​Do you need more attention? Do you feel like your business isn’t top of mind in your community? People won’t buy from you if they don’t think of you. While the easiest way to increase sales is to upsell existing/current customers, the second-best way is increased exposure. These days—to stand out—you need to get creative. Here are a few ideas to help get your business the attention it deserves without breaking your budget.
 

1. Host a contest on social media.
2. Sponsor a chamber event or provide a donation in exchange for recognition.
3. Sponsor a youth sports team.
4. Start a Facebook group in an area that interests your ideal target market. Real estate agents, for instance, might start a group based on community happenings.
5. Write an eBook showcasing your talents, special knowledge, or expertise. Give it away.
6. Host a class at your local library.
7. Host a drop in Q&A in a public spot in your town.
8. Celebrate a national day with a giveaway (like a free drink with every slice of pizza on National Pizza Day).
9. Advertise at your local movie theatre.
10. Be a guest on a podcast.
11. Write a guest blog for a site that is popular with your target market.
12. Set up your Google My Business page.
13. If you are a service provider, look for ways to attach your company name to your work. For instance, a painter may ask the homeowner if they may place a sign in their yard while the work is completed. Some companies offer discounts for that.
14. Place an advertising wrap or window cling on your car. 
15. Advertise in a program for a large graduation or popular community event.
16. Apply or be nominated for a “Best Of” contest. They may be hosted by your city, chamber, or a local group.
17. Speak at an event and ask if you’re able to provide brochures or ask for sign-ups for your list at the end.
18. Email past customers and those who have shown interest in you. Send them deals.
19. Create a VIP group that receives special benefits for a minimal investment (like free shipping).
20. Become part of a monthly subscription box.
21. Pay for search results.
22. Use targeting on social media ads.
23. Host a party or open house at your place of business. Offer door prizes, swag, and/or free food.
24. Use retargeted ads.
25. Purchase a chamber banner ad, website ad, or directory placement.
26. Advertise with your local CVB or get your business added to the local tourist map.
27. Look for online directories in your niche and add your business information to them.
28. Ask for referrals. Answer reviews on review sites.
29. Create cool swag and give it away to employees, partners, and vendors—walking billboards.
30. Post to local Facebook groups. Be solutions oriented.
31. Tie what you do into current concerns. For instance, if you work in cyber security, now is a good time to talk about the current concerns. Educate your audience through the production of free resources aka content marketing.
32. Get into video. Bonus points if you can entertain your audience, not just provide good information.
33. Trade website space with other businesses.
34. Advertise on a restaurant menu.
35. Use Messenger ads.
36. Create a text offers list (with your customer’s permission, of course) and text out flash deals.

 
Marketing needn’t be expensive. If it provides good return on investment by bringing in more money than it costs, it’s invaluable. With these ideas you can play around with the right mix to find what works for you and provides good return and conversions.
 
 
 
Christina R. Metcalf (formerly Green) is a marketer who enjoys using the power of story and refuses to believe meaningful copy can be written by bots. She helps chamber and small business professionals find the right words when they don’t have the time or interest to do so. 
Christina hates exclamation points and loves road trips. Say hi on Twitter or reach out on Facebook.
 

​Whether your team works from home or in an office, whether you are a business of one or one hundred and one, taking care and making time for wellness is becoming increasingly important. Stress levels because of what’s going on in the world around us are increasing. You may not even be aware of the outside stress someone is under.
 
Making sure you create an atmosphere where wellness is stressed and made a priority is critical to successful performance. Stressed out employees make more mistakes and have difficulty making good decisions. 

5 Wellness Ideas for Your Business 
Host a Walking ZoomIf your team is working from home, encourage them to get outdoors for your next meeting. Ideally, they could walk and get some exercise with you but if not, encourage them to take the meeting outside (or if weather doesn’t agree, encourage them to try a new spot away from their desk). A change of scenery can be a pleasant uplifter and spur on conversation before the call.
 
