Market Your Small Business on a Smaller Budget

Business, be it big or small needs to be marketed to increase client base. But some cannot really afford huge marketing expenses. For proprietors of these types of businesses, low budget marketing is easier and more affordable.

Some easy and cheap ways to build your business:

Get referrals. Referrals of people interested in your business are worth their weight in gold. Sources providing you with these referrals can be your existing customer, people related to your business (not competitors), family and friends, etc. Getting referrals is the best marketing tactic ever invented, and as a bonus, it is completely free.

Use the internet and the telephone messaging services. Social networking sites and emails do not really cost you anything. Start a social networking account in the name of your business. Add all of your friends, relatives and most importantly your customers to your business’s social networking account. 

Connect with local media. This can include your local news paper, or cable operator. You can get in touch with their marketing department and inquire about their range of advertising charges. Choose a cheap yet a strong plan to help you market your business effectively.

You can also get in touch with a local printing press to get flyers printed for your business, the packages and offers you serve must be printed on the flyers. You can get in touch with the local news paper distributor and hand your flyers over to him to distribute along with the news paper.

Start your own website. Starting your own website will not cost you a lot. Start blogs on your website and write on the blogs to get quick responds. You can also ask expert to write for your blogs. Websites and blogs are the most effective and the fastest way of marketing your business today.

Don’t forget your business cards. Your business cards need to be attractive. Every time you meet a client, a prospect or even someone who is related to your business, hand your card over to them. Many people keep visiting cards carefully to use them in case required.

Even if your business is functioning well you would want to increase its turnover. To do so you will have to put in a little money and if you do not have the budget you will have to put in the efforts. Think of other innovative ways to promote your business effectively.

About the author: Margaret is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on environment and technology. She recently did an article on ecofriend. These days she is busy in writing an article on bornrich.

How to Use Credit Responsibly

Like any other financial matter, the use of credit cards requires much forethought.

When you received that shiny piece of plastic in the mail, did you tuck away in your wallet, anxious to start charging even the most mundane purchases to it? If so, you are not alone. In order to learn from credit card successes and failures of the past, here are four helpful do’s and don’t’s.

Carefully monitor your credit purchases. Credit cards are widely used in part because of their convenience. They are easily accepted at most places, including at the supermarket, at the gas pump, and at any dining establishment that you may frequent. However, this ubiquitous acceptance of cards can actually lead consumers to big debt. For most people, making mundane purchases on a credit card can lead to the illusion that they really haven’t spent much money.

In order to keep a handle on your budget for necessities like food and fuel, it is better to use cash so that you can get a clear idea of how much you are spending day to day. If you do find yourself missing the convenience of plastic, swap your credit card for a debit card, or if you have a low credit score, a prepaid credit card.

Communicate with your bank or credit card company if you anticipate not being able to make a payment. If you find yourself in a financial bind and won’t be able to make the minimum payment on your card, don’t just skip the payment and wait for the fallout. Many companies are helpful to consumers who contact them and explain that they can’t make their payment if it only happens once. You could negotiate a one-time lower minimum payment to keep yourself out of financial hot water. If you don’t, not only will your credit take a hit, but the interest rate on your credit card debt is likely to double or triple.

Keep your debt within one third of your total credit limit. Just because you have a $2,000 credit limit doesn’t mean that you have to use it all. Keeping your credit card debt low is helpful for several reasons. First of all, it prevents you from paying hundreds of dollars in interest. It also gives you some wiggle room for emergencies. Most importantly, your credit score is calculated in part based on how much debt you are carrying. The higher the debt, the lower your score.

Use balance transfers as a last resort. Many credit card consumers are lured from one card to another by the enticement of a zero percent balance transfer. While this offer can be a good tool to use if you find the interest on your debt stifling, it is important to remember that these balances only carry zero percent interest for a promotional period. If you aren’t able to pay off your debt by the end of that period, you’ll be stuck with a comparable (or sometimes higher) interest rate in addition with the transfer fee.

About the Author: Leo Fisher is a financial advisor and consumer advocate. He advises on how to succeed financially with budgeting tips and informative resources, such as Ratesupermarket Canada.

Small Business Debt Solutions and the CARD Act

The following is a guest article from our friends at Card Hub, a leading online marketplace for the best credit card deals, prepaid cards, and discounted gift cards. 

Succeeding in business requires flexibility, imagination, and the ability to adapt in the face of new laws, technology, trends, etc. That’s why it is so important to understand and adjust to the new business credit card landscape.

The personal finance reform law that took effect in February 2010 (the CARD Act) instituted a number of new consumer protections and drastically improved transparency in the consumer credit card space, overall improving the credit card landscape. There's only one problem: does not apply to small business credit cards. 

This puts small business owners unaware of the legal distinction between consumer and business credit cards at a disadvantage. Fundamentally, it means that the best small business credit card issuers are those that have voluntarily extended the most important CARD Act protections and vice versa. Keep reading to find out  the specific details of how this could impact your business.

Key CARD Act protections The CARD Act instituted a number of important protections, including those prohibiting double-cycle billing and universal default as well as that which requires credit card companies to use clearer disclosures.

The most important provision of the CARD Act, however, is unquestionably the rule against issuers raising the interest rate on existing debt unless a card holder is 60 or more days delinquent on payment. Never before were issuers prevented from increasing rates at will, so debt stability was therefore unattainable.

Now, small business owners can avoid cost-of-debt surprises and thereby garner the ability to confidently allocate funds and grow their companies; they just need a way to add CARD Act protections to their business spending strategies.

Best and Worse Credit Card Issuers 

According to a Card Hub study, Bank of America is the only major credit card company that has voluntarily extended all of the most important CARD Act protections to its credit cards branded for business use. BofA and local banks that have taken the same measures could therefore be characterized as the best business credit card issuers, and their offerings are the only business credit cards that offer debt stability.

Capital One, Citi, and American Express all extended at least one major CARD Act protection, but not the rule prohibiting arbitrary interest rate increases, making them middle-of-the-road issuers.

Chase, Discover, and HSBC did not voluntarily adopt a single major CARD Act protection and U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo did not even participate in the study, making them the worst business credit card issuers since they do not want to publicly talk about their policies.

Other Means of Achieving Debt Stability 

Perhaps the simplest way to garner debt stability (not to mention all of the other CARD Act protections) is to just use a personal credit card. This might seem “off” to you, but there’s no disadvantage to using a personal credit card for business.

According to another Card Hub business credit card study, all major issuers hold you personally liable for business credit card use anyway and most include business credit card information on your personal credit reports.

Optimal Business Credit Card Strategy 

The best course of action would be to use a personal 0% APR credit card for purchases that you will not pay for in full in a single billing period (funding) and a rewards business credit card for those that you will (everyday expenses).

This not only gets you all of the CARD Act protections that you need, but it also enables you to get much better card terms than is possible with a single credit card. You won’t find one credit card offering the best rewards and the best rates, after all, especially if you have a limited pool of cards from which to choose, as would be the case if you try to use only a Bank of America business credit card for all types of company purchases. You could, of course, find two cards that together get you the best overall terms.

Besides, around 80% of small businesses use credit cards for funding, and whenever you have a balance on a credit card, your grace period for new purchases goes away. That means if you try to use a single credit card for both funding and everyday purchasing, purchases will begin to accrue interest immediately.

Most small businesses cannot afford extraneous costs, at least not in the current economic environment.

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