Trade shows are rebounding as industry networking events that help promote brands and products. They can be valuable experiences for meeting new clients, as well as developing market positioning and learning about other dealers within your industry. While the key to effective trade show marketing is presenting an attractive booth represented by friendly communicators, budget concerns and planning should also be taken into account. To help you get the most out of your trade show marketing, we’ve compiled 7 key things to remember while planning:

1. Plan Far in Advance
   
   Research upcoming trade shows you would like to attend in the next year. Since booth space is usually limited, try to secure the best possible booth location as early as possible. Locations near the front of the hall, corners, food vendors, and restrooms will help give your booth high visibility. In the event you cannot afford a booth, you can still attend trade shows to network and market your business.
2. Distribute a Press Release
   
   One of the best ways to get attention from media, potential clients and other trade show attendees is to send press releases about your booth in advance. Postcards also make excellent vehicles for press releases because they can be read quickly and stored easily. PRWeb  is a great resource for creating, distributing, and tracking press releases.
3. Create Marketing Materials
   
   Prepare and order handouts that attendees can take home well in advance. Keep your trade show marketing messages simple and be sure to include contact information. Business cards and flyers are low cost, yet effective marketing tools. Try to make your business cards stand out in some way, so that they don’t get lost in a pile. Get inspired by this article featuring creative, intelligent business cards.
4. Invest in Portable Exhibits 
   
   Keep exhibits as small and as portable as possible without sacrificing appearance. Some of the most affordable yet presentable booths are lightweight and can fold into shippable tabletop units.
5. Design Attractive Signage
   
   Create an eye-catching banner of your logo to display at the top of the booth. Use another sign that summarizes your mission or positioning statement in six words or less. Messages will be most memorable if they are quick and easy to read. Skyline Exhibits is one resource that can help with both signage and exhibits, and also offer frequent webinars for trade show education.
6. Practice Presentation
   
   The most important aspect of any trade show presentation is more about the presenter than the booth. Aim to send outgoing representatives with adequate product knowledge that can capture and engage your prospects. If part of your goal is to book sales, keep in mind that you will probably want to send someone with sufficient sales experience.
7. Follow Up
   
   Collect as many business cards and details as possible at the event so that you can follow up with potential clients and resources. An app like Card Munch can help organize these cards without the mess. Taking notes on relevant trade show contacts can help accelerate the process of developing relationships and meeting individual needs in the future.  Keep in mind that email may be a way to save time, but calling individuals on the phone will likely have a more dramatic impact on sales or building relationships. 

Good luck and we hope that you’ll find these tips useful at your next trade show. Remember to review the trade show and see if it was worth your investment before considering reserving a spot for the next year. If you’re interested in reading more about trade show strategies and the best ways to follow up, take a glance at these articles:

• 10 Tips for Working a Trade Show
• 4 Steps For Judging the ROI of a Trade Show

 If you have any strategies that you’ve found to be successful, please share them below! 

Our New Online Client Dashboard is Live!

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We are excited to announce our new Online Client Dashboard! This new feature will make it easier to maintain your business records. Inside, you’ll have convenient and immediate access to:

If you are a client, you should have received an email including your login username and password. If you did not receive this email, please visit the live chat on our website or call 800.421.2661 to receive your credentials!

We look forward to hearing your feedback and hope that this helps maintaining your business much easier!

