I realize we’ve all heard these before, but certain things are worth repeating every now and again.  So, please, bear with me as I present The Top Marketing Mistakes to Avoid:

1. Marketing to everyone. Do your research, find your target audience, and gear your marketing message to that audience.  Don’t try to reach everyone.

2. Fractured brand unity. All of your marketing efforts should present a cohesive feel for your product, service, and company.  The more unified your advertisements, website, etc, the better.

3. Using a single marketing medium. Your marketing efforts should employ a variety of media from television to the internet and everything in between.  Ensure that your message reaches your entire target audience, market creatively through a cross-section of channels.

4. Ignoring current customers. Repeat purchasers make up 80% of customers in most businesses.  However, most marketing campaigns focus on new customers instead of current ones.  Use messages that reach both potential and repeat customers.

5. Sending mixed messages. Marketing messages that are too confusing, too subtle, too long, or too complicated can easily miss your target audience.  Keep your campaigns simple.

6. Not asking for feedback. Testing your marketing messages is extremely important.  Test your marketing ideas on focus groups and ask for feedback.  Don’t launch new marketing campaigns blindly.

See, that wasn’t so bad was it?  Not to mention, I can almost guarantee that, even though we can all recite them by heart, we’re all guilty of committing one of these sins a time or  two in our professional lives.  Like I said, some things are worth repeating on occassion.

The ideal leader inspires her employees to achieve exceptional results every single day.  But in order to become the ideal boss, you first need to determine which type of leader you are currently.  Below are four different types of leaders.  Which one are you?

Do you run your company like you run your home? If so, you’re a nurturing leader.  Being a nurturing leader means that you center your personal behavior on what is going to help most in your employees’ development.  You discuss things like career goals with them and include them in the company’s decision-making process.

The key to success for this kind of leader is maintaining a line between nurturing and mothering employees.  Don’t become a doormat to your employees.

Do you demand perfection for your employees or occasionally place unrealistic demands on them? If so, you’re a perfectionist leader.  Perfectionist leaders tend to have little or no patience for mistakes or questions and will sometimes berate or embarrass employees by telling them they aren’t good enough.

The key to success for this kind of leader is trying to be open to employee questions or concerns.  When someone comes to you, realize that they are only asking in order to maintain your standards of excellence as well as the customers.

Do your employees come to you with all of their problems, both professional and personal? If so, then you’re a nice leader.  Nice leaders are those who listen to employees and customers and work themselves to the bone trying to solve the problems of others.

The key to success for this kind of leader is avoiding involvement in personal problems.  If an employee needs to talk, lend them an ear.  But avoid blurring or crossing the lines between work lives and personal lives.

Do you believe in leading by example and mentoring employees? If so, then you’re a commander leader.  As a commander leader, you have the ability to communicate clearly with your employees.  You help them understand where you want to go and why they should want to go with you.

The key to success for this kind of leader is remembering that teamwork is paramount.  Check your ego at the door and remember that you won’t get to where you want to go without the support of your employees.

Whatever type of leader you are, remember that it is your job to inspire your employees.  A successful business is determined by the success of the employees.  The success of employees rests on the shoulders of the leader.  So, who will you inspire today?

This post originally appeared on WomenOnBusiness.com, a blogging community run by female entrepreneurs.  You can learn more about WomenOnBusiness by visiting www.womenonbusiness.com.

Proper cash flow management is not just about the movement of cash into and out of your business.  It is also about making sure that there is enough money to pay your employees, suppliers, taxes, and handle other expenses.

Simply generating revenue through sales is not enough to ensure that a business is profitable.  Planning your monthly cash flow needs in advance is also extremely important.  Every month, compare your forecast with the actual results and adjust your plan accordingly.  Closely monitoring your short and long term case flow and planning ahead are essential to the survival of your business.

Short term cash flow management strategies require record keeping systems that offer easy access to revenue and expenditure transactions.  Regular cash management reviews should be performed to monitor debt collection, sales, invoice status, and receipt and deposit of payments.  In order to be effective, short term cash flow management does not need to be complex or confusing.

Long term cash flow management is not as simple as short term management, but these activities should go hand in hand with one another in order to ensure continued business success.  Long term cash flow management should begin with keeping credit current and at a minimum.  The less money you are owed, the better your cash flow.  Keeping a close eye on your inventory and eliminating excess spending can also help boost your long term cash flow.

Often, managing cash flow can be as simple as having enough sales at the most profitable prices.  You may purchase software to expedite and standardize financial information, but the ultimate keys to success are monitoring your monthly cash needs, planning your short and long term cash flow management strategy, and allowing for adjustments as necessary.

Cash flow allows you to provide your products and services to your customers, pay your bills, and expand and improve your business.  In short, properly managing your cash flow is one of the best things you can do to ensure the future health of your business.

