However, this type of economy presents unique opportunities for the small business owner – in addition to a number of increased challenges.

As more businesses turn to business coaching as an alternative to costly business consulting practices as a way to grow their companies, business owners are also recognizing a greater number of positives than negatives in the current economic landscape.

There are three areas of focus business owners should look at right now are finances, marketing and delivery or distribution.

From a financial perspective, businesses should focus on controlling cashflow, which includes closing the “float” between accounts receivable and accounts payable, collecting outstanding payables, revising current terms with creditors (creating payment plans if necessary) and finding ways to increase profit margins while cutting some costs. Keep in mind that most businesses can only cut costs so much before affecting overall operations.

From a marketing perspective, businesses should focus on developing or expanding marketing efforts. This includes a variety of low-cost marketing strategies, which include but aren’t limited to, referral-based marketing, “test and measure” advertising and customer surveys which can help you adjust stock and inventories to higher margins or higher volume products. Most importantly, be sure to clarify your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that defines and differentiates your business in its specific market.

Finally, from a delivery and distribution perspective, businesses should focus on the overall customer service experience, from front-line team members, to making it easier for customers to buy, to guaranteeing products or services.

ActionCOACH Business Coaches recognize the potential for small businesses to grow and get ready for the next expansion – even in a slowdown because, in many cases, more money is made in a slowdown leading into the next expansion that is made in a boom.

Right now, ActionCOACH Business Coaches all over the world are working with their clients to get their clients’ financial houses in order, while also expanding their marketing efforts, because they know that many large businesses were started in a slowdown by owners who looked at the world differently than conventional wisdom or the media narrative.

In fact, ActionCOACH is a good example of that very idea. Our Chairman and Founder, Brad Sugars, started the company in 1993 during a slowdown in Australia, and expanded to Singapore during the midst of the Asian credit crisis in the late 1990’s.

When he started the company, Brad knew that changes made now will leverage results for the company in the future.

So there is no better time than right now for owners or would-be entrepreneurs to get their businesses on the right track, because when the expansion does take place – the serious business people will be miles ahead of everyone else.

If you answered yes to either of these questions, it may be time to look at host/beneficiary relationships.

The way host/beneficiary relationships work is quite clever. One business gets exposed to a customer database of another business in their target market, while the other gets to reward its customers with something important and of value. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

And it doesn’t have to work just one-way.

You can return the favor and have a reverse host/ben relationship, in which you make the offer of the other business’ products or services to your customers.

However you choose to work a host/ben relationship, the most important thing to know is that you must work with a company whose target market or customer profile matches yours.

If the customer base you gain from your host/ben relationship doesn’t match what your business sells, not only are you unlikely to get repeat business from those taking up the offer, but you probably won’t get too many first visits either.

The goal of the strategy is to introduce your business to the database of another business, so, ideally you would partner with businesses that sell different products but speak to the same customers.

For instance, a high end boutique could partner with a spa in a host/ben relationship to gain access to their database, while promoting the spa to their existing customers. That way everybody gains something from the relationship, including the customers.

One of the keys to making this strategy work is to offer something of value to the other business through which you want to run this promotion.

If you can make the relationship look good in the eyes of the host/ben’s customer, they will look like a business that is very appreciative of their customers and is trying to offer more value than expected. And it doesn’t cost the host/ben a cent.

At the same time, you’re growing your customer base, and your business, and it should cost far less than traditional advertising, while giving you the benefit of generating new leads that already have a relationship with you, thanks to your host/ben partner.

But for first-time franchise owners, there are many growing pains associated with actually operating and successfully running a business.

Personally, I’ve known many of these growing pains from my own experience of running a franchise.

The bad news is that are growing pains no matter what business you are in.

The good news, at least for franchisees, is that they can rely on a system and a network of other franchise owners who can guide and mentor you to overcome any issue or challenge you may have.

This is in stark contrast to the single, non-franchise business owner, who is on his or her own.

So if owning a franchise is safer, what’s the biggest growing pain in owning a franchise?

Number one, I would say, is actually mastering the franchise system and applying it in the real world on a day-to-day basis.

I’ve learned that a lot of franchisees think they have a better way to run things or they try to short-cut the system, which really hampers their efforts and success.

It is important to remember that there is a reason buying into the franchise system costs something and that’s because it is a proven system that has been duplicated and is proven to work.

