Business, finances, forex

Didn’t get a chance to participate in the FedEx Office Twitter chat on May 15? No worries – we have a recap of the highlights below.

The topic was branding:  Is your brand helping or hurting your small business?  Let’s take a look at some of the responses and comments on this topic.  The Twitter handle of the person who said them, follows:

1.       What exactly is a “brand”? Is it a name, a logo – or more?  – @FedExOffice

A brand is the overall perception the publicgets when they think of your business.  - @Smallbiztrends

A brand has many parts: name, logo, tagline,reputation, experience customers have had … and more. @Smallbiztrends

Even your business cards, packaging and signagehelp the public recognize your brand. @Smallbiztrends

It’s a combination of all. It’s the whole picture that pops in to a client’s mind when they hear a company name  -@a_biro

To me, a “brand” is symbol of your business story. Logo, name, everything should refer & infer the story  -@3keyscoach

When branding works well it immediately tells your story   - @CASUDI

A Brand is the thoughts, feelings, and psychological relationship between a business and a customer  -@paintermommy

Sum of who you are, what you do & stand for visually and viscerally. -@DeborahShane

A brand is what people say about you when you’re not around  - @philsimon

2. Can your brand hold your business back? If so, how?  – @FedExOffice

Yes, brand can evoke perceptions of poorquality or unprofessionalism. – @Smallbiztrends

For example, an inappropriate look (e.g., acartoonish font for a serious business) may undermine confidence. – @Smallbiztrends

Inconsistent design details are also aproblem (e.g., multiple styles in marketing materials). – @Smallbiztrends

I’ve seen logos & websites of such poor quality I couldn’t trust them. Hence, no sale. – @robert_brady

Some businesses outgrow their branding or shift biz focus – old branding might be blocking new customers  - @CathyWebSavvyPR

Small biz can learn a lot from big biz – both face similar challenges in establishing a brand – dif steps but useful lesson   - @ZimanaAnalytics

Wrong image can alienate potential buyers – I feel this way abt “edgy” clothing lines – some local – @janejoeyxo

3: How do you assess if your brand is helping or hurting?  – @FedExOffice

Start with your biz name and logo. What do others think of when they seethem? Is name easy to spell, say?- @Smallbiztrends

Do people say they don’t know what you do? If so, consider re-naming,re-designing your logo, or adding a tagline. – @Smallbiztrends

Website analytics, how ppl look @ my biz card, types of questions/comments they make tells me if my biz is connecting   - @3keyscoach

When U hear ~ I didn’t know you do that!   - @CASUDI

A professional logo is simplistically memorable, practically appropriate, and conveys an intended meaning.  - @TommyGuns

4. What if your name and logo do not need overhauled? What other brand elementsshould you look at? – @FedExOffice

Look at how you present your business. Areyou putting best foot forward in brochures, website, business cards, signs? – @Smallbiztrends

You have 5 to 10 seconds to make a goodimpression – as a person or as a biz. – @Smallbiztrends

Too often I see small businesses sabotagetheir own brands, and that’s a shame. – @Smallbiztrends

What about a “headline statement” such as what http://t.co/tPWyzIxR has  -@DIYMarketers

Simple one… Font type!  -  @lvansteen

Maybe if your logo and name don’t need to change your marketing plan does…  – @Apex_Biz

Customer service, without positive customer interactions your logo is nothing but a reminder of a bad experience. – @TommyGuns

5:  What are some ways small businesses sabotage their own brands? – @FedExOffice

Faded signs and tattered trade show bannerswill undermine your brand, suggesting lack of pride. – @Smallbiztrends

Poor quality printed items (fuzzy graphics,cheap paper, bleeding ink) make even the best brands look bad.- @Smallbiztrends

By not marketing properly  -@carnivalfanatic

Setting up auto-responders on social networks that don’t engage customers can be a bad thing – really bad….  - @BasicBlogTips

I’ll never forget early on I handed a potential client my biz card made w/ generic logo, her card had same logo  - @CathyWebSavvyPR

They forget why they started their business in the first place.  - @KStaib

Bad customer support smashes your brand. To have successful brand, control every aspect of doing business  -  @lvansteen

