Do you know what website stickiness refers to?

If you do, great, this blog is all about making your website sticky. If you don’t here’s the rundown:

Website stickiness refers to a website’s ability, or the ability of an online business, to get visitors to visit their site and actually stay there!

Exceptionally good websites will be “sticky” enough to keep customers coming back.

When you start a small business online it is so vital that you are able to get customers to come and stay on your website. I honestly can’t stress it enough; through all of the business startup consulting I have had, the one thing that has been consistently emphasized is the importance of website stickiness.

Due to the amount of information, I have actually broken this blog down into two separate blogs, full of tips on how to make your website sticky.

1. Make sure your website looks fabulous. I would suggest creating a business startup checklist totally dedicated to the creation and appearance of your website. You want it to be professional, which may mean that you need to hire someone. There are plenty of people out there with loads of talent willing to help you. You also want it to be appealing to the eye. It should be neat, yet fun and attractive.

2. You, as the owner, should appear credible and professional. Many websites include an “About Me” or “About Us” section which should be used for just this thing. People are going to want to make sure that the information they are getting is from a reliable source, you. You will also want to establish a semi-personal connection with people as well. You might do this by telling them about your family, interesting stories, or hobbies that you have.

3. Along with making yourself appear credible and professional you also want all of your content to be credible and professional. There are a few things you want to do:

• 1. Make sure the information you are adding to your site is accurate. There are vast amounts of information available at the touch of a button nowadays that sometimes people forget that it’s not always accurate. Pretty much anything can be put online; so make sure your information is accurate.
• 2. Grammar is key if you want to appear credible and professional. Make sure that every piece of content you have is error free. Consider having multiple people edit prior to posting.
• 3. Keep your information fresh. The world is changing every second and you want to stay up-to-date with everything. Now updating your information every second is a bit excessive, but you do not want to fall behind. If you start to have regular customers they will continue to come back only if they find new information when they visit. Again, there’s a ton of content out there.

There’s more to come! Hang tight!

Thanks for reading. This is Mark Stowers with Increase My Small Business here to provide you with small business coaching. Also, be sure to join us on increasemysmallbusiness.com and on Podomatic for Increase My Small Business.

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This is Mark Stowers with Increase My Small Business.

I am here to help you increase your small business success by providing you with some business coaching.

My focus in this blog is going to be on recognizing your best and brightest employee. If your employees are motivated and enjoy their jobs, it is likely to help increase your small business success. Typically businesses partake in employee recognition by designating an employee of the month – who is then recognized with a plaque on the office wall. Other businesses prefer to use money as an incentive. Both of these ways are fairly outdated and don’t actually help to motivate employees. Here are some great business plan tips that you should implement into your daily business practices to help motivate your employees to be the best that they can be. They are relatively broken down based on the different types of businesses:

1. Product development companies:
   1. Your best employee will get the chance to design a book cover or CD cover.
   2. Your best employee will be able to name the next product that your business develops.
   3. (Customer) service companies:
      1. Your best employee will wear a different colored shirt than the rest of the employees. The shirt will signify that that particular individual is the businesses best employee (at that time).
      2. Your best employee will get the opportunity to create their own schedule for one week.
      3. Other companies:
         1. The best employee will get to rent a sports car for one week.
         2. The best employee will get to take a trip of their choice (within a set budget of course).
         3. The best employee will have a luncheon or dinner in their honor.

Regardless of your choice make sure the rules are fairly simple to understand, everyone in the business knows what is going on, and that everyone has a fair chance of “winning”.

Thanks for reading. This is Mark Stowers with Increase My Small Business. Also, be sure to join us on increasemysmallbusiness.com and on Podomatic for Increase My Small Business.

