When you are going to learn all you can about finance and business, you want to make sure you are getting the most detailed information that is available. When you go to figure out your finances if you own a business, you want to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.This is to ensure a prosperous future for your business, as well as getting the most from it. This allows you to find out what you really need for your company, and what you really want out of it. How much do you bring in each month? How much do you put out? Can everything be covered with the input of money from it? These are all very good finance questions to ask yourself, and find the answers to in order to keep your business on its toes.This helps you get the best business management that you could possibly have when figuring all of the money out. Not only can you find business financing information on the internet, and ways to protect your privacy information, you can also call a professional in the finance business to get information from them. They can also set up a time for one of their finance professionals to come over to your business and help you set up a budget, and a finance plan to better assist you with your finances in the future.What could be better than having the help from someone who does this for a living, and also know all about ways to save you money for your business. Not only will they help you learn everything you need too but they will also help you balance everything out to make sure you are covering all of your debt so you do not go bankrupt in years to come.
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An Insiders Guide to Crossing Over to Television Advertising
Congratulations!By deciding to investigate the benefits of television advertising, you are taking the first step to more sales and faster profits. More businesses owners than ever are turning to television as a powerful tool to grow their profits. And it’s not the traditional “deep pockets” crowd either. Small and medium sized businesses are flocking to television advertising like never before. Some are coming away battered and bruised. But many are smiling ear to ear because they have unlocked the secrets to television advertising success – on a print or radio budget.The Golden Rule?Don’t let the tail wag the dog. You need to take control of your journey into television advertising so that it pays off.Does that mean you have to be an expert?No. But you do need to know how the industry and the medium work in order to end up with a cost-effective television advertising campaign.Which is exactly why we prepared “An Insider Guide To Crossing Over To TV Advertising… On A Print Or Radio Budget..And Making Plenty Of Profit!”It’s your GPS to an affordable and profitable TV Advertising experience.Now is the best time in history for small business owners to use television advertising to explode their sales! Airtime and commercial and television production rates are the most affordable they’ve ever been! Specialty channels let you laser target your ideal sales prospect.Television adds a level of credibility to you and your business like no other medium can do.There’s a reason you’re seeing video pop up just about everywhere as more and more business owners come to the realization that the more senses you can appeal to, the more likely it is that you can gain a foothold in the most crowded place anywhere – your prospect’s mind.Need any proof? Just look at the absolute astounding success of You Tube. People are attracted to watching video.Isn’t it time you jumped on board and gave it a try?The 5 secrets revealed below will help you leverage the power of television advertising in your business.Secret #1 Have A Clear Unique Selling MessageThis applies to all your marketing but is especially true when it comes to TV advertising.You need to provide your prospects with a compelling reason to want to learn more about your product or service.And, if you’re using a 30 or 60 second commercial to achieve this objective, you need to make sure your message is equipped to get your prospect to take the next step in your sales process.That’s why you must have a very clear message.What is the main benefit, promise or solution you want your prospect to walk away with?Or, put another way, what is your unique selling proposition (USP)?It’s important to have one otherwise you will have trouble differentiating your offer from those of your competitors.Not sure how to boil it down to a simple clear message?You can start by asking and answering the following questions:
Why do people buy from you? Why do people NOT buy from you? Really give this some thought and make a list.
What benefits do clients gain from doing business with you? People buy to gain benefits. What does your product or services DO for them
What emotional appeal does your product or service have? Does it provide a sense of relief? Make your clients feel a sense of pride? Television provides the perfect forum for hitting your prospect’s emotional hot buttons.
What problem do you solve or what need do you fulfill?
