Running a small business can be stressful and time consuming, so it’s understandable when the financial health of your business gets neglected. Getting into the habit of reviewing your company’s overall financial health is a smart move to position your business for success now—and for years to come. Read on for an effective health checklist for your small business by focusing on three critical components: financial planning, budgeting, and investing.
Financial Planning
As a business owner you know that taxes are potentially one of the most substantial expenses affecting your bottom line. Therefore, you need to have defined business goals and personal financial goals in order to adhere to the most appropriate tax-planning strategies.
To do this you should:
Keep an ongoing list of business and personal financial goals in order of priority, and consult this list when making any new financial decisions.
Be sure you have a small-business structure that provides the most pertinent legal protections and benefits.
Reduce taxes, or file an extension, and maximize applicable deductions and credits. Strategize by timing income and expenses to your advantage, utilizing charitable gifting, and saving for retirement with a Simple IRA, solo 401(k), or SEP IRA.
Budgeting
Issues with cash flow can derail a business to the point of no return. Get ahead of any challenges by managing your budget in accordance with your business plan.
Know how much revenue it will take to cover any expenses before you can break even and generate a profit.
Consistently keep an eye on your income, inventory, credit, and cash. Modify as needed in order to cover fixed expenses and hold onto a healthy cash reserve.
When you do need financing, analyze your budget and cash flow trends to help determine the best financing options for your business.
Investing
As a small-business owner, don’t make the mistake of investing all of your money into your business. Make saving a habit so that you have enough cash reserves accessible in a pinch for both personal and business needs, but invest any extra cash inflow, and diversify non-business investments.
Additional Factor of Financial Health
In addition to financial planning, budgeting, and investing, you should be protecting your business with insurance. This could include liability insurance, property insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, health insurance, life and disability insurance, and business interruption insurance.
A financial health checklist is an important tool for aiding small-business owners in overseeing the financial condition of their company. Routinely taking stock of your business allows you to make smarter decisions for growth and success.
Online shopping isn’t new by any means, but the EY Future Consumer Index, which has surveyed thousands of consumers since the Covid-19 pandemic began, discovered that 43% of U.S. consumers now shop more often online than in brick-and-mortar stores. All signs point to a new normal for consumers, who are realizing that as long as internet is available, geographical location isn’t necessarily a factor when it comes to getting products in their hands. The question now is, how do retail businesses best position themselves to adapt to a future that possibly favors online shopping and ever-evolving customer experience expectations? Read on for ways that you can best position your retail business for hybrid shopping.
Play to the Strengths of In-Store Shopping
In-person shopping has some advantages over online shopping, and if you want to remain competitive among exclusively online retailers, you’ll need to leverage those strong points. For example, when customers engage in in-store shopping, they don’t need to worry about shipping costs and time. Currently, this can be especially advantageous to brick-and-mortar stores by advertising and marketing in-stock products that are being held up within the supply chain. Brand visibility; personal interaction with customers; community outreach and involvement; and tangibility of product for customers to hold in their hands, try on, and inspect are all additional aspects of in-person shopping that provide potential points of strength over online shopping.
Adapting to the Industry Shift Toward E-Commerce
The focus for any e-commerce store, whether exclusively online or as an extension of a brick-and-mortar store, should be on the consumer experience. When making decisions regarding investment and operating models, pay careful consideration to:
A technology platform that’s able to quickly adapt to differentiated shopping experiences for customers.
Product that’s available only online versus product that’s available in-store, and the logic behind those selections.
Competitive pricing while sustaining margin (i.e., is there a way to influence impulse purchases online?).
The chain-of-events for the consumer from digital browsing to product in hand—and how you will get return customers.
The Store as Fulfillment Center
The pandemic ushered in the customer-centered convenience of buying online and picking up curbside or in-store, and this option is likely here to stay. While this is an effective service to attract and keep customers, long wait times and orders that can’t be fulfilled due to inventory shortage risk losing customers to comparable stores with better modes of communication and track records of product availability. As your retail business scales to meet new demands, it must be prepared to offer a consistent customer experience.
