Small Business Marketing

Do you find it difficult to keep track of your debts? Have ever you thought there must be an easier way to make a debt pay off plan? Well, there is an answer to your problems! Debt management software can help with both of these obstacles.

If you are have been struggling trying to keep up with all of your debts, a debt management software program can help you keep track of your debts by listing your balances, monthly payments, interest rates and more. You will know which company you owe and how much you owe at a glance.

If you are beginning your journey to becoming debt free, a debt management software program can also help you by laying out a debt pay off plan and some programs will even keep track of your progress. You will be able to watch your balances decrease which will give you the motivation and desire to continue to follow the pay off plan.

Many programs will also include financial calculators so you can see the amount of interest you are paying over the lifetime of the debt. The calculators can show you how quickly you can pay off a debt by paying extra money to the balance as well.

Another great feature of a software program is the function to make a budget. Making a budget can be such a chore but a software program can make it so much easier. You can enter in all of your income and each one of your debts to see where your money is being spent each month. Because it is so simple to complete, you will be more inclined to get your budget made.

Using a debt management software program will get you started on the road to financial freedom. Give it a try and begin making your plan to be debt free.

By: A. C. West

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Debt Management

I spend a lot of my time reading books and listening to tapes about business and marketing. I guess that’s understandable.

Many of the authors of these materials are known as experts, gurus or marketing geniuses. However, a few weeks ago I was listening to a discussion about marketing and one of the participants made a point that struck me like a ton of bricks.

He said: “The only true marketing genius is the customer”.

What a succinct and powerful statement!

The truth of the matter is that no matter how much good advice or information or training we get in marketing, the only person’s opinion that really matters is the customers. No matter how good the idea seems to be, if the customer doesn’t respond then nothing else matters.

What’s the moral?

Simple. You need to constantly stay in tune with your customers interests and desires and give them what they want, how they want it, when they want it. If they don’t respond to a particular offer, you need to do your best to find out why (through follow-up surveys or any other method at your disposal).

If they do respond to an offer it’s still a good idea to find out why. It may be for a different reason than you think.

We should all certainly continue to study marketing and listen to what the “experts” say, but we need to give just as much (or more) attention to what our customers are saying as well.

By: Shawn Meldrum

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When planning a winter vacation or looking to purchase an investment property, one of the top destinations that comes to everyone’s mind is Orlando, Florida. This central part of the sunshine state has so much to offer that it’s not hard to see why this location has been such a favorite for so long. With all of the theme parks, golf courses and easy access to over one thousand miles of shoreline, and hundreds of lakes, Orlando is definitely one of the hottest vacation spots in the country.

Not only are there some of the best attractions available here but Orlando also has some of the best weather that any spot could offer. The average temperature is between sixty-eight and seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit and this makes the Sunshine State even more desirable for those seeking a winter retreat or an Orlando investment property.

There is one particular spot in central Florida that has proven itself to be a most desirable destination. That spot is Ginn Reunion Resort, a truly unique resort that offers everything that any outdoor enthusiast could ever want. Making the resort a perfect place to buy a Orlando investment property. This resort caters to those seeking outdoor activities and their golf courses are not for those seeking a leisurely stroll around the course. They are courses that are designed for the golfer that is looking for a true challenge and have been designed by some of the best-known golfers today. These golf courses have been designed by Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, and Jack Nicklaus. The resort, which is close to twenty-five thousand acres, has been built around these magnificent courses and the grounds are perfectly maintained. If one ever decides to take a break from golfing, the resort is also located right beside Walt Disney World.

If one feels that their game is not yet up to par to play on these beautiful courses, Ginn Reunion Resort also features the new Annika’s Academy of Golf and Fitness. This wonderful centre was inspired and created by Annika Sorenstam, a female golfer who has been ranked number one in the world. This magnificent academy is a teaching facility that spans 5,400 square feet. Henri Reis has been Sorenstam’s coach for a very long time and is also the teacher at the academy. Henri is available at the facility to help visitors who want to improve their game and they will never have a better learning experience!

For those that are seeking something different than golf, Ginn Reunion Resort also offers six sub-surface, irrigated Har-Tru clay tennis courts. These courts have a huge pro shop adjoined to them as well as men’s and women’s locker rooms. And if that’s not enough, there is even a professional regulation sand volleyball court that is sure to provide for hours of entertainment and friendly competition!

