Yahoo Small Business-Mounting a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

BY | SMALL BUSINESS

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If you’re someone who thinks email marketing and dial-up modems currently have the same degree of relevance, it’s time to adjust your belief systems.

Business email remains one of the most effective marketing tools extant. Boasting the highest ROI of all marketing channels, any promotional strategy you undertake should have an email component. The following insights are key to mounting a successful email marketing campaign.

Awareness of Audience Is Critical

A great place to start is surveying your customers to find out what they care about the most. You can also gather demographic data about them from Google Analytics and Facebook Insights to determine their locations as well as their interests and other useful information. This will set you up to deliver messages that are interesting to them.  

Say Something Significant

Every interaction with members of your mailing list should contain something of value to them. The question in the mind of everyone scanning their inbox is: “Is there anything in here that can benefit me?”

When you take the time to get to know your audience, you can consistently send messages they find beneficial. Relevance equals engagement and engagement leads to conversions.

People Prefer Personalization and Stories

Everybody loves a good story. Rather than a dry, ”Here’s why I’m writing to you today,” craft your pitches around a storyline. Surprise your readers, delight them, give them a reason to smile. Most people buy based upon their emotional responses. Get them to feel something positive and they will associate those feelings with you. While you’re at it, employ as much personalization as possible. The sweetest sound in any language for most people is the sound of their own name. Personalized messages are also more likely to be opened.

Mobile Matters More Each Day

With the vast majority of people using smartphones to check email, your messages have to be formatted to work well in a mobile environment. When you’re composing your layouts, be careful to ensure they will play well on small screens. Additionally, before you broadcast, run tests on every mobile device you can find to be certain your message will display well on all of them.

Social Shares Amplify Your Solicitations

Your highly relevant messages are going to inspire recipients to share the information they contain with like-minded friends. Including social share buttons in your messages makes it easy for them to do so. This helps you generate positive word of mouth, which is the absolute best form of advertising.

These five tips for mounting a successful email marketing campaign will help you ensure your messages are opened and acted upon. Again, email remains the most cost-effective marketing medium out there—when employed wisely.

You’ll find all the tools you need to implement these tips, as well as take full advantage of business email at Yahoo Small Business. Try it today!

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Minding Your Business! Benefits of Online Recruiting in MLM

Presented on US Sports Net By Yahoo Small Business

By: Troy Kotterman

When looking at the business of MLM (multi-level marketing) recruiting is, absolutely, one of the most crucial abilities to improve. When choosing a marketing system online recruiting gives you the best results for your time, money and effort. When we look back at the not so distant past, we can easily see the advantages. MLM is all about networking, right? Back in the day, You began by listing all of your friends and family, anyone you could think of really. Remember the memory jogger? If you'll recall, it was that list asking for you to remember the name of your soccer coach from junior high. And of course you're still in touch with your Drivers Ed teacher. Certainly you'll want to contact him and tell him about this fantastic new service/product/opportunity! Right? Well, if not, your family and friends should at least be able to help you reach your first goal. This is critical so that when you begin hosting home shows and weekly meetings you will at least seem successful. Good times! And, merely by putting a decal on the family van and handing out business cards everywhere you go you'll have a constant stream of prospects…I mean, "potential business partners". Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting - Build a great web site with our easy-to-use tools Fast forward to todays world of recruiting in MLM. The "list"… it's covered. Going online results in social networking on steroids...in a good quality way. Your list will grow, and continue to grow, with the help of social networking sites like Facebook. The next generation will certainly communicate with everyone they've ever known, even slightly, using Facebook. Even better, you are keeping in touch in a genuine way and cultivating the relationship. By taking recruiting online you'll be putting yourself where the majority of the population is spending their time…on the superhighway. You will have people across the country, even continents away, getting to know you and your opportunity all together. Online recruiting is cost effective. At some point in recruiting, the list can only take you so far. In the old days, you would be coached to do bulk mailings…postcards and fliers. These methods are costly with postage and materials and are also a poor use of resources. With very little cost, electronic communications reach infinitely more people...instantly. This also provides immediate gratification if they would like more information. It keeps you in charge. One of the most attractive aspects of working from home and building a MLM business is the sovereignty that can come with your choice to work from home. When you do your recruiting online you don't have to be concerned about being a bother to family and friends. You won't spend hours on the telephone making cold calls. If home shows and weekly meeting don't interest you, feel free to skip them entirely. It will be okay...really. You have more freedom to set your own schedule because you will simply answer the phone when someone calls you to find out more. As you can tell, when you move beyond traditional methods there are many advantages of online MLM recruiting.

