Why Micro Businesses Work

The state of the American economy is changing, led by the creation of small micro businesses. Born from both a desire for professional fulfillment and financial reasons, the expansion of these small businesses into the marketplace is growing more significant each year.

According to the SBA, 27.9 million businesses in the US are considered small businesses. Of these, nearly 22 million are considered micro businesses. A micro business is defined as a business with 5 or less employees including the owner. Because of their flexibility and low overhead, micro and small business are more likely to grow quickly and add a tremendous amount of jobs to the workforce as the economy progresses. Some reports site that up to 93% of businesses in the US are micro businesses, considering the growing underground economy.

More and more people of every age, particularly women and minorities are starting their own micro businesses because of the upward mobility and flexibility they provide. With control of your own business, you can do things on your terms according to your skills and passions.

Difference Between Hobbies & Micro Businesses

Hobby: I knit on Sundays. 
Micro Business: I knit hats, mittens and scarves and sell them on my Etsy store, my personal website, and in several local stores. I also offer knitting classes.

Hobby: I like to write poetry. 
Micro Business: I have written three novels, have expended $7500 in expenses and have $5000 in income. This would necessitate a Schedule C. These expenses are a write off. 

You can check to see if your business meets these standards here: SBA Standards 

Support Local Micro Businesses

Here are samples of several East coast micro businesses that have found success in doing what they love. 

ReikiMasters, located in E. Kingston NH has only three employees, but two locations. Two employees work out of the NH location while one works out of a remote office in Kansas. The Kansas office specializes in animal Reiki. The owner, Rebecca Dow, and her two employees are certified Reiki Masters. 

Rhodey SUP is Rhode Island's only fully mobile stand up paddle board rental, instruction, and guide service.  SUPs are big and difficult to transport.  Rhodey SUP eliminates that problem by bringing the boards wherever the clients want to paddle. Owner Darren Rome Leo has been a SUP guide for LL Bean for the past few years, and achieved an ACA level 2 instructor certification. 

Ampersand Bakery is a custom in-house bakery located in New Hampshire. Owners Natalie Kenney and Tim Bemis craft small batch custom cakes, cupcakes, and other yummy baked goods. They offer gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan options.  Both work full time elsewhere, but their micro business feeds their passion and provides unique and stunning baked goods as well as additional income.

Micro Businesses & Income 

Many micro businesses are a way for employed individuals to supplement their primary income with something they enjoy. The businesses showcased in this blog receive income from  $4,200 a year to $50,000 a year and though the income is meant to be supplemental, but can often become a primary source with success and life adjustments.

Tips to get started and to succeed:

Do something you love. Follow your passion. If that is teaching art classes or building websites—do it.

Keep books. Your income and expenses need to be reported with your tax return, so be sure to record every penny in and out of your micro-business.

Show up for work. A business, regardless of the size, is a business and you need to treat it like that. Don’t show up when you feel like it. Be consistent.

Be professional. Nothing spreads faster than bad word of mouth. If a client is unhappy, do your best to remedy it.

Always use a contract with clients. Whether it is $100 or $30,000, get it in writing. Have your business attorney look over the document to ensure both parties are covered in the agreement. Keep it simple. A one-two page agreement should cover everything that needs to be done.

Have a great social media presence. This includes your website, FB, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and any other platform you use. This is how people will find you.

Networking. Get out there and share what you do with people that otherwise would not know. Bring cards. Mingle. Many networking events have opportunities for sharing, so if for example you are a micro-bakery, bring samples!

Brand your business.  Make sure you have a great logo and tagline. Use this across all platforms: Letterhead, envelopes, business cards, brochures, website, etc. This sets you apart from the others and makes people remember your business.

If you need advice about micro businesses, website development, printed materials, marketing, social media, media placement, ribbon cutting planning, product launch or event planning, contact Spotlight Publicity.

 

Instagram for Business Marketing

Marketing With Instagram

Success for brands on Instagram takes more than publishing attractive images—it is the product of thoughtful strategy, a well-defined brand identity grounded in visual creativity and effective community management.

                                                                                 Alicia Johnston

Chances are the thought of using Instagram as a business networking application hasn't crossed your mind. There's no shame in that - very few small business users of the popular social app effectively apply its potential toward projects. By providing creative and interesting content that engages readers, an Instagram account can be just as effective as a 30 second commercial on network television. Instagram users make up 24.2% of the online population (eMarketer 2015). That equates to 77.6 million users altogether. The effect of using Instagram cannot be denied. It is a visual media powerhouse. Instagram is the platform of choice for teens and millennials, and this demographic cannot be disregarded in your marketing campaign.

The focus should be on originality and eye appeal, drawing on the strengths already inherent in the application. Instagram enjoys wide-spread use, crisp resolution, and fast load speeds. Pairing these with short and punchy copy can capture the imagination of your followers, transmit your branded message and prompt customers to interact. Marketing posts aren’t much different from personal posts on Instagram. What a focused business networking post does is use the tools available to reach your target audience. Instagram, and Twitter for that matter as well, both have a built in targeting feature called the hashtag, often seen as "#". By determining exactly what audience you wish to engage with is as simple as choosing the right hashtag for the biggest bang.

But in the battle for practical application, Instagram wins over Twitter hands down. After creating the mandatory visual image, the typing field will inform the user of the popularity of the hashtag being typed, while at the same time suggesting similar tags. For example, if you choose to post an image of the dinner you are about to eat and want to share it with the largest appropriate audience, spend a few moments thinking of possible hashtag communities that might enjoy the image. Good examples are #Food, #Foodie, and my favorite, #Foodporn. A recent post using these tags showed 210,340,675, 34,068,828, and 92,545,997 posts, consecutively. I also like to use #MMM at 3,735,238 posts, versus #MMMM at 700,364 - or even #MMMMMM at 291,724 posts. The more posts a hashtag has, the more followers pay attention to posts in that community. This translates to more views of your business networking application.

Using the post counter that populates below your message drafting space will help utilize valuable real estate on posts to gain the largest audience with the smallest and most concise selection of hashtags. Though there is a greater amount of space in an Instagram post versus a Twitter post, you still want to be aware of your 140 Twitter character count as you can create one post on Instagram and share it via Twitter. It’s a real time saver.

At the prompts asking you to tag people or add your location are a selection of five social media platforms outside of Instagram's control that you can post to. These are Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Swarm and the inevitable Twitter. Simply activate the platforms you wish to share with and your message will be forwarded to those accounts. Be wary, however, as the one fault on this sharing is that those social media platforms will not post exactly the same way. Though Twitter will post your message, it will do so as a link back to Instagram in order to see your image, meaning your audience will need to actively engage in order to see your full message.

Keep your message concise, engaging and accessible and you’ll get the hang of Instagram in no time.