Small Business

Email marketing allows you to reach a highly targeted audience at a low cost. In fact, experts at Campaign Monitor, an email marketing company, estimate that an effective email marketing message has the potential to result in , for just $1 of marketing investment.

Here are some email marketing conversion tips all small businesses can use:

1. Include descriptive tags with your images. 

Online publication MarketingCharts cites data revealing that the average person receives  commercial emails a month. Emails that include images can help your small business stand out in an already-crowded inbox, especially if you choose those that evoke an emotional response to a product, a promotional campaign concept or your brand. 

However, email marketing now comes with a “catch 22,” given that at least  are checked on a mobile device, according to experts at Litmus, an email analytics company. While mobile devices may positively boost response to time-sensitive messages, small screens aren’t always conducive to images. If a recipient opens your email only to see that images have been blocked, you could be banished to his or her spam box indefinitely. The more often that happens, the harder it is to form a reputation as a sender whose emails are recognized as legitimate: According to the experts at Sender Score, 28 percent of the email messages that are sent reach a user’s inbox.

Descriptive ATL tags can help you improve conversion, and decrease the risk of images in email marketing. Nonprofit organization WebAIM point out that ALT tag copy that is applicable in both context and functionality ensures the meaning of an image translates, even if the recipient can’t see the picture. Review the ALT tags for images on your site and in your email campaigns for relevancy, using descriptive words that will make the customer want to take action.

2. Don’t send messages that aren’t targeted. 

While you may not have robust data on prospects, you can learn a little more about what they respond to with each message you send. Diligently track open and click-through rates with each campaign, including the optimal times to send messages based on response and headline tests. Place email recipients in segments based on your findings to build an effective drip campaign that is personalized and relevant based on their activity.  Internet Retailer reports that retailer totes Isotoner improved its email marketing campaign revenue by a whopping  when it used analytics based on past email activity, site search history and past purchases to deliver highly targeted email messages.

3. Don’t ask for too much. 

Segment your email marketing campaigns so that each recipient is served the most relevant offer based on his or her preferences, and that he or she is presented with one clear message, call to action and a seamless checkout experience — whether on a desktop or mobile device. Prefill special offers the email message may include so customers aren’t required to key special discount codes that are part of your email offer at checkout. Partner with a reputable mobile payment provider for a secure and branded checkout experience to eliminate concerns with payment security, or require the customer to take additional steps to complete the transaction. For example, Mobile Commerce Daily reports that despite the popularity of PayPal by retailers in online sales, evidence suggests that it kills conversion by nearly  (particularly when consumers are shopping on a mobile device), because it requires additional steps to make a purchase.

4. Use emails to form a lasting relationship. 

Email campaigns should build upon one another, and acknowledge what you know about the customer, based on his or her past activity. In fact, marketing firm Epsilon cites data indicating that “triggered” emails targeted based on a recipient’s engagement with past messages have open rates that are  higher than those with generic messaging. If you cannot convince your customers to click on your message, you can’t convert them, regardless of your pricing or product quality.

Email marketing is an affordable way to communicate with prospects and customers, gain valuable insights about their preferences and increase sales. However, it requires strategy to convert message recipients into buyers. Follow these steps to improve the ROI you realize from every email you send.

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As demand grows for higher standards of social responsibility among small businesses, professional firms, companies and even individual investors are increasingly being held responsible for all their actions. There has been an increased need for small business to change their perspectives on business ethics as mere administrative compliance with adherence and legal standards to internal regulations and rules (Gehrke). Small businesses, like never before, are being asked, prodded and encouraged to keep up their business practices in order to emphasize ethical and legal behavior.

Today, it follows that small businesses around the world have to show ethical and responsible behavior for them to earn confidence and respect of their clients. Majority of small businesses are implementing standards of ethical and responsible behavior for some reasons. One of the objectives why such standards or codes are established is to ensure that adherence is encouraged to uncompromised level of utmost integrity. Awareness and approval of appropriate conduct need to be heightened and the insight for handling difficult issues need to be provided (U. S. Department of Commerce).

Business ethics and responsible behavior has become important in creating awareness of the international and domestic issues related to business and the conveyance of the standards and rules that are considered fit, correct and justice. It is believed that social responsibility is broader compared to ethical standards and as such, there exist no direct correlation within the area of social responsibility as that of ethics. Social responsibility goes beyond the welfare of the business and breaks the boundary to cover the interests of the entire community (U. S. Department of Commerce).

Small businesses commit themselves in maintaining the acceptable codes of ethics within the business while keeping on track that all business operations are done with utmost accountability. This ensures that protection of the business environment is maintained at all standards most importantly considering the clients who form the most important part of any small business (U. S. Department of Commerce). Social responsibility principles in small business identify some key areas that make the business competent and within the acceptable standard that favors the surrounding environment.