Visitors who can’t think of outdoor activities without thinking of taking a dip, Reunion also offers a multi-level water park. This park spans five acres and features a 966-foot lazy river where one can lounge and relax while drifting along the river that will take them through caves and under bridges. The water park also includes a zero-entry lagoon, which is decorated with waterfalls and rock work. The lagoon also offers access to the river as well as a water slide that is one hundred and ten feet long and has a drop of fifteen feet.

With everything that Ginn Reunion Resort has to offer, it’s easy to see why this is such a sought-after destination and also a popular Orlando investment property for those looking for a Florida retreat!

By: Jeffrey Funk

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One of the most common mistakes agents make when marketing to home buyers is marketing only to the “aware”.

The problem is this: anyone who knows they want to buy a house and is serious enough to go to a home-buyer’s seminar probably already has an agent. Let’s face it, everyone in the united states has a dog’s-former-owner’s roomate’s neighbor who practices real estate on the side. By marketing to the unaware, people who have not yet taken any steps toward actually buy a home you stand to gather a far larger pool. While these leads take longer to incubate into closings, this can be tracked in your CRM program (Top Producer, ACT, etc.). Pre-sale leads who are sold on working with you should be “milked for referrals” simply by keeping in touch once every 21 days (three week contacts statistically produced the highest number of referral leads).

A more appealing seminar title to “fish upstream” in your marketing to home buyers by marketing a “Credit Score Seminar”.

As a professional marketer, we’ve done several tests for marketing to home buyers. When offering a “First time home buyer seminar” or even just a “Home buyer seminar”, we had about 15 attendees, out of which only 2-3 leads on average were produced. When we ran the same advertising for a “Credit Score Seminar” we had over 20 attendees, out of which, on average sixteen people took the next step to get preapproved for a mortgage or start looking at property.

This is, of course, an excellent reason to partner with a car dealer, who may represent a great source of referrals.

Another common problem we see with agents or brokers marketing to home buyers is delivery of the message. All marketing comes down to message, media, and call to action. Generally, direct mail is too expensive to realize a positive ROI, while small classifieds in the rental section (tip: the rental section reaches the “unaware” with headlines like “$2k/mo 2bed foreclosure to own”). Another great option is flyers posted in apartment buildings.

The simple fact is almost everyone wants a new home, smaller home, or larger home than what they have. Our job as professionals in a less active market is to make these people realize how affordable it can be, or in the case of moving down, how much they can save.

The National Association of Realtors did a study in which they looked at the top 10 reasons men and women buy homes. They were:

(Men)

10. They want an investment that’s likely to increase in value.

9. They want a tax write-off to put their family financially ahead.

8. They want as short a commute to work as possible.

7. They want a garage for toys and tools.

6. They want space that can work as a home office/den.

5. They want a “safe” neighborhood for their family to live in.

4. They want to make their partner or spouse happy.

3. They want a yard that requires minimal upkeep.

2. They want other men to be envious and/or convey status.

1. They want a place to call their own.

…and for women…

10. They want to live in a “good” school district.

9. They want a safe neighborhood with similar-aged children

8. They want a certain number of bedrooms and square feet.

7. They want a home with a functional, modern kitchen.

6. They want as much closet space as possible.

5. Proximity to stores, entertainment, restaurants, and a park

4. They want a large yard for a growing family and a garden.

3. They want to redecorate to express their own personal style

2. They want a home that their mother will approve of.

1. They want a place to call their own.

As you develop your marketing to home buyers, remember you have the power position: The perception that you provide a path to what the home-buyer wants. As you “set the bait” on the internet, via your flyers, via referral marketing and via rental-section advertising you then want to setup some filtering systems so that the “cream rises to the top”. This means the most qualified, most interested buyers are the only ones who actually get any of your real time, while the others stay in a “holding pattern” until they are ready to write an offer and close.

Easy ways to produce this are with automatic sequential followup autoresponders such as our kits have, use of call-capture systems, and having your mortgage lender pre-qualify the leads. He or she will appreciate the stream of leads, while allowing him or her to filter them will have you writing offers instead of answering basic questions.

