It’s no surprise that the pandemic, coupled with governmental stay-at-home orders, has dramatically impacted the commercial real estate market. While some organizations are realizing they may have more workspace than they need and are considering downsizing, other companies are strategizing how to negotiate or renegotiate new or existing leases.

According to Andrew Weinberger, founder and CEO of PropertyClub, “It’s a great time for small business owners to rent an office or retail space.” That is, if your business is looking to expand, you may now have an opportunity to lease space you would never have been able to afford previously. “The COVID-19 pandemic has put a tremendous amount of strain on commercial real estate landlords, with vacancy rates rising and prices dropping significantly,” Weinberger observes.

Small Businesses Are in the Driver’s Seat

“The disruption to the supply and demand within the real estate market has created a situation where prospective renters have a great deal of power,” says Nishank Khanna, CMO at Clarify Capital.  “With increased available real estate, small business owners are positioned well to negotiate. Similarly, property owners are more likely to extend some flexibility and work with renters in order to make a sale.”

The key is to first think about what you need space-wise, and what you may need in a year or two. If you anticipate requiring more space, or less, you’ll want to build in flexibility to your lease agreement, so that you’re not stuck paying for space that isn’t supporting your business.

As you begin conversations with brokers and property owners, consider trying some of the following strategies to get the best deal:

Ask for free rent

Rather than asking landlords to drop the per-month lease rate, ask for several months of free rent on the front end of a new lease, recommends Sharon Simmons Cantrell, shareholder and attorney at Simmons and Fletcher, PC.

“Landlords are losing tenants left and right to businesses closing. If they lower the rent, that sets a new baseline for all future rent negotiations on all that empty space they are trying to fill,” Cantrell points out. “Landlords are often more willing to give you free rent for a set period of time and then have a higher per-month rental rate afterward than to give you a lower rental rate and potentially lose money every time they have a lease come up for rent. So don’t be afraid to ask for six months’ free rent versus a rent reduction,” she says.

Move quickly

“Agreeing to speed up the process and sign on immediately, so long as specific term or concession is included in the lease agreement is a smart negotiating tactic,” says Khanna. “This is because some landlords might believe the value of an immediate sale outweighs the profit loss of a negotiated term, when considering the time and effort it takes to pursue prospective tenants.”

Push for a shorter lease term

“Shorter lease terms will allow you to break out of a contract if you need to,” says Rex Freiberger, CEO of Discuss Diets. “If all your workers have to be remote for months, it may sink you financially to keep paying into a lease…being able to break a lease could save you tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.”

Negotiate for reduced late fees

“Most property owners won’t waive them completely, though you may be able to get a longer grace period,” Freiberger says. “What you should focus on is cutting those rates, ideally in half if you can manage it. That way if you have to be behind for any reason, it won’t hurt you any more.”

“Right now there is more room to negotiate when securing rental space,” says Kimberly Porter, CEO of Microcredit Summit. “Make sure you talk with your landlord about options and if paying ahead or early could provide you with even more of a rate drop.”

Rachel Waddell’s Amber Grant application for RAW Designs made clear right up top what the business was all about, but then pivoted, along with the business’s products, into a new product and market during the pandemic. Trying to grow two businesses at a time is even harder than focusing on one, which is one reason RAW didn’t make it into the list of finalists. However, Rachel did a great job of articulating her product and market, which we wanted to highlight.

To help Rachel improve her odds of winning a future grant, the WomensNet advisory board went back through her information to try and show her the strengths and weaknesses of the information she provided.

Here is the application:

Tell us about your business or business idea…

RAW Designs was created in 2013 with a focus on custom made western apparel. Rachel cleaned out an old granary barn at her parents farm and created a sewing workshop. Since then, the business has expanded to make a line of jeans, western shirts, and heavy duty horse back riding equipment including saddle pads and saddle bags.

Our mission is to inspire confidence and grit, and motivate personal development in the equestrian field. Eventually, we would like to see RAW Designs expand to provide a line of Men’s, Women’s, and Children’s western apparel and horse-related items sold in western stores around the US.

In late March 2020, Rachel saw the rising need for homemade masks for healthcare workers locally and across the USA. She started a Facebook group called Minnesota Covid Mask Sewists. The intention was to connect people making masks with those requesting them. She led and advised home sewists on the best patterns and practices for creating the masks. The group has grown to almost 2000 people, a website was created for efficiency, and thousands of masks have been donated to healthcare, elderly facilities, group homes, and individuals. With the change in CDC recommendations, mask demand has risen exponentially. Some essential workers have been required to wear them for work, and large businesses are searching for manufacturers that can meet their demands. Many individuals are also looking to purchase washable masks.

RAW Designs has turned their workshop over completely to mask manufacturing. With high standards, Rachel can only make 250 masks per week alone and is getting burnt out on her fourth week in production. RAW Designs is taking on 2 independent employees this week. They will maintain social distancing in the workshop and sew masks from home. We are hoping to produce at least 500 masks/wk and have put in bids for contract with City of Mpls (500-2500 masks), and Buffalo High School (seniors 500 masks).

