Knowing your competitors as a business owner, salesperson, product developer, or any other business person is not enough. You need to go the extra mile and extensively monitor your competition. This entails gathering as many details as possible about who you’re up against.

But why is this necessary? Of course, the competition affects businesses. Whether it’s coming from industry’s powerhouses or new entrants who might bring in new ideas challenging your already established brand, you need to be wary. It’ll impact how you operate your business – the marketing, selling, branding, everything. In fact, it’ll determine whether or not you succeed.

Pay Attention to Your Competition

It’s crucial to regularly monitor your competition if you’re to stay ahead of your business rivals. But where do you begin?

There are probably thousands of businesses dealing with the same products or services like yours. Therefore, the first step in competition tracking is to establish the competitors worth monitoring.

The two types of competitors you need to pay attention to are:

Direct Competitors

Direct competition comes from businesses offering products or services that are similar to what your firm provides. They are the Pepsi to your Coca-Cola.

Prospective customers analyze you based on how your price, availability, and product compare with your competitors.

Since direct competitors are the imminent threat, they should be your top priority when tracking your competition. The only way to gain an edge over them is to make sure your products offer something they’re yet to.

Indirect Competitors

Indirect competition comes from companies that offer different products and services from yours but to the same customer base.

Though they’re not as much of a threat as direct competitors, it’s good to keep track of what they’re up to. They may develop new ideas that can help you and your direct competitors transform your businesses into a better thing.

What You Can Learn From Your Competitors

You’re probably thinking, “Why monitor my competitors?” Well, you get to learn a few things that you can use to improve your business.

Keeping track of your competitors helps you to:

• Interpret the collected data, analyze it, and come to conclusions, helping you avoid crises.
• Improve on your managers’ way of doing things. To create new strategies, they’ll not just do it from nothing, but from complex data, improving how you deal with industry matters.
• Improve your sales and also ROI. You’re continuously analyzing data from competitors. This enables you to adapt to industry changes continually and improve your performance.
• Boost the overall performance of your business. By carefully monitoring how your rivals are trending, you’re able to put measures in place that ensure you strengthen your industry and market position.

How to Find Your Competitors Online

Do you know who your online competitors are? These are the websites competing for visibility in the search engines with you.

Your key phrases answer questions like how to find competitors to a website and how to find your competitors.

Once you’ve established these phrases, you can identify who your competitors are in several ways, including the following free tools to find competitors:

#1 Googling Your Key Phrases

The best way to establish the competition that ranks at the top online is to use Google. Simply google the key phrase, and websites ranking the best will appear. Then, make a list of the domain names and firms ranking at the top with your keywords.

Remember, these competitors will include those whose ranking is natural and those who find their way to the top through online advertising.

#2 Try Using the “Related:” Search Operator

Google has the related: search operator that you can use to find top sites that google ranks with yours. Since it identifies them as similar to yours, these could be your potential competitors.

#3 Check for Listings in Directories

Another way to identify your competitors online is by using directories. Of course, this will be easy if you’ve already submitted your business to your local area directories. Then, you’ll only need to check who else is offering the same products or services in your area or niche.

#4 Try SEMRush

SEMRush is one of the website competitor analysis tools that you can use to research your competition online. After subscribing to the service, you’ll have access to traffic data and keyword ranking. Questions like “How to find your competitors customers,” or in other words, “Who are your primary competitors?” are now easily answered using this tool.

It’s one of the best company competitor finders there is. Mind you, SEMRush also offers a free version, albeit with limited data.

To identify your company’s top five competing websites, type your domain on the competitor’s analysis dashboard. Then, move down the page to your ‘Main Organic Competitors.’ The list includes the websites that SEMRush considers to be your competitors.

Free Competitor Analysis Tools

Wondering how to find competitors of a company free? Well, marketers prioritize keyword research. And the good news is there are free online competitor analysis tools available.

With such tools and a clear strategy, you can easily identify the keywords your competitors are using. Some of the top free tools to find competitors include:

SEMRush

Most companies trust SEMRush as the best competitor analysis tool. With this tool, you can check the keywords used by your competitors, backlinks, and the audit of SEO in your blogs.

SEMRush helps you keep track of your website’s performance and monitor your social media work.

SpyFu

This tool helps you spy on your competitors’ activity, just as the name suggests.

But what is competitor activity? It’s the details of what’s going on with your competitor’s website. For example, you can download the highest-ranking keywords your competitors are using. You can get all your competitor details, helping you to be a step ahead of them.

Keyword Competitor

Keyword competitor is an online competitor analysis tool for establishing the keyword your competitor is using.

These keywords can help you improve your long-tail keywords’ search performance.

Other Tools

The list of free online competitor analysis tools you can use to keep track of your competitors is endless. Other useful tools include:

• Ubersuggest
• Alexa
• SimilarWeb
• Wappalyzer
• QuickSprout
• WooRank
• BuiltWith

All this monitoring aims at helping you identify information that can be helpful to your company, giving it a competitive advantage. Some of the benefits of the monitoring, especially with these online tools, are:

• You can track your ranking progress
• You can deeply find out who your competitors are
• Compare search traffic and share of voice
• Identify keyword gaps
• Check how competing techs are performing

Ultimately, you get to know the best course of action to take to ensure you don’t lag behind your competitors but stay ahead.

Media monitoring serves you best because it delivers exemplary results. With the right competitor analysis tool, collecting critical competitor data to help you strategize is easier.

Use your sales team, marketing teams, business development, product, and leadership teams to keep in touch with what’s happening with both direct and indirect competitors. It’s the only way to survive and succeed in this ever-evolving, highly competitive business world.

Many new business owners who want to create an online store are often confused and don’t know where to start. If you’re one of them, you’re in luck. Shopify has got you covered on every e-commerce functionality you’ll need to start your online store and make a name for yourself among leading e-commerce platforms.

What Is Shopify & How Does It Work?

