Building Your Online Presence - Where to Begin

Long gone are the days of faxing press releases to the major dailies and vying for an above-the-fold story on the cover of the business section. While printed coverage is nothing to turn your nose at, there’s no denying we’re deep into the “Digital Age.” This means online presence has never been more important for brands, particularly for small businesses.

According to the Forbes article that inspired this post, “97 percent of consumers go online prior to making a purchase to research products and services locally. When they go online, 90 percent use major search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo…” Knowing this, it’s hard to believe so many small businesses overlook the importance of the Internet. We realize small business owners have other important things to worry about, so we’re here to break down the fundamentals of building an online presence.

Investigate your competition - peruse their websites, scroll through their Twitter feeds, stalk their Facebook pages and read their Yelp reviews. It’s important to know who’s out there, what they’re doing and why their customers love them (or don’t love them).

Following your competitor research, use a vendor like GoDaddy and check to see if your business’s name is available for your domain name. If it’s not, don’t stress. You can abbreviate or add a word, just make sure it makes sense and is easy to interpret. After you choose and secure your domain name, consider the desired aesthetic of your website. If you have the funds, think about hiring a web designer to create a clean, simple, modern website template. If you’d prefer to save money in this department, use a tool like TemplateMonster.

Second in importance to an awesome website are your social media pages. Facebook is a given and, regardless of your industry, essential. Yelp is also a social media outlet you should strongly consider. Many businesses are intimidated by Yelp because it’s a public platform for people to share their sometimes negative opinions about your business, but if you provide a great product/service, Yelp is an ideal avenue to attract new customers. Other social media outlets you may want to permeate, if they make sense for your brand, are Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. One thing to note, however, is it’s better to have no social media accounts than social media accounts that are inactive and/or incomplete. Make sure you, or one of your employees, has the time to maintain your social media pages on a weekly basis (at least).

Another great way to create your online presence is through a blog. Position yourself as an industry expert – whether you’re a restaurant or nail salon owner – and blog about the latest and greatest happenings at your place of business, tips for the perfect spaghetti sauce or at-home manicure, and commentary on industry trends. Wordpress and Blogger are both easy-to-use and professional looking blogging websites.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is also one of the most important things to consider when creating your online presence. Use Google Analytics to research the keywords for your industry and how your potential customers are conducting their online searches. After you uncover those essential key words, be sure to weave them into all your online content.

Keep these suggestions top of mind and watch your small business blossom. The Internet isn’t going anywhere, so embrace it and make it work to your advantage.

5 Ways to Generate Business Revenue on the Weekend

Getting the cash register to fill on a Saturday at a restaurant is easy. People love going out and spending money on the weekend with their loved ones. Same goes for gas stations, liquor stores and even home improvement places. But what about the doctors office that closes on early Friday. How about the consultancy that shutters its doors at 5pm on Friday? From auto body shops to gyms and even health care agencies, making money on the weekend is tough. We've talked to CEO's, business owners and entrepreneurs looking for business loans across the country and many of them tell us that getting funding is hard because they can't prove they make consistent revenue. So we thought we would share a few great ideas about generating revenue at your business on the weekend.

 

Optimize your online experience

1. Online Stores

This one is kind of a no-brainer. If you have a shot at selling your merchandise online, do it. Online shopping is a 24-7 opportunity. If you are holding back from doing this because building an e-commerce shop is too expensive then you need to absorb the cost and just go for it! Entrepreneur Magazine put together a great article on how to build your e-commerce site and make money. "If you plan to sell anything online, having an e-commerce plan is as important as your original business plan." So get started and make some money online. 

2. Trunk Show

Once a month keep the store or shop open and sell stuff in the parking lot that you normally wouldn't sell. Basically a cleaning out of your inventory. Get some tables, throw up a sign and you are good. Obviously a bit harder to the doctor's office looking to get the cash coming in, but in order for that same practitioner to get a doctor's office business loan--it may be worth selling a few old chairs that can help with revenue. 

3. Consulting

You might be able to use your company's resources, tools and acumen to help someone else out and make some money. Got a hardware store? Let a landscaping company use your materials for the weekend. Got a graphics design studio--assist an agency in a larger project.

Throw a party to make extra revenue

4. Rent out your space

If you have a gigantic warehouse or even a small room you can make money. Let a trusted organization borrow your space for a reception, a seminar or even a company outing. Especially if you have a visually-appealing location, this could really help you make money. 

5. Throw a party or event

Having a fundraiser or sales promotion party at your location could make you alot of money, but it will take time and planning. Do some research on finding the best options for party planning and you could be on your way to some additional funding.

If you are in the market for a small business loan, please be sure to check out Silver Rock Funding too.

Spotlight on Women-Owned Businesses

With Mother’s Day this weekend, we’ve spent the past week focusing in on women entrepreneurs and business owners. The business world has long been dominated by men but, in the last ten years, women (and moms) have been making remarkable headway filling the chair at the head of the conference table and bringing innovative ideas to life.

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, “the number of women-owned [businesses] with $10 million or more in annual sales has increased 57 percent over the past decade.” That’s an encouraging statistic.

Geography also offers some interesting insight into the growth of women-owned businesses. Forbes recently shared some statistics regarding the states with the most women-owned businesses. Coming out ahead, in terms of states with the highest percentage of businesses owned by women, are: Washington DC (34.5%), Maryland (32.6%), New Mexico (31.7%), Hawaii (31%) and Georgia (30.9%). You might be wondering which states have seen the biggest increase in women-owned businesses…in that case: Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Nevada and Mississippi. Georgia and Texas saw the biggest jumps with 117.9% and 98% increases, respectively.

As enthusiastic supporters of the small business community, we’re excited about what the future holds for women who own – or want to own – small businesses. If you’re a woman entrepreneur, remember there are great loans out there with the interests of small businesses in mind. While there’s still room for improvement, we’re optimistic about the outlook for women-owned businesses and excited by the opportunity to play a positive role in further increasing their numbers.

HVAC Demand & Business Loans Both on The Rise

HVAC is on the rise again

One by-product of the temperatures continuing to rise is the increase on owners of HVAC and repair companies to get more jobs fulfilled faster. According to a new study by The Freedonia Group, the "demand for HVAC equipment in the U.S. is forecast to increase 6.8 percent annually through 2019 to $20.4 billion, recording gains at about twice the rate of the 2009-2014 period." The means more and more business owners in the space will be in need of growth and more jobs will be out there for the taking. Silver Rock Funding has been working with Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Companies to get them the small business loans and merchant cash advances they need to help their businesses grow.

For all our friends on YouTube, this is pretty funny too: