Small Business Payroll Tax Cut Possible Impact

Small business owners voiced their opinions to the White House after a proposed payroll tax cut was presented. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses account for 99.7% of employer firms. Within the last two decades, small businesses have been responsible for more than half of the country's job growth.

So what did these entrepreneurs have to say? They concentrated on three topics:

• Incentives for hiring and job growth
• More information about how health care reform will affect small businesses
• Solutions for real estate crisis and getting foreclosures sold more quickly

Politics aside, think of the impact that a 50% deduction in payroll taxes might have on your bottom line. Would companies feel less hesitant to hire, and possibly resume their leading place in the hiring arena?

What about investments? There are ways to recoup losses for companies, however, the companies may not feel comfortable, given recent economic reports. 

Possible Impact 

So what could small businesses use their payroll tax cuts on?

• Sales - More money to hire salespeople, improve profits, and ultimately business growth.
• Marketing - Let more people know about their businesses and broaden their areas of operation.
• Technology - Evaluate present processes that could be replaced by technology, and invest in technology that will surely improve their productivity and operations overall. 
• Internet Marketing - Research the benefits that taking their brick and mortars online could have on their bottom line. 

In what ways would a payroll tax cut impact your business?

Communication: Entrepreneurs and The Value of Criticism

Starting a business requires as much preparation of the mind as it does the financial, operational and marketing plans. No competent business person would blindly walk into a deal or contract without fully evaluating all the details.  Entrepreneurs must be 'teachable' and able to respond to information even when the intent is to offend. They also must be able to receive criticism. Criticism has a negative connotation to it, however, there is a major difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism. Many would say that the major difference between the two is how the sender of the message is sending it. However, I would argue that the major difference is not how the sender meant it but how the the receiver uses it. 

Any statement that any person has ever made about myself or my business, my appearance, or anything else is only defined as constructive or destructive based on how I choose to receive and implement the information. Too many opportunities are overlooked by business people because of their inability to extract the constructive part of any criticism while disregarding the rest. 

For example, let's take a look at the following statements:

1. "Your store has crappy service and the lead cashier has no class"

2. "The store is always filthy when I come in, and I feel rushed because the environment does not feel welcoming"

Neither of these statements are nice and both could probably be stated in a more positive way. However, the savvy business person should be able to extract the good from any statement, assess its value to their organization, and disregard the rest, regardless of how the message is delivered. The emotions of the sender can determine how the message is received, however, it should not.

The first statement appears to be completely negative and most would immediately reject it and see no value in investigating. However, it is clear that the customer is dissatisfied and could potentially spread their dissatisfaction to others. It would be beneficial to look into the statements from an objective point of view to determine if the customer service could use improvement or the lead cashier could use some additional training. Or the manager could choose to overlook these two issues because of how the information was presented.

The second statement is packed full of pointers that when subtracted from all the emotions, can be quite valuable. Is the store in need of better maintenance procedures? Could it be that declining sales is associated with areas that are not as clean as they should be?

The ability to receive and implement criticism can be the difference between success or failure. Business requires the ability to set emotions and personal biases aside for objective decisions that push sales, to be able to foster a great work environment to improve productivity of the workforce, and respond to the demands of customers. Entrepreneurs and business owners will have to master this to be able to remain competitive and supply what their customers demand.

Can you think of a time when someone offended you but after the emotions wore off, the advice was instrumental in helping your business?

ChrissyBiz Solutions provides clients with customized, results-driven web marketing strategies. Our primary business writing duties include: article marketing,  search engine optimized web copy, blog content, social media, press releases, and newsletters  designed to drive traffic to your website and influence buyers decisions when purchasing products and services.

Contact ChrissyBiz today to discuss the impact that web marketing copy can have on your business.

5 Tips To Effectively Manage Your Time On Social Networking Sites & Social Media Tips For Your Business

If you are maximizing tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for your business, you may have reaped some rewards. Managing these sites effectively, spending adequate time on them, and not allowing them to waste your time, can be tricky. They must be properly used in order to be an asset, not a "time stealer." Below are 5 tips for small businesses to gain maximum benefit from these new marketing tools:

1. To avoid wasting quality time on these sites, a schedule is essential. Set aside a minimum and maximum amount of time you will spend on these sites daily. Give them appropriate time slots throughout your day and get in the routine of adhering to it. Will you spend 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night? Or will you spend 45 minutes in the evening? It is up to you and your goals. However, you need to realize when your market is most active and will see whatever updates you post. If you are posting entertainment news at 6 am, that may not be very beneficial unless you plan to periodically re-publish the information.
2. Once your schedule is set, divide up how you will spend that time -- what will you do with it? I suggest that you not only add value to your market, but also interact with and engage them. This can be as simple as RTing a quote of interest (set a goal of how many you will do per day), replying to @'s or questions, or asking direct questions they might find interesting and thought-provoking. Understand that leaving your page dormant can be damaging to your strategy and goals, and decrease your following. It will also be detrimental to time spent in the past building your reputation. Be careful not to ignore them or present yourself as an anti-social social networker. You do not want your market to begin ignoring what you have to say. You want them to become so interested in you as a person that they will click your link and actually see what you can offer them and share it with others as well. Social Media has been able to drive sales for my business using this tactic.
3. Follow those in your target market, "don't preach to the choir." If you sell jewelry and have found all the biggest jewelry companies in the world, ask yourself if that is your market and how they will benefit you. If you mostly sell to new brides and college grads, start finding them and following them. Don't turn on your twitterfeed and forget about them; rather take some time to read a few profiles and see what information they find valuable. When you start following them, say hello, let them know that though you are in business, you are a real person! Stop the generic replies or one-size-fits-all approach. This saves time by having relevant relationships instead of building a following that has no use or interest in your products or services.
4. Perform searches of keywords for tools like Twitter, or find similar pages that people have "liked" on Facebook. These are beneficial for targeting and time management in that you are filtering out those who you can build relationships with. They will also help you find questions that you can answer; people you can add value to; and give you new prospects. Always follow up with messages you receive. But once your time limit has passed, write down where you have left off and resume your duties at the proper time.
5. Never directly solicit people with a sale or even coupon for your products. This is very annoying. Why should they purchase from you and not the other 15 people who sent them the same information? Instead, read their profile and provide a link to answer a question they have. Bring the customer to you! Social Media is not the new door-to-door salesman that everyone avoids, so do not turn your profile and reputation into such.

When you have clearly defined goals and strategy for your social media presence, you can effectively manage your time spent on social networking sites. Maximize your time by sticking to your schedule and creating one that is most relevant to your market. Obviously, an hour a day will be more than some need and not enough for others. But whatever time spent can be used to reap maximum rewards. 

How do you effectively manage your time on these sites? What tips can you contribute to other business owners venturing into these new forms of web marketing?

ChrissyBiz Solutions provides clients with customized, results-driven web marketing strategies. Our primary business writing duties include: article marketing,  search engine optimized web copy, blog content, social media, press releases, and newsletters  designed to drive traffic to your website and influence buyers decisions when purchasing products and services.

Contact ChrissyBiz today to discuss the impact that web marketing copy can have on your business.

Compare - Contrast - Commit and Increase Your Productivity

Implementing all the small adjustments you have already made previously now allows you to really compare and contrast your productivity levels. But first you must commit to a schedule so that you are not continuously stuck on step 5 of this process, which is performing daily audits and making small adjustments.

Once you have committed to the way your schedule is arranged and the order in which to execute tasks, you can now see where your new journey to increase your productivity has taken you. In step one: evaluation of current productivity allows you to see where you are while this current step allows you to see where you've come. Things to consider during this stage:

Have you accomplished your goal?

Are you seeing gains in your productivity on a daily, weekly, or overall basis? (Be Specific)

Could you commit to this schedule over a long period of time?

Can you think of any other things that you need to consider during this stage? Only you will be able to analyze your specific situation, based on your service, product, and industry. Committing to the schedule will take time just as the small adjustments. Give yourself a reasonable yet realistic time frame to commit and feel comfortable. Hopefully, you have not come this far to find out that you need to start again, but if so, please begin with step 1 to see maximum results.

If you are working with a team, you must evaluate the effect of the change and communicate throughout the change process to ensure a smooth transition. You most likely will not resist your own decision to implement change, however, a workforce may not be as amicable. This must be considered beforehand as a potential business risk. As you implement the changes, your entire process becomes vulnerable unless you have safeguards in place to make sure everything runs the way it should. Change is a fragile time for any business!

For example, while you are committing to this schedule, a project could emerge that might tempt you to assume old work habits. Taking the initiative to improve your productivity should not be taken lightly and may add to your workload initially. But staying the course, implementing each step one at a time, and flexibility will make your goal to increase productivity well worth the time and effort.

