Most Internet marketers know all too well the trouble that can be caused by misunderstanding the business terms of their merchant account provider. Everything from exorbitant fees to frozen finances await the online marketer who fails to provide for potential problems. There are ways to avoid merchant account disasters, but by and large online marketers are learning that establishing their own independent merchant accounts can bring a wealth of benefits.
“Most companies that offer merchant accounts don’t understand our business,” says Armand Morin, an online marketer and entrepreneur who has made $15 million on the web. “They don’t understand growth. They’re nervous about bringing in that much money at once. You need to be working with a company that can help you set up your own account – a company that understands the needs of an online marketer who can bring in tens of thousands of dollars in less than a week.”
When you have your own merchant account you wont be paying a transaction fee to anyone else. This can save you 8% or more – that’s 8% pure extra profit. It may seem like an insignificant amount, but remember, 8% of one million dollars is an extra $80,000. What could you do with an extra $80,000?
An independent merchant account also gives you the flexibility to customize your shopping cart page. If you’re using an external merchant account, your “buy now” link could take your customers to another page that looks nothing like your own site. This can lead to confusion and cause your customers to abandon their shopping carts entirely. A consistent look from one page to the next lets your customers know that they’re in the right place, they’re buying exactly what they mean to be buying, and their credit card information is going to a company they know and trust.
Your ability to customize your order page also means that you can add testimonials, a guarantee, information on current promotions or the option to gift wrap.
Jud Smith is vice president of affiliate relations for PowerPay, a company that helps online marketers to establish merchant accounts to process credit card payments. “I work individually with my clients to make sure their accounts are set up correctly,” says Smith. “A lot of merchants who go online don’t have someone to help them one-on-one. As long as you have a business plan, they just let you go. I want to be there to make sure that my clients are maximizing their online money-making potential. I limit risk.”
By working with a company like PowerPay to establish an independent merchant account or by simply doing your homework, you’ll minimize your risk considerably. Getting your merchant account set up correctly right out of the gate will ensure that your business venture progresses without a hitch. “It comes down to exposure and protecting yourself, making sure your refund warranty policy is rock solid,” explains Smith. “If your account is underwritten correctly from day one, you’ll be able to simply enjoy the success of your online business.”
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
lternative Venture Finance: Federal Grants and Loans
While most companies seeking venture capital initially think about angel investors and venture capitalists, a large alternative source of financing is federal grants and loans. The two largest federal grant programs are run by the Small Business Administration (SBA), and by Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs).
An SBA loan, regardless of whether it is a direct loan from the SBA, or, as is more common, a bank loan guaranteed by the SBA, is essentially a bank loan. The benefit of it versus a traditional bank loan is the rate. SBA rates are typically much less than traditional business loan rates.
In most cases, in a guaranteed SBA bank loan, the SBA guarantees 90 percent of the loan will be repaid to the bank. As such, banks are at much less risk than in most other loans, and are a bit more flexible with regards to who they offer these loans. However, the SBA usually requires the founders of the company to personally guarantee the loans, which makes them risky should the venture collapse.
Alternatively, Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) are privately organized corporations that are licensed and regulated by the SBA. Small or emerging businesses which qualify for assistance from the SBIC program can receive equity capital and/or long-term loans from these companies. Essentially, these companies provide their own capital, which is supplemented by federal funds, to the companies they fund.
Interestingly, U.S. taxpayers benefits from the SBIC program as tax revenues generated from successful SBIC investments have more than covered the cost of the program. Likewise the program has created hundreds of thousands of jobs.
In summary, SBA and SBIC financing are viable alternatives to financing from angel investors and venture capitalists and should be considered in the capital raising process. Similarly to angel and VC financing, companies seeking SBA and SBIC financing need a strong management team and value proposition, and a highly professional and compelling business plan in order to raise the capital they need.
An SBA loan, regardless of whether it is a direct loan from the SBA, or, as is more common, a bank loan guaranteed by the SBA, is essentially a bank loan. The benefit of it versus a traditional bank loan is the rate. SBA rates are typically much less than traditional business loan rates.
