“Ten-Second Solutions,” from What Works for Business, are quick takes on what’s new and interesting for small business and startup entrepreneurs.

Here’s a new batch to start off the month of March:

Free Website Creation Platform Launched: DevHub is a promising new web publishing platform that lets Internet entrepreneurs easily create free, media-rich websites, including content and advertising that can start making you money immediately. High quality ad partners include CareerBuilder, Shopping.com, Priceline and others.

Low-Cost Press Release Help: Free press release distribution services have one problem: You have to write the release yourself. A new site, Lowcostpressreleases.com, solves that with cut-rate help on wordsmithing starting at $49.95. Distribution included.

Save Cash with Remote Tech Support: With budgets thin, biz owners are turning to remote tech support for savings. PlumChoice is a remote, 24/7 tech support service catering to small biz. Certified techs offer a full range of support, plus advice and training. Starts at $9.95/month (first month free).

Save Money with Priority Mail Shipping: If your biz ships lots of packages that need to arrive in 2-3 days, U.S. Postal Service business Priority Mail is efficient, low-cost, and has benefits over FedEx/UPS like delivery to PO boxes, Saturday and residential delivery at no extra cost. Flat rates up to 70 lbs., get free packaging delivered free, and more.

Dex Relaunch Raises Bar for Local Search: Disclaimer first — DexKnows.com is owned by Business.com’s parent company. But hey, the totally rebuilt site is a terrific way for local biz to reach customers! Others agree. “DexKnows is smarter, more sophisticated and much closer to what consumers have come to expect in a local search site,” writes Charles Laughlin, analyst at The Kelsey Group.

Free “Office Live Workspace” Hits 3 Million Users: Microsoft still considers its Office Live site in “beta,” but millions have signed up for a free online workspace on the site, and are using it to bring people together and share docs with groups. Fantastic benefits, and all free.

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Got website woes? Here's help.

This is no time to be a website weakling. Competition for attention online gets tougher by the day, and having a web presence that works for your business during difficult times is vital. Here at Business.com, we see thousands of small business sites that aim to generate sales or leads online. Take it from our experts, if you expect a business boost from the Internet you can’t have a site that’s dead in the water.

Here are 10 killer mistakes that small businesses make with their websites, and what you can do to improve your online results:

10. Porky Pages:  Cluttered, slow-loading pages that give users headaches just looking at them are the bane of many a small biz website.  Avoid garish colors, multiple type fonts and large image files that slow things down.

9. Dorky Design:  Yes, design does count…for a lot. But it’s not all about how great you are. It’s about design that actually works to attract, keep and convert customers. Obvious cookie-cutter sites and over-the-top images undercut your goals. Customers are there because they want to accomplish something quickly, and your design needs to keep that in mind every step of the way.

8. Unborn Updates:  Incorrect or outdated info on your website is a certain turnoff.  If your latest press release is two years old or other content is clearly aging, customers will wonder how up-to-date and vibrant your business really is. Review and update all content on your site regularly to keep it fresh and timely.  

7. Laughably Link-less:  If people can’t find you online, you’re toast. One thing that makes Google (and other search engines) take notice of a website is how many other quality sites link to yours. Other sites are more likely to link to yours if you offer helpful information such as tips, white papers, newsletters, a blog or other items. Sending out regular press releases on your business is one way to build links. You can also seek links from professional associations, clients and vendors.

6. Vexing Visitors: Vast numbers of websites are just plain frustrating to visitors. They drone on about the company’s virtues, force people to hunt for contact basics, and fail to make the ordering process painless. Keep all order and lead-generation forms simple. The more information fields you require, the fewer people you’ll get filling them out. 

5. Offer-less Ordering:  Want people to order? Ya gotta make ‘em an offer!  Way too many small biz websites forget to include specific offers or a call to action.  You could, for example, offer free samples or quotes, a free newsletter, or discounts geared to what your intended visitors need.

