Poll Shows Small Business Owners Weary of Government Regulations

According to a recent Gallup poll, complying with government regulations is the biggest obstacle small businesses are facing in the current economy. The poll asked small business owners throughout the country, "What do you think is the most important problem facing small-business owner like you today?" Respondents were not given options to select for the open-ended question. The results are as follows:

• Complying with government regulations - 22%
• Consumer confidence - 15%
• Lack of consumer demand - 12%
• Lack of credit availability - 10%
• Poor leadership, government, president - 9%
• Cash flow - 7%
• New healthcare policy - 5%
• Competition from big business and overseas - 4%
• Lack of jobs - 4%

While little immediate action can be taken to rectify some concerns listed by small business owners, such as poor leadership and new healthcare policy, there is action small businesses can take in other areas. 

Complying with Government Regulations

Small business owners who have won government contracts or those who have attempted to understand the immense amount of red tape involved in the process of contracting with the government. For small business owners who have not yet taken this step, understanding and complying with other regulations regarding taxation, employees, health and safety, and conducting business in general can be a daunting task.

Consumer Confidence/Lack of Consumer Demand

In addition to being tough on small businesses, the poor economic climate has likely negatively impacted the clients and customers of the small businesses that depend on them for survival. Many consumers lack confidence in the economy, which means they are hesitant to spend money. Small businesses can overcome this problem by continuing their marketing efforts during this time. Although marketing does take time and does require money (sometimes), the payoff is well worth it. It is much more cost effective to keep loyal customers than it is to gain new ones. Clear, consistent communication builds lasting relationships.

Winning the Business Development Battle Part 12: Counterintelligence

Business development battles cannot be won without dedicated and motivated troops. But motivating attorneys to develop business can sometimes be challenging. Many attorneys went to law school specifically because they didn’t want to ‘sell.’ Just the mention of selling can evoke thoughts of a loud used-car salesman in a bad plaid jacket trying to overcome objections and ‘close’ a deal. That is not a motivator, by any means.

Sometimes the best way motivate your attorneys to develop business is to use counterintelligence, because what makes a great business developer can sometimes be counterintuitive. While initially it may seem to some attorneys that they need to ‘sell’ themselves to develop business, actually the opposite is true. To develop business, lawyers shouldn't try to sell anything. In fact, they shouldn’t spend much time at all talking about themselves, their services or their firm.

Instead, to develop business lawyers should focus on the prospective Client – and try to talk as little as possible. They should try to learn as much as they can about the prospect and his or her business and industry. They should ask good questions to gain an understanding of the Client’s needs and challenges. Most importantly, they should stop talking and really listen to the Client. Only then can they find opportunities where they may be able to help the Client.

That’s the real counterintelligence in business development: it’s not about selling – it’s about helping. Once they realize that this is true, your troops will be much more motivated – and much more successful – on the business development battlefield.  

Mobile Marketing Solutions

If you are searching for able as able-bodied as amount able adaptable business solutions, again you allegation not attending any added than adaptable App marketing. Apps are the a lot of able adjustment of business your bounded business in a growing adaptable world.

What makes Apps the Ideal Adaptable Business Solution?

Apps appear with chip appearance that you won´t acquisition on a adaptable website. In accession to alms the aforementioned advice that you can acquisition on a adaptable site, they aswell cover a ambit of appearance which will facilitate your business efforts - all for free.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are argument blazon letters that can be beatific through your App absolutely chargeless of allegation and acquiesce you to advance new articles and acquaint barter about specials and discounts. Not alone are the advance notifications permission based, they aswell accept an acutely top accessible and apprehend amount at over 90%. When compared to the amount of sms marketing, advance notifications are a abundant bigger acknowledgment on investment.

Useful Features

Adding added appearance to your App that accomplish it advantageous to your chump abject will ensure that they accessible and use your App regularly. Appearance such as QR scanners and assorted calculators as able-bodied as industry accompanying tip guides are a abundant way to accomplish your app that abundant added useful.

Creating New Content

Unlike adaptable websites, some of the a lot of able business accoutrement in your App can alone be anatomic on a adaptable accessory by authoritative use of its chip operating system. Accomplish use of appearance such as email photo, email recording or fan bank to actualize new agreeable for your amusing media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. You can aswell accolade your barter for demography the time to interact.