The right #smallbiz signage equation: simple + clean = best. Read more to see if your signs stack up: http://t.co/fjVyl66G  – @FedExOffice

6:  Is consistency an important element of brand? Why or why not? – @FedExOffice

Consistency is crucial. People notice if abusiness card has a new logo and the brochure has the old. – @Smallbiztrends

Also, it is easier to build brand recognitionwhen you use similar graphics throughout multiple channels. – @Smallbiztrends

Yes very important, it creates comfort for customers and trust   - @marilola33

Promotes consumer confidence in your business  -@GeekDad248

7:  Complete this sentence: “A professional looking logo …” – @FedExOffice

A professional looking logo helps you cut through the marketing clutter and create a memorable association for your customers  -@GeekDad248

8:  Can you present a quality brand on a small business budget?  - @FedExOffice

Yes! For marketing materials, weigh “value.” Cheap cost = good. Cheap look = bad. – @Smallbiztrends

You can get a pro look using a DIY tool, provided it’s a good tool. Find a good “partner” to execute, too. – @Smallbiztrends

Example: a brochure based on a Word templatecan look professional if printed in color on quality stock. -  @Smallbiztrends

A personal touch and attention to your customer’s needs can go a long way and might not cost much  - @Ileane

Choose wisely where you spend your branding dollars. Keep your customer’s response in mind @ all times  - @CathyWebSavvyPR

A smile is the best thing a business can offer me, costs nothing but makes my day   - @TommyGuns

9:  What is the biggest mistake to avoid when presenting your brand?  – @FedExOffice

Mistake: presenting your brand in anyway that you would feel compelled to apologize about. – @Smallbiztrends

You can hardly focus on sales if the next breath has you apologizing for yourwebsite or outdated business cards! – @Smallbiztrends

Too cluttered. Too many words  - @janejoeyxo

Overspending on marketing, making outlandish claims, using negative pressure tactics to gain business – @itmaiden

10:  What are your two best tips for presenting a small business brand professionally?  – @FedExOffice

Tip 1: spring for a professionally designedlogo. You will have it for years. Get the best you can afford. – @Smallbiztrends

Tip 2: quality materials count! People are tactile. We feel a business card’sweight, or a mailer’s gloss. – @Smallbiztrends

Acknowledge the value of the relationship with your customer, say thank you and don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials   - @Ileane

Make sure your branding showcases what you/yr product can do best for yr customers, and is memorable   - @CathyWebSavvyPR

Attending marketing events helped me a lot – ones sponsored by prof org  -@janejoeyxo

2 tips to present a smallbiz brand professionally: (1) set clear expectations; (2) Underpromise, but overdeliver.   - @crowdSPRING

This Twitter chat was part of the FedEx Office® Our Office Is Your Office Tweet Chat Series

Note:  to make the recap easier to read, tweets above have been edited to remove redundant information, such as hashtags and answer numbers, and fix obvious misspellings.  Tweets may be slightly out of order, for better readability. The above represents only a small portion of the tweets — it is intended to cover key highlights for reader convenience.  Go here for a transcript of the chat.  

Disclosure: FedEx Office compensated me to participate as a small business expert during the FedEx Office Our Office Is Your Office Tweet Chat program. The ideas in this blog post are mine and not ideas or advice from FedEx Office.

From Small Business Trends

Is Your Brand Helping Or Hurting Your Small Business? Chat Recap

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For new small business owners, meeting your tax obligations is a big adjustment – particularly when you’ve been used to having an employer take out income tax withholdings with each paycheck. When you have your own business though, tax time isn’t just once a year; rather you have to make estimated tax payments throughout the year.

If you’re not sure if you need to pay estimated taxes for your business, read on to learn more about small business estimated tax payments:

What are estimated tax payments? 

Individuals and businesses are required to pay taxes over the course of the year, and not just at “tax time.” If you’re working for an employer, your employer most likely withholds these taxes for you throughout the year. When you’re self-employed or own a business, you’ll be expected to make these tax payments to the IRS and state on your own.

Who has to pay estimated tax payments? 

