Should I exhibit at a trade show or just attend?

This is a question that every business owner asks themselves at one time or another. If you have never been to the type of trade show you thinking about exhibiting, then take the time to attend the show you find out the real value in showing. Why? Tradeshows can be an expensive means to advertise and you may be able to attend a show, spend minimal costs to obtain the same amount of exposure. Also, it may be tough to determine your return on investment at first glance.

If the trade show is not local you can safely assume your company will incur these costs:
Travel costs (i.e. Airfare, Car Rental, Gasoline, etc.)
Hotel Expenses
Meals
Parking
Tips
Exhibiting fees including but not limited to:
Booth costs (average 10 x 10 $1,000 or more)
Internet fees
Shipping and freight fees
Electricity
Higher food costs at the event and
Personnel cost because you will need more than one person to staff the booth for breaks, etc.

By attending an event you will meet other attendees who would have been potential visitors to your booth and can interact with them by exchanging business cards and telling them about your business all the while, test the waters in terms of interest.

Typically, there is a designated area to for breaks, take several coffee or soda breaks and sit at tables where people are congregating. Talk with them; ask them how they like the event and what they do. They will undoubtedly ask you what you do and you can test out your product’s offering by discussing it with the groups. Take their input and generate from there solutions to best reach your target audience. Spend as much time as you can meeting and talking to people at this show and stay at a hotel where attendees or exhibitors are and network with as many people as possible.

Lastly, while at the show, talk to exhibitors with similar type products/ services that you offer. Before you tell them that you are contemplating getting a booth next time, casually ask if they are having good luck at the show and if it is prompting sales.

By taking all these steps you can decide if you want to exhibit the next time around with “eyes wide open” to all of the costs and the potential benefits.

Tell us how your visit to the next show goes!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

What is a PEO?

A PEO is a Professional Employer Organization. Companies who do not want to manage all of the employee related human resource aspects of running a company, often align themselves with one of these types of companies. A PEO provides a cost-effective alternative to outsource the management of HR, employee benefits, payroll and workers compensation which allows the business owner to focus on their core competencies of running and building their company.

By aligning yourself with a PEO you become a Co-Employer with them. For the most part everything stays the same with this arrangement, you still run the day-to-day management of the company and your people, but your PEO Company makes sure you do it within all of the State and Federal guidelines. They in essence become your in-house consulting firm to consult with to make sure you do everything right with your compliance, administration, procedures and interaction as it relates to your employees.

Another big benefit to aligning yourself with one of these PEO’s is that you can typically offer big Company benefits even though you are a smaller company. How? Because PEO’s usually have hundreds if not thousands of people in their Co-Employment relationships you are able to leverage these big numbers of employees to provide your employees more comprehensive benefits at what are usually lower prices than you could get on your own.

The fees for a PEO are usually a percentage of your payroll. The fees you pay them can sometimes be offset by the savings you might have with workers compensation, payroll administration and benefits cost reductions. Often times companies can compete better for new recruits with more comprehensive benefits and a more coordinated HR process.

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

What is the difference between an email address and a domain name?

A domain name is the address where a web site typically resides. For example: http://blog.em4b.com is our domain name. If we want to have an email address associated with our domain name we could use questions@blog.em4b.com.

It’s kind of like your physical home address where you live. Your home address is 123 Main Street (Domain name) and your address for mail at your home is John Doe @ 123 Main Street (email address).

Hopefully this is making sense to you. If someone gives you their email address and its: billsmith@smallenginerepair.com most people that want to know about your company will go to their web browser and put in your domain name of www.smallenginerepair.com to see more information about your company. If they want to contact you directly they will use your email address at: billsmith@smallenginerepair.com.

Hopefully all this is starting to make sense to you now. The other most commonly used terms for domain names are: URL, Web Address or Web site address.

It’s best to try and keep your domain name as short as you can and as easy to remember as possible.

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

How do I get on a No Call list?

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint on the Do Not Call Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free. Here is the link: https://www.donotcall.gov/

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Adding up other people’s money…

Everybody does it. You know what I’m talking about…..You’re sitting in a restaurant and you start adding up how much your bill will be and then you divide it by the number of people in your party and then you multiply by the number of people in the room. But you’re not done yet, now you figure out how many “turns” of the tables there will be that night, maybe 2 or 3 and then you’ve figured it all out, you know how much the owners made. There is some small talk and then everyone at your table thinks about how glamorous it would be to open your own restaurant and make all that money. Don’t take that thought too far!

You did figure out what the restaurant brought in (gross), but not what they made (net). There is a big difference between the two.

Look at your own small business, what percentage of your gross is going to pay your expenses? If you look at restaurants more than 50% of their cost is typically food and drink and put in another 40% or so for employees and when you add rent, utilities plus some other expenses you don’t have a whole lot left over.

The grass isn’t always as green as your quick calculations would have you think! It’s fun to play with numbers but make sure you focus on growing your revenues and keeping your expenses under control while calculating how much YOUR business makes. Make it happen!
© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC