Posts Tagged ‘banking’

In spite of the struggling economy, entrepreneurship in America has the potential to flourish as people seek new career opportunities or additional revenue streams. As the fastest-growing sector of new small business owners in the country, women, are creating new jobs for themselves and are taking advantage of resources available to them to bring their business ideas into reality. This week, Yahoo! Small Business and Carolyn Kepcher of “The Apprentice” fame and creator of fwm (Finding What Matters), a network of career/life experts and resources for women, named Dana Rubinstein, founder of small business Dapple, winner of the national grant program, “Seeds for Success: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs.” The program was launched in April to promote women’s entrepreneurship enabled by the Internet.

Rubinstein’s commitment as a mother to only use organic and environmentally-friendly baby products inspired her to start Dapple, a company that creates natural and safe baby-specific cleaning products, with partner Tamar Rosenthal. Since the beginning of the Seeds for Success program, Dapple has made exceptional progress, developing an e-commerce site with Yahoo! Small Business, launching two new patent-pending product lines, securing distribution in more than 45 boutique stores and two major retailers, and winning an iParenting Media Award, a prestigious consumer accolade that determines best products in the marketplace. In less than six months, Dapple has sold 25,000 units, with sales increasing 43 percent in the third quarter and more than 500 percent in the fourth quarter to date.

“The expert guidance, consulting services and monetary grant Dapple received from Yahoo! Small Business and fwm made this contest invaluable to the strength of our company and the speed at which it has taken off. The full package has enabled us to make smarter business decisions that have accelerated our success in a very short period of time,” said Rubinstein. “Through this program, I’ve been empowered to turn my small business dream into a reality. I am excited to continue to build Dapple, and I hope to be a role model for other women who are considering launching businesses online.”

The three “Seeds for Success” finalists were selected from 5,500 applicants and each awarded a $20,000 grant; $5,000 in Web site consulting from Yahoo! partners Exclusive Concepts, Fast Pivot, and EY Studios; and two years of complimentary Yahoo! Small Business services. fwm also matched the finalists with free one-on-one mentoring by a team of business leaders, including Kepcher; Bobbi Brown, founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics; and Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines.

As the grand prize winner, Rubinstein received an additional grant of $10,000, promotional support, and additional mentoring from Kepcher. She was selected by a panel of judges and mentors who weighed the finalists’ performance against a number of milestones including Web site development, sales, partnerships, public relations and marketing, among others. There was also an online voting portion that attracted nearly 660,000 votes.

“Entrepreneurs play a critical role in developing a healthy economy, and strategic use of the Internet is crucial in driving the success of small businesses,” said Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing, Yahoo! Small Business. “In the case of our Seeds for Success finalists, Yahoo!’s tech mentors worked closely with each one to help design and launch Web sites that met their product and marketing needs and the work is paying off. Yahoo! Small Business wants to foster continued online innovation, so we hope this program inspires other women entrepreneurs to turn their passion into a profitable business.”

Carolyn Kepcher added, “When the economy is unstable, people turn to entrepreneurship as an avenue for change. By tapping into the contributing experts of fwm, we were able to provide resources to create a truly unique and personalized learning experience for the three finalists, helping them achieve dramatic growth within a short time frame despite a down economy.”

If you read the news headlines, you have seen the recent financial crisis affecting practically every major sector:

• Finance
• Auto
• Real Estate
• Retail

However, one group has been left out of the press until recently: state governments.  State governments are seeing record setting deficits brought on by low retail sales (lower gross retail sales tax) and increasingly higher unemployment.  This compbination is creating difficult situations throughout the nation, especially for states previously flouroushing in the sub-prime loan bubble.

Jennifer Steinhauer, from the New York Times, reported,

“Two short months ago lawmakers in California struggled to close a $15 billion hole in the state budget. It was among the biggest deficits in state history. Now the state faces an additional $11 billion shortfall and may be unable to pay its bills this spring.”

And California is not alone in this situation, several other states in the US are reporting similar deficits that could cause additional job loss and further derail any economic re-development plans.

“Frankly, I thought 2001 was really awful,” said Scott D. Pattison, the executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, referring to the last big economic downturn. “It is even worse now.”

He added, “This fiscal year will be really bad, and what is unfortunate is that I can’t see how 2010 won’t be bad too.”

So stay tuned as we continue to follow the economy and how it affects you as a small business owner.

Baby Boomers drive a sizable portion of retail sales due to disposable income and family size.  So what is the best way to market to them? Recognizing the power of personal recommendations in purchasing decisions, Prevention, partnered with the Keller Fay Group, and released a first-of-its-kind report that aims to better understand the influence of word-of-mouth (WOM) communications among Baby Boomer women.

