Small businesses want to see Amazon separate its retail division from its 3rd party division, reports INC.

Amazon's third-party sellers have long had a love-hate relationship with the e-commerce giant. Some have hit their breaking point.

Read the article on INC.

Closures are still affecting small business, reports CNBC.

Small business closures across the U.S. and the world are creeping back toward their pandemic peaks, according to a report from Facebook and the Small Business Roundtable.

Read the article on CNBC

According to Yahoo, the Small Business Administration was forced to shut down its venue and theatre relief applications due to technical difficulties. 

A highly publicized opening day for distressed movie theaters and live venues to seek federal Covid-19 relief grants instead fizzled out, as technical difficulties forced the Small Business Administration to shut down its portal for taking applications.

Read the article on Yahoo

Small businesses may be able to get another round of small business funding from the Economic Injury and Disaster Loan program from the Small Business Administration. 

Beginning April 6, 2021, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is expanding its Economic Injury and Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, the organization announced in a press release. 

Read the article on Yahoo Finance

The federal government is in its final stages of a program that will help small businesses remain operational during the coronavirus pandemic. With the coronavirus pandemic posing eral challenges to businesses, the government is looking for ways to support small businesses. President Biden announced various revisions to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) approved by Congress last year. The new tweaks put in place by the Biden administration gives exclusive access to the loans to the smallest of small businesses in the US.

Beginning on Wednesday, companies with no more than 20 employees will be the only ones that are legally allowed to apply for the PPP loans. This exclusive access will, however, last for only two weeks. This was done to enable small businesses that have been kept off the PPP loan process during the peak of the pandemic access funds. Since the program launched in 2020, more than 5 million small businesses have benefited from these loans. Companies with less than 20 employees make up 98 percent of small businesses.

According to Biden, small businesses are the drivers of the US economy. They are the soul of the community, which many people depend on for survival. However, with the pandemic now on sight, they are now being crushed. According to statistics, more than 400,000 small businesses have been severely impacted by the pandemic. Apart from the 2-week window that has been added in the second round of loan applications, other rules allow a larger number of business owners to access PPP loans.

The loan calculation formula is also under review. This will give a better chance to the independent contractors, self-employed persons, and sole proprietors in access to the loans. Unlike the current formula, which eliminates home repair contractors, small independent retailers, and beauticians, the new program seeks to eliminate provisions that bar small business owners under the above categories and others from participating in the loan application process. The new provisions also remove the restrictions that deny PPP loans to business owners if they are convicted felons, are delinquent, or default on their student loans in the past seven years. Furthermore, the loan can be forgiven if a small business spends more than 60% of the money on payroll expenses.

Another crucial change is the access to loans by non-US citizen small business owners. Unlike the past regulations that strictly allowed access to loans only by documented US citizens, the amendments now give small business owners who are not US citizens but documented, access loans. With their individual taxpayer ID, any small business owner residing in the US can now apply for the loans. Backers of these new regulations believe that the amendment is long overdue because it will be of significant benefit to small businesses in the US,  regardless of whether the owner is a citizen or not. According to Biden, the new regulations are just the beginning but not the end. Currently, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package has been passed by Congress.

While it appears as a good gesture, the timing of the new changes will confuse small business owners, more so concerning pending applications. First, the loan, although helpful, might not be enough for businesses that have lost a lot due to the pandemic. No matter the challenges, experts see this as a great chance to fund small businesses that have had difficulty accessing loans, including those owned by women and minorities. Professionals see the new changes as a move by Biden-Harris’ administration to make things right. The program will end in March.

As an organization, how do you decide who to entrust your money to? Does a company opt for a local credit union or open an account at a well-known bank? If you’ve recently opened a business or are looking to change which financial institution you trust your money to – you’ve come to the right place. While there is no correct answer – this article aims to outline the pros and cons of a credit union versus a traditional bank when it comes to a company or business.

Credit Unions

Credit unions are non-profit financial institutions that tend to be local to a community. Unlike banks  - credit unions are controlled by their customers. Like a bank, credit unions use the money deposited by their customers to issue business and personal loans. Because customers of a credit unions typically live in the same area or belong to the same union; the loans tend to benefit the community whether it’s a local business or a member of the community looking to remodel their house. 

Many people prefer credit unions over a traditional bank because of their lower interest rates and better customer service. Many clients also like the idea of investing in their community.

The downside of a credit union is that they are not convenient for everyone. There is usually only one or two branches of the credit union so customers may have to go out of their way to get money from an ATM or deposit their checks. Credit unions understand this dilemma and more and more credit unions are opting to reimburse their clients for ATM fees incurred by using other ATM machines.  Other credit unions have introduced mobile banking where their customers can take a picture of their check and deposit their check online.