The rules for estimated tax payments vary based on business type:

• For sole proprietors, partnerships, S Corporation shareholders, single member LLCs who elect to be taxed as a sole prop or an S corporation, or multi-member LLCs who elect to be taxed as a partnership or an S corporation: If you expect to owe $1,000 or more in taxes when you file your income tax return, you most likely will need to make estimated tax payments to the federal government (and potentially your state government too). There’s one exception: if your witholdings and tax credits add up to as least as much as your prior year’s tax, you do not need to made a federal estimated tax payment.
• For C Corporations and multi-member LLCs who elect to be taxed as a C Corporation: If you own a Corporation, you will need to make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe $500 or more with your tax filing.

When are payments due? 

Estimated tax payments are divided into four payment periods throughout the year:

• April 15th
• June 15th
• September 15th
• January 15th

If your business is a Corporation, your estimated taxes are due on the fifteenth day of the 4^th, 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th month after the end of your company’s fiscal year.

Once you’re in the system, the IRS will send you estimated payment vouchers at the end of each tax year. However, whether you receive these payment vouchers or not, it is your responsibility to make payments for both the Federal and State taxes.

How to Pay

If you’re filing as a self-employed individual or disregarded entity (i.e. single-member LLC, partnership, or S Corp shareholder), you should complete Form 1040-ES. This form contains blank vouchers for mailing your estimated tax payments. You can also make your payments using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). For your state payment, you have to search online for the appropriate form, complete it and send it in with your payment.

Corporations must submit their payments using EFTPS, or can arrange for a tax professional, financial institution, payroll service, or other trusted third party to make deposits on their behalf.

How much should you pay? 

• For self-employed individuals and disregarded entities (i.e. single-member LLCs, partnerships, and S Corp shareholders), the IRS recommends using Form 1040-ES to calculate your individual estimated tax payments.
• Corporations should use the Worksheet on Form 1120-W to calculate estimated tax payments.

Alternatively, if you expect the current year’s earnings to be relatively similar to last year, you can use last year’s tax return to calculate your estimated payments. Or if you experience fluctuating income, you can choose to calculate your estimated taxes based on the actual amount you made that quarter.

You don’t need to show the IRS how you arrived at your estimated sum. However, it’s in your best interest to reach as accurate a figure as possible. Paying too little can result in an unfortunate surprise when it’s time to file your annual taxes, in addition to potential penalties for underpayment. Conversely, by paying too much, you’ve essentially taken money out of your business and you could have invested that money for a higher return.

If you’re unsure about your estimated tax obligations, it’s wise to consult a tax specialist who can advise you on the best calculation method for your business and how to properly track and record your earnings and deductions. Just remember the more time you invest in your estimated tax payments, the easier your life will be come tax time.

Piggy Bank Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Owners And The Estimated Tax Payment

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A sound and holistic marketing plan has always  combined these areas:

• Advertising: any paid form of communication through  mass communication
• Sales promotion: any short term incentive to encourage trial purchase
• Events and Experiences: sponsored events or activities
• Public Relations and Publicity: non paid ways to promote image and reputation
• Direct Marketing:  one-to-one  communication such as mail, telephone, e-mail and Internet selling
• Personal Selling: face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective customers

Answer these three simple, but important, questions first:

1) What do you do?

2) Who is your core customer?

3) How do you reach them where they hang out and engage?

Applying those answers to these areas will help you know what you need to belong to, subscribe to and engage in.

Belong To The Right Organizations

What’s your networking in person plan? Pick a chamber, be a member of a professional organization, a union, networking or hobby group, or meet ups. Be willing to go to them and get to know others who can become valued peers, colleagues and friends. Be out consistently, show your face and bring your personality.

Subscribe To The Most Important Content

Who are the leading voices and experts in your field and related fields? Subscribe to their blogs, newsletters, white papers, news feeds, and tips. This will keep you on the forefront of relevant and current trends and information.

Engage Where Your Customers Or Followers Are

Wherever your customers, fans, friends, peers and colleagues are is where you should be. Get more active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube, selective chat rooms, online groups, Tweet/Facebook chats. Choose the activities that are best for you and build in time to be on them.

Who are your best playmates, playgrounds and games? The business world is just a big park, playground and party.  Get into the conversations and be apart of the discussion.  When you put yourself out, in a targeted, focused way with a brand and branding plan that makes sense to reach the best people for you, you create a natural self marketing plan that will reward and return.

