Archives for January 2013

Fundraisers are a great way to get some extra money for your organization while getting you name out into the community as well. There are plenty of fundraising ideas for nonprofits, schools and churches. Things like donation drives, walks/runs/bicycling events and raffles are great ways to raise a bit of money while getting the message of your cause into the public ears. Why are you holding the fundraiser? What is the purpose besides raising money (new connections, spreading the word, etc.)? All of these should be considerations in the event planner’s mind.

Ask for Donations

Donations are a great way to get your fundraiser off the ground. This is the most simple way of fundraising, and it has been done successfully over the years. However, instead of simply asking for money, find creative ways to match the giver and get him/her involved in something larger than both of you. Perhaps for every $500 someone donates you could match $250 in food storage supplies to a homeless shelter. A Legacy Premium supply, which boasts 100% GMO free products, can make that money go a long way.

The point is to get creative and give back to the community.

Hold an Activity Fundraiser

Activity fundraisers are anything that gets the community together for something active. This can be a walk, 5K run or a bicycle race. These events tend to attract a whole lot of people. Market it through flyers and banners within the community. Charge an entry fee for each walker/runner/bicycler. Have water and snacks for those that finish the race. Give out a trophy to the top three people. This also opens up the door for selling food, drinks and snacks as well.

Promote an Auction and Raffle

Raffles and auctions tend to attract the masses. If you have a large support group at your organization, ask them if they have anything of value they would be willing to auction off. These need to be higher ticketed items like a Timeshare or something. You can also contact local businesses and ask if they have anything they would be willing to donate to the auction. Hand out tickets to everyone that comes in the door. Then, one of your high ticket items and raffle it off at the end of the night.

Successful fundraisers give back to the people giving to you. It should be about more than simply taking their money. In what ways can you say thank you to those that gave during your fundraiser? Handing out t-shirts, providing food and planning activities are all ways to make the donator feel like their giving was worth it.

If you’re running a small business, chances are you’re either running your office out of your own home, or in the back of a shop, with few people to help out with day to day admin. Therefore, it’s important that your office is well-equipped, to allow you time to focus on all aspects of your business. Whether you’ve already set up your office or are in the middle of planning, our guide will take you through some of the essentials.

Laptop

A laptop is perhaps the most important tool in your office, providing you with a portable way of managing your business. While a desktop PC can technically carry out all of the same tasks, having a laptop means that you can take it to meetings, allowing you to better record client progress and have presentations ready in seconds.

Storage

If your business requires you to store a lot of data, it’s worth purchasing an external hard drive to store backups of all of your files – this way you needn’t worry if your laptop is lost or broken. For less secure files, it’s also worth looking into cloud services such as Dropbox or Google Drive, as these allow you to store documents online, and access them from any computer.

Printers

A printer is an immensely useful tool, even in a so-called “paper free” office. Small retail businesses always benefit from till tracking and stock-taking forms, while invoices and bills are much easier to draw up when they are for the most part automated. Staff training materials are ideal for those offering a specialist service or product, making access to printed information essential.

Shredders

Equally important are shredders, designed to ensure security and waste management. Shred sensitive information quickly and effectively, and ensure that unnecessary pieces of paper are kept out of the way. It makes the recycling process easier, as all of your paper is in the same place, and some models such as the shredders from Ebuyer even shred credit cards and CDs, too.

Cordless phone

If you carry out most of your business from your office, a cordless phone is the ideal way to maintain communications while still being able to efficiently move around and carry out related tasks – this is especially useful in conference calls and when dealing with customer issues. If you’re making a lot of calls throughout the day, for example if you make sales calls, it may even be worth picking up a headset-enabled phone.

As customers we’re sometimes not very skilled in the art of negotiation. Your average car salesman, insurance agent or mortgage lender is however and that’s why it pays to go into any negotiating situation with a few common sense tools and a little bit of inside knowledge on your side.

Rule #1- Never let the salesperson start the negotiations. It may sound silly but the person who starts any negotiation is usually the person that ends up on the better side of the deal when it’s done. If you let this crucial point slip by you‘ll find yourself constantly trying to amend the number that they want instead of negotiating on the number that you want. Remember, it is you who are making a purchase and it is you who will be spending your money for their product or service.  You control the situation and can simply end it by getting up and leaving.  Never let go of that power and you’ll always be on the winning side of any negotiation.

