How-to Guides to Running Your Small Business from Work.com

Check out this website I found at work.com

Business Growth | Funding Solution | Marble Bridge Funding Group, Inc.

Your Bridge to Success

Marble Bridge Funding Group is your source to immediate cash to grow your business. Since 1997, Marble Bridge has provided more than $500 million of funding to hundreds of companies. We provide ready cash through financing your accounts receivable and purchase orders.

For companies looking to grow, Marble Bridge is your bridge to success. We are a direct lender, providing flexible, quick, reliable, custom funding solutions, and superior customer service.

Find out how we can help you:

• Expand your business
• Purchase additional inventory
• Acquire larger customers
• Get cash in 24-48 hours rather than waiting 30, 60 or even 90 days
• Simply make the payroll

Contact Us Today!

Tel 925-977-8210

via marblebridge.com

Kahl Consultants client Marble Bridge Funding Group is a progressive commercial finance company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Since 1997 this privately held direct funder has been financing growing businesses – from start-ups to companies with $100 million in sales – via a range of innovative programs:

Account Receivable Financing
Purchase Order Financing
Receivables Management
Other Related Financial Services

Marble Bridge also maintain a visible presence in the community, assisting government and private institutions that serve small businesses.

Entrepreneur Magazine Tips to Start Your Own Business

Or almost nothing. Before you sign a lease (or buy a phone plan or make a hire), find out what's available for free.

You don't need a fancy telecom system and an office full of equipment to get your business off the ground. Hell, you don't even need an office, especially with the ever-growing array of virtual services at your disposal. --E.W.

The un-office
Save the rent and work with your colleagues anywhere that has a Wi-Fi signal. Basecamp--a web-based project-management app--lets you assign tasks, send instant messages, collaboratively edit documents, create presentations and track projects with employees and clients. A good service for web design professionals and other creatives completing longer-term assignments. Plans start at $24 a month for as many as 15 projects and go up to $149 a month for unlimited use. But if you can find office space at that price, we suggest you take it.

Basecamphq.com: From $24 a month.

Credit cards
Setting up a conventional credit card payment system involves contracts, equipment rental and thousands in transaction fees. Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has a new startup called Square that allows you to swipe plastic with your iPhone or iPod. Simply plug Square's, er, square, into the headphone jack and your customers can make a purchase from anywhere. With instant photo verification, on-screen signature technology and e-mail receipts, the system is paperless, too. It's still in beta testing, but expect Square to arrive this summer.

Squareup.com: $1 for the app, plus 2.9 percent of each transaction. Hardware will be free.

The phone
Telecom systems killed the receptionist. Now Google Voice is set to kill telecom. Voice gives you the local number of your choice and lets you forward it to as many landline or cell phones as you please, giving you an "office number" even if said office consists of nothing more than you and your cat. Voice kindly transcribes voicemails for access through text message or e-mail, and incoming calls can be recorded and played back on the web. Local calls are free; long distance starts at just 2 cents a minute.

Google.com/voice: Free, or close to it.

The fax
Buying a bulky fax machine is so 1993. And then there's the monthly cost of the dedicated landline needed to run the thing. With eFax, $16.95 a month gets you a local fax number of your choosing and 130 incoming pages each month. And eFax sends incoming faxes as e-mail attachments--very 2010, indeed.

Efax.com: $16.95 a month.

IT department
Get the perks of a corporate computer network with Dropbox's free downloadable software: Just drag and drop files into a desktop folder to sync them to computers and PDAs--no IT guy needed.

Dropbox.com: Free.

Accounting department
Freshbooks--an online invoicing, time-tracking and expense service--automates the accounting department with an easy web interface that sends documents (with your logo) to clients. Manage as many as three clients for free; a $19 monthly upgrade increases that to 25. Getting clients to pay on time? That's another matter.

Freshbooks.com: Free.

Complaint department
Get Satisfaction--a startup that mint.com and Nike are already using--collects questions, complaints and feedback from throughout the social media universe and organizes it into a customer service platform that can be used on your website. Led by CEO Wendy Lea, Get Satisfaction has plans starting at $19.

Getsatisfaction.com: From $19 a month.

Make it legal
Create a simple LLC or trademark your business name with LegalZoom, a low-cost alternative to hiring counsel. LLC document preparation starts at $149 (about one-tenth of what an attorney would charge) and includes all filing fees and a custom operating agreement.

LegalZoom.com: $149 for an LLC document.

via entrepreneur.com

Ready to start your own business? Worried about the expenses?

This article has excellent tips for free or almost free services and tools to get you going when you are short on money.

myearthdaymarin.org

Thank you for visiting the My Earth Day Marin Coalition Homepage – your source for information on environmentally focused service projects organized in honor of Earth Day throughout Marin County! Opportunities abound for those interested in giving back to mother nature, but sometimes it is difficult to know where to begin.  That is why agencies across Marin have come together to collectively advertise Earth Day service projects and celebrations.  We hope that your celebrations this April leave you with a greater understanding of, and appreciation for the incredible land and wildlife of Marin County, and the people who reside here.  Together we can make a great difference; thank you very much for your time!

“Let it rain, let it pour, let the sun rise and roar, whatever the weather we are here to serve, to celebrate, nurture, preserve and observe, the endless wonders of earth!” -Marin County Park Ranger Kirk Schroeder

If you are interested in volunteering for an Earth Day service project, please visit our VOLUNTEER page for information on a wide variety of projects across the county.  For more information on the My Earth Day Marin Coalition, please visit our About Us page.  If you have general questions about the My Earth Day Marin Coalition, visit our Contact Us page.  Note that our listed volunteer opportunities have specific contact persons pertaining to each event.  If you are interested in promoting a volunteer event that is not listed on our VOLUNTEER page, visit our Add an Event page.  We look forward to hearing from you!