Mix and match, use and try media, marketing and promotion until you find the best ROI and RON (return on networking).  Stay curious and be proactive in trying new things that are on top of consumer trends that impact you.  Here are 10 ways to stretch your marketing budget from author Mark W Bly from his book The Marketing Plan Handbook.  If you’re using social media for marketing your business, you should be measuring it, according to Union Metrics founder Jenn Deering Davis.

Be brave, bold, adventurous and follow a game plan, when it comes to marketing yourself! Be willing to adjust, tweak and adapt.

What’s your personal marketing plan?

Marketing Plan Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

The “Belong Subscribe And Engage” Marketing Plan

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How do you know that you’re making the right move?  As a small business owner you’re always evaluating and deciding, watching and then doing, discovering and then digging in.  You’re a shopper.

Every piece of software, office equipment and service that you purchase for your business is a shopping experience:

1. How did you find the item or the service?
2. What did you compare it to?

You have a certain type of shopper’s behavior — the same is true for your potential clients.

The question is: What are their shopping habits and how can you become a more integral part of it? When making the most of your clients shopping experience here are two new behaviors to consider.

#1: Quick Mobile Searches 

As long as the mobile internet connection is strong, then it’s nothing to whip out that smart phone and run a quick online search for the item you’re interested in. I do it often, especially when I’m out with family, clients, or friends (that’s just about everybody). While they talk to the sales associate, I search and discover other locations and prices for the same item. Of course, price isn’t the only factor (and often times its not even the primary one) in a purchase (customer experience goes a long way).

But here’s the deal: as we put our cell phones to greater use, your mobile web presence becomes more important to your business.

Can shoppers discover the right kind of information about you on the spot (i.e. location, reviews, price range, hours of operation)?  Do you have a web presence and is it mobile friendly?

#2: App Savvy Clients

In “5 Internet Marketing Predictions for 2012” Susan Payton laments about our inability (in the U.S.) to use our “phones to pay for things.” Since mobile spending is fun when you can find the right app, I understand her complaint (and I’m excited about her prediction that there will be “more effective apps in 2012”).

One of my favorites, so far, is the Starbucks app (new to me). It tracks your gift card money, so no matter how many cards you receive for your birthday they’re all logged into the same place (once you set it up).

It also tracks your purchases (as long as you use the app or the gift card to pay). It gives you points and rewards (like free soy milk, free refills on certain drinks) that’ll keep you coming back for more. It’s a smart and fun little app.  I like it so much that I found myself at the grocery story trying to pay with my cell phone (didn’t work).

The Exceptions May Be Your Clients

It’s true that everybody doesn’t have or even like Androids, iPhones and Blackberries — I know some people who still prefer a simple flip phone. So before you go out and spend money on designing an app for your company, check your market.

1. Who do you serve?
2. How do they usually find you?
3. And how do they find other businesses and services similar to you?

If they are heavy smartphone users, then it’s time to set up that mobile friendly website and start brainstorming about that app; of course, it has to smart, easy to use and fun or it’ll just get lost somewhere on your phone (you know that place where glitchy apps go to die).

The Point

Internet connections for cell phones are stronger.  Shoppers are mobile and more tech savvy.  Is your web presence in front of this trend? Behind it? Or Missing in action?

Mobile Device shopping Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

New Shopping Habits: When Your Clients Go Mobile

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You don’t need to be the leader of a multimillion-dollar corporation to create unnecessary drama in your business. Today’s news is full of stories about the latest CEO missteps. Here are some of the headlines, along with some lessons to be learned and tips on how to be a better leader in your business.

