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Planning for Success: Small Business Digital — Step-by-Step Guide SB Planning for Success: Small Business Digital — Step-by-Step Guide A practical, actionable roadmap to go from digital start to sustainable growth — with clear benchmarks and templates you can use today. Why this guide? Many small businesses launch online without a plan — then wonder why traffic, leads, or sales don’t follow. This guide gives you an ordered checklist, measurable benchmarks, and real‑world tips to keep your digital strategy honest and effective. Step 1 — Define your customer and value Start by documenting: who you serve, the problem you solve, and the key benefit. Keep it to one sentence. Customer: [Who?] Problem: [What pain?] Promise: [How...

Valuing an Existing Business: What You Must Know Whether you're buying , selling , or planning growth, understanding how to value an existing business is essential. This guide outlines methods, metrics, and mistakes to avoid. ✅ 1. Purpose of Business Valuation Buying or selling a business Securing investment or business loans Strategic or exit planning Legal, tax, or estate planning purposes ✅ 2. Understanding Different Types of Business Value Fair Market Value: Agreed price between buyer and seller Investment Value: Value to a specific investor Liquidation Value: Asset sale under pressure Book Value: Net worth from balance sheet ✅ 3. Common Valuation Methods Asset-Based : Adjusted book value & liquidation Income-Based : Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) & Earnings Capitalization Market-Based : Comparable sales & revenue multiples ✅ 4. Financial Metrics to Evaluate EBITDA Profit margins Cash flow & workin...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. A marketing strategy is the 'plan identifying what marketing goals and objectives will be pursued to sell a particular product or product line and how these objectives will be achieved in the time available.' Keep in mind that you need to consider the following three pillars in your marketing strategy plan before execution: ▶ Core audience demographics ▶ Pricing and marketing budget ▶ Business goals The following seven marketing strategies are vital for connecting with your target audience, achieving your marketing goals by promoting products and services, increasing brand awareness and engaging with your target audience through various channels. 1. Email marketing Email marketing is an old concept that will be very relevant in 2023. Having lists of targeted audiences with a differentiated email structure for each can provide you with a great and "cheap" way to showcase the development...

A marketing plan identifies your target audience, the most effective channels on which to engage with them, and analytical insights to guide future strategy. Businesses need a comprehensive marketing plan to coordinate their campaigns and properly measure their impact. Marketing is a cumulative effort, and a unified plan maximizes the value of every campaign toward a cohesive strategy. This article is for small business owners looking to build an effective marketing plan that achieves higher engagement and fuels business growth. Every successful company needs a well-thought-out business plan to outline its course of action. A marketing strategy is one key part of that plan: It spells out critical information, including how a business will distinguish itself from competitors and what the team will aim to achieve. While marketing plans don’t always produce immediate results, they are still a crucial aspect of a business plan and should be given a considerate amount of attent...

As a small business owner, you often wear many hats when first launching your company, including that of chief financial officer. At the root of controlling your business’s finances, you need to understand how cash flows in and out daily, weekly and monthly.  While managing your business’s finances entails much more than understanding your cash flow, it’s a great place to start assessing your business’s financial standings. Read on to learn about cash flow, including the seven most common cash flow problems small businesses experience and how best to solve them. What is cash flow? Cash flow refers to the intake and output of money within a business. It encompasses all the revenues and expenses of a company at a given moment in time. Cash flow management is planning your inflows and outflows accordingly to ensure your business always has cash reserves. The best accounting software can help business owners keep track of their cash flow and other financial metrics. [Learn mor...

The new year is an exciting time for marketing. It's a blank page as last year fades in the background and a chance to start chasing new goals, finding new trends, and getting ahead in the new year. Each new year is a great time to evaluate your strategy, audience, and brand to see where you can improve. To help you keep up with the latest in content marketing, we've compiled a list of the top 9 trends that will help transform and enhance your brand in 2023. Here are some ways to stay ahead of the curve and meet your marketing goals this year. The Top 9 Content Marketing Trends for 2023  Trend #1: Targeting Account-Based Marketing Account-based marketing (ABM) is not a new strategy, but it is undoubtedly rising. 15% more marketers reported using ABM in 2021, up to 70%. It is an effective way for companies to cut through the noise and provide value to a target audience that will bring the best business. Rather than creating general content that matches a target ...

Most of us wish we had more time to work with, but few of us are willing to put in the effort to practice better time management skills. Ironically, it takes time to get better at time management; with effective habit building and consistent efforts, almost anyone can become a better time manager over the course of several months. But what if you’re working with a shorter timeframe? Or what if you’re a bit impatient? Are there ways to improve your time management skills in a single day? The answer is yes – if you’re willing to work for it. Get a Calendar One of your best options is to invest in a calendar. There are hundreds of apps and platforms that exist to help you coordinate your schedule, manage tasks, and keep track of projects and appointments. But there’s something special about a physical calendar that these digital tools don’t have: immediate visibility. Keeping a large calendar at your workspace and recording all your highest priorities there will help you dete...

As a possible recession looms, small businesses may be wondering what they can do to be successful in yet another uncertain time. Moving forward, there are three key areas of a business — employees, cash flow and operations — to focus on for the company’s long-term health. See how your small business can succeed during a recession. How To Stay Staffed Brian Trzcinski, director of business market development with MassMutual, said business owners have to figure out ways to maintain staffing in a recession. Coming out of the pandemic, staffing issues were the No. 1 business concern. This is both in terms of losing staff and the ability to rehire staff. Many businesses, already running leaner than they’d like to be, must be able to attract and retain top talent when cash flow is tight. How can they do it? Trzcinski recommends offering intangible perks, such as flexible scheduling that allows employees to take time off or work remotely. It is essential for businesses to not...

The Big Tech companies—such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon—are frequent subjects of headlining news stories, both for reasons they’re proud of and for occasional blunders. All this attention on these industry giants isn’t just valuable (or embarrassing) press attention for them—it’s also an ongoing, practical learning experience for smaller companies. Keeping on top of and learning from the high-profile “lessons” Big Tech provides on topics ranging from the user experience to data protection can be a boon for smaller tech companies navigating a highly competitive industry. Below, 14 members of Forbes Technology Council share both clear and less obvious lessons every tech company can learn from Big Tech. Members of Forbes Technology Council share valuable lessons smaller tech companies should learn from Big Tech’s example.  1. Constantly Measure Customer Impact Most startups work in an ad hoc way, in which features are developed based on intuition. Converse...

Some 93% of small business owners are worried that the United States will enter a recession in the next six months, a survey released by Goldman Sachs showed on Wednesday, with a majority of firms saying the country was headed in the wrong direction. In the same survey a year ago, with increased vaccinations promising an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses were more optimistic and 67% said the United States was headed in the right direction. That has reversed in the latest version, 61% of responding firms said the United States was on the wrong track. Some 78% of small business owners said the economy has got worse in the past three months, with only 5% saying it had improved. Over the same period, 84% said hiring challenges had worsened and 80% said inflationary pressures had increased. This quarterly survey is the first time the recession question has appeared. It found that 6% of respondents were not worried at all about a recession, while 1% said they did not know. ...