Tell us what you would do with the money if awarded a grant…

If RAW Designs is awarded $4000, we will be able to keep 2 employees working part time for approximately 5 weeks at $400/wk for each employee. Not only will we be able to provide thousands of masks to the public, but we are providing jobs. One of our employees works as a substitute teacher and lunch aid in a school that is now closed, and the other employee is a furloughed nurse.

With this boost in business, RAW Designs will also have a steady revenue and can successfully continue production of western wear and horse-related items when mask production decreases.

Our critique

Rachel clearly knows the equestrian market and is capable of producing quality custom clothing and riding gear.

Demonstrating that she’s already producing products, has a functioning workspace, sewers, and the needed equipment is a big accomplishment. And zeroing in on the western side of equestrian gear – versus other types, such as dressage or hunter/jumper, for example – is also smart. It’s easier to identify potential clients when you’re clear about who you’re serving.

Opportunities for improvement

Although there is plenty of useful information in the application, there were two main issues that stood in the way of winning this past month: 1) There was little detail regarding the market for Western wear and demand for the custom products and 2) Although grabbing a piece of the mask market while it is hot is a smart way to generate some quick cash, it also diverts attention away from the core products. The question is, how long will demand for masks remain high and at what point will Rachel shift her focus back to her core product?

First, when applying for grant funds, it’s critical that all applicants prove that there is demand for the products or services being offered. That is, have you identified customers who are willing to pay you money for what you’re selling? And is what they’re willing to pay enough for you to make a profit? Price yourself too low and you’ll be out of business quickly and price yourself too high and you may not have enough customers to keep your business operating.

There is no information in this application about the size of the market, who the target audience is (men? women? children?), what Western apparel typically sells for and how custom clothing compares, who competitors are, and how the products will be marketed and sold (online? at horse shows? through retailers?). These are important facts and figures that you should research and present as proof that the grant will help you meet demand for your products or services, whatever they are.

Information about where raw materials are coming from and what kind of labor will be used to sew everything would also be useful in this instance, mainly to show that the entrepreneur knows they need to be addressed.

Second, although many U.S. manufacturers did stop producing their core products and switched to make essential items like masks and hand sanitizer at the start of the pandemic, in this case, it doesn’t sound like that’s the plan for RAW Designs long-term. Eventually, the business would convert back to sewing custom Western wear, though it’s not clear when. It seems like the plan is fluid in that it provides for filling the short-term demand for masks. Although we understand the rationale, we would have like to have seen a singular focus on the long-term product.

If the business were able to continue sewing Western jeans and shirts in addition to masks, this diversion to pursuing mask-making contracts might be less of an issue. The masks would become a supplementary source of revenue that would support the business and its sewers, which would be terrific. But since it’s unclear what the long-term plan is, it’s hard to justify a grant.

Rachel is clearly a skilled apparel designer and it’s very likely she is well-connected in her industry. Those are big advantages and, in some cases, they can mean the difference between success and failure. However, developing a long-term growth plan and offering details regarding finances and marketing would go a long way in this particular application.

Congratulations! You saved, borrowed, and/or successfully landed an investment from others to get your business up-and-running. You’re officially an entrepreneur.

And now you’re wondering how to make the best use of the funds at your disposal, to grow your company and set it up for long-term success. There are a million different ways you could spend it, some based on your industry and product or service offering, but what are the best ways to leverage it and, in contrast, how can you avoid wasting it?

Several seasoned entrepreneurs and investors offered the following advice:

Marketing that drives sales

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what that involves, but Laura Bell, founder of The Point Consultancy, which offers short-term access to expert consultants, said, “Invest in targeted messaging, relevant content, and a solid lead funnel to sell your product.” Glossy photos and brand videos aren’t going to do that and aren’t worth the expense, she says. Every dollar invested in marketing should ideally generate at least $1 in sales.

Jacob Rosenberg, founder and CEO of Tajima Direct, which provides direct-to-consumer polarized lens replacements, said, “only spend on demand creation and finding product market fit,” rather than “trying to find demand.” Some of the cost-effective ways of testing demand include asking for Beta test users or offering product pre-orders, he said. “By experimenting and starting your spend on the demand side, you can get a much better sense of how much to spend on the inventory, infrastructure, and other supply expenses.”

In-house tech

According to Bell, “If your startup relies on technology, which most do, in-housing the tech from Day One has always been proven to be more successful, in my experience. Finding a team [that is] fully dedicated and work collaboratively as a team, rather than outsourcing to a company that has other priorities may be more expensive, but pays off in the long run.”

Expertise

It’s hard to balance hiring qualified pros with high salaries versus more junior employees who lack the experience or know-how. You need good, experienced people but sometimes you can’t afford them, explained Bell. A potential solution is hiring talented consultants. “Using well-chosen consultants with experience in the field, who can help you onboard the team [you need] when you’re ready, will help bridge the gap.”