Marketing to Home Buyers should be one of the pillars of any real estate business. These days, a solid buyer is a greater guarantee than a listing, and can lead to double-ended transactions. Even the most seasoned agents who focus on listings can use marketing to home buyers as a means to increase market visibility, listings, while delegating incoming leads to a buyer’s agent o their team.

If you’ve found this useful, be sure to check out http://www.MarketingToHomeBuyers.INFO for free resources and downloads, and information about our complete turn-key system including customizable videos, articles, e-books, followup email campaigns, flyers with print graphics, and more, all branded to make you look great.

By: Roger V

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The wedding planner life is the only one I’d like to lead. I love to see couples find the ways to have their perfect day, and I absolutely love being able to help them do it on their own budget. Solving problems, working with people, and just being around weddings is a great career, so I love what I do. The only problem wedding planners have is marketing. There aren’t too many wedding planner marketing tips that are just floating around there. But there are a lot of wedding planners, and it can be hard to make myself stand out in the crowd. If I was going to give advice about wedding planner marketing tips, there are a couple of things that I would be sure to say.

First of all, as a wedding planner, one of the biggest wedding planner marketing tips that I can come up with is making sure that you’ve got a solid business plan and you are professional. You’ve got to know what you are doing right off the bat so that you’ll be able to do it well. You also have to always present yourself in a professional way. Remember that part of wedding planner marketing is making sure that you can work with all kinds of people, from couples getting married to in laws, to florists and DJs. You are going to have to plan this whole thing out, so be sure that your people skills are up to date. One of the biggest wedding planner marketing tips you can have is to always, always be friendly and polite. You have no idea how far a good word can go. If one couple likes you, they’ll recommend you to a friend. Business is easy, that way.

But you’ve got to get your name out there. I learned that the hard way, having no work for quite some time. Finally I realized that a web site is a great idea, because couples who are getting married like to see what I’ve done before. I put up photographs from weddings I’ve planned, and testimonials from couples who like me. I’ve also put up lists of what I do and what I charge for those services. With this information online, it is super easy for couples to decide that they’d like me. The hardest part is making sure that they know my address. I got an easy to remember website address, and started plastering it all over town. I took out ads in magazines that catered to brides and grooms, and made sure that I stuck it at all sorts of places. I even got some florists and DJs to say that they’d keep some of my cars and recommend me. In turn, I usually use them when I need those services for a wedding. That kind of networking can be the best of the wedding planner marketing tips because not only does it help you get business, it also helps you during your own business. No matter what, I always remember that if I want to be a successful wedding planner, I’ve just got to get out there and do it.

By: David Ledoux

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There comes a time when you fall behind on your monthly debt payments, and the only solution in sight is debt consolidation. You will need to find a good debt consolidation advisor, who will negotiate with your various creditors to:

• Help reduce the interest on your outstanding debts

• Seek to reduce or eliminate late fees or penalties

• Reduce your credit card balances within your budget through new payment schedules

In addition, your debt consolidation advisor should:

• Ensure you will not repeat the same mistakes by offering you credit counseling

• Advise you to limit your access to credit so you do not get further into debt

With a number of debt consolidation agencies out there, you need to be judicious in your selection of a debt consolidation advisor. This is what you should expect from him/her:

• Good Customer Service – You can expect good service if the agency assigns a debt consolidation advisor specifically for your account to explain the debt consolidation procedure, answer your queries, and continue to provide assistance as and when required.

• Maintaining Account Flexibility – While the debt consolidation advisor’s job is to try to help lower your interest rates, he/she should maintain account flexibility. If your particular debt has a low interest rate, it should not be in the program. If they insist otherwise, beware!

• Free Debt Consolidation Quote – Keep well clear of those agencies that ask for a fee to ‘analyze’ your financial situation. Once they get your finer details, they can pitch in to make easy money. Analysis and debt consolidation quotes should be free.

• Providing Concrete Timelines – The standard answer to time required to payoff all debts is 2 to 4 years, but your advisor should be in a position to give a break up of each account, and how long it will take to pay them off. You should be cautious, if he/she is unwilling, or unable, to provide this information.

By: Gibran Selman

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I’m not an Economics Major! What do I need to know about Small Business Finance?