A new franchisee has to trust the system and simply follow it. Following the system is a simple concept, but my experience is that simple is not always easy.

Second, getting and keeping customers is vital to your success, so marketing can be a real issue for new franchisees, especially if they are used to working on the operational side of a business.

Marketing is especially a challenge for certain personality types, but once you see marketing as an investment – and you start to run it as an investment that buys you leads and gets you repeat business – then you should see the true benefits of marketing as the key to your long-term survival and success.

A third “growing pain” for a franchisee is on-going training and support from the franchisor. Trainings that are too frequent or too infrequent can be challenging, and a staggered follow-up training program can be ineffective, especially if the initial training was not as educational, informational and supportive as it could have been.

If you are looking at a franchise, pay a lot of specific attention to the structure and the details about training and support. Educate and prepare yourself and don’t be afraid to ask questions before you buy in. If you don’t you might regret it later.

Fourth, learning how to be a business generalist versus acting as a business specialist can be a challenge for new franchisees, especially if you were a superstar specialist in your previous career.

As an owner, you have to learn to do a lot of things all at the same time. That includes managing, marketing, selling, recruiting and pricing. For specialists, those functions can be hard to manage all at once.

Fifth, cash flow is an issue for new franchisees, especially in the retail category because it can take some time to create store traffic and build consistent sales.

However, in a professional services franchise, the issue is the same. It simply takes a period of weeks and months to build up and keep a consistent and predictable client base.

Finally, the sixth biggest growing pain for a franchisee is managing a team. Management can be especially challenging for those who were sales superstars, but who had limited experience doing other things such as managing or leading teams. As those people soon discover, sales and sales management are two totally different aspects of business.

What’s the best way to overcome these challenges?

Hire a good Business Coach.

But if you’re not ready or willing to be coached, get as much knowledge as possible in the areas you are weakest in, and be prepared to be uncomfortable as you apply your new knowledge in those areas.

Remember, wisdom only comes from applied knowledge. And if you can learn from your mistakes, you’ll be far more successful in the long run – and be at or near the top of your chosen franchise system.

Other commonly asked questions are: Do I need to specific training and accreditation to become a coach? Where will I get clients, and do I have what it takes?

In order to make an informed decision about whether coaching is right for you there are a number of steps you can take. You should do as much research as possible and one of the best ways to get information is to go directly to the source, in other words, you can interview people who are already successful coaches.

By interviewing them, you can find as much as you can about the career and lifestyle you would be getting into. They can tell you the good and the bad; how easy or difficult it is, and how they got started. They can also tell you what important lessons they learned along the way and what pitfalls to avoid.

Becoming a coach is not a decision to be taken lightly. You should align yourself with a successful system rather than trying to reinvent the wheel yourself. And in this successful system, you must make sure you receive professional and in depth training before you get started. This will give you the resources, insights, tools and support you need to be successful.

This training should cover not only how to become a coach but also how to run a successful coaching business. It should be extensive and in depth. It should have an ongoing support system after graduation. It should be taught by experienced and active coaches – not by teachers who know theory but not reality. And this training should also include lots of practical information – not just a pummeling of information that you have to sort out on your own.

When looking into the coaching industry, beware of courses that are short and cost little. A coach is a professional service. Coaches earn similar rates to attorneys and accountants. You would not like to have an accountant who is not expected to keep up with the latest in financial and taxation laws in your state. Same with a coach, the learning should never stop with a coach.

The training should include all of the tools you will need to use as a coach. In other words, after training you should feel confident that you can start coaching straight away. If there is more work after you are accredited to get you coaching business off the ground – you will find you will lose many billable hours.

But as bad as things have been, things could have been a lot worse if not for the strong franchising segment in the country.

We’ve known that opening a franchise is a great way to improve the odds that your business venture will succeed, but to understand the major role franchising plays in the American economy, we have to look a bit deeper at the numbers.

According to The Economic Impact of Franchised Businesses, Volume III, which was prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the IFA Educational Foundation, the most prolific type of franchise, the business format franchise generated $654.2 billion in output and $378.8 billion of the Gross Domestic Product, or nearly 20% of the United States’ overall GDP.

At the same time, the distribution franchise, a different franchise model, generated $148 billion in output and $89.6 billion to the GDP. When the two categories are combined, nearly a quarter of the United States’ GDP is produced by franchises.