Small businesses have to be responsible for the safety of the employees, their clients and the community members (Gehrke). It is also important that the small business owners take note on the human rights and observe ethics by all standards in the practice of business (U. S. Department of Commerce). The practices of any small business have to be regulated by codes of ethics and social responsibility to ensure no abuse of the environment and human rights.

Diversity is an important aspect in any business environment and should be addressed to maintain a balance of different individuals that work in any business operation. The small business is also required to be financially responsible and perform by all means to maintain and keep the environment clean and safe for a friendlier coexistence (U. S. Department of Commerce). In addressing diversity as a social responsibility, the small business has the responsibility to foster diversity within the workplace and proactively encourage diverse employment practices within the business.

In order to encourage diversity, it is necessary for small business to buy from socially diverse sellers for the benefit of all people in the community. It is the social responsibility for the small business to add value and provide support to the local community (U. S. Department of Commerce). The small business should also encourage those involved in the process of procurements to maintain practices that benefit the entire community. Some small businesses involve themselves in giving donations and some have written policies that encourage employees to offer voluntary services to the community (Gehrke).

These donations provided by small businesses can help in the creation of environmental awareness or establishment of facilities that are of common good for the entire community. Donations may also be made to assist in the maintenance of facilities for the old age and orphans who form an important part of a society. Human rights provide a fertile growing base for any small business. It should be the responsibility of each and everyone in the small business to have respect and dignity when treating others (U. S. Department of Commerce).

Small business should respect and support the international human rights protection within its sphere of influence. Within the business and all partners, it should be encouraged for every person to avoid complicity in employment and human rights abuses. However, there are challenges that may not be solved easily when dealing with ethical standards and social responsibility. One of the common problems related to employment and human rights is the treatment of the issue of child labor prohibition in areas where they solely rely on the children as a means of labor in business and to support homes (U.

S. Department of Commerce). The observation of ethical concerns and social responsibilities in communities and business environments by small businesses has grown to be important than ever before. It is now required that small business become responsible for all the actions they are involved in every day business processes (Gehrke). The codes of ethics and social responsibilities are mainly specified to ensure responsibility of business practices and utmost protection of the environment in which business operations take place. Works cited

Gehrke, James “What Do Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Mean Today? ” What Do Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Mean Today? 17 Jan. 2008. 5 May. 2010 <http://ezinearticles. com/? What-¬Do- Ethics- and- Corporate- Social- Responsibility- Mean- Today? &id=934412>. U. S. Department of Commerce. Business Ethics. “A Manual for Managing A Responsible Business Enterprise in Emerging Market Economies. ” A Manual for Managing A Responsible Business Enterprise in Emerging Market Economies 2004. 5 May. 2010. <http://www. trade. gov/goodgovernance/adobe/bem_manual. pdf>

Over the years, the trends in new small business success rates pretty much stayed the same. The success rate for new businesses remains to be unattractive and the failure rate can still cause quite a scare. During 2008, it has been recorded that there were 627,200 new businesses set up in the US. However, there were also 595,600 business closures and 43,546 bankruptcies. At this time, seven out of 10 new businesses survive for at least 24 months, and only half of the 7 businesses survive in the succeeding five years.

25% of the new businesses that open close right after the first year of operation. Despite the high numbers of the closed and bankrupt new businesses, the statistics, in a way, pose as a challenge and a source of inspiration rather than provide discouragement for budding entrepreneurs. In the US, the estimated 29. 6 million small enterprises employ over half of the country’s private labor force. These 29. 6 million small businesses also represent 97. 3% of the exporters and 99. 7% of the employer firms in the US.

Come to think of it, the small business start up success and failure statistics in the US serve as an inspiration for budding entrepreneurs to work hard, learn the market they are about to enter, and work vigilantly to achieve success. 2. Discuss the red flags for a small business related to business failure and bankruptcy. Most new businesses fail because the people behind it entered the business for the wrong reasons. Even worse, they invest their money to open new enterprises for no good reason at all. You may also be interested in reading “Are entrepreneurs born or made essay”

One red flag to watch out for when it comes to small business is the motivational fit and the reason for entering the business of the entrepreneur. If the person is not whole hearted, or he is not passionate in running the small business, chances are he will fail. Small businesses will have a better chance of achieving success if the entrepreneur has love and passion for making the business grow and if he has the right physical and motivational fit. This means that he has the needed mental and physical strength required in making the small business grow.

Other red flags would be lack of management talent and inadequate resources. Commonly found in people who jump into the water without giving it much thought, small businesses are doomed to sink to failure if the one driving the ship is not skilled enough to manage it. Management skills are important in making the business successful. Of course, sufficient capital is important to fund the start-up operations. A number of new enterprises fail because the business owner does not have enough capital to fund the operating expenses.

