While many of you out there are working from home, especially when just opening up an LLC or forming a corporation, the attire is often pajamas, or comfortable clothing that allows you to feel relaxed. Although it doesn't really matter how you look while in your home, it's important to dress professionally when going to meetings or even having Skype or video chats with clients or employees. If you're meeting up with a client be sure to dress professionally, for men, slacks, dress shirt and dress shoes is often good enough, if you're having a more casual meeting, polo shirts and khaki pants are also acceptable, be sure that your clothes are always clean and pressed, regardless of what they are. For women, there are a little more options, slacks and a dress shirt also work, but you can also wear a skirt or a dress. It's important to make sure that your clothing isn't too flashy, or you don't have too  many accessories, as they can be distracting. When having meetings from home, be sure to find a quiet clean place to have the meeting from, whether it's a video or phone meeting, background noise can cause major distractions.

A lot of running a new business is common sense. You have to sell at a percentage higher than what you buy, etc. But there are still people who don't have a grasp on common sense, or they choose to speak or act before thinking things out. There are common sense tips that all business owners should follow, regardless of your industry.

First, treat all your employees and clients with respect. By that we mean, do not curse or raise your voice at your employees or clients, if there is a problem with either one of them, be sure to take some time to cool down before addressing the issue.

Second, set a list of prices. Some businesses run by making up prices off the top of their heads depending on who they're working with, it's important to have a set list of prices for everyone. If a client you gave a low price to talks a friend into doing business with your company, he's going to expect to pay the same price, if you charge him a little higher for the same service, you're bound to lose both clients.

Third, make sure to keep accurate records of all business transactions. It's important to not only keep your LLC filing documents, or articles of incorporation, but all city and tax documents, as well as all transactions for services you have performed for clients. The better your record keeping, the easier it is for you to pinpoint a problem if it ever arises.

Good luck!

When speaking to potential clients, it's important to be professional, but it's also important to be natural. If you're going to ask how someone's day is going, be sure that you're asking just as you would ask a friend, rather than with a tone that implies that you're asking out of habit. Also it's OK to talk about other things outside of the business, for example, if you're in someone's office and they have a certain sports team's memorabilia up, if you're a fan of the same team, you can bring it up, even if you're not a fan of that team, and say you're a fan of the team's rivals, you can mention that, it'll mean more than lying to get the sale. People in general can tell when someone is genuine or not, there are exceptions, there are people who have practiced their sales craft so much that they're able to persuade a lot of people so that they can close sales. Most of us do not have the gift that some sales people have, so it's important to stay genuine when talking to potential clients, they'll appreciate it.

Many businesses are run online these days, from businesses forming corporations to consulting business and even online retail establishments. When businesses are run online they tend to generate a lot of email traffic. It's important to convey the messages in your emails in a professional manner when emails are required to a client. Being professional can mean lots of things depending on your industry, but the basics are to keep emails simple, clean and error free. By simple, we mean get to the point without a lot of filler text, too many times people are worried their emails look too short because they are only a couple of sentences long, but if you're sending out an email with a tracking number for something someone ordered, keep it simple and get to the point, there's no need to a full page email just to provide a simple tracking number. Another thing to consider when sending emails out is keeping the email clean, what we mean by keeping an email clean is to minimize the images, and HTML code. Many people retrieve their emails from their mobile device and can't read an email if the HTML code is too complex or if there are too many images in the email. Another way you can clean up your emails is to minimize your default signature by only including necessary information, that means you don't need to include your home phone number or your personal email address or a motivational quote, etc. The most important part about writing emails to clients is that they are error free. Most email clients include a spell check, but you should also read over the email before you send it to make sure that the language sounds right.

It is also a good idea to have a list of common emails that are sent out to clients, so that emails that are sent out are all uniform. Just remember, simple, clean and error free is the way to go when sending out emails.

Depending on the type of service or product you provide, the client's feedback could mean a lot. In order to have your business succeed it's important to get feedback from clients about what they like about  your company and what your company can improve on. Whether you just formed an LLC or have had a corporation for a decade, every company has room to grow and provide better services to their clients. Before you ask for feedback you have to identify what the best approach for this is, if you're mainly an online company who deals with emails, you might just casually ask in correspondence what the client thought of your service. If you've got a brick and mortar business you could have suggestion cards up near the cash registers. Sometimes clients will not care to comment unless they've had a bad experience, and although the criticism may be put a damper on your attitude towards your business, it's important to take into account the situation and how you can make things better for the next client who has a similar story. However your approach, just be sure to listen and reflect on how you can improve. Good luck! If you have any questions about forming a business, give us a call at 866-999-8200.

Whether you run huge corporation or are planning on opening up an LLC the rules for customer service are across the board, and they should be rarely broken, especially if you're a small business owner. Today the small business market is tougher than most small business owners have ever seen in their lifetime. Though times may be tough it doesn't mean you should compromise the quality of your product or service. As a small business owner you must understand that most consumers are going through the same tough times as you are, and though they might not expect the same quality of service, it's important to keep providing the same quality. Keeping your service set to your standard will have a strong effect on customer loyalty for years to come, if you start slacking on quality, it's not uncommon for your once loyal client to go elsewhere, especially after things pick back up again. When you're a small business owner, every customer counts, and they should all be treated like they count. If you need to cut costs, be sure to look where they are most unnoticeable, for example, using inexpensive pens as opposed to expensive pens or envelopes you use to pay bills, buy the generic brand, the amount cut may not seem like much at first, but in the long run it makes a difference. The examples used are important because they will not have a direct effect on the customer's experience with your company. Another way to cut costs would be recycling, in an office that goes through a lot of paper, there's a lot of scrap paper, be it from misprints or leftover from another job, instead of buying Post Its or notepads, you can use the excess paper to take notes, not only will it help you save, but it's good for the environment. Look around your office, there are several creative ways you can save!

