TAKE A NUMBER

Do you have employees? Do you operate your business as a corporation or a partnership? Do you file any Employment, Excise, or Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tax returns:?

If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes,” then you need an Employer ID Number [EIN] from the Internal Revenue Service. Most business people know what an EIN is and how it functions, yet many small business owners do not bother to get one. Operating much like a personal “Social Security Number” it is a means by which the federal government keeps track of the revenues of interest that passes through your business.

The brief list of conditions that make an EIN is not exhaustive. The IRS requires you to have an EIN If you withhold taxes on income, other than wages, paid to a non-resident alien or if you have a Keogh plan.

Also, your business is required to have an EIN if it is involved with Trusts[ except certain grantor-owned revocable trusts], IRAs, Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Returns, Estates, Real estate mortgage investment conduits, Non-profit organizations, Farmers' cooperatives or Plan administrators.

This link will take you the SBA’s site on EINs for a fuller briefing on who needs an EIN and when. It will also tell you how to apply for an EIN and how to close out an account with the IRS and discontinue your EIN.

MARKETING PLANS

[Below are some tips from the SBA on Developing a Market Plan]


A sound marketing plan is key to the success of your business. It should include your market research, location, the customer group you have targeted, competition, positioning, the product or service you are selling, pricing, advertising, and promotion.

"You're in business to serve a customer need," says Derek Hansen, founder of American Capital Access. "If you're not sensitive to customers, don't know who your customers are, how to reach them, and, most of all, what will convince them to buy your product or service, get help."

Effective marketing, planning, and promotion begins with current information about the marketplace. Visit your local library, talk to customers, study the advertising of other businesses in your community, and consult with any relevant industry associations. This interactive tool will help you assess your marketing strengths and weaknesses.

Once you have all the necessary information, write down your plan:

1. Define your business:
Your product or service
Your geographic marketing area - neighborhood, regional, or national
Your competitionHow you differ from the competition - what makes you special
Your price
The competition's promotion methodsYour promotion methods
Your distribution methods or business location

2. Define your customers:
Your current customer base - age, sex, income, and neighborhood
How your customers learn about your product or service - advertising, direct mail, word of mouth, Yellow Pages
Patterns or habits your customers and potential customers share - where they shop, what they read, watch, and listen to
Qualities your customers value most about your product or service - selection, convenience, service, reliability, availability, and affordability
Qualities your customers like least about your product or service - can they be adjusted to serve your customers better?; prospective customers whom you aren't currently reaching

3. Define your plan and budget:
Previous marketing methods you have used to communicate to your customers
Methods that have been most effective
Cost compared to sales
Cost per customer
Possible future marketing methods to attract new customers
Percentage of profits you can allocate to your marketing campaign
Marketing tools you can implement within your budget - newspaper, magazine, Yellow Pages, radio or television advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, and public relations activities such as community involvement, sponsorship, or press releases
Methods of testing your marketing ideas
Methods for measuring results of your marketing campaign
The marketing tool you can implement immediately

The final component in your marketing plan should be your overall promotional objectives: to communicate your message, create an awareness of your product or service, motivate customers to buy and increase sales, or other specific targets. Objectives make it easier to design an effective campaign and help you keep that campaign on the right track. Once you have defined your objectives, it is easier to choose the method that will be most effective.

Learn more at the SBA Marketing Site for Small Businesses

[In its efforts to help small businesses become successes, the SBA has provided some valuable lessons in “Target Marketing. Below is a segment taken directly from an essay on that topic.”]
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Target Marketing

It's important to remember that the focus of marketing is people. If you're concentrating your efforts on your product or profit only, you'll miss the mark. The term target market is used because that market - that group of people - is the bull's eye at which you aim all your marketing efforts.

So, don't forget that a market is people - people with common characteristics that set them apart as a group. The more statistics you have about a target market, the more precisely you can develop your strategy. The table below shows some examples of market segments (or groups).

To read the SBA’s entire essay on Target Marketing, go to that segment of their “Market and Price” series of essays.

TARGET MARKETING

WHEN IS THE PRICE RIGHT?

[This is an excerpt from the SBA’s web page “Understanding Marketing” In its "Market and Price" Section. The entire essay can be found using the link at the bottom of the page. If you are in business, you are in business to sell something, be it a product or a service. Knowing what the market is willing to pay for that product or service can be the key to your business survival.]
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What Is Marketing?


General Definition

In plain and simple terms, marketing activities and strategies result in making products available that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that offer those products. That's it in a nutshell!

Marketing produces a win-win situation because:

Customers have a product that meets their needs and
Healthy profits are achieved for the company. (These profits allow the company to continue to do business in order to meet the needs of future customers.)

Stated another way, focus on what the customer wants is essential to successful marketing efforts. This customer-orientation must also be balanced with the company's objective of maintaining a profitable volume of sales in order for the company to continue to do business. Marketing is a creative, ever-changing orchestration of all the activities needed to accomplish both these objectives.

How Are The Customer And Business Objectives Met?

The American Marketing Association's definition of marketing is: the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

You see in the above definition that the process of marketing begins with discovering what products customers want to buy. Providing the features and quality customers want is a critical first step in marketing. You'll be facing an uphill battle if you provide something you want to produce and then try to convince someone to buy it.

The marketing process continues with setting a price, letting potential customers know about your product, and making it available to them.

Read More about “Market and Price”