Finally, a myth of credit unions is that they are not as safe as banks when it comes to insuring their savings. This is not true. Like banks, the Federal Government insures up to $250,000 per savings account.

Traditional Banks

Where credit unions are non-profit financial institutions, traditional banks are for-profit institutions whose main goal is to make money. They do this through their high interest rates and their strict eligibility for personal and business loans.

Where they lack in interest rates – they make up in convenience. While there are smaller family-owned banks – banks typically have multiple branches that their customers can use throughout the state or country. Bank of America has over 4,000 financial centers and 400,000 ATMs in the United States alone. This makes travel immensely easier especially if someone is in need of cash because they lost their wallet or under-estimated their budget.

Traditional Banks are statistically more technology savvy than a credit union – offering state-of-the-art user interfaces on their websites and different online resources such as mobile banking.

Conclusion

What which is better a credit union or a traditional bank? It’s really up to you and what you’d like to get out of your financial institution. If you want an establishment with excellent customer service and low interest rates for loans – a credit union may be the way to go. That is – as long as you don’t mind going to one location to deposit your checks or withdraw cash.

On the other hand, if convenience is important to you whether that means being close to an ATM anywhere in the country or ease of remotely depositing your check you may opt for a bank instead.

A financial security benefit that helps employees pay for and manage their out of pocket healthcare expenses allows an employer to not only keep healthcare costs down, but to provide a much-needed benefit to their employees, one that pays dividends for years to come.  Here are 4 reasons why employers need to provide a financial security benefit to their employees as part of their offering. 

1. Restore the "benefit" in your health benefit offering -  The standard employer-sponsored health plan comes with nearly an $8,000 out-of-pocket expense.  Considering that the vast majority of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck and 40% struggle to cover a $400 emergency expense, it’s no wonder why so many individuals consider themselves functionally uninsured despite being covered by an employer’s health plan.  And, when an employer’s price tag to purchase that insurance for a family now exceeds $20,000 a year, it is painful for employers to witness their employee “benefit” suddenly become an employee “liability.”  Providing employees with guaranteed access to credit for medical expenses on consumer-friendly terms that they may not have access to on their own is of tremendous benefit.  A benefit like this gives employees something their health plan alone can’t – financial security.

1. Remove barriers to care -  More than ever, employees with high deductible health plans are skipping care, which has costly consequences. Employees who skip care stay sicker for a longer period of time and as a result, employers lose worker productivity.  When outcomes erode and care is delayed, employers will see an increase in health plan expenses. By providing a financial security benefit from the start, employees can seek care with confidence, and prevent this unhealthy ripple effect from happening.

1. Increase participation in Health Savings Accounts – HSAs are great additions to an employer’s benefit line-up.  In some cases, they are also the only plan design that an employer can afford to offer. Employees who are presented the choice of an HSA often bemoan that while the program should work well for them, and that the price-tag for the premium is right, the specter of a one-time deductible exposure makes them hesitant to enroll.  And, while lower premiums paired with some employer HSA contributions can often cover that exposure, employees worry about the timing of these expenses, particularly if they arrive early in the plan year. Providing an affordable way for employees to pay for their healthcare expenses whenever they are incurred, removes a major barrier to HSA plan election.  Further, adding a financial security benefit is much more cost effective for the employer than front-loading the HSA with hard dollars at the beginning of the plan year. 

1. Recruitment and Retention Tool - According to a recent Gallup poll, the availability and affordability of healthcare tops the list of concerns in America.  As employers grapple with objectives, such as attracting, and retaining talent and balancing costs, a financial security benefit not only addresses a major employee concern, but also can help organizations differentiate themselves from their competitors.  

With COVID changing the landscape of healthcare for all of us and open enrollment around the corner, employers need to rethink their benefit strategy while keeping costs down.  Attracting and retaining employees remains a high priority for employers and providing a financial security benefit will not only attract top talent but will also save on an employer’s overall bottom line.

Amy O'Meara Chambers, JD, is the CEO and Co-founder of HealthBridge. She has over 25 years of experience working in the healthcare industry as both an employee benefits attorney and as a business builder. Amy is the author of the great American novel — HSA’s for Dummies and holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.

This year has shown the importance of high cash flow as the pandemic has forced small businesses around the world to close – many unable to survive shutdowns and decreased sales. Those that have endured are predominately companies that have adequate cash flow that they can lean on during this unprecedented time.

