One of the many difficulties of starting a small business is gaining access to capital during the startup phase. With the large growth in small specialty businesses across the country, credit card companies are beginning to design special programs to help this new breed of business achieve success. For even those small businesses that have access to capital, the perks and benefits associated with small business credit card programs, can still be useful to help you compete more effectively in the marketplace. Below are just six of the many ways in which a small business credit card can help your business to operate more smoothly and improve your bottom line.

Ease Your Cash Crunch
A small business credit card can ease your businesss cash woes. Through the development and implementation of a sound financial plan that utilizes a credit card you can guarantee that your business will always meet payroll, be able to purchase inventory on an as needed basis, and manage both seasonal and business fluctuations without depleting your cash reservoir. Another added advantage is the cash advance feature, which allows you to withdraw cash from an ATM to cover emergencies and other unanticipated expenses.

Unlike a personal credit card, a business credit card also provides a business size credit line, which is substantially higher.

Keep Track of Business Expenses
Through the use of a credit card, you can, with little to no effort, separate your business expenses from your personal expenses. This allows for easy identification of tax deductions and filing of accurate income tax returns.

Secure Multiple Cards
You can also secure more than one card through small business credit card programs. This allows you to give employees the authority to make purchases while freeing up your schedule for more pressing issues. You can also do this with ease since you are also given the ability to set spending limits for different employees, which will further help you to control your expenses.

Access Free Business Resources
Anything free is good! Some credit card companies also provide clients with a wealth of resources to help manage cash flow and develop good record keeping procedures free of charge. Extensive reporting is conducted on both a monthly and bimonthly basis to help you track your expenses down to the penny. Additionally, free business checks and electronic funds transfers are also available.

In addition to that, you can also access reports, data and advice on developing business and marketing plans, conducting market analysis, and pricing products through a companys web site. You can also increase your knowledge of other products and services like software programs that can help your day-to-day operations run more efficiently.

Build Credit to Qualify for Larger Loans
Obtaining a credit card and using it wisely can also be a stepping-stone to help your business qualify and secure a loan with a major bank or venture capitalist firm. By establishing a good relationship and credit history with a company that also offers other products and services, itll just be a matter of time before other cost-saving services are thrown your way.

Perks and Rewards
Perks and Reward Programs designed especially for small businesses are by far one of the best features of a small business credit card program. Small businesses can earn airline points and cash back rewards just like the big boys. Discounts are also available through select merchants like FedEx and Staples, which can result in huge cost savings for supplies and other operational expenses. Some companies also go an extra mile by providing rental car and lodging benefits.

Numerous times folks who are curious in opening their own business make the err of going in direction over their heads and the entire matter easily becomes a huge mistake. If you’ve ever wondered why a small business seems to just go over much better then you are definitely in the right place because in this article I am hoping to provide you with some of the answers to questions such as that. A small business does have some wonderful benefits, there is absolutely no doubt about that and I have seen on many different occasions that someone’s small business always seems to become much more of a success than any of the larger businesses in that same area. Many times when someone does choose to open a small business and it only turns out to be the biggest mistake of their life, it is simply because they chose to jump into something without first giving it a great deal of thought.

Owning and managing a small business is much easier than trying to control every single aspect of any larger type of business and your stress levels will definitely be much lower if you could begin teaching yourself more about what it takes to make any business work. Maintaining a small business is really something that anyone of us could do but if you have not had the proper information given to you or have not spent enough time learning about every aspect of the business, you really are only setting yourself up for a huge financial disaster, which it surely did not have to be. Nobody goes into any type of business venture assuming that it is just all going to fail but most people that go into owning and managing any small business definitely has some little concerns about being able to keep it afloat. A small business can provide you with enough income that you would never need to work a second job for fears of not being able to afford everything. This is only possible however, for those of you who are truly committed to making the small business a huge success.

For anybody out there that is maybe considering delving into some type of small business venture, please make sure that you first speak with other business owners in your area to find out some of the small details that could really make you or break you. Knowing the important key things that could set you up for success is really something very important and if you give others the opportunity to advise you on some of the aspects of your small business, chances are you will not have to stay up all night trying to figure out how in the world you could ever possibly make ends meet. It is up to you to really make this a success because it will not happen overnight, have patience and plenty of drive, with those two things you are more than likely going to be smiling all the way to the bank!

you are contemplating setting up a small online business you should realise it is simply to down to a numbers game.

The difference between businesses that succeeded and ones that do not is down to their conversion ratios, meaning the ratio of visitors who actually become paying customers.

If one in 50 of your visitors become a paying customer, then you will have a conversion ration of 2%. All businesses should aim to increase this ratio, simple things like using enticing tactics such as a sale can help.
The trouble is nowadays people seem desperate for visitors, they panic and pay for batches of visitors. Unfortunately these systems rarely increase your conversation ratio at all; in fact all they do is give you a false perception of your business.