However, Baron Christopher, a turnaround and growth strategy consultant with RedBaron Consulting LLC, is an advocate of finding and retaining skilled team members from the start. “Rewarding highly experienced and innovative executives with bonuses or commissions and other incentives is always money well invested,” he said, “as long as the company culture is healthy enough to keep amazing people on board long-term. Highly compensated rock stars who defect to a healthier workplace or competitor prematurely actually cost you double or more,” Christopher cautioned.

Legal counsel

“While you cannot afford unnecessary services, almost all startup entrepreneurs require legal advice,” said Matt Scott, owner of Termite Survey termite elimination service. “Whether it’s fundamental corporate documents or understanding liability problems, pay for good advice from the start so that the big bills of legal settlements are not stuck later on.”

And investments to avoid? Our entrepreneurs and experts cautioned against the following:

Large fixed costs

“The startup environment is a fragile one, and especially when you’re still proving out your offering, there’s a chance you may need to pivot – many of the big companies we see today went through significant pivots in their early life that got them here,” said Abir Syed, CPA and a former VP of finance at a well-funded startup who now runs UpCounting, a marketing firm for accountants. “Large fixed costs can suddenly become onerous if things change, so it can be worth it to pay a little bit more to retain flexibility,” Syed said.

Fancy offices

Sure, you need workspace, but does it need to be outside of your home? If it does, look for the shortest-term lease on the smallest space that will work for you today. That will give you the flexibility to move if you suddenly need more space; you won’t be stuck in a long-term lease that hampers your growth.

Grandiose corporate parties or trips

Scott said that spending big money on fun trips “is not a sign of success – it is a sign of waste.”

Serial entrepreneur Nishank Khanna, CMO at Clarify Capital sums it up well when he advised, “Responsibly and thoughtfully using capital is imperative for an early stage startup, because poor money choices early on can cause irreparable damage and undermine the success and sustainability of the company long-term.”

Business owners who stay on top of trends have the chance to pounce on new opportunities that emerge, rather than missing out and having to play catch-up. This is true whether we’re talking about toy retailers trying to guess what the hottest new plaything will be this holiday season, publicists trying to gauge whether the newest social media platform will actually catch on, or simply staying current regarding pending legislation that could upend your company.

Being aware of what people are talking and thinking about can give you a significant advantage that helps inform important business decisions.

While many trendspotting platforms charge a fee for access, there are a few free sites that are worth browsing. Although they may not have the analytics the pricey ones do, they can still tip you off to trending topics, products, and services.

Trend Hunter

For help in spotting up-and-coming products, consumer preferences, and ideas, you’ll probably want to start with Trend Hunter. This website relies on individual trendspotters, futurists, and artificial intelligence to identify what people around the world are talking about, interested in, exploring, and buying from innovative companies.

Trend Hunter breaks down what’s trending by month and by categories, such as fashion, design, ads, and the bizarre, to name a few.

You can quickly scan ranked lists of insights, ideas, topics, culture, places, events, people, products, and brands for a glimpse into what’s caught the interest of people around the globe.

Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics provides weekly email reports, on Tuesday, regarding terms and phrases that have exponentially increased in search frequency. That is, keywords that have suddenly caught on.

In a typical week, you’ll see everything from product names to website URLs, technology breakthroughs, and trending topics. For example, recent phrases that consumers were suddenly searching for en masse included everesting, dermaplaning, daily harvest, wave, and air purifying plants.

Savvy entrepreneurs use these reports to stay ahead of trends, to stock retail stores with products everyone is looking for, to develop new product and service offerings in response to increasing demand, to explore new technology integration, as well as to know when to reduce inventory when product demand falls off.

What’s Trending

Unlike Exploding Topics, What’s Trending is more a pop culture report regarding what’s happening on social media. For that reason, it can help entrepreneurs spot topics that are sparking interest.

For example, a recent What’s Trending home page featured reports of a baseball player who tested positive for COVID-19, celebrity news, TikTok trends gone awry, and other similar band and celebrity sightings.

You can skim videos that have gone viral, as well as social media posts catching attention. Because of its celebrity focus, What’s Trending could be a good starting point for a news lead that ties into a blog post you want to write, or maybe the inspiration for a news item you want to highlight on your website.

Product Hunt

Entrepreneurs and business owners on the lookout for a hot new product will want to pay attention to Product Hunt, which features new products in development and allows users to ask the developers questions.

Products are listed vertically on the home page and you can choose to view them in rank order of popularity or newness. You can also take a look at Upcoming Products and companies that are hiring.

No matter how you approach it, being able to predict what everyone will soon be talking about or buying does have advantages. Armed with new information about what’s going viral, or what new technology is making possible, you can make smart decisions about how to run your company. That might mean adjusting the products you currently have in development, considering adding new job functions to your org chart, or gathering new ideas for future blog posts.