In today's dynamic business environment, it is important for your small business to be on the cutting-edge of technology both in the office and on the go.  Having office capabilities and access to your small business information is now becoming available anywhere you are thanks to mobile apps. Take a look at these 7 useful apps for small business owners: 

• Square Register: Square Register allows you to accept payments from Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover, anywhere you are, by plugging a compact card swipe machine into to your mobile device.  A 2.75% fee is charged per transaction. There are no contracts or monthly fees and funds will be deposited to your linked bank account within a few days.
• Quickbooks: This mobile app allows you to have access to and manage customer invoices, monitor payments, while tracking and creating sales receipts, all from the comfort of your phone or tablet.
• Pageonce: Pageonce allows you to see an overview of all of your business's bank accounts, bills, and credit cards on one user-friendly mobile interface. You can see more details about bill due dates, account transactions, and can even pay your business's bills with this app.
• Dropbox: This app is essential for all of your documents, presentations, and files.  Store important business files "in the cloud" so that no matter where you are, you can access them.
• Elance: When you're running a small business, your manpower can be sometimes limited and the knowledge base of you and your employees may be concentrated on your business goals.  As you decide that you need someone with marketing experience to help with the launch of a new product, hop on Elance mobile and put an ad out or contact for a job seeker for freelance work.  Find programmers, mobile developers, designers, writers, and more. 
• Salesforce: This app is perfect for keeping your customer's contact information, correspondence, files, and sales efforts at your fingertips.  Whether you’re at the airport, waiting for a haircut, or lying on the beach in the Bahamas, you can easily access information on your customers.
• Zendesk: Zendesk is a customer service app that allows you to create, organize, and complete customer service related queries. If you get a call from a customer with an issue, you can create a ticket to monitor and track the issue from the time its received it to its final correction.  This app will help you see all your customer's outstanding issues and prioritize and work through them as quickly as possible

Setting up payroll for your small business doesn't have to be a daunting task.  You'll find that here are many benefits to establishing a payroll system.  In addition to saving you time, it can keep you from incurring any IRS penalties.  We’ve outlined these seven steps to help you set up your small business payroll system in no time.  

1. Obtain an EIN. You must make sure that you have an Employer Identification Number, or an EIN. This number is used when you report employee information or taxes and other documents to the IRS. If you have not obtained an EIN, you can click here for more information. 
2. Check State & Local ID Requirements. Different state and local government agencies require a business to also get an ID number so they can process local taxes.  Check with your state or local government agency.
3. Fill Out the Proper Forms. Have your new employees fill out W-4 forms (Federal Income Tax Withholding form).  Once your employee completes the form, these forms will allow you to withhold the right amount of taxes from the employee's pay.  You also want to be sure to withhold the right amount of taxes depending on if the employee is an independent contractor or an employee.  Business.gov provides an easy-to-understand distinction between the two.
4. Decide on a Pay Period. Some states predetermine employer pay periods, so be sure to review your local regulations.
5. Maintain Careful Documentation. This includes compensation, paid time off, overtime pay as well as health plan premiums, retirement and any other contributions.
6. Choose a Payroll System. You can choose to run payroll in house or use an outsource service . If you’re considering in-house payroll, you can find software to maintain your payroll. Keep in mind that in-house payroll can be time consuming, and if you do not pay close attention to detail, you may face penalties as a result of small mistakes. Outsourcing your payroll can also save you time. Using an experienced accountant or payroll service provider may save you time and money in the long run. Don’t forget to consult within your network – ask other small business owners how they’ve handled their payroll to gain a better understanding of your options.
7. Preserve Well Kept Records. Make sure you’re aware of proper record keeping techniques.  You must keep W-4s on file for every active employee. After an employee is no longer working for you, you are still required to keep copies of their forms for an additional three years thereafter.  

With a little research and simple organization, you will have your small business payroll set up and running.  Review your options and understand what will work best for you. Don’t forget to network with your peers to gain a better understanding of the best options for people in your industry. Remember to follow all IRS and/or local government instructions carefully; when in doubt, ask a professional accountant for advice. 

For small business owners like you, trying to find your first employee can be a challange. When hiring employees, small business owners must ensure that they are meeting their tax and legal obligations, and you must also make sure that you are hiring the "right" candidates for the job. In order to most successfully hire your first employees, we’ve outlined 8 key steps to finding the perfect fit.