Shopify is an online e-commerce platform for building online and offline stores. Shopify is the “WordPress” for store owners if you’re familiar with WordPress for bloggers. Since the company started its operation in 2006, it has grown to the ranks of other platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, Volusion, or BigCommerce. So, how does Shopify work?

The key difference between Shopify and other leading e-commerce platforms is its numerous functionality and ease of use. The platform is user-friendly for new store owners who have not managed an e-commerce store before. It also provides all the features you’ll need for a functional online store without taking a web programming class.

If you’re an advanced user with prior knowledge of programming, you can access the HTML and CSS files and upgrade your Shopify plan to enjoy more features.

Comparing Website Platforms For Your Small Business

Are you wondering what benefits Shopify has over other popular website platforms? Let’s compare with BigCommerce, another big player in the industry.

Shopify shares some standard features with BigCommerce (and many other website platforms), including mobile responsiveness, Blog CMS, sales reporting, custom domain name, reliable hosting, etc. However, Shopify has more than 100 secure payment gateways, better-discounted plans, over 6000 apps, and supports more multimedia features (augmented reality, 3D models),

Why Shopify Is The Best e-Commerce Platform in 2021

Most big-name brands in the world started as small businesses, which most times, people never think will succeed. Nowadays, small business owners can reach customers worldwide using e-commerce platforms like Shopify.

Although there are several similar platforms, Shopify outshines them in several ways.

Low Entry Cost

Most open-source e-commerce solutions that claim to offer free services do have hidden charges. Although Shopify has an entry cost and monthly payments, these prices are lower than most competitors.

Easy to Manage

The Shopify platform provides a frontend and admin system that allows you to control your e-commerce website without learning the complexities of coding. The platform also manages software updates, servers, and several other things that business owners may not want to handle by themselves.

Inbuilt Expandable Tools

This digital platform for small businesses has all the tools you’ll need to start and run your e-commerce business successfully. These features include reports, integrated marketing features, useful add-on integrations, accounting, inventory, shipping, and many more.

Excellent Customer Support

Shopify users have 24/7 access to customer care services via email, live chat, and phone. Besides, the platform has downloadable comprehensive documentation and resources available, making it one of the best e-commerce platforms for startups.

Getting Help To Set Up Your e-Commerce Store

If you need help setting up your Shopify store, you can visit the platform’s Help Center for a beginner guide. The company also has an excellent customer service team because they know how your staff can make or break your customer experience.

How To Start a Successful Shopify Store

Although Shopify is an easy-to-use platform, many users often mistake putting the cart before the horse. In most cases, they’re worried about the wrong things first – like wasting time finding the perfect theme and creating pages before deciding which products to add.

To avoid going down the same path, we’ve listed a step-by-step guide on starting a successful Shopify for small business below:

1. Draft an Offline Plan for Your Store

This stage is probably the most important when creating a Shopify store. It entails drafting out every detail of what your store will look like before starting the actual setup on your computer.

If you handle this stage properly, you’ll spend less time with the actual online setup of your business. What might help is a Shopify setup checklist.

2. Choose Your Store and Domain Name

Your store name is your brand name, so it’s a huge deal. Ensure you consider all options before settling for one name.

Once you’ve chosen your store name, the next step is to create a domain name. Your domain name is your store’s website address or URL. You can register your domain name via third-party domain services or through Shopify.

Note: confirm that a domain is available before settling for a brand name. The Shopify business name generator can help you with this.

3. Create Your Free-Trial Account

Shopify offers you a 14-day free trial on their platform. Visit their signup page and create your account by supplying your name, store name, and email address.

4. Add Your Products

Many people may argue that it’s best to pick a theme first before taking this step. But ideally, your products should determine the design you’ll choose for your e-commerce store.

To add a new product to your Shopify online store,

• Go to Products > Add product.
• Enter your product name and a brief product description
• Upload a picture of the product
• Set your price

You can take care of other aspects later.

5. Create Other Essential Pages

You can now create additional pages like a Contact page, About page, FAQs page, and Policy pages. You can make more pages later if needed.

6. Customize Your Store Appearance

Now that some of your pages are ready, proceed to choose a theme or template that suits your brand name and products. You’ll find tons of free and premium themes on the Shopify Theme Store.

Another vital part of this stage is customizing your homepage, navigation menus, checkouts, and colors.

7. Optimize Your Settings

Shopify’s default settings may be enough to get your store up and running, but you may need to add and change a few details to match your expectations for your new store.

Some basic settings include general settings (like emails and other contact info), payment provider settings, checkout, shipping, account, tax, and legal settings.

8. Add Discount Codes (Optional)

You can also create discount codes for your products if you think it’s necessary. Go to Discounts > Codes to generate your discount codes.

Where To Start

When creating a successful online store and listing it on Shopify, the first step is to create a well-formulated offline plan to serve as the blueprint for your online store. You can apply some of the lessons learned from business to guide your plan.

The next thing is to follow the steps we’ve highlighted above. You can also hire someone to build a Shopify store if you like. But we still recommend that you ensure you take the proper steps to keep your Shopify store growing, and you can add yours to the growing list of Shopify success stories.

Even the best-laid plans sometimes go awry; it happens, folks. If things aren’t going your way despite careful preparation, don’t let it get to you. Of course, it’s going to bother you somewhat. That part is unavoidable, and that’s fine. The important thing is for you to find an opportunity in your current situation. Here’s an overview of how to find opportunity in every situation, good or bad.

Tips To Be An Opportunistic Entrepreneur

First, it’s important to think of yourself as more than a business owner. You should be thinking of yourself as an opportunistic entrepreneur, because that’s what business owners are at the end of the day. You are an entrepreneur engaged in the growth of a profitable enterprise, which means it behooves you to be opportunistic.

Want some tips on how to find entrepreneurial opportunities? You got it! How entrepreneurs find opportunity is all in the name. Opportunistic means you will take advantage of every possible opportunity, which is exactly what business owners should be doing.

The best opportunistic entrepreneurs are the ones that are finding opportunity in a crisis and use it to their advantage without losing their way.