However you tap into the information available at these trend-focused services, you’re bound to end up better informed.

Heather Powers’ and Sadie Galvin’s Amber Grant application for Earth Soul Alchemy, their natural healing venture, had a lot of good information, but was lacking some specifics that the WomensNet committee could have benefited from seeing. 

To help Heather and Sadie further refine their application and marketing message, the WomensNet advisory board went back through the grant information to try and show them the strengths and weaknesses of the information they provided. Our goal is to help them become a serious contender for this and other grant programs.

Here is the application:

Earth Soul Alchemy LLC

Tell us about your business or business idea:

My motivation for my business Earth Soul Alchemy LLC began with a dream to facilitate healing and offer spiritual counseling for people who deal with chronic pain. It was also to give people another avenue to help them live and deal with their pain that was natural and without addictive pharmaceuticals.

My husband has neuropathy and lives in chronic pain. He continues to work full time at a local factory. I wanted to help him with his pain, so I started working with essential oils and creating blends to help with his pain management.

After researching alternative healing methods, I attained my Reiki Mastership. This further enhanced my connection to my intuitive healing abilities. These talents helped me to create the perfect oil blends for the client’s situation. It also gave me the ability to see what someone needs to reach their own soul alchemy.

I started to offer metaphysical and spiritual products in addition to the healing services I provided and found this alchemy works quite well.

Once I started that journey, I met an amazing group of people who connected me with my business partner, Sadie. She is the alchemist behind our natural bath and body care line. She is also a massage therapist and currently in the process of earning her herbalist degree. Our partnership has allowed me time to focus on the service-oriented part of our business.

Our goals for the future:

♣ Obtain a brick and mortar location where we can offer various spiritual services.

♣ Broaden our product line to include hard to find items such as rare books, specialty herbs, statuary and other items.

♣ Offer monthly classes on various metaphysical and spiritual topics

♣ Spiritual Counseling and Mentorship

♣ Be a safe space for those in the local spiritual community to network and connect with other like-minded individuals.

Our motto is “Where Spirit Meets Alchemy.”

We believe that one’s soul helps facilitate the connection between body, mind, and spirit. This connection ultimately leads to Soul Alchemy. It also creates an atmosphere that will allow a grounding connection to the Earth.

One of our strengths is our ability to connect to people on a soul level and help bridge the gap between spirit and body.

We are blessed with an empathic ability to see what areas in the body and spirit need work and what areas need be utilized to help facilitate their healing journey.

We are fortunate to have an intuitive sense of purpose and passion to help build this business from the ground up.

One of our weaknesses is not having a brick or mortar to help combine our services and products to give the help we feel is needed in our community.

Another weakness is networking and getting our name out there. We are working on broadening our service area and points of contact right now. Also, gaining financial resources to attain more schooling and certification in the fields we want to pursue.

Tell us what you would do with the money if awarded a grant…

We would love to receive this grant so we can continue to provide the resources needed for those who want and need to attain transformation of their body, mind, and soul.

We would use the money from the grant to help with certifications, inventory, and networking/marketing. Any excess monies would be used towards attaining our goal of a brick and mortar.

Our critique

Heather and Sadie started off strong by explaining what triggered the business idea – that Heather’s husband has neuropathy, which was likely a primary driver for early pain reduction efforts.

The fact that the two women are business partners with complementary skills is also a big plus. Knowing that the company is not solely dependent on one individual’s expertise and efforts significantly increases the company’s odds of long-term success, which makes it a more desirable grant recipient; organizations want to give money to businesses that are clearly capable of applying them to generate more growth.

The company’s plan to expand to sell a wider variety of tangible products and offer classes is also a good idea and a sign that they’re thinking more broadly about how to grow.

Opportunities for improvement

While there is a lot of good and useful information presented here, there is also a lot of extraneous details that don’t really contribute to explaining the business opportunity. Questions such as, who is your target market, what is their primary reason for buying from you, who is your competition, and what kind of growth have you see thus far, really should be answered here. Are sales growing month-over-month or year-over-year? Some financial details would help. 

Much of the focus of the application is on the business owners and what they want to do and could be capable of, rather than what the market has indicated it needs. Flipping the perspective to talk about what clients have said they want could be a better way of proving there is a need for these products and services.

It sounds like attracting a solid clientele is one of their goals, but there is no specific marketing plan for doing this. Breaking down how the grant money could be invested in marketing activities could be helpful. For example, to advertise, set up a blog, partner with healthcare practices, pursue local publicity, or other promotional activities. More specifics are needed.

The business’ main focus right now seems to be on identifying a brick and mortar location in which to operate. However, depending on the cost, it might make more sense to hold classes in various (free) places around the community, or to set up pop-up retail locations close to customers, versus being locked into one building.

