Tag Archives: small business

THE TRUTH ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS INTERNET OR DIGITAL MARKETING!!!

If you want to start a small business then an internet website is a necessity. The internet is changing rapidly and website rules of the past no longer apply. Many humans are switching from computers to cellphones exclusively and phone apps are now the accepted format to gain a noticeable and viable presence on cellphones.

Search engine optimization or SEO on Google changes constantly and the richest websites bid for keyword priority so your chances of being found or being a priority on Google with a new website are miniscule.

Emails as a way of communicating with customers is riddled with problems with scam emails making up about 90% of all emails. Each email and comments nowadays have to be filtered or put in moderation so that nefarious individuals or trolls can’t damage your reputation with shitty or malicious comments.

Most businesses have to change the information on their websites from time to time so that updates have to be made by professionals who know what they are doing. Web design by professionals is a must but so is the maintenance of the website. Gone are the days when you could manage your website information on your own with minimal knowledge.

You have to have a presence on social media but Facebook is no longer a good place to advertise since big money websites have priority and most of your ad money will be wasted. With Google and Facebook catering to big money a new poorly financed website is a drop in the bucket for them and that means that you are very low or non existent on their priority list.

Let’s take Chipolte the Mexican Grill restaurant as an example of what the rich big boys are doing on the web. Chipolte has an excellent website where the hours, map, telephone and menu are posted in a readily viewed format. It has an app where you can order online and with sufficient volume of customers they may even in the near future provide almost free delivery of their food since this is a modern trend to send products to your address. You can order online and pick up your order in person with no wait time.

Chipolte has a huge presence on the web where other websites like Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Yelp, YouTube, Twitter, etc. have links to the Chipolte website or information about it. Try to create a website with all these great features and you will wind up paying an arm and a leg for web design and maintenance on a small customer volume of a new business. Customers are expecting all the services which big business can provide and if you are a small business first starting out, the expense of providing this great service and customer interaction is prohibitive and you may be doomed to live in obscurity on the web almost forever unless you start out with great word of mouth advertising from the beginning.

The overwhelming modern trend is to order online and have the product, information, or service delivered to your home. Fail at making this a seamless process a reality and you risk great failure and depletion of your capital resources.

Physical location location and a good product, information, or service was the key to new small business success in the good old days. Today location location on the web is just as important a priority for your venture capital. Oh, so far I have omitted the great importance of a unique appealing brand identity which you should have to seriously consider before you launch a small business.

If all the above information seems discouraging to someone on a shoestring budget then that was my aim. As always you need much money to start a realistic small business and if you have not saved up enough money and acquired enough useful knowledge to make it for the first five years or more then you should not even start on the road to business entrepreneurship. That is the tough truth about small business internet or digital marketing.

If you liked this evergreen truth blog then read more of them, about 5000 so far, or read one or more of my evergreen truth books, especially EVERGREEN TRUTH, rays of truth in a human world filled with myths and deceptions.

For a complete readily accessible list of blogs and titles go to twitter.com/uldissprogis.

Enjoy!!!!!!

If you enjoyed this blog then here is a list of my most popular ones which you may also enjoy!!!

https://uldissprogis.com/zlist-of-my-most-popular-blogs/

CAN’T COMPETE WITH NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS!!!

Leave a reply

Competing with international corporations is almost impossible today since there are no international taxation rules and national corporations have too much clout with politicians and the government. The only realistic way to compete with monopolies and big corporations is to make small businesses as profitable or more profitable than big business. This still means passing government laws which will stimulate small business growth which may be almost impossible to do since big money runs the government. Even very low taxes for small business may not be that competitive because some of the largest corporations pay no tax at all due to loopholes in the law.

Amazon is decimating traditional retail businesses and Uber and Lyft are decimating private taxi ownership. Big tech is so big that it squeezes out the small competitors and even seems to be putting a globalist media ideology in control much to the dismay of small media groups. Big corporate monopolies are taking over the country and world and soon they will be able to ask whatever they want money wise for their services. It is a scary thought that many small businesses may disappear from the economic scene in the not too distant future.

Ideally it would be nice if small businesses with approximately 100 million in revenue would be taxed only 1% on their gross income assuming that they do not produce any toxic materials which are released into the environment. Organic food businesses should not be taxed at all to stimulate a healthy food supply for the masses.

Ultimately taxation can be used to promote things or to destroy them so it is up to the smart politicians to stimulate lower taxation where it counts the most, or in small businesses which employ most of the labor force. Yes, revenue from businesses will be minimal and most taxes will come from taxing the salaries of workers which is as it should be given the fact that the biggest corporations pay no tax at all and it is highly unlikely that they will pay significant taxes in the foreseeable future.

