• ​Gartner Research did a study where 83% of consumers said they won't do business with brands they don't trust. ​
• 41% of consumers believe that “brand loyalty” means having an emotional connection to the brand.

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• According to Hubspot, 80% of consumers believe that “authenticity of content” is the most influential factor in their decision to subscribe to a brand.

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• 14% of Americans trust advertising, but 90% trust brand recommendations from people they know.

Note that word-of-mouth is a crucial business driver, even online.

Trust Leads To Loyal Customers
Trust is “a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions or behavior of another.”

Of course, as a small business owner, you need customers to trust you, but you must reflect that you trust them back. Humans tend to value what others think of them and cooperate with people who trust them. When strangers show trust toward each other, their brains release social signals that cause a temporary attachment to each other.

So, consider whether or not you display trust in your target audience and consumers. Are you accidentally doing anything that shows distrust in your customers? Consider how trust influences your purchasing decisions and use that for inspiration.

Consider marketing with emotional content. Pringle and Field did a study in which they found that advertising campaigns with purely emotional content performed twice as well as those with strictly rational content. The purely emotional content also did five percent better than mixed emotional and rational content.

There are some other business methods to try:

• You and your employees should translate your care for consumers to the online world, like your social media pages and website. Learn the difference between a marketing statement and a welcoming website page.

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• Show customers that you care about their opinions and feedback. Offer surveys with difficult questions and respond to messages and comments.

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• Rather than giving quotes and ending your conversations with a “no,” try negotiating.

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• Your tone matters. Talk to customers how they want to be talked to and smile warmly, even online! Smiling while you type influences your tone.

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• Share customer feedback and testimonials on your website, social media, and blog posts.

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• Prioritize customer service.
  1. Call customers by name.
  2. Personalize every interaction with a customer.
  3. Always anticipate the customer's needs and have clear pricing information available.

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• Emulate transparency and authenticity. Stay consistent; otherwise, you could make a wrong impression and appear less trustworthy.
  1. Follow a style guide and establish brand guidelines.
  2. Have your marketing, sales, and support teams speak in a singular voice.

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• Connect with customers. Engage with them online daily. Stay active on channels your target audience uses most often, like email, social media, live chat, or the comments section of your website.

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• Establish yourself as an expert in your field by sharing valuable content on social media.

So, let us establish trust through marketing for YOUR small business. Call STS Media, Marketing & Consulting Agency at 616-881-3753 or fill out our contact form to get in touch.

Prepare to have more loyal customers!

Don't give up.
It may feel like there is no point in owning a business if it will always be an uphill battle to get ahead. Here's the thing: that is not how it has to be, and you have choices to solve this problem now. So often, I see entrepreneurs fail to thrive because they think they have only two options: to succeed or fail. There are always more than two choices; you just have to stop, think, strategize, and decide.

Stop
Stop all the doomsday scenarios running through your brain, showing how you will not make it because you're ruined, and allow your mind to be open to the possibility that there is not just one way but many around this.
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Think
​Think differently. As any life coach will tell you, change your mindset, and you change your life.

It goes something like this...
Everyone has to pay taxes, and so do I. If I didn't know how much more I would have to pay as a sole proprietor or small business owner, now I do. Lesson learned. Now is a good time to hire an accountant for next year so I can plan ahead.

This is a sign of my success. I rocked the shit out of this year! I just need to get over this hump, and I will be on my way.

Strategize
Now that your mind is in a better place, it is time to figure out how you will pay this year's tax bill while still growing your business. I highly recommend hiring a financial planner. Most small business owners think they can't afford one, but this simply isn't true. There are two business professionals you can not afford NOT to hire: an accountant and a financial planner. They both can save you more money than you will ever pay them by educating you on deductions, tax savings, and damn good ideas that you're in the wrong industry to come up with yourself. Don't settle for the first one you google; interview and ask questions to ensure they can see things with a big-picture strategy and that your best interest is at heart. 

