Marketing Strategies for Small Business

 

Hello and welcome to evefinancialinsights.blogspot.com where we discuss everything business, finance and entrepreneurship. 

Marketing is the heartbeat to any business whether your small business has existed for years or just recently started up. Finding the most effective marketing strategies is critical that's because small businesses don't have the same resources to execute as larger scale firms. 

Marketing attracts prospects, prospects become buyers and buyers provide profit. Marketing plan will clearly outline how you will reach your ideal customers by effectively implementing your marketing strategy. There are countless ways to promote your business so it's important to identify and focus on the most effective tactics.

 Marketing is a business functions just like accounting, sales, human resources not a get rich quick strategy. It requires time, energy and resources. Do enough to make it work well for you. 

So many people just focus on showing and promoting their products making it obvious you don't get sales. When it comes to marketing what sounds logical is not always effective.

Do not sell logic sell emotions. Emotional engagement. People associate frequency with trust the more often you show up the more they like and trust naturally. In short be omnipresent.

Your products/ services should be a solution to your customers need and satisfaction. what do they struggle with? how can your product help? This makes you seem like an expert in your field. Stop asking for sales. This is how to market like a pro and once you get this concept you'll never market the same way. 

 First here's how most people market and why they fail. They send traffic to a page and hope to convert people to start buying or using their product. Those likes share and comments are likely to make you feel good but actually they do nothing to drive your business forward.

 Marketing outreach consists a series of small steps. Your job is to take users one step at a time until they love your product and give you as much of their time as possible for example use curiosity to move them one step at a time all the way until they use and love your products. 

If you are marketing a service product you need to nurture your clients let   them have an idea how your products work, take them step by step until they are convinced exactly this is what they need. 

Small business owners usually put out content regarding information on the how to's strategies or tactics however information is everywhere on the internet and anyone can find it.

 As a small business owner you need to figure out how you stand out with your brand information. This involves creating a message that changes people on their beliefs and how they think. Talk about your story, your successes, your struggles  your fears and failures. 

This will transform their lives in one way or another maybe you just motivating another person is an easy way of getting a new loyal customer. if you run an online business and don't have a massive budget for marketing employ simple cost effective methods. 

 I am sure you don’t want to spend all your fortune on marketing so you have to get a little bit creative.  Use Facebook groups that are particular to your niche try to establish if anyone's ever bought from you, what their experience was as a consumer. 

I’m sure you know that experiences create lasting memories so it's important as a small business owner to sell emotions and save all the technical details for later you want to make it very clear how your product or service will make them feel after they use it. 

Describe in detail how the transformation looks like or how it will change their life people buy your product or service for what it will do for them not because of how it looks or who is selling it it's all about experiences so feed into their desires.

 Exhibitions

 Do exhibitions to the target market in the early stages of your business. Avail your products and services ensuring that your sales representatives are convincing and are super friendly.

Let your clients enjoy giveaways and free promotional products something like T shirts coffee mug, water bottle with your brand name. That’s the power of brand experiences and that is literally the future of brand marketing opportunity. 

Press release

The good thing is that they are always free ensure that it covers all the new activities going on in your business. They are very useful to the media houses and content creators.

 Work with  an experienced  person

 We want to make sure we're providing value to everybody but there's a lot of nuances that it comes to digital marketing. When you hire someone you want to work with, someone who can guide you while predicting some outcomes. 

The best interns have some really bright ideas but they lack the experience to take the lead. So majority of the time they wind up following your instructions which defeats the whole purpose.

 Behind hiring someone to help guide you so remember to focus on experience over price because the lack of experience will wind up costing you and wasted time. 

Video marketing

Take videos using Cell phones or camera ensuring that good quality is maintained then post the video on personal/business Facebook and Instagram pages and YouTube channel is a cost effective way of marketing. Unfortunately, so many try to stop you from talking by putting their ads on your video, it’s a bit ridiculous. 

It is almost irritating, you are speaking and some who claims to be successful jumps in and starts taking over your video. This makes   you not want to be one of those folks but if you are strategizing a legitimate business you need to do whatever gets you in front of people.

Car wrap is also a cost effective advertising hack. Your car becomes a free advertising tool wherever you go. It should be done well and creatively. To attract attention.  

Digital marketing for small businesses 

1.     Develop digital assets-establish what digital output the assets are needed for, understand goals and save assets correctly.

2.  Use SEO-this is Search engine optimizers-they tailor solutions to businesses and firms in every step of the way from planning to delivery and beyond. 

3.     Use pay-per-click on search engines. 

4.     Use social media management. 

5.     Use pay-per-click on social media otherwise known as social media advertising.

6.     Hire an experienced agency or consultant. 

Sometimes all you have to do is try. Do not belittle it. Trying takes courage, but your odds of contributing your passion to the world go up immensely if you do. Do it both online and offline. This keeps marketing cost too low.

Keep your feet on the ground, be visionary and practical knowing that to succeed you must loose the fear and risk.

Now I hope all this information was really helpful for you especially when it comes to marketing a small business if you enjoyed it please visit our blog evefinancialinsights.blogspot.com for more helpful content.

 

 

Bookkeeping Basics For Small Business Owners

 

If you are a small business owner and you want to do your own bookkeeping but do not know how, this video is for you.

Consider this your bookkeeping 101 crash course here at bench we have done the books for thousands of small businesses. 

Bookkeeping may not be the most exciting thing ever but we've got it down to the science in this video we'll teach you what

Bookkeeping is and why bookkeeping really matters and the seven steps to doing your own bookkeeping. 