This is gives rise to the importance of proper financial planning prior to starting a new business. 3. Discuss the precautions the owner and management team will take to ensure the success of the new venture. The management team will depend on the skill of its people. This means, a precaution will be done is carefully selecting the people to hire in the organization. As mentioned above, one red flag is the lack of management talent. Everyone in the organization, including the management team, must be on the same page when it comes to how to run the business.

To do this, a series of meetings and seminars will be done to unite everyone and to train them to make sure that there is sufficient talent to manage the business. Also, a careful recruiting process will be followed to make sure that only those who are qualified will be able to join the organization and the management team. Caution will also be taken in executing the marketing mix strategies. In the sea of competitors out there to gain market share, management should be very careful on which target they will tap and how they will tap it.

This will be done with proper research and understanding of the target consumers and the right set of strategies as to the pricing, promotion, and distribution of the product. Caution will also be done in planning the financial aspect of the business. Careful financial planning and projections of future outlays will be done to make sure that the business will not run out of working capital a few months after the business is started. 4. Discuss who the investors and lenders will be protected from financial loss in the new venture.

Shake to drink Milk Company will make debt funding its last choice as a source of funding. Majority of the funding will come from the investment made by the business owners. This method will not only eliminate the costs of debt financing as no interest will be paid, the business is ensured that the owners contributing their own money will work hard to make sure that their investment will reap due rewards. Shake to drink Milk Company can be opened as a corporation wherein the incorporators will contribute capital and their share of the earnings will be based on their capital contribution.

To protect the personal assets of the investors in case of financial losses, the company will not run after their personal assets, only to the extent of their capital contribution. 5. Discuss the business succession plan to ensure that the new venture continues to exist. By-laws will be drafted to ensure that there will be people who will continue to run the business even after the original owners have already perished. First, proper training and exposure will be done to everyone in the management team and in the organization to make sure that everyone is fit or has adequate potential to run the business.

Continuous training of employees is important to make sure that everyone is ready to proceed to the next level of management responsibilities. Second, the organizational chart will be followed and a screening process will ensure that only highly qualified people will get to climb to the top of the organization. References Shane, S. A. (2008). The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By. New Haven: Yale University Press http://www. score. org/small_biz_stats. html

I. Introduction to Small Business Enterprise
Any kind of business is important for a country’s development. A business is significant to the country whether the scale is small, medium or big. The major concern that matters the most is its ability to generate income and improve the economy of the citizen and the country in general.

The blooming of interest towards business among Malaysian and also people around the world has contributed to an increase of small business enterprise. What is small business enterprise? A small business enterprise’s definition is varied. According to the journal report titled, “Entrepreneurial Challenges Confronting Micro Enterprise of Malaysian Malays”, small business enterprise is a vehicle for entrepreneurship (Abdul Jamak, Salled, Sivapalan, Abdullah, 2011). The small business enterprise not only offers employment, social and economy stability but also innovation and competitive force to be empowered.

The National Small Medium Enterprise Development Council of Malaysia’s definition of the small business is mostly related to the income that the business is making or the annual sales turnover and the number of employees in the business. There are no definite definition as every agency has its criteria of judging on whether a business is considered as small business enterprise or not. The council approved any enterprise that meets the criteria of specified number of employees and annual sales turnover.

SME Corporation Malaysia defined small business enterprise or microenterprise as any business with annual sales turnover less than RM15,000,000 to RM300,000 or full-time employees of five to fifteen. This definition is applicable to all sectors.

Thurik and Wennekers (2004) defined small business enterprise as vehicle that change the industry by introducing new products and processes and also people who perform the business for the purpose of living. II. The Challenges of Small Busines Enterprise

Being a small business enterprise, there are few issues or challenges that the owner needs to deals with. The highlighted issues here are financial management, resource limitations, and marketing aspect.

Any businesses need a very stable and good financial management. Financial aspect is the one that make or break the business. Small business enterprises are not able to have economies of scale. Hence, it only depending on the small market to survive and sustain. Financial constraints are cause by the start-up or existing small business enterprises having the problems when the availability of revenue and cash-on-hand is not sufficient for the utilities and such (Davidson, 2011)

The problem is even worse if the cash flow is not in a good situation. It means, the money spent by the enterprises is more than the money earn. The small business enterprises earning or money reserve are not as big as an established firm have. Hence, when crisis comes the enterprises may not able to cope with it with the money that the business have. It may risk a failure for the business. Cash flow is a common issue for most business. Changes in the economy-including the 2014 Budget by the government- will have a significant effect on the financial aspect of the small business enterprise.

