Impact Branding Locally | Business Outreach

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Mrs. Jones taught her daughters Jenny and Martha the finer art of baking and cooking. When Jenny the older daughter grew up, she opened a bakery selling extraordinary pastries and breads. When Martha was old enough to go out on her own, she began packaging and selling delicious cook at home meals. While both were successful, people loved Martha’s food so much they all but forgot about Jenny’s company even when she tried to compete with her version of take and bake breads and cookies.

While both had similar businesses, Martha focused on using organic products, naturally grown, and sourced locally to help support her community. She created a food bank for the needy, an outreach program that delivered meals to cancer patients recovering from chemo and a scholarship program for at-risk youth to grow into the food industry.

Jenny spent her marketing efforts at fancy food events, promoting her image to news outlets, and paying for magazine coverage all to the benefit of her company.

The difference between the two companies is Martha created an emotional connection that customers related to and supported.

 

What is Impact Branding?

Impact branding is developing an emotional connection to your business through:

  • Creating a positive influence on issues that affect the world, such as environmentally friendly cleaning products, affordable housing, or eco-friendly textiles. Typically, these are items or ideas that work to resolve things that negatively impact people, communities, or the planet.
  • Integrity. A business that utilizes impact branding understands the role they play in making the world a better place. They hire with an equitable mindset, and develop products and services centered around people.
  • Innovation. For a few rare businesses, they invent or create products and solutions that solve the biggest issues plaguing the world such as electric cars that help reduce our carbon footprint and slow greenhouse gas production.

 

What is Business Outreach?

With the goal of gaining more exposure to your business, contacting another organization, individual, or adopting a cause, may influence people to support your brand. However, there are two sides of outreach to consider. While both Jenny and Martha used an outreach strategy to promote their companies, Martha worked in collaboration with others for a mutual benefit. When Jenny reached out to others, she gained exposure for her company without collaborating in an impactful way.

 

How do I do Impact Branding?

The best impact branding comes from the heart.

  • Adopt a cause. Let’s say you, or someone you care about, lost their health insurance and suffered a life-changing accident. Now they cannot work and have bills they cannot pay.
  • Resolve what you want to achieve by supporting the cause. In the case of the person with catastrophic medical bills, you could raise awareness of their plight and create a city-wide fundraiser by selling baked goods the company makes and donate a portion to their bills. This will have a positive impact on the family while getting your company exposure.
  • Market. Tie your company in by letting everyone know what you are doing for a worthy cause.

 

How do I do a business outreach that brings me business?

Adopting a cause doesn’t necessarily mean sending $9.99 a month to find a home for all the sad and abandoned puppies and kitties you’ve probably seen advertised. Companies, by nature, must be profitable to succeed. Therefore, outreach must be looked at like a high-level advertising campaign. Outreach goals should consider the following:

  • Develop recognition: Competition for gaining new customers is stiff. Pairing up with an adopted cause needs to focus on what customers can expect from your brand.
  • Increase business value: Like any good two-for-one sale, buying into a great product or service and helping a cause at the same time becomes a win-win for the customer.
  • Generate new customers: With a strong impression on what to expect from your company’s outreach program, word of mouth can steer customers toward your brand.
  • Establish trust: People tend to trust professional looking companies with highly effective branding. Creating an emotional tie to a cause brings a sense of maturity and decency to your name.
  • Evoke pride and satisfaction with your employees.
  • Change buyers’ intentions: Many people will go out of their way to buy things they love or for a cause they support. Once this connection is established, a second level of advertisement can enhance how they feel about themselves for supporting your brand and its adopted cause.
  • Loyalty: By gaining trust and making people feel good about your brand, a loyal following becomes second nature.

 

Bang for your buck: 

Think big! To help one individual in need may be noble and bring recognition, you need to look further. Adopt a cause that can help many people or resolve a worldwide concern. This is a way to draw global interest to your company at little cost.

Give back:

Be authentic about giving back. While being raised by a single mother, life was not always easy. Martha took the memories of times with little food and doing without to heart. This is the reason each year during the holidays her company donates food, and volunteers time feeding those in need. Giving back is her way of expressing gratitude for the success and support the world has shown.

 

Need more information? Paris SBDC can help you understand the best ways to do impact branding, customer outreach and how to best promote your small business. Contact Paris SBDC today!

For additional resources and more ideas on how to do your own impact branding or customer outreach, for your small business, please contact us at the Small Business Development Center – SBDC – Serving Paris area:  Lamar, Hunt, Hopkins, Delta, and Red River counties.

