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SUMMER 2005 BOLD PRINT Articles:
Website Q and A
Susan Lawrence, Bold Print Design Studio
Summer is Opportunity for Small Business
Joyce Rosenberg, Associated Press
Write a Successful Press Release
Provided by OPEN Small Business Network
How to Get Clients When You're Starting Out
Column by Steve Strauss, Staples.com
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 Website Q and A
Susan Lawrence, Bold Print Design Studio
There is a lot of pressure these days for small
business owners to get a website. You may see your competition
online, and you might be wondering where to begin in thinking about
how, or even IF, you should get a website presence.
Hopefully, these questions and answers can
help.
How can a website help my business?
The largest benefit of even the most basic website is simply the
bang for your buck. The internet is a low-cost, high-impact medium
for exchange of information.
Newspaper ads and television and radio spots
cost an arm and a leg, and you pay by the inch or per 30 seconds of
time. Online, space is cheap. You don’t pay extra per color as you
do in printed materials. Visitors can stay as long as they like.
Websites are also less expensive to keep up to date, as opposed to
reprinting brochures with new content. So use your 2 inches or 30
seconds elsewhere to direct buyers to your website where the
marketing options are endless.
A website also serves as an added customer
support center. It provides you with a way to be there for your
customers, even when you are closed. It can offer extensive customer
support, making information available to your customers (and
reducing telephone calls). Providing information in the form of
PDF’s for download will reduce your printing and mailing costs.
In addition to the above, a website can also
perform many other tasks based on your needs such as allowing
potential homebuyers to search through MLS listings online, allowing
customers to buy products from your store, enabling vacationers to
book your vacation home, and much more.
Consider also that a website offers national,
even global, presence for your business. You may think that your
marketplace is regional, but clients can come to you from anywhere.
Especially working with businesses in the resort area that we are
located in, many of their customers are local only a week or two out
of the year. The other 50 weeks, they can visit you online.
How much is it going to cost me?
Of course there is no one simple answer to this question. It does
depend on many factors including size of the web (number of pages,
amount of information online) and special features included such as
a feedback form, MLS searches or e-commerce capabilities. Bold Print
Design Studio has worked out an “a la carte” pricing system that
takes these items into consideration, allowing you to only pay for
what you need instead of locking you into a “package” you cannot
afford.
Typically, a basic five page informational
website will cost around $1500. Adding more pages or minor features
such as a contact us form can add a few hundred dollars, and adding
advanced featured such as MLS or e-commerce capabilities will add
even more.
Another thing to remember is your non-design
and ongoing costs. You will need to purchase a domain name (www.yourbusiness.com),
and pay someone to host the website on their server. Bold Print
offers these services at $15/year for the domain name, and $150/year
and up for hosting, again dependent on your needs. Lastly, if you
will have additional features, they may occur additional costs. MLS
searching ability has a monthly fee, and an online store will
require an SSL certificate yearly to keep your transactions secure.
At Bold Print Design Studio, we offer free
consultations and estimates. We’d gladly meet with you to discuss
your needs, and what you can expect to pay now and down the road for
a website developed to meet those needs.
Do I need e-commerce? Should I sell goods
online?
The main benefit of e-commerce is that you can reach a wider range
of customers. The drawbacks are the startup costs, and the fact that
you'll have more competition online.
Typically, we believe that an online store will
more likely flourish if you already have an established business and
preferably a real, brick-and-mortar store location. You already have
clientele, and can use your real world presence to drive traffic to
your website.
Starting a new business for online sales only
can be more difficult, but it can be done with a solid marketing
plan intact. Talk to us for more details.
How often should my website be updated?
As your company changes and grows, your website content should
change as well. We recommend evaluating your website seasonally to
ensure that you're providing your customers everything that you can.
Once your site is built, adding on or making changes to existing
content is quite easy.
Can I maintain my own site, or do I need to
hire Bold Print Design Studio to make changes for me?
At Bold Print, we are always focused on
creating a website that works best with your needs. We will not ever
require that you hire us to do something for you that you can do for
yourself.
We can design a site for you that you will be
able to edit yourself no matter your HTML skills. If you can work in
Microsoft Word, you can make edits to text and images on your
website. If you require new pages and major changes to your site, we
can offer these services to you at an hourly rate on an as-needed
basis with no minimum. Or, we can develop a maintenance plan that
includes all of your site changes on a monthly basis.
We’d be happy to discuss your plans with you to
decide the best route to go.
