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Articles by Steven Imke
Small Business Advice – Pick of the Week Apr 2nd, 2022 - How to Advice for your Side-Hustle or Small Business
Small Business Advice – Pick of the Week Apr 2nd, 2022 This week’s top stories include small business advice covering the following four topics: How Entrepreneurs Can Identify This One Pressing Need Small Businesses will Feel the Squeeze of Interest Rate Rise—Here’s What to Expect In 6 Words, Netflix Co-Founder Reveals How the Company Has Dominated Entertainment Here’s how businesses are making big money Each week we scour all the top business-related magazines and newspapers for articles...
Small Business Advice – Pick of the Week Feb 12th, 2021 - How to Advice for your Side-Hustle or Small Business
Small Business Advice – Pick of the Week Feb 12th, 2021 This week’s top stories include small business advice covering the following four topics: 5 Lessons I Learned from Launching Startups Online and Offline 3 Key Considerations for the Modern Franchisee Should You Start a New Business This Year?
What You Need to Know About the Role of the SBA
Many people think that the Small Business Administration (SBA) lends money. In fact, the SBA is not a direct lender to businesses. Banks loan money to businesses, while the SBA helps banks feel more comfortable loaning money to Small Businesses by offering the bank a loan guarantee. When a person buys a home and doesn’t have more than 20% to put down, the bank requires that the buyer purchase private mortgage insurance (PMI).
How Ikigai Is Driving Personal Fulfillment and Changing Small Businesses
I have tried to get my head around “The Great Resignation” as it was called after the pandemic, to understand the real reason so many people are choosing to become full-time entrepreneurs or to start a side hustle that they hope will grow into a full-time hustle someday. Reasons such as burnout, desire to work remotely, poor treatment by employers, and insufficient compensation are often cited as the reason for the big quit.
8 Simple Ways Entrepreneurs Think Differently Than Most People
Everyone’s belief system is shaped by the company they keep. Entrepreneurs are no different in that regard. The differences in beliefs come from the village of advisers people use. For example, fat people who hang around other fat people will not be exposed to better eating habits, will be exposed to negative thinking about being overweight, and will likely continue to struggle with weight issues.
The Complete Guide to Permission Marketing
What is permission marketing? To understand permission marketing, you must understand its opposite, interruption marketing. Permission Marketing vs Interruption Marketing Interruption marketing is advertising in the traditional way. The Internet has made interruption marketing worse with more clutter than in the old days when advertising was primarily limited to Newspapers, Radio, and Network TV stations.
3 Proven Ways to Upsell a Customer
Once a customer agrees to make a purchase, it is not the time to relax or celebrate the victory, it is time to upsell. By employing one or more of three proven methods to upsell a customer, the company can not only increase their revenue but also the customer’s overall satisfaction with the product or service. Let’s begin the discussion of upselling by stating upfront that I’m not talking about some type of sleazy technique to manipulate or gouge the customer.
How to Make Your Marketing Message Stick
How do you make your marketing message something that people will remember? You have to make it sticky. In their book, “Made to Stick, Why Some Idea Survive and Others Die,” brothers Chip and Dan Heath define a sticky idea as one that is understood, remembered, and creates some kind of change in a person’s opinion, behavior, or values. They studied the panorama of what makes ideas sticky by examining urban legends, ad campaigns, and even proverbs.
Steven Imke has many years of experience in the field, covering events and providing in-depth reviews on Business 2 Community.
How to Correctly Target Web Traffic to Drive Growth Many naive entrepreneurs think that all web traffic is created equal. They think that marketing is just about advertising.
How to Apply the Gartner Hype Cycle to Small Business
The Gartner Hype Cycle is a graphical depiction of a common pattern that accompanies the introduction of new technology or innovation. It is associated with the expectations of the market’s perceived value of a technology or innovation over time. The Gartner Hype Cycle helps business owners understand how the market perceives the value of the given technology as it evolves throughout its maturity lifecycle, and is closely linked to the five categories of adopters.
How to Make People Stop and Pay Attention With Emotional Appeals
There is really only one way to break a person’s preoccupation (without physical contact) and that is to appeal to their emotions. Emotional appeals come in four irresistible flavors: money, self-protection, recognition, and romance and are the topics discussed in this post. Many people think that they are good multi-taskers, but the human brain is only capable of really focusing on one task at a time.
How to Go Viral with the Network Effect?
The secret sauce in creating a product or service that has the potential to go viral is adding something that creates more value when more people in the user’s network use or adopt it. This is known as the network effect. Facebook understood the network effect concept very well. If you are the only person in your network of friends with a Facebook account, well Facebook is pretty useless.
