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Solo's blog provides the resources that microbusinesses, solopreneurs, freelancers, and other super-small businesses need to start, operate, and grow.

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In this article:\nWhy a website is still vital for small businesses\nHow a website improves credibility with customers\nHow a business website improves local SEO\nExploit your website to improve sales\nLow-cost options for website layout and hosting\nDon’t think your small business needs a website in this social-media-saturated era of FaceGram and InstaTweet? Prepare to be schooled, peeps. Though a crusty GeoCities website may be totally ‘90s, a properly built and regularly updated website still provides tons of value for any business, including small, local, one-person concerns. Here’s why.\nA website builds credibility for your small business\nThe fact is, even though many consumers now engage businesses primarily via social media and review platforms, people still expect every business to have a website. \nThe more, \nahem\n, seasoned among us may remember excitedly asking people, “You have a \nwebsite\n??” when it was a novelty. Now, an incredulous potential customer might ask a small business owner, “You don’t have a \nwebsite\n??”\nA website provides validation to customers that you take your business seriously, and that your business is legitimate. After all, \nanyone\n can set up a Facebook or Instagram or Twitter page for free. Websites, while not expensive, cost time and money to build, run, and host.\nIf you don’t have a business website, or if—heaven forbid—someone else has parked a generic (yourbusinessname).com domain in your place—you may come off as an amateur or not in it for the long haul.\nFurthermore, you’re not just trying to build credibility with potential customers. Which brings us to the next point.\nA properly built website improves local SEO and search rankings\nNot only does a website show potential customers that you’re an established, credible business, but it makes you more visible and legitimate to Google and other search engines as well.\nIt may seem self-evident when talking about websites that it is vital for your small business to show up, and show up well, in local searches. After all, 9 out of 10 people conduct online searches for local businesses, and your website can be an important factor in how you rank.\nThe more touchpoints your business has online—via social media accounts, \nclaiming your pages\n on review sites like Yelp, Google My Business, and TripAdvisor, \nfree business listings\n, and your website—the more important and relevant you appear to search engines, and the higher you will be ranked when people search online for businesses like yours in your area.\nSEO, or search engine optimization, is somewhat of a dark art and very few people truly understand how it works (Google changes its algorithm pretty much monthly and will not tell anyone exactly what they prioritize when ranking search results), but it’s safe to say that maintaining a properly built website with relevant tags, keywords, and correct business info will help improve your local SEO.\nTry this: type your favorite local business into Google or another search engine, and look at the results. It’s likely that the first, or among the first results listed will be their website (if they have one). Don’t forego the potential customer engagement and SEO benefits of having a business website.\nA website is a great small business sales and marketing tool\nObviously, if you have the capability, ecommerce (online sales) is a huge benefit of a small business website. Most of today’s small-business-friendly web-hosting service providers (such as Wix and Squarespace) also offer shopping cart/ecommerce options for businesses who want to sell online.\nHowever, even if you don’t want to sell your goods and services online, or aren’t ready yet, your website can still be a valuable sales tool, and not only because it can drive more customers to your store via improved SEO.\nYou can use your website to feature weekly sales, coupons, offers, and web-only specials to drive traffic to your store. You should blast these out on your social media channels as well, but don’t forget to link them back to your website. (You should also include your website in your business profiles on Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook, and every other relevant review platform and business listing.)\nAdd icing to this marketing cake by adding a simple email capture form-fill to your website to collect contact information from your most enthusiastic customers. Even better, you can use a popular promotion as incentive for people to provide their contact info. After all, actually having correct customer contact information is 90% of the battle when talking about effective customer loyalty programs.\nGo deeper: \nThe 6 elements of an effective loyalty program\nControl your messaging and aesthetics \nYet another advantage of a website is it’s 100% controlled by you. In other words, unlike review sites or social media accounts, random people can’t just post whatever they want on your website. \nYou\n control the message, the look, the images, the font… everything. You can really craft the feeling and messaging you want to convey on your website.\nEven basic websites have real business value\nIt’s cheaper and easier than ever to create a website, thanks to the aforementioned website building and hosting companies like Squarespace and Wix. For around 20 bucks a month you can have a clean, professional-looking website that shows your business in its best light. For a little more money you can add \nemail campaigns\n, offers, apps, shopping carts, and other useful features.\n(Pro tip: if you haven’t submitted your brand/s for trademark registration, be sure to buy all the related website domains on somewhere like GoDaddy or Register.com before you submit your paperwork. There are people who watch the lists of approved trademarks and will automatically buy those domains if you haven’t already… and it may end up costing you a pretty penny to buy them back.)\nEven if all you have the resources and time for is a clean, simple web page listing your correct business hours, location, email, phone, and a quick description of your company vision, products, and services, that will still be valuable to many customers, can drive potential buyers to your location, and, as discussed earlier, it gives search engines one more reason to rank you higher in results.\nBottom line? Yes, you need a website for your small business. \nAs part of any \nsmall business marketing plan\n, a website is invaluable and provides benefits on multiple levels. 

Why every small business still needs to have a website (including yours!)