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Yahoo Small Business Presents: Easy steps on how to build your Email marketing list on US Sports Net!

Easy steps on how to build your Email marketing list

By: Jack Gavin

The end goal of internet marketing is to build a steady stream of traffic to your web site in order to attract more business. Building a growing list of customers is important especially when you begin your email marketing campaign. You need a list of people to whom you can send your email based marketing collaterals. Usually, one of the basic ways of building a list of email addresses is by using a squeeze page. People who decide to opt in your list basically gives you permission to accept any promotional emails from you. But a squeeze page alone will not be enough to give you a hefty list of email addresses that you’ll need. You need to make sure that what you’re doing is the right thing at the right time. Business Mail - Get 1000 GB of Free Space w/ Yahoo Business Mail! Follow these easy steps that will help you build that list: Make the squeeze page. I’ve mentioned the squeeze page already but just to stress its importance a squeeze page is a great way to start building your email marketing list. Just make sure that you clearly state why people should opt in to your list. State the benefits of signing in and keep the content brief. The aim is for them to sign in and that’s what you should focus on. Don’t distract them with useless content or attempt a sales pitch for your products or services. Cut down on graphics. Your squeeze page should not be overwhelmed by various graphics. The focal point of the page should be your message to visitors, not any kind of fancy graphics. Remember, opting in is the main goal here. Opting in should be a simple process. Make subscription to your site a worry-free, straightforward affair – your visitors will thank you for it. A handy opt-in box that can be easily found and clicked on is the best way to do it. Don’t make them hesitate for one bit, make clicking that box as easy as possible. An incentive will make them want to click. Let’s face it, any visitor will be more inclined to do what you ask them to do if they know that they can get something out of it. An incentive for joining your subscription is a sure way to make visitors join, and it’s also a great way to make these visitors tell other people about your site. The free incentive, especially if it is enticing enough, will compel people who click on your opt in box tell their friends about it. In a way, your free incentive pays for itself in the form of more people in your email marketing list. Establish an auto-responder. Make the people who opt in to your site feel especially welcome by immediately sending them a "welcome" email. They will feel more special and valuable. Try to include whatever it is you promised them in the email. An auto-responder can be set up in order to automate this task for you. Use the power of Social media sites and forums. Social media sites and forums are filled with literally millions of people. Use this virtual population to highlight your site so that you can mine more visitors who will opt in to your site.

Yahoo Small Business-So, How Do I Get a Domain Name for My Business?

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Thinking of starting an online business?  You’ll definitely need to build a website, but  the first step you have to take is getting a domain name.

Many of you might be thinking; So, how do I go about getting the domain name for my business?

Well, you’ve landed on the right place! We’ll walk you through the steps required to get a domain name. But first, a tiny bit of background on why domain names are needed.

Domain Names Allow Us to Distinguish Sites

The number of worldwide websites exceeds one billion, and that number is growing by the second.Domain names allow humans to distinguish one site from another instead of having to use the long unique string of numbers known as an internet protocol (IP) address. Domain names are made up of the domain extension (i.e. “.com,”), the second-level domain (your website name), and a host name (www). Together, these details make up a uniform resource locator (URL).

Know the Domain You Want? Buy It!

After you’ve gone to great lengths to brainstorm a business name, you’re ready to buy. It’s wise to purchase a domain as a package with your web hosting, since you’ll need both anyway. This can usually get you a discount or spare the cost of the domain name altogether.

But wait, what if my domain name is taken?

You have options. You could come up with a new name, slightly modify the domain name with a suffix, or try a different extension than .com. You could also use Whois to contact the current domain owner and get their asking price. If the domain is privately registered, you could also use a broker to negotiate on your behalf. It all depends on how badly you want that name. At the very least, it doesn’t hurt to reach out. You’ll be able to tell from the looks of the site whether it’ll be expensive to purchase or not. There’s no market rate for buying a domain name from somebody. It could cost you $10, or in the case of insurance.com’s 2010 sale - $35.6 million!

Registering Your Domain

Now that you’ve purchased a domain you’re happy with, you need to register it. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) lists 2,943 domain registrars, but there’s no reason to make a straightforward thing so difficult. Register your domain with one of the well-known providers, like Yahoo Small Business, and you’re done! Well, sort of. It’ll take a few days for your site to update in the Domain Name System (DNS).

That’s a wrap. Hopefully we’ve put the lingering question that brought you here: “How do I get a domain name for my business?” to rest.

Already have ideas brewing for your site’s name? Use Yahoo Small Business to choose your business domain name today.

Yahoo Small Business Presents: Optimizing Advantages Of Ecommerce Apps For Any Business on US Sports Net!

