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8 Legal Things You Should Know Before Starting a Business

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Starting a Business|8 Legal Things You Should Know Before Starting a BusinessSo, you have successfully prepared your business plan, secured the needed finances, and are now ready to jumpstart your business.

In this case, starting your business the right way means ensuring that you understand and comply with all the requirements to operate legally.

After all, covering all the legal bases before launching a business helps avoid mistakes that could be detrimental to your business endeavor’s success. In fact, business owners unfamiliar with the required legal processes and documents to start a business are more likely to fail.

With that said, here are eight legal things you should know before starting a business to help you thoroughly prepare the requirements needed to start your business the right way.

Ready? Let’s get right into it.

Choose Suitable Business Structure

Your business structure is the first requirement you need to comply with before legally starting a company. In this case, startups usually choose between forming a corporation, Sole Proprietorship, or an LLC.

Of course, each of these structures has its advantages and drawbacks, so you need to pick one that’s the most suited for your business setup.

In general, many new business owners opt to form an LLC to protect their personal assets if the business declares bankruptcy. Plus, it is less expensive and less complicated than creating a corporation.

Overall, choosing a business structure is an essential step you need to protect your business and your personal finances.

Register Your Business

Once you have selected a business structure, the next step is to register your business name. Whatever business structure you choose, you need to file a name for your business or company in your state.

In most cases, there are four ways you can register your business:

  • A DBA (Doing Business As) works for sole proprietorship structures required, depending on your state. However, this registration does not offer legal protection.
  • An entity name lets your local government or state know that you operate a business under a fictitious business name. This registration protects your company at a state level.
  • A trademark offers brand protection in all 50 states and legally protects your business to places where your business is not registered within the US.
  • A domain name is your unique business web address to establish your business online and gain a solid digital presence.

Ensure You Are Not Violating Trademarks

When picking a business name, you need to make sure that it reflects your branding. Moreover, if you plan on providing online services or operate on a national level, it is best to get a trademark for your business name.

After all, trademark violations can mean damage and financial loss to your business, so it’s best to be prudent when ensuring that the business name you want is not yet trademarked. In this case, you can formally register your business name with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Get a Federal Tax Identification Number

In general, an Employer Identification Number (EIN) allows you to apply for a business license, hire employees, open a bank account, and pay your taxes.

Known as the Federal Tax Identification Number, your EIN will separate your business and personal liability, thus giving you additional legal protection and keeping your social security number from data breaches and identity theft.

In this case, you can conveniently apply for an EIN online through the IRS website.

Obtain Business Permits and Licenses

You must acquire the required permits and licenses before you can start opening your doors to your clients. Of course, depending on your business, industry, and location, the necessary business licenses and permits vary from state or locality.

Moreover, some businesses require special permits and licenses or additional licensing requirements. Likewise, others require zoning approval, especially if you put up your business in a residential area or require changes in traffic patterns such as shipments and bulk deliveries.

Secure a Business Insurance

Aside from this, it would also be a good idea to talk to an insurance agent to help you with the type of business insurance you need and the amount required for such coverage.

After all, purchasing good business insurance protects your company from the potential risk of accidents, damages, and lawsuits.

In this case, general liability insurance is one of the essential coverage for any business to have. It protects your company from general wrongdoing claims and ensures your income is secured during maintenance and reworking.

Open a Business Bank Account

It is legally wise to separate your business bank account from your personal finances. Moreover, it’s also a significant step you can take for more intelligent money management.

In this case, opening a business bank account allows you to deposit the money earned from the business and secure funding for business-related expenses.

However, it’s best to choose a bank that offers friendly and convenient terms for business startups. In addition, you should also note that the bank may also ask you to provide your EIN, formation documents, business license, and proof of ownership before you can open an account.

Hire a Good Lawyer and Accountant

Lastly, it would be an excellent step also to hire professionals like a lawyer and accountant for your company. After all, consulting and hiring a professional lawyer and accountant ensures that your company is covered from legal and financial angles.