In this article:\nHow to use social media to market your business\n14 best types of social media posts for small businesses\nAs a small business owner (including microbusinesses, sole proprietorships, solopreneurs, etc.), you are probably constantly hearing from others that your business needs to be on social media. Whether or not you agree with them, you shouldn’t discount the valuable opportunities that you can gain from proper utilization of various social platforms. \nThe power of sharing and engagement on social media can help increase your online presence and brand awareness, bringing in more customers and revenue. \nThe hardest part of any social media campaign is usually coming up with new content and deciding what to post. \nThere are several types of effective social media posts that small business should be posting. We’ve covered many of those below for you. \nSo as you start planning your social posting schedules, keep these types of posts in mind to get the most user engagement with your brand. \n1. Behind-the-scenes\nBehind-the-scenes posts are great helping your customers and followers get to know your company and employees better. \nThis adds a human aspect to your business that helps your customers connect with you and view you as a friend, rather than simply a business. \nYou can share things like employees at community events, photos of your holiday work parties, and employees on the job with a customer. \npeople enjoying a party for small business social media\n\nThis helps remove some of the intimidation and separation that customers may feel when walking into a new business for the first time and lets them feel like they already know your business. \n2. New products and services\nWhenever you get a new product or service you should take advantage of the sharing power of social media. Boost these posts by using them as Instagram ads or \nFacebook ads\n in your local area to highlight your new offerings to more potential customers. \nIf it’s something that customers have been waiting for or even a cool new product that spikes consumer interest, people are going to share it and drive more sales. \n3. Discounts, sales, and special deals\nDon’t underestimate the power of discounts. Everyone loves to get a good deal, especially on products and services that they use frequently. \nEvery now and then, plan a fun discount or deal to offer your customers and encourage them to share that offer with their friends and family. \nPro tip: social media users LOVE getting “exclusive” offers that you send out only to a particular platform.\n4. Giveaways and contests\nGiveaways and contests get tons of engagement, especially on Instagram and Facebook. Host a giveaway from your business page to encourage more likes, shares, and overall engagement with your page. \nSelect a prize that is relevant to your business, establish some rules for the giveaway, and boot that post in your area. A common giveaway tactic is to ask for page likes and/or to tag friends to get entries into the giveaway.\nJust be sure to understand the rules for giveaways on the platform you are using and include the appropriate terms and conditions on your post. \nlaptop with photo contest for social media small business\n5. Promote your blog posts\nIf you already have a blog on your website, then social media is the perfect way to get more traffic for your blog posts. Share your new blog posts across all of your social media channels. You can even take this a step further by promoting ads with your blog posts in them. \nDon’t have a blog yet? Read our tutorial on \nhow to write an effective small business blog\n.\n6. User-generated content\nConsider asking your regular followers to contribute to your social pages. User-generated content is awesome because people love to see and share the work of those they know. \nYou might ask customers to share a video or picture of them using one of your products or having a service done. This shows off your business offerings while also helping your followers to engage with their friends. \n7. Interactive content \nInteractive posts are an absolute must. Social media users love to engage with polls, quizzes, and other fun activities on the internet. \nAppeal to that interest and share your own interactive posts to involve consumers more in your business and get some valuable feedback. \nThere are several features, filters, and “apps” in Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms that allow you to great engaging, fun, interactive content.\n8. Videos \nVisual content is key, and videos are a great way to do it. How often are you scrolling through your social feed and stop to watch a video that piques your interest?\nTake advantage of that power and produce your own videos to share on your social channels. These can be how-to videos, inspirational stories, \nInstagram Stories\n, or even live streams announcing a new business offering. \nLearn more: \nHow to use Instagram Stories highlights to market your business\nGo deeper: \nHow to create a YouTube channel for your business\n\n9. News and trending topics\nPiggyback on the things that are already getting shared on social media channels. Find news and trending topics that are relevant to your business (or that you can make relevant to your business) and hop on the bandwagon. \nShare the things that people are already looking for and sharing themselves. \n10. Infographics and images\nAgain, you need to have high-quality visual content. Infographics and beautiful or interesting photos can take your social profiles far. These are the kinds of things that grab people’s attention and that they like to share with others.\nGo deeper: \nTop 3 ways to get and use professional photos for your small business\n \n11. Memes and quotes\nMemes are usually funny, entertaining, or inspirational with quotes or captions attached to the post. These are a huge part of what many social media users are looking for when they start scrolling through their feeds. \nMemes help pass the time and allow people to relax and have fun. They also get shared like crazy, so create your own versions of popular memes and share them on your social profiles. \nattractive girls laughing at a social media meme on a cellphone\n12. Inspirational or emotional stories\nTug at people’s heartstrings a little with some inspirational stories. Think about the posts like someone seeing color for the first time or a baby hearing their mother’s voice with a hearing aid. \nShare the inspirational stories that are taking place within your own community and encourage your followers to share their own stories as well. \nOf course, it’s always best to keep all of your posts relevant to your business intent, or at least in alignment with your “persona” and what type of content your followers expect from you.\n13. Testimonials\nBe proud of your work and share customer testimonials. Video testimonials are great because they catch users’ attention and show the real people that are paying for your products and services. \nBe sure to get permission when sharing any personal details or testimonials.\n14. Freebies \nWho doesn’t love getting some freebies? Offer some free swag or special gifts to your customers that correlate with specific holidays or new offerings. \nYou could share a free eBook with valuable insights into your offerings or give a free cookie to everyone that comes to your business dressed up on Halloween (these are just 2 of hundreds of possibilities). \nShare those offerings on your social channels to get the word out and increase your reach. \nAdditional help for social media posting\nSocial media marketing can take a lot of time, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. Get together with your team and plan out a couple of posts that you want to do each month and get started. \nAs you are increasing your awareness through social media campaigns, be sure that you are keeping up on getting regular reviews from your customers. Help keep your online reputation great while your reach increases. 