Optimizing Advantages Of Ecommerce Apps For Any Business

By: Jame William

Geographical limitations are reduced with ecommerce apps, they allow users the flexibility they need to shop conveniently. Branding, relationships, and traffic are factors to consider when determining the ins-and-outs of a Mobile app development company. Application Downloads Content layout, navigation systems, and semantic structure are used to enhance conversion rates when customer retention for a Mobile app development company is optimized. Keeping semantic structure attractive and simple captivates users’ attention with user-friendly content. Maximizing download capabilities is the job of the successful ecommerce app designer, and these tactics help in this regard. Advertising and marketing, real estate, and personal transactions are three areas that lower cost expenses when managed well. For example, customers can find products easier by utilizing nifty search box use with query builders as opposed to pushing a shopping cart around a crowded store for days on end; as such, these Mobile apps boost off-line brand experience, and help find loyal customers. Degrees of Consistency Cross platform design consistency can be optimized with the use of style guides that incorporate product keywords and specifics. Considering user learning curves with product descriptions and services helps website designers refine user interface and content to ensure content reflects design. User Lifetime Value Strategy analysis calculates lifetime value contributed by customer retention, and uses this figure to gauge both historic and predictive customer loyalty values (CLV) according to a timeline that delves into the past, as well as the future. There’s a figure that simply sums up past purchases to calculate a historic figure; while another figure is based on behavioral indicators of users to incorporate a predicative figure. In-application Referrals Customer information from registration forms and cookies in a browser’s settings enable communication of relevant messages. Application Performance Analytics Application rankings depend on the amount of times it has been downloaded, and the review it has received. It’s important for a business to manage download and review processes to determine what captures user demographic. Application Ratings and Review Analytics User behavior analysis comes in handy when collecting user meta data, while retention analytics seeks and retains a loyal customer base. Whatever approach a strategist takes, it should be data-informed: such as identifying leading metrics and qualitative data that keeps users coming back. User time In-application Marketers like in-app messaging because unlike push-notifications they are not time-sensitive. Notifying customers with relevant messages while they are busy using the app is critical in maintaining user engagement. "Abandoned cart messages", "price change notifications", and "out-of-stock updates" are examples of push-notifications that work. Session Interval The amount of time a user spends on an app produces session metrics of length and interval use. Knowing session length times and levels of user engagement help website developers apply insights gained. Conclusion Focusing on user-data metrics to tailor ecommerce mobile app experience is how ecommerce app are managed to maintain user-engagement that lasts a lifetime. Iam Jame Working As a Seo Analyst in egrove systems.I hope my company satisfies with my work.William.jame142@gmail.com

Yahoo Small Business Presents: Comprehensive and Strategic Inbound Marketing Services on US Sports Net!