Another way to gather ideas for your USP is to survey your current clients.Ask them WHY they bought from you. Find out what problem you solved for them why did they pick you over the competition? You may be surprised by the answers. People buy for different reasons.In developing your USP, what you want to do is figure out the most common reason people decided to buy your product or service and then use that insight to create a powerful selling message that makes you stand out.Don’t forget to check out your competitors. Many times what is obvious to you and your competitors, isn’t obvious to your potential clients. And you can use that differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack. Here’s an example… Years ago, Folgers coffee decided they needed to increase sales. Competition was everywhere. So what did they do? They started promoting the fact that Folger’s was mountain grown and stamped “Mountain Grown” on their coffee cans. Sales exploded. After all, coffee grown on a mountain simply had to be special. Right? What the average coffee drinker was unaware of is that fact that MOST coffee is mountain grown. Folger’s simply used this little known fact to make itself stand out. The more finely tuned your USP is, the more effective your television campaign will be – and all of your marketing for that matter.Secret #2 Know Your Ideal ClientYour ability to generate sales leads from your television ad campaign will be greatly enhanced if you have a clear understanding of who your best prospects are and why they buy from you.Otherwise it’s virtually impossible to create an effective television commercial.This vital knowledge allows you to create a script that speaks to the specific needs of the people most likely to buy your offering and present your unique selling proposition in a compelling way.Your message resonates and creates a natural attraction. But let’s say you’re not exactly sure who your ideal client is? Or why they buy? How do you go about finding out?Well, a quick effective way to do it is to take a look at your current clients. Especially those you really enjoy working with. What do they have in common? Do they share a number of similar characteristics? You may already have a target market and just don’t realize it.Here are just a few “target market” criteria you can use to define your niche.
Age – try to narrow the age group range of your best prospects
Gender – who makes the decision to purchase your products or services? Who might influence it? This is important to know so you can make the right appeal.
Marital status (single, married, divorced)
Household Income. Do your best to estimate the income of your target customer.
Occupation – are your best prospects white collar construction, sales people, entrepreneurs, retired • Geographical region. (ex: Toronto, warm climate, people who live near water)
Lifestyle (professional, conservative, risk-takers)
Company size (self-employed professionals, Fortune 500, companies with $10 Million + in sales)
Industry specific (a marketing consultant who focuses on solo-professionals)
Leisure Time Activities – what do your customers do to relax and have fun? Hobbies? Pastimes? Once you complete your research – combining the information you have about your existing clients along with additional characteristics – you will be able to build your ideal target customer profile. This will give you will have a clearer understanding of the language and tone you should use in your script and what type of information your target market will be looking for.
And it will help pinpoint the type of audience your television commercial should be presented to in order to produce maximum sales results.Secret #3 Be Involved In the ProcessMany small and medium sized companies that shy away from television advertising quickly latch on to the “perceived” high cost (more about this in Secret #5) as a reason they have been reluctant to give it a try.But there’s often another factor lurking in the background that keeps many businesses from enjoying the success a professionally created television commercial can create.Simply put: for some, making the leap to the world of television advertising can be intimidating.In print, you write your ad and the publication runs it. In radio, you record your commercial and the station plays it.With television, there are a lot pieces that need to be pulled together to produce a successful advertising campaign and for those who haven’t been through the process before, it can be a real leap of faith.You need to be a kind of project manager for your television advertising experience. Do you need to be an expert? No. But you do need a sense of what the process involves so you can add to the experience where applicable.To help you understand the elements that provide the foundation for a successful TV advertising campaign, here is a checklist:
Budget – Many small and medium sized businesses don’t realize that the money they are currently investing in radio or print ad campaigns could be used to create an effective television advertising campaign – provided you know the secret (we reveal it in Secret#5) to avoiding one of the major hidden costs TV advertising. Production costs and airtime will be the two main components of your budget.
Script – The script is your ad in words. This is your core selling message. The script dictates who says what, the tone and expressions used, what is seen on screen, who moves when and where. A script will be necessary for your commercial.
Talent – This includes on-camera talent and voiceover talent. The more well-known and in-demand the talent, the more you pay. For many advertisers, local and regional talent will produce a professional result.
Production Elements – You need to decide what kind of graphics, audio, or music you want – along with any other special effects..
Length – Typically, TV commercial spots run 30 seconds. You can also run in 15-second and 60-second increments. An “infomercial” often runs 30 – 60 minutes and costs more to produce and to run.