The owners clearly have the expertise to run a natural healing business. They are committed and passionate about it, which is great. Grant committees love to see that. However, they also want to see that there is a clear plan for growing the business based on established demand. That’s where we would suggest Heather and her business partner Sadie focus first.

It’s often hard to know what to write in grant applications. You may wonder what the people reading your application want to hear about your business or your future plans.

What can you tell them that will help them see how successful your business could be with their financial support, you may ask yourself?

And yet, if you take a look at the questions grant applications ask, you’ll start to see some similarities regarding what information you should share about your business. That is, the questions posed in grant applications give you a clue regarding what the awards committee is most interested in.

What Grant Programs Ask Applicants

For example, here are just a few grant programs and some of the questions they pose to applicants:

The NAV Small Business grant program, which is accepting applications through September 1, 2020 for a grant of $10,000 and another of $5,000, wants you to tell the committee:

• What your business does
• A challenge the business has overcome
• A challenge you continue to struggle with
• How the grant funds could help you overcome your challenge
• Details regarding how you’d use the prize money

The Halstead Grant for jewelry designers, which awards a $7,500 cash grant to a metal jewelry designer (this year’s application is due by August 1, 2020), has a downloadable application which asks, among other things:

• What your budget for spending the $7,500 grant would look like. 
• What sales and distribution channels will you use?
• Who is your direct competition?
• When do you expect to break even?

Among government grants, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) recommends that grant applicants:

• Offer innovative solutions to an unmet clinical need
• Provide solutions that have significant commercial potential
• Leverage the expertise of the company owner/founder
• Seek funding that, essentially, moves the company’s products or services forward
• Are aligned with NIA’s research priorities

Whether or not you have any interest in a scientific grant from the NIA or other government programs, or if you’re pursuing a grant from a private nonprofit or corporate organization, you can probably start to see overlap, or similarities, across the different applications. 

That’s what you should focus on.

What You Should Tell Grant Committees

Just among these three programs, it’s clear they want to know:

• What kind of business you run. That is, what do you sell, how, and to whom? What problem does it solve for your customers?
• Is your company currently profitable – are you making money? If not, what will it take for you to be profitable? What’s holding you back?
• How will winning the grant make a difference in your business? What will that money enable you to do that you can’t do right now, such as buy equipment, create a website, expand your inventory?
• How will you use the money? They want specifics. Break it down. Account for every dollar.

Some grant applications will have other questions unrelated to your business, such as about who you are, your personal struggles, and maybe how you’re giving back to your community. You’ll certainly want to answer those as best you can, and just keep in mind that they want to hear how you’ll be successful if you win the grant. 

Make it clear how the grant will turn things around for you, or make great success possible for you.

Choosing What to Include, What to Leave Out

Sometimes grant applications will have limits on how long your answer can be, such as “no more than 500 words.” If so, make sure you use as many of those words as you can. Offer detailed responses. Don’t expect readers to be able to fill in the blanks if you tell them, for example, “I plan to increase sales by 25%.” Explain how.

Some grants don’t limit you length-wise, which means you can offer more specifics regarding why there is demand for your product or service, why your product or service is better than what’s currently available, and how you’re going to grow your company. 

After all, grant programs want to encourage and support business owners who have figured out what they need to be successful and are just lacking some money. If you keep that in the back of your mind as you’re filling out grant applications, you’ll help committee members get a clearer picture of how much good that money can do in your business. That’s the key to being seriously considered in many programs.

The pandemic created challenges for all businesses, but especially for product-based companies with a brick-and-mortar or face-to-face sales process. If you can’t meet with customers in person, how can you sell to them, many business owners wondered.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can pivot your face-to-face business to market and sell online. Here are a few ways to do that:

Create a simple website. Most businesses know that having a professional-looking website is almost a minimum requirement today, and there are several platforms that make it easy to get started. Shopify has easy-to-use templates, for example, so that you can showcase what you’ve created. WordPress is another option, though you need to then add an ecommerce component to be able to take orders.

Set up a shop on Etsy. If your products are handmade, vintage, or custom, an Etsy shop can deliver customers looking for more unique, hand-crafted items. Etsy takes a small commission on each sale, but the percentage is lower than on other platforms.

Post on Pinterest. Pinterest is a terrific platform for sharing eye-catching product images of your products. If your online shop is set up on Shopify, you can use Pinterest product pins to make it even easier for fans to buy from you directly.

Share product images on Instagram. Instagram is another social media platform where you can attract an audience that is interested in seeing more of your products. You can share product photos or shoot quick videos demonstrating all their features and benefits – for free.

Join Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA). One of the world’s largest online stores makes it easy for you to sell your products on the platform, too, through its FBA program, where you ship your products to a specified Amazon warehouse and Amazon processes orders that come in for you. No need to try and compete with Amazon – list your products on the site and use the company’s customer base to expand your business.