Comprehensive and Strategic Inbound Marketing Services

By: Sanjose Joseph

All types of businesses including small and startup can benefit with inbound strategy services Inbound Marketing Inbound Marketing is a data-driven approach to digital marketing that attracts the individuals and converts them into customers or promoters of your business. It’s a methodology that utilizes pull marketing methods, develop advertising and several promotional strategies to attract more prospects. Inbound marketing services are increasing its popularity in the field of marketing and advertising for the last several years. It has been the most effective marketing method for doing business online since 2006 and has been growing in effectiveness. SEO, PPC, content marketing, blogging services, social media, events and more are some of the forms of inbound marketing that help create brand awareness and enhance business growth. Why Inbound Marketing Agency Need to Perform Marketing Every business whether its small or startup needs to do online marketing to build a strong online presence and also reach hundreds of potential customers online. But if you are looking for a long-term, integrated marketing system to be built for your business that helps your business get found, get leads and also drive-in sales, then an inbound marketing service is a right choice for your needs. Traditional outbound marketing campaigns like cold emails, cold calls, direct mail, and interruptive ads are not as effective as they were earlier. Nowadays, consumers have access to tons of information from the marketers online. So, a well-planned inbound marketing campaign will help you stand out from the competition and gain significant recognition in the market. Inbound marketing is essential for startups and smaller businesses today. 67% of B2B companies rated Inbound Marketing Services as the top priority component of their overall marketing strategy. Companies that can afford a inbound marketing agency see a 45% increase in the volume of sales accepted leads.   Inbound marketing offers a lot of new and effective techniques with numerous benefits that can: Target potential leads Drive-in traffic to your website Promote your long-term business growth Increase brand awareness Build trust and reputation Save your time and money Easily measure your efforts Inbound marketing offers the opportunity to connect with and help your leads succeed with your product. You should start taking advantage today before your potential customers engage with other sales representatives. Inbound Marketing Channels for Best Marketing Campaign There are some inbound marketing channels (paid, earned and owned), and each focuses on not only attracting the customers but also building a relationship with them. If you are looking to improve your inbound marketing results for your business, then try these avenues: Paid channels are used for displaying the content using social media channels (Facebook ads, Twitter ads, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc.), online display ads and banners. Earned media entirely rely on your audience on how they publicize (mention, share, reposts, reviews, etc.) your content on other sites. SEO and brand content drives earned media and traffic to your website. Owned media channels are those channels that you have complete control over the content and call to action on your website, blog, social media channels, mobile site, and emails. How to Setup an Inbound Marketing Strategy Inbound marketing encompasses all the best practices including website optimization, SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, leads generation and more. A deep understanding of inbound marketing practices is essential to the growth and success of your business. Here are some strategies you can employ to optimize your inbound marketing campaign: Define your audience This is the first step of a plan to identify your audience, their thoughts, needs, interests, behaviors, and problems by creating customer personas. Creating blog posts, webinars, crafting email campaigns, discussions and conducting keyword research help you get customer insights and ideas. Create your content strategy Marketers should focus on publishing quality content on different platforms that educate and engages their audiences. The right type of content that helps in generating leads will be shared and promoted. Creating long-form contents (infographics, video, gifs) using right keywords, call to action button and publishing on third-party platforms can be accessed on multiple devices. Choose your media platform Publishing the contents in several media platforms is the best strategy for inbound marketing success. You can use blogging sites or guest blogging, social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest), mobile and interactive email marketing to spread your content. Your brand should work well to create a comprehensive experience for the people on several media platforms and devices they are using. Define lead nurturing plan The lead nurturing process helps to build a relationship with your customers at every stage of the purchase funnel. Track and monitor your client behavior while clicking, sharing, tweeting, downloading, and registering your brand content or product. Content marketing and email marketing (targeted email campaigns) are the best inbound marketing tactics for leads conversion. There is better scope for getting more leads if you create valuable offers like free eBooks download, white papers, landing pages, and webinars. Optimize your Inbound Marketing efforts Evaluate the success of your inbound marketing efforts using several available metrics. You can easily check your campaign’s performance, published articles or blogs, SEO ranking of your website, the number of inbound links, etc. Google analytics helps to track your goals and conversion.Try buzzsumo for content marketing success or use Moz’s open site explorer to measure SEO success on your website and build an online presence. Conclusion: Making Inbound Marketing Strategy in the Right Way For a successful inbound marketing strategy there are various marketing automation tools that you can use to create content, nurture and score leads, and optimize the sales funnel of each customer. If you are a start-up or small business owner who wants success in the digital world, BOOSTrust offers you targeted content and also generate qualified leads to your business. info@boostrust.com https://www.boostrust.com veera_r@competensys.com

Yahoo Small Business Presents: How To Improve The Search Engine Rankings Of Your Blog

By: Tantawi Sagara

Traffic is like a source of life to bloggers, therefore search engine ranking is the thing that give bloggers their source of life; traffic. Bloggers who are interested in reaching a large audience with their blog should consider paying special attention to search engine optimization of their blog. Reaching a large audience may be a priority for a number of different reasons. One of the obvious reasons to attempt to generate increased traffic to a blog is to generate a profit. Bloggers who rely on high blog traffic for their revenue are obviously interested in increasing traffic. However, bloggers who create their blog to promote a cause may also be interested in increasing traffic simply to allow their message to reach a larger audience. Regardless of the reason to want to increase traffic, one of the best ways to do this is by optimizing the blog for search engines. This article I wrote will discuss the importance of search engine rankings and offer tips for optimizing a blog that I learnt.

Why Search Engine Rankings are Important

The importance of high search engine rankings is they can contribute to increased Internet traffic to the blog. This is because Internet users who use search engines to find information on a particular topic are much more likely to visit websites which appear on the first page of the search results than they are to visit websites which appear on subsequent pages of the search results. The websites appearing on the first page of the results are likely to get the most traffic. However, Internet users are not likely to search through more than a page or two of the search results when looking for more information on a particular subject. That's why being at the first and the second is already a big difference.

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High search engine rankings essentially act as free advertisement for a blog or website. This is because many website users rely on popular search engines to assist them in finding useful information on the Internet. The search engines apply complex algorithms to evaluate websites and rank them accordingly for specific search terms. As a result Internet users put a great deal of value on the search results produced and trust these results to lead them to the best available websites relevant to the keywords they specified in the search.

