In today’s volatile economy, some small business owners may be forced to look at the possibility of filing for personal bankruptcy. Of course, you should always try to keep your personal finances in order, but sometimes situations come up that will cause financial devastation. It is wise to know what to do if this situation comes up for you.

Firstly, don’t panic or throw in the towel. I know that is hard to say, but there may be some other options that you have not thought of yet. Many creditors offer programs for people who are financially strapped. If you have excessive credit card debt that you are finding impossible to pay back, contact your credit card companies and let them know what is going on. Don’t let time pass and subsequent negative credit force you into collections or bankruptcy. Lenders will often reduce your debt and interest rates rather than having to write off the debt completely. You will find that you will need to speak to several people before you find one person who will help you. Climb the corporate ladder. If one person says “no”, go higher and higher until you get that “yes”. Ultimately creditors want their money, so hard work usually pays off.

Please check back on Monday for the conclusion to this post.

If you are interested in jumping into a franchise opportunity, check out myfranchisecenter. They have a lot of resources for entrepreneurs interested in franchising/franchises.

There is approximately $300 million in capital projects that is available from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). In the past, most of these projects have been awarded to non-women, non-minority based, and non-small business types of companies. Times are changing in Maryland, and definitely for the good. Governor Martin O’Malley signed legislation this week, to extend encouragement of the inclusion of small, minority owned, and women-owned companies in their contact awards.

The new bill requires that good faith efforts become standard practice with the Maryland Department of the Environment. They intend to divide project components into smaller tasks, with reasonable schedules, so that minority; small and women-owned business can complete the projects. Businesses should also see more advisements in the media that will be intended to encourage these types of companies that would normally not bid on certain contracts. They will also develop a solicitation list that includes qualified companies, who will be notified of what projects are due to be available.

According to reports, this new legislation “will make full use of state and other resources such as the Maryland Department of Transportation, U.S. Small Business Administration; the Minority Business Development Agency; and the U.S. Department of Commerce lists, to identify qualified minority and small business enterprises.”

If all states would implement these policies as standard practices, small businesses would continue to thrive around the country.

A proposed new tax plan from the Bush Administration, has hit the Congress and the Senate subcommittees. The new tax collection program would force credit card companies to report merchants’ income to the Internal Revenue Service. The proposed changes to the Fiscal Year 2009 federal budget is designed to collect more than $36 billion in new revenues for the federal government over the next 10 years.

If the changes are to pass, credit card companies will need to report all transactions of all businesses that have merchant accounts with the card issuers. The IRS would then be notified of all transactions that are tied to each merchant’s taxpayer identification number.

The problem is that some sole proprietors and small business owners still used their social security number instead of a tax identification number. If the IRS does not have a tax ID number, then credit card companies will be forced to hold back 28 percent of receipts for those businesses. OUCH! Understandably, many small businesses will suffer and many will simply be put out of business completely with this new legislation.

Small businesses should not panic just yet. This new legislation is not being received well among the powerful DC lobbyist connections. At the end of the day, maybe small businesses will decide to not accept credit cards any longer. That fallout would certainly cause another entirely different set of problems for our country’s economy.

Great post over at www.antechamber.com (Business Talk Blog) listing out 5 reasons to write a business plan. Includes details on each reason.

Small businesses are a huge economic force. But, because they are small, they are sometimes overlooked in today’s society. The federal government defines a small business as those who have under 500 employees, but some have as few as 1 dedicated employee. Small businesses create the majority of jobs in all markets and employ about half of the private workforce in America.

Small business owners are coming together to promote themselves in various locations around the country. There are events held by Business Matchmaking, which is a non-profit company. Business Matchmaking receives help from SCORE, which was inspired by the Small Business Administration and several other large corporate sponsors. SCORE is a volunteer run organization.

Small businesses who attend these gatherings, usually in a hotel in a large city, say that these events are likened to a speed dating ritual. Small business owners come together to meet hundreds of buyers from huge government agencies and large private companies. The hopes are to together spark enough interest and make business connections that will lead to prosperous business deals. Businesses have 15 minutes to make their best pitch and create a good impression. Big businesses are also there to pitch their products that small businesses might need to run their companies. Government agencies are able to meet small business owners who could potentially help them meet their required diversity goals (women, minorities, disabled veterans).

The idea is to help small businesses prosper, but it sure seems like a win win situation for everyone involved!

A federal judge has just ordered the Small Business Administration to disclose the names of companies that have received small business contracts in 2005 and 2006. This is in response to the lawsuit that was filed by the American Small Business League (ASBL). The SBA has two weeks to comply with her order. The ASBL is the only national organization that is fighting to eliminate the opportunity for large and international companies to obtain federal contracting that is allotted to small businesses in America.

The lawsuit calls for the names of companies who have received federal contracts as well as the dollar amounts of those contracts. They should total $75.1 billion for 2005 and $77.7 billion for 2006 in awarded contacts.

The ASBL is claiming victory, while the SBA seems fairly unfazed. The SBA claims that they have already given this information to the ASBL and they don’t understand why they were sued for the information.

