Take your time.

A lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs make that mistake of rushing to get funds. Investors would want to see a firm’s track record. And when your record improves, so does your company valuation. Continue achieving your goals and growing the company.

Try to focus on revenue.

A lot of entrepreneurs focus on consumers rather than generating revenue, especially in the tech space. The larger your customer base is, the harder it is for your competitor to come in—this is perhaps the most popular theory. But this doesn’t always work. Consumers are used to free things and aren’t keen on having to pay. Develop revenue opportunities through time.

Prepare for the limelight.

The more successful you are; the greater are your chances for publicity—whether that is on television, websites, news, magazines or books. And this is an attention catcher for most investors. So prepare to live life in a glass house, you need the good publicity.

Banks aren’t your friends.

These financial institutions love to talk about partnering with you and being friends. But they don’t and they aren’t. Banks are out there to generate revenue and the interest isn’t the priority of their executives. But that is fine. There is still time to negotiate for the best deals and review the bank’s performance. If you cannot get a good level of cooperation from the bank to run your business, then look for a bank that delivers what you require.

It will take off after funding.

A lot of people who haven’t gone through the process think that generating funds is the finish line, after which you can run the business the way you view as proper. They often forget that raising capital usually happens in waves and that the successive rounds depend on the success of the past ones.

Ask when dad is smiling.

When you are about to ask someone a favor, make sure to catch them in good mood. And smiles aren’t that many lately. The mood of Silicon Valley capitalists has been decreasing for the past quarters. But a good Facebook IPO can change that and will increase their confidence in general.

Open up to them.

Tell your workforce something about yourself so that they can understand you better. Share to them some of your worries, idiosyncrasies and hopes. Disclosing yourself to others is a sign that you are respect them and you want to invest in this professional relationship. It also sets up the pace for in depth business conversations. Being open to others helps build an environment where people understand you more, resulting to a higher efficiency level.

Show interest.

Know your employees better by asking them a few personal questions. A lot of CEOs share airplane rides with their subordinates but fail to learn or talk to that person. Most of your employees are waiting for you to ask them questions relating to them. It gives them this chance to express their own fears, hopes and story. This practice isn’t just about being warm and fuzzy. Asking them also lets you match key jobs to their talents.

Ask for advice. Listen.

Excellent leaders solicit opinions in one-on-one sessions and group sessions. Collecting advices and candid reviews will help you make better and more informed decisions. This habit also shows that you respect your workforce’s opinions and views. It encourages your employees to sympathize with you and even act like owners.

Understand your employees better and they will trust and understand you more. This is the key to being an effective leader.

The SBA Loan Program

The SBA’s loan program is the biggest government backed financing program for small business owners and entrepreneurs. The program encourages leaders to work with firms that they consider risky. The SBA doesn’t really make the loans. They only guarantee a part of the loans made to businessmen from financial institutions. Depending on loan size, the SBA can guarantee 75 to 85 percent of the total amount. The 7a program can finance up to five million, which can be used for long term capital, equipment purchase or purchase a business.

New Markets Tax Credits

The NMTC program is designed to encourage investments in low income locations. Investments get a total of 39 percent tax credit in a period of seven years. NMTC funds are generally used for real estate, with about 82 percent used in this industry. Using the NMTC, entrepreneurs can build or renovate physical locations such as warehouses, retail locations, office space and manufacturing facilities.

Community Development Financial Institutions

CDFIs are institutions which support economic growth of low income communities. Credit unions, venture funds, and banks may be certified with this program and then use these funds to invest in real estate or business, offer financial services in low income communities and generate consumer loans. The availability of CDFI financing depends on the geographical location of the business. Some of the metropolitan areas that exhibit the most CDFI activities include New Orleans, Milwaukee, Memphis, Austin, Bronx, Durham, Nashville, Spokane and Modesto.

Email Reminders and Newsletters

A good way to encourage return visits is through an email reminder. Add an opt in form to your website so that users can sign up to receive notifications every time you publish a new post. This is a subtle way of building readership base. If you are sending out monthly newsletters, you can also include links to recent or popular blog entries.

RSS Feed

Let users subscribe to your blog through an RSS feed. RSS stands for ‘really simple syndication’. Users can enter the URL of your feed into their reader (e.g. Google Reader), and when you update your site, they can easily access the headline and a short description of the full post. Don’t forget to include an RSS icon on your website.

Sharing Tools

Install ShareThis buttons that will conveniently publish your post to community sites and social media channels. Aside from having the typical “Tweet” or “Like” buttons, you may also include crowd sourced aggregators such as Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon and Technorati.

Update Communities at Once

There are free online tools that will let you update all your social networking sites at one such as Hootsuite and Ping.fm. Some tools even allow you to schedule posts and tweets for the entire week ahead of time.

Provide interactive tutorials.

It will be difficult to ask people to regularly tweet when they don’t know what the @mention is. Start by hosting interactive tutorials for Twitter and Facebook. You can also assign tasks during the start of the tutorial, like creating a special hashtag and then asking them to tweet photos or ideas from the tutorial.

Focus on exciting and fun ways to use Twitter.

Show employees on how to use a hashtag that they can relate to. Show food lovers on your team lists of food truck Twitter users and see how they park. As soon as they know the creative uses of these sites, they will discover ways on how they can get information that are applicable to their task.

Spot influencers in the office.

You may already have social media fanatics in your company. Know who these employees are and highlight their content. For instance, the member who has the most updated Instagram account can be in charge of documenting your firm’s party or event. Encourage employees to mention your corporate account when they share related content or news. This will attract more and more outside users to your company.

Sponsor an internal contest or campaign.