These numbers tell us some important things about the strength of the franchising industry today.
While small businesses all over the country need help to stay relevant (and in business), franchises remain the best bet, for both entrepreneurs who want to start their own business and for the country as a whole to dig out of the economic malaise we’ve endured for years.

These numbers reinforce something that most of us in franchising already knew. Namely, that opening a franchised shop is a safer and generally more effective way of generating wealth.

Being part of a franchise means you have resources to help you, systems that spell out what you can and can’t do and a blueprint for profits that has been proven to work.

So if you want to own your own business, it may be time to find a franchise model that suits you and look into that system before starting up on your own.

The systems in a franchise are already setup to work and, more importantly, they are setup because they work. Simply put, no successful franchise would be where it is today if their systems didn’t lead to profitability.

With that in mind, it’s interesting that so many franchisees, in virtually every franchise system, want to occasionally stray from the system they’ve bought into.

Sometimes that can be a small thing, but what many franchisees don’t realize is that even a minor variation away from the franchise systems can be detrimental, to both the franchisee’s business and the franchise as a whole.

One reason that working within a franchise system is so successful is consistency. Whether you’re in New York or North Dakota, you know what you are getting at a McDonald’s, but when individual franchisees start to tinker with the formula, it doesn’t just affect that one business.

Imagine if you ordered a Big Mac and it was different from restaurant to restaurant. What if, instead of McDonald’s special sauce, in California it was made with Ranch dressing? How do you think sales of the Big Mac would suffer if that were to happen?

When franchisees make changes on their own, it often leads to inconsistencies throughout the brand, which will not only hurt the bottom line but also the franchise’s ability to grow and develop new markets.

It’s the franchisor’s responsibility to make sure it’s franchisees are toeing the company line, but it is also the franchisees responsibility to practice due diligence in researching the franchise, getting all the information necessary to make an informed decision.

Once the franchisee makes their decision they should keep in mind that they liked the system well enough to put your money in it, and if the system was good enough to invest in, don’t changes to that system seem unnecessary?
Why wouldn’t you be willing to trust that the system will take you and your business where you want to go? After all, the franchise itself wouldn’t be successful if their systems didn’t work.

Instead of making changes on your own, talk to people within the franchise about ways to handle the issues that have made you consider deviating from the system and work within the system to change it. Don’t just decide you don’t like something so you will do it differently because that can lead to not only your business failing, but the franchise itself stumbling.

From the most basic organizational factors — such as what type of overall structure your business should adopt — to practical, day-to-day organizational strategies — such as filing and online document systems — efficient organizational practices help small businesses maximize potential, time and money.

Organizational Structure

From the structural to the practical, the organizational strategies you choose impact your bottom line. In fact, one of the first decisions every small business owner must make is how to best organize their company’s structure.

The type of structural organization you choose is based on your management style and financial requirements. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, companies should select an organizational structure that balances the benefits and costs of financial decisions. Each organizational type has different legal and tax implications, so it’s important to choose the option that best maximizes your business’ potential and effectiveness.

For example, as a business grows in size and complexity, it may be more effective to organize as a corporation — rather than a proprietorship — so the owner doesn’t have to both bear all of the financial risk and deal with managing the day-to-day operations. Businesses that separate financing from control often operate more efficiently, as more than one person bears the brunt of responsibility for financial management and operational management.

When deciding on an organizational structure for your business, you ask the following questions:

- How many money must I borrow?
- Which lender will provide funding?
- What skills does the business need beyond mine?
- How much control do I want over decision-making?
- Which type of organizational structure will minimize tax liability?
- How much personal responsibility do I want to assume for debts and other liabilities?
- If I have to step down, what would happen to the company?
- Which type of organizational structure will best help me meet my short- and long-term goals and support my business plan?

The SBA identifies several general organizational structures. These include:

1.            Sole Proprietorships
2.            Partnerships
3.            Corporations
4.            Limited Liability Corporations
5.            Franchises

Sole Proprietorships

Unlike other organizational structures, a sole proprietorship doesn’t exist — legally-speaking, anyway — apart from its owner. This means that the owner is responsible for profits, losses and legal liabilities, such as taxes. Proprietorships “die” with the owner, or have limited lives, though the entire business can be bought and sold as an entity.