Host a Sleep ChallengeCreate your own 8-hour sleep challenge where you ask employees to track their sleep and challenge them to get 8 hours of rest every night. Deduct points if someone sends a late-night email. Reward them at the end for those who improved their sleep.
 
Most people have a competitive side. If a sleep challenge doesn’t work for your group, challenge them to something else like a movement challenge to become more active.
 
Bring in a Stress RelieverWhether you bring in a masseuse or someone to talk about making mental health a priority, a professional stress reliever is a good idea to help ensure everyone has coping mechanisms in place when things get stressful, or they feel themselves getting overwhelmed.
 
Set ExpectationsIf your employees face the public, they could be under a lot of stress and may not always be treated well. Make sure they know you support them. While you never want a customer to be verbally assaulted by an employee, the same should be true for your staff. Make sure they know that while customers should be treated with respect, that is a two-way street.
 
Clarify Sick Days and Establish ProtocolsMany people come to work when they are ill because they either need the money or they don’t feel like anyone is doing their job when they are out. The thought of the pile of work awaiting them when they return makes taking time off seem like a burden and stress inducer.
 
You can talk about wellness all day but if someone who is sick feels unable to take time off to recover, you run the risk of increased stress prolonging recovery, not to mention their contagion infecting your team. Make sure everyone in your business has a backup person for their work or at least the most pressing part of what they do. If someone comes in with an obvious illness, send them home. Don’t make them feel like their health is secondary to the work. That won’t end well for either of you.
 
If you want your team to be more productive, you need to make wellness a priority. This does not happen purely by saying it’s true. You must lead through example in showing wellness is also a priority to you as well.
 
 
 
Christina R. Metcalf (formerly Green) is a marketer who enjoys using the power of story and refuses to believe meaningful copy can be written by bots. She helps chamber and small business professionals find the right words when they don’t have the time or interest to do so. 
Christina hates exclamation points and loves road trips. Say hi on Twitter or reach out on Facebook.
​

​At the risk of sounding like Chicken Little (you know the one who runs around talking about the sky falling) the current global “go-ings on” are the closest we’ll ever get to advanced warning that cybersecurity is something every business needs to worry about. Big or small, selling globally or just in your tiny town, if you do anything online, your data is in (potential) jeopardy.
 
Here are the things you need to do now. Seriously. 

Invest in Protection - While there are many articles out there that will tell you small ways businesses are at risk, it’s important to know that cybersecurity is something you will now have to consider as part of your business’ annual budget. Running updates as soon as they come out isn’t enough protection. Storing data in the cloud, isn’t enough if those cloud companies get hacked. Making sure your virus protection is in place…while all these things are good, they aren’t enough anymore.
 
You need to speak with a cybersecurity expert. Rest assured a good expert will offer a customized plan for your business and work within your budget. But cybersecurity is now something you will have to budget for as a line item. Move toward that now.
 
Don’t Ignore Warnings - The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI have issued warnings over the past two months about the imminent threats of destructive malware aimed at organizations with dealings in the Ukraine. However, the agencies believe it is only a matter of time before American businesses (with no connections to that area of the world) are targeted too.
 
The actions that CISA/FBI urge companies to act on as soon as possible (meaning today, start these things today) include:

• Set antivirus and antimalware programs to conduct regular scans.
• Enable strong spam filters to prevent phishing emails from reaching end users.
• Filter network traffic.
• Update software.
• Require multifactor authentication.
• Use strong passwords, single use only (not the same ones across every site you access), and change them often. Set your machines to require it.
• Regularly backup data offline. Yes, a few years ago we were told cloud was everything. Now we stress redundancies. Do both.
• Implement network segmentation. You don’t want to give access to everything through one “door.”
• Work with a professional to draft a recovery plan.
• Require credentials to install software.
• Configure access controls with “least privilege” in mind. If your employee doesn’t need it, don’t give them access.
• Consider a VPN. Over the last several years, it’s become increasingly easy to access machines and log in to work from home. It was essential to work during COVID. But now that easy access can cause big problems.
• Disable hyperlinks in emails.
• Train your employees on cybersecurity and potential threats. Even savvy employees can be tricked by coincidences. For instance, an email from “Federal Express” when they’re expecting a package can cause a lapse in judgment. While they may not normally click on something suspect like an attachment in an email, in this example it seemed legitimate because it fit into their world/expectations at that moment.