There are two cash flow that small business enterprises need to look at and manage; cash flow that deals with the past and the one that forecasted in the future (McCusker, 2013). First, the cash flow statement. A small business enterprise that unable to prepare a cash flow statement well will have a problem on acknowledging where the money came from and how it was spent for the business. McCusker also highlighted the second one as the cash flow that reporting on several questions that affecting the financial condition of the business in the future; how much money the small business enterprise need to earn to pay the expenses next month and such? This way, the business able to forecast the amount of money needed for short term or long term of the small business enterprise. The economy is unpredictable; hence, any small business enterprise should be ready and equipped themselves with necessary financial management skills.

Some small business enterprise also fails to adjust its budget by using it for what necessary and spent it recklessly. This is as being told by Anita F. Brattina in her Diary of a Small Business Owner book. She had the issue of hiring employee who she taught could bring in money for her business but the opposite happened. She wasted a lot of her money for salary of a very unproductive worker. It caused her monthly liability to rise and becoming a burden to her and the business. She suggests giving some priority to important parts of the business in order for the operation to continue without any hiccup. It may include utility bills, daily business expenses and salaries.

Marketing aspect is also part of the challenges experienced by small business enterprise. Being a small business enterprise, the market size for the business is relatively small. The small business enterprise may face problem in the business market and also the consumer market.

According to Philip Kotler (1997) in his book titled, “Marketing Management; Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control”, business market refers to the organizations that acquire goods and services used in the production of the end product. The item is sold, rented, or supplied to the business that required it. Being a small business enterprise, supplier tends to give the best of its service towards the larger firm compared to the smaller one. Hence, small business enterprise has less power in the market and being the second option for supplier. This will affect the supply for the production and increase in cost of production. The market that small business enterprise involves is not in economies of scale. It does not have the advantage of buying and purchasing power in the business market.

The challenge is even major in the consumer market because the business is in a complete competition with the larger name in the industry. BusinessDictionary.com defined consumer market as the market dominated by products and services that is created for the consumer. It is the end product of a production. It is typically divided into four categories; consumer product, food and beverages products, retail products, and transportation products. Consumer are constantly changing in terms of loyalty and certainty towards a product a services as they always look for the best and worth the money spent. Consumer market also defined as the market that attends to buyers for private consumption. The preferences from one to another are different for certain product and it may be affected by various reason such as demographic, geographic and consumer behavior (Suttle, 2013).

Based on the definition, in relation to the small business enterprise, the challenge mostly cause by the competition from the established name in the industry. Both are trying to fulfill customer need but due to popularity and reputation of firm with larger name, the small business enterprise may sink in the market. The domination of product and services of larger firm in the market such as in comparison of SlimWorld and the local slimming centre, business selling homemade cookies and Famous Amos and many more will show us that the small business enterprise are losing to the larger firms. It is not necessarily because of the larger firm producing better product but it is as simple as the larger firm is seen as more ‘reliable’, reputable and safe. This is contributed by a big sum of money the firm had invest for marketing; print advertisement, television commercial and major campaign.

The small business enterprise are not having the advantage of “media buys” because of the economies of scale factor; hence, the advertising of its product and services is very limited (Bygrave & Zacharis, 2008). This will cause the brand awareness is low and it is hard for the small business enterprise to get the market attention.

The small business enterprise need to step up and try to innovate more to have a very distinguish product and services that could attract the consumer. This will help them to strengthen its place in the market and build a better brand loyalty even when the enterprising facing competition with any other firm.

Resource limitation is common for small business enterprise. The business may not use resources in large quantity but to get the quantity that they need for production is not easy either. A small business could a very good start-up business for everyone who has the interest on developing a business. However, small business also needs some capital. The capital are utilize to purchase, lease or rent necessary items for the business. There are not much of banks and financial institution that will easily loan money to small business enterprise. The enterprise has to struggle to gain the money needed for the start-up or to run the business.

As stated earlier, the small business enterprise has a small power in the business market. Hence, the business would also face some issue in getting necessary resources. The resources may be there but the pricing is not right for the scale of the business causing the enterprise failed to obtain it. III. How Entrepreneurial Orientation and Marketing Orientation Influence the Firm Performance? A small business performance could be improved by implementing necessary and suitable marketing and entrepreneurial approach to the business. Entrepreneurial and marketing orientation is needed in any business because it brings influence to the firm’s performance.

Entrepreneurial orientation is essential in any business because it helps in building a business that is more sustainable, conducted with a clear vision and great leadership. It is in line with the entrepreneurial value itself. An entrepreneur is someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to pursue it (Bygrave & Zacharis, 2008). A small business owner is the initiator of the business and the one who start up the business to grab opportunity. It is not just enough for him the only one who have the entrepreneurial attitude and it need to be channeled and implemented by the member of the firm too. The implementation helps in pushing the performance of the firm to a greater height.

Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) as being mentioned by Seongbae Lim in his journal writing titled “Entrepreneurial Orientation and The Performance of Service Business”, is best represented by Danny Miller in 1983 definition and further developed by Jefferey G. Covin and Dennis Patrick Slevin in 1989. The EO model is based on measuring entrepreneurship on its proactiveness, innovativeness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy. However, only 3 dimensions are seen more important for small business enterprise and its performance. The other is relevant however not as important as the chosen three. The dimensions are proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking.

Proactiveness could be referred to as the initiatives of taking part in grabbing opportunities and involve in emerging markets and demand (Schillo, 2011). Proactive company is a leader rather than a follower. The small business need to be proactive by getting ahead of their competitors. This will set them to be the initiator of the product and services line which will give the business advantage of market niche. The performance of the firm will increase as the EO’s proactiveness dimension being implemented in the business. The importance of having proactiveness dimension was decreasing once a firm was established (Kusumawardhani, McCarthy, & Perera, 2009). This shows that proactiveness is needed for small business enterprise because it help the firm to grow and speed up the growth by anticipating in upcoming opportunities in the market and pursuing it for the benefit of the firm.

As an example of proactiveness implementation in a firm is found in Apple Incorporation (Apple Inc.). The company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976 in the garage as a small business enterprise. The first project is assembling a personal computer prototype. They had foreseen the future of digital world and grab the opportunities by introducing new technologies and computer models. The performance of the firm booming and now has become one of the successful digital companies in the world.

Next is innovativeness that is related to the product and services introduced by the firm to the market (Schillo, 2011). It also emphasizes on the importance of technological leadership to the company and any changes made to the product produced by the firm. Small business enterprises need to distinguish the product and services to ensure that the firm leaves a better mark on the market. In order to be innovative, the firms need to hire employee with skills and creativity that works on research and development for the product and services. A constant effort of innovativeness in the small business enterprise will help the business to grow and have a better placement in the market. Innovation not just helps the firm to come out with new product line and increase the revenue but also reducing the cost. This may due to the advancement in technological process of production in the firm. A sample of small business with innovativeness dimension is

Last but not least is risk-taking. It is a dimension where companies decided to commit to any big commitment with an unknown return or uncertain outcomes. It is a concept that normally implemented by individual now has been spread to organizational level. Risk-taking is also considered to be one of the key in becoming a successful entrepreneur. A small business enterprise must learn to be a risk-taker because without it, the enterprise would not able to move forward and do not dare to pursue the opportunities that the business has. The small business enterprise needs to be high in regularity of taking risk with some precaution and view on the calculated risk. One of the Malaysian entrepreneurs with a risk-taker attitude is Datuk Tony Fernandes that bought the troubled AirAsia from DRB-Hicom and turn it to be a multi-million dollar company today. If he do not dare to take the risk, he may be still be an average joe working day and night for his boss. The concept is same to small business enterprise, it will remain the same without improvement if the business is not a risk-taker.

All in all for the EO, proactiveness, innovativeness and risk-taking could lead the firm to have a better performance and sustain more in the market since the entrepreneurial value are implemented in the business.

As for the marketing orientation, the purpose of business is to gain profit. However, profit will not be gain if the placement of product and services in the market did not grab the consumer attention. Hence, marketing orientation really does influence the firm performance.

Marketing orientation refers to the culture that the organization or business is committed in continuously creating and improving the value for the customers (Narver, Slater, & Tietje). It is also a way of building competitive advantage (Hurley & Hult, 1998). Each of the member in the business need to understand and work in the environment that they are creating superior value for the customer. In order for the marketing orientation could be implemented in the business, the small enterprise should acknowledge the customers’ needs and wants. The business should be able to cater to it and ready to come out with product and services that provide satisfactory product and services for the customer. If the firm able to do it, the performance would be better since it help the firm to build brand loyalty and inviting more customer to the business. The advantage of small business enterprise is that it is closer to the end user, so, any feedback and request could be listen to and respond in short time. The enterprise is able to innovate based on the customers’ demand.

Nowadays, customer is seen to have their interest on personalization. Hence, the business with market oriented will respond to this by introducing product and services that are able to be personalized. This will help them to gain more customers and be a leader in the market.

In order to have the best market orientation that improves the firm, the employees need to come out with strategies based on the information they receive from the consumer market. it is important for the firm to have employees that is also market oriented and understand the company is working
based on market orientation. As an example, Harley-Davidson promotes “Harleyness” among its employee to ensure they are also having the enthusiasm of Harley-Davidson user. The worker need to culturally fit in the business to help the performance to improve because they are also customer that have their demand, needs, and wants on the product and services they are using.

Marketing orientation does not only come with benefit. There are some disadvantage that could affect the firm’s performance. This may include misinterpreting customer’s demand, the challenge of rapidly changes market, and the underestimation of customer and market needs and wants. IV. Conclusion

Small business enterprise is a business with a good potential and easy start-up but it comes with challenges that should not be forgotten. Those who already in the business and those who just about to start need to accept the challenge and ready with some solution that could resolve it for the benefit of their own business. There are influences of marketing orientation and entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of the firm. Any business should consider of implementing the dimension included in both orientation to be adapted in the business.