How Opportunities Help Grow Your Business

Business is all about growth, but what fuels growth? Opportunities fuel growth, plain and simple. Knowing how to recognize opportunity in business should be your primary focus as a business owner.

You should know that you can find opportunities in unexpected places. For example, the community fundraiser event might not sound like it can affect your business, but it can.

Savvy business owners always take advantage of such events to get their name out there. On the surface, the idea is to engage with the community, but the real object is to encourage the community to engage with your business.

Keep in mind, some of the best opportunities are cooperative ones. By cooperating with other businesses, you can create a mutually beneficial network that will bring more customers and more profits to all parties involved.

Think of opportunity as a big wave on the ocean. Things stagnate when the water is flat and calm, but when that big wave comes in, you can ride it. The best entrepreneurs are like surfers in that they are constantly searching for those big waves. When they find them, they ride them all the way to the bank.

Some of the best opportunities come from maximizing customer experience. For example, every time customers talk about your brand, it’s an opportunity. The best marketing is word of mouth.

Learning To Identify An Opportunity

Are good opportunities spotted quickly? Well, learning how to identify opportunities in life can be tricky. When trying to determine whether something could be a potential opportunity or not, it’s crucial to think about it in a specific context.

First of all, ask yourself how this possible opportunity could affect you personally. Then ask yourself how it could affect your business, your employees, etc. Finally, ask yourself how it could affect your customers.

The key is to find opportunities that benefit all three. For example, selling essential items at discounted prices might sound like it will hurt your bottom line, but it could bring in a lot of business in the long run.

Businesses today need to understand that they are dealing with a different breed of consumer than several years ago. Today’s consumer wants to keep companies in check. It’s not enough to simply provide a good quality product anymore. In today’s market, you have to attach yourself to various causes, like environmentalism and corporate responsibility, to gain a customer’s trust.

New companies have an advantage here because they are malleable. Older brands are still struggling to adjust their identities to meet the demands of today’s ever-conscientious consumers. In conclusion, if you see a good cause that your customers are rallying to, make it your business to attach your brand to that cause and watch the sales roll in.

Of course, it’s not enough to simply attach your brand to a cause and privately donate money to it; you need to advertise that attachment! You could say something like, “We’re helping the environment. Every dollar you spend on our products is a dollar spent towards preserving this beautiful planet.”

That’s the world we are living in today. If you can take advantage of these conditions, then go for it.

How To Recognize Opportunities During a Crisis

Some of the best opportunities emerge during a crisis. Of course, you have to be careful when leveraging such opportunities lest you be perceived as just another money-hungry corporation. The key is to resist taking advantage of people in a crisis. Rather than take advantage of folks while they’re down, it’s best to help them out.

Try offering special promotions and giving customers special treatment during a crisis. If they weren’t loyal customers before the crisis, they sure will be afterward! People always remember kindness, especially customers.

What to Do When Things Don’t Go Your Way

When things don’t go your way, you should always be looking at the next milestone. Focusing on a setback won’t get you anywhere, but concentrating on finding a way forward will. Always take responsibility and be honest with your employees, as well as your customers.

The best way to limit the damage when things don’t go your way is to have a plan. No matter how confident you are in the opportunities at hand, you should always have a contingency plan.

Another tip would be to be prepared to outsource labor for specific tasks. You should always have a third-party team standing by to cut costs and keep things rolling through times of financial or operational difficulty.

Spotting Opportunities Isn’t Always Easy

Figuring out how to create opportunities for yourself isn’t always easy. In fact, it can be downright difficult. As long as you are actively looking for opportunities, you’ll find them. Opportunity recognition is vital; the only way that you are guaranteed to not find an opportunity is if you don’t try to find one in the first place.

Now that you know more about how to find opportunities, it’s time to get out there and start looking. Never let defeat hold you back. Keep charging ahead relentlessly and remember that with every situation, there is an opportunity to extract.

Every business owner knows how critical reviews can be to their business. It’s common knowledge. But what most wonder is how some businesses succeed at getting many reviews, while some struggle to get even one.

Well, it all comes down to one thing – a review collection process. Those businesses with tons of reviews have a system in place that makes it possible to collect as much feedback as possible.

Do you have a review collection system or process for your business? If you’re yet to put one in place, don’t worry. This article provides the secrets of the review collection process and how to manage them.

The Benefits of Positive Online Review for a Small Business

Online reviews bring plenty of benefits to your business, much as it may be a quick, straightforward process. The more positive reviews your customers leave, the better.

You see, online reviews are what most people turn to before they can visit your small business. They believe that the more positive reviews a business has, the more trustworthy a brand is to customers.

If you have not been emphasizing enough for people to leave business reviews, and especially google reviews, it’s time you made it a priority in your marketing strategies. Here’s why.

#1 The More Positive Reviews, the More the Leads

People trust online business reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends and family.

Therefore, if you can build on your online reviews, chances are high someone searching on google will read them and visit your business.

#2 Positive Reviews Positively Influence Purchases

Consumers don’t just make a purchase. In most cases, they’ll read the online reviews first before deciding whether to buy or not. If they can read about 10 reviews and 8 of them are positive, be sure they’ll make a purchase.

The more online reviews you have the more you’re likely to influence people to buy from you. This comes in handy for small businesses because it’ll promote their growth.

#3 Higher Testimonies Mean Reduced Costs

Google, and other online review platforms, does not charge to leave testimonies or respond to them.

If customers leave positive reviews about your business on its profile, the endorsements freely advertise your business.

Imagine marketing your small business at no cost on a global platform that most people trust?

#4 Many Reviews Rank You Higher

Google is kind enough to reward businesses with more positive reviews.

How? Google has search engine optimization (SEO) that links to customer reviews. As customers leave more reviews with crucial keywords, the likelihood of the search engine fronting your website once people search using the keywords increases.

The Debate About Balancing Positive & Negative Reviews

The hardest part of the review process is managing the reviews. You may encourage customers to leave reviews, but how do you balance between positive and negative reviews? What about the unfair reviews?

Well, one thing worth noting is that you cannot remove a google business review.