(The following brainstorming example is not intended to replace a financial professional's advice or your own good sense. Only you and the professional you choose to entrust the knowledge with know your financial situation and how these ideas would impact the overall picture.)

Do you have resources of which you are unaware? What about:

• That 401K you still need to roll over - a financial advisor can help you decide if there is a way you can borrow from yourself to pay your taxes and how to do it with the least amount of tax penalty the next year.
• Do you have equity in your home? Maybe a home equity loan is an option.
• You may qualify for a personal loan, choosing one with the lowest interest rate and best terms is important. (enter the financial advisor again)
• Did you know that the IRS offers a monthly payment plan for federal income taxes? You could qualify. It is very easy to apply, and you will find out instantly if you qualify and how much you need to pay—learn more here.
• The CRA in Canada also has its own version of payment arrangements.

Part of your plan should be how you will also pay next year's taxes. Hiring an accountant to project your quarterly taxes and show you how to pay them can be part of your immediate strategy for paying your taxes now.

Decide
There are more solutions to consider, and it may take employing many ideas to make it work. But you do not have to choose to quit. If you decide NOT to quit, then more decisions must be made to move forward. The important thing is to move.

Happy Tax Day! You Earned It!
Pat yourself on the back, raise a glass—you are a bonafide entrepreneur. Welcome to the club!

• ​It will affect your retirement. Social Security is based on the average income of your best ten years. So, in the long run, by reporting and paying your income taxes correctly, you are increasing your chances of a better retirement. It's the same for your employees on your payroll. It follows that if you aren't reporting all of your income, your social security checks will likely be less.
  

• Even if you are paying your help cash, they are considered a 1099-Misc Independent Consultant under specific criteria (if they don’t meet the requirements, they should be on your payroll), You still need to report any amount over $600 you pay an individual at tax time, whether they like it or not.  Furthermore, if you get caught paying your employees under the table, you'll be fined, and all of you could face jail time.
  

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• While it may be challenging to commit to quality bookkeeping practices, the law requires business owners to keep a complete, organized set of books and records. It's easier to be an excellent bookkeeper if you keep your personal and business expenses separate, and it may become more difficult to cover business expenses when they co-mingle.

• There are many benefits of utilizing a business credit card for business expenses (for example did you know you can deduct the interest?), but you need proof of income, like copies of business financial reports, to qualify for one.

 

• You'll only be able to accept cash, which closes the door to many potential clients. You can't take checks made out to the business name, and even if they are made out to you personally, new laws will track payments deposited to your bank and on any cash apps. Not to mention, many customers will shy away from your business because when you only accept cash, that is a subliminal red flag for illegitimacy and untrustworthiness. 

Personal Credit Considerations

• It is difficult enough to get a home loan or refinance when you're self-employed (as it is considered less stable income), but if you can't even prove your income from your business, forget it. You need to prove you make as much as possible.

 

• You need the bank to approve taxable income for a home loan. The bank will ask for two years of tax records and 12-24 months of bank statements.

 

• Remember when I said that it's beneficial to have a business credit card?  It makes it much easier to refinance, so you can prove your debt-to-income ratio as required.

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• Here’s another tip: Expect to be Googled by banks; your business must look legitimate.

Business Credit Considerations

• Renting commercial real estate is considered a "strategic investment in your future," according to TenantBase. To pass a rent credit and income check, you must provide an accurate W-2, a consistent tax form, bank statements, and verified pay stubs.

 

• If you can't prove you have a legitimate business, you can't buy wholesale.

Tax Benefits of Legitimate Bookkeeping

• If you pay your help under the table, you'll end up paying double the taxes on your employee expenses, even if you don’t report them. The money will appear to be income you need to pay taxes on, and you won't be able to subtract the payments from your gross income.

 

• Let's revisit that minimum of $400 in revenue you're required to file. Keep in mind, when you are reporting ALL your revenue, and ALL your expenses, it doesn't end up being $400 of taxable income, the same is true of any number. Read on to find out how.