The 14 best types of social media posts for small businesses

In this article:\nGet your “online persona” figured out\nCommit to YOU engaging on social media\nDevelop a social media plan and stick to it\nAsk questions and create polls\nAsk for feedback about your business and/or your channels\nTag and re-share RELEVANT influencers, stories, and social media accounts\nIf you’re a small business owner you’ve probably been told, “You need to be on social media.” You may have already tried to set up social media accounts for your business and haven’t seen much interest or engagement.\nDon’t feel bad. Even professional social media consultants don’t always have the success they expect, even when following strategies that have worked for them in the past. \nSocial media is always in a kind of flux, with algorithms and platforms that are constantly changing and being updated. It can feel a bit overwhelming, especially for small business owners.\nIn this article we’ll give you some basic strategies that can help you achieve more engagement, and hopefully some more customers and sales, via your social media channels.\nDetermine what kind of personality your social account will have\nBefore you engage with customers on social media, you need to really think about: 1. what kind of customer you’re attempting to engage/attract, and 2. what kind of business you want to be (or more accurately, what kind of business you want to be \nviewed\n as being, based on your social media presence). \nThis should go without saying, but judging by the slipshod social media posts we’ve seen from some businesses, you never know. \nThis process goes hand-in-hand with knowing how to create and grow an effective brand.  However, you may decide that your “online personality” doesn’t necessarily have to align 100% with your in-store or online storefront experience. It’s probably best that they are somewhat aligned so your customers know what to expect, but you may use more humor, say, in your Instagram or Twitter persona than you might during in-person interactions with customers when conducting business. \nThink about every aspect of your online persona, and make sure you’re consistent. Are you going to be playful? Sarcastic? Humorous? Serious? Informative and practical? Cheerful and bubbly? What’s your position on political posts and commentary? Do you censor/ban content from online trolls or do you ignore them, or even humiliate them to gain props from other readers?\npug dog wearing glasses posting on social media\nIn big business accounts, a playful and even a bit irreverent tone often produces the most widespread likes/shares/engagement. People like to see multi-million-dollar corporations taking snarky, playful pokes at each other via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. But make sure you get the tone right or your customers could view your “playfulness” as “petty.”\nIt’s important to know what kind of responses and content you create, as well as which types of social media posts you like an share, and then stick to it. \nYou can measure the success or failure of your approach as you track your engagement using analytics tools from \nFacebook\n, \nTwitter\n, \nInstagram\n, etc.\nYOU need to actually engage on social media\nIf you want engagement/likes/followers/hashtags/whatever on social media, \nyou\n must be willing to engage. This will not be something you can do sporadically or infrequently. Today’s customers are online at least several hours every day, and when they reach out to ask you questions or respond to your requests, they expect near-instant feedback.\nIt’s a tall order for a business owner to run the business, deal with customers, and also stay on top of social media and online engagement, but unfortunately that’s often the nature of the beast for truly small, local concerns. You’ll just have to do the best you can. \nIdeally, it’s best to have someone dedicated to handling social media if possible—someone who can perform other tasks, particularly when it’s slow or until you have a robust following, but who can then move into a more full-time social media management position when needed.\nIf you still haven’t set up your business’s profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, here are some helpful, step-by-step walkthroughs and tutorials:\nHow to create and claim your business’s Facebook page\nHow to create a business Twitter account\nHow to create an Instagram account for your business\nYou may also like:\n\nThe complete guide to Facebook marketing for small businesses\n\n\nHow to create an Instagram account for your business\n\n \nHow to promote Tweets on Twitter for your small business\nDevelop a social media plan/schedule and stick to it\nYou should be as responsive as possible to all incoming questions and posts, but as far as creating and sharing content, you should develop a social media plan and dedicate time and resources to it.