DSEF & CBBB: Don’t Forget the Credit Card Convenience Fee When Charging Taxes

Today’s highlighted blog post from the Council on Better Business Bureaus (CBBB):

Don’t Forget the Credit Card Convenience Fee When Charging Taxes

If you plan to charge your income taxes to your credit card, remember to factor in the convenience fee, says lifehacker.

Many people often find that they actually owe the government money and will choose to charge it to their credit card. A convenience fee will be added, and it can add up. For instance, a fee of $9.40 will be added to a $400 tax bill, while $117.50 will be charged to a $5,000 tax bill. In addition, if the fee is not paid within the credit card issuer’s grace period, interest will be charged as well.

On the bright side, the IRS does have an installment-payment plan (which requires qualification).

To read the full article, visit http://lifehacker.com/5887248/what-to-know-if-youre-planning-on-charging-your-taxes-on-your-credit-card

DSEF and Council on Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) fosters honest and responsive relationships between businesses and consumers—instilling consumer confidence and advancing a trustworthy marketplace for all.

About the Better Business Bureaus
As the leader in advancing marketplace trust, Better Business Bureau is an unbiased non-profit organization that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. Every year, more than 87 million consumers rely on BBB Business Reviews® and BBB Wise Giving Reports® to help them find trustworthy businesses and charities across North America. Visitwww.bbb.org/us for more information.

Blog

Tips to Stay Up on Your Accounting

With that nasty tax deadline creeping up on us all, it’s time to assess the way you handle accounting for your business. Whether you’re a master of bookkeeping or a filler of hastily labeled shoeboxes, there are several resources available to you and lots of different ways to make accounting a manageable task that will keep your money in your pocket where it belongs.

Create a system to make your own. Categorizing and organizing receipts, bills, and other accounting documents can be overwhelming to say the least. Some keep alphabetical files, some keep files by month and year, and others keep files by kind (mileage, supplies, travel, etc.). There is no one right answer except that you need to choose or create one that will be most efficient for your business. For example, a direct seller of jewelry whose business consists mostly of home parties would be best suited by organizing her files by kind as the bills get paid and receipts come in. This way, all she has to do come tax season is to add up what is in the files to complete the IRS tax form. Bottom line: design a system of organization tailored to your business’s needs.
Track EVERYTHING. Every expense and every penny of income must be logged in some way. Even though chances are slim that you would be audited, make sure that everything is documented in case you are. Tip: Back up your data. Many banks keep online statements for 18 months, but the IRS can audit you going back three years (up to six if a major error is found). Consider scanning any documents of which you don’t have electronic copies.
Go digital. For those who want to de-clutter and are looking to deal with less paper, there are many websites that can help you do just that. Shoeboxed, for example, allows you to scan, upload, or mail in documents. Scanning can be done from a printer or from a mobile phone. From here, they will extract the data and categorize it into your own online account. Similarly, The Neat Company allows you to transform documents into a sort of digital filing cabinet. Services like these can be especially valuable for those who do business on the go.
Be a regular. You should have a regular frequency with which you handle your accounting. Twice a month works for most small businesses, but this would be another thing to assess based on your own needs. Choose and stick to a time when you are going to sit down and pay your bills; integrate that time into your regular schedule. The more regularly you address this area of your business, the more manageable and less time-consuming it will become. As an added bonus, you can catch any errors before they accumulate and cause major damage.

Keeping track of your accounting as you go is the most efficient way to stay on top of all the paperwork. Not having any system in place will result in inaccuracies that will cost you hard earned cash. How do you stay on top of your accounting? Please share with us in the comments section!

Blog

Direct Selling & the National Economy

Direct Selling & the National Economy

By Amy Robinson

In a recent edition of DSA’s weekly publication, InTouch, a number of executives from some of the top companies in the direct sales channel weighed in with their insights and expectations for direct selling in 2012.

It comes as little surprise that each executive expressed great excitement and optimism for what lies ahead in direct selling. Our industry offers an incredible opportunity to men and women of all ages, races and educational backgrounds. Our companies and their distributors participate in countless philanthropic efforts at home and abroad, and many of our companies have received recognition for taking the lead in eco-friendly and environmental awareness initiatives.

It’s easy to recognize how this industry positively impacts the lives of millions around the world, but in many cases that impact isn’t fully represented in the national or global economic picture.