Obviously when owning a small business in a hot area, whether it be a California LLC or a New York Corporation, energy costs are going to go up in the summer. It's important not only to your wallet but also to the environment that you keep energy usage down. There are many ways you can cut your electricity usage and without compromising the comfort of your employees or clients. One big way is to use a swamp cooler instead of an air conditioner, it uses a lot less power and often times people cannot tell the difference between the two. Another way to cut costs is to have your thermostat or air conditioning unit on a timer, lots of people do not like to turn off the air when they go home because they do not want to walk into a hot stuffy office in the morning, if you have a timer set up you can turn your air on 20 minutes prior to arriving at the office and have it shut off when your office or store closes, there's no need to have the air on 24/7. Another way, if you live somewhere where it's not too humid or hot, cut back on the air and just have a fan running, places like San Francisco and other areas along the west coast have more opportunity to take advantage of this type of cooling method. Regardless of where you are, there are ways you can cut back.

When you start a buisness too often there are people in each ear telling you how to run your business. The truth is, in a successful business, you follow your business plan but often times you have to make changes to what you're doing and outsiders will be quick to tell you how to improve or fix a problem. Most of the time they're giving you tips to help you but sometimes there is no right or wrong way to go. What worked for your friend's business might not work for yours, and what works for you might not be the best for your friend's business. It's important not just to take someone's word and dive into changes or new ventures, but do your own reasearch to see what would be best for your business. If something works for you be sure not to change it too much, for example, constantly changing your website, for one, it doesn't build a strong brand for your company and it confuses clients. It's important for your business to stay consistant but if you must make changes, make them subtle. There is no right or wrong way to run your business, but as long as you make good choices for your business, you can count on success.

When I was a teenager, I worked for a small store that sold mailing materials and offered post mailboxes as well as shipping services. It was a well run store, but the reason the business owner even decided to open up shop was so that his dental practice next door could utilize the services of the mailbox store. It may have not been the best business move, especially since the owner didn't pay much attention to trying to market himself to get outside business. The business closed up after about a year, but it wasn't just because of his lack of commitment to the business, but because he had no clue of how to run the business, once I am the one other employee left our positions he wasn't sure what to do. It's important as a small business owner that you understand the duties of all employees, you may not know how to do all of the duties, but since the business is very small, you should know how to perform certain tasks in the even that one of your employees is out for the day or even has an emergency and has to leave for an extended period of time. There are basic tasks that small business owners sometimes forget to learn and it's important to have some sort of understanding on what duties are delegated where and what the task at hand requires. Obviously you're busy yourself so maybe during  slow times you can ask your employees to write a manual or a list of their duties for the day and how to perform the tasks, that way if they're ever gone, you can do it yourself or hire a temp agency to send you someone to do these tasks while your employee is out. If you want to open a small business or have questions about filing how to form an L.L.C. or  how to form a corporation in any state, give us a call at 866-999-8200.

We've made it to the double digits with our business tips! In this post we'll discuss the value of "free." The other day I was thinking about swtiching from Time Warner to DirecTV, DirecTV seems to have better offers but in the end I didn't switch not only because I didn't want to hassle with having a technician come to my home, taking time off work in order to to have that done and take all my equipment back to Time Warner, no I didn't switch because Time Warner provides me with "free" HDTV, sure their premiums are a little higher, which I'm assuming goes towards the cost of the HDTV channels, but I don't see an HDTV charge on my statement, and Time Warner's marketing campaign is telling everyone that will listen about their "free" HD. In the end the amount I would save by switching to DirecTV wouldn't be enough to make me want to go through that hassle, because in the end, Time Warner's product is just fine.

When thinking about how to get people talking about your business you should give something away "free." It may be something that only costs you a few cents if anything, but by labeling the service or product as "free" it gives the consumer a sense of value. Try and stray away from "free" things such as pens and notepads, as they're too often lost or thrown away, and might not really say anything about your business. For example, if you're running a small cafe, you might want to once in a while give your regular's a free cup of coffee, you can print business sized cards for relativley cheap online these days, get a unique stamp and maybe you can give away the 6th coffee for free once the customer has received five stamps. Very simple, yet very effective, if your customer comes to your store a few times a week it'll almost certain they're not gonna go somewhere else to get their coffee if they've already got four stamps.

You don't have to give out actual "products" for free either, a lot of companies are taking to the web to hold "webinars" to demonstrate or give advise over the web, in the day it's easy for the masses to find you, but when they find you, you'll want to have something to say. Holding a webinar, even if it's a short one can really get people talking about your company, especially if you have information they won't find so easily. The most important thing is to demonstrate value in whatever you're doing, and that's whether you're giving your service out for free or not, value must always be perceived in order for people to come back and do business with you.

If you're thinking about starting your own business or incorporating a business you already have please give us a call and please mention this blog post.