Written By: Christina Metcalf

If you’re a small business owner without the resources to hire a large full-time team, you can still meet your business needs through freelancing or turning to independent business professionals. This can be an economical way to accomplish your goals without having to cover the cost of full-time employees.

5 Professionals Every Small Business Needs

Even if your budget is strapped, a successful business requires the services of the following types of professionals. These professionals do things that you don’t need to (or shouldn’t be doing on your own). They’ve spent years learning their trade and can help you avoid that costly learning curve or even costlier mistakes.

If you are ready to hire one of these people but you’re not sure where to find one, your chamber of commerce can help. The chamber knows a lot of professionals and can introduce you.

Lawyer

You don’t need a lawyer as part of your full-time staff in the beginning but there is legal set-up and structure required in a business, not to mention ongoing questions you may have on employment and hiring (especially if you don’t have an HR person on staff). Having someone you feel comfortable with and trust before you need them is a good idea.

Accountant

No one wants to overpay or underpay taxes. A good accountant can save you the cost of their fee in tax deductions. Sure, you could do it yourself, but your time is best spent elsewhere (like bringing on more clients and increasing sales).

Insurance Guru

Risk. It’s something you need to know about if you’re running a business. Find someone who can tell you what your liabilities are and how you can cover them in the most affordable—yet business smart—way.

Graphic Designer

If you have a good eye for color, understand the psychology behind palettes and branding, and are adept at graphic design software, you might be able to do this on your own. Since most of us aren’t, you should at least get someone to create a “brand” for you with a logo, color palette, and an easy to stick to website theme.

You may also want them to create a few flyers for you. As a note of caution, with a designer you will get what you pay for. There are people who will do a logo for you on Fivrr and then there are designers who will create an entire branding package for you. Your brand is what will catch a potential customer’s eye so you want a gifted professional in this role.

If you have a little extra money in your budget, hire someone to write your website content. There’s more to it than simply matching nouns and verbs. There’s SEO and the art of persuasion. In a limited space like a website, you need every word to count. A writer can also help you with a tagline, mission, or vision statement, as well as your business plan, business blog, and marketing.

Business Mentor/Coach

Most business professionals skip this important contact. They’re so excited about their new business, they often overlook the importance of coaching or mentoring. Unless you’re fortunate enough to have a family member or friend who’s an entrepreneur or business owner, you likely won’t get the information and feedback from your closest people that you would from a coach or mentor. Whether you consider a formal paid arrangement with a business mentor/coach or you meet someone at a chamber function who agrees to answer questions as they come up, having someone who understands business and has paved the path before you can be very helpful.

No matter if you’re just starting out in business or you’ve been working for years, it’s critical you surround yourself with a smart team. If you want to meet professionals in the area, the chamber networking events are an excellent place to do that. Check out the events calendar so you don’t miss the next one.

6 Ways to Make Your Business Stand Out During a Local Event

Written by: Christina R. Metcalf

Does your town host a Wine Walk, Holiday Stroll, First Friday, or other downtown event where they close off streets and encourage people to get out and support business? If so, you may know that those events often bring the crowds but also bring “tire kickers,” people who are just out for a stroll, not really interested in what you sell. They’re just going into each business, poking around, and usually leaving empty handed.

The hard part of that is that you likely brought in full staff to ensure you had enough coverage only to deal with a lot of “lookers.”

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are a few suggestions on how to transform your looky-loos into looky heres.

6 Ways to Help Get the Sale

If you have an event that will bring a lot of commerce “tourists” to your business who do a lot of visiting and not much buying, you need to change that with these ideas.