Moreover, having a good lawyer and accountant can guarantee that you have solid legal support during unforeseen situations. Aside from this, investing in a lawyer and an accountant can also help secure your business in the long run.

Starting a business requires dedication and passion. However, there are also many legalities you need to work through to stay compliant and profitable.

With that said, investing time and money in ensuring that all the legal phases of your business are covered ensures that you are starting your company on the right foot.

4 Straightforward IT Solutions To Improve Your Small Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Small Business IT Solutions|4 Straightforward IT Solutions To Improve Your Small BusinessIf you are running a small business, IT will be an integral part of your day-to-day operations. Do you face any issues within your small business when it comes to IT management? Would you know what to do if there was a potential data breach? Are your systems secure? IT is consistently evolving, but there are several straightforward solutions to help your small business. Follow these steps and watch your business thrive like never before.

Asset Management

You will already be well aware that no business can run successfully without its assets. As this is so, it also cannot run proficiently without an asset management process successfully implemented.

This will ensure that you are using the assets you have to their full potential. Once you have prepared to replace an asset that is approaching the end of its life, you will be able to maintain a schedule and ensure assets are functioning for their entire life cycle. This will ultimately save you money, ensuring that your needs are met with available but unused resources, rather than opting to purchase something new.

Backup and Disaster Recovery Systems

Losing data can prove to be detrimental to a business, and small businesses often suffer worst. Disaster cannot always be averted but having a plan in place can help if the unexpected is to happen. This will save you time, as these issues can take hours or even days to restore, as well as saving you money in the long run.

Implementing a Proactive Process

Being proactive is often overlooked. If you are aware of details such as how quickly servers take to come back once they have crashed, how long support issues take to be resolved and the time it takes to restore lost data, you will be in a proactive, positive position.

Being aware of this is one thing, but if your server never goes down, you may not even need to know. Proactive measures can include:

  • Software updates
  • Hardware audits
  • Preventative maintenance

Apply Security Measures

Managed security services are essential for any small business who wants to keep their data safe. By applying security best practices, you can avoid data breaches. This can be easily implemented by controlling who views sensitive in formation, by having effective password policies, and safeguarding customer information.

Additionally, you should also bear in mind that your company could well get audited. This will mean that you must have the ability to clearly show that there is a process in place that will ensure your company’s critical information is secure. If you can show it can be restored easily at a later date, you will be in the clear. You should keep these 4 process in mind on a day-to-day basis, and always have an IT plan in place. When determining the best processes for a driven and successful small business, explore the many options available.

Having an in-depth plan in terms of IT will help you run your small business efficiently, effectively and with ease.

What It Takes To Turn Your Failing Business Around

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StrategyDriven Business Performance Assessment Program Article |Failing Business|What It Takes To Turn Your Failing Business AroundIt takes a great deal of effort, timing, and entrepreneurial skills to build a business from scratch. Therefore, it can be heartbreaking to see your hard work not paying off or performing as it should. A 2019 report by the National Business Capital indicated that although 6.5 million companies are set up annually in the USA, failure rates still hang around 90%. That’s not good news for the job market when workers cannot vouch for the long-term business survival of the establishments they work for. How can you get your customers back? What options can you utilize to turn things around? Hopefully, these points will be helpful to your cause.

1. Identify what could have gone wrong with the leadership team

This should be the first step to take as you embark on a mission to turn things around. It involves reassessing your business operations, starting with leadership. You may discover that some poor leadership decisions may have been responsible for your establishment doldrums. Leadership is a significant part of any business, and it’s highly recommended to get the right executive team to hold the fort.

A strong executive team is supposed to make decisions to steer business objectives, and that starts with your hiring decisions. So, if you run a print company, for instance, it would be wise to seek the services of packaging headhunters for your C-suite positions. These experts have access to a vast pool of talent that you may not necessarily have and would be in the best place to help you fill those top-level vacancies. You could use their services to fill other positions, which leads to the next point.

