7 Small Business FAQs You Need to Know

Have you recently started your own small business, or are looking to do so in the immediate future? Like any big decision, it’s important to do your research and know all of the facts in the beginning. Doing your homework now will help you set your expectations and know what’s in store for your business.

1. How Many Small Businesses Are There in the U.S.?

• As of 2013, there were 28.8 million small businesses in the country
• 80 percent were businesses with no other employees (other than the owner)
• 20 percent were businesses with paid employees

2. What Percentage of Firms Do Small Businesses Comprise?

• 99.9 percent of all firms are small businesses
• 99.7 percent of all firms with paid employees are small businesses

3. What is the One-Year Survival Rate For New Small Businesses?

• Roughly 80 percent of small businesses will make it past the one-year mark

4. What is the Five-Year Survival Rate For New Small Businesses?

• Roughly 50 percent of small businesses will make it past the five-year mark

5. What is the Ten-Year Survival Rate For New Small Businesses?

• Roughly 33 percent of small businesses will make it past the ten-year mark
• Another 33 percent are said to be sold or acquired by other businesses

6. How Many Small Businesses Are Home-Based?

• 50 percent of small business are home-based
• The most common home-based small businesses are information construction, construction, and professional services

7. How Are Small Businesses Most Commonly Funded?

• 22 Percent - Personal/Family Savings
• 6 Percent - Profits & Assets
• 5 Percent - Business Loans
• 3 Percent - Business Credit Cards (Banks)

Knowing all you can about small businesses before starting one is important for your own expectations and success. When your small business is looking for ways to grow and cut costs, consider installing a VoIP phone service provided by Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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Easy Ways to Build Up Your SMB

Are you looking for ways to help build up your small-medium sized business? Yes, this can be a difficult task to accomplish, but there are proven ways to help meet this goal. It’s hard work, but when you focus on these actions, you will be sure to see some success.

Make Customer Service a Priority

Having a good product or service will certainly attract customers and earn you their business. However, providing good customer service will KEEP those customers coming back. No matter how good a product or service is, if you provide it in combination with poor customer service, most people will not come back. So invest in staff training, be more thorough during hirings, and offer empathy and solutions toward unhappy customers.

Enter the Mobile World

All businesses should have a website — there’s no discussion about it. However, just having a regular website is not enough in today’s world. Websites need to be mobile-friendly, as more than half of web users are on the internet via their mobile devices. If a potential customer goes to your website on their mobile device and your site is not mobile friendly, the chances of them sticking around is slim to none.

Get Rid of The Fluff

Businesses are expensive to run — there’s no way around that. Review all of your costs over the last half-year and see if there are any cost-effective substitutes, improved ways of producing goods or providing services, and expenses that aren’t vital to the operation of the business. For example, you can easily cut your phone bills in half by switching from traditional to a VoIP phone system.

Building up your small-medium sized business is no easy feat, but with the right mindset and action plan — you can put yourself on a path to success. When you’re ready to make the switch from traditional t a VoIP phone system, contact Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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How to Build Customer Loyalty

Do you own a business? Are you looking to find ways to turn first time customers into repeat customers? It all starts with building customer loyalty by adopting the following actions...

Create Relationships

Customers shouldn’t be viewed as dollar signs, they should be viewed as potential relationships. This is especially true for small and local business, as many customers will be from that very town. Take the time to greet them, find out who they are and what they’re looking for, and remember their key purchases. Building relationships with customers will help guarantee their loyalty to your business.

Become Involved

Being a local business shouldn’t stop at your physical location. Showing your customers that you’re a local business means involving yourself within the community. Participate in town festivals, fundraisers, or even offer support to local charities or programs. When your business helps others in the community, people will recognize this and be more inclined to be repeat customers.

Make It Easy For Them

Good customer service means you’re going above and beyond for your customers. However, it also means you’re making it easy for them right from the get go. A good way to do this is to always have items in stock, hire employees that are easy to communicate with, and have the right technology set in place. Some businesses rely on their phone system heavily, which makes VoIP phone systems a no brainer! Between call waiting, call forwarding, call tracking, etc., your customers will have the best over-the-phone experience possible.

Building customer loyalty takes a combination of hard work AND having the right pieces set in place. When it’s time for your business to switch to a VoIP phone system, contact Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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Why You Need to Reduce Your Overhead Costs

As a small business owner, increasing your profit is the ultimate goal in order to help your business grow. In order to expand and grow, you need to have the capital on hand. Other than taking out a business or personal loan, the easiest way to generate capital — reduce costs.

What Are Overhead Costs?

Overhead costs are business expenses that are relevant to the day-to-day operations. No matter if the business is making money or not, these expenses must always be paid. Common overhead costs include building leases/rent, payroll, utilities, insurance, marketing, etc. Things such as raw materials and inventory are not classified as overhead costs.

Overhead Costs to Cut Down

• Rent - Some properties can have rent that is sky high, which can really cut into your profits. In order to cut down on how much you pay for rent, see if you can renegotiate the payments to a lower price. A landlord that is happy with you as a tenant might be willing to, especially if you sign a longer lease.
• Utilities - Electricity, water, and gas bills can only be cut down by switching to a different provider or by simply using less. Every business should strive to be more eco-friendly. For other expenses like he phone bill, switch from a traditional phone system to a VoIP phone system. Not only does it have more features and benefits, but it’s usually half the cost!
• Payroll - Cutting payroll is never a good thing because it usually means people are going to be let go or wages are going to be cut. However, this is sometimes necessary if a business is currently failing or in a downturn. Choosing to lower all wages by a little in order to save the jobs of everyone can be seen as a positive within the company morale.
• Supplies - While raw materials and final products do not count as overhead costs, other items like office supplies or equipment repair costs do count. To lower these costs, simply use less of these items by relying on virtual documents and upgrade to more efficient models of equipment that require less maintenance.