Rule #2 – Always get whatever you agreed upon in writing and as soon as possible.  No matter what you have negotiated the deal isn’t done until there are signatures from both you and the salesperson, in writing and on a contract.  It seems obvious but many people have put off this crucial step and ended up getting burned when an increase or change was made at the last minute to what they thought was a ‘done deal’.  Do yourself a favor and, once you’re satisfied with price and/or conditions, get them in writing.

Rule #3 – Always keep your cool and never let your emotions get the best of you.  The simple fact is this; you can always walk away. No harm, no foul.  Many things come into play at the negotiating table and emotions, as well as tempers, can be high.  If the amount of money is greater the emotions will be also.  Our best advice?  Keep cool, act authoritatively and make a decision without too much hesitation.  This will show the other side that you mean business and aren’t going to play games.

One final thing to keep in mind is simply this; the person trying to get you to agree with them is probably a nice person, as you are as well.  Respect is as important at the negotiating table as it is in any other facet of our lives.  Be kind, be respectful and be firm.  Do these things and you will always get a great price and feel good about it afterwards.

The Internet is a phenomenal tool, especially for entrepreneurs who are hoping to go into business for themselves or want to expand a company they have already started.

The New Sales Frontier

If you are someone who hasn’t spent much time online it might shock you to find out that there are some companies and businesses that operate solely on the web. It’s true—web based companies are the wave of the future because they are cheaper to run and can service customers all over the planet.

This is not limited to informational products, though those are the backbone to the Internet Marketing community. It is also possible, thanks to drop shippers and companies like Zazzle, CafePress, etc to sell physical products as well.

Spy on Your Future Customers

Okay, “spy” probably isn’t the nicest word to use here but it still applies. As you navigate your way through the Internet pay attention to what people are talking about—especially if they are complaining. You won’t lack for material—people love to complain about stuff online! What’s the point of reading all of the complaints and criticism? To figure out what people need! Over time you will start to see common themes develop in people’s complaints and, hopefully, you’ll have an idea for a product or service that will solve the problem they are having.

The best example of this is Michael Fertik and Reputation.com. According to the official Mike Fertik bio, Fertik saw that people were getting more and more concerned about their ability to protect their private information and reputations online. So he came up with a service that will help them solve this problem.

The Best Research Tool Ever

Do you have a great idea for a business? Look it up online and see whether or not it already exists. If you find that someone else is working along the same lines as your idea, that’s okay. In fact, it can even work out in your favor because you can see what that person has done and then make sure that your business is better. You can learn from their mistakes so that you don’t make them yourself. You can see what has worked for them and take it one step further.

If you don’t find that your idea is already being implemented that’s okay too—your business can be a pioneer in your field. There is certainly something to be said for being a novelty online. Even better, if you do well, you might get discovered by a major corporation or other type of big wig and be able to take your independent idea and turn it into a huge profit and major product. Google, for example, started out as the little guy trying to compete against big guys. MySpace spawned tons of spinoffs. John Scalzi published his first novel independently online and it did so well he’s now published several other novels under a major publisher.

The Internet is one of the best things to happen to the professional world and the indie business world. Whatever you need to know, or want to do you can find it or do it there.

A scheme launched earlier this year by the government to boost lending by banks may be having a negative effect on savings rates. The Funding for Lending scheme, created to stimulate lending to small and medium-sized businesses is seen as part of the reason why a growing number of banks and building societies have chosen to reduce the annual interest rates they pay for savings accounts.

Average returns on savings accounts have fallen by around 10% in the past couple of months, something that many savers and consumer groups are concerned about. During that period, the average rate for a one-year fixed rate savings account has dropped from 2.77% to just 2.57%, while two-year accounts have seen their rates fall to just 3.01% from 3.29%. Recently, a handful of savings account providers have reduced their rates in accordance with the current trend.

The fact that banks can now access new money from the Funding for Lending scheme is seen as the main reason why savings account holders can expect lower rates than usual. With more money from the government behind them, the need to offer attractive savings account deals is reduced. Will Becker from credit card comparison site Totally Money explained how savers are being hit in the pocket:

“Unfortunately, this already long period of falling output followed by stagnant or low growth means savers are really suffering.  However, we certainly wouldn’t want the Bank of England to stray from its low interest rate path.  Inflation (which would hit savers even harder) seems to have been checked and with mortgage affordability finely balanced, a significant rise in interest rates would almost certainly affect the entire economy, savers included, very negatively.

We suggest savers who are impatient to see better returns might be interested to look at the potential rates of return available from alternatives to deposit accounts including the very interesting peer to peer sector where lenders such as Zopa and Ratesetter [link to savings tables] offer the ability to lend direct to borrowers.”