Viral Business Features

Your App comes with a amount of appearance that acquiesce for one blow transfer. Adding a Tell a acquaintance button to your App will ensure that your barter can forward your App to their accompany and ancestors through a ambit of mediums such as email, Facebook, Twitter or sms.

An Apple a Day Keeps CRM Failure Away Part 5 - Slicing the Apple

When it comes to CRM success, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. There are, however, some almost universal ways to fail. Trying to roll out the software to everyone in the firm all at once is one good way. Trying to get the lawyers to sit through point-and-click classroom training is another. Also good: trying to deploy every bell and whistle, feature and function during the initial rollout. These are some sure-fire ways to create frustration - and maybe even cause a minor mutiny among the key stakeholders. Ask any of the firms who have done these things - although they probably won't have time to talk to you because they are in the middle of trying to roll out their system for the second or third time.

In reality, the most successful CRM implementations are achieved one small bite at a time. For instance, because CRM has so many different features, it can - and often should - be implemented differently for different groups. For one practice area, it might allow for tracking activities, for another, opportunities. One group might want to send out eAlerts while another may want to manage events. One practice might want to create an experts database while another wants to track referrals. 

The great thing about CRM is that it can be many things to many users. But the most important thing is to understand that success is also defined by those users. This means you have to engage your end users early and often. But don't expect them to tell you what they want the CRM to do. In most cases, they couldn't... because they have no idea what it can do. Instead, you should inquire about their business needs and issues. What problems are they trying to solve? What processes are they trying to automate? What objectives do they want to achieve? It’s our job to think of all of the ways CRM can help. If we slice the apple this way, then there will be plenty of CRM success to go around.

Developing A Simple Marketing Plan

If your ambition is to do any blazon of business activities in adjustment to abound your business, a accept to is to alpha with a so alleged business plan. In this commodity I am traveling to lay out important accomplish for creating awful appropriate business plan that can aftermath allusive after-effects for your business.

Why in this case breadth doesn't amount and why artlessness consistently exhausted complexity

If you're cerebration about developing a business program, you charge to activate with a basal business plan. Having been able casework industry for added than a decade, I accept apparent my allotment of business plans. Some are abbreviate and to the point, others are hundreds of pages blubbery and amount bags of dollars to produce. Seldom, those big-ticket and monumental, beat those abridged and able-bodied structured. What I accept begin is that it is not the complication and breadth that matter, but rather simplicity, charge and accomplishing that accomplish or breach your business intentions.

The acrid absoluteness and the painful, to some degree, irony

The irony is that abounding of the big-ticket business affairs end up on a shelf and rarely get implemented. Business humans like artlessness and non-technical jargon. They could not be agitated to accomplish to something down-covered and abstract. Therefore,to prove the point, simpler the affairs are, if researched and implemented effectively, appulse and after-effects they aftermath will be the greatest.

Regardless of the expectations of your business plan, you accept to be bright in apperception that it is a connected advance action and not something that you are traveling to do already in a lifetime. Circumstances change, markets shift, preferences, tastes and technologies are capricious about daily. Every acknowledged to be structure, needs to alpha with a able-bodied conducted complete analysis about the environment, aggressive position, and all the things it will accompany to the table. State your reasons, intentions, what are you adequate at, what are your different selling/competing hypothesis and so on. Accumulate in apperception that if you are not in fact bright with yourself your affairs attempt auspiciously abate dramatically. Then acutely actuate what you charge to know, what added abilities you charge to obtain, area are you traveling to acquisition the missing information. Accumulate it simple and don't afflict yourself with things you don't charge in this aboriginal stage. Your plan should focus on your a lot of important affair which is to get you and your business off arena and to accumulate your acquirement archetypal traveling so that you accept banking assets to armamentarium your next activities. You should consistently be accommodating to enhance or alter your plan based on what proves successful. Simply adage - KEEP WHAT'S WORKING AND ABANDON (after accurate consideration) EVERYTING ELSE!

Back to basics

Your Accepted Business Reality

Clearly authorize area are you NOW. And I beggarly it literally. Area are you almost to your business and business goals. What is working, what is not working? Why is that so? What after-effects would be ideal? What is all-important for you to move forward? What is your next step?