 

• If you make enough money, you can receive significant savings if you can prove it. For example, if you bought medical insurance policies for yourself, you may qualify for the self-employed health insurance deduction. For work-related mileage, you can have car expenses deducted.

 

• When you reach the milestone of 100K gross sales, you can change your business structure from an LLC to a Corporation. This opens the doors for numerous tax benefits. One of them is that you can pay yourself payroll, have your income taxes deducted throughout the year, and then enjoy tax refunds off your losses instead of a heftier tax bill of upwards of 35% of your net.

For all of the above to happen, you must keep good expense records, set aside the appropriate amount of your net income to pay income taxes each quarter, and keep expense receipts, invoices, and statements from a business bank account. It helps to have a reputable bookkeeper, and in all cases, an accountant as well. (I am happy to share my rolodex of the business service professionals I have personally vetted to my business consulting clients.)

The Freedom of Marketing

• Do you want to make yourself look less successful to avoid getting caught? Keep the peace of mind that people see your business for what it truly is. Quality marketing boosts your reputation and helps clients spread the word. Instead of crippling your business, you embrace all the possibilities to grow!

 

• Covering your tracks takes a lot of extra time. As a business owner, you know that time is money.

The Psychological Benefits

When you decide to operate under the table, you subliminally decide not to reach for the sky.
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Please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that I love the taxation laws in America today. I am not saying that I disagree with you when you say that the middle class is overtaxed. I have felt the defeating feeling that it's nearly impossible to get a leg up when you're handing 35% of your income over to the government. But the journey from starting from nothing to achieving the echelon of incorporation proves something to yourself and the world. Anytime we accomplish the impossible in life, we learn we can do anything we put our mind to, and no one can take that away from us. Not to mention, you now appear to be well-founded, reliable, and experienced to creditors, landlords, and customers for time to come.

There are operational and tax strategies that you can employ along the way, with the help of a consultant like myself and a competent CPA, that can save you money. There are also organizations like the SBA who can offer you manageable loans that make sense and help you succeed faster.

How I Can Help

With 15 years of experience, I offer a variety of services that will help your startup grow, including business consulting and marketing. To succeed legally, fill out our contact form for a complimentary introductory consultation.
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If you want to work under the table, consider whether you want to grow your business and change the landscape of your financial life. Instead, run your startup professionally. The patient sacrifice pays off!

The first thing we need to do is assess why you are marketing on social media in the first place.
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Prioritize the following statements from 1 to 5, 1 being the highest priority or motivation and 5 being the lowest:
__ Because everyone else is doing it. If my competitor is doing it, I should appear next to them doing it too.
__ It is an affordable way to advertise.
__ It is a way to make a connection with my clientele and gain new customers through their networks.
__ It is a way to build brand recognition.
__ To execute kick-ass strategic advertising campaigns that make me money - if I knew how the hell to do that.

Now's the part where I tell you how you should have prioritized your choices, right? Nope!

Actually, now's the part where you get frustrated with me because I am going to say; it doesn't matter how you prioritized them. Each one of the above choices is a perfectly good motivation for delving into social media marketing for your business. However, none of these priorities will work without strategy and planning.

Strategy and planning! How is that making this problem better?

Here's how. One strategy session with yourself or a consultant (like me) can get most of your year of social media posts planned, if not executed. You will save far more time with strategy than you ever will with day-to-day guess work. You can schedule your strategic messages as far as ahead as you would like on your on all of your social media profiles and with tools like Loomly (which I recommend, promote and use myself).

"One strategy session can get most of your year of social media posts planned, if not executed."

Here are some strategic questions to ask yourself to get the ball rolling:

• What do you want to sell this year?
• How many of that do you want to sell?
• What are the best months to sell that product or service?
• When do people start thinking about buying what you have to offer?
• Are there subtle and creative ways to get people thinking about that purchase?
• Are there special days in the year that align with your offerings?

