Is Your Home Business Prepared for a Disaster?

If you're like most people, you probably started with wonderful ideas of fulfilling your dreams, to be successful and to take charge of your own destiny.

I hope you have achieved those or are well on your way.

You wouldn’t think of starting your business without a business plan and you shouldn’t even consider marketing your product or services without a marketing plan. A solid business plan and marketing plan are your roadmaps to help you to know where your going, how to get their and to achieve your goals.

Nobody likes to think about what would happen if those accomplishments were suddenly pulled out from under you, yet unfortunately it does happen.

Do you have a plan if an event such as a hurricane, tornado, fire or simple computer crash should happen to you? If not, then it's time to start thinking about adding a business continuity plan to your list of things to do. What is a business continuity plan? Simply put, a business continuity plan is a set of planned and documented procedures that will help your business back on track in the event of an emergency.

If your business is managed from your home, both your residence and your livelihood are at risk due to unexpected loss. Natural disasters are not the only risk factors. As devastating as it is to think someone else was in your home, robberies can happen anywhere.

Something as basic as a hard drive crash can cripple your home business indefinitely. I recently spoke with two people in the last month that had said that they experienced hard drive crashes and lost everything.

When you think of how much time, money & effort you have invested in your home businesses, it only makes sense to make sure it is protected and can survive an emergency.

Don’t know where to start? Visit www.HomeOfficeRecoveryPlan.com to learn more.

To Your Success!

Patty Gale

About the author:
Patty Gale is a successful entrepreneur who exchanged her suits, hose and heels to work from home in her "jammies." She is on a mission to empower others to do the same.

She can be reached at: http://www.Home-Office-Recovery-Plan.com

Small Business CRM Is Here To Stay

If you ask most small business owners what priority CRM has in their short-term business plans,
chances are you’ll get more than one blank stare. The fact is that most small business owners don’t
even know what CRM is not to mention how significantly it can benefit their growing company. This prevailing
ignorance of small business CRM (customer relationship management) usually stems from just a few basic causes.

Excuses not to invest in small business CRM
The first and most common reason for disinterest in small business CRM is the very nature of small business.
With limited financial and personnel resources at their disposal, business owners believe they can’t afford
the money or time that a small business CRM system would require to show a significant ROI. Often times
the chief concern is just staying afloat long enough to sign that big contract or receive a large product order.

Still other owners of new businesses believe that they can build and maintain quality customer relations simply
by the virtue of the their cordial personality or particular market niche. They see small business CRM as
an unessential luxury to be enjoyed exclusively by their larger competitors. What these owners often find is
that without sufficient small business CRM support their business will never expand beyond the number of
customer names they can remember. The problem is compounded when the company expands into internet sales
(an essential move by any growing company) and suddenly finds its present customer tracking system
overwhelmed by the sheer amount of incoming customer information.

The Bottom Line
The bottom line, as all successful small business owners have learned, is that it takes more than one good
idea to build long-term business growth and stability. You may be great at attracting new customers to your
business, but if you fail to care for, track, and understand your customer base, not only will you hemorrhage
your hard-won clientele, you will also fail to capitalize on future opportunities by not anticipating future
market trends.

The Solution
The good news about small business CRM is that there is an increasing number of automated systems available
at prices that most smaller companies can afford without too much difficulty, usually around $2000 a year.
Some CRM companies, effectively eliminating the need for small business owners to micromanage their CRM system,
largely manage newer small business CRM systems. Now small business owners can reap the benefits of a smooth
running CRM system with a minimal time/financial investment.

Features to look for in a small business CRM system
There are many features available to small business CRM users designed to not only track sales, but also
cause sales. Here are some features to look for.
· Power Dialing-This feature allows your outbound sales agents to place 300%-400% as many sales calls,
effectively quadrupling your workforce.
· Voice Messaging System-Allows you to automatically record and send sales calls designed to elicit a
customer call back.
· Custom Fax and Email-Following up on leads with timely fax and email can mean the difference between
closing sales and missing out on potential revenue.