At the end of the process, your TV commercial should answer one very important question for the viewer:’What’s in it for me?’The way to answer that question so that both you and your prospect end up with a positive outcome is to make sure your commercial is focused on how the viewer can benefit from your product or service.No one can sell your offering better than you.You must use every bit of selling information you can to gain favorable attention immediately with the viewer! Otherwise the viewer will click away and your investment will be wasted.And last, but definitely not least…Tell the viewer what you want him/her to do next!It’s incredible how many new TV advertisers (and some longtime veterans) fail to ask the viewer to take the next step in their selling process make this mistake. Do you want them to visit your web site? Pick up a phone and call? Come into your store? You need to lead them to where you want them to go next. Now, let’s move on to one of the costliest mistakes television advertisers make along with tips on how you can avoid it.Secret #4 Be “Marketing Ready” For Your ProspectMost businesses today use advertising and marketing as a way of initiating a relationship with a prospect. The same is true of television advertising.After all, a 30 second spot on TV isn’t going to answer every question.If your commercial has done its job, the next step is to invite your prospect to learn more about you can benefit him/her.This could involve an invitation to visit your web site, pick up a phone and call you or drop by your location.It’s critical to make sure that whatever you ask your prospect to do that you’re equipped to keep your prospect moving toward a sale.This is where many TV advertisers drop the ball and end up wasting their valuable marketing dollars..Let’s use a visit to your web site as an example. We’ll assume your prospect has watched your commercial and is shown your web site URL on the screen as it finishes.Your commercial piqued his curiosity and made him want to know more about you and your offering.Congratulations. You’re past the first hurdle – getting the prospect to take the next step in your selling process.But that’s all you’ve accomplished at this point.Now you’re moving on to the all-important “conversion” part of the sales process. Tons of visitors to your site won’t feed your family, pay your mortgage or let you lie around on the beach in Cabo San Lucas.For that, you need to convert your prospects initial interest into a sale.And a web site that doesn’t clearly pick up where your television commercial left off by immediately reminding your visitor ‘what’s in it for him’ and presenting your sales story in a compelling way is going to bring a selling opportunity to a grinding halt.What’s the point of tempting a bunch of hungry prospects only to have them arrive and you’ve nothing to feed them?Same thing holds true if you want them to call you. Every member of your team who has public contact must be ready to keep the momentum going.The job of your TV commercial is to attract the fish. The rest of the job – hooking the prospect (in an ethical way, of course) and getting him into the boat and converting him into a lifelong profitable client is the job of your marketing.You need to make sure your marketing message is consistent throughout ALL your marketing. Otherwise you won’t get the ROI you should.Secret #5 Don’t Let Tail Wag The DogTelevision advertising can be rewarding, but you need an experienced hand guiding you past the pitfalls so you can produce a profitable result. So far, we’ve armed you with the knowledge you need to make sure your television advertising efforts position you for a successful outcome. Now it’s time to introduce the key thread that ties it all together. Making sure you partner with an industry professional who knows the ropes. The first place many small and medium size businesses turn for assistance is an advertising agency. A very expensive mistake.Here’s why: Many ad agencies focus on “institutional” type or branding type messaging. They are image builders. While having a professional image is important, most of the businesses flocking to TV advertising these days need sales. You’re probably the same. You want viewers to watch your commercial and take the next step in your selling process. Maybe a visit to your web site or a phone call. For that, you need direct response television advertising. And many advertising agencies simply aren’t equipped for that. Nor do they know how to “convert” an interested prospect into a profitable lifetime client.But here’s the dirty little secret they hope you won’t find out about: Many don’t have in-house resources to write your script. Or television production facilities so they can shoot your commercial. Or an editing booth where they can edit your footage. Here’s what that means to you… If the ad agencies don’t have the resources themselves, they have to go outside, cobble together a team of industry professionals who can and pay them. Guess who gets stuck with all the middleman mark-ups? But this ‘don’t worry, the client will pay for it’ old school mentality doesn’t stop there. Once your commercial is ready to air, you need a TV program to run it on. For looking in a book and phoning up to schedule your spots, the ad agency will charge you 15% of your media budget. Is that how you want to spend your valuable media dollars? Having someone round up a bunch of people who can and charge you for doing it? Thought so. Here’s an alternative… Creative Bube Tube is a full-service, one source expert at producing direct response television advertising and corporate videos. We work with small and medium size business to help them generate profitable sales. Many of our clients are newbies. But we’ve opened the eyes of more than a few savvy veterans along the way.Here are four pillars we’ve built our business model on:
One Source – Every aspect of your television advertising is handled in-house by our team. This means you avoid the unnecessary added cost mark ups, delays and finger-pointing caused by too many fingers in the pie.
