University of La Verne SBDC Small Biz Blog

Are you struggling to develop a successful marketing plan for your business? Creating an effective marketing strategy can seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. By answering seven critical questions about your business, you can develop a comprehensive marketing plan that aligns with your goals and maximizes your return on investment. In this article, we'll walk you through each question and provide actionable tips and insights to help you create a marketing plan that drives results with examples. Let's get started. Check out the example here. Question #1: What is Your Business Identity? Your business identity is the unique set of characteristics that differentiate your brand from competitors and make it recognizable to customers. This includes factors such as your company's mission, values, unique selling proposition, brand name, logo, and visual identity. Consistency in these elements across all marketing channels and customer touchpoints helps reinforce your brand...

  Learn what is required to fund your small business for start-up and growth. If you are unsure of how the business loan process works or if you qualify then join us for this webinar. In this webinar you will learn about:  Lending resources SBA loan programs Qualifications and requirements SBA loan application process Do's and don't when financing your business What is a CDC? CDCs or Certified Development Companies are private, non-profit entities with a mission to provide business financing to those who aren’t quite strong enough for bank financing. CDCs are certified by the SBA (Small Business Administration) to administer SBA 504 loans, primarily for commercial real estate. There are more than 260 CDCs in the United States. SBA Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) provides the rules, processes, and guidelines an SBA Lender may, must, or should follow. The Credit Box/internal credit policy – determines the lender’s appetite for risk. i.e. minimum FICO scores, collateral requ...

If you’re planning to start a business, forming a corporation can be a great way to protect yourself from personal liability, raise funds, and manage your company more effectively. In this video, I’ll explain what a C-corporation is, how to form one, and stay to the end and learn the little-known details about corporations like issuing stock and taxes. So let’s get started! What is a Corporation? A C-corporation is a type of business structure that is considered a separate legal entity from its owners. This means that the corporation can enter into contracts, own property, and take legal action in its own name.  Advantages Some advantages of forming a C-corporation are: Limited liability protection for owners who are called shareholders and are generally not personally liable for the corporation's debts or legal liabilities.  C-corporations can raise large amounts of capital by selling stocks to investors. C-corporations can exist indefinitely, even if the owners or shareholde...

Do you have a small business website and are looking to sell a couple of products or are you looking to create a simple eCommerce website and think it takes hundreds or thousands of dollars? In this final part of my Google sites series, we will take your small business website and set up a simple eCommerce website with a cart integration and keep track of the money you make. This is part 3 of a series on building a small business website with Google sites. In part 1 , we created the site and set up our basic pages for a video marketing company. In part 2 , we upgraded the site with a professional domain name, email, booking page, and blog for our customers. In this final part, we are going to use a free app called Ecwid to create a store with some products and use a program called Wave Accounting to keep track of your finances.  Set up The first thing we need to do is to set up our store. Head to your google site backend and log in to edit your site and we are going to add a store ...