Hopefully we answered some of your questions,
but you likely developed many more in the process. If so, drop us a
line. We will be glad to help you better understand the world of
websites and whether or not it's time for you to get online!
[TOP]
Summer Is Opportunity for Small
Business
By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG, The Associated Press
With the summer offering many small business owners the prospect of
a slower pace and maybe even a little down time, it's the perfect
opportunity to do some planning, reassessing and catching up.
Owners who take advantage of the summer doldrums say it's a chance
to rethink the plans made at the beginning of the year.
"You can make changes to your business model, re-evaluate clients,
really plan out your budget and some of the investments you want to
make," said Richard Magid, CEO of SoundBoard, a Boonton, N.J.-based
company that runs support groups for small business owners.
"You can get a sense of the good, the bad and the ugly — what have
we planned for that wasn't done, what have we done that didn't
work," he said.
One of the most important items on a summer to-do list is to
schedule a meeting with your accountant. Such a session would help
give you a clearer picture not just of your taxes, but of your
overall business direction for the rest of this year and beyond. It
can help you make those decisions on new hiring or capital
investment.
Speaking of finances and taxes, did you get an extension until Aug.
15 to file your tax return? If so, finish the return sooner rather
than later, so you can focus on other things over the next six
weeks.
For companies facing their busiest period later in the year, summer
provides valuable prep time.
At Hot Headz of America, which sells merchandise to kiosks at
shopping malls as well as other retailers, summer is the time to
plan for the holiday selling season, when it ships 80 percent of its
products.
"We re-evaluate what we want to do for the winter," vice president
Jay Oxenhorn said.
Company executives also use this time to go to trade shows and to
find new customers.
The summer is also a quiet period at Walrus Brands, a Chicago-based
consumer products company, so owners Gregory Lilien and Ryan
Saunders believe it's the best time to implement a new software
system.
Lilien Saunders said the summer is the time to plan for the upcoming
academic year, as college bookstores are some of the company's big
customers. And some of that planning, which includes company
employees, is done outdoors, to take advantage of the nicer weather
and more relaxed atmosphere.
"We do kind of mini focus groups. We talk about things going on with
the company," Lilien said. "It's nice to be thinking about work in a
very non-work environment."
 Many management consultants advocate bringing a summer atmosphere
into the workplace, whether it means holding a barbecue in the
parking lot or holding a picnic for employees and their families. A
little seasonal levity can go a long way toward lifting morale.
Anyone who gets together with a customer on the golf course knows
the benefits of combining business with a little leisure time. Magid
says meeting clients at outdoor restaurants is a great way to help
further a relationship; he also noted that summer is a good time to
reconnect with a customer who has drifted away.
This is also a good time to think about how you want to mark the
holidays with your employees and customers — do you want to give
gifts, and if so, what kind? Do you want to want to hold a holiday
party?
The summer is also a good time to replace or repair equipment and
get it up and running before the busy season. If you need repairs or
renovations done, it's easier to get it done when some of your staff
is on vacation and less likely to be inconvenienced. And this is
definitely the time to be sure your heating system is working well.
Magid said it's also a great time for owners to improve their
business skills. He suggested they look for a book on a small
business topic they need to know more about, and get themselves up
to speed before the fall.
Along that line, the summer is a good time to peruse the fall
catalogs for local colleges that offer business courses, or to see
what seminars are being offered at nearby Small Business Development
Centers (sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration, they
can be located at www.sba.gov/sbdc). And some schools are offering
classes during the summer, so it's possible to squeeze in a few
sessions on accounting or marketing or whatever area you need help
with.
[TOP]
Write a Successful Press Release
Provided by OPEN Small Business Network
A press release is one of the primary ways you can communicate news
about your company to the media. Reporters, editors, and producers
are hungry for news, and they often depend on releases to tip them
off to new and unusual products, company trends, tips and hints, and
other developments. In fact, much of what you read in newspapers,
magazines, or trade publications, hear on the radio or see on
television originated in press release form. Unfortunately, the
average editor receives as many as several hundred press releases
each week, the vast majority of which end up getting "filed." Your
challenge is to create a release that makes the journalist want to
know more and discover that your story is one they must tell.
Use these 10 tips to write a release that will get noticed.
Use an active headline to grab the reporter's attention
The headline makes your release stand out. Keep it short, active,
and descriptive; in other words, use something like "Doe Named Man
of the Year" instead of "John Doe Gets Award".