However, if you feel it’s unfair, you can flag it as inappropriate, and google will check it out. If the review is violating their policies, they’ll delete it. But they’ll never delete a negative review. Anyway, it’s good to learn from your customers.

Similarly, if you have a review section on your website, don’t delete or hide the negative reviews. Instead, soberly manage them.

How Do You Respond to Positive Reviews?

Managing reviews is critical. When happy clients leave a positive review, consider the following tips when responding:

• Thank your customer for their feedback – A simple word of appreciation like, “Thank you for your kind words!” will do.
• Encourage the customer to shop with you again – Let them know you’ll be happy serving them again.
• Be brief – A short response will go a long way.

How Do You Respond to Negative Reviews?

It’s not that easy to respond to frustrated and angry customers who have left negative feedback on your website or google.

However, this doesn’t mean you fail to respond. If you can craft a genuine response showing consideration, the customer may rethink their reaction and remove or edit their review.

Consider doing the following:

• Relax: Don’t let emotions get the better of you. Instead, take a deep breath and relax as you craft your response. Even a simple “Contact Us” is better than arguing with them.
• Act fast: It’s advisable to respond as soon as possible. If you delay, you may come back when it’s too late to change the customer’s mind.

How to Collect Customer Reviews Online

There are many ways in which you can collect reviews for your business from your customers online.

Some of the best ways in which you can collect feedback from your customers include:

#1 Introduce a Review Section on Your Website

A review section on your website will enable your customers to leave their reviews with ease. You can also show these reviews below the products and services.

A Google business review link can also come in handy. Using the link, customers can also leave their feedback there.

#2 Create Online Customer Feedback Surveys

A well-crafted survey will help you get what your customers are thinking about your products and services. So think carefully about the questions to ask to get the right and accurate feedback from your customers.

But don’t just ask a few questions through your website. Instead, have a lengthy survey with specialized questions, which guarantees better and accurate results.

#3 Follow up Through Emails

Email automation is one of the best ways of collecting reviews. After making a sale, an email thanking them for shopping with you and telling them you would be pleased to serve them again will go a long way.

Such an email will make them build more trust in your brand, and receiving feedback from them will not be a problem. In the email, encourage them to share their advice on how you can better serve them.

#4 Social Media Polls

Facebook and Twitter are among the social media platforms you can use to get feedback from your customers. These platforms allow the hosting of timed polls where you can ask questions and get responses.

The feedback you get can help you improve on your brand and the services you offer. A question like, “What other products would you like us to offer in the future?” will get you answers you can consider in your future business plans.

#5 Make All Your Reviews Public

Once you get reviews, make them available to your customers. As such, have a review section where all reviews you get to land at automatically. The best place would be under the products or services section on your website.

In addition, take time to respond to the reviews. This may encourage other customers to leave their reviews. Whether the reviews are positive or negative, don’t be afraid to post them online. They all help improve your business.

Takeaways

Even as you collect reviews from your customers, it’s worth noting that you should never influence your customers to leave positive reviews whatsoever. The collection process should accommodate both positive and negative reviews.

In fact, criticism keeps businesses going, and at no time is it possible to please everybody.

Put the review collection system in place, and the reviews will come naturally. Paid online reviews may not be of much help.

A fresh start or Re-Opening (Different from a Grand-Opening) usually occurs when a business goes through a renovation or expansion. Sometimes it can occur when a business has been closed for some bit of time. A Re-opening (like a grand-opening) is a great opportunity to promote bringing attention to your business within the local community.

In early 2020 millions of businesses across the world were forced to close for an uncertain amount of time. This uncertainty caused many businesses to close their doors, some for good. As most were down to weather out the storm, it gave opportunity for some to remodel, restructure and even reinvent themselves. During 2020 the old saying “Only the strong survive” rang loud throughout the small business community. As fear and challenges were mounting some business owners relied on their passion, confidence, and vision knowing this too shall pass. There would be no better time for them to remodel (that’s if they could find a contractor that was willing or permitted to work). 

With indoor dining coming to a near halt in many areas across the country some entrepreneurs took advantage of this time to remodel their business. My local Hibachi restaurant put in new tables, flooring and wallpaper, I think they even added a fish tank behind the bar as well.  I spoke with many other restaurateurs and other business owners that took advantage of this time to make the overdue updates to their businesses. 

Some of those that were able to remodel or restructure their businesses did so out of mere survival. Take restaurants for example. Driving down almost any city block across the country in the summer of 2020 you all the sudden saw outdoor dining areas popping up that were never in existence. In my local town (the suburbs of eastern Long Island NY) even the diner converted half the parking lot into an outdoor dining area. Curb-side pickups and delivery (for those that never offered it)  were just some other innovations that took off during the pandemic. 

With new restaurant dining rooms, businesses remodeled,  and even those that were just simply hunkered down during the pandemic as 2020 came to a close and 2021 was promised to bring light of better days, it was time for these businesses to start to reopen their doors. Many across the country found this as an opportunity as the perfect time for a Grand RE-Opening different from a Grand-Opening a Re-Opening gives already existing businesses an opportunity for a fresh start. 

All successful Re-Openings should include the following: 

• Date for Reopening – set a date that doesn’t conflict with other major events in the local area. Try to choose a weekend and make sure to have a rain date for those just in case bad weather days.
• Marketing the event – utilize social Media, local boards, email, radio, TV, and Newspapers are a good source
• Pick a Theme – choose a theme of the event to go along with your brand
• Ribbon Cutting Ceremony – purchase a large ribbon an scissors and invite your guests to attend – it’s great photo opp that you can use on your social channels and local press
• Branded Hashtag – create a social media branded hashtag and invite your guests to tag pictures of themselves at the event
• Charity – work with a charity (local if possible) to donate a portion of proceeds to in honor of the Re-Opening
• Food & Music – this is easier for restaurants but all re-openings should include some sort of food and music of sorts. Some local radio stations will attend re-openings, give your local radio station a call to see if they will attend yours
• Guest List – invite your existing clients, vendors, and partners
• Promotional items – something with a company name/logo on them
• Demos/Workshops – plan some workshops to show off what the business can do. If possible to arrange some around the kids this is always an added benefit as parents love to expose kids to something different and exciting and this will ensure you are leaving a lasting impression in both parents and kids minds for years to come.
• Samples/Giveaways – provide some promo items, whether it be t-shirts, magnets, stickers or samples of your products. Showcase your business!
• Local celebrity/influencer – maybe you have one that already shops, dines or patron of your business, if not try to find one and hire them
• Raffles – a good way to capture potential clients information is a raffle or giveaway. This information can be used later to promote your business, its products and services

Although, the recent pandemic was a great excuse to have a reopening or fresh start to the business you certainly should not wait on one to have a reopening for your business, let’s hope we never see another in our lifetime. Any reason can be  a good reason for a fresh start or reopening. 

