We are all reading the headlines about the Dow, S&P and credit markets shrinking while business still need access to credit to maintain operations. Maybe your home business is not a General Electric or Intel, but you do need access to credit. You might run an ebay store and need credit for those black Friday deals that you intend to list for the holidays. Maybe you run a printing business and need access to paper stock in advance of summer weddings. Even if you have access to cash or capital, how can you make this current environment work in your favor? Get creative!

1. The toughest call you might have to make is to your competitor. If you are a photographer and don’t have the capital to rent expensive equipment like lenses and cameras for a shoot, you can call a competitor and offer to barter or trade services. Need a Nikkor 600mm lens? You could offer to do some side work for them in exchange for use of equipment.

2. You could call smaller competitor and offer to combine business, sell, or buy them out. In the current financial climate, you might have a competitor that wants to retire or get out of the business. I have heard of several home repair companies that cannot afford to stay in business with taxes and medical insurance. Maybe now is the time to diversify your business or add another product line. If you repaired sheet rock, maybe you can add the service of painting or crown molding.

3. Call a friend. This is the time when you might need to do some extra hours at your home office and you could probably use some help with your kids. Nap time or bedtime might be a stressful time in your household and you might need an extra set of hands to help while you make some business calls. Offer to reciprocate on the weekends when your business hours are probably closed. Friends can be a tremendous asset to your business and be sure to reciprocate the favor and say thanks.

4. Call your family. Why would you call your parents, sister or brother? Many reasons come to mind in this current economic environment and it’s not to ask for money. In fact, you might want to preface your conversation with your parents and express that you need another type of help. Do your parents want to earn a little extra income or can they help watch your children? Maybe your parents or siblings don’t live in your city but would love to help your business. They can be a virtual assistant and help in many different ways. Maybe they can do some background research on competitors of yours or research how they are doing business. Do you have a hand made jewelry business and want to check out your ebay or etsy competition. Have your family receive items and evaluate the competition. This could give you a tremendous opportunity to “spy” on the competition.

Do you have a blog and don’t have the time to maintain or write quality content? Ask a family member, brother, sister, aunt, even grandpa if they are interested in your niche. If they are, you can introduce the new author and have them submit articles on a weekly basis. This could be a wonderful boost to your blog.

5. Call your spouse. This should probably be a daily ongoing call. This might be a sensitive issue, especially if your spouse works a full-time job. Can they help in your business, at night, or on the weekends. Your spouse might not have the skills of a professional photographer or be able to put together a power point presentation, but I bet they can help organize your office and pay bills. We all hate organizing for taxes, payroll or even going to the bank. If your spouse is willing, they can really take a lot pressure away and allow you to focus on growing your business through this difficult environment.

Business credit markets are tightening and access to credit for home businesses may be causing you anxiety and stress. Making the calls above may be tough and not something you every thought you would have to make in your lifetime. Calling a competitor or a parent to help your business may cause knots to form in your stomach right now. Look ahead and your business may just be getting stronger after a few short conversations. Let me know what you are doing in this current financial environment for your small business. Are you finding creative ways to fund your small business?

Tags: business credit

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With the recent bail-out plan being a flop not meeting lawmakers expectations, business owners are more concerned than ever about keeping their company afloat.  Susan Ward and her partner run Cypress Technologies, an IT Consulting business.  Susan recently offered these tips on about.com to recession proofing your business.

1. Protect your cash flow.

Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business; to keep your small business healthy, cash needs to continue flowing through. Now no matter how tough times get, having cash flow out of your business will never be a problem. As long as your business exists, you will have expenses. But the harder times get, the harder it can be to keep the cash flowing in. Recession-proof your business by implementing strategies to keep the cash flow moving.

2. Review your inventory management practices.

See what can be done to reduce inventory costs without sacrificing the quality of goods or inconveniencing customers. Are you ordering too many of particular items? Can an item be sourced somewhere else at a better price? Is there a drop-shipping alternative that will work for you, eliminating shipping and warehousing costs?

Just because you’ve always ordered something from a particular supplier or done things in a particular way doesn’t mean you have to keep doing them that way - especially when those other ways may save you money.

3. Focus on your core competencies.

I have seen many articles on diversification as a strategy for small business success. (I’ve even written some!) But too often small business owners simplify the concept of “diversification” to “different”.

Just adding other products or services to your offerings is not diversification. At best, it’s a waste of time and money. Worse, it can damage your core business by taking your time and money away from what you do best and/or damaging your brand and reputation. Drop the extras and focus on what you do best that is most profitable to recession-proof your business.

4. Develop and implement strategies to get your competition’s customers.

If your small business is going to prosper in tough times, you need to continue to expand your customer/client base - and that means drawing in customers from the competition. How can you do this? By offering something more or something different than the competition does.  Research your competition and see what you can offer to entice their customers into becoming your customers.

5. Make the most of the customers/clients you have.

We’ve all heard the old adage that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. The bird in the hand is your customer or client and he or she is an opportunity to make more sales without incurring the costs of finding a new customer.

Even better, he or she might be a loyal customer, giving you many more sales opportunities. If you want to recession-proof your business, you can’t afford to ignore the potential profits of shifting your sales focus to include established customers.

6. Continue to market your business.

In lean times, many small businesses make the mistake of cutting their marketing budget to the bone or even eliminating it entirely. But lean times are exactly the times your small business most needs marketing. Consumers are restless and looking to make changes in their buying decisions. You need to help them find your products and services and choose them rather than others by getting your name out there. So don’t quit marketing. In fact, if possible, step up your marketing efforts.