\nPeople will come to expect regular content, and if you keep up with your schedule, it’s more likely that they’ll engage and like/share your content. \nNow, pay attention: Don’t over-post (but post regularly). This means you shouldn’t be annoying, but you should be posting content often enough to stay on the mind of your followers. It’s better to post one bit of content a week, rather than post nothing for a month and then post 4 new bits of content in one day.\nSpace them out and try to maintain at least a weekly schedule if possible, or even several times a week if you can keep up with it and your research determines your followers like and expect you to post that often.\nYou may also find that certain times of the day or certain days of the week perform better as far as engagement. This is where those analytics tools we mentioned earlier come in really handy.\nAsk questions and create polls\nSocial media is changing human culture because it allows people to feel connected and is interactive (and addictive). When people get to “influence” the outcome of something they feel is important, they derive satisfaction from it.\nFor this reason, asking questions and creating polls is one good way to get more people to interact with your social media channels. This can be as simple as a salon posting two types of hairstyle and asking followers to vote on their favorite, or a restaurant creating a poll for this week’s “daily specials” and letting followers rank them in order of preference.\nOr you might ask what your customers would prefer: a 10% off virtual coupon that’s good for 5 visits, or a 50% off on one item coupon that they can use once. Things like that.\nThis has the dual purpose of getting your followers to engage, as well as providing you valuable feedback for your business.\nIf you have decided that your business’s social media presence is the type to discuss things outside of work subjects, you might ask about local policies, favorite new albums, classic movies, Star Wars characters, TV series, celebs, cars, or whatever else you’re interested in (or think your customers might be interested in). People love to talk about their hobbies and share their opinions about all sorts of things.\nMake it interactive and fun for your current and potential customers, and you may see your engagement on social media increase.\nAsk for feedback about your business and/or your channels\nEveryone likes to feel heard, and everyone thinks their opinion matters. When you ask for it, people will share it (and they may share it regardless!). So get specific and ask for feedback about what your store is doing well, and maybe not so well.\nYou can ask followers to “upvote” or “like” their favorite suggestion or piece of feedback, and make sure you follow up and post about the changes you decide to make based on that feedback.\nEven if you’re asking for feedback about how you run your social media channel, this can be very helpful and increase engagement.\nTag and share RELEVANT influencers, stories, and social media accounts\nIf you have determined that it’s appropriate for your social media channel, you can encourage likes and hashtags that mention your business/social account. You can offer discounts or other perks when people “like” or “follow” you on a certain platform, or when they use hashtags like #[yourbusinessname] and #[yourproducts]. Social media tracking tools like \nHootsuite\n can help you set up notifications for all your online mentions, even misspelled ones.\nThink about the types of social media YOU like to consume, and examine what they do and see if you can emulate some of their strategies. If you can get a mention or “shout out” from a popular influencer, it can have big results. \nThis works best when it’s “organic,” meaning, it happens naturally and the influencer or popular social media user actually does use your products, eat your food, or like your social channel. People can usually tell when people are paid for endorsements, so go into those agreements very carefully.\nAnother note: make sure these cross-posted or re-shared stories or posts are actually relevant to your business, and/or it makes sense for your business’s online persona. A record shop might be perfectly fine tagging a post celebrating the release of a Danish death metal album, but it might not be right for your tax preparation business’s social media account.\nStay on top of your online reputation as well as your social media accounts\nThe first place most potential customers look when considering spending money at your business is your business’s profile on the popular review sites like Yelp and Google My Business. \nWhat they find—or don’t find—there can determine whether they actually visit your business, so it’s important to keep up on your review site profiles as well as your social media accounts.

