December « 2008 « Fresh Idea

29Dec/080

Personal Insurance

Just as there’s a need to insure your property against loss, there’s
an equal need to insure both yourself and your employees. Group health
and life insurance, a retirement plan, and key personnel insurance all
to do this. The need for these may seem a long way off, but more and
more small businesses are offering an employee benefits package that
includes health and life insurance as a way of retaining valued
personnel. If you decide to incorporate a retirement plan, too,
there’s another advantage. Contributions made to the plan for yourself
and your employees are deductible from your federal income tax.

Key personnel insurance, long a staple in the insurance portfolio of
major corporations, can be just as necessary for the small business
owner. key personnel insurance can at least ease the loss. The
proceeds from the insurance are exempt from income tax and payable
directly to the business. The policy itself has a cash value and may
be used as loan collateral.

Filed under: Business finance No Comments

25Dec/080

Business-Interruption Insurance

Many business owners fail to purchase business-interruption insurance
because they don’t think they need it. If a building burns down, they
think a standard fire insurance policy will suffice. But the loss of
business income during the months it takes to rebuild or about the
expenses that continue to mount up even though your doors are closed,
taxes, interest on loans, salaries, rent, utilities is maybe out of
your plan. You must realize that an fire insurance alone isn’t enough.

Only business-interruption insurance covers your fixed expenses and
expected profits during the time your business is closed down. Also,
make sure that the policy is written to provide coverage in the event
that your business isn’t totally shut down but is seriously disrupted.
Some policies pay off only in the event of a total shutdown. You
should also remember that an indirect peril could force you to suspend
operations as well. Protection against these hazards can be written
into your business-interruption policy, but you have to ask for it.

Filed under: Business finance No Comments

23Dec/080

Personal Selling

Personal selling involves more than just giving a sales presentation
and writing up the order. Today’s top salespeople whom the kind you
want to be or to have in your business are problem solvers. Equally
good at listening as talking, they are able to correctly identify
customers’ needs and match them to the products or services they sell.
Rather than assuming what customers want or pushing the products they
want to sell, the best salespeople find out what customers do want and
then show them how they can have it.
Like any skill, personal selling entails a set of steps that leads to
a successful outcome in this case, a satisfied customer. As shown
here, there are six steps in the selling process. What you and your
salespeople do at each step will directly affect your ability to make
individual sales, to get repeat sales and referrals, and to build a
positive image.

Many sales experts consider this to be the most important step in the
selling process the search for potential customers, to you can sell
your products or services. In developing a list of prospects through
customer referrals, contacts, market research, mailing lists, and so
on, your goal is to focus your attention on those who can be
considered good prospects. Whether you do prospecting alone or you
involve salespeople as well, it must be done. Good prospects are the
lifeblood of any business. To expand your customer base and raise
sales revenues, you need to actively seek out new customers.

Filed under: Success entrepreneur No Comments

16Dec/080

Promotional Strategy

Forming a business is much the same as inventing a new product. To
succeed, each needs to be promoted. You also have a pretty good idea
who your potential customers are. Knowing this much is half the
battle. Now, what’s left is to convert those potential customers into
satisfied customers. That’s where your promotional strategy comes in.

A promotional strategy is a game plan for reaching your target market,
those people most likely to use your product or service. At the
simplest, most direct level, your promotional strategy might consist
of relying on a sign in front of your door and the word-of-mouth
comments of your present customers. In some instances, if you’re in a
very small town, or if you offer unique products or services, or if
you have a long-standing reputation, for example, this tactic is
sufficient. Normally, though, customers need more to go on before they
are drawn to your business. The goal of your promotional strategy
should be to reach the greatest number of potential customers through
the most economical use of your resources. This entails using
advertising and publicity to tune in to those channels of
communication most widely used by your target customers. It also
involves working within the limits of a budget to achieve the desired
results. In this chapter, we first discuss the various media through
which you can advertise your business and then the ways you can use
publicity to promote your business.