Marketdata Enterprises

Small Business Survival Tips

This page is updated monthly with new and valuable tips about where you can obtain the best free or low-cost business and industry information, so you can do market research yourself, or add to Marketdata's reports. Be sure to check back with us once a month for new tips. We give you specific, up-to-date references and phone numbers.

* FRANCHISE info. sources...Here are some useful sources to check out:

Other good small business websites...

* Need to know your businesses' key ratios or "yardsticks" - like typical pre- and after-tax profit margins, expense ratios, how much you should carry in inventory, accounts receivable, cash, etc.? The best source we've seen for this info is the Robert Morris Annual Statement Studies, published annually for a wide variety of service, retail, wholesale, manufacturing, and other industries. They do a composite "average" balance sheet and income statement, arranged by SIC code. Ask for it at your local business reference department of a university library. Many public libraries may not have it.

* Self employed and need DISABILITY INSURANCE? Try the Independent Business Alliance at phone: 1-800-559-2580. For a $149 annual membership fee, they give home-based businesses and small firms access to affordable insurance and other financial services that they can't get on their own.

* Press Release Essentials...1. If someone asks to be put on your press release mailing list, DO IT! Be diligent and send them every one you have on an ongoing basis. 2.Write the release to read like a story you'd see in the newspaper or magazine, as the writer would write it. Don't include a lot of statements about how great your company is, just pack it with useful facts, figures, key findings, new services you are offering (i.e. According to Marketdata Research Director, John LaRosa: "The self-improvement market is booming, especially for books and seminars."). 5. Include a bold, attention-getting headline (and subhead). 6. Include details about how readers can obtain any free materials, fliers, brochures, reports, consultation, or other services you're offering. 7. Include e-mail and website address, phone and fax numbers. 8. Mail releases to your "trade press" list (which you've built up over time) at least 4-6 times/year, and keep the release style/look consistent so they recognize your company when they get it.

* Merchant Credit Card Accounts-getting one can be tough. Many banks no longer even consider granting new customers operating a MAIL ORDER business a merchant account (allowing your customers to pay by VISA/MC). This is a shame, since your reputable firm is grouped with all the fly-by-night companies that burned the banks in the past with nondelivery of merchandise, etc. If your business falls into this category, and outside of the traditional "retail establishment" (i.e. home-based consultant, or you sell your products via mail order or phone where you don't see customers face to face), banks give you major hassles and steep discount rates even if you're approved. Describe your business as anything but mail order, if possible. For mail order, expect to pay 3% of gross sales amounts on VISA/MC sales and a whopping 4.5% on AMEX.

* The Service Annual Survey (Dept. of Commerce) is an excellent source of data about the past 3-4 years' receipts and growth for a wide range of service and healthcare industries (incl. beauty shops, parking lots, public relations, dentists offices, video rental stores, home health care services, etc.) The latest edition is 2000. Call: 301-457-2826 or 2766 and request a copy. They'll usually send one free.

* Limited advertising budget? Try bartering your services. We do, to great benefit. As an example, we provide many industry trade journals with a copy of our Industry Studies, in exchange for one or several space ads. No cash outlay. We provide camera-ready art/ad. However, many 1/4-page ads cost $300-800+, so the value of YOUR product/service must be roughly equal to the space ad's value. Also, you have to have something of value to the magazine and their members, something they can use for editorial/stories .

* Want to locate hundreds of market research reports about specific markets? Contact Marketresearch.com

......More survival tips to come! Check back with us regularly...

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