No, you don’t need to be an economics major, but you do need to understand the basics of small business finance and good financial management. And if you are an economics major, Great! You have a big head start.

Do you need a bunch of spreadsheets? Not today, but as you plan your business and it begins to grow, you’ll know how to use these! When you’re starting out, there are five basics areas where you need to learn as much as you can:

Bookkeeping:

In very simple terms you need to keep track of the money that comes in and the money that goes out. It may sound a simple, and it might be in the beginning, but you’re not starting this business to run for a month. Hopefully you’re starting this business to last for a long time.

It’s a very good idea to put a smart small business finance accounting system into place from the beginning, and get it set up to grow with your business. You will find a resource page below with some very good basic accounting systems that are affordable and easy to use for small business finance.

Credit and Collections:

You need to make sure you get paid for your product or service. How this happens can vary greatly based on the type of business you run. If you’re just starting out, you will probably not offer your customers credit terms, more likely it will be cash on delivery.

For this you need a payment tool that your customers trust (always look at your customer’s point of view first) and one that will allow you immediate access to your cash. There are many online payment tools and gateways, like PayPal.

One important note, it is an extremely smart idea to use a payment tool or gateway that also offers you the ability to download transaction details into your accounting package. This saves you loads of time manually entering information into your small business finance software package, and has many additional upside advantages.

Cash Flow:

This is where most people have problems with small business finance, and the largest reason for business failures. Let me explain it this way.

Can a profitable business fail? … YES, and many do! Always Remember – Cash is KING!

You must have enough cash coming in to pay your expenses. In the beginning this will be from your own pocket or from your small business finance loan or credit facilities. But eventually, and in most cases sooner rather than later, the start-up funding will run out. You need to be focusing on cash flow from Day ZERO, and eventually when the business is running on its own income you can focus more and more on profitability.

Purchasing:

You will need to buy things for your business. In the beginning it’s important to focus on how you pay for these items. If you’re using your credit card, no problem, but watch the finance charges. Try and keep the outstanding balance on your card down to a minimum.

If your making most of your purchases online, then find a good payment tool or gateway that you can use to pay for purchases while at the same time collecting money from your customers.

Financial Analysis:

Don’t worry, this is not a huge issue in the beginning, because if you’re like most new businesses there will be very little to analyze.

But keep in mind; this will become more and more important as your business begins to grow and you have less and less time to dedicate to finance. You will need to again select an accounting package that can grow and expand with your business giving you easy reports to understand.

In the beginning you really just need the ability to watch your finances and do short range forecasts of your cash flow. Most accounting packages have this as a basic part of the package, if not; keep looking for a system that offers this from the beginning.

Get the Small Business Finance Basics right, and the rest will follow with much greater ease. Ignore the basics, or do them wrong, and you’re asking for problems later on that will distract you from your main function as a business owner which is finding and keeping customers!

By: David J Ogden

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Business Finances

This week a report has been published by the citizens advice bureau into the effectiveness of debtors taking the self-help approach of dealing with their creditors themselves. ‘With a little help from my friends’ is the result of research by the CAB into the relationships between creditors and debtors during the debt negotiation process, both via the CAB itself, other debt help organisations, and via the self-help route.

One third of all problems encountered by the CAB across the UK is now attributable to unmanageable personal debt. The credit industry has increased its funding via the money advice trust to £4.7 million. This has enabled the trusts telephone advice service, National Debtline to employ 88 advisers to try and cope with the 150,000 calls per year that they receive. The report goes on to explain that a CAB adviser would on average spend 3 hours 52 minutes on a housing case, 4 hours 38 minutes on a benefits case and 5 hours 12 minutes on a debt case – highlighting the inconvenienced caused by having to deal with so many debt cases. Essentially, they are rushed off their feet, and desperately trying to find a way of offloading a large number of their debt cases.

Self-help debt services are not a new idea. National Debtline has been providing packs for debt advice and encouraging self-help cases since 1987. This approach involves providing advice and support over the telephone, enabling the client to come up with their own budget, and sending them forms and letters to send to the creditors, which the client then fills in themselves. It often involves large packs being sent to the client with the assumption that they will be able to complete them satisfactorily. There is currently no best practice model for the self help services offered by a multitude of organisations, and as such the packs can vary greatly from one organisation to the next.