The study, which involved an analysis of the conversations of more than 14,000 women over the course of a year, found that Baby Boomer women (43-62) have higher quality WOM than younger women (18-39)—what boomer women say is more credible, they’re more likely to pass on what they hear to others, they’re more likely to seek additional information and they’re more likely to purchase.

The conversations were collected from April 2007 through March 2008 via TalkTrack®, Keller Fay’s ongoing study of the nation’s word-of-mouth conversations, in fifteen purchasing categories, including Food & Dining, Personal Care & Beauty, Health & Healthcare, Financial Services and Household Products.

Among the study highlights:

• 68% of Boomer women rate what they hear in their conversations as being very credible, a full 10 points higher than younger women 18-39 (58%).
• 56% of them are likely to pass along what they hear to others, vs. 51% of younger women.

• 39% of Boomer women will seek additional information, compared to 34% of younger women.

• 55% intend to purchase, compared to 50% of the young women.

• Purchase intent for Boomer women is higher than younger women in 14 out of 15 categories, most notably: Food & Dining (71% vs. 64% for women 18-39), Beverages (70% vs. 62%), Personal Care & Beauty (69% vs. 61%), Shopping, Retail & Apparel (69% vs. 60%), Household Products (62% vs. 57%), The Home (60% vs.49%), Travel Services (53% vs. 42%), Financial Services (48% vs. 42%). Younger women are more inclined to purchase in only one category: Media & Entertainment (41% vs. 38% of the Boomer women).

• Beauty & Food Generate the Most Positive Action-Oriented Talk
  • The Beauty & Personal Care category provided the most valuable WOM by Boomer women—it was higher than the younger women’s in all six quality measurements (recommendation, credibility, pass along, additional info-seeking and purchase intent). Baby Boomer talk also revealed a strong “affinity” for beauty brands—Baby Boomer women more often used words like “great and “love it” when sharing their enthusiasm.
  • The top 10 beauty brands talked about by Baby Boomers are: 1. Olay, 2. Dove, 3. Avon, 4. Pantene, 5. Suave, 6. Bath & Body Works, 7. Mary Kay, 8. Crest, 9. L’Oreal, and 10. Revlon.
  • In Food & Dining, Boomer conversations convert to more projected purchases than those of younger women—213 million weekly projected purchases vs. 204 million for younger women. Their conversations also tend to be more credible and create more pass along and information seeking.
  • The top 10 packaged good brands talked about by Baby Boomers are: 1. Kraft, 2. Stouffers, 3. Campbell’s, 4. Lean Cuisine, 5. Kellogg’s, 6. Tyson, 7. Weight Watchers, 8. Gerber, 9. Healthy Choice, and 10. Betty Crocker.
• The top 20 brands Boomer women are more likely to talk about:

“Drawing on greater experience and sophistication, the social networks of Boomer women are very powerful, whether it is face to face or Facebook,” says Cary Silvers, Director of Consumer Insights for Prevention, who led the study.

“In this era of less trust in our institutions, marketers would be wise to pay attention to the power and influence of Boomer women talk,” adds Bob Ziltz, VP/publisher of Prevention. “The credibility factor will be the key issue for any marketers looking to connect with Boomer women.“

Social networking, Web 2.0, and Social Media have been hot topics in the technology industry for the past few years.  You most likely associate these terms with websites such as Twitter, YouTube, along with several others.  However what you don’t know is that you may be losing customers if you are not taking full advantage of these online services.

A prime example of how powerful the social networking community was the past Presidential election and the lessons it has taught the marketing sector. Regardless your political viewpoint, the race between President-elect Obama and Senator Mccain has been a prime illustration of how to establish market dominance and a strong web presence. Let’s look back at the race the same way we would review a client case study.

The Problem
A new market participant (Obama) was looking to enter a industry (presidency) that no other peer (African American) has been successful in (winning).

Solution
Develop a hyper-focused marketing message, offering a solution to a wide range of audiences. The message will be distributed with a complete social media component, including: Social Networks (Facebook & Myspace), Micro-Messaging (Twitter), PR (Blogs), web-based ‘Guerilla’ marketing, along with several other mediums.

Result
Obama achieved ubiquitous brand awareness and expert positioning, resulting in making history. In reviewing the marketing campaign, one key component stuck out to me:

Obama never wavered in his message of ‘change’ on these social media outlets. While Mccain altered the focus of his campaign several times, resulting in a lackluster apeal to the nation. If you are looking to establish consumer awareness for your brand it is vital that you stay consistent with your message and distribute it as widely as possible, and the web offers a unique portal for reaching consumers.

What are some of the best outlets to position your small business?  See below for a list of my favorites:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Blogging
• Digg
• Mixx
• Identi.ca
• Propeller

This will help launch your social media campaign, and new companies are starting on a regular basis, I will make sure to keep you informed of new services that will help to grow your business organically.

