NHSBDC Business Tips

ChallengeHER Campaign from SBA aims to help women-owned businesses gain government contracts

Every year, the United States government awards $100 billion in federal contracts to small businesses across the country.  Now, in conjunction with American Express and Women Impacting Public Policy, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is launching a new effort to help women-owned business owners understand how the federal procurement process works.

“ChallengeHER” will bring 7 matchmaker events to cities across the country. At these events, women-owned business owners will meet with decision-makers and learn about contracting opportunities with federal partners.  They’ll learn about larger, national initiatives as well as federal projects that may be happening in their local communities. Business owners will learn how to register their business with the System for Award Management, the portal used by federal agencies seeking small business contractors. They’ll learn about how to become eligible for the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program, which provides for some contracts to be reserved for women-owned businesses in certain industries.

ChallengeHer events will take place in these cities:

• Phoenix, AZ;
• Seattle, WA;
• New Orleans, LA;
• Denver, CO;
• Atlanta, GA;
• San Francisco, CA; and,
• New York, NY.

More details on these events will be announced by the SBA shortly.

Register now for Small Business Awards May 22 in Nashua

Six small businesses in New Hampshire will receive awards from the Small Business Administration at NH SBDC’s annual celebration, 4:45 to 7:30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua.   Tickets are $50 or $500 for Teams of 10.  

The theme for the evening is “Plan, Strategize, Play to Win” – how growing a small business is like playing croquet. You'll learn to negotiate the sticky wickets of business.

Register here: www.nhsbdc.org.

This year’s award winners are:

• Small Business Person of the Year

                D. Jay McSharry, Portsmouth

                Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Café, Dos Amigos Burritos, Moxy

•  Exporter of the Year, New Hampshire and New England Region

                Good Leads, Salem

                Founder and CEO Robert (Bob) Good

•  Jeffrey Butland Family-Owned Business

                Garland Mill Timberframes, Lancaster

                Co-Owners Benjamin (Ben) Southworth and Dana Southworth

• Veteran-Owned Business

                Team O’Neil, Dalton

                Owner and President Tim O’Neil

• Woman-Owned Business, New Hampshire and New England Region

                LaBelle Winery, Amherst

                Founder and Winemaker Amy LaBelle

•  Small Business Champion

                Devine Millimet, & Branch, P.A.

                Small Business Team

The evening’s program begins at 4:45 p.m. with a networking reception, including hors d’oeuvres, pasta bar and cash bar. The awards ceremony is at 6 p.m. and dessert and networking at 6:45 p.m.

Seating is limited. For more information, contact Heidi Edwards Dunn, h.edwardsdunn@unh.edu or 603-227-0417.  

Know how your online customers get to your products

If you sell products through an online store, you should make every attempt to learn how customers got to your site and how they made the purchase. Did they find your site from an online ad on another site? Did they find you through a link in an e-newsletter, or emailed to them from a friend? Did they just do an online search and stumble upon you?

Google is now offering an online tool “The Customer Journey to Online Purchase”to help you think about the various marketing channels you use and how effective they are according to Google’s data analysis.  The tool offers some typical purchasing trends by industry and is designed to help business owners design their future advertising or marketing campaigns to offer the best messages at the right times through the most effective channels. 

How to hang on to your best customers

It’s a good strategy to invest company time and energy in retaining your very best customers.  In this Business Marketing Association article, the author suggests you should do an analysis of your customer base, especially if you’re a business selling to other businesses. After the analysis, concentrate your efforts on those clients who provide the most return to your bottom line.  Once you’ve identified those clients, consider the following:

1) Reward them. Perhaps they’ll get a volume discount on their next order or free shipping, for example.

2) Look for ways to strengthen your relationship and earn their goodwill. Providing something for free or privileged access to insiders at the company may be options.

3) Offer help with their business. For example, if you've sold them a product that they will re-sell, offer to help with local marketing support. 

4) Suggest third-party vendors. Link your business customers to other businesses that can provide them with support.

5) Ask for their opinions. Create an advisory board (whether actual or virtual) from these top customers and ask their opinions regularly. Survey them to ask what they want and need from your company.

6) Don’t be cheap. Provide perks to your best customers and try not to cut too many corners while doing so. The perks, in some cases, may be THE reason a customer sticks with you. Ask them.  

Cyber security for your small business: Review this list of basics

Smaller companies seem to be the new targets for cyber criminals, according to this Entrepreneur.com article. This may be because the larger companies can afford sophisticated systems to keep criminals out, so the criminals are migrating to perceived easier targets--smaller companies with fewer resources. Even with limited resources, however, you should be able to take some simple steps toward protecting yourself.

1) Do you have anti-virus software? This is absolutely essential.

2) How do you handle suspicious emails? Do not open or reply to anything that looks out of the ordinary. Don’t click on suspicious links within emails. Set your email preferences to show the full address of the sender, not just their display name.

3) Make sure your employees handle passwords correctly. This might mean using upper and lower case letters, changing the password every 60 days, etc. Never allow passwords to be displayed on pieces of paper near the computer. (Read more about passwords: http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/225610)

4) You should have a system that gives only certain employees access to critical data regarding the company. Develop a specific plan for granting access and permissions.

5) Use a firewall to protect your Internet connection.

6) Back up company data regularly. You can do this easily and automatically if you have the right software, or you can buy into a service that will do it for you.

7) Data encryption is required if you handle online transactions.

8) Create a written cyber security policy that can be shared with all employees.

9) Make sure your Wi-Fi network is secured.

10) Require that all employees who use company-owned mobile devices have them password-protected. This will prevent them from being used by others if they are lost or stolen.