Collect, organise, and address down abstracts about the bazaar that is currently affairs the product(s) or service(s) you will sell. Some important credibility to consider:

Bazaar dynamics, patterns including seasonality

Barter - demographics, bazaar segment, ambition markets, needs, affairs decisions

Artefact - what's out there now, what's the antagonism offering. Area you can become ultimate choice. The best provider of services, appurtenances etc. Area you can body on what anyone abroad already did so that you can clean out the years of research, development and business efforts.

Accepted sales in the industry - in added words is there a charge currently present?

Benchmarks in the industry - who are the capital players? Why is it so?

Suppliers - vendors that you will charge to await on. How can you access favourable agreement and conditions?

Your Ideal Customer

What are their problems, pains, needs, wants, desires? You charge to bright why YOU are the best band-aid for their issues? Why alone you can do things that your big affirmation is about? What is your action to admonition them? Acquisition alcove or ambition markets for your casework and artefact and call them. Assign allowances of alive with you! Accumulate in apperception that humans buy emotionally, they seek admonition for affecting affidavit as well.

Your Solution

Describe your service, product, offer. Be specific. How does your artefact chronicle to the market? What does your bazaar need, what do they currently use, what do they charge aloft and above accepted use? CAN YOU CREATE WOW EFFECT with your advised offers?

You charge to ascertain in your business some hidden assets, potentials, strengths that if accumulated and leveraged could possibly actuate you and your business to the AUTHORITY Position!

YOU NEED TO BECOME TREND SETTER and abstain FOLLOWER mentality!

Competition

Describe your competition. Develop your "unique affairs proposition." What makes you angle afar from your competition? What is your antagonism accomplishing about branding? What can you apprentice from your competition?

Setting the Scene with able and agreeable Mission Statement

Write a few key credibility that state:

Key bazaar - who you're affairs to

Contribution - what you're selling

Distinction - your different affairs proposition

Band-aid - your intention, service, offer

Market Strategies that will accumulate you going

Write down the business and advance strategies that you wish to use or at atomic accede using. It is as simple as that. Don't abash how to do with what to do it, Strategies Vs. Tactics. Strategies are broader while accomplishments are specifics. So to admonition you here, strategies to consider:

Networking - go area your bazaar is

Complete business - sales letters, brochures, flyers

Advertising - book media, directories

Training programs - to access awareness

Address articles, accord advice, become accepted as an expert

Direct/personal selling

Publicity/press releases

Trade shows

Web site

Pricing, Positioning and Branding

From the admonition you've collected, authorize strategies for free the amount of your product, area your artefact will be positioned in the bazaar and how you will accomplish cast awareness.

Budget

Budget your dollars. What strategies can you afford? What can you do in house, what do you charge to outsource. You charge to accumulate the bound account and accumulate advance area you are accepting results. Business as we apperceive it is the appellation of the past. Internet is a abundant archetype and advantage point for any blazon and/or admeasurement of the business. It is so amiss to apprehend that added money invested will in fact accompany you added leads, barter and clients! Sometimes the added you absorb the added will be done away!

Marketing Goals

Establish assessable business goals (SMART) This agency goals that you can about-face into numbers, that are specific, rational, bright and time limited. The added accent in quantifying is scalability, the adeptness of your business to abound after your complete investment in resources.

Monitor Your Results

Determine, with complete precision, how, what and if after-effects will be measured. So, if you set the standards, you will apperceive what is acceptable, area improvements are all-important and so on.

Test, test, test. Analyse, analyse and analyse. Identify the acknowledged strategies that are working. Be bright and fearful. Every bootless action amount you money and should be either alone or adapted and reworked.

Winning the Business Development Battle Part 11: Purple Hearts

Alas, you are not going to win every business development battle. It can be daunting to put yourself out there in the field, face-to-face with Clients and prospects, who may either accept or reject your advances. While most of them will not be outright hostile, it's a fact that some of them are going to say ‘no.’ And when this happens, it can be tempting to retreat… to pull back and set up camp in your office, safely barricaded behind your desk. But that is the wrong battle strategy.

As confident as we attorneys appear, it’s really hard for most of us to take rejection. We take that ‘no’ very personally. Face it, most of us were not the ‘cool kids’ in high school. We were more likely to be the valedictorian or president of the Honor Society (guilty) than the captain of the football team or head cheerleader. And even though things turned out ok – sure, we’re successful professionals now – some of us still carry around that stigma from childhood. To some of us, a ‘no’ is more than just a ‘no’ – it’s puts us right back there in 10^thgrade being picked last for the team. 