V. Bibliography
Jamak, A.B.S.A., Salleh, R., Sivapalan, S., & Abdullah, A. (2011). Entrepreneurial Challenges Confronting Micro Enterprise of Malaysian Malays. Journal of World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 59. Retrieved 20 October 2013, from http://www.waset.org/journals/waset/v59/v59-167.pdf SME Corp. Malaysia (2013). Guideline for New SME Definition. Secretariat to the National SME Development Council. Retrieved 20th October 2013, from http://www.smecorp.gov.my/vn2/sites/default/files/guideline_0.pdf Thurik, R., & Wennekers, S., (2004). Entreprenuership, Small Business and Economic Growth. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development Vol.11, No. 1 (140-149). Retrieved 21st October 2013, from http://people.few.eur.nl/thurik/Research/Articles/Entrepreneurship,%20small%
20business%20and%20economic%20growth.pdf Davidson Institute (2011). Cash Flow: The Lifeblood of Your Business. Westpac , Australia. Retrieved 21st October 2013, from https://www.davidsoninstitute.edu.au/learning-centre/business/articles/cash-flow-the-lifeblood-of-your-business McCusker, J., (2013). Small Business Need a Solid Cash Flow Model. The Herald Business Journal. Retrieved 1st November 2013, from http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20131030/SCBJ14/710309975/Small-businesses-need-a-solid-cash-flow-model Brattina, A.F., (1996). Diary of a Small Business Owner: A Personal Account of How I Built a Profitable Business. AMACOM, United States of America, 210-213. Kotler, P., (1997). Marketing Management; Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey. USA. 204-206. Business Dictionary. BusinessDictionary.com. Retrieved 21st October 2013, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/consumer-markets.html Suttle, R., (2013). Characteristics of Consumer Markets. Demand Media. Retrieved 23rd October 2013, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/characteristics-consumer-markets-1418.html Bygrave, W., & Zacharakis, A., (2008). Entrepreneurship. John Wiley & Sons Inc. United States of America. Lim, S., . Entrepreneurial Orientation and The Performance of Service Business. St. Mary’s University. San Antonio, Texas. 3921-3923. Retrieved 24th October 2013, from http://www.decisionsciences.org/Proceedings/DSI2008/docs/392-9586.pdf Schillo, S., (2011). Entrepreneurial orientation and Company Performance. Technology, Innovation, Management Review. 20-21. Retrieved 24th October 2013, from http://timreview.ca/sites/default/files/article_PDF/Schillo_TIMReview_November2011.pdf Kusumawardhani, A., McCarthy, G. & Perera, N. (2009). Framework of entrepreneurial orientation and networking: a study of SMEs performance in a developing country. Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management Conference (pp.1-16). Adelaide, Australia: Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. Retrieved 25th October 2013, from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=gsbpapers. Hurley, R.F., & Hult, G.T.M., (1998). Innovation, Market Orientation, and Organizational Learning: Am Integration and Empirical Examination. Journal

It’s no secret that small businesses find hiring to be a top HR challenge. In fact, a recent found that 40 percent of small businesses believe filling an open position is more difficult than expected and 32 percent said it took longer than expected.

However, despite the fact that recruitment can be challenging for small business owners, they of the U.S workforce, and account for more than 60 percent of the private sector’s net new jobs. Perhaps this is because small businesses are unique in that they can offer compelling opportunities that larger corporations cannot. 

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Sure, large companies offer great benefits and competitive pay — but small businesses can offer those too. A recent  reveals that 75 percent of small businesses (those with between 10 and 49 employees) currently offer health insurance — and one of the top reasons they gave for offering health insurance is to stay competitive with other companies vying for top talent.

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But the recruitment opportunity doesn’t end there. By the nature of their size, small businesses can offer employees important advantages they won’t find at a larger organization, including:

• Less bureaucracy: Small companies typically have a flatter organizational structure, offering a closer working relationship between leadership and employees. This can be an important selling point for many recruits, who might rarely interact with leadership in larger organizations.
• Broader job responsibilities: In a larger company, most jobs are specialized. But in a small company, jobs often have broader responsibilities, offering employees the opportunity to build a wider array of skills.
• Room for growth:  If a small business is growing quickly, the right recruit can realize tremendous job growth. That’s something larger companies can’t typically offer at the same magnitude.
• Flexibility: Small businesses are often more open to creating flexible work arrangements to meet an employee’s needs, such as telecommuting one day a week or offering “Summer Friday” hours. This can be extremely attractive to potential employees.
• Work with a family feel: A small business often treats its employees like family.  This can be very appealing to a potential employee, especially Millennials, because they want to work for companies that value their well-being as a person, not just as an employee.