It has already been proven that big businesses have received small business contracts. It will be interesting to see what companies received which contracts. Only time will tell where the money actually went and if the money went to who it was intended to go to. It will be interesting to see if these contracting issues are “simple data entry errors” that the SBA suggests might be the problem.

Residents and businesses in Alabama who were affected by the powerful tornadoes and storms on May 11, 2008 are able to apply for low interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Governor Riley asked that a disaster declaration be made for Cleburn, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Randolph and Talledega. In Georgia, the counties of Carroll, Haralson and Polk will also receive help.

Those parties interested in applying for federal help should report to the Parks and Recreation in the City of Heflin. Representatives will be available to provide assistance on May 20th through May 30th at 2:00 p.m.

Only small businesses may apply for the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). Small businesses do not need to have suffered property damage in order to apply for this type of assistance.

Low interest loans are available to renters, homeowners and businesses of all sizes. Non profit organization may also apply for assistance if their property was damaged or destroyed by the severe weather. Businesses who suffered damage may borrow up to $1.5 million to help make needed repairs or replace business assets. Interest rates and loan amounts are determined by the SBA depending on your needs.

Property damage applications will be accepted until July 14, 2008. Economic injury applications need to be filed by February 16, 2009. If you are unable to visit the Recreational Center, additional information and loan applications can be obtained by calling (800) 659-2955.

Leads, leads, leads, every business needs them, some are actually good at generating them, but . . . there’s a really important thing you must understand about leads - not all are created equal.

Now, I’m not talking about leads that are different because your marketing is unfocused and sends mixed messages with mixed results. I’m assuming you have read and heard me stump for a narrow ideal customer focus and laser sharp message of differentiation. I’m talking about the fact that if you are marketing consistently and systematically leads will come to from different points of view, with different levels of education and in need of different solutions - and you need to intentionally address them all with differing types of follow-up.

You need a follow-up process for leads that come to you by way of:
• referral - this is a special lead with built in trust - treat it that way
• public relations - this is a lead that has heard something about your story, there’s a connection, but little education
• workshops - this kind of lead has usually experienced a lot, move them logically to the next step quickly
• advertising - offer information of value and nurture this lead based on the actions they take (measure!)
• search - this is the new yellow pages, this lead probably has a need, but doesn’t know you - follow-up with that in mind
• trade show - speed of follow-up is key here, these leads were pretty amped up when you met them at the show, don’t let them get cold

One of the keys to understanding your follow-up approach is to understand what the customer is thinking when they find you, acknowledge where they are and how they’ve connected (tell a referred lead they are a special referred lead) and start moving them logically to the next step.

I know that follow-up, let alone the highly personalized type of follow-up I’m suggesting, is yet another thing you must do, so this is a great place to employ automation technology. Much of the follow-up you should be designing can be created ahead of time and executed with CRM like tools. Used properly, you can create email follow-ups, letter and postcard follow-ups, call lists and fulfillment requests and put your follow-up steps on autopilot

Here are some tools I would recommend for designing follow-up campaigns
Infusionsoft - Hi powered CRM and marketing automation tool that allows you to create sophisticated follow-up routines. (I use this tool in my business)
Swiftpage - Their new Drip Marketing add-on allows you to set-up letter mailing, emailing and call list creation. I love this tool for the individual sales person as it connects with ACT! or Outlook and allows you to easily determine the interest of your prospect during each follow-up step and focus your attention on the hottest prospects based on their action
Vertical Response - email marketing provider with the added integration of postcard mailing

vai DuctTapeMarketingBlog

Check our John’s book - Duct Tape Marketing

**Very practical input from the author. This is a great book with very applicable steps to jump start your existing or new marketing program.

Did you get your telephone excise tax refund? My guess is no. It is likely that most people did not even know about it and therefore they did not receive their allotted money.

The telephone excise tax has been around since 1898. The tax was initiated to fund the Spanish American War. Up until 2006, we were all paying this federal tax imposed on our telephones without even realizing what it for.

According to a recent study, only 17 percent of American’s filed for their refund. Sadly the numbers are even worse for small businesses as only 5.6 percent of businesses (of all sizes) that could have claimed the credit, did so. The good news is, if you want the refund, it is still available to you. There is still a huge surplus of this money available. The bad news is; that you will need to amend your 2006 tax returns in order to receive your money.

It is widely believed that many small businesses did not apply for the refund because they thought it would be too much work gathering the required information for the IRS. Businesses had to figure the tax as a percentage of their phone expenses attributable to the excise tax on long distance. Businesses had to figure the tax as a percentage of their April 2006 telephone bill and compare it against their September 2006 telephone bill. The September bill only had the tax on the local telephone service and the April bill had both the excise tax on the long distance and local bills. Cell phones are also subject to this tax so those customers are also able to receive a refund on those accounts. The difference between the 2 percentages was supposed to be multiplied by the total telephone expenses for the 41-month period.

Personally, I wonder how many other Americans did not know that this refund was available to them. Count me as one of them! Visit www.irs.gov for more information.