Nate Stockard asked:


Over the past decade more and more people are getting fired, getting downsized, or getting fed up with their corporate jobs and embark on the journey as a small business owner. Unfortunately, most of the new small business owners fail to consider their marketing plans or strategy. There are many marketing concepts for small business marketing to consider and plan for, but here is our list of Top 10 Marketing Concepts For Small Business Marketing.

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Marketing Concept # 1: Consistency



Consistency is the number one marketing concept for small business marketing only because it is left out of marketing concepts for so many businesses. I have worked with a long list of clients, big and small, that are extremely inconsistent in all areas of their marketing. Consistency helps lower the cost of marketing and increase the effectiveness of branding.

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Marketing Concept # 2: Planning



Once small business owners decide to be consistent with their marketing, planning is the next major concept to engage. Planning is the most vital part of small business marketing or any level of marketing, for that matter, and so many owners, marketing managers, and even CMOs plan poorly. Put the time into planning your marketing strategy, budget, and other concepts presented here to ensure success.



Marketing Concept # 3: Strategy



Strategy immediately follows planning because your strategy is the foundation for the rest of your marketing activities. In the process of planning, you must develop your strategy: who you will target, how you will target them, and how will you keep them as a customer.

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Marketing Concept # 4: Target Market



Target market is also another key concept for small business marketing. Defining exactly who you are targeting allows small business owners to focus on specific customers and reduce marketing waste. A well-defined target market will make every other marketing concept so much easier to implement successfully.



Marketing Concept # 5: Budget



Although it is listed at number 5, budgeting is important throughout the entire process. Creating a marketing budget is usually the hardest and most inaccurate part of small business marketing. Most small businesses owners lack a great deal of experience in marketing, so their budgets usually end up skewed. The most important part of this marketing concept is to actually establish a marketing budget. From there, you can worry about how to distribute your available funds.



Marketing Concept # 6: Marketing Mix



The marketing mix is usually defined as product, pricing, place, and promotion. As a small business owner, you must specifically decide on your products (or services), the appropriate pricing, where and how you will distribute your products, and how will you let everyone know about you and your products.



Marketing Concept # 7: Website



In today?s market, a business of any size must have a website. I hate when I see businesses that have a one page website with out-dated information. Customers, be it businesses or consumers, will search the web over 60% of the time before making any purchasing decisions. This marketing concept contains a slew of additional components, but you must at least develop a small web presence of some kind and keep it updated.



Marketing Concept # 8: Branding



Many small businesses owners also neglect this concept. Small business marketing must focus on this marketing concept just as much as large corporations do. Branding consists of the pictures, logo, design scheme, layout, make up, and image of your products and even your company. Branding is how your customers perceive (please place a lot of emphasis on that word!) your products and company. Make sure to pay special attention to what kind of brand you are building through each step of your planning and implementation.



Marketing Concept # 9: Promotion and Advertising

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Promotion and advertising is a very complex marketing concept, but must be considered for any type of business and its products and services. Once you engage the previous 8 marketing concepts, you must finally let your target market know about you and your products. Proper promotion and advertising will result in effective brand recognition, and, ultimately, increased sales.

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Marketing Concept # 10: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)



The concept of customer relationship management has become a huge industry in the marketing world. There are many types of software and services offered to help businesses of any size handle their customer relationship management. Since there is so much available, usually for a large sum of money, small business owners usually look at this concept as something they are not big enough for or have enough money to implement. Don?t be fooled by the massive industry that has evolved from this concept. Maintaining proper customer relationship management is essential to creating loyal and consistent customers.

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This list of marketing concepts should be examined, researched, planned, and implemented, especially by small businesses, in order to be successful. Also, your marketing doesn?t stop here. Each business is unique and will have additional components that must be considered, but this list will jump-start any marketing plan.

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Michael Laleye asked:


There are many ways that you can find to run your own business. In fact, putting your business online might very well be the easiest way that you can think of to really have a good shot at making money from home.