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My Earth Day Marin Partners:

Marin County Parks and Open Space District
City of San Rafael Volunteer Program and Public Works Department
San Rafael Clean
Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program
Marin County Department of Public Works
Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership of Marin
Marin Municipal Water District
Marin County Community Development Agency

 

Founded by:

Marin County Parks and Open Space District
City of San Rafael Volunteer Program
San Rafael Clean
Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership of Marin
Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program

via myearthdaymarin.org

April 22 is Earth Day! Celebrate Earth Day by giving back to Mother Earth and volunteering for community service projects.

Spam is BAAAAAD. Double Opt-In Email Blasts are GOOD.

Email marketing (using double opt-in email blasts) is more cost effective than website marketing. True!

When you combine your website with email marketing you get a synergy effect and this is an most cost effective way to market online. True!

Throw in some social networking a la Facebook or LinkedIn and you can even sell ice to Eskimos.

Do not do any spamming. Do not purchase email lists and send out emails to those lists. Only use DOUBLE OPT-IN EMAIL MARKETING.

How do you create effective EMAIL BLASTS? Follow these basic tips:

TOP TEN EMAIL BLAST TIPS

1. DO NOT USE OUTLOOK! Do not use any email software! Sign up for an EMAIL SERVICE where you can create professional looking email campaigns and track the effectiveness and the results.
2. Many email blast services offer nonprofits FREE or reduced price services. Some even offer free entry level services for commercial use; these are usually limited to a certain number of recipients.
3. Use DOUBLE OPT-IN mailing lists. Let your users sign up for the service, and DO NOT SPAM.
4. Create an email template that matches the style of your website. This will reinforce your identity and branding.
5. KISS (Keep it Short and Simple). If you have long articles only include the entry paragraph. Then link to your website for the full article. Also try to cover no more than 3 or 4 subjects per email blast.
6. Think VISUAL. Have at least one image to accompany each article
7. Include all your pertinent contact infos in every email.
8. Give your readers something for nothing - a discount, a freebie, some free tips, free advice, etc.
9. Do not send out too many emails. Monthly is good.
10. Add a sign up form to your website and let your visitors sign up for your email news.

Ready to start your email campaign? Some of the most popular email blast services are:

Vertical Response

* *Free for up to 10,000 emails.
http://www.verticalresponse.com/pricing/

MailChimp

* Free for up to 1000 contacts with up to 6000 emails a month
* Unlimited emails for $15/month
* 15% discount for non-profits
http://www.mailchimp.com/pricing/view-all

Constant Contact

* The most popular Email Blast service.
* $12/month for 500 contacts and unlimited emails; Prepay 12 months and pay $10.50/month
http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/pricing/

iContact

* $24.65/month with annual contract
* 20% discount for non-profits
http://www.icontact.com/affordable-email-marketing/

Learn more about email marketing services from Kahl Consultants.
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How and Why to Send Out Electronic Newsletters

Hooray for websites! They are cool and sexy, the slick digital way to present your business to the online world. But email is the real internet work horse. Too bad email is not as sexy as websites. Mostly it is associated with spam.

But don't knock email! When email marketing is done properly then it becomes the most COST EFFECTIVE way to market your business.

In fact the best online marketing strategy uses BOTH websites and email - in synergy.

KC's Online Marketing Rule of Thumb:

Split your online marketing budget equally between website and email marketing.


How do YOU do email marketing?


Are you already sending out some marketing emails? Are you using your emails software (e.g. Outlook, MacMail, Thunderbird...)?

Then you probably have dealt with BOUNCES and BLOCKS, both common occurances.

What are BOUNCES?
BOUNCES occur when an email address can't be reached. They happen when an email address is DEAD, the In-Box is FULL, the service was UNAVAILABLE and so on.

What are BLOCKS?
BLOCKS occur due to the many blacklists used to fight spam. They can be quite overzealous and even if you are not a spammer it is easy for you or your email server to be listed on one.

KC's Email Marketing Rule of Thumb:
Do NOT use your regular email software for mass mailings

How should YOU do email marketing?

1) NO SPAMMING!
2) Use double opt-in email marketing
3) Use a reputable email marketing service (the most popular one is Constant Contact)
4) Any mail that goes to over 50 names should use an email service

Did you know that email newsletter services are a much more effective method of marketing?
Let us know if you need some help setting up an Email Marketing service with Constant Contact.


If you have a nonprofit you can even try a FREE email newsletter service from Vertical Response:
http://www.verticalresponse.com/non-profits/

Cheers,
Alex

Optimize your website for Humans and for Search Engines

By now most small businesses have become proud owners of their own website, their window to the web, their digital business card and brochure.

Even if the website is just a simple static brochure-style website it serves to market a business on the net. But that is only if your website is designed with your audience in mind. Not just your human visitors but also your machine visitors, i.e. the search engine spiders and crawlers that study the content on your site and then position it in the search engines accordingly. Small business web developers such as Kahl Consultants can help you with this work.

First lets talk about how to optimize a website for humans. Since your visitors don't want to read tons of boring text, good copywriting skills are very important. You should talk to an experienced copywriter for more details. At the very least get a seasoned copywriter to help you edit your website text.

Secondly it is valuable to hire a Internet Marketing Consultant to optimize your site for search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the most cost effective long term strategy to make your website work for you as a marketing tool. SEO will help you to rank higher in the free or organic results for the appropriate keywords and thus attract more traffic. Search engine marketing (SEM) such as pay-per-click advertising can also be valuable if you have a larger marketing budget or if you are looking for faster results.

Give Kahl Consultants a call if you would like to discuss any of these marketing options.