Bookkeeping is an integral part of tracking and maintaining any business, but around 60% of small business owners feel they are not knowledgeable enough about accounting and finances in general. Yet, bookkeeping is critical because staying organized and knowing where your money is coming from and how you are spending it will help you optimize your profits and reduce unnecessary spending.

Bookkeeping Is No Longer a Lost Art

Bookkeeping is a lot more streamlined than it used to be. The advent of paperless technology allows businesses of all sizes to keep track of records, transactions, and documents without needing a lot of space. Instead of searching through records to find a specific document, you can pull it out of your archive with the click of a button, and you can automatically add records and transactions to spreadsheets using software and other helpful tools.

Small Business Bookkeeping Services & The Necessary Cost

Here are some small business bookkeeping services your business might need. A professional bookkeeper can help with all this and more.

Transaction and Spending Records

A small business bookkeeping service can track your spending and transactions, so you know exactly how much money you are spending on which investments. That can help you figure out how and where to cut costs.

Cash Flow Analysis

Cash flow is vital for the success of any business. However, figuring out whether you have a good cash flow requires meticulous bookkeeping. A professional small business bookkeeping service can help you learn how much cash is entering vs. leaving, which can help you figure out how to break even and forecast your future cash flow based on different variables.

Balance Your Budget

Balancing your budget is not always easy. A professional bookkeeping service will know hidden bookkeeping secrets to analyze profit vs. loss and figure out where money is “leaking” and how to maintain a constant profit. A bookkeeper can also manage and track your debt as well as take care of bank reconciliations.

Payroll and Invoicing

It is essential to keep track of your payrolls and invoices and keep records of them. It will be important when doing your taxes and is also necessary for ensuring you maintain a good cash flow. You will need the right software to generate the required documents and organize them.

A bookkeeper can also manage accounts receivable and accounts payable. In other words, they can ensure customers or clients are paying you on time and ensure you are paying on time as well.

Taxes

Are you wondering how to file business taxes or how to get a business tax ID? Are you confused about how long you should keep small business tax records? Getting your taxes right is critical so you can figure out how much you owe and avoid paying extra to the IRS.

Submitting small business taxes properly allows you to get the maximum discount and helps you avoid unnecessary and intrusive IRS audits. In addition, by keeping track of your data and records, you will be able to submit correct tax information.

Backing Up Your Records

Once you go paperless, it is still important to back up your records instead of just storing them on a hard drive, as hard drives can get compromised or damaged. Physical documents can, of course, get damaged as well due to floods or natural disasters. A professional bookkeeping service can help with backing up your record and help you figure out how long to keep business tax records.

Bookkeeping Vs. Accounting: What Is the Difference?

Bookkeeping and accounting are two terms that people sometimes use interchangeably, and many people confuse and conflate the two. The truth is that bookkeeping and accounting are two very different things.

Bookkeeping is more transactional in nature. It involves keeping track of your daily records and receipts, including purchases, invoices, transactions, payments, and so on. It’s about maintaining your data and records.

Accounting is a little more subjective. It overlaps with bookkeeping at times, but it is primarily a way of looking at what all that data means for your business. Through proper bookkeeping, you can generate insights and forecasts about the financial health of your business based on the data bookkeeping provided. Likewise, accounting involves reports and information according to the data bookkeepers collect.

However, many small business bookkeeping services can provide expert accounting services as well, depending on your needs. The exact cost of bookkeeping will depend on your needs, as you will read about in the next section.

Preparing Your Business for Bookkeeping & Getting Started

Before getting started with a bookkeeping service, and to understand your small business bookkeeping cost, it is crucial to know your bookkeeping needs. For example, do you need a bookkeeper to handle your day-to-day transactions, including invoices, incoming payments, expenditures, and so on? Or do you need a bookkeeper to organize your records once a week or so?

You also need to figure out how complex your records and data are. The more transactions of any kind you complete daily, the more complex your needs will be.

Bookkeeping for Small Business Hidden Secrets

There is a reason bookkeeping jobs are always in high demand, and that is because bookkeeping is so important for small businesses. Here are some bookkeeping basics and hidden secrets to know about:

• There are different types of bookkeeping. For example, there is single-entry bookkeeping and double-entry bookkeeping. A bookkeeper will know which one is right for your company.
• Keep personal finances separate, even if you are the sole proprietor of your business. Remember to give yourself a salary.
• A good bookkeeper and a good bookkeeping software are both crucial to bookkeeping success.
• Make sure everything adds up at the end of each week or month. That will help you spot mistakes.
• Automate as much as possible to reduce human errors.

The Hidden Secret: Keeping Detailed Records For Your Business

The hidden secret of business success often boils down to simply keeping detailed records of your business. It will help you maintain a profit, ensure you always have cash on hand for your necessary expenditures, avoid unnecessary spending, prepare you for tax season, and ensure clients pay you on time.

A good bookkeeper can help you gain insights about your business you didn’t realize before. For example, you can discover problems preventing you from realizing a profit, whether that is customers not paying you or unnecessary expenditures that are not bringing back a positive ROI.

