Giving It Away -- Samples Work!

We all love to get something for free. Admit it you've waited in line for a sample at the grocery store or asked for a sample taste of a new ice cream (nearly 64% of us have accepted a free sample in the past three months). Well apparently giving stuff away really does inspire us to buy it.

A new study from the research firm Arbitron reveals that 35% of shoppers bought an item the same day they sampled it and 58% said that they would buy an item they sampled in a later shopping trip.

So if you are planning to introduce a new product to the market, add in some marketing budget for some free customer samples. A little upfront expense can lead to increased revenues later on.

Source: NY Times

Getting Your Name Out There

I spend a lot of time seeking out new ideas and options for new business owners. There is so much "stuff" that you need to effectively run a profitable business and in this economy we are all looking for ways to keep our budgets under control.

One of the most critical steps to starting your business is to let other people know who you are and what you do. Something as simple as a business card can slip to the bottom of the to-do pile because you just don't have the budget or quantity requirements to meet the ordering restrictions of conventional printing companies.



I found a great option while visiting one of my daily reads, decor8. Writer Holly Becker has discovered the amazing calling card designs by Avie Designs which could be a perfect fit for many of my startup entrepreneurial clients. The cards allow you to share with the world all the critical information to contact you in a funky, artful business card.



Avie has two option that are a great fit for a small business. Their customizable calling card lets you to include your name, phone number and website. While the website cards are just that -- no name, no phone number, just your web address. Both options are budget friendly -- less than $15 for 80+ cards.

(images from avie)

And the Survey Says: Men Twice as Likely as Women to Start a New Business

A new survey by the Kauffman Foundation shows that the percentage of U.S. women starting a business has dropped to its lowest level in at least 12 years.

Their annual entrepreneurial survey showed that the activity rate for women starting businesses dipped to 0.2 % in 2007 down from 0.23 % in 2006. In contrast, the entrepreneurial activity rate for men increased to 0.41% in 2007 up from 0.35% in 2006.

The study is based on data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The author of the study, Robert Fairlie, an economics professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, admits he was surprised to see the decline in entrepreneurial activity by women.

"I don't have any explanation for why it dropped," he says. "One possibility is that female entrepreneurs have more trouble finding capital than men, and maybe this worsened in 2007 as financing became tighter."

There was an overall upturn in the percentage of the U.S. population involved in business start-up activity in the 20-64 age bracket with nearly 300 out of each 100,000 adults involved in entrepreneurial activity.

Another major trend in the survey --the entrepreneurial activity rate among Latinos increased from 0.33 % in 2006 to 0.40 % in 2007, the largest increase for any major ethnic or racial group.

The places with the highest entrepreneurial activity rates were in Atlanta, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Miami and Riverside-San Bernardino, California.

The First Step to Your Business Plan

To write a business plan, you will need to be able to answer some vital questions.

Grab a notebook and do some brainstorming to answer the following questions. It may not be formal, but the responses will give you an idea of where your business is going.






1 - What is your business idea?

2 - What are your goals for starting this business?

3 - Who are your customers?

4 - How is your business different?

5 - Who are your competitors?

6 - How much money do you need to startup and how much will the new business make?

7 - Where are you going to get the startup funds?

8 - How will you measure the success of your new business?

9 - What are the key milestones for your business?

Do I Need a Business Plan?

Every business needs a business plan!!

I don't care how small your business is or how long you've been in business, you need a business plan. It doesn't matter if you utilize a business plan consultant such as myself or if you develop your plan on post it notes -- don't start business until you have at least a basic business plan in place.

The process of creating a business plan is more valuable than the final business plan itself. The steps it takes to create a plan will help you in every phase of your business. A fully developed plan will help you develop the priorities, goals, and path to success for your business.

Although most businesses create a business plan for an outside party such as banks or investors, the most critical audience of the plan is you. You are the one who is accountable for whether you succeed or fail and the plan can help you go through the steps to ensure your success.

Selecting Your Business Model

Once you’ve determined the type of business you want to start, it is time to start considering your business model options.

In today's marketplace there are many business models available to entrepreneurs. I highly suggest starting with one model and once you have your footing you can evaluate growing your business into one or more of the other sales avenues.

Some of todays business models are:

Home-based

Thanks to our electronic advances, you can easily create a legitimate and competitive business from home. Nearly half of all businesses in the United States are being run from home and that number is growing each year. These businesses are both full and part-time endeavors and may or may not be web-based businesses.

The upside of a home based business is that it has much lower start-up costs and is easily scaleable to your time and financial inputs. You can work a home-based business around family requirements or an existing day job. With the growth of the outsourcing community, you can easily contract with other businesses to do web-design, public relations, keep the books, or even do the manufacturing.

The downside of a home based business are that you are restricted by local zoning ordinances (they won't let your run a factory in your home) - you will need to check with your local government center for your communitities specific restrictuions. Working at home has its own set of challenges and you can easily be distracted by other domestic activities. You should also consider if you want to have customers visit your home.

Brick-and-mortar

The classic business model is the brick-and-mortar business that involves a physical location outside of the home. This type of model has a dedicated facility from which you will operate the business.

There are many upsides to the brick-and-mortar model. You can easily work face-to-face with people and become a part of the local business community. A specific location allows you to benefit from walk-in trafic depending on the type of your business. Many customers still don't trust the web-based retailers and will only shop at brick-and-mortar retail shops. You have the benefit of a space dedicated soley to business allowing for a separation of work and homelife.

The downsie is the increased risks and start-up costs. You will need to establish a location, enter into a lease or purchase, and customize the location to fit your needs. You will typically need to hire additional staff and keep set business hours. In a retail business, you will need to build inventory and develop relationships with suppliers.

e-Commerce

One of the fastest growing models is the e-commerce business model. With this model, you sell products to consumers via a website.

The biggest upside is that an e-commerce business has much lower cost and less risk associated with start-up than a traditional brick-and-mortar business. Typically an e-commerce business requires minimum personnel, inventory, and faciclities. It is very easy to scale an e-commerce business to fit your lifestyle and commitments. The schedule is flexible and adaptable. The biggest difference this model has to a basic home-based business is that you can market your goods to a much broader market and is not fixed to your location as customers are reached via the internet.

The downside is that an e-commerce business can be overwhelming if you don't set up an organized system from the start as you will need to handle shipping, inventory management, customer service, and order processing with limited resources. There is also a lot of competition on the internet and it can be difficult to generate traffic to your website and then convert those viewers to become customers.

eBay

A relatively new business model is a sub-category of e-commerce, an ebay store. An ebay store is a great alternative to start your business.

There are many upsides to using an ebay store to get started. Ebay has a number of tools that can help you get your business off the ground - paypal to accept electronic payment, established customer base, ready to use online templates. The cost is minimal - typically just inventory and sellers fees will get you going. It is easily scalable and you can list as much or as little as you can handle efficiently.

The downside is that due to its vast size, there is a lot of competition. You will need to stay on top of your transactions to compete with well established sellers with strong feedback rating and established customer bases.

Entrepreneur Tip: Buy a Notebook and Write Your Ideas Down!!

Once you decide you want to start your own business and you make the desicion about what type of business you want to start, you will be surprised at how fast ideas will start to come to you. The first thing I recommend to my clients that are just starting out is to buy a notepad and bring it with them everywhere.

Bring that notebook with you everywhere. Ideas and questions will come to you at the park, as you wait in line at the coffee shop, or as you are picking up the kids at daycare. As quick as they come, they will quickly disapear unless you write them down.

At this stage, there are no dumb ideas and no dumb questions. Write everything down and flush out the details later. I'll give you ideas later for ways to use your notebook, but for now just find one you like and make sure you have it with you wherever you go.

Choosing the Right Business For You

Millions of people dream of starting their own business - nearly 2/3 of the American public say that they want to go into business for themselves. A small fraction of those are brave enough to take the plunge.

The most difficult decision that entrepreneurs face after they make the decision to work for themselves is in deciding what type of business they want to start. Before you rush into something merely based on what may make the most money, you should take an honest look at the priorities of you and your family. Running your own business can bring you much more than financial success or failure, it can bring you a much broader sense of fulfillment and control that you could ever expect.

