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Lynnea M. Bylund
President & Founder
Published monthly by:
Catalyst House, Inc. [email protected]
32545 B Golden Lantern
Dana Point, CA 92629
© 2008 Catalyst House
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CAT GOES ‘PUBLIC!’
Catalyst House, through its new division – Catalyst Enterprise Solutions – is now providing a range of services and expertise designed to help small business owners survive and grow their businesses.
Barter strategies, local search and conventional advertising and marketing (from our AD|MAX division), content development and writing, corporate compliance, accounting and bookkeeping systems with QuickBooks and remote multiuser solutions, marketing and business plans, analysis, and more. Ask us!
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(CAT Credentials below)
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Rick Schuller is a seasoned business entrepreneur who has successfully utilized barter extensively for nearly four decades in such diverse industries as real estate, finance, dairy farming, advertising, and publishing. Currently he operates the California Realty Network and Darma Management, Inc., which publishes the immensely popular ‘Monkey News’ of North San Diego County, California.
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Too often business owners have precon-ceived ideas about barter that are not entirely correct.
Sometimes it’s just what they “hear” from other people who may not be familiar with the way barter groups operate.
Barter is a tool to help you grow your business and increase profits. We hope to dispel any misconceptions about barter with the following information:
MYTH: If I sell to a business who sells a product I can’t use, my barter currency is wasted.
FACT: Barter today is typically not a one for one exchange. You sell what you have, buy what you need. You accumulate barter currency (retail dollar value) from any network member. Sales can be made online, on the phone, or in person. Thousands of likeminded businesses buy and sell every conceivable product and service on barter, not cash. In fact most (if not all) of America’s Fortune 500 companies utilize barter.
MYTH: Barter can’t pay employees … or can it?
FACT: Your business can reward employees with a barter paid vacation! Or send them to a ball game, the theater, out to dinner or give them a gift certificate. Motivate them without using precious cash.
MYTH: Barter sounds great but I can’t pay my mortgage with it.
FACT: You may not be able to pay your mortgage with Barter currency, but you can pay an attorney, an accountant, utilize advertising, media, PR, marketing services or even acquire office supplies. Barter can free up cash to pay your mortgage.
MYTH: I’m a service business. All I have is my time.
FACT: Barter is perfect for a service-based businesses. When you aren’t working, your time is un-billable. Turn downtime into increased productivity by accepting barter dollar credits to fill your downtime.
MYTH: Barter won’t increase my cash flow.
FACT: Barter will expand your business network. As you increase your customer base through barter, you’ll generate more word-of-mouth business. Simply put, barter clients will bring new cash clients. Further sometimes you will have opportunity to “cash-convert” your trade currency, when you accept cash payment and then purchase the service or product being delivered with the trade credits! The fact is any time you save your cash and spend your new found barter dollars you are increasing your bottom-line.
MYTH: My business is inventory intense and margins are low. Barter can’t help me.
FACT: Is your inventory outdated? Without barter you would have to keep trying for a retail sale, or else liquidate it at 10% on the dollar. Barter opens opportunities to trade that inventory at full retail value. Use the barter currency on strategies to grow your business. Transform your obsolete or outdated inventory into profit. Spend that trade profit on advertising, for example, to grow your cash customer business.
Just remember: It’s always Smarter With Barter.
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Barter Is Smarter
Competition
Change, & Debt —
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BarterNews, an indepen-dently owned and operated publishing company, is written by industry practitioners. Since 1979, it has been regarded worldwide as the voice of the barter marketplace. Visit BarterNews and signup for the free weekly
Three Conditions That
Ensure Barter’s Growth:
Change, competition and debt will mean more bartering in the next decade. Barter will play a greater role in solving the pressing needs of businesses in the days ahead because it’s a proven business tool—one to be used in any small company’s marketing, purchasing and financing efforts.
Barter’s benefits are threefold: production of greater cash flow, a sourcing tool to generate new business and new customers, and utilization as a purchasing tool at a company’s variable or marginal cost of doing business.