By reducing your overhead costs, you’ll have more capital in order to help your business grow and expand. For those looking to make the switch to a VoIP phone system, contact Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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Tips on How to Help Employees Be More Productive

Are you struggling to get the most out of your employees? Or are you training new employees, but are unsure of how to get them to the next level as fast as possible? No matter the scenario, there are things you can do to make them more productive.

• Get to Know Them - If you want to tap into your employees’ creativity, it's important that you know what they're good at and what they like. Take the time to get to know them and what their interests and talents are. You might discover that they're good at doing something that your business could use improvements in.
• Coach Them Up - Newer and younger employees can oftentimes be raw talent that's just waiting to be developed. Take the time to help guide your employees and teach them everything they need to know. By providing them with trainings, workshops, mentoring, and constant advice, these employees can become more confident in taking that next step.
• Listen to Them - As a leader, you shouldn't just be delegating and lecturing to your team of employees. Listening is a skill not everyone develops as much as they should. Taking the time to listen to employees’ suggestions, questions, and input is key in helping them learn and grow — which in turn, will help their overall productivity.
• Grow With Them - The best way to help your employees grow is to show them that you’re also willing to grow with them. There are a lot of things you will be teaching your employees, but there will also be things they can show you. So show them that you're just as willing to learn with them and that will create a more “team-like” environment.
• Give Them the Tools - Productivity isn't just a skill you learn, it also comes in the form of streamlined processes and efficient technology. VoIP phone systems are something all businesses should have as they have a long list of features that can make communication with clients, customers, and other employees as easy as can be.

Helping employees become more productive starts at the top and is ultimately in your hands. To make a sudden change in productivity, supply your employees with a VoIP phone system. To learn more about this phone system or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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How to Send the Best Business Emails

In business, emails are sent quite often. In fact, business emails are sent so often that some people receive dozens, if not, hundreds per day! Emails that aren’t constructed properly could cause them to be left unread, skimmed through too quickly, or thrown in the trash. For those looking to “up” their email game, listen up!

Email Construction Best Practices

• Create an Accurate Subject Line - Never leave your subject line blank — ever! Not only do these email gets overlooked, many can get marked as spam. When typing your subject line, choose a few choice words that will sum up the topic of your email. This will help the person receiving the email sort it appropriately.
• Send Reply Emails Quickly - Nothing is worse than sending an email and not getting one back for days at a time, or even having to follow up. If you need more time to create a detailed email or report, send back a reply stating you will get back to them at a set time.
• Auto-Responding Tools - Whether you’re out of the office for one day or one week, it’s important to let your clients, vendors, prospects, and fellow employees know this. Set up an auto-responder to let people emailing you know that you are out-of-office, when they can expect you back, and who they can contact in case there is an emergency.
• Use “High-Priority” Sparingly - Do not be that person in the office that marks half of their emails with a “High-Priority” subject or marking. Doing this too many times will label you as the “boy who cried wolf.” The day you need someone to look at your email immediately, you don’t want them to think it’s just another one of your falsely advertised emails.
• Proofread and Use Good Judgement - Before you send out your emails, look them over for obvious grammatical mistakes and see if everything is worded clearly. Additionally, make sure all of the content you need is in that email, and make sure you want to send everything in that email. Sometimes you might include something that really shouldn’t be in there (i.e. an angry tone or too much information).

Being able to construct business emails properly with the appropriate etiquette to go along is extremely important in today’s world. Every business should have lightning fast internet AND a reliable phone system (preferably VoIP). To learn more about structured cabling and VoIP phone systems, contact Reliable Voice & Data Systems at (877) 385-6657.

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Growing Pains That Can Hurt a Small Business

When a small business experiences success and growth, there will sometimes be growing pains. These things are normal, but it's all about how the leaders in charge handle these growing pains that will determine the ultimate success. In order to keep things moving forward, avoid (or manage) these growing pains.

People Are Unaware of Other Workers

• If one employee is working in one area or on a project and is unaware of others’ responsibilities, another person could be doing the same exact thing. Too much overlap can become inefficient and wasteful.
• Employee theft is something that happens and it's important to put practices in place that can avoid this issue altogether. Implement a reward system for employees to bring forward evidence of theft while also installing CCTV security cameras inside and outside of the business’s location.

Communication is Lacking

As companies grow, there will be more employees, more responsibilities, and more things to communicate. This can become even trickier when multiple locations or offices are thrown into the mix. Every growing business should be equipped with a VoIP phone system to help foster reliable communication.

• New phones can be added to the system on an as need basis due to the constant growth of your small business.
• Features such as video conferencing, call forwarding, call waiting, and mobile phone compatibility can make receiving those calls that's much easier.
• VoIP phone systems are at least half the price of traditional phone systems, which can help you allocate your savings to other areas of the business.

Successful small businesses can experience rapid growth in a short time — but with success comes some hardships. When your small business is in need of CCTV security cameras or a VoIP phone system, contact Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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