Tag Archives: small business

Start Strong: Indiana Business Taxes for New and Small Businesses

The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce is pleased to share this opportunity with our area businesses. If you are a new or small business, we encourage you to attend the September 4th presentation offered here in Bloomington.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently offered a sobering statistic for anyone following their business dreams: forty-nine percent of businesses fail in the first five years.

One factor that can contribute to business failure is failing to understand taxes. When new and small businesses have difficulty with taxes it is often due to not understanding regulations regarding filing and paying Indiana taxes.

To address this issue, the Indiana Department of Revenue is partnering with the Indiana CPA Society to host three free presentations throughout the state. The presentation, Start Strong: Indiana Business Taxes for New and Small Businesses, discusses pertinent tax information for new businesses, and attendees will have the opportunity to have questions answered by an experienced business tax auditor and network with community business members.

If you’re interested in attending a different Start Strong presentation, or hosting the presentation for your community, visit www.in.gov/dor/5176.htm.

Conscious Capitalism: Finding Your Higher Purpose

A special thank you to Tim Tucker, co-owner of Express Employment Professionals (www.expressbloomington.com) for the great following submission!

For some time now, businesses have been gaining a bad reputation. Ideas like capitalism, profits, wealth, and entrepreneurship once inspired and garnered praise, but now they are increasingly being vilified. There are many reasons for this, some justified and some not, and the reality is that some blame lies on both sides of this argument. But, as business owners, it is within your power to help change this image and show that at least your business has a conscience.

In the recently released book “Conscious Capitalism,” authors John Mackey of Whole Foods Market and professor Raj Sisodia “argue for the inherent good of both business and capitalism.” They propose that “entrepreneurs are the true heroes in a free-enterprise economy, driving progress in companies, society and the world.” To support this, they present four specific principles that companies should follow to not only communicate this reality to the world, but also grow their organization. The first principle to consider is to find your higher purpose.

Make a Difference:
Forbes defined the process of finding your company’s higher purpose as uncovering the difference it is trying to make in the world. This is something the most profitable and highest esteemed companies have in common – they all know their purpose. Disney exists to use our imaginations to bring happiness to millions. 3M is in the business of improving every company, every home, every life. The American Red Cross is daily enabling Americans to perform extraordinary acts in the face of emergencies. Do you know what your business purpose is?

Create Value:
Mackey and Sisodia believe that “business has a much broader positive impact on the world when it is based on a higher purpose that goes beyond generating profits and creating shareholder value.” Psychology has shown that it’s vital for individuals to find purpose and meaning in their lives. And it’s just as important to the business itself. Finding a higher purpose for your organization is all about creating value, an idea that is all too often confined to just marketing or advertising. Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, explains their stores “are our canvas upon which we can paint our deeper purpose of bringing whole foods and greater health to the world.”

Discover Your Business’ Purpose:
Defining the value that your company brings to the world is a step that some owners naturally do during the strategic planning part of the start-up process, but sometimes that purpose can get lost. For other business owners, this is something they never even consider. But it’s not too late. You can uncover your company’s ultimate purpose by asking and honestly answering some questions:

• “Why do we exist?”
• “Why do we need to exist?”
• “Why is the world better because we’re here?”
• “Would we be missed if we ceased to exist?”
• “What core values animate the enterprise and unite all of our stakeholders?”

As you uncover your business’ purpose, it’s important that you don’t negate growing your company or being profitable. Mackey and Sisodia believe that profitability is best achieved by not making it the primary goal of the business. After all, you can’t fulfill your higher purpose of fueling growth and progress within your community if you don’t generate profits. As a business owner, you have the unique opportunity to run an organization that serves a higher purpose and to change peoples’ lives for the better, which will ultimately prove that businesses have a conscience, too.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenmakovsky/2013/05/09/a-higher-purpose/

3 Tips for Follow-ups after a Business Expo

One of the biggest business expo mistakes is not following up with contacts and leads after the event. Instead of falling into the “I will follow up with them eventually” mindset, be proactive and follow up within 24 to 48 hours after the expo.

Keep these three follow-up tips in mind after you attend the 2013 Bloomington Business & Technology EXPO on April 18:

1) Ensure multiple points of contact. If you call a lead and get put through to voicemail, send a quick email to make sure they have your information.

2) Offer to set up a face to face meeting. A midday coffee or lunch meeting is one effective way to clearly communicate with your lead. You can start to build a business relationship by listening to what your lead’s needs and problems are and by offering specific ways your business can help with their specific needs.

3) Do not be discouraged by an uninterested lead. Not every lead you come across will immediately feel drawn to your company. Someone who is not in need of your business’ help or service today might eventually need your assistance a few months from now. Even if a lead seems uninterested, it is important to hang on to contact information. You can even send a quick email three or four months later to check in on them, see how their business is doing and check if their needs or problems have changed.

Adapted from “MLM Leads From a Business Expo – Step By Step Instructions” by Jeremy Howie.

Use Google Tools to prepare for the 2013 Bloomington Business & Technology EXPO

Preparing for a business expo can seem like a time-consuming, labor intensive & expensive process. You can save time & money by using a few free online tools from Google to prepare your business for April 18th’s 2013 Bloomington Business & Technology EXPO. While it may be surprising to some, Google offers much more than just a simple way to search the Internet. Google offers many easy to use free online services that your business should be utilizing.

Google Places

Google Places is a free way to get your business’ information out on the web. Google hosts local “place pages” for businesses. You can claim your business’ free Google Places page and load it with contact info, coupons, videos and photos. Google Places also has a section where you can collect and view customer reviews about your business.

Learn more about Google Places.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a smart way to save your important documents online and instantly have access to them anywhere you have Internet access. Google Drive is essentially a free 5 GB virtual flash drive. Never lose an important business file again with Google Drive. Google Drive also offers an online word processor similar to Microsoft Word for online document creation and collaboration.