Small Business Saturday | Ho, Ho, Holidays!

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It’s the Hap, Happiest time of the year!  It can also be the craziest time of the year for small business.  Are you ready?  Do you have a plan to capitalize on the “Small Business Saturday” shopping initiative?  In today’s blog, we’ll give you some fun, inexpensive and quick-to-implement things you can do to gear up for Small Business Saturday.

 

What is Small Business Saturday, you ask?

Or maybe you didn’t ask, because you are well aware that Small Business Saturday is every retail, local, small business’s opportunity to boost sales and to profit from the spending spree we hope everyone will be on. Black Friday sales started early this year, priming everyone to spend money buying holiday gifts.  Whether you realize it or not, all the advertising by the big chain stores is helping you, the small business owner. You can capitalize on the “spend early” frenzy and ask people to “Shop Local.”

Add your business to the Shop Local map with AMEX  or download the posters 

Downtown Paris to host Small Business Saturday   Get more info by visiting the Downtown Paris Association

 

How to kick this thing off:

Advertising:

It’s okay if you don’t have a big advertising budget – you can use local and free advertising.

  • Consider making flyers, highlighting the specials you will offer on Small Business Saturday.
  • Use the internet! Start now posting on Facebook, Twitter and the other platforms you are (hopefully) using to build interest in your products and business.
  • Email, or snail mail – get the word out that you are open for the holidays and are ready to sell, sell, sell!

 

Know Your Holidays:

Christmas shopping isn’t the only holiday people are gearing up for right now. Do you know your holidays and what to advertise for?  Here’s a short list to spur your imagination for holiday hullabaloo:

  • November:
    • Thanksgiving
    • Diwali
    • Black Friday
    • Small Business Saturday
    • Hanukkah
  • December:
    • US National Guard Birthday
    • National Free Shipping Day
    • Winter Solstice
    • Christmas
    • Kwanza
    • Boxing Day
    • New Year’s Eve
  • January:
    • New Years Day
    • National Hangover Day (Yes, that’s an actual day…On Jan 1st, of course)
    • Walk your dog month
    • National soup month
    • Epiphany
    • Orthodox Christmas Day
    • Martin Luther King Day

In fact, if you are looking for some holidays or other days to promote and celebrate (and sell products during) you don’t need to look far to find something you can capitalize on as a small business. For instance, you could offer hot chocolate on “National Hot Chocolate Day” or a discount for those savy enough to know to wear brown shoes on “Wear Brown Shoes Day” (It’s December 4th, in case you were curious.)

Here’s where to find a list of all kinds of “special days” to keep you selling and to keep you motivated:  National Holidays

 

Blue and Silver Ribbons:

Collaborating with your fellow small businesses is a beautiful thing. One easy way to say to your community: “Hey, we’re all in this together” is to have a quick, visual reference.  Blue and Silver Ribbons, for instance.  Coordinate with your local chamber of commerce, other businesses, and plan to display blue and silver ribbons in your business. Let everyone know that small businesses in your area support each other and everyone is a team. Be aware of what your competitors sell for some “coopetition” refer them as well and support shop local for your community of businesses.

WHY would you want to promote a business other than your own?

Because the more shopping opportunities you give buyers, the more sales occur—for everyone. Not to mention, you are helping to make people feel good about shopping local and shopping from small businesses.  In fact, check out our blog: Retail Holiday Sales Strategies to see why it makes good business sense to partner with your competition for the holidays.

 

Adjust your hours:

Most people are back to work, which means “regular business hours.”  If you run a small business, and want to maximize your holiday sales – you may want to adjust your hours:

  • Open early to capture the “on the way to work” crowd.
  • Plan to say open late – even if it’s a few nights a week to cater to those 9 -to- 5 workers.
  • Be open on Saturdays (yes, that one is a no-brainer).
  • Extend your “Super Saturday” to “Super Sunday” and offer special perks for the customers who missed Small Business Saturday.

 

Capitalize on the Supply Chain Shortage:

If you are local, you probably have inventory you need to move. You can let people know, that as a small, local business, you have plenty of inventory and are ready to “make a deal.”  Assuring your customers that you have items in stock (and are not waiting for a shipping container to make it to shore in California) will help boost sales.

 

Small Business Saturday is in 10 days – – go get your blue and silver ribbons, make up some flyers and LET’S DO THIS! 