Frankly big business is in the driver’s seat and little if anything can be done to change this monopoly situation in the distant future. Even when small businesses start to become competitive big money buys them out and it is big business as usual after the consolidation.

For a complete readily accessible list of blogs and titles go to twitter.com/uldissprogis.

Enjoy!!!!!!

If you enjoyed this blog then here is a list of my most popular ones which you may also enjoy!!!

https://uldissprogis.com/zlist-of-my-most-popular-blogs/

WHAT IS LIKELY WHEN ROBOTS AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE STARTS TO CONTROL MOST THINGS???

Leave a reply

When computer automation takes over most jobs, who will be in a position to consume products and services without earned income? Well, obviously those maintaining the technology will be in the forefront with more than decent wages but the vast majority will be on some form of government welfare and on a fixed income.

Politically this is a little scary because the overwhelming majority will always vote for more welfare money and this could enslave the remaining elite working class and make them slaves supporting the welfare class. I would strongly suggest that we reduce the votes of those on welfare to a fraction of one vote so that the vote of the minority working class has more clout. Of course this will need a constitutional amendment which is probably highly unlikely to pass.

The robots will be the new dominant workers and it makes sense that they will eventually be taxed to fund all the humans which they have replaced and now will be living on welfare. A guaranteed annual minimum wage without working has already been proposed so effectively most will not be working but just spending money given by the government. The political and social ramifications are revolutionary but the financial ramifications are revolutionary also where financial growth is going to be dependent on an increase in robot productivity and not human productivity.

There will be no credit for those on welfare so spending and their income will only rise if their government benefits will. Inflation will be less of a problem because there will be over production. Monopolistic production may be in the hands of relatively few so prices and inflation may rise because of product price increases in the monopolistic economy.

Most humans will no longer own their own cars, own homes, and recreational vehicles but will be renting them if they save up enough money. They will be riding around in hired driverless vehicles, living in apartments, having few if any offspring, and spending most of their time at home. They will be eating, drinking, doing drugs, having sex, and spending most of their time online in search of entertainment or if smart, seeking further useful educational advancement.

For some, not having to work sounds like utopia but for others it is a kind of dystopia or permanent retirement from life with all its possible adventures, anxieties, stresses, and tragedies. Was human kind meant to live in retirement mode or will it cause a dramatic increase in health problems, addictions, and mental illness? Only time will tell.

Small businesses will dramatically decrease because the initial capital investment in them will be huge and the probability of failure extremely high. Specialty internet small businesses may still thrive but employed workers for these enterprises will probably be minimal.

Actually what I have outlined so far is a likely scenario if a country is self sustaining or self supporting and produces everything that it consumes. Realistically we are in a competitive worldwide environment of relatively free trade and the threat of financial national bankruptcy is a greater threat than is that of robotization. If you just keep spending and producing very little for consumption or export bankruptcy is inevitable.

Other countries are becoming more competitive and are producing products more cheaply than we could ever hope to. The United States will have relatively cheap products from around the world but the budget deficit will grow by leaps and bounds.

International banks, corporations, and institutions have more political clout than that of any one nation. Wealth is being spread worldwide and the United States unfortunately is on a never ending slide in standard of living. A more likely scenario is that the United States will just become another third world nation with relatively few in a wealthy upper class and the vast majority will be in a relatively poor lower class as far as income is concerned.

Unless made in the United States has a rebirth and there are things which the world needs from the United States, besides food, energy, and military protection, the United States will continue its almost inevitable economic slide downwards on into the foreseeable future.

Much more could be written about automation such as bot content creators for almost everything we see and read, bot actors, bot musicians, bot teachers, bot nannies, bot sexual partners, drone deliveries, etc. No human field is safe from robotization or a symbiosis between humans and machines. How fast this trend will continue is debatable but this kind of change is inevitable to the detriment of future generations of average not exceptional humans. If you are part of the technological revolution then you will do just fine. If not, your life may seem rather meaningless without a job that you can derive satisfaction and purpose from.

If you liked this evergreen truth blog then read more of them, about 4500 so far, or read one or more of my evergreen truth books, especially EVERGREEN TRUTH, rays of truth in a human world filled with myths and deceptions.

For a complete readily accessible list of blogs and titles go to twitter.com/uldissprogis.

Enjoy!!!!!!

If you enjoyed this blog then here is a list of my most popular ones which you may also enjoy!!!

https://uldissprogis.com/zlist-of-my-most-popular-blogs/

STRATEGIC PLANNING AT HOME AND ABROAD!!!