Build a community. Bring together like-minded people who are prospects, customers, and fans through a free Facebook group. Then offer your audience special deals, inside access to your latest finds, and information to help them make smart purchases or to take care of what they’ve bought from you. Home décor subscription box Decocrated uses its Facebook community to share hints regarding what will come in the next season’s box and hosts videos suggesting different ways to style the pieces customers have received.

Use Facebook Live to showcase products. Rochester, NY-based consignment store NTY regularly uses Facebook Live to share new inventory with its customer base who, until last week, couldn’t visit the store in person (it was closed). Using 5-minute videos where a handful of new items are shown, viewers have the chance to claim products from the comfort of their home or office and then pick them up or have them shipped.

Host a contest. Consumers love the chance to get something for free, so consider creating a prize package and inviting people to join your mailing list for a chance to win something. Granted, you’ll end up with some people on your list who may not be serious customers, but if they’re interested in winning some of your items, they at least have some interest in your products.

Participate in an online trade show or conference. Kiana Muhly, co-founder of the Kay & Kay Group, which manufactures and markets AQUA Waterproof Headwear, participated in Black Vendor Con in July 2020, which was held on Hopin, an online event platform. Booth visitors could check out the company’s products during the two-day event by watching a promotional video and perusing the website, or by stopping by (virtually) during the 3-hour time slot when the business owners could interact live with booth visitors. The event was a success, with Kay & Kay generating 20 times the cost to participate.

Pursue publicity. Media mentions, or even blog quotes, typically attract more traffic to your business, whether online or in person. Fortunately, it’s not hard to find out what reporters and writers are working on right now. Sign up for a free account at Help a Reporter Out and you’ll receive daily emails listing all the topics that the media is reporting on, as well as the types of sources those reporters are looking for. Right now, during the summer, several outlets are already working on holiday gift guides, which could be perfect opportunities for your products to be featured.

Reach out to bloggers who serve your target audience. Bloggers with large followings can generate a slew of sales with just one mention of your company or product. The key is tapping into that audience by connecting with the blogger. Research who is talking about the types of products you sell, or has an audience similar to your customer base. Then ask how you might support them. Could you submit a guest blog post (if you’re interested in doing that)? Would he or she consider reviewing your product? Would they want to do a webinar together? Think about what kind of collaboration opportunity would do you the most good and then reach out to ask if they’d be interested.

Set up an affiliate program. Affiliates are business colleagues who agree to promote your products in exchange for a small commission. That’s how many bloggers and vloggers generate an income. To do this, you need to have an ecommerce system capable of tracking affiliate links (which identify who has sold what, so you can pay them their commission) and you need to be sure that you have enough of a profit margin to afford to pay commissions. There are affiliate networks that can get your products in front of potential affiliate partners, too, such as ShareASale, CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction), and ClickBank.

This list is just a starting point, too. There are many other opportunities out there to get your business more attention and your products sold.

With many in-person meetings temporarily halted, online meetings on platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts have become the new normal. And while the content of many meetings may be much the same, there is a new set of behavior standards everyone needs to learn.

Instead of walking into a room and taking a seat at a conference table, now you join a video meeting on your computer monitor, which may be situated on your desk or on your kitchen table, among other places. Instead of extending your hand to introduce yourself to someone you don’t know, you announce yourself on a conference call or perhaps introduce yourself to those on the video conference you haven’t met yet. You take turns speaking and when the meeting wraps up, you leave the online room.

However, there are some etiquette lessons you may want to be aware of that many other pros already know. Here are our top 8:

1. Dress the part

Although you won’t be in the same room as your colleagues, prospects, clients, or vendors, you should still dress for a business meeting if you’ll be using your webcam. If you’ll be seated during the discussion, that means that you should at least have business attire on top. If you’re presenting, or there’s a chance you’ll need to get up during the meeting, putting on pants or a skirt is wise move. (Apparently about 10% of people attend meetings without pants, including TV reporter Will Reeve in this GMA segment. Oops.)

2. Mute yourself unless it’s your turn to talk

Once the meeting gets started, click on the microphone under your image on Zoom, to turn your microphone off. That ensures there will be no sudden dog barks or children calling for you that interrupt the discussion. Ambient noise is distracting, so be sure you don’t contribute to it.

3. Look at the camera

The benefit of video meetings is that you can see the faces of those whom you are meeting with. That helps gauge demeanor and attitude when people are speaking. However, you need to look into your webcam to be sure everyone else in the meeting can see your expressions. So don’t look down at your notes or away from the monitor too much. It’s considered rude not to pay attention to whoever is speaking.

4. Take notes

Sure, this may not be your meeting, or you may not have a major role, but it’s always a good idea to come prepared with a notepad and pen, so you can take notes. Not only does jotting down thoughts help ensure you’re capturing all the information being shared, it also shows others in the meeting that you’re engaged and paying attention. You’re taking the meeting seriously, you’re demonstrating, which can only enhance your reputation.