Why You Need to Focus on a Niche Market
Every week, I mentor clients wanting to start a new business. Many want to be part of a well-established industry in the hope of getting a share of the large pie. However, this is often a horrible strategy. Most business owners would be better off focusing on the smallest viable market segment, known as a niche market, than targeting a broader audience.
What You Need to Know About Your Funding Options
Enjoy the following excerpt from my FREE What You Need to Know About Starting a Business course where I talk about two common small business funding options for small businesses. We will discuss what I call the debt continuum, how lenders control risk and reward, and the value proposition for equity financing investors you can use to convince investors to fund your business. Video Transscript [Lightly edited for clarity] Let’s talk a little bit about funding options as a small business.
How to Improve Sales by Employing the 3 Ts
In a previous post on the five salesperson archetypes and the one that performs best, we explored the five salesperson archetypes and learned that the “challenger” salesperson archetype outperforms all others by a wide margin. The data from Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson’s study, which resulted in their book titled “The Challenger Sale,” suggests that the challenger archetype is defined by three unique capabilities. They called them the three Ts: teach, tailor, and take control.
Recognizing a Prospect’s DISC Profile for Better Sales Success
Selling is at the heart of every small business. Most business owners simply wing it when it comes to sales. However, having a greater understanding of the psychology behind the selling process shows emotional intelligence and can make the difference between success and failure. Understanding a prospect’s or customer’s DISC profile is one of those concepts that small business owners should really grasp if they want sales success. Selling is all about relationships.
Why You Need to Conduct a Break-Even Analysis
A break-even analysis is a technique used by business owners to assess how many units and at what price they need to sell them at to make a profit. The analysis takes into account the fixed and variable costs of a business as well as the sale price to determine the break-even point. The business owner can also use a break-even analysis to determine the specific break-even point when it is better to buy or lease equipment to maximixe profits. Here is a link to a free Break-Even Analysis Template.
How to Turn Your Story Brand Framework Into a Roadmap to Grow Your Business
Assuming that you have created your company’s brand story using the story brand framework, it is time to use that framework to create a roadmap to grow your business.
How to Develop a Story Brand Framework For Your Small Business
Most brands waste a huge amount of money on marketing. The reason is simple. Most businesses hire graphic designers to build their websites and their collateral material. Graphic designers have degrees in design and have lots of coding knowledge. However, most have very limited skills when it comes to crafting messages that prospects can relate to and which follow the proven story brand framework that makes the prospect the hero.
The Truth About Why Draws and Distributions Are Non-Taxable
When it comes to pass-through entities such as LLCs and S-Corps, draws and distributions to owners/investors are not subject to income taxes. Here is why. Draws and distributions are recorded on a company’s balance sheet. However, a company’s profit and loss (P&L) statement is used to report its profits. Since draws and distributions are recorded on the balance sheet and not on the company’s P&L taking a draw or distribution has no tax consequence.
How to Choose Between Wealth and Power: Understanding the Founder’s Dilemma
Often overlooked in the excitement of starting a new business is one of the most important decisions a founder will have to face early on in their journey: 1. Should I do it alone and be in total control but be forced to bootstrap the venture and grow more slowly or 2. Bring in cofounders or investors to help fund and grow the business more rapidly, but be forced to share decision-making control?
Your Old School Management Practices Are Dooming You To Failure
When it comes to running a business, what I have noticed is that while many founders are progressive with the technical aspects of their business ideas, their understanding of how small businesses operates is quite retarded and based on many industrial era concepts that have long outlived their usefulness decades ago. The science involved in business management practices has progressed since the industrial era but few business owners have noticed.
Why You Need to Employ Education-Based Marketing
Education-based marketing is a marketing method that involves sharing information and educational resources with prospects while setting the purchasing criteria they should use to favor your offering. Rather than trying to sell your product or service to a prospect who, all too often, is not ready to commit to the purchase at that moment because they are still researching options, education-based marketing is a way to share your expertise to assist buyers in their decision making.
Why You Should Adopt the Maverick Principles for Social Media
What are the Maverick principles? Maverick is an acronym that stands for Momentum, Audience, Value, Enjoyment, Relationship, Improvement, Consistency, and Kindness that was coined by Franziska Iseli in her book Social Media for Small Business. The Maverick principles are the basis of how small businesses need to approach all of their social media activities. “Social Media” is one of those terms that has evolved. In the beginning, it was never designed for marketing.
4 Reasons the IRS Really Does Not Want You to Be Self-Employed
Let’s face it. The federal government is funded by tax dollars and it is not in their economic interest to have a largely self-employed workforce. Let’s take a look at a tale of two equally sized cities. In one city, everyone works for one large corporation with several thousand employees. In the other city, everyone is a self-employed small business. 1.