Leave a reply

In a nutshell strategic planning is setting and implementing long duration goals and short duration goals for the company.

Just as important as the overall goals are evaluating the efficiency of the internal organization, evaluating external factors which immediately affect the organization or will affect the organization in the future, and making sure that the customer is happy with your current array of products, their quality, and customer service.

What is also true is that the strategy for a big conglomerate organization and a small business is fundamentally different. In the former case you are interested in maintaining your dominance in the market place and in the latter case you are a small business trying to be as efficient as possible to grow quickly with a more efficient workforce and a unique product or products hoping to develop a word of mouth reputation in the marketplace.

It is a fact of life that big capital intensive conglomerates have wholesale advantages and the ability to buy up competitors who may appear as rivals so the strategy is primarily one of eliminating upstart competing businesses by buying them out.

As a small business a simple strategy may just be one of making your mark in a competitive environment and once successful your long duration goal may be to sell out or get absorbed by a larger corporation at a considerable profit.

So you see long duration strategies for big and small businesses are fundamentally different but what they have in common is a desire to maintain an efficient workforce, have satisfied customers, and make a profit during economic downturns as well as economic good times.

A research and development department is for big corporations and small businesses do their research and development largely by introducing new and better products or services which meet customer demand.

Once you define or state your long and short duration goals it is important to get feedback on a regular basis which evaluates whether you are making good progress in a timely fashion towards your goals. The staff in charge should be held responsible or accountable for reaching or not reaching the goals and dealt with accordingly.

One very important factor in business strategy is government regulations and standards or laws passed which limit the freedom of business practices. Government regulations or laws are designed to benefit big business and hamper the growth of small businesses.

When the competition gets too fierce for a big business then they just lobby the government for favorable treatment which also coincidentally hampers small businesses and just prolongs the existence of inefficient large organizations with subsidies and favorable treatment. Yes, business competition is basically unfair and the government makes it so to a large degree these days.

I will briefly introduce you to SWOT https://www.trainingcoursematerial.com/free-training-articles/strategic-planning-and-thinking/what-is-a-swot-analysis which is an aid to strategic planning that focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for a company. Analyzing these factors helps a company to evaluate internal inefficiencies and evaluate the external factors which can or are impacting the company in the short and long duration for better or worse.

For a big company values such as integrity, honest and moral behavior, and awareness of social responsibilities should all be part of the mission statement because in the long duration your reputation as a company is largely determined by the reputation or quality of your products or services and the reputation of your staff including employees. It is very tempting to cut corners and screw the public when you are powerful and wealthy since we all know that great money without a moral backbone leads to corrupt business practices where the public gets shafted one way or another.

One final note and that is that big business is now international and strategies must be adjusted to fit the culture and laws of a foreign nation which means that uniformity or standardization of operations is no longer completely possible. Company strategy must adapt to varying external national factors. This said, it is still important to be a company with integrity, honesty and morality, competence, and a good reputation wherever it chooses to do business worldwide.

If you liked this evergreen truth blog then read more of them, about 4400 so far, or read one or more of my evergreen truth books, especially EVERGREEN TRUTH, rays of truth in a human world filled with myths and deceptions.

For a complete readily accessible list of blogs and titles go to twitter.com/uldissprogis.

Enjoy!!!!!!

If you enjoyed this blog then here is a list of my most popular ones which you may also enjoy!!!

https://uldissprogis.com/zlist-of-my-most-popular-blogs/

QUOTE BY IRWIN SCHIFF!!!

Leave a reply

If you liked this evergreen truth blog then read more of them, about 4000 so far, or read one or more of my evergreen truth books, especially EVERGREEN TRUTH, rays of truth in a human world filled with myths and deceptions.

For a complete readily accessible list of blogs and titles go to twitter.com/uldissprogis.

Enjoy!!!!!!

If you enjoyed this blog then here is a list of my most popular ones which you may also enjoy!!!

https://uldissprogis.com/zlist-of-my-most-popular-blogs/

18 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BUYING INTO OR OPENING YOUR OWN FRANCHISE!!!

Leave a reply

Love of a franchise idea is not enough.

You may love the idea of indoor potted plants but think of how many humans in your town would love the idea and be willing to pay much money to get some which need periodic responsible care with watering, fertilizing, and proper lighting to survive. Buy or start a franchise with a proven track record of success as a viable business.

Never settle for low profit margins.

Double digit profitability returns are desirable but don’t go to the other extreme and expect 30% or greater profit margins.

Try to appeal to the affluent middle class.

The relatively poor patronize severely discounted products and services and you don’t want a franchise sensitive to economic downturns. Don’t try to compete with Amazon, Walmart, or fast food franchises who have the advantage of buying wholesale.