7. Keep your personal credit in good shape.

Hard times make it harder to borrow and small business loans are often among the first to disappear. With good personal credit, you’ll stand a much better chance of being able to borrow the money needed to keep your business afloat if you need to. To recession-proof your business, keep tabs on your personal credit rating as well as your business one and do what’s necessary to keep your credit ratings in good shape.

There’s absolutely nothing that will make your small business one hundred percent recession-proof. But implementing the practices above to recession-proof your business will help ensure your small business survives tough times and might even be able to profit from them.

Check here for more suggestions on recession proofing your business or click the photo above for ways to recession proof you.

Tags: business, recession proof, work at home

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photo credit: orphanjones

While everyone is watching the Presidential debate, or the opening game of the World Series or some other national media event, have some new material ready to reveal as soon as the event is over. Many people watch TV and take part in some form of social network now. There are twitter debate hashtags, Olympic twitter games, plurk cliques for football games, and Skype chats while the opening show of a new series begins. Then people stay online a while after to catch up on their email, see who else is on Twitter, etc.

Bring on your blog posts, your newest inventory, your special sales events and unleash them to the online world just at the right moment. Be sure to post something on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, your forums and any other places you chose to promote your work at home business.

One more thing you can do is bid on auctions that are ending during that time. If you need inventory for your business, there’s a good chance you can get it at a bargain price because not many people are buying at that time.

There is a great deal of online traffic when there is something exciting or new occurring on the television, especially concerning politics and sports. Take advantage of that traffic to market your business. Write something concerning the media event and you’re more likely to get traffic to your blog or website.

Tags: politics, sports, television, work at home business

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Marketing promotion can  be a daunting task, but definitely a necessary one for small business owners.  Tooting your own horn can seem like bragging, and we’ve all been taught that being boastful is a negative character trait.  But when you own your own business, it’s essential to promote your product or service.  If you won’t do the job, who will?

And promoting your business is a big part of the job.  Realize that selling yourself is essential to your success.  Use your strengths.  If you are a people person, use your sparkling personality to network and strike up conversations, whether they be online, in person, or by phone.  Is writing your forte?  Spread the word about your services through your copy.  No matter what, it’s imperative to “put yourself out there” in some way.

Here are a few ideas:

• Write articles - Article writing can be a great way to promote your business.  Find web sites or publications related to your niche and offer to write articles, including a bio linking to your website.  Try a site like eHow that covers all topics.
• Become an expert - Is there a skill or service that you can offer in relation to your business?  If so, offer to teach classes or workshops as a way of promoting yourself as a reputable source.  Perhaps you could offer consulting or coaching services as well.
• Create media releases - Write a press release for your business and send it to your local paper or radio station.  Check out sites like PRLog.org for places to run your press release online.
• Develop an e-book or newsletter - Ask permission to add your contacts to a mailing list and send updates on a regular basis.  Doing so provides credibility and reminds potential customers of your presence.
• Utilize your e-mail signature -  Any easy tool in marketing promotion is simply to add your business website’s URL to every e-mail you send out.
• Improve your “About Me” page - Many people don’t use this tool to its fullest potential.  People are interested in learning about you as a person.  If people see you on a personal level and are able to make a connection, it’s more likely they may buy from you or request your service.

These are some simple marketing techniques you can use right away to begin promoting yourself and your business.  Get out there and make yourself known - you won’t regret it!

Tags: marketing promotion, self-promotion, selling yourself

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What does kids math and business banking have in common? An opportunity to teach your children math skills like counting, addition, division, and more. If you have young children at home you can easily create some fun games to incorporate into your home business. If you have a retail business you will most likely have access to coins and paper money. If you work at home, you probably receive checks in the mail or have paypal transaction post directly to your bank account. You can still have fun with math and take this time to teach your children about banking.

Here are some fun ideas to teach kids math through business banking:

1. Coins. Get a roll of pennies or quarters next time you are at the bank. Pennies are great, in case the kids lose them you’re not out much money. Create counting games, subtraction games and even let them trace the coins on paper. Work on coin denominations and how many coins to equal one dollar.

2. Old Checkbook. When I was a kid I loved using my parents old checkbook deposit slips and writing numbers and practicing math. I also enjoyed signing my name as though it was a real check. You can encourage your kids to do the same and even let them take the deposit slip to the bank and have them interact with the teller. It’s all fun and the bank teller will play along.

3. Savings. Encourage your children to save money and next time you go to the bank they can deposit the coins into a savings account. Tell them they can save money towards a special toy or for college. Each time you do your business banking, you can encourage your children to bring any coins they have found or saved. Even if it’s a penny or nickel, they can still make a deposit.

4. Online banking. This may be suited for older children and you can help them check the balance of your child’s savings account online. You can also print out the statement and have them verify the math by adding all deposits. Also, teach them to calculate the interest and verify that the bank credited the account properly.

5. Fake money. Not the kind you make, but the fake toy money you can buy at the store. You can also use monopoly money, but the fake money is cheaper to replace if lost. Have your children play banker and you are the customer. Many fun opportunities to teach math, banking terms, and even have role playing. My kids love it and I’m sure you have fond memories playing store or banker as a child too.

Do you have any other ideas to incorporate kids math and your business banking?

Tags: business banking, kids math

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