Small Business and Entrepreneurship Experts, Tips and Advice | BizLaunch Small Biz Blog — Practical advice for entrepreneurs and small business owners

5 Black Hat SEO Tactics You Should Never Use

by Susan Payton on May 20, 2013

When it comes to SEO, Google pretty much keeps webmasters in line, but that doesn’t stop some less-than-above-board practitioners from trying tactics that are a bit, well, questionable. If you’re new to doing your own search engine optimization, make sure to avoid these practices. Many of these will be penalized by Google and won’t help you rise in rankings anyway.

1. Overuse Keywords

It’s amazing how many companies push to get the maximum number of keywords in a blog post or web copy. To what avail? Humans want to read text written for and by humans, and using the same keyword over and over and over again doesn’t draw in customers. Sure, you want search engines to rank you higher, but ultimately, you want the visitors to your site to like being there.

Pay attention to your keyword density, meaning the percent that your keywords take up in the total number of words. Experts say that Google responds best when keywords have a density of 1-3% of total text. [click to continue…]

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What You Should Know about Employee Termination

by admin on May 8, 2013

Ask any manager about the worst part of their job and they will likely say terminating an employee sits at the top of the list. Regardless of the employee’s performance, personality, or other circumstances, termination is difficult. It is a task filled, not just with emotion, but also the risk of legal backlash. Here’s what you should know to terminate an employee the right way.

Always Hire with a Contract

From a legal standpoint, you can feel much more confident terminating an employee if you have an employment contract and job description in place from the beginning. Before taking action, review the contract to verify that nothing in the document limits your ability to terminate the employee.

Did you guarantee employment for a certain period? Are there certain performance metrics that cannot be considered?

What About Documentation?

Prior to termination, did you document the issues? Did you speak to the employee in an official capacity about the need to improve? Did you develop a plan for improvement along with a metric that would measure how well they responded?

Each of these are reasonable actions to take prior to termination. Although they are not a requirement, they strengthen your case should the ex-employee accuse you of wrongful termination. Remember that if the employee takes you to court, you have to meet very high standards to prove that you had just cause for termination. That’s why documentation is important.

If you took these actions, create documentation to place in their personnel file. (If you don’t keep personnel files, start today.)

How to Terminate an Employee

Because the act of termination is emotionally charged by nature, develop a plan that ensures the termination process is legal, documented, and protects your company records, as well as other employees.

1) Have a second person in the room to take notes. Depending on local law, you may be able to record the conversation without the employee’s consent.

2) Provide an official reason. The reason should include violations of company policy or job description or actions that are illegal under other applicable laws. Terminating an employee because they didn’t have an outgoing personality, for example, is probably legal but difficult to prove.

3) State past counseling. If you spoke to the employee about issues in the past, remind them of those conversations.

4) Ask for the return of company property. If the employee has company equipment at home, documents, or has control of social media accounts or webpages, ask for the return of the property and the transfer of digital accounts to you. Tell them that you will have their final check ready as soon as all property is returned.

5) Stress that company information is confidential. If you have that in your employee contract, remind them that they signed a confidentiality agreement.

6) Don’t argue. If the employee wants to argue, listen but do not engage. Saying something while in a defensive mode could open you up to legal liability. Don’t call them names like, “incompetent” or “thief” as that may allow for a defamation suit.

Finally

Use termination as a reason to review your employee handbook, contract, and job descriptions. Is something missing that should be added?

Also, if you’re later called for a recommendation and don’t feel comfortable being positive, verify the past employee’s position and dates of service. In general, refrain from speaking negatively to avoid defamation lawsuits.

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BOTW – Painting the Town Red: How one Artful Entrepreneur Took on Toronto’s Creative Scene

by Stefanie Neyland on May 7, 2013

In this week’s instalment of our Business Owner of the Week series, we speak to Claire Hall, founder of Claire Hall Design.

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘artist’?

For some, the word may conjure up images of a bohemian painter holed up in a city loft with an air of eccentricity about him. Others may think of traditional caricatures of the profession; a beret-wearing man sporting a handlebar moustache with a paint palette in hand. But one image that isn’t typically associated with the word is that of a smart, savvy businesswoman — and that’s where Claire Hall breaks the mold. She rejects the ‘starving artist’ stereotype and instead, she achieves that elusive balance of both sides of the brain; the logical left with the creative right.

Claire’s innate entrepreneurial acumen has carried her business through the difficult startup phase, and at a time when consumer spending is down, her company has thrived. So what pearls of wisdom does Claire have to offer business owners? “Never do anything for the money,” she says, “Decide what it is that you love to do the most, and then find a way that you can make money doing it.”

And that’s exactly what she did.

Giving up the day job

Ever since she was a child, Claire had been creating artwork to adorn the walls of her friends and family, but it wasn’t until she reached her late twenties that her hobby became a viable business option. It all began when one day, while working as a sales manager for a high-end fashion label, she decided to upload some images of her artwork to Facebook. The response she got was overwhelming. “I just did it for fun,” she says, “but within a day I had over 20 orders. I took it as a sign, and within a week I had quit my job and was on my new career path.”

“I started off by selling to friends and family, but once those contacts were out, I had to think about marketing my business”. Claire had hit one of the roadblocks that is all too familiar for many business owners – getting sales. However, her fortune soon changed when she was featured in the Toronto Star in September 2011. Within hours of the article being published, orders came flooding in. “My website got over 1500 hits the day the issue came out and I received around 100 orders for artwork that same day.” This experience, she says, was a turning point for her, where she realized free media exposure was the way to make her name known and get more business.

State of the Art

Claire credits the success of her business with the unique system she has in place to handle client requests and orders. “After a client has sent me a picture of their space, I’ll make a digital mock up where I superimpose different options of artwork on their walls so they can see what the art will look like in their room before I start painting.” This removes the element of surprise for clients, allowing them to see exactly what they’re getting before placing an order for a custom piece. Claire also believes that the affordability and quick turnaround of her paintings have contributed to her company’s growing success. “I am actually the only artist I know who is doing what I am doing,” she says.

Financing the dream

As any entrepreneur will know, starting your own business requires much more than just passion and artistic flair – it also requires capital. “I had some savings and used that to pay first and last month’s rent at my studio space,” Claire explains, “From there, I made sure to charge clients half up front to ensure that my supplies and time were paid for before I started.” As a VISA customer of 15 years, Claire also decided to use a VISA Business card to help manage her cash flow, “It gives me the ability to always be able to afford supplies and all the other costs associated with my business,” she says.

Perks of the package

Giving up the daily grind to start a business is a dream for many, and for Claire, the reality of owning her own company has more than met her expectations. “I just love the flexibility and freedom of making my own schedule,” she says, “I like meeting clients and getting to know people that I probably would never have met if this wasn’t my profession.” But above all else, Claire enjoys the satisfaction she gets from watching her business grow. “That’s one of the most rewarding things that I have ever experienced. The harder I work, the luckier I get!”

But as any entrepreneur will be aware, no business story is complete without a few lessons learned along the way. For Claire, she quickly learned that persistence is key. “Never give up. If you can get through the lows, the highs will be so incredibly worth it.”

Looking to the future

With the business growing organically, Claire is able to focus on developing other aspects of her business – namely prints. “Moving forward, I would like to expand the prints area of my business,” she explains, “Prints are the best way for my art to become even more affordable and more accessible to the masses. I know that there is huge potential business to be done with prints and my goal is to be picked up by several major chain stores in the future.” But her business ambitions don’t end there. Ultimately, Claire would like to open her own high quality, affordable home décor store, and eventually she hopes to score her own interior design programme. “I’d love to become a design personality on television,” she says.

