Most Indiana Businesses start as an LLC (One owner) or LLP (Joint Ownership). This process takes only a few minutes by completing an online form on the Indiana State Website. This gives the business validity and is required for some business licensing and protects the owner in many cases from liability. It is not required, however, for most small businesses to form a LLC, Corporation or file with the State. This State of Indiana charges $95 to file in most cases.
The term Employer Identification Number can be misleading when you are operating a business without other employees. Essentially, the EIN is like a social security number for the Business, and is not always required. This helps protect the Business Owner from providing their own social security number on certain documents. There is no cost to get an EIN though you need to have filed your entity before requesting your EIN on the IRS website.
Since 2022, most banks will require that you have filed the Business Entity and received an EIN prior to opening a Business account. We recommend starting with your current bank to explore their business banking options and then speak to a couple others. Prior to speaking with a bank, you will want to estimate how many transactions (deposits/withdraws) you will have each month. You will also want to know if you will accept credit cards.
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Knowing your Marketing Area makes any campaigns that are run much more effective. This is where you want to promote your products and services not a restriction. In example, if you select Elkhart County as your market area, then you would be happy to sell to folks outside of Elkhart County – you just are not wanting to pay to advertise there.
Clearly defining your product/service makes Marketing them more effective. How will the customer use the product? How much product are they purchasing? (time, size, quantity) Why should the customer purchase the product – and why should they purchase it from you? Do you stand behind your product? Do you have raving fans that are willing to share their experience?
This is often the toughest for Businesses to identify. Who is your target audience? Many businesses would like to think every person is. Typically that is not the case. This can be defined in terms of demographics (age ranges, geographic segments), shopping behaviors, or personal interests. In B2B this is often defined by what other services they use and/or the type of business this is.
This information is used to determine the best form of actions for Marketing your product or services. When you know what you are selling (clearly), where and to whom – that makes your Marketing measurable. It also makes it much more effective. That means you keep more money in the bottom line – while growing it faster!
There are several things that you can do yourself to get your business marketing started. Here are some of the most common ones to consider.
We recommend before deciding on a business name to consider what website URL you will use. Ideally the URL would be short and be composed of a name that is easy to recognize in relation to the products and services performed. In some cases, an idea for a business name may need to be adjusted to find a more effective URL. Since this is an important foundation of your business – avoid rushing into a decision.
Historically, .COM was the best and often only option for a url. In recent years other extensions have been used which help align some industries. Use of a .CO, .IO, .AI is now as acceptable as .COM.
Setting up a professional email is a step in this process and crucial for establishing trust. Generally consumers get nervous communicating with a business that has a Gmail, Yahoo or (yikes) even an AOL.com email address.
Listing your business on Google is free. This takes a few minutes to do and usually will require a post card to be sent to the business with a verification code that is used to verify the business.
Once it is verified, complete all of the fields and be sure to add lots of high quality photos or graphics.
Customer rely on thsi section of search and it is not uncommon for a business to gain serious momentum just by optimizing this fully.
Did you know? A Google Business profile offers over 200 optimizations to help your business get discovered by customers looking to engage with you.
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There are 100’s of high quality websites that list local and National Businesses that get the attention of customers. Many of these are free to list your business on and they help customers find you.
Each of these sites have a verification process so the process can get a bit lengthy. Some will require periodic logins to keep the profile active so be sure to track your username and passwords.
Not sure where to startt? We recommend Google Maps, Apple Maps and other search sites to get started.
One of the most difficult, yet important aspects or marketing your business is the website. We deliver fully customized websites that are fully optimized and ready to start bringing you traffic. Utilizing our team of designers, graphic design artists and SEO experts, we make it as special as your business. Each website we build is fully responsive and content is tested across all screen sizes to ensure your customers get the message as beautifully as you intend it.
Every email you send says a lot about the professionalism of your business. Is it too new? Can I trust this business? Will they be around long enough to even consider them? When that email comes from a gmail.com, yahoo.com or aol.com (yikes) ..you risk losing any trust that the message could bear. Build your brand with one of the most basic elements – a professional email address.
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