Expertise – We are television advertising experts. Period. It’s all we do. And we know how to sell. To you, that means campaigns that not only look professional, they send you a steady stream of qualified prospects.
Cost Efficient – Because we know our craft, we understand how and where to use your budget efficiently – without having to grease the palm of a number of disconnected middlemen. That way, every dollar you invest is working to increase your sales. The media relationships we have built through the years provide you with red carpet access to your target market – for a fraction of the cost you would pay otherwise – with no hidden fees.
Process – The key to effective affordable television advertising is sales driven creative, efficient production, proper planning and organization. That requires precise communication. Everything we do is in-house. We don’t outsource your creative to a production company that has no marketing background. Then send the footage after filming to a post-production house. Then hire a media buyer who has likely never even seen any of the creative. Then sit back and watch the confusion, as your budget gets chewed up in a sea of disorganization and chaos. Everyone on our team intimately is involved in your project – from beginning to end.
Creative Bube Tube makes television advertising effective and efficient – for both newbies and long-time television advertisers who are tired of wasting valuable marketing dollars propping up old-school practices. If you’ve been thinking about trying television advertising but have been holding off because you were concerned it was very expensive, we’d behappy to show you not only how you can afford it, but also how you can use it to skyrocket your sales results. Please call us today at 1-855 BUBE TUBE or visit our web site at http://www.creativebubetube.com and learn more about how we can help you generate a stream of profitable lifetime clients.2011 Creative Bube Tube
10 Small Business Startup Tips
According to a recent Forbes.com article, over a half a million small businesses get started each month while more shut down than start-up. With this statistic, it’s not a surprise that some would be leery in joining the almost 30 million small businesses in the United States. It may also come as a surprise that over half of the working population works in a small business and that most small businesses are home-based. Why then do people start small businesses with these kinds of odds? Because many of us are still deciding what we want to be when we grow up. And once we’ve learned that, we choose to make a go of it on our own.Starting a small business or a home-based business is not something that should be entered into lightly. More often than not you’ll go through a long period languishing while trying to make your business viable. As with many big decisions in life, starting a business is a very big risk. There’s never an assurance of success. Rather, it is expected and statistically likely that you’ll fail. However, if you’re willing to work at beating the odds and fulfill a professional goal, this may still be the route for you.I’d worked in libraries for over a decade. I spent the majority of that time in library administration. I knew a good deal about how to run a small business because I’d essentially been doing so for quite some time. However, when you go out on your own there are many pitfalls that can be made in your businesses’ infancy. Contrary to the popular song lyrics, the best things in life aren’t free. Shortcuts will likely come back to haunt you and so too will not putting in the sweat equity needed to not only financially succeed, but to also feel emotionally and psychologically empowered.If you want to start a small business it has to be a deliberate process. However, it doesn’t have to be an expensive one. It doesn’t hurt for you to do some research. The Small Business Administration is a great free resource. So too are the books. Really, there are any number of tools to help you start-up or navigate the waters of small business. If you’re like the almost 75% of all U.S. business who are non-employers (self-employed with no additional payroll or employees), then you can be sure that there is plenty of information to help you achieve your goals.Running a small home-based business can be inexpensive, not cheap. Don’t scrimp on the stuff that can really make you appear more professional without breaking the budget. Here are a few startup tips for your business:1. Get a domain name.You may not need to register your business’s name with the state. The fact is, that process may be unnecessary and It can be costly depending on the nature of your business. However, it helps if you have a domain name so that you can have a traditional online storefront and presence. That isn’t to say that you need to sell products through your site, it just means that you have a place that you can send people to online to find out more information about you and your products and services.2. Use social media.No longer can people lament about how they don’t use Facebook or Twitter, being on social media also lends an air of