• Obtain an EIN or an Employer Identification Number if one has not already been assigned to the company. 
• Open bank accounts in your company's name if one does not already exist. Employees' pay should be taken from these accounts.
• Obtain copies of all of the documents necessary to report the new hire to the government and to operate the business legally. The Small Business Administration (SBA) has published a description of all of these forms on its website.
• Create a job description. The job description should be accurate and understandable, and it should include an overview of both the company and the position (i.e., tasks involved, qualifications, salary range, etc.). More tips for writing effective job descriptions can be found online via Inc.com and the Small Business Administration’s website.
• Publish the job description. You have many outlets to find your perfect fit. Try publishing the description on your company's website, on job-search websites, social media sites, and even in the newspaper. Here's a great article outlining 10 places for you to start your search. The open position can also be promoted by recruiting firms, or presented at career fairs. Make sure it is visible to the best potential candidates for the job itself.
• Create a list of questions to ask prospective job candidates. For ideas, check out Monster.com's list of 100 potential interview questions.
• Conduct the interviews. Make sure to include company and job-specific questions, and always be cognizant of the "7 C's."
• After conducting interviews, select the best candidate for the job and extend an offer.
• Start working!

By following the steps described above, you can be sure that you’re meeting all of your obligations and that you’re hiring the best possible candidates for your jobs - the first time and every time!

When forming a corporation, you’ll come across the term “officers.” This is a term unique to corporations and does not apply to Limited Liability Companies. Your Board of Directors is the governing body of a corporation who is elected by shareholders. The directors are then responsible for selecting the officers of the corporation and for the supervision and general control of the company.

An officer can be defined as individuals appointed by the board of directors who are responsible for carrying out the board's policies and for making day-to-day decisions. The necessary positions and duties of officers are typically set forth and stated during the creation of your corporation’s bylaws.

Here, we briefly describe 4 commonly valuable officer roles and their duties in the corporation.

• President. The president is responsible for managing daily operations of your corporation. If you do not have a chairperson, your president will preside over all meetings of the board of directors. You may want to consider appointing a Vice President to fulfill the president’s duties, should the president be unavailable. However, it is important to note that if the president is to leave a company, the vice president does not automatically assume the position of president.
• Secretary. Your secretary will be responsible for maintaining your corporate records and is commonly responsible for recording minutes during your meetings. If your bylaws state that you must notify shareholders and directors of meetings, your secretary would be responsible for sending out the notification.
• Treasurer. Treasurers will maintain corporate account books, including your profits, losses, assets, and other pertinent tax information. Your treasurer may or may not be involved with daily financial record keeping, depending upon how you set forth their duties in your corporate bylaws. If they do not partake in daily bookkeeping, you may decide to have the treasurer oversee the daily activity of your internal accountant.
• Assistant Positions. If you have a large corporation, you may find it beneficial to create assistant secretaries and treasurers. These assistant positions can help you to proficiently manage workloads while saving time if you have multiple offices. Creating assistant positions also offers the opportunity to boost employee morale without significantly changing their specific career duties.

While these are the most common roles and duties of officers of a corporation, you may find that you do not need to fulfill all of the above mentioned positions. Keep in mind that we do recommend having a president and secretary at minimum.

If you’d like to learn more about the common characteristics of corporations, take a look at our previous blog post. As always, if you have any questions that aren’t answered on our blog or in our Learning Center, one of our incorporation specialists would be happy to assist you by calling 800.421.2661. 

There are only 4 days left in 2012 and this means that it’s time to start thinking about the sometimes dreaded New Year’s Resolution.  Chances are you’ve been reviewing your past year - deciding what worked, what didn’t, and what to do in 2013. Since this can be a hectic time for many businesses, we’ve created a checklist of 4 Key New Year’s Resolutions For Small Business Owners.

Protect Your Assets.

• Form  a Corporation or a Limited Liability Company. If you have not done this already, you should form a Corporation or a Limited Liability Company in order to gain protection. In doing this, you’ll separate your personal assets from the assets of your company, leaving you less vulnerable to personal damage in the event of a lawsuit.