So now, with a flourishing business, a lucrative new revenue stream to grow and a move to the small screen on the cards, Claire’s story just goes to show that sometimes risking it all and following your passion really does pay off.

Click here to visit Claire’s website

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Let Your Customers Sell For You

by Susan Payton on May 6, 2013

Still think that you do the selling in your company? Think again. These days, with review sites growing in popularity, it’s the customers who do the selling (or not) for your brand.

Take Yelp. With more than 36 million reviews, it’s becoming the site people go to in order to find the best restaurants and shops. And users are eagerly sharing their own experiences after the purchase. I know I personally read reviews for any restaurant I’m not familiar with, and I’m always pleased with the food when I pick one with great reviews.

Amazon, too, does a great job of letting the customer speak for the product. Just look at the thousands of reviews, good and bad, for everything from books to clothing on the site. [click to continue…]

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Your Business Needs to Sponsor an Event

by admin on May 1, 2013

What kind of advice is that? You’re a small business and if we’re honest, there might be times when paying the bills is nothing short of a miracle. Maybe you are past the beginning stages of development, have a little bit of capital saved, but opening another location, hiring a new employee, or upgrading your computer systems is much higher on the list than sponsoring the next community half marathon.

Those are all valid reasons for not jumping on the community support bandwagon but there are plenty of reasons why you should reconsider.

It’s a Reason to Reach Out

You know that a quick way to annoy your customers is to send out the latest edition of your monthly newsletter filled with information they don’t care about. You’re doing it because you want to keep your brand fresh in their mind but if you don’t have anything to say or any value to add, it backfires.

Announcing that you’re sponsoring a community event not only gives you a good reason to contact your customers, it will give you numerous good reasons in the future.

It’s a Way to Spread Your Brand

If your name is on the back of some T-shirts, that would seem like a great way to spread your brand but in reality may not be the best way to leverage the sponsorship. Instead, work with the organizers to advertise a special promotion, sell at the event, or place your brand all over the event.

Publicize the event in your marketing materials. Because their values align, charitable companies tend to attract customers who are charitable as well. These are often high quality, revenue-generating customers.

It’s a Way to Rally Your Employees

Things feeling a little ho-hum at the office? Every day, your employees show up for work and every day they leave. In between, it’s more of the same. Involve your employees in the event. Use it as an employee wellness motivator, offer incentives for those who get involved, and invite your employees’ families to get involved as well.

Make this event a way to inject something new into the usual nine to five routine.

Go Big with Your Sponsorship

Sure, you could sign on for multiple events and be one of the low-level sponsors but if your goal is to get some return in the form of marketing, you need to be the headline sponsor. The biggest sponsor gets all of the prime brand positioning.

It’s better to sponsor one event in a big way than multiple events where you blend in with other small sponsors and get overshadowed by the headliner.

Finally

When you sponsor an event, you may not make all of your money back in terms of new customers or increased sales. For this reason, pick an event or cause that you believe in and be a sponsor because you want to give back.

However, understand that if you sponsor a high visibility event and you work with the sponsors to put your brand in front of customers, the chances of you seeing financial benefit are high.

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Business Owner of the Week – Monica Stanciu, Staged 2 Sell Solutions Inc.

by admin on April 29, 2013

Monica 1

Professional home staging is both an art and a science. A talented home stager is able to not only maximize a property’s best features, but also minimize its flaws. Staged 2 Sell Solutions Inc. was founded by Monica Stanciu, a real estate stager specializing in vacant or lived in properties, interior decorating and furniture rental.

The best analogy to describe home staging, she says, would be to compare a property to product packaging: the better the packaging, the more likely it is that it will sell. And given that the company has helped in selling over $400 million worth of real estate since it was founded in 2007 – it would seem that her analogy is an accurate one.

Today, in the second instalment of our Business Owner of the Week series, Monica shares her entrepreneurial success story with us.

How did you come up with your business idea?