The economic slowdown is hitting everyone hard. No one feels the brunt of a recession like charities and non profits. One company I’ve found that is doing great things in the non-profit industry is Wild Apricot, a provider of web software for non-profit companies, is helping organizations weather the storm by doing more with less by maximizing their use of inexpensive or free technology online.

“A vast array of tools are available online to help non-profits build a fully-functional website and increase administrative efficiency, raise funds and communicate with members and the community,” says Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot, Wild Apricot. “A custom web portal can cost a non-profit anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 or more. It’s now possible to build and operate a similar site without major investments by utilizing resources available online, freeing up time and money to focus on an organization’s true passion.”

Wild Apricot offers web-based software that comes with everything needed to build a professional website and interact with members and supporters. More than 11,000 on-profits are already using Wild Apricot, which is available for as little as $25 per month, or free when supported by ads. Other popular web resources include tools for outreach (Twitter and Facebook), collaboration (Google Aps and Zoho) and project management.

Calgary-based Meals on Wheels is using Wild Apricot to reach out to volunteers and donors. “With Wild Apricot we’ve been able to centralize a number of functions using one easy-to-use system,” says Kathryn Robson, Communications & Development Manager, Meals on Wheels. “It has allowed us to better communicate with our volunteers, reach out to new donors and drastically reduce the time needed for many administrative functions. It’s allowing us to focus on delivering meals, not technology.”

Here are the top five ways organizations can benefit from using web-based software solutions:

1. Save money – No need to pay upfront for packaged software, buy servers, or purchasing separate services for multiple functions – do it all and more with one software package that can be accessed for free or for a low monthly fee.
2. Save time and effort – Eliminate duplicate entry of data and multiple member, registration or donor lists that may be out of date. With an integrated web-based solution, everything is tied to one single database.
3. Eliminate costly administrative functions by going “self-serve” – Empower members and volunteers to get more active with the organization while at the same time freeing up administrative time by maximizing the use of online self-service tools.
4. Increase interaction with members, volunteers and the community to keep your cause alive – Use tools like blogs, e-newsletters, forums and Email to create your own social network to help keep your cause and community alive.
5. Make it easy for people to donate money or their time – Automate donations, event registrations and more on your website to make it easy for people to get involved and engaged.

American small businesses are behind on their payroll taxes – to the tune of about $58 billion. That’s the amount that an estimated 1.6 million small businesses owe in unpaid federal payroll taxes and penalties, according to the most recent government report.

To help small businesses accurately run their payroll – and avoid costly mistakes and penalties – I’ve discovered that Intuit is offering its Online Payroll service for $9.95 a month for a limited time to new users. Those signing up for the service will also receive a free 90-day trial, letting them run their payroll for less than $100 for a full year. That’s a 66 percent savings over the regular $29.95 per month fee, and less expensive than alternative online tools.

Managing Payroll Quickly, Easily, Confidently

Intuit Online Payroll, an alternative to the often error-prone manual methods many small businesses use to pay their employees, is designed to help small businesses quickly, easily and confidently set up and manage payroll. The service builds on Intuit’s lineup of leading payroll solutions currently used by more than 1 million small businesses.

“More than 1 million small businesses already use Intuit Payroll solutions to pay more than 15 million employees,” said Cameron Schmidt, vice president of Intuit’s payroll division. “We’ve reduced the price of Intuit Online Payroll for a limited time to help even more small businesses benefit from getting their payroll under control. We want to help them with the hard stuff so they can focus on their real passion – running their business.”

If you are a small business looking to file for an S-Corp, watch out if you plan to incorporate in: Arkansas, New Jersey, New York, Ohio or Wisconsin.  What is the reason for the warning?  These five states have chosen to force businesses to file additional documentation in order to fully incorporate their business.  And it is for corporate hurdles like this that Vcorp Services partners with small businesses.

Why incorporate into an S-Corp?  S corporations are treated as corporations under state law. They are recognized as separate legal entities and generally provide shareholders with the same liability protection afforded by large enterprises. For Federal income tax purposes, however, taxation of S corporations resembles that of partnerships. As with partnerships, the income, deductions, and tax credits of an S corporation flow through to shareholders annually, regardless of whether distributions are made. Thus, income is taxed at the shareholder level and not at the corporate level. Payments to S shareholders by the corporation are distributed tax-free to the extent that the distributed earnings were previously taxed. Also, certain corporate penalty taxes (e.g., accumulated earnings tax, personal holding company tax) and the alternative minimum tax do not apply to an S corporation.

If you are looking to protect yourself and your family, incorporating your business is a vital decision.  Contact us directly, we promise it will be easy and cost-effective.

