United States Charity

Hannah Callen asked:


The FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) released their New Year’s message indicating that the government’s strategy to face the credit crisis in 2009 should begin by helping smaller firms avoid having to face closure due to late payments, an expected decline in trade and increased difficulty in accessing financial help for the year to come. The message continues to say that the government should present a light legislative programme for 2009 and a Budget focused on “getting the economy running again”.

John Wright, Chairman of the FSB points out that small business represent over half of the private sector turnover and that the innovative, enterprising and flexible nature of these businesses will help see the UK out of recession in 2009 and into recovery. Consumers will also play an important role in the New Year and will be urged to Keep Trade Local, this also goes for government departments and local authorities who shouldn’t let their global thinking stop them from buying locally.

The FSB New Year’s message calls for an extension of the Small Business Finance scheme into a wider business loan guarantee, access to working capitals to help with cash flow problems and guaranteed overdraft facilities. John Wright also indicates that bank managers lacking experience in dealing with a recession must undergo training to reduce the risk of having to close their offices unnecessarily and points out that there are 10,500 branches in the UK that could be affected by this lack of preparation.

One of the main concerns for small business in 2009 will be that of late payment from their service consumers as this would affect their cash flow and, in turn, their ability to pay business credit card balances on time. This is why the FSB has released the Prompt Payment Code; its purpose is to provide policies related to the payment of “B2B” bills focusing mainly on 3 areas:

- Paying suppliers on time; following terms previously agreed by their contract, without changing payment terms retrospectively or on unreasonable grounds.

- Providing suppliers with clear guidance; giving suppliers easily accessible guidance on payment procedures and a system for dealing with complaints and disputes whilst also ensuring suppliers are promptly advised of reasons why an invoice wouldn’t be paid in time.

- Encouraging good practice; requesting main suppliers to implement the code of practice down their own supply chains.

With many high street retailers closing down, it’s important to take precautions to avoid a similar fate. Considering that some companies rely greatly on the capital buffer coming from their business credit card, it’s important to take some measures to ensure it can still be relied upon in 2009. To avoid jeopardising your credit or being hit by higher rates you can resort to online banking to pay your business credit card balance in time, no matter where you are, find a low or 0 percent interest credit card and consider transferring some of your existing balance into it. In general, avoid leaving balances unpaid as low rate credit cards may prove harder to come by in the New Year.

Business Local Listings asked:


Many small business owners have been disappointed when their applications for small business loans were disapproved by banks under the Small Business Administration’s program for America’s Recovery Capital. According to an article written by Robb Mandelbaum in the August 12, 2009 edition of The New York Times Online, “the program is off to a slow start.” It seems that most banks are reluctant to approve applications for small business loans.

Mandelbaum reports that the Small Business Administration’s program has $255 million to give away, enough to give small businesses 10,000 loans reaching as much as $35,000 each. However, two months after the program was launched, there have only been 1,127 small business loans released, with a total of $36.8 million.

Sources are saying that banks are not very keen on participating in the Small Business Administration’s program because giving the small business loans would not be very profitable for them. Paul Merski,.chief economist of the trade association Independent Community Bankers of America, said, “There’s not a lot of profit motive in a $35,000 loan stretched over six years.” Bob Seiwert from the Center for Commercial Lending and Business Banking at the American Bankers Association reveals that, because of strict underwriting standards, servicing the small business loans becomes even more expensive.

The banks have also found more ways to restrict the approval of small business loans with the Congressional restrictions on loan eligibility. According to Congress, in order to qualify for the Small Business Administration loans, small businesses need to be both struggling and viable. That means the business should have had an “immediate financial hardship” such as a 20 percent decrease in revenue. However, the business must also be at least two years old with proof of positive cash flow in one of the previous two years. It should also submit a two year cash-flow projection proving that it will be able to afford loan payments.

Because of the Congressional restrictions, banks are more likely to approve small business loans from their existing clients. Merski said, “From a financial perspective, it really is a loan that makes sense for an existing customer. You’re not going to have to put out a lot of resources to do a very costly underwriting. You know the business.”

Those who are working in support of small businesses are very much disillusioned. An example is Alex Cooper who is a counselor at the Pima Community College Small Business Development Center in Tucson. He said he had assisted almost 30 small business owners with their loan applications but none of them had been approved. “It’s a disappointment. I thought the banks would be more interested in the community and try to help small businesses,” he said.

When the applications for small business loans are disapproved by banks under the Small Business Administration’s program for America’s Recovery Capital, small business owners still have another option. They can get the equivalent of small business loans from their credit card services.