6 tips for better social media engagement for your business

In this article:\nHave a solid idea\nQuestions to ask\nLaws and regulations\nCreate a business plan and get organized\nInsure your business\nCreate a workspace\nHire employees (if necessary)\nDetermine tax obligations\nHave you been thinking about starting a home-based business? Maybe you’re tired of “working for the man” or you just want the flexibility to create your own schedule and manage your own tasks. Either way, you’ll want to be sure you know what it takes to start a business from home before going all-in. \nFollow along as we guide you through everything you need to know to start your home-based business. From laws and taxes to some of the more fun things like hiring employees and creating your home office, we’ll help point you in the right direction. \nBefore you start a home-based business, you need a solid idea \nOf course, you can’t start any business without a killer idea. You need a business idea that people are actually willing to spend money on. Maybe you already have that idea, or maybe you’re at ground zero and still thinking about what you can do. \nConsider these questions to help you come up with your business idea:\nWhat do you enjoy doing? \nWhat talents do you have? \nWhat skills can you offer that others are willing to pay for?\nWhat is something you could easily offer while working from home?\nWhether you can offer a service or you have a great product that will help your customers, make sure to round out your idea in a way that you can sell it and actually make a profit. \nQuestions to ask before starting a home-based business\nOnce you have your awesome business idea, there are a few key questions you’ll need to think long and hard about. \nWill a home-based business work with your lifestyle and residence?\nThe idea of having a business from home is appealing, but you need to make sure it realistically works with your current home life. Are there too many distractions in your home to get the work done that you need? Is there a separate space where you can work and keep a good work-life balance?\nGo deeper: \nAdvantages and disadvantages to starting a home-based business\nyoung woman with dog working from home\n\nWhat are the startup costs going to be for this business? \nHome-based businesses can have relatively low startup costs depending on the type of business you want to run, but it sure isn’t going to be free. Make sure that you are equipped to handle these costs at this time. \nLearn more: Check out our helpful guide to \nfunding options for starting a small business\n.\nWhat is a realistic income that you can make with this business?\nStarting your own business is awesome, but if it’s not going to quickly provide at least the income to support itself (and ideally more) then it may not be the best investment for you. \nMake sure you have enough to live on until your startup budget runs dry.\nWhat is the current market like for your business idea?\nMarket research is going to be crucial for ensuring the success of any business, but especially one that is run out of your home. \nThere are potentially unique issues related to retail sales, shipping, warehousing, and taxes for home-based businesses. See below to learn more.\nGo deeper: Find all of the market-related questions you should ask in our article \nmarket research for small businesses\n article.\nLearn the laws and regulations regarding home-based businesses\nEven though you’re starting a business from the privacy of your own home, you still have to abide by federal, state, and local laws and regulations. It will be important for the success of your business to ensure that you know what those laws are. \nCheck local zoning laws\nThere may be local laws the prevent you from being able to run a business out of your home. Check with your city, county, state, and even HOA (if applicable) to make sure your business fits within any local requirements. If you’re starting \na small business in a small town\n, you should also ask around to see if your community has additional requirements or restrictions.\nIf it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean you should give up. You may just need to \nfind a commercial space\n to start your business from. \nPick your business structure\nYou need to identify your business structure. This will help determine what your tax obligations are and it will have implications for your startup and other liabilities. \nThe basic business structures that may apply to your home-based business include:\nSole proprietorship\nLLC\nS corporation\nLearn more: \nHow and when to incorporate your small business\nGet your tax IDs\nIf you choose to incorporate your business as an LLC or S Corp, you’ll need to acquire an employer identification number (EIN). Your EIN is issued for tax reporting purposes. You may also need a state tax ID number depending on where you are located. \nAs a sole proprietor you can choose to use your social security number or get an EIN. \nTo get your EIN, you can go to \nirs.gov\n and apply for one by filling out form SS-4.\nGet licensed\nCertain types of businesses are required to have licensing and permits. Check federal, state, and local laws to determine if your business will need any licensing. \nYou can visit the \nU.S. Small Business Administration\n (SBA) to apply for the permits and licenses you might need. \nCreate a good business plan\nInvestors, banks, and potential partners won’t take you seriously unless you have a solid business plan. \nIf your idea and business are completely new, it may be somewhat difficult to come up with the projected revenue numbers you’ll need to complete your business plan, but you should do the best you can.\nYou should definitely flesh out your “executive summary” or elevator pitch, company vision, mission statement, market analysis, marketing strategy, and financial projections, and know them by heart.\nGet organized\nWorking from home isn’t going to work if you aren’t organized. You’ll want to develop a clear plan of action for your business and hold yourself to it, as well as engage in tasks such as marketing your business, hiring the right people, and keeping good records. \nGet your business insured\nYour homeowner’s or renter’s insurance isn’t going to cover your business, so you’ll want to take action to get your business insured as you are starting up. There are several business insurance options that you can choose from, depending on your needs:\nLiability insurance\nIf any customers, business partners, or other business-related visitors come to your home for meetings, then you’ll want to have liability insurance. This will protect you and your business from being liable if any injuries or damages occur to your guests while in your home. \nProfessional liability\nProfessional liability is important for protecting you against any claims clients may make of negligence or failure to deliver. \nBusiness property insurance\nHomeowner’s or renter’s insurance doesn’t generally provide coverage for equipment that you use for your business if some kind of disaster occurs. Examples of equipment you may use from home include printer, computer, furniture, products, items related to your service, etc. \nBusiness automobile coverage\nYour regular auto insurance may not cover accidents that occur