Tips for Optimizing a Blog for Search Engines

One of the most common ways to optimize a blog or website for search engines is through the use of relevant keywords. Specifically the practice of applying specific keyword densities to the content of the blog is a common search engine optimization tactic employed. Blog owners and others who attempt to optimize their websites do not always agree on the optimal density for keywords but many believe a percentage of approximately 2%-3% is appropriate.

Another method for optimizing a search engine optimization is to place relevant keywords into the code of the website. This includes the title tags and META tags. This is important because search engines often consider the prominence of keywords when evaluating a website. This refers to the location in which the keywords first appear. Placing keywords early in the content of the website is helpful but it is important to note the search engines view the code first so keywords appearing before the body of the blog will be crawled first by the search engines.

Yahoo Small Business Presents: How To Write Web 2.0 Content That Interests Online Readers

By: Brian Scott

Modern "web 2.0" writing consists of writing copy for websites, blogs, social media sites, digital publications, press releases, and so forth. Online readers tend to act more impatiently because they expect to find what they are seeking within at least ten seconds of their search. The standard time users spend reading online content is around 15-20 seconds. For this reason, you need to appeal to the reader to visit your website within that timeframe. To accomplish this goal, you need to write informative content that greatly interests readers.

Here are my 5 favorite tips to improve your writing.

Tip 1: Always write clearly, and know what message you want to communicate in your copy. Online readers are quite eager to move from article to article. If you write content that readers struggle to understand, then you can bet that these readers will not return to your website a second time. Convey your thoughts, ideas and concepts clearly, and your readers can learn something valuable from you.
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Tip 2: Always write concisely. This differs from writing clearly. Here, you want to be direct and to the point. Avoid writing flowery, pompous, descriptive prose. Online readers don't have time to read long-winded sentences that go nowhere. Concise writing is important to hold readers' attention. Writing concisely allows you to explain your topic clearly and with more impact.

Tip 3: Begin the first paragraph with the main point of your message. The first sentence of the paragraph should clue the reader into what you are about to discuss. Online readers like to "speed read" through content; if you put the main point first in every paragraph, then the reader is more likely to spend time reading the full content. Avoid writing the history or past facts about a topic until you have discussed the main point; then you can expand on the topic with supporting details. It is also good writing practice to vary sentence and paragraph length because it is easier on the eyes,

Tip 4: Write copy with a 2% or less keyword-density ratio. If you tend to shove in keywords and phrases in an attempt to rank higher in Google, you are doing an injustice to your readers. Do not clog informative articles with keywords because you will destroy the integrity of the information. Readers hate keyword-stuffing, and Google hates it even more. This isn't to say that you shouldn't use keywords; but be discreet and favor useful content over keyword-stuffing.

Tip 5: Retain the keyword distance and keyword density while writing your copy. Use only one keyword in one sentence or every 2-3 sentences. You can calculate keyword-density by dividing the sum of each keyword by the sum of words in the copy. Stuffing too many keywords in your content will have a negative effect on your website so use keywords and phrases sparingly.

Always remember these tips when writing content for online readers. You should aim to: 1) attract readers; 2) increase traffic; 3) convert readers into customers; and 4) increase online sales.

 This article was written by Brian Scott, a professional freelance copywriter. To learn more tips on how to write concisely in plain English, visit Brian's free website, http://www.lousywriter.com.

Yahoo Small Business Presents: Easy steps on how to build your Email marketing list on Us Sports Net!

By: Jack Gavin

The end goal of internet marketing is to build a steady stream of traffic to your web site in order to attract more business. Building a growing list of customers is important especially when you begin your email marketing campaign. You need a list of people to whom you can send your email based marketing collaterals. Usually, one of the basic ways of building a list of email addresses is by using a squeeze page. People who decide to opt in your list basically gives you permission to accept any promotional emails from you. But a squeeze page alone will not be enough to give you a hefty list of email addresses that you’ll need. You need to make sure that what you’re doing is the right thing at the right time.

Follow these easy steps that will help you build that list:

Make the squeeze page. I’ve mentioned the squeeze page already but just to stress its importance a squeeze page is a great way to start building your email marketing list. Just make sure that you clearly state why people should opt in to your list. State the benefits of signing in and keep the content brief. The aim is for them to sign in and that’s what you should focus on. Don’t distract them with useless content or attempt a sales pitch for your products or services.

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Cut down on graphics. Your squeeze page should not be overwhelmed by various graphics. The focal point of the page should be your message to visitors, not any kind of fancy graphics. Remember, opting in is the main goal here.