Now you are ready for purposeful posts instead of pop-up posts.
Does that mean there is no room for spontaneity or lightning bolt ideas? No, not at all. In fact, you should have both. You should also respond to current events as they apply to your area of expertise. But now you have given yourself the freedom to do it when you are at your best... when you are inspired... when your frazzled brain has had some rest from the life-sucking monster that is Social Media.

If you would like help planning your year of social media posts and learn other tasty tidbits like:

• Elements you can include in your social media posts that will help them perform better
• Learn what times to schedule your messages to your audience
• Ideas for creative posts
• How to plan an advertising campaign or promotion
• And much more...

then schedule a Social Media Planning Session with me.

1. You will be given a calendar tool that integrates with your email calendar to remind you of actions that need to be taken.
2. You will be empowered to take on your social media marketing on your own time and at the right time.
3. We will schedule purposeful posts according to a plan.
4. We will get shit done!

​Does wondering about your competition keep you up at night?
Competition is not always a bad thing; in fact, it can be good for business!

Not only does it motivate you to strive for excellence to stand out from the crowd, but a little investigation may reveal some opportunities like:

• Research how your services are different from others and capitalize on that by marketing the things that only you offer.
• Find out if there is someone who does a part of your service that doesn't bring you enough ROI or that you don't do, and visa versa, and develop a paying referral partnership.
• Network with services that are busier than you are and see if you can help pick up the slack when they are too busy.

Embracing competition requires you to go out of your comfort zone and develop friendships instead of rivals. Finally, remember, there are many kinds of fish in the sea. Even if you offer exactly the same services as another company, you have different personalities and methods, which will resonate with contradistinct customers. Nobody is you!

1. Websites build trust and so much more
Websites build trust; if nothing else, publishing one shows you are professional enough to invest in one. But websites are not meant to be “just a business card.” They can communicate innumerable more things than the snapshot of a business card. When planned right, they can draw your clients in, lead them to take the action you want, and provide you with consistent, legitimate leads.

2. It takes time to build a Facebook Business Page following
While Facebook pages can work well for an established business, it takes time to build a following on a new page. It’s not that it can’t be done, but it takes time, which means it also takes money to spend before seeing results. If you have much competition in your location, you will likely need to run ads while building a following. We are not witnessing Facebook ads deliver as accurately since many privacy changes have been implemented for targeting. When we research results like likes, comments, and follows, we are finding people out of the service areas we input for targeting. While Facebook ads are some of the best at targeting people’s interests, they take time and, therefore, money for the AI to start delivering to the right people for results. I am not saying Facebook ads are not a good idea, but without a website to land people on, it takes longer to get results when you send them to your Facebook page. When you have a website, you can get hits on your website, your contact form filled out, AND new followers on your Facebook page from Facebook ads.

3. Google Ads work better attached to a website
We are seeing Google ads working reasonably well for local service businesses, but again, if you have a lot of competition, you will need to pay more for results. It won’t take as much time as Facebook ads, but possibly more money. Google ads work best when connected to your website.

4. You can get leads without paying for them
If you have a website built right for search engine optimization, your website can appear in search results regardless of whether you are running ads.

5. A marketing strategy that includes a website yields success
If you engage in all digital marketing options with the right strategy and help, first and foremost a strategic, effective website tied to a Google Business Page, then social media marketing, and finally ads… that’s a recipe for success.

All this being said, this same formula will ring true for an established business that either has not yet built a website or whose website is currently not effective. You can have the same success by starting with reason one and changing your website from a business card to a lead producer. By rebuilding a strategic website, we have created this scenario for many local businesses; we are confident we can do it for you! Contact us for a FREE consultation.

SEO is first driven by location, so it cannot be more important to be thorough about it when creating business listings on search engines. DO NOT FORGET to enter in ALL your service cities on your Google Business listing, not just the town your physical location is in. And if you have a website, make sure they are all indicated in your content there as well!

SCHEDULE A FREE SEO CONSULTATION

In case you missed it, See Location Tip #1.