In order to be successful, businesses have to keep an eye on their cash flow (or cash that is flowing in and out of your business). That means monitoring cash flow regularly and hiring the right people to manage your budget. Here are four tips that every business should do to effectively manage their money.

Hire an Accountant                                                                                                                                                    

Not everyone is financially savvy – and as a business owner the sooner you recognize that the sooner you can hire someone who is. Look for someone who has a background in finance and accounting and is familiar with QuickBooks or other accounting software that can monitor spend and notify you of any issues.

Cutting Cost

If your accountant tells you that more cash is flowing out of your organization than coming in – it may be time to cut costs. Are there any bills or subscriptions that are redundant? How about monthly expenses that are not essential? If you are treating your staff to lunch every Friday, it may make sense to cut that down to once a month – or even a quarterly outing. While no one likes to make layoffs – it may make sense to reduce employees’ hours or lay a few people off. While it’s not ideal – it will increase your cash flow if need be.

A good accountant or book-keeper will be able to show you exactly what you are spending your money on – and can advise you on ways to limit your spending until your capital increases.

Get More for Less!

A smart entrepreneur understands how to get more for less. Have old inventory that isn’t selling? Sell it. Sure, you may not get the highest price for your items – but you may be able to recoup the cost that you originally purchased it for. Either way – selling at cost is better than having your inventory collecting dust in the back. 

Save money anyway you can. This could come in the form of buying in bulk at wholesale costs, taking advantage of vendor sales, and even utilizing credit cards. Credit cards? That might seem backwards – but sometimes you have to spend money to get money. A grocery store has to purchase goods from vendors to sell in their stores – why not put the bill on a business credit card with 5% cash back? Travel a lot for your job – why don’t you invest in a particular airline’s credit card so you can turn around and use your rewards on discounted flights? Some business credit cards even offer a bonus just for signing up. The key to managing a credit card is to make sure that you pay it off fully each month. This will ensure that your business never goes into debt, and you are not penalized with high interest rates.

Finally, if you are a company that renders service (construction, lawyer, doctor etc), it’s important that your clients pay you on time. This means staying on top of invoices and ensuring that new clients accept your payment terms – whether that’s payment upon completion of the project, or net 45 days. If need-be send out reminders or follow up with them if payment is late. This can ensure prompt payment.

I once knew a landlord whose tenant never paid her rent on time. It wasn’t because she couldn’t afford the rent – it was that she never had time to go to the post office. The landlord took matters into his own hands and dropped off 12 stamped envelopes so she never had to worry about going to the post office again.

If you’re working on a longer project such as remodeling a house, or have a long court case it is in your best interest to ask for a down payment or partial payment of the project. This will ensure that some money is coming in and can cover the cost of material, and payroll.

By following these four tips – you’re well on your way to managing your cash flow. Remember, it’s always important to have capital for a rainy day. This will ensure the success of your business even if times get tough.

With so many opportunities out there, it is always hard to settle on the best idea to invest in as an entrepreneur. It can be challenging to figure out where to put your money and an investment worth pursuing. Although jumping on a new trend can be risky in many instances, it can also be rewarding if you focus on what you love. The best business ideas are those born at the intersection of strategic thinking, passion and right timing. Your next small business opportunity could be one of these five ideas:

• Dropshipping

With the e-commerce industry increasingly booming due to COVID-19 restrictions, perhaps now is the time you started thinking about offering e-commerce services yourself. This doesn’t mean that you have to keep a massive inventory of goods. Instead, you can be a link between the supplier and the consumer. This is what dropshipping essentially is all about. With dropshipping, people with e-commerce websites go to a third party to fulfill customer orders. The third party is a wholesale retailer or a manufacturer who runs warehouse and shipping activities. You don’t have to invest thousands of dollars to start this kind of business. Instead, you just need a website and a few other tools, and you are set.

• Teaching online

This comes second on my list because education has been affected by the pandemic, just like shopping. The high demand for online education means that you will always have something to teach people. As an entrepreneur, you can start your own venture by teaching people things such as computer applications or computer software. You can decide on any other subject that you love and are knowledgeable about regardless of your location. For example, if you have advanced knowledge in English, French, or Mandarin, you can teach non-native speakers. As your business grows, you will get many people signing up for your teachings, and this can earn you a lot of money in return.

• Digital event planning

Even planning is highly in demand nowadays. With this in mind, one of the best business ideas that you should consider starting is opening up a digital event planning agency. Here, your work will be to plan, organize and even report on digital events such as webinars and online summits to different companies. You can make money by charging a specific amount for the services and selling sponsorships, among other things. If you have a passion and expertise in this area, this is something you need to consider.