Whenever you are contemplating a purchase from a new vendor you should always ask the question, “How much of this can we do on barter?”
Suggest a direct trade if you see the possibility, if not, then introduce them to your trade exchange so you can make your purchases with trade dollars.
In short, one of the considerations in your purchasing decision should be their willingness to trade! Consider all aspects of a purchase: price, quality, terms, speed of delivery, freight, technical support and payment in barter.
Bottom-line: You should be using barter in the daily operations of your business.
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Lesson: Save your cash, barter is smarter!*
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*Find out about improving your bottom-line with barter! Ask us!
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Lynnea Bylund and CAT
Credentials
&
Distinctions
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NASD Broker/Dealer Founder/Partner
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Former DC Lobbyist
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Hon. Chair of the NRCC Small Business Advisory Council
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Seat on the President’s Business Commission
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First Female Worldwide, Broadband PCS Operator Permit
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American Businesswoman of the Year 2005
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NRCC California Businesswoman of the Year 2006
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Founder-Partner of EduActive of the World Internet Center
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Strategic Partner to Sir Bob Geldolf’s Liberty Bloom
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Strategic Partner to Dennis Weaver’s Institute of Ecolonomics
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Business Advisor to EcoAid for Change Concerts
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Previous SBIU issues HERE
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Lynnea Bylund’s
SMALL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE
CAT eNEWS | SBIU | June-July 2008
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Mission Catalyst! (kat’l-ist) n.
1: THAT which instigates an acceleration of forces,
2: THAT which causes important events to happen,
3: THAT which speeds significant change or action!
The Mission of Catalyst House is to be an agent of extraordinary change and acceleration for its portfolio of clients, fomenting new ventures, wealth, and philanthropic influence, while actualizing planetary equilibrium!
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Small Business Owners Shaken, Not Stirred
So, What Exactly is the Good News?
Small business is risky business these days…
Costs are rising, profits are shrinking and the ability of the big guys to keep prices relatively lower is drawing away customers.
Small businesses are important to the US; they are often described as the backbone of the America’s economy. And, owners of 500 small
and midsize
American businesses are full of doom and gloom about the economy, according to
a recent survey by the National Small Business Association. The annual survey began in 1993.
“America’s small businesses are waving the yellow flag,” states Catalyst House president, Lynnea Bylund, who serves as Honorary Co-Chair of the President’s Small Business Advisory Council.
Although 70 percent of all owners surveyed say they’re confident in the future of their business, the survey results were mostly pessimistic. Among them:
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71 percent of the business owners say the economy is worse today than five years ago.
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45 percent expect
a recession in the next year, while an equal number expect a flat economy. Just 9 percent anticipate economic expansion.
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The outlook of business owners for the next 12 months is less optimistic that at any point since 1993.
Todd McCracken, president of the NSBA, concluded the results of his association’s survey in a statement. He said: “Our survey shows plain and clear how the economic slowdown is affecting small business. This year, a whopping 71 per cent (of respondents) have a negative outlook on the economy – clearly small business is feeling the pinch.”
So, What Exactly is the Good News?
Well, for starters, it’s not just your business in the doldrums, its most every small business. Knowledge is power and knowing key steps to immediately take can give your small business an immediate advantage over other similarly situated competitors. For most small businesses it boils down to a basic ‘triple-play’ involving solid bookkeeping, well-managed barter, and localized small business search marketing.
In this issue:
- 21st Century Bookkeeping is Here – Lynnea Bylund explores the small business advantages of utilizing remote and online QuickBooks® bookkeeping solutions.
- Small Business Barter – Barter pros Bob Meyer and Rick Schuller each provide insights and sage advice regarding the use of barter and how it improves the small business owner’s bottom-line.
- Local Search Marketing – We continue with our examination of Local Search Marketing and how it is a paradigm-shift in the way small business can cost effectively market and advertise, and how to get started. Think you cannot afford to advertise at a time like this? Think again – fewer of your competitors are advertising right now, so YOU MUST.