Your franchise should have growth potential both internally and region wise.

Your franchise should have relevance to more than just your immediate territory and be able to expand nationally and even internationally and an ability to expand or grow internally with new periodic offerings.

Owning your own commercial property is ideal.

Leasing can become expensive if it is not a very small property and can severely affect your profitability. Own your own commercial property if possible but don’t lose sight of the importance of the location of it.

Provide a unique experience for your customers.

If the experience is not unique and memorable it is just a commodity which will not be greatly prized by your customers and you will have plenty of local competitors.

An effective internet presence is mandatory.

TV and mail advertisements for small businesses are a thing of the past and an effective internet presence is vital so you will have to find a knowledgeable software expert to set up your website so it can be easily found by your customers and potential customers.

Your franchise will be a small business so be aware of these 11 basic drawbacks which have to be overcome.

https://uldissprogis.com/2014/03/13/the-truth-about-small-business/

If you liked this evergreen truth blog then read more of them, about 3400 so far, or read one or more of my evergreen truth books, especially EVERGREEN TRUTH, rays of truth in a human world filled with myths and deceptions.

For a complete readily accessible list of blogs and titles go to twitter.com/uldissprogis.

Enjoy!!!!!!

If you enjoyed this blog then here is a list of my most popular ones which you may also enjoy!!!

https://uldissprogis.com/zlist-of-my-most-popular-blogs/

THE TRUTH ABOUT NET NEUTRALITY+

Leave a reply

Should the internet have a watchdog or rules which make its use just for almost all users?

Without regulation or rules it is possible for monopoly companies to get preferential treatment and pay much less for internet usage than the common human and any new startup company.

Size and money is an unfair advantage over small internet businesses which could be potentially censored at will by having to pay more money for the service and getting slower access times. The hoggers of internet access like Netflix, Google, and BitTorrent should pay more for bandwidth than smaller users and not less but this is counter to the business philosophy that volume means a lower price for the service. The hoggers of bandwidth should pay more and subsidize the small users who are not hogs of the internet but are in fact enslaved by the big monopoly users who want to maintain their power indefinitely so that they can charge whatever they want for the service.

I see satellite communications as a competitor of cable services but it will require much money to make the competition a reality and I am sure that the cable companies will fight desperately trying to maintain their stranglehold over current internet business.

The internet pricing policy is skewed in favor of bigness and does not give the little business a fighting chance. It is ultimately a question of just pricing policy for the big and small and rules or laws must be put in place so that there is pricing justice for all legal internet users!!!!!!

A relatively objective evaluation of net neutrality giving the pros and cons is found in this brief article in scientificamerican.com.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-net-neutrality-debate-in-2-minutes-or-less/

If you liked this evergreen truth blog then read more of them, about 1200 so far, or read one or more of my evergreen truth books, especially COMMON SENSE, rays of truth in a human world filled with myths and deceptions.

For a complete readily accessible list of blogs and titles go to twitter.com/uldissprogis.

Enjoy!!!!!!

If you enjoyed this blog then here is a list of my most popular ones which you may also enjoy!!!

https://uldissprogis.com/zlist-of-my-most-popular-blogs/

THE TRUTH ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS

Leave a reply

Being a new small local business has disadvantages.

You can’t qualify for wholesale prices,

your advertising will cost more than you anticipated,

you will have cutthroat competition,

you will have to find a way to be better than the competition,

you will have problems hiring and training reliable workers,

you will have problems finding a good location at reasonable cost with high customer traffic if you need high volume,

you have to thoroughly understand the finances and profitability of the business and can’t run it by the seat of the pants,

you will need enough capital to stay in business about 5 years before you actually make a profit if any,

you will have a hard time finding trustworthy competent business partners if you want to expand the business in the future,

and you will be working much more than 40 hours a week.

About 8 out of 10 new businesses fail so the odds are against you unless you already have extensive experience and knowledge about the business logistics and already know how to run the business at a profit.

https://uldissprogis.com/2013/04/27/8-things-to-consider-before-opening-a-local-business/

If you liked this evergreen truth blog then read more of them, approximately 600 so far, and one or more of my evergreen truth books, especially COMMON SENSE, rays of truth in a human world filled with myths and deceptions.

Enjoy!!!!!!

8 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE OPENING A LOCAL BUSINESS

Leave a reply

SATURATION OF MARKET WITH EXISTING BUSINESSES

Count the number of businesses similar to yours which already exist in your neighborhood, town, or city. The more similar businesses there are the harder it will be for you to compete for new customers because you will have more competitors. If the competitors are franchises and yours is not then the probability that you will succeed is close to zero.