Several Revealing Ways That Social Sector Organizations Are Unique
I could not let the series based on Jim Collins’s book “Good to Great” pass without addressing a hole the author acknowledges related to what he defines as social sector organizations. Two key areas where a social sector enterprise breaks from the book’s ideas are related to the hedgehog concept and leadership. One of the three circles that make up the hedgehog concept is called the Economic Engine.
The Flywheel Concept - How to Become a Great Company
Most marketing and sales books talk about the sales funnel; however, the funnel model has one serious flaw. While the sales funnel is based on driving the customer through the funnel to make a purchase, it ignores the power of the customer to build momentum for the business. The flywheel concept, on the other hand, harnesses the customer’s energy to keep the business flywheel turning.
Why Founders Must Acknowledge the Value Investor Mindset
So, you want an angel investor or even a family member or friend to consider investing in your business. To get any investor interested in your business, you have to think like a value investor. A value investor looks to invest in a company that has the potential to provide a good return but is overlooked by mainstream funding sources. A value investor is often an individual that takes a company’s business model more seriously than those around them and can see value where others fail to see it.
What You Need to Know About State Licensing Boards and Creating a PLLC
A Limited Liability Company, also known as an LLC, is a very popular entity for small businesses and freelancers, and for good reason. In fact, over 80% of all business registrations are LLCs. With an LLC, you get the liability protection offered to larger corporations plus the tax advantages of a partnership, as well as simplified management. However, did you know that an LLC is not available to many types of businesses in many states?
How to Know If Your LLC Is Compliant with IRS Rules
Before 1977, if you wanted to register a business entity, you could choose to be either a partnership or a corporation. A corporation offered liability protection but was considered too complicated and cumbersome to manage properly and had less favorable tax treatment for most small businesses. Partnership, on the other hand, offered better tax treatment, simplified management but no liability protection.
13 Rules When Naming a Business
Research shows that what you name a business can powerfully influence the way your prospects see your product or service offering. However, before we kick off any discussion and naming a business the best piece of advice from the experts is don’t set your heart on a company name before you’ve made sure it can be trademarked and that no one else has already taken your name.
How to Make Cold Calls That Will Get a Meeting with Important Prospects
Not long ago, I had a client ask me some questions regarding cold calling techniques. Specifically, he said that he had conducted some market research and generated a list of medium to large size businesses he felt could benefit from his product and services. He wanted to reach out to them but was not sure about the best way to get a meeting with the prospects since they didn’t know him from Adam. He didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot by soliciting them right out of the gate.
13 Business Expansion Risks When Opening a Second Location
Many business owners who operate out of a brick-and-mortar facility dream of a business reach that spans several locations. Once they see some success in a single location, the itch to expand to additional locations seems like a logical way to grow their business.
How to Apply the Step Dynamic to Business Growth
Do you run your business, or does it run you? Are your day-to-day operations a constant struggle? Are you increasingly frustrated? Do you spend more time putting out fires than planning for the future? Remember the day when you started your business. My guess is that you envisioned that being a business owner would allow you more freedom, make you wealthy, and give you the time to pursue your passions like playing golf several times a week?
Why You Need to Know How to Benchmark Your Financial Ratios
Financial ratios measure the relative health of your business as it compares with other businesses in your industry. Not only is it important for a business to know how its performance relates to the competition, but it is also a tool that lenders will use if and when you ever apply for a loan. Risk Management Associates (often just called RMA) each year publishes a document called the Annual Statement Study, which can be found in the reference section at many public libraries.
How to Define Your Social Media Goals
Social media has matured as a marketing channel over the years and is often paired with other channels like websites, blogs, videos, and more when trying to accomplish a specific business goal. Lost on me, until more recently, was the value of setting social media goals when it comes to designing a social media strategy. Overview Social media, as I often treated it, was a one-to-many information channel.
How to Define Your Social Media Goals
Social media has matured as a marketing channel over the years and is often paired with other channels like websites, blogs, videos, and more when trying to accomplish a specific business goal. Lost on me, until more recently, was the value of setting social media goals when it comes to designing a social media strategy. Overview Social media, as I often treated it, was a one-to-many information channel.
Why You Need to Use a Performance Vs Trust Matrix
Many businesses struggle with employee issues. Sometimes you can’t count on an employee to make their shift, leaving you in a labor bind at the last minute, or trust an employee to complete a job on time or to your standards. Other times, you have employees that, no matter how hard you try to teach them something, just can’t seem to get it consistently. As a business owner, you need to be able to understand which employees are team players and trustworthy and are reasonably good at their jobs.