2. Invest in your support team

Your employees make up the backbone of your company, and when you treat them right, you will achieve positive results. Investing in your team means making a conscious effort to make your employees feel welcome and appreciated. Keep in mind that the business is failing and staff morale is already low. To get their interests and commitment back to where it was before (or even a notch higher), you must engage them fully. How can you do that?

For starters, recognize their contributions, invest in their training, and improve working conditions (even if minimal). Indeed, you can do so many things to bring the ‘vibe’ back into the team. Perhaps, finance is an issue, and paying for their training isn’t a feasible idea. If that is the case, you have two options to explore. The first is to research online training packages which are less costly. The second option is to recreate enhanced job titles with added benefits to compel them to stay. Investing in your team is a mark of compassion and indicates your entrenched position to turn things around for the better.

3. Institute new money management procedures

According to entrepreneur.com, 70% of business failures are primarily finance-based. With this statistic at the back of your mind, one essential step to take is to restructure your company’s money management procedures. Pay critical attention to your cash inflows and outflows. Additionally, if you haven’t already done so, set up a separate bank account for your business.

Unfortunately, this is a terrible habit of new entrepreneurs. Failure to separate these two critical bank accounts makes it impossible to keep track of inflows and outflows. Another thing you should do is to hire an accounting team or outsource the service (whichever works for you and the business). With new stringent measures in place, you can even detect areas in your company where money leaks, allowing you to fix them. While at it, put a halt to all needless costs your business is engaged in.

4. Focus on a facelift for all company digital platforms

As an entrepreneur, you cannot underestimate the essence of digital platforms in the 21st century. If you need a reminder, think about the COVID pandemic and how it caused businesses to jump onto the digitization bandwagon. Your website and all official social media handles deserve a facelift to give your company a new look. You have everything to lose when your business fails, which explains the vital need for stringent measures.

It’s also an opportunity to add new content to your website, redesign it, and draw appeal to your brand. When it comes to social media, make a deliberate effort to engage the public even more. Where necessary, you can run promos to build up excitement. What works recently for most companies is the story-telling video narrative. And you can put your business story on a roll with the right script and compelling imagery. Use the moment to appeal to the masses and draw new leads. Even though it’s a failing business, it doesn’t mean you’re entirely down.

Furthermore, if you find it necessary, a total rebranding is recommended, but that can be expensive. Therefore, if your finances are weak, concentrate on your digital platforms, easily accessible to the general public. Your online accounts represent the company’s face and play a significant role in customers’ image of you.

5. Re-examine existing marketing activities

For every business, the primary focus is the customer. Beyond acquiring the customer is the need to retain them and draw even more. For a failing business, this may be something you lack. This must be a priority as an astute business-minded individual because repeat business directly influences your marketing activities.

While re-assessing your marketing strategies, find out whether your business’s approach has always been sales-focused, as the opposite can hurt marketing and revenue in the long term. If that is so, your priority now should be adding value to your business’s customer base. That alone will drive publicity and bring in more revenue to revive your company. In addition to that, introduce a limited special offer promotion to get back on the minds of your target audience.

6. Find a business partner

There’s nothing better than locating much-needed help just when it’s crucial. For businesses, partnership means more than just two or more forces coming together. The key is to find a strategic business partner to pull your company out of the doldrums. It would help if you asked yourself whether your new business partner shares the same values as your establishment. Secondly, how much are they willing to put in, and what will be their expectations when things begin to look brighter?

Additionally, what business acumen is that strategic partner coming on board with? In that regard, it’s vital to know whether they experienced a similar situation in the past and pulled through successfully. Now that will be excellent news for your company, won’t it? The fresh pair of eyes you have by way of a new business partner helps you see things you ordinarily wouldn’t have noticed on your own. That can make a huge difference when your business gets back on track.