• Application development

App development is one of the most profitable ventures in the world as we speak. This is the case because so many organizations are going digital and require applications to handle various aspects of their operations. Accordingly, the cost of starting an application development venture has significantly dropped, and so have the tools needed for this business. This means that you can start your app development journey with a small amount of money and skills. With many software platforms such as Sketch and CoreAnimator, you can easily create mockups before publishing your apps. You can charge a premium or include in-app purchases in your application.

• Freelance copywriter

If you know how to play with words and make a reader interested, this might be the right business for you. You can establish yourself as a freelance copywriter by looking for clients and helping companies and individuals write blogs, web content, technical documents, and plenty of other write-ups. With SEO knowledge, your value will go up overnight, and you can even start an agency where you hire people to write for you. Most freelance copywriters charge up to $50 per hour for their services. 

Turning an innovative idea into a successful commercialized product is no small feat. In fact, most hardware product design projects fail to deliver a positive return on investment. Research shows there are a myriad of contributing factors to hardware product design failure. And among a thousand decisions that need to be made in the product design lifecycle, there are fewer than 10 critical decisions that if made incorrectly, not only lead to new product failure in the market, but also start-up company failure.

So how do you make sure your next hardware design project does not become another failed statistic? Here are 5 tips to consider that should be part of your new hardware product development strategy.

Know your target customer. Know who your customer is and what they need this product to do. This helps avoid bringing a great product to the wrong market segment and for the wrong audience. Physical products designed today live in a connected world. Do your homework by conducting market, country and customer value research. Solicit feedback from real customers that would use it. Are you delivering a new capability that customers need? Conducting primary and secondary research will give you a strong understanding of how competitors are distributing and positioning competing or similar types of products.

Identify and remove unwarranted risks early. Customers don’t use a product they don’t like. Product defects and missed customer expectations result in failures and returns of hardgoods that are not only expensive to solve but can also bankrupt early- stage companies. Making the wrong decisions in the concept design stage will increase your R&D and fuel future manufacturing and quality issues. Put a process in place to identify the key user acceptance features and feasibility risks as well as the mechanical, electronics and software architectures.

Decide who will manage the development process and how product decisions will get made. If you do not have the design, engineering, or manufacturing process expertise in house, find outside partners to create or audit your product concept to identify potential risks early. Design-for-retail price-point and yearly sales volumes are critical targets. Have a good estimate of your costs of goods early so you can track gross margin for the product. Cost of goods target will impact the decisions on product features, material choices, capital tooling and more. As companies strive to deliver innovative and bring new value, ensuring close alignment across business, marketing and engineering will help get you to market faster and with predictable outcomes.

Foster a collaborative development team. Expert led multi-discipline teams with long experience in business, marketing and hardware product development will make sure new opportunities and new risks are assessed and managed during the development. Close working collaboration with the right people during critical architecture and component selection is critical, and identifying opportunity and risk will come from many heads - operations, business, marketing, industrial design, engineering, electronics design, software coding and manufacturing. The Integration of ideas and concerns, weighting pros and cons of alternative concepts, and selecting the best fit solution to deliver the customer wow factor is critical to get right. Among a thousand decisions that need to be made, it’s the 10 critical ones if made incorrectly will lead to product development failure.

Test your product design early and expect continual refinement. There’s nothing worse than hitting “go” on volume production and then find out when delivered to market, it fails to attract customer attention, resulting in commercial failure. Ongoing user and engineering testing during the development process identifies problem areas early so they get resolved in the first product release. Hardware product development is a very involved process. Making complex products is a continual improvement process that goes from the first units sold to the many fine-tuning adjustments needed over several years of customer use and feedback.

Most new products in development have unforeseen quality and customer issues with the initial product release for sale. It’s important that your design and manufacturing teams identify and manage the ‘known-unknowns’. It is near impossible to catch the ‘unknown-unknowns’ and with less experienced teams, critical risks get overlooked. Take

advantage of outside expertise as an experienced design engineering team can augment your team and help identify critical choices that are risky and plan appropriately to make sure the finished design avoids them. This will help ensure first launch problem-free products get delivered to market that meet customers’ expectations of operation and quality. Importantly, it helps ensure business success.

Kevin Bailey is the Founder and CEO at Design 1st and is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company. For over 25 years, Kevin’s product design and business expertise have successfully guided CEO’s, start-ups, and established organizations through the intricacies of the entire hardware product development lifecycle. Under Kevin’s leadership, Design 1st has delivered over 1,000 products to market across a variety of industries, and that influence millions of people globally. Global companies that Design 1st has helped turn ideas into successful commercialized products, include Motorola, Acer, Stanley Tools, Ericsson and Christie Digital.