Credit card services provide their clients with the ability to accept payments through credit cards or debit cards in person, online or through the phone. Clients who have established a certain minimum in average monthly credit card sales are qualified to apply for cash advances that are like small business loans. Payments are automatically deducted from future credit card sales.

If you are a small business owner, you do not have to go through the hassles of applying for small business loans with banks who are reluctant to participate in the Small Business Administration program. Get your trouble free small business loans from your credit card services instead.

Wendy Maki asked:


The traffic statistics page for Robert’s new small business web site starts to load. He scrolls down the page, dismayed. Just one or two visitors daily. Robert sits back and sighs. Most were probably curious friends and family.

When his internet-savvy nephew suggested promoting his small business on the Internet, Robert designed a simple but attractive five-page small business web site. He added meta-tags and keywords, and waited for the search engines.

Robert wonders, “What now?”

Robert’s experience is common among small businesses getting started on the Internet. He has just faced the first big lesson for a small business web site: the web site is not enough. Unlike the weekly advertisement Robert places in the local paper, he needs to promote the web site itself. In a sense, he needs to advertise the advertisement.

What Robert doesn’t realize is that he already has the most valuable asset a small business can leverage online — knowledge and experience. Anyone who runs a small business off-line is an expert on something that other people would like to know about. Writing articles can turn that knowledge into targeted traffic. Article writing is the ideal free method for a small business to promote itself on the Internet.

Every small business has expertise it can share in 500-1,000 word bites. A landscaper could write about the uses for different kinds of turf grass. A window installer can describe new types of energy-efficient windows. A home cleaning service can provide cleaning tips.

Customers ask Robert five questions repeatedly. He can easily write five simple articles to answer them. Then, he just needs to add a “resource box” which advertises and links to his web site.

Robert can also include a few of his web site’s keywords in each article, and, if possible, in his resource box. Robert’s business depends on local customers. Including his city’s name in anecdotes within the articles, or in the resource box, can help his articles to appear in local searches for that city.

Robert would start by uploading his article to a new web page. This gives visitors more to read — and starts to establish Robert as an expert. More importantly, the article becomes “spider bait” for the content-loving search engines to find and index.

He could stop there, but his new article gives him a more valuable opportunity to promote his site.

Next, Robert can offer his article to other web sites. Most article directories accept submissions of articles. They offer those articles for others to use in newsletters or on web sites. A quick search for “article directory” will yield a sizable list of sites that accept article submissions.

Prepared, with a simple text file ready to copy and paste, it takes just minutes to submit an article to an article directory site. Once posted, the article provides a link to Robert’s site. Other webmasters may reprint his article, also linking to his site.

Article marketing is viral, multiplying the links — and visitors — to the author’s site each time an article is republished. Just one popular article can attract a growing number of information-hungry visitors as the article spreads across the Internet.

Many article directories also include new articles in RSS feeds and e-mail announcements to their lists. Robert doesn’t even need his own e-mail list or feed to advertise his web site to readers of his article.

Finally, if Robert has more time, he can search for “ezine directories” to find newsletters that accept articles and offer his article directly to them. If he is willing to spend some money, he could use article submission services.

Over time, the growing number of links to a web site can improve its “link popularity” and Page Rank. As the site rises in the search engine rankings, it attracts even more visitors.

Articles spread those all-important links across the Internet without the tedious process of sending out link exchange requests (often declined or ignored). Better still, webmasters who reprint articles rarely ask for reciprocal links back to their own sites.

The benefit of writing an article builds over time, yet articles require no ongoing maintenance once they are written and submitted. Other options like newsletters, blogs, and forums can demand more upkeep than a small business can afford.

Best of all, articles can remain up on web sites indefinitely, driving free traffic immediately — and long-term. Most other kinds of advertising stay posted only as long as they are paid for. An article’s “views,” “reprints,” and “click-throughs” can increase — without increasing advertising costs.

Writing articles is a powerful way to leverage a small business’ expertise, transforming it into traffic. The currency of the Internet, information, makes advertising a small business web site affordable. Promoting with articles can jump-start the online presence of a small business and continue to market it for a long time to come.

(c) 2006 Wendy Maki

May be reprinted in email newsletters and on web sites. Must be unedited and include the resource box. All other rights reserved.

Marty Shmanka asked:


Professional website designers pride themselves on creating a visually attractive piece of work. It is actually a very unique skill set brought on by the internet where a website designer needs to not only know about what looks good and works smooth, but also the variety of programming languages behind designing a website. A website these days can be powered by not only HTML, but XHTML, CSS, Perl, ASP, VBScript, Java, Javascript, SQL and of course FLASH.