In most cases, in a guaranteed SBA bank loan, the SBA guarantees 90 percent of the loan will be repaid to the bank. As such, banks are at much less risk than in most other loans, and are a bit more flexible with regards to who they offer these loans. However, the SBA usually requires the founders of the company to personally guarantee the loans, which makes them risky should the venture collapse.
Alternatively, Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) are privately organized corporations that are licensed and regulated by the SBA. Small or emerging businesses which qualify for assistance from the SBIC program can receive equity capital and/or long-term loans from these companies. Essentially, these companies provide their own capital, which is supplemented by federal funds, to the companies they fund.
Interestingly, U.S. taxpayers benefits from the SBIC program as tax revenues generated from successful SBIC investments have more than covered the cost of the program. Likewise the program has created hundreds of thousands of jobs.
In summary, SBA and SBIC financing are viable alternatives to financing from angel investors and venture capitalists and should be considered in the capital raising process. Similarly to angel and VC financing, companies seeking SBA and SBIC financing need a strong management team and value proposition, and a highly professional and compelling business plan in order to raise the capital they need.
A key to Long Term Self-Employment Business Prosperity
We all desire one thing from our job, whatever it is that we do. Whether we are work-at-home people, or educators and doctors, we are all hunting for some sort of business success. This is a natural consequence of investing our time and drive into something, whether we care about the emotional and psychological success or we are quite simply interested in the paycheck achievement, most of us are out there every week seeking our portion of commercial success. Long term Self employment business success is no different. Whether we join an affiliate program, an MLM plan, or have some other form of business, we are all seeking out that wonderful success that allows us to call ourselves web-based entrepreneurs.
Long term Self employment commercial success starts with our choice of home based opportunities. Whether we are out there searching for the next absolutely wonderful new idea or are trying to stay with the rules and programs introduced with classic style 40 years ago, we want our commercial business to flourish. Many people end up being so gung-ho about finding their own self employed business achievement that they have ten different endeavors going at once, hoping one or two of them will take off and send them into the world of pecuniary reward and personal fulfillment. This is entirely possible with a few crucial elements, the first of which involves selecting the right home based business.
Home based ventures evolve every day. You probably already understand this because you belong to enough mailing lists to commandeer quite a few accounts. Every day someone brings forth a brand new idea in the home based venture world that they slap the term “evolutionary” on to help rev up people's fervor and make them feel like they should join. Today. If it is truly a great and evolutionary home based venture, it will exist beyond today, and it is okay to hold over your enrollment until you are absolutely secure it is something that you should participate in. On the other side, how are you ever supposed to be sure that you’re setting yourself a good offer if you can't possibly discover what it is that is so revolutionary. Those people who have sent the new home based venture to your email are hoping that you’ll need to know so seriously that you’ll get together, and then when you’re let down and recognize you’ve made yourself a nasty endeavor, they already have taken your hard earned money and are not overly concerned with your thoughts about their idea.
The business industry is taking on a whole new audience. For a lot of businesspeople, venture no longer means associate programs or Multi-level marketing plans, but real ventures that can be run from a real business location. This is good news for those who want to take in a real means of earnings from home by applying real work and real creativity. This is not to say that MLM and affiliate programs are not legitimate employment, rather, for all the real work, and the real effort, how many affiliate plans and other plan members do you actually know who are earning a reasonable income? This is exactly what I mean. If there were friends all over your neighborhood garnering these incredible incomes in their associate plan or their MLM plan, then the rational alternative would be to mosey on over to the next door neighbor and ask how to get on board.
Long term Self employment success means acquiring a home based venture that enables us to be successful if we choose to put the work into it. When you've finished snickering, you might want to chew over purchasing a venture that is already in full operation, that can enable you to rearrange your priorities and your imagination in the fashion that you desire, and that won’t beg you for a dime before you know exactly what you’re getting into.