Prior to founding Design 1st, Kevin was on the ground floor of global hardware product innovation, cutting his teeth with National Research Council, General Motors, Shell, Bell Northern Research Labs and Nortel Networks where he worked on the first global smartphone development and initial production in 1995.

Kevin holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. In addition to being a registered member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario since 1985, Kevin is also a VC and Angel Investor.

Kevin lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife. In his spare time, he plays hockey, mentors young entrepreneurs, and enjoys spending time with his 3 children and grandchildren Ronan and Adelaide.

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on almost every industry and business, both small and large. While large enterprises have been affected, small ones have suffered the most from the pandemic. All over the world, many small and medium-sized companies were forced to stop their operations, with most of them having to realign to stand a chance of surviving the harsh times. Despite the loans and other packages that the government and other institutions have released, a Wells Fargo survey indicates that small business owners continue to face many financial challenges due to the global pandemic.

According to Yelp- a crowd-sourced review site, 60 percent of business closures occasioned by COVID-19 are permanent. A year since the pandemic began, about 53 percent of all small business owners do not expect to return their operations after COVID for at least six months of 2021. According to Small Business Pulse Survey data, this is conducted carried out by the US Census Bureau in December last year. On the other hand, a survey by the Small Business Majority- an advocacy group- shows that most business owners of color will be the ones facing the bigger challenge. Most of these businesses have been hit by massive revenue losses, which means they cannot continue being solvent for long. Consequently, 32% have cut their employee hours while 24% are shutting down altogether.

According to a survey, only a quarter of small businesses are currently operating at the normal levels within the US metro areas. Smart Asset, a personal finance website in its survey on areas with the most positive business outlook in 2021, discovered that generally, things don’t look good for most areas. However, North Carolina faired better than other metro areas. In the Raleigh-Cary metro area, 37 percent of all small businesses continue to operate as they did before. In fact, over a quarter of the firms that participated in the survey said that they are looking to hire new employees in 2021. This is a good thing for employees and businesses.

But other areas are facing serious problems with regard to business operations. The small businesses in minority communities have disproportionately suffered from the pandemic. In this segment, over 70% of small businesses owned by people from minority communities reported low sales in 2020. Compared to 41% in non-minority communities, this is a bad thing considering the ongoing work to ensure a fair business environment for all. On the other hand, there are also high closure rates (36%) of small businesses in minority communities compared to 22% for the non-minorities.

Customers have not been the only problem for small businesses. Hiring has also become difficult as those that have tried to hire workers as of December last year had a hard time doing so. Over 34% of small business owners and managers found it hard to get enough skilled employees. The same challenge has faced the businesses owned by women as compared to their male counterparts. Between April and December 2020, the percentage of female-owned small businesses that stated they faced a hard time paying the basic household expenses rose from 34% to 55%. On the other hand, small businesses faced a little challenge as compared to their female counterparts. According to a survey, 87% of women noted that their domestic responsibilities impacted their work, while 72% of male business leaders stated the same.

Despite the vaccine rollout, the pandemic continues to hurt many businesses in significant proportions. Most of them have a small amount of cash left in their reserve to settle business needs such as rent, among other expenses. A majority of them complained of a lack of enough funds to pay their March rent. Sadly, most of them said they were struggling to receive funds from the federal government through the Paycheck Protection Program. This makes things worse.

In the current age of uncertainty, there is very little over which we have any real control. This makes people uncomfortable—particularly in the business community, where business leaders and decision-makers struggle to plan for a future in a present that continues to take unexpected detours. The question is, how can businesses plan for growth when the goalpost (and the field and the players, for that matter) continue to move? 

The answer: micro-planning.

The fact is, proactive, long-term marketing planning is not a viable option at the moment. Today, successful marketing requires more of a reactive tactic—not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach, but rather a smart, short-term approach. That is, rather than creating a detailed six- to 12-month plan, focus on the next eight to 10 weeks.

Ultimately, your goal in marketing is to hit the right audience at the right time with a message that will resonate in that moment. To do that, you always need to be asking:

• Who is my target?
• What is my message?
• What tools am I using to communicate that message to my target?

Those three foundational elements remain unchanged, regardless of the economic climate. What does change, particularly these days, is how frequently you ask the questions.

Each component requires a different level of forethought. For example, your communication vehicles offer the most predictability and will likely hold up over the next year (though will continue to evolve as all things do). Your target audience is harder to anticipate as the business climate continues to ebb and flow (think: the hospitality industry vs. healthcare). Your audience won’t change by the day or week, but it will evolve as world events unfold. Your messaging, on the other hand, could change weekly as you address your audience’s pain in that moment—pain that is largely determined by the unpredictable news narrative and evolving government mandates.