4. Crummy Content:  Off-target and poorly written content will make your site look second-rate. Provide helpful tips, case studies and other info that helps your intended audience solve a problem or accomplish a task.  Avoid industry jargon, and keep it conversational. Proofread carefully to avoid spelling and other errors that can damage credibility. Hiring a freelance writer to create content for your site is a good way to go.

3. Overlooking Obvious: It’s surprising how many small biz websites fail to prominently display obvious info, such as your phone number, other contact information, hours and location. Don’t make people hunt for a separate “Contact us” page. Display your phone number prominently across your site. If you make it easy for people to call, they will. Be sure you have a process in place to follow-up all inquiries that come through your website, including emails.

2. Missing Measurements: Who’s visiting your website? Where are they coming from? What are they doing once they get there? What are the most and least popular portions of your site? What kinds of visitors are making you the most money? If you lack answers to such questions, you aren’t leveraging your site’s potential. Sign up for a web analytics service such as Stat Counter, or install web analytics software and start monitoring and measuring what’s happening on your site.

1. Keyword Clueless:  Knowing — and using — the proper keywords for the products and services your business sells is vital to online success. Even if you think you know what they are, unless you’ve specifically used a keyword discovery tool to see the precise terms that real people are typing into search engines daily, you haven’t done it right.  KeywordDiscovery.com and the keyword tool at Google AdWords can help.

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Got losses? File for refunds back to 2003!

While nearly two-thirds of the newly-adopted $787 billion economic stimulus package represents spending programs, the other third (about $288 billion) offers tax breaks for individuals and businesses.  According to CBIZ, a major accounting firm and business services provider, small biz bagged some of the biggest benefits under the new law.

Some tax goodies extend popular incentives that recently expired. Others expand tax write-offs for losses — which will generate quick cash for many business owners. Here’s a rundown of key business tax benefits included in the stimulus bill:

1) Longer operating loss carry-backs: If your small business had a “net operating loss” (NOL) in 2008, this provision could be a terrific way to generate cash by claiming refunds now of taxes paid in previous years when profits were flowing. Instead of the current two-year carry-back period, eligible businesses (those averaging less than $15 million in gross receipts) can now carry back 2008 losses to 2003, 2004 or 2005. And you don’t have to be a corporation or LLC. Even sole proprietors can qualify. If your business had a loss last year, CBIZ suggests filing your 2008 return early so you can then file amended returns for prior years and reclaim your cash.

2) Bonus depreciation extended:  In a bid to boost new equipment purchases (computers, machinery, vehicles) “Bonus Depreciation” – a juicy tax tidbit that expired in 2008 – has been extended through 2009 for most property, and 2010 for longer-lived assets. Basically, this is a 50 percent “bonus” write-off for the cost of new equipment a business buys and starts using this year. 

Say you spend $100,000 on new computers, software and other IT equipment. Under prior rules, your first year depreciation write-off would be 14 percent ($14,000).  But now you can get a 50 percent “bonus depreciation” ($50,000), plus 14 percent of the remaining amount (another $7,000). Thus, you’d net a total first-year deduction of $57,000 on the $100,000 purchase. This applies to businesses of all sizes that invest in tangible property or computer software, as well as improvements to leased property.

3) Bigger expensing write-offs for depreciable property: Higher expensing limits for depreciable property that expired in ’08 have also been extended through ’09. This lets your business immediately write off up to $250,000 of tangible personal property placed in service this year.

“The tax benefits of leveraging these two provisions can be tremendous” say CBIZ experts. You can quickly recover the cost of major asset purchases. But the provisions might not be around for long, so moving up equipment purchases to get the tax benefits now might make sense. Be sure to check with your tax advisor about state tax provisions since not all states conform to the federal bonus deprecation provisions.  