Long term Self employment commercial success starts with our choice of home based opportunities. Whether we are out there searching for the next absolutely wonderful new idea or are trying to stay with the rules and programs introduced with classic style 40 years ago, we want our commercial business to flourish. Many people end up being so gung-ho about finding their own self employed business achievement that they have ten different endeavors going at once, hoping one or two of them will take off and send them into the world of pecuniary reward and personal fulfillment. This is entirely possible with a few crucial elements, the first of which involves selecting the right home based business.
Home based ventures evolve every day. You probably already understand this because you belong to enough mailing lists to commandeer quite a few accounts. Every day someone brings forth a brand new idea in the home based venture world that they slap the term “evolutionary” on to help rev up people's fervor and make them feel like they should join. Today. If it is truly a great and evolutionary home based venture, it will exist beyond today, and it is okay to hold over your enrollment until you are absolutely secure it is something that you should participate in. On the other side, how are you ever supposed to be sure that you’re setting yourself a good offer if you can't possibly discover what it is that is so revolutionary. Those people who have sent the new home based venture to your email are hoping that you’ll need to know so seriously that you’ll get together, and then when you’re let down and recognize you’ve made yourself a nasty endeavor, they already have taken your hard earned money and are not overly concerned with your thoughts about their idea.
The business industry is taking on a whole new audience. For a lot of businesspeople, venture no longer means associate programs or Multi-level marketing plans, but real ventures that can be run from a real business location. This is good news for those who want to take in a real means of earnings from home by applying real work and real creativity. This is not to say that MLM and affiliate programs are not legitimate employment, rather, for all the real work, and the real effort, how many affiliate plans and other plan members do you actually know who are earning a reasonable income? This is exactly what I mean. If there were friends all over your neighborhood garnering these incredible incomes in their associate plan or their MLM plan, then the rational alternative would be to mosey on over to the next door neighbor and ask how to get on board.
Long term Self employment success means acquiring a home based venture that enables us to be successful if we choose to put the work into it. When you've finished snickering, you might want to chew over purchasing a venture that is already in full operation, that can enable you to rearrange your priorities and your imagination in the fashion that you desire, and that won’t beg you for a dime before you know exactly what you’re getting into.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Best Small Business Idea - Overwhelm - Get It Out of Your Head
If you are like most businesses owners, you’ve experienced overwhelm in your business at one time or another. Maybe you experience it regularly and for good reason. Hundreds of things are pulling at you at one time. You’ve got marketing going, production to oversee, calls to return, employees that need your advice. It’s never ending right? How do you possibly handle it all?
Most of the small business owners that I talk to keep almost all of these things in their head. I ask them where their business plan is. It’s in their head. I ask where their employee training manual is. It’s in their head. About the only thing that’s written down is their calendar of appointments. Even a lot of their to-dos are in their head. Here’s one simple and powerful way to get out of overwhelm—write it all down.
Your overwhelm is in your head because most of how you run your business is in your head. Start writing it down and you will start having less overwhelm. Start taking a little time each day to document your business processes. Make a list today of the processes that you haven’t recorded. Cover marketing, production, training, accounting, etc.
Then take one of these areas and document it in detail this week. Each week, for the next few weeks document another area. Within a fairly short period of time, you should have at least the basics of marketing procedures, production procedures, client follow up procedures, and employee training procedures in place. In other words, you’ve now got business processes. Processes that you can rely on. Processes you don’t have to think about. Processes that you will use to grow your business without all that overwhelm now that it’s not all in your head.
Most of the small business owners that I talk to keep almost all of these things in their head. I ask them where their business plan is. It’s in their head. I ask where their employee training manual is. It’s in their head. About the only thing that’s written down is their calendar of appointments. Even a lot of their to-dos are in their head. Here’s one simple and powerful way to get out of overwhelm—write it all down.
Your overwhelm is in your head because most of how you run your business is in your head. Start writing it down and you will start having less overwhelm. Start taking a little time each day to document your business processes. Make a list today of the processes that you haven’t recorded. Cover marketing, production, training, accounting, etc.
