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We hope you find this arcthve useful. A subscription to The Small Business Advisor Newsletter is free. Subscribe now - it's easy! The Small Business Advisor Newsletter for May, 1998
CONTENTS
++++++++++++++++++++++++ NOTES/TIPS/etc U.S. GOV BUSINESS. GSA has awarded contracts to six credit card companies to provide additional charge cards to government agencies. Federal employees will use these cards to buy everything from pencils to computers. In 1997 the government purchased 8.5 Billion dollars of goods and services using credit cards. Be ready. Ensure you have a merchant account and are able to accept credit cards in payment for your services or products. U.S. GOV BUSINESS II. PASS (Procurement Automated Source System) has been an important data base for small businesses wishing to do business with the government. PASS is being absorbed into a new program called, PRO-Net administered by the SBA. The process is easier than ever - you can now register online. Visit PRO-Net at http://pro-net.sba.gov or go to the SBA site at http://www.sba.gov and click on PRO-Net. NEED BATTERIES? Here is a one-stop shop for notebook, cellular phone, radio, camcorder batteries. 1 800 Batteries or www.1800Batteries.com INTERNET DOMAINS. Many of you have Internet sites (good!) with your own domain. Check with the Internic (http://rs.internic.net/) using Whois search to determine who the administrative contact is. Is should be you! If not, get it changed immediately. In the event you ever have a problem with your ISP and need to switch your domain to another provider, the process will be much easier. LOOKING FOR AN ISP? Considering your own website and need a good ISP? There are so many, the choice can be tough. Get some help with your choice at http://www.webhostlist.com. A neat resource. TELEPHONE RATES. Keep a close eye on your long-distance telephone rates. As we have noted previously, they can change without notice! Also, if your calling patterns change significantly, contact your long-distance carrier since you may be eligible for lower rates. MICROSOFT APPLICATION HELP. Got a question about some Microsoft sottware? Ever try to find the phone number? Here is some help - a listing of tele numbers for various popular Microsoft applications. (I can't guess how long you will have to wait!). Unless noted the area code and prefix is (425) 635 Excel 7070
BACKUP NOW! Remember us telling you about the importance of computer backups? Hopefully you are all making backups of critical information but how many of you are also keeping an OFF-SITE backup copy? Do it now, folks. I just heard a terrible story about a fire in which a small business lost all their data which essentially put them out of business. What would be the effect on your business if you lost ALL your computer files? Think about it. SETTING MONITOR RESOLUTION. There are not too many small business owners who don't spend considerable time in front of their computer monitors! Setting the monitor's resolution is important in order to reduce eye strain. Here are the recommended resolution settings for the most popular monitor sizes: 14-in: 640 x 480
GOVERNMENT
SMALL BUSINESS RESOURCES Don't forget the United States Government Printing Office (GPO) as an excellent source of small-business information. I've listed below some of the more useful resources for the small business owner or entrepreneur. In some cases, the information will be a little out of date but then most items are quite inexpensive. Order from the Government Printing Office by calling (202) 512 1800 or faxing (202 512 2250. (Only credit card orders accepted by fax) Payment may be by check or credit card (Visa and MC). You can also visit one of their stores located in 24 cities throughout the United States. See the listing below. The Government Printing Office also maintains an extensive website at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs. Some of the information contained in the publications below are available on-line from the GPO site or other government sites.
Atlanta,
GA. (404) 347 1900 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ BUSINESS PLANS Most small and home based businesses never need a business plan. However, for those few that are looking to attract financing, a business plan is a required document. Incidentally, ALL small and home based businesses should have a strategic planning document - but that's another story. A Business Plan is the key to successful financing or securing Investors and a typical plan includes the following major elements:
Most would agree that the most important sections are the Executive Summary and Management. The Executive Summary since that gets read first and it must be compelling enough to interest the reader to investigate further. Management because in the final analysis people make a company successful. Writing an effective business plan can be a daunting task but fortunately there is a lot of help available on the Internet, software packages and books. 1. Internet. Simply search using any of the major search engines on "business plans." It would be impossible to list here all the references that are available. 2. Our local Borders bookstore had over 30 titles that related directly to writing a business plan. 3. Software. Here are three of the most popular software packages for writing a business plan. Business Plan
Pro. $100. http://www.pasware.com We have reviewed Business Plan Pro in our website. Visit http://www.isquare.com and search on "business plan." PlanWrite also has an "expert" version ($230) that includes a great deal of specific assistance as you develop your plan. ++++++++++++++++++++++++
PUTTING YOUR BEST FACE FORWARD: How you present your company (particularly in a first-time situation) has a lot to do with how you're perceived in the marketplace. Sad but true, you may be an absolute whiz with your equipment and you may be a virtual expert in your chosen field, but if your company looks like a bunch of amateurs, you personally may be treated like one, and not get the respect (or the big budget projects) that you so rightfully deserve. If you've ever worked for (or worked at, for that matter), a big corporation, no doubt you've been specifically told how to use their logo, what typeface to use for their name, and what corporate colors you must use for reproduction of same. (You may even have been handed a bulky "Corporate Graphics Standards" binder, replete with color swatches and exacting dimensions of everything from door signs to envelopes. The name of the game is "corporate identity." And it's just as important for you as it is any Fortune 500 company. When you strip away all the clutter and marketing gobbledygook, the real purpose of a corporate identification program is to produce a system of graphics that is professional, attractive and that will enhance the image of your firm. Such a program should encompass all aspects of visual communications --including your stationery, advertising, packaging, brochures, signage, trade show booth design, and other printed material that will be viewed by both current and potential clients. Okay, so you're not quite at the level of General Motors or Microsoft. It doesn't matter what size you are. Establishing and maintaining your corporate identification is very important in your marketplace --whether you're doing business on a local, regional or national scale. Why? Simple. Because whether you're a company of one, or a company of 100 people, you want people to remember you; you want to look like you know what you're doing; you want to look stable, creative and --most of all --professional. Let me tell you how we made my last company look much larger than life. Great Lakes Video Services was incorporated about nine years ago. At the time of our inception, the staff consisted of yours truly, my partner Randy, and two part-time technicians, and we had two dinky offices on a side street office building. We were little. But we wanted to look larger than life. We wanted to look like we were well-established (which we weren't), savvy (which we hopefully were), professional (yep), businesslike (ditto), and creative (fer sure). So one of the first things we did after setting up the videotape dupe rack and plugging the editing suite together was to hire a professional designer and had him develop a logo. Simple, strong, colorful and eye-catching, it features our name and a graphic device which resembles both a wave (Great Lakes --get it?) and an artfully draped piece of videotape. We decided on our corporate colors --strong shades of blue (for water) and green (for money, natch), and locked in a "corporate" typeface --one that would not vary, regardless of where it was to be used. And then we proceeded to put our new corporate identity/logo on EVERYTHING we could think of. Our shipping boxes. Our letterhead (even our second sheets carried the simple wave device on the left-hand side). Our business cards, envelopes, order forms, mailing labels, VHS tape box labels, cassette top and spine labels, rate cards, service brochures, invoices --even our equipment identification stickers carry the message in a consistent fashion. And even though Randy (the business and finance guy) winced at the cost of three-color printing for "throwaway" shipping labels, I persisted. If we wanted to convey the image that we were big and slick and could deliver, we had to consistently look that way. And it worked. The corporate identity we established accomplished its purpose. We were perceived as having our act together. The frightening thing about public perception is that we in reality could have been totally unhinged and thoroughly unprofessional, working in our garages or basements with antiquated equipment, but our graphic identity made us look like we knew what we were doing. Hence, people trusted us with their work. And when we did a good job, they kept coming back. And we prospered for it. The underlying principle here is to present your customers and prospects a strong, consistent image. Fragmented or sporadic adherence to this idea ultimately damages your corporate credibility. So decide what you want to be in the mind of your public. Take the time to develop a corporate identity program that says who you are and what you do, and exudes professionalism. And when you've got it, use it! Emblazon your name on everything from labels to baseball caps, ads to vehicles, business cards to building signs. Remember that synergy is strength, and consistency is the name of the game. (Steve Yankee, independent copywriter and sales consultant, can be reached by emailing syankee@springlakemi.com. You'll find lots of money-making FREE information on his website: http://www.syonline.com Return to top of page - Back to Home Page - Back to Archive Index |