5. Position your camera so that other attendees see your shoulders and face

Depending on whether your laptop has a built-in camera or you have an attached camera positioned on top of your computer monitor, determine how closely you need to sit to show your chest, neck, and face – rather than a close-up of your face. Not only is it disconcerting for others to see a huge image of your face on-screen, but it’s distracting. Look at how far away others on the call are seated for a guide to how far away you should be. Likewise, don’t sit so far back that your on-screen image is tiny.

6. Turn your camera on in smaller meetings

Seeing your face helps build trust and familiarity with you. This is less important in huge staff meetings where you aren’t expected to contribute, but being live on video is still generally a good idea. See what percent of other attendees have their cameras on if you’re not sure.

7. Use a virtual background

If you have a clean, professional-looking area behind you in video shots, you’re probably fine. However, many people are starting to use virtual backgrounds to cover up a messy office or home behind you on camera, or to hide the chaos of kids playing or animals racing around. There are a wide range of possible backgrounds you can add, from a pristine conference room to a beach setting, forest, the NYC skyline, or your alma mater’s logo.

8. Record the meeting

If there are people who had a schedule conflict or if you want to summarize the contents yourself, record the session. It’s useful to be able to offer others the opportunity to get up-to-speed if you have a record of the discussion.

Now that businesses have discovered how easy it is to hold meetings remotely, it’s likely we’ll never go back to as many face-to-face meetings as we used to have. Which is why becoming familiar with the do’s and don’ts of Zoom calls is a smart move.

Torey Lee Brooks’ Amber Grant application for Granite Performance, her youth athlete coaching program, was strong in a lot of areas, but missed some information that would have made it a stronger contender.

The WomensNet advisory board went back through the application, line by line, to try and point out the strengths and weaknesses, in the hopes of helping Torey prepare a winning grant application for this and/or other grant programs.

Here is her application:

Tell us about your business

I grew up competing at a high level in Alpine ski racing. Though I loved the sport and competed internationally, there were a couple aspects I found very difficult to face.

The first, was the lack of women coaches in the sport- in my 14 years of competing, I believe I had 2 female coaches out of at least 40. This is especially shocking as there are an equal number of female and male competitors!

The second was the lack of affordable and local avenues available to athletes who did not have the financial background to travel great distances for “on-snow” training but who wanted to stay fit and prepare for the next season. I grew up in rural NH with a single mom who worked so hard to make sure she gave us everything we needed. With this said, my ski racing put a huge financial burden on her as she struggled to send me to expensive training camps across the country to allow me to reach my goals.

This is why I chose to start Granite Performance. Granite Performance is a program run by myself and 2 other female coaches to provide physical, mental, and nutritional coaching to athletes in the summer and fall off-seasons. We work hard to keep our programs affordable and accessible to local New Hampshire athletes including providing carpooling and payment plans as needed. We hope to act as mentors to all of our athletes and make sure that this sport is inclusive and that they can succeed no matter their financial background.

Tell us what you would do with the money if awarded a grant

This money would allow us to cover some of the legal and website costs (about $3000) of starting a business like our which requires release forms specific to children’s safety. It would also help us buy our own training equipment for our athletes to use and to start our own scholarship program which would grant athletes in need free sessions each year! We started this business in February and became and LLC this May. COVID-19 has made this stressful and we have been working hard to shift out programs to virtual as needed to keep our athletes safe. This grant would greatly help us stay afloat to see our program succeed!

Our critique

To start, Torey did a really good job of explaining what the business is and identifying the problem for many young female athletes, especially in skiing – a lack of female coaches.

Granite Performance as a business is also well-defined and specific. Torey’s not trying to do too much, like serving young women nationwide, or expanding too quickly from Alpine skiing into other sports.

Finally, her planned use of any grant funds makes a lot of sense. Since the business is newer, investing in marketing and equipment early on can certainly help to attract clients.

Opportunities for improvement

One area where the committee struggled a bit was in understanding the size of the market for this type of coaching service. How large is the potential customer base, especially within a 25- or 50-mile radius of your location in New Hampshire? Is there a large enough market to support the business? Are there similar operations in other parts of the country you can point to as proof that you have a viable business model?

If you need more market research, you might try and partner with a ski association or local mountain to see if, working together, you can survey their membership or client base. Online survey software like Survey Monkey can be useful and easy to set up. Using a survey, you could ask skiers, or parents of skiers, about their interest in such a program, including how far they’d be willing to travel.

That market data could then help you prepare financial projections, breaking down your pricing model, projected revenue, and expenses, which were missing in your first application. It’s always hard to create financial documents without historical data, but you can make some assumptions based on market size or using a competitor in another state for comparison.

Proving that your business is viable is important for any kind of grant or award program, so the more detail you can offer in that regard, the better your results.

This was a good start and we hope that these ideas help you get a little more specific about the business and how you’ll make money.

When you hear the term “business plan,” you probably picture a book-length document filled with pages and pages of financial statements. That’s what many of us picture, because that’s what many of us were taught a business plan should look like.