A lot of online small business owners make 3 mistakes:

1.They put Google Adsenseaffiliates everywhere, in my opinion these are good systems but they do detract from your core business.
2.They make their websites too complicated, when marketing to a worldwide audience; keep your website simple and easy to follow.
3.They get greedy, their prices are too high.

These points may seem obvious but it is often the most obvious things that people miss.

Here are some general guidelines for small business owners.

1.Spend time researching your website development.
2.Have an understanding of Keywords and how they benefit your site.
3.List with the main search engines and directories.
4.Have patience, especially in the first year.
5.Be imaginative
6.Dont be greedy, dont scare potential customers away.

Remember do not get carried away by the amount of visitors to your site, simply work on improving your conversation ratio, by doing this year on year you will be well on your way to running a successful business.

http:www.bizseller4u.com

Does Your Small Business Need A Web Site? (Part 1)

You are a small business owner. You use the internet both in your business and personally. Obviously you know there are many, many web sites out there. More then likely, you’ve even made purchases through someone else’s web site. Perhaps it is apparent that you could be doing the same thing with your own business. Certainly, extra e-commerce sales could only help your bottom line. But does your business really need a web site?

In deciding that, consider what a web site really is to a business. A well designed site can give your business exposure to a much larger group of potential customers. That makes it a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, marketing experts tell us that having a successful marketing strategy is essential to the growth of your business. Effective use of a web site can draw in new leads and turn leads into conversions. Now these new customers (your best market) can be further wooed through follow up online newsletters, automatic appreciation e-mails (auto-responders), special offers or any number of tactics. All the while building a mailing list which is like gold to anyone’s marketing efforts. With this almost limitless and relatively inexpensive marketing tool in the form of your web site, your profits have an even greater ability to soar.

A web site does need to be well designed. Also, in addition to targeted, effective content, your site needs to be regularly maintained and updated. Using its full potential requires someone in your company continually coming up with new online marketing strategies. But these efforts, if thought of as marketing investments, can mean big rewards in the form of increased profits for your business.

In this information age, the internet is key to making innovative marketing decisions that build a successful business. Your competition knows this and heshe probably has a web site. If they are savvy enough to realize its marketing potential, then they have a competitive edge. But you can make up ground and pass them up with a well designed web site of your own.

(For Part 2 of this article “What is a well designed web site?” Please visit my web site.)

Although I am working as an employee, but I always try my best to adopt the entrepreneur mind set. It is important for an employee to think like an entrepreneur. This way, you program yourself to think out of the box. You will do more than an ordinary employee do. You will always do your best and be outstanding.

Recently I have come across a concept on earning 10000 in one hour. Dont be misunderstand, this is not to teach your how to earn 10000 in an hour. Rather this is a concept that we should adopt deep inside our mind. You see, normally we have the mindset of fix salary, simply because this is how we get our pay. This is especially true for employee. We are paid either hourly, weekly or monthly with a fix rate. For example we get paid 5000 per months, 20 per hours and so on. This has made our mindset fixed to what we get. For instance if we get paid 50 per hour, we are programmed to believe that what we do only worth 50 per hours. We like to get the pay regularly because we need the money to pay our bills. We are bound to the sense of security here because we get stabil income that enable us to live comfortably.

However this creates a problem where we totally neglect the possibility of earning more than that. We cannot believe that we are able to earn 10000 per month. But the fact is that there are plenty of ideas that allows us to earn more than 10000 per hours. We just need to conditions ourselves to be able sense and catch this type of opportunities. We need to have our minds open to be able to do this.

As an employee, I think a good strategy is to get a job, but at the same time try to look for opportunity and ideas that can generate big income. The point is not to limit ourself in the fix salary that we are getting now. Think of the fix salary an income that can be use to cover our daily expenses. At the same time, keep ourselves open to the opportunities or ideas that can make us rich.

While we are enjoying the regular income of 50 per hour from our job. Lets not ignore the posibility of earning more than 10000 per hour.

Do you have the right personality type to successfully run your own business?