Learn more about Google Drive.

Google Forms

Google Forms, a component of Google Drive, is a free and simple way to create surveys and setup forms to collect contact info. Your business can setup a Google form and have it open on a laptop at the expo. Individuals who stop by your booth can type in their contact info and it will instantly be saved online and can even be emailed to you.

Learn more about Google Forms.

Google Drawing

Google Drawing is a free online tool that allows you to create drawings, charts and graphics from images on your computer, text, simple shapes, or freehand designs. You can create graphs and web-friendly images for your business and share them online, by email or print them out.

Learn more about Google Drawing.

Bonus tool: Google Fusion Tables

For the tech-savvy, Google Fusion Tables is a tool to help you get the most out of your raw data. Fusion Tables enables you to create interactive graphs and eye-pleasing visual displays of data. For instance, you can take contact information you collect at the expo and use Fusion Tables to display it in interactive charts and graphs.

Learn more about Google Fusion Tables.

2013 Bloomington Business & Technology EXPO

This year’s business-to-business event will include an emphasis on technology. Be sure to attend the Kick-off Booth Registration Event on Feb. 20 at KRC Banquets & Catering from 9:00 a.m.-1:00p.m. to secure your business’ spot at the expo. The free Kick-off Booth Registration Event will feature three separate drawings to determine the order of booth registration. Doors open at 9:00 a.m. with the first drawing scheduled to take place at 9:30 am. Those exhibitors that arrive after the close of the first drawing will be entered into the second drawing, which is scheduled for 10:15 am. Finally, the third drawing will take place at 10:45 a.m. for all those who might have missed the first two opportunities. For more information, visit the Chamber’s website: www.ChamberBloomington.org.

The Chamber of Commerce Opportunity

I came across this blog while conducting some bench marking for a marketing project I’d undertaken. Blog author, Phil Buckley, was able to succinctly drill down to the main point behind my project: Chamber membership makes GREAT sense and should be viewed, at least in part, as (very) SMART advertising/marketing. Brilliant!

Here’s Phil’s blog:
When you run a brick and mortar business one of the places you would like to be listed at is your local Chamber of Commerce.

The links that come from your Chamber of Commerce site offer two real values. First is a local citation that is a trusted organization that is over 100 years old. Second is a link that has the potential to bring both customers and better rankings. I’ve looked at about 10 chamber of commerce pages and noticed some strengths and some areas that could be improved.

Raleigh, North Carolina has a very typical Chamber page. It has a few featured members, some news and a way to search their membership for companies. What I want to focus on is what a company can get from a Chamber of Commerce membership that impacts their rankings in the search engine results.

As with almost any website, the Raleigh Chamber’s homepage offers the biggest bang for your link building buck.

There are only 21 outbound links on their homepage. According to Open Site Explorer, the homepage has high page authority (73/100) and domain authority (67/100). Those are exactly the type of pages you want to get back links from. The fact that they are not properly canonicalized makes the link even better than it first appears. The page metrics are almost as strong for the domain without the www.

A link from the homepage of Raleigh’s Chamber of Commerce website is going to pass 4.6 MozRank to your website. That’s extraordinary. There are very few opportunities to get such a powerful link that is viewed by Google as natural. Those companies who have their businesses highlighted in the right rail have made a smart investment.

But what if you don’t have the budget to put an ad on your Chamber of Commerce homepage? There may be additional opportunities that are slightly deeper in the site, but still a step up from your basic listing.

Member directory
Many visitors will make their way to the member directory to see if a business is listed or to search for a business in a specific niche. As you can see from the screenshot on the right, there is not a single member taking advantage of the second best opportunity on the site.

The member directory has only 3 outbound external links. The MozRank passed from this page is 3.39 That doesn’t mean that a link from that page is 75% as good as the homepage (because it’s a logarithmic scale) but it’s still an excellent backlink.. I would imagine that the opportunity to get your company listed on this page would cost significantly less than the homepage, and the link love is immediate for your website.

The drop off
If all you’re doing is filling in the details of your business on Chamber’s website, you’re missing out. By the time you drill down to that level, those pages are not sending any MozRank for the link you have included.

Good enough isn’t good enough
Like most everything else in life, the standard version isn’t giving you the best bang for your buck. You need to step up your game if you want to outrank your competitors.

Joining your local Chamber of Commerce is a smart move. Joining and then taking advantage of the additional exposure, traffic, branding and backlink juice from the front page is even smarter.

Here’s what I found across the US Chamber of Commerce websites:

Every Chamber of Commerce site is different, so make sure you do your homework first.If I was an advisor to a Chamber of Commerce I would suggest:

Let your members know about the linking opportunities available from your website
Make sure you have areas available for “featured members” to upgrade to.
Try to construct your site so that even the basic membership offers a valuable backlink

If I were advising a local company I would suggest:

Get your company on the homepage
Get your company on the directory page
Think of the Chamber as an advertising opportunity. Don’t just send in boilerplate and wait for magic to happen.

10 Things You May Not Know About The Chamber

As I approach my ten year anniversary with The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, I find myself reflecting on the last decade of my professional life and the many experiences I’ve had working for a Chamber of Commerce. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned, is that once you’ve seen one chamber you’ve seen just one chamber. Chambers are some of the oldest organizations in the world and are connected by the name “Chamber of Commerce”, and are typically an association of business people. That’s about where the similarities end. Chambers are a uniquely diverse group of independent, membership organizations that serve their communities in a variety of ways. I have also learned that such diversity can lead to confusion about what chambers do. I have often heard the phrase “I’m not sure if you can help me, but I thought to call the chamber first.” Continue reading →

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