4) Estimated tax relief: If you report income from a small business on your personal tax return, you’ll get a small break on the amount of estimated taxes required to avoid underpayment penalties. If at least 50 percent of your adjusted gross income is from the business, you’ll only need to cover 90 percent of your prior year’s taxes to avoid penalty, beginning with the 2009 tax year. Previously this was 100 percent to 110 percent, depending on your income.

5) Small biz stock gains: Anyone who buys stock in a small business between the enactment date of the stimulus bill and 2011 gets a bulked-up break on capital gains taxes later on. If the stock is held at least five years, 75 percent of any gain can be excluded – up from the current 50 percent. According to CBIZ, the stock must be original issue stock held by a non-corporate investor in a C corporation with gross assets under $50 million. The company must also be actively engaged in a trade or business.

6) Tax breaks for hiring: The new law expands the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program to include two new targeted groups – unemployed vets and young people between 16 and 25 who haven’t been employed or attended school in the past six months. Businesses hiring such individuals can qualify for a $2,400 tax credit per worker.

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Feb. '09 cover of MagazineSOHO

SOHOBizTube.com, which launched Feb. 6, is a new business-to-business social networking site for the small office/home office (SOHO) crowd.  The site is owned by Milwaukee-based SOHO Publishing, which also operates MagazineSOHO, a print publication.

The idea behind SOHOBizTube is to help SOHO biz owners leverage some of the increasingly popular social media tools to promote their business and connect with other SOHOers.  For those unfamiliar with social media for business, the site can help you use tools such as blogs, video, podcasts, Twitter and — most importantly — connect you with examples of other SOHO businesses that are using these tools. It also offers a way for members who sign up to distribute their own press releases.

The SOHOBizTube site FAQ has answers to a long list of questions.

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Put a lock on your spending

If ever there was as time to watch expenses, this is it.  And I can’t think of a more apt app for doing so than web-based ExpenseWatch, which has just rolled out new components that help small and mid-sized businesses track expenses and manage payables.  Basically, ExpenseWatch is like shining a spotlight on your spending.

But more importantly than seeing what you’ve already spent, this system helps you anticipate future spending before it happens.  Such expenses can include committed purchases, invoices, unpaid T&E costs and other requests in process that — if approved — could bust your budget.

ExpenseWatch isn’t for really small firms. It’s sophisticated stuff that can help solve a variety of expense management problems — especially small and mid-sized businesses that still use manual or other paper-based ways of dealing with company expenses and accounts payable (AP).  The newly-released AP Invoice Management module makes sure that invoices are matched to purchase orders and packing lists, helping to do away with duplication, overspending and paying for things you didn’t order.

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Dear Dan: We’re looking to expand our marketing reach, and would like to explore how to promote jointly with non-competing businesses. Do you have some ideas on how and where to do that? - Partnering Up

Dear Partnering:  Why sell just one product or service when you could sell two or three? And why promote to only your own prospect lists when other businesses could help you promote to their lists as well?  That, in short, is what cross selling and cross promotion are about — two inexpensive and cost-effective ways to generate sales and expand your marketing efforts. Consider French Toast, a school uniform company that sells almost everything kids need to wear to school — except shoes.  

French Toast swapped coupons in its outgoing mail orders with shoe seller Stride Rite Kids. Both businesses were targeting the same customers (moms with school-age kids), but one sold school uniforms and the other kids shoes. So both could benefit from the partnership.

French Toast hooked up with Stride Rite at CrossPartner.com, a new website that facilitates such matchups. CrossPartner allows members to post, buy or swap marketing opportunities such as coupon inserts, signage, invoice stuffers, Internet banners, emails, menu ads and event sponsorships on its site. IntroNiche.com, another such site, launched in early 2008.

Such sites function as a marketplace where promotional opportunities can be sold or swapped by any business, organization or non-profit. CrossPartner facilitates the process with a customer profile search that lets users find opportunities based on market factors such as lifestyle, income, ethnicity, religion or even Zip Code.