It’s finally happened.  After nearly a year of back and forth, the House of Representatives finally passed a health care reform bill.  President Obama is expected to sign the main piece of the bill into law this week, maybe as early as Tuesday.  However, full provisions of the bill won’t kick in until 2014.

As a business owner, what do these new health care rules mean to you?  Here’s a quick overview of what you can expect over the next couple of years:

•    By 2014, states must set up Small Business Health Options Programs – or SHOP exchanges – where small businesses can club together to purchase insurance.
•    Small businesses are defined as having less than 100 employees, but states can limit the company size by as much as 50 employees through 2016.  Any company that outgrows these size limits will be grandfathered in.
•    Companies with less than 50 employees will not face penalties for not offering insurance.
•    Those companies with fewer than 25 employees and an average pay of $40,000 or less can receive up to 35% of the cost of premiums in the form of tax credits.
•    Companies with less than 10 employees and an average pay of less than $25,000 may qualify for full premium cost credits.
•    Tax breaks will last for the two years a company buys insurance through its state exchange.
•    Companies with more than 50 employees that don’t offer coverage would face fines up to $750 for any employee relying on government subsidies.  The compromise bill being considered by the Senate this week could hike fines up to $2,000 per full time employee.
•    The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that small-group premiums could fall anywhere between 1 and 4 percent.  However, before these drops occur, premiums will likely spike considerably as insurance companies try to make as much money as possible prior to the 2014 deadline.
•    In order to increase premiums, insurance companies will have to provide justification for the raise.  States will then have the option to ban companies that appear to raise premiums without just cause from exchanges.

This is a monumental time for the government and business alike.  To find out more about health care and its affect on your business, please visit http://www.healthreform.gov/.

It’s that time of year again.  College classes are beginning to wind down and in the next 6 to 8 weeks students will be set free for the summer.  For many college students, this is the perfect time of year to start looking for, and securing, those coveted summer internships.

For many small businesses, utilizing summer interns is the perfect way to handle increasing work loads without the cost of hiring more full time employees.  But how do you create an internship program that worthwhile for both students and your company?

1.    Fill them in. Your interns should be trained thoroughly and filled in on every aspect of the company.  Match them with mentors who share their interests and can help them grow as professionals and individuals.
2.    Keep them accountable. Oftentimes, interns come with little to no work experience.  Because of this, it is extremely important that you set up a system of checks and balances that gives them a more structured experience.
3.    Set goals with them. To ensure a quality internship experience, help interns set personal goals to be accomplished throughout the experience.  Meet to discuss goals periodically throughout the internship period.
4.    Compensate them. Interns need to be compensated in some form or another.  Whether it’s a paid position or gas and food stipends are offered, an internship should not place a financial burden on someone.

Think of your interns as an invaluable resource to your company.  As an employer, it should be your goal to prepare interns as best you can for entry into the real world.  While it may be tempting to fill their days with mundane, mindless work, in doing this no one’s experience is maximized.

In the end, whether you hire your intern to a full time position or they move onto another company, take the proper steps to ensure the best experience for everyone involved.

We’ve all been there.  A major deadline is hanging over your head and you find yourself working on everything but the task at hand, Facebooking, or staring out the window.  This is what we like to call procrastination at its finest.

Throughout our lives, we’ve been told time and again to stop procrastinating and work on being more productive…But did you know that procrastination can actually be helpful?

Recently, Fast Company published an online piece about Productive Procrastination.  A phenomenon popularized by Stanford professor John Perry, Productive Procrastination allows you to complete those mundane tasks at the bottom of your to-do list first.  Effectively keeping you from working on more intense, high stress tasks.

Next time you’re faced with a task that you simply cannot bring yourself to do, why not try doing something else productive.  Clean up your desk or work area, clear out your inbox or voicemail, brainstorm a new marketing campaign, run errands.  You might just be surprised at the number of things you get done when you’re trying to avoid getting things done.

*VBP does not condone procrastination on time-sensitive, deadlined, or client projects.  Always make sure you get the most urgent tasks completed first.*

Public relations is not easy to jump into if you’ve never done it before.  However, with the economy still weak, many small business owners have had to forgo the fancy PR agency and handle all public relations activities themselves.

The good news?  A do it yourself public relations campaign can be simple, cheap, and effective.  For those getting ready to take the leap into DIY PR, here are some important elements to take into consideration:

Start a blog: These days, corporate blogs are popping up all over the internet.  Blogs can act as a portal that allows consumers to come in and get to know the people behind your company.  Blogs also allow for the quick, easy dissemination of information and the creation of dialogue between your company and your current or potential customers.

