Small Business Survival Skills

There’s an old axiom that bemoans how it isn’t fair that we take our best standup comics and make them sit-com stars. They got famous being great standup comedians. And now we demand they do something completely different? It’s proven with every failed Margaret Cho and Jeff Dunham show.

Small business people often feel the same way. A contractor gets where he is by building things. By knowing lumber and codes and LEED certifications. But then he starts out on his own and has to learn things like sales, billing, W-4s and marketing, plus do all the stuff he usually does.

It can easily get overwhelming. Luckily, RedVector has your back.

Marketing: 101

Don’t fall for the old “I see it so everyone sees it” marketing strategy.

You see lots of media every day, including TV, billboards, newspapers and radio. Just because you listen to 70s Rock doesn’t mean your customers rock out to “Freebird” on the local station. In fact, if you sell high-end homes, all your customers might only be on satellite radio.

No, put the SiriusXM contract down; my point is that you don’t have the bandwidth to research all that. Gut instinct is great, but don’t rely on it. Use it when testing new media, not when you are betting the farm that it works.

Start slowly and take a class. RedVector has them available—from public relations to putting together a marketing strategy. Just type “Marketing” into the course search online.

To get you started:

• Effective Public Relations: http://bit.ly/W3ca7v
• Marketing: http://bit.ly/X7PNwP
• Another Marketing: http://bit.ly/101g8Dg

Small Business Survival Skills

So let’s say you start out and you get a few contracts. Then, you need to hire employees to do the work. But you need more work coming in to keep those paychecks going out. And your business builds.

Best case scenario? It has a dark side. Payroll taxes. Benefits. Morale. You’ll need leadership and juggling skills. If you’ve come this far, you probably have all the building blocks. Hone your skills by stopping by SmartTeam. A sister to RedVector, SmartTeam specializes in getting your small business on its feet. Your sales guys can get trained to sell. Your human resources person can get the basics. And you can take a class on staying stress-free.

SmartTeam can even keep you out of legal hot water.  There are ethics classes to help you spot where a business venture might be getting a little shady and compliance classes to show you the way out of shady territory. There are safety classes that help keep everyone off workers’ comp. And there are professional courses that could head off sexual harassment cases.

And so on. We can help teach you computer skills, health and wellness and so much more. And suddenly you might just realize that you have gone from a crazed small business person to someone who is taking care of business.

Have you visited www.SmartTeam.com? It's built just for small businesses looking to step up their game from the receptionist up front to the back office. Try out the 7 day trial for free.