A good bookkeeper will allow you to focus on more critical parts of your business. For example, instead of worrying about small stuff like recording a payment in a spreadsheet manually, a bookkeeper can do that for you and upload all your data into a bookkeeping software so you can access it on the fly. While you can always take a bookkeeping for a small business course, a professional bookkeeper will help you save time.

At ROK, we can help not only with bookkeeping but with a wide range of financial services designed to take your business to the next level. For example, we can help you understand how to pay small business taxes. We can also help you get top financing options, regardless of your credit score. We can also help with SMART business planning, including analyzing your competition and coming up with a foolproof plan for success.

Share with me on social how bookkeeping has streamlined your business? Use #Bookkeeping Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. 

It’s never been easy for aspiring entrepreneurs to start a new business. What’s worse, the modern business sphere has more complexity and challenges than ever before. In fact, research shows that approximately 50% of all new businesses don’t survive beyond five years.

Well, some manage to stay afloat beyond the five-year mark. However, you may face immeasurable challenges that necessitate swift action followed by adaption. Doing so will provide the only way for you to thrive.

For those businesses that can’t keep up with market changes and trends, the risk of falling to obsolescence is pretty high. Do you remember Myspace? Blockbuster? Blackberry? These businesses failed to adapt quickly to the developments in their space, and right now, we can say they’re history.

We can’t let you suffer the same fate. This article discusses how you can act decisively and swiftly in this ever-changing world to ensure your business thrives, and the importance of adaptation to changing environment in general.

Remaining Agile in a Rapidly Changing Business Environment

We’re living in unprecedented times, especially due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With so many challenges, only businesses that adapt and adjust will have the upper hand over those that don’t.

It requires altering or even shelving some strategies and plans that were put in place earlier to survive the tides.

We share here some strategies you can use to ensure your business not only stays afloat but remains agile.

1. Be Helpful: New Customer Needs Will Require Quick Response

Normally, customers go for brands that satisfy their new needs. They want assurance that your company will act speedily in case the market faces uncertainties.

Additionally, they want to hear how helpful your products and services are to their “new” daily life.

While not all your brands can provide solutions such as “stay-at-home,” during these covid-19 times, it’s important and helpful if you can respond to your consumers’ new needs as quickly as possible.

Ensuring you do this effectively requires that you first get a comprehensive understanding of what your customers need.

How can you achieve this? First, consider conducting surveys that will help you learn what consumers want. Alternatively, you can generate data from consumers’ analytics. If you can establish what motivates your customers, what influences how they behave, you can easily come up with an action plan that will flow naturally.

With a strong understanding of your customers’ needs, you can improve your ads and, ultimately, your entire business. In fact, businesses that consider their customers’ behavioral insights and use them to generate a course of action outperform their competitors in gross margin and sales growth. 

2. Be Personal: Delivery of More Meaningful Messages

Offering a personalized consumer experience is another most useful strategy. It attracts more consumers to your brand.

Keep in mind that potential customers search online for products every day. And since each individual has their unique motivation, this only emphasizes the importance of offering personalization at scale.

Business and market dynamics are changing rapidly. Therefore, use first-party data to ensure you deliver more meaningful and customized messages.

Additionally, let the personalization you offer reflect the present landscape. How? Use technology to reach more and more viewers automatically.

With fine-tuned messages, you can be sure your business will bring a lot more conversions than the same average return on investment. 

3. Be Creative: How About a Fresh Approach to Your Marketing?

With the ever-changing business environment, it’s vital to be creative in how you approach your marketing. And not just the content but the context too.

Your existing creative techniques may not be working, thus requiring you to try a new approach. Let it be something that promotes more flexibility.

For example, YouTube has grown very popular across Europe, presenting a unique opportunity for you to develop content that targets online video viewing specifically.

Additionally, the quality of your creative content will highly impact the success your advertising achieves. Therefore, come up with fresh efforts that consider your digital campaigns, user experience, and online stores.

An example would be to ensure your website loads fast enough (no delays whatsoever) and has checkout process optimization. Don’t work hard to draw a potential customer to your site, only to lose them. 

Strategies to Adapt and Pivot to Change in The Business Environment

Here are some tips to help you adapt and pivot to the new business environment to avoid crumbling. 

Adopt New Ways of Thinking

Try to move away from any distractions and focus. Why not think outside the box as you try to visualize a new plan?

Eliminate the fixed mindset you’ve been relying upon and change the way you work. Travel to learn about new cultures and how you can acquire a small business loan and expand your business there. 

You’ll realize fresh ideas start to pop into your mind. When this happens, ensure you document each of these ideas. That’s one highly effective way to discover solutions to help you thrive in the new environment. 

Try to Adapt Your Pace Quickly

Although it’s never easy, we can never stress enough the importance of adapting to change in business. 

For example, are you struggling with getting back to business after a pandemic? Granted, it takes time as you’re likely to run into several organizational challenges. Nevertheless, you can reduce the problems that come with this by adapting your rhythm to the new environment fast.

Work with a timeline, and try to adjust your behaviors to fit the new environment. Doing so will help you adapt and pivot faster. 

Improve the Internal Structure of Your Business

While trying to adapt to changes in the business environment, many businesses focus on improving the quality of products and services they offer. But, on the contrary, this should never be your priority. Instead, focus on improving your company’s internal operations.

Many people forget that without an internal business structure functioning properly, the external system will fail. Therefore, a complete overhaul of your entire business to improve the internal processes should be your primary goal as you try to adapt and pivot.

When you focus on improving your business’s internal structure, it becomes easier to weather any storm, including surviving a recession.  

How Do You Respond to Rapid Changes in Business?

Here’s an outline of three tips on responding to changes in the business environment:

• Set your course: Establish a compelling vision that will endure a changing market or products. Let it resonate well with your employees. With a true north, your company will easily define its value even when rapid changes happen in the industry.
• Ensure your employees know: The only way to ensure your workers rally behind you as you refine your vision for your business is by making them understand. Ensure they feel that they’re part and parcel of making that vision a reality.
• Let learning be a trend: Establish a culture of employee development, which is imperative in ensuring your workforce is adaptive and can cope with changes in the business environment. Otherwise, a company that’s not shaping its future will not care to offer its employees learning opportunities. 