So even if you don’t want to cross market yourself, you may be able to generate income by selling cross marketing opportunities to other small businesses. Businesses can swap marketing opportunities with non-competing partners at no cost.

Companies that sell business-to-business can also use the technique to join non-competing businesses to co-produce events, share trade show booths, link websites or pool mailing lists.

Cross-Sell Your Own Products or Services

You can also cross-sell within your own business by offering customers a product or service related to whatever they are already buying. It can be as simple as the waiter asking if the customer wants a salad to go with that main course. It’s a subtle way of encouraging clients to spend a little more.

And customers generally don’t mind. Surveys show that most buyers appreciate being told about additional products or services that might better meet their needs or about new items that were not offered in the past. It’s a way of demonstrating that you are aware of their needs and care about their satisfaction.

The key to successful cross selling is to focus your efforts on meeting the customers needs rather than simply pushing more products and services. Treat the cross-selling process like a suggestion so customers will volunteer more information about their requirements.  Here are some ways to improve your opportunities for cross selling:

1) Stay focused. Don’t overload customers with unrelated cross-selling suggestions or you’ll blow it. To gain the extra sale, you might simply need to mention that the other products or services are available.

2) Train your team. Build your approach around serving the customer, not just selling more stuff. Describe how the additional products or services can further solve the customer’s problem.

3) Cross sell online. Position cross-sell items on your website where they can help educate shoppers on the depth and variety of what you offer. Mix and match items.

4) Offer a range of prices. If you suggest three items to complement a product, try to offer a mix of price points.

5) Post expert recommendations. One way to facilitate cross selling is to state specific recommendations from professionals, experts or other customers. This could be a chef’s recommendation on a menu, a doctor’s recommendation on a mailer or lists of related items that other customers have purchased on your website.

6) Try product or service bundles. Bundling has long been used as a way to entice shoppers to buy not just a single item, but an entire group of items that go together. Offering a price break on package deals will help close the sale.

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Make surveillance obvious

As security pros predict a rise in crime, small business owners can help protect their investments by safeguarding against burglary, robbery, shoplifting and fraud which, according to the National Sheriff’s Association, cause an estimated 30% of all small business failures.”Crime can be especially devastating for a small business,” Joe Mac McConnell, VP of small business at ADT Security Services, tells What Works for Business. “The financial loss can be devastating, not to mention the threat crimes like robbery pose to customer and employee safety.”

ADT, along with other security experts, has developed this list of safety tips to help your small biz build a barrier against crime:

1. Provide adequate interior and exterior lighting. Interior lighting should be visible to those outside. Exterior lighting should illuminate dark areas around buildings and parking lots.

2. Install an obvious video surveillance system to serve as a prevention tactic, help with identifying possible criminals and deter fraud. Once cameras are installed, place security signs at points of entry to publicize the presence of those cameras.

3. Utilize a safe with a mechanism to make periodic drops during the day to minimize the amount of cash in registers. Immediately drop large bills to discourage potential robbers.

4. Use background checks and other methods to screen all employees before hiring as the best defense against internal theft. Train new hires about security and safety practices.

5. Install silent alarms to notify police and give them a better chance to catch perpetrators.

6. Reduce advertising banners on front windows and displays behind windows which can obstruct viewing into the store.

7. Instruct employees to be the first line of defense in loss prevention by greeting or acknowledging every customer who enters. Provide personal service to as many customers as possible.

As McConnell notes, while you can’t completely eliminate the risk of crime, “Small business owners can help minimize risks by implementing a comprehensive security plan including physical security technology, thoroughly training employees and troubleshooting potential weaknesses.”

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There’s something about 0% financing and one-dollar lease buyouts that small business owners seem to like. Dell recently offered just that on its EqualLogic storage devices. And strong demand has spurred Dell to expand the offer to include some of its Latitude laptops (E5500, E6400 and E6500) and PowerEdge 1950 and 2950 servers for tech totaling $25,000 or more. The deal is basically this: Lease for 36 months at 0% financing, and buy the equipment for $1 when the lease ends.