during business-related deliveries or trips. If your vehicle is used for business purposes, then it is a good idea to look into what your own insurance covers and if you need to pick up additional business auto insurance as well. \nOther possibilities\nDepending on your business, there may be some other insurance options you need to look into. For example, worker’s compensation insurance will cover anything that happens to employees while on the job and commercial crime insurance can protect you from theft and fraud. \nWe recommend meeting with a business insurance professional to help you determine which insurance will be most beneficial for your home-based business. \nFind and set up a workspace\nFinding and setting up your workspace is going to vary a lot depending on the type of business you run. For example, if you’re running a daycare or catering business out of your home you’ll have a lot more requirements for your space than if you were offering web design services. \nThe first step is to find space that you can use and dedicate to your business. Maybe you have a room that will be perfect for your office and client meetings. Or maybe you’re just working from your dining room table. For some businesses that can work just fine. \nFor specific types of businesses (like our daycare and catering examples) you should check with local and federal regulations to ensure that you have the proper space and it meets legal requirements before starting your business. \nclean and neat home workspace for small business\n\nOnce you’ve found your space, it’s time to set it up. We have a few tips that will help you no matter what type of business you are running. \nMake a list of the things you need for your home office\nIt doesn’t matter what type of business you have, you’ll need some kind of office setup and materials for it. This can include any of the following items:\nComputer\nPrinter\nPens, pencils, other writing utensils\nPaper, notebooks, sticky notes\nClock\nCalendar\nFile cabinets\nDesk\nFurniture for any client meetings\nAlso, consider additional needs related to your specific industry. \nGet a phone and email account dedicated to your business\nThe goal of any business is to get leads and customers, and this often comes from phone calls, texts, and emails. \nGet a separate phone that is solely for your business to help you stay organized and keep your home and work life separate. \nCreate a website for your home-based business\nEven small, local, home-based businesses can benefit from a well-built and well-run website.\nRead our article on \nwhy every small business needs to have a website\n.\nBrighten things up with proper lighting\nYou’ll want good lighting in your home office just to work with. But lighting can also help set the tone for your business if you have customers meeting you in your home. Bright, natural light is comforting and more professional. \nIf your home doesn’t allow for great lighting naturally with large windows and overhead lights, you may need to create that ambiance with desk and floor lamps. \nProper lighting also helps alleviate any safety concerns for visitors.\nDetermine if you need additional help\nTons of businesses start out as solo concerns, but as you grow, or if your business plan is aggressive, you might find that you need some additional hands on deck to keep up with the incoming work.\nDetermine the amount of work you are anticipating and whether you’ll need to hire any employees to help you out. You might start small and work alone and then as you grow and get more clients decide to hire another person or two.  \nYou’ll also want to decide if you’re going to have any employees helping you at your home or if they will be working remotely. \nTaxes for your home-based business\nJust like any other type of business or job, you are required to pay taxes on your earnings. Do your research to determine what your tax obligations will be so you can start setting that aside or even paying it out each month. \nDeductions\nYou’ll find that you can deduct a lot of things from your business taxes that you weren’t aware of. We’ve created a list of deductible items broken up into three categories: business, home, maintenance. \nBusiness\nEquipment\nCost of goods \nEmployee pay\nBusiness insurance\nTravel\nOffice supplies\nBusiness use of your car\nMarketing\nTaxes\nInterest\nProfessional services (accounting, consulting, legal, etc.)\nHome\nTo obtain the amount that you can deduct from your home-related expenses for your business, take the percentage of your home that is used for your business. You can divide the square footage of your workspace by the entire square footage of your home. \nUtilities (heating, water, sewage, electric, internet, phone)\nMortgage/rent\nInsurance\nCleaning supplies/services\nHOA fees\nRepairs\nProperty taxes\nMaintenance\nAny repairs, remodels, or maintenance that you make to your home related to your business can be written off on your taxes. \nRecord keeping\nKeep accurate records of all expenses and finances. This is crucial to ensuring a good tax season and preventing IRS audits. \nManaging employee taxes\nIf you have employees on your payroll, it is your responsibility to get the proper documentation from them to process they pay and calculate the taxes that will be withheld. We highly recommend hiring an accountant or finance professional if you do have employees on your payroll.\nTalk to professionals\nIf all of this goes way beyond your ability, you may just want to hire a bookkeeper who can help you out. As a business owner, it’s always a good idea to have a professional at least help you with your taxes during tax season each year. \nImportant note: These tips are general and not intended as legal advice. Every business is different and you should consult with a tax professional to determine the best course of action before submitting taxes for your business. \nClaim your online business profiles\nBefore you sell a single widget, you need to \nclaim your online business listings\n on Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor (if applicable), Facebook, etc. \nWhen customers start reviewing your business online (and they will), these review platforms will automatically create a profile for you if you haven’t done it yourself. You want to be in control. Make sure you claim your profiles and start seeing the benefits of reviews.\nRead our easy how-to articles to get started:\nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\nHow to claim your Google business listing\nHow to create and claim your Facebook business page\nHow to claim your business listing on TripAdvisor\nGo deeper: \n25 free business listings every small business should be on\nStart getting and retaining customers\nOnce your home-based business is started, it’s time to start managing your customer relationships from “consideration” through the sale, and building trust for repeat business.\nYou may have already provided some services for free or at a discounted rate as you were testing out your business. Continue to use these techniques where feasible to help you grow your small business. \nWherever your business operates, it’s vital that you claim your \nonline business listings\n, \nrespond to your reviews\n, and keep abreast of your business revenue trends and customer relationships. 