Best practices for micro-planning: 

Micro-planning doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your marketing function—just a few tweaks to your approach to ensure you’re hitting the mark. Here are some strategies that work:  

1. Pay attention. Ask around. Do your own market research and get a finger on the pulse of how people are feeling. Talk to members of your audience and centers of influence, or even tap those mastermind groups.
2. Craft a framework. Loosely plan your audience, messaging and delivery for the next six months, so you have an idea of where you want to go, but detail the specifics in shorter, eight- to 10-week chunks of time.
3. Have weekly strategy sessions. Set aside time every week to review your current strategy. When you give yourself the headspace to think, you’ll be more equipped to adjust as needed, thereby minimizing the stress of a reactive pivot.
4. Think with others. Find a strategic partner or collaborator with whom you can brainstorm. The best ideas come from a healthy back-and-forth that offers multiple perspectives.
5. Revisit your messaging. Before you launch any campaign, take one last look at your message to see if it still maps to your audience’s current pain. What may have worked a week or two ago may no longer make sense.
6. Include content that won’t change. Give yourself some semblance of predictability in your messaging by supplementing your timely content with evergreen content that stands the test of time.

In other words, plan what you can but be willing to adapt. Micro-planning is a great way to ensure you’re getting the right message to the right audience at the right time—even during a pandemic—so you can crush your next campaign.

Rachel Durkan is President of Paradigm Marketing and Design, a web, branding and marketing agency, that has helped thousands of clients make millions of dollars.  Rachel has co-authored two books and has been recognized for her achievements in entrepreneurship and marketing. Some accolades include the NJ Biz top 40 under 40 business professionals, recognition as an Enterprising Women Awardee, a Top 25 Brand Builder, and, for Paradigm as a whole, the Morris County Chamber Small Business of the Year, and over 15 GDUSA awards for graphic design excellence. https://www.paradigmmarketinganddesign.com/

An ever-changing economy creates new opportunities for entrepreneurs, even during these rocky times that COVID-19 has caused.

Whether people are looking for a better work-life balance, a new job after having lost one, or an extra source of income, opening a seasonal business is one strategy that fits those goals, says Chris Buitron, president of Mosquito Authority® (www.mosquito-authority.com).

“Many people are taking this route as a reliable way to generate income,” Buitron says, “because although the economy is changing dramatically in some ways, seasonal businesses still fulfill annual consumer needs.

“The benefits for a seasonal business owner are attractive: more freedom, both in running a business and having the ability to take a few months off; the satisfaction of providing a service or product to which customers stay loyal; lower overhead costs than a year-round business; a solid second income; or, if done right, a sufficient income by itself.”

Buitron offers these tips on how to run a seasonal business successfully:

• Carefully construct your business model. Since you won’t be open year-round, it’s important to account for downtime in your cash flow. “If the seasonal business is your main or only source of income, you’ll need to put in extra work during the season in order to make it through your off-season,” Buitron says. “Make sure you have access to credit and plan your budget very specifically. It’s a bonus if you can find ways to diversify income streams for your seasonal business in the off-season. Determine the other needs of your customers and how you can fulfill them.”
• Evaluate the past season and plan accordingly for the next season. “Analyze your successes and shortcomings from the previous season,” Buitron says. “Seek customer feedback to assist your evaluation. Overall, determine why some things worked and others didn’t. The analysis will help you build a solid plan for the next season. Look at areas such as staffing, inventory, and other expenses. Did you have enough employees and how did they perform? Which products or services weren’t successful? Should you introduce new ones? Would it be cheaper in the long run to buy your equipment rather than lease it?”
• Connect with the public year-round to build your brand. Social media allows a seasonal business owner to build their business, their authority and strengthen their place in the community. “Your target audience is just as accessible in the offseason,” Buitron says. “You can reach out to them and offer exclusive pricing, or create a rewards program. Publish blogs and post updates on the sites your customers follow. Give them content that can educate them beyond the reach of your business’ services. Showing you care about their lives and the community helps them remember you.”
• Attend networking events and workshops. The off-season is the time for self-improvement that leads to business improvement. “Learning and networking opportunities help you and your business grow,” Buitron says. “Local business events, trade shows and conferences are great ways to gain new partnerships and skills.”

“A seasonal business comes with an array of unique demands,” Buitron says. “But with the right combination of good business practices and the passion to make it a way to enhance others’ lives, it can be a profitable and enjoyable experience for the seasonal business owner.”