Other ‘must-have’ features include:

· Calendaring
· Marketing management
· Sales management
· Order and quote management
· Service management

With the ability to outsource these business functions, small business owners can concentrate on
implementing strategies that they’ve had to hold off on due to lack of customer information and/or time.

by: Cameron Brown

Create Real Magic And New Customers

Do you want a small business opportunity that could create more business for you? It is a chance to
sell to the government. Bring in new customers is always the number one goal of many business owners.
It is the life blood of any operation and if you want your business to stay healthy then you must bring
in fresh new customers and keep them coming back with a great service or product.
I would like to introduce you to the 59.005 Business Development Assistance to Small Business program.
This program is excellent for bringing in new business and revenue. Get help from this program to sell
to the government. They will assist your small business in obtaining a "fair" share of contracts and
subcontracts for Federal government supplies and services and a "fair" share of property sold by the government.
What an excellent opportunity this is! I would rather sell a lot more to meet my goals than to have
to get a small business loans or small business grants.

What they can do for your company is:
(Restriction of bidding/award to small business only)
(1) Your application will set-aside the chance to increase the Federal procurement and disposal
requirements awarded to small business for a great small business opportunity;
(2) You will receive consultation with procuring activities on structuring of procurement and sales
planning to optimize small business participation;
(3) They will also review and analyze you small business capacity, credit, integrity, perseverance,
and tenacity when challenged by contracting officers and certifying competence of such firms to
perform as prime contractors, as appropriate, and monitoring performance of certificate of
competency holders throughout contract life;
(4) They will also review of subcontracting plans and programs of large prime contractors to determine
the extent that they are providing subcontracting opportunities to small businesses, veteran-owned
businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, HUBZone qualified businesses, small
disadvantaged business, and women-owned small businesses;
(5) When they give you consultation and advice for small businesses requesting assistance on government
procurement or property sales matters, you must keep in mind that all consultants are not the same.
It is very important to get one that you like and is passionate about their job.
(6) They will also help you with specific contract administration problems;
(7) They will see if you qualify for the SBA's procurement and financial programs;
(8) By doing this they want to breakout of items from a the same old stale source of buying in favor
of full and open competition in order to achieve savings;
(9) One of the goals that they have is to review small business programs at Federal buying activities
to evaluate effect on small business participation and recommend changes; and
(10)management of the Central Contractor Registration's Dynamic Small Business Search, a nationwide
Internet database of information on small business, a marketing tool for small firms and a "link"
to procurement opportunities. It pays to at least get registered and listed in this data base.

Existing and potential small businesses are eligible to apply. A small business is a business entity
organized for profit, with a place of business located in the United States and which makes a significant
contribution to the U.S. economy through payment of taxes and/or use of American Products, materials
and/or labor.

Generally, an employee based size standard not in excess of 500 employees is used for manufacturers for
wholesalers, average employment not in excess of 500 is used; for general construction, a revenue based
size standard not over $28,500,000 is used; for specialty trade construction, revenues not over $12,000,000
is used; for retail and services contracts, revenues not over $6,000,000 is used; and for agricultural
enterprises, gross annual sales not over $750,000 is used.
Self-certification of documentation is sufficient for representation as a small business, women-owned small
business, veteran-owned small business and service-disabled veteran-owned small business. SBA certification
is required for status as a HUBZone small business, 8(a) small business, and Small Disadvantaged Business.
The range is about 15 days for certificate of competency; no approval is required on other programs for this.
small business opportunity.
The government grants that guarantees this small business opportunity programs for small business grants
totaled: FY 04 $4,606,675,000; FY 05 est $3,250,000,000; FY 06 est $3,000,000,000. Administrative
Expenses: FY 04 $38,013,000; FY 05 est $34,188,000; and FY 06 est $36,406,000 In fiscal year 2004,
$11.2 billion in government grants for prime contracts was set-aside for procurement limited to small
businesses to give you an excellent small business opportunity.
Title 13, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 125; "Government Contracting Programs;" Government Contracting
and information for this small business opportunity from SBA offices. Forms to obtain necessary assistance
are provided by SBA field offices. To find where they are listed you can go to Associate Administrator
for Government Contracting, Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street, SW., Washington, DC 20416.
Telephone: (202) 205-6460 http://www.sba.gov
Other small business opportunity programs that are related to selling to the federal government are:
17.301, Non-Discrimination and Affirmative Action by Federal Contractors and Federally Assisted
Construction Contractors can use this small business opportunity;
17.303, Wage and Hour Standards;

36.001, Fair Competition Counseling and Investigation of Complaints;
39.001, Business Services is another small business opportunity;
43.002, Technology Transfer is the chance to participate in another small business opportunity;
59.006, 8(a) Business Development is a good small business opportunity that you should consider.

by: Robert Smethers

About the author:
I am a college student and single parent who relies on federal grants everyday.
I built this free information and education website that helps find federal grants to promote economic
development.
http://www.federal-grant-news.com