Small Biz Flash

Small business owners, have you ever tried sending out a press release about a new product or an event at your company, just to hear crickets chirping in response?  On today’s show, we’ll talk with an experienced PR professional about why most press releases flop, and what you can do to actually get results the next time you send a press release out to your community.

Today’s guest is Claire Angelle, Founder of Angelle Con...

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Small business owners, do you pay yourself a below-market wage to keep your business profitable?  Or maybe you take draws, but they might be sporadic and of varying amounts?  On today’s show, we’ll talk with an experienced accounting professional about how this practice is hurting your business and how you can fix your own compensation structure.

Today’s guest is Sharon Sheekey, Accounting Division Directo...

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Small business owners, have you ever considered buying out a competitor to expand your own company’s capabilities and customer base?  On today’s show, we’ll talk with a lending expert about how you can finance a business acquisition at up to 100% of the purchase price using an SBA loan.

Today’s guest is Laurence Leopold, SBA Senior Business Development Officer at IncredibleBank:
Laurence’s email:  lleo...

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Google Trends is a powerful and completely free tool from Google that can help you stay ahead of the curve.  It will help you understand your customers, and can inform decision making on marketing, research & development, and more.

Google Trends:
https://trends.google.com/

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NEWS ROUNDUP

1 - The economy continues to be the #1 concern among small business owners, ...

NEWS ROUNDUP

1 - Small business owners continue to grapple with economic uncertainty, according to the National Federation of Independent Business’ Small Business Optimism Index.
https://www.nfib.com/content/press-release/economy/small-business-owners-expectations-for-higher-sales-declined-in-january/

2 - Many small businesses are still unaware of the new Beneficial Ownership rule from the Treasury Department that went ...

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The Department of Labor (DOL) has finalized its new independent contractor rule.  There are six factors that you must use to determine if a worker is a contractor or an employee.

The final rule goes into effect on March 11, 2024.

Misclassifying employees as independent contractors can result in lawsuits and penalties, among other costs.

DOL’s Small Entity Compliance Guide to the new rule:...

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A fractional chief operating officer, or a FCOO, can help you make your business life wonderful, getting you back to doing what you love in the business, which is likely not overseeing the daily operational tasks.

* How to know when it is time to hire a fractional COO.
* How a fractional COO helps you as the business owner.
* What a fractional COO brings to the table.

Recommended reading: ...

NEWS ROUNDUP

1 – There’s reason for optimism about the economy in 2024, and that’s good news for small businesses.
https://www.wsj.com/economy/what-to-watch-in-fridays-spending-report-inflation-closing-in-on-feds-target-0778037d
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/26/the-us-avoided-a-recession-in-2023-whats-the-outlook-for-2024.html
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/01/business/5-reasons-to-be-optimistic-about-the-2024-econ...

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* What is the different between public relations and marketing?
* What are the three tactics for PR?
* How does a small business get publicity?  How does the owner, who is usually the primary salesperson, get publicity?
* How much of your knowledge and information is it OK to share?

Today’s guest is Claire Angelle, Founder of Angelle Consulting:
Claire’s email:  claire@angelleconsulting.com...

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You’re probably familiar with Small Business Administration loans.  SBA loans, as they are commonly called, are partially backed by the federal government.

But there are other resources the SBA offers, some of which aren’t well known, which can benefit your company.  We’re going to discuss just a few today.

THRIVE
https://www.sbathrive.com/

Assistance for small businesses with procuri...

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To get the right candidates, you need to alight the job description with the actual need for the position.

Also, avoid giving your candidates a poor experience in the overall process from interviewing to onboarding.

Finally, don’t hire reactively, i.e., for short-term needs.  Think about your long-term needs instead.

Today’s conversation is based on the blog post, “8 Things That Can Cause...

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Today, we continue our discussion of the book “Raving Fans” by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.  To create raving fans, the business must create a vision of the customer experience, but then, it must invite the customers themselves into the vision casting process.

Not everything the customers want will necessarily be a part of the final vision, but listening to customers is key.  Once customers’ vision ha...

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To have a truly thriving business, one essential element is a customer base who are wildly enthusiastic about what your company offers, so much so, in fact, that they eagerly tell their family, friends, and neighbors.

In their book “Raving Fans,” Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles explain how having merely satisfied customers just doesn’t cut it.  Today, we’re going to unpack some of the book’s ideas and tal...

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Every small business has different insurance needs, but almost all will need General Liability coverage.  And many will also need coverage included in a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP).

Other types of insurance could include Workers' Compensation, Employers Liability, Cyber Liability, Commercial Auto, and Errors and Omissions (aka Professional Liability).

Today’s guest is Jack Smith, of Valor I...

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Ranking high in search engines results, especially on Google, is a concern of most small businesses.  There are a few basic things you can do to help your site be found, like consistently creating good content (but you don’t have to write a blog post every day or even every week) and fully utilizing Google Business Profile.

ChatGPT can help you create content, but don’t depend on it to get you 100% of the ...

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The Department of Homeland Security issued a new Form I-9, also known as the Employment Eligibility Form, on August 1.  If you have employees, you need to be completing an I-9 on every new hire and should have already completed an I-9 for every existing employee.  Penalties for non-compliance are stiff.

Today’s guest is Karen Moss, of Innovative Outsourcing:

Karen’s email:  kmoss@innovative-outsou...

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Many small businesses already have a CRM in place, but these platforms can be very robust, and you’re probably not taking full advantage of the functionality available to you.

If don’t already have a CRM, some of the most popular for small companies include HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Monday Sales CRM, Insightly, and Pipedrive, to name a few.

Other than storing contact information and running your email ne...

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After you’ve completed the hard work of developing, deploying, and promoting your lead magnet, you’re still not done.  The leads have started to come in, but what’s next?  In most cases, you’ll need to start an email marketing campaign to continue the conversation with prospects where the lead magnet left off and to invite them into an offer to do business with you.

Be sure you don’t run afoul of anti-spam...

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Once you have developed a solid lead magnet, you want as many prospects as possible to interact with your valuable offer.  You need to promote the lead magnet through a variety of channels.

You must first create a landing page for the lead magnet to direct prospects back to, where they will fill out a form with their contact information.

Then, you can use your web site, social media, emailers, pai...