Chris Buitron is president of Mosquito Authority® (www.mosquito-authority.com), a nationwide leader in mosquito control with franchises serving communities across the U.S. and Canada. Buitron has an extensive background in franchise industries. He was chief marketing officer for Senior Helpers, vice president of marketing for Direct Energy (home services division), and director of marketing for Sunoco Inc., where he supported the company’s 4,700 franchised and company-owned rental facilities across 23 states (over $15B in annual revenues).

Running your own business can be hectic for many business owners. For small business owners, however, having all the responsibility to all operations, including successes and failures, can be detrimental to one’s health. Sadly, health among small business owners has not been taken seriously as it should despite the economic significance of such businesses to society and the economy. The mental health of small business leaders leads to a healthy working environment. It also leads to effective teams that are characterized by respect and trust in one another.

Large corporations with complex and well-structured succession plans can hardly be affected by health issues that may affect their leaders. The well-laid down succession plan ensures that in the absence of the CEO, operations run without hitches. Unlike big multinationals whose operations cannot be affected by the health issues among those in the high offices, poor health among the leaders of small businesses can end operations and render employees jobless. The simple structure of a small business is risky, and the impact of the demise of a CEO is unimaginable. With an instant disease or a condition such as a heart attack, everything can go down the drain since everything revolves around an individual. From this, it is evident that health is the greatest capital of small business owners. The smaller the firm, the higher the vulnerability in case the owner develops health complications, either physical or mental.

The health of such business owners may have damaging consequences not only for those that have been employed but can also impact those that depend on them entirely. For example, the family members who rely on the owners can also be significantly impacted. Similarly, health problems among the personnel and family members can destabilize operations and how the business runs. Small business owners face many challenges that often affect their mental wellbeing. According to a Danish study, there is a significant link between entering entrepreneurship and receiving prescriptions for sedative or hypnotics and/or their spouses. This is a clear suggestion that entering entrepreneurship is a health risk as it is a potential source of stress for entrepreneurs and their family members.

Many studies have found out that stress level among the business owners is higher than those of the employed. The always conflicting issues such as ambiguity in the business environment, lack of adequate resources, and daily hassles as well as failure to clarify roles increase stress and the possibility of health complications. Work overload is another factor that many small business owners face and may result in a complication. Entrepreneurs often work for more than 50 hours a week. Working for long hours, including weekends doing intensive tasks, is a potential cause of stress. 

Uncertainty is often identified as another factor that can cause health problems among self-employed individuals. The fast-changing business environment is always a concern for entrepreneurs who are always worried about their businesses in case things do not go as planned. These owners have many things to worry about, including their employees, government regulations, and reduction in profits, all of which determines the success of their businesses.  Loneliness of business owners also results in burnouts, which in itself is a potential contributor to mental health. Loneliness can be harmful in an environment where difficult decisions are to be taken, such as firing or hiring employees.

As seen above, health issues among the small business owners have severe spillover effects on those they employ and their families. Unlike CEOs of large companies that have a proper succession plan, health challenges among small business owners can cripple operations. As such, it is crucial to always stay ahead by addressing potential causes of health problems before they manifest into catastrophes.

In a world where working from home, family, recreation, faith and other factors compete for our time, people speak about the need to seek a “balanced life.” But maybe “balance” is the wrong goal.

“The concept of being in ‘balance’ has the potential to set us up for immediate failure,” says Michael Sipe, author of The AVADA Principle and founder of the consulting firm 10x Catalyst Groups (www.10xgroups.com).

“We talk about work/life balance as if work and the rest of our lives are separate things. But in reality, work and everything else are all part of one life.”

Instead of balance, Sipe suggests seeking an “integrated life,” where the integral parts of life are combined into a fully functioning whole. He acknowledges that’s easier said than done.

“It’s a challenge to determine what the integral parts of human life are, how to integrate them, and what a fully functioning and completely whole life would be like,” he says.

For Sipe, a major part of that integration involves faith. But his suggestions on how to approach your job so that it is integrated into the rest of your life are relevant regardless of spiritual views.

In Sipe’s view, work often gets a bad rap. Work is actually a neutral concept, he says,  and the larger evaluation is not that we “have” to work, or how much we work. Instead the key is to look at the purposes toward which our work is directed and to be intentional about how we allocate our energy.