It takes an entrepreneurial fire in your belly to www.microsoft.comindiasmallbusinessstart a business and make it succeed. Not everyone has it.
How do you know if you have what it takes to start a business? There’s really no way to know for sure. But I do find things in common among the emotional and family fabric of people ready to consider an entrepreneurial venture.
You don’t have to fit all seven of these categories to be a good candidate for entrepreneurship. But it probably wouldn’t hurt. In general, the more you have in common with these characteristics, the closer you probably are to being ready to try going out on your own.
1. You come from a line of people who couldn’t work for someone else. I don’t mean that in a negative way. People who are successful at establishing their own business tend to have had parents who worked for themselves. It’s usually easier to get a job with a company than to start your own business; people who strike out on their own often have the direct example of a parent to look to.
2.You’re a lousy employee. No need to sugar-coat this one. People who start their own businesses tend to have been fired from or quit more than one job. I’m not saying you were laid off for lack of work or moved from one job to a better-paying one. You were asked to leave, or you quit before they could fire you. Think of it as the marketplace telling you that the only person who can effectively motivate and manage you is yourself.
3.You see more than one definition of “job security.” I am truly envious of the few people I know who have stayed with one employer for 25 or 30 years. They look very secure. But how many people do you know who are able to stay with one company for that long? In a rapidly changing economy, job security can be frighteningly fleeting.
4. You’ve gone as far as you can go, or you’re not going anywhere at all. Sometimes the motivation to start a new venture comes from having reached the top of the pile where you are, looking around, and saying, “www.microsoft.comindiasmallbusinesshowtoguides.mspxWhat’s next?” Early success can be wonderful, but early retirement can sometimes drive energetic and motivated people totally crazy.
5. You’ve done the market research already. Don’t even talk to me about your great business idea if you haven’t put the time into figuring out if there’s a market for your product or service. As the people behind any number of failed Internet ventures will tell you, “cool” doesn’t necessarily translate into “profitable.” Don’t bother building it if you haven’t figured out whether there’s a good chance the customers will come.
6. You’ve got the support of your family. www.microsoft.comindiasmallbusinesspartners.mspxStarting a business is stressful under the best of circumstances. Trying to do it without the support of your spouse or other significant family members or friends would probably be unbearable.
7. You know you cannot do it alone. You might excel at promoting a business. Maybe you love running the financial end of the enterprise. You could be someone who starts a business because you have unique creative or technical know-how to create a product.
Any of the above is possible, but it’s unlikely that you are going to excel at all of these tasks or at all of the tasks involved in running any business. Forget all that doing it alone stuff. You are going to need some help sometime.
The willingness to get that help having employees, partners or consultants for those areas in which you are not an expert is one indicator of likely future success. “No successful entrepreneur has ever succeeded alone,” development consultant Ernesto Sirolli writes in “Ripples From the Zambezi.” “The person who is most capable of enlisting the support of others is the most likely to succeed.”

In the beginning, I thought it was going to be a breeze when my husband, Terry, joined me working full-time in my business. If anyone could do it, we could! We already had a healthy relationship built on trust and respect. We communicated well. We both strongly believed in what we were doing. We understood the need to help each other with the children, keeping the house, and with the business. We planned to allow for fluctuations in income to keep stresses over money to a minimum. Yet I still wasnt prepared.

For anyone considering working with your spouse, here are 3 Essential Boundaries for Entrepreneurial Couples to help to ease your transition:

1. Clarify expectations for workhome.
Nothing can prepare you for the blurring of boundaries and turf that occur as you transition into working together. When you join together with your spouse, most likely, both of you have experienced success throughout your careers, and have developed your own working style. Suddenly you have a whole new dynamic in your relationship with your spouse you must learn to work through. I always knew that we had different gifts and talents: Terry is very techie and he loves to write, and I am a people person who is an administrative whiz. Even though I should have probably seen it coming, I was still surprised at the difference in our work styles. I multi-task all day long, and he prefers to work on one project at a time. Just like being newlyweds all over again, we had to put some effort into getting to know each other on a whole new level to be able to work well together.

Beth Butler, creator of the Boca Beth Program has some helpful tips for clarifying expectations with your spouse. I make us lunch each day and we try to talk about BOCA BETH items that are pressing. It’s our time to reconnect – he works from home for the wine company he represents and I work from home sharing my passion for second language learning with young children. A funny mix, but it works! We talk about what each of us has planned the next day so there are no surprises – and I use that time to ask for his help. I can’t expect him to guess what I need so I have learned to be very specific.

2. Schedule time for love.
Most entrepreneurial couples complain they have less time together than before. It is possible to work beside your spouse in the same office all day long and barely speak on a personal level. How difficult is it to turn off your cell phone and talk a walk with your love? It is imperative to make it a point to schedule time for your relationship so that the business does not overtake it. Terry and I plan ahead to sneak away for lunch or to take a break at Starbucks. We have found if we dont take the time to schedule in these lunch or coffee dates, then they are less likely to happen as we work to meet deadlines or get a project done. We havent yet been able to master scheduling regular dates, but its next on our list of priorities in order to help keep our close relationship.

3. Schedule time for yourself.
It can be a shock when you suddenly have so much time with your spouse. In your previous life, they left at 7 AM and came home at 6 PM, and then you discussed your day during dinner. Now you spend most (if not all) of the day with them, and during dinner, there is nothing new to discuss. Where is the time for you? Karyn Fagan, Founder of Team Women, tells We both have hobbies that we love outside of the house so we have that important away time.

Terry and I certainly have a long way to go as an Entrepreneurial Couple, but we have made it through our entrepreneurial honeymoon period. Each day, we work together to reach our goals and dreams. We understand when we help each other we will reach our dreams sooner, so we help each wherever its needed!