Setting the Right Example

Don’t let personal relationships interfere. Even the founder of Best Buy, Richard Schulze, finds his head on the chopping block (in a manner of speaking) in connection with the alleged “inappropriate relationship” between his hand-picked successor, CEO Bruce Dunn, and a female subordinate. Of course, Schulze is a multimillionaire many times over, and Dunn himself walks away with a cool $6.64 Million in severance. Still, your reputation has no price.  (Lesson: When improper conduct is reported against another executive, take action, don’t sweep it under the rug.) WSJ

All eyes are on the CEO. You’d like to think that in 2012 your private business is…your private business. But when you’re the CEO, more than just the two people in a relationship are impacted. (Lesson: See your relationship from the eyes of subordinates. Employees watch the person at the top closely. Relationships between managers and subordinates can lead to poor morale, charges of favoritism, and stress on the company–not to mention broken family relationships and blights on otherwise spotless careers.) Small Business Trends

Making the Wrong Decisions

Resume padding will haunt you. As one CEO found out, claiming to have a degree when you don’t can topple even the loftiest. And trying to claim that you didn’t write your bio, but that a headhunting firm did won’t save you. (Lesson: Focus on what you do have and don’t pad it. It’s an obvious lesson, but true.) Christian Science Monitor

Poor decisions will have huge implications. Just ask Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, whose company lost $2 billion on the CEO’s watch—way to go! In apologizing for the poor decision-making leading to the loss, Dimon said at a board meeting “This should never have happened. I can’t justify it. Unfortunately, these mistakes are self-inflicted.” (Lesson. Poor decisions will affect not only you and your business but others who depend upon you and your business, too. Everyone makes mistakes, but using poor judgment and making bad decisions not in your company’s best interests will have repercussions.) ABC News

Lessons Learned from Missteps

Don’t try to avoid responsibility. WalMart CEO Mike Duke is discovering that one way or the other, he may not be able to escape responsibility for his company’s bribery allegations in Mexico. The company’s senior managers apparently knew about the issue and didn’t disclose it to anyone until they found out the media was likely to disclose it anyway. (Lesson: Large or small, no entrepreneur should try to skirt responsibility for their business mistakes, especially by trying to hide those mistakes once they’re likely to be made public.)

Your misdeeds will find you out. The above list of leadership errors is just the beginning. Other recent examples of such shenanigans include Chesapeake Energy founder and CEO Aubrey McClendon, who supposedly improperly tapped his own company for personal loans and Green Mountain Coffee’s CEO and chairman, who also flouted the rules to buy himself a 163-foot yacht.  (Lesson: No matter what size your business may be, self-centered behavior shows a lack of discipline and will damage both your business and your reputation in the end.)

Avoiding Problems in Your Business

How to gain wisdom and avoid foolishness. Just as wisdom does not require age and experience, foolishness does not indicate a lack of intelligence. Both, according to blogger Stephan De Villiers, involve being able to ask the right questions and get the right answers. The Leadership Connexion

Recognize the traits that could kill your business. Traits like dishonesty, lack of respect, arrogance, greed, and inattentiveness are amongst the problems that can cause the downfall of even the most successful CEOs, as we’ve seen above. But they are certainly not traits confined to large businesses alone. Here blogger Victorino Abrugar lists for us these and other traits which could kill your business before it even has a chance of becoming more successful. BusinessTips.ph

Choosing A Better Path

Your behavior will reflect upon you and your business. Business blogger Arthur Piccio reminds us that others remember the ways we have treated them badly far longer than the good things we have done. Remember that whether your bad behavior affects customers, partners, suppliers, or the community, it will likely be remembered for a long time to come. UPrinting

How to be a better leader in your business. To end on a positive note, there are ways to lead well in your small business. Whether you’ve thought of it or not, Dr. Shannon Reese says every entrepreneur has decided at some point to be a leader. Her four part series beginning here looks at what qualities are necessary to be the right kind of leader in business and in life. Strategies & Tactics for Women

From Small Business Trends

CEO Drama and How to Avoid It

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Are you resisting offering employees at your small business flexible working hours because you think it’ll give them an excuse to slack off? Well, some new research should convince you otherwise. It seems flextime may actually be less flexible than a regular schedule.

The 2012 National Study of Employers, released by the Families and Work Institute (FWI) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), found that U.S. employers are offering employees more options for managing when and where they work. The tradeoff for the employees, however, is that employers offering more flexibility are also requiring  them to essentially work more.