Final Thought

Change is inevitable and can happen at any time. With markets constantly evolving, you can’t clearly and precisely prepare for the future. However, your business can still survive and thrive. Research and keep well-informed in readiness for any possible changes. 

Prepare for these changes in the business environment by applying our tips and integrating them into the day-to-day activities of your organization.

Running your own business is a huge undertaking. Having multiple bank accounts at different banks is confusing. Personal and business finances are very different. You may wonder should you keep your business and personal accounts at the same bank? Maybe you should consider separating your business and personal finances. By separating your personal and business accounts can help you run your business smoothly and answer questions about separating personal and business banking.

Differences Between a Personal and Business Bank Account

Small business owners require a business account to keep track of larger volumes of deposits and transactions. Business bank accounts have larger sums of money. Personal bank accounts have lower transactions and commonly use ATMs. There are specific accounts designed to support the business owner and assist with tracking. At some Banks, one main difference with an account for your small business is that you are charged for cash deposits.

Why Should You Separate Personal & Business Bank Accounts?

Separating your account from your business account assists in keeping track of finances. You do not need to worry about missing a personal reimbursement if your accounts are separate. Legal protection is available for business bank accounts. When you complete your taxes, you are required to provide accurate banking records. Most banks have a small fee based on your monthly deposits.

Can You Use the Same Bank for Personal & Business?

You should not use the same bank account for personal and business expenses and transactions, but you may want to consider using the same bank. There are some advantages to using the same bank for your personal finance and business finance.

Transferring Funds

You can transfer funds without excessive charges when your bank accounts are located in the same bank. Transfers happen quicker, which saves you, the business owner, plenty of important time.

Free Personal Checking

Many banks offer free personal checking with small business accounts. It will now cost you more money, the more transactions you make. This advantage saves you money on unnecessary bank fees.

Borrow Money

When both accounts are in the same bank, it is easier to borrow money from your personal and business accounts. A small business loan might be the perfect option for you if you are looking to borrow money.

Build Relationships and Trust

The more accounts you have with one bank, the more they trust you. By opening multiple credit card accounts, checking, and savings accounts, the bank is able to see that you manage your money well. When you manage money well, you are known as a safe credit risk. This means they will lend you more money.

Other Benefits

As a business owner, you know the importance of a higher credit balance, and with multiple accounts that are well maintained, your credit score will increase. You qualify for lower interest rates and receive free banking services.

Reimbursements

When you pay for things like lunch and travel for your business, it is easier to complete your business accounting. If your bank account is at the same bank, it is easier to track these expenses and reimburse yourself.

Automatic Transfers

Who wants to visit the bank every time they need an automatic transfer? Most business owners do not have the time for silly trips like this. Arrange automatic bank transfers from your business account to your account with the click of a button. This reduces bank fees and frees up your time.

Why not to Use Personal Funds for Business Expenses

Personal funds should be separate from business expenses because it is difficult to differentiate between the transactions. You want to manage your money properly. You may lose track of transactions, losing your business money. Make business transfers and deposits crystal clear by only allowing them to come from separate accounts.

FDIC requirements

When owning a small business, it is important to clearly understand rules from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC has strict rules and category definitions if one owner has multiple accounts. Insurance of up to $250,000 will be covered only if a single owner with the same name has sole proprietorship. If the owner is either an association or is incorporated and the business bank account is in a separate category, insurance coverage changes.

Sole Proprietorship

When the small business owner has sole proprietorship of the business, personal and checking accounts should be at different banks. When both the business and personal bank accounts are separate, the FDIC will ensure coverage on all deposits. If the total sum of both bank accounts exceeds $250,000, you should keep your bank accounts at different banks to ensure this coverage.

What’s Required for a Business Bank Account

Business accounts are similar to personal accounts but provide you with a checkbook for business expenses. When opening a business bank account, this account allows for seamless transfers and deposits. This will enable you to separate your finances and business finances. Shop around and see what deals other banks offer you.

When opening a business bank account, you are required to submit:

• Social Security Number
• Business Tax Identification Number
• Business License
• Business details such as name, address, and contact information
• Income statements
• The Employer Identification Number (EIN)
• Invoices

If you are opening a business account as a limited partnership, you need:

• Business Tax Identification Number
• Limited Partnership Agreement
• Certificate of Limited Partnership with the business name and partners name

Questions to Ask:

Can I use my personal bank for business expenses?

Small business owners write off expenses for your business. When you use a personal account, you are not able to claim these expenses. When filing tax returns, it is easier to have separate accounts.

Where should I open a business bank account for my small business?

Local banks are the best for small business owners. You build relationships the more you get to know the bank. Online options are also available. Online advisors are always available to help you find what you need.

When starting a business, one of the first things you have to do is choose your business entity type. This decision sets the legal structure of a business.

There are multiple things you need to consider when making this important decision. It all begins with understanding why it’s so essential and what options you have.

Why Choosing a Legal Business Entity is Important

The Small Business Association explains your business entity decision will influence all the basic points of your business.

The entity hugely impacts liability because the formation of your business can either make you personally liable or give that liability to the company. This is incredibly essential to understand because if your business fails and you choose the wrong entity, you could face personal financial ruin.

Your decision will also impact your tax burden and how you can raise money to finance your business. It affects paperwork requirements as well.

The state will require you to have your choice made before registering your business, and lenders may not work with you until you declare your business entity.

In short, choosing your business entity allows you to start your business officially and is an essential step in planning for your business. Failing to do so will hold you back.

The Different Types of Business Entities to Choose From

Now that you know the importance of choosing an entity, you need to know what type of business entity to choose. Before covering that, take a minute to think about what is a business structure because the entity is the structural foundation of your business.

Keep that in mind as you read about each option.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the basic business entity assumption. If you fail to set your entity, this is the default. However, this only works if you are the business’ sole owner because it requires only one owner.