The research behind ‘With a little help from my friends’ has shown that creditors are not treating customers that have followed the self-help route the same as those that have followed the process with an advisor. A variety of quotes from both customers, CAB debt advisers and creditors are used to highlight this. A number of graphs are also used to show the differences, with between 50-60% of customers asked stating that while on a self-help scheme the creditors had either; continued to write letters demanding payment, continued to add interest, rejected the offer completely or continued to make harassing phone calls about the debt.

It also goes on to provide reasons for this. One interesting point is the concerns held by the creditors of the ability (or not) of the debtors to accurately portray their current financial position. They talk of debt cases sent into them with no financial statement, or where the figures appear to have been pulled out of the air. Some explain that customers have entered some of their creditors as other expenditure, which is unfair on the rest. It is this distrust that causes the creditors to often treat the debtors that have filled in the forms themselves unfavourably.

The report, after a lot of deliberation, concludes that there is the need to further explore the self-help scheme, both on the side of the creditors, and the agencies providing the debt help, in order to streamline it. This will then in turn reduce the number of cases that need to be seen by the agencies, and free up time for other enquiries.

Or will it.

It is my belief that the vast majority of debtors are not in the correct frame of mind to be able to produce an accurate financial statement. While there are some that will try every trick in the book in order to keep a last grip on one of their credit cards or loans, even those that have the best intentions may still underestimate the importance that an accurate financial statement has on a debt management plan. No matter how competent the customer seems to the adviser, it should be best practice for the adviser to take a full fact find on the client. It is the experience of the adviser that will point the client in the right direction, and gain the right information to ensure that the debt management plan goes through as smoothly as possible.

A lot has been said in the past about the pros and cons of profit making debt management organisations, often citing that it is immoral to earn money from debtors in that position, and that they will cause irreparable damage to your credit rating. In fact the only reference the report makes to fee-charging debt management agencies is to disregard them as having given “poor and inappropriate service” in the late 1990’s. It is this inability to move on and think outside the box that has left the charities in their current situation.

By opening up clients to fee charging companies such as MRADebtHelp, the agencies can relieve some of their ever building backlog, and enable the debtors to get on track to paying off their debts quicker. The debt management company will not only ensure that all information is filled in correctly, and that the debtor is taking the most suitable route to help the debtor become debt free, but they also become an all important middle man between the creditor and the debtor.

Now we have all heard the horror stories of the debt collection agencies writing, texting, telephoning at all times of the day, harassing the debtor into submission to increase their payments. The debt management companies will use their experience, negotiating skills and leathery thick skin to absorb all the communication from the creditors and negotiate lower more affordable payments for the creditors. They enable the debtor to live a less stressful life, safe in the knowledge that the debt management company are working for their best interests, and get them debt free as quickly as possible.

By providing a constant service, right up until the debtor is completely debt free, the debt management company can keep up to date with the clients financial situation, renegotiating payments and even settlements for the client, to ensure the best possible outcome for all. Most importantly, as a fee charging company, they work for the client – unlike the charities, whose main source of income is from the creditors themselves.

By: Keith Robertson

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The complex world of business where finance is concerned can be quite confusing, especially if you have to gain some footing in an industry dominated by finance experts. It seems easier to find business finance software that can do all this for you.

At the outset, it is crucial to understand and drill out your needs and goals. First develop a over all picture of what you would like to achieve with any new software or application. Next drill down to see what features are an absolute necessity for your business, others that would prove useful but not absolutely necessary and still others that are superfluous and not required now or in the future. Having such a comprehensive and detailed view will give you the tools to find the perfect finance software for your organization.

The ideal business finance software should help you to manage your finances accurately with as much ease as possible. The features that the software provides should enable you to automate the following aspects of your finances.

Budgeting Categorizing Managing Scheduling Tracking Reporting Tax Calculations

While all the above mentioned features are absolutely important to look for, there are some hidden non-functional features that should be considered for picking the best product.

Security Integration Interface Support The cost

A thorough research and analysis Is mandatory to find the perfect fit for the organization. Look for a feature comparison, scalability, reliability and speed of the compared products. This type of detailed study will help find the right software product.

By: James K Murray

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