United States Charity

Brandi Cummings asked:


Technology, some people fear it, some resist it, and others embrace it. As a small business owner, it could be the best thing that ever happened to your company. With the technology available today, small businesses are increasingly leveling the playing field between themselves and big companies. With toll free virtual PBX (Private Branch Exchange) telephone systems, small businesses are combining today’s technology with traditional customer service to take their business to the next level.

It used to be that only Fortune 500 companies with thousands of employees and 10- story office buildings could afford and maintain a traditional PBX telephone system. Now, with toll free virtual PBX services, anyone with a telephone can reap the benefits of this powerful communications tool. A virtual PBX has all the advantages of a traditional PBX and more without the hassle, hardware, and expense.

A virtual PBX allows small businesses to:

(1) Project a professional, more established company image (2) Have one unified number for office phone, cell phone, fax, and pager (3) Make information available to their customers 24/7 (4) Automate order taking and pre-qualifying processes (5) Have web-based, real time access to their system

Small and home-based businesses are using all of these features of their toll free virtual PBX systems to sound and operate like a Fortune 500 company everyday.

Project a Professional, More Established Company Image Right or wrong, consumers assume a company with a toll free number is a more established and secure company. When a toll free number is attached to a virtual PBX with an automated attendant, that powerful image is perpetuated. An automated attendant will answer all incoming calls with the same professional and courteous message every time, day or night. Professional greetings can be recorded by the business owner themselves, or even by a voice talent, and customized for the needs of the business. It doesn’t matter if the business is operated out of a home office or the Oval Office. The caller hears a professional greeting each and every time they call.

Unified Voice and Messaging System With a toll free virtual PBX system, small businesses only need one telephone number. This number can be an office phone, cell phone, fax, and pager all in one. Gone are the days of having to put 3 or 4 different numbers on business cards. Now the virtual PBX toll free number replaces them all. When a call comes in to the toll free number, it can be routed to any local number. It can even be programmed to route to different numbers at different times of the day or even different days of the week. A call never has to be missed again. That kind of flexibility is unheard of with a traditional toll free number or a hardwired PBX. If the call is not answered, or is sent to voicemail, the virtual PBX system can even send out a page to let the user know that there is a message waiting for them. The toll free number also acts as the fax number. When a fax is sent, the system recognizes it as a fax and can store it in the fax mailbox for later retrieval, forward the faxed document to a local fax machine, or even send the fax to an email address as an attachment. The unified messaging feature unchains small business owners from the home or small office and allows them the flexibility to get out and build their business while still being available to their customers.

Powerful Automation No matter how efficient a small or home-based business is, they simply cannot be available to their customers all the time – unless they have a toll free virtual PBX system. If a caller has questions they want the answers now. If they don’t get those answers when they call, chances are they’ll look some place else. Making sure information is available, even when a live person isn’t, can be the difference between someone becoming a customer or moving on to the competition. A toll free virtual PBX allows the storage of an unlimited amount of information for callers to retrieve 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Menus broken down into what kinds of information a caller might need, make it easy for them to navigate the system and get what they are looking for. Faxes can even be attached so the caller can request an automated fax back. For a business that needs to pre-qualify their callers, or would just like to get some information about them, can take advantage of question and answer voice mailboxes. A set of pre-recorded questions can be asked of the caller and the voice responses then saved in the system and emailed as a sound file. These automated processes not only save time, but they also make sure callers can get the information they need when no one is available.

Web Based System Access A toll free virtual PBX is just that, virtual. What that means for a small business owner is that one, there is no hardware to maintain or software to buy, and two, that they can access their system from anywhere they can get online. Online system access is one of the most popular features of a virtual PBX system. Web-based system access allows users to check their voice and fax messages over the internet or have the messages delivered directly to an email address. Of course, messages can still be checked from any touch-tone phone, anywhere.

A small business owner has administrative access to check the call logs of all incoming calls to their toll free number and use the call capture feature to not only capture the phone number of the person calling, but also their name and address. It also allows a user to run reports based on different criteria chosen. For example, reports could be run to show when the busiest time of the week is for customer service or if the call volume increased after a specific ad campaign was released. The applications are endless.

