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5 PR Techniques for Small Businesses

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PR For Small Business

Cultivate A Good Public Image

Getting publicity is one of the most effective marketing tools you can take advantage to get the word out about your business. However, not all entrepreneurs have the talent or the knowledge of how to use it properly.

Think of this article as PR 101 for Small Businesses. Here are some practical ideas you can use right away — even cheaply – and make the most out of publicity stints.

1. Sweet Talk Your Way To Your Costumers. Media tools are often read or heard of and they are effective that way. Words and “sweet talk” can still set you apart from your competitors. Keep everything light and polite while not sacrificing quality of content. Hire a good creative writer or team for this.

2. Develop A Positive Press Network. For a small business entrepreneur, the idea that “bad publicity is still publicity” does not apply. It instead causes the consumers to get away from the business as far as possible. One way to gain good publicity instead of bad ones is to have positive relations with the press people. They have gained the trust of the customers and are often asked for advices on what products to choose. Better get on their side to earn a few recommendations here and there.

With the rise of social media and social media influencers, you’re lucky this part doesn’t need to be very costly; more on that later.

3. Your Own Press Release. Get someone who can write and distribute this efficiently. This step makes a great way for any small business to get noticed immediately. A virtual assistant who can write the press release articles and at the same time handle the distribution is very helpful with this PR task. Hire one that knows where it is best to submit your press releases and observe how it can help in gaining more clients and better sales.

4. Social Media Is In. It’s not just a fad, it’s here to stay and you can learn it in no time. Learn the ins and outs of online social media marketing. Nowadays, more people hang out on social networking sites rather than get together for real. This makes it easier to focus on creating catchy adverts intended to be posted on those sites for the people to get noticed. Know what’s trending and focus on the interest of the people to keep their eyes glued to your posts.

5. Interact with customers often. Nothing makes a customer want to come back for more than having a unique personal experience during the business transaction. Making customers feel that they are special — not just another number — will have them looking only for you whenever they need your services.

This PR 101 for Small Business guide intends to help any small- scale entrepreneur gain a share of the limelight. It does not matter how small a business is, as long as it is well advertised and get positive feedback from the media and the consumers, it will have a good chance of succeeding.

Accounting 101: Financial Statements Explained

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Whether you are already running a business or just planning to setup one, it is very important that you have at least a basic knowledge about the fundamentals of Accounting and Recordkeeping.

I don’t mean taking up a formal course in Financial Accounting or Bookkeeping, though it would help. There are a lot of resources available in the Internet and in your local book shops which can get you up to speed in acquiring the basic knowledge of Accounting. What’s best is you can learn this stuff on your own, at your own pace.

Strive to learn up to a point where you understand at least three things:

  • Whether your business is making a profit or not.
  • Why you are making a profit.
  • Which areas of the business are profitable, and which are not.

You don’t have to be an expert with the details, but you should be able to tell the health of your business by looking at the Financial Statements, determine the financial strength of your organization. By understanding the nature of financial statements you can also have an idea as to how well your business is doing with regards to profitability and creditworthiness.

Discussed below are the basic financial statements that any entrepreneur should learn about.

The Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet gives you a snapshot of the financial condition of the business. It lists the company’s Assets, Liabilities, and Equity. Assets refer to the current resources that keep the company running. Liabilities are the debts of the company. And Equity represents how much your company is worth which can be computed by subtracting the Liabilities from the Assets.

There is a famous accounting equation, which is written as:

Assets – Liabilities = Equity

The Accounting Cycle

The Accounting Cycle

As you can see from the equation, if Assets are greater than Liabilities the resulting value of the Equity is positive. If that value is negative, the business is in trouble, financially.

Income Statement

Sometimes referred to as the Profit and Loss Statement, this report provides a summary of Income and Expenses of company during a given period (month, quarter or year). This will show the creditworthiness and profitability standing of the business. It demonstrates whether the business earned a profit (earning more than it is spending), or posted a loss.

Cash Flow Statement

In simple terms, a Cash Flow Statement is an accounting of the available cash, plus cash income minus cash disbursements, for a given period. This report helps you track where cash has been used, where and why it is short or in excess. It determines whether the company can meet its obligations or not.

This statement also provides all details pertaining to both inflow and outflow of cash in a specific period. It contains three sections that differ according to the type of activity within the different business transactions: they could be the cash flows from operating activities, investing activities, or with financing activities.

To sum it up: The Balance Sheet gives you value (think: Net Worth) of the business at a specific period in time. The Income Statement gives you the Net Profit of the company. And finally, the Cash Flow Statement provides the details about the incoming and outgoing cash of the company over a period of time.

Recommended Accounting System For Small Business

Sources of Capital: How To Fund Your Start-up?

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Any aspiring entrepreneur someday soon has to think about how to fund the start-up. Should you take it from your savings account or borrow money from friends and relatives? How good are you in dealing with the bank to get a business loan? Can you invite outside investors who are confident about you and can trust you with their money?