What You Need to Know About Economies of Scope
Recently, I had the opportunity to discuss profit margins with a client. I shared how some companies can have higher margins than similar companies based on economies of scope. The client was confused about the differences between economies of scope and economies of scale. This post endeavors to describe how they are different and how that knowledge can unmask ways for a business to lower their average total cost, leading to higher profit margins. What are Economies of Scale?
Entrepreneurial Journey - 11 Powerful Lessons I Have Learned from Bands
The other day, I had the opportunity to talk to an old high school friend, Brian Stewart, that I have not spoken to in nearly 40 years. Back in the day, we were avid concertgoers, so as you might expect, we talked about all the concerts we attended in the last 40 years.
Why You Need to Beware of the Planning Fallacy
Have you ever found yourself racing at the last minute to meet a critical deadline? Did you ever finish project deliverables after they were due? Or have you let a client down because you didn’t have enough time to complete a project? If any of these questions sound familiar, then you may have fallen victim to what is known as planning fallacy.
The Truth About How Motivated Blindness Affects Business Decisions
There is a well-documented cognitive bias that says that people see what they want to see and easily miss contradictory information. A particular type of cognitive bias is when a person suppresses information when it’s in their interest to remain ignorant. This type of cognitive bias is known as motivated blindness. Motivated blindness is frequently associated with unethical behavior.
13 Valuable Business Lessons from the Oil Magnate JD Rockefeller
JD Rockefeller grew up poor. His father, an unreliable con-man that sold snake oil to unsuspecting consumers. Although absent for most of JD’s life, he instilled in Rockefeller an entrepreneurial spirit and mindset. Rather than do chores like other kids his age, the young Rockefeller would buy a block of candy and cut it into small chunks to sell it to the neighborhood kids for a profit. Being the eldest boy with an absentee father, he was forced to quit school to support the family.
How to Leverage a Customer’s Anchoring Bias in Business?
Have you ever been shopping and saw an item on sale with a steep discount and thought “Wow, I can’t pass up this deal even though I may not have an immediate need for it”? Well, a clever marketing person that understands buyer psychology used your anchoring bias to affect your buying decision. Psychologists have found that consumers rely heavily on the very first number they see. As a consumer, this can have a serious impact on the decisions that you make.
Valuable Business Lessons From the Shipping Tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt was a shipping tycoon that started with shipping freight by ferry to controlling one of the largest railroad networks. Cornelius Vanderbilt Steamboat Legacy Cornelius Vanderbilt quit school at age 11 and began working on one of his father’s ferries. By the time he was 16, he decided to start his own ferry business and bought a shallow draft two-masted sailing ship to ferry freight and passengers between Manhattan Island and Staten Island, New York.
Why It Is Important That Businesses Develop an Infinite Mindset
Most businesses are obsessed with competition. The problem with that way of thinking is that competitors come and go. Aiming to be better than the competition means that the business direction is largely driven by what its competitors are doing. Instead, today’s businesses would be better served by focusing on the consumer and working toward constantly improving.
How to Intrinsically Motivate Stakeholders with a Noble Purpose
Why do some people choose to take on great risks and start a small business rather than remain an employee that has a predictable and more secure income? This has been a vexing question that at some level I felt in my gut but had a hard time putting into words. As I pondered the answer to the question on a Saturday morning staring at a blank computer screen, two thoughts kept coming up.
How to Create a Powerful Brand By Sharing Your Why
Have you ever heard of the Golden Circle? Most great organizations and leaders understand the basic concept of the golden circle but Simon Sinek turned it into a simple graphic that allowed many more people to understand the power of recognizing your “Why”. Your “Why” expresses your internal motivation for doing what you do and is the reason most consumers, employees, and investors relate to a brand.
The 5-Step Process Used In Infomercials You Need to Use
https://media.blubrry.com/stevessmallbusinesspodcast/ksient.com/SteveBizBlog/Podcasts-mp3-files/020619.mp3 Infomercials, like the classic Shamwow infomercial, are an example of how structure and technique can have a huge effect on how a user or prospect is driven toward taking a specific action like clicking a buy button. Infomercials follow a specific structure that any small business can use to drive action but few businesses ever consider using it when they pitch their product or service.
What You Need to Know About Trademarks
In some industries, such as consumer products, trademarks can be an effective way of protecting your intellectual property. For others, it may not be as important. Some trademarks can be hard to secure or to create awareness for, while others if they are really successful, can become part of our lexicon and lose most of their trademark status by becoming a generic term for a category of products.
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