With all these powerful features, and most times more, it’s amazing that toll free virtual PBX systems can be found at a reasonable price. Most systems offered are between $9.95 and $29.95 depending on the capabilities and size of the system. Many will offer a varying number of voice mail boxes, features, and minute plans. A good toll free virtual PBX service provider can also customize systems if needed.

Technology is ever changing in today’s fast paced world. Small business owners will either have to embrace it or risk being left behind

Michael Spindelman asked:


In the popular press these days, a dominant theme is about living your purpose. The articles usually ask “Are you passionate about what you’re doing earning an income?” One thing about living your purpose or your passion for that matter is that living your purpose can really get ugly at times.

When you live a life on purpose you might appear selfish to the people around you. That’s because purpose is about unleashing the quiet giant inside of you. That giant wants to give to the world something that tends to be larger than life. The famous comic book writer Stan Lee said “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”

You have to have an immense amount of love inside yourself to let your purpose come to life. When you peek at your purpose, you know that it must happen. It’s a glimmer that sparks all great businesses, big and small. You are passing through you, the gift that was lovingly implanted in you at conception from the glorious universe. But you live in the everyday mundane world of hard cold realities.

All around you, you’ll find well meaning people who say they absolutely support you living your purpose. (As long as they aren’t inconvenienced by it.) Nobody tells you a purpose has a lifecycle to it. Only other people living their purpose know this cycle. But they even have a hard time articulating it. They will share the glory side of it and that there is no better way to live. But they won’t share the phases.

Here is the hard reality I have uncovered. There is a germination phase, the assimilation phase, the achievement phase and maturity. Here’s the real kicker, until you reach the third phase, you can face a lot of emotional and economic hardship. You may find that no one who knows you, will really understand you. So let me ask again “do you want to live a life of purpose?”

I don’t want to scare you out of living a life of purpose. Quite the opposite, once you enter the world of living on purpose it is a Pandora’s Box that can’t be closed. You are a child learning to walk with everyone around you saying with a big smile (yeah right) “you can do it” while they sit on your shoulders or kick your feet out from under you any chance they can.

If you decide to create a small business from your passion you might hear a cacophony of remarks; “It can’t be done”, “just get a real job already” or “you can do it in your spare time”. These torments only make you more determined to stand up, waddle and run. Because walking your purpose becomes the only thing controlling your existence!

So ask yourself, if you had no income coming in, would you still be doing the kind of work you are doing right now? Would you be able to endure everyone around you saying you are crazy doing what you’re doing because at this moment they may see no income? Would you spend all you emotional energy and risk all your financial resources to live your purpose not knowing for certain a positive outcome? When you’re on purpose there is no other choice and that’s why others may not understand you. Talk to any successful business owner they’ll tell you “Welcome to the world of small business.”

Most people are working in a job that provides a suitable income and false safety. Yes, that’s right suitable income. I specifically did not say sustainable. As soon as a JOB disappears the income stops. Suitable income is such that you have enough to pay the bills that you can’t really afford. A sustainable income occurs even when you’re sleeping.

What anyone who is living a life of purpose will tell you is that they can’t imagine doing anything else. The amount of energy they put into their purpose creates a passion that creates even more energy. There is no working on purpose; it is only living on purpose. You get so much more than you give. “Purpose livers” will also tell you that the money takes care of itself. It does, once you abandon yourself to a “knowing” that everything will be OK and you dedicate yourself to accepting all your purpose has to offer. During the assimilation phase is when you begin to realize how to communicate your passion to others so they finally understand how your passion is about helping the world at large not a selfish lust for something.

When you reach the achievement phase of purpose, you may discover a sense of silliness and peaceful knowing that life has so much that’s wonderful. A clarity falls into place and the tragedies of life are shaping tools that make life more humane. For those on the path, there is a cycle. All too often, the mature phase can introduce disharmony. But that too is part of the cycle to enter an even higher purpose with greater impact. The highest purpose is after all found when our life’s activities outlive our life. And that all the lives we touched through our purpose are greatly enriched because we took a brief moment in history to love the sleeping giant within enough to teach it to walk, run and fly.

andrew.regan.2006@googlemail.com asked:


The recent torrential rainfall that has plagued parts of the country has had a devastating, potentially fatal effect on thousands of small businesses throughout the UK. In the space of five weeks, severe flooding has impacted on almost 500,000 properties in the north-east, midlands, south-west and south-east of the UK, with many small businesses included in amongst those casualties. With gloomy estimates of around six months or longer to get the affected areas back into full-working order, can these small businesses survive or will many be shutting up shop this year?

