web professional may be in charge of developing a system to allocate work. Are they willing to train and build a team, or will they only be working independently? Find out what type of commitment the candidate is willing to offer.
10. What type of programming experience do they have? While some web professionals do not need extensive programming experience, most will have basic programming knowledge that they can use to build and create a quality system, or even work with programmers and other designers. Check their qualifications for any certificates or other credentials to learn more about their educational experience.

Choosing the right web professional for your site can be challenging, but defining your goals and development plans can help you make a better decision. While every business needs a website, few business owners take the time to map out exactly how the site can help them build their business. Take the time to prioritize your goals, then set out to find the right web professional with these top ten questions.

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The Levels of Business Credit

Can Business Credit Make the Difference in Your Success?

Noreen King says, “I knew it was do or die” as she built her business, Evolve Manufacturing Technologies. In a recent article in the 25th anniversary issue of Inc. magazine (page 156) she talks about how stressful it was starting her own firm — and how she did it using her personal credit cards.

Clearly Noreen King had guts and good business sense to grow her company by 2,121% (yes, over two thousand percent) in the past three years. But she relied on her personal credit cards to get started, and perhaps it didn’t have to be that way.

One of the most frequent questions we hear from entrepreneurs who incorporate with us is, “How do I build business credit?”

While there is no single formula, there is a process that allows you to establish a solid business credit rating over time.

In our experience, we have found that small businesses are usually at one of three levels when it comes to building business credit:

Level One: Whatever It Takes

Many entrepreneurial businesses have no real business credit. They use whatever method of financing they can get. At Level One, they have bootstrapped it and used personal credit cards, loans from friends and family, equity from their home, etc. And they’ve taken some serious risks:

1. They are mixing business and personal credit which can create major headaches at tax time,
2. They have no asset protection whatsoever,
3. Their personal credit score may sink due to the level of debt they are carrying to fund their business. This can mean higher interest rates, even on existing credit card balances.

Level Two: Wising Up

At Level Two you begin separating your business credit from your personal credit. When you get credit cards, lines of credit or trade accounts, you apply for them in your business name. At Level Two, you still will likely have to personally guarantee those business loans or credit cards, but many will not be reported on your personal credit reports unless you default. Level Two Business Credit is still valuable, however, because it helps protect your own credit rating which can be affected by too much revolving debt.

Level Three: Established Business Credit

If you are serious about small business success, you will want to move to Level Three. That’s where your business establishes its own business credit, and as much as possible, keeps it completely separate from personal credit. At Level Three, you will have:

• Obtained credit with vendors and financial institutions that report to major commercial reporting agencies and paid them on time;
• Have an incorporated business for at least six months or, ideally, two years;
• Followed specific steps to ensure that your business appears stable and solid;
• Established strong credit profiles with the major business credit reporting agencies;
• Implemented accounting systems that allow you to generate financial statements as requested (preferably by a CPA);
• Have the ability to make a persuasive presentation to a lender or investor.
• Are using leases when appropriate to avoid debt that may make financing more difficult.

At Level Three you will find yourself with opportunities to borrow or lease without having to rely on your personal credit or provide personal guarantees. This, of course, is the level most business owners want to reach as quickly as possible. There is no magical formula or guaranteed shortcut for reaching Level Three, and some businesses may get there faster than others.

Even if you don’t plan to borrow, it is essential that building business credit becomes a part of your business from the start. Planning ahead is crucial. As former president John F. Kennedy said, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”

About the Author
Gerri Detweiler is considered one of the country’s top credit experts. She has been interviewed for thousands of radio, television and print news stories including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dateline NBC and many others. She has testified before Congress several times and worked on reform of the national credit reporting laws. With attorney and Rich Dad’s® advisor Garrett Sutton, she is co-founder of BusinessCreditSuccess.com.

Small Business Mavericks
Melberg Marketing

A lot of times customers ask me about things that are WAY out of my league as far as knowledge goes. One of those things is building your business credit. While I know enough to be dangerous, I’m no expert. That’s why I was so excited to meet my new friend Gerri Detwieler. Gerri specializes in building business credit and finance for business, and she’s agreed to do a teleclass just for my readers – stay tuned for more info on that soon! Here’s an article she published about how to build your small business credit rating.

Enjoy!

Caroline

Small Business Mavericks

Melberg Marketing

Building Your Business Credit Rating
By Gerri Detweiler
BusinessCreditSuccess.com

While bootstrapping your business and taking on no debt may be ideal, the reality is that most small businesses will borrow at some point to grow their enterprise, or even to get through a tough time. If you are an entrepreneur, the question will probably not be whether you will borrow, but whether you will do it successfully.