As a chemical engineer by profession and a marketing specialist by trade, if someone had asked me seven years ago about my future career path I would never have guessed that it laid in the home-staging industry. It all started when we sold our first home; it was the ugliest townhouse, but it was all we could afford at the time. But with a bit of paint, some decluttering and some elbow grease — we made it look nice, and it ended up selling at the first open house for a record price in that neighbourhood. A few years later, we sold our second home in the first day of showings for way more that we thought we could get. Friends started asking me to help sell their homes, and one day someone suggested that I should charge for the service. I had no idea that what I was doing was actually called home staging until I stumbled across an ad for staging training offered by the Canadian Staging Professionals. I got my certification in 2007.

What makes your business unique?

There are a lot of home stagers around, but what make us unique is the quality of staging inventory we use in our projects, the fact that we deliver projects on time and on budget, and our resourcefulness and creativity — we often repurpose existing furniture in order to keep the fees as low as possible. We have clients who couldn’t believe that by just moving pieces from one room to another, we were able to define the functionality of each space and deliver the ‘wow’ factor that lures buyers in. Over the years, we’ve gained some international recognition and I’ve mentored over 50 graduates — most of whom now own their own successful staging businesses.

How did you raise money to start your business?

I started with $3000 and our vacation money, and invested all of it into marketing and a few staging accessories. I was lucky that my husband was able to support our family during my first year of business. After I started to get clients, I invested everything back into my business and increased my inventory. Renting out staging accessories is another revenue stream that adds to our bottom line.

What do you love about being a small business owner?

When I started, I thought that having more free time would be the biggest bonus of owning my own business. Now, although I work many days more than eight hours a day, I have the flexibility to choose the hours I want to work or when I want to be home with my family. I can afford to take a full month off over the summer and travel overseas or go skiing for two weeks in the winter while my business is still bringing money in. But when I do work, I work hard. What I love the most is that I get to help people make more money on their investments and make a nice living out of it — it’s very rewarding.

What lessons have you learned?

To be persistent, patient and try to do things differently. Stay on top of industry developments, continue educating yourself and develop a marketing and business plan and stick to it.

What are your plans and goals for the future?

I want to develop my second staging team to allow me to focus more on developing my business and brand to attract more clients.

If you could offer one piece of advice to someone who wants to start their own business, what would it be?

If you have a dream, follow through. It is very easy to be discouraged at the beginning, but the more you work on your business, the more successful you will become. I might be old- fashioned, but I truly believe that more work equals more success.

To visit Monica’s company website, click here

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Should You Do Your Own Accounting?

by Susan Payton on April 29, 2013

By: Images Money

Accounting and finance are a part of every business, no matter the size. And the faster you grow, the sooner you have to decide how you’ll manage your accounts. It’s a tough decision: should you manage your own accounting, hire someone in-house, or outsource it? The answer depends on several factors:

Your time and financial resources
Your comfort with using your accounting program and filing taxes
Whether there is benefit in hiring a professional

The DIY Approach

For many business owners, updating their accounts is just another daily task they don’t mind doing. If you understand how to record income and expenses and run reports like Profit and Loss Statements, and if your taxes don’t require sophisticated wrangling, you should be fine doing your own accounting. Also, many programs will automatically download your bank transactions, making it even easier to manage finances. [click to continue…]

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Going Green for Earth Day: How Small Businesses Can Join the Fun

by admin on April 22, 2013

Today marks the 43rd annual Earth Day, and with that comes a renewed global focus on the environment, recycling and energy conservation practices.

As the green movement works its way into the corporate world, smaller companies are starting to get in on the act; and the good news is that whether you run a home-based business or bricks-and-mortar premises, there are several simple things you can do to join the green crusade. Here are five ideas to set you in the right direction.

Start small, think big

Begin your eco-drive with small gestures. Consider launching an office recycling program or simply switching to energy efficient light bulbs which consume less power than traditional bulbs. Initiatives such as these are foolproof ways to ease employees into a green frame of mind and will encourage them to get on board with future eco-plans.