Partnerships

The SBA defines partnerships as a group of two or more persons who legally agree to operate and share the profits from a business. Partnerships must have at least one general partner — who must assume legal liability — and can have one or more limited partners. Benefits of partnership organizational structures include the ability to raise more equity capital than a sole proprietorship. Partnerships have limited lives — they end on the death of the general partner — but can be converted into saleable shares.

Corporations

A corporation represents the most complicated form of organizational structure, as it is legally recognized as an entity apart from its owner. This means that owners assume limited legal responsibility for liabilities. Corporations have unlimited lives and are classified as “C” or “S”, depending on their tax status.

Limited Liability Company

A limited liability company, also known as an LLC, combines elements of partnership and corporate organizational structure. Benefits of an LLC organizational structure include:

- Limited liability for owners
- Transferable ownership shares
- Easy transfer of income to owners
- Lower administrative burden
- No board of director requirement
- Unlimited life

However, disadvantages include lack of limited-liability recognition in some states and lender confusion as to who retains authority in an LLC. When filing federal taxes, LLCs must file as a partnership, corporation or proprietorship, according to the SBA.

Personnel Organization

Small business owners must also decide how to configure the internal organization of a company. Just like a business’ structure, your personnel must be organized in order to maximize efficiency.  If your organizational strategy is ineffective or non-existent — you may need to start from scratch.

Without considering who is responsible for what within your current organizational structure, create an organizational chart. Choose a medium that you can change over time, such as a spreadsheet. First, define each task that needs to be done within the business, such as payroll, hiring, training, invoicing, network administration, selling and advertising. Once you’ve identified these tasks, group them into broader functional categories. These may include:

- Infrastructure and Administration
- Performance
- Sales
- Marketing
- Legal
- Research and Development
- Purchasing

Next, identify each category’s level of responsibility and the benchmarks or goals needed to define performance success or failure. When you’ve finalized your task evaluation, assign the functions to your business’ personnel, whether existing, re-assigned or new. Match personnel to functions based on factors such as:

- Ability to perform the tasks efficiently
- Capacity to assume responsibility
- Level of accountability for tasks

Assigning the right person to the right job helps maximize efficiency and effectiveness. Other commonly used organizational personnel structures include flat and tall.

Flat

Flat structures organize personnel in a “horizontal” manner, with less management positions than are necessary to create a “tall” structure. Flat organizations have only a few levels of management, and each controls a large or broad area or group. Flat organizational structures encourage employee autonomy, creativity and collaboration.

Advantages include better, more open communications between employees and management, increased flexibility, and ability to adapt to change quickly. Disadvantages of flat organizations include a larger workload for management, the potential for frustration when supervisors have more subordinates than they can effectively manage, and confusion as to roles and responsibilities.

Tall

Tall organizational structures, also known as bureaucratic, are named for their “vertical” nature, with a handful of leaders forming a “chain of command”. Some describe tall organizations as more efficient in that they focus on policies and results. As companies grow, they may add more levels of management, creating a taller structure.

Advantages include managers’ ability to closely supervise employees, clear responsibilities and roles, and an obvious promotion track. Disadvantages include lack of flexibility, slow communication, dampened employee creativity and low morale.

Practical Organization

Did you know that simply getting your employees’ desks, files and online documents organized saves time and money? According to a 2011 Los Angeles Times article, a 2010 study found that office personnel waste as much as one full work week each year searching for papers, files, office supplies and online documents. Adopting an office-wide organizational strategy can help eliminate time-wasting behaviors, saving money and time and maximizing efficiency.

Lack of office organization can result in more serious consequences, as well; lost invoices or bills can mean a late or missed payment; misplaced tax documents can result in late-filing fees; and poorly organized files lead to poor customer service, unprofessional presentations and eventually, client attrition. If your small business runs with a lean staff, as many do, there are less people to do more work, making it even more important to get — and remain — organized.

De-Clutter

One of the simplest steps — de-cluttering — provides some of the most dramatic results. Simply start with a small space and categorize everything within that space, from office supplies to documents. Have a garbage can, paper shredder and recycle bin nearby, as your goal is to trash, recycle and delete any and all items that are not longer necessary, useful or relevant.

De-clutter and purge of your electronic files and documents, as well. The de-cluttering process is no time for a gentle touch. According to the Los Angeles Times, only 20 percent of saved information is ever used — or even looked at — again.