You have complete control over your business and total liability. Anything your business does reflects on your personal finances. When lenders consider your request, such as a business line of credit, they’ll look at your personal credit. If you have any financial troubles in your business, it will also impact you personally.

A sole proprietorship is nice when you first start. It offers a good situation to test out a business idea before you change to a more formal entity.

Partnership

A general partnership involves two or more people starting a business together. For many, this is the simplest option.

There are two main types of partnerships.

A limited partnership is where one of the owners has unlimited liability for the business and the majority control over operations and the other partners have limited liability and limited control.

This is often a choice when you are the primary business owner with partners who only offer financial help. It allows you to control and run the business as you want but still recognizes the partners’ contributions to the company. It also gives them some buy-in on the business.

With a limited partnership, you’ll pay business taxes on your personal taxes. If you are the partner with unlimited liability, you will also have to pay self-employment taxes.

The other option is a limited liability partnership. In this situation, every owner has limited liability. You can decide the details on running the business together and assign duties as you see fit. None of you are responsible for the decisions or actions of other partners.

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC protects you from personal liability. However, the taxation passes through to your personal taxes. You can start an LLC on your own or with partners.

Some states put limits on LLCs, giving you a deadline for choosing a different entity type. Your state may also require you to end an LLC if a partner leaves or if you want to make any other significant changes. It may be challenging to start an LLC in some states due to limitations.

This type of entity protects your personal assets.

Corporation

A corporation is a formal business entity. It makes the business entirely separate from the owners.

C-Corp

A c-corporation provides you the strongest protection personally as an owner. It operates completely separately. You will file taxes just for the business, and any liability falls on the business. You can sell stocks to fund the company.

There are strict record-keeping requirements and you must abide by many additional laws and regulations for this type of business.

The biggest distinguishing aspect of a c-corp is double taxation. The business pays taxes on profits, but shareholders also have to pay taxes on dividends.

S-Corp

An s-corporation is much like a c-corp, but there is no double taxation. Additionally, there are limits on the number of shareholders allowed. Taxation passes through to the owners as well instead of the business paying its own taxes. However, liability is the same.

Hiring a Professional to Determine The Best Entity For You

If you struggle with how to choose the right business entity, you’re not alone. This isn’t an easy choice to make, and the consequences are pretty big. You should work with someone who understands the importance of knowing which business entity to choose.

There is a range of professionals who can assist with your business entity search. Make sure who you choose understands this topic. They should be able to offer you business entity example scenarios to help you best choose the right one.

Some options Entrepreneur recommends include working with a business attorney, the SBA, or another business owner with experience in the field.

How to Choose Your Legal Business Entity

Even consulting with someone else, you need to have a good idea of what will work for you. To do this, you should consider a few critical points that should help narrow down the best option for you.

Think about the liability. As you know, several entity options leave you personally liable for anything that happens with your business. Do you want to take on this risk?

You also want to think about taxes. Do you want to hold the personal tax liability, or would you rather the business be separate for taxation?

It’s important to consider the admin needs. For example, a sole proprietorship has basic needs, whereas a corporation has complex needs. What will work best for you?

Lastly, think about funding. Will you be able to secure financing independently, or will you need help? Do you want to go through a traditional lender, or would you prefer to have stockholders?

The Bottom Line

Choosing a business entity is something you cannot take lightly. You need to go into the process well aware of your options and your needs.

In the end, the choice you make will have a severe impact on your business and how well you can run it.

What is a business without its customers?

One way of measuring a business’s success is how they handle customer feedback and criticism. Customer strength can make or break any business.

Why Is It Important To Know the Customer?

It is extremely important to understand customer behavior because you can provide better business and build strong relationships.

A satisfied client can lead to more clients, and the chain goes on. It may sound easy, but it takes time to figure out buyer psyche and shopping patterns. Here are some ways to make an analysis:

• Keep a check on your website analytics data, as it will give you a proper insight on the products or services customers are looking at, what pages they spent the most time on, and what they’re buying.
• Collect statistics based on age, geographical location, purchase frequency and segregate accordingly.
• Engage with customers through meaningful social media campaigns, surveying clients. Answer their questions and offer quick solutions.
• Create surveys and have customers fill them to gather more data.

What Good Customer Reviews Can Do For Your Business

There are several reasons why reviews have become so important these days. They not only affect business sales and profits but are also responsible for its existence, to an extent.

• Reviews affect search engine rankings: Social media platforms and search engines index fresh content where people often end up looking for reviews. Regular feedback will pump SEO rankings for your brand.
• Quality reviews bring more traffic: Shoppers are willing to trust well-written reviews even by strangers. This helps create trust between customers and the business.
• Customers spread the word about you: Asking customers to share their shopping experience on review sites can help with business expansion and brand awareness.
• Reviews help with decision-making: One’s experience influences the other’s purchase decision. That’s why we now have social media superstars who people look up to, especially when shopping.
• Are a chance for customer retention: A happy customer will leave a good review, and there are high chances of return.
• Highlight weaknesses in your business: Let’s face it we all want glowing 5 star reviews on every site, but in reality there may be a few instances where the customer was not happy with the experience. This reviewing and responding to negative reviews allows for you to understand the customer perspective and make changes accordingly. Also, by responding to your negative review and offering to make right (if possible) shows that you care about your customers and their experience with your company.

How to Positively Handle Negative Feedback

It’s quite normal for even the best of brands to receive negative reviews at times. These tips will help ease the situation.

• The first thing to remember about negative feedback is that it’s not a personal attack
• Someone took the time to talk about their experience, even if not good. Take it as an opportunity to improve your product/service
• Promptly respond to customers’ complaints in a respectful manner
• Be kind and explain to the customer if their review was unjustified
• NEVER ignore negative feedback – negative feedback is sometimes the most important feedback your business will receive.

Always Keep Your Customers in Mind

The saying “Customer is the King.” has proven an ideal mantra for many big businesses out there. For some entrepreneurs, a customer-centric marketing approach is the best way to expand a business, and it is correct to some extent. Always keeping your customer in mind is vital to a successful business!