 

For additional information on Small Business Saturday and how to capitalize on the holiday shopping season, please contact us at the Small Business Development Center – SBDC – Serving Paris area:  Lamar, Hunt, Hopkins, Delta, and Red River counties.

CARES Act – Maximizing Credits to Reduce Payroll Taxes

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CARES Act and how to Maximize Credits to Reduce Payroll Taxes:

It’s the end of the calendar year, and as a small business owner, you are probably busy, preparing for holiday sales and planning for the new year. Tax season doesn’t start until April, but there are a few things you need to do now in order to receive some tax credits you may be eligible for.

You’ve worked hard, you’ve managed to retain or hire back most of your employees (if not all of them) and business if finally picking up again, post-pandemic. You’ve begged, borrowed, offered incentives, bonuses, maybe your first-born to get people back on the job, and retain your employees. GOOD JOB!  Now it’s time to reap some of the rewards for maintaining and keeping your current base of employees in a paying job.

 

What is the CARES Act?

When the country shut down in 2020 due to COVID 19, the government passed an economic relief bill called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill offered fast and direct economic assistance for American workers, families, industries and small businesses.

 

What did the CARES Act do for small businesses?

Other than adding trillions to the massive National Debt, the CARES Act offered small businesses a means (and federal dollars) to keep from going out of business. Three different programs were put into place to help small Businesses:

  • Small Business Tax Credit Programs
    • Tax Benefits
    • Employee Retention Credit
    • Paid Leave Credit
  • Emergency Capital Investment Program
    • Money given to smaller loaning institutions so they could loan money to small businesses in low and moderate-income communities.
  • Paycheck Protection Program
    • Provide resources to maintain payroll
    • Cover costs of hiring back employees
    • Cover costs of applicable overhead

 

How can the CARES Act help me today as a small business?

While most of the CARES Act benefits outlines above have expired, there are still a few benefits that stretch into each quarter of 2021. Another benefit, called the American Rescue Plan extends the availability for small business to take advantage of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC).  If you or your accountant hasn’t heard of this, you need to make them aware!

 

Employee Retention Credit:

The ERC is a credit for small businesses, allowed through December 2021 where you can offset your current payroll tax liabilities by up to $7,000 per employee per quarter. This credit, up to $28,000 per employee for 2021, is available to small businesses who have seen their revenues decline, or even been temporarily shuttered, due to COVID.

The amount of revenue decrease, or business disruption, has been reduced to 20% of a decline in gross receipts during a single quarter in order to make a small business eligible for the entire year.

Here are helpful links to the forms you’ll need to take advantage of the Employee Retention Credit:

Employee Retention Credit 2020 & 2021 One-pager

Employee Retention Credit Snapshot

Employee Retention Credit Quick Reference

 

Paid Leave Credit:

But wait, there’s more! Also available through September 2021 is the Paid Leave Credit for small businesses. Businesses who offered paid leave to employees who took time off due to illness, quarantine, or caregiving could take dollar-for-dollar tax credits equal to wages of up to $5,000 if they gave paid leave to employees who are sick or quarantining.

Although the law no longer required businesses with 500 or fewer employees to offer paid leave as part of the continuing COVID-relief efforts, if a business provided paid leave to its employees, it can claim these dollar-for-dollar tax credits for wages paid through September 30, 2021. These credits can be claimed against payroll taxes on a quarterly basis.

The forms for Pai0064 Leave Credit may be found here:

Paid Leave Credit 2020 & 2021 One-pager

Paid Leave Credit and COVID Relief

Paid Leave Credit Snapshot

 

Confused by the CARES Act and what you need to do to maximize tax credits to reduce payroll expenses? Let us help you outline the best way to claim tax credits and to plan for next year’s tax season. Contact Paris SBDC today!

 

 

For additional information on the CARES act, payroll taxes, and what to expect during tax season, please contact us at the Small Business Development Center – SBDC – Serving Paris area:  Lamar, Hunt, Hopkins, Delta, and Red River counties.

Keeping Paper in a Paperless World

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Keeping Paper in a Paperless World

Even though the personal computer is relatively new, dating back to the mid-1970s, the B.C. (before computers) era seems like ancient history with the wealth of information and tools now available at our fingertips; and so, it would make sense that paper also seems obsolete in this age of modern technology. Yet paper still possesses the ability to transcend time and technological advancements to connect cultures and generations of people across the world.

In today’s more climate-conscious society, however, entrepreneurs are adopting the paperless business model. This can be beneficial in quickly locating certain documents and electronic communications without sifting through hundreds of pages or storage boxes. Still, when a business adopts this model, there are important paper documents that every small business owner should have on hand or stored in a waterproof or fireproof container. This guide references these documents and discusses the importance of paper copies.