Whether traditional bricks and mortar or the new breed of small business that is thriving solely on the web, the floods hit a wide variety of enterprises. Thankfully, help is at hand jointly from the Federation of Small Businesses and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. The FSB has recently announced a £500k relief fund offering members interest free loans to help them through the recovery time, and the HMRC is to offer tax assistance to those affected by the recent floods.

Acting as a business finder for the local community, the FSB also protects and promotes the interests of the self-employed and all those who run their own businesses and recently applauded the HMRC decision. The FSB National Chairman John Wright said:

“I warmly welcome the decision by HMRC to offer businesses help with their taxes in the short term as they recover from the floods. All assistance is gratefully received as the flood waters recede and this will go a long way to ensure that more businesses can remain solvent until they can trade again.”

In addition to the HMRC help, the FSB are offering each affected member interest-free loans of up to £5,000 from the relief fund in a move that should help local businesses cope better with the floods aftermath.

However, there is a silver lining for small businesses near the flood areas that have not been directly affected by the disastrous consequences of the floods. There will inevitably be a huge demand for local traders and small businesses to help in the effort to restore homes to their former glory, and to supply white goods, carpets, curtains and furniture ruined by the floods. No doubt flood affected householders will be frantically searching their local business listings to find tradesmen who can help repair and restore their homes and supply replacement goods. Indeed, some of the badly hit small businesses may be helped on the fast track to recovery, and in return may be able to help other flood-hit businesses to remain solvent via their own trade.

Christine Groth asked:


American Idol has become the fixation of the American public, a television show that will be remembered for years to come even after it will eventually stop showing. A show that definitely has brought much success to many people. Some very well know and others who have discovered stardom overnight.

Every Tuesday night I sit down with my daughters to watch American Idol and speculate who will win who will not and on it goes. Like all of you I’ve been pasted to the T.V. for the past few months enjoying all that I see on American Idol. But this season has been very interesting, that is if you watch very closely.

The first thing is American Idol is not always a singing contest. Yes, Simon will say get off it and let’s vote who is the best singer. But the fact of the matter is many times American Idol is a popularity contest. It does not matter who can sing the best but who entertains the best. Unfair for those who are really talented as you saw with Melinda Doolittle. She was unbelievable and flawless but not as popular as Jordin Sparks. I also realistically thought that Melinda was predictable. We always knew her performance was going to be perfect.

The other thing I learned about American Idol is the American public is looking for a rags to riches story. Like the no body or nothing singer for the country side who becomes a super star. Or- the seventeen year old Jordin Sparks who becomes a super star at such a young age. American loves a little story-

But what does this have to do with small business? Pretty simple.

Some small businesses you will see are very busy successful and its based on popularity in a community. Does this center have the best service or the best products and equipment? Maybe or maybe not.

People are drawn to a small business for a variety of reasons- some of which maybe its just the place to go. My friend told me to go there, or my boss goes there. They said it was ok. It does not always mean that they have the best service or the best people working for them. Other variables that fall into consideration are competition in the community, the size, demand and so on goes the list of factors.

So the next time you think about business, think about people and what they are drawn to and why.

Terry Pierce asked:


What is free government money? Here are a few facts about federal government grants. These grants truly are free government money. You do not have to repay this government grant money. You are not charged any interest on these government grant money. The grants are totally tax free money. You do not require any credit history or banking record to receive these grants.

All the facts above are very good reasons for ordinary people to pursue government grant money.

A commonly asked question is, are there really any government grant programs for the type of business I want to start, an online business?

The Answer, Yes, there are lot many government grant programs or free government money for all types of small businesses, including home based internet businesses.

But before we go into details about government grant programs or free government money for small business, let me caution you about some things.

The money is free but it is not free from government regulations and rules. The first thing you must know is that there is full monitoring and auditing of these government grants. You are expected to spend the money you request in particular manner and for the particular purpose that you applied for.

The grant money that was mutually agreed upon must be spent within a particular time frame. If you fail to follow the conditions set from the government, then there can be heavy penalties, sometimes leading to fines and maybe even your imprisonment. So make sure that the grant you are seeking for your small business is used for the specific purpose that you stated when you applied grant. And make sure the money is used within agreed upon time frame.

