The myth that nine out of ten small businesses close in their first year may or may not be completely true. According to more recent Dun and Bradstreet data, 76 percent of new companies were still in business after two years. But since these statistics are based solely on the number of business license applications forfeited, they may not be entirely accurate. Many business owners don't immediately contact their licensing office; some never do.
Studies show businesses that do survive longer had more cash up front to invest. Other survival factors include the owner‘s age, higher education, and previous experience in their field. The number one cause of small business failure is “lack of planning,” and the most common mistake in planning falls with making poor financial choices right from the start.
Most people believe that to have a successful business you need to start with a large sum of money and acquire those start-up funds by taking risky business loans or mortgaging your home. That's simply not true. In fact, 25 percent of business owners needed no dollar amount to start up.
Reports show that only 27 percent of business owners have borrowed the money they needed to start their business and 36 percent of owners used their savings for their business start-up. It is always better to save the money you need up front if you are able. A total of 69 percent of new businesses were started or acquired without any need to borrow money.
So if it's that easy, why do so many businesses fail? It may be that new business owners spend more time planning a vacation than they do their new business venture. Many don't calculate into the equation how their personal financial responsibilities will be met while their new business is growing legs. They will still have rent or mortgage, electric bills, phone bills, and other household expenses. A new business just can't support home life for an estimated need of 1-2 years. This is where we fail to plan.
Starting a small business should be looked at as just that, a “small” business. The founder of Dell Computers was a college dropout. Starting small out of his garage, he managed to excel above all of the world's top computer manufacturers. One in three computers sold today is a Dell.
Just over 32 percent of new business owners needed less than $5,000 to start or acquire their business. Businesses opening without a huge financial debt show a much greater chance for success. If you have a business idea, you need to keep it in proportion to the amount of money you have to pursue it. Instead of building a $400,000 franchise store, you might need to look at buying a $15,000 coffee cart that you can drive around to local events. There's always a way to work out your idea without exceeding your means.
Successful businesses are started with proper planning. Spend the time needed to plan your business idea and do the research needed to ensure you have all your ducks in a row before you open up the pond for customers.
Catering Business Start Up
Imagine you have just built a fantastic professional website with your site builder. It looks good and quite enticing to people who may chance upon it. Why did I say ‘chance upon it'? Well, there are zillions of websites in this world and may be thousands of them in your field of business which you have just started with. Time is important and you cannot afford to lose your business even for one day. You have to pick up and get going. How do you make sure that you have a web presence fast? Here are some of the best ways to ensure that your success is concrete, not based on chance.
Search engine optimization: Search engine optimization (SEO) is really important for anyone who wants people to visit his or her website. You may have the best of the flashy ads and animations on your web pages but you will have people coming to your website only because of your listings and high rankings in search engines and directories. A person might enter a keyword in the search engine and then click on any of the first two pages of the search engine tools. So, if you want to have a powerful web presence, you have to get noticed and the only way this can be done is by ensuring that your pages get listed on the first couple of pages of the search engines.
There should be one phrase that should capture the soul of the webpage. This is also known as the target phrase. It will summarize on what the webpage is about. Your target phrase should contain specific and relevant information. Search engine optimization could go awry for you if you try to put words and phrases which is not congruent with the content of the page. If you overuse words like ‘sex' and ‘love', just because they are quite popular; your page will not be optimized to the best level possible. So it is better to stick to the proper keywords.
Your target phrase should be the ones that people normally associate with. For example, if you check website tools which check on the popularity of the target phrase, you will see that the word ‘help' is more frequently used compared to ‘advice'. So the content which you write in some of your web pages should be keyword rich and they should be included in the title tags and Meta tags as well. In fact, a title tag for each of your web pages is the best way to optimize the search engine. This can be done by right-clicking anywhere on the webpage editing program page and selecting “Page Properties”. You can type in a tag which consists of around 60 characters inclusive of punctuation below the “Title.”
The title should contain a brief description of the page with a couple of keywords as well. Most of the web pages editing software now have the feature by which you can add the Meta tags easily. You have to right-click on the webpage and you get a box where you can add the three Meta tags namely “title”, “description” and “keywords.”
Affiliate Programs: This will ensure that you start making money on your website fast and easily. After having built the site with the help of the site builder and made the best use of SEO and keyword rich content, you can give a thought about affiliate programs. You add links to your site that will take the people to a page where they can buy the products or service of another company. It is all about making money by selling a product or selling which belongs to some one else without actually making an attempt to sell or market them. If the visitors make a purchase from that particular website, you earn a commission. Affiliate programs are free and though it sounds quite convincing to join a lot of affiliate programs, you can smartly choose the ones which sell products and service that matters to you. Give links to sites that provide stuff that is relevant to your website.
Position yourself correctly: You do not have to sell products and services, you have to share information. You have to make people buy what you are offering rather than stuffing your products and services down their throats. Your aim should be to create a hunger in their psyche to know more about you and click one more webpage of yours to know what else you have in store (no pun intended!). When you are selling them a site builder tool, educate them about the untapped areas of e-commerce and how they can save and earn a lot of money from e-commerce, how they can protect themselves from online frauds, and how they safeguard the private information on their computer. You are not only marketing your webpage effectively but in the same time, you are making your prospects learn new things as you create another area of potential business.
Write an expert article: Keep it a target to write a thought provoking informative and interesting article or two each week and submit it to the article directories. When they see your name and the link of your website, you will get fresh traffic and flow of people checking your website. You become more familiar (read famous) and soon you will find your article and your matter sneaking in other pages, where publishers will e-publish your articles on their ezines and websites. Most importantly your article should not look like you are selling something. Your article should be around 750-1200 pages with an interesting introduction.
Blog: Blog is also a fantastic information giving tool. You can subtly pass on information about your business through the blog. Again here don't make it obvious that you are here to sell something. Make your blog interesting with humour, personal experiences and also information relevant to your line of business. Try to post your views and thoughts as much as possible so that lot of people, directories and search engines identify with your content easily.
The Customer Newsletter: Make it a point to personalize your relationship with your prospects and customer in a professional way. Most of the people who come across your mails in the inbox will have a tendency to delete them if they do not know you. They hate marketing gimmicks, so stay away from them. However make sure that you attract their attention with a winning and curiosity seeking title on the news-letter that you send. In the letter, make sure that you give them what you do best meaning information including handy tips and advice. A bonus or a small gift will also forge a strong relationship with your clientele.
So, you see apart from making a good site with the help of a sitebuilder, you should have the foresight to spread the word of your business through the best practical and information sharing means. Knowledge and sharing what you know is truly the power and key to all riches!
Both Carol Denbow & Densil Bosward are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Densil Bosward has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. Biography Author: Densil Bosward Website: http://www.diywebbuilder.co.uk Densil writes for DIY Web Builder, an easy to use. Densil Bosward's top article generates over 720 views. Bookmark Densil Bosward to your Favourites.
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