Compared to 2005, the study found significantly more employers are allowing at least some employees to:

• use flextime and periodically change starting and quitting times within a range of hours (77 percent, compared to 66 percent in 2005);
• take time off during the workday to attend to important family or personal needs without loss of pay (87 percent, up from 77 percent in 2005);
• work some of their regular paid hours at home on at least an occasional basis (63 percent, nearly double the 34 percent in 2005); and
• have control over their paid and unpaid overtime hours (44 percent, compared to 28 percent in 2005).

But although employers were offering more flexibility in some ways, they were offering less flexibility in others. The study found significant decreases in the number of employers allowing at least some of their employees to:

• return to work gradually after childbirth or adoption of a child (73 percent, down from 86 percent in 2005),
• take a career break for personal or family responsibilities (52 percent, down from 73 percent in 2005), and
• move from full-time to part-time work and back again while remaining in the same position or level (41 percent, down from 54 percent in 2005).

In other words, fewer companies are letting employees take extended time off. So what are the costs and benefits of flextime? You’re probably getting more work out of your employees in the short term; a 2010 Brigham Young University study of IBM employees found that those with flextime worked an average of 19 hours more per week than those on traditional schedules.

But are you risking burning them out in the long term?

Don’t get me wrong—I’m a huge proponent of flextime and, as the study noted, offering some form of flexible hours is pretty much essential to attract employees these days. But as entrepreneurs, we have “flextime” too—and it doesn’t take a study to convince any smartphone-toting business owner that flextime doesn’t necessary lead to work-life balance.

Flextime is a great option for employees, but make sure you give them some real time off, too.

Stop Time Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Does Flextime Benefit You More Than Your Employees?

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For a lot of hiring managers and small business leaders, hiring remains the most crucial pain point. If you magically get the right people, stuff just gets executed. However, we never make the perfect hiring decisions all the time. Sometimes we are in a hurry to fill the role, and the options available seem more attractive than the list of skills and qualities we carefully created.

Of course, every manager has a different outlook – some of us “hire fast, learn fast and fail fast,” whereas some of us passively look at many resumes and only make an addition to the team when it feels right. I’ve made my fair share of errors and would like to share an example that might help when you are at the next crossroads and in a hurry.

I was looking for an online marketing person and started furiously going through LinkedIn for profiles that had keywords of certain skills that were required. After I found a few profiles, I cold wrote to a particular prospect and heard back from her. She shared her detailed resume with me and it looked like a dream. After I explained the role to her, she seemed positive that it was her domain and she joined the next day.

Over the next few weeks, she worked very hard and made a difference to our efforts. Her skills were matching with many peripheral tasks, except for the core role she was hired for. And the mistake was entirely mine. I made a few notes to myself:

Never Absorb The Resume Or The LinkedIn Profile On Face Value

Get evidence of past work or go through some testing or sample review. For engineers, this can be writing a piece of code during the interview.  For content writers it would be writing a sample piece.

Understand The Cost Of Hurrying

You can fill a role quickly but if the person is not taking your load off instantly, then chances are they are increasing the load. The relevant experience can contribute to your workload, but if a person needs to be taught everything from scratch – you will be taking time out of your job to show them the way. Depending on how fast your small business is growing, this can be challenging.

References Are Not Always Helpful

When you ask someone for a reference, of course they are going to give you a positive one. Skip this step. Especially if you are a small business without corporate guidelines.  Go with your gut and use logic.

Lots Of Trial Projects

If you can, take people on short-term projects to help you with different parts of your business. As a small business, you have to depend on freelancers and consultants for certain roles anyway. Make sure you have a good pipeline of folks helping you as freelancers. As your business grows, you will have the opportunity to offer full-time roles to these folks, and you will know them extremely well by then.

There is no perfect hire and there are no perfect hiring tips or guidelines. We can simply learn from our own mistakes and hopefully from mistakes of others.

Maze Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Navigating the Recruiting Maze

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Businesses with multiple locations should be breathing a heavy sigh of relief now that Google has introduced a new and improved bulk listing management tool designed to make the whole process easier and faster for business owners.

Google revealed several new changes last week which have been implemented to help SMBs and enable the follow actions:

• Edit one or more of your listings’ data at once
• Search through your listings, filtering by specific information or for listings with errors
• Upload new listings using a data file or by adding them individually within the interface
• Tell us how we can improve this new interface by clicking the “Give Feedback” link

Google has also uploaded two tutorial videos to walk both new and verified users through the process.