These unique advantages can be very important to the right job applicant, so it’s critical that small businesses market them to potential employees. How? By being proactive and highlighting the important elements that make your company culture unique. And, whatever you do, make sure it’s authentic. Today’s consumers and the workforce will look elsewhere if they perceive that a company doesn’t reinforce its words with action.

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Every small business offers unique employment opportunities and those opportunities can be more appealing to some employees than what they might find in larger corporations. Understanding your company’s advantages — and communicating them clearly during the application and interview processes — can help you attract the right person for your business and compete effectively for talent.

Startups being launched out of Silicon Valley may get all the press, but it is the small businesses across the country that create the jobs. Everything from coffee shops to florists and restaurants, help keep our economy spinning. Indeed, Main Street businesses represent two-thirds of companies across this country and employ 24 million workers, according to the . But being a local mom-and-pop shop isn’t easy. From starting a company on the ground floor to getting the word out to the community and keeping busy during slow times, running a small business is no easy feat.

Fortunately, we have Mike Glauser, an experienced entrepreneur who has also consulted his fair share of small business owners.

As the co-founder and chairman of , an online training and development company for aspiring entrepreneurs, Glauser has helped hundreds of founders go from just a business plan to a successful venture.

Glauser got into the entrepreneurship world in the ’90s when he founded two companies: Northern Lights Frozen Desserts and Golden Swirl Management Companies. Both were in the frozen dessert space and both sold to CoolBrands.

“Building companies from concept to cash flow to a sale has been one of the most exciting things I have done in my career,” he says, adding that he loves “helping aspiring entrepreneurs do the same thing I have done.”

Glauser then went to the other side of the table, acting as a consultant to small and large businesses, with some big-name clients including Boeing, Syntek Global and Max International.

Besides currently running My New Enterprise, Glauser is also the executive director of entrepreneurial programs at Utah State University and a professor of management.

Having been in the throes of the entrepreneurial world and having consulted with various small businesses, Glauser, and his son, Jay, decided to do a cross-country bike trip last year, interviewing more than 100 entrepreneurs in 100 cities. Out of it came the 2016 book , which features not only tales of these founders but also lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. Glauser is hoping to offer up some of his learnings to aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Many people mentored me during my entrepreneurial journey,” Glauser says. “These mentors provided great advice, introduced additional advisers and kept me from making major mistakes. I want to do the same for young entrepreneurs.”

For the month of October, Glauser is looking to take your questions on all things entrepreneurship, with a focus on helping small businesses succeed.  Think: starting a company, validating an idea, creating a strong brand, building a team, marketing and sales. He can do it all.

Got a question you would like answered? Submit your questions by tweeting us, using the hashtag #ENTexpert. One topic will be selected by the editors of Entrepreneur and addressed by Glauser in a weekly write up.

A strong social network can become an asset for any business. Social media offers every business the opportunity to strengthen relationships with their target audience, creating loyal customers and even brand advocates. Exploiting this potential is no easy feat, but can be done if the medium is used well.

Unfortunately, many companies are still not getting the best out of their social media accounts. Yet social media is big business:  use social networking sites, and for younger adults it’s even more. That’s a huge readjustment of the  paradigm.

The fact is, if you want to reach your audience,  is the place to start. But avoiding the many pitfalls can prove difficult.

1. Don’t create accounts just because

Everybody’s doing it, and they’re telling you that your business should be too. It may be great for other businesses, but you just aren’t sure how it can help your company.

If you aren’t clear on the , then the chances are you aren’t going to use it properly, and it could be damaging to your business. Yet, no presence on social media is a poor choice as well. Even if you aren’t on Facebook or Instagram, your audience is and they’re likely having a conversation about you — without your input.

Take the time to understand social media and what it can do for you, and invest the time and budget needed to do it well.

2. Don’t ignore social norms

It’s difficult to get the tone right on social media. Each social network has different systems, rules and social norms. What is acceptable on one network may be a social faux pas on another.

Unless you’re confident on each one, it’s only natural that you will make mistakes. But getting your tone right is a must. Common expectations of corporate behavior include:

• Take the time to respond to messages left by customers; social media is about engagement and conversation should be a two way street.
• Don’t , or spam your followers’ feeds with sales messages.
• Don’t be needy. Asking for retweets and likes for your content is frowned upon. If the content and messages you are sharing are truly interesting and insightful, shares, likes and retweets will take care of themselves.

Don’t be afraid to be imperfect (in fact humanizing  is a good thing on social media) but be aware you are expected to follow the unwritten rules of social networking behavior.

3. Don’t be present on every social network

Spreading yourself too thinly across every social network is a common mistake. You want to be everywhere so you can maximize the opportunity, but cast the net too wide and it will be difficult to  across all channels.