The retail industry can always count on change—whether it’s in the form of a global pandemic, ever-evolving consumer behaviors, or any number of unexpected roadblocks—and you must be willing and able to meet those changes by cultivating strong relationships with customers, no matter if your business is purely brick-and-mortar, exclusively online, or a hybrid of both.
With the inflation rate accelerating to a 40-year high, businesses are finding less wiggle room to expend on marketing and advertising strategies. Fortunately, even with widespread rising costs, there are resourceful methods for businesses to grow and improve their digital footprint. Read on for ways to increase your online presence on a shoestring budget.
Hire Freelancers
Hiring freelance workers or independent contractors rather than employees will save money. You can hire on a per-project basis, with a set fee or hourly payment arrangement. For example, if you need a copywriter or web designer for a specific project but don’t foresee enough ongoing work for a permanent position, hiring on a short-term basis may be the way to go. Hiring contractors also allows you to save on fixed costs like benefits and office space. Additionally, depending on your circumstances and what the tasks entail, you may not even need your contractor to be local. This opens up a potentially global pool of talent.
Forgo PPC Ads in Favor of SEO
When deciding on how best to invest your time and online marketing budget, consider making improvements to SEO (search engine optimization) rather than relying on PPC (pay-per-click) ads. PPC ads like Google Ads are paid online advertisements, in which you’re charged for each click-through to your website. On the other hand, SEO can help your website organically rank higher on search engines by making it more applicable to users at no cost to you. If your website turns up on page one for a targeted key word, you’ll gain click-through traffic for as long as it maintains that spot. In order to get to one of the top positions on a search engine, you need extensive SEO knowledge. If this is outside your wheelhouse, consider the above tip and hire a freelancer.
Network Online
The rise of online networking coupled with a significant shift to more people working from home over the past two years has led to less in-person connecting with other industry professionals. Embracing online networking can help you connect with possible customers and suppliers, identify talent and labor, and discover cost-effective marketing and advertising opportunities. The best part? Online networking is completely free.
Write Engaging Articles for Websites
If you want to expand your company’s digital footprint and spread awareness of your company without spending a penny, think about writing for well-known websites and blogs in your industry. Create articles with engaging, rich, and industry-specific information that readers can start applying right away. This approach provides an opportunity to establish your business as a leader in the industry and direct more traffic to your website, effectively garnering more customers.
As we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to Covid-19, it’s helpful to review the basic strategies of working with individual donors to raise major gifts. Below is an overview of how to strategize raising major gifts in a post-pandemic world.
What Is a Major Gift?
Simply put, a major gift is one of the largest—if not the largest—donation an organization receives. The amount that defines “major gift” can vary by organization. These donations are typically used to fund specific projects, meet fundraising goals, or supplement general programs that help an organization succeed in its mission.
The Major Gift Fundraising Touchstones
The four touchstones of major gift fundraising are identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. Let’s break these down step-by-step.
Donor Identification
Step number one is to identify potential donors. You can do this by checking your database of supporters, which should include donor history. As you review your database, you want to identify your largest donors as well as your most loyal donors. Your loyal donors may only give a small gift each year, but consistent donations likely mean they are invested in the mission of your organization, so they will be your best giving prospects. Create a list of the top 20 donors who meet these criteria (largest donor or loyal donor), and concentrate on fostering relationships with them.
Cultivation
This next step entails building relationships on trust and commonality before launching into a pitch for donations. Some of the individuals on your list you may already know. They might be board members, volunteers, or involved with your organization in other ways. Be careful not to take these relationships for granted. When it comes to any prospective donor, you need to consider the best approach to get them to think about supporting your organization with a major gift. This requires a plan for each person on your list. While these plans certainly can have similar frameworks, you’ll want to adjust them according to your particular relationship with each individual. You can build strong relationships by:
Organize a face-to-face meeting. You want to keep it intimate, but a board member and the executive director and/or development director can join. You’ll want to ask them a series of open-ended questions to get to know them—and their connection to your organization—better, as well as to encourage them to think deeper about their involvement in the mission of your organization. What do they love about your organization? How did they originally become involved? Why is your organization’s mission important to them? Do they have any suggestions for improvements?
Invite them to take a tour, visit a program, or attend an event. Given what you know of individual prospects, try to choose something that may move them, or have a powerful impact on them.