Everything you need to know to start a home-based small business

In this article:\nWhy use Google My Business for your pet service business\nWhat’s the local 3-pack and why do you need it\nWhat to include in your pet service business’s Google listing\nGoogle is the most widely used search engine by far. It holds more than 90% of the search engine market share, and that should be reason enough to list your pet service business on Google, even if you're a super-small, one-person business.\nBeyond simply listing your business on Google though, there are several things you should include on your Google business listing to optimize it well for converting new customers. \nWhy use Google My Business for your pet service business\nWe’ve established that Google gets a ton of traffic, so that’s definitely one key reason you want to use this free directory for your pet business. \nBesides that, Google is the number-one place that people go when they are searching for a new business like your vet clinic, groomer, pet boarding center, or other pet-related business. Listing your business on Google will help those people who are searching for your services to find you easier. \nSome advantages that Google My Business can offer your pet service business include:\nIncreasing brand awareness\nBetter customer conversions with more online reviews\nEasy access to contact and location information for your customers\nMore opportunity to reach new customers\nGet started: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\nGoogle’s local 3-pack and why you want to be there\nGoogle’s local 3-pack, also called the “map pack,” has replaced the phone books. This is the part of the search results that get the most clicks when people do a search for local services like “vet clinic” or “pet groomer.”\nHere are three important steps you can take to help your pet business appear in Google’s local 3-pack:\nCreate a Google My Business listing and optimize it (with the tips we have listed below)\nGet online reviews consistently streaming in and respond to them\nAdd your pet business to other \nfree business listing sites\nThese tips should be a part of every local business’s SEO (search engine optimization) strategy to help them improve their online visibility. Take advantage of the valuable opportunities that these free tips can add for your pet service business. \nGo deeper: \n15 free tips for better local search rankings\nThings your pet service business should include on your Google business listing\nThere’s more to creating the optimal Google My Business listing for your pet business than just claiming and creating it. You need to add the kind of information that potential customers are searching for. \nMake sure your Google listing’s information is always kept updated and displays accurate information or your rankings could suffer. \n1. NAP information\nNAP information is your business name, address, and phone number. These are the most important pieces of information for you to display on your Google My Business listing, and you can’t set one up without them. \nPro tip: Make sure your NAP information is the exact same across all of your online directory listings. Use the same version of your business name, same phone number, and same address everywhere. If these are inconsistent, it can confuse the search engines and harm your ranking opportunities. \n2. Category for your pet business\nThe next most important piece of information is a category for your business. This is a huge factor for when Google decides to show your business to its users. \nIf you’re a pet groomer, then find the most appropriate categories for the services you offer. Do the same if you are a vet clinic, boarding service, or any other pet-related business. \nFind the best category for your business so you can show up when users are searching for your services. \n3. Open hours\nListing the hours when your business is open is absolutely crucial. You don’t want customers to show up when your business is closed and decide to go somewhere else, or worse, leave a negative review because of it. \nList all of the hours that you are open each day, and be sure to include any special hours for holidays. \n4. Business Website\nInclude your business website on your Google listing to help customers learn more about your pet business. Most people like to see a website when they are in their initial research phase for a new service business. \nThe quality of the website associated with your Google My Business listing can also help send the right signals to Google (meaning you could rank better). Having good content on your website and getting other websites to link to it can help with this. \nGoogle will also use your website to help improve the experience for its users. For example, if someone does a search for “pet haircuts near me” and your website talks about “pet haircuts,” Google will indicate that your website mentions that particular service. \n5. Photos, photos, and more photos\nPeople are very visual. We like to see photos of the places that we’re going to visit and the services that we are going to get. We want to know what experience we’re going to have before we ever arrive at your business. \nSo include lots of photos. \nSome great pictures to include on your pet service listing could be staff photos, candid shots of staff working with pets, your location (interior and exterior), your logo, and of course, the pets!\n6. Description of your pet service business\nGoogle has a field on your Google My Business listing where you can enter a description of your business. This is a great place to tell more about your business, what you do, and share your story. \nGive as much information as you can so customers get a feel for who you are and know that their pets will be safe in your hands. \n7. Services and products\nList your services and, if applicable, products on your Google My Business listing. Include prices if possible. The more information you can provide here, the better chance you have to convert customers.\nPeople want the best service for their pets, but they also want to make sure they are paying the right price. \n8. Attributes\nEvery Google listing has a place for you to include special attributes for your business. These could be things like wifi accessibility, wheelchair entrances, payment options, and so many others. \nGoogle will determine what attributes seem relevant for your business and give you options to add to your listing. Watch for this section and update it whenever you see a new, relevant attribute. \n9. Google posts\nYou can create posts from your Google My Business listing to share new deals that your business is offering, fun events that you’re involved with, and so much more. These posts can be between 100 and 300 words and only last for seven days, so it’s a good idea to post at least once a week.\n10. Reviews and responses\nReviews can make the difference between you getting new customers or sending them running to your competitors. Work with your staff to come up with a solid strategy for obtaining new Google reviews on your business listing. \nA few ways you can do this include asking for reviews, posting “rate us on Google signs,” and sending text or email invitations to your customers to leave you reviews. \nWhen you do start getting reviews on Google, it’s important to respond to them within a day or two as well. Your response is just as important as the review itself. \nGo deeper: \nHow to respond to Google reviews\n

10 things every pet service business should have on their Google Business listing