 
If you’re not sure where to turn to start working on these things—and you don’t have an IT department—check with your local chamber. They often know of resources in the area and cybersecurity experts who can walk you through what you need to know. Also, read the Cyber Essential Resources for Small Business from CISA. It will help you decide where to start and how to begin cyber security implementation to keep you and your customers safe.
 
Don’t wait for something terrible to befall your organization (and this goes for nonprofits, too. Your lists could be very valuable). If you conduct any sort of business online or have any lists or data on your computer or in the cloud, you need to investigate the necessary level of protection and begin a plan for implementation. Once malware strikes, even large companies with huge budgets are helpless.
 
This is a business threat that you need to be proactive about. Being reactive to this threat is the same as doing nothing and that just won’t do.
 
 
 
Christina R. Metcalf (formerly Green) is a marketer who enjoys using the power of story and refuses to believe meaningful copy can be written by bots. She helps chamber and small business professionals find the right words when they don’t have the time or interest to do so. 
Christina hates exclamation points and loves road trips. Say hi on Twitter or reach out on Facebook.
​

:When you run your own business, you’re the person deciding on the direction. You’re in control of start dates and marketing promos. You’re the one who must hold yourself back from the shiny object syndrome.
 
And yet, so many of us fail on that last one and it’s easy to understand why.
 
Open your social media feeds or search on the internet for business advice and you’ll find dozens of articles that tell you what you need to be doing for your business this year—things you need to implement, apps you need to download, widgets needed on your website, and a host of other projects you would be remiss not to implement immediately.
 
And they all sound so wonderful. Things your audience will love, will drive more sales, help you become better known.
 
But if you take off in hot pursuit of them all, you won’t accomplish any of them.

Pick a Goal, Pick a Time frame:
Yes, there may be many things you need or want to do for your business, but you have a better chance of completing them if you concentrate on 1-3 goals at a time. If you have more than three things you want to institute in your business this year, you can still do them after you complete the first three. Some professionals have new goals each month, quarter, or every six months.
 
Treat business goal setting the way you do eating. Don’t pile mounds on your plate just because it looks delicious. Take one helping first and when you’re finished with that, come back for more.
 
Cluster Your Goals:
If you have an auspicious agenda this year, cluster the goals that naturally fit together. For instance, if your goals are more followers on social media, being consistent in your blog posting, and implementing a new training program for your employees, know that the first two can easily be stitched together as good blog content gives you something valuable to post to social media (and thus, get more followers). The third goal is better as a standalone.
 
Select a Quarter for New Launches:
My writing business has two facets—business marketing writing and fiction writing. My business writing trumps my fiction writing because it pays the bills. But my fiction will never have a chance to pay the bills if I don’t give it the attention it needs to take off. The same may be true for an area of your business. For instance, perhaps you own a food truck, and you’ve considered adding a brick-and-mortar location. If those thoughts are just thoughts, your café will never take shape. You must open to see if your business idea will work.
 
But there’s a lot of planning involved before you can do so. Pick a quarter (or season or even a month) and dedicate your free time during that period to work the pieces you need to get closer to your launch goal.
 
Which brings us to…
 
Schedule Time and Purpose:
It’s great to use free time to explore ideas for your business but your free time is likely limited, and it can be frustrating to save something for your free time only to be discouraged when your free time is usurped by something else. That’s why you also need to set aside time in your schedule each week for goal attainment.
 
This is not an hour set aside to think about your idea, although that is a necessary thing early on. But if you want to be successful in meeting your goal, you need to map out what it will take and break that up into smaller, attainable pieces that you can schedule. In our restaurant example, a task might be listing all the restaurants in an area of town you’re considering for your café. It might be reaching out to the local chamber to find out what development projects are in the works. Whatever you assign for this time should be measurable. At the end of your time block you should know whether you accomplished it or not. If your goal was thinking about opening your restaurant, you may have done that but there is no end point. You could “think” about it for the next decade. However, if your task was to call three landlords for potential spots, you know definitively whether that was completed or not.
 
This year don’t try to do it all. Pick 1-3 things that will advance your business and map out how you will get there. Then assign time to make it happen. We all get excited about ideas, but the real excitement should lie in your ability to accomplish them. That starts with making the most important ones a priority. Just like in your personal life, you make things a priority by giving them your undivided attention.
 
 
 
Christina R. Metcalf (formerly Green) is a marketer who enjoys using the power of story and refuses to believe meaningful copy can be written by bots. She helps chamber and small business professionals find the right words when they don’t have the time or interest to do so. 
Christina hates exclamation points and loves road trips. Say hi on Twitter or reach out on Facebook.
​

IS IT ILLEGAL TO PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES IN CASH?
BY STEPHEN FIEGEL, ESQ.

AS A RULE, IT IS NOT ILLEGAL FOR CALIFORNIA EMPLOYERS TO PAY EMPLOYEES IN CASH. IT MAY, HOWEVER, COMPLICATE THE PROCESS OF PAYING ACCURATE PAYROLL TAXES. CALIFORNIA LAW REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON ALL EMPLOYEE ITEMIZED PAY STATEMENTS:
 
GROSS WAGES EARNED;
TOTAL HOURS WORKED (NOT FOR SALARIED EMPLOYEES);
PIECE RATE EARNED (IF APPLICABLE);
ALL DEDUCTIONS;
NET WAGES EARNED;
PAY PERIOD;
NAME OF EMPLOYEE AND LAST FOUR DIGITS OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER;
NAME AND ADDRESS OF EMPLOYER; AND
APPLICABLE HOURLY RATES.
 
MOREOVER, FAILURE TO REPORT WAGES TO ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY IS ILLEGAL. THEREFORE, BY PAYING EMPLOYEES “UNDER THE TABLE,” EMPLOYERS EFFECTIVELY AVOIDING PAYING REQUIRED TAXES. EMPLOYERS ARE REQUIRED TO WITHHOLD FROM EMPLOYEE'S CASH PAYMENTS AND PAY THEIR SHARE FOR THE FOLLOWING:
 
SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE (FICA);
STATE AND FEDERAL INCOME TAXES;
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE (FUTA);
STATE DISABILITY INSURANCE (SDI);
STATE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE (SUI);
WORKERS COMPENSATION;
OVERTIME COMPENSATION; AND
SOME OTHER EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS.
 
EMPLOYERS THAT FAIL TO PAY THE REQUIRED WITHHOLDINGS MAY RESULT IN SEVERAL PENALTIES. FEDERAL TAX PENALTIES INCLUDE REQUIRING EMPLOYERS TO PAY ALL AN EMPLOYEE’S UNPAID LIABILITIES.
 
ADDITIONALLY, CRIMINAL PROSECUTION MAY OCCUR. EMPLOYERS RISK INVESTIGATION BY THE IRS. TAX EVASION DEFENDANTS ARE KNOWN TO SERVE TIME FOR THEIR OFFENSES.
 
IN SUMMARY, IF AN EMPLOYER DECIDES TO TAKE ON THE RISK OF PAYING EMPLOYEES IN CASH, THEY MUST COMPLY WITH ALL EMPLOYERS’ REQUIREMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. EMPLOYERS MUST MAINTAIN ACCURATE RECORDS, AS PAYING EMPLOYEES WITH CASH ELIMINATES A PAPER TRAIL. 
 
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS ISSUE OR ANY OTHER EMPLOYMENT-RELATED MATTER, PLEASE CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT WWW.EMPLOYMENT-LAW.NET OR CALL ME FOR A FREE CONSULTATION AT (916) 333-4653. ​