To help you make an insightful decision, there are some simple steps that you can take to help you choose your own path.

What do you want to do?

In the United States, the average employee spends 40 hours a week at work, 2080 hours working a year. That is a fraction of the time you will work if you run your own business. In an office, you have a departments for finance, office management, human resources, sales and marketing, business development, and much more. In your own business, you run the whole show 24 hours a day / 7 days a week / 365 days a year. Choosing the right business for you is critical to your success when you are investing that kind of time and passion into something. Pick something that will keep you excited and interested. If you do something you truly love, you won't mind the long hours. If you like what you do, it won't feel like the grind of doing work (at least most of the time.)

What are your skills?

We all have things that we are good at. Sit down and make a list of things that you do well (even things like hobbies) and you may be surprised at some of the business options open to you. For example, if you’re good with people or business you may select a business that relies heavily on interpersonal activity, such as consulting, sales or public relations. The important thing is to find a business in which you will really shine and be well-suited for the critical functions of that business. You don't need to do everything well, there are lots of outside consultants and contractors that can help you in the areas where you don't shine so don't let what you don't know scare you away from doing something you will truly enjoy.

What business fits your lifestyle?

When you are considering businesses make sure you take into account the type of lifestyle you want to lead. If working at home is your priority, you should consider an e-commerce based business that doesn't involve travel. If you need flexibility in your schedule, you can consider project based businesses such as graphic design, website development or writing where a set schedule is not critical to business.

What about money?

Let's be honest, money needs to be a criteria in determining what business you want to run. You need to sit down and carefully consider your business financing requirements. If you have limited resources and don't want to see out financing, select something that you can grow organically without outside funding. Start small and let the business revenues provide the operational and growth capital you’ll need. Many businesses can require small amounts of capital to start and that may be the best route to take if you are just starting out. For example, with my own consulting business, all yI started out with was my laptop and a phone line. Once you get established you can develop additional marketing materials such as business cards and brochures or a website as you grow.

Do you have an exit strategy?

It may surprise you but you should always have a plan of how you will exit your business if or when the time comes. Do you want to sell it? Do you want to keep it forever? Are you ready to liquidate if it doesn't work? Picking an exit strategy at the start will help you eliminate future legal and tax headaches for later.

It is absolutely vital for you to think things through before you jump into business ownership. Too many entrepreneurs end up bored and discouraged because they didn't take the time to consider their options and select the right path for them. Take a little time now to set a vision for yourself to set up the ultimate success of your business, it will make the road you take that much more enjoyable

The A-Ha Moment

Most businesses start with an a-ha moment. You know the kind, it's the moment when something just fits together like a puzzle and all of the sudden it makes sense.

For me it was when I was laid off from my Finance job at which I had been telecommuting from home when my son was 18 months old and I realized I didn't want to start back with another company that would require me to travel or work extra-long hours. I liked seeing my son and I had to make my job fit that requirement.

I started freelancing by helping one of my old employers write a Finance manual and then a friend needed help writing a business plan and then another friend needed some training documents written and I was on my way.

Freelancing is wonderful. You don't get pulled into office politics. You can set your own rules. The downside is no benefits and an unpredictable work flow. Sometimes you are so flooded you can't see straight, other times you are nervous that you'll never work again. If you can make it through the first downtime, you'll survive as a freelancer.

For many of my clients, the a-ha moment comes at the end of busy project when they realize its not really the end but just the start of another cycle of running around crazy for someone else or when we go through life's transitions - job changes or family changes - and for others it is just time for a change. The key is often to find something that you actually enjoy doing and decide to do that for a living.

The first step to really starting your own business is deciding that you want to do something different. Once you decide you want a change, you'll be amazed at how fast the path for you will become clear.

Welcome to The Business Girl!

Welcome to The Business Girl! I have been helping start-up businesses for almost 10 years. I have helped many businesses go through the opening phases of start-up to developing into a successful profitable business. I will share my own experience as a business owner and offer some tips and guidance to help you on your path to being a successful entrepreneur.

I hope to share some of my insight on how to start your own business and how manage that business through the daily challenges we all face.