Encourage them to volunteer. Inform them of all the ways your organization utilizes the help of volunteers. There may be a role they’d be interested in that they were never aware of before. Volunteering draws people closer to your organization and its mission because they become involved in a more personal way.
Provide updatestwice per year. Whether by phone, email, hand written note or thank-you card, or at an in-person meeting, sending regular updates pertaining to your organization’s programs and services keep prospective donors in the loop.
Solicitation
It’s time to start actively requesting major gifts. Make a list of your top few prospective donors and schedule meetings with them. Once those meetings are in the books, schedule meetings with the next few prospective donors on your list, and so on.
To be clear, your prospects should not feel surprised or misled by your request for a donation. Depending on the trust you’ve built thus far, they might even ask beforehand if this meeting is in regards to money. Be honest and say that you’d like to discuss how they might contribute to your organization in a more impactful way.
Be sure to discuss who will be in attendance at the meeting. This should be a small and select group—typically the development director, executive director, and a board member—and be sure that your donor has met everyone more than once. After all, your organization should be cultivating relationships, not merely conducting business transactions.
Ideally, a board member will be the one to ask for a donation. This is called peer-to-peer fundraising. As a volunteer, the board member is simply pointing to the time and money they’ve already contributed and asking your donor to consider doing the same. As for the actual asking, approach the topic with a specific amount in mind for a specific project, program, or service.
Stewardship
As the final step in fundraising, stewardship is the “thank you” in response to a donation. You want your donor to know the impact they’ve had on your organization. Think about how many different ways you can express your gratitude: a handwritten note; a phone call; a mention in your newsletter, annual report, and website; an update on how their gift is being implemented; and a follow-up meeting. Any combination of these can be done, and by multiple people, but be sure you have a plan in place so the stewardship is strategic, appreciative, and informative but not overwhelming for your donor.
Maintain Your Major Gift Fundraising Program
Devote time each week to holding meetings with your development team where you discuss your organization’s list of prospective donors. Is there someone on your list with whom your organization can cultivate a more meaningful relationship? Who on your list do you feel might be ready to donate in a bigger way? Who is going to schedule that meeting, and what is your target amount to ask for? Finally, regarding any recent outreach efforts to other potential donors, do any follow-up inquiries need to be made?
Small business grants offer free capital to start or grow a business, and when a global pandemic hits, the need for such grants only increases. Read on if you’re looking for grants to help you pull through the late stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
Types of Small Business Grants
There are various types of grants, your eligibility of which depends on your business’s products and services, ownership, and mission. The main business grant options are broken into the following sections:
Federal Grants: These grants are given from the United States government’s general federal revenue in order to help stimulate the economy and help businesses in need. They are often given to non-commercial organizations, like tech, health, science, or education companies.
State Grants: These small business grants are offered by a specific state. Because their requirements are state-specific, the competition is often slimmer. The amounts are sometimes smaller than federal grants, but they can still provide a welcome financial boost.
Local Grants: These grants focus on small businesses that directly stimulate their local communities.
Corporate Grants: These grants are gifted by select corporations. In many instances, companies will set aside funds at the beginning of the fiscal year and run competitions to determine recipients. Corporate grants have various requirements and varying amounts.
Stimulus Grants for Small Businesses
Specific grants have been created expressly to alleviate the pandemic-inflicted pain for small businesses. It’s important to note that many of these programs close for applications at some point, and some of them open additional rounds of funding, so check with each to confirm the latest.
Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance Grant
Some small business owners applying for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) through the Small Business Administration (SBA) are eligible for an emergency cash advance of up to $10,000. This advance can be forgiven by the SBA (effectually made into a grant) if it is spent on maintaining payroll, paid leave, increased costs, mortgage or lease payments, or other financial obligations.
You may qualify for a targeted EIDL Advance if your business:
Is located in a low-income community
Has suffered an economic loss greater than 30% during an eight-week period since March 2, 2020
Employs 300 or fewer employees
Additionally, your business must have previously received an EIDL Advance for less than $10,000 to be eligible, or previously applied for an EIDL Advance program but never received assistance due to a lack of program funding.
The SBA will reach out to qualifying businesses for a Targeted EIDL grant, so no action is necessary on your part. All legit emails regarding SBA grants will arrive from an address ending in @sba.gov.