To borrow words from AJ Deeds, President of DSA member Loving Works, LLC: “One of the most significant issues for direct selling companies is that the jobs we create aren’t counted in national employment statistics. One of the underlying barriers to direct sales is that we’re not often acknowledged as a major contributor or even seen as a real player in the economy, and that’s something that needs to change.”

I think it’s safe to say that most every man and woman who works in direct selling has probably pondered a similar thought at some point or another. With a clear focus by lawmakers on creating income opportunities (for example, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009), the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (2010), the Education Jobs Act (2010) and the Small Business Jobs Act (2010) – which created a $30 billion fund to provide capital to small banks in order to increase lending to small businesses, just to name a few) why hasn’t much attention been paid to the direct sales channel, which offers nearly 16 million people in the US alone a unique business opportunity and, for many, a much-needed source of income?

Direct selling provides countless college students with extra income to put towards education loan payments. It empowers stay-at-home parents to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a business while balancing their family obligations. It motivates military spouses to own and operate a successful business even when military obligations require them to move frequently and often on short notice. It enables retirees to earn extra income, and many others the ability to support their families without the stresses of 9-to-5 life.

As AJ said himself: “While we have more success stories than can be counted, we are rarely considered for, much less invited to, the national leadership table. By bringing the stories of our industry forward in 2012 to a national stage, we, the direct sales channel, can represent part of the economic solution.”

It’s unfortunate that an industry that generates more than $28 billion for the U.S. economy each year through sales alone, not to mention other sources of economic impact, isn’t recognized for the potential it holds to solve at least a portion of our country’s unemployment situation. With that in mind, perhaps 2012 is the year where direct sellers everywhere can focus on spreading the word about the opportunities we offer to work toward recognition as an economic force that changes people’s lives.

Amy Robinson is the Direct Selling Association’s Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President.

Blog

DSEF & CBBB: Panera offers Payment Optional Cafes

Today’s highlighted blog post from the Council on Better Business Bureaus (CBBB):

Panera offers Payment Optional Cafes

BY MEAGHAN POWERS

Panera along with other cafes churches and community groups across the country are opening pay-what-you-can cafes. The set-up of the Panera Cares Cafe offers suggested prices on its menu, having the customer pay that amount or as little or as much as they can, according to USA Today.

The Panera Cares Cafe in Dearborn Michigan has been running for a year and its success will keep Panera running its other Panera Cares Cafe locations and launching more in cities across the country. The cafe’s success relies on returning customers and who often come back because they realize it is helping their community. Most cafes break even with about 20% of customers giving more than the suggested price, 60% the suggested and 20% less or none, reports USA Today. To keep from abuse of the system, Panera suggests only one free meal a day, and for people to volunteer if they come many times each week.

Blog / Teleseminar

DSEF & Money Wise Women: Using Social Media to Build Your Business

Today’s highlighted post from Money Wi$e Women Get Smart Teleseminar Series (Click here):

Using Social Media to Build Your Business

Do you understand social media and how to use it? Jennifer Fong will discuss the differences between social media for personal and business use, how to get started with social media, and social media tools to consider using for your business.

Jennifer Fong

Jennifer Fong is a social media speaker and consultant who teaches direct selling companies and individual direct sellers how to use social media effectively as a business building tool. A former direct sales company CEO, Jennifer built her company from the ground up, and understands what it takes to build, lead, and train a team, as well as the underlying principles of any direct selling business: network, sell, and recruit. She combines her expertise in direct sales with her passion for social media marketing to provide direct sellers with the knowledge they need to put social media to work for their businesses in a strategic and profitable way.

http://jenfongspeaks.com

DSEF proudly sponsors the free Money Wi$e Women Get Smart Teleseminar Series hosted by Marcia Brixey, Founder and President of Money Wise Women Educational Services and author ofThe Money Therapist: A Woman’s Guide to Creating a Healthy Financial Life. The series covers topics related to business and finances and provides women the opportunity to learn from professional experts in a safe, comfortable environment.

To find out about upcoming teleseminars, visit http://www.moneywisewomengetsmart.com/

Blog

Tapping Your Network to Grow

We all have networks. These are groups of people that we connect with on a regular basis because of mutual interests, business, or other reasons. They’re a great source of personal satisfaction as well as potential business leads. Whether it’s a book club, religious organization, or professional networking group, networks can be a great resource for your business.

Here are some ideas for tapping this valuable resource to continue growing your business.