Opting in should be a simple process. Make subscription to your site a worry-free, straightforward affair – your visitors will thank you for it. A handy opt-in box that can be easily found and clicked on is the best way to do it. Don’t make them hesitate for one bit, make clicking that box as easy as possible.

An incentive will make them want to click. Let’s face it, any visitor will be more inclined to do what you ask them to do if they know that they can get something out of it. An incentive for joining your subscription is a sure way to make visitors join, and it’s also a great way to make these visitors tell other people about your site. The free incentive, especially if it is enticing enough, will compel people who click on your opt in box tell their friends about it. In a way, your free incentive pays for itself in the form of more people in your email marketing list.

Establish an auto-responder. Make the people who opt in to your site feel especially welcome by immediately sending them a "welcome" email. They will feel more special and valuable. Try to include whatever it is you promised them in the email. An auto-responder can be set up in order to automate this task for you.

Use the power of Social media sites and forums. Social media sites and forums are filled with literally millions of people. Use this virtual population to highlight your site so that you can mine more visitors who will opt in to your site.

Yahoo Small Business-Managing Legal Issues for a Small Business

By Laura Sherman | Small Business

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Whether you run a small, medium or large business, you will undoubtedly need to handle various legal issues. Some tasks you can do on your own, while others really require a lawyer. As a general rule of thumb, the larger your company, the more employees you have, the greater your need will be to hire an attorney.When and how to hire a lawyer
The first thing to determine is if you really need an attorney. They cost hundreds of dollars per hour, so if you’re anything like me, you’d like to avoid that expense. Of course, while you can ask an attorney to handle many legal aspects of your business, there are a number of legal tasks you can handle yourself, with a little research. Some examples are:

• Establishing a basic business structure.
• Applying for an Employer Identification Number (EIN).
• Submitting IRS forms.
• Obtaining a domain name for your company.

It goes without saying that anything involving a lawsuit will probably require a lawyer. Avoid that at all costs by setting things up properly from the start. It’s a good plan to build a relationship with a lawyer when you set up a new company, before you’re in desperate need.
Cliff Ennico, attorney and author of Small Business Survival Guide succinctly and accurately states, “If you’re being sued, it’s too late.” He goes on to advise that once you’re in the court system it’s hard and expensive to get out.
When you decide that you need a lawyer, interview a few to find the right match. Create a list of questions ahead of time, so you don’t get tongue-tied during the interview.
It’s a good idea to find an experienced lawyer, who has connections to other lawyers who might help out if a need arises. Make sure to hire a lawyer who knows your industry well and has other clients in that arena. Having said that, avoid one that represents any fierce competitors.
While your list of questions are important, it’s also good to gauge his or her communication skills. A good lawyer must be able to explain complex legal issues in an easy to understand way, helping you to prevent problems before they happen through education.
Start-up
One key legal decision you’ll need to make before you start is which business structure is best for your needs. You can establish an LLC, S or C corporation yourself if you do a little research. Or you can hire an attorney to help you set it up. They usually charge a one-time fee.
There are various advantages and disadvantages to each option, so make sure to do your homework before settling on a structure. For instance, while a sole proprietorship is inexpensive and easy to set up, you’ll be personally liable for all debts and lawsuits. On the flip side, with an LLC, you are protected if someone sues you, but there are fees involved and the paperwork can be confusing.
When starting up a new company, make sure to determine permits and licenses you might need. Don’t forget to consider any zoning regulations that might apply as well.
Contracts
As a business owner, you will probably need a variety of contracts. It’s wise to hire a lawyer to help you create these, so you are well protected. Some common contracts you might need would be:

• A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
• A partnership agreement
• An independent contractor contract
• A client contract

The NDA is something you need if you have any sort of proprietary information that you plan to share with anyone. Examples might include the content for a book you’re hiring an independent ghostwriter to pen, or your database of client information you plan to share with employees. Along those lines, you might consider asking your employees to sign a non-compete agreement as well, ensuring they can’t try to steal your clients.
You’ll need a good partnership agreement if you plan to run your business with someone else, even if that person is your best friend. Every single aspect of your arrangement needs to be put in writing. A few examples would be:

• What each person does and what they each should contribute.
• Who gets paid what amount of the profits.
• How decisions are made
• How disagreements are settled.
• What happens if the partnership dissolves.

If you plan to outsource to independent contractors, you’ll need a good Work for Hire contract template. You will need to customize one for each job and contractor, depending on the service required, but having that template will save time later.
Client contracts need to be complete and clear, but not overwhelmingly long and complex. It’s a fine line. Do your best to negate any warranties your client might naturally expect and be sure to include a section requiring arbitration if a dispute arises.