Finally, after you have made a commitment to your new schedule, measuring the results is necessary. We need to make sure that the small gains we discussed earlier are turning into vast improvements over time and construct a way to measure that.

Implementing A Schedule and Setting New Goals to Increase Your Productivity

It would be a fair assessment to say that the most difficult parts of your journey to being more productive are behind you. To recap, the previously mentioned 7 Ways to Increase Your Productivity include 1) Assess current productivity and evaluate obstacles 2) Evaluate individual tasks / Break projects into smaller tasks and 3) Create schedule. Now you will implement the schedule you put in place, placing smaller parts of larger projects into proper time slots.

Implement Schedule and Set New Goals

Implementing your new schedule will require you to only become familiar with your time slot appointments and work on respective tasks at their appropriate times. An important component to this step is starting each task as closely as possible to the scheduled time, and ending it in the same manner. This is crucial in this stage so that you can accurately adjust your schedule to fit your needs and slowing increase your time working. That is the goal, to increase productivity overall.

Implementing the schedule and adjusting it should lead you into setting new goals for your productivity. Tip # 1, assessing current productivity, was necessary before completing this step. By knowing how productive you currently are, once tasks are scheduled, you should be able to project how productive you can be, or desire to be.

Be realistic -- but also do not make the goal so easy it requires little work on your behalf. Increasing productivity carries with it the benefit of eventually improving sales and profit. Cutting corners or being too lenient on yourself will benefit no one, and certainly not your business. The more productive you become, the easier it will be for you to commit to your routine. Practice makes perfect and this rule applies to everything. Practice spending your time wisely and you will soon perfect great time management skills.

Proper management of time is one side effect of properly implementing your schedule and setting new goals for your productivity. In one way, you are delegating your time, and in doing so making better use of it. In another way, proper delegation of your time is producing tangible benefits like increase in sales.

ChrissyBiz Solutions provides clients with customized, results-driven web marketing strategies. Our primary business writing duties include: article marketing,  search engine optimized web copy, blog content, social media, press releases, and newsletters  designed to drive traffic to your website and influence buyers decisions when purchasing products and services.

Contact ChrissyBiz today to discuss the impact that web marketing copy can have on your business.

Create A Schedule to Increase Your Productivity

By now, current productivity level has been assessed, obstacles identified and tasks broken up into smaller tasks. Now you can properly create a schedule that reflects the smaller manageable tasks that translate into larger projects. The third tip for a a more productive business is:

Create Schedule

Do you know how many business people rise everyday and work without a schedule? I have done it myself! There are essentially no confines to the amount of time they should be spending on certain tasks. The schedule will give each task a time slot. These time slots for your smaller tasks are a blueprint or road map for the entrepreneur to navigate their day.

In the AM, all "housekeeping tasks" may be scheduled while individual tasks are only given a slot, not a specific time. For example, from 6am-8am, business owner can update social media networking sites, browse internet for business news, have coffee, and make sure all materials or resources are available for the rest of the day. The best time to schedule yourself is always the day prior, AFTER you have completed the tasks you set out to do. This also works because any lingering tasks can be re-scheduled.

Creating a schedule subconsciously puts a sense of urgency in your brain . It also sets a standard by which you can judge your progress in projects and how productive you are as a whole. A task that you have scheduled in the past three weeks should be complete. However, if you are seeing that task remain on your schedule, you need to either re-evaluate the time you alloted to complete the task, or need to go back and consider what has been the obstacle in achieving that task. See, the scheduling is what brought this issue to your attention. Without a schedule, the issues that have caused the task to remain on the schedule may be overlooked or repeated in the future.

The importance of these steps cannot be overstressed. As an entrepreneur and small business owner, you have no benefit of marketing, operations, and senior management. You are the accounting department and the sales representative among all the other departments. How well you can manage your time and how much you can produce in the least amount of time will translate to more sales, less stress and you operating at a higher efficiency as a whole.

How do you create a schedule that accurately reflects what you need to do but also allows you to get the most out of your time? You may remember that in the last post I mentioned being able to weave smaller tasks from other projects in between larger, more time consuming projects. You can essentially work on many things at the same time, without actually working on them at the same time. Perhaps sitting at your computer trying to upload your latest blog posts AND trying to market them around the web creates a lot of mistakes for you when done together. Perhaps uploading your blog should be weaved with another task, or not at all. There are undoubtedly some things you cannot weave between others -- they are too important or require too much of your attention to do so. That is one purpose for making a schedule!

