Category Archives: News

News

Grants For Starting a Small Business – 4 Places to Begin Your Search

If you are planning on starting a small business and want to find funding to help there are many programs available that can assist you financially. Grants are a great way to fund a new business because they are easier to qualify for than traditional bank loans and they do not need to be repaid. Here are four places to start your search for grants for starting a small business.

Grants For Starting A Small Business: 4 Places To Get Financing

1. Grants.gov is a website where you can find federal grants for starting a small business and apply for them. This site provides access to all of the grants available through the 26 federal grant-making agencies. They have over 1000 grant programs available and award approximately 500 billion annually.

2. Another place to check for access to grants for starting a small business is the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) website. Here you will find a list of all federal programs available, financial and non financial assistance programs. They aim to help you identify what programs fit your specific needs and help to provide communication between the Federal Government and Local Governments.

3. Grants for starting a small business can be found at the Small Business Investment Company. They embody a partnership between the Federal Government and private investors. Since their inception in 1958 they have awarded over 30 billion in investments to over 90,000 businesses. An interesting bit of information is that Staples and Apple Computer got their start up money from this company.

4. Another company to look into for grants for staring a small business is the Small Business Administration. This organization not only provides funding but counsels, assists and protects the interests of small business. This is all in an attempt to protect free competitive enterprise and maintain and reinforce the economy as a whole. They partner with public and private organizations to help you start and grow your business.

What You Need To Have Before Applying To Grants For Starting A Small Business

Grants for starting a small business are not hard to come by. They problem is in the preparation. You will need to be sure that you have a comprehensive business plan completed before applying. A review committee will want to see that you have researched and put in place a plan for long term profitability and marketability. You must know your market, know your competition and most of all, know how you will survive once you are up and running. This will require a great deal of study and more than likely, some professional advice.

What Is The Best Market To Start A Small Business In (That Is Easy And Can Have You Up And Running Quickly?)

This all takes time, research and more time. If you want to start your own business but are wondering where you will find the time to spend researching and putting together a comprehensive business plan, or if this sounds like a whole lot of work, you may want to consider a small online business. Online businesses have very small start up costs that you can usually fund yourself. They also do not require ongoing costs such as wages, supplies and rent.

 

News

Marketing Strategies for Small Business: Simple Ways of Taking Your Business Online

There are so many marketing strategies for small business out there these days that it’s enough to make you dizzy if you try to listen to every advertisement. The problem is that people who sell internet marketing systems are likely to be pushing something that doesn’t even work for them! No wonder it’s so easy to get overwhelmed with the technology of today.

But what if there was a way take just the “meat and potatoes” from the best of the marketing strategies for small business?

The purpose of this post is to try to simplify what you actually need to get started in taking your business online…

Why taking your business online?

The beauty of taking your business online… The beauty of taking your business online…

Because, now that the internet is a huge part of the average business, if you’re not taking your business online, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table! You’re apt to be left in the dust while your competitors ramp up past you with their own marketing communication strategy.

But no need to get overwhelmed just yet…

I’m here to give you those “meat and potatoes” for the best internet marketing strategies for small business…

… in actuality, you only need three things for taking your business online to where you can allow the system to do most of the “heavy lifting” for you.

There are basically only three marketing strategies for small business online…

1) Taking your business online with a capture page…

This is also called a “landing page” because it’s what your visitor who’s searching for your service will initially land on. The purpose of the capture page is to compel your visitor to want to enter their email address; hence, you’ve just “captured” them as a new lead.

The main thing you need to remember about the capture page is that it must promise something.

Look at it from your visitor’s point of view; what would compel you to want to enter your email address for more information? A good example of this is to promise something for free – like a free educational video for more information.

2) Taking your business online with a sales page…

Ideally, this is a video that your new lead will be introduced to immediately upon entering their email information. The beauty of this, of course, is that it’s all automated so your new lead will literally be listening to a sales presentation from “you” while you might be still sleeping!

3) Taking your business online with an auto-responder…

On average, most people will need to be approached seven times before making a decision to purchase.

SEVEN times? OMG!

Who on earth would want to be that much of a nag? Especially those small businesses such as network marketing deals where you get all the work and NO training on how to promote you deal. Developing a marketing strategy is so much easier if you only need do it once, and then let the system take over the bulk of the work for you.

The beauty of having an auto-responder is that you set it all up ahead of time with your own personal messages…

People tend to want to buy from those who they know, like and trust. And it’s your continuous flow of emails with your pictures and videos that help them get to know who you are, whereby giving them the chance to grow into a trusting “relationship” with you – even without ever having met you!

And that’s really all there is for in marketing strategies for small business online… except for the idea of a “funded proposal”…

If you haven’t heard of this term before, think of an internet marketing system that will automatically “sell itself” while you use this system for taking your business online. This is an idea adopted by millions of successful internet marketers because it costs money to market your business, and, without a funded proposal, it’s likely that your funds for the business will be exhausted before you start to make any substantial profits.

It’s no wonder that the funded proposal is now a household term among those using marketing strategies for small business online!

 

News

A Small Business Opportunity – Information Products Offer Great Advantages

Information Products are products that are essentially intellectual property, that you can sell to others. They cover an almost endless variety of topics and can be delivered in a number of ways.

The topics that people choose to sell their products are almost anything and everything that one can think of, basically anything that you may find in a book, report or brochure.

That really opens up the scope for a small business owner to really use your imagination, and passion. Nothing is too wacky or bizarre. Somebody, somewhere is bound to have the same interest and will be interested in the same thing or things that you are. This is your target market.

What methods are available to the small business owner to deliver its information products? Here we have a range of methods of delivery. The internet has proven to be a giant killer in that even the small business can compete and even thrive against the large publishing houses and media companies. One can set up websites to sell material directly to the public, delivering in different formats such as e-book, printed, video, audio or any combination.

Self publishing is another route which allows the small business owner to publish his own material at his own pace without being forced to publish large print runs of books, and incurring huge risks if they are not sold. Self publishing allows the small business owner to publish on demand. When an order is received to purchase the book, he places an order for that one book at the self publishing company, who then prints and ships the book directly to the customer. What a deal! Self publishing companies can be found all over the place. I would bet that can find one that is relatively close to where you live.

That brings me to another big advantage of information products. You can run your information products small business directly from your home. What makes this type of business that little bit special is that you can set up your small business for very little cost. You need a computer, an internet connection and a quiet place to be able to write. You will need some software, but to start none of it is very expensive. Much of what you need is free software, easily obtainable off the internet.

This is an ideal small business opportunity for anyone who can put pen to paper. Also this is the kind of small business that you can start slowly and part time or you can jump right in and do it full time.