Be receptive to innovative ideas

If you wish to turn your failing business around, what’s the sense in holding on to old and mundane strategies? Remember that the only constant in life is change, and it’s no different from the business world. Embracing innovative ideas opens the business up to several potentials it wouldn’t have had if you remained unreceptive to them. Do not forget that your open-mindedness as a leader is reflective of your company’s operations. It also has a ripple effect on your staff’s motivation.

It takes a lot of skill, creativity, and unadulterated business intelligence to turn around a failing business. Admittedly, it’s not an easy task to do, but it will be worth all the effort you and your team put in to get things back on track.

7 Tips for Aspiring Defense Contractors

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | 7 Tips for Aspiring Defense ContractorsIf you’re curious about landing a defense contract, you may be interested to know that the Department of Defense grants contracts to small businesses and individuals in addition to large corporations. If you take the proper steps, you may be able to land one of these lucrative deals for your company. You may not be sure where to start and find yourself searching for answers to questions like what is CMMC compliance? Here are seven tips that can aid you in your pursuit.

1. Familiarize Yourself With Federal Codes

Before you begin trying to land a contract, you must first be familiar with how to categorize your company. Familiarize yourself with the federal codes that are applicable to what your business offers. Some codes to research are Federal Supply Class or Service, North American Industry Classification System, and Product Service codes. These will help you with registering your company for consideration. 

2. Look for Available Jobs

You can search SAM.gov for contract opportunities that are currently available. This will give you an idea of what is needed and what you may be able to provide. Once you have an idea of if your service is the right fit for a government contract, you can register your business and start networking to increase your chances of landing one.

3. Register Your Business

Before you can get a contract with the Department of Defense, you have to register your company. This will include getting a number from the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS). Then, you will need to register with the System for Award Management (SAM) and get a Contractor and Government Entity Code (CAGE). These steps are required, and you will not be able to move forward until you complete them.

4. Build a Network

It is a great idea to reach out to other companies that have successfully landed contracts but avoid reaching out to direct competitors. Look for companies that have successfully obtained deals and likely have direct connections that can give you a leg up in the process. Better yet, if you build a great relationship and they are impressed, they could make recommendations that put you several steps ahead of the competition.

5. Ask for Help

A procurement and technical assistance center can help you decide how to market your services and obtain contracts. They offer expert advice and can help you prepare all of the necessary paperwork and complete the steps required to get a deal. This can save you a lot of time doing the research yourself, especially when you have no prior experience. These centers often offer one-on-one counseling, so you can get all of your questions answered while receiving ample personal attention.

6. Make Sure You Are Compliant

Most contracts today require compliance with Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. There are five levels of certification you can reach, ranging from “Basic Cyber Hygiene” to State of the Art.” You will need to get an independent, third-party assessment to be certified as meeting these standards.

7. Build a Proposal

The final step in landing a contract is building and presenting a proposal. You will need to gather and create marketing materials like booklets and catalogs to demonstrate your potential contribution. It is essential to build a story around your business that sets it apart and presents it as the only solution to the problem you are fixing. This will ensure you are showing your company in the best possible light.

By following the tips above, you will be on your way to landing a Department of Defense contract and having a secure stream of work for yourself and your company.

Are Direct Mail Postcards a Legitimate Marketing Strategy in 2021?

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Direct Mail Postcards|Are Direct Mail Postcards a Legitimate Marketing Strategy in 2021?Just because there are newer methods of marketing does not mean the old tried-and-true methods no longer work. The trick is to do it right. Direct mail postcards can still be a great marketing tool if they are done correctly. This means using the best message, the most eye-catching design, and mailing them to the right demographic. So, if a business owner wants to use direct mail postcards, they should identify their target audience, decide on the most productive message, have them designed and printed by the best printer, and choose the best time to mail them.

Do Some Research First

Don’t go off half-cocked on a mailing campaign. Take the time to learn about direct mail marketing to use it to the best advantage. Yes, direct mail postcards are still a valuable marketing tool if used correctly.