Another question that is very common is, how much money is really distributed by the US government for small business purposes?

The answer, can you believe that more than thirty billion dollars are given annually by the government to help small businesses? Yes It’s true.

The thirty billion dollars comes from more than eighty sources at the federal government level, all allocated for small businesses across America. There are also more than three thousand state level sources that sre the source of funding for almost any small business.

There are sub categories also. There are different government grant programs for women, for low income groups and for minorities. More than twelve millions is set aside for these sub category groups.

There can be two basic types of monetary help for small businesses. You can get start up capital to start the business. You can also get monetary help to expand your existing business. More than one million small businesses have received free government money on an annual basis.

What sort of businesses are covered under these government grants for small business programs? As I mentioned before, practically every type of industry, home base industry and so many others are covered under these programs. There are just to many to list in this short article. The research you perform will expose the exhausting list of qualified businesses available for these federal and state grants.

If your grant search is intensive and thorough enough you will have no problem finding a grant to fit your needs. When you do find one choose one that is suitable for your needs. Make sure that you qualify and are truly eligible for the grant. If you are persistent enough to get through all of the red tape and follow the application instructions as instructed you may be well on your way to benefitting from a free government grant for your small business.

I hope this article was of some use to you and good luck with your search for a federal or state government grant.

Melissa Peterman asked:


According to statistics, more than half of America is employed by small business owners and these owners rely on credit. Not just credit to expand business or purchase a new cash register, but credit in order to make payroll. Now that tough financial times are here, banks are not as giving as they once were. Banks are changing their standards on small business lending , making it hard and at times impossible for small businesses to get financing.

A Majority of Banks Are Changing Their Small Business Lending Standards

Most small businesses agree that even in the last 6 months they have felt the affects of the credit crisis. The problem is the domino affect of this crisis: since banks don’t have money to lend, small businesses cannot borrow money to expand, pay bills or payroll- which then affects employees of small businesses.

Franchises of larger businesses are also feeling the pinch.

Rescuing Starts at the Top No Immediate Assistance for Small Businesses

Since the government is concerned with helping the big players first, small businesses can’t get the immediate help they need. The government can’t realistically help out every small business in the ways they are assisting big businesses right away. Time is money of course and small businesses lose more than larger businesses every day that they can’t get financial assistance.

Without Small Business Lending , Small Businesses Make Sacrifices

Because there isn’t the normal financial cushion helping businesses have a little wiggle room, all expenses must be taken into consideration. This may include cutting big expenses in a small company. This sadly, may include:

EmployeesHealth Insurance Moving Full Time Employees To Part Time Positions Cutting bonuses or severance pay

If you are like many, who wanted to start their own business and haven’t yet, it may be wise to hold out. Taken into the consideration that 98% of all brand new start up businesses fail, you may just want to hold onto that money a bit longer, until things sort them selves out. Otherwise, if you are ready to take the plunge and nothing is going to hold you back, take your friend’s advice, listen to other small business owners and seek out investors that you trust. Looking for small investors over banks me be intimidating, but the investor may see the potential that other banks who are skittish already may not.

Greg Heslin asked:


Small businesses can often be beaten out by larger competitors simply because they have better practices than small businesses. The good news is that there are a number of practices that can translate to small businesses. These strategies and tactics are some of the best-kept secrets and can make a business much more successful in the long run.

The act of borrowing ideas from other companies is called “best practice benchmarking” and can lead to vast improvements in business structure if done properly. Since most small businesses have a much smaller budget than big businesses, the practices learned can save money and be even more beneficial for them than for the big companies. If a small business emulates another business’s way of cutting costs, they will be able to do in a shorter period of time.

To begin borrowing practices from others, there needs to be a clear understanding of their methods. The best way to go about using successful practices is to do heavy research and ask questions to find out how others were able to achieve their goals. This step is important because if the practices are not studied well a small business will usually end up failing or wasting precious resources that they cannot afford to lose. A helpful tool for finding out better business practices is to send surveys to businesses that are successful in that job field.



Although emulating successful business practices is the goal, it is important for individuals to modify the practices to fit with their own business. Not everything will translate and there will be small, yet crucial modifications that need to be made.