Get your employees involved in a fun campaign or contest. You may sponsor an Instagram photo contest, where the winning entries get to be framed and serve as office art. Make sure you backup these contests with incentives or prices.

Engage.

Try to foster a sense of community as your firm starts to become more social media savvy. People learn new things and communicate in social media channels. These sites can boost your company’s overall moral by integrating the experience of working together.

Try to look before you leap.

Initially, find out the people who are talking about your industry and where they do it. Is consumers are talking about your product in Twitter, then that is a good place for you to start building a community. Focus on one or two communities at the beginning and take it one step at a time.

Dig deeper.

You can use Twitter search to find out the users who are talking about your company and even your competitors. You can follow these people, talk and engage with them. You can begin a relevant following this way. Most startups are in a rush to build their community. But try to slow down and get to know all your users at a time.

Leverage connections at your disposal.

Ask friends and networks to be a part of your community. Think about deals and partnerships you can make to build your social community.

Don’t just think of numbers.

Think about growing quality followers and a fan base that is engaging and sharing your web content. Suggest opportunities for users to share or tweet to their friends.

Patience is the key.

Building a strong and engaging social community requires a lot of patience. You may go through that awkward moment when conversations may be a little forced or users aren’t initiating conversations on their own. If your account doesn’t go viral immediately, don’t give up.

Engage and help the community.

Having a couple of Twitter followers or perhaps fan page likes doesn’t mean that you already have a community. Try to focus on creating a community where people talk with each other and not just you. Build a community that won’t just stick around, but something that will be a huge supporter of your business.

Track your progress.

Put numbers on what you are doing and track them based on your company goals. List down which efforts get more response and do them frequently. These data tell stories so make sure you pay attention to them.

Customer loyalty equates to profitability. And the reason behind is pretty simple—it costs more money to get new customers than keep the current ones. When customer loyalty does not exist, people easily leave. Unfortunately, you end up sacrificing more than 30 percent of your sales year to get back the numbers on where you were last year.

With this in mind, have you ever wondered how the best salespeople keep their clients wanting and craving for more? It may not be entirely because of their products or they are brilliant at schmoozing. The key to customer loyalty is putting customer interests ahead of your own. Here are eight guidelines to make that happen for your business.

• Develop a sales philosophy that focuses on relationship building with clients.
• Define your own niche and be an expert on it.
• Help the customers build their own business.
• Translate the things that you offer in terms of client’s business results.
• Value relationships than quotas.
• Try to think of end of time friendships and not the end of month revenue totals.
• Provide impeccable customer service after the sale.

Be a customer advocate—it is really that simple.

Shift your income and expenses.

A lot of small business owners use a type of cash based accounting. This means that you don’t pay taxes on income unless you have it, and you won’t have to claim tax write offs until you spend the money. Tell your clients they don’t have to rush in paying you before New Year, pay your telephone bill and run the digits.

Pay family members.

Has your son been sweeping the store for the entire year? You can still add up some of your family members on the payroll and tag them as general contractors. Count the allowance or compensation you have given them as business expense.

Make your vacation pay for itself.

If you are enjoying the azure beach in Hawaii while reading this article, then something is not right with you. But something is really wrong with you if you have not scheduled a meeting with your client or other business related meeting that will let you write off holiday travel costs as a company expense.

Set up the 401k.

An individual who is under 50 years old can save up to $49K in a year. A self employed individual will have plenty of time to get a good deal of retirement savings from company taxes. And as with IRA, you can make deposits until the April tax deadline. The 401k needs to be submitted by December 31.

• Bank statements for business
• Check register
• Loan documents
• Business credit card statements
• Receipts for asset purchases
• Sales register
• Lease documents for shop, office space, vehicles, equipment & etc.
• Insurance policy

Setting up an Office Filing System

Make a file for every vendor and another miscellaneous folder for all one time purchases. When the year ends, remove the vendor files to your storage tubs labeled with tax year and make new files for the present year. And if you are properly audited, files should be organized and it will be easier for you to provide the bookkeeper or auditor with the necessary documents that he may need for tax return examination.

Pay Bills with the Accounting Software

Instead of writing down checks and then posting them to your books, you can make a check on your desktop screen and then print it using check stock. This automatically posts payments on the right expense account.

Making Right Deductions

Depending on the industry you are in, you are allowed to deduct all necessary and ordinary business expenses. Your accountant or bookkeeper should be able to design a Chart of Accounts that will contain all allowed business expenses.

• Make sure you adhere to the rules on entertainment and meals. Cost should never be extravagant and business meals must take place in a conducive environment.
• Be careful with your ambiguous expenses.
• Deduct your company’s insurance policies appropriately.

If you are still not sure about handling deductions, make sure you ask your bookkeeper about it.

Capacity

This refers to your ability to repay bank debt in a timely manner. Banks and other financial institutions will look at your company’s financial history to help them find out whether to grant the loan or not. Make sure that your firm history has an excellent repayment record.

Character

Financial institutions and banks want to make sure that they are giving away money to a trustworthy and reputable business. They are also expecting for you to an expert in the industry where your company operates in. The reputation of your business shouldn’t be underestimated when it comes to searching for available financing resources. Banks will also look at your personal credit, so ensuring that you have a good credit score is imperative.

Capital

If you have not invested in your business, why would a bank? Financial institutions will assess all financial investments that you and your partners have made since it is a good sign of your interest in the business venture.

Collateral

Collateral is known as the most important aspect for obtaining loan and establishing a reputable credit line. This can be anything from equipment, real estate to purchase orders. Old trucks and used equipments that will not generate substantial money may not be considered by banks.

Conditions

Financial institutions would want to know the purpose of your loan and the current industry trends. It is crucial to know that certain banks have industry preferences and so it would be wise to go for banks that are likely to view your business favorably.