It had to be long and full of details regarding your idea, how you’ll market it, and who’s going to buy it, with sales projections down to the penny.

Fortunately, over time, the emphasis on length and detail of business plans has evolved. And where such plans previously were used primarily to pursue outside financing from banks or investors, today many entrepreneurs understand that a business plan is a useful exercise to map out a growth strategy, regardless of the funding situation.

In fact, the process of thinking through exactly what your business is, what you sell, to whom, how, and for how much is extremely useful at any stage. It can help assess how viable a new idea is or point out new opportunities for profit that recently emerged for an existing venture.

A Simple Business Plan

So what does a short-but-effective business plan contain?

Actually, it contains a lot of the same information older business plans did, but communicated more efficiently. Meaning, with fewer words.

The Big Idea. In a paragraph or two, explain what problem currently exists in the market, how large your potential market is, and what your solution to that problem is. Why is it better than what’s currently available – what’s your competitive advantage? What proof do you have that there is demand for what you’re offering – any recent statistics that have been reported, for example?

For example, have you invented a new facial mask that signals when you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus? Have you developed a strategy for buying Facebook ads that has a huge conversion rate? Or are you opening a grocery store in a town where the closest supermarket is 50 miles away? What opportunity are you pursuing?

Target customers. Who is most likely to buy what you’re selling, such as soccer moms, the Fortune 500, or employees working from a home office, to name just a few? Who are you trying to sell to and how many of those individuals or companies are there? Also, where are your customers based? That is, will you sell locally, nationally, or internationally?

If you’re selling goods online, you could theoretically serve an international market, but if you’ve opened a catering business, you may have found that serving customers farther than 30 miles could be problematic. So who are your customers and where will you find them?

Business model. How will you make money at this new venture – that’s really what a business model is. How profitable will it be, exactly? You may need to describe the average costs of production and retail price to explain the profits generated. How will you distribute your product or service? How will you scale the business?

For example, if you’re launching a new magazine, you’ll make money through advertisers and paid subscriptions – unless you plan to mail it out free. If you’re a fashion vlogger on YouTube, you may make money through online ads and affiliate relationships from the companies you showcase. Or if you’re a graphic designer, you probably sell your services to companies and individuals on an as-needed basis.

Your management team. One of the most important sections to investors has to do with the people who are involved in running your company. Who are they, what kind of experience do they have, and why are they the absolute best people to help grow your company? Plus, what are your short-term hiring plans, if any, to fill key positions. Briefly talk about your great team and where you hope to add to your team’s skillsets in the near future.

Ideally, you have people working with you who have work experience at successful companies, or at companies in your industry, so they can bring that expertise to help your company grow faster. And having a plan for who you need to hire, and in what order, helps you plan ahead, to avoid getting overwhelmed and overworked because you’re understaffed.

Your marketing plan. What kinds of tools are you going to use to spread the word of your company’s products and services and what is your key message? What major benefit will you emphasize in your promotional materials? For example, do you have a feature no other product does? Are you the lowest cost? Will you save the customer money?

Your marketing plan is driven by how much money you have to invest in marketing, so you’ll want to lead with that information, and then break down how you’ll spend it. How much will go to advertising – print or online, for example, how much will go to social media, how much to printed marketing or packaging materials, signage, publicity, public speaking, freebies, trade shows, and other marketing tactics?

Your financial plan. Use a spreadsheet to lay out your cash flow statement for at least one year, though two or three years is better. Then use those monthly projections to create an annual profit and loss statement. And build a simple balance sheet that breaks down what you own and what you owe. If you’re looking for a loan or investors, explain how much you need, what you’ll use that money on, and how that investment will help grow the company faster than it’s currently growing.

There are templates you can use to lay out your expected revenue by month and then match it up with your expected expenses, to ensure you’re always profitable. Your profit and loss is pulled from your monthly projections and your balance sheet based on what you’ve purchased for the business, such as equipment, real estate, raw materials, and supplies, and what you may still owe for those expenses.

How to Use a Business Plan

Although many entrepreneurs work hard to draft a well-written business plan during startup, not enough existing business owners work through the process once their company is up-and-running. And in both cases, too few businesses actually refer back to their plans once drafted.

Don’t do that.

Refer back regularly to your plan and update it regularly to reflect your company as it exists today. Revise it as needed, such as if you discovered a new, more profitable market segment; you uncovered you could automate part of your production process and reduce expenses; or if you found an effective marketing tool that you want to add to your promotional plan.

As you spot opportunities for refining and improving your business plan, make changes. Then make sure your financial projections mirror the changes you’ve made in other parts of your plan.

Consider printing out and putting the pages of your plan up publicly, so that everyone in the company understands what you’re trying to accomplish.

The most effective business plans aren’t hidden away or kept secret. They’re shared internally so that everyone in the company recognizes how they can play a role in making the company more successful.