Take a few minutes to review our latest issue of the SBIU. Then, drop me a line to tell us what you think. Better yet, contact us to talk more about making SBIU business solutions work for you. Enjoy!
With Very Best Regards,
SBIU’s Editorial Staff
P.S. – Use the Forwarding feature at the bottom of the page (otherwise images and format will be lost) to send the SBIU to other small business owners whom you know… just not to your competitors!
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By Lynnea Bylund
Catalyst House president and founder, Lynnea Bylund, is recognized as one of the foremost small business experts in North America. She co-chairs the President’s Small Business Advisory Council and is a two-time recipient of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Businesswoman of the Year Award. A former wireless industry lobbyist in Washington, she has been featured in major media as a leading advocate for small business issues and has received the Congressional Medal of Distinction for her accomplishments. She is a Certified QuickBooks Enterprise ProAdvisor and her company’s new division, Catalyst Enterprise Solutions, specializes in providing small and mid-market companies with financial management and reporting systems and solutions.
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LOCAL SEARCH, a Paradigm Shift in Local Small Business Marketing
- Enhance your local business listings on Yahoo, Google, and the MSN Local Business Center.
- Optimize your pages for local search – Make sure that page names, images, addresses are utilizing local keyword phrases, including city name and state name.
- Optimize your website content by using Keyword Phrases, including the city and state in the Meta Tags, Image Name, Body Copy, etc.
- Take advantage of social media, such as photo-sharing sites, review sites, social networks, Moli.com (a new high-traffic social network space for small businesses), etc. Connect with local customers by creating and maintaining a blog, social network profile, and participating in local (city) and niche related groups.
- Target at least 10+ local business sites to secure listings. The goal is to get links from trusted and relevant sources in your community.
- Video Search results also show up very high in the organic searches. Sometimes these results are blended with other results. Take advantage of Video Search by creating a search engine optimized video focused on your local city, attractions, activities, etc.
- Run Geo-targeted PPC Campaigns – Use keyword research tools to find out geo-targeted keyword phrases, including the name of your town, attraction names, and nicknames.
- Utilize Aggressive Link Analysis using search engine optimization tools to see which sites are ranking high on the search results for desired keyword phrases.
Slowly but surely big yellow phonebooks are becoming the modern day dinosaur, taking the fall like many of its ancestors: the cassette tape, the VHS recorder and the vinyl record player. These tools of communication have turned into nothing more than paperweights, piling up on door steps across the nation and becoming a nuisance – they are big and heavy and frankly nobody has room in their heart for them anymore
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Ask us about how YOU can utilize Local Search Marketing to generate new customers and grow YOUR business, especially in tough times.
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“D. Marcus Keith” is the nom d’ plume of a recognized marketing expert and journalist whose previous posts included senior executive positions with the Las Vegas Tribune, The Aloha Group, and TechnoSource, LTD. Presently he oversees interactive content and marketing strategy for the Catalyst House group of companies.
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Own a Small Business? Find Capital!
Owning a small business is always a challenge, but especially when the economy is in a well documented downturn. The current credit crunch’s effect on small businesses across the country leaves many unsure where to turn for financing to expand, renovate or manage seasonal fluctuations. Where can small business owners go when the bank isn’t an option? READ ONLINE
Small Business Owner’s Toolkit
With an emphasis on problem-solving dating back to 1995, Business Owner’s Toolkit™ (www.toolkit.com) offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs. The site also offers a monthly newsletter, up-to-date news topics, and Ask Alice!, a column that closely follows industry trends and provides trusted advice to inquiring site visitors. READ ONLINE
Get Ready for the Next Financial Year
Putting together a business plan is an annual ritual many business owners dread, but this year economic uncertainty means the task could be tougher than it has been in a decade. READ ONLINE
Check for Inaccuracies This Summer
It may seem like a big challenge, but small businesses should check that the way they are marketing themselves is not out-dated, mis-matched or irrelevant, say the website. READ ONLINE
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Words of Wisdom
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“Think there is something more important than believing? Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.”
– W. Clement Stone |
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