Building a strong network on 1 or 2 social media platforms is much better than having a weak and patchy presence on them all. It’s more difficult for a business to  many social media accounts. Even if you manage to maintain a regular presence, the quality of your content will probably suffer. Being on too many social networks will undermine your brand values, not reinforce them.

Each social network has its own strengths, and they are popular with different audiences. Choose one or two that are best for you. Research them to find out where your audience hangs out and think carefully about what you want to achieve on social media. If you are a creative, youth oriented brand, Instagram or Snapchat may be a great social network for you to engage your audience. Conversely, if you’re a B2B company, LinkedIn may the best choice.

4. Don’t favor quantity over quality

Your social media presence should be about  and , and these goals should be at the heart of your business strategy on social media.

Too many businesses use social media as a broadcasting channel or sales channel. But social media isn’t just a free advertising channel — it has the potential to build a relationship with your target market and improve customer loyalty. But first you have to get your content right.

In order to build your network you must consider your customer’s needs and have a content strategy in place. An unfocused approach that prioritizes quantity of content over quality isn’t going to be successful. If it doesn’t provide value to your audience, they aren’t going to engage with you.

5. Don’t ignore comments

Building a conversation with your customers is the holy grail of social media. But many businesses invest most of their time building awareness and growing their network, rather than having a conversation.

Comments from customers are the beginning of a dialogue with them, the moment at which they give you permission to interact with them. Yet research has found  sent to brands are ignored.  The same research found people expect a response within 4 hours, and the average is 10 hours.

Take the example of . In 2013 a customer promoted a tweet to complain about the customer service, the company’s Twitter account was only monitored during office hours so there was a delay in their response, which gave the tweet plenty of time to circulate around the Internet.

It’s ironic that so much energy is spent building a social network to strengthen customer relationships and the opportunity to do so is ignored when it presents itself. Balance building your social presence with strengthening your network and always respond to your customers promptly.

6. Don’t remove negative comments

We all want to show ourselves in the best light possible, but sweeping negativity under the carpet is simply going to infuriate dissatisfied customers even more. No organization is perfect, but show you are prepared to learn from your mistakes by facing them head on.

People are increasingly expecting a response to their complaints through social media. They won’t call you, they won’t write (not even an email), they will however take to social media to inform you, and everyone in your network. It’s a particularly public form of complaint, and you need to be ready or it could prove costly. United Airlines paid a heavy price for poor complaint management in 2008 when a disgruntled passenger  after getting no satisfaction from their complaints procedure.

When this happens, be professional and don’t be defensive. The old adage (some might say cliché) about a complaint being an opportunity is certainly true on social media. You can’t stop people from complaining about you, but you can demonstrate a willingness to learn from any mistakes. Not just to customer with the issue, but to all your customers in your social network.

7. Don’t be complacent about security

All a disgruntled employee needs is your login and password, and they have access to your entire social network, including customers, partners and your target audience. The potential to damage your reputation and lose business is incalculable.

In 2013, an employee of British retailer HMV . Senior management was helpless as it didn’t know its own password.

To avoid this situation happening to you, put in place a system that secures your social media accounts and reduces the potential for reputational damage.

• Set up limited permissions for selected staff to update your social media. Managing your social media accounts shouldn’t be left to a low level employee.
• Make sure publishing rights are only given to a select number of people who have responsibility for overseeing the suitability of the content (though many people in the organization should be encouraged to draft content).
• Train your staff about social media.

Complacency can lead to public embarrassment; put in place security measures to protect the integrity of your brand.

8. Don’t rely on automating updates

It’s understandable businesses are inclined to reduce the burden of updating their social media accounts by automating them. But automation tools should be used with caution; they can never be a substitute for true engagement with customers.

Businesses should take care to ensure customer engagement isn’t forgotten in the rush to reduce workload.  Without customer engagement you are reducing your social networks to a promotional tool, or a cheap , and you won’t get any value out if it.  Your customers can’t have a conversation with an automation tool.

9. Don’t treat it as a marketing function alone

It’s often the case that businesses fall into the trap of ‘silo thinking,’ and social media is no exception. In organizations that still treat social media as a promotional tool, it’s often left in the control of the marketing function.

In recognition of its increasing importance as a means of managing the customer relationships, many organizations are now  to reflect customer expectations. Your social network is now a sales channel, a promotional channel, a customer service channel and a market research channel. To get the best out of it, and to meet your customers’ expectations, move it out of the marketing department and make it an integral part of your customer relationships.

Conclusion

The place of social media in business strategy has evolved, and it has moved from just a marketing device to a tool that’s of strategic importance to your company and its brand. Many companies haven’t embraced its full potential.

Organizations need to remember customers are using social media as a place to discuss and complain about brands whether the company is engaging with them or not.