Give them a reason to check out your business. If these people are already in your existing network, chances are they have some degree of familiarity with your business. For this reason, you need to motivate them to rediscover you. Perhaps you have recently renovated your space, introduced a new product/service, or expanded your online presence. Use this change to re-promote your business to your network contacts and keep the relationship alive. Ask them to check out the change and offer their opinion.
Offer reciprocity. Through networking, current contacts often lead to new prospects and future contacts within your network. To take advantage of this, offer a way to return the favor when someone helps you in your business by either patronizing it themselves or advertising it to others. For example, a local restaurant owner can recommend a nearby banquet hall for parties and offer a special discount for customers using his or her restaurant for the catering. Likewise, the catering hall can refer customers to the restaurant for a free appetizer or dessert by mentioning their name at the restaurant after booking a party at the banquet hall. This helps each business gain new customers, and maintains a good relationship between both businesses.
Team up for an event. Promoting each other’s products and services can be done in many ways, including putting together a joint event that works for everyone involved. A direct seller of home décor might team up with a direct seller of cookware to create an event that offers people new ideas about how to prepare for a dinner party, covering everything from how to best use your space to what recipes can be used for each course of the meal. An event like this exposes each business owner to a new group of potential clients while providing the opportunity to show those prospects the best of each one’s business.
Make professional appearances at trade shows, chamber of commerce meetings, and industry conventions. Consider doing a speaking engagement, teaching a workshop, or holding a demonstration of your business’s products/services for other small business owners. If you run a successful business, you have much to offer fellow business owners and those just getting started. Making a name for yourself locally will spark interest in your business.

Your network is a valuable resource which should not be overlooked when taking steps to grow your business. What ideas do you have for tapping your network? Please share with us in the comments below!

Free e-book “Business Owner’s Road Map to Success.” It has over 50 pages of techniques for everything a small business owner needs to master, from business planning and ethical selling to a success mindset. It’s all there and it’s free for you. To get it, just “Like” our Facebook Page here: http://on.fb.me/KsIN6P Pass it on!

Blog

DSEF & CBBB: Pain at the Pump: Gas Climbs to $5 per Gallon

Today’s highlighted blog post from the Council on Better Business Bureaus (CBBB):

Pain at the Pump: Gas Climbs to $5 per Gallon

BY VERONICA BROWN – FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Get ready for gas prices to shoot through the roof. Many Americans may begin to pay $5 per gallon, reports USA Today.

The surge in prices comes from not only rising prices in oil, but also lower refining capacity, tensions in the Middle East, and also the fact that spectators are driving up the price. The price of gas this February is up 42 cents from last year, with a record high of $3.65 per gallon.

On average, gas currently costs $4.20 in California, and $3.91 in New York. These prices are expected to keep climbing. A Washington state refinery that recently suffered damage from a fire could drive up prices in the region even higher this weekend.

In reaction to increased pain at the pump, consumers have begun to cutback on their gas purchases. Consumption fell 1.4 percent through February 17th, amounting to about 18 million barrels a day. This is the lowest since April 1997.

To read the full article, visit http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2012-02-22/gas-prices-average/53229358/1

Blog

How To Offer Incentives Without Cutting Your Price

Offering incentives in small business can be a bit of a challenge, but it can also benefit you in terms of customer relations, customer retention, and of course sales. However, it can be risky to base all of your incentives on price cuts, so consider some alternatives when creating them.

Tokens/Tickets/Vouchers – One cupcake shop in Columbia, South Carolina created a special incentive to attract customers on last fall’s Small Business Saturday movement. For every dozen cupcakes purchased at regular price, the customer would receive four tokens, one each good for a free cupcake. To sweeten the deal (pun intended), the owner allowed the tokens to be redeemed right then and there if the customer wanted. This was a brilliant idea, because most businesses, big and small, make customers wait until a future visit to redeem such an incentive, and often with an expiration date that creeps up sooner rather than later. Using tokens, tickets, or vouchers and rewarding your customers on the spot shows your appreciation for their patronage.
Loyalty Programs – A great deal of businesses have some form of a loyalty program in place for frequent shoppers, but take this idea to the next level by offering your customers something really special. For example, the children’s clothing giant, Carters, gives each customer a card that gets a stamp for every $20 spent. After 5 stamps, a 10% discount is applied to the next purchase. This is pretty standard, but you can use this idea to your advantage. Instead of a discount, you could offer a special shopping day where he or she would have exclusive access to new products before they’re made available to the general public.
Individualized Product or Service – Based on a customer’s purchase history, you could offer a product/service that he or she would be particularly interested in. For example, say a customer regularly buys a certain type of hair product from your cosmetics business. Because you know what this person wants and needs, you could offer a free consultation for a new hairstyle, color, or shampoo and conditioning treatment. Providing individualized service to your customers improves relationships and gives them more reasons to come back.
Free Gift With Purchase – This really works well when you can purchase items at wholesale that have a higher perceived value. Additionally, you can promote a higher-priced item by offering a free gift with it. For example, select a product or service that you want to interest your customers with; if they buy it, they could also get a free custom-printed t-shirt designed by a local artist, or a free canvas tote bag with your logo printed across the front. The benefits here are two-fold: the higher price you can charge for the item will help offset the cost of your free gift, and you are also advertising your brand by distributing your merchandise to your customers.