An Apple a Day Keeps CRM Failure Away Part 4 - The Golden Apple

Arguably, the most important thing a CRM system can help a law firm with is business development – attracting and retaining top Clients. This is the reason a lot of firms invest in CRM systems in the first place. Actually, this is the reason a lot of firms do a lot of the things they do.

The problem is that, after the fact, those same firms often complain that their CRM systems are not providing a return on their investments. The reason has less to do with the CRM technology and more to do with the fact that the system either isn't being used properly – or at all – or that the firm hasn’t found a way to adequately measure ROI.

Here are a few measurable things that CRM systems can do to enhance the firm’s business development efforts:

• Communications can be targeted to key Clients and prospects to provide opportunities to generate business related to changes or developments in laws or regulations.
• Invitations to events can be distributed to key prospects to provide opportunities to get face-to-face to discuss key issues and strategies for addressing them.
• Client team meetings can be planned and scheduled to identify cross selling opportunities.
• Information from Client surveys can be communicated to improve Client service and retention.
• Reminders can be set to enhance follow-up after events.
• Pipelines can be created to track business development progress with Clients and prospects. 
• Financial information can be shared to help determine who the firm’s top Clients are so that the firm can serve them better and try to grow them – and to help identify who the firm’s at risk Clients may be so that the firm can serve them better and try to retain them. 

One other thing to remember when it comes to ROI on CRM investments: CRM is about people, process and technology – and when it fails to deliver ROI, it’s more often an issue caused by the people, not the technology. All the technology in the world isn't going to get business in the door if the attorneys aren’t willing to walk out that door and go get face-to-face with Clients. 

California Law Prohibits Credit Checks for Certain Employees

Earlier this week, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would prohibit employers to request credit reports from job candidates for certain positions. The bill, AB22, which will be effective as of January 1, 2012, restricts the use of consumer credit reports in the hiring process to individuals who will work in law enforcement, a financial institution or the California Justice Department, among others.



If you do not currently do business in the state of California, the news is still pertinent to the rest of the country, as California is the seventh state to enact such a law, and at least 20 other states have considered similar action. A Congressional bill that would limit the use of consumer credit reports for employment purposes is also under consideration, but the House has yet to approve it.


For states that do not have a law to limit address to consumer credit reports, employers are allowed to obtain credit reports for both current and prospective employees. The employer simply must request permission from the employee or future employee, and notify the person if he or she was not promoted or hired because of negative findings.

Adapt Your Marketing To Include Mobile Devices

Mobile business can be appealing agitative if you apperceive what you can apprehend from alive with adaptable accessories if attempting to advance your business. It can accept amazing brand-building power, if you apperceive what you are doing. Accumulate account for added acumen and admonition to activate alive against this goal. This commodity contains lots of tips to advice you get started with adaptable marketing.

There are abounding things to accede if planing a adaptable business strategy.

To get advanced in amusing marketing, watch your competition. Accomplish abiding you acquisition a way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Successful adaptable marketers that yield it slowly, go advanced and grow. It is a have to that you aswell accede demography this access for your company. If you started off by texting, move to videos and again to added business methods. Use your assets as best as you can. And if it is above your expertise, appoint anyone who does accept how anniversary blazon of technology works. Consistently yield advantage of the technology you can use.

Quizzes can advice you get acknowledgment about your articles or animate them to attending about your site. Offer barter a blazon of trivia bold or product-response quiz with your adaptable campaign. Abounding humans will acknowledgment quiz questions that they get on their buzz via argument message. In addition, the chump will be entertained.

Your map can advice a abeyant chump acquisition your business added calmly and quickly. Accept adaptable affable maps assuming your concrete area to accompany in bounded -to-be clients.

All of your letters should be able to be apparent on a array of altered phones and platforms. Test your adaptable business to see that it works on every blazon of belvedere your readers could use. You should consistently aim to accumulate things simple. It's abundant easier to accomplish your letters simpler rather than custom-fitting your letters assimilate altered platforms.

With the access of broadly accessible cellphones you are in advice with absolute people, in absolute time. Remember to do what you charge to accordingly.

To access the amount of humans who see your advertisement - attack to go viral to ensure that your advertisements are accepting the a lot of effect. Your barter and audience ability again advanced the bulletin to their ancestors and friends.