The reason that running your business online can be so easy is that you are basically running a business that the whole world has access to. You can find that you have an audience you’ve never thought of before. There are no boarders on the internet, and it is all one big place, so that means that no matter where your site is, you can figure out a way to get it seen by everyone you want it seen by.

This means that you have to do a lot of work to have advertising, yes, but there are firms that can help you out with this, and there are firms that know how to get your advertising done. This is an important step, but once you have done it you’ll see that there is business coming for you from all over.

In fact, having your business online can be one of the easiest things you’ve ever done. Imagine that you don’t have to go to work, you can stay at home, and you can still be making money, just by sitting in front of your computer. There are so many ways that you can take advantage of this kind of schedule, so having a home business that is run online can be something that you’ll find very easy indeed.

The best part about having a home business online is that you can truly have the most chances to have customers. You don’t have to worry about doing print advertising, and you don’t have to worry if you live in a small town or an out of the way area. No matter what you are selling or providing to your customers, you’ll find that there is a market for it online. This means that just by setting up your home business online, you can have an easy way to have a business, and you can continue to live the life that you and your family have always wanted to live.

Remember though that even though having a home business online is easy it does require maintenance. You have to make sure that you are checking your sites and that all of your links are working all the time, because if you have even a few minutes where your site is not accessible, you are going to lose business.

You should also know that while you have a home business online, you are always open, so be prepared to have lots of emails to read when you get to work every day. However, it is going to be worth it, because running an home business is so easy that you will think you should have done it years ago.

Business Local Listings asked:


Since June 15, 2009, the United States Small Business Administration has been processing deferred payment small business loans of as much as $35,000 to be given out to 10,000 small businesses. This is covered by the SBA?s America?s Recovery Capital (ARC) Loan Program.

To qualify, companies should be private enterprises that are for-profit. They should have up to five hundred employees only and should be at least two years old. Furthermore, they should be able to prove financial need with a twenty percent decrease in sales, revenue or working capital. On the other hand, they should be able to prove that one of their two years in business has been profitable, and that with the infusion of cash they will be able to meet their existing and future debt obligations. This means positive cash flow projections. The ARC small business loans are intended to be used to pay outstanding debt such as payables to vendors.

For this batch of small business loans, there are no fees or costs involved, except if the borrower defaults on the loan later. In that case the SBA-approved lender can charge costs for securing and liquidating collateral.

The ARC small business loans also do not charge interest. Actually, the SBA pays the interest for the borrowers. Disbursement of the loan can take as much as six months but payment of the principal is also deferred for the next 12 months. After that, the borrower has five years to repay the loan principal.

Each small business can only avail of one ARC loan. SBA-approved lenders will offer the loans until September 30, 2010 or until available funds run out, whichever comes first.

There are, however, an estimated 30 million small businesses in the United States and only 10,000 of them can avail of the government?s small business loans. What if you do not happen to be among the 10,000 lucky recipients? How will your small business survive?

There are even doubts being raised on whether as much as 10,000 businesses can indeed avail of the ARC loans. There are fears that there may not be enough lenders willing or able to participate in the program. Lenders will have to advance the full amount of the loan, will not receive payment on principal for a full year, and will not be able to charge any fees, thereby absorbing all administrative costs. This may be too steep for many lenders. They may not be able to afford to participate at all.

This is where you as a small business owner can and should maximize your credit card services. We are not talking about your personal credit card services here. Instead, we are referring to the merchant services that enable your small business to receive credit card? and debit card payments. Surely, any business these days avails of these types of credit card services. After all, more people pay by credit card or debit card rather than cash.

Most credit card services offer small business cash advances that can be as substantial as small business loans. These small business loans do not require any collateral because they are secured by your company?s future credit card receivables. This is even more convenient for your business because repayment is also built into those receivables. Credit card services automatically deduct a percentage from your income to go toward loan repayment. For as long as you have incoming sales, you can support your loan. Interest rates are often quite affordable considering how the loan can help your business.

Small businesses should therefore look into maximizing these credit card services for small business loans. The survival of your business could hinge on this.