Some tips for postcard mailing marketing include the following.

  • Postcards might be one of only a few pieces of mail in the potential customer’s mailbox. Online and email marketing might involve dozens of marketing messages a day. Computer users can have ads directed to spam folders where they are never looked at.
  • If a person uses a direct mailing company or a list broker, the address list can be tailored to the people and businesses who fit the company’s target audience or potential customers, saving postage and printing costs.
  • Choose a good printing company that will help you design attractive, effective postcards or mailers. You want your promotional material to be eye-catching with an attention-getting message.
  • Before going to the printing company, think about the most effective message to send. It should be short but contain important information about the company, its product or service, and special pricing.
  • Do the research to find the demographic or group of potential customers you are trying to reach. How do you get addresses for potential customers? Using a direct mailing service familiar with your area can be useful.

What Does This Mailing Need to Accomplish?

Every postcard mailing should be well-timed and have a purpose. Is your business new and wanting to introduce itself to the neighborhood? Is a special occasion coming up? Is it time for a big clearance sale? Is your product seasonal? Timing is everything. You want the people getting the direct mail postcard to keep it and use it. A well-designed postcard is sized to carry with you when shopping or to keep handy. If that postcard contains the offer of a discount or other special pricing, it is more likely to be saved and used.

If you have a clearance sale once or twice a year, send out postcards a few weeks in advance to give people notice and get them interested in your sale. Make the postcard design stand out, and make the best deals easy to see. Maybe you remodeled your space or got in a new line of merchandise. This is a good time to send out mailers to let people know what you are now offering. Always have something on the card that encourages people to save it and bring it with them. Special discounts or a prize drawing are always good.

Find out what the customers want and like. Then look at the postcard design and ask:

  • Does it do a good job representing the brand?
  • Does it offer the customer a solution to a problem or need they may have?
  • Do the design and message offer a good call to action? Does it have a compelling reason for the recipient to visit the business?


Deciding who Gets The Mailers

Businesses should not just send thousands of mailers to a whole area. Why waste the printing costs and postage on people who will not be interested in the company product? When a company uses a direct mailing service, they can target the best people for the advertising mailers.

They can sort by age, gender, zip code, income level, neighborhood, and more. In addition, the business should have its own customer list to add to the mailing list. In addition, they may gather information on people’s occupation, whether they rent or own their home, if they are new homeowners, their occupation, and more. One thing online shopping accomplishes for vendors is that, when people shop online, their interests are added to databases for future marketing.

It is like when a person shops for shoes online and then, for a few weeks, they get online ads from shoe companies. Direct mailing services can also use these customer interest lists for their customers. There may be direct mail database lists available for each type of business or service. The main point here is to send direct mail postcards to people most likely to appreciate and use them.

Plan What To Do When People Use the Postcards

When a mailing goes out, have a plan of action for those postcards when they come back to the business. Each postcard should have a call to action like a special offer for a limited time, a discount when the postcard is presented, or a contest that the postcard is the entry to. When people come in carrying their postcards all the company employees should know what to do.

There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than to bring in an offer and have the person behind the counter not know anything about the offer. The time it takes to find a manager and ask what to do is time enough for the potential customer to turn around and leave. Have an employee meeting when the postcards go out, explaining what to do with them as people bring them in. Have an instruction sheet at every check-out counter. If it is a contest, have a box handy for entries to be slipped into.

When people get well-designed postcards that offer them discounts or special deals, they are more likely to keep them. When the postcards are sent to people who can use the company product or service, they will be more effective. A little advance planning always pays off in a marketing campaign.

Combine Marketing Strategies

Combine all the marketing strategies the company uses in a well-organized sales and marketing campaign. Use the same message and the same colors. Bounce one marketing tool off another to multiply the effect. Use online ads to tell people to look for special postcards in the mail. A well-planned ad campaign can increase business and make advertising pay off better.