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Lynnea M. Bylund
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CAT GOES “PUBLIC!”
Catalyst House 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 QBE and remote multiuser solutions, marketing and business plans and deployment, analysis, and more. Ask us!
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(CAT Credentials below)
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Debbie DeSousa started trading over a decade ago as president of the Internet Marketing Association. Barter Bucks is a fully reciprocal member of the largest barter exhange network in North America comprising nearly 200 independent trade exchanges and 50,000 small business member/traders. She is the author of ‘Print Money Legally – Grow your business using alternative currencies.’
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There’s an old marketing adage: “Running a business without advertising is like winking at a pretty girl in the dark, except the guy winking in the dark knows what he’s doing!”
But, as essential as advertising is, you don’t have to pay retail prices for it. You can improve your bottom-line by trading products or services for the advertising you need.
Let’s assume, for example, that you own a restaurant and you pay for your advertising with scrip (or gift certificates). That means that if your cost-per-meal is 30% of the menu price, as it is with most restaurants, then you are actually buying your advertising for 30% of the retail price. If your advertising budget is $10,000 a year, paying for it with scrip will add $7000 to your bottom-line.
Remember this: trading for media is common practice. Large companies trade media in million-dollar blocks. Super Bowl commercials are purchased in trade, and airlines frequently trade tickets for TV commercials.
So, why don’t you consider trading for your advertising as well? The next time you talk to a salesperson about advertising, offer to pay with scrip or gift certificates. You may be pleasantly surprised!
Barter as alternative credit
Are you aware that most barter exchanges offer lines of credit, just like a bank? Unlike banks, however, most barter exchanges don’t charge interest, and they can approve your credit line with a phone call.
So, the next time your business needs extra cash, call a trade broker and compare their charges for credit with the credit costs at your bank.
An added benefit of obtaining credit through a trade exchange is that the exchange will help you sell your products or service to pay back your loan, unlike a bank that only makes the loan and leaves it up to you to pay it back.
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
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Distinctions
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NASD BD 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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Mission Catalyst!
Catalyst! (kat’l-ist) n.
1: that which instigates an acceleration of forces,
2: that which causes important events to happen,
3: that which provokes or 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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Find past CAT eNEWS issues HERE
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Lynnea Bylund’s
SMALL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE
CAT eNEWS | SBIU | April 2008
There’s been a major shift since our debut issue of the Small Business Intelligence Update (SBIU) in March. The Federal Reserve has pumped $400–B into the economy and sharply reduced the prime interest rate, at least temporarily staving off a financial market meltdown of potentially tsunami proportions. The most recent casualty, last week Bear Stearns collapsed when it acknowledged that it couldn’t meet its debt obligations. Leave it to JPMorgan-Chase, with emergency credit from our mostly foriegn-owned central bank, otherwise known as the Fed, to pick up this once premier investment firm in a fire sale, demanding the kind of deal only a few investment banks can get away with: a mere $2.00 a share on Sunday for a stock that had closed at just under $40 on Friday.
Yes, the big ‘R’ word is officially here, and perhaps the worst in decades — at least according to some prominent experts, with more joining the bandwagon daily.
So, as a small business owner or entrepreneur, are you thinking, “What do I do?” If you are, you’ve come to the right place. Our monthly SBIU offers our readers innovative strategies for achieving marketplace advantage when the marketplace isn’t offering advantages of its own. And better than depending on dog-eat-dog, win-lose strategies from the old economy, we show you how to catch the wave of the next economy.
In this month’s issue –
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Barter Bucks CEO Debra DeSousa explains how small businesses can immediately improve their bottom lines by remembering that “Barter Is Smarter.”
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Spence & Company’s Matthew Spence offers a short tutorial on honing our business email skills, reminding us that ‘It’s the Structure, Stupid!”
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We continue to examine Local Search Marketing — the exciting, new and evolving advertising space that is rapidly sounding the death knell for the Yellow Pages.
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Five small business experts share their tips and strategies for surviving and even prospering in this economic downturn.
Please take a few minutes to review this current 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!
Very Best Regards,
President & Founder
P.S. – Please use the Forwarding feature at the bottom of the page to send the SBIU to other small business owners… just not your competitors!
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Effective Email Communication –
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What none of the countless books and articles on effective email ever tell you is that, more than any other factor, the structure of an email, or the logical sequence in which you present your ideas and information, will determine whether your email gets the attention you want from your reader.
Therefore, organize your email in a logical sequence that is easy to follow. The following five questions will help you structure any message for greatest impact:
- Does your Subject: line tell your reader what your email is about?
If you know from the beginning what your email is going to say, compose a Subject: line that summarizes the gist of your message in four to six words. An effective subject should enable your reader to grasp what your email is about before they open it, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will give it the attention you need. If you are going to have to figure out your email as you go along, however, then leave the Subject: line blank until you finish composing your message.
- What prompts your email now?
Begin by telling your reader why you are writing: In response to your email last week in which you asked…, Following is the information you requested about…, After reviewing the report you sent last week… Don’t assume that your reader knows why you are writing. Remember: you are only one of scores of other people they are corresponding with every day.
- What do you want your reader to do or believe?
If you are in a position to propose a course of action, state it clearly in the first sentence of your second paragraph: A plan needs to be implemented, A piece of equipment should be purchased, A study needs to be conducted. If, on the other hand, you are providing information that your reader will use to make a decision, summarize your principal conclusion: The policy is effective, The warehouse space is sufficient, The applicant is qualified.
- What are your supporting reasons or arguments?
Give your reader a simple summary of the reasons, findings, or conclusions that support the recommendation or evaluation you are making, or an outline of the details of your proposal: The plan will be implemented in the following five phases…, The new strategy will capitalize on the following opportunities…, The candidate has needed expertise in the following areas…
- What’s next? Who will do what, when, and how?
Finally, tell your reader what they need to do to further your proposal: If you agree with this proposal, please confirm…, Please call me if you have questions…, Please prepare a preliminary estimate of…; and what you will do in support of the position you are advocating: I will visit three local companies that have implemented similar plans…, I will organize a meeting of those who will…, I will prepare a report detailing the advantages of…
Write this way, and you will begin to think this way. Think this way and you will bring greater clarity to everything you say and do. If we all brought such clarity to our correspondence, email might actually become the productivity tool it was meant to be.
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Recession-Proof Your Small Business in ’08
By Susan L Reid | March 8, 2008
Earlier this week it was reported that the U.S. economy is primed to slump into a three-quarter recession. What will you do? What action will you take to recession-proof your small business this year… or any year, for that matter?
Tips for small business to survive recession
Ilana DeBare | March 23, 2008
When two employees at the Small Frys children’s store recently asked to work four days each week instead of five, owner Carol Yenne considered hiring someone to fill those shifts. But with talk of a possible recession in the news every day, she ultimately decided to bridge the gap herself.
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Recession-Proof Your Business
by Karen E. Klein | January 30, 2008
This year stock values have taken a wild ride, fueled by worrying economic news, from the mortgage crisis to home sales declining to a credit crunch. While a formal recession can only be declared in hindsight, talk of a downturn—or at least a slowdown—has been rampant. What’s a small business owner to do if the current economic climate extends through 2008? Business consultants are busy weighing in on this question, so we rounded up some of their advice.
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Small Business Recession Survival
By Deborah Sawyer | February 27, 2008
All businesses are vulnerable to shrinking in a recession, but service businesses – those offering a service rather than a product – are particularly vulnerable to an economic downturn. Here are some suggestions on how business owners can prepare for tougher times ahead.
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t that moment.