Caffeinated compost

Believe it or not, ground coffee beans actually make a fantastic fertilizer. Take the used grounds from your office coffee maker home to fertilize your garden or add to a compost heap – you’ll be surprised at what might grow from your joe!

Waste not, want not

Recycling is a fundamental element to any company’s eco-push. Heard of the slogan ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’? Ensure that these words form the basis of all your eco initiatives. If you don’t already, try separating your waste by providing clearly labelled or colour-coded garbage containers to allow your employees to quickly and easily dispose of their recyclables correctly. By doing this, your business will be sending less refuse to landfill sites, and in turn you’ll be helping the planet.

Virtual Reality

Do away with years’ worth of printouts and go virtual. Virtualization technologies – whether they’re in the form of servers, storage or desktops – are an efficient way of managing documents and can significantly reduce your office power consumption. Encouraging communications by email and reading messages on-screen also reduces paper waste.

Track your progress

Record and monitor just how much power, energy, paper, water, ink and toner your company goes through and use this as a base line moving forward. By doing this, you’ll be able to implement a reduce, recycle and reuse eco strategy and there’ll be some clear data to measure your efforts against.

By putting all of these ideas into practice you’ll be well on your way to helping the environment, but the best news is that implementing these initiatives may give your business a boost, too.

The general public is becoming more and more well-informed on environmental issues and will often go out of their way to buy products and services from companies who pledge eco-friendly practices. So why pass up on an opportunity to broaden your customer base while saving the planet?

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How to Craft a Cell Phone Usage Policy

by admin on April 22, 2013

Do you remember your first cell phone? Maybe it was one of those giant Motorola brick phones or a car phone. Now, technology that was once available only to the most elite is in the hands of the majority of the population.

One of the problems with a technology that has evolved so quickly is the lack of rules governing its use. Lawmakers around the world are debating rules governing cell phone use while driving and businesses are walking the fine line of asking their customers to silence their phones without offending them to the point of losing their business.

As a small-business owner, maybe you are fighting another battle. Are your employees using their phones at inappropriate times? Is it affecting productivity? What you need is a cellphone usage policy. Here’s how to put one together.

Make it Reasonable

Cellphones are no longer a novelty. They are often the only means of communication people have with their spouse, children, or other loved ones. You could argue that the world survived without the use of cell phones for centuries, but it’s an argument you are not likely to win.

It’s reasonable to ask employees to limit cellphone use but leaving the phone in the car or powered down during work hours is probably unreasonable for most professions. Also, take into account state laws before writing your policy.

Company Supplied Phone

If you supply your employees with a smartphone, make it part of your policy that using it while driving is strictly prohibited. That includes taking calls regarding company business unless they have an approved hands free device.

If the company supplied smartphone doesn’t have software that protects company data, don’t allow personal use.

Finally, specify that you have the right to review the usage data, which would include phone records, text, and data usage.

Personal Phones

Personal cell phones should be used sparingly and only for important calls. In unsafe work environments like construction sites, factory floors, or on board aircraft, prohibit use. You cannot mandate that they not use their personal phones while driving but you can prohibit work related calls, texts, or the checking of email.

Pictures and Videos Prohibited

The workplace, regardless of the type of business, should be a secure environment. Prohibit any use of camera phones or video recording inside your building. This is of particular importance in workplaces with sensitive information, security concerns, or children present.

If you don’t want to place a total ban on images and videos, designate certain areas off-limits. These may include restrooms or locker rooms, areas that house proprietary equipment or sensitive documents, or places where using the devices would distract employees from safely operating equipment.

Bottom Line

Because you cannot enact a policy that violates applicable laws, consider consulting with an attorney before publishing any policy document. A policy is only as good as the enforcement that goes along with it. If you do not have the means or the desire to hold employees accountable to a cellphone usage policy, don’t enact it. You could negatively affect the culture of the office, especially if you enforce the policy inconsistently.

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