Fernald Business Association

Archive for January, 2010

As a small business owner you need to carefully pick and choose where your hard-earned money is going to go. Maybe you’ve considered joining your local business association but aren’t sure it’s worth the cost of the yearly dues, or maybe you simply don’t know enough about the benefits such an association can provide. Annual dues for membership vary from association to association. Generally they range from $25.00 to $250.00. But, you get what you pay for, which means those with higher fees offer more benefits. Dues are used to pay for speakers, meeting rooms and special events, as well as cover any administrative and printing costs (for newsletters and other publications). They usually include a listing in the association’s directory, subscription to the monthly newsletter, and sometimes, one (business size) ad in the newsletter.

Ultimately, deciding to join your local business association is up to you, but understanding the benefits such associations provide will help you make that decision.

Ask what your local association offers in the way of:

Networking Opportunities – Most associations have several per month. Many have a weekly “Tips Club” or “Business Card Exchange” where members can share customer/client leads. Other groups offer after-hours coffees and/or monthly luncheons. All of these events give the small business owner an opportunity to build relationships with other business owners in the area who can provide insights unique to the local marketplace. Special Insurance Rates and Information - Many associations (usually the larger ones) offer members special rates on health insurance and worker’s compensation. Some associations offer workshops to educate new business owners about the kinds of insurance they will need.

Educational Programs – Most associations (no matter how large or small) offer at least a few yearly educational programs of interest to small business owners, including workshops about tax laws, record keeping, computing for business, marketing, etc. Some do this on a monthly basis. Find out how regularly your association provides these kinds of opportunities and ask what subjects have been covered in past programs. Security Services – Business owners who can’t afford to pay for a security service on their own pool money with other members in the association and pay to have the business area patrolled (since businesses are all within a few miles of one another). Also, some associations set up a business “Block Watch.” One business owner on each block watches out and lets everyone on that block know if anything suspicious is seen. A Member Directory – Most associations publish a yearly directory, which lists each member’s business name, address, and phone number. These directories are given to each member and are also sent to board members of local homes associations, churches, schools, and other area groups so the entire community is made aware of the products and services available by area businesses.

Discount Rates – Often members of an association are able to pool their resources to get advertising from newspapers, radio, TV, etc. at a discount rate, as well as discounts on other products and services like shipping, pagers and cell phones, etc. Yearly Events – Many associations sponsor a yearly event designed to increase members’ visibility within the community – something like a street fair or a festival. It’s a great way to introduce people in the community to their local business owners. An association might also offer a “Tax Day Conference” to bring representatives from every sort of tax agency under one roof to answer tax questions, conduct seminars and distribute information in a “non-threatening” environment. Individual business owners would spend a lot more money to get this kind of extensive information on their own.

One great way to avoid having to pay commissions for placing machines is to associate your vending business to a charity. It’s easier to convince a decision maker to forego a commission when you can honestly say that your vending machines benefit a charity. This will also allow you a higher profit than if you were obligated to pay a commission and you will be doing some good for your community as well. Contributing some proceeds to charity doesn’t mean you can’t make a profit. You are a business, after all. The key to placing machines in the name of charity is to imply to the decision maker that by allowing your machine on their premises they will really be making a difference to the cause, even though the money you give to the charity will not be a large amount per machine. Everyone wins with this model but the trick is to let the decision maker feel as if they are doing a great deal when they are actually doing just a little.

Register with a charity first so that everything is official. It’s easy to find a charity that would like a small part of the profit of your vending machine business and many of them will be happy to be represented by you. Some charities will let you represent them for only a few dollars a month per machine but other more well known causes will expect more. Make sure, at all times that you are not deceiving people. If asked about your role in the charity, explain that you are not an employee of the organization but are only working with them.

Bring your official charity authorization with you at all times and wear any badges or other insignia they provide. When marketing your machines you should include information about the charity. Some vendors even incorporate the charity into their business name. Be sure to pick a charity that you would support anyway. If you’re not interested in the charity, it will come across in your conversation and drive away potential decision makers. If possible, choose a local community charity or local branch of a national charity that is directly tied to benefiting your community.