Then take one of these areas and document it in detail this week. Each week, for the next few weeks document another area. Within a fairly short period of time, you should have at least the basics of marketing procedures, production procedures, client follow up procedures, and employee training procedures in place. In other words, you’ve now got business processes. Processes that you can rely on. Processes you don’t have to think about. Processes that you will use to grow your business without all that overwhelm now that it’s not all in your head.
Answering Service, What Every Small Business Needs!
An answering service is what every small business needs. Anyone who has ever worked for a small business, or has owned a small business knows that the answering service is a true God send. Every time you are not able to answer the phone, you take the risk of losing business. With an answering service, you don’t worry about missing important calls. Whether its an emergency or just an important client that needs a fire put out, answering services can meet your need.
Think about a day with and without an answering service. You are taking a much needed day off and your secretary calls in sick. Your staff is out in the field doing whatever it is they do and your phone is MIA. Your biggest client needs a fire put out and needs it taken care of immediately. If you didn’t have an answering service what would be your options. Cancel your much needed day off and answering the phone yourself. Or, let your answering service handle all the calls and only notify you in an emergency or if a big client calls. Now you can enjoy your day off with the piece of mind knowing that if anything comes up, you’ll be the first to be notified by your very own answering service.
If you don’t currently have an answering service in your bag of tricks, maybe its time to investigate what an answering service can do for you. Believe it or not, answering services are relatively inexpensive. Considering how much money they can either make you by routing important calls to you from prospective new clients or save you by letting you know your number one client needs something done ASAP. Get an answering service today and grow your business with the piece of mind knowing that your answering service will keep you adequately informed of any important incoming calls.
Think about a day with and without an answering service. You are taking a much needed day off and your secretary calls in sick. Your staff is out in the field doing whatever it is they do and your phone is MIA. Your biggest client needs a fire put out and needs it taken care of immediately. If you didn’t have an answering service what would be your options. Cancel your much needed day off and answering the phone yourself. Or, let your answering service handle all the calls and only notify you in an emergency or if a big client calls. Now you can enjoy your day off with the piece of mind knowing that if anything comes up, you’ll be the first to be notified by your very own answering service.
If you don’t currently have an answering service in your bag of tricks, maybe its time to investigate what an answering service can do for you. Believe it or not, answering services are relatively inexpensive. Considering how much money they can either make you by routing important calls to you from prospective new clients or save you by letting you know your number one client needs something done ASAP. Get an answering service today and grow your business with the piece of mind knowing that your answering service will keep you adequately informed of any important incoming calls.
RSS Feeds - The Basics For Everyday People
Undoubtedly, you have visited various websites as you search the Internet for information, and you see icons or read messages that invite you to subscribe to the site's "RSS Feed". But you may not really understand what an RSS feed is.
RSS stands for "really simple syndication". As you surf the Internet, you invariably find a number of sites that have information that you would like to see more of or which you wish to track. The problem you face is having to manually go to the sites checking for any new updates.
RSS is a technology that allows you to check new information on the web sites you're interested in right from your desktop browser, without having to visit the site itself. RSS solves the problem of having to manually visit and check a site for new information by bringing the web pages to you instead of you going to them.
In order to use RSS, you simply need to have access to a computer and an Internet connection. You also need an RSS reader or an aggregator. The RSS reader will display a headline of the new posting along with a brief synopsis of the related content. You read the synopsis and if it interests you, you click on the headline, which will take you directly to the web page it is published on. You can have as many RSS subscriptions as you want.
As a webmaster, you can use RSS to promote your own website. When used properly, RSS can be a potent marketing tool. You enlist other sites to subscribe to your RSS feed, and display your updated content on their home pages. This allows you to reach new audiences to which you would not otherwise have access, and helps to spread your information exponentially.
RSS is simple to offer (no pun intended) and equally simple for your subscribers to use. Because of its simplicity, it is sometimes a preferred marketing method when compared to email newsletter marketing. Many people are choosing to subscribe to RSS feeds for instant information rather than subscribe to email newsletters.