POTENTIAL CUSTOMER BASE OR SIZE

It is important to know how many customers you can hope to get if you are successful. Find the nearest business similar to the one you want to open and spend a week counting the customers which enter and leave the business. This will give you a rough idea on how many potentially will patronize your business. Since you will be competing assume that at best that what you will earn or get is about half of the customers of an existing business. If there is more than one similar business close to where you want to open yours then find out how many customers a week also patronize those businesses and use the average number to calculate approximately how many customers you can hope for if the business is a success.

LOCATION OR CUSTOMER DENSITY

Find the location which you hope to be at and find out how much traffic goes past the business every day. If the location of your future business is a mall then count how many cars park there in a day to get a rough idea on how many people will be passing your business establishment. For a restaurant or food business this is especially important because customers want convenience and they will usually not travel out of the way to a distant location just to eat and drink. The busier your location is the greater is the probability that some of the passersby will become your customers.

CAPITALIZATION OR HOW MUCH MONEY YOU WILL NEED

Your inventory, the rent on the business, employee wages, utility costs, and operating at a loss for about 5 years should give you a rough idea on how much money you will need to get the business started. Don’t make the huge mistake of buying all the inventory, remodeling the store, and not having enough money to pay the utility bill and your employees for the first year when you will definitely be operating at a loss and will be depleting your savings account money if you have any. Many people wrongly assume that they will have an immediate profit the first year of business and wind up heavily mortgaging their home and desperately searching for more loan money to pay their employees, the rent, and the utility bills which they have to pay to stay open because the hoped for profit money is just not rolling in as expected.

FREQUENCY OF NEED FOR SERVICE

Determine how frequently your customers are going to need the service which you are providing. There is a big difference in a fast food business or a convenience store which is providing a service that people could potentially be needing every day and a hearing aid business which depends on one time customers which go to the store only several times in a lifetime. A tax service is something people usually need only once a year and hair salons are also services which are only needed by customers about once every three or four months so people will only be coming to your business about 6 times a year on average. The more frequently people need what you have to offer, the more frequently customers will go to your business establishment and give you their money.

Infrequently patronized businesses need to spend much more on advertising and have to charge customers more money per service to pay for the rent and employees which must be paid for on a weekly or monthly basis. Low frequency businesses with high fixed expenses such as rent have a harder time surviving in the long duration and are usually very bad business choices.

NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS NEEDED TO GENERATE PROFITS

You should have knowledge about how many customers you will have a month and about how much they will spend on average and what percentage profit you will be making on the transaction. Knowing these approximate amounts you will be able to relatively accurately calculate a ball park figure which you can use to tell whether you will be able to afford paying all the fixed expenses on a monthly basis. If you don’t have the math skills to do this find someone with knowledge about how to calculate percentages to help you.

LOW OR HIGH SKILLED WORKERS

If your business is going to pay minimum wage and you will have workers from the general public working for you then be prepared for a high turnover and personnel problems. You will get many people with bad social skills and many with punctuality problems who will not be able to handle customers responsibly in a knowledgeable pleasant way. Many new employees will not be knowledgeable about your business most of the time and your customer relations will suffer greatly.

If your business uses highly skilled workers or depends on just a few highly skilled ones you will have minor crises when one or more leave for better paying jobs. You will very frequently have to spend much personal time and money educating the new recruits and giving them the complete knowledge and skills necessary to work for you.

AVERAGE PRICE PER SERVICE AND AVERAGE PROFIT ON A TRANSACTION

You can estimate the number of people who will be coming to your business as already shown and should have a good knowledge about what the average amount of money will be per customer. You should also know what the average profit on a customer will be so you can calculate the approximate monthly income starting out and then about 5 years down the line when you will hopefully be making an actual real profit. If you are not good with numbers get an accountant to do the math or someone who can calculate percentages.

If you think that you can run a successful new business by the seat of the pants not understanding the money math involved then you will fail without question.

Nothing is more valuable than experience and if you have worked in a similar business yourself and learned all the facts needed to know then you will have a great advantage over someone who knows nothing about running a business. Many new businessmen and women without experience in the business are just pursuing a business dream which will fail close to 100% of the time.

The small businesses are being squeezed financially by big businesses and large franchises. In the near future I predict that most small businesses will become extinct and unfortunately the average man and woman will be working for someone at a fixed wage or be on welfare assistance. If you still think that you want to start your own local business and do it on your own- good luck, because you need more than just good luck to survive in the business world these days and into the foreseeable future.

If you liked this evergreen blog then read more of them and read one or more of my evergreen books, especially COMMON SENSE.

Enjoy!!!!!!