Sometimes you’ll be asked directly how much of your profits go to charity. Some vendors give a percentage while some pay a fixed monthly donation per machine. Rather than tell them the exact percentage or amount per machine, which may seem miserly, you could state that you raised over $3000 last year in total. If you’re a new business, state a goal, perhaps $6000 in the next year and emphasize that to achieve that number you have to place a certain number of machines. In other words let them know what your business contributes in total rather than their individual contribution or they may feel like their efforts will not make a difference. Emphasize that the decision maker’s machine, combined with all your others, will help you make your goal. If you let them do a mental calculation of profits vs. contributions and they realise that their location won’t be contributing much at all they may press for a commission on a non-charity machine. Be sure to put the charity’s brand on your machines so that people know they are helping out a good cause.

The “Third Quarter 2009: The Economy and Small Business,” states the U.S. economic recovery began in the third quarter of 2009 as real gross domestic product grew an annualized 3.5 percent.But when it comes to small to medium sized businesses, they are still not out of the woods, and in order to survive many business owners have turned to strategies like invoice factoring. The SBA report says that public expenditures showed signs of growth, especially the first-time homebuyers’ credit and the “cash for clunkers” auto rebates programs. Real consumption rose at a 3.4 percent annual rate. A strong growth showed in real private fixed investment, real imports, as well as real exports. Perhaps this was due to the overall strengthening of the economy worldwide.

Highlights from this report mention the fact that manufacturing output rebounded and industrial production increased an annualized 11.7 percent. In addition, the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September 2009. Nonfarm payroll jobs that were lost since December 2007 are at 7.1 million.It appears as if every economic sector has experienced net job losses except for health services and education. Nonfarm labor productivity increased at a 9.5 percent annual interest rate in the third quarter.

The SBA lending went up dramatically, with lending volume up $247 million and 504 loans up $305 million from June to September. However, the number of venture capital deals slipped, but dollar volume rose from earlier in the year. Inflationary pressures remained modest as consumer prices were up an annualized 2.5 percent, with the core inflation rate, excluding food and energy prices, at around 1.3 percent.

The bottom line is that many small to medium-sized businesses are still struggling to survive and stay in business. That is why single invoice factoring to be a popular new tactic allowing companies to factor one invoice at a time. Invoice factoring benefits businesses that do not get paid for 30 to 60 or 90 days by advancing up to 90 percent against invoices. Accounts receivable factoring is not a loan rather it is the purchase of financial assets, or receivables, from a factoring company.

Accounts receivable factoring is different from traditional bank loans in that bank loans involve two parties, while factoring involves three parties. Typically, a bank will base its decisions on a company’s credit worthiness, whereas factoring is based on the value of the receivables. With invoice factoring there are no minimums, no maximums, no long-term commitments and no lengthy application processes. Factors look at the creditworthiness of the client’s customers and can fund within as little as 24 hours.

©2004 Jeffrey Dobkin

If you’re in direct marketing, you’re continually looking for new list
sources :— everybody’s tired of mailing to the same lists. If you’re not in
direct marketing and thinking about putting a mailing together, here’s
something a little different: take a look at marketing through
associations.

Why would anyone ever market to associations? They’re great targets:
try sending a press release to an association’s publication – whether it’s
a newsletter or a magazine. Why, you can alert an entire industry of your
products or services with one or two well-placed news releases.

Since the magazines and newsletters of associations are not the
mainstream prospecting tools of most marketers who market through
more traditional channels association publications receive just a fraction
of the press releases and promotional articles that go to major
publishers. Yet the comprehensive lists of over 23,000 associations go
astonishingly deep in most major and minor markets. In addition,
association publications are usually well regarded and lend excellent
credibility to the firms that get ink in their house publications.

Why else would you market through associations? Maybe you’re an affinity marketer – and you’d like to have the 96,000 members of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association apply for the special trial rate of your new credit card. Or, maybe you’d like the National Electrical Contractors Association – with 80 people on staff, and a budget of $10 to $25 million to support their 4,000 member firms that comprise 118 local chapters (along with the entire personnel of each member firm) – to apply for your new phone service. Associations can deliver thousands of their members – new customers for you – with a just a few contacts and a modest budget.