In managing your attitude about work, Sipe recommends that you:

• Focus on purpose. “One definition of work is energy directed toward a purpose,” Sipe says. “If you find yourself holding a detrimental attitude about your work, take a look at your purpose. Perhaps you simply are not directing your energy toward a purpose you care about.” If so, he says, consider changing your work so that you can invest your energy toward a purpose that matters to you. Alternatively, perhaps you have not connected your work to your purpose, and thus, your motivation to work is suffering.
• Avoid griping. The more you declare that work is hard, bad, unpleasant, a waste of time, and a drag, the more it will be all those things for you, Sipe says. “Reframe work as good, as a joy, a blessing, a challenge, an opportunity, a privilege, an investment,” he says. “Loving your work is a choice – your choice.”
• Take responsibility and take charge. If you don’t like your work, Sipe says, then change it. “You are not a tree rooted in place; you can move,” he says. “You are not a victim or a slave. If you are blessed to live in the Western world, and especially if you are blessed to live in America, you are free to do the work you love toward purposes you desire”
• Ask yourself better questions. When things aren’t working out as you hoped you might be inclined to ask yourself, “Why me? Why is this so hard? What did I do to deserve this?” Instead, Sipe says, ask yourself: “What am I supposed to learn here?” He says you could also do as the late Jim Rohn, a motivational speaker, instructed: “Don’t ask why things are so hard; ask how you can get better.”

“The concept of work is simple, but we tend to complicate it,” Sipe says. “And work really does apply to everything we do. Yes, we can work at a job, but we also work on our health, work on our education, work on our marriage, work on our friendships, and work on our faith. It’s all energy applied toward a purpose.”

Michael Sipe, author of The AVADA Principle, is the founder of 10x Catalyst Groups (www.10xgroups.com), which helps entrepreneurs grow profitable and thriving businesses organized on a foundation of Biblical principles. Sipe has also enjoyed a successful 30-plus year career in mergers, acquisitions, and business development as the founder of CrossPointe Capital, a middle market investment-banking firm. In that capacity, he consulted with and evaluated over 5,000 companies and has provided advisory services for approximately a half-billion dollars in business sales involving hundreds of companies. He remains active in transactional work and has been a key advisor in mergers and acquisitions projects covering a multitude of industry sectors.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic struck and sank the world’s economy, retiring at the age of 65 was already becoming a hot topic among many professionals. Now that the pandemic has impaired many businesses, both small and large plans of many organizations are in shambles. One of the areas that have been significantly affected is retirement. Business owners that were planning to retire are now forced to rethink. This could mean that the retirement age is likely to fall further as employees try to pick up from where they left once the economy reopens and the pandemic eases.

Although the recovery is expected to happen sooner or later, it may take some time. This is if the 2007-2009 recession is an example to go by. The recovery time can even be longer considering the severity of COVID-19 compared to the recession witnessed in 2009. As such, many small business owners may be tempted to consider selling their businesses rather than waiting for things to get better.

A study by StreetWise Retirement Confidence Index in May indicated that 26% of those interviewed stated that they would postpone their retirement plans after the coronavirus. Their decision is due to the economic conditions that the virus has caused. As damaging as they may seem, the decision is not surprising, given the uncertainty and fear that the pandemic has caused in many industries in different countries. The uncertainties have had an impact on the financial strategies of organizations and have forced many businesses to change their priorities. Another study by Allianz Life Insurance Company found out that almost half of Americans interviewed went into early retirement for reasons beyond their control. One of the reasons that were cited in the research is job loss. This was cited by 34% of the respondents, while 25% cited health challenges as their primary reason for retiring early. As an entrepreneur or employee who is willing to persevere and try their best to achieve their dreams, all is not lost. Taking some steps can enhance value and build your business so that you can sell more and retire as you planned or even early.

Creativity is one of the ways that can help you remain open in the current era of uncertainty. As a business owner, try your best to find creative ways that can adapt to the changes in the business environment. One way you can do this is by adding other services that will replace the revenue that has been lost. For example, as a restaurant owner, you can supplement the revenue lot by ordering food and selling them. This will create a new stream of income and increase profits even when other sources of revenue are not doing well enough.

A good rapport with banks is also crucial to businesses. Regardless of the size of your organization, always ensure that you have a good relationship with financial institutions. Having a wrong sense of security will only deceive you, and you will not have anyone to turn to in case things become tough. With the right relationship, you will have someone to run to for loans when the revenue stream dries up, and you need additional funds to keep running. Always ask yourself, is my bank relationship stable? If the answer is yes, then you are in the right place.

Coming up with a transition plan is another approach that you must consider. Just because you are delaying your retirement plans does not mean that you should not establish a transition plan. Take time to build a working transition plan that will not leave your organization in chaos when the right time comes. Most business owners lack a proper transition plan. This leads to a lack of focus on what is needed for a business to operate successfully.