• Review Annual State Requirements. Most states require Corporations and LLCs to file an Annual Report or pay an annual fee. These requirements do vary by state, so it’s best that you review your state’s specifications. You can find the requirements on most Secretary of State Division of Corporation websites and can also review our State Specific Information section. Take note of due dates and schedule reminders for filing and payment deadlines.

• Maintain an active Registered Agent. You’ll also find that your state of incorporation or formation requires you to maintain an active Registered Agent. To review the duties of a Registered Agent, you can take a look at our previous blog article.

• Obtain or update all required business licenses. Business licenses are handled at state and county levels. If you need help obtaining a business license, you can visit our Business License section. If you have already obtained a business license, check the expiration date and arrange for any necessary renewals.

Update Your Website.

• Do a Review. Check pricing, contact information, and general content for accuracy. If you have changed your phone number or email address, it’s crucial to provide this updated information. Your website is the main way your clients will contact you and you wouldn’t want your clients being lead to a dead end. If you provide time sensitive information, make sure you have someone consistently updating the content.

• Update design for a better user experience. Outdated web design can be a turn off for many potential clients. Make sure that your site is easily navigable and provides a friendly, easy experience for both current and potential clients.

• Include links to your social media pages. Make sure that you’re linking to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media accounts. These are great ways to expand your online presence and attract new clients. You’ll find the guidelines for adding buttons on the social media form’s website. For example, take a look at Twitter.

• Provide relevant educational information. This can be displayed on your blog or frequently asked question section. Any educational information is a great takeaway for your clients and it is something that they’re inclined to pass on to other people. This is a great way to start having the web link back to your site.

• Check for mobile viewing optimization. You’ll find that many people are probably viewing your website from their cell phone, or other mobile viewing device. Make sure your site is still easily navigated, even in the mobile view.

Introduce Something New.

• Create Social Media accounts. Create a Facebook page, Twitter Account, and LinkedIn page for your business to get started. These are great outlets to find new customers, announce promotions, and stay in touch with your audience. You’ll find many other social media outlets out there, including Pinterest, which is great for retail based businesses.

• Start a Blog. Starting a blog can help your organic search engine optimization. This will help drive traffic to your website, and it is also a great way to provide your clients with resourceful, educational information.

• Offer Coupons or Deals. This can be done through new platforms such as QR Codes linking to social media, or can be done in more traditional format, such as postal mail. Either way, a coupon or deal is a great way to ramp up visits to your website and increase revenue.

Expand Your Network.

• Join LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social network for business professionals. This is a great way for you to connect with industry professionals and spread the word about your business and services. LinkedIn recently introduced company pages, where you can list your products or services and share your company background. You can also help answer questions in group discussion boards and find local networking events in your area.

• Attend networking events. Your social network should extend beyond your social media websites. Take time to find local events where you can share your knowledge and make connections. 

We hope that these resolutions can alleviate some stress from your new year! If you have any questions or needs to check that you've completed your annual requirements, please contact our office. 

You can download the Checklist for free below to help keep you on track in 2013!

Believe it or not, 2012 is rapidly coming to an end. During this time, you should start reviewing your annual business requirements. If you’re a corporation, have you held your annual meeting? Annual meetings are required for corporations and this where your corporate minute requirements will be met.

Typically, only one meeting per year will be required, but the amount required can vary by state. You may also have addressed the need for more than one annual meeting when you created your bylaws. You should review your state statutes and bylaws to determine how many meetings you’ll need to have. These meetings can be broken down into two types, Regular and Special.

While annual meetings may sound very formal, small businesses have the flexibility to conduct it more like a discussion.