Every small business owner has wondered about the value of his or her business and is always seeking better solutions to improve profits and achieve higher growth potential. Well, thanks to BVIresources’ new online business tools at www.BVIresourcesgroup.com, these owners can find the answer.

BVIresources Group announced today that they have launched a fully automated website loaded with easy-to-use tools that small business owners can immediately use to analyze their business to increase profits, grow market share, and yes…value and list their business for sale. “The Analysis and Valuation tool is the first step in the process, but it’s the critical step for selling a business,” says Nixon Childs, President of BVIresources. Owners can also list to joint venture, sell assets, get funding, or find an equity partner. “With virtually unlimited options for owners, we can bring them together with Buyers, Investors, and other owners who complement each other’s needs.”

In less than four hours, an owner can analyze and value his or her business to increase profits, put strategic business listings together to joint venture, find equity partners, and sell a business or its assets. And it can literally happen overnight. “That’s a competitive advantage for small businesses that does not exist right now,” says Childs.

Offering an unparalleled advantage of over 2,000 mix and match solutions for owners to customize their strategic plan, owners are not limited to the number of businesses they can analyze and value, or the number of strategic listings they can use for each business with the $99/month plan. Each listing option has the potential to attract hundreds of buyers and buyer groups with a goal to distinguish a company in a way that brings the maximum number of opportunities to their table.

Information necessary to pursue a company is available immediately. Buyers, Owners, and Service Managers like CPAs and Business Brokers can manage an unlimited number of client activities through their own personal console. In addition, Professional Resources can register and be listed affordably for $9.99 a month. “Even with today’s search engines, owners say it’s too difficult to find the business help they need. We make it affordable for these professionals to showcase their credentials, and enable owners to find them in seconds,” says Childs.

Campaigner, a email marketing solutions provider, launched its 100 Days to Grow Your Business countdown in September to help retailers get the most out of their email marketing programs during the challenging 2008 holiday retail season. Campaigner has been delivering a free email marketing tip a day and will continue to offer tips to retailers throughout this crucial holiday sales period.

The second month of the 100 Days to Grow Your Business countdown focused on email marketing tips to help marketers build a strong foundation for increasing holiday sales with strategic email marketing programs. Topic areas covered included: customer relationships, building loyalty and encouraging action with holiday rewards and incentives.

November tips will focus on tactics to ensure retailer campaigns are being delivered to customers’ inboxes. Tips will also offer retailers ideas on how to enhance their campaigns with multi-media. Sample tips planned for November include:

• Be transparent and stick to your privacy policy
• Ask subscribers to white list you
• Avoid “SPAMMY” words
• Offer web or store only merchandise
• Create a community where people can post feedback
• Multi-media: podcasts, youtube

“Economic challenges will continue for consumers and businesses throughout the holiday season, which is why email marketing’s cost-effectiveness and the immediate value it brings to recipients makes more sense than ever before,” said Luc Vezina, Campaigner’s head of marketing. “Now that we’re quickly approaching the busiest weeks of the holiday shopping season, it’s important for retailers to offer customers unique promotions and deals that stand out from the competition.”

Retailers can find the archived email marketing tips and sign up for free daily tips throughout the 100 days countdown period, by visiting the 100 Days to Grow Your Business web site.

We talk considerably on this blog about starting a new company, however if you have a business that is no longer in operation, it is necessary to dissolve the corporation or LLC. In order to legally end your business and make a final distribution of company assets to shareholders and/or creditors, you are required to file a dissolution. If you do not formally dissolve the company, it will still be “active” on the state records (no matter if you are doing any business or not). As such, the company will still be subject to all annual reporting fees and corporate tax payment requirements.

There are three key reasons to dissolve your inactive entities:

1. Cost. Keeping inactive entities in good standing can be an expensive proposition. Most states levy a minimum annual tax on all entities qualified to do business within their borders, and the expense of keeping up with these fees for unneeded entities can quickly mount.
2. Administrative Burden. In addition to the taxes levied on your entity, most states require the filing of annual reports and other burdensome paperwork in order to maintain good standing. Keeping up with these filings on entities that are not in use can distract you from managing your active businesses. Furthermore, failure to file all this paperwork in a timely manner to keep your entity in good standing – even if it is not conducting any business – can result in the accumulation of fees and penalties, and may prevent you from winding up the entity in the future.
3. Legal Liability. Entities qualified to do business in a state are generally subject to lawsuits brought within that jurisdiction. Even if an entity is no longer engaged in any business, as long as it still exists it can be sued in its state of formation.

This is an action that should be taken as soon as possible due to the fact that all corporations, limited-liability companies, limited partnerships, limited-liability companies, limited-liability limited partnerships and other business entities are legal entities which can only be dissolved through formal action — not by a letter or phone call. You remain liable for all taxes, assessments, fines, penalties and interest until you receive a certificate of dissolution from the Secretary of State.