Creating your schedule will take a little time because you will have to tweak it in some ways, for sure. After going through all the processes of breaking things into smaller tasks so they are manageable, you are basically going to use trial and error as you schedule your tasks so you can know which tasks belong where and the most ideal time for you to do them.

All of these tips will increase your productivity. Over the space of a couple of weeks, you will see yourself completing much more than you were before. Creating a schedule also makes you accountable for your time whereas you may not have been aware of how much time you wasted before.

ChrissyBiz Solutions provides clients with customized, results-driven web marketing strategies. Our primary business writing duties include: article marketing,  search engine optimized web copy, blog content, social media, press releases, and newsletters  designed to drive traffic to your website and influence buyers decisions when purchasing products and services.

Contact ChrissyBiz today to discuss the impact that web marketing copy can have on your business.

Breaking Projects into Smaller Tasks to Increase Productivity

The first post about improving productivity outlines exact steps in assessing your current productivity level as well as identifying the obstacles to that productivity. The second step in this process is to:

Evaluate Individual Tasks / Break Projects Up into Smaller Tasks

Small business owners that work from home (which is the primary audience for which these tips are written) can become overwhelmed by their everyday duties. When duties are taken apart and made into separate tasks that are actually part of a bigger project, completion is quicker and easier. For example: As a business writer, one duty for my day may be to "write press release" for a client. In all actuality, I need to dismantle this into specific duties like 1. brainstorm subject and catchy press title 2. gather required information 3. first compilation 4. spell check 5. send to client for proofread. Doing so will show me how productive I am throughout the day.

These individual tasks will help increase my productivity because I now have a mental picture of the individual things I have to accomplish before the project is complete, and also allows me to see other tasks I can fit in between. I am not advocating multitasking, rather breaking each duty into smaller tasks so that if there are breaks or spaces in completing the whole project, that time can be used wisely and be efficiently scheduled (more on this in a later post). In the example of writing a press release, I may spend a lot of time brainstorming the title or searching the internet for keywords but after the first compilation and it is sent to the client for approval, while the entire task is not yet complete, I am able to fit in another task from another project.

The individual tasks are also helpful in case there are legitimate reasons you have to leave your home office. While taking a family member to a doctor appointment, you can write down press release titles and possible keywords you want to incorporate. Prior to breaking the duty into individual tasks, if you are only concerned about writing the entire press release but unaware of the specific tasks involved, time spent at the doctor is not productive. The point is that you are making each moment within your workday count. When you begin to break all of your overall duties into smaller tasks, they are more manageable and easier to benchmark / measure the effectiveness of your productivity throughout the day. That 4 hour workday just increased by an additional 30 minutes just because you are prepared for your time out of the office.

While there is much debate on whether or not multitasking is effective, I would suggest that if multitasking is something you do, breaking projects into these individual tasks will greatly help you. Back to the previous example of the press release, lets add to the to-do list editing a professional document for a client. For that day, you may not be able to completely edit that doc, but in between tasks for the press release you may pick it up and begin to edit it in chunks.

The goal is that eventually the document is completely edited and the press release is done. Factoring in the inevitable presence of obstacles in your workday, you have greatly improved the amount you are accomplishing in both tasks when you evaluate the individual tasks involved in completing both projects. While neither the press release or book editing is yet complete, within 2 days the press release can be done and the book editing well on it's way. Without evaluating specific tasks for these, you may be hesitant to put off the book editing until you have more time. But more time is not what you really need, it is more efficient use of the time you have.

Waiting for the perfect work day to accomplish bigger tasks will never net anything and keep you frustrated as your bigger projects pile up. Every day has its own unique challenges and demands. Instead weave the smaller tasks of the big project into your day, even in between other tasks (in case you get bored with one task easily like myself), and you will see a dramatic increase in your productivity. Instead of not even beginning to edit that book, within 2 days you could have two chapters complete when you have already broken each project up into individual tasks.

ChrissyBiz Solutions provides clients with customized, results-driven web marketing strategies. Our primary business writing duties include: article marketing,  search engine optimized web copy, blog content, social media, press releases, and newsletters  designed to drive traffic to your website and influence buyers decisions when purchasing products and services.

Contact ChrissyBiz today to discuss the impact that web marketing copy can have on your business.