Here are 4 Tips For Have an Easy Annual Meeting:

• Create an Agenda. This can consist of your discussion topics and what you’d like to resolve. It may include reviewing past meeting minutes, annual upkeep, new business issues, previous business solutions, or future meetings.
• Decide on a “moderator.” This person may also be known as the presiding officer. They will follow the agenda, prevent repetitive discussions, and keep the meeting moving.  The moderator can also formally conclude discussion or preside over votes.
• Have your quorum present. A quorum is the percentage or proportion of voting shares required to be represented in person or by proxy to constitute a valid shareholders meeting, or the number of directors required to be present for a valid meeting of the board.
• Take advantage of technology. Many states allow annual meetings to be held via conference call. There are multiple services that offer this function available to you at little to not cost. Conference calls are an easy, effective way to meet your quorum. 

During your meeting, make sure that you’re keeping notes of everything discussed. These notes will fulfill your annual corporate minutes requirements. These, too, can be structured less formally than your initial articles of incorporation in bylaws. A few key things to include your minutes are…

• Date, time, and location of meeting.
• People present at the meeting.
• Nature of the meeting.
• Chairperson(s).
• Any actions taken or decisions made. 

This is the first of our series of year end business reminders. Be sure to check your state requirements and bylaws, and hold your annual meeting if you haven’t already. Don’t forget to keep your minutes!

If you’re newly incorporated and have not created your bylaws, we offer a corporate kit that will make creating your bylaws very simple. 

When deciding on an entity type for your business, you should review how taxes will be handled. Not all entity types are taxed the same way. In this post, we’ll highlight how Limited Liability Companies are taxed differently than corporations.

One feature that Limited Liability Companies do not share with Corporations is their tax options. Limited Liability Companies have the option to do partnership taxation. This process is only available to partnerships, S Corporations, and Limited Liability Companies, and may also be known as “pass through taxation.”

LLC Pass Through Taxation can be broken down into the following 3 characteristics…

• Pass through taxation creates a situation where the business entity will not be taxed.
• Income passes through the business entity to its members.
• How the LLC will report their annual income will depend on its number of members.

This pass through taxation option is one of the notable characteristics of Limited Liability Companies. As always, it is best to do your research. When reviewing an entity type and its tax options, we usually recommend consulting an accountant in order to better understand your options and how you can achieve the maximum benefit for your business. 

If you'd like more information about Limited Liability Companies and how they can differ from Corporations, you can visit our Entity Comparison Chart. Our free Pass Through Taxation Info Sheet (available below) highlights information about pass through taxation, along with defining the most common characteristics of Limited Liability Companies.

Incorporating is an important step to providing you and your business with more security. Corporations historically started as a means for people to gather their finances for large business endeavors, while benefitting from protection from liability. Without such protection measures, people were less likely to invest in projects, leading to the continuation of corporations.  

This limited liability feature is one of the most prominent features of corporations and limited liability companies. You can protect your personal assets by incorporating or forming a company. When you do so, you are creating a legal entity that is separate from yourself. This means that your personal assets and your business assets will be separate. In the event of a lawsuit or if your business should fail, your personal assets cannot be touched.

As an owner, you are separate from the legal business entity, but you still must be sure to follow all state rules and regulations regarding your corporation or limited liability company.

A few steps to insure that you protect your assets include…

• Creating proper articles of incorporation and bylaws, along with any other set state requirements.
• Acting in accordance to the company’s articles and bylaws.
• Vigilant recordkeeping habits, including attention to detail.
• Maintenance of annual taxes. 

Aside from these basic steps, there are further ways to maximize your liability protection. Here, we’ve noted 3 Key Do’s and Don’ts that will help you protect your assets. 

Once you incorporate your business, you are on the road to protecting your personal assets. You should keep in mind that there are still legal obligations for you to follow in order to achieve maximum liability protection. If you’d like to learn more about incorporation and its benefits, check out our Learning Center. You can also learn more about state specific requirements by visiting our detailed State Database.   

Our “How Incorporating Protects Your Personal Assets” info sheet summarizes asset protection strategy and other benefits of incorporating. It’s available for free download by clicking the button below!