By thinking outside the box, there are endless possibilities to the incentives that one could offer. What are some of your ideas for non-price related incentives? Please share them in the comments section below!

Blog

DSEF & CBBB: Help Prevent Your Facebook Account from Being Hacked in 3 Easy Steps

Today’s highlighted blog post from the Council on Better Business Bureaus (CBBB):

Help Prevent Your Facebook Account from Being Hacked in 3 Easy Steps

There are several quick steps you can take to avoid getting your Facebook account hacked. These include:

Make sure that your ‘Secure Browsing’ is enabled – That means your browser uses Https instead of the standard connection. How to change your setting: While on Facebook, look at your URL address in the browser. If you see “http:” instead of “https:” you DO NOT have a secure session. It’s easy to change. Just go to Account (upper right) click Account Settings… Then Security – click Change. Check box (secure browsing), click Save.
Regularly change your password – Get in the routine of changing your password often. Try to use a combinations of upper & lower case numbers/special characters and don’t use any parts of your first or last name.
Enable login notifications – Click on Account Settings … then Security … then enable login notifications. This will cause Facebook to notify you when your account is accessed from a computer or mobile device that you haven’t used before.

And finally, don’t click on suspicious links while browsing Facebook and never give your login info to anyone.

Blog

Target Marketing For Small Business

With so many different marketing methods being used in business these days, it can be overwhelming to decide which is right for you. One should consider the use of target marketing, which is dividing your market into specific groups and concentrating on just one or a few important components. For example, a pet grooming business specializing in grooming show dogs could implement a direct mail campaign (snail or electronic) that reaches only particular dog owners rather than advertising in a newspaper that would reach a much larger market. The first step is to define your target market; then you can develop strategies to advertise your business directly to them.

Defining your target market, or “niche”

Decide why a person would make a purchase from you. People usually buy something for at least one of three reasons: to solve a problem, to meet a basic need, or to make themselves feel good. Sorting your target market into one of these categories will help you narrow your focus to a smaller group.
Consider the demographics of those who could use your product or service. This information includes age, gender, income, education, marital and family status, and ethnic and/or religious background. You’ll be able to invest your marketing dollars more wisely if the information you gather about your target customer is specific.
Consider the psychographics including lifestyle, social class, activities, and attitudes/beliefs. This additional information should allow you to form a picture of what the ideal prospect would be like. From there, you can figure out where they would be exposed to different types of advertising.
When creating a target market, or micro-niche, you should make sure that it is small enough that you can be a competitive force, but not so small that there isn’t enough money to be made. For example, Amazon has pretty much cornered the market on the online sale of books, DVDs, and digital media, so trying to compete with them would be futile. Similarly, construction of birdcage perches exclusively out of recycled material is too specific and would appeal to such a small number of people.

Examples of target marketing

A direct seller for a higher-end jewelry company knows that her customers are mostly women in their 30s-40s who like a well-polished look that includes a versatile wardrobe, a contemporary hairstyle, and manicured nails. Advertising to this target market can be done via fashion blogs, hair and nail salons, and local clothing boutiques.
A small business that offers in-home photography sessions knows that its target market is parents of newborns wanting professional pictures without the hassle of going to a studio. This demographic can be reached via parenting magazines and websites.
A pastry shop that specializes in custom-made freshly-baked desserts knows that its target market is mostly made up of local business owners and private party planners. Reaching this group can be done via vendor fairs and event hosting expos.

The key to target marketing is deciding who that small group is and then finding the best approach to reaching them. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your current and past clients to get to the information you need. You will save money budgeted for marketing as well as being able to build your business based on those who have the greatest interest in your product or service. How have you defined and reached your target market? Share your ideas in the comments section below!