Participate in social media: Social media can be an invaluable resource for your company.  One of the best ways to cultivate and encourage discussion about your company, products, or services is to begin the conversation yourself.  Using channels like Twitter (where you can tweet new blog posts and company updates) and Facebook fan pages, you’re providing your customers a place to interact with your brand on a personal level, enhancing their experience.

Establish traditional media relationships: Don’t leave traditional media out of your public relations mix.  Nearly all journalists publish their email addresses somewhere online.  Additionally, you can connect with them via social media channels, online publications, and personal blogs.  Share stories, information, and ideas with them.  Compliment pieces that they write.  Never ask for anything.

Start your own newsroom: Open an online newsroom for your company.  This hub of information can be linked directly to your company website and acts as a place to store news stories, press releases, and other media tidbits about, or featuring, your company or employees.  Using a service like Press Kit’n, Marketwire, or PitchEngine makes opening an online newsroom inexpensive and simple.

It is important to remember that a successful public relations campaign takes time.  Figure out what works best for your company and use it to your advantage.

DIY PR doesn’t have to be difficult and a successful campaign does not require an agency or staff.  Go ahead and give it a try.  After all, you might just be your company’s own best advocate.

We know, we know.  We’ve kind of fallen off the face of the earth since the start of 2010.

You’ll have to forgive us.  We’ve been busy bees creating and rolling out new marketing efforts and working on our own corporate image.  Not to mention, we’ve been busy hiring and training a slew of new interns to help us manage a bunch of new projects.

But, rest assured, we’re finally back and better than ever!

Stay tuned to www.blogs.vbpoutsourcing.com for valuable information and tips on marketing, accounting, and small business/entrepreneurship.  It’s our hope that the changes we’ve made will ultimately make your experience with us better and keep you coming back for more.

If there’s anything you’d like to know more about, whether it’s our favorite color, how to kick off a successful marketing campaign, or what cash flow means to your company, drop us an email at pr at] vbpoutsourcing [dot] com or leave us a message in the comments.  We’ll be glad to help you out as best we can!

Again, we’re sorry we went away for so long.  We look forward to the good times, and good conversation, that lie ahead – And we won’t let it happen again.

The VBP Team

Well-trained employees are essential to small business success. As a business owner, you should consider your employees your principle asset and invest in training them accordingly. However, many entrepreneurs still view employee training as optional rather then essential.

Primarily, business owners look at training as an expense rather than an investment. The truth is, not enough, or improper, training risks lost customers and revenue for your company. Additionally, the amount of training your employees require increases with the size of your business.

Don’t wait until it’s too late; follow these simple steps for creating an employee training program within your company:

• Determine what your needs are and focus your training around those needs. You’ll achieve the best results with a targeted training program.
• Promote a culture of learning within your already-established company culture. Support your employees by providing them with as many educational resources as possible.
• Start small. Only conduct training that’s relevant to your business right now. As your company grows, your training should too.
• Keep it up. Organized, ongoing training is essential to keeping your employees on top of their game.

If your employees are your chief business asset, why not invest in making them the best that they can be? With thoughtful, useful employee training programs, you’ll save yourself time and money in the long run.

In small business, technology is a wonderful thing. However, when it comes to choosing accounting software, technology can seem like more trouble than it’s worth. How do you go about deciding on an accounting system? What should you look for in accounting software? The answer depends on your business’ individual needs.

The two generally-used types of accounting software are industry-specific and generic. Industry-specific software can be pricey for smaller companies and it can often be difficult to obtain ongoing support for some programs. Generic software, on the other hand, can be more cost-effective and is highly customizable depending on your business needs. With generic software, it is often easy to maintain a constant line of support.

Once you have decided whether you’re going to use generic or industry-specific software, there are a few other key points to consider before purchasing your accounting software. First, is the software under consideration capable of handling your business needs? At the minimum, your software should be capable of handling tax reporting, invoicing, payroll, and other basic accounting needs.

Next, you need to consider the software’s ability to grow with your needs. When your company gets larger, will your software still be able to handle the job? You don’t want to have to replace your accounting system every time your company grows. It is also important that you purchase software from only the most reputable companies. You want to be sure they’ll still be around when you’re ready to upgrade.

Finally, you need to seriously consider cost prior to purchasing a new accounting software system. Accounting software is likely going to be a major investment for your company and getting a system that meets your needs and fits your budget is extremely important. Don’t purchase a more advanced system than you need or let yourself be talked into add-ons you can’t afford. Look for the most customizable systems you can find that offer upgrades that can be purchased on an as needed basis. This way, you have exactly what you need at the right price.

These key elements should play a critical role in your decision making process when choosing new accounting system software. When it comes to accounting for your business, technology can be your friend and it is crucial that you find and purchase a system that offers your business true reliability and a high return on investment.