Bookkeeping is defined as the process of tracking all of your company's financial transactions so you can see exactly where your business is spending money where your revenue is coming from and which tax deductions.

Why does bookkeeping matter for your small business?

  1. Bookkeeping matters because it helps you catch more tax deductions. 

When you record and categorize every transaction in your business, you will be able to see which expenses are tax deductible so that nothing falls through the cracks without year-round bookkeeping. You will forget about one-off deductions like lunch with a client eight months ago that you could have deducted even with the best of intentions. Deductions will always all through the cracks at tax time unless You have bookkeeping in place.

  2. Bookkeeping matters because it can help you get a business loan. 

 If you're applying for a small business loan banks are going to need to see financial statements and I don't just mean the

Type that you can download from your online banking you are going to need to have something that shows your expenses and revenue otherwise known as an income statement.

This is something you are going to be able to get through bookkeeping. 

3. Bookkeeping matters because it can help you catch financial mistakes. 

When you are bookkeeping, you are keeping a close eye on the transactions in your business, which means you will be able to catch things like Bank errors, invoicing mistakes like paying somebody twice and sneaky subscription fees for services that you forgot to cancel.

  4. Bookkeeping matters because it gives you.

 .A clear picture of where your money is going when you have bookkeeping in place you'll be able to keep track of your expenses so you can budget better  You'll also be able to understand your cash flow so you can see what's an expense versus a payment to a loan or a credit card .

You'll also be able to track how your businesses grow and improving over time and what months are busy and slow this will help you plan for the future don't worry about taking notes everything we're about to say is in our guide bookkeeping basics for entrepreneurs.

 Steps to doing your own bookkeeping. 

 1. Separating your business and personal expenses.

 You'll want to make sure that your business and personal transactions are not intertwined so it's clear to the IRS what your business is earning spending and then what your bottom line net profit is.This is especially important for corporations to have separate bank accounts for business and personal finances see. Corporations open themselves up to legal problems when their finances are not separate from personal transactions.

 2. Choose between single entry and double entry. 

Accounting double entry is a system of accounting that tracks where your money comes from and where it's going to .Essentially you record every transaction twice taking assets from somewhere called a credit and putting it somewhere else called a debit your debits and credits should always equal each other. 

how you know that your books are balanced for example say you buy a new laptop for your business and it costs $1000 you'd subtract $1000 in cash from your credit account and add $1,000 in assets to your debit account. You may have lost $1,000 in cash but you gained $1000 in the form of a new asset double entry accounting is kind of like double-checking your homework and helps you create financial statements, which you will need to make smart financial decisions.

 So what is a single entry method?

It is essentially just recording your transactions once as they happen .It is less robust but if your business is a simple sole proprietorship with no inventory and no employees, you can probably use the single entry method. If your business is any more complex than that, your accountant will probably recommend the double entry method. 

 3. Choosing between the cash versus accrual method of accounting. 

 On a cash basis, you only recognize revenue when you receive it. For example when you deposit the check into your account on an accrual basis, you recognize revenue when it is earned. For example, once you complete a project and write the invoice if you are a small business or just getting started. You can probably use the cash method it is easy to switch from cash to accrual if you need to.

 If your business is more complex, for example if your business gets more than five million per year in revenue or if you manage large assets or investments you will probably need to use the accrual method. Either way you should talk to your accountant to figure out which method will be best for your business.

 4. Choose a bookkeeping system.

Your options are to do it manually using something like Excel or just paper or use an accounting

Software. If you do it in Excel you can use something like our free income statement template for a simple bookkeeping setup all you have to do is enter each transaction as it happens. If you are bookkeeping means are straightforward, this is the easiest cheapest way to go.

 If you choose to use accounting software there are a few options for small businesses such as QuickBooks Zero or wait you'll pay a monthly fee for the software which you can use to produce simple financial reports keep in mind though you may need to have an accountants help to learn how to properly use the software. 

5. Categorize your transactions. 

Categories are essentially classifications for your transactions to understand what you are spending on. These types of categories can help you understand what your tax deductions are. Not all transactions are equally tax deductible so you will want to know what you are spending on office supplies versus what you are spending on meals

 For example if you buy a box and pens for the office, you will categorize it as office supplies at the end of the year. You will be able to see the total amount you spent on office supplies and you will be able to deduct that cost on your taxes.

  6. Organize and store your documents. 

 You need to keep records for your bookkeeping but there is a bit more to it than just storing all Of your receipts in a shoebox. There are two important rules for your record keeping.

Rule one if the expense is over $75 you should keep a record to prove the expense.

Rule two you should keep every receipt and financial record for three years as for actually keeping the records. We recommend storing them Digitally. The IRS is totally fine with that and it is an easy away for you will not need the receipts to actually file your taxes but you will need them if you are audited. Some tools you can use to keep your records digitally include receipt banks Evernote and shoebox. 

7.  Make it a habit.

Bookkeeping is not the most exciting thing but if you do it consistently, you will have smart financial insight into your business every month of the year, you will save yourself a lot of time, and headaches come tax season. At minimum we recommend entering in all your transactions at least once a month. Block out a recurring time in your calendar and do it somewhere. 

Fun like a coffee shop or do something relaxing like putting on Netflix while you do the work the more automatic Your bookkeeping habit the easier your tax season will be nobody likes a stressful bookkeeping binge now should you do your own bookkeeping or hire someone else to do it for you doing your own books is free that's the biggest draw but it can be complicated, time-consuming and can take you away from running your business.

If you decide to hire someone to do your bookkeeping it helps save you time, gives you confidence your books are being done properly and makes tax time a whole lot easier.

 Having learnt a lot from us, happy bookkeeping.