Once you’ve organized the items you will keep into categories — following the simple rule “like goes with like” — set up a system to prevent clutter from re-accumulating. This can be as simple as setting aside a specific time — whether every day or every week — to process, sort and purge paperwork, including online and electronic files and documents.

Avoid the sticky-note trap; writing down important information on tiny pieces of paper and sticking them all over your office is a recipe for mess. Instead, keep a notebook or planner handy to jot down notes, write to-do lists and enter important contact information. At the end of each day, set aside a few minutes to transfer the data from the notebook to the computer.

Deal With Paperwork

Handling paperwork poses the greatest logistical challenge to practical business organization. There’s so much of it — yet more is always on the way. Keep your business from being overwhelmed by paperwork by creating an organized system.

One idea is to create a tower of stack-able trays. Create “In” trays for incoming and “Out” trays for outgoing paperwork in as many categories as you need, such as bills, invoices, taxes or accounts payable. Put papers in the trays in order of importance, with urgent pieces at the top and less time-sensitive materials lower in the stack. Place your tower somewhere that you can’t ignore it and set aside a daily time to process the contents.

Once paperwork has been processed, file — or shred and recycle — it immediately. Similarly, when mail or new paperwork arrives, sort it right when you get it instead of letting it pile up.

Maintaining Organization

Once you’ve achieved organization in your small business — on structural, personnel and practical levels — you may be tempted to sit back and relax. As attractive a proposition as they may be, organization is an ongoing process. In order to maximize your business’ efficiency and effectiveness, you must work diligently at maintaining organization.

Creating and maintaining organizational systems helps your business to run smoothly and reduces wasted time and money. Even if those systems are working, it’s a good idea to revisit and review them at least once per year — if only to confirm that your small business’ organizational structure is indeed maximizing potential and effectiveness.

This is the sort of question that drives Simon Sinek’s work, and it is ultimately the impetus for his book, Start With Why.

Simon Sinek began as a student of anthropology. He eventually turned his fascination with human behavior and evolution into a career of helping people to do what inspires them. His book, Start With Why, soon followed.

Sinek began his work-life in advertising, creating an advertising firm called Sinek Partners in 2002. However, despite the material success of this business, he eventually found himself losing his passion for the work. This prompted him to look inside of himself, and in the course of rediscovering what inspired him most about life and work, Sinek made some deep discoveries. These insights eventually evolved into an awareness of what drives people and motivates them to do what they do.

Sinek eventually distilled what he learned down to the powerful concept of looking for the “Why” behind human actions or proposed actions, and starting from there, instead of starting by pursuing an end result. So often, we believe that a business or financial goal is going to complete and fulfill us, and we use this as the motive for what we do. However, in stark contrast to this way of thinking, Sinek came to see a pattern in the most successful people, and it boiled down to a genuine, burning passion and belief in what they were doing. In other words, the most successful people seem to “start with the Why,” what inspires them most, and build from there.

After connecting with this realization, Sinek began to teach his message about this ideal motive for work, at first just to close friends. He charged $100 per person for consultations. Although he never intended to write a book, eventually demand and interest grew, and writing Start With Why became a way he could spread his message to more people in the most practical way.

At the heart of Sinek’s message are “Why” questions such as:

“Why do you get out of bed in the morning — what motivates you?”
“Why should anyone care about what you’re doing, what you’re offering?”
“What is the burning desire behind what you do?”
“What work would you do even if you weren’t paid to do it?”

Sinek found that the most inspired people and organizations operate from the inside out, starting by identifying the genuine burning desire, the “Why,” instead of starting from the outside manifestation or end result that is sought after.

Ultimately, says Sinek, people don’t buy what you do — they buy why you do it, and what you do only “proves” what you believe. As revolutionary as it sounds, the way Sinek sees it, the product of a business is ultimately secondary to what the business believes and puts forward energetically, for this is what people respond to on a gut level.