Hiring your first employee
If you plan to hire full-time employees, you’ll need to research and comply with state and federal regulations. Of course, if you only need to hire independent contractors, you don’t need to go through the following steps. It’s important to know the difference, so that you handle their employment taxes appropriately.
When hiring employees, you’ll need to apply for an employment identification number (EIN), so you can file reports to your state agencies and pay taxes.
Next you’ll need a system for recording all the employment taxes you withhold. You need to save this data for at least four years. These records will help you in the future to monitor your progress and keep track of expenses you can deduct later. You will need to file the IRS Form 941 quarterly, so each employee is credited with the taxes that were withheld from their paycheck.
Have each employee fill out an I-9 form, verifying their eligibility to work legally in the United States, within three days of their hire. As their employer, you must keep this I-9 form on file for at least three years after the hire or, if you fire them, for one year following that event.
You will then need to report your new employee to your state directory. To get a list of New Hire Reporting Centers check out this list of state agencies: https://www.sba.gov/content/new-hire-reporting-your-state
And finally, you’ll need to carry workers’ compensation insurance and place posters in the workplace, informing the employees of their rights in this area.
As a new business owner, it’s important to keep on top of all your basic legal concerns from the get-go. It might be tempting to push them off until later, but you’ll find your company will run smoother if things are set up correctly from the start.
As Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” References:
https://www.sba.gov/blogs/top-legal-concerns-impact-small-businesses-and-where-find-answers
http://www.businessdictionary.com/article/538/common-legal-issues-faced-by-businesses/
http://www.alllaw.com/articles/legal/article15.asp
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aileron/2014/07/02/top-10-legal-mistakes-small-businesses-make/
https://www.sba.gov/content/hire-your-first-employee
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/58326
https://www.sba.gov/content/hire-contractor-or-employee
http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/small-business-make-a-contract.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/small-business/business-forms
http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/business-lawyer-resources/when-do-i-need-a-business-lawyer-for-my-small-business.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2013/10/03/big-legal-mistakes-made-by-start-ups/

Yahoo Small Business-Tips Every Business Website Builder Should Know

By | Small Business

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Equal parts art and science, establishing a business website requires a careful blend of esthetics, psychology and common sense. Happily, a good business website builder like the one provided by Yahoo Small Business takes all those factors into consideration. However, platforms such as these also give you the freedom to customize your website as you see fit. With that in mind, here are some tips every business website builder should know.

Get to Know Your Ideal Customer

Whatever your business, the design and functioning of your site should be predicated upon the answer to the following two questions: “Who is my ideal customer and what do they want?” You can then design your site specifically to appeal to that person, virtually guaranteeing your efforts will resonate with them.
If you’re selling clothes to teenagers, the tone of your site should be markedly different than if you’re pitching municipal infrastructure support. This might seem obvious, but too many business owners miss it.

Quality Is an Important Consideration

If you’re just starting out, rather than getting caught up in a lot of different functionalities that add complexity and expense to the project, focus on the basics and make them as good as they can possibly be. Compress images to ensure faster load times (less than three seconds is preferable). Employ responsive design so your site will display and perform optimally in a mobile environment. In other words, do everything you can to be certain each visitor’s experience on your site is both pleasant and informative. 


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Pictures Speak Volumes

Whatever you’re representing, find a way to competently depict it in pictures. Use high-quality photographs and label them so search engines can find them. Original images are always preferred—if your budget permits. When you’re dealing with a complicated topic, video is a strong ally in your quest to inform. If yours is a service-oriented or professional enterprise, use photos of your actual associates and employees to add legitimacy to the presentation. Your goal here is to help potential customers envision themselves interacting with your offerings in a positive manner.

Calls to Action Should be Hearty & Visible

A basic axiom in sales is “always be closing”. Every aspect of your site should be designed to promote your products or services. In other words, it should always be closing. Robust calls to action are of tremendous help in this regard. Offer visitors incentives for taking the desired action and encourage them with language such as: “Get $100 in gifts for booking your free consultation now!” Calls to action should be featured prominently, so your users won’t have to hunt around for them.
Keeping these tips every business website builder should know in mind when you design your site will give you the best shot at attracting a strong customer base. However, while the process is indeed equal parts art and science, it doesn’t have to be rocket science. Let Yahoo Small Business help you get started today with a free consultation!

Yahoo Small Business-Crafting Your Ecommerce Privacy Policy

By | Small Business

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Taking advantage of the best ecommerce platform – like those provided by Yahoo Small Business – is a great way to get your online business off to a strong start. But if you really want to win your customers’ hearts and minds, tell them how you’ll keep their data secure too. You’re going to be asking people to disclose financial information, after all. So, crafting your ecommerce privacy policy to demonstrate your dedication to protection is the smartest thing you can do for building consumer trust.