Finding the necessary funds for business is a full-time job on its own. It is no easy task to do especially when you are in a really tight financial constraint. This article helps you in this regard. Here is a short guide on how to find some sources of capital to fund your business venture:

Use Your Personal Savings

For most people, they come up with an idea and the desire to venture into business because they have earned enough money to spare. This is sort of like this mental self-talk: “I have money in the bank enough to buy a coffee-shop franchise, I think I’ll invest in one. And besides, I love coffee.”

On the other hand, if you are that risk-averse and you want to calculate as much as possible, you can start by determining how much money you have in your cash account. Out of it, how much you are willing to risk for your start-up? This is a very tough decision to make because worse comes to worst, it is your own money that is at stake and it may take a lot of time to gain it back if the business flops.

Borrow From Family and Friends

Imagine this: You are young, with little business experience, lacking in personal financial resources, but so full of enthusiasm. You think you really can make and succeed in your own business. How will you come up with the start-up money for your planned business?

Quick answer: Pester your friends and family to help you fund your business.

For many spoiled kids with a lot of guts, this would be an option. This approach is good if you have loving family and friends who will support you all the way whether financially or emotionally. You need not look for anyone else to get the money you need as long as they can provide for it. Be sure to give it back according to the terms that you promised prior to borrowing the amount.

Get Business Loan From A Bank

The most popular and common source of business capital in the Philippines is bank financing. This is also one of the most difficult sources of funds to get. To be able to borrow from them, you need to make sure that you have a good business plan. It has to be impressive and you have to be believable, too. It advantageous on your part if you have established a good business relationship with the bank in the past. It would also help if you orient yourself about the 5 C’s of Credit: character, capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions. The longer you are as a client, the better. However, if this is a new venture, you should expect them to require you a collateral (usually in the form of real estate title) to secure the loan. Of course, that’s their business. Just be careful about the interest rates and that you really understand what you are doing and whom you are dealing with.

Side Note: The Magna Carta for MSME or RA 9501 of 2008 required that banks in the Philippine allocate least 8% of their total loan portfolio for micro and small enterprises and 2% for medium enterprises.

Other Sources of Capital

The three sources of fund presented above may be the most common, especially here in the Philippines. But times have changed, these days, you have far more options available. You can explore the following:

  • Home Equity Loan — Ask your bank about it.
  • Credit Card — Yes, that plastic money that you keep in your wallet.
  • Venture Capital / Angel Investors — We have some here in the Philippines.
  • Small Business Loans from Government Agencies — visit DTI, and other similar business-oriented agencies

Finding a source of capital is one of the first roadblocks in starting up any business. That is expected as the first steps are always the hardest.

Why Start A Business?

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There are so many reasons why people want to start their own businesses.

Some are very clear about what they wanted to do and how to go about it; others are jumping the business bandwagon just to test the waters.

There are people who simply wanted to have an extra income apart from their day job. Can you relate with this group?

According to William Stolze, an entrepreneur himself and author of the book “Startup: An Entrepreneur’s Guide To Launching and Managing a New Business”, these reasons can be grouped into two broad categories: active reasons and reactive reasons. Active Reasons “are the positives that pull you out”; that is, you want to be in business because you wanted to make a positive contribution. You are being reactive if you want to be in business simply because you are sick and tired of being an employee and all aspects associated with it.

You, too, may have your own set of reasons for wanting to start a company. Whatever it is, the following list should be able to guide you in developing your own reasons, and hopefully, it will be among the Active Reasons, as opposed to the Reactive ones.

Why Start a Business

To Start or Not To Start a Business? That is the Question.

1. Follow Your Bliss. A lot of entrepreneurs consider their businesses as an extension of themselves. They do it to express their passion in life.

2. More Money. The potential to earn more is high. Compared to being a plain employee of another company where the income is usually fixed, in business, there is no ceiling as to how much you can earn. Most businessmen believe that there is actually a direct correlation between your income and the amount of work that you put into your business.

3. Yes, Boss! The good thing about starting up a small business is that no one can dictate you on what you should and not do. All the decisions will come according to what your mind and heart tells you. In the end, no matter how the business will fare, because you were brave and independent, you will always be feel like you’re the captain of the ship.

4. Freedom. Who doesn’t love it? How about taking the time off now and head straight to the beach? Or, how about calling your secretary to reschedule that Manic Monday Meeting, because you feel like watching Lady Gaga on MTV? Isn’t that what freedom is all about?

5. Heal The World. Make it a better place. I bet that sounds like so Michael Jackson, so let’s make it simple: Solve A Problem. Any business is in the business of solving a problem – and the entrepreneur, the ultimate problem solver.

In closing, I think the title of this article is worth pondering. Before you start asking your friends and relatives what kind of business to put up, give yourself enough time to come up with your own personal answer to this question: “Why should I start a business?”