Flash programming, now more than 10 years old was first developed by an ingenious company called Macromedia which is now owned by once rival, Adobe. The value of FLASH is its ability to deliver multimedia motion graphics for animation and interaction on the web but using the least amount of memory possible, thus making its programmers highly sought-after for upper-end website construction.

So as a small business owner you may have run into a “FLASHY” website in your surfing travels and been in awe (ok, jealous) of how great they look. Well the thing is really, I have seen thousands of small business websites with expensive Flash programming and immediately thought to myself, “What a complete waste of money!”

Creating and designing your small business website using all the latest software, enhanced graphics and in depth programming will almost certainly lead you to eventually lose interest in your own website, commit you to future invoice headaches for every little update you need to make, and cluster your website with a slew of others in your market that are equally as glamorous as they are ineffective.

You do not need a glamorous, gadget-filled website to get a customer to sign up for your email newsletter. You need an incentive. Surfers (potential customers) might be impressed with your website, but you will never impress them more than the next business which has one-upped you, yet again in the Flash department. It’s just a silly waste of time and money. Surely as a small business owner you can see through that.

Give your prospective customer a reason to be interested. In exchange for their email address you can send them a dinner-for-two coupon if you are a restaurant. You can offer them a 15 point safety check on their next oil change. You can catch their interest with a set of free labels for their wine making project. You can offer a free wash and dry with next hair cut. The bottom line is you have to put a financial incentive out there for them because once you have their contact information the likelihood of that web-surfer becoming your customer one day soon is radically multiplied.

Therein lies your distinct advantage over your competition. Their website may be full of bells and whistles, but yours is full of profit.

anonymous asked:


Many couples are pursuing joint careers and also trying to raise a family. Unfortunately the demands of family life get in the way of these careers and suffer as a result. Many moms and dads have made the choice to make their families the priority and as a result have had to give up their careers. There are other choices that also have flexibility built in which allow both to coexist. We will review this concept in more detail throughout this article.

You are in a staff meeting with your boss and suddenly the phone rings. One of your children needs help at school or day care. Of course there is no hesitation, since your family comes first, you leave the meeting to deal with the situation at hand. As you are leaving, you glance at your boss who is wondering why you have rudely left his or her meeting. You wonder, will this be held against me? Will my next raise or promotion be delayed? Will that plum assignment go to the next person?

Many people have experienced this situation and realize that families come first and they just have to take their lumps as they come, negotiating the best deal they can relative to employment, raises and promotion.

A small business on the other hand offers much more flexibility, especially one that you operate out of your home. There is flexibility regarding when you do your work as long as you meet your customers deadlines. Now you can take the kids to school, dentist and doctor appointments without a seconds thought. Catching up can be done anytime, even after the kids have gone to bed. This flexibility provides many people with much more peace of mind and an overall improved quality of life, which is almost unknown for the corporate employee.

There is a down side, which must be managed of course. With your office in the next room, there can be a tendency to work longer hours even if they are early morning or late at night. Many small business owners, while enjoying the flexibility they have to work when they want actually find that they are working more hours than the average employee would. Finding the right balance between your personal life and work life is always a challenge even for those folks who enjoy the flexibility of running a small business out of their homes.

The best part of course is that you are the boss and when one of your children calls, there is no hesitation to help out and certainly no concern about what the boss is going to be thinking!

Mani Malarvannan asked:


The main two types of accounting process i.e. accounting payment and accounting receiving are always same. It doesn’t matter to the size of the company. Since this process deals with cash so it should be treated with extra care. Though in this generation there are lot of modern gadgets like online bill payments, which save the company’s employees from long tiresome paper work for making invoice but it could not remove it totally. “Still today 80% invoice is done on papers” says the Aberdeen Group research report. This count is more for small business.

Features of Account Data Capture Software

Account Data Capture Software developed by different companies like Kofax , ReadSoft , AnyDoc and Abbyy converts all the paper based invoices, checks, bills, and other documents into data to sent to the accounting or ERP systems. This software has really increased the efficiency of the accounts department of big companies. But small company cannot use this software because of its price and other problems which a large company can bear.

