NHSBDC Business Tips

New NH SBDC business advisor to serve Belknap and Grafton Counties

Sally Holder has been hired as a new business advisor with the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center (NH SBDC) working from offices in Belknap and Grafton Counties.  She is one of nine professional and certified business advisors working in NH SBDC offices throughout the state.

NH SBDC business advisors help by providing professional advice on how to create a business plan, how to finance a business, how to improve operations and how to bring new products to market, for example. 

Holder has a diverse business background, including as a vice president of finance, a tax accountant, small business consultant, database designer, and controller.  Her work experiences involved various stages of business growth in the wholesale, construction, retail, light manufacturing and not-for-profit industries. Holder is a certified public accountant whose continuing education courses focused on tax-related and retirement plan issues, as well as being a Pro Advisor for QuickBooks Accounting and POS.

Holder has office hours in two locations for the convenience of clients.   In Plymouth, her offices are with the Grafton County Economic Development Council, 131 Main Street.  Business owners can meet with her there 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays or by appointment.

In Laconia, offices are located at 38 S. Main Street, where Sally’s office hours are Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For either location, Sally can be reached at 603- 397-8404 or via email at Sally.Holder@unh.edu

Holder’s position is funded  by a Rural Business Enterprise Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a Community Development Block Grant from the Community Development Finance Authority. The Grafton County Economic Development Council and the Belknap County Economic Development Council are partners with the NH SBDC in providing business advising services in these two locations.

 

When "to-do" should be "to-don’t"

The Young Entrepreneur Council recently asked its members, "If you could eliminate one task from your business day, what would it be and why?" Here are some of the answers:

Saying yes to "got-a-minute?’ meetings 
They never last just a minute, and can often take over your day.

Scheduling conference calls
Without an agenda and a time limit, they can become enormous time wasters.

Doing logistical work
Is your time better spent doing creative work and delegating the logistics to someone else?

Making phone calls
If they’re taking up too much time, stick to email or face-to-face meetings.

Bouncing between tasks
You may lose time switching tasks, as well as the natural flow required to accomplish a task.

If you think about it, you can probably come up with your own list of tasks that are taking more time than they should—and ways to adapt or avoid them.

Read the complete article here: http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2013/11/13/what-one-task-would-you-eliminate-from-your-work-day-why/?utm_source=brief

Want to impress investors? Know your OATTs

If you’re courting investors, be prepared for a lot of questions, most of which boil down to this: Why should we give you money? What makes you different?

To answer that question, you need to do a thorough competitive analysis of the market you’re entering, including the risks and potential payoff involved. Then you need to present your value proposition—what’s unique about your proposal, what problem are you going to solve, and how? According to David Ehrenberg of Early Growth Financial Services, the answer to those questions involves four aspects of your business: Offering, Approach, Technology, and Team (or OATT).

Offering
What will you do or sell that’s different? Will it be better, cheaper, easier to use? Find a hook and use it to make your case.

Approach
What’s your marketing plan? Spell out your sales strategy and how you plan to reach your market.

Technology
How are you going to take advantage of technology to power your business? Make sure you have a plan to stay on top of new technologies as they evolve.

Team
The people working with and for you could be a big selling point, especially if they have experience and successes to their credit.

Read Ehrenberg’s complete article, "What Investors Really Want to Know," at this link:

http://asbdcbizblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-investors-really-want-to-know.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AsbdcBizBlog+%28ASBDC+Biz+Blog%29

 

Small Business Saturday is November 30!

November 30 is Small Business Saturday, the annual event to encourage consumers to support their local small businesses. Here are a few tips to help you prepare and take advantage of the event:

Create an event 
Throw a party, an open house, or fair. Showcase the things local businesses have to offer. If possible, leverage existing events already going on in your area to promote Small Business Saturday.

Spread the buzz by social media. 
Use your status update on Facebook or Twitter feed to promote the event. Use the hashtags #SmallBizSat or #ShopSmall. Here are some sample tweets:

• Did you know there are 28M #smallbiz in the US? Shop small on Nov.30: http://www.sba.gov/saturday#SmallBizSat
• #Smallbiz create 2 out of every 3 net new jobs- Show your support by shopping small on Nov.30:http://www.sba.gov/saturday #SmallBizSat
• 7.8M US businesses are owned by women-Shop at your favorite women-owned smallbiz Sat, Nov. 30:http://www.sba.gov/saturday #SmallBizSat 

Talk to the media
Local newspapers and radio are always on the hunt for stories. See if you can get local officials, celebrities and media contacts involved to help spread the message.

Encourage other small businesses to participate.
The more businesses that take part, the bigger buzz you’ll create about the day.

Talk it up.
Tell the folks you’re standing in line with at the bank and the grocery store. Discuss it over dinner. 

Unhappy client? Maybe it’s unrealistic expectations.

Every business deals with unhappy clients now and then. That could happen because your product or service is at fault. But it may be because the client’s expectations were too high—and that could be your fault.

How to prevent that? Here are a few tips:

1. Don’t set the bar too high. 
If you promise more than you can deliver in terms of your expertise and capabilities, you’re setting yourself up for a dissatisfied customer. Sometimes you may have to turn down a project that’s beyond your abilities, at least for now. The client will appreciate your honesty, and you may have a chance to serve them later, rather than having to apologize when you can’t meet their expectations.

2. Know what the client expects.
Ask as many questions as you can to determine what the client really needs. You may have a great product or service, but if it doesn’t line up exactly with what the client needs, the relationship may misfire.

3. Know what to charge.
Is this job something new that you haven’t done before? Will you have to spend hours on the phone with the client? If so, set your pricing and make sure the client knows what the boundaries are before you start, to reduce headaches later.

For more on dealing with client expectations before they become a problem, see this article by consultant Angela Stringfellow.

https://www.openforum.com/articles/the-trick-to-managing-insane-client-expectations/?extlink=of-syndication-sb-p