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If you are in a small business you need to support your community as best you can and pay them back for supporting you all these years. Not only is helping the community the right thing to do and you should do simply because of that sole reason, but over the years I have watched our company do incredible business, as our franchisees helped their individual communities.

But what kinds of community involvement should a business do? What kinds of things can you afford to do and what kinds of things will return the on-going favor in a circle of perpetual motion allowing customers to spend money with you and for you to take some of that money and continue to return the favor?

Well there are many things you can do for instance join a local service club and volunteer to help out and donate your time, labor and perhaps supplies and resources to the cause. That is a very easy thing you can do. Support a local Little League Team or buy a backboard at the ball park? Donate money to a silent auction.

Why not host a fundraiser for a non-profit group you feel passionate about. You will be killing many birds with one stone and you will really be helping your business, community and feeling great about what you are doing; do it. Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

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A while back a small business owner paid me a visit. He wanted help marketing his fitness business to women. Before we even started talking, he handed me his business card. The card was very professional and said all the right things. But it also included a huge blunder.

He was pretty smart to target women as prospects for his business. After all, experts say that in the average household women control over two thirds, 75 percent, of the finances and are responsible for 80 percent of purchasing decisions. That means women wake up in the morning ready to spend money. Will they spend it with your business?

And what about women-owned businesses? Well, that’s a huge market too. According the the Center for Women’s Business Research, 10.6 million firms are at least 50% owned by a woman or women and the average growth rate of women-owned firms is nearly twice that of all firms. On top of that, women-owned firms employ 19.1 million people and generate $2.5 trillion in sales.

So if you’re targeting women as prospective buyers, you better make sure you know how to sell to them. And don’t make marketing blunders like my client did. Make sure your visual materials scream “women are my market” too. His didn’t. On the front of his business card was a photo of “rock hard men’s abs.” Ack.

Denise O’Berry helps small business owners take action to grow their business. Find out more at http://www.smallbusinessmatters.com

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