Put the most important information at the beginning
This is a tried and true rule of journalism. The reporter should be
able to tell what the release is about from the first two
paragraphs. In fact, chances are that's all they may read. So don't
hide good information. And remember the "5 W's and the H" - make
sure your release provides answers to Who, What, When, Where, Why
and How.
Avoid hype and unsubstantiated claims
A writer can smell a sales pitch a mile away. Instead of making
over-inflated statements, provide real, usable information. Find
legitimate ways to set you and your company apart and stress those
points. To promote your business, write a release that answers
questions about your business, rather than one that provides only
general statements about how great or interesting your business is
without saying why.
Be active and to the point
Use language that will get the reader as excited about your news as
you are. If your release is boring or meandering, they may assume
that you will not be a good interview.
Keep your release to two pages or less
On the rare occasion, you can opt for a third page if it is
necessary to provide critical details. Otherwise, if you can't state
your message in two pages, you're not getting to the point.
Include a contact
Make sure your release has a person the journalist can contact for
more information. This person should be familiar with all the news
in the release, and should be ready to answer questions. And issue
the release on your company letterhead — it looks professional and
gives the writer another way to reach your firm.
Keep jargon to the minimum
If you're in a technical field, try not to use technical terms. Many
reporters are not as intimate with your company or your industry as
you are. Real English, not jargon, best communicates your story.
Stress benefits
This falls into the category of "don't say it, show it." Avoid
saying something is "unique" or "the best." Instead, show how people
will benefit — i.e. save time, save money, make their life easier,
etc.
Be specific and detailed
Marcia Yudkin, author of Six Steps to Free Publicity calls this the
"Yes, but what IS it?" syndrome. The reader needs to be able to
visualize a new product, or know how a new service works. If in
doubt, have someone unfamiliar with your product or service read the
release and ask them to describe what you are trying to publicize.
And it's better to use too many details than too few. So, as Yudkin
notes, "Instead of 'Jackson's new book contains information designed
to benefit any stock market investor,' write, 'Jackson's new book
contains seven principles of market analysis that enable even casual
investors to choose profitable stocks.' Even better, describe two of
the seven principles right in the release."
Proofread
When you've finished your press release, remember to proofread it
for typographical errors. If you don't have a good eye for spelling
or grammar, give the release to a friend or colleague who does. If
your release looks sloppy and careless, so will you.
Provided by OPEN: The
Small Business Network from American Express.
[TOP]
How to Get Clients When You're Starting Out
Column by Steve Strauss, Staples.com
When I graduated from law school, I got a job working for a big law
firm, making great money. Little did I know that they were paying me
well for a reason — the job stunk. I spent all day, every day, alone
in the law library, reading case law and drafting motions.
So it is probably no wonder that within a year I was already
plotting my escape. While still working at this unsatisfactory job,
I began to interview every lawyer I knew who had successfully made
the leap from employee to entrepreneur.
The question I asked every one of them was: "Where do I get
clients?"
Here is what they told me (and what I have learned along the
way):
You need at least 10 sources of income
This was some of the best advice I received. You can't just rely
on one idea. The guy who explained this to me told me to make a list
of 25 people that I knew that I could send a brochure to. That was
one source. Did I have any clients from the firm who might want to
hire me? That was two. Did I know any lawyers who could refer
business to me? That's three. The idea is to think creatively and
pursue all of your contacts.
You must advertise
It amazes me that many people open up shop without an advertising
budget, assuming their great location (or great product or idea)
would send clients their way. Not advertising is a major reason why
businesses fail. Besides newspaper ads, try radio and the Yellow
Pages. Lots of advertising, is usually key.
Offer your services for less
People love a bargain, and a job well done for a fair price can
go a long way in securing a client base. Once you are established
you can raise your fees, but not until then.
Do something different
When I started my own law firm I found that I needed a hook that
made me stand out. I began to put on free seminars for the public —
bankruptcy seminars, living trusts, and so on. I would rent a room
at the local Holiday Inn, advertise the seminar extensively, and
people came, mostly because it was free. Many would later hire me to
do their legal work. Develop a hook like this.
Offer great service
Customer service is key. In fact, Amazon.com bases much of its
success on good customer service. If your customers are happy with
the way you treat them, they're sure to come back.
Good luck. Although finding customers seems like the hardest part,
if you offer your services/goods for a fair price, let people know
you are out there (advertise!), and treat them well, you should have
more customers than you can handle.
[TOP]
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