This is Mark Stowers with Increase My Small Business. I want to talk about how to reach small business success all on your own. Sadly, when you are a small business owner you don’t usually get the opportunity to work with venture capitalists. Venture capitalists are people that will finance your business, kind of like a bank, but they usually only get involved in big businesses. With that being said you will want to read these business plan tips I have on how to make your own money and how to establish yourself:

1. Ship out products as soon as possible. The sooner your payments are processed and your product gets into the market, the sooner you will get known and make money. So ship now.
2. Avoid using a reseller or distributor when you start your business. You want to be able to get immediate feedback and work closely with customers but often times when you use resellers or distributors it is hard to do.
3. Always remember that customer service is number one. This will help you make money and establish yourself because customers appreciate being treated well. They will probably continue to come back to your business, and hopefully become regular customers – generating regular revenue.
4. Keep an eye on cash flow. I have blogged about cash flow in the past, but I am reminding you that knowing about it is super important and can help you save and make more money.
5. Know your business inside and out. You want to be able to tell people about your business – expanding your market and hopefully getting you more sales. Business consulting firms stress this. Basically it’s your business so you should know it like the back of your hand. Otherwise, you won’t gain credibility.
6. Be smart when you are doing your hiring. You want people that will represent your business positively. You also want them to know as much about the business as you do. Educate them.

As you can see you can help your business grow and prosper all on your own. It’s great to get help from venture capitalists if you have the opportunity. If not, put these tips to use!

Thanks for reading. This is Mark Stowers with Small Business Copilot. Also, be sure to join us on smallbusinesscopilot.com, Podomatic for Small Business Copilot, on smallbusinesscopilot.com/sbc/ to get your free guide to help you start an online business in 30 days and on YouTube.

This is Mark Stowers with Increase My Small Business. In order to reach small business success you must think about cash flow and finances for your small business. With that being said I want to mention that there are actually ways to effectively manage your cash flow. As a business mentor myself I will warn you that it is not easy, but it needs to be done. Here are some tips to help you:

• Hire an accountant or purchase accounting software. This depends on how much money you want to spend and how much effort you want to put forth. Either way works just as well as the other, and unless you’re an accountant yourself you do need to have something or someone to help you take care of your finances.
• Try to figure out what your current cash balance is. More often than not you can estimate what this number is yourself. But some of you may need some help to figure this out. Again, this may be one reason to invest in software or an accountant.
• Make sure that you never run out of cash. This seems to be a dumb statement but honestly it happens more than you’d think. Running out of money is never good. If you run out of money you will have to resort to getting a loan. Though loans are helpful you have to be able to pay them off and they should be avoided if possible.
• Figure out where you are going to be getting your money from. Like I said earlier you can get a loan otherwise you should create a financial plan. This doesn’t necessarily have to be exact but estimates always help. You want to be financially stable. Don’t run out of money!

These are just business plan tips to help you manage cash flow. Give them a try and see what they can do for you and your business.

Thanks for reading. This is Mark Stowers with Increase My Small Business. Also, be sure to join us on increasemysmallbusiness.com and on Podomatic for Increase My Small Business.

This is Mark Stowers with Increase My Small Business. Unfortunately the national news has been filled lately with reports on floods or anticipated floods, particularly in the Midwest. I want to share some business plan tips on how to prepare for things like this so your small business can survive. Noah’s ark isn’t an option here.

I want to start off with a story about a flood in Australia, simply to emphasize how detrimental floods can be to businesses. In January 2011 one of the worst floods ever hit Australia and led to disaster. Of course many things were affected by the flood, but for businesses, the economy was affected and the inflation rate increased significantly, also many were left in trouble due to property damage.

Now this is just an example from Australia to understand that flooding is a worldwide problem for businesses. But now I am going to talk about flooding in the United States. Here is what I highly suggest…let me repeat, highly suggest…look into flood insurance! Everyone is at risk whether or not your business is located in a flood zone. Some people are misinformed and think that flood insurance is only available to people living in flood zones, this is not true. In many cases if you live in a so called “participating community” you are able to get insurance. Being a business mentor myself I would highly suggest looking into this. Also don’t think that just because you have business insurance you automatically have flood coverage; flood insurance is totally separate.

You don’t want to risk your small business success when a natural disaster strikes. If you happen to find yourself in trouble after a flood, or any disaster, there are plenty of firms that specialize in business coaching to help you get back on your feet.

Thanks for reading. This is Mark Stowers with Increase My Small Business. Also, be sure to join us on increasemysmallbusiness.com and on Podomatic for Increase My Small Business.