Sinek points out that this tendency is grounded in human biology — how the human brain and nervous system is actually wired. The limbic brain controls/drives human behavior and it is connected with deep feelings such as “trust” and “loyalty.” These feelings in us are inspired by beliefs, not by action plans, even the most articulately-explained ones. The limbic brain has no capacity for language — that is the stuff of the outer regions of the brain. Acting from the inside-out, from belief to the outer manifestations of it, corresponds with the limbic system. “Gut” decisions and “feel” come from this part of the brain. However, it is not connected with or controlled by language at all. Even “heart” and “soul” ultimately do not motivate us as much as the deep, survival-oriented limbic brain. It is the oldest, most basic and most primal part of the brain, and all deep action springs from it.

Sinek seeks to find, celebrate and teach leaders how to build platforms that will inspire others at this deep level, and Start With Why is his handbook for putting these ideas into practice. In terms of employees, Sinek believes that if you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll just work for your money. However, if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with boundless energy.

If you find yourself afraid to take action in business or in life, ask yourself, “What do I believe in enough to do anyway, even if I’m really scared to do it? What idea or belief is worth any amount of risk to me, even the risk of failure or embarrassment?”

Your answer to these questions is the sort of “Why” that Simon Sinek was talking about, and it can act as a starting point for a truly empowered business, project or any other endeavor.

Sinek believes that the world is made up of leaders, and those who lead. Leaders hold a positions of power and influence. Those who lead best and most effectively are the ones who deeply inspire those they are leading at the limbic level. Whether it’s one individual or a business or organization, people follow leaders not because they have to; they do so because they genuinely want to. People follow leaders because they genuinely receive something from the leaders, and the leader’s message taps into and resonates with their own core beliefs.

Ultimately, says Sinek, we follow those who lead not for them — but for us. We follow those who lead because their beliefs align with, affirm and energize our beliefs. The goal for businesses then, says Sinek, is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have — the primary goal should be to do business with people who believe what you believe.

Says Sinek, “For those who have an open mind for new ideas, who seek to create long-lasting success and who believe that your success requires the aid of others, I offer you a challenge. From now on, start with Why.”

Function

You cannot effectively hold employees accountable for their actions if you are not clear as to what these workers should and shouldn’t be doing. By composing a social media policy, you can put your social media usage expectations on the books and create plans for using social media as a means of promoting your business. Through the composition of the policy, you give employees fair warning of your expectations and empower them to use social media to positively promote your company. You also make it clear to employees which detrimental behaviors are unacceptable, decreasing the likelihood that they engage in these less-than-desirable actions.

Policy Drafting Team

Because social media can play such a major role in ensuring business success or facilitating business failure, your social media policy should be composed by a team of workers instead of one writer in isolation. When creating your team, gather stakeholders from different departments within your business, as each member of the team will bring to the table different skills and knowledge. For optimal success, this team should include members of management, IT and human resources as well as general employees. Instead of rushing to compose the policy, make policy composition a process and allow time for the team to draft the policy as well as time for review of the policy prior to implementation.

Employee Conduct

Because poor employee conduct online can reflect negatively on a business, most social media policies include a provision that outline which behaviors are and are not acceptable for employees to engage in online. Often, this section of the policy will include a list of specific behaviors in which employees cannot engage on social media networks, including posting negative comments about the business or customers of the business. This section should also include an explanation of the ramifications an employee could face should he engage in behaviors listed as unacceptable in the policy. To ensure that this section of the policy effectively performs the function for which it was intended, warning employees of which behaviors they cannot engage in, be specific to ensure you leave little room for confused or inappropriate interpretation of policy meaning.

Monitoring Brand Mention

The things being said about your brand on social media networks can make or break your business. As a result, it is vital that your social media policy includes a plan for how you will monitor brand name usage on these media systems. Many companies offer social media monitoring tools, allowing businesses to easily keep track of all mentions of their brand name. These monitoring tools also give these companies the chance to handle a negative mention quickly so the problem at the root doesn’t escalate. By explaining how you will monitor brand name mention in your social media policy, you can do two things. First, you make it clear to employees that you will be monitoring social media, giving them yet another warning to only engage in positive social media activities when mentioning your company. It also shows employees just how important social media is to building your business, allowing them to see with more clarity that your business is stepping into the future and using social media as a means of advertising and increasing profitability.

Response Plan

A major component of your company’s social media policy should be a response plan that you can put in place if your business experiences bad press. By sitting down and drafting a plan to resurrect your company’s good image prior to your reputation being tarnished via social media, you can allow yourself to respond more quickly to social media-related public relations problems. Because response time is key to maintaining your company image, anything you can do to reduce the amount of time it takes you to deal with negative press can help make your efforts to improve your image more effective.