Here’s how to build an eCommerce privacy policy.

Respect and Safeguard Privacy

There are a few ways to respect consumer privacy and safeguard digital information:

• Promise to protect their disclosures against fraud and misappropriation.
• Respect their preferences regarding the use of their information and limit your data collection solely to what is absolutely required to conduct business.
• Be completely forthcoming about what information you collect and with whom it will be shared.
• Let them know how mistakes will be corrected, how their data is secured and how policy changes will be communicated.
• Finally, you should apprise users of the means available to them to present any concerns they may have.

Securing Their Data

If you’re asking for credit card information, bank account numbers or Social Security numbers (which you shouldn’t need at all), it is your responsibility to ensure storage and transmission of this data in the most secure manner possible.

About Emails…

In many cases, customers will opt-in to email communications without realizing they’ve done so. When they ask to unsubscribe, you’re required by law to enable them to do so. You can save yourself a lot of trouble if you make email opt-out options readily visible. This also establishes you as someone who can be counted upon to conduct business in an above-board fashion.
Too many sites make the opt-out process incredibly difficult or even invisible, as if that will discourage irritated people from doing so. Meanwhile, this irritates them even more. If you’re conducting business with good intentions, there’s no reason to hide your opt-out button. In fact, making it plainly visible says you’re someone who can be trusted.


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Protecting Children

If your site appeals to children younger than 13 in any way, you must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Acknowledging this in your privacy policy will go a long way toward helping parents feel good about your intentions toward their families.

Honor Their Preferences

Strict adherence to your privacy policy is paramount if you want to retain customer confidence. While not doing so isn’t always a violation of the law per se, you can expect the Federal Trade Commission to come calling in certain cases if you do not.
Making every effort to keep your customers safe and happy is the best way to build a strong and loyal following. Crafting your ecommerce privacy policy along these lines—on one of the best ecommerce platforms available—will get your store off to a great start.
Looking to start your own ecommerce site? Check out what Yahoo Small Business has to offer.

If Hard-to-Get Loans Are the Problem, Who’s to Blame?

BY ADRIENNE BURKE | SMALL BUSINESS

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Who’s to blame for the slowdown in startups? Recent research shows entrepreneurship is stagnating, and a Senate hearing explored the consequences of an America without entrepreneurs.

A bank CEO points a finger at the Small Business Administration. Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, M&T Bank CEO Robert Wilmers says that the U.S. agency tasked with helping small firms has “deviated from its core mission.”

Citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data that show the pace of new business formation is at its lowest in more than two decades, Wilmers says that “half as many small businesses receive loans from the agency’s 7(a) loan-guaranty programs today as did before the recession” and that SBA’s own records “reveal these loans support only two-thirds as many jobs as they did in 2007.”

Part of the problem is 528 pages of regulations that “make it difficult for smaller banks to participate in SBA’s loan programs,” and have contributed to “a 13% reduction in bank participation since 2012,” he says. Also, alternative lenders are on the rise.

Kabbage, Lending Club, Dealstruck, and SnapCap are among the expanding breed of non-bank lenders that offer higher-interest-rate loans online to business owners with fewer regulations than banks. Wilmers suggests that traditional banks like his are more reliable and knowledgeable when it comes to serving local businesses, and better equipped to make loans that suit a community’s needs. “Credit well-extended helps create viable small businesses, which means new jobs, filled by people who buy homes and cars, shop for groceries and clothing, go to movies and museums, pay taxes and give to charities,” Wilmers writes.

To fuel entrepreneurship, he says, the government should re-focus the SBA on lending through community banks.

Predictably, readers of the business publication tend to disagree. “We need dramatically less government, not ‘better’ government,” was the sentiment shared by one commenter and echoed by 30 others. Many complained about the lengthy and costly SBA loan application process, too.

Only one commenter, Natalie Jocovic, praised SBA’s work making loans to businesses through banks: She is an executive with SmartBiz, an online platform designed to streamline the SBA application process. “Online platforms are partnering with the SBA and virtualizing what happens when a small business owner walks into a bank,” she wrote. “With smaller loan sizes, a streamlined, dynamic online application, and stellar customer service, fintech startups like SmartBiz are delivering nicely on the SBA’s promise to help SMBs and add jobs. In fact, the companies that have received SBA funding through our platform planned to retain or add more than 10,000 jobs to the economy as a result of their loans.”

Could the banks, not the SBA, be the problem?