Reason for which small businesses are not using automatic account data capture software

Beside Software cost other factors are:

1. Software License fee (User based or CPU based access)

2. Hardware upgrade for proper interface

3. Employee training

4. Maintenance and support of Software

You should have proper interface to run the software. So you have to check your system by the vendor. Moreover if scanning is done from hand made documents on the scanned paper then error may occur. Vendors still embraced OCR and ICR technologies into their product to capture the account data accurately from the scanned images. Thus there is a long way to go to remove manual entry.

Remedy for Small business companies

These companies can outsource their data securely through Internet to different offshore vendors for different account process. For more details on read Cybelink Secure BPO

Main advantage is we can use existing infrastructure to do all this. Even these companies donot have to change their way of management. Only change is per scanned images will be converted to accounting software or ERP system

After receiving the scanned images, some typical tasks performed by the

offshore vendor which are listed below:

1. Using automated and manual process to extract all the data

2. Hardware upgrade to install the software

3. Insert this extracted data to small business accounts software

4. Perform other accounting operations like Invoice preparing, Bill payment

5. Export the work from the accounting software to a file.

6. Send the file to the small business to import it into their accounting software for verification.

Small business companies can import the finished files into their accounting or ERP systems for verification. Cost of the paper document reduces by 50% if offshore vendors are given for accounting process. Small businesses need to overcome issues like like offshore security and offshore outsourcing cultural issues . Thus by effective cost small companies can also get valuable services.

Roberto Luongo asked:


Often large corporations set aside huge budgets for their Website development & designing. It is so true that the big boys can actually afford to allocate a huge pie of the total investment to achieve the kind of Web presence, they prefer and choose. Also, they can decide about the ultimate look for their website to gain importance in the business world. However, small businesses often do not have a large chuck of money to spend on website designing and construction, although their presence on the Web is, in many ways, even more important.

Therefore, designing & developing for a small business website can be infinitely more complex. Money is limited in this case, but results need to be crucial if growth or even survival is to be achieved. It is also important as a lot is depended upon getting a Website right first time so it begins to show results early on in the game.

Small Business Web Site Design Strategies

Despite the limited budgets and resources, it is a worth to hire a professional for small business web site design. As it is already cleared that results are important here and who better to give you success than a professional? Hiring the professional service for website designing and development helps a company can easily able to reflect its organizational goals and aspirations. No matter how tight your budget is, it is always convenient to choose the best service available in the market. It is advised not to try to do it yourself unless you have a fair amount of experience with Website development.

However, there are other issues to be handled carefully besides the website designing. It may take a long time to understand the concepts and usability of search engine optimization issues, if you decide to do it yourself. Allocating the best resources will help you o take an added advantage of making a website with search engine sensibility and pass on the saving onto you.

Rajeev Rajagopal asked:


Search engine optimization is an effective tool in internet marketing since it helps to generate more traffic to the web pages. At present, there are a number of web design firms that offer efficient SEO services for small business owners. Opting for these services would be a wise decision since it would guarantee that your business is well established and bring more returns.

Search engine optimization includes writing keyword rich articles that are interesting, useful and clear.  Link popularity building, meta tag and search engine directory submission are an integral part of these services. Since these are provided at affordable rates, they are highly appealing for small businesses.

Unless a small business owner gets his websites opened in the primary pages of leading search engines such as Google, MSN, Altavista, Yahoo and others, he may not receive a good flow of traffic to his site.  Depending on a particular client’s products, optimized content will be provided by the SEO service providers. But before choosing such a service, it is necessary to ensure that the web design company you are associating with is an efficient and reliable one. You should guard against companies providing poor services and take care to make a good choice for better results.

Almost all SEO companies employ a professional team comprising marketing specialists, content writers, developers, search engine specialists and other required staff. Ideal companies will be capable of providing copywriting, web content development and all other services needed for search engine optimization. Some of them give clients the privilege of opting for corrections, if not fully satisfied with the work they do. If you are happy with the services of a particular web design company it is best to maintain a long term relationship with it.

By utilizing state-of-the-art SEO services from reliable providers, small business owners can easily take their businesses to greater heights.

Shelley Godra asked:


Globally Affecting Small Businesses

Written by Shelley Godra 

A small business in the United States need to be aware of the undeniable affect globalization has on their future profits.  For example, when managing an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, one must realize that there are global factors that affect the business.  These factors can be affected by political, social, and economic changes.  Political relations can change people’s view of Italy.  Social changes can affect customer’s tastes and demands.  Economic factors can affect prices of imports and in turn raise the prices of the Italian restaurant. 