RSS is a convenient form of information distribution, and because people can easily subscribe or unsubscribe at any time, it's a tool with which they're very comfortable. The benefit to you is that as a webmaster, you get your web site broadcast to potentially millions of people through RSS, and you can also use RSS as a means to get fresh updated content for your site too.
RSS stands for "really simple syndication". As you surf the Internet, you invariably find a number of sites that have information that you would like to see more of or which you wish to track. The problem you face is having to manually go to the sites checking for any new updates.
RSS is a technology that allows you to check new information on the web sites you're interested in right from your desktop browser, without having to visit the site itself. RSS solves the problem of having to manually visit and check a site for new information by bringing the web pages to you instead of you going to them.
In order to use RSS, you simply need to have access to a computer and an Internet connection. You also need an RSS reader or an aggregator. The RSS reader will display a headline of the new posting along with a brief synopsis of the related content. You read the synopsis and if it interests you, you click on the headline, which will take you directly to the web page it is published on. You can have as many RSS subscriptions as you want.
As a webmaster, you can use RSS to promote your own website. When used properly, RSS can be a potent marketing tool. You enlist other sites to subscribe to your RSS feed, and display your updated content on their home pages. This allows you to reach new audiences to which you would not otherwise have access, and helps to spread your information exponentially.
RSS is simple to offer (no pun intended) and equally simple for your subscribers to use. Because of its simplicity, it is sometimes a preferred marketing method when compared to email newsletter marketing. Many people are choosing to subscribe to RSS feeds for instant information rather than subscribe to email newsletters.
RSS is a convenient form of information distribution, and because people can easily subscribe or unsubscribe at any time, it's a tool with which they're very comfortable. The benefit to you is that as a webmaster, you get your web site broadcast to potentially millions of people through RSS, and you can also use RSS as a means to get fresh updated content for your site too.
ROI-calculating accurately
The phrase "return on investment" (ROI) is thrown around a lot, but do you know what it really means and how to calculate it?
Three ways to calculate ROI
Cash-on-cash If $20,000 is invested and it grows by $10,000, it’s a 50 percent cash-on-cash rate of return, which is great for wealth building.
Total amount of investment If you put $20,000 down for a $200,000 mortgage, the growth is happening on the $200,000, not what you originally put in. This is arguably less relevant because the amount made on what was originally put in is more important and helpful.
Lost opportunity cost When you’re looking to raise money with another person’s money, you need to demonstrate the loss he could incur if he doesn’t invest. If you have an investment that pays a 20 percent interest and the lender has money in something that only pays 5 percent, you need to show him how much he is losing if he passes up your opportunity.
What the rich do that we don't
The rich develop a wealth building niche that allows them huge rates of return on what they do—real estate, investing in the market, your day-to-day business. Once they make the money, without fail, the wealthiest of the wealthy buy bonds, key bills or some other type of fund that pays a return of three percent to five percent. They want to protect their principle. They only roll the dice in an area of expertise where they can expect a safe return.
Three ways to calculate ROI
Cash-on-cash If $20,000 is invested and it grows by $10,000, it’s a 50 percent cash-on-cash rate of return, which is great for wealth building.
Total amount of investment If you put $20,000 down for a $200,000 mortgage, the growth is happening on the $200,000, not what you originally put in. This is arguably less relevant because the amount made on what was originally put in is more important and helpful.
Lost opportunity cost When you’re looking to raise money with another person’s money, you need to demonstrate the loss he could incur if he doesn’t invest. If you have an investment that pays a 20 percent interest and the lender has money in something that only pays 5 percent, you need to show him how much he is losing if he passes up your opportunity.
What the rich do that we don't
The rich develop a wealth building niche that allows them huge rates of return on what they do—real estate, investing in the market, your day-to-day business. Once they make the money, without fail, the wealthiest of the wealthy buy bonds, key bills or some other type of fund that pays a return of three percent to five percent. They want to protect their principle. They only roll the dice in an area of expertise where they can expect a safe return.
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