 

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Tax IDs

Similar to a driver’s license number or bank account number, the IRS assigns a taxpayer identification number to individuals and businesses to establish proper administration of tax laws.

EIN

An EIN, or employer identification number, is a type of tax identification number. This nine-digit number identifies business entities rather than individuals. If a business hires employees, withholds taxes, operates as a corporation, or conducts business with a non-profit organization, an EIN must be acquired to ensure tax compliance. An EIN serves as a unique identifier because multiple businesses can operate with the same name. This tax identification number is used by the federal government as well as state and local governments to identify your business. Creditors, vendors, and banks can also identify your business with the EIN.

 

Determination Letter

A determination letter, also known as a tax exemption letter, is issued by the IRS to validate a business’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. This letter provides several key pieces of information that allow tax exemptions and deductions, such as the effective date of tax-exempt status, end of the accounting period, other tax-exempt groups, annual filing requirements, and tax-deductible contributions. This determination letter is subject to public disclosure upon request, so having multiple hard copies is strongly advised.

 

Do You Know The Muffin Man…That Has an Equipment List?

Hard copies of equipment lists are particularly important for businesses that utilize big appliances such as refrigerators or ovens. An accurate equipment list, with model and/or serial numbers, becomes especially important in the event an appliance suddenly becomes non-operational or a part breaks off. A sudden flood, fire or structural damage could make equipment useless and you would need a list for your insurance company.  Restaurants that cater need to have an equipment list handy so items are not left behind and so you can easily note if something isn’t working properly.

A supply list hard copy can also be beneficial in submitting or verifying supply orders, determining need and the condition or amount of supplies needed each month.

 

Red Rover, Red Rover…Bring Your Accounting Books Over

Keeping hard copies of financial statements on hand is valuable in determining business performance at a certain point in time or comparing numbers across multiple reporting periods. At the end of a reporting period, transactional information is reformatted into three documents: income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

Income Statement

The income statement can be a tool to measure a business’s ability to operate efficiently and draw customers. A net loss or net profit is presented after incurred expenses are subtracted from revenues in the reporting period.

 

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is useful for establishing a business’s financial position as well as discerning said business’s ability to pay its bills. The assets, liabilities, and difference between the two (equities) are recorded in this document.

 

Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement reports the sources and uses of cash during the accounting period. This document is particularly important for businesses that practice accrual accounting, or if the net income on the income statement does not match the change in cash. Revenue that is recorded with the expectation that the transaction will be paid in the future can clarify any discrepancies in a cash flow statement.

 

Don’t forget your Tax records!

Keep a hard-copy of your last tax return, even if you have it on your computer. Tax records are always needed for bank loans, audits and to have a firm grasp of your year-to-year earnings.

 

Business Plan, Stan!

Keep a hard copy of your business plan. You may need it if you go to get a loan, or if your computer crashes and it can’t be retrieved from the cloud.

 

TAG, You’re IT! (You have an auditor at the door!)

Paper copies of items an auditor might ask for are especially important and key personnel will need to know where those paper copies are kept. Depending on your industry, here are some documents that you might need if an auditor or governing body drops by:

MSDS Sheets:

Material Safety Data Sheets required by OSHA. MSDS records are for hazardous materials in your workplace and how to handle them safely and properly. You may be surprised at which items you’ll for which you’ll need an MSDS sheet; even something simple like ink toner or white-out may require an MSDS sheet.

 

FDA Records:

The Food and Drug Administration has a list of records that must be kept readily available and how long to keep them.

 

Health Inspector Report:

Have your latest health inspection ready and available.

Required Postings:

Some businesses require placards or other “papers” that must be visible to the public. Extra copies of these can come in handy if one blows away or gets destroyed.

 

Business License:

Your license to do business is often required to be posted publicly, depending on your area and type of business. Have an additional hard copy, just in case.

 

Insurance:

While you may have access to your business’s insurance policy online, copies of your agent’s name, number and policy number may come in handy if there is an emergency.

 

Having hard copies of all of the documents discussed in this guide is especially important in this modern technological era. You never know when the internet will go offline or a computer might crash, so you can think of these paper resources as the ancient method of backing up your files.

 

For additional resources on the important documents to keep in a paperless world, or other tips for managing your small business, please contact us at the Small Business Development Center – SBDC – serving Paris and Northeast Texas.