Tutorial for new, unverified users

Tutorial for Verified Users

If you’ve visited your Google Places dashboard recently, you may have already noticed that it went through a makeover. Personally, I find the updated dashboard considerably more user-friendly and intuitive. I especially like how easy it is to find listings with errors. The easier it is to spot errors, the easier it is to fix them!

If you’re a business owner with 10 or more locations and you’ve been avoiding uploading and/or correcting your information on Google Places because it was too much of a hassle or you weren’t sure where to start, these new upgrades and the accompanying videos help remove both of those obstacles.

We’ve said this many times but taking the time to ensure that all of your online business listings are claimed and showing correct information is one of the most powerful things you can do to build your Web presence and your offline customer base. Nearly 20 percent of all Google searches are users accessing Google Place Pages – that adds up to millions of searches a day! If a user can’t find you or it looks like your information is incorrect, they’re not going to keep trying. It’s going to deter them away for your business and push them toward your competitor. This isn’t something you can afford.

The release of this new tool from Google is a good reminder of how important it is to claim and optimize all of your business listings. If you haven’t checked to make sure they’re accurate, use today to do it.

Consider it a little Spring cleaning as you:

1. Claim your Google Place listing (and all other online business listings)
2. Make sure the information is as accurate as possible and that it’s consistent with what else is out there about you on the Web. It’s vitally important that you align all of your listings and allow them to work FOR you and show your relevance.
3. If you have already claimed your Google Place listing, work on optimizing it. Add some new Google business photos/videos. Update your keywords. Start thinking up new ways to build reviews or point people to your page. Don’t leave it static.

The updated Google Maps Bulk Listing management tool is great for businesses for with 10 or more locations, but even if that’s not you, it’s also an important reminder that these listings matter and that Google is looking at them hard to determine relevance and search placement. If it’s been awhile since you’ve optimized your Google Place listings, give it another look. It could be the difference between showing up and being invisible to your audience.

From Small Business Trends

New Bulk Listing Management Tool From Google Places

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Facebook is a big deal these days, not just because of its multibillion IPO, but also because of the impact the social networking giant has on the 900 million who use its tools. Some of those are small business owners who depend upon FaceBook to provide services they cannot do without. That’s why today all eyes are on Facebook.

Facebook in the News

Facebook raises its IPO range to meet demand. The price range on the social network’s public offering rises from $34 to $38 per share, targeting a valuation exceeding $100 billion. As big as it has become, Facebook started from humble beginnings as a company founded in the Harvard dorm room of CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Reuters

Facebook founder gives up US citizenship. Billionaire co-founder of Facebook Inc. Eduardo Saverin gave up his U.S. citizenship recently ahead of the multibillion-dollar Facebook IPO in an effort to avoid a possible tax increase on top earners. Apparently he didn’t get the Warren Buffett memo about paying more taxes.  Bloomberg

“Hoodie Gate” a test of leadership. Whether you believe Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insistence on wearing his signature hoodie at presentations connected to his company’s first public offering smacks of immaturity or individuality, it’s another sign of the important tone a leader sets for his/her organization. Computerworld

Why Use Facebook?

Facebook social ads, sponsored stories, promote engagement. Online advertising-management platform Marin Software reported an increase in the level of engagement on Facebook ads by 50 percent over the last 12 months. Are you using these for your business? AllFacebook

Why your business would want to be on Facebook. This important statistic should remain on your mind. There are 900 million and counting users of the massively popular social network. Think of the potential customer base Facebook represents. Pagemodo

How-To

How to use the Share button to amplify your message. To really get your content seen by your network on Facebook, having them like your most recent post just isn’t enough, says one blogger. Learn why the Facebook share button is your best friend here. Ryan Hanley

Getting noticed through Facebook ads. David Siteman Garland interviews Victoria Gibson, The Facebook Ad Queen, for a detailed explanation of how to use Facebook ads to build a brand and get noticed. Watch the video for more of Gibson’s insights. The Rise to the Top

Timeline Tips

Examples of great timeline pages for business. The latest look for Facebook pages gives businesses in particular an opportunity to get creative. Here blogger Rachel Parker shares some of her favorite timeline business pages thus far. Resonance