credibility and savviness to your business. Using social media is inexpensive and easy. There are plenty of online tutorials on how to use social media and by getting yourself out there by using the social media networks, it opens you up to more clients and the ability to interact in real-time with them as well. Also, don’t simply have a presence on social media, depending on your demographic, there are still some people who simply aren’t using social media. Thus, you must also have an easily accessible webpage as well.3. It doesn’t hurt to use old school marketing tools.Professional business cards as well as marketing items are now nominal in cost. Don’t just settle for free cards, pay that little extra to brand your items. This way you can be fully in charge of the message you’re putting out there. Think about it, what did you think of the person who handed you a business card that were clearly free ones?!4. Use accounting software.Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Nutcache and the list goes on. You can even use Excel if you’re so inclined. Regardless, it’s imperative that you start consistent and accurate record keeping from the very start. Make sure that all of your transactions, big and small, are in a place that will make it easy for you come tax time.5. Work in the cloud and back it up.Cloud-based software is available for everything. It also doesn’t hurt to use free ones in this case. Google is the gold standard when it comes to free. However, document creation and retention aren’t the only things you can do in the cloud. Accounting software, website administration, almost anything you can think of can be done in the cloud. Plus, it makes your data accessible anywhere that has an Internet connection. And don’t forget to backup your work. If you’re saving your work to your computer or saving it to a virtual drive in the cloud, be sure that you have a backup. Redundancy is key and it can also be very economical. A good rule of thumb is to have a physical and virtual off-site backup because Murphy’s Law always happens.6. Be virtual.Depending on the type of services you offer, there are companies out there that can assist you in getting jobs/projects. Companies like Upwork provide you with a place to offer your services to others and provides you with an online workplace. Being a freelancer has never been so easy. As a freelancer, you don’t have to limit how and how many clients you have.7. You have to pay some to get some.Yes, you can start a new business with no cost, however, by investing just a little money upfront you’ll almost ensure a return on your investment. Pay for a virtual fax service, marketing materials and other little things that will go a long way in ensuring that your business isn’t like every other “mom and pop” business. Just be careful not to go all in too fast. Recurring costs, though small, can add up fast. If you have recurring costs it means that you have to earn at least that much money per month.8. Be tax savvy.You must be cognizant of what kind of tax impact there will be as a result of your business. It’s common, depending on the type of business you have and if you don’t have employees, for you to not withhold any taxes during your first year. Getting a baseline for what your business will be like is important, just don’t forget that Uncle Sam may hit you with a large tax bill at tax time. Visit the IRS website or speak to a tax professional to help you with getting this sorted out before it becomes a very expensive mistake.9. Make time for yourself.When you commit to owning a small business the one thing you’re guaranteed is that it’s going to be hard. Despite how challenging it is, you have to take time for yourself. It’s easy to work long hours and to forget that we aren’t machines. Even if it’s just a 15-minute walk each day or something else that will break up your workday, you must not forget that sometimes it’s best to literally walk away to clear your head. This will do wonders for your mood and your process.10. Be disciplined.Sure, we all think that working for ourselves would be the best job in the world. But it’s not until you’re actually doing it that you realize just how easy it is to be trapped by the pitfalls of having no other boss than yourself. That quick television break inevitably turns into a television marathon, sleeping in one day turns into not setting the right habits you need to be successful. It’s easy to say that you’re going be disciplined and fully devoted to the success of your business, but old habits do die hard.Each day brings challenges and uncertainties. You have to be willing to fail spectacularly. But you also have to be willing to love and nurture your business even on the days when you just don’t feel like it. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Despite that, the sky’s the limit and your earning potential is limitless when you’ve devoted yourself to doing what it is that you are passionate about. It’s important to remember that you’re not to give up when it gets hard. Those are the times you have to really dig in and remember why it is that you’re doing it in the first place.