Fact #1: Small business credit reports are not always completely separate from personal credit scores.

You may have heard that small business and personal credit are completely separate. They can be. Some of the business credit bureaus, such as D&B and Credit.net, for example, do not collect information on individuals’ personal credit histories, so that information will not become part of the businesses’ credit score. But agencies such as Experian and Equifax also collect and maintain consumer’s personal credit ratings, and they may blend that information with the business’s credit score to produce a combined score for a small business owner.

You may have also seen marketing hype about how a business credit profile can overcome a bad personal credit file. In most cases, however, it’s important that small businesses have both good business credit, as well as solid personal credit on the part of the owners. This is especially true in the current environment where investors and venture capitalists aren’t handing money out to anyone who can breathe and has a business idea! Even established businesses will find it necessary in some cases to provide the business owner’s personal guarantees on some loans or credit cards.

That means small business owners must be diligent about protecting and maintaining and optimizing their personal as well as business credit ratings.

Fact #2: The Paydex® Score isn’t the only score lenders use.

If you have researched business credit programs, you have probably seen them refer to the Paydex Score offered by D&B. While it is true that this is one important industry credit score, it is not the only game in town. In fact, there are lenders that will never use a Paydex score to evaluate your loan. They will rely on other credit reports and scores offered through Experian, SBFE, Equifax and other business credit bureaus. Some lenders report to one bureau, but not to others.

Knowing where you stand with each business credit agency is helpful if you are trying to borrow.

Fact #3: Paying your bills on time is not enough to guarantee strong business credit.

One company came to us after they had created a successful business, with over twenty employees. But they couldn’t get a business loan because they hadn’t taken the time to build a business credit profile and didn’t know where to start.

To build business credit, you must borrow or buy products and services from companies that will report your payments to the major business credit reporting agencies. If your payment history is not reported, it isn’t helping to build your business credit profile.

In addition, however, business owners should make sure they also have strong financial data about their company, for when it becomes necessary to ask a bank or financial institution for a loan. A business plan will also be helpful here.

If you understand what lenders are looking for, and approach a lender with a complete and well thought out proposal, you have a much stronger chance of getting approved.

Fact #4: When it comes to building business credit, you will want to get it right the first time.

Business credit reports are not covered by the federal law that governs personal credit reports. You do not have the same rights when it comes to disputing the accuracy of information in your file. Therefore, you want to make sure you start out on the right foot, or it can be difficult to get corrections or updates made to improve your rating.

And the sooner you start, the better. For example, one bank was recently offering “no documentation” loans to businesses that were at least two years old. A business that had a two -year history, regardless of how successful it was, would likely qualify. And the longer your business has been established, the stronger its chances of approval since so many fail in the first two years.

Even if your business will make no money the first year or two, it helps to set up the proper business structure and take basic steps to ensure your business appears legitimate and stable to the business credit bureaus. That means getting the proper occupational licenses, and a phone number that is listed with directory assistance in the businesses’ name, among other things. Your business will generally need some form of corporate structure to effectively build a business credit rating.

Your business credit plan should be part of your business planning from the beginning.

Fact #5: The small business owner is a sitting duck for scams, and expensive programs that may not be necessary or may even be harmful.

As a small business owner, you wear many hats and you probably don’t have the time or money to waste on programs that don’t work. But there are many expensive business credit-building programs out there that make exaggerated promises. Among some of the most egregious examples:

• Don’t try to “buy” good credit! Some companies will offer to “sell” trade references for a large sum of money. This is a rip off and if the credit reporting agencies find out, they will purge those references.
• Don’t spend large sums of money on a shelf corporation from a company that “guarantees” you will be able to use it to get loans. More often than not, the company won’t have the kind of credit rating you’ll need to be successful.
• Don’t try to get business credit as a substitute for bad personal credit. If you have damaged personal credit, work on rebuilding it while you’re building business credit.

Entrepreneurs are usually hard-working, creative and willing to get the job done. Fortunately, those are the same qualities that will help you through the process of building strong business credit. Get started now!

About the Author
Gerri Detweiler is considered one of the country’s top credit experts. She has been interviewed for thousands of radio, television and print news stories including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dateline NBC and many others. She has testified before Congress several times and worked on reform of the national credit reporting laws. With attorney and Rich Dad’s® Advisor Garrett Sutton, she is co-founder of BusinessCreditSuccess.com.