Some of the most popular practices that small businesses borrow deal with communicating with others and saving money. One way business owners cut corners is by having a company meeting with their top employees to discuss strategies for conducting better business and the direction they want to see the company head. Individuals may also sponsor retreats or getaways for top executives, helping workers to bond and communicate better. This practice will also help get everyone on the same page as far as product development and business plans. Business owners can also poll and survey their employees, or the employees of other companies, in order to get their opinions on typical problems they face.

Many well-known businesses are now helping others research their successful practices in order to find the best methods for their companies. Some of these businesses are Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Target. The research to be studied includes strategy models for how to run a successful partnership and real life examples of ways they saved money and cut costs. The research also includes access to popular certification programs and what those businesses learned from the courses. They also showcased the various rewards and recognition systems that they provided to their employees to encourage hard work and better communication.



The great thing about small business practices is that they rarely have to do the dirty work because big corporations have already done it. There are so many different business practices that translate from big corporations to small businesses, and small business owners can take advantage of the abundance of opportunities available to them. If small business owners can modify these popular practices in a way that will work with their company, they can save more money and have a more successful business with little effort.

Wharton Business Foundation asked:


Many of our clients have been able to build their businesses successfully as a direct result of outsourcing. One of the most common jobs that they outsource is appointment setting. If your company does any type of outside sales (and most do) having an outsourced telemarketing department is ideal. Think about it, if you tried to hire telemarketers in house, you have to set up office space, get office furniture, get special phone lines installed, get computers, etc. You even have to either manage them yourself or hire someone else to make sure that they’re showing up on time, working their agreed upon shift, calling properly, reading the scripts properly and performing the way that you want them to. 

Yet when you outsource your appointment setting, all you do is have your sales force (or yourself) show up to prescheduled appointments and write up deals. That’s it! No trouble no hassle no headaches. All of this for an employee that costs around $5 per hour.

As a small business owner, you can also use virtual assistants to contact your existing clients and cross sell them on additional products and services (a very successful and profitable strategy). In addition, they can serve as an answering service when you’re out of the office, handle your billing / payments & collections, perform accounting and bookkeeping and more. Some mortgage companies use outsourced workers to call homeowners and sell them mortgages over the phone.

Realtors use virtual assistants to help them run their offices. Their reps help them prepare documents, upload listings, answer phones, do internet marketing, send out client newsletters and more. Other businesses have outsourced reps handling some of their marketing functions. These include internet marketing. There are over 50,000 free classified ad sites on the internet other than Craigslist. Some business owners have their outsourced marketing reps posting ads on these sites each month. They also design their print and internet ads, launch their direct mail campaigns, fulfill information request orders, perform E-blasts, perform “Live Chat” for their website, perform search engine optimization, blogging, writing and posting articles online, updating their website monthly, and much more. Some accounting companies even have outsourced reps doing their clients bookkeeping (unbeknownst to their clients). Other companies have outsourced reps doing actual sales entirely over the phone and internet.

So as you can see, there are a tremendous amount of ways that you as a small business owner can benefit from outsourcing. The ways we mention above are just a few examples yet the possibilities are endless.

 

 

John M. Lund asked:


Small business is anything but small in our economy.  Small businesses represent over 99 percent of firms with employees.  They generate almost half of the total private payroll in the United States and have generated sixty to eighty percent of all new jobs per year for the last ten years.  It is also interesting to note that fifty-three percent of small businesses in the U. S. are home based.

These businesses need photography, particularly in this age of the internet.  Even if a business does not yet have a web site, it soon will.  It is rapidly becoming, if it isn’t already a stark necessity.  Over the next ten years it has been predicted that there will be over 15 billion more web sites.  That is a lot of photography!

Conceptual stock photos, or descriptive stock photos?

There are two basic different types of stock photos that will be needed, conceptual and descriptive.  Conceptual shots are useful for businesses that deal with such hard to illustrate themes such as financial services, insurance, banking and various non-product oriented businesses.  Realistically, most business can use both.  For example, if you run a dry cleaning business and you want to print out a flyer you might use a picture of a shirt on a hanger…or maybe something like a two people rolling out a red carpet…to indicate the service orientation of your business. 