Employee Training

After polishing your policy and readying it for use, you must share the new policy with your staff members. Your policy will be largely ineffective if workers are not aware of it or do not fully understand all that it entails. To make your training on the new social media policy as effective as possible, begin by sharing the print policy with staff members. Allow staff members a short period of time to review the policy on their own, giving them a week or so prior to continuing any training to familiarize themselves with the basics of the plan. After the passing of this allotted period of time, plan face-to-face training sessions. Designate a leader in your business to serve as the trainer and host these training sessions. Ideally, this trainer should be one of the individuals who helped draft the policy, as this person should be very well versed in the specifics of the policy itself. During each training session the trainer should both go over the policy in depth and allow workers the opportunity to ask questions about elements of the policy that they don’t understand. By engaging in this extensive training procedure, you can greatly improve the likelihood that your workers will understand this policy and see clearly what the policy means for them as workers within your company.

Policy Revisit

The trends in social media are constantly in flux. As a result, you must continually revisit your social media policy. Avoid the urge to sit back and relax post composition of this first policy. Instead, make it a point to pull the policy out and dust it off at least once per fiscal year. When you revisit the policy each year, critically evaluate its effectiveness and, when necessary, make changes to ensure that your policy is as effective in governing your business’ social media persona as possible.

Just as you gathered a team to compose the policy, revisiting it should be a team effort as well. While this team doesn’t have to consist of the same group of people that drafted the original policy, bringing these writers back the table is likely a wise choice, as this group will have a unique interest in, and understanding of, the policy and, as a result, will likely put an appropriately extensive amount of effort into the policy revision.

1. Free publicity. A newsworthy press release gets your company attention from traditional media in addition to blogs and podcasts. The best way to get this attention is to distribute the press release to industry related media outlets.

2. Traffic. Press releases that appear online bring traffic to a website. In standard press releases, the name of the company and its URL are in the release. Journalists and consumers can click over to the website. Increases traffic leads to more sales and profits.

3. Branding. Branding associates your business name with what the company does. When people hear the name Avis, they think of rental cars. The more often people and the media see or hear your company name, the more they are aware of your business. Over time, if the company gets big enough it becomes a household name.

4. Credibility. Another benefit of press releases is credibility. This results from establishing yourself as an industry expert or a leader in your field. People want to buy services and products from experts. As people learn more about your business through a series of press releases, they develop trust in your expertise. This leads to more business.

5. Showing professionalism. Issuing press releases shows that you are running a professionally managed company. People prefer to work with experts and professional in their flied as opposed to amateurs or hobbyists who have set up a website for fun.

6. Message distribution. Many companies have a mission statement, a philosophy, a message or a vision for the business. Company owners get this message across in a variety of ways such as with press releases.

7. Inexpensive. Some companies have in-house press release writers, but other companies hire a writer and a distribution service.  There are many online companies that offer press release writing from $20 to $500 so you can find a service within your budget. Ultimately, writing and distributing a press release is a great deal cheaper than using direct mail packages or newspaper or magazine display ads to market your business. Press releases offer a good return on investment.

8. Visibility. One of the most obvious benefits of press releases is the increased awareness of your business. Your business becomes more visible to potential customers.

9. Venture capital. Press releases also get the attention of venture capitalist or other individuals who may want to invest in your business. Getting funding for your business is an excellent way to expand your business.

10. Increased sales. Press releases let to visitors to your website and/or your brick-and-mortar store. With more traffic you make more sales and increase your company’s profits.

11. SEO enhancements. Search engine optimization (SEO) of your website gets help from press releases that are distributed online. The SEO improves your organic search ranking and gives the company relevant backlinks. A backlink leads back to the company’s website from the press releases.

12. Syndication. Syndication is the distribution of content across many platforms. Blogs, magazines, newspapers, radio and websites are all places for the press releases to appear. When published repeatedly across a wide variety of sources, the press release improves website traffic, sales, visibility and other benefits.

For many companies, press releases are a standard tool for marketing the companies. As an inexpensive marketing strategy, writing and distributing press releases helps a company to increase visibility, website traffic and, in time sales. A good press release announces new developments in a company and highlights its latest successes. The benefits of a good press release are almost endless.