First, political factors can range from new regulations to country relationships.  For example, new regulation has been set in place regarding the United States and Mexico.  There are more immigration laws and barriers; therefore, fewer Mexican immigrants are coming into the US.  This can hurt the Italian restaurant because there are fewer prospective employees that will work for low wages, and the restaurant must spend more money on its employees’ salaries.  The United States and Italy currently have a good political relationship; however, if political relations changed in the future, the change may influence customer’s opinions of Italy.  Customers who think less of Italy because of unfavorable relations will eat less Italian food and this would also hurt the restaurant.

Second, social changes can affect where consumers choose to eat.  In the past twenty-five years, people’s tastes have changed dramatically to become more sophisticated and cultured.  In order to keep up with the chic changes, the Italian restaurant may decide to incorporate a larger variety of food into its menu.  The restaurant could also attract more of the sophisticated crowd by inviting a celebrity chief to come and cook one night for its customers.  There have also been social changes specifically in the Philadelphian region.  Two decades ago, Southern Philadelphia was inhabited with many Italians; since then the Italians have moved out to the suburbs and Southern Philadelphia is populated with other ethnic groups.  This change in residents could change the kind of food demanded in the area.  The restaurant can no longer assume that the population wants the traditional Italian food and, like overcoming the sophisticated class, the restaurant could offer more variety in its menu.

Finally, economic changes most often than not affect the meal prices of the restaurant.  Global food shortages, specifically in Italy, due to weather could increase the prices of imports.  Many of the ingredients the restaurant needs, such as olive oil, would come from Italy.  Currently, our economy is not doing well, and United States residents have less disposable income.  Less disposable income means less money to spend on luxury goods like eating out.  Also, the price of oil has been steadily increasing in the past few years.  This would deter people from driving into the city from the suburbs because gas is too expensive; this change would cause a shortage in customers.

In conclusion, there are many factors that affect managing an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia.  Some factors can be controlled, however, global factors are outside our reach of influence.  Global factors such as political, economic, and social changes can hurt an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia by creating higher priced imports, less employees, and less customers.  Some of these changes can be overcome by offering new food options and keeping up with what the consumers want.

Jody Gabourie asked:


I worked in an advertising agency for 5 years and then in the advertising sales department at a radio and television station for another 4 years, and believe me, every client wanted to be on the front cover, above the fold, on during the Super Bowl, or air during rush-hour traffic.

For the bigger multi-national companies advertising was a no-brainer in many cases – it’s what they needed to do to keep up awareness of their brand and keep top-of-mind.

The answer for small business owners was a bit different. Some advertising opportunities were a good fit and made sense but many times, spending money on traditional advertising just doesn’t make sense. This is especially true if you provide your products and services to a large geographic area – not just a local location.

In reality, there are several things inherent in advertising that just do not make business and money sense for small businesses and service professionals.

1. Advertising is usually a mass medium

This means that advertising is usually aimed at everyone – it’s hard to just “talk” to a niche market with advertising. Because of the large focus of TV, radio, newspaper and magazines, small business owners can spend a lot of wasted money – advertising to people who aren’t in their niche target group.

2. Advertising is expensive

Because of the larger audience available via traditional advertising (think of all the people who watch TV and listen to the radio!), the costs associated are usually quite high. To produce, create and run a television commercial can run you in the 6 – 7 figures; ads in national magazines can costs in the tens of thousands and even radio commercials can be several thousand dollars.

3. Advertising doesn’t allow for frequent exposure

Due to the high cost of advertising and the limited space and time to purchase, it’s very expensive to advertise enough times to get noticed. We had a saying in the advertising world that you needed to have a 3+ frequency – this meant a person needed to see/hear your advertisement at least 3 times before they even barely noticed it.

In this media-saturated world we live in, where we’re bombarded with thousands and thousands of messages each day, advertising doesn’t get our attention like it did in the old days. If you can only afford to run one magazine ad or a handful of radio commercials, you’re really just throwing your money away.

4. Advertising doesn’t have the ability for strong follow-up and call-to-action

Getting someone’s attention is only the first step – you then need them to take a specific action, such as visit a website, pick up the phone, visit a location, and so on. Because many times small business owners can only afford a small ad, there isn’t the space or size to outline a clear call-to-action and next steps. Many prospects can be left not knowing what they should do next if they’re interested.

As well, follow-up is key to converting prospects into customers and the expense and lead time of advertising doesn’t allow for much follow-up at all. Again, prospective clients are lost due to advertising’s inability to provide follow-up.

Advertising has its place and can work for small businesses, but there are many more cost-effective and high-impact marketing strategies that you can employ to get a return on investment much quicker, effectively and consistently.