In this 7-minute read:\n21 free listing sites for your retail business\nManage your listings with reputation management software\nOne of the most important things you can do for your retail business is to increase its online visibility. This allows you to get reviews online, helps your business to get found by more customers, and increases cash flow.  \nA great way to help improve that visibility is to claim all of your free online directory listings, commonly referred to as citations. Research shows that when businesses claim multiple free listings, they earn 78% more money than businesses that don’t claim any. \nLet us help you get started with these free listing sites for your retail business. \n1. Google My Business is essential for retailers\nGoogle My Business is always the first place that you want to start. This is how you get into the Google maps and show up on the first online source people use when looking for a new store. \nList your retail business on Google with our guide: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\n2. \nFacebook is a must for your retail shop\nFacebook is another huge one that consumers are using more and more to contact businesses. When someone has a question about your store and they can’t find the answer on your website, they’ll often ask a question through Facebook’s messenger app before coming into the store. \nThis is also one that tends to show up on the first page of Google when someone searches for your business (if you have a business page, of course). \n3. Don’t forget Bing Places \nBing is a popular search engine as the default for Microsoft's web browser. Don’t miss out on valuable opportunities by missing this one. The best part is, if you have your Google listing claimed, you can just sign in to your Google account on \nBing Places\n and import your store’s listing. \n4. Retail on Yelp? Yes!\nMillions of people are on Yelp every day searching for new places to shop and take their business to. As the third most popular review platform, this is definitely a place you want your store to be. \nCheck out our guide: \nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\n5. \nTripAdvisor is good for retail also\nMany people use TripAdvisor when they are traveling, and whether you have a souvenir shop or simply a grocery store that someone will need during their travels, it’s a good idea to list your retail business here. \nCheck out our guide: \nHow to claim your listing on TripAdvisor\n6. \nFoursquare is helpful\nWith 55 million users every month, Foursquare is a pretty popular listing site. On their platform, your store visitors can “check-in” to your store and leave helpful tips for other visitors. Get more feedback for your retail business by listing it on this site. \n7. \nBetter Business Bureau (BBB): a no-brainer\nHaving your store listed on and rated by the Better Business Bureau sends huge trust signals to customers and potential employees. This is important for any business. So get your store listed on BBB.org today with \nthis form\n. \n8. \nYellowbook: specialized local digital marketing \nYellowbook is another “yellow pages” directory site. They are run by a digital marketing company called Hibu. Hibu specializes in local digital marketing and they know what it takes to help retail businesses like yours show up better on Google and other search engines. \nList your store on Yellowbook with its simple-to-use \nform\n. \n9. YP.com (remember the Yellow Pages?)\nThe traditional “Yellow Pages” has digitized its platform to bring us YP.com, a huge online directory service that gets more than 60 million visitors every month. They know the importance of improving your online presence. \nYou can go to \nYP.com\n to claim your free YellowPages business listing. \n10. MerchantCircle for local retailers\nMerchantCircle is all about directing users to the best local merchants—that’s you! They separate merchants by category to help their visitors easily find the service or products that they are looking for. \nGet started in claiming your MerchantCircle listing with \nthis form\n. \n11. People still use \nMapQuest\nAnother popular one for travelers, MapQuest is still a widely used directory site. Their support team is awesome and will help you get your store added to their database quickly. \nJust \nsubmit a support ticket\n to MapQuest and see your store’s listing in days. \n12. Manta for cross-platform listings\nManta is a little different from these other sites in the extra features that it offers you. When you put your business information into Manta, they will scan other business listing sites to make sure your information is consistent across multiple platforms. \nThis consistency is super important to the search engines in order to provide customers the most accurate information for your store. \nManta makes it simple to sign your store up for a free listing \nhere\n. \n13. Citysearch: essential for local retail\nCitysearch wants to provide users with the best experience in finding great businesses in their neighborhoods. Customers shouldn’t have to travel far to find what they are looking for. \nCitysearch prioritizes fun with cool features like voting for your favorite places, special deals, and award badges. \nAdd your store to Citysearch by adding it to the \nCityGrid\n database. \n14. Hotfrog: the “freshest” local business directory\nHotfrog boasts itself as the freshest local business directory in the United States, and for good reason. Its directory is constantly growing with more businesses each day to help users find the best local places to be. \nGet your store listed\n on Hotfrog for free today. \n15. Local.com\nLocal.com wants to help customers find the hottest local happenings in their cities. Make sure your store is one of them!\nLocal.com will provide driving directions, reviews, and contact information for each listing on its site to help give customers the best information available. List your store on local.com by signing up for an account \nhere\n. \n16. Verify your retail shop with ExpressUpdate\nExpressUpdate is a big one that you want to make sure your store is listed on. They are what’s known as an “aggregator,” meaning once your store’s information is verified on their site, they’ll pass it along to other partner sites. So you just got multiple free listings from one site. Pretty neat, right?\nExpressUpdate does require a little more on the verification side of things than some of these listing sites. Once you’ve added all of your store’s information, they’ll do a phone call verification to confirm that your info is accurate. Then, the listing is all yours and ready to go. \nGet started by \nsearching your business\n on ExpressUpdate. \n17. Solo profile\nWith a free Solo profile, even the smallest local retailer or pop-up can have a helpful, functional SEO-friendly online presence for free. Building and maintaining a traditional website is simply too much for many small retailers to deal with. This is one reason a Solo profile can be such an amazing benefit. \nYour customizable Solo profile can list your business’s location, relevant contact information, links to your social pages, and any business details you want included. Sign up at\n \nSolo.co\n.\n18. Brownbook: comprehensive retail listings\nBrownbook.net is a fun one because it allows you to add so much more information than several of these listing sites. You can add tons of images, videos, history, business accommodations, and so much more. \nJust make sure you get your business name spelled correctly the first time, because they don’t allow you to change it (without contacting their support team anyway). \nList your store on Brownbook.net with \nthis form\n. \n19. Instagram is huge for retail\nInstagram is super popular among younger demographics, so if the target audience for your store falls in that category, make sure you are active where they are! \nIf you are going to get into Instagram, just be sure to have lots of awesome photos and “heart-worthy” content that will get you tons of followers. \n20. YouTube? Yes tube!\nYouTube is another great social media channel to take advantage of. Create a channel for your store where you can show off new products, give fun tutorials, and share advice about the different ways your products can be used. \n21. Local chamber of commerce\nYour local chamber of commerce is all about helping its community succeed—and that includes helping small businesses like your store get found. Most chambers have an online directory in their community, as well as free resources to help businesses market themselves better, so take advantage. \nManaging all of these listings sites and then trying to get new reviews to these sites on top of that can seem like a lot of work. But online reviews and engagement is super-important, even for the smallest retail business types, so make sure you develop a plan to stay on top of it.

144 articles found in “Marketing”

Why every small business still needs to have a website (including yours!)

The 14 best types of social media posts for small businesses

6 tips for better social media engagement for your business

Everything you need to know to start a home-based small business

10 things every pet service business should have on their Google Business listing

21 free online listing sites you should add your retail business to

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