If you shoot pictures of shirts on hangars to fulfill those needs you might license a lot of them to dry cleaners.  If you shoot people rolling out a red carpet your market suddenly becomes dry cleaners, bed and breakfast inns, even auto repair shops.  A picture of a red carpet representing superior service can work for large, medium and small businesses alike.  The market for your stock pictures becomes that much larger.  When the stock photo in question reads quickly as a small thumbnail, you dramatically enhance your chance of the image being chosen. 

You can shoot a shirt on a hangar for little cost.  To shoot two people rolling out a red carpet is probably going to cost more and take more time.  It will also be more difficult to shoot really well, and may need a lot more post.

Shoot the concept, shoot the story

A good way to approach this whole problem of what and how to shoot would be to shoot a shirt on a hangar (descriptive shot), a suit of clothes spread out on a bed (illustrating preparation), a model fixing his tie (again, preparation), similar shots with a woman model.  Perhaps even the two asleep in bed, waking up, turning off the alarm clock, getting ready in the morning, fixing breakfast, washing dishes, a close up of dirty dishes in the sink, and, eventually, rolling out the red carpet.  In other words, set up a shoot around a concept, and when appropriate, work through a story with your photographs.

Have a shot list, stick to it

To prepare for your photo shoot visualize each shot, each step.  What props will you need?  What wardrobe? How will you need to light it?  Allow plenty of time for each shot, for the transitions between shots, and for wardrobe changes.  Wardrobe changes can dramatically increase the number of selects you can get.  But such changes can slow you down too.  I always print out my shot list and check each one off as I complete it.  If there is a clothing change I stop and review my list.  I always have enough extra shots built in that if one shot just isn’t working, I can move on to the next.

Get the shot, but don’t over shoot

There is a fine line between moving on too soon, and not shooting enough.  The trick is to know when you have your shot and it is time to move on.  I have improved the efficiency of my shoots tremendously by slowing down and paying more attention to each shot rather than just firing away and then firing away some more because I haven’t paid enough attention to really know if I gotten what I wanted.

Take time to check your work

At least two or three times during a shoot, if at all possible, I will stop what I am doing and check a few shots on my laptop to make sure that my photos are in focus and the details are looking right.  I’d rather find out problems during the shoot than after the models have gone home!

Slowing down yields more

Take the time to plan your shoot, create a comprehensive shot list, visualize the process of each shot, plan carefully for props and wardrobe, take your time, review your work, and reap the rewards. You will be glad you took the time and whether they know it or not, the small business that needs your work will be glad too.

Dr. Rami Schayek asked:


From the mid seventies we can note that scholars makes the distinction between small and large businesses in terms of needs, level of sophistication and range of strategic planning. Bracker and Pearson (1986), Rue and Ibrahim (1998), Perry (2001) and Wijewardena, Zoysa, Fonseka and Perera (2004) all formulate definitions of strategic planning which take the uniqueness of small businesses into account and allow for the fact that small businesses cannot draw on management and material resources in a manner similar to that of large organizations.

Empiric studies’ findings indicate at a correlation between strategic planning and performance. Nevertheless, the findings are mixed. A survey of twenty-six experimental studies enabled Miller and Cardinal (1994) to identify a significant positive connection between strategic planning and small business performance. Robinson (1982) found a significantly high level of profitability as well as an increase in sales and returns on sales and the number of full time employees in a group of small businesses that employed external consultants for the purpose of strategic planning. Compared with other businesses, Bracker and Pearson (1986) discovered a significant increase in income and remuneration per entrepreneur in businesses that prepared strategic plans (the highest of four designated levels of strategic planning). No significant increase was detected in the measure salary expenditure divided on the sum total of sales. A significant differentiation in the rate of sales increase was found by Rue and Ibrahim (1998) in small businesses that incorporated written planning (basic or sophisticated), as opposed to other businesses. Perry (2001) detected a significant differentiation in the degree to which planning was conducted in small businesses that did not applied for bankruptcy as opposed to those that did. Wijewardena et al. (2004) define three levels of planning: no written planning; basic planning; and detailed planning. The findings indicate that the level of planning stands in direct proportion to the level of increase in sales. Yusuf and Saffu (2005) classify three levels of planning: low; moderate; and high. A connection was found between increase in sales and the low level of planning. No correlation was found between strategic planning and increases in market share or in profitability.