Shuttered Venue Operators Grant
The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) was introduced by the SBA as part of the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act. It has since closed, but the SBA intends to open the program for supplemental SVOGs for 50% of the original award amount, capped at a total of $10 million. It has not yet released details.
Eligible businesses include:
Live venue operators or promoters
Theatrical producers
Live performing arts organization operators
Relevant museum operators, zoos and aquariums who meet specific criteria
Motion picture theater operators
Talent representatives
Additional SBA Grants
SBA Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs
SBA 7(j) Management and Technical Assistance program
SBA State Trade Expansion Program ($50,000 to $2,000,000)
State-Based COVID-19 Relief Grants
Many local COVID-19 grants and relief funds were created in 2020 to help businesses struggling due to the pandemic. Some of them have exhausted their funding and are no longer issuing grants.
However, some states and cities have continued to offer relief this year. State departments of commerce websites and local chambers of commerce should have up-to-date opportunities for grants and information.
Corporate Small Business Grants
Big corporations often provide grants to small businesses through contests. Here are a few to keep on your radar.
Intuit National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) Grant: Typically given out annually, the tax preparation software company gifts small businesses a $4,000 grant in partnership with NASE.
FedEx Small Business Grant: FedEx hosts an annual grant contest for small businesses, awarding a total of $230,000 to 12 small businesses nationwide. Find more details, including tips and warnings from past winners, on the FedEx site.
Visa Everywhere Initiative: This grant offers funding for small business startups with innovative fixes. Visa annually awards $50,000 to the final three winners.
Wells Fargo Community Investment: This program focuses primarily on nonprofits, but small businesses with the right criteria are also eligible to receive these business grants, which are offered in nearly every state.
Kuvio Creative Impact Grant: Focusing on entrepreneurs who are making a difference, this full-service web design and development company provides qualifying small businesses with grants and free services. Applications open three times per year, and funds are reserved for nonprofits, women-owned companies, minority-owned businesses, and veteran-owned organizations. Grant recipients receive up to 100 hours of free services, the specifics of which depend on the scope of the project.
With big-box retailers and ecommerce powerhouses like PetSmart, Walmart, and Chewy.com offering online pharmacies, private practices are finding that their bottom lines are being affected. Now is the time to strengthen your clinic’s pharmacy with proactive business strategies. Here’s how.
Send Refill Reminders
Your practice likely already sends reminders for vaccines, so sending refill notices for preventatives and prescriptions are a natural extension of this practice. Because text messages have a 99 percent open rate—as opposed to the 33 percent open rate of health-care emails—text prompts are likely your best route. You can also print refill reminders on prescription labels.
Reinforce Client Relationships
When you receive the fax from the internet pharmacy, instead of immediately signing it, take a minute to connect with the client, especially if the client’s pet is overdue for an exam and heartworm test because you have the opportunity to make an appointment. Even if their pet is up to date, reinforcing the doctor-client-patient relationship with a phone call is important. It also gives you an opportunity to explain to the client how your hospital buys safe drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies, your staff receives regular training on medications, and your pharmacy offers competitive prices. If you can offer any additional savings on particular brands, or if you have an online store and a home-delivery option, now is the time to make sure the client is aware of these services.
Set Up an Online Store with Home Delivery and Auto-Ship Benefits
With your own online pharmacy, you can offer your clients home-delivery of medications with auto-ship benefits by partnering with veterinary distributors. Offering an auto-ship option assures the client that they will never be in need of long-term prescriptions and preventatives. If the client purchases a six-month supply of flea and tick medication, set up an auto-ship refill in five months when the client will have one dose remaining. This is especially helpful in regards to heartworm medication because near the end of a 12-month supply, you can send reminders to the client for an exam, heartworm test, prescription renewal, and additional preventative services.
Begin Offering Home-Delivery of Pet Food
Home delivery helps to cross one more errand off of your clients’ to-do lists. It’s a time-saver for working professionals, a relief for older seniors, and a natural move for anyone who regularly orders online. You can seamlessly get clients started with recurring shipments during exams, offering them a starter bag of food, and assuring them that their online order will arrive on their doorstep in just a few days.