Dell is offering 0% lease financing on the Latitude E6500 laptop

Brightclaim, an Atlanta-based biz that provides claims services to insurance companies, needed more computer storage, but wanted to conserve capital. It used the 0% deal to land the storage solutions it needed to keep growing.

The 0%, 1 buck-buyout deal can be a good choice for small and mid-size businesses looking to “refresh” their tech to improve performance and lower maintenance costs.  The 36-month lease terms make for low monthly payments, and Dell will also do quarterly billing, rather than monthly, so you’ll have less paperwork.

And btw, if your biz needs a credit line, Dell Business Credit might oblige, with rates around 10% for qualified businesses.

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Are credit card fees crunching your cash? Noca – a new payment processing service just launched by some former Visa execs — gives online merchants a low-cost way to let customers pay directly from their checking accounts. This could appeal particularly to businesses selling low-margin, low-cost items that are pinched by credit card payment processing fees. Noca uses Secure Check, a way for consumers to pay for purchases using their bank accounts directly from a merchant’s website.

Noca uses end-to-end data encryption for security, and has devised a product you can get up and running in an hour — far shorter than startup times that run days or more for a typical credit card merchant account. Consumers pay you directly via the national Automated Clearing House (ACH) system, cutting out the complex web of banks and payment processors in a typical credit card transation.

Basically, it works like this:

·         Retailers with U.S. bank accounts can register for a merchant account online at Noca.com.

·         You can then begin accepting payments with Secure Check in less than an hour by inserting a few lines of code into your website. Noca provides integration with most shopping cart software. An application programming interface (API) is available if your business needs deeper website integration.

·         You will then have real-time access to all transactions using a secure web service interface.

·         There are no setup or maintenance fees.

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With budgets busted, small businesses are keeping computers longer, making PC tuneups more critical than ever. According to OnForce, a giant network of IT service pros, service calls to fix pooped-out PCs have skyrocketed 65% over 12 months as more companies opt to fix rather than buy. And OnForce projects a continuation of that trend.

Don’t wait until your PCs break or get clogged with digital goop — that’s both dangerous and expensive for your business.  WhatWorks:  Run PC tune-up software to clean out clutter, fix faulty settings and speed up systems.  To do that, go with the leader. System Mechanic 8.5, from Iolo, is the best selling PC tune-up software and has garnered great reviews from computer magazines and websites. It can boost your PC speed and help eliminate slowdowns, crashes and freezes.  Right now, What Works readers can get 50% off the regular $49.99 cost of System Mechanic with a special PC cleanout offer.  (If you order elsewhere, enter “CLEANOUT” as the discount code at checkout.)  The software is valid for three PCs. And while most features work forever, you can also sign up for yearly updates.

Here are five top System Mechanic PC cleanup tips:

1. Delete old or duplicate files, emails, email addresses, bookmarks and favorites. With System Mechanic’s “Remove Junk Files”, “Remove Internet Debris” or “Find Duplicate Files” tools, you can recover a lot of lost space .

2. Defragment your hard drive. This will speed up your access to files, again saving you time. A “Defragment Hard Drive” tool also defragments Windows system files, with further speed improvements.

3. Uninstall programs you no longer need or use. To make sure they are completely uninstalled and do not leave any residual clutter, use System Mechanic’s “Remove Installed Programs” to uninstall even the most stubborn components.

4. Once you’ve uninstalled unused programs, be sure to clean out your registry as well. Invalid or out-of-date registry settings can slow down your PC boot time. Use “Repair Registry Problems” and “Defragment and Compact Registry” featurs to lower your boot time.

5. You can improve start time further by removing unnecessary startup items. Many programs lodge themselves in startup without you knowing it. Remove them using System Mechanic’s “Optimize Windows Startup” tool.

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