1. Tell a story. While you may not have the time to do this for everyone in the store, if you see someone eyeballing one of your items in a loving way, go up to them and tell them something interesting about the piece. You’d be surprised what may inspire a sale.
2. Give a taste. If you sell food or drink, offer someone a taste before they buy. This works to create a sale in two ways: they’ll (hopefully) enjoy it and want more and/or because you kindly gave them a taste (and did something for them), they will feel obligated to buy from you.
3. Teach a quick skill or use for your product. Draw the crowd into a quick presentation that features a product you sell. Have several products to hand people who want to buy right there. Alternately, have a pro available to answer questions. For instance, a store that sells painted furniture might have an expert on hand to walk people through how to do it themselves. Don’t worry that it will discourage them from buying from you. When they realize how hard it is, they will beg you to take their money.
4. Get people on your mailing list. You never know when a “tire kicker” may see something in store and decide later that week they must have it. When people are in your store, ask them to join your mailing list. A few days after the event, follow up with a coupon, special offer, or sales notification. That call-to-action will likely send them your way.
5. Offer a freebie for that night only. If it’s a special night or event, give away a little something to anyone who buys from you or offer specials for that night only.
6. Create a singalong. In a crowded store, it’s hard to talk to everyone but you want to make sure people have fun and feel the energy of your business. You want them to remember you. A good way to accomplish that is by queuing up the tunes and encouraging people to sing with you. There are certain songs people just can’t help but sing along with—”Don’t stop believing.” You know what I mean. If you don’t, just put on Sweet Caroline and see what happens.

Mother’s Day is an ideal way to honor the women in your life who have helped you become the person you are today. In recent years, it has surpassed the celebration of one’s own mother and encompassed grandmothers, women we think of as second mothers, mother-in-laws, fur moms, best friends, and even female mentors. Mother’s Day is also a great way to honor women in our world who have made a difference.

Broadening the definition of mother also allows for a more inclusive celebration on a day that can, for some, be a sad occasion. While everyone may not have a mother living or a good relationship with one who is, everyone has a special woman in their lives who they can celebrate.

Mother’s Day can now be transformed into a time to honor those women who have nurtured us and helped us grow, whether they gave birth to us or not. Keep that in mind in your marketing.

27 Ideas to Celebrate Mother’s Day at Your Business

Here are some engaging marketing ideas to celebrate this heart-warming holiday:

1. Host a contest by inviting people on your social media page to share stories about the special women in their lives. Allow people to vote on the best and award prizes.
2. Offer a Mother’s Day discount. Offer a discount to your audience and invite them to share with their favorite moms out there.
3. Give away a Mother’s Day flower (or other free item). Provide a flower to every woman who walks into your store (or buys something from you) and wish them a Happy Mother’s Day.
4. Record a video of your staff telling stories about women who influenced them.
5. Share your mother’s best recipe.
6. Create a gift guide. Work with other businesses to list their items and services as well.
7. Offer last-minute, e-delivery of gift cards.
8. Send reminder emails counting down the days until Mother’s Day with gift suggestions or ways to honor their mom.
9. Create a video of a DIY project for mom.
10. Host a special event moms would enjoy.
11. Create kits of things moms can do with their kids.
12. Create a taster or tester bag, free with purchase to all ladies in your store.
13. Offer a free consultation or roll out a new service for busy moms.
14. Create a page (or landing page) dedicated to Mother’s Day shopping.
15. Create a themed board on Pinterest of gift ideas, places to take your mom, or activities to do together.
16. Offer a “Tell your story” session or memoir writing for moms class.
17. Create a special wine-pairing or tasting event in honor of moms.
18. Host a tea at your business. Encourage people to dress up. Offer prizes for best hat or outfit.
19. Post mother-related quotes on social media in the week leading up to the big day.
20. Hold a Mother’s Day selfie or funniest video contest.
21. Host a photo contest of moms with your product.
22. Offer chair massages for moms while people browse or wait for food.
23. Run a “Caption this” picture contest with an endearing picture of motherhood.
24. Invite people to share pictures they think epitomize motherhood.
25. Encourage people to share generational pics of mom, grandmoms, great grandmoms, etc., or post about how much you miss your mom if she has passed on. You might be surprised how many people identify with this sentiment on Mother’s Day.
26. Host a “Tag your mom (or a special woman)” for a chance to win contest.
27. Post funny questions on social media. Categories could include “hardest working mom in the animal kingdom,” “Who has it harder—boy moms, girl moms, both?”, “Sign you’re a mom”, or “This or that” questions “like which would your mom like more as a gift—chocolates or jewelry?”.

This year, have some fun with Mother’s Day and use it to get more engagement with your audience while also bring smiles to many faces.