Timeline and other tools. The timeline isn’t the only change Facebook users, including business owners, have been through recently. Blogger Allison Semancik shares three tools that will help you come to terms. Idea Sprouts

Final Thoughts

Facebook isn’t the only game in town. Community manager Megan Eckman asks whether Facebook or Twitter is the better choice when promoting your business. Her answer is the same as I’m sure many of ours would be. “It depends on your customers!” CreateHype

From Small Business Trends

All Eyes Are on Facebook With Multibillion-Dollar IPO

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Has your business ever gotten a judgment in a court, only to find it was worthless because you didn’t have the time or the know-how to collect it?

Judgment Marketplace aims to solve that problem for you.

JudgmentMarketplace.com is a website for selling and buying judgments. Small business owners, corporations and consumers who have won a court judgment against another party can list the judgment for sale. Collection agencies and law firms that specialize in skip tracing debtors and collecting on judgments, can negotiate to buy your judgment or, just like on eBay, can “buy it now.”

The site is a marketplace bringing together buyers and sellers of judgments. The software platform provides a centralized place to list judgments, and for buyers to find them. A wide range of judgments can be bought and sold: car accidents, employment or discrimination cases, commercial transactions, contractor claims, foreclosures.

Judgment Marketplace was started by Shawn Porat, who also serves as CEO. He learned the collection business helping his father, owner of a trucking company, collect hundreds of judgments the company was owed. Before age 23 he had started Recovery Of Judgment, a New York-based firm that specializes in executing judgments. Porat says he started Judgment Marketplace because he saw there was a demand for buying and selling judgments, but no organized market.

The site serves those who have a judgment and want to turn it into cash. But it also is a source of business development for collections agencies and law firms that collect judgments. The marketplace also serves investors who buy large portfolios of judgments.

Let’s take a closer look at the the site and see how it works.

Buying a Judgment

The first step is to register for free. Once you’ve done that, you can search and browse judgments that others have listed – by State, by cheapest judgments, by largest judgments, or “best deal”. “Best deal” ranks judgments based on asking price as a percentage of the judgment’s amount.

As of this writing, you can buy a judgment in the face amount of $16.5 Million ($17.5 Million if you include interest) for a cool $12 Million.

Out of your price range (heh)? No worries. As little as $25 buys you a judgment of roughly $1,100 with interest.

Once you identify a judgment you are interested in, you initiate a Letter of Interest. That starts a dialogue with the seller to negotiate on the price or complete the transaction.

Upon striking a deal, Judgment Marketplace recommends that you use Escrow.com to exchange the sales price and the assignment of judgment, but that’s up to whatever you negotiate. Then after the transaction is complete, you are encouraged to come back to the site and leave feedback about the seller.

Selling a Judgment

When you sell a judgment you sell it at a discount off of face value. The nature of collecting judgments is that they’re uncertain. Risk is involved. So by selling at a discount, the seller gets the certainly of an immediate payment (compared to possibly collecting zero). The buyer potentially gets some upside that makes it worth the risk. If the buyer collects the full amount he has made a profit to balance his risk.

It costs nothing to list a judgment for sale although you can buy featured listings. A processing fee of 5% is assessed on each sale.

The site also offers a collection network offering traditional collection services. Collectors must pay to be part of the collection network.

Why Use Judgment Marketplace

Obviously, small business people would only need the site if they had a judgment going uncollected. For them it may be invaluable. Many small businesses aren’t familiar with how to collect a judgment or even find a collection agency, especially if the debtor is out of state.  Collecting at a distance has added challenges.  So an online marketplace is a convenient and easy option.

For smaller collection agencies and collection law firms, the marketplace could be a source of new business opportunities if you need more judgments to chase after.

We haven’t used this marketplace.  We saw a demo at the New York Business XPO recently, and later registered for a free account.  So we don’t know how well it performs.  But it appears a promising platform for a niche purpose.  If you  are frustrated because you haven’t been able to collect a judgment